Welcome to Paradox "The Girl Who Was Plugged In"

This was the very first episode of 'Welcome to Paradox' I ever saw.

Blatant advertising is illegal, and the only way to get your goods and services noticed is celebrity placements (current screen star toting new refreshing drink, or wearing latest fashions)

A despondent young woman has something that is missing from an executives 'placements'. Emotion, longing, humanity.  She meets one of the screen stars by accident, and he gives her a lily.  That being the high point of her life, she decides to end her life on that high point. The exec gets medical team there in time to save her life and offer her a unique opportunity.

The "Living Doll" project. A vat grown body, perfect, pretty, but without a mind. She is offered to be the mind that drives it. To be plugged in. She accepts the offer.  She embarks on a parallel life, but one that is destroying her, as she refuses to eat or sleep, and wants to remain in and as "Delphi". Even if it kills her.

My personal opinion, this is where some of the ideas in AVATAR came from. Vat grown to adulthood body, piloted by a living mind, and wanting to transfer the human mind into the the grown body permanently.

Grrrr

Still a pet peeve: when after months of trying to figure out a software issue on your own, you email support, outline everything you have tried to do, and the response you get is nothing more than a copy/paste from the %#$$@ online FAQ that you've read from back to front already.

After checking our records

We had the digital power meter installed 10 days before the installation of the solar panels. The meter reading, upon the switch on of the solar inverter, was at 283, meaning the average usage was 28kwH a day (must point out, we had been enjoying warmer than usual temperatures for these 10 days, so Synergy electricity usage was below average. Normal Average is 34kwh per day). Switch on was at 11:30-ish am, so the first day wasn't a full day of solar energy.

Meter Reading on switch on: 283

Day 1: 295 (mostly sunny skies)
Day 2: 305 (clear sunny skies)
Day 3: 317 (partly cloudy)
Day 4: 332 (partly cloudy)
Day 5: 347 (partly cloudy)
Day 6: 370 (heavy clouds, rain, and cold. Heating used)
Day 7: 380 (clear Sunny skies)

1/3 the average use of Synergy provided electricity. Even on cold rainy day, we used 1kwh less than the 'winter average'.

So, next year, we will be getting another 6 panels for the other north facing roof.

Welcome to Paradox "Options"

I really like this episode.  If you could actually swap genders, to see how the other half lives. Genetic/DNA surgery doesn't just give the semblance of the opposite sex, but you actually become the opposite sex.

A woman catches her husband cheating on her. She decides to undergo the the treatment.  The outcome of her experiment isn't quite what she expected, but at the same time opens her eyes to how men interact.  Also, instead of being male or female, but what it means to just being human.

Hatches Battened Down

Have some stormy weather, with very strong gusty winds heading our way. Wind's already here.  Have tucked things into the shed, other things up against the gate and house. Filled watering can to weigh it down. Made sure the lime tree was off the wheeled dolly (can't have that fall over again) 

As I have this quirk of typically sleeping through, or getting drowsy during them.  (yawn)  and this incoming storm is having the usual affect.

Today is the first day

That I have spoken to my eldest son, Paul, in quite some time.  It wasn't for the best of reasons, but I don't care.  He is going through a rough patch, (not of his making) and family is family.  I've missed him, and I told him as much. 

But then I did something even more important; I listened.  I let him pour it all out to me, no judgment and only offered advise and my opinion when I was asked for it.  He knew that if I thought for an instant that he was in the wrong, I would have landed on him (verbally) with both feet.

That wasn't the case.

And I'm still here to listen.

I envy my cousin his lack of tonsils

Because here I am, over 50, with a bout of tonsillitis combined with ear infection.  

My biggest problem with it right now is the painful swallowing. It's not just the tonsil/throat, it's the stabbing pain in the ear when I do from the pressure of the tonsil on the Eustachian tube.  It's especially troublesome right about 3:30 am, when the pain medication wears off. 

Fever, pain, and lack of sleep. Perfect recipe for being cranky, or having no filter and calling it like it is.