There would have been more posts here the last few days except that my vast computer network was undergoing the upgrade from the top speed I could get from my old Spectrum Internet Service to the top speed I am now getting from AT&T Fiber. With the former, the top speeds I logged were downloads of 230 Mbps and uploads of 12 Mbps. With the new service, I'm getting 951 down and 945 up. I did not mistype those numbers. And I still have one or two hardware adjustments to make which should bolster those AT&T stats a bit.
The new service is also, amazingly, only a few bucks more per month than Spectrum…and that's more than made up for by the price reduction I get on my AT&T iPhone and iPad service by signing up for their Internet Service. What did cost though was that to take full advantage of the new speeds, I had to upgrade some hardware, including changing from the Google home wifi system to the Eero home wifi system. (Anyone wanna buy four used Google Nest wifi points?)
Before you get too envious of my download/upload speeds, know that just browsing the web ain't that much different. It's great when I upload or download files to the cloud or Dropbox or various servers. It just doesn't make slow webpages load much faster. I haven't tried it yet for Zoom calls or video streaming. Also, it did take a long time to set up and configure — an hour on Saturday in-person with one expert and two hours on a Sunday phone call with another, both of whom charge by the hour for their knowledge and make me think I should.
This may be way more speed than you'd want to pay for and way more tech time than you could endure. So if they don't have it yet in your area, don't feel deprived. I'm still not convinced I needed it that much but we'll see.
A couple of friends who read my latest piece on COVID-avoidance suggested a point I should have made. The folks arguing that vaccines are worthless because even triple-vaxxed people have caught COVID are missing a key consideration. Fully-vaccinated human beings might get the disease anyway but the odds are strong that it will be less severe and not-life-threatening. We do not take flu vaccines to guarantee we never get the flu. They just reduce the chance we'll get it or that we'll get it bad.
Also: I wrote and deleted a paragraph I wish I'd left in. I cut it because I realized I've said it before on this blog and later decided it's worth repeating often. More and more as I get older, I think it's important in life to (a) connect with doctors you trust and (b) not take medical advice other than "Listen to your doctor" from people who haven't graduated medical school. When you get down to it, they're all like Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, who thought she was a doctor because she said she was, and believed you could cure cancer by having a raccoon squat on your lunch. Or something.
I have what I consider a great doctor…and it has been my experience that great doctors network with other great doctors. I don't believe they know everything; just that they know a helluva lot more than I do. And when I tell that to someone who fancies themselves a non-credentialed medical expert, they say, "Aw, you can learn all that stuff on the Internet."
To which I say, "Fine. I'll read a lot of websites and I'll watch a lot of online videos and then, when you need quadruple-bypass surgery, I'll be the guy with the scalpel who cuts you open. Okay with you?"
Lastly: In the next week or two, there may be more posts than usual on this blog about the history of the comic book industry. I have no idea of the percentages but I'm well aware that I have steady readers here who couldn't possibly care less about this topic and who don't even recognize most of the proper nouns when I write about it.
When I write about something that doesn't interest you, just remember that this blog is not behind a paywall. Just skip on to the next post…or the one after or the one after. I don't need to hear that not everything I write gets your attention. I'm still amazed that anything I write ever does.