Death By Lightning

Death By Lightning is a mini-series on Netflix. The show tells the story of the assassination of James Garfield.

Once again I am reminded about how many powerful stories are present in history that are never taught. The story was fascinating and seemingly very close to the actual story. The show is based on the book Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard.

The show is filled with excellent performances; especially Matthew Macfadyen, as Charles Giteaux, Michael Shannon, as James Garfield, Betty Gilpin, as Crete Garfield and Nick Offerman, as Charles Arthur.

Also fascinating that Presidents traveled pretty much like anyone else during this time (i.e. no bodyguards or special considerations). Those additional protections didn’t start until after William Mckinley assisination in 1901.

Web work

My Moodle instance is currently out of date. I can’t update it until my web host updates the SQL version on that shared host. They have kindly offered to update the SQL version, if I’m using less than 10GB of total space. Unfortunately, I’m currently using more than that. So, I’ve identified where the space is being used. I’m running several websites off that account. Mail turns out to be one of the biggest pieces of the pie. So, working with some accounts to put mail on a reduction plan. Part of this comes from years ago, where it was “save everything”.

So, I’m closer to my under 10GB goal, but not quite there yet.

Winter Prep

Rarely is timing my strong point. However, this past weekend I undertook the following chores:

  • HeatMats installation
  • Tire Swap
  • Wiper Blades installation

And boy was my timing actually good. Tuesday was a “no school” day due to Veteren’s Day. Although I didn’t think it was in the forecast, we got snow. Not just enough to look at, but snow that builds up on the ground snow. The Heat Mats were purchased a few years ago after someone nearly fell on the back stairs. The Heat Mats keep the stairs snow free so that you have to go down a bit before you fall (;-( )

Similar situation with the snow tires. I was due for an oil change, so I figured that I would take care of both that and the tire swap. Good thing.

52 Frames

I’ve continued to keep my 52Frames streak alive.