Weekly update 02/28/26 – 03/07/26 (Injured Toe, Blood Moon Eclipse, Fake War Videos)
Weekly update 02/28/26 – 03/07/26 (Injured Toe, Blood Moon Eclipse, Fake War Videos)
On 02/27/26, I was walking across my bedroom when somehow I managed to bash the little toe on my right foot into one of the legs of my bed. This was the start of my foot ordeal. The pain when it hit was excruciating and lasted most of the day. I was immediately afraid I had broken my toe, but since there is nothing to do about a broken toe except let it heal and possibly tape it, I did not go to the doctor.
The pain subsided in a few hours, but it still hurt when I walked, and the swelling made it painful to wear my shoes or walk on uneven ground. This went on for a couple of days with me avoiding walking, not even going for my morning walks, and the pain slowly subsided until I was getting into the shower and re-hit the toe. The pain came back at once, and I restarted the process of recovering. A couple of days after that, I managed to kick one of my shoes on the floor, and I was back to the beginning again.
Right now, I’m doing my best to protect my toe.
I am looking into getting a pair of shoes designed for people recovering from toe surgery that will help protect it. I have also upgraded my bedroom security by getting a pool noodle and cutting it so I could place it around the legs of my bed to protect my feet. I also have a doctor’s appointment on Tuesday and will ask if there is anything else that can be done.
This week there was a full lunar eclipse, a Blood Moon. When the moon is fully eclipsed, it is still lit by light passing through Earth’s atmosphere, making it look like it is covered in blood, and also showing that the Earth is not flat. I have seen a few of these eclipses in the past. The one I remember the most is the one that happened the night after the Sylmar quake in 1971. Unfortunately, I was not able to see this one since it was too cloudy.
Thursday morning, when I went to the bathroom, I saw something strange in the bathtub. From a distance, it looked like something was lying by the tub covered in bugs, but nothing was moving. When I got closer, I could see it was a spotted gecko. Dawn raises geckos, and one of them had gotten out.
I have several playlists on my iPhone, including one with songs that pick me up. I use music as a mood-altering substance. But when I played it on shuffle, it kept playing the same songs, at least it seemed that way to me. So I spent a couple of hours reviewing the list of all the songs on my phone. I do not know how many songs there are, but it is a lot to me, and I updated the list. I hope I have solved the problem. Now the Pick Me Up playlist has 313 songs, or about 20 hours of continuous music.
I also have playlists for:
Morning workout
General workout
Class music (including my favorite, the New World Symphony)
Music that gives me energy
Hawaiian music (including songs I emotionally associate with Hawaii)
Modern Holiday
Love songs
Music to play in the morning while driving to the top of Halukula
New Year's Eve
Relax without words
Sad love songs (to be played at my funeral)
I do not know about you, but I am getting tired of all the fake videos I have been seeing, especially since the war began. The video that broke the camel’s back for me showed a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber on what looked like a strafing run getting shot down with gunfire. I checked with Astra (ChatGPT), and none of our B-2s were shot down, and B-2s do not make strafing runs. They normally fly at around 40,000 feet, nearly eight miles up.
I am also seeing other videos that seem fake. For example, a courtroom video with visible scratches as if it were shot on film, or close-ups as if it were shot by a photographer standing next to the witness stand. Sometimes there is something wrong about the way the person’s mouth moves while speaking, which makes me wonder if the video has been altered.
This made me think about the whole question of fake videos. Ever since Forrest Gump, what we see on the screen has been questionable.
But sometimes videos that some claim to be fake are real. The best example I can give you is the claim that the video of the Challenger explosion was faked. If you watch the video, just as the explosion appears to happen there is a noise. Some say it is the sound of the explosion. I think it sounds more like electronics than an explosion. I thought I had read somewhere that the sound was one of the astronauts pressing their push-to-talk button, but I cannot substantiate that claim. What I can confirm is that there were plenty of eyewitnesses on the ground who saw the ship break apart.
And while it is not a fake video, there is a story about what I think would have been the greatest practical joke of all time, if it had happened. According to the story, in the early days of the space race, before videotaping was widespread, someone got hold of a videotape of a rocket launch. They somehow managed to connect the video feed from that tape into the video feed in the control room during a dress rehearsal for a launch. The countdown proceeded as normal, and when they reached zero, the controllers looked up at their screens and saw the rocket that was supposed to stay on the ground go up.
As I said, I cannot find any proof, let alone the source, of that story. But I do know that the space program has had its share of pranks.
One example happened in 1973 when a woman's voice came down from Skylab saying, “Hello Houston, this is Skylab. Is anyone there? The boys haven’t had a home-cooked meal in so long, I thought I’d bring one up.” Controllers in Mission Control were shocked that somehow a woman had managed to get on board the space station, until astronaut Owen Garriott admitted it was a recording of his wife's voice.
Another story dates from 1968 when the Soviets sent a rocket toward the Moon. NASA was monitoring the data coming back from that spacecraft when they began hearing voices. For a time, they feared the Soviets had reached the Moon first.
Weekly Update 02/21/26 – 02/27/26
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