08:06 – Friday the 13th falls on a Friday this month.
Colin and I are preparing ourselves for Barbara’s departure tomorrow morning. She’s stopping at the supermarket on her way home from work to stock up on stuff she knows I’ll eat while she’s gone. Nothing that requires much preparation, because she knows I won’t bother if there’s much work involved. Speaking of which, I just realized something recently. Barbara sometimes buys those 10-ounce bags of small doughnuts. They’re labeled “Snack Size”. Until very recently, I honestly thought that referred to the bag as a whole, rather than to the small doughnuts inside. I finally looked at the nutrition panel, which I expected to say “Serving Size – 1 bag”. Instead, it said something like “Serving Size – 4 doughnuts”.
We’re back in pretty good shape on chemistry kits, so today I start filling bottles for biology kits.
Serving sizes really suck. I want to eat until the bag is empty and then find the next bag to open it also. It is amazing how we are programmed to carb up in the good times. The problem is that the bad times rarely show up nowadays.
It may be Friday the 13th but today is payday! We pay on the 15th and last of the month. I love getting paid so I can rush out and buy more toys XXXX ammo XXXX stuff.
We had a serious downer this week. We got our office phone system hacked Sunday morning at 2 am and we now have many calls to Ghana and Guinea. Apparently the phone system hackers hack the system and then immediately sell access to it. We have been promised full credit by AT&T but still, I am for the guillotine for these scumbags.
They use the old 10-10 system to spread the wealth around so I have no idea how many long distance companies are going to send me a bill at the end of the month. The fraud departments at AT&T and another long distance company did call us to tell us that they were putting blocks on our lines. My question is, why were the blocks not there to start. And I had to call out a phone dude to reprogram our TDA-50 and TVA-50 from where they hacked it.
“What if Marissa Mayer went to jail?”
http://www.cringely.com/2013/09/12/marissa-mayer-went-jail/
OK, this is just wrong. These fights between technology companies and the NSA should be in full view. These fights are about generic search warrants which are NOT allowed by the USA Constitution. Fishing expeditions are not allowed by the USA Constitution and these people know it. Search warrants must be specific to a person, time and place.
Yeah, it used to be “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you whether you want it or not.” Now it’s “I’m from the government and I’m here to protect you whether you want it or not.”
It reminds me of that old joke about the guy on train in Vermont tearing off strips of paper and tossing them out the window to keep elephants away. As far as I can tell, we’ve had about the same number of terrorist outrages in this country that we’d have had if the government wasn’t involved at all in “protecting” us from terrorism. And look what we’ve lost, what they’ve taken away from us. People still look at me strangely when I say that I fear the federal government much more than I fear terrorism, but more people are coming to realize the truth of this.
I’ve lost the temptation to carb up. I used to have numerous 200g bags of crisps and blocks of chocolate on hand to munch on, and I could get through them very quickly. But I’ve simply lost the appetite for that stuff. I still like it in small amounts but I’ve stopped eating a 200g block of chocolate in 30 minutes like I used to. I just don’t enjoy it. Same with healthier food, a 14oz steak + veg + chips is all I can eat in one sitting now, yet I read about people mowing through 24oz steaks + other stuff and just wonder How? Why? I hate feeling so full that I want to throw up.
How did your phone system get hacked Lynn? Was it a fault in the software or didn’t you change the default password?
With all the internet communications there are you have to wonder how phone hacking pays. Poor immigrants I guess. We had a whole lot of calls to Mexico come up on one of our lines a couple of years ago. I’m sure they just tapped it out on the street. The phone company never would say, (maybe they really didn’t know) but they gave us credit then blocked them.
I decided earlier this year that I was too fat. When I got married in 1980, I was skinny (5′ 11″, 135 lbs). Over the years, me weight increased to 205 lbs. and I lost about 1/2″ of height. I typically ate a lot of high carb snacks. It was not unusual for me to eat most of a box of crackers after work before dinner. I cut out all of the high carb snacks and substituted fruit or vegetables. I am currently down to 192 lbs and would like to lose another 20 lbs. Currently I’m at the point where my jeans fall down if I don’t tighten my belt, but not at the point where I want to get smaller ones.
Rick in Portland
I’ve lost about 25kg since Christmas. I just can’t eat as much, and my appetite is less. I can feel very hungry, order a lot of food at a restaurant, and have to take half of it home in a doggie bag. I don’t think I’ve lost any height though. Still around 186cm.
I went to the local hospital today to participate in a blood pressure study. They wanted to test the relationship between the BP at the cuff on your arm verses the BP nearer your heart. My arm BP was around 110/70, which was in range (you had to be below 140/100 I think, or they’d reject you) but their estimate (?) of my Central BP was too low, so I’m out. Good thing, I suppose, as the study lasts 24 months and I don’t plan on being in Canberra that long.
How did your phone system get hacked Lynn? Was it a fault in the software or didn’t you change the default password?
Nope. We did change the master password on both boxen when they were installed back in 2007?. However, we did not have voice mail passwords and they came in through those. Apparently in the TVA-50 there is a hack to jump to a outside phone line once you are in voice mail. And once you are in a outside line, …
So we now have six digits passwords on all voice mailboxes. I just had them delete mine and forward all busy/no answer calls to my cell.
I got married in 1983, when I was 30. I was 6’4″ and 238 pounds (1.93 meters and 108 kilos). I’ve lost both weight and height. We don’t own a scale, but I’d guess I’m under 200 pounds now and maybe between 6’2″ and 6’3″. I just don’t eat as much as I used to.
CFPB’s data-mining on consumer credit cards challenged in heated House hearing:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/cfpbs-data-mining-on-consumer-credit-cards-challenged-in-heated-house-hearing/article/2535726
“Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officials are seeking to monitor four out of every five U.S. consumer credit card transactions this year — up to 42 billion transactions – through a controversial data-mining program”
I’m sure that there will be no problems here at all. No, none at all.
I got married in 1982 when I was 21. I was 6’1″ and weighed 215 lbs. I am now 6’0.5″ and weighed 249 lbs this morning. I weighed 272 lbs eight years ago, dropped to 232 lbs over six months and quickly went back to 250 lbs where I stay nowadays. Dropping weight is all about sugar and wheat.
Those serving size notes on food packages are a joke; our son and I used to laugh quite heartily at that stuff; we ate whole packages without breaking a sweat. He’s as tall as me now and may be heavier than my 275 (6’5″). They don’t cook, though; it’s all that frozen and processed shit and fast food takeout. So he and DIL are huge and it ain’t healthy. I’m still pretty rangy and we cook most of our own meals here.
The ragweed allergy shit seems to be fading now, finally; it was miserable this year, and got down into my chest with asthmatic symptoms again. 60 today, overcast and drizzling rain and fog again; the yard is a jungle, drenched.
Hey, any of youse out there still Republican, Joe Biden sez you’re Neanderthals:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-calls-republicans-neanderthals_753935.html
What a loose-cannon nutball this guy is, and just a hahtbeat from Nosferatu II. This is gonna be a very entertaining couple of years ahead….
I used to play tennis from about April though October at about 185 or 190 pounds. Then, during the cold months, I played pickup football at about 240 pounds (quarterback and middle linebacker). I never thought about gaining or losing weight; it just happened automatically until one year it didn’t and I stayed around 240 for the next 30 years. Over the last few years, I’ve been eating a lot less, not because I’m dieting but because I’m just not as hungry as I used to be, and I’m back down near tennis-playing weight.
Happy birthday, OFD.
I left high school at 5’11” and 145 pounds. Strong as an ox from lifting hay bales for 7 summers. On our farm we put up 10,000 bales a summer and I hired out to other farms. Got up to about 180 while in the USAF. Got married and got out. Over time the weight kept packing on until I hit 280. Decided I had enough when I could not fit on the roller coasters. I have now dropped to 220 with my doctor saying that 200 should be my target weight. Dropped six inches in the waist, bought new pants but they are getting lose. Clothes look like hell as the shirts are too big and the pants are baggy but I don’t give a rat’s ass. I paid money for these clothes and I am going to wear them out.
Years ago my doctor told me to lose the weight otherwise I would die 10 years early. In my family we spend the last 10 years with brain rot while slobbering on ourselves. Told the doctor losing 10 years was fine as they were crappy years anyway. He failed to see my position.
Anyway, I feel better, sleep better and don’t get winded as much. So I guess it was good thing but Dorritos, how I miss you.
“Happy birthday, OFD.”
Thanks. It was July 19th. Bettuh late than nevuh. The big six-oh. Never thought I would make it this fah.
“In my family we spend the last 10 years with brain rot while slobbering on ourselves.”
We do that, too, but it’s tied right now with cancer and gunshot as the cause of death. My plan is to go out in a blaze of glory!
Sorry. That happens sometimes when I’m blasting through stuff at two or three thousand words a minute.
I may be a Republican Neanderthal, but I understand (from an intellectual perspective) that not all domestic violence victims are female, and that the perps aren’t always male. That is my objection to the Violence Against Women Act.
For example, someone I know had a girlfriend who hit him once. Without thinking, he hit her back. She called the cops and had him arrested and he got to spend the night in jail.
Yeah, it just dawned on me, slow former Neanderthal that I am, that you thought my temp reading for today was my b-day. In any case it’s now 56 and dropping, with drizzle and fog. Makes fall colors stand out more in my humble estimation.
As a former cop from the Bronze Age, I reckon that by fah most of the DV vics were females, but I also saw my share of male vics, and it warn’t always husband-wife or bf vs gf, but sometimes parents and kids, siblings, and “alternative” couplings. Worst possible DV call to go on, and they all suck, was lesbian couples where one was a full-bull diesel dyke, usually built like an NFL fullback. Kick it up another notch for biker chicks; very dangerous; way more so than the dudes. We busted up a biker gang in downtown Woostuh one time and these huge shaggy goliaths were standing around cuffed and docile while one of their chicks was swinging a motorcycle chain like a medieval flail or mace and it took six cops to get her under control, skinny little bitch, too.
Many such tales and lore from days of yore….
In any case it’s now 56 and dropping, with drizzle and fog
It’s 95 F out and 73 F inside the office, one might think that you are taunting us …
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=KSGR
Taunting youse? Why, perish the thought!
55 now and still dropping; light drizzle; I’ll need a tractor to mow the back yahd again now. And we have lots of small green frogs back there which our kittens like to bring in and play with before executing them and leaving their corpses on display as a warning to other amphibians. The two adult cats execute squirrels, chipmunks and birds. Gotta keep the riff-raff outta the ‘hood here.
In the next town south of us a deer went through a pickup truck windshield while it was being driven. No sightings of moose or bears yet, though.
Hasn’t it been established that people of Celtic descent — and that includes OFD, RBT, and Yours Truly — have some Neanderthal genes? And tend to be on the large side and tend to be on the red side. That said, I’m no Republican. Seeing the typical Republican mainstay be mulched would please me just as much as seeing the typical Democrat mulched. That said, I’d really like for Ogabe to die — today would be good — just so we can see Dopey Joe as Prez. The Keystone Kops go to Washington, indeed.
Large and red, yep. Check.
I would have said the same thing about Nosferatu II checking out and having loose cannon Biden in there, but I’ve been having too much fun watching Putin slap him around on the international stage. The Boss pantsing his station chief.
It won’t be funny, though, if they start lobbing Tomahawks into Syria; word just in that the “moderate” rebel faction that McNutter has been enthusing about is threatening to light off attacks here in CONUS. If that transpires, it will be way long after I thought they would have been doing that; surprising we haven’t had any of the suicide bombers blowing up inside malls and sporting events yet. We have shit for security in this country; mainly those guys just bust balls on the rest of us and never catch any bad guys here.
I’m sitting here listening to the AT&T Uverse dude try to fix my office DSL line back to the CO which apparently has broken somehow. And Tre is sitting outside my office window looking at me. I tried to get a picture of him this afternoon while he was summing on the bank but he ran in the water when I was about 50 ft away.
Tre is an alligator (Fred #3), about 3.5 ft long. His mouth is only 6 inches long. The third gator that we know of since we bought this place. I did get a picture of him a month ago dragging around a two ft long catfish:
https://www.facebook.com/WinSimInc
And the Uverse dude just left and my DSL is down for the count. He thinks somebody stole one of my 25 pairs of phone lines since I am 6,000 ft away from the CO and the test shows a break at 2,000 ft from the CO. So the CO dude needs to rewire me. Sigh. Hopefully they will not break my other DSL line.
Damn, Lynn; that’s quite a plant you got down there; I had no idea! Electric bills must be a killer!
It’s 95 F out and 73 F inside the office
Nothing personal, but Houston is #1 on my list of how-in-the-world-could-anybody-live-there places (with everything south of Georgia a not-too-far-distant #2).
But Houston… I spent a week there one day…
Y’all can have your hellish heat, venomous reptiles and ESL denizens all over the place; I’ll stick with ice, snow, fog and wind. I served multiple sentences in the San Antonio area on and off for four years; never again.
50 here right now at 00:25. Nice breeze, too.
And mosquitos. Gawd, I was just out planting a permanent fence post in the woods. Nice Autumn day, about 20C, light overcast. At the start, there were one or two skeeters, no big deal. But apparently, they went and got their friends, who told all their friend, who…
By the time I was done, it was swarming. I could, no exaggeration, see hundreds of skeeters in a kind of a cloud surrounding me. Patted in the last of the concrete and ran for cover. The bites don’t do much to me any more, but I have a sort of a generalized itching on my back. Probably got bitten dozens of times.
Since the flooding earlier this year, mosquitos have been just crazy. I never knew it, but there’s a type of mosquito that lays its eggs in mud, typically in flooded areas. The eggs stay viable for years, and the next flood causes them to hatch. Given how much of Europe was under water, I guess they all hatched.
I always thought that the existence of mosquitos was prima facie proof that there is no god.
Or that there is, and he’s a dick.
Well, if the bible is truly the word of god, there’s no doubt that he’s a petty, mean-minded psychopath.
Two thoughts on that: First, that man created god in his own image, and it’s not a pretty picture.
Second, the Albigensians had an interesting take on the Christian mythos. They held that the Christian Old Testament was a work of the devil and that only the New Testament is the real stuff.
And a third thought, inspired by my second thought: If we take at face value that the Christian trinity is for real, then the Old Testament is the words of the Father, the New Testament is the words of the Son. So where are the words of the Holy Ghost? Is it just a blank sheet of paper, to be interpreted however we wish? Have those books been suppressed by the hierarchy? Is the Holy Ghost yet to make an appearance and give his/her/its words? With regard to that last, note that the oldest parts of the Old Testament are maybe four thousand years old. The New Testament is nominally about two thousand years old. If the timing stays the same, we’re just about due for the Holy Ghost’s appearance. It seems there ought to be a novel or two in those ideas.
Lynn; that’s quite a plant you got down there; I had no idea! Electric bills must be a killer!
Not really. My office building is 5,344 ft2 with 4,256 ft2 on the first story. I have double pane windows and a radiant shield on the underside of the roof decking. I have two 3.5 ton A/C units that keep us at any temperature we need to be at. The August electric bill was $497 and I have a demand meter (they charge me extra for our 17 kW peak demand). I have 15 computers running at all times and I never cut the A/C units back as we are in the office from 7 am to 9 pm most weekdays.
I also have a 450 ft2 little office building cattycorner to the big building. The wife and I use that for personal storage and we never run the A/C in there (and rarely flush the potty also, it is nasty!).
I rent out the 3,750 ft2 warehouse which has a 600 ft2 two story air conditioned office in it. That facility is on a separate meter and the tenant pays for that.
“So where are the words of the Holy Ghost? Is it just a blank sheet of paper, to be interpreted however we wish? Have those books been suppressed by the hierarchy? Is the Holy Ghost yet to make an appearance and give his/her/its words?”
In my experience over decades in both the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, the Holy Ghost is whatever the librul wingnuts decide it is. If they want wymmyn priestesses then it’s not them, really, it is the working of the Holy Spirit. If they wanna bowdlerize Scripture and the Prayer Book, well, it’s the Holy Spirit again. Gonna decide for yerself how exactly you will interpret Scripture and the state of your own soul, why, must be the Holy Spirit working in YOU. The Holy Ghost is apparently a wet-librul Democrat prog type.
So don’t be too eager for his/her/its words to spill forth after however many thousand years of the other two parts of the Trinity.
The Albigensians/Cathars/Gnostics were evil-minded heretical scum, although I do not condone wholesale massacres. Some of their modern ilk exist today and regularly purport to locate newly discovered scriptures and interpretations of the “historical” Jesus, etc., etc, once again, you see, the working of the Holy Spirit.