09:23 – Frances and Al left for home yesterday afternoon after a nice visit. Colin is officially bored, since he now has just Barbara and me to manage.
We’ll get back to work downstairs starting today. We need to get a literal ton of LTS food and bottled water moved out of the unfinished area and into closets in the finished downstairs area. Once the unfinished area is cleared out a bit, I can start getting science kit stuff shelved and get set up for building more science kits. We’ll use my office as the staging area for getting everything organized.
It looks like the weather is about to turn. Through the end of year, forecast temperatures are to remain 20 or 30F above normal, but that all stops on New Year’s Eve. Our overnight low Thursday night is to be in the 20’s, and starting on 1 January we’re to be back to daytime highs around freezing and lows in the 20’s. I’m expecting to see some significant snow or freezing rain early in the New Year.
Email from Jen. She and her group scheduled another trial run starting Thursday and running through the holiday weekend. Their weather outlook is similar to ours, so they may get a bit chilly without central heating. She picked up a copy of Jan Jackson’s 100-Day Pantry on my recommendation, and plans to use several of the recipes to cook for the group during their trial run.
Played the daughter’s new Firefly Clue game last night with the fam. It was not bad, actually interesting. The point of the game is who betrayed River Tam and kidnapped her off the Serenity. I played Kaylee (engineer) and was guilty in the second game using the torn book in the Cargo Bay. I never knew Kaylee had that level of guile in her.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L9OPFL0
We see some of their younger male simians
She also keeps a vibrator handy for her “nether regions.”
Miss firefly….
n
I watched Star Wars:TFA yesterday. My review is 3 stars only because it is a good popcorn movie, else 2 stars. The main reason is, as LTC Ralph Peters would say, “Kylo Ren is a total pussy.” Chick who has never seen a light sabre picks on up and kicks his ass in a couple of minutes.
The other reasons are listed here. Quite a disjointed, weak movie all together.
sarah hoyt has some interesting things to say about collapse today.
http://accordingtohoyt.com/2015/12/27/the-myths-of-collapse/#comments
I think lately she’s been more optimistic than is called for, but there’s room on the spectrum.
nick
We are 77 F and sprinkling here with a 32 mph breeze in the Land of Sugar. We are suppose to be 40 F in the morning after the front comes through.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/star-wars-the-force-awakens-movie-review
“Look at it this way: Star Wars: The Force Awakens was amazing, and restored my faith in the cinematic tradition and my hopes for the franchise. The Martian, however, gave me hope for humanity. The Martian penetrated all the way to my soul and changed me a little. Star Wars: The Force Awakens simply made me very, very happy to have seen a movie.”
Howard nailed it. The Martian was better but The Force Awakens is a darn good movie.
My rating: 4 stars out of 5 stars.
“Amazing and happy…”
Nope. Even my kids said it was sucky. When Kylo takes his helmet off, all I could think of was Space Balls and Dark Helmet. lol
“Children”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3375807/Christmas-mall-brawls-2-000-kids-mass-fight-shut-Kentucky-shopping-center-videos-similar-violence-country.html
Right.
nick
“Feral Under Class KidS” is too long to fit in a headline (but the acronym would fit nicely; what that might be I leave as an exercise for the reader. 😉 )
From Sarah Hoyt’s The Myths of Collapse:
1 Myth one — collapse creates a tabula rasa, upon which a completely different society can be built. Honestly, I think this comes from the teachings on the collapse of Rome and the truly execrable way the middle ages are taught.
First of all, once you poke closer, Rome only sort of collapsed. Depending on the place you lived in, your life might not have changed much between the end of the empire and the next few centuries. I come from a place where it’s more like Rome got a name change and went underground. In both the good and the bad, Portugal is still Rome, just Rome as you’d expect after 19 centuries of history or so.
This seems like a good opportunity to mention a couple of books I recently read:
Mohammed and Charlemagne and
Mohammed and Charlemagne Revisited: The History of a Controversy
as well as one I will be receiving in a couple of days:
Mohammed, Charlemagne, and the Origins of Europe: Archaeology and the Pirenne Thesis
The description of the “Revisited” book on Amazon will supply the gist of the controversy, but here’s the executive summary: The barbarians didn’t destroy the Roman empire, the Arabs did.
Unsurprisingly, this thesis is unpopular among today’s academics.
“VA GOP May Strip McAuliffe Of His Protective Detail Over Concealed Carry”
http://bearingarms.com/va-gop-may-strip-mcauliffe-protective-detail-concealed-carry/
BTW, your out of state CHL is no good in Virginia anymore.
Be careful out there.
Miss firefly….
Me too. Jayne was on Castle again a couple of weeks ago as a out of control NYPD cop. It was a good episode.
I stopped watching Castle a few seasons ago. Is it still good? It was charming, quick witted and didn’t take itself too seriously.
nick
So there are reports of a disturbance involving hundreds of youths at a mall in suburban Louisville, Kentucky. Personally, I find this notable because I ate in the Cheesecake Factory in that mall a few years ago. The other thing I find notable is that this is the nicest place to have a “disturbance” so far.
So this Christmas there have been mall “disturbances” two hours from my home and three hours from my current location.
I stopped watching Castle a few seasons ago. Is it still good? It was charming, quick witted and didn’t take itself too seriously.
Yes. Very true, after all, it has Nathan Fillion in it. It is in its eighth season and the wife watches every episode. I watch every other episode.
“Children”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3375807/Christmas-mall-brawls-2-000-kids-mass-fight-shut-Kentucky-shopping-center-videos-similar-violence-country.html
Right.
These are not children. They are hoodlums and thugs. They are future Eaters. Pray that they do not catch you out in the parking lot.
I stopped watching Castle a few seasons ago. Is it still good?
It’s pretty good. The last couple of seasons have had some plot complications, a bit of a story arc, and the like. It’s probably got a couple of good seasons in it still. (Criminal Minds has started to jump the shark, IMHO.)
Went to see SWTFA this weekend with daughter and spouse, brothers and their kids. I liked it, but found it very derivative of the first film. (We all know that there are only 3 SW movies. I hope someday someone competent will write the prequel trilogy and get them made.)
BTW, it appears that everything that was written that followed ROTJ is no longer canon. There are significant plot items in TFA that are different from the novels and the like, according to nerd friends.
“They Complain About 1.1 Guns Per Person? That’s Not Nearly Enough”
http://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/blog/index.php?itemid=385
“Some figure came out of somewhere recently (eminently believable, but I don’t know the source) that the US has passed 1.1 guns per capita. This is cause for rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth among a certain segment, which is fantastic.”
“The correct minimum number of guns for the US is 1.25 billion.”
“Let us assume 250 million adults.”
“EVERY adult should have a shotgun.”
“Next, one should acquire a sidearm of choice, for portability, use in close quarters, and personal defense. Along with this, you need a similar framed .22 for less expensive practice (and hopefully again soon, cheap practice, when idiots and greedy assholes stop hoarding).”
“A lot of urbanites likely don’t need a rifle–the shotun will cover what they need. Still, it’s worth having one just in case. And, to go with your primarly rifle, you need another .22 for additional practice.”
“That’s five, per adult.”
“350 million is a start, but only a start. Americans should possess at least 1.25 billion firearms, likely closer to 2 billion, and at least 1200 rounds of ammo on hand in between range trips.”
MZW is one of my favorite sf authors.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743471792
I would only add that all competent and reliable adults should also own and know how to use, from disassembly and maintenance through efficient firing capabilities out to 300 yards, an AR, as also possessed by our police and soldiers, with the selective-fire option. And other competent and reliable adults should be able to own machine guns, grenade and rocket launchers, and Hellfire-equipped drones. (for backing up our police and soldiers, of course, and having them available when our heroic warrior cops and soldiers ain’t around to help us in time).
and Hellfire-equipped drones.
I better step up my drone pilot skills. DRONE FOR HIRE ™