10:58 – With the move and everything that’s been going on, my inventory system broke down. I thought we had enough of everything other than vials of PTC paper to make up three dozen biology kit unregulated chemicals bags. Turns out we were out of vials of penicillin G potassium powder and neomycin sulfate powder. Barbara will be filling and labeling 90 or 120 of each today. I’m gradually getting our inventory numbers verified by actual count, but we have so many SKUs that it’s a lot of work.
We’re also down to our last five sets of prepared slides, which we made up and boxed yesterday. I reordered 30 more sets of slides yesterday. Five sets may be a month’s supply, but they could also sell in a single day. Fortunately, my vendor is in-stock on 30 each of all 15 slides in the set. Sometimes, they’re not, and I have to wait a month or more for them to arrive on a slow boat from India.
While I was at it, I also did a purchase order for a few kilos of assorted bulk antibiotics to restock our raw material chemical inventory. All of our vendors were out-of-stock on sulfadimethozine, so I ordered half a kilo of sulfamethazine, which is a good substitute for science kit purposes. Fortunately, I already have a kilo of sulfadimethoxine in the freezer.
The weather continues cold. It was 14F (-10C) when I took Colin out this morning, with the wind chill down around -4F (-20C). Colin doesn’t understand why we wimpy humans prefer to stay indoors instead of taking him out to chase sticks.
This was in my RSS Reader this morning: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-battery-bank-protect-home-outages/
It is a good overview of backup power, even leading to going off-grid.
Unfortunately the key is good equipment (expensive) and an experienced and knowledgeable installer (expensive and rare).
If you are contemplating backup power you should use a critical, vital, and non-vital load paradigm. On submarines we had an electrical distribution system that had 2 non-vital busses, 2 vital busses, and a battery buss (the most critical absolutely must have). As you can see, your house is not wired that way so you real need to have a qualified electrician set up at least 3 distribution panels with the ability to connect them to the grid and your backup system in any combination.
Just something for you to think about, particularly if you are planning to build a new house. The incremental cost of splitting your electrical system properly during construction will save you a ton as you gradually add your backup power in steps.
BTW, when I win the Power Ball tonight I am finally going to have enough money to build my own fortress and go off-grid in the manner I would like.
I often wonder what our dogs think of us. We must at least sometimes appear to be rather dim witted and physically crippled.
I often wonder what our dogs think of us. /snip/
Cats know that for sure. 😉
“Cats know that for sure.”
Indeed. It is only their undying compassion for us that keeps them minding us and making sure we don’t just die off.
I haven’t bought a PowerBall ticket; thought about it, but actually just too lazy to go do it, probably standing in line. If I did win that huge an amount, at least half would be confiscated immediately anyway by our piratical gummint. Still, the other half would be sweet; we’d end up giving the vast bulk of it away after taking care of family.
Twenties here and breezy but with sun and blue skies. Off for more errands and then back here for chores, including prepping stuff.
You may find this reference of interest: Lifehacker University “Plan Your Free Online Education.
I usually clip these to Evernote or Onenote.
Your education doesn’t have to stop once you leave school. We’ve put together a curriculum of some of the best free online classes available on the web this fall for the latest term of Lifehacker U, our regularly-updating guide to improving your life with free, online college-level classes. Let’s get started.
RE: PoweBball
MrsAtoz is in UT and just ordered me to purchase $100 worth. Apparently UT doesn’t participate.
I haven’t bought a PowerBall ticket; thought about it, but actually just too lazy to go do it, probably standing in line.
Bought my ticket. No line. Most likely just wasted $10. Chance of winning is astronomical but even worse if you don’t buy a ticket.
If I did win that huge an amount, at least half would be confiscated immediately anyway by our piratical gummint
Or at least 40%. The government is the real winner in these lotteries. Fortunately I don’t live in a state has an income tax on earnings so the federal tax would be all that would get confiscated. Some states like New York would grab another 10% or more. Question though is that on the amount paid before federal taxes or after federal taxes.
First thing I would do is keep my mouth shut. Contact a tax attorney and store the ticket in the safety deposit box. I would then make arrangements to be transported, with an armed guard, to Nashville to claim the winnings. I would wear a disguise so no one would recognize me. And tell the rest of the family to fuck off.
With the winnings I would give away some, perhaps 25%, to various organizations. Local high school would get some with the stipulation that it belongs to the school, not the school system and oversight on the spending by the school board would not be tolerated. New sports uniforms, synthetic football field, new computers for the school, maybe even replace the entire structure. I would also give a small sum to my local church with the stipulation that all the video, sound, and lighting be replaced with top shelf stuff before any other expenditures.
Rest I don’t know. Maybe buy another lottery ticket. I would never return to my office at work. They can keep my iPad charger and cable.
I was looking at the science kit pages for reference for some of my nieces and nephews. I was looking at the international shipping page and saw this:
Neither the USPS nor (to the best of our knowledge) other national postal services collect the very high customs brokerage fees often charged by UPS and other third-party shippers.
Well, from what I have read on a wargaming forum, the national postal services charge high customs fees in some areas, completely at random. Sometimes you get no charge (even VAT), at other times you get shafted by VAT, customs, and a processing fee that you have to go down and pay in person. People in the UK and Germany have made the most reports. But UPS and the others are more expensive. I’ve ordered wargaming miniatures from the UK before and had great service – arrival in the US 3 days after ordering. Of course, Houston has quite a few direct flights to/from the UK each day.
As far as I know, none of our international customers has ever been charged a customs fee by the postal service. VAT, yes, but even that is hit-or-miss.
That, incidentally, is on shipments to probably 30 or more different countries. About 95% of our international shipments go to Canada, Australia, and the UK (in that order), but we’ve shipped to many other countries with no problems. Of course, I steer clear of shipping to countries known to be a problem, like Italy, Russia, and so on.
Don’t ship to Malaysia, the customs and postal service there have very sticky fingers.
Wild, one of the Ebola survivors will be preaching at my Church on Feb 7:
http://www.firstcolonychurch.org/event/2016-02-07-bring-a-friend-day–dr-kent-brantly/
Dr. Kent Brantly was a medical missionary to Liberia during the Ebola epidemic in 2014. He just finished a book on the life altering experience.
http://www.amazon.com/Called-Life-Loving-Neighbor-Epidemic/dp/1601428235/
Very brave man. However, I think that I will pass on shaking his hand. Pass on the fist bump also. I’ve been moving to the fist bump at church instead of shaking hands since this is the cold and flu season.
Put those lottery winnings into a foundation. Look what it’s done for Bill and Cankles.
” I’ve been moving to the fist bump at church instead of shaking hands since this is the cold and flu season.”
We just flash the “peace sign” during that part of the mass. Fist bumps or touching surfaces like doorknobs and steering wheels and stairway rails will getcha, too. Gotta wash our hands many times a day and I also splash on alcohol and/or witch hazel. If and when the cold or flu crap STARTS to kick in, I begin eating like a pig and drinking gallons of fluids and gobbling lotsa Vitamin C. Oh wait–I eat like a pig anyway. Just kidding, not really; maybe two meals a day, including the substantial breakfast. Probably a gallon of wotta each day all by myself and more so in the winta.
We got an inch of powder which froze up immediately into ice granules and that makes everything white again, oh horrors, what a terrible and evil hue!
New 24″ Acer monitor arrived just now and I’m setting it up with the existing one via Synergy. We’ll see how it goes. Also a set of four IR web-enabled surveillance cams. And a nice easy progamming CD for the Yaesu FT60. Reorganizing part of the office and setting up radios with antennas in a better and more convenient location.
Was gonna mess with vacuuming the cah and installing seat covers and Sirius XM but too effin cold w/wind-chill; yeah, I’m an old fairy wimp after all. So be it.
Yeah but breathing the same air can be enough for many viruses.
OFD gonna be lookin’ like Homer Simpson sitting at the nuke plant control panel.
New 24″ Acer monitor arrived just now and I’m setting it up with the existing one via Synergy.
I am partial to the 27 inch LG IPS LED 27MB65 monitor with tilt and swivel. I just need that real estate with my eye difficulties.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IIJ2OPE
I have yet to find a tv for the game room. I am thinking about getting a 55 inch or 60 inch UHD set since the screens are so beautiful. Although, DirecTV broadcasts in 720p or 1080i so that extra res would be wasted for now.
Isn’t DirecTV starting to have a 4D system available?
Although my DirecTV looks fine on my Sony 1080p system (and the other ones also). Good enough for me, anyway.
“OFD gonna be lookin’ like Homer Simpson sitting at the nuke plant control panel.”
D’oh!
Isn’t DirecTV starting to have a 4D system available?
Although my DirecTV looks fine on my Sony 1080p system (and the other ones also). Good enough for me, anyway.
I’m not sure what 4D is. Do you mean 4K (UHD) ? DirecTV is severely bandwidth limited through their satellites so I doubt that they will implement any UHD channels. Even though the bandwidth on their satellites is about six gbps now. But any movies that they want to show in UHD could come through the internet. I have noted that all their non channel stuff seems to be coming through the internet now.
DirecTV HD looks great on my 46 inch single scan LCD Sony 1080p HD tv also. DirecTV SD looks like crap though. I wonder what it would look like on a 60 inch UHD tv?
As of 5:30 PM Central time, Powerball’s web site gives an estimated prize of $1,500,000,000 with a lump sum payout of $930,000,000 . The top marginal rate in the US is 39.6%, leaving you ~ $560,000,000 . I got my two tickets yesterday, reducing my odds from exactly zero to asymptotic to zero (1 in 150,000,000 or so).
Like Mr. Ray, my first step would be to hire a very good tax attorney, along with one who specializes in wills & trusts and also the best financial whiz I could find. (For those who live in a state with an income tax, Step 0 would be to move to a state that doesn’t have such things.) Then I’d find another domicile in another part of the state, so the news reports would say a man from X claimed the prize. What a coincidence, a guy in a big city has the same name as me!
All my charitable giving would be anonymous, to causes I care about. Not one dime to my alma mater’s football team ad nauseam.
It is my understanding that you pay the taxes based on where you bought the ticket, not where you live. And that you have to claim the prize in the state where you bought the ticket.
So the first step (as pcb_duffer sez) is to move to a state with a lower state tax rate *before* you buy a ticket, then the next (second) step is to buy the winning ticket in that state.
I have achieved the first step by living in Washington state (no state income tax here). Have not gotten around to the second step. But if I did win, I would proceed to reduce my personal visibility at my current location before claiming the prize. Plus obscuring my identity at the required photo op.
But, don’t have to worry about any of this. Didn’t buy a ticket. Mostly out of laziness.
ah – see! I have the winning ticket right hyar! Well, I can dream.
I think I’d lay low for a while as I gathered the required minions to help minimize visibility. My sister, my MIL, my little brother – all would get a little something because they’ve been good to others. Need to be rewarded. Prepping would go into higher gear as well. And my business would get some capital expenditures post-haste.
But that’s all pipe dreams. I just threw away six bucks – just like 50 million other peeps.
“Didn’t buy a ticket. Mostly out of laziness.”
Ditto. But got a fair amount done re: prepping here today. Gotta take down the remaining Xmas stuff tomorrow and hit the weekly vets group meeting. Then I have tomorrow night, Friday, and Saturday AM to do a bunch of household chores and errands before Mrs. OFD gets back from Kalifornia.
Got the second monitor hooked up, and it’s working OK without even using Synergy, which is just as well, because it hasn’t done squat for me yet; config error mss. and looking at the FAQ on their site it doesn’t switch windows back and forth yet anyway, which this Windows 8.1 box does already, no sweat. A few other things it doesn’t do, according to that page; I’m a noob with it so it’s probable I didn’t do something right, tips welcome.
What I mainly wanted it for was to look at training stuff on one screen and use a vm on the other fullscreen to do stuff there, instead of switching back and forth between the windows on one machine. Windows sees the keyboard and mouse on both screens just by me swishing the mouse back and forth. So far, so good, w/o using Synergy.
@ofd,
You only need synergy if you are using 2 machines, and want to share one keyboard and mouse, and clipboard.
Windows works with dual monitors natively.
For example, I’ve got my big win8 desktop with 2 @ 24″ 1920×1080 monitors set up as straight ahead, and one to the right.
I’ve got my win7 “messing around” machine with a slightly smaller wide format screen set just to the left of my main pc monitors.
win8 handles the dual, and I run synergy so I can use the main pc keyboard and mouse on the win7 machine, just by moving the mouse to the left.
I still have the k/m hooked up to the win7, because the version of synergy I’m using stops working when the client machine (win7) opens a system dialog. So I occasionally need to reach under the desk and use the connected mouse or kb to click an OK button.
Hope that makes sense.
nick
It is my understanding that you pay the taxes based on where you bought the ticket, not where you live.
Depends on the state. In California you do not pay taxes if you bought the ticket in California. Purchase in another state and you are a resident of California you get dinged for 10% on the gross amount before federal taxes. So tack on another 93 million to another government agency. TN does not have any income tax on earned income. I also think the state who gets the taxes is where you lived when the drawing took place, not when you claim the prize. Moving would not help.
The governments are the real winners. They always win and never have to purchase a ticket.
I got my two tickets yesterday, reducing my odds from exactly zero to asymptotic to zero
I bought five numbers. Figure my chances are still zero, which are better odds than if I did not have a ticket.
WRT powerball,
odds of any particular person winning are very small. Odds of SOME person winning near 100%. Someone has to be the somebody, and it might as well be me.
There’s an idea from risk assessment that applies. Normally you determine how likely a risk is, and how devastating, and multiply those. So even a very small risk that will wipe you out gets attention because of the consequences. I look at the lottery that way. The chance is small, and so is the cost, but the benefit is out of the world. Therefore, worth taking.
so I bought 2 tickets, and one for megamillions.
No lines, but I bought from a vending machine at the supermarket.
I’ll let you know in a month if I won….
nick
BTW, someone posted to somewhere (WRSA?) a link to a very good post on what to do if you did actually win. The original post might have been on ar15.com… The poster is a lawyer, and the post had the feel of ‘been there and done that.’
Thanks for the clarification, Mr. nick; I have almost the same setup you do now, with Win8.1 running the two monitors. Off to my right is the RHEL server with its own slightly smaller monitor; I won’t even bother doing any Synergy or kvm stuff with that box; I can reach its keyboard and mouse easily enough in this L-shaped desk config here. I may, however, find a use for Synergy sooner or later.
I’ve always figured, if I won a big sum of loot in a lottery or otherwise, the very first thing I’d do is hire a good lawyer and a tax lawyer/accountant. Next would be fulfilling whatever tax obligations required by law, and then I’d move the whole pile offshore lickety-split and set up secure accounts and means of extracting various sums from time to time free of State monitoring and confiscation. On actually having to appear publicly at some point to claim the winnings, I’d be heavily disguised to the point not even wifey would recognize me.
Mainly I’d pay off all our existing debts, including the house and cah, and then distribute to family members and charity. This would remain our primary abode and it would be prepped up to the best we could manage and imagine, but we’d probably spring for a much more remote second location to the northeast. Other than that, I can’t picture us buying and luxury items or toyz; we’re in our sixties and have pretty much what we want already here. Nothing too exotic, believe me; radios, computers, tools, books, that’s about it. We’ve got three or four kayaks and two canoes and a horse. I’d consider taking sailing lessons and getting a big ol’ sailboat maybe, and also flight lessons and getting a twin-engine seaplane. But that’s just pie-in-the-sky stuff and each year passing makes it less likely.
Now listening to the Uniden scanner and picking up the local state police activities; dispatcher is using Google maps, lol; shortwave ain’t too great just yet but I’m working on it. Also gonna be programming the Yaesu FT60 in the next day or so. Really gotta work out some kind of effective antenna configs on this lot. And step up the ham license stuff.
There is a financial adviser here in Houston on the radio that has worked with some lottery winners. He suggests getting an attorney who specialized in wills and trusts (he has mentioned one he worked with in the past). Second, you might consider renting an apartment in another city. Use that address as where you claim the prize from. That gives you one layer of anonymity, but if you have a distinctive name or the prize is huge, it’s not not much help. Third, decline the photo op if you want. I understand that they may pay you to do it. I’d pass. Finally, get new phone numbers. Junk the old ones.
He also says that moving can help, but you will be besieged by people asking for money. Learn to say “No” a lot.
Fist bumps or touching surfaces like doorknobs and steering wheels and stairway rails will getcha, too.
One of my guys has a 8 year old son and a 4 year daughter. He is coughing every other minute (his office is 15 ft away from mine). In a 4,300 ft2 building with concrete floors, you can hear everything in here.
He says that his wife is getting better as he was the last to get it. The virus hit their family the day after school started back so it must be extra contagious. I’m just hoping that I do not get it.
As for what I’d do with the money, I’d build a new house set up to care for us instead of using assisted living/nursing care down the road. It would also have a bigger kitchen, a media room, and a hobby room. Set up a trust for the kids. (Let them have the current house.)
Yep, I barely work now, so that wouldn’t change much 🙂 I’d set up my shop though, and clean out the junk.
Not sure what the wife would want to do. She likes her job and is good at it. Anything less than a $5mil share, and she’d probably keep working.
The numbers are so large it’s hard to comprehend. Keep in mind that if you spent $1000 cash every day it still takes over 3 years to get thru the first million. Without buying stuff you could rent or lease, I’d have a hard time spending $1000 every day day in and day out. But I suppose it’s like time, it expands to fill the time available. Pretty soon you’re flying to London for the weekend….
nick
“… Pretty soon you’re flying to London for the weekend….”
You mean Londonistan. Eff that.
If I had my own seaplane I’d be exploring the St. Lawrence Seaway, Lake Champlain, the Great Lakes, a bunch of Maine and New Brunswick lakes and I’d probably croak long before I got to them all. Ditto with just sailing between the Seaway and the Hudson. But I wouldn’t be using any commercial airlines whatsoever.
Mr. ech wins the innernet on this topic today; we’d probably be wicked smaht to set up our own secure assisted living domiciles for ourselves at this point in life, eh?
Instead we’ll probably work until we’re too old and sick and crippled to work anymore and then I really dunno what would happen then; I’m not going into a nursing home, that’s fo sho. Probably a long walk out into the frozen snowbound forest for me, if it’s wintertime; otherwise easy enough to tip a canoe somewhere deep. Or keep mouthing off in my usual crazed reichwing Christer gun nut style until they send a team to shut me up permanently.
Uh-oh…
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/01/andrew-p-napolitano/hillary-crowbar-motel/
If this keeps going the way it has been, she could be all done and that would leave it open to Bernie “I did our honeymoon in Moscow” Sanders, amazingly. Unless the Dem hierarchy, like their Repub counterparts with Chump, decide to push somebody else instead, at the last minute.
Gets more entertaining by the week now…
If Cankles goes down in flames, I would welcome Bernie! Watching the Clintons scramble would be better than a three ring circus. Cankles, BJ and spawn pulling in every favor, putting out hits on enemies (Obola!), and in jail at last. Obola hates the Klintons me thinks. He’d back bipolar Biden in a heartbeat. Trump has a real chance of becoming President if Cankles crashes and burns. Lay in the Moxie and pretzels. How will Cankles lie about this one? lolololol
The Cankles strategy, such as it is, and from I can gather from my random gleanings and snippets on the net, is to stonewall, per usual, or simply disappear for days at a time. The other elephant in the room is the state of her physical and mental health; these aren’t the days of the MSM tacitly protecting Saint JFK when by all measures, he never should have been President, due to his really bad medical issues and addictions.
Moxie-on-the-rocks and pretzels it is!
Instead we’ll probably work until we’re too old and sick and crippled to work anymore and then I really dunno what would happen then; I’m not going into a nursing home, that’s fo sho. Probably a long walk out into the frozen snowbound forest for me, if it’s wintertime; otherwise easy enough to tip a canoe somewhere deep. Or keep mouthing off in my usual crazed reichwing Christer gun nut style until they send a team to shut me up permanently.
Don’t worry, when Cankles becomes President, you are at the top of her list for elimination. Not even a trip to the reeducation camp for you!
I imagine that her two lists (elimination and reeducation) are growing daily. I suspect that the elimination list is well over five million now.
“Probably a long walk out into the frozen snowbound forest for me, if it’s wintertime; otherwise easy enough to tip a canoe somewhere deep.”
Isn’t that a mortal sin? Better become a Protestant before doing that.
” Not even a trip to the reeducation camp for you!”
I already did the re-ed camp thing back in grad skool.
“Isn’t that a mortal sin? Better become a Protestant before doing that.”
I already did the Protestant thing, mainly ’cause my paternal grandpa, a Quaker orphan, met my grandma, an Irish Catholic, halfway, and they both became Episcopalians, which was what my own parents were and then baptized me in it, etc. No, it’s not a mortal sin to go for a fine winter walk in the snowy woods or a nice paddle out on the lake.
Yes, but surely it is if you intend a one way trip.