09:45 – Barbara is off getting the oil changed in her car. She volunteers at the Friends of the Library bookstore this afternoon. The weather remains warmish, drizzly, and foggy. The colder weather is supposed to move in tomorrow afternoon.
We got our first two kit orders of the new year yesterday. They’re sitting waiting to be picked up by USPS. This week, we have to fill more chemical bottles, bag chemicals, and build more science kits.
Warmer than normal for this time of year, overcast, kinda foggy, maybe some drizzle and some rain later. Off to the DMV and other places, with most of the day about to be devoured by locusts, which I sense coming on due to multiple fems being involved. i.e., anything that I think should only take an hour to do will now take three hours. SOP here.
Probably the best assessment that I have seen of Israel / Palestine, “Israel/Palestian Post Obama”:
https://twothirdsdone.com/2017/01/03/israelpalestian-post-obama/
“I may be wrong, but it is hard for me to imagine he (Trump) will spend much time or political capital on Israel/Palestine. He will generally take the Israeli side but won’t really do much. Netanyahu will become Trumps bitch. He will be scared to cross him.”
For people who do not know who Avram Miller is, he is the self declared father of the cable modem at Intel. And other cpu intensive items.
Doing 1099’s and W2’s today. Yuck. At least Quickbooks Online can efile everything (for a price). I send pdf W2’s to the employees and pdf + paper to contractors.
Eric Blair was off by thirty years or so but….
http://www.freemansperspective.com/ministry-truth-opens-june-21st/
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/the-coming-crackdown-on-free-speech-20639/?inf_contact_key=8c9ecb05c330d16af0a733c2a0b387fb823c428f98576d2e08215bbc480b3acf
I’m wondering what others here may think about diversifying any aspect of our preparations outside the country, whether funds and bank-type accounts, servers, email, residences, other hard assets, etc., etc. I have a pretty good idea what a few here may think about it but am curious to see other viewpoints.
Full disclosure: I run my net stuff behind an offshore VPN, and I also have other email accounts offshore, but that’s all just cyberspace stuff. And as noted here before, Great-Grandmother has the cottage on the ocean in northern New Brunswick which she’s leaving to us. Is anyone else considering the idea of not relying on this country being fully copacetic forever and not “putting all our eggs in one basket?”
Breaking Cat News: “step on the button, make the man scream”
http://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2017/01/03
“Is anyone else considering the idea of not relying on this country being fully copacetic forever and not “putting all our eggs in one basket?””
That’s why I originally seriously considered relocating up to the Montana-Alberta border area and getting dual citizenship in Canada. But on second thought I decided there’s no reason for US to leave. Instead, we’ll just deport the obnoxious bastards. Either that, or just seceed.
I very much don’t want President Trump to spend much time or political capital on Israel / Palestine / middle east in general. It’s a tar baby, and has been for 50+ years. As one of those old, dead, white men famously said, “Friends of liberty everywhere, guardians of it only at home.” I am, to some degree, a supporter of Israel, but only because they share our basic values – free markets, free press, free elections, rule of law.
And of course the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Which is why every rocker switch in my house has some sort of me-fabricated cover.
Most of the lights in my living room have chain pulls which the cats love. I have yet to design a method to stop them playing with those chains.
I also have some interior doors with lever style door latches, the cats can open those too.
Finally ended up with 8-inches of snow and wonder of wonders the city plow and salt truck came down our neighborhood’s “main” street this morning. The plow actually made a point to not create a big snow berm on our side street (where our driveway is, we live at the entrance to a cul-de-sack).
I had my first DOA drive on Sunday in a very long time. It is a WD 6 TB external USB drive. Will not even spin up. And I bought it from Big River back in September so I have to send it back to WD. What a pain ! And this is the fifth one of these that I have bought, no problems with the previous external drives.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KU686HI/
I very much don’t want President Trump to spend much time or political capital on Israel / Palestine / middle east in general. It’s a tar baby, and has been for 50+ years.
Yup, I think that Trump’s first foreign entanglement is North Korea. There is a very serious problem there with ICBMs of some sort that can reach the southern USA. Since I live in the southern USA, this concerns me greatly. We should go ahead and bomb them back to the stone age. Wait, they are already in the stone age !
http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/02/politics/north-korea-icbm-threat-trump/
I scrap failed drives even in warranty. I don’t want to chance my data in unknown hands. I suppose I could use an industrial-strength electromagnet to zero out the platters, but it never seemed worth the effort.
““That’s why I originally seriously considered relocating up to the Montana-Alberta border area and getting dual citizenship in Canada.”
Yeah, I remember that discussion; it would have been a major cultural change and probably more so for Mrs. RBT. My next-younger brother has often thought about relocating out there but there is zero way in heck that Mrs. H. and the daughters would ever go along with that. They won’t even consider leaving MA, period. We’re thinking of setting up a mutual bug-out site somewhere, probably in rural northern New England, but we both have too many things going on and responsibilities at our respective homes.
WRT Israel, I’ve made my position known here before so no need to hassle with it now. Hard to see how the tRump administration is gonna deal with that mess over there yet, as he’s got kinda hardline generals lined up for major Cabinet posts and a Jewish son-in-law and convert daughter Ivanka, and they seem to be involved in and friendly with a chit-ton of Jewish people and organizations. So, remains to be seen how this will shake out.
WRT to domestic felines messing with electronics and doors; occasionally one of our two female cats will dislodge an electrical cable or plug from an outlet and the youngest is very adept at climbing to whatever the highest points are inside rooms. The big male cat can open the back door anytime he wants and go in and out but he doesn’t close it after himself; that will require more training. He’s also our watch-cat and chases other cats away and patrols the perimeter regularly. But mostly they all sleep, eat, pee and poop. Haven’t seen a rodent in here for quite a while.
Got the Matrix registered after spending an hour with my fellow Vermonter Murkans in the DMV waiting room, all very orderly and circumspect. Put the new plates on and got the call from Mrs. OFD that there are icy road conditions in the Moh-ree-all area so Princess is not coming down today and will make the attempt “early tomorrow morning” (I simply add three hours to whatever time she says, so more likely mid-afternoon.) We’ll switch vehicles and then leave the Matrix here and one of us will have to drive her back up or she’ll have to take the bus, which is unlikely. Once Mrs. OFD gets paid, we’ll put snow tires on it and get the regularly scheduled maintenance done on it at the dealership; ditto my RAV4, which I’ll probably have to clean out again.
She’ll only be able to drive it here in the U.S. And this should be an incentive for her to buckle down and finish up the eight-year BA program this spring and either find a job or go off to grad skool somewhere, which her mom told her is on HER dime. We’ll see.
“We should go ahead and bomb them back to the stone age. Wait, they are already in the stone age !”
It could end up being a very serious problem; we’re sorta limited in what we can do as the Chicoms take a huge interest in what goes on there. As do the South Koreans and the Japanese. If I was tRump I’d try to set up some kind of thing where one or more of THEM could work on a solution to those maniacs. ID any likely people in the Nork government or Nork exiled dissidents who could conceivably take over and figure out a way to chop the head off the snake.
Simultaneously work on the cultural angles, i.e., blue jeans, Toob videos, Adele records, and double-bacon whoppers.
I scrap failed drives even in warranty. I don’t want to chance my data in unknown hands. I suppose I could use an industrial-strength electromagnet to zero out the platters, but it never seemed worth the effort.
I do also. But this drive failed out of the box. I never wrote anything to it so I am returning it to WD for replacement.
Since I need another external drive yesterday (I archived the Dec 30, 2016 external drive), I went ahead and bought my first 8 TB external drive for $220. Our LAN backup has been growing at 50 GB/month lately (I need to investigate this). I wonder if it will even be 7 TB using 1,024 bytes instead of 1,000 bytes ?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LQQHLGC/
And why doesn’t WD have an 8 TB green drive for sale yet ?
It could end up being a very serious problem; we’re sorta limited in what we can do as the Chicoms take a huge interest in what goes on there. As do the South Koreans and the Japanese.
The B-52s at Guam could bomb their ICBM facility and testing grounds. The South Koreans and Japanese would probably have no public comments but, their private comments would be “do it again !”.
And the ChiComs can go pound sand as far as I am concerned. I have over 1,000 users in China and no payers.
Just sayin’.
We’re thinking of setting up a mutual bug-out site somewhere, probably in rural northern New England, but we both have too many things going on and responsibilities at our respective homes.
I see a mutual bugout site in rural Vermont, a two story red brick house with new windows. Plenty of water close by. 1,250 ft2 and one bathroom. The line forms over there.
The line for the one bathroom?
That’s another site inside here that’s gonna need a lotta work. We’ve toyed with the idea of adding a second one but there’s really no place we can do that.
As for the water close by, you better hurry; the bay here itself is building up the ice.
That’s another site inside here that’s gonna need a lotta work. We’ve toyed with the idea of adding a second one but there’s really no place we can do that.
A wooden shack with a cast iron stove over the leech field. Half moon on the door.
Cain’t build nuttin’ out there and it takes up half the yard, you know, the half that gets the most sunlight. Thus reducing potential “salad garden” space. If the S really does hit the fan in this AO, we’re gonna have to work out some kind of arrangement with one of the neighboring farm families; many square miles of fertile farmland up and down the Champlain watershed, some of which could be turned from miles of corn to a more varied selection.
Cain’t build nuttin’ out there and it takes up half the yard, you know, the half that gets the most sunlight.
You can put that shack on skids and drag it around. Or pour a cement floor for it. But in your neck of the woods, I would prefer a little heat generation. You know, for when the temperature drops below 0 F.
http://photographyblogger.net/wooden-outhouses/
Hay bale garden on top of the leach field.
n
Open hole outhouse resting on the living bodies of your enemies.
http://www.nickscipio.com/pod/2004/07/19/management-outhouse/
Ode To The Little Brown Shack Out Back
I’ll run the hay bale garden thang by the missus but I bet I’ll hear “It looks horrible!”
As for the various little brown shack configurations, I think I’m gonna go for either Mr. SteveF’s suggestion or maybe just a portable toilet deal.
For bigger food garden stuff we’re gonna have to either buy an acre of decent sunlit land within bicycle or horse distance and/or go in on a co-op deal with other villagers here. (OFD thinks ahead to a future that will never be, thanks to a swarm of Russian, Chicom or Nork ICBMs.)
On season Five now of “The Walking Dead,” where the intrepid group of fully tooled-up heroes and heroines, with chit-tons of ammo and crossbow bolts, encounters cannibals. As if thangs weren’t bad enuff with the damn walkers/biters.
Oh well; plenty of well-manicured green lawns and untouched mansions to stay at along the way.
(OFD thinks ahead to a future that will never be, thanks to a swarm of Russian, Chicom or Nork ICBMs.)
On season Five now of “The Walking Dead,” where the intrepid group of fully tooled-up heroes and heroines, with chit-tons of ammo and crossbow bolts, encounters cannibals. As if thangs weren’t bad enuff with the damn walkers/biters.
One wonders if old Nork boy could be fed to a bunch of cannibals ??? He must be the fattest person in all of Norkland.
Regarding The Walking Dead, ain’t it, like, metaphor and stuff?
“He must be the fattest person in all of Norkland.”
Judging from the very few photos I’ve seen of him and the others at the top echelon, yeah. Below the flag ranks, everyone else is skin and bones. Peeps trying to escape who get caught get their feet cut off. It’s a freakish pseudo-commie hell on earth. A small-yield tactical nuke on Pyongyang when he’s definitely there should do the trick. The Sorks can then reunify like West Germany did with East Germany, for what that’s worth these days.
Then again, it’s none of our beeswax, unless he’s getting ready to launch something seriously at US.
“…ain’t it, like, metaphor and stuff?”
Metaphor??? Dost thou speak of literary matters, sir? If so, who do the walkers/biters represent? Republicans? Dems? hadjis? Is Rick some sort of messiah figure leading his little band of violent apostles to the Promised Land? Is Negan the Devil?
Somebody hep an ol’ recovering English major out here. Mr. Lynn? And I’ll try to hep you out with any questions about Breaking Bad.
The zombies are like the troubles of life in general, say, and the real problems come from enemies (and friends)…
You cannot take the zombie science fiction very seriously. It simply follows parameters as originally established by Romero (director of Night of the Living Dead), as ridiculous as they might be. Zombies are just a plot element, like a tornado or a shark or something like that, to set up the human conflicts and cooperations.
Same as a western, the main characters seldom die (actually Walking Dead does kill off main characters) and the heroes never run out of bullets (spoiler: maybe not).
Zombies are real. They are called Democrats.
Oh, I don’t take it seriously at all; I just find it comical. We don’t need zombies when we have fembats, progs and SJWs. Can they be dispatched with a dagger through the skull, too?
Quiet here in the village tonight; I haven’t even heard the wallyhog next door coughing and hacking her brains out, what’s left of them.
Another attempt tomorrow to try and switch cars and get mine back from Princess so I can spend half a day cleaning it out and later running it up to the dealership for routine maintenance and the continuing pesky tire pressure light. I’ll probably also have to fix the SiriusXM because she just pulls all the connections out so she can plug in HER stuff.
My other scutwork project is the dining room floor; next attempt will be with Murphy’s Oil Soap. And I gotta make a dump run this week. Also stop by the vets group meeting; I’ve missed the last three or four of them.
The zombies are life’s everyday normal dangers that can take you down. Such as leukemia. The really dangerous things in the zombie world are other humans. They see you as a resource to be exploited. Rarely do they see you as a fellow survivor of the apocalypse to be joyful about.
I am all the way through season four of “Breaking Bad”. The last episode where *SPOILER* Gus was blown up was freaking wild. That little ringing bell that the stroked out cartel member was driving me batty.
Life’s everday normal dangers here are me possibly tripping over one of the cats who choose to go down the stairs when I am about halfway down them; slipping on the ice by the back steps; turning the air blue when something doesn’t work right the first time it’s expected to; and picking up the mail at the post office and seeing more chit from the state and Fed tax people.
Yeah, Gus wasn’t all there when he came back out of the room; he looked like he was auditioning for a spot on The Walking Dead. You’re in for more fun in the next episodes, amigo.
Other humans are almost always the greatest danger to us in this world, with occasional forays here by other entities. Or maybe lots of forays; Ann Barnhardt thinks so, but I’m not all the way with her on some things. She frets a lot about sinful sexual relationships, and I have trouble believing that human beings endowed with free will by their Creator and subject to nearly infinite temptations every day of their lives will be consigned to everlasting fire. I’m talking about us average schmucks who trip over ourselves daily if not hourly with stuff we shouldn’t be doing or thinking, not the truly evil among us. But the Last Things are rarely discussed in most mainline Protestant or Catholic churches; most clergy seem to want to be our pals in our journeys together, etc., etc., and the bake sale is next Saturday, etc., etc. , and dig the schmaltsy tunes, nothing before, say, the 1960s. And let’s all shake hands with the “kiss of peace, ” etc.
But don’t get me started; it’s almost 02:00 here and ol’ OFD has gotta head for the Land of Nod and have pleasant dreams instead of weird and crazy chit.
Pax vobiscum, fratres…
But don’t get me started; it’s almost 02:00 here and ol’ OFD has gotta head for the Land of Nod and have pleasant dreams instead of weird and crazy chit.
Good luck, I am having night terrors once or twice a week now. Last night it was snakes knee deep in my bedroom. I think I know which heart drug is doing that to me and am trying to get off it. Should one die the death of fading away one night or should one die hundreds of deaths, waking up gasping in terror ? Interesting question.
Preps *outside* the country? Doing maintenance on two separate households? You spend all your vacation time and probably too many weekends doing maintenance on the second place. No thanks, been there, done that.
At most, I can see this as a short-term transition thing, like, when you’re setting up the place you plan to move to in a couple of years.
I’m pretty sure that if things get bad enough to leave the strongest and one of the richest countries in the world, being the ultimate outsider somewhere else is going to SUCK.
I know Sovereign Man likes to be mobile and international, but that just means he’s a transient outsider anywhere he goes. With civilization UP, that’s not bad to deal with. Civilization down, who you gonna FUCK when push comes to shove- your wife’s second cousin or the rich Norte Americano? And by definition, anyone who can afford to move around like that is rich compared to locals.
n
Good point.
I left a bank account and credit account open in New Zealand when we returned to the US. If things get really bad, New Zealand is a beautiful country with very nice people and pretty self sufficient. Rifles with silencers are common to prevent disturbing the sheep when thinning the varmints. Unlike OZ hardly any of the native flora and fauna is poisonous. Lots of dairy industry too. Many times I regret returning to the US. Love the climate too.
I think there is value in having assets outside the country. I’d love to have an apartment building in NZ or AUS. Just generate enough income to cover the costs. Get a couple of trips a year out of the tax benefits… have a start on a place to go if needed…
But, if you’re not there, you’re first in line to be screwed by the locals.
n
(I actually priced this out at one point, back when I was single and footloose.)
Real estate in Oz is hellishly expensive. My place is mucho smaller than Lynn’s but cost more. The politicians are nuts, of course, but not as bad as the American ones.
But you’d have to get used to driving on the correct side of the road, using multicoloured banknotes and not having any guns.
“But you’d have to get used to driving on the correct side of the road, using multicoloured banknotes and not having any guns.”
Yup, same deal in Ireland, where Mama-san and Princess were recently, plus the roads are about as wide as our single highway lanes here and trucks use them, too! And with no guns and having multi-colored banknotes with Eamon de Valera, that POS, on them. I hope the ones in Oz at least have nice pics of baby kangaroos and cute-as-a-button koala bears on them, lol.
Mama-san just informed me via telephone that her pay check (they owe her TWO) was allegedly Fed-Exed Overnight and should be arriving here around noon. Which usually means we have to add two more hours. If it does get here, I’ll run it to the bank and then call her to find out if Baby-San Princess has deigned to arrive down there yet so I can just continue on down and switch the cars. Grand-Mama-San is headed to Floriduh tomorrow for the winta, driving down with a Collins nephew. Yes, they’re related to THAT Collins (Michael) and his dad’s uncles had to leave Ireland during the original Troubles of the last century and they ended up in north-country Vampire State.
Am I related to any famous mofos in recent history? Only SecState Vinegar John. Sad.
That’s a deal-breaker right there. An unarmed man is not a citizen, he’s a subject.
OFD, aside from Ben Franklin, are you related to anyone famous who doesn’t suck?
DH wrote:
“I hope the ones in Oz at least have nice pics of baby kangaroos and cute-as-a-button koala bears on them, lol.”
We currently use the Third Series. I quite like them. I also like the First Series (1966) ones…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Australian_dollar
I looked into buying a motel and a bar when last in NZ (a couple of years ago) but prices there are almost as bad as OZ. I don’t know why, with so much land, housing and commercial real estate is so expensive. I found a beautiful little resort motel in Rotorura where the owners were retiring and wanted to sell but I couldn’t get the numbers to make sense. At least, the last I checked, NZ hadn’t gone anti-gun crazy like OZ. My friend the boy scout leader was still taking scouts out for target practice.
I’m not sure why home prices are crazy in Oz, at least in the major cities. A factor may be that governments keep the lid on supply so they can get top dollar when they release land to developers. I could buy land/house out in the bush cheaply, but not in a major city.
What do they charge for utility hookups in Oz ? That is what the progs use here in the USA in blue states to stop new facilities from being built. Water hookup might be $4,000, sewer hookup might be $12,000, electrical hookup might be $20,000. All SWAGs on my part, BTW. Those charges really accelerate the cost of building a new home.
I don’t know. I think it’s all paid by the developert/builder and factored into the price to buyers. But I think it has become somwhat of a cash cow. Blocks are smaller and streets narrower. In some new suburbs garbage trucks can’t get into streets so residents have to wheel their bins to the nearest major road.
My current block is about 550 m^2, my block in Canberra was 820 and my parents’ double block was around 1000.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Australian_dollar
Of all those personages on the banknotes I am only familiar with three: Betty Windsor, of course, and Banjo Paterson and Sir Joseph Banks. No clue about the others, and I’m a pretty well-read mofo. Imagine most Murkan derps. They probably don’t even know Betty.
“OFD, aside from Ben Franklin, are you related to anyone famous who doesn’t suck?:
Actually, Benny sucked in some ways, too. I’ve got it back to these guys:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sutton_II
Yeah, English noble tigers; means zip to any of us now, and it’s pretty distant tracking it through all the lines and marriages and deaths. It’s part of the same large general group of mofos that includes the common ancestors of me and Vinegar John. So I get nada out of this deal, and for all I know, they all sucked.
But I still feel entitled to Dudley Castle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dudley_Castle
And it’s a friggin’ zoo now, so I’ll abdicate my right to it and hand it over to my next-younger brother, who is not quite a nut but a huge lover of animals.
By block do you mean the property you own?
We’d call that a lot. A block is the polygon (usually but not always rectangular) enclosed by streets, usually containing several lots.
Our house sits on an acre (4000 m^2, close enough), about half of which can never be developed because, um, reasons. That doesn’t bother us, as it means we don’t have to worry about houses or a strip mall going up 100m behind our house, and the forest means we have a constant supply of turkeys and groundhogs and foxes and deer and raccoons derping along behind the house. My wife’s Chinese family and friends, in particular, are fascinated by genuine wild animals, something that the city dwellers had never seen before.
“My wife’s Chinese family and friends, in particular, are fascinated by genuine wild animals, something that the city dwellers had never seen before.”
Shouldn’t you have warning notices on the trees for those animals that they might get their dicks cut off or something as aphrodisiacs? Or simply end up on a plate?
Not to worry for the poor critters – the typical feral animal is both faster and smarter than our typical guest.
Our current lot is 1.5 acres (6,000+ m^2). Our lot in Winston was about a fifth that size.
My house is on a lot in a subdivision that is 12,992 ft^2 (1,207 m^2). My business sits on 9.0 acres which is 36,519 m^2.
You don’t know Florey and Mawson? Tens of millions of people would have died without Flory (and Fleming).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Florey
Mawson was a famous geologist and antarctic explorer, and a professor at Adelaide Uni.
“Block” is one of the more common words in Oz for the parcel of land upon which a house is built. “Lot” is used as a technical word to describe land. In Canberra my street address was “Block 9, Section 13” but only the city administration used that.
When I read descriptions of American cities I see stuff like “SteveF’s hotel was only three blocks from a sheep paddock he frequented…” I asume that means there are three major streets in the way of getting to the love/s of his life.
Not necessarily major streets, but alleys usually do not increment the count of blocks between me and snagging your girlfriend to bring to the butcher.
Woohoo! Cock measuring! I like to eat sheep…wait, that didn’t come out right!
In Canberra my street address was “Block 9, Section 13” but only the city administration used that.
Your legal description is close to what we use but there is still a difference. The legal description of my house is:
GREATWOOD HIGHLAND PARK SEC 2, BLOCK 1, LOT 8
I don’t eat lamb or mutton or goats and don’t like their cheese, either. Gimme a steakburger w/onions, mushrooms, bacon, and cheddar on a toasted kaiser roll and side of onion rings and pickles and tomatoes. Oh yeah, make it “medium.”
Hmmmm….I think I’ll make up one of those tomorrow or Friday…side order of beans, too.
And those block and lot designations sound like cellblock assignments. Up here in the benighted darkness of northern New England, we still use street numbers and street names.