It was 23 degrees, partly cloudy, and calm when I took Colin out at 7:30.
I went to Winston to visit Bob yesterday. Nothing new to report.
Wednesday December 27, 2017
35 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday December 27, 2017"
Comments are closed.
It was 23 degrees, partly cloudy, and calm when I took Colin out at 7:30.
I went to Winston to visit Bob yesterday. Nothing new to report.
Comments are closed.
Good morning Barbara, cold and nasty there!
Keep the faith, it will get better….
n
Continued prayers for Bob, Barbara, and OFD.
It’s chilly here, and we’re digging out of 50+” of winter wonderland. Those born and raised here SHOULD be able to drive in this stuff. Key word is “should”.
My advice is this: If you can’t drive a 4×2 vehicle straight on a plowed road, you should stay home. Some people heed that advice. Too many don’t.
The real payoff will be this weekend, when my favorite CC Skiing joint will be open for business. I’m looking forward to getting the kids out for some fun in the snow.
Cold and nasty here too. 42F overcast and drizzle this morning in Houston.
Got the kids at a day “camp” science program so I can get some things done. First thing, need to get rid of the evidence – huge cardboard box that “Santa” brought number one daughter’s bike in. Then some ebay stuff. I’m surprised I sold several things in the last 2 days. I was expecting a slow finish to the year. This is a good time to be a buyer, not a seller. With that, I bought several things from the Goodwill online auction. ShopGoodwill.com I almost never look, since prices tend to be high, and some Goodwills have really high shipping charges. That said, this is typically a good time to buy because people have spent all their money or are on a break, leaving some good bargains. My industrial auctions all learned their lesson though, and didn’t have anything closing this or last week. So to feed my jones and need for new stock, I was trolling thru Goodwill online. I actually managed to buy a few things at reasonable prices, even with the shipping.
One of my local estate auctions had most of their items closing at 7pm on Christmas Eve. What a bunch of maroons. Stuff went for pennies that would have sold well at any other time. Most of it wasn’t my type of stuff unfortunately.
So I have some shipping to do, and some items to either pick up or pay for.
I also have to go by my rent house and do some work there, and make sure the pipes won’t freeze.
And as the year draws to a close, a [not so] young man’s thoughts naturally turn to computer backups. [Don’t they?] I guess I better start running some…
And also some planning…
nick
Just another reason to avoid malls, and the diversite’….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5214409/Three-people-injured-four-arrested-mall-shooting.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5215171/Three-women-teenage-girl-arrested-brawl.html
n
Just got back from the VA “examination” from my appeal of their rating decision. It was a private company, LHI, which I have never heard about. Nurse practitioner just did some measurements from bending. Each reading done three times. Took some notes and sent me on my way. Took all of 20 minutes.
Wife unit is still sore from the procedure yesterday but is feeling much better. I don’t think she will ever have this done again unless there is no other option. But she has never passed a kidney stone that she can feel nor has she had a tube blocked by a stone. If she does require the procedure I suspect she will ask for morphine as soon as she gets into recovery.
Meanwhile I am the evil person because I don’t care and can’t make it better.
Cold and nasty here too. 42F overcast and drizzle this morning in Houston.
Dunno about Houston, but long range forecasts indicate that the temperature won’t rise above freezing in Austin on New Years Day and we could see some snow.
That said, this is typically a good time to buy because people have spent all their money or are on a break, leaving some good bargains. My industrial auctions all learned their lesson though, and didn’t have anything closing this or last week.
The retail carnage will resume after the first of the year.
Barnes and Noble has delayed a book I ordered twice in three weeks. Based on what I’ve seen with traffic in the stores, it wouldn’t surprise me to see them gone from everywhere except college campus locations in the near future.
Amazon Books has a new store opening soon in The Domain, Austin’s slice of California living at the north end of town. That location will be trouble not only for Barnes and Noble but the big downtown indy BookPeople as well.
Strange how Amazon Books looks like Borders. IIRC the prototype store near UW in Seattle is *in* an old Borders.
Best wishes for RBT again.
Sunny and clear here in the high desert. I imagine we will have about 70°F today.
The roofer finished yesterday, things look good, and the termite people should finish today; if they ever show up.
I really want to get the new floor in – it gets pretty old living in a derelict trailer. Everything takes longer than I thought.
Went to a B&N on the 22nd. Business was was decent but not like the old days. Three registers going and wait was no more than 5 minutes. Went to BB&B after. Also had many shoppers. Checkout was brisk, many checkers and an employee at the head of the line directing people. Was at Sears a couple of days before, checkout was slower but customers each had several items. None of them came close to the volume of a Wally World.
Probably my first real venture into retails stores other than home centers and Wally World all year.
Wishing the best to all on the mend.
The entire Atoz clan is down with a hacking cough. Running through Vegas like shit through a goose. Nasty.
down with a hacking cough
A couple of years ago, I went to the local primary care clinic with what locals call ‘the Carolina crud.’ The doctor said there really wasn’t anything he could do for me but treat the symptoms. He prescribed what he called a cocktail: prednisone, an antibiotic (just in case), prescription cough syrup and OTC Alka-Seltzer day/night cold. That was the best thing I’ve ever done in terms of feeling better, shortening the duration, etc. YMMV…
“New message in Paint warns of its removal from Windows”
https://www.neowin.net/news/new-message-in-paint-warns-of-its-removal-from-windows
Why ?
I can’t remember the last time I was in a bricks and mortar book store. It’s been at least several years and that was a used store or 1/2PRICEBooks.
My favorite store is Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego, but I haven’t even purchased by mail from them in years.
I pick up the occasional hard back in a thrift store, but only if I already know the author, and mostly I buy online from Amazon or direct from Baen whenever possible.
n
Pushing back on social justice warriors.
So glad to be retired!
wrt paint, maybe because it’s registered as the default for some file types?
n
@mw, oh sweet jebus that made my head hurt, and even AFTER looking up autogynephilic I still only vaguely understand.
github is a SOFTWARE company? that does some sort of versioning/repository?
So WTF are they doing even asking the questions or stacking the deck? HTF did they change from a software repository to a vehicle for social change? WTF would shareholders or a board allow such a thing?
Nuke the site from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
nick
(and I’ll put articles like that in the PRO column for the argument that we’ve already fallen as a society and we just don’t realize it yet.)
“Pushing back on social justice warriors.”
Wow. I don’t know what kind of drugs they use but I’ll pass on going to that party and stick with beer.
Boring beer. Miller High Life. Maybe a Tecate or Shiner Bock once in a while.
“If you want to check to see whether your company’s organization chart corresponds to actual status, pay no attention to mere words, but rather watch who interrupts whom, who speaks over whom. Chances are the women speak over and interrupt their merely male boss. ”
Yeah, it’s toxic. Call ’em on it and you’re a pig. Ignore and you’re raaycist or whatever.
Pretty much lose-lose either way.
Uh oh, we may get a taste of the polar vortex down here in south Texas. There is a rumor floating around that a couple of the weather service models are showing 17 F for Sugar Land on Sunday night. We don’t handle temperatures in the teens here very well. We had 6 F on Dec 24, 1989, now that was a total disaster.
I just went out and turned on the 350 watt heat lamp on top of the 120 gallon water tank in the wellhouse at the office. That cost is about $1/day, well worth it. But, is it enough for an uninsulated 10 ft by 10 ft hardie plank building with a small roof vent ?
There is a rumor floating around that a couple of the weather service models are showing 17 F for Sugar Land on Sunday night.
The Space City Weather people say the polar mass gets here Sunday night or Monday AM and expect temps just above freezing. Same at Wunderground.
There is a rumor floating around that a couple of the weather service models are showing 17 F for Sugar Land on Sunday night.
The Space City Weather people say the polar mass gets here Sunday night or Monday AM and expect temps just above freezing. Same at Wunderground.
https://spacecityweather.com/cold-and-then-colder-for-houston-in-the-days-ahead/#more-6513
Yup. But one of my neighbors on Facecrack said a couple of the weather models are showing the artic front going past Houston into the big hot tub known as the Gulf of Mexico. The other 30 ? 40 ? 50 ? models are not showing that so they have not changed the official forecast. It is just a chance of very cold weather for the Houston area. Our current official forecast for Monday night is 29 F.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/77469—richmond/77469?cm_ven=localwx_10day
Currently 41 and cold drizzle here…..
n
Everything looks shiny and slick like it’s covered in ice..
n
Geez. I blame WHITEY racism:
ONE-THIRD Of U.S. Homicide Spike Coming From 5 Chicago Neighborhoods
Drudge
@mw, oh sweet jebus that made my head hurt, and even AFTER looking up autogynephilic I still only vaguely understand.
Autogynephilic: see Jenner, Bruce.
“Boring beer. Miller High Life. Maybe a Tecate or Shiner Bock once in a while.”
Yes, I’ve had a Tecate in the town of Tecate in Baja California.
But now, this redneck is having a PBR!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3iVHxP8FQ
We don’t handle temperatures in the teens here very well. We had 6 F on Dec 24, 1989, now that was a total disaster.
Christmas Eve 1989 pretty much polished off what was left of the commercial citrus industry north of I-4 in Florida. We had rolling blackouts all day on Christmas because the ‘H’ in HVAC south of Gainesville is mostly electric, and Christmas in shorts is the God-given right of every Floridian.
That year, I worked at Egghead Software outside Tampa in Clearwater (Yes, that Clearwater, as in “Going Clear”). We broke out the click-clack credit card impression machines and checked numbers vs. the book of “known bad” cards.
More reasons to avoid the mall:
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/12/27/five-arrested-after-up-to-1000-teens-take-over-new-jersey-mall/23318230/
joy
n
Violence is spreading in Memphis. We had lunch in that cheesecake factory last week. A few years ago you were pretty safe in Memphis if you simply stayed out of a few well defined dangerous neighborhoods. Now the violence occurs anywhere. We had a gang shooting in our nearby Kroger’s grocery. First ever since we moved here. We always go out packing but don’t want to have to use. Looking at homes in rural Oklahoma for our retirement. Nice 4 bedroom place on 14 acres for $109k but needs new floor covering. Taxes are only $650 / yr. Retirement is still about a year off depending on the outcome of a custody case. But I need to be getting ready.
@Greg: I’ve heard about Amazon opening brick’n’mortar stores. Since one is coming to your area, a question: WTF? After Amazon put everyone else’s bookstores out of business, why are they opening their own stores? I assume there must be something to this – they aren’t stupid – but what? Are they just portals to the Amazon online presence, or do they have some other angle?
—
I’m also down with a nasty cold. I felt myself trying to get sick back in late November, but I was just too busy – too much work – and managed to put it off. Finally make it to Christmas break, relax, and *bam*. Typical. At least the wife hasn’t caught it – hope she doesn’t.
—
GitHub is a fully converged organization. Of course, they are headquarted in San Francisco, so this isn’t really a surprise. More surprising is what an incredible job they have done for the open source community. That said, a couple of years back they started going heavy SJW, publishing “diversity reports”, and hiring based on diversity rather than capability. This was about the same time that lots and lots of open-source projects were being invaded and convinced to impose SJW-crafted codes of conduct.
GitHub has a commanding lead as host for OSS projects, having inherited most of the projects off of SourceForge (because the previous owners started packaging adware with people’s projects). The question now: how much longer can they maintain their level of service, despite being converged? SourceForge has cleaned up its act – they may well be able to stage a comeback, or some other platform will emerge (please, not from California).
@Greg: I’ve heard about Amazon opening brick’n’mortar stores. Since one is coming to your area, a question: WTF? After Amazon put everyone else’s bookstores out of business, why are they opening their own stores? I assume there must be something to this – they aren’t stupid – but what? Are they just portals to the Amazon online presence, or do they have some other angle?
The real irony of where Amazon will have their Austin book store is that The Domain, a CA-style life/work community, sits on a sizable chunk of what used to be IBM’s property in Austin. Apple and Microsoft are already there.
People still like to browse/discover physical books and music. The Borders concept wasn’t terrible, just poorly managed in the face of competition from Bezos, who went after books first because he recognized the financial games which were possible with the product.
A physical store also allows Amazon to offer one-on-one support for their devices, especially important if they’re going to try a phone again, and provide a North Austin location for a large number of Lockers — the area was severely short this holiday season.
Another potential reason is that Austin (and other areas where they’re building these stores) is running out of cheap, reliable labor willing to take packages that “final mile” to the home. I don’t even try to order books from Amazon anymore because the distribution chain usually results in the product getting mangled somewhere in the distribution process. I’m probably not the only one. The “Cantina” scene in “Star Wars” has nothing on the freak show that is the contract hires working for USPS, UPS, and directly for Amazon this Christmas.
Sorry, kids, but neck “ink” is a bad sign to me. The only question is whether they will toss the package in the direction of the porch for accuracy or distance.
Around here I noticed a wealth (I think that’s the word) of tattoos, ear plugs, and hair styles in the UPS and FedEx drivers, but they’ve all been doing the best they can and were grateful for casual assistance such as my pointing to the correct house when a package had an illegible address.
USPS temp staff, on the other hand… I’ve been less than impressed with the way they crammed too-large packages into the mailbox rather than put 30 seconds into walking up and putting the package on the porch. Or the way they didn’t take letters I’d left in the mailbox for pickup, or the misdeliveries all up and down our street. With luck we’ll be back to the regular drivers soon. They’re mostly ok, for government employees.
“will toss the package in the direction of the porch for accuracy or distance.”
I’ve got some rather obvious cameras so that may be why my delivery people come all the way to the door and place the package on the mat. Or we may get better performing people. Although I’ve mentioned here before that some of them look like homeless living out of their cars.
WRT tattoos, like piercings and colorful hair, our society will eventually just relax the rules because there are too many of them to fight it. ANY tattoos used to be a disqualifier, but even the military can’t fight it any longer.
Inappropriate online posts will end up being sunsetted too, as there won’t be enough people without them, and the HR staffs will be composed of like minded people.
I think it will still be one of the the things that separates by class for a long time. You’re not gonna see serious financial pros, or C-suite people in big companies (serious companies) with facial tats and piercings until long after we’re dead.
Social mores will evolve.
nick
(I’m seeing some indication that the pendulum is starting to swing back in the broader culture too, some that I don’t really want to mention here.)
WRT tattoos, like piercings and colorful hair, our society will eventually just relax the rules because there are too many of them to fight it. ANY tattoos used to be a disqualifier, but even the military can’t fight it any longer.
Maybe. My wife has seen a fair number of people who wanted their “ink” removed as of late.
The common thread she noticed is a misconception that removal was a question of getting the right cream/ointment and applying it for a few months.
Sorry, kids, but neck “ink” is a bad sign to me.
I am beginning to think that tattoos are a way of dealing with some personal trauma. The more tattoos, the more trauma. Neck ink means that something really bad happened. The tear at the bottom corner of the eye means …
Dr Drew on his radio show asserts that ink, piercings, and more extreme body mods are a reaction to childhood abuse. The idea is that it gives therm control over a body they didn’t have control of.
He’s got a couple of decades of dealing with adiction and severe mental issues in his patients, so I believe him.
Of course, some is just fashion, some stupidity, and some is cultural.
Nick