Hot and humid. Maybe more rain?
It was certainly hot and humid yesterday. Stifling when there was no breeze. It did rain like crazy late in the day, which cooled things down a lot, but that was pretty late…
I got a few things done. I moved some stuff and cleared some stuff at my secondary location, in preparation for throwing a lot of stuff into the dumpster. I’ve got a literal truckload (53ft trailer) of stuff to sort, save, recycle, and trash. That is just the trade show booth, but it will make a lot of room for other stuff. No one is buying any tradeshow stuff in the next year or two. Certainly not a booth that has been reworked a couple of times already. About half of the volume is trash now, with some saveable pieces, and some of the shipping containers for reuse. I could scrap out the rest, keeping just the containers to sell at some point, but I might keep some stuff like generic walls and towers. All the lighting is too old and doesn’t meet current requirements, the chairs were more stylish than comfortable, all the messaging and signage is for a company that hasn’t existed for years… I had hoped to rework it one more time and resell it again, but, I don’t see tradeshows being a thing again for a long time, and I need the space.
That is part of what I hope to do today, start moving that cr@p toward the dumpster.
I’ve also got some auction pickups to do. I intend to put shelves in the space I open up so I scored some Metro racks on wheels. This is taking priority because I need somewhere to put the racks… and some of it has to happen today, some tomorrow. When you are buying in the ‘secondary’ market, you get it when you see it, not when it’s convenient.
All this will certainly make my homelife better, should make my selling of stuff easier, will make it possible for me to do some of the stuff I like doing, and has needed to be done for a long time. Not really how I expected to be spending a worldwide pandemic. Damn strange zombie apocalypse. Although now we have our roaming bands…. can’t shoot them in the head yet though.
Toured the garden yesterday. Some more blueberries are ready, must be at least 5 🙂 The citrus is doing well. One of the cabbages has formed a firm center to the head. It’s the one in the best sunlight, go figure. Sunlight is important for success at gardening. Who knew? Broccoli is still growing. Asparagus went leggy right away and looks like ferns now. I’ve gotten one stalk off it in how many years? I am just keeping it alive until I can transplant it somewhere new at this point. Corn and melons continue to grow. Potato plants continue to die. No idea what that is, the soil is clean bagged potting soil, so shouldn’t have any grubs or root destroyers in it. It started out so well too. Apple and peach trees have leaves, and look like trees, but no flowers and no fruit. Peppers are still good though. All in all, likely to be a disappointment. Good learning though.
In the world and locally, covid is increasing in places that had people getting together. That bodes ill for the rioters and protesters. We said a couple of weeks ago that we’d know if easing restrictions led to more cases, and it looks like it did. We’re starting to see some of the earliest cases, and should see more soon. 3-5 days from exposure to symptoms for most people, one to two weeks of sickness before either getting better, or worse. So about 2-3 weeks from exposure to hospital admittance…on average. I’m no fan of NY pols, but whichever one said that all the protesters should consider themselves potentially infected and self isolate got it right this time. Chances of the public actually doing that??? Zero.
So keep working, keep your awareness up, and keep stacking.
n
I’m no fan of NY pols, but whichever one said that all the protesters should consider themselves potentially infected and self isolate got it right this time. Chances of the public actually doing that??? Zero.
Everybody arrested gets an antibody test and an order to stay home for two weeks if positive. False positives or recovered cases stay home until cleared by a better test *for hardship cases only*, but I’ll bet there won’t be many of those.
The government had its shot at the lockdown. Now we’re Sweden and will see where that takes us.
Certainly, here in Williamson County, the Judge will never get another lockdown … or anything else for that matter. He’s done as of the next election if he doesn’t resign sooner.
Amazon Prime video has a big Black Lives Matter banner at the top of the screen. Enough. Cancelling today.
I’ve gotten a number of emails from restaurant and retail chains stating they “stand with the Black community” or “Black Lives Matter.” Hopefully, their black customers recognize those for what they are. Emails of support for whatever current crisis (COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, etc.) are just advertisements in disguise and, in my opinion, disgusting.
Two days ago I got an email from kickstarter.com saying how they are supporting Black people and how *you* can, too. Today I get an email from Uber saying the same thing. Candace Owens pointed out how a Cop is 20x more likely to be shot by a Black. She’s and Uncle Thomasina for stating facts, though. I guess police violence *only* applies to Blacks. November elections could be the start of CWII. It will be short and bloody.
I also see election day as the flashpoint, win or lose.
And I’m focusing my preparations on that notion.
Nice weather so far today in NW Indiana. Antifa/BLM vandalized the GOP headquarters in my little country town sometime early this morning or late last night . “Protests” scheduled for later today by various factions.
We’ll see how it goes.
Hey Bill, I grew up in NW Indiana. Near Munster. Spent a good part of my childhood at the Indiana Dunes St park…
n
Turns out you can’t get a refund, even prorated when you cancel. So, I’ve got a note in outlook to cancel before it renews next year. I will make it my hobby to start calling every time my prime shipment is delayed now.
I’m in LaPorte. Not exactly where you’d expect to find shock troops from BLM and ANTIFA.
Since the tore down the projects, you find a bad element everywhere. My hometown is pretty much unrecognizable.
n
La Porte is one of the places dad looked at moving decades ago. Family held us where we were. He was at Burns Harbor for ~30 years.
The government has also been making it a point over the last few decades to build government housing as far out into the suburbs as they can. They’re also heavily fishing for apartment owners out in the suburbs to accept Section 8. Somebody screamed years ago about government funded housing always being in the crappy part of town and how it perpetuates the cycle of poverty and makes the poor and underprivileged invisible to people who are better off… blah… blah… blah… There’s a few housing developments out here where they all got together and bought up nearby land because it got out that the government was considering buying it to build housing.
I’ve heard it both ways on this. They expected a big spike after Mothers Day Weekend. It didn’t happen. They expected a big spike after Memorial Day Weekend. It hasn’t happen. There have certainly been increases but not anywhere close to the scale the doomsayers were predicting.
There are a lot of things at play there, and I’m on my phone….
Timeline is the biggest issue, and the variability of severity and onset of symptoms. Couple that with people not panicking and getting tested because they know that unless they’re really sick there is nothing to be done.
Also predictions are for total infected, not hospital admits, a huge difference. And there is still a lot of SWAG and lack of reliable numbers.
So rise is going to be smeared out, and later than expected, among other things.
N
That happened in my area. We live far away in the suburbs. There were two tracts of land that weren’t developed yet, surrounded by middle and upper middle class neighborhoods. The city swooped in zoned one for an apartment complex, and sooprise, it accepts section 8. This was 3 or 4 years ago.
The other tract? Last year, it was suddenly purchased by the city, and they are building a city recreation center there. 2 indoor basketball courts and a soccer field.
Mind you we have 2 local elementary schools with those facilities, and they are open to the public afternoons and weekends. They are, however, a 2 or 5 mile bike ride from the apartments. The new rec center is a short walk.
I’m sure the red center is being built for the convenience of all residents. We need more basketball courts, since it’s the most popular sport in this area…except for baseball, football, soccer, and surprisingly, hockey.
I unsubbed from a list today. “The New Stack”…something about programming, I didn’t read it much anyway. The subject line was BLM and the content talked about centuries of oppression and racism, and how we have a “plantation” attitude in the USA.
Not me. Everyone is equal to me. I think this reveals more about the writer and his/her/whatever’s inability to see beyond their own little circle. They think everyone thinks like them.
It’s amusing in a way. The left says the right is racist but now the left is basically celebrating their own racism, having always said the left wasn’t racist. Logic much?
If you want a plantation attitude… “You ain’t black”, Mr Biden.
Ameriprise Financial, the former AMEX financial services, sent out a blast reaffirming their commitment to diversity and inclusion and a mess of other stuff. They are based in MN so I’ll factor that in, but my knee jerk was to close out my accounts. No where to go though when they’re ALL paying the danegeld.
n
In the great scheme of things, very few individual lives matter. And in our great western society, no group’s lives are supposed to be more important or more valuable than anyone else’s. And that’s as close to what I want to say as I’ll get.
n
I did have a moment today when I realized something.
The left celebrates people as heroes for what has happened to them, or what they are. The right celebrates people as heroes for what they’ve done.
That is a fundamental difference, and it explains how a habitual drug abuser and violent criminal can be fete’d as a hero- he had something bad happen to him and his victimhood washed away his sins.
You’re gay? You’re a hero simply for existing. Doesn’t matter if you molest children, you are a victim of discrimination and “hate”.
Preach hatred for gays, subjugation and mutilation for women, but the wrong people dislike you? Heroes.
I’m getting more reactionary by the day.
n
Very true.
Our downtown revitalization org has come out with the propaganda. They’ve also come out supporting the removal of a civil war statue. Why now? Yeah, I know.
It is convenient that they provide a list of all sponsors on their website. I can’t boycott all of them, like the large insurance provider, but I sure can boycott the small businesses. I can also tell them why I won’t spend money with them. Change is local. And small.
Timeline is the biggest issue, and the variability of severity and onset of symptoms. Couple that with people not panicking and getting tested because they know that unless they’re really sick there is nothing to be done.
I think people avoid testing out of fear that a positive will mean that they will end up on a government list for mandatory lockdown. Of course, we do that with TB, but that standard doesn’t apply here for some reason.
Given the severity of the illness with parts of the population, I don’t buy “asymptomatic” infections where the sick don’t experience *something*.
The progression of the disease is such that you get sicker for 1-2 weeks, then you either get better on your own, or you are sick enough to be hospitalized. I think there is a general reluctance to go to the hospital now if you think you can avoid it. That’s reflected in the dramatic decrease in ER usage. If you know you aren’t getting treatment, why bother if you aren’t sick enough to be scared you’ll die without help?
I don’t think the average jose on the street thinks anything at all about government lists. It never crossed MY mind, and I’m more paranoid than many. I’ve also given up on the idea of government lists, because I’m on dozens already. Been there, don’t care.
Private sector lists are much more concerning.
n
That’s what I’m here for!
Some lives are less important than others. If you are an adult — “adult” — and are not self-supporting or in a long-term, stable relationship in which your significant other is supporting you, your life is less valuable. If you consume more in government services or government-subsidized services than you pay in tax dollars, your life is less valuable. If you have produced nothing in your life with the exception of children, your life is less valuable. If you damage or steal others’ property not because you need it but because it pleases you simply to destroy or steal it, your life is less valuable. If you physically attack others because you do not like what they are saying, your life is worth nothing.
This is not an exhaustive list.
If the filtering by these criteria has a disparate racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual impact, so be it. The problem is not with the criteria. The people who find themselves at the wrong end of the filtering should examine their life choices to determine why their lives are worth less.
I don’t think the average jose on the street thinks anything at all about government lists. It never crossed MY mind, and I’m more paranoid than many. I’ve also given up on the idea of government lists, because I’m on dozens already. Been there, don’t care.
It isn’t about the list as much as the possibility of a forced lockdown.
I still haven’t heard a good reason as to why the Wuxu Flu is treated differently than TB or other true “bubonic plagues” … like Bubonic Plague! Neither are something where you want the patients running around in public, but they are treatable.
One of our high schools is having their roof replaced. The contractor posted on Facebook marketplace sheets of foam, 4×8 4″ thick, for $2/sheet. Used, stained, but in pretty good shape. 330 sheets were gone in 1 1/2 hours. I scored 10 sheets with help from family member with a truck. I’ll reinsulate the chicken coop, try an insulated raised garden bed (one way of extending ones season up here), and make panels to help keep the rabbits warm enough to continue breeding through the winter.
Neat ! I was wondering how you were going to keep the bunnies and chickens warm when it starts snowing on you in October.
ADD: Everyone either needs a pickup or access to one. Having that open bed just makes the occasional task a lot easier.
Freefall: sleeping in low gravity
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3500/fc03443.htm
Cool. I look forward to free fall on the SpaceX ballistic flights from New York to Tokyo. Even 15 minutes will be neat if I am not barfing all over the place.
A Girl and Her Fed: big time jump
https://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.1774.html
Wow, it looks like A Girl and Her Fed just jumped about 15 years in the future.
Not really how I expected to be spending a worldwide pandemic. Damn strange zombie apocalypse. Although now we have our roaming bands…. can’t shoot them in the head yet though.
Do they qualify as MZBs (mutant zombie bikers) ? I am beginning to think so. If the looters come around out here, they will be shot.
For those who do not know, the MZB acronym comes from the awesome “Lights Out” book about an EMP across the USA and specifically about southwest Texas.
https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-David-Crawford-ebook/dp/B004GHNGKE/?tag=ttgnet-20
Two days ago I got an email from kickstarter.com saying how they are supporting Black people and how *you* can, too. Today I get an email from Uber saying the same thing. Candace Owens pointed out how a Cop is 20x more likely to be shot by a Black. She’s and Uncle Thomasina for stating facts, though. I guess police violence *only* applies to Blacks. November elections could be the start of CWII. It will be short and bloody.
I am ignoring the advertising as that is all just pandering to the masses.
I was shocked at that ratio of cops who are killed by blacks. “Owens also questioned the narrative of police brutality. “A police officer is 18 and a half times more likely to be killed by a black person than the other way around,” says Owens.”
https://thefederalist.com/2020/06/04/candace-owens-george-floyd-is-not-my-martyr/
As the inner cities shut down their police departments, we in the outer suburbs will be staffing up. All of the inner cities are gonna look like “Escape From New York”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_from_New_York
Timeline is the biggest issue, and the variability of severity and onset of symptoms. Couple that with people not panicking and getting tested because they know that unless they’re really sick there is nothing to be done.
I think people avoid testing out of fear that a positive will mean that they will end up on a government list for mandatory lockdown. Of course, we do that with TB, but that standard doesn’t apply here for some reason.
Given the severity of the illness with parts of the population, I don’t buy “asymptomatic” infections where the sick don’t experience *something*.
That is why I have not been tested. I do not want to be rounded up and thrown in a gulag via a cattle car.
Asymptomatic means no fever as far as SARS-COV-2.
xkcd: Eventual Consistency
https://xkcd.com/2315/
The heat death of the universe is a long time away. At least past next Tuesday.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2315:_Eventual_Consistency
Asymptomatic means no fever as far as SARS-COV-2.
Both of my wife’s near miss infection contacts reported to work at the VA claiming to be “fine”.
In both cases the thermometer popped 102 when the light hit their foreheads.
Doctors. Well, ok, one was a Podiatrist, but still she received *some* post-undergrad medical training. Certainly, enough to know better.
Barry University. I’m not kidding when I say that Shaq is their most notable graduate.
The VA outpatient clinics are currently closed except for pilot sites testing reopening concepts. The big problem will be that most of the patients are not going to accept even as much as a temperature check to enter the building. And it is all Trump’s fault.
Jiminy Christmas is it hot. 96F in the shade, and 108F in the sun in my driveway.
I am not working in the driveway or at my secondary in that. I’ll die.
n
US Fire Administration released some guidelines for fire and ems personnel wrt civil unrest. [pdf]
Some interesting stuff.
“ĵ Develop communications code words for secure communications of emergency actions (building or area evacuation,
apparatus/station abandonment, etc.).
ĵ Develop rally points should apparatus or stations need to be abandoned and pass on to members. These may
change due to situational changes”
”
ĵ Ensure Command Post security and remain flexible as location might be subject to change rapidly”
“ĵ Recognize that there may be a need to abandon apparatus and/or equipment.
ĵ Consider the use of plow and possibly tow trucks for debris and vehicle removal to clear path for apparatus”
n
I have an appointment on the 19th of this month. It has been changed three times. Original was the end of March. I wonder if the appointment will be changed again?
From BH in the Fort Bend Journal:
“I still can’t believe that Tiger King was the most normal part of 2020 so far.”
The VA outpatient clinics are currently closed except for pilot sites testing reopening concepts. The big problem will be that most of the patients are not going to accept even as much as a temperature check to enter the building. And it is all Trump’s fault.
Since the VA is the model for the new national healthcare system, I am guessing that the clinics will be shut down for any local or national event. Not good.
Keystone canned Turkey is available on Big River again.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B59QDGA/?tag=ttgnet-20
We just watched this, because it was filmed in and around Big Spring, and were very pleasantly surprised. It’s a good little movie. Paul started it on his phone because he figured he’d be stopping it after 5 minutes LOL but it actually is engrossing, a good story well told. Even non-Texans that aren’t interested in oil field history can enjoy it.
“The Iron Orchard” movie, which includes Big Spring area locations and actors/extras, can be streamed on Tubi Tv for free [with commercials]
https://tubitv.com/movies/519283/the_iron_orchard
I have an appointment on the 19th of this month. It has been changed three times. Original was the end of March. I wonder if the appointment will be changed again?
Probably. They still don’t have a definite idea as to when they will reopen all of the outpatient clinics. There may be a pilot reopening in your area at a small clinic.
Went to Wal-Mart today. Bought a battery for the tractor. The $55 w/ 1 year Group 24 size had no handles. So I bought a Group 30 something that has a handle. About 100 amps less cranking amps but heck, I use the compression release all of the time just for the wear on the starter.
I didn’t look at clothes. Going across the store to the auto department, well, lots of gaps. The DVD racks were very thin. In the food department things looked faced out to cover the gaps. Miller High Life was empty. 🙁 I did get a package of chicken thighs at 99 cents a pound. That made four vacuumed packs in the freezer. And a small chicken, it’s been a while since we had a beer can chicken on the grill.
A couple of customers had masks. Some of the help wandering around had masks. The Greeter was bare faced. Same for the checker.
It was weird, it’s usually an hour in that store but today was “get battery, get beer, get something to grill, get a bag of candy” and out in 25 minutes.
My bank wants me to change my login for online banking. Because it’s my SS number, just like it has been since the online banking was a program they mailed to you on a floppy disk. That required you to use your SS. To make it all extra convenient, one must call them. I don’t need to change my password. I suppose they are being hit with scammers trying to log in.
Added: DreamHost’s response to changing my contact address to “not on my domain” boiled down to a link of how to forward mail from Gmail back to that address. Hey Sparky, how about if the primary contact bounces you send to the secondary? Or send to both at the same time?
“We’re Witnessing the Massive Failure of Liberalism”
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/06/05/were-witnessing-the-massive-failure-of-liberalism/
“RUSH: There also, ladies and gentlemen, you know, one of the themes that I have been on for a long time, but I’ve been intensely trying to drive home a point for the last two weeks, three weeks, and that is the utter failure of the Democrat Party to come through for its constituents. You’ve heard me say this I don’t know how many times. Maybe you’re a little tired of hearing me say it. The Democrat Party has been promising utopia. And yet where is all this police brutality happening? In Democrat blue states.”
“It’s so bad that they’re now seriously gonna defund police departments in Minneapolis, in New York, and in California. Liberalism is on record here as a total failure, folks. Socialism on record, on display, is a total failure. The Democrat Party, which is the home of all of that, on display as a public massive failure. Everything they have been promising their constituents are things for 50 years their constituents still have grievances about, their constituents are still complaining.”
“Look at civil rights. You have the Civil Rights Act 1964, 1965, LBJ and the Democrats going nuts, massively passing all this legislation to end inequality, to end discrimination, and yet what? It’s worse now than ever. It is worse than ever. The Democrat Party and liberalism and their prescriptions is worse than ever. It is an abject, total failure.”
“And so what have they had to do? Well, now they give back. They can’t blame themselves, obviously, which we all should. They are ultimately responsible. The Democrat Party (liberalism, leftism, communism, socialism, whatever) is an abject, total failure for the people who’ve been promised all of these wonderful benefits and utopian-type lifestyles.”
“So now what do they do to cover up their failure, which is a failure of over 50 years? Why, we gotta go back 400 years and we gotta blame America. We gotta blame America’s founding. America’s founding is itself unjust and immoral, and that’s where the real problem lies. America is irredeemable! America’s original sins, whatever they are — slavery, leaving other people out — can’t be fixed.”
Since the VA is the model for the new national healthcare system, I am guessing that the clinics will be shut down for any local or national event. Not good.
The new national system will not be nearly as good as the current state of the VA.
Trump spends money on the VA.
The DVD racks were very thin.
Nothing new hit theaters since March. This was going to be a big movie year, and Walmart probably planned shelf space accordingly.
And, AMC says it is tottering on the brink. Goodbye, theaters (and all their employees), we knew ye well. Thanks a lot goobermint dumbass policies. I can only hope Celibriturds stop raking in the bucks for so-so movies. Maybe I can buy one their popcorn machines for the garage.
Speaking of Walt Disney World, I ain’t going ever again if I have to wear a mask and/or social distance. Let WDW die just like theaters.
Since the VA is the model for the new national healthcare system, I am guessing that the clinics will be shut down for any local or national event. Not good.
The new national system will not be nearly as good as the current state of the VA.
Trump spends money on the VA.
I figure that the new national healthcare system will be a favorite place for the congress critters to “bring home the bacon”. They will be getting their pictures in the paper in front of the new clinics and such weekly. Oh wait, nobody reads the papers anymore.
” Oh wait, nobody reads the papers anymore. ”
–that won’t stop the dinosaurs in congress
n
The costco prices on instacart were all higher than I’m used to. There were some of the normal monthly discounts though. And while no bleach based cleaners were in stock, good TP, paper towels, and liquid bleach were all available.
Still had limits on whole meat products, although not lamb.
My wife’s wine was $6/bottle more than last time I was in the store.
Still, I don’t have to go into the store to get it, it will magically arrive here in about an hour.
n
Rule number 1: Never Set It To 2020
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1848694-back-to-the-future
Yup.
Looks like now you can get fired for what your wife says.
I guess that whole woman’s equality thing never happened for LA Galaxy management, and he shoulda kept her quiet, damn mouthy b!tch. A real man woulda. Control your woman Katai or get sacked….
FFS if he doesn’t get a huge settlement from the lawsuit, it’ll set back women’s rights movement about 100 years.
n
Black NFL players demanding the NFL take a stand against racism. Isn’t the NFL about 80% black? How does that make the NFL racist? NFL hires based on ability. Maybe the NFL should limit to only 50% black players. That would seem fair but would anger everyone.
Drew Brees states his opinion about people disrespecting the flag and is slammed for his opinion. Have any of the offended NFL players done anything to support the country? The offended players state their opinion and are applauded. Brees comments were not racist. The entire US has gone berserk.
Hah, white saviour complex…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8390693/Leonardo-DiCaprio-pledges-end-disenfranchisement-Black-America.html
n
“The entire US has gone berserk.”
–part of it certainly has.
n
13%
Black NFL players demanding the NFL take a stand against racism. Isn’t the NFL about 80% black? How does that make the NFL racist? NFL hires based on ability. Maybe the NFL should limit to only 50% black players. That would seem fair but would anger everyone.
Drew Brees states his opinion about people disrespecting the flag and is slammed for his opinion. Have any of the offended NFL players done anything to support the country? The offended players state their opinion and are applauded. Brees comments were not racist. The entire US has gone berserk.
Aren’t just about all of our professional sports now majority minority players ?
I gave up on the NFL when players were taking a knee all over the place. I can guarantee you that will happen by EVERY player, black, white, and other, in the fall after the Drew Brees incident. If they play, it looks like the only stadiums that will be open will be here in Texas with 6 ft spacing and face masks. I so want to see a guy drinking a beer and eating a hot dog wear a face mask !
Looks like the MLB (which is now two months late) is going to forget about the season this year.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29269242/inside-mlb-financials-fight-numbers-solve-it
I figure that the new national healthcare system will be a favorite place for the congress critters to “bring home the bacon”. They will be getting their pictures in the paper in front of the new clinics and such weekly. Oh wait, nobody reads the papers anymore.
No politician will want to be seen anywhere close to one of the new clinics.
Most of the private practice clinics where my wife worked for the last 20 years were grim enough.
What are all the sportsball fanatics doing to fill their lives?
I mean, besides killing themselves and beating their spouses. Those two being the consensus of the MSM for what middle america does when forced to stay at home, with just family.
I have to remind myself that lefties always project…
n
What are all the sportsball fanatics doing to fill their lives?
So I just spent three days with my parents (78 and 81). Dad has a 75 inch tv about ten feet in front of him. Mom reads her magazines and watches tv at the side of Dad. The entire time, we were all griping that we wanted to watch George Springer and Jose Altuve. Instead, we watched movies and the evening news, mostly about looters. I convinced Dad to watch the first two episodes of “The Expanse” which he went to sleep about five times during and declared it boring.
Rich, White, actor, say wut?
I will enjoy pro sports getting spanked and salaries dropping to *only* hundreds of thousands of dollars. Social distancing in stadiums ain’t gonna rake in the bucks, endorsements down, etc. Do the players have to wear *face coverings*?
Do the players have to wear *face coverings*?
Do the players on the field have to social distance ?
Exactly. I was raised in the south in the 50s by parents who never identified people by their skin color. When I went to the park and saw the “coloreds only” signs on water fountains and restrooms my thought was “Wow, they get special stuff we don’t”.
When I mentioned to a, now former, FB friend that skin color wasn’t important to me, she began a rant on how my “unconscious” racism was the real problem with society. This is someone I have known for over 50 years. She KNOWS BETTER, but the leftist media has broken her ability to perform rational thought.
Haven’t seen the show, but the first two books certainly were snoozers. Didn’t finish the second one. Banal, tired, every SF cliche trope from the past fifty years. Yawn.
I convinced Dad to watch the first two episodes of “The Expanse” which he went to sleep about five times during and declared it boring.
Haven’t seen the show, but the first two books certainly were snoozers. Didn’t finish the second one. Banal, tired, every SF cliche trope from the past fifty years. Yawn.
Space Opera is my first love so, I liked the Expanse books a lot. Then again, I liked Perry Rhodan in the 1970s so my bar is not high.
I love space opera. I’m finishing up one now. It should be out fairly soon. But I try to make it reasonably original, and eschew the cookie cutter plots. Yeah, my standards are pretty high, but I’ve probably read every significant space opera published in the past sixty years. You read somebody like Banks, Hamilton, or Asher, and the Expanse books are pretty thin gruel. SteveF has read this one. Hell, he copyedited it, and keeps ragging me about it.
Make it 102 years, and the nation might just be a whole lot better off. 😀
What?!!??!??! YAY! See? Good things CAN happen in 2020!
Just finished watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2 with the kids. Well done, better than the first as a story and movie. Pretty cool Art Direction/production design, and Baby Groot is adorable….
I don’t know or care anything about the Marvel universe, but wanted to see the movie because it is an ongoing plot point in the “men’s adventure” fiction someone here turned me on to. 45 books later, and I just finished the newest. Now having seen the movie, I understand all the references to Baby Groot in the ‘ghostbusters’ series.
n
I love space opera. I’m finishing up one now. It should be out fairly soon. But I try to make it reasonably original, and eschew the cookie cutter plots. Yeah, my standards are pretty high, but I’ve probably read every significant space opera published in the past sixty years. You read somebody like Banks, Hamilton, or Asher, and the Expanse books are pretty thin gruel. SteveF has read this one. Hell, he copyedited it, and keeps ragging me about it.
Oh no, no Banks, Hamilton, or Asher. I bounced off Peter Hamilton a long while back. I am going to try him again some day as I do have one in the SBR (strategic book reserve). But 400+ other books are in front of him and then there is the rereads. I’ve been hankering to reread “Dies the Fire” again and my next book is “Digital Divide” by K. B. Spangler:
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Divide-Rachel-Peng-1/dp/0984737545/?tag=ttgnet-20
I like drek. The drekier it is, the better. I’ve read everything David Weber published except his War Gods stuff. And Alan Dean Foster. And Robert Heinlein. And Andre Norton. And Dennis E. Taylor. And Travis Taylor. And Lois McMaster Bujold’s non fantasy stuff.
I have reviewed over 500 books on Amazon. Supposedly my reviewer rank is now 22,702. If you are daring, give me the URL when you publish and I will take a gander at it. Warning, I cannot finish anything below average and sometimes even have trouble with that.
…. it’ll set back women’s rights movement about 100 years.
Make it 102 years, and the nation might just be a whole lot better off.
Nah. Only property owners should be allowed to vote. If you don’t have a financial interest in the country then you should not be a voter.
Peter Hamilton pays dividends if you can get started. I’ve read all his stuff. I haven’t re-read it though.
I’m pretty sure you’d call Jack McDevitt space opera. I enjoyed him enough to have several in one series on the shelf.
Alastair Reynolds is big story space opera with a real edge to some of it. Creepy edge.
I haven’t been reading much scifi lately though, other than John Ringo. I have Travis Taylor’s book on the reserve pile. There just hasn’t been much that caught my eye lately.
n
My wife was saying she felt like re-reading something but didn’t know what. She’s leaning toward all 15 of the Harry Dresden books since two new ones are coming out this fall. I grinned evilly and said, why not Pern? Why not Dune?
Know a mentat by the stain on his lip…..
n
Speaking of SF, my copy of JEP’s Mamelukes (4) (Janissaries) arrived today.
Just got an email from our school district superintendent. Of six sentences in the first paragraph, 4 have the word “diversity”, and the last is “I truly believe it makes us stronger.”
This sentence too “The tragic murder of fellow Houstonian George Floyd in Minneapolis last week has left us all hurting and filled with many emotions and questions. This tragedy also has left many of us as parents struggling to help our children.”
No statement when the black MPD officer shot and killed the white woman who called the cops for help 3 years ago.
None from Ameriprise that I recall either.
n
I’m pretty sure you’d call Jack McDevitt space opera. I enjoyed him enough to have several in one series on the shelf.
I love Jack McDevitt. I just read “Octavia Gone” and gave it four stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Octavia-Gone-Alex-Benedict-Novel/dp/1481497987/?tag=ttgnet-20
My wife was saying she felt like re-reading something but didn’t know what. She’s leaning toward all 15 of the Harry Dresden books since two new ones are coming out this fall. I grinned evilly and said, why not Pern? Why not Dune?
Know a mentat by the stain on his lip…..
Has she tried Alex Verus ?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1937007294/?tag=ttgnet-20
Calling it a murder in an official communication opens up the district and the superintendent to libel claims, I do believe, if murder charges aren’t proved in court.
If she’s read and liked The Number of the Beast, how about Pursuit of the Pankera? The first 30% is reread, then it’s new.
I just got it myself. (Usin’ up some of those Amazon “no rush” credits, getting some good out of my wife’s constant shopping.)
She’s not a fan of Heinlein {ducks and covers}
n
–no mention that she’s wearing the scarf, “the Palestinian keffiyeh has become a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, dating back to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.”
n
Surely you’re mistaken about that. I’m told that all was loving harmony in the region until 1948, when the wretched Jews came in and stole land and stole water and displaced the people who’d been living there for thousands of years.
@Lynn: maybe not a property owner, but paying a net amount of taxes. Also, deduct any subsidies received. Any net payer gets to vote.
What I find irritating is the knee-jerk assumption of racism. Black culture in the US clearly exists. You can praise it, you can talk about it, but the instant you criticize it you are a racist.