Three years ago today we lost the founder and driving force behind this site, Robert Bruce Thompson. It’s been my honor and privilege to keep the conversation going since then. Thank you to Barbara for her support and to Rick for keeping the lights on. And thanks to all of you who continue to visit and keep this place alive and growing.
Absent friends.
nick flandrey
Cool and wet. Possibly. Maybe. Could be a bit like yesterday, which was pleasant enough, and even nice in the mid-afternoon.
I ran my errands and spent the rest of the afternoon sorting and going through stuff. Today I need to do some neglected stuff around the house. I’ve been jumping from one thing to another, and now I need to jump back.
Number one prep is keeping my wife happy and on my page. I have been letting that slide and that is a bad thing.
No further news about the possible BOL/Lakehouse cabin. They want to sell to us, we want to buy, but there is a question of flooding, easements, and Army Corps of Engineers interactions…. next step is a survey to locate the potential issues. From where we sit, it looks like there would be significant limits on what we could do in the future with the land abutting the lake shore. Those future possibilities were a large part of the appeal as an investment.
On the broader stage… I don’t know what will happen today. I’m hoping for ‘nothing’. I fear a massive false flag attack. I think it’s bad enough Biden will be President for some period of time, but to start off with a tragedy would be even worse. There is too much that is just too weird in DC for me to feel comfortable.
Hopefully, by now everyone is an old hand at staying safe from the current threats, and is working toward safety from the escalating new threats. Time to think much longer term, 4-10 years. You can’t stack that much so what do you do? What you can.
I’m not taking bets on when the war really gets going. I have already said that I expect to have a Republic of Texas passport within 10 years. I also have said that I don’t think patsy Joe will last through March. I don’t see any reason to change either prediction, but they could easily advance by half.
I sincerely hope this is all hyperventilating and fearmongering. Best case, no new laws or restrictions, stalemate in the Congress, buffoonery from the White House. Worst case? Not gonna even go there today.
I was heartened to hear from everyone who reported on their successes to date. So, what are you seriously lacking? What do you need to keep stacking?*
nick
*moxie and pretzels to be sure….
Well, that throws Git out. I have two ??? binary files from the 1980s that I cannot recreate. In the path from the Prime 1150 ? to Vax VMS to RS/6000 to PC (DOS), somebody lost the source code for those two binary files and their converter. I tried several times to recreate them but have failed. They are the startup files for our builtin Fortran interpreter and contain byte code. Horrible byte code. And of course they are byte order sensitive.
I imagine the byte code is small. As @brad pointed out in yesterday’s comments, you would probably be fine, especially since the files don’t change. Just plan on another system for the video.
Git and Subversion both have tradeoffs, and Git is designed by/for the needs of one particular developer who doesn’t really care about anyone else’s requirements in a source control tool.
I’m not taking bets on when the war really gets going. I have already said that I expect to have a Republic of Texas passport within 10 years. I also have said that I don’t think patsy Joe will last through March. I don’t see any reason to change either prediction, but they could easily advance by half.
I’ve posted here before that the money printing plant in Fort Worth had Republic of Texas currency samples hanging on the wall of the gift shop prior to the election in 2016. The plates are probably still around …
Biden will be around for a while. Control of the Senate is tenuous at best and a deal was obviously cut for an Impeachment vote. That had to be costly for the Dems. And doubts exist about the legality of passing everything via reconciliation.
RIP Bob. We miss your sound advice and your wit.
Thanks, Barbara.
Thanks Nick.
Thanks Rick.
May you all be safe through the coming year.
Biden yesterday:
We have to heal.
To heal we have to remember.
Remembering is hard…
Git and Subversion both have tradeoffs, and Git is designed by/for the needs of one particular developer who doesn’t really care about anyone else’s requirements in a source control tool.
I turned down a job in February which would have involved shepherding a company’s entire development process revision control from sneakernet to Git. The technical challenge there wasn’t going to be nearly as steep as getting the subject matter experts on board who had been doing things their way for 20+ years. Whichever way you go, Git or Subversion, having everyone in your group on the same page will be crucial, and I had my doubts about that place moving forward without some serious pushback.
(In retrospect, I should have taken the job as a stopgap until something better came along, but that role required someone who would be committed to the project for a long time, a couple of years minimum.)
RIP Bob.
Thanks to all who make this such a good place. May this year be better than last.
While Bob is sorely missed, this site he created continues to thrive with good people, good stories, and good advice. It’s a wonderful legacy.
I know I come here every day to listen to the talk of people I have come to think of as friends. It’s like the old-timers table at Mother Jugs restaurant in Wewoka where the veterans of life gather each morning to gossip, spin tales, give advice and drink some of the best coffee in the county. My wife calls them the “overall millionaires” because they wear work clothes but own farms and ranches with large net worth. A farmer / rancher may have millions in land and equipment value but very little spending cash. If Biden and Commie Crew ever put in a wealth tax it will end family farming.
RIP Bob.
Thanks to all who make this such a good place. May this year be better than last.
I can’t believe it has been three years. Losing Dr. Pournelle and Bob within a few months of each other was rough.
Their commentary along with OFD are sorely missed, especially today.
Subbed yesterday, subbing today (as is spousal unit), subbing tomorrow.
Apparently I am very much disliked sub. So be it. I am here to make certain they follow the rules. I am not here to make friends. I sent one girl to the office this morning. Three times I told her to stop sleeping and the next time she was going to office. Well she nods off. I tell her to go to the office. She claims she was not sleeping but when I move my hand in front of her face and she does not budge, she is sleeping. Of course she started the crying game. Does not faze me. Go to the office. Sleep there.
I have been called on the carpet because students are not following the rules. Especially cell phones. No hoodies over the head in class. No sleeping in class. The usual stuff.
What is significant in all of this is the complete disrespect shown by most of the students. A truly troubling trend that I am seeing. There are exceptions, but are becoming more rare. The freshmen are the worst.
This is a result of just passing the students to the next grade in elementary and middle school. Completing the work or making passing grades is not required. Apparently having a 16 year old in sixth grade is demeaning. Also the 16 year old becomes a bully.
The result is kids coming into high school with no work ethic. No desire to do the work. Rewards are provided with no effort. They are in for a rude awakening when they fail classes that are required for graduation. There is no free pass in high school. A whole new way of schooling for many of the students.
And apparently the school network blocks connecting to an FTP server. I doubt the IT department is that smart based on past experience. Probably just lucky. Random blocking of ports without any real rationale.
RIP Dr. Bob. And thanks to Mr. Nick for keeping the light on. Best wishes to Barbara. Also missing Mr. OFD.
Absent friends!
And apparently the school network blocks connecting to an FTP server. I doubt the IT department is that smart based on past experience. Probably just lucky. Random blocking of ports without any real rationale.
Old school port 20 ftp server? Probably default settings on their firewall due to the security risk of unencrypted credentials going across the WiFi.
Wow, three years already. The world is a poorer place for RBT’s absence.
First, y’all will have to kick out the prog’s. Especially around Austin, which has become an outlying settlement of California.
This is definitely true. I’ve used both. Subversion is simpler and easier, but I really like the distributed repositories of Git. Obviously, YMMV.
First, y’all will have to kick out the prog’s. Especially around Austin, which has become an outlying settlement of California.
Austin is the obvious target, but the entire I-35 corridor is a problem.
No, my hosting provider uses port 22. The entire network is screwy. I cannot use Google as my machine is not a school machine. I get a message about being unsecure, no HTTPS. Yet all the Chromebooks go to Google without issue including the computers the teachers uses. Other sites that use HTTPS also get the same message. So I think it is a generic message for a site that is blocked for some reason. I don’t go to nefarious sites so the blocking is not due to content that is not allowed. Really some strange stuff.
Based on what I have seen this year the entire state should have just shut the schools down for the year. Made everyone a year behind. Use the down time to do some major repairs using funds that would have been spent on the students. Continue to pay the teachers, make them show up and work on plans for the next year and get their rooms in better order.
But they did not ask my opinion. Too much money engrained into the system to let that change.
I’ve been saying for months that I expected Biden to break William Henry Harrison’s record for “Shortest Presidency”, and that can still happen. Harrison died of pneumonia 31 days into his presidency, allegedly from walking in the inaugural parade without his hat.
The alternative would be for Commie Harris to prop him up for 2 years, so that she would have a shot at two full terms of her own, tacked onto the partial term that she would get for following Gropy Joe.
With the immigrant population and influx of west coast libs I wouldn’t be surprised if Texas is a blue state in a generation.
Ray:
Money for schools is legally tied to butts in the seats. If they aren’t even PRETENDING to teach, then those funds would never appear in the district’s budgets. Which is the major reason why schools are so paranoid about absenteeism; when the kid isn’t in school, then the school doesn’t get any money for him.
3 sad days, indeed. I miss them all
No, my hosting provider uses port 22. The entire network is screwy. I cannot use Google as my machine is not a school machine. I get a message about being unsecure, no HTTPS. Yet all the Chromebooks go to Google without issue including the computers the teachers uses. Other sites that use HTTPS also get the same message. So I think it is a generic message for a site that is blocked for some reason. I don’t go to nefarious sites so the blocking is not due to content that is not allowed. Really some strange stuff.
SFTP (port 22) blocked as a default wouldn’t surprise me either. It isn’t about the security risk as much as the bandwidth.
As for HTTPS, the school network is probably doing some form of SSL Bumping to monitor the encrypted traffic. The first rule of monitoring in an organization is don’t talk about monitoring.
The CA cert cache in Chrome on the school PCs probably has an odd looking entry unless they have a per-seat license for something like Blue Coat which operates at a lower level.
Back in the 90s at MCI it was just the opposite. You had to explicitly log on to the proxy server to get an external connection. The login included a notice that by doing so your traffic was monitored and logs would be made available to your management. The thought was that telling people we were watching would discourage naughty behavior. Can’t say it worked all that well. One day the police showed up with an order for a developers logs and took him into custody for child porn.
–circuses. bread is coming.
–and wtf?
— slavery has been illegal in the USA for more years than it was legal. Can’t say that about some of our allies….
n
Aside from the aforementioned “butts on seats” issue, there is also the problem that removing free child day care from the equation for a year would create a monstrous backlash from working mommies and two income working families.
–pandemic, unfairness, racism, climate change, foreign meddling, that’s what he has written in the speech as the biggest challenges facing his administration. We’re so F’d.
n
but hey, no shooting!
Had a couple of instances of the site not loading last night and just now it was slow to load. Getting those new ‘ TLA connections’ in place I guess.
And a noticeable increase in low-flying jet aircraft traffic all morning, presumably from the local AFB. We sure do “live in interesting times.”
Can anyone tell what was under Kamel’s Bible? Looks like it’s wrapped in brown packing tape.
If it’s not a Bible, that’s a pretty good indicator of divided loyalties.
n
From NPR, which had a good picture of the two bibles, the bottom one was bound in brown leather.
A farmer / rancher may have millions in land and equipment value but very little spending cash. If Biden and Commie Crew ever put in a wealth tax it will end family farming.
The first tax that Biden is putting in is the CO2 tax on hydrocarbons. He has been told by several lawyers that he can do this without Congress using the fine provision of the Clean Air Act. I do not agree but then, IANAL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Air_Act_of_1963
The second tax that Biden will put in is The Wealth Tax. Otherwise known as a Federal Property Tax. Congress will have to authorize this. At the first go, it will only tax millionaires. But as the Federal Income Tax did over time, they will lower it to thousandaires, just like state property taxes. The tax will be punitive (3+%) and the forms will be long. I am wondering if it will tax Corporations as that is the true wealth holder in the country. And yes, you will have to pay a wealth tax on your IRA.
The third tax that Biden will implement with Congress is raising the Individual and Corporate tax rates at the higher ends. Then his successor will raise taxes on the middle rates.
I see all three of these being implemented in Biden’s first hundred days in office. He and the dum-bro-crats feel that they have a mandate.
Interesting…of course that power lies with the states and/or local governments…but hey, it sounds good…
“In his first 10 days in office, President-elect Biden will take decisive action to address these four crises, prevent other urgent and irreversible harms, and restore America’s place in the world,” Klain wrote at the time.
Other ’10-day blitz’ items include presidential directives on safely reopening schools and businesses, after Democrats spent much of last year insisting they remain closed.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/biden-issues-barrage-15-executive-orders-border-climate-immigration-100-day-masking
Well, that throws Git out. I have two ??? binary files from the 1980s that I cannot recreate. In the path from the Prime 1150 ? to Vax VMS to RS/6000 to PC (DOS), somebody lost the source code for those two binary files and their converter. I tried several times to recreate them but have failed. They are the startup files for our builtin Fortran interpreter and contain byte code. Horrible byte code. And of course they are byte order sensitive.
I imagine the byte code is small. As @brad pointed out in yesterday’s comments, you would probably be fine, especially since the files don’t change. Just plan on another system for the video.
I have two versions of each binary file, a big endian and a little endian. Each file is over a MB. There is byte code for initialization of many entry points in the calculation engine. I wrote a utility in C to convert the little endian file to big endian.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endianness
The Federal “Property” Tax will be the final death knell for the family farm. The death taxes in Illinois destroyed my Grandfather’s “Century Farm” (a farm that has been in the same family for over 100-years, in this case nearly 200-years and it was the first farm established in the county).
Silly me. I stand corrected.
Just another reason for us to move to Subversion or Git some day but the move will be a freaking disaster.
I am very much a fan of Git. And it *does* work with binary files, but since it doesn’t “diff” them, you don’t want to version large binary files that change. Your antique files from the 1980s should be fine, but I wouldn’t put a 400MB video in there. Or in any version control system, come to that.
I wonder how the game developers handle revision management on their large binary files ? The background video files are well over a GB on the latest games.
“Germany’s rickety and moody power grid now threatens the entire European power grid stability, as we recently witnessed.”
Is this the future of the USA ?
Not really. We are installing more and bigger batteries to do the job starting with the big Tesla battery down in SA (South Australia…).
I am sure that Elon can sell quite a few around there if they are needed.
We also started with a project to pump water up with excess energy and to let it go down to generate when it is needed.
The USA has three major grids. East, West, and Texas. East and West are 100s of gigawatts each and Texas is right at 100 GWs of peak load in the summer.
The 130 MW Tesla battery is a joke for Texas alone. We are hitting Lithium and Cobalt shortages needed to build more batteries. Pumped hydro is almost maxed out in the USA and requires enormous amounts of lake and river space.
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/battery-makers-face-looming-shortages-of-high-quality-lithium/580482/
There is a plan to convert Texas to hydrogen from coal and natural gas but the costs have been severely understated due to the maintenance requirements being ignored. And the maintenance requirements of hydrogen reactors are very high, especially if you do not purify the feed water first.
https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/memagazineselect/article/141/03/38/366568/Making-Texas-GreenIt-is-Technically-Possible-to
They probably just store a path to the file and a checksum? Though, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re all sitting in the same folder with names like “GameVid_v1.avi” “GameVid_v2.avi” “GameVid_DoNotUse.avi” “GameVid_FinalFinalGold.avi” and “GameVid_FinalFinalFinal_UseThis.avi” lol It’s shocking the solution (or lack thereof) that some very large and respectable companies have in place for such things.
It is now on conservative politicians, if they have spines, to challenge every plugsy McSpongeBrain EO. Just like the Dumbocrats did to tRump. And, again, plugs can’t just join the Paris “take all the FUSAs Money” Climate Accords.
Chris Wallace of Faux News tweets “the best inaugural speech I’ve ever heard.” Really? Better than Klinton? Better than Lord Obola? What a spineless fcuk.
I wonder how the game developers handle revision management on their large binary files ? The background video files are well over a GB on the latest games.
There used to be a cottage industry around Subversion to supply niche requirements, but I haven’t kept up with them since leaving the Death Star.
With Git being such a Hot Skillz, my guess is that the little companies filling the niches with Subversion are no longer around. Some were quite promising, including one that sold a plugin which did revision control on Word and Excel formats with readable diff output.
I worked on the Uverse app near the end of my time at the Death Star. Subversion did a good job managing our graphics and source, but I don’t recall any of our icons or images being more than a few hundred kbytes.
I see all three of these being implemented in Biden’s first hundred days in office. He and the dum-bro-crats feel that they have a mandate.
The Dems are aware that they don’t have a mandate. They’ll do something with student loans on a limited basis and fiddle around the edges with the tax code, probably restoring full SALT deduction along with keeping the high non-itemized personal deduction.
Some kind of deal was cut with The Turtle for a possible Impeachment conviction in return for a form of power sharing for the rest of the year. 2022 is shaping up to be a rerun of 1994, complete with a Cuomo Governor with Presidential aspirations being denied a fourth term in Albany.
Schumer and Pelosi would willingly throw their constituents under the bus to convict Trump and strip his security detail along with eligibility to return in 2024.
https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/480/version-control-for-game-development-issues-and-solutions
Ten years old but still mostly relevant and it’s the only multi-tool comparison I found in one spot.
Any recommendations for a WiFi router supporting the latest standards and which can handle a LOT of devices concurrently (multiple phones, multiple tablets, multiple TVs and Blu-Ray players, and multiple laptops). All of the top recommendations I’m seeing are in the $350 range which seems a bit steep.
Now that Pedodent Biden has been hailed as the most eloquent and original speaker of all time, how many hours do we have to wait until we see the first magazine cover proclaiming the most beautiful and well-dressed woman in the world? And who will take Big Mike’s place, “Doctor” Jill or Humpy Harris?
From your lips to Stalin’s ears.
(Cliche updated because the only gods recognized by commie pieces of garbage like Cuomo are Marx, Stalin, Mao, and Che.)
“Operation Barbarossa or the importance of studying history for those in the Military.”
https://gunfreezone.net/operation-barbarossa-or-the-importance-of-studying-history-for-those-in-the-military/
“Retired Army General Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday that he would work to rid “racists and extremists” from the ranks of the U.S. military, mend alliances and focus strategically on China if confirmed as President-elect Joe Biden’s defense secretary.”
“Austin would become America’s first Black defense secretary and has declared his intention to improve diversity within the U.S. military, which is diverse in the lower ranks but largely white and male at the top.”
Wonderful.
Any recommendations for a WiFi router supporting the latest standards and which can handle a LOT of devices concurrently (multiple phones, multiple tablets, multiple TVs and Blu-Ray players, and multiple laptops). All of the top recommendations I’m seeing are in the $350 range which seems a bit steep.
I bought one of these a year and a half ago based on RickH’s ??? recommendation. Was cheap XXXXX reasonable and works well for us. “TP-Link AC1200 Gigabit WiFi Router (Archer A6) – 5GHz Gigabit Dual Band MU-MIMO Wireless Internet Router, Supports Beamforming, Guest WiFi and AP mode, Long Range Coverage by 4 Antennas Black”.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07N1L5HX1/?tag=ttgnet-20
There are newer versions available that probably work “better”.
https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AC1900-Smart-Wifi-Router-dp-B08C3YBBHM/dp/B08C3YBBHM/
BTW, two of my TVs are hardwired to the router directly using Cat 5e cables. The other TV uses a pair of ethernet over power line adapters.
“Brave browser takes step toward enabling a decentralized web”
https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/19/22238334/brave-browser-ipfs-peer-to-peer-decentralized-transfer-protocol-http-nodes
“First browser to fully integrate the new IPFS protocol”
Interesting, especially since Mozilla FireFox is exhibiting signs of wokeness.
https://brave.com/download/
I wonder if Brave will import my FireFox bookmarks ?
Question for the hive mind. How can we successfully require all newly arrived amnestiansTM to vote Redumlican? Imagine, this would put an end to the flood across our Southern border. Worth some effort.
Don’t ask me. I am fiercely independent, but would be willing to help if there were a way. 😉
Regarding wi-fi routers – I bought this one last August. Seems to work well with the devices we have here, including for streaming video. $72 on the Zon.
Ten years old but still mostly relevant and it’s the only multi-tool comparison I found in one spot.
I forgot about Mecurial.
Git became a Hot Skillz and most of the other competitors disappeared except for Subversion.
“CBO Estimates Biden Plan To Raise Minimum Wage To $15 Could Kill Almost 4 Million Jobs”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/01/cbo-estimates-biden-plan-raise-minimum-wage-15-kill-almost-4-million-jobs/
I hope you like kiosks for ordering food and such.
Any recommendations for a WiFi router supporting the latest standards and which can handle a LOT of devices concurrently (multiple phones, multiple tablets, multiple TVs and Blu-Ray players, and multiple laptops). All of the top recommendations I’m seeing are in the $350 range which seems a bit steep.
I have an ASUS RT-AC66U B1 which I bought when it turned into a closeout special last Summer to replace an earlier version of the AC66, one-for-one swap in my network setup. I’m pretty happy with the performance, but it doesn’t support the latest and greatest standards.
All of the WiFi devices in the house talk to the router except for some very old gear which gets WiFi through an WRT54GL running DD-WRT in “hotspot” mode.
I hope you like kiosks for ordering food and such.
How do you feel about Papa Murhpy’s Pizza?
It took me a while to figure out why they were so popular in Vantucky, to the point that the chain consolidated HQ there after a merger created the new company from two similar concepts in WA and OR.
Again, cleanliness will go first.
I have a Netgear Nighthawk X6 router that handles 6 phones, 8 tablets, 5 PCs with no problem. It’s gonna cost $300, though.
At fast food restaurants I prefer it. 🙂 I frequently will sit in my car and order via the app before going in just to avoid having to place my order with a human.
At full service restaurants that put tablets on the table for me to pay and order refills leaves me wondering why they still expect their full tip (which they seem to bump up 2% every other year). Customers are doing more and more of their job for them, but they still want their 22% (mentioning the long-standing 15% standard will send them into a fit of rage).
They’re popular in the US because the fact that their pizza isn’t cooked yet makes it a grocery item and eligible to be paid for by food stamps (EBT). I had it once and hated it, but I’ve been assured by multiple people that was a fluke and I should give it another try. So, perhaps one of these days I will. Most of the grocery stores around here offer their own version of take-n-bake pizza. So, I like being able to get a thin crust cheese pizza from them, then I add my own toppings at home and cook it myself (I prefer my pizzas a little “well done”).
Dad and Mom got their second Pfizer vaccine shot yesterday. Dad is complaining of fever, chills, and right arm soreness today. Hopefully he will be better tomorrow but we already canceled our movie outing in Victoria, TX.
I had it once and hated it, but I’ve been assured by multiple people that was a fluke and I should give it another try.
I’m not a fan. It was a rhetorical question.
You can make Papa Murphy’s edible with a pizza stone in your oven, but I still hated when the wife would bring it home. Alternatives were a $40-50 night easily in Vantucky.
Dad and Mom got their second Pfizer vaccine shot yesterday. Dad is complaining of fever, chills, and right arm soreness today. Hopefully he will be better tomorrow but we already canceled our movie outing in Victoria, TX.
My wife had a lot of fatigue the first day after the shot, but that was the limit of the reaction as far as I know. The VA has the Moderna vaccine. I don’t know anyone else who has taken the Pfizer version.
I thought “The French Dispatch” would hit theaters next week. but Disney pushed it back … again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcPk2p0Zaw4
Bill Murray in a live action Wes Anderson flick is always fun.
I thought “The French Dispatch” would hit theaters next week. but Disney pushed it back … again.
We were going to go see Liam Neeson’s new movie, “The Marksman”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEBPNi4bEbc
We saw Tom Hanks new movie, “News of the World” a couple of weeks ago. Highly recommended. Set in 1870 Texas, a confederate Captain goes town to town in Texas, reading newspapers to groups of people for a dime each. He finds a 10 year girl stolen by the Kiowas and takes her home from Wichita Falls to Castroville, a perilous 400 mile journey on horse. I-35 from Dallas to San Antonio looked a little different back then.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTZDb_iKooI
I have a Netgear R7000 that has functioned well. Multiple devices, ROKU, TV, BluRay, Apple TV, multiple Alexa enabled devices (4), light switches, plugs, 5 security cameras, garage door, 4 plugs, 2 light switches, 2 networked printers, two iPhones, two iPads, 2 laptops. Not a problem handling any of them even while stream 4K on the Apple TV. I did have to add another switch because 4 ports is just not enough although most is wireless. The R7000 also has guest network so visitors stay away from my stuff.
@lynn
Thanks for the movie post. I’d been thinking of going to see ‘News of the World’. I’ll make the effort. If it passes my ‘mama meter’ then I’ll go again with our eight year old. It sounds like a story she’d enjoy. We are doing a ‘private watch party’ of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” this weekend to celebrate my husband’s birthday. 20 folks, $99. I didn’t see it on the big screen when it was originally released (too poor back then for movies) so this is a big treat.
Chicken update – Lunch work – Got the chicken roof extension that collapsed under the snow / ice load detached from the hen house, rotated, and acting as a ‘lean to’ against the hen house. This shelters the pellets from the elements and gives the non-winter hardy hens a slightly greater level of comfort and reason to leave the hen house. I think I mentioned I got the rabbit roof mostly cleared of snow and ice as well. Gravity was a great help as were the warmer temps. Now I have to shovel it farther from the animals.
I am discouraged by the joy a great number of my friends are showing at the incoming administrations plans for our future. It is distressing how many of them fail to see the consequences and likely outcomes, as well as the violations of our constitutional rights. It is also telling of our shallowness, perhaps, how many think he’s a better choice because he’s not crass. Oh boy. I suppose they think turn about is fair play.
Mark Twain talked about wages and purchasing power eloquently in ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court’. I’d like to see the book as required reading to try to pierce the veil of idiocy that clouds thinking when it comes to mandating a high minimum wage. Plus -I- think it is a far more interesting read than his more popular works.
https://fee.org/articles/the-economic-wisdom-of-a-connecticut-yankee-2/
I appreciate this group. I appreciate the discussions. I certainly miss the insights offered by RBT and OFD. I truly would like to hear their thoughts today.
Thanks for the movie post. I’d been thinking of going to see ‘News of the World’. I’ll make the effort. If it passes my ‘mama meter’ then I’ll go again with our eight year old. It sounds like a story she’d enjoy. We are doing a ‘private watch party’ of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” this weekend to celebrate my husband’s birthday. 20 folks, $99. I didn’t see it on the big screen when it was originally released (too poor back then for movies) so this is a big treat.
Don’t leave until you have seen *all* of the credits. I think “Ferris” started that gag.
Communism was never done right before. But this time for sure!
Are you serious? Are you serious?!
Lamb roast with garlic and rosemary from the bush for dinner tonight. The other half got vac sealed and frozen. Canned peas, baked potato, canned german potato salad, naan, and a bit of jelly. Very yummy. Close to a 1950s meal as there was no fresh veg.
Two more kids tested positive at daughter 1’s middle school.
joy
n
Well, if Nick can post his dinner info, so can I:
Meat Loaf: 1 pound hamburger, two eggs, box of stuffing mix (any flavor), 1/2 to 3/4 cup catsup. Mix all in large bowl. Put in bread pan, gently flatten to same depth. Drizzle more catsup on top. Oven at 350F, 50 minutes, until internal temp is 170F. Slice and serve, with more catsup if you want.
Easy and yummy. Use BBQ sauce instead of catsup, if desired, for a bit more kick.
The fact that all these politicians are happy to see Biden should give you pause…
n
No pix of the 30K troops standing around… no riot. no insurrection. ANY issues anywhere?
n
@lynn
Thanks for the movie post. I’d been thinking of going to see ‘News of the World’. I’ll make the effort. If it passes my ‘mama meter’ then I’ll go again with our eight year old. It sounds like a story she’d enjoy.
1870 Texas is a very violent place, five years after the end of the Civil War. Tom Hanks character, Captain, and the 10 year old girl are walking down the street. Three men accost them and offer to buy the girl for $50. Captain says no and keeps on walking. The men start to follow and a Union patrol comes by, sees them, and arrests them for wearing revolvers (outlawed in Texas after the CW). Captain and the girl hightail it out of town heading south but the men are soon released and follow them. They have a gun battle in the hills around Ranger, Texas and several people die.
Might be a little real for an 8 year old.
Lamb roast with garlic and rosemary from the bush for dinner tonight. The other half got vac sealed and frozen. Canned peas, baked potato, canned german potato salad, naan, and a bit of jelly. Very yummy. Close to a 1950s meal as there was no fresh veg.
The wife used up all the canned peas at home without telling me. So I grabbed four cases of peas from the bug out stash and took them home yesterday. Hopefully I will get to replace them at Sams Club fairly soon. The newest had “best by 2019” on them.
https://www.samsclub.com/p/lesueur-peas-8-15-oz-cans/prod15160200?xid=plp_product_19
+1
Removes one link in the chain of not having a screwed up order. Depending on the place I’ll sit at the pickup window while I check my order. (Sorry to all those who have been stuck behind me.)
Not my cup of joe. Kiosks work well for the 95% of identical popular orders but I like pizza without any sauce and my Big Mac with mayo. It may be possible to order these via a kiosk but it’s a frustrating job of exploring different menu items before finally giving up and asking a human for help.
Never heard of it (the ‘canned’ part). Is this a common grocery item that I’ve just never noticed? Or is this self-canned?
Had TWO screwed up food orders yesterday. Pizza Hut gave me a thin crust pizza when I requested a pan pizza and Texas Roadhouse take away “forgot” our salads and utensils. Lucky I brought my BOB with titanium utensils so we could eat our steak.
From my experience you’re giving too much credit to the average register worker. There’s a reason they’re working the register and not cooking your food.
canned german potato salad
Never heard of it (the ‘canned’ part). Is this a common grocery item that I’ve just never noticed? Or is this self-canned?
https://www.amazon.com/Read-German-Potato-Salad-15-Ounce/dp/B001SAOO2Q?tag=ttgnet-20
Temperature was over 60 again today. I did some routine maintenance on my Terramite Backhoe – oil and filter change, added air to the tires, antifreeze to the radiator, etc. Used it to stack the fence I took down out of the way. Used the old lawn mower to cut/pack the all of the leaves between the house and shop area.
Finally got the building design completed and the quote from the erector. Now I have to get the plumbing and electrical contractors on board so I can submit the building permit request. Septic quote I have already.
Wrote a draft summary of my small claims case against the local dealer for stripping the lugs nuts and studs on my Fusion. I’ve never sued anyone before but they had the car four times and Costco finally had to fix it. If a wheel fell off on the interstate I could have died. The dealer put 1/2 lug nuts on 12mm studs the last time they had it.
The amazon link is the right brand although my newer cans look different. It’s very nice heated up, and especially with some bacon crumbles added.
Since adding depth to my pantry, I found a whole bunch of canned products that are really good and a nice change of pace.
Chicken a la King, Red Beans and Rice, stewed collard greens (or kale if you prefer), pickled beets (usually buy them in a jar but the cans are sturdier), canned new potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc. There are several mixes I like too, Del Monte California style veg and beans, and a green bean with vidalia onions…. There are a couple of brands that appear to be aimed at a black or southern market that have very high quality, and (to me) unusual combos.
And there are a TON of weird fruits and other things in cans in the asian markets. The canned bananas are actually really good.
n
Didn’t a british study find that 100% of food ordering kiosk touch screens had human feces on them?
Disney was using touch screen order placement in a couple of ‘counter service’ restaurants when we were last there. I really didn’t want to touch the screen.
n
“The newest had “best by 2019” on them.”
–my wife asked me to put together a couple of flats to take to a food pantry.
I bought a flat each of green beans, and “drunken” charro beans, and was going to add a case of corn from the stash. The newest corn I can find is bb 2017. The case we’re currently eating is bb 2014 and is perfect in every way, crisp and bright yellow. The food banks won’t take cans past the bb date, so I guess that they’ll be getting just the green and brown beans. Peas were 2015? or 17..
n
It can’t make your hands any dirtier than reaching into your wallet and grabbing a $20 bill. I think back to my younger military days and the things I’ve seen strippers do with bills…
When minimum wage goes to $15 and eliminates entry-level jobs, it does more than put a bunch of people out of work. Most kids have never had a paper route, shoveled snow, cut grass, or done anything else to earn pocket money. Kids quit doing those things and adults moved in and made them into businesses. Those entry-level fast food jobs were their first working experience: be on time, dress appropriately, relate to co-workers, deal with the public, etc. Now where do they start? They can’t all go to Goodwill.
I mostly concur. However, parents are also to blame. I hear a growing number of parents say things like, “I don’t want so-and-so-kid working while she’s in school. School is her job until she graduates.” and they provide said kid with any funds needed. The parents that enroll their kids in so many sports and other extracurriculars that there’s no time for a part time job are also part of the problem. It’s hard to have a job AND be in piano lessons, voice lessons, softball, soccer, swimming, church group… (makes you wonder how many kids breathed a sigh of relief last Spring when COVID hit and they suddenly had free time for the first time). Their first job will be at 22. Scratch that. They need a year to discover themselves after college. First job at 23.
Wanted to comment on basing funding on school attendance, often called Average Daily Attendance (ADA). This is a horrible way to determine funding when used alone. Teachers Associations have driven the states to use this everywhere. The Unions also had attendance as a requirement for anyone under 18 unless the have a high school diploma.
As a result, kids that have no use for school can’t drop out. These kids disrupt those trying to learn wasting everyone’s time while they are disciplined and the kids does not care. The school system has to find way to warehouse them wasting resources that should be used for those trying to learn.
I have an alternative: Every child is guaranteed a four years of a high school education. But if they to wish to leave early, they may. They can come back if and when they want to. If they are over 18 when they apply to return, they go into adult education; if they are under 18 with no children they can go back to high school. If they have a GED they picked up while out of school then they can get up to two years of Community college for free.
****
Last night I started a Kindle thriller by Steve French, “Deadly Games”, and discovered I did not care for it. Stopped but added it to my list of books read (or attempted) with a grade of “F” which means I started but did not finish it. My list of books is just under 4000 and includes regular and ebooks .
@Chad
Concur with your take on parents culpability.
Thanks for the addition.
@Robert V Sprowl
Concur with your comments, and the plan is reasonable.
How long do you give a book?
Likewise… In memory of RBT and OFD.
Thoughts to Barbara plus thanks to Nick and Rick for continuing this blog.
Wrote a draft summary of my small claims case against the local dealer for stripping the lugs nuts and studs on my Fusion.
Expect some noisy wheel bearings after stud changes. Most shops hammer them out instead of pressing them with a tool. Noisy bearings are rarely dangerous, but change them as soon as noise becomes apparent. Drive about 30 mph on a smooth road and gently weave left and right to change the load. A rough bearing makes a distinctive sound.
Remember, a good shop is like a good dentist. When you find one, treasure it.
“More than 911,000 barrels of ethane bound for Lianyungang, China on world’s largest VLEC”
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2021/01/more-than-911-000-barrels-of-ethane-bound-for-lianyungang-china-on-world-s-largest-vlec
That is a big ship !
So, if we do not have hydrocarbons to sell to the Chinese, what are we going to sell them ?
That ethane was stripped from natural gas production here in Texas. If we do not have natural gas to strip then we will not have ethane to sale on the world market. So if Biden shuts down our hydrocarbon wells, we will have nothing to sell. And, there are no pure ethane wells, just natural gas and crude oil.
@Chad
First job at 23.
My first job was an afternoon paper route. I was 11. I’ve worked steadily since then. Part time through high school, full time since. Had a two month gap around 1990 when I stupidly quit without having another job lined up (those were a couple very skinny hungry months), and a couple months in 1993 when I moved to Alaska (another couple skinny hungry months). My Social Security records show I started contributing when I was in high school. No work gaps since 1993. I’ve worked hard and had good fortune.
I expect most of the folks here have a similar work history.
It’s tough for a child today to get a conventional job, and as noted, the traditional jobs (paper route, snow / yard work) are dried up or taken over by frickin’ adults trying to make a full time living on them. We’re encouraging our daughter’s inner capitalist. She’s done the lemonade stand thing, and is currently scheming to sell eggs her chickens lay. The new house is a few blocks from a small fast food joint with a reputation for hiring teens and developing them into hard workers with old fashioned work ethic. We hope the elderly owner hangs on long enough for her to have a stint there when she hits 14.
@lynn
Movie violence noted. Appreciate the heads up, as she wouldn’t care for those scenes.