National forecast changed a bit yesterday to have us on the edge of the storm system today. We’re supposed to be gradually getting farther from the edge over the next two days too. That will be nice, as I’m tired of rain. Yesterday was mostly sunny and got HOT. I think summer is finally here. It felt like a sauna outside and was still 80F when I went to bed.
Spent Sunday mostly cleaning and organizing. Nothing major got done, but some small projects advanced. The biggest thing to advance was getting a new puppy. He’s 6 weeks old, a good size, super active, and cute as a button. The girls are getting the idea that a puppy is not all snuggles and fluff. He is meant to be primarily my older daughter’s dog, but I’m the pack leader so there is that. It’s been a while since we had a puppy in the house.
To add to the disorder, inlaws are arriving for a week long stay this evening. That will free me up during the day, but it will also be a whole bunch of disruption to what little routine we have. We’ll see if I can get through another visit without accidentally making MIL cry. I spend a lot of time chewing my tongue…
First order of business, get my pallet auction set up and start stacking stuff to sell on pallets.
I really need the world to hold together for a while yet….
I need more time to stack, and so do most of you.
nick
@brad, sorry no links on knife sharpening principles. I was just writing from many years of experience. It’s a subject I have always liked. I started by attempting to sharpen my pocket knife as a kid. My dad, that guy who made everything seem easy through the application of learned principles and practice, taught me how to use his bench stone. I learned woodworking from him, and sharpened chisels, plane blades, and all manner of cutting edges on that stone.
You are as good as I am at finding info and lessons on the web. Read, think, practice, and find what works for you. I suggest working by hand and learning to hold a steady angle. Start with an old tool you can afford to mess up. By hand, it is hard to ruin something quickly.
If you want more precision, there are all manner of devices to help. I might recommend a small set from Lansky:
https://lansky.com/index.php/products/std-3-stone-system/
This kind of jigged stone will control the angle, and give good results. It is painfully slow, but will teach you. After a while, you will probably find it necessary only to redo a badly messed up blade. Try to imitate what it does using your bench stone. After some practice, it will gather dust, like mine.
A bench stone is simply a large flat stone, say 3×8″. Make or buy something to hold it from sliding around. Buy a general purpose manufactured stone to start. These are fine for most general sharpening. Use water to float debris away and prevent clogging. It is much less messy than oil.
After you get good with a bench stone, you won’t need my advice.
Oh, the various electric sharpeners can be good, but as you found, dressing or replacing their grinding wheels is necessary to keep them at peak performance. Too much trouble.
I really need the world to hold together for a while yet….
Sorry, 3, 2, 1, Showtime!!
Things happen out of our control, but you of all people know that. Good luck.
Puppies are fun, and exhausting. The only dogs we raised from pups were our sibling collies. They were actually very easy, and I attribute that to having sibs. They entertained each other, and had behavioral similarities to children. They still needed us, but less than a single dog. Leaving a dog alone all day is just wrong; we were working then.
Congrats Mr. Nick.
Nvidia doubled down on poor driver code for Windows 7 over the last week, with recent releases supporting their newer cards causing my Ye Olde Primary Desktop to freeze solid rather than simply crash/restart the driver (the previous behavior for the last year) running both of my 2 GB VRAM adapters, a GT640 and GT730.
Until tax season is over next weekend, I don’t have time to mess with moving to Windows 10 full time on that machine so the old, stable GT 240 card with circa 2016 drivers went back into the system until the 1040 goes to the IRS.
Nvidia drivers have always been iffy, but the speculative execution bugs a few years ago and Microsoft’s fix for my Q660 CPU in that system have caused no end of problems.
Things happen out of our control
Yep, but hope is also necessary.
80F and 80%RH at 8am. It’s definitely summer in Houston.
Puppy made it thru the night. Only woke and whined a couple of times, and had his furless big sister close at hand for reassurance. He is very active.
For everyday sharpening I use the Spyderco triangle ceramic system, because my first real technical pocket knife was a Spyderco Rescue.
https://www.amazon.com/Spyderco-Tri-Angle-Sharpmaker-Sharpener-204MF/dp/B000Q9C4AE?tag=ttgnet-20
It works well with my Benchmade Mini Griptillion and the kitchen knives. I will sometimes hold a small diamond plate against one of the rods and use that to do aggressive dressing on a blade that is in bad shape.
I own but have never used the Lanskey system. I’ve also got a very expensive system involving MDF wheels, a grinder/buffer, and compounds that I haven’t gotten around to using that I got very cheap at an estate sale. When I get my woodworking shop set back up, I’ll get it set up.
Because I’m me, I’ve got a couple of diamond plates I picked up cheap at various sales, and a large variety of stones, some VERY high end natural stones. I haven’t ruined them or a blade on them yet. I keep a US made industrial stone handy for box cutters and quick rough touch ups.
I use angle grinders with different wheels to sharpen hatchets, axes, machetes, and lawn mower blades.
When I worked in Hollywood, I sharpened my chisels and block plane iron on wet/dry paper.
Almost anything, used consistently, will provide at least ok results.
n
RIP Clarence Williams III
How’s that kale working out?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9648849/Children-trendy-vegan-diets-1-2-inches-SHORTER-average.html
RIP Clarence Williams III
We just saw him on the “Deep Space Nine” reruns recently. The episode is probably 25 years old at this point.
81. Geesh, time flies.
Peggy Lipton appears in the “25 years later” “Twin Peaks” episodes, but I can’t figure out if Lynch was deliberately emphasizing the aged/tired status of the actress like he did with the rest of the cast for art or something was wrong with Lipton that limited her mobility which the director chose to hide. She passed not long after the series ran on Showtime.
RE: Knife/Chisel/Planer sharpening
These steel and diamond sharpening “stones” from Trend get a lot of love in the woodworking world:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004RZJ0F0/?tag=ttgnet-20
Forgot that the family has appointments for fang maintenance today.
Sitting in the waiting room….
N
How’s that kale working out?
I assumed the “kale everywhere” push was just part of the deal that put Chick-fil-A into WA State and Oregon within the last five years despite the boycott.
So much for the orthodoxy of the Prog faithful, I just saw an article recently in the Vantucky paper about the problems the Chick-fil-A causes there because of the extreme popularity and limited (one restaurant) availability in town.
Raising Cane’s and Chick-fil-A are popular in a way I do not understand.
I can sort of understand Chick-fil-A. The chicken is good and I do crave the occasional Spicy Chicken Sandwich from there. Also, their employees seem to be the last fast food chain employees on the planet that know, understand, and apply good customer service consistently. They also tend to have very clean dining rooms. However, it’s not an obsession with me as it seems to be with so many other people and I’ll frequently drive by, see the long lines, and decide to eat elsewhere.
Raising Cane’s seems to have built an entire business around their mayonnaise-based “Cane’s Sauce” as that seem to be what everyone raves about. I’ve never been a fan of “fry sauce” or any of its variations. It all just tastes like ketchup and mayonnaise to me. Their chicken strips, while very juicy, are just okay. Personally, I find them a tad bland. Their primary menu option (chicken tenders/fingers/strips) is a food found on every kids menu in the US. Unlike Chick-fil-A they don’t have the awesome customer service or pristine dining rooms going for them.
I’ve also got a very expensive system involving MDF wheels, a grinder/buffer, and compounds that I haven’t gotten around to using that I got very cheap at an estate sale.
Those can work great. I have a few spare bench grinders and lots of compounds, but haven’t got around to making the wheels. It is cheap that way.
Many years ago, I bought a simple but versatile jig to sharpen twist drills (the common kind.) It needs to be bolted to a steel plate that the grinder is fastened to. Because I never seem to have the time to spend on that, I still sharpen drills freehand using a bench grinder.
If you want the best drill sharpener, get one that uses a hollow cylindrical wheel and cam guide. These are used in small tool rooms, and do not require a wheel that is dressed flat. They generate a conical surface by nature of their geometry. Very fast, fuss free, and precise. They can be expensive, especially older ones.
These steel and diamond sharpening “stones” from Trend get a lot of love in the woodworking world
Yes, diamond laps (flats) come in various quality grades. The usual advice is to get “good” ones. Just for grins, I bought Harbor Freight’s cheap set of three very coarse ones: 180, ???, and 360 grit equivalent, about $8. They can remove a lot of material fast. NOT recommended for knives. Work well on glass and ceramics.
NJ is one with a lot of enforcement for missing (or incorrectly displayed) front plates. When my older son lived there he (and several friends) has modded VWs and front plates didn’t mix well with the custom grilles and/or bumpers so the front plates were either zip-tied on (outside of height specs) or on the dashboard. Smaller town and many of the cops were friendly so most got away with a warning or an equipment ‘fix-it’ ticket. When my son bought his car it was in transit from the port to the dealer. And in all CAPS on the contract was “Customer will not take delivery if front bumper is drilled for license plate attachment and all monies to be refunded or bumper replaced at dealer’s expense.”
In case there’s any confusion, finding a “forever home” means a family adopted him intending to keep him for the rest of his time alive.
Little guy is crashed out on a towel. So much energy, but not so much stamina…
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9655645/Apple-employees-revolt-against-CEO-Tim-Cooks-order-return-office.html
Has a nice aerial pic of the Apple Park campus – looks kinda like a round version of the Pentagon.
And word of the day is “parallelepiped” which is a 3-D parallelogram.
(Wife asked, luckily I remembered it from geometry class.)
Raising Cane’s and Chick-fil-A are popular in a way I do not understand.
Chick-fil-A treats their people decently and doesn’t skimp on the quality of the product. They’re also actively involved in the communities wherever they are located.
Wendy’s had the same Henny Penny pressure cooker machines, producing essentially identical sandwiches for at least a decade starting in the 80s, but ultimately couldn’t compete.
I’ve had PDQ once, but the chicken tenders fad mystifies me beyond being kid and picky eater friendly. One of the Outback Steakhouse founders is behind PDQ, and I think Raising Caines also has Tampa restaurant management pedigree. Hops, maybe?
Whaddyaknow. That’s never occurred to me.
I think everyone should learn how to sharpen on a stone. I thank the Boy Scout manual for my introduction. Gee, remember when every kid had a pocket knife?
Lansky 5 stone is what I use now. Tedious, but works like a charm. Once you’re on top of things keeping knives razor sharp doesn’t take much time. I get an odd pleasure from being able to slice ripe tomatoes paper-thin as seen on TV.
Order on their app, park in a curbside pickup spot and your order will usually be out in ~5 minutes and you can skip the long drive-thru lines.
Probably the juiciest grilled chicken of all the fast-food chains I’ve tried and the Chick-fil-A sauce is yummy.
Still a little annoyed at them for dropping their chicken salad sandwiches from the menu.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9655645/Apple-employees-revolt-against-CEO-Tim-Cooks-order-return-office.html
Steve Jobs left Tim Cook in charge for a reason.
The work on the new Austin campus has proceeded non-stop through the pandemic. 20,000 employees to start IIRC. New Jaguar and Porsche showrooms are already in place at the freeway/toll road exits, with more on the way.
Apple Park was a personal Jobs project. I doubt Tim Cook attaches the same amount of sentiment to the few mile radius around 2066 Crist Dr. (the address of the famed Apple “garage”) as Jobs did.
Steve Jobs essentally never left a few mile radius of that house for his entire professional career. Apple Park used to be the Cupertino HP campus where Woz and Jobs started out.
I got my pocket knife taken away at least once or twice a year in Scouts for doing something stupid with it. lol I was that kid. I had to retake the knife safety class a few times to get my knife back (and get a new “Totin’ Chip” card). I shudder when I think of all of the things they didn’t catch me doing.
Better not screw up this one…
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/07/tech/jeff-bezos-space-blue-origin-new-shepard-flight-scn/index.html
This guy is a genius. Most billionaires have to pay the Russians millions of dollars to get a ride into space. This guy is working on a $10B bailout from Congress, so he’s getting the American taxpayers to fund his personal space tourism. lol
A big part of Chick-fil-A’s customer service comes from the fact that the place is staffed almost entirely with teens raised in “born again Christian” households. Their being closed on Sundays helps a lot (and the number of teen girls with waist-length braids is further proof… lol). I heard they have a zero tolerance policy on cussing. Like, you get one warning and then you’re fired. I have no idea if that’s true. If so, I wouldn’t make it a day.
It’s very clear that they have a different class of employees than all of the other fast food restaurants draw from. Around here when you walk into a typical fast food restaurant you’re first instinct is that the employees are all on work release from prison or just got done putting a needle in their arm. You walk into Chick-fil-A and you’d think you were in a classroom at an affluent private school. It creates a bit of momentum too as because Chick-fil-A is staffed with those kind of people they are more easily able to recruit those kind of people.
A big part of Chick-fil-A’s customer service comes from the fact that the place is staffed almost entirely with teens raised in “born again Christian” households. Their being closed on Sundays helps a lot (and the number of teen girls with waist-length braids is further proof… lol). I heard they have a zero tolerance policy on cussing. Like, you get one warning and then you’re fired. I have no idea if that’s true. If so, I wouldn’t make it a day.
The employees look a lot different in the local Chick-fil-A restaurants around Austin.
If you want the “affluent private school” atmosphere, the still-small Mandola’s chain hires that type.
Mandola’s is the latest restaurant effort from the crazy uncle co-founder of Carrabba’s. The chain is mostly limited to Austin, but they put one outside Tampa last year, probably to make some kind of point with the current owners of Carrabba’s, the Outback Steakhouse group.
Essentially the same food as Carrabba’s, but with more DIY service at Mandola’s.
Chick-Fil-A may have long lines in the drive-through, but they are very efficient in processing those lines. Waits are reasonable. A line of 10 cars means 5 minutes in line.
Compared to In-n-Out burgers, where a line of 10 cars can mean 20 minutes or more.
Compared to In-n-Out burgers, where a line of 10 cars can mean 20 minutes or more.
Is In-n-Out in Puget Sound now?
I know they snuck into Oregon with a location in Medford, but their range is always limited by warehouse distance.
In-n-Out locations – three in Oregon, all along I-5: Medford, Salem, Grants Pass. We usually stop at the Grants Pass one on a trip from WA to CA.
Wife likes their burgers. I think they are OK. Fries are good when they are hot.
Pearls Before Swine: Queen !
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/06/06
Awesome song !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJYN-eG1zk
I ate at In-n-Out on several occasions when I was stationed in California. However, that was 20+ years ago and I simply don’t remember it. So, every time we’re visiting someplace that has one we go and check it out. It’s always just okay for us. We keep trying it over and over because we just assume we must be wrong due to the crazy cult following the place has. Makes me wonder what percent of In-n-Out’s sales are out-of-towners just going to see what the hype is all about.
@lynn:
Oyyyyyy!
G.
I like my burgers plump, juicy and a bit pink inside while most (all??) fast food places seem to think that whomever can flatten their burgers on the flat top the most is the winner. And I really don’t care for shoestring fries. much rather have steak fries.
“Wind and solar power is rapidly growing in Texas, but ERCOT limits how much goes to the grid”
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Wind-solar-production-outstrips-transmission-in-16223706.php
“At an ERCOT board meeting last August, Woody Rickerson. vice president of grid planning and operations, explained that amount of power coming out of West Texas, the distance it must travel, and the growing demand in burgeoning metropolitan areas such as Houston, Dallas and the I-35 corridor have combined to stress transmission lines. Another problem, he said, is it takes 18 to 24 months to developed wind and solar farms, but up to six years to complete transmission upgrades.”
““The outcome is going to be a lag,” he said, “and there’s going to be congestion.””
The wind turbine guys in west Texas do not want to pay for the transmission lines to the power consumers. It ain’t just about the generators, you gotta supply the entire business. So, screw them. I don’t want to add any more fees for transmission lines to them on our power bill (yes, we have fees in Texas for transmission lines to west Texas already) since they only generate power from 32 F to 95 F.
A big part of Chick-fil-A’s customer service comes from the fact that the place is staffed almost entirely with teens raised in “born again Christian” households. Their being closed on Sundays helps a lot (and the number of teen girls with waist-length braids is further proof… lol). I heard they have a zero tolerance policy on cussing. Like, you get one warning and then you’re fired. I have no idea if that’s true. If so, I wouldn’t make it a day.
It’s very clear that they have a different class of employees than all of the other fast food restaurants draw from. Around here when you walk into a typical fast food restaurant you’re first instinct is that the employees are all on work release from prison or just got done putting a needle in their arm. You walk into Chick-fil-A and you’d think you were in a classroom at an affluent private school. It creates a bit of momentum too as because Chick-fil-A is staffed with those kind of people they are more easily able to recruit those kind of people.
No tattoos.
When they built our ChickFilA about 20 years ago, Truett Cathy came and preached at the opening ceremony in the parking lot to several hundred people. At the end of his 20 minute speech, he raised his Bible in the air and said “This is the only employee manual I will ever need !”.
In N Out. Been a fav for 50 years along with Tommy’s. They just opened the third one in Bakersfield. Crazy lines as always. Fifty years ago the nearest was in LA on I5 in San Fernando. It was one of the little shacks with two drives ups on each side going in opposing directions. Their TV ads had the tiller fire truck rush through making stops at front and back. In those days they did push the fast service aspect. Had great bumper stickers that were two lines
In N Out
BURGER
quick cuts to remove the B and R. Would see them all over LA. Of course, I was in my twenties and had one on the back of my Ford party van. Red, mag wheels with fat tires, 3 inch padded carpet floor, paneling, two seats and three windows in front. Oh, and a crankup air vent in the back to let the smoke out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdMAu-AYMGo
When they built our ChickFilA about 20 years ago, Truett Cathy came and preached at the opening ceremony in the parking lot to several hundred people. At the end of his 20 minute speech, he raised his Bible in the air and said “This is the only employee manual I will ever need !”.
Cathy’s Dwarf House started it all in Hapeville, where Ford built the Taurus for decades. He took care of the factory workers, and the factory workers took care of him. The Cathy family bought the last Taurus produced on the assembly line before Ford shuttered the plant. That will never be forgotten.
(If the name sounds familiar, Hapeville is a popular filming location for post-apocalyptic productions, including “Zombieland” and “The Walking Dead”. )
The boycott was never going to work in most of The South, but especially in Atlanta.
The daughter of an ‘internet friend’ self-published a collection of her writing. I’ve bought and downloaded it, haven’t read it yet. The ‘internet friend’ is a keenly gifted writer, I suspect her daughter is similarly skilled. I’ll read it and get my Amazon review up to help her.
If you’d like to risk it, here is the link.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B096R6K4R5?tag=ttgnet-20
Regarding Nvidia and drivers, I once bought a cutting edge ATI card and tried to run it on Windows 98. The homebuilt system was also kinda cutting edge. Learned my lesson. Confined cutting edge to knives since. The first problem I had was RAM timing. I had bought the fastest RAM I could find from Crucial (were they called that back then, or Micron?) but there were intermittent problems. I tried all possible RAM timing options on the Asus motherboard, but no joy. I finally found it by running memtest (?) for days on end. I eventually isolated it to one module. I think the system needed two identical modules, so I bought new. This time, the RAM was OK. Then the system bluescreened randomly about once a week. Memory dumps showed something related to video. About that time, Windows 2000 became available. I jumped on it, and immediately found it had a MS signed driver for my video card. Problem solved. That system was rock solid. I built another for my wife, and we liked them so much that we used them way too long.
Say what you will about Microsoft, they do get some things right. I don’t like all the trendy new stuff in W10, but at least the OS works. That’s more than I can say for some non-MS OSes I have used over the years.
@nick
Ouch – Six weeks is -really- young to be going to a new home. There is a ton of behavioral stuff that happens between six and eight weeks that takes the presence of siblings and mama dog to cement. Important enough that many states have laws in place to dissuade sending a pup home that young (including Texas, not that the laws actually have the intended effect).
I don’t realistically expect it’s an option -but- I encourage you to see if pup can go back and stay with mama and siblings until Zeus hits eight weeks. Maybe do family visits until then. Pup will benefit, and you will benefit by hopefully avoiding some of the behavior issues that can crop up in pups that go home too early.
Otherwise – pups that young need more sleep than you expect. They will behave like they’ve got the zoomies and be out of control when they get tired. If you aren’t already crate training please do. Crate is for pup to rest and have a break from normal chaos of family – no kids allowed to disturb.
There’s lots of dog training resources on the internet, a lot of them are utter garbage and based off how we trained dogs for the military in the 1940’s and 1950’s (where we -needed- the dogs to break if they weren’t going to hold up in battle environments). Not appropriate for a nice family pet and likely to get you bit (how often has Cesar been bit on tv? That’s not a badge of honor folks, that means you’re doing it wrong).
Couple safe, family friendly resources you can trust:
AKC American Kennel Club has whole sections of their web site dedicated to new dog owners and training.
Sirius Dog Training (by Ian Dunbar, literally the father of modern puppy training)
Fenzi Dog Sports Academy (what sets this apart is the way you can customize price, and their deep library of self study classes)
For your family I’d probably go the Sirius Dog Training route because they have several live online virtual Puppy Kindergarten classes that start this week. While I haven’t taken classes with them, I’ve been following Sirius for 20+ years and they really do a good job at helping families make nice companions out of puppies.
Do an internet search for ‘Sirius Dog Training Virtual Puppy Kindergarten’ and you will find it. Ditto for Fenzi Dog Sports – they’ve got a Tricks training class that is a lot of fun for kids, when pup is a bit older.
‘Little Dogs: Training Your Pint Sized Companion’ by Deborah Woods is one of the best ‘small dog training’ books I’ve read (I’ve read many many dog training books). Small dogs -do- have a different viewpoint when it comes to training, and while all dogs are subject to the laws of learning, how you approach it matters.
If you or the kids catch the training bug, I can walk you through getting a AKC registration number for your all-american pup and then I can do a video evaluation of tricks training – it’s pretty fun and you get a cool certificate.
And finally, read this PDF by Ian Dunbar, this week if you can. It’ll hit the highlights of what you need right away. I know you are an experienced dog owner, you have your own routine you use when you bring a new dog home, still, this is a great resource and there’s always room to learn something new.
https://www.dogstardaily.com/files/downloads/AFTER_You_Get_Your_Puppy.pdf
NJ is one with a lot of enforcement for missing (or incorrectly displayed) front plates. When my older son lived there he (and several friends) has modded VWs and front plates didn’t mix well with the custom grilles and/or bumpers so the front plates were either zip-tied on (outside of height specs) or on the dashboard. Smaller town and many of the cops were friendly so most got away with a warning or an equipment ‘fix-it’ ticket. When my son bought his car it was in transit from the port to the dealer. And in all CAPS on the contract was “Customer will not take delivery if front bumper is drilled for license plate attachment and all monies to be refunded or bumper replaced at dealer’s expense.”
Doesn’t sound like the original Beetle, but that didn’t have a designed-in place for a front license either. We used hose clamps around the upper round tubes, with inner tube rubber under them. Remember inner tubes?
Your story about drilling the bumper reminded me. My father worked for Chrysler. In the 1950s and 60s, most of his fellow employees that bought new ordered cars built to their exact configuration. It took about six weeks for delivery. Almost nobody bought off the rack. One of his close friends, who always had a beautiful car that was spotless, ordered a new car. He had it written into the sales contract that he would not accept a car that had any dealer insignia, and he stressed to the salesman that he was serious.
It was common in those days to DRILL HOLES in the trunk to fasten a cheesy emblem that rusted in about five minutes. Not surprisingly, he didn’t want that. When he was called to pick up his car, he went to the dealer, spotted it, saw the dealer emblem, and quietly went inside. A salesman greeted him and asked if he had seen his car. He said he had not. The salesman took him outside and led him to the car. He said it wasn’t the car he ordered. The salesman insisted that was the car, it was a beauty, and it was very unusual, etc. The customer suggested they go inside and check the contract. Yup, handwritten, big as life, through all the carbon copies was that statement.
The flummoxed salesman got his boss, who offered to have the emblem removed and the holes fixed, but the customer refused. They said they would have a hard time selling a car like his. Nope. They also refused to order another car, and threatened to sue, but he walked out. Nothing ever happened. He bought what he wanted from another dealer.
Fortunately, in most areas these days, dealers put on license plate frames that are easily removed.
Another true story. A HS friend’s father bought a car from a Pontiac dealer. Of course, he worked for Pontiac Motors; in those days almost everybody drove cars from the company they worked for. The dealer put a 2×3’ stick-on sign on the driver’s door advertising the dealership. When he picked up the car, he was told it would be removed in a couple of weeks. When he came back for removal, he presented them with a bill for advertising, and threatened to take them to small claims court if they didn’t pay. I don’t remember the outcome, but I wish more people would stick up for their rights. Sometimes not worth the hassle.
“American Leftists Want to Replicate Europe Progressivism, Just Not When It Comes to Voter Photo ID”
https://www.westernjournal.com/american-leftists-want-replicate-europe-progressivism-just-not-comes-voter-photo/
““Of 47 nations surveyed in Europe — a place where, on other matters, American progressives often look to with envy — all but one country requires a government-issued photo voter ID to vote.” Lott notes that “[t]he exception is the U.K., and even there voter IDs are mandatory in Northern Ireland for all elections and in parts of England for local elections. Moreover, [UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson’s government recently introduced legislation to have the rest of the country follow suit.””
My wife forwarded this to me.
I’m with Alan. I like my burgers thick, juicy, and cooked about medium. Been to an In-N-Out Burger once. Wouldn’t go back. My wife agrees. Been to a Tommy’s once. It was pretty good, but there are none where we go. Been to a Chick-fil-A twice. Would go back any time, but none close either. Went to an El Pollo Loco once, liked it. Can’t get my wife to go to one for some reason.
For the best burgers, we like the small local independents that live or die on their reputation. The pandemic has killed some of them.
Say what you will about Microsoft, they do get some things right. I don’t like all the trendy new stuff in W10, but at least the OS works. That’s more than I can say for some non-MS OSes I have used over the years.
WHQL certification was a huge stability improvement in Windows and a competitive edge over Mac and the various *nix kernel operating systems. I have serious doubts about Microsoft ever abandoning the NT kernel for that reason alone.
Fortunately, in most areas these days, dealers put on license plate frames that are easily removed.
The morons where I bought my Camry botched drilling the hole for the front plate frame by a good 1/2 inch vertically on one side. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch it until after delivery since they deliberately hung the cardboard temporarly plate frame level to cover it up. There are even dimples where the holes are supposed to go. No excuse.
All of the Toyota dealers around Austin are equally irritating. I have to pick one for a fuel pump recall, unfortunately.
@jenny, thanks for the info, I’ll got thru it. When we got our last little guy, he showed up on our doorstep with his mom. We had them both for a while before the owner saw us walking them.
We didn’t really have much trouble or strategy with him, when we got him back (left the mom with the owner.)
Zeus is settling in, started playing with a sock by himself this evening. We’ve been giving him a lot of time to sleep against or on one of us, with the idea he’s used to the puppy pile. He is in a crate, and slept in it last night. My daughter slept on the floor next to it and soothed him the couple of times he woke up. We’re planning the same tonight.
The added wrinkle of the grandparents being here is hopefully not going to be a problem.
We are aware that it’s early, but the single guy who had the mom and the pups is over it. Mom stopped nursing and the pups are eating solid food, so he figures it’s up and out…
Please keep sharing, it’s a bit of a new adventure and the kids add a whole new dimension.
n
The hometown chevy dealer my dad always tried to buy from would give you a gas card if you would let them put a big decal of the dealer’s URL on the back window. It was worth about $250 iirc.
The license plate ring is easy enough to get rid of, the sticker can be removed with heat, and the big plastic 3d logos are getting very rare.
I’ve had the “I should be compensated for your ad” conversation more than once.
n
Nvidia drivers have been cr@p for decades. I used to spend a considerable amount of time on display setup issues, with overlaps, stereo sync, and timing issues being very common. One software would want the newest drivers, and that would bork my install, so I’d roll back the driver and the software would turn out to run just fine…
And the management tools were horrible too.
n
Nvidia drivers have been cr@p for decades. I used to spend a considerable amount of time on display setup issues, with overlaps, stereo sync, and timing issues being very common. One software would want the newest drivers, and that would bork my install, so I’d roll back the driver and the software would turn out to run just fine…
ATI/AMD drivers are worse.
WHQL works as long as you have a supported OS and current hardware. Microsoft is serious about getting rid of Windows 7.
@Nick
Sounds like you guys have a good handle on it. Lucky dog, that Zeus.
I tried all possible RAM timing options on the Asus motherboard, but no joy. I finally found it by running memtest (?) for days on end.
The memory torture test in Prime95 sometimes spots memory issues faster than Memtest. When in doubt, try both.
Lucky dog, that Zeus.
–lucky us! so far anyway, he’s a cutie with lots of personality.
I tried to get a pic, we’ll see if I have anything useful.
n
Reparations destroyed in less than a minute:
https://redstate.com/mike_miller/2021/06/07/ever-seen-anyone-destroy-reparations-in-less-than-a-minute-here-ya-go-n392893
Fine Woodworking eletter today about an practice video Chris Gochnour did on sharpening before doing one with Garrett Wade. Then he added links to a number of other sharpening videos. His commentary included:
“I have learned to sharpen from Chris Gochnour, Bob Van Dyke, Mike Pekovich, Brian Boggs, and many others. My process doesn’t match any of theirs. My process is my own.Some argue that one method is better than another, or even worse, that a certain method doesn’t work. That’s nonsense. Find trusted sources, look at their methods, and use what makes sense to you and your situation. Once you find a system, stick with it until you stop thinking about it. Your process will be your own as well.”
I’ll circle back and repost the link later.
I have a freezer full of Black Angus beef that includes hamburger done to my specs. I don’t remember the last time I was desperate enough to order a burger in a restaurant. 2008? No, I did try 5 Guys about 2014. meh.
I wasn’t impressed with my first In-an-Out Burger more than 20+ years ago. Second time I visited was when the plane was late and I checked into the hotel and hit the IOB next door just before it closed. Fukcers shorted me my large fry, and they haven’t ever come and kissed my heinie, so I still ain’t eating there. Yeah, bitter. Thieves.
Chick-fil-A is worth it just to pizzle off the progs. But if I have a choice I go the Chester’s Chicken and get their tenders. Good sauces and good sides, too.
I love in n out and eat it whenever I can, except technically I could find it here in Houston and haven’t yet. There were LONG lines.
I get a double double, raw onion, and fries. Took me a while to appreciate the fries, they are very different from the flavored sugar fries McD and the rest use.
Love the open kitchen, the lack of ‘suggestive sell’, the lack of a script, that the employees look at me and change what they say based on what I’m driving.
And I love the taste of the burger.
n
WHQL certification was a huge stability improvement in Windows and a competitive edge over Mac and the various *nix kernel operating systems. I have serious doubts about Microsoft ever abandoning the NT kernel for that reason alone.
I had a friend who loaned me a book on the development of NT using a guy lured from DEC. I had been an unwashed user of VMS for a while, but more slanted toward hardware interface. VMS worked fine, but there were the constant updates that bugged us mere users. Just like big systems. Nonetheless, I was interested in NT, but eventually just used it as a desktop OS as my hardware days came to be over. Early NT was fine, all business, no fluff. Then tried to transition to 98, but didn’t like it. Same with 98SE. Finally, 2000 was the secret sauce. I loved it. It was the logical evolution of NT, with useful improvements. When XP (internally Win 5.1, so really 2000.1?) came out, I didn’t like activation, so I started investigating Linux. Those were the lost years, but interesting. I wasted XXXXXX spent too much time on Linux. As I have said ad nauseum, Linux has its charms, but it has its frustrations. I find Win 10 so far to be OK. Still catching up on my Windows skills. Also trying to teach my wife. Did I mention she doesn’t like change? Good luck with that.
Oh, I have a friend who plays with coding. He has Linux, a really nice Chrome book, a Mac, and Windows in his order of preference. I would go nuts with all that to manage, but he likes it. I guess it is like having four cars. 🙂 He tried to sell me on Chrome OS, and had me try some Google docs apps. Might have been fine except for my slooow Internet. I have seen it at his place with good Internet, and it looks good, except I couldn’t get used to storing my stuff on somebody else’s computer (the cloud.) Wonder what the future will bring?
I tried all possible RAM timing options on the Asus motherboard, but no joy. I finally found it by running memtest (?) for days on end.
The memory torture test in Prime95 sometimes spots memory issues faster than Memtest. When in doubt, try both.
Thanks. I see Prime95 was around when I was having my troubles, circa 1998? Too lazy and late to look that up.
Did I mention that puppies were cute?
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210607_161445-scaled.jpg
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210607_161517-scaled.jpg
n
Did I mention that puppies were cute?
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210607_161445-scaled.jpg
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/20210607_161517-scaled.jpg
n
Dude, he is super cute.
To fill out yesterday’s recipe book discussion, this is probably the post I was thinking about where I listed my ‘core’ references–
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2016/03/27/sunday-27-march-2016/
Just using the site search tool and nick recipe book will return a lot of days to look through. I guess we have talked about it more than once, but then I’m not shy about the fact I like to eat. 🙂
Remember that most of the Good Stuff ™ here is in the comments….
n
Pup woke up so I took him out. Did his business like a pro, and back to bed. Which is where I’m headed….
n
@nick
Wow – that face is super adorable. Zeus is a cutie!
Here’s our pup, Pippin. She is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi, four months old. She is keeping us on our toes. In time, I hope she will be my dog sports competition partner especially herding. She has some pretty big paws to fill however has a strong herding ancestry. Her grandpa is one of my doggie heroes.
http://twogeeksandadog.com/?p=3017
To fill out yesterday’s recipe book discussion, this is probably the post I was thinking about where I listed my ‘core’ references–
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2016/03/27/sunday-27-march-2016/
Just using the site search tool and nick recipe book will return a lot of days to look through. I guess we have talked about it more than once, but then I’m not shy about the fact I like to eat.
Remember that most of the Good Stuff ™ here is in the comments….
n
Wow, that was a walk down memory lane …
Putting him to work already?
Your desk looks very much like mine. Tell me if he tidies it up and I’ll consider getting one of those.
Regarding file conversions – I often have the need to ‘squish’ a jpg file into something smaller, or convert from one type to another. I use an add-in to Windows Explorer called “File Converter” https://file-converter.org/ .
Excellent program! Right-click a file (or bunch of them) from Windows Explorer, and quickly convert from one file type to another. Works on audio, video, images, document. Can convert from video to it’s audio file, for example.
Great tool, very fast, and free. Highly recommended.
Thanks, @RickH, I will keep that reference, and eventually install it. Looks great.
Wow, that was a walk down memory lane …
–yes, it certainly was. I do it at least once a month.
n
I like Five Guys burgers.
But, the frys are awesome.