Hot and humid, some chance of rain. It got hot and humid pretty quickly yesterday. I was going to wait until evening to cut the grass but the massive thunder had me rushing to get it cut before it got wet again. And then after rushing to cut it in the 97F heat, it never did rain on me. It did rain on some people. Not me though. Some cool rain would have been nice. It’s a good thing I got it cut, another 10 minutes of growth and I couldn’t have pushed the mower through it. Speaking of hot, still 83F at midnight.
Did much less in the morning than I hoped. Sick child was part of that, but I was crazy tired. Fell asleep in my office chair. I haven’t been getting enough sleep and it’s catching up with me. I’ve been trying to get to bed earlier and having a bit of success, but not enough. I wake after 5 hours so that should give you an idea of what “not enough” means to me. Sometimes I can catch up on weekends, but I’ve been crazy busy the last couple so no extra sleep for me.
So after slacking in the morning, I did household stuff in the afternoon. Cleaned up the dead rat, moved some stuff around. Made dinner. Not super productive.
Today is crazy though. D1 to foot doc followup then to school in the morning. D2 to be picked up early from school an hour later. She was feeling much better after sleeping most of the day, so she’s back to school for a short day. No idea why the district has a half day on the Thursday before a long weekend and then a full day on Friday. I’m guessing it’s because then their teachers would do a bunk and skip whatever they’re doing to make their weekend longer. Just another example of the district doing what’s in their interest and not in mine.
If I can I’ll do a drop off of auction stuff. If not, I’ll put it in more bins and stack it higher. Since I’ll have D2 home with me, she may just have to accompany me on my errands.
Not much in the auctions for pickup this week as I was busy all weekend. It’s a weird change not having a bunch of pickups to do during the week. Only one ‘hang over’ needful thing still to pickup from 2 weeks ago and I may have him just ship it so I don’t have to find time to drive to Rosenberg. If I was honest in the beginning, I’d have paid the $25 and had it shipped two weeks ago. It’s only about a 2 hour round trip, but time is what I don’t have (motivation either,but that’s different) at the moment.
Haven’t been over to my secondary in a while either, and that project needs to progress. Isn’t happening today in any meaningful way though I might get some stuff dropped off there.
Always so much to do, and the world gets weirder every day. Don’t delay, prep today ! ! !
Stacks won’t hurt, but I’m beginning to think they better be hidden. And dispersed. ‘Cuz someone else might want them too, and they might bring more friends than you can shoot.
Stack it high, and in a bunch of places.
nick
It’s good when a job is fun and enjoyable. I felt that way about my last job. Enjoyed what I did, liked the people. Then it soured. I still liked the work, not so much the job. Then I knew it was time to retire.
I had several jobs in the past that I did not like. One was a stop gap to something better having been recently laid off. I knew I was not going to stay long in that job when I started. Other jobs prior were stressful and affecting my home life. But I was pursuing status and money, the wrong goals.
It took some time before I realized my happiness and enjoyment were much more important. Even if I had to live in a shack. Having fun at work, being challenged, feeling a sense of accomplishment, appreciated for the work were much more important.
Same thing has happened at the church. I am getting where I am no longer enjoying what I am doing. Hearing complaints when mistakes are made, we are live with humans involved. My attitude was suffering. So I decided it was time to resign. Recent health events with myself and my wife reinforced my decision.
So good for you Jenny finding something you like. If you are ever unhappy in the job, don’t suffer through. Find something else. YOU are more important than any job.
Worth repeating: This is how is should be, in an ideal world. Congrat’s on finding such a spot!
“The core grocery business has a 2-3% profit margin which is a hard sell on Wall Street.”
Who cares? As long as the business is turning a profit, or at least not losing money, they really don’t have to care what Wall Street thinks.
If the business is privately held like the successful US grocery chains, they can ignore Wall Street pressure to some extent, but borrowing costs are always an issue.
Wall Street has bit hard on The Legend of Jeff (TM) and that Amazon has a secret plan for groceries which only Jeff has the brain power to grok fully. It is similar to how they believe that The Real Life Tony Stark will put Toyota out of business, finally fulfill the “pizza box” dream of firing the phone company, and land us on Mars within my lifetime.
I’m working hard on my personal time to bring my skills current.
You have personal time left over?
–tyranny. We’ll arrest you, hold you in solitary, and then we’ll move to deny you access to funds for your defense. (most crowdfunding sites banned the demonstrators already) Raise all the bail money you want, we’ll just consider that makes you more of a flight risk and deny you bail. That’s like saying Protest your innocence all you want, the more you do it the more likely you are to be guilty.
F me.
n
On a completely unrelated note: WTF is with the quantity of spam in the past few months? I cleaned out my spam folder an hour or so ago, and just noticed that another 20 have arrived. It’s the usual mix: cheap viagra, someone died and left me millions, sexy lonely ladies want to chat – in that sense, nothing has changed. But there’s been a *lot* more of it lately, and a lot more getting through the spam filters.
As a side note: I can hardly believe that there is anyone is left on earth who would fall for this stuff. Almost all of it is illiterately written and glaringly obvious crap. Some excerpts, for your amusement.
“Be notified of deposited estate in your family lastname”
“You have chosen by Mrs. Lerynne West for a donation funds”
“Urgent respond needed”
“In acknowledgment of this email, I shall divulge details of my intent for your consideration.”
I’m convinced the end is near.
–change my mind.
n
It’s good when a job is fun and enjoyable. I felt that way about my last job. Enjoyed what I did, liked the people. Then it soured. I still liked the work, not so much the job. Then I knew it was time to retire.
Most of the industry has stopped being fun IMHO. So many jobs now involve managing “The Cloud” with really repetitive work and many people involved have no frigging clue how it works outside of what is covered in the materials for their certification exams. AWS is the new IBM mainframe but with a lot less brainpower involved in the support tasks.
Meanwhile is some other universe…
–hmmm, nice to see the racist standing up for gun rights and against government overreach… oh, right.
n
Well that was weird. Second time this week I got a “site couldn’t be found” message when I posted a comment. Trying again immediately worked though. Still, get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach when that happens.
Flandrey.com to find out what’s happening if it happens for real.
nickflandrey.com should work also but currently doesn’t, the monkeys at godaddy must have sold me a free trial instead of a service plan.
n
As a side note: I can hardly believe that there is anyone is left on earth who would fall for this stuff. Almost all of it is illiterately written and glaringly obvious crap. Some excerpts, for your amusement.
The latest phone scam is companies claiming to be involved with your health insurance provider wanting to send you over-the-counter meds gratis, paid for by your prescription drug coverage.
I haven’t had time to play lately, but I’m waiting for the moment I do have some time to make some scammer’s life hard.
Subcontinent. The last few times they’ve called, I do my usual “Are you a fresher?” to get them off the phone quickly.
Remind me: what does that mean to them?
@Nick: I mistyped your name, and entered “flandry.com”. Man, I hate domain squatters. They’ll sell you the domain for the low, low price of $2k, or rent it to you for $100/month.
Domain squatters are scum. I really wish there were some way to deal with them.
My wife thinks that’s mean and they’re just trying to earn a living. I think so are hustlers, three card monty scammers, and the sellers of counterfeit goods, and I don’t give them a pass.
n
“Are you a fresher?”
Remind me: what does that mean to them?
Newbie. Clueless.
The girls will often giggle, but the guys get really irate. I had one even threaten to drive to my house and shoot me in the face.
I won’t bother having fun with the run of the mill solar pitches, roof inspections, etc., but the obvious scams are fair game IMHO. “Microsoft” support. “The IRS”. And now, “Your healthcare plan”.
If they’re tied up with me, they’re not scamming someone else.
Speaking of domains….
I just got my renewal notice from godaddy for all the alternate TLDs for my main business domain.
I am keeping “Notmyactualdomain.net” and .com, and even .org, but I’m thinking about letting .biz .us .name and .info expire at the end of the month.
They used to be very cheap to own and park defensively, but it’s adding up, especially with privacy features.
Anyone have opinions on keeping or dropping those domains? The “notmyactualdomain” part is the name of my business, isn’t globally unique, and actually took some aggressive work on my part to get for .net and .com….
Consider that I”m 55 and that the business is essentially changed from a global consultancy to an occasional local gig and my ebay reselling business.
Advice appreciated.
n
I’ve been wondering about this co-morbidity. BMI and smoking risk factors seem to be radioactive subjects over the last 18 months.
CDC data is linked from the article.
Someone’s Prog card is getting revoked.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/sweetgreen-ceo-criticized-after-connecting-the-pandemic-to-unhealthy-eating-incredibly-fat-phobic/ar-AAO1p1S
There is nothing better than sweet goobermint cash!
I’ve done bucket duty in Hueys and Blackhawks. Usually putting out range fires.
I think I posted years ago, a guy capsized his sailboat on Ontario when I was stationed at Fort Drum. My boss wanted me to go out with the Huey water bucket to rescue him. I refused because that’s what other units did. He was mad, but the CG told him to shut it because he wasn’t going to risk a chopper/crew in high winds, untrained mission, etc.
It’s a little more complicated based on the “heart beat” type law. This is totally SCOTUS fault for ruling it Constitutional. It should have been left to the States (per Scalia). SCOTUS also didn’t “laser focus” on what is a human being. I think that’s how Tejas got past the law. Also, SCOTUS didn’t take the case, so, what does that indicate?
I haven’t been paying attention the the abortion changes, but it’s certainly not “rare”. 55K in TX alone in 2015, down from 61K in 2007.
The articles make claims but don’t reveal any detail or mechanism, so I’m skeptical.
n
With five daughters, I went to every open house during K-12. I guess parents in Kalifornia give so little shit to check out teachers.
Furious Parents Attend California School Board Meeting Where Radical Antifa Teacher is Set to be Fired After Project Veritas Exposé (VIDEO)
Also, the school Principal let this go. He/She/It should be immediately fired.
FYI… Postage has gone up 3 cents to 58 cents. If you use Forever stamps, no extra postage needed. But if you use vintage postage, like I do for some of my mailing, you’ll need to recalculate the mix.
I wonder how long the free ($35 minimum order required) curbside pick up services will continue now that Delta seems to have peaked? Beyond the added labor to cruise the aisles, there’s the space needed to stage the order, including refrigerated and frozen items, plus the logistics involved, including maintaining phone apps and a website. You really recognize the convenience when you have a smaller order and it takes you 20 minutes to push a cart up and down all the aisles and then get stuck in the one “expresss” checkout line with everyone that can’t count to 15.
Never let a cop search you:
A former Marine was pulled over for following a truck too closely. Police took nearly $87,000 of his cash.
Yeah, I’m sure a dog *alerted* on the duffle bag.
On a completely different subject: What’s with the new Texas law that lets private people sue anyone who gets an abortion, or anyone who helps? Has the legislature gone insane?
Texas Republicans are still chasing Ann Richards’ ghost because she beat them once.
The frequent rumor is that Richards’ daughter, former head of Planned Parenthood, will run for Governor at some point.
I doubt it will be this cycle, however. Robert Francis is making the case to be the nominee for the Dems, and the party smells blood in the water. We are probably one mass power failure from a new occupant moving into the Governor’s mansion.
More and more, rather than type in a URL, and possibly make a typo and wind up on a spam site, I just type ‘business name’ into the search box and then click on the appropriate search result. So, for me, if your main (.com) site is decently SEO’d, then the alternative domain variations don’t matter.
RE: Grocers
We have Baker’s which, IIRC, is a daughter company of Kroger (similar to Dillons). It’s one of the nicer grocery chains in the area but I find their layout odd (takes me forever to find anything) and their locations just aren’t particularly convenient for where I live, work, and play. I tend to spend my money at Hy-Vee which is a regional chain with nice stores and great selection. It seems most places these days have 3 or 4 choices for groceries. Walmart, Target, and then 1 or 2 regional chains. I do pick up some groceries at Costco, but not to the degree most people do.
Holy OOF! Batman:
PBR Rodeo Leaves Las Vegas Forever Thanks To Sisolak and COVID Mandates!
This brings in countless millions of dollars to Vegas. Usually hosted at my favorite casino The South Point. I’m sure the owner is furious. He built an enclosed A/C arena just for rodeo events. Extremely popular. Even the animals get A/C stalls. The National Finals Rodeo events are also there. Plus many other rodeo events throughout the year. They even held the Las Vegas Comic Con several times.
Way to go doosh Governor of Knee-Va-Dah. Mask mandates are crushing the country.
I find an increasing number of businesses (especially restaurants and retail) that when you visit their domain name you just get redirected to their business’s Facebook page.
What a mess in NYC metro area from remnants of Ida…
https://nypost.com/2021/09/02/at-least-seven-people-killed-overnight-in-nyc-in-historic-flooding/
My son on Staten Island lives on higher ground and luckily came through unscathed.
I go out of my way to avoid any business whose only web presence is on FaceCrack.
This brings in countless millions of dollars to Vegas. Usually hosted at my favorite casino The South Point. I’m sure the owner is furious. He built an enclosed A/C arena just for rodeo events. Extremely popular. Even the animals get A/C stalls. The National Finals Rodeo events are also there. Plus many other rodeo events throughout the year. They even held the Las Vegas Comic Con several times.
A Comic Con right now is riskier in terms of FOMO with all the dweebs looking for Pokemon and classic Nintendo cartridges to hustle. We’re passing on the big anime show in San Antonio Labor Day because they added a vaccination/test mandate to get through the front door and clearly stated all Summer that masks will be enforced.
Cons are good for seeing retail prices on items, but the people running those booths are pros in their respective niches, depending on that income to put food on the table. A Super Mario game worth $100k is not going to be at a booth on the show floor of a con marked $25.
Nick, I have been getting the same errors, along with page loading timeouts, intermittently since Tuesday. They are becoming less frequent now. There seems to be a slowdown somewhere in the pipeline between “here” and “there”, here being in Europe. I did think to check your page, and saw no announcement, so was reassured, although I had my suspicions that the daynotes journal might have been “cancelled” by the PTB for some comment or other getting too close to the bone. Very glad that is not the case, as I would otherwise be lost for *real* information on the internet, and very worried about you all! Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Texas Republicans are still chasing Ann Richards’ ghost because she beat them once.
I forgot to add that Ann Richards face was plastered on a lot of lamp posts Downtown during the last Legislative session, courtesy of Mayor Adler and the Prog-dominated city council.
Texas might be a red state, but the capital is extremely blue.
I’m not a Texan, but there definitely seems to be a push to get a LOT of what most would consider “conservative” legislation through before that red state transitions to a purple or blue state. It’s sort of like, “We can’t eliminate the liberal/prog problem, so instead let’s make this state as inhospitable to them as possible and maybe the infestation will transplant itself to a more welcoming environment.” lol
If conservative Texans want to slow or even reverse the growth of libtards, it seems they should be encouraging abortions. “Free abortions every Monday! Just bring in your voter registration card showing that you’re a Democrat!”
Quite. Never let a cop search you, and never talk to the police beyond the absolute minimum civilities and “Thank you, officer, am I free to go?” If you are not free to go, say nothing whatsoever other than you wish to speak to your attorney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
and the sequel…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIt-l2YmH8M
I spotted something in the linked article that raised my hackles, in addition to the subject-matter: “… a lawyer representing Lara with the Institute for Justice, which advocates against civil asset forfeiture…”.
I am increasingly seeing the verb “advocate” being used incorrectly with the prepositions “for” or “against”. The former is tautologous, “for” being included in the meaning of the verb, and the latter is also wrong, being inherently contradictory. Decent antonyms for “advocate” would be “advise against”, “campaign against” or “discourage”…
As I am an advocate by profession, this one irks me.
You use stamps? I used to buy 100 rolls all the time. Now I might use 5 a year, if that.
If conservative Texans want to slow or even reverse the growth of libtards, it seems they should be encouraging abortions. “Free abortions every Monday! Just bring in your voter registration card showing that you’re a Democrat!”
One of the places in Austin where you never see the urban outdoorsmen set up camp is in front of the Planned Parenthood clinic south of Downtown. I’m not sure whether that is the result of proactive clinic security or constant presence of protesters, but I’ve yet to see a tent pitched in that stretch of highway median.
If asked to get out of the vehicle remove the keys from ignition, get out, lock the vehicle, and place the keys in your pocket. If asked for the keys or to unlock the vehicle state “I do not consent to a search”.
To be quite blunt, yes. Texas has a long, bipartisan history of electing idiots to legislative bodies. Our last couple of governors have had their eyes on the White House. GWB got there, Rick Perry flamed out, and Greg Abbot has his eye on it. So, Abbot has been pandering to the Trump wing and to the religious SoCons. The Lt. Governor has been in cahoots with the SoCons forever and has flirted with the most extreme of the Christian right here in Texas. (As in people that want to purge non-Christians from any elected office in the US.) Right now they seem to want to be seen as more Trumpy than Trump. And I think that will play right into the hands of the Democrats.
Subbing again today, same teacher as yesterday.
Freshmen are the most annoying creatures. No sense of discipline, always trying to be cute, get away with anything they can. I have to come down on them, hard. Sometimes subbing is fun.
Re: spam – I’m getting minimal spam on my gmail account. Maybe under 10-12 a day. I just clear them out, although I might open one just to see what their technique is.
Re: alternate TLD (Top Level Domains) – I usually don’t bother with them. I always go for a .com when I want a new domain. And I use http://www.ddwhois.com to research domain names. They don’t try to grab a domain name you are researching, unlike some other places. If I find a dot-com that is appropriate for my needs, I’ll then register at GoDaddy or JustHost. But I never get the alternates they propose.
I just make sure that my SEO is set up, so that a search for the domain name without the TLD will bring up my site.
The core grocery business has a 2-3% profit margin which is a hard sell on Wall Street.
Who cares? As long as the business is turning a profit, or at least not losing money, they really don’t have to care what Wall Street thinks.
Ages ago, I read an article that pointed out: There are all those sexy tech companies. One in ten turns out great, nine in ten go bankrupt. Meanwhile whatever company collects your garbage is probably just turning over a small profit, year after year after year. More people ought to ignore the hype and invest in the companies nobody ever thinks about.
Bob Onstead, former owner of Randalls here in Houston, told me once that his goal was to make 1 to 2% profit on each item that he sold. But, he sold the same item every month, 12 times a year, so his annual profit on that item was 12 to 24%. So, he only stocked items that people bought over and over again.
After Ida we can expect a ‘flood’ of used cars on the market…
Good heavens! I thought you had three.
I’m guessing that you look at least twenty years older than you are.
LOL plugs makes remarks about Ida and walks out the door. No questions.
That’s when I click away.
The bounty-hunting isn’t conservative, it’s fruitcake level insane. As CoyoteBlog points out, it’s a gift to progs, who may take the precedent and run with it. See someone not wearing a mask? Sue them for $10k! Have someone fail to use your chosen pronouns? Sue them for $5k. Even if you lose, you win, because it costs you nothing, and they’ve had to defend themselves in court.
Seriously, that’s the precedent that Texas has set.
Bob Onstead, former owner of Randalls here in Houston, told me once that his goal was to make 1 to 2% profit on each item that he sold. But, he sold the same item every month, 12 times a year, so his annual profit on that item was 12 to 24%. So, he only stocked items that people bought over and over again.
Randalls here is Safeway-Albertsons. I haven’t been in one since I flew in to look at houses and got hosed for roughly double the normal cost for a 2 L bottle of soda and a couple of bags of snacks as a “non member”.
Safeway on the West Coast tries to make better margins with data mining and spotting correlations like Walmart, but their tech isn’t nearly as good as Bentonville.
No matter what you think the stores look like, Walmart is very advanced when it comes to tech behind the scenes running their physical stores.
Albertsons/Safeway/Vons always are higher than WallyMart. Less crowded however. I’m lucky, I have a fairly nice WM Neighborhood Market nearby with reasonable customers. I might be the worst 😀
You use stamps?
–My wife (think she’d get mad if I called her wife1?) went into the PO yesterday to get postcard stamps. My mom is sending all the old postcards she collected from her travels to my daughter. Daughter is expected to return the favor. It’s very sweet and I’m encouraging it. Mom always writes something about the trip, what they did, when it was, dad, and there is a connection.
We usually grab a forever stamp left over from Christmas cards, or print one on the rare occasion we need a stamp, but we ran out of the special paper for the label printer, and my wife is too thrifty to put a forever stamp on a post card 🙂
n
Man, bureaucrats gotta bureaucrat. I have been paying $100 per year to the county to license my water well at the office for the last five years. My office is very rural so they don’t serve us with water. They found out that I had the water well two years ago and they back billed me for the previous three years. I guess that I am lucky that they did not charge me a penalty for those three years I missed. But, it is not as if my water well is hidden, you can see the top pipe when you drive on the property, right next to the well house. Plus when I put in the new water well in 2012 to replace the old well that went dry in the drought, the driller turned in the paperwork to them.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.5362817,-95.667043,27m/data=!3m1!1e3
Yesterday, I got a new bill from them for $20. They have a new fee of $20 per million gallons a year of water removed from the ground. My well is rated for a million gallons per year but there is no meter so they just assume that we are using a million gallons of water per year.
Speaking of water meters, I assume that is coming next. If they force me to put in a water meter then I have to use one of their approved vendors at $400 to $500. Plus the meter has to be read monthly and turned into them. And the meter has to be certified annually by the vendor for another $100 or so.
I love bureaucrats.
My wife (think she’d get mad if I called her wife1?)
I did that once. I later told everyone that the bruise was from me walking into the door. She may be nine inches shorter but she has a mean punch.
@denis, if they do nuke us, there will be some delay as Rick tries to figure out what went on, and if it is a natural thing, or some other issue. We’re not hosted by blogger, so we have a layer of distance. Everyone’s been pretty good about avoiding fedposting and ‘most everyone is reasonable here. We may have “extreme” viewpoints, like that the Constitution means what is says in the most simple way possible, but we don’t get a lot of screeching.
I am very aware of the change in tone that might come with “growing” the site. I almost never link to here from elsewhere because I don’t want the poo flinging monkeys to descend. Never had to ban hammer anyone, would like to keep it that way. Still reserve the right to do so if needed. I think the signal to noise ratio is high, and the echo chamber is as low as we can reasonably keep it. It helps that there are a LOT of different interests and topics among the group and that there is a feeling of fellowship.
I can’t make sense of the google stats that I do occasionally see (sorry Rick the links either don’t work or they don’t actually show me anything), so I don’t know if we’re growing or shrinking. A couple of years ago, the site monitor tool said we got about 3000 unique visits a day. We had about 300 registered commentors when Bob died, and some very interesting email addresses. Bob had a wide reach. I think JerryP used to say that his readership wasn’t large but it was well placed and influential. I’d like to think some of that is still true here too.
All that said, the cancel culture lives to cancel, and I expect that at some point it will get all the way down to little ol us.
n
Here in Jefferson and Clallam counties (Olympic Peninsula in WA state), proof of vaccination is now required for indoor dining, per the order from the County Health Officer. (The County Health Officer is the same person for both counties.) Some exceptions (under 12 years old, restaurant staff if not vaccinated must be fully masked at all times, religious/medical exemptions, etc.) Non-compliance is a misdemeanor, inspections done by County Health Officers, can revoke permits.
Full order here: https://jeffersoncountypublichealth.org/DocumentCenter/View/12542/2021-92-Jefferson-Bar-and-Restaurant-Vaccination-HO-Order-Signed .
Added: I’ve put a shortcut on my phone screen to a picture of my vaccination card. Although we rarely go to a sit-down restaurant.
Google stats for this site show about 350-500 daily visitors, with 1.5-2.5K daily visits (a ‘visit’ could be one ‘visitor’ multiple times).
Those numbers haven’t changed much over the last year or more.
Here in Jefferson and Clallam counties (Olympic Peninsula in WA state), proof of vaccination is now required for indoor dining, per the order from the County Health Officer. (The County Health Officer is the same person for both counties.) Some exceptions (under 12 years old, restaurant staff if not vaccinated must be fully masked at all times, religious/medical exemptions, etc.) Non-compliance is a misdemeanor, inspections done by County Health Officers, can revoke permits.
Most, if not all, of our restaurant people are masked up. But usually they have the mask pulled below their nose. And ChikfilA and McDonalds dining rooms are locked, all customers must go through the drive through.
I suspect that this years flu season will be null and void. I have not gotten my flu shot yet and probably won’t. I may get the Pfizer covid booster though when it hits eight months.
Well, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I’m a pretty big deal around here. 😎
Our Chick-fil-A and McDonalds locations have opened their dining rooms. I ate in Chick-fil-A’s dining room a couple of weeks ago. Their indoor play area (playground thing) is closed. No condiments out but you can ask for them. McDonalds I know is open because my daughter has a couple of older friends that work there, but I tend to avoid the chain in general.
What’s the biggest referrer? Google?
This kind of thing always seems like projection to me.
I don’t really expect Plugsy McSpongeBrain to ever take questions. He is too ill prepared, too confused, mentally deficient. It would be a disaster. CamelToe along with Stretch are probably advising him to never take questions. One of them may even have their hand on the main power switch in case a question gets snuck into the press conference. Plugsy cannot think on his feet and must have prepared material.
Sam’s Club inflation report — $6.88 for an 8 pack of canned Del Monte green beans which used to run ~ $6 for 12. Chicken thighs/legs running 98 cents/lb.
The local store also had a new floor cleaning robot running around today. The people living on JoeBucks need to wake up to the possibility that there may not be jobs when the checks stop and they need a job after the eviction notice arrives.
Most, if not all, of our restaurant people are masked up. But usually they have the mask pulled below their nose. And ChikfilA and McDonalds dining rooms are locked, all customers must go through the drive through.
The local Chick-fil-A franchisee has labor shortage problems and once again closed their dining rooms.
As was once said in a fortune cookie: “Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.”
Ours does as well. They have modified their hours to close at 7 PM daily.
I am very aware of the change in tone that might come with “growing” the site. I almost never link to here from elsewhere because I don’t want the poo flinging monkeys to descend. Never had to ban hammer anyone, would like to keep it that way. Still reserve the right to do so if needed. I think the signal to noise ratio is high, and the echo chamber is as low as we can reasonably keep it. It helps that there are a LOT of different interests and topics among the group and that there is a feeling of fellowship.
I still hang out on usenet in comp.lang.fortran, comp.lang.c, comp.lang.c++, and rec.arts.sf.written, for over 30 years now. I have had to killfile about five people over there because some of them are even crazier than me. They throw poo for the joy of it. And then people reply to them and I get to see the crazy that I don’t want to see.
*Preen* (though Chad beat me to it…)
@Nick, please keep it that way if you can. My perhaps 15 seconds of internet limelight (or perhaps FLASH-LIGHT) was banhammering Aesop (now of raconteur report) on a gub related site some years ago for an ad hominem attack and general asshattery, including not being willing or able to tone down the hyperbole. I didn’t relish it, but it was deserved, and followed several warnings that were ignored. I note he still has hyperbole set to 13/10, but at least he’s posting it on his own site now. Anyhow, I admire how Bob, and now you, manage(d) to keep the rifraff out and the tone both intelligent and civil, with the honorable exception of SteveF, naturally. Hi, Steve 🙂
“Introducing the Ransomware Economy”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/ransomware-economy/
“Ransomware continues to proliferate for a simple reason—it’s profitable. And it’s profitable not just for the ransomware developers themselves—they’re just one part of the equation—but for a whole ecosystem of players who make up the ransomware economy. To understand the threats to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and organizations today, it’s important to understand the scope and scale of what you’re up against.
Today, we’re digging into how the ransomware economy operates, including the broader ecosystem and the players involved, emerging threats to SMBs, and the overall financial footprint of ransomware worldwide.”
There are hundreds of groups doing this ! The FBI is investigating the top 100 and appears to be swamped. Maybe if they would do their jobs instead of the fake Jan6 riot investigation they would get more done.
By “swamped” you don’t mean that they all went on a cruise, ran aground in the Everglades, jumped headfirst into gator-infested muck, and were never heard from again?
“Simone Biles fires back at Twitter trolls”
https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Simone-Biles-responds-Twitter-trolls-twisties-16430837.php
“Most of Simone Biles’ Twitter presence is full of positivity, but every once in a while she fires off a tweet to let the trolls know that she sees them.
Thursday morning was such an occasion.
“Some of the stuff I’ve been through publicly and having such negative responses makes me hope your peers/family don’t see what y’all tweet,” Biles tweeted. “It’s really sad. I hope they never go or have gone through some of the same things.””
Ah, another way of saying, “do you kiss your momma with that mouth ?”. Good for her.
I suspect that she is done at age 24 with gymnastics. The “twisties” sounds very dangerous for what she does.
Don’t be knockin’ Riff Raff. He was a survivor, as well as one of the few characters who acted rather than reacted.
By “swamped” you don’t mean that they all went on a cruise, ran aground in the Everglades, jumped headfirst into gator-infested muck, and were never heard from again?
We should be so lucky.
I have been on two swamped boats, a 15 foot bass boat and a 41 foot sloop. Both experiences were quite unnerving. Our 15 foot bass boat sank because somebody forgot the back drain plug.
The Coast Guard dragged us to an island in Galveston Bay when we ripped the keel off our sloop by hitting a pipeline. We had three foot of water in the main cabin before we beached her on Redfish Island. We put a temporary fiberglass patch on the keel, refloated her, and motored to Galveston where they drydocked her and fixed the keel with a real patch.
Sing to us, o Hairless One!
He also let Dr Scott, Brad and Janet get away at the end, so he’s really a hero.
Now that takes me back a loooong time… many happy memories. Thanks, Steve!
There are hundreds of groups doing this ! The FBI is investigating the top 100 and appears to be swamped. Maybe if they would do their jobs instead of the fake Jan6 riot investigation they would get more done.
Unauthorized RDP or TeamViewer on a corporate LAN should be a fireable offense.
The Swamp is a place where only Gators get out alive.
Raining. Lots of slow loud thunder. Fell asleep in my office chair. Dreamed of my dad. Always like that, but it happens less frequently.
n
2 slices of pizza for lunch. carb overload = naptime.
Don’t be knockin’ Riff Raff. He was a survivor, as well as one of the few characters who acted rather than reacted.
Riff Raff escaped to the suburbs of an unspecified “Tri Cities” area, married, and sells antiques. The household includes his son, two stepchildren … and a platypus.
*Preen*
–it’s all y’all that make it what it is. I don’t think I’d have posted every single day since 2018, nor made 10K + commments. (checking that I see that Greg has 12K+. How comments get counted is tricky, and if you’ve changed your name in any way, they don’t get linked.) There are currently ~165,330+ commments.
I have 1370 of the 3700+ posts, a bit more than 1/3, in that time. That’s a lot of blather.
n
–it’s all y’all that make it what it is. I don’t think I’d have posted every single day since 2018, nor made 10K + commments. (checking that I see that Greg has 12K+. How comments get counted is tricky, and if you’ve changed your name in any way, they don’t get linked.) There are currently ~165,330+ commments.
I’ve spent a lot of time avoiding real work for most of the last decade, and I’m prone to revision.
Revision probably bumps the counter.
Yes. I still write letters and send cards. I have/buy vintage postage (“pretty stamps”) for those. “Discount Postage” on eBay sometimes yields some great bargains.
I pay bills by mailing a check. I do not allow any company to bill me through email, and I do not use electronic payments. I use Forever stamps on those.
I print labels for parcels, and the mail carrier picks them up at our house.
Texas passed a Loser Pays law in 2011. DDG doesn’t seem to have any mention of it since then, but I expect it would apply to those cases, as the intent was to stop frivolous lawsuits.
There are only 1592 of those 165K comments that contain the word “FLASHLIGHT” or “FLASHLIGHTS”.
You can do better than that!
(Well, now there are 1593 …)
Thanks for shining a FLASHLIGHT on that deficiency Rick!
n
California allows freedom to slip off into the ocean
https://californiaglobe.com/articles/new-ca-bill-to-require-gender-neutral-retail-departments/
”You can do better than that!”
ok
Geebus, why even go into business in Kalifornia.
A quick Google search show a lot of Tejas law firms stating it is basically useless. The law should simply state “you sue somebody and lose, you all their court costs” and be done with it. Too much shyster legalese to even understand the law.
Regarding vax proof and masks, I don’t bother to keep up on the rules. I usually only go out about twice a week. This involves two restaurants, church, and some stores. Almost no masks seen in our small town in CA. A few employees wear them, but many of those wear them improperly, exposing the nose or worse. Why bother.
I am acquainted with a situation where a small group visit people at the local hospital. Seems they need proof of vax and PAPER masks, which are handed out. I saw one of those masks, and they are really useless. I would have to restrain myself from laughing if I had to wear one. Apparently, there is a sign that says only N95s are an acceptable substitute.
We are doomed to subservience.
Meanwhile, I check Kevin Roche’s (thanks drwilliams) https://healthy-skeptic.com/commentary/ daily. He has some good stuff. I did a few spot checks on his interpretation of cited articles, and he is being honest in his criticisms. I wonder when those in power will stop lying to us.
“I wonder when those in power will stop lying to us. ”
-30 seconds after we hang the last one from a lamppost.
n
I may misunderstand the term but “Oh, you sweet Summer child” seems right.
When will they stop lying? When they stop breathing their last gasp on their death bed.
@Greg:
Nope. Each comment is a record in the comments table. A revision (edit after submitting) only changes the content of that record. It does not create another record entry.
another afternoon wasted…
….and changing your name to “Flashlight” does not increment the count of comments with the word “flashlight”.
…although this comment did bump the counter…
Headline on CNN: John Roberts has lost control of the Supreme Court
Umm… I didn’t realize it was the job of the Chief Justice to “control” the Supreme Court.
Seriously, who comes up with these headlines? Somebody smack them across the face.
“….and changing your name to “Flashlight” does not increment the count of comments with the word “flashlight”.”
blatant discrimination
Nope. You can use whatever name you want. But the counter only works if you put ‘flashlight’ in the comment area. (and there’s another one…)
If you don’t choose to use the ‘flashlight’ word in your comment, that it your choice. You get to choose the words you use in a comment. And your comment will be published. We only discriminate against obvious spam comments. And those are automatically blocked by other processes.
The Big Blue Dodge has moved to a new home. I gave it to a friend, he can harvest parts or whatever he wants to do.
Because the shop and the dealer both saying it needs a new engine because of “low compression on Cyl 2” (says the dongle), and the shop quoting $7500 or so for said “new” engine, in a 2002 truck…. yeah, but no. Do the engine and then the tranny pukes?
The original instrument cluster showed almost 240,000 miles before it puked.
I’m going with “it’s just wore out” and put it out to pasture. I’ll miss it, I really liked the truck. I’ll get over it.
sounds like “separate but equal” for flashlights
@Paul
Hold a wake. With flashlights.
Headline on CNN: John Roberts has lost control of the Supreme Court
Umm… I didn’t realize it was the job of the Chief Justice to “control” the Supreme Court.
Seriously, who comes up with these headlines? Somebody smack them across the face.
I take it CNN did not like this ? “The Supreme Court just effectively overturned Roe vs. Wade with legal Calvinball”
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-just-effectively-overturned-201416160.html
or
https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/09/supreme-court-leaves-texas-abortion-ban-in-place/
“The vote was 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court’s three liberal justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – in dissent.”
Pardon me, but there are four liberal justices on SCOTUS.
“Nope. You can use whatever name you want. But the counter only works if you put ‘flashlight’ in the comment area. (and there’s another one…)”
A flashlight walks into a bar and sees a rabbi, a priest, a minister, and the Dali Lama…
Can I get by with using the cheapo batteries from Tractor Supply (ain’t had one leak yet) in my FLASHLIGHTS? Or do I have to spring for the fancy lithium CR models? And new FLASHLIGHTS!!!
@Lynn
“It’s like Republicans were reading Kafka’s The Trial as an instruction manual.”
Might have been the same copy the Democrats used to fabricate Roe v. Wade in the first place.
@Paul
Ask you truck, when it gets out of abandonment therapy.
“SpaceX: Amazon’s Tactics Show It’s Falling Behind in Satellite Internet Race”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-amazons-tactics-show-its-falling-behind-in-satellite-internet-race
“SpaceX claims Amazon can’t compete against Starlink, so the e-commerce giant is resorting to obstructionist tactics through the FCC to stymie the satellite internet service.”
You know, if Blue Origin is so hot to trot about getting their own Bluelink satellites up in LEO or wherever, why don’t they launch a few of them ?
Ha ha ha, spot on. It’s funny, I can hear it plain as day but have no idea where it comes from.
EDIT: Aha! I figured it out, and all I have to say is, “Hiawatha!” 🙂
Might have been the same copy the Democrats used to fabricate Roe v. Wade in the first place.
Blackmun wrote Roe. He was a Republican appointed by Nixon but drifted left sitting in that chair.
Trump had probably slated Amy Comey Barrett in that seat for the symbolism, but Ginsberg’s death opened the Payola chair and Touchdown Jesus was not going to be denied his first Supreme Court Justice.
“When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Clear Lake”
https://blog.chron.com/thetexican/2014/04/when-boris-yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-clear-lake/
“09/16/1989 – Boris Yeltsin and a handful of Soviet companions made an unscheduled 20-minute visit to a Randall’s Supermarket after touring the Johnson Space Center. Between trying free samples of cheese and produce and staring at the meat selections, Yeltsin roamed the aisles of Randall’s nodding his head in amazement.”
Randall’s Supermarkets caused the fall of the USSR in 1990 and ruined an awesome Beatles song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS5_EQgbuLc
@Greg Norton
The lawsuit was fabricated.
Didn’t the ruling also say “as soon as an injured party files they’ll hear it”?
And, ProgLibTurds, stop with SCOTUS overturned RvW. Geez they are such crybabies. They are using this to defer about Afghanistan and plugs’ fcukup. Watch as they also try to force through the $3.5 trillion fiasco, which I understand still has some kind of amnesty in it. IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN! (of The Corn).
and ruined an awesome Beatles song.
–wait what? There is a good Beatles song?
n
hmmmm…
I was going to say”While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, but it’s great, not good.
How about “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”?
Good just on the title.
Watch as they also try to force through the $3.5 trillion fiasco, which I understand still has some kind of amnesty in it. IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN! (of The Corn).
They are also lowering the Medicare age to 60. The cost of that is tremendous. Probably unfunded too.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/09/democrats-budget-plan-calls-for-major-medicare-expansion.html
How about “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”?
Good just on the title.
“When I’m Sixty Four” is starting to approach significance for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTunqv1Xt4
–Um, I grew up in the Chicago area. I grew up with criminals. Some were killed. Some were incarcerated. Some left the life. One even made a massive bet on a stock tip and went legit as a financial advisor. They didn’t rob because they were poor. They robbed because they LIKED IT. They robbed because it was easier than working. They robbed because they COULD.
And, please, $300 in San Fran buys some sandwiches. It’s parking meter money. Even if people WERE robbing because they had no money, $300 isn’t going to change their lives. They may look like ethiopians, but SF isn’t ethiopia.
n
Another crack in the facade….
n
n
How about “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”?
Good just on the title.
“When I’m Sixty Four” is starting to approach significance for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTunqv1Xt4
And “She’s Leaving Home” is way too close to home for me. We gave the daughter a transfusion last Friday and are giving her another one tomorrow. Her body is shutting down and apparently not making enough red blood cells anymore, Hemolytic Anemia aka Lyme Anemia. All I really want is for her to get better and leave home to live her life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaBPY78D88g
It’s part of the effort to shift from ground water, which has caused some serious subsidence problems in the area, to surface water. Here in Katy/Fulshear, it is even higher. They are using the money here to run a pipeline from Lake Houston to here.
The flap about the Supreme Court “overturning Roe” is horse hockey.
Apparently, the reasoning for not enjoining the new abortion law is this:
– the law is not enforced by the state or local officials, as previous laws restricting abortion have been
– the law is enforced by lawsuits filed by individuals
– state court judges are obligated to follow precedent
– the restrictions in the law are not in accordance with Roe v. Wade
– therefore, any judge seeing such a lawsuit should dismiss it as violating RvW.
– so, until such a case comes up and isn’t dismissed, we won’t stop it from being enforced
As usual, Ann Althouse has a good summary.
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-majority-opinion-was-unsigned-and.html
hmmmm…
I was going to say”While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, but it’s great, not good.
Paul McCartney and George Harrison wrote ”While My Guitar Gently Weeps” on the school bus when they were 12 years old according to the Rick Rubin interview on Hulu. “McCartney 3,2,1 – Trailer (Official) • A Hulu Original”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAkqy5QntGQ
I started writing Fortran code for one of my Dad’s PhD Chemical Engineers when I was 15. He gave me the algorithm and I brought him a card deck that would compile. It might have even performed the algorithm that was given to me. Was not even close to what McCartney and Harrison were doing at an age three years earlier than me.
@Lynn
The story I remember is that it was George Harrison’s song, and he brought Eric Clapton in after a couple of sessions didn’t get what he wanted for “weeping”. IIRC, Clapton relates in his biography that he thought that George brought him in to get the others to take him more seriously.
Followup on a previous story. Also, insane.
–the fact that you can write, edit, and publish the highlighted line demonstrates the insanity gripping society.
n
(and of course, sick pervert, serial abuser, working the system.)
The Beatles had some catchy tunes. They also moaned their way thru what seems like 46 hours of “Hey Jude”…
n
Didn’t think much of HJ then, still don’t.
And, please, $300 in San Fran buys some sandwiches. It’s parking meter money. Even if people WERE robbing because they had no money, $300 isn’t going to change their lives. They may look like ethiopians, but SF isn’t ethiopia.
San Francisco effectively decriminalized shoplifting under $950 in 2014 so the sandwiches are free.
At least, the fixings for the sandwich are free … if you can find a grocery store that is still open.
@ech, I was just driving around in the Spring Branch Subduction zone this afternoon pointing out the fault line faces to my daughter.
https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC1QQ32_long-point-fault-earthcache?guid=1dbd026f-114a-4b36-ae54-34c8757a2ae9
the house in this pic, that looks like it’s a couple feet lower on the right? It is. The fault runs right under the house.
https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7922458,-95.5331994,3a,75y,152.82h,77.89t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1swI7jObXlL6mC5dCo7GrE0w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
n
The flap about the Supreme Court “overturning Roe” is horse hockey.
–the same people who are screeching about this are typically the first one’s holding a sign to overturn the 2A and ban guns. They can’t wait to get control and overturn Heller, but want their decisions to last forever.
n
Trying not very hard to keep from laughing out loud at the frothing indignation of the leftists over the “clearly unconstitutional” new law in Texas.
How many “clearly unconstitutional” progressive laws/rules/executive orders have we had to endure for months and years while “the system” works?
And why is it that Planned Parenthood v Casey (1992) is so conveniently forgotten. That decision substantially modified Roe v Wade, yet the left universally cried “unconstitutional” when the underlying Pennsylvania state law was passed.
When I looked up that case to get the name correct, I found this jumping out at me:
“O’Connor, Kennedy, and Souter joined Blackmun and Stevens to reaffirm the central holding of Roe,[114] saying, “Our law affords constitutional protection to personal decisions relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, child rearing, and education. […] These matters, involving the most intimate and personal choices a person may make in a lifetime, choices central to personal dignity and autonomy, are central to the liberty protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.””
I wonder how the courts can square that with the various laws, rules, and regulations favored by progs to force hormone therapy on adolescents against parental rights, require people to perform services against their religious beliefs, and so on right up to the latest mask and vaccine horrors.
and has any prog judge hesitated a second to ignore precedent?
I see this gem in the comments on the Althouse blog:
“So will they now be forced to allow a flood of unconstitutional laws with a similar enforcement mechanism? What happens when Massachusetts bans all guns but gives citizens the sole ability to enforce? ”
Getting ready to get on that bus too. Getting older sucks. (sigh)
Before you book a hotel, look it up on TripAdvisor and filter on the Poor reviews. A quick perusal, and the substance of the hotel’s responses, if any, will give you a quick read on what goes on at that hotel.
“school” shooting.
-father of two by the time he’s killed in a gangland retaliation hit at age 22. And the poison got his son killed too.
$300 and some late night basketball probably would have turned him around though. Nothing like magical thinking.
n
Wait…when are they coming out with their men’s product line?
Over at GunFreeZone
n
when are they coming out with their men’s product line?
–my first reaction was “I learned a long time ago not to put anything that tingled, tightened, or otherwise modified the skin on my crotch.”
My second thought was ruder “If those products work, they ARE the men’s product line.”
n
For the record. Ladies. Men don’t care. I should say ‘heterosexual men that want to sleep with you’ don’t care. Unless you have a medical issue, we don’t care. We’re happy to be there.
n
Your brain makes up a lot of what you think you see. Optical illusions reveal some of it.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9947343/Optical-illusion-makes-greyscale-picture-look-like-colours.html
Vision and perception were very important in my previous field of endeavor. I learned a lot about it. It’s fascinating.
n
If man doesn’t do the clean-up, sooner or later Mother Nature will do it.