Possible rain. Yesterday was overcast most of the day and then we got a rip roaring gully washer around 4:30 or 5pm. Really came down. Nice and clear air when it was all done though. Killed any thoughts of a second trip to storage though.
I did get one load out of the toy room and foyer. One more today and then maybe tree shopping. I’ll let you all know how that goes.
Turns out that I have some stuff in another local auction. The lady who I did the pokemon cards, and collectible toys through finally relisted stuff that either went unsold, the buyer didn’t pay for, or didn’t make it into the previous auction. I’m hopeful for a good sale.
On ebay I got a low offer for some books, but I did sell a dvd today. At least that proves ebay is showing my stuff to people. They have always penalized me in the past for putting my store on vacation hold. I better get some more stuff listed and take advantage of it.
And I need to put out a whole bunch more rat poison…
I bought all that was in the store last time. That is definitely something to stack…
Stack what you use all the time. Stack stuff you only use infrequently but couldn’t substitute. Stack stuff you put off buying until you need it. Get spares for critical stuff.
If you see it, buy it. Stack it high.
nick
Be careful with the rat poison ! You do not want your dog to get into it at all !
We went Christmas tree shopping at Lowe's yesterday. Not a huge selection, but enough.
$70 for a tree that ended up ~ 6.5 feet tall after trimming the trunk.
@Nick
Hide the rat poison in Mountain House bags. Appropriately labeled.
If the system has an inverter, you could try a cheap induction cooker. I think there is one that only draws 800W. More versatile. I also have a small electric cockpot for travel. Boils about a quart, but I don’t know its’ wattage draw. 120V.
More malarkey from plugs:
Biden Infrastructure Bill Includes Passive Monitoring Vehicle "Kill Switch" Mandates For Automakers
How could any congress critter vote for this. Line 'em all up for Mr. OFD. I can see swerving on the highway to avoid a deer, and your car decides you are drunk, brakes, and disables the car.
Hmm.
There are also microwaves that run at 400W that i’ve seen in pop up trailers now and then. I am not sure what the efficiency is, what they actually “pull”but it can’t be too much more.
I’ve a tiny one on my boat, but never checked the face plate,, I only run it on shore power (my inverter died years ago…
The 400W unit is the Sharp Carousel II “Half Pint”, reportedly out of production – Craigslist is your friend.
Well, shirt(-r). My replacement at the church is resigning. Pastor said he may want me to step in and help until another person is located. Not certain I like that idea. If I do reassume the role I expect to get paid, more than I was before. $200.00 a Sunday seems reasonable.
Re: heating with a pan on the battery terminals.
The heating would be local, at the terminals. Also the plates in the battery would heat. Generally boiling the electrolyte. The result would be bad as the pan would weld to the terminals and continue the internal heating until the battery self destructs, violently. Voice of experience, a bubba moment, juvenile stupidity.
What did the replacement receive weekly?
How many members does the church reach with what seems like a relatively elaborate production?
At the end of the day, it is a business. As I've posted before, I've fired a minister, specificallly this putz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqzxxRLk5xY
(In my own defense, his first congregation in Ohio fired him before I did.)
What led your replacement to resign?
What led your replacement to resign?
—I'd bet, "it was a lot of work, no one helped, and there was no support or appreciation".
beautiful warm sunny day after all. 78F in the sun with 76%RH according to my station.
Lower back is screaming at me for the lifting and carrying I did yesterday. I stretched, I realigned my spine. Wasn't enough.
n
No way. Tell him, "I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request."
I was gonna post a link to the youtube clip of Michael Corleone saying "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" but it's not anywhere as dramatic as I remember… and only a couple seconds long. Ok, here it is anyway.
https://youtu.be/UneS2Uwc6xw?t=58
n
Thinking about killing our Tivo Bolt and subscription. We no longer watch any cable, and the bolt won't do OTA, if we watched any, which we don't.
Sub comes up for renewal Dec 26. I use it pretty near every night to watch youtube in the bedroom to fall asleep. Seems like one of the other devices would serve the purpose.
the linux Kodi box was awkward to use, and the youtube app was buggy. Their youtube dev license would run out at night too, leaving me unable to watch, or having to apply for and install my own youtube dev license, so I don't like that.
The chinese boxes based on kodi, well, I don't trust them to not phone home or open backdoors.
I've got several Roku boxen lying around. I should put one on the tv and see if I like using it.
I think the sub costs about $300/year which is a lot to spend on sentimentality and inertia (will be the first time since 2003 that I don't have a tivo or 3 in the house.)
n
"No, thanks. I've done my three years of unappreciated, underpaid work. Time for someone else to step up. Time for you to use your moral authority and rhetorical skills to convince someone else to step up."
My experience is that if you don't draw the hard line on walking away, there's no incentive for anyone else, especially the people in leadership positions, to do anything. That goes double if you go back after walking away.
(Ray presumably has noticed that a time or ten himself. I wrote that paragraph for the benefit of any readers who are less experienced and less jaded.)
"Not certain"? Nice understatement.
I have no idea. I suspect it was not as much as I was making before, $150.00 a Sunday, But I could be wrong.
Two reasons that I know. First is he wanted a full time job with benefits. Church cannot, or will not, succumb to that request. Second is that he lives in Maryville, about 45 minutes to an hour away from the church. The third reason, of which I am guessing, is that he knows the broadcast and production arena as that is his full time job at a local TV station. Where he falls flat is the technical side, making connections work, integrating the graphics system with the video system. I have had to rescue him a couple of times. I also think that bothered him as he thinks he is the expert and had to ask for help from a mere mortal.
That very thought, but in not as cerebral words, crossed my mind. If there is no money in the amount I am wanting, then the answer would be a profound no.
More like 17 years, the last 12 compensated. It used to be a good job. But the pastor, and church, have tacked on more and more things to be done. Streaming of funerals and community events held at the church took a lot of time. The graphics that are now wanted on the screen, lower thirds using reverse chroma key, all have to programmed into the graphics computer. Videos queued up to be displayed, finding camera people, it just got to be too much. With the health issues I no longer want to be tied to a schedule that revolves around Sunday morning and Wednesday evening.
Would "NFW" served better? I am not quite to that point. I want the media system, which I basically built from scratch, to survive and flourish. I don't want to see my efforts over 17 years go down in flames. Thus I think "Not certain" was an appropriate term.
@nick, re eBay "vacations," I've seen more than once listings that say in big letters that they are away until a certain date and all shipments will be delayed accordingly. Have you considered that approach?
@Ray, if I may, I suggest that you go back and reread your posts about why you quit in the first place (time to enjoy your life, etc.) before you offer to go back. Just my two pennies.
Lifetime was never offered on the Bolt?
We still have a TiVo HD for OTA, mostly used to grab "Svengoolie" and "NCIS". My Lifetime subscription has more than paid for itself in 20 years.
We still watch OTA, and I'd hate to see the broadcast TV spectrum given away to Tony and the Wireless providers chasing the pizza box dream, what I believe is the real purpose for StarLink to exist.
Maybe a low single digit percentage of the population would live the dream.
Re: the "passive monitoring" kill switch to detect "erratic driving".
Gonna be tough to teach your kid to drive.
Yes, those thoughts have much crossed my mind.
I was burnt out, over all the effort. A new arrangement would just be Sunday morning, nothing else. A finite time limit would be set of no longer than 01/31/2022. If they pay the money.
I went back into work at my old job a couple of times because the new chap was having issues with the system I created. It is hard to see something that one has created, fail, or not work properly. I feel the same way with the media system. Too much emotional attachment I guess, consider it a flaw.
@ray, I understand. You built your legacy with that system.
But.
You KNOW that it won't just be "show up and direct the service" on Sunday, right? 'Cuz nothing will be working, none of the media will be ingested and waiting, and someone will have to call the camera op at home to wake them up….
Maintenance will still need to be done…
all the things.
n
Have you considered that approach?
–if the sellers aren't using the ebay vacation tool to put a banner up, they have to hand edit every listing… and someone will still order and then ding you when it doesn't ship.
The only reason I converted to a store was to get the vacation hold option. In my previous experience, they deprecated your listings for a month. No one knows for certain, but a lot of people online had similar experiences to mine.
n
My husband attached our television his desktop computer and uses it as a monitor in the living room. It nicely streams YouTube and anything else. When the kids come, they bring their little AppleTV stick or their Netflix pw to plug into the computer and everyone is happy.
We do not pay anyone for any content, we only watch things that are free.
We quit Netflix way back when they first transitioned to all-streaming, because at the time streaming buffered every couple of minutes on our rural internet. We got used to not having Netflix and never went back even after they began paying Frontier enough to stop the spinning.
We had Amazon Prime streaming for a while, but I think I have talked here already about why we gave it up. In a nutshell: increasing costs for reduced content outweighed any benefit for the things & the way we watch.
Edward Shames, last surviving officer of the WWII Band of Brothers, dies at age 99: Jewish soldier raided Hitler's 'Eagle's Nest' and was one of the first Americans to help liberate Dachau concentration camp
Band of Brothers. Saving Private Ryan. The Great Escape. Schindler's List. Stalag 17.
Education in boxed sets. But for Pete's sake, not all at one sitting.
n
@Ray: as I recall, your church is big. Budget in the many millions, and multimedia is core to their business. And they can't afford to pay someone a real salary? Typical: churches expecting people to work basically for free, because…why?
Make it $1k per Sunday, no extras, so they have an actual incentive to find a successor.
Nope, not even close. Budget is about $1million a year. Money is tight. The church used to be much bigger but a rift and a loss of many people devastated the choice. Almost to the point of having to close.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10275899/Memphis-shooting-leaves-two-teenagers-dead-teenager-baby-wounded.html
-if I read it right, 4 girls, under the age of 16 were in their car, one with a baby, and another car drives up and starts blasting them. Um, betting it's totally not random, and involves some really poor life choices.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10274689/Student-18-armed-knife-assaults-students-Florida-Institute-Technology.html
–the attacker's name is "The [religious] Pilgrim" in arabic, but I'm sure that it's just a coincidence he chose a knife… and decided to attack people.
n
Oh yeah, and Bob Dole died.
n
Add A Bridge Too Far.
Bridge over the River Kwai for a fictional but compelling look at the Jap side of the war.
n
https://gunfreezone.net/meanwhile-in-the-prison-country-of-australia/
any comment from our Australian correspondents?
"I'm just here to enforce the rules." There's always someone willing. Not much of a distance to "if you cross that line, we'll be forced to shoot you. I don't make the rules, it's just my job, yeah?"
n
>> Nope, not even close. Budget is about $1million a year. Money is tight. The church used to be much bigger but a rift and a loss of many people devastated the choice. Almost to the point of having to close.
I'd wager that the odds of finding another "Ray" in their congregation are probably pretty thin. Maybe time for the elders to realize their A/V offering needs to slim down (even temporarily) a bit.
Meanwhile in the Prison Country of Australia.
If you head an article that way it just goes to show your biased views. I tend not to go and give clicks to biased media. Especially the ones whose bias I do not share.
Dom Perignon tastes, Bud Light budget.
@marcelo
Fair enough, how about just the link to the twitter thread with the woman's actual videos?
https://twitter.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1466651206244257792
n
I tend not to go and give clicks to biased media.
— it's ALL biased. The only way to even approach truth is to look at a broad range and compare.
n
Non-existent is a better term. I have that unique combination of being technical (knowing how to connect stuff), understanding video (due my photography) and an anal orifice (because that's me). Three charming qualities that are tough to find in one package. There is only one adult camera operator. The rest are 5th and 6th graders. The adults don't want to do a camera because "it is too difficult". The teenagers don't want to operate a camera because they would rather be on their cell phones.
I was training an adult, who is a pilot (thus fairly technical), into operating the switcher and making it all work. After three months he said he could not handle the job. Too many things happening, controls too difficult, and too stressful.
It really takes a nerd and a jerk.
Events and programs require someone with drive to make them happen. Very few outlive their originators.
Locally, the Chamber of Commerce for our county seat used to hold a BIG booster event each year called The Brownwood Reunion. It lasted 3 days from morning til long after dark, attracted tens of thousands of people, hundreds of vendors, and hundreds of smaller events within the millieu, constant live music wrapping up with a headliner the last night, etc etc. It lasted until the organizer got tired and retired from pulling it together. They held it once more after that, and never again.
Our local art association for 20 years held a wonderful annual juried art competition and show that drew submissions from all over and paid out nice money prizes. It was a week long event that drew thousands in attendance. When the original organizers got tired and tried to hand it off, there was no one to take it on, so it simply ended. Despite the long history and prestige they'd built up to attract the best fine artists working in the southwest, no one would/could take responsibility for keeping it going.
Not on main media around here. Difficult to know all the circumstances. I generally support the quarantine measures taken as they were applied here and for the reasons that they were taken.
Australia started vaccination quite late in the game and did not want to go for herd immunity. Closed the country from outside and even closed states from other states. There was tracking and matching implemented and restrictions like wearing masks, not being able to open shops, quarantining and limits on how far you could move from your home. NSW locked down areas of Sydney and Sydney from the rest of the State for a while. On the other side of that equation they provided free vaccination and subsidies both to employers that had to shutdown and employees out of work seeking for new work.
. When vaccination levels went up substantially then the rules were changed and restrictions eased.
The end result of all of that was quite low numbers of transmission and very low numbers of deaths.
We now have very high levels of vaccinations and most of those restrictions are being lifted.
In my view, in this case, the ends justified the means.
There are always going to be cases that seem outrageous. It will depend on the individuals involved, their motivations and their actions as to what happens next. There is always a justice system that can act according to law.
>> I was training an adult, who is a pilot (thus fairly technical), into operating the switcher and making it all work. After three months he said he could not handle the job. Too many things happening, controls too difficult, and too stressful.
Hope he doesn't work for any airlines that I fly on.
This is true. What really bothers me is I want to Visit Australia before I can't travel anymore. It's always been a dream of mine. The US is now making returning *citizens* from other countries to jump through hoops, so we're panicking over OMICRON!!!!!!!!!, too.
tend not to go and give clicks to biased media.
— it's ALL biased. The only way to even approach truth is to look at a broad range and compare.
Yep. And so is everybody else including us. The important point for me is how far the bias goes. I try to be pragmatic and see the others point of view but I will always shy away from those that believe in something and force to extremes their beliefs and try to impose them on you.
When the narrative becomes your reality there is something very wrong and very bad things happen… For illustrative purposes see George Orwell. For implementation see communism, most of the left and extreme right.
>> so we're panicking over OMICRON!!!!!!!!!
But wait on buying those plane tickets since the inflation is only transitory!
One of the bad things that happened with lockdowns and travel bans was that a large number of Australians were not allowed back. Nothing is perfect and I think that things could have been better handled on that side of the regulations but such is life.
Travel to Australia should be possible not long from now. NSW has now started allowing travel for incoming students on special flights. The universities here have tailored things for foreign students heavily because they pay full price and then some… Travel bans have hurt them badly.
If you can come, you will not regret it. It is a beautiful country, with very nice cities like Sydney and the people are good too.
I do the Sunday broadcast for my church (LDS ward/congregation). Fairly simple. About 20 people connect. But since it is simple, that's OK.
Laptop running Win10 with OBS (Open Broadcast Software). A couple of web cams connected to a USB hub then to the laptop. Sound from system via headphone jack into laptop mike-in connection. Connection to local network via CAT6 cable. Broadcast via Zoom account (LDS church has a big account with Zoom that lets all wards [congregations] use the Church Zoom license).
I sit at the laptop and switch between the various 'scenes' in OBS. Nothing fancy. Simple graphics before and after the service. Good enough for those that have to connect (home-bound, etc).
Thus spoke every power-grabbing rabble-rouser and every tyrant.
That mindset is anathema to me.
Ray and Rick et al, thank you for doing the work to broadcast your services. These past couple of years it has meant the world to us to be able to watch services from our churches and from others. We couldn't go physically and these have really helped keep us connected. Even just basic recording on a phone with no editing (like we get sometimes from ours) is better than nothing. But good sound that allows us to hear the words easily makes it a lot easier to watch and much more enjoyable.
I did the video recording of football games in high school. Yeah, me, who thinks football sucks. But playing with the camera and the Sony tape recorder was a lot of fun.
The coach said I did a good job. Bonus!
Pre BetaMax. A smallish reel to reel helical scan video recorder. 1975/76.
As I said, some of us are more pragmatic than others and consider the circumstances, others prefer pitchforks to every response that contradicts their set minds.
The statement was made on purpose…
@Ray
What about a pay rate of one seventh of what your Pastor gets? Limited of course to Sunday only up to date of departure. Any optional extra days are one seventh, for whole or any part of a day.
Just my tuppence.
(I established a sports charity which was highly dependent on me. I gave two year notice. It was not until the last few months that any action was taken. I walked at the end of the two years. Charity still functions, not as well as when I was the boss – but then again you would expect me to say that.)
"One of the bad things that happened with lockdowns and travel bans was that a large number of Australians were not allowed back."
That statement occupies a strange twilight intersection of insanity, tragedy, and hilarity.
Every bully has a rationale for his actions. As does every tyrant. As does every sheep.
How about for me? I have not been coerced into being jabbed with the mRNA treatment. Could I go?
Why not? Your "vaccine" is supposed to protect you. It doesn't stop high viral loads, doesn't stop infection, doesn't stop transmission. So my acceptance of the "vaccine" shouldn't have any effect on you; you'll most likely get some variant of it at some future time anyway.
Fortunately, I have no desire to go to Australia. Unfortunately, I do want to go to Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy, and I think the scaredy-cats there won't let me in.
But you all continue to F'in love your science. And think of me next time your government decides the ends justify the means and they put you in those oh-so-convenient camps for failure to tithe to aboriginals or for refusing to use the right pronouns or not bowing to the Chinese.
Government programs tend to expand, and rarely go away. They often adapt their mission to "stay relevant" rather than be dismantled. See also the list of depression era FedGov agencies created "temporarily" that are still here sucking up tax payer dollars in "The Forgotten Man".
n
>> Government programs tend to expand, and rarely go away. They often adapt their mission to "stay relevant" rather than be dismantled. See also the list of depression era FedGov agencies created "temporarily" that are still here sucking up tax payer dollars in "The Forgotten Man".
Similarly in IT, temporary fixes for production issues often never get replaced by a more permanent fix.
Scary, annoying stuff. Replaced an ink cartridge in the wife’s printer. We made some comments about ink cartridges. We have an Echo Dot in the room. Suddenly I see ads for printers on Facebook.
Amazon don’t tell me you don’t listen unless the Echo Dot hears the key. You lying sacks of bull excreted residue.
Could be your phone…
n
,,,and it could be some data sharing from the place of purchase. Or via some 'browsing' of part numbers/etc for the printer.
If you haven't ever looked for printers on the Zon, or anywhere else, that data is shared. But I think it is highly unlikely that the Echo is the cause.
Try this experiment: think of a subject/product you never have looked at before – must be something that has never been searched by you or anyone in your household. Talk about the product in the same room as the Echo. Do not do any searches or browsing with that as a subject or search term. Only verbal mentions of the product. And only when near the Echo.
Do this for several weeks; maybe even a month. Then, continuing to not use that product term in any on-line forum (even here) see if ads for it show up in a FB ad.
I'm betting, if you followed the rules carefully, that FB will never give you ads for that product.
I'd bet that you had mentioned on FB (or other online places) printers. Or searched for something related to printers. FB (or any other place) doesn't need to listen to you. They just need to pay attention to the places you visit online, the things you search for, the posts you 'like'. Then you get ads for those products you have been researching or discussing online. Not things you say around the house.
My phone is downstairs, wife’s is in the kitchen. Never looked at printers on Amazon or any other site. The Echo Dot is the only listening device in the room.
The printer is probably the culprit, especially any new-ish HP.
I've run an audio mixer at small company conferences years ago and I could barely keep up with 3 mics. I have no idea how people do live TV production.
Been lurking, too busy to comment, but can’t resist this because it was a big part of my career.
Ray built a complex system that he learned to operate, and then couldn’t find anyone else to learn it. Stop and think about that. In my career, I have seen this over and over. Someone spends years becoming skilled at something, until he becomes essential. No one notices because the organization lacks the management skill to see it and correct it. Besides, things go well… until that someone gets hit by that proverbial bus and the whole thing just stops.
Note that I am not blaming Ray. He had the right stuff, and did a brilliant job with minimal or no supervision and a substandard volunteer staff. A warning sign. Ray’s boss, the pastor, should have acted early to correct this, but he didn’t. He was probably selected for his ministerial skills, but with little or no concern for management skills, a mistake repeated so many times I would think organizations would learn; but some don’t. They suffer the consequences.
Asking Ray to come back will not solve this problem. As has been said, the system is complicated enough that no one exists with the skill to operate it or the will to learn. Also, not mentioned is the organizational skill to maintain and recruit volunteers, who have been performing below par and have been drifting away.
At this point, a solution is NOT easy, especially with a mostly volunteer operation. The church could find a successor to Ray, but almost certainly not a replacement. It might take two or more people, operational and technical, and they might have to be paid a fair full time salary. The pastor has to decide if doing video is worth that cost. Bringing Ray back should not be an option, because that will only be a temporary repair, and might delay a needed reorganization. Even with success, Ray will again want to retire for the good reasons he stated.
Call me a PHB, but that is my tuppence (salute to PaultheManc!)
I've run an audio mixer at small company conferences years ago and I could barely keep up with 3 mics. I have no idea how people do live TV production.
Organization, training, rehearsal, devotion to work ethic, ability to think on feet, more. All seeming secrets today, mostly replaced by automation.
You didn’t mention camera operation, or switching (technical director), or even the director himself. Then there is the production team that creates the plan and script instructions. Who knows how it is done today, but it is much more automated. Note how well some shows are done, and how poorly others are. There are reasons. Nick and Geoff could add much more to this discussion.
I guess it kinda runs in the family…
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/05/attorney-sexual-misconduct-allegation-led-to-cnns-chris-cuomo-firing.html
>> My phone is downstairs, wife’s is in the kitchen. Never looked at printers on Amazon or any other site. The Echo Dot is the only listening device in the room.
@Ray, let me guess, you forgot to wear your tin-foil masks ; p
"Tony Blair Institute: New 1.2GW Offshore Wind Farm Every 10 Weeks to Hit Net Zero"
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/12/04/tony-blair-institute-uk-needs-a-new-1-2gw-offshore-wind-farm-every-10-weeks/
"The Tony Blair Institute has calculated that a wind farm equal to the largest offshore wind farm ever built must be completed every 10 weeks, to hit Net Zero by 2050."
These people are freaking nuts. How can anybody trust them ?
"A.F. Branco Cartoon – Undocumented Shoppers"
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-undocumented-shoppers/
"Minnesota isn’t the only state with ‘Smash and Grab” and it’s not the only crime happening there. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021"
Minnesota used to be such a boring state.
Scary, annoying stuff. Replaced an ink cartridge in the wife’s printer. We made some comments about ink cartridges. We have an Echo Dot in the room. Suddenly I see ads for printers on Facebook.
Amazon don’t tell me you don’t listen unless the Echo Dot hears the key. You lying sacks of bull excreted residue.
You can download and listen to your recorded conversations from Amazon at:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/download-recordings.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10277391/2-Louisiana-insurance-companies-fail-Hurricane-Ida.html
well, you knew it was likely. So we all pay.
n
@~jim: @paulthemanc:
I tend to write "two pen'orth", which is an archaism. That's "two pennyworth", abbreviated.
G.