Still cool and clear for one more day, according to the national forecast. I’ll take it. It feels much more like the season at 50F than 80F. Sunday was bright and clear, with light breezes here.
I got some stuff done. Moved a whole pickup load to storage, and you can barely tell. Mostly because I moved other stuff back into the area I moved stuff out of. There is camping stuff all over too, after the return of the pack, and their packs. 😉
I got some lights up in the yard too, just before dusk. And really a bit after dusk too, because I spent some time chatting with my new neighbors across the street. Young couple, seem very nice. Very excited to be in their new home.
Plan for today is drop of TV at auctioneer, take some stuff to my secondary location, move more stuff out of the house, pickup daughter and do some more decorating outside and in. Probably won’t get to my client’s house today. The round trip time would eat too much of the day.
————————————————————————————————
The devastation from the tornadoes in Kentucky, Illinois, etc. is dramatic. Disaster can hit anywhere and anytime. It was the tornadoes in Oklahoma a number of years ago that demonstrated to me the need to establish some preps off site. This disaster just further confirms it. Some hazards can really only be dealt with after the fact. If you are in a tornado or wild fire or mudslide area, or any other sudden but localized threat area, think about the difference a couple of bins with clean clothes, duplicate records, and some easy to prepare food and drink would make in the event your home was destroyed.
Sometimes it won’t be the stacks, but where you’ve stacked them.
nick
50F and 83%RH after a night of poor sleep. Dragggity drag drag today.
n
I read an article about 10 years ago that said making a storm room is about $800 for new construction. Filled concrete block walls and a slab ceiling for the Master Bedroom closet, IIRC. I don't know why it isn't part of the building code. If I ever build again, I will do it.
I don't know why it isn't part of the building code.
–it's the DOOR that is the issue. When you can find one without signing up for a quote, they're priced like these…
https://securalldirect.com/safety-storage/fema-storm-safe-doors-320-361
n
Seems like there’s room for a “good enough” specification that meets a lesser standard.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10304213/Toss-away-money-Bloomberg-mocked-advising-spend-pay-check-immediately.html
–my bold. They say that like it's a bad thing.
n
Uh, no, thank you:
007 'could be non-binary': Britain's most famous spy could in future be someone who considers themselves neither male or female, says Barbara Broccoli
We watched the latest. A good popcorn movie, but cut out the wokeness scenes and it would have been better and shorter. I didn't like the ending, but a good way to start the reboot. Too much background that should have been built up better in previous Craig series.
re tornadoes, this from a FEMA handbook. Just like earthquakes and hurricanes, the average tornado is just bad weather here in Tornado Alley.
Note the bit about trailer houses (as Mr Ray brought up yesterday), and about tornadoes following "low terrain". One of my theories is that trailer parks are built on less-than-desirable land: flat, low-lying, near draws/creeks, etc.
Thus they are located in tornado pathways.
Thus they are located in tornado pathways.
–or God just hates trailer parks. 😉
n
Disney management doesn't truly see any IP as core and something to care about beyond the legacy product and, possibly, Pixar. The content in the Magic Kingdom in Orlando is a huge clue about what they consider essential.
Of course Pixar is because Laurene Powell Jobs is the largest single Disney shareholder. For now.
Think "If You Had Wings" couldn't roll back into the Buzz Lightyear game/ride building in a few months, sponsored by [Official Disney airline du jour]? Wanna bet?
At this point, priority is stabilizing the stock price. Unfortunately, depending on your point of view, Sony will make the big money on "Spiderman", and no Baby Yoda is heading to Disney+ for another year.
Theme parks may be all the company has for a while, and they burned the fans there by essentially setting a $300/day target for admission with Disney Genie replacing FastPass and restricting/eliminating various forms of the annual pass.
I don't get Fuher FauXi and his push to vaccinate 5-year olds. They aren't dropping like flies, so it can't be "Save The Children". You get triple vax'd and you still spread cooties and get sick. His waffling on what "fully vaccinated" means is pure fear porn. And now it's "if you need a vax every year, tough shit". And many States are just falling in line and making it a mandate.
I'm beginning to think if we just let WuFlu run it's course, we'd be done with it.
FauXi has to go.
@MrAtoZ
”I don't get Fuher FauXi and his push to vaccinate 5-year olds.“
1) Control the populace
2) Destroy the non-vaccinated control group
3) Pure unbridled exercise of power
Eliminate the control group to cut a decade off of the approval process for AIDS vaccines based on mRNA tech. Fauci bungled AIDS early on and he insisted on a vaccine approach there before giving in on therapeutics.
For J&J, approval of a human rabies vaccine. Adenovirus rabies vaccines have been around for animals for a long time but the tech was never approved for human use.
A treatment exists for rabies in humans, but it is inconvenient and not as profitable as a vaccine would be.
@MrAtoz: 3 should be 1, 1 2, and 2 3.
Fauci is taking his orders from the UN. Part of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals has for decades been "Universal Vaccination". Fauci and all others will continue this momentum regardless of what the vaccines do, just as they approved the dangerous Dengue vaccine unchanged after the tragic results of its rollout.
From the UN website:
And on the UN's dedicated Immunization Agenda 2030 website:
They may be using the word "benefits" in a way other than you and I would.
I don't think I ever lived in a house in the US that didn't sit on a slab. If it doesn't have a basement, what *else* is it sitting on? Um…I'm not sure I want to know the answer to that question…
Let's just say: crappy construction standards are a lot of the reason for the massive damage that tornados cause. Stop with the 1.5"x3.5" sticks on 2 foot centers. If better construction was standard, it wouldn't even cost much.
The first house that the wife and I bought in Sweetwater, Texas in 1982 was a pier and beam house. The 900 ft2 2/1 house was built in 1942 as a married officers quarters in Big Spring, Texas and dragged over to Sweetwater after WW II. The piers were concrete blocks and the beams were 2x8s. The floor was double layered 2x8s. There was a concrete ledge around the outside of the house. The air conditioner was a window unit in the living room and the heat was a floor furnace in living room. The wood floor did not creak at all. The windows were all wood frames with 8 inch by 8 inch panes and leaked like sieves. I had to crawl in the three foot crawl space once to fix the floor furnace exhaust pipe, that was fun, not.
I don't know why it isn't part of the building code.
–it's the DOOR that is the issue. When you can find one without signing up for a quote, they're priced like these…
https://securalldirect.com/safety-storage/fema-storm-safe-doors-320-361
n
Yup, the 6,000 ft2 barndominium that I looked at several years back had a 14 foot by 20 foot safe room made out of concrete walls and ceiling with a door like that. The safe room was the gun safe also. He lived by the Brazos River and his house sat up on a hill that he made about 14 feet tall.
I should have known. The concept I was referring to used a normal exterior grade door. Good enough, right? Might not be perfect, but would likely save a lot of lives.
Someone proposed using PVC piping and residential water pressure for sprinklers-lite. Put them in residential garages and kitchens and they would stop a lot of fires without the cost of cast iron pipes, pumps, and tanks required for commercial properties. Didn't meet code.
Well, I will do it, even if it doesn't meet FEMA requirements for a safe room. $800 is cheap for the protection (although it is likely 3-5x as much today with all out transitory inflation).
Went to the veteran's service office to get my loss of hearing claim increased. My hearing has gotten worse over the last year. Time for a new test and hopefully rating increase. VA already considers my hearing loss service related and that was a major hassle.
While talking with the service officer I told him about my knee and the hassles of having the replacement paid for by the VA. He stated I should file a claim with the VA for disability for the knee. I am already rated for my back and just about anything skeletal is considered the same. My back is service connected and he thinks the knee would be considered for disability because of the back injury. It is an automatic 30% rating.
I would think he knows because dealing with the VA and disability is what he does for a living. I think he is paid by the county, not the VA.
Because of the way the VA does disability, I cannot get 30% disability on what is already disabled. So the VA would really apply 30% to only 60%, making it 18%, rounded up the next multiple of 10, making it a 20% rating added to my 40%. Thus giving me 60% rating. My goal has always been to get to 50% because at that point the VA pays 100% of prescription medicines.
Last words of this post are the most telling…
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2021/12/13/ny-times-columnist-texas-is-leading-us-to-civil-war-n435075
Time for another recall vote…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/in-response-to-texas-abortion-ban-newsom-calls-for-similar-restrictions-on-assault-weapons/ar-AARJ3im
…because the last one worked so well …
I guess that Friday the thirteenth falls on a Monday this month. Blah, I have the Monday blues.
Dilbert: Wally Gets Covid Often
https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-12-13
Hmmm….
Did you hear about the people on the Los Angeles, California shore swimming out to the container ships over Thanksgiving ?
One of the container ships had a Black Friday Sale banner on it.
I have no idea how to do a drum roll on here … Ba dum.
"Aggies QB Zach Calzada Has Entered The NCAA Transfer Portal"
https://www.si.com/college/tamu/football/aggies-qb-zach-calzada-enters-ncaa-transfer-portal
"The Aggies will be losing the quarterback that helped them beat Alabama"
Really ? I swear, NCAA football is becoming more and more NFL lite.
Maybe Calzada will move to the Houston Texans.
few tips
buy as much as you plan to consume in next months, installments only, zero rate is optimun
Rememer, all predictions of governements are short, always
Wait for the next Volcker
again, spend on durable or semidurables, installments, always, as long as possible.
I remember when I was going to be married, lots of years ago, I bought in 48 installments kitchen fridge and bed, first month, half my pay, 24 month, a subway ticket.
Dont forget, our country buys TVs on 30 installments and houses on cash only (No credit of course)
"Elon Musk Is Named Person of the Year. Someone Forgot to Tell Tesla Stock."
https://www.barrons.com/articles/elon-musk-tesla-spacex-time-2021-person-of-the-year-51639408565?siteid=yhoof2
"In addition to being the wealthiest man in the world, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is Time‘s 2021 “Person of the Year.” That hasn’t helped Tesla stock, which has dropped more than 5% on Monday."
"The magazine announced its yearly pick Monday, saying Musk’s contributions to the electric-vehicle market and space travel were driving society’s “most daring and disruptive transformations.”"
again, spend on durable or semidurables, installments, always, as long as possible.
I remember when I was going to be married, lots of years ago, I bought in 48 installments kitchen fridge and bed, first month, half my pay, 24 month, a subway ticket.
Dont forget, our country buys TVs on 30 installments and houses on cash only (No credit of course)
Why installments as long as possible ?
Which country is this ?
I'm old enough to remember 13% mortgages in the 80s in the US. A Volker won't happen again without the suburbs burning.
As my manager at The Death Star used to say about buying flood insurance on his South Tampa home, "They will let you have one arson."
At this point, even a reversion to historic lows of, say, 6% on a fixed 30 year mortgage would crater the US housing market.
8.5%, where we bought our first house in 2000, would mean a depression.
Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas tree …
Gainesville and LSU are going to hand someone a blank check.
And UT has a "fired coach walking" when the plan was to jump to the SEC this Spring.
"The Armageddon Inheritance" by David Weber
https://www.amazon.com/Armageddon-Inheritance-David-Weber/dp/0671721976/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
Book number two of a three book space opera military science fiction series. I read the well printed MMPB published by Baen in 1993, my book is the sixth printing from 2009. This is my favorite SF series of all time as I have reread it eight or ten times now. In fact, the binding of my book has broken since I have read it so many times. This book has sadly has gone out of print as a standalone book. But, the omnibus is still available as a new book:
https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Ashes-David-Weber/dp/141650933X/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
55,000 years ago, a Fourth Imperium Utu class 2,000 km diameter planetoid, Dahak hull number 177291, dropped out of Euchanch drive due to a supposed failure. Dahak and his 250,000 person crew were headed to a picket post for forty years at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. It had been 7,000 years since the last genocidal invasion of the Achuultani, a race who periodically swept the Milky Way of all life, who had destroyed three Imperiums and countless civilizations. But the FTL drive failure was not a accident, it was sabotage. And the mutiny that followed exiled the mutineers and crew alike on Earth, the third planet of the Sol System.
Today, the unmanned picket posts are warning of the imminent invasion by the Achuultani. And Dahak is not receiving any warnings by hypercom from Central Command. Dahak is transmitting a warning to Central Command now as that capability was restored when Colin MacIntyre defeated the mutineers. So, Dahak and his new crew of 100,000 Terrans are going in search of help after offloading most of the space battleships, the two massive industrial rebuilders, the space cruisers, the space pinnaces, and the space fighters to help the Terrans fight off the Achuultani scout forces, a force of well over 10,000 twenty kilometer to forty kilometer long battleships that want to destroy all sapient beings.
I do not know why this is my favorite SF book and series of all time. I think that I like the standup position of the chief protagonist, Colin the First. Or that there are so many different species of intelligent space races. Or that the book is written so tightly, especially when compared to Weber's later works. Or that an self aware artificial intelligence shares the main protagonist job in the book, much like Heinlein's "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress".
I keep on hoping that David Weber will write more books in the Dahak series but, I doubt it. He did write the Safehold series which is along the same lines as this book, overpowering space aliens and self aware artificial intelligences. BTW, there is an ending to the Safehold, Honorverse, and Dahak series that David Weber wrote as joke:
http://www.davidweber.net/posts/443-how-safehold-wont-end.html
Here is my 2006 review of the book:
"Great sequel with awesome space battle scenes. The story line is solid and the awesome battle scenes are just the icing on the cake. Plus, I really enjoy dual scene stories."
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars (yes 6 stars, I have about 20 six star books)
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (52 reviews)
Oh, Christmas tree. Oh, Christmas tree …
Gainesville and LSU are going to hand someone a blank check.
And UT has a "fired coach walking" when the plan was to jump to the SEC this Spring.
Reputedly, LSU offered Jimbo Fisher $125 million over eight years to leave TAMU. The first year was $13.5 million. A 50% increase over TAMU.
Gainesville will give Urban Meyer anything he wants if the Gators lose in the Graspawillie Bowl, a definite possibility with UCF looking to prove that they are Big 12 material.
Ironically, absent a cold front, that could be a very nice evening game in Tampa. Tickets are down to “standing room only” right now.
@lynn, during periods of high inflation, buying on credit, with a fixed rate makes sense. you get the goods, and pay back the loan with money that is constantly decreasing in value. Ie an amount that is a good chunk of salary at the beginning of the loan, but will only buy a subway ticket by the end of the loan.
Assuming no adjustable rate, and no 'revaluing' of the currency.
n
—he's right there, it will be a war of atrocities and neighbors, not stand up battles. A war of terror. Think "The Troubles" and Bosnia, not CW1.
Texas has a mint, and a gold depository.
n
Assuming no adjustable rate, and no 'revaluing' of the currency.
When the inflation rate hits 25% or 30%, all bets are off. The Fed may very well order all "fixed" rate loans to be adjustable rate. This has happened elsewhere, could very well happen here also.
And, we could very well get “New Dollars” to replace “Old Dollars”. Who knows what would happen to all debt ?
Oops. Looks like UF hired a coach already. I've been busy.
BTW, I now work for the big computer maker based here in Round Rock.
My wife joked I was probably hired to be token old guy.
Whatever.
C/C++ working on the server admin subsystem. Straight C is turning into the new COBOL.
BTW, I now work for the big computer maker based here in Round Rock.
My wife joked I was probably hired to be token old guy.
Whatever.
C/C++ working on the server admin subsystem. Straight C is turning into the new COBOL.
Congrats ! Are they going to make you go into the office or stay remote ?
I like hearing that C is the new Cobol. Maybe I have something to fall back on if this crashes and burns.
I *asked* to be in the office, but the job is remote for now.
Idaho church replaces stained glass window depicting Robert E Lee, George Washington and Abe Lincoln with image of America's first black female Methodist bishop wearing LGBTQ scarf
–she's the trifecta for the box checkers…
n
I've been spending the last several days doing an update of my plugin that adds Zon affiliate tags to Zon links. It needed a new and more efficient way of extracting Zon URLs, which you may have noticed here when you see some broken and/or unbalanced links.
So, a lot of testing. Got it working on my test site, but then noticed that all the URLs had the site URL as part of the Zon URL.
Now, that testing site is used for lots of WP development testing (themes and plugins), and it turns out it got a bit corroded. Rather than try to search for the offending code, I just blew it away, and installed a brand-new testing place.
And the plugin seems to work as it should, now that it is on a 'clean' testing site. A lesson learned. Good thing I get paid by the hour on my development work. (Bad thing: the pay rate is zero.)
Some more testing of the plugin, then it will get installed here (and updated on the WP plugin repository). But, now that I have a clean development environment, I won't have the weird errors I've been seeing. (Although there will be *new* weird errors…)
Chicago Moving Forward With Lawsuit Against Jussie Smollett
This will likely not be the only lawsuit.
Posted by Mary Chastain
Monday, December 13, 2021 at 01:00pm
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/12/chicago-moving-forward-with-lawsuit-against-jussie-smollett/
Juicy don't look like a saver.
He best use the pre-sentencing time to get some coin comin' in.
If he don't have the stones to reach out to a brutha and ask Dave to do a quick joint project–no, not smokin' dope, dope–he best prove some o' that Empire rubbed off with some rappin'.
old joke:
Did you hear about the moron that moved from Missouri to Arkansas?
Raised the IQ of both states.
headline today:
Chris Wallace raises the IQ level of two networks
What's the betting on whether that Idaho church will have its new window smashed or will simply be burned to the ground?
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/hospitalizations-mortality-cut-half-after-brazilian-city-offered-ivermectin-everyone-pre
re: Brazil and Ivermectin
I'm sure that totally won't work in the US, because worms or something.
And God forbid you actually try to give patients a drug that’s safer than aspirin on the chance it might save their life.
Tip for all of you living in tornado or hurricane country: As soon as the warning sounds, stuff your pockets with hotdogs. That way the search dogs will find you first.
Follow steve for more recipes!
n
Interesting, just took a phone survey for AG in Tx. Ken Paxton. Apparently, besides his free gift to all the Gridly users in Feb, he's some sort of financial criminal.
So there were a lot of questions about "would it change my mind about how I'd vote for him if I knew…. "
–supported closing the border
–was indicted for financial crimes
–said "lets go brandon"
–had his wife introduce a bill that would get him off the hook for financial crimes
–sued FedGov for several things
–tried to make some kind of financial crime legal
–prosecutes illegals, traffickers, etc
–more financial/investment bad stuff
–doesn't like abortion
and it went on like that for a while.
then there were some media consumption questions about how I watched tv, no choice at all for "I don't". How many days a week do I watch Fox? Never. How many days a week do I listen to conservative talk radio? Never. How often do I go to church? Never.
I always get the question taker to laugh several times during the survey, this was no different. My life is so reduced, I enjoy taking phone surveys….
n
@lpbdw
I think a particular type of worm is the problem.
If you overlay the US Kungflu case map with the Democrat voter location map, the result is very indicative.
Just finished publishing a book of Physics Jokes on the Zon. Paperback is ready, but the hardback is on hold because of copyright issues (I just grabbed a bunch of jokes from the interwebs…figured that jokes are not really copyrightable stuff.). Same content on both. I figure that the hardback will be ready by tomorrow. Probably just an automated hold, since the paperback went through OK after an initial automated hold.
It's a Christmas present for my new grandson-in-law, who is studying to be a physicist. There are jokes in there that he will need to explain to me.
I also published the same hardback book privately on Lulu.com. That should arrive before we arrive in UT after Christmas. I've found Lulu printing to be quite good.
I ordered some 'author' copies from Zon, and they said delivery the first week of Jan; a reasonable time. Book is here, if you are slightly interested. https://amzn.to/3rTRC9S .
Got my ordered book on Sunday. Well done ! I am throwing it in my Christmas gifts to my son with the Chemistry and Physics degrees. Hopefully half of the jokes will be new to him. And maybe he can explain some of the exotic jokes to me.
You are becoming quite the published author ! This makes seven books for you, congrats !
George P. Bush antics. Today was the filing deadline for the Republican primaries.
As much as I think the Griddy situation stinks and Paxton needs to be primaried, it is time for the Bush family to find something else to do with their lives.
The family got burned by Lawton Chiles playing dirty phone bank tricks in 1994, when the old he-coon came down off of his meds long enough to realize that he really could lose to George P.’s daddy, Jeb!. Of course, they learned and applied the same tricks four years later.
>> headline today:
Chris Wallace raises the IQ level of two networks
"CNN+" Yet another pay streaming service. No thanks.
All the ones we watch are free with our Verizon unlimited plan. They just recently added AMC+ to the others.
I forgot to mention it yesterday, but I had a thought…
Reading about Alice's Adventures with D2, and getting to the Jabberwocky poem.
My thought was that December 12 should be Jabberwocky Day.
"One two, one two, and through and through….."
n
@Rick, this Bizarro is for you:
https://comicskingdom.com/bizarro/2021-12-13
I was a Silverado Savings customer long ago. I have held a grudge against the whole family ever since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savings_and_loan_crisis#Silverado_Savings_and_Loan