Cool and clear, but of course there is a chance of rain. It stayed cool and breezy all day Sunday.
I was outside in the cool and breeze, in shorts, long sleeve t shirt, and a zippered jacket. I like the freedom of movement when climbing ladders and moving around that I get from shorts. I added a knit hat and was comfortable all afternoon. Without it, my nose was cold and I wasn’t comfortable. If you don’t normally wear hats, and it could be cold where you are, add some to your preps. One of the things I like about getting older and giving fewer *cough* flocks… is wearing hats for fashion, and ‘cuz I like them. They also keep my head warm and the sun out of my eyes, but really it’s about looking cool…
I got enough lighting up that I’m happy with the result. There are a couple of things I could add, but I’m out of time. The tree is up, lit, and decorated. It even has some presents under it! Since we’re only a couple of days away from Christmas, that is a good thing.
Plan for today is to take some stuff to storage, buy some groceries, and head out to my client’s later in the day, or possibly delay that until tomorrow. My wife is working at the office today, leaving the kids with me. I can park them in my client’s home theatre, but it would all be easier if I can wait for my wife to be at home on Tuesday.
Sometime soon, I need to sort and wrap my own presents too. Most of them were purchased so long ago I’ve kinda forgotten what I have. Some preppers make lists, I make piles.
I should also get a plan together for Christmas dinner. I’d like to have friends over, as we haven’t seen them in a while. I’ve got a nice ham, and some beef ribeye roasts in the freezer. And maybe, I could take the time to cook the elk that has been taking up space for these last few years…last time I tried to cook it in a hurry and it wasn’t the greatest. Hmm. Cookies need baking too. And maybe I should pick up some fresh veg.
Well, that’s my next few days sorted! Plans are easy, aren’t they?
Stack some stuff. Give yourself some choices.
nick
Mmmm. Elk. Bon appétit !
And Afghans remain fundamentally retarded.
Based on my direct experience of the last 30 years, you don't want a large number of Taiwanese suddenly showing up in your country either. They don't desire to live in the 8th century like so many from the Middle East, but the soft tyranny of Number One Son dominating the family culture and the tendency to play You Aint Got No Ice Cream games with situations of scarcity would be a lot tougher to assimilate in significant numbers than, say, refugees from the Ukraine, especially as the global economic situation gets tougher.
Word reached my wife this weekend that the Taiwanese relations on the West Coast are looking for a black market kidney for the “Aiee” in renal failure. Three days a week dialysis and accepting a place on a transplant list is for weak Americans who are polite and wait their turn.
Elk!
do you folks remember when Jerry posted “Dogs in Elk”?
Still screamingly funny.
https://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/dogsinelk.html
COVID gonna kill us all. So I got a new Gravatar.
49F and 80%RH this grey overcast morning.
I'm up. Kids are still asleep or hiding in their rooms watching forbidden youtube….
n
This popped up on my YouTube front page this morning. Of course, I've had a copy of the movie in the collection for a very long time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6v0euRlT8U
Whoever owns Orion must be spraying a little marketing money around this year. The home video release in the US got lost in the shuffle of early Covid.
@Brad wrote:
New immigrants need to be dispersed, not clustered. Fedgov imposed thousands of Somalis on Minneapolis. They got Little Mogadishu, which led to the immigration scam that got us Omar.
The Somalis are going to cluster regardless of where the government places them initially.
Minneapolis is polite about their antics, and, again, many cultures regard that in Americans as weakness.
I wish Cramer a fast and complete recovery. I still believe an orange suit is in his future, and I want him to live a long time with that shame after parole.
Maybe he can room with Spitzer again in the rest home.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/i-have-covid-jim-cramer-says-he-says-hes-been-triple-vaccinated-and-has-a-mild-case.html
Which reminds me …
The Measles pandemic dress rehearsal in Portland originated in an anti-vax cluster of Eastern European refugees in 2019. They were initially dispersed across the Northern US, but, being members of a radical Lutheran sect (effectively a cult), they were able to cluster with the church's help in SW WA State and the Portland Metro.
Speaking of the mild cold symptoms of the latest round of chinkyflu-
was coughing a bit this last week and using more kleenex than usual, so while looking for a good reason to work from home this coming week, my wife's gaze settled on the home covid test…….
I figured that I was coughing, so I should take the test. She'd be wfh anyway if I popped. Nope, not the wuflu.
Just allergies or a cold, and probably just allergies.
n
12-20-20-21
n
My dad was sick all last week with strep throat. He's never sick but this threw him for a loop and he had to take antibiotics and get a shot. He caught it from my stepbrother, who is an RN and caught it at work, and who was also sick for a week from it.
They've all had their COVID shots long ago, but I suspect they are immune to it regardless. I wish TPTB would actually study more about the transmission, because it's fairly obvious that many people simply are not going to catch it.
In Brown County, which is all I look at, 20% of new COVID cases are fully vaccinated. Only 40% of our ~30,000 population are vaccinated.
Meanwhile, all the usual germs are still going around, and since world travelers are back in action, all those other germs will return home with them, as usual.
Some preppers make lists, I make piles.
Siblings !
Tree is up and decorated.
Last of the eggnog is drunk.
Radio is silent and kids are headed to bed.
n
I miss eggnog greatly. When you are allergic to milk, you do not drink eggnog.
For a while, HEB and Kroger carried Soynog which was almost as good as real eggnog. But, they have both dropped Soynog for some reason.
I was born and lived my first 10 years in Mpls. Never saw a Somaliano. Went to smorgasbords on Sunday mornings.
I spent most of Sunday afternoon in the hospital with Mom and Dad. I took communion to them which I also bring to church for the wife and me. Our church uses a prepackaged communion mix which I absolutely dislike. So I buy this prepacked wafer and juice via Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0959G8MMW//p?tag=ttgnet-20
I wish Cramer a fast and complete recovery. I still believe an orange suit is in his future, and I want him to live a long time with that shame after parole.
Maybe he can room with Spitzer again in the rest home.
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/i-have-covid-jim-cramer-says-he-says-hes-been-triple-vaccinated-and-has-a-mild-case.html
"Why Active Investor Jim Cramer Switched His Strategy Off-Camera"
https://www.aarp.org/money/investing/info-2021/cramer-on-stock-market-strategy.html
"TV stock market pundit talks about getting older and reducing risk"
That's called a target-rich environment.
You don't have any friends, do you? Piles are a pain in the ass.
I thought the purpose was to dislike the stuff.
In other news. Picked up the former exchange student at the Atlanta airport yesterday. Drove down and back in the same day, Just a little bit under 600 miles round trip. A long day of driving. She will be here until December 30 when she will leave with a friend for New Orleans and the friend will drop her off at Atlanta on their way back.
And in other, other news. I installed W11 on my Surface Laptop. Everything seems to work. Found some settings in Personalization that gets the taskbar to behave normally. That along with Start11 from Stardock and the experience is not too bad. Icons are prettier.
Jehoshaphat. The Biden administration really said:
We are intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this.
For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.
12/17/2021 Press Briefing, Mr. Jeff Zients, introductory remarks to Dr. Walensky. I received it as a screen shot, disbelieved snd went searching. Found it here.
source:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-briefings/2021/12/17/press-briefing-by-white-house-covid-19-response-team-and-public-health-officials-74/
Piles are a pain in the ass.
–I see what you did there 🙂
n
Yeah Jenny, they hate us and want us dead. Once you internalize that, a whole lot of things get easier.
n
As I commented on Gab last night, is this before or after 10% of Americans die of the Chinese Bioweapon? Before or after global warming melts the icecaps and raises the sea level by a meter or more? Before or after all of the pollinating insects die and crop yields crash and 90% of the population starves to death?
Government (and activists with their hands in the money stream) have a very poor accuracy record when it comes to predicting catastrophes.
Over The Hedge: Cow Slime
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2021/12/20
I love cheese, the sharper the better. I like all kinds though.
Breaking Cat News: Christmas Tree Inspectors
https://www.gocomics.com/breaking-cat-news/2021/12/20
Well that brings a whole new meaning to the word "breaking".
Can recommend Houston Dairymaids as a source for your tasty (and expensive) cheese. They make an assortment box that makes a good gift for someone you like, who likes cheese. I received one last year, and bought one for myself this year.
I get confused, though. @lynn may not live in Houston. If so, please disregard, unless you want to pay shipping on top of their price.
Death throes of the beast sinking fast into the tar pit of irrelevance.
The last gasp will be whatever he says tomorrow night.
The beast's only power is that half of the population is still scared silly.
Can recommend Houston Dairymaids as a source for your tasty (and expensive) cheese. They make an assortment box that makes a good gift for someone you like, who likes cheese. I received one last year, and bought one for myself this year.
I get confused, though. @lynn may not live in Houston. If so, please disregard, unless you want to pay shipping on top of their price.
I live out in the wilds of Fort Bend County. Someday, Rosenberg may annex my neighborhood as they have already annexed about thirty homes out of the 450+ homes / 500+ lots.
My office building is also in the wilds of Fort Bend County. Someday, it may be annexed by Sugar Land but I doubt it. We pay them a fire station fee to stay away from us. Except, when we need them.
I am careful about how much cheese and other dairy I eat. My milk allergy gets set off by too much butter so I am wary of any dairy even though I love dairy foods. When I go to CMG (Chipotle Mexican Grill) I get them to throw some sour cream on top which sometimes gets me but, it is worth it.
Sugar Land is close enough to just call it Houston. 🙂
Future Austin exurb, home to workers at the Tonymobile factory — the closest affordable housing if the Californians don't stop moving here.
Sugar Land is close enough to just call it Houston.
Nah, we moved out of Sugar Land two years ago, back to the wilds of Fort Bend County outside of Rosenberg.
Sugar Land is at 130,000+ people. Rosenberg will be at 100,000 within a decade.
“Tesla’s Musk Wants Credit for Paying Taxes. He’s Not Going to Get It.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/53aa6bb7-86e0-36ae-934a-71dfc4027681/tesla%E2%80%99s-musk-wants-credit-for.html
“Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Time Person of the Year, is paying a potentially record amount of taxes in 2021. If he wants credit for it, he’s in for a disappointment. Musk won’t win respect for recent sales. He might, however, learn a lesson about politics and the power of PR.”
“Musk waded into the debate about billionaire taxation, asking his Twitter followers last month if he should sell 10% of his Tesla (TSLA) holdings to accelerate the recognition of capital-gains taxes. His followers said yes, and Musk has now sold about 13 million shares worth almost $14 billion, including sales of stock acquired through options. Most of those sales account for Musk’s recent tweet explaining he will pay about $11 billion in taxes for 2021.”
Oh my goodness, that is hilarious. The minute you try to impress the progs, they change the goals.
The full article is at:
https://www.barrons.com/articles/teslas-musk-taxes-credit-51640014077?siteid=yhoof2
Well. Fine. I intend to die at home some day, say, 30 or so years from now. Like I've been to a doctor in the last 15 years or so anyway.
I have three nieces from one sister. Good kids that don't take after their Mother, The Drunken Mormon.
Last January one niece posted on FB a picture of her getting the vax. Jeebus, what's with the tats? Second dose. She's some kind of nurse. She had a baby in October. She had a stroke two weeks later. She's 34. Strokes do not run in the family. She is far from being fat… Marilyn Monroe looks chubby in comparison.
"My neurologist believes the stroke was caused from the dissection in my artery clotting and then that clot dislodging and moving to my brain. (And the belief that the dissection happened from strain during childbirth.)
My primary care doctor believes the stroke occurred because I had COVID while I was pregnant and both makes your blood more coagulated. Its possible I formed a clot randomly because of this. Either way, it happened"
I can't recall hearing of anyone having a stroke because of childbirth. Ever.
But hey, get double "vaccinated" to "Follow The Science" then have the KungFlu anyway and /then/ have a stroke after having a baby. It's like a cherry on top of a banana split, right?
Hopefully the baby will be ok. Niece is recovering. Her right hand isn't 100% yet and her speech is improving.
Yes, I've head of some women getting high blood pressure near the end of term. This was not that.
I hope she doesn't have the other two kids vaxed.
And onward to Brenham… With the Austin Megaplex oozing to the southeast past Creedmore and Bergstrom…
Just. Ick. It's all gonna be highways, though Greg predicts toll roads, with nothing but freaking Applebee's and Papadeaux chain crap interspersed with outlet malls and joints selling patio furniture. Lovely. Just like what happened between Austin starting at Highland Mall and Round Rock.
On one plus side, it seems to rain a lot in that direction. That saves money on lawn watering. And it's mostly flat so easy building.
On another plus side, it's drier and rockier West of Austin. Real hilly between Burnet and SA, too. That slows the metro ooze.
But I'm sure there are plans to make 281 to almost an Interstate from Bulverde past Lampasas.
COVID gonna kill us all. So I got a new Gravatar.
Did you snatch that from Drudge ? He has a huge death image on his page right now.
https://www.drudgereport.com/
By the same token, Galveston is close enough to call it Houston. Just don't say that in Galveston.
It's interesting to watch the Metro sprawl growing.
Austin is oozing down I-35 towards San Antonio. And north towards Waco.
Austin is also oozing towards Houston and Houston is coming towards Austin.
Yesterday, just to mess with him, I suggested to Jim that he names his new to him Land Thing "Brady". He names all of his cars and trucks.
All via text messages.
His first response was "what?". I said it will hold a BUNCH of people, Brady is a good name.
About 15 minutes later he replies with "Marsha! Marsha! Marsha! ".
He got the joke. The neighbor who leases the fancy wheels is named? Yep.
Yup.
@Greg Norton
New info for me.
@Cowboy Slim
You don't have to visit, just schedule a connection through Mpls., and see who is running the concessions. Every-damned-one.
Yum! They have some delicious sounding cheeses.
If we are gonna be recommending cheese, I'm partial to Veldhuizen Cheese, outside of Dublin. Their cheddars are my favorites. They raise their own cows & sheep, milk them, make the cheese, age it in their own cheese cave, and sell it right from the farm.
We've been to several of their open house events.
Apostolic Lutherans.
I've posted here about the Measles pandemic (yes, it qualified as such) before. My wife's former office was a hot zone on Valentines Day morning, 2019.
My wife took care of a lot of the Apostolic women who would relent and seek regular medical care, contrary to the teachings of the elders which was to only consult within the community.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view), the community did not include medical professionals.
My wife took care of a lot of the Apostolic women who would relent and seek regular medical care, contrary to the teachings of the elders which was to only consult within the community.
I have no idea where they get that stuff in the Bible. It sure is not in my Bible.
"Microsoft is pushing the Control Panel aside in its latest Windows 11 updates"
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/17/22841028/microsoft-windows-11-control-panel-changes
Moving the deck chairs around on the Titanic ?
@paul, my prayers for your niece and her children. A stroke at a young age is a terrible burden to bear, for her family as well as for her. May God heal her completely.
It's there. You're just reading it wrong.
Kinda joking, mostly not. I've seen in person discussions of drastically different interpretations of the same verse, even when using the same English translation, and have read or heard about even more drastic disagreements. Heck, look at most of the history of Europe for the past 1700 years.
@SteveF
It's there. You're just reading it wrong.
Kinda joking, mostly not. I've seen in person discussions of drastically different interpretations of the same verse, even when using the same English translation,
No kidding.
I greatly appreciate WELS Lutherans for their internal consistency. You can ask any of the pastors for explanation of a particular passage, or how a particular modern idea works biblically, and you’ll get the same answer. The phrasing of the answer will vary, but the answers will be consistent. There is other stuff about WELS with which I disagree, however their consistency and true desire to learn the Bible and live by their understanding of its teaching I find uplifting and joyful.
We haven’t “officially” become members of any particular church. I was baptized as an adult by my sister in our childhood river with friends, and we routinely attend and tithe to both a church described as “not quite baptist” with a rock n roll praise band, and the WELS church associated with our daughters k-2 school (before the cowards voted to close it over $$$, no I’m not bitter) with a lone pianist and hymns dating back to Martin Luther himself. Seemingly polar opposites they offer similar messages and often similar scripture interpretations.
The WELS church is usually deeply satisfying, the other is joyful but a bit like popcorn and leaves me with as many questions as not.
It's being studied by analysis of cases in other countries, cases here, and more. That's how they are getting the data on transmissibility. Another source of info is analysis of sewage. They look at relative abundance of the various strains and the absolute amount of virus in the water to look at overall infection rates. Houston has a program to sample the waste weekly at a bunch of sites and do analysis.
The data from South Africa are supporting higher transmissibility (the rising number of cases and the prevalence of Omicron) and lower virulence (the rate of hospitalization). The data from the UK are still very preliminary, and despite headlines saying it is as virulent as Delta, the study specifically disclaims that as the number of hospitalized cases was small (24) so the error bars are huge.
A roundup here. https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/12/20/omicron-post-8/
It happens, especially if blood pressure is elevated. Risk is about 30 per 100k pregnancies.
https://www.nyp.org/neuro/stroke/pregnancy-related-stroke
“I could give a s–t what (people) think”
https://www.tampabay.com/sports/bucs/2021/12/20/striking-defiant-tone-bruce-arians-welcomes-antonio-brown-back-from-suspension/
A year from now, a forged vaccine card will seem like a ridiculous reason to cut a player when a Super Bowl ring is at stake.
Probably moving to some COM object accessible via PowerShell or another client.
The model is netsh.
Microsoft probably wants some kind of Docker-type functionality to run Windows code instead of Docker utilizing the bloatware WSL and running Linux containers.
Plus RDP not wrapped in SSH is really vulnerable and not easy to fix without breaking a lot of legacy clients.
A year from now, a forged vaccine card will seem like a ridiculous reason to cut a player when a Super Bowl ring is at stake.
The koof ain't gonna be gone in a year. Shoot, we are not even within shouting distance of the omega variant yet. Maybe in five years, probably ten years.
oooohhh…
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden_/status/1472685394558865413
Took a load to storage, and swung by the grocery store.
Saved $82 on seriously on sale meat. Spent $270 for a cart full of food.
Pork shoulder (boston butt) was 88c/pound limit two. I make carnitas, and could make my family sausage… so I bought the two biggest.
Select quality ribeye roast (beef) was $3.88/pound. It’s good enough to slice into steaks, but I like choice better for that. Select is quite acceptable for beef roast with some prime rib seasoning. Limit one so I bought the biggest.
School district dropped another $750 on the benefits card for food for the kids. Everyone in the district gets it, no financial qualifying. F’ing crazy, but this year I’m using it and buying groceries. I paid the taxes, I’m getting some back.
Few holes on the shelves but choices were still limited.
n
–still having ordinary local disasters.
n
I beg to differ. I think Omicron spells the death-knell for the actual dangerous Chinese Communist Party virus. It's far more contagious, out-competes Delta (which out-competes Alpha), and presents like the common cold. 80% of the population is naturally immune to Alpha, and Omicron is not dangerous (mostly).
Omicron is so contagious that most everyone who is capable of catching the WuFlu cooties will have done so over the next year. If there's a residual risk, it's on par with the common cold.
But if you mean that American Commies will still be restricting our rights using koof as an excuse, I won't argue with you. Those fornicators will push until they get pushed back, and they've managed to scare enough Karens to keep the pressure up.
"Those fornicators will push until they get pushed back"
Pushback starts Jan 2023.
Item 1: Republican congress compels top officials from DoJ, FBI, and Capitol Police to identify prominent Jan 6 agitators that were "mysteriously" uncharged and unwanted, and identify their relationships to federal and DoC governments, appearing under oath with every document in hand.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/it_wasnt_just_uncharged_ray_epps_leading_the_capitol_breach_he_had_helpers.html
50% of the population is still scared.
Today in Barnes & Noble near Lakeline Mall (North Austin), the scaredy cats were 90% of the store customers.
So…
In Germany, You Must Be Fully Vaxxed before Your Death by Assisted Suicide
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/in-germany-you-must-be-fully-vaxxed-before-your-death-by-assisted-suicide/
I know it's to protect those doing the "assisting," so maybe rewrite the lede.
Ya think?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/20/us-closer-to-civil-war-new-book-barbara-walter-trump-capitol-attack
Yeah, the more people talk about it, the more likely it seems. Kinda self fulfilling prophesy…
n
I saw that quote from the Whitehouse, and thought it was a fake as well. While I agree with the intent behind it (get more people to vaccinate), the phrasing is beyond idiotic, utterly tone-deaf. How to piss people off.
However, if they actually thought that was not going to be counterproductive, it does show just how little the two sides in the US understand each other.
It's that time of year for us as well: We do a lot of smoking, especially cold-smoking, in January. Among other things, I have bacon for breakfast most mornings. Homemade is way better than store-bought. Among other things, homemade bacon loses a lot less grease. The store-bought stuff leaves puddles and lakes of grease in the pan. We did three sides last year, and ran out over the summer. So it will be four sides this year.