Hot hot hot too fricken hot… maybe some rain later.
And humid. Soaked to the skin, and brains boiled working in the back yard yesterday. I did find some shade under a market umbrella, and that saved me. Did I mention it was hot?
After working on my gennie for a few hours, since I was soaked through anyway, I cut the grass. It was overcast and a bit cooler anyway. I still love that Toro battery mower.
We spent the evening celebrating D1 becoming a teen. That will probably be the last time we’re happy about that, LOL. Didn’t get time to play any games yesterday so we are supposed to play some today. AFTER the clothes shopping.
I”m going to finish the gennies, if I can. And go through the stored gas to see if any of the stuff in the cabinet also got ruined. I did discover a point source failure, potentially. I use a hand pump to move gas around. It’s a cheap Harbor Freight thing, but it works really well and it lets you quickly transfer gas from a heavy can to your gennie, or suck all the old bad gas out. I’m going to get 4 more, put two at the BOL and leave the others here. I will dedicate one to water, and have the other for gas. It’s so much easier than holding 5 gallons in the air while attempting to control a pour into a small gas tank. Recommended.
So USE some preps this week. Find out if you have what you need to make it work, or not. And stack it up.
n
You also need to seriously consider fuel stabilizer. Get the marine fuel stabilizer as it is made for really humid environments.
Reminds me of the joke. This guy and gal in a car in Houston are doing some serious make out session and it is getting hot and heavy. She keeps saying “lower”. She eventually gets frustrated and says “I want you to kiss me where it is really moist and smells bad” The guy starts his car and starts driving. The girl exclaims “what are you doing?”. He says, I am driving to Bay City.
70 F and raining here on the West side of Fort Bend County. It has been raining since 1 am and the ditch has no water in it. The ground was so dry that it soaked up the 1 to 2 inches of rain that has fallen.
ERCOT made it through the heat wave that was the middle of May. We topped it off with 99 F yesterday and 71,000 MW on a Saturday. I hate to think what Pecancorner got yesterday. We are suppose to top out at 86 or 86 F for the next week.
The edge of the Hill Country in Round Rock was 99 with severe thunderstorms late yesterday.
I don’t remember a Memorial Day Weekend without serious rain here.
Lots of houses getting ready for Real Estate Silly Season starting next Friday. Home Depot and Lowes were packed yesterday. I doubt 5% 30 year fixed mortgages will quell enthusiasm … or squelch inflation.
Everyone wants something done about inflation, but no one wants the consequences of a 19% Fed Funds rate reflected in their home values or 401(k) plans.
Basement apartment ceiling project is finally done. Looks good. Good thing the recessed LED lights are on a dimmer. On full bright I think it is too bright. Used five lights, four in the main area, one in the small hallway to the bathroom and bedroom. New A/C vents and moved slightly further towards the kitchen area. Forces more air movement through the rest of the area.
We also took the time to have Stanley Steemer clean the carpets. It has not been done in that area in several years and has suffered through multiple teenage exchange students. Surprisingly the carpet was not as dirty as I would have thought.
Replaced all the switches and outlets. Dual switch with dimmer and speed control for the ceiling fan in the bedroom. Used the squared outlets and switches and all the plates have invisible screws hidden by a cover plate. One outlet I could not do as the wires were too short, box was really recessed, and one of the plate screws was busted off. Had an electrician friend come and do that outlet as he knows tricks and techniques to make it work. I did pay him.
Put in a dehumidifier on the counter in the kitchen part. This allows continuous draining into the sink. I blocked the drain for a day. Almost half a sink full of water was removed by the dehumidifier. Never would have thought that much would get removed as the A/C removes quit a bit of moisture.
Apartment now looks much better. That old suspended ceiling was crap. And we lived with it for 30+ years.
Local high school girls softball team is off to play in the state championship. Boring game yesterday, low score 2-0. Here is a link to the pictures for a time sink.
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/OSHS
It was 102F here yesterday, but finally I think the heat wave has broken. It was 60F when we got up this morning, which is the lowest low we’ve seen in 2 weeks. 11 out of the past 15 days have been over 100F, eight of those over 102F (108, 105, etc)…. which would not be unusual for August or even September, but is real hot for May!
Because it is so dry, I still have not needed to mow … not even the weeds grow. And that quarter inch we got a week ago did the same thing Lynn is seeing: it just soaked in but wasn’t enough to kickstart any growth. There are real chances of rain over the next few days. We’d like about 4 inches, spread out, please. And some in the daytime so we can enjoy watching it would be nice!
@Nightraker, I meant the gas tanks on cars, NOT jerry cans. I would only use a plastic can for very short term storage, just a few days. If I needed more cans, I would buy old mil surplus USMC cans, but they are hard to find, and probably very expensive. AFAIK, all approved cans, and especially spouts, leak. They are a hassle, and are hazardous.
Do you mean Baytown with the refineries and shipping?
Baytown has Buc-ee’s and, the last time we went, decent food at the Monument Inn.
Tuesday is Election Day in Texas. The Governor’s race was set in February, with Robert Francis ensconced as Shadow Governor until November, but various Congressional race nominations and the Republican Attorney General entry on the ticket are still not final.
Poor P. Diddly. The dynasty may end with him, but the cabal hasn’t pulled out the really negative stuff about Paxton from what I’ve seen in the desperation ads so far.
https://dnyuz.com/2022/05/21/bush-dynasty-its-influence-fading-pins-hopes-on-one-last-stand-in-texas/
Yes, my bad. Original joke was Beaumont but I decided to change the location and borked that attempt. Thanks for making me feel stupid. Wonderful start to the day.
The election is the run-off. Paul and I both voted early. In a run-off, every vote really matters because so few people vote in these.
George P Bush might have had a chance but he mishandled the Alamo situation very badly. By allowing the UN/Leftist crowd to keep a foothold on disrespecting our traditional history with their revisionist crap, he showed that he’s all hat, regardless of his MAGA claims.
Paul and I both voted early. In the run-off for Land Commissioner, we had a choice between Dr Tim Westley and our current State Senator, Dr Dawn Buckingham. We voted for Dr Tim Westley.
We had supported Dr Buckingham in her first Senate race, however, I’m not happy with her. She’s a physician and has kept a very low profile in the “male/female” debates, never commenting, avoiding the subject, while claiming to be a strong conservative. That shows she lacks all political courage, and will choose expediency over any principles. So she lost our support.
Baytown definitely has something odd in the air, both literally and in a figurative sense. My wife’s office partner in Vantucky did her residency at Methodist there.
Spoiled rich girl, daughter of a big Houston dentist, but that didn’t totally explain the Prog politics and weird stances on medical issues like her reluctance to prescribe antibiotics.
Once upon a time, I had a good friend who was a chief of police for a city of 40,000.
He explained his view on prostitution to me.
Every so often, citizens would get upset about the prostitutes hanging around “the stroll”, wherever the latest location was. So they’d get the cops together, do a raid, make arrests of working girls, pimps, and johns, and in a couple days they’d all be released. They’d find a different part of town and set up again.
He said it’s like a puddle of water in your basement. You don’t like the puddle, so you stomp on it, and it goes away. But the water just settles in a different part of the basement.
re: street racers
I’ll grant they are a hazard to safety on the roadways, but I also wonder what the clearance rate is on Houston murders.
Currently 71F and we did get a boat load of rain last night. There is still a bit of water sitting in the gutter and the driveway is damp. Haven’t poked my nose out the door yet. Since I could sleep, I did sleep…
@ray, I do use stabilizer in my gas. Works great in storage. Can’t keep the water out though.
I’ve got mostly five gallon plastic Blitz cans. They fail in a very predictable way, the seam on the top of the handle splits. That lets a lot of air in. I’ve got some Blitz nato style cans, and the new caps let the air in. And I’ve got some old school Eagle safety cans, and they work great. 50+ years old and no leaks, no rust. They are one of the reasons to use a hand pump for transfers- no spouts. I also use funnels, particularly on my pressure washer. I can’t fill that thing without one.
The plastic gas tanks have their own problems, mainly the petcock/ fuel nipple turns to goo or they crack. They don’t rust though.
Baytown doesn’t smell as bad as it used to. Modern regs and higher towers for flaring.
PPG paint plant just south of chicago used to stink so bad it smelled worse than the offgassing landfill around it. It would strip the paint off the cars in the lot. Now there isn’t a smell at all. They may not be making anything there anymore though, but I remember when they still did and they stopped the releases. THe landfill doesn’t even stink anymore as they capture the methane. They used to flare it, but now they collect it.
Time to get moving I guess.
n
As long as there is YouTube money to be made, street racing will continue.
Even before YouTube, I used to see street racing being shot with pro-level equipment in Tampa, the DVDs sold into the enthusiast market in performance shops.
Yeah, I would call the cops, but they really didn’t do much.
It seems that the Houston PD doesn’t know, either, or aren’t admitting it. The first half dozen results on a quick search show claims by the PD of anything from 50% to 80% for 2021. There’s also the claim of doing 10% better so far this year than last, which you can believe if you like.
Based on what I’ve previously seen in looking into crime rates and police claims of solving and prosecuting the crimes, I suspect that the 50% number is on the high side and that 80% is either a flat lie or is the result of weasel wording, statistical torture, and the definitions game. “That wasn’t a murder, it was a manslaughter.” “It was an attempted murder but the victim actually died of covid.”
I didn’t look for numbers on the Houston metro area, which is more likely what y’all are interested in.
Not at all, Ray. It’s Global Warming’s fault, or maybe monkey pox.
Charges against YouTube for facilitating crime would seem to be an obvious approach, and probably more cost effective than having half a dozen squad cars waiting around for hours and maybe getting someone. But of course, the legal approach wouldn’t give the cops an excuse to tear through the streets at 80MPH and it might lead taxpayers to question why the police department needs $120,000 “interceptor” cars.
FIFY.
Maybe Global Warming made the monkeys gay?
@Nick
If you get some new ones, please post a link after you’ve tried them out. Depending on how long you’ve had the one you currently use, new ones may be different.
The City of Houston proper is technically insolvent. So is the City of Dallas, with Austin not far behind.
I’m dreading work tomorrow because Austin Energy hasn’t been able to keep the lights on at our fancy lad campus within the city limits when it rains, and that’s where my development servers are based.
Thunderstorms hit last night and more are predicted today.
This state invented “swimming naked”. I noticed a crew out working on the backup generator at the nearby cell tower earlier in the week. The site did not have the generator before last year’s freeze, and it didn’t seem to work when we had the one day winter storm in February this year.
“Sure. We’ll get out there. In May. Maybe June.”
To be fair, they got to it in May!
Prostitution really needs to be legal. Prostitutes exist, customers exist. Always have and always will. Forcing it underground does no one any favors: it just opens the door to trafficking and abuse.
@Mr. ATOZ: You silly limp wristed savage.
My father-in-law lived in Baycliff when the spousal unit and I got hitched. We would visit about once a month. I should have known Baytown.
I remember one trip, in the late 70’s, we were on a two lane road, foggy to the point of visibility of about 50 feet, traveling about 20 mph at night, no GPS, so no real idea of where we were located. We started hearing this hissing sound. It was getting louder, almost a roar. The mind was racing until we got past the noise. Probably some natural gas facility designed to scare out-of-towners.
When I lived in Oregon in the 60’s there was a paper and pulp mile located next to I-5, near Eugene I think. That place stunk badly. The odor would start about 5 miles south and persist until well past the plant. The odor would stay in the nostrils for several minutes after passing. Last time I drove that route, three years ago, there was no odor. The plant either shut down or found ways to mitigate the odor.
There are areas in TN north of me, specifically on the road to Oneida, where the stench of oil wells is in the air. Little did I know that there is a major oil well about 2 miles from my location. Unknown until the well caught fire. Massive plume of flame in the air. Melted siding on houses that were close. Happened in March 2008.
I asked a friend in the fire department if I could visit the well. He got me through the security lines. Little blobs of crude oil on the ground that coated my shoes. I asked how close I could get to the fire and was told as close as I wanted. I found out what he meant. I was about 150 yards away and could get no closer because of the heat. That fire was an awesome and fearful beast. I got my pictures. The fire burned for almost four days until a fire abatement crew arrived from Houston.
I agree. However, you could say assassins exist, customers exist… I know, I know, I’m picking on your logic. I still agree with you.
LOL even the LameStreamMedia is getting on board with Gay pox:
‘Sexual form of monkeypox’ blamed for global spread of virus
I’m also reading the strain looks like a “lab” strain.
New York Is Facing a Pandemic-Fueled Home Energy Crisis, With No End in Sight
More than a million households are 60 days in arrears on their energy bills, with an average of $1,427.71 in debt, and shut-offs are increasing.
By Quratulain Tejani
May 20, 2022
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20052022/new-york-utility-bills/
“Climate justice organizer” and implied (99.9% probability) Obama and Biden voter complains that the energy policies she advocated, which are responsible for energy price increases, and the anti-fossil fuel policies of the president she voted for, which said pols bragged would increase prices, can’t afford the price increases that her advocacy and votes are primarily responsible for.
The instrument has yet to be devised that is sensitive enough to find evidence of a tear that I will ever shed over this calamity.
And I have no doubt that “climate justice” will soon, if it does not already, include demands to subsidize these economically and scientifically illiterate PLT’s from their stupidity.
In a nutshell: You made your own bed, baby, now freeze or sweat to death in it.
Additionally, take a look at the last para:
“disproportionate impact on undocumented families” aka foreign invaders that flaunt the laws of my country and have their heads fully submerged in the trough of benefits provided by Democrats who hope to groom them as future voters.
“whether because they are unemployed or working remotely, utility consumption has increased” I sympathize with people who are unemployed and smart enough to realize that they’ve been thrown under the bus by the Democrats in their mad efforts to turn the Wuhan-lying-noface-Chinese-Communist virus bioweapon into political advantage, and make that a large consideration when next they vote. Those who keep voting Democrat can wear Jimmy carter’s sweater while they pound sand.
As to “working remotely” leading to a significant increase in utility bills, please show me the calculations, on the same page that shows savings in time and hard money from not commuting. Some webcam footage showing that you may have been on the couch working in your jammies, but you gave your employer the full eight hours you were getting paid for, and weren’t watching cable, texting and talking to friends, napping, and otherwise stealing would be useful, too..
More likely the plant shut down or scaled back operations. That’s what happened to the stench from the pulp mill in Camas, WA owned by GP.
At first, the town was happy to see operations scaled back as the boutiques and pricey restaurants catering to Fisher Investments and Sharp Labs employees moved in, but, eventually, Sharp went bankrupt, the Labs building became an eyesore then a high school, and Fisher Investments encountered problems convincing employees to leave LA for the boonies of WA State.
Plus, the pulp mill, owned by the evil Koch family, paid excellent money/benefits. My wife’s office near the mill cancelled expansion plans to move out of their strip mall space as the employment there decreased. While the mill didn’t pay all of the healthcare bills in town, its money kept the facilities open and upgraded.
“The fire burned for almost four days until a fire abatement crew arrived from Houston”
The heirs of Red Adair.
see:
The Hellfighters (1968), with John Wayne, Jim Hutton, Vera Miles and Kathryn Ross
Look closely to see Alan Caillou (aka Alan Lyle-Smythe) as Harry York.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Caillou
>> AFTER the clothes shopping.
Let me guess, at the mall, not at the thrift store?
“Plus, the pulp mill, owned by the evil Koch family, paid excellent money/benefits. My wife’s office near the mill cancelled expansion plans to move out of their strip mall space. While the mill didn’t pay all of the healthcare bills in town, its money kept the facilities open and upgraded.”
Reminds me of one of the many stories of the PLT’s moving out of the city to a country that they didn’t understand. When the hog farmer heard the PLT complain about the smell wafting on the breeze, he just shook his head and said”Honey, that’s the smell of money.”
Fast-forward 40 years and those smells are 90% reduced at most operations, due to a lot of research and large investments in smelling better.
Just wait until the Tonymobile and Jesus Truck owners start citing “supply and demand”, wiling to pay whatever it takes to have a full charge for their rides to work every morning while the Climate Justice Organizer goes without AC.
What? Electricity is different from baby formula? Really? How?
Anyone who believes that, at this point, grid operators are going to get mechanisms installed making sure that the charging does not take place during peak demand hours is dreaming. In Texas, that critter left the proverbial barn the moment Ford started delivering the 20kW*8h nightly power sinks.
“Why does mah Jesus Truck have priority? One word, son. ‘Merica. Now turn your a** around and send that nanny state doo-dad back to Chyyyna before I call P. Diddly and remind him of that check I wrote for him last February.”
As I’ve said before, 2024 will be a fun Summer.
Yeah, I don’t get that either. Illegals need deported, full stop. The fact that the progs have let 20 million of them accumulate is beyond belief, but they should still be deported, with or without their anchor babies.
Here, we have a (much smaller) problem of certain African countries that refuse to take their citizens back. I figure that’s why parachutes were invented: overfly, open door, push.
Actually, deporting to many African countries us hard. Sometimes, the people fight tooth and nail. In that case, they are physically tied to their seat, and accompanied by two officers, to remove them from the plane at the other end. You can imagine the prog tears at this mistreatment.
They still are too nice, taking years to process asylum applications. The process should be finished in a couple of months at most.
No nation is under any obligation to accept anyone other than their own citizens and the legal citizen children.
Full Stop.
And we can no longer afford charity.
n
The migrants accumulate on the assumption that an amnesty will happen every 20 years as it did in the mid 60s and mid 80s. The mid 00s bill failed to make it, and Shrub was punished along with his point men in Congress with Nancy Pelosi being handed the Speakers Gavel.
We’ll see if the 20s amnesty makes it. Congress is going to change hands, but a Republican House drove the 00s bill. President doesn’t matter — Reagan signed the 80s amnesty and Shrub coordinated the 00s effort.
A most excellent movie. I have it on my Apple TV server.
Mook and other ex-Klintonites have said under oath that Kankles Klinton approved the fabricated stories about tRump. She won’t be arrested nor fined nor imprisoned. The PLTs take care of their own. Somebody will fall on their sword for that lying piece of shit.
Baytown doesn’t smell as bad as it used to. Modern regs and higher towers for flaring.
We used to live at the corner of the Shell refinery in Baytown, just a couple of hundred of hundred feet away from the crude oil heater, in the refinery manager’s garage apartment. Dad worked there every summer from 1960 to 1968 on the catalytic cracker, trying to get it more stable so they did not have to retube it every year or so due to temperature excursions.
The refinery crude oil heater burned a quarter million to a half million cubic feet of natural gas each day. It was a huge piece of equipment, with two big forced draft fans screaming like banshees 24x7x365. All the nitrous oxides in the air turned the air blue-grey (smog). Mom would take us over to Freeport and we would spend most of the summer living with her parents where we got to smell the Dow chlorine plant. They told us that when you could not smell the chlorine in the air, that was when things got bad.
@Brad
Give them a choice: Direct deportation to your home country, or we fly you to Somali and give you a voucher for ground transportation.
The Somalis here would be first through the exit if I were prioritizing.
I doubt there’s enough security in the world to protect a Republican voting for amnesty.
Note that I’m not arguing that a closet Democrat like Romney or scum like Kinzinger or Cheney wouldn’t try it.
Your imagination is frightfully limited.
This is for a US context but perhaps others can use it, too. From the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution:
It doesn’t say that there’s no slavery, only that slavery can be instated only as a punishment for a crime.
Illegal immigrants by definition are committing a crime every moment that they’re here. Roll up a drumhead court, process them in batches of a hundred, chain them up, and ship them off to some appalling, painful, dirty, humiliating, and preferably lethal job.
Looks like @Rick has removed the emojis and the edit after the initial posting features. I suspect that this place is getting attacked by an unhappy person. Or, something is going on that is not kosher.
Nope, the edit after the initial posting is still here.
Like changing plugs’ Depends.
Or Kankles, gulp, undies.
I wish I could unread that.
I have been monitoring the time of the database queries, which is about 8-10 seconds. This is a bit slower than expected based on tests on other sites, so have been looking for bottlenecks.
So the last hour, I have been testing quick disabling of certain plugins to see if the response time of the page will increase. None of that testing indicated any significant improvements, so the theory that plugins are responsible for some slowness in page load/reload has been dis-proven.
I forgot to re-enable in the ‘emoji’ thing. Active now.
The ‘edit after posting’ is still active.
>> Charges against YouTube for facilitating crime would seem to be an obvious approach, and probably more cost effective than having half a dozen squad cars waiting around for hours and maybe getting someone. But of course, the legal approach wouldn’t give the cops an excuse to tear through the streets at 80MPH and it might lead taxpayers to question why the police department needs $120,000 “interceptor” cars.
i would think they’d (YT) be covered by Section 230 of the CDA.
>> I have been monitoring the time of the database queries, which is about 8-10 seconds. This is a bit slower than expected based on tests on other sites, so have been looking for bottlenecks.
@Rick H, in case this helps, my most recent post just a couple of minutes ago took ~15 seconds from when I clicked the Submit button til the page refreshed and showed the post. Definitely noticeably slower than in the past.
If I were a prosecutor, I think I could make a good case that YT is encouraging illegal behavior by monetizing videos of illegal activities. CDA s.230 provides (claimed) immunity from civil suits on the basis of viewpoint discrimination and such but is not a shield against criminal charges.
>> Here, we have a (much smaller) problem of certain African countries that refuse to take their citizens back. I figure that’s why parachutes were invented: overfly, open door, push.
Make it more challenging – have them pack their own chutes.
>> Prostitution really needs to be legal. Prostitutes exist, customers exist. Always have and always will. Forcing it underground does no one any favors: it just opens the door to trafficking and abuse.
As long as pimps or drugs are not involved I see it as a victimless crime not worth the PD’s attention.
Please. Lots of Republicans go along with it since it is important to their money people. Our “Republican” Congressman in Florida, Adam “Opie” Putnam, was the point man for Bush on the Ted Kennedy Memorial Amnesty 20-year bill. He was always reelected with 70%+ shares of the vote.
It isn’t even like they try to hide the schemes. I’m amazed that Republican voters in Texas legitimately believe that P. Diddly Bush won’t be an “open borders” Attorney General and, eventually, Governor.
And, God help us, President if it came to that.
Daddy Jeb!’s ex-Playboy Bunny girlfriend was an open secret in Florida. At our house, we joked that his heart wasn’t in running for President because it could potentially mean giving up Bunny Cynthia and having to look at Columba (Mrs. Jeb!) for eight years.
“C’mon, Dad, is that amnesty really so important?”
“Sack up, Jebby. We all gotta make sacrifices, son.”
Before or after landing?
@Greg Norton
After a mob of people tired of an economy shot-to-shit by 15% inflation, gasoline at $8, food shortages, electrical blackouts, and all the other benefits of PLT’s and Big Business tears apart the first weasel that voted against the people that voted him/her/z!em into office, the enthusiasm for loyalty to “money people” will likely diminish.
And one good populist doxumentary of the Man from Omaha’s hand in screwing people over is going to result in a shortage of pitchforks and asphalt.
Just one, if inserting a load in the Holman projector automatically fires it.
Bad News on Monkeypox
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2022/05/22/some-good-news-about-the-monkeypox-outbreak-n471178
Poof! goes the next chance for global population adjustment.
ADDED: Next there will probably be some moral reason for the US to send billions of dollars to Africa to get male monkeys to inspect their junk and quit using hookers.
Another fraud, lie is the name of those frequently representing illegal crimmigrants in court: American Civil Liberties Union.
The crimminals are neither “Americans” nor does the US Constitution specify any liberties or civil rights for them in the USA.
Page response times are usually around 8-10 seconds (time from refresh button click to full page display), with occasional longer periods. At least, with my testing the past couple of days. (And I refresh a lot.)
The timings of the response show the majority of the time is waiting for the server to respond with data. There are no delays in DNS, etc. This is indicative, of the time for all of the database queries from WordPress to finish. That is confirmed by watching the response times of the actual queries.
For instance, this particular page load took 9.81 seconds to fully complete. Of that, 7.99 seconds was taken by the actual query of the various databases.
Of that 8-second value, there are many queries taking place. Most queries are completed in 0.015 seconds. But the longest queries are those against the large comments table. The longest of those takes 0.15 to 0.25 seconds – 10 times longer than the other queries.
Which bolsters my original theory that the large number of comments in the comments table (over 183,000) are the main reason why queries to ‘build’ the post page with comments are slow.
I’ve also been looking at the analytics – who is visiting the site. There are 5-35 users on site at the same time, but usually under 10 requests per minute. The search engines (not anyone else, or a specific user) are still wandering through the site, requesting older pages. The perceived location of those search engine requests is not always the “Coffeyville” one, but always from US locations.
My inexpert conclusions is that most of the slow response here is due to the size of the comments table. Not from the number of users, real or search-engine. I think that the shared server we are on is not an issue. And the SQL server the site uses is a separate, database-optimized server (according to the hosting place).
I also think that adding database caching will not make a difference. In fact, it might slow down things.
But I think the server move and changed settings has been a positive effect on 500 or timeout errors.
Tomorrow, I will contact the hosting support guys again, and see if their analysis matches mine, and how to reduce response times.
…which all might be more than you cared to know….
@rick:
It occurs to me that you might be able to speed up database reads if you converted all pages whose comments are closed to static HTML, with their comments rendered once. This would then allow a drastic size reduction in the size of the comments table.
Admittedly, this would put the kybosh on my habit of searching back in the archive, using the search widget, but I’ll give that up, if the consensus of the commentariat is, “We’d prefer speed.”
G.
Note: I say “commentariat”, rather than the Register-like “Commentards”. Feel free to downvote me to oblivion for that.
He’s the “Oracle of Omaha”.
The Gecko doesn’t hide anything he’s doing. He’ll even gloat in the Shareholder Letter if you pay attention.
Gates is probably more likely to inspire a shortage of pitchforks and asphalt at some point, but the giant house in Seattle is Federally protected.
As soon as Gravatars were removed the site slowed down. Just sayin’.
As soon as Gravatars were removed the site slowed down. Just sayin’.
As soon as Gravatars were removed the site slowed down. Just sayin’.
Possibly. But a lot of work. And not really feasible, IMHO.
There are plugins that will convert an entire WP site into static pages. But I haven’t found any that will convert a date-selection of pages -for example, all pages older than 60 days. And then delete all records in all tables that meet that date selection. While still leaving the comments table (for example) ‘live’ so it could be added to.
I don’t care if the search engines have slow load times on their requests for older pages.
But the slow load times that affect most ‘live’ users are those for the current (and maybe previous 2-3 days) post with all it’s comments. Since this site has a lively discussion area (this site’s big appeal), and those discussions are normally on today’s post, there would be no advantage to a conversion to static HTML.
Pages would load much faster with a smaller comments table. But I don’t think anyone wants comments older than xx days permanently deleted to increase page load time.
Nope. I tested the page load times with Gravatars enabled. Enabling them increased page load time 1.5-3 seconds.
(Even if you claim that three times….) 🙂
The wailing and gnashing of teeth about “raycest” and “un-constitutional” would be epic. I approve of this plan.
After all, it’s the US Constitution, NOT the world’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5lYNgCVwFo
The kids came to visit yesterday. They brought Popeye’s chicken and some sides. Biscuits of course. Then tubs of red beans and rice, coleslaw and “dirty rice” or “cajun rice”.
14 ounce tubs. Pretty sure that was closer to 20 or 24 ounces a couple of years ago. I don’t know what the bill was. I don’t want to know.
Anyway. Popeye’s doesn’t have dirty or cajun rice anymore. Off of the menu. Sorry, but a tub of rice cooked with enough chicken bouillon cubes to turn the color simply does not make grade as a substitute when you order dirty rice.
I’ve looked and have found a couple of copy cat versions. I can do this.
Oh, and “spicy”? Perhaps to folks that think CalMex is spicy. The first time I had Popeye’s was when visiting sister and her family when they lived in Jasper. Louisiana is very near. The spicy chicken was red. Not the just crust/skin/breading, the meat was red. Light you up hot. Made TexMex seem bland.
That’s another experiment. My Mom’s oven fried chicken with a ton of cayenne pepper and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
Cooking is fun.
BC: Ant Rocket
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2022/05/22
Based on the size of some of the ant beds that I have seen around here, some ants have got a lot.
“”Who Cares If Miami Is Underwater In 100 Years” – HSBC Global AM Head Slams “Nut Job” Climate-Alarmists”
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/who-cares-if-miami-underwater-100-years-hsbc-global-head-slams-nut-job-climate-alarmists
“What do the world’s richest person [Elon Musk] and a top HSBC Asset Management global head have in common? Well, they both called out the absurdity behind ESG investing. “
“On Tuesday, Tesla was removed from the ESG version of the S&P 500 Index. Musk went on a tweet rant on Wednesday, calling out ESG investing as a “scam,” noting “phony social justice warriors have weaponized it.””
“He said, “S&P Global Ratings has lost their integrity,” considering companies like Exxon Mobil (fossil fuels), Apple (China slave labor), and Amazon (which is working against unions) remain in the index.”
ESG = Environmental, Social, and Governance, the new things that you are suppose to rate stocks with now instead of money and rate of return
>> Pages would load much faster with a smaller comments table.
@Rick H, would it help if we had two comment tables, one with the current through the past seven days and another with day eight and older?
Preserving the old pages and comments thereupon was the main reason for initially continuing this as a live site. That can not change.
n
Well, maybe.
But that’s a lot of custom programming to split and maintain two comment tables. Plus a lot of changes to the core code via WP filters/actions. There’s a complex series of queries and commands behind the scenes, and I’m don’t have enough experience with the WP core code to figure it out. Would required lots of time – maybe hundreds of hours.
I suppose we could go with a dedicated host and database server to increase speed, but that is a lot of maintenance. Not to mention the cost to upgrade to that type of hosting. Server maintenance is done by DreamHost. I’m happy to let them do that.
The yearly hosting costs here are about $160/yr (will need to be renewed soon), which Barbara covers. Domain costs extra (about $30/year, and there are three domains).
“South Florida health officials investigating presumptive case of monkeypox virus”
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/south-florida-health-officials-investigating-204726327.html
Are we going to start wearing masks again ?
Apparently WHO wants us to shut down again:
https://www.rt.com/news/555863-who-monkeypox-transmission-europe/
hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
The Texas Supreme Court has still not ruled about where the power lies to impose mask mandates.
Of course the Monkeypox would appear in Broward County, Florida.
@Nick
A friend related personally observing a squirrel suicide last week by the second-most-popular method: shorting the pole transformer. Stood there and watched as a small cloud of burning fur drifted to the ground. The description was evocative of Robert Frost crossed with Hunter Thompson.
Try the Condom Trick: Fill the can nearly full. Stretch a new (no recycling!) condom over the filler cap with the base below the screw threads (no naughty thoughts!). Push the rest into the can, burping out the air. Screw (really, that is the proper term!) the cap on so the only air in the can is separated from the gas by the condom. When the pressure equalizes, the air going in-and-out (watch your thoughts!) is kept separate. The trick is to get enough air on the atmosphere side when the air pressure is high so the pressure swings can be cushioned.
Okay, so a condom won’t work. But a small square of 1-mil polyethylene* can be manipulated (don’t go there!) to work just as well. Houstonians, St. Augustinians, and other Humiditarians will need to check for condensation every month or so, and change the plastic if sealing the cap has damaged it.
*or Saran Wrap**, which has been PE for almost 20 years
**I can hear you thinking! Don’t go there!!
@RickH
Thanks as always for not only the time you spend in maintaining this nice place, but in patiently explaining what is going on and fielding suggestions.
Well, crisis averted.
Daughter noticed her ice cream was runny in the fridge/freezer in the garage. And it was indeed warming up rapidly.
Much consternation and moving of stuff, then panels removed, and a fist applied…
Ice was blocking the fan. All the coils are in the top, and the fan pushes cold air down into the freezer portion. Since it was blocked, only convection and gravity were moving the air.
Got the ice knocked off and everything back together. Nothing was even soft except the ice cream in the door.
Whew.
n
Did not get any work done on the gennie.
>> The yearly hosting costs here are about $160/yr (will need to be renewed soon), which Barbara covers. Domain costs extra (about $30/year, and there are three domains).
Happy to contribute part of the yearly costs if Barbara is amenable.
>> Would required lots of time – maybe hundreds of hours.
https://youtu.be/OjYoNL4g5Vg
Westley is a pastor/teacher, while Buckingham is an actual MD. Can I ask why you prefer Westley over Buckingham? Looking over their bios on Ballotpedia, it doesn’t seem that EITHER of them have any qualifications relating to the Texas Land Commissioner job.
Thanks.
Hmm, nah…
https://www.thedrive.com/news/tesla-asks-texan-owners-to-limit-charging-due-to-heat-wave
Continuing in the whole vein of repurposing and suggestive substitutions, it sounds like a dental dam may be an option.
I went there.
Okay, so a condom won’t work. But a small square of 1-mil polyethylene* can be manipulated (don’t go there!) to work just as well.
I have it on good authority that saran wrap is not good barrier from a mother of four. She was a mother of three before the saran wrap failed.