Hot-ish. And humid. Less hot than Houston, I guess. I’d like it to stay dry so the electricians can work quickly, safely, and expeditiously.
They are supposed to start around 8:30am so I’m hoping! It will be nice to get one of the big items started. It will be super nice to get it finished.
I had plans yesterday, so of course they got disrupted. Heavy rain did them in. Eventually I got out of town and up to the BOL once the rain stopped and I could load the truck. Not a huge load coming up, but stuff needed to move this way.
Plan for the day is help expedite whatever needs doing for the electricians. In between, I’ll work my list, including plumbing and other stuff.
No power means no internet so I won’t be surfing news or checking in during the day. I brought the Honda 3000 gennie if things get bad, but I’m hoping we don’t have to use it. Fingers crossed….
While I’m riding herd, y’all should be stackin’. Not slackin’.
nick
Sanctions require one to put up, or shut up. The EU needs to stop buying Russian gas. If that means shivering this Winter, then shiver. Otherwise the sanctions are a joke.
Russia has been an aggressor in…how many wars in the last few years? Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine (Crimea) com to mind – likely there were others. Why did the EU just accept those previous aggressions? Or, alternatively, why do they suddenly care about Ukraine?
Electricity prices are…exciting in some places. Many towns in Switzerland have local cooperatives that buy electricity. Some of those towns didn’t realize just how chaotic the electricity market is, and missed opportunities to contract for supplies next year. Now they are paying 3x or 4x the usual price.
Our local supplier – who also produces a lot of hydroelectric power – is raising their prices by about 2 cents in 2023. They are also raising what they pay us for solar power by 2 cents. Since we produce more than we use, that’s a net win. We will still reduce our consumption this winter, by doing a lot more heating with the wood stove.
– – – – –
In other news, one of our robot vacuum cleaners refused to charge on Wednesday. Took the charging station apart, which I didn’t need to. Turns out the problem is that the power cord doesn’t grip the pins in the charging station very tightly. I tried to squash the plug a bit, and it’s working, but I may need to get a new cord. Of course, it’s some weird plug, instead of anything standard.
As Jerry P. used to say, it’s always a cable problem.
– – – – –
And in still other news, the 4-bell carillon (playable bell tower) in our town needs a replacement bell. The old one, dating from the 14th century, was shot by some idiotic hunter a couple of decades ago, and has a fracture.
Yesterday, the new bell was cast, and a couple dozen of us went to watch. This is the only traditional bell casting foundry in Switzerland, and possible in this part of Europe. Not much call for bells today, though, so nowadays they mostly cast sculptures and such.
The casting process itself is very old – the same techniques they’ve used for hundreds of years. After casting, more modern techniques come into play: they use computer models to tune not only the bell’s primary note, but various harmonics.
Installation in two weeks, then the carillon will sound a lot better 🙂
@Brad
Does the foundry purchase the alloy they use for casting or work from a traditional recipe?
Not Brad’s foundry, but here is a nice German public TV documentary (with English subtitles available) on the traditional casting of bells. https://youtu.be/OQ8ZZV5UjcI The SWR Craftsmanship Channel is well worth following if you like to see masters practising their many and varied crafts.
More traditional bells, this time in Spain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Xdr6Bd9mjs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZsx577q5uo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pH5hXJfnBM
In other news, I have picked up a march fracture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_fracture , probably from my interval training leg exercises, and have to keep off my feet for some weeks, so there go all my big plans for getting though the list of outstanding jobs at the BOL before the autumn weather kicks in. Grrr. Time to catch up on my correspondence, I suppose…
Send it back to China!
76F and dewy this morning. Rain had washed the paint marking I did away, so I put it back this morning.
Family of 5 deer crossing the yard, not tame at all, just the sight of me spooked them.
Sun peeking out. I think it’s gonna be hot and humid.
Joy.
BTW, if there is anything newsworthy, excerpt it here for me, I can’t even get to most of my normal reads it’s so slow…
n
Weird event this morning. Went to the Wife/BIL’s joint account to add the monthly interest to Quicken. The password did not work. Odd as I would be the only one to change the password. Only the wife’s contact information is on the account and the CU requires authentication for changes, text or email. There was a message the last log in was yesterday. Wife didn’t do it, BIL didn’t do it, I didn’t do it.
The CU actually has fairly good security when changes are made to the authentication parameters on the account. Wife got no such notifications. I have changed the password and added additional alerts to the account. Any activity on the account and the wife will be sent a text message. Checks, deposits, transfers, any activity. The password I use is 14 characters and quite complicated. No way that password was guessed.
I will have to monitor that account more closely. That is where the BIL’s share of the inheritance is stashed, a significant chunk of change. If strange things happen to the account I will put a lock on the account stopping any activity.
Puppy update – the baby golden is 4.5 months old and adapting well. She is completely potty trained, and has been for almost a month. That’s a big reason I love labs (and goldens) in general – very easy to potty train. We’ve been going to a puppy training class at PetSmart once a week – have 2 more weeks left. I knew some of the basics, but have also picked up some good tips.
Sit command works most of the time now, as does “drop”. We’ve begun working on “come” and “wait”. Leash training has been really good, and she’s getting over her extreme skittishness. She now enjoys her daily walk, and whatever was by the neighbors house doesn’t bother her anymore. We are also working on “heel”. She still has a healthy fear of cars, so we need to work on that. But overall, making good progress.
They were literally tossing bars of copper and tin into a melting pot, along with some scraps from other castings. Very “hands on”, and I don’t suppose they have had a recent work-safety inspection. Or maybe museum-type places don’t have to follow the same regulations?
Thanks for the video link – that looks exactly right, exactly those techniques.
<--- link deleted for opsec -----, if anyone is interested.
Accidently left a toddler in the car for 7 hours? Yeah, right. You don’t know where your toddler is at all day?
From yesterday…
My advice would be skip the Parmesan / Parmigiano altogether, and certainly avoid the pre-grated stuff, which is basically nasty smelling sawdust or the sweeping off the factory floor. In fact, it is the quasi-inedible rind of the cheese wheels ground down. Get yourself a slice of Grana Padano – which is much cheaper – and grate it fresh whenever you need it. Just wrap it tightly in cling film afterwards, so it doesn’t dry out.
The taste of fresh cheese is so much better than the pre-grated stuff, and I challenge anyone to tell the difference between Grana Padano and Parmigiano when grated fresh over pasta, eggs, salad or anything else that needs a cheesy, salty boost. Hereabouts, Aldi sells Grana Padano and Parmigiano slices in the refrigerated aisle, both reasonably priced.
A good grater is a plus. I like my Cuisipro with the etched blades, which makes delicious fine shavings. https://www.cuisiprousa.com/collections/graters/products/cuisipro-silver-stainless-steel-fine-grater
https://www.cuisiprousa.com/products/cuisipro-silver-stainless-steel-piccolo-grater-8-747375
Beware, you will find yourself eating the grated cheese on its own, instead of as a condiment, it tastes that good.
@brad:
Your link to the casting of the bell is broken: It’s posted as an internal link here.
Try this:
“link deleted for opsec reasons.
Fascinating. That’s a relatively small bell, what in English changeringing would probably be called a “treble”, the highest note in the peal.
For a really big bell, try Big Ben (I think it’s called) in the Elizabeth Tower of the UK Houses of Parliament.
G.
Thought for the day:
”What you expect is climate (catastrophe), what you get is (the same old) weather”.
From EdH:
Well, I’ll take the 14 up to Mojave and then make a left on the 58 and go through Tehachapi.
Sorting it out, it seems that only one person claims to have actually heard anything, and their story is not corroborated by any video:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/09/hate-hoax-no-evidence-to-support-duke-womens-volleyball-player-claim-she-was-called-racist-slur-at-byu-match/
I’d say the “hoax” terminology is appropriate at this point.
And here’s hoping that Nicolas Sandmann’s attorney makes a trip to Utah.
A successful log in or a log in attempt?
I’ve had a lot of weird things happen to various online accounts of mine over the last six months. I don’t post all the details here since my guess is someone is guessing account names based on doxxed information like the trolls are fond of researching, and the guesses are sometimes correct.
None of the log in attempts have been successful, but I’ve had accounts locked at really inconvenient times.
I pulled my cell phone as a means of verifying my identity to our two primary banks.
Russia has been an aggressor in…how many wars in the last few years? Chechnya, Georgia, and Ukraine (Crimea) com to mind – likely there were others. Why did the EU just accept those previous aggressions? Or, alternatively, why do they suddenly care about Ukraine?
Guess who is getting ready to take advantage of the whole mess in eastern Europe ? The Serbians are thinking about going to war with the Muslims in Kosovo. The Serbians have been armed by their cousins, the Russians.
Thousands of years of grudges dominate that part of the world.
Grudges of more recent variety include the Kosovars siding with the Nazis against the Serbs in WW II, that decision being based in one of the older grudges.
I’ll add Parmesan Reggiano to the shopping list. Same for Grana Padano.
I might learn something.
I do buy a wedge of Parmesan from the grocery store deli once in a while. Grating it isn’t a problem and it does taste better than the pre-ground Kraft-like cheese. Thing is, it’s there, hiding in the fridge calling my name. Most of it is snacked on.
The Kraft-like cheese is for being lazy or cooking. Sometimes the dogs get a sprinkle on their food.
“Mary Peltola defeats Sarah Palin in special election to become first Alaska Native elected to Congress, NBC News projects”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/democrat-mary-peltola-defeats-sarah-palin-special-election-become-firs-rcna45756
“The results come more than two weeks after the state used ranked-choice voting to determine which candidate will finish out the term of GOP Rep. Don Young, who died in March.”
Does this mean that Alaska is going dumbrocrat or that they just dislike Sarah Palin now ? Or is this ranked voting system just wrong ?
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Enjoy! Will look forward to the after-action reports.
“Coal advocates warn NERC is underestimating plant retirements by about 68 GW, threatening reliability”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/coal-nerc-plant-retirements-reliability-americas-power/631015/
I did not know there was even 68 GW of coal power plants left in the USA. There is probably only 5 or 7 GW of coal power plants left in Texas (SWAG).
“Does this mean that Alaska is going dumbrocrat or that they just dislike Sarah Palin now ? Or is this ranked voting system just wrong ?”
Rank stupidity.
Don’t like Sarah Palin? By all means, cast a de facto vote for Biden-Pelosi. Feel better now?
Just hate Tump because he’s so coarse? Vote for Biden-Pelosi!
Good and hard right where you deserve it.
Hooray. Back on shore power! Elect-chickens are done and gone. Found the water main to the house with the excavator, so that slowed things down a bit, but not much. They had an electrician and apprentice setting the panel, another guy outside setting the service and meter base, one guy running the mini excavator, and the boss. Worked efficiently and well. Very pleased to have that project done.
We had overcast with a sprinkle for most of their time outside. Everyone was still soaked to the skin with sweat. Currently 92F and sunny. Air is saturated.
If I have a wedge of cheese in the fridge, I eat it. So flavored sawdust is a staple item. Previous dog got a sprinkle on his dry food every meal. He loved it.
n
Our local supplier – who also produces a lot of hydroelectric power – is raising their prices by about 2 cents in 2023. They are also raising what they pay us for solar power by 2 cents. Since we produce more than we use, that’s a net win. We will still reduce our consumption this winter, by doing a lot more heating with the wood stove.
Do you get a credit on your total amount of solar power or just the net power that you send to the grid ?
This is being debated furiously here in the USA right now as the electric utilities are changing from gross metering to net metering. A lot less money to the solar generator.
Totally appropriate to talk about the cheese, btw. If anyone needed justification. It stores really well, adds flavor to food, and thickens sauces… thus a great prepping item. The sawdust (cellulose fiber on the label) just adds that certain something that every meal needs….
n
Hooray. Back on shore power! Elect-chickens are done and gone. Found the water main to the house with the excavator, so that slowed things down a bit, but not much. They had an electrician and apprentice setting the panel, another guy outside setting the service and meter base, one guy running the mini excavator, and the boss. Worked efficiently and well. Very pleased to have that project done.
Congrats !
When you say found the water main, do you mean found or destroyed ?
I should add that the power co-op didn’t replace the pole ahead of time, which is what pushed us into this week. They did come out promptly and swap it while we waited, and hung around for the reconnect. That saved us hours and a possible second day. They had 2 trucks and 8 guys. Worked very efficiently and beat feet after only a couple hours. Worked out much better for us this way.
n
“Found” by touch, and geyser. I shut off the water and boss man went to get the repair part.
Didn’t delay us much, if at all, as the rest of the guys kept working.
n
Thousands of years of grudges dominate that part of the world.
Grudges of more recent variety include the Kosovars siding with the Nazis against the Serbs in WW II, that decision being based in one of the older grudges.
The Kosovars have been bringing in their muslim cousins and swelling their population. Kinda looks like an army. Surely they would not spring forward from Kosovo to take over the western side of Europe ?
If I have a wedge of cheese in the fridge, I eat it. So flavored sawdust is a staple item. Previous dog got a sprinkle on his dry food every meal. He loved it.
We will put down the meat flavored mystery substance (wet) (heated) for the dog and she will just look at us. Then we sprinkle grated cheese on it and she wolfs it down.
Dilbert: Elbonia Virus
https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-09-01
Oh yes, the old X7QB.E.
Be sure to read it upside down.
Found by touch! Geyser! Haha. Glad all ended well.
Cheese needs no justification. Cheese is justification!
About thickening sauces, a good thickener, which I used just this evening (chicken fillets with white wine and fresh chanterelle mushrooms), is powdered instant mashed potato. If you get the really cheap kind – white box, store brand (not flakes, and without added powdered butter/cream), it is basically powdered potato starch, which is a fantastic and tasteless thickening agent. My wife dislikes sauces thickened with corn starch, and can’t tolerate creamy or buttery sauces, but a sprinkle of instant potato powder makes a very good substitute thickener indeed. I will also guiltily admit to liking the taste of instant mash – perhaps memories of childhood comfort food… Anyhow, it’s one more for your stacks…
We had a power outage at the BOL in our absence, and now the cheap and cheerful WavLink WiFi access points that I like(d) are displaying the same flaky behaviour as their brethren at home base did after the last outage there. I fear I am going to have to bite the bullet and get two sets of whole-house good-quality Asus or Ubiquiti mesh units. The cheap ones are… cheap.
I found a new time sink. New to me, anyway.
On the local PC club e-mail list Pi-Hole came up around last Christmas. I asked and a $100 later have this:
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W computer installed in a red/white case.
The Raspberry Pi Power Supply, white, 12.5 watts.
A 32MB Micro SDHC SD card installed in the Pi Zero
with these software components installed:
Raspios Bullseye Lite, 2021-10-30.
Pi-Hole v5.8.1
SSH is enabled
IP Address is 192.168.0.25
A OTG Micro-USB to Ethernet Adapter.
—
Worked out of the box, seems to work great. Snappy, even. Zero problems. So… there are other models of Raspberries available.
Prices are all over the place. A Raspberry Pi 4 looks pretty complete. Might not have the muscle of my current box, an i5-2320 CPU @ 3.0 GHZ if the specs actually compare. But, without all the stuff Win7 is running in the background, it seems do-able.
I don’t run a lot of stuff. Firefox and T-bird mostly. Add on VLC, something like Notepad, Something like WordPad for doc files, a PDF reader/writer, a simple photo viewer that can crop and re-size. Some kind of puTTy and Filezilla and 7-Zip. Get an external case for my current hard drive. CD/DVD stuff is rarely used, I can use the drive on another PC and toss the files across the LAN.
Networking problems can kill this project. Same for printing but hey, it’s a Lexmark multi function printer. The Dymo label printer, who knows.
Crazy? Maybe. Not a big rush, just a thing to poke at.
I have a Pi 400, the all-in-one version built into a keyboard like an old 80s home computer.
It is a cool little device, and the keyboard is very usable. The mouse included in the box is ok, but that isn’t a deal killer.
The big downside to the Pi 400 is getting one. I placed a backorder before Christmas one year, and I think the computer arrived getting into Summer.
I have a couple of Ubiquiti UniFi units and they have been solid. Bought them from Amazon in January of 2016. I don’t remember how to get into the configuration interface.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HXT8R2O?tag=azlinkplugin-20
The price is up about $20. There are newer and perhaps better versions. I don’t care about 5g wi-fi. The 2.4 stuff is fine. The Roku and the various Squeezebox work fine. Phones and Kindles work fine.
“Recursion: A Novel” by Blake Crouch
https://www.amazon.com/Recursion-Novel-Blake-Crouch/dp/1524759791?tag=ttgnet-20/
A standalone science fiction novel, no sequel or prequel. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Ballantine Books in 2020. I continue to find Blake Crouch interesting and plan to read more of his books in the future.
Dr. Helena Smith accidentally creates a time machine when she is building a total immersion gamer system for a game company and does not even realize it. Her assistant realizes that Dr. Smith has built a time machine, imprints himself with a impressive earlier memory, and kills himself. He wakes up in his earlier self and starts rebuilding the time machine.
The time machine only runs in reverse to an earlier event in your life that you can easily remember. Such as a new car, the birth of a child, the death of a child, etc. But, the kicker is that the entire planet moves backwards with you in time but, they do not remember where they were before the move back until they reach the time where you activated the time machine. Move backs of a few days are hardly noticed by the population. But move backs of forty years are very much noticed by the population. And everyone wants their own time machine and in that way lies a horrible future.
The book moves very slowly to start. Then at the midpoint, it starts moving very quickly with all the jumping around in time. The book is being made into a series on Netflix.
The author has a website at:
https://blakecrouch.com/
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (11,759 reviews)
That’s cool. I’m thinking that if the Pi stuff happens, my monitor has the screw holes on the back for wall mounting. Me and an old license plate can go a long way to mount the Pi on there. Pull a few extra inches of slack in the wiring and ti-wrap that stuff down.
I guess that my office water well passed the annual public comment period held by Fort Bend County as they sent me a bill for five years of water well access in Fort Bend County. I love paying for something that I own twice.
Interesting. Somebody has contacted me about buying my five acre property for a Montessori school. They had better have a big checkbook as I am holding the cleared and unimproved property for my old age.
Trying to decipher the Medicare Part D plans sucks. Made more painful by clueless CSRs. Grrr.
“This Woman Created An AI System to Monitor Her Cat’s Poop”
https://gizmodo.com/cat-litter-robot-machine-learning-ai-raspberry-pi-poop-1849475626
“The system logs the cat’s litter time so the owner can be informed of its bowel movement.”
All I do is clean my 15 lb cat’s litter box twice a week.
“All I do is clean my 15 lb cat’s litter box twice a week.”
My cats are on that same program.
But with name-brand litter up to $19.95 plus tax for 40 pounds, higher tech solutions may have a payback.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082XGNZC7?tag=ttgnet-20
I could save time cutting down on bench pressing cat litter, too.
A woman I work with was complaining her ‘fat orange bastard cat’ eats her hdmi cables. I suggested to provide him with a power cord. There are lots of solutions.
“A woman I work with was complaining her ‘fat orange bastard cat’”…”
Sounds like he’s poaching her Twinkies, too.
“All I do is clean my 15 lb cat’s litter box twice a week.”
My cats are on that same program.
But with name-brand litter up to $19.95 plus tax for 40 pounds, higher tech solutions may have a payback.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082XGNZC7?tag=ttgnet-20
I could save time cutting down on bench pressing cat litter, too.
Nope, I buy generic unscented cat litter at HEB at $8.84 for a 20 lb jug. If you buy the scented then he sneezes his head off.
https://www.heb.com/product-detail/h-e-b-unscented-guaranteed-clumping-litter-20-lb/2211904
Also, he must have a covered litter box. Otherwise he power scoops a lb of litter on the floor of the utility room each time he goes. Kinda something like this except no door as he freaks on the door and won’t go in. BTW, we have the XXL model.
https://www.amazon.com/Ness-Products-Covered-Litter-Large/dp/B07BY3DP1X?tag=ttgnet-20/
doing a little catching up today
https://monsterhunternation.com/2022/08/11/correias-law-of-internet-arguing/
Love those laws – read the comments
“Trouble in paradise: Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen in epic fight”
https://pagesix.com/2022/09/01/tom-brady-and-gisele-bundchen-in-epic-fight-sources/
“The model has left their family compound in Tampa, Fla., for Costa Rica following a series of heated arguments over Brady’s shock decision to un-retire from the NFL, while he has remained behind for team training.”
Be careful placing your bets.
“Texas buses 75 migrants to Chicago in political battle”
https://apnews.com/article/biden-chicago-united-states-lori-lightfoot-immigration-9ceb1032b1fef2c9ff20e45351a35c14
“CHICAGO (AP) — Seventy-five immigrants bused from Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott have arrived in Chicago, the latest chapter of the bitter political battle over the immigration policy of President Joe Biden’s administration.”
YES ! ! !
I was dismayed to see a city bus with the whole side advertising “REPORT HATE CRIMES” There was a 6 ft. badge and 4 foot letters: “1-800 CALL FBI”. Sheesh.
I’m betting that it will be a long day for Dallas in Tampa on Sunday, Brady or no Brady. Temps on that field in early September are brutal.
Dak Prescott outplayed Brady last year and Dallas still lost.
BTW, Sam Ehlinger returned to the Colts after rehab from an injury and has the third QB spot on the roster. Gotta wonder how that’s sitting with the UT alums getting ready to fire another coach.
Oh Christmas Tree. Oh Christmas Tree.
Dkreck: “Split loom” cable armor https://smile.amazon.com/Split-Black-Harness-Sleeve-Conduit/dp/B07JQQRZWV/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1M25F8I6N87PK&keywords=split+loom&qid=1662074288&sprefix=split+loom%2Caps%2C148&sr=8-3&tag=ttgnet-20
is the solution for animals who like to chew on cables. Because I’ve had the same problem. Painting the cables with pepper spray solution or something like “Repel” doesn’t work as well.
“1-800 CALL FBI”
“FBI? Yes, a man in Provo was falsely accused of a hate crime. Isn’t that a hate crime itself? Why do you ask about the race of the accuser? What does that matter? Hello? Hello?”
@lynn
Does this mean that Alaska is going dumbrocrat or that they just dislike Sarah Palin now ? Or is this ranked voting system just wrong ?
Voters angry over rank choice voting cut their nose off to spite their face and wasted 11k conservative votes not ranking a 2nd candidate.
The Begich family name is associated with bad Democrats. Palin voters made a lot of noise that they’d vote Democrat Peltola before RINO Begich. The Begich voters got mad and a number of them ranked Peltola for their 2nd choice rather than give Palin a vote.
Palin is not particularly loved up here. She’s a mouthy showman who ignited fires and merrily watches them burn. Many simply don’t vote for her. A percentage of her votes were voters resigned to putting her first over their actual preference Begich because Palin voters were flipping the game board rather than vote Begich second, all but guaranteeing a D win before a single vote was counted.
Finally, my pet theory is because the Begich family name has a strong D association, I don’t think it’s far fetched that a percentage of Begich votes were from hasty Democrat voters, who naturally ranked Peltola second.
Vote counting happens in Anchorage under the gimlet eye of the Anchorage clerk, a person of controversy and not particularly trusted by some portion of the local conservatives.
On top of all that Alaska has been the concentrated target of flipping red to blue efforts.
Between the stubborn pride of reds, bad voter rolls, Alaskas fine tradition of corruption, and the external red to blue pressure, we are doomed.
Move? To where?
Yep I’ve used split looms and wrap around looms for years, mostly to clean up cables. Have a wrap one on my wall mount bedroom tv to bring the power and two hdmi cables to the shelve below
On top of all that Alaska has been the concentrated target of flipping red to blue efforts.
Between the stubborn pride of reds, bad voter rolls, Alaskas fine tradition of corruption, and the external red to blue pressure, we are doomed.
Move? To where?
Texas also has the same issues. Each election, the Republican margin is dropping.
That’s about how many Libertarians in GA contributed to creating the current mess in the Senate by “voting their conscience” two years ago, going with Trump at the top of the ticket but supporting their own candidates down ballot.
The count was actually 30,000, but only 11,000 were needed to force the runoff.
Anyone who thinks their vote doesn’t matter needs to think again.
Let Microsoft have Blizzard to clean house. Someone else can take the rest.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/09/uk-challenges-69b-microsoft-activision-deal-citing-potential-harm-to-gamers/
@greg, only if the vote count is honest…
–well did some stuff.
Mowed the lawn and the HOA/boat ramp lot next door. It needed it, there is a holiday this weekend, I was already on the mower, and I was avoiding working in the attic… then I picked up some cans and bottles that the receding waterline revealed. I purely HATE litter. Did some edging and blowing as I want the place to look nice for the weekend. The heaps of dirt and trenches don’t look good, but that I can’t help.
Added drip irrigation to the bushes I moved last time I was up here.
Then the rain started back up so I showered and came inside. Have to find something to eat. I typically just nuke a Costco cheeseburger when I’m alone but I’ve had 3 this week already. There’s lots of food in the freezers but not so many “meals for one.”
n
Going for an experiment ala Paul….
Can of chicken, heated in pan. Pasta. Turkey gravy mix from packet. combine. eat.
Hope it isn’t horrible…
n
“Hope it isn’t horrible…”
Fuel.
After the Libertarians forced the runoff, 300,000 Republicans stayed home for the GA US Senate runoffs in January, thinking the vote wasn’t honest and that the revolution was coming. The victory margins in both races were less than 100,000.
Weird to be eating at 730, I usually work until 8, then float with a beer for 30-45 minutes… Rain has me slacking.
n
Doesn’t taste bad at all, pretty good in fact.
n
@paul,
I use one of these hubs with all my Raspberry Pi boards except the all-in-one Pi 400. The charging port connects to the power input micro USB on the Pi board, and I plug the USB cable into one of the ports on the Pi, with USB devices going on the hub.
Yeah, Chinesium off brand, but I’ve never had a problem with the device.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083XTKV8V?tag=ttgnet-20/
I’m hoping at some point in the near future that the Raspberry Pi goes USB-C with DisplayPort, one cable for charging and keyboard/video/mouse via one of the new fangled monitors with the dock circuitry built in.
Lately, my wife has been making quickie rice for taco night using a can of Rotel tomatoes/chiles and the rice. Easy and not bad. Plus the Rotel is available in convenient bulk packs of the cans at Sam’s.
Yep, I’d eat that again. Too many carbs, I’m going to crash in about 20 minutes, but tasty, and all long term storage food.
n
Sounds great! Perhaps a can of green beans or peas….. I’d eat that.
@kenneth, a can of mixed veg would be good, and make it more like a chicken pot pie flavor… all it really needs is the single serving sized can. Of course it would scale up too.
I used to add peas to several things, including curry. I like canned peas and serve them all the time. I don’t like the bright green frozen peas, freaks me out to see them again a day later……
n
“Biden at Independence Hall: Trump, allies threaten democracy”
https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-biden-donald-trump-presidential-philadelphia-5d0f7c02df093f0d3a3340474a53be4b
“PHILADELPHIA (AP) — President Joe Biden warned Thursday night that “equality and democracy are under assault” in the U.S. as he sounded an alarm about his predecessor, Donald Trump, and “MAGA Republican” adherents, labeling them an extremist threat to the nation and its future.”
Just the scatterbrained comments of a bitter old man who has been scatterbrained all his life.
Can of chicken, heated in pan. Pasta. Turkey gravy mix from packet. combine. eat.
If you don’t have a microwave at the BOL, this Walmart cheapie microwave makes a good backup that you can throw back in the box and stash in the garage. I have used ours several times now when the main microwave had issues. Ours may be smaller since I remember it is 700 watts.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hamilton-Beach-0-9-Cu-Ft-Stainless-Steel-Countertop-Microwave-Oven/55124372
I got my california microwave out of the attic to bring here. Small and under powered. Replaced it with an estate sale bigger one. It’s good to have spares. Eating is a critical function 🙂
n
Tired out. I’m headed to bed with a book. The light misty drizzle is gonna keep me off the dock with no fire tonight.
n
BTW, the combo of using my phone as a hotspot and using the lappy works ok. Occasionally one or the other forgets what it’s doing and needs the wifi switch flipped, or to be cycled thru airplane mode, but it does work. The slow speed discourages me from writing a bunch though, like linking to the story about that Russian who just “jumped” from his window, after being critical of Putin.
Fenestration failures.
Gross abuse of the office.
Honor of the Corps besmirched.
https://redstate.com/bonchie/2022/09/01/joe-biden-crosses-lines-in-grotesque-national-address-heckler-spoils-his-party-n621397
ADDED:
Upon reflection, “besmirched” is too tame.
The Marines are without honor–they left it on a stage in Philadelphia.
perfect:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/blast%20from%20the%20past.jpg
Nick:
You’re supposed to CHEW them before swallowing.
“The Scoop: Netflix’s historic introduction of levels for software engineering”
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-scoop-netflixs-historic-introduction
“The main driver behind Netflix’s new levels seems to be cost. It just was not efficient to pay everyone as a senior engineer, on what would sometimes be a staff engineer or principal engineer budget at another Big Tech firm. I talked with senior software engineers in Latin America making $150,000/year, one in the US making $425,000/year, another making $525,000/year and another making $800,000/year. Before these changes, everyone’s expectations were the same. Still, one of them was paid in what’s likely to be a senior-level band, and another paid in what might be a staff or principal band.”
How do I get $425K/year to be an engineer for Netflix ? I could be happy with that pay level.
BTW, I have a four foot or five foot alligator in the front office pond again. I am not sure of the length since he is just hanging in the middle of the pond. This makes gator number four in eleven years.
tastes like chicken
Looks like a new pair of boots.
Need better dentures?
I don’t much like canned peas, except the ones for making mushy peas. I find frozen peas useful – a handful quickly gives colour and adds interest to many otherwise plain-looking dishes, and I don’t always have fresh spring onions or herbs on hand for that. There is usually a bag of peas in the freezer compartment of the kitchen fridge, as I use them often – the bag also makes a good substitute for a cool-pack for minor burns and sprains.
Thanks MrLynn for the “Recursion” review. I enjoy the majority of his books.
I hope the adaption is better than what was done for Wayward Pines..
Also thank you Jenny for the update on Ms Palin. We only get the basic info here in oz, so it’s good to get a better view. 🙂
Put six rabbits in the fridge tonight. About two hours, tired and moving slower than last processing day. Broke sheep into basic component, wrapped and froze. Ate last of the goat stew and shared some with neighbor. It was delicious – I used a recipe for goat biryani but instead of layering it with rice and baking like a casserole I served it over basmati as a stew. That was a hit last night.
The rabbits I processed tonight we’re born on May 30. Live weight 5.5 – 6.5 pounds. Not sure what my feed to weight ratio was this time. these growouts were real idjits for dragging pellets out of the feeder and wasting expensive feed. I was going to leave number six and number seven as potential replacement bucks until I saw number six deliberately scraping pellets out of the feeder. Little twerp wasted a full day of feed in about 30 seconds. Last poor decision that rabbit made. He’s in the fridge now.
A friend is selling me five more young,tiny, goats for the freezer this weekend. Live weight might be 25 pounds. Bone to muscle ratio will be poor, might get five pounds of meat from each. Lot of work. But goat meat is excellent.
Winter is breathing down our necks. I’m whittling away at the go do list. Rabbits will be another winter in the fabric carport. I’m not crazy about it because it’s periodic intensive effort to keep the roof snow free. Prioritizing essential house tasks bumped rabbit convenience lower on the list. I called six places to get an estimate for insulating attic. Two declined completely and other four haven’t called. I may wind up doing after all. Joy.
The election to replace Don Young for Alaska in the House is frankly, depressing. What a cluster of personalities, hubris, pig headed self destructive righteousness. I don’t think Palin or Begich have the wisdom, courage, confidence or ethics to voluntarily withdraw. We are headed for electing another Liberal. Yikes.
Rabbits.
23-25 pounds of meat (after i process #7).
3 months of daily care at 5-10 minutes a day
Weekly cleaning of rabbitry, 10-15 minutes a week.
15 minutes per rabbit to process.
I bought 150-200 pounds of feed to feed not just the grow outs but the breeders also. $125 in feed. The feed is mostly a guess. Rabbit eats ½ cup of pellets a day.
Call it $4-6 a pound. High but cheaper than what I’m paying for burger, on par with our cost for chicken parts. Cheap meat these days are chicken thighs for $3/lb, whole chicken $2/pound. Beef starts at $4/lb. Pork starts at $3/lb.
Probably less than 20 hours of effort a few minutes at a time. I could reduce my feed bill significantly by supplementing with dandelions and other weeds. That adds 5-10 minutes a day and increases the labor for cleaning the rabbitry (because of the wasted greenery clogging up the poop chute and increasing the effort of cleaning).
Worthwhile, I think. Overwintering is a hassle but I’ll slaughter my last rabbits of this year around Christmas, take a break during the hardest cold, and slaughter the first litter of 2023 in April / May. .
That’s more meat than I got from the young goat, butchering the goat took the same amount of time as half a dozen rabbits. Plus 2-3 hours driving another couple hours visiting, $25 in gas.