Chilly and damp. MAY get some rain, but I hope not.
Yesterday’s rain continued until about 10am, then it was part sun for the rest of the day. Around dusk, I drove through some very light drizzle north of Houston, but it didn’t get the stuff in the bed wet.
Did my pickups. Made it here and had a relaxing movie night with the family.
I was listening to a couple more episodes of The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes on the drive up. These are recordings of the radio show from 1946 starring Basil Rathbone. It’s surprising how good they sound, how BAD organ music sounds on the recording, and how different the world was. The sponsor, Petri wine, has to basically teach the audience about wine, when to drink what, and even what “dry” means. The only wine they are selling is port, sherry, and muscatel. But ‘every Petri wine is a good wine.’ It was a simpler time. But, it was also a time when the audience had a much better vocabulary and understanding of the spoken word.
Today, I think you’d be hard pressed to find 3 people in 100 who could listen to a half hour radio show and understand it.
Speaking of today, the turkey started defrosting last night and will go into some sort of brine today. If I have to head to town and the grocery store for anything I’ll be looking for cheap whole chickens or cheap ribs to throw in the smoker with the turkey. If I’m going to run it for a day, I should fill it.
While the turkey is thawing, I’ll be working on the master bath, plumbing first, then popcorn ceiling and more carpentry. It would be nice to get it back together and working (albeit without floor covering) this week. Some more plumbing in the kitchen would be nice too. And a myriad of small things might get done, or not, as the spirit and time move me.
Stacking up the improvements. And sand bags. For some reason the universe is putting sand bags in front of me this month. So I’m buying them. I’ve learned not to ignore something like that. I’ve picked them up at Goodwill, and at auction. I’ve got plenty of sand here…
If you see something you don’t usually see, especially if it’s something out of the ordinary, take a good long look, and see if there is a message there. Could be coming from your subconscious, or elsewhere, but it’s always worth paying attention, especially if you notice it more than once.
Maybe it’s something you need to stack. There are lots of things I’m sure. Or maybe it’s just someone you need to call, or maybe something you need to avoid, or embrace. Live in the moment, you can sleep when you’re dead.
Stack stuff.
nick
Looks like we’re in for the first real snow today. We’ve had a couple of dustings in the past week, but this afternoon it’s supposed to settle in for real.
The heating guy was here yesterday, for an annual check. Someone I’ve never seen before. Anyway, he just happened to notice that one of the floor-heating valves was attached to the wrong thermostat, specifically, to one that we always turn off. This affected a large room that has several valves, so we’d never really noticed – though we had wondered that there was a cooler region and a warmer region. “Got to get an electrician in to move that wire”.
So I waited until he left, and moved the wire. Unknown problem now solved – no more cool region on the floor. I sent a complimentary mail to his company – it was nice that he noticed the problem, which had obviously never been noticed by anyone else…
Reckon you all are coming up on Thanksgiving – here’s wishing you a nice holiday!
@brad: (from yesterday)
Is there a reason that you have to use your ISP’s router? Here in UK, we don’t. I’m using a Draytek 2860 (which is antediluvian, even though it does the fastest form of DSL available to me) and can do many more things than my ISP router can.
It does IPv6, too, even though my ISP doesn’t.
Mem. to self: Update the router firmware, dammit! There’s sure to be some newly-discovered bug that can let miscreants in.
And GoComics is back up for me, too! I’ve collected all the strips that were missed during the hiatus.
G.
@Geoff: Yes and no. I could probably just turn their router into a modem, and hook up a “real” router this side of it. However, I’m not quite sure how that would affect a couple of services that we get through them: our television, and also a DynDNS service for an internal server that I want to access from elsewhere. All possible, but it’s always a question of how much time you want to invest…
I last did this 2 years ago, so it’s time, and long past time, that I did it. Now done successfully.
G.
@brad:
Isn’t it always? But I take your point. I’ll need a DynDNS service at some point, but Draytek do one, I think, so I’ll likely use that.
At least there was no complaint when the router bounced, to install the new firmware.
G.
Have you checked to see if your neighbors have put a hex on your network? Sometimes working with this stuff that scenario seems like a reasonable answer.
I use my own modem and router. Comcast wants $15.00 a month to rent their modem. No thanks. I actually have two modems, one sitting on the shelf. A Netgear CM2050V on the shelf and a Netgear CM3050V currently in service. The CM3050V was sent to me for a beta test. That was over a year ago and the product has never appeared on Netgear’s website. I have no idea what happened. The device works fine but the testers complained about leaking LED light in the case and the cost was seen as too high. Maybe the product was abandoned.
I have internet, TV and voice through Comcast. I need a voice modem for the phones.
I’m not sure about Houston, but he talent pool here is extremely thin on C/C++ developers.
If the gig does not involve working directly for NASA, he should be clear on moonlighting and ownership of IP. Plus Texas has brutal non-compete laws which prevented TI from turning into Fairchild but resulted in Silicon Valley happening in … Silicon Valley.
Read everything before signing.
The name will look good on the resume. At the tolling company, we hired a “Junior Software Developer” (he accepted that title which still amazes me) who wasn’t really a great developer but studied Biology at MIT and worked for KBR at NASA for a decade number crunching astronaut vital sign numbers. The Adderall addicts I worked for were, as the kids say, “sportin’ wood” over that hire.
A failed Number One Son who didn’t get into Harvard Med (guessing) as expected.
The Mouse needs an estimated $2 billion out of this flick to break even in Hollywood funny money terms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5F8MOz_IDw
The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but James Cameron spoke at our big annual show so he must have bought a ton of gear for the rendering farms.
I’m just about over the cold I got after our TCM cruise. After my SIL tested + for WuCooties, MrsAtoz and I took COVID tests on separate days. Both negative. We let our daughter in the Medical Licensed Technician Program administer them for practice.
In important news:
And even weirder: Colorado shooter “non-binary,” say attorneys
I guess it is not a hate crime then.
Even more important news:
Man arrested in NYC gay bar attacks said it was ‘revenge’ on behalf of female friend
Another non-hate crime I guess.
Working as a C/C++ programmer is one of my prepared fallback positions if things go wrong and I need to find work in a few years. In my free time (hahahahaha) I’ve been brushing up on the latest C++ changes, though I get the impression that most of the code out there which will need to be maintained is older style and I could probably be productive almost immediately.
For that matter, if things go really wrong (or the offer is very lucrative) I could maintain COBOL code. A former employer was a consulting company specializing in COBOL support; my team was the only group doing anything else. And, in my mid-40s, I was much younger than most of the company’s employees. I suspect that the pool of people able and willing to do COBOL support is very thin now.
How come the LameStreamMedia hasn’t produced the name and photo of the VA Walmart shooter?
Possibly Amish?
C++11 introduced closures and a standard for shared/unique pointers which were huge improvements IMHO. Beyond that, the HR droids are going to look for Boost experience on your resume, in particular the time and network facilities offered by the library.
For my own work, I still default to a shared pointer template that I picked up at UW’s certificate program which will compile in C++03, but standards are always good.
When experimenting with C++, Valgrind on Linux is your friend — resolve any memory leaks. Also, “-Wall” for both GCC and Clang is an important learning tool so you want to fix things the compilers complain about.
Go Comics is back up this morning.
57Fand sunny with blue sky this morning.
And warming up.
@brad, set your secondary DNS to 1.1.1.1 or the other open dns server… I think they are still filtering ads.
WRT routers and ISPs, we’ve been running my client’s connection on the ATT DSL router for a decade because every time we’ve tried to use it in ‘bridge mode’ (ie transparently passing everything to our router) it runs for a while but then has problems. ATT will ALWAYS demand a return to their ‘as delivered’ state before troubleshooting the connection. Also, either because of power issues, lightning strikes, or bad luck, we ended up with default settings far too many times, breaking the bridging. The new fiber is a bare IP connection to the internet so it goes to the Ubiquiti router. It’s very capable, with deep packet inspection, sophisticated firewall, logging and analysis. Far more than I know what to do with.
Time to start my day I guess. Breakfast always tastes better here.
n
Red pill or blue pill?
https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientist-crowdfunding-experiment-simulation
Dunno about “detecting the code” of the simulation, but the fact that there is a smallest increment of time and if space does seem…indicative.
However: imagine the difference in scale between our universe and a computer capable of simulating it. That kind of like a mitochondria in a single cell of your body wondering what it’s part of.
Still, there’s a great SciFi series waiting to be written: hacking the simulation. Volume 1: free energy, volume 2: escape, volume 3: fighting to stay free, volume 4: …
Sounds like a great way to mess around on other peoples’ dime. But you never know and if you aren’t failing, you aren’t taking enough chances.
77F in mixed shade.
n
More than 80 comic strips and comic panels will use their November 26, 2022 releases to honor the 100th birthday of cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts.
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/11/22/comics-to-pay-tribute-on-charles-schulz-centennial/
I’m not sure about Houston, but he talent pool here is extremely thin on C/C++ developers.
If the gig does not involve working directly for NASA, he should be clear on moonlighting and ownership of IP. Plus Texas has brutal non-compete laws which prevented TI from turning into Fairchild but resulted in Silicon Valley happening in … Silicon Valley.
Read everything before signing.
Yup, I have a fairly strong non-compete and NDA that all employees must sign.
Yup, the five gigs are for a NASA contractor. I am not sure that NASA has any employees anymore, just managers.
“Dual Twitter headquarters in Texas and California? Elon Musk is considering it.”
https://www.chron.com/business/technology/article/twitter-hq-california-texas-musk-17606385.php
“Musk reportedly told employees that fully moving the HQ to Texas would suggest a “right-wing takeover of Twitter.””
I am surprised that a real estate agent is not looking for office space for Twitter in Austin right now.
Wasnt there an old James Hogan novel Entoverse to that effect?
And a chapter or two in Accelerando where people realize they are in a ‘sandbox’ when visiting an alien planet.
Not sure I would classify either as “great” though.
Musk should learn from the Alex Jones mistake and put the Texas office in Dallas, beyond the reach of the Travis County State Attorney and the Federal Court civil jury pool.
New Congressman and rising Dem star Greg Casar has already been out to the Tesla plant to demonstrate since winning his race at the beginning of the month.
I believe Gregorio Eduardo (I’m not kidding) will go after Rafael Edward in two years or maybe the Governor’s Mansion in four. He will want to make his mark soon.
I am surprised that a real estate agent is not looking for office space for Twitter in Austin right now.
Wait, I know where there is a huge five million ft2 warehouse in Austin that probably has awesome internet connectivity. I wonder if Tesla would mind renting some space to Twitter until Tesla gets their supply chain issues fixed in 2027 ?
>> How come the LameStreamMedia hasn’t produced the name and photo of the VA Walmart shooter?
Possibly Amish?
See for yourself…
https://nypost.com/2022/11/23/andre-bing-identified-as-chesapeake-walmart-shooter/
From David Weber at
https://www.facebook.com/david.weber.5621/posts/pfbid02GHjKu4QTo4pL4biU4BWd2UWLosQf1WdAMH191gqwNWDxcgjE8fJMUWneUYLBRKdNl
“Okay, so by now a lot of people have heard about DragonCon’s decision to eliminate the military science fiction/fantasy category from the Dragon Awards and fold it into the Best Novel category.
A lot of those people are upset, even angry, over the decision, and I understand that. As a multiple Dragon winner in that category, I am probably one of the pros hearing the most about it from my readership. And, as I have said before, it is a decision with which I disagree.
Having said that, however, I think it’s important for the people who are upset to understand that so far as I can tell, there is no malign intent involved in this decision. Like a lot of you, I intend to advocate to get it changed, to get our category restored to the awards, but angst and outrage are not the way to go about that.
The Dragon Awards were created by DragonCon for many reasons. One, frankly, was the perception by a significant portion of fandom that existing awards — like the Hugo and the Nebula — had been politicized. That they were no longer voted on the merits of the work itself but because the work in question had checked off the proper boxes. DragonCon’s answer to that perception was to create a family of awards which were clearly voted upon by ALL fandom, not by a subset of it which might be agenda driven. The Dragons were also intended to be a family of awards which addressed all of fandom’s different genres and readerships, in a format which would incorporate a degree of flexibility that would allow them to remain current and relevant. At the same time, DragonCon recognized that the award CEREMONY itself would not be a cost effective exercise on the convention’s part. And, finally, the decision to eliminate the award for military science-fiction/fantasy was made, according to DragonCon, because this was the “least-nominated, least-voted” category, so if something was going to be pruned, it made sense to prune the award which had had the least support.”
I will have you know I am anything but thin and can still do COBOL.
“Robocall-Enabling Provider Gets the Digital Death Penalty From the FCC”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/robocall-enabling-provider-gets-the-digital-death-penalty-from-the-fcc
“The order requires telecom firms to stop accepting traffic from Global UC, a company that the FCC says repeatedly ignored anti-robocall regulations.”
One down, 100,000 to go.
My wife’s back channel to Toyota San Antonio told her that the Japanese believe that the Austin plant is currently doing superficial work on vehicles trucked in from Fremont in order to meet minimum requirements for their tax breaks with the city, county, and state governments.
If you really want to get this person going, my wife said to ask him about Tesla’s battery “recycling”.
Lots of commercial space around Austin is going begging, but, strangely, leaving work yesterday, I noticed Martin Marietta-logoed heavy equipment moving a lot of dirt on a section of the campus the company sold off late last year. Gotta wonder what that’s about. The digging and filling has been going on since Spring.
This isn’t a place to put an office if you want to avoid the kind of liberal orthodoxy which doomed Twitter in San Francisco.
Dilbert: Answering Emails
https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-11-23
Can I ? Dare I ?
This isn’t a place to put an office if you want to avoid the kind of liberal orthodoxy which doomed Twitter in San Francisco.
All cities of a million and over are full of liberal orthodoxy. It is a disease that spreads quickly.
Put Twitter in south Dallas. South of downtown. A bit south of Fairpark where Our Great State Fair is held. If they can’t stand the smell of that river, go out on I-635 about five miles or so east from the I-35 east and west split. It’s not exactly ghetto or white trash redneck but it’s enough to make folks with blue hair feel very unwelcome. That should stop a lot of the nonsense.
Oh, heck, Hillsboro might work. There’s even an outlet mall there!!!
Poking around on the Well Fargo (spit) site a little bit ago. The truck loan was for 63 months. To keep the payments down and cover all the extended warranty stuff.
I canceled the warranty nonsense once I stopped shaking from spending that much money and had time to read what the factory warranties covered.
So anyway. I put 10 grand down, all the taxes and fees and extended warranties made the loan about 31 grand. All “the stuff” sucked up most of my down payment. The heck?
I’ve been sending a bit extra every month. It adds up. Next payment is due in February. My balance is about 18,500.
If I remember correctly I can go to a Wells Fargo branch to make a payment and have it go entirely to principal.
I think I’ll try that this month. Because I can. I plan to have the truck paid off in about two years…. just two years early.
When I bought my F-150 it was $54K. Trade-in of $5K for my old F-150 leaving a financed balance of $49K. I financed through Ford Motor Credit to get an additional $1K off the price of the truck. I paid off the balance with my first payment coupon. FMC nor the dealer made any money on that financing deal.
The dealer calls about once a month to ask if I want to trade. Last model year with a steel bed so there is some demand. I tell the dealer I paid $54K so I will take $40K in trade. They tell me I am crazy. I tell them that is what the truck is worth to me. Pay what I think it is worth or go look somewhere else for a vehicle. They generally hang up until the next month.
For tomorrow we are not doing normal. As in cooking a turkey and all the fixings.
I have several Ziplock tubs worth of turkey stock vac sealed in the freezer. Turkey stock /I/ made. I cook that stuff down enough that canned chicken broth tastes like water with a pinch of salt.
Thaw some turkey stock, dilute as needed and add a can of Keystone turkey and a bag of bow-tie pasta.
Make a loaf in the bread machine. Hot buttered bread. Might even remember to take the paddle out before the bread bakes.
Neighbor is bringing a pumpkin pie.
I didn’t have a trade-in when I bought the Nissan. I could have used the blue Dodge truck but that would not been honest.
Yeah, I know, they’ll shuffle the numbers and make it look like you get 2 grand or so for a truck that will simple go to auction. But Blue Truck has a bad head gasket. Computer says Number Two cylinder. Truck runs GREAT but dang it uses a lot of coolant.
No one around here will touch it for a head job. That’s all it needs, a new head gasket on one side of the engine. They will replace the entire motor for $9500 (plus shop rags and crap), sure.
And with a new engine, will the a/c leak be fixed or will I still be feeding the system a can of freon a month? Anyway, gave the truck to a friend and he can use it for parts.
So a used Nissan Frontier 4×4 with all of 20k miles. Still smells new. Power everything but seats. Climate control. Beyond mid eighties Cadillac Fleetwood stuff but without ashtrays in the doors.
I need to work on the driver’s seat. I want more lift at the back and less pressure under my knees. A few shock absorber washers will work. I have no idea how Nissan mounts seats. Chryslers, yeah.
Indeed, the WalMart shooter was Amish. Management too.
https://nypost.com/2022/11/23/andre-bing-identified-as-chesapeake-walmart-shooter/
Put Twitter in south Dallas.
Nah, put Twitter in Centerville, Texas, population 905. Use Starlink for internet connectivity. Everything else is covered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centerville,_Texas
Houston is 100 miles south, Dallas is 100 miles north. Got all you need there.
Honest with a car dealer? People who will shaft you with glee? Snicker.
When I traded in my Highlander the front bumper was loose, held by a sheet rock screw underneath. The A/C condenser had a slow leak and needed replacing. A problem existed in the electrical system that would drain the battery in three days. Was not worth the $5K the dealer gave me.
The dealer will screw the customer without batting an eyelash. I see no problem in returning the favor
“California looks to ban all gas and diesel truck fleets”
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-plans-diesel-truck-ban-17604361.php
Why not ? Go ahead and shut down the nukes too. And stop taking in fossil electricity from out of state.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
“Could Merrick Garland use the Fourteenth Amendment to bar Trump from the presidency?”
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3747383-could-merrick-garland-use-the-fourteenth-amendment-to-bar-trump-from-the-presidency/
“I don’t think Trump should run again, but an attorney general has no business trying to ensure he can’t. If that’s Garland’s motive, he’s the one who should be on trial.”
Me too.
I’m having an interesting time over here. I bought this:
https://www.newegg.com/neosmay-ac8-jasper-lake/p/2SW-006Y-00003?Item=9SIBDYFHWZ7094
It runs Win11 and while that is an adventure of WTF? when coming from Win7, the machine is quad core and has no fans. It runs about as warm as my phone on fast charge.
I don’t know how a six or seven year old i5 compares to “Intel 11th Gen Pentium N6005 CPU” but it’s not a downgrade. Toss in the difference in OS performance. I don’t know. New PC is pretty snappy.
So it comes with 16 Mb RAM. Has an extra slot. I should have bought the 32 Mb version of the PC but I didn’t. Had a moment of Cheap Bastard happening.
You can e-mail the seller via the Newegg site. Which strips out all e-mail addresses and URLs. I get it, protection from scammers.
So Barry Chan sent a .png screenshot to give me his e-mail address. And I sent via Paypal the princely sum of $39.50 for a 16 Mb RAM card.
Yeah…. I know. Perhaps stupid. I want a matching brand of memory card. From the folk that sold the PC. I might get ripped off because he is On the Other Side of The Planet and immune to a face punch. But I have a good vibe about the deal.
Oh. Why more RAM? Old machine with 6 GB seemed to always be using about 25%. New machine with 16 GB uses about 25%.. It will be interesting to see what happens with 32Gb .
Time to feed the dogs. Buddy the Beagle is being a pain in the you know…..
Yeah. But I don’t roll that way.
Edit. Yeah, I could have dumped a few bottles of Bars Leak into the radiator. And used the truck for a trade in for all of a grand. I mean, it was a 2002 Dodge Ram with bad paint on the roof.
Fetterman for President 2024 !
Scott Adams says.
Seriously, good for you. Myself, not so much. I got snookered once and feel no remorse in returning the favor. Buyer beware. I consider myself honest when dealing with individuals. With car sales people I view it as a competition. So do they.
One vegetable for another….
n
Seriously, good for you. Myself, not so much. I got snookered once and feel no remorse in returning the favor. Buyer beware. I consider myself honest when dealing with individuals. With car sales people I view it as a competition. So do they.
I figure every used car is going to need $5,000 of repairs in the first year. $10,000 if your life sucks.
>> Looking for suggestions as to the best adhesive to use.
Microwavable oatmeal? If you don’t wash the bowl immediately when the kid is done eating, you pretty well have to chisel it off.
@SteveF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNkMjVwkixs
.
>> I’d use Titebond Premium or Ultimate:
http://www.titebond.com/community/the-big-three
Both are exterior and about equivalent strength, but choose according to temperature and open time.
@drwilliams – thanks for the detailed response, going to give it a try.
>> I am continuously amazed at the number of people who think living past 100 is a good idea. My great aunt lived to be 99. She spent the last ten years of her life laying in a bed peeing into a diaper.
As distasteful as it may be, plan ahead if this concerns you enough. ‘Nuff said.
Oregon used to have a real time web site display of where their electricity came from and how it was generated, but things got embarrassing at one point in the last few years and the site got pulled.
I believe the problem was too much coal power from Idaho and Canada.
>> Things are getting ugly in tech. It isn’t just VC-funded hot house flower unicorns now.
I was just rereading Zuck’s recent letter to the Meta employees…
I wonder how many of the 11,000 that got fired (via email, of course, they’re just rows on a spreadsheet) were in upper management?
And what actions is he taking personally to reflect his “responsibilities?” Other than paper losses to his net worth? Any recompense for shareholders?
And “historically important?” So were the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, Pearl Harbor and Katrina.
[/rant]
@Ray Thompson
My apologies. I fat-thumbed you a thumbs down on your 17:13 post. Should have been a thumbs up.
Watched Walker , Texas Ranger “Case Closed”
The UFO episode with the double-homage: Roy Thinnes and Dirk Benedict, aka David Vincent and the original Starphux.
>> I suspect that the pool of people able and willing to do COBOL support is very thin now.
Able? Yeah.
Willing? Nah, retirement is too fulfilling. Though if it was code I wrote, and the timeframe was short enough, there are some bills I could pay off, if they were desperate enough.
The Highlander the wife drives was purchased used from the Ford dealer where I bought my truck. Purchased in 2016. I found the vehicle on a back lot before it made it to the used car lot. Vehicle had just come off a lease, 36K miles. I paid $30K for the limited AWD with third row seating. Internet price was $33K so I got a good deal after some negotiating.
The only issue I have had with the vehicle since I have owned was the alternator shorted. That took out the battery. Needed a tow to the Toyota dealer and $700 later was good to go. New alternator and battery plus labor. I have owned the vehicle for six years.
I did take the vehicle to Toyota before I finalized the transaction and had the vehicle checked. Service records were pulled and all maintenance had been accomplished on schedule. Toyota found no problems.
The time I had an issue was a 1974 Super Beetle, purchased new in 1974. That vehicle had a myriad of problems. Some were taken care of under warranty, other issues were not. One significant issue was in a hard rain, which happens in San Antonio, was the floor would fill with water. Dealer never could find the problem. I drilled a ¼” hole in the floor under the rear seat so the water would drain.
The A/C had problems, 5 speedometers, three fuel gauges, fuel hoses that leaked, lights that would sometimes just quit for no reason. Dealer got tired of seeing me. I got tired of seeing the dealer. That was one car I was glad to get rid of. Two weeks after I traded the vehicle it caught fire and burned up. I am certain the person that bought the car from the dealer was not at all happy.
Pre-internet I was able to save two family members a combined total of more than $10,000 by chasing down “secret” warranties on engines.
In one case the dealer’s fix was a new engine at full price–he did a full-speed backup when he got the magic number. What do you bet the money was going to get claimed from corporate and go in his pocket? I told that story to random strangers every time I could.
The other case was a little less clear as to whether they knew. But c’mon, man! How is it that I could find out and they couldn’t be bothered?
So, yeah, bend them over and pound them with a fencepost.
>> Red pill or blue pill?
Waiting for some health-related DNA results from a research study my wife and I are participating in (related to her leukemia).
So far, I’m leaning towards the “blue pill.”
That must have been a long time ago. Dirk Benedict has been canceled for a while.
Dwight Schultz too, but the Stage 8/9 “Star Trek” producers kept his career going through the end of “Voyager”.
The BBC did the 30th anniversary special for “The A Team”, interviewing everyone still alive, but the milestone got nary a peep from NBC, despite how much money the show generated for the network pre-Cosby/Must See Thursday.
What was most interesting to me about the “Picard” season three trailer is that Dwight Schultz’ character, Barclay, was the last person seen on screen with the storage device for the “Moriarty” hologram in his hands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo2V1cSVj-w
Of course, last season, among many other sins,”Picard” wasted Jay Karnes so maybe a Barclay apperance is too much to ask.
I think 13% of his personal net worth, spread amongst those laid off would be a nice start.
Heh.
Perhaps this would a good change up for a modern version of A Christmas Carol, with a thinly disguised Mark Z as Scrooge? Could become a Hallmark Channel Classic.
No more Zuckerberg movies. “The Social Network” was enough.
Nope. Hallmark has six scripts, six different sets, and six sets of actors. Makes for about 200 different movies.
Boy meets girl, boy finds new girl, boy marries new girl, previous girl marries brother, everyone lives happily ever after.
Wife watches every one, doesn’t bother hubby, everyone lives happily ever after.
I’m almost ashamed to say it, but I’ve been watching these Hallmark/Netflix movies lately.
I wanted romantic happy ending fluff to distract me from real life. I’m choosing to ignore the woke parts. Overall, it’s meeting my needs, and I don’t really expect great art here.
Christmas Lodge
The Christmas Train – Danny Glover and Joan Cusack in supporting roles
A Castle for Christmas – Cary Elwes and Brooke Shields
Falling for Christmas – Lindsay Lohan
I may make up a bingo card or drinking game for these though. Points for:
I just need a few more categories. And I suppose I could apply this to the other TV I watch, like my britbox favorites, Vera and Shetland. It’s like they have a virtue-signaling checklist or something.
1995. New-ish.
Pretty much quit watching tv series until they are over.
Too many end in the multiple monkey mask orgiasticies of The Prisoner, exhausted and pissing in the faces of the fans in the fine tradition of John Nathan-Turder. Pass.
Too many others get cancelled because some wanker gets his tube steak caught in the wrong gear, or the advertisers think that they don’t have the right age distro, or there aren’t enough channels available. Always sumpin’.
@lpdbw
Try White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Christmas in Connecticut, or Miracle on 34th St.
or just skip them and go directly to the very best of them all…
Die Hard
Yippee Kiyah Mr. Falco.
“Lethal Weapon”.
The Warner Ranch is slated for the wrecking ball, and, sadly, this will include the “Lethal Weapon” house.
If you want something a little more modern and a lot different, I believe “Anna and the Apocalypse” is on Prime these days. I have a UK DVD. Sadly, the flick fell through the pandemic cracks just as international distribution was starting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfWIfwKJ7vA
Oh, and nothing says Christmas like a screening of “Roadhouse”.
In addition to being forced to endure fake geek Felicia Day as hostess, “A Patrick Swayze Christmas” will not be part of this year’s MST3k Turkey Day Marathon since “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”, the episode in which the sketch appears, is not on the schedule. Fortunately, there is always YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZyJCV_dyug
I have all those on DVD. Along with George C. Scott’s marvelously overacted version of A Christmas Carol, my favorite version. But my 2 absolute go-to movies are The Shop Around The Corner and the Bogart/Ustinov/Ray classic We’re No Angels.
It’s just too early to bring out those disks until after Thanksgiving.
By the way, all of the following movies and plays are based on the same Hungarian play “Parfumerie”:
No Christmas until after Thanksgiving. That means decorations, movies, music, etc.
We haven’t watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving yet. Definitely the weakest of the big 3, but I still like it.
Finished disc 2 of the Firefly series tonight. Jaynestown…
I’m amazed as I re-watch it just how good it is. The open vulnerability of the characters is astonishing. LOT of God and Bible too and neither mocking nor played for laughs. River’s lines as she “fixes” Book’s Bible are awesome. The music is great too. Really nice coda at the end of Jaynestown.
n
I got the hose bib that I can reach from the master bath changed out. Still haven’t figured out a good way to secure it, but it’s in place and the leaking one is capped off.
Got the smoker set up. Takes a while to dial in temp, and smoke so I figured I’d get going on that. Been a couple of years since I ran it so I cleaned it too. I’ll do the turkey and one rack of ribs from the freezer. I didn’t get to town for any other meat.
Got the dob set up in the dock house. Put a bag over it and the wife didn’t even notice it yet. All the pieces seem to be there except maybe the battery for the mirror fan. Supposedly the fan helps get the mirror to ambient quickly, but the manual is missing. Not sure how the laser pointer mounts or where, but I’ll try to D/L the manual later tonight. Spotter scope was bright and clear. Has both a normal looking eyepiece and a “wide field” one that looks more like a small SLR camera lens. Mirror looked good. Hope to get some clear sky one of these nights.
Got some more instruction from my fishing neighbor. He demonstrated a couple of the different style lures and helped set up some reels. That was worth taking time from other chores. He and his son got deer already dressed out and in the freezer. He got a doe, son got a 9 point buck. I volunteered to store some in my freezer if they don’t have space. His son got a small pig too. It’s harvest time.
He helped me unload the dob, and the small cast iron woodstove I picked up. Checked it out and all the pieces are there, The chips in the back edge of the top casting aren’t even visible from the front and are minimal. It’s a great size for a workshop or garage or the little dock house, if I don’t sell it. I’ll take it with some chips for ¼ of retail, thanks.
I need to get serious about stacking firewood. “Fortunately” I have some trees need to come down and some big limbs need trimming. Scare quotes because the tree guy isn’t cheap. Good thing I saved money on the stove, the ax, the wood rack, and the chainsaw.
Lake is up a bit, and there was 8″ of water in the wheelbarrow. We certainly could use rain tomorrow, but I’m still hoping we don’t get it.
62F at the moment, but the wind has picked up and stuff might be moving in. I guess we’ll know tomorrow.
n
If you want something a little more modern and a lot different, I believe “Anna and the Apocalypse” is on Prime these days. I have a UK DVD. Sadly, the flick fell through the pandemic cracks just as international distribution was starting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfWIfwKJ7vA
Dude, you gotta warn a guy that it is a musical. And very English.
It is showing on the Roku channel.
>> https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/3738630-biden-reaches-for-his-pen-and-undermines-separation-of-powers/
Government by executive fiat – when does this criminality end?
Uhh, Mr Garland, here’s something more important for you to examine.
>> Try White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Christmas in Connecticut, or Miracle on 34th St.
or just skip them and go directly to the very best of them all…
Die Hard
My wife is a big Dr Seuss fan and every Christmas we watch the 1966 version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas. The one with Boris Karloff, not Jim Carrey.
>> No Christmas until after Thanksgiving. That means decorations, movies, music, etc.
We haven’t watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving yet. Definitely the weakest of the big 3, but I still like it.
Don’t forget “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is a Thanksgiving movie. Steve Martin and John Candy.
“New York State Cracks Down on Bitcoin Miners Buying Old Coal Plants”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/11/23/new-york-state-cracks-down-on-bitcoin-miners-buying-old-coal-plants/
“Bitcoin miners needed a new source of cheap energy, and fast.”
“They found their energy source – mothballed US coal plants. Punitive environmental laws passed by green energy obsessed US politicians to shut down coal plants only applied to coal plants supplying the grid. Bitcoin miners don’t want to supply the grid, they want to supply their bitcoin mining computers, so the miners started taking advantage of this loophole in environmental laws, by restarting the coal plants, but using all the electricity produced by those coal plants to run onsite bitcoin mining computers.”
That is freaking amazing. Most states would welcome new businesses in their states.
Yes, well, whatever you think of CO2, coal-fired power plants generate a whole lot of other stuff we really don’t want. They have generated more total radioactive waste than all the nuclear power plants ever. Coal is nasty stuff.
Bitcoin miners have a problem: a lot of people invested a lot of money in hardware, because the price was going up. Now that the price is down, there is a huge oversupply of miners trying to justify their investments. In the end, Bitcoin was a great prototype – genius even. But is should have remained a prototype, supplanted by later and better implementation. Unfortunately, although there are now better implementations, Bitcoin never went away.
I suppose one advantage of the crypto crash is that it will clear out lots of deadwood. What remains in a couple of years will (hopefully) be the projects that actually have some purpose and use other than pure speculation. That’s a tiny minority of all the projects that exist.