Cool and wet, but hopefully clearing as the day goes on. Depending on where in town you were yesterday, you either got hammered by rain, teased with a few drops, or got nothing. Most of the area south of Houston was clear when I was there. But when I got home, it was to black sky and rain.
I am hoping to have clear sky today, so I can load up and head to the BOL. I’ve got a pickup that I can make today or tomorrow, that is mostly on the way, and is heavy shelving for storage at the BOL anyway. So I’d like to get it and get it up there in the same trip. I got enough, that I’ll bring some back once I have somewhere cleared to put it here. If it’s raining, I’ll delay the trip and pickup to tomorrow, and do stuff around the house.
Otherwise, I’m planning to spend a couple days doing plumbing at the lake, then come home to get ready for Christmas here. My mom is coming in, so after Christmas, we’ll probably head up for a day or two so she can see the place. It would be nice to have a few more things done before that.
And it would be a good idea to have all the hose bibs removed so they can’t freeze. I’m anxious to get the old pipe de-commissioned before it leaks and floods the house, at least everything in exterior walls… so if I can at least get the old hose bibs disconnected I’ll feel better. I can replace them later.
Of course there is always more to do. And if I canna do one thing, I’ll do another…
All the while, stacking.
nick
At my current job, the terms “master” and “slave” are not allowed in code as variable names or in comments. That makes programming certain low level protocols very interesting.
A periodic sweep of code in the Git repositories enforces the rule. Legacy code is not touched, but any new code or maintenance fixes have to adhere to the rules.
I don’t believe the place is any more “woke” than other US tech companies. Most are worse. However, once an entity accepts Federal Government money, the Feds are in your business in a serious way — worse than WalMart 🙂 — and you end up being forced to add people to your payroll are not qualified to do anything but sit and think about these things all day.
The previous job involved working for James Clapper indirectly (he was on the board), and I had a six month standoff over Covid vaccination with HR — they couldn’t force the DoD contractor mandate on me since they hadn’t landed any Fed contracts, but they wanted the gold star to be ahead of the game for when they did finally get a spot at the trough.
Then just use white and black instead. See how many heads you can make explode at one time.
Did that use up my insensitivity credits for a year?
Clapper. That reminds me – layoffs at the Washington Post.
Clapper’s name disappeared from the board at the last job as soon as the Post and Pinch’s brood at the Times did their mea culpa over the Hunter Biden laptop story.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/video-washington-post-staffers-shouted-at-the-ceo-after-he-announced-layoffs-but-refused-to-say-who-will-get-the-boot/ar-AA15khbf
Serious snowflake meltdown. Surely, they can learn to code.
The Legend of Jeff, Family Guy, Drives A Honda, Wears The Same … ah, y’all know the rest. Notch that Bingo card. The Legend dies hard — people still wanna believe in Bezos, Zuck, Tony, and the rest.
Note that Bezos didn’t show up to make the announcement himself. Democracy dies in darkness, Jeff.
Most of my last year has been spent playing with libcurl and json-c, both protocols/libraries designed in more enlightened times.
More reinforcement of my belief that we are seeing Peak Amazon now.
If I still worked in these environments, and didn’t need the money, I could have a lot of fun with this PC crap. And I would, too.
I’m up. And coffee is brewing. Kids are like a litter of puppies on the couch. Don’t know how long they stayed up.
Currently 46F which is the same as last night. Only 65%RH. Light overcast. I need to decide if I’m taking this as the best I can get an heading up.
n
@alan, don’t stop poking me. I need it. No physical in the last 2 years. Tired is generally because I get too little sleep or eat sugar/carbs. During the week, I am lucky to get 5 hours a night, sometimes less, and if cough someone cough is snoring, they aren’t good hours.
back, bladder, or brats, something gets me up….
“Technician” has long been an acceptable stealth derogatory term for anyone who does real work on projects I’ve been involved with since the early 90s, even engineers. Whenever I’ve heard it coming out of someone’s mouth, it was usually management who had no friggin’ clue as to how to get the job done, never did hands on work even remotely related, and harbored a running insecurity about the lack of ability combined with being in a management role for their “people” skills.
Usually it gets shortened to a four letter word. “Tech”.
Pope/FauxPope/Cardinal/Priest would be more relevant in the current era.
OFD is sorely missed at times like this.
“SME”/Tech
Where “SME” stands for Subject Matter Expert. That was really common language at GTE.
Obviously, no offense was intended here, just as no offense was ever intended by “Master/Slave” in its original software connotation. As a practicing software engineer, I tried, hard, to convince my coworkers to lean on and learn from the SMEs, and to respect and be extra nice to the IT support staff. Alas, I seemed to be the only engineer who could speak business-speak, manager-speak, and tech-speak.
Over and over, I told them to drop by the IT support desk and chat on good days, not just days when you have problems, and occasionally call the business customers to see how they’re doing and if all their needs are being met.
They were all surprised when the desktop support people put me first in line for equipment upgrades, and when my business internal customers sent me Christmas cookies and bottles of wine.
Naw. The award level isn’t static–you can earn more for good usage.
I wasn’t offended by the pairing but I find it interesting what kind of language has slipped by, continuing to be truly insulting with intent, while modern management worries about master/slave or black/white.
At the phone companies in the 90s, “Office Space” was considered a docudrama more than a comedy.
@lpdbw
And the purpose is not to get the treats, the purpose is to cut down on the internal friction that dissipates energy without getting the job done.
If you haven’t had a scoping in the last five years, you’re due.
I have to go back in for another one on Monday after they pulled a golf ball sized polyp along with a half dozen 10-20 mm friends out of my colon in February. No cancer, but the big one was getting close according to the pathology report.
Yes, my boss does this. He has no idea about anything technical, yet always puts himself in place to be the hero. Always using “we” when describing anything successful done by my department. Never accepting any blame. I am management too, yet he always introduces me as his lead tech or some other equivalent. Yeah, it pisses me off, but I sleep well knowing my job is secure. It also doesn’t piss me off enough to leave, though it’s tempting sometimes. We have a building move coming up next year. Without me it would be extremely painful…just sayin.
lot’s of nonsense in the reports:
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2022/12/16/sleeping-with-the-fishes-aquarium-at-the-berlin-radisson-bursts-n518364
One has to wonder, though, if any street vendor suddenly added fish sandwich to their menu.
Discussion of Sam “Sticky” Brinton’s lack of tech cred:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/12/sam_brinton_lacks_the_credibility_essential_for_a_technocrat.html
I do not agree that the criteria used here is the only such that could be applied, but it you’re going to do it, finish the job:
Two earlier paragraphs:
The earlier discussion dropped included the information that he allegedly has unspecified degrees in mechanical and nuclear engineering and
repeat for emphasis:
Most technical master’s degree grads typically have 200 or more citations to their work before leaving school.
What do you bet that Sticky was held to a different standard starting much earlier than his hiring with FedGov? It would not be difficult for a journalist to track down a some info on his undergraduate adventures. Difficult to get professors to talk candidly, but fellow students, particularly those who worked on team projects with him, would have clear memories about his contributions and might be willing to share.
MIT master’s degree is easier to check out. The entire cohort of those that took a similar degree in a particular year is small, easily discoverable, and if Google Scholar is the metric at hand, easy to evaluate and compare.
Loading up the truck and heading out soon.
Got stuff to do!
n
Maybe, but more likely not anymore, even in niche specialties. A lot of places, even vaunted names, run their MS in technical fields with non-thesis options anymore or, worse, “professional development”, where the academic standards are nil and the degree is essentially being purchased, credentials for C-suite execs who lack the background or real ability.
Just guessing, but “Sticky” probably comes from a wealthy family who donate a lot of money to the Dems.
Has “Sticky” even worked as an engineer, leastwise as a nuclear engineer? It’s latest headlines is about some school policy it developed to help fags earn acceptance just because they are fags. I doubt it has worked any significant engineering job. All social justice for fags.
All think tank employment. No real job.
>> As a practicing software engineer,
Young man, carrying a violin case, to old man waiting for the subway train: “Excuse me sir, how do I get to Carnegie Hall?”
Old man responds: “Practice, son, practice.”
Yeah, yeah, I know, off the lawn.
More diversity make mo’ better scientists.
https://www.bakersfield.com/news/biden-administration-grants-csub-1-7-million-to-help-diversify-us-geoscience-workforce/article_b8436e10-7d82-11ed-b256-6b88574dbff9.html
“Technician” has long been an acceptable stealth derogatory term for anyone who does real work on projects I’ve been involved with since the early 90s, even engineers. Whenever I’ve heard it coming out of someone’s mouth, it was usually management who had no friggin’ clue as to how to get the job done, never did hands on work even remotely related, and harbored a running insecurity about the lack of ability combined with being in a management role for their “people” skills.
Usually it gets shortened to a four letter word. “Tech”.
Yup, but for field engineering, it does matter. The Technicians (two years degrees) are usually good with their hands and following instructions. The Engineers (four year degrees – Hah ! usually six years now) are good at calculations and writing reports. Both generally suck at management, I am a terrible manager even though I have been doing it for 27 years.
When I went in the field at TXU after I was a plant engineer for three years, the technicians were on par in our group. But, they could not generally put a serious test together nor decide which data to grab and which data to fake. Our boss was an engineer, his boss was an engineer, his boss was engineer. To get promoted in plant and central office management, you had to be an engineer. I have no idea if that culture is still present at the company since I left there in 1989.
When I worked an actual EE job at Jail -er- Ja*b*il, the two year techs we got out of ITT in Tampa were generally decent, the training program having been built for the needs of the Philips plant, not far from the airport/stadium area, which produced IBM PC CGA and “green screen” monitors.
The guy we had to be careful around was the tech’s manager, who ran his own lawn care company prior to Jabil and was a buddy of someone in upper management.
plugs being a lying liar:
Christmas miracle: Joe Biden personally awarded his dead Uncle Frank the Purple Heart
Next up: Beau finally gets the Medal of Honor for valor in the JAG office. “Those pencils are sharp”!”
Beaux…Beaux…Beaux
Seriously, plugs has severe dementia. How long is the LSM/PLT/Dumbos going to carry water for him.
“Vax Prevents COVID Death Again?”
https://areaocho.com/vax-prevents-covid-death-again/
“White House covid response coordinator Dr. Jha: “We know we can prevent nearly every death from covid if people get their updated vaccines.””
Good night, these people in the White House are all delusional.
Noted today on the radio doing errands:
On the big San Antonio Clear Channel flagship blowtorch station, Sunday usually has the weekday show reruns instead of paid ad shows, but I had things to do today while places were open.
At least I wasn’t out so late in the afternoon that I caught the “guaranteed safe” investment pinhead.
“A Saturday update on the growing potential of a hard freeze for the Houston area next week”
https://spacecityweather.com/a-saturday-update-on-the-growing-potential-of-a-hard-freeze-for-the-houston-area-next-week/
Gonna get cold but not pipe busting cold.
As long as ERCOT holds it together.
About half of the country continues to be scared silly. If the numbers were smaller, we wouldn’t have debates about returning mask mandates in places.
Plus, the White House continues to provide cover for Herr Doktor as he conducts his farwell tour at various media outlets before stepping down at the end of the year. How much do you want to bet that he’s on the Sunday shows this weekend?
Right now, I doubt Biden wants to draw attention to medals awarded to JAG officers truly serving in combat zones.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ron-and-casey-desantis-got-married-at-disney-world-2022-11
The deliberate leak of those pictures – note the source — will continue to backfire on the Dems.
Beau … Beau … Beau … already has several posthumous medals, including one from the government of … Kosovo?!?
Ten percent for the Big Guy.
“Germany’s Gas Reserves “Emptying at Record Speed” As Country Struggles to Keep Warm, Lights On”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/12/17/germanys-gas-reserves-emptying-at-record-speed-as-country-struggles-to-keep-warm-lights-on/
“Pleiteticker.de here reports how Germany’s natural gas reserves “are emptying at record speed” because wind and solar power have been on the scarce side over the past few weeks. This means gas turbines have had to jump in to pick up the slack in electricity production – not one the German government had hoped as it wrestles with the heightening energy crisis.”
““Germany is converting gas into electricity in record quantities,” pleiteticker.de reports. “Thanks to high pressure system ‘Erika’, the current December is colder than it has been for years. […] In recent days, gas storage facilities have therefore been emptying much faster than before. From December 12 onwards, more than one percent was withdrawn from gas storage facilities in Germany every day.””
““Last week, almost one third of all electricity was generated from natural gas. These are record figures.””
Yup, more delusional people who believe themselves to be in charge of the country and can do whatever they want to.
One thing I have noticed. When Trump was president there was not a day that went during his time in office where he was on the news. Saying something.
With Sponge Brain it may be a week or 10 days before Spongey says anything on the news reports.
This is telling me that his handlers are keeping him in as low a profile as possible for a president. His handlers know he is deluded, demented, and generally off his rocker. All Spongey is allowed to say has been carefully scripted and planned.
I also believe his handlers are Pelosi, Schumer, and especially Harris.
I still maintain that sometime in 2023 Spongey will resign, for “personal reasons”, not for health reasons. The Camel will take over having never been elected to the office. The Camel is/was not electable so this is the easiest way to slide her into the office. The Camel can now “reign” for up to 10 years, two to finish Spongey’s term, possible two elected four-year terms. The democratic machine will make certain the Camel gets elected. 25 million votes in a state with 20 million registered voters will be normal.
The VP chosen by the Camel may very well be AOC. The Camel would not want anyone smarter than her and the obvious choice is AOC. AOC is a dumb as they come.
Supposed to be a low of 2f here on the 23rd. I will have to put a heater in the garage and open the cabinet doors in the kitchen. The RV has antifreeze in all the pipes. All other pipes are interior and have no danger of freezing.
There is some possibility of precipitation with perhaps a foot of snow overnight on the 22nd into the 23rd.
One model says up to two feet of snow. Another model says a trace. Another model just says cold. The local news stations are not committing, yet.
Yet these people think they can predict the weather 10 years into the future. Using their models, given the data from yesterday, get yesterdays forecast completely wrong.
Someday I will watch Firefly entirely
https://julietteo.substack.com/p/why-firefly-got-shot-down
“A 2018 study by the University of Texas, Austin and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found earth sciences are the least diverse of all “STEM” (science, technology, energy and mathematics) fields. It found U.S. graduate students with a bachelor’s degree in earth and physical sciences were 21 percent women, 12 percent Hispanic and 5 percent Black.”
I presume that’s after the 40% Chinese and 40% Subcontinal?
I’m pretty sure that the actual power behind the throne is Obama and his enforcer Valerie Jarrett.
NOAA is saying Thursday night’s low will be 17. High on Friday, 31. I hope they are wrong. But I’ll power up the heater in the EDC and get the various faucets dripping. Seems this is about a month early. I think I say that every year.
A predicted 17 is going to be real close to 12 here. I’m down hill and cold settles.
While doing the morning potty walk today with the dogs, I spotted a half beer can. While I was fishing it out of the grass, Buddy the Beagle went on the far side of the cattle guard. “Hey, get yer butt back here” and I watched him cross like it was just plain old ground. Pretty neat, Wilma could do that, too.
The half beer can? Well, when we had the fencing fixed they used well pipe. Strong stuff and sorta cheap compared to regular chain-link posts. But the chain-link post caps don’t fit. I’ve put flat rocks on top of the posts and the neighbor’s a-hole horses knock the rocks off. Yeah, I doubt that having fence posts full of water ala rain gauge is a good thing. Because of rust.
Some fence posts have a concrete cap. I don’t know how that is done. My guess is they stuff an empty water bottle a few inches into the pipe and dump a hand full concrete on top.
So I cut beer cans in half. Toss the drinking end. The cans are a loose fit but the metal is soft/thin enough I can pinch it and make it crimp it to the post with my hands. Might be ghetto but not as ghetto as a double layer of heavy duty tin foil secured with a scrap of electric fence wire.
Anyway. The paint fades off of Miller High Life cans in a year.
I have a cattle guard walking beagle. With a wide open gate.
The buttons work. The control box chirps a couple of times and I hear relays clicking. I need to take the motor arm apart and maybe it’s just some cobwebs. Or maybe it’s about $500 for a new system.
If the beer can caps ever look tacky enough to me, don’t hold your breath, I’ll buy some paint. Don’t know who is going to do the painting, but it will work out.
@Alan
ISWYDT
I always remember Henny Youngman as the source for that joke, but a little research says it’s older than that. Another bubble, burst. Oh well, it will always be Henny’s joke to me.
How long is the LSM/PLT/Dumbos going to carry water for him.
– jan 21, 2023. They are already laying the groundwork with the Hunter laptop story finally getting some traction. “.. for the good of the country, unity in this time of trouble… time with family…. yadayada….” CORNPOP!
n
At the BOL. 55F before the sun went down, but clear north of Conroe all the way here. Tried fishing at dusk. No luck of course. Lake level is up, but not back to normal yet. LP Gas people didn’t fill the tank, they left a note about calling them to talk about the “gas plumbing”. WTF is there to talk about? We’ve been running on that plumbing without issue since Sept. And they aren’t answering their phone today. Probably won’t be tomorrow either. Good thing we’re still at 40% and I know from experience it will run the house down to below 0%. No idea what their problem is, they were fine with the bare copper tubing with 8 flare connections buried under the yard, rotten pipe, and appliances with no safety shutoffs. They can see the new pipe is modern, coated stainless, rated for direct burial.
Super quiet up here tonight.
Headed down for a fire and some radio time.
n
Nick, could it be that the old piping was grandfathered in, but now that there’s new stuff it has to be formally inspected?
Come over here and say that, you dog-faced pony soldier! I don’t work for you. You’re a damn liar. Let’s do push-ups together here, man, let’s take an IQ test.
>> I also believe his handlers are Pelosi, Schumer, and especially Harris.
I’ll concede the first two, but Harris? She only manages to get dressed in the morning by way of the ‘Garanimals’ tags her staff sews into her clothes.
>> How long is the LSM/PLT/Dumbos going to carry water for him.
– jan 21, 2023. They are already laying the groundwork with the Hunter laptop story finally getting some traction. “
Not even that long, next Congress is sworn in on Jan 3rd.
>> “c’mon, ya know ya wanna”
@nick, was there a reference yesterday that we missed?
Someday I will watch Firefly entirely
https://julietteo.substack.com/p/why-firefly-got-shot-down
https://www.slashfilm.com/1048907/every-episode-of-firefly-ranked-worst-to-best/
“With that in mind, this piece means to sort the wheat from the chaff. Even a show as excellent as “Firefly” has a few clunkers, though every single episode is entertaining. So we’ve ordered the episodes from best to bestest. It’s time for some thrilling heroics!”
Firefly has no clunkers !
“That Old Trump Magic!” by Ann Coulter
https://anncoulter.com/2022/12/07/that-old-trump-magic/
“The fact that Herschel Walker barely lost his Senate runoff in Georgia demonstrates beyond a doubt that ANY OTHER REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE WOULD HAVE WON.
This is kind of important. Raphael Warnock’s victory Tuesday night gives the Democrats a 51-seat majority in the Senate — 52 with the vice president. Moderate Democrats are irrelevant now. It’s going to be pedal to the metal for the progressive left.
We have to get to the bottom of who chose Herschel.
OH! Look — it was Donald Trump.”
Ms. Coulter seems to hate Donald Trump with a passion. She used to love him. Looks like a girlfriend spurned.
Seems my body had other plans. I fell asleep in the chair, too many carbs. Now I’m just going to bed.
@alan, sometimes the post titles are a stretch even for me. I can’t be sure where this one came from but it popped onto the page fully formed. There is something somewhere that makes it make sense.
Oooh, chilly. It’s 36F and damp. Would be COLD on the dock.
n
“Holy C^%@, Authoritarian Evil of ESG Emerges at Texas Hearing”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/12/15/holy-c-authoritarian-evil-of-esg-emerges-at-texas-hearing/
“The first witness, @bmbrigham, told the story of how Wall Street’s ESG scam has affected him and his business personally, outlining how @CreditSuisse ( $CS ) indicated that they would deny him for a loan if he didn’t tweet out various points praising the green energy agenda:”
You know, asking for side favors as part of a bank loan may be borderline illegal in Texas.
Gangsters. Shakedowns. Dressed up in pin stripe suits. Or BLM t-shirts. Or Birkenstocks and hemp clothing.
n
(saw a lot of BLM t-shirts at Goodwill last week.)
Ann Coulter is bonkers, but, when it counted, Trump let the country down in a huge way with regard to Covid, deferring to Herr Doktor and the fear mongers.
He shouldn’t be elected President again.