Cold this morning. 40F or less. It stayed cold all day yesterday and the sun only poked through for a short time in the afternoon. Whatever today ends up being, if it doesn’t rain, I’ll be happy.
Got some small stuff done. Finished weed-wacking my property and the HOA lot. Picked up trash along the shore and the community dock. I hate litter and it doesn’t take long. Put up another flag pole holder. Lot of visible patriotism up here. It’s nice to see.
Helped stand up a 50ft antenna tower and learned a few new things.
Our guests had headed home while I was out, but they had a good time. It was nice to have people here to share with, and nice to see D2 having fun with a friend. If it was just a bit warmer, it would have been even better. Can’t control the weather, I’m not a Bildeburg after all… 😉
Today will be wrapping up everything, getting ready to head home. If I can cut the grass again, I will. Some of it was so long it basically got flattened rather than cut. I don’t want to leave it long for next visit. There are a couple more smaller projects I can get knocked out too if I’m motivated.
I will say that cold HURTS. My fingers, knees, nose, ears, and lower back are always sore in the cold. Still as Kurt Cobain said, the pain lets us know we’re alive. This weekend I was ALIVE.
Stack up some meatspace people and skills. Build relationships while people are still open to them. They won’t be if things get bad, and who you know, and who knows YOU will be very important.
nick
I really, really recommend looking into a robot lawn mower, especially if your presence at the BOL will be spotty. It is a huge relief not to have the Damocles’ sword of “will I have time to mow before it rains or I have to leave?” constantly hanging over one’s head. An additional benefit is that not having to mow spares (me) a lot of allergy misery.
We are on our third unit. The first was a Robomow brand, which was disappointing, but that disappointment was probably the price of being an early adopter – the technology was not fully developed. Its replacement, a Husqvarna, has been impeccable. I also tried a comparatively cheap off-brand unit from Aldi for the BOL, but it didn’t have the necessary oompf for coping with long, dampish grass on a somewhat uneven and sloping terrain. I will save my pennies for another Huskie for there. In the meantime, the neighbour’s kid is earning himself some pocket money.
43 F and totally dark at 7am on the West side of the Brazos this morning. The wind finally died down.
My copy of Phenomenon arrived today from SwapaDVD. John Travolta is so enjoyable. I still love the scene where he’s being tested. I misremembered my favorite line. Not “Be specific, Bob”. Rather, “Specifics, Bob” is the brilliant exhortation.
Great movie. Follow up with Michael.
Family watched Shaun of the Dead. Not quite as funny as I remembered, a lot more angsty 20 something relationship nonsense than I remembered. Kids wanted a zombie movie… and I don’t have Dawn of the Dead up here, so….
Might want to try Zombieland on them. SOTD has a sad ending.
And Paul.
I’m shocked! Shocked!
Hawaii. Really?
https://www.axios.com/2023/03/17/svb-employees-blame-remote-work-for-bank-failure
We were away last week. I made a point of leaving my work laptop at home. Of course, the world was on fire at work if the non-stop notifications – including meetings last night – on my phone were any indication.
As of last Monday, security policy at work precludes my EOL-ed iPhone SE from opening the Teams/Outlook messages so I was really out of touch beyond seeing the notifications on my lock screen. We’ll see what the fallout was tomorrow, when I finally open my laptop.
Even when I was technically “out of pocket” Wednesday morning, I solved a boneheaded mistake made by another developer via email and took two meetings before we left the house … and the laptop.
The new blower motor for the office south side heater / air conditioner did not arrive Friday or Saturday. Not good.
The fusion reactor in the sky is coming up again. So faithful !
As if it was designed that way.
Go watch “Spaced” if you want to understand Three Flavours Cornetto. I see the films as Tim’s dreams after the end of the series’ timeframe, as he and Daisy drift apart over a decade and everyone grows up, going their separate ways.
“Army of the Dead” on Netflix is worth the look once the kids get a little older. The first film has a sad ending, but, assuming Netflix doesn’t run out of patience/cash, something timey-wimey and cool is hinted at happening in that series.
The film was last year’s “surprise” win for “fan favorite” at the Oscars. I wasn’t surprised.
Quite possibly the best role model and source of inspiration for getting through life’s difficulties.
I only take advice from musicians that produce actual music.
koo-koo-ka-choo!
@Nick – Houston is an insanely expensive city right now. We were in the convention center area last week.
Currently in Conroe, leaving tomorrow for Alvin to visit the ailing ex-mil for a couple of hours, then on to Biloxi.
On the way up her I took the toll roads. I do not have to pay on state toll roads. I have since learned that there are private toll roads that will charge everyone, probably even the presidential motorcade. I took the roads anyway. I will see what happens. License plate is difficult to photograph.
TN redid their plates last year. There were a lot of complaints that the traffic cameras could not photograph the plates because the reflectivity was not correct. White letters on a blue background. I say, “excellent”, private cameras of which they all are, can just suck it up. My plate is black letters on a red background.
I drove through on Saturday, heading north to Conroe from Pearland. The traffic sucked, big time. I cannot even imagine traffic during rush hours (7:00 to 7:00). I don’t know how Mr. Nick deals with the traffic with his many cross town trips.
SVB failure due to WFH? They’re really reaching.
In fact, they managed to get exemptions from all sorts of regulations, such as “stress tests”, that would have prevented their failure. They also apparently rejected explicit recommendations back in 2020 that they have more short-term investments, so that they could have more short-term cash available.
Five years ago, they said they would be so revolutionary that “in five years you won’t call us a bank”. Sure enough, we can’t call them a bank any longer :-/
Young folk refusing to benefit from the wisdom of earlier generations, because they are sooo much smarter. Fscked around and found out.
So, what’s the deal with Scott Adams’ new content? I wouldn’t mind reading the continuation of the Dilbert strip, but I have no interest in his rambling podcasts. Apparently, you cannot have the one without the other?
Latest Twitter Files Shows Stanford’s “Virality Project” Flagged Real Covid Science as ‘Disinformation’
The project “accelerated the evolution of digital censorship, moving it from judging truth/untruth to a new, scarier model, openly focused on political narrative at the expense of fact.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/03/latest-twitter-files-shows-stanfords-virality-project-flagged-real-covid-science-as-disinformation/
I have not been able to find Dilbert alone. I would continue to read it and even pay for it but I don’t want to pay for the other
crapstuff.40F but sunny and clear this morning. Getting stuff wrapped up and ready to go.
n
>> So, what’s the deal with Scott Adams’ new content? I wouldn’t mind reading the continuation of the Dilbert strip, but I have no interest in his rambling podcasts. Apparently, you cannot have the one without the other?
It’s the internet folks, content wants to be “free,” seek and you shall find.
Apologies to @lynn who has already paid Scott the 70 bucks.
Sunday morning shopping.
Quieter than usual: I only saw two stoplights run, three if you could a right turn at speed, one illegal U-turn, and a guy in the #2 left turn lane changing his mind and gunning it to cut me off and go straight when the light changed.
Bought the new weed whacker, 18v Ryobi. Bearings are failing on the old unit.
These are now locked up at Home Depot, despite being a 3 foot long, 8” x 8” box. Talking to the clerk, I guess the gangs are just walking in and grabbing dozens of items at a time and running out.
My old college friend’s wife picked up (10x) #10 cans of LDS stuff for me at $2/ea. at an estate sale, vintage 2015.
I have not been able to find Dilbert alone. I would continue to read it and even pay for it but I don’t want to pay for the other
crapstuff.https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/
So, what’s the deal with Scott Adams’ new content? I wouldn’t mind reading the continuation of the Dilbert strip, but I have no interest in his rambling podcasts. Apparently, you cannot have the one without the other?
The only thing that I can figure, besides Scott Adams is slightly crazy, is that he desperately wants to be an “Influencer”.
“Crimson universe (Perry Rhodan #67)” by K. H. Scheer, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Crimson-universe-Perry-Rhodan-Scheer/dp/B0006WT6X4?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number sixty-seven of a series of one hundred and thirty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book translated by Wendayne Ackerman and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. And then they transition back to two stories in book #109/110. The Ace publisher dropped out at #118, so Forrest and Wendayne Ackerman published books #119 to #136 in pamphlets before stopping in 1978. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1975 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #106, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 75 of the German pamphlets written in 1963. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on the Perrypedia German website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Das_rote_Universum
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over sixty-nine years since then and the Solar Empire has flourished with tens of millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania. Perry Rhodan has been elected by the people of Earth to be the World Administrator and keep them from being taken over by the robot administrator of Arkon.
Atlan, Perry Rhodan, Reginald Bell, and a crew take a specially built 100 meter cruiser, the California, into the Druuf space from the Grautier planet system, Myrtha. They install a teletransmitter on one of the Druufon planets but are interrupted before the installation was complete. They finish the installation and try to take teletransmitter out of the system back to regular space. Instead, they end up in a Druufon work space inhabited by many Druufon and their robots.
BTW, there was a excellent short story “Out Around Rigel” by Robert H. Wilson that was first published in Astounding magazine in 1931.
Two observations:
1. Forrest Ackerman should have put two or three of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars (1 reviews)
>> As for zombie flicks, if you’ve crossed the “Shaun of the Dead” Rubicon, “Anna and the Apocalypse” is the next step.
More post-apocalyptic, but still with zombies, is “The Last of Us” on HBO Max. Well done considering it’s based on a video game of the same name. 96% on RT.
Also watching “You,” a psychological thriller on Netflix. We’re enjoying it, 92% on RT.
“WFH” has been a productivity issue in the US for at least 20 years, but the Covid fiasco really kicked it into overdrive.
The tech companies here are still trying to figure out how to get the White and Asian males back to work in the office post-pandemic while giving everyone else a free pass to stay home.
“Out Around Rigel” by Robert H. Wilson
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/20553/20553-h/20553-h.htm
“An astounding chronicle of two Lunarians’ conquest of time and interstellar space.”
First published in Astounding magazine in 1931. Then in Perry Rhodan #67.
I get to buy a battery for the van tomorrow. Ten days shy of five years old and “click”. Not even a ratcheting click. Just click and when the key is released the stupid radio turns on to 570 or whatever AM at about 1/3rd volume.
The radio oh so helpfully displays “low battery”.
I put the 6 amp charger on it, meter was pegged. Plugged in the Makes My Ears Hurt air compressor and topped off the tires on the van and truck to 35 psi. All eight tires showed 27 psi. The truck was flashing Low Tire Pressure. I guess 27 is the magic number. None of the tires looked low.
Aired up the riding mower, too.
Checked the charger and you know? I’m not messing with this. I put the charger away. The charger was down to 4 amps after half an hour. So a cell has gone bad since Thursday. Van did start and it sounded normal.
The battery is in the truck’s bed and I’ll visit Napa in the morning.
After I install the new battery I’ll check on the check engine light. Last I looked Torque said it was “high pressure on the fuel rail” and the Ford dealer said Ford doesn’t have the part.
Could be a bad sender or a chewed by mouse wire.
Then I’ll look in the shop manual to find where the part is and hopefully get a part number that Napa can cross reference. The van runs fine.
Yesterday I tested out a new battery charger/tester. Worked fine, at least so far as I could tell with no dead or damaged batteries.
But in the course of playing around with the battery, I learned that when the battery is reconnected to the car, the doors lock. Surprise! I’m glad that I never had reason to learn this on the side of the road with the keys inside the van.
“Weather Disasters Getting Deadlier, Say Experts, As Death Tolls Plummet!”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/03/19/weather-disasters-getting-deadlier-say-experts-as-death-tolls-plummet/
“The first 20 years of this century have seen a “staggering” rise in climate disasters, UN researchers said on Monday, while also maintaining that “almost all nations” have failed to prevent a “wave of death and illness” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“The death toll appears to be rising for the same reason as the number of disasters does, the fact that we now religiously record them all, something we have only been doing since the 1990s. And, as their chart also shows, the death toll has been declining since then.”
The UN that cried “wolf”.
AoSHQ Saturday Night Joke led me to this:
The Difference Between Complete and Finished.
https://theanthrotorian.com/culture/2012/11/29/the-difference-between-complete-and-finished
>> I have not been able to find Dilbert alone. I would continue to read it and even pay for it but I don’t want to pay for the other
crapstuff.https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/
@lynn, gonna ask for your $70 back?
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
And ‘The only funny Dilbert cartoon’:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/comments/11upkf9/the_only_funny_dilbert_cartoon/
>> I have not been able to find Dilbert alone. I would continue to read it and even pay for it but I don’t want to pay for the other
crapstuff.https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/
@lynn, gonna ask for your $70 back?
Nope. I pay for crap XXXX stuff I use. I like getting the daily Dilbert comic in my email.
Home again home again, piggetty pig. Or something.
Did cut the grass, then blew the debris. Looks good. Broke down a wooden shelf thing from the garage, emptied a wheelbarrow of broken concrete, marked some holes in the ground with tape so people don’t fall in, a bunch of small tasks. Spent 40 minutes sitting on the dock watching the birds and the fish while having a soda. It was gorgeous. Totally worth the time.
Made the drive home ok, saw two flat tires, and a couple of speed traps, but traffic was light. I guess all the Spring Breakers were home earlier?
Brought home some metal scrap and some trash, and 3 gas cans for refill… I’m taking a roll around gas caddy up and I’ll transfer to that too. I put 5 gallons in my truck so I wouldn’t have to stop before Conroe, which is the first competitive gas pricing on the way home. That left nothing on site. I need to up that game.
Oh, and I moved the metal storage cabinet into the garage and moved some food into it.
Time to get serious about stacking.
n
>> I get to buy a battery for the van tomorrow. Ten days shy of five years old and “click”.
@paul, no warranty on the battery?
“Below-Freezing Temperatures Encase Cars In Shell Of Ice Near Lake Erie”
https://www.wunderground.com/video/top-stories/below-freezing-temperatures-encase-cars-in-shell-of-ice-near-lake-erie
Wow, so do you wait for spring ?
The receipt doesn’t say.
On the Napa site the same model battery now has 24 month free replacement. Five years ago, I don’t know.