Cool and clear, damp, and maybe a chance of rain… so mostly just Houston. It was another great day at the BOL following the rain. A bit on the humid side, rapidly warming in the sun, but nice.
Met with the tree cutting guy. Got a bid for the needed work. Need to find time in the coming weeks to execute… not cheap, but seems reasonable for a crew of 7 and the work done.
Got a couple more small tasks knocked off the list. Things like “change 2 of the outlet covers on the dock, to keep from electrocuting someone…” Not high priority, but needed doing. Poisoned some more fire ants. Planted most of the blueberry and dewberry bushes.
When I used the hose to water in the bushes, I decided that I will have to add mechanical fasteners to the hose bibs, foam isn’t enough by itself. I really don’t understand how they are meant to be fastened, the holes that look like screw holes are too small for any real hardware. I’ll have to do some googling. Details. They’ll kill you.
Today I’ve got pickups, groceries, one drop off, and getting some dinner cooked. I’ll be frying up the fillets my fishing buddy gave me. Should make some other fried food to go with them. Hope they’re delicious…
Got the annual bill from XM radio. We have three subs, one for each vehicle. The bill was over $1000. Yeah it’s less than a dollar a day for each vehicle, and we both listen to XM by preference, but times are tight and getting tighter. Wife called to cancel or downgrade plans… and they offered 70% off for a year, if she switched packages. Ok. There was still a big savings and we still don’t have to listen to commercial radio. Win win, for now.
I mention it because of the belt tightening aspect. We’ve got some big expenditures coming, so we are looking to save what we can where we can. I work pretty hard at it in fact. We’ve been coasting on things like subscription services though. I bet a lot of people have, and I bet a lot of them will be cutting back soon if they haven’t already.
Jerry Pournelle always said storytellers would do ok in bad times, so “entertainment” will continue to get money. I’d bet that (smart people) will be looking at the value they’re getting and reduce spending. I get pretty good value out of a used book, it costs far less than $1/hour of use. Some people get good value from a streaming service, watching more than enough shows to get under $1/hour. Full price video games give outstanding value per hour, if you start with a used copy the cost is even lower.
Used DVDs are double that $1/hour, and movies and dinner out are WAY more. Concert tickets, travel, and “experiences” are about to become the province of the well off. Shopping as entertainment (“retail therapy”) is going to run up the credit card debt, or run up the return rate, but is likely to be cut back dramatically. Doordash and similar services are convenient, but at some point even the innumerate will see that $15 on top of a fast food order isn’t doable.
Personal services, and “pampering” are almost sure to be cut back. Fewer haircuts, massages, spa days. Longer between nails and then less expensive procedures when you do get out… except a certain parasite class that already overdoes these things on the tax payer’s dime. When the tax revenues drop, even social programs should be cut. Don’t know if they will, because of the rioting that would ensue, but I’d expect cuts in all the programs, even if they are just passive cuts, by not keeping up with inflation.
The result of all those spending cuts is job losses, which lead to more cuts, which lead to more jobs lost. And then suddenly you are in a Depression with high unemployment. Add the social unrest and the political upsets coming, and the malaise and hopelessness of unemployment, to the sudden appearance of obvious foreigners (as the lily pads covering the pond double seemingly overnight) and you’ve got a dangerous toxic mess.
I can’t be sure what’s coming, but for this summer, I’ll quote Ralph Wiggum from The Simpson’s – “It tastes like burning…”
Stack it up.
nick
We purged our subscriptions a couple years ago. Bears reviewing. I’d really like to be retired well before 67 but with current economy seems like a pipe dream.
Enjoying playing guitar. A friend recently visited Amsterdam and it reminded me of a poignant love song that was part of our bardic repertoire in the 1990s. We sang Liam Clancy version. The Dutchman. Good stuff. Found the chords in ‘tabs’ on my phone. I can still fumble my way thru.
If I was a signage kind of guy:
“Coffee… Because murder is wrong.”
Would be a candidate.
$70 for new release current gen console games is really starting to stretch the value per hour aspect.
Unlike 20 years ago, most console titles go out with software bugs so the value of a used physical copy is only significant if the patches are still available for download via an online server.
Even Nintendo first party titles have a lot of patch data anymore. When I received my copy of “Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp” the other day, following a two year delay of the original ship date, the first thing the game wanted to do was download a sizeable patch.
@greg, maybe my playing habits are not typical but I played skyrim for over 800 hours… Elder Scrolls, and Morrowind too. I still occasionally want to play an old save point.
Played Oddworld:Munch’s Oddysee for a long time too. I don’t know what the straight thru, speed game with an online walkthru would run, but if it’s over 70hrs, it still hits $1/hr.
The kids have been playing whatever version of Zelda on the switch for FAR too many hours…
I suppose you can play a platformer in a few hours, but something like Plants v Zombies ate hours a day for a long time when my wife was playing, and I think it was $8.99? Maybe less?
Admittedly SubNautica was a waste, as D2 tried to play for a couple hours then gave up.
I can lose hours in MAME and it’s free!
n
Pretty bright outside, and not raining (yet?) so that’s a plus. Mild temp.
Time to feed the lions.
n
One of the good things* about The Child is that she’s tight with a dollar. She does enjoy her games, but is happy with a computer (a hand-me-down from one of her brothers) rather than a console and Steam games are cheap. She’ll hem and haw before asking if it’s ok to spend $25 for the Ultra edition of whatever game, including three bonus content packs. I walk her through the economics: how many hours do you expect to play it and chat about it on Discord and discuss with your friends at school? Divide that into the price. Is it worth it? Generally yes.
When her brothers were into the console games, Blockbuster still existed. We’d check out a game for a few days and more than half the time the kid would decide that it wasn’t worth buying. The savings just on that easily paid for the “two at a time” Blockbuster membership.
* Sometimes I’ll say “one of the few good things”. Times like when she seriously dropped the ball on a school project’s due date and ended up with a failing grade for the quarter. What do you know, a 0 on 30% of the grade has an impact.
Water Cooler stories
My first job in IT, before it was called IT, even before there were PCs, was a small computer company owned by a CPA firm, and we did accounting software for about 100 dial-in clients. The programming staff was less than 10 programmers, and most of us had our own dedicated sub-system. General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Receivable, etc. I had Job Cost Accounting. And Inventory, after a few months.
I remember the break room, and how many great stories were told there. The best story-teller was a man named Art, retired Air Force navigator, and his favorite expression towards the end of most of the stories was “And then I was out of Altitude, Airspeed, and Ideas all at the same time.”
There was an inverse correlation. The better the stories, the less coding productivity. I burned out of that job in 18 months.
A propos purging, I am just home from a gastroscopy / colonoscopy. Doctor is happy with the results, and I can even stop my proton-pump anti-reflux meds. A couple of polyps are to be checked again in 5-8 years. Doc says the surgeon who removed part of my colon because of acute diverticulitis some years ago did a beautiful job – no scarring whatsoever, and minimal loss of pipe length.
I had today’s job done under anesthesia, and can thoroughly recommend that – go to sleep, wake up an hour later, no discomfort or distress (I hate swallowing the gastro camera…). Sit and drink sweet tea and eat a Belgian waffle for twenty minutes, speak to the doc for ten more, then I was fit to drive myself home for a light breakfast. The gaseous aftershocks were pretty epic for a couple of hours, but other than wanting a mid-afternoon nap, I feel fine.
Diverticulitis: not a joking matter. If your stool habits change, see a doctor.
Yeah, never pay full price for XM. I do either a 6 month or annual subscription for two cars. I never pay more than $5/month for each sub (not including taxes). It used to be a lot harder to get the promo rate renewed. I actually had to go through a sales scumbag, then to a different person when I threatened to cancel. Only then would they finally renew at the promo rate. The last few times, it’s almost an immediate renewal, no questions asked. We don’t get the super duper package this way, but it does include the app, so I can also listen on our Roku devices.
Apropos of that, Humble Bundle is selling LAWN MOWING SIMULATOR – ANCIENT BRITAIN for $3.74 right now.
Given Nick’s description of his BOL it might be appropriate.
Turns out that was just for two of the XM subs. The other truck is on a separate account. It was for TWO years though. The new rate is for one year, then billed monthly. I guess they would rather deal with monthly payments than try to save customers when the big bill hits.
It’s too bad local radio sux so bad. I really like XM but only listen to a few of the commercial free channels. I could stream some other service I guess, like free youtube, and I sometimes do. Have to re-visit the “value proposition” next time it comes up.
n
re: Colonoscopy – get it done. Don’t let the “ick” or “embarrassed giggle” factor deter you,
My sister had a bad attack of D over the weekend, spent time in the ER, and my doctor says I am a possibility.
Talking to my dentist, he had a rupture on an international flight, nearly killed him.
I let my sub lapse during COVID. I renewed in January for $5 a month. it is a bit like auto insurance, if they know you’ll walk if you don’t get a good deal, they will often cave.
I was paying $15.00 a month for two vehicles, $180 a year. The price has risen to $18.00 a month for two vehicles, about $220 a year. When I first started with XM it was $5.00 a month per vehicle. I subscribe to the minimum possible.
I think Sirius/XM is starting to realize that there are other streaming options from other services. These other services rely on cellular data, which is becoming a really viable option with much better coverage. I can even listen to my own library on my phone by connecting wirelessly to the truck radio.
Apple Music is $11.00 a month and can be shared among the family for people with iPhones. I would do that but the spousal unit gets easily confused with technology and hooking her iPhone to the car is too complicated and a couple of extra steps she does not want to take.
Indeed. I have had two. The first was with a combination of drugs. I felt out of sorts for several hours afterwards. The second was with the stuff Michael Jackson used. Good stuff. Woke up feeling good, no aftereffects. During the procedure they inflate the large intestine with nitrogen or CO2, I don’t know which. That long, satisfying, loud, discharge of gas after the procedure was somehow quite pleasant.
The quoted statement above should apply to all recommended medical procedures. The time for being a tough guy is over with current medical technology and techniques.
That still depends on how badly you want to stay alive and enjoy the time left. The modern technology isn’t always a blessing.
My wife has an 80 year-old patient at the VA with a PSA of 3000 (no typo) who decided that he’d rather live with the cancer than risk being incontinent or having ED issues for what time he has left. The tradeoff as of late with the cancer spreading is back pain, but he has pain killers.
Definitely get a diagnosis and then decide, however. In the case of PSA numbers, the modern next step is the relatively painless — unless you are claustrophobic — MRI, not the biopsy of yore.
I’ve never understood the attraction of consoles. They’re just locked-down, single-purpose computers. Why?
Propofol. Can confirm. I’ve had it a couple of times. After waking up, I’m a bit wobbly for 5-10 minutes, but otherwise no problems.
That too. At some point a person has to decide if going through treatment is worth more than expiring. I think at this point in my life if I was diagnosed with an aggressive cancer with lower survival rates, I would opt instead to put in hospice with lots of painkillers, diapers and soft food letting nature take its course.
If the cancer was easily curable, like prostate, or some other mild cancer I would opt for the treatment.
A lot depends on how much Chemo is involved and the hassles of dealing with the side effects. Extending my life for another 5 or 10 years may not be worth 18 months of misery.
With the technology of today and the testing available a lot of stuff can be detected early, which minimizes the level of treatment, and dramatically improves the prognosis for recovery.
If you ignore the fact that most of the ROMs are still under copyright.
I recently bought the last “Pac Man” collection for the Switch since it is the only way to get the complete “Battle Royale” game outside of the $10,000 arcade cabinet.
That title has resisted MAME developer efforts for a decade.
When I had my knee replaced, I was heavily sedated, more than any procedure I have had accomplished. I had a really difficult time waking up and the recovery room nurse said I was more difficult than usual. I felt miserable, tired, sleepy, brain fog, general confusion at times, for several hours.
I asked the nurse why I was put under so heavily. She stated the surgeon does not want any movement at all during the knee replacement procedure. The circulation is cut off to my lower leg and there is the need to minimize body activity during that time. Thus, heavy sedation affects the entire body.
I was not fully over the sedation until late afternoon although I was still tired. I did ask for pain killers to suppress the pain so I could sleep. That may have affected the recovery time. My brain was still a little fogged the next morning though I suspect that was pain killers.
On Sirius/XM:
We dropped it on MrsAtoz’s battlewagon this year. She doesn’t use it much and can stream from the app when needed or when we fly somewhere for a gig. I keep the Subie plan which has the streaming.
On gaming:
I’m back into VR (Alyx) on my gaming PC. I bought one of those overhead pulley systems to support the headset cables. I‘ll set that up this week. I don’t have a large playing area, but I can take a step in any direction for hiding behind stuff. Dell support still sucks: three weeks later, after several emails, no response. I guess I’ll have to call India direct to get a response.
On checking subscriptions regularly:
Great advice, Ms. Jenny. They tend to creep up on you because you forgot to cancel one.
Ha, ha. plugs announced he and The Kamel will run in 2024 to “finish the job.” I guess he means the final, total, and complete destruction of the FUSA. We’ll all be standing in lines soon, comrade. A hundred years from now, when the United States of American rises from the ashes, the history books will tell of the failure of another form of communism called DumboCratIsm.
I pray my final years aren’t spent in line for the goobermint cheese.
An update on a “Crazy Floridians With Guns” story our troll posted in September.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/tampa/2023/04/25/no-charges-shooting-death-student-stand-your-ground-law-florida/
I will leave it up to the reader to discover why Mary O’Connor is the former Tampa Police Chief.
Cheese? Sliced bug loaf for you.
So true. I forgot BillyG et al in the NWO will dictate the dirt people’s diet.
I’d PAY for a block of the .gov cheese. I loved the way it tasted.
n
They intend to freeze you to death when your electric heat blacks out. Cause will be listed as “climate change”.
No burials—“bug loaf” covers a lot of ground.
My most recent colonoscopy, of several years ago, was totally far less painful, stressful and more comfortable than traditional examinations. It was termed “virtual” colonoscopy. I did not have to drink that empty out liquid the previous day to force diarrhea on me. A camera was not wiggled up my colon, but it was inflated somewhat and sealed off. Not put to sleep nor pain relief doses. Put on a level platorm on my back and then slid in and out of the cylindrical device for ultrasound or electronic imaging. Then 3 90 degree rollovers to left side up, backside up then right side up. That was it, 4 ins and outs and then done in less than five minutes and seal removed. Then clothes back home and driving myself home with only very brief and mild discomfort as inflation burped out.
No bad anomalies detected.
Whose laptop is it?
Hunter Biden ordered to Arkansas court to answer:
https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/hunter-biden-custody-case/
Rock, hardplace, roadkill.
Hunter is reportedly hiding in the White House to prevent service of papers by his baby mommy. Fertilizer meet rotary impeller. His attorneys aren’t looking too swift right now, as his unrelated court maneuvers pretty much had him afmitting the laptop was his, which makes the financial information his, and will add a couple zeroes to the monthly support checks. Will his millionaire BFF bail him out again and offer a settlement to head off bad outcomes in Arkansas? The betting window is open.
WRT Hunter Biden: If he has a college degree, what was it and from what school? Also, what background got him the job with the Ukraine Natural Gas organization (I think it was their Board of Directors?)
BA Georgetown. JD (Law degree) Yale.
The risk of a diverticulitis crisis during international travel was one of the major factors behind my decision to have the sigmoid colon resection surgery. The surgeon was adamant that I otherwise could and should not travel by air. Apart from the risk of a perforation, she said if I had to be hospitalised in the US, it would bankrupt me, if I survived…
“what background got him the job with the Ukraine Natural Gas organization”
Daddy U.S. VP
I figured it out.
I messed with turning off the firewall. Same for the virus protection. No joy. Some how in all of it, Network Discovery was turned off.
You share the folder and then you add “who”.
For example, share the Desktop in your User folder. R-click Properties. Sharing tab. Click the Share button. A box pops-up and since my name is there click Apply and I’m done, right?
Wrong. While you are there you also have to “Choose people to share with”. I chose Everyone.
And it works.
Until something updates anyway.
I once knew this stuff with my eyes closed.
Think you are special? Many people, US citizens, have been hospitalized for a significant problem or accident and have been bankrupted. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars in medical bills the people cannot pay and will never be able to pay.
I am fortunate to have insurance. My wife’s heart attack, everything included (ambulance, doctors, hospital) was over $100K. Insurance adjusted the amount down, but it was still a boatload of money.
An ER visit to have a cut stitched, four stitches, was over $3,000.00, after insurance adjustment. Severe abdominal pain, diagnosed as kidney stones, was billed $10K to the insurance company, adjusted down to about $5K. That did not include the later accomplished procedure to remove the kidney stones.
Then there are the leaches on welfare. Half a dozen trips to the ER every month for sniffles or a cough. Proving the demand for free good is infinite.
I am fortunate to have insurance. My wife’s heart attack, everything included (ambulance, doctors, hospital) was over $100K. Insurance adjusted the amount down, but it was still a boatload of money.
My first heart attack in 2009 was $64K. Two hospitals and they transported me via ambulance between them. Insurance dropped it to $15K, I paid $3K and they paid $12K.
My second heart attack in 2012 ? was $30K (I walked out against orders the next day after they moved me from the cath lab to general population so I cut the bill down). The insurance was $10K or so, I paid $5K.
They kept my wife in the hospital for four days. That was a lot of the expense. There was also ER fee and surgery to put in a stent. I paid nothing as Medicare picked up 80% of the adjusted amount, supplemental picked up the rest of the cost as I had met my deductible for both programs.
“Unmasking the transgender movement and those behind it”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/04/unmasking-transgender-movement-and.html
“1. Queer theory indoctrination is directly responsible for Nashville tragedy”
“2. Billionaire perverts behind the trans agenda”
“3. Tranissaries: The Trans Movement’s Striking Parallels to a Dark and Forgotten Practice in the Ottoman Empire”
“4. Welcome To The Great Spiritual War Of Our Time”
“We’re fighting a fundamentally evil philosophy here, one that denies facts and truth and imposes falsehood and lies. At its heart, that’s the core of transgenderism.”
Wow. I agree, number four is scary. I am seeing articles claiming that transgenderism is the last stage of all great societies before they implode.
Who was the real Martin Luther King, jr.?
https://thespectator.com/book-and-art/real-martin-luther-king-jr-biography-jonathan-eig/
One MLK biographer reviews another. Powerful stuff.
Heh:
KJP celebrates lesbians like herself with actresses from ‘The L Word’ and ‘Generation Q’
plugs should declare April 1st from 12:00 to 12:01 as WHITEY! minute of the year. It would show what the PLTs really think of WHITEY! (of which most PLTs are).
I. Don’t. Care. about lesbian week.
CNN published another hit piece on SCOTUS Thomas. They don’t hate him because he is conservative or a Constitutionalist. They hate him because he is black and off the plantation.
Toronto mom says she saves hundreds of dollars a month by feeding her 18-month-old baby CRICKETS instead of meat as a ‘source of protein’ – and now plans to add ants, grasshoppers, and WORMS to her daughter’s diet
Now just train your baby to open its yap like a baby bird.
There seems to be a concerted effort to get Thomas to resign before January 2025.
The House will not Impeach. Even if Thomas were to be arrested and put on trial for bribery, Impeachment would still be necessary to remove him from office, and a trial process would take more than the 18 months remaining until the 2024 election.
Google for the history of Alcee Hastings. After being Impeached, Hastings still qualified to run for Congress, won, and died during his fourth term representing South Florida.
Maybe the Dems could go after Thomas wife, but too many Supreme Court decisions are still outstanding, and a naked political stunt could change votes among Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Comey-Barrett, starting with the student loan case.
“ChatGPT costs an eye-watering $700,000/day to operate, claims new research”
https://www.techspot.com/news/98422-chatgpt-costs-eye-watering-700000day-operate-claims-new.html
“According to research by SemiAnalysis, OpenAI is burning through as much as $694,444 in cold, hard cash per day to keep the chatbot up and running. The firm estimates that the system includes around 3,617 HGX A100 servers comprising 28,936 GPUs, with the cost per query said to be around 0.36 cents.”
Wow !
Last week we had a decent thunderstorm with almost an inch and a third of rain. Some unusual electrical stuff, too. No flickering lights.
One circuit breaker tripped. That’s a first. But just one. Easy fix. The breaker on the central air’s air handler tripped. Another easy fix. The clock on the range died. Not an easy fix yet.
So far, just $920 out of pocket. Because the blower motor was zapped. But it’s replaced and we have heat.
I’m going to look for a manual or whatever for the range. Maybe the clock has a fuse I can replace. Maybe I’ll just learn to live without the clock. The little I have looked, yeah, I don’t think I want to drop $200 for a new clock. For a 30 year old range.
Well, I have the money so it’s cool.
H100 is state of the art and much more power hungry.
Those are the chips with export restrictions to China.
DeSantis knows where The Mouse is vulnerable.
Cue Phil Hartman. “Monorail …. Monorail … MONORAIL!”
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/disney-vs-desantis-iconic-monorail-is-latest-target-in-feud
“Texas LNG gets renewed FERC approval following remand”
https://www.ogj.com/pipelines-transportation/lng/article/14292836/texas-lng-gets-renewed-ferc-approval-following-remand
“Glenfarne Energy Transition LLC received an order on remand from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approving its planned 4-million tonne/year (tpy) Texas LNG plant in Brownsville, Tex., following completion of an additional social cost of carbon and environmental justice analysis related to the project. The order includes two modified mitigation requirements regarding air monitoring and emergency response communications that Texas LNG will incorporate into its execution plan.”
“Glenfarne says the project’s “Green by Design” approach is meant to avoid emissions rather than minimize or mitigate them. By using renewable energy to drive Texas LNG’s electric motors, the project’s CO2 emissions will be less than half of a typical LNG plant, according to the company.”
These idiots in the administration are forcing all new industrial projects in the USA to file social cost of carbon and environmental justice analysis reports now. This is wrong and totally against the latest SCOTUS decisions.
With a quick look at eBay, I can get a used clock for the range for about $40. I have to pull the range and make sure I have the correct part number first. But… beats buying a new range.
Looking at the pictures, there is no fuse to replace.
I took some photos of the baseball team. The coach was having a difficult time getting the contracted photography company to do the pictures, so he asked me to them.
These are the result: https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Team/
I shaded the direct sun and used fill flash. Some of the caps are too low but that is the way they wear the caps.
Nice job, Ray. The fill flash looks very natural. The ones who tilted their heads up a little have better results. Since you had flash on camera, ever think about holding the camera upside down? I don’t think this would result in monster lighting, since the flash is not very far off axis from the lens.
I didn’t buy a flash for my Olympus body (OM-D E-M1 Mark II.) I think it came with a tiny external flash that I have never tried. I plan to try my Vivitar 285HV as soon as I verify that its trigger voltage is safe for the Oly. It should be, but I am cautious. I have used it on one other digital camera without issue, but I need to check its actual trigger voltage and the max voltage that Oly recommends.
I love that flash for outdoor work. That is about all I have used it for. I bought one of the Pentax flashes for my K20D, and have had problems with consistent exposure. It works OK for simple stuff, and gives a huge number of shots on its four NiMH AAs. It is not as simple to use as the 285HV, and all that extra automation does not seem to add much.
Paul, the only way I would miss a clock on a range is to time the oven while baking. I assume that’s what you miss.
We have a stove clock, and one on a microwave oven that is right next to it. Just as with any two clocks, they never agree. The microwave oven clock has an option to hide its display, but the boss of the kitchen wants it on. Domestic bliss rules.
>> Jerry Pournelle always said storytellers would do ok in bad times, so “entertainment” will continue to get money.
Part of the storyline of “Station 11” on HBOMax. (Soon to be just “Max,” but don’t ask.)
>> I get pretty good value out of a used book, it costs far less than $1/hour of use.
Once in a while help support a favorite author and buy a new book.
>> @greg, maybe my playing habits are not typical but I played skyrim for over 800 hours… Elder Scrolls, and Morrowind too. I still occasionally want to play an old save point.
The most value I recall my kids getting from a video game was from the original Sonic the Hedgehog game on the Sega Genesis. Many, many hours spent figuring out how to get to the end of the game without resorting to the cheat codes that were common back in the day.
My favorite game was Kaboom on the Atari 2600. I think my younger son might still have the system in his basement.
>> I had today’s job done under anesthesia, and can thoroughly recommend that – go to sleep, wake up an hour later, no discomfort or distress (I hate swallowing the gastro camera…). Sit and drink sweet tea and eat a Belgian waffle for twenty minutes, speak to the doc for ten more, then I was fit to drive myself home for a light breakfast. The gaseous aftershocks were pretty epic for a couple of hours, but other than wanting a mid-afternoon nap, I feel fine.
Hmm, surprised that you were allowed to drive yourself home. I’ve had a good number of ‘scope jobs’ (both ends) and all were with Propofol and it was “required” that you have someone to drive you home. I guess you could sneak out if you were to determined.
My last colonoscopy results were good enough that the gastro doc recommended only Cologuard for now. One benefit is you get to determine first-hand if “your sh!te don’t stink.”
Segal’s Law: A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two is never sure.
Especially self-pub authors, who commonly don’t have paper books (or if they do, it’s print on demand and very expensive) but who get the bulk of the purchase price when you buy their ebooks. Or, better, support other indie authors who publish online and are supported by Patreon, PayPal, etc.
>> Indeed. I have had two. The first was with a combination of drugs. I felt out of sorts for several hours afterwards. The second was with the stuff Michael Jackson used. Good stuff. Woke up feeling good, no aftereffects. During the procedure they inflate the large intestine with nitrogen or CO2, I don’t know which. That long, satisfying, loud, discharge of gas after the procedure was somehow quite pleasant.
When I had my double hernia repaired it was done laparoscopically and robotically. To help illuminate the surgical field they inflate your abdomen with gas. Before they sew you up they suction out the gas. Occasionally some migrates elsewhere in the body, in my case it was one shoulder. It was the worst pain I’ve ever had. Surgeon said it happens sometimes and just takes some time for the gas to dissipate, Ouch!
>> My wife has an 80 year-old patient at the VA with a PSA of 3000 (no typo) who decided that he’d rather live with the cancer than risk being incontinent or having ED issues for what time he has left. The tradeoff as of late with the cancer spreading is back pain, but he has pain killers.
80 and no ED? He’s got his priorities right, for sure!
>> I get pretty good value out of a used book, it costs far less than $1/hour of use.
Once in a while help support a favorite author and buy a new book.
And read it too ?
Especially self-pub authors, who commonly don’t have paper books (or if they do, it’s print on demand and very expensive) but who get the bulk of the purchase price when you buy their ebooks. Or, better, support other indie authors who publish online and are supported by Patreon, PayPal, etc.
The Murderbot Diaries have been very good and very expensive as they are mostly novellas and only available in hardback, except the first in the series.
https://www.amazon.com/All-Systems-Red-Murderbot-Diaries/dp/1250214718?tag=ttgnet-20/
“Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency.”
“I hate having emotions about reality; I’d much rather have them about Sanctuary Moon.”
“The sense of urgency just wasn’t there. Also, you may have noticed, I don’t care.”
One of my favorite Murderbot things is when a human asks how it is feeling and it turns to face a wall and cues up an episode of “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon”. If things are really bad it watches episode number one even though it has 35,000 hours of various episodes stored in its memory.
Flash is off camera, to the right, slightly elevated, remote triggers. Camera is set on manual, slightly underexposed, flash slightly overexposed. Makes the light look more natural. I never use on-camera flash. The flash is either on a bracket, or completely separated.
buy a new book.
– oh I do, and have a kindle sub. Bought all the Library files books so far, all the Jim Butcher books, all the new stuff. But all kindle. If I see the physical books at the goodwill, I buy them. I’ve got most of the Butcher series on paper…
I spent years buying signed first editions at my favorite brick and mortar. They went full woke-tard and I stopped even getting their monthly eletter. I bought thousands of dollars in physical books. And they are nice on the shelf. The proto-woke stuff is in a bin for ebay. I like the weight and self illuminating pages, and scalable text on the kindle too much to ever go back, barring an apocalypse. Of course, that’s why I own physical copies of the stuff I love. No taking it back, or retconning to meet future church lady tastes. I just keep the hard copy as backup.
n
Finished dinner.
Fresh fish, crappie fillets courtesy of my fishing buddy. Battered and fried, with melted butter. SO GOOD. Also did fresh potato chips and battered onion rings, since I was making a mess anyway. We gorged ourselves. This will serve as our anniversary dinner, which happens some time this week or next. Followed up with cake.
D2 also has a birthday sometime in the next week or so. I’ll do a special dinner for her, when my sibling is in town, and then we’re having a birthday weekend at the BOL with a few of her friends. Special meals all around.
Celebrate like there’s no tomorrow….
n
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/04/bud_light_sales_decline_is_staggering_according_to_beer_industry_research_firms.html
Gee, wonder what they’re going to talk about?
65.3% leaves a lot of bottom to race to.
Some years ago there was a discussion of the ethics of using data from German medical “experiments”, specifically data that was gathered from tossing people into frigid ocean waters to see how long they would survive. I don’t recall the exact details, but the claim was that using the data actually resulted in saving lives.
I don’t see any redeeming value in this:
[WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS]
https://notthebee.com/article/horror-story-a-teenage-boy-died-in-a-gender-affirming-operation-where-doctors-tried-to-create-a-fake-vagina-for-him-using-part-of-his-colon
ADDED:
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/04/25/tragedy-when-a-colon-just-wont-work-as-a-vagina-n546290
Kungflu taught us that the medical establishment and associated government agencies not only lie routinely, they do so BIGLY. It’s now safe to assume as a starting point in any public advocacy that the medical pronouncements are simply made up shiite. They don’t even have the fig leaf of fake studies and bad computer sims that the climatistas use.
The voltage is safe. I have one and tried to use it. The problem with unit is that the exposure calculator will not go into the higher ISOs of the newer cameras. This makes getting the proper exposure ratio a lot of trial and error. With my Olympus flash I dial in the ISO, then set the aperture setting on the flash to ⅔ higher than the actual camera setting. The camera is set to under expose by ⅔ of a stop. This avoids over exposing the background and lightens the subject.
With off-camera flash it is necessary to keep the shutter speed to 1/250 or less. This requires juggling the ISO setting on the camera and the f-stop on the lens. White balance is always daylight as I can easily adjust that in Lightroom.
>> “ChatGPT costs an eye-watering $700,000/day to operate, claims new research”
We just need to “borrow” Tony’s AmEx Black card for a bit.
>> Segal’s Law: A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two is never sure.
And the corollary: A broken clock is right twice a day.
And my grandson, who is in first grade, told me they are learning how to tell time on an analog clock.
>> “ChatGPT costs an eye-watering $700,000/day to operate, claims new research”
We just need to “borrow” Tony’s AmEx Black card for a bit.
Tony is broke. His newest toy, twitter, has billions of dollars of loans at 7% interest rate. He is apparently making interest only payments. His oldest toy, Tesla, just reduced prices for the sixth time this year. And his other toy, SpaceX, just melted the launch platform. Word on the streets is that his engineers are building a new steel launch platform with extreme water cooling and trenches, all very elevated since his launch area is about one foot above sea level, for really big bucks. And his neighbors in a five mile radius got concrete rock and dust all over their homes and cars and want compensation.
>> And his neighbors in a five mile radius got concrete rock and dust all over their homes and cars and want compensation.
New Teslas for all… okay, new ones for the lawyers, lease returns for the rest.
Gotta “get right back in the saddle,” as the old saying goes…
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2023/04/6-spectacular-survivors-of-free-fall.html
Two free car washes and a detail. Done.
Seems like they ought to have known about the concrete before hand… and those big tanks were awfully close.
n
Ha ha! /muntz voice
The Washington Times reported:
– yeah it’s only 3-5%, but that is a big move nonetheless. I bet you’d be upset by a one day drop in your net worth of 5%…
REALLY glad I’m as out of the market as I can be. REALLY hope the stuff I can’t get out of isn’t doing stupid things.
n
Only “paper” losses … I mean look what will happen to their stock when they replace TC with the now-looking-for-work Don Lemon! 🙂
Even if “stupid things” happen, unless really bad (TEOTWAWKI) things happen, and you have enough time before you need that money to eat, historical trends show things should recover.
(Disclaimer: prior outcomes do not guarantee future results and you may lose some or all of your money.)
For the IT folk, I have a weird one. I mentioned the little project I wrote – half for me and half as a demo for a course: server program queries the solar-power months tour (not the “solar system”) once per most mute and writes values to a database. Another thread answers queries from an app, which are n turn draws pretty graphs.
Everything works. Except: the server program stops updating the database at 01:00 in the morning. Last update just a few seconds after 1:00, then nothing. No error message, just no more updates.
I’m currently at a loss. Any ideas?
Cool and not crazy humid this morning, with solid overcast. Might not get my stuff done after all.
@brad, what do you do to restart it? Counter going negative? Math on the time returning an error? Server runs something else at 1am that conflicts?
n
Once they had to recommend not garaging them due to the whole “catches on fire and burns the family alive in the house” thing, it was only a matter of time…
I hope the Volt owners are feeling good about owning a test bed platform.
n