Hot and humid. No rain in the forecast. Slightly cooler at night and in the morning but still brain roasting sun in the afternoon. It’s still Summer, no matter that school has started.
Took care of some business yesterday. Mostly ran around on little errands. Had to run a uniform to school for D1, then pick her up after school for an appointment. I sat in the truck for an hour listening to Fool Moon, the second Harry Dresden book. Did some returns to Lowes, got gas at Costco, picked up my auto repair parts at Home Depot. That was a weird bit of modern life, order the parts online from some sort of fulfillment portal, and have them delivered to a locker at HD for pickup. Worked though, and saved a bunch on shipping. Just had to wait a week for them to arrive.
The whole business has a lot going on- from the search engine, opening up pricing and stocking status to the search and ecommerce portal, then the warehousing and “last mile” solution, including the construction of the lockers and contracting to partner with HD. The lockers themselves have a degree of complexity that is a marvel of the age. Touch panel screen, automated locks, QR code scanner, and all the online back end to make it possible. The old system of stocking stores, or mail order, or even dealer networks and fulfillment houses seems so simple in comparison. All for a little plastic part that could have been a metal clip and never would have needed replacement.
I crammed a couple other errands and trips in there too.
Today should be similar, start at home, do some stuff, get out and do a bunch more… with hopefully a lot less interruption from das kinder. As I am wont to say, “we’ll see.”
Dinner yesterday included a rice and beans box meal from HEB that was 11 years past “best by”. It tasted ok, not great, not too bad. Some additional seasoning helped. Wife said she liked it, kids don’t normally eat that kind of thing anyway. And I could have eaten it without complaint. The critical thing was storing it indoors, in the dark, and that it was dry ingredients without fats. The directions included adding 2 tablespoons of oil. It’s pretty clear that if the pasta/rice doesn’t absorb weird flavors from the environment, the most common failure of boxed or prepared foods is the fats going old. Something to keep in mind when stocking for the long term.
One other observation, I pulled some pasta out of a bucket. I leave the stuff in the store packaging to isolate it in case of a failure or spoilage. A rat opening one package leaves the others ok to eat, a rat in a bucket of rice, not so much. I had a package of spaghetti noodles that had some kind of black bug in it, and some sort of residue on the pasta. Smelled bad too. The other pasta in the bucket was fine, as it was still sealed in 1 pound plastic packaging. The pasta had a ‘best by’ of Jan-2023 so it was barely out of range. Must have been contaminated at the factory or store and it failed long before I’d have expected.
You never know what a stored item will do until you open it. Have extra on hand.
And stack it up.
nick
Aside from the fact that the main clause illustrates damning with faint praise, it’s the exceptions which show the constraints on an alleged right.
Tired this am. Fitful sleep, vivid dreams.
Coffee is brewing.
n
Or he is occupied with taking a dump in his adult diapers.
I saw a murder this morning.
Yah, the crows are migrating through here, too.
– ok zoomer. “Time travelling”? FFS I feel old today.
n
The first movie was ok. I saw it years after the release. I started watching the tv series sometimes around season 3. At the time, it was on right after Babylon 5, so that’s how I found it. I liked it, but the last season went off the rails. It’s not time travel, but flashbacks to earlier times. I’m cautiously optimistic.
Oh, and speaking of Babylon 5. My copy of the new animated movie “The Road Home” arrived last week. I purchased it spoiler free. As a B5 fan, it was ok. Honestly not worth the money, but my hope is supporting the franchise will help WB actually get more stuff going. At this point in time though, with Mira Furlan and Andreas Katsulas gone, anything new with other original cast just won’t be the same. They WERE Delenn and G’Kar. Some other actors have passed too, but Franklin and Garibaldi can be replaced without major issues for me.
Back to the movie. No spoilers. It’s was ok, but I don’t see how it will attract a new following and as fan service it doesn’t do much either. 3 out of 5 stars.
Details when you are ready, please!
Way too many original cast memebers are gone and/or p*ssed off. Give it a rest like “Galactica”.
Plus Warner is broken in a very serious way. They’re effectively insolvent thanks to the misadventures under ownership of my former corporate masters.
Hollywood needs a new revenue model which may involve bits and pieces of the old model such as physical media and linear TV. Streaming only didn’t work.
Four crows right out front.
Nice to see them.
Keith Robertson introduced me to them in The Crow and the Castle.
Bruce Boxleitner was looking rought at the “Tron” coaster event at Disney World this spring.
However, he didn’t look as rough as Cindy Morgan, who time seems to have caught up with very suddenly. I’m guessing she had cancer.
Brother’s in Arms is one of the most melancholy albums I own. Used to listen to it to go to sleep with the player set to skip “Money for Nothing”.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12462791/Are-mini-seizures-Mitch-McConnells-frightening-freeze-episodes-Doctor-says-knock-effects-concussion-earlier-year-blame.html
IANADr but this guy is,and he thinks it’s what used to be called petite mal seizures, not strokes.
n
Me neither, but that is more consistent.
Either stroke or petit mal is more plausible than McConnell having a sudden attack of conscience. “What am I doing up here, lying through my teeth? How can I bear to look myself in the mirror?”
Oh boy, I don’ tknow who the popo are taking down right this minute but it’s a big guy. Scanner has at least 3, probably 4 convoys of cops headed in, DEA air units, marksmen in place, medical and fire staged, and SRG – the swat and riot guys – on site.
They moved the local constables out of the area so as not to spook the target.
Grabbed someone and moved him to the command post…
I thought I’d found them using the ads-b aircraft tracking, but now I think it’s a different city of houston pd activity.
n
This story is at least 2 months old, but I don’t remember seeing any coverage…
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/kidnappers-caught-act-heroic-truck-driver-rescues-15/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHzDxXvrNvo
n
Popo getting ready to breach another building with “the turtle” ie a vehicle mounted battering ram… then send in “spot” and ‘ the drone’…
wish I knew what tactical channels they were using.
n
We have lots of ravens, but never think of them as crows. Bigger, smart. My wife feeds them kitchen scraps. They appear within seconds of food.
We also have a family of red tailed hawks, mom, pop, and two chicks that are a few months old and as big as their parents. All of them seem attracted to people.
more plausible than McConnell having a sudden attack of conscience
– also more plausible than fighting the demon for control of the body…
– also more plausible than fighting the lizard for control of the body…
n
Difference between ravens and crows:
Crows have five pinion feathers and ravens have four. So the difference between a crow and raven is really a matter of a pinion
Yes, it’s an old joke. Yes, it’s not exactly true. But it falls in the category of “too good to verify because I want to believe”.
“… I can see the Buzzards, I can hear the Crows, 15 minutes to go ….”
Friend of crow
https://youtu.be/yEMIEfpnnt8?si=iIX0qEQti8q-6HUn
Well, traditionally, a ‘murder’ of crows is 12 or more crows. There are terms for various numbers of crows:
There are many terms for groups of crows, depending on the number of crows. Here is a list of some of these terms:
The term “murder” is the most common term for a group of crows, and it is thought to come from the Old English word “mere”, which means “group”. However, there are many other terms that are used for groups of crows, and some of these terms are more specific to certain regions or cultures.
For example, in the United States, a group of crows is sometimes called a “congress”. This term is thought to come from the fact that crows often gather in large groups to caw and make noise. In the UK, a group of crows is sometimes called a “tiding”. This term is thought to come from the fact that crows were often seen as a sign of bad news.
It’s common to see crows outside my window here in the Olympic Peninsula. They like to perch at the top of the pine trees around here.
But the original comment of “I saw a murder today” was clever. Might make a good opening line in a fictional thriller.
Back to SA tomorrow. Bye, bye, Crooklyn and your trash.
It’s bad when even the dollar store is losing money to theft, and they are seeing people spend on food, rather than other categories where they have higher margins.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/dollar-general-plunges-missed-earnings-outlook-slashed-warning-sign-consumer-cracks
[my comments] my emphasis
n
Blame Sting for popularizing “murder” as a generic term for a group of crows.
Whether most people are aware of it or not, they hear it more than they imagine since the song, “All This Time”, gets frequent play on in-store “musak” systems.
A bouncy happy song on the surface but with a dark theme about Sting giving his father a Viking funeral. The whole album, made after his parents died, is steeped in the Dark Side.
Just in time for “Furries on Parade” down at the anime show at the convention center this weekend.
>> There are many terms for groups of crows, depending on the number of crows. Here is a list of some of these terms:
Or, in other words, Rick has a bit of writer’s block today 😉
About as vague as it gets…
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/31/politics/mitch-mcconnell-health/index.html
There’s a reason why they tell you to keep your seat belt buckled at all times…
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/delta-flight-severe-turbulence-atlanta-11-people-taken-hospital-rcna102495
xkcd: *@gmail.com
https://xkcd.com/2822/
Oh yes, that would be an email apocalypse.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2822:_*@gmail.com
There are 1.8 BILLION gmail addresses, really ?
BC: Spiders
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2023/08/31
Spiders and ants rule the world, humans just live in it.
Actually, no. Interested in crows because they are a major character in a book series I wrote several years ago. (“Light Blink”). Sales of that series have approached (but not yet reached) very low two digits.
I wrote it during the spring and summer. My view out my window where I sit with my laptop is tall pine trees, and crows are common around here. They often would perch in the pine trees outside, cawing and crowing. Sometimes appearing to look right at me. (Paranoid much?)
So, I did some research into them, and knew about a ‘murder of crows’ being at least 12 of them. And provided the list here for clarification and education.
As for the alleged “writer’s block” – not really. The three books in the new thriller series have completed their third edit, and one more final edit is in store for them.
I’ve been working on covers for all three, and some preliminary promotional tasks. The covers are close to being done; some minor tweaks to make them all look more ‘thriller’. (Book 2 is the best of the bunch at the moment.)
I think they might be published in the middle of next month (which is tomorrow). Not sure of the best timing yet – all at once, or with weeks or a month between them.
An opening line of “I saw a murder today” piqued my interest as an interesting opening line of a thriller genre book. Not sure how it was used, or if it will be used, but it sounded like it might be a very effective (intriguing) as the beginning ‘hook’ of a new story. As evidenced by the comments asking for more details. When you read that, didn’t you want to know more? That’s an important part of the beginning of a book – you gotta ‘hook’ them into wanting more.
My ‘block’ is probably related to marketing. That’s a whole ‘nother thing.
They are building one here, literally on the lot next to the privately owned market. Population of our unincorporated burg is less than 3,000, there is no way they can be profitable.
For one thing the market has the only gas station in town, and the half from the wrong side of the tracks isn’t going to make two stops (gas&smokes, gas&beer, gas&condoms, etc.) – the survival of “Kwik-E-Mart‘s” everywhere proves that.
I assume some sort of corporate chicanery, money laundering with a side of ponzi.
“Federal regulators bow to Supreme Court on Clean Water Act jurisdiction”
https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/government/article/14298363/federal-regulators-bow-to-supreme-court-on-clean-water-act-jurisdiction
“The Biden administration has revised regulations on the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act to conform to a recent Supreme Court ruling that narrowed the scope of the regulators’ authority.”
Um, that is not bowing, that is typical bureaucratic nonsense.
We need to take the clay pot with the few white beans and many black beans into ALL of the federal bureaucracies.
“Ominous warnings from Tucker Carlson – assassination and war”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/08/ominous-warnings-from-tucker-carlson.html
“He predicts that, rather than let Donald Trump win the next election, he will be assassinated if that looks likely.”
“Not content with that, he predicts that the progressive left will deliberately provoke a war with Russia so that they can assume war powers and thereby prevent any danger of their rule being overthrown in the next election.”
I am with Tucker. They killed JFK and they killed RFK. What would stop them from killing Trump ?
Hmm, IIRC Dollar General and Dollar {something else} merged recently too.
Near my BOL, lots of people consider the dollar store the closest place to buy food. There is an HEB and another TX chain not too much further, and there aren’t any quickee marts closer.
Last time I checked my local dollar store, the food per sell unit was cheaper, but the sell unit was smaller than normal grocery, ie. foil was cheaper per package, but the roll was shorter. This is a trap that people on a limited budget fall into, they don’t have enough money to buy the product at the lowest cost, because they need SOME of the product now, and can’t buy enough to get the best price.
n
What would stop them from killing Trump ?
– as far as I know T still has his own private security in addition to the SS detail. He kept them all along…
n
Color me unimpressed. I have found ChatGPT useful, so when I wanted a particular illustration that I couldn’t find, so I thought I would try its picture generating friend, dall-e.
I wanted a picture of an open toolbox that contained only a hammer, no other tools. Seems simple enough, but dall-e couldn’t do it.
I got closed toolboxes with a hammer floating around them. I got open toolboxes with weird, distorted tool fragments. I got an empty toolbox with parts of a cartoon-like hammer. Finally, I took the best image and photoshopped the heck out of it.
Jeff Duntemann has had much the same experiences with AI art:
https://www.contrapositivediary.com/?p=4957
@brad, what is the license for use of the AI generated content? CC with attribution? Some commercial version?
n
@brad, you’d have been better off with a photostock image. “open toolbox with hammer” as a google image search gets a usable photoshop-able image in the first few results.
n
Toolbox with only a hammer? The closest I got was this one on my favorite stock photo site (I use them for my book covers): https://depositphotos.com/illustration/toolbox-hammer-screwdriver-handsaw-isolated-white-background-rendering-222332112.html
Or this: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/sainty-international-pittsburgh-steelers-16-tool-box-and-16-oz-hammer-kit-black-yellow/5689920.p?skuId=5689920
Or this: https://bid.buntingonlineauctions.com/auctions/10092/lot/117639-hand-crafted-copper-tool-box-and-anti-magnetic-osborne-33-hammer-box-has-lift-out-tray-16-x-9-x-8
But …
Problem solved.
And I’m responsible for 4 of them.
My personal email, one for dating sites (don’t judge me, I went through an awful divorce), my anon for lpdbw, and my brother’s, which I had to set up so I could operate his online bank stuff under his POA.
I suppose sometime I should shut down my brother’s stuff and the dating site one.
But consider all the Nigerian princes and bankers’ widows who need accounts. That’s half of them right there.
Five star, no make it a ten star crash rating…
https://youtu.be/DoOuVPKNkYA?si=0rXRq2Bm2KEuDmdr
And yes, he walked away, pretty much unscathed.
>> And yes, he walked away, pretty much unscathed.
Of course, having to deal with all their safety features just to run to the 7-Eleven would get tedious…
Full-body fire suit
Helmet
HANS device
Six-point seat belt
I only have gmail because of my phone. I might have been able to set the phone up w/o gmail but it’s ok. Google backs up my pictures, I think, it has something going there with “remember this day” and mostly, I want Google to back up my contacts and remember what apps I’ve installed.
“Google backs up my pictures,
I thinkso they can steal them”@Lynn
“We need to take the clay pot with the few white beans and many black beans into ALL of the federal bureaucracies”
No. Just a big box full of pink slips.
Family Dollar and Dollar Tree merged within the last decade. Dollar General acquired a bunch of the stores spun off to satisfy various government entities.
Dollar General is the retailer of last resort when even WalMart is done with an area. The subsidy deal the chain negotiates is usually enough to pay the manager’s salary and cover the utilities.
KKR owns Dollar General. Or did. I don’t keep up.
In other bottom feeder grocery news, ALDI “Sud” picked up what was left of the rotting fetid corpse that is Winn Dixie. Having grown up in Florida in the 70s and 80s, that is a bit surprising, but, while Winn Dixie could compete with Publix on a price basis, they couldn’t compete with WalMart.
@rICKh
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/uw-professor-learns-crows-dont-forget-a-face/
The crows were watching you and they don’t forget…
Salesforce CEO warns he may need to pull large conference out of San Francisco because of street problems
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/08/31/salesforce-ceo-warns-he-may-need-to-pull-large-conference-out-of-san-francisco-because-of-street-problems-n575063
Be on the lookout! Clueless DAMF who is one of the prime architects of the demise of San Francisco is looking to export his idiocy elsewhere.
If you live in a blue state grab your local convention pushers hard by the balls and explain why it’s not a good idea to invite the disease into your cities. Suggest if he calls to ask a question: “Five years ago you said homelessness is a solvable problem. Does this mean that ”you” didn’t know what you were talking about? Do you consider this a personal failure, a failure of the politicians that you keep helping to get elected, or do you have a clue? When you called for money how much of your own did you put in?”
Wonder what the timing was on his company’s exit from the real estate and who got left holding the bag?
Never trust a fat man that hides his neck rolls under a $500 shirt collar.
(And never trust a fat man named Cheney, or his fat daughter.)
They built a new Dollar whatever store a few years ago. It’s nicer than the old location but it’s just as trashy with crap tons of stuff cluttering the aisles. Joint is a fire hazard. Hire a part-timer to stock the shelves, jeebus.
It’s RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from the HEB.
And folks buy stuff there all the time. Which baffles me. That can of Chicken of the Sea tuna they sell for (of course) a dollar is 79¢ across the street. Ditto for all of what they sell.
I don’t understand it.
Sure, that can of tuna is a buck and a half at 7-Eleven but that’s what Super Siete does.
Benioff also owns Time Magazine outright and controls the editorial content.
“Damnation (Theirs Not to Reason Why #5)” by Jean Johnson
https://www.amazon.com/Damnation-Theirs-Not-Reason-Why/dp/0425277879?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number five of a five book military science fiction paranormal series. I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2014 that I just rebought new from Amazon. This is my second or third reading of the book and series.
Ia is a heavyworlder, born in the year 2472 and raised on the independent colony world Sanctuary, a 3.2 gravity newly colonized planet. At 15 years of age in 2487, Ia experienced the awakening of her precognitive and telekinetic abilities. Being one of the strongest precognitives ever known, she watched the future invasion of the Milky Way galaxy by an overwhelming force of wasp like creatures in a crowded Dyson sphere who proceeded to kill everyone and everything in the galaxy 300 years from then.
Ia traveled the 700 light years to old Earth and joined the Terran United Planets Space Force Marine Corps (TUPSFMC) on her 18th birthday. At one hour per light year, the trip took over four weeks and allowed her to finish making her 300 year plan to restructure the two billion person strong military forces of the Terran United Space Force to fight off the future invaders.
Ia is now a four star general in the TUPSF. She has a new light cruiser with a twenty meter laser cannon, the Damnation. And she is on a mission to bring genocide to all of the billions of Saliks in the Milky Way. Ia has decided that with war with the Greys soon and the wasp creatures coming in 300 years, the Saliks are unconvincable to drop their carnivorous ways and must be destroyed to the last amphibian.
This is a strong military series. There are short term threats and long term threats. The non-human races are well thought out and interesting. And then there are the Greys, the non-human race who have tortured the human race for millennia. At least the Greys don’t eat the humans like the Saliks do.
Here is my 2014 review: “Book number five of a five book series. There are no more planned books in the series according to the author. Excellent book until it laid down and died. I mean, it was going great and just stopped. I know that real life is like that but books should have a gentler ending.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars (down rated from 5 stars for the ending)”
I changed my mind about the four stars and upgraded to five stars even though I do not like the ending. The author has the right to write the ending that they see fit even though I disagree.
The author has a website at:
https://jeanjohnson.net/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars (I may add this to my six star list)
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (640 reviews)
The big popo thing was still working to find Mr Big a couple hours ago… they were set to breach another building… No idea if they ever found the person they were there to get. That is the disadvantage of the scanner- no voiceover to explain what’s happening.
n
or vice-presidents
Fell down the rabbit hole at Jeff Duntemann’s site. Had to read for a while to catch up. Got all the way back to the covid stuff. How weird if feels reading that now. It’s like a hole in the world that I can’t or don’t remember without effort. Very strange and I’m not the only one as a quick poll of friends during my not prepping hobby get together had all of us scratching our heads and having trouble putting dates together, and thinking about how long it has been or trying to place specific things during that time.
I can’t even imagine what it would be like to STILL be stuck in that, having come out of it so long ago. Kids have been back in school so long I have trouble remembering the missing year. We’ve all been back to doing stuff, albeit with changes and restrictions, for a while. I’ve been to two medium sized conventions, spent a week at Disneyworld, and flown to the east coast a couple of times. My siblings have been flying back and forth between Chicago and Florida, and Chicago and Texas for years, and on a weekly or monthly basis.
To still be scared and stuck in that narrow restricted life would be too sad. It would be like the end of the Chronicles of Narnia, when the kids have all been killed, and they’re in the afterlife, and emerge from the tent into paradise, but Susan and the dwarves can’t see it, all they see is muck being jammed in their faces…
Not a happy thought.
n
>> Benioff has a national profile but in San Francisco’s he’s really been a leader as the CEO of the city’s top company and as a driving force in its politics. Here he is five years ago at the grand opening of Salesforce tower, the tallest building in the city, promising to help eliminate homelessness. “This is a solvable problem. We know that, don’t we,” he said in May of 2018.
If he doesn’t know the difference between a solvable problem and a non-solvable problem, maybe his software isn’t that great…
That bit absolutely gutted me when I read it as a child, and again, recently, as an adult.