Cooler, and wet. Rained yesterday late evening and the ground is still wet. Dunno what today will bring, but I’m thinking hot and humid, although maybe less so than this past week.
I didn’t get my lumberjack fix in yesterday. I did auction stuff until I had to run out and do errands. I did get my locksmithing done at the rental house. A long time ago I shared that I thought it was a good idea to collect all the permits, certificates, and licenses you could while civilization was still a thing. One of the ones I looked at was locksmith, as you can carry some useful tools that would otherwise get you arrested in most jurisdictions. It’s not a bad little side gig, or even full time gig, either. And while I didn’t get the license (wasn’t clear that I wouldn’t need to apprentice) I got a bunch of the tools and some reference material, and learned some things.
Locks and geeks go way back together, so there is precedent, plus I was always fascinated with bypassing locks, starting with a book on Harry Houdini I got while in grade school. In any case, I can do the basics, and even some of the intermediate stuff, and I’ve got tools to do more involved things as well. There isn’t as much crossover with some of the ‘communities of interest’ I participate in, but there is a wealth of info available online.
The basics that I think are useful and should be achievable by almost everyone? Install locksets, knobs, and hinges. Use specific re-key kits to change pinning and replace cylinders. Use a bump key. Pick cheap locks and cylinders. Open a cheap locking container (sold as “safes” but are really just lockboxes). Enter your own vehicle without keys (slimjim or other bypass). Use a ‘jamb knife’. Know the weaknesses of the most common padlocks, cylinders, and how to bypass them. Own the tools to accomplish all this.
Of course, being an actual locksmith requires more than this, cutting keys and programming car remotes seem to be the most common retail requests, and both require specialized tools. Responding to lockouts and opening cars is probably the most common field task. There is a specialized toolkit for that too, and mounds of reference material. Then a 16 yo kid on a wrecker pops the doors with a slimjim faster than you can get your fancy kit out…
Anyway, locking stuff up effectively is important, and likely to be more important as civilization falls. Bypassing those locks has a place too. Something to consider.
Improve your skills. Get the specialized tools you need. Stack.
n
I’m definitely not one. A car, or a motor vehicle in general, is a means of getting from here to there, possibly carrying a handful of other people or a load of stuff. (I frequently joke that I drive a minivan because I often have to carry five teenagers or a thousand pounds of manure, if you can tell the difference. Insultingly, the teenagers refuse to laugh at that joke.) I do most of my own car work but that’s because experience has shown that most mechanics and/or auto shops are incompetent or dishonest (and because when I was younger I couldn’t afford to pay someone to do any work that I could do myself).
I don’t knock people who are fascinated by fast cars or by cool-looking cars, or by people to race, or by people who mod their cars. It’s like furries: not for me but do whatever makes you happy.
Good list. I can’t do them all. Well, I needed something practical to add to the queue.
I’ll encourage The Child to learn most of the list, too. We’ve blocked out Sunday mornings for “STEM and practical stuff”. In the past we’ve set up lesson and hands-on times but within weeks “someone” would schedule a visit with a friend or there was a make-up piano lesson or an impromptu shopping trip or… I informed my wife that this would not be happening this school year.
We have a couple hours of welding practice planned for this Sunday. Other things will include Arduino projects, soldering practice, computer programming lessons, car work, and work on the house. Topics that are employable or useful, and much of which kids used to pick up by helping their parents but nowadays they don’t have time because their days are filled with school and two hours of homework and mandatory volunteer work and after school lessons and …
Interesting. Most people I know transitioned to an attack helicopter.
73F with water on the ground. Sun is rising in the east though so that’s still good….
n
Half a million this year alone.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/costa-rica-declares-state-emergency-migrant-crisis-rocks-americas
It’s an invasion. Plain and simple.
n
Maybe it is the Andromeda Strain:
EXCLUSIVE: Scientist reveals what the mysterious black dust on the Bennu asteroid sample is likely to be – as NASA halts work until it is formally identified
This guy should be in leg irons:
Moment US soldier Travis King arrives back in America after touching down in Texas a day after North Korea expelled him for ‘trespassing’ into the rogue state
He was already a criminal. Departing Commie Pinko Milley will probably have all charges dropped. Something is up. He should have been court-martialed in Korea under the auspices of EigthArmy. Even better, give him to the South Koreans. He can enjoy 20 in one of their prisons.
They are probably putting him up on the River Walk in downtown SA. Heaven forbid an Amish child is in the brig.
I couldn’t afford the operating costs, even if it were given to me. Also couldn’t fly one.
I have known helo pilots, but only one owns his. Two, actually. Rebuilt one. He is in his eighties, and still passes the physical. Very inspiring. He also builds and rides on and off road motorcycles. I wonder if he sleeps.
It’s out of the shadows now.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/elon-musks-spacex-wins-space-force-contract-democrats-attempt-cancel-him-fail
And what percentage do they actually “encounter”? The real number is likely to be far, far higher.
If you have hundreds of thousands of people trying to cross the border, many (perhaps most) will get through. There is simply no way to completely defend a long border. There is only one possible solution: you have to stop them from trying.
The only way to stop them from trying is to make the risk/reward ratio too high to tolerate. The simplest is: “Don’t set foot across this line. If you do, we shoot.” Then do it.
After the first couple of deaths, a group will turn around. After the first few groups tell their tales, the next groups will turn around before challenging the border. In a few months, people will stop trying.
Inhumane? Yes. Necessary? Only if you actually want to stop the invasion.
Ha ha!
Philly looter known as ‘MEATBALL’ breaks down in tears for mugshot after livestreaming herself robbing Apple, Footlocker and Lululemon stores – as cops arrest dozens after wild and lawless night
n
I’ve had roofing companies from all over Texas knocking on the door all day long since Monday morning.
I’ll bet some of those numbers end up in the labor pool to do the actual work.
Americans need to decide what they want — cheap labor for unskilled work or secure borders.
Again, Instagram and the other social media venues could easily filter and add a time delay for posting based on location of filming. At a minimum, “Meatball’s” account should be demonetized.
Neck tattoos? I can’t see clearly. I’ve noticed that the media outlets are starting to fudge those in video or still pics.
Looked like neck tats to me.
n
About the Philly looters, they found out Apple deactivated all stolen mobile devices. They always do that. Crooks are dumb. Especially Amish looters.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nestle-cfo-says-people-are-consuming-less-food-beverage-demand-wanes
– people are filling their basic needs first, and there isn’t a lot left over.
n
“Americans need to decide what they want — cheap labor for unskilled work or secure borders.”
It is entirely possible to have a secure border and a guest worker program. The Democrats spiked the guest worker programs to encourage illegal entry into the U.S. to work in traditional guest worker jobs, which facilitated the alien invasion and the destruction of other job categories that used to be jobs for U.S. citizens. Like drywall, roofing, and other construction jobs by subs hiring the invaders.
First thing to go is candy and chips. Have you priced that stuff lately? $4.50 for a bag of Fritos that cost $2.50 a couple of years ago. The bag is smaller, too.
My Dunkin coffee that was up to $9 something at Wal-Mart was back to $7.59 yesterday. I bought 3 bags. I might go buy more next week…
A guest worker program will never get through Congress without an accompanying Ted Kennedy Memorial 20 Year Amnesty Bill. The last such bill pushed by Shrub Bush is now 20 years overdue for passage/signature, and both Dem leadership and the money people behind many Republicans have made getting the legislation a priority.
Yup, and it will be littered with weasel words like “path to citizenship…”.
How about we offer citizenship after serving 10 years in the military, but only overseas assignments? Ukraine comes to mind in the near future.
Ukraine needs to end now before the US is involved in a direct war with Russia, which won’t go well.
Well, not inhumane to us that were born here and are descendants of those who legally entered the USA.
@MrAroz;
ISTR that Heinlein suggested that, was it in “Starship Troopers”? But he went further – you couldn’t vote unless you had served in the military, even if you were born in the U.S.
G.
Welp. Let’s see.
Ship most all manufacturing capacity to other countries.
Import hordes of illegal alien illiterates and give them welfare. Because they work for a couple of bucks an hour less to mow your yard than the neighbor kid down the street? That’s not a good reason.
Ditto the welfare with the inner city folks. Dumb the schools down to jebus, I don’t know what now but the “teachers” need a raise, ya know..
Make everything on network TV into cheap to make garbage shows like “Chopped”.
I can go on.
Russia will kick the USA’s ass. Assuming Great Depression #2 doesn’t kick it first.
It’s interesting to see how it plays out.
We need to establish the American Foreign Legion. US citizenship after ten year. “You have joined the Legion to die. We will send to where you will die.”
Not creepy, but irritating. I have a number of public email addresses online, either for myself, or for organisations I help out. These are always obfuscated: if a bot scrapes the page, it gets nonsense, but humans can read them. Generally, this requires JavaScript, but there are various techniques available.
Anyway, I just got my first-ever spam on one of these addresses. Most likely, some underpaid sot in a third-world country is being paid to be a human web-scraper. Annoying, because it means that such addresses will no longer be spam-free.
Welcome to AI !
Departing Commie Pinko Milley will probably have all charges dropped.
Trump wants to execute Milley for Treason. He is not wrong.
I am still fascinated that Milley was calling his foreign counterparts and telling them what we were doing militarily. I wonder where that is in his job description.
“”A prophet is not without honor except in his own country””
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/09/a-prophet-is-not-without-honor-except.html
“I’m cynically amused to find that, at long last, a British politician and Cabinet Minister is acknowledging the harm done to that country by unrestricted immigration and asylum policies.”
The shooting starts next.
Douglas C. Neidermeyer ’73: Killed in Vietnam by his own troops.
If you listen carefully, the Landis storytelling universe circles back around to that fictional event in his ill-fated segment of “Twilight Zone: The Movie”.
“PARKER: Becoming ‘a country I do not recognize’”
https://www.daily-journal.com/opinion/parker-becoming-a-country-i-do-not-recognize/article_fade123e-58c9-11ee-bdba-7b65c7f7e95e.html
“If there is one overriding theme of the Biden years, it is the systematic degradation of American freedom, pushing the lives and freedom of private citizens aside as government expands and takes over.”
“This is done under the rubric of the left that “government knows best.””
“Day by day, we are becoming what the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia described as “a country I do not recognize.””
“In a new paper published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, Casey Mulligan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and former chief economist of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, estimates the current and future costs of new regulations imposed so far by the Biden administration as close to $10,000 per household.”
“The last such bill pushed by Shrub Bush is now 20 years overdue for passage/signature, and both Dem leadership and the money people behind many Republicans have made getting the legislation a priority.;”
They try to pass an amnesty and the burning is going to be much more extensive than a few blue shiiteholes.
“Inhumane?”
No. Kill a few invaders and shut down most of the fentanyl trafficking with it and 50,000 lives will be saved in the first two years. “Greatest good for the greatest number”, doncha know? Let the commie bastards deal with that.
“In a new paper published by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, Casey Mulligan, professor of economics at the University of Chicago and former chief economist of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers, estimates the current and future costs of new regulations imposed so far by the Biden administration as close to $10,000 per household.”
Underestimate by a factor of ten. Another academic dipstick without a clue.
I am moving to San Antonio. “This San Antonio home comes with a two-story library featuring etched-glass mythic characters”
https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/this-san-antonio-home-comes-with-a-two-story-library-featuring-etched-glass-mythic-characters/Slideshow/32641785
That wall of books would hold at least a quarter of my books. Not just the SF/F but the technical books also.
Hat tip to:
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/dream-library/
The city has a hardcore Socialist Mayor and like-minded council with an aggressive annexation history which is backed by their too-cozy relationship with the military commands in the area.
I noticed today that some of the major vendors have been shipping ARM laptops with Windows pre-installed for a while.
Old Qualcomm CPUs and weird graphics chips I’ve never heard of before.
Microsoft will have to produce an integrated piece of silicon similar to Apple’s to get things moving if they’re serious about Windows on ARM.
“current and future costs of new regulations”
new defined as just published in the Federal register
does not include revisions of existing rules or the outright abrogation of existing rules, the two most popular places where the Democrats go to grant themselves kingly powers
Democrats want to control all the land in the U.S.? No problem. Re-interpret “waters of the United States” to include every puddle made by rain or heavy dew, then start screwing people with huge fines and threaten imprisonment if they don’t roll over quietly. Meanwhile, the courts take 10, 20, 30 years to do what should take 30 days.
Democrats want socialism? Ignore the Bill of Rights for “we the people” and find every freeloader, every alien invader, every sick pervert, every thief, has superior rights.
“Wetlands” are already very broadly defined.
One of the puckered sphincter neighbors in Florida mortgaged their house and bought what they thought was an overlooked piece of buildable ground close in to the urban area around the corner, but it turned out that, during the rainy season, the center of the property was a minimal wetland protected by Federal regulation, which prevented 50+ years of previous owners from using the property for anything but a horse/cow pasture.
“That wall of books would hold at least a quarter of my books.”interesting private libraries.
Recent examples”
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/405124.php#405124
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/405245.php#405245
“Clean Sweep (Innkeeper Chronicles)” by Ilona Andrews
https://www.amazon.com/Clean-Sweep-Innkeeper-Chronicles-Andrews/dp/1494388588?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number one of a six book paranormal fantasy romance series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) illustrated (kinda) trade paperback published by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform in 2013 that I bought new on Amazon recently. I have ordered books two and three in the series. Note that “Ilona Andrews” is the pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team.
Dina Demille is an innkeeper in Red Deer, Texas. Only her Victorian inn is not like a typical bed and breakfast, it is an intelligent magical haven for aliens coming to Earth or using Earth as a way station. Dina does have a permanent guest, a retired Galactic aristocrat who is hiding from several bounty hunters, she paid for a permanent room and board.
Dina does have a busybody neighbor who happens to be an alpha werewolf, Sean Evans. He has marked the entire neighborhood for any visitors, including the inn’s trees, enraging Dina’s Shih-Tzu, Beast.
The authors have a website at:
http: //www.ilona-andrews.com
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (12,291 reviews)
Very nice! Except that in the 2nd to last photo, we can see that the “lawn” is green rugs – with wrinkles in them.
The city has a hardcore Socialist Mayor and like-minded council with an aggressive annexation history which is backed by their too-cozy relationship with the military commands in the area.
BTW, I was joking about moving to San Antonio. There is no way I would move back into a city.
I moved to Vantucky. God only knows why.
A divorce would have been cheaper because it would have only cost me half of my life savings.
– Man that sucks. The views were great, you could usually get a table without too much of a wait (mainly because at night, most people wanted to have a drink and look at the view, then go do something else, the drinks were not cheap.) I took several dates there over the years. Great view. Really.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/consumer/article-12571173/Fools-gold-Expert-questions-Costcos-1-949-one-ounce-gold-bars-REALLY-good-deal-shoppers-rush-snap-amid-rampant-inflation-bank-failures.html
n
I moved to Vantucky. God only knows why.
A divorce would have been cheaper because it would have only cost me half of my life savings.
Plus child support.
I always had some small mechanical items to play with when I was a kid. My dad bought things at war surplus stores for next to nothing, and gave them to me as toys. They were better than real toys meant for kids.
Locks were just some of the things I played with. I also liked to read, and many books had good illustrations of how things worked. I absorbed these like a sponge. Now the videos on the Internet show an incredible variety of how-to stuff. I often watch them just to learn, not to work on anything I already own.
My biggest gripe is that written and illustrated material is disappearing in favor of videos. Videos take longer to watch, and I am not the only one to spend too much precious time “learning.”
Yesterday I decided I need to take care of two small tasks. A year ago or more, an outside faucet had a slow drip. I tried tightening it and managed to break the break the handle off but did get the leak to stop. For over a year, a front tire on the lawn mower had to be filled up every time I used it. I also needed to buy some more small parts organizers, pick up the gaskets at the parts store, refill two propane tanks and do my weekly shopping. I wound up crossing town twice and visiting Lowes, Home Depot, Russell DO-It Center, and a local home supply store. No one stocks repair parts for my odd ball outside faucet; the local home supply store did have the parts to repair but the handle is a kludge repair. Spent a bit over two hours doing my shopping.
I’d gone online looking for Akro-Mils parts organizers like the ones I already have but they don’t make those anymore. The only place that had more than one of any style was Lowes. When I was moving my metric bolts, etc., to the new parts organizers I discovered that while they have guides for drawer dividers, none were provided.
Monday when I was walking my dog, my right hip joint began hurting. I’d spent the whole day on my feet but previously I’d not had any real problems when I’d been on my feet all day. Yesterday I had the same problem, but I blamed it on the raking and shoveling, however during today’s walk I almost couldn’t get back home. I guess I need to see a doctor. Growing old is horrible. My mind is (mostly) still OK, but I just can’t do many things I could do even two years ago. I wonder if I’ll complete any of my car projects.
I wonder if I’ll complete any of my car projects.
– the fun is in the journey, right? Otherwise you’d buy one already done, or pay someone to build it for you while you did something you enjoy.
One of the saddest things about the show American Pickers was when they tried to buy from old guys who wouldn’t sell because “they were gonna fix that up” or “that’s a project I’ll get to…” and the camera would pan to show a whole field or forest full of cars, or motorcycles piled under tarps. They were never going to get to all of them, and the parts were rotting off of the vehicles, keeping anyone else from using them or restoring them. A couple of the guys were straight up delusional, but some, you could see the look in their eye, they KNEW it, but still couldn’t let go.
Heck at 57 I’m realizing I won’t have time to read all the books I want to read, or watch the movies, or build the train set*, or do a lot of things, because I’ve got kids in my life, a wife in my life, and if I live long enough, grandkids… and those people take time too.
I’d like to pare down to 2 main hobbies, maybe three. With low investment/time cost things along the way that catch my interest.
Add in that all of this is predicated on the world pretty much just keeping on as is, which seems more unlikely every day, and a fella could get depressed. Or it could focus the mind wonderfully and finally get me moving on stuff.
I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.
n
*at least with my kids
I’d like to pare down to 2 main hobbies, maybe three. With low investment/time cost things along the way that catch my interest.
Is the BOL a hobby ?
“Disney just dropped this trailer about a girl who fights against a magic king who won’t grant everyone’s wishes and I wonder if THAT’s an allegory for anything”
https://notthebee.com/article/disney-is-going-ultra-woke-with-this-movie-about-a-girl-who-fights-against-a-magic-king-who-wont-grant-everyones-wishes-and-i-wonder-if-thats-an-allegory-for-anything/
“Disney writers want this to be an allegory for: -Fighting the patriarchy -Systemic oppression -living your truth -Raging against God But they will have to shoehorn in transcendent Christian themes in order to make the story work”
Wow.