Cool again, but warming later. Still pretty damp. Yesterday and today.
I did my pickups, and since the truck was full, and most of the stuff was going to the BOL, and because I was already a third of the way there, I blew off my other plans and did a speed run to the BOL. Dropped off the stuff, grabbed a couch that needed to be thrown out, and headed home.
Which means that today I WILL put out decorations. I don’t know why I’ve been finding other stuff to do, I love decorating for Halloween. This might be a year to pull back a notch though, even if I have a good theme in mind, and most of the stuff to execute it. Or it could be I’m just making excuses for poor time management skills. I guess we’ll see how it goes today.
It’s all part of being IN a community. It’s a wacky thing to be known for, but it gives people a label for me (oh, the guy who does the cool decorations at Halloween) that ISN’T (oh, the weird loner with all the junk in his driveway, always knew there was something up with that guy). It’s like wearing a distinctive hat, all the people remember is the hat. And that can have a number of beneficial uses…
So stack up some meatspace time, manage people’s perception of you, and be a part of your community.
nick
I don’t know why I’ve been finding other stuff to do.
Perhaps writing isn’t the only thing of which procrastination is the essence! 😀
Please. The C-suites only need/want certain people back in the office, but they don’t know how to word a policy which will stand up to legal challenges which, in Texas, start with an automatic TWC unemployment tribunal hearing upon request, where everyone is under oath.
They will roll the dice and find other reasons to fire.
Oh Jesus Truck, Oh Jesus Truck,
We learn from all your beauty.
November 30, just in time for Christmas.
Maybe.
https://fortune.com/2023/10/18/tesla-cybertruck-delivery-date-nov-30-elon-musk/
Like the first F150 Lightnings, hard fanboys and people inclined to keep their mouths shut will get the first deliveries.
Ford delivered the first Lightning to an ex-military security operative who was seriously Deep State, with a resume which included a MacDill freak show command posting while on active duty in the USAF.
I’m guessing someone similar takes the first Cybertruck.
I figure that gives them way too much credit. More likely, radical leftists didn’t fit very well into the business world, so tended to academia. Happenstance at first. Only later, when they had enough seniority to be on hiring committees, did it turn into a self-reinforcing cycle.
The correction will come, but I think it will come because someone will figure out how to have an effective, cheat-proof, accredited online university. There are various efforts in that direction now, but none of them quite ticks all the boxes.
I might have two C-64s, tape drives, floppy drives, and miscellaneous other stuff.
Ah, I loved my C-64. I typed in Compute! magazines word processor hex code* from the back of the rag and got my first useful program. I used the heck out of that while in my Army Advanced course preparing papers. I ended up with dual disk drives and a dot matrix printer. When the first Mac came out, I was able to sell the C-64 setup for more than I paid for it.
* The first iteration failed to compile. It turned out there was an error in the hex. Fortunately, the next issue was out in two weeks, and posted the correction. It was cool being able to load from the tape drive and make the correction.
Admin at institutions in the US don’t really worry about “cheat-proof” as much anymore.
Running an L1 visa diploma mill in the form of a thesis-free CS Masters cirriculum can be highly lucrative for many mid-tier state schools short on revenue. Just hide the remedial C classes under a fancy label like, say, “Programming Practicum”.
I looked. Most disappointed. I parsed “knives and pipes” in the Cluedo sense: Colonel Mustard in the dining room with the lead pipe.
I don’t see anything outstanding knife-wise in that lot. I know nothing about pipes, tobacco for the smoking of.
The pipes bringing the most money are artisan made, little works of art, and in a style called “freehand”. The ones shown in the lot are the most common style, “billiard”, and I can’t see the maker mark or “nomenclature”.
Traditional higher end manufacturers that bring good money – Peterson, Savinelli, Dunhill…
———————-
Cool and clear today. Late start, but coffee has been consumed, as have some scrambled eggs with onion… and bacon of course.
———————
Quick check around the web, and then get to work…
– child abuse and insanity are celebrated by a segment of the population. I hope the backlash is biblical when it comes.
n
I’d have guessed that the child’s parents were a lesbian couple. Apparently not, going by the one photo.
Almost certainly not true. They’re saying that you’re abusing your son.
“US seeks delay of Israeli ground incursion to allow more time for hostage talks”
https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-10-22-23/h_57280dc3a893af2eb8dff3de6e9f4c62
“The US government has pressed Israel to delay its imminent invasion of Gaza to allow for the release of more Hamas hostages and aid into Gaza, according to two sources briefed on the discussions.”
I told you that Biden was headed to Israel to stop the Israelis from bulldozing Gaza flat. It will be delay after delay until Israel disbands its army and sends the reservists home.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
“About 100,000 protesters join pro-Palestinian march through London”
https://news.yahoo.com/100-000-protesters-join-pro-142125280.html
“Chanting “Free Palestine”, holding banners and waving Palestinian flags, the protesters moved through London before massing at Downing Street, the official residence and office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.”
Londonistan. The sun is setting on England.
This will get far, far, far worse as the Israelis flatten Gaza.
I can’t be the only one who thinks that a couple of Claymore mines would do an awful lot of good in certain situations.
Inadequate.
A lot of claymores along the edges and napalm right down the center.
Digital nomads. Ha ha. Hobos with laptops.
– so the woo woo cure didn’t work, and you finally opened your eyes to reality…
– time and shared life experiences are what build friendships.
as someone who traveled for work for years, like being away from home an average of 200 days a year for a decade… I can tell you that it is alienating. You float above the river of life, dipping a toe in occasionally, living a sort of Groundhog Day that compresses time, while your friends and acquaintances back home live it serially.
I had a moment when I realized I was more comfortable in a hotel bar, surrounded by similar strangers, than at my hometown dive.
It’s profoundly unnatural to live that lifestyle.
There are and always will be people with ‘itchy feet’ who thrive on the movement, for a while. And usually with a solid base somewhere to return to. But without that base, the words to describe them are “homeless” and “refugee” and “drifter”.
n
Publicly cheering Hamas’ war crimes should have the same effect on career and employment prospects as dog torture did for Michael Vick.
Believe them when they tell you who they are.
Yikes! Leaked Audio of Sheila Jackson Lee’s Abuse of Staff Surfaces (Allegedly)
https://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2023/10/22/yikes-leaked-audio-of-sheila-jackson-lees-abuse-of-staff-surfaces-allegedly-n586761
Another insult to honest feces poised to grab a bigger office to grift.
No, and I would add that the only flaw in your logic is quantity. I am thinking an even dozen.
Nice slap of the Governor by the DM. Down at the bureau in Sunrise (guessing) they’re probably still pining for the meth head like the rest of the Florida media.
Orlando had to find a Grand Marshal child from Long Island?!? Where is the “affirmation” surgery taking place? New York?
Which reminds me – I drove by the stalled Texas Childrens (Baylor) hospital complex project near my house this morning on my way to Home Depot. Construction ran day and night on that building until the RINOs in charge of this state realized that sex changes for minors might not be popular with their base and quickly pushed through a ban.
In addition to the two new hospitals, a lot of new high end extended stay hotels and apartments were going up between the campus locations, surrounding the light rail station. Someone was expecting a boom in economic activity up here even though the big employers at this end of town are laying off people.
– child abuse and insanity are celebrated by a segment of the population. I hope the backlash is biblical when it comes.
That is incredibly disturbing.
I ran The Duck on the quotes and came up with the girl’s website. I’m not going to link it here.
Right now, an attractive white girl willing to forego privacy doesn’t have to work for a living.
I’ll bet they spent at least a couple of days seeing the Harry Potter themed attractions at Universal Orlando.
So much for the boycott.
The really disturbing part is the parents posting the process on Instagram.
The backlash against “Zuck” will certainly be biblical when it comes.
I forgot to highlight the part where mom is a school teacher.
n
Fit white girls in yoga pants are what all the hobo culture websites are about. Vanlife, back to nature, travel. It’s voyeurism.
n
BC: Shark Population
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2023/10/22
That is a very noticeable shark.
Why work when you can put on some makeup and FLAB* while OF handles the credit cards?
*Like A Bunny **
**In the early novelty days of sticky notes I got one that said “QLAB–Quick Like A Bunny”
He was a cute little boy. Coming out as trans at 18 months old is the same as “vegetarian cat”. The mother is sick in the head and the father isn’t far behind.
Nick wrote:
Old news; Alvin Toffler described similar issues in his 1970 book “Future Shock”.
https://www.amazon.com/Future-Shock-Alvin-Toffler-ebook/dp/B09MVMZJ3L/ref=sr_1_1?crid=WZ5PVF9HYIJT&keywords=future+shock+book+alvin+toffler&qid=1698000072&sprefix=future+shock%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-1&tag=ttgnet-20
(Emphasis added.) Apropos the discussion here of having your own desk at work.
Being a ‘digital nomad’ left me with PANIC ATTACKS
Dr. Strangelove would mention the women-to-men ratio. Sign me up for the “fattening up” aspect of survival.
I’m not fat. I’m just carrying 75 days of rations around…
That is a very precise number. Is there an equation ?
@Lynn
“Note to self, add another G19 each to the front door stash and the back door stash”
You should also have extended magazines in your stash. If you have to reload, going from 15 to 22 can be an unpleasant surprise to unpleasant visitors.
Who stops at 22 when you can get a 33 ? My experience with those last couple of rounds is not good though.
https://gunmagwarehouse.com/glock-gen-4-5-glock-17-19-26-34-9mm-33-round-factory-magazine.html
Israel won’t use nukes on Gaza or Lebanon. They’re not officially a nuclear-armed state so using their bombs means that they feel their existence is threatened since a lot of questions will be asked, starting with “Who else?”
Taiwan? Japan? The Afrikaner expats? All are possibilities since Israel will have needed help and resources.
The Israeli targets would be strategic – the Middle East oil fields. That’s the Faustian bargain they have with the world.
Israel goes away and the planet gets Medieval quickly.
The Arab Oil Embargo 2.0 started about two months ago with Saudi Arabia cutting their external production of crude oil in half to three million barrels per day. They did not curtail their internal usage of three million barrels per day of crude oil. The effects will become apparent before the end of the year as inventories slowly drop. The number of electric cars has actually cut the oil demand across the world to some extent.
The USA is shipping around four million barrels of distilled products (gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, etc) per DAY to Europe right now. Plus the USA is shipping about 22 BCF / day of LNG (liquefied natural gas) to Asia and Europe also.
The Property Tax bills arrived today. It’s, ah, much less than expected. The assessment of the house went up almost 20 grand. The land went down $160.
They are playing games.
The house is on an acre. Last year it was $12,500 market value. This year it’s $22,500. Improvements were 240k and this year 286k.
The rest of the place, while the ag/timber use value went down, the ag/timber use market went up from 310k to 550k.
The Homestead Exemption has changed. County is still the same. The ISD (school district) went from a 40k exemption to 100k. Maybe it stays there. So, no school taxes for me this year.
I’m totally cool with keeping $800+ in my pocket.
“Official Truck of the City of Chicago”
https://areaocho.com/official-truck-of-the-city-of-chicago/
“Tesla tested one of their trucks by shooting it with a .45ACP.”
No freaking way.
@Lynn
Loading magazines is not fun. But keeping a mag fully loaded is going to wear out the spring. Best to have enough magazines so you can rotate them, inspect, and rebuild as necessary. Helps if you engrave a unique identifier on each one.
No. If the picture was taken in North Austin within the last few weeks, chances are that is hail damage.
The Penske dealers up on I35 have multiple parking lots full of cars which look like that truck.
Lots of Tesla employees live in my neighborhood, taking advantage of the toll road network entry point just a mile south of my house.
I just had insurance and roofer out for an estimate/settlement yesterday after the storm on the … 7th?
I’ve read it both ways about spring wear.
I think, no proof, that half plus loaded is fine. Like 8 or 10 in a 14 round mag. But I can tell you for sure that a Glock mag fully loaded swells and is hard to install. Metal mags for the Glock do not have the problem.
But I have only one Glock and the magazines may have improved.
Trim notice so that is an estimate based on all of the ballot measures passing in two weeks. Chances are they will, but just keep that in mind.
Homestead exemption temporarily goes to $100k and millage rates are “compressed” for two years using money from the state surplus to make up the difference. This is the Texas band aid solution to mortgage rates heading above 8% in order to keep the housing market going through the next election cycle.
Your 2026 trim notice will be the shocker. The surplus will be gone by then, spent on nonsense … and Warren Buffett’s gas generator scheme.
Go read Proposition 7 for details about that last one. As a shareholder, I thank you in advance for the gift, but as a Texas resident and former Florida taxpayer, I must remind you that there is never any such thing as “free” with The Gecko. You can ask Charlie Crist what happens when you kick a can with Warren’s “help”.
My father in law got depressed when the family cleaned out his house in Orlando 20 years ago and a 20 cu yd dumpster went to the landfill. He kept a lot of junk for weird reasons.
ISA CGI graphics card anyone?
Even back then, that was a useless item.
You would not believe how much computer stuff I have thrown away over the years for my software business. Huge computers weighing hundreds of pounds. Monitors by the gross. Etc.
My father-in-law kept things around on the off chance that someone would need one of the obscure items he had in his stash and trade a favor, preferably sexual in some way, either directly or indirectly.
He had an illness.
Moving twice limited my accumulation to just what has gone obsolete since 2014. We left our tube monitors in Vantucky along with one of the CRT TVs which had a transformer whine developing.
Rates per $100 I understand. That floats up and down, usually up a total of about $2 a year. We have Homestead of course. Then Over65 freezes most of the tax bill.
EMS varies a couple of bucks every year. I don’t know exactly what “Water Conserv Dist Of” actually is, maybe it’s to pay for Bubbas to drive around and raise and close the Burn Ban signs. I suspect it’s to pay for the pipeline from Buchanan to the water plant in town, but I’m on a well, so. But it’s just $11 bucks a year and if it keeps the town from sucking the aquifer dry, I’m good.
Anyway. With Homestead and Over65, that was 50 grand off of the value of the house for school taxes. This year it’s 110 grand off.
I’ve read the Propositions pdf. I reckon Burnet County will be the same. Anyway. it’s NO on everything.
Although #1 and #3 need more study. #4 is a “wtf?” thing.
Maybe #4 raises the homestead exemption for taxes not related to the schools.
Burnet is in the crosshairs for the growth up Ronald Reagan. Lots of Subcontinent not only doing the buying but developing the land up there as well.
That is a very precise number. Is there an equation ?
– that matches well with the contestant experience on Alone. They got about a day per pound of body fat above their norm when they started. It’s one of the ‘hacks’ that developed a couple of seasons in.
WRT “wearing out your mag springs”, yes, and no. I left a G17 in a box, with fully loaded mags, for over 10 years. Took them out, and every round fed and fired, no problems. The only issue was the slide didn’t lock back on empty. IIRC that is caused by “weak” mag feed springs. A replacement kit fixed that for the old mags, and I changed any springs in the pistol at that point too.
The plastic mags will swell over time, but it only means they won’t drop free by themselves. They need a wrist flick, or a manual switch out.
SO, I am not worried about storing fully loaded mags, at least not ones with modern springs (post 1984). They will feed and fire.
n
In between other things, I got my new to me laser engraver running. Picked up an xtool D1 w/5 watt laser for $100 in an auction. Works great. NO safety features at all. I’m going to have to do some building before I would let anyone else run it.
n
WRT old stuff,
CRT monitors bring good money. So do tube tvs, especially good ones like Trinitron.
ISA Soundblaster cards bring good money.
Old Apple II computers and accessories bring good money.
No one wanted to give me money for an old C64, tape drive, floppy, and psu. They got scrapped.
I made big money on a NIB memory expansion board…
n
There is a sweet spot for obsolete gear, where some is still in use, but you bought up tons for no money. For a while, people will pay good money for old gear to keep their critical systems running, without the expense and risk of upgrading. It’s not a big window, but you can make money there.
n
Here is a short story. Perhaps five minutes of distraction from all the BS going on.
https://yardsaleofthemind.wordpress.com/2023/10/19/flash-fiction-goathaven
I have things to do tomorrow.
Go check Clyde’s mail. Get his property tax bill, slap on a couple of labels and a stamp on the envelope and go to the post office.
Then try to get the truck inspected. Someone has said they will do so, they know where to go and I don’t. It’s been his thing since forever and suddenly, not so much. He’s pushing 80 pretty hard, so. But…. tags expired in September. I’ve put all of 560 miles on the truck since last inspection. Ain’t no where to go, most every one has died.
Then buzz through the court house square to pay the rent. Err, Property Taxes. Then the courthouse annex.
I’m going inside to pay for the tags because the title says I’m on Cedaro and not Cedar. Might not matter, might matter in a few years. Get it fixed.
The news says early voting starts tomorrow. I’ll find out if that’s true here tomorrow.
Other than crossing the highway to get to the voting place my route is all right turns. A small town is cool.
I can’t be the only one who thinks that a couple of Claymore mines would do an awful lot of good in certain situations.
Nah. A good old fashioned regimental pike line followed by a regiment of old English bowmen. They would be like a hot knife through butter.
A nine foot pike with an eighteen inch double sided blade will strike fear in their black hearts.
@Nick
“SO, I am not worried about storing fully loaded mags, at least not ones with modern springs (post 1984). They will feed and fire.”
Extrapolating performance from one data point is not good practice. From my perspective having studied some metallurgy including the heat treating and in particular the tempering of steel, there are simply too many variables that can cause springs to weaken over time, and too many reported problems to believe that it never happens. Long MTBF is comforting until you get the F.
Poll: Majority of Muslim Americans Say Hamas Attack On Israel “Justified”
“A majority of Muslim-Americans agree that Israel has a right to defend itself, but in stark contrast to other demographic groups, a majority disagree that Israel should invade Gaza, and a majority agree that Hamas was justified in its attack on Israel.”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/10/poll-majority-of-muslim-americans-say-hamas-attack-on-israel-justified/
And those who disagree that Hamas was justified had better be willing to shoot first.
“SO, I am not worried about storing fully loaded mags, at least not ones with modern springs (post 1984). They will feed and fire.”
Extrapolating performance from one data point is not good practice. From my perspective having studied some metallurgy including the heat treating and in particular the tempering of steel, there are simply too many variables that can cause springs to weaken over time, and too many reported problems to believe that it never happens. Long MTBF is comforting until you get the F.
My XDM .40 is real sensitive to feed issues. Number 16 in a mag, limp wrist, etc and it will jam. If no feed issue then it is super accurate, shoots like an eight inch barrel instead of a five inch.
Retro video gamers need tube TVs, in particular for Atari 2600.
I believe that CRT monitors are still the only way to see 24 bit color properly, but I don’t keep up with high end displays.
“What is Cancer?”
https://areaocho.com/what-is-cancer/
“Normally, your cells do their job. Each cell has a job to do, and they sit there and happily carry out their cellular business 90-96% of the time. During this time, a cell is very busy synthesizing proteins, copying DNA into RNA, engulfing extracellular material, processing signals, whatever its job is. The rest of the time, 4-10% of the time, the cell is busy copying its DNA and dividing to create its own replacement in a process called mitosis. Mitosis happens about once every 24 hours, on average. Some cells like hair follicles do it more often, while other cells like nerve cells, less so.”
Great explanation.
“China is preparing to launch astronauts to its own space station – TWIRL #135”
https://www.neowin.net/news/china-is-preparing-to-launch-astronauts-to-its-own-space-station—twirl-135/
“In This Week in Rocket Launches, China is planning to launch several astronauts to its Tiangong Space Station. The crew isn’t known yet but they will join three astronauts who are already residing in orbit. Be sure to check the recap section for India’s Gaganyaan crew module launch too.”
I did not know that the Chinese Space Station held six people. Or are they going to be sardines ?
Watch “The Last Blockbuster” on Netflix. The IBM PC 500 system the store’s registers depend upon for operation was state-of-the-art circa 2000.
I had one of those when I first started at the Death Star. One of the IBM fogeys was so white hot p*ssed that I got the box and not him that the guy spent several years scheming to take the PC away from me.
When I left over 10 years later, the machine was still handling my email and web work.
Yeah, IBM fogeys were definitely the type who belived that Skippy needed to takes his medicine and likes it, doing what they say because they went to “good” schools and wore the wingtips and sock suspenders back in the day.
That company deserved its fate. A lot of the products were first rate, but the people were fossilized by the bureaucracy, even the employees who were my age.
Meh, it was half a dozen mags, and the springs did suffer from long term storage, just not enough to keep the mag and gub from doing its job.
The warning/prohibition has the flavor of a lot of things that everyone “just knows” is the truth. Empty mags won’t do you any good if you need to shoot. Empty chamber won’t kill a bad guy. There are good reasons for both practices, but they are limited to a time and place, and may not be good practice now.
Absolutely keep your spare mags empty, if you have them. But if you only have a few, keep them loaded and ready for use. THAT is why you have them, after all.
If you’re worried about it, stock the replacement kits.
n
(I’d bet the original admonition was very appropriate, at the time. Like the “all M-16s jam and are garbage” meme, there is truth there, but not a lot, and not anymore.)
“Per-capita US carbon emissions are lower now than they were 100 years ago, even without nuclear power.”
–Marc Andreessen, The Techno-Optimist Manifesto
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/10/20/the-techno-optimist-manifesto-marc-andreessen-in-the-energy-debate/
And now we just had a little squall blow thru, and it’s lightly raining. It was threatening all day, with some dark clouds moving about.
Well, nothing I can do about it, I’m headed to bed.
n
Hey, @Greg, still have any of that Egghead shrinkwrap laying around?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/13/technology/heritage-auctions-vintage-videocassettes.html?utm_source=recommendedreads.com