Cold and clear again, warming later, again. Nice days though, a bit cool to start, but nice. Great for working outside, if you are so inclined.
Spent most of yesterday afternoon doing pickups. One interesting thing about new players entering the market is that they don’t have a lot of bidders, and you can get some great deals. Bad for them while they get established, but great for me. I scored some good tools, and more importantly, some batteries and a charger for tools I already own. Dropped by my favorite gub store, but just left them some Halloween candy. Didn’t buy anything. Had to get D1 from school.
D2’s play and other kid stuff ate the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Today I’ll be picking up some more stuff. I won a couple more solar panels and a charge controller. I really want to get something set up at the BOL, and now I’ve got around 300-400 watts of panel to use. I got some other stuff for the BOL at the same auction. That fabric that keeps weeds from growing through your landscaping is crazy expensive at the store, considering it is just some non-woven plastic. I’ve been buying rolls in the auctions for huge savings, when I get around to finishing the cosmetic stuff at the BOL. Everything comes through the auctions eventually.
I didn’t drop off anything for sale this week though. I was busy Monday and Tuesday, and they asked me to wait for a week as they were filled up. I hope I haven’t missed my chance to keep unloading stuff by breaking my streak… clearing stuff out and turning it into money is a good thing.
Lots of not good things happening in the world. Take your joy where you find it, and stack…
n
The larger format makes a nicer gift, and, a few years back, the size combined with slightly nicer paper made rationalization about spending more than $10 on a paperback easier for most buyers.
I’m sure the Rubicon of paperback pricing has been crossed by now by the publishers. I just paid $70 for a pair of Bosch Icon windshield wiper blades which I bought pre-pandemic, same model/sizes going on the same car, for $40.
Also, Barnes & Noble under the new UK ownership is making serious money with Manga, to the point that I’ve been in some of their stores which now feature larger sections devoted to the genre than Sci Fi.
The Japanese publishers go for higher quality binding, printing, and paper in general, and pricing hasn’t hurt their sales.
The Americans don’t have an exclusive on retail fail, however. Barnes & Noble has the opening in Manga because Kinokiniya, the Japanese bookstore chain which is found in many larger American cities, chose to placate the Asian paranoia during the pandemic with strict masking, distancing, and “no cash” policies, which ultimately cost them their fastest growing customer segment.
Ken Mattingly has died. He was the astronaut that got taken off the Apollo 13 mission. He was instrumental in getting the other three astronauts back alive. His removal may have been a significant act of fate. Had the Apollo 13 crew perished in space it would, in my opinion, set the space program back dozens of years.
My dream job was to work at NASA with the ground computers. I was told by family I was not good enough and would be a fool to pursue such a career. I, wrongly so, believed them. Even if I had tried, and failed, I would have been young enough to start over somewhere else. One of my life regrets.
Cool and crisp this morning. Got the people off to their things. Got my coffee and breakfast…
Need to do a quick tour of the web and then I’m off…
n
Well, sorta. Still need to wait for my pickups to open.
I rarely buy physical books anymore, but I used to despise the slightly larger formats. When you have thousands of books, you space your shelves to the height of the books. I had maybe 1/4 or 1/2 inch to spare, so oversized books did not fit, and had to be shelved separately.
I ticked an item off my bucket list with the old house: we had a dedicated library room filled with our thousands of books for 20 years. When we downsized, 90% of those had to be discarded. The remaining 10% still fill two tall bookcases in my little corner of the office. No room for new (physical) books, so nowadays it’s all e-books.
While I do miss the feel of a real book, the convenience of having hundreds of books in your pocket is huge. Since I travel for work, I don’t have to plan ahead: “what book am I taking for the evenings”. I have them all with me. The backpack is a lot lighter as well 🙂
We hired a failed Number One Son at the tolling company who worked for NASA in the control room at JSC for more than a decade as a KBR contractor. MIT Bio degree. U. Houston Clear Lake CS non-thesis Masters.
I wasn’t impressed in the interview, but management was sporting wood over the hire because of the name on the diploma and the guy’s willingness to accept the “Junior” developer position with that word in the title.
Even I wouldn’t accept that word. Neither did the girl who was hired on the same day I was with a freshly minted TAMU CS degree and zero experience beyond a bank teller job.
The “Junior Software Developer” is still there according to Linked In as of this morning.
My wife speculated that management was either on an overdose of T therapy or high dose Adderall, which engenders a weird kind of passive aggressive behavior in my experience.
Austin.
The point is, you probably would have done really well. Never accept people telling you what you “can’t” do.
Failed Number One Son – MIT undergrad Biology degree. No Harvard Med diploma follow up.
Plus, he got sent to Taiwan for a year to “find himself”, like my wife’s family does with their Number Two Sons.
My spouse saw the resume and said, “Don’t hire him.”
“Boss” Cousin in Vantucky was a failed Number One Son on a smaller scale — UW undergrad in ChemE but no UW Med School due to grades and test scores.
My wife’s license was a sore point.
This, for sure. I became interested in computers, in part, to minimize purchase of physical books decades ago. They were threatening to push me out of my own place. The move to a new apartment in Idaho allowed me to implement a new scheme by expansion of welded wire shelving everywhere. Now there is ~50 linear feet of 8 ft tall chrome shelving in ~1000 sq ft of apartment. Industrial chic, I think.
Stacks of gub food, reserves of paper and plastic consumables, grooming and laundry supplies live behind the books. Makes for a less obvious prepper and aesthetically pleasing storage as well.
Wire shelving comes with its own idiosyncrasies. They are adjustable height wise during assembly, less so after. Unloaded, they are easily moveable as long as you grab the poles, not the shelves. Those nifty compression clips that hang on for dear life when you’re trying to “adjust” an inch up or down after assembly will unexpectedly release and fall off if the shelf is grabbed to move the unit.
Determined search will find an amazing variety of accessories for the system. Be aware that some units, particularly the less expensive units, use smaller diameter poles/clips or less robust shelf construction. Very serviceable, just not fungible.
My latest freeze-dried food test is done. I pre-froze the batch to save time and wear and tear on the FD. The FD will also freeze but adds hours to the total time. I expected a dry time of 24hrs (I put the batch in at noon yesterday), but when I got up at 6 this morning, the FD was beeping. That means not only did the FD think the batch was dry (sensors) it completed a default extra two hours. It keeps the batch under vacuum, and you can add more drying time if you want.
Pickles, cukes, and bananas all came out crispy and with their distinct flavors.
The jalapenos were crispy. I tried one, hot, and some of the crispy dust went up my nose. Yikes!
The Wolf Brand chili came out dry and spongelike. The taste was there and weirdly satisfying. The doxies loved it.
Our library was mostly just nice boards on shelf brackets, which in turn were hung from rails on the wall. Kind of like this. Not elegant, but you didn’t really see the shelves when they were full of books.
What I have left are two good quality teak veneer bookcases I bought more than 40 years ago. No sag in the shelves, even with heavy books. They have suffered through a lot of military moves, and more since, but they still look pretty decent. Buying good quality furniture does pay off in the long run.
Real life results too good to be true.
https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2023/11/during-first-all-female-spacewalk.html
I’ve had, used, and appreciated a similar bracket and rail system in the past. It is, ah, inconsiderate for a renter. Too many holes in the walls. Tenants are pigs, staff are d*cks, and owners are crazy. 🙂 Different perspectives on the $$ involved.
Freestanding wire units avoid that consideration, but narrow books want to fall between the wires. Shelf liner is absurdly priced and collects dust. Horizontal pressure from full shelves works most of the time… 2 of my new units are only 14″ deep. I’m thinking thru a lag bolt into stud and chain anti-tip feature.
LOL. “Astronettes”.
My home library was a small bedroom with the walls completely taken up by brackets on rails for shelves, but I cut & routed the board edges & stained and sealed the boards.
I still have all the hardware & books, out in a container. One of these days.
You know, I laughed too, but doing space walks & work in a space suit is hard.
Yes, it’s a stupid PR stunt by woke morons at NASA, but women working in suits had to happen sometime, now is as good a time as any.
Perhaps if they had gone with soft suits it wouldn’t be such an issue perhaps if they had gone with soft suits it wouldn’t be such an issue.
N
About 25 years ago I was sent to Cape Canaveral to solve a spacecraft thermal problem and I never saw women in space suits walking around.
“Texas power grid operator approved for a 40% budget increase”
https://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/texas-power-grid-operator-approved-40-budget-18467913.php
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas said it needs more money to comply with new regulations, hire more employees and fight legal challenges. It said the budget increase will cost power customers less than 20 cents per month.”
“The Texas electric grid operator’s budget will grow 40% next year, adding nearly $119 million to its current $287 million budget. Much of that will come from charging higher fees to companies that sell power to consumers.”
The lawyers are detecting blood in the water since ERCOT is a not a state agency and is not subject to Sovereign Immunity. Now the lawyers are all suing ERCOT trying to pierce their corporate veil for imaginary hurts and hurts that ERCOT is not responsible for. The state legislature needs to step in and stop this now as we, the public, are all paying for this nonsense.
“Billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos moves to Florida, where his parents live—and capital gains are not taxed”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-amazon-founder-jeff-bezos-125828852.html
“In an Instagram post, the world’s third wealthiest person—with a net worth estimated at $160 billion—said he wanted to be closer to my parents after they recently moved back to Miami.”
“My parents have always been my biggest supporters,” he posted to his Instagram account, adding that his spacefaring company Blue Origin is increasingly shifting operations to Cape Canaveral.”
“Florida also offers a financial benefit to the Amazon founder—it doesn’t charge capital gains tax which, for a man who’s sold some $30 billion in stock since 2002, according to Bloomberg, can be quite substantial”
Taxes have consequences.
BTW, I note that they do not count royalty and dictators in their count of the richest person in the world. The King of Saudi Arabia is worth at least $13 trillion. The King of the United Kingdom is worth at least a half trillion dollars, probably way more.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Bad Seed”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-bad-seed/
“The Woke culture infecting our society today is the direct offspring of the Liberal Democrat party and the radical left. Woke has permeated our government institutions, Universities, and corporate America, Mainly because of the radical left that have become professors in higher learning, brainwashing students to believe it’s okay to mass-murder, rape, and torture innocent people in Israel and attack the Jews in America.”
“Although many Democrats try to separate themselves from the Wokesters, they are directly responsible for this Diversity-Equity-Inclusion that plants the seed for division and the balkanization of our country. Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2023.”
About 25 years ago I was sent to Cape Canaveral to solve a spacecraft thermal problem and I never saw women in space suits walking around.
All of the NASA space suit training happens in Houston in the Johnson Space Center.
Trash bags. Exciting stuff. I’ve been working on a box of 200 Costco Kirkland since January 2020. Yes, I did write the date on the box. I didn’t write the price on the box.
I’m down to the last two inches of the roll. If it works like toilet paper, it’s time to buy more.
I like the Costco bags because the top is stretchy and clings to the trash can. I have some HEB bags and they fit like underwear with a blown out elastic waistband. Stretchy is good.
Big River has their brand. 12¢ a bag. No sign of stretchy in the pictures, a couple of comments said they don’t come in a dispenser box, you have to take the roll out of the box to get a bag. Might as well be HEB bags. Same thickness and size as the Costco so that part is good.
Now here comes the interesting part. The Costco bags are “temporally out of stock”. Big River will let me know when they ship. But it’s good. I wanted a box of TSP powder. So I got free shipping.
Mr. Buffalo is happy that the Costco bags are 8¢ each. 🙂
Ok, I have a weird hobby.
And Lauren drove the Bronco. All through the day and night …
WA State’s capital gains tax is going before the Supreme Court this Fall IIRC. If it is upheld, you can bet that Texas will take a close look at implementing something similar to deal with the mess that will result from the property tax rates being “uncompressed” in 2026.
Today I’ll be picking up some more stuff. I won a couple more solar panels and a charge controller. I really want to get something set up at the BOL, and now I’ve got around 300-400 watts of panel to use. I got some other stuff for the BOL at the same auction. That fabric that keeps weeds from growing through your landscaping is crazy expensive at the store, considering it is just some non-woven plastic. I’ve been buying rolls in the auctions for huge savings, when I get around to finishing the cosmetic stuff at the BOL. Everything comes through the auctions eventually.
I would like to get 2,000 to 5,000 watts of solar panels up and going at my house just as a backup for a grid down solution for when the grid is down for a really long time. I want the panels to produce power when the grid is up and when the grid is down. It is surprisingly difficult and there are safety concerns as energizing the back yard grid is highly frowned upon when the state grid is down.
Arlo and Janis: Doomsday Machine
https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2023/11/03
Uh, Arlo, I am not sure that is the way things work.
It has apparent finally dawned on him that his hands-off hiring of old NASA retreads to run B.O. in an over-staffed analysis-paralysis mode has cost him the space race – and with it tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars of business – with SpaceX.
I rarely buy physical books anymore, but I used to despise the slightly larger formats. When you have thousands of books, you space your shelves to the height of the books. I had maybe 1/4 or 1/2 inch to spare, so oversized books did not fit, and had to be shelved separately.
Nah, I just stuff books into the shelves until there is no more room. First I put books vertically in the back of the shelf. Then I put books vertically in the front of the shelf (double stacking). Then I lay books horizontally on the top of the vertical books until there is no more space. A total mess !
Perhaps if they had gone with soft suits it wouldn’t be such an issue perhaps if they had gone with soft suits it wouldn’t be such an issue.
N
Soft space suits rip easily so multiple layers are to keep the person safe. And joints are needed otherwise the balloon effect does not allow the arms and legs to bend.
“To help you remember this weekend…”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/11/to-help-you-remember-this-weekend.html
“Thou Shalt Set Thy Clocks Back One Hour.”
There are many more rules. Thou Shalt Not Set Your Clocks Back Or Forward In Arizona Or Any Other Place With Righteous Thinking.
“Bigotry? Heck, no – it’s common sense!”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/11/bigotry-heck-no-its-common-sense.html
“Divemedic shows us this . . . meme? Poster? Graphic? I dunno.”
You know, I have not been dating since 1981. But to expect a jelly donut and find a sausage back then would have gotten the offender beaten up. I guess the times have changed.
Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday if you live in Texas and didn’t early vote.
“J.D. Power Auto Insurance Claims Satisfaction Study”
https://www.carpro.com/blog/j.d.-power-auto-insurance-claims-satisfaction-study
“The J.D. Power study also ranks insurance companies. Here are the top three:
And I have Amica for my home and auto insurance. I got on Amica back in 1984 for auto insurance and 1982 for home insurance until 2020, just restarted home insurance with them.
Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday if you live in Texas and didn’t early vote.
I early voted today. My wife voted yesterday. We are back to voting at the local nursing home.
The Texas homeowners market is going insane with the mini freeze in Austin last February exposing the utilities once again swimming naked and not keeping the trees trimmed.
The big hail storm from the beginning of October will factor into next years rate increases. A lot of Teslas saw serious damage, and everyone on my street is getting a new roof.
We got a new roof after the second hail storm. After the first, there were new roofs in the neighborhood. And again after the second. After the second though it was almost everyone.
Not everyone could afford it though and there were some shady deals made. Don’t forget, deductibles maybe high… ours was more than $10K. Whole lotta people that wouldn’t have been able to write that check. It’s not a “free” roof by any stretch.
n
@Nightraker
“Freestanding wire units avoid that consideration, but narrow books want to fall between the wires. Shelf liner is absurdly priced and collects dust. Horizontal pressure from full shelves works most of the time… 2 of my new units are only 14″ deep. I’m thinking thru a lag bolt into stud and chain anti-tip feature.”
Eighth-inch tempered hardboard works as a shelf liner. If your lumberyard marks down damaged sheet goods keep an eye out for the plain or the cheap paneling version–you’re going to cut it up anyway.
Re book cases: I built wooden ones shelves 7-1/8″ high x 5-½” deep by three to four feet long ,four shelves tall, sitting on a base that is 30 inches tall and 12 inches deep with two 12 inch tall shelves. The larger format screwed up my shelving system (alphabetical by author four groups: SF, Fiction, War, Biographies, and other- mostly Reference and Technical).
On the road tomorrow. I hope to make a daily short post.
The ones that don’t fit vertically get laid down.
A large part of the publisher’s motivation for the “venti” format (I don’t remember which female author christened it such in a blog entry ca 2003) was to force the bookstores into putting such on the top shelf of the standard 5-shelf display. That put John Grisham and Vince Flynn nearest eye level with their new releases, and the reprints that followed shortly. It made the books a bit less chunky and just happened to jump the price up two bucks for the premium authors. When the unknown authors followed the price stayed, and the difference between their book contract and the first line (now really “top tier”) authors lodged firmly in the publisher’s pockets.
Since then there have been a couple runs at creating some bastard sizes by playing with height and width that haven’t gained much traction.
I need to add this: I have 1973 physical books with number of technical books I just haven’t got around to including , mostly likely the count is closer to 2050. Plus 302 books waiting to be read. (And another 860 Kindle books read.)
@Lynn
The short paperback history article that you linked to makes no mention of the most famous paperbacks of the 1950’s: the “tête-bêche” (i.e. “head to toe”) Ace Double D-series, which were about a half inch shorter than the standard 6-7/8″. Ace didn’t invent that shorter paperback format–it was the original size of De Graff’s Pocket Books, and was also used by Dell, most notably in their “mapbacks” of the 1940’s and 50’s.
The Armed Service Editions of WWII are a fascinating bit of history and the rarest format–bound on a narrow side and typeset in two columns.
Smaller yet was the Dell “10-cent” series, a short-lived experiment in the early 50’s featuring novelettes in a staple-bound format. Heinlein’s “Universe” was the last of only 36 titles published.
Predating the hoity-toity trade paperback was the “digest” size, a book published in the same format as the digest magazines that largely replaced the pulps. Author Max Bodenheim wrote “Naked on Roller Skates” in 1930 but the digest reprint of 1950 sparked a lot more interest with the artful banner placement. Thirty years ago a nice collectible copy would set you back $300, but with the cover reprinted on everything from t-shirts to memo books the price is down considerably.
There have been a number of histories of paperbacks published. Thomas Bonn’s “Undercover” is a good general one and although long out of print used copies are cheap. The real pleasure is in the glorious covers of the science fiction, mysteries, and westerns, and there are numerous on-line archives.
The big hail storm from the beginning of October will factor into next years rate increases. A lot of Teslas saw serious damage, and everyone on my street is getting a new roof.
But are all of those Teslas insured ? I am hearing that the insurance prices for EVs are running 3X over the gasoline cars in general. That is freaking amazing.
“This foreigner was charged in Texas for planning attacks on Jews but his beard looks like that Middle Eastern warlord from 1,400 years ago so you probably didn’t hear about it”
https://notthebee.com/article/jordanian-national-arrested-in-texas-after-allegedly-planning-attack-on-jews/
“Yes, allegedly this dude was planning attacks on Jews down in Texas. Sohaib Abuayyash had allegedly been watching instructional videos online teaching him how to construct bombs, and he is now behind bars on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm by someone with a non-immigrant visa. Dude was likely gonna be our next mass shooter, and it looks like it would’ve been very bad.”
Houston has the second highest Jewish population in the USA after NYC. We also have a very high muslim population. In fact, I have a new mosque in an old bar on the street to my house.
BTW, the local newspaper did not mention this whatsoever.
I have $12k deductible plus a “depreciation schedule” based on the age of the roof. Because our county doesn’t require a permit for roof work like Florida, I have no documentation about the age of the shingles beyond an estimate.
I need to add this: I have 1973 physical books with number of technical books I just haven’t got around to including , mostly likely the count is closer to 2050. Plus 302 books waiting to be read. (And another 860 Kindle books read.)
I’ve got around 3,000 to 3,500 fiction books on dead trees. Most of them are boxed up in the garage. Plus several hundred technical books on engineering, chemistry, and programming. I’ve even read some of the technical books, I need to read them all. Plus my primary software business owns several thousand technical books with an average length of over a thousand pages. I researched in a 2,000+ page book just last week then found out that it was on the internet in several thousand PDF files in 6 point type.
https://janaf.nist.gov/janaf4pdf.html
Here is aluminum:
https://janaf.nist.gov/pdf/JANAF-FourthEd-1998-Aluminum.pdf
It’s Friday night, world wide muslime outrage night…
Currently 73F. Nice night. Nice day.
Got some stuff done.
Got thru another week without canned sunshine.
Pretty good day.
n
The Teslas are insured, but if the owners didn’t opt for one of Tony’s plans, they are looking at six months minimum for certified repairs which do not void the warranty.
If The Gecko doesn’t get his generator slush fund out of the election on Tuesday, he’s gonna be looking for more “float” to invest into Pilot/Flying-J and his other rackets.
If The Gecko doesn’t get his generator slush fund out of the election on Tuesday, he’s gonna be looking for more “float” to invest into Pilot/Flying-J and his other rackets.
The Gecko has over a $100 billion in cash to invest right now. Maybe $200 billion.
But I would not invest in EV ports across the nation right now. The growth in that market may be forecasted too … optimistically.
Before the end of the year, The Gecko will own 85% of Pilot/Flying-J, and he’s already moved the company onto his balance sheet. He’s probably plugged into the Federal subsidy for the charging stations. The missing element is the generating capacity at the more remote locations.
Reading between the lines on the annual report, he’s not just going after the EV market. The Gecko has a bullseye on Buc-ee’s.
Well I’m beat, so g’night all.
n
Before the end of the year, The Gecko will own 85% of Pilot/Flying-J, and he’s already moved the company onto his balance sheet. He’s probably plugged into the Federal subsidy for the charging stations. The missing element is the generating capacity at the more remote locations.
Reading between the lines on the annual report, he’s not just going after the EV market. The Gecko has a bullseye on Buc-ee’s.
Have you been in a Pilot or Flying J ? They are ok but I would give them a C. I mean, they have rolling hot dog racks. No telling how many of the hot dogs have been there for three months.
Bucees sets the performance of standard for the class. A for everything in the stores. Pilot / Flying J will have to knock down the current buildings and rebuild 5X larger.
>> “The J.D. Power study also ranks insurance companies. Here are the top three:
Most people are satisfied until they file a claim and their rates are doubled or they get dropped.
And gone are the days (AFAIK) when a bottle of decent scotch slipped to the owner of the body shop “revealed” some hidden damage that got your deductible covered. But then too, deductibles ran $100/$250.
Not totally gone. A little over ten years ago I tapped bumpers, backing up in a parking lot. Literally tapped. The plastic cover on my bumper wasn’t even scratched, just the dirt was smudged. The other car, a piece of crap with a lot of existing body damage, somehow suffered $1200 of damage, probably greater than the value of the car. I complained to the insurance agent about that but he just shrugged it off. It was cheaper for them to pay the claim than to fight it.
Interestingly several major insurance companies in the UK are flat out refusing to insure EVs, those that do are charging at least 3-4 times more than they do for ICE vehicles.
Yeah, right now, the chain is iffy, but The Gecko sees something.
If people have to sit for 30-60 minutes to wait for a supercharger, they might like some Dairy Queen or See’s Candy. NFM Electronics, anyone? Maybe they’re tired of the Tonymobile insurance coverage nanny emails and would like to talk to an agent.
I love Buc-ee’s. I’ll have to dig up the exact line in the report which caught my attention, however.
I make sure I attempt to understand my investments even if I just hold the stock to get the golden ticket to Omaha every year. The Gecko is interesting to watch.