Cool and wet, damp at a minimum, raining as a maximum. Forecast shows clear for a couple of days, fwiw. Temps are nice for shirtsleeves. A bit warm in the sun, a bit cool in the shade. Without any rain, it’s really nice.
Did a pickup, and drop off. Got a gas can (old and metal) and some misc stuff including for my non-prepping hobby. Dropped off a few bins for my local auction and got a commitment to take more next week. They’ve seen income decrease enough that they’ve cut employee hours. I’m doing my part to keep the per lot average up. Boss man is still sick, not heart this time, but hernia repair. He’s getting stuff fixed all in a row. I’m a fan, as you have witnessed.
Get stuff fixed now. Both for your body, and soul, and the environment around you. I’ve got a TON of stuff that needs a part, or 10 minutes of work, (or a lot of work) and I’m not keeping up. This is a time to get ducks in a row. Get your shooting irons out, do a function check at the range. Check your zero. Make sure your food isn’t compromised in some way. Check your medical preps. The adhesive failing on bandages is my most common problem. Re-stock PPEs for the next contagion they loose on us. Look in the corners and find the stuff you “temporarily” put somewhere other than where it belongs. Put it right.
And stack what you are missing.
nick
Finally finished (re)watching V for Vendetta. I was right the first time: the movie was stupid. Overdramatic. “Rule of cool” rather than anything plausible or sensible. Typical for a Wachowski “brothers” movie; much as I liked The Matrix, it was kind of stupid.
I’ll see about reading the comic book – er, “graphic novel”. Supposedly it was much better, though fans of graphics novels which were made into movies always say that.
Thanksgiving is really early this year.
I’m into the last available Mercy Thompson book. Next one isn’t due out until June. I’m not much into werewolves and vampires, but that was definitely a good recommendation from Lynn. I may try his Murderbot recommendation next, although I find the prices of the Kindle books pretty outrageous (first one is cheap, all the others are 3 times as much).
As we have learned in Round Rock, the next step is that the Superintendent will deploy the ISD police as their personal Gestapo.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-dads-arrested-school-board-demand-charges-dropped
Our superintendent did not lose his job after the investigation concluded. He was reinstated after the Wine Moms who decide things at the ballot box around here felt that reelecting the entire board was better than replacing them with the “MAGA” candidates supported by a parents group.
One of the other local ISDs passed a $100 million football stadium bond in the last election. I’d have to go back into posts from a couple of weeks ago for the exact name.
To be fair, you can’t defend the PAC spending and then decry the athletic facilities as unnecessary.
I’ve seen some gross overspending on auditoriums lately, much to the delight of the Number One Parents who view it as absolutely essential for Number One Son/Daughter to receive a proper education.
Johnson will give Biden the $100 Billion for Ukraine and Israel, complete with Gaetz’ blessing, but no one wants to go home and start fundraising next week with angry constituents on the phone all day at the district offices.
They’ll sneak a package out early next year with members in early primaries being allowed to “vote their conscience”.
And wait until next year, when we have the election followed by the shortest Thanksgiving/Christmas season possible using the current calendar system and Inauguration Day 2025.
No one is going to be in the office between Thanksgiving and Presidents’ Day again, much like 2021.
At least there will be plenty of time to rig -er- count the vote in November.
Both parties need observers in every district, who know exactly what should happen, and what to do in case of shenanigans. Seriously, this shouldn’t be that hard to organize at the grassroots level.
@brad, Kindle unlimited (subscription) is worth it for a month just to read the Murderbot stories. I find it a good value most of the time.
@greg, the level of auditorium spending is determined by the level of stadium spending. Tied together by law. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be any auditoriums. It pays our bills, but I’d be happy to see a reduction if we could stop with the pro -level sports palaces.
n
54F this morning but sunny and bright. That feels nice.
Later today someone is supposed to come by and ‘look’ at buying our (electronic) piano. She has a history of “I’m interested” but then not buying with the local moms’ trading groups. I need to clear some space around it and pick up some of my auction things. Joy. We’ll make more money selling directly than in the auction, which is the next step. D2 said she wasn’t going to play piano anymore, so sell it…
n
Some data to back up Greg’s previous assertions..
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/us-retail-sales-declined-student-debt-payments-resumed-october
n
…and reclaim the cubic.
Civilization was nice while it lasted.
– it is definitely getting spicier.
n
add this too…
–and if “crime is trending…downward” it’s because they’ve stopped reporting it.
n
And up pops this article to remind us that muslimes are the real victims. Considering the absolute silence and memory holing of this guy, and the suppression of the video, I don’t think it’s a coincidence….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12752365/Christchurch-mosque-shooter-told-police-one-10-gunmen-planned-target-five-Islamic-centres-massacre-killed-51-Muslims.html
$1.7 trillion in paper. $80 billion/year extracted from the economy annually in interest payments.
Weather in The Dells was decent this weekend, but the town was dead.
Except for the TJ Maxx at the outlet mall, where I went in search of a duffel bag. That place was mobbed.
In Texas? Keep dreaming.
Lake Travis ISD was the local district which had the $143 million bond on the ballot, covering improvements to the existing stadium and a new facility which will open with their second high school in 2027. I doubt that they were the only one, but I saw that on the local Faux News one night.
HOK is gonna be busy.
No one is going to notice the true cost of this until the rate compression ends in 2026 and the trim notices go out.
I’m very serious when I say that I believe the end game of the property tax “reform” will be a state income tax on the ballot in Fall 2027.
@Nick: Thanks for that – I hadn’t thought to check whether they were on Kindle Unlimited. Looks like I’ll be subscribing…
8 suspects 13-17; looking for two more.
Seeking to charge them with murder as adults.
“No evidence” of hate crime.
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2023/11/15/las-vegas-police-arrest-8-suspects-murder-teens-beating-death/
I’m into the last available Mercy Thompson book. Next one isn’t due out until June. I’m not much into werewolves and vampires, but that was definitely a good recommendation from Lynn. I may try his Murderbot recommendation next, although I find the prices of the Kindle books pretty outrageous (first one is cheap, all the others are 3 times as much).
Don’t skip Murderbot. Best new stuff that I have read in a decade. Reminds me of myself way too much. I am borderline autistic and used to not like people. Shoot, give me a tv, a pc, and Stargate (“Worldhoppers”) and I am set for the entire day.
“Hamas Says All The AK-47s Found In Gaza Hospital Were Strictly For Medicinal Use”
https://babylonbee.com/news/hamas-says-all-the-ak-47s-found-in-gaza-hospital-were-strictly-for-medicinal-use
“GAZA — As reports began to come out that Israeli Defense Forces had discovered a Hamas weapons depot hidden in a Gaza children’s hospital, a spokesman for Hamas was adamant that all of the AK-47s found in the hospital were for medicinal use only.”
“”These were clearly medical machine guns,” said Ali Mohammed Al Mohammed. “By confiscating these weapons, they are depriving sick children of the life-saving medical care that these rifles, rockets, and bombs provide. Only people who are truly heartless would take these weapons away from children who are ill. Death to Israel, thank you.””
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Turkey’s Erdogan to Israel Today: “Your End Is Near””
https://rumble.com/v3vz378-turkeys-erdogan-to-israel-today-your-end-is-near.html
And this is our NATO ally ?
Finally finished (re)watching V for Vendetta. I was right the first time: the movie was stupid. Overdramatic. “Rule of cool” rather than anything plausible or sensible. Typical for a Wachowski “brothers” movie; much as I liked The Matrix, it was kind of stupid.
I cannot get five minutes into the movie before I find something else.
“Joe Biden Gifts Another $10 Billion to Iran – His Total Funding to Iran Now Comes to $80 Billion Since He Entered Office- And This is One Month After Iran-Backed Hamas Slaughtered 1,400 Jews in Israel”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/11/joe-biden-gifts-another-10-billion-iran-his/
Unreal.
Yep. Sounds familiar…
“The Best Fantasy Books of 2023” by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/the-best-fantasy-books-of-2023/
Zero for 29 here. I have no plans to read any of these.
Meanwhile, the IRS dinged me for a supposed late payment. My tax accountant acquaintance says it’s wrong but the amount is too small to be worth fighting. Carefully calibrated fee amount, no doubt.
I’m stubborn. Unless the costs are prohibitive, I would fight it out of principle.
A judge I knew had a saying (certainly not originally his,) “How much justice can you afford?”
Ditto.
“Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2023”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-q3-2023/
“At the end of Q3 2023, we were managing 259,533 hard drives used to store data. For our review, we removed 449 drives from consideration as they were used for testing purposes, or were drive models which did not have at least 60 drives. This leaves us with 259,084 hard drives grouped into 32 different models.”
Under continuous usage conditions, WD drives are still the best.
A judge I knew had a saying (certainly not originally his,) “How much justice can you afford?”
That cost me $16K last year and this year and is still not resolved. The toll booth is still in the back of my mind. I am fairly sure that the people involved would torch it.
In many jurisdictions, it’s legal to shoot an arsonist in the act. Just sayin’
See me for more tips on being neighborly.
There might be one book on that list that looks mildly interesting. The rest sound like woke cr@p. Oh, and the Brandon Sanderson is going to be OK, possibly good. I’d prefer he wrote in one of his existing universes, like he’s promised, instead of starting another but he’s not my robot…
n
The weather this past month was pretty much the as this month last year. The electric bill for the EDC went down 27 kWh. Nothing changed but the PC. The UPS said it had a 95 (most times) to 110 watt load with the old PC. The new fanless PC? 26 (most times) to 35 watts on the UPS.
Yep. I eliminated about a 24/7 60 watt light bulb from the load on the a/c. It adds up.
– this is a gun rights victory. Cops will have to work harder than going for the low hanging “felon in possession” charge. If the crim was still locked up, he wouldn’t have been robbing people on the train. And why can’t the get him on the armed robbery?
n
Yuuup, and WD is local to me and I have several friends who have worked for them.
There is a Martha Wells book in there, she is an OK writer usually.
There may be something else good in there, sadly there is a surfeit of turn-the-crank fantasy these days, so I usually wait for an author I know or recommendations from someone who taste I respect, before bothering with the genre.
There is a Martha Wells book in there, she is an OK writer usually.
I love Murderbot by Martha Wells. Best new SF that I have read in a LONG time.
https://nypost.com/2023/11/14/news/nikki-haley-proposes-requiring-social-media-users-to-verify-their-identities/
Those who don’t know history are doomed to look like asshats when they reveal their ignorance.
—They were to the British…
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/article-12753807/Time-head-grocery-store-Restaurant-menu-prices-rising-faster-food-home-driven-price-hikes-fast-food-chains-like-McDonalds-Chipotle.html
– way past time.
n
Don’t blame Nikki Haley and her family. It’s not like they’re Americans, who for several generations were rasied in America, and taught our history and culture.
Nikki Haley is first generation. Her parents were Sikh immigrants.
I was waxing sarcastic. I knew that.
It’s not enough to be born in this country. I’m prejudiced, but my people have been here since at least the 17th century.
I have family stories going back at least 3 generations about dealing with hardship and opportunity and loving families in an American context. That’s White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. My dad quit school in 8th grade during the depression, so he could get a job (several, actually), and help feed his brothers and sisters after the family lost everything in a house fire. Exccept the clothes on their backs.
My family spread out from New England through Virginia, then Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, California.
Kim du Toit and I exchanged some comments earlier today regarding assimilation. As in, “Who’s assimilating whom?”
@lpdbw
“I have family stories going back at least 3 generations about dealing with hardship and opportunity and loving families in an American context. That’s White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. ”
So do I. And so do a lot of other colors and religions who shared a common heritage about what this country was about.
That was before the educational system was ceded to the communists. We have two generations that were not taught history and think that existing should be enough to get equal outcomes. The masters, of course, know that they rule.
Not in 1787, they weren’t.
Rather more than that, by the prices I’ve been paying. Most of the meat I buy is on sale, so maybe the sales aren’t dipping quite as low as they were a year ago. Also, I don’t buy premium cuts and it’s possible that those prices haven’t gone up as much, bringing down the average.
Egg-Laying Mammal Recorded Only Once by Scientists Rediscovered After 60 Years
https://www.sciencealert.com/egg-laying-mammal-recorded-only-once-by-scientists-rediscovered-after-60-years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_David%27s_long-beaked_echidna#cite_note-ng2007-7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough
Famous global warming zealot has fanboys sucking up again.
The walk-back has started…
And as she and Ron try to scratch each other’s eyes out, they need to be reminded of these hallowed words: https://youtu.be/y4usE2RePqo
Fell asleep in the chair. Headed to bed now…
n
(no British interest in the war of 1812? or in the failure of their breakaway republic?)