And it’s still hot and humid. Really, I know! Hard to believe. But that’s the facts Jack.
Fortunately for our load in and set up, the hotel had the air on in the ballroom/convention space. Because it was hella hot.
Did my volunteer obligations then got my stuff set up. I brought a LOT of stuff, and hope to sell more. I haven’t sold much though, and the best stuff went cheaper than I’d have liked. Sold is good though. I’ve covered the cost of my tables and rental trailer. I hope to make some actual money today.
I’ve got an early start today. I need to restock my coolers with drinks and ice. There is a very convenient ice maker stand on the way, and it only adds a couple of minutes to my trip, so it’s not a burden and I get a lot of gratitude and recognition. Then we’ll open the doors at 8 and we’re off to the races. I hope. It was slow and kinda dull yesterday.
The best part of the show is talking to the other attendees and exhibitors. There is a pretty broad cross section of the US, but skewing heavily toward small business owners of course. I don’t hear a lot of pro Democrat chatter, and I do hear a fair amount of pro Trump. That could be because of Texas, or because any progressives or liberals might self censor in the face of real or imaginary persecution. It is hard to be a small business owner without a grasp of economics and an understanding of .gov and .gov regulation…
I better get moving. I need to turn some inventory back into cash, and use the money for other things…
Like stacking !
nick
It would be bad for sales in Texas, at least for now.
8 Bit Guy used to have a busy booth at the Austin retro game show, but after his brain farts during the February 2021 freeze, he openly whinged about the state government’s failures at the event that year and I noticed that his crowds were smaller afterwards
I didn’t see him this year.
The political situation is changing, however. The 2026 trim notices will be brutal for most.
And I’m up and on my way. Enjoy the day!
n
High school football season has started. Last year Oliver Springs played against South Pittsburg TN at South Pittsburg for the first game of the season. Oliver Springs lost 56-0. The teams played again in the state tournament and lost 31-6. This is the first game of the season and Oliver Springs is again playing South Pittsburg at Oliver Springs. The score was 27-7 in favor of Oliver Springs. What a difference a year makes in high school sports.
Here are some pictures from the game.
https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/SPitt
Enjoy another time sink.
These are the pictures I provide to the local paper for them to select for their sports coverage page.
Was that the result of a coaching change at one of the schools?
What? Texas Children’s?
I’m shocked. Shocked!
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/health/article/texas-ag-investigating-medicaid-fraud-allegations-19588958.php
In theory, their new complex near my house opened for business, but, anytime I drive by, I can almost hear the crickets chirping.
Brittany Mahomes SPIKES Her Haters on the Left Who Melted Down After She Liked a Trump Post
https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2024/08/24/brittany-mahomes-spikes-her-haters-on-the-left-who-melt-down-after-she-liked-a-trump-post-n2400056
Third example of the Chiefs and their fans standing up. Have to think it might be anchored with Andy Reid in the front office. Might have to watch a game this fall.
I don’t know if South Pittsburg had a coaching change. Greenback, one of the rivals of Oliver Springs, had a coaching change. A dominant program is now in ruins. Since Greenback is a county school the players can play anywhere in the county. Many have chosen other schools. Greenback has only 14 players and five are threatening to transfer. It will be the end of the program for several years.
Oliver has had the same coach for, I think, this is his fourth year. I have known him since he was two years old. A good person and a good coach.
“Thora’s Sacrifice (Perry Rhodan #70)” by Kurt Brand
https://www.amazon.com/Thoras-Sacrifice-Perry-Rhodan-70/dp/B000LV97UM?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number seventy of a series of one hundred and thirty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book translated by Wendayne Ackerman and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. And then they transition back to two stories in book #109/110. The Ace publisher dropped out at #118, so Forrest and Wendayne Ackerman published books #119 to #136 in pamphlets before stopping in 1978. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1975 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #106, plus the Atlan books, and some of the Lemuria books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 78 of the German pamphlets written in 1963. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on the Perrypedia German website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Thoras_Opfergang
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in their 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over seventy years since then and the Solar Empire has flourished with tens of millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania. Perry Rhodan has been elected by the people of Earth to be the World Administrator and keep them from being taken over by the robot administrator of Arkon.
Thora the Arkonide, now Thora Rhodan and mother of their child, is dying of old age. Perry was given immortality by the Immortal several decades ago but, the Immortal refused to give Arkonides Khrest and Thora immortality since they were a dying race. Perry Rhodan has General Deringhouse take Thora with him on the Burma, a 100 meter (100 yards) diameter spaceship, to the Arkon star system to negotiate with the Robot Regent of Arkon for more star ships to fight the Druufs with. But the Robot Regent does not want to negotiate.
Two observations:
1. Forrest Ackerman should have put two or three of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars (1 reviews)
Lynn
“NASA decides to keep 2 astronauts in space until February, nixes return on troubled Boeing capsule”
https://apnews.com/article/boeing-spacex-nasa-astronauts-starliner-e4e81e5a6c23dee2f8f72260ddea011c
“CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA decided Saturday it’s too risky to bring two astronauts back to Earth in Boeing’s troubled new capsule, and they’ll have to wait until next year for a ride home with SpaceX. What should have been a weeklong test flight for the pair will now last more than eight months.”
More spacesuits Captain !
“SpaceX Is Sending a Tech Billionaire Into Orbit to Test Starlink, Walk Around”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-is-sending-a-tech-billionaire-into-orbit-to-test-starlink-walk-around
“The five-day mission, dubbed Polaris Dawn, leaves on Tuesday and will venture 870 miles from Earth, farther than anyone has been since the 1972 Apollo moon program.”
Gonna test those new light weight, extra mobile $200,000 space suits.
Just rambling and following links. I found this and I won’t say he’s wrong. https://www.raweggstack.com/p/not-with-a-bang-but-a-simper
February, after Inauguration Day.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson is arguably further along the dementia trail than Corn Pop, and Musk will probably be on the manned Dragon recovery ship in the Gulf off Pensacola when the rescue mission splashes down to personally welcome the astronauts home.
Regardless of who wins the election, I think NASA will have a new Administrator in February.
“‘Mostly unusable’ | Existing gas pipes would need massive retrofit or crippling de-rating to carry hydrogen: study”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/08/24/mostly-unusable-existing-gas-pipes-would-need-massive-retrofit-or-crippling-de-rating-to-carry-hydrogen-study/
“Existing fossil gas infrastructure such as pipelines and appliances are “mostly unusable” with hydrogen, without either major investment, or changes in operation that would significantly reduce the amount of energy delivered to customers, a new peer-reviewed study has revealed.”
“The paper, A review of challenges with using the natural gas system for hydrogen, published yesterday (Monday) in the Energy Science and Engineering journal, examined the risks and potential solutions for the use of hydrogen in existing long-distance and distribution pipelines, storage and end-use appliances — as well as re-iterating the risks of explosions, fires and asphyxiation caused by hydrogen leaking from poorly adapted infrastructure.”
The engineers, myself included, are telling the politicians that their plans to add hydrogen to the natural gas lines in half of the homes across the USA will be a dismal failure and kill people. The politicians are going to ignore us in the name of “Mother Earth”.
I am scared. We engineers will be blamed for the deaths. The politicians have done this before, especially in California.
Home from my thing. Had some good sales today. Nothing super but some stuff did move. I sold more latex gloves than my hobby stuff. . . almost. Did a lot better margin on the hobby stuff though. PPEs are almost always good sellers for me.
n
>>The score was 27-7 in favor of Oliver Springs. What a difference a year makes in high school sports.
As any self-respecting HS coach would know and as such not misrepresent himself as the head coach to puff up his resume… right??
>>PPEs are almost always good sellers for me.
Hmm…heard today that Fauxi is recovering from West Nile virus… just coincidence I guess.
“Just rambling and following links. I found this and I won’t say he’s wrong.”
That’s one way to look at it.
Another way is that the Democrats found an actual Yellow Dog to vote for.
Phew. Fell asleep in the chair.
I’m headed to bed.
n
“The engineers, myself included, are telling the politicians that their plans to add hydrogen to the natural gas lines in half of the homes across the USA will be a dismal failure and kill people. The politicians are going to ignore us in the name of “Mother Earth”.”
see:
Debate: Is A Demonstration Project Really Necessary?
August 17, 2024/ Francis Melton
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-8-17-zvdhrux7385fv8959ljfldowmrxbmn
I have advocated strenuously for demonstration projects. Minimum three-years duration, and preparation should not take more than twelve months.
Build the fence around the project, and no energy is allowed to cross the fence. No fossil fuels, no energy, nothing. Take down the electric lines and pipelines to make sure.
Make the politicians and the greens and the rest, but in particular require the scientists and engineers who advocate and make grandiose claims design the project, sign off on it, and live in it as a contractual obligation. Said contract to include continual presence in the project for the first year, and absences limited to 10% for years.
One is not sufficient. We need three, and the logical candidates are The District of Columbia, Austin, Texas, and San Francisco.
By all means, run hydrogen through existing infrastructure without upgrading or derating, and see what happens.
>>Musk will probably be on the manned Dragon recovery ship in the Gulf off Pensacola when the rescue mission splashes down to personally welcome the astronauts home.
Never miss an opportunity to twist the proverbial knife.