Cool and clear. Really nice Fall weather, although the grass is crunchy from lack of rain. Still, really nice for working outside. And I do have outside work to do…
Yesterday I didn’t do too much of it. I did get to my rent house and solve the plumbing issue. I dropped off one of the 4 things I meant to take to my secondary location, the other three were left sitting in my foyer. Doh. Did one pickup of a rat trap, and then hit Home Depot for insulation and paneling to repair the flood damaged walls in my dock house at the BOL. Also got some spray foam, and a few treated 2x4s for the dock, and the bill was over $500. Yikes.
I spent too much time commenting on other peoples’ blogs too. The perennial “what radios should I get” and “you don’t need a ham license, TEOTWAWKI won’t have no FCC” discussion came up over at Cmdr Zero’s place. He’s also asked for opinions about fuels and power for BOL, so I spent some time on that. It’s not like I don’t have this place that could use some content… or something.
Today I will do my meatspace networking and interacting with actual humans. When that’s done, I’ll change trucks and head to the BOL. Lots to do up there. W has stripped the ‘popcorn’ off the hall bath ceiling, so I’ll get shanghai’d into doing the spray and knockdown texture so she can paint it later. That wasn’t on my list AT ALL. On the plus side, I probably won’t have to cut the grass… it is crunchy according to her. Grass doesn’t grow without water.
There are other projects in the dock house that I can do too, like finishing up the speaker install, and maybe working on the rotted window sill. Or hanging a TV and getting the wii set up there. Or hanging the IR heater strips on the dock so I can be warmer this winter while having my tiny little fire and radio time.
Plus there are “winter is coming” things to do…
At least the rent house plumbing wasn’t a big issue.
Stacking is EASY compared to maintaining multiple properties. So do some! It’s the easy way out…
nick
Yup. The snowline is creeping down the mountains. Last year, we had our first heavy snow in early November. That’s a bit earlier than usual, but numerous people are predicting a hard Winter this year. So it could come at any time.
I really ought to fix the shed door – something has warped, and it doesn’t shut all that securely any more. I need to put up a fence to keep the deer out of the Winter veggies – they ate a lot of our crop last year. One last round of lawn mowing, or maybe two.
Off to an event today, where I am supposed to be “spontaneously” interviewed. I’m not feeling particularly spontaneous, but the interviewer didn’t want to send me any questions ahead of time. Ah, well, usually words come when needed, I’ll just have to trust that happens…
Bits and pieces of the first season of “Picard” are watchable, particularly the trip to the Rikers’ house.
However, Jonathan Frakes grumbled about the strict adherence to the script in that season when I saw him in Dallas earlier this year, while he signed my “First Contact” disc. “Every damn word.”
The best part of S01 was showing how frail Picard becomes in old age. Picard’s later transformation into a synth was weird. Why didn’t he get some hair and youth?
64F and clear today. Headed to the donut store and my meeting. Y’all have fun.
n
Patrick Stewart vanity project.
The appropriate time to do the story of that first season of “Picard” was twenty years ago.
If you don’t believe that, watch the end credit sequence of “Deadpool & Wolverine” again.
That will be a huge DVD/BluRay release.
@Nick
“W has stripped the ‘popcorn’ off the hall bath ceiling, so I’ll get shanghai’d into doing the spray and knockdown texture so she can paint it later.”
Let us know if you have a good result. I have a bedroom project on my list.
Your back is uo to that?
It’s been a decade at least since I dared use a hopper. I suppose you can use a spray can for a small area.
I had to punish another EBay reseller today for fudging the “new” condition on an item.
If you’re going to try it and hope to get it past EBay’s overseas customer service when challenged, at least make sure that the manufacturer’s packing is for the same model.
I’ve noticed that these situations are happening more frequently even though I’ve cut way back on my number of buying transactions as of late.
“What you just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33U8mVwtGYs
You have to wonder how many times this quote has rolled through the secret thoughts of moderators listening to Kamal Harris.
Celing work is hard. I did a knockdown once in my kitchen.
You don’t have to use a hopper, but it’s a lot of overhead work with a knife, and a longer drying time.
Orange peel kinda needs the hopper.
Mysterious Mass Grave of 450 Vampires Found in Poland
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/10/12/mysterious-mass-grave-of-450-vampires-found-in-poland-n3795701
So, when was it that human life was precious?
Here’s What Happened to KU Professor Who Called for Men Not Voting for Harris to Be ‘Lined Up’ and ‘Shot’
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/rebeccadowns/2024/10/12/ku-professor-is-no-longer-teaching-n2646121
His other classes are not listed, but for this particular class there is no need. Here is the grading scale:
A for students who stood up, flipped him the bird, and walked out to file a complaint with the dean.
B for students that walked out and filed to drop the class
C for any student that had this class as a requirement
D for any student who signed up for this class voluntarily
F for any students in the video nodding in the affirmative, with a bonus note in their file.
This kind of shiite doesn’t appear out of the blue. There have been other incidents that have been known to the department and ignored. Find the documentation and enter a reprimand into the record of any teacher or administrator that did not follow university policy if such reached reportable levels of threat.
Peak Woke: Ask An Indigenous Person for Permission Before Snapping/Sharing Northern Lights Pics
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/10/12/peak-woke-ask-an-indigenous-person-for-permission-before-snapping-northern-lights-pics-n3795700
Now feels like a good time to remind those indigenous peoples that their culture did not invent the English language, photography, or the internet.
The last ceiling work I did other than painting was a large basement finishing project more than 40 years ago. Did the ceiling in blue board, applied a mix from the bag texture with a roller, and then gave it a light knockdown with a trowel.
Slot machines.
“Slot machines.”
Aluminum boats and synthetic fishing line.
And if you want to go back a bit, they didn’t make glass beads and stole a bunch of the rug designs.
Now let’s talk about horses…
Home from my meeting. Attendance was low, but included one guy who might not have been there at all if he didn’t go to urgent care for his second day of heartburn… which was a heart attack. Fortunately they got him in the OR in time. 100% blockage.
He said he’d never had heartburn before so he was concerned.
If out of the ordinary health changes occur, get checked out.
————-
It’s been a decade at least since I dared use a hopper. I suppose you can use a spray can for a small area.
– it’s been more than 2 decades since I last used the hopper, until we bought this house. We’ve scraped and re-textured all the bedrooms, the master bath, and the hall. We’re waiting on the livingroom/kitchen as it will need ceiling repair when I take out the fireplace. If you get the texture wet, it comes off very easily. If you are fighting it, it’s not wet. You might have to score the paint, and scrape off the painted over points to let the water in, but once you do, it will come down in sheets with a light scrape.
The hopper gun is heavy, but the rooms are small.
————–
Truck is loaded, so I’m on my way.
n
The EV as online game: If the server goes down, you can’t get the car fixed, because the vehicle can’t be ported to a different server.
Pictures Friday night from a big game that will set the placement and tone for the state playoffs. A 2.5-hour bus ride each way. I got home at 1:30 AM.
https://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Whitwell
We score first 7-0
They score 7-7
We score 14-7
They score 14-14
They score 14-21
We score 21-21
They score 21-28
1:30 left, we score 27-28
We go for two and make it 29-28
1:30 left, they have the ball, runs are short.
40 seconds left they try for a long pass, overthrown
30 seconds left, 4th and 7, we sack their quarterback
We take a knee, 25 seconds on the clock
Clock expires final 29-28
Probably one of the best games I have seen played this year. Very few penalties. A couple of holding calls, two pass interference, two face masks, a couple of false starts and intrusion. No personal fouls, block in the back (although I saw two such infractions), no illegal blocks, etc. For a game with as much significance for the playoffs, the game was well played by both teams.
The old range hood is now sitting on the porch. The wires are capped.
While I had the power off, I disconnected the power to the disposal and capped the wires. The wall switch for the disposal is not going to waste. There will be an outlet in the under sink cupboard. I have some GE under cabinet lights. I’m going to mount one under the sink and one in the cupboard to the left. To the vertical board between the doors. I’ll be able to turn on lights and see what I’m doing while changing the r/o filters and I’ll be able to find the pot I want.
Eventually I’ll get a plumber to remove the disposal and fix the “engineered” plumbing under the sink. I can figure it out, the parts do not cost much. But let a guy that does it for a living do it and he’ll do in an hour what would take me all afternoon.
I’m waiting for Big River to deliver the duct and vent hood. I’m ready for tomorrow.
Out of curiosity I tried the Alien: Covenant on my PC. VLC plays it. Started right up in English. No fussing about “Color format unsupported” or regions.
Perhaps I can copy the disc to a USB stick and play that on the Blu-ray player. Or use the USB port on the side of the TV. It’s something to try.
>> Off to an event today, where I am supposed to be “spontaneously” interviewed. I’m not feeling particularly spontaneous, but the interviewer didn’t want to send me any questions ahead of time. Ah, well, usually words come when needed, I’ll just have to trust that happens…
“…usually words come when needed.” The difference is that for you, they come in some logical sequence, for The Kamel, not so much…
Oh, yeah. VLC doesn’t care.
Download MakeMKV from the author’s website and see if that will rip the movie to an MKV file.
You’ll need the registration code for the “beta”, available in the MakeMKV forums.
I use quotes because MakeMKV has been in “beta” for as long as I’ve been using the program.
You can also set up Handbrake to rip DVDs, but that will require installing the libdvdcss DLL which gets a bit messy.
Try MKV first. You can always use Handbrake on the MKV file.
You make luck out and find that the BluRay player will play the MKV file from a thumb drive. Mine does.
>> Y’all talking about movies makes me realize that I haven’t watched a movie for months. We regularly watch factual programs (usually BBC) and news programs (usually Swiss). But TV series or movies? It’s been a long time. I think the last series I managed to watch all the way through was the first season of Picard.
We watch mainly series, BBC, Auzzies, made for streaming, etc.
Currently watching Slow Horses, a British spy thriller television series based on the Slough House series of novels by Mick Herron. Gary Oldman stars. Very well done. On Apple TV.
Multitasking this afternoon.
Really, DM:
Donald Trump makes horrific remark about Kamala Harris during wild rant at billionaires’ fundraiser
The horrific word is: retarded. I guess that word will now be referred to as the “R” word. Geez.
I just finished S03. Fantastic show. Renewed.
Stacking is EASY compared to maintaining multiple properties. So do some! It’s the easy way out…
No joke. We are down to three properties at the moment. It is a lot of work for this lazy man on top of my day job.
I am casually looking for another property in central Texas at the moment. Maybe when the property prices crash as they were suppose to six months ago.
“Dewalt DCCS620BDCB240C-BNDL 20V MAX XR Brushless Lithium-Ion 12 in. Compact Chainsaw and 20V MAX 4 Ah Lithium-Ion Battery and Charger Starter Kit Bundle”
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CNR5QGLP?tag=ttgnet-20/
$338 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !! !
Pricey ! And I need two since one is none. Plus six spare chains at $22 each.
I have not started my gasoline chainsaw in 15 years. No maintenance at all since then. Just a big piece of rust.
“Company Behind Major Social Security Number Leak Files for Bankruptcy”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/company-behind-major-social-security-number-leak-files-for-bankruptcy
“In court documents, National Public Data concedes the breach may impact ‘hundreds of millions’ of people and that state prosecutors across the US are demanding civil penalties.”
So not good, both the leak and failure. I have a bad feeling that this is where the targeted spam with people’s email and home addresses is coming from.
Plastic Bottle Recycling in the U.S. Is Abysmal. A Simple Plan Could Fix It
https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2024/10/12/plastic_bottle_recycling_in_the_us_is_abysmal_a_simple_plan_could_fix_it_1064379.html
The “simple plan” is a mandated federal deposit of $0.10 per PET container.
PLUS a federal law requiring manufacturers to use recycled PET, a hidden tax.
PLUS another $0.01 per container equivalent in subsidies to mixed-stream recycling centers to make up for the alleged decrease in revenue from fewer PET containers. Another hidden tax.
What they do not discuss is the hidden “handling fee” in the form of subsidies to the single-material recycling centers, be it retailers who are forced to use space and staff to redeem deposits, or a separate system created out of whole cloth and requiring either frequent stops by consumers to recycle small numbers of containers or dedicate space in their homes to accumulate containers for less frequent redemption.
Likewise no discussion of the increase in federal bureaucracy required to oversee this scheme.
And likewise no discussion of the rational consumer effect, where a jump in the cost of PET containers will cause the consumer to 1) opt for soda in cans and 2) opt for a refillable water bottle.
Note that this plan for PET is much more complicated that recycling aluminum cans, which is a slam dunk in many ways that PET ain’t.
If you read the article you should carefully note:
First, note the inconsistency: States with existing DRS supposedly recycle 100-34, or 66 percent of PET waste, but implementing a federal plan would magically get 82 percent recycled within ten years.
Second, notice the conflation of recycling with redemption–they would have you believe that PET waste is either landfilled/incinerated or recycled. But we know from experience that this is not the case, as “recycled” glass is largely a commodity without a market, and there are literally mountains of it piled in a classification limbo until it gets re-classified as waste and exits the recycling stream in some sleight-of-hand that no one wants to talk about.
If there was a convincing story to be told by the examples of the ten states already recycling PET, we would hear it, but the absence speaks volumes.
I’d like to think that this latest debacle will result in strict new laws preventing private information from being held by companies that do not do business with the people in their files.
Fat chance.
Note that a fine of $10 per stolen record (payable directly to the individual record holder) would bankrupt most of these clowns. to say nothing of credit monitoring.
How about a requirement that companies holding records of people they do not do business with notify those individuals directly every year and describe those records. “Directly” meaning they cannot fam the task out, it has to be performed in-house.
How about we require imprisonment of executives and major shareholders for any breach over 1 million records, and an actual execution for each multiple of 100 million records?
And the miscreants that steal them or traffic in them? Sit them on a 100-lb anvil and pound their stones through a 1/2″ stake hole.
I am in central Germany at the moment. The southward migration of cranes has just begun to reach us here. They were flying overhead this evening. The cranes are my favorite indicator of when winter is coming – and it is!
re: “Company Behind Major Social Security Number Leak Files for Bankruptcy”
Upon further consideration I think that in this case there is a strong argument to be made for egregious financial misconduct on the part of the companies that entrusted sensitive personal data with a small company that does not have the ability (ipso facto) to keep it secure nor the financial means to be held accountable if they fail.
And that should be the basis for consumer protection: The company that takes the information is ultimately responsible for protecting it.
Saturday night college football on NBC.
Ohio State (5-0) vs Oregon (5-0).
Ohio State leading 14-12.
https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/college/football/2024/10/12/ohio-state-oregon-game-score-live-updates-highlights-college-football/75607247007/
Oregon’s best receiver just got ejected from the game for spitting in another player’s face.
“I am in central Germany at the moment. The southward migration of cranes has just begun to reach us here. They were flying overhead this evening. The cranes are my favorite indicator of when winter is coming – and it is!”
When cranes fly the earthmovers aren’t far behind.
The Univision Town Hall Imploding: They Flew in Audience Members
https://hotair.com/headlines/2024/10/12/the-univison-town-hall-imploding-they-flew-in-audience-members-n3795711
Foreign network’s townhall “audience” is 100% Astroturf.
That’s foreign election interference.
No Rose Garden press conference seats for Univision.
“The Split (Kelly Turnbull/Peoples Republic)” by Kurt Schlichter
https://www.amazon.com/Split-Kurt-Schlichter/dp/1734199334?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number six of an eight book alternate history series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by Kurt Schlichter in 2021 that I just bought new on Amazon. I am now reading book number seven in the series as I have purchased all of the books now.
In an alternate universe, the USA split into two countries in 2022: the People’s Republic (the blue, the west coast and the northeast) and the United States (the red, flyover country). Initially people can cross the lines easily but that gets more difficult as the years go on.
This book is the second prequel to the series, it is about the former USA just after the split into the red and the blue. It starts just after the Treaty Of St. Louis where the two new countries were formed from the old United States. The treachery, the anarchists, the outright stealing of the former USA is expounded upon in great detail. 27 states went with the red, 23 states went with the blue.
My favorite caliber is .44 Magnum.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,472 reviews)
Lynn
I was watching Adam Savage on YouTube, segued into woodworking videos and got to this one:
This is what a $22,000 built-in looks like. (Aug 22, 2024)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBuMXHcbtBg
which is a custom office build for an audio engineer with lots of equipment. lots of explanation about the costs, which I usually find interesting.
And this opportunity:
which is still active.
So I signed up, and took the follow-up offer to upgrade to Gold membership for an additional $9 and change. Allegedly a $370 value*. We’ll see, but since I have let most of my woodworking subs lapse due to tiresome repetition, spending a bit more than $11, which is a fraction of a magazine subscription, is not a very big risk.
and while I’m on the subject:
I watched a project video the other night, and one tool was a shiny red bandsaw jig that makes it easy to template cut and leave a small bit that can be trimmed with a router. $275 seemed a bit pricey, and it looked familiar, so a it of searching found that ShopNotes had plans. Okay, make a note.
The same day I had a Fine Woodworking (one of the lapsed subs) email offer:
“Building the ShopNotes CNC Machine”
https://woodsmith.mykajabi.com/building-shopnotes-cnc-machine?utm_source=Marketing&utm_content=FW+Promotional+Offers&utm_medium=Marketing
$79 is a $30 premium over the plans to get videos and course materials. Since I have two very specific, saleable projects that would be perfect for a CNC, I’m probably going to pop for this one, too.
*Yup, automatic renewal. It’s in the comeout file.
Cheap property in Central Texas is unobtainium right now.
We went down to Driftwood tonight for our anniversary dinner, and we saw lots of new development which wasn’t there even six months ago when we were down there for Mothers Day.
Recycled PET carpet totally blows. We put that in our house because it was all we could afford at the time, and I regret that decision. The carpet looked bad almost from day one.
Made it to the BOL. Started work on some small projects. Got caught up with my buddy.
Broke out the new telescope mount and found it included the scope too, a 4″ (might be 6″) dob. Gskyer, and cheaply made with some shipping damage, but seems complete, and we looked at the moon with it. Optics are surprisingly good. No chromatic aberration noticeable, consistent focus across the FOV. The adjustments are a bit loose and sloppy, and very cheap feeling, but seem to work. For what I paid, thinking I was just getting the mount and tripod, I’m happy.
Going to bed early. Burn ban in effect, so only the tiny little fire tomorrow.
n
I did watch the first two Deadpools, so I’ll definitely watch the third one at some point. Has to be when the wife is away – not something for her, and I definitely want the big screen and sound system.
If past experience is any guide: I will try to buy the movie legitimately. I will fail, because it won’t be for sale here, and sellers elsewhere won’t sell to customers out of their region. Then I will sail the high seas.
If the surface is smooth, just use a rough roller and let the paint provide a little texture?
You have got to be kidding…