Sat. Aug. 5, 2023 – all work and no play makes nick a dull boy. With dull posts.

By on August 5th, 2023 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Hot and the other ‘h’ word. In spades, with cherries on top. Yeah, it was yesterday and will be again today. As I was at the rent house, I couldn’t get an actual temp reading, but the A/C unit couldn’t keep up. It started falling behind around 2pm.

I got a bunch of tasks done at the rental. Started the biggest two, repairing the ceiling, and replacing rotten porch floor boards. I had just enough left over from last time to do almost all of what needed it the most. If I had another couple feet of board, I’d do more. It’s all cut, but I didn’t have glue so I left that for today. The ceiling crack needed to dry, so I’ll add another coat today. The big outdoor job that isn’t the fence is to replace rotten siding boards, and then fix the gutter situation that caused them to be wet and rot in the first place.

Wife and kids will be there cleaning and painting today too. I may have to work outside on the fence… just to get away. Maybe I’ll bring the pressure washer and see how much that improves things. It’s probably time to paint the whole house too, but I’m hoping to put that off another year. Houses need constant attention. If they don’t get it, you end up doing the work in bursts, and they take longer and cost more. There are a lot of things like that in life. Unfortunately, I only have the attention to spare at fairly long intervals, which means things like rotten siding can get out of hand.

Oh well, it is what it is. At least I can do the work.

Always be…. or stack. Or both. But do something.

nick

54 Comments and discussion on "Sat. Aug. 5, 2023 – all work and no play makes nick a dull boy. With dull posts."

  1. Greg Norton says:

    >> “Prediction: Jack Smith Will Get a DC Jury to Convict Trump and SCOTUS Will Vacate It. In Fact, Smith’s Counting on It”

    Hmm, only takes one juror to be “convinced” otherwise,

    Maybe in Martin County, Florida where the docs case will be tried.

    In the DC jury pool? Fuggedaboudit.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Hot and the other ‘h’ word. In spades, with cherries on top. Yeah, it was yesterday and will be again today. As I was at the rent house, I couldn’t get an actual temp reading, but the A/C unit couldn’t keep up. It started falling behind around 2pm.

    The Trane which I had installed this spring is the XR14 without the heat pump. Two tons.

    The knock against the unit from the AC contractor trying to talk me into a better system was the noise level, but I sit right under the blower in my home office and don’t notice it.

    Even though the power bill is more expensive, actual energy usage is down by about 10% on average this Summer. I do have the upstairs AC on a schedule which drifts up to 77 during daytime, when no one is upstairs, however.

    If you want the gas furnace, get the replacement now. Once Corn Pop declares a “climate emergency”, you won’t be able to get anything but electric, which is easier to control without rolling a truck.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    Wait? Wasn’t the promise $40,000 to start?

    Wait until Tony disappoints with his street price on the Jesus Truck in a few weeks. GM is lucky in that they can’t give away IC Blazers and no one will notice this bait-and-switch.

    https://news.yahoo.com/2024-chevy-blazer-ev-model-162100347.html

  4. Greg Norton says:

    I had a brief “Yikes” moment in Georgetown yesterday when I noticed that the big HEB on the corner of the Interstate and the main road to downtown, one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the county, was completely shuttered and the signs taken down.

    Once I got home, hitting the Duck, I saw that a new HEB was built recently just across the freeway, partially hidden by trees for now, but the empty building was still a bit disturbing considering the location and visibility.

  5. MrAtoz says:

    Elon Musk mentioned “removepaywall.com” on X (lol) in response to a NYT article to get around paywalls by finding archived versions of a URL. It worked when I tried it on a couple of pw’d NYTs articles.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    Tucker Carlson did NOT take the vax.

    Ice Cube: “Did you take it ?”

    Tucker: “Of course not !”.

    So, where were Tucker and Ice Cube two years ago? Back when Corn Pop was going to force it on everyone? Remember?

    Cowards.

    I never watched Tucker on Fox, but I imagine he was catering to the audience, most of whom believed that if they just gave in on this one, just this one, life would return to “normal”.

    You’ll takes yer medicine and likes it Skippy. I wanna see my grandchildren.

    Poltroonery at its finest.

  7. drwilliams says:

    The idea that the celebrated journalists who wrote popular biographies of Obama and became enthusiastic members of his personal claque couldn’t locate Jager—or never knew who she was—defies belief. It seems more likely that the character Obama fashioned in Dreams had been defined—by Obama—as being beyond the reach of normal reportorial scrutiny. Indeed, Garrow’s biography of Obama’s early years is filled with such corrections of a historical record that Obama more or less invented himself. Based on years of careful record-searching and patient interviewing, Rising Star highlights a remarkable lack of curiosity on the part of mainstream reporters and institutions about a man who almost instantaneously was treated less like a politician and more like the idol of an inter-elite cult.

    https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/david-garrow-interview-obama

  8. drwilliams says:

    I came across a fascinating bit of technological history the other day.

    As the U.S.A. was gearing up for war, many thousands of crystals were ordered by the Army Signal Corps from numerous companies, but Bliley crystals proved to be the most reliable after many months of dead storage. Many competitive units showed signs of premature aging, a lack of activity, or erratic frequency shifts. As a result of Bliley’s superior performance, the Signal Corps asked Bliley’s for some explanation regarding Bliley’s performance. Not eager to give up its trade secret, Bliley’s initially refused to divulge the details, but did agree to conduct tours of the plant for top military brass only after they signed an oath of secrecy regarding what they would learn of the “X-LAP” process. The officers were delighted with the simplicity of the procedure, and demanded Bliley’s offer the “formula” to the other crystal manufacturers having government contracts. (By the war’s end there were over two hundred manufacturers of crystals in the U.S.A.) Giving in to political and patriotic pressures, Bliley’s divulged the process to anyone who was interested, giving tours of the plant to many of their competitors.

    http://www.bliley.net/XTAL/Story.html#Chapter%2011

    In other words: “Nice plant you have here. Too bad if we had to nationalize it.”

    The history of the first fifty years of practical radio, dating from Marconi’s breakthrough in 1895, there are more self-trained geniuses per capita than any other technology. 

  9. ayjblog says:

    @drwilliams

    my radiotron copy synthesizes such era, you, at some point, could do everything at home

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hot and sunny.   Wife has pried D1 out of her nest  and is working on D2.  Woman has balls, I’ll give her that…

    Temp is 88F up from 86F when I got up.

    I’ve had my coffee and pig and chicken, so I guess I better  get moving.

    n

  11. SteveF says:

    Power washers with the wide nozzle are safe to use on children. And if you flip the switch for the soap dispenser, you can wash them at the same time that you get them out of bed. #FollowMeForMoreParentingTips

    re Obama and Jager, the facts presented lead one to suspect that his relationship with an ardent feminist is what led him into the arms of Big Mike. -shrug- I’ve heard less plausible theories.

    “Nice plant you have here. Too bad if we had to nationalize it.”

    I think that I read this somewhere but it might have been my own theory and light research (forgettery is not so much from brain rot as that this was decades ago, plus I just came in from a couple hours’ work outside in the sun): If you look at the compensation for demands share trade secrets in the national interest, you’ll see that most compensation was cents on the dollar for what the business could reasonably have expected to make if they’d kept it in-house. A few were dollars on the cent. Some of the latter could be clearly attributed to crony capitalism. The others might have been cronyism but might have been simple incompetence.

  12. Ray Thompson says:

    Woman has balls, I’ll give her that…

    So much opportunity for jokes, I, I, I, I, think I will let it go.

  13. drwilliams says:

    Did Opera just update and add more features?

    Suddenly this pos is hiding tabs and controls at the top of the page, and magically reappearing them when you move the cursor up.

    I’d like to put the whole development team in front of a strobe light with their eyelids superglued open and their heads immobilized in the vertical position (not where they usually keep them). Maybe play a selection of tv commercials–the ones that really, really, don’t have the volume turned up–just to keep them entertained on their descent into epilepsy.

    ADDED: Not update. F11 toggle.

  14. lynn says:

    >> “Prediction: Jack Smith Will Get a DC Jury to Convict Trump and SCOTUS Will Vacate It. In Fact, Smith’s Counting on It”

    Hmm, only takes one juror to be “convinced” otherwise,

    The dumbrocrats were playing that game here in Texas.  They were trying all elected state officials in Austin.  They tried my congressman, Tom Delay, on money laundering and convicted him.  We lost a great congressman. 

    The state appeals court overturned it after several years.  Now the state legislature has ruled that you have to try people in their own county.

  15. lynn says:

    My church practices open communion.  No secret handshakes or tokens to participate.  No confession required in a closed box with a weird dude in a robe, etc. 

    Anyway, we used to pass trays of crackers and cups of juice.  We have been using disposable single use containers since the emergency started.  We are going back to to the passing of trays after Labor Day.  I dont know if I am ready yet.  My wife says that I can continue to bring my disposable cup.

  16. drwilliams says:

    Flask ok?

    4
    1
  17. Lynn says:

    Pearls Before Swine: The No-Fly List

       https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/08/05

    Oh no !

  18. drwilliams says:

    …So those are big numbers, but to get your head around the thing, look at the interest expanse on that debt as a percent on the budget. Right now it’s 103% and going up … and in 30 years if things keep going the way they are going, interest expenditures will be 23% of the total budget. Now that’s expenditures for nothing. They’re just interest charges. So this irresponsible government spending has created these deficits and the deficits of course pile up, more and more debt, more and more debt, and that has to be financed with more and more interest charges being made against the taxpayers.

    So this idea that you don’t ever really have to pay your debt is ridiculous. You have to pay interest on the debt. Even if you don’t advertise the debt, and don’t pay it down, you have to pay interest on it. And as interest rates are going up, that and the absolute size of the debt means that the intersst charges are going to be higher and higher. In 30 years, what if 25% of the total budget is taken up by interest? Getting nothing. So that’s why the Fitch thing, and thinking about it — it’s not surprising. It’s not a fatal knockout blow, it’s like a black eye, it doesn’t knock you out or knock you to the ground, but it’s kind of embarrassing.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/08/actually_that_fitch_downgrade_is_a_big_deal_hanke.html

    I’ve been saying these two things for years:

    First, the Fed keeping interest rates for deposits at effectively zero percent screws people with cash positions–primarily people who are risk averse because they are near retirement–and acts as a de facto tax and inter-generational transfer of wealth.

    Second, when the time comes that they “lose the handle” and interest rates go up, it gets ugly real fast. Example: 3.33% interest on the $30 trillion debt adds $1 trillion each year. 

    The federal government has no business collecting taxes that go to Washington, get skimmed to run a national government full of Peter Principled non-achievers, and then get passed out like party favors by an idiot congress. 

  19. drwilliams says:

    She Only Said, “The Night Is Dreary, ONT Cometh Not”

    —WeirdDave

    Ladies and gentlemen, hobos and tramps. Cross-eyed mosquitoes and bow-legged ants. I come before you to stand behind you to tell you something I know nothing about. Admission is free, so pay at the door, pull up a chair and sit on the floor.

    One bright day in the middle of the night, two dead boys arose to fight. Back to back they faced each other, drew swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise, and ran to kill those two dead boys. If you do not believe this lie is true, ask the blind man. He saw it too.

    Who’s Your Hero?

    Bubby Wade: My Mamaw. She run off a porch thief with nothing but a Roman candle and a cigrit.

    https://ace.mu.nu/

    (yeah, I know. Golden’s, eh?)

  20. Lynn says:

    Flask ok?

    We only use Welches grape juice here in the USA.  I have been to a Church of Christ in Italy that did use wine in their communion cups.

    Communion is a celebration of the Last Supper by the Christ and his friends.  They ate a full meal and drank a watered down wine.  We celebrate the Last Supper once a week in honor of him.  We could do it every day if we wanted to.

  21. Ray Thompson says:

    I did that Karate Kid thing on the truck. Wash, then wax on, wax off. Meguiar’s ceramic synthetic polymer stuff. Goes on easy and comes off easy. A F-150 is bigger than you think when waxing. My paint is in really good shape so that helps. I wash about once a month, wax twice a year. About 88 degrees in the garage. I used a couple of fans to help. It was still hot. Yeh, I know Nick, nothing like Texas.

  22. Lynn says:

    “U.S. manufacturing slowdown fails to rebuild diesel stocks”

        https://hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2023/08/us-manufacturing-slowdown-fails-to-rebuild-diesel-stocks/

    “(Reuters) – U.S. manufacturers reported another decline in activity in July 2023, but industrial electricity and especially diesel consumption have declined less than expected in recent months, explaining why prices remain relatively firm.”

    The world is using fossil fuels at the maximum rate now.  Any disruption at all is going to cause the world prices to zoom out of sight.  Or, any release of new sources will cause the prices to drop.  I would not be surprised for things to change soon as certain people (cough Saudi Arabia cough) are looking to maximize their opportunities and revenue.

  23. Lynn says:

    The Trane which I had installed this spring is the XR14 without the heat pump. Two tons.

    Wow, you got a good deal.  You won’t get a good deal now. The install head guy told me that they have a month long backlog working seven days a week. And next week is going to be 104 F most of the week, killing a lot of marginal a/c units.

    I paid extra to upgrade from 14 SEER to 16 SEER and to get the heat pump since I do not have natural gas back at the office building.  I have looked into getting natural gas but I am a quarter mile away from the pipeline so I would need an $8,000 pipe installed to a $400 meter.  Then I would need to pay a plumber $2,000 or $4,000 to run a pipe into the office building attic.  But if I ever get a whole office generator (48 kw) then I will get the natural gas line and meter installed.

  24. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    We only use Welches grape juice here in the USA.  I have been to a Church of Christ in Italy that did use wine in their communion cups.

    Communion is a celebration of the Last Supper by the Christ and his friends.  They ate a full meal and drank a watered down wine.  We celebrate the Last Supper once a week in honor of him.  We could do it every day if we wanted to.

    I’m familiar with the service, and the use of Welch’s. Terrible stuff.

    I was in Barcelona a long time ago, about to hop on a train, and filled a wineskin from a public fountain. A very old gentleman admonished me that I should only put wine in the wineskin. My Spanish was marginal and I wanted to assure him that I was covered, but I wasn’t going to pull the bottle of pisco out of my pack for all to see. The wineskin is long gone but the pisco bottle is still decorating a shelf.

    ADDED: heh. Who knew?
    https://www.etsy.com/listing/712676694/nogueras-comas-pisco-peruvian-brandy

  25. Lynn says:

    So, where were Tucker and Ice Cube two years ago? Back when Corn Pop was going to force it on everyone? Remember?

    “Ice Cube Confirms He Lost $9 Million Film Job After Refusing to Get COVID Shot: ‘F— Ya’ll For Trying to Make Me Get It’”

        https://variety.com/2022/film/news/ice-cube-confirms-lost-film-refusing-covid-vaccine-shot-1235439945/

  26. Alan says:

    >> Houses need constant attention. If they don’t get it, you end up doing the work in bursts, and they take longer and cost more. There are a lot of things like that in life.

    Quoted for truth. 

    Should have paid more attention to maintenance of the ‘ole bones when that was a lot easier. 

    Pace yourselves in this heat. Prioritize indoor tasks if you can. Come December it’s ‘just put on another sweatshirt and mutter about August.’ 

  27. drwilliams says:

    Cyberattack Slams Hospitals, Ambulances, and Health Care Facilities in Several States

    “These are threat-to-life crimes, which risk not only the safety of the patients within the hospital, but also risk the safety of the entire community that depends on the availability of that emergency department to be there,” Riggi said.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/08/cyberattack-slams-hospitals-ambulances-and-health-care-facilities-in-several-states/

    Ransomware attack. Perps in the U.S. should be subject to the death penalty.

    Attacks from outside the U.S should have country of origin determined by NSA. Health care facilities can then make claims directly from any foreign aid voted from taxpayer funds, to include punitive damages that rise with the total amount of claims. If all foreign aid funds are claimed as damages, we can get creative. 

  28. paul says:
    Cyberattack Slams Hospitals

    Yeah…. maybe don’t connect tour LAN to the Internet w/o a good firewall.  And whoever clicked the e-mail link to infect the system should be fired.  Perhaps after having the hand they use to control a mouse “transgendered”. 

    Why would you have other than plain text e-mail anyway?  Strip the HTML at the mail server.

  29. Lynn says:

    The federal government has no business collecting taxes that go to Washington, get skimmed to run a national government full of Peter Principled non-achievers, and then get passed out like party favors by an idiot congress. 

    How do you stop it ?

  30. paul says:

    It’s a pretty day outside.  Just a couple of small wispy cotton ball clouds.  A tiny bit of breeze.  The sky is BLUE. 

    Going outside for chores is, well, Big Red is cooking.  It feels like when I went to Hawaii and up on the big mountain on Maui where the observatories are.  Haleakala.  I had a pretty solid tan and April at 10,000 feet you can feel the UVs. 

    Not a fan of it being 109f.  Nor are the cats.  

  31. paul says:
    How do you stop it ?

    That’s a very good question.  Voting doesn’t work.  So, maybe onward to the next box? 

    6
    1
  32. Greg Norton says:

    So, where were Tucker and Ice Cube two years ago? Back when Corn Pop was going to force it on everyone? Remember?

    “Ice Cube Confirms He Lost $9 Million Film Job After Refusing to Get COVID Shot: ‘F— Ya’ll For Trying to Make Me Get It’”

    November 2022 was easy. I’m talking this time two years ago, when there was open talk about herding the unvaccinated into camps or, at a minimum, slapping a modern Star of David on anyone who refused a jab via a high tech “vaccine passport” installed on everyone’s phone by Apple and Google.

  33. Greg Norton says:

    Yeah…. maybe don’t connect tour LAN to the Internet w/o a good firewall.  And whoever clicked the e-mail link to infect the system should be fired.  Perhaps after having the hand they use to control a mouse “transgendered”. 

    Why would you have other than plain text e-mail anyway?  Strip the HTML at the mail server.

    My guess is that someone who isn’t supposed to “work” from home installed TeamViewer and totally blew the hospital’s security policy.

    TeamViewer or RDP over the open Internet, but the latter requires admin rights. Plus, I’ve long suspected that TeamViewer has some kind of hole in their protection scheme which hackers are exploiting.

  34. Greg Norton says:

    NounEdit

    poltroonery (countable and uncountable, plural poltrooneries)

    1. Cowardice; lack of spirit; pusillanimity. quotations ▼

    I knew the term from Looney Toons.

  35. drwilliams says:

    “Maroon” is still my fave for a word.

    “I keep all my feathers numbers for just such an occasion” is tops for phrase.

  36. paul says:

    “TeamViewer or RDP” use what ports?  Block the ports at the ISP and again at the firewall. 

    My local LAN rule is “don’t click on that shirt(-r) and if you do click that stuff and it infects MY computer across the LAN fully expect to have your machine wiped to metal.

    Oh, sorry about your loss of whatever you have saved. 

  37. paul says:
    “Ice Cube Confirms He Lost $9 Million Film Job After Refusing to Get COVID Shot: 

    Nine million dollar job and he’s too cheap and too stupid to pass the nurse a grand in cash to squirt that shot of stuff into the trash can? 

    What a maroon.

    Seems to be some Stupid happening.

  38. SteveF says:

    How do you stop it ?

    1. Get 10kg of plutonium
    2. TODO
    3. TODO
    4. Success!
  39. Ray Thompson says:

    TeamViewer has some kind of hole in their protection scheme which hackers are exploiting

    Every piece of software that connects to the net probably has some sort of attack vector.

    When I was at my last job, I took great pains to lock down the server and the applications. A firewall with only three open ports and those ports were specifically directed to the proper server. Email went through three virus checks, firewall, server and desktop. The default setting on all email clients was text only. Attachments were warehoused until the virus scan on the server OKed the files.

    The web applications were locked down by stripping all known HTML tags and beyond that basically the less than and greater than symbols were stripped from all input. The application storage was SQL server and all input to the SQL database was done with passed SQL variables. All input was data and could not affect the SQL statements (SQL Injection).

    The in-house applications were restricted to a port that was blocked on the firewall so no one outside the organization could get to the applications. That port was checked on every page request in the applications. Additionally, every page that came in was front ended with code that verified the IP address and allowed the known non-routable IP addresses from the internal systems to enter. A laptop brought and connected was not known and could not access anything.

    Since our network to the outside world was shared with the university, the start of school saw a significant number of attempts to enter the system. Whether intentional or from infected systems used by the students I don’t know. I do know that in the last few years I worked on the campus, UT required that all computers that connect to the UT network install some software that was supposed to check the computers for nefarious software. The quantity of attacks subsided some, but not all the way.

    The WiFi password was so complicated that it was impossible to remember. Twenty-eight random characters with letters, numbers, and a few special characters.

    We did not provide APIs to the outside world for anything. That is where a lot of attack vectors arrive. Some software that is supposed to expose data using third-party applications. The application does not get patched, is improperly configured or is installed by clueless IT staff. Or all three.

  40. Greg Norton says:

    “TeamViewer or RDP” use what ports?  Block the ports at the ISP and again at the firewall. 

    RDP uses specific ports on TCP and UDP so most Intrusion Detection Systems know when the protocol is being used. Network admins can watch for it and shut down unauthorized addresses.

    TeamViewer is harder because it sends the connection over SSL and looks like web traffic from both ends, client and server, connecting to a central point owned by the company. 

    The horse left the barn on web surfing at work 20 years ago. The only way to restrict TeamViewer in practical terms is to keep the software from being installed and auditing PCs regularly.

  41. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    “How do you stop it ?”

    Make a start:

    Balanced budget amendment that requires a supermajority to run a deficit (and only in the event of a declared war or national emergency), limits the use of federal taxes to raise money to a percentage of the GDP, and forbids transfer payments to states for purposes not truly federal.

    Single-subject amendment, defined.

    Require elected officials to liquidate and place all investments in a blind trust. 

    Prohibit omnibus spending bills.

    Enforce the origination clause for all revenue, including fines, court settlements, etc. The government levies a fine or gets money from any source and the funds go to congress for disbursement.

    Pass a federal law that makes it a federal crime subject to prison time, fines, and loss of pension  for a federal official to lie to the public. Standing to bring charges to reside with elected representatives petitioned by their constituents, with false or bad-faith charges resulting in removal of congressional immunity.

    Prohibit the expansion of gun-carrying federal officials as the end-run around posse comitatus that it is.

    Do away with presidential orders that do not pertain to the functioning of the federal government, but are de facto usurpation of the prerogative of congress to make laws.

    Impeach the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court the next time they find a shadow, a penumbra, or anything else that’s not in the constitution.

    Then start downsizing:

    Get rid of most of the three-letter agencies and restrain the power of those remaining. Reversing Chevron will be a start,

    Get rid of half the cabinet positions.

    Require salaries for elected and temporary appointed positions to be means-tested.

    Run every cafeteria in the federal government like the school lunch program, but provide refrigerator space for anyone that wants to brown bag it.

  42. drwilliams says:

    @paul

    “Ice Cube Confirms He Lost $9 Million Film Job After Refusing to Get COVID Shot: 

    Nine million dollar job and he’s too cheap and too stupid to pass the nurse a grand in cash to squirt that shot of stuff into the trash can? 

    What a maroon.

    Seems to be some Stupid happening.

    Nurse has a paper trail. A little pressure and the nurse gives him up and leaves him facing federal charges for the false vax card.

    Better to find someone with a reasonable resemblance to take the shot.

  43. Greg Norton says:

    Nurse has a paper trail. A little pressure and the nurse gives him up and leaves him facing federal charges for the false vax card.

    At this time two years ago, the sports press got cranked up on Antonio Brown and other NFL players over faked vaccine cards because someone blabbed. It all seems kinda asinine in retrospect, but everyone wanted to believe that was the path back to normal.

  44. drwilliams says:

    “everyone wanted to believe that was the path back to normal”

    A few did.

    The rest knew that was the path to hell, with many of them believing that they would be reigning over the earthbound part of it.

  45. lpdbw says:

    Apparently, Pfizer employees received a “special” batch of vaccine.

    Speculation is they got saline, since the company knew it was at best dangerous and possibly (intentionally?) deadly.

    Just to remind everybody, people lost their lives, their careers, or their health because people lied and said “safe and effective” and “Social distance” and “wear cloth masks” and “two weeks to flatten the curve” and “vaccinate so you won’t spread Covid”.  Vaccines were mandated; skeptics were punished and ridicuuled.

    All of which were lies.  And if you told the truth, a coalition of government and commercial media and social media would ban, delete, shadowban, and censor you.

    These same people wanted forced vaccination, vaccine passports, and incarcerating the un-vaxxed.

    In a way, I wish they had tried the forced vaccination.  A bunch of them would be dead now, from lead poisoning.

    7
    1
  46. Bob Sprowl says:

    “How do you stop it ?”

    ADD:

    No pensions beyond Social security.

    No government employee unions.

    10
  47. drwilliams says:

    I wasted a few minutes earlier today trying to figure out how to appeal a strike on my Amazon account. Their bots are programmed in foreign sweatshops by brain dead code monkeys whose frontal lobes were eaten by zombies. The strike in question is for “copyright or trademark violation” of the manufacturer’s name, which is clearly printed on the genuine shrink-wrapped package which I purchased in a case directly from the manufacturer. And never mind that the listing page was created by Amazon itself and that the item in question had been listed for ten years with multiple sales and satisfied customers.

    The last time I got one of these was for a NIB piece of Corning Pyrex lab glass. No joy on appealing either one.

    So later I get an email from Amazon “A customer is waiting for an answer on…”. I check the listing and find that although I’ve had the low price in the recent past, Amazon has decided to put their stock on sale and undercut me by a buck. Yeah, I know the answer. I also know that the customer will order from Amazon and save his dollar. Send the devil a thermocouple and start the clock…

    I’d like to meet Jeff sometime, preferably after he’s collapsed from a heart attack and I’m the first one there. I’d whisper “Hi Jeff! These people think I’m giving you CPR!” or maybe “I’d give you CPR, but my certificate is expired.”

    @RickH

    Lately it seems like the spell check is even worse than usual. It wants me to replace “thermocouple” with “thermonuclear”. 

    The closest “thermocouple” gets to “thermonuclear” is the most famous scene in “On the Beach”.

  48. drwilliams says:

    @Bob Sprowl

    “No pensions beyond Social security”

    I’d let them have 401k’s. No employer match, and the only investment option is T-bills.

  49. nick flandrey says:

    There is something going on with the comment editor, some setting or upgrade needs attention, I get a warning notice when I’m logged in on the admin page.   Didn’t seem to have any  negative effect so I ignored it.

    I don’t install updates or resolve dependencies…. no one wants to see what happens when I start poking at things.

    ————————————–

    Boy it was hot at the rent house.   Got all the rotten siding replaced.   Figured out what I’m going to try to do to fix the water intrusion issue.  May not work, but in 5 years the pig could learn to sing, so I’m going to try, but not stress over it, since I seem to be replacing this area every 5 years.

    D2 learned to use the pressure washer and did the inside of the fence and 2 sides of the house.  D1 tried it briefly then handed off to sis, saying “I don’t like that.”

    I think we will be painting the house this year.   The south wall paint is all peeling away.  I was hoping to just wash it, but it’s gonna need scraping and painting.   Someone else will have to do that, as I’ve got other things on my plate.

    Way back in the dark ages, my (eventual) wife and her dad painted the house before she moved in.  Unfortunately, they didn’t understand that shiplap siding moves and breathes, and because they were from the NorthEast, they caulked all the overlapping seams and all the ends where the trim overlaps the horizontal boards.   That caulk broke loose when the boards moved, and now just catches moisture and holds it behind the paint.   Where paint is peeling off in sheets, it starts with that caulked seam.  If it hadn’t been for that mistake, the paint would still be ok.  Faded, but stuck tight.

    When I have to replaced siding, I have to use the original southern yellow pine, to have the profile match.  The local Home Depot carries it as a lot of the homes in that area were built at the same time, from the same stuff.   When I replace trim, I try to use Azek or some other cellular PVC plastic boards.    They are inherently white, won’t rot, don’t actually need paint, and are straight and uniform.   They change size more than wood with changes in temperature, but on a small house, that’s not really an issue.  The “won’t rot” is the critical thing for me.  

    I’m weary though from the sun and the work.   I’m going to try for an early bed tonight.

    n

  50. Lynn says:

    Boy it was hot at the rent house.   Got all the rotten siding replaced.   Figured out what I’m going to try to do to fix the water intrusion issue.  May not work, but in 5 years the pig could learn to sing, so I’m going to try, but not stress over it, since I seem to be replacing this area every 5 years.

    Aren’t rental properties fun ?  

  51. Alan says:

    >> Someone else will have to do that, as I’ve got other things on my plate.

    Where’s our @nick and what have you done with him?! 

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    All properties that one owns are “fun” for various values of “fun”.   Fun =/= fun.

    The timing isn’t great, but I suppose it never is.   At least I have all the conditioning for working in the heat that I got from working at the BOL.   I’m still in my work clothes, and I’m still soaked to the skin.   Time for a shower and bedtime.

    n

  53. Nick Flandrey says:

    Where’s our @nick 

    – exterior scraping and painting is one of those things that I just find tedious and better left to others.   Just the thought of stripping all the gutters, downspouts, etc, finding and fixing the rotten wood, and then scraping, sanding, priming, and painting?  No thanks.  And since it’s a rental, we can deduct that cost, which we can’t do if I did the work…

    My arms ache just thinking about it.

    n

Comments are closed.