Cool and damp but supposed to be clear for the next two days. Yesterday was overcast until it started drizzling in the late afternoon. Some places got a lot more than drizzle too.
Did my quick pickups, then headed home. Loaded the rest of the stuff on the truck in the rain. Didn’t get it all on board. The 40 gallon water tank on wheels will have to wait for the next trip. I have one up here already, but given my water situation at home it makes more sense to bring the second up here too. I waffled about bringing both new Portacool units up here,but only had room for the smaller one in the end.
I’m not sure what I’ll be doing today, there is a big list after all, but I’m leaning toward cleaning and organizing the shed. I’ve got stuff on the truck that needs to go into it, but no room. So it just moved up the list.
I’m also thinking that I might sit down with D1 and do some work with the air rifle. She had the Girl Scout unit on air rifles, so it should just be learning to work this one, and doing some target work. We’ll see about that. Mood and energy level are going to be determinants. Also I might not have brought up any pellets. I’m pretty sure my neighbor would have some if I forgot.
Might try to get some fishing in too. Don’t know if they like the rain, and all the new water flooding in or not. I’ll throw the crawdad pots in the water too, just as a test.
Plenty to do.
Y’all keep stacking. Weirdness abounds.
nick
*title is from a popular song lyric. Who is going to remember what a skate key is or why you would want one?? Lots of things like that in our shared culture.
Forgot to hit ‘schedule’ last night. I was tired.
————
52F and grey here, drippy too.
n
Yeah, RIP Melanie.
@nick:
In UK, we know that song as “I’ve got a brand new combine harvester…”. It wa sung by the late Adge Cutler and his backing group, the Wurzels, who had a brief moment of popularity with their “Scrumpy and Western” sound, although it was not original to them.
G.
– Neil is either a fool or a tool, as the Hugos have been captured for years by a small group, shown clearly by the Sad Puppies brouhaha. Their subsequent change to voting rules was certainly “obfuscatory”.
Note the weasel word “official” in the organizer’s denial.
The Chinese always want the ‘appearance’ of a thing without the actual costs of the thing.
n
That song, and her voice, are an earworm of the first order… of course the only way to get rid of an earworm is to pass it on to someone…
n
“– Neil is either a fool or a tool, as the Hugos have been captured for years by a small group, shown clearly by the Sad Puppies brouhaha. Their subsequent change to voting rules was certainly “obfuscatory”.”
ditto dat
I read Stross’ “thoughts” on the link Lynn posted. Add him to the toolbox. I knew he was a flaming lib, and it doesn’t really surprise me that he’s an anti-Trump parrot, or even repeats the “book ban” libel without knowing what a real ban looks like, but the “we ain’t WorldConing in Israel because, genocide, is too much.
Question for our UK contingent: Are they grooming your elementary-age children with books on anal sex and pedophilia?
The Hugos have been worthless for years now, taken over by woke politics.
Nothing official, no. But someone received gifts, and the Chinese certainly “let it be known” what they expected in return. Unofficially, of course.
The things that make living in a city desirable are going away, one by one…
n
Stross has been a leftie and an America hater forever, no surprises there.
I will sometimes read his stuff, for free (he can hardly object) from the library, but not buy it.
I think he’s giving the Chinese organizers a bit too much credit, they probably thought they could get away caving to the CCP pressure (that anyone knew would be applied) without consequences.
As far as Kuang, I read her last book, wasn’t that impressed. She could be a good writer if she stepped away from her victim mentality and cardboard bad guys. I kept waiting for the villains to wax their mustaches and tie people to railroad tracks.
The Locust Class drained the West Coast dry. Now they’ve moved on to Austin.
AirBnB and “working” from home make the draining process proceed faster.
Plus, Houston and Austin have the Subcontinent colonization, which most people don’t know about unless they live here.
n
The last “Country Bear Jamboree” show ran at Disney World last night.
A new “woke” show is coming at the end of the year, “Country Bear Musical Jamboree”.
Disney’s blind date with Bankruptcy continues hurtling towards the inevitable conclusion in disaster.
She just ordered the Wagyu sliders.
Sweet Schadenfreude.
“Death in Paradise” finally has a release date for the new season. The first episode airs a week from tomorrow.
>>Trans Swimmer Lia Thomas Challenging Ban From Elite Competitions, Including Olympics
The biological women, to a one, need to boycott every single event that has a trans “woman” participating, until they are consistently banned and the bans enforced. And the event results recorded accordingly.
Here’s a practical question for y’all. We have a couple of appliances that tend to grow biofilms. The worst is the tumble dryer – it’s heat-pump based, and the cold side generates condensation, which attracts lint, which grows a biofilm that is really hard to clean.
What cleaner or solvent breaks down biofilms? My bit of surfing was fruitless…
A WaterPik’s purpose is to blast away biofilm on your teeth before it becomes plaque.
Can you use a pressure washer? Or possibly a steam cleaner?
Partially plastic parts, some rather delicate looking. Physically, the cleaning needs to be gentle.
Even absent the possibility of cancellation via social media, scholarships and/or Olympics slots are at stake in a lot of cases. Lifelong dreams.
Why clean it? Is it hurting anything?
Sadly, yes. One of the parts is some sort of air filter, which gets blocked. Also, it stinks.
Honestly, it’s a really stupid design…
I’m too far, but it should be okay for Lynn to do a 911.
Lynn just got up …
My wide-screen LG monitor suddenly developed some image persistence this morning. Specifically, a browser window and a Finder window appeared as ghost-persistent images. The monitor is TB4’d off the MBP. The laptop screen doesn’t have the image, so the monitor is the problem. A report on Apple IPS monitors says this happens to them. The solution: run a screensaver as long as the persistent image has been on screen. Damn, if that didn’t work.
I had a front loader washer that would stink after a few weeks. Apparently the drain fitting was not on the very bottom.
A partial solution was a cup of vinegar & hot water rinse every once in a while, but it wasn’t a permanent fix, and I always wondered what it did to the hoses and fittings.
I’m old enough. I had a hand-me-down pair of skates like that, but never got the hang of them.
In any event’, I’ve been led to believe the song is using that as a metaphor for something else…
Similar to Ghostbusters and the Gatekeeper and Keymaster…
>> Partially plastic parts, some rather delicate looking. Physically, the cleaning needs to be gentle.
May not work size wise, but how about an ultrasonic cleaner?
Well, the unexpected task for today is drop the tree that fell part way and got hung up on another tree.
Enter the chainsaw!
So it’s down, and now I need to cut it up.
n
Althouse had a post about Melanie
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2024/01/goodbye-to-melanie.html
and a good comment about ‘Skate’
Look What They’ve Done To My Song
Don’t encourage him…
Glad you are still alive and kicking!
I won’t say that my speculations, thoughts, opinions, goals, and plans are always right
… but that’s the way to bet.
The optimist: The glass is half full
The pessimist: The glass is half empty
The aerospace engineer: The glass is full, half liquid and half air
The cynic: It’s pee, isn’t it?
LOL from the frying pan into the fire:
Fitness influencer Mari Llewellyn moves to Austin after calling out LA’s homeless crisis and safety concerns in crime-ridden city
Clueless Millenial. Austin? Ha, ha.
You know your wife loves you when a late Christmas present shows up. A Bambu X1C 3D printer. With the AMS (Automatic Material System).
I told everyone I’m retiring from the company on my birthday in June. D5 wants to take up the finances and other stuff I do. I’ll remain the unpaid backup. I’m starting a separate LLC to handle MrsAtoz’s books and other stuff we are publishing.
I now have time to start indulging in the hobbies I’ve been nurturing since I took in my Mom (may she RIP). Everything mostly went on hold and in storage. I’ll be firing up my laser cutter soon. Here’s hoping it still runs.
Drones
Electronics
Programming
3D printing
Laser cutting
Other Maker stuff
Life is short, so do what you love before it is too late.
re: metaphors and artist’s intentions
I stand abashed. Partly, anyway.
However, I’m reminded of a science fiction story (and anecdotally, a simlar real life author’s experience) where a scientist invents a time machine, drags Will Shakespeare to the present day, and enrolls him under an assumed name in an English Literature class. The prof flunks him.
Metaphors can be intentional, or subconscious, or arise in the mind of the interpreter even when not placed there by the creator. The skate/key metaphor exists, even if Malanie never thought of it even once.
“Wholesome”.
Yeah, right.
She’s either full of cr*p about her intentions (my guess) or howlingly naive.
Locust Class, moving here to feed until the place is drained dry.
“The skate/key metaphor exists, even if Malanie never thought of it even once.”
Sometimes a cigar…
… is just a cigar.
I accept Melanie’s claim that she never intended it. And while Freud found sex in every image and action when analyzing other people, he resented it when people analyzed him in an identical fashion.
MrAtoz, for the laser cutter, I suggest saving the styrene trays from meat purchases. They cut very cleanly on low power (except for the white trays, which are so-so) and the thickness is good for any number of projects. I’ve made slide-together parts, like for a glider or puzzle box. (Not very well, I admit, but I was at the playing-around and proof of concept stage, not trying to make anything good for real.) And jigsaw puzzles. Glue the picture onto the styrene and then cut it out. The entire puzzle doesn’t need to fit on one meat tray.
Bonus for the puzzles: If you’re clever about it, you can use the same cutting pattern for several pictures, so the pieces can be mix-and-matched between them to make some appalling or obscene mashup picture. (Not that the idea of an obscene picture would even occur to me, of course.)
Sigmund Fraud made up data to support his theories.
Psych students and graduates who don’t work in the field tend to resent that observation. Working psychologists and counselors may accept it, may deny it, and may attempt to justify it, in my experience. I haven’t come across any psych professors so that I may ask them if they’re proud of teaching a curriculum, at least half of which is disproved by the other half.
Jerry Pournelle noted that this would be like chemistry majors being required to take two full courses on phlogiston. Would anyone tolerate that waste of time? Of course not. But psychology has so little worthwhile matter that they need to pad the curriculum with garbage in order to get the course hours up. (Note that this was from the 1980s, IIRC. I don’t have personal knowledge beyond my “intro to psych” professor being a dingbat.)
Tree is now firewood. Trunk was a bit more than a foot thick at the base, but it was hollowed out at the bottom.
Decent stack of logs.
Neighbor had D1 and me over for dinner. Fried crappie. Delicious. His son is getting 25 to 50 pounds a night when he goes out. Bass aren’t biting that well.
Lake is up a foot at least and is 6-9 inches above normal level.
And it’s down to 45F and dropping.
n
“Biden Set To Announce New LNG Export Ban After White House Met With Gen-Z Climate Warrior”
https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/biden-set-announce-lng-export-ban-appease-climate-warriors-ahead-election
Lets just throw those thousands of high paying jobs away ! Oh wait, that is Bidenomics.
I was raised in the Presbyterian church, and spent most of my child-rearing years at the Catholic church, mostly run by one of the orders, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. I also had an uncle who was Jehovah’s Witness and an Aunt who was Pentecost.
At no point in my life experience was I subjected to religious adoration and absolutism the way I was in my aborted attendence in Psychology 101. B.F. Skinner was both prophet and God, and there could be no other God before him.
After 2 lectures I found another way to get Liberal Arts credits.
I believe Freud was treated similarly in his area.
D1 is re-watching Pitch Perfect. So good. So much cringe and snark.
n
Wasn’t the new export terminal going to be built in Louisiana?
Johnson already said that the border bill is DOA from the Senate even without seeing the full text. Corn Pop wants the Ukraine aid before that South Carolina primary, when the dealmaking will start for his exit from the ticket.
The Speaker’s district is inland, but the LA delegation only has one Dem who represents the New Orleans area.
“climate warrior” doesn’t even make it to oxymoron
Margaret Sanger is revered the same way, albeit without using her name.
They’ll have to find a deal that gives Jill the same rush of power that she gets now.
In the meantime there are House committees investigating crimes and high misdemeanors that should read the tea leaves and sequence their investigation accordingly.
It should be made apparent to Moochelle that if her name comes up it will put Barry on the hot seat with investigations that would probably stay cool otherwise.
>>
“Wholesome”.
Yeah, right.
She’s either full of cr*p about her intentions (my guess) or howlingly naive.
From the article…
“The start-up will keep its offices in LA and London, but some employees will spend time in Austin.”
So LA is still good enough for her workers. Rules for thee, not for me.
>>Even absent the possibility of cancellation via social media, scholarships and/or Olympics slots are at stake in a lot of cases. Lifelong dreams
Sometimes, as painful as it may be, you have to lose some battles to win the war. Gotta decide what your priorities are.
Biden Freaks Out in South Carolina and Starts Screaming About Trump
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/27/biden-freaks-out-and-starts-screaming-south-carolina-over-trump-n2169318
Leader of the Jew-hating you-will-eat-bugs-and-like-it-while-you-freeze-in-the-dark “free” world.
https://redstate.com/streiff/2024/01/27/ninth-circuit-finds-fbi-search-resembled-those-that-led-to-adoption-of-the-fourth-amendment-n2169312
“The aerospace engineer: The glass is full, half liquid and half air”
And that is the correct answer.
NEW: Snopes Hilariously Backpedals and Reverses ‘Fact Check’ of Biden Wearing Hard Hat Backwards
The prevailing counter-argument is that if the suspension of the hat has been purposely configured by its owner such that the bill and tightening knob are worn to the back (as was the case of the hat Biden wore), to wear that hat with the bill facing forward is, practically speaking, to wear it backwards. Therefore, it’s argued, it’s actually true that, in the photo op discussed below, Biden was wearing it backwards. The strap and tightening knob, which should have been behind Biden’s head, were on his forehead.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/27/power-of-the-backlash-snopes-forced-to-change-their-fact-check-of-biden-wearing-hard-hat-backwards-n2169311
The bill on that hat is not facing forward in the photo. We can infer that it is facing to the back as worn, but since it cannot be seen if may have been cut off for all we know.
The “hard hat” (more properly a “bump cap”, rather than a true hard hat) is designed to be worn with the bill in the front. The suspension of the hat, including the size adjustment knob (round thing in the middle) is designed to fit the head properly when oriented only one way–not with the adjustment knob on the front.
I’m sure there are written instructions from the manufacturer on how to wear the hat, including a disclaimer if it is worn improperly. I’m also sure that OSHA requires it be worn properly, and would be happy to right up any company that allows it’s workers to improperly wear safety equipment.
FJB should probably skip the bump cap and wear a football helmet. The bump cap would still be useful: he could sit on it (crown down) on Air Force One and same the cleaning bills on the upholstery.
ADDED: The other non-union idiot in the photo is senior MN Senator Doorknob.
“The glass is half full.”
<<chug>>
“Now it’s empty–fill it up.”
“Defiant Fetterman Waves Israeli Flag From Rooftop As Protesters Chant He’s ‘Supporting Genocide’”
https://www.mediaite.com/politics/defiant-fetterman-waves-israeli-flag-from-rooftop-as-protesters-chant-hes-supporting-genocide/
You gotta say this about the guy, he is not owned by the dumbrocrats.
Phone battery died trying to keep a signal out here in the sticks.
40F and it’s bed time.
n
>> Biden Freaks Out in South Carolina and Starts Screaming About Trump
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/01/27/biden-freaks-out-and-starts-screaming-south-carolina-over-trump-n2169318
Remind me…which of his sons was in WWII? (reference the ‘screaming’ clip)
Scheduled tomorrows post, so if the intarwebs are working, you should see it before I do… ‘cuz I’ll be asleep.
n