Warm and clear, gonna be hot later. Yesterday didn’t break 90F in the shade but in the sun it got brain boiling hot. Today will probably be the same. No rain forecast either.
I think I saved the grass in the front yard, or at least most of it. It seems to not be as brown or crunchy.
I spent yesterday moving stuff on the back patio. I swapped an open shelf for a close cabinet, that is also in the same color as our house siding. It will look a lot neater back there now. I ran out of daylight, so I’ll be reorganizing and putting stuff away for a couple of days.
I’d do it today, but I have to go pick up my lots in Leander… that is about 6 hours of driving and some time to load up. Then later I’ll have to sort and store it. Should be a good quick flip though that is worth all the driving.
I’ll try to check in during the day, but you should talk amongst yourselves…
And stack.
nick
The Weed Moms in the DC suburbs are not going to let Kaine lose. They may even try to return the KKKlansman to the Governor’s Mansion if they pull off putting Kamala in the White House.
Stop bogarting the edibles and pass that bag!
73F this morning. Not cool, and suggests we’ll get pretty warm this afternoon. Coffee is made, bacon is made, kids are moving.
Get them out the door, and then I’ll get ready to leave.
n
Essentials of life 🙂
I have OJ, coffee, bacon and eggs almost every morning. I switched hotels, where I stay during lectures (typically 2 nights/week). The new hotel is more expensive, but has nicer rooms and a proper breakfast buffet → including bacon and eggs. Spoiling myself during my last full year before retirement.
Funny: this hotel is absolutely full of Chinese guests. This time, reception messed up and handed me my check-in documents in Chinese. Doesn’t matter, since I know what it all says anyway, but amusing…
Professional conferences with heavy Mainland Chinese participation in Fall 2019 became superspreader events for the Wuxu Flu getting established elsewhere.
I remember reading one story about an aging conference in Boston in late 2019 which researchers tied mathematically to over 500k+ cases of Covid within a year just in the US alone.
The conference included talks about Amgen’s then new controversial Alzheimer’s drug so the hookers and steaks probably flowed freely, with professionals brought in to work the booths on the show floor.
I worked for the tolling company in Fall 2019, and I had something bad with a severe cough that Fall which I just blew off as a bad cold.
A co-worker joked that I had tuberculosis, but I knew I was negative thanks to a test.
Unlike Covid, a positive TB test on the record triggers a strict public health quarantine protocol subject to enforcement by arrest for violations. And, again, unlike Covid, TB is generally treatable.
Harris is hidden because she is stupid;
Walz because he is a liar
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2024/10/04/politico-notice-tim-walz-is-a-liar-n3795355
Tampon Tim is working hard to fill the big lying shoes left by Joe Biden.
“The Weed Moms in the DC suburbs are not going to let Kaine lose.”
Bring back Paraquat.
There’s two schools of thought about whether Covid is treatable. One is doctors who care about their patients, and the other is the official government line.
Of course, the caring doctors got censored, shut down, and deplatformed.
Weed is legal in DC, and Florid will vote on legalization next month. Spraying Paraquat could result in a lawsuit or even intervention from a government agency.
State law does not override the federal classification schedule of marijuana.
Absent action by Congress, the next president should announce a 12-month deadline requiring a medical finding that marijuana in the current potency is harmless and a change in federal law allowing the states to decide. If both do not happen, the feds should raid the dispensaries and growers, levy ruinous fines, and lock up the people involved as conspirators to harm the public health.
Subbing again. I hate the Chromebooks.
The problem is not the actual Chromebooks, it is the way they are being used. The teachers can monitor the student’s activities on the devices. As subs, we have no access to anything. The kids claim they have finished their work and start playing games. I have no idea if they are done with their work. Somewhere I just decided it is not my problem.
It might be easier for teachers as they don’t have papers to grade and all the grading is done on Classroom. Some classes have papers that need to be turned in but that seems to be the exception.
The students never seem to have their Chromebooks charged when they come to school. Many have to connect to power to get their work done. But by gosh their cell phones are fully charged. Priorities.
The Chromebooks are really cheap devices. Poor screens, poor trackpad, poor keyboard. Very little memory and almost no local storage as everything is stored in Google Classroom. The devices do have a USB-A port, HDMI port, and a headphone jack. Bought in bulk the devices are probably $100 each, if that much.
The devices are fairly well constructed based on some of the abuses I have seen the students heap on the machines.
At the end of the school year the devices must be turned back to the school. The next year the student gets the same machine, except for seniors of course. For seniors they should be allowed to keep the machines. A four year old machine, that has been less than carefully handled, is worth scrap value. The time and effort to account for the machines is just not cost effective in my opinion.
I do know the Chromebooks have really destroyed the ability to write, as put words on paper. I was writing better in third grade than most of the seniors in high school.
The coming of the AIs may well perpetuate that trend. Write some barely understandable gibberish and ask the AI to clean it up. Don’t bother looking at and understanding the corrections, just turn it in.
I’m seeing exactly this in my programming classes. I use ChatGPT too, but I look at what it produces. Students don’t. What makes it really dumb, is that the exercises don’t count toward their grade – they are just provided to help them learn. Then comes the exam: entire pages left blank, or maybe filled with nonsense, because they haven’t got a clue.
On the positive, it does serve to separate the good students from the lazy. You know the classic bell curve for grades? Last semester, it was upside down. About half the students had top grades, and half failed. Not one single person in the middle. First time it’s ever been that extreme.
“Costco expands ‘doomsday’ lineup with new product after gold bar demand exploded with customers spending $200m a month”
https://www.the-sun.com/news/12596945/costco-platinum-bars-gold-silver-doomsday-prep/
“The wholesale retailer is now selling bars of platinum after their 1-ounce gold bars sold out in a few hours when they first went on sale last year.”
“Port strike ends as workers agree to tentative deal on wages and contract extension”
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/03/port-strike-ends-as-workers-agree-to-tentative-deal-on-wages-and-contract-extension.html
“A major union for U.S. dockworkers and the United States Maritime Alliance agreed on Thursday to a tentative deal on wages and have extended their existing contract through Jan. 15 to provide time to negotiate a new contract”
One wonders if cargo will be slow walked until the new contract is agreed upon.
Issaquah is all about the cashflow even if the margin is razor thin.
I was talking about physical writing, as in pencil on paper, making letters and words manually.
“Houston’s early risers sound off after Blue Alert jolts the city awake”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/blue-alert-houston-19815158.php
“Millions of Texans were jolted out of bed just before 5:00 a.m. Friday when Hall County—somewhere north of Lubbock, population 2,810—issued a Blue Alert after a deputy was injured by a fleeing suspect, sending people and social media into a frenzy.”
And this is why my phone sleeps in our kitchen. The wife’s phone also.
“September jobs report builds case for smaller Fed rate cut in November”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/september-jobs-report-builds-case-for-smaller-fed-rate-cut-in-november-144604615.html
“But Friday’s report countered any signs of slowing across a variety of metrics. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday showed the labor market added 254,000 payrolls in September, more additions than the 150,000 expected by economists. Revisions to both the July and August report showed the US economy added 72,000 more jobs during those two months than previously reported.”
“Meanwhile, the unemployment rate the unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, from 4.2% in August.”
Two notes:
“Jen Psaki: Where Are George W. Bush, Mitt Romney, Mike Pence? You Have 33 Days To Endorse Harris For “The History Books””
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2024/10/04/jen_psaki_on_cheney_endorsement_of_harris_where_are_george_w_bush_mitt_romney_mike_pence.html
Yup.
“The relief effort following Hurricane Helene appears to be as chaotic as that after Hurricane Katrina…”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-relief-effort-following-hurricane.html
“I can understand one or two screw-ups like that, but they appear to be so widespread that they’re affecting everybody. Try these headlines for size. I can’t vouch that they’re all true (I presume some will be at least exaggerated, if not false), but there are enough of them to suggest a pattern.”
Ronald Reagan said it best, “The most scary words are I am from the federal government and here to help you”.
Well, that covers one year, twice.
Well, that covers one year, twice.
Incompetent, I am.
Fixed.
“Supreme Court declines to block EPA methane, mercury rules”
https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/10/supreme-court-declines-to-block-epa-methane-mercury-rules/
“The Supreme Court on Friday turned down a request from Republican-led states and industry groups to block a rule from the Environmental Protection Agency that imposes more stringent standards on emissions of hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants. At the same time, the justices turned down a similar request from Oklahoma and industry groups to block an EPA rule that seeks to regulate emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from crude-oil and natural gas facilities.”
Yup, I figured that this was going to happen since the new Methane rule was passed by Congress and signed by the President in the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Female, black applicants who failed Maryland State Police tests likely to receive $2.75M in back pay from discrimination suit”
https://www.theblaze.com/news/female-black-applicants-who-failed-maryland-state-police-tests-likely-to-receive-2-75m-in-backpay-from-discrimination-suit
So if the failed applicant is 5’2″ and weighs 400 lbs, will they get the back pay and be instated in the job ?
I see this in so many situations. People turn a key in a lock, and assume the door is locked without checking. I once had a coworker do this with an important lock. To be fair, he said he did check every day for a year, and there were no failures, so he stopped checking. NO! If it is important, verify.
However, this checking can be overdone. My father would shake our house door to be sure it was locked. He did it hard enough that he had to replace the lockset about every few years. He said it was worth it.
“Judge: ‘Tough on crime’ means imprisoning Blacks”
https://www.fbherald.com/news/judge-tough-on-crime-means-imprisoning-blacks/article_e93bbdcf-d497-5de5-8c09-bc0b45ff20e8.html
“A Fort Bend County judge said candidates for public office who claim to be tough on crime are really saying they’re tough on Blacks.”
“Republicans from the top to the bottom, we know what they stand for,” said Democrat Tameika Carter, who was elected as presiding Judge of the 400th District Court on Nov. 3, 2020. “When I tell you that they’re tough-on-crime philosophy means locking up as many of us as possible, that is what they run on, and that is what they do.”
Oh my, look what Fort Bend County has gotten itself into.
I’ll bet that our indicted County Judge KP George hopes that he gets her as his judge. She will probably dismiss all charges against him since he is such a kind man to her. Me, she would put in jail until the sun dies.
Oh goody, Kirkland Signature platinum.
In other news, I didn’t know that platinum is now less expensive than gold.
Reading between the lines in the piece, Mittens kinda sorta endorses Kamala in the recent interview in The Atlantic but The Elders are not going to permit him to give full, open support while he sits in one of their Senate seats.
Plus, there are still many variations on Electoral and Succession calculus which could see Mittens in the VP chair as a “compromise”, albeit briefly. His Daddy issues won’t let him walk away from that possibility.
The Bush cabal won’t let Shrub endorse Harris/Walz lest that come back to haunt them when they run George P. (Diddly) for Governor after Abbott steps down.
Shrub is still popular in Texas.
Pence? Who knows. He likes to spend a lot of time in SW Florida on Sanibel, and that place leans right with a former CIA director under Shrub living on the island and God-only-knows who out on nearby Useppa, literally the former CIA training facility for the Bay of Pigs invasion.
BTW, the Perot family had a big house out on Useppa in the 90s along with a monstrosity of a yacht which H. Ross kept hidden there away from cameras lest it ruin his “populist” image.
Home from my pickup. Lotta driving.
Swung by an estates sale and picked up a solar charge controller too. It was all I won despite bidding on 100 ham radio lots.
I took 290 between Houston and Austin this trip. I haven’t done that in 7-8 years. Holy crow. SO MUCH new housing going up east of Austin. Stop and go lights all the way to the toll road are going to be brutal during the commute times…
Austin has an incredible amount of elevated highway, especially considering its population. WAY more than they should, and new, and in good repair. Guess the suck ups take care of Austin ‘cuz they know who butters their bread.
Lots of Tesla cars, no cybertrucks.
I’m not taking 290 to Austin again.
The transition from 183 Toll south to 71 east is still one of the most confusing and poorly marked in Texas, and that is saying a LOT.
Looks like rain here, but I don ‘t expect to actually get any. Unless I leave stuff in my truck bed, then it will rain for certain.
n
Because Texans are free…
https://jalopnik.com/texas-proves-its-commitment-to-freedom-by-legalizing-ke-1851403280
Heard from a former work colleague concerned about stocking up on some emergency supplies but doesn’t have a lot of time to have this become a big project. I gave him some general info and recommended some lead dispensers. With regard to food, he’s interested in the commercial “25 breakfast/lunch/dinner meals in a bucket” concept. Does anyone have any recommendations for any of these that aren’t a rip-off?
Funny what gets your attention when it’s just a month until election day and we have 220+ dead Americans in the southeast.
Hey Joe, how’s the water down at the beach?
If you have time one day, try 71 west to 183 south without ending up on 183 north and having to resort to the u-turn at Montopolis.
Southbound, the 183 toll/freeway hybrid is *done*, unlike five years ago when I started driving down to work at the tolling company when the road was still under construction and undergoing the split.
All of 183 from the airport up to Cedar Park will look like that hybrid road eventually.
“Collapse (Kelly Turnbull/Peoples Republic)” by Kurt Schlichter
https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Kelly-Turnbull-Kurt-Schlichter/dp/173419930X?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number four 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 2019 that I just bought on Amazon. I am now reading book number five in the series (which is a prequel) as I have purchased several of the books now.
In an alternate universe, the USA split into two countries in 2022: the People’s Republic (the west coast and the northeast) and the United States (flyover country). Initially people can cross the lines easily but that gets more difficult as the years go on.
In 2032, the People’s Republic has been selling old US Navy ships to China to pay off some of their debts and buy more food for their starving populace. But now they are selling the USS Teddy Roosevelt, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, and the USA cannot allow that. So the USA sends Kelly Turnbull to fix the situation.
My favorite caliber is .44 Magnum.
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (3,145 reviews)
Lynn
Funny what gets your attention when it’s just a month until election day and we have 220+ dead Americans in the southeast.
Hey Joe, how’s the water down at the beach?
They are expecting the death toll to rise to 1,000 to 1,200.
Bonus/stock grant season was good at the tech companies around town, but not Jesus Truck good.
Had my first auto accident in decades today.
I was the front vehicle of a 3-car pileup.
The State Farm adjuster already called me and let me know they’re taking full liability for this accident.
Two Kia Forte’s and my F-150.
If my truck was 10 years old, I’d just shrug it off. But since I’ve only had it for a little over a year, it’s getting fixed. Mostly a scratched bumper, but I want all the cameras and sensors checked out.
All that time driving in Houston, and I get in an accident in Southern Illinois. Go figure.