09:07 – It was 59.9F (5.5C) when I took Colin out at 0630. It was still dark, and he immediately disappeared into the gloom. I walked up and down the road shouting for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. At 0700, I finally woke Barbara and told her Colin was gone. She walked around yelling for him for a few minutes, and finally got in her car to drive around looking for him. She finally spotted him in the back yard of a house a quarter mile or so (~400 meters) down US21. We both chastised him, telling him he was a Very Bad Dog, but I doubt that will have any lingering effect.
I just placed my first order for bulk laboratory supplies with Amazon Business yesterday. I wanted to find an alternative source for several items that we’ve been ordering from one of our four major wholesalers for the last eight years or so. They’ve always been a bit more expensive than most, but I liked the quality of their stuff, which was mostly made in India rather than China.
But in addition to having higher prices, typically 10% or 15% higher than competitors, they’ve also always had high shipping charges. And those have gotten even higher since we moved to Sparta. The last straw came a couple of weeks ago, when they shipped me a small order. It was a small box that weighed only four or five pounds (~ 2 kilos), and they charged me $40 to ship it, which was almost 40% of the cost of the items themselves. They could have shipped it USPS Priority Mail for a quarter or less of what they charged me.
So, among the items I needed to reorder yesterday were 24-well and 96-well well plates. Ordinarily, I’d order those both by the case of 500 each, but I decided to order them from Amazon Business instead. The actual item price was similar, even ordering in boxes of 50 rather than cases of 500, and 2-day shipping was included in the price. They’re to arrive tomorrow, and assuming the quality is acceptable (which I’m pretty sure it will be), I’ll be ordering those in bulk from Amazon Business from now on. Those and probably half a dozen or more other items, such as 15 mL and 50 mL centrifuge tubes, which we also order in multiple case lots.
Email yesterday from someone I at first thought was another newbie prepper, with the subject line, “What else do we need to do?” My answer, as it turned out, was “not much”. If anything, they’re already better-prepared than we are. They’re retired, in their mid-60’s, and live outside a small town in Tioga County in north-central Pennsylvania, whose demographics look a lot like ours. They’re stocked up big-time on food, and have backups to their backups for water, heating, electric power, and so on. They maintain a large garden and keep chickens. Their nearest Costco is about a two-hour drive, one-way. Their home is large enough to accommodate their three kids with their spouses and the grandkids, who live in the State College and Altoona areas and visit them frequently on holiday weekends. They’re friends with all of their neighbors, and are active in the community. I couldn’t think of anything to suggest that they haven’t already done.
Doing the jobs americans won’t do:
“El Salvadorian illegal immigrant, 19, and his school friend, 17, ‘acting on the orders’ of a girl, 13, ‘raped her classmate for hours’ after kidnapping her, stuffing a rag in her mouth, and driving her to a nearby apartment’
Authorities in Maryland have charged two teens with kidnapping and raping a classmate and police say a third suspect is at large
Police said in court documents that a female acquaintance of the victim may have persuaded the suspects to act
Frederick authorities charged 19-year-old Victor Antonio Gonzalez-Guttierres and 17-year-old Edgar Natanal Chicas-Hernandez, who’s charged as an adult
The girl told the officers that she was grabbed from behind by the hair as she was walking home after midnight on September 2
They then told the girl that they were acting on orders from a younger female acquaintance
The three men forced a rag into the girl’s mouth and drove her to an apartment in the city, according to court papers ”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4908226/Two-teens-raped-girl-hours-kidnapping-her.html
Diversity is our strength.
n
We watched the first four episodes last night of Baldrick’s series on leaders from history. Richard III, Julius Caesar Parts 1 and 2, and Caligula. In the first Caesar episode, he was talking about Spartacus and mentioned (of course) that they captured the slaves and crucified 6,000 of them along one of the roads into Rome. I turned to Barbara and asked her, “Why don’t we do that any more?”
““Why don’t we do that any more?”
-cuz chopping down that many trees would make Mother Gaia cry?
I turned to Barbara and asked her, “Why don’t we do that any more?”
Proper crucifixion involves erecting a cross at taxpayer expense, most likely on government property. I doubt you could do a gallows with a noose either — it would probably be a trigger for snowflakes.
When we lived in WA State, the tinfoil hats believed that the government had modern guillotines stashed at Lewis-McCord, projected as the center of authority in the NW in a SHTF situation.
Tony Robinson (Baldrick) also hosted a show, “Britain’s Real Monarch” stating that Edward IV was illegitimate and that the true heirs descended from George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britain%27s_Real_Monarch
.mg
Yep, we just watched that one the other night. Pretty convincing. Turns out the real king of the UK is some guy in Australia.
Yep, we just watched that one the other night. Pretty convincing. Turns out the real king of the UK is some guy in Australia.
Those claims have been around forever. The UK is on the cusp of having a modern royal family with the stupid finally bred out, and any possibility of the claims getting serious consideration diminish the older Charles gets and chances increase that his reign (if he has one) will be mercifully short.
Texas has a flag, “Come And Take It”. The royal family might buy a few and stash them in the palaces for the next time the show (made in 2004) resurfaces.
When we were watching Richard III and Bosworth Field, I told Barbara that we should go back and watch the first episode of Black Adder, which presents the real story. In fact, Black Adder is better actual history than most of the non-fiction history series on Britain.
I didn’t realize that Texas had a Molon Labe flag.
“Diversity is our strength.”
And our vibrancy.
WRT to British royalty, I tend to think that the last legit rulers were the last couple of Anglo-Saxons, before William the Bastard, a jumped-up Viking shitbag and murderer. And once they took over, their rule was brutal and consisted largely of pillage, rape and ethnic cleansing.
Okay maybe a little feel good
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/451614/new-study-confirms-dogs-love-man-real
Leaving Las Vegas today, a city built on the money of losers. Lots of machines in the airport to get your last few dollars.
Again liberals embrace free speech unless it disagrees with them. Thus protest and block the speech. Had there been conservatives blocking a liberal’s speech the students would have been livid, probably burned some cars, and sought safe places, so traumatized they would have to miss classes.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/22/politics/james-comey-howard-speech/index.html
The protesters should have been arrested.
Leaving Las Vegas today, a city built on the money of losers. Lots of machines in the airport to get your last few dollars.
Reno, like LV, is a dangerous place for some. In the 80’s I spent a couple of months in Reno on a warehouse automation project. A mid-level exec flew in for a few days to check on progress. After 4 days, the poor man was dead broke and had maxed out his credit cards chasing the “Big Win”. I had to pay for his cab back to the Airport. I knew if I loaned him the money it would go in the nearest slot he could find. Sad.
Me? I’d wander the casino floors for entertainment watching the winners and loosers. I would only play $1 BlackJack with a self imposed $20 bank. If I lost my $20 I’d go back to the room. If I got lucky, I’d put the original $20 back in my pocket and play till the winnings ran out. Had more fun watching the people than playing the games.
“Again liberals embrace free speech unless it disagrees with them.’
Those aren’t “liberals,” per se; they’re radical commie thugs.
It’s like unto the title of an old Nat Hentoff book:
“Free Speech for Me But Not for Thee.”
Revised for the 21st-Century’s Brave New World as “Hate Speech for Me But No Speech for You.”
But fuck Comey, anyway; he has a right to speak and the students had a right to hear him, but otherwise he’s just another Clinton Crime Family minion and tool like Mueller. Bosom buddies.
And if it had been Coulter or Milo trying to speak there, the commie thugs would have burned the place to the ground and violently attacked everyone in sight. Top comedians won’t even do college campuses anymore because of shit like this. So much for the ‘spirit of free and independent inquiry’ and learning the Truth.
Western Civ continues its slow noxious slide down the drain and the protesters and others of their ilk and those who finance them would obviously prefer Zimbabwe, the Congo, Saudi Arabia, or North Korea, so long as it takes the place of FUSA. I guess they figure that they’ll be large and in charge, instead of, more likely, being stood against a wall and shot, or beheaded with dull kitchen knives.
I guess they figure that they’ll be large and in charge, instead of, more likely, being stood against a wall and shot, or beheaded with dull kitchen knives.
Guillotines at Lewis-McCord. See my previous post.
I played slots one night in Berlin and lost all my beer money. I was broke until next payday, do I didn’t get to drink any beer. I love beer. I haven’t felt the urge to gamble since.
I’ve been to Vegas a few times. Some things struck me every time.
1. It smells bad. The desert isn’t so bad, but the strip just stinks.
2. It feels like desperation. Every time I walked through a casino, I could feel the desperation of the place.
3. It’s crowded. I don’t like crowds, and they’re everywhere.
4. It’s hard to go for a run. I like to run daily, and I can’t really do that there. At least, not easily. If you can’t run, you can’t get away easily should tshtf.
And I’ve never dropped a coin in a slot in that city. Cured, I tell you, by the love of beer.
Murkans aren’t big on guillotines; it’s a French and German thing. We go for hangings, shootings, gassings, and electrocutions. Of late, the crap shoot of lethal injection; the person might go quickly and quietly or in agony for an hour.
Or you could read HILLARY’s latest book or listen to antifas chanting.
Cured, I tell you, by the love of beer.
Is there nothing beer can’t do? (Homer Simpson)
Guillotines at Lewis-McCord
Saw a post last year from a Right Wing site breathlessly announcing they had discovered Obama’s nefarious plans to “off” the Tea Partiers. Buried in a govt. invoice, was a purchase order for hundreds of guillotines. PROOF …. PROOF … PROOF
I had to point out that you couldn’t buy neck choppers for under $500 each and as the rest of the invoice was for misc. office supplies, these were simply paper cutters called guillotines
https://www.zerbee.com/Products/Swingline-Guillotine-Trimmer__SWI99420.aspx?cpch=g1&cptoken=574B0A2B&gclid=CjwKCAjw6ZLOBRALEiwAxzyCWykAvSe3KHnXAOM67F0zpKO_V_q7FPie_3p-zEqSKPDeIZN3bchd2RoC0w4QAvD_BwE&onatalp=3423151576
I don’t think the paranoid faithful believed me … sigh.
Leaving Las Vegas today, a city built on the money of losers.
lol! Thank you, sir! Did you contribute $$ or just leech? It’s for the children, you see. And, the Mutant Zombie Stripper retirement fund.
I had to point out that you couldn’t buy neck choppers for under $500 each and as the rest of the invoice was for misc. office supplies, these were simply paper cutters called guillotines
A guillotine would be a six figure purchase on a government contract.
The “real” cost would still be five figures. What do Penn & Teller or Alice Cooper pay for their stage props? That would be the place to start.
When I worked for Death Star Telephone, before the company broke the union in 2009 and the strike threat was real, smart aleck me wanted one of the inflatable rats that the rank and file used on the picket line, a small one, just for giggles, to put in our conference room. So, I called the manufacturer and asked, “How much for a small Randall (Stephenson as in AT&T’s CEO) the Rat inflatable?”
“$10,000 for the 7 foot model, sir.”
Discount for bulk purchases?
We’ve started looking for property in Texas. The Vegas condo would be a retreat. Did I mention we put the condo under the Inc. I like to stick as many expenses to the IRS as possible. Maybe we can find a property by Booooosh in Crawford. I hear he is a recluse there with the wimmenz hanging out in Houston (what’s left of it) for socializing and shopping.
We’ve started looking for property in Texas.
North east TX is pretty nice. Paris TX is no longer a joke.
I’m thinking it’s time to build a new desktop. Main use will be the ‘central’ system for the first-level backups (laptops to desktop), and the source for second-level backups (desktop to encrypted cloud service).
Main requirement is decent performance, and tons of disk space. I have several external USB drives (500MB, 1TB, 5TB) that are in current use as the first-level backup storage. The system will get minimal use; it will be upstairs, and I spend most of my time downstairs on the laptop.
The cloud backup source is it’s main use. Not interested in NAS as the final backup; I need to have an off-site backup. I am retired, so don’t have the option of schlepping an external drive back and forth. Using CrashPlan now, but their home version is going away in about 9 months, so leaning towards BackBlaze, which allows automated and unlimited storage of internal and external (USB) drives as part of their basic plan ($50/yr).
I could do lots of storage with a Raspberry Pi, but that doesn’t give me the offsite storage. And I have not found any off-site/encrypted/automatic backup service (like BackBlaze) that will run on Linux. CrashPlan has a Linux version, but at about $125/yr. It would be cheaper with a Raspberry Pi solution if there was a off-site backup solution available. But I can spend the money at this point on a new Windows-based system.
The motherboard should support at least two internal drives; I’d take one of the USB drives and connect it internally. And I am familiar enough with building systems that I don’t mind putting together one, as long as the cost wasn’t out of bounds.
So: recommendations/thoughts on a system that meets the criteria? Or any Linux-based online/cloud backup system?
So: recommendations/thoughts on a system that meets the criteria? Or any Linux-based online/cloud backup system?
I am working on getting the pieces of an AM4-based AMD system to replace the main board of my home server, but I won’t have an initial verdict for a couple of weeks.
The upgrade and overclocking possibilities of the CPU/chipset family are what interested me sufficiently to consider going back to AMD. I’ve been Intel only for about eight years, since replacing an original Athlon 64 in my primary desktop with a Q6600 which is still going strong, providing plenty of CPU horespower for what I need it to do.
So: recommendations/thoughts on a system that meets the criteria? Or any Linux-based online/cloud backup system?
Buy a Mac Book Pro and an iPhone 8. You’ll get a ticket to “Elysium” and eternal life from the Ghost of Steve Jobs.
I’m sitting in the ante room of the Renaissance Resort ballroom in Indian Wells, CA. Hawking MrsAtoz’s book while she speaks. I met the Riverside Superintendant who bought 4,500 books. Bowing and scraping was in order. Up to Victorville after this for tomorrows gig.
I doubt you could do a gallows with a noose either
There’s a nice little path along the top of a hill in Basel, called (translated) the gallows promenade. From which I gather that people used to walk along it and admire the strange fruit hanging from the gallows. Must’ve been quite the place to take your lovely lass for a romantic evening walk.
Actually, lots of cities still have places like that; a few still have the gallows themselves. That pic is a fairly traditional form: three stone pillars with wooden poles suspended between them. I assume the criminals were hung from the poles.
Every time someone writes that, Baby Jesus curb-stomps a puppy.
It’s time to rein in John “Maverick” McCain. Oh, wait, his no vote on Odooshcare reform is exactly what the GOP country club wants. He has one foot in the grave and lets the rest of the yes voters off the hook. What a big FUCK YOU to the peeps.
“Every time someone writes that, Baby Jesus curb-stomps a puppy.”
And Judas gets a three-day pass from Hell.
Lucifer applauds.
Worse, the fell engines of Microsoft are further lubricated.
About two months ag0 I bought an Amazon Dot. Elsewhere I made a joke that it sits on the kitchen desk about 8 feet from our african gray parrot McEnroe. I joked that he would soon order 10# of premium peanuts. Reality strikes
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3017840/parrot-mimics-owner-to-make-purchases-using-amazon-echo
“So: recommendations/thoughts on a system that meets the criteria? Or any Linux-based online/cloud backup system?”
I would be happy to loan you my 15 year old copy of BTPPC.
“Up to Victorville after this for tomorrows gig.”
My condolences. I don’t go to Victorville; OTOH, I do go through Victorville.
….every time a person brings up “[operating system] is better than [operating system]”, unicorns die.
Don’t make unicorns die.
Score ! Picked up 19 cans of mountain house at a sale today. Paid $1 each. The downside is they were canned in 1977. 4 cans crackers. One case mixed meats. One case veg stew w beef. Half case rice and chicken. I think I’ll sample the crackers.
Truck maintenance came to $1600. Damn platinum catalyst.
N
So, 40 years ago. They should be fine.
“Truck maintenance came to $1600. Damn platinum catalyst.”
I’d SWAG there might be $1.60 worth of platinum on the substrate. I know that in organic lab I used to do metal-catalyzed syntheses that used a catalyst that contained literally micrograms of platinum or palladium.
Yeah, I can’t find any expiry dates, 1977 is handwritten on the case. Old style labels! They even say “packed by Oregon Freeze Dried Foods.” They’re #10 so they’ll go in my deep storage.
There might not be much platinum in the cat, but there is enough that thieves stealing them is a problem. There are even special tools to make stealing them easier.
n
Oh, got a camper mess kit and 2 aquatainers too. $3 each.
Passed on the coleman stoves and lanterns. Got plenty o them.
n
Did get the sat phone out and charged up. Been a while and it occurred to me that it was time.
I see that a dam broke in PR and an earthquake happened off the coast of Cali…
Getting kinda apocalyptic out there…..
n
At, I’m guessing, $400 for a large catalytic converter, $1200 is a lot of labor, even with seized bolts.
I guess I have only replaced one cat, at about $100 (small truck). It was not fun. I’d be thrilled to have gotten $100 for the labor, though. Pro labor of $300 would have been extreme, I figure.
The cat on the expedition is unique, two parts, and only available OEM, or so I’m led to believe.
As always, skimping cost extra. I knew there was some sort of issue last smog test, but we let it go, and it killed the bank 2 cat. So ended up fixing the issue, and replacing the cat. It is an ’08 with 130k miles…
n
I’m afraid that cat story sounds “reasonable” in the context of that sort of vehicle.
Ouch!
Up to Victorville after this for tomorrows gig.
Spent three days there last weekend. Brother and nephew lives there. Had a small family reunion. I also lived there for a year. Went to VVJRHI for eighth grade. Also went to Hook JRHI for seventh grade while I was living in Wrightwood. No way I would live in VV, partly for VV, other because it is still California.
Both brothers are leaving CA within the year. Totally fed up with liberal CA.
[snip] And once they took over, their rule was brutal and consisted largely of pillage, rape and ethnic cleansing. [snip]
Shh!! Some people around here like to pretend that no one of Northern European descent has ever committed rape. Only people from places like Guatemala and Ghana have ever done that.
I spent a couple of days/nights in Victorville back in ’73, hangin’ w/former AF Security Police colleagues. We smoked a few doobies and drank wine. The house was on the edge of the desert and there were interesting sunrises and sunsets and a gorgeous night sky back then.
There was also an active Hells Angels chapter in San Berdoo, IIRC.
Congrats to the Thompson brothers on GTFO ASAP. Lotta former Kalifornians skiddadled to Nevada and Idaho, I reckon.
Mrs. OFD will be home tomorrow for Saturday afternoon and night and Sunday morning and then off again, to Syracuse, NY for the week. Then off for the first three weeks of October, which should be peak leaf season up here. My drive back and forth through the Lamoille River valley for school is postcard-gorgeous. And the view from up on the campus above Johnson, VT is likewise.
I have a counseling lab class all day tomorrow out there, where we’ll be working on client-counselor-supervisor interactions. Could be fun. Maybe not. I may have an advantage over the others, having done fairly extensive therapy/counseling as a client myself and also dealing with the wack job nutcase killers in my vets group every week for the last several years.
And wife’s new kiln arrived today for her jewelry-making enterprise, one of her checks came in the snail mail, her Jeopardy check finally came, many moons after her appearance on the show, and an item arrived that I got at my next-younger brother’s request from the great folks at Ruger. I’ll be hooking up with him next week, I think, and handing it over. I’m also trading him my Taurus .357 revolver for his Glock 22 in .40 caliber. I’ll blow off the remaining .40 rounds and then do a barrel swap to make it a 9mm. Good practice, and I also gotta put tritium night sights on all the semi-auto pistols and paint the front and rear sights on two single-action revolvers.
After that, I have several other projects to get underway and I can pretty much do all the work sitting down, which is a huge plus right now.
I also need to reconfigure my scanner and shortwave setup here in this office and get some antenna stuff out the windows and into the trees.
I got stuff to do outside but it will be tricky, as I’ll have to have my cane with me and sit down frequently. Wife and I are agreed that I probably have to scout out another opinion outside the VA system, if possible; they’re trying to cut costs on us, per usual.
Still cruising on FaceBerg?
https://kakistocracyblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/the-gibs-singularity/
Jim Lang
“I played slots one night in Berlin and lost all my beer money. I was broke until next payday, do I didn’t get to drink any beer. I love beer. I haven’t felt the urge to gamble since.”
With your permission I’d like to share that beautiful prose with some friends.
I worked at the Hard Rock Casino in Vegas for a few months. Decided that living and working there would absolutely eat your soul. Was relieved when our show ended and I could go home.
There is an energy, which teeters on the edge of one thing, becoming another.. . Hopefulness and excitement transmuted to regret and desperation. It’s a dark and dangerous energy.
n
“Beautiful Prose”? Me? Flattery will get you everywhere. Feel free.
OFD wrote:
“I’m also trading him my Taurus .357 revolver for his Glock 22 in .40 caliber. I’ll blow off the remaining .40 rounds and then do a barrel swap to make it a 9mm.”
Just curious… Why bother?
If I were to guess, it would be for commonality. 9mm is as common as liberals in a big city. Very easy to find. .40? Not so much.
40 is a nice option, as it was available during the ammo drought.
LOTS of used 40s in the market. Since the FBI went back to 9 so are lots of other people.
I’ll leave the technical arguments out, but commonality of ammo is nice.
n
If I was in a place that would let me buy anything more lethal than a water pistol I’d want a range of calibres for that exact reason. If .22 LR is unobtainable then I don’t want all my guns in that calibre.
I thought Oz was similar to Canada in terms of rifles and shotguns being relatively easy to obtain, and pistols nearly impossible.
Probably true, but the ownership, storage and carriage conditions are fairly onerous.
“storage and carriage conditions are fairly onerous.”– which is why we need to fight against this sort of thing whenever it raises it’s head. Does no good to own something you can’t store, transport or use without committing a crime.
n
“Shh!! Some people around here like to pretend that no one of Northern European descent has ever committed rape. Only people from places like Guatemala and Ghana have ever done that.”
Nope, just making the point that there is no reason to IMPORT rapists, drug sellers, and murderers. As our president said, quite plainly, they aren’t sending us their ‘best and brightest’ they’re sending on the gangbangers, rapists, and criminals.
n
I don’t know about that. Depends on your definition of “around here”, I suppose. I’ve seen essentially that argument made, but never on this blog.
What is unarguably true* is that in the US, those who are of European or Oriental ancestry are convicted of rape at rates far lower than those who are not of that ancestry.
* Unless one denies FBI crime statistics and other sources other than anecdote. But talking with liars and fools is seldom productive and I advise against it.
“But talking with liars and fools is seldom productive and I advise against it.”
Ditto narcissists and diabolical narcissists. Waste of time talking to them. But be advised that once they know you’re on to them, they’ll badmouth you and try to fuck you up every chance they get and you are persona non grata FOREVER.
Exhibit A: Field Marshal Rodham, aka Cankles.
WRT to .40 versus 9mm: my reasoning for swapping the barrel out is twofold: commonality of ammo with every other Tom, Dick and Harry in the AO and in North Murka, and the .40 has kind of a nasty snap/bite recoil muzzle blast that I find, and many others find, kind of annoying. Much greater variety of ammo in 9mm by now, too, much of it leagues beyond what was available before.
Just like there are much faster and powerful loads for the AR rifles, like 22Nosler and 6.5 Grendel, etc,, etc. but the ammo is harder to find and more expensive. But then again, apparently, some guys own several dozen rifles and handguns each, not me.