It was 30 degrees, cloudy, and windy when I took Colin out at 7:30.
I called late yesterday afternoon and again this morning to check on Bob. He is about the same. Last night he squeezed the nurses hand. This morning, so far he has not. They may take him for CT later today.
Thanks for the update, Barbara.
Continued good wishes to you both.
Ditto, n
Barbara, add my thanks for Bob’s condition update.
Extra prayers that the CT scan finds something manageable.
You heard it hear first…
Had a very involved dream last night that I was working for a group that was installing an augmented reality game environment into a defunct shopping mall. Game would guide players around each other, map to steps, etc. There would be physical constructs to interact with as well.
Lots of empty malls. Cheap AR. Maybe we’re about to see a paradigm shift.
n
I’m driving to the far side of Austin today so will be radio silent for large chunks of the day. If time permits I’ll stop at the Surplus store and see if I can buy some more knives 🙂
I hope we hear something from OFD today.
Fires in Cali are moving toward where I used to live in the Highland Park/ Eagle Rock area.
I don’t expect any muslime violence as a result of T’s announcement until after the mullahs have had their chance to whip up the troops on Friday. Funny how the world just accepts that it’s T’s fault when the muzzies get violent. Kinda like an abusive spouse “See what you made me do you stupid cow?” They’re so quick to call out victim blaming everywhere else…. maybe they’re hypocrites? [ya think?]
n
and perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise, but google has their standard logo up today. f#ckers
Yes, today is Pearl Harbor Day. How soon we forget and today’s generation does not have a clue. My Dad enlisted in the Army Air Corps on Dec 8 and was piloting B-17s a year later.
My Son is a history buff (can we say that word in mixed company these days?) and told us at breakfast the whole and the rest of the story of Pearl Harbor. This from a child who could not read until 5th grade and the school district wanted to put him “special” classes. He got his special classes, all AP and straight As, and that was just the start. I’m very proud of him. He will be 34 this Saturday. Dad and Mom are very proud. He is high function autistic, true ADD and OCD before it became the thing that every male is drugged and diagnosed for today.
Buh bye, Franken.
My best to Bob. Don’t give up. Being in the hospital for a long time tears you down.
Franken should not resign. He has been accused, not convicted. That still means something.
Don’t get me wrong. He’s a tool. I disagree with almost everything he stands for. I want him OUT. But not this way. Conviction by a jury of peers is still the standard.
Buh bye, Franken.
Considering what he went through to sit in that seat, I didn’t think Franken would resign, but maybe the Democrats bought him a nice cabin in the wilderness next to Bernie’s.
Conviction by a jury of peers is still the standard.
I believe the Dumbocrats sacrificed him in some save the party attempt like in 2018 “see, we get rid of … while the Redumbos don’t”. If Moore gets elected, I guarantee it.
Don’t get me wrong. He’s a tool. I disagree with almost everything he stands for. I want him OUT. But not this way. Conviction by a jury of peers is still the standard.
Stuart Smalley needed the humiliation of an election loss IMHO. He won’t learn anything by resigning, and he’ll be back as a lobbyist. Guaranteed.
Franken should not resign. He has been accused, not convicted. That still means something.
Not in today’s political and social environment. Being a white male when you are accused of a sexual crime, whether true or not, you are immediately guilty. You have been convicted before you have a trial or appear in a court.
It has unfortunately reached a point that if a female employee wants to get even with a male boss all she need to do is complain of sexual harassment. The boss will almost immediately be terminated without any chance to defend themselves. If two females get together and conspire to eliminate a boss it becomes trivially easy.
It would be difficult to be a male boss with female employees. It would require extreme care that any meeting with any female is accompanied by at least two other people of opposing gender (female, shemale, hemale, whatever) and that any contact is recorded with video and audio with date and time stamps. No text messages to any female, no phone calls to any female that are not recorded
Yet a female boss over male workers has a free ticket. No male could ever get away with charging a female boss with sexual harassment. In the current climate such contact and issues are simply impossible.
The white male is doomed and is a dying species.
Take a look at Barbara’s Diary entry for today:
http://www.fritchman.com/journal/?p=4696
She needs support.
“Harvey damage could force hundreds in Houston area to raise their homes”
http://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/Harvey-damage-could-force-hundreds-to-raise-their-12411490.php?ipid=hpctp
Here is the future of Houston in preparation for Harvey II. Nice pictures.
We are still bitterly cold here in the sticks around Houston at 43 F. We are going down into the low 30s tonight. And apparently we are stealing California’s rain, who knew ? @Nick may see some sleet or snow at his house tonight.
Lots of empty malls. Cheap AR. Maybe we’re about to see a paradigm shift.
Been done already !
https://roadtrippers.com/us/monroeville-pa/points-of-interest/dawn-of-the-dead-mall
Franken takes one for the team.
I wish I could help. Bob’s business has been on my mind lately. As the sole, driving force behind the production, Bob’s illness could devastate the business. Makes me wish he had farmed some of that work out earlier. Barbara’s an integral part of it, but Bob’s the mind that makes it work.
I’m sure he’ll recover, and the business will continue to thrive. His customers are independent-minded folks that are probably a lot like him. But he’ll miss the Christmas season this year. Kids will be getting Forensics kits in the spring instead of Christmas.
Perhaps theHomeScientist.com should contain a message about his status – if nothing else it could help Barbara in that she may not get as many emails asking about kits that won’t ship soon.
Going back to the Judge Roy Moore thing, has anyone accused him of sexual harassment in the last 40 years ? This is looking more and more to me as made-up allegations, very similar to Judge Clarence Thomas in his confirmation hearings.
Franken takes one for the team.
Note that Franken did not resign yet, he only said that he was going to resign by the end of the year. Rush said this morning that if Judge Roy Moore is elected next week that he believes that Franken will not resign.
“Microsoft Explains How Windows on Snapdragon Works”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/357779/microsoft-explains-how-windows-on-snapdragon-works
Very interesting usage on the Microsoft JIT compiler. I was not aware that it could translate x86 machine code to ARM machine code.
It would be difficult to be a male boss with female employees. It would require extreme care that any meeting with any female is accompanied by at least two other people of opposing gender (female, shemale, hemale, whatever) and that any contact is recorded with video and audio with date and time stamps. No text messages to any female, no phone calls to any female that are not recorded
I have three female employees. I never close the door when we are meeting. Never. And one of them calls me an sexist jerk quite regularly. To my face.
BTW, one of my female employees is my wife who is our office manager. She probably saves my bacon regularly and I don’t even know.
Yet a female boss over male workers has a free ticket. No male could ever get away with charging a female boss with sexual harassment. In the current climate such contact and issues are simply impossible.
Michael Crichton wrote a rather good book about this which was made into a movie with Demi Moore and Michael Douglas.
https://www.amazon.com/Disclosure-Novel-Michael-Crichton/dp/0345539001/
I’m working with Barbara to get access to his hosting place so I can add some text to the HomeScientist page that she needs. Slow progress.
Which brings to mind about one’s interwebs’ presence, and how to maintain/alert in case of emergency. Which is why I created (a couple of years ago) the http://www.NotHereAnymore.com site as a place to automatically foward ‘messages’ to friends after one’s dirt nap starts. Only I use it, at the moment; it’s a hard thing to publicize, since nobody wants to really deal with ‘pre-demise’ issues until it is too late – and then it is too late.
Kind thoughts to Robert and Barbara.
Very interesting usage on the Microsoft JIT compiler. I was not aware that it could translate x86 machine code to ARM machine code.
ARDI Executor did something similar 20 years ago emulating the old Mac OS. Their white paper is still around in the Interwebs if you’re curious.
Yet a female boss over male workers has a free ticket. No male could ever get away with charging a female boss with sexual harassment. In the current climate such contact and issues are simply impossible.
My last female boss at legacy GTE was somewhere on the LGBTQXYZ spectrum. She used to get busy with our female test engineering manager in the file room after lunch a couple of times a week.
The relationship led to lots of problems, especially since we were deep into y2k testing at the time. I remember walking into one meeting, spending 20 minutes diagramming our server processes on the white board, and, at the end, the lead of the all female testing staff giggled, “Unix? We don’t know Unix.”
It’s good to know Rick’s on it.
Prayers for Bob, Barbara, Dave Hardy, and others in tough spots right now.
Note that Franken did not resign yet, he only said that he was going to resign by the end of the year. Rush said this morning that if Judge Roy Moore is elected next week that he believes that Franken will not resign.
Franken knows how to put on a show.
I’m old enough to remember when Rush Limbaugh first hit the big time ~ 91/92 and Franken offered Limbaugh right of refusal on all material and input on the West Coast edit as part of a deal for an SNL hosting appearance. Limbaugh declined but crowed about it for weeks.
It has not been a good end of 2017 for a lot of members on this board. If any good can come out of this, it might be that the rest of us (especially the older members) need to take even little health issues seriously.
I suspect most of us are pretty independent and are not prone to asking for help from others but sometimes we need to swallow our pride and admit we don’t know everything.
Really? Unless she’s an outstanding programmer or whatever, you should fire her for her poor language skills. She should know that the article “an” is used only before a vowel sound.
Nah, you just gotta use some imagination.
“Do you live in daily dread that the police will haul you away for your blog posts and your reader won’t have any clue that you’ve been disappeared? Leave your tell-all final message at NotHereAnymore.com!”
“Are the aches and pains worse every day? Thinking of ending it all? Go ahead, that’s your right. But don’t leave your loved ones wondering. Leave them one last message for when you’re not here anymore. Take care of it now — right now — while you’re thinking about it. Did you forget you have Alzheimer’s, too? Do it now: NotHereAnymore.com”
“Before you take up arms against the inevitable Negro Uprising that is going to wash across the land, take care of your last testament on all of the websites where you have a presence. God has chosen you as one of His soldiers, but He never promised you’ll make it through the Holy conflict. Let the world know you’ve gone to a better place by leaving your words with NotHereAnymore.com”
“When the greys take you aboard their ship and whisk you off to see their ancient civilization, let people on Earth know you aren’t here anymore. NotHereAnymore.com for all your post-abduction needs.”
calls me an sexist jerk
Really? Unless she’s an outstanding programmer or whatever, you should fire her for her poor language skills. She should know that the article “an” is used only before a vowel sound.
That was my failure. I could not exactly remember her choice of words from the last time (still can’t). She is a salesperson and quite good at it.
I’m old enough to remember when Rush Limbaugh first hit the big time ~ 91/92 and Franken offered Limbaugh right of refusal on all material and input on the West Coast edit as part of a deal for an SNL hosting appearance. Limbaugh declined but crowed about it for weeks.
Was that before or after Franken’s tell all book about Rush ?
https://www.amazon.com/Rush-Limbaugh-Big-Fat-Idiot/dp/0440508649/
Was that before or after Franken’s tell all book about Rush ?
Before. 1992-93. Franken’s book hit in 1996.
The perfect gift for everyone on this site.
(There’s no item-specific link on that “shop” page, so here’s the article which led me there.)
Well. It drizzled mist all day yesterday. 1.25 inches and it all soaked in. High of 42F.
Today? Right now? It’s snowing.
36F down from 44F a couple of hours ago. It sounds like misty rain on what is left of the leaves on the trees…. white misty rain that blows up and sideways.
Snow? Here? We’re all gonna diieeee!!!!!
The perfect gift for everyone on this site.
Brings to mind this old joke.
I been following Guildbrook Farm for a long time now, their ups and most recently the big down.
Well they have been busy and now seem to have found their new home:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN3EO7xudSo
For me this was a heart lifting video. Please enjoy.
Add/Edit: Some time in the past Bob mentioned he liked this site and is one of the better produced homestead sites.
Since medical issues are on everyone’s mind. I was diagnosed with diabetes last week. Have to loose 20 pounds ASAP. No Christmas dinner for me, sigh. Wife has been living with type 1 diabetes for 18 years. She was borderline diabetic then the UK incoptent NHS treatment almost killed her and ruined her pancreas. Yay socialized medicine. Not.
Time for some levity, folks…
Ran across this and much, much more in a similar vein discussing old music with my 80+ yo aunt.
How much do you want to bet this isn’t included in the curricula for a BA degree in “African-American Studies”?
Hope OFD sees this…
NSFW!
https://youtu.be/noYz-nQXvbo
Home safe.
No word from OFD? Time for a letter to his house, I think.
n
Before this Pearl Harbor Day passes into history, please take a few minutes to listen to this oldie but goodie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlwmhWiiD2I
From back in the days when music meant something.
No word from OFD? Time for a letter to his house, I think.
Was thinking just a few minutes ago that if he hadn’t reappeared by tomorrow evening I’d be mailing a “To whom it may concern” letter on Saturday asking the recipient to either contact me directly or, preferably, post a comment here.
If some of the more adventuresome types here would care to try the phone numbers I linked to in yesterday’s comments, please feel free.
It’s easy to assume the worst, but OFD’s radio silence could be due to a dead or stolen phone or laptop.
H. Combs: Bummer about the diabetes. Do they think it will turn around if you lose the weight and modify your diet? It sucks to miss Christmas dinner, but it’s a small price to pay if it improves your health.
Al, the bright side is if I loose the pounds and keep it off I may be good after a while. No better reason to shed the weight.
Maybe :Mrs. Dave H so it doesn’t look like junk mail….
and a very delicate, dave is part of our online community, and his last post he was having some complications from his back surgery, and we haven’t heard from him since, and we’re a bit worried. Pay no mind to the strangers wanting medical details, from somewhere on the interwebs she might not even be aware dave is part of…..
n
Maybe :Mrs. Dave H so it doesn’t look like junk mail….
Excellent advice. Fear not, I shall be as diffident and discreet as possible!
“I have three female employees. I never close the door when we are meeting. Never.”
Makes me recall the early to mid 80s when I and my colleagues said and did stuff that would result in the sack nowadays. I once accused a flat chested woman of wearing a padded bra when her boobs seemed to have grown noticibly. “No I’m not.” “Yes you are.” “No I’m not.” and she offered to prove it. (She always wore translucent blouses to work, with a bra. She was a goddess but unfortunately had a serious boyfriend.)
We also had revealing pinups in the workplace. Has anyone even seen them in the workplace in the last 20 years?
“And one of them calls me an sexist jerk quite regularly. To my face.”
She’s giving you a hint. She wants to ‘explore new employment oportunities’.
Greg Norton wrote:
‘“Unix? We don’t know Unix.”’
UNIX. The operating system with no balls.
It is snowing ! We are 40 miles away from the biggest hot tub in the world. This should not be happening.
My 20 minute commute to 80 last night. I’m one of those big 4×4 guys – I don’t have trouble getting going from a stop, otherwise I go 4×2. (When it gets squirrelly, I know to slow down).
2 things happen the first snow:
1. People have to re-learn how to drive in this stuff.
2. It really is more slippery – the warm ground & cold snow make a really slick layer of water on the ground.
Once everything freezes, it will get better.
I was hoping for Bob’s advice, but he has more important things to do. My kids want a telescope. One of Bob’s old posts (on the old board) OFD asked about binocs found on this site: https://www.telescope.com/catalog/search.cmd?form_state=searchForm&siteCode=US&keyword=telescope&refinementValueIds=4543.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the best kind of telescope? My kids are 6-10 years old, so I’m not in the market for a high-end device that will catch dust. If they like stargazing and want to continue, I’ll invest as much as necessary.
JimL: Unless you’re into astro photography or want something auto guided, the best bang for the buck is usually a reflector. They have high light gathering ability for a relatively low price. On the low end, something like this would do:
https://www.telescope.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=106929&src=row1col2-prodimage
Be warned though, it’s nothing like what you see in the ads. Most of the things you’ll see are cool but pretty underwhelming. You’ll be able to see things like Saturn’s rings and some star clusters, but the image will be very tiny. With things like video games and 4K TV, kids are spoiled and probably won’t be very impressed.
You might also want to consider a good set of binoculars. They do a good job can be used for other things as well and take up a lot less space. The down side is the kids won’t be anywhere nears as impressed.
I’m not trying to discourage you. It’s a lot of fun, but I suspect the majority of telescopes sold are used once or twice and then end up in the cellar.
I was into astronomy as a young teen. Once I could go out, look at the sky, say “that’s gotta be Saturn”, and point the telescope at it – then it was fun. However, it took a lot of practice – and a good book with helpful sky diagrams – to get to that point. I actually spotted a distant comet at one point – unfortunately, I wasn’t the first to spot it, but it was still fun reporting it.
Today? Light pollution has become a huge problem. On a really clear night, we see maybe 100 stars. It would be a lot less fun
Thank you, both. I think I’ll get the reflector and no binocs. The telescope will be harder to fight over I think.
Fortunately, I’m far enough out of the city that light pollution doesn’t wash out the entire sky. It’s still a problem, but looking at the features on the moon and getting Saturn’s rings will be a good start. Next summer’s camping trip will be better.
I do like that it includes a basic book and downloadable software. Anything is better than “here – look through this telescope”. They’ll appreciate that.
When I was younger, I had a refractor scope. I really enjoyed using it, but it wasn’t as fascinating as reading about space travel, so it collected dust after the first year. I have no experience with the reflector, but I understand the improvements. I’ll be looking forward to helping them set it up & use it.
@JimL, I”m no expert, but my kids are 6 and 8.
I got out a spotting scope and put it on a tripod for the “super moon”. Even with just that level of mag, the moon moves thru the field of view pretty quickly, almost too fast to get the kids in place.
I can’t imagine them being at all interested in looking at points of light thru a scope. What WAS fun when the sky was dark enough, is looking up at the MACRO sky and seeing constellations and specific bright objects. They haven’t seen the Milky Way yet, but that impresses even me.
I understand there is an ipad app that is really good for identifying what is in your sky as it uses the compass and gps to show a ‘window’ of the sky where you are. Haven’t tried it yet.
Good luck,
n