Wed. Nov. 11, 2020 – Veterans’ Day

By on November 11th, 2020 in personal, radio, Surveillance State, WuFlu

Overcast, damp, but hopefully cool.

We got a bare dusting of rain in the early morning yesterday, and it was still sitting on stuff at 6pm.  THAT’S how damp it was in Houston.  You sweat just standing still, even at 76F.

I did one pickup, of stuff for the house mainly.  I did get 3 partial jugs of smokeless powder for reloading.  Not something I do, but I’ve got most of what I’d need to reload shotgun… or I’ll sell it as a bundle and hopefully get more than I would for just the pieces.

Today I need to rent a trailer to get all the things.  Mainly I bought 2 pallets of fiberglas batt insulation.  I am going to finish my bathroom project this fall/winter/spring.  It was 2/5 the price of lowes, and that’s a pretty big discount.  I really only needed one pallet, but for the first time in months, the pallets went for less than $200 and my ‘safety placeholder’ bid won.    I’ll use it up in the attic over the kitchen where the existing insulation is minimal.

I’ve got another pickup before that one.  I won some shotgun ammo in a local estate sale.  It went for much less than the crazy high prices the rifle and pistol ammo brought.  Shotty will work just fine, come the day.

Before all that though, daughter 1 has an orthodontia appointment this morning.   I’ll be taking her to that, then back to school.

After all my other tasks, then I’ll use the trailer to move one more thing in the late afternoon/evening and I’ll be done running around for the day.


The local and regional PD have been working overtime on surveillance and arrests.   The other night a massive task force went after the street racers.  Then there was some drug surveillance involving DEA and their aircraft.  Today it was auto theft and armed robbery.    They followed the bad guys and grabbed them as soon as it started to go down.  Had the helo up in case the guys ran.   Some other thing was running too, involving ATF as one of the partner agencies.

The interesting thing for me is that the bad guys still manage to lose the good guys  lot of the time.  Or they spot some of the surveillance and avoid doing any crimes in front of those units, but they can’t help themselves and still commit crimes in front of the others.  Often, the good guys will use a marked unit to make the stop, almost always after establishing probable cause so the target never even knows they were being watched.  I can’t believe how many crooks have broken tail lights, or do really stupid stuff in traffic.   I’d say that 99% of the stuff the local PD and the task forces do never even gets noticed by the press.  Get a scanner and start listening.  It’s enlightening and well worth just having it on while you’re doing other things.

So much to do, I better get busy.   Keep getting ready, keep stacking.

 

nick

59 Comments and discussion on "Wed. Nov. 11, 2020 – Veterans’ Day"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    BTW, I suspect some outside influence on kid 1, and need to start watching her online activity. Isn’t there some way using a packet capture tool and wireshark that I can just watch everything she does as if I was looking over her shoulder? It’s WAY beyond what I’d like to do, but she’s already downloaded some app to get around my wife’s nanny filters, and I’m concerned… we’ve told her many times that we can see everything she does online and not to expect privacy.

    Inserting a transparent proxy and monitoring users’ web activity on a network used to be fairly simple but most browser connections are HTTPS these days for “privacy”. Out of the box on most distributions, Squid (the most popular Linux proxy) is limited to just logging the destination address for the HTTPS CONNECT initiated on the client’s behalf.

    If you are really serious about monitoring all of the web activity and not up for a serious project time sink to recompile/configure Squid for “SSL Bump”, the go-to solution in the corporate world is a proxy appliance like Blue Coat’s boxes. Symantec sells those with a seat count as small as 30 IIRC. Pricey, but you’re gaining the education, the cost of which could be sunk with a client (or clients plural) later.

    I’m not sure what kind of licensing and support deals are involved with the boxes. EBay is probably not a good idea. I see AT&T Netgate routers on EBay all the time, most likely out of demo-ed Tricon restaurants — think Taco Bell — and I know that the Netgates will brick themselves within a few minutes of having access to the Internet to check authorization.

    Web traffic monitoring/proxying at work is a weird legal area, so the scene is very hush hush. There are applications beyond security such as WAN optimization, but a lot of liability gets assumed if an organization tells employees that they’re being watched and fail to follow through on violations of web policy.

    My new job involves production of a box that sits on a corporate network and monitors traffic so I’ll get an upclose look at what is current in that area of tech. I have not played with Squid in more than a decade, and my experience predates “HTTPS Everywhere”.

  2. Ray Thompson says:

    My Netgear router has the ability to block sites by domain or by keyword. Trusted IP’s can be added that can bypass the blocking. May not be the level you want to achieve but is a relatively cheap start to blocking. I suspect your child would eventually find a way around the blocks. The first few times a site shows as blocked might make her realize she is being watched.

    I did use it on one exchange student with the blocking done on a schedule. Limited success as she used the data on her phone on the cell network. We eventually had to imprison her phone between 11:00 PM and 7:00 AM each day. She was communicating with her friends in Europe (6 hours ahead) and would start chatting about midnight until about 4:00 in the morning. Thus limited sleep at night, falling asleep in school, grumpy and disrespectful to us, and other issues. She eventually left by her own decision which was fine with me and actually a relief.

  3. Pecancorner says:

    Nick, I’m sure you are already doing this as part of daily life, but this is a great time to step up work intensely on training her in Sceptical Thinking. While you do need to control internet access at her young age, this is a prime time to teach her how to identify honest truth from Progressive Fiction, and how to eliminate “the stories” from articles/programs and look for the weasel words, twists of facts, etc. Show her good content that presents the other side and make her compare them side by side. You can even do it using commercials and ads as those are relatively “All Ages” in content, and the young one could also participate when using advertising as the subject.

    It will help her feel she is being treated as a mature person, with respect, while keeping you and her mother in the loop and in control. Kids don’t like to be manipulated, and if she can learn how to spot this herself it will save her a world of troubles in the future. Plus it will give her the tools and backing to stand up (at least mentally even if she keeps quiet to others) for herself and to seek out her own accurate knowledge.

  4. Pecancorner says:

    I am making my holiday Chex Mix today. It is my variation of an old original recipe that has loads of butter and Lea & Perrins Worchestershire Sauce (other brands are watered down – L&P is worth spending the extra for). I made 5 gallons (11 batches) on Sunday, and will make another 4 or 5 batches today. I’m not a baker, so it’s the only Christmas cooking I do, other than Christmas Dinner, of course. I give the kids a gallon per family, and smaller bags to others in the family, friends, neighbors. My son that lives far away rations his to make it last til March, poor dear LOL.

    Here’s the recipe in case anyone is interested:
    https://pecancorner.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-chex-mix-recipe.html

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    Wife has already installed Circle and updated the hardware once. It’s some sort of firewall/filter that uses arp cache poisoning to control access to the internet for devices on the network. (from what I remember after a REALLY deep dive- they don’t want you to know how it does it’s “magic”.) It has fairly fine grained controls and allows blocking devices by time as well as content. It’s not stopping google image searches for sub/dom bdsm and a whole bunch of other related things.

    Until this year, we didn’ allow any computer uses outside of the living room. School and desk work have made that impossible to enforce.

    My fear is in game chat passing along a link or app name to a covert comms channel in one of the grooming apps.

    NO idea where the initial interest came from, could have been one of the books from the school library. She reads so fast we lost the ability to screen her reading list, and were counting on the district to limit content. Unfortunately, I realized that anything with an LGBTQEYEYEYYEIO or teen alternative sex content is more likely to be PROMOTED than restricted by the schools.

    Initial searching on something to get a definition could lead to falling down an internet rabbit hole, it’s happened often enough to me. My concern is for some person initiating this as the beginning of a grooming effort.

    I have a couple of corporate firewall boxes, bluesocket iirc, unknown license state…. I might have to find out. But I thought that I could link ports in my switch and capture all the traffic that way? I guess https means I’d just capture an encrypted stream? I have an enterasys enterprise level switch…

    n

  6. MrAtoz says:

    9yo is suddenly not doing the school work, just sits and listens to audiobooks all day when she’s supposed to be paying attention in class. The other kids rat her out, then the teacher gets upset, and complains that it’s disrupting the whole class.

    We are entering into the dumbest generation in a long time thanks to COVID lockdown. You aren’t the only one Mr. Nick. One of our granddaughters is 10. Turns out she didn’t do her homework for two weeks. Mom wasn’t sitting with her on the laptop, but got suspicious when she had “no” homework. Mom called the school and, sure enough, “Oh yeah, she hasn’t turned in homework for two weeks.” Why wouldn’t the teacher or school call? Shitty public school. Another week goes by with no homework turned in because granddaughter says “nobody turns in homework.” This week she started at a new school. Old school said she didn’t fit in there. Really? A 10 year old is blamed. No wonder Nevada public schools continually rate at the bottom.

    Fortunately, Ole Plugs Biden gonna fix all this with healin’. Him and the Camel.

    LET THE HEALING BEGIN!

  7. SteveF says:

    Decades ago, my (first) wife and I stayed with one of her aunts for a week, attending a family reunion. While there I made a batch of chex mix (using the entirety of three boxes of cereal and nuts and pretzels to suit) to bring to one of the parties, this being before the stuff was available pre-made. The aunt snitched a few pieces because she’d never seen it before (!!??). And then snitched a bit more and a bit more, all the while saying, “Oh, you know, I can’t eat this because it’s bad for me.” Which was probably true: she was in her mid-70s, somewhat overweight, and said she had cholesterol and other problems. But she really liked it.

    After we got back home, I made another batch and mailed a quart ziploc bag to her, which she appreciated.

    (I’ve mentioned that trip before, as having done dozens of minor household repairs for the aunt, in context of her parasite son, who lived about a hundred feet away, never having bothered to do any of them.)

  8. MrAtoz says:

    Unfortunately, I realized that anything with an LGBTQEYEYEYYEIO or teen alternative sex content is more likely to be PROMOTED than restricted by the schools.

    I remember a couple of years ago some school promoting the use/understanding and putting together of “fisting kits” in K-12. Yeah, that’s normal. Add LGBTqwerty to anything and it is acceptable to the ProgLibTurds, who control public school.

  9. MrAtoz says:

    And in other news from yesterday when we were discussing the 90% vaccine and who gets it:

    Biden Task Force Doctor: Give Vaccine To Other Countries Before Some Americans

    Good ole Dr. Death himself. A commie to the core. I’m not surprised at suggestions of letting Americans die after paying for, producing, and distributing a vaccine. Fcuk Emanuel. Now a top Plugs advisor. Charge the rest of the World double and pay off our National debt.

  10. drwilliams says:

    I was serious earlier about one world price for the vaccine. The bill to do that should be passed by the Senate immediately and passed to the House.

  11. Greg Norton says:

    I have a couple of corporate firewall boxes, bluesocket iirc, unknown license state…. I might have to find out. But I thought that I could link ports in my switch and capture all the traffic that way? I guess https means I’d just capture an encrypted stream? I have an enterasys enterprise level switch…

    Without properly configuring the browser host machine’s trusted certificate list to work with a device like a Blue Coat proxy sitting in the middle of the SSL stream, you’ll just capture IP addresses, not even the complete URL.

  12. Greg Norton says:

    The projected landfall for Eta north of Tampa could be worse for the city than a storm going right up the bay. It all depends on timing/tides.

    A lot of the housing developments west of the airport and toll road, built in the last 30 years, sit just 12 feet above sea level, even well inland. Most of the construction is junk so even a minor storm pushing water inland could wreak considerable financial damage.

    https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-11-11-tropical-storm-eta-forecast-florida-hurricane-watch

  13. Ray Thompson says:

    We are entering into the dumbest generation in a long time thanks to COVID lockdown

    This Covid stuff is just accelerating what was already the makings of the laziest and dumbest generation ever produced. Having subbed in the high school I have seen a lot of the downward spiral. There are a few bright spots, but the majority do just enough to get by.

    The school administrators at the state and federal level are largely at fault. Standardized tests have made teaching to the test the norm. School money, teacher evaluations (and raises) are tied to performance of the students on the tests. Thus the school teaches to get the test. The students really have no idea how to think, just an answer, with no realization of how to get the answer.

    Add in the new normal of everyone gets a participation trophy. Same with with scholarships awarded to everyone that is going to community college funded by the lotteries. Only people that don’t get the scholarships are those going into trades or the military. There is zero incentive to excel, to do better, to rise above the rest.

    This had to lazy students. Performing at the level of the lowest. Doing more gets nothing so why bother? Cell phone, texting, snapchat, whatever is more important and valuable use of time for the students.

    Many of these students have parents that have made welfare a career choice. These parents do OK with the “free” stuff from the government, handouts from organizations. Free lunches at school for everyone because the state does not want to embarrass a few that truly need the additional support. Better to give everyone free lunches rather than make someone feel inferior.

    When the current crop of students enter the workforce the results will be a bunch of dim witted, lazy, conceited, incompetent, “everyone owes me”, ignorant slobs.

  14. Pecancorner says:

    9yo is suddenly not doing the school work, just sits and listens to audiobooks all day when she’s supposed to be paying attention in class.

    One of our granddaughters is 10. Turns out she didn’t do her homework for two weeks. Mom wasn’t sitting with her on the laptop, but got suspicious when she had “no” homework. Mom called the school and, sure enough, “Oh yeah, she hasn’t turned in homework for two weeks.”

    LOL This brings back memories. I spent the entire 5th grade writing 100 times “I will not read during Math class. I will not read during Math class….” again and again. I would hide my fiction book in my lap to read instead of paying attention. That was the same class that I would tell my mother “No, we didn’t have any homework today.” As soon as she got wise, she would make me walk the 5 blocks back to school and get my books.

    The reason I hated math class was because I had never learned my multiplication tables, and it took me another year or so before I figured out enough backhanded ways to figure the numbers out to be able to work the problems without knowing how to multiply.

  15. Harold says:

    Re: monitoring SSL connections
    Without a quality SSL proxy like Bluecoat, it’s hard to do. At my last employer we used both Bluecoat and a client based screen / keyboard logger to intercept the folks who were using Cell phones Data hotspots to bypass the corporate network. Can’t recall the vendor but I know it was part of a AV client. Would log screen capture of each site and all keystrokes transparently to the user. This was on Win-7 and Win-10 clients.

  16. DadCooks says:

    Not surprised that there is no mention of…
    Today Is Veterans Day

    My thanks to all my fellow and lady past and present Veterans. Too bad what we did does not count anymore. We are now part of the shunned.

    For me, it is another day of run silent and run deep. Primus Audax Custos (First Bold Guardian, motto of SSN688, USS Los Angeles, Retired)

  17. JimB says:

    Happy Veterans Day to all, fallen and living!

    Just lurking here a bit late, so FIFY. Shame on us for not mentioning it. I will also mention Armistice Day, commemorating the “war to end all wars.” No further comment needed.

  18. dkreck says:

    Yes, a memorable day and thanks to all Vets. In my defense the flag went up a 6am

  19. Nick Flandrey says:

    And I checked to see that my flag was properly lit last night in anticipation of today, but I was so tired last night when I wrote the post that I forgot. I remembered again this morning, asking my wife if she was sure the kids had school, but again failed to update the post.

    The kid’s school announcements mentioned it and even discussed what a Veteran is and why they should be honored, and mentioned all the branches, including the Coasties…

    My apologies to all who have served. Please be assured that I remember you and honor the sacrifices made EVERY day.

    n

  20. lynn says:

    Two of my favorite veterans (but I have a lot of them including Mr. Ray and Mr. AtoZ !), my son heading to Iraq for the second time carrying an M4 with a thermal imager at 29 Palms, CA in 2007:
    https://www.winsim.com/michael_usmc.jpg
    and my father-in-law at the wife’s family farm in Texas carrying my wife’s older sister in 1956:
    https://www.winsim.com/richard_army.jpg

  21. Clayton W. says:

    The reason I hated math class was because I had never learned my multiplication tables, and it took me another year or so before I figured out enough backhanded ways to figure the numbers out to be able to work the problems without knowing how to multiply.

    In 2nd grade my family moved so I was about 5 or 6 weeks late starting school. Every morning we had to recite the times table for the week and then were spot quizzed on them. Of course I didn’t have them memorized and I suck at memorizing things anyway. So I figured out how to do the math in my head. Come January we had finished all the times table and had to learn REAL multiplication…. Which I already knew! Well, I was always good at math. It helps to pick smart parents.

    I just got my VFW package yesterday. It turns out that Submarine Deterrent Patrols count.

    Thanks to everyone that served. I know the sacrifices you made, and the ones you signed up to make.

  22. lynn says:

    LOL This brings back memories. I spent the entire 5th grade writing 100 times “I will not read during Math class. I will not read during Math class….” again and again. I would hide my fiction book in my lap to read instead of paying attention. That was the same class that I would tell my mother “No, we didn’t have any homework today.” As soon as she got wise, she would make me walk the 5 blocks back to school and get my books.

    I can remember getting pops in 8th grade for reading during class. Didn’t stop me as I was reading every Heinlein in the school library. I just learned to hide it better. And I made straight As in 8th and 9th grades.

  23. lynn says:

    “Remember When Minneapolis Defunded Its Police? They’re Regretting That Now”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/remember-when-minneapolis-defunded-its-police-theyre-regretting-now

    “Minneapolis officials are considering bringing in officers from other jurisdictions to help the city’s Police Department as they face a wave of violent crime and an officer shortage.”

    “If the mayor and City Council approve the plan, officers from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and Metro Transit Police would temporarily work with the city, primarily helping to respond to violent 911 calls.”

    Yup, predictable.

    More info:
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8934047/Minneapolis-asks-draft-extra-cops-help-fight-wave-violent-crime.html

  24. lynn says:

    “Georgia Announces Hand Recount As Razor-Thin Margins Persist”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/georgia-announces-hand-recount-razor-thin-margins-persist

    Cool. Now we get to see if these Dominion ballot tabulating machines really are giving the wrong totals.

  25. lynn says:

    Scott Adams is going nuts on twitter:
    https://twitter.com/ScottAdamsSays

    “Do you hear that dog that isn’t barking? It’s the top statistical experts on the left who are looking at election rigging allegations and coming to a slow boil in their own flop sweat.”

    “Given that we no longer have any credible institutions in this country, I will tell you who is the legitimate president when the dust settles. Unless someone has a better idea?”

    “The most corrupt institutions and individuals in America have declared that the election was free of fraud, and that’s good enough for me. What’s wrong with the rest of you?”

    “I looked in my pants pockets and found no diamonds. Therefore, diamonds do not exist.
    Wolf Blitzer @wolfblitzer “Check out the front page banner headline in the Wednesday morning @nytimes””

    “I live in the dumbest state in the union.”

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  26. MrAtoz says:

    Thanks to all the Vets.

    SJW troll are pointing out tRump never served, but turn a blind eye to Plugs. Tone deaf to the max. Obola anyone? Who is the last Dumbo to serve?

  27. dkreck says:

    Who is the last Dumbo to serve?

    Carter

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  28. Pecancorner says:

    Re Veterans:
    We celebrate them every day in our home, our flag flies every day, and I put up bunting for each military holiday, including this one. Other than changing wreaths and a couple of doo-dads for Christmas and Halloween, US military holidays are the only holidays I decorate the outside of the house for.

    My son served two tours in Iraq, and as a DI at Parris Island. My dad served in the US Army and Reserves, and told me yesterday that one thing he is proudest of was serving as a guard for President Eisenhower for 4 days when the president visited his base. His father served in the Navy between the Great War and WWII. My great grandfather served in The Great War, and was wounded diving into a foxhole. My sister served in the National Guard for 8 years. My nephew is currently serving in the Marines, and one of my daughters in love is in the US Air Force.

    God bless all our veterans. I doubt that anyone here relegates you to a single day or a price discount. We know what you’ve done, and what it means for all of us.

    https://pecancorner.blogspot.com/2010/05/mettle-of-honor-part-i-heroes-of-3rd.html

  29. lynn says:

    Exactly what I suspected.

    https://pjmedia.com/election/megan-fox/2020/11/11/usps-election-whistleblower-i-did-not-recant-n1138640

    Wow, he has been placed off duty without pay. So much for being a whistleblower.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    “Who is the last Dumbo to serve?”

    Carter

    Submarines. The last Seawolf class built is the USS Jimmy Carter.

  31. Greg Norton says:

    Wow, he has been placed off duty without pay. So much for being a whistleblower.

    The union will get rid of him soon.

  32. SteveF says:

    There are legal restrictions on punishing whistleblowers.

    They don’t seem to be enforced much.

  33. dkreck says:

    There are legal restrictions on punishing whistleblowers.

    They don’t seem to be enforced much.

    Jackpot! Hire a good lawyer and file a civil suit.

  34. lynn says:

    Is it true that Hunter Biden has been nominated to lead the DEA ?

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  35. DadCooks says:

    Jimmy Carter was the first President to go for a ride in a submarine, my boat the SSN 688 USS Los Angeles. There was no Secret Service along for the Ride, just Jimmy, Rosalynn, and Jody Powell as “guests” of Admiral Rickover. I was the EPCP Operator (Electric Plant Control Panel) during his entire visit except for “lunch” when those of us on watch were relieved to have lunch with the President and First Lady. I sat across from Roslynn. She was amazed at how clean the whole submarine was. Well, we had painted and scrubbed for 72+ hours straight before their visit.

    The Admiral ran drills after lunch which started when he sent all the Officers to the Ward Room and announced to the “guests” that they would now see how the real work gets done in the Navy, by “his” enlisted. The drills concluded with a Fast SCRAM Recovery and Emergency Blow that provides quite the ride for the “guests”.

    Jimmy Carter is quite the softspoken person and Rosalynn is a very proper and gentle lady.

  36. MrAtoz says:

    Is it true that Hunter Biden has been nominated to lead the DEA ?

    LOL! And brother Jim DOEd. The Camel’s husband will prolly run the DOJ. But what about all the Obola and Klinton sycophants? Valerie Jarrett Chief Executioner of anybody who “got a paycheck” from tRump. Obola as Poet Laureate. Put Cankles back in at State to kill off some more gay Ambassadors. How about Lurch at the Treasury. You know these ass kissers are crawling out of the woodwork. Healing.

    LET THE HEALING BEGIN!

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  37. paul says:

    I’m over hearing a phone conversation. Cory is getting married again. His number three. Her, at least, second.

    So Cory is hitting his Dad up to to pay for Rehearsal Dinner Number Three.
    Fonda San Miguel’s or Papadeaux or where ever, not inexpensive. Tossing a few brisket and sausage on the grill in the back yard,which was the plan a couple of months ago, isn’t good enough.

    Heh. 🙂

  38. paul says:

    The mail delivered a small envelope from the nursing home today. I looked at it and thought “no way did they send an invite for Thanksgiving”.

    It wasn’t. Just a small card signed by a lot of the folks there and a real nice picture of Mom at a table on the patio outside the dining room.

    Sweet.

    Did I say “nice picture”?

  39. ech says:

    The status of various Trump lawsuits as of this AM. The TL;DR is that in most, the number of disputed ballots is too small to matter or in some states the local (R) officials found nothing wrong.

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  40. lynn says:

    “19 Best Zombie Books” by Dan Livingston
    https://best-sci-fi-books.com/19-best-zombie-books/

    I have read “The Passage”, “Feed”, “The Girl With All the Gifts”, and “World War Z”. 4 out of 19.

    I have watched “Warm Bodies”, “The Walking Dead”, “The Passage”, “The Girl With All the Gifts”, and “World War Z”.

    The list is missing the awesome “Under a Graveyard Sky (1) (Black Tide Rising)” by John Ringo.
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/147673660X/?tag=ttgnet-20

  41. Ed says:

    BTW, I suspect some outside influence on kid 1, and need to start watching her online activity. Isn’t there some way using a packet capture tool and wireshark that I can just watch everything she does as if I was looking over her shoulder?

    A keylogger might be easier. They come in all shapes and sizes now. Glue one to a USB port somewhere.

  42. Greg Norton says:

    I’m over hearing a phone conversation. Cory is getting married again. His number three. Her, at least, second.

    So Cory is hitting his Dad up to to pay for Rehearsal Dinner Number Three.

    We covered all the costs of our wedding ourselves. My father-in-law offered nothing but still whined about not being able to have his entire family (seven brothers and sisters along with their offspring) attend.

  43. RickH says:

    Re: keylogger – the googles found this article, last updated in Aug 2020…

    https://www.geckoandfly.com/17868/best-free-keylogger-for-windows-mac-android-ios-to-monitor-your-kids-facebook/ .

    Many are free. Some do timed screenshots, SMS monitoring, chat monitoring, webcam screenshots, grab passwords, etc. Some will email or FTP logs. Some features are with the ‘pro’ versions ($). There are comments that some free software have popup nag screens to get you to upgrade – that might cancel the benefit.

  44. lynn says:

    We covered all the costs of our wedding ourselves. My father-in-law offered nothing but still whined about not being able to have his entire family (seven brothers and sisters along with their offspring) attend.

    Can I say that I am amazed that you invited your FIL ?

  45. Greg Norton says:

    “We covered all the costs of our wedding ourselves. My father-in-law offered nothing but still whined about not being able to have his entire family (seven brothers and sisters along with their offspring) attend.”

    Can I say that I am amazed that you invited your FIL ?

    Kharma caught up with him eventually.

  46. Robert V Sprowl says:

    There aren’t any “Best Zombie” books. Zombie books are unreadable.

  47. lynn says:

    There aren’t any “Best Zombie” books. Zombie books are unreadable.

    That is because you have not read the awesome “Under a Graveyard Sky (1) (Black Tide Rising)” by John Ringo.
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/147673660X/?tag=ttgnet-20

  48. SteveF says:

    Zombie books are unreadable.

    I Am Legend

    Having been written before many of the current crop of schlock writers was born, this novel avoids many of the modern tropes.

    There’s a recent work I’ve read which wasn’t stupid, made some semblance of sense, and was well-written. Web novel from no one anyone’s heard of, IIRC. Cryin’ shame I can’t remember title or author. If it percolates up near the surface of my under-sleeped, caffeine-dependent mind I’ll put up a link.

  49. Harold Combs says:

    We covered all the costs of our wedding ourselves

    We eloped and the FIL contributed by not pressing charges for breaking the Mann Act. Fifteen years later we held a “proper” wedding for the in laws who refused to believe we got married the first time. Now planning a big wedding for our 50th anniversary next year.

  50. Harold Combs says:

    There aren’t any “Best Zombie” books. Zombie books are unreadable.

    At least Ringo addresses all the major problems with most zombie stories like, why don’t all zombies die within months due to starvation / dehydration, are zombies prey for feral pets, and what are the effects of excess cold or heat on zombie lifespans.

  51. drwilliams says:

    @Harold Combs
    Good time to cut the cord.
    Lot’s of cooking shows on Netflix and Hulu.
    Buy her an iPad and earphones and show her how to dial the brightness down at night.

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    @harold, that his tough, but if it gives her some comfort….

    n

  53. lynn says:

    “Pfizer Vaccine Volunteers Report Side Effects of ‘Severe Hangover'”
    https://www.newsmax.com/health/health-news/coronavirus-pfizer-vaccine-hangover/2020/11/11/id/996535/

    Great. Now I will get to feel worse when they force me to take the vaccine. My arthritis has really been bothering me since I had the Covid back in February.

    BTW, the vaccine has to be kept at -70 C. I have not been able to find out if it must be administered at -70 C. If so, that is not cool.
    https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/11/rural-hospitals-cant-afford-freezers-to-store-pfizer-covid19-vaccine/

  54. mediumwave says:

    @Harold: Wireless headphones for your wife, light-proof sleep mask for you?

  55. lynn says:

    @Harold, has your wife lost her diurnality ? My daughter lost her diurnality when she had the strokes 15 years ago. Her internal clock moves forward an hour or two a day. So she watches TV, plays internet games, or reads when she is up and we are not. The problem is that my wife tends to follow our daughter at times such as last night when she went to bed at 330 am.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diurnality

    If so, I have no idea how to deal with this other than sleeping in separate areas. My parents have been married for 61 years and moved to separate bedrooms a decade or so ago. Mom’s latest issues have really complicated her life and she is a night owl anyway. Dad crashes around 10 pm and gets up at 3 am to 4 am, moves to the den and watches the early morning shows while he naps until 8 am or so.

  56. Nick Flandrey says:

    My wife wakes and sleeps throughout the night. It started with breastfeeding the kids, now she doesn’t ever sleep more than an hour or two, then spends some time reading, then back to sleep. She still stays awake all the daytime though so it’s not quite the same thing as Lynn’s daughter.

    The constant noise of the TV with the constant level changes and the particular pitch of some of the programming would drive me nuts too. I never understood why they had the “sleep timer” functionality, as I didn’t understand that anyone could fall asleep while a TV was on, I couldn’t. Now though, I set it and fall asleep most nights with a youtube vid playing. A couple of the guys I watch have very soothing voices…

    n

  57. ITGuy1998 says:

    I remember in my middle school days, I would fall asleep with the radio on. I remember in high school programming the 6 disc cd changer for music to fall asleep to. I continued to play music at night until I moved in with my wife. It took a little time to adjust.

    I now have great trouble sleeping if a ceiling fan isn’t on. Hot or cold, it has to be on. I like the noise and the air movement. Luckily, the wife likes the fan on too. Or maybe she adjusted, not sure…

    Oh, and she is another who has never slept well. It takes her a while t9 get to sleep, a d is up several times during the night.

    I used to be dead to the world from falling asleep to getting up the next morning. I seem to be a lighter sleeper now, at least since my son was born. I sometimes wake up during the night, but I never have any problem falling right back to sleep.

  58. Greg Norton says:

    While barely a Cat 1 storm, Eta made landfall with the right trajectory at exactly the right place on the Florida coast to cause serious problems in some of Tampa’s priciest real estate. Several places, such as the Interbay Peninsula and Shore Acres neighborhoods, both very desirable places to live, have been wards of the National Flood Insurance program for nearly 20 years.

    https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2020/11/12/latest-updates-florida-in-path-of-tropical-storm-eta/

    Still, Eta was a minor storm. Sooner or later, Tampa’s luck will run out.

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