Cold and damp. Maybe wet. It was 47F and raining when I went to bed, and it will probably be the same this A.M. The rain started in the evening and continued past midnight. It was a very slow, light drizzle.
I slept late yesterday and messed around the rest of the day. I did get a little bit of stuff sorted, but mostly I wasted time on the internet with my friends. Then I watched some repair and maker videos. What a dreary day.
Today I’ve got stuff to do. My wife is working, so her plan is to shop for Thanksgiving dinner later, and head up on Tuesday. Since I’ve got the kids today, I’ll be running errands, doing a pickup, and then NOT heading up the the BOL. I guess we’ll do that together on Tuesday. We’ll see how it all shakes out. She’s taking Tuesday off, but will work from home at the BOL on Wednesday.
I need more PEX, some other stuff, and to load up the truck.
But if it’s raining I am not sure what I’ll actually get to. Ah well, flexibility. Right?
Stack something, even if it’s only IOUs to yourself.
n
Not bad, but The Mouse had a terrible movie year.
Warren Buffett announced his acquisition of a big position in Paramount last week. Maybe that was the catalyst for the board to make a move.
Subbing again today. It is easy to pick out the students who will amount to very little. Will be doing menial labor jobs or choose welfare as a career path. Their parents don’t care as a sixth-grade education was good enough for them.
Teachers give them assignments on Google classroom. It is impossible for me to determine if they are doing the assignment or goofing off. I have seen some watching videos on their Chromebook. They state they got their work done. Some it is just enough to keep them quiet.
@Ray: I maybe mentioned that I’m teaching a course at the local trade school – sort of a glorified sub, because it for 10-12 weeks. Today, they showed me the infrastructure. This is a computer course, so all the kids have PCs on the table in front of them. I had to laugh: the teacher has a master switch to turn off all of the monitors.
No switch for their smart phones, though…
@brad, I made a comment about the Rust accident at the end of yesterday’s comments.
Well, 45F and raining. There goes most of my plan for the day. National forecast has clearing tomorrow and beyond.
n
Don’t forget petty crime, punctuated by free room and board in government facilities, as a career path.
There is also quality control worker at a meth facility and chief fire watcher at the still up the ‘holler’.
Organ donor…
n
@Lynn: I’ve been working my way through your 6-star list. I had already read several of them. Of the others, so far I totally agree with your taste in books! Won’t be long, and I’ll have to start on your 5-star list… Do you keep updated lists online anywhere?
Thank you !
The only list that I have is my 1,047 reviews on Big River:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/profile/amzn1.account.AGJZ2IAEX5W6JZX5A5UCJTD44I3A?preview=true&tag=ttgnet-20
Maybe I should provide an online list like Jame Nicoll (but James is a professional scifi reviewer):
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
Or like Dan Livingston:
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/
Organ donor…
n
Father of twelve children with five women, just like the Idiocracy movie.
Lynn’s six star list (or top ten list) from Jan 2022:
1. “Mutineer’s Moon” by David Weber
2. “Citizen Of The Galaxy” by Robert Heinlein
3. “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert Heinlein
4. “The Star Beast” by Robert Heinlein
5. “Shards Of Honor” by Lois McMaster Bujold
6. “Jumper” by Steven Gould
7. “Dies The Fire” by S. M. Stirling
8. “Emergence” by David Palmer
9. “The Tar-Aiym Krang” by Alan Dean Foster
10. “Under A Graveyard Sky” by John Ringo
11. “Live Free Or Die” by John Ringo
12. “Footfall” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
13. “Lucifer’s Hammer” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
14. “The Zero Stone” by Andre Norton
15. “Going Home” by A. American
16. “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card
17. “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
18. “The Martian” by Andy Weir
19. “The Postman” by David Brin
20. “We Are Legion” by Dennis E. Taylor
21. “Bitten” by Kelley Armstrong
22. “Moon Called” by Patrica Briggs
23. “Red Thunder” by John Varley
“Elon Musk Explains Why He Won’t Let Alex Jones Back on Twitter”
https://www.mediaite.com/online/elon-musk-explains-why-he-wont-let-alex-jones-back-on-twitter/
“Musk recently replied to Sam Harris, who asked, “is it not time to let Alex Jones back on Twitter,” and “if not, why not?” Musk replied by quoting the book of Matthew from the Bible, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.””
Whoa.
“German-Finnish Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom followed up in reply to Musk, writing, “Alex f****** up with Sandy Hook. He admitted that and apologized. He also got a lot of “conspiracy theories” right. If serial liars like Biden and Trump are allowed on Twitter, then Alex Jones should be allowed to. Please reconsider in the interest of real free speech.”
“Musk answered by revealing that his firstborn child died in his arms and that he felt his last heartbeat. “I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame,” he added.”
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
“Energy Crisis: German Minister President Suggests Heating One Room in Winter Is Enough”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/11/20/energy-crisis-german-minister-president-suggests-heating-one-room-in-winter-is-enough/
Ein zimmer ! Nichts grosse ! Und keine fenster !
One room ! Nothing more ! And no windows !
So every gun grabber will get a lifetime ban?
Well at least they waited until after the mid-terms … oh wait…
n
“I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame,”
—Elon Musk
If that is policy, then FJB should be off Twitter, and easily a few dozen more Democrats, as well as a few gun grabbing orgs raise their money off deaths, including children.
“Was Dilbert ‘Cancelled’ as Comic Creator Scott Adams Suggests?”
https://www.newsweek.com/was-dilbert-cancelled-comic-creator-scott-adams-suggests-1745028
Hat tip to:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/comments/yz7z28/dilbertcom_down/
You can read today’s Dilbert at:
https://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/dilbert/
“Lee Papers Notify Readers of GoComics Crash”
https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2022/11/20/lee-papers-notify-readers-of-gocomics-crash/
“Today they are notifying subscribers that GoComics is down:”
“The service that provides our online comics and games, Andrews McMeel publishing, is currently offline and working to restore service.”
“The outage is affecting all their customers, include STLtoday.”
“Thank you for your patience.”
“South Pole Hits Record Cold November Temperatures”
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/11/20/south-pole-hits-record-cold-november-temperatures/
“Extreme cold records continue to tumble at the South Pole. Three recent days – November 16th, 17th and 18th – have recorded a daily record, with the 18th plunging to –45.2°C, compared with –44.7°C on the same day in 1987. The records follow the six-month winter of 2020-21, which was the coldest since records began in 1957. Inexplicably, all these facts and trends have escaped reporting in the mainstream media. The excuse might be that it is just weather, and temperatures have always moved up and down. But the excuse doesn’t seem to apply to the July 19th U.K. high of 40.3°C at RAF Coningsby, recorded at the side of the runway used by after-burning Typhoon jets. This record high has barely been out of the Net Zero headlines ever since.”
Make sure that you have spare blankets this winter. You might need them.
“I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics, or fame,”
—Elon Musk
If that is policy, then FJB should be off Twitter, and easily a few dozen more Democrats, as well as a few gun grabbing orgs raise their money off deaths, including children.
Doomberg (Michael Bloomberg).
I agree with Dotcom. Jones is excrement, but so is tRump. I don’t believe Jones did anything illegal and the lawsuit should be thrown out. You hurt my feelings is not a good civil ruling. A billion and a half dollars or so. Give me a break.
The flip side is Musk owns Twitter and is doing what the previous owners did: anything he wants. Tough potatoes y’all.
plugs is on the news bragging there is no red wave coming. A real good way to start out with a new Congress. Sponge brain.
Big Smile!
Robert Francis O’Rourke.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixVjVxBsZEA
“Russia’s ‘General Armageddon’ under pressure to deliver on battlefield after retreat”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russias-general-armageddon-under-pressure-114933202.html
So Putin brought out a real general. Things might get spicy now. He is softening up the entire country with constant missile barrages. The Ukranians are trying to shoot down the missiles but appear to causing more damage.
“”DOE conditionally awards PG&E’s Diablo Canyon nuclear plant $1.1B to forestall shutdown”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/diablo-canyon-doe-pge-retire-funding-credit-program/637040/
“Pacific Gas and Electric had been planning to retire Diablo Canyon’s two units in 2024 and 2025.”
People are starting to panic about Kalifornia. But Kalifornia is not.
Lotta refugees fleeing cali if it fails completely. The ones with means are already fleeing.
n
Lotta refugees fleeing cali if it fails completely. The ones with means are already fleeing.
n
Kalifornia reminds me of Baghdad Bob when we were invading Iraq. He denied that there were problems even when you could see USA warplanes in the background videos. Kalifornia is denying that there are problems even as the refugees are streaming out.
While poking around on Facebook, I looked at the Marketplace.
Several sheds for sale. I don’t know if the prices are good but 14×24 with some wiring of electric outlets and with spray foam insulation, for $17,000, purchase only, and 25% down delivered and leveled on blocks looks like a decent deal. Sure, it needs a lot to be nice but it’s insulated, maybe enough, and you can sleep on a cot with a space heater while fixing it up with little things sheetrock or fake wood wall paneling. And something nicer than plywood flooring. (hint: spackle the floor to fill the wood grain before installing sheet vinyl). Add a bathroom, perhaps as a bump-out extension and enough kitchen for a range and a sink. Put a metal roof on it as soon as you add the bath bump-out. Pretty cheap digs for a single guy with a bit of land. Have a smaller building near for a well house and put the washer and dryer and water heater out there.
It has possibilities. Lots of work. But less than building from scratch.
As for the price, I paid $1300 for the feed shed, delivered. It’s 10×14 ? I forget. I had to drag it with the tractor to where I wanted it and level it myself. But that was a few years ago, 1995 I think.
Then there is the oh such an honest offer of a brand new Mitsubishi 17,000 BTU mini-split heat pump. That’s like totally honest with a selling price of $180. Really.
It’s just misting drizzle today. Feels colder than 46F.
Added: It might be white trashy but it’ll be nicer than living in a bumper pull travel trailer.
Most Americans’ pension funds and 401(k) plans are invested in California real estate, Valley tech companies, entertainment conglomerates based in or near Hollywood, and West Coast lotus eater fantasies such as giant vending machines for cars (cough). If California goes, to quote Shrub, “This sucker’s goin’ down.”
“ARM CPUs predicted to hit 30% PC market share by 2026″ By Sean Endicott
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/arm-cpus-predicted-to-hit-30-pc-market-share-by-2026
“An industry analyst firm predicts ARM chips will surge in popularity sooner rather than later.”
This is why I am converting my software from Fortran to C++. The world is changing again and Intel does not know it is dying. Plus the current Fortran compilers for Intel cpus suck and I am not if there are any Fortran compilers for the ARM. If so, they probably suck also.
Most Americans’ pension funds and 401(k) plans are invested in California real estate, Valley tech companies, entertainment conglomerates based in or near Hollywood, and West Coast lotus eater fantasies such as giant vending machines for cars (cough). If California goes, to quote Shrub, “This sucker’s goin’ down.”
The financial apocalypse of the USA is near.
I might be weird. Oh wait….
I’m in a house full of “my stuff”. I have more stuff in the Feed Shed. And even more in the EDC. Nevermind what’s in the barn I built and stuff in the boat shed/really big carport. And I know pretty much exactly where every thing is.
I have stuff from when I was almost five years old. Not much. But valuable to me. I have the stuffed bunny rabbit that Grandmama embroidered new eyes. I know, I was almost three.
Yeah. It’ll all be shirt(-r) canned when I die. Every bit of it. That rosewood china cabinet I inherited? That cost 8K 40 years ago? To the burn pile. Ditto the grandfather clock I built.
So. I’m sort of planning for the worst. The house goes up in a pyre or a tornado takes it to Kansas, whatever, all MY STUFF is gone. Just like that. Stamp collection, books, lots and lots of books, LPs and DVDs and LaserDiscs. Quilts from the old folks that are gone, are gone. A storm that takes the house will take the out buildings.
That shed is an option. A mobile home might be better. Shrug. Plan for the worse, right?
“The Blue Dwarfs (Perry Rhodan #54)” by Kurt Mahr
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Dwarfs-Perry-Rhodan-54/dp/4412660370?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number fifty-four of a series of one hundred and thirty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book translated by Wendayne Ackerman and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. And then they transition back to two stories in book #109/110. The Ace publisher dropped out at #118, so Forrest and Wendayne Ackerman published books #119 to #136 in pamphlets before stopping in 1978. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1974 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #106, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 62 of the German pamphlets written in 1962. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on the Perrypedia German website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Die_blauen_Zwerge
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over sixty-nine years since then and the Solar Empire has flourished with tens of millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania. Perry Rhodan has been elected by the people of Earth to be the World Administrator.
So back to the 8,000 exiled colonists from Earth who crash landed on the planet Gray Beast from the crashed space freighter Adventurous. The exiles are now exploring around their settlement where the Adventurous crash landed using their one helicopter. They are finding danger and they are finding friends. And some of the danger is coming from within the exiles.
Two observations:
1. Forrest Ackerman should have put two or three of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 0 out of 5 stars (0 reviews)
My 401 is in whatever HEB has. I split it up a couple of years ago and tossed some into the Aggressive and into treasuries.
It doesn’t seem to matter. I had almost 80 grand several months ago. Down to whatever. It just bounces around but the money I put in there out of my pay check is still there.
I plan to draw it out just below the amount where I have to pay taxes. If my balance is 80 grand, excellent. If my balance is 30 grand, well, that’s my money.
The Apple Silicon laptops are impressive devices, but I haven’t seen anything comparable for Windows from the other major vendors.
With the exception of possibly Samsung, everyone else will have to depend on Qualcomm ARM CPUs, which leave a lot to be desired.
The dark horse is RISC-V. If you think there is a need for 128 bit computing, they already have a standard.
The other upside to RISC-V is no sanction games. Love or hate the Mainland Chinese, they are going to be players in tech since that’s where the commodity hardware gets made.
“The blazing fast Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD has hit its lowest price for Black Friday”
https://www.windowscentral.com/accessories/storage/the-blazing-fast-samsung-980-pro-2tb-ssd-has-hit-its-lowest-price-for-black-friday
“This may be the single best time to buy Samsung’s fantastic 980 Pro solid state drive. For one thing, the 2TB version has dropped to its lowest price of just $173.79 at Amazon (opens in new tab). This drive still regularly sells for around $230 and was going for as much as $250 in September. This is the first time it has ever dropped below $190. ”
>> People are starting to panic about Kalifornia. But Kalifornia is not.
74, sunny and 11% RH right now in the City of Angels. What’s to worry about? Okay, maybe if there’s a wait for a Supercharger.
>> Yeah. It’ll all be shirt(-r) canned when I die. Every bit of it. That rosewood china cabinet I inherited? That cost 8K 40 years ago? To the burn pile.
Not so fast…you may be burning it yourself to stay warm sooner than you think.
@paul, the time spent planning is never wasted.
@alan, what, me worry?
n
😉
DOE’s Civil Nuclear Credit program:
https://www.energy.gov/gdo/civil-nuclear-credit-program
What a pile of horse hockey.There is absolutely no reason that the taxpayers of the 50 states should be bailing out any of the energy companies from the consequences of the green weinie decisions that were widely vilified by responsible engineers.
And that goes ten effing times for Cali. If they need to solve the energy problem that their green weinies created, they could cut consumption immediately by 10-15% if they told the illegals to get the hell out.
they could cut consumption immediately by 10-15% if they told the illegals to get the hell out.
– and we’d be floating a lot fewer bonds for new schools.
n
https://www.energy.gov/gdo/civil-nuclear-credit-program
What a pile of horse hockey.There is absolutely no reason that the taxpayers of the 50 states should be bailing out any of the energy companies from the consequences of the green weinie decisions that were widely vilified by responsible engineers.
The east and west coasts of the USA have shut down a dozen nuclear power plants in the last 20 years. Most of these plants had plenty of life left. The feddies want to slow this down and stop the shutdowns for a while.
@paul
The ideal solution would be for a bunch of guys in similar situations [cough] to get together and have a giant beer tasting chili-eating swap meet.
Absent that, it seems like there should be some opportunity to find people who might enjoy having some of your shiite. Or mine.
I’ve been a serious book collector for years. Thought that I would sell off my collection to support my old age. Prices got killed by the internet and inflation has slowly recovered them to where they were 25 years ago. It was about that time that an acquaintance did a survey that brought home the point: very few young collectors were moving into the market. And now, how would they? They’re growing up with ebooks.
Dad told once that it was time to throw away the five dollar stuff so he could keep the fifty dollar stuff. We had a disassembled student desk (missing pieces, I was told) on the truck when he thought better of it and took it back. I saw it later after restoration with the remade missing parts, just before it went to auction and sold for $300.
Unstack. Sort. Restack. Sell. Pitch.
Turn what you can into money, buy booze, and drink up.
In two generations young adults will be looking for their heritage. There won’t be any. The corporations will own their DNA, the family photos will be gone in a pile of moldering data files, and the U.S. Constitution will be a rumor. It won’t matter–they’ll be speaking Chinese to their masters anyway.
@Lynn
Only so they can consolidate control.
There is a scifi book series that has the US conquered by the chinese. everyone lives in massive cities and all memory of the way it was has been replaced. I’m thinking there were 10 books. I only made it thru a couple and can’t remember the name of the author or series…
n
https://bearingarms.com/tomknighton/2022/11/21/fort-worth-man-arrested-for-selling-glock-switches-n64558
In Singularity Sky Charles Stross had the alien Festival bring the printers.
Energy Crisis: German Minister President Suggests Heating One Room in Winter Is Enough
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/11/20/energy-crisis-german-minister-president-suggests-heating-one-room-in-winter-is-enough/
How very… third world.
Maybe we should send Jimmay over to model sweaters.
Willie Soon speaks at the University of Chicago
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/11/19/willie-soon-speaks-at-the-university-of-chicago/
Downloading the card deck (slide presentation) and watching the video is highly recommended.
But if you do nothing else, look at slides 64 and 72 regarding PM2.5
“Bitcoin Miners Face a Squeeze as BTC Production Cost Remains Well Above Spot Market Value”
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-miners-face-a-squeeze-as-btc-production-cost-remains-well-above-spot-market-value/
Oops, that sucks.
There is a scifi book series that has the US conquered by the chinese. everyone lives in massive cities and all memory of the way it was has been replaced. I’m thinking there were 10 books. I only made it thru a couple and can’t remember the name of the author or series…
n
Heinlein’s Sixth Column was the first invasion of the USA by Asians book that I have read and reread.
https://www.amazon.com/Sixth-Column-Robert-Heinlein/dp/1451637705?tag=ttgnet-20/
I do not remember any other USA invasion by China books but there probably are many on Big River.
It was called something like “The Wang Chung Cycle”…
n
ah, only 4 different googles to refine and get the result
Chung Kuo series,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chung_Kuo_(novel_series)
n
A short essay I just wrote, noting the similarities between several untrustworthy groups. It’s not 100% true but it’s close enough for a discussion over drinks and I’m too tired (I’m getting too old for all-nighters) to write a full paper with exceptions and caveats and weasel words.
https://www.dailypundit.com/dailypundit.wordpress/2022/11/21/trickles/
https://coldfury.com/2022/11/21/trickles/
(Same essay both sites.)
In The Horse and His Boy (part of the Narnia series) CS Lewis has a king say something like “Being King is no fun. It means working longer and harder than anyone else and going hungrier in a famine.”
Today’s rulers (not leaders) have forgotten the burden portion of rule. But why shouldn’t they forget it? They have power not by law or moral right but by chicany and naked force.
@steveF, the medical profession does the same thing. Trickles.
n
Crazy neighbors: Our lawyer agreed with y’all, and the time for being nice has passed. So we have now officially asked the building commission to confirm that the neighbors cut open our street for their sewage (a helpful prelude to a lawsuit, if it goes that far). And, oh, by the way: could you check if X and Y are allowed by their building permit? (hint: they’re not.)
They’ve dug themselves a deep hole. I confess to a certain amount of anticipatory schadenfreude.