No idea what today’s weather will be like, but it’s supposed to be clearing to a nice day. Yesterday was overcast until it started misty drizzle followed by eventual downpour.
Spent the day messing around. Got some small stuff done, or at least under way. Not my most productive day, but small steps are still steps.
Today we have D2’s friend and her mother joining us for a couple of days. Place looks pretty good for being a work site…
I hope we get some clearing and sun though, that will make it all easier.
The rest of you, stay away from amateur drinkers…and the roads they drive on.
And stack something.
nick
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to everyone, and the blessings of the glorious man on you all!
I think so too, Geoff. Many moons ago, a friend of mine got an entry level position at an insurance company. His only function was to reject, unread, every single claim for a payout. Only the customers who persisted after the initial rejection letter had their claim even read… The definition of organised crime.
What’s this about 6th Street in Austin?
That’s professional drinking territory this week.
Usually, it is home to just “pro” drinkers. There is a difference.
Regardless, the big Irish pub on 6th with the imported interior did not survive the pandemic.
The plugsy McFJB! clown show:
Transgender Assistant Secretary of Health Rachel Levine says changing kids’ genders has the ‘highest support’ of the Biden administration and is key to the mental health of minors
“Highest support” This is a gay man pushing an agenda. This is the priority for our Nation’s health? No. This is insanity.
Agreed.
U.S. healthcare is still the best in the world, but implementation, and especially policy, is broken. If the current trends continue, the state of healthcare in 20 years will not be good.
“Many of our current problems – from high inflation, rising interest rates & skyrocketing debt – stem from the failures of the expert class in the response to COVID. As we reflect on the 3-year anniversary of 15 Days to Slow the Spread, we must never let it happen again.”
—Ron Desantis on Twitter
That’s “Admirial” Levine to you, citizen.
Again?!?
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/17/us/fort-hood-ana-basaldua-ruiz-death-investigation/index.html
Guten Morgen, mein herrs!
Good morning fellow adventurers! Should you choose to do so, today’s challenges will begin 19 minutes ago and continue until you die or otherwise leave the game….
Ah, that came out a bit less funny than intended.
Cold and damp at the BOL. Condensation on the inside of the windows. Thermometer stopped working so I’m not sure how cold, but chilly. Sun looks like it’s trying to break thru, and there isn’t much of a breeze yet.
@Alan – I definitely want to get a strap if I’m going to be using the dang machine more than 10 minutes at a time. I looked and it has a place to hook on. And I think the biggest bird of prey around here is a hawk. Wiener dog is12 pounds as of last vet trip. Our last one got to 18#, but he was a little chonkers after 12 years. I’m not un-concerned but it’s not high on my list.
I used the foam roll and got some good stretching and realignment in my back before bed and it feels pretty much back to normal today. I”m still gonna be careful moving and lifting though. If I use the roll in the morning EVERY morning I can keep on top of it. Some mornings I cheat a bit and don’t take the full amount of time I need, and I pay for that later. I don’t usually use it at night but if I hurt I do. It’s made a huge difference when I’m consistent.
Time to get some grub started for the hungry ones.
n
Thank the Obola pussification of the military. More and more “snowflakes” are entering the military. I’m not saying she/he/it was harassed, but after 20 years in the Army, I saw many females try to get special treatment “I’m a girl!” and whining to JAG when it wasn’t received. Now, with the new trans woman (read gay men) force, the whining will double. Believe it or not, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a much better policy.
When I was in the USAF the females that enlisted were so ugly no one harassed them. They harassed the single male members. Common joke was the sound the ugly stick made. WAF, WAF, WAF.
I will let myself out.
It is 44℉ where I live by the SA airport. Highs will hit about 60℉. Rinse and repeat through Tuesday.
The new Bosch dishwasher was just delivered. D4 and I will install it tomorrow. Bulk pickup by the city was on Monday. We put the old dishwasher out on Sunday and it was gone in two hours. Same with all are other bulk junk.
Fort Hood, in particular, has a problem.
Parts. We had to junk a washer I kept going for 20 years because the valve assembly was simply no longer available.
The counter lawsuit is pure harassment at this point. Biden had no expectation of privacy the moment he handed over the laptop to the repair shop.
There is a reason Hunter didn’t take the machine to Best Buy. The Geek Squad is practically a branch of law enforcement.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/hunter-biden-files-counter-claims-computer-repairman-handling/story?id=97918174
Or is it Beau … Beau … Beau …
>> What’s this about 6th Street in Austin?
That’s professional drinking territory this week.
Usually, it is home to just “pro” drinkers. There is a difference.
Do they get an official-looking sticker for the backs of their cars so that the Po Po knows not to bother them?
>> It’s made a huge difference when I’m consistent.
Consistency is only good if you do it all the time.
“Hey Ray, hold the door, I’m right behind you!”
Uber and Lyft are so lucrative on 6th on Fri/Sat night that active duty people from Fort Hood drive down to earn extra cash.
The cab companies got the ride share companies banned for a while, but the city council eventually relented to the demands of the “pro” drinkers. The joke is that without that one button action on the app to summon Uber/Lyft, the bacchanalia participants would never make it home.
I brought shorts with me because Texas is supposed to be warm. Global warming and all that. Somehow that did not work out on this trip.
Got a low tire warning on the Highlander this morning. The cold air was part of the culprit with the other being the tire was low. I will have to pay attention to the left front tire. The tires are fairly new and in excellent shape. Hope I did not pick up a screw or nail on the Texas roads.
Leaving Bryan today for Pearland. I will be taking the toll road around Houston. Thankful for those DV license plates that allow me to use the toll roads without paying.
One night in Pearland, then on to Conroe for a couple of nights. Then on to Biloxi for the night, with the next stop Atlanta, then home.
Taking a couple of two-liter bottles of Big Red with me. It is a local concoction that goes really well with BBQ. I have never found it outside of Texas. Speciality shops might have it in stock. I also purchased a 12 can case. Two of the cans will be traveling with me to Germany as a couple of exchange students want to try Big Red. When they ask me what it tastes like, I just say of the color RED had a taste, Big Red would be it.
78 F here at noon yesterday, 49 F here today. And the wind is blowing 20+ mph. But the fusion reactor just came out from behind the clouds so all is good.
The weather priests / diviners are still talking about sleet mixed with rain over the weekend which is crazy for late March in south Texas.
I think so too, Geoff. Many moons ago, a friend of mine got an entry level position at an insurance company. His only function was to reject, unread, every single claim for a payout. Only the customers who persisted after the initial rejection letter had their claim even read… The definition of organised crime.
“The Rainmaker” by John Grisham
Big Red is based in Austin somewhere. Dr. Pepper bottles and distributes it, but the brand is independent.
I swear I remember that Dublin Bottling sold it through their mail order site, but that no longer appears to be the case. The volume at DBW has fallen way off since the pandemic forced them to close their museum and HEB dropped their sodas.
“The Incredibles”. Bob’s cover job.
Still the best superhero movie in Disney’s catalog, with “Sky High” a very close second.
Taking a couple of two-liter bottles of Big Red with me. It is a local concoction that goes really well with BBQ. I have never found it outside of Texas. Speciality shops might have it in stock. I also purchased a 12 can case. Two of the cans will be traveling with me to Germany as a couple of exchange students want to try Big Red. When they ask me what it tastes like, I just say of the color RED had a taste, Big Red would be it.
Sorry but Big Red is nasty. Tastes like pure syrup with no water and co2 to cut it. The syrup must be distilled from Red Hots somehow.
Though often thought to be bubble gum, its flavor is a combination of lemon and orange oils, topped off by a pure vanilla that offers a creamy aftertaste.
—wikipedia
No need to apologize. To each their own. I like it as something for a change. It would not be a nightly drink. I also think coffee is terrible.
I have visited the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta a few times. Exchange students like the experience. Toward the end of the tour there is a section where it is possible to sample drinks from various countries. If you really want nasty, there are some really awful drinks. Brazil, in my opinion, has the worst. Dying of thirst would be the only way I drink that stuff.
The drink is not spicy so I doubt Red Hots were involved. Maybe strawberry flavored Gummy Bears instead. I like Gummy Bears, having brought 7 kilos back from Germany on my last trip. A visit to the original Gummy Bear factory was an eye opener with the variety of types and flavors.
I’ve never really been interested in owning a pinball machine until I saw this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzTXdlY14Lw
I’ve never had Big Red, but I used to live on Red Hots and Lemon Heads. I would by a box of one or the other most days walking home from elementary school for a dime. Wow, how old do I sound right now…
I’ve never really been interested in owning a pinball machine until I saw this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzTXdlY14Lw
Probably around $7,000 to $10,000. Probably weighs 500 lbs so the shipping cost will be awesome.
And it is beautiful.
https://www.chicago-gaming.com/coinop/pulp-fiction
$7,999 with 12 month warranty on the electronics and 6 month warranty on the mechanicals. Shipping extra.
“Lance Reddick dead at 60: The Wire and John Wick star ‘dies of natural causes’ at his Studio City home – two days after failing to show up to Wick 4 premiere in NYC”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11873587/Lance-Reddick-dead-60-Wire-John-Wick-star-dies-natural-causes-home-LA.html
I liked him in the Amazon Bosch tv series.
Wizard Of Id: Magically Delicious
https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2023/03/17
Henry !
“The Houston Zoo’s oldest animal just became a father to 3 baby tortoises”
https://www.chron.com/life/wildlife/article/houston-zoo-baby-tortoises-17843923.php
Three kids at 90 years of age, that is fairly impressive.
“Elon Musk Sends Cryptic Message About the Banking Crisis”
https://www.thestreet.com/banking/elon-musk-sends-cryptic-message-about-the-banking-crisis?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
“The billionaire CEO of Tesla said that the current financial system is inefficient.””
Musk is not wrong but one bank for the entire country scares the you know what out of me.
Big Red is cream soda with color added. It even smells like cream soda.
Red Hots and Lemon Heads are both good. Hot Tamales are great.
Red Hots combined with jelly beans for the win.
Ray Thompson says:
San Antonio was quite pleasant for the last week, but the cold front blew through about midnight. Chilly today, and is predicted to be until Wednesday.
“At a Steam-Age Arsenal, U.S. Army Forges Cannons for a Digital Era, War in Ukraine”
“Opened under President Madison, Watervliet has made big guns for every U.S. conflict since the Spanish-American War. Russia has made it relevant again.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-a-steam-age-arsenal-u-s-army-forges-cannons-for-a-digital-era-war-in-ukraine-68e51440
Howitzers fix a lot of problems.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
“AWS releases Amazon Linux 2023 to offer heightened security and cloud optimization”
https://sdtimes.com/security/aws-releases-amazon-linux-2023-to-offer-heightened-security-and-cloud-optimization/
Does anyone not have a Linux release ?
“Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse proves the US is in obvious decline”
https://www.sovereignman.com/podcast/silicon-valley-banks-collapse-proves-the-us-is-in-obvious-decline-146340/
Well, crap, he may not be wrong.
Dilbert Reborn: Dogbert is now the CEO of Twitter
https://scottadams.locals.com/post/3690833/dilbert-march-17-2023
Dogbert got the job so he can read private messages and blackmail his enemies.
Challenge accepted.
Just give me a few decades to get there.
Not far from here. Interesting place.
Guaranteeing all deposits effectively nationalized the banks.
Will this include, gulp, another wife?
A great character actor. Only 60. Geez.
The spike protein passes no Man.
By doing their own release, AWS gives developers a target platform to install in their own systems to use when building binaries for the spendy “cloud” environment.
A lot of companies are exploring alternatives to putting everything on Azure or AWS because of the rapidly increasing costs.
When AWS and Azure put the AI-enabling hardware on line, my guess is that will be *really* expensive.
Building a Fedora/Red Hat distribution isn’t rocket science.
Cool. Bonn. I used to live about 300 metres from the original Haribo factory, before old Mr Riegel died and his kids sold the site for a fortune and built a new green-field facility beside the Autobahn in Meckenheim.
You could smell from our balcony whether they were cooking Gummibärchen or licorice that day. Mrs Denis and I used to play badminton at the factory sports centre.
Old Mr Riegel had an estate with fallow deer in the park. The kids in Bonn would collect chestnuts for his deer in the autumn and bring them to the factory shop where they could exchange them for sweets.
Maxim #24 or #57?
https://schlockmercenary.fandom.com/wiki/The_Seventy_Maxims_of_Maximally_Effective_Mercenaries
>> Musk is not wrong but one bank for the entire country scares the you know what out of me.
And what, Jeff hasn’t pondered “Big River National Bank?”
>> Dilbert Reborn: Dogbert is now the CEO of Twitter
The new “paid” strips are already showing up on Reddit.
When I worked in downtown San Antonio, 430 Soledad, I had to drive by an Old El Paso factory on the south side of I-35 north of downtown. We could always tell when it was onion chopping day as the odor was quite strong. Last time I passed that way I don’t think the facility was operational and may have been shutdown.
The Gummy Bear factory/store had hundreds of different varieties, flavors, shapes. I felt like a kid in a candy store. Oh wait, I was, just not a kid. I picked seven different varieties that looked good, each bag one kilo.
Coming back into the US I got the evil eye from customs and immigration. I did not have to declare the items as they were under the cost limit. Customs was still very curious why I had so much. I had to answer a lot of questions as to why. I think customs might have thought they were laced with drugs. I would have eagerly offered them a random sample from any, or all, bag(s). After a few questions, checking my passport, looking at something on their computer, they let me through unscathed.
Walmart bought a bank to facilitate their remittance transfer rival to Western Union.
I make no secret that I plan to leave and divorce my wife no later than the day after The Child’s 18th birthday.
The plan which I may not have shared here is to get another wife after that. A younger wife. Much younger. Say, younger than my daughter. Say, one of her slightly younger friends. And then make my daughter call her slightly younger friend Mom.
The Child’s response to this was “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Why are you like this?”
Eh, conversations like this are good for her. It’ll give her something to tell her therapist in a few years.
And here I thought you were smart.
A friend of mine once noted: if it flies, floats, or … fondles, it’s cheaper to rent than to buy. Except he used a different F word than fondles.
Of course, what you say your plan is, and what your plan really is, can be 2 different things. It is, after all, the internet. And on the internet, no one knows you’re a dog.
Incidentally, the cartoon I linked is turning 30 years old this year.
In the present economic circumstances this may not be wise.
The classic advice is to pick a woman at random and just buy her a house.
““Whatever Happened to the Bionic Man?” by Robert E. Hampson”
https://www.baen.com/bionic-man
“Which brings us to March 2023, and the release of The Moon and the Desert, a book dedicated to a topic which greatly influenced both of my careers. The afterword to the book contains two important pieces of information—the first is how Martin Caidin’s novel Cyborg—the inspiration for the TV show The Six Million Dollar Man—influenced my choice of scientific careers. The book was released in 1972, and the TV series in 1974. I watched it faithfully. Every episode, every season.”
“Awakenings” by Patrick Chiles, free short story
https://www.baen.com/awakenings
“Onboard the spacecraft Magellan, Daisy—an AI tasked with commanding the ship—encounters an unexpected problem. The sole human aboard, Jack Templeton, is not in complete cryostasis. Advice from Earth is almost thirteen hours away. With incomplete information, an unknowable outcome, and the clock ticking down, Daisy had her first experience in making a snap decision.”
>> Dilbert Reborn: Dogbert is now the CEO of Twitter
The new “paid” strips are already showing up on Reddit.
Well, that sucks, it is thievery.
Of course, I would not put it past Scott Adams to put the strips up himself.
It already has tomorrow’s Dilbert on it !
Oscar Pistorius will be getting his parole hearing soon.
@Lynn – If you have to be in Dallas next weekend, I imagine that this would be a place where you could find someone to buy your pinball machine.
https://texaspinball.com/tpf/
When “Zach and Miri Make A Porno” bombed, the torrents which immediately appeared during the opening weeked were so clean that I wondered if Kevin Smith pulled them directly from his Avid environment.
All of the Dilbert books are gone from Barnes & Noble. We were in another store tonight with a bigger Humor section, and everything with Adams name was missing.
There really is an Air Force OSI, but they are more like NCIS than the CIA.
When I saw Jesse Kornblum speak – the real life Tim McGee – he was fresh off a long stint working for OSI helping the Air Force combat kiddie porn in the ranks, which is evidently a serious problem.
Kornblum, like everyone else notable in the cybersecurity field a decade ago, went to work for Google.
As for the “Bionic Man” himself, Lee Majors was in “Ash Vs. The Evil Dead” recently. He was awesome, but that is a *very* graphic show.
“Microsoft support ‘cracks’ Windows for customer after activation fails”
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-support-cracks-windows-for-customer-after-activation-fails/
You have got to be kidding me.
>> Taking a couple of two-liter bottles of Big Red with me. It is a local concoction that goes really well with BBQ. I have never found it outside of Texas. Speciality shops might have it in stock. I also purchased a 12 can case. Two of the cans will be traveling with me to Germany as a couple of exchange students want to try Big Red.
>> Coming back into the US I got the evil eye from customs and immigration. I did not have to declare the items as they were under the cost limit. Customs was still very curious why I had so much. I had to answer a lot of questions as to why. I think customs might have thought they were laced with drugs. I would have eagerly offered them a random sample from any, or all, bag(s). After a few questions, checking my passport, looking at something on their computer, they let me through unscathed.
Hey @Ray, if you go MIA we’ll send someone to bail you out.
>> All of the Dilbert books are gone from Barnes & Noble. We were in another store tonight with a bigger Humor section, and everything with Adams name was missing.
The ‘Zon author page says 185 titles available.
Long but pleasant day. Guests are settled in their beds, kids are still talking.
We watched “Parent Trap” on the dock, under the patio heaters. It is pretty chilly out with the damp…
Had a nice fire, and s’mores.
Shower to get the smoke off me, then bed. Seems sensible.
n
Y’all are up late.
Get to bed!
n
Yes boss 🙂
>> Eh, conversations like this are good for her. It’ll give her something to tell her therapist in a few years.
Ohh, come now Steve, she’s probably already got a backlog…
Good night all!
Up early, actually.
Most of the people that I work with are in eastern Europe or western Asia and I sometimes need to get up very early to have more than a couple hours of overlap. It then sometimes takes a while to fix my internal clock.
Which version? I actually enjoyed both, but I give the edge to the original, not the remake.
And I’m up early because of an intense dream.
As I’ve said before, my father died over 50 years ago when I was a teenager. He reappeared last night, sat at a kitchen table with me and a couple other people, and sang songs. So far as I remember, this has never happened to me before.
I’m headed back to bed in a minute but I had to get up for a bit to get my head straight.