10:30 – Winter is forecast to arrive here Friday, with highs in the low 20’s (~ -5C), lows in the single digits (~ -15C), and some snow/ice. I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.
Frances and Al spent the weekend up here to celebrate Barbara’s birthday. Yesterday was a pretty miserable day weather-wise, so they decided instead of driving home through the mess yesterday afternoon to stay overnight and head back today. Colin will probably be maniacal today with them gone. He loves having overnight visitors, which means more people to pester to play with him and more people to beg human food from.
Sometimes Walmart.com really pisses me off. I got a delivery from them the other day. Among the items I ordered were:
Rumford Premium Aluminum-Free Baking Powder, 10 oz 4 $2.09 $8.36
HERSHEY’S Cocoa, Unsweetened, Pack of 3, 16.0 OZ 1 $6.81 $6.81
What they actually shipped to me was four 8.1 oz cans of the baking powder and one 16 oz can of the cocoa. This is not the first time this has happened, and every time they make a shipping error it’s in their favor. I’ve made hundreds of orders from Amazon, and they have never shipped less than I ordered.
“…and every time they make a shipping error it’s in their favor.”
Hmmmm….sounds a lot like the IRS and banksters….is there a pattern here???
Winta Wundah-Land here this morning; couple of inches down already and sticking to the trees and still coming down sideways with wind from the south. Zero warning from the weather liars until………..this morning. Now they’re covering their asses with a forecast for the week of rotating snow and rain showers.
Heavy rain this morning here, and low 50s temps. At one point the street gutters were rising. We were probably getting between 1/2 and 1″ per hour for a while. Of course it slowed and stopped just after I got the kids in the car and on their way…
Some areas around here got clobbered this weekend with 6-10″ of rain. We got <3" total according to my rain gauge.
Ground is saturated for sure, very squishy out there.
Supposed to be getting colder, we'll see. I don't really want to cover the garden and citrus at night. It's a hassle and the stuff visible from the street looks bad.
nick
I just wasted half an hour going through their website’s return procedure. They even have instructions for what to do if an order is missing items. The problem is, it doesn’t actually let you specify that your order was missing items. There’s no text field to fill out with an explanation. So now I have one can of baking powder and one three-pack of one-pound cans of cocoa on order, for which they’re going to bill me. They’ll credit that when I use the postage label they provided to return the missing items. The bastards. How can I return an item that was missing?
“…the stuff visible from the street looks bad.”
Oh yeah, that’s verboten around here; no matter how functional or necessary, if it “looks terrible” (it’s always “terrible” never just “bad”) then it don’t git done.
“…it doesn’t actually let you specify that your order was missing items. There’s no text field to fill out with an explanation.”
I really, really hate it when patently necessary options are somehow not available on a seller’s web site forms. Or are buried so deep you need a weekend with a magnifying glass to detect them. Bastards is right.
Edit: This also comes up a lot on government and bankster forms. For some odd reason. Ever get the feeling that the deck is stacked against us???
Oh the joys of temporary holiday help, their attitude is DILLIGAF* at best.
Since the week before Thanksgiving I have place 20 orders with Amazon, Walmart, and a coupleof lesser know players. The error rate is running 20% and packages not being shipped and delivered as promised is about 15%. This poor service has already exceeded any previous year in the time frame from Thanksgiving to Christmas.
* In case Eugen needs a translation: DILLIGAF = Do I Look Like I Give A F@#k (ryhmes with duck) 😉
edit: Been trying to call one of my IRA Savings Plan Providers this morning, so far 25-minutes and 5 disconnections after pushing 30 buttons going through 3 levels of a phone tree only to be greeted by a “a representative will be with you shortly” silence then a pulsing siren followed by silence. Vanguard Sucks
How old is Colin now?
How can I return an item that was missing?
Send them an empty box?
Colin turns six in February, which makes him officially middle-aged for a Border Collie. Barbara told me last night that he’d be our last puppy because we’re getting too old to handle a BC puppy/Tasmanian Devil.
Actually, I was thinking of sending them a box with rocks in it.
You gotta paint the rocks yellow with a Sharpie notation on each one saying “Suck on this, pussies!”
Wouldn’t that be a micro-aggression?
Well, at least the six #10 cans of Augason Farms potato shreds just showed up, correct count and undamaged.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/4/the-blue-state-depression/
Perhaps you could get a more sedate breed next time.
ok, wasn’t gonna share but-
I found a whole genre of music that I really like thru a massive youtube play list.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ54BVagviy7u8kx6Q7zkhJmSy8Qoivxs
Not every song appeals, but in general I’m really diggin’ electroswing. Most of it is happy and uptempo, don’t let the first song fool you. It’s great in an open tab while doing other things.
n
@dadcooks, there are some websites that have the shortcuts thru phone trees for many major providers. Google to see if Vanguard is one. They might also have a “secret” number to a live person.
If you get IVR or voice response, try yelling as angrily as you can. Most of the new systems detect anger and frustration and fasttrack you to a human. I do it all the time and it works.
n
7:07 PM now. Dark ouside. -5C (23F) and 1029 hPa. Latitude here: 45°47′.
Today was a freezing sunny day.
sounds a lot like the IRS
I would accuse you of being biased but having experienced the joy of the IRS you are spot on.
Just got my Prevnar 13 injection as ordered by the doctor. His office does not do the injections so a prescription was issued.
Off I go to the local VA clinic in Harriman (20 miles away) to get the injection. Nope, they don’t do that in their office. But they can schedule me to have the injection done in Murfreesboro which is 150 miles away (300 miles round trip). That would cost me about 15 gallons of gas (about $30.00) plus five hours on the road and probably four or five hour wait at the clinic.
Injection on the open market is about $200.00 so I need to consider other options. I go to Walmart (needed stuff anyway) and had them price the injection with Medicare. Turns out Medicare covers the injection 100% so I had to pay nothing. That was a surprise. I guess Medicare thinks it’s cheaper to get the injection than pay for pneumonia.
And on the other front discovered that someone tried to break in (or did) to my truck. Lost a GPS in San Antonio to theft, thought I left the truck unlocked. Took the GPS, tore the power cable loose from the GPS leaving dangling wires (it unplugs easily) and left the power cable in the truck. GPS was five years old and worth nothing without the power cable.
Anyway I recently discovered the lock on the truck door had been forced. Damaged the lock and a small part of the trim. Lock cannot be used with the key. Electronic locks and key fob work just fine. Problem is that if I ever lose power to the truck there is no way to gain entry, only one key lock on the driver’s side and it is destroyed. New lock cylinder is about $30, installation is $150.00.
Asswipes thieves. Going to cost me $180.00 for them to get nothing. If I ever catch one in action they will die a very slow and painful death involving red hot shafts of steel shoved in various body orifices.
“Perhaps you could get a more sedate breed next time.”
Which would be any breed. Actually, I’ve been trying to convince Barbara that we should get a BC puppy now, but she’s afraid Colin would take that very badly. She says he needs to be an only dog and she may be right.
” In case Eugen needs a translation: DILLIGAF =.. ”
hehe .. thanks for that. But don’t bother next time. I’ve already reseached for many abbreviations used here, or words (like Murkan – you know, the Iranian village https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murkan (just kidding)).
Blue state depression?
A friend emailed me this over the weekend and asked my opinion. Having escaped WA State to Texas after a four year sentence -er- tenure, I said that I completely understand where the thought processes of the married couple with a family and why they left. Heck, they probably live in my neighborhood outside Austin.
(Emphasis on *outside*. Austin proper wants to be Seattle/Portland — God only knows why.)
Heck, I even understood the gay guy’s (three words: Capitol Hill apartment) point of view. I guess Seattle is fun if you’re single and rich.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/newcomers-pour-into-king-county-while-washingtonians-quietly-exit/
“That would cost me about 15 gallons of gas (about $30.00) plus five hours on the road and probably four or five hour wait at the clinic.”
You can get mileage reimbursed from the VA via their kiosks where you go with your VA card to sign in now. Although up here they did the first one for me and then subsequently told me via snail mail that I was not qualified and would not reimburse me. Assholes. More paperwork for me to fill out now.
“Asswipes thieves. Going to cost me $180.00 for them to get nothing.”
Our last crimes on this property were this past summah; started with local dirtbag teens (up here that’s not code for black teens but white trash scum) pounding on neighborhood front doors late at night and then running. Retards. Whoops, mentally challenged, sorry. That escalated to vehicle break-ins here and across the street. Here they rummaged through wife’s unlocked Saab but took nothing (nothing worth taking, even if they wanted to pick through all the rubble and trash). Mine was locked up tight so they cracked the windshield for me; $500 deductible and it cost us over $300 for the replacement. Nothing taken, obviously. Dog never barked throughout any of this, of course. And I guess I gotta put solar motion-detector floods and webcams on the front and corners of the house when I can get around to it, i.e., before the warm weather returns, which according to various experts should be any day now and with a vengeance, too.
And speaking of more paperwork now to fill out; the Fed security person now wants more updated IRS and SS stuff from me. (for that Fed contractor drone job I’m up for) So they fart around for many weeks after I’ve submitted all my chit and then they NOW want more up to date stuff. Typical.
“SB16-340: Vulnerability Summary for the Week of November 28, 2016”
In email just now: “HIGH” for google and android stuff and linux kernel this time.
We always have two, one of each sex. After letting the older, sick one, go and wanting a puppy, we take the adult to the breeder and let them get acquainted on neutral territory.
I need a new laptop for my daughter. Any recommendations ? The wife has come up with: “Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG Laptop, 15.6 Full HD (Intel Core i5, NVIDIA 940MX, 8GB DDR4, 256GB SSD, Windows 10)” for $550:
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E5-575G-53VG-Laptop-Windows/dp/B01DT4A2R4
Thanks!
Not a bad price for that config, with the notable exception of having Winblows on it, of course, and probably the BIOS/boot and virtualization restrictions and automatic reporting back to Microslop that they’re so fond of implementing with each iteration.
“Perhaps you could get a more sedate breed next time.”
Which would be any breed. Actually, I’ve been trying to convince Barbara that we should get a BC puppy now, but she’s afraid Colin would take that very badly. She says he needs to be an only dog and she may be right.
Have tried a girl BC ? Might be more sedate. I would get her fixed though.
My British Cocker Spaniel turns 14 this week or next week, I forget. Her arthritis is bothering her but she can still run 30 mph when she wants to. Like last night when the wife took her for a short walk and turned her loose two houses away, she jackrabitted home in a hurry. When she runs fast, she does a power push using the hind legs by putting them together.
We got Lady a hysterectomy when she was five. Female dogs are prone to female problems after the age of ten and just removing everything is better for them and you.
No, female BCs are just as maniacal as males.
“I’ve been trying to convince Barbara that we should get a BC puppy now, but she’s afraid Colin would take that very badly. She says he needs to be an only dog and she may be right.”
My nephew’s BC (Barkley) very quickly turned the tables on his parents-in law’s older BC. When I saw them both last Christmas the older BC had a few wounds inflicted by Barkley. When a ball was thrown for them to chase the older dog usually got there first but invariably didn’t pick it up. He’s been put in his place…
What’s a good treat for a BC? I’m thinking of getting him some meaty bones for Christmas but would also like an easily consumable treat.
“That would cost me about 15 gallons of gas (about $30.00)”
Okay.. let’s see:
1 gallon = 3.785 liters
In Romania: 1 gallon costs = $4.47
So 15 gallons will be here: $67.09
Don’t know how it’s in US, but in RO (as in EU) there are significant taxes in that price.
EDIT: it seems those taxes are about 55% (Includes VAT).
@nick, thanks for the recommendations but Vanguard has already blocked all the means you mention. There is only one way in.
@lynn, that looks like a good computer. Big plus for this Acer is you can easily upgrade the HD and the memory.
A warning to you and all others who buy computers from Amazon: Be sure you only buy one that says “Ships from and sold by Amazon.com”. The third-parties are notorious for selling unlabeled refurbs and for loading your computer with crapware. I have bought 4 laptops from Amazon in the past year (Acer and ASUS) and each was a Microsoft Signature Edition which means absolutely no crapware.
@RBT, the comment/reply box has stopped underlining spelling errors.
I only buy direct from Dell on anything new. Their small business options have less/no crapware and US based support (last time I looked.)
Used to be I’d wipe and install the OS from scratch, but you need the drivers which can be a pain. Also updates can take hours after that. Having the MS Partner subscription meant always having disks around and license keys too. Not so much anymore.
Still happy with win7 and 8 versions vs win10.
nick
Gas in TX was $1.86/gal last week at Costco. One of the best costco benefits is the gas discount, and then money back on points….
There are significant taxes included in the price here too, but much less in Texas than in California. In Cali they used to put the included taxes on a sign on the pump. I don’t think they do that anymore, people would be too angry.
nick
I need a new laptop for my daughter. Any recommendations ?
Is the laptop stationary or does your daughter haul it to/from classes?
The Acer weighs in at 5.27 lbs. That’s kinda hefty for a non-gamer laptop these days compared to other machines on the market. If it has to be portable, look at models without the built-in DVD burner.
My guess is that this is the last Christmas we will see laptops with built-in DVD burners.
@RBT, the comment/reply box has stopped underlining spelling errors.
That is your browser, not the site. Your spell checking in your browser has stopped working.
“I need a new laptop for my daughter. Any recommendations ? ”
You could also consider buying one with a smaller screen like 14″. That means:
– less weight
– more portable
– less power consumption
– cheaper (maybe) – you could use the savings to buy higher quality/performance
The 14″ could be just enough for her needs.
But I only used a 14″, so I’ve very biased.
@Ray, you are right. I have no idea how or why Firefox unchecked the Options > Advanced > General > ☑ Check my spelling as I type. I should have checked that first.
OFD don’t need no stinkin’ spellchecker or grammah checkah. Recovering English major, i.e., loozah.
Light snow still falling; had to fiddle with the burner in the cellar again, seems to be a couple of times a day now. This, with the dryer now kaput (heat comes on but won’t tumble, and the Tube vid showing how to take it all apart and replace the belt looks like a PITA but to save a hundred bucks I’ll give it a shot). Wife just wants to replace both with a stacked pair, which would give us more space in our laundry corner and also make it easier for two taller than average old farts. This chit always comes in threes, so the other day Princess reported hearing funny noises in her mom’s Saab, which she has up in Moh-ree-all. And just before Xmas, natch.
So I have the burner set to 60 as a backup and am keeping the wood stove going. I’ll mess with the dryer tomorrow.
Yeah, hep us out, here, eh?
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/12/05/do-tell/
more on the laptop
It’s actually much higher if the Full HD is required for a 14″ screen.
Amazon gives me 12 results. I hope the following HUGE link works on you:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_ex_p_n_feature_four_bro_0?rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A!493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A13896617011%2Cn%3A565108%2Cn%3A13896615011%2Cp_n_size_browse-bin%3A2423840011%2Cp_n_feature_eleven_browse-bin%3A13580795011%2Cp_n_condition-type%3A2224371011%2Cp_n_feature_twelve_browse-bin%3A9521908011%2Cp_n_feature_two_browse-bin%3A610553011%2Cp_n_feature_three_browse-bin%3A9647486011%2Cp_6%3AATVPDKIKX0DER%2Cp_n_feature_five_browse-bin%3A7817224011|7817223011&bbn=13896615011&sort=price-asc-rank&ie=UTF8&qid=1480968333
So, the cheapers, with that criteria is:
https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Ideapad-510s-i7-7500U-80UV001BUS/dp/B01LNOECBE
Here’s our current gang.
Chuck, the golden is the old man at ten. Very mellow, great dog but the black one pisses him off alot. By far one of the best dogs we’ve ever had. Can hear the refrigerator open from yards away. Loud deep bark for strangers.
Snuggs the shepard is five and really a pussy but he scares the hell out of strangers. Just what we want. Very loud bark makes me jump sometimes. Will knock you over by clipping you at the knee if you don’t watch out.
Milo the mixed looks like a small black lab. Two years+. In fact when he’s with my MIL’s lab he looks like a minuture of him excelp his tail has longer hair. He has a black/pink tounge so he’s mixed with something other than lab. About 40# and would be about the size dog to have when wife and I are older.
All are rescue dogs and are my daughter’s when push comes to shove. She’ll probably take Milo when she leaves(????).
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxLWd_RKNPevalZjTFhGRVNfTVE
OFD on that dryer if you can just get a gap between the front panel and the drum you can get that belt on pretty easy. They are actually simple appliances.
more on the laptop
the price it is actually much higher if the Full HD is required for a 14″ screen. I queried for similar laptop features and the one with the lowest price of $800 is:
https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Ideapad-510s-i7-7500U-80UV001BUS/dp/B01LNOECBE
Lenovo Ideapad 510s 14.0″
Intel Core i7-7500U processor, 2.7GHz
8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
14.0″ LED-Lit, FHD, IPS display, 1920×1080 resolution
Windows 10
Weight: 3.74 lbs
Doesn’t seem to have a DVD unit.
@OFD, fixing appliances is very satisfying and usually straightforward.
If you do go for a stack, it will likely be a big change for you as most are HE. They take hours to wash clothes in a cup of water. The clothes seem to last longer but sometimes you just want a big bucket of water and a rinse cycle that rocks….
Freakin’ sanitary cycle on ours takes over 2 hours.
Also, all the ‘soft touch’ smooth plastic control panels are either pealing or have cracked over the buttons. I can’t recommend Whirlpool Duet, and we bought them new at wife’s insistence. If we’re gonna buy stuff that needs fixing and that starts to break down after a few years, I’d rather buy scratch and dent.
nick
I buy used always. My dad was an appliance tech most of his life and I never worried about fixes until he was gone. Actually last of couple of times I fixed them while he instructed. Had the same Whirlpool washer for about 20 years. When it died I looked on Craigslist and found a 1 year old. She was moving and had the receipt from Sears. Got it for less than half what she paid. She had already sold the matching dryer, damn! Had to replace the auto water level switch for about $40. Large top loader that works great.
Dryer died and was really old so found one on Craig’s. Guy was full of shit but I paid only sixty bucks. Turned out the gas valve was flaky but new solenoids cost $24 bucks so was still a deal. He had my old dead one up in an ad saying it worked within minutes.
If you’re at all mechanical do your own. Now the upstairs furnace need a new gas valve.
“Here’s our current gang.”
it’s a nice picture with excelent depth of field.
Freakin’ sanitary cycle on ours takes over 2 hours.
The sanitary cycle on ours takes over 3 hours. And go light, very light on the HE liquid. And the HE power does not liquify so must use HE liquid.
We have a top loader clothes washer as every front loader that I have seen mildews. What happened to the center agitator ?
https://www.amazon.com/LG-WT5680HWA-TurboWash-White-Washer/dp/B00EE85HWK/
All good tips, will check ’em all out, thanks, guys.
And on one of the minor but still good values of neighborhood meatspace; once again either my next-door neighbor or the one across the street plowed out the bottom section for us, you know, where the town or city plow keeps piling it up until it’s like wet cement? And warmer temps already with probable rain showers tomorrow, so a lot of this might be gone by then; it’s already wet and heavy. Guy next door also noticed one of my RAV4 tires was down a bit last week and had me bring it into his driveway where he hooked up his industrial-sized air pump, bingo. He LOVES playing with all his motorized toolz and gadgets and vehicles, too. Flattened a load of topsoil for us a couple of months ago and also bulldozed a nice path behind our rear perimeter fence. I think it’s a chance for him to get outta the house for a while, what with wife, stepdaughter living there, 91-year-old FIL, wife’s friend there now, and grandkids over half the time, and also spats between wife and stepdaughter once in a while. Or between wife and the other stepdaughter on the other side of us, carried out across our back yard. The SD living with them got taken away in an ambulance a month or so ago, too, no idea what happened but haven’t seen her but once since, and the car she had from deceased grandma is gone now, too.
I gave him a tour of wife’s newly windowed studio and he liked it; we gon go shooting at the range sometime soon; he was a member but let it all lapse, I guess. I bet he’s ready to go again now.
Maybe I can get my fellow ‘Nam vet across the street to go with me, too.
_Canyon: A Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian Adventure (The Traveler Series) (Volume 2)_ by Tom Abrahams
https://www.amazon.com/Canyon-Apocalyptic-Dystopian-Adventure-Traveler/dp/1533396663/
Book number two of a three book apocalyptic fiction series. I read the POD (print on demand) version. Of which, the font was way too big, 16 point or 18 point. There is a third book in the series that I am going to pass on for now.
The book is set five years after the Scourge, a worldwide pneumonic plague that killed two-thirds of the world’s population. Texas is run by a ruthless Cartel who terrorize the remaining population to get what they want in terms of supplies and materials. The story has frequent flashbacks to the war in Syria in 2020.
My rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (140 reviews)
I filled up with gasoline this afternoon, US $2.20 / gallon. I’m too lazy to convert that to Euros / liter, but the short story is that while my state imposed fairly steep gas taxes, almost every European country imposes *much* heftier taxes.
The 14″ could be just enough for her needs.
I carry a refurb Thinkpad T420 Core i5 with a 14 inch screen and 768 lines vertical. It suits my needs, but the laptop is just a container for the (upgraded) 750 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM that I use for programs I write doing classwork.
Loads of refurb-ed T series laptops with 14 inch screens hit the used market this fall. I’m guessing IBM is going through an upgrade cycle with their employees.
“Texas is run by a ruthless Cartel who terrorize the remaining population to get what they want in terms of supplies and materials.”
Well, who couldn’t see THAT coming? You, Mrs. Lynn, your Marine Corps vet son and his Marine Corps buddies, armed to the teeth, and your own RUTHLESS and vicious way of running things YOUR way, honed through the many years of running your own RUTHLESS international business cartel. Whole state of Texas cowering in fear daily, wondering where your next blow will strike. Neighboring states likewise.
Yeah I paid $2.24 last Friday which is a freekin’ miracle in California.
I filled up with gasoline this afternoon, US $2.20 / gallon. I’m too lazy to convert that to Euros / liter, but the short story is that while my state imposed fairly steep gas taxes, almost every European country imposes *much* heftier taxes.
Your state has awesome roads compared to the roads in Texas. Of course, that was my impression the last time that I drove from Texas to Florida (and back) around five years ago.
Of course, your state will be flooded by the rising oceans in just a few years so those awesome roads are all for naught. At least that is what the learned people in their white coats have been telling us.
“Loads of refurb-ed T series laptops with 14 inch screens hit the used market this fall. I’m guessing IBM is going through an upgrade cycle with their employees.”
That’s what they had using there three years ago, originally with Windows 7 on them, and then they made us run their version of RHEL and if we could prove a business need, they’d let us dual-boot Windows. Not me, and not my immediate colleagues; we kept them exclusively on RHEL with nary a problem. This did not apply, of course, to the upper-level manglers, as they cannot be divorced from their Winblows-centric Office spreadsheets (Excel) and Word memos, plus Outlook email, of course, or when I was there, it was some version of Lotus Notes, again tweaked by the IBM wizards. But my last two Thinkpads at home have long since crapped out.
“Texas is run by a ruthless Cartel who terrorize the remaining population to get what they want in terms of supplies and materials.”
Well, who couldn’t see THAT coming? You, Mrs. Lynn, your Marine Corps vet son and his Marine Corps buddies, armed to the teeth, and your own RUTHLESS and vicious way of running things YOUR way, honed through the many years of running your own RUTHLESS international business cartel. Whole state of Texas cowering in fear daily, wondering where your next blow will strike. Neighboring states likewise.
Nah, I died in the Scourge, a worldwide pneumonic plague that killed two-thirds of the world’s population. I’ve never met a disease that I could not try out.
“…Of course, your state will be flooded by the rising oceans in just a few years…”
And those oceans will be boiling and all life beyond microbes gone.
Currently $2.059 here.
$2.399 here. I buy out-of-state whenever I can.
$1.89 here at my Shell gas station in the Land of Sugar in The Great State of Texas. Ten cents cheaper down the street for offbrand.
That’s fine, but what you really want to read up on is “merkin”, and then think about it in context of Hillary Clinton. While eating.
@Eugen; pay no attention to Mr. SteveF’s advice just now, unless you don’t mind losing your lunch, a specialty of his, like making us throw up in our throats. He’s pretty mean, that guy.
Gas prices up here are all over the map, depending quite often on how close the station is to whatever interstate ramp. Seem to be in the same ballpark as y’all, though, except for that guy down in the great Lone Star State. They laugh at us up here and then they find out that was a mistake and we’re now laughing at them.
As contrasted with any other time?
Es ist gift.
“E destul de medie, tipul ăla.”
“Este un cadou.”
And there you have it.
Puțini MURKEN derps știu că, dar românească este încă o altă limbă romanică. Ca și franceză, italiană, spaniolă și portugheză.
mmmmmnope, I don’t think you got it. “gift” up there was German, not English.
Whoopsie, my mistake:
correct Romanian is: otrăvitor
Maybe I should just stick with English, eh? After all, I AM a recovering English major.
I just did a conversion and gas up here in the Alberta Oil Patch is US 2.51/US gallon today.
As in Giftzwerb?
I don’t know that word, and it’s not coming up in an online dictionary. Did you mean “giftzwerg” (creep)?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkzRNyygfk
Sorry. Tablet typo. General Heinrici was called that by his colleagues. It translates to “poison dwarf”.
Hm, didn’t know dogs were taught to detect cash…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-06/cash-crime-proceeds-allegedly-found-in-luggage-adelaide-airport/8095772
I don’t think the dogs detect cash but instead the drug residue that is on almost all currency circulating today. Thus if you are carrying $10K with you in a car, get stopped, dog alerts, Barney Fife and his crew then seize the cash as being drug money.
“Check my spelling” is selected on my PC but it doesn’t.
Yep. Never mind that the cash in the stupid pigs’ wallets would trigger just as many drug warnings.
For that matter, after a non-cop bounty hunter has transported, say, a bail-jumper to the local police, if the police don’t like private law enforcement (very common) and have a bug up their ass (not uncommon) they may (rare but not unheard of) go over the bounty hunter’s car with drug swipes, magnifying glasses, and dogs and — surprise, surprise! — find “evidence” of drugs in the car. Never mind that the back seat of any pigmobile is likely to have ten times the amount of traces and residue, for the same reason: coming from the clothes of the people being transported. It never happened to me, but has to other bounty hunters, and their cars were seized and they had to threaten lawsuits to get them back. (That level of bullshit is one of the reasons I never did much bounty hunting, vehicle repossession, and the like. Not enough money for the time spent, and nowhere near enough money to make up for the bullshit. Others I worked with saw it differently, and the money was enough better than their McJobs that it was worth the bullshit. More power to them.)
Your computer probably gave up in disgust, Miles_Teg, after being asked to spell-check your poem extolling the virtues of pastoral romance.
OFD – avoid front loaders.
Re: Daily Mail
Here’s an example. They ran this original story, and now they are running the update.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4002436/Cops-Serial-abductor-broke-Ohio-homes-kidnap-girls.html
I have every confidence that when he’s found guilty and sentenced they’ll run that story too.
nick
And not to get all Gaticca, but this is just a bit concerning in the same case:
“Authorities were able to connect the two incidents using DNA evidence. Christian was tracked down through a familial DNA search.
The search aims to identify someone with a near-match to a person who committed the crime, such as a brother, father or son. ”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4002436/Cops-Serial-abductor-broke-Ohio-homes-kidnap-girls.html
Worked out in this case, and justice will be done, but how long before this is routine and innocent people get screwed?
nick
“”I don’t think the dogs detect cash but instead the drug residue that is on almost all currency circulating today. Thus if you are carrying $10K with you in a car, get stopped, dog alerts, Barney Fife and his crew then seize the cash as being drug money.””
“”Yep. Never mind that the cash in the stupid pigs’ wallets would trigger just as many drug warnings.””
I’m very allergic / sensitive / poisoned by various fragrance products (cologne, perfume, laundry chemicals, air “fresheners” and so on). I find that most cash is contaminated with plenty of these sorts of noxious substances… but of course the usual excuse I get if I dare to complain (about cash or other “odors”), I am told that it’s just a mental defect on my part.
It is, though, hard to understand how dogs could be taught to “alert” on cologne since that’s something that is plentiful in cops’ vicinity, one way or another.
Of course, the real issue is that drug dogs react to some subtle signal from their handlers, most likely.
I’ve mentioned before that while working in Las Vegas, we’d get our per diem cash from the casino cash cage, in the form of hundreds and twentys. If you fanned that stack, you could smell the cocaine from 3 feet away.
nick
(very little smelled like a stripper’s @ss, which is the other thing that comes in contact with a lot of cash in Vegas)
Makes you want to launder your money.
Certainly doesn’t make me want to roll it up and put it against my mucus membranes…..
n
“Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote for Donald Trump”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/opinion/why-i-will-not-cast-my-electoral-vote-for-donald-trump.html
“DALLAS — I am a Republican presidential elector, one of the 538 people asked to choose officially the president of the United States. Since the election, people have asked me to change my vote based on policy disagreements with Donald J. Trump. In some cases, they cite the popular vote difference. I do not think president-elects should be disqualified for policy disagreements. I do not think they should be disqualified because they won the Electoral College instead of the popular vote. However, now I am asked to cast a vote on Dec. 19 for someone who shows daily he is not qualified for the office.”
“Rogue One,” the latest “Star Wars” installment, arrives later this month. I am not taking my children to see it to celebrate evil, but to show them that light can overcome it.”
“I believe electors should unify behind a Republican alternative, an honorable and qualified man or woman such as Gov. John Kasich of Ohio.”
This idiot elector in Texas is not going to vote for Trump in the Electoral College because he is not honorable in the Star Wars way. Who selected this idiot ?
BTW, looks like the NY Times has not put their paywall back up yet.
the real issue is that drug dogs react to some subtle signal from their handlers
When I lived in San Antonio there was a pest control company that had a beagle that supposedly could smell termites. The company would charge you a lot of money to have your house “sniffed” and then offer to eliminate the termites. Of course the elimination was expensive. Turned out to be a fraud as the dog was alerting on a signal from the handler.
I also feel the drug dogs can truly smell cocaine. But I also suspect they are trained to produce the same alert from their handler. Traffic stop where the barney’s don’t like you and the dog is called. The dog always alerts. Car is searched, nothing is found. Car is impounded and torn apart, nothing is found. Car pieces are returned to you with a bill for “disassembly”. Although in most cases drugs are found as the drugs are planted by the police.
I can attest that Mr. SteveF is correct once again, regarding the bounty hunter/LEO relationships, along with more such relationships concerning “private security.” I got out of “law enforcement” and other such claptrap thirty years ago and have not regretted it since. Shitty way to spend one’s nights dealing with 99% negative situations for shitty pay and bennies and human beings that really ought to be used to mix with new asphalt on superhighway expansions and bridge abutments.
And I defer to Mr. Nick’s superior knowledge concerning cash and coke and strippers in Lost Wages casinos, but MrAtoz has yet to check in. I believe his expertise is in zombie strippers.
Yeah, and the Daily Mail does better pictures and videos, too, as does RT. Our MSM sucks rocks and is dying anyway, and good riddance to that, too.
So, what, another RINO elector? BFD. The Stupid Half of the Party is run by them and riddled by them. I suspect stuff is being floated for some shenanigans on 12/19; as Mr. DadCooks always says, keep our eyes open and watch their hands and we gotta watch our own six always.
And I guess that’s a consensus vote on not buying frontloader washers, eh wot? Which would of course have to be the case for a stacked set, amirite? So we’re stuck with two side-by-side units, I guess. I find it a PITA to have to stoop down for the dryer clothes, but I also find it a PITA for our oven and fridge the same way.
You can get the stands for them. That will raise them about a foot.
n
I put the garage fridge up on a 1 ft stand.
n
Unleaded is $1.87 nearby, but I get a $0.10 / gallon discount.
Last week it was $1.65 but seems to have jumped on news of the short lived OPEC agreement.
Why not put the washer and dryer on top of grown “children” with useless college degrees that won’t be of any use in earning a living?
The cheapest gas around here is currently $2.199, but it’s been bouncing all over the place; it went up $.07/gal a couple days ago, and probably will bounce back down shortly.
Weather here has been mostly fine, overcast but little precipitation. We got maybe an inch of snow last night regionally, and roads were slippery but not too bad this morning … and I saw several cars in ditches or backward in the lane with crumpled front ends.
FWIW, where I’m currently consulting has a very large contingent of non-American workers and Americans from other parts of the country, and approximately none of them know how to drive in other than ideal conditions and apparently don’t know what snow tires are, and often don’t have that much experience driving. For that matter, a lot have no idea what that white stuff is or what on earth is going on with the outside temperature. You can spot them by either the absence of cold weather clothing or the overabundance of cold weather clothing, back at the first frost in October. (I don’t wear cold weather clothing, either, but I grew up farther north and higher up and have far-north ancestry and have the metabolism from hell. And I have cold weather emergency stuff in the back of the car.) (Er, no, that’s a lie; I don’t. I took it out a week ago when I was moving some stuff. Need to remember to put it back.)
Hey, Mr. Nick, thanks for the idea on stands for the washer, dryer and fridge. So simple and yet a recovering English major dint think of it. Amazing.
yep, for the washer and dryer, they even come matched in color and style. For the fridge, I built a plywood box and painted it white. Probably couldn’t get away with that in the kitchen 🙂 but it works great in the garage.
n
“”yep, for the washer and dryer, they even come matched in color and style. For the fridge, I built a plywood box and painted it white. Probably couldn’t get away with that in the kitchen but it works great in the garage.””
Build a box and finish it to match the cabinets, or at least such that it doesn’t look too bad. I had one with cabinet doors that made it useful storage space (with of course the problem of having to get down there for access, but at least it’s space to use for occasionally used stuff).
Thanks for the tips, guys. Every little bit helps around here. Maybe I’ll have some great tips someday. But chances are slim from a recovering English major.
Au contraire! You can write and illustrate a book of tips for decorating a hobbit-height basement so it looks twice the height. If you work at it, you could become the next Martha Stewart! With a beard.
Or put your literary education to work and write some drottkvaett poetry about, I dunno, vanquishing libtards or going to war against millennial uselessness or something.
More seriously, did you get anywhere with the prepper or other book you were toying with writing? Is it percolating along, never really got started, or got started and then you discovered Holy Goat-Sucking Offspring of the Allfather but writing a novel is a lot of work!
(There’s a reason I write short stories and novellas rather than novels. Aside from preferring to read shorter fiction myself, my attention span (or at any rate my ability to put time into something before it’s hauled away) isn’t long enough to write a novel.)
Shoot man, until we built the addition to our house, we had the clothes washer in the house and the clothes dryer in the garage. I rewired a new spot in the garage, cut a hole in the wall, and voila!, no horrendous noise in the house next to the sick daughters bedroom. The wife was making a lot of trips out to the garage with wet clothes though. She said it made her tough. No law says that you have to have them in the same place.
That was the real purpose in building the addition to our house, was to get a utility room away from the sick daughter. We got the game room for “free” with all of the minimum costs to pour concrete, etc.
WRT to laptops: If possible, get one with a 256M SSD as the C drive, and a second drive of large size (I got 2TB in my latest one).
The OS on the SSD is *very* fast, and the D drive is all for data. I am pleased with that drive setup choice.
Your state has awesome roads compared to the roads in Texas. Of course, that was my impression the last time that I drove from Texas to Florida (and back) around five years ago.
Florida has awesome roads? Wow, that’s something you don’t hear every day.
Tourist areas around Orlando have decent toll roads and some decent freeway access to the theme parks and planned communities but that is thanks to development driven by Disney and … believe it or not … Jeno of Jeno’s Pizza Rolls fame.
From what I’ve seen living here for a couple of years, Austin is a mess, but it seems to have the same problem as Tampa in that wealthy enclaves were built in the middle of potential right of ways while the various government agencies played NIMBY games in the 80s.
In reverse order:
I heartily agree with Mr. RickH on the smaller SSD and the larger data drive/s. My planned setup for the biz machine config is a 500GB SSD and a RAID1 set of four matched 4TB drives, i.e., eight drives. CentOS 7.x running Nethserver 7.x. Very large monitor, stereo sound w/subwoofer, and behind a VPN with encrypted financial and personal data. And I am loving these backlit Logitech keyboards. Gave up on the wireless mouse stuff, though; not reliable.
Mr. Lynn has a potentially good ideer; run the dryer somewhere else but we don’t have many options in this small footprint hobbit house built in 1830 for hobbits before they were all slaughtered and eaten by orcs. And we’re as big as orcs, I guess. I’ll run that by Mrs. Orc.
“If you work at it, you could become the next Martha Stewart! With a beard.”
And end up going to jail like her on jumped-up fake charges as part of a vengeful witch-hunt over nothing. With my now-white beard. (the stress from ducking under 200-year-old beams all the time and being always-angry at the IRS).
“…write some drottkvaett poetry about, I dunno, vanquishing libtards or going to war against millennial uselessness or something.”
Funny you should mention that; I’ve just read the first volume of the late A. Solzhenitsyn’s Red Wheel trilogy and well into the second volume which is twice as long, at 1,000 or so pages. He’s covering the Russian side of WWI and you could easily put the major players and some of the minor ones right smack into our time now, a century later. One lousy clusterfuck after another, with imbeciles in charge and panty-waist intellectuals clamoring for socialism and down with the monarchy. Well, they got their wish, didn’t they. 70 years of a prison-state, with probably a million dead for each year of their own people. At the same time I’m reading the late E. Pound’s “Cantos” and translations, and he was extremely bummed out by that war and loss of friends to it. Whereas I and some of my friends are extremely bummed out by our wars and the ones that came after it, watching returning vets the age of our kids coming back all fucked up.
“More seriously, did you get anywhere with the prepper or other book you were toying with writing? Is it percolating along, never really got started, or got started and then you discovered Holy Goat-Sucking Offspring of the Allfather but writing a novel is a lot of work!”
I got an outline done and the major characters delineated but stalled out due to seeing the huge plethora of similar writing already out there and not wanting to duplicate any of it, esp. when watching the zany fucking circus that is going on in real life and is part of our ongoing history anyway. Beats fiction. I may still do something with it, but recent events with medical issues and filing VA paperwork, filing tax paperwork, and futzing around with Fed background check stuff for a potential job working again as a contractor IT drone for them, plus family stuff and house stuff, have drained the ambition from me for the time being.
“(There’s a reason I write short stories and novellas rather than novels. Aside from preferring to read shorter fiction myself, my attention span (or at any rate my ability to put time into something before it’s hauled away) isn’t long enough to write a novel.)”
Yeah, I could see that myself; it’s a long slog to do a novel and it would take priority over much else that needs doing around here, esp. when Mrs. Orc is away for one to three weeks out of every month; Mr. Orc holds the fort alone and has been doing so with a fair amount of pain and discomfort for six months now. Not to whine because lotsa peeps are fah worse off than me, but back stuff shuts down a lot of functionality, like hauling firewood and stacking it for very long, moving stuff around, much in the way of stooping and bending and crawling around in tight spaces, etc., etc. So I’m thinking more on the lines now of film scripts, novellas, short stories and maybe even some poetry, the latter probably being of the black humor variety.
Princess just stopped by with a friend and picked up the dawg for the week, so that’s one less little chore for me.
And I’ll be back to whatever I can get done tomorrow and more paperwork for the Feds and some online courses I’m taking, I hope.
That’s what they had using there three years ago, originally with Windows 7 on them, and then they made us run their version of RHEL and if we could prove a business need, they’d let us dual-boot Windows. Not me, and not my immediate colleagues; we kept them exclusively on RHEL with nary a problem.
I wrote most of the Linux NetClient for the IBM RHEL when that hot mess was still in Beta. I wasn’t allowed to have a copy of the Linux since I was not an IBM employee so I tested against Scientific Linux 6.
I was impressed with I-10 in Texas when I drove across country a few years back. Heavy traffic in Houston & San Antonio, of course, but I plotted my route so as to avoid rush hours.
And if you’re going to build a stand for a fridge, make it with a pull out drawer for storage.
I loved having that RHEL lappy, a decent ThinkPad. Thanks for your work on the NetClient, nary a problem. IBM up here treated us drones better, I heard, than they did down in Armonk and East Fishkill and Poughkeepsie.
I’ve had Scientific Linux here at home a couple of times and liked it fine; and I have a current RHEL JBoss Developer’s license and I’m debating whether to bother renewing it when CentOS fills my needs here just fine now, as apparently there are no more RH jobs for me up this way and manglers won’t let anyone work from home, Gawd forbid, and why pay the hundred bucks per year for the license and bother with certification anymore, amirite?
Just watched the Colts demolish the Jets; every game I watched yesterday and tonight have been blowouts. And now, officially, Tom Brady is the greatest NFL QB ever, in NFL history, in the wins column, with 201, having just passed Peyton Manning and he’s still playing at 39 and apparently with no intention of retiring yet. Four Super Bowl rings on his hand. Even if you don’t care for sportsball, it’s still a huge accomplishment; it ain’t no picnic on that field.
“And if you’re going to build a stand for a fridge, make it with a pull out drawer for storage.”
I would. We’re also gonna see if we can move the fridge back a couple of feet from our back door, it’s a PITA back there getting in and out and getting stuff from said fridge. And whatever we do about a dryer, I am mos def putting a stand under THAT. Probably the washer, too. And in decent weather I’m pretty sure Mrs. Orc is on board with us running an old-skool clothesline out the back from the porch to one of the trees.
@RBT
Regarding dog and Colin and Barbara.
There is nothing to compare with a border collie. The only thing holding them back from world domination is manners and a lack of thumbs.
However, should the idea of being dog less in 8-10 years bring you sorrow, consider developing a relationship now with a responsible quality breeder, and let it be known you’d like to be considered as a retirement home for an adult dog.
Breeders who breed litters so they have a dog for themselves, who actively pursue conformation, agility, herding titles, will periodically have older dogs (5-8) who need to retire. They’ve proven themselves in their venue, have passed on their genetics, and need a new home to make way for the next generation.
They make lovely companion dogs. They are already trained and luxuriate in having a family to themselves (or mostly).
But. There is always a but.
Breeders who are rehoming their champions and masters and highly skilled dogs love them and are very selective in where they go. Hence the suggestion to develop the relationship now. Tell them you are looking at an older dog about 5 years down the road. That’ll give Colin time to ‘break in’ the new dog, and the breeder time to deem you worthy.
Also consider a different breed out of the herding group.
I’m nuts for Cardigan Welsh Corgis and have had them for 12 years. Highly intelligent, very trainable, great companions. Not to be confused with their busier cousin the Pembroke Welsh Corgi.
Cardigans are content to settle and watch tv with you and still like their daily excursions. They can be vocal and that varies by line. Very capable dogs, big dog attitude in a compact 30 lb package. They can be hard to find. Tag me if you decide you want to know more in the future.
http://buchanan.org/blog/trump-calling-xi-jinping-126107
Just one more thing to worry about. But I’d rather have the Taiwanese as allies and friends than the Chicom sons of bitches. Your humble northern correspondent once had orders for a two-year PCS (permanent change of station) to Shu Lin Kau Air Force Station on Taiwan. Would have been sweet but for unknown reasons the orders got canceled.
“Puțini MURKEN derps știu că, dar românească [correct is ‘româna’] este încă o altă limbă romanică. Ca și franceză, italiană, spaniolă și portugheză.”
Yes.. and to underline that, Romania is said to be a ‘latin island’ (or island of latinity) – no neighbors have the ‘latin’ roots. Romanian thinkers from early XIX century, strongly adopted this view to express their beliefs that Romania belongs to the western civilisation. Strong adoption of french culture were going on in those times. French language was spoken by bourgeoisie at social events, and it was considered a sign of erudition. Bucharest was nicknamed The Little Paris. And modern romanian language massively adopted french words. But in present days, the french influence is just a pale shadow of what it used to be. The newcomers are english and german (especially in Transylvania).
However, things are more complex as both the genes and the language of romanians have been shaped by the massive migrations crossing it’s territories, with the ones who stayed been assimilated. The Dacians were the ancient inhabitants and the guests were: the Celts, the Romans, the Goths, the Huns, the Gepids, the Avars, the Slavs, the Turkic tribes. And later their childrens: ungarians, germans, russians, ottomans, and others like jews, gypsies.
So probably, our genes are the most mixed up you can find in these parts of the world right now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Romania
And if you go way back in prehistory, you might find out that (in the above link):
” nonetheless the Romanian fossils are still among the oldest remains of Homo sapiens in Europe, so they may be representative of the first such people to have entered the continent.”
get one with a 256M SSD as the C drive, and a second drive of large size
Little skimpy on that drive. In my opinion don’t even bother with the second drive. Keep your OS and programs on the SSD. There is still plenty of space for documents unless you do video. If space is a problem move your documents to an external USB 3.0 drive. 256G SSD is more than enough for the OS and programs. I have such on my Surface and works quite well. If you really think you will grow get a 512G SSD. A second drive just wastes power and adds weight.
I was impressed with I-10 in Texas
Texas does have mostly good roads. Speed limits of 75 on I-30, same on some two lane roads in the rural areas. TN has good roads. On my recent trip to Texas the roads went to crap once we left Memphis and were in Arkansas.
California roads really suck. Oregon uses a lot of concrete with the resulting thump-thump-thump as you drive over the expansion joints. Washington state, most ntabley in Seattle, has ruts in the cement from the studded tires. You can almost let go of the wheel and the vehicle stays in the ruts. Get up into the Northeast and you really experience bad roads. Pot holes, bumps, faded paint, no reflectors, really crappy driving experience.
I’ve noticed in TX, Houston particularly, that surface streets can be very bad and signage is minimal and misleading.
TX uses a lot of concrete in highway construction and it can be noisier than blacktop, but it lasts a long time, and repairs better.
The most amazing thing to me (having grown up in the Chicongo area) is that highway projects here actually FINISH. Not only do they finish, but often on time or early, and then you actually get a period of use without any construction going on. Miracles.
nick
“…and then you actually get a period of use without any construction going on. Miracles.”
Up here we call that “winter”. No construction, but plenty of other things to keep your attention.
Having just returned from San Antonio I noticed a lot of construction, especially at the northwest corner of I-410 and 151 (I think that was the intersection). Not too bad considering Atlanta which is always under construction. Newest effort is a toll road from north of Atlanta to the 285 loop. And to add to the mess there is the construction to support the new Braves stadium at 285 and 75. It is a mess.
@Jenny
Thanks! Barbara likes Corgis. She prefers the Pembrokes because they have tails, which I told her was a girly reason to choose one breed over another. But the Cardigans look a lot like miniature BCs, so that may sway her.
She’s against getting another dog while Colin is still with us. She knew he was a special-needs BC the day we met him when he was five or six weeks old. His seven or eight litter mates all came running over to greet her when she entered their pen. Colin was off by himself trying to hide from her. She chose him because from working with hundreds of BCs in BC rescue for a decade she knew he’d probably end up in rescue unless someone who really knew BCs adopted him.
Of the twenty or more BCs I’ve had since my parents brought home the first one when I was six, Colin is probably the brightest, which is saying something. All of them have routinely used not just deductive logic but inductive logic, for example, and all of them have been able to tell time by looking at analog clocks, but Colin is only the second or third one we’ve had that can tell time by looking at digital clocks. Also unusually for BCs, Colin is not a single-person or even single-family dog. He loves everyone, including complete strangers who come to visit him. But he’s also very timid. He’s afraid of anything he doesn’t understand, and Barbara is convinced that if we brought home another dog Colin would think it was his replacement and fall into a deep depression.
Kansas City has the WORST potholes I have ever seen.
It’s so bad that the dealer recommends road-hazard insurance with every tire you buy. In 50 years of driving it’s the only place I have ever actually BLOWN a tyre hitting a hole.
Northeast, particularly northern New England roads and streets and highways:
1. “Get up into the Northeast and you really experience bad roads. Pot holes, bumps, faded paint, no reflectors, really crappy driving experience.”
Check.
2.) “…that surface streets can be very bad and signage is minimal and misleading.”
Check.
3.) “Up here we call that “winter”. No construction, but plenty of other things to keep your attention.”
Check.
And in the warmer months there is constant road repair, bridge repair and reconstruction, various other projects, etc., that are sometimes in-progress during the day and into the night and other times not; you find out when you come up on it, no warnings.
As for being lost out on some back road somewhere, the old joke still holds true; ‘if you were FROM here you’d KNOW where you are and where you’re going…otherwise you’re on your own.’
I loved having that RHEL lappy, a decent ThinkPad. Thanks for your work on the NetClient, nary a problem. IBM up here treated us drones better, I heard, than they did down in Armonk and East Fishkill and Poughkeepsie.
I worked for AT&T when I built the Linux NetClient.
AT&T set aside money to promote me after that and other accomplishments like inventing the SSL-T VPN protocol, but my direct manager gave the money and title to my partner who is better at kissing butt -er- politics than I am.
I left AT&T in 2010. I doubt they can compile Linux NetClient these days or even know where the source code is located.
Officially, I have no idea where the source is located … or whether Linux NetClient even works on modern distributions. Unofficially … well, you can imagine the rest of that sentence.
I’m frankly amazed at how long that application has remained relevant. Even without source, I know that the Linux NetClient binaries can be rigged to work on just about any Linux with the right 32 bit library support.
Barbara likes Corgis. She prefers the Pembrokes because they have tails, which I told her was a girly reason to choose one breed over another.
Pembrokes are the ones without tails. We have one right now, along with a Toy Fox Terrier.
Texas does have mostly good roads. Speed limits of 75 on I-30, same on some two lane roads in the rural areas
The speed limit on I-10 is 85 when you get to the rural areas between San Antonio and El Paso. We’ve done a lot of driving over the last couple of years. A trip to the Virginia area and to Las Vegas a couple of time. In general, the Interstates in TX are good quality. the rural roads excellent. A few states do a good job on the Interstates, but everything else sucks.
The exception is Dallas-Fort Worth. The roads there are in terrible shape and are being rebuilt.
The exception is Dallas-Fort Worth. The roads there are in terrible shape and are being rebuilt.
The exception is:
1. I-45 from Houston to Dallas is bad and getting worse
2. I-35 from San Antonio to Austin to Fort Worth or Dallas is horrible and getting worse
3. I-10 from Beaumont to Houston to San Antonio is bad and getting worse
4. The inner city roads in Austin, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio are bad and getting worse – bypass if possible
The new interstate I-14 from Baton Rouge to Madisonville to Bryan to Killeen to Fort Stockton will take some of the load off I-10 hopefully.
http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-014.html
Texas desperately needs three more north-south interstates (hwy 6, 36, and to be named later) to take the load off I-45 and I-35. I doubt that we will get them in the next twenty years.
I got full suspension travel in my Expedition on a pothole on I-10 outside Luling two years ago at 80 mph. That was not pleasant. The 18 wheeler in front of me had all 8 rear wheels on the trailer up in the air.
Going north, US 281 from here to I-20 isn’t a bad drive. Nothing to write home about. Drops you a bit west of Fort Worth. I usually turn at Hamilton to hop onto 22 to get to Hillsboro, just before I-35 splits. Nice drive, pretty country. Sure, once in a while you get stuck behind a tractor on 22, no big deal. All in all, it takes an extra 20 minutes to make it to Garland/Richardson/Plano and NO dealing with Round Rock, Georgetown, Salado, Belton, Temple, and for icing on the cake, Waco.
Waxahachie, well, I’d rather take I-35 through Austin. At least with Austin I know how to get through town on Lamar.
“I worked for AT&T when I built the Linux NetClient.”
I was at IBM from 2011-2013 and AT&T ran our external network; for inside the data centers with actual wiring and hooking up server racks and also fiber optic, we did it ourselves alone.
We have a almost 26 acres plus the house is on a separate acre. A friend owns the adjoining 15-ish acres. Call it all 40 acres. I do. The neighbor along the backside fenced for sheep several years ago. Ain’t a tree on the whole place… A different neighbor fenced the far side for something, good for goats anyway, a few years ago. Ain’t nothing there but cedar with a few oaks. Which left the two long sides to fence better than just barb wire.
It is almost done. Twelve rolls (at 330 feet each) of 4 feet high sheep and goat fencing. Plus a lot of t-posts of which they used maybe half. Plus pipe and concrete mix for corners and gateways.
I need to walk along with a bucket to pick up the trash. Trash like snips of wire… sure, a critter won’t eat a wire but might step on it.
Need to replace the panels at the entry with something that has a 4×4 inch grid. I have that. Need to get bull panels with a 4×4 grid to hang from cable so we can finish at the creek/wash/drainage ditch (your choice). What is there is OK for cows, not for goats.
My gate opener sorta died a couple of years ago. I have to fix or replace it.
Then we get a few goats. Maybe a cow with a calf, too.
I need to fence the yard around the house. Just to keep the stupidest of the dogs from chasing the UPS truck. How soon depends on how pesty goats are.
Annnnd, that’s what I’ve done to prep this month.
“Annnnd, that’s what I’ve done to prep this month.”
Shazzzzzzzammmmm!! Hats off!
We’ve got less than an acre with chit for sunlight-growing, but we live in a 200-year-old house 100 feet from the sixth largest lake in CONUS, and we’re in a village of maybe a couple of hundred peeps. Surrounded on three sides by many square miles of flat fertile farmland. Prior to and along with any SHTF scenarios, I would hope that we could arrange some sort of lease or cooperative scheme with any of the nearby farms and use the land for growing the stuff that grows best up here. Other than just miles of corn, that is.
Three roads lead into the village and those could be blocked off with whatever is at hand, if need be. We’re about a one-minute walk from the town hall and local gas station/store and the pub and post office. If we had a boat we could rent a berth during the warm months at the one remaining pier, for a pretty reasonable price, too. Behind is the town park, where they’re installing some nice walking paths around it and along the bay shore. Beyond that is a wildlife management area, with two streams converging to form a lake estuary and beyond that more farmland, where we’ve heard several coyotes in the early evening. Overhead all kinds of birds, including raptors like hawks, bald eagles, golden eagles, etc. Great blue herons swoop over us sometimes looking and sounding like pterodactyls. And of course, all kinds of fish in the bay/lake, which sees moderate fishing activity year-round.
All I’ve done to prep this past month is work on back stair treads and railing, the rear perimeter fence, some more motion-detector floodlights, and organizing the storage in the cellar. I am so far behind on my five-page to-do list it ain’t even funny. Most of my days seem devoured by locusts as I wade through Fed and IRS and VA paperwork and try to keep up with just the routine house cleaning chores and scut work. While also falling behind on my online courses/classes, but I DID finish the Vermont Master Composter certification and now just have to put in 20 hours of volunteer work this next year. I may sign up for the Vermont Master Gardener course in the spring or wait until the next one comes up.
I’m also signing up for NRA classes as they’re scheduled and within a reasonable distance.
Then we get a few goats. Maybe a cow with a calf, too.
Cabrito is very good in a meat sauce. A bit fatty but that may be the cheap TexMex places that I eat at.
Goat- it’s what’s for dinner.
Goat- not just for Chupacabras anymore.
Don’t let someone get your goat!
Oh I got a million of them….
Goat- the original BBQ.
nick
(actually like goat aztec style with chocolate sauce)
Wife likes goat cheese but I don’t and neither one of us will eat goat; we like them and think they’re cute and funny as all heck; seen them climb trees, too.
Our most exotic meat dish has probably been bison, so far.
Bah. Chicks are cute and funny, but I’ll eat them when they’re big enough to make it worthwhile.
If I were prepared to take on yet more responsibility, I’d think about raising a dozen chickens for eggs and meat. The main consideration would be my daughter — balancing traumatizing her when I killed a chicken she’d watch grow from a cute little baby against learning a bit more of how the world works.
I don’t even like chicken that much, but wife does; I prefer turkey.
I’d even raise chickens here but we’re short on space as it is and neighbors too close.
Hypothetically, wild turkeys and Canada geese might be easy to kill with a bola. They’re wary of letting people get near them, but they’ll derp around in open fields grubbing for food and they’re not instinctively afraid of the whirring and whistling of a bola. Bolas are trivially easy to make, quiet to use, and not difficult to get good enough to hit a neck-sized target at 20 feet. Figuring out how to clean the carcass without ruining all the meat is much more difficult. Hypothetically.
And I was told the common canadian goose wasn’t tasty. Nasty even.
n
Hypothetically, it was ok. Hard to tell, because I don’t much care for goose and I mangled the corpse getting the feathers off and such. My wife and mother-in-law cooked it Chinese style and seemed to like it, and it tasted like, I dunno, food to me. Er, hypothetically and with no admission of criminal wrongdoing.
My last experience with Canadian Goose was when I was about 14. I was out with a buddy at the range, shooting my .22 autoloader. We watched a flock of geese circle and land across the stream in the gamelands. One very large one was strutting along the bank of the stream, which was about 50 meters across and 50 cm deep. I hit the goose with a dozen rounds of .22 LR, and it was still trying to take off. Eventually, it fell over. I waded across that stream, which had chunks of ice floating in it, retrieved the goose, and crossed back over. My buddy, who was a couple years older than me and had his driver’s license, drove us home. I proudly presented the bloody dead goose to my mother, who asked me what I expected her to do with it.
We like geese and won’t eat them, either. I doubt they’d taste very good; they’re wild and very lean, unlike farm-raised geese, which, incidentally, are pretty good watch-geese and will cause a ruckus if unknown mammals, including humans, approach.
DH wrote:
“Our most exotic meat dish has probably been bison, so far.”
Probably the best meat dishes I ever ate was at a conference in 1994: Kangaroo, Emu and Crocodile. Wonderfully lean. I don’t think meat needs to be loaded with fat to taste good.
“I don’t think meat needs to be loaded with fat to taste good.”
I do. I curse this insane idea that meat has to be low fat. They’ve actually bred livestock to reduce the amount of fat. I want my fat.
Fat sometimes tastes nice (the “tails” on lamb and pork chops) and sometimes doesn’t. I like some fat but too much tastes bad and creates a mess on the plate.
“I want my fat.”
No problem; I’ve referred your desire to the two wallyhogs on either side of us. You should be getting a call soon.
I draw the line at eating primates.
Not to worry. Wallyhogs descend from elephant seals. Don’t believe me? Morphology does not lie!
And with elephant seal blubber you’ll have at least a week’s worth of fat!
What’s not to like here, dude?
I draw the line at eating primates.
I still shudder at the monkey brains eating scene in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAZ6dSIMivk
They’ve actually bred livestock to reduce the amount of fat.
Mostly pork. Fortunately, heirloom pork is available at some grocers.
I still shudder at the monkey brains eating scene in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”.
It’s one of the few things Anthony Bourdain has refused to eat. In Vietnam, he did eat a raw cobra heart that had been taken out moments before he ate it. (BTW, nobody has been able to find a place that does the monkey brains like in the movie.)
Monkey Brains. Always get them at the sushi places.
(okay so they’re mushroom caps/or tempura fried avocado stuffed with crab, tuna and creme cheese with a sriracha sauce pattern drawn on top
https://restaurantimages.menuism.com/duILECmo8r4kKCeJe4dZbg-wasabi-sushi-640×480.JPG
I won’t eat any brains- prions, insanity
n
I seem to remember recipes or something way, way back about brains being cooked and eaten like other “organ meats,” but forget which animal/s were done that way. You won’t see me eating any exotic chit anytime soon; I won’t even eat shrimp, don’t like the smell or taste. Forget frog legs and rattlesnakes.
I’m a beef-and-potatoes guy, like most of my English ancestors. Except for their steak-and-kidney pies and some other chit they probably got from the Normans.
I’m a beef-and-potatoes guy, like most of my English ancestors
Good choice. I also don’t eat sushi which in these here parts is called “BAIT”.