66F and very nice out this am. Too bad it won’t stay that way.
Trouble in the middle east is heating up again. Between the iranians stomping their feet and demanding the death of the west (us specifically, but the israelis too), and the israeli response (which is meant to remind the mad mullahs that they can and will ‘reach out and touch someone’), and turkey up to its own game, things are once again getting sporty.
Don’t be sure it won’t spill over and slosh onto us.
Macro economic and geo political times are changing. During periods of great change, there is great stress. Lot’s of rice bowls get threatened. Lot’s of people just biding their time might suddenly make a move. Not much we can do on a global level, but we can make individual decisions and take individual actions to position ourselves to ride thru the changes.
If you’ve been dragging your feet about a prep or action that would help you, time to move on that.
nick
https://borepatch.blogspot.com/2018/05/hows-all-that-uk-gun-control-working-out.html
” SCOTLAND Yard has sent out extra patrols in London after a blood-soaked Bank Holiday weekend in which a teenager was shot dead and boys aged 13 and 15 survived being blasted with a shotgun.
Two more men were shot or stabbed and three were doused in acid as the capital’s shocking violence claimed yet more victims.”
Hmm……
How about that Trump, doing what the libs considered impossible. He and Melania going to airport in the middle of the night to greet the 3 released hostages at the top of the stairs.
Via Drudge:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5712509/Trump-Melania-meet-three-Americans-imprisoned-North-Korea-land-2am.html
WRT the Middle East – Let’s just let Israel alone and let them clean up the Middle East. Our only involvement should be ensuring they have a steady supply of arms and us telling the rest of the world to duck off.
Miss me for the last couple of days? Busy, long story that will wait. Stuff happens.
I’ve been waiting, for years now, for Israel to bomb the sh1t out of Iran’s nuclear program/development sites. I have gold I’ll sell the minute that happens.
In other news, spent half the night replacing the screen on a funky, but well-liked, unlocked, dual-sim, GSM phone.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B014IQMVHQ/
“It’s Alive!”
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RS2BT08LMI397
Submitting myself to the tender mercies of the local medical system. I’ve got an earache.
They use ipads to check in over Wi-Fi.
The process wants me to update and or give a complete medical history. Over Wi-Fi. Ummm, no.
And this is the same practice I’ve used for 9 years, but suddenly they need a complete history again? If they really are that sloppy with my records that is disconcerting.
N
Sloppy? No. They want you to do the work to input your history into their EMR. Screw it. I always make it minimal and only note really important stuff and then just the basics of it. If they want detail they can ask.
65º and cloudy in Perry’s Shipyards. Off & on rain and it shouldn’t get above 70º today. I’m glad I got the gravel (mostly) finished last night, so I can relax tonight.
SCO box VM is humming, and has been for the past week or so. I finally got it moved to its long-term home and have a backup routine. It will inconvenience users every week for about 20 minutes, which I can live with. There is NO way I would require my helpdesk guy to come in EVERY weekend to back it up. You don’t do that to people.
Windows licensing is a pain in the butt. I have to redo a VM because the initial install disk was Datacenter & not enterprise. Um… Just a pain. New VM, clean install, update licensing and be done with it.
Sloppy? No. They want you to do the work to input your history into their EMR. Screw it. I always make it minimal and only note really important stuff and then just the basics of it. If they want detail they can ask.
My wife’s old practice in FL simply dumped a bunch of records rather than entering them into EMR as directed by the management.
When a former patient died at a nursing home and the attorney subpoenaed the records, the office manager told the lawyers that the file was with us in Texas.
My wife corrected that real fast … with the office manager’s personal phone number being sent to the lawyers.
Most doctors and dentists I know keep their paper charts for at least 5 years. They might not all be on-site but they do have them. Cost becomes low for warehousing in large quantities. Just a pain for the lowly sap that has to go get them (and usually dirty).
I’m spending the day in Downey CA for NAHREP* where MrsAtoz is keynoting. I have to wear a suit. Yuck!
*National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals
Most doctors and dentists I know keep their paper charts for at least 5 years. They might not all be on-site but they do have them. Cost becomes low for warehousing in large quantities. Just a pain for the lowly sap that has to go get them (and usually dirty).
My wife’s former practice probably broke the law with regard to the retention period. As Dr. Pournelle used to say, “Well, Soooprise!”
During her time in that office, due to a mistake made by one office moron, my wife was sued and had to settle for a seven figure sum. Ultimately, the FL medical board cleared her of wrongdoing, but the record is there for the rest of her career.
And, no, the moron was not fired.
Well, for $120 I can be comfortable knowing that I don’t have any visible issues, and my pain is most likely from seasonal allergies.
This practice is usually very well run. Part of their mission statement recognizes that patients’ time is valuable and they strive to have you in and out, if you get there on time. For ‘reasons’ I was 10 minutes late, and ended up waiting 10 minutes. Not an issue for me.
The whole ipad thing creeps me out. NOT secure. Covered in germs. Not cleanable. I washed with hand sanitizer after using the thing. Wish I could wash the data too.
n
Ah, doin’ the jobs lazy Americans won’t do—
” Mother-of-two, 25, was the ‘CEO’ of a huge Minnesota meth smuggling gang which worked in partnership with Mexican cartels, prosecutors say
Macrina Perez worked in cooperation with brutal Mexican drug lords to traffic wholesale amounts of meth to the Twin Cities metro area, according to prosecutors.”
\
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5714411/Mother-two-25-CEO-huge-Minnesota-meth-smuggling-gang.html
n
The whole ipad thing creeps me out. NOT secure. Covered in germs. Not cleanable. I washed with hand sanitizer after using the thing. Wish I could wash the data too.
If they developed a custom app, the security could be pretty good on the network connection. It all depends on how much money they spent.
Web app? Meh. Someone at Apple in the CoreOS group likes to play cryptographer. Most of the pre-iOS5 devices are insecure because of that hobby choice.
But we were born free–
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5714659/Videos-cop-tackling-man-leaving-car-running.html
“it is, in fact, against the law to leave a vehicle running with no one inside.”
n
added- I bet the cops got themselves exempted…
I’m not one to be late for appointments and don’t much tolerate it in return. Many years ago I had a GP that always did that. Make you wait in the waiting room then again in the exam room, often over an hour. Then he’d rush in and give you 5 minutes of his time. Sometimes that can happen for legit cause but not every time. I finally quit him and told his office why. Not sure he cared but neither did I.
If I’m going to be late for ‘reasons’ I will call. If a doctor leaves me waiting more than 30 minutes I’ll leave and dare then to charge me. I just go up and tell them time is money to me and I have important things to do also. They can reschedule. Done it more than once.
Looking for recommendations for a good knife to take rural camping. Not camp ground camping. Hike a ways into the woods from the rural road and set up a tent, type camping. I haven’t done this kind of thing in 30 years but I have some stuff planned for the summer. I have a Bear Grylls survival knife bought on a whim when visiting BassPro. It actually seems like a good knife despite the cheesy TV show connection.
I think a few of you guys do rural camping and would like to hear what you carry.
MrAtoz
PBR on me:
Tonight or this evening or this afternoon: Sunset Beach
https://www.facebook.com/MothersTavern/
Tomorrow evening: Costa Mesa
https://www.facebook.com/The-Anchor-Bar-215937013772/?rf=167307196639996
@jlp, I don’t do that sort of camping, but I would probably just carry my EDC, a mini-Griptillion from Benchmade. It’s a great compromise in strength, size, and shape.
I would likely grab one of my Morakniv plastic handled, fixed blades, just to have on my pack. I honestly can’t think what I would use it for that I couldn’t use my griptillion…
I think a lightweight hatchet, or a machete, or sven saw would be a better use of the weight, for anything you’d need a big knife for.
Unless you are talking about a knife as a survival tool with nothing else, if the SHTF happens while you are out… I don’t think the giant knife is that useful.
n
Speaking of acid attacks–
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5706173/Acid-attack-victim-opens-horrific-ordeal-time.html
Dallas TX, 2017
WRT Dr. waiting and appointments starting 30 min or more after scheduled time, I don’t do that anymore.
I am with Dr. within 5 minutes of scheduled time.
http://www.privatemds.com/about-us/
It’s called “concierge physicians”.
Just from reading the first half of the article and judging nothing else – “I’m sorry, officer. I didn’t realize. It won’t happen again.” He probably would not have been detained and that would be that.
PD around here leave their cars running. When I encounter them (stopping for lunch or something), I tend to yield to them to allow them to get back to it in a timely manner. That’s courtesy.
Thanks, Nick. Why the heck didn’t I think of a small hatchet? I guess my brain just got stuck thinking “knife”. A hatchet would be far more useful for camping. I already have a nice one hanging on the peg board in the shed.
I’m still interested in hearing what others think about camping knives and other cutting tools.
I bought the Bear Grills Ultimate knife after watching a YouTube video of it being torture tested. I loved it. So I put one in each BOB and Get-Home bag. Comes with nice sheath, fire starter, and diamond sharpening stone, and whistle attached. At around $50 it’s value for money in my book.
For anyone interested in real numbers, courtesy of the FBI, their active shooter report is out for last year.
“FBI releases active shooter 2016 and 2017 report
The FBI released a report last week on active shooter incidents in the United States
during 2016-2017. This report supplements two previous publications. The FBI defnes
an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting
to kill people in a populated area. For comparison, 2016-2017 saw:
ĵ 50 incidents in 21 states. There were 40 incidents in 26 states in 2014-2015.
ĵ 221 people killed and 722 wounded. There were 92 killed and 139 wounded in
2014-2015.
ĵ 13 law enforcement ofcers were killed and 20 wounded. There were 4 killed
and 10 wounded in 2014-2015. 2016 saw the highest number of law enforcement
casualties since 2000.
ĵ 20 incidents met the “mass killing” defnition, unchanged from 2014-2015. The
federal defnition of “mass killings” is “three or more killings in a single incident.”
The enhanced threat posed by active shooters and the swiftness in which these types
of incidents unfold supports the importance of preparedness by first responders
and citizens alike. Please see the full report for more statistics and details on citizen
engagement, casualties, locations, and shooters (PDF, 1 MB).”
Of interest-
“Citizen Engagement and Casualties
In 10 incidents, citizens confronted the shooter. In eight of those incidents, one or more citizens safely
and successfully acted to end the shooting.
■ In four incidents, unarmed citizens confronted or persuaded the shooter to end the shooting. In two
incidents,17 school staff confronted and restrained the shooter. In one incident,18 the citizen used
his car to thwart the shooter. In one incident,19 the citizen persuaded the shooter to surrender via
telephone during a police chase; she ran up to the shooter’s car as he came to a stop and pulled him
out of his seat, bringing the chase to an end.
■ In four incidents, citizens possessing valid frearms permits successfully stopped the shooter. In
two incidents,20 citizens exchanged gunfre with the shooter. In two incidents, the citizens held the
shooter at gunpoint until law enforcement arrived.21
■ In one incident, a citizen possessing a valid frearms permit exchanged gunfre with the shooter,
causing the shooter to flee to another scene and continue shooting.22
■ In one incident, a citizen possessing a valid frearms permit was wounded before he could fire at the
shooter.23”
added–
“Armed and unarmed citizens engaged the shooter in 10 incidents. They safely and successfully
ended the shootings in eight of those incidents. Their selfless actions likely saved many lives.
The enhanced threat posed by active shooters and the swiftness with which active shooter incidents
unfold support the importance of preparation by law enforcement offcers and citizens alike.”
Currently in TX. Made the drive from Nashville to Bryan in one sitting. Lot of AIS time. Traffic moved well, lot of troopers looking for speeders to fill the revenue buckets. I have to be careful being out of state as I am a prime target.
Got to love the two and four lane roads in TX with a speed limit of 70 or 75. Makes for good traveling. Stupid trucks are still a problem when they are passing another truck. When a car does that to them they get ticked and will tailgate. But it is OK for them to do that with themselves. Here is a clue 10-4 buddy, tailgate me and your company will be receiving a phone call. I hope it is your termination event.
Left Bryan this morning for Austin, well actually Spicewood. Will be staying in a hotel in the Cedar Park area of Austin. Austin, like any big city, sucks big time with regards to traffic. Will be in the area until Sunday morning when I head south to San Antonio for two days, then start the return journey. Couple of stops to visit relatives on the way.
Did I mention I dislike sleeping in strange beds? Will be glad to get home. But only for two weeks then off to Europe for three weeks and more strange beds and really cramped hotel rooms.
This one is not too far from here–
“Knight Transportation Building (Commerce)
On May 4, 2016, at 8:45 a.m., Marion Guy Williams, 65, armed with a shotgun and a handgun, began
shooting as he entered the Knight Transportation building in Katy, Texas. The shooter had been fred
from the company two weeks prior. One person was killed; two were wounded. The shooter committed
suicide after law enforcement offcers arrived.”
Will be staying in a hotel in the Cedar Park area of Austin. Austin, like any big city, sucks big time with regards to traffic.
Until two months ago, I worked in Belton, 50 miles from home in Round Rock, and an hour each way, no traffic.
Now I work in Downtown Austin, 20 miles from home, and an hour each way, lots of traffic.
If you don’t get your fill of Texas BBQ, when you head back to Bryan, take 35 up to Belton and stop at Schoepf’s before cutting across east. Miller’s in Belton is also good, but they try to fancify the place — and, no, I’m not just talking about providing cutlery. 🙂
I am partial to Bill Miller BBQ. We are not going back to Bryan. Leave SA to a place north of Houston.
There was a Bill Miller BBQ on Burnet Road the last time I went there. Heading south from 183 it’s on the left. Just past where Oltorf hits Burnet Rd.
I haven’t been through there in a year or so.
I am partial to Bill Miller BBQ. We are not going back to Bryan. Leave SA to a place north of Houston.
I believe Bill Miller BBQ is a separate chain than the Miller’s in Belton.
Don’t forget to stop at Bucee’s in Luling on I-10.
Luling/Lockhart has some of the best BBQ places in Central Texas, but I don’t know how pressed for time you will be.
I bought mud flaps for my truck from eBay. $48 or so for all four corners. They seem well made. Like I have any clue about quality here. Three screws per to attach. They use an existing screw, so two holes to drill on each corner.
One hole in into the plastic wheel well liner. Not a big deal. The other screw is into metal. On the front I can turn the wheels left or right. On the back, it looks like I’m going to have fun jacking it up and pulling the wheels.
It has the pretty 20″ wheels. The spare is an ugly 20″. I dropped it last month to check the air… it had 4 PSI… Not bad for what looks like a factory spare on a 2002 truck. That sum-pitch is /heavy/. Adding 40 PSI of air seemed to make it heavier. 🙂
Why add mud flaps to an old truck? It’s dark blue (Patriot Blue) and the gravel/dirt road I’m on is light brown. Those big tires spin plenty of mud onto the sides of the truck. Even onto the rear view mirrors. At 15 MPH at most.
Next project is step rails. Nerf bars. With 20″ wheels it’s a long way down to the ground.
A block from my house:
Man dies in struggle with JP officers; family wants answers
You have asthma and you’re running away from the police in 90 deg heat?
He won’t be making that mistake again.
Good ol’ Firefox has updated to version 60..0. Now you can’t View Cookies. You Manage Data now. And then get to click again to confirm.
I’m not seeing the improvement here. Maybe I’m just grumpy.
I did not mow today. I went out, filled the gas tank, checked and added a couple of tablespoons of oil to the crankcase, used the leaf blower to blow the grass and dust off of the beast and did a Nancy Reagan.
Maybe tomorrow. My back aches today.
Added: I’m still getting the dust out of my eyes.
@Ray
Happy trails to you!
@Slim
PBR rocks! But this is Seattle… alas and alack.
Haven’t seen a can since I left Ohio.
@paul said:
I’m not seeing the improvement here. Maybe I’m just grumpy.
At least Mozilla didn’t break it like Micro$oft did with the continuing fiasco with update 1803. I got an early release last week (that I had not allowed) that worked fine. Then people complained that it broke their machines so M$ sent out a “fixed” version on Tuesday 5/8/18 that borked all my computers because it installed over the working 1803. BTW I have Win 10 Pro so updates are supposed to be at a date and time I allow. Well M$ thought better with both the 1803 updates. What the duck? One of the new problems is with graphics chips (Intel IIRC) that are in many many computers.
I let the FF update to 60. For me the biggest change is the tiles for visited and pinned sites on the new tab page. Nice that they finally increased the number of tiles. I use the feature often since it was introduced.
Haven’t noticed any other changes, all my add ons seem to work.
n
Well, this is interesting.
Someone has made a site to combat the continued erosion of gun rights in the on line seller space.
https://www.libertylist.com/
n
Heh…. #metoo meme
Oh my.
n
Re: FF upgrade to version 60.
Just installed it here…seems to be OK. Like the increased number of sites in the ‘new tab’.
Don’t like how it cleared all of my cookies. (And I have a lot of them.) Did that with the last update also. But I can live with that, I guess.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – You Go Girl”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-you-go-girl/
Yup.
BTW, copying and pasting on a smarty pants phone sucks.
“BTW, copying and pasting on a smarty pants phone sucks.”
Depends on what you are accustomed to. I live on Android a lot, and can pretty much do all I need on line. On a desktop, I rarely use the mouse, and am sometimes curious when people mention things like the up arrow. Sure, on a phone it’s handy, but on my desktop there is the Home key. There are lots of other useful keys, some of whose names begin with “F”.
I’m beginning to understand why Millennials with solid coding skills job hop every 3-6 months.
I guess if you have a diploma from Fancy Lad Tech, you don’t need to actually write code. That’s what state university graduates are for.
Already made a stop at Buc-EE’s in Bastrop. Awesome place. Lots of goodies. Spent too much money.
Austin traffic sucks. I say again for those hard of hearing. Austin traffic sucks.
Too many cowboys in their jacked up F-250’s thinking they own the road, the diesel jocks in their Dodge Rams and a power chip blowing clouds of black smoke,Beemers with drivers who think they are special, and the illegal aliens who don’t care because they don’t have insurance.
Haven’t been here one night and already ready to leave this cesspool of yuppies, cowboys and illegals.
And I am tired, pissed, and overall just in a bad mood.
Austin traffic sucks. I say again for those hard of hearing. Austin traffic sucks.
Too many cowboys in their jacked up F-250’s thinking they own the road, the diesel jocks in their Dodge Rams and a power chip blowing clouds of black smoke,Beemers with drivers who think they are special, and the illegal aliens who don’t care because they don’t have insurance.
Yeah, since I’ve been commuting downtown, I notice more pickups being driven like they’re Mustangs.
Come back next year when the F-250s and Cummings Ram Diesels bought on 84 month loans have been reposessed. The repo rates are starting to go parabolic.
Austin was the compromise that got us out of WA State. It isn’t permanent.
lol @Ray… I’ve long held the opinion that any guy in a red Dodge Ram pickup was compensating for something …
@Ray
Beemers with drivers who think they are special
Yeah what’s with that? In particular why do they think they’re not required to have front plates? Just Yesterday I noticed one behind me that had a front mount with a chrome plate with a BMW emblem on it. I thought the cops tried to enforce front plates for traffic cam enforcement. (Audi owners catching up)
In TN there are no front plates required on vehicles.
A girl I work with once commented that guys with big trucks are compensating for something.
I smiled and said, “I most certainly am.”
@JimL
A girl I work with once commented that guys with big trucks are compensating for something.
Sounds like sexual harassment. 😀
For many years I drove a Toyota Hilux to work out in the Hanford Area. What’d that say about me? I never compensated for anything or anyone. And in the Winter (back before global warming and we got lots of snow) I passed many a big-ass 4×4 in the ditch as I skimmed along in my little Toyota.
BTW @Rick Hellewell – the link to that #metoo meme is really a sad, but true, statement of our times in more ways than one.
And @RickH yes, FF 60 wiped my saved cookies too (makes it a PITA to log-in to some sites that think I am now someone else). This new FF seems to handling caches in a different way too. And ttgnet is showing 150 cookies. What’s up with that? Sorry, can’t get a screen shot to work.
IDK if it deleted any cookies, but my login info and accounts all still seem to be there.
n
@JLP
Perhaps here,
The Best Outdoor Knife
.mg
I’m still interested in hearing what others think about camping knives and other cutting tools.
I have this one when I’m off the beaten path and need something more than utility folder:
Morakniv Companion Heavy Duty Knife with Carbon Steel Blade
My EDC is now a Gerber Center Drive. I like the pliers on it the most.
@DadCooks : not sure where all of those cookies you see are from … this place only stores about 5-6 cookies or thereabouts.
And, the FF60 cookie deletion is a minor pain. But all of my saved logins still work, so just a minor inconvenience of logging in again on the regular list of sites.