Mon. Oct. 19, 2020 – first day of school

By on October 19th, 2020 in decline and fall, personal, WuFlu

Cooler and humid.

Yesterday got warm in the afternoon, and was crazy humid, but was very nice in the shade if you weren’t working too hard.

I got a couple of things listed on craigslist and ebay.  Sold one item.  First sale in 90 days.   Spent a bunch of time doing some more Halloween decor and lighting.

Did some small cleanup things.  Found some missing items, and discovered some others need to be tracked down.  Moving all my stuff around is messing with my sense of where stuff is.  The flip side is I’m coming across stuff that has been tucked away for a while.  Can’t sell it if you have stored it for later and have forgotten it was there.

Spent a little time on the backup house search.

Did some other auction stuff.  Bought my wife a better xbox controller since she and the girls are playing games.  A lot.   They did all get in the pool while I got dinner ready.  Not too many days of pool use left without some sort of heater.

Oldest daughter starts ‘in person learning’ today.  She’ll be riding the bus to her new school.  I’ve decided to wear flannel jammies and slippers to take her to the bus.  All the moms do it, and half wear yoga pants, not flannels….  I’m not quite insane enough to wear yoga pants.

Wife is in the office MWF this week and I’m home with youngest daughter.  She opted to continue virtual learning.  She likes sitting alone in her work area.

The tone of the school emails is shifting.  Not so subtle hints that parents need to let the kids do the work.  Threats that if the kids can’t follow the virtual rules they’ll be forced to return to in person classes.  Threats that if the kids can’t follow the in person rules, they’ll be kicked out for being ‘health risks’.  Lots of rules about verifying attendance.  No butt in seat = no payday for the district.  Lots of emphasis on ‘butt in seat’ time.  In other words, they had a chance to remake education, and they’re blowing it.

Lots of things are going to  be re-made after the crash.  They’ll be made in the shadow of what was, and shabbier.  Thus begins a dark age…

 

Or not.  We are clever monkeys well motivated to survive.  Just because it’s happened before, doesn’t mean it will happen the same way this time.  ‘Course, in September of last year, if someone just laid out the facts of our current situation, would you have believed it was possible?

Keep stacking.  Keep learning.  Keep testing your assumptions.

 

n

82 Comments and discussion on "Mon. Oct. 19, 2020 – first day of school"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    it’s a big club and you ain’t in it.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/does-explain-why-facebook-was-so-quick-suppress-hunter-biden-revelations

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/facebooks-lead-executive-election-policy-former-joe-biden-advisor-ukraine-helps-explain-censorship-hunters-emails/

    On Saturday the Conservative Treehouse broke the story that Facebook’s lead executive on Election Policy is Joe Biden’s former advisor to Ukraine.
    Anna Makanju works for Facebook today after advising the Biden Crime family in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.

    n

  2. Ray Thompson says:

    Florida look backs are up to 10 years IIRC. My friend’s mother went on FL Medicaid to enter a long term care facility, and the trustee told him, “It is all gone, understood?”

    When I put my aunt on Medicaid I had to provide 3 years of tax returns and sign a document that stated what she had left in assets. The penalties for not disclosing everything were quite severe.

    I knew she was running out of money so I applied for a nursing home and Medicaid a couple months before her funds were depleted. She had more than $1,200 in assets (all money, no property) so she did not qualify. I was advised by the agent to prepay her funeral policy, buy her clothes, to get the funds below $1,200. I did that and came back two days later, showed the agent the receipts, and bank statement, and my aunts was approved.

    She was getting $1,000 a month from the VA which dropped to $50 a month when on Medicaid. TN Medicaid office said the get to keep that money along with retirement money and SS money. I had to get a letter from the VA informing the state that VA money could not be taken by the state. My aunt was allowed to keep that plus $90 from her retirement each month.

    A lady I worked with put one of her parents in a nursing home on Medicaid. The state immediately put a lien on the house where the spouse lived and on the vehicle the spouse used. The state took both of their social security payments and left the spouse $500 a month. That forced the spouse on welfare, later lost the house, and had to go in public housing. The state bankrupted the remaining spouse and forced her out of the home she had lived in for 40 years.

  3. Ray Thompson says:

    Social security: As y’all may recall, I gave up my citizenship a few years ago, because FATCA makes living abroad as an American very difficult. However, I am still supposed to receive social security when the time comes. I will be fascinated to see how (or if) that actually works.

    Interesting. You will probably have to file a very complicated income tax return with the US. I hope you can apply online. Will you still have to pay Medicare premiums? Mandatory for me even though the VA can provide me care. Will the money be in dollars or local currency? Will the US direct deposit to a foreign bank?

    I don’t expect you to have the answers.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    ‘Florida look backs are up to 10 years IIRC. My friend’s mother went on FL Medicaid to enter a long term care facility, and the trustee told him, “It is all gone, understood?”’

    I don’t understand ???

    The State of Florida took all of my friend’s mother’s assets to cover the long term care.

    My friend had a strained relationship with his mother, like most of my generation, and the Trustee wanted to make sure that the family understood the legal consequences of making the parent a ward of the government.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    My friend had a strained relationship with his mother, like most of my generation, and the Trustee wanted to make sure that the family understood the legal consequences of making the parent a ward of the government.

    And lest anyone believe my friend was heartless, again, I refer you to “I, Tonya” for an acccurate portrayal of the maternal unit for most people right around my age, give or take about five years.

    One upside of isolating from the parents’ estate is that the State of Florida will make the heirs legally responsible if they inherit any ill-gotten gains, particularly if the elder committed any form of fraud against the welfare system in the state. Prison time is possible.

    Florida does not have dusty statutes making the parents the legal responsibility of the offspring. I have no doubt that the 1/4 or so of the states that so have those kinds of laws will start doing some spring cleaning in that section of their land grant college’s law library fairly soon.

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8854519/Muslim-doctor-refused-shake-womans-hand-denied-German-citizenship.html

    Every muslim should have to pass this test.

    Islam is incompatible with western civilization.

    n

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    Follow up. One of the reasons I read a ‘tabloid’ like Daily Mail.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8850817/US-judge-mulls-competency-Mexican-man-shot-American.html

    n

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Child one is off to school. Hope it’s what she expects. Of course she left her lunch behind…

    And then it rained. Just enough to make the humidity 100% and get everything wet. Still grey/yellow out.

    yuck.

    n

  9. Pecancorner says:

    @Jenny, the house is wonderful. I can see why you both like it. As you say, if it is meant to be, it will be an easy purchase. Here’s hoping it IS the right one and all goes smoothly!

  10. Greg Norton says:

    Every muslim should have to pass this test.

    Islam is incompatible with western civilization.

    Germany has still admitted plenty of members of the “Religion of Peace” as permanent residents and citizens.

    Western Europe will belong to them in another generation unless things change in a big way. The clock is ticking, and, while the home team has the genetic heritage of staging some of the most brutal wars and genocides the world has ever seen, killing on a scale and with an inventiveness that was sometimes beyond comprehension, the visitors have youth, energy, and the hunger for the win.

  11. MrAtoz says:

    All the moms do it, and half wear yoga pants, not flannels…. I’m not quite insane enough to wear yoga pants.

    You could show off your “package” in those yoga pants, Mr. Nick. The other “moms” would appreciate it.

  12. SteveF says:

    Yoga pants. Bah. What with his complaints about the heat and humidity, Nick should wear a speedo — only a speedo — as he drops off his daughter. This will not only enthrall the soccer moms, it will horrify the kid, a worthwhile goal for every parent.

    10
  13. William Quick says:

    the visitors have youth, energy, and the hunger for the win.

    And a birth rate five times that of the natives.

  14. SteveF says:

    And a birth rate five times that of the natives.

    Augmented by beheadings, explosions, and vehicular homicide to further reduce the native population.

  15. Greg Norton says:

    “All the moms do it, and half wear yoga pants, not flannels…. I’m not quite insane enough to wear yoga pants.”

    You could show off your “package” in those yoga pants, Mr. Nick. The other “moms” would appreciate it.

    Yoga pants in class = academic dishonesty, a rule of thumb I developed from observations across two CS programs on opposite sides of the country and a year of Professional Development classes at UW.

    A really lean, hardcore “yoga” look, like the cover of the Athleta catalog, identified the leadership of the cheating ring.

    And, again, lest anyone think I’m sexist, various outlets sell yoga pants for men.

  16. Nick Flandrey says:

    AC is on to something here…

    https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/2020/10/16/the-beats-in-our-fictional-world/

    He’s looking at current events through the lens of hollywood screenwriting.

    It makes sense.

    n

    (I took a class with a successful screenwriter, and the main takeaway was “to have a successful TV show script, you have to ‘tell ’em what’s going to happen.’ Then ‘tell ’em what’s happening’, then ‘Tell ’em what just happened.’ Like the ‘beats’ once you are aware of the structure you will see it all the time.)

    added- there is a tremendous amount of redundancy and, for lack of a better term, error correction, in the screenplays. You need to be able to come in part way thru any story and quickly understand what’s going on. If not, you will change the channel. If the screenplay was a data stream, it’s very robust and can be 95% recovered from even just a fragment…

  17. Nick Flandrey says:

    cops are working a stakeout on a house about 2 miles from me, just behind my veterinarian’s office. whoever the guy is, they’ve got a bunch of resources ready to nab him.

    n

  18. lynn says:

    Over The Hedge: Getting George Ready For Winter
    https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/10/19

    Maybe George should migrate south ? I doubt that he will handle snow very well. Or maybe he is warm blooded.

    And how does Verne handle winter ? Other than living in the hot tub.

  19. lynn says:

    A lady I worked with put one of her parents in a nursing home on Medicaid. The state immediately put a lien on the house where the spouse lived and on the vehicle the spouse used. The state took both of their social security payments and left the spouse $500 a month. That forced the spouse on welfare, later lost the house, and had to go in public housing. The state bankrupted the remaining spouse and forced her out of the home she had lived in for 40 years.

    Well, that is sad and not right.

  20. lynn says:

    ‘Florida look backs are up to 10 years IIRC. My friend’s mother went on FL Medicaid to enter a long term care facility, and the trustee told him, “It is all gone, understood?”’

    I don’t understand ???

    The State of Florida took all of my friend’s mother’s assets to cover the long term care.

    My friend had a strained relationship with his mother, like most of my generation, and the Trustee wanted to make sure that the family understood the legal consequences of making the parent a ward of the government.

    Gotcha. That is what I thought happened, I just wanted to make sure.

  21. lynn says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8854519/Muslim-doctor-refused-shake-womans-hand-denied-German-citizenship.html

    Every muslim should have to pass this test.

    Islam is incompatible with western civilization.

    n

    I do not understand why Europe and the UK are tolerating these invading people in their midst. I expect Europe and the UK to convert to Islam within 20 years.

  22. lynn says:

    Child one is off to school. Hope it’s what she expects. Of course she left her lunch behind…

    Dude, not everyone likes a squash sandwich.

  23. lynn says:

    “Amazon fake reviews reach holiday season levels during pandemic”
    https://www.chron.com/business/article/Amazon-fake-reviews-reach-holiday-season-levels-15657924.php

    Yup, I am beginning to wonder if the Big River fake reviews are more than 50% of the total reviews.

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    well, the target of the snatch and grab wasn’t there. surveillance will pick up another day I guess.

    Some other teams are still working their targets though.

    One thing that’s clear, sometimes they really are following you and bugging your phone…

    n

  25. brad says:

    I don’t expect you to have the answers.

    That’s good, because I surely don’t. Ask me in five years or so…

    Islam is incompatible with western civilization.

    As recently demonstrated in Paris.

    I do not understand why Europe and the UK are tolerating these invading people in their midst.

    Progressives who believe that their good intentions will win the day. They fail to understand that the cultures are incompatible, and the migrants are unemployable. Point out their errors, and they call you racist.

    However, the progressives have done enough damage in Europe that people are starting to wake up. Leftist extremists have also gotten in the habit of seeking any excuse for violent protests (like BLM, which is utterly irrelevant here), which is not endearing them to anyone.

    Change is coming, but it is a generational thing…

  26. anonymous says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8854519/Muslim-doctor-refused-shake-womans-hand-denied-German-citizenship.html

    Every muslim should have to pass this test.

    Islam is incompatible with western civilization.

    n

    I do not understand why Europe and the UK are tolerating these invading people in their midst. I expect Europe and the UK to convert to Islam within 20 years.

    Why are we (USA) ?

    Why, how warm is the water getting, asked the frog?

  27. Greg Norton says:

    “My friend had a strained relationship with his mother, like most of my generation, and the Trustee wanted to make sure that the family understood the legal consequences of making the parent a ward of the government.”

    Gotcha. That is what I thought happened, I just wanted to make sure.

    Florida Medicaid nursing home/ACLF assistance is essentially a long term loan against the estate assets. A lot of people just see it as free stuff, but my friend and his wife understood.

    None of us around my age want to live with this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaOvqVFcIrM

    My own mother wears those Sophia Loren frames.

    I have no clue about my mother’s situation. Florida and Texas do not have laws on the books making the children responsible for the parents, but Virginia, where my sister lives in a $1 million house on the ocean in Virginia Beach, does have some requirement from what I understand.

  28. Nick Flandrey says:

    “Why are we (USA) ?

    Why, how warm is the water getting, asked the frog?”

    –indeed, why? Because most people don’t understand the threat, because they believe that everyone else is mostly like them, and because the destruction of our culture continues and has continued for at least 50 years. The dawn of newspeak with “Politically Correct” substituting for “actually correct but uncomfortable to some” was the camel’s nose.

    n

  29. Chad says:

    Yup, I am beginning to wonder if the Big River fake reviews are more than 50% of the total reviews.

    They should lock down the reviews to verified purchasers only and only if the geo location of the IP address authoring the review matches the shipping address of the verified purchase (within an acceptable radius). There’s other things they could do similar to Yelp. Like, if an account has only ever written one review and it’s a 1-star or 5-star review, then hide it.

    Though, it still doesn’t solve the problem of a company selling a quality product and earning a bunch of 4 and 5 star reviews and then once the high average review for their product is attained switching to cheaper materials and manufacturing methods.

  30. Nick Flandrey says:

    The bigger problem with amazon reviews is when they lump all products from the same manf together. Ten different items, all shipped for different periods, all with the same reviews showing.

    this is especially bad with the chinese crap. with an honest review I might take a chance, but with half the reviews for some other product entirely and no way to know, I’ll pass.

    n

  31. lynn says:

    Yup, I am beginning to wonder if the Big River fake reviews are more than 50% of the total reviews.

    They should lock down the reviews to verified purchasers only and only if the geo location of the IP address authoring the review matches the shipping address of the verified purchase (within an acceptable radius). There’s other things they could do similar to Yelp. Like, if an account has only ever written one review and it’s a 1-star or 5-star review, then hide it.

    Though, it still doesn’t solve the problem of a company selling a quality product and earning a bunch of 4 and 5 star reviews and then once the high average review for their product is attained switching to cheaper materials and manufacturing methods.

    It is much worse than that. A company will establish a product for sale on Big River with a good price and good reviews. A fourth party will then come in, fake the product, and sell a piece of crap for a lower price, getting the primary sales position, and a bunch of bad reviews.

  32. lynn says:

    Islam is incompatible with western civilization.

    As recently demonstrated in Paris.

    I do not understand why Europe and the UK are tolerating these invading people in their midst.

    Progressives who believe that their good intentions will win the day. They fail to understand that the cultures are incompatible, and the migrants are unemployable. Point out their errors, and they call you racist.

    However, the progressives have done enough damage in Europe that people are starting to wake up. Leftist extremists have also gotten in the habit of seeking any excuse for violent protests (like BLM, which is utterly irrelevant here), which is not endearing them to anyone.

    Change is coming, but it is a generational thing…

    As recently demonstrated in 1453 by the first Caliphate, the Ottoman Empire, when they destroyed the Byzantine Empire and flooded Europe with moslem armies:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople

    It is too late for Europe and the UK to the drive all the moslems away, the white men will not pick up a gun and fight back when they are 60 and above as a majority are now.

  33. lynn says:

    “Liz Warren Holds Enthusiastic Rally for Sleepy Joe Biden in Front of 8 Supporters – But 2 of them are too Young to Vote”
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/liz-warren-holds-enthusiastic-rally-sleepy-joe-biden-front-8-supporters-2-young-vote/

    You’ve got to be kidding me. Political rallies at this point should be at least 10,000 people.

    Anyway I hope that Beijing Joe is pleased.

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

  34. lynn says:

    “New Data Analysis Finds 353 Counties With 1.8 Million More Registered Voters Than Eligible Citizens”
    https://www.ntd.com/new-data-analysis-finds-353-counties-with-1-8-million-more-registered-voters-than-residents_518429.html

    “A total of 353 counties in 29 U.S. states have 1.8 million more registered voters than eligible voting-age citizens, according to an analysis by Judicial Watch.”

    “In addition, eight states, including Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Vermont, were found to have statewide registered voter totals that exceeded 100 percent of eligible voters, according to the nonprofit government watchdog.”

    The fraud is going to be simply amazing this year. Rush quoted an expert this morning who expects Pennsylvania to vote for the Trumper and then get flipped to Beijing Joe by the mail in ballots.
    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2020/10/19/trafalgar-group-pollster-issues-voter-fraud-red-flag-in-pennsylvania/

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

  35. Greg Norton says:

    “Liz Warren Holds Enthusiastic Rally for Sleepy Joe Biden in Front of 8 Supporters – But 2 of them are too Young to Vote”

    You’ve got to be kidding me. Political rallies at this point should be at least 10,000 people.

    Anyway I hope that Beijing Joe is pleased.

    At this point, who wants to see Fauxcahontas (or Crockajawea, take your pick) on the stump?

    Plus, if the whiny snowflakes I worked with are any indication, the Dems really do believe that staying in the house is survival at this point. They *want* Plugs to lock down the entire country starting in January until at least the start of the next school year.

    1
    1
  36. lynn says:

    Plus, if the whiny puke snowflakes I worked with are any indication, they really do believe that staying in the house is survival at this point. They *want* Plugs to lock down the entire country starting in January until at least the start of the next school year.

    Wow, that is the very definition of a snowflake.

    3
    1
  37. MrAtoz says:

    Obola is also holding a rally for Plugs. They are desperate. Obola didn’t even endorse plugs until the end. Joke.

  38. paul says:

    I’m not in the mood. Someone here, with macular degeneration, thinks we need a larger TV. Say, 80″ diagonal. Well, why do this half way with a 65″ or 70″ screen?

    Ok, when I wall mounted the 55″ I did my best to position the bracket so swapping to a larger TV will be easy. Scoot the laser disc player and the receiver closer, lay the speakers on their side, and tada! In theory….

    I have a Vizio. I still like it after 10 years.

    New TV must have a tuner. Built in speakers. RCA inputs (for the Laser disc). A few HDMI inputs for the Roku and the Blu-ray player. Optical out audio to the receiver.

    I don’t care about 4K or a “smart” thing trying to get onto my network.

    So, pretty much just a TV for everyday watching. Running the sound through the stereo to watch the news isn’t something I’m a fan of, much less the news in surround sound.

    I’m not enthused with this project. Just plain not.

    Any suggestions?

  39. lynn says:

    I don’t care about 4K or a “smart” thing trying to get onto my network.

    Be sure to get 4K for an 80 inch tv. Otherwise I’ll bet that you can see the pixels.

    My 82 year old dad has a 75 inch tv about five feet away from his recliner footrest. He loves it. So does mom.

  40. lynn says:

    “Rush Limbaugh gives unnerving cancer update”
    https://www.wnd.com/2020/10/rush-limbaugh-gives-unnerving-cancer-update/

    “‘It is the wrong direction'”

    I cannot think of a world without Rush. I’ve been listening to him on and off since 1992 ?

  41. Greg Norton says:

    I cannot think of a world without Rush. I’ve been listening to him on and off since 1992 ?

    1992 was the first big Time interview and “Donahue” appearance, right before the TV show started.

    “Donahue” made the fatal mistake of being fair and regretted it. The producers stacked the audience with hostility in a follow up appearance the following May sweeps.

    Friends at Apple will admit — behind closed doors of course — that Limbaugh hunched over a PowerBook in the feature picture of the Time article, center of the magazine, may have been the key piece of free PR that bought the company enough time to stay alive until Steve Jobs returned in 1996, possibly as important to the laptop sales as Judge Ito’s ThinkPad later, maybe more so.

    Of course, 1992 was the year of the “Ross Perot Update” theme, “When Johnny Comes Marching Home”, straight from the “Doctor Strangelove” soundtrack. Genius.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSbPqin3L6E

    Yes, it is James Earl Jones.

  42. lynn says:

    Friends at Apple will admit — behind closed doors of course — that Limbaugh hunched over a PowerBook in the feature picture of the Time article, center of the magazine, may have been the key piece of free PR that bought the company enough time to stay alive until Steve Jobs returned in 1996.

    Rush is still a big time Apple fanboy. He was gushing about a new operating system release the other day.

  43. Nick Flandrey says:

    @paul, the cost difference between the steps might be significant for little actual change. MOSTLY people perceive the height of the screen as the indicator for how big it is.

    I’d go with whatever samsung was on sale at costco. Or elsewhere. You want 4k UHD, won’t be able to avoid smart, but just don’t connect or set that up. If you can’t get analog ins, there are inexpensive little boxes to do the conversion to HDMI. Make sure you have enough HDMI if you aren’t running everything thru an AV receiver. I had to switch and connect some thru the AV receiver, some thru the tv and then loop back the optical out from the TV to the receiver to get audio from everything. I didn’t have enough HDMI ins for everything on one device. I have my original xbox connected with a converter box ($13- office depot). Works fine.

    n

  44. Greg Norotn says:

    Weekly Sam’s run today. The closest store is once again using cops to enforce masking.

    At least the cops were Wilco Constables and not the APD goons who park their F150 4×4 at the entrance of the store and patrol the parking lot. Achtung!

  45. paul says:

    Ok. I’ll shop.

    My Vizio has 4 HDMI inputs on the back along with a set of analog inputs. You can do VCR or Composite. One more of each on the side plus a USB port.

    Everything is connected to the TV. Nothing to the receiver other than the optical out from the TV. The Yamaha receiver is about three years too old to have HDMI. But it sounds good, so…. and I don’t want to have to turn on the stereo to watch TV.

    Blocking the “smart” from connecting to whereever is easy, just block the MAC at the router.

    Ok. So, 4K is going to happen. Same for “smart”. A little box to convert analog to HDMI is doable, it’s just for the LaserDisc player.

    So, I get what there is. 🙂 And there are work arounds. It has to have a tuner for over the air and decent sounding speakers.

    Maybe I can catch a Friday of Color deal on Amazon. Maybe I go renew my Costco membership. Maybe someone will forget about the whole “we need a bigger TV” thing.

    Come to think, it’s only a problem when watching Nascar. They have a column on the left side of the screen of scores or something…. in a tiny font. I dunno, I can’t read it from the kitchen 20 feet away.

  46. paul says:

    I just added to my pick-up HEB order. Yep, online prices are higher. For example, the cheap store brand frozen pizzas are $4.12 online and er, I forget exactly, but under $4 in person. $3.90?

    Anyway. Added some shredded cheese and corn tortillas. Enchiladas!!! Half and half. Hill Country Fare butter. Some sliced cheese.
    Just for the heck of it, a box of Triscuit and a couple of Hill Country Fare spray cheese. Might not be good for you but once in a while is ok. It’s been a couple of years.

    Dang. Forgot the Fritos. Again.

  47. lynn says:

    I just early voted in our local early voting place. Apparently 116,000 people have voted in Fort Bend County so far. We have 481,000 registered voters and can still register until Oct 23rd. We had 12 voting stations and it was running smoothly with about half of the voting stations in use. Looks like all of those 481,000 voters gonna vote and then some.

    I voted a straight line even though Texas don’t do that any more. The wife tells me that I should vote for at least one dum-bro-crat but I could not find one that I liked. So I voted against the new $138 million high school and the new $86 million high school football field.

  48. lynn says:

    “A.F. Branco Cartoon – Dopehead”
    https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-dopehead/

    “The media has always had a left-wing bias but since Trump, they’ve graduated to Left-wing Bias on steroids. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2020.”

    Man, is that ever true !

    1
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  49. lynn says:

    Dang. Forgot the Fritos. Again.

    Oh gosh, Chili Cheese Fritos ! They give me horrible heart burn but wow, they are awesome going down. A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips.

  50. Marcelo says:

    Any suggestions?

    – Run
    – Hide
    – Burry head in sand
    – Claim insanity
    – Claim you are broke
    – Pretend disability
    – Cry like a child
    – Say you are sick
    Pick one or more. Pick the lot.

  51. Harold Combs says:

    Problems with early voting is that you might change your mind before election day. One of my California friends who voted 2 weeks ago is now wishing he could change his vote. Too late buddy.

  52. lynn says:

    _Unlocked (Lock In)_ by John Scalzi
    https://www.amazon.com/Unlocked-JOHN-SCALZI/dp/1250307996/?tag=ttgnet-20

    Book number one of a three book science fiction fantasy series. This book is actually the prequel for the second book that I read earlier, _Lock In_. _Lock In_ was actually written first. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published by TOR in 2018. This is the first non-indie POD book that I have seen. I have bought the third book and will be reading it shortly.

    At first, Haden’s Syndrome was thought to be a new flu virus, a vicious variety that killed 18% of the infected. But then many of the infected healed and then got sick again with a meningitis like disease. So it was not a flu, in fact it was a man-made virus, possibly created in Pakistan and introduced at the winter meeting of the International Epidemiological conference where 80% of the 1,000 attendees were infected.

    And of those who survived the meningitis stage, 1% become “locked in”. Able to see and hear their surroundings but not able to move a finger, a foot, an eye, or their mouth. This is the story of the fight against the ongoing disease after 25 years.

    My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.3 out of 5 stars (185 reviews)

  53. lynn says:

    Problems with early voting is that you might change your mind before election day. One of my California friends who voted 2 weeks ago is now wishing he could change his vote. Too late buddy.

    Not a chance of changing my mind for any of my job candidates. But, I could change my mind about voting for the $400 million in new county road projects. But I doubt it. And I doubt that I would vote for the extravagant school system projects. $138 million for a new 2,000 student high school, are you kidding me ? What happen to the good cinder block days ? And a $86 million high school football field, are you double kidding me ?

  54. Marcelo says:

    This is going to irritate Unix in Windows users quite a lot:

    New Alt + Tab behavior. This is, perhaps, this Windows 10 version’s most controversial new feature. Today, Alt + Tab lets you switch between all running applications and open windows, but with 20H2, Windows 10 will, by default, you can now switch between all running applications and open windows and the 3 most recent tabs in the new Edge. If you don’t like this change—I hate it—you can disable it by opening Settings and navigating to System > Multitasking > Alt + Tab. Or, you can even configure it to let Alt + Tab access the 5 most recent Edge tabs or, gulp, all tabs.

    Wonder what it does if you never use (Chr)Edge?

  55. lynn says:

    “France Plans to Expel Radicals After Islamist Terrorist Attack”
    https://freebeacon.com/national-security/france-plans-to-expel-radicals-after-islamist-terrorist-attack/

    “France plans to expel over 200 radical foreigners after the killing of a French school teacher in what French president Emmanuel Macron called an “Islamist terrorist attack,” Fox News reported Sunday.”

    “The 231 alleged radicals were identified by the File of Alerts for the Prevention of Terrorist Attacks, which French media say is a primary tracker of terrorism within the country.”

    I would call this a very poor start on a very serious problem.

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

  56. lynn says:

    This is going to irritate Unix in Windows users quite a lot:

    New Alt + Tab behavior. This is, perhaps, this Windows 10 version’s most controversial new feature. Today, Alt + Tab lets you switch between all running applications and open windows, but with 20H2, Windows 10 will, by default, you can now switch between all running applications and open windows and the 3 most recent tabs in the new Edge. If you don’t like this change—I hate it—you can disable it by opening Settings and navigating to System > Multitasking > Alt + Tab. Or, you can even configure it to let Alt + Tab access the 5 most recent Edge tabs or, gulp, all tabs.

    Wonder what it does if you never use (Chr)Edge?

    Knowing Mickeysoft, Edge is probably running in the background.

  57. Marcelo says:

    This is the biggest differentiator on space access from anybody else.

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/spacex-launched-a-starlink-mission-sunday-another-on-tap-for-wednesday/

    A bit charred but proven to work.

  58. Greg Norton says:

    Not chance of changing my mind for any of my job candidates. But, I could change my mind about voting for the $400 million in new county road projects. But I doubt it. And I doubt that I would vote for the extravagant school system projects. $138 million for a new 2,000 student high school, are you kidding me ? What happen to the good cinder block days ? And a $86 million high school football field, are you double kidding me ?

    HOK already drew up the blueprints for the stadium.

    The local ISD has one HOK facility that all five high schools share, but, of course, the two big high schools would like stadiums that aren’t shared.

    The ISD also has one performing arts facility on a scale and quality level with the one that the Eckerd Drugs founder built in Clearwater, FL back in the 80s. The venue backs up to the new Apple campus, however, so the high schools are all making noise about wanting their own, free of scheduling conflicts.

  59. lynn says:

    This is the biggest differentiator on space access from anybody else.

    https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/10/spacex-launched-a-starlink-mission-sunday-another-on-tap-for-wednesday/

    A bit charred but proven to work.

    “SpaceX Indicates More Beta Testers Are Receiving Access to Starlink”
    https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-indicates-more-beta-testers-are-receiving-access-to-starlink

    “SpaceX’s presentation to the FCC also shows the company has introduced a software upgrade that can boost the satellite network’s speeds by 2.5 times from the previous speed tests”

    “Starlink is also able to reach a consistent latency of 30 milliseconds “on actual consumer-grade equipment in congested cells.” To demonstrate this, the presentation includes a graph taken from 30 Starlink “high-usage customers,” showing the median latency reaching 30ms, which is on par with ground-based internet services. At worst, the latency among the 30 users lagged to 42ms.”

    Sweet !

    Impressive !

  60. drwilliams says:

    “France plans to expel over 200 radical foreigners after the killing of a French school teacher in what French president Emmanuel Macron called an “Islamist terrorist attack,” Fox News reported Sunday.”

    “The 231 alleged radicals were identified by the File of Alerts for the Prevention of Terrorist Attacks, which French media say is a primary tracker of terrorism within the country.”

    I would call this a very poor start on a very serious problem.

    Surely start with at least 500 and sink the ship?

  61. Marcelo says:

    Hmmmm. Only one downvoter today and Lynn has about 2 or 3 only. He must be feeling miserable. 🙂
    I can contribute if need be. 🙂

  62. Greg Norton says:

    This is going to irritate Unix in Windows users quite a lot:

    New Alt + Tab behavior. This is, perhaps, this Windows 10 version’s most controversial new feature. Today, Alt + Tab lets you switch between all running applications and open windows, but with 20H2, Windows 10 will, by default, you can now switch between all running applications and open windows and the 3 most recent tabs in the new Edge.

    I don’t use WSL or Edge so it isn’t a big deal to me. Changing the behavior of Alt-Tab by default is evil, however.

    When coding on Linux, I open a big terminal window and use GNU Screen. Old school.

  63. SteveF says:

    Any suggestions?

    Believe it or not, Paul, Steve Martin had pertinent advice, from one of his comedy shows 45 or so years ago.

    Two little words: I forgot.

  64. Greg Norton says:

    Not a chance of changing my mind for any of my job candidates.

    I have a … fourth? … depending on how you count … interview with a place on Wednesday that I’ve been working on since before I was fired by the last job.

    Strangely, no one has yelled at me yet. I never should have accepted that during the interview process with the last management.

  65. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hey Greg, I’m trying to install my NVR on Mint, and I’m having some issues.

    First question,

    Booted to the live mint 19.3, selected install. chose to install alongside windows boot manager. Only got a choice to install on the clean 8Gb data drive, couldn’t select anything else. Didn’t want to put it there. Chose the Advanced partition options, but nothing I chose would work, all choices failed. Drive sda has several partitions on it, factory Dell so has a couple of recovery partitions and the partition windows considers C… I tried the logical choices, the 2TB main partition, the 500MB windows boot partition, the other partition…

    Can’t proceed to the next step, gets and error about no root filesystem….

    so I tried to install the NVR on the live version running but needed to install dotnet first. Followed the directions from MS, got some ign and other things that looked like errors about cd-roms not having release files and being ignored… but it did look like it did something. D/L’d and extracted the NVR files, opened a term window there, and tried what ispy said >dotnet agent.dll but I get an error that dotnet isn’t a command..

    What am I missing trying to do a dual boot install? I’ve got the DELL factory 2TB drive, (really 3, but extra partitions), my 4TB old data drive (currently full) and my new 8TB data drive (formatted NTFS and empty.) There should be at least a TB free on the windows partition drive.

    Can I install on the live version? Is something wrong with the MS linked depository? What am I missing that the dotnet stuff isn’t live.

    the directions—

    https://www.ispyconnect.com/download.aspx

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/install/linux-ubuntu

    thanks,

    n

  66. lynn says:

    I have a … fourth? … depending on how you count … interview with a place on Wednesday that I’ve been working on since before I was fired by the last job.

    Strangely, no one has yelled at me yet. I never should have accepted that during the interview process with the last management.

    I am still trying to understand somebody yelling at you during a job interview. That is indicative of a severe problem either with that individual or the entire staff. I have interviewed hundreds of people over the 25 years of being a manager and never yelled at any of them. Nor have any of my staff to my knowledge.

    Good luck on the interview !

  67. lynn says:

    “By the Numbers: Looking for Capturable Carbon”
    https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/looking-for-capturable-carbon

    “Out of the more than 6,500 industrial and power plants in the United States, only 418 are capable of supplying carbon dioxide cheaply enough for carbon sequestration. That’s the upshot of a recent analysis of the near-term potential of carbon sequestration conducted by Dane McFarlane and Elizabeth Abramson of the Great Plains Institute, a Minneapolis-based non-profit, together with economist Jeffrey Brown of the Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute.”

    “Access to a geologic storage site—or at least a pipeline that could reach it—was a limitation for many of the technically qualifying plants. Another limit is the projected cost of capture, which ranges from less than $20 a ton for ethanol and gas processing plants to $59 a ton for a steel mill.”

    “Together, those 418 plants produce 358 million metric tons of capturable CO2, a far cry from the more than 2,500 million tons produced by all stationary sources.”

    For quite a while now, I have been reading many articles and attending lectures about retrofitting CO2 capture onto existing plants. Each time I do so, I shake my head at getting these facilities to run and then maintaining these facilities that consist of exotic materials (CO2 is an acid !) and exotic fluids (very nasty and expensive amines). Now I read an article that only 20% of the existing facilities in the USA are conducive to getting rid of the captured CO2.

    So, a lot of something about a little bit of nothing. If we must, by these incredibly complex and quite possibly broken climate models, reduce our CO2 generation, it is obviously easier to create our energy using something else rather than trying to install these after the fact CO2 capture systems that are expensive and problematic.

    But then, how can we create our energy using something else ? Cause the so-called renewable stuff being used today is not renewable and is not cheap.

  68. Nick Flandrey says:

    @Greg, NEVER MIND!

    Well, actually, I still would like to know how to actually install mint from the live distro and what to select for my partitions/booting/etc…

    but I got it running on the live distro. I missed the last step of the dotnet install, the one where you actually install it.

    After that it started right up, and I restored my backup camera config and I’m looking at the cameras right now.

    Worst case, if this is more stable than the windows version, I’ll pull the 3tb windows drive, replace it, and install on a blank drive.

    n

  69. Nick Flandrey says:

    Moar schools, more stadiums, more performing arts centers, more bonds!!! That’s how my wife gets paid here in TX!

    As a responsible taxpayer, I’d like to see that spending brought to zero, especially for sports. As the husband of someone who makes their living in part by building those types of projects, I want MOAR!!! Build all the things!

    n

  70. Nick Flandrey says:

    @greg, all is not rosy. I can’t figure out how to give mint access to my new 8tb drive. I can see it, but when I try to let my NVR software use it, I get “read only access filesystem”.

    Selecting properties for the drive and selecting ‘read and write’ for the drive or for the folder, under Permissions seems to work but then doesn’t actually.

    Is this a ‘feature’ of live distros?
    n

  71. nick flandrey says:

    At least they’re charging him.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8856619/Denver-TV-station-security-guard-charged-murder.html

    more video continues to come out and the reporting is starting to shift.

    n

  72. Jenny says:

    Our offer was accepted.
    Inspections, appraisal, etc this week.
    Gotta figure out the livestock before snow flies.
    Made significant progress on winterizing our own yard in past week. That just jumped in priority.
    Closing is scheduled 11/20/2020.
    Feeling a bit stunned.

    16
  73. nick flandrey says:

    Oh wow Jenny that is great news! Terrifying but great!

    Now you’ve got projects forever!

    n

  74. Marcelo says:

    (Somebody is going to regret this): Uhhhh. You may not be able to give more than a thumbs up or down but you can certainly give more than one emoji although you can’t double down one one of those.

    Jenny, Looking good. I am happy if you are happy.
    (Two emojis and a thumbs up from me. 🙂 ).

  75. Jenny says:

    Thank you gentlemen.

    Husband has a pretty big grin. My cheeks ache from grinning. Kiddo is vacillating between joy and sorrow. I’ve also got a sense of relief.

    Hah @Nick, I already had years of projects. I’m a project prepper – I’m all stocked up on projects with this purchase and now will never run out. Making a list and prioritizing.

    Snow and freezing is going to make this a true challenge. Moving the livestock will suck. We will hire professionals to schlep boxes and precious treasures. Gonna need a small dumpster at both addresses. Dumping decrepit precious treasures from current home, ripping out carpet at new.

    Last time we moved was 2003. Hoo boy.

  76. lynn says:

    Just watch “Buffy: Band Candy” episode. Totally a hoot. I had forgotten about Giles and Buffy’s mum getting together.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_Candy

  77. lynn says:

    Last time we moved was 2003. Hoo boy.

    We moved in 2013 and 2020. Both were quite chaotic, the 2020 more so. The 2020 move has yet to be finished and we moved on Feb 6. I figure that we have a year to finish it up.

    Good luck on closing !

  78. Geoff Powell says:

    @jenny:

    Congratulations from me, too. As I read your post, I couldn’t help thinking’ “She’s making a list, and checking it twice…”

    Our last move was in (/me thinks back… this time in 1988. Yikes!!! 32 years ago. Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun). Just before No 3 daughter was born. Since then, we’ve put in a loft conversion (originally 2 rooms, plus a shower) a conservatory, a kitchen extension, and a 2-into-1 in the loft. Moving would be utter chaos for us, and I expect Jane (my wife) will bury me from here. What will happen afterwards will be up to her, but the move will probably be easier – I’m a packrat.

    G.

  79. mediumwave says:

    @Jenny: Congrats on your new abode!

    Conjuring up some advice given on this blog from years past: When selecting what to keep and what to schlep out to the dumpsters, you must be RUTHLESS! 🙂

  80. brad says:

    @Jenny: Congrats!!!

    Oh, and as mediumwave says: be ruthless in throwing stuff out. Even so, you’ll get to the new place and wonder “why did we keep this???

    – – – – –

    I had to take a trip up the valley today, to the first piece of land we bought (back in 2012) and intended to build on. At the time, we insisted on (and received) a confirmation that it was zoned residential.

    Political winds shifted (see below) and by the time we were ready to build we were told that the zoning was being retroactively changed, and the land certainly would never have been residential>. The official time-warp plan is now out, and sure enough: it’s now cow pasture.

    I had to go to the town hall to copy the new plan, so that I can send it to our attorney. Since we do have that confirmation, she can probably force the town or the canton to pay some damages. Otherwise, that is some very expensive cow pasture.

    Politically: this whole thing has been driven by city folk who don’t like seeing houses being built all over the mountains. Which is fair enough, but it is exactly those same city folk who have built vacation chalets all over the Alps that sit empty 50 weeks of the year.

    Folks like us actually living here full-time – that ought to be a completely different situation. But we get nailed as a sort of side-effect of the tightened zoning regulations.

  81. ech says:

    Amazon fake reviews reach holiday season levels during pandemic

    I have a FB friend that sells furniture and other items via Amazon. He’s had to battle (bad) fake reviews being added to his items. He’s had Amazon take down his items when a competitor copied his pictures, created an item for sale, then filed a copyright claim against him. (He’s also frustrated that Amazon UK doesn’t want to store more than one week’s sales of some of his most popular items. Hard to schedule deliveries of a week’s worth from overseas in short periods of time. The Amazon stores in the EU are now requiring a bunch of new paperwork for the government there.)

    There are a lot of Chinese companies that pay for good reviews – they have you buy the item, post a rave review, and then they send you a gift card for the cost of the item. They will also take an item that they have good reviews for and lagging sales, change the item to something new, and the old reviews stay. There are FB groups that coordinate the action.

    Amazon is sorta fighting back. They are requiring business address info from those that have storefronts and a few other items.

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