Mon. June 5, 2023 – busy day.

Hot and humid, some chance of rain in Houston.   I’ll be in the Northwestern Houston area, so I’m hoping for microclimate effects.   Overcast would be nice as I’m working outside.

Wrapped up at the BOL yesterday evening and came home.

Got a lot done, including cutting up the tree that fell.   It was a big old oak, and about 16ft is still laying on the ground.  Tree guy can deal with that, my saw isn’t really big enough.  One of my neighbors volunteered to drag it to his burn pile with a tractor if I cut it up, but then he found out it was 16ft long…

I moved some seasoned firewood from the top of the hill to the bottom, and restacked it near our fire ring.   I stacked the newly cut oak where the split wood was stored.  It’s a little bit easier to steal the split and seasoned wood where it’s stacked now, but I’m not going to sweat that until/unless it starts disappearing.  I cut the new logs shorter so they’d fit better in a wood stove.   Eventually I’ll get one installed somewhere.

I also planted two more berry bushes to replace all the ones that didn’t thrive. Of six, only one was still alive.   Some leftover seed potatoes went into the ground too.  Might as well.

Wife did more flooring in the closets, and general bits and pieces.   We also spent several hours playing board games.   Kid watched movies, Clue, Blues Brothers, Jumanji (new one)- all movies she’s seen and loves.

Today I’ve got to head out to my client’s.   He’s decided that now that he has enough bandwidth for streaming he’s getting rid of Directv.    Since I put the cell booster antenna on the same mast as the Directv dish, and since that came down when the roofers were working this weekend, I’ll need to put up an new mount for the antenna.   I want to do that before it gets hot…

And then I need to fix my cabling mistake.  Oy.   What a maroon.  We do it right, ‘cuz we do it twice!

I’ve got to get work knocked out early, so I can get home in time to do my ‘volunteer’ position at the swim meet tonight.   Don’t know what a “starter” does, but I’m guessing that it was still open for ‘volunteering’ because it sucks relative to the other jobs.  I’m really hoping it’s not what I think it is.

It’s a great life if you don’t falter.

Stack it up!

nick

84 Comments and discussion on "Mon. June 5, 2023 – busy day."

  1. Ray Thompson says:

    First again, time zone advantage.

    In Sandejford for the day. Then Oslo this evening for one full day, then a partial day. Fly to Vienna on Thursday.

  2. Denis says:

    Today is the day when I get to read our water meter. This is an annual fun event…

    Locate manhole “key”, hedge shears, rubber gloves and ladder. Carry them to the street. Butcher beautiful beech hedge until the manhole cover for the water meter is reveled below it. Clean manhole cover so the “key” can be inserted. Using the “key”, manhandle enormous manhole cover open. Brush  detritus, worms and ants off the edge of the hole. Put ladder in manhole. Descend therein. Find meter in the dark pit, clean same, attempt to read and photograph same. Ascend, withdrawing ladder. Manhandle manhole cover back into position, trying not to drop it into the hole, thereby destroying two expensive water meters. Curse whoever installed them thus. Go online and enter meter reading.

    Two minutes typing, and the better part of an hour working in the hot sun. I know why the water company never ever reads that meter. Ah well, it’s a good life if one doesn’t weaken… RIP, JEP!

  3. lpdbw says:

    Put ladder in manhole. Descend therein. 

    Please, please, please, make sure there’s breathable air down there.

    I sent my son down into a similar hole once, but I ran a leaf blower for 20 minutes pumping air down there first.

    I know you do this anually, but it scares the bejusus out of me.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Let’s guess here folks…odds are Jim isn’t chauffeured around in a Ford pickup…

    Probably a Mustang of some kind. Tommy Boy is well known for having a collection of sports cars, including a 2012 Cobra, which would still be a reasonable daily driver.

    Ford isn’t interested in producing daily drivers anymore, however. No profit.

    My neighbor had the garage queen Bronco and the early 2000s Camaro out on Saturday, but as soon as the weather report indicated rain that evening, both vehicles went right back into the throne room.

    Maybe the Camaro, but I don’t get giving the Bronco the white glove treatment.

    And if you are going to maintain two garage queens why live in my neighborhood on quarter acre lots at best? Even three car garages like his are seriously constrained in terms of access.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Let’s guess here folks…odds are Jim isn’t chauffeured around in a Ford pickup…

    Tommy Boy isn’t chauffeured by his assistant ever since “The Incident”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbSFxlfuf9s

  6. brad says:

    I am a grump today. Over the weekend, the wife ran the new car into a curb, destroying a tire. Of course, cars nowadays don’t come with spares, so it had to be hauled off. The tire fix-it kit wasn’t going to do any good with a rip in the sidewall.

    Anyway, I hope it’s just the tire. A scratched up wheel and bit of plastic off the bumper I can live with. But this could have damaged tie rods and other fun things. The garage hasn’t reported back yet…

  7. Greg Norton says:

    Anyway, I hope it’s just the tire. A scratched up wheel and bit of plastic off the bumper I can live with. But this could have damaged tie rods and other fun things. The garage hasn’t reported back yet…

    EV tire? That will be pricey just for the tire.

    Yeah, they’re not going to include a spare.

    I wanted to ask the braintrust about buying a Hecho en Germany Volkswagen. Are the parts commonly available in the US?

    I wouldn’t look at Hecho en Mexico Volkswagen (or any vehicle for that matter), but I have an opportunity for a used German-made VW Jetta which I would buy for one of my kids if the price was right.

  8. brad says:

    EV tire? That will be pricey just for the tire.

    Yeah, we’re not getting out of this for under $1k, and that’s if they don’t have to re-align and stuff. Could be more, if a tie rod is bent (do EVs have tie rods? No idea…)

  9. Greg Norton says:

    Some moron’s Visual Studio Code process is killing our virtual development environments at work today.

    269 GB. Really Microsoft?

    And anyone dependent on Visual Studio Code to get their job done has no business calling themselves a Unix/Linux developer.

    I despise Visual Studio Code. People in over their heads working in Unix use it as an excuse.

  10. nick flandrey says:

    Awake, fed, caffeinated.

    Ha, look at that, ‘caffeinated’ breaks the “i before e, except after c” rule.   English, gotta love it.

    Getting ready to start my day.

    D2 was up to all hours last night watching “Hamilton”.   Seems like it should have been named “a sorta white guy, surrounded by a completely improbable number of darker skinned guys and girls dancing in long underwear, fast talking incomprehensible dialog while the same heavy beat drives the improbable music, pretends to have something  to do with President Hamilton, and mostly fails.”

    The kids love “Hamilton” but can’t even articulate why.    It’s like Wakanda, completely false yet somehow appealing.   Even whites wish it were true, because then Philly wouldn’t be Philly, and even Jesse Jackson wouldn’t have to cross the street when he sees his kin walking up to him.

    Note to Arts benefactors, the avant garde movement was 120 years or more ago, more than your lifetime.    They were doing sex and skin color swaps for at least 60 of those years, and it was shocking and new.  Now it’s just passe’.    What WOULD be shocking is a completely accurately cast period piece, in costume, with period correct English dialog, and music.

    n

    NB- the avant garde’ movement is where we get the idea that art should be confrontational, that it should “challenge” its audience.    After 120+ years of that, you’d think that they might have moved on to a new idea…… if they wanted to be fresh and new.

  11. Greg Norton says:

    The kids love “Hamilton” but can’t even articulate why.    It’s like Wakanda, completely false yet somehow appealing.   Even whites wish it were true, because then Philly wouldn’t be Philly, and even Jesse Jackson wouldn’t have to cross the street when he sees his kin walking up to him.

    Lin Manuel Miranda is a media darling … for now.

    I think Disney will throw him under the bus for “The Little Mermaid” fiasco unrolling overseas right now.

    These are the death throes of The Mouse.

    The rear wheels just ran over Gayln Susman, tossed out of Pixar and onto the street last week over the failure of “Lightyear”. Good Lord, there wouldn’t have been a Pixar for Steve Jobs to sell to Disney if Susman hadn’t taken a backup of “Toy Story 2” home the weekend the company sysadmins erased the nearly complete movie in 1999.

    “Lightyear” was totally pointless, but I think Disney is brooming anyone left from the Jobs era at Pixar, getting ready to fold the subsidiary as part of their turning over the sofa cushions looking for spare change in Burbank.

  12. ITGuy1998 says:

    I haven’t seen Disney’s version of Hamilton, but the Broadway show was excellent. I went in having read nothing about it, and I just viewed it as entertainment. I enjoyed it. My wife said the lead was way better than the one in the Disney version.

    Fair warning though. The theatre is beautiful, but was not designed for good crowd management, or tall people. Leg room in the seats was some of the worst I’ve experienced. 

    https://broadwaydirect.com/theatre/richard-rodgers-theatre/

  13. nick flandrey says:

    As “just a show” without pretending to be based on history or real people, it’s certainly fun enough.   Lots of dancing, memorable songs, loud music.   As a biography of President Hamilton?  Nope.

    n

  14. SteveF says:

    President Hamilton? Are you pulling info from a documentary from one of Lynn’s alternate universes?

  15. lpdbw says:

    “just a show”

    But at its heart, it’s not “just a show”.  From its conception on, it’s a reverse minstrel show, full of pomposity and overblown overreactions to supposed racism, at least as a not-so-subtle subtext.  It’s whiteface, and it’s intended to be shocking and repulsive to whites.   

    While oldtime minstrel shows in blackface might have been demeaning of blacks, I don’t believe the underlying idea and intent behind them was to put blacks down.  It was to provide entertainment to a mostly white audience, that lampooned the visible aspects of black culture.  That is, the way blacks behaved in front of whites in a society where they truly were second class citizens.  Not their actual culture; the face they showed.

    I say all this from the fringe; I love musicals, I’ve worked a few shows, and I’ve scrupulously avoided Hamilton.

    For a show to be this popular, there must be a reason.  It’s not the text, or my reading on the internet would have seen a lot of quotes from it.  It’s not the music, or people would be speaking reverently of this or that show-stopping song, like “Memory” from Cats, or “Let Him Live” from Les Miserables, or even “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors.

    It’s popular because of virtue signaling by white liberals who want to show how un-racist they are.

    Convince me I’m wrong.  Let me see “MLK, the musical”, starring white people (blackface optional) as the heroes, and black people as the segragationists.  Featuring Reese Whitherspoon as Rosa Parks and Ryan Gosling as Martin Luther King.

  16. nick flandrey says:

    President

    – yeah, too early and too uncaffeinated.

    n

  17. Greg Norton says:

    Convince me I’m wrong.  Let me see “MLK, the musical”, starring white people (blackface optional) as the heroes, and black people as the segragationists.  Featuring Reese Whitherspoon as Rosa Parks and Ryan Gosling as Martin Luther King.

    “Roots: The Musical” starring Matthew McConaughey as Kunta Kinte.

    “All right. All right. All right”

    On second thought, that might actually work here in Austin. I don’t want to give them any ideas.

  18. Greg Norton says:

    For a show to be this popular, there must be a reason.  It’s not the text, or my reading on the internet would have seen a lot of quotes from it.  It’s not the music, or people would be speaking reverently of this or that show-stopping song, like “Memory” from Cats, or “Let Him Live” from Les Miserables, or even “Suddenly Seymour” from Little Shop of Horrors.

    The set engineering in “Phantom of the Opera”, particularly during descent into the catacombs.

    The weight of the chandelier in the road production required a reconstruction of a portion of the roof truss system in then nearly-new Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. The City of Tampa absorbed the expense, however, since the tickets were beyond hot when they finally went on sale.

  19. EdH says:

    @Denis: Today is the day when I get to read our water meter.

    If the company wants YOU to do that sort of thing then THEY should arrange and pay for confined space training and PPE.  You might send their lawyers a letter to that effect. CC your local water board. 

    Even necessitating the use of a ladder generally puts the onus on the utility.

    BTW, H2S meters are less than $100 now, though it is primarily a septic system issue.

  20. Brad says:

    Well, that was a pleasant surprise: a bit over $400, including checking that there was no additional damage…

  21. SteveF says:

    Featuring Reese Whitherspoon as Rosa Parks and Ryan Gosling as Martin Luther King.

    No, featuring Ellen Degeneris as MLK. After all, both of them have been accused of sexual assault against White women.

  22. lynn says:

    So the wife went with me to Home Depot yesterday where I bought a 10 lb box of chlorine for the house septic tank. We stopped and looked at the two-story Tuff Shed with the outside porch and I picked up a brochure.   Guess what is my advertising today ?  Yup, Tuff Sheds.  I did not Google them, they must be listening to my phone microphone.

  23. EdH says:

     I did not Google them, they must be listening to my phone microphone.

    Or your phone indicates you stopped in front of the  display for more than 30s. Or took a picture of same.  

    Or the store cams used image recognition on you…

  24. RickH says:

    An interesting experiment might be to go to a big-box store, and go to a product area that you have not visited in a while. Make sure location tracking is enabled on your phone. Stop in front of a specific product for several minutes. Make sure it is a product that you have not researched or looked at before. 

    Then wait and see what products show up in your advertising in email or social media.  

  25. drwilliams says:

    JEP’s Iron Law quoted by former Oakland school teacher describing the teacher union:

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/06/05/a-former-teacher-on-what-unions-did-to-public-schools-during-the-pandemic-n555707

  26. Greg Norton says:

    So the wife went with me to Home Depot yesterday where I bought a 10 lb box of chlorine for the house septic tank. We stopped and looked at the two-story Tuff Shed with the outside porch and I picked up a brochure.   Guess what is my advertising today ?  Yup, Tuff Sheds.  I did not Google them, they must be listening to my phone microphone.

    Google has a deal with Home Depot for tracking data in return for providing detailed maps to users when inside the store. IIRC, Ikea has something similar.

    I stopped carrying Android as a daily use phone when I walked into the local Home Depot and I immediately received a text message, “This Home Depot might be of interest to other Android users. Please take a picture.”

  27. Lynn says:

    And then I need to fix my cabling mistake.  Oy.   What a maroon.  We do it right, ‘cuz we do it twice!

    Try the software business.  I have fixed the same mistake many times and many times.

  28. Lynn says:

    Today is the day when I get to read our water meter. This is an annual fun event…

    Locate manhole “key”, hedge shears, rubber gloves and ladder. Carry them to the street. Butcher beautiful beech hedge until the manhole cover for the water meter is reveled below it. Clean manhole cover so the “key” can be inserted. Using the “key”, manhandle enormous manhole cover open. Brush  detritus, worms and ants off the edge of the hole. Put ladder in manhole. Descend therein. Find meter in the dark pit, clean same, attempt to read and photograph same. Ascend, withdrawing ladder. Manhandle manhole cover back into position, trying not to drop it into the hole, thereby destroying two expensive water meters. Curse whoever installed them thus. Go online and enter meter reading.

    Two minutes typing, and the better part of an hour working in the hot sun. I know why the water company never ever reads that meter. Ah well, it’s a good life if one doesn’t weaken… RIP, JEP!

    Good night !  Sounds dangerous.  

    You need to make a tshirt and distribute to your neighbors about “The Annual Reading Of The Subterranean Water Meter” with a picture of a pit with snakes and more snakes.  “Why did it have to be snakes?” off to the side.

  29. Lynn says:

    So the wife went with me to Home Depot yesterday where I bought a 10 lb box of chlorine for the house septic tank. We stopped and looked at the two-story Tuff Shed with the outside porch and I picked up a brochure.   Guess what is my advertising today ?  Yup, Tuff Sheds.  I did not Google them, they must be listening to my phone microphone.

    Google has a deal with Home Depot for tracking data in return for providing detailed maps to users when inside the store. IIRC, Ikea has something similar.

    We were in the middle of the huge parking lot !

  30. paul says:
    I stopped carrying Android as a daily use phone when I walked into the local Home Depot and I immediately received a text message, “This Home Depot might be of interest to other Android users. Please take a picture.”

    My phone has never done that.  Maybe the local HD isn’t important enough.  Maybe it’s because I keep wi-fi, bluetooth, and Location turned off.

    I have enough of a data plan to not use wi-fi.  The only thing I have that uses bluetooth is the OBDI gizmo for the cars.  Location is on when I use google maps…. which is seldom, just enough to know it works.

  31. Lynn says:

    BC: Deep Tissue Specialist

        https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2023/06/05

    No, no, no ! Not even as a rolling pin.

  32. Lynn says:

    “Tesla inventory, order backlog data improving as price cuts, tax credits take effect”

        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-inventory-order-backlog-data-improving-as-price-cuts-tax-credits-take-effect-151836144.html

    “And good news for investors – Tesla stock is up a whopping 78% year to date”

    It is obvious to me that Tesla is going after Toyota now.

  33. Lynn says:

    JEP’s Iron Law quoted by former Oakland school teacher describing the teacher union:

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/06/05/a-former-teacher-on-what-unions-did-to-public-schools-during-the-pandemic-n555707

    It has been obvious to me that the Teacher’s unions stopped representing teachers decades ago.  Mike Flynn even wrote SF books about converting inner city schools to private schools.

         https://www.amazon.com/Firestar-Michael-Flynn/dp/0812530063?tag=ttgnet-20/

  34. Lynn says:

    “Adults brawl in front of kids at Little Mermaid screening as parents demand refund”

        https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/adults-brawl-front-kids-little-30157264

    “A group of adults were seen fighting during a screening of Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid in Orlando, Florida — prompting parents to demand refunds”

    The Amish are really a mess. I’ve been wondering who would go see that dreck, now I know.

    Hat tip to:

       https://www.drudgereport.com/

  35. Lynn says:

    “Disney welcomes Gay Days in Florida as the feud with DeSantis rages on”

        https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/disney-welcomes-gay-days-in-florida-as-the-feud-with-desantis-rages-on/ar-AA1c6BiT

    Wow, we were present for the first informal Gay Days at Disneyworld in late May 1993 or so.  We had no idea what was going on but the gay guys were all over the place holding hands and such.  Not overly blatant but they appear to be so now.

  36. Lynn says:

    So the wife went with me to Home Depot yesterday where I bought a 10 lb box of chlorine for the house septic tank.

    BTW, my ten lb box of 3 inch chlorine tablets was $99 plus tax.  Unreal.  It was $40 just a couple of years ago.

  37. drwilliams says:

    Production capacity should be b restored by now, but there may be some price “inelasticity” according to the “All the Market Will Bear” Principle.

  38. EdH says:

    I am a grump today. Over the weekend, the wife ran the new car into a curb, destroying a tire.

    I suggest a set of curb feelers and humming Bobby Goldboro’s  ‘Honey’ loudly each time she picks up the car keys.

  39. CowboyStu says:

    EdH & JimB:  My SIL, GD and I are going to Lone Pine this Saturday.  About noontime we will go up to Kennedy Meadows General Store for lunch, then on down to LLone Pine where we will spend some time in the evening at Jake’s Saloon.  Overnight at the Best Western and then back home to Huntington Beach Sunday morning.

  40. Lynn says:

    “This is really starting to look a lot like ancient Rome”

        https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/this-is-really-starting-to-look-a-lot-like-ancient-rome-147625/

    “In the late summer of 408 AD, a barbarian army under the command of Alaric, king of the Visigoths, set out on a leisurely march across the Italian countryside towards the city of Rome… so that he could burn it to the ground.”

    “Alaric had been promised money by the Roman government in exchange for a military alliance between Rome and the Visigoths; but just before the money was supposed to have been paid, the Romans canceled the deal.”

    “Talk about a bonehead move.”

    We have two very deep moats around the USA but a land connection to the south and to the north.  Our northern neighbor is weak but our southern neighbors have legions.

  41. Lynn says:

    “Medicaid work requirements aren’t in the debt limit deal. They should’ve been”

        https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/medicaid-work-requirements-arent-in-the-debt-limit-deal-they-shouldve-been

    “President Joe Biden signed a measure on Saturday that suspended the country’s debt limit after weeks of wrangling with Republicans in the House. The legislation averts a default on the nation’s debt. Democrats managed to keep Medicaid work requirements out of the final compromise . That’s a shame.”

    “The proposal would have helped rein in federal spending while preserving the entitlement for the truly needy. The work requirements would have compelled people between the ages of 19 and 55 to work, perform job training, or do community service for at least 80 hours each month in exchange for Medicaid benefits. Recipients with barriers to work, such as disabled people and those with children or other dependents, would have been exempt from the requirements.”

    I cannot get my daughter on Medicaid since my wife and I make too much even though she is listed as disabled.

  42. Lynn says:

    “Mooch No More: Netflix’s Password-Sharing Crackdown Could Ruin Streaming”

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/mooch-no-more-netflixs-password-sharing-crackdown-could-ruin-streaming

    “The downsides of ending password sharing could be substantial for Netflix, and there isn’t much of an upside for subscribers, either.”

  43. crawdaddy says:

    Maybe Tim can save Bob’s company. DIS popped up a bit while the Disney demo of the new Apple Vision Pro at WWDC ran. I’ll admit to thinking there was some nifty stuff in there.

  44. MrAtoz says:

    Apple Vision Pro will “start” at $3,495! Woof. I will try to get a demo at an Apple Store, but that is hefty. That is a one-way ticket to Elysium for sure.

  45. Ray Thompson says:

    Back in Oslo for a couple of days. Took the train from Sandejford to Oslo. Nice journey, about 10 minutes late. Cool weather. Had about a ½ mile walk from the station to the apartment we are staying.

    Norway loves Tesla’s, Tesla’s love Norway. Lots of Tesla’s on the roads and parked on the street.

    Currently 22:30 (10:30 PM for uncivilized) and it is still very much light outside, light enough to drive without headlights. Sun comes up at 04:00, really late at night in my  opinion.

  46. Alan says:

    >> Two minutes typing, and the better part of an hour working in the hot sun. I know why the water company never ever reads that meter. Ah well, it’s a good life if one doesn’t weaken… RIP, JEP!

    Why not take the prior year’s usage and add it to the last reading, plus/minus some fudge factor based on any substantial differences (eg filled the pool) and call it good. If/when you ever move let the new owner know the current reading might be a “little off,” but first mention the snakes.

  47. Lynn says:

    Currently 22:30 (10:30 PM for uncivilized) and it is still very much light outside, light enough to drive without headlights. Sun comes up at 04:00, really late at night in my  opinion.

    And in the winter time does the sun even come up ?

  48. Alan says:

    >> I wanted to ask the braintrust about buying a Hecho en Germany Volkswagen. Are the parts commonly available in the US?

    @Greg, plenty of parts availability. Here’s one place we’ve used several times for both OEM and aftermarket parts. We’ve had two Jettas and my son has had one amongst four VWs.

    This is the definitive ‘fountain’ of any and all VW information. Their forums have over 84M posts and 1.4M members. Specific forums for every model (MK, or Mark, as they call each generation of car.)

    As I’m sure you know, you’re paying for German engineering.

    What year Jetta are you considering?

  49. Lynn says:

    “What Is a Woman?” 2022, Documentary, 1h 34min

        https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/what_is_a_woman

        https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1664424891372941312

    Supposedly 170 million people have watched “What is a Woman” on twitter now.

  50. Ray Thompson says:

    And in the winter time does the sun even come up ?

    In Oslo, yes. However it is a 4 hour sunset as the sun barely gets above the horizon. We visited one year during the New Year. We sat in a restaurant for a couple of hours and watched the sun crawl across the horizon.

  51. SteveF says:

    Currently 22:30 (10:30 PM for uncivilized)

    In my brother’s third year of engineering school, half of his classes were in one building used only for engineering. All clocks were 24-hour analog clocks, because labs were open 24/7 and many students worked very long hours to get their project working. The following year, following a shuffling of buildings and classes and students, part of that building was used by business students. All of the 24-hour clocks were replaced by normal 12-hour clocks because the business students couldn’t figure them out.

    re the subterranean water meter, would it be possible to lower a camera on a line and get pictures of the meter? Brush and dirt would still need to be cleared, but the chore would be somewhat less of a pain. Of course, that doesn’t address the issue of unpaid labor to perform the water company’s job, nor liability for injuries sustained in performing the water company’s job.

  52. SteveF says:

    Supposedly 170 million people have watched “What is a Woman” on twitter now.

    You’d think that people who aren’t living in the 1980s, haven’t been living in an Amish community (real Amish, not euphemism Amish), are over the age of seven, and are over an IQ of 80 would realize that the Streisand Effect is a thing and that it very seldom bodes well for those who trigger it.

  53. Ken Mitchell says:

    Ray Thompson says:

    Currently 22:30 (10:30 PM for uncivilized) and it is still very much light outside, light enough to drive without headlights. Sun comes up at 04:00, really late at night in my  opinion.

    LONG ago (early 1970s) , my P-3 Orion squadron sent one plane to conduct a couple of days of exercises in northern Norway.  We spent a day – about 72 hours – at Andoya, a town somewhat north of the Arctic Circle.  Just about this time of year, if I recall.  We were met by a Norwegian liaison officer, who talked to us on the bus from the field to our hotel.  I recall asking (I was young and very stupid) what time the Sun would set. 

    He replied, “August.”

    Oslo isn’t quite to the Arctic Circle, but you’re probably seeing the “white nights” phenomenon when the Sun just barely goes below the horizon and it’s twilight all “night” long. 

  54. Greg Norton says:

    As I’m sure you know, you’re paying for German engineering.

    What year Jetta are you considering?

    2016. I have to get the VIN and check the prefix.

    The car came from Germany, imported by the current owner.

  55. Ken Mitchell says:

    Lynn says:

    And in the winter time does the sun even come up ?

    Oslo is below the Arctic Circle, so in December the Sun would come up in the south-southeast, slide across the southern horizon, and set a couple of hours later in the south-southwest.  But I’m sure there are places with hilly terrain to the south where the Sun DOESN’T quite rise. 

  56. Greg Norton says:

    Maybe Tim can save Bob’s company. DIS popped up a bit while the Disney demo of the new Apple Vision Pro at WWDC ran. I’ll admit to thinking there was some nifty stuff in there.

    DIS will be available at a fire sale price later this year if they don’t have a couple of blowout quarters before November.

    Tim Cook didn’t bite on Tesla. There is a reason Steve Jobs left him in charge.

  57. Greg Norton says:

    “A group of adults were seen fighting during a screening of Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid in Orlando, Florida — prompting parents to demand refunds”

    The Amish are really a mess. I’ve been wondering who would go see that dreck, now I know.

    The article didn’t mention where in Orlando.

    Security was beyond tight at Disney Springs when we went at the end of March. After putting Orlando’s nightlife out of business 20 years ago, Disney woke up to the fact that they inherited the gang problems which plagued the Downtown area for most of the 90s.

    Even with the airtight security, there were a lot of people milling about in Disney Springs, eating from the window service restaurants, and just “chillin’”. A mixed group as far as demographics go, but the common theme seemed to be that they weren’t spending money, probably much to the chagrin of The Mouse, who needs every dime right now.

  58. Greg Norton says:

    Wow, we were present for the first informal Gay Days at Disneyworld in late May 1993 or so.  We had no idea what was going on but the gay guys were all over the place holding hands and such.  Not overly blatant but they appear to be so now.

    The Parliament House resort closer in to the city core used to be the de facto HQ hotel for the Gay Days festivities, taking the focus off of the theme park areas, but the company finally went bankrupt for real without a last minute benefactor bailing them out like someone has for most of the last 20 years  that the facility skated on the edge.

    Ironically, Parliament House was another casualty of Disney deciding to kill Orlando’s nightlife with the Pleasure Island complex and then The Mouse deciding that they didn’t like the associated problems with being the new “it” destination for the area yout’s on Friday and Saturday nights.

  59. Greg Norton says:

    2016. I have to get the VIN and check the prefix.

    Prefix on the VIN was 3VW which indicates a Hecho en Mexico Volkswagen unless the codes are different in Germany.

    Gotta break it to the owner later. He bought the vehicle used from a lot in Germany outside Munich, believing it to be fine German worksmanship.

    Sleazy used car salesmen are a universal constant.

  60. PaultheManc says:

    There is a rule for my DIY projects.  I know by the end of the project what I needed to know at the start.

    This weeks was realigning a poor gutter installation, involving a complex bay (not simple straight run).  I used a large spirit level to undertake the task, and did ok, but not the ‘proper’ installation I had sought (some standing water).  Having finished, I realised for the bay challenges, I should have used the old water in a clear plastic tube technique, rather than trying to manage the solution using the spirit level.

    Sad to say, I will probably be dead before I need to know that again.

  61. Greg Norton says:

    “And good news for investors – Tesla stock is up a whopping 78% year to date”

    It is obvious to me that Tesla is going after Toyota now.

    Toyota has its sights on Ford.

  62. Alan says:

    >> We stopped and looked at the two-story Tuff Shed with the outside porch and I picked up a brochure.  

    Is that where you’ll be sent if you stay up too late (or is it ‘too early’ after midnight?) reading? 

    And who knows what happens in Norway when it’s never dark?? Blackout curtains must be a big seller at Ikea. 

  63. Alan says:

    >> I stopped carrying Android as a daily use phone when I walked into the local Home Depot and I immediately received a text message, “This Home Depot might be of interest to other Android users. Please take a picture.”

    And because Tim is pure as the driven snow? 

  64. Greg Norton says:

    And who knows what happens in Norway when it’s never dark?? Blackout curtains must be a big seller at Ikea. 

    No Daylight Savings Time. Full sunrise at 4AM on the Solstice.

    And I thought Portland was bad.

  65. Ken Mitchell says:

    And who knows what happens in Norway when it’s never dark?? Blackout curtains must be a big seller at Ikea. 

    The hotel in Andoya had VERY heavy blackout curtains. 

    But the barracks at the Keflavik Air Base a couple of months later did not. We’d gone to the club on base to have a few drinks (back before I realized that alcohol tasted terrible…)  and at about 2AM, I walked out the door and was hit in the face by the rising Sun. Not a pleasant sensation. 

  66. Greg Norton says:

    >> I stopped carrying Android as a daily use phone when I walked into the local Home Depot and I immediately received a text message, “This Home Depot might be of interest to other Android users. Please take a picture.”

    And because Tim is pure as the driven snow? 

    Apple is the lesser of two evils since the bulk of their revenue comes from selling products and services to the end user, and Android really doesn’t offer a significant price advantage for the reduced privacy.

    I have a 7″ Kindle Fire I use as a movie player on the road. For $50, the tradeoff for lack of privacy is worth it to me.

    I just assume any Amazon device made in the last few years is online 24/7 and listening unless I am in a very remote area, which is rare.

    If I’m not on the road, the Fire sits in the bottom of my travel bag in our family room, seeing occasional charging and update of the movie stash on the SD card.

  67. drwilliams says:

    California Institute of Technology have successfully demonstrated that solar energy can be collected in space and beamed down to Earth

    producing an array that can generate 1 gigawatt of power – or about the output of one nuclear reactor – would cost about $7 billion with currently available technologies.

    It costs about $5 billion to build one nuclear power plant. So, a solar array would be marginally more expensive.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/06/breakthrough-cal-tech-scientists-transmit-space-based-solar-power-to-earth-for-first-time/

    JEP said that if we stayed out of Afghanistan and invested the money in solar power satellites we would achieve energy independence. 

  68. Lynn says:

    “RFK recently went on a podcast with Mike Tyson where he explained that the CIA killed his father when he was running for President in 1968”

        https://twitter.com/dc_draino/status/1665794643391397894?s=61&t=jO2ppv1kTKWonY7Pvy2Azg

    RFK jr may not be wrong.  I’ve always thought that Sirhan Sirhan murdering Bobby Kennefy was a little bit fishy.

    Sirhan Sirhan is still alive !  I thought California executed him !

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirhan_Sirhan

    California, you suck ! Can you do anything correctly ?

    Wait, we can still waterboard Sirhan Sirhan and find out why he killed Bobby Kennedy. I would be ok with that. Shoot, televise it.

  69. SteveF says:

    If the US had taken the trillion dollars spent in the mideast and used the money on $7B power satellites, we’d have all the electricity needed to power the EVs that are being pushed on us, and would also be able to run gigawatt orbital death rays over the Stan.

  70. Lynn says:

    JEP said that if we stayed out of Afghanistan and invested the money in solar power satellites we would achieve energy independence. 

    JEP was right !

    My son had to fight to stay out of Afghanistan after two tours in Iraq.  His USMC First Sergeant spent a day trying to get him to “volunteer” to go to Afghanistan for a three month mini-tour after several Marines got trapped in a valley and wiped out. 

  71. Lynn says:

    “RFK Jr. Blames Anti-Depressants for School Shootings”

         https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-conspiracy-theory-twitter-elon-musk-1234747479/

    “Prior to the introduction of Prozac, we had almost none of these events in our country,” Kennedy told Elon Musk”

    I am liking RFK jr. more and more.  For those who do not know, he is running for President as a dumbrocrat.  I figure that Biden is going to have him shot fairly soon.

  72. Greg Norton says:

    If the US had taken the trillion dollars spent in the mideast and used the money on $7B power satellites, we’d have all the electricity needed to power the EVs that are being pushed on us, and would also be able to run gigawatt orbital death rays over the Stan.

    Who needs orbital death rays when the low Earth orbit lift capability developed for the satellites could also launch Dr. Pournelle’s “Rods From God” concept.

    Titanium “telephone poles” with a minimal guidance package delivered from ~ 300 miles up. Let the kinetic energy do all of the work.

    Death rays. You’ve been watching too many movies.

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

  73. Greg Norton says:

    Sirhan Sirhan is still alive !  I thought California executed him !

    Sirhan Sirhan outlived the Ambassador Hotel, where the shooting took place.

    https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/ambassador-hotel-demolished

  74. drwilliams says:

    Ahem. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

    Only God is allowed to kill people.

    Amen.

    Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there killing who have no belief in the Lord.

    Such disbelievers are best dispatched sooner rather than later, so they do less harm and have the opportunity to burn in hell a bit longer. 

    For yea, if eternity be infinite, then it be provable that some infinities are greater than others. 

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  75. drwilliams says:

    Opponents of Atlanta’s police training center have been giving public comment for 8 hours (Update: ‘If you build it, we will burn it’)

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2023/06/05/opponents-of-atlantas-police-training-center-have-been-giving-public-comment-for-8-hours-n555871

    Build it.

    Let them light a fire.

    Throw them in and make the world a better place.

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  76. drwilliams says:

    Solar Panels: The Unspoken Environmental Cost

    By 2030, we think we’re going to have four million tonnes [of scrap] – which is still manageable – but by 2050, we could end up with more than 200 million tonnes globally,

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/04/solar-panels-the-unspoken-environmental-cost/

    There’s not enough scarce materials to realize the green wet dream of the gloabl warming zelots, who are just dupes for the Soros and Kerrys of the world.

    But even if there were, and even if we could mine them, transform them into useful engines of energy production, and distribute them around the world, the result twenty years later would be falling output and a biosphere poisoned by improper disposal. The life cycle cost of green energy is death.

  77. nick flandrey says:

    Did my volunteer effort at the swim meet.   Almost got called off due to weather, but it finally cleared enough to start.

    Very tired.   Short night last night, day in the sun, and 4 hours of standing in place running a timer.

    D2 swam well.

    n

  78. Lynn says:

    Sirhan Sirhan is still alive !  I thought California executed him !

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirhan_Sirhan

    California, you suck ! Can you do anything correctly ?

    Ahem. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

    Only God is allowed to kill people.

    Romans 13:1 “13 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.”

         https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2013&version=NIV

    That was written during the time of Nero.  The same Nero who was using oil drenched Christians for lighting streets at night time in Rome.

    Also see 1 Peter 2:13 which is even more clear.

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Peter%202&version=NIV

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  79. Lynn says:

    “The 16 People Who Will Pick the Next President” by Mark Halperin

        https://markhalperin.substack.com/p/the-16-people-who-will-pick-the-next

    Interesting list.  Number 16 is “16. Whoever is in charge of message discipline for Robert Kennedy”.

    Number is “2. Casey DeSantis”.

    Number 1 is “1. Jill Biden”.  True Dat.

  80. Ray Thompson says:

    And who knows what happens in Norway when it’s never dark?? Blackout curtains must be a big seller at Ikea.

    Dark heavy curtains where I am currently staying. They help, but not much as I would like. Light still leaks around the edges. The only real option is to use tinfoil on the windows sealed with black duct tape. But that makes the room a dungeon in the daytime.

    Went to bed at 00:30 last night, slept until 08:30. Slept well.

    Today we will wander around downtown Oslo. We need to find a post office, already found McDonalds.

    We are staying in a former exchange student’s apartment. Downtown apartments, and there are a lot of them, are expensive. The occupants buy the apartment, have a mortgage and pay a monthly fee for building maintenance.

    Having grown up on a farm the housing density, lack of parking, cramped spaces just do not appeal to me. It is impossible to pee in a person’s own yard, the true sign of ownership. I could pee off the balcony, but the owner of the Tesla below would probably be pissed off.

  81. Norman says:

    Looks like Disney have really pissed off the Egyptians (and a got lump of the Arab word).

    Egyptians complain over Netflix depiction of Cleopatra as black – BBC News

    “A lawyer has filed a complaint that accuses African Queens: Queen Cleopatra of violating media laws and aiming to “erase the Egyptian identity”.

    A top archaeologist insisted Cleopatra was “light-skinned, not black”.”

  82. brad says:

    Google has a deal with Home Depot for tracking data in return for providing detailed maps to users when inside the store. IIRC, Ikea has something similar.

    Thankfully, in Europe this would violate all sorts of privacy laws. Theoretically, at least, companies cannot use your data without your permission. While there are plenty of violations, it does keep the abuses down to a lower level…

    My phone has never done that.  Maybe the local HD isn’t important enough. Maybe it’s because I keep wi-fi, bluetooth, and Location turned off.

    Yup, that’ll do it. Especially keeping location turned off.

    A top archaeologist insisted Cleopatra was “light-skinned, not black”.”

    Of course she was. Only in the US do you have this weird movement to claim Egyptions, Middle Easterners and even Greeks were black. Black Americans don’t know their history, neither do the Woke…

  83. Ray Thompson says:

    Black Americans don’t know their history

    No, they don’t. They all think they are descended from African slaves brought over on slave ships. By doing so they they get more entitlements, Free Stuff Army and all that.

    Everything should be color blind. People get what they get based on their abilities. There is no excuse for any ethnic group claiming they don’t get the same education as “whitey”. That is just an excuse for being lazy.

    The biggest racists today are Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Ben Crump, etc. They make a living on racism, like that creature on Star Trek that feasted on the hate between the Federation and the Klingons. As long as those cretins continue to thrive on racism, racism will not die.

    And in other news. I just a scam email, written in German or Norwegian. My email addressed is now being associated with Europe by just using my email. Someone is really selling that information.

    Off to visit a Fjord today. Dinner tonight at a nice restaurant. Tomorrow evening we take the train to the airport to spend the night at the hotel close to the airport. 09:00 flight to Vienna on Thursday. It will be our second trip to Austria. Last time we spent most of the time in Kaufenberg, this time it will be Vienna with a day trip to Kaufenberg.

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