Sat. June 17, 2023 – poetry circle time…

Hot and humid.   Next 5 days too.   Very hot yesterday.  I was careful working, but still got a touch of sunburn and felt a little “off”.

Did a quick pickup yesterday morning, then headed to my client’s house to finish up the open items.  Stopped at my local electronics/networking/installer stuff store and grabbed a ubiquiti access point.   Didn’t realize I was grabbing the heavy duty “long range” mack daddy version.   That thing will light your hair on fire…

I was careful to alternate indoor and outdoor tasks throughout the afternoon and evening.   The late start gave me some good shade to work in, and I work a big straw hat and my cool vest.  Even so I fell behind in my hydration.   When the sweat stops dripping off my nose and eyelids, it’s time to drink some more.

Got most of the work done.  Took longer than it should have.  Automagic is great, when it works, and if it works.   Sometimes it takes a lot of messing around and multiple tries before the magic does its thing.   That can be very frustrating.   I fought with adding cameras to the NVR and with adding the WAP to the existing network.

Upsold the client on three more cams, so I’ll still have money coming in next month.

Today is my non-prepping hobby meeting.  It got moved a week due to a conflict with the venue.   After that, I’ll do a couple of small pickups, and hit my secondary location to load up some stuff for the BOL.  Then it’s home to do yard work so I can get out of town for a while and work at the BOL.


In the interest of ‘improving’ myself, I will occasionally do something I don’t normally do.   Reading poetry is one of those  things.   I do enjoy Kipling, and many of the people I read online make sure to mention his poems from time to time.

A week or two or a few ago I picked up a book at the goodwill ‘bins’ store it was vintage, but not particularly valuable.   It was poetry  by Robert L. Service and a couple bits I read were funny or engaging so I got it for me, even though it wasn’t worth enough to re-sell.   Imagine my surprise when I was reading along in the smallest room in the house, and I found I recognized something…   I’ll close today with the last stanza.   The whole thing is available here.

It Is Later Than You Think

Lastly, you who read; aye, you
Who this very line may scan:
Think of all you planned to do …
Have you done the best you can?
See! the tavern lights are low;
Black’s the night, and how you shrink!
God! and is it time to go?
Ah! the clock is always slow;
It is later than you think;
Sadly later than you think;
Far, far later than you think.

emphasis added.

Stack it up.

nick

45 Comments and discussion on "Sat. June 17, 2023 – poetry circle time…"

  1. drwilliams says:

    First

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Is TikTok making people dumber, or is it that dumb people flock to TikTok?

    “’I thought Geico was named after the [gecko]… my life is a lie,’ a third comment read.”

    The truth about the Limu Emu will really blow their minds.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    The trifecta of idiots. Game over, man, game over. Yes, let us elect plugs to a second term.

    Yeah, Icitatus. Dr. Oz has lots of houses, tho’.

    What is Biden referencing with “dog-faced lying pony soldier” schtick?

    That wasn’t the first time he’s used the line.

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    Headed out.   It’s warm and damp alright. 

    Bidden and lying dog face etc… I don’t think anyone figured it out the first time either.   Must be something weird from his childhood to come out when he’s otherwise non compos.

    n

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Bidden and lying dog face etc… I don’t think anyone figured it out the first time either.   Must be something weird from his childhood to come out when he’s otherwise non compos.

    There is always this implication of imminent physical violence coming from Corn Pop, as if he could hurt you and get away with it.

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Home from my meeting.   Had a good time.   Spent 40 minutes in a theological discussion with a fervent believer, who was also well educated.   No beliefs were changed, but we both enjoyed the exercise.   The circular reasoning, and misdirection are so ingrained he couldn’t even see them when he used them until pointed out.    Then he’d acknowledge and go in a different direction.   Always interesting to observe the anti-Catholic bias in the South, and amongst certain denominations.

    He didn’t try the “Catholics aren’t Christians” bit but I think he was holding himself back…   which is funny because there would be no Christian church without the HRC church to have schism’d from.

    n

    3
    1
  7. SteveF says:

    there would be no Christian church without the HRC church to have schism’d from.

    The Orthodox, the Copts, and others might disagree.

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Othodox = catholic,   Copts? maybe 

    n

  9. SteveF says:

    Othodox = catholic

    Pretty sure that history, other than history promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church, fails to support that assertion.

    My main point, though, was that there were a lot of Christian sects – can’t even call them denominations, as the differences were much wider than those between the Southern Baptists and the High Episcopalians – in the first few centuries CE. Few of them looked to the See of Rome for leadership; it was only one of many apostolic sees and not the most important. The Roman Catholic Church came out on top in the western part of the Roman empire through politicking and warfare (and bribery and assassination) as hard-nosed as any you’ll see in history. The fact that they won that war does not mean that they were the only source of anointed leadership and doctrinal truth nor even that they hewed closest to the scriptures. It means only that they won and hence wrote the history books, and that includes selecting the books of the bible and the translations into Latin which best support them.

  10. Alan says:

    The requisite “it’s just a coincidence” item of the day…with a Ronny D mention as well…

    https://jalopnik.com/desantis-signs-bill-blocking-direct-to-consumer-car-sal-1850543086

    On what’s surely a completely unrelated note, Florida Politics points out that dealers have donated more than $2 million to DeSantis in the last two years, as well as $230,000 to political action committees run by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo and $50,000 to state senator Ben Albritton. Jason Shoaf, who sponsored the bill in the state house, also received a $10,000 donation to his PAC from Braman Motors the week after he filed the bill.

  11. lpdbw says:

    A few hours layover in Vegas. How much will I gamble?

  12. SteveF says:

    He’s got to raise campaign funds somehow. De Santis can’t fill a 50,000-seat arena every week for a year.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    He didn’t try the “Catholics aren’t Christians” bit but I think he was holding himself back…   which is funny because there would be no Christian church without the HRC church to have schism’d from.

    I had a six year sentence to a Southern Baptist (Harda** synod) K-8 school. Everyone was wrong except them.

    Ironically, the building now hosts a Scientology school. Clearwater, FL.

    https://delphifl.org/about-us/campus/

  14. Gavin says:

    Girl Sues Hospital For Removing Her Breasts At Age 13

    A little pushback. Hope this gets the message across.

  15. Alan says:

    >> A few hours layover in Vegas. How much will I gamble?

    What’s the under/over number?

  16. Greg Norton says:

    A few hours layover in Vegas. How much will I gamble?

    Uber to the Pinball Hall of Fame is out?

  17. Greg Norton says:

    A little pushback. Hope this gets the message across.

    Both of the big childrens hospitals here in Central Texas had active gender reassignment programs and new facilities under construction at a breakneck pace not far from our house, within the city limits, until the Legislature passsed a bill banning the practice.

    Ever since the Governor signed the bill, the program staff at both hospitals have been purged and construction on the buildings slowed to a crawl.

  18. Greg Norton says:

    He’s got to raise campaign funds somehow. De Santis can’t fill a 50,000-seat arena every week for a year.

    DeSantis’ Kenny Boys need to be exposed now.

    The Florida media have been particularly useless on this point. It isn’t that they like DeSantis as much as they preferred his meth head opponent to the extent that they have been suffering from DDS (DeSantis Derangement Syndrome) since 2018.

  19. lynn says:

    Got a call back from the dumpster rental.   ~$1000.   Yikes.   No wonder most people find somewhere to dump the material.

    Is that a 20 yd3 or 40 yd3 open dumpster with just one dump ?

    I pay $400 per month for a 6 yd3 closed dumpster with two dumps per week at my office.

  20. lpdbw says:

    I rented a 20 yeard dumpster at the end of April, and they had weight limits and  a strict “no dirt, no concrete, no construction materials” rule.

    I’m sure they would take that stuff, but at a different billing rate.  I paid over $400 and then got hit with an overweight charge.

  21. lynn says:

    Othodox = catholic,   Copts? maybe 

    Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox are first generation churches started by Paul. Serious differences on communion and icons from the Catholics.

    Lots of Greek Orthodox in the Houston area. Their annual festival is fun and really good food.

  22. lynn says:

    Some friends of my parents were Egyptian Copts back in the 1970s.  They converted to Church of Christ when they emigrated to Houston from Egypt.  She would make Baklava by the tray for her customers.  She gave me a tray to take back to TAMU one weekend, I got swarmed by my dorm mates when the word got out.

  23. Ken Mitchell says:

    lpdbw says:

    A few hours layover in Vegas. How much will I gamble?

    How much do you have? There are slot machines at the airport. 

  24. Greg Norton says:

    Lots of Greek Orthodox in the Houston area. Their annual festival is fun and really good food.

    Tarpon Springs outside Tampa has a full-on Epiphany event, complete with cross diving, and rarely does an Orthodox Easter pass without a story on the local news about a little kid blowing themselves up making pipe bombs.

    The big restauranteurs in Tarpon Springs were the Pappas familly. I wonder if the Pappas family in Houston is related.

  25. paul says:

    I went ahead and did the deed.  I have the money in the bank, so get it done.

    All from Newegg, Greg’s fav place to shop. (insert finger pull)

    An Orico external drive case to stuff the old SSD drive into. Item #: 9SIA1DS4VX9128

    My third fanless PC.  Item #: 9SIBDYFHWZ7094  Comes with a $15 gift card.   

    A Logitech MK120 wired keyboard and mouse set for the princely sum of $18.  A real keyboard versus the flat buttons.  Seems like a better plan than $10 for the dongle that lets you use your old PS/2 stuff….. that seems to do weird things once in a while on my PC. Or my old AST keyboard is just wacky, the Xx key is working again.  Keep it simple. 

    A WD Blue 1TB M.2 ssd.  WDS100T3B0B  Heck, $53 versus $37 for half the space is an easy choice.

    I was going to add an LG CD/DVD drive.  Model GP65NB60.  $25 plus $6 shipping.  Big River has the same price with free shipping.  It’s a few bucks more than something like https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0758RP5V8?tag=ttgnet-20 and attached to one his existing optical drives.  But much classier and less clutter to dust.  Then again, that can wait until I hear he needs an optical drive. 

    $397 including tax minus the $15 gift card for a new PC.

    I’ll get it all set up with Win11 updated and his mail and other stuff working on the factory drive.  Then use Acronis to image the drive to the new WD drive and swap drives.  

    It’s a plan. 

    The “old” PCs run fine. But they are ten years old. It’s time for new hardware and as much as I sorta like Win7, it’s time to upgrade.

  26. JimB says:

    The big restauranteurs in Tarpon Springs were the Pappas familly. I wonder if the Pappas family in Houston is related.

    Of course they are… if you go back far enough. 😉

  27. lpdbw says:

    Leaving Las Vegas. Continued my streak of zero dollars spent gambling. 

  28. lynn says:

    Girl Sues Hospital For Removing Her Breasts At Age 13

    A little pushback. Hope this gets the message across.

    I doubt it.  If you watch “What Is A Woman”, he claims that each successful top removal and bottom transition is worth $1.3 million to the Healthcare industry.  Money, it all about money.

  29. Greg Norton says:

    All from Newegg, Greg’s fav place to shop. (insert finger pull)

    Newegg has been okay as of late, but I had a bad CPU recently which was really surprising.

    I built two PCs after Christmas and my budget is blown for a while.

  30. Nick Flandrey says:

    Re: copts, russ and greek orthodox, the protestants don’t descend from those lines.   I should have been more specific, that without the Roman Catholic church the Protestants and all their descendant sects wouldn’t exist.

    The RCC was who Luther was protesting, and they all derive their identity in how they differ from RC.

    Pretty sure whatever church this guy attends would consider the greeks and russians as worse than the RC church.

    n

  31. drwilliams says:

    @lynn

    Deep introspective rock question for the weekend:

    Best Hollies song?

    Nominate, then play “the ultimate”, and reaffirm–if you can.

    Best Hollies song?

    “Either Bus Stop or Long Cool Woman In  a Red Dress.”

    Gotta pick one.

    Are you sure “The Air That I Breathe” and “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” are out of contention?

  32. ITGuy1998 says:

    Leaving Las Vegas. Continued my streak of zero dollars spent gambling. 
     

    Well, you have me beat. On our southwest trip in 2019, we spent a night in Vegas. I spent a total of two 1 dollar bills in the dollar slots. I was not impressed. We were staying at the Paris hotel, so we went and got some crepes instead of more gambling. I don’t regret the choice.

  33. SteveF says:

    My lifetime total casino gambling is two quarters in Atlantic City slot machines in the late 1980s. I went with some other Army people and their wives on a rare occasion that I was on station at Ft Monmouth; went in part because I’d never been there and because they thought they might conceivably need someone sober enough to drive back. What I saw was loud, tacky, and annoying, so I did a slot machine pull just to say I had and then went out to wander the town and see what I could see. No one tried to mug me, which suggests that the reputation for street crime was overblown (most likely), that I just had bad luck, or that the would-be muggers were smart enough to realize that a solitary guy moseying around aimlessly might not be clueless, lost, and easy pickins (least likely). In fact, the biggest excitement was when we all met back up at the car and one of the wives, who knew something of my habits, flipped out. “You let Steve wander around Atlantic Badword City all by himself!!??”

  34. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    Girl Sues Hospital For Removing Her Breasts At Age 13

    A little pushback. Hope this gets the message across.

    “I doubt it.  If you watch “What Is A Woman”, he claims that each successful top removal and bottom transition is worth $1.3 million to the Healthcare industry.  Money, it all about money.”

    A $100 million award would be a 1-in-40 ratio. And then there’s the state laws that could get your ticket pulled. The flip side of the healthcare industry is the insurance industry that they can’t make a move without. As the “industry” moves to concentrate in a few states that encourage (as in Minnesota’s defiant “sanctuary” law) the practice, the result will be huge increases in medical insurance and medical liability insurance that could destroy medicine in those states. Add in that most of the “science” behind pre-adolescent  medical procedures is simply made up carp, the insurance and litigationlandscapes are going to make the final determination. 

    One of the things that should be getting extensive exposure but is getting not discussion is the scarcity of child psychologists in this country. To the extent that gender dysphoria is a mental problem, the reality is that we have no capacity to treat it.

    Author Andrew Vachss passed in 2021. Given his background: Student of Alinsky, attorney for children, author of the Burke novels featuring a protagonist that hunted pedophiles and was a friend of the transsexual Michelle (an adult that was required to pass significant hurdles before surgery–I have wondered what his perspective would be on the current madness.

  35. Nick Flandrey says:

    wadda day.

    Got a pickup load of stuff from storage.   Found two extra diesel fuel cans, so I have 4, which should be enough to keep me running on one trip to the gas station per day.    Soaked to the skin from that. 

    THen came home and got the concrete saw into  a space where I could test it and see if it needed work.   Banging on the carb to free up the float was all it took.   Saw ran nice.    That’s  a concern off my mind.    

    Cut the grass in the back yard.   Had some dead ornamental trees.  Half my peach is dead.   One of the chinese cherries is dead.   Several of the oaks I’m growing in pots died.   I think it’s still hangover from the freeze.   If I have room I ‘ll take one or more of the oak saplings to the BOL.

    Time for a shower and dry clothes.

    n

  36. Nick Flandrey says:

    Loved watching the show, seemed like a genuinely kind and loving dad and husband…

    Beloved star of Discovery Channel’s Flying Wild Alaska dies in small plane crash above state aged 68 alongside his hunting guide

    n

  37. drwilliams says:

    Bud Light Digs Deeper with ‘climate neutral’ Beer

    Bud Light NEXT

    Zero Carbs, Climate Neutral Certified

    Net Zero Future

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/06/17/bud-light-digs-deeper-with-climate-neutral-beer/

    More like Bud Light NEVER.

    If there’s no sound in the forest does that mean that no one gave a rat’s ass and all the AB marketing people have found their best use as fertilizer?

  38. lynn says:

    Bud Light NEXT

    Zero Carbs, Climate Neutral Certified

    Net Zero Future

    I can just see Bubba in his 2 ft lifted F-250 4X4 proudly drinking this dreck.  NOT.

  39. lpdbw says:

    Well, you have me beat. 

    I may have misled you all again.  I said I continued my streak, not that there was never any gambling at all before the current streak.

    $4 back in Vegas in 1984 or 1985.  Funny I remember the amount but not the specific year.  I went to the DECUS meeting there (DEC  Users Society).   I met a guy who brought a few thousand because he had a system that would make him rich.  I don’t remember what game it was, but I remember he went home empty handed.

     I buy occasional scratch-off lottery tickets as gifts, and powerball and mega millions for myself, knowing full well what the odds are.  I have my own rationalizations for that, and I am aware they are rationalizations.

    OBTW, I’m back home in Houston. It’s kinda hot here, compared to Spokane.

  40. Ken Mitchell says:

    Gambling: When I was in the US Navy, we spent 3 years in Subic Bay, Republic of the Philippines. We’d occasionally go to either the Subic Bay or Cubi Point officers clubs,  and waste $25 worth of nickels in the slot machines.  Sometimes we enjoyed the game, and sometimes we’d win enough to pay for dinner.  But fun either way. 

    If anybody gets a chance to visit the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola Naval Air Station. FL, the snack bar is called the “Cubi Point Bar”. MANY of the tables are heavily decorated and decoupaged with squadron plaques and patches, and we sat at many of those tables way back when. When the Mount Pinatubo volcano erupted and the Clark and Subic bases were closed, the Navy took almost everything movable and shipped it to Guam. The O Club furniture went on to the Pensacola museum.

  41. Ken Mitchell says:

    lpdbw wote:

     I buy occasional scratch-off lottery tickets as gifts, and powerball and mega millions for myself, knowing full well what the odds are.  I have my own rationalizations for that, and I am aware they are rationalizations.

    I buy lottery tickets when the prize amount is approximately equal to the odds. I figure that at that point, my chances are approximately 1:1. Basically, when the jackpot is $500M or more. 

  42. lynn says:

    I built two PCs after Christmas and my budget is blown for a while.

    Once I finish building this last PC, I am not going to build any more.  I am going to buy ready built PCs by Dell.  The Dell I bought my daughter last Christmas is doing well and more than meets her needs.  I need to spend all my time on porting our software to 64 bit.

    I know that I have built many PCs over the years, probably at least a hundred. It is tough to to save money on a PC if you ensure that you get what you need.

  43. Alan says:

    >> Once I finish building this last PC, I am not going to build any more.  I am going to buy ready built PCs by Dell.  

    Does Dell still use non-standard wiring somewhere with the power supply? Was that limited to the lower-end reseller machines?  (eg, Costco)

  44. Ray Thompson says:

    Does Dell still use non-standard wiring somewhere with the power supply?

    Dell used to use non-standard pinouts for their power supplies. That is no longer true.

    Costco uses standard Dell, HP and Apple machines. Where I got a surprise at Costco many years ago was with a router. The firmware provided in the Costco machine was not standard. It could not be updated via the normal methods. I don’t even know if it was possible to install an alternative firmware as it was locked down quite nicely.

    Whether this is still done by Costco I don’t know. The last machine I purchased was a Dell from Costco about six years ago and the power supply was standard connections. That machine was updated from a 5,400 RPM spinning rust to a 1 TB SSD. Made it a much better machine.

    Machines provided to Costco seem to be lower specification machines (5,400 RPM disk drive). At least it was that way. Apple products seem to be lower end on the hardware side (memory, storage) but upgraded versions can be purchased which seem to max out at 512 GB SSD, memory at 16 GIG.

    I can beat Costco prices at Apple with my 10% veteran discount. Even regular people can claim a 5% discount by going for educational, which Apple never checks.’

    A better option is the Apple refurbished store. Full warranty, fully checked, look exactly like new, at a discount. Such discount not much but money can be saved.

    Currently in Berlin for the day. Leave tomorrow for Haltern for five days. Host father and I will be going about 20 miles north to fly his drone. Lots of restricted areas for flying around Berlin. Along with other reasonable privacy issues such as flying over someone’s backyard.

    Technology has improved dramatically in drone technology, especially with the video and picture aspects. The stability of the drone, along with the gimbal system for the camera is impressive.

    There is also a “follow me” option where the drone will follow the operator while videoing from the air.

    This drone has 30 minutes of flying time per battery. We will be using three batteries. The discharged battery will recharge in 45 minutes. The charger charges the battery with the highest charge rate first so that provides an almost continuous power source for the drone. It does have to land to change batteries.

    The batteries are very light, surprising light. Which make me think there is some sort of capacitor type battery as the weight is most certainly not lithium. Or maybe it is some sort of combination of capacitor and lithium.

    Should be interesting.

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