Cool and kinda damp in Houston. But supposed to still be clear. Florida meanwhile is getting some cold air, and who knows what the temps there will be? I’ll find out though…
Did my mileage for taxes. Did a bunch of personal care and grooming. I don’t usually do it all at once, but I did yesterday. Did laundry too. Even folded my clean clothes. In other words, lots of domestic bliss, not a lot of other stuff.
Today will be a bit of packing, a bit of cleaning, and a bit of getting ready to go out of town. I’m headed to Florida to see mom and sibling… Wasn’t my idea, but maybe it’s for the best. I really don’t like holiday travel. And I don’t like all the rushing and activity we’ve had this break. But my likes don’t really matter much at the moment. I’ll suck it up and soldier on.
I’m thinking ahead though, and trying to decide what I can do a few more “long form” posts on. If and when I start poking at the solar, that should be good for a few posts. Maybe I should refine my milk crate food storage system, or look at redundancy in cooking/water/heating/cooling/energy etc. Or maybe I should turn some focus on my physical condition, and look at improving that…
Not sure what will come, but I’ve been slacking in the actual content department. I’m going to consciously try to change that this year.
It’s hard to keep repeating the basics, even if new people come to prepping all the time; and some of the more advanced stuff will either seem too narrowly applicable or too far out…and I’m not an expert by any means.
The default will be more of the same. Hopefully that is enough.
And there will be stacking, of course.
Welcome to New Year, like every day, and yet somehow different. Let us hope and pray, work hard, and work smart, to make it a good year.
Thank you all for joining me here.
nick
Hope y’all made it through the New Year’s festivities 🙂
Our dog hates fireworks. The vet had us give him some (extra) medication to get him through it. He is, however, an animal with a very strong will. Very woozy, sleepy – but when he wants to, he can push through it. The neighbors came over just before midnight for a New Year’s toast, and he was all over them, just like normal – pack members must be greeted! Five minutes later, back to sleep.
I think I mentioned that we had ordered new computer desks, from a little company in Poland. The desks arrived, and I am genuinely impressed. Lots of attention to detail in the design. Very solid. Great cable management. Bomb-proof packaging. Clear assembly instructions, with quality tools provided. I think we will be very happy with them.
However, I did have to laugh: On the packaging, it says: “designed in Singapore, made in China”. Presumably all on contract with the Polish company, but we still have something out of a Chinese factory.
One other thing I didn’t think about: Everything is metal, with lots of magnetic attachments. I still use hard disks for remote backup, so I guess I need to be careful not to put them on the desk 😛
No. Hyundais and Kias. Some Hondas.
People are living in the vehicles, hoping to get lucky and find a way to earn a living here.
Austin is the new Silicon Valley.
10 Dead on Boubon St in New Orleans, 30 Hospitalized
Pickup went around barriers, intentionally ran people down
Driver exited firing at crowd and police, dead on scene
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2025/01/01/new-orleans-n2649840
Mayor called it an acto of terrorism, FBI spokesperson tried to contradict hi, NBC anchor in studio points out it meets the definition of terrorism.
Bomb squad is sweeping the area, has reportedly “detonated” two suspicious devices.
Must not be Whitey/MAGA. The name and picture would have been on Drudge by now.
Biden and Garland have been briefed. I feel so much better knowing that they are in charge.
https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-car-bourbon-street-63a1b43d615af365cb8ba6f5f0583eca
happy 2025! my best wishes for all the people who contributes here, and the missing people we were lucky to read them here.
HP moved all of the printer engineering jobs to Singapore about 10 years ago.
We lost our rental in WA State because HP was handing out sweet deals to the landlords when they brought the engineers to the US for year long rotations in their design centers in Vantucky, where the inkjet printer was invented, and Corvallis, which handled laser printers.
I briefly had a new Hecho en Singapore HP LaserJet last year, but it went back to the store after a day since the cooling fan was obviously running “open loop” due to the firmware engineers not knowing their own hardware interfaces well enough to poll temperature and turn off the fan when it wasn’t needed.
I saw a HP inkjet printer on QVC for $39.00 today. The replacement ink probably costs more than the printer.
Thank you to Barbara, Nick and Rick H. for keeping this place open, alive, up and running. Still the best of the internet. More of the same would be just fine!
Today was lovely here in the Bavarian Alps. Sunshine and blue skies all day, from sunrise to sunset, but goodness, that wind off the mountains is COLD! I was glad to get back into a warm bed after my pre-sunrise stroll. Some hardy souls up up and away in a hot air balloon floated overhead, as did squadrons of mallard fighter-jet ducks while I was watching fish in the crystal-clear water of the Isar.
Weißwurst and Bretz’n for a traditional New Year breakfast with friends. We went posh, and had bubbly with it, rather than Weißbier. Followed-up by the New Year’s concert of the Wiener Philharmoniker on TV, topped off by a snooze before afternoon tea.
A good day. May the young year continue in this gentle vein. Regards to all.
@ayj, thank you!
Glad to hear from everyone!
53F here in Houston, and according to my newly installed weather station, it’s gone from 44F to 56F at the BOL. Sun shining on the sensor will make it warmer, I think.
We had sparkling apple cider last night. The only one to drink the bubbly would be W, and all I’ve got in the house is some crazy expensive bottles I bought as part of an estate. She didn’t think drinking a $800 bottle alone was a good idea. Next time we host family or friends I think we’ll bring it out. Don’t want to wait too long and have it go bad. And I didn’t pay much for it.
I’ve eaten, and I’m working thru the coffee. Haven’t looked at the news, but what happened in NOLA isn’t a great way to start the year.
I’ll be flying this evening, and I’m hoping for “uneventful”.
Keep your head on a swivel, and eyes open.
n
It is 45Fº in the Vegas area. Happy New Year.
Have a safe flight, Mr. Nick.
Happy new year to everyone.
My son suggested I watch Babylon 5 when I mentioned my comment on here about not watching SF on TV. He described the setting for the series and it seemed interesting. So last night I watched the first one. (He gave me a external HD filled with movies and TV series a few years ago.)
I had problems hearing the the voices. Nothing I tried helped much except when I cupped my hands behind my ears. If I could have heard them I would probably watch another but since I couldn’t, I may not. I wonder if there is a way to feed the TVs sound to the iPhone-AirPod via Bluetooth.
@bob, it could be the way they mix the show audio, interacting with whatever processing the ipod do. Sometimes there is just too much going on. Try selecting a simple stereo sound track if you have any options on your video player.
n
The Sub Zero Pelosi model refrigerator — for people who drink a lot of wine and champagne.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBXvgv8hZiI
“Ab Fab” is another show which couldn’t get made today.
I don’t remember Patsy and Edina drinking wine however. Jennifer Saunders invented the Stolli-Bolli cocktail with one script.
Thank you to Barbara, Nick and Rick H. for keeping this place open, alive, up and running. Still the best of the internet. More of the same would be just fine!
Second!
Happy New Year to one and all!
“Babylon 5” was mixed for tube TVs with stereo speakers, either via broadcast/cable or VHS.
Unless the studio spent serious money, any attempt at 5.1, etc. would be fake and sound like cr*p.
DVD or BluRay would have the stereo mix. Warner, the studo which produced the series, invented the DVD with Toshiba and knows the limitations of the format.
The re-released “Stop Making Sense” from A26 has a really good surround sound mix, remastered from the original tapes, but the BluRay (no DVD) is $50.
Yes, there is. I have a device connected to my TV via TOSLINK (optical), that then streams to my hearing aids or AirPods via Bluetooth. It works quite well. There are several devices. My TV can also connect BlueTooth devices although I have not tried it with the hearing aids or AirPods.
See if your TV has some sort of BlueTooth setting that will allow the pairing of devices.
In my experience, if the sound is bad coming out of the speakers, it will be bad coming out of the AirPods. Poorly mixed audio, with too much background noise, much too low a level during quiet talking, is not easily fixed. The clods they have mixing sound on some of the projects must be real idiots.
To overcome the poorly mixed audio I keep closed captioning on most of the time.
Or the printer only really works with Windows.
I have an HP 1020 like that. I can trick it into talking to Linux with a special driver, but, every now and then, the device goes into a weird state where the firmware needs to be reloaded from a Windows system with the full HP driver package installed.
Not WHITEY!
Shamsud Din Jabbar
– expensive EV truck, used as a rental side hustle.
and the headline is now 15 dead.
n
Happy New Year from “the 51st state”
A fine Irish name.
It is like looking at Robert Francis’ “brother from another mother”.
That is a really common hustle to pay for the EV sex toy -er- codpiece -er- truck.
Yeah. Truck.
I’ve heard stories about the brochures being presented to buyers in the F&I room of the local dealerships.
Gotta make that $1000 monthly nut somehow.
I’ve also seen a Lightning doing Uber Eats delivery service first hand.
I don’t think I saw a vehicle below $40k pull into one of those Doordash/Favor/Uber Eats reserved parking spaces while we were in the restaurant that night, but the Lightning was the most expensive.
Turo was going to do an IPO in the upcoming year.
They came very close to an offering in 2023, but the plans got put on hold due to the Hamas attack in Israel.
It isn’t happening now for a very long time.
Well, I’m packed. Been so long since I flew that my batteries and spares in my packed bag have aged out.
I’m not loving it.
n
And I have misplaced my new toughbook. Can’t find it in my office. Which is a mess.
But really? Lost a lappy in the house??
n
I found 4 others, just not the one I want.
My neighbors fired off mortars until 3 am last night … they started at 5 pm. At midnight the mortar barrage was so dense and loud that I went back in the house afraid of more hearing damage. I would estimate that every other house in my neighborhood had mortars going.
My wife starting bingeing “Law and Order” last night on Hulu (no commercials) and got me hooked. So I am watching it now of course.
I dropped a sugar cookie last night in the kitchen. I was reaching for it and my dog came rushing through, grabbed it, and ran for the dining room. She stopped in the door, looked back, smiled at me, and then walked to the den to eat her cookie.
Found it. I had put it in a bag to take to my regional hobby event, and I wasn’t looking for a bag. I was looking for the silver handled toughbook….
I really need to clean my office.
n
Dog was dropped off at the sitter’s house. He ran for the door and didn’t look back. Loves her more than us I guess….
Of course there are about 12 dogs at her house right now, and he’s been there since he was a puppy. He was very excited.
n
Kid’s dog can hear a sliver of meat hit the kitchen floor from 50ft away.
n
Safe travels, nick!
If it’s any consolation, I once lost a sledgehammer inside the 8*12′ garden shed. Of course, I needed a sledge right then, so now I have two…
Want to talk about 5 utility knives? The wife keeps using them, leaving them where she last used them, then I have to try and find them, many times unsuccessfully. One time I was at Home Depot, there was a sale, I bought 3 of them and keep one hidden from the wife.
Arizona is playing it tough against Texas. The first half I thought Texas was going to cruise easily to a win. Now I am not so certain.
Based on the last two field goal kicks by Texas I think the Texas kicker has money on Arizona.
Texas came through. Arizona played tough, it was a good game. Sugar Bowl will be played tomorrow. A lot of people had plans for today, rooms, time off from work, which will be severely disrupted. I understand the reason but doing something like that gives the terrorists a small victory. It is a balance between security and the terrorist victory. It was probably a difficult decision.
I’m playing with settings on the two blu-ray players. Stuff like screen size and audio output. I want both to sound the same through the stereo.
The Panasonic uses approx 11 watts. With Quick Start on approx 3.5 watts. In standby with Quick Start off approx 0.5 watts.
The Sony uses 8.5 watts. No details about Quick Start wattage. With or without Quick Start enabled, it’s about as warm as the Panasonic in the same state.
I have Quick Start turned off on both machines. They both have just a hint of warmth where the power cord is plugged in.
Both machines will turn on when the tray open button is pressed. Both will close the tray and turn off when the power button is pressed. The Sony seems a little slower, probably looking for the LAN.
Do I have a favorite? Not really. I’ve used the Sony since May so I know where the buttons are on the remote. I’ll get there with the Panasonic.
The Sony’s OSD has more information. Such as audio output so you know you have 5.1 audio without putting an ear to surround speakers. Length of movie with time elapsed and time remaining.
The Panasonic just has length and time elapsed…. I have to, the HORROR of it all, do math in my head to figure the time remaining.
They are both connected to the TV and the TV sends audio to the stereo. I don’t need to know if the disc is playing 5.1 surround. I can hear it.
It has been a nice sunny day. Mid 50’s with a cold wind. I’ve been puttering and starting a new stack for Goodwill in the dining room. I don’t need two crock pots, for example. And now it’s time for supper. Some days it seems like all I do I feed the dogs.
Happy New Year!
HP printers & Linux.
I bought an HP M377dw in 2017 and it is still working fine. The only problem I have experienced was with the Yellow toner cartridge, say after a year or so. I replaced that, which resolved the problem. I have replaced all the cartridges over the last couple of years as they have run out, so now anticipate a further few years of successful printing. The printer is network attached to my main Linux Mint (was Ubuntu) system.
They are also bankrupt.
Probably Toro, too.
The word early this morning was that the Sugar Bowl would go on as scheduled. I wonder what changed.
The Alamo Bowl reported a TV audience of 8 million for Coach Prime vs. The Mormons, surprising considering that the game had zero playoff significance.
The TV decision makers won’t want a final of Texas vs. Georgia … in Atlanta … again. I wonder when they drop the dime on Texas.
More from NOLA:
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/01/01/breaking-la-state-police-intel-bulletin-3-men-1-woman-seen-placing-ieds-n3798408
NEWEST FBI THEORY IS THAT TERRORIST DID NOT ACT ALONE.
BREAKING: Fire at NOLA Airbnb ‘May Be Connected’ to Bourbon St Attack
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/01/01/breaking-fire-at-nola-airbnb-may-be-connected-to-bourbon-st-attack-n3798402
FBI thinks it may be coincidence that the Bad Driver of Bourbon Street stayed there.
Tesla Cybertruck explodes outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/01/01/tesla-cybertruck-explodes-outside-of-trump-hotel-in-las-vegas-n2649851
FBI working on fireworks accident theory.
Biden Team promises Big Guy will comment after nap.
Lines were short. Easy parking, easy check in, easy security. Cops with slung ARs at the duty desk in the lobby. That’s not normal.
Not crowded. Still had one passive aggressive ass at check in, who then cut the line.
Plane is 70% full so maybe we can sit together.
Weird seeing the date on the monitors…
n
Cyberpunk explosion in Vegas also rented from turo. Cops confirm there was stuff in the truck and Musk says telemetry didn’t show Any issues w vehicle.
N
Dan u auto correct
N
The Magic Condom is a tempting target and much more of a symbol of decadence than Bourbon Street these days.
If that’s where you’re headed, I would avoid Disney Springs. Too much “jus’ chillin’” locals the last time we went there. Something bad is eventually going to happen with or without Islamic crazies involved.
I’ll be on the gulf side, away from any likely target., other than possibly an air base.
N
>> The other night, watching a “Harry Potter” marathon on SyFy, we noted that every commercial break included the same Instacart and Wegovy commercials, sometimes repeating the Instacart commercial twice in the same break.
Let’s get RFK confirmed…
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/23/health/rfk-jr-tv-drug-ads-ban.html
>>Going to watch a couple episodes of Slow Horses.
Hard not to just binge them all at once. Amazing series, Gary Oldman is superb.
Thanks for all of the sugestions. I had some problems getting my smart LG TV to connect via Bluetooth to my iPhone-AirPod. I searched the internet for a solution and got some Menu suggestions for the TV that weren’t in the manual. Fiannly the phone detected the LG Bluetooth speakers and on the third or fourth try they linked. I was able to reduce the volume level on the TV and get an understandable bowl game broadcast.
I’ll try it again tomorrow.
That won’t fix the nonstop Instacart advertisement., the 15 second version of this spot, sometimes repeated twice in the same break.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6hUqO3Vy6E
The Gulf side offers many targets along with a bunch of Islamic types.
I grew up there.
Private mint and their “Gold Buffalo $50 Tribute” has been scamming for years.
14mg of gold plate worth less than a buck.
They talk at length about the totally unrelated U.S. Mint 1-oz. 24K American Gold Buffalo, hoping to chum the waters and get gullible oldies to buy them for investment or gifts.
I was hopinng to hit the lottery so I could remake their commercial by replacing the U.S. Mint part with footage of scammers getting the perp walk, and admonitions to check all coin investments with reputable dealers. I wonder what a million dollars worth of ad buys would look like?
Oh, well. Hope springs eternal in the new year.
Happy 2025 to everyone.. (It’s actually 2nd January here).
Just hoping for a better year..
Thanks to Rick, Nick, Barbara et al. for keeping this site going.. I haven’t posted very much, as often the time difference means that I’m too far ahead, or the opposite, too far behind. I mainly visit during lunchtime to try and catchup..
Anyway, cheers to everyone and take care..
Arrived safely. Airport wasn’t crowded, and was shutting down for the night. Lift driver was pleasant. 350K miles on his Rav4. Sibling’s new puppy is large and gangly and a lot of fun.
Headed for bed though, as there is an hour time change for me.
At least there haven’t been more attacks.
n
touch wood
>>The word early this morning was that the Sugar Bowl would go on as scheduled. I wonder what changed.
According to the TV news playing in the background it’s the po-po manpower still pursuing this:
According to the intelligence bulletin, surveillance footage captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices.
Meanwhile, in North Houston…
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/new-orleans-truck-attack-things-to-know-20009997.php#fbi-to-remain-at-harris-county-property-for-several-more-hours–015920
I saw a HP inkjet printer on QVC for $39.00 today. The replacement ink probably costs more than the printer.
I hate inkjet printers. I always get the paper wet and then the ink runs all over the place.
But the color laserjet cartridges are dadgum expensive.
“Our plan failed” said the NOPD police chief. How long ’til she gets canned?
https://abcnews.go.com/US/police-anticipate-vehicular-attack-new-orleans-truck-ramming/story?id=117255924
“Captain Obvious, please pick up the white courtesy phone.” (Nod to @nick’s travels today.
New TESLA commercial coming soon…
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/elon-musk-cybertruck-trump-tower-picked-wrong-vehicle-elon-musk-on-cybertruck-explosion-outside-trump-hotel-7381653
And in NYFC…
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/mass-shooting-at-new-york-nightclub-at-least-10-injured-7382163
Statement from Turo…
The company had 360,000 cars listed on its platform at the end of 2023, and about 3.7 million people booked cars that year, according to a March 2024 filing.
The re-released “Stop Making Sense” from A26 has a really good surround sound mix, remastered from the original tapes, but the BluRay (no DVD) is $50.
The bluray remaster is $27.09 on Big River.
https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Heads-Blu-ray-Anniversary-Special/dp/B0DFC7MJJW?tag=ttgnet-20/
The DVD remaster is $24.83 on Big River.
https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Heads-Making-Anniversary-Special/dp/B0DFC5QTTH?tag=ttgnet-20/
Or you can rent it on Prime for $5.99.
But I doubt that my old ears can hear any remastering. The youtube videos are pretty good.
Paul, those sound like pretty good days to me, and the dogs probably think so too!
Wishing you a good year in 2025.
So the dude in Magdeburg was clearly Islamic, the dude in New Orleans was “inspired” by ISIS, the widespread chaos throughout Germany over New Year’s was entirely caused by Islamic immigrants. A look at any of the lists of the top terrorist organisations in the world reveals that they are all Islamic.
Over New year’s, Germany arrested more than 400 idiots in Berlin alone. All or nearly all are Islamic immigrants. 400 would fill a nice-sized plane, flying them back to the Middle East. Doesn’t much matter where, pay some country for the right to unload them.
Why has the West not simply outlawed Islam and Islamic practices?