Well, maybe we’ll get another beautiful day. Yesterday started wet and dreary but ended clear and sunny. From about noon on, it was a fantastic day. Not much evidence of the storm that went through, even on the southeast side of town. Ditches were full, and there were puddles in unusual spots, but the pavement was dry. We were forecast for rain and t-storms today, but who knows?
I spent the morning working on my hobby site shopping cart, mainly interfacing with my fellow enthusiasts on the board trying to get stuff like the actual paypal account and the email addy that gets all the confirmation emails and two factor challenges. Failed. Gave it up as a waste of time and got busy with my day.
Did a huge loop for pickups. Got another solar inverter, some small things for the BOL, some stuff for the next hamfest, and then I did my kid taxi duties… and did more taxi duties… Finally got out of my boots around 9:15pm. Caught up on auctions, and decided on an early bedtime.
Because when the world is burning, use it to light a candle. Or something. Nothing I can do about India and Pakistan. Nor the middle east. Nor even Washington state. I can up my preps a bit, and I will, because conflict disrupts supply chains. I’m doing a costco run today. Haven’t added any buckets lately, so I think I will buy some big bags o stuff. Salt seems like a good choice. I’ve got a bucket, and some pantry containers, but I don’t have enough to use as a preservative. or cleaner. It’s cheap and easy to store. It doesn’t expire. And it’s absolutely vital for life. Yes, I think I’ll add another bucket…
There is always more to stack. Fill your gaps.
nick
Every job I’ve had since I turned 40 has played age games including my current employer.
Playing the game bit my current management in the a** this week, but that doesn’t change their general approach. It worked for them in the past.
Started my day. Coffee soon. Lunch is made, females are disturbled in their dens…
It looks moderate outside.
I’m hoping for a nice, mild but sunny day.
n
I LIKE disturbled very much ! adopting it …..
I LIKE disturbled
– family word, I guess. Glad it resonates.
n
It was 68F this morning, and it’s already lost the little bit of chill to the wind. Sunny and clear. Looks like another beautiful day.
n
The last job I got was at Houston Methodist Hospital. They were implementing Epic with mostly in-house staff, and needed a few seed positions filled with outsiders. I was pushing 60, but the job description could have been custom written for me. Almost 40 years in IT, 7 years in healthcare, all Epic. 4 years as a consultant on new Epic installs or rescuing failed or troubled installs. I aced the interview, because I had seen the elephant, and convinced the interviewers I knew what I was talking about. This included the VP and the project manager for the install.
As a white male over 50 in IT, I knew this was my last shot at an actual full time job. I had hoped to retire from it, but the jab ended that.
I had a friend, a former coworker, who was an HR executive who helped me out avoiding the age games every time I looked for work after 40. He polished my resume, and gave me tips like dropping the years from my education, and dropping any prior work experience that was over 15 years ago.
The first year after I got fired from HM, I attempted to go back into consulting. 75% of the employers wouldn’t talk to you without the jab. The hourly rate had dropped by about 25% from 10 years ago. And my Epic certifications eventually lapsed since I wasn’t able to keep current.
Sometimes I do miss wrangling code.
>>Added – even more annoying. Once the parser “corrects” the “00” value to “0” every subsequent page load fails because you can’t have a single 0 for that value. Starting with “000” DOES work, and persists. FFS.
Real men write all their own code.
LOL2
Bernie Sanders Claims He’s TOO GOOD to Fly Commercial and LOL, X Just Has a HEYDAY With the Old Socialist
Commie says wut? Wake up sheeple. Comrade Bernie wants to “rule” you.
Bernie the sheep dog is not much different from all politicians.
Years ago I was in line at the ticket counter at an airport in Washington DC. A guy cut in front of everyone, just in front of me as I was next in line. He said he was congressman so-and-so and deserved to be first. I told him in no uncertain terms that I was next and to wait his turn. He again reiterated his importance and basically pushed me out of his way. In the interest of not getting arrested for violence by the airport police, I let it go.
Henry B. Gonzales was asked one time why he always had to fly 1st class. His response that he used the time to work on important matters and needed the extra space. Twice I was on the same plane with that cretin. Yes, he was in 1st class. But he was sound asleep after consuming, based on what I witnessed, four mixed drinks on the plane. He only woke up just before landing because the flight attendant woke him up.
Ross Perot would fly Southwest from Dallas to San Antonio. I was on three or four flights with him. Southwest was coach only. I had the misfortune to sit next to him on one of those flights. My impression from the conversations I had with him was that he was an egotistical jerk. He knew I was an EDS employee so I was very careful in anything I said. But that man knew everything about computers there was know according to him. Even though several of his statements were no longer applicable as technology had moved on from when he had his hands in the working pot.
EDS did have excellent benefits. 100% paid medical for employee and family. No deductible, no co-pay. The Dallas office had a fully equipped gym, a large pool, an 18 hole golf course, lounges with recliners and TVs. I was not there long enough to participate in the employee retirement as the San Antonio office was in trouble and I got out before it was closed.
Ross personally informed the office it was closing. He showed up about 9:00 AM, told told the manager and his two assistants they were fired and leave the building immediately. The rest of the staff was gathered and were told they had two weeks to relocate to Dallas or lose their job. Ross was ruthless from what I was told.
The main reason the office was closed was poor performing people. The main project was some sort of system for a big hospital in Dallas. The EDS staff “completed” the project early and under budget. As was customary the budget excess was used to fund something special for the people involved in the project. In this case a week, fully paid, vacation to some Caribbean Island.
Unfortunately, while the staff was on vacation, the entire system collapsed. It took hundreds of man-hours, with people pulled from other projects in Dallas, to get the system operational and the flaws fixed. Ross was not happy. In my mind he should have terminated all of the staff.
The incompetence of the people and the code they wrote was horrible. If the system expected numbers, and someone entered alpha characters, immediate crash. Almost no edit checks. Values that exceeded limits would also crash the system. Enter a “0” instead of “0.00” in a dollar amount field, boom, all the data on the screen was lost. The code worked, but only if the proper values were entered. Anything out of what was expected was a disaster. Really incompetent or lazy programmers. Maybe both.
https://marylandmatters.org/2025/04/14/end-of-an-era-the-last-radioshack-in-maryland-is-closing-its-doors/
https://youtu.be/rY0WxgSXdEE?si=G1HrfmglUiEx1TV-
Huh, I thought they were all closed.
Must have been a different kind of ownership structure…
n
Quiet day.
n
And google changed something. Suddenly when I comment elsewhere, I don’t have the choice of which profile to use when I log in with google.
STOP CHANGING STUFF. Especially without telling anyone.
n
First American Pope:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/05/the-first-american-pontiff-pope-leo-xiv/
“Is he a Cubs or White Sox fan?”
Cue the Pope jokes…
Wonder if he’s going to take Gloria Steinem’s advice and make abortion a sacrament?
You didn’t just get an “Amen”, Nick, you got an “Urbi et Orbi” and the forgiveness of your sins!
I hope the first US-American Pope will be a good one…
Nope, the previous Pope was American, but not from the US.
Radio Shack had corporate stores and franchised locations.
The franchises were often in small towns and important sources of knowledge and components in the communities they served.
Corporate stores had the policy of staffing with people who knew nothing about electronics, but franchise stores were often decent places to get advice and help.
“Sears“ will have to be rebuilt as the US relearns retail. Maybe Radio Shack as well.
More news articles on squatters. I just don’t get why you can’t throw them out, hire pipe hitters, or shoot them without fear of goobermint reparation. What the frack is wrong with goobermint?
Got URLs for us ?
I guess what you do is hire a bunch of guys to come in and remove the doors and windows. That is what Californians are doing now.
Nope. He was technically Latin American by land geography, but properly Argentinian by political geography.
I have a cousin who was an F-18 pilot on carriers. Not too many months into doing that, he handed in his wings and said “nope, not doing that anymore”. In his opinion, it was just too damned dangerous. FWIW, he seemed more worried about the aircraft than about landing on a moving postage stamp.
My uncle was a navy attack A4 pilot in the 1960s. 4,500 carrier landings. He spent six months on the Independence flying at least twice a day. He lost three planes in Vietnam from AA fire over Hanoi. One plane was so badly damaged with 138 holes in it that the deck chief got a fork lift and pushed it off the back of the carrier.
These things are incredibly dangerous. Armed A4s took off with less than an hour of fuel. Another A4 took off with you and refueled you at 3,000 feet, then landed and refueled itself and took off again as a flying gas can.
He and three other pilots were assigned to teach 100 Israeli pilots to fly the hundreds of A4s that we gave to Israel after the six day war. He and the other instructors went back 20 years ago for a reunion, only 3 of the 100 were still alive, most died in the Yom Kippur war.
Poll: 59% of Palestinians in West Bank Say October 7 Massacre Was ‘Correct Decision’
Vermin–shoot on sight. Along with anyone that wants them in the U.S.
Note that of the 41% that thought it was not the correct decision, there is likely a plurality that believe that it simply didn’t go far enough, and another group that regrets that the Israelis are pounding them into the sand.
If you want to be really nitpicky, the last true Pope was German, to the point of being a Hitler Youth.
Bergolio was not a true Pope.
I was thinking more of a St Louis Cardinals fan.
The Italians are blaming Trump.
According to the DM, the stock market is exploding thanks to tRump’s UK deal. What will all the lefties cry about after squawking there would be no deals and the UK was conspiring to dUmp any deal with tRump.
More tRump winning.
And it appears the new Pope is also a commie. Stay out of politics ya old turd-bucket or let all the crimmigrants behind your own walled garden. You could house a lot of people in tents.
Got URLs for us ?
Here’s one I read yesterday:
Fed-up Chicago resident gives entitled squatters who refused to leave his house a dose of their own medicine
Amish.
The clock is ticking on the Labour government in the UK. I doubt it will survive the Summer.
If politics truly is downstream of culture, Starmer has a problem starting May 23, when “Clarkson’s Farm” returns with new episodes.
Starmer had to cut a deal with Trump.
Because when the world is burning, use it to light a candle. Or something. Nothing I can do about India and Pakistan. Nor the middle east. Nor even Washington state. I can up my preps a bit, and I will, because conflict disrupts supply chains. I’m doing a costco run today. Haven’t added any buckets lately, so I think I will buy some big bags o stuff. Salt seems like a good choice. I’ve got a bucket, and some pantry containers, but I don’t have enough to use as a preservative. or cleaner. It’s cheap and easy to store. It doesn’t expire. And it’s absolutely vital for life. Yes, I think I’ll add another bucket…
I just bought another couple of dozen Mountain House meals in a bag. I am wondering if I should buy the cheaper stuff since we will probably never use it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084J57LQZ?tag=ttgnet-20
>>Added – even more annoying. Once the parser “corrects” the “00” value to “0” every subsequent page load fails because you can’t have a single 0 for that value. Starting with “000” DOES work, and persists. FFS.
Real men write all their own code.
Nah. Real Programmers steal from the best !
Zlib, the awesome Win32 API, the public key private key crypto stuff, etc, etc, etc.
“Houston is sinking—faster than any other big city in America, new study finds”
https://www.chron.com/news/article/houston-sinking-texas-city-20317222.php
“The phenomenon is known as subsidence, the sinking of land caused by factors such as groundwater pumping and oil extraction. In Houston, all of these forces are at play.”
“More than 40 percent of Houston is sinking more than 5 millimeters (about ⅕ of an inch) per year, with about 12 percent sinking at twice this rate. Certain spots of the city are sinking as rapidly as 5 centimeters per year.”
At least they got it right this time, Houston is subsiding. The oceans are not appreciably rising.
Over The Hedge: Quantum Furry Computing
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2025/05/08
Oh yeah, Red Bull can do crazy things to you.
A Girl And Her Fed: Lincoln’s Old Prophecy
https://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.2247.html
Wait, wait, wait ! What is Lincoln’s Old Prophecy ?
BillG’s PRNG algorithm, cookbooked from Knuth and possibly still lurking in the Visual C++ library.
If RAND_MAX is still 0x1FFF, that is the work of the Boy Genius.
That one makes me nervous.
The “lean and mean” part of WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN originated from the typewriter of John Hughes.
BillG’s PRNG algorithm, cookbooked from Knuth and possibly still lurking in the Visual C++ library.
If RAND_MAX is still 0x1FFF, that is the work of the Boy Genius.
in stdlib.h in Visual C++ 2015:
// Maximum value that can be returned by the rand function:
#define RAND_MAX 0x7fff
“XL Batteries CEO sees opportunity to topple China’s lithium battery dominance”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/xl-batteries-organic-flow-battery-china-lithium-ion-dominance/747504/
“XL Batteries CEO Tom Sisto hopes that organic flow batteries can offer a utility-scale alternative to lithium-ion, for which China has “90% control over the entirety of the supply chain.””
“Flow batteries are already a mature technology themselves, he said, but the existing technology is too expensive to use at scale. “Vanadium is the electrolyte, vanadium dissolved in sulfuric acid,” he said. “The promise of organic flow batteries is to drive out the high cost that comes with vanadium and the corrosivity of sulfuric acid, which drives a lot of system design costs to handle that corrosivity.””
Sounds heavy and expensive to me.
“Trump has slowed national debt growth by 92%”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/3403927/trump-slowed-national-debt-growth-92-percent/
“For all the negative headlines hating on President Donald Trump‘s Department of Government Efficiency, daily data from the Treasury Department have vindicated the president’s crusade against our obese federal budget. Even without the trillions of dollars expected to come with Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill,” the White House has slowed the growth of federal debt held by the public so dramatically that the total national debt has actually shrunk since Inauguration Day.”
“Admittedly, the $5.5 billion decline in a $26.2 trillion national debt is a drop in the bucket, but focusing specifically on the trajectory of the debt held by the public — that is, the majority of the national debt that is financed through the likes of Treasurys, rather than intragovernmental holdings, which is merely money one agency may owe another — we can see that the second Trump administration has indeed taken a machete to federal spending.”
“From Inauguration Day to May 5, debt held by the public rose by $37,238,323,646.66. Because this accounts for an influx of revenue around April Tax Day, the comparable window to compare Trump’s performance to that of his predecessor is not Trump’s first 104 days with the last 104 days of Joe Biden (when debt held by the public rose by $521,984,501,224.88), but to the same window in 2024.”
“From Jan. 22, 2024, to May 6, 2024, debt held by the public rose by $478,402,286,425.95.”
“Still, that means that the growth in our outstanding national debt fell by an astounding 92%.”
What ? I not sure that these numbers are believable. If true, they are awesome.
Bah. 0x7ffff. I was typing on my phone while waiting for a build at work.
Yeah, the BillG PRNG algorithm is still there.
The debt held by the public grew by that much, but who knows how much the Fed printed to cover the failed Treasury auctions.
Last year was an expensive capital gains year for me, and, based on the way the market moved, I imagine I wasn’t alone doing a lot of selling and writing a big check in April. It wasn’t just the capital gains but the extra Medicare tax on the gains as well.
Ross was ruthless from what I was told.
You gotta be ruthless in business. You have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders, not the employees.
Back from my pickups, kid taxi, and thrifting.
Stopped at the Goodwill in Tomball (one of my favorite stores, always has good stuff) and scored.
Got a like new wakeboard for $15
Got two Ikea shelf units for my LP records for $15 ea
Got a like new pair of Keen hiking boots to replace my worn out Under Armor tactical boots for $12
Got a new shirt, some bluerays and dvds, and two oneil water skiing flotation vests.
Grabbed a pair of Tony Lama ostrich skin cowboy boots to resell. They are in good wearable condition but will eventually need resoling. The ostrich and other upper leathers look good.
Those first three items went on my list yesterday, so the universe was prompt in showing them to me…
Now it’s time to run D2 to her Tues/Thur thing.
n
The wife likes this remote Madisonville, Texas house with the expanded master and the added on apartment on the other side of the house. That metal building appears to be a huge she shed. The he shed is the chicken coup.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/1606-wildwood-ln-madisonville-tx-77864/5025888
I like this lake house that is by my middle brother’s deer ranch on the east side of Centerville, Texas. But it needs a garage and an addon apartment for the daughter. Looks kinda low though.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/160-lookout-point-dr-grapeland-tx-75844/4235205?lid=9555480
Last year was an expensive capital gains year for me, and, based on the way the market moved, I imagine I wasn’t alone doing a lot of selling and writing a big check in April. It wasn’t just the capital gains but the extra Medicare tax on the gains as well.
Hey, don’t be a downer on my Medicare !
You had a great year then. You don’t pay Medicare tax on capital gains until your married joint AGI is over $250K.
https://legal1031.com/news/what-is-the-medicare-tax-or-net-investment-income-tax-niit/
The Perot family paid for my father-in-law’s heart transplant and, later, when he went into rejection, daily conference phone calls with the best cardiologists in the world to review vitals and form a consensus approach to reversing the problem.
They almost saved his life, but the nurses at Southwestern had a racket and one was not going to be denied a payday courtesy of the life insurance.
Ack! The water heater started leaking today. Enough water in the pan to cause a drip/sec out the overflow pipe. Plumber on the way since ”I know nothing, nothing” about WH repair.
My wife had the good year at the VA, but that income stream has to make up for nearly 20 years of me subsidizing the private practice of medicine, even when I was unemployed/underemployed.
Where is 14 going to run once it gets east of the VA complex in Temple?
Not that they are moving real fast on 14. The concrete supports for a NB I-35 to WB I-14 and EB I-14 to SB I-35 section have been sitting outside the bingo hall in Belton for as long as we’ve lived in Texas.
Right now, to make either transition requires exiting the respective freeways and going through at least one stop sign on surface streets and service roads.
I have a BluRay of “Sneakers” waiting for the next opportunity to get a signature from Mary McDonnell at a con.
I lived the line where McDonnell’s character gives her assessment to Robert Redford’s, “You don’t have a business, you have a club. It’s a boys club. You have a little clubhouse. You probably even have a secret handshake.”
They had a clubhouse in Florida. It was a girls club. I don’t know about the secret handshake.
The more time that goes by, the more I learn about the club.
The water heater is 16 years old and has succumbed to age and hard water. Replaced tomorrow. I’ll get a grand back from the home warranty, which more than pays for the year it cost.
Get an alarm for the drain pan. The new water heater might last 6-7 years, but not much beyond that.
The pan should not start draining into the overflow before you notice the problem.
Sweet jebus people are dumb.
– for about 7/8 of that there was NO AMERICA. FFS.
n
Looking for upcoming con events I saw Doug Jones is scheduled for an appearance in Tampa this Summer.
The problem with making a “Fantastic Four” movie with a male Silver Surfer would be that the fans would want to see Jones return in the role, one of the few parts of the Fox films that worked.
The issue with Jones is that he’s … okay … I’ll say it … religious.
Of course Disney can’t use him.
Guillermo del Toro uses Jones to great effect, including an Oscar, but Guillermo doesn’t care what Jones does at home as a married straight man who is into church.
https://tampabaycomicconvention.com/guest/doug-jones/
Where is 14 going to run once it gets east of the VA complex in Temple?
Not that they are moving real fast on 14. The concrete supports for a NB I-35 to WB I-14 and EB I-14 to SB I-35 section have been sitting outside the bingo hall in Belton for as long as we’ve lived in Texas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_14
“84(C): Following portions of US 190 eastward, passing near the central Texas cities of Fort Cavazos, Killeen, Belton, Temple, Bryan, College Station, Huntsville, Livingston, Woodville, and Jasper before connecting to SH 63 at the Burr’s Ferry Bridge where it becomes Louisiana Highway 8 (LA 8) at the Louisiana border. I-14 will be concurrent with I-45 between Madisonville and Huntsville. This route also includes a loop generally encircling Bryan–College Station designated “I-214″. This is currently the only part of the high-priority corridors to include a completed section of I-14.”
So, +-30 miles south of Madisonville (down by Huntsville). I figure that I-14 will get completed in the Texas – Louisiana by 2075 or so.
The church needs funds to pay for decades of sexual abuse by the priesthood. We could buy the Vatican and move a million illegals in so the Pope can work on the problem up close and personal.
“– for about 7/8 of that there was NO AMERICA. FFS.”
and allegedly only the second communist in 2,000 years.
Disney could do worse than having Doug Jones doing publicity for “The Fantastic Four” this Summer rather than Stuntman #12.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akivd148HlM
If you are a “Star Trek” fan, the “D-Con Chamber” interview series is a must watch.
Sources Say the Biden Crime Family Is Going Broke
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/05/08/sources-say-the-biden-crime-family-is-going-broke-n4939609
I was going to say something unkind, but I couldn’t think of anything unkind enough.
My hope is that J&J die horribly and the bodies are so entirely consumed by fire that there is not enough to identify for burial.
It is raining so hard that I am getting rain fade from my Starlink. Just like the old DirecTV days.
Dad used to say “Like a horse p*ssing on a flat rock.”
Oh Boy: Trump Administration Might Release Biden Tapes From Special Counsel Investigation
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2025/05/08/oh-boy-trump-administration-might-release-biden-tapes-from-special-counsel-investigation-n2656743
The FOIA case is overwhelming–this is exactly why the act was passed.
As far as Biden’s “camp”, he has none left, just people who have a coincident interest in covering their own asses to keep their part in the conspiracy to keep the rotting meat puppet in the White House concealed.
Yeah, started raining around dusk, now it’s thunder and lightning, as well as rain.
n
Going to be early tonight. Gotta break the cycle.
n
“NYPD Are Tazing and Arresting Palestine Rioters at Brooklyn CUNY College After Raiding Encampment”
https://rumble.com/v6t5aer-nypd-are-tazing-and-arresting-palestine-rioters-at-brooklyn-cuny-college-af.html
About time.
Why would a woman bring a baby to this ? That is crazy.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
I finally had an opportunity to check why the beer fridge at the BOL was accumulating water. There was a tiny, almost invisible, corkscrew-shaped sliver of plastic blocking the condensation drain.
Fished it out and “glug, glug, glug”, the drain drained. The obstruction must have been there since the fridge was built, because it didn’t correspond to anything we would have been cooling. Anyhow, the fridge is happier and the beer is frosty. Success!
One has to appreciate the tiny victories in life. After a rough work week, unblocking that little drain was cathartic. The chilly Köstritzer with dinner was nice too.
Ross was ruthless from what I was told.
You gotta be ruthless in business. You have a fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders, not the employees.
Oh wait, I forgot. All of the officers in the business have a fiduciary responsibility to the IRS also. At least that is what the IRS tells me.