Sat. May 10, 2025 – non-prepping hobby day, and a busy one at that…

Cool and clear, if I’m lucky. Yesterday ended up clear and warm, but a cool front moved in around dusk. Wind had a chill to it. Still, it was another beautiful afternoon. I’m loving this global cooling so far.

I’ve got my pickup loaded with solar for the BOL, but have to load up the inverters and some misc. other stuff when I get back from my meeting. I’ve got the Expedition loaded up with non-prepping hobby stuff for our quarterly swap-o-rama, and for show and tell. I’ll be demoing my shopping cart pages for the website too. Good to stay active and keep the old bean working,but do I have the time to build web stuff? Not really.

I spent yesterday afternoon doing pickups, trying to get the paperwork for the boat finished, and generally arranging my life for next week. Did most of it. I have to get both trucks through inspection and an oil change on Monday so I made appointments. I’ve got kid stuff to do too. It’s a good life if you don’t falter.

Didn’t get to Costco. Hope the canned sunshine stays canned for a while longer. Not quite ready for the apocalypse.

There is still stacking to do. Get busy.

nick

39 Comments and discussion on "Sat. May 10, 2025 – non-prepping hobby day, and a busy one at that…"

  1. Ray Thompson says:

    Someone is trying to get into my Microsoft account. They tried last night and are trying again this morning. I have changed the password, twice, to a fairly complicated 14 character password. A randomly generated string of characters. They won’t get in but they keep on trying. Of course, my email address is out in the wild as are most email addresses. I cannot stop that. It may be time to get a new email address with GMail.

  2. EdH says:

    Note to self: buy $100,000 of Augason #10 cans of long term food and bury it in safe places.

     Naw, a cabinet labeled “Hard Work” should work.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    Someone is trying to get into my Microsoft account. They tried last night and are trying again this morning. I have changed the password, twice, to a fairly complicated 14 character password. A randomly generated string of characters. They won’t get in but they keep on trying. Of course, my email address is out in the wild as are most email addresses. I cannot stop that. It may be time to get a new email address with GMail.

    Have the admins depoyed the hammers on the troll lately?

    God-Forsaken Blue State U has at least another week until classes start to wind down ahead of Commencement later this month.

    This was a really late academic year because of Thanksgiving being as close to Christmas as possible on the current calendar system.

  4. EdH says:

    An old joke:

    The oldest computer was owned by Adam and Eve.

    It was an Apple with very limited memory. Just 1 byte and everything crashed!

    A new joke: 

    • Newark ATC is still using theirs. 
  5. Greg Norton says:

    A new joke: 

    • Newark ATC is still using theirs. 

    Maintaining the old system is probably somebody’s soup bowl.

    People need to get a grip about keeping their easy soup bowls, particularly those supplied by the Federal Governent, or we’ll never get out of this mess.

  6. Greg Norton says:

     Naw, a cabinet labeled “Hard Work” should work.

    Lock it in the trunk of a car with a standard (stick shift) transmission.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    Someone is trying to get into my Microsoft account. They tried last night and are trying again this morning. I have changed the password, twice, to a fairly complicated 14 character password. A randomly generated string of characters. They won’t get in but they keep on trying. Of course, my email address is out in the wild as are most email addresses. I cannot stop that. It may be time to get a new email address with GMail.

    Someone made a serious effort at getting into my work account back when the troll was at the height of his antics here from ~ April 2022 through the Summer that year.

    I don’t think the attempt was about getting into my email as much as Denial Of Service with the account.

    DoS is much easier to pull off successfully.

    I didn’t say anything at the time because I didn’t want them to know which combination of name @ company.com worked. I’m sure they were trying random variations of my name, but there is more than one at company.com.

    Security marked my account for closer scrutiny of connections — and VPN provider subpoenas — the next time it happens.

  8. MrAtoz says:

    Drone.   Bleeping drones.   We are all going to die from drones hunting us down and killing us.

    I have 5 drones, sir. I love the “follow me“ feature. Just lock it onto your enemy and launch.

  9. MrAtoz says:

    I am headed to Montana on Tuesday morning with my Dad, my brother, and three of our kids.  If nuclear war breaks out in India / Pakistan, will we get stuck in Montana ?  Will the USA plane system be shut down again ?

    Make sure you each take a wheelbarrow for the long walk home.

  10. Denis says:

    Celery salt is technically optional.

    Celery salt is a quintessentially Belgian thing. They love it on cheese, with mustard.

    Apparently Indian Air Force bombers have dropped tens of thousands of onion bhajis and several hundred pakoras on Pakistan. A spokesperson said that’s just for starters.

  11. Denis says:

    Make sure you each take a wheelbarrow for the long walk home.

    A tactical wheelbarrow? Showing your internet age, Mr Atoz. 🙂

  12. Greg Norton says:

    Make sure you each take a wheelbarrow for the long walk home.

    The Utah route down to Texas from Helena goes through Moab.

    HBO filmed “Westworld” there.

    Brutal territory, but you probably won’t see snow until after the beginning of October.

  13. crawdaddy says:

    Someone has to say it:
    “Remember Moab.”

  14. nick flandrey says:

    Ok, home from my meeting/sale.  

    Good meeting.  Very well attended. Sold a bunch of stuff.

    Took a while to hammer out stuff about the upcoming show and my web shopping cart.

    I think we’ll let the national org take care of it.  I make take it live, just for a week or two, if it takes the national a while to spin up their version.

    Beautiful sunny day.  Thank gnu for global cooling.  Gonna suck for the grain belt though.

    Time to grab a bite, load the truck, and be on my way.

    n

  15. Lynn says:

    Someone is trying to get into my Microsoft account. They tried last night and are trying again this morning. I have changed the password, twice, to a fairly complicated 14 character password. A randomly generated string of characters. They won’t get in but they keep on trying. Of course, my email address is out in the wild as are most email addresses. I cannot stop that. It may be time to get a new email address with GMail.

    The exalted elders are recommending odd number length passwords and 15 alphanumeric and special characters at minimum.

  16. drwilliams says:

    “We have been looking at protons in the South Atlantic Anomaly…”

    It turns out that protons in the South Atlantic Anomaly are a “canary in a coal mine” for the Gleissberg Cycle. When these protons decrease, it means the Gleissberg Cycle is about to surge. “That’s exactly what we found,” says Adams. “The protons are clearly decreasing in measurements we obtained from NOAA’s Polar Operational Environmental Satellites.”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/08/the-suns-little-known-100-year-gleissberg-cycle-is-waking-up/

    historical note:

    It also means that Joan Feyman was right. Before she passed away in 2020, the pioneering solar physicist was a leading researcher of the Gleissberg Cycle, and she firmly believed that the centennial oscillation was responsible for the remarkable weakness of Solar Cycle 24 (2012-2013). In a seminal paper published in 2014, she argued that the minimum of the Gleissberg Cycle fell almost squarely on top of Solar Cycle 24, making it the weakest cycle in 100 years. The tide was about to turn.

    The WUWT explanation/language is a bit sloppy. The previous GC minimum was in the 1920’s, when observations of atmospheric proton flux were non-existent. We are, of course, talking about expectations derived from modeling what is believed to be the physics of the processes driving the variations.

    As solar activity increases, particle and ultraviolet radiation increase, and both have effects in space and on Earth. Earth’s atmosphere heats and expands, LEO satellites see more drag, etc. Interstellar spacecraft and crews may be affected, and the missions such as Mars landing could become more difficult.

  17. Greg Norton says:

    Someone has to say it:
    “Remember Moab.”

    I hated that book. I never finished it.

  18. Lynn says:

    Didn’t get to Costco. Hope the canned sunshine stays canned for a while longer. Not quite ready for the apocalypse.

    You and me both brother.  I am really concerned about this.  India seems to be willing to go all the way this time.  But there may be good news:

    “Trump Administration Negotiates Immediate Ceasefire Between India and Pakistan”

        https://thelibertydaily.com/trump-administration-negotiates-immediate-ceasefire-between-india-pakistan/

    American Political Report)—Talks mediated by the United States yielded an immediate ceasefire between India and Pakistan. The two nuclear powers have seen their heaviest fighting in decades for the last week.”

  19. Greg Norton says:

    It also means that Joan Feyman was right. Before she passed away in 2020 …

    I didn’t know Joan Feynman had passed. RIP.

    93. Wow. Richard Feynman died of cancer just shy of 70.

  20. Lynn says:

    Have the admins depoyed the hammers on the troll lately?

    Not in over a month to my knowledge.

  21. Lynn says:

    Someone has to say it:
    “Remember Moab.”

    I hated that book. I never finished it.

    What book is that ?

  22. Lynn says:

     Naw, a cabinet labeled “Hard Work” should work.

    Lock it in the trunk of a car with a standard (stick shift) transmission.

    Dadgumit, I sold that car last year.  Maybe two years ago, my time sense is no good anymore.

  23. drwilliams says:

    ‘Botched’ South Carolina Execution Draws Scrutiny

    Lawyers for executed murderer Mikal Mahdi claimed his execution was “botched” in a report filed with the South Carolina Supreme Court. Mahdi, who became the second prisoner executed by firing squad (see South Carolina Executes Murderer by Firing Squad – RedState) in South Carolina on April 11, allegedly did not die instantaneously. An AP report filed after the execution contended that he was alive for about two minutes after the fatal shots were fired.

    https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/05/10/botched-south-carolina-execution-draws-scrutiny-n2188906

    Killer of three men. One has to wonder if each of his victims died instantaneously, and if not, why he should be given more grace than he gave his victims.

    from a link with details of another SC execution:

    A black hood was placed over his head and chest, a white target with a red bull’s eye pinned to his chest, and three Department of Corrections employees using .308 rifles fired a single volley of 110-grain Winchester Hornady Tactical Application Police ammunition from a distance of 15 feet into Sigmon. Death was instantaneous. 

    I don’t see the purpose in such an arrangement. A mechanical device consisting of an array of rifles on a common trigger would get the job done with repeatable reliability without the possibility of damaging the psyche of human agents.

    Or just hood him and drop him headfirst into a wood chipper driven by dual 100hp hydraulic motors and call it fertilizer.

  24. Greg Norton says:

    “Trump Administration Negotiates Immediate Ceasefire Between India and Pakistan”

    The Grand Nagis handed out checks and reminded everyone of Rule 125.

    FCA Liquidator Musk got a new deal for Starlink in India this week. A nuclear war would be terrible for that business.

  25. Lynn says:

    I am headed to Montana on Tuesday morning with my Dad, my brother, and three of our kids.  If nuclear war breaks out in India / Pakistan, will we get stuck in Montana ?  Will the USA plane system be shut down again ?

    Make sure you each take a wheelbarrow for the long walk home.

    A bicycle with a trailer would be much better.

  26. drwilliams says:

    “Dadgumit, I sold that car last year.  Maybe two years ago, my time sense is no good anymore.”

    Old Chrysler minivan would work.

    Although, come to think of it [cue music of dawning horror], we might live long enough for early minivans to become collectible. OMG! What’s next? 

    Not… 

    [cue theme from Jaws!]…

    K-caars!!!

  27. drwilliams says:

    “A bicycle with a trailer would be much better.”

    Only if the bike has fat run-flat tires. 

  28. drwilliams says:

    JUST IN: The Leftist who spit on Ed Martin during a interview has been ARRESTED!

     U.S. Marshals, arrested and she will be charged under 18 U.S. Code § 111. She is facing 20 years in federal prison for knowingly assaulting a federal official and potentially millions in legal fines.

    https://x.com/stevegrubershow/status/1920898920433029623

    There is some dispute about the potential severity of punishment. Other sources noted that the maximum sentence she could receive is eight years and $250,000 in fines.

    https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2025/05/10/bet-shes-spitting-mad-now-psycho-leftist-who-hocked-a-loogie-on-ed-martin-has-been-arrested-n2412603

    That’s the windup of an experienced loogie launcher. 

    I’m hoping she is spending some quality lockup time with a cellmate who is appropriately selected for her LGSBQRST liberal sensitivities.

  29. Greg Norton says:

    I hated that book. I never finished it.

    What book is that ?

    “Fall: Dodge in Hell”.

    Once that book focused on the virtual world “afterlife”, I lost interest.

    $26 bucks wasted, and kinda dissapointing to think thats how Richard Forthrast went out.

    The Woe-toe-hice/Shaftoe family members also deserved better updates.

    “Reamde”, introducing the Forthrast clan, was the last truly great Stephenson book.

    “Fall” is fun where it is classic well-researched Stephenson. The descriptions about the terrain up I-29 from Kansas City to Council Bluffs is dead on even if he does omit the giant Ethanol plant about midway between the two cities.

    Stephenson never went to Lacey, WA Cabelas either, which features prominenty in “Reamde”.

    The flagship Cabelas in Sidney, NE didn’t have a gun section as big as the WA State store back before the Cabela family sold out to Bass Pro.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    Although, come to think of it [cue music of dawning horror], we might live long enough for early minivans to become collectible. OMG! What’s next? 

    Not… 

    [cue theme from Jaws!]…

    K-caars!!!

    The K-cars are all gone. The genius of Chairman Lee.

    Planned obsolescence like the Ford Fairmont/Mercury Zephyr cross shop Iacocca saw through development before being fired by Henry II.

    The Ford Fox platform lives on, however, in the form of the 79-93 Mustang which are increasingly desireable by collectors.

  31. drwilliams says:

    “the Cabela family sold out to Bass Pro.”

    which promptly destroyed all the brand value that kept lifetime customers coming back.

    The writing was on the wall, or you could say the symbolism was on my backside when the middle loop in the back was removed from my favorite jeans. That and some dishonest phugtards at the gun counter lost my business entirely.

  32. Lynn says:

    “Dadgumit, I sold that car last year.  Maybe two years ago, my time sense is no good anymore.”

    Old Chrysler minivan would work.

    My youngest brother had one of the earliest Dodge minivans with the four cylinder motor and the 5 speed manual transmission.  He used it to to move all of his junkman crap around.  He was not careful with the oil and froze the motor up with zero oil on Houston freeway.

  33. drwilliams says:

    “Do you want students to die of dehydration and starvation or get severely ill?”

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/05/a-familiar-face-among-columbia-students-arrested-in-library-takeover/

    Can I pick the severely ill you get? Of can I just wish that you be labeled as a Jew and subjected to the butchery of Hamas? How would you like to have your Achilles tendons cut so you couldn’t run away after being violated? Beaten and starved? For months going on years? 

  34. Bob Sprowl says:

    RE wood chippers:

    I suggest feet first in an old one that stalls often.  Pull the chipee out by the rope around their neck, restart the chipper, and continue.  If the observers agree the chipee may be gagged to hold down the noise.   

  35. drwilliams says:

    @Bob Sprowl

    Easier to just simulate in the software. . 

  36. Lynn says:

    The Ford Fox platform lives on, however, in the form of the 79-93 Mustang which are increasingly desireable by collectors.

    The neighbors daughter just showed up with a 92 Fox body coupe Mustang with the 5.0 V8.  I have to admit it was cool.

  37. nick flandrey says:

    My neighbor who builds and races ford cars had one of those ugly angular mustangs out on the street yesterday.   Butt ugly. 

    ———-

    Made it to the BOL without issue or drama.  Listening to an Erik VonLustbader novel on disc.  It’s horrible but keeps me awake.  I used to like his books.   IDK if I changed or he did, or if it’s a mass market pseudonym, but it’s bad.   I have to check the published date too, as I’m not impressed that the supporting character had his car “fully decked out with satellite radio, and a gps unit.”   Or when the main character “sits down at a computer terminal.”    It sounds a bit like an old guy who hasn’t kept up with the world.  The gun play is similar.   Bad guy “cups his left hand under his right to provide support”.

    ———-

    Currently 67F and dropping.  Definitely having a little fire and some radio tonight.

    n

  38. Greg Norton says:

    The neighbors daughter just showed up with a 92 Fox body coupe Mustang with the 5.0 V8.  I have to admit it was cool.

    What eventually became the Ford Probe came from Mazda and was supposed to replace the Fox Mustang in the late 80s, but the legend is that Iacocca made a few phone calls to kill that plan.

    Firing Iacocca was a Henry II brain fart which was never well received in Dearborn.

  39. nick flandrey says:

    Radio was weird tonight.  WRMI Legends moved frequencies again.   Nothing was coming in well.

    Fire was nice and took the edge off the chill.   It’s down to 64F.   Crazy for May, I think.

    I got the grass cut before dinner, so that’s one task done.  I should string trim, but might not get to it.   Supposed to be even cooler tomorrow.  Might not take the boat out after all.

    I guess we’ll see.

    n

Comments are closed.