Cool to start, then hot. Humid is a given. Although yesterday’s weather was a mixed bag, it ended well. Clear, cool, and everything covered in dew. Perfect weather for a fireworks show.
It was a long day, and I got stuff done. Not everything, and not completely done, but tasks were attempted, and some were completed. The others will continue on the list until they get done.
We even got out on the boat, but it’s not a huge lake and there were a LOT of people up here. We were going to take the kids tubing, or kneeboarding, but there was too much traffic, too many wakes, and the wind was howling. I didn’t feel comfortable and we came back in. We’ll try again today, as there should be a lot less traffic.
The day ended with our rescheduled fireworks show. It was half what we had last year, and was still 35 minutes long. The only difference from a full professional show was that the fireworks don’t fly as high, but even that line was blurred by a few of the rockets. Did I mention the show is put on by two guys? This year one was out of town, so it’s basically one neighborhood guy… and it’s great. Lots of other people had fireworks too, some pretty good. Not many guns being shot into the air, that’s more of a city thing.
Today I’ll be unloading and putting stuff away, as well as putting stuff away that we brought up on previous trips. I might have to do some re-organization of the shed and garage first, so actual work might be limited. It was crazy hot for a while yesterday, and I won’t work as hard today if it’s that hot. I almost hurt myself, and I don’t want to risk it.
We’ll also take down all the bunting and flags we put up for the 4th, and get out on the water with the boat for a while. Unless it’s raining, we promised the kids.
Stacking up some good times, as well as supplies. Get you some of that!
nick
@Denis: That Windows situation sounds difficult. If the disk isn’t encrypted, a first step might be to live-boot from an Ubuntu USB stick and copy off any files you want to save. Just in case…
@Paul: For something that looks sort of like Windows, you could try Mint with the Cinnamon desktop. Otherwise, the “safe” choice is Ubuntu…
– – – – –
I am unreasonably irritated. The little brewery in our town invited a guy to give a talk on “AI”. He was a good speaker, but his presentation was totally chaotic: a bit of this, a bit of that, just random. On some slides he even said “well, you can just read that” while he talked about something completely different. He did have a couple of nice examples, but a lot of stuff was “baffle them with bullshit” – like showing a slide on back-propagation that was (deliberately?) way too technical for a general audience. And not even really correct.
I managed to not interject anything, except once. He wanted to show an example of what AI cannot do, so he took a huge document (hundreds of pages), submitted it to a limited, free AI, and said: see, it can’t even count the chapters correctly. I tossed in “yes, well, you exceeded the context window”. I mean: what was the point of that example? It would have been a good intro to discussing how much information an AI can work with (that’s the “context window”) but he never even mentioned that, and just dodged my comment.
It shouldn’t bother me, but it did. I suppose because the talk was “free”, but he was really shilling for an AI course he teaches. And at least one elderly neighbor is going to shell out for it. Also: the guy is a school teacher, and he puts together such a disjointed presentation, unsuited to his audience? I am professionally offended.
That happens in the US, now? I thought that was a Middle East thing. It’s also incredibly stupid, because those bullets do occasionally hit people.
In Florida and Texas, it is a muy stinko drunk thing in certain neighborhoods.
BTW. Hialeah. I’m shocked. Shocked!
I’ll second Linux Mint, but I am fond of the MATE desktop with that distribution. Old habits.
Mint and most of the Ubuntu variants are simple to try – just write to a USB drive and reboot on modernish hardware.
I’ve played with Pop! OS on and off over the last few years trying to keep an old MacBook Pro usable for something other than Snow Leopard with mixed results.
Pop! OS is an attempt at more user-friendly Linux sponsored by System76.
The downside of Pop! OS is that their core platform hasn’t seen a real upgrade in three years, as the developers struggle to rebuild their primary interface using Rust before releasing on top of a newer Ubuntu LTS.
Hot Skillz!
@Jenny – “F1” is a fun two and a half hours in a theater.
The film is extremely well made.
IIRC there was s woman killed in Nawlins years ago by a bullet that was fired into the air during Mardi Gras.
Have you been to New Orleans lately?
The demographics started to change after Katrina.
When the city started to rebuild after the storm, labor was in short supply, and the work ethic of the native population in the wiped out sections of the city didn’t change suddenly.
I saw first hand large number of evacuees still living large on FEMA’s dime in October 2005, hidden in rooms in the back half of the “All Star” resorts on the Disney property in Florida.
Well, as large as can be expected in that section of the property.
New Years Eve, 1994.
New Orleans hasn’t recorded a fatality from a falling bullet since 1994, when 31-year-old Amy Silberman of Boston was killed by a round that fell from the sky and pierced her skull as she strolled the Moonwalk in the French Quarter.
The bullet that killed Silberman was one of at least 200,000 fired into the heavens, New Orleans police reported in 1995.
Falling-bullet warnings renewed; dangerous tradition puts EMS on guard
Certain “urban” and immigrant communities are much more likely to celebrate by shooting in the air than normal upstanding citizens. It’s been increasing in my part of Houston for the last dozen years.
———–
Gorgeous sunny day.82F with a couple of people out on the lake.
Coffee is brewing. I don’t know if I can find more bacon in the freezer, but I’ll TRY!
n
I didn’t want this to disappear.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14875953/California-Fresno-County-botulism-salad-outbreak.html
This would have been deadly if not for access to first world health care.
n
For a while, I had a personal tradition of firing into the air at midnight New Year’s Eve/New Years Day.
I lived on an 80 acre farm, and it was a shotgun loaded with birdshot.
I knew from personal experience that it didn’t require much distance to be safe from that. One of the gun clubs I belonged to had rifle, pistol, and trap ranges. The shooting points for rifle and pistol were about 200 yards downrange from the trap range. So basically, the trap shooters were firing directly into your back while you were shooting pistols.
There was never any danger; The shot never reached even the parking area, let alone the shooting points.
I’d never be stupid enough to shoot bullets, or even slugs or buckshot, into the air.
The Lefty PLT Ghouls are out in force blaming tRump for flooding in Texas. plugs gets a pass for NC. PLTs just suck dead bunnies. Give it a rest during the grieving.
@greg
F1
I was thinking about that one. I’ll bump it up the list, maybe for date night.
Well, for the first year in many, we’re buying a lot of store meat for the upcoming winter. I started breeding about 6 weeks late due to the NZ trip, and I need to have my last rabbit in the freezer 4 weeks early due to a trip in the fall.
I can typically put 50+ rabbits, from two does and one buck, in the freezer annually by starting late January / early February and final rabbit in the freezer by end of October. I rebreed 7-14 days post kindle, which gives kits 4 weeks with doe and gets the doe a short kit break. I alter if the does lose condition. I slaughter at 5 lbs / 12 weeks, depending on cage space. I no longer keep after 12 weeks – if they haven’t hit 5 lbs by then they’re not going to in an efficient manner. My does typically produce 8-12 kits per litter and are excellent mothers.
My younger doe didn’t take from either breeding. My older doe didn’t take from her 2nd breeding. Between a shortened breeding season, failed breedings, there is a single 6 kit litter on the ground for the freezer. Yikes. We don’t depend on the meat by any means and have the finances to buy meat. But it’s the first time in five years rabbit won’t be on the table once to twice a week.
The rabbitry is efficient, however growouts produce a LOT of manure and require more attention as they get older. I can still do it in a few minutes a day, but it’s more than I can trust our pretty reliable house / pet sitter with. While I’m tempted to do one more breeding, and push slaughter into November, it could end badly. If both does maxed out, the sitter could be dealing with nearly 30 rabbits, at nearly full sized, for ten days. That’s a bit much.
So. Replacing rabbits with store bought. I’ll reach out to my farmer friend and see if we can pick up a couple sheep and goats. They aren’t raising pigs or beef this year.
As far as what happened with the breeding? I think the does were overweight. The month with the pet sitter in Feb / Mar meant they were overfed going into breeding season. Taking weight off a rabbit isn’t hard but it needs to be done slowly or you still get sterility problems. It’s also possible their pellets got an increase in soy in the formulation – something the manufacturers can do without the buyer noticing that can impact fertility.
First world problems today. Glad we aren’t reliant on this protein.
My teen made Brie (with a little help from me) awhile back. There were a couple of novice errors but overall it’s very tasty. If a 13 year old can do this, I think just about anyone can.
Go try.
The flooding in Texas is heart wrenching. Those poor wretched families with the missing kids.
@lynn
Your family remains in my families daily prayers, sir. You’re doing all the right things, all the hard things. They are blessed, truly, to have you.
A propos firing in the air, the Schützenfest was a blast – literally. We took less than 300 shots of .22lr to knock the wooden bird off its perch on a tall pole, and whoever fired the shot that brought the bird down is the Schützenkönig for the year until the next fest.
The pastor had a nice thought in his homily – we aim up at the “bird”, but the real target in life is the heaven beyond it.
A very jolly, family-friendly day, with a couple of hundred men, women and children enjoying shooting in a safe and happy atmosphere. Unfortunately, it rained all day, so the part with the parade through the village was called off.
I am impatiently waiting for the cheesemaking book you recommended to arrive. Blessed are the cheesemakers!
For Mr. Ray et al:
Any advice on cruise insurance? Ours leaves from Canada, at sea, all stops in Alaska, and returns to Canada. I assume if I bust my ass in Skagway, AK, Medicare will cover me. Canada no, and at sea, no.
Our daughter, who coordinated the trip, signed-up Mr&MrsAtoz for the Disney Vacation Protection Plan, but she didn’t write down all she signed up for. A basic plan is probably enough, but the others on the cruise are looking at insurance.
Thanks for the excellent suggestion, Brad. I have a bootable Mint USB drive, so will certainly give that a go before using the Windows recovery media.
Perhaps those who are inclined towards prayer would spare a little one for W1’s father, who has suffered cruelly declining health for several years.
His O2 saturation is dropping to borderline levels, and the family decided last night that there would be no more heroic efforts at life-prolonging therapy, but rather palliative care if the situation continues to deteriorate. I believe it is the right decision, but still not an easy one for them to have had to take.
My Google email hosting price is changing:
“Starting Jul 9, 2025, the price of your Google Workspace Business Starter subscription will change. You may consider switching your subscription to an annual plan to save money.
Your current price
Date Price
Until Jul 9, 2025 $7.20 USD per user/month
What it’s changing to
Date Price
After Jul 9, 2025 $8.40 USD per user/month”
I have 8 users (email addresses). My main domain, winsim.com, has the MX record pointed to gmail. All of my email is processed by the old Postini system so we can keep our sanity when we get Joe Jobbed or any of the other crazy crap going on.
Still a bargain.
“F1” would qualify. It isn’t “rom com”, but the boys and girls play nice together, much like in “Twisters” last year.
If you’re considering taking the offspring, “F1” does have a fairly chaste implied sex scene where “Twisters” did not.
The PG-13 rating is probably more about repeated use of the word “sh*tbox” to describe the car.
Perhaps those who are inclined towards prayer would spare a little one for W1’s father, who has suffered cruelly declining health for several years.
His O2 saturation is dropping to borderline levels, and the family decided last night that there would be no more heroic efforts at life-prolonging therapy, but rather palliative care if the situation continues to deteriorate. I believe it is the right decision, but still not an easy one for them to have had to take.
Done.
That was one of the amazing things during Dad’s hospital stay. His O2 saturation stayed at 90% or above all of the time, even with all of his constant afib.
Medicare will not cover anything out of the country. It will cover in Alaska as that is part of the states. Ship board doctors will treat minor issues, but they charge a goodly sum and none of that is covered by insurance. Something to do with the ship’s registry.
One big concern is medical transportation if there is an issue. While on a cruise it generally involves aircraft to take you home and that is big bucks at which Medicare, and most health plans scoff. Travel insurance is just for such a purpose, along with other things. Most policies also include trip interruption, delays, lost baggage, ticket changes due to travel interruptions but only coach travel.
Be careful when purchasing as most policies have a 10 day purchase ahead date. If a person is traveling on the 25th, a policy would need to be purchased by the 14th. Purchase on the 15th and nothing on the trip is covered, even if the injury event occurs on the 29th.
A good price, for a good policy, good for a year, is about $500.00.
The finger sensors have limited service lives and can be as much as 5% low.
“Jaws” may not qualify, but it is back in theaters on August 25.
We did “Jaws” tourism on “Amity Island” last Fall. Most of the locations are still intact.
We watched “The Shark Is Still Working”, the 30th anniversary documentary, as part of background. It looks like Disney decided to make an update featuring more politically correct interview subjects.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrBN9zcQAGw
@lynn, on top of the rest, start looking into a caretaker or helper for your mom. It sounds like your dad did a lot of the day to day stuff, and she’ll need help, if only with cleaning laundry and shopping.
Mom and Dad have had a lady, Maria, coming in twice per week to clean the house for over ten years now. Her main job is to clean the local hospital so this is a side job for her. I have been texting with her to say how that Dad is doing. She likes Mom and Dad a lot and is visiting Dad right now.
I remember a time when vendors charged you for hardware, then charged you for operating systems, then charged you for each and every compiler and tool. I even worked for such a vendor. And when I wanted to learn how to program in C, I couldn’t do it at work, because we didn’t have a compiler, so I bought the Mix Power C compiler for my PC.
I remember the time before that when the mainframes and early minis (Prime) came with free operating systems and free Fortran and Assembly language compilers. And the minis came with a free 24×80 editor that we rewrote to get special features. And four feet to six feet of 8.5 inch by 11 inch documentation in binders written by geeks for geeks.
Shoot, the PrimOS operating system was written in Fortran. So was the editor. We had all of the source code for everything.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRIMOS
Our IT guy came back from a Prime conference with a free game called SWARS on a 9-track tape. We would play it after work on our Prime 450. We could play with four people and still get a response. You would warp into a system, fire your warp torpedoes, and warp out before the other person guarding the system knew that you were there. It was awesome. Five people killed the system response.
@MrAtoZ
Alaska cruise
Does the cruise include crossing the gulf and visiting Anchorage? I’d love to say hello.
Haines (back in 1993 at least) was more genuine and more Alaskan than Skagway. Both are at the north end of Southeast Alaska. The roaring sound you hear in Skagway is the powerful vacuum system used to draw dollars out of every tourist pocket.
If the ship crosses the gulf, you may see Whittier. Whittier isn’t much but the tunnel is a phenomenon of old school engineering. If the cruise offers a loop from Anchorage to Denali then across the Denali Highway and down to Valdez, you’ll see a lot but it’ll mostly be from a fast moving bus. Our friends on the Denali Highway used to have the contract to feed the bus passengers but wearied of the nonsense. The buses needed them more than they needed the buses.
I don’t know if this will help, but take a look at the website for LifeMed Alaska. They saved our bacon in August 2020.
Not to brag, but I just went into another room and actually remembered why I went into there.
It was the bathroom but still …
Stolen from my cousin.
“XPilot” on HPUX was the killer app for HP9000 Apollo workstations.
A decent port for Win32 used to be available, but the Duck is not cooperating today.
Two open source projects exist under the same name. This “XPilot” is the 2D shooting game similar to the old Commodore 64 title “Thrust”.
There was a bit of thunder. I did go out with the dogs. Did I go feed the cats? Naw. Then the rain started. Straight down. Looks like a bit more than 1.5 inches so far.
The cats won’t starve to death if they miss a day’s food. They will act otherwise.
It’s gonna be fabulous in a couple of weeks after the rains stop. All the hibernating mosquitoes will hatch. Fingers crossed for one more heavy rain to wash them away before they can fly. (It’s happened before.)
Update to previous post:
Make that 2 and a quarter inches of rain. So far.
Currently 90F and getting overcast. We got out on the boat, towed the kids on the big love seat sized inflatable… and tried the knee board with very little success.
We’ve closed everything up, I’ve poisoned the ants, planted the rose bushes, and watered them in.
Unloaded W’s truck and mine. Didn’t get much put away.
W and the kids are about to leave, and I’ll shower, put on dry clothes, and follow them soon.
——————
We have confirmed that kids from our school district died in the flood, and several are still missing. The camps are popular with Houston families.
They can certainly use whatever prayers anyone feels moved to send.
n
We went to Fredericksburg for the holiday weekend.
The rain didn’t stop all night Thursday out there, and Friday was a washout for many events.
We drove through Kerrville and Comfort yesterday without incident, but the flooding happened further west of I-10.
The boy, errr young man, turned 21 today. He is down at school taking a summer class and working on a research project with a professor, so we drove down for a quick visit and to take him out to lunch. It really doesn’t feel like 21 years have passed.
Hi, Ms. Jenny. The furthest the cruise goes IS Skagway. We are taking a choo-choo train ride there. I’d like to say HI also, but won’t be able to charter a flight to Anchorage. LOL
Stars Wars dog ad for insurance company:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xU5dYoXNwk
Hilarious !
“Have you been to New Orleans lately?”
Nope.
It’s on my list of U.S. cities I will never revisit.
In the 1990’s I visited a total of 5-6 times for business and pleasure. That version is gone never to return.
“And four feet to six feet of 8.5 inch by 11 inch documentation in binders written by geeks for geeks.”
My first job out of university I ordered a rack for documentation and filled it with all the DEC manuals.
“We have confirmed that kids from our school district died in the flood, and several are still missing. The camps are popular with Houston families.
They can certainly use whatever prayers anyone feels moved to send. “
All good people of the U.S., and particularly those who are parents and grandparents, felt the twinge of the arrow in the hearts of those who lost loved ones and are seeking the missing.
And a pox on those who have sought to use the disaster to blood libel our President. If the Houston “pediatrician” is found to have written the vile X post she is accused of, I personally volunteer to fly in and advise on the exact procedures for the most effective tar and feathering, starting with a specification for the still bottoms.
Home safe. Hit a massive t-storm cell and visibility dropped to about 40ft. Speed dropped to 20mph and people were passing me into the slow traffic ahead. People are stupid.
Saw a rainbow shortly after leaving the BOL. Realized I’ve probably only seen about 50 in my whole life. They’re common, yet not so common.
———
Cams and my desktop were all powered off. Looks like we lost power on the 3rd and the UPS stayed off after the power came back on. I’m really getting tired of that. Who the heII thought that should be the correct behavior?
———
I’m tired but caffeinated so I probably won’t be sleeping any time soon.
n
Absence of Malice (Paul Newman and Sally Field) Wilford Brimley DOJ FBI Leak Investigation Scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJYD6vkx3fA
One hell of a denouement, and the best 15 minutes that Wilford Brimley put on the screen.
The DOJ and the American press were never that selfless or ethical, but in 1981 it was still somewhat believable. The film wouldn’t get made today.
>>In the 1990’s I visited a total of 5-6 times for business and pleasure. That version is gone never to return.
https://youtu.be/4Kwh3R0YjuQ?si=ttoftvuL03vBCS7b
Barbeque Shrimp:
https://www.pascalsmanale.com/menus/
Colin Zachary is giving the Senate another shot with rumors of Robert Francis running again as well.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/colin-allred-announces-launch-u-090000463.html
What? No “Doors”?
>>My first job out of university I ordered a rack for documentation and filled it with all the DEC manuals.
And one day someone will take all still sealed manuals and toss them into the trash.
I had a couple hundred pounds of the official X/Motif manuals. Or perhaps I should say I had four or five linear feet of them?
Horrible as it all was apparently it’s better than Wayland, which is too vague of a specification from what I understand (I admit I’ve never used it).
“…the code is more what you call “guidelines” than actual rules.” – Hector Barbarossa
I’m headed to bed. Maybe if I read I’ll fall asleep.
n