Generally trending cooler but still some heat left in the day. It was cooler to start and finish yesterday. I am hopeful for more nice weather as Fall progresses.
Did some stuff yesterday. I relisted several things on Craigslist, lowering prices. The rest of the day was mostly sitting at the computer and figuring out what to order to move my various projects forward. I ordered all the parts for the golf cart. I ordered bulbs for my third brake light on the Ranger. Turns out the module I stole off the parts truck wasn’t working. It’s really hard to tell, when you can’t step on the brake and see the light… But I finally saw it in a window reflection when in reverse, and it wasn’t lighting up.
Since I got a fixit ticket, I’m a bit chagrined that my fix didn’t work and I’ve been driving like that for a couple of weeks. Since it had LED bulbs in it, I took it apart and applied test voltage. The bulb was installed backwards, and LEDs need correct polarity. So I put it all back together and remounted the unit. I ordered replacement bulbs because the plastic holding the LED bulbs together crumbled when I touched it.
The unit is common across a wide range of Ford truck models and there are dozens of custom aftermarket versions available if I wanted to replace the whole unit. That’s one advantage of driving something very common. Aside from electronic considerations, an older F-150 is probably a good choice for a post collapse vehicle. There are so many on the road, and so many parts in common, that parts availability and salvage/looting should be able to keep one running for a long time. Something that can’t be said for the Avalanche or Aztek…
I also ordered a replacement sealing gasket, which had failed a long time ago and is apparently a common problem. Just another reason to drive older and common vehicles- parts for common problems are widely available and cheap.
After crashing for a couple of hours from too many carbs at lunch, I got out some Halloween decorations and put them up. Some went outside, some are indoor things. I think I probably won’t do a big themed display this year, but I do want to try a couple of new things if I have the time. Right now, with just an hour or two, I have more stuff up than most of my neighbors.
Today I’ll do an auction pickup. I won another 7 cuft chest freezer for $65. I’ll keep it empty as a backup for a freezer failure, and just in case someone gets a nice sized deer and wants to share with me. W will not be pleased, so I’ll probably take it to the shop. In another auction I got parts for electrical stuff and for fixing some minor stuff to resell if I get the time, and for the BOL dock. I think I spent around $100 this week on auctions, and that is an order of magnitude less than I used to spend.
I still have to hit Costco for candy. Maybe they’ll have other stuff I need too.
Last tank of major brand gas got me almost 16mpg in mixed but mostly highway driving. I haven’t had a chance to get back to Costco to fill up and see if another tank will give me the higher mileage I got on the last Costco fill up. Gas is just under $4/gallon at the majors, and 50c cheaper at discounters, but if they are mixing in too much ethanol, it’s a false economy. My last fill up at QuikTime the pump said 10% ethanol, so we’ll see.
It was a short week, but I advanced several projects that have been on the list for a long time. And I added to the stacks. Good things.
Keep working and stacking.
nick
Friday! Hooray!
Deer season kicks off for real for me today. Nick, I would love to send you some for your new cooler, but that won’t work…
I am off work to travel, so of course, I was working this morning. Colleagues have now had even more explicit instructions about what is to be done, the most important of which is to call me before things go too badly wrong …
Time and passed time to get moving. Have a great day!
Top of the ballot. People will vote Dem straight down the ballot until they get to county judge races.
Plus Texas. Put the demographics together to win statewide once and 2028 is within reach. Talarico becomes an instant VP frontrunner if he wins.
Wine/Weed Moms love Talarico. Teachers are an automatic – the one next door has a sign in the yard.
Prediction in Texas: Senator, Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General.
Not that the last one matters. “MAGA” Mays is Sir Percy without the secret identity.
Sink me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh3N8vuSb0k
I think it is safe to say that if DeSantis hadn’t kneecapped Disney in the run up to 2022 — and won that p*ssing contest, BTW — Rubio wouldn’t be sitting in the Secretary of State chair and the House would already have Speaker Jeffries holding the gavel.
The last time we drove by the site in April, work had finally begun on the new offramp in Orlando at I-4 and Apopka-Vineland road albeit for a much smaller version of what the Mouse originally had in mind for the project.
DeSantis don’t surf.
If they get all four, income tax will be on the ballot in a year.
Sir Percy may serve as a speed bump with his monocle on the Governor’s Mansion, but not much of an obstacle.
75F and the sun isn’t up yet. Kids are out the door.
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We get a Dem slate and everyone will be eating horse’s willy and calling it sausage. If they can afford it.
n
The LSM said the same thing about Buto and Cruz. I have a feeling TalaFreako will lose and suck down $100 million donor dollars.
I’m back in Vegas, so I won’t vote in Texas or Nevada for the midterms. Gotta work on that residency.
The SA house is on the market. We hope it sells by the end of the year.
I’m currently living in our bug-out house. But who bugs out to Vegas? In Resident Evil and Fallout, Vegas becomes a shite-hole. Water, water everywhere, except in Vegas.
Oh, well, MrsAtoz says we have one more move left in us.
People are mostly water. The trick is to grab them and chuck them into the rendering machine early, before they start drying out. Be proactive!
Not to worry. The mother will get sued for buying the gun, will face accessory before the fact murder charges, will get convicted and spend time in prison. Yes, it has happened before. The citizen who killed the cretin will now face a civil lawsuit for killing the shooter. The shooter’s parents will say “he was good boy, never in trouble, would give people the shirt off his back” in justifying the lawsuit.
That seems to be the case in the demise of many of these thugs. Their parents claim their child was a pillar of the community, loved by all, always helping others, yada, yada, yada.
Yeh, right. The amount of thrust to get 2,000 pounds off the ground comes from what? CO2 bottles? A chemical reaction? Such reaction would involve some very hazardous chemicals. I suspect the demo was a stripped-down vehicle with nothing but propellant inside, no seats. The downward (or is it upward) force to hold the vehicle on that inverted road would be significant. The video shows no evidence of any thrust entities to provide that force.
I read the Roadster has a 2G vacuum system to suck it onto the road. Similar to early race cars until it was banned.
Ruh, Roh, Tuckah:
VIDEO: Neigh Means Neigh, Carlson! Tucker Talks About Finding a Horse ‘Attractive’ (CONTENT WARNING)
The guy has completely gone off the deep end. The comments are right: next he’ll “understand” minor-attracted people (ie homos). His handlers need to take him out and shoot him.
I wonder if his pal Megyn Kelly will defend him?
It is ridiculous and will never be street legal with thrusters. But, still cool. Shot GirlTM calls him dumb, but probably wants his sperm for her frozen eggs. I can only “wonder” like Tuckah on how she will extract said sperm.
The full Roadster video is out now. The 2G vacuum is confirmed. Can you imagine being chased by the cops on the highway and you takeoff, flip, and land in the other lane. That is going to be in a movie.
Leftards like to say “eat the rich”…
I got out of the recliner and got a whiff of ”dead mouse”. Could not find anything. Turns out it was me, from last night.
minor-attracted people (ie homos)
– more accurately “chomos”, liking a hairy 50yo ‘bear’ is not the same as liking an alterboy.
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Blowing like a storm’s coming in at the moment.
Took a nap.
Thinking it’s time to get moving.
n
From Scheier’s newsletter.
Connected Cars Are a Surveillance Platform
[2026.10.01] Researchers at Northeastern University, in collaboration with Consumer Reports, evaluated how much modern cars spy in their drivers:
Basically, your car’s manufacturer has you under constant surveillance, and they use that data against you.
Remember the adage “If you’re not the customer, then you’re the product”? (The sentiment is older than you think.) Turns out that with modern internet-connected everything, you’re the product even if you are the customer.
————————————
And this one
Reverse-Engineering Flock Cameras
[2026.09.21] Hackers captured a Flock camera and got a look (alternate link) at the software:
If you’re wondering how the hackers got by disk encryption, one of the unencrypted partitions contained the key for an encrypted partition. That’s pretty bad security engineering.
** *** ***** ******* *********** *************
n
The wind damaged the chicken run even more. I have two braces under the roof to keep it upright. I’m probably going to have to check on it regularly while the wind blows (ie, all of today, at least). I’d wanted to keep the chickens in the yard for another month, in preference to setting them up on the patio, but may not be able to. Stupid weather. Of course, weather is caused by the daystar. Stupid daystar.
Some guy, a programmer and electronics geek, made his own equivalent of Flock cameras from readily-available consumer hardware and publicly-available services. He pointed them at police and other government officials. They were extremely Not Amused and police came to hassle him. I can try to find the YT video in which he described the project and the encounters, or at least try to recall his name if anyone wants to know more.
I saw a passing reference to the guy.
I’d rather have an open source ShotSpotter but I certainly support the tactic.
n
The DIY Flock guy’s name is Anthony Sistilli. His name suddenly entered my head, which is the opposite of what normally happens.
@SteveF
Opposite if head?
Opposite of entered?
Both?
Indeed. Report a police officer for speeding, running a red light, failing to signal, etc. and see what happens. Based on my experience reporting and officer for speeding, almost every time I went through Oak Ridge for following few months after the report, I was followed by a police vehicle. Even making four right turns to get back to my original intended path.
I was driving south on South Illinois. I was doing about 45 where the speed limit is 40. I was passed at high rate of speed, probably 60+ by an officer. Who stopped at the red light at Lafayette Dr. I guess he was not in that much of a hurry. I called the watch desk and informed them an officer was speeding. I was told “the officer was on a call”. I then asked, “which officer was that?”. The response, after a noticeable pause, was “all of them”. Yeh right.
I wrote a letter to the paper explaining how apparently all the officers are on a call, are allowed to speed due to urgent response needed, yet not urgent enough to go through a red light, where I caught up with the officer doing my normal speed. The letter received an angry response from the police chief that officers sometimes respond to calls without lights and sirens to avoid being detected. There was no explanation why speeding was necessary when the urgency stopped at a red light and how all the officers were on call at the same time.
It was shortly after that I reported an officer sitting in the middle turn lane of a 4-lane highway between the yellow lines, at night, in a black vehicle, in an area with no streetlights, and no lights on the vehicle. I came really close to hitting the vehicle. I thought it was a very dangerous ploy to try and catch speeding drivers.
It was after that, for the next few months, on multiple occasions, where I was followed through Oak Ridge. I know my plate was being run through their system. I drove circuitous routes that were out of my way to get to my destination. One even followed me into the credit union parking lot and continued driving through the lot.
Vindictive. Darn straight. If I had committed even a minor infraction, the retaliation would have been pounced upon.
Now I just ignore the officer’s infractions, which they still commit on a regular basis, that would get mere mortals slapped with a ticket.
In today’s mail, I got my check for my Warner Bros. Discovery stock.
$31.016667 per share. A slight bit more than the $30/share initial offer. Far below a hundred shares, so I won’t be buying a new house. Or a new car, for that matter. Maybe a new ham radio.
No withholding. I wonder what my basis is? My first guess is zero, since it came from an AT&T spinoff and I’ve based all the prior ones at zero. That means I should go ahead and sell my AT&T stock since I believe that might give me a capital loss due to all those spinoffs.
Research is indicated.
Oh, well, MrsAtoz says we have one more move left in us.
Yup, to the nursing home.
Yeh, right. The amount of thrust to get 2,000 pounds off the ground comes from what? CO2 bottles? A chemical reaction? Such reaction would involve some very hazardous chemicals. I suspect the demo was a stripped-down vehicle with nothing but propellant inside, no seats. The downward (or is it upward) force to hold the vehicle on that inverted road would be significant. The video shows no evidence of any thrust entities to provide that force.
The Roadster has a huge air compressor in it. Both to provide suction to the road, four gravity cornering anyone?, and compressed air for propellant.
Musk opened the gullwing door and showed the interior. It did have seats and a very minimal interior for two.
Tesla is taking deposits for the Roadster, $50,000 for the regular 1.5 second version or $250,000 for the 0.8 second thruster version.
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/tesla-roadster-probably-wont-drive-an-earnings-beat-but-the-big-reveal-did-achieve-2-things-130628792.html
Not to worry. The mother will get sued for buying the gun, will face accessory before the fact murder charges, will get convicted and spend time in prison. Yes, it has happened before. The citizen who killed the cretin will now face a civil lawsuit for killing the shooter. The shooter’s parents will say “he was good boy, never in trouble, would give people the shirt off his back” in justifying the lawsuit.
The armed citizen in the school will get convicted in federal court for carrying a gun in a school gun free zone and go to the Supermax.
I released version 16.28 of my software last night. The downloaders started hitting my website almost immediately. Today’s traffic will probably hit 10 GB.
https://www.winsim.com/press.html
Freefall: AI Wolfs Don’t Dance
http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff4500/fc04439.htm
Well, there is that “Dancing With Wolves” movie.
xkcd: Planet Database
https://www.xkcd.com/3311/
Dadgumit, there is a serious shortage of habitable planets.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3311:_Planet_Database
LOL, there is a senior living facility right over the fence at our house. We could drop a ladder and walk right in.
LOL, there is a senior living facility right over the fence at our house. We could drop a ladder and walk right in.
LOL, there is a senior living facility right over the fence at our house. We could drop a ladder and crawl right in.
Fixed that for ya.
Most likely. Especially with the liberal judges in Oregon.
You could try. But I want first dibs on the video for America’s Funniest Home Videos.
“Democrat Governor Who Bragged About Stopping Pipelines Now Says “We Need More Gas””
https://thelibertydaily.com/democrat-governor-who-bragged-about-stopping-pipelines-now/
“(The Daily Caller)—A Democratic governor who once took credit for stopping two gas pipelines said during a debate Thursday that her state needs more of the energy source.”
““But we need more gas. We need more gas. We need all forms of energy,” Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in the debate with Republican challenger Mike Minogue, which WCVB hosted with WBUR and The Boston Globe. The comments mark a shift for Healey, who said at a WBUR forum in April 2022 that she “stopped two gas pipelines from coming into this state” as attorney general.”
And she will probably be reelected and go right back to denying expansion of natural gas in her state.
All of the following was in Minecraft, or maybe I dreamed it. It’s surely nothing that ever really happened in the real world.
NYS has an unusual citizen arrest law (and following subsections) which allows arrest for any violation committed in your presence. I’ve cited it when stupid pigs committed an offense or a violation. I demanded that they fully disarm, submit to a physical search, and allow me to take them to a police station or sheriff’s office for processing. Of course, they never submitted to arrest, nor did I expect them to. It was merely an excuse to beat the bejesus out of them for resisting arrest. And to lock them in the back of their own squad cars, if available.
This course of action is not recommended for everyone. Nor for anyone today, with pervasive surveillance and face-matching systems.
“NHTSA Takes Aim At Headlight Glare”
https://www.carpro.com/blog/nhtsa-takes-aim-at-headlight-glare
Sigh, why do I doubt anything will happen to headlight glare?
My new eyes have problems with headlight glare. I close the left eye as the right eye is not as bad.
My next move is to the cemetery.
Headlights seem to be aimed too high. Heck, even the daytime running lights on some cars and trucks look like they are running high beams during the day.
I’ve only driven my truck after dark a few times but the aim seems too high to me. I don’t see any adjustment screws.
AFAIK federal law requires that part of the headlight beam shine UP to illuminate overhead highway signs. With dim incandescent bulbs that was less of an issue. With bright LED bulbs, the part shining up is brighter too.
Unless it’s a lifted pickup, then it’s just the owner being a jerk. They are supposed to re-aim the headlights after the lift but probably zero actually do.
———
The armed citizen in the school
– inside school ‘premises’ is one area the TX LTC doesn’t cover, but having to USE your carry gun inside a school is a bar to prosecution. IE in Texas that guy would be covered because he carried it in due to a need to stop the threat.
———-
Freezer was even nicer than I though, it’s like brand new. Spent some time at the shop sorting. Then made a dump run.
Got a text from my tenant that the air wasn’t blowing. Since my secondary location (with the dumpster) is close to my rent house, I went over to investigate. Sure enough, the blower motor is seized and too hot to touch. I’ll be texting my HVAC guy in a few minutes.
Last time he quoted me $10K to replace the system. Maybe it will be cheaper since it’s not as hot and he’s probably not as busy. I swore last time I’d never change a blower motor myself every again. It’s a nasty job. On a system with 3 service calls in 4 months, that was installed last century, it doesn’t make much sense to replace the blower.
n
Last time he quoted me $10K to replace the system. Maybe it will be cheaper since it’s not as hot and he’s probably not as busy. I swore last time I’d never change a blower motor myself every again. It’s a nasty job. On a system with 3 service calls in 4 months, that was installed last century, it doesn’t make much sense to replace the blower.
That is a good deal. I got a 4 ton a/c replaced at the office last year for $12K without the electric heat furnace.
26+ years is a long time for an a/c system, especially in the swamp.
10 years is a long time in a Gulf Marine environment.
We paid $13k a couple of years ago for a Trane 2.5 ton with gas furnace. 1H1C.
A gas furnace runs up the cost, but get it now if you want one.
The women … and it will be women … in charge of permitting under the Green New Deal at the Federal level are not going to approve gas furnaces. When your social credit score gets too low for you to merit heating or cooking, cutting off the gas still requires rolling a truck in most places.
I’ve had an orange marker in my yard for nearly a year indicating where the gas line runs for the utility’s contractors to put in a new cutoff valve.
I think one has been done in my street, and they seemed to be at that house for a week digging up the yard.
Comment of the day on Facebook:
“This place is like heroin – it’s not good for you.”
Context from Jan Stryvant:
“Okay, as with my other author account, I’m going to stop coming here all that often. Once or Twice a month.
Why?
Because I have found that I am spending far too much time here. I need to spend my time writing.
So understand, I’m going to unfollow EVERYONE. I will still check out my fan page and answer questions. I will also answer questions posted here, but not as often.
Unless I know you I will not accept friends requests, and maybe not even then because I will be spending less than an hour a week here.
This place is like heroin – it’s not good for you.
If I wasn’t an author and if this wasn’t the only good place to keep in touch with my fans, I would not be here.”
Don’t feed the Zuckerdroid.
I got a new quote from my HVAC guy, $6500 with $165 for each duct run that needs replacing. That could add about $1650. Unless he finds it’s something simple tomorrow, we’re going to replace it all, including the heat,and slightly upsize from 2.5tons to 3.
I guess not doing it in a heatwave, and after the summer rush helps. Totally worth the ~$300 to delay until now.
———-
I had a not so tiny fire in my Solo firepit tonight! It’s the first time I’ve been cold in months. Weather station says 63F and wind at 7 mph from the north.
———-
Asmongold has some commentary on the latest about the “Cornell 7”. She TEXTED her roommate in the middle of it. Total compos mentis and totally mental now. The roommate called it “a good night” when two of her roommates (including Jane Doe) stayed out all night. The ‘hoe phase’ is out of control, and the double standard is in full effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b0W65VO30Q
———–
All the chicks are back in the nest so I can go to sleep. I’ve got a meeting tomorrow with the HVAC guy, so I can’t sleep all morning.
And my golf cart parts should arrive, so I’ll have stuff to do.
n
– by design.
n
Legions of staff psychologists keep the dopamine hits flowing.