Cool but not cold, but certainly damp. Then cold later in the day. It never really did rain yesterday, although several times moisture from the sky convinced me it was coming. I hope today will be dry as I’ll be mostly outdoors.
Didn’t get as much done yesterday as I’d hoped. Felt a bit out of sorts from the meds until they flushed out completely. And it is our vacation/holiday so I’m not super motivated to bust @ss. I did do some stuff with my dashcam for the Ranger, although I didn’t finish. Cleaned and moved stuff in the house too. Ate some leftovers.
Today youngest is headed to the Texas Renaissance Festival with friends in the morning, and I will attend with lovely wife later in the day. I want to see the Christmas decor and lights after dark. Kid is less interested. So we’ll overlap for a bit, then some will stay with us and some will leave early. It’s the last day, so I’m also hoping there might be some bargains to be had. The TxRenFair is a big deal, been going and growing for 51 years and it’s big, physically big. I enjoyed it last time I went and while I’m not looking forward to going today because of weather and work, I am glad to be going this year.
Oh, I don’t dress up. I will take a leather bag, and my pipe, and probably wear a hat, and if I had a leather duster, I’d wear it, but since I don’t… I try not to be obnoxiously modern. There is a lot going on besides trad Renfair stuff, lots of fantasy fandoms get incorporated. A ranger type with a quarterstaff wouldn’t be out of place. My staff is at the lake though.
I’m mainly interested in craft demos and handmade stuff. There is some of it, and some of good quality if you look past the cheap tourist stuff. And my past career in event production is always looking at something like this with a critical and interested eye. Of course, the ribeye steak on a stick, or as a sandwich, is REALLY good.
I’ll be stacking up some good memories and some time with W and D2. Stack what you can.
nick
Enjoy the fayre, Nick! “Celtic Christmas” is an odd theme, but whatever gets the punters in the door, I suppose.
W1 has been making noises about visiting a new “medieval Christmas Market” this year. There is one near the BOL, but we boycott it because of price gouging on the “park and ride” arrangements. I don’t mind paying something for one or the other, but I won’t pay for both, and 20 bucks total is just too much.
I suppose I will go along to the new discovery, in the hope they have something nice to eat. The “crafts” are all candles and/or from China, unless one is lucky and looks really diligently.
My immediate reaction, given the wording, was “compromising photos with a male or a child”, but perhaps I just have low expectations of human nature. Didn’t Dr Pournelle have a line about politicians and “a dead girl or a live boy”?
Would all you people who got a cheap Starlink mini please let Elon know that I would like to get in on that deal too…
I was the designated driver for the rifles after the celebrations yesterday evening, so I was drinking near-beer. I feel good this morning, other than a mild craving for something salty (is that a side-effect of 0.0 beer?), but my pals who tippled have apparently not yet surfaced. I’ll let them sleep till lunchtime…
Wishing you all a beautiful Sunday!
FInd the episode of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” featuring the “Blood Boy”. That was supposedly based on something Peter Thiel actually does.
All of those guys are involved with life extension voodoo, but it isn’t guaranteed.
My wife thinks Gates has something terminal from kharma finally catching up, and Fate seems to be settling scores with the Geico Gecko on a much faster timetable.
The TRF is an odd place. Find the HBO documentrary “Renn Faire”.
TAMU alumni culture. Like Texas Furries.
To recap, I give it a 50-50 shot that the person at the top of this page was responsible for the complaint about my F-bombs which got me fired from the tolling company. My management, TAMU alumni, hired him because they geeked out about costumes during his interview.
https://www.sherwoodforestfaire.com/
Sherwood Forest is the other big “faire” in the region, staged in the Spring. The grounds of both faires are not far from each other.
A couple of years ago, we stopped at my wife’s favorite corset guy’s booth at one con, and an Apple exec was in there getting fitted for a full medieval gown – corset, chemise, bodice, and petticoat.
They were cinching his waist down pretty tight too so it wasn’t his first time getting into an outfit like that.
This was after Christmas so he was probably going to hit Sherwood Forest with the … costume.
The power of the “crazy cat woman” demo who comprise the remaining audience. The 2%-ers managing their Daddy Cash trusts pull 12-15% gains without a problem right now so they are off “pursuing bliss”.
Billie Piper, patron acting saint of the demo, is the current lead after the last episode, at least until what may be the series last gasp – a Christmas episode planned for next year.
As for the rest, the crazy cat women write lots of “shipping” fan fic between David Tennant and Michael Sheen’s characters on “Good Omens”, with the last episode of that series supposed to air in the near future, and Catherine Tate, another crazy cat woman favorite, is bound to resurface on “The Paper”, the reboot of “The Office” running on Peacock.
The male 2%-ers. Daddy’s Cash pile. Y chromosomes.
That’s what really grates. The truth about where the money originates.
Hey, if I’m going to p*ss off the crazy cat women, I might as well go all the way.
The introduction of the “Blood Boy” on “Silicon Valley”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBA0AH-LSbo
At least the life extension obsession doesn’t require currency debasement like the quest for sex robots.
Well, I was a bit premature about not getting rain. About 2 in the morning it started slamming down. Don’t know how much we got but it’s mostly dry out now.
54F here, and 48F at the Renfair. I’ll be wearing long pants and boots. I expect muck.
Time for breakfast and coffee while W is getting ready.
@denis, I always want more salt so I can’t comment, but I never noticed any correlation to drinking NA beer.
n
Pournelle got the line from Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards.
“The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
That was relatively recent too. 1983.
The live boy wouldn’t be a disqualification with voters anymore. I’m not sure about the dead girl. The Dems came very close to running Ted Kennedy in 1980 when it was obvious Carter would lose.
This looks like it could be a useful resource: https://www.survivorlibrary.com/index.php/main-library-index/
@dcp
Note that each topic heading contains many pdf’s, and the last entry is a zip file that contains all the pdf’s.
Finished the setup of the chickens’ winter quarters. The little feathered rats figured out how to escape with the way I left things yesterday. The setup was complicated by the worsening weather. On the plus side, part of the setup included attaching windbreaks to the windward side of the coop and cage, giving a wind “shadow” from the prevailing westerlies. It didn’t take the birds long to discover that hunkering in the cage under the coop was less unpleasant than sitting with the wind blowing on them. They also appreciated the treat I gave them before I started work.
Meanwhile, The Child got extra sleep today after going back to the college yesterday afternoon, and now is frantically trying to finish the assignments that she was supposed to do over the long weekend. Welcome to adulthood, responsibility, and accountability, Pumpkin.
Wizard Of Id: Sir Rodney Has Game
https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2025/11/30
But his target does not.
Over The Hedge: Instant Ozempic
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2025/11/30
Wait, where do I get this stuff ?
I could eat that extra pecan pie that I want.
So, you were outsmarted by the bird-brains.
Eh, sort of. I knew that I had left the enclosure incomplete because of the tangled netting, the weather*, and family issues. I’d been hoping that they wouldn’t discover the big gap until I could get to it later this morning.
The runaways were easily found (scratching in the snow-covered plot which was the neighbor’s garden a couple months ago) and lured back to the patio enclosure with yummy, yummy dried larvae. Except for one, who saw me shaking the bag of treats, panicked and ran away, ending up inside the run which is their summer quarters. I ended up having to catch her and carry her in. She was frightened, even though she normally recognizes me as The Bringer of Treats. Chickens are dumb.
* The Child and I picked yesterday as the best day to move the birds because of the extended weather forecast back on Wednesday morning. The forecast lied to us. Eh, it happens. We got it done and the chickens had to spend only a few hours in snow a couple inches deep.
I’m having an experiment.
I installed a new battery in my phone a month or so ago. Full charge down to 5% takes an average of ten days across four complete charge cycles. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned off. I send and receive a few texts. Same for phone calls. It’s a phone after all.
I do like the Google Photos feature of “this day last year” montages of pictures. Having said that, I don’t need the app to see my pictures.
I charged the phone today. Before I took it off of charge I looked to see what apps were used. Google Play used 33%. Google something else used 5%. GMail, I didn’t use it, used 2%. A couple of other things used 1 or 2 %. all on their on accord. The app for my HEB credit card used 1% but I did pay the bill and then checked a couple of days later to make sure it was credited.
Yeah. 40% of my battery was used doing something other than the weather gizmo showing the temp and it is Sunny outside. How much Google Photos used is not shown.
So I turned off Data. Dire, DIRE!!! Warning Will Robinson! Warning! Danger! Danger! of not being able to check mail or websites without Data or Wi-Fi. I’m cool. I thought it was funny.
Meh. I rebooted the phone. It seems snappier than after a usual reboot. Now I wait to see the results on battery life. As expected, text messaging still works. Calendar updates, who knows.
When I need to pay the HEB card again I’ll turn on wi-fi. And give “stuff” half an hour for update and backup. Oh, and filtered through the Pi-Hole, too.
I installed a new battery in my phone a month or so ago. Full charge down to 5% takes an average of ten days across four complete charge cycles. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned off. I send and receive a few texts. Same for phone calls. It’s a phone after all.
My 10+ year old Samsung S10 is almost ready for a new battery also, again. But the 10% of the screen corner that is all cracked, and seems to be cracking worse, in convincing me that it is time for a new phone. And my phone is 4G, not 5G.
I have learned that one should not let your phone be upright in the back pocket while peeing. The chance of it taking a dive is pretty good from a short back pocket.
I do want to move from Verizon to Tmobile as Tmobile has better antennas now.
Check the permissions on the HEB app. It should not have access to things like photos.
“As Tampon Tim Panics, Insiders Accuse Him of Ignoring Fraud While Millions Flow to Terror”
https://patriot.tv/as-tampon-tim-panics-insiders-accuse-walz-of-ignoring-fraud-while-millions-flow-to-terror/
“A group of over 400 Minnesota Department of Human Services employees has turned the spotlight on Governor Tim Walz, charging that his administration turned a blind eye to rampant fraud draining the state’s coffers. In a blunt statement on X, the workers declared, “We let Tim Walz know of fraud early on, hoping for a partnership in stopping fraud but no, we got the opposite response. Tim Walz systematically retaliated against whistleblowers using monitoring, threats, repression, and did his best to discredit fraud reports.””
When did Tampon Tim know and how much does he know ? How much did he get paid ?
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
RAH in his Future History had ‘new blood grown in vitro’ as the first and most effective longevity treatment for both ephemerals and the Howard Families. I wonder if it was his idea originally, or if he had picked up on something.
From Starlink just now:
I’m cool.
Can I jack this into Ethernet? I’ll find out when the hardware arrives.
There’s a catch. Somewhere. They are not shipping “free hardware” to customers because they love us. Play the game, right?
It has no permissions to camera, storage, or location.
Walz famously claimed that he had zero assets on the financial disclosure paperwork, but certain categories of investments, such as mutual funds, are exempt from reporting requirements IIRC.
No, they’re sending us the hardware to give us another way of using their service, and they fully expect that we’ll activate and USE that service pretty soon now.
Yep. You are right Ken.
I have never put my phone in a back pocket. I’ve seen too many chicks sit down and crush their new iPhone… that they just got because they sat on the last phone.
Front pocket. And if you want to mess with folks, just suck your belly in a bit and shove the phone into your underwear.. Scratch a bit to add to the drama. Kinda like women stuffing it in her titties. No one will ever ask to borrow your phone.
Nasty? Icky? Maybe you need a shower if you stink to you.
I have never put my phone in a back pocket. I’ve seen too many chicks sit down and crush their new iPhone… that they just got because they sat on the last phone.
Front pocket. And if you want to mess with folks, just suck your belly in a bit and shove the phone into your underwear.. Scratch a bit to add to the drama. Kinda like women stuffing it in her titties. No one will ever ask to borrow your phone.
The front pocket has my wallet. My dadgum hips hurt if the wallet goes in the back. Too many years of sitting on my wallet like an idiot while writing software.
>>The front pocket has my wallet. My dadgum hips hurt if the wallet goes in the back. Too many years of sitting on my wallet like an idiot while writing software.
https://youtu.be/yoPf98i8A0g
Back from the Renfair. Lights and decor were a bust. Not much dressing or lighting…
People watching was fun. Lot of really ugly people dressing up. Lot of beta males with overweight females that were much more into the dressing up than the guys.
Surprising number of guys dressed like cavaliers.
Whole lotta “crossing the streams” when it comes to fantasy IP. There was a lightsaber shop FFS. Lots of pirate themes too. Only a couple of adult furries, only one full suit and it might have been a game character. One family with three little kids in animal masks with tails. Tails and ears on a bunch of people, mostly fat people.
Lots of drinking going one, with a lot of people carrying wine bottles.
It was chilly. And the overcast was dreary. Not crowded, but still had to stand in line one or two people ahead of you for food around noon. They ran out of bacon on a stick before I could get some. Had my steak on a stick, but it wasn’t as good or as big as 2 years ago.
Lots of mass produced crap, but also there are still handmade and artistic things for sale. No end of show discounting though.
I didn’t buy anything other than coffee and steak. D1 spent $100 on food, a knife (cheap chinese one at that) , and some sort of oils. W had food and a mulled wine. Lots of mead for sale, it seems to be the austin crowd trendy drink.
I didn’t eat all the things, because I would be driving home and sugar puts me to sleep. I’ve got to get something now…
n
Sherwood Forest Faire has a Celtic music festival in two weeks.
Yeah, one of the sellers mentioned moving over to Sherwood for something, and a viking thing a week later somewhere else nearby.
n
I just spent a couple hours on the phone, helping The Child find data and especially citable sources for an end-of-term research paper. Search engines were being almost completely useless. I used one of my paid LLM accounts (I have several, for the paying work I do) and got the data and sources she needed. I checked each source, on account of LLMs still making things up, and each was good.
Which makes me wonder: Is the steady and much-remarked worsening of search engines deliberate, to drive people to paid LLM accounts?
@steve, it could be the well is so poisoned that an extra level of filtering is needed that the LLMs provide.
n
That’s not nearly conspiratorial enough. Stick with the agenda, please.
Maybe there’s a market for cell phones not shaped like flat rectangles.
That is the shape the machines make so it will be the shape you get.
n
Hmmm. A USB-C hub/adapter that I ordered for the Mac Mini from Amazon (needed a SD card reader) arrived, or rather, the package arrived empty. Bubble wrap envelope, top open, no product. Driver had to be aware.
I have complained to the Amazon bot, and we’ll see if anything eventuates, if not then I will have to call/chat tomorrow and get an actual person.
Maybe there’s a market for cell phones not shaped like flat rectangles.
The newest cell phones look like a book. Two flat rectangles.
https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/galaxy-z-fold7/
I will probably regret mentioning this, but I am at a loss to imagine what urinary gyrations it requires to dislodge a phone from a pocket during micturition.
Nick, nosey people want to know. Did D1 buy a knife for herself, or for recent nice date boy? Perhaps for her job in retail? Either way, you taught her well. Now point her at https://agrussell.com/ for better knives.
There is a well-stocked and neatly maintained Aldi near the BOL. In addition to the usual assortment and advertised special offers, it seems to be a shop that gets ones and twos of remaindered items from other locations to sell off. As the locality is rural, and the customer-base down to earth, items that might be regarded as fripperies often get reduced way down in price to move them out the door. I previously picked up a couple of TVs for cheap there, for example.
Last week they had a single “portable make-up fridge” marked down to 20 bucks from somewhere well north of 45. On closer examination, it turned out to be an insulated box of about a cubic foot, with a 240V AC / 12V DC Peltier-effect heating/cooling setup. Now I have a tidy little unit for the car, that will keep beverages chilled, or soup warm. It also has a lovely mirror and light on the lid, in case I ever need to fix my make-up!
Monday. Dark, but getting bright in a pretty pink/orange hue. Awake too early; I slept poorly. Back at base and back to work. Meh.
Wishing you all a good day!
44F and raining. An ugly day.
I let the kids know they need to leave early today, and made the lunch. Had a donut for myself as I think I’ll nap for at least an hour.
———–
@denis,
D2 was at the Renfair, D1 was at her new retail job in the mall (which shift she reports was ‘boring because nobody was shopping).
D2 claims she bought the knife for herself. Her ‘friend group’ that she was with includes two boys that are deep in the ‘friend zone’. She had one of them carrying her purse when they left…
Those little makeup fridges are cool. They’ll fit a six pack of sodas. They often die an early death, mainly because of build quality. I’ve had a few that a poorly hand soldered wire broke loose, so if it fails, take a look inside.
n
Make sure that the refrigerant isn‘t propane. I forget the name the manufacturers use for marketing purposes.
Naw, they’re peltier coolers.
n