Cold and clear again, warming later. Had a beautiful sunrise yesterday. Orange, pink, blue sky… chilly willy though. Should be the same today. Mid 70sF in the afternoon, maybe a bit more. I’ll take it.
After the sunrise, coffee, and getting the kids out the door, I did auction stuff, office stuff, and fell down a rabbit hole with some genealogy stuff online. I was mildly interested, now I’m mildly informed. The biggest change is how much more stuff has been digitized and is available online. Some of it, maybe most of it, is volunteer driven too, from what I saw.
In the afternoon I did small things around the house. Several projects got minor attention and moved a tiny bit forward. I’m avoiding big stuff. One of the projects was recovering and repurposing D1’s old chromebook. It’s much more possible, and straightforward than it was a couple of years ago when I last looked. But it’s also far too much messing around when I’ve got a stack of other lappys that I can update or put new OSs on easily without jumping through flaming hoops.
It’s a shame that schools are buying stuff that has no residual value and pretty much has to go into the landfill after only a few years. The kids don’t really need more at school, but the example it sets is bad.
Today I’ll do a couple of pickups. And more small stuff from the list. I want to keep moving, even if it’s slowly and in tiny steps.
Because that’s how you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.
Always be working. And stacking.
nick
As long as the kickbacks aren’t exposed, everyone is happy, except the taxpayers and the environment.
Happy Tuesday, all!
Best wishes to Mrs Ray for her surgery today, and for a fast and full recovery.
Up at O:dark-thirty. Hard to be Mr. Denis, and thanks for the well wishes.
I’m not really sure what benefit it is to get the credit monitoring. But it’s free for a year, so why not enroll?
You should have a freeze on all three major credit bureaus at a minimum. Also consider freezing the Lexis-Nexis report but that has side effects when renewing insurance. Get the report from Lexis-Nexis. It is
amazingdisgusting the amount of information and the sources for the information. There is data on mine from emails that I never had in which only the name matches. I am in the process of disputing the information from those sources. There is even one item that is simply “H”, my middle initial.Off to the hospital in a few minutes. Will take the MacBook with me to pass the time. She is scheduled for 6:00 AM, after which I will head to Chick-Fil-A for some breakfast as there is no use waiting during the prep, which takes about two hours.
The wife will not be able to bend her back for several weeks which means I will have to wipe her butt for her. Oh, joy, and TMI. Sorry for that.
A desktop from one of the warehouse clubs is not going to be top grade hardware regardless of the name on the case.
Seeing that BluRay and even DVD RW drives are suddenly unobtainium is concerning. It isn’t just those components either. All of the pieces necessary to build a PC at home are suddenly disappearing unless you are intent on building a high end gaming rig.
I don’t think the issue is the Orange Man’s tariffs either.
No physical media, of course. The studios and manufacturers have been open about that distribution channel for entertainment and software going away. IIRC, Sony doesn’t even make blank recordable BluRay media anymore.
Nintendo may backtrack about producing game cartridges, but that is only after a brutal Christmas season where the Switch 2 didn’t sell in numbers expected.
“Father of ‘Ancient Astronaut Theory’ Erich von Däniken Dies at 90”
https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/erich-von-daniken-death-00102440
I remember my mother reading his “Chariot Of The Gods” book in 1968.
The paperback came out a few years later and sold a lot of copies, begetting sequels..
Our understanding of technological history gets progressively poorer going back in time, and the bias has always been to underestimate the sophistication of ancient cultures.
One timely example is Roman concrete. The recipe was lost for hundreds of year until natural pozzolans were rediscovered. Research in the 1990’s developed artificial versions based on metakaolins, and development continues driven by the high cost of energy to make cement and the superior physical properties of the product. Current research continues to uncover the specifics of Roman concrete technology, with the use of slaked lime recently confirmed.
von Däniken’s theory was that ancient cultures did not have technological sophistication, so there must have been at outside force at work. He chose “ancient astronauts”, and the concept gained popular notoriety and sold tens of millions of books.
Good thing he did not choose politicians. We would still be living in caves and slinging stones at our dinner.
Surgery is supposed to start at 07:30 EST and consume about two hours. I expect the surgery to take a little longer, probably done by 10:00 and then a discussion with the doctor. Recovery will take an hour, then sit in the recovery room for another four or five hours.
For now, I sit in the waiting room, with my laptop, watching the sun rise in the east. A cold, but clear day. The hospital does have decent wireless. The patient information monitor, obviously running Windows, is showing an automatic recovery screen which speaks volumes for the incompetence of the IT staff. I got a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine. A $0.69 bottle at the local grocery store is $2.50 from the vending machine. The hospital does not control that pricing.
Methodist Medical Center in Oak Ridge was at one time independent. Several years ago they were absorbed, corrupted, conned, kidnapped, whatever, by Covenant Health. I don’t think the quality of care improved and in fact went down a couple of notches. MMC used to have their own IT staff but now I don’t think anyone from IT is staffed here.
I did head to Chick-Fil-A for some breakfast. The cafeteria does not open until 7:30 which is odd considering most people have to show for surgery at 6:00 and the family accompanying has no place to get food. The last time I ate there the food was expensive and not that good. Prior to Covenant Health taking over the food was cheaper and the quality was actually fairly good.
And speaking of IT. The local credit union used to have their own computer center. So did TVA credit union where I was the IT manager for six years. Those days are long gone. Now some central rack of servers, in who know where, is where all the CU data is now hosted. It used to be two major CU software suppliers, Summit Information Systems, and Symitar. Both are now running Jack Henry software and part of FiServ. I remember Jack Henry software from ‘80’s for banking software. Massive COBOL programs that had to be customized by local IT staff. An update took months having to integrate changes.
There was also Florida Software which the bank I was in was using for many of the applications. With modifications of course. Generally the core applications. The teller and ATM software was custom designed and maintained by me, along with the PULSE integration software. I also maintained the OS (MCP for Burroughs) software. The item processing software was from Burroughs as it needed to handle the reader-sorters where timing was critical.
And why am I rambling?
A desktop from one of the warehouse clubs is not going to be top grade hardware regardless of the name on the case.
– this is my main machine, bought direct from Dell, small business line, over 15 years ago. Ripped 2400 CDs and about 1000 DVDs. The drive did ok.
————————
And why am I rambling?
– to distract yourself. Which is fine. We’re here. I hope everything goes smoothly.
————————-
Not only were ancient civilizations sophisticated, at least on the western civ and cultural side, as humans they were pretty much like us. Read a greek play and you’ll see the lie of progressive belief – man has not been “improved” in thousands of years of trying. Until we can alter our chemistry and DNA, we’ll remain what we are.
————————–
48F this morning. Kids are moving, coffee is ready. I should eat…
n
“Read a greek play and you’ll see the lie of progressive belief – man has not been “improved” in thousands of years of trying. Until we can alter our chemistry and DNA, we’ll remain what we are.”
Future historians, if such exist, will recognize the twentieth century as the inflection point, followed shortly by a peak after which decline set in as we sidetracked evolution and used our increasing medical knowledge to keep the culls in the gene pool. Coupled with the social normalization of behaviors long recognized as deleterious to the health of society, and the democratization and dissipation of wealth, “cultural suicide” will be the conclusion.
Seeing that BluRay and even DVD RW drives are suddenly unobtainium is concerning. It isn’t just those components either. All of the pieces necessary to build a PC at home are suddenly disappearing unless you are intent on building a high end gaming rig.
– the only culture that still wants to build systems is the high end gamer culture.
I picked up an Xbox One without realizing it was the network only version. I’ve got a bin full of games I haven’t ever played. I don’t want a machine that can’t play disks. (it was for the BOL, before we got starlink.)
I have several PC games I would like to find the time to play on this machine, and I am ripping my physical media, otherwise I really wouldn’t even need an optical drive. Oh, and I have a box of perfectly adequate software that I purchased that I might need to reinstall, although I’d probably look to D/L something opensource to replace it at this point.
n
Good luck to your wife Ray and you too. W1 has had a pacemaker done in Sept and a knee replacement about 5 weeks ago. PM wasn’t too bad just had her left arm immobilized for a couple of day the restricted movement for 2 weeks. The knee has been rough and very painful and certainly no fun for me either. Drugs, icing helping dressing and pt three times a week. No real issues on the bathroom except boy do I hate that raised seat.
@dkreck: Thank you sir.
Yeh, I have been through the knee stuff on my own knee. Much rougher than I thought. Surprised about the numb area on the knee that is permanent. The tourniquet was also a surprise that left bruising and painful urination from the catheter that was used. Therapy was rough, but I pushed harder than was expected.
I did find out what level 10 pain was. The day after the surgery I was in the shower and slipped, putting my full weight on the knee with the surgery. I almost blacked out from the pain. After the bandage off a week later, I banged my incision on a bucket I was carrying. It ripped open the incision and I had to make a quick trip back to the surgeon’s office. He was not happy but closed the gap with some type of strips.
Full recovery took a year. The therapy lasted six months. The first month was at home. The surgeon wanted therapy in his office. The VA said if I wanted therapy at home, that is what I would get. It saved me having to drive. The therapist came from the University of Tennessee hospital twice a week to the house for a month. After that I was cleared to drive so had therapy at the surgeon’s facility.
The therapy is critical. I pushed hard on mine. I know a person who did not and they now have trouble walking. Yes, it is painful, but necessary.
The spousal unit is out of surgery. I was originally told two hours, it took a little over one hour. Now I am waiting on recovery. The spousal unit has to walk, urinate, and eat before she can be released. Then home, in bed with rest, and I need to get some prescription pain killers and muscle relaxers which are optional, the antibiotics are not optional.
I read it around ‘72 or ’73. Probably the Science Fiction Book Club edition. I recall it as being interesting.
There was a whole genre created around the idea of “someone” being there in the past to help.
I read several but have almost no memory of the content.
n
Is it me or are the players in the continuous parade of moral panics fading faster?
Now there is ‘doubt’ about microplastics…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/13/microplastics-human-body-doubt
A DIY build is still the best way to get the best combination of parts.
A direct and intended consequence of Obamacare. And predicted, too. That’s why it had zero Republican votes. Elimination of small, independent doctors and hospitals in favor of more easily controlled centralized corporate medical facilities was a goal.
2000 years ago, Aristotle wrote “Rhetoric”. Read it to understand PLTs/Leftists/Democrats/Commies. And some die-hard right wingers, too. For that matter, Libertarians fall in with them.
He knew, even then, that only some people learned from factual truth and argumentation. That there were people who would not, could not, be instructed, but must be led through rhetorical persuasion. By feeling, basically.
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/01/13/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-has-died-n2198079
smart funny fellow
Fixed the link.
RIP Scott Adams. You made us laugh. And think.
n
There were so many compromises to try and get the bill to through that they literally had to pass ACA to find out what was in it.
I think student loan nationalization was a surprise, made necessary once the underwear model took Kennedy’s seat and forced passage on reconciliation.
That nationalization makes forgiveness a really complicated piece of legislation, and that works against the Dems.
When you’ve had a mate for as long as you have, you get nervous. When MrsAtoz had emergency gall bladder removal, I was sweating bullets. We’ll be married 35 years next month. She had to try a couple husbands out, heh, one and done for me.
I bought a Pioneer, OWC, and Verbatim Blu-burn-everything drives a couple of years ago. A premonition they would become scarce after streaming. The Verbatim can burn those MDisc archival discs. All external USB 3’s. I bought a stack of archival discs to make sure the Verbatim works. It does. I think only the Pioneer is available on Big River.
Spousal unit is home. Stopped at Culver’s for a salad for both of us. She has been prescribed Oxycodone for pain relief. Both her, and I, fell that is an item of last resort. That stuff is not something to be taken lightly.
She is in her back brace which she has to wear for six months. Post op instructions are no driving for 30 days which I think is going to be violated by Friday. I think that is mostly a CYA instruction.
The bandages stay on for a couple of weeks. No changing. Expensive ones with silver. I remember the bandages for her hip surgery being $10.00 each, changed once a day, for two weeks. A lot of that has changed and bandages stay on much longer. My knee bandage was over 12″ long, water proof, and was apparently very expensive. The hospital billed over $500.00 for the bandage. I only needed one that was provided at the hospital.
The electrical stimulator stuff starts tomorrow. Two electrodes, stuck to the back, one on each side, for as close to 24 hours as possible. Change the battery (it is rechargeable and there are two), move the electrodes, rinse and repeat, for six months. I have packages of 20 electrodes and a number to text for more.
It will be interesting to see how insurance handles all of this, Medicare and Supplemental. I was incorrect in my earlier assessment, her deductible is about $2K for the year. That will be easily met with this surgery and there should be no costs for the rest of the year.
I am still thinking that the back brace, electronic stimulator, hospital, and surgeon is going to be billed at $30K, or more, then the usual adjustments, and Medicare picking a large chunk, 80%, and supplemental the rest. Deductibles factored in somewhere.
I don’t know how people without insurance can handle such an event.
Yeh, I would be too. When the wife had her heart attack, ambulance ride after calling 911, rushed into surgery while I was getting knee therapy. Yeh, it was scary. We were told that if she had not got to the hospital when she did she might not have survived.
To clarify, we got to the hospital and they found nothing. We waited a couple of hours with nothing. We discussed it and she said I should go to my knee therapy in the next building. I did. When I came back her room was empty. I found out she had the heart attack and was quickly rushed into surgery. The general consensus was that if she had not been at the hospital when the attack happened, she would not have survived.
We have been together 50.56 years. Not that I am counting.
That’s what’s wrong with kids these days. How many 20-somethings do you see who’ve been married 35 or 50 years?
My gone-south mole removal was a little over $3K with consults. An in patient removal. My colonoscopy was about $5K with consults. I logged in to Medicare and Tricare For Life to check. My out of pocket was around $500 or so.
My kids get annoyed at me constantly pounding them on getting insurance. At least catastrophic.
Scott Adams has left us:
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/01/13/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-has-died-n2198079
Rest in peace.
Dilbert will be with us forever
Still only 55F and now it’s raining a bit.
I am teh sux with weather prediction. I fit right in with the pros.
n
A cool night, 27F, but clear and still.
I have been testing out the little Vevor diesel heater.
Outside, with the house hot air ducting run through a hole in a plank set in the casemate window into a back bedroom (with some floor fans to distribute to the rest of the house) it can keep the main part of the house at about 60-62F, running in manual mode for 10hrs continuously at 3/10. This uses about 6/10th gallon of diesel.
An old 12v truck battery had no issues keeping it running for night #1, nights #2 and #3 were using a 120vac →12vdc transformer.
I would have to create a spreadsheet, but at a guess the least $$/BTU order would seem to be:
I got my SS 1099 in the mail.
My Medicare premium is over $7000 for the year. $8500 if you count Part D.
This does not count my Medicare Supplement which is another $3000.
So call it $12,000 a year for medical, with copays and deductibles..
IRMAA is a big part of that, so I expect it to go down considerably next year. Due to my firing, and being forced to sell my farm, I had a big income year that’s still affecting me.
I’m happy I can afford it, and sad for those who can’t.
The good news is that in America, I can actually get healthcare. It’s bad, post-Obama level care, but it’s available. Places where it’s free, they kill you by waitlist, death panel, or MAID.
@Ray: at the risk of being indelicate (we are all adults here) oxycodone and it’s analogues can cause severe constipation. This would be particularly unpleasant for somebody with a back injury.
I was unpleasantly surprised by this after some surgery a couple decades back. It would have been nice if someone had told me.
Prunes, apples and oatmeal are your friends.
A bidet is nice if one is mobilty impaired, heated is preferred, though long term there is the chance of infection, particularly for women.
missing text from 13:34 above;
I would have to create a spreadsheet, but at a guess the least $$/BTU order would seem to be:
We were informed of such complications.
Holly bat guano, my premiums were a little over $2,200, supplement about $2,500. So less than $5K for me. Wife has part D which adds $250.00. Still less than $5K for the two of us. Prescriptions for the wife were the big expense, about $4K. I am hoping to mitigate the prescription cost once my ChampVA gets approved.
I went with a high priced supplement, but still only 20% higher than yours.
IRMAA is painful. I’m not sure if regular premiums are progressive with the size of your monthly benefits or if they’re fixed. Next year should get better, either way.
I was hoping for another “windfall” year by getting big bux from Houston Methodist, but the supreme court put the kibosh on that. In spite of the appellate courts ignoring their own rules and clear contract law while dismissing our case.
“Prunes, apples and oatmeal are your friends.”
A six-pack of glazed donuts are your bosom buddies.
They are not. My wife gets a third of what I get and her Medicare premiums are the same as mine.
I am in plan “G” which is supposed to be the best.
If that were true, there would be no market for breast implants.
I’m glad to hear my premiums will be going down to your level, eventually.
I am also plan G. Prices vary by state, and probably by zipcode, and my G had a special clause I don’t currently recall, but I thought it was worthwhile at the time.
I’m a set-it-and-forget-it kinda guy,mostly.
MrsAtoz still makes enough to max up out on Medicare. Both of us. Damn, should have just lived together.
Back from my pickups and Costco run. I wanted to be sure to get another 2 bales of Charmin at the current discount.
Data point – Charmin does change when it gets old. The bale that is probably 4 years old or more is not as absorbent for water (it floats, dry, on top of the water for a long time. Misting it with alcohol lets it absorb and get wet.) And it has a higher tendency to shred and ball and leave small pieces behind (in your behind.) This can be uncomfortable, and is the main reason to use Charmin blue as it normally is the least shredding of the soft papers.
It still gets you clean, but it takes several flushes to get the paper wet and down the drain.
I did not expect any change or degradation of TP over time, but there you have it.
n
I turn 60 this March, so I still have time before I have to decide which is the least shirty plan. Unless I can stay on my wife’s company plan.
n
Yee hah! More political assassination.
Were living in the 70s again.
n
Insert cheap shot at SteveF here…?
Point of order: above assertion is made entirely without evidence.
Glad to hear Mrs Ray is home safely. Very best wishes for as comfortable a convalescence as possible.
Sad to hear of Mr Dilbert’s demise.
Tuesday nearly bedtime. BR Klassik radio has a new-ish late night programme – “classical” music from computer games. It is not awful. Relaxing bedtime background.
I notice the price of computer memory has gone nuts. I rather wanted to replace my main PC, a compact Asus unit the basis of which is probably ten or more years old. Now I am wondering if I shouldn’t just move the data to another new disk and wait until memory pricing comes down before investing in a new machine. Decisions, decisions.
Disturbing news from Iran of massacres. I wonder if POTUS will follow through on his warnings to the mullahs…
… Dr Pournelle used to speak of the USA being the friends of liberty everywhere, but the guardians only of their own.
Off to see the fang doctor tomorrow to see about my spontaneously disintegrated molar. I mistrust that both the treatment and the price thereof will be excruciating.
I turn 60 this March, so I still have time before I have to decide which is the least shirty plan. Unless I can stay on my wife’s company plan.
Companies are dropping their employee health insurance as fast as they can. The costs are rising at 15% to 20% per year.
We have a great healthcare system in the USA but we are having incredible arguments about paying for it. I think that the arguments are going to get worse this year as Medicare and Medicaid are paying for 50+% of the people in the USA.
“I did not expect any change or degradation of TP over time, but there you have it.”
It could be that part of the “performance” and strength is due to water adsorbed on the surface of the wood pulp molecules. Drys out, gets brittle, resists rehydration.
Or it could be that they use special additives that dissipate slowly over time or similarly lose water and become ineffective. Makes you wonder if anyone has published chemical analysis down to the ppm level. (Yes, it’s easy to find the weasel term: “detectable levels”.)
Something keeps it on top of the water and resists wetting … It was in a dark, enclosed space, inside the two bags, outer and inner, but it could have been heated up to over 100F.
It’s funny that it changes. Wonder what we’ve been wiping against our nethers.
n
“Ilhan Omar and Nearly 100 Democrats Say They Won’t Fund Immigration Enforcement, Accuse Trump Admin of “Lawlessness””
https://thelibertydaily.com/ilhan-omar-nearly-100-democrats-say-they-wont/
“(DCNF)—Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar and nearly 100 of her House colleagues are vowing to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol following the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent on Jan. 7.”
“Funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) — which includes ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) — expires on Jan. 30. The group of Democrats, members of the left-wing Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), is pledging to vote against all future funding for immigration enforcement, citing a laundry list of alleged abuses by the agency.”
Yup, here comes another government shutdown with a fake excuse.
Maybe ICE can grab Omar and throw her out of the country.
“‘Not Making Any Payments’: Trump Declares He’s Cutting Off Funds To Sanctuary Cities”
https://dailycaller.com/2026/01/13/trump-to-cut-off-sanctuary-city-funding/
“The White House will cease all federal payments to city and state governments that restrict cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities, Trump said Tuesday while addressing the Detroit Economic Club. The declaration follows intense national focus on immigration policy, with multiple lawsuits against enforcement surges racking up and Democrats demanding the Department of Homeland Security scale back activities. (RELATED: Trump Admin Ending Deportation Protections For Somali Nationals)”
It is about time.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Messing around in Persian civil wars can be hazardous to your health.
Xenophon to the white courtesy phone please…
The VA covers 1 in 19, more than 5%.
I decided to give restoring and upgrading the Chromebook a try. No luck and I tried a bunch of stuff. In the end, even if I’d gotten linux on it, without a replacement SSD it would still be an underpowered cheap lappy with a tiny hard drive.
I’ll list it for parts.
BTW, I HATE automagic hardware. There isn’t anyway to back out of the restore, and it locked up somehow. Even pulling the battery and cord and doing all the voodoo key combos to hard reset still had it stuck half way. There isn’t even the equivalent of holding the power button for 30 seconds to force a power off.
In the end, I spent far too much time on it due to pride, and a desire to not throw out hardware.
n
“Perilous Waif (Alice Long)” by E. William Brown
https://www.amazon.com/Perilous-Waif-Alice-William-Brown/dp/1520430574?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number one of one book space opera science fiction series. I reread the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) 2 lb (1 kg) trade paperback that was self published by the author in 2017 that I bought new from Amazon in 2025. The author has been threatening to release a sequel to the book since 2019 but no sequel is available yet. I will purchase the sequel if it is ever released.
Several hundred years in the far future is incredibly different yet things are still the same. Upon discovery of the four hyperspace bands, humanity has spread to over a million planets, moons, space stations, etc. But, humans being humans, conflicts are prevalent and forefront to the trillions of humans across the Milky Way. Piracy is common along with private armies and highly armed space fleets. Robot warriors of all types from gnats to thousand ton battle tanks are in common usage. Androids provide the labor that makes things move along. AIs are everywhere, running everything possible, and even grouped into several classes of ability.
Alice Long is a 14 year old girl being raised in an orphanage on a terraformed frontier planet of only females who are all vegetarians. Most of the planet’s human population have been genetically adapted to be dryads. Alice’s orphanage roommate is furry with tails and claws for climbing trees. Unlike most of the population, Alice looks human but underneath, she has many genetic modifications that are growing with her and starting to come online. Her skeleton and muscles have diamonds in them for strength and robustness. She has many sensory adaptations for her eyes, ears, etc. And she has a full AI brain that is taking over management of her body from her human brain. She frequently sneaks out of the orphanage to hunt and eat raw small predators to get more protein that her body is starving for.
The Mirai, Japanese for future, are a Japanese descendant race who totally converted their bodies and brains to artificial beings. They were very dangerous and expansionary. The rest of humanity built huge warship space fleets and destroyed the Mirai at great cost. People even spread rumors about how strange and destructive the Mirai were.
The book is highly technical and even explains the technology in detail in several appendixes. Some reviewers call the girl a Mary Sue but I disagree. Alice is a fully fleshed out character with good days and bad days. The book does feel kinda like a anime book without the drawings.
I have found the first six chapters of “Merciful Troubleshooter (Alice Long 2)” at, which requires a free account and login,
https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/merciful-troubleshooter.15081/
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (4,194 reviews)
Lynn
Lynn’s six star list in January 2026:
1. “Mutineer’s Moon” by David Weber
2. “Citizen Of The Galaxy” by Robert Heinlein
3. “The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress” by Robert Heinlein
4. “The Star Beast” by Robert Heinlein
5. “Shards Of Honor” by Lois McMaster Bujold
6. “Barrayar” by Lois McMaster Bujold
7. “Jumper” by Steven Gould
8. “Reflex” by Steven Gould
9. “Impulse” by Steven Gould
10. “Exo” by Steven Gould
11. “Dies The Fire” by S. M. Stirling
12. “Emergence” by David Palmer
13. “The Tar-Aiym Krang” by Alan Dean Foster
14. “Under A Graveyard Sky” by John Ringo
15. “Live Free Or Die” by John Ringo
16. “Footfall” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
17. “Lucifer’s Hammer” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
18. “The Zero Stone” by Andre Norton
19. “Going Home” by A. American
20. “Ender’s Game” by Orson Scott Card
21. “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline
22. “The Martian” by Andy Weir
23. “The Postman” by David Brin
24. “We Are Legion” by Dennis E. Taylor
25. “Bitten” by Kelley Armstrong
26. “Moon Called” by Patrica Briggs
27. “Red Thunder” by John Varley
28. “Lightning” by Dean Koontz
29. “The Murderbot Diaries” by Martha Wells
30. “Friday” by Robert Heinlein
31. “Agent Of Change” by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
32. “Monster Hunter International” by Larry Correia
33. “Among Others” by Jo Walton
34. “Skinwalker” and “Blood Of The Earth” By Faith Hunter
35. “Time Enough For Love” by Robert Heinlein
36. “Methuselah’s Children” by Robert Heinlein
37. “When the Wind Blows” by James Patterson
38. “The Lake House” by James Patterson
39. “A Soldier’s Duty (Theirs Not to Reason Why)” by Jean Johnson
40. “Human by Choice” by Travis S. Taylor and Darrell Bain
41. “Project Hail Mary” by Andy Weir
42. “Agent To The Stars” by John Scazi
43. “Starter Villain” by John Scalzi
44. “The Inheritance (Breach Wars)” by Ilona Andrews
45. “Burn for Me (Hidden Legacy, 1)” by Ilona Andrews
46. “White Hot (Hidden Legacy, 2)” by Ilona Andrews
47. “Wildfire: A Hidden Legacy Novel (Hidden Legacy, 3)” by Ilona Andrews
48. “Diamond Fire: A Hidden Legacy Novella (4)” by Ilona Andrews
49. “Sapphire Flames: A Hidden Legacy Novel (5)” by Ilona Andrews
50. “Emerald Blaze: A Hidden Legacy Novel (6)” by Ilona Andrews
51. “Ruby Fever: A Hidden Legacy Novel (7)” by Ilona Andrews
52. “The Armageddon Inheritance” by David Weber
53. “A Matter For Men (The War Against the Chtorr, Book 1)” by David Gerrold
54. “A Day for Damnation (War Against the Chtorr, Book 2)” by David Gerrold
55. “Ariel” by Steven R. Boyett
56. “Perilous Waif (Alice Long)” by E. William Brown
Somebody told me that these are a bunch of young men’s adventure stories. Being an old man, I liked that.
Lynn
Media Spins Mass Exodus Over ICE Shooting—Shipwreckedcrew Drops the Truth: It’s All About Breonna Taylor
https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2026/01/13/shipwrecked-has-the-real-story-behind-civil-rights-resignations-n2423892
https://x.com/shipwreckedcrew/status/2011111356406116773
‘Whistleblower’ Allegedly Leaks Personal Info/Addresses of Over 4,000 ICE and BP Agents to ICE List
https://redstate.com/jenniferoo/2026/01/13/whistleblower-allegedly-leaks-personal-informationaddresses-of-over-4000-ice-and-bp-agents-to-ice-list-n2198103
Immediate rendition or termination. Whatever it takes.
Something keeps it on top of the water and resists wetting … It was in a dark, enclosed space, inside the two bags, outer and inner, but it could have been heated up to over 100F.
It’s funny that it changes. Wonder what we’ve been wiping against our nethers.
n
It could be something that they are buying from Pampers and Huggies.
Diaper pulp is different than toilet paper pulp.
Vantucky had a big diaper pulp plant east of the city.
Nick stored the TP in the 100 degree heat, Gulf marine environment, inside two plastic wrappers. Run it through your simulation engine.
Does this Skinner fellow have better security than Maduro? He might want to consider that.
Also, the first agent or family member that gets hurt, Skinner deserves Accessory before the fact, co-conspirator, and accomplice charges.
Skinner deserves to get snatched by a CIA rendition team and wake up in a very dark place. The first question should be how he got the information.
Then the leaker needs to wake up in a very dark, very bad place before he disappears forever.
When you get hit with IRMAA for a one-time event such as the sale of property, you should file an appeal for the next year explaining that it was a one-time event and that your IRMAA should return to the level that it used to be. You should not have to pay the added IRMAA for a second year.
My experience is that Charmin blue is worse than red at shredding and leaving greeblies on my butt. This comparison is with rolls that are less than a month or two old. The blue is also more likely to tear through for me.
re: IRMAA
I was waiting to see what 2025 brought in terms of income, and my hopes for 2026. 2025 was my first “normal” year, with only SS, pension, and my Fidelity IRA and investment account. My 1% guy did a pretty good job for me. Good enough I may still have some IRMAA, and I need to get the numbers right on the appeal.
Plus there was the hope that 2026 would produce those big bux from Houston Methodist. I was hoping for somewhere between $700k to a few million. Which would definitely bring IRMAA back into play.
But I get nada. Worse than nada, since I was one of the people funding the lawsuit.
Easy come, easy go, and I already sold the family farm. I feel especially bad for my coworkers who had to declare bankruptcy. At least I was in a position to retire and not actively trying to raise a family after losing a salary.
send lawyers guns and money, dad get me outta this…
Warren Zevon from the “Excitable Boy” album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT9XlQi0yew
Funny what you find when you actually look instead of blaming the victim.
schizophrenia and cat parasites
ulcers and bacteria
now maybe
Oh, and a handful of cancers so far.
n
Oh, and a handful of cancers so far.
One of my second cousins over in Beaumont, Texas died of Adrenal cancer about five years ago. Turns out you cannot live without a Adrenal gland. When they took the second one, he passed away soon after that. I think he was 62. He had super high blood pressure caused by his adrenal glands overproducing adrenaline. And then he had zero adrenaline and passed away soon after that.
One of the things I picked up today was the Uber dashboard light. It occurred to me that with my big black Expy and that light, I could loiter or drive thru any neighborhood in Houston.
Don’t know if I’ll ever need or want it, but like the soft armor, better to have it than not. And it was only a dollar.
n
no nap today so books and bed are calling me.
n
https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2026/01/13/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-has-died-n2198079
smart funny fellow
I was getting his daily Dilbert Reborn comics in my email until about last Tuesday. He was behind, it was the Dec 26, 2025 strip about Dilbert buying a new house and getting a great deal. Upon entering the house after buying the house unseen, Dilbert and Dogbert found a skeleton in the living room in a hole in the floor.