I am about a week into being a Mac owner, and I love it, but my browser history is full of things that should be obvious, but I couldn’t figure out how to do.
Like…how to adjust the brightness on your MacBook Pro.
And how to connect ProtonMail to Mac Mail.
Rumour has it that Apple will change the serial numbers on Macs. Not sure why.
And if you do use Apple products, do the update to patch a security vulnerability.
For those of us who use Untappd, the app is approaching their billionth check-in sometime in April, and they are commemorating it with a year of free beer. Details here.
A brief history of gose, which is my current favourite beer style.
I’ve recently discovered two new liquors that I want to try. One is Belvedere Vodka, and the other is Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin. Belvedere is a rye vodka, which is supposedly fantastic for martinis. A friend recommended the Gunpowder and says it is a smooth yet vibrant gin. I can get it from my local liquor distributor for the bar, but the ski season is coming to an end, so I’m trying not to place an order. We carry Hendrick’s as our top shelf, but I recently swapped it out for Roku, which is better in my opinion, and cheaper from my distributor. Thanks to the superior quality, I can charge the same price. Next season I hope to have a dramatically expanded gin selection.
An intriguing history of the v-16 engine.
Southwest Iceland is looking shaky.
For the last few years I’ve been into the concept of divine timing and how something minor like someone counting out change sloooowwwwwly ahead of you at 7 Eleven can keep you from getting into a car accident.
Then, last June, I came across an episode of On Being in which physicist Leonard Mlodinow talks about how randomness reigns, yet the choices we make still matter. It was a compelling episode, and since then I’ve started listening to a lot of other podcasts he has been on. I just ordered his book The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. I’ll update with my review in our next What We’re Reading post.
Southwest Iceland is looking shaky.
The current livestream seems to be here.
This is how I know that people trying to convince me that Iceland exists are just having a laugh at my expense.
I used to be able to say Eyjafjallajökull three times fast, and while drunk, but my skills are slipping.
Sure you did, Spysdöttir
Note: this should have been “SPsdöttir” – a lame joke about Icelandic matrilineal naming conventions. I don’t think she is a Fed, mainly because she doesn’t support the agricultural / industrial complex.
It’s like time stopped in 1500 or so.
The Finns scoff.
Much obliged, good sir!
Not stirred?
Not this time, but for the next round, probably.
I use this site for work – https://earthquake.usgs.gov/ – real time info on quakes.
how to adjust the brightness on your MacBook Pro.
Mine has buttons upper left just right of the esc key. but this thing is a few years old.
I lived through the personal computer wars (honest truth: on my dorm floor there was a Macintosh salesguy, an IBM salesguy and a NeXT salesguy) and Mac has squandered the intuitivity lead they once had.
For WebDom and any other young’uns: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeXT
Bwaahahahha. Literally nobody ever (including the salesguy) referred to that shape as anything other than “pizzabox.”
Huh, the pizza box was always a 1U rackmount server.
The Sun (and Next) pizza boxes predate rack mount form factors being common – we just used to have those things on shelves.
We ran trade settlement for much of Wall Street on a couple of Sparcstation 20s.
The Sun (and Next) pizza boxes predate rack mount form factors being common
Yep.
We has both at my work (boss’s boss was a big NeXT fan). Seems like there was a difference in boxyness vs the Sun3 desktops we had, but it’s been a long time for my memory.
When Steve Jobs died I predicted the end of Apple.
When I was laid off from my last job, I can’t even begin to describe the glee with which I shipped back that piece of shit Mac they had issued me. The damn thing crashed constantly, the keyboard was by far the worst I have ever used, the idiotic touch bar would launch random shit if you got anywhere near it. On the plus side, the screen was crystal clear.
As a young LT, back in ’91, our BDE had Macintosh, unlike the rest of the Army. Windows 3.0 was just out… and horrible.
I was ready to buy one for myself… however the ~$3K price and when my work mouse went bad and I found out you could only replace it with the Mac mouse for more than $100, I changed my mind. Seriously, fuck Apple for the proprietary limitations they put on there systems .
Turned out the reason we had Mac was that the BDE CDRs brother was a a Mac salesman.
I heard later on that there was an investigation.
I’m sure that kinda thing happened more than we realise.
Oh wow. I wonder why yours was so bad? Company issued though probably had a lot of bloatware.
Except they’re doing better than ever.
You gotta love that Chinese slave labor.
Well, assuming you’re a greedy piece of shit.
Narrator: They’re all made in China.
What? No they’re (looks at laptop)
Fuck you, rhywun.
Heh.
It will be a while.
My guess is Google dies first.
NeXT became OS X once Apple bought NeXT and brought back Steve Jobs. It took a few years, but the earliest versions of OS X were essentially NeXT with Apple GUI.
A lot of names in Mac programming are still prefixed with “NS” (for “NeXTSTEP”) decades later.
#Metoo
My favorite computing experience, however, was an OS called BeOS. I loved using BeOS. Used it for probably 5-6 years in the late 90s/early aughts before the hassle was no longer worth it, and went to Mac shortly thereafter when I started grad school.
It was awesome. Started by a guy who was a big wig at Apple in the 80s.
He tried to get Apple to buy it as the base for a new OS, but Apple balked, then bought NeXT a few years later, which was the base for OS X.
BeOS
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BeOS
I used to play with a Be-flavored windowing system in Linux a couple decades ago. It had style.
I used that for a short time as well.
Minimal, without looking like a fucking DOS GUI.
Super intuitive.
When I used BeOS, I manually created and curated my young digital music library, which at the time was loads of Dave Matthews Band bootlegs.
When I switch to Mac, I used iTunes, which was great in 03, but blows donkey nuts (and has for at least a decade). I hated using it, but it was simple.
I decided to once again do manually build and curate my now much larger library from scratch. As in, re-rip all of my CDs (the ones I wanted to make sure I currently have anyways) bit-perfect, rip audio DVDs, Blu-rays, and SA CDs, and redownload everything else in FLAC.
It’s loads of work, but I like it much better.
iTunes has gotten slightly better since they pulled a lot of the crap out that doesn’t belong.
I know one of the lead programmers on iTunes.
He would agree with your assessment of it being a bloated disaster
I’m fine with it now. It’s called “Music” now and well, is mostly all about music. You can even easily disable the store and the streaming shit I have no use for.
I totally forgot about that one.
I will never forget OS/2 however.
I remember the BeBox came out, but never got to use one. Jealous.
I went to a talk at MIT by Dominic Giampaolo where he showed off a Be Box and talked about his filesystem work. It was really cool.
During the Q&A there was a question that turned into something like:
Giampaolo: I was inspired by in the filesystem used by VMS
Questioner: I actually wrote that filesystem
Giampaolo: Uh… Cool! Do you have time to talk after this?
It was a cool night.
That sounds awesome.
I love old-school stories from the trenches – even if that guy is my age, he probably has a bunch of them.
Giampaolo ended up at Apple and a lot of what he was showing off with the BeOS filesystem looks an awful lot like what’s in AFS; Spotlight, in particular, looks just like the extended-attribute file “database” he was showing off.
Yeah, I’ve noticed before the “journaled” file system mode in current Macs that was mentioned in the link (this was pre-AFS, which I guess is “journaled” by default?).
Apparently it’s “APFS”, not “AFS” (which is Andrew File System, which is a whole other thing).
Yep, APFS is a truly modern, filesystem with all the bells and whistles. It took Apple a _long_ time to get switched over from HFS/HFS+.
APFS does a more sophisticated version of journaling (which is basically: write to journal. then really write to disk – fewer chances for incomplete writes during a crash – i.e., less corruption)
I just ran across this article from a couple years ago re: BFS (the BeOS File System), which has a winking disclaimer:
A quick interview with a Senior Developer at BeOS, who worked on BFS
(He asked that his name not be used, to comply with the wishes of his current employer)
i.e., it’s Dominic, he just can’t use his name.
Be’s founder – Jean-Louis Gassé would be _so_ canceled today.
Although he’s French (and still around), so maybe he’s un-cancellable.
Oh, my…
I’ve got some NeXT stories, like when Steve Jobs first saw Executor and called me at home while I was recovering from pneumonia. Feel free to ask me about ’em on Zoom.
For the curious, you can run Executor/DOS 2.0 in your browser. Turns out, playing endless hours of Eric’s Ultimate Solitaire in a Macintosh emulator running in a DOS emulator in your browser isn’t the maximal pointless use of time.
how to connect ProtonMail to Mac Mail.
They have macmail?
The stock mail client is called “Mail”.
How do you maintain end-to-end encryption if you don’t use the proton client?
You don’t.
That’s what I thought.
But that’s not to say you can’t use your protonmail account for non encrypted stuff
Yeah, pretty sure you don’t. But, ProtonMail released a Bridge application that I had to install to populate my ProtonMail into the Mail app. I don’t use this particular ProtonMail account for anything important. I got it in protest to Google. I do have another ProtonMail account that I use only through the website.
The ProtonMail bridge for Windows only works on 64-bit systems. I bought 32-bit so that I could run my legacy software.
Web interface will have to do.
Yes, the guy counting slowly could keep you from being killed. He could also prevent you from meeting your soulmate or buying the winning lottery ticket. If we can’t know, then it doesn’t matter. If a supreme being is pulling the strings, then that’s for Him to know, not me. I gotta look at it as mere chance, because anything else is always speculation.
Belvedere is very nice indeed – it was my go to for many years.
I eventually came to grips with the fact that my palate just isn’t very sophisticated and I’m perfectly happy with Tito’s for far less money.
(not sure why that posted here)
It was inevitable.
Or not. Who knows?
You were delayed in noticing to which post you were responding?
It’s still vodka. The more sterile and flavorless it is the better.
this
I’m not sure I’ve ever encountered someone that likes gose; sure, plenty that have tried it (myself included) – but going back to it?
Goses (geese?) are delicious!
My summer favorite: http://www.offcolorbrewing.com/beer-for-tacos
This is the only gose that I have actually enjoyed.
I get one every now and then.
https://www.dogfish.com/brewery/beer/seaquench-ale
Gose, a beer, a nasty beer
Kölsch, a long long way from rum
Kriek, a cherry calls my name
Stout, I feel warm in my tum
Helles, a beer that makes me sick.
Weisse, It makes me want to run.
Been a Mac owner for 14 years – had no idea the serial number was “meaningful”. Mine just looks like a random string of alphanumerics.
Yeah, who knew?
Web Dom: The way I think of it is that we live in a deterministic universe but we can never know all of the factors that determine the future so from our viewpoint the universe functions as non-determinate. The future is already written yet we can never know what it is.
We must believe in free will, we have no choice.
/Isaac Bashevis Singer (attributed)
This.
Some hack named Milton wrote a poem or something talking about that.
It’s okay, I guess.
For a more strict predestinarian view, I recommend Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.
Hear me out – they meet their future selves, indicating that their future is predetermined. Napoleon can’t be deterred from invading Russia. Abraham Lincoln doesn’t take extra security precautions which might have saved him from assassination – even though he’s seen that his security perimeter can be breached by two teenaged boys. Nobody can swerve from their appointed fate.
And Beethoven wrote all those awesome piece for electric keyboards!
If I realize I don’t have free will and change my life choices because of it, what does that mean?
This
I’m cool with that.
I just heard thunder. Sounds like a storm is rolling in.
Forecast for Sunday/Monday is snow.
Later tonight, Thunder, warm rain,
We had thunder tonight.
Learned that NewDog does not like!
Snowing hard here now, predictions are all over but most in the 5+ inch range. Ten warm tomorrow afternoon, most will be gone by evening.
Been gorgeous here for the last week and a half.
Rain coming soon.
For a second there I thought “Ten warm” was some cool far northern lingo for +10C, but then realized you meant “then.” I might start using this like “large” for “thousands of clams (or bones, or what have you).”
NYC murder suspect mistakenly released from Rikers Island remains at-large: police
“A New York City murder suspect mistakenly released from Rikers Island remained at-large Wednesday, and corrections officers were warned that the 26-year-old is considered armed and so dangerous that they should call NYPD instead of trying to apprehend him themselves.”
Reminds me of this
https://youtu.be/9knToyK-wUs
that led to this.
And this
I have never seen Idiocracy, but many have recommended it to me. I look around, and it is no longer published in physical media, only streaming. What, do they think we’re stupid?
The only problem with “Idiocracy” is that it is painfully close to being a documentary. That said, President Camacho was a kick as POTUS.
Sadly, I’ll never get to see it if it’s only streamed.
+ a bunch of electrolytes that plants need!
Found Idiocracy on Amazon — DVDs available between 12 and 25 bucks.
all I could find was the streams. link?
Remind me tomorrow — I’m on my blasted iPad at the moment and can’t copypasta worth sh!t…
Here, try this:
https://www.amazon.ca/Idiocracy/dp/B005UWQ2M8/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Idiocracy&qid=1615440350&sr=8-2
Hope that worked.
“In a different criminal contempt case, a judge sentenced Buggs to just 30 days, and that sentence was mistakenly listed as the final disposition in the murder case, sources told the Daily News. Jail staffers did not realize the error before releasing Buggs early Tuesday.”
Um, oops?
This is probably part of Deblasio’s strategy for closing Rikers.
/I’m only half-joking. He literally wants to cut the number of current inmates in half, close Rikers, and build four “neighborhood” jails-cum-“community centers.”
Make NYC 1978 Again
It’s just madness. I don’t believe for one second that he gives a shit about the state of Rikers or the trials and tribulations of its inmates’ visitors.
No, what he cares about is punishing average, law-abiding, productive New Yorkers. It’s evident in every fucking thing he says and does.
The real madness is that so many people either can’t see that or are content to go along with the program.
The Dems buy votes. It works. ?♂️
And that is how you get an asshole like Guiliani.
The Gothamites must really have been in a desperate situation.
You had me at V16.
I have a special place in my heart for Marmon. Crazy beautiful and innovative cars.
Thanks, WebDom!
Why didn’t anyone think of this before? /sarc
‘Cornel West, Laura Kipnis and Stephen Pinker are among about 200 scholars from across the US who on Monday launched the Academic Freedom Alliance, a group with a mission to help college educators “speak, instruct and publish without fear of sanction, bullying, punishment, or persecution”.’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/mar/08/academic-freedom-alliance-college-university-free-speech
Where’s the “unless you’re to the right of Trotsky’ footnote?
The Volokh site is pim – I mean promoting the group. Supposedly it’s trans…ideological.
https://reason.com/volokh/2021/03/10/academic-freedom-alliance-panel-discussion/
But where is the Janitors and Campus Security Officers Association? After what happened at Smith, it seems they need some academic freedom too.
Sure they are… right up until someone runs afoul of a leftist orthodoxy.
Well, the cynical view is reinforced when we look at the proliferation of academic-freedom groups.
And even if they champion the persecuted conservative/libertarian/progressive-until-five-minutes-ago professors, it won’t change the majority culture which is getting subsidized by what looks increasingly like a higher-ed bubble.
There should be a group to pop the bubble and encourage more efficient means of education.
Want to hear something that will send chills up your spine? The BRM V16 at full song at Goodwood.
I’d don’t understand jazz.
That just made me smile after a shitty day at work and now time to eat some dinner and got to bed to prepare for another shitty day. Thanks at least for the smile!
I’m gonna have to tap the fuck out of that because I hear the same shit literally ALL DAY LONG going up and down the local streets. Yes, it’s probably not 16 cylinders but as the locals sure as hell put a lot of effort into making their engines run as loud as possible it might as well be.
What a beautiful sound!
Currently arguing with an idiot on Substack who thinks that the best thing for America right now is for someone to assassinate Biden.
Hear him out at least.
He’s rather verbose. Long rants about how if I don’t want it to happen I’m Neville Chamberlain and my children will die under goosestepping Nazis/communists/etc..
You’re inextricably linked to him now. Expect a visit soon.
I thought fortune cookies were Chinese?
Why would you spend any time talking to the FBI?
Half the commentors here are feds.
Only westernsloper.
He thinks putting Harris in charge would be an improvement!?
I think he’s under the illusion that political violence is going to end up with a restoration of limited government and the true glory of America.
What we’ll actually get is more Robespierreian in nature.
Yeah, I’m thinking more guillotines than bare-breasted women holding flags. I think most people know this, which is why there are few true revolutionaries today.
Yeah.
Let’s throw a national tragedy on top of a massive dumpster fire.
That’ll bring up the morale.
If, by America, he means Kamala, then he’s right. She’s had to blow a lot of gross dudes to get where she is and Joe might be the worst.
You’re arguing with a Fed.
thatsbait.gif
Huh, the obvious answer that I didn’t consider.
Even if he’s not, pretend he is and maybe cause him to stroke out when you keep calling him Agent or Inspector and pretending he’s CIA.
Can confirm this is fun.
He’s already blocked me for being insufficiently revolutionary.
But he’ll be back on the next go around.
He doesn’t want you poisoning his fishing grounds.
Out of curiosity, what shlubstack is it?
I like Gose. My favorite Gose of all.
We are in the middle of a southern stream and have had 2-3 inches of rain per day since Monday. Localized flooding, one small dam on Maui overtopped, couple of deaths from flooded streams, and brown water warnings for all beached. Now the thunder storms have started. I will wait under the sources of lighting have moved along and go do cannonballs in the pool to lower the water a couple of inches.
I am sipping a G&T and contemplating how I will escape from the next round of diversity training. Dinner later will probably be red clam sauce over glass noodles.
I am still terrified of that shit coming to my company. I’m generally pretty easy-going but I might lose it if some flunkie starts making me check my white privilege or some similar bullshit.
It’s such a stupid fucking game they are playing. You bristle against it and “only a racist would do that!”. People have lost all sense of self respect.
They learned it from the Salem Witch Trials.
The difference is the Salem witch trial people apologized –
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-real-life-letter-of-apology-written-by-the-salem-wi-1640827487
On second thought, she might not have been a witch.
Interesting. I don’t think we will, but I do think the pendulum will swing away from this moral race panic.
That dam situation… don’t they have a contingency for it?
It’s a small privately owned dam on a largish stream. The owners seem to be in semi-control of the situation.
Wow. Just read up on it.
That reservoir was empty before Monday.
Sure – planned by the best engineers China has to offer.
One of the many positive things I can say about my current employer is that if the time comes that, for insurance or CYA purposes, we have to do something like that, he’ll make it abundantly clear that he’ll be fine with you doing crossword puzzles or (better yet) catching up on your email while the “training” is going on.
We are talking about (I.e. being talked at) diversity and inclusive th Friday. Joy.
Cannonballs sound like fun.
I looked at a house with a pool and passed because I thought it would be too much maintenance. I often regret that.
I had a house with an in-ground pool.
Never, fucking ever, EVER again.
Maintenance was the only thing I ever did with it.
It’s only like a 100 bucks a month, until the pool guy pisses into your pump to make it explode and charges 1500 to fix it. He only does that when times get tough for him.
A pool out here is great because I can easily use it year round. After I purchased the house I had the old grout covered with blue tile and added a large octopus mosaic in the deep end. The sunlight on the tile warms it enough I bitch when it gets down to 78 go to the moon degrees. In the summer it gets up to around 88-90 sometimes. When it does I just throw in a couple of blocks of ice from the fishing supply store.
The pool is surrounded by fences and trees and is very private. The bench in the deep end is easy to work a laptop for those WFH situations.
I ordered Dominos. I’m full and satisfied.
I don’t care.
Would
Furthermore, because I’m cheap, I went and picked it up.
That cuts the price in half.
Guess what I’m having for lunch tomorrow and Friday?
Little Caesar’s?
I remember Little Caesars being good when I was a kid. Especially the square pizzas.
I tried it a few years ago, it was probably one of the single worst food items I’ve ever had as an adult.
Little Caesar’s was a step way up from Domino’s in our little town. Pizza Hut was where the rich kids ate.
It had slid twenty years ago, the last time I got a pizza from them. When did “pizza! pizza!” end?
Domino’s was a treat when I was little. The local pizza in upstate New York is absolute garbage.
I don’t even know about Pizza Hut because we never had it. Maybe it was out of price range.
Pick the narrative of your choice: George Floyd was an innocent saint or hardened criminal who caused his own death. No nuance, no middle ground like so much else today.
How the hell did this end up up here? Eff me.
The great thing about our Pizza Hut was the buffet thing where the pizzas could sit and age for a while, also they had the Journey video game.
Truth. Pizza has to sit a spell.
Worked at Pizza Hut in high school. The amount of oil they put in the pan would drown an anchovy.
Pizza Hut pizza is definitely fried, not baked.
Chipotle?
Salmonella?
That shit’s for the birds, man!
That’s exactly what your toilet will say tomorrow.
Video.
https://twitter.com/itsybrittc/status/1369831429668970497
Meanwhile, stuffin gets to use a Japanese toilet.
Man, they better not memory hole classic Simpsons. So many great ones like that which I haven’t seen yet.
Leftover Stouffer’s lasagna. Dominos would be a treat compared.
Large 3 topping for $7.99 if you pick it up.
That’s 3 meals. 2 for me, since I ate half of a large, which I don’t normally do.
Is large 16″ or 14″, back when I was in the pizza delivery game a large 2 topping was $9.40, Now I see what looks like great deals but then I realize that they shrunk the pizzas by 25%
Excellent question. Large at Dominos is 14″.
That’s what I figured , a large was 16″ back in the day. Fucking Monaghans, capitalist pigs!
INFLATION DOESNT EXIST!
Duh. If there was inflation the pizza would have gotten bigger.
A 30 pack of Stroh’s just went up to $21.39 that’s almost a 4¢ per can increase, Thanks Biden!
Stouffer’s Mac & Cheese or GTFO.
I had Dominoes last night…
Their pasta is actually pretty good.
Narrator: It’s not good at all.
You can say that again!
Must be my local one, because I prefer it to Fazoli’s.
I haven’t owned a computer that I didn’t build myself, with one exception, since 1995. The exception was a gaming laptop that I bought in 2006 or 2007 and I ended up cannibalizing it to build another machine eventually.
/sigh
Most clear liquors based on rye have a distinctly different mouthfeel from their grain-based counterparts. That being said, I’m not sure how they rate in making a Kangaroo, since it’s not my tipple of choice.
If you’re on a budget, Sobieski is a perfectly good Polish rye vodka. Typically ~$20 USD for a 1.75 liter.
If your budget is bigger, I highly recommend the St. George rye gin (actually, all the St. George gins are fantastic) for martinis, aviations, slings, etc.
St. George rye gin, ’cause my budget’s bigger…
Darn, can’t think of a rhyme.
Yep, I’m drinking Sobieski now. Of course, it’s more expensive than that here but still reasonable.
“Devine Timing”.
I was stationed in Germany in the late ’70s when the Red Brigade were running loose.
One morning my wife held us up leaving for work when she went through several pairs of panty hose until she got one without a run.
When I got to the base gate everything was shut down – I had to turn around and go back. A bomb had just gone off in front of the HQ building. But for the delay I would have been walking across the open parking lot right past the vehicle that held the bombs (explosive-filled propane bottles) when they went off.
My wife is convinced about the Devine part.
A couple weeks later I got horse holding duty for a visiting 3 star. When I took him to his car (a tiny 1100c Opel rental) he said “What’s this?” obviously upset. “Low profile sir.” “Oh, I see. Let’s go.”
Wow. That was a close call. Thankfully you missed the bomb.
A remarkable escape! So glad to see you’re still here.
When I lived in eastern Europe bombs were the weapon of choice for the various mafia groups. My wife just missed one that went off in a shop near our apartment. Another one went off a block away under a car. Luckily it only took out the guy who was setting it. For a long time my wife would cross the street if there was a parked BMW because it might have a bomb.
I love Caravaggio and Baroque style art. I also enjoy Renaissance art too. My minor was art history. Love Art History.
I also have been watched Prince Harry and Megan interview and watching peoples reaction to it, so I haven’t posted in a while. I’m like wow. I’m also thinking does anyone have a good HR department?
Money Printer go Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/10/politics/covid-relief-bill-house-vote/index.html
Why not Gaga’s Born That Way?
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwIJcSJWEAAOrj0?format=jpg&name=medium
That’s just shitty parenting. I read to my daughters all the time. Some books were fun stories. Some taught a lesson (waves to Dr. Suess.) None were about their sexuality.
In my stint as a manager for a corporate new bookstore, we were required to stock Heather Has Two Mommies. No one ever bought it, and if we tried to do a return on it (send it back to the publisher for credit) it was put on auto-reorder. This was at several different sized stores.
As a bookseller, I have sold everything from Mapplethorpe monographs to The Turner Diaries, so it wasn’t the content that bothered me, but that it was a waste of space.
From what I gather, most commercial bookstores are just basically anti-racist distribution centers at this point.
I got hit on my motorcycle by some dingbat lady. She wanted to turn left and was too dumb to plan for it. She swung a hard left right in front of me at 40 mph. I was riding differently because I had saddlebags full of new parts for a customer and the latches kept opening, so I toned it down to keep the parts safe until I got back to the shop. I womped into her front fender, flew 30 feet through the air and landed flat on my back, An oncoming car luckily screeched to a stop before flattening me. Bike was totalled and so was her SUV. I got a sore as fuck neck and a chunk of glass from my mirror stuck in my palm. Was I lucky or unlucky?
Fast forward about two years. I had some obnoxious asshole hassling me at a coffee shop. The one with the mermaid. He kept bitching at me as I got my coffee. As I left, I walked by his table, stopped and said, ” why don’t you shut the fuck up and leave me alone?” As I did this, I flailed my hands ( one of which held a full cup of hot coffee) and inadvertently squeezed my fist. This cause the lid to come off and coffee spilled on the table. It rolled across and dripped onto asshole’s lap. He leaps up and screams. The manager tells us both to leave. Three years later ( yes, THREE YEARS) I’m driving home and some cop pulls up along side of my car and forces me off the road. I get out and ask WTF? He says I have a warrant for battery. Handcuffed, taken to jail, had to pay 500.00 buck bail, in cash. 5 or 8 hearings later, during which the DA “offers” me 5 years probation and a hundred anger management classes, The judge finds a law that allows him to drop the charges with prejudice if I complete one month of probation. I am unscathed by the whole ordeal, except for the process. Was I lucky or not?
How come every time I get unlucky, I am lucky on the repercussions? Why can’t I just get lucky in a lottery of finding a diamond way? How much crazy shit had to happen just so and not happen just so for all of this?
Btw, these stories both are way more involved. This is the cliff note version. The coffee story happened 5 years ago (the arrest part, anyway).
Sorry about your bike, man! Glad you weren’t too badly injured.
Yeah, insurance only paid about half what it was worth. The lady ditched her way out paying and I got pennies. At least, I didn’t get hurt too bad!
Nothing good ever happens at Starbucks.
If you were a homeless drug addict, you wouldn’t say that!
True. I take that back.
https://twitter.com/CanAditude/status/1369837175576084480
I’m so pleased you’re not dead!
Thanks. Not half as much as I am, trust me!
I thought I was the only one who has a mental tape recorder of Sallah saying that to Indiana Jones.
*Note: John Rhys-Davies is an unapologetic pro-Western, pro-liberty guy. He’s too old to GAF what Hollywood thinks of him.
Nope, I hear that line in my head often, under the right circumstances.
Nice. I may remember him mostly from Sliders.
I liked watching Sliders when I got back from work, back in the early days of my career, when I would head back to the hotel room in whatever podunk town I was working in, seeing what was on the syndicated late afternoon/early evening TV before heading out for a lonely meal by myself and a six pack to bring back to the room.
I first saw him in Shogun, and have been a fan of his ever since.
It would be kind of cool if he were dead. His comments would have a bit more gravitas.
You are a twisted fuck, man.
Be patient.
They sent a fire truck and an ambulance. There was like 10 firefighters all just standing around making comment about how I should be dead, as I ran around picking up all the parts that flew out of my saddle bags. Ironic, that the parts all flew around after all of that. I went straight back to me shop and fixed one of my other bikes, so I could have a ride home.
Another thing is, this all happened right around the time that movie star lady died from a brain injury after a skiing accident. When I went to the E,R, the next day, they were all concerned about brain injuries. They did 12k worth of cat scans on me. I kept telling them my hand hurt and they could care less. After they sent me home it just kept hurting. Eventually ( like 3 months later) I got sick of the pain and took care of it my self. I heated an exacto knife to sterilize it and dug around in my palm until I found it. It was an eighth inch triangle of mirror, deep in the fat part of my thumb. I felt so much better after it was out, LOL. 12k, and they didn’t even fix the one thing wrong. I only paid a quarter of the bill out of the meager insurance payout.
Physically Disfappled.
Damn. Hope it wasn’t your batin’ hand.
Oh, and then…
I got sent to get cortisone shots in my spine by my doctor. Epidural and everything. This first one helped a whole bunch. I was really looking forward to the second. Second time, I go in to some outpatient place in Beverly Hills, the kind mostly used for cosmetic surgery. They hook up the imaging device and start giving me the local anesthetic. It seems like they are giving me twice as many as the first time. After maybe 7 shots or so, one shot made me really dizzy. I said, “Whoa, that one got me really dizzy!” Then, they gave me another. I woke up across the room on a gurney with a crew of medical people just starting to place the paddles on my chest. They were obviously massively relieved that I woke up. I got the fuck out of there as fast as possible. Later, I told the story to a customer who happened to be a medical crimes prosecutor. He told me that I overdosed on Lidocaine, or they shot it straight into a vein. Either way, he said they usually prosecute that when someone dies. Which is often. It just keeps going…
Holy Hannah.
I had no idea lidocaine could be so dangerous!
Drugs’re bad, mmm-kay?
Yeah, all ’cause the crazy lady didn’t want to miss her turn!
Man, that bites. Glad you were relatively unscathed.
The warrant thing is nuts. Why wait to find you in traffic when they could have mailed a letter or called you?
We might not always see justice done on this planet, but “Vengeance is Mine,” sayeth the Lord.
Alex Jones vs cliff racer
I don’t usually share these before I pass them along to SugarFree, but I feel like sharing. New Hat and Hair image.
Oh no! Let the caged hair sing!
Need moar ketchup stains.
Is it just me, or is Trump looking a little Kim Jong Il?
John Daly isn’t aging well.
I kid, good stuff, the background almost looks like prison bars which might trick some progs to watch.
Suthenboy writes: “The future is already written yet we can never know what it is.”
I get a big kick out of brainstorming “What if….” history scenarios. Such as “What if Hitler’s gas mask hadn’t fit properly?” or “What if South Carolina’s troops hadn’t fired on Ft. Sumter?” or “What if George Washington had been killed or seriously maimed like virtually all the other officers with Gen. Braddock?” Such can lead to hours of discussion around a couple pizzas and six packs.
What if Saddam Hussein had been assassinated in the mid-1980s?
I recall an online graphic novel where Santa Ana was killed by a sniper bullet at the Alamo allowing Texas to establish and remain an independent republic.
Fun story that got sidetracked into aliens (cute chicks wearing bikinis, naturally).
Found it
Roswell, Texas
My comment keeps disappearing.
Roswell, Texas
My comment keeps disappearing
Third try
Roswell, Texas
I give up. DDG “Roswell, Texas”
Is that an Arleigh Burke class?
I think I read that one – is it the one where Hitler is a drunk house-painter and LBJ is a hired goon for some bad guy or other?
If you are in a goofy “what if?” Mood, German film “Look Who’s Back” is an entertaining and sometimes insightful movie about Hitler coming back to the present day (2015 or so) and being mistaken for a Hitler impersonator.
Heh, I read the book, or most of it. Missed the movie. Maybe I’ll rope someone into watching it with me.
And so it is – the backstory was more interesting than the alien story. Though the ladies in bikinis were OK.
The whole thing used to be online. Now it’s the first few chapters and an invite to buy it from Amazon.
What if the poop swastika at the University of Missouri dorm never got reported, but instead was just cleaned up by a janitor or dorm manager? If that never becomes a national story, does Black Lives Matter even exist as we know it today?
Sadly, yes – if not that, it’d be something else.
I thought of a “what if” the other day: What if Hitler hadn’t been antisemitic? Still a fascist dictatorship, still tries to conquer the rest of Europe, but no holocaust, no chasing away Jewish scientists, etc.
51 and only now do I know what ❤️ is.
https://ibb.co/CHRbdY5
A sweater shaver?
Yes. It’s my first one. Picking lint balls for decades and no one ever told me about these guys.
I have a heel scraper that looks a bit like that.
I gots da happy juice, and it sounds like this:
The Rover
So, I’ve been arguing with a leftist retard on another site about how wonderful Cali is and how China is the most poverty free county in the world.
After I pointed out to him that Cali residents are fleeing the state in record numbers to red states, he said that’s because all the red states get welfare while Cali pays their own ways, I asked for links *crickets*
Then I asked for China poverty stats *crickets*, then posted a link from WaPo how China has lifted 100 million out of poverty since 2019 (poverty is defined there as below $360 a year), and there are 2 billion people in China. God I am so fucking sick of these commie apologist fucktards.
They have “lifted” people out of “poverty” by forcibly moving them from rural agrarian areas to synthetic mega-cities. The people relocated from their ancestral homes were offered multiple condos/apartments in brand new buildings built in these new cities that sprang up overnight. Then they were permitted to rent/lease or to sell the multiple units to later “immigrants” (forcibly relocated) to these new mega cities.
I visited a city in western Ningxia province about 10 years ago that seemed like it had simply sprung up out of nothing–the residents I met told me proudly that it was a city of seven million. It’s a fake city in the middle of nowhere, the only reason there are people there is the Chinese government wanted to mine the mountains and sent a bunch of people there who used to live somewhere else.
I visited little chemical plants that were operated by mom-and-pop teams that were swept up and consolidated under organizations run by politically favored assholes. So many family coal mines in the Datong area were shut down and their proprietors shipped away to new metro areas while the government handed their land and operations over to groups run by the newly favored politicians’ cronies. ugh.
Yeah, it’s depressing how so many American leftists literally have no idea what they are talking about – and nobody cares.
It really is. You want to talk about tragedy, look at what the state in China has done to the little guy, all in the name of “The People.”
I visited there 20 years ago. Some uncomfortable moments when the conversations with the tour guide veered toward politics. But yeah I didn’t get a real look at the place. And I have no desire to return.
I visited a large chemical plant that was part of Norinco (China North Industries Corporation, which manufactures, among other things, lots of firearms), and was told proudly, that all of their workers now were able to own their own homes under recent reforms. Asking around, I found out that the “reforms” consisted of telling the workers that they all now suddenly “owned” the apartments they lived in that had previously been maintained by the government. Of course, ownership now also included all the maintenance costs, and oddly enough, the government hadn’t been maintaining them very well for a long while.
All I know is based on their movies (or the movies they allow to be made). Apparently the govt. really likes riling up the audience against evil furriners – I mean, I understand the historical context, etc., but it’s hard not to take it personally when the evil furriners are often Americans. Perhaps a sign they want to redirect popular feeling toward a target abroad, so the people will put up with the bad government because at least it kicks foreigner ass? If I were paranoid, I’d say they were softening up public opinion for a possible war.
Kind of. After ’89, the government ramped up the propaganda in schools to make sure a Tiananmen never happens again. One result is that many of the youth are xenophobic little monsters.
That’s unfortunate and probably ominous. Meanwhile, it seems that many U. S. kids are being taught to be oikophobes – xenophobes against their own country. It’s not like it’s a binary choice – or I hope not.
Half of China defecates in open ditches.
I consider that poverty.
I have a lovely story about the latrines at one of the chemical plants I visited, but I don’t have the time nor stomach to type it up now. Suffice to say, our VP who was with us had her eyes opened that day.
My favorite memory was attending one of the tourist-trap Chinese Opera shows in Xi’an and some fat old German guy stumbles out the indoor latrine gasping in horror from the smell.
Probably had seen some action in WWII, and still couldn’t take Chinese latrines…
Have you guys seen this?
One more reason not to visit.
Not that video, but I have seen that kind of toilet before, many times and places.
And now we are following China’s orders on how to deal with Covid.
Watching Paris, Texas. Keep expecting HDS to whine “Avenge meeee!”.
I am on the verge of buying Repo Man on blu-ray. I have the DVD, the quality sucks.
LOL Oppressed duchess Meghan Markle got Piers Morgan fired. He’s a blowhard asshole but… he did not apologize. Props.
What he do?
White knighting for QEII.
He said, “I don’t believe her.”
Literally, that’s it.
She might be a real phony like Holly Golightly, in that she honestly believes all this phony junk that she believes.
There is a lot incentive to believe the worst possible interpretation. Terrible trend.
where the fuck is Morgan Pier?
If it was Mick Pier, it would be in Boston.
A pier that hacks your phone and then won’t shut up. Apparently, one committed the crime of disagreeing with a POC.
The Daily Mail seems to have reduced its fascinating American coverage to cover ROYAL FAMILY DRAMA! which I could get from the American media if I were interested.
I remember a major issue I had when I first switched to using a Mac was that I would sometimes want to do some specific thing, so I’d google “how to [do x] on a mac” and find some Mac forum where someone was asking how to do the exact thing I wanted to do.
Then, I’d have to wade through a bunch of responses from MacAssholes saying, “Why would you want to do that? That’s not the Mac way of doing things. That sounds like some sort of stupid Windows thing. You should do [thing which is almost, but not completely, unlike what I want to do] instead.”
Finally, if I was lucky, about 5 pages into the responses someone would actually answer the question with “just double click and drag while holding command-option-escape” or whatever, which do exactly what I was asking for.
tldr: I like Macs but hate most Mac users.
Yeah, same thing for Ubuntu. “Why would you want to do that?” “you don’t need to do that, just do these other 5 things in this sequence”
fuckers. I can’t even with Macs. My GF has 2 mac books and I can’t stand to touch either of them (one’s her work computer so I shouldn’t anyway).
and I’m a long time linux guy
I felt bad for Tux – working hard on all that programming, always having to be cheerful. So I had him smoke a joint – in about 2005 or so. In the meantime, I couldn’t be arsed to actually learn it, or anything.
I have learned (somewhat) to use Open Office, because Bill Gates might get a percentage, and fuck him. Also “subscriptions” are for magazines. I buy software, I want to use it for however long I want.
*sigh* …because Bill Gates might still get a percentage of Office…
The ex boyfriend who introduced me to Ubuntu was by far the most entitled, elitist douchebag I’d ever known. But, I do like Ubuntu. So, he was onto something there at least.
I am, immodestly, a legitimate Linux expert (in the 10,000+ hours sense) – I deal with thousands and thousands of Linux servers for a living and have done so for many years.
I am no longer interested in running Linux on my personal machine – to borrow a line from jwz: I don’t want to have to sysadmin my laptop.
His observation about the CADT model used for Linux UIs remains true.
I run linux on several personal machines and servers at home, mostly because it’s what I know best. I don’t particularly like it anymore, but it’s comfortable. I have a windows PC for games that I can’t play on linux (and don’t have the time to play anyway) and I have androids and ipads, but honestly, I’m fairly *tired* of all this computer shit floating around.
I’m bored with what people somehow still seem to think is innovative, on some average cultural level.
Tired of maintaining this shit, but nothing better exists as far as I can see. There are plenty of evangelists for different things, but it’s all *boring* to me anymore. Take those TED talks and shitcan them, folks, I’m *BORED* with what you call “Technology.”
I’m not yet at the boredom level, thankfully – that would make work a slog and I don’t have prospects in another field that would pay nearly as well.
I don’t have any Windows machines, in no small part because I still hold a grudge from when they tried to kill Linux (plus, every time I use one I think “man, this UI is just cluttered and terrible”).
You are correct, re: innovation – new OS releases e.g., by Apple had major new features but now it’s just polishing an already well-running system. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, it just means things have hit maturity.
On the user-front, they’re just larding on useless bells and whistles
and yes, jwz has it right in many ways.
Alternatively, “How do I fix this computer problem?”
Mac guy: “Buy a Mac.”
Fuck right off.
That’s still my answer.
Enh, I’ve seen the same in reverse. People are asshoe in general.
Yeah, most Mac users I’ve met are dicks. But for my own purposes, I’m very happy with this device. I simply couldn’t deal with the bullshit on PC anymore. I love that I just turn this computer on and it works without any fuckery.
Was dropping off some textbook work I had done for the public junior high school yesterday. Happened to be the exact time they were holding a minute of silence for the victims of the firebombing of Tokyo (March 9, 10 1945). Awkward being the only American in the office, but the expression on the Chinese guys face was worth the price of admission.
Did you start chanting USA! USA! USA!?
No. Lol. I wasn’t proud of that, nor did I feel responsible for it.
I would have loved to see the faces of the Chinese guys.
For once, I was able to tell Northern Asians apart.
I assume they were double masked.
When I was at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, the Japanese schoolchildren in groups were super cheerful when they saw me. Usually the kids in Japan ignore white people because they are nothing special. But they were clearly propagandized during their museum visit to be super friendly to everyone, especially Americans or anyone who looks like them. All I wanted to tell them was I’m not an American–my naturalization application was mailed the first day I returned home from Japan.
They are pretty decent about not blaming individual Americans for what happened. They are horrible about acknowledging the Japanese govt’s role in what happened, however.
“Things just happened! ?♂️“
Basically. I’ve asked a few of them “What does ‘Never Again’ mean?” It’s the slogan at the Hiroshima war memorial. That gets uncomfortable real quick.
“Never again” is a particularly important phrase to (((my people))). I suspect it means exactly the opposite of the Japanese version.
Ooh. BTW, you see what happened to that Miami Heat center that called someone a “Kike Bitch” while playing Call of Duty?
Assuming drugs from ass, but…
https://www.google.co.jp/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sport/2021/mar/09/meyers-leonard-antisemitic-slur-call-of-duty
Even though he’s only “Jew-ish” Julian Edelman had a nice response:
https://twitter.com/Edelman11/status/1369689157010919427/photo/1
I’m confused grizzly. You are a naturalized Japanese citizen? I thought you lived in America’s hat. And don’t all Canadian tourists have a backpack with a Maple leaf?
I’m a naturalized US citizen. Despite visiting Canada a lot and Japan a bit, I don’t have strong connections to these countries.
I have an American born and bred coworker who visited China when he was a college student. He confessed that he had claimed to be Canadian in China but insisted that it was only because it was easier to say Canadian than American in Mandarin. Then I took a few lessons in Mandarin and discovered that saying American in Mandarin is not any more difficult than saying Canadian, perhaps easier.
Smart move joining the winning team. ?
Obviously doesn’t want to humble brag that he’s from a beautiful country.
I was wondering what Tundra does in his free time.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/03/10/correspondent-reports-that-activists-have-set-up-an-autonomous-zone-around-the-george-floyd-memorial/
Now THAT sounds like a true insurrection. I am not in favor of an over reaction. Just triple strand concertina the “autonomous zone” and announce they have 1 hour to report to marked exits to submit to arrest. After an hour lock the exits and stream/ show on huge flat screen TV’s the cruise missiles headed their way. After impact, bring in a mix of 155mm HE and White Phosphorous to bring a Roman Peace to the place.
I will settle for a cordon and the Federal arrest of every non-home owner in the place with the initial charge of insurrection for all, plus extra charges for resisting arrest, attempted murder, arson etc. as warranted. Trials to occur in WY, MT, ID, and MS.
I like your style.
As an alternative, since they are autonomous, fence off the area and let them have their way. No one goes in or out. Check back in 60 days.
Sell ’em as much ammo and food as they need, but no one gets in or out.
No, no, no. They are autonomous. They don’t get to trade with terrible people like us.
Because Idiocracy isn’t just a movie.
https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2021/03/10/check-out-how-californias-proposed-ethnic-studies-curriculum-manages-to-slip-in-countergenocide-and-queering-as-goals/
Today’s lunchtime sketch. Getting better. Shading is a !!&@¥!!.
https://ibb.co/Gk4fsnM
That’s a very nice rendering, Dave.
But seriously, very nice. I wish I had talent like that.
Hehe. About where I was at last year. Sorry if these sketch posts are boring or cringy, but if I put them out there, it makes me wanna get better at it.
No, they’re not. Keep developing, it’s impressive!
Agreed – keep them coming!
Ditto! From someone that struggles with stick figures, looks quite good. And interesting.
The real irony in my reply is that I didn’t watch it all the way through before posting–I thought jr was a straight clip from the film.
That last bit was gold.
That’s very impressive, Straff.
Love the new avatar, bee-tee-dubs.
Lost my Faucism avatar in the great avatar purge. (Ignore her right iris being way toO big, please).
Very good Straff. I peaked at stick figures.
Nice work!
Keep racking up that brush mileage (or pencil mileage, if that is closer to the truth).
Word!
I’ve been ignoring Facebook lately except for a couple of posts.
That has resulted in a news feed that is almost all groups and ads.
I believe the perfect time to quit Facebook might have subtly revealed itself to me.
Yeah, I quit it during 2016 when it was intolerably political. But then a few years ago I had to go back in because some idiot was trying to hack for some reason, and it was just… unreadable garbage. There seemed no way to sort through to the couple of people I actually would’ve liked to see posts from – just junk forwarded posts and ads. I haven’t been back since either.
I don’t want to close it though, because I need it to save progress on my dumb mobile games.
Those mobile games! First One Is free; that’s how they hook you! ??
I have a few interests that I look at: low salt recipes, instant pot recipes, Stossel, Massie, Rand, etc.
I’ll try giving up Facebook without deleting it, see how that goes.
I’ve enjoyed watching my HS friends raise kids, even start to have kids, but when I ask myself if it’s worth wading through the muck, it’s harder to say “yes” by the day.
sup’ fam
Sup Tres.
Looks like you might be catching the dead air when the last Left coasters have gone to sleep but the early birds aren’t quite up yet.
Have a good morning/day break!
Here to represent the other side of the pond! (For a little while – just finished dinner and going for a walk with my wife)
Howdy Glibs, what’s up this early mornin’?
Howdy, Yusef!
Not much; about to sleep. Watched Tom Papa’s “you’re doing great” standup from 2020.
Good stuff. Puts some things in perspective. No mention of Covid!!
enjoy the rest, for some reason it’s time to wake up over here, the Time Zone thinf still messes me up.
Had the night off.
BatinDrinkin.Howdy Yu!
Sup! Hangin in the parking lot, getting ready for 7, and work
Good morning, Yu! Fixin’ to rain a little later down here.
Super windy, but I have played golf after work for the last 4 days, first time this year, Freedom!
Not me, I’m still asleep at my computer.
Gotta fly, mushrooms wont grow themselves, oh wait….
Carpe Carpio!
“ Did the FBI make off with ‘seven to nine tons’ of Civil War-era gold in a Pennsylvania forest after a treasure hunting duo led them to its long-hidden location?
A father-son team wants to know, and has successfully sued for access to government emails about the dig.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/emails-reveal-fbi-excavation-civil-war-era-gold-lawsuit-over-hundreds-millions
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit, I’d much rather deal with the mafia than the feds.
Why would you tell the feds? At least why would you tell them before making sure the world knew you found it. The hounding by newly discovered relatives will not be as bad as having it all vanish without proof you are the discoverer.
Good question, maybe some misguided attempt to do the right thing, maybe to gain access to resources like the hilltop survey they did. Whatever the case, they couldn’t have picked a less trustworthy bunch.
The treasure hunters should have had a camera crew from one of the Discovery channels documenting every move they made.
At the very least it would have hedged their bets against losing their investment. So long as they didn’t have a contract that said the company gets a claim on any finds. (I can just see a studio pulling something like that.)
I want to believe.
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/gupta-stock-chemical-company-mexican-cartels-heroin
Nothing to see here. Move along, prole.
Democrats are the party of the middle class, peace, and inclusion.
Happy Scamdemic Anniversary, y’all!
Fifty-two weeks to flatten the curve.
Who’s gonna take one for the team?
Not it!
I’ll be sure to look for gaffe clips on Twitter though.
Hello and good morning from the afternoon. I’m glad to see commodious spittoon posting *waves*, and I’m hoping things are looking a bit more manageable for UCS *waves*. Hayeksplosives *waves* is the husband progressing well? The Q Continuum *waves* household all good and well recovered from the recent rollercoaster ride of welcoming a new member?
In general I hope the Glibs are all doing well and I haven’t been around much and probably won’t be for a little while except sporadically so please enjoy these glad tidings.
*waves*
I appreciate the sentiment. One of my hands is partially out of commission due to a lovely biopsy site that wants to do nothing more than bleed, baby, bleed.
On the plus side, my heart rate and blood pressure are fantastic even for skinny, chill people, let alone someone of my size and stress level.
And I get some new technical work to do because we’ve started moving on a project that has been stalled for ages just when our consultant time is running out.
*sarcastic thumbs up*
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/atlanta-chick-fil-a-customer-opens-fire-on-an-armed-robber-others-hold-him-for-police/
Mmm….chicken.