Heh, I had *two* Rum and Cokes last night. I was pretty plowed, actually. They were mostly rum with a splash of Coke. LOL I'll email you in a bit. I never did finish it yesterday.
My ISP has been trying to get me to use their provided equipment for years now. I have three separate lines (long story, don't ask) and they send out three new router/modem combinations at least once a year. Last year I got six for some reason. They've called and told me I must. They've emailed me. I just tell them that I'd rather not and thank them for offering. I have a small stack of unopened ISP routers (from Fairpoint) at the house. They're certainly wasting money as they've never once asked for any of them back. I think I got an email once saying that I was supposed to start using theirs in 30 days or something like that. I didn't.
Down here, I have cable and only turn it on when I am down here. I have some Motorola router/modem thing from NewEgg or Amazon probably. I think I had to call and give them the MAC the first time but I've not needed to do so since. I just call ahead, usually a week ahead, and they turn it on. I call when I leave and they turn it off again. It appears they turned on cable television this time. I don't recall asking for that but I might have.
Meh... The missus is starting to get used to my watching documentaries so maybe it'll come in handy. We had the news on the other day. One of them there newfangled colored tele-visions. Except I don't actually recall buying that television. I've not been down here in a while so I'm guessing drugs or alcohol were somehow involved in the purchase of said tele-vision. It might have been one of the kids who picked it up while they were here. PCB is home of Spring Break and they've made more use of this place than I have.
Ah good. I'm not just a crotchety old man. I was kind of curious if I was just being biased or suffering from confirmation biases??? Ah well...
So, my kids got my g/f drunk last night and teased me 'cause she's younger than they are. We had a good time. They get along well. This was the first time they've met. I figured it would be a bit more awkward but it was just fine. My kids are kind of cool like that. They had good parenting...*cough*lies*cough*
Yeah, I got my older brothers by default. It wasn't really mine but he was more into electronics not long after. I used to have some 20-in-1 thing and then a 50-in-1 thing and then I started doing my own stuff with whatever looked like it might be fun.
Yup, you can get powder out of the bullets just fine. It actually burns a bit slower and, while this might not make sense, it means it has a bit more punch to it. Do NOT try this at home but if it is a center-fire then you can heat the casing (after removing the powder) and get the primer out as it's held in with some substance that melts faster than the temperature that they detonate. That is *not* recommended but do-able. Somewhere, back home, I have a stack of unopened reloading supplies and I've never had the time to learn how to do it. I'm sure the information is in there. I bet Google will help.
As kids? Well, we did stuff like leave our hand open and THEN put a firecracker on top of it and light it. It's just like someone gave you a hard high five as you're not containing the gases so you're not going to get hurt. We did some stupid shit. We had bottle rocket fights and Roman Candle fights. And it was awesome. And we would have been in trouble had we been caught.
Anyhow, one of the worst things I learned was that I could flip a bottle out the window, at speed, and had remarkable accuracy hitting signs and mailboxes. You'll know when you hit it. I can hit a sign on the highway on a good day. Well, I could - I'm horribly out of practice now. I used to be able to do it while driving and get a bunch of hits.
During the summer, one year - near graduation I think, we'd gone and looked at the road we'd traveled down. I then drove to K-Mart and bought every mailbox they had in stock and left them quietly at the end of each driveway. Considering that's a federal offense (the statute of limitations has long since passed) we were kind of lucky but we never heard a thing. (I'm not sure if it is still a federal offense...)
Mailboxes are protected by federal law, and crimes against them and the mail they contain are considered a federal offense. Violators can be fined up to $250,000 or imprisoned for up to three years for each act of vandalism.
That's from the USPS site - I figure some folks may not know this is a federal offense.
As I recall, I dropped off 23 brand new mailboxes and gave the last two away to some folks who had a mailbox that I missed. Hmm... I'm thinking this was 1973 or so. Yeah, I'd just gotten my license and had driven my car up to school. I had to have been 16. Oddly, I seem to recall disclosing it before enlisting and I know that it was on both of my clearance applications. They never said a thing about it.
Ah well... The kids are awake and ate. I made scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and toast for 'em. Well no, they made their own toast and my daughter finished cooking the bacon. Next up, get some of this mess picked up and head out and go to a car dealership. *sighs* The Girl Child wants a Honda Accord. It's a fine car for her and her needs and she has this look, this way of asking, it's not really something I could say no to. They'll all be heading home after one more small holiday and then the New Year's festivities.
I have acquired a bunch of things that go boom. If anyone's in the PCB, FL region on New Year's Eve they should come out and join in the festivities with us. There'll be booze, explosions, music, and a safe place to crash out or a safe ride home. It's a private beach so there won't be any cops. The neighbors are planning on attending so there won't be any complaints. I spent a goodly sum on things that go boom. I wonder if it's possible to take good pictures of 'em.
They don't know how to mend broken bones, computers, bikes, cars, radios, friendships, feelings, or hearts. I presume the AC was trying to troll or they really don't get it. I also imagine they don't know how to fix a damned thing.
We used a couple of old vacuum cleaners and the tubing from a couple of truck tires with rubber cement and hand stitching. Which, of course, reminds me of a joke.
Little Johny and his friend are out building a Go Kart one day and they can't find a gas powered engine so they take the washer apart and use the electric motor from that. Little Johny's mother comes home and yells at them and tells them to put it back together. They put the washer back together and are sitting outside board when Little Johny jumps up and runs in the house. About ten minutes later he comes back out with a new electric motor.
His friend asks him, "Where'd you get the motor?"
Little Johny pipes up, "From my grandfather's iron lung."
His friend asked, "I'm sure that pissed him off, what did he say?"
Thank you Anon. Merry Christmas, belatedly, to you too. Fun fact, those things on the right, the goats in trees, those are some Moroccan goats. I've seen them in real life and they do exist - I have never seen them in a tree but the trees they did have were mostly stubble and stumps. I have a neighbor who has fainting goats and they hate me. I was told that if you scare them too often that they stop acting like that so I don't scare them often but, when I do...
There's no hell for me to go to, I'll be all good. It is kind of fun, however. I'm gonna try more subtle threatening sometime. Maybe show up with some kebabs and a grill...
I don't suppose it's online anywhere? I'd actually probably pay a reasonable sum for a copy of that or, alternatively, cheat and have someone from the university grab me a copy. I can think of a few ways, plausible ways even, to make that argument. Then again, I enjoy a good and healthy debate. That's how I learn to think new things. I'll argue on the side that I don't support just to see if I can come up with logical inconsistencies in my own beliefs. I am a Secular Buddhist (not a good one and sure as hell not a monk) and, for me, that includes things like finding out what I truly believe as well as ridding myself from desire (as best as possible).
I gotta admit, I kinda cheated on that whole desire thing. I work on the mental aspect and try to know how and who I really am and I think that then, maybe, I won't have any more real desire. If I can free myself from the burden of knowing who I am, by knowing that what I think is sound, then I should be happy enough with what I've done and someday, my atoms will be reborn as the matter that makes up a star or some other body. I won't, of course, remember this self but my atoms will probably go on to become the part of a star some day, even if it just a swelling brown dwarf star. Oh, and Karma is doing good things for good reasons. There's nothing mysterious about that. I treat people like a human and, oddly enough, I get the same level of respect back most of the time.
Of course, I take a serious divergence when I insist that karma is no good unless you can spend it.;-) I've gone on refuge a few times and it has been beneficial. What's cool is that they let me interpret it any way I want. They let me walk my path and help me find direction but I still choose the road I travel and reach my own conclusions.
Ah well... I should probably rustle the kids awake soon. I should probably feed 'em.
LOL Probably for the best, actually. I was tooling around on YouTube and I heard one of the funnies improv lines ever. There's a redneck with a strong rural Georgia accent and a cop who's trying to get him to let them search his house for a buddy who has a warrant out for him. He's refusing to let the cops search and the cops says something about the Georgia boy shaking and looking scared.
The Georgia Boy says, "You got a whole tool-belt designed to kill me. Of course I'm scared."
Ah well, at least you posted to Facebook. Down with the man! Fight the power! Oddly enough, I gave everyone clear directions, novel ones too, on how to shut the government down without actually getting shot - in a form of peaceful protest. Someone marked my post as overrated.;-) (I presume it was a politician, someone who hates me, or someone who lives in D.C.)
That makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense to me is a group of otherwise intelligent people who want to disarm themselves and others out of fear. Then again, I have a bit of an extremist view on firearm and weapon ownership. So long as you're a responsible owner and it is not a weapon of mass destruction then you should be able to own it, in my opinion. Some of us just like things that go boom.
Heh. She passed out and I stayed up and watched Wonders of the Universe until I fell asleep and then, like an hour ago, she woke me up. She's ill and it is mildly amusing. My kids got her drunk last night. I even had two Rum and Cokes. Alright, I had two glasses of rum and a splash of coke and an ice cube. I should tell her that sex is a cure for hangovers. I just made her some food and coffee so she'll have to cope with that. I'm tired. And grumpy. Technically, my neighbor and his wife are here and she's usually the person that cleans my house (I hate calling her a housekeeper) so I'll clean the damned thing myself, after my coffee and cigar.
My son brought me up some Montecristo, San Martin, and some other kind that I've forgotten the name. Sipan maybe? At least that will keep me busy for a while. G'mornin' or some such. Yes, yes this is entirely off-topic.
No self-loathing Republican would let their child have one of those there European thingamajigs.;-)
The missus woke me up. She's ill. My kids got my g/f drunk and now she's sick. They are, of course, in bed. It's only 8:00 so it's all good but we're supposed to go to a car lot later. My daughter wants a Honda Accord. Son of a... I wasn't even drinking when she conned me into saying yes. The good news is that she's picked a very good car. The bad news is she has no intent to pay for it herself. She has money, I know she does. But she's got this look and I have always been a sucker for it.
She's a Daddy's Girl but that's because daddy is more easily conned than her mother. I am fully convinced that they both conspired to come live with me, after the divorce, because I had the cooler toys.
Ah well... She's not a Republican. She's not a Dem either, so there's that. This is too early in the morning and I've still not adjusted to the time-zone difference.
Then the damage done to science in general is irreparable and people turn towards superstition and religion instead of leaning towards rational thinking.
To be fair, presumably there are some people for whom astrological predictions will be right. Science would actually collect *that* data, normalize it, and say that "Astrology, for unknown reasons, is accurate __% of the time, with this, that and the other things, and is an entirely idiotic way to make predictions because it's as good or worse than an equivalent placebo in which we wrote randomized predictions based on the position of the stars and then tracked the results. We also did a test with participants who were aware of the predictions and those who were unaware of the predictions and this ____ is our result."
(And more...)
See? I mean, if we're gonna be pedantic about what is and isn't science then I suggest we be intellectually honest with ourselves. And someone's probably already done that study. But, it *could* be studied in a much more rigorous manner than you indicated. We don't have to know how it works - we can simply start by seeing if there is any correlation and, if so, we can investigate further for causation or make some predictions as to why there's causation (if there is some of any meaningful amount). By which I mean we can probably say the correlation and predictions made by astrologers are worse than a controlled group and, perhaps, a double blind study. (I'm kind of assuming that's how the results would be - I've done no research on this.)
Point being, we can test for this. Do certain types get along better than others? Is one more inclined to favor a flower? Does one have a number that has had significance - that they've noted? Etc... Hell, I'd be kind of surprised if nobody has studied this. Unfortunately, Google is so very far away and I am lazy. And mildly intoxicated. Also, I should be sleeping.
Welp... They're all passed out and you've now given me a good idea. I am going to go downstairs, lay on my comfy couch, and go to sleep with Wonders of the Universe playing on an actual television. (I ripped it and can stream it from my house.)
I'm sure I'll bump into it eventually. I think Perl comes installed with everything. I don't remember the last time I actually installed it. It probably comes default on Toaster Linux.
~$ perl --version
This is perl 5, version 20, subversion 2 (v5.20.2) built for x86_64-linux-gnu-thread-multi (with 51 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)
Copyright 1987-2015, Larry Wall
I'm pretty sure I did not install that. If I need something quick and dirty (I don't) then I guess it's always there. I'd remove it but I know that if I do, I'll think of a reason to use it. I'm trying to learn Python now. It has been too long since I've done much coding - except in PHP and not even that for seven or eight years. I am in the process of picking it back up and that means relearning a bunch of stuff and a whole lot of new stuff. Perl will be in there eventually - even if just a refresher.
Yeah, that seems to be the message. I just wonder what the outcome of this grand social experiment is going to be and if maybe we shouldn't have made as many changes as we did.:/
That's a given. You'd want to be known. You didn't see the great freedom fighters hiding their heads anonymously forever, did you? Gandhi did not wear a mask. Martin Luther King did not wear a mask. Zorro did, so there's that. You don't march in a million man march and expect them to not figure out who you are. Certainly not today with facial and gate recognition.
Same! They passed out. I stopped at two but I kind of made 'em strong. It wasn't even good Rum. My daughter has bad taste. Well, cheap taste. It's just the Captain's - spiced of course. Meh, she's a good kid. She hasn't built me any grandchildren yet. That is unfortunate. I want to spoil them rotten. I am going to buy them drum kits, guitars, dirt bikes, guns, cars that go too fast, and a gimp suit. For their first birthdays. Not really, of course. Though my son might find some humor in it.
Hmm... Do you have any case law that I can look at? I thought you were okay in school zones if you're in a vehicle and not parked at the school? (I usually have no magazine in, no round in the chamber, the firearm locked in the glove box, and the magazines in the center console. Papers are over the visor in a small book and a copy of my permit is on the top, held in place with a paper clip. I'd not bring it with me if I were stopping in at a school, that'd definitely be against the law. I thought if it wasn't loaded and you were traveling through (also for some parks, depending on the park) then you were all set?
And yeah, I don't think it has ever been illegal to open carry in Maine. I didn't recall any other states that had a no-permit-required regulation. Or, more likely, removed from the regulations... (Or perhaps never had one.) I've never bothered to look.;-) I've always just figured that I'm gonna need a permit and it's not even universal across the states. When I am out of state, I leave it in a safe in the trunk and the ammunition stays in the cab, usually locked in the glove compartment. Then if I am out and about and feel obligated to carry, I check the local laws. Before we had this fancy internet thing, I'd call the local sheriffs office in whatever area I was in and they (often) would have me come down to the station, show 'em my permit and ID, and then say thanks and let me be on my way.
I am actually kind of fond of that though it doesn't happen any more. I guess I could try calling but now I just use Google. I kind of like the idea that if I am in a strange place (I'm not one for staying in a city) and there's a time when I feel obligated to use a firearm then I kind of want the cops to know that there's a guy who's lawfully carrying and he has a permit. I don't carry anything big, most of the time. I've two Ruger's with me and they're both.22 LR.
I'd hate to kill someone but if they keep coming after the first shot (and they might, it's only a.22) then I've the rest of the magazine and am comfortable with my training. If there's a situation where a.22 isn't enough then that's probably a situation where I should be running away. It's not like I'm going to go out stopping robberies or intervening in a gang shootout. That's how you get yourself killed. Fuck that.
At any rate, I thought you could drive through a school zone just fine - even if you had it on you and loaded? I thought you just weren't allowed to stop in the area - like stop and get out of the vehicle because your vehicle was on public property and still considered your domain while you remain in that vehicle. (Driving onto the school's parking lot would be a violation of the law, as I understand it.) I don't generally carry it on me in a car nor do I take one to the school. Not any more, at least. (We had rifles and pistols at my school when I was a kid. I was on the pistol and rifle shooting teams, actually.)
True but we like to make staunch claims that Android is Linux. "Linux after it has been taken into a lab and given a vivisection by Google." is the usual nomenclature. But it's Linux nonetheless. I'm counting it. I am, however, seeing more and more people root them. I've even seen a few with Ubuntu on 'em. You can even buy a Ubuntu phone, it might even work in your country now. There should be some decent tablets. I hear tell that it's possible to get Linux onto a Surface Pro.
Nah, I think it'll be okay. I really do. They've installed Linux on a toaster by now. Someone's gotta have a cryptic wiki page somewhere to get you started with Toaster Linux. There will be some distro that is maintained by three guys and a beagle and they'll maintain Toaster Linux. Send 'em a few bucks for pizza and they're happy and they might even answer a question and then you too can have Toaster Linux. Hell, someone's got to have a 3/4 finished Linux for your Television Remote and if you want to learn a little Python you can fix the GUI for 'em.
I really do, I think it will be just fine for Linux - if not better than ever. I have not looked but I know you can buy touch screens, an Arduino, and a 3D printer and make the damned thing yourself if you really want. There's almost certainly directions on the internet. I'm pretty sure there's an Ubuntu tablet coming out at some point - if not out already.
It's never going to be the Year of Linux on the Desktop. I'm not even sure if that's even a goal anyone considers realistic any more. It's just not something many people want to do. I do. I like it just fine. It's fun. I learn stuff. I break stuff. I poke stuff. I have a good time. I really think the Linux users will be good to go. My son has used it for most of his life, actually. I like Windows just fine but I wasn't learning anything new with it so, well... I changed and I'm learning more as I go. I've always had it installed on a partition but now it's all that there is. It might be confirmation bias but I'm seeing lots of other people who have done the same thing over the years.
So, I'd say the community is pretty healthy. It's even healthy with SystemD. Some folks decided to move away and others just adapted or rolled their own or whatnot. That's all good. The more choices there are, the better it is for me. I might want to run Linux on my toaster. (Which is more likely to happen than I am to use a tablet on a regular basis.)
I am trying to learn. Well, trying to make sense of it. Well, I was. I got it now (I think). I read about it and it just didn't want to click. So, I read the wiki page and I think I get it. Sheesh. You guys have taught me a lot. Hell, I like learning the shit you guys seem to all know. There's much that I don't know and I'm actually kind of glad that I don't know it 'cause it'd suck to know everything. It'd be pretty boring, I'd imagine. First you bitch if they don't know, then you bitch if they ask a question. Some of you are *good* at explaining things - helpful even. (Not you, obviously.) Something about a database confuses the hell out of me. Dunno what it is, always has. That and I'd never bothered to ask the mechanism for hashing/salting so now I've looked at it, think I got it, and will hopefully get a reply that says, "No dumb ass ____." Or I'll get one that says, "Close enough." Well, maybe, you spoiled the magic now. Ruiner.
I read that as Erection Engineer but I'm mildly buzzed from a couple of drinks. That's an unusual state for me. I have an excuse. They are all being a bit loud, getting to know each other, and getting drunk so I have a minute. So, today's novella...
I had an Erector set, several, as a child. My kids had one too but it was not nearly as much fun to play with but they both have fond memories of it. It's kind of sad for kids these days. I didn't have one but my older brother had a chemistry set that had all sorts of things they'd never even dream of letting a kid have in today's litigious society. It had a variety of acids, all sorts of stuff. I'm pretty sure there was radioactive stuff in there as well but that might have been a different science kit? Maybe Little Joey's First Bomb Making Kit or something? I dunno. It's been a minute since I was that age.
At any rate... Yeah, some of the toys are kind of cool. We used to buy black powder and use our empty BB gun's CO2 cartridges. We'd fill them up, tamp 'em down, throw in a waterproof fuse, and then cause hate and discontent with various inanimate things. We stomped through the woods with rifles and spent hours shooting cans and other targets. We had chemistry sets and Ka-Bar knives. We had Lincoln Logs. Okay, those were pretty dumb. We had potato guns, paint can dust bombs, machetes, hatchets, saws, gasoline and a book of matches...
Meh, none of us died or anything and we learned lots of things. Sure, we sometimes got hurt and broke bones skateboarding, fighting, jumping off stuff onto other stuff, etc... But no, we all managed to make it to adults.
Somewhere, between what I was allowed to do and what kids are allowed to do now - there's gotta be a more interesting and educational way. We learned a lot by having fun. Yes, we got hurt sometimes. Shit happens, you know? I had rifles and pistols at my school - like my own. They stayed in an unlocked cabinet in the office. We had a ski slope too. Hell, we had an ice arena. But we also had an observatory and a lab with things like chemicals with a MSDS and Bunsen burners. We had evaporation hoods and PPE. Nobody died. If someone got hurt, we cleaned up the mess and they went to the hospital - and we didn't get hurt at all in the lab. For few days we all went and got glass blowing lessons in case we were eventually going to need to blow our own glass. (No, I didn't do very well but we all got to blow a beaker and some tubing and some other crap, fucked if I know, I'm not a chemist.)
We played rugby and basically beat the hell out of each other - it was a good way to get over being pissed at your roommate. We sneaked off into the woods at night and smoked and drank out behind the Away team goal on the soccer field. I should also add that I ended up at this school because a friend of mine and I (we were pretty young) set his dad's garage on fire. So... That turned out better than I expected but that's besides the point. Where was I?
Oh yeah, it has to suck to not be allowed to do stuff like that now. If you could put it in your mouth, we did. If you could roll in it, we did. If you could take it apart, we did. If it was broken and you wanted it to work, you figured out how to fix it. (That applies to bones, feelings, hearts. and bargains.) We learned stuff, whatever we needed. There was a drive, a need. We don't need to let them learn those things any more. It's like we're afraid to let them learn by making mistakes until they get it right, I guess.
I dunno if I'm being a crotchety old man or if there's really that much difference. My kids were pretty driven to learn. I hold high standards. They don't have to meet them but I appreciate them trying and will love 'em even when they fuck up. 'Cause ya gotta. You have to fix broken things and if you don't know how then you have to learn.
And that's kind of where I was going with that. I think. It really must be sad to have a young kid these days unless you can still get away with allowing them to get an education. How do they learn t
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He'll probably get the shaft for it.
Heh, I had *two* Rum and Cokes last night. I was pretty plowed, actually. They were mostly rum with a splash of Coke. LOL I'll email you in a bit. I never did finish it yesterday.
Ah well. I suck.
My ISP has been trying to get me to use their provided equipment for years now. I have three separate lines (long story, don't ask) and they send out three new router/modem combinations at least once a year. Last year I got six for some reason. They've called and told me I must. They've emailed me. I just tell them that I'd rather not and thank them for offering. I have a small stack of unopened ISP routers (from Fairpoint) at the house. They're certainly wasting money as they've never once asked for any of them back. I think I got an email once saying that I was supposed to start using theirs in 30 days or something like that. I didn't.
Down here, I have cable and only turn it on when I am down here. I have some Motorola router/modem thing from NewEgg or Amazon probably. I think I had to call and give them the MAC the first time but I've not needed to do so since. I just call ahead, usually a week ahead, and they turn it on. I call when I leave and they turn it off again. It appears they turned on cable television this time. I don't recall asking for that but I might have.
Meh... The missus is starting to get used to my watching documentaries so maybe it'll come in handy. We had the news on the other day. One of them there newfangled colored tele-visions. Except I don't actually recall buying that television. I've not been down here in a while so I'm guessing drugs or alcohol were somehow involved in the purchase of said tele-vision. It might have been one of the kids who picked it up while they were here. PCB is home of Spring Break and they've made more use of this place than I have.
Ah good. I'm not just a crotchety old man. I was kind of curious if I was just being biased or suffering from confirmation biases??? Ah well...
So, my kids got my g/f drunk last night and teased me 'cause she's younger than they are. We had a good time. They get along well. This was the first time they've met. I figured it would be a bit more awkward but it was just fine. My kids are kind of cool like that. They had good parenting...*cough*lies*cough*
Yeah, I got my older brothers by default. It wasn't really mine but he was more into electronics not long after. I used to have some 20-in-1 thing and then a 50-in-1 thing and then I started doing my own stuff with whatever looked like it might be fun.
Yup, you can get powder out of the bullets just fine. It actually burns a bit slower and, while this might not make sense, it means it has a bit more punch to it. Do NOT try this at home but if it is a center-fire then you can heat the casing (after removing the powder) and get the primer out as it's held in with some substance that melts faster than the temperature that they detonate. That is *not* recommended but do-able. Somewhere, back home, I have a stack of unopened reloading supplies and I've never had the time to learn how to do it. I'm sure the information is in there. I bet Google will help.
As kids? Well, we did stuff like leave our hand open and THEN put a firecracker on top of it and light it. It's just like someone gave you a hard high five as you're not containing the gases so you're not going to get hurt. We did some stupid shit. We had bottle rocket fights and Roman Candle fights. And it was awesome. And we would have been in trouble had we been caught.
Anyhow, one of the worst things I learned was that I could flip a bottle out the window, at speed, and had remarkable accuracy hitting signs and mailboxes. You'll know when you hit it. I can hit a sign on the highway on a good day. Well, I could - I'm horribly out of practice now. I used to be able to do it while driving and get a bunch of hits.
During the summer, one year - near graduation I think, we'd gone and looked at the road we'd traveled down. I then drove to K-Mart and bought every mailbox they had in stock and left them quietly at the end of each driveway. Considering that's a federal offense (the statute of limitations has long since passed) we were kind of lucky but we never heard a thing. (I'm not sure if it is still a federal offense...)
Mailboxes are protected by federal law, and crimes against them and the mail they contain are considered a federal offense. Violators can be fined up to $250,000 or imprisoned for up to three years for each act of vandalism.
That's from the USPS site - I figure some folks may not know this is a federal offense.
As I recall, I dropped off 23 brand new mailboxes and gave the last two away to some folks who had a mailbox that I missed. Hmm... I'm thinking this was 1973 or so. Yeah, I'd just gotten my license and had driven my car up to school. I had to have been 16. Oddly, I seem to recall disclosing it before enlisting and I know that it was on both of my clearance applications. They never said a thing about it.
Ah well... The kids are awake and ate. I made scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and toast for 'em. Well no, they made their own toast and my daughter finished cooking the bacon. Next up, get some of this mess picked up and head out and go to a car dealership. *sighs* The Girl Child wants a Honda Accord. It's a fine car for her and her needs and she has this look, this way of asking, it's not really something I could say no to. They'll all be heading home after one more small holiday and then the New Year's festivities.
I have acquired a bunch of things that go boom. If anyone's in the PCB, FL region on New Year's Eve they should come out and join in the festivities with us. There'll be booze, explosions, music, and a safe place to crash out or a safe ride home. It's a private beach so there won't be any cops. The neighbors are planning on attending so there won't be any complaints. I spent a goodly sum on things that go boom. I wonder if it's possible to take good pictures of 'em.
They don't know how to mend broken bones, computers, bikes, cars, radios, friendships, feelings, or hearts. I presume the AC was trying to troll or they really don't get it. I also imagine they don't know how to fix a damned thing.
We used a couple of old vacuum cleaners and the tubing from a couple of truck tires with rubber cement and hand stitching. Which, of course, reminds me of a joke.
Little Johny and his friend are out building a Go Kart one day and they can't find a gas powered engine so they take the washer apart and use the electric motor from that. Little Johny's mother comes home and yells at them and tells them to put it back together. They put the washer back together and are sitting outside board when Little Johny jumps up and runs in the house. About ten minutes later he comes back out with a new electric motor.
His friend asks him, "Where'd you get the motor?"
Little Johny pipes up, "From my grandfather's iron lung."
His friend asked, "I'm sure that pissed him off, what did he say?"
Little Johny replies, "Arrrrggghhhchuckuhuk!!!"
I didn't say it was a *good* joke.
Thank you Anon. Merry Christmas, belatedly, to you too. Fun fact, those things on the right, the goats in trees, those are some Moroccan goats. I've seen them in real life and they do exist - I have never seen them in a tree but the trees they did have were mostly stubble and stumps. I have a neighbor who has fainting goats and they hate me. I was told that if you scare them too often that they stop acting like that so I don't scare them often but, when I do...
There's no hell for me to go to, I'll be all good. It is kind of fun, however. I'm gonna try more subtle threatening sometime. Maybe show up with some kebabs and a grill...
I don't suppose it's online anywhere? I'd actually probably pay a reasonable sum for a copy of that or, alternatively, cheat and have someone from the university grab me a copy. I can think of a few ways, plausible ways even, to make that argument. Then again, I enjoy a good and healthy debate. That's how I learn to think new things. I'll argue on the side that I don't support just to see if I can come up with logical inconsistencies in my own beliefs. I am a Secular Buddhist (not a good one and sure as hell not a monk) and, for me, that includes things like finding out what I truly believe as well as ridding myself from desire (as best as possible).
I gotta admit, I kinda cheated on that whole desire thing. I work on the mental aspect and try to know how and who I really am and I think that then, maybe, I won't have any more real desire. If I can free myself from the burden of knowing who I am, by knowing that what I think is sound, then I should be happy enough with what I've done and someday, my atoms will be reborn as the matter that makes up a star or some other body. I won't, of course, remember this self but my atoms will probably go on to become the part of a star some day, even if it just a swelling brown dwarf star. Oh, and Karma is doing good things for good reasons. There's nothing mysterious about that. I treat people like a human and, oddly enough, I get the same level of respect back most of the time.
Of course, I take a serious divergence when I insist that karma is no good unless you can spend it. ;-) I've gone on refuge a few times and it has been beneficial. What's cool is that they let me interpret it any way I want. They let me walk my path and help me find direction but I still choose the road I travel and reach my own conclusions.
Ah well... I should probably rustle the kids awake soon. I should probably feed 'em.
LOL Probably for the best, actually. I was tooling around on YouTube and I heard one of the funnies improv lines ever. There's a redneck with a strong rural Georgia accent and a cop who's trying to get him to let them search his house for a buddy who has a warrant out for him. He's refusing to let the cops search and the cops says something about the Georgia boy shaking and looking scared.
The Georgia Boy says, "You got a whole tool-belt designed to kill me. Of course I'm scared."
Ah well, at least you posted to Facebook. Down with the man! Fight the power! Oddly enough, I gave everyone clear directions, novel ones too, on how to shut the government down without actually getting shot - in a form of peaceful protest. Someone marked my post as overrated. ;-) (I presume it was a politician, someone who hates me, or someone who lives in D.C.)
#likeandsharethiswithallyourfriends
That makes sense to me. What doesn't make sense to me is a group of otherwise intelligent people who want to disarm themselves and others out of fear. Then again, I have a bit of an extremist view on firearm and weapon ownership. So long as you're a responsible owner and it is not a weapon of mass destruction then you should be able to own it, in my opinion. Some of us just like things that go boom.
Heh. She passed out and I stayed up and watched Wonders of the Universe until I fell asleep and then, like an hour ago, she woke me up. She's ill and it is mildly amusing. My kids got her drunk last night. I even had two Rum and Cokes. Alright, I had two glasses of rum and a splash of coke and an ice cube. I should tell her that sex is a cure for hangovers. I just made her some food and coffee so she'll have to cope with that. I'm tired. And grumpy. Technically, my neighbor and his wife are here and she's usually the person that cleans my house (I hate calling her a housekeeper) so I'll clean the damned thing myself, after my coffee and cigar.
My son brought me up some Montecristo, San Martin, and some other kind that I've forgotten the name. Sipan maybe? At least that will keep me busy for a while. G'mornin' or some such. Yes, yes this is entirely off-topic.
No self-loathing Republican would let their child have one of those there European thingamajigs. ;-)
The missus woke me up. She's ill. My kids got my g/f drunk and now she's sick. They are, of course, in bed. It's only 8:00 so it's all good but we're supposed to go to a car lot later. My daughter wants a Honda Accord. Son of a... I wasn't even drinking when she conned me into saying yes. The good news is that she's picked a very good car. The bad news is she has no intent to pay for it herself. She has money, I know she does. But she's got this look and I have always been a sucker for it.
She's a Daddy's Girl but that's because daddy is more easily conned than her mother. I am fully convinced that they both conspired to come live with me, after the divorce, because I had the cooler toys.
Ah well... She's not a Republican. She's not a Dem either, so there's that. This is too early in the morning and I've still not adjusted to the time-zone difference.
Then the damage done to science in general is irreparable and people turn towards superstition and religion instead of leaning towards rational thinking.
To be fair, presumably there are some people for whom astrological predictions will be right. Science would actually collect *that* data, normalize it, and say that "Astrology, for unknown reasons, is accurate __% of the time, with this, that and the other things, and is an entirely idiotic way to make predictions because it's as good or worse than an equivalent placebo in which we wrote randomized predictions based on the position of the stars and then tracked the results. We also did a test with participants who were aware of the predictions and those who were unaware of the predictions and this ____ is our result."
(And more...)
See? I mean, if we're gonna be pedantic about what is and isn't science then I suggest we be intellectually honest with ourselves. And someone's probably already done that study. But, it *could* be studied in a much more rigorous manner than you indicated. We don't have to know how it works - we can simply start by seeing if there is any correlation and, if so, we can investigate further for causation or make some predictions as to why there's causation (if there is some of any meaningful amount). By which I mean we can probably say the correlation and predictions made by astrologers are worse than a controlled group and, perhaps, a double blind study. (I'm kind of assuming that's how the results would be - I've done no research on this.)
Point being, we can test for this. Do certain types get along better than others? Is one more inclined to favor a flower? Does one have a number that has had significance - that they've noted? Etc... Hell, I'd be kind of surprised if nobody has studied this. Unfortunately, Google is so very far away and I am lazy. And mildly intoxicated. Also, I should be sleeping.
Welp... They're all passed out and you've now given me a good idea. I am going to go downstairs, lay on my comfy couch, and go to sleep with Wonders of the Universe playing on an actual television. (I ripped it and can stream it from my house.)
Thanks! Merry happy.
I'm sure I'll bump into it eventually. I think Perl comes installed with everything. I don't remember the last time I actually installed it. It probably comes default on Toaster Linux.
~$ perl --version
This is perl 5, version 20, subversion 2 (v5.20.2) built for x86_64-linux-gnu-thread-multi
(with 51 registered patches, see perl -V for more detail)
Copyright 1987-2015, Larry Wall
I'm pretty sure I did not install that. If I need something quick and dirty (I don't) then I guess it's always there. I'd remove it but I know that if I do, I'll think of a reason to use it. I'm trying to learn Python now. It has been too long since I've done much coding - except in PHP and not even that for seven or eight years. I am in the process of picking it back up and that means relearning a bunch of stuff and a whole lot of new stuff. Perl will be in there eventually - even if just a refresher.
Yeah, that seems to be the message. I just wonder what the outcome of this grand social experiment is going to be and if maybe we shouldn't have made as many changes as we did. :/
http://www.amazon.com/Elenco-5...
I think I might have to buy one.
Much appreciated. ;-) I learn lots of stuff here. That's why I come here. Well, that and I know other stuff. I figure it works out in the end.
Thanks again.
That's a given. You'd want to be known. You didn't see the great freedom fighters hiding their heads anonymously forever, did you? Gandhi did not wear a mask. Martin Luther King did not wear a mask. Zorro did, so there's that. You don't march in a million man march and expect them to not figure out who you are. Certainly not today with facial and gate recognition.
Same! They passed out. I stopped at two but I kind of made 'em strong. It wasn't even good Rum. My daughter has bad taste. Well, cheap taste. It's just the Captain's - spiced of course. Meh, she's a good kid. She hasn't built me any grandchildren yet. That is unfortunate. I want to spoil them rotten. I am going to buy them drum kits, guitars, dirt bikes, guns, cars that go too fast, and a gimp suit. For their first birthdays. Not really, of course. Though my son might find some humor in it.
Hmm... Do you have any case law that I can look at? I thought you were okay in school zones if you're in a vehicle and not parked at the school? (I usually have no magazine in, no round in the chamber, the firearm locked in the glove box, and the magazines in the center console. Papers are over the visor in a small book and a copy of my permit is on the top, held in place with a paper clip. I'd not bring it with me if I were stopping in at a school, that'd definitely be against the law. I thought if it wasn't loaded and you were traveling through (also for some parks, depending on the park) then you were all set?
And yeah, I don't think it has ever been illegal to open carry in Maine. I didn't recall any other states that had a no-permit-required regulation. Or, more likely, removed from the regulations... (Or perhaps never had one.) I've never bothered to look. ;-) I've always just figured that I'm gonna need a permit and it's not even universal across the states. When I am out of state, I leave it in a safe in the trunk and the ammunition stays in the cab, usually locked in the glove compartment. Then if I am out and about and feel obligated to carry, I check the local laws. Before we had this fancy internet thing, I'd call the local sheriffs office in whatever area I was in and they (often) would have me come down to the station, show 'em my permit and ID, and then say thanks and let me be on my way.
I am actually kind of fond of that though it doesn't happen any more. I guess I could try calling but now I just use Google. I kind of like the idea that if I am in a strange place (I'm not one for staying in a city) and there's a time when I feel obligated to use a firearm then I kind of want the cops to know that there's a guy who's lawfully carrying and he has a permit. I don't carry anything big, most of the time. I've two Ruger's with me and they're both .22 LR.
I'd hate to kill someone but if they keep coming after the first shot (and they might, it's only a .22) then I've the rest of the magazine and am comfortable with my training. If there's a situation where a .22 isn't enough then that's probably a situation where I should be running away. It's not like I'm going to go out stopping robberies or intervening in a gang shootout. That's how you get yourself killed. Fuck that.
At any rate, I thought you could drive through a school zone just fine - even if you had it on you and loaded? I thought you just weren't allowed to stop in the area - like stop and get out of the vehicle because your vehicle was on public property and still considered your domain while you remain in that vehicle. (Driving onto the school's parking lot would be a violation of the law, as I understand it.) I don't generally carry it on me in a car nor do I take one to the school. Not any more, at least. (We had rifles and pistols at my school when I was a kid. I was on the pistol and rifle shooting teams, actually.)
True but we like to make staunch claims that Android is Linux. "Linux after it has been taken into a lab and given a vivisection by Google." is the usual nomenclature. But it's Linux nonetheless. I'm counting it. I am, however, seeing more and more people root them. I've even seen a few with Ubuntu on 'em. You can even buy a Ubuntu phone, it might even work in your country now. There should be some decent tablets. I hear tell that it's possible to get Linux onto a Surface Pro.
Nah, I think it'll be okay. I really do. They've installed Linux on a toaster by now. Someone's gotta have a cryptic wiki page somewhere to get you started with Toaster Linux. There will be some distro that is maintained by three guys and a beagle and they'll maintain Toaster Linux. Send 'em a few bucks for pizza and they're happy and they might even answer a question and then you too can have Toaster Linux. Hell, someone's got to have a 3/4 finished Linux for your Television Remote and if you want to learn a little Python you can fix the GUI for 'em.
I really do, I think it will be just fine for Linux - if not better than ever. I have not looked but I know you can buy touch screens, an Arduino, and a 3D printer and make the damned thing yourself if you really want. There's almost certainly directions on the internet. I'm pretty sure there's an Ubuntu tablet coming out at some point - if not out already.
It's never going to be the Year of Linux on the Desktop. I'm not even sure if that's even a goal anyone considers realistic any more. It's just not something many people want to do. I do. I like it just fine. It's fun. I learn stuff. I break stuff. I poke stuff. I have a good time. I really think the Linux users will be good to go. My son has used it for most of his life, actually. I like Windows just fine but I wasn't learning anything new with it so, well... I changed and I'm learning more as I go. I've always had it installed on a partition but now it's all that there is. It might be confirmation bias but I'm seeing lots of other people who have done the same thing over the years.
So, I'd say the community is pretty healthy. It's even healthy with SystemD. Some folks decided to move away and others just adapted or rolled their own or whatnot. That's all good. The more choices there are, the better it is for me. I might want to run Linux on my toaster. (Which is more likely to happen than I am to use a tablet on a regular basis.)
I am trying to learn. Well, trying to make sense of it. Well, I was. I got it now (I think). I read about it and it just didn't want to click. So, I read the wiki page and I think I get it. Sheesh. You guys have taught me a lot. Hell, I like learning the shit you guys seem to all know. There's much that I don't know and I'm actually kind of glad that I don't know it 'cause it'd suck to know everything. It'd be pretty boring, I'd imagine. First you bitch if they don't know, then you bitch if they ask a question. Some of you are *good* at explaining things - helpful even. (Not you, obviously.) Something about a database confuses the hell out of me. Dunno what it is, always has. That and I'd never bothered to ask the mechanism for hashing/salting so now I've looked at it, think I got it, and will hopefully get a reply that says, "No dumb ass ____." Or I'll get one that says, "Close enough." Well, maybe, you spoiled the magic now. Ruiner.
I read that as Erection Engineer but I'm mildly buzzed from a couple of drinks. That's an unusual state for me. I have an excuse. They are all being a bit loud, getting to know each other, and getting drunk so I have a minute. So, today's novella...
I had an Erector set, several, as a child. My kids had one too but it was not nearly as much fun to play with but they both have fond memories of it. It's kind of sad for kids these days. I didn't have one but my older brother had a chemistry set that had all sorts of things they'd never even dream of letting a kid have in today's litigious society. It had a variety of acids, all sorts of stuff. I'm pretty sure there was radioactive stuff in there as well but that might have been a different science kit? Maybe Little Joey's First Bomb Making Kit or something? I dunno. It's been a minute since I was that age.
At any rate... Yeah, some of the toys are kind of cool. We used to buy black powder and use our empty BB gun's CO2 cartridges. We'd fill them up, tamp 'em down, throw in a waterproof fuse, and then cause hate and discontent with various inanimate things. We stomped through the woods with rifles and spent hours shooting cans and other targets. We had chemistry sets and Ka-Bar knives. We had Lincoln Logs. Okay, those were pretty dumb. We had potato guns, paint can dust bombs, machetes, hatchets, saws, gasoline and a book of matches...
Meh, none of us died or anything and we learned lots of things. Sure, we sometimes got hurt and broke bones skateboarding, fighting, jumping off stuff onto other stuff, etc... But no, we all managed to make it to adults.
Somewhere, between what I was allowed to do and what kids are allowed to do now - there's gotta be a more interesting and educational way. We learned a lot by having fun. Yes, we got hurt sometimes. Shit happens, you know? I had rifles and pistols at my school - like my own. They stayed in an unlocked cabinet in the office. We had a ski slope too. Hell, we had an ice arena. But we also had an observatory and a lab with things like chemicals with a MSDS and Bunsen burners. We had evaporation hoods and PPE. Nobody died. If someone got hurt, we cleaned up the mess and they went to the hospital - and we didn't get hurt at all in the lab. For few days we all went and got glass blowing lessons in case we were eventually going to need to blow our own glass. (No, I didn't do very well but we all got to blow a beaker and some tubing and some other crap, fucked if I know, I'm not a chemist.)
We played rugby and basically beat the hell out of each other - it was a good way to get over being pissed at your roommate. We sneaked off into the woods at night and smoked and drank out behind the Away team goal on the soccer field. I should also add that I ended up at this school because a friend of mine and I (we were pretty young) set his dad's garage on fire. So... That turned out better than I expected but that's besides the point. Where was I?
Oh yeah, it has to suck to not be allowed to do stuff like that now. If you could put it in your mouth, we did. If you could roll in it, we did. If you could take it apart, we did. If it was broken and you wanted it to work, you figured out how to fix it. (That applies to bones, feelings, hearts. and bargains.) We learned stuff, whatever we needed. There was a drive, a need. We don't need to let them learn those things any more. It's like we're afraid to let them learn by making mistakes until they get it right, I guess.
I dunno if I'm being a crotchety old man or if there's really that much difference. My kids were pretty driven to learn. I hold high standards. They don't have to meet them but I appreciate them trying and will love 'em even when they fuck up. 'Cause ya gotta. You have to fix broken things and if you don't know how then you have to learn.
And that's kind of where I was going with that. I think. It really must be sad to have a young kid these days unless you can still get away with allowing them to get an education. How do they learn t