The Voting Rights Act

Here in Central Pa we had overcast skies yesterday and the occasional drizzle until around 4 PM, and then it started to rain, a soaker, as they like to call steady rain.  Today, forecasters are calling for on and off sunshine with our temps topping off in the the low 60s (F).  This means everything is going to grow.  That means I'm going to have to mow the lawn, probably tomorrow morning. Yeah!

And yesterday was productive!  All my veggies have been planted and fertilized.  Laundry was done.  Cleaning was done.  It was a good day.

Yesterday was also a good workout day.  While there's an exercised called a dumbbell thruster, there were no squats.  I'm going to go easy on the squats for a while.  My left knee is still a bit wonky and I don't want to do anything that might actually damage it.  

My aunt Lois died yesterday.  She was 91.  She was a very nice lady.  When I was born back in 1952, my dad's parents drove down to Florida because I was the first male grandson to be born.  Lois, who was 18, was with them.  What an adventure that must have been for her!  In today's America a lot of people will fly their families down to Disneyworld.  It's so commonplace, no one thinks about it.  But 73 years ago Florida would have been like traveling to a totally different country.

I snapped a picture of Howie on the the futon yesterday.  I've gotten a lot of comments about how big he's gotten.  Believe me when I tell you, I don't think of him as being big, he's just my little booby boy.

Of course, yesterday the Supreme Court smashed apart the Voting Rights Act because a majority of the judges, all white, believe that minority groups no longer need to have a unified voice.  The racist Sammy Alito wrote the majority opinion.  Sammy wants a white, Republican, authoritarian government running America.  Future generations are not going to see Sammy as a decent human being.  Quite the contrary.  They will look at his racist opinions and define him as what he truly is, a bigoted, phony Catholic.

And gas prices increased again yesterday.  Since I didn't go anywhere, I don't know how high they went locally, but from what I'm seeing online, 40 cents seems to be the standard increase.  This is how you lose elections, no matter how much you gerrymander, or how often Sammy Alito stomps his tiny racist feet.  Hint, hint, gas prices are not going to go down soon, not that Sammy has to worry about the price per gallon.  

Finally, Elonia Musk was in court yesterday.  He and Sam Altman are going head to head, legally, about Chat GP, I think, and Elonia's verbosity and bullshit got to be too much for the judge.  Yepper, the judge told him to basically shut up.  Elonia found that rather... disparaging.  Now, how nice is that?

Brace For Impact!

 Holy macaroni, the temps did drop overnight.  They fell all the way down to 30 (F).  My heat is on and I'm burning up $$$ in natural gas.  According to our weather forecasters the next few days are going to be chilly willy cool, however our nightly lows are predicted to stay above freezing.  Come on, Spring.  We're all waiting you!

Since I'm tired of losing my ds when I type, I'm charging up an old Razer keyboard to use.  It doesn't have batteries, so it will need to be recharged from time to time.  I changed it out because I hated having to deal with that extra charging wire.  However, I'd rather deal with that than invest in another keyboard.  I have another spare just in case the wire really begins to bother me again.

And yesterday was sort a meh, not so much meh day.  Things were accomplished.  Several loads of laundry were done, and the floor in the compu/gym/music room is now complete.  I like it.  It's spongey, cushiony and is easily cleaned.  Cleaning is essential because Howie, unlike my other really short haired boxers, sheds a lot.  All you have to do is rub you hand across his back and a cloud of Fox Red Labrador hair flies up into the air.  I mean, you can actually see it, so dusting and vacuuming it are now necessary.  Where before I could skip a week or two, that is no longer possible

I went to see Death of a Unicorn last night.  Big Pharma is satirized in gloriously gory fashion.  After a young unicorn is accidently hit by a car, it's discovered that its horn, and its blood, cure acne, allergies, and stage 5 cancer.  Untold wealth awaits the Leopold family, except for one small detail, momma and poppa unicorn are not happy.  This movie is very funny at times, and always very smart, it's also a bit on the gory side, some of which was also very funny.  

Brace for impact!  The tariffs kicked in at midnight.  Wall Street is going to drop... again.  To make things worse, China has not only retaliated with higher tariffs for the US, they've dropped the prices on a lot of their products for the rest of the world.  For those who don't know, that's a big Ouch for the United States since that will help offset the tariffs set by the Orange Anus.  In fact, you are going to see more and more countries circumventing the United States, broking deals that are far better than that offered by Orangie.  

On the bright side, and yes there is a bright side, all those billionaires who gave the Orange Anus million dollar gifts when he was inaugurated are suffering.  While your 401Ks are losing thousands, they are losing millions and billions.  Elonia and Peter Navarro, ie Ron Varra, are at each others throats. I don't doubt that soon Zuck and Bezos will be in the mix.  They live to be super wealthy, to be the uber rich, and the second their wealth starts to fall they start to rage.  And, while you and I can brace for the impact of higher prices, the devaluation of their portfolios is far far worse for them because selfishness and greed are not close to being sturdy enough to survive the coming impact. 

Pure Greed

 It's cold outside.  When I woke up the temp was 18 (F).  Tomorrow the temps are predicted to be in the low 50s (F).  I'll take the warmth over the cold any day of the week.  It's not that I don't like the cold, I just don't like the heating bills.  Right now it appears that $$$ might be going into a short supply.

I did work yesterday.  It was fairly slow.  I did get a measure.  Management likes that.  I have a feeling that very soon measures and flooring installations are also going to be in short supply.  Prices are going to go up, this is why I bought a dehydrator.  And those prices that go up?  They're not going to be coming down.  Corporations are not going to be taking a cut in pay just to make your life easier.  

One thing that was obvious yesterday when I went into work, Home Depot is scrubbing its DEI initiative.  Our boards were stripped.  This doesn't mean they're going to stop DEI hiring, just that they are not going to promote this necessity.  And it is just that.  When I began working for the company 16 years ago, you could count associates of color on one hand, that is not the case today.  It turns out that many of the white people who apply are... well, to put it bluntly, lazy.  We have a higher turnover with our white associates than with our people of color.  This doesn't mean that they both can't be lazy, just that our white associates don't last too long.

This is very important. I don't know how long this administration will allow access to it, so you may want to print it off.

And, of course, the Orange Anus has initiated Trade Wars.  Honestly, this man is as dumb as a fucking brick.  I do not doubt that in his tiny Adderall riddled brain he thinks this is a smart move.  He truly believes everything he does is a smart move.  We have this problem because he has surrounded himself with people who joyously shout "Yo!  Orangie, you're the smartest, most brilliant businessman in the world!"  He is a narcissist who basks in other people's deceitful compliments.  Truthfully, he is, and I'm going to repeat myself here, dumb as a fucking brick.

He also has a super big problem, maybe, as he might put it, the most monumental, super greatest problem in the world with Elonia, another man who is dumb as a fucking brick.  Elonia now has access to the Treasury.  Many think he's going to drain Social Security.  Nope.  As Elonia said some time ago, he wants to turn Zitter into a Financial Banking Service.  As a way of growing his wealth, Social Security payments will need to be process through Shitter, and he's going to charge Americans for this service... say 2%.  That means if you get a monthly Social Security payment of $2000, you're going to need to deduct $40 every month.  Over 71 million people collect Social Security.  That would mean Elonia would be pocketing almost $3 billion a month.  And he's going to do the same thing with your Income Tax refunds.  In fact, every payment the Federal Government makes will need to go through Shitter, and every payment is will need to pay a Service Fee.  Everything this administration does will be focused on Greed.  It's what these billionaires live for.

Sheer Stupidity

 Say hello to Saturday and the day is going to be sunny, but chilly, with our high only climbing up into the upper 30s (F).  That's fine with me.  I work this afternoon.  The weathers to cold for spring planners, but wait until Thursday.  Temps are supposed to be in the low 50s (F), and that will bring out the early bird curb appealists. 

Yesterday was a laundry day.  I also worked on the book.  But that's about it.  I made my version of celery potato soup using some scraps of beef that had been in the freezer.  It was fine.  I spent some time on social media, but not much. I like to stay quietly informed.  If I spend too much time looking at comments I tend to get aggravated.  

Howie did Howie things.  That means I have a new pile of sticks and twigs on my kitchen counter that he's bartered for snacks.  

I'm scheduled to work this afternoon.  The only day I start working before 2 is Sunday, those days tend to be slow.  Being the first Saturday of the month, we do our Kid's Workshop.  It's a nice concept, teaching kids how to work with kid tools.  They get their little orange aprons and put together a very simple project.  We usually get over 300 kids.  Projects that need to be painted are the worst; we end up with paint smears all over the store, on appliances, carpet samples, you name it, little painty fingers leave their mark.  The store is very busy, and since they're in the store most parents will buy something.  That's the real reason for Kid's Workshop.  It's all about the sales.  This is a promotional picture, no real children were involved.

And, of course, the tariffs begin today.  Will they do anything to make the rich richer?  Nope.  Many think they run for a few weeks, prices will go up, and then the Orange Anus will claim victory and either reduce them greatly, or put an end to most.  Oh, and prices might come down slightly, but they will never again be what they are today.  This is really all about impressing the cultists and making money for the billionaire boys club.

I understand Zuckerberg is getting a divorce.  Now we know why he got that shitty perm; he wants to look young and nerdy again.

Elonia got into government computers yesterday, places he shouldn't have been.  Social Security numbers?  You can bet he'll be selling them to the highest bidders because he doesn't give a shit about people.  Someone said he's going to do to the US Government what he did to Twitter, wreck it out of sheer stupidity.

Small

 Our temps are borderline freezing, though expected to climb up into the low 40s (F) this afternoon.  As this Arctic Blast approaches they're supposed to begin to slowly drop, though the forecasters have already begun to modify how cold it's going to get in Central PA.  Their first forecast had us down to 12 (F), now it seems as though we're not going to be getting that cold.  They've added 12 degrees onto that, so, I guess we'll have to wait and see how cold it actually gets.

Yesterday was fairly meh, and today feels like it should be Monday.  No doubt it's the holiday effect.  I did some laundry.  Played Indiana Jones and the Lost Circle.  Cooked pork and sauerkraut, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.  It was tasty!

 But mostly I worked on the book.  The most difficult thing I've had to deal with so far is eliminating the car sections.  I knew that Delphi was small when I decided to use the town for a locale and had my guys driving from one place to another chapter after chapter.  However, it wasn't until I actually walked down the streets that I realized how small the town was, and that meant the car had to morph into walking conversations.  You can have a decent conversation walking from a hotel to.. oh, let's say the museum, however  it would take 3 minutes to get into your car, fasten the seatbelt and drive there, so any references to them riding, or sitting in a car, or driving somewhere had to be replaced.  To give you an idea, here's the street my hotel was on looking from one end to the other.  There are only 3 streets in Delphi.  At the far end is where you turn left to walk the half-mile to the museum.

There was excitement yesterday.  A tragedy in New Orleans, and a cyber truck explosion in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.  These incidents are not the prelude to a dream, but they might become common place when the moral degenerate takes office, especially with more and more individuals understanding how much he and the conservatives who want an authoritarian government have lied to the people.  As the Orange Anus, and his boss Elonia, push for more cheap immigrant labor, more and more Americans are going to lose their jobs.  When people realize Elonia relies so deeply on China and little on the United States, American anger will seethe.  There is this terrible misconception among authoritarians that all they need to do is put them in charge and everyone in the world will fall in line and comply.  Both conservatives and authoritarians have always been stupid.  In reality, they have very small minds, and small minds always fail.  I'm betting that a year from now, very few of the people who voted for the Orange Anus will admit that fact.

Dry This

 Well, it's cold outside.  I've been up for 2 hours and the temp is still frozen at 27 (F).  For those of you with Celsius, that's below zero.  The weather forecasters are rumoring that the high temp today will actually be in the upper 30s (F).  I'm going to wait and see on that one.

Any my Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was pretty much nondescript. This doesn't mean that I did nothing.  In other words, I didn't lull around, passing the hours by scrolling social media on my phone.  Nope.  The big tank got a good cleaning, including one of the Greek statues which had growing rather bearded with all the algae.  Now he's mostly bright, clean, and white, with just a little algae providing the needed chiaroscuro. 

Of course, I wrote.  I'm approaching the denouement for The Body in History.  I needed a way to get from point A to point C, and while thinking of what's considered one of the greatest films ever made, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, I came up with transition point B.  Suddenly, everything is like... Wow.  That's makes perfect sense.  When writing, you should always begin with the ending.  Thinking of everything that goes between the first word and the last chapter is all the fun, or as some writers might tell you, all of the work, though for me, because I always have a resolution chapter, it's always the 2nd last chapter.

I ordered a food hydrator yesterday, so I suppose you could call that my big Black Friday purchase.  Why?  I have this feeling certain food stuffs are going to be getting pricy, and this is one of the ways I can prepare.  Instead of pay rather exorbitant prices for fresh fruit and veggies, I'm going to be drying some while produce is still what we'll one day consider inexpensive.  It's a Cosori, the same company that manufactured my air fryer.

I see Trudeau flew down to Mar a Lago to talk to the Orange Anus about tariffs.  That was yesterday and so far Orangy had not posted any lies on social media about how the Canadian Prime Minister has caved to his demands.  Perhaps everything depends upon whether or not Musk is in the room during these chats.  I'm suspecting he will be since he owns the new phony president's ass.  For those who were lucky enough to have missed them, there were several videos of Thanksgiving down at the Swamp Resort with Elonia seated besides the dementiated Trump clapping and singing along to YMCA.  I saw 2 versions and thought they both looked more than a little stagey: no chairs or place setting on 1/3 of the table so as not to block the view for everyone wanting to get a video.  It was almost as though people knew they needed to put on a happy face for the cameras.  Anyway, if Musk was by Orangy's side for that, I'm betting he's next to him in every meeting Musk might consider consequential.  So, the longer we go without a Trump lie on social media, the implications are it's not going the way Musk had it planned.

Musk: The First Lady

 Tuesday.  The outside temp is around 48 (F), the skies are clear, and it is quite breezy.  We are almost halfway through Autumn and weatherwise we are anything but seasonal.  According to the long range forecast, predictions are that we should be getting more rain.  That would be a very good thing.  

So, I went to work yesterday and discovered that I didn't have to work.  Damn!  I always work Mondays.  For the most part, I have a fixed schedule, except yesterday, for some reason I was scheduled off.  I ended up being on the clock for around 10 minutes, long enough for them to give me presents for being in the military.  It was a nice gesture, a cup, a combo flashlight pen, and a Memorial Coin celebrating the Orange Retailer's association with Veterans.  I will never use the cup, it's too small, but the combo flashlight and pen will get used.  As for the coin?  The Orange Retailer wants to create what they call "orange blood loyalty."  I'm sorry.  My blood runs red.

As I've said, I started playing the new Dragon Age game, and it's fun.  Initial reviews were very good, but then a few not so nice comments started getting made, one being that it was too "woke" for some of the people playing it.  Well, it's a role playing game, and that means there are a world of possibilities for your character.  I will admit to being a little surprised when I opened a dialogue box and discovered that my ginger bearded character was "happy to be Trans."  It didn't really phase me.  Bioware, the game's developer, rocked the boat back in their Mass Effect series when the main character could have same sex relationships.  I actually find it funny that there are gamers out there who, choosing to build a female main  character, and, if they select the same dialogue box I did, discover that at one time their chick had a... penis.  In case you've forgotten, this is my main character, named Rook, as in the chess piece.

I canceled my Twitter account a long time ago, soon after it was purchased by Musk, and moved to Threads.  Since the election, I've been spending less time scrolling through the comments.  While, like many, I believe Main Stream Media played a big part in Harris' lost, I'm not going to dwell on it.  We have a difficult road ahead of us.  Still, I do go to threads, because there are certain people I follow who aren't political.  Yesterday, however, I did enjoy a moment of political delightness.  Evidently Stephen King has been permanently banned from Twitter because he called Elon Musk The First Lady.  In fact, quite a few people found that hysterically funny.  The fact that Musky Dew is sitting in on most of the policy decision and Cabinet choices shows us that he has done what Rupert Murdoch only dreamed of doing.  He has bought himself a president.  This means he is more than The First Lady.  So, now we have the bullseye of our target.  Shall we start firing away?

Scorpio!

 Well, hello November!  For those unfamiliar with the Zodiac, Scorpios are in full swing.  I am, as you should have guessed, a Scorpio.  The sign is considered to be the most powerful, followed by Leo.  Scorpios are a member of the water sign group, along with Cancer the Crab and Pisces the Fish.  And, while we are emotional and sentimental at times, we also have a stinger, and believe me, we do know how to sting.

Yesterday was one of those "I should have done more but didn't" sort of days.  Howie and I did some lawn work, but not nearly as much as could have been done.  I did some cleaning, but just some.  I wrote, but only around 300 words.  I took a few naps, but none of them were nearly long enough.  I don't know.  Perhaps it was because yesterday was Halloween and I knew that Trick or Treaters would be prowling the neighborhood.  Howie and I were outside when a few went by, and they were all young.

My new neighbors took their daughter down to Lancaster so she could do her Tricker or Treating there.  She's probably 13 or so, and is a little too old to hang with the little kids that hit my neighborhood.  They've been living in the house for a little over a year.  The last time I talked to her, she said they were waiting to see how well their son does in college, implying they might be moving back to Lancaster.  She did tell me that they know the house needs a new roof and they can't afford to put one on, so who knows what they're going to do.  They may try to sell.  They've built up a tiny bit of equity, but not much.

Howie can climb halfway up the stair case.  In another 2 weeks they will no longer be an obstacle for him.

Just in case you missed it, the Orange Anus is suing CBS for a lot of money.  None of the Main Stream Media groups that I scanned this morning were mentioning it, which is not good for Orangie.  In the past, this sort of gimmicky law suit were garner him headlines, no longer.  The bold print headline on NBC is Orangie telling Tucker Carlson that Liz Cheney might think differently if she were standing in front of a firing squad.  The CBS lawsuit would have been a much better headline for him.  Five days before the election and he's making news by threatening people with firing squads.  And his campaign believes this is smart?  

Early voting is going well.  While no one knows who's voted for who, we do know that women are outvoting men by a decent percentage.  This is not a good sign.  We know that a lot of people who have never voted before in their lives are voting this year.  A heavy turnout does not favor Republicans.

And finally, we have Elon Musk, who so desperately wants to be president of the United States, who wants to be a petty dictator.  Walz said it best.  He's a dipshit.  The nerd from Hell who's always had to buy his way into the popularity club he so terribly wants to run.  His incompetence becomes more and more apparent as the days go by.

Christmas in October

 Well, it's Sunday.  I got up around 0515 because I was awake.  It was cool enough in the bedroom that I realized the time had come for me to pull out the rest of the blankets.  Outside, the temp was 49 (F) or almost 9.5 (C).  That's chilly.  Temps are predicted to get warmer, however, things have changed in the forecast.  Originally, it was supposed to stay warm for a few days.  Now, we appear to to be moving back into more seasonable, fall-like weather.  It is autumn, after all, and some people need a reason to drink their pumpkin spice lattes.

I worked yesterday, it was boring.  I did manage to get 2 measures for flooring installations.  That will keep management happy.  My goal was 2 for the week, I've sold 4.  I will probably sell less in the future because I've changed my availability.  There was time when you could be available for 28 hours a week and you'd only be scheduled for 20.  Not any more.  Now they schedule for every hour possible, and the only way to change that is to reduce the number of hours a week that you can work.  A further reduction is in my future.

And Christmas has arrived at the store... the first week of October.  Truthfully, they began the display all the way back in September.  Every year people ask me why, we have 3 months until Christmas?  Well, the ugly answer is the consumer, those people who desperately need Christmas.  Here's an example from last week.  We had a woman and her husband come into the store looking for a specific artificial Christmas tree.  That model was sold out online, however, we had several in the store.  They were, unfortunately, still stored on pallets in the overhead.  Even more unfortunate for us was her demand we get one down so she could buy one, so that's what we did.  We blocked off aisles, got a fork-lift and pulled down the pallet so she could satisfy her selfishness.  As for this display, it was difficult for me to take this picture because of customers buying trees, and wreathes, and... well you name it.  And yes, I take it on October 4, 2024.

The Orange Anus had a rally yesterday in Butler, PA, where supposedly and assassination attempt was made on his life.  Many people are beginning to wonder if it was an elaborate campaign event that cost the deaths of 2 Republicans.  Honestly, I don't think Republicans have a problem sacrificing one of  their own if they feel their new religion calls for it.  Elon Mus was there, too.  At one time I thought he might be intelligent, now I realize he's like Trump, a self-centered rich man who inherited most of his fortune.  His Karma is almost as bad as Trump's.  This is something his ego refuses to let him understand.  He and the woman who needed a specific tree have a lot of things in common.

Orangie and the Technical Difficulties

 Temps are again predicted to be in the low 80s (F) today, with nearly cloudless skies and light breezes.  That being said, my first load of laundry is outside drying as I type, and the 2nd is in the washer.  

Yesterday, work was fine.  I got my mandatory 2 measures, and had a $1500 sale go through, so I'm ducky dandy for the week.  

I've plenty on my menu for today, including getting my hair cut.  I'd had it cut a while back thinking it wouldn't get shaggy before I left for Greece.  Boy, was I wrong.  While it's getting cut, I'll have them take care of my eyebrows, too.  

The final season of The Umbrella Academy is streaming on Netflix.  Since I enjoyed the past 3 seasons, I thought I'd give it a watch.  It's... okay.  Because it can take up to 2 years between each series of episodes, the cast has aged... a lot.  Originally the characters were young adults, in their early 20s, now they're adults and two of them have children.  Elliot Page looks and sounds like he's in his 40s (he's actually 37).  Megan Mullaly joins the cast for the final season, and I kept wondering why?  She's a good actor stuck in a two dimensional character.  It's not that I didn't think some parts were interesting, but mostly I kept thinking that this was a sad way to end a series, and when the final credits rolled I asked myself "that's it?"

Remember when Ronnie DeSantis announced his candidacy on Zitter?  Well Elon interviewed the Orange Anus last evening... after a 40 minutes delay because of technical difficulties a cyber attack that only effected Orangie and Elon.  No one else on the platform had a problem.  Ronnie D experienced the same technical difficulties cyber attack.  Orangie's appearance on Zitter caused Truth Social's stock to crash (dear me).  And when the interview finally happened, it turned out to be a rambling conversation with softball questions.  Only a fool would have expected anything else.

Here's a quote from the former Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

Just think about that.  60% of Americans despise Orangie.  Sadly, his squeaky wheel is not going to get any grease and the squeaking is only going to get louder and angrier.  Of course, when he loses on November 5, he's going to lie again, claiming the election was rigged, and that the Democrats cheated.  That is if he's still able to speak coherently.  The angrier he gets, the more those tiny blood vessels in his orange, little brain come closer to popping him over into raging insanity. 

One of the things that had me laughing was that supposedly ranking members of the GOP are telling Orangie he needs to refocus.  Dear Lord, I'd have thought they'd have realized that this is as focused as he ever going to get.

The Man with the Glasses

 Rain is in the forecast.  The drizzle has already begun.  Temps are predicted to climb into the mid 80s (F), but the humidity will be high.  After today's rains temps will again climb back up into the 90s (F).  While the past 2 summers have been on the cool side, this warmth should have been expected.  The rest of the world is having very hot days, so why should we here in Central PA have to deal with the same thing.

I did have a nice conversation yesterday with my manager regarding the attitude I had to deal with from the other manager on Sunday.  He asked if I got the $4700 sale, and when I told him I did, he said, "that's what's important, making sure the customer is happy."  Of course, getting that sale made him happy.  From what I gather, none of the other managers have much respect for the one who tried to intimidate me, so I'm getting broad smiles and nods from them, while he seems to have made himself invisible.  

And, since it's raining, I'm using the dryer today instead of hanging my loads of laundry outside to dry.  

Also, after everything I've been posting about the Orange Anus, I thought this might be a decent little palate cleanser.  This is something to be proud of.  I tried posting the video, but NBC Sports has it locked down tight in YouTube, so watch him in action.  His name is Steve Nedoroscik.

Last night there was a zoom call:  White Dudes for Harris.  Over 175,000 men were on that call.  They heard a number of speakers and raised over $4 million for the Harris campaign.  That's a big finger in the eye of the Republican party.  Not surprisingly, the NYT posted an NYT/Sienna poll this morning implying that 75% of men likely to vote were pro Trump.  I hope the irony isn't lost on any of you, since the billionaire owner of the NYT has been pushing a rather obvious pro Trump agenda.  In case you didn't know, it's all about the tax cuts.  The same thing is true about that dufuss Elon Musk, who shut down the White Dudes for Harris Twitter account during the event.  The reason:  The account was suspended for trying to avoid suspension.  Musk wants his tax break, too.  

And evidently Leonard Leo, Clarence Thomas' sugar daddy, had a bit of a meltdown over Biden wanting to create forcible ethics rules for the Supreme Court.  I mean, what's a sugar daddy supposed to do if he can't spoil his favorite Oreo boy toy?

Uninstalling Twitter

 So, the temperature did not drop below freezing last night.  Now, isn't that nice for December?  And we're in for another day in the mid to upper 50s (F).  This doesn't mean that the rest of the approaching winter season is going to be the same.  Mother Nature might decide to nail us with winter storm, after winter storm, after winter storm, though as time moves on through Climate Change, those types of weather patterns seem to be fading in this region of the country.  Who knows?  In 200 years, Pennsylvania might be a tropical island paradise.

Some things were accomplished yesterday, but not as many as I had expected.  No matter how much I plan, this always tends to be the case after I work for a few days, not because sitting at the flooring desk is so exhausting, but rather because I've always struggled with procrastination, and as I get older, I find myself giving in to it more and more.

One of the chores on my list for this morning is to drive over to the store to pick up the necessary supplies for tiling the rest of the backsplash in my kitchen.  Also, the doorway into the kitchen is going to get primed.  

And just maybe I might bake some snickerdoodles, one of my favorite cookies of all time.  Now I know that for many chocolate chip cookies are the pinnacle of their cookie ladder, that's not the case here, and I am talking about American cookies here, not the British biscuits; snickerdoodles should never be chewy.

As have so many millions of others, I uninstalled Twitter from my phone.  There was a time when I enjoyed it, in fact there were even people who followed me and liked my smart ass comments.  Now I know that my removal of the app isn't going to hurt Elon Musk personally, but all those millions switching to some other app?  That's creating a financial headache for him, which is good.  I'm tired of getting notifications from hate groups and far right extremists.  I'm tired of having to block people who love perpetuating views that glory in hatred, or espouse the rule of dictators.  While I'm all for free speech, that doesn't mean I want to be harangued daily by peoples who's views are anything but free.  While Elon claims his new version of Twitter is all about free speech, he evidently didn't put much thought into the fact that if you dislike it, you can uninstall it, and that's happening.  Twitter's attrition rate is high.  Ad sales are way down; according to Bloomberg over $1.2 billion down since Musk bought the app.  Someone should have told Musk that Free Speech does not mean you can be forced to listen, or read the shit Twitter is now putting out.  Nope.  Not at all.  Believe me, it's quite easy to uninstall.

The Consequences of Public Opinion

 This Thursday morning the temp was 23 (F) when I jumped out of bed.  To celebrate our drop into the lower to mid 20s (F), I pulled out my wool blanket.  Now, I know a lot of you think wool is scratchy, but this wool is soft and supple.  Here's an interesting bit most of you don't know.  Tuxedoes are made from wool.  Yep, 100%, at least the good ones are.  They also started off as a variation of a military uniform, beginning with the peak lapel tailcoat.  

Yesterday was one of those ho-hum days.  I took care of some chores, but mostly putzed around doing dishes and laundry.  I did get some quality treadmill time in and am hoping to get more in today.  

I'm also halfway through the final edit of The Body in Motion.  One thing that's changed about the process is that the changes are mostly being done in Word.  I used to sit down, read the manuscript making manual changes.  While I still like to do that, it turns out that I usually end up ignoring my notes and the changes that are being made are more spontaneous.  This doesn't mean I'm skipping the read through from a hard copy, just that I'm not relying on those notes for changes and rewrites.

I saw this bike being advertised this morning while reading through the Washington Post!  Wow.  Believe me, if I weren't paying for the kitchen, this baby would be ordered!  I did print off a screen shot and will probably wait until sometime in the spring.

Henry Kissinger died yesterday.  He was 100.  Very Old.  He was not a very good man, still quite a number of presidents turned to him for advice.  He was a good negotiator, but didn't really give a shit about humanity.  Fame and ego were everything to him; people were not.

And the funny of the day come from Elon Musk.  For someone who loved being praised for being a great businessman and innovator, his death spiral couldn't be anymore entertaining.  He bought Twitter (notice, I don't say X, formally known as Twitter) saying it was going to become a platform of Free Speech.  For Elon, however, Free Speech put a lot of focus on conspiracy theories, fascist groups, and hate speech.  He simply didn't realize that Free Speech, itself, has some limitations.  You can not say anything you want without having to deal with the consequences of public opinion, and that's something he just does not understand, probably because in his small mind, his is the only opinion that counts.  Anyway, his jumping onboard an antisemitic conspiracy theory seems to have been the straw that broke the advertising camel's back, because advertisers are heading to safer grounds; they don't want their ads airing next to pro-Nazi bullshit, among many other things.  So, in a pique of anger Elon lashed out yesterday, telling advertisers that if they didn't like what was on Twitter they can "go fuck yourselves."  Ouch!  Can you hear me laughing?

Pink

 Hello Monday!  I hope everybody had a good weekend.  The weather here in Enola was warm and dry while severe thunderstorms battered the area around my little suburb.  Because of this, I had to drag out the hose last evening and water my plants.  No rain is scheduled in the foreseeable future.  It's almost as if we're heading into the dog days of summer without the heat.

I did get another measure yesterday while working.  That really puts me up for the week.  My sales were good, too, for a part time associate.  

One of the higher-ups in our region is in a world of shit.  We were told there was an install promotion going on for vinyl and laminate surfaces, and signs were posted.  A number of measures were done before it was discovered our store was not included.  As a result, because people are now buying those installations, our store is having to do some major markdowns.  The kind that curdle the blood of any accountant looking at our books.  This type of mistake brings out the worst in customers.

Here's a bit of hilarity.  Evidently production of the new Barbie movie had some trouble getting enough of the right color pink.  If you've seen the trailer, you will realize how much pink there is in the movie.  If you haven't, well, here it is.  I think this movie is going to be a blast.

And here's a little bit of the NYT:  Ad revenue for Twitter is down 59% from last year.  I don't know about you, but I find that fascinating.  This is how Elon Musk learns how pricey his opinion of what constitutes free speech is going to be.  Oh, and advertisers are not flocking back.  They are taking their revenue elsewhere.  Of course, Elon doesn't understand how far his ego has led him astray.  Instead of changing course, he's going to continue down the same path,  Everyone is learning that even though Elon sold the idea to the world that he's a smart man, in real time it turns out he's dumb as a box of rocks.

Trump's documents Grand Jury reconvenes today.  Prepare yourselves for a stream of rage in all Caps.

The Duffer of all Duffers

 It looks as though the warm weather we've been having for the past several days is going to come to a thundery crash this afternoon as storms roll through the Central PA, though to be perfectly honest, I don't believe storms roll at all.  Anyway, the temps are supposed to drop into the mid 60s (F), which still isn't bad.

I'd like to say that yesterday, being the 4th day off this week was filled with exciting adventure... well, it wasn't.  More yardwork was accomplished.  I mowed the lawn.  More English ivy was pulled up by the roots.  I did get out that week killer and sprayed the ivy in the front hedge (that isn't mine) because it's constantly trying to spread over into my lawn.  I have a Burning Bush at the front of my porch that's going to be cut out.  They are a predatory plant, just like the wisteria I've been getting rid of for what seems to be years.  

I did watch the last few episodes of Picard.  I had heard that Jeri Ryan might be getting a spin-off show and the series finale sort of enforced those rumors.  In fact, that whole segment with her and Jack Crusher was a set up for a new show more than anything else.  Let's be honest, if Paramount believes they can make money on a new series there will be a new series.  Seven of Nine was so popular they made her a regular, and she was just as popular in Picard.  And, of course, many fans would like to see a lot more of Jack (Ed Speleers) Crusher.

It turns out that when Elon shot off his pocket rocket, he damaged his launching pad, now, tell me, doesn't that sound painful?  Some damage is always done whenever a rocket gets launched, but this was no ordinary rocket (Elon needed to go big).  As Kris pointed out in yesterday's blog, there are videos with pieces of the pad hitting vehicles that were parked a "safe" distance away.  There are also videos of of large chunks hitting the Gulf of Mexico, and those had to be very large chunks to be seen making a splash from so great a distance.  How bad was the destruction?  One thing that is being reported is that the road up to the pad is closed.  Reporters who had remote cameras have not been allowed to go their equipment.  Supposedly they will be allowed in today.  I don't think any of this should surprise you.  We are dealing with the duffer of all duffers, Elon Musk.

Elon's Premature Ejaculation

 Well, here we are again, at Friday.  Who'd have thunk the days could fly by so fast.  It seems like yesterday we were also enjoying the end of the work week.  Well, I guess I should clarify that, work week for some, not me.  I'm scheduled to work tomorrow and Sunday.  This is how it goes.

My movie buddy Patty and I were supposed to go see Renfield last evening.  We did... and we didn't.  When we got to the theater we found out that they changed the start time.  On Sunday when I looked it started at 8 p.m., however at some point in the week they changed the start time to 7:15 p.m. so we arrived at our local AMC too late.  I was a little irate, since I want to see that movie in the theater.  

I was out doing yardwork again.  Today I'll be out again to mow the lawn.  The joys of being a homeowner.  I'm also working on getting rid of the English ivy.  I bought a spray that's supposed to kill it.  I will probably use it this afternoon on the ivy that is growing in the front yard hedge.  

Yesterday, I also installed a retractable hose outside.  It will still need to be taken down in the winter, but no longer will I be coiling it up on the sidewalk in front of the faucet.  Yippee for me!

And for those who didn't know, yesterday Elon Musk had a very public premature ejaculation so to speak.  His very large rocket lifted off and then exploded.  Everybody in the world is talking about this because... well, he's turning out to be such a dimwit.  The town where he located his launch site is not happy with him.  The dust cloud kicked up was immense, lots of clean-up to be done.  

Yesterday was also the day he took away the Blue checks on Twitter... sort of.  They disappeared from so many names and groups, but not all.  Stephen King still has one, though he says that he isn't paying for it.  I believe him.  And, evidently, Twitter can take away the Blue check, but they can't take away the verification they originally did.  Searching with certain filters shows even without the checks people are still verified.  Elon's turning out to be a real dolt.

Running into Rocks

 Tuesday, and the weather is chilly.  Temperatures cool.  Ain't gettin' too warm today.  Overcast.  Yeah the clouds are low hangin'.  Oh, but soon... those clouds... will be rollin' away.

Tomorrow the temps are back up in the 70's (F).  That will be nice.  When I got home from work it was 68 (F) in the house and overnight outside they dropped into the 40s (F).  Since today's high is only supposed to reach the mid 50s, the heat is on... again, at least until tomorrow.

Work was boring yesterday.  Nothing happened.  Again, our garden business was hopping.  Paint was busy, too, so I helped out there for a while.  Towards the end of my shift I designed a $7000 order of shades and blinds for a couple.  Yeah, you read that number correctly.  They asked about the installation cost, which for them is going to be $180 which is nothing compared to what they're paying for shades.

Some unknown individual got artistic with our carpet samples.  I don't know if the pig drawing is supposed to be sending us a message or not.  Embiggen for clarity.

As one might have expected, Musk's big rocket failed to launch.  He is a man who has relied on the ideas of others to get where he is, however, as usual, once he puts his finger in the pudding pot things begin to curdle.

Fox evidently hoped that they'd be able to get out of Dominions lawsuit with a plea bargain.  I'm betting it must have been a really tabloid offer because it fell apart.  The Murdochs, like the Republicans, will never learn.  To do so would mean they were wrong.  That is something they will never publicly admit to... ever.

Ronnie DeSantis is throwing a real hissy fit down in Florida.  He's a whiny, little authoritarian wannabe and it's looking more and more that his wannas are going to be.  He's threatening to possibly build a prison next to Disney World, now how funny is that.  The hardcore Republicans in that state are fuming.  Their tiny dictator ship is running into all kinds of rocks.

Goggle This

 Monday, and the sun's supposed to shine, though the temps are to be around normal, that means in the mid 50s (F).  That's fine with me.  Things will be warm enough, soon enough.  Many people can't wait for summer and then when it finally arrives they complain about the heat so much I wonder if they have mid-term memory issues.  Don't they remember that summer does not mean temps are going to stay in the comfortable 80s (F), but that there will be times when they climb into the high 90s (F) or early 100sk (F)?

They gave me Specialist of the Month yesterday.  Some think this is a great.  Me?  I know there are only so many Specialists and only so many months in the year.  For a part-timer, my sales are good, better than some of the full-timers, in fact, and that's what they look at.  Still, getting the award does let me order a special gift from an Award Catalog.  Every other time I've won, I've chosen a nice water bottle.  This time?  Maybe a thermometer.

And the new glasses arrived. They're garnet colored.  For those who don't know, garnets are a deep, almost blood red color, at least the ones I've seen.  My grandmother used to have a garnet necklace - big stones. I like them.  They're a big change up from the blue and the lenses are clear.

Elon, the moron, Tweeted yesterday that only verified Tweeters, those paying $11.99 a month were going to get their Tweets prioritized.  This is nothing more than a way for the loser to inject some sort of revenue into the platform since advertisers have been bailing.  A number of those I follow retweeted his post and let their followers know they weren't going to pay the fee.  Many said that if things continued to deteriorate, they could be found on Post.  Transitioning to a new platform will not be difficult.  Right now, it seems that most of the Tweets that pop into my feed are either ultra right wing, or Republicans.  Believe me when I tell you that I'm tried of telling Elise Stefanik that she's nothing more than a lying sack of shit.

And Baby Bibi Netanyahu has reversed, or at least is been stymied by demonstrators who have managed to derail that is authoritarian agenda... for the moment.  I'm sure he's seething.  Conservatives in the US need to pay close attention.

 

Stupid as Elon

 Well, we didn't quite get as toasty as they were predicting yesterday.  Our temps decided to hang out at around 73 (F).  Don't get me wrong, that's still a very nice temperature and the day was simply lovely.  I wore shorts outside, of course, since I've been wearing shorts on and off for most of the winter that's not too special.

I spent some time chatting with a tech from Adobe yesterday learning how to size a PDf to satisfy Barnes & Noble's requirements for cover art.  The changes need to be done in what's called the Preflight tool.  I was so happy when I submitted the cover and it was accepted... until I got an error.  They were having a problem converting the PDF/x-1a.  Well, son of a bitch!  I've sent them an email for an explanation.  So far there's been no response.  My patience is running out.  I'm almost to the point where I'll only sell the ebook through them.

Last yesterday afternoon I received an email from Amazon.  My Cosori air fryer was being recalled.  There's a problem with some of the wiring; it might catch fire.  I saw that 2 million are being recalled.  That's a lot of faulty wiring.  They'll replace it for free, so I started the process, cut the cord and sent the pictures.  

Today's the one year anniversary of Russia's invasion of the Ukraine.  Things are not going well for Trump's Blo Bro Vlad.  Will wannabe authoritarian dictators learn their lesson?  Absolutely not.  They may temper their ambition for a short time, but that will pass.  One of the reasons they will never change is billionaires.  Money talks.  While Russian oligarchs have been financially injured by the war, those injuries are minor, scratches and nicks that will heal.  They may actually replace Vlad because he screwed things up so badly.  Unfortunately, they will most likely put another incompetent in power.  Money talks, but it doesn't make you smart.  Look at Elon Musk, if you want a good example.  That man is stupid.

Elon's Loss (corrected from this morning).

 Monday - this is going to be an abbreviated work week; I'm scheduled for 2 days, Monday and Saturday.  Today I'll rack up 8 hours, Saturday I work 5 hours.  Today will be boring.  The only departments that will do any business on Friday will be Garden (marked down Holiday decorations) and hardware (that last minute drill for dad).  I did put in for 6 hours of vacation pay even though I've earned 4 hours of holiday pay.  Biggie's expenses are approaching.

The actual new owner of the house next door showed up yesterday for about 10 minutes.  He pulled his black Escalade in front, put on the four way flashers, and proceeded to follow his worker into the house.  He's probably in his mid 30's, had a large gold chain that swung away from his chest when he walked, and I was not impressed.  I suspect the new owner discovered just how much rubbish the previous owner left behind.  Buying a house 'as is' means you're getting it as it is.  It's not going to be cleaned out and ready for painting.  'As is' also means there was no way that house could pass a home inspection.  If a deal is too good to be true, it's almost always too good to be true.

Our new store manager arrives today.  In fact, she's probably already walking the aisles of the store.  Some of our newly promoted assistant managers may have problems.  They will have to go through a learning period.  They may have a rough time of it.  I have no problem with that.

A bit on Troll:  it is the most popular non-English film in Netflix history, people have watched over 128 million hours as of last week.  Could Mads have anything to do with that?  Some people like it, others don't, but overwhelmingly people are sympathizing with the troll.  Now, isn't that interesting?

 

For those who haven't been paying attention, Elon had a poll.  Should he stay as CEO of Twitter, or leave.  Elon lost.  Now the questions is will he actually resign.  He has been very quiet.  I'm suspecting he thought his bots would pull of a victory for him.  While this is the current sturm and drang on Twitter, some saying this chaos is what his backers want, I'm seeing elsewhere that they are very unhappy with the man / baby.  While they may have wanted him to move the direction of Twitter to the Right, they had not anticipated he would bring such mayhem.  For many, the total disorganization is unbelievable.  As for the poll?  Well, Elon, as with most billionaires, has very thin skin; he finds it almost impossible to admit he's wrong, that he made a mistake.  Tesla stock is tanking; other electric vehicle makers have less problems and are more reliable.  Investors are upset.  We shall have to wait and see if he publicly admits that he's a loser.  I'm betting he'll install a puppet CEO, so he can quietly, behind the scenes, continue to drive Twitter deep into the ground.