DeepSeek

 Wonder of wonders!  The temp outside was 37 (F) this morning when I let Howie out for his morning pee.  They had called for flurries, but if the fell, they flew by too fast to see.  Even better, according to the forecasters temps are supposed to stay this warm until Sunday when they're expected to dip down into the mid 30s (F).  I can handle this.  

Yesterday was a boring day at work.  I spent the 5 hours getting in steps.  This is the slow time of year.  As far as I can tell the only ones  spending money are the Conservatives who don't understand the economy is going to take a deep dive because of fiscal policies.  They are also going to be the first to complain when things go south.

On a really bright note this morning, my Income Tax Refund hit my bank account this morning.  I wasn't expecting those dollars to be available until next Friday at the earliest.  The refund will be used to pay off my windows, but not until after I've used it to earn some interest.  That means it going to be working for me in my savings account.  

As I've said, I'm thinking of downsizing my aquariums.  When I cleaned the big one last week, I started by removing one of the Greek statues.  There was a lot of algae growing on it, and at first I thought that I'd bleach it clean, making it nice and white again.  However, I discovered that in the drying process the algae created a rather interesting patina on the statue.  Now I don't think I'll bleach and of them.  I mean tell me, doesn't this look freaking awesome?

And for those who didn't hear about it, Wall Street went through a correction yesterday, if that's what you want to call it.  Something called DeepSeek, a Chinese AI program put American AI programs to shame.  It's less expensive and does a better job, but then American Greed has bloated our AI programs because our developers are focused on making money, not producing a good product.

This doesn't mean that I've suddenly gone overboard on AI.  While there are certain aspects I find interesting, it does truly need to be carefully managed.  

The Orange Anus also signed an Executive Order reinstating everyone of those members of the military who were discharged because they refused to be vaccinated for Covid... with 4 years of back pay.  This is how you start to build a private army.  This is not going over well with those hundreds of thousands who got the vaccine.  This grows loyalty in a small and most likely insignificant group of people.  Remember, anti-vaxers will always end up dying first.

Is Gini Thomas miffed?

 Yesterday was a warm, sunny day.  I loved it!  With the temp hovering at 53 (F), Lily and I took a walk.  She loves walks.  Today's supposed to be warm, but we're not expecting to climb into the 50s (F) again.  Today's high is supposed to be climb up into the mid 40s (F), but that's fine.  Every warm day is one day less that I need to pay for heating my house.

I got a lot of things done yesterday, including a good cleaning of the tank in the living room.  I bought a UV light to help manage the algae in the writing room tank; it's so bad right now the water has a greenish tint.  In all of the years I've had aquariums, I've never had as much of an algae problem as I now have, but then they all had fluorescent lights, not the brilliant LED lights we have today.  Brighter lit tanks = more work.

Early yesterday afternoon, I had a nice conversation with my neighbor.  She's nice, but either limited, or very naive.  She told me she feels as though everybody is watching them, so I was honest and told her nobody in the neighborhood really cares what they do.  She complained that her son's room was "chilly," her word, not mine.  She said she bought a heater to keep it warm.  So I told her that before the renovation, it was an attic with no heat, and there's still no heat, and only one outlet.  If we have any really cold days, that's kid's going to freeze.  This is what happens when you don't pay for a Home Inspection.  

Because there is no soundproofing between our houses, I bought myself a gaming headset, which was actually a smart move.  The sound is so much clearer than what I heard just using the soundbar, so I'm thinking this was a very good investment.  

One of the things I find truly interesting is that the Supreme Court which Donald Trump, and the Republican party, loaded to be touchy feely friendly to the GOP has been failing to give them what they want, Supreme Status in America.  Of course the Court's biggest test is going to be Trump's immunity status.  They are on very thin ice right now, and I'm certain that one Justice in particular, namely Clarence Thomas, is all for saying that the white billionaire is right, and should be able to do what he wants.  Many legal experts are weighing in on the subject, and by far a majority of them are saying Trump isn't.  With this is mind, I'm wondering if Ginni Thomas is miffed.  I'm betting she is.  Let's be honest here, she's a white woman with terrible taste in cardigan sweaters who's just like her husband: she feels she's deserving.  Saying Trump is immune from anything and everything would open up the flood gates for all those grifts and bribes to come rolling into her open arms.  Many are saying Clarence should recuse himself, but he won't.  That would be an admission of guilt.  Besides, Ginni would never let him.

Destined for Failure

 Outside there is a constant drizzle.  It's a rainy Sunday, so I slept in a bit longer than usual.  This happens sometimes.  The weather is not supposed to improve until sometime later this afternoon.  I work, so that'll happen when I'm sitting at the flooring desk.  

I worked yesterday.  That's when the drizzles began.  When I got to the store at 1 PM, the store was relatively busy and thought, "gee, this is what the day's going to be like," and it was for about an hour.  My first customer was difficult.  A man in his late 40s, possibly early 50s, who was replacing the carpet in his bedroom with cheap vinyl planks.  He'd been in last Sunday and dealt with one of my fellow associates.  The reason he was replacing the carpet?  His girlfriend was angry that he spilled wax on the bedroom carpet.  I heard that line last week, and I heard it again yesterday.  Right.  He felt it was important for me to know that the carpet was in his bedroom, and that he'd spilled candle wax on it (doesn't come out), and that he was doing this for the "girlfriend."  He asked many of the questions he'd asked last week.  Wanted to know why the installation might take 2 weeks (his transition piece needed to be ordered), and why we no longer stored everything in massive warehouses.  Every explanation I gave him got the same response, "well, I just don't understand why it's not done this way," or "that doesn't make sense to me."  In the end he purchased, and since his installation was small, one room, I had him take most of the product he needed when he left.  Except for the transition piece, so I told him to call Tuesday, when I wasn't working, so we could give him an ETA on that piece.

Every now and then my fish do things that are interesting.  Here's my algae eater doing his job on the thermometer in my tank.

So, will America end up having a religious war?  There are times when I feel both the Conservatives and the Christian Nationalists want one.  In a weird way, both of them seem to think they have God behind them, and that's got me to thinking.  Have Christians ever actually won a war for Christianity?  All you need to do is look at the Middle East today to see that the Crusades were a terrible failure.  And it doesn't take a push coming to shove for them to fight other Christians, look at Northern Ireland.  Maybe someone should just sit them down and tell them to cool it because no matter how hard they believe, they're destined for failure.

The World is Royally Pissed Off at Putin

 Well, for some of you, another work week is beginning.  Mine never really ended.  In fact, today is going to be my Friday.  So, what do you think of that?  I have an 8 hours shift, leave the store at 5:30 (PM), and do not have to be back until Thursday at 1 (PM).  I can live with that.

There's been a bit of a tragedy in the Big Tank.  My algae eater has disappeared.  This morning, as I was feeding them, I realized he was no longer darting around sucking teeny bits and pieces of the green stuff from the sides of the tank.  This means a drive down to That Fish Place to get another.  The truth is I need to get a second one for the new tank, unless I want to scrap algae on a regular basis.  I will, at some point, need to buy a new LED light which will let me adjust the brightness.  While bright light is nice, it's also quite conducive to algae growth.

I did a mile on the treadmill yesterday, but something started rattling horribly bad, so I stopped.  I'm going to have to take the screw driver and makes sure everything is tightened up.

So, I started using Natural Dog Company's Skin Soother on Biggie's paws.  Firstly: he likes it.  More importantly: he doesn't try and lick it off.  It's an organic balm which helps heal.  Two of the ingredients are frankincense and myrrh, which probably make it holy shit good.

Oh, and in case you haven't heard, the world is royally pissed off at Putin.  And for so many reasons, one of which is that many, many realize his boner is never going to be satisfied until he 'rules the world,' or at least all of Europe, which ever comes first.  The Chinese are very mute on his invasion.  I suspect they see it as a trial balloon to gauge the reaction if they were to invade Taiwan.  The signs are not promising for them.  I saw this morning where talks have begun between the Ukraine and Russia.  That ain't going to go any where.  Every day that passes makes Putin looked dumber, one might go so far as to wonder if that boner of his is really nothing more than a cheap prosthetic.  Maybe he should change his name to Dildo Putin.

Finally, I'm old enough to remember the days of the USSR, when there was a Soviet Union, and back then, if one of the Premiere's screwed things up, the Oligarchs would simply replace him.  I'm not the only one to be thinking about this since Marc posted this link to the Palmer Report.  You see, most people believe Putin's running the show over there.  Wrong.  It's the Oligarchs.  As long as he keeps them happy, he's happy.  If they get pissed off, well there's a villa Gorbachev moved to that's now sitting empty.  Are the Oligarchs pissed?  Well, this morning I saw that the Belarusian army is arming up to go in and bail out the Russian army.  Oh, and the Russian Stock Market opened this morning.  Ouch!

Knife in the Back

 We had a frost warning for early this morning.   The temps are down to 38 (F), but so for no frost.  The leaves are starting to fall from trees though, like the rain we never really got yesterday but never did.  I'm off on Tuesday, but if the forecasters are right, rain will be falling here in Central Pa, so leaf raking might not be on my schedule.

I will need to get a snail for my tank.  Algae.  And the algae eater is so damn fickle.  Rather than clean off the side of the tank, it's turned out to be more of a nibbler than an eater, nibble a bit here, nibble a bit there, sort of like a grazer with a free ticket to Ponderosa.  Remember Ponderosa?  It used to be a buffet style restaurant.  Gee.  Does anybody remember buffets?

And there's all sort of interesting bits and pieces of political news.  A number of Republican Senators are in trouble because they suckered up to the Idiot Jerk in the White House.  Someone should tell them that after over 3 years of jumping aboard his dribble train, two weeks before the election is a bad time to decide to jump off.  You're hearing people say that slack-jawed McConnell made a mistake by trying to rush a Cracker Jack Crazy Christian onto the Supreme Court.  He thought this was going to help endangered Senators... it hasn't, and if they vote her in before election day?  Well, that might be the bloody knife in their back.

Biden beat the Idiot Jerk on ratings in the Dueling Town Hall competition.  Boy, I'll bet that must sting, to be a ratings loser.

And if you all remember, for quite some time I've been saying that when the Idiot Jerk loses, he'll end up moving to Moscow.  Well, he's starting to drop hints about leaving the country.  That's the only option he has to avoid being taken into custody the second Biden is sworn in.  I'm suspecting the whole family is going to relocate.  Their corruption is going to come out.