Yeah, it’s kind of boring this week. Saturday has the potential to be interesting as there’s indication of something unusual going on. The only other thing is an unusually specific arrangement involving Saturn retrograde which means “Time to Plant.” I’m not a farmer, but isn’t September not a planting time? Maybe it’s for the southern hemisphere? Or some sort of indoor thing? Anyway, if you were thinking about planting something anyway, the stars say to do it on the 10th.
Virgo: Judgement reversed – Weakness, pusillanimity, simplicity, deliberation, decision, sentence.
Libra: The Sun – Happiness, growth, satisfaction, success.
Scorpio: The Hermit – Prudence, circumspection, treason, dissimulation, roguery, corruption.
Sagittarius: 10 of Wands reversed – Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues.
Capricorn: Page of Wands reversed – Anecdotes, announcements, evil news, indecision, instability.
Aquarius: 3 of Cups – The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing.
Pisces: 3 of Coins reversed – Mediocrity, puerility, pettiness, weakness.
Aries: 9 of Wands reversed – Obstacles, adversity, calamity.
Taurus: 2 of Cups – Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy.
Gemini: 10 of Coins – Gain, riches; family matters, archives, extraction, the abode of a family.
Cancer: King of Swords reversed – Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.
Leo: Knight of Coins – Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude.
I’m not a farmer, but isn’t September not a planting time?
Winter wheat, maybe.
Plant in the fall, and it sprouts when the snow melts.
Winter wheat. Will germinate with fall rain, snow will insulate it over the winter and it’ll have a head start on spring and an earlier harvest.
Bulbs? Should we plant bulbs?
Sagittarius: 10 of Wands reversed – Contrarieties, difficulties, intrigues.
Axially, I have a new neighbor, who seems to be a really good hardworking guy who is quite easy to work with. We sorted out the fence-vs-property-line issue quite amicably. So I got that going for me.
There has been a big flurry of activity back there recently, and I didn’t think it was the previous owner cleaning and prepping at his own expense.
Fence issue: my township ordinance requires that the most attractive side of the fence face toward the neighbor. So they get nicest looking fence and don’t have to pay a cent for it.
The “nice side” being the side with ribbing or flat?
Ribbing side is the inside and flat is outside. Opposite looks weird. Morons that put the flat side facing towards them are idiots. Keeps trespassers from climbing in and fences out the world not fences you in.
Build the fence and give it to your neighbor. Let him/her/it maintain it.
I wanted to connect two stories from the last two days.
You had the “journalist” admitting that she was part of an operation to infiltrate media with fake AI stories.
And then this morning you had a story on a nanny who couldn’t get a job because of her supposed good looks. I’d like to think AI would pick a more attractive female, but who the fuck knows. It was a trivial salacious story that existed just to get clicks, but you’ll have to increasingly question whether the person who wrote the article you’re reading even exists or if the story is even remotely true/based on real people or places or events.
It’s honestly a bigger issue to me than deep fake videos ever were. But what you saw in response to the reveal of the AI operation (and there are supposedly many according to the journalist who wrote the reveal article) was media quietly scrubbing stories. I also read another article on media getting scammed by a “freelance” writer who didn’t exist and in which the stories were likely AI generated. That may have been posted here as well, I don’t know.
These news sites need to get their shit together, but the culture they exist in is so toxic and aimed at generating clicks and ad revenue that they don’t really care beyond the obvious scandal that would result if they were caught posting that shit.
If what passes as AI begins to tell us what is or isn’t true or the lines become so blurred that no one can tell, we are well and truly fucked.
A similar thing has been pointed out with peer reviewed research papers in the soft ‘sciences.’
I thought the “journalist” was a dude, posing as a woman as the author of the stories? Anyway, the other reason that the media culture is so toxic is that it is populated by reflexively anti-Trump personas, and they cannot pull themselves out of that nose dive because to admit that Trump might be right about something, such as crime and the way to solve it, is to tacitly admit that the inverse was wrong, such as that people do want crime to go down, and that cities don’t just have to be that way.
And, a third thing, Malcom Gladwell AKA worlds bestseller at lying with statistics, admitted that he either kowtowed to the trans lobby, or is simply admitting that he picks position solely by virtue of the mob. And with tranny studies going quickly downhill, he is trying to weasel his way out of a previous falsely held position.
It isnt just news. I am suspicious to certain that about half of the content on youtube is AI generated. I am also seeing bands/musicians that only exist in the digital world. How long before entire movies are AI generated…no actors, no directors or crew of any kind….
People keep saying AI will never replace all humans while AI is not so slowly replacing all humans.
Suth, how much more would you value a hand built and finished firearm, vs. an entirely CNC made one?
That is why humans will never be replaced.
I was looking at some custom firearms just the other day. Classic high-end hand made art…with an explanation as to why they are less expensive. They are CNC made from original drawings and indistinguishable from the originals.
Kind of like the AI generated digital content…we have been consuming for years without knowint it.
We’ll always have Jayson Blair.
“The conclusion of any matter in plenty, perfection and merriment; happy issue, victory, fulfilment, solace, healing.”
Why, yes, the work on my porch was finished last week, with just painting left to do. As for the rest, well, that is on the docket for today.
Come finish my deck.
I got the sub structure finished last night after the sun went down.
Pay me 10K and I will get some Mexicans to come over.
I’m on the Trex site now.
Just the crappy ‘boards’ are going to set me back around $6500 before fasteners.
Damn you Obama, CA, and OR for ending redwood harvesting.
$10k sounds like a deal.
My crappy cement patio (elevated maybe 3 feet due to the house being on a decline) is crumbling away and needs to go. I’d love to build a nice wooden one, but I have to get rid of the cement one first. I believe it was just poured long after the house was built, but I’m still scared of what might happen to the fieldstone foundation if a bunch of guys are jackhammering the hell out of that cement.
Either that, or just try and patch the concrete and hope it holds up.
Patch it. dont get wood.
“Wait a minute…why is that rotting? They said it would last 12 years….*counts on fingers*…..fuck. It’s been 14. How did that happen?”
Stick with concrete.
It’s less expensive and longer lasting than wood.
Or I can bring my backhoe over and really F Shit up.
I cheated when I pulled out my old patio. Cut it in half with a hot saw and plucked it out with my forklift. https://ibb.co/LhRKVfNG
First time using this image hosting site. No idea why it’s upside down.
Doesn’t look upside down to me.
Unless you live in an oddly-shaped house.
Yea, I’m leaning towards fixing the cement. The problem with that area is that it’s shaded by a very large tree, so it dries very slowly. I think the constant dampness just degraded the concrete over the decades.
It appears to have been constructed by pouring concrete into a form, then pavers/tiles of some kind were placed on top of that. The concrete is crumbling from the sides, leaving the pavers to overhang by a few inches (we have to be careful not to step on the overhanging parts). I’ll probably have to rig up some sheets of plywood to serve as forms so that I can put new cement in there somehow. And I know concrete needs metal of some kind as reinforcements, so that’ll be another thing to figure out.
Ted, when I was uploading it the site flipped the thumbnail.
I went back and opened the link and it was correct.
Nice toys, Threedoor.
My original concrete patio lasted 30 years. It developed pock marks that gradually got bigger after a visitor poured canning salt on an ice spot. The salt kept eating away the cement year after year.
Now I use very little salt. Sand is messy/dirty but much easier/cheaper. Some other kind of salt, potassium chloride maybe, is safer.
The treated wood deck at the cabin has withstood the ravages of time for 39 years. Cabin was sold 2 weeks ago, new neighbors may be libertarians. Don’t hear them, I stopped over last week to give them some official government papers. I only met the missus, much younger, maybe a score and a half.
I invited them to the HH to meet the other neighbors, We’ll have to keep them segregated from the Glibs, for their safety/sanity.
Thanks Fourscore, wish I had bought them twenty years ago.
I paid less than a dollar a pound for the loader/forklift. I’ve got a Komatsu bucket for it and a rebuilt long throw cylinder to convert it into a proper loader but I’m super slow in doing any project.
Page of Wands reversed – Anecdotes, announcements, evil news, indecision, instability.
9 of Wands reversed – Obstacles, adversity, calamity.
Shitty enough week for house Imprudent.
Utility, serviceableness, interest, responsibility, rectitude.
Sufficiently dull like a morning turd.
Nothing dull about it this morning.
“ Cancer: King of Swords reversed – Cruelty, perversity, barbarity, perfidy, evil intention.”
You know me so well. Giggity.
I have some new stuff to break in.
Looks like Sean’s taking the Dom role this week!
Yard done. We have a nice creek by the house. We went wandering down it..no reason to other than to just go.
Beautiful weather today in NKY and some Sullivan’s Maltlings Irish Ale to hydrate me while I was mowing.
Marked off the next season’s garden with some T-posts.
Took down some cabinets to pit up open shelving plan for coffee area.
Next up, smoke some wings and pork.
I love that my world is still serene.
Next up, smoke some wings and pork.
I’ll be right over!
Serenity is a severely undervalued commodity these days; everyone is chasing drama, attention, and fame.
So is wandering through creeks and other beautiful places just for the heck of it. Last fall I decided to drive around all the little-known local cemeteries and examine how old the graves are (we have a few Revolutionary War veterans buried in town, turns out). It was a good day.
All is welcome!
SERENITY NOW!
you’ll have to increasingly question whether the person who wrote the article you’re reading even exists or if the story is even remotely true/based on real people or places or events.
Wasn’t there one or more NYT journalist who got a Pulitzer for a series of stories later shown to be complete fiction?
Why, yes. Yes there was.
Lego vehicle climbing lego wall.
Totally addictive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t1HLv3IXMM
Addiction added
Fucking dope as hell. I was a true Lego Maniac when I was a kid and really loved making little machines like that.
I’m always fighting off the urge to buy a crapload of Legos and construct all kinds of wonderfully absurd and convoluted war machines (manned by crews of Pacific Islanders, cowboys, and ninjas; I never segregated my Lego people by time period or planetary origin).
Ohhh. Islanders. Never had any of them, jealous.
I’m a Ninjago fan myself. Primarily the buildings.
I have to keep the boy away from these kinds of videos or he’ll be mad that the Lego collection of too devoid of technic parts
Wow, that’s crazy! Showing my age but my set had 3 sizes of blocks, and 2 colors.
Alright, I’ll say it. Rand just blew it. And not just for himself, but for any reasonable chance of libertarian influence on the US Gov’t for a looooong time.
Vance’s comment was very specifically aimed at a specific set of circumstances (“…cartel members who poison our fellow citizens…”), and Rand’s comment expanded it into a super-broad hypothetical (“…people he accuses of a crime…”). Yes, we libertarians like to “well ackshually” everybody, and are generally smarter than most, and are all principled and everything. But one can be that and not be stoopid.
Because the sense of the country is that we are in a war. Several, actually. And a huge and growing part of the citizenry is tired of pretending we’re not, just because it’s unconventional. A foreign government or organization funding and executing invasions or economic attacks is war, just as much as sinking the Lusitania or sending the Zimmerman message. Rand should have been smart enough to get that, and either shut up or said something along the lines of “declaration of war”. Now he’s blown it, and we’re not coming back from that.
Wasn’t cool with droning a kid in the desert, still not cool with blasting a boat out of the water.
He doesn’t have to be cool with it. But in his position he needs to think and act strategically, not like us randos on the internet.
Sometimes the message one thinks one is sending is quite different from the message one actually sends. Because the latter depends upon everything happening in the minds of the audience. Ignoring that is dumb.
Like I hinted at above, IMO his message should have been something along the lines of “if we’re gonna do this, you have to have a declaration of war from Congress”.
Original Coke-Cola had coke. AFAIK most drug users are volunteers. Illegal drugs are illegal because the government says so.
Drinking cheap whiskey isn’t illegal but driving under the influence is, as it involves other people.
That I agree with. Sadly the MAGA wing is turning on the two pols who are indetifying the ships failures and are all in on bombing whomever as long as its the DoW or Trump
In other words, MAGA is just average dumbshit Americans being led around by the nose (not a cocaine joke).
No ji (and you know it). In other words, MAGA is just average Americans who’ve noticed that everybody else is waging this war against them, including part of their own government. And they’re kinda interested in fighting back. And (main point above), Rand being dumb in his response is hurtful to the long-term influence of libertarians.
They didn’t have coast guard approved lifejackets or fire extinguishers on board.
That’s illegal.
Hence the sinking of their vessel.
To be fair, he has been pretty good at that in the past.
If he talked more like a “professional” libertarian he’d be facing a lot more of this sort of pushback.
What attack – when it comes to drugs? No one here is ever turned to drugs by evil foreign influences – they all make the choice and they do so because life for them doesn’t have the meaning it has for other people. You ain’t going to fix that by sinking every dingy full of dope near shore or a thousand miles away.
Of course not. And sinking a speedboat isn’t supposed to stop any of that. It’s supposed to send a message and mess with a supply chain. And to mess with it in a few ways, both ordinary (new challenges, maybe having to try things) and deeper (what reactions come from this that might tell you something you didn’t know). Sometimes that’s what you do in a war.
Did Maduro direct the boat at us? I know we are claiming that but is it true?
That seems key.
We principle signal the same way the left compassion signals, it’s our tribal marker, and yes it makes us not serious. I think there are a number of things Trump has done, or proposed which we should rightly oppose, not out of some abstract principle but because they are, or are likely to become counter productive, but the left wants, and is actively working to create, a world I won’t live in, and for all his many glaring faults Trump is the only person who has had any success at all in pushing that back. Is he pushing it back in the perfect direction for me? No. Is his vision of the ideal end state, insofar as he even has a vision, the same as mine? No.
But, the left wants street crime left unpunished and unprevented because the think it is racist to stop the criminals who are disproportionately of minority ethnicities, despite their victims also being disproportionately of those same ethnicities. They want us to welcome people who have made their homelands into hellholes as immigrants, but never to demand that they adopt the culture that made this country not a hellhole when they arrive. And it is a fantasy to think we cand roll all this back with a perfect return to Constitutional Originalism. The system of the Founders was designed to keep a government from oppressing a generally responsible, entirely self sufficient and self motivating populace. It was not designed for restoring order to a balkanized populace at least a quarter of which believes it is entitled to special treatment because it is ‘oppressed’ despite not being held to account for the most irresponsible and reprehensible conduct.
So send in the guard to every major city, shoot rioters and looter down on sight, hang murderers and rapists in public after trials lasting no longer than a month starting with the arrest, deport every person here illegally, and comb through the ones here legally as ‘refugees’ looking for any excuse to deport them, and if you blow up some Venezuelans trying to smuggle drugs or migrants in, oh well, sucks to be a Venezuelan smuggler.
USA WORLD POLICE!
Fuck yeah. No, wait.
FUCK
NO.
I haven’t even paid attention. I know nothing about the specifics. Why is it okay to execute (what else can you call it?) people committing what may or may not be a crime in your country while in international waters?
Cause the side who wants to blow shit up is in power?
ps- Who the fuck even listens to what Senator Paul says?
Taurus: 2 of Cups – Love, passion, friendship, affinity, union, concord, sympathy.
*narrows gaze* The gods are toying with me. (When *don’t* they toy with folk? Isn’t that their schtick?)
If you have ever read any Percy Jackson books, you would find the answer is Yes.
I’ll take a boring week. Mrs. TOK is out of town and I’m in charge of the gym in addition to my normal job. Thoughts and prayers appreciated.
May your dat be filled with Lullumon and Spandex in all the proper forms
Haha oh god, Lulu-fucking-Lemon… Stepdaughter constantly begs for those, and wife told her “I’ll buy you some leggings from Wal-Mart, but you’ll have to save your money if you want Lululemon brand”. I kept seeing ads for their new line of pants for men, and I knew it was going to be horrendously fucking expensive. Looked it up, and yep, $168 for a fucking pair of sweatpants.
For that price I could get 3 pairs of my usual stretchy breathable tactical pants with shittons of pockets (including a little one for your pocket knife) and sturdy reinforcement in the seat so you don’t rip the ass open when you squat down.
“MAGA is just average Americans who’ve noticed that everybody else is waging this war against them, including part of their own government. And they’re kinda interested in fighting back.”
This. That crowd is tired of having to sit on their hands while the barbarians are streaming in through the gate. They are frustrated and angry.
Their culture is being attacked from every angle and no one seems to be shooting back. There is going to be a breaking point and if we reach a true breaking point that little boat is going to be nothing compared to the hell that will be unleashed.
There is going to be a breaking point and if we reach a true breaking point that little boat is going to be nothing compared to the hell that will be unleashed.
I remember when people thought there would be rioting over Covid Restrictions by Easter 2020.
Yep.
US culture is meek.
Somebody said something…
“And this is why, as much as I love football, I hate the NFL.”
I forgot how aggressively obnoxious every commercial is. JFC!