Sorry folks, I am traveling this week and I have a BUMPING headache.
Flying home Friday morning.
Here is some music, my wife and I saw them in Baltimore last month, they sounded amazing, it was a phenomenal 3 hours.
Stoic Friday Open Post of Pain
About The Author
ron73440
What I told my wife when she said my steel Baby Eagle .45 was heavy, "Heavy is good, heavy is reliable, if it doesn't work you could always hit him with it."-Boris the Blade MOLON LABE
Is the thumbnail image the Bayeux Tapestry?
I was very happy Mom and I went to see that. My favorite physical historical object I’ve personally seen, even (*barely*) trumping the Rosetta Stone. Kinda oddly, cuz he’s a big history buff, Dad didn’t go. Reason: Middle Ages ain’t his time period. He’s intimidated by ‘intelligence,’ which he (not incorrectly) feels he utterly lacks. He didn’t say this reason out loud.
There is censored Victorian version too!
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/jul/15/never-mind-the-norman-bollocks-readings-replica-bayeux-tapestry-is-a-prudish-triumph
I don’t know, someone here used it and I liked it.
Ron73439 wouldn’t have let this happen.
I will Stoicially bear your critique.
I agree, he is much stronger than me.
https://x.com/AAGDhillon/status/1974129262145024506
I wanna see the .gov rain down some righteous fury on those commies.
It’s easy to predict the talking heads on the left are going to be whipped into a frenzy of “Trump the dictator is taking over government at all levels! His secret police are now in charge of everything!”
Lefties pre-2017 when I’d point out things Obama did that were unconstitutional or otherwise beyond the limits of executive power: “Well he has to get things done the only way he can because that damn obstructionist Republican Congress is trying to block everything he does!”
Lefties now: “Trump the dictator is taking over government at all levels! His secret police are now in charge of everything!”
Feh… no doubt the cops take their orders from the mayor. Start there.
Trump’s cutting Federal aid to Portland.
*waves tiny USA flag*
In case Portlandia does not know it, there is plenty of precedent for the federal government to take nominal control of local police departments.
“Consent Decree”, anyone?
my wife and I saw them in Baltimore last month
Review from the Minneapolis show.
Dream Theater fan from way back; I remember picking up “When Dream and Day Unite” when it came out after reading about them in some metal magazine I was pulled off the shelf on a particularly slow midnight shift at the 7-11. Still some of my favorite songs are off that album – “Ytse Jam”, “Only a Matter of Time”. I sort of stopped following them after “Awake”. Never particularly like LaBrie’s overly breathy voice – Yes MikeS, there are vocalists who bother me. Generally I like very complex interesting music, but sometimes they seem technical for the sake of technicality. To quote (or paraphrase) the bestest vocalist and bassist of all time, Geddy Lee: “It’s nice to have all the chops but it comes down to writing good songs.” I’m not sure DT ever fully integrated that ‘lesson’. Anywho.
Glad you enjoyed the show, hope you feel better.
DT tends to alternate albums – one with really sublime songwriting, followed by one with so-so songwriting. Awake, Metropolis Pt. 2, Train of Thought were all great, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a few.
The new album Parasomnia is quite good, I had stopped buying their stuff after <The Astonishing.
It was astonishingly bad.
It’s you and Ricky, all the way, Ron
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6Ks8jWXvKE
Hope the headache’s gone
I ate some hot chicken at the Nashville airport and that cleared it up.
Speaking of music, Pandora dropped this memory bombon me yesterday.
And from there, you go here
I like Bob Seger, but I can’t listen to him anymore. He was so overplayed in the 70’s and 80 that I got annoyed with his song styling and formula. Still great, but like the Eagles and other bands from that era the radio beat us to death with their songs.
I blame classic rock stations. They are playing these tunes along with 90’s hits as “classic” rock these days.
The restaurant I frequent has a pretty decent classic rock playlist going most days, they really mix it up. today I heard Donovan, Blue Cheer, Queen, and the Doobie Brothers. The cool thing was they were Hurdy Gurdy Man, Summer Time Blues, Liar, Nobody
Do you want to see my shocked face?
White House Senses Political Risk on Healthcare Despite Shutdown Bravado
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-government-shutdown-healthcare-risk-d5b7e197?st=KCu3nw&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
So what you’re saying is Obamacare was designed to keep “millions of Americans” permanently dependent on Uncle Sugar? That is nice of you to admit, The Wall Street Journal.
Some of Editorial agrees.
The GOP’s ObamaCare Crossroads
If the party gives in to Democrats, it will own the Affordable Care Act fiasco.
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-gops-obamacare-crossroads-5d743d61?st=E9K2xQ&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
It’s the Repubs last chance to bail themselves out of ObamaWorld.
“We need the house.”
Ok, here is the house.
“We need the senate. we cant do anything without the senate.”
Ok, here is the senate.
“We have to have the presidency. no Obamacare repeal will be signed without the presidency.”
Ok, here is the presidency. You have the house, the senate and the presidency. Now, repeal Obamacare like you promised.
“Well….it’s complicated…you see…”
Where is my fucking Obamacare repeal? The more I think about that the angrier I get.
“permanently dependent on Uncle Sugar? ”
Uncle Taxpayer says “Why me, Lord?”
Why? Because Taxpayer = Voter
And he has said the shutdown gives his administration an “unprecedented opportunity” to make far-reaching cuts and target programs favored by Democrats.
It would be better if he said he wanted to eliminate programs the government generally has no legitimate business being involved with, but I’ll take what I can get.
https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1974135012611273218
This amuses me more than it should.
Cant stop the signal.
I love it.
That’s hilarious.
I’m wondering where antifa was when St. Barack of the Legtickle was deporting millions of illegals. I guess they had better things to do.
They changed the way they counted deportations to include those turned away at the border, IIRC, so they really weren’t deporting people in the sense that most people understand. And also, they don’t want to bite the hands that feed them.
“There are a lot of people stirring a lot of shit. I am going to go insert myself into the middle of it.”
Play stupid games…..
Anyone who goes down there deserves what they get. That includes “conservative” “journalists”.
This. Jump in the middle of a shitty situation, draw as much attention as you can making things all about you and you get pepper sprayed to whacked in the head. Cry me a river.
From the dead thread:
(NA):
“Related to that, WTF is a gifted kindergarten class? Super-advanced shapes and colors? kinesthetically challenging naptime?”
Agreeing with gdragon (spelling?), kids that young are a lot more capable than you’d think. The smarter ones need to have engaging material to work with. I think this was solved more elegantly when kids of different ages interacted more, but I’ll take the gifted program any day.
The most important and game-changing thing one can do is learn to read.
Tell that to the “educators” in Philly. Last week one of the failing grade schools just had to have a pep rally for the billionaire/millionaires Eagles who were playing down in Florida.
Yep, my kids all knew how to read at 3 years old.
Thanks Dr. Seuss
I* don’t deny this, what I am doubtful of is that there are NYC public school kindergarten teachers who will go along with this.
*I had one of these in kindergarten.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/277152829706
None of the other kids wanted to borrow it.
My sister got that because she stunk at math. I got the speak and spell becuase I stunk at spelling (and still do). Thanks Grandma
Homeschool.
The end.
Paging Dr Otto!
Ford Has A Huge Mechanic Shortage. Here’s How Long You’ll Have To Wait To Get Your Car Fixed
https://www.theautopian.com/ford-ceo-says-the-company-is-short-400000-technicians/
Let’s see. You generally need to pay for trade school, your tooling (which surprised some of the comments in the article) and you get paid on book time. The book time is double edged. Experienced mechanics can often beat it, but newcomers will struggle. However, for some jobs even an experienced tech can’t beat it. Which means they either give you time for free or do a bad job or both.
Combined with the complexity and skillset needed to be tech for ridiculous computers with wheels that modern automobiles are – people with the aptitude to do this work can wind up in a higher paying profession. Starting wages aren’t great considering the tool costs.
It was a career I considered, but my family was not enthusasitic about me choosing. As I’ve gotten older my aching body thanks me for not choosing it!
Ford has next to zero technicians. And needs to hire next to zero technicians. Their dealers need techs perhaps, but maybe they should address why they’re driving away their good ones, keeping shitty ones on doing crappy work, and generally living up to “stealership” label.
But without techs, who will repair the cars that break down on the way from the assembly line to the carrier?
Greetings from the war zone. It’s hell out here. Leaves are coming down like incoming artillery.
https://ibb.co/pBRVNsF8
Crap. Was supposed to be a new comment.
There are a couple local guys that have shops, they have a waiting list plus a dozen cars outside waiting parts. With all the different makes and models a person needs it takes an over-achiever to keep current. The local small engine guys seem to last a few years before they go out of business. Try to run the business, keep up with the work load, billing, etc is a lot for a small operation. can wear a man down.
One of the good things about being an indepedent is being able to charge for jobs that the booktime is just plain too low.
I have an indepedent who is honest and does good work. I happily pay him for jobs I could do, but choose not to do. It’s relationship I value and in return when something busts he fits us in because we have a relationship.
”’…and always run into unforeseen problems…”
There’s always additional rusted parts to replace, interruptions, computer time finding parts, etc…
@ Sensei: A good mechanic who fits you into the schedule and doesn’t just make shit up to charge you more money is an incredibly valuable contact. We called our mechanic one time, and he personally drove over to the house to jump the battery so we could get it to his shop. Dude is a major bro. Also has a “lawful concealed carry welcome” sticker on his door.
So the temperature dropped quite a bit here and today it was all heavy rain and heavy wind.
So as the temp in my house got to 16,5 C I decided to turn on the heat. In my case heat is a gas powered boiler which runs water through radiators in the house. It is a new piece of kit installed last year and serviced by the HVAC guy last week. Well after a bit it stopped working with an error. So it seems the exhaust was waterlogged.How fuck if I know. Condensation? Rain water? dunno/.
I have strange setup as my exhaust in inside a … well no idea how to call it in americanese. A direct translation would be light well, basically a really minuscule inner courtyard to bring light an air to rooms otherwise without.
Anyhoo as I could not just get the exhaust out in the well because my upstairs neighbor had windows there, I have this long tube that goes to the top of the house and the exhaust has a PVC pipe with a 90 degree angle to go in the tube. For some reason a fuckton of water accumulate there and the exhaust was hampered, it was bubbling through the water and the heater sensed something wrong and triggered an error.
Friday evening so no one to call. So Pie faced a long weekend of no heat or hot water. I tried to get the water out but was unsuccessful. It seems the slope of the pipe is not enough for the water to drain the normal path. I tried jiggling it to no avail.
In the end i managed to drill a tiny hole in the bottom and the water drained and now the heat works fine. I am not sure it is visible but i will add a small video of the water draining through the hole. But Crisis Averted. And I was quite stoic about it.
anyhoo it is raining like hell cold and windy. but inside is warm and pie has just poured a dram of Ardnahoe cask strength.
Video
https://photos.app.goo.gl/L2viWhnmboKxFYWo9
Dripping into a bucket or something similar?
Saved yourself a couple hundred probably. It that a permanent fix?
it was dripping top the bottom of the courtyard just like the rain
of wait i misunderstood. Normally it dripped in a pvc pipe connected to the drain system in my house. The condensation is part of how the boiler works so it is expected, not draining is not expected
Like so there is this plastic hose that catches the water and takes it to the drain via pipe
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ucCxhoA8LGFVCzcC7
It that a permanent fix?
I don;t know. I don’t know why the water accumulated. last year I had zero issues. I do not think the slope of the pipe changed any… it could be a permanent fix. the risk is in winter the hole i drilled is filled with ice and maybe the water accumulates again maybe not. who knows. I cannot change the piping myself I have to rope access technicians for it which costs moneys
I hear that happens as you get older.
“Lightwell” works in English.
Congrats on fixing stuff.
<====
a really minuscule inner courtyard to bring light an air to rooms otherwise without.
I’m not even sure we have a word for that in English.
The latest talking point from the left is to point out horrible the ICE raids in Chicago are. Little children were forced out into the “cold” in the middle of the night and taken away. It’s the return of the Third Reich!
We are the only country in the world not allowed to enforce our own fucking immigration laws to these people.
Only country where large swathes of citizens support invaders over their own government and people.
Acrid heavy smoke hangs over Little Beirut.
https://ibb.co/CKJZHcVQ
No wait, just normal fall fog.
Let’s have the NYT’s John Ismay literally mansplain. Headline:
“What Women Heard in Hegseth’s Remarks About Physical Standards”
More NYT goodness:
“Duke Was Paring Back Diversity Programs. Trump Targeted It Anyway”
“Wife Was Paring Back Dating Other Men. Husband Filed for Divorce Anyway”
So Ai is writing all of the NYT articles now as well.
“NYT staff was told to start pairing back using AI to write their articles, editors used it anyway”
“We’ve completed our own internal review of this incident and are confident that there wasn’t an issue with the drones or the technology that supports them,” Terrence Clark, an Amazon spokesperson told CNN. “Nonetheless, we’ve introduced additional processes like enhanced visual landscape inspections to better monitor for moving obstructions such as cranes.”
It’s working as designed people on the ground are just going to have to deal with it.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/02/us/arizona-amazon-drones-crash
In that same time period, how many Amazon delivery trucks were involved in accidents?
Fair point.
But you want to look at accident rate per delivery. So one accident per million packages delivered for example by truck – (WAG – it’s likely lower.)
I had two different Amazon drivers crash in my driveway (not crash with each other, separate incidents) on the same day. Broad daylight. One made a J turn in mirror symmetry of what would have worked and ran over the edge of a boulder bed and ripped up the fender and running board. An hour later, a temp driver using her own car, made the delivery, and proceeded to back down my very long, curved driveway (even though there was plenty of turnaround space at the top). Problem is, she backed down straight-as-an-arrow and the driveway curved away. She hit a mature hickory tree at about 15mph and shattered her back glass. I saw both happen in real time and just shook my head.
Ford Has A Huge Mechanic Shortage.
You design and build cars to be a fucking nightmare to work on, and then wonder why nobody wants to work on them.
It’s baffling.
Plus the manufacturer dictates the book time for the repairs. Usually this makes no distinction between a new car and 5 year old car that is in the rust belt.
This.
blood in the streets
The Supreme Court took up its next Second Amendment case Friday, agreeing to hear a challenge to Hawaii’s ban on carrying concealed weapons on private property without the owner’s express consent.
How to ban guns without banning guns.
Let’s take another potshot at that link
Run the baby through the bandsaw
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday threatened to cut billions in state funding from the University of Southern California if it complies with a Trump administration request to impose the president’s political priorities on campus.
If only there were some way to escape this dilemma.