Gruber speculates: “perhaps [the government] owning the means of distraction is the new owning the means of production.”

In mid-december of the /Censored/ year 2024, our water heater sprang a leak, following about 7 years of reliable service. But our municipal water supply is also a good source of dissolved lime, manganese, iron, arsenic and other stuff, so the failure was not totally unexpected.

Ten days after having the device replaced, the tank’s catch pan had about half an inch of water. We had not checked such things, so it came as a shock. But the leak was evident — an insufficiently tightened connection at the shutoff valve.

All now seems to be in order. Time for me to get back to guitar work.

Pancakes alone do no ensure victory.

Today’s all about little victories, because those big victories just ain’t happening.

Marx said that events in history occur twice, “the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” Trump has brought us the inverse: “Events in history occur twice, the first time as farce, the second time as tragedy.”

“I’ve never met a person whose entire identity was ‘high IQ’ who wasn’t a completely insufferable douche.” https://bsky.app/profile/kenwhite.bsky.social/post/3lawihnocnk2v

Don’t skip the umlaut, no matter what language.

Time for some louche behavior.

So much good news.

I wasn’t aware Richard Dawkins does satire. He writes:

“I take (possibly forlorn) hope in the fact that although Trump is a mendacious, malevolent, transparently evil man, and stupid with it, Musk is not. He is highly intelligent and, diametrically opposed to Trump, he has the welfare of the world at heart.”

• RichardDawkins at that xitter place

We received a new M4 iMac today as an early Christmas/birthday gift. Data transfer from the old one was flawless. It’s up and running now, finishing its first full backup.

Wait, that’s not correct. It’s the kitchen microwave, and it’s not quite dead.

This is correct:

1. If you close the door and press the ‘go’ button, nothing happens.
2. If you then open the door, the turntable and fan and, presumably, the RF emitter come on.
3. If you unplug the device, then plug it in and open the door, the turntable and fan and, presumably, the RF emitter come on.

My ‘do this today’ list is flowing over.

“I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.”

Whidbey Island, Washington, where I live, just had a whole-island power outage. A couple of years ago the whole-island outage lasted 3-½ days. This time (election day) it was 35 minutes.

What to Do?

I have an elderly MacBook Pro

Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015
Processor 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
Memory 16 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Graphics Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB

It’s running the latest OS it can: “macOS Monterey 12.7.6”

But in addition to this I also have an Intel Mac mini (last of its breed), and a MacBook Pro M1 (the one with the touch bar above the function keys) with a 2TB drive.

Yes, I’d like to have 1) fewer computers, and 2) one new computer. But what should I do with the old ones? They are like old friends, but they expect a lot of care and feeding.

cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_…

I know we’re not overtly political here, but I’m wondering how many people understand there is a better-than-good chance that in the coming four years JD Vance will become president of these united states.

I’m going to change my name to Joey Mascarpone.

I’m shocked to realize I’m actually writing again. I’m 1200 words into a short story that’s shaping up nicely. Still ‘draft zero’, but I’m liking it.

It’s another morning.
I will now become clothed and ambulatory.

Plenty of Apple updates today, though nothing for this 13-inch, Early 2015 MacBook Pro which is running Monterey 12.7.5

I am tempted to try turning it into a FreeBSD machine.

We have returned home from Victoria B.C. because, well, we aren’t Canadians.

Hanging out here for a few days, marking the occasion of another of my many birthdays. We arrived here via the Coho, a vessel that shuttles between Port Angeles, WA and Victoria, B.C.

And Yes, we’ll be away from Freedom’s Land during the great “debate” that will apparently begin in about one hour.

In other news, I’ve learned that the name “Westbrook Tater” is a plausible one for a fictional character.

Our back yard CreatureCam recorded no overnight action, and no neighbor offered pies today, so it’s been slow overall.

Some nights the back yard — which faces a broad field and, beyond that a forest made up mostly of Douglas fir — serves as a pathway for raccoons (one was a tripod), families of blacktail deer (the only kind on the island), and a number of coyotes from two different groups.