Arcing

Went to boil some water to make some cup-o-noodles and I got rewarded with arching from the burner!

Got a couple of cool Jacob's ladder style arcs off the pan before I got the switch shut off.

DAMMIT!

The stove top is original to the house and dates back to 1969.

And you can still get parts!

While in the process of finding the model number of the stove, I found the ceramic insulator/isolator block around the leads to the OTHER 8" burner had broken somehow.

That puts the big burners out of service until parts arrive.

So I'm getting two 8" burners for it.  $65 each.

The 6" burners are $50 and we're deferring replacement because the do many fewer miles than the big burners.

Life happened and, hours later, I decided to finish making my cup-o-noodle and the rear burners weren't working.

Turns out the fuse on one leg of the oven/range circuit had done it's job when the burner arced!

In the process of troubleshooting this I discovered that the 20 amp fuse under the stove is for a 110v plug that runs on one leg of the range/stove circuit.  I checked it because turning on the rear burner restored current to the plug.

I replaced the fuse and ordered more.  The smallest pack of the 40 amp fuses I can order is a 10 pack.  SIGH.  Lifetime supply, I guess. 

They Be Ignurnt

Extremists in Congress are trying to pass a national concealed carry mandate, which would force states to allow people to carry hidden, loaded guns without training or passing a background check.

 

This dangerous mandate would reward the states with the weakest gun laws and punish those that have taken real steps to reduce crime. It would bulldoze local safety standards and put every community at risk.

 

If this passes, anyone you see could have a gun on them—and the police would be powerless to protect you. Leaders must stand up for public safety and put a stop to the gun lobby’s dangerous agenda.

 

- Giffords Org 

Well, there's 29 states where you can carry without any training or permission slip already, so odds are the situation is already "anyone you see could have a gun on them."

You're also very unlikely to need the police to protect you from a perfectly legal activity.

41 states already recognize each others permits.

It's literally not a problem except in the states with the most draconian gun control and the highest crime rates. 

Could It Be That Simple

Considering how antisemitic the left is, I kinda wonder if the whole thing about Sidney Sweeny and jeans is because Levi Strauss was Jewish.

They've been more retarded about less, so it's actually possible. 

How Big Is The Overlap?

Lego has just announced they're making a USS Enterprise NCC-1701D from The Next Generation.

Included is the main cast in minifig form.

If you act now, you get a minifig scale shuttle pod and a minifig of ensign Roh as a free gift with purchase.

$400.

Like Lego a lot.

I've spent some money on Star Wars sets.

But I don't think there's enough overlap on my Venn diagram between "Liked Next Gen" and "Likes Lego" to spend $400 on the Enterprise D.

I might be coerced into spending on the OG Enterprise and cast though.  Especially if they do the series and movie versions in the same scale.

Scale is a huge problem with Lego for a lot of sets.  They aim for the models to all be about the same size, which leads to them being vastly different scales most of the time. 

Update: An unsigned commenter says that making them all about the same size is called "box scale" and I remember the term and its usage in plastic models... but needed the comment to be reminded.  A pity they didn't sign the comment so I can thank them by name. 

Best Use Of 1980's Music In A Video Short Goes To...

 

But It's Legal Here

Something that just hit me about the injustice of banning felons from owning guns is all of the states have different laws.

Something that's a felony in California could be perfectly legal in Florida.

Catch a felony conviction in California, and you can't own a gun in Florida for doing something that wouldn't have gotten you a stern look from a cop.

That seems very unjust to me.

I've never seen it suggested that we even try to fix it.

But I think it's worth trying to fix!

I Don't Think The Problem Is What You Say It Is

The new mayor of NYFC wants a national ban on everyday normal rifles.

He cites the crime statistics in NYFC and says there's nothing NYFCPD can do because they're legal outside the walls of his Socialist Utopia.

Except...

Every time a liberal takes over the mayor's office in NYFC, there's a wave of retirements from the NYPD who move to Florida and decide they have a few years left in them before actually retiring and join the local PD or sheriff's department.

Florida, where everyday normal rifles are legal, doesn't have the crime problems that NYFC does.

But we have the same cops who couldn't keep it under control where such things were illegal.

Hmmmm.

Considering that crime with everyday normal rifles isn't actually a problem anywhere, the FBI doesn't even break them out from the rifle category in their crime report and hardly any crime is done with rifles...

Yeah, another lying liberal mayor of NYFC.

The pity of it is that city has far too much influence on other idiots who still vote.

Perhaps less than ever before, but...

Still time to sell the place to the Bureau of Prisons.  John Carpenter is still around to help with the design. 

Not Much Here

I, sort of, got a picture of the aurora!

Thanks to all the ambient light in the neighborhood we get just a hint of pink to the north instead of red.

Naked eye you can see a faint glow around the tree.

It's Not That It's Actually All That Cold

What makes 50° weather in Florida seem so damn cold is that it's normally mid-80's the previous day.

So dropping to the low 40's in three hours from sunset accentuates how it feels.

In a couple of days we'll be used to wearing socks again and it won't seem so cold.

Wrong Day Sir

I have checked my calendar.  It is not May 17th.  It is not May 26th.

It is November 11th.

Today is not for the fallen in the USA.

Today is not for those who still serve.

They've their own days that we do observe.

Please let us have this one to ourselves.

Record!

Global warming caused the weather to break a 133 year old temperature record last night!

In 1892 the low was 40°F in Tampa.

Last night it was 38°F!

I blame SUV's and cow farts. 

Veteran's Day

Today, in the USA, it's Veteran's Day.

A day set aside for those who went in and came out.

It seems odd to have to say it, but today is not for the fallen in the USA; that's Memorial Day.

It isn't for those whom are still serving; that's Armed Forces Day.

If you know a vet, buy them a beer, take them out to dinner, get them laid.

Remind them of all the freebies available!

When you hit the places giving out freebies, be gracious and buy something that's got big margins (like a beer) because it wasn't so long ago that nobody but us and the post office remembered Veteran's Day at all.

Plus!  Tip the wait staff like you'd paid for the meal, not on just the cost of the beer.

Also, let the stolen valor people go.  This is the only validation they're getting in their pathetic lives, can you think of a harsher punishment than letting them be what they are?  Don't save them!

It Was Science Fiction

I've been re-reading Twilight:2000.

Movie announcer voice:  "In a world where..."

The Soviet economy worked and their weaponry performed like the CIA thought it would.

The USA supplied Communist China like we're supplying Ukraine today.

You have to really hold your nose from today's perspective to get that willing suspension of disbelief going; though once you get the situation rolling it still holds together.

It's just the triggering events and the reactions that lead to the Twilight War are just so implausible in hindsight even if they were possible from a 1985 perspective.  Even making them possible is a bit of a stretch but...

The point was to have the conditions as declared at the start of the game and it didn't take THAT much handwavium to get there.

At least no laws of physics were broken...

No Material Effect

I am sitting here looking at 41 days of the government being shut down and except for the ATC slow-down...

I'm not seeing any ill effects.

And the ATC slow down doesn't really affect my non-flying ass.

It's really making me scream, "If we don't need it, why do we have it?!"

Moar Magnets

The spiffy case that allows for wireless charging also has a MagSafe compatible ring on the back.

That let change the mount in The Beast.

That done, I realized that it'd be nice to mount my phone up where the camera could record fun things like a lap at Daytona.

The mount that does that ALSO has wireless charging in it and it uses the same USB-C cord I've been using and is already in the car!

Win win!

The big decision is whether to keep the other MagSafe mount or just use the camera friendly one.

But I'm Too Ugly

"I will grant you a handsome reward!"

But I'm ugly...

Happy Birthday Jarheads!

A completely true and totally not made up documentary about where the first Marine signed on the dotted line.

Sometimes You're Speaking Gibberish

"I meant what it said.  If I could have said it any differently, I would have."

- Stanley Kubrick

That was Mr Kubrick's response to being asked what he was trying to say with Barry Lyndon.

With that answer in mind, you have to assume that gibbering like a mad man was what Mr Kubrick mostly intended to say with a couple of his films. 

Victim Of The End

From what I've been able to find...

We transitioned to the M1A1(HA) just before the Berlin Wall came down.

I question this transition actually happened with my memories being so very messed up from my very bad evening when the wall did fall.

I know we did the training, and I'm reasonably sure the tank I took a swan dive from was an A1...

What makes me doubt my recollection is that 1st Infantry Division was GONE from Panzer in 1990.  Mere months later.

What makes me sure of my recollection is we had no idea Cold War was ending and the change to newer tanks was long planned.

Considering how hard it is to find ANYTHING on 3-34AR, it's hard to confirm or deny my memories.

I definitely remember rolling out the gate when the "unrest" in Berlin started and staying out at the company maneuver area for the next three days and learning about The Wall coming down while we were camping.

And falling off the tank while we were packing up to head back to post...  Though for years I had trouble reconciling the dates on my records with events.  Trauma does that to your mind, in case you didn't know. 

Gotta Save This For Twilight: 2000

Divisional Org Chart for the 1st Infantry Division in 1989.  One of the few things I've seen that admits there was ever a 3rd battalion of the 34th armor regiment.

I hope you can read that, it might embiggen if you click on it.

My Old Ride

The M1(IP) I was assigned at Panzer Kaserne taken just before the unit started getting M1A1(HA)

 

I've always had a soft spot for MOPARs...

The location of this photo is now a PX! 

Happy Birthday!

Guinness for strength!

Jameson for courage!

Happy birthday (posthumous) to our dearly missed Captain Carrol "Neptunis Lex" LeFon (USN Ret).

As long as we remember them, they're not quite gone.

Anniversary

36 years ago, today, I stopped being being able to walk without a limp!

Oh, and the Berlin Wall came down too. 

Is Hitler Cool?

I would say that it depends on the weather and how deeply buried his remains are.

At times I'd say he's quite cool.  Others, he's rather warm and still others, quite cold.

The important thing is that he's dead and good riddance!

The prick added genocide to the lexicon and he isn't even in the top five for most murders by the leader of a government.

So, piss on his grave (if you can find it) and a pox on anyone who agrees with his ideals. 

Non-Anon

The comments policy and the non-anonymous anonymous posting was formed from dealing with dickheads and assholes.

I didn't want to do it.

If I just let every anon comment post, you'd see maybe two or three a day with my normal traffic.  And most of them have excellent points or good observations.

The policy came from disagreeing with, Aesop, for example.  He and I, more or less, civilly disagree and post to our own spaces to spar about it.  I only go to his blog when the traffic sources in the stats say I'm getting a lot of hits from his place.

I call them the flying monkeys.

They post anonymously and break my rules.  They forget they are guests.  They are rude.  They don't stay on topic as they post gigantic diatribes.

Filtering the good from the bad got to be too much effort and it seriously affected my desire to blog.

Since blogging is a release valve for me, it's something I need to do.

So I nuked anonymous comments to make sure I would still post.

I did toss the people who refuse to make a Google account a bone!

If you put a little signature after your comment you're 95% likely to have your comment posted.  Several readers comment this way successfully!  Just make your last line your name and voila! you're not anonymous any more!

This also works if google logs out you for some reason. 

Found It!

Not the same truck, but; there's the location of the starter button I pictured in this post.

The earlier pic didn't really show the angle well, but this one shows the size well.

I figured it was a starter button and not a high beam switch because it was shiny on the top, like it was being used a lot, and the bellows seal.

AI Bots?

Some older posts with no relation are seeing some traffic in the stats.

Some AI building a large language model from this place?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Considering how incoherent I can be, garbage in, garbage out! 

It's Not That

It's not that I don't have anything to say, it's just that I keep finding that I've already said it and forgot.

Like using gravity to create an artificially larger lens to extend laser ranges in Traveller.

Or someone has moved from theory to application about phased arrays in visible and shorter frequencies.

Pizza Pizza

The big pizza chains are having problems with the delivery apps because you can now get ANYTHING delivered not just pizza and Chinese.

Even pizza that's actually good!

I have three excellent local places that knock the big chains socks off, but they don't deliver and their closed by 10.  The food delivery apps list all those places if I'm really too lazy to go get it myself.

Oh, and they're a lot cheaper than the chains too.

Better, cheaper, sign me up.  Even having uber eats bring the cheaper pie is cheaper than Dominoes.  And Dominoes charges me a fee to do pick up now too.

Never mind the increasing number of policies that make me look to the locals.

Like Dominoes won't take a delivery order over $20 if I'm using cash.

So I'm reading this and thinking, adapt or die motherfuckers. 

I Said That Already

I just spent half an hour typing out a story about how I stopped being friends with a particular group.

Then realized that I'd already mentioned them moving my pistol from the agreed upon storage place to a place I didn't know.

Already posted about being invited only to show another member they could be replaced.

I think I forgot the pizza fiasco.

The normal breakdown was everyone kicked in X for an equal portion of a pizza.  It worked out to two slices each.

But, being allergic to mushrooms, I couldn't have a slice from the deluxe they always ordered.  Gods forbid they skip the mushrooms for me!

So I asked if I could skip the share and just pay for my own pizza.

No problem they said.

Then they proceeded to take one slice each from both pies.

I'm like, "hey! gimme back my pizza!" and they were all "but we share around here."

You paid for half and there's two half pizzas left, why are you complaining?

Because I can't eat half of what's left and you eating MY pizza wasn't part of the fucking deal!

I am somewhat amused in hindsight that they kept betraying my trust and kept acting like I couldn't be trusted. 

Chest Pain And Panic Attacks

Since I put The Precious into a tree, my sternum can be put into a position where it will give a good sharp pain.

For a while now, I get bouts of heartburn.

The lizard portion of my brain does not wait for the monkey portion of the processor to report, "it's just heartburn and we bumped the sternum," before hitting the panic button and pumping my system full of adrenaline.

This is a panic attack.

Then I get to ride it out until the chemical dump is burned off.

Yay?

Happily, this is a known issue for me and I have a bottle of, prescribed, meds that change it from a multi-hour ride to about 40 minutes.

Battery Back Up

If you have one of those clever secret shelves...

Make sure you can get at the emergency plug while it still works.

Because the builder might not have left you enough space to get access to the plug's end; or enough room to get it out to be plugged into the emergency battery pack.

Happily, it's a standard 3.5mm cord and readily replaceable when you tear off the end trying to fish it out the too-small gap in the front. 

Not So Smart After All

Remember this diatribe?

Turns out that Mr Cantwell wasn't an anarchist or libertarian at all!

He was a full on bigot!

WOW.

I am so glad I am on record disagreeing with him. 

Gifted

A long, long time ago, my local school did IQ tests on everyone.

If you scored really well, you got put into the "gifted" program, which was a "work at your own pace" kind of deal and I started it in 4th grade.

Except for math, I was doing 7th grade level stuff by the end of 5th grade.  I was still at 4th grade for math.

Then my parents divorced.

The school in my mom's parents hometown, where we relocated, didn't have a gifted program, so I was put into classes with my age group.

6th grade.

I complained bitterly that I'd already absorbed this material and I was bored out of my fucking mind.

But I KNEW the material and it was easy to get A's without doing any work.  So I stopped doing work.

I was fine until we moved again and I started 7th grade.

I'd forgotten how to do the work.

My grades plummeted, though I did finally manage to "get" math.

By the time I'd relearned how to learn, I got dumped onto my father and into a school that was two years of being bullied for being the outsider.

But now I knew how to learn again, but I didn't learn the classes.  I learned how the school itself worked.  That makes it a lot easier to get over on the teacher.

At the very end of living with my dad, I also learned how to deal with bullies.

Just in time to move back to Mom's and teach the bullies who'd forgotten me while I was away...

The Iowa schools were so much easier to game than the Minnesota schools too.

Simple things like spotting that the detention teacher doesn't know you're supposed to be there unless you take the slip from the office to them.  And the office trusted me to do so.  As long as the teacher that put you into detention didn't spot you and remember you...  It was a period of doing anything I wanted.

It should be noted that none of my clever machinations did a thing to help my grades.

I was a C average student leaving High School, and I didn't care because I was going into the Army and not college.

And, having blown the curve on the ASVAB, I selected combat arms.

If I ever get a time machine I am taking young McThag out behind the woodshed and beating some sense into him and forcing him to change his MOS to something useful outside the military.  And erasing my existence, I am sure. 

I Just Realized

I got a flu shot at my local VA clinic on the way down for my last neuro appointment at the VA hospital.

It's interesting that they're open.

I remember when Obama shut down the government in 2013 and having to rearrange appointments.

Without Packing

While there was doubts about my mental faculty, I abstained from carrying.

It took some getting used to.

Conceal carry is a lifestyle change and I'd made that change.

But...  I sure didn't want impaired judgement causing me to do something stupid.

Now I know I need to keep my nutrition going.

That's A Weight Off

Had my neuro follow-up today!

I do not have dementia.

Why didn't I mention this sooner?  I must have forgot... ;)

Harvey had noticed I was being irritable and forgetful.

I looked up symptoms for dementia and made an appointment at the VA.

They are not fast.

Got electroded.

Played some kindergarten memory games.

Answered some questions.

Came out clear.

Based on my blood work, I was just not getting enough B12 in my diet and the change to the One-TWO-A-Day gummies improved everything.

This has been stressing the shit out of me, because I didn't notice anything amiss; but Harvey sure did. 

Who Has The Keys?

Dick Cheney has passed on, but did he leave the keys for the hurricane control machine where we could find them?

Why No News

A cartuber I occasionally watch has flown his own plane down to Jamaica with relief stuff and he's saying the West end of the island is just gone.

He's confused that it's not in the news here at all.

So am I.

Especially after all the coverage that Haiti gets whenever their unprepared asses get nailed with even a small storm. 

Wireless

The new phone has wireless charging.

The old phone had it too, but my choice of case prevented its use.

The new case for the new phone allows it!

Kinda nifty to set the phone on the plate and let it charge.

Saves wear and tear on the USB-C port, I guess.