See You Next Year

 

Gonna burn some burgers, blow up some imported Chinese products and have a couple beers.

New Battery

New battery installed in Willard's AT&T Cingular Flip IV (U102AA).

Phone still doesn't connect to a carrier, but it will show one bar on the connection now.

As soon as he retrieves it, I've done all I can do.

The "Cingular" part is a clue I'd missed.  That, I think, makes it a pre-paid phone.

The "problem" might be as simple as his account expired when the battery was dead.

The specter of AT&T dropping support for this elderly phone is another.  I've found a couple of posts from people who've discovered that their phone was dropped by the carrier; and that such drops occurred unevenly.

It Was What?

Reading the obit for Linda Lavin I discovered that the TV show, Alice was based on the premise of the movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore."

We watched that show its entire run and I never knew that.

Something Afoot

FuzzyGeff sold me one of his cast-off old machines.

I already updated it from 22.04 to 24.04.

Getting Prime Movies to play turned out to be a little frustrating.  When I got Crispy IV running, the "play DRM" was checked automatically.  Not so DerpyPuter.

Now Burn In Hell

He might have been a genuinely nice guy, but he fucked up America so bad it took the likes of Obama and Brandon to be worse presidents.

Jimmah is in Hell.

It terrifies me that the three worst presidents in US history are within my living memory.

Though FDR and LBJ fought hard to get in the top three...

How Did We Get Here

We forget things.

Well, call me a primary source.

I was all set, once I'd left the Army, to be an aerospace engineer.

If you've been keeping notes, I got out of the Army just about the same time the Cold War ended.

With the massive contraction of the defense industry, there were lots of overqualified engineers on the job market.  Lots of engineer supply, low engineer demand.

So I changed majors.

In that job market it was difficult to find even drafting work because a company could hire an experienced engineer for what I'd ask.  Many of them just needed a small income to bide the time to when they could retire.  (Oh, and when they finally did start retiring, drafting had become so automated that you no longer needed a specialist to do the job.)

This situation created a disruption in the supply of new engineers.

That created an opportunity to import engineering talent from overseas.  We had engineering jobs sitting empty because of a lack of qualified candidates.

Back to back, glut of engineers and using a supply of engineers from the third world got companies used to the idea that engineers worked cheap and could be rode hard and put away wet.

When the American education system started cranking a few new ones these newly frocked kids wanted jobs that would pay the bills AND service their student loans.

Why would a company do that when they could get three H1B dudes from India.  Never mind that the person in charge of engineering is, now, from India and those three new guys know their place in the caste structure he still believes in.

Smart people entering college can see this.  They know what their chances of getting a good job as an engineer look like and see that it's very dependent on luck rather than merit.  So they chose a different major!

And here we are.

You say you want talented, creative, smart and driven American engineers?  Well you're going to have to create incentives so that creative, smart and driven Americans WANT to be engineers.

That will mean dumping the cheap labor model and getting protectionist.

Yes, that will be expensive.  But it's an investment.

Employers have to learn to think longer term and for that to happen we must look to changing the laws around the stock market.  There's no inducement to making a 20 year plan because you have to show the stockholders an increase every quarter.  The incentives are only for short term gains and the people who can do it for a couple of years get away rich after the things they did to get the short term returns collapse the company.

Perverse Incentives

The main problem with H1B visas with regards to domestic workers is that it disincentivizes Americans from getting the skills, credentials and degrees needed to get the jobs.

To fix the problem and incentivize Americans to become talented and creative engineers and programmers, the playing field needs to be level.

A programmer from India isn't bringing the mountain of debt with them that an American will have amassed; thus they can work for much lower wages.

That programmer from India is NEVER going to have that mountain of debt so why would an American ever get the skills to compete with them?

There's two solutions.

One is to stop H1B or severely restrict it.  Restrict it in a,"you have to take a barely qualified American over a well qualified foreigner," way.

If these folks coming over here are such wonderful additions to America, then why don't they come over as genuine immigrants and become Americans?  The answer is they dont' want to.  They want to remain nationals of their home country and suck up the much better wages and conditions here.

I am against any sizeable number of foreigners remaining so while they live here.  Don't want to be an American, fuck off right back home.

The second solution is to wipe those debts away for anyone with an "essential" STEM degree and that will allow our fresh faced grads the ability to accept lower pay for the same quality of life.

By the way, it's not racism to want to limit the number of foreigners living here.

It's NATIONALISM.

Get it right.

From Hell's Heart He Stabs At Me

Family membership at the local range went from $250 a year with my veteran's discount to $300.

Dang it.

Every damn membership comes due in December and it's when we stretched thinnest.

Couple that with my birthday being in December as well, all the government shit comes due too.

SIGH.

Going to have to get the generic bottom ramen for a few weeks instead of the bougie TOP Ramen.

Were We Running Short Of RINOs?

Another Democrat has switched parties up in Tallahassee.

This time Hillary Cassel from the 101st district.  That's 'round about Hollywood, FL and part of the southern blue blot on the east coast.

I wonder if she can hear herself when she says that she wants, "to build a world where her children are judged by the content of their character and their actions not on their labels," then in the very next breath says, "As a proud Jewish woman..."

Labels shouldn't matter, here are mine!

I guess we'll see how she votes, but we've too many purple Republicans at the state capital already.

There Will Be Signs

I have joined millions of others in the sure thing known as the Lotto.

1.1 billion dollar prize that will buy a happy meal once taxes and fees are subtracted.

Absolutely no (realistic) chance of winning; but it's fun to drop a buck or two here and there and dream.

Same Same

Both AR's.

Both flat-tops.

Both fixed stocked.

Both olive drab green.

Neither in 5.56.

Both with magnified optics.

Identical!

Oh, wait...

This is AR-15 v AR-10.  6.8x43mm v 7.62x51mm.  16" v 20".  Fixed power v variable.  3-prong v A2.

6d pi v 7d pi.  820/3,500 v 1,000/4,200. 8.8 lb. v 11.6 lb.  27 v 20 shots.

Previously Deported

The illegal alien who burned a NYFC subway passenger alive had been previously deported.

We'd managed to catch him and sent him back to Guatemala and he just came right back up here.

To do a job that Americans won't do: Burn homeless women alive on subway cars.

This is the kind of shit that makes me go, "explain to me again how being an illegal is 'just' a misdemeanor and the punishment is 'merely' a fine, in a dismissive manner and tone that makes it sound like it's not a problem."

Go on.

Explain to me that it's not a problem.  Don't forget to add that they have all the same rights I do.

Go on.

I think it's high time we revive the idea of being outlawed.

The illegal immigrant problem will cure itself.

Oh, and something had better get done in a positive manner real soon now or The People are going to start taking shit into their own hands without consulting with any level of government.

Government that, I might add, has shown to be far more sympathetic to these criminals than the citizens they swore to protect from such unlawfulness.

People are already grumbling that something effective be done.  They're not demanding a nebulous "something" they are demanding results that matter.

I Say The Same Thing I Said To The Firearms Industry

When a state passes punitive legislation against your business: Stop doing business there.

I said that about California when they started getting stupid about guns.

No sales to anyone in the state until everyone in the state can buy.

People can't have, Government can't have.

Well Vermont and New York have gone insane about petroleum.

Fuck 'em.

Stop sales in those states.

Take the hit.

I'd love to see what happens to those two states when there's no gas, diesel, propane or fuel oil.

Set the cutoff date for February 1, 2025.

That's the height of winter, isn't it?

Being stupid should be painful and I think that the legislatures and voters in those two states deserve some pain from this idiocy.

Expensive Joke

In Australia, my car could be had with a manual transmission.

It's "doable" to convert a PPV from a slushbox to rowing your own.

The pedal assembly is a, nearly, bolt in deal.

While I promised Harvey that The Beast would remain an auto, it amuses me to think of putting in the pedals.

Even wire in the clutch pedal to the starter and shifter interlocks.

Boomer AND Millennial anti-theft.

Cheat Code

In GURPS 3e in particular the TL was defined by the years on the list.

TL6 is a range.

The GM would often tell us there was a year cut off for technology.  This kept us from getting better guns mostly.

Especially when I grabbed an FG.42!  It's real world flaws don't show up well in GURPS, so it was OP for the world the GM had made.

Pre WW2?  OK, I'll take a ZH-29 in any of several calibers.

Damn, Ian was rough back then!

But even limiting us to 1919 didn't slow me down much.

The Mondragon M1908 is a Garand decades early!

I studiously never mentioned that most South American nations banned military cartridges from civilians when the campaign was set there...

Not Rock

The Eagles are the first place I noticed.  They aren't a rock band.  They are a country band that gets played on rock stations.

It was years later when I finally figured out the con that Pink Floyd had played on so many rock stations.

"Composite Rock" is actually jazz.

Oh how we raged!

With our headphones on.

With "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" blasting.

FUCK!

We like jazz.

Phone Diagnostics

I have Willard's cell phone.

We ordered him a new battery for it on the assumption that the battery was dead in it.

On a whim, I tossed it on one of my chargers.

It's taking a charge!

I played with the buttons for a bit and it didn't lose much charge in 20 minutes of on-time.  It's looking like it was a charger issue at Willard's place rather than a battery issue.

What it appears to lack is service.  It's not seeing his carrier.  I can't call his phone and his phone can't call mine.

It connects to my wi-fi, and I am reminded why I never looked back when smart-phones hit.  Entering the password on the number-pad of his flip-phone was a flash-back to the bad old days of text messages.

If it's a carrier issue, Willard's going to have to talk to them.  I know he'll love that!

5.2x68mm Mondragon

That's a 92.6gr round going 2,723 feet per second.

That's zippy!

In GURPS that should be 6d pi with 800/4,200 range.

The strange slam-fire mode should get a RoF of 2.

There Are Deviled Eggs

This is a blatant attempt to get Willard to come visit.

Harvey made deviled eggs!  Just for you!

Update:

It worked!  Willard did visit and was given the eggs!

He brought his grand-daughter, fresh from the Red Sea and killin' drones.  I'm getting old, I remember when she was a wee bairn.

Gifts were exchanged!  Fun was had.

Where You At McThag?

Way back when the wall came down in Berlin, we were on alert just in case it was a clever ruse by the filthy commies to start WW3 with our pants down.

On that night I went from the top of an M1A1(HA) turret to the bottom of a ditch with an icy bottom.

I broke both legs.

Will it GURPS?

The fall was about 6.6 yards.

That gives a fall velocity of about 12.6 yards per second into a hard surface (double damage!)

That translates to 3d cr.

3d will do 10 points of damage.  Divided equally between both legs and assuming 10 HP, that will cripple both legs!  Since I did pass out from the pain, that tracks to failing consciousness rolls and 0 HP.

My injury GURPS!

But what about the lasting problems?

That's covered too under Lame p.B141 after getting a critical fail on my HT roll to see how lasting the injury was.

Under Pressure

We hooked up Marv's Torque Pro app into the ALDL port on The Beast.

Oil pressure was in the mid to high 40's cruising at 45 mph.

This compares with low 30's in The Precious.

I think my L77 is healthier than my LS3 was.

Happy dance!

Some Come Here To Be Americans

Some born here never will be.

Sad, really.

But Islam is a colonial movement.

Go For Broke

It's not a mainstream film, it's obscure now.

MGM says it turned a profit of $761,000 on $3,337,000 in ticket sales in 1951 bucks.

But it's public domain, like "It's A Wonderful Life."

It definitely deserves a remake.

Even The Droyne

 

Special guest star Erin Palette!

But We're Not Jewish

On Christmas Eve, my family gets Chinese food.

Christmas day was a big meal at Grandma's; so we didn't cook on the eve.

It was years later that I found out that we were joining the Jewish people in an ancient tradition.

I've always found that amusing.

Jews have no religious reason to celebrate Christmas, but they have Christmas traditions.

But, then, Christmas is also a pagan thing.

In America, it's a secular tradition too.

So Merry Christmas!

What About The 442nd Regimental Combat Team?

Watch this:

Back?

Netflix, you really want to do a story about a persecuted minority in WW2?

What about the 442nd?

The only mention in anything mainstream has been Mr Myagi from "The Karate Kid."

A unit that amassed 21 Medal of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 1 Distinguished Service Medal, 371 Silver Stars, 22 Legion of Merit Medals, 15 Soldier's Medals and 4,000 Bronze Stars is fucking worth making a movie about.

All that in about a year's worth of fighting.

And after getting fucked by their own government and being sent to internment camps.  They still volunteered.

You could even call the film, "Go For Broke."

Throw Me A Bone

Mild paraphrasing going on.

Me:  How much for the thing.

Them: $50.  Local pickup only.

Me: Monday and Thursday work for me!

Them: I'm free all day Monday.

Me: I can be there around noon, where do you want to meet?

Ten minutes later:

Me:  I can be there at noon, I need an address to tell the GPS.

Sixteen hours later:

Me: If you insist on local pickup, you have to tell me where to go.

Them: I don't appreciate your nasty tone.  I'm busy.  I work a lot.  Monday was the only break I've had in a long time.

Me: You ghosted me for 16 hours and didn't reply until I hurt your feelings.  And you still haven't told me where to meet you.  I don't think you're selling the thing.

Them: It's still for sale, Thursday is good.

What would you tell them?  I'm thinking of telling him I'm on the way to his house Thursday morning and giving updates on where I am for three hours then going silent right about when I should be arriving.

I have no idea where he lives, so telling him I'm on my way to his place might be hilarious.

Where The BLEEP Is The Roasting Pan?

Publix had a stupid good price on a standing rib roast so we got a small one.  Stupid good is still not cheap.

My original plan was to cut it into steaks, but then I remembered that you can do one these up like a prime rib.

If you can find your roasting pan.

Our roasting pan is gone.  Harvey remembers loaning it out and if it's who we think it is, we don't want it back!  Ick.

But any cookie sheet with a rack can be a roasting pan, we have those.

Crisis averted.

Prime rib for Christmas day dinner!

Never Remind The Customer You Hate Them

I've given up on another webcomic.

The author just couldn't not keep their political opinion to themselves.

I'm willing to read stuff by authors I disagree with, but this time they bloviated on how happy they were that they changed a character to no longer be a cop.

The reason for the thrill was that they wouldn't have to show in their comic that not all cops are bastards.

That would have been unthinkable!

You see cops are the symbol of a government that oppresses us all.  Minorities the most.

I don't think this fuck would know oppression if it threw him off a rooftop.  He moved to Canada for Christ's sake!

Disconnect

I've been friends with several Vietnam veterans.

To a man they've said that they didn't hold anything against the Black soldiers they served with.

Combat does have an equalizing agency that many other endeavors lack.

One even stated that his racist shit he'd gotten from his dad evaporated when he was under fire and everyone was doing their job regardless of the racial or social starting points.

But it's a matter of historical fact that racism was part of the Vietnam experience for Black troops.

It makes me wonder if the problem was REMF motherfuckers rather than the people actually going to the field.

Funny New Guys has me looking at it and it seems like Black troops caught more and harder punishments than White troops and that the people being anal about making sure punishment was meted out weren't the same people walking the bush.

I'm reading and learning.

Let's Hear From The Local Monotheists

Realizing that I had not yet purchased the annual eggnog and we didn't have Christmas morning simmanin rolls, I trekked to the store.

I stopped and got gas at the station across the street from the grocery and got to listen to the preacher on a speaker on the corner.

Santa.

Is.

A.

Lie!

Great message for the impending day of your God's big day.

But Santa is part of Christian mythology.  He's derived from St Nicholas.  He's the embodiment of Christian charity.

But he's a lie.

The preacher also told me that when presented a choice between right and wrong, I always choose the wrong.

Setting up my rifle and popping his, insulting and offensive, loud mouth in the forehead is wrong.

I chose to do the right thing!  I "shall not killed" my ass off today!

Who's wrong now, Bitch!

PS: I probably shouldn't be associating these loud mouths with normal Christians, there's prolly only a tangential relationship to mainstream Christian theology.

And Yet...

I am laughing my ass off at the people doing Margaret Atwood cosplay and being in abject terror that Donald will go full Handmaid's Tale here when this sort of thing is happening in the real world.

This wouldn't be happening in Afghanistan if Mumbles hadn't pulled out of the place.

Ironically, the people most likely to be there defending these women's rights would have been the first people the cosplayers blame for trying to impose a gynophobic theocracy on them.

Never mind that if they tried their protesting in a place that's really doing what they're scared of, they'd be killed.

Cue the "What about Islam Dancers!"

Race Day

Hung out at Lead Foot City hanging with the guy I bought The Beast from (and sold The Biscayne SS to).  He made three runs in my old car.  He's making it into an Olds sedan.

It's an 1/8th mile track, so things ran slower than I'm accustomed at a drag strip.

We spent over two hours waiting on them cleaning up after a Mustang who should have lifted and coasted when he broke loose.

Short Day

It is the winter solstice!

There's 10 hours and 21 minutes of daylight today.  The least daylight of the entire year.

If we were still on daylight savings time there would be 10 hours and 21 minutes of daylight!  But the solstice would be at 5:20am instead of 4:20...

How About A Budget?

One of the House's responsibilities is to pass a budget.

It's something those insider trading fattened and tax finished hyenas have not managed to do, at least on time, in over four decades.

It's almost literally "you had ONE job!"

They're required by the constitution to do it and they fail, repeatedly.

Don't even get me started on the Senate passing budgets and sending them to the House...  That's backwards.  The budget is supposed to originate in the House and the Senate is supposed to just give an up or down vote.

Look it up!

Not Gimp Compatible

An anonymous comment states, "One other drawback to air/rail/bus is the last 5 mile issue. They all get you from station to station. But how do you get from that station to your final destination?" 

You hoof it!

What if you can't hoof?

Fuck you!  (also bake the cake and eat your bugs bigot!) <-- implied but never stated out loud. 

PS: Anon commenter, sign it next time.

Owning The Night

Chimera in Vietnam probably got a good reputation with their comrades once they put the racism aside.

Every Chimera has some sort of vision advantage.

Spiders have Night-Vision 6.

Coyotes have Night-Vision 5 and long-range Discriminatory Smell.

Cats have Night-Vision 9 and Parabolic Hearing.

Hawks have Acute Vision 4.

Snakes have Thermal Infrared Vision.

Foxes have Night-Vision 5, Discriminatory Smell and Parabolic Hearing.

All that conspires to make them better at spotting ambushes and/or working in the dark.

No wonder the 101st Spellborne was so effective.

No Half Measures

Funny New Guys is set in 1967.

That means that there are no halfling Chimera in the Army.

Chimera were born spontaneously to people born in the manafall beginning in 1945.

Halflings are born from a human and a chimera.

The oldest Chimera is 22.  That puts the oldest possible halfling at well under the 18 years of age the military demands.  That oldest possible also means some very young parents as well.  Laws were probably broken young...

IYKYK

Summoned, I come.

In Valen's name, I take the place that has been prepared for me.

I am Grey.

I stand between the candle and the star.

We are Grey.

We stand between the darkness and the light.

C-

Thanks to then Governor, now Senator, Rick "I suck cock by choice" Scott and the so called "republican" supermajority in the Florida legislature: Florida rates a C- from the Giffords Law Center.

Fucking turncoat pricks.

Worse, their successors must be proud of this rating because they adamantly refuse to consider undoing the fuckery.

A special thanks to the Florida Sheriff's Association.