Randomness.
Watching the Leftovers. It’s kind of interesting.
Ok, this isn’t that much of a spoiler for True Blood, so I don’t feel bad sharing it before West Coast peeps watch, but was I the only one who immediately yelled “Why the fuck are you shooting a BB gun at a bear?”
One of the things that is super funny about my pets is that whenever I have company, they all have their favorite people. Kind of like a hierarchy of who they love the most. Steve and Shawn are inseparable, but when Harry and Chatman are over, Lily is draw to Harry, Rosie to Chatman. Rosie also really loves Walt, but there is one man who is Rosie’s #1. My fraternity brother Christion. As soon as he comes over, she is on his lap and just with him the entire time he is here.
Rosie is still kind of fucked up, even though she has been here for several years. She is still a little bit bipolar with everyone, and Shawn and I think it was because she was abused by someone she really trusted. With most people, including me, if you rub her the wrong way or upset her she’ll go all Snarls Barkley on your ass. She never bites, but she lets you know to back the fuck up. Things are not kosher atm.
Sometimes she actually gets so happy when she is having good time that I think her wires get crossed and she starts getting snarly, and you just look at her and say “What are you doing, silly girl?” and give her a second and she snaps out of it. I really do think she was traumatized and was not given a stable environment, and yellings were as random as pettings.
But she never does that with Christion, and is draped on him or tucked up next to him all night long. I seriously think they are soul mates, but I think most of it is that he moves so slowly and cautiously, as opposed to me, who goes banging around the house like a cave man.
At any rate, Christion fell asleep on the couch the other night, and as soon as she knew he was asleep and defenseless, she draped herself across his lap and stood guard. Anyone even looked at him or got close to him got the snarls.
I dunno if you can tell the murderous intent in her eyes in the second photo, but she was totally resource guarding there. You got within three feet of her man Christion, and you got fangs and the clear message to back off, beeoch.
It’s just so cool how animals pick their humans.
SiubhanDuinne
That’s so sad, the idea that Rosie was (probably) abused by someone she trusted. That would fuck anyone up. I hope she finally gets to the point where she can and does trust you 100% of the time. But in the meantime, I love the way she has taken to Christion. It’s been said before, but you are a good man, John Cole.
PhoenixRising
My kid’s coach has 3 JR Terrorists, of which the little gimpy one is the only biter. (the others, including her mama, are apparently stable.) So this morning after I was done with the kid’s horse’s physical therapy (don’t ask) the coach comes limping over to me and says, “Can you do my ankle?”
I ask her the obvious question: What happened? She has no idea. Pulls her boot and shows me this: a swollen joint inside a JRT sock.
Of course I diagnosed her right away: Your leg has been encased in Jack Russell Terriers.
I thought of you, Cole. Wrapped and iced and pressured and medicated, the human doses, but…how can you not KNOW how you sprained (best case) your own damn ankle? Jack Russells.
ulee
This post is just trying to distract us from focusing on Benghazi.
David Koch
once you go black…
Lee
I’ve got a interesting pet story that took place this morning at 1am.
I’ve got an 9 year old Australian Shepard who is very much the protector of the house & family. At night when he is loose in the house he will patrol the house checking out each kid’s room every few hours. He doesn’t freak out over visitors except to make sure they get enough time to pet him.
Last night one of the smoke detector’s batteries ran low and started its periodic beep. Apparently this was enough for him to jump on the bed (which he doesn’t usually do) and wake us up. He knew something was wrong but not what. He would not leave the room or the bed until I switched out the battery.
Once that was done. He jumped off the bed, made his rounds for a while and went back to sleep on the couch.
Ruckus
My rescue cocker was like Rosy. But I think he just didn’t like to be touched in certain places. He got to be very trusting with me but he still didn’t like to be touched in certain ways. And when I say touched it didn’t matter how soft, I think he considered it an attack. I had to learn to groom him myself because the local folks would tell me not to bring him back. Two minutes after I was done though all was forgiven.
Mnemosyne
@Lee:
I think there’s something about that specific sound that annoys animals — our cats go nuts if they hear it, even on TV.
Ruckus
@Lee:
That’s a good dog.
Keith G
@David Koch: Damn you! Now, I got ‘nuttin.
? Martin
There are a lot of young men that should credit you for getting through college. You’re doing good work.
Culture of Truth
I know someone who took in a mildly abused dog but they’re always yelling at it (as in, “come here…; come HERE; COME HERE; COME HERE!!!”) I don’t think it’s helping.
ulee
Was just over at Huffington Post and they’ve got the Supremes headlined. What the fuck is wrong with Clarence Thomas? The guy radiates unhappiness. That’s fine, but he is in a position to take it out on the rest of us.
Culture of Truth
BB and The Bear
ulee
Contrast Sonia and Clarence. He looks defeated and hateful. She looks beatific, ready to work.
Betty Cracker
I’m reading “The Leftovers” right now — I’m about 2/3rds of the way through it, and it’s interesting enough that I may stay up to finish it even though I should definitely go to bed. I believe the TV series is an HBO production, which means I won’t get to see it for several years…until it comes out on Netflix or Amazon.
Interesting story about the animals and people-picking. My two boxers love pretty much everyone. But they are especially fond of my sister and one of our neighbors. When either one of those two visit, the boxers leap straight up repeatedly to express their excitement, even though they (the dogs) are fat and middle-aged. It’s incredibly goofy.
Last week was a sad, sucky week for my family. My husband’s father died, and we had the wake and funeral at the end of the week. I fucking hate 2014 so hard. Anyway, tonight, my husband told me his mom had called while he was outside, and I asked him how she was — I’d talked to her earlier in the day, and she seemed okay.
He said it was weird — she told him she just wanted to hear his voice. And that broke my heart because I realized she wanted to hear her husband’s voice; of all the sons, my husband is the only one with his dad’s lovely baritone. It’s just so goddamned sad, but what can you do?
Steeplejack
Damn it, Juice pages are taking forever to finish loading. Thank you, Sitemeter and Google Analytics! Is this the usual Sunday night data mining?
ETA: I mean “usual Sunday night extra data mining.”
John Revolta
Ruh-roh……………………….
Just weeks before Blackwater guards fatally shot 17 civilians at Baghdad’s Nisour Square in 2007, the State Department began investigating the security contractor’s operations in Iraq. But the inquiry was abandoned after Blackwater’s top manager there issued a threat: “that he could kill” the government’s chief investigator and “no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” according to department reports.
Per the NY Times……………………….
The next day, the two men met with Daniel Carroll, Blackwater’s project manager in Iraq, to discuss the investigation, including a complaint over food quality and sanitary conditions at a cafeteria in Blackwater’s compound. Carroll barked that Richter could not tell him what to do about his cafeteria, Richter’s report said. The Blackwater official went on to threaten the agent and say he would not face any consequences, according to Richter’s later account.
Carroll said “that he could kill me at that very moment and no one could or would do anything about it as we were in Iraq,” Richter wrote in a memo to senior State Department officials in Washington. He noted that Carroll had formerly served with Navy SEAL Team 6, an elite unit.
“Mr. Carroll’s statement was made in a low, even tone of voice, his head was slightly lowered; his eyes were fixed on mine,” Richter stated in his memo. “I took Mr. Carroll’s threat seriously. We were in a combat zone where things can happen quite unexpectedly, especially when issues involve potentially negative impacts on a lucrative security contract.”
Yikes!!!
MikeJ
@John Revolta: Lie down with dogs you get fleas. Except for Lily and the Cracker boxers, I’m sure. It works better in the metaphor than with people’s pets.
Betty Cracker
@Steeplejack: I’m not having slow loading issues. Maybe you’ve run afoul of the NSA?
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: re:paragraph 4
:: wiping tears away ::
hugs
Steeplejack
Endeavour was a little convoluted even for me, so now as a palate-cleanser it’s Johan Falk on MHz, my Eurotrash micronetwork. Every night they show some European police procedural, either a feature-length movie or two one-hour episodes. The shows vary in quality, but a lot of the time just the scenery and the differences from American cop shows are enough to keep on with. And some of them are quite good. The Montalbano series is sublime.
Falk is a tough Swedish cop working the gritty (okay, mildly rumpled) streets of Gothenburg (Göteborg). I’ve seen the first two or three, but not this one, National Target.
SuperHrefna
@Betty Cracker: Hugs, Betty. Big internet hugs.
ulee
@Steeplejack: If you give me your social security number I can assist you with this pesky slow load issue. I’m here to help.
skerry
@Betty Cracker: I’m so sorry that you have had such a horrible year. Hugs.
Elizabelle
Never tire of Rosie and Christion stories, and love the pics. Rosie has her mission.
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
The page loads and I can read it, etc., but the Firefox refresh button keeps spinning and the status bar at the bottom shows that Sitemeter and/or Google Analytics are clanking away in the background. It’s annoying more than anything, but it’s really annoying.
MattR
Some hopeful pet news. My buddy’s dog had stopped eating a couple weeks ago and had lost a ton of weight. They took him to the vet who couldn’t find a problem and they tried all sorts of different dog foods, treats and human foods but he wasn’t interested in any of them and was barely drinking as well. They finally made the decision to put him to sleep. My friend took him out for a last walk while waiting for his wife and a neighbor came out with a bag of treats to see how he was doing. The dog scarfed down a dozen treats (his first solid food in over a week) then accepted some cut up pizza the next day and now seems to be back to a normal appetitie (even eating a full bowl of dog food today). No idea what caused the problem, but we are all hopeful that he has moved past it and now has a few more happy and healthy years left in him.
@Steeplejack: I run into that problem when I reload after making a comment on a particular thread. But if I go up to the top and click on the post heading (or remove the #comment-yadayada part of the URL), then it goes back to fully loading normally
Mary G
@Betty Cracker: You have had the worst year, so far. Maybe the second half will be not as sucky.
Thinking of you, your husband and your MIL {{hugs for all}}}.
burnspbesq
That thread earlier today about the foul crap we 60-ish drank to get drunk in high school has sent me down a very long rabbit-hole of 70s music. Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, Orleans, Poco, J.J. Cale. If I get to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, I may need an intervention.
Mary G
Here is a song for all us ladies of a certain age.
WaterGirl
@MattR: Happy story.
A similar thing happened with a friend of mine about 3 years ago. We happened to be at the vet at the same time, me with a box of yummy treats in my hand that I had just picked up at the pet store next door.
My friend was there with her dog because she had not been eating, and she was thinking she would have to put Annie down. When she heard my voice, she opened the door to the room and invited me in. I had the treats in my hand so I asked if I could try them. She said “sure”, and we were all shocked to see Annie gobble several of them down. She had another year after that.
We kind of felt like it was a miracle of timing, or something.
WaterGirl
@burnspbesq: I was with you on all the cheap booze and all the music until I got to J.J. Cale. Who the
hellheck is J.J. Cale?Edit: I am mostly asking rhetorically since I have google and I am about to turn off my computer to watch TV.
Steeplejack
@burnspbesq:
Consider yourself intervened.
burnspbesq
@WaterGirl:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JJ_Cale
MattR
@WaterGirl: Here is some JJ doing two songs he wrote (which are best known for covers done by other bands) with Eric Clapton.
For Burnsey – Here is JJ Cale and Leon Russell from 1979.
Steeplejack
@MattR:
Thanks, tried your suggestion, but it’s still doing it. No real performance hit—it’s not like it delays the meat of the page from loading—but it’s an in-your-face irritation. A reminder of all the barnacles clinging to the hull.
burnspbesq
@burnspbesq:
This clip is from (I think) the 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WUeOEkl270
WaterGirl
@MattR: @burnspbesq:
Thanks. I guess I missed JJ Cale somehow. I had no idea he had written all those songs.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I recently installed Ghostery, so all that crap is now disabled. I had been thinking it was time to buy a new macbook air because I was having memory issues, and my macbook air can’t take any more memory than I already have. I installed Ghostery, and every computer issue I had suddenly went away. I love Ghostery.
Shortstop
This fantastic, friendly coonhound in our building has just died at the age of six
from some complicated health problems. His owner is devastated. I feel just awful for him. Will miss seeing his pooch on the elevator. Our hound will, too.
ulee
And little early-pearly came by in his curly-wirly and asked me if i needed a ride.—Thank you Bruce for having me sing this during my commute.
trollhattan
Feel the Freedom.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/cops-vendor-shoots-woman-pennsylvania-gun-show
ulee
She got down but she never got tight, she’s gonna make it through the night.
Tommy
My cat is a rock star. If I don’t give her attention, and she needs it close to 24/7, she will sit in front of me crying. My mom never got why Mather didn’t come see her. I was like mom you don’t come over that often. She is anal about shit. Then mom came over for like four days. On the fourth, a cat ever left her lap. Cat happy. Mom happy. Win/win.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
I use Ad Blocker, and this is only a sporadic problem, but I’ll give Ghostery a look.
How do you like your Macbook Air? And which size do you have? Something reminded me that their screen aspect ratio is 1.6, rather than the (too wide, to me) 1.77 of almost all Windows laptops these days, and I thought I might look at those if/when I need a new laptop down the road.
burnspbesq
@ulee:
I got a full week’s pay,
And baby I been workin’ hard each day,
I’m not askin’ for the world you see,
I’m just askin,’ girl
Talk to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xacdz4-g7BE
Villago Delenda Est
Noisemax strikes again!
Pope: Communists Are Closet Christians
Also, too, Capitalists are Closet Satanists. You read it here first.
Tommy
@trollhattan: Idiots. I have like a 5,000 acre field in front of my house. At the end of it a “sports man area” that opens into the miles of forest. Hearing guns fired in my house is a daily thing. A few months ago I hear gun fire closer. I walk outside and see my next door neighbor in said field with his kid. Shooting a gun at targets. He saw me. Walked over and said he was just trying to teach his child gun safety. Should have mentioned it to me. I was like dude, no need. Just wanted to know who was firing a gun. Seems this is how things should work.
burnspbesq
If you lived in the New York radio market, this song was the soundtrack of the summer of 1972.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faf1cVKiilg
ulee
I I I dig a pony. You can celebrate anything you want…….
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: I have used AdBlock and ClickToFlash for years. I tried Ghostery on a whim after someone here mentioned it maybe a month ago. As I said, I was amazed at the difference it made.
I love love love my MacBook Air. I have the 13″. (13.3)
I got my first one when they first came out in 2008. It wasn’t powerful enough, so I found myself sticking with my 15″ MacBook Pro. Then I tried again in 2011, and the MacBook Air was great. This time it was plenty powerful enough. And now that I have Ghostery, all is right with the world again even as the macbook air approaches 3 years old.
I really can’t see myself with anything but a MacBook Air. You should definitely go for it when it’s time to upgrade. I don’t think you would be disappointed.
ruemara
Now that I’ve spent way too much time immersed in animal behaviour science, I’d say that a reactive dog is reactive and you may want to see if you can help her feel more confident so she doesn’t have to resort to snarls and teef. Seriously, it’s all good, until something inspires her to really be fearful. It happens.
Also I’m watching Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi play an old bitter married couple in a sitcom called Vicious. I love BBC. And I’ve winnowed down the 2.1 k pictures from Pride SF down to 1500. At least this is after the first round of images.
Tommy
@burnspbesq: About that time we just listened to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEVDZl5UvN4
Maybe a few years later. But Rush was the soundtrack of my youth in the 80s.
burnspbesq
And then, suddenly, it was August of ’73, and every night was precious because you knew that you were leaving in a couple of weeks for different schools, hundreds of miles apart …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4mrfDh8Cis
NotMax
@burnspbesq
Anything is preferable to the cloyingly cornball Big Summer Hit of 1972 – 6 – count ’em, 6 – weeks as #1 on the singles chart during that summer.
ruemara
@Lee: That is a great dog.
WaterGirl
@ruemara: Holy crap, that’s a lot of photos!
Edit: and with that deep thought, I am headed for bed.
srv
I think your dog was really defending DougJ, who appears in the 2nd pic.
Tommy
@NotMax: Gosh at that time. 1972. I was just a little kid. At the time we lived in Lubbock. My baby sitter was shit so I’d steal into my dads study, which was normally off limits. Put on his headphones and listen to his 8 tracks. He had John Denver, Jim Corce, and the “Man in Black.”
A few years ago I gave my father the entire Cash box set and told him this.
brendancalling
My one-eyed orange cat bites and scratches me every chance he gets, but when he senses I’m heading out, he gets super-affectionate and is always waiting at the door when I get home.
weirdo.
? Martin
Just finished a semi-major software project. The team that was supposed to do it couldn’t guarantee a deliverable until end of July, so I told them to fuck off and did it myself. I needed it by the 18th and now it’s done. I think it’s one of my better efforts, to be honest, and charted some new personal territory which leaves me all proud and shit.
And my son started his first full-time job last thursday (where I work), and was hired to bail out a project that was desperately behind schedule and got the prototype built by end of Friday, a week ahead of when the boss through he could get it done. It’s still behind schedule but less desperately so. He’s feeling equally proud and shit, as am I for his hard work. His boss is considering giving him a related project that is also desperately far behind schedule.
Now enjoying a gin and tonic that would put Churchill on the floor.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Hmm. Rebooted my computer, and now the lingering-loading thing on this site in Firefox has gone away. I guess the NSA got all the info they needed for now.
ETA: I wonder if the problem was related to an update of Adobe Flash that I allowed to go through earlier. Don’t see why, but paranoia, etc.
srv
@burnspbesq: My first live music memory was Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog, 1971.
The rest of web could collapse, but youtube occasionally rewards me with a gem.
Santana covering In A Silent Way. Had heard it, but never seen a video.
Steeplejack
Really laboring to get through Johan Falk. Since it’s subtitles, I have to actually watch it; I can’t surf Balloon Juice and sort of watch it at the same time. So I keep pausing it for a few minutes. Lulz.
askew
@Betty Cracker:
Man, your family really has had a shitty 2014. Sorry to hear about your loss. My condolences.
? Martin
@Steeplejack: Flash is the cause of everything bad. It’s the tea party of software.
J R in WV
Hi Betty Cracker:
So sorry for your repeated losses this spring and summer. There’s a lot of 2014 left to us, and I hope the second half is OK for you and yours.
Let the boxers help you with your troubles!
Best wishes from West Virginia,
JR
Steeplejack
@? Martin:
Flash is wretched, but I’ve never taken the time to see whether I can get by without it.
Actually, I was doing a little troubleshooting with Task Manager and saw that I still have a lot of Lenovo things puttering away in the background from when I first got this laptop. Some are necessary, I’m sure, but I’m equally sure a lot of them are unnecessary junk. And, again, I haven’t taken the time to go through and figure out what’s what. I keep saying I should just plan an uninterrupted session to definitely research/fix things like this, but it always feels like a waste of time. Nothing substantial gained, just a scrubbing of barnacles that shouldn’t be there in the first place. It feels Sisyphean.
? Martin
@Steeplejack: I don’t have Flash installed systemwide. Chrome is kind enough to embed Flash in the browser, so I run Safari and when I hit a Flash thing I fire up Chrome. I don’t need to do it often. If a server sees that Flash is missing it’ll usually serve up an alternate version of the video since iPhone/iPads never have Flash. And I never miss the flash-based ads.
One of the nice aspects of owning a Mac is that there’s no shovelware. Of course, you pay for that privilege. If I ever switched to a PC, the first thing I’d do is head down to the Microsoft Store and pay them to put a clean version of Windows on. Just not worth the aggravation.
Steeplejack
Okay, Johan Falk finished, followed by a mini-documentary on Van Veeteren, another good series, about which I’m pissed because not all of the excellent novels have been translated into English yet. WTF? Particularly galling because at occasional times in the novels and movies a “dossier G” is mentioned, supposedly the one big case that Van Veeteren never solved. And one of the still untranslated novels—the last one, I think—is Dossier G. Almost makes me want to learn Swedish.
? Martin
Interesting.
Tim Cook (Apple’s CEO) is widely rumored to be gay (I can’t recall a time when such a rumor wasn’t true). If so, he’d be the only (known) gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and CEO of the most valuable company on earth at that.
He seems to come increasingly close each year to letting that news out, but hasn’t yet. This strikes me as another step toward that line. Steve Jobs never showed up for photos at pride events (though he was a strong supporter).
? Martin
And bless the relatives of whoever invented gin (though I’m probably one of them).
/martin +n+1
Steeplejack
@? Martin:
I used to do a good job of debloating new computers as I got them, but this one kind of got away from me. It’s a neat little Lenovo—an X130e with an 11.6" screen—that I got a super deal on, but when I got it I didn’t really need it and thought that I might sell it on to a client or acquaintance. So I didn’t do my usual cleansing routine.
Now, a year later, I’ve still got it, and as my ancient Dell WinXP laptop is on its last legs it looks like this will be my new laptop. So maybe it’s time to put it up on the rack and get it set up the way I want it.
I was telling WaterGirl upthread that I have been eyeballing the Macbook Air for down the road. About the only thing I don’t like about the Lenovo is the 1.77 screen aspect ratio, which is not awful on a big monitor but feels excessively wide on such a small screen. Something jogged my memory about the 1.6 aspect ratio on the Macbook Air, and that got me thinking. I’m not a Windows zealot, but if I had to I could load Windows on it and dual-boot. Anyway, just blue-skyin’ for somewhere down the road.
Steeplejack
@? Martin:
Which one? I recently test-drank a bottle of Bombay Sapphire, and it confirmed that I am a Tanqueray guy. YMMV.
Cue the Hendricks snobs to come in and tell me they’re both crap.
Elizabelle
@? Martin:
I hadn’t realized it was rumor only for John Cook; heard that he was gay as statement of fact. (Feel that was mentioned in passing in an article or two as he came to prominence post-Jobs. And glad to hear of a major company’s CEO who is, and acknowledges same.) But maybe it’s not as acknowledged as I thought.
Also, kudos to your son for his work. Great summer experience, and helpful to others to boot.
Restless and wondering if I should have a scotch and water that would put Mrs. Churchill under the table …
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Just don’t have one so big that it would put Mrs. Churchill under Mr. Churchill. Ngrr!
Better than coffee at this time of night, in any case.
Steeplejack
I’m off to bed. This song just got finished on the jazz station I was listening to: Coleman Hawkins, “I Want to Be Loved.” Perfect late-night music.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
If you don’t already have it, install the free version of CCleaner and use it periodically to clean out all sorts of detritus.
Does its thing bloody quick. Also highly customizable. Been using it forever and habitually run it each time I close the browser.
To each his own, of course, but here’s my short list of must-have add-ons for Firefox:
AdBlock Plus
Better Privacy
CookieSafe
Ghostery
NoScript
QuickJava
TabMix Plus
James E. Powell
Just finished watching the first episode of Leftovers. I’m not sure I’m ready to trust Damon Lindelof again. After great promise, Lost fell apart and it was pretty clear that whoever was running and writing the show didn’t give a shit that the last two seasons and the ending sucked.
But I’m probably going to give this one at least a three episode tryout. The cult of cigarette smokers could be a problem. As a former pretty heavy smoker, watching people smoke in films and on TV produces intense craving.
One thing strikes me as hard to believe. Not really a spoiler, but maybe so if you keep reading you have been warned. Anyway. Two percent of the population vanishes without explanation. A small minority appears to think it’s the Rapture. Not buying that. This is America, the nation where the Rapture was totally made up and then turned into a multi-billion dollar business. There is no way that the right-wing religious fanatics fail to turn that event into control of the whole country.
Anybody else watch it? What say you all?
? Martin
@Steeplejack: The Air is a nice machine, but one I suspect is nearing the end of its life. The MacBook Pro is only slightly larger and heavier, but proportionately more capable. I’ve been a long advocate for replacing the MacBook Air with an iPad Pro or some such.
The 11″ Air is 1366 by 768, while the 13″ is 1440×900, the same as my 15″ MPB, though mine is Retina so actually 2880×1800. I do like this aspect ratio.
The Air can dual-boot, but you’d need to up the RAM and SSD for that. Once you do, it gets even pricier. I boot Windows on my 15″ via VMware but I have 16GB RAM in it. The hardware is incredibly nice (I’ve yet to find a trackpad on a Windows laptop that was worth a damn) but if your goal is Windows, it’d be a big investment. Mine was paid for by work, so you know. My son bought his own 13″ MBP (Retina 2560×1600) and dual-boots it. He’s got 8GB and a larger SSD and is very happy with his. GPU is little weak, but he’s not much of a FPS fan, so he’s happy. It plays Kerbal Space Program like a champ, so he’s happy. He’s such an awesome geek.
My preferred gin is Plymouth. It’s a bit earthier, a bit less pine-sol. I could drink it forever. I polished off a bottle of Bluecoat recently. It wasn’t bad. A tiny bit sharp for my taste. I should have tried it in a martini, but the bottle was gone before I got around to it. Don’t care for Bombay or even Tanqueray that much. I’m inclined to lean back toward Citadelle than toward the staples. But there’s always a bottle of Plymouth in my freezer and a backup in the cupboard. Never know when the zombies will come.
Titos is my preferred vodka. Texas vodka sounds wrong in so many ways, but it keeps the state in only slightly bad standing with me. It’s also not very sharp. Ms Martin likes both, and I’m amenable to a tipsy Ms Martin so that probably influences my opinion.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@NotMax:
Thanks for the tips. I use some of those, but I don’t think CCleaner is in my janitor’s cart. Will check it out.
One of the problems is figuring out what are legitimate Lenovo utilities, e.g., enabling something cool on the touchpad, and what are just the usual crapware with fancy Lenovo names.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@? Martin:
Thanks for the notes. Will add to the mental compost heap. Maybe you have redirected me toward a 13" MBP.
State liquor store in Virginia, so sometimes the choices are limited. I have seen Plymouth at one store, not at the other.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
Just made a tiny scotch and water. Good night to you and the housecat with heated throw.
Today was Carol Reed day: watched The Third Man on TCM, and caught a bit of A Kid for Two Farthings, which looked charming in a Brit slice of life way, but I wasn’t that interested in the boxing plot. And was anxious for how the little goat aka unicorn made out. Hope TCM airs it again.
Who knew that Carol Reed won Best Director for Oliver! in 1968(?). Can never get through that film.
The Third Man has the most interesting B&W cinematography and skewed angles throughout. All this and a zither too.
? Martin
@Elizabelle: Yes, Cook isn’t out. Though he isn’t denying the rumors either. It pains me that people can’t be honest about who they are.
I’m both really proud of my son, and a bit conflicted as well. He simply loves this work. He pushes me out the door because he wants to start working. Takes a 10 minute lunch. I have to drag him out at 5. He never gets distracted. Not many 16 year olds get a chance to spend their day doing electrical engineering and getting paid for it. He’ll be laying out PCBs (printable circuit boards) tomorrow and sending them off to be fabricated. He wants to own this project and he’s really good at it. But he got the job in large part because of me and much of my job is to create opportunities for all students not just the privileged few, and he gets a ton of opportunities because he’s my kid. I don’t want him to forget the advantages he has. I’m trying to get him to start a business this summer, either a for-profit or a non-profit and hire other kids his age. I want him to be independent and to extend this opportunity. I’m not sure he realizes how good he has it.
I vote for the scotch and water.
Elizabelle
@? Martin:
Sounds like you got a good “problem” in the son department! I hear you about oppty for all kids, but sounds like your son is unusually qualified for, and loving, his work. That’s amazing in an early summer job.
Sipping a Chivas and water.
Paul Krugman gets off a good line:
in his latest column on Charlatans, Cranks, and Kansas. (Hint: ALEC and tax cutting utopian thinking figure prominently.)
? Martin
@Steeplejack (tablet): Yeah, used to live in PA, so I know the drill. CA is quite different. Every grocery store has 2 isles of liquor. And we have BevMo. Think Costco selling nothing but booze and booze-accessories.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Elizabelle:
I love The Thin Man but couldn’t give it the necessary attention, so I skipped it today.
Re Oliver!, this has been my week for “He directed that?!” on TCM. And last night I said something to Mnemosyne about Ernst Lubitsch, and then I saw on IMDB that he directed Cluny Brown, a great little late ’40s movie that has almost an Ealing feeling about it. I would have guessed Carol Reed directed it before I guessed Lubitsch. LOL.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
The Third Man is one of those which can be watched over and over again. Always pulls me in if it happens to be on while I’m channel surfing. (Which is silly, as could watch the tape I have of it anytime, but so it goes.)
Seen on the big screen, Welles’ character’s first appearance is one of the greatest gifts of an entrance given an actor, ever. And kudos is due to director Reed for reining in Joseph Cotten’s tendency to go all broody.
Oliver!: marvelous play, dog of a film. Pedigreed, but still a dog.
Was involved in a production of it once* which used the gimmick of having twins play the lead, one as workhouse Oliver and the other as nattily attired rescued Oliver. Both lads knew the play inside and out, so would occasionally switch off as to whom performed which.
The audience was taken by surprise at the curtain calls each time.
*IIRC, that might have been the time played Fagin, a role which can work equally well in a broad variety of styles, from beaten down, scheming, authoritarian miser with sublimated cockles of gold to a deliciously camp scamp.
kdaug
@? Martin: If – and this may be a big if – you can get your hands on Tito’s Ruby Red, buy all you can. It’s seasonal, and hard to get (sells out fast), but it’s the best damned vodka you’ve ever had.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack (tablet):
@NotMax:
Had never seen “The Third Man” all the way through, and could watch it again later today. Captured well Vienna after WWII, the impermanence and shock to the system, amid ornate old world buildings and rubble. And the Danube, in a sewer, described as “sweet” smelling. Made me want to read the Graham Greene novel (and TCM has had a lot of his adaptations on this week).
Today TCM has a tribute to Eli Wallach, with 5 films including The Misfits and Baby Doll.
Good actor. Another case of “hey, I didn’t realize he was still alive; thought I saw his obit a few years ago”. And then you wonder about mourning someone you already took for dead.
Trivia bit: Wallach played Mr. Freeze in the Batman TV series.
geg6
My Otis is like Rosie (other than that fifty pound weight differential). My John rescued him before we got together (I think I’ve told that story here before) and there is no doubt that he was abused. Once I moved in, he attached himself to me like Velcro. No real reason that I could see, but he just loves me to death. Now that he’s old and lame, he sometimes growls and nips at John if he touches him a certain way or place. No damage to John or anything, but it always floors us because he’s usually the sweetest most affectionate boy you ever saw. But he’s always been frightened of newspapers and being rubbed with a human foot. I’m guessing he was hit with newspapers and kicked in his earlier life. It makes me very sad to think that.
Betty Cracker
@? Martin: Another big fan of Tito’s — good stuff. I must restock for the spiking of the yellow watermelon!
Aimai
@Betty Cracker: im so sorry betty. So very sorry.
another Holocene human
@? Martin: . Wow, proud of you. Unexpected computer projects are trickier than they seem. I miss the sense of accomplishment but not the engineering around other coders’ seriously questionable choices.
Paul in KY
@Lee: Smart dog!
Paul in KY
@trollhattan: People always load random guns at gun shows. Great practical joke!
fidelio
I’m so sorry, Betty. My condolences to you all.
WaterGirl
@? Martin: I like hearing success stories!
I have one question, though. Do you get to be double-proud-and-shit because you get to be proud of yourself and also your kid? It’s really terrific that your son got thrown into the deep end and managed to do so much more than to just get himself over to the side of the pool. I’m sure you are bursting with pride. (in a good way)
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: @? Martin: It’s not paranoid if it involves Flash, which is evil.
WaterGirl
@James E. Powell: I am recording it and plan to let a few episodes pile up and watch them with friends.
I was about to say I haven’t forgiven LOST for the no good, terrible, stupid wrong ending, but I guess that can’t really be the case since I now deny the existence of the last 30 minutes of LOST.
WaterGirl
@? Martin:
I think you’re wrong on that, and I certainly hope you are!
What makes the Macbook Air work as an only computer is its power. I believe you lose that niche if you dumb it down to approach the iPad.
@Steeplejack (tablet): The Macbook Air is still a ton lighter and better than the macbook pro, in my opinion. You should hold them both in your hands before you decide.
If you always sit at a desk the macbook pro would be fine, but I am really a laptop in my lap girl, and the macbook pro is just a different experience than the macbook air if that’s how you work.
WaterGirl
Hey, a new record for me. Five comments at the end of a dead thread, all mine. Yay?
dance around in your bones
@Mary G: I’m at this thread waay late (family party yesterday) but I wanted to tell you how that ‘Older Ladies’ song made me laugh. Thanks for that!
Betty Cracker
Thanks for your kind comments, everyone.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Thanks for the input. I’m a fast touch typist, so I tend to be sitting in a quasi-work position, either at a desk or at the little TV table I have by the cushy chair. I have a Nexus 7 tablet for reading in bed or casual surfing, but I hate to write on it. In that sense, the MBP being slightly heavier than the Air wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me. But your advice is good: next time I’m at Micro Center I’ll fondle both and see how I like them.
jame
Mistah John, you and Miz Betty are just the finest kind of people. That’s why I visit so often.