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Damn, it's proving incredibly difficult cutting around the deck posts. Of course it is also incredibly windy and cold. And unfortunately whoever put the posts in did not care if they were square with the house at all.
I finally got my s*+% together and got the pavers cut around the stupid posts. Fortunately I have two pavers left over.
Edit: Celebratory nudity is to be expected.
an ideal can designed by a mathematician is a sphere
Depends on whether you're talking about a single can or about stacking them. And yes, I spent time with Joel Haas in grad school, so I know these things. (His claim to fame is solving the equal-volume case of the double-bubble problem, which shows the ideal form for two cans of equal volume.)
And how much must it suck to be Impus Major?
His brain's ability to lose information is astonishing. Last semester he was cranking through 2-page university-level physics problems with nary a slip. I thought we were finally around the corner. This semester he's doing terribly in multivariable calculus (a surprisingly easy class) because of a host of dumb simple algebraic mistakes.
Impus Minor? Got 98% on his first calculus midterm in 20 minutes. Last night he confessed that he hadn't been doing homework for weeks, and hadn't ever taken a derivative. So last night we spent a couple of hours going over the basics of derivatives. A. Couple. Of. Hours.
Today he took his midterm on derivatives -- one of the most infamously-difficult midterms offered in lower-division math classes. After ONE DAY of practicing derivatives, he got a 75% on his test. The fact that he passed is mind-blowing.
I remember little of derivatives.
I wasn't taught calculus.
I remember little of derivatives.
I've been told I'm derivative if that helps.
I passed calc 1 eventually.
Having to include calc 2 in coursework was what made going to grad school from maybe to "oh hell no"
Elementary school: Wait till highschool you can pick your classes
Highschool: wait till college you can pick your classes
First two years of college: wait till the last two years you can pick your classes
Last two years Wait till grad school you can pick your class..hey wait where are you going.
Ok it was last 3 years but only because the school wouldn't take requirements from its own satellite campus.
I wasn't taught calculus.
A calculus is a liitle spiky plant that grows in the desert, isn't it?
I wasn't taught calculus.A calculus is a liitle spiky plant that grows in the desert, isn't it?
I thought that it was stuff that accumulated on your teeth...
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Work went weird yesterday. I know I am not meeting my numbers for my group and tptb want me to and are eager to help. But they are asking me to turn an outreach attempt that had been verified with the organization that I was supposed to be working with on this upcoming Monday to a group meeting. I was told this the last 20 minutes of work yesterday. So now I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off to get ready for Monday, and I'm hoping my supervisor has reached out to the organization so that they know that I am actually running a group on Monday instead of just doing outreach. Not liking how this is shaking out. Make no mistake, I still love my job, and I want to get more people in my group. But this is just plain nutty on such short notice. Moreover, there are at least two people who would have been perfect for my group whom have either not been returning my phone calls or I just was not given the contact information for. If tptb are so concerned over me not making my numbers, why come up with a desperate plan of turning an outreach meeting into a regular meeting instead of giving me the contact information for the individuals so I can run a group like normal?
Ugh.
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Well, I managed to get most of the politics out of it, but it's still political enough I'll spoiler it:
Mr. Oliver made 2 critical points:
(1) There have been -0- instances of this occurring.
(2) It makes -0- business sense for drug dealers to hand out massive quantities of an expensive drug to children.
In short, it hasn't happened, and it's almost certainly not going to happen. But it's reported on anyway.
And sure enough, yesterday our house cleaner came over, and she admitted that she was afraid to let her kids go trick-or-treating this year because of the dangers of rainbow Fentanyl. (And yes, she directly named it.)
*SIGH*
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Well, I managed to get most of the politics out of it, but it's still political enough I'll spoiler it:
** spoiler omitted **
Well, as you are, well, old, you should know this is as old as...well, you are. Back when you were my age it was razor blades and poisons, when you were younger than me it was psychedelic substances, when you were a tyke it was something else even more outlandish. It's the usual nonsense.
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Well, as you are, well, old, you should know this is as old as...well, you are. Back when you were my age it was razor blades and poisons, when you were younger than me it was psychedelic substances, when you were a tyke it was something else even more outlandish. It's the usual nonsense.Well, I managed to get most of the politics out of it, but it's still political enough I'll spoiler it:
** spoiler omitted **
And that one all started from some kid's *stepdad* messing with his candy. Not strangers handing it out. But, yes, fearmongering "journalism".
I thought that it was stuff that accumulated on your teeth...I wasn't taught calculus.A calculus is a liitle spiky plant that grows in the desert, isn't it?
I got a great picture with a crested saguaro calculus on my trip to Arizona this week. But sharing pictures here is too convoluted.
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... Going trick or treating just in case!
And that one all started from some kid's *stepdad* messing with his candy. Not strangers handing it out. But, yes, fearmongering "journalism".Well, as you are, well, old, you should know this is as old as...well, you are. Back when you were my age it was razor blades and poisons, when you were younger than me it was psychedelic substances, when you were a tyke it was something else even more outlandish. It's the usual nonsense.Well, I managed to get most of the politics out of it, but it's still political enough I'll spoiler it:
** spoiler omitted **
He wasn't stepdad, as far as I was able to find.
Well, as you are, well, old, you should know this is as old as...well, you are. Back when you were my age it was razor blades and poisons, when you were younger than me it was psychedelic substances, when you were a tyke it was something else even more outlandish. It's the usual nonsense.Well, I managed to get most of the politics out of it, but it's still political enough I'll spoiler it:
** spoiler omitted **
So, yeah, it's been around forever. But the double-whammy of watching a discussion of media alarmism on Monday then having my housekeeper be the first person I've known who was actually going to keep their kids home because of the threat on Thursday really struck me.
You hear about it all the time. But I've raised two kids to adulthood (and thus met many, many parents) without ever personally meeting an adult before who said, "Oh, yes, I'm keeping my kids home this year because it's too dangerous out there this year."
EDIT: And I chose my wording carefully. Yes, I knew parents who would never let their kids go out for fear of such nonsense. But I've never met a parent who cancelled for one specific year before.
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Being old, it's always amazing to watch modern technology at work. Back in the 1970s when I took my first flight alone to Hawaii, my parents escorted me to the gate (this was pre-9/11), then didn't have any way of finding out whether things were OK until my friends' parents got home and called on their land line to tell my parents I was OK.
Impus Major's on his first cross-country flight alone (I keep wanting to call it a "solo flight", but he's not flying the plane, he's just not traveling with anyone else).
- We checked in and printed out his boarding pass at home, so he didn't have to stop at the check-in counter. That's "new".
- I could check all his gates from home so I could write down, "You're at this gate at this airport." I don't know that Impus Minor had that even last year.
- We can text back and forth so I know he got on the plane.
- I can check flight status so I know he arrived safely in Seattle.
Being Impus Major, my serious concern is the connecting flight: He has 50 minutes to debark, find the new gate, and board the plan bound for Washington, D.C. I'm giving him a 20% chance of messing up and missing the connecting flight.
But as he put it, if he misses it and ends up stranded in Seattle, he'll just call up Cool Uncle, get picked up, and spend the weekend jamming in a seaside cabin instead.
EDIT: LOL. And a few minutes after I posted I got a text from him that he's at the correct gate waiting for his group to board, so off to Washington D.C. he goes. Hopefully he won't copy me and wrap a kite string around the Washington Monument with a Man of Questionable Heritage.
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And that one all started from some kid's *stepdad* messing with his candy. Not strangers handing it out. But, yes, fearmongering "journalism".Well, as you are, well, old, you should know this is as old as...well, you are. Back when you were my age it was razor blades and poisons, when you were younger than me it was psychedelic substances, when you were a tyke it was something else even more outlandish. It's the usual nonsense.Well, I managed to get most of the politics out of it, but it's still political enough I'll spoiler it:
** spoiler omitted **
More specifically he poisoned his kid's candy for the life insurance money.
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What I wrote on my truck sheet "I would like a squirrel cannon. Preferably with little parachutes. I don't want to hurt anything, just use it to send a message".
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Dinner today was a constant battle to stop the Purrbarian Brothers leaping up onto the table and stealing Limey's Special Chicken. They're going to have to be quarantined during human mealtimes in future.
More specifically he poisoned his kid's candy for the life insurance money.And that one all started from some kid's *stepdad* messing with his candy. Not strangers handing it out. But, yes, fearmongering "journalism".Well, as you are, well, old, you should know this is as old as...well, you are. Back when you were my age it was razor blades and poisons, when you were younger than me it was psychedelic substances, when you were a tyke it was something else even more outlandish. It's the usual nonsense.Well, I managed to get most of the politics out of it, but it's still political enough I'll spoiler it:
** spoiler omitted **
That's the one. [Lengthy string of expletives redacted.]
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Depends on whether you're talking about a single can or about stacking them.
Stacking them would be the philosophers problem :)
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Stacking them would be the philosophers problem :)Depends on whether you're talking about a single can or about stacking them.
Ouch.
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And now I'm enjoying my afternoon occasionally checking on Impus Major's flight. It's amazing to me that I can see his altitude, air speed, and (very) rough position in real time from my home.
These modern technological wonders...
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And don't hold your breath, but Global Megacorporation may finally be forcing me to play my hand and walk away.
I dealt with years of horrific middle management. I put out courses that were never taught. Proposed new approaches that were never considered. Pointed out all the shortcomings with the process and got nowhere. My first manager quit in frustration. My second manger was laid off in an utterly stupid manner.
And I stuck around through all of it because I'm good at my job, and Global Megacorporation has managed to make me very comfortable doing it. I've been working from home since 2008.
Their new push is to force ALL employees to come to the office 2 days a week. That's 6 hours of commuting a week for me. I have no co-workers within 1000 miles of me. My main technical contacts are on the east coast. So whom, exactly, am I supposed to see at the office to make me so much more efficient at what I do?
It's stupidity. Our productivity skyrocketed when we started working from home. Let us stay unless we WANT to come back. Sheesh. It's not rocket science.
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And now I'm enjoying my afternoon occasionally checking on Impus Major's flight. It's amazing to me that I can see his altitude, air speed, and (very) rough position in real time from my home.
These modern technological wonders...
Are you sure it's Impus Major's flight or Santa Claus? Because I've been fooled by that before.
What I wrote on my truck sheet "I would like a squirrel cannon. Preferably with little parachutes. I don't want to hurt anything, just use it to send a message".
A t shirt cannon should work on the squirrels if you reduce the diameter of the barrel slightly, but the parachutes are going to have to go on the squirrels.
wait, squirrels are the parachute, they can usually hit terminal velocity without injury
And don't hold your breath, but Global Megacorporation may finally be forcing me to play my hand and walk away.
I dealt with years of horrific middle management. I put out courses that were never taught. Proposed new approaches that were never considered. Pointed out all the shortcomings with the process and got nowhere. My first manager quit in frustration. My second manger was laid off in an utterly stupid manner.
And I stuck around through all of it because I'm good at my job, and Global Megacorporation has managed to make me very comfortable doing it. I've been working from home since 2008.
Their new push is to force ALL employees to come to the office 2 days a week. That's 6 hours of commuting a week for me. I have no co-workers within 1000 miles of me. My main technical contacts are on the east coast. So whom, exactly, am I supposed to see at the office to make me so much more efficient at what I do?
It's stupidity. Our productivity skyrocketed when we started working from home. Let us stay unless we WANT to come back. Sheesh. It's not rocket science.
Fallout of change in management? Because from what you told before, they seemed to wise up and allow for full-time work from home.
Or have the same folks who allowed that now deiced that COVID's threat waned and now they can get people back to office?
What I wrote on my truck sheet "I would like a squirrel cannon. Preferably with little parachutes. I don't want to hurt anything, just use it to send a message".A t shirt cannon should work on the squirrels if you reduce the diameter of the barrel slightly, but the parachutes are going to have to go on the squirrels.
wait, squirrels are the parachute, they can usually hit terminal velocity without injury
That might not prevent them from injuries - their ability to hit terminal velocity without injury means their drag balances gravitational acceleration enough to restrict their max falling speed to safe one. If the T-shirt cannon has a higher acceleration than Earth's gravity, a squirrel might still suffer injury if there is direct impact before going into the fall part of the arc.
Maybe you should give them small pillows to absorb the impact from poorly aimed shots that they would later discard to avoid messing up their (anti)aerodynamic profile during the fall?
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Impus Major safely landed in Washington, D.C. without incident and is off to a wedding in Virginia. It's his first time east of Nevada (in the U.S.), so I look forward to hearing his reaction to East Coasters.
He wanted to rent a car. I'm glad he didn't. The last thing the East Coast needs is aggressive young California drivers on their backroads...
Glad he's safe.
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Impus Major safely landed in Washington, D.C. without incident and is off to a wedding in Virginia. It's his first time east of Nevada (in the U.S.), so I look forward to hearing his reaction to East Coasters.
He wanted to rent a car. I'm glad he didn't. The last thing the East Coast needs is aggressive young California drivers on their backroads...
Eh...DC traffic is pretty awful. I don't think one more California driver will make a difference.
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Eh...DC traffic is pretty awful. I don't think one more California driver will make a difference.Impus Major safely landed in Washington, D.C. without incident and is off to a wedding in Virginia. It's his first time east of Nevada (in the U.S.), so I look forward to hearing his reaction to East Coasters.
He wanted to rent a car. I'm glad he didn't. The last thing the East Coast needs is aggressive young California drivers on their backroads...
Nonsense! He can race other California drivers to the back of the traffic jam!
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What I wrote on my truck sheet "I would like a squirrel cannon. Preferably with little parachutes. I don't want to hurt anything, just use it to send a message".A t shirt cannon should work on the squirrels if you reduce the diameter of the barrel slightly, but the parachutes are going to have to go on the squirrels.
wait, squirrels are the parachute, they can usually hit terminal velocity without injury
These are all things the mechanic can figure out, I'm just an ideas man.
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Impus Major safely landed in Washington, D.C. without incident and is off to a wedding in Virginia. It's his first time east of Nevada (in the U.S.), so I look forward to hearing his reaction to East Coasters.
He wanted to rent a car. I'm glad he didn't. The last thing the East Coast needs is aggressive young California drivers on their backroads...
The last thing Impus Major needs is to be a California driver lost on Virginia's back roads.
The last thing the East Coast needs is aggressive young California drivers on their backroads...
I just spent a couple days driving from central Iowa to northeastern New York, and I saw an unusually large number of California license plates along the way. A lot of CA plates around Des Moines as of this summer as well.
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Nonsense! He can race other California drivers to the back of the traffic jam!Eh...DC traffic is pretty awful. I don't think one more California driver will make a difference.Impus Major safely landed in Washington, D.C. without incident and is off to a wedding in Virginia. It's his first time east of Nevada (in the U.S.), so I look forward to hearing his reaction to East Coasters.
He wanted to rent a car. I'm glad he didn't. The last thing the East Coast needs is aggressive young California drivers on their backroads...
I see you've driven in California before.
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Nonsense! He can race other California drivers to the back of the traffic jam!Eh...DC traffic is pretty awful. I don't think one more California driver will make a difference.Impus Major safely landed in Washington, D.C. without incident and is off to a wedding in Virginia. It's his first time east of Nevada (in the U.S.), so I look forward to hearing his reaction to East Coasters.
He wanted to rent a car. I'm glad he didn't. The last thing the East Coast needs is aggressive young California drivers on their backroads...
I see you've driven in California before.
It just so happens I've driven through every major California city plus Sacramento and Bakersfield. And that includes a week driving around LA and a couple of days around San Fran. Plus another week around San Diego.
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A week around san diego is just one lap
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Are you sure it's Impus Major's flight or Santa Claus? Because I've been fooled by that before.And now I'm enjoying my afternoon occasionally checking on Impus Major's flight. It's amazing to me that I can see his altitude, air speed, and (very) rough position in real time from my home.
These modern technological wonders...
This is a Wisconsin thing, is it, where, instead of a jolly old elf in a sleigh, a young man from California ambles down your chimney and fills your stockings with ethically sourced bio-active kombucha?
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This is a Wisconsin thing, is it, where, instead of a jolly old elf in a sleigh, a young man from California ambles down your chimney and fills your stockings with ethically sourced bio-active kombucha?Are you sure it's Impus Major's flight or Santa Claus? Because I've been fooled by that before.And now I'm enjoying my afternoon occasionally checking on Impus Major's flight. It's amazing to me that I can see his altitude, air speed, and (very) rough position in real time from my home.
These modern technological wonders...
The thing about Wisconsin that not everyone knows is EVERYONE has their own method for making kombucha, which they are more than willing to go into excruciating detail if anyone even brings it up.
And yet I still have no idea what it is besides fermented and probably gross.
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It IS fermented and gross.
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Sometimes, I understand corporate business decisions, but they incense me nonetheless.
Having traveled by air extensively both for business and leisure, the single greatest source of irritation isn't screaming kids nor intrusive neighbors; it's carry-on baggage.
Why?
Because no one wants to check their bags, so everyone carries everything they can possibly fit into both arms onto the plane, then they can't manage to stow it in any reasonable time frame, so you end up standing in a crowded, jostling herd of humanity as every single person searches for some place to stow their massive bags. THEN comes the joy of being unable to debark for 10-15 minutes after landing because the same people are now unable to get their bags down in a reasonable time frame.
I always check my bags. It costs me 15-20 minutes. And it saves me SO much grief. If I were to start my own airline, my #1 rule would be "no overhead bins". Anything you carry on is going under the seat in front of you, so it'd better be darned small.
Anyhoo, I tried to check Impus Major's bag for his flight home. Alaska Airlines charges a $30 fee for checked bags. So he's going to be yet another buffoon trying to stuff an overlarge bag into an overhead bin, bumping people around him, delaying the flight, and otherwise being annoying.
When he flew east, he wanted to be a carry-on buffoon but as soon as he was trying to maneuver his bag around the airport, when the flight staff asked, "The plane is too full. Will anyone volunteer to check their bags?", he jumped at the chance, and thus avoided the fee and still enjoyed a bag-free flight.
So, flight customers are incredibly entitled. If you started trying to charge them a fee for carry-ons, they'd revolt. Yet charging a fee for checked bags makes things worse for everyone.
Good job, Alaska. You stink.
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It would be less expensive, faster, safer, better for the environment, and would also ensure that our economic and social ties bind us all together more closely rather in ways akin to how much of western Europe finds common ground, culture, and understanding of one another.
China started doing this on a massive scale in their nation and in I think only the last forty or so years they've already built more rail and public transportation in that time than exist combined everywhere else in the world to IMMENSE economic and personal value to their nation and citizens.
Nobody should have to take a plane ANYWHERE unless they're crossing an ocean or otherwise traveling either to another continent or 4000+ km away.
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** spoiler omitted **
Nobody should have to take a plane ANYWHERE unless they're crossing an ocean or otherwise traveling either to another continent or 4000+ km away.
Can't favorite this one enough. Travel by rail is a joy. Too bad it requires taking an extra week of vacation to do it because the lines are so slow (freight trains get right-of-way over passenger trains and we typically have single tracks across vast spans of the country). My mother and I used to go on our backbacking trips by rail, up to Washington or east to Colorado. Ah, wonderful memories!
EDIT: Not to mention that traveling by rail across Europe is practically a rite of passage for young American college students.
EDIT 2: Technically, Impus Major has to travel over 4000 km, so it fits into the "far enough to need a plane", especially since it's during the school year, but I still miss travel by rail.
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Boy, speaking of politics, I'm starting to fill out my ballot. "Depressing" is too kind of a word for it.
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Fantasy NPC: Glit Flitwibble, Scholar of Gremlins.
Because gnomes.