Gamification!

Adult chores would be better if they were more like World of Warcraft daily quests.

If I could turn in five mown lawns or ten folded laundry baskets for a special title or a pretty hat or a magic sword, life would be way cooler.

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Uh...

Bitching about "data centers" is becoming a bipartisan thing, which I guess is okay, on balance. Still, people are doing so on social media and, uh, I hate to be the one to break it to everyone but Facebook and Blogger are not hosted on a Commodore VIC-20 running in a closet in someone's spare bedroom.

I fear we may have gone a Glonzo too far, gentlemen.

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Happy Independence Day!

A Glorious Fourth by Mort Künstler

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Quickie Range Trip...

Sig SP2022 in a Milt Sparks Summer Special and a P320 XFULL with a tungsten-infused TXG frame* in Dark Star Gear kydex.

Spent a whole fifteen minutes on the range at Marion County Fish & Game yesterday before wilting like steamed broccoli overdone in the microwave.

I had loaded all the magazines ahead of time, and so I was in and out for the amount of time it took me to carry my stuff to the line, snap a picture, ring steel 115 times from 20 yards, carry my gear back to the car, and leave.

I signed in at the clubhouse at 0929 and signed out at 0945, so the actual shootin’ time was… brief. Thermometer in the car read 88 degrees in the shade and the humidity down there on the banks of Eagle Creek is notoriously sticky. Humidity was 90% at the airport, so probably closer to 95% at the range. 

*Those tungsten infused P320 frames are the berries. That thing weighs like a heavy 1911. With that 115gr range ammo, you can just go ham on a steel target making it ring like a telephone, and the gun hardly moves.

Meme Dump!

Friday Memes!

Meme Dump!

Sticky...

The center of this high pressure system was supposed to depart for parts east this evening, so as to cook New Yorkers and denizens of the MidAtlantic seaboard, but apparently it decided to linger in the midwest another day. So tomorrow is going to be a repeat of yesterday, mid nineties and sticky.

The break in the weather has been rolled back to Saturday, with more typical mid-80s returning early next week after a rainy weekend.

This morning's predawn perambulation was in 76℉ and 90% humidity. I wish that 90% humidity felt noticeably different to 95%, but alas it does not.

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Overheard in the Kitchen...

Bobbi is down at one end of the long, narrow galley-style kitchen, putting groceries away.

Me: "While you're down there, can you pass me a Mountain Dew?"

RX: *reaches into refrigerator, grabs can, looks at it dubiously* "'Dirty Mountain Dew'? Mountain Dew with cream soda? That's like the Navy's Army's Air Force."

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Hump Day Meme Dump!

Daily Low

The heat wave is definitely here.

Just before sunrise this morning it was 77℉ and 90% humidity and I'm afraid that's as good as it's going to get today.

I'm gonna try and dip over to the outdoor range just after nine, as soon as morning rush hour's over, to get my shooting in before it gets too swamp-ass hot out there to bother.

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Meme Dump!

Incredibly Bad Idea

Using Polymarket, the world’s largest prediction market platform, they made bets on the fires — how they would grow, how long they would last and how much they would destroy.

Using online prediction markets to place bets on wildfires is basically incentivizing arson. This is like the literal definition of a moral hazard.

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Automotif DCXXX...

A 2019-2024 Bentley Continental GTC. This is the lesser model, with the 542 horsepower twin turbo 4.0L V-8 and not the 6.0L twin turbo W12, which puts out a whopping 650 ponies.

Shot with a Nikon D4 and a 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR zoom lens.

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The Dumbest Timeline...

The Sunday morning political talking head shows were abuzz with the latest rounds of high explosive tag in the Persian Gulf: Iran drones some ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the US retaliates by striking targeting radars and missile & drone storage facilities, then Iran launches missiles at US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain, and we launch more airstrikes on Iran...

Then suddenly this morning, before sunup, the story breaks on the Wall Street Journal's site: "U.S. and Iran Agree to Halt Days of Fighting Over Strait" and it's all over the teewee news this morning.

The vibe here is so obviously "Quick! Before the markets open!" because Wall Street traders have the object permanence of a toddler playing peek-a-boo. "Where'd mommy go? Oh no! Mommy's gone forever!", except in this case mommy is the Iranian ability to interdict traffic in the Strait.

We are entering a new phase of the war where fighting will primarily occur between Friday evening and Monday morning EDT.

Memes for Monday!

Air You Can Wear

Went for my walk around the block this morning just minutes before local sunrise.

Air temperature was 74℉ and the dew point was also 74℉. In other words, the humidity was over 95%.

Rather sticky feeling.

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"I didn't get a harrumph from that guy!"

Happy one hundredth birthday to a true national treasure, Mel Brooks!

Meme Dump!

Tab Clearing...

• If your laptop or phone is getting long in the tooth, the best time to upgrade is three months ago: How the AI boom is driving an inflationary surge in consumer electronic prices.


• The guys with the Roman statue PFPs don't know jack about the classics they claim to love.


• War Films and the Experience of War.

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