kerala? some good reading here Narc: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cochin_(1504)

I hear what your saying IG. My SigOther is basically the head cheese for my Mom's company. Some Karen called the county health dept about the lack of mask virtue signaling at the company. The health dept gave her a severe dressing down and threatened her with severe consequences the next time. The health dept is newly empowered with awesome new powers. 'We heard you aren't with the program.' No redress or appeal. The Health Dept is the new Stasi.

HB Beasts!

"How 'bout those Hoosiers! 🍻🍺🍷🥂🍹🏉" Heck Yeah Man!!!

I fall for Narc's link every single time... "What's he got this time?"

Kristen Welker beat Chrissie Wallace's ass in the debate moderator role.

zero emissions by 2025...

Dang Matt! Small world! I worked in the QC department. I think that is what led me to the TRS-80 and my present occupation.

Doh! Jack, I hadn't thought about that expertise angle. I think I'll rewrite my resume tomorrow. When I got done mowing today, really mulching leaves, I found a half case of Upland beer in the garage fridge. Definitely a drop off from my twin bro. I think I'm best off delaying the rewrite till I've resolved that half case,.. `

I'm reading with a smirk, the comments on early coding. I came late to the game after a change in life circumstances. I worked at the largest television assembly plant in the world (Thompson/RCA) that was devastated by outsourcing (Mexico). It was a good job. Thirtyish, newly married, with a mortgage and my first (maybe fav child???... not supposed to say so...) I didn't know what the hell I was gonna do. When we all got shitcanned, Big Bro offered us a new program of retraining. Hardly anyone, especially the older workers, took advantage of it. I did. I had bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 about a year before the big layoff as a hobby, enjoyed it an thought I'd go that route. I quickly found out that like lots of new programs, there weren't many rules. One of the rules, that was later changed I think because of me, was you could take as many credit hours as you wanted as long as your grades were good. I took advantage of that and was soon taking as many classes as I could in Bloomington and commuting to Indianapolis for the others. I got two degrees in two years. I liked factory work, the mechanical aspects of manipulating tools to do things but, I've never looked back. Probably 1990 or so and things were still fairly up in the air for IT. I got a degree for networking and one for coding. I tried coding which I prefered, but made a living in networking. I had a cobol class, I think it was 'Toshiba COBOL' that we ran off floppy disks. A lazy coder, I just wrote stuff till it broke, find the offending line, rewrite 7 times till it worked. My prof was like 'You are spoiled. When I wrote code it was on a card. It had to be perfect because you had to schedule with the gatekeepers at the mainframe and if didn't work you had to wait 3 days to try it again." I thought 'yeah that sucks, but I gotta pc and get to do it 12 times in 6 hours.' He hated my GOTO's to boot! I came into my own in VB6 though, especially in regards to recordsets which led me to sql coding. I was pretty good at it if I don't mind saying so. It's what I'd do if I had didn't have mortgage and tuition payments to worry about. Wound up making a living though by programming Cisco and HP switches, routers and firewalls. Now I don't even get to do that. I code bills for the IT dept, manage others doing the cool stuff and run projects. It's still cooler and pays better than working on the factory line.

"There is also a regional component to it as well, so that there becomes a kind of hierarchy of who you root for. Your team first of course. But if they croak, usually the next team from your region, even if otherwise they are your sworn enemy" My order of things: I.U., Notre Dame, Butler, Ball State, Indiana State, University of Evansville, I.U.P.U.I and Purdue. Things have to get pretty bad before I root for Purdue but, it's happened... Just now getting caught up after a long, hard week at work... It seems like a lot of personal things have happened with peeps on this blog the last two weeks. Best wishes to you all especially MM!

"Mad Jack and Boat B" are ccgirls bro?? Mad Jack is locked out? We need to immediately begin a JOM program to get Mad Jack unlocked.

Amen, GUS!

yeah, hernry, it does suck for him. i was telling him that i felt lucky, cuz we hadn't been hit economically due to covid. that started the torrent. neither could bring themselves to actually say but... they're both voting Trump.

got a chance to catch up with my older bro today. he and his wife came over, picked up me and SigOther and we went to McCormicks Creek State Park and did some hiking. after about 8 miles we stopped and had a picnic lunch. while eating and talking at the picnic table, the talk turned to covid and the impact it was having on peeps. boy, did they unload... truly mid road types, my bro said he's down about $30k since covid hit. she's just found out today that she's about to lose her 10 year job at I.U. cuz she works with foreign students there and... their ain't no foreign students allowed in now? he's retired army but makes a shitload of money doing contract work. goes around the country and tells guard units 'you fucked up cuz you didn't sign that form and your people don't do this, that and the other'. that got killed off due to covid. hail mary pass arrives. a guy he used to work with calls him and says 'hey, i got a contract to do work with senegalese army. you gotta move there and show them how to fill out paperwork. all expenses paid. $100k. you in?' he told them 'hell yeah!' two weeks ago state dept calls him up and says 'no. covid.' they are both done with it and wanna go full sweden.

Spin, Charm and Strangeness? Strangeness affects Charm. Charm modulates Spin. Spin harmonizes Strangeness. Every Vogon knows this.

Had a friend from Harrachov, CZ about 20 years ago. Spoke English, German, Polish and (obviously) Czech fluently. Was passable in French, Italian and Spanish. Learned enough Russian to know when to run across the street quickly when so ordered. Or so she said... I can only speak Americanized English so I took her word for it. Deepest sympathies to all, and it seems like a lot though I can't keep up, who've suffered losses in their life recently.

the military thing that cameltoe said, was calumny...

Instead of pointing with her finger she should work with what worked in the past, put her feet up...

Instead of pointing with her finger, she should go back to what has worked in the past and put her feet up in the air...

Heck Yeah she did Pin, Listen to her voice. She can't sing!

He's holding his own so far...

I read with interest TC's take on McConnell knowing he's playing a weak hand and thus the rush to confirm Barrett. I wouldn't discount that entirely but, I think he's driven by two things: 1. Capture the seat and thus complete his plan of overturning the judiciary and sealing his own legacy. 2. Eliminate one of the prime factors motivating the left, the open seat which they hope to fill. I think number 2 will depress turnout on the left and thus it's a good enough reason in it's own right, and probably the more important. As to the polls, I think they are skewed and a part of the enemedia strategy of depressing the right's turn out. I thought the same thing last time around and believe that was born out by the results.

"You should weld some galvanized steel and breathe deep the fumes, Pin." Did a gig in the early '80's in Dallas, TX welding mobile oil derricks. When things would get a little slow or their were production delays, they'd march us over to another building and have us weld together gas tanks for medium duty trucks that were made from galvanized steel. It was regular arc (stick) welding and reading your words brought back that nauseating smell. A twelve hour shift on that line was heck vs 12 hour shite working in the yard on the derricks.

I'm in the garage knocking back a cold one with my bro watching the brawl. He just said to 'Hell with this...' and turned it to the History Channel. Something about the Playboy Mansion so maybe they'll be some eye candy.