Kim made this for me in 2002.
Random shot of my desk. It’s always a complete mess.
In the shot we have a 3D printed Apple in six colors, an AirTag engraved R💀B, a Diet Pepsi, my Visio 1.0 tombstone, a mouse cable, a little red fridge, an empty protein shake box, and some candles in the background. 🤣
Standing guard.
Random, but I haven’t posted a picture of my surgically replaced left knee in a long time. It works so well now and the scar is barely visible. For me it was an excellent decision.
Now I’m waiting for the right one to completely fall apart. 🤣
Our Magnolia is very happy. My Mom had a Magnolia and when I see one I think of her.
It’s beautiful outside today. The current temperature is 86F(30C) but it doesn’t feel that hot in the shade with a slight breeze.
I’m on our back deck enjoying a beer and our beautiful blue sky.
I haven’t had a beer in quite a while. Flying Dog’s Double Dog really hits the spot. Big flavor.
Cheers! 🍻
Doing yard work was not exactly how I wanted to spend my final day of vacation, but here we are, doing yard work.
I want to retire so bad. A week and a couple days off did nothing for my burnout except make me want more time off. 😃
I’m buying a Power Ball ticket next time I’m at the store. 🤣
Kim’s hydrangea is pretty happy.
Random East Coast Observation
In California we lived at the base of the Sierra Nevada. Right behind Exeter sits a hill called Rocky Hill.
In Virginia they would refer to that as a mountain.
We refer to it as a foothill. Those foothills get ever taller as you drive deeper into them until you’re into the Sierra Nevada.
Folks have never been west if hills are mountains to them.
The Sierra Nevada is extremely impressive.
Don’t take that as a slight. It’s what people know growing up here.
The Appalachian’s are also very impressive and I wish I had the stamina and time to hike the entire 2,000+ miles of the Appalachian Trail.
Looks like the cicadas are venturing out. I’ve seen a few now. Mostly a bunch of exuviae laying around outside.
But Kim found this dude outside.
Microsoft Offers Voluntary Retirement
US employees whose combined years of service added to their age totals 70 or more will be eligible for voluntary retirement, and Coleman says this will include “generous company support.” It’s not clear if this is a precursor to more layoffs at Microsoft, but it certainly looks like a method to avoid a bigger round of layoffs ahead of Microsoft’s new financial year in July.
Emphasis is mine. If I’d stayed around Microsoft until now I’d be able to retire. Take my 58 years plus another 30 years of employment (if I’d stayed) and I’d be taking that offer. 😄
My first go round with Visio was in 1993, I left for a spell and returned in May of 1996. Visio was acquired in November of 2001 and I left in August 2003 because I was a remote employee and Microsoft “moved” my job location to Redmond. I took the severance package.
First time seeing one of these in the wild. 😃
Things are starting to get really happy around here.
Beautiful day out. ☀️
Perfect for doing yard work.
Our Dogwood’s are extremely happy.
Ms. Gracie, living her best life.
OMG! My favorite IPA ever is back! 😍
Firestone Walker Double Jack IPA!
Leave the Nazi Bar
Geraldine McKelvie • The Guardian
The global publishing platform Substackis generating revenue from newsletters that promote virulent Nazi ideology, white supremacy and antisemitism, a Guardian investigation has found.
It is the proverbial Nazi bar. I’m glad more publications are talking about this. There are a number of us nobodies out here talking about it and it’s not making a dent in the business or convincing extremely great writers to leave the platform. Even Jewish writers like Robert Reich and Jennifer Rubin remain on the platform. I just don’t get it. It makes me wonder if they’re still using Space Karen’s X platform as well. I wouldn’t know, I’m not there.
Before all the Nazi kerfuffle I read there all the time. They support RSS so it was easy to point Stream at a writer and get their feed. I even subscribed to Michael Beschloss and considered others.
So why is it publications and writers love this platform so much they’ll go against everything they believe? Most of the folks I followed are for decency and democracy and rail against the Trump administration almost every day, but they turn a blind eye to the Nazis sitting at the bar next to them. In the end I’d bet it’s all about the money.
Encourage them to leave if you happen to stumble across this post.
Here are some of the amazing writers I’d love to see abandon the platform.
- The Contrarian - many writers
- The Bulwark - many writers
- Robert Reich
- Steve Beschloss
- Paul Krugman
- Heather Cox Richardson
- Michael McFaul
- Timothy Snyder
- Andrew Weissman
- Michael Moore
- Malcom Nance
- W. Kamau Bell
Another cold morning. This is the lowest I’ve seen the temperature since we move to Virginia in 2019.
Earlier in the week we were expecting negative temperatures. This is a bit better.
Of course Gracie loves it outside and it’s hard to get her back in the house. 🥶
I’ll probably be sharing these over the next few days because it’s cold. 🥶🤣
Murderers and Thugs
⚠️ Before reading any further I’m posting links from writers I really respect who have chosen to use a service that supports and publishes Nazi content. I won’t mention the name here but if you’ve followed me on this blog or on Mastodon you’ve heard me mention it.
I’ve encouraged both of them to leave and find better places to write but I’m a nobody so my begging goes unanswered (by unanswered they don’t interact with their audience much.)
I’ve made a rule not to link to these writers and others as long as they’re using this despicable service but with the murder of Alex Pretti I felt it necessary to ignore my own rule for the moment.
It has been clear for a long time, to anyone willing to see, that the people running the federal government — Trump, Miller, Noem, Bovino and more — are monsters.
He’s coming after all of us who oppose his tyranny and brutality. All of us who defy his dictatorship. All of us who challenge his out-of-control, murderous goons.
Murder. Alex Pretti was murdered in cold blood for what? Filming ICE agents and trying to pick a woman up off the ground.
The man was shot 10 times. If that’s not an intentional act meant to kill him, I don’t know what is.
Our democracy is collapsing. When future generations of Americans and other countrymen write about the Second American Civil War they will name Minneapolis the event that catalyzed Americans to act. To use violence against violence.
Donald J. Trump, you are a thug, racist, pedophile, and rapist. You can now add murderer to that list.
It’s a dark time in the world and to have a once great nation fall this quickly is gut wrenching.
It’s pretty darned cold this morning and the wind definitely doesn’t help.
12F with a feels like of 4F and you can feel every bit of it. 🥶
Coffee with Bug.
My wife brought these home for me a couple weeks back. Boy oh boy are they dangerous! 🤣 Eating one leads to two leads to… You get the picture.
