Error message

Deprecated function: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is deprecated in include_once() (line 20 of /home/caucusni/public_html/includes/file.phar.inc).

Open Thread - Friday, August 24, 2018

open thread.jpg
Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage.
- Albert Camus -

How the funk are you?

Don't let the corrupt ruling class get you down. Eat, drink, laugh, love and live! NE14 a party?

Tell them Sila.

Be funkin' irrepressible!

Have a great weekend! The thread is OPEN.

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

Raggedy Ann's picture

Camus is speaking to me - thanks for the excellent quote.

The semester began this week - the campus is alive and active. Makes me feel more lively, as well.

Have a beautiful day and weekend, folks! Pleasantry

up
0 users have voted.

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

NCTim's picture

@Raggedy Ann A front moved through. It is upper 50s, low humidity and clear blue skies. I picked up breakfast pastries, yesterday. Wake and bake, coffee and pastry, on the back deck. Life is good.

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Going to the track in Saratoga today and tomorrow. They have a bunch of "NY bred" stakes races today. Also today two time Triple Crown Winning Trainer Bob Baffert gets awarded the "red jacket" and a display in the "Hall of Fame" at the Saratoga Race Course. Tomorrow they have the 149th running of the Travers Stakes along with six more graded stakes races. There will be many of the best race horses in the world running there on Saturday afternoon. The beauty of Saratoga is that it's still set up mostly the same since the place got started back in the late 1800's. You can see the horses, trainers and jockeys from literally feet away as they saddle up and call for "riders up" in the paddock area. Then walk toddle over 100 yards to the clubhouse (without spilling your drink) to watch the race from that historic building. Went to see Dave Mason and Steve Cropper Rock and Soul Revue at a small theater near me on Wednesday. It was a good show and I can recommend going if they are playing near you. See video below.

up
0 users have voted.
NCTim's picture

@jbob Because I can, is a part of my life philosophy. Along with, not postponing fun. It is not like you have more fun later. The upper Hudson Valley is a pretty area. Hopefully, you also are getting this Autumn tease.

up
0 users have voted.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim I'm not one to shy away from getting out and experiencing the good times. Retirement agrees with me. As a founding member of I.D.O.L. (international dudes of leisure)back when I used to work on rock tours it's easy for me to relax and enjoy life. I've been working hard at relaxing since I told my Father and the Dean of the college of science at R.I.T. to stuff it.

up
0 users have voted.

@jbob Fingers crossed, and heart in my throat! Nothing more gorgeous than young Thoroughbreds, but racing needs some real reform.

up
0 users have voted.
smiley7's picture

conversations with my ski buddies yesterday, we get excited when the wind turns crisp as gliding downhill ain't far away. Smile

Have a great one, Tim, and everyone!

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Manu Dibango. My whole family went funky crazy over Manu Dibango. That was my family's home turf. Great musician. There are some out there, oh my. For example this one, Annie Anzouer. She is a half sister of my son. They did not know of each other and discovered each other only when my former husband died. They still do not know each other, just know that they exist. I exchanged one email in broken french with her (we have both no common language each or us is fluent enough in) C'est la vie. Musical talent comes from somewhere... Smile
[video:https://youtu.be/Nic1Hlo802M]
Who would not want to forget his past, sometimes. She is a little too much on the sexy side for my taste, but helas, c'est la vie. Her musice is dance music and she produced some videos that are too expressive in their sexuality. So much for that. But her voice and rhythm is nice to listen to.

up
0 users have voted.

Same as it ever was, worse.

In terms of enrollment, the district is down from previous years. “We had been trending up in enrollment for four straight years,” said Decker. “Towards the end of the year we were down 40 students. The only thing we can attribute it to is the fires — that’s our guess.”

Really? That's his guess after all the immigration raids, the evictions, the arrests, the continuing move-along harassments, the yuge group of people who went underground or went home? wowz
Tools like Jeremy Decker are a big problem,. I guess he is happy now his Values are winning. There are zero taxable dispensaries and more empty commercial property for sale around here since the last depression, despite what the local "news reporters" a.k.a. CoC (chamber of commerce) stenographers keep printing in the online nooz. I sorta welcome the down cycle that's begun 'cause why not. freedom

Cloverdale schools fail horribly for many reasons, Jeremy Decker is just one. It's no wonder so many parents home school now. Devos is just gas on the fire that Duncan set, I don't blame Trump for continuing Obomber's public private profit push, that's the system.

--- Parks and Wreck
Angel Island ferry provider bows out as bid deadline approaches

One of the conditions of the sample contract says that the passenger load of the first year of the 20-year contract would become the baseline for the rest of the contract, which means if McDonogh’s passenger count dipped below that, she would be responsible to pay out the difference, McGuire said.

“To put salt in the wounds, state parks is expecting millions of upgrades on the Angel Island side and the Tiburon side,” McGuire said. “These are tasks parks has never invested on fixing and now they are passing that responsibility onto the future contract holder. ... This is ludicrous.”

clean up needed on aisle sacramento please
just keep flushing

Yeah I was born at St. Lukes in San Francisco, but my papers say Cove Road Belvedere, because that's where we lived. My dad was a sailor and I grew up in and around water everywhere here. The bays, the lakes, the rivers, the sloughs. I think Sacramento has practically no clue how to run a state anymore, the lobbyists run the D-value show and it is depressing. I'm too poor for retail therapies, so sit and stew until it vents. meh

local state federal
no justice no
peace

up
0 users have voted.

We recently decided to live now and worry about later later, and it is great. We just got back from Stockholm. Had a great time visiting my grandson and getting acquainted with his new home. We are up north at the lake house now, packing up to go home. We travel back and forth between our houses spring through fall, spending 1 - 2 weeks and then swapping locales.

Enjoy your pastries and the last days of summer. I am no fan of fall because to me it only means winter.

up
0 users have voted.

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

enhydra lutris's picture

today.

Eat, drink, laugh, love and live!

Yes! Testify!
Your pastries and coffee sound fabulous, tempts me to drag the tablet out to the patio and do likewise, but the wifi is crap today, which is part of my mental state. Massive overnight upload aborted early 'cause "you have no network connection", sometime right after I went to bed if I guess correctamundo. Brand new back up being sent to brand new cloud package so I cn upgrade to 18.something LTS. Upgrade now postponed dunno how long, and there are only so many days that I can slot the time to sit and babysit an upgrade, grumble, grumble, grumble.

Ah well, Friday is a throw-away day here anyway, so enjoy it and listen to the morning Tim show, good thinking.

Have a great day and weekend.

up
0 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Azazello's picture

@enhydra lutris
Check messages please.

up
0 users have voted.

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

mimi's picture

hmm, found that somewhat interesting:
CIA Whistleblower: John Brennan Is Out For Himself, Not the Resistance
[video:https://youtu.be/B2pTbYqWYos]
"Donald Trump's revoking of ex-CIA Director John Brennan's security clearance has re-ignited a bitter public feud. Ex-CIA torture whistleblower John Kiriakou argues that given Brennan's record and personal ambitions, he is not a trustworthy Resister."
And Brennan said Trump has committed treason, so according to Kiriakou, this would mean Trump deserves the death penalty.
Oh my, I suggest those guys all kill themselves. That would solve a lot of problems.

up
0 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

up
0 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

"Autumn is imminent. No matter how many hot days are yet to come, summer is ending. Make the most of what remains, and start preparing for the next season."

Fall and Spring cleaning may have came to us from Jewish traditions. Before Passover begins, every home must be clear of every spore of yeast (because the Jews planning to escape from Pharaoh after the evening meal did not have time to let their bread rise). Hence, as best as I can tell, we inherited Spring cleaning.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is around September. This is when you clean up anything you messed up during the year, mostly in your spiritual and secular relationships, but including in your home. Did you wrong a friend? Call or write and apologize, maybe even send flowers or butter cookies (in hopes of buttering up him or her) or a loaf of Amish Friendship Bread. https://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/

Those times for heavy cleaning worked out well, even for people who'd never heard of those observances/traditions. Especially before home air conditioning, heading into the warm weather and Summer fun activities with all heavy cleaning recently completed was great timing. Late August, early September is a good time for heavy cleaning as well.

Out go the messes left by Summer fun with the kids (or whomever). Now (with routine cleanings, of course), your home is ready for trick or treaters, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, Samhain and/or Kwazana, so you can focus on the festivities. And, of course, another great (and usually necessary) time for cleaning is the period between Christmas and New Year, so you start the New Year fresh and orderly. (BTW, New Year came to us from Ancient Rome--the day when elected officials started their respective new terms in office.)

All three of those heavy cleaning seasons are great for getting rid of anything you don't want or need in your life, from that stained couch to toxic relationships to bad habits. (I've never been in Italy on New Year's Eve, but I've read that a couch might indeed fly out an upper story window.) Out with the old and in with the new (and, one hopes, the better).

Looked at that way, heavy cleaning becomes something that improves your life and spirit, and therefore seems (I hope) as much as a life improvement exercise as a physical chore. (If you have bank, you could hire people to do the physical cleaning and just focus on eliminating other kinds of trash from your life. Works either way.)

Here's wishing you a great cup of coffee to go with your cider doughnuts.

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

German site instead of the US site to me. It's so enervating. They always think they know better what I want then I myself. Arrogant bastards. I hate Windows. I hate Microsoft. I hate the whole shit online world. Just because I am located in Germany, doesn't mean I want their fucking German edition of everything.

Bye.

up
0 users have voted.

@mimi hi, don't know what version you're running but maybe this page will help you retake some control: Prevent websites from tracking your location, by disabling Geolocation in your browser

Geolocation is a relatively new feature in the recent versions of most browsers. It allows websites to track your physical location, ostensibly, with a view to offer you location related search results, services or options.

You may have noticed that whenever you visit any website which requires access to your location the first time, you will see your browser saying that this website requires access to you location. We have the option to allow or disallow access, but we normally allow this. When you allow access, your IP address, along with your device details, MAC address, etc can be sent. These details are saved in Cookies. Other websites will not be able to access this data – only the website you have given access.

The privacy conscious among you may not want to disclose their physical location. Such users can tell their browsers to deny access by disabling the Geolocation feature. Let us see how to do it in Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera and Firefox web browsers.

GeoIP is to benefit advertisers and spy agencies first and foremost. "Privacy conscious"? wtf kinda wording is that? Never mind. Stupid robot programs delivered via monopoly operating system in the cloud, what could be better? Pitchforks I say, the sharp and pokey kind. Or just get Slackware and LEARN, but that's a whole different trip, yet another obstacle I guess.

And thanks, I had no idea there was a real thing called The Windows Club. good luck

peace

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@eyo @eyo
and my own server. Build my own place like I did in 1994. I have had it with Windows. I may not be able to spell correctly, but I am better in typing something in a command line than guessing what kind of frigging thing a tiny idiotic icon/image is doing. I am not a visual inclined person.

Ah better, I want my typewriter back. Smile

Thanks for your advice and link. I might look into it when I feel better. Since June my knees gave away and are damaged for good. Now I feel older than my age and the climate rollercoaster gives me the rest.

up
0 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

@mimi  
like some people of my generation had with a Harley-Davidson motorbike. Smile

up
0 users have voted.
orlbucfan's picture

Hope this finds everyone well and staying dry. Rec'd!!

up
0 users have voted.

Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.