Open Thread - Friday, June 16, 2017

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Trajectories aren't linear. Life's just a roller coaster. If you're getting a chance to do cool stuff, and it's varied stuff, just enjoy it. I guess I'm a believer in the randomness of life rather than it being a linear trajectory or an arc, a consistent smooth arc, towards anything.
~ Riz Ahmed ~

I have used the last couple of open threads to riff on being ticked off and everything stinks! Lately, I have been low motivation, skipping workouts and letting chores back up. I think my inner adolescent is showing.

The symptoms are induced. I watched a little bit of television and looked at the Internet. Two cesspools of human herding. It is hard to fathom why anybody reports what talking troll XYZ has to say. Give me a funkin' break. Does Newt Gingrich have anything worthwhile to say? Does anybody care what Ann Coulter thinks? Meghan McCain? Megyn Kelly? Some dumb ass pop culture figure? Why Is Everyone on the Internet So Angry?

With a presidential campaign, health care and the gun control debate in the news these days, one can't help getting sucked into the flame wars that are Internet comment threads. But psychologists say this addictive form of vitriolic back and forth should be avoided — or simply censored by online media outlets — because it actually damages society and mental health.

These days, online comments "are extraordinarily aggressive, without resolving anything," said Art Markman, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. "At the end of it you can't possibly feel like anybody heard you. Having a strong emotional experience that doesn't resolve itself in any healthy way can't be a good thing."
If it's so unsatisfying and unhealthy, why do we do it?

I am convinced that most people will never realize they are being herded and manipulated. They even say stupid shit like, "Hard work will get you ahead". Say what? The only people saying that are people who want you to work hard. Will hard work get you a fair labor rate? Paid time off? Sick leave? Quit drinking the Kool-Aid and set yourself free!

The Future of Content Marketing: How People Are Changing the Way They Read, Interact, and Engage With Content

Technology innovation has enabled incredible changes in the human behavior. If we look back just 20 years, we recall huge changes that disrupted the status quo:

In the mid 90’s, access to the internet changed the way people sought and consumed information (and marketers had to grapple with a whole new way of marketing online)
In the early 2000’s, online social networks allowed millions of people to connect with each other (and marketers had to develop playbooks to best engage with the prospects and customers)

In the late 2000’s, smartphones gave the public instant access to everything the internet offered, no matter where they are (and marketers had to ensure their content strategies were mobile-friendly)

Today, HubSpot believes we’re in the beginning of another period of major change -- where a number of innovations and shifts (to AI, bot platforms, voice based search, and further proliferation of video content, coupled with mobile-first consumers coming of age) will have a big impact on how marketers, and businesses in general, get things done.

This report will delve into key shifts we've been observing: Changes in overall browsing behavior, new content consumption preferences, adoption of voice search, and increased viewership of video content. The data in this report reflects our global audience.

Did I mention the Internet is a giant life sucking parasite? Try to get some utility, play some of the music.

Can Internet Usage Result In Depression And Loneliness?

Can Internet usage result in unfavorable consequences, including loneliness and depression? This is a common question among online researchers, according to Joseph Mazer, assistant professor from the Department of Communication Studies at Clemson University.

Research has claimed that different motivating factors to surf online can result in adverse outcomes, because the Internet can end up being overwhelmingly compelling.

Compulsive Internet use (CIU) is a person's incapability to reduce their time spent online, or to stop all together. Excessive Internet use refers to the extent of which individuals believe that the time spent surfing the web is not as much as it really is because they go as far as losing track of time due to their Internet behavior.

The report states that when a person cannot control their time spent online, they may be faced with loneliness, depression, and inadequate time spent talking to other people in person, not just online.

I like stopping by C99 to have an actual social interaction, but I can't allow myself to wade through the Internet morass commenting and sparring. Life is too short to be wasting hours at a keyboard. Anybody want to stop out for a beer? Go for a bike ride? A walk? Up for a 4:20 break? Food truck rodeo? Live and in person! Just funkin' sayin'.

The Internet Is Mostly Bots
More than half of web traffic comes from automated programs—many of them malicious.

Look around you, people of the internet. The bots. They’re everywhere.

Most website visitors aren’t humans, but are instead bots—or, programs built to do automated tasks. They are the worker bees of the internet, and also the henchmen. Some bots help refresh your Facebook feed or figure out how to rank Google search results; other bots impersonate humans and carry out devastating DDoS attacks.

Overall, bots—good and bad—are responsible for 52 percent of web traffic, according to a new report by the security firm Imperva, which issues an annual assessment of bot activity online. The 52-percent stat is significant because it represents a tip of the scales since last year’s report, which found human traffic had overtaken bot traffic for the first time since at least 2012, when Imperva began tracking bot activity online. Now, the latest survey, which is based on an analysis of nearly 17 billion website visits from across 100,000 domains, shows bots are back on top. Not only that, but harmful bots have the edge over helper bots, which were responsible for 29 percent and 23 percent of all web traffic, respectively.

“The most alarming statistic in this report is also the most persistent trend it observes,” writes Igal Zeifman, Imperva’s marketing director, in a blog post about the research. “For the past five years, every third website visitor was an attack bot.”

How to Quit Mindlessly Surfing the Internet and Actually Get Stuff Done

9 pm. A college campus in the Midwest. Rob sits down to study. His inner monologue:

Okay, time to hit the books. I’m really going to get crap done tonight. Let me just sit down here and crack open my giant textbook. Mmmm, interesting, interesting. But I don’t understand this term here on pg. 307. I should look it up on Wikipedia. Okay, got it. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to check my gmail tab before I get back to the book. Oh, Amanda sent me a Facebook message, let me just get on Facebook really quick and write her back. Hey, the Art of Manliness put another article up. And I love pirates! I’ve got to check that out–I’ll just skim it really fast. That was good. I wonder if anything has happened on Facebook since I read the article, let me check that real quick. And I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give the front page of Reddit a fast little scan, and then I’ll get back to studying. Wow, this thread has links to a lot of interesting sites, I’m just going to click on a few…

12:00 am. Textbook is still open to page 307. Rob’s inner monologue:

Arrrrghhh! What happened?

Why Is the Internet So #$!# Distracting!?

Distractions have existed since the beginning of time, but the internet represents an entirely new level of itch. The desire to read Treasure Island and or listen to a radio show exerts a certain pull, but not like the force that keeps you surfing from page to page to page on the internet. Why is this?

Researchers speculate that evolution has wired our brains to be constantly scanning for changes in our environment; if a change is sensed, our minds direct our attention towards that thing. For our primitive ancestors this ability was a safeguard against dangers and predators. In the modern age, that sense has been hijacked by the constant stream of incoming stimuli. “Look, I see a bear!” has become “Look a funny video on Youtube! An interesting article on this news site! A photo of my friend on Facebook….”

So that may be part of it, although it doesn’t quite explain why when you’re siting on the couch reading a book, your mind feels an itch to check your phone or your computer. Indeed, there’s a bigger issue at play here. It used to be thought that the reward centers of our brains only lit up when dealing with basic needs, “primary reinforcers” like food and water…and, of course, those dopamine hard-hitters, drugs. But then experiments found that not only did money, food, and sex also activate these reward centers, even pictures of these things had the same effect. And most recently, an experiment done with monkeys showed that even a little bit of information stimulates our brains’ reward centers. And what is the internet besides a collection of millions of bits of information–hit after dopamine-releasing hit. The internet is really like a giant information slot machine. Every time you surf to a new page, you pull that lever, and wait to see what pops up. Pull the lever. Pull the lever. Pull the lever. Ding-ding-ding-ding. It’s easy to get entranced and lose track of time.

So what’s a man to do? Despite its sort of addicting quality, the internet is an amazing tool that most people absolutely do not want to give up. So you probably don’t want to chuck your laptop out the window, even if you sometimes feel like you do.

You can try to limit your penchant for mindless surfing through sheer willpower alone. But as we’ve discussed, your willpower is a finite resource which is depleted by every choice you have to make. Do you really want to use up your willpower trying to stay off of Reddit, when you really need it to work or study effectively? Instead, simply eliminate the decision of whether or not to screw around on the web from your available choices altogether, without taking a sledge hammer to your computer. Here’s how.

Thankfully, I recognized my slipping into darkness and took evasive action.

I called a couple of the up north motorcycle guys and talked them into riding to AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days. It should be a good trial run for a longer ride.

When I called to stir things up, my buddy Jay mentioned that he was disappointed because there were no Velocettes, at AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days, for the past couple years.

I had to remind him that we started going to AMA Vintage Motorcycle Days over thirty years ago, when we were the young guys. Now, we are the old guys.

Now, I just need to get back after the everyday funk, and avoid wasting time swimming in the cesspool.

That's funkin' it. I will work up the motivation to make tangential comments and drop in some funk.

Have a great weekend!

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riverlover's picture

turn may be a plunge. Internally, I try to maintain an even keel, pointed randomly with the wind. Since I keep suffering hits, by my own body, I have to rethink how I live. And that is traumatic, but I still spend time pondering.

Roadblocks in the way: my PCP office can't remove my sutures (facial) until next week. They should have come out yesterday. My daughter is externing in that office and call BS to no appointments until next week. My finger suture is now infected, she tells me to call this AM with that piece of info. If they are still too busy, she will come over after work and do it herself.

I also will doc shop today for a facial reconstruction person in Syracuse, a larger hospital complex than in Sayre. A slightly closer drive, on interstate not country 2-lane road. I doubt my driving ability still, and daughter works so everything needs to be coordinated. Like I can't have dental work (the price!!) until bones have been stabilized. Sequence, sequence. I can work with this logical schedule. I just want it started.

A new weekend. If I feel less tippy, some plants will go in.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

NCTim's picture

@riverlover ... you do it. Well actually, I do know. You just keep plodding away, because there are no better alternatives. I think mobility issues would really challenge my mental health. Obviously, pain is a quality detractor. I guess the last thing you need is to get sucked into the Internet black hole.

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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 -

orlbucfan's picture

That way I could be of more help. Smile Do you have any Peroxide in your house? Dab it on those infected areas. Peroxide is one of the best killers of deadly small fry aka bacteria. I hope you get those suctures taken out el pronto! Anywho, rec'd!! @riverlover

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

orlbucfan's picture

@orlbucfan

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

Arrow's picture

@orlbucfan I thumbs up practically everything.

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I want a Pony!

riverlover's picture

@orlbucfan Now I can wash my face and see how much blood I can get off. I have bacitracin ointment that neglected to put on the finger. I may be out of H2O2, it works well as a laundry additive to wash away bloodstains. I should know.

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

I never debate, discuss, or argue with anyone on the internet. Total waste of time. If they're a right winger, they're too stupid and fact deprived to even be allowed to use scissors. If they're a Hillarybot, their entitlement is so far up their behind it is blocking blood flow to the brain. I am not either of their keeper, and I don't care what they think. Soon Trump and the GOP will have them all in internment camps, and it won't matter what anyone thinks. To fix anything, it must first break.

Hope your mood picks up. I've been a little funky too.

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

NCTim's picture

@dkmich My funkin' mood? Awhile back, my favorite football team drafted a guy who had the reputation of having a foul disposition. A reporter asked him about it and he said, "I don't have a foul disposition, I just don't take shit from anybody".

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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 -

orlbucfan's picture

jazz fusion tracks!!! I have his LP on the original CTI vinyl. Smile Your OT has a bluesy vibe to it today, so I pulled this tune off YT. Hope everyone likes it. Classic jazz fusion has plenty of funk in it!

https://youtu.be/tcJ4eVVK640 @NCTim

Got back from our PNW ride. It was simply.....astounding. Biker hubby put together a circular route through both OR and WA. We skipped Seattle cos of time constraints. His rental bros came through. We did this one on a 2017 HD Limited 107 w/the water-cooled heads. Hubby got to break this one in, and we did a little over 1000 miles in a week. The countryside is so different from east central FL. It's clean, lush and green. Puget Sound was beyond incredible. We rode a ferry on it to the Olympic Peninsula. The weather was biker perfect. We saw the 21st century windmills. They are YUGE, sleek, and look like 21st century. LOL. They also had no birds around them. The birdkills have been a problem, but they might have solved it. We did mts. Saw a little snow and had to turn around cos the roads were closed due to the weather. The two states have legalized pot as everyone knows on here. Smile The pot/head shops are all over the place, and extremely well-run. We definitely plan a return trip. Didn't hit any air turbulence until we were descending into OIA on the return flight. Figures! Sad Rec'd!! BTW, your avatar pic looks like Frank Zappa in scarf and shades. Smile

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Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.

NCTim's picture

@orlbucfan It sounds like the trip went well. I ran into a gym acquaintance who had left Raleigh early May and recently. They got sleet in Wyoming and pinned down by tornadoes in MS.

Les without Eddie Harris? I tried to go all flute, but had to use a couple of other woodwinds. The Hubert Laws opener just nudged out:

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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's picture

@orlbucfan Creed Taylor, CTI, did to jazz what Phil Spector did to doo wop. Whether is was good or not is a matter of personal taste. I liked George Benson better when prior to CTI.

Done up CTI:

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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 -

Raggedy Ann's picture

Been home this week recovering from a fall, which led to a couple of health issues. Age can be hell, but I intend to make the best of it even though it left me in a funk part of the week. Raggedy Andy took me to the mountains and we camped. Made me feel somewhat better about my situation. Can't let it keep me down. Too much life yet to experience.

Have a beautiful day and weekend, folks! Pleasantry

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"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 @Raggedy Ann ... about your fall. It couldn't be too bad if sleeping on the ground makes it better. I spent last evening rummaging through camping gear, and contemplating how to pack onto the motorcycle. I am seriously considering ditching the Therm-A-Rsst pad and procuing a cot. The cots actually fold up smaller and are more comfortable.

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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 -

Raggedy Ann's picture

@NCTim
Although we had nice mats, which were actually comfortable, a cot is a small step up, which is worth it. Enjoy your travels.

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"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 I got the big one, 30" X 80", with a fitted sheet. Hot weather, just a fleece blanket, instead of sleeping bag. I am looking forward to a campground full of people camping from motorcycles, trailered in show pieces and van campers with old dirt bikes. It is important to make friends with someone who has a cooler.

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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 -

Funkin' Music on Friday mornings!!!
Thanks Tim!
RL, do what you can, when you can. The less you do now, the less you'll be able to do later. Use it or lose it! Keep Love in your heart and your head up and the Bahstahds won't be Able to keep you down. If I was still back east I'd road trip to help out in the yard.
>>>!!!!

peace

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

NCTim's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly Have a great weekend! Monday is coming.

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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 -

enhydra lutris's picture

How can the internet not be bots when a goodly chunk of humankind, like my neighbor to the north, have (d)evolved into bots or near bots themselves?

I find the internet like a forest or semi-remote beach. There is stuff there and the experience is all in what paths you choose to follow. I can blow hours roaming from SchShow to SciShow, jor Numberphile, or some of the good history stuff or gardening tips, etc.

The trick is to avoid the sites that do not convey *real* information and education unless they are the equivalent of a local watering hole, or a place to organize.

Love me some good flute, btw, thanks extra mucho.

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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 --

NCTim's picture

@enhydra lutris Internet: I caught myself consuming the salacious stuff around our reality TV political environment. The capper was when the the guy played shoot 'em up at Republican baseball practise (their work). My reaction was rather apathetic, I just did not care that someone was shooting at members of The House of Representatives. That's not good.

I used the short version of Push Push, which deletes the Duane Allman solo to shorten for radio play.

Con mucho gusto ->

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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 -

mimi's picture

this is so to the point that it made me break my promise to lock myself out from commenting on C99p. I actually planned a hiking trip without laptop and smartphone. But of course I capitulated and found an excuse to continue doing nothing.

I made it for exactly three days and now you come along and speak truth to power our helplessness.

Can Internet Usage Result In Depression And Loneliness?
Big time, of course it does. And you make your compatriotes, who sit beside you, while you are using your laptop, very uncomfortable and unhappy too. When they don't have one and never used the internet and even don't know what an email is (yes, there are still people around like that. A guy who helps in my sisters garden seriously asked me how it works. He couldn't understand how his son could apply for a job by just sending an email application - not understanding what an email does). He comes over to coffee to chat with my elderly sister, they are some happy, funny folks spending time to poke funs and jokes - without the internet. A couple of days ago my laptop was out to repair. I got very nervous. And the garden guy mocked me a couple of days later that I really, really was a cranky, irritated, frustrated awful, wicked step-mom type, so he concluded something is seriously wrong with the internet. If it can make people so cranky, there is something wrong with it, he concluded. Now he is proud he doesn't have to use the internet. (but he realized he can constantly asks me questions, which I don't know how to answer without looking up the stuff on the internet, darnit. The guy is abusing me.) /s Wink

Why is everyone so angry on the internet?
Because it's the shittiest, meanest, most abusive, most frigging intelligent tool to cause anger, hate and faux emotions in the reader, listeners and watchers. It's the most destructive and seductive tool to let your worst side out. That makes me angry and rightfully so. My mission is to fight the internet and destroy it !!! Yes !!!

So what’s a man to do? Despite its sort of addicting quality, the internet is an amazing tool that most people absolutely do not want to give up. So you probably don’t want to chuck your laptop out the window, even if you sometimes feel like you do.

Oh I feel sometimes I should. And when it gets bad, I whine and send a message to JtC and Joe to block me from C99p, because I can't stand my own dependency, moodiness, anger or depression just reading the links in the EB or some essays here. I frigging want to know about it all, but then I hate everything I know after having read it. And even worse, if I don't understand what's right and what's fake, I get even more angry. Reason to go to the madhouse, no?

Well, I am telling you I hate the internet. And the code they write (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, anything) is designed to trap you, they don't let you out, they make you a slave and love doing it, they pretend you have options and choices and know you haven't, so, it is a pure lie, they do everything for you to not find the way out.

You say most people don't realize they are herded or manipulated? I the frigging fuck do. And I hate it. The day the internet gets destroyed I say, Halleluhjah! You know the Hallelujah you can't get on the internet.

[video:https://youtu.be/DinEKqtCDkg][video:https://youtu.be/2FpwjQLZTTs]

See, NCTim, you triggered me with your OT to comment, and I feel lousy that I coudn't resist, broke my own secret pledge to stay away from it and I can't even blame you!!!. Now isn't that unfair?

I promise, I won't come back. I go into garden und will furiously pull out all the weed there is. And there is always weed in my garden growing, the way it does on the internet.

Fuck the internet. Fight the internet. Forget the internet. Forsaken internet - a desert filled with soullessness and shadowy ghosts.

But then... I love it ... too ... a little bit ... here.

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NCTim's picture

@mimi You are interacting with people whom you have grown to know. Here, C99, it is more like the coffee and poking fun, that the other places.

I have been particularly bad about buying motorcycle paraphernalia. Quitting the political soap opera is easy compared to shopping for rain suits, leathers, tents, camping gear, gloves, boots, parts, ... I have to keep telling myself things like,you already have a tent, sleeping bag, boots, long underwear, gloves, duffel bag, ...

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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 -

mimi's picture

@NCTim

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Arrow's picture

Buenos dias todos...

Sunny here today...need to get out more.

I wanted to share this pic. This 'frog' ate the farmers pet shih tzu.

Talk about bio-diversity, And this guy lives in the mountains.

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I want a Pony!

mhagle's picture

. . . trying to do more OTs . . . great articles and then varied conversations.

I just turned 60, but my kids are teenagers. Been interesting to watch them grow up in Internetland. We have homeschooled them in later years because of their dyslexia. Very isolating. Good news is that they are coming out of it slowly.

I pretty much only read c99. Pretty much only post here as well. I feel safe here. Even though the main gardening OT was yesterday, I have to post a pic with a couple of comments.


Most of this I picked in today. Once all the tomatoes are really ripe I will probably be able to freeze about 3 quarts. A little at a time seems to work the best for me. Notice the half eaten tomato? Some local critter has decided it likes tomatoes. Only three so far.

Looking for someone who is an expert on sweet potatoes.

Your motorcycle trip, the bike trip, and camping stories are great to read. And the gardening, and especially the rants. Smile

Have a great weekend everyone!

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Marilyn

"Make dirt, not war." eyo