Screwball

Around here, there is nothing worse than standing behind someone buying 87 thousand dollars worth of lottery tickets - one at a time - and also not sure which one out of a couple of dozen they can choose from - at the only two lines in the gas station. They had trouble with people buying tickets and then scratching them off right on the counter. Even put a sign up. They also drive.

A picture of Mark Fidrych pumping gas would be a treasure, but so was he. It wouldn't be out of character, he had his own business, with trucks as I understand it. I will never forget; after he retired, don't remember how many years later, the Tigs were playing Boston (he lived there at the time) and he spent some time in the radio booth. Don't remember the announcers, maybe Ernie at that time. They said they were going to have him on for a couple of innings. He did, and spent about 5. What a treat that was. He was great. He could have done that too. One of my favorites. I was there the day he made his comeback. Out in the sticks in right field. Place was packed.

In those days we pumped the gas, washed the windshield, and checked the oil and tire pressure if you requested it. Now we get to do all that ourselves while gas has went from .35 cents to over 3 bucks a gallon. I think there are a few states with laws you can't pump your own gas. Oregon was one in 2018 when I was there. Friday and Saturday nights were the best. There was a nigh club just out of town from our station. Lots of girls would stop for gas or cigs on the way to the night club, and they were always dolled up.

We used those coin changers in a gas station. We sold gas, smokes, snacks, etc. Went through our belt and a wad of bills in our shirt pocket. There wasn't a cash register on site. Maybe a calculator inside somewhere. 1973 during the oil embargo we had to ration gas. Shut people off after 1000 gallons a day. They were not HAPPY!!!!! You got really good with one of them and could make change in no time at all. It became a habit you hardly thought about. I often thought it would be fun to put up a table in a mall or on a street corner. Have a money/change drawer and a computer. Computer random generates an amount between 0 and 20 bucks, and a countdown timer set to 10 seconds. Make change in under 10 seconds win 10 bucks. If not, cost you 2 bucks. 10 seconds is enough time. I think you would make money.

From a different angle on the AI stuff. I am working on a history project and need to build a website. There are many "help" type ways you can go. It seems to be very AI intensive, and they try to push it. Give us some details and we build you a website, and it will. I looked at the WIX/Wordpress stuff. Always a button to let AI take over. Mine is simple. It doesn't seem to get that. I spend more time editing the pages. I honestly had a better site with the old 2000 Microsoft Front Page or raw html code. You can also save all Office documents in html format. Used that too. Just playing. So I got curious. I spun up Grok, just for fun. Entirely different thing than a webpage. I posted a picture of a mechanical coin changer and asked AI how to use one. Ten minutes and a bunch of BS answers later that sounded like the same corporate BS I heard for the last 40 years, and it had no idea how to make change. It was entertaining though. Junk in, junk out, same as it's always been. It won't end well.

Are there any guru's here that know html/css/javascript? Trying to make a simple cheap website (almost impossible) without things like Wix. I have one published, but its on notepad level.

Credit Card Delinquencies, Balances, Debt-to-Income, and Credit Limits in Q1 2025: Our Drunken Sailors & their Credit Cards

The above chart goes from 2007ish to when the S&P 500 hit 666.79 low in March of 09 after the swine banksters blew up the world. Think about all the things that have happened over the last 15 years, and the market has only burped a couple of times, while continuing to go up and to the right. Cha-ching. When it blows up the next time the same people will get bailed out and the same people who got ****ed the last time will get ****ed once again. That would be us. The market is an illusion. It is in no way is a measure of our economy - it is a giant scam (has been for a long time for those who paid attention), and will continue to be. That's the rules. We have been turned into a shopping mall with a flag, while they give us easy credit so we can spend money we don't have on **** we don't need. If it weren't for third world **** holes exploiting slave labor and our easy issued credit our world would have blown up long ago. Now we have AI - great! Wall Street loves it. While our tent cities multiply. As Jim Stafford said in the song Wildwood Weed, all good things must come to an end, and we can see that happening. Tick, tick, tick. I'm glad I'm old, you people are ****ed.

I agree, that was a no-brainer. Sad part is, she's probably has the means to make that trade where the average person doesn't. Nice story for a distraction while the real robbery continues unabated and us serfs continue to be ****ed by a rigged system. Didn't even get a kiss. Don't know her wealth, but a gnat on an elephants ass in the big picture. Speaking of the big picture, this is fun to watch. Let's take another look at the chart porn we had above. S&P as of close today, 9 month daily chart. If the above tweet is correct she sold on a Monday. The market went up MTW. Tariff news came out after close on Wednesday that caused the big gap down into Thursday, followed by more mayhem to follow, while we watched support levels and where this might end. The $4953 level came into play, or 600 plus S&P points to the downside. Then the big leak (documented above) on 4/9, and after a little correction in mid April, we are off to the races once again. I wonder when they got back in?

A neighbor and a buddy of mine were at Kent State 55 years ago today. One was a student and the other was in the National Guard. I missed the draft by one year. One year older and I would have been gone as by birthday came out number 8. Kids my age watched many of our buddies go to Nam. Many didn't come home, and many more didn't come home the same. Some suffer to this day the hell they experienced in that stupid war. **** war and the warmongering chicken hawks who profit from the killing machine.

Good riddance. Not sure if Charlie is still there, but he can be gone too. I guess it depends on how you look at it. Buffet built an investing empire, but at the same time old uncle Warren was all about sucking money from whatever way he could. I wish I could find the article from circa 2010 or so on how Buffett got in on the largest wealth transfer in history after the swine banksters blew up the world in 2008/2009. Something like Buffett's bailouts. He's in the big club.

Since corporate ineptness was a topic. I must share this story. Circa 2007, multi-national. The brain trust decided a new way to motivate everyone (since the posters on the wall didn't seem to work) was to give us salary people two paths to prosperity. Management or technical. Chose a path and the yellow brick road is soon to follow. Every year they would chose two of the management path people to attend a "elite" corporate obedience training class - a suckfest if you will. There would be around 20 people with 3 or 4 teachers in an exclusive location, like a retreat, for 16 hours a day over the course of a week. When you graduate, the final sacrifice is walking on hot coals. True story. It gets better. One of the guys we sent, when hailing the greatness of this experience at the next staff meeting told them he just signed up his kid, and paid for it himself. These space cadets are why we have fuel pumps in gas tanks.

People falling down drunk on red BS will believe it. People falling down drunk on blue BS won't believe it. The rest think it doesn't matter, and they are probably right.

On the automotive front. The issues I have been dealing with is like a blast from the past. Back around 2014 I was at a corporate obedience training class at the mothership. Part of the torture to keep our job. The problem I have with my vehicle is a design problem. They don't know how to fix it. Well, they do... Back to school. We spent a day and a half collecting and analyzing data and proved the problem was a design problem. And they were exactly right. Any questions? Yes, matter of fact, I do. From engineering, I agree with you 100 percent. It's going to cost a few million dollars to fix it, maybe more. Problem is, you ain't gonna get it - not in the budget - or the next 8k. Now what are you going to do? Crickets. Send them to customer service where it all goes to die.

Crude oil is under $60 bucks a barrel. Time to fill up the SPR. Moving on, customer service. Maybe this doesn't count as customer service but to the entire ineptitude of corporate America. Converted to fiber optic from the old coax last Saturday. Took my old cable modem back to their store on Tuesday. They open at 10:03. I stood in line. How can I help you? Terminate service. I also want proof of returning the modem. Only took a minute or so. Later that day I get a text telling me to return my modem to the nearest office. I also get an email. Then another email the next day which was a survey on how my service was, to the email account that should no longer work. And of course another, would you like to pay your bill? I think I was a couple of days late turning it in to the billing cycle, so I'm probably gonna get charged for another month.

Nothing like a White Castle just as the sun is starting to come up after a night traveling an hour to a night at the horse races, then a strip club, and about 5 bars in between. Hookers in front of the White Castle. Early 70s. Toledo, Ohio.

Customer service. Nice phrase. Too bad in most cases it doesn't exist. I'm old and spent 35+ years in Office Space - and here we are - I'm not surprised. In the last two months I've dealt with bank problems, car problems, and internet problems. Nazi's all. Piss poor design problems that become unfixable in the auto realm, then the digital world swindlers, then you have the financial wizards of the world who rape us in every way possible. I've just spent 1400 bucks on a problem with my auto, and it's not fixed. According to two different dealers and a service bulletin, my condition is deemed normal per engineering at this time. Exact words given and I have a copy. My engine is overheating, according to the gauge. It never gets into the red or sets off an engine light. But it still gets hot, then goes back down. Not good. They had it for 3 days, send scanner data to the mothership. When they gave it back they told me - this is normal - just don't let it get into the red. WHAT? I then went the OEM route and the comedy was immediate and off the charts dicked up. It's called - you are ****ed. What a world.

Cramer's Mad Money was 2005, but after looking again, I found another creature. Cramer had a show with Larry Kudlow from 2002-2005. Cramer was also frequent guest commentator on CNBC in the late 1990s. So yea, the dickwad has been around longer. Kudlow is another. I used to mute the TV when he came on. He isn't even a good BSer. Truly awful. He was the green shoots guy after the crash of 2008 that made you want to puke.

Jim Cramer.... I had to look it up to see how long he has been in front of a camera and billed as an expert. His Mad Money show started on CNBC in 2005 (Bubblevision). If you were a CNBC junkie, his show came on around 5 or 6 after the markets closed. He had a keypad type thing about the size of a small organ. Maybe a dozen buttons. He would rant and rave slobber then smack the button that said "buy, buy, buy." They even had a link so you could push the buttons from home and play along. I tried to find a link but couldn't find one. Funny ****. So this huckster has been in front of a financial camera for 20 years? And he still is! You can't make this **** up.

In no particular order; Blues Brothers Up in Smoke American Pie Just about anything from Abbot and Costello.

Found this interesting while looking at data from the Port of LA. Goes back quite a ways and I notice the trend upward around the mid-ninety's.

This is a known problem for this model as shown by the date on top. Highlighted in yellow is; Condition - temperature gauge fluctuates at idle or driving. Cause - condition deemed normal by engineering at this time. Normal my ass. They don't know how to fix it and it's been to two different dealerships.

A little search will tell us the Thrilla in Manila in 1975 was an HBO first television network to broadcast a continuous signal via satellite. I remember that fight.

I think so. I remember going to a bowling alley (had to look it up) in 1990 to watch George Foreman and Gerry Cooney. They some somehow got the feed. They were packed.