Screwball

3 hours ago, oblong said:

My family is from the holler in TN. By the time I came along most moved out into regular houses.  As a kid we had one uncle still down there with no electricity or indoor plumbing.  Obviously I hated going there.  Just like you saw in Coal Miner's Daughter.  Now when I go down there I think "that sounds pretty sweet.  Nobody's around".  Later on in the 90's this uncle finally got all of that but he also had a huge satellite dish.  Found out he was a pot grower. Big time.  Once my dad showed me a pot plant he had grown just to see if he could do it.  The FBI got involved with my uncle and I made fun of my folks telling them they probably have a file now given all the trips they made down there.

My mom grew up in the hills of West Virginia, born in 1918. My grampa was into moonshining. As time went on in them thar hills, moonshine and pot were huge cash crops. 🙂

And you didn't want to FAFO with those hillbillies.

28 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Yep. I got rid of my big extension ladders. Anything needing those gets hired out now.

Back in 1984 I lived in the country. We were almost off the grid. Only electric. But I had a TV tower when I bought the house, no antenna. So I put one up. No rotor, we were dirt poor. I could aim it toward Detroit and the Tiger games. The wind would move it and I would have to climb 30 foot up this thing and adjust it while my kids yelled at me from the window by the TV - a little more that way, no, too far. 

I wouldn't trade it for the world.

84... Great year was it not? Had number 3 son born that year (in October no less). His middle name is Allen, after Mr. Trammell. 

Another nice things about the cameras; plan your property to cover the 4 corners, then an extra. You can move it around. I named mine - Rover. If I'm out of town for a day to see the kids, I can put the camera somewhere in the house, usually to watch my crazy cat.

Not that you can do anything about it, but at least you see it hasn't burnt down.

Don't get on a ladder. 🙂

For those not old enough, once you get to a certain point in life, the first thing you want to think about; how can I do this without getting hurt.

Whoever wrote that article is an idiot.

1 hour ago, gehringer_2 said:

SB - how did you power your set up (other than the solar one)?

Mine all run on battery. They record (my choice how long) only when tripped (l can set the sensitivity as well). So when triggered my motion, they kick on for a particular amount of time (like 8 seconds to 30). They work in day or night as they are night vision.

All can be powered by a solar panel but I only use one that way - the one on the garage. This one I can also turn to look any direction if I want. The rest are static. It has a setting to go back to "home" after I move it to see something else. I have not touched it in over a year and it's usually at full power, which you can see from the app on the phone or computer. Other than the last 3 weeks in the winter from hell.

The others are placed where I just take it inside and charge the battery when needed. Depending on how much activity, the time between charges varies. The one I have pointing at the street in front of the house, and my sidewalk, gets the most exposure, so I have to charge it maybe once a month in the summer. Only takes a couple of hours. They have a built in battery that slips off the camera so easy to do.

I love them and have come to feel uncomfortable when one is not working because I'm charging it. They also send a notification to the phone when something triggers it so you know. I live in town and was shocked to see all the animals that go through here. From cats, to rabbits, chipmunks, skunks, possum, raccoons, and even deer. 

For real fun, put one close to the ground somewhere and sit out a dish with food. Entertainment is off the charts. I caught a cat and a racoon who were not in agreement about who's food it was. Or three deer walking through the back yard. Fun stuff.

Also caught a guy one night looking in a vehicle. You can have it trigger an alarm but I don't set it. I can hear the notification on my phone.

I designed and made my own mount for the one on the garage, and the other ones I used some 3D printed mounts so the wind doesn't blow them, instead of screws. Works great. I probably have around 500 bucks in everything. Worth every penny, even though we don't have much crime here in Cornhole.

12 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

The one I'm seeing people talk about today is the commercial for the Ring Doorball Cam.  If you lose your dog/pet, upload a picture of it in the app, then it scans all of your neighbors Ring Cams looking for your dog.  I'm sure you have to opt in to let them use your camera, but **** that.  

Yea, for sure. I have 5 security cameras. None are ring, all off the cloud, and use internal SD card for storage. I can see them from my computer or phone. I would never own a ring. I don't trust them. Then again, I don't trust too much these days.

I have one on the top of my garage that watches my driveway and alley behind the house. It runs on a little solar panel so it is always charged. Well, kind of... It quit working a few days ago. Turns out the winter from hell - with all the snow, ice, and lack of sunshine - didn't keep enough light on the solar panel to keep it charged. This has been a really really ****ty winter. Spit! It froze before it hit the ground.

11 hours ago, Deleterious said:

I didn't watch the game.  But this seems accurate.

When I watch Pistons games, it's ambulance chasing lawyers, gambling, and weight loss.

 

I didn't care about the game but had it on. Kept forgetting to watch the adds so I missed quite a few.  One in particular I remember, I thought was quite creepy. It was a bunch of words on the screen as it changed colors. I kept thinking what the hell is this about. Turns out it was some sort of crypto add. WTF.

36 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I don't know that Trump wants the Post to shut down, necessarily. I think he just wants to make sure that the local paper is on board with him. He can't have a major journalistic institution taking potshots at him from his own backyard.

As for serious reform of media ownership, the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine was the "Big Bang" of media deregulation ("television is just another appliance—it’s a toaster with pictures"), which led to The Telecommunications Act of 1996, the most significant ownership loosening in history. We had those rules for a reason. Now we can clearly see what those reasons were.

Strange, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was signed into law on this very date in 1996. Exactly 30 years ago by pedo Slick Willy Clinton.

27 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I was trained as a statistician, but programming is where I earn most of my money.  Programmers tend not to have much status, but most people are either not good at it or don't like it, so it has kept me employed.  They'll try to replace me with AI some day, but I'm getting close enough to retirement, so it probably won't matter.  Not many use it anymore but FORTRAN is still the best language I ever used.  You could do almost anything mathematical with just 40 different commands and it was so logical.  Some modern languages do some amazing things, but others seem unnecessarily complex.  

I've heard of FORTRAN but never played with it. I guess at the end of the day we are turning all this into zero's and ones. No? 🙂

It's amazing what the computer has done. To think, in...I don't know...1972... I took typing in high school because there were a bunch of girls in the class. I wasn't alone, and probably one of the best things I ever did. Served me quite well over the years.

This kind of stuff fits AI, and we are training it to take our jobs. I'm glad I'm retired. AI is not the answer.

That has to be a tough industry no matter big or small. We are losing the battle around Cornhole and surrounding areas.

I'm not sure what lit a fire under the Casino today (sure wasn't AMZN) but here we are (if it holds - at 50026 as I type this. The VIX is down over %17.

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Right now the AI race is a spending black hole across the M7. Maybe one or two of them will eventually make money at it, the rest will likely never recoup their losses. Which is fine, they can afford them, but a lot of investors will likely be hurt.

Pardon me if I laugh at a bunch of people who lose a ****load on money on stupid investments, or at least not know when to get in and out. Maybe we need more of that. That's kind of how a "market" is suppose to work. Pain is a lesson.

We are just gnats on an elephants ass and don't have much skin in the game compared to the people in the big club who lose millions.

But it will **** up our 401k just the same. 

I got a ball from Tiger stadium in the lower deck in right field off Higgy. I had it in my trophy case until my boys ran out of baseballs.

More on the Mick. This caught my eye. Not that I'm a birds fan, but Jim Palmer was a childhood idol. As were their pitching staff in what, the early 70s when the had 4 twenty game winners. Impressive rather you like it or not. I'll save you hitting a link, I took a screenshot.

The game was much different back then, and played a different way. Mick was a beast. If he was his 68 best, I would sign him tomorrow. Yea, I'm old and nuts. 🙂

I would add Kenny Rogers. He was a master of his craft.

For those who like to read, this just now became available free. It was available on Amazon in various forms. It is the most complete documentation of the Epstein stuff you can find. Quite long and tons of citations. This was written in 2022 and is in two volumes. Author Whitney Webb. 

One Nation Under Blackmail Vols 1 & 2 - Internet Archives

I don't remember the year, but a buddy and me went to a Tiger game. Got there early and went to the entrance where the players came in to see if we could see any of them. The Mick, dressed in a green garb, riding his Kawasaki come driving in and said hi to us. That made our day.

Loved him. RIP Mick.

4 hours ago, Shades of Deivi Cruz said:

I did not have that experience at all. I was a customer for something like 20 years, mostly due to Sunday Ticket. When I cut with them last year, I found it quite easy.  Strangely, I had way more trouble trying to get my parents setup with them. LOL!

Me too, but that wasn't my experience. Good for you. It was truly awful. They got way to expensive, at least where I live, and what I wanted. When the weather got bad it wouldn't work. We finally got fiber so I was out in a heartbeat. Love it. It rocks. My fiber is cheap and I cheat for everything else now. 

On 2/2/2026 at 10:47 PM, gehringer_2 said:

I am not putting an antenna back up on my house. OTOH, I'll be thrilled to dump DirectTV if I can get the Tigers somewhere else.

To the bold - beware. That will be one of the most frustrating and irritating thing you will ever go through. I canceled last year. I was one of the most awful experiences I ever had with a company. They don't want you to leave, so the BS starts, and seemingly never ends. When you are finally done, you will get mailings for months trying to get you back. And phone calls. 

Well, it all comes down to WTF you going to do about it? We ain't voting our way out of this.

But many still think we can. They are delusional.

Are we just figuring this out? We have had the big red white and blue stuffed into us as Carlin so eloquently explained in 1991, known as the American Dream skit. You gotta be asleep to believe it.

35 years when you do the math...

20 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

That rug really tied the room together

What rug?

11 hours ago, oblong said:

Wow. I had no idea. I could have been a bowler?

My ring, middle, and index finger were caught in a door in fifth grade. Next to last day of school.  1984.  Door closed. 30+ stitches. The tip of my middle finger is gone. My ring finger is slightly deformed and I broke the index finger. First few weeks of summer vacation sucked. Certain songs of that era make me think of soaking my hand in some kind of solution while watching MTV.   That middle finger was he’ll playing baseball on cold days if I got jammed. It was numb for 2 innings. 

They could have custom drilled a ball for you. My Saturday consisted of 24 lanes of high school kids. Good for future customers. It was ran by the owners wife. She was everybody's mom. Saturday was also ball drilling day. The guy who drilled balls was behind the counter with me fitting balls for people. They were off work on Saturday so he was busy all day.

One day a guy came in with a bad hand, kind of like yours. I don't remember what happened but his hand/fingers were messed up. He wanted to bowl in a league but couldn't throw a regular house ball due to his fingers. He asked the ball drilling guy (Smut himself) if he could fit and drill him a ball. He told the guy he would try, but couldn't guarantee anything. He said go for it. He spent about a half hour measuring this guys hand and using the fitting ball as best he could. I was helping.

He went to the back and drilled this guy a ball. We turned on a lane so he could give it a try. It worked, and you would think this guy just hit the lottery. He was so happy. He signed up and got to bowl in a league. He was forever thankful. He got to do something he always wanted to do but didn't think he could. It was a neat deal, and if I remember right, they didn't charge him a dime.

Especially one who helps control the money and banking system. There is never only one cockroach. 

Our entire system is controlled by cockroaches. But hey, the markets are at almost all time highs. Giddy up!

1 hour ago, oblong said:

Because of an injury as a kid to my middle finger I can’t grip a bowling ball in the holes without it being painful.  So I just always gripped the ball and chucked it. I’d hit about 150 regularly.  When I was 13 a friend needed me for his league one weekend. I got on some Larry bird 3 point contest groove and had 6 or 7 strikes in a row. 230+.  I shanked the 10th. 

That's interesting. When I learned we put three fingers in the ball. The two middle fingers of whatever hand we threw with. The holes were drilled so we could put the first two knuckles of our finger in the hole. Then another hole for the thumb. I don't remember when, but at some point, they went to the "fingertip" ball. You only put the first knuckle of your finger in the ball. This made the distance between the thumb hole and the fingers longer so you got more leverage to spin the ball - in theory. Probably true.

As the game progressed some quit using the thumb, and only drilled 2 holes in the ball for the fingers. Now, they do a thing even more unorthodox by using both hands to launch the ball in order to get more spin. It's all nuts compared to years ago.

I find this interesting given my background. Sorry for hijacking the baseball thread into a bowling conversation.