Steps [continued] 2) Beat the mail through the wood. Step 3) Keep pounding.

b1-66er: The book on my living room table.

Special K: Enjoy.

The audio book narrator is problematic. Jennifer Jason Leigh  sounds like she just woke up and isn't that interested. Major vocal fry. I might return it.

b1: Do.

Buy the paper.

K: Not ebook?

b1: Tell me you either:

•are kidding

  >OR< 

• can't explain the deep cut in the middle of your forehead (along with some line like, "I don't REMEMBER anything happening")

K: I'm not kidding, I was just wondering if you were favoring paper over ebook / Kindle, or saying either was better than audio.

<45 minutes pass>

I returned it. 

b1: I wasn't ignoring you, I was just on my way into Actual Reality...

I WASN'T KIDDING EITHER.

The Spirit of OUaTiH, in case you somehow missed it, is late 60s Hollywood...

Late 60s Hollywood did not have audio books for the casual listener...

... CERTAINLY NOT ON DOWNLOAD...

... Mr. T is SO wrapped out on the general concept, he didn't even have his publisher release the hardback first ON REQUEST...

... He's emulating a drugstore paperback.

At my first job, I sold dozens of those...

Returned many more...

Is the audio book gonna have an ad for Oliver's Story (the compelling sequel to Love Story?)...

Is the fricken audio book goin' to tell you it's "The New Novel Based on the Film?"...

DOES THAT EVEN MAKE SENSE IN AUDIO FORMAT?...

Hell no.

You need to return to the snooty "I used a calculator once and it had a Nixie display" kid you used to be...

You still ARE that guy. You've just wrapped too many decades of AAPL, koolness and Pancake House breakfasts around that kid.

K: Now I get it. Thank you, that makes sense. After all, he's the guy who rediscovers old film technology. 

b1: Get rid of the fricken Special K facade and grasp the Denver Comix Large K...

...(remembering there wasn't even any such thing as Extra Large back then)...

You're gonna thumb that paperback for ten seconds max and realize precisely how right I AM and how wrong you WERE...

Everyone makes mistakes.

Not everyone is willing to admit it...

Fewer still actively correct those errors.

95% of Americans won't step through the door of correction.

Now it's on you to tell us, after reading, of your experience.

(I think I'm gonna start mine tomorrow.

This has been a psychologically hard, but fairly reassuring, day.)

K: I had no idea it was in that classic paperback format. I thought it was the modern, larger style.

Not only am I gonna buy it, I'm gonna go find it at a real store.

b1: NOW THAT'S THE SPIRIT!

K: Seems like it.

b1: All the evidence in the world is, literally, at your fingertips.

You can make a decision better than 85% of the people who're presented EXACTLY the same facts...

BUT those people weren't

A) Crazy Denver Jewish

B) Related to Solid Goldstein¹

C) Raised in a bar

D) Pojo players

¹ as Mark Twain said, "but I repeat myself."

K:I wonder if drug stores are carrying the book. If not, an indy bookstore would be next best.

b1: Those are EXCELLENT choices.

If/when you find one, save the sales receipt,

and use it as your bookmark•

I'm probably better at reading your mood through TXT messages than anyone else in the world...

I can see you, now, truly understand the situation you were in and you've used the K-standards to bail yourself out...

Today you stand tall over the apologetic murmuring pandemic survivors.

I salute you ...

... And look forward to your addled analyses...

...... with or without Muddy Buddies•

K: Right on•

Have you done since before?

Special K: ...I still haven't picked up food since before. 

Just LOOK at that ugly nice thing!

Dear hunter: I define some days as good, only because they weren't bad.... Ya know?

One of my coworkers has a flooded basement....

And his car got smashed by a semi last year...

So... I'm ahead already.

b1-66er: Absolutely.

Really, all days are essentially the same -they are existence on the planet Earth- and you make a choice how to interpret them.

I swear to you at least 3/4 of the people who're angry about things aren't angry at the things...

They're angry at their interpretation of those things.

A peek at the cloaking mechanism of the world of the world in action

Special K: This webcast has a bed of semi-lively dance music under the space announcements. 

It's a choice. Not a good one.

Here, have some Boze, man

Former Meat Man: Went to the Museum of the Rockies today in Bozeman.

It was wonderful.

3 hours was like 5 minutes.

Unbelievable dinosaur bone/ history display.

b1-66er: I'm medium sure I've never even heard of it...

... Please tell me more.

FMM: This museum probably has 95% dinosaur fossils from Montana.  It is on the Smithsonian rotation for some other cool displays also.

One on the Vikings with artifacts from the 7-8 th century.

I'm enamored with history and the development of the Western half of this country.

I grew up in a small town in Western Iowa that was started in 1869.   Only because that's when the train finally made it up to that area.

b1: Yes.

The American West is mostly about either: the rail expansion, or the Mexican withdrawal.

FMM: There were a lot of people there; but a well managed flow.

It is operated by Montana State University.

There was a decent supply of college age kids working that were efficient.

Size matters

Special K:

"Apple is apparently Google's largest customer now, followed by ByteDance (parent company of the TikTok app). Apple holds 8 exabytes of data with Google Cloud, ByteDance is in the region of 500 petabytes — 16x less."

When swyping runs wild

(sent, and corrected by, The Accomplice)

Original: 

He was quiet and snoozy for almost 4 hours. Then in time up Lucy and pissed him off

Should've been:

He was quiet and snoozy for almost 4 hours. Lucy woke up and I passed him off

A Tale of Two Sushis

Denver, CO

A) "Quick casual" office lunch

B) Formal dinner presentation

Pix ©2021 F3mb0th3r3d Productions 

All rights reserved

Used by permission

YEW JUST STOP CALLING ME 'YELLER!'

Suttonhoo: <image>

Image ©2019 HooPix-MYPix!

All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Splendor and the Grass

Former Meat Man: Norris Geyser Basin

Filmed at 626AM today

Yellowstone NP

Possibly THE crown jewel of the US park system.

Pix ©2021, Meatless Productions. All rights reserved, used by permission.

Cells strike out!

Special K: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/health/coronavirus-vaccines-immunity.html

b1-66er: "Immune cells are STILL ORGANIZING to fight the coronavirus months after inoculation..."

THAT'S what happens when you involve New Yorkers.

Slaughtering the idea of concept

b1-67er: How much meditation are you doing?

b1-66er: At least 20 minutes a day. I think my counter said the other day that I've done 88 straight days, something like that...

But it's been longer because it hasn't 'just' been within the HS app...

So, what? 

100 consecutive days.

40 physical hours.

That's right order of magnitude.

I don't remember if I told you...

I started meditating in my last MRI and I wasn't even trying•

I've chased The Dragon, on and off, for three decades and now it's my little frothy cuddle bunny...

... But here's the amazing part:

I was SHOCKED when it happened...

and i didn't even snap out of it...

<oh hmm. Look. I'm meditating. Isn't that odd? 

It's interesting• 

it's curious. 

It passes by me like it's on a moving sidewalk. 

I brush it away like a fleck of dust on the edge of a goblet with a feather duster. 

Now where was nothing? I know it's here someplace. Oh there it ...>

67: Great. The little bit of meditation I've done always took me a long time to get to The State. Like 20-25 minutes. I did have a sense I was getting better at getting there with practice though.

66: Yeah. I couldn't hit The Spot. 

COULD NOT HIT IT•

but I got this tiniest glimpse when I was back at AAPL...

Like a blowing wind briefly cracking a door to the outside in a dark room. 

A peek. Just for a second.

And I got so 'aroused' by the 'event' it IMMEDIATELY went away...

...it's like seeing a cougar across the Saratoga plain in the dust at night...

... just long enough to know it's there...

To know what it is that I'm looking for...

So when I hit the first time on Headspace, I knew what it was...

...I jumped back out of The Space, but tried again, almost immediately, and hit.

67: That's fly fishing.

66: Remarkably similar.

Maybe there're other things like that? 

Like, say, painting?

(...not writing or photography.)

67: There is a story in the works of Lau Tzu where his students are criticizing a town butcher everyone goes to for advice. He tells them the butcher is the real philosopher. The butcher does not try to be a philosopher, he just is one.  

... And a slight bouquet of road tar

K-π: Right now I have cracked open the second of the three fancy non-alcohol drink bottles I bought to celebrate my backgammon win. 

As with the first...I don't like it very much.  This drink is fizzy and fruity but not sweet. More said to contain vinegar, and that is the predominant flavor. 

b1-66er: BAD ONE!

Martinelli's must be the way to go.

Their stuff is so good.

π: I'd much prefer a sparkling grape juice. And that costs $3.00, not $19.99

b1: I suspect badger droppings have a complex flavor as well.

Double Zeros!

MArch: Geez. I keep seeing headlines about that building collapse in Florida. It seems so third world; full of dangerous bribery and poor construction.

It is really fucked up it is happening in the United States. Of all the places this kind of dangerous bullshit could have happened? 

Florida, of course!

All of the buildings inspected by the Building Official have got to be tested now. Someone is/was crooked as fuck, and the only problem is that it was in the 1980s.

I wonder if that evil person is still alive and living in the United States...

b1-66er: It's very strange.

I stayed away from sending it to you because I knew it would be part of a much larger discussion at some point.

It feels very very Bangladesh•

MA: It's the WORST.

b1: It's the darkest side of the capitalism die.

MA: I'm not sure Bangladesh is low enough on the Baksheesh-for-Building-Inspection scale.

It's lower than the third world because "we" don't operate according to those rules.

People are still missing. It's heartbreaking.

b1: They have a weird law in Bangladesh where property tax isn't assessed until a building is finished... So the tops of all their buildings are incomplete.

MA: Somewhere we traveled together had that rule.

b1: What a surprise to be IN that mofo when it started to come down!

You'd have NO IDEA what happened.

MA: It would be hideous. I imagine that ALL structural integrity will be lost. So... all your belongings go down when they implode it.

And...there are other buildings by the same developer.

b1: Oh GEEZ!

MA: It's a mess.

Hi-lo!

b1-66er: Fasting always makes time seem a bit longer.

Special K: Slow fasting. 

Get the dashboard vacuum

Entropy Dave: The Miley Cyrus cover, despite the impressive backing band, seems to me like a very small bag of lint.

The landers with wheel cutters

b1-66er: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/06/nasa-administrator-to-defend-lunar-budget-before-a-skeptical-congress/

b1-67er: Good quick explanation of the politics of funding NASA.  It will be interesting to see how much China comes up in the conversation.

66: Yes.

It'll also be interesting going forward to see how China and Russia get along.

I already know why they want to.

67: I view them politically as different. There is nothing Russia won't do to serve their obvious, and usually stated, purpose. There is nothing China won't do, but they will lie every time about what they are doing and why. I can see them getting along in most things related to screwing with the US. But at some point it seems like it would become a knife fight over something they both want.  

The way you waddle

Kπ: 2π and his spouse gave me this card for Father's Day...

I don't get it.

(Lower 2 images ©2021 Jester Pin  Productions. Used by permission.)

Dude, watch me make this flying leap onto this wall!

b1-66er: The Accomplice waters our cactus from several feet away with buckets having holes in the bottom... 

They:

A) encourage root growth

B) prevent  over watering

But now...

... they provide us with our newest friend.

I guess the tool shed wall isn't as grippy as it looks.

There's lies, damn lies and...

Kπ: The TV news is talking about the danger of Teen traffic-related deaths spiking between the US Memorial and Labor days, stating:

"30% of all teen deaths between 2010 and 2019 occurred during the 100 deadliest days"

(100/365 = 27.3%)...

I'm unimpressed with this 'spike.')

b1-66er: Nice catch.

Great analysis! 

Major Math ATTACKS!

Major Math: <pix>

(Images © 2021 MM Institute -- used by permission)

I am the champion of, uh, something

D4rw1n: I'm the world champion of forgetting how to play games between the times I play them

Tunin' the derailer of the mind

Smokey: I was thinking back on it because within a few years, all the top end mtn bikes were full suspension. But some were truly awful. Trek had two at the time. I think it was the Trek 9500, it was absolutely like riding a bicycle attached to a pogo stick. It launched the rider over the handlebars with style and grace at the slightest bump.  

It looks like it would work.

But it didn't.

Oh my memory is correct. It was the 9500.  

http://classiccycleus.com/home/trek-9500/

Why can I remember worthless stuff like this and not remember important things?  

State of Navalnyness

b1-66er: "Vladimir Putin refuses to guarantee Navalny will survive prison"

b1-67er: Vladimir Putin and every other conscious human cannot assure Navalny's survival 

I'mnotsureexactlywhatyoumean

The Accomplice:

Half bugged

D4rw1n: Zombie cicada (top) showing fungal growth. Non-zombie cicada for comparison 

b1-66er: Are they loud where you are?

D4: At peak last week they were loud enough you had to raise your voice to have a normal conversation outdoors 

Now they're mostly done and the loudest sound is the constant dropping onto the ground as they die 

b1: CRAZY!

did it ever feel 'creepy infestation' to you, or was it always just a weird thing?

Does the 'outbreak' create a smell?

What do you reckon it's like to be a 17 year bug, F-I-N-A-L-L-Y crawl out of the ground only to get zombiefied at your moment of glory?

D4: Raking up magnolia leaves in the front lawn and having a good 20% of the bulk be a mix of live cicadas, dead cicadas and molted exoskeletons felt a tiny bit creepy infestation. And seeing them in their thousands on the street in the same mix also gives that feeling, a bit 

They do have a slight dead flesh odor as they die and decay. Subtle but distinct 

The zombie ending is just the worst. It is such a triumph for the selfish fungus DNA and such a loss for the poor bastard just minding his cicada business of getting it on with other cicadas 

Shot ©2021 D4rp1x

Used by permission

For lunch? A lucky bean!

Radioactive Dave: Your ability to jump to ridiculous conclusions astounds me...

Although KTXT standard format would include an add-on here, there is no follow-up comment to expound on RD's initial astonishment.

The lure of double masking

Special K: "Addison Rae Just Wore Two Bikini Bottoms At Once and Now I Want to Wear Two Bikini Bottoms At Once"

That's not: a pin, a tail, nor a donkey

b1-66er: "Las Vegas man arrested after stabbing dog at bus stop on Las Vegas Strip"

Special K: Originality counts.

Any Flavor you like

b1-66er: "You Should Absolutely Freeze a Baked Sweet Potato Into a Popsicle"

Special K: And now I won't. 

b1: Rabble rouser!

Special K: Fight the power•

<ed: with that we have the second, and most violent appearance yet, of a stance from Special K's 'punctuation arsenal.'>

Sunset

LV, NV

©2021 the Accomplice

used by permission

4 men almost catch bad colds after extreme TXTing

b1-66er: "Woman Who Didn't Exercise for a Year 'Nearly Dies' After Intense Spin Class"

The Instigator: You've turned into a click bait bot

b1: That's what happens when you're unemployed.

What's the closing line from American Beauty?

"You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure; but don't worry...You will, someday."

I love me a good headline.

'Nearly dies' in quotes. Meaning what? She broke down crying while describing the ordeal...

... Or because she'd be electrocuted if she stopped pedaling?

BUT... As you know ALL TOO WELL... I'll cast bell ringers your way... With impunity... Because I'm that kind of guy.

DPRUSA: I nearly died on my spin bike today. Like if my heart rate was another 10 or 20 I'd be a goner. Then realized it was getting hard. 

I stopped pedaling. 

Finished workout. 

Got my coffee.

Showered

Started work.

Viral, I'm telling you.

b1: EXACTLY•

Thank you for playing. 

Full marks.

•••

The Great and Mighty Richardo: I can easily see that happening.  Would it be different than a headline Man Who Races Car Not Driven for Years Nearly Blows Engine?

Fertilizer futures

Special K: One thing I'll miss about the pandemic is people weren't totally focused on buying dumb shit all the time.

Molecule KENO!

b1-66er: "As a giant clock counted down to 12:01 Tuesday morning, crowds cheered the complete reopening of downtown Las Vegas for the first time in more than a year, with live music and no mask or social distancing required."

Stearno: What happens in Vegas, stays aerosolized.

Careful with that air chamber in Eugene

b1-66er: Nice descriptive article.

(Probably old news to you.)

https://jalopnik.com/heres-what-those-big-bulbs-on-semi-trucks-are-1847010546

b1-67er: The salient fact that article leaves out is people get killed trying to take those air chambers apart.  The spring has many hundreds of pounds of spring force in the compressed spring.  If you take the clamp off the outside of the chamber, it will launch the chamber shell at hundreds of miles an hour, destroying everything in its path.  Happens often.

Like a flaming dragon of love...

b1-66er: "Kellogg's Little Debbie Cosmic Brownie Cereal is Now Available"

Ded Hed: Sounds like something from a Stephen King novel. Scary and enticing at the same time 

Build up the wall!

Former Meat Man: Adel, Iowa Brick Works.

[pic ©2021 Corn Fed & Bred -- used by permission]