31.12.22

It's HOW you say it...

b1-66er: And THIS is how my '22 ends...
All happening as Scorpion Manor is warming from 66 to 70...
The Accomplice is watching 
PIÑATA MASTERS 
on Netflix.
There's a fair amount of high volume Spanish (much of it from children, whom I assume are captives, but may be nothing more than contestants) and LOTS of Accomplice emphasis...
{Example
phone: mmmerrmmerrmerr
A: You're allowed to pull on the rooster chain ONLY ONCE!
}
With these psychological underpinnings, I already know mom's obituary (due to my brother tomorrow) will be UNMATCHED.
WAIT ... BREAKING NEWS
"There's a girl whose family was too poor to have a piñata for her family so ¡SHE HAD TO RELY ON THE ONE FROM LAS POSADAS!"
So there's some deeper empathy in Piñata Masters
<pause pause pause>
"THE SPANISH FOR JELLYFISH IS *MEDUSA*!"
(And then she gestures with a thumb and two fingers pointed DIRECTLY AT ME ... which I can only assume is ASL for "a jellyfish is going to kick YOUR ass.")
Yes yes yes... 
Sociologically we are just ONE STORY away from interpretive dance of this TV show experience.
Lots of chuckling.
 Occasional WHOAs.
... One always hopes the New Year will be better than the last son of a bitch you just went through.
Perhaps this is the cue...
... Or maybe it is now impossible.
[As the most gigantic robin you have EVER seen perches on the newly painted bench outside. 
It. Is. Huge.
Yesterday our yard sculptor said, "I have never even SEEN a robin in the Valley."
Me  <oddly channeling my father, for some unknown reason>
 "Maybe we should feed it."
A: <sneering> "I'm not THAT kind of a bird watcher. That fucker is fat enough already•"
Happy New Year

Special K: FANTASTIC. My fucking year is complete. I'm going back to bed. 

{Accomplice: I did NOT say "fucker." (everything else is reasonably accurate)}

30.12.22

The beauty without...

Smokey: Thought you might get a kick out of this.  My perpetual car.  Still driving the 1999 Toyota 4Runner I had when I started at Danger.  430,000 miles. When it sat parked for 2 years of pandemic working from home, the sun baked the clear coat off it.  Sort of didn't care and at the same time it looked terrible.  So this happened...  

Pic © 2022 Re-nude Industries
All rights reserved
Used by permission

29.12.22

Snore-y White is not a princess either

Special K: I've been doing this for years. I never knew there was a name for it. 

b1-66er: But...
... I've seen you snore doing NSDR.

K: That's sleep, then. 

b1: I KEPT TELLING YOU THAT.
AND YOU have me some crazy Indian answer about "next wave of sleep" 
And "ALL the Yogi Masters of G do it."

K: Your genius is reconfirmed. 
This explains how I used to help the kids with their homework while "sleeping."

23.12.22

The warming view of the cold

Smokey: Sunset on the lake.  Thule fog is across the lake surface.  It has warmed up a bit.  

b1-66er: Gorgeous.

S: Much of the country is suffering big snow and freezing cold and it is warming up here.  I want snow and we are getting 40 degrees with no precipitation 

b1: That's strangely funny.
You've been...
...POLAR VORTEXED!

(Pic © 2022 Springs Smoldering Embers Productions
All rights reserved
Used by permission)

20.12.22

Chrismaryllis

{Color variation differences between 2 bulbs.}

The Accomplice: <pic>

Pic © 2022 Frost Yer Ho-hos pix
All rights reserved.
Used by permission.

16.12.22

Something smells like a lot of fish

b1-66er: https://onemileatatime.com/news/aquarium-berlin-hotel-explodes/

Space Colnel: German engineering?

b1: To me (being ¼ of a world an ocean and a language barrier away) i'd say, "no, or not EXACTLY'...
That thing was massive (world's biggest!), but it was also outdoors in < 0C temps...
Assuming it hasn't been tampered with, I bet it's some kind of structural failure...
It's not the water freezing, for sure... Water has an interesting property, just like everything else, it shrinks, but JUST BEFORE it freezes, it THEN expands (has to do with the way the H molecules align) ...
Chemistry stupes will say that freezing is it, but it's definitely NOT. (Too much water, too much motion... It might even be heated, I don't know.)
If it was IN, my prejudice and bias would just say 'yeah, it's their engineering'...
But DE engineering is a Sharp Precise Good Thing.
Porsche, BMW, Audi, etc...
Sure, all those examples are automotive, but there're others (especially in health and medicine)

SC: It appears to be in the lobby, so I doubt temperature was the issue.

b1: No no no. IT RUNS SEVERAL STORIES IN THE PLAZA SURROUNDED BY THE BUILDING.

SC: So it was outside.   

b1: Yes.
BBC News - Berlin's giant AquaDom hotel aquarium containing 1,500 fish explodes

SC: I missed that when reading the article.

b1:Stupid Yanqui writing, crossed with bad Internet editing.
I thought the same thing when I first read it upon awakening...
The Accomplice had just woken up too and immediately said, "that structure's not inside."
Too much of the architectural statics of that building don't allow something something to be built inside like that.
(of that.)
Hey man, I just woke up from 2nd sleep.
It is SO nice to talk to you, first thing, in real time.

SC:  The BBC states it was in the lobby as well.
Nobody's doing a good job of describing the setup.

b1:  It's a cylindrical building with a big fish tank tube in the center. Something like that.
Google Earth/Maps'll show you (which I haven't used in this case.).
It's in the middle of the structural hotel. With a skylight above.
I'd call this an 'atrium.'
And then, there's THIS...

SC: War zone like footage in Berlin, followed up by what........?   Barbie!   There's some logic here somewhere -- I'm digging for it.   

15.12.22

A light in the darkness

<thread begins 12/12>

Untied Colors: https://neurosciencenews.com/light-therapy-multiple-sclerosis-22057/

b1-66er: You know, my mom chose nights when she started nursing again in the 60s... My dad's drinking had become problematic enough that we needed a solid income...We we're skint enough that we needed the 10¢/hour shift-differential 
The schedule ended up absolutely hammering her ability to sleep anywhere close to dependably (she still doesn't ... 30 years post-work ... And at the age of 92, having been on thyroid medication for 75 YEARS).
Maybe it all means nothin'. 
I read about light therapy in the 80s and was absolutely convinced she needed it.
Like all my other (incessant) health suggestions, she never did anything about it.
Now, I bet she sleeps on the order of 16 hours a day... Never more than 40 minutes at a time.
And then there's me.
MS boy.
The one thing I show, FOR SURE, is fatigue. 
I bet I sleep 8 or 9 hours a day, but in 3 or 4 blocks...
Now, I had not heard about this study.
BUT...
Over time, you've shown that know me ever-better...
Things that:
• are easy to do
• cost relatively little money
• can POTENTIALLY provide long term benefit
I'll do.
And I don't give a good goddamn about whether or not it's psychosomatic or placebo effect or whatever the hell...
That's why I started my diet...
And that (maybe combined with my neuro's recommendation of 4000IU of D?) snapped my blood panel numbers comically perfect...
Suspiciously perfect.
Now sure, this study is an extremely small, not population significant, study...
AND it's coming out of semi-permafrost areas of the planet where people have to worry about polar bears stealing their lutefisk...
BUT IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO TRY...
For US$25 I can get a box delivered to my doorstep TOMORROW that'll let me try it out...
Assuming the Chinese haven't mis-wired the luminous sum bitch, all the hardware should just work...
Who knows?
Maybe it'll be like my mouth taping and I'll see results immediately.
And if not?
AMAZON IS TAKING RETURNS ON IT UNTIL THE END OF NEXT MONTH!
Thank you for keeping an eye out for b1, Mr. UCB.
Monday was BFD (Break Fast Day). 
The most joyous of all days.
Your missive was the cherry on top of the life dessert.
<30 hours later>
b1: Hard news from CO yesterday...
My mom died in the evening.
92.
 She had a good run.
UC:I am very sorry for your loss. Ms. and I are sending our heartfelt condolences, my friend.
b1: Thank you•
<pic of light therapy box>
Tools of the trade have arrived.
<pic of light on>
First use!
(This is the brightest setting of 3.
30 minute exposure.
Set at a slightly off-set angle from 0°[by some other company's recommendation], to prevent "DIRECT" incidence.)
"HAPPY MOOD LAMP helps lift mood and helps fight winter blues, jet lag, shift work and seasonal changes."
(my EMPHASIS)

UC: <HFB pix 1-4>

<Thread ends, 12/15 PM>

13.12.22

The mister gets meaner

b1-66er: <Wombo>

D4rw1n: I like how felony mayhem looks like the set builder for Sesame Street got hired to finish the sets for the Robert Altman / Robin Williams Popeye 

9.12.22

The Manor dons its lights

The Accomplice:

Pic ©2022 Spectrum Ends Pix
All rights reserved
Used by permission

3.12.22

The Apple runs

Special K: I don't remember knowing about this.
"About the same time, the Apple plant in Fountain went into production and soon became the company's largest manufacturing facility, turning out a million power-book and desktop computers a year. It was a state-of-the-art facility that helped the Colorado Springs area attract other high-tech companies."

b1-66er: Yeah. It was a thing for about 3 years.

K: Wow•

b1: I DEFINITELY didn't know about THIS...
'Rectocele. 
In women, fecal incontinence can occur if the rectum protrudes through the vagina. This condition is known as rectocele.'

K: Oh yeah. Everybody knows that one.

b1: That's funny. (And a bit mean.)

K: Agreed.

b1: But I have NEVER EVER¹ said...
Excuse me, but before we have sex (meaning I stick my penis in your vagina), do you have rectocele?

K: Same.

b1: ¹That's not exactly right. This 'one time' I DID ask that, but 'she' said, "I don't have an erector set up on my roof, stupid!"
We stopped talking shortly after that.

K: Good remembering.

b1: The phrase "erector set on the ceiling" kinda sticks with you in that "oh the humanity!" kinda way.

2.12.22

Logical progression of the moment

b1-66er: <Wombo>

Special K: "Oahu residents could be ice skating before Christmas"