TMoney

Happy birthday, Mike! ?

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone! I have a big birthday dinner in San Francisco planned but had to postpone it until March as everyone around here has been struck down by the flu/cold bug that has been going around. We still had to celebrate a little with family so broke out some Cris!

https://www.pbs.org/video/mccarthy-9wui76/ Caught the American Experience on Joe McCarthy over the weekend. Very good, highly recommended! I never knew McCarthy's full story so I found it very enlightening. Not really a war hero, not much of a judge, not much of a senator either until he got the evil idea to throw others directly under the bus to raise his own profile. Like a current politician we all know, McCarthy was a corner-cutting fraud who had no trouble making up his own "alternative facts" whenever he dug himself in to a hole. Also like that certain someone the man lived on the attention of the media. While the Heart people might have been complicit in helping him finger suspected "reds," they all share somewhat in the blame of sensationalizing the man. Once people stopped paying attention to him McCarthy drank himself to death shortly thereafter.

Finally went back and read the WaPo's "Afganistan Papers" series from a few months ago. The first of the 6 can be found here: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/afghanistan-papers/afghanistan-war-confidential-documents/&sa=D&source=hangouts&ust=1579547061878000&usg=AFQjCNGSIbHsOFSr6LkfTRmw0_UJWxkRyA Very sad to read it. What a waste. The blunders by both the Bush and Obama administrations look terrible in hindsight. Governing, particularly in a place like Afghanistan, is really, really hard. Lots of lessons to learn though, #1 being to not start things unless you have a realistic plan on how to finish them.

Got your favorite singer to sing you a special birthday song!

You can't buy this kind of advertising. Sent from his iPhone, naturally.

Not stripping the title from the Astros? That seems unfair to the rest of the teams. They got off easy?

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!

On the difference between the same textbook by the same authors and the same publisher in California and Texas. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/12/us/texas-vs-california-history-textbooks.html No wonder some people lack empathy for people who are different. It is literally scrubbed from their textbooks. This is pathetic, Texas. You should be way better than this.

As far as recommendations go, I have this and it has served me very well since I got it. It isn't fancy but it gets the job done without having a gigantic footprint. https://www.amazon.com/Baratza-Encore-Conical-Coffee-Grinder/dp/B007F183LK/ref=sxin_3_osp20-7b9ffe7e_cov?ascsubtag=7b9ffe7e-af5a-42c1-a420-c5f672be97b6&creativeASIN=B007F183LK&crid=1BTC39MZLV4IT&cv_ct_cx=baratza&cv_ct_id=amzn1.osp.7b9ffe7e-af5a-42c1-a420-c5f672be97b6&cv_ct_pg=search&cv_ct_wn=osp-search&keywords=baratza&linkCode=oas&pd_rd_i=B007F183LK&pd_rd_r=c4d83c6f-8982-44d7-b8ac-a6879cfa4353&pd_rd_w=vhvI0&pd_rd_wg=DL2iK&pf_rd_p=e1262d27-368d-44f1-a337-220e1af8b014&pf_rd_r=9NP35BJB6B4BKK2201XK&qid=1578764978&sprefix=burratz%2Caps%2C201&tag=bestcont06-20

RIP, Neal. Phenomenal talent.

Happy birthday, DJ KD!

Social D... one of my all time guilty-pleasure bands.

Lets close out the last decade and ring in what should be an amazing new one! Onward to the 2020s!

UFO - Strangers in the Night

Masters of Doom by David Kushner This was a fun little read over the holiday break. Some of it I knew, a lot of it I didn't. John Carmack to this day remains one of my idols. Rumor is that it is being adapted to a TV series by USA. I hope they do it. I think a lot of people would enjoy the story of Id's early days.

If the words sound queer and funny to your ear, a little bit jumbled and jivey Sing "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy!" Santa sure took care of me this year! One of the craziest things about re-watching the old seasons on the cusp of 2020 is that back in 1990 no one had cell phones and almost no one in the show uses a computer. How quickly things change. We are getting old!

Spent part of Boxing Day with my guy, Harold Potter.

Toss a coin to your Witcher! Sooooo catchy!

Happy birthday, Esmé’s dad!

Happy birthday!

First two episodes of Netflix's adaptation of "The Witcher" were pretty decent, to my surprise. Yeah, it suffers from a basic cable-esque production budget and basic cable quality writing. Thankfully "The Witcher" has a different, eastern european twist on traditional western high fantasy tropes that make its world fun to inhabit.

Alright, Mr. Pullman. You've intrigued me. Lets see where this series ends. I quite enjoyed the tonal shift in this one. I had wondered what was left to tell in Lyra's world after the first book, but my worries were assuaged. As seems to be the trend, reading these books has destroyed any desire I had to watch the TV show.

I’m hearing there is some swine disease that has resulted in massive amounts of pork losses around the world and is causing chaos in the commodities market. Maybe time to stock up, Grahame?