Homeless people overheard on the way to work

I'm old, I'm fat and I have really bad knees so I get most of my exercise by walking.  I try for 5 miles a day and on weekdays that means a couple miles of it is walking to and from the max stop, I purposefully get off about a mile from the office and take a meandering 1.2 mile path there.  That path takes me through a large number of homeless people sleeping under bridges in little tent camps and in doorways.  (It also involves large numbers of planters that smell strongly of urine but that is another matter).  As I walk my little trail I tend to listen to the people talking around me, mainly to make sure no one is saying, "Hey let's stab that fat guy and take his wallet", and today I overheard a couple gems:

First - two guys pushing shopping carts down the street discussing the best way to get away from the cops after robbing a store - consensus - a bike

Second - Homeless guys packing up his stuff talking to 3 or 4 other homeless guys (I assume, there were a bunch of homeless person shaped lumps on the sidewalk).  "I'm getting out of this neighborhood, it's nothing but blacks and gang rapists now."  I'm not sure what led to that conclusion but since I am too delicate to be gang raped maybe I will find a different path.  His race problems he can deal with on his own.

Anyway that's a typical morning walk, afternoons are different everyone is surly and aggressive so it isn't as much fun to listen.

One of the best TV scenes this year

Yeah I know I'm late here but still, this was one of the two best scenes of TV this year (the other being the chapel scene from the Game of Thrones finale).




The entire season people have been watching Dom and the FBI seemingly out-maneuvered at every turn by f-society and the Dark Army.  Well, not so much.

I have to admit I had given up on this show half way thru season one, but people at work were talking about it so when a marathon came on I recorded the episodes I hadn't watched and caught up on them.  Glad I did just for this.

Part of what makes this scene so great is the music fits perfect




BTW kudos to Sam Esmail who kept everyone so focus on the Tyrell / Elliot / Joanna question for so long people completely missed what Dom was doing.  I was one, mostly, I did say a couple times that I thought the FBI was being underestimated - that when you truly capture the governments attention (not just the passing attention of a couple prosecutors or regulators) the resources they can bring to bear are overwhelming.

My contention has been borne out.  I still see a few holes, such as no White Rose and no Phillip Price on the board, which makes me think their e-coin game (which I still believe is an attempt to bring down the American economy so that China can move in and establish it's own new reserve currency and establish dominion over the contested Pacific areas ala Ghost Fleet and The Mandibles ) will be central to season 3.

Ace calls out the #NeverTrumpers

Which I guess includes me, although, I never swore an oath of fealty or anything, but I have no intention of ever voting for Donald Trump, just as I have no intention of never voting for Hillary Clinton.

So yeah, #NeverTrumper.  
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(and yeah I know he says the post wasn't aimed at people like me - The Losers who don't have enough followers on Twitter to matter to the big shots:

i've been saying the same thing for six months but a lot of people seem determined to up-jump themselves into the high ranks of punditry.

I get people on fucking twitter with 300 followers telling me "Fuck you! No way you're gonna pressure me to change MY mind!"

Um, I'm not talking about you, Unknown Rando.

Then, of course, they get huffily offended when I clarify (though it was clear the first time) that I wasn't talking about them, as they legitimately, honestly have next-to-no-influence, and can honestly claim they don't have any influence.

That's fine dude, I know that I my opinion doesn't count for shit - but here it is anyway.

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Ace says at one point in his diatribe:

Some of us, in short, seem to be attempting to win an election, whereas others are still fixated on winning a fight they had on Twitter.

My question is - Why?

We had this discussion on twitter way back when, Trump was a lifelong Democrat who was friends with Bill and Hillary.  Praised her as someone who would be a good President and strong negotiator with foreign countries.  He has supported gun control in various forms, was pro-abortion until recently, has no room to criticize Bill Clinton on sexual morals.  He was pro-Kelo.  Has been accused of bilking the elderly when he isn't going bankrupt.  He talks about presidential temperament but look at his behavior on twitter and with his campaign staff. And, Oh Yeah, he is both a birther and a 9/11 Truther.

The list goes on.  You can basically go through "The Road to Serfdom" and any characteristic that is ascribed to Hayek's potential fascist dictator you can find in Trump.

For fuck's sake conservative bloggers have been clamoring for years about Obama's dictatorial actions and people like Ace are getting ready to elect some as bad or worse simply because his name isn't Clinton.  Well, that and some promises about immigration that Trump is already backing away from, a list of potential Supreme Court Justices that he pulled out of his ass one Sunday afternoon and some shit talk about anti-globalism when Trump himself is a globalist.

I'm sorry I don't hate America enough (at all really I love this country unlike the shitbirds who are constantly chanting let it burn) to inflict Trump upon on it.  If that means Hillary wins well I blame Ace and his ilk.  They could have taken a principled stand, but they chose not too.  That isn't my fault.  When I asked people to set aside their grudges and vote for McCain or Romney the answer was in many cases a resounding "Fuck You"  well now I am returning it.

edit:  Sorry for some reason a couple of my angrier drafts posted at the same time that I posted this hot mess.  This is the version I intended to post and I deleted the others. (yeah, i know bad form but I stopped caring about that about the time that "conservatives" stopped caring about conservative policies and started just forming a cult-of-personality around carrot-boy.

Stickin' it to the man - Apple hit with $14.5 billion tax bill - What I am reading 8/30/2016

Ars Technica - Apple must pay Ireland $14.5 billion in taxes, rules European Commission -

“This is not a penalty, it is unpaid taxes to be paid,” said Vestager who was scathing about Apple’s activities. “The so-called ‘head office’ did no business. It had no employees, no premises. But under the tax ruling the so-called head office was attributed all the company’s profits for sales throughout Europe Africa, Middle East, and India,” she added.

“Tax rulings cannot endorse a method that fails to reflect economic activity or reality, for that matter,” the commissioner said.

Now see if I was Britain I would set up Northern Ireland as the same sort of tax haven and since they won't be in the EU i would tell them to screw themselves.  But that's just me.

Tech Crunch - France Passes Copyright Law Demanding Royalties For Every Image Search Engines Index Online -

The Disruptive Competition Project is detailing yet another bad copyright law change in Europe -- France, in particular, this time. Called the Freedom of Creation Act, it actually passed a few months ago, but people are just beginning to understand and comprehend the full horror of what's happening. Basically, it will now require any site that indexes images on the internet (i.e., any image search engine) to pay royalties for each image to a collection society.

Everyday I am a little more convinced the Brits made the right choice with Brexit.  I can't wait for the EU to collapse and burn under it's own stupidity. 

Dark Reading - DoD Taps DEF CON Hacker Traits For Cybersecurity Training Program -

So what was Frank DiGiovanni, director of force training in DoD’s Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, doing at DEF CON? “My purpose was to really learn from people who come to DEF CON … Who are they? How do I understand who they are? What motivates them? What sort of attributes” are valuable to the field, the former Air Force officer and pilot who heads overall training policy for the military, says.

DiGiovanni interviewed more than 20 different security industry experts and executives during DEF CON. His main question:  “If you’re going to hire someone to either replace you or eventually be your next cyber Jedi, what are you looking for?”

How about someone who doesn't use the term jedi or ninja?

DiGiovanni compiled a list of attributes for the cyber-Jedi archetype based on his interviews. The ultimate hacker/security expert, he found, has skillsets such as creativity and curiosity, resourcefulness, persistence, and teamwork, for example.

A training exercise spinoff of DEF CON’s famed capture-the-packet (CTP) contest also will become part of the DoD training program. DiGiovanni recruited DEF CON CTP and Wall of Sheep mastermind Brian Markus to repurpose his capture-the-packet technology as a training exercise module. “In October, he will submit to the government a repackaged capture-the-packet training capability for DoD, which is huge,” DiGiovanni says. Also on tap is a capture-the-flag competition, DoD-style, he says.

I get where they are going with this, and I appreciate it, but the problem I see is that this is the DoD.  Once something is written down it is almost impossible to change and everything is reduced to a set of measurable steps - wo what is currently an innovative exercise wil soon become an series of Go / No Go steps and all that creativity etc. that they are talking about will be lost.

CCNA Exam Scheduled

I have let certs lapse for too long and since the current CCNA exam is being retired on 21 Sept I figured I better get this done.  I have been meaning to do this for months and stuff just keeps getting in the way.  now I have to.

I wish they could put this "person" in a cell with Mike Tyson

This guy told a 29 pd, 36 inch tall, 2 year old to put up his hands and take it like a man before punching him so hard it CRUSHED his liver and the boy bled to death.  

Actually after looking at this picture, I'm wrong.  This was absolutely a fair fight. FUCK- what is wrong with the world?

The smell of death surrounds you

So last night its like 100 degrees and I notice this odor - like the creeping stench of death come to claim me.  After checking to make sure I had a pulse I start trying to track it down.

Garbage cans - nope.

Toilets - nope.

Same for fridge, garbage disposal, underwear, etc.

Then i remembered a couple days ago i had mopped the floor and I was thinking maybe the sponge on the mop had gone bad.  Checked it out and yeah it smelled a little wettish but not like the horror that was assaulting my nostrils.    Started pulling stuff out of closets.  looking for some form of dead hooker or small rodent

Finally I open the doors to the closet where the washer and drier would be if I owned one.

Holy shit!

It was like the drain line was venting from the very bowels of hell.

The damn thing must have gone dry and opened up a direct pipeline to Lucifer's asshole.  Fortunately I had a full bottle of bleach so I dumped that down it.  I swear a heard a scream and there was a little puff of brimstone but this morning everything smells springtime fresh.

I have tow plans here - one, of course I am going to refill the pipe - that is one of the reasons for u-bends in drain lines is to trap water and block sewer odors.   two - nerf ball soaked in fabreze in the pipe opening to help mitigate in case things go south again.