Almost British

We are all so lucky we are not British.

After Benedict Arnold was totally screwed over by the new American Government he decided to change teams.  One night he had a secret meeting with Major Andre who, like Washington had spies for the British. 

Since Arnold was in charge of West Point where the colonists kept most of their arms he decided to weaken the fort by sending man out to the fields hunting for food and instead of putting extra men at the weak points spread them all over the fort. 

Then he had a secret meeting with Major Andre to tell him exactly how to defeat the Americans.  Andrew promised to give him 30,000 pounds which Arnold felt was an insult (Arnold was all about money).  He refused to give over the plans.  

Finally they agreed but Andre had to get back to a ship in secret and had to go through colonist  held area in disguise.  He had a loyalist helping him but the loyalist stopped and said from this point on there are "cowboys" that are dangerous and will steal anything and he would go no farther.

WELL - Andre had to get to his ship so he ventured forth through the woods.  

He stumbled upon 3 guys having a meal.  Unbeknownst to him they had just escaped from a prison ship and one was still wearing a red coat from a solder he killed to get off the ship.  Andre see's this red coat and says "Thank God I am safe now" and whips off his blanket showing he is a British officer.  BAD MOVE.  

The plans were relayed and a few weeks later Andre was hung and West Point was saved.  That literally would have won the war for the British.  

 - - - - - - -when I see people posting quotes about the 2nd Amendment and what Washington said about it I just gotta scream. FAKE NEWS.  I'm a revolutionary war geek (I guess) and the number of lies from the alt-right AND the right is amazing.  

This FAKE NEWS is being spread on the internet 

Washington never had that much to do with the Constitution in the first place and the amendment was not part of the original Constitution and was added in 1791 as a way to protect citizens FROM our Government. It was meant to provide more power to state militias, which today are considered the National Guard.

FUN FACT - one day after the Parkland shooting donations to the NRA tripled. Weird.  Nothing the NRA likes more then a good massacre.

One male candidate for school board says Snopes is a liberal propaganda site (he is serious) so what can you believe right?   He also deny's climate change and believes fluoride is just another way for the government to put drugs in you.  Fall River does not put fluoride in their water and according to dentists I have talked too their kids are getting more and more cavities.  Use to be cleaning visits from Fall River, now it's cavities.   And this guy is running for School Board? 

Don't get me started.  (too late?)

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FUN Brewer game to watch yesterday.  MY guys (Galvis and Pirela) did great and "we" still won. Galvis is literally one of the best fielding SS's in MLB and he showed it with a few CRAZY great plays. 

Matt Albers is the paunchy reliever that came in after Hader. I didn't really know him until I looked at what he did in the past - WOW - he was awesome!  In 2016 he had his worst year with a 6.20 ERA, in 2017 he had his best at 1.62.  He's 35 so we shall see.  He's a K artist with a 95 mph fast ball. 

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So we moved some upstairs furniture downstairs and now need more stuff UPSTAIRS (forgot we would need furniture downstairs LOL) so we needed an ottoman.  DJ found a red one from Wayfair and ordered it.    

Didn't see it was ARCTIC Red which is actually orange-ish.  I think I'll have to buy all orange clothing and become one of those orange people that rides his orange bike around. 

GUS the Weather Dog - rain Saturday morning high 42, Sunny Sunday  high of 37. Monday in Milwaukee for the Brewer Opener (which I will be at) tailgating high of 38 and breezy with wind chills about 32ish. . .  Back to Columbus 1-3 inches of Snow on Tuesday 

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My London Porter came in a close 4th place.  Almost 3rd place, just a few points away.  The bottles were a little over carbonated, out of the keg is MUCH better. some comments were

Overall very drinkable. Notes of chocolate.
Decent beer your ancestors nod as you pass
Got some chocolate roast on the nose. Flavor was lacking but a good clean beer.
Pretty good beer. Maybe a little over carbinated. Takes away from mouth feel. 

Have a super great weekend.

Rod 

          

        

IT'S OPENING DAY!!!

One of the best days in the year.    Baseball Prospectus using PECOTA predicts the Brewers will win 83.1 games and end 5 games behind the Cubs.  It's all about the starting pitching for the Brewers and their lack of depth at that position.  The Crew added Dan Jennings yesterday who happens to be on MY SOM team so I know him intimately (in a manly sportsy way). 

Jennings is a lefty who is pretty even vs. RHB and LHB.   He walks a fair number of LHB and will  give up a HR or 2 vs. RHB but he comes from Arizona which is a home run ballpark . . not as HUGE as Miller Park which is a HUGE HUGE home run park, in fact the best home run park for left handed hitters in the majors in the last 3 years. Not so much vs right handed hitters though.  Philadelphia (one of the prettiest ballparks in the majors) and Yankee Stadium are bigger HR parks.     

Wrigley field is the WORST ballpark for home runs vs. left handed hitters . . well according to SOM numbers.  

So the issue for the Brewers will be getting starters to go 6-7 innings. They have a pretty good bullpen IF, they are not tired. 

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I made a cameo appearance at city council last night.  We had to tie up some loose ends with road construction contracts and had a meeting at 6:30.  I was waiting around and literally said to DJ, "I wish these meetings were at 6:00, I hate waiting".   

Phone rings.  "ARE YOU COMING?"  what?  Now?  Meeting is at 6:00 - So I rush to City Hall in time to vote to adjourn.  OOPS!!  

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You know  - gerrymandering is NOT just a GOP thing.  Democrats do it also . . . just not as good as the GOP.   The Supreme Court is hearing arguments from Maryland over illegal Democrat gerrymandering. 

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Congress gave Trump 1.6 BILLION for build a 33 mile wall to connect to a couple other walls.  The problem is it will blow away a butterfly refuge. Typical GOP.  Keep Mexicans out AND kill useless wildlife at the same time. Win win for the GOP.   

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I am the only American who really cannot stand Rosanne.  Never liked her show and she just irritates the hell out of me and that was BEFORE I found out she was a huge Trump supporter.

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Former mayor Crombie took a photo of the Columbus Post Office and I commented that I was almost arrested for taking photos of government facilities.

For instance - I was on the opposite side of the lake in Springfield ILL and was shooting some photos when two Homeland Security vehicles roll up in a screeching stop and asked me what the hell I was doing.  

WELL - I pointed at my camera and tripod and said "I'm taking photos daa! (I didn't say the daa part but did say the rest). I thought it was rather obvious what I was doing (and I wonder why I'm always in trouble).   

I was told to hand over my camera and come downtown.  As luck would have it my mom was with me and she comes up and asks what is going on and it is explained I can't take photos of a power plant. 

WELL - my mom who is always trying to help literally said "what terrorist would bring his mother with him on a mission".   sigh!    THANKS MOM!!  

We talked and I was explaining to him how I loved images of big industry (I do) and pointing to the plnt said "LOOK AT THAT - it's awesome".   The guy then said maybe if I just delete my card I would not have to have my camera taken away.   We talked and then he was telling me how awesome the plant looks at at night!.   YES I said - I googled it and the images on the internet were GREAT.    

after about half an hour of covering my ass (not the first time for THIS photographer) I was allowed to drive off. 

I was also REALLY yelled at when taking photos of Club LeMark in Madison, a biker-ish bar.  The employees asked me to take some photos of the REALLY boring wooden gray square box of a building so I could "do my thing". 

The owner sees me and is just screaming at me as I wait for a sunset.  I had to explain I was from MATC and taking photos of local bars as a project!  He did not appreciate me.  A large canvas image still hangs in the bar. 

Gotta run - have a great Opening day! 

    

Facebook? is that you with my data?

I downloaded all the information Facebook shares to the world and was AMAZED.  One thing was the phone numbers of all my "friends" and every single message I have ever typed since 2008, all there.  Every movie I ever mentioned, every political comment (I only had 1 I think) all there in a giant ZIP file.  Every video, every LIKE post every time I accessed Facebook all there.

here how to get that info.

Go to Facebook.com\settings   you will need your Facebook password (good luck with that)

You will get to this.

In that bottom square click on DOWNLOAD a Copy

and then click the green DOWNLOAD and you will get a ZIP file in about 15 minutes.

To delete all of these data do this

Go into your APP - go to Settings (click the 3 horizontal lines on the bottom right)  and click on Activity log. This contains EVERYTHING you have done on Facebook since the egg of time.  Then just delete EACH ONE, one at a time over and over.  And there you have it. In 90 days it will be gone. (yea, it takes 90 days).

OH - I had 644 messages.  I have many friends and I can see all the friends I have deleted. I have all of my friends (and now - non-friends) emails and phone numbers.

Then there are the apps on your phone.  Ever read what you are agreeing to share?  The Starbucks apps access all of your contacts in your phone and shares phone numbers of all your contacts and all the web pages you have looked at on your phone.  And you agreed to allow this.  Candy Crush shares all of this also . . . because on page 22 of it says it will.    OH - Starbucks also says they can not guarantee all of your information is safe.  SWEET! 

Of course you are all worried now that your credit card is not secure  . . . . as you give a person you have never met your credit card at a restaurant and she (or he) disappears for 10 minutes with it.

OH - one thing - the average person has had the same credit card company for 10 years - have you looked around for better deals?  They are out there.  We get 1% cash back on every purchase (except gas and groceries) if we pay the card on time every month. Free money.

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Real baseball starts tomorrow - the earliest opening day ever and the 1st time in 50 years all teams play on opening day..  The reason is they want to give players 4 more real days off  (as opposed to a day off but traveling 600 miles) in the season.

We all know pre-season stats do not count . . . unless they are so amazing you have to say something. 

Look at Domingo Santana who had a great year for the Brewers last year (offensively). He struck out 25 times in 57 at bats.  BUT that pales for my favorite player (now in the minors)  Ryan Schimpf. Ryan struck out 19 times in 30 at bats and failed to get one hit.

A few other meaningless gems:

Clayton Kershaw - the best pitchers in baseball pitched 21.3 innings and did not give up a run.

Aroldis Chapman a pitcher for the Yankees who's throws a 99 mph change up (to throw batters off his fast ball) recorded 13 outs, 10 of those were strikeouts.

Dan Vogelbach - Seattle - 13 of his 20 hits were for extra bases.  He had a .900 SLG

Reid Brignac - Washington.  Hit .179 but had a .467 OB.  in 45 plate appearances he walked 15 times.

Chris Volstad - ChiSox.  14 scoreless innings, big deal right?  Here is the kicker. He averaged 4.6 pitches PER INNING.

Nate Silver predicts Brewers will win 83 games this year. Seems about right

5Dimes predicts Cubs / Yankees World Series

Bovoda has the Over/Under for the Brewers at 84.5 victories. I think I would take the UNDER(+105)


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So many meetings for City Council coming up - they are busting our butts to get'r done before a new council. Not a bad thing as we have been working a long time on projects and with MAYBE 3 new council members it's best to clean up the loose ends before starting all over.  Road projects and so forth need to be approved.

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Got into a little tiff with an alt-right guy spreading fake news about how the #marchforourlives kids were throwing rocks, giving the finger and smashing windows.  I was told by a friend I was very succinct in my response  . . . . . . . oddly all of my comments were deleted.  The guy has 17,000 followers and the post had over 2000 shares.

If you want to see what the alt-right is doing check out Chuck Callesto.  OH - he says the #marchforourlives was a march AGAINST the 2nd Amendment.

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I'm reading Killing England by Papa Bear Bill O'Reilly.  I love how he writes, not much love for his propaganda politics but the guy can write.  This is my third "Killing" book.  Killing Patton about the cover up of the murder of George Patton and Killing Japan about the Atomic Bomb and this is about the Revolutionary war.

Since I'm watching TURN on Netflix which deals with George Washington's Spies it's interesting to hear more the the background.  Currently I'm nearing the end where the book is looking into Francis Marion (The Patriot staring Mel Gibson). WOW - that dude was something!!  The Swamp Fox was his nick name by the British and he was a REAL pain in the ass.

He used modern guerrilla warfare and maneuver warfare tactics against the British.  Anyway - the movie does a fine job depicting Francis Marion in a movie style way.

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Gus the Weather Dog say's we will turn upside down for a while after today with below average temps as far as the eye can see.  Rain and win Saturday and low 40s to upper 30s for a while.  I think it will be a tad warmer but with the average high about 48 now . . SUCK.

Nuff said

Get your rain gauges out!!

We all know I'm a very private person that likes to keep his inner most thoughts and desires to himself but I have to say this:

No matter how good a Greenbush apple fritter is . . . do not eat half of one in one sitting as it will come back to haunt you a few days . . and night . .  later . . . nuff said.

In other news - I had my first Alfredo in maybe 3 decades Sunday.  We went to Olive Garden to have some "Italian" food and I ordered Chicken Marsala as I always do and . . .they no longer have it.

OH! they have STUFFED Chicken Marsala but that is totally different.  I don't want cheese stuffed inside my chicken so I ordered something else that happened to have alfredo. I have not had this since it was the last meal I had before I caught the flu.  nuff said.

I have this thing where I seem to remember things that involve throwing up.  Desert Storm - Shock and Awe was watched with my head in a bucket.  The house next door to me in Fort Atkinson caught fire . . where was I?  Tossing cookies 100 feet away.  sigh

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Who watched 60 Minutes last night - AMAZING episode about Giannis Antetokounmpo - bravo.  OH - there was that Stormy Daniels thing - WHO CARES.  What consenting adults do is something I could care less about - OH - the cover up part was interesting but seriously.  Sex between to consenting adults?  COME ON. Get over it.  None of my OR YOUR business, they were adults (creepy ones but nevertheless, adults).

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Saw this awesome little home tip for decorating on Facebook

Who would not want a lot of these in your living room or office. I think the Columbus Officesupply.com should have these for sale to spruce up your office and make it a happier place. Maybe decorate council chambers with this little heads. 

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OH - then there is this.

https://youtu.be/2PLC_cBJwk4


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PUT YOUR RAIN GAUGES OUT!

After 20 days on not a drop of rain look for a good dosing tonight (hmmmm - just saw my weather station is not reporting).   Starting around sun down and then a quick warming trend starts culminating on Wednesday when we COULD hit 60 (probably not but there is hope)  followed by a 6 day cooling trend but nothing drastic.

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There is this guy who has hitched rides 2,350 times all around the world and has written a book.  The main thing is he says the easiest place to get a ride is Iran.   Yea - that is NOT on my bucket list is hitch hiking across Iran. 

I've hitch hiked to the west coast twice, never made it.  Got to the mountains and stopped for their beauty.  I always carried a big ass knife with a 6 inch blade with me and only had to get it out once on a ride.  I was near the Dells on my 2nd to last day on an adventure and some dude was getting a little too friendly.

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Remington Outdoor has been making guns for 198 years, filed for bankruptcy yesterday.  Since Trump became President sales have dropped dramatically and with the coming gun regs and young people not wanting to buy guns like the old days . . . . . bye bye.

OH - I'm not anti gun at all - I love them butt here is a time and place for everything and assaults weapons are not needed.  If you feel you need an assault rifle to protect your self perhaps you need to look at your life in general and make some changes. 

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Not sure if you saw it the other night but there was a star just below the moon.  It was gorgeous.  Looking it up on my two star apps "Star Guide" and Starmap" I see it was Aldebaran, a red giant. 

Check this image of how big Aldebaran is compared to our Sun.  GULP.   Get out the SPF 20,000 aldebaran block.

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Got an Android phone? Sucks to be you as Facebook has been tracking your calls and text messages on Androids for the past few years.  Well, you DID give them permission right?  Unless you did not read that part of the permission question before clicking on SURE - go for it button. 

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How's your brackets!  Of the 17 million people entered in ESPNs Tournament Challenge only 83,292 people had Loyola-Chicago reaching the final four.  Of which I have to think 83,000 were ex-Loyala graduates and 292 were just drunk.

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Last week I decided I need to take more notes to remember things that are interesting.  This morning I decided to take BETTER notes as I do not understand the notes I took.

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We are so confused.  I got my Amazon Prime account back after calling Amazon.  They said they have been sending e-mails.  I said - NOPE.  They said did you look in your SPAM folder? I said YUP - nothing.  They said - do a search on Amazon.  I did . . . WAIT - where are all of these being stored? I have like 20 messages. 

I still have no clue where all of these messages are, not SPAM, not INBOX, not TRASH, some secret folder I don't know about? 

Anyway - there is a show on the PBS Masterpiece channel called Jamestown.  VERY VERY interesting. Brought to you by the same team that created Downton Abby.   About woman (called maids) who came to America in the early 1600s. The PROBLEM is that you have to sign up for the channel (like $6) but we can only see episode 1 so far.  Not the rest.

I THINK we have to finished our 1 week free trial???  I have no idea but both of us want to see the next episode.   

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Spent this weekend hanging images on our many walls in The Groove Lounge downstairs.  I ordered a giant metal image to go above our counter top where the sink and kegorator is. We also purchased have a small refrigerator  . . . . FAIL!! 

DJ gets it all out of the box and is ready to put it in it's place  . . BUT WAIT.  the final thing in the instructions says "Not for use under counter".    WHAT - the LAST thing says that? 

Stupid instructions.

This was like a Samsung TV we got that was a total bitch to get out of the box.  I finally get to the instructions that are in the middle of the box.  The first instructions are how to get the TV out of the box.  sigh!  COME ON!!     

OH the image I ordered - oddly I only sold one of these and it's one of my favorites. Should look awesome on metal.  It's one of the first railroad pocket watches and it's nearing 100 years old (the watch, not the image).  The inside is beautiful silver which does not look as wonderful without color.

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FINALLY and of very little interest.  I cam in FIRST PLACE in the Master Qualifying Tournament.  Yet - I get nothing.  The Event was held over three tours and 520 contestants.  I won MY tour with a -25 but the REAL winner had -28.  I do not make the Masters. 

However - the TGCTour Masters will have MUCH faster greens then what I "played" on. 

Have a day.

 

Tear gas, Gus, School board and Facebook

It seems when I come home from a council session I have some sort of energy aurora that gets Gus all whacko. I come home from other meetings and so forth and get a normal over the top dog greeting but after a city council session I come home and he is just CRAZY WILD for about an hour. every time.  odd.

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I'm TRYING to not be so politically toxic on Facebook but GEEZ.  The Wisconsin GOP failed to close the Dark Store Loophole that allows companies like Walgreens and Menards (the big loop holers) to file as much property tax as a closed empty store. This way the citizens of the community are forced to their property taxes and not the corporation.

Again - the GOP screws the citizens and communies to help big business.

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So I'm always looking for a way to make more money and there is a companycalled Canopy Growth, the largest cannabis publicly owned company in the world. They are based in Canada which will legalize cannabis later this year.  This company has been working to secure all the infrastructure from farm to retail.

Last year they were selling at $5.08 a share, spiked to $33.87 and dropped back to a sustainable $25ish now. They have been acquiring all sorts of companies but are now bidding on some weird company, Alcaliber a Spanish morphine maker. WEIRD . . . . . .but then it seems their play is to use that company to enter markets around the world that are legalizing medical cannabis. These pharmaceutical companies also need cannabis to fight the opiate problems by getting people off opiates which cannabis does. 

The worry is that Canada might have too much cannabis once it's legalized so they need to have an outlet to ship medical cannabis to other countries beating America to a free 10s of billions of dollars. The current estimate is Canada will bring in 4.2 to 6.2 billion per year.

HOWEVER - is this a wise move?  Are they like a brewery that is doing great early but are getting over extended because of success?  Maybe.  I think I'll wait a bit because of this bidding war but man, these guys have the right idea. They are acquiring farms,  distribution and retail for a business that is NOT getting smaller but growing amazingly fast.

In America legal cannabis sales are up 33% from 2016 to $9.7 billion. 29 states now are fine with medical cannabis (Wisconsin is not counted as one) and 9 states allow legal recreational cannabis with New Jersey ready to come online.

I doubt Wisconsin will do anything until the old school tea party anti citizen pro big business group get booted.

The estimate is that by 2026 the estimated size of the legal cannabis market will be near $50 BILLION.  How can I reap some of those rewards . . . .  legally.

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I listened to the school board thing last night and one candidate said our schools were good enough for him 50 years ago so why build new schools.

In my anecdotal research in the last 5 years a new school bring up grades because students (who are humans just like adults) are proud of their schools.  Notice how many kids wear Columbus HS clothing.  Being proud of where you work makes you work harder, it's how humans work.  And if you are proud of your school you carry that your entire life. 

It was also found that for some reason better schools also bring less crime in a community.  Happy kids and all that.  There is no real link but it seems to happen a LOT.

Plus if a kid has better grades and a school system has better grades there are better wages (this is a proven fact) and with better wages the city gets more business which brings more taxes into the tax bucket which lower or at least help property taxes.

The male candidate in question believes the problem is teachers and not buildings, says we need to be more strict and get rid of the bad students by placing them . . . .somewhere else?

I 100% disagree with him.       

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OH - I wish our government had this kind of action

https://youtu.be/Sd0b32YuuGw

When you want to postpone a vote (snow mobile ordinance next year?? - one of the reason I'm not running - one more snow mobile meeting and I will shoot myself out of pity - OH - you think I'm kidding about my reason for not running) - just toss some tear gas.


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The amount of people visiting Breitbart last year was about 15 million.  That has been cut in half and is now in the 7.2 million area.  On that note I see I passed the 700,000 pages read at some point a few months ago.  You guys must be bored losers or just monitoring me for indictments.

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Everybody talks about lead in water but there are still 37 million homes in the US covered with lead paint. DO NOT LICK YOUR HOUSE! (I stopped last year)

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Did you know that the first Star Wars toy came out 1 year AFTER the movie?  In fact nobody wanted to make Star War action figures, too risky.  A small company in Cincinnati took on the challenge and the contract called for them getting 95 cents for every dollar sold.  SWEET DEAL!

In fact at Christmas they sold basically an empty box IOU.  Buy the empty box and you were promised to be the first to get the toy.  The empty box was a HUGE HUGE success.

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Speaking of the Republican Party - The number of people born between 1981 and 1996 (37 to 22 years old) who are registered as Republicans is 17%, down 10% from the previous 10 year group.

Gen Xers are leaving the party in droves going from 34% to 25% in the last 10 years.

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FACEBOOK - stop giving away your personal data.  Here is what you HAVE TO DO - follow along with your phone or whatever

Click the 3 horizontal lines on lower the right side and scroll all the way down to the bottom where you fine

SETTINGS - click on it.

go all the way to the bottom again to fine APPS

Clicked on Logged in with Facebook  and be amazed at all the apps

everyone of those will share your information - click on each app and scroll to the bottom and remove. The app is still on your phone but it will not share information with God only knows.

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I'm in a beer competition tonight with a "beer that is beer" London Porter.  Nothing special from what I can tell.  Doubt I will win. What can ya do ???  I guess I can drink it.

Sadly I will miss the candidate forum tonight. Vote TRAXLER, VOTE THEILAN

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Chamber of Commerce only helps themselves, not Columbus

There is no greater way to bring a community together then a public execution

 - General George Washington.

ahhhhhh the good ol days.  I'm reading Killing England and while I'm not a big fan of Bill O'Reilly as he is just a very very good propaganda minister . . .the guy can really write a fantastic book in a style I have never read before.  This is my 3rd "Killing" book.  This one is about the Revolutionary War.

He is turning into one of my top 4 favorite authors behind Cornelius Ryan and the son of my moms dentist Stephen Ambrose and Doug Stanton.

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So I got into a dust up on Facebook over the Columbus Chamber of Commerce who is publishing a downtown map that ONLY shows businesses that pay them $900 a year.  TO ME, that seems shorts sighted and not helping Columbus as a whole.  They advertise ONLY their business with a map that shows 1/3 of all the downtown businesses and empty spaces for the rest so it tells people there is not much business in Columbus.  this map hurts Columbus more then helps.

Why help ALL of Columbus when you only have to help a small amount and STILL get $900 from each business.  The map will bring in an extra 100 people in the summer instead of an extra 1000.  Short sighted and not looking at the LONG game IN MY VIEW.

A for profit organization who's goal is not to help the City of Columbus at all, but to help only THEIR business and screw all other businesses.  NOT! a team player in our town. 

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We watched iTonya this past weekend - This was one of the best, funniest, most thought provoking movies I have seen in a while.  Hilarious in fact yet . . . so so true and I will be the first to apologize to Tonya for making fun of her.  America REALLY missed on that one.

All this Tonya stuff was going down just when CNN and the 24 hour news cycle was ramping up which is why it was such a big deal back then and Americans did not know the WHOLE story.  Even how Tonya was continuing to get beat daily by various people DURING the run up and into the Olympics and how she never had a chance to really win because she was not a "delicate princess".

This is an "R" rated trailer.  The movie has a fantastic sound track (she skated to rock music) and is really really well produced.

https://youtu.be/fbpWmvPGGws

  
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OH - I gotta say something about a guy I drafted.  He's hilarious! Take Rob Deer and put him on steroids.  As baseball Prospectus says "He's the kind of player who will put up a batting average that would make Rob Deer blush.  The worst BABIP (Batting average from balls put in play) in MLB history, he hits more fly balls then anyone in an era of flyballs, strikes out more then anyone in an era for strikeouts."

Last year he hit .158 last year . . . and STILL was useful.  He strikes out, walks or hits a homerun, that is about it.  Almost half his total hits were home runs.  15 singles, 2 doubles and 14 homeruns in 197 at bats.  But it was an off year and he was my 19th round and player #32 on my team.  Ryan Schimpf spent most of last year in the minors . . .where he basically did exactly the same.

I'll use him only against right handed pitchers and only in ball parks conducive to HRs.

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20% of woman in prison in Japan are seniors.   Japan is the oldest population in the world and it seems many senior woman are committing small crimes to be sent to prison for it's “community and stability”.  Weird.

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United Airlines, a Chicago based pet euthanasia company that also fly's people to distant places is head and shoulders above all other airlines when it comes to losing, injuring or killing your pet.  2.2 out of every 10,000.  More then double all other airlines.

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The Tennessee legislature took 36 seconds to shoot down a bill that would force law enforcement to recognize neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups as a domestic terror group.  NOT IN MY STATE the GOP leaders said.  They are fine people.

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Anybody have their woman's NCAA brackets busted?  Did you see that the University of Connecticut was up by NINETY FOUR at half time (94) over Saint Francis University?

Of all the brackets in ESPN, Yahoo, CBS Sports and Bleacher Report, 10s of millions of brackets . . . all went down the drain with The Retrievers (Gus's favorite team).  Not one bracket remains unscathed.

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I took this shot 10 years ago today

The guy in the far right image is Scott (Graham Man) from Minnesota who will get a hold of me and invite me to be a picture car passenger in Oshkosh.  IF you look they are ACTUALLY backing up.

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Facebook stock is down 4%  now that people see the GOP stole 50,000,000 peoples profiles without Facebook knowing it to use against them in the campaign.   All is well.  At least Putin won in Russia so we can see the playbook GOP is using.

All is well. 

Aggressive base running percentage / the lefts hypocrisy

HAPPY 10th ANNIVERSARY of Johnny Depp arriving in Columbus.  These were the very first images of Johnny and I got a call later that day from Japan to purchase photos.  Here they are!  There were 4 pages in Movie Star which opens left to right.

It helps when your daughters house is inside base camp and they have a hose hooked up to her house buying water.

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SO - here is the scoop given to me by a reporter about that Beaver Dam apartment and why they had to burn it down with all (or most) residents personal belongings still inside the building.

The explosive's that were found are set off by friction.  When the FBI had that controlled explosion to get rid of the chemical it splattered into adjoining apartments and thus . . .if you went inside to collect your stuff you could accidentally set off more explosions.

They burned the building because at 1500 degrees the chemical becomes inert.

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Recently there has been news that Russia is trying to hack our power infrastructure.  No worries at Columbus Water and Light.  "We" are like Battle Star Galactica and are off the main grid.  Plus I can't see Russia too concerned over Columbus WI.   . . . . . . . . or are they!

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Then there is Space Station News - who knew that a year in outer space changes your DNA. I guess it does.  Well, there goes THAT plan!  I like my DNA.

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Biggest movie of the year that millennial's are all waiting for because this reality is a lot closer to THEM then it is to us old guys!   Still - I need to see this

"Ready Player One" looks pretty darn good.  Plus - any movie that uses one of my favorit all time rock bands Depech Mode



The funny thing is that tweets and comments are all dissing EA Sports the horrific gaming company that is ruining all video sports games by putting out untested products.

"The villains are basically EA. They want to control the game and add micro transactions."

"Holy Shit if EA take over the Oasis"

And of course people that read the book are horrified as they ruined it.  I have not seen many movies that were BETTER then then book.

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Speaking of sex scandals - it seems the parties are reversing their views as Democrats turn more conservative and Republicans turn more liberal.

RIGHT NOW - 82% of Democrat's believe Trumps extramarital is immoral while 52% of Republicans believe it is immoral.

In 1998 77% of Democrat's thought Clinton's extramarital was a private matter while 28% of Republicans thought it was a private matter.  Sort of reverse.  Seems there is some hypocrisy going on here.    Just sayin'

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I want to point out that it sounds like I am anti-police force which I am not.  Anybody that will give their life to save mine . . . . . . sell, that is dumb anyway but still.  I respect them for the most part . . . .not ALL the time but . . . . .

AND LITERALLY as I am typing this Detective Smith from Birmingham is trying to contact me - NOW WHAT!!

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Weather - besides the East coast getting ready for Nor'easter #4 (LOL - totally sucks to be the east coast)  here is Wisconsin we are getting really lucky as a good size storm system will slide by south in the middle of the night and we won't even notice it.

Beautiful weekend coming up with light winds and a ton of sunshine. A cool week ahead AFTER the weekend and could get messy next weekend but this being spring things are moving all over the place so who knows.

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baseball math question - a common idea is do not steal a base unless you will WIN 67% of the time.


HOWEVER - what if there are more then 0 outs.

Man on 1st 0 outs you will score 41.6% of the time
Man on 2nd 0 outs you will score 61.4% of the time

So it makes sense to steal, 20% difference right?

But what about if there is 1 out - the numbers are 26.5% and 39.7%
and with 2 outs 12.7% and 21.6%

I have yet to figure out exactly the percentages I need to use for chancing aggressive running as taking an extra base (like from 2nd to 3rd) has the same issues

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The largest marble columns in the world are located at The Building Museum in Washington DC. 

 

Is that you? Birmingham Police Department

No news on my hack job.  No Amazon account (did you know that Amazon gets 44 cents out of every dollar spent online?) probably hear nothing . .EVER  LOL  Sort of like when my iPhone was stolen from my car in the basement the DOJ building in Madison.  Police actually found the guy but said they needed my phone for evidence and they would contact me when I could get it back. 

A year later I called and  . . . . they lost it.  SERIOUSLY??? I got nothing for it.  sigh. SO if I sound like I get pissy over police departments . . . FOR ME, they are always messing with my brain.  WITH THAT SAID.  I was pulled over in Columbus about 8 years ago for going over the speed limit and the officer asked where I was goign in such a hurry.  I explained that I was in charge of the potatoes for a roast and realized at the last minute I had no potatoes and if I did not get back home my wife would kill me. . . . . . he gave me a warning.

THAT, is exactly the thing an officer should have done as I try to never speed after that encounter.  I respected him and the department for that act.

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Yesterday after a meeting in Madison I had to go to Monroe street to get some brewing supplies.

Cannery Wine and Spirits is moving in Sun Prairie so they are short of supplies,  Brew and Grow closed on the East Side of Madison so Monroe street it was.  WELL, I started down East Wash but the kids had taken over The Wash so I went down Johnson.  The Caribou Bar is one street over and they have one of the best bar burgers in Madison so I stopped in.   As I was there I heard a few people talking about the "stupid kids". 

The only reason I was not thrown out of that place was because I had a burger in my hands and my mouth was full.   Ignorant adults talking about stupid kids?  Remember - those kids will vote in a couple years and they have GREAT memories.

 . . . . . .. So a puppy was killed by an airline and now legislation is being proposed to fix this problem - how many kids have been killed in schools and . . . . . NOTHING?

BACK TO MY STORY - after eating at the Boo I went down Johnson and there is a whole new construction and an entire block of stores is missing - SURPRISE.  MAN! - Madison has really changed in the last 40 years. So I get close to Monroe street and OF COURSE, it's under construction.  WHAT A FREAKING headache trying to get hose and a few clamps!!     

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I complain alot  . . . . no really I do . . .  but I tell ya - this is such and awesome town.  I take Gus out at night and look up and see the big dipper plain as day.  I don't think people "look" at how amazing Columbus is.  I know I have issues after 4 years of hearing problems.  When all you hear are complaints you forget to see what others SHOULD be seeing.  This is such a great town.  People forget how wonderful it is . . . except for the run down schools which are killing Columbus growth. 

Just having the ability to see the Milky Way at night is so amazing.  How quiet it is.  Hearing a train in the distance at night, hearing church bells on Sunday, coyotes looking for feral cats at night (well, maybe that is not so great).

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Toy's R Us is closing and laying off 30,000 people.  Will Trump help out that industry? Maybe pass legislation where every family has to bare one more child?

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2 years and 5 days ago I was in Washington DC for Water and Light.  LOVED the subway!  I think Columbus should have a subway.  I'm on the city council - I'll get on it.



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On Jimmy Kimmel last night he ordered a bunch of stuff from Trump's website and opened it. Of the 10 items 6 were made in China, 1 was made in Tiawan (I think it was) and one Portugal - HOWEVER - two items had no tag and no country of origin.  This is a federal offense and a $500,000 fine.  Every product sold HAS TO HAVE a country or origin.  Kimmel is filing a federal complaint today.

Seems 90% of what Trump sells online is made NOT in America.

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gotta run - Birmingham Police Department needs my help - THEY CALLED!!

SO - here is where I am at.  I have a Intel Core i7 X-Series processor that I never ordered and Amazon says WAIT to send it back because they have no record of it ever being purchased . . . or something like that.  There is also some guy at 1132 4th Ct W Birmingham AL that ALSO has one because he placed a reorder when he did not get what he ordered. It was delivered yesterday by UPS. 

Detective Smith (sounds made up) from Birmingham says not much they can do.  I told him they could have caught the guy yesterday but the officer who took my police report did not want to hear my personal thoughts on how easy it would be to catch the guy. Not her job.  The house is abandoned it looks like on google maps. Just wait to see who picks up the small package.  BUT NOOOOO!!!!   

SO - I have no Amazon account. Money has not been refunded ($381) yet but I'm sure it will be . . .sooner or later . . .like my phone?

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WELL _ THIS IS A BUMMER!  I wrote all of this in HTML and when I click on compose it's ONE HUGE paragraph .

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before and after replacing my furnace filter - see if you can find when I switched it.

 
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Cheers

Hacked and stolen

The Packers - FANTASTIC news.   Wide Receivers are almost a dime a dozen and Jordy was going down hill.  Jimmy Grahm is a FANTASTIC tight end and is EXACTLY what our offense needs a really really good TE - I am REALLY pumped about this addition and while I liked Jordy - this is a business.

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A pineapple express is heading our way. Way way early as it's a week away but the news is that this COULD morph into the 4th Nor'easter to hit the east coast next week.  LOL  :-) 

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But the big news is my Amazon account was hacked and a rather expensive computer processor was ordered without my knowledge. 

I received a package yesterday and opened it . a Intel Core processor?  DJ did you order this?  NOPE.   hmmmmmmm Went onto Amazon and nope - I never ordered anything like this.  Then did a quick peek at my checking account and  $381 came out going to Amazon.   WHAT?

So I started looking around Amazon at my account and could not see anything and then accidentally clicked on a button and . . wait a minute.  A reorder was placed on that same thing this morning (yesterday)  . . in MY name but the shipping address was to a house in Birmingham AL that I seem to live at. 

WELL - called UW Credit union to report this, canceled the card and yada yada.  Then contacted Amazon and they looked at my account and I could hear all sorts of concern and I was transferred to security.  They could see I never ordered the processor but could see an odd reorder to a different address occurred 5 hours earlier. 

I then called the Birmingham police department who pretty much took my information and said their detectives would look into it in a few weeks when they had time.  I told them, the guy is waiting for a package Wednesday. . . . . but they would hear none of that and said the process takes a few weeks.

Why is it police never do anything to protect your personal possessions.  My laptop gets stolen by a computer fix it place here in Columbus (along with at least 7 other laptops) and they won't give it back. I was told, . . . Not our department, can't help you, it's a business so they can steal things (my words) and our hands are tied.  This is a State matter, contact the State, not a local police issue.  It's in the FREAKING back room, just go get it!  Do I need to go all vigilante?  I guess I should have. 

ANYWAY here the Birmingham police could catch a crook but . . . the officer taking down my information was not concerned.  Just doing her job, nothing more.  We might get back to you in a few weeks.

grrrrrrrrr! 

So - I have no Amazon Prime account for a week or so as they scrub my data.

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The Blue WAVE is coming - need I say more?  There are 118 districts up for grabs that are not as red as Pennsylvania.  Lamb, the Democrate only received 80% of the votes Clinton received but Saccone only received 53% of the votes Trump got.  There goes $104 million from donations and Chamber of Commerce money down the drain.   

I expect there will be a flurry of GOP House reps that will all of a sudden decide to retire.   

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45% of Americans feel democracy is the preferred form of government.   4.1% feel Trump is an alternative to democracy. 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/support-for-democracy-is-a-partisan-issue-now.html

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Contracts, ugly buildings and yada yada

I'm deep in the draft and made my "round 6 to the end" list of available players.  There are about 400 total but what I noticed was that there are very very few Brewers batters that are left that are on the market.  There are a lot of pitchers but Brewer batters are few.

Another observation is the total lack of quality second basemen but so many amazing shortstops in the majors.   My lineup is pretty set and I'm just drafting future stars (hopefully) now as I reload (as opposed to rebuilding).

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This morning I got a friend request from a long lost center fielder.  In Madison I managed (and played for) a team in the #2 softball league in Madison for almost 20 years, Creative Software,(which became Weather Central which was purchased by WKOW and then Weather Central was purchased by The Weather Channel.  We traveled around Wisconsin to play weekend tournaments and I think we averaged, with league play,  about 6-8 games a week (I played 2B, RF and P).

At the time we had a great left field, left center combination.  The issue was that Scott was in left center and married a woman who, at that same time, was having an affair with the left fielder and . . . she was pregnant.

As you can assume things went downhill and Scott moved to Georgia (job). WELL, seems he married the woman after all and they have been married for 25 years with 3 kids. I feel happy as he was a good friend that disappeared.  Little happy surprises are the spice of life.

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My kegorator was put into it's space in the basement and as I was cleaning hoses and so forth I had to buy a new 3/16 hose.  WELL, Brew and Grow in Madison closed (owner moved to FLA) and Cannery Wine in Sun Prairie is moving so they are short of supplies. DAMN it - gotta run all the way to Monroe street now.   grrrrrrrrrr

Plenty of beer - just can't get it out of the keg LOL

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I just gotta say it. I am not 100% anti-Trump.  Sometimes things do work out.  If you notice I have never lambasted him on his North Korea strategy.  Like Reagan the anti-Soviet hardliner sometimes fighting idiocy with idiocy works.  Of course it could also end the world as we know it so there is that small trade off.

Then there is this tariff thing.  It COULD work . . . .if there is a long term plan (which there is not).  Remember, Bush put tariffs on steel with very little effect.  Imports declined and people purchased more American steel and 7 steel companies went out of business.

Doing something without a long term goal or a solid "victory" signal is a waste. Like the First Iraq war.  I was all for it, BOTH wars actually.  I'm the only American that will admit he was pro Iraq war IF, IF, it was done correctly with overwhelming force and a real goal, we actually take over the country and run it until it's stable.  Well, of course we did it as cheap as possible and it created a huge clusterf*ck that created the Teleban and ISIS and so forth in the power vacuum.  Once Colin Powell was gone I was totally against the war.

If America goes to war, we civilians must suffer and move into a war economy.  Not breeze along like nothing is happening.  War is WAR!

OK OK - not sure why this is on my mind. I hate seeing things done half ass.  It's like contracts. Maybe I'm old school. If you sign a contract, THAT is what you deal with.  In council once there was a contractor that made a bad estimate and it cost extra money to get the job done and he asked for more.  No freaking way. A contract is a contract.  If it cost less do you give us money back?   Why even have a contract if it's not really valid.

Sign here - it will only cost you $10,000 - unless it's more and you have to give me more money but if it's less I get to keep the extra.

Others see differently and are more outspoken then I am.

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There are 62 co-sponsers for legislation in the Senate that would improve data reporting to the national gun background check database. The GOP is refusing to even hear the bill and there is no chance for it becoming law. The NRA owns the GOP.

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Bon Jovi broke a record last week.  One week after their single hit #1 on Billboard (measures sales) the song dropped to 169.  The largest drop ever in Billboards  60 year history.

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After months and months of investigation OJ Simpson has found himself not guilty . . . . . . OH . . .sorry . . . The GOP has found that the GOP was not colluding with Russia.  Move along, nothing to see here.

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There was a poll about "What is the ugliest building in your state and only people that live in the state can answer it.

Wisconsin? Van Vleck Hall at UW-Madison in Madison - not sure if it is the UGLIEST but it certainly is ugly.

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After today - sun sun and more sun.  Cooler then average but no rain/snow anywhere in the next 10 days.



       

You would have made HOW MUCH? CORRECTION!

Correction - It was pointed out to me that I was "Totally irresponsible" in something I had on a previous blog about the anniversary of the financial crisis.  Which is not actually true but I was a little off as I skipped a few words in my skimming of a few paragraphs in my reading. 

As of Wednesday's close, an investor buying $100 of an S&P 500 fund at the closing price on the first trading day of each month since March 2, 2009, would have a portfolio worth $19,333 as of Wednesday's close, factoring in the price appreciation of the past nine years"

OOPS - I guess I did not see the $100 addition every month which makes a difference.  So you need to add another $10,900  LOL  So  REALLY - you only made like $7,000, not $19,000 (this is why I do  not work at H&R Block).   Taking out the $100 per month and purely on the return would have netted you only $8,000 in profit.

Actually makes a little more sense doesn't it LOL

http://www.businessinsider.com/stock-market-investing-financial-crisis-bottom-worth-2018-3

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I'm not even going to tell you what DJ did this morning . . . the hell I'm not.

She could not find her phone so I called.  She was wandering around the house trying to find the ring tone that was just out of her hearing range and always behind her . . . . . . . yup . . .HER BACK
 POCKET!

Been there - done that.

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Ten years ago this coming Friday Johnnie Depp came to Columbus and I was mentioned (name drop alert) in Vanity Fair a short time later which started the biggest dropping the ball opportunity ever in Columbus history.

I think only 2 people took advantage of a major motion picture company coming to town.  Michelle Martin and I.   I moved on to be an alderman and a famous tri-county photographer/blogger and Michelle's career took off being a amazing destination wedding photographer.   

I remember walking into what will become The Black Kettle and being called a paparazzi . . . and not in a good way.  Although one image was purchased by the largest Japanese movie magazine . . so maybe I was.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/03/do-all-movie-pr

HEY - didn't we just get done with this?  (photo from March 12th 2008)

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My brother and wife came down from Kewaunee and we watched our first real movie on THE SYSTEM.   The Darkest Hour - Bravo!  fantastic movie!!!   The next night we watched Victoria & Abdul which was odd as we are also just finished season 2 of Victoria.   Both great but I cried when Queen Victoria dies.  She was an awesome Queen!

HOWEVER - and this is important for anybody ever thinking about remodeling of finishing their basement. 

We all know that dry wall dust is just a f*cking b*tch to get rid of. A nightmare.  When they say "take everything out of the basement", they mean EVERYTHING. If you hide stuff behind a closed door. It will be covered by an inch of dry wall dust.

HOWEVER - somethings I did not think about.  The furnace filter. OMG.  I did not think about that until Thursday. I went to take out the old filter and it was more like a solid brick of drywall.

I put the new filter in and look at the savings from our NEST.  Friday and Saturday instead of running 6 hours a day it was 2 hours!    I felt like pig pen carrying the old filter as a cloud of dust was trailing me

Something else Ralls mentioned is that I should have the ceiling vent in the bathroom run for the next year to vent out all the chemicals that are now off gassing from the floor and especially the drywall.

Just like when a new house needs 3 years to dry out a new basement is the same.  He is a building problem fixer as a profession - Melotte, Morse, Leonatti, Parker - Architects, Consultants   and mold in NEW houses is a real issue.  With homes being so air tight new houses can't dry out and mold is created.

He also said people should REALLY change out their air filter twice a year as modern furnace motors are not strong enough to handle expensive filters.  Always buy the cheapest filter and change it out twice a year.  Much cheaper then replacing a furnace motor.

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One thing you lose when you retire -access to tournament brackets, Super bowl grids and all that work stuff like Indian food and treats! 

But - who in Wisconsin cares about the brackets . . . if you are not at work. LOL

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Sales of high heels are down 12% while woman's sneakers are up 37%. I'm assuming more wearers of high heels are woman but perhaps that is not a politically correct concept.

oops -gotta run.  Andy Black is coming over to talk bar building.

BTW - Steve Black and company did our basement- 100% happy and $20,000 less then waunakee remodeling.

OUT
 
   

Unemployment / Guns / Lights / What woman dislike

So the latest job numbers came out higher then expected - blah blah - big deal.  As we have seen these are  preliminary and will be adjusted up or down by 120,000.  In fact 11 of the last 15 months have been adjusted DOWN.  The numbers are adjusted twice .

This number comes from a survey of 150,000 businesses across the nation. The other number we look at is unemployment which is a survey of 60,000 households and is not subject to a revision.

Unemployment is actually 2 numbers and the one everyone looks at is the seasonally adjusted number.  Unemployment is a very useful metric if you look at it over time but does not look at reality.  Like if you are not actively  looking for a job you are not counted because you are not in the labor force.

If you want REAL numbers unemployment is broken in to five other numbers.

2.8% of the population are unemployed AND looking for a job   
49.2% of Americans are employed full time
10.9% of Americans are working part-time
2% are unemployed, want a job but are NOT looking
35.1% are unemployed but do not want a job (like me)

That is why many economists say America is nearing full employment.  There are just not enough workers to grow the economy that much more.  We're there!
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In other news - Columbus Water and Light is beginning to plan out switching all the Milwaukee Harp lights on Ludington with the new lights on James Street.

There have been a couple of complaints about how BRIGHT the new ones are but remember - they are new and not covered with semi exhaust yet and the new trees that will be planted are not yet giving off that dappling effect yet (since they are not planted).

Personally I have gotten rave reviews on the lights.  Yea - shocking at first as they are "different" but I like them. 

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GUNS!

There have been a good number of polls out about guns!   here are some interesting numbers

66% of Americans are in favor of stricter gun control  87% Democrats and 49% Republicans

33% of Americans own a gun and 76% feel we need to raise the minimum age to buy a gun

87% of American feel we need to have stiffer back ground checks in order to buy a gun.

86% of Americans feel we shuld block sales of guns to people with a history of mental illness. (something the GOP got rid of last year)

42% of Americans feel we should arm teachers. 17% democrat's 72% GOP

62% of Americans feel we should ban assault style weapons

67% say we should ban high capacity ammo magazines

10% say we should ban ALL guns

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9 years ago America was at the bottom of the financial crisis.  If you put $100 into the market on that day (as Obama suggested when he said "What you're now seeing is profit-and-earnings ratios are starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it." NAILED IT! ) it would be worth $19,333 now.

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In a large survey want to know what woman say are the worst fashion  mistakes men make?

1. Jean shorts! (Jorts)
2  Baggy relaxed fit jeans
3  Fedore's - it's not 1935
4. Fake glasses (people do this? )
5. socks AND sandals
6. Tucking your non-dress shirt into your non-dress pants
7. Pleated khaki pants

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Weather - but first.  I changed my furnace filter yesterday.  WOW - my old one was more like a solid brick of dry wall dust!  It'll be interesting to see how long the furnace takes to reach 70 today (the Nest tracks that).

Weather - we COULD be nearing 60 next Friday. Until then hovering around 41ish until Thursday when we get a small warming trend but NEXT weekend looks like nothing but warmish rain.

Otherwise sun sun sun until NEXT Saturday when it's rain rain

The Shepard tone

Being a lawyer in Wisconsin sucks today.  Why?  Because in Utah the State Bar accidentally sent a very tasteful (really it was) photo of a topless woman to every lawyer  in the State.  They were advertising their annual spring convention and OOPS - BOOBS!!!  Well - I can see that convention getting a lot more lawyers attending this year.

NOT the breast move! 

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The Brewers are deep deep into analytics and sabrmetricts with David Stearns at the helm.  He is one of 12 GMs that obsesses over numbers and moneyballishness.  Notice how the Brewer scoreboard no longer has AVG next to players. It has been replaced with OPS which is on-base pct (OB) and slugging pct (SLG) added together to create a much more meaningful number.  AVG has been proven to be sort of a meaningless stat and is going the route of pitcher Wins and Saves as meaningless. 

Sorry sorry - thinking baseball as our draft starts THIS MORNING and will last the next 3 weeks. 24 teams 20 rounds. Face to face it would take a while but since we are dealing with managers in three countries  . . . . it's a long process.    I have pick #17 later tonight I think. 

Sadly pick #1 is in Tacoma and he is not even up yet.

On that note there are 12 MLB GMs that have never actually played the game in college, minors or majors and are statistically driven.  Their combined winning percentage last year was .514.  

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Anybody have an Alexa?  There is an issue all of a sudden with Alexa's  - spontaneous and at random creepy chuckles.  Middle of the night all of a sudden without warning Alexa chuckles out of the blue and goes to sleep again!   People are freaking LOL. 

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3.5 inches of snow in the storm and another 0.5 last night that will evaporate away today in the sun.  We are in for a week or quiet below average temp's.  The average high is about 40 now.  I can't see us getting above average at least until NEXT Thursday. That's OK.  Anything about 30 feels good to me now.

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Has anybody seen Dunkirk? We have the DVD but have not seen it yet.  My brother saw it and  said it was REALLY stressful - but here is a trick they used to make it even MORE stressful. 

The Beatles have used it, Pink Floyd (Echoes and Meddle) has used it, Batman movies have used it and Super Mario has it.  . . . it's called The Shepard Tone and is ingenious.

It consists of several tones separated by an octave layered on top of each other. As the lowest bass tone starts to fade in, the higher treble tone fades out. Then once the bass is all the way in and the treble is all the way out, it loops back again. Because you can always hear at least two tones rising in pitch at the same time, your brain gets tricked into thinking that the sound is constantly ascending in pitch.

            
If you want to hear what this sounds like go here - WARNING - his sound can cause anxiety and panic attacks. If you suffer from either of these conditions, do not listen to this sound generator.

https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/shepardAudioIllusionToneGenerator.php

There was a show on PBS about why many consider Sgt Pepper the greatest album ever created. They went into the science behind all the songs and I was amazed at what they found.   "A Day In The Life" has something like The Shepard tone on that last chord.

I had only listened to the album for entertainment but seeing how the scientific community was all crazy about the album.  I need to find that program again.

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For some bizarre reason I did not know Alderman Rule is stepping down from his Aldermanship.  This literally saddens me as I really appreciated his involvement in the city process and we are losing a good one.

VOTE ANDY TRAXLER

Artist recreation (?? sp?) of what a bus COULD look like 

VOTE JASON THEILAND - he needs to buy bus  :-)

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Seems the blue wave is a real thing but it's different in every state.  Wisconsin seems to be the 6th  biggest blue wave behind Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, and Pennsylvania.

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McDonalds brought out their new burger yesterday in 3,500 locations!  FRESH MEAT.  Not frozen.  Not here in Columbus yet but by May all the equipment will be switched out for no more frozen patties staying warm under a heat lamp.  Each burger will be fresh grilled (like Culvers).

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There is a new book out about what people SHOULD eat after 10 years of research and like 30,000 people taking part.

It is better to eat pizza in the morning then cereal.  Milk is a marketing ploy and really does not do THAT much good for you. Red meat is not bad at all and actually better then chicken.  Of course fat is not a bad thing at all. SUGAR is!

And more but did you know that carrots do not help your eyes at all?  The whole carrot thing comes from WWII when the British were hiding radar.  They said their planes could see at night because their pilots were eating carrots.  Carrots were the one food there was plenty of in WWII.

So all of a sudden carrots were a big thing. There is absolutely zero link between carrots and eye site. It's all marketing.

Nuff said

Monday this and that - WATCH THE WEATHER

Well, the Oscars are over,  (the least watched Oscar's in history). We saw a few movies that were NOT nominated but now we are ready to binge some movies

Video - LG OLED65C7P 4K TV that is literally thinner then an iPhone (blows my mind).  Did you know that Dolby's (an actual person) real love is NOT audio but video.  He had a hand in LG OLED technology.

Audio - engine is a Marantz 9.2 channel Full 4K surround receiver (calling this a receiver is like calling an iPhone a "telephone"). . . .  which powers two LAS2 Statement towers (less then half price - long story) which feature Aurum Cantus ribbon tweeters - in the middle is a Definitive Technology CS-9040 with an 8 inch Bass Radiator.  Ceiling contains 4 speakers with two of those speakers containing two Pivoting Pure Aluminum dome tweeters and of course there are two 750 watt Dominion 10" subwoofers.

And one home security system thrown in.  Still needs calibrating but waiting for more furniture and so forth to reduce echo.

My first home theater upgrade in 15 years.

Bottom line - sounds pretty decent.

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Not ruling out thunder snow later this afternoon - there could be some pretty heavy whiteout conditions later.  2-4 inches of a very fast moving snow event with a LOT of wind. Gusts to 40-45 will not be uncommon.

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BTW - back to movies for a second. There are  LOT of fantastic movies out. What happened??  I remember years where I didn't like ANY of the nominations. This year I bet there are 10 movies at LEAST that I want to see.

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OH - remember Delta Airlines that stopped the NRA discounts and then Georgia killed a $40 million tax break?  Only 13 people ever took advantage of that Delta deal. Not fond of corporate hand outs anyway.

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If case nobody noticed - there was HUGE bird migration into Wisconsin last Tuesday. You could see it on radar.  They will be so sorry later today.

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Carl Ichon a good friend of Trump dumped $31.3 million in steel stocks a few days before Trump announced a 25% tariff on steel.  Yet another coincidence. 

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iHeartRadio is working towards filing for bankruptcy as it owns $20 BILLION and missed a payment.

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Kobe Bryant won an Oscar last night for Best Animated Short film "Dear Basketball".

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The NFL Eagles have a serious problem with their salary cap and are 9 million over budget. They have no 2nd or 3rd round pick.  Nick Foles will get $7 million out of there.

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In baseball - Stolen bases are disappearing.   I have always thought that you need a 67% success rate to make a SB worth while but in a forum I read (and will research this in literally seconds) that a man on second base only gives you a 12% greater chance of scoring . . .so does that mean you need to steal at an 88% rate?

BUT looking at my charts just now - the chance of scoring, 0 outs man in 1st us 41.6%  The chance of scoring 0 outs man on 2B 61.4%   -  not sure where that 88% comes from.  That is a 20% difference.  With one out it goes to a 13% difference and 2 outs about an 8% difference.  So stealing would be of most use with 0 outs (of course)   

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Not sure if you have seen that Mueller's team had a leak. Seems he is treating Trumps team like a Criminal Enterprise"   LOCK THEM UP . . . . . but wait until the mid terms.

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With the Trump tax break for corporations and the rich,  American industry is about to break an all time record with $800 BILLION in stock buy backs (NOT giving it to their employees)!  Many analysts are saying buy on these dips. Dips are when millionaires are made. Buy backs are a stock market safety net.

With strong buyback activity persisting and systematic de-risking behind us, we recommend investors to continue buying market dips," Dubravko Lakos-Bujas, JPMorgan's head of US equity strategy

Just sayin'

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Gotta laugh - Jared Kushner now has a lower security clearance then the White House Calligrapher and was not allowed into the WH for a dinner yesterday. And he is our acting Secretary of State ?

OK OK - enough random blither!

Good luck this afternoon.

Baseballs are juiced - fact

Why is it when you have an issue with a password and need to click the "I FORGOT MY PASSWORD" button it always asked you "what was the last password you remember"   WHY!!!  What a stupid question. What does this do!

I have a notebook with (just counted) 26 passwords. Typically it's an easy look-up. I guess I forgot to write the new one in LOL

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Attended a Broadway presentation of "An American in Paris".  Those guys can really dance. 

I tell ya though - those seats are really uncomfortable - not at all like the recliners at The Palace Cinema. 

We were worried about leaving Gus for 4 hours as we had DATE NIGHT and went to Paisans for dinner and the show little knowing how long the show would be. 

WELL - 8:45 came the intermission, or as us guys call it, half time.  Didn't get home until 11:00 and Gus was SO happy.  We were afraid he would pee with happiness.

My brother owned a spider monkey for a little while and he would climb up and see his reflection in his glasses and pee.  (just a random memory there) 

So Gus was all wiggles with excitement but managed to not pee (they we know of yet).

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Today they are suppose to install all the cabinets downstairs (not yet it seems) and AMS called and I WIN.  I said that the installation date for the home theater would slide and it did.  The furniture (stand) for all the equipment has not arrived yet.  DAMN IT! 

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And of course the GOP has started the arms race which Russia has grabbed onto with glee and of course the GOP has started a trade war WITH THE WORLD and almost everything will go up in price . . except your 401K and stocks.   All is well.

And of course the NRA is now telling America what the White House is thinking - all is well.

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YUP - baseballs are juiced and are still juiced this year.   X-rays show that the core in baseballs now (as compared to 2014) are 40% less dense then the older balls. BUT wait - there is a chemical difference also (to complicated to talk about and boring).

SO - now teams must put all of the baseballs into climate controlled humidors.  Wondering how many baseballs a MLB uses every game? The average is somewhere near 70. Remember - if at any time a ball touches sand - it's tossed out (unless it was because of a play in the infield).

In other news - the Philadelphia Phillies are experimenting with a defensive shift in the outfield where the LF and RF switch depending what side the batter hits from.  Yea - THAT will speed up the game!   I should do that in Strat-o-matic but research has found that the only fielders that REALLY make a difference on defense are C, SS, 2B and CF.  All the other fielders the best thing is to go with whoever has the best bat . . . . unless it's Ryan Braun at 3B.

Not saying fielding should be ignored but the difference between a great 3B and an average 3B fielder is maybe 10 bases a year.  MUCH less then up the middle fielders. 

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Trumps approval rating for people ages 22 to 37 is 19% lower then older Americans.  Not a good sign for the GOP. 

In 1980 5% of Americans said they would be cremated (after they die).  Now it's 50% with California, Oregon and Florida near 80%.  DONALD - HELP the morticians, bring back those jobs!

57% of Americans believe Trump is a racist and 80% of blacks believe he is.

Indiana is about to pass a bill that will make eyeball tattoos illegal. YEA - OMG!!  it's a real thing. There is a guy in the UK that his entire body is tattooed BLACK . . . . .INCLUDING his eyeballs. 

OH YEA - Pharma Boy - the guy that raised prices for a life saving drug like 1000% - says he is sorry and that his 6 months in prison has shown that he made a bad decision and wants leniency.

Perhaps if we put ALL Americans in jail for 6 months and let everybody out we would have less crime.   LOCK HIM UP!!  Oh - he is SO sorry he got caught!

Here is some good news - NBC will cut 20% of its commercial time.  YEA - we are watching The Office and Parks and Rec on NETFLIX from S1E1 to the ending. Many shows are only 21 minutes long. 

I don't even want to look at the stock market as it fell below an important threshold which is triggering more selling!   THANK YOU DONALD.   OH the tax cuts - so far 6 billion has gone for raises and bonuses and 140 billion has gone to stock buy backs!  HA - bet they regret THAT! LOL 

BTW - if you get a chance to watch last nights Colbert it is one of his best shows.  OMG Jeff Daniels - you would not even be alive today if you lived in Russia. 

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Weather - The GOES-S satellite launched yesterday and will be in a stable orbit in 2 weeks - it's a serious game changer. 

But for us - Great weather until Monday when things go bad.  Enjoy the weekend. 

The North Pole will be 50 (FIFTY) degrees above normal today.  That would be like we get to 84 today. 

Cheers