I used to work IT as a civilian at a police department, and whenever I had to go out to the training academy I always spent time at the armory (for fun and to blow off time before going back to my office). One day I go in and there's a couple of boxes of donuts on one of the work tables, and the sergeant tells me to help myself. I ask him why the donuts and he explains that if someone ever uses the word clip when they're supposed to use magazines, people are supposed to shout out "DONUTS!", and that person has to bring in donuts the next day.

The IT office that I worked in I was the only civvie with three officers, current and retired. We were talking about guns one day and Bruce mentioned a clip. Me and Bob (detective) immediately shouted out "DONUTS!" and Bruce looked confused while we laughed. We then explained, and he was a good sport and brought in donuts the next day.

Even without the warhead, it'd leave a heckuva mark.

I stopped buying Big Three cars in the '80s. My 11 y/o Subaru hit 180,000 over the weekend, the 10 y/o Toyota Matrix that I traded it in for had over 170k. Both are/were very low maintenance vehicles.

I started reading an article yesterday (inc.com) about how BYD changed their battery development after a fatal fire killed three. I was very impressed. I've been reading about their cars for probably over a year now, and am quite interested. The Big Three have pretty much abandoned the EV market, especially since a certain person destroyed incentives and building out a nationwide charging network, so let the Chinese in (assuming they can make safety standards) and let's see what happens!

It would help if Hollywood made good movies or the distributors brought in good ones from other countries. But it wouldn't help my local idiot chain, they show garbage.

Normally when I go to Phoenix, I LOVE to take in a movie at Harkins or AMC. I've been there four times in the last five months: ZERO movies seen. I despair, and am about to start ripping my 700+ movies to Jellyfin.

The original series of Yes, Minister was a masterclass of saying what you don't mean.

I sold expensive copper cables to people who wanted them. And I told them that AC power zip lines would work pretty much just as well, and that's what I use for my audio system. But hey, whatever brings you joy.

I read 66+ books last year, suck on that, mega-readers! ;-)

Considering the rate at which we are furiously burning international good will, and that we're seeing foreign degreed scientists and researchers not come to this country for conferences and such, AND we're seeing OUR scientists and researchers leave the USA for foreign countries, I guess we'll have to see how well Abhay's statement ages.

And I mainly buy it when travelling, I need the rocket fuel for 500 mile drives. Iced peppermint mocha with whipped cream. Nothing special, that's it. And I stand a 25-50% chance of it getting messed up, one way or another. Granted, the robot in question is talking about back office operations, but if one could make my order 100% correct, I'd be all for it.

My wife's father became a conservative after a heart attack. There's definite evidence to brain damage causing personality changes.

8ish years ago I worked at an Air Force base (contract) with a group of guys to replace every computer on the base with an HP laptop that we installed a Win 10 image on made by USAF IT guys. I wonder how those laptops held up over time and what they're looking at for upgrades now.

All we did was image them and verify that they booted, the uninstall the old equipment and verify that the new system booted properly after installation then we were done, we didn't have CACs to log in. We even did SCIFs, but they were shut down while we were present.

Just wondering.

The only reason that I log my books read is to easily recommend books to friends or others later. I'm a librarian and that's useful to me. The professional angle, though, is irrelevant: I was logging and recommending before I got the job.

I read approximately 66 books last year: biography, historical, sci fi, manga, etc.: lots of women authors. I didn't break it down by gender, though. I should consider that. I did switch to comfort reads as my brother was dying and will be continuing that for the near future.