Phenomenon

Some summer camp counselors now use fake names. I found this extremely odd, perhaps even disturbing. From what I gather by googling, they do this so campers don't look them up online and see/contact them via social media. Which sort of makes sense as an independent variable, but begs a larger question of: what the fuck are we doing, people?

Not Too Much To Ask

Seems like Trump should explain to the American people and Congress the plan with Iran. Is there one? Can they explain our goals and how we plan to achieve them? Is anyone even paying attention to this?

Mao

Was an elementary school principal at one point in his life.

AI Test

I thought this wasn't AI.

Maybe I'm just dumb.

Stupid People

The DSA wants to get rid of the Senate because it's undemocratic. Do any of these people take basic US History?

Losers

Tyler talks about the special powers of AI and uses an example where it reminds them to drink water. This can't be the best use case.

AI

If AI is so smart, why wasn't AI able to know Kimi AI would be better than the other AI? This will be an ongoing question.

Absurd

Vance accuses Israel of manipulating public opinion on the Iran war. Who is he kidding? There is no public opinion on the war in Iran at all. 

The Odyssey Rap

Is this for real? Looks like a PSA from 1987.

Voter Suppression

I don't see how using in-person paper ballots is voter suppression. Sorry. Is the main argument that it's not optimally convenient? Since when are Democrats primarily concerned with convenience? I was fine with the old system that allowed for absentee ballots. We can go back, just like we can go back to playing soccer without VAR. It's not that hard. 

How I Cool The House

Now that the political screaming about European AC has died down, I can quietly weigh in on what I think is a good way to cool the house during the hot LA summers. I recommend using several tools:

1) Outdoor shade

This has taken us time, but we've grown some trees and large bushes in the backyard to better shade the house and backyard areas that get the most sun. I highly recommend using landscaping if you can plan it out and take the time. One of the best natural ways to cool your property and house. Just remember not to plant or buy a house with a gigantic tree that could fall on the house during a windstorm. PS - I see this after all the big winds,

2) Indoor shades

During the hot days, I keep these closed. The house cools down at night, and my efforts are to "trap" the coolness inside for as long as possible. Often this can result in the house feeling cool until about noon-1pm without ever using the AC. And this is on the hot days like 90+.

3) Screen doors and windows

At night when the outside temp drops below the inside temp (around 8-9pm), I open up as many screen doors and windows as possible. This brings all the cool air inside, and I'll even leave some open at night, however, not wide enough for a psycho killer to come inside (this is how the Nightstalker killed people, during hot nights he looked for open screen doors in LA, just saying...). Note for the wise: turn off the AC during this time as you don't want the outdoor AC running and the exhaust coming inside.

I'm not sure what other places are like, but LA gets reliably cooler at night. Maybe this is a perk of a desert landscape versus more humid places; I don't know. What I find is that the heat from the day often gets trapped in the house and the inside becomes warmer than outside for a bit of time. Opening the doors and windows really helps with this. In fact, there is a time period around right now where the house actually heats up...despite the outside temp dropping. Something about the heat getting trapped in the house during the day...but the opposite also happens at night, the coolness gets trapped in the house and it can stay cool most of the morning.

4) AC

I keep the temp pretty high, my only area of agreement I have with Mandami. 78-79. At night, sometimes I will turn it cooler if it simply feels too hot to sleep. Almost never below 75.  Even if my kids are hot, I say throw some water in your hair. It works. I survived Inland Empire Augusts with no AC, just a fan for soccer training. One can find a way to survive the heat. The old owner of my house only had a wall unit. Still, this plan can keep the AC running for hours on end in the afternoon, and this is pretty costly both in money and for the environment.

5) Mini Split

I have a new addition to the house where we added a mini split. I plan to use this separate AC in one of two ways - on hot days, only cool one portion of the house - the main house or the addition and spend the hot hours in that section. 

6) Down the road

I will explore solar panels to power this entire system although I'm a tad worried about how solar panels impact your roof and structural design of the house. In my particular situation, I might look into solar panels on a smaller workshop.

Back to the 80s

I get that it's becoming fashionable to yearn for kids having more freedoms of yesteryear, the latchkey generation, and so forth. But let me point out one thing: being of age now - that freedom meant a lot of young drug and alcohol use, and that stuff ruined a bunch of lives in different degrees. So you obviously have the deaths of despair - OD, suicide, etc - of which every one of my generation knows a few. But even separate from that, there are quite a few folks who spent time in prison, injured themselves in significant ways, had to get sober, or even didn't really hit their potential partially because of too much drug and alcohol use. Maybe there are some strong social benefits to this stuff, but we shouldn't dismiss all the downsides, and the fact that kids are drinking and using fewer drugs is probably, on net, a good thing.

England

Used the same tactic to preserve the lead against Mexico, but it didn't work against Argentina and backfired spectacularly. 

I'm not sure why so many folks are down on Argentina. They seem like the one team who can decide to turn it on and then really, really turn it on. I mean they had like 7 chances on England before securing it today.

Logging

Film: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Better than it should be - a strange but funny premise of body-switching teens into alter egos in the game. The best parts are how these bodies are in tension with their minds and prior personas.

Film: Holiday 1938

What makes the film still feel different from most is that it has a true philosophical question at the core, about how life ought to be lived, the trappings of generational wealth, and one feels the characters actually wrestling with questions relevant to their own lives and the time. The father character as antagonist is quite unique: part monster, part sympathetic, part a loser, part a titan, part behind the times, and maybe ultimately, ahead of his time.

The Kendall Roy's of the World

Weird how behind all these DSA types is some weird, perverted, and incredibly wealthy heir to a vast American fortune. Freud often gets dismissed, but he seemed to understand at least one big thing.

Question for Prison Abolitionists

If they abolished prisons, what would they do if someone reopened one and started incarcerating criminals?

 

Who Would've Been Great At Soccer?

As long as we're doing this thing we do every 4 years, I might as well throw my one big idea into the ring: the American athlete who could've been a great soccer player -- Barry Sanders.

The Far Left

Is a major, major problem.  

Probably Right

Were the 80s so great for kids? 

My biggest fear in the 80s was getting my ass kicked by some psycho kid using a weapon (and there seemed to be psycho kids around). 

And I recall being bored quite a bit.