Author Archives: Joel

I was twelve years old when the Batman TV series started, and I don’t think I’d ever heard of the character since I’d managed to go my whole life until then unexposed to comic books. But it sounded really cool … Continue reading →

If it weren’t for its proximity to October, which is when things start going downhill, September would easily be my favorite month. Weather-wise, I mean. Hey, I’m from Michigan. A lovely month, wherever you live. Neither too hot nor too … Continue reading →

Overcast day. Came back from chopping up more pallets to find the Lair’s voltage hasn’t actually done very much good, so I shouldn’t be playing on the ‘pooter right now. Maybe more later.

As part of “spoon-tember”, everyone is encouraged to take selfies with orange spoons hanging from their noses to promote hunger awareness. I absolutely did not make that up. Claire led me, all unaware of the danger, to Jim Bovard’s article … Continue reading →

…that’s about three hours’ work. And probably around a week’s worth of warm, unless it’s an unusually nasty week.

Nobody’s shooting at me or trying to convert me to some hokey religion, so maybe not. But the local market is certainly tiresome… If there’s a ‘right to feel safe,’ is there a right to feel meat between your teeth … Continue reading →

Everyone who ever ran a personal blog such as TUAK knows the fear that one evening, through alcohol, excessive heroin or North Korean brainwashing, he or she will write something … shall we say, excessively revelatory … and post it … Continue reading →

So some high-toned NYC lawyer got himself shot in the head recently, apparently having innocently stumbled into the path of some random violence. Politicians and others who don’t see this sort of thing happening to them in the course of … Continue reading →

…because last night after the chickens settled down, I crept in and moved the pullets to the main coop. Then I pulled Landlady’s portable coop right out of the Fortress of Attitude. Chickens is – truly – so stoopid. Once … Continue reading →

In a post from Friday where I complained that my old cobbled-together wheelbarrow had reached the end of its road, a couple of commenters made some good suggestions. I picked the one for which I had (most of, it turns … Continue reading →

Sometimes a snarky post title will come to me when I’m out doing something else, and I’ll kind of store it away for later use. Applications rarely take long to emerge. So this morning I was surfing around for Monday … Continue reading →

…In small self-generation applications for locations where there’s lots of sun and/or wind. As a strategy for centralized grid power, administered by unaccountable bureaucrats, though, “green power” is a recipe for national disaster. So naturally they’ll charge ahead with it.

I’m tempted to ask something stupid, like “Can he do this?” But then I’m old, and remember when the feds had this thing called a “division of powers.” So of course the answer is obvious. WASHINGTON (AP) — Showing solidarity … Continue reading →

…thanks to Landlady, who gets paid to help clueless users fix this sort of problem but did it for me free. Wildblue decided to change my server, no doubt for reasons that seemed perfectly logical to them. The email informing … Continue reading →

Chamber-checking – and demonstration of the efficacy of manual safeties – must not involve anything pointed at your head. Also, if the person conducting a “gun safety lesson” starts pointing guns at people, including himself, it’s time to leave. It’s … Continue reading →

So there’s this county clerk in Kentucky who got thrown in jail for contempt of court because she didn’t want to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. I haven’t followed the story, but I heard she was arrested yesterday and … Continue reading →

I don’t believe I’ve met two such tireless people as my neighbors D&L. They skinned over their strawbale house with adobe, a process taking months, only to learn their overhangs were insufficient. Before long the coating had worn down to … Continue reading →

Dear anti-gun environmentalist polar bear hugging wackos, The bears have settled in the fields outside a weather station on the island of Vaygach in the Arctic Sea, preventing researchers from leaving the building to conduct their work, the World Wide … Continue reading →

Like you’ve never done something stupid with a hideously dangerous power tool. Yes. I cut through the cord of my own saw. Happy now? Huh? A little electrical tape and nobody will be the wiser. But after I repaired that, … Continue reading →

Yesterday at two. Wind, horizontal rain and appalling amounts of it* in a very short time. The gullies let go, the driveway was a river… …and the river was a flood… Had it been just a little harder and lasted … Continue reading →