Finally got some decent weather the next few days and no Pine Bush stuff to do in the evening, so I’ll ride both ways to work though not on the Rail Trail as there is still is too much snow. Charging up the bike lights (still needed for safety at end of the commute), and in a little bit I’ll be off.
Made it home before the snow last night, 🌨️ the Guilderland Planning Board Meeting was everything you thought it would be, the Dale Houck subdivision approved, after Steve Feeney gave his defense of the proposal. More suburbanite homes in the Pine Bush, next to the noisy ol’ Thruway. 🚙 Fried some onions, rice, shrimp, veggies for dinner. Went to bed fairly early, I was up a little before 5 AM to pee, and that point, I figured get the beans started on the stove. You know, life is tough when you don’t have pinto beans to eat.
Apple – carrot 🥕 🍏 pancakes this morning, Walmart has had all these apples super cheap – I assume they are stored from 2025, but shredded in the pancake batter I make up they are still pretty good. I do eat too much Stevia, but whatever it’s calorie free and doesn’t upset my stomach, though all that fiber keeps me pooping good 💩 especially after that strong coffee ☕ in the morning. Fudge-flavored coffee at work this month is good. Plus I like all that sugar and carbs to power me to work on bike. And the fiber keeps me feeling pretty good all day.
Another fairly quiet day in the office, 🖥️ it would be so much busier if they could fix the database and we could start updating the addresses and making corrections. I always like doing that, it’s a chance to give to develop algorithms and figure out what people are writing on their voter form in comparison to what their actual USPS address is, along with cross referencing other databases like USPS and Property Tax rolls.
I am still thinking a lot about the SuperDuty, 🛻 going back and forth about how important the FX4 package is to me, after reading some people’s opinions of it on Godzilla or SuperDuty groups I’m a member on Facebook. I like the idea of skid plates to protect the uncarriage from sticks and especially snow and ice banks, but they note the plates aren’t particularly tough or Comphrensive, and honestly, are you going to off-road an enormous HD truck on rough trails? No way in hell, that’s what I have a mountain bike for. 4×4 is more then fine for any dirt roads and even mud wallows I might be crossing. Maybe more important would be the long bed for more room camping. 🏕️
I don’t know, I guess I should look at different options, and it’s hard to know until I actually get real out-the-door price quotes from dealerships. 🛻 I hear different things about prices, it’s really hard to know what vehicle actually costs based on advertised price without fees. Often I’ve heard when you call the dealership, they’ll give you a lower price, but then tack a bunch of fees and taxes on it. 💰 Some people get excellent deals far below what I’ve been seeing listed and even on Edmunds if forums are to believed. So I don’t know. Tomorrow I’ll call and see if the trucks I’m interested are avaliable for test drive on Monday ot Tuesday. That will give me idea if I want to continue in this direction, and then I’ll start calling dealerships for quotes once March is underway. I really want to take delivery by end of the month, so I have time to order a cap and break the truck in well, move over and wire up equipment, get it’s first oil change before my summer trip out to Michigan.
Nice how much brighter 🔆 the mornings are now. But what I’m really looking forward to is the time change a week from Sunday. Yes it will make the mornings darker for a few weeks but we will have so much more daylight in the evenings. 🌃 Going to be 50 degrees on Saturday so hopefully that’s a good chance for a lot of snow 🌨️ melt. I’m hoping by mid next week I can start riding to work on the Rail Trail but who knows it is going to be cold come Sunday again. But spring is coming.
Attention people, politicians write the laws that govern elections, the same people who are on the ballot!
It is kind of a paradox that elected officials write the laws that govern how candidates get on the ballot, how they win election and ultimately serve in office. Politics has an incumbent bias, it tends to favor electing people who either are or look a lot like the people who are currently in office.
People have this view that governing is an exact representation of the public’s will, though this is rarely the case. It’s not to say that politicians aren’t responsive to public sentiment and don’t fear getting voted out of office, but also remember that all politics and governance is focused on a lens that protects incumbency as those who are in office as those who write the laws that say in future years choose who will be in office.
The truth is in close elections, whoever wins is a coin flip, sometimes defined by who wrote the election law with an eye towards incumbency protection. But not all elections are close, and indeed even long-term incumbents, once popular and well liked do go down as the ground shifts. I’ve been many times when a popular politician has been in office for decades, only to loose when the world moves on and people’s views shift over time.
Can President Trump and Republican-controlled Congress and Legislatures put their thumb on the scale? Of course they can, and it would be foolish to think won’t tried to do that. Democrats do the same thing too. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if the public decides in a resounding margin who they want as their representatives. If it’s close, it’s mostly a coin toss, partially biased by the laws set up by incumbents, but not always. Voters are hardly predictable beasts, and often mischievous when it comes to their actions behind the privacy curtain.
Trump is free to put his finger on the scale within the constraints of his power. Courts are also free to review the law and see if executive actions and other laws are consistent with the constitution. Trump can seed doubt, claim the election is rigged. But as they say, ultimately it’s up to a judge to decide who actually won the election if challenged. The best things parties on both sides of the aisle can do is be vigorous defendents of both their candidates and their parties.
The biggest threats to democracy are an apathetic public and parties and candidates who do not vigorously fight for their positions. However if anything, Trump is getting people fired up and running to defend what they believe in and that’s good for democracy. Trump is free to believe what he believes, true or otherwise, make policy that may or may not benefit his party within the constraints of the law and courts. However, that does not mean democracy is dead. If anything, a motivated to vote public and parties who guard is raised against fraud and abuse means democracy is only going to get stronger.
I have been looking around a car insurance quotes for when I get my big pickup truck. I am focusing getting insurance to protect my assets from liability and catastrophic loss after an crash (such as totaling a new vehicle within a few years).
Today, I saw a insurance ad that advertised “protect[ing] your investment“.
That triggered me on so many levels, as an automobile is not an investment but a consumption item. Maybe a car is an pricey item, but it something you buy to get enjoyment out of temporarily, use it up, then send to scrap yard and ultimately the landfill. I do blame marketers, especially who foist advertising for financed automobiles and extended warranties as furthering the public’s confusion between the two. Also, it is a terrible way to buy insurance – which should focus on preventing catastrophic loss – not pain.
Google Gemini AI often has excellent summaries of concepts.
In simple terms, an investment is an asset you buy today with the expectation that it will grow in value or generate income in the future. Unlike a regular purchase (consumption) where you spend money for immediate use, investing is about putting your resources—such as money, time, or effort—to work to create a greater benefit later.
In economics and personal finance, a consumption purchase is the acquisition of goods and services for current utility or immediate satisfaction. Unlike an investment, which is intended to grow in value or generate future income, consumption is generally “used up” or depreciates over time.
Manufacturers of plastic packaging, not consumers, should pay for recycling products and packaging at the end of their life, he said. For regular people, “having to pay an extra fee to handle the unrecyclable plastic packaging that is thrust upon us every day is antithetical to every concept of producer responsibility.”
Earlier this month, the anti-plastic group Beyond Plastics published a disparaging report on boutique waste haulers, including Ridwell, accusing them of providing cover for plastic and packaging manufacturers who want people to believe their waste is being recycled. a Ridwell employee inserts a bag of recyclables into a compressing machine A Ridwell employee inserts a bag of recyclables into a bailer at the San Leandro warehouse.
Ridwell offered a visitor a tour of its Bay Area warehouse in San Leandro. The spacious facility behind a Home Depot and Walmart was crowded with steel drums filled with alternating layers of batteries and fire-retardant pellets, boxes of light bulbs and piles of used clothes, all destined for recyclers, upcyclers and thrift stores.
While the public may think of recycling as a largely physical process, it’s actually a market: a function of how well a material can be profitably turned into something else.
One of the most annoying things in this world is when people either say, “don’t you want to …” or actually implying a similar thing, suggesting there is a right way to live one’s life, and that any other way is foolish. Often I see this phrase most frequently used in advertising, sometimes that explicitly but also sometimes very subtlety in other, quite obnoxious ways.
1. Expressing an Expectation
In many cases, the speaker already assumes the answer is “yes.” They aren’t asking if you want to; they are subtly telling you that you should want to.
Example: “Don’t you want to go to the party?” implies the speaker thinks it’s a good idea and expects you to agree.
How to respond: Treat it like a regular “Do you want to” question. Answer “Yes” if you do, or “No” if you don’t.
2. Disguising Opinions or Advice
Sometimes this phrase is used to offer unsolicited advice or a nosy opinion without being direct.
Example: “Don’t you want to wear a jacket?” is often a polite way of saying “I think you should wear a jacket because it’s cold.”
Example: “Don’t you want to settle down and have a family?” can be a way of pushing traditional societal expectations.
3. Seeking Validation or Engagement
The phrase can also be a way for someone to prompt you to ask them more questions about a topic they want to discuss.
Example: “Don’t you want to ask about my vacation?” implies the speaker is waiting for your permission to share details they are excited about.
4. Guilt-Tripping or Judgment
In some contexts, it can feel like a judgment on your parenting or personal choices.
Example: Being asked “Don’t you want to hold your baby?” while you are busy preparing formula can feel like an implication that you are being uninvolved or lazy.
