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Post by billhammond on Jul 29, 2024 12:00:22 GMT -5
Dealing with some business email then off to Carmax to test drive a 2023 Ridgeline. I like the Ridgeline, which is basically a Honda Pilot with a pickup bed added. Unibody construction means they handle and ride well, all-wheel drive is standard and the transmission has nine speeds. Not a truck designed to tow great weights and it won't do any serious off-roading, but it's a pretty practical and versatile vehicle for city folk. |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 29, 2024 8:45:58 GMT -5
Good morning. I call upon the collective wisdom here to riddle me this: I stopped at a drive-up coffee shack yesterday for a cold-brew, and paid with a credit card. Today when I logged into my Outlook e-mail account, there was a receipt for the purchase. How did they get my e-mail address? Never mind, got a 'splanation from a techie in my office: It's happening more and more these days. There are credit card processors (Square is a common one) that automatically email you a receipt. They started popping up in restaurants during the pandemic so they could email you a receipt instead of dealing with printed copies. Ostensibly once you allow a Square vendor to email a receipt of your transaction, all future transactions with that card trigger an automatic receipt to your email. It's part of your profile, but the business doesn't actually have access to the email. I suspect some places must have "allow" checked as a default and of course one isn't looking to check for that. Disconcerting the first 50 times it happens to you.
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Post by billhammond on Jul 29, 2024 8:16:19 GMT -5
That said, he was a horrible pick for VP. And rather than help Trump's chances, it actually highlights Trump's weaknesses in the race. I agree. Seems like most of the people excited by him were voting Trump anyway. It doesn't appear to be the typical shrewd and calculated pick one would expect. Unless Trump is dreaming of a third term and needs a yes man? The book is in the queue. Don't understand your last sentence above -- is that an expression I've just never heard before? Supposedly, Trump wanted to pick ND Gov. Doug Burgum, but his sons wouldn't hear of it. |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 29, 2024 7:30:06 GMT -5
Good morning. I call upon the collective wisdom here to riddle me this:
I stopped at a drive-up coffee shack yesterday for a cold-brew, and paid with a credit card.
Today when I logged into my Outlook e-mail account, there was a receipt for the purchase.
How did they get my e-mail address?
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Post by billhammond on Jul 28, 2024 16:00:37 GMT -5
Does he have to play it off the police officer's arm? "Just hold very still, sir." He was allowed a drop and a club length. (And the cop didn't shoot him.) |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 28, 2024 15:07:21 GMT -5
The guy leading the 3M Open just hit a shot that wound up landing in the crook of a police officer's arm. Never hit the ground.
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Post by billhammond on Jul 28, 2024 8:10:38 GMT -5
Lewis Hamilton leads the Belgian GP -- Howard's dottir no doubt thrilled.
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Post by billhammond on Jul 28, 2024 7:52:49 GMT -5
I wish I had taken a picture of it, but somewhere south (Oklahoma, maybe?) on our road trip, there was a large Naxolone vending machine in a truckstop along the interstate, in an area with a lot of bikers. < Naloxone > |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 19:06:17 GMT -5
Trump's plane prepares to land at St. Cloud's grass airstrip.  |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 18:21:55 GMT -5
I googled “How much did Snoop Dog pay to carry the Torch” but it turned up nothing. I was sure he bought his way in. Then my wife googled a bunch of stuff about how Snoop involved with youth sports, how he gives back and the stuff he does for community. Turns out there are a lot worse people to emulate. Mike OK, rich stoners can do good things. So put them in the Olympic spotlight and encourage young people to achieve his champion-level toke numbers. |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 18:11:33 GMT -5
AP excerpt
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Former President Donald Trump on Saturday laid out his plans to wholeheartedly embrace cryptocurrency if elected for a second term, telling hundreds of cheering supporters of the digital tokens that he wants the U.S. to be a ''bitcoin superpower'' under his leadership.
In his keynote address at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, the Republican presidential nominee promised to make the United States the ''crypto capital of the planet'' and create a bitcoin ''strategic reserve'' using the currency that the government currently holds.
He also promised to remove Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler if elected and implement a crypto advisory council, teasing the crowd by asking attendees if anyone wanted to join.
''We will have regulations, but from now on the rules will be written by people who love your industry, not hate your industry,'' he said.
Trump's keynote address at the Bitcoin 2024 conference showed how radically his position on cryptocurrency has changed over time.
He was not always a fan of cryptocurrencies, writing on social media in 2019 that their ''value is highly volatile and based on thin air.''
He has embraced the digital currency in recent years, and in May, his campaign began accepting donations in cryptocurrency.
Throughout the nearly 50-minute speech, Trump repeatedly sought to contrast his support of cryptocurrency to the Biden's administration efforts to regulate the industry, telling the crowd that the federal government was ''blocking your way.'' Trump said he wanted cryptocurrency ''mined, minted and made'' in the United States.
The former president appealed to bitcoin fans by pointing to U.S. law enforcement seizures of the digital token.
''They took it away from you,'' he said. ''So, as I take steps to transform that vast wealth into a permanent national asset to benefit all Americans, today I repeat my promise to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht.''
Ulbricht created the underground drug-selling website Silk Road but was sentenced to life in prison after a judge held him responsible for six overdose deaths linked to his website. Some of the nearly 800 attendees who flocked to downtown Nashville to hear Trump speak wore ''Free Ross Day One'' hats, in a nod to Ulbricht's prison sentence.
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 17:11:10 GMT -5
That's money in the bank, right there!
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 17:10:32 GMT -5
Well my wife once vacuumed the garage floor. It’s something us guys don’t understand and we just have to accept that. It might get you 20 extra miles before your car's air filter needs changing. |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 16:48:43 GMT -5
OK, the drag last supper thing could be construed as offensive, or weird, or funny, Depends on your point of view. The mechanical horse was one of the coolest things I’ve seen. Lennon’s Imagine was spectacular. Well worthwhile finding on YouTube if you missed it. And a Celine Dion was beyond spectacular. I’m calling it the best opening ceremony I’ve seen. Mike And how wonderful that Snoop Dogg could play a key role. The kind of person we want our kids to emulate. |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 16:25:43 GMT -5
The outgoing traffic's going to be apocalyptic later tonight. But the vehicle occupants will be freshly filled with wisdom and inspiration. |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 16:11:16 GMT -5
Temp has reached 91 here, with a 70-degree dewpoint, so I'm hunkered down with the A/C set at 78, and watching PGA golf from the nearby TPC Twin Cities course, where the players are physically heat-relieved by steady, but gusty winds, but of course that is playing havoc with their play, as well.
I trust that Letson has survived a long outdoor wait to get into the hockey arena in St. Cloud for tonight's Trump/Vance rally. I mean, I just assume he's there.
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Post by billhammond on Jul 27, 2024 12:12:20 GMT -5
Back from a pleasant morning of plane-spotting at the MSP Viewing Area, followed by important foodie research at Centro, in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood. Brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays, and I thoroughly enjoyed two of these: Breakfast TacosNixta corn tortilla, scrambled eggs, potato, chorizo, poblano, pickled red onion, cheese, salsa cruda. Nixtamalized tortillas have become all the rage in Twin Cities Mexican eateries. Once you've had them, other corn tortillas just don't measure up. I chased the tacos with a nice Hibiscus Lemonade. This was a research trip because within a couple weeks, a fourth branch of Centro will open -- in Roseville!  |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 26, 2024 13:34:10 GMT -5
I'm on Muriel Anderson's mailing list and she mentioned her carbon fiber harp guitar. What a good application of carbon fiber -- strong, light, weatherproof. Hers is made by Emerald.  |
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Post by billhammond on Jul 26, 2024 11:55:25 GMT -5
One of the best concerts I ever attended was in the late 70s when Pat played the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee. I had a front-row seat, and he jogged out playing a Guild F-50R, JUST LIKE MINE!
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Post by billhammond on Jul 26, 2024 11:37:25 GMT -5
Yeah, but what the heck is up with running out of gas? Can they fix whatever's wrong with the gauge/monitoring system? With my Falcon the gauge got stuck at around half full. So I just knew I needed to fill the tank once a week (I chose Wednesdays). Apparently quite complex and spendy to address -- it seems to read accurately well beyond the half-empty point, so I am just gonna use the Falcon Method. |
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