Thanksgiving Day

i added the "Hord addition" carport to my driveway apron so you can park your bike and charge when you make another epic epic trip like the last one to california.

i just used it to take the tranny out of my honda wagon so i could work on the clutch. twice!

ps: bitcoins just pushed to $1114.

>>>>>>
It seems only yesterday — it was only yesterday — that bitcoin went soaring past $1,000, popping eyeballs everywhere. But as most of America gears up to tuck into some turkey on Thursday, profit-takers seemed nowhere to be seen, as the virtual currency sailed past that big level to tap a new high of $1,170 over at Mt. Gox, last changing hands at $1,143.90 (albeit in low volumes).

Great for the Winklevoss twins, bad news for people like James Howell, a Brit who tossed a hard drive that held $7.5 million worth of bitcoins, based on the latest levels over $1,000. Poor Howell, his hard drive is now buried somewhere in a landfill that’s as big as a soccer field and four or five feet deep.

And with the rising value of the currency, bitcoin theft stories are going to get even more common. Two days ago, a Denmark-based exchange says it had more than $1 million worth of bitcoins taken in a robbery that lasted a few days. The victim, Bitcoin Internet Payment Services — believed to be the biggest exchange in Europe — was hit by two huge denial-of-service attacks. The Danish provider was swamped by traffic that overloaded its site, “despite several layers of protection”, it said.

Unsentimental bitcoin won’t be missing out on the busiest shopping week of the year either, holding its own event — a Bitcoin Black Friday involving hundreds of merchants. One of those, Gyft, lets people use bitcoins to buy gift cards with big retailers such as Target TGT , Sears SHLD , Gap GPS , Toys R Us and more.

The speed at which bitcoin has been galloping away inspired ZeroBlock — a bitcoin digital news, information and data aggregator — to recently push out its app to Android phones, adding to its existing Apple version. But some remain convinced that the virtual currency is doomed. Edward Hadas, economics editor of Reuters Breakingviews, said in a blog Wednesday that bitcoin developers are trying to prove that money can be successfully privatized, but says history shows money not issued by governments is always doomed.

“Bitcoin exemplifies some of the problems of private money: Its value is uncertain, its legal status is unclear, and it could easily become valueless if users lose faith,” Hadas says.
“Besides, if bitcoin ever really started to take off, governments would either ban it or take over the system,” partly due to worries about the stability of a shadow monetary system or due to self-preservation worries, he notes.
Bitcoin, Hadas says, is appealing because “governments are not fully living up to the responsibility that comes with state-sponsored money. Bitcoin, or something like it, will thrive until the authorities do better.”

Still, bitcoin mania continues to bloom like tulips in springtime.

I can’t believe a bitcoin is worth more than my entire Smurf collection. I have made a terrible mistake.
 

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Depends on how you look at it: some people sure view my usual Thanksgiving assomehow tragic, home alone, going to this restaurant close to closing so the crowd will have thinned out. Maybe the fact I can do this is something to be thankful for.

Several years ago a niece who's about my age came to live with me after a divorce. Because her mother, my older sister, was divorced and living with mom and dad, the niece and I grew up more like brother and sister. This turn of events got things back to being that way, her kids actually believed I was their mother's brother.

And immediately I was doing what I have always done with my nieces and nephews when they moved in since before I was 10: I started taking care of the kids, I cooked, took them where they had to go, taught one to read. And the niece remarked that I had been the only one in the only one in the family that grew up ready to be a parent, yet I was the one that didn't become one as a teenager.

But who was there to be the mother? Certainly not the one shortlived girlfriend from my teen years, who abruptly dumped me when an older guy with money came looking for a trophy wife. She came back when I was in college, offering to take up where we left off, pointing out that now she's been married her attitude had changed about. . .certain activities which she now felt enthusiasm for. Yeah, right, she's on husband #5 right now, unless. . .well, unless she's moved on to #6, I don't keep track.

Perhaps that younger girl from the block when we were growing up? Her behavior was beyond the age difference, that one wasn't growing up. Her only friends were two girls 7 years younger than her. I didn't recognize her when she turned up again as an. . ."Adult." I'm sure she had some plastic surgery, that can't be the same face. When the niece came to visit, she didn't recognize this one either. She called her "Striking" (My compliments to the doctor, the face was a work of art) and "Evil." So when a local resident who "Worked in television" donated $1 million to save a classic old theater, she became obsessed with me. Well, I'd said I "Worked in television," but did I LOOK like I could give away a million at a time?

So when I didn't respond to her (Hey, I don't do evil. Not even cute evil, okay?) But she didn't spend all that money on that face to have only SOME men do as she says. She starts her little war of words. Not directly, just to customers at the restaurant, never figuring on some of them being people I know who therefore complain to the manager and get her a warning her job was in danger.

I could go on, say about the one from college who was having me meet her somewhere only so she could stand me up and laugh about it at school the next Monday. She turns up from time to time to try to kill me, for whatever reason. But you get the idea, the ONLY reason I don't have a family of my own is, it just hasn't gone well.

So I goto this little restaurant here that has the great Thanksgiving Dinner. It would be real easy to be bitter about sitting there alone, missing the great thanksgivings of my childhood. Except this is Thanksgiving around my family. Think of the alcohol consumed. Think of the pills swallowed. I have a LOT of older brothers and sisters. And at the last second here's Ma, no slouch at popping those painkillers, sends me off to get whatever, as in don't come back without it under pain of death. How did she always know what the first store was going to be out of ?

I suppose I was angry about it as a kid, but what about now and being thankful for what I missed? Mom's intentions were evil, here at age 10-12 I was the one telling people they'd had enough to drink and to start behaving like ADULTS. (Won't happen.) If they listened it ruined Mom's fun so she didn't want me there. At least Dad suffered in silence.

So my whole family won't be together for this or any thanksgiving, some may never be in the same room again. But that niece will have all her siblings over eventhough a couple have problems of their own. And her mother, my sister, will be there. The niece says she got a new lease on life when she was living with me, finishing high school and giving up the things that are guaranteed to cause problems. They wouldn't have rehab for it if it wasn't destroying you. Her mom is clean now, too.

I have gone for thanksgiving before, but they're in another state now and the trip wouldn't work. It was still nice to think about how I hadn't screwed anything up. All that I came from, I had not turned out the same. I even had the good sense to turn down trouble when it offered a good time. ( The one old girlfriend who was more favorably disposed towards doing things was cute with her REAL face.)

How many guys do I know that got married just TRYING to believe everything will be okay? In the first weeksrealizing they made a big mistake. One particular guy I grew up with, to whom I said "I'm bbegging ya, I'm PLEADING with ya, get that woman out of your life." Instead he married her, she has made his life a living hell, why couldn't he see that would happen?

So this woman I've known for awhile (Not well at all) seems to have a new attiitude toward me. Youknow how some people seem worried you're going to try to engage them in a conversation? That one boyfriend she had for awhile I thought was such a great match for her seems to be gone. Suddenly she's coming talking to me, telling me this going to school just a little while she works is about to end, she's gradating this spring. . . .

. . . .Or maybe I'm just imagining things. But I'm just glad I never screwed my life up and I'm in a position to make something happen if the opportunity arises.

Before I left the restaurant I heard the assistant manager complain that he'd already given up his thanksgiving for a 15 hour day, now they wanted the same for Christmas and he'd miss the time with his kids and he wouldn't do it. I had to tell him he was right, didn't have an answer to the problem but he should make time for his family. Sounds like there's nothing to be avoided there and everything to be missed.

And it may have been no fun being there, but at least I enjoy making a big joke about my miserable life. When I got home I started reading the board. This post not only got me started writing, it reminded me I'd brought home my piece of pumpkin pie, which would otherwise have spent the night in the car.

Let's be thankful for Mr. Kingfish.
 
thanksgiving is for plumbers. it is when they make their big money working overtime to clear all the clogged drains and toilets.

now twitter has hashtag #walmartfights so people can keep up with the joy of 'christmas is coming, cheap tvs'.

bitcoins went to $1200 today. that guy in britain is digging up the landfill to recover his buried hard drive with 7.5 million bitcoins.
>>>>>
MADRID (MarketWatch) -- Bitcoin continued to push higher Friday, touching a new record of $1,242 before pulling back to around $1,183. The virtual currency took out Wednesday's $1,000 high on Thanksgiving Day. The run-up for bitcoin got new life after a congressional hearing earlier this month that effectively gave the currency an official blessing. The currency also elbowed into the holiday shopping season with its own Bitcoin Black Friday promotion involving hundreds of merchants.
 
Hello Everyone,

So, what are you working on this holiday weekend? I am working on my winch
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=83869

I hope to have it wired and running today.

What are you guys working on.

Matt
 
Right on Matt, have a good one and enjoy the day!

I'm stuck in my "job town" away from family this year but I got some Bafang brake sensors to rework for Magura hydro rim brake levers. Exciting, huh?
 
Hey, it's Happy Thanksgiving time. So I saw the wife of a guy who used to live and work here in town. He got another job and they bought a house a ways away, but she still works here, even today. He asks "You still don't have a wife. . . " No. ". . . .Or a husband." Excuse me?

Ah but that's nothing. I saw a guy who used to live a few blocks from the gas station he was sitting in his truck at. Before he went nuts. Things had been happening to him. Like the divorce, he kept the house. Then he was in the front yard and went around back with the door still open. Went he went back inside he heard the shower, leading to him finding this old guy (Call him Grandpa) who was a bit indignant at the guy pulling him out of there. So then came the return of Grandma and her brother. And our hero noticed there were things missing. When they saw the door open and him not handy, they decided to see what they could take. Including a shower. The other two came back for more.

I barely knew him, but I was aware of some of it as he lost his job in the bad economy and simply went off the deep end as more things happened. The sheer pressure of it broke him. Seems to be doing better now, but trying to rent rooms out to people who did things once they were in his home played a part in him losing it, both mentally AND the house.

It wasn't just the old neighborhood he was coming to from his sister's house in another town. Inside was the Granddaughter of Grandma and Grandpa. She comes from a long line of it, I'll tell you. Grandpa's younger sister not long ago tried to hold up a convenience store by hitting the cashier over the head to knock him out but couldn't seem to hit him hard enough. When he fled to the back she and her partner barricaded him in and tried to open the register. When that didn't work they carried the register with them down the street, where the police (Barricading the guy didn't block his celphone) spotted them. I should be glad that, outside of my Mother and several brothers and sisters, my relatives on both sides are good people. Though in another state, darn it.

So I've known this girl, who was growing up with my same motive, to just not be like the rest of our families. When they came to arrest her mother a few years back they didn't take her too because she was working downtown and no stranger to people, the police knew better. Oh, by the way, Mr. Crazy was framed at one point, the police figured the matter out but not before he got put through more on his way downhill. Through it all he was trying to look out for the granddaughter of these people who'd burglarized his house, half jokingly calling her his 'Daughter' when he was sticking up for her at times.

Which became uncomfortable for her at times but then he was also someone she really could talk to while she was growing up and she admits he made a difference. But once he was flipping out you have to remember, he wasn't REALLY family. Even though he's been doing better she hasn't been so accepting.

So I mentioned to her that he was outside, she did that thing where she sighed and said 'I know.' He never had kids of her own, she never had a real father figure beyond him. Most people don't understand so many of the ways the holidays can be hard on people.

When I was leaving I told him that she seemed like she'd talk to him if he went in. He said he had to get going. Sure, he's going to his sisters' and he won't be alone on Thanksgiving. Not really, eh?

And for those of us who have a hard time finding something to be thankful for, we can remember it's only one day.
 
I'm thankful that this month has been a windfall and I'm more than covered in terms of financial werewithal to complete the near-term projects on the horizon with ease. I'm also thankful, that it potentially puts me that much closer to building my dream house, lol.

I notice that google imaging "Dream house", I'm getting a lot of pictures of houses with pools. Yep, that's going to be the central focus in my dream house! Literally. With the help of my auger, I plan on excavating the pool by hand probably over a couple of months.

My roomate asked me "Do you consider yourself lucky?", I thought no... but now I'm starting to realize... when I go about creating or finding and chasing opportunity, I more often than not get pretty lucky, lol.
 
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