Post Race!

[dday9]

Geaux Tigers!

[dday9]

Finally 1-0 to start the season.

[dday9]

With Texas looking like -redacted- and Bama looking even worse, I'm so hopeful this year!

[dilettante]

Random thing.

Today I pulled out an old SmartMedia flash memory card that I had bought way back, maybe 2001 or so. This had last been written to in 2010.

It reads just fine. RTF documents, XLS files, even an MDB and it all works fine.

I guess the earlier lower-capacity stuff was more data-durable than later products. I have some name-brand USB drives that are much newer that start getting errors within just a few years of writing to them.

[Shaggy Hiker]

How good a comparison is it? Writing daily vs writing once every two decades might not compare all that well.

Still, I wouldn't be surprised to find that you are right about that. More and more memory is being packed into the same space. That can only be done by shrinking the components. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they become less durable as they get smaller.

[dilettante]

For the last few weeks it seems like every weekday (including yesterday, Labor Day) at 8:32 AM I hear a steam train's whistle.

I'm not far from where the main tracks cut diagonally through the community, but I can't see them from home. I need to get over to the main crossing early one day soon. It'll be interesting to see whether PM 1225 is making test runs or what.

It doesn't seem to be passing through. Perhaps it is just making runs out from where it "lives" to about this point and then reversing home.

[Shaggy Hiker]

There have been a few terrific restorations taking place. One of the largest engines visited here...and I missed it. It's certainly worth having a look.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I've ridden the Durango-Silverton a couple times. Those are steam trains. They ran on coal when I saw them, but they've now converted over to oil or diesel...after setting the valley on fire. Coal throws sparks. Not all that many, but even one is enough in a tinderbox. Coal was a bit miserable when riding the train, too, as you'd get ash in your eyes unless you wore eye protection or were towards the back of the train.

[dilettante]

I'm no stock trader, and at this late age I tend to be conservative about where my money perches.

But I've noticed that when interest rates rose to modest levels by historical standards, a lot of people diversified into cash for more stability.

While a market bubble seems to have been puffed up quite a bit lately, instead of cash moving back for a fast buck... a lot seems to have moved the other way into commodities and even gold and silver.

Both gold and silver seem to be breaking out to the upside again right now. That seems to be driven by geopolitics, central banks, de-dollarization, etc.

But the upward climb doesn't seem to be pulling in the retail buyers and "stackers" who instead have been selling off holdings to turn a buck. Part of this is probably foolishly trying to treat metals as investments rather than wealth stores and hedges against shrinking currencies. But a lot might also be people who shouldn't have been in this market now needing to cash out because they are struggling with bills.

I get the idea that not a lot of individuals own much silver, and fewer own much gold. If we set aside basic coin collectors and those who've received gifts of mint sets and the like, there must be a very small population of these "retail" owners of metals.

So is it mostly preppers and nutjobs? Stacking silver as an alternative to Star Wars dolls?

Or are there smarter folks among their numbers, quietly sticking another ounce of gold into a sock every so many months?

It's all pretty novel to me. Nothing I grew up with, and as far as I know nobody I've met has been a gold bug.

[dday9]

To the moon

[gaouser]

I licked

[gaouser]

my shoelace

[Shaggy Hiker]

I get the idea that not a lot of individuals own much silver, and fewer own much gold. If we set aside basic coin collectors and those who've received gifts of mint sets and the like, there must be a very small population of these "retail" owners of metals.

So is it mostly preppers and nutjobs? Stacking silver as an alternative to Star Wars dolls?

Totally agree, and I know one of them. He would fit into the "nutjob" category. He's a good guy, but he's been bitten bad by the gold bug for as long as I've known him. He's even gone on vacations centered around panning for gold. He's willing to talk it up to anybody for any reason, though he's not pushy about it. It's just his hedge against...well, pretty much everything. I think he's the type of person you are describing. There's no prepper in him, it's just something of an obsessive focus on metals, especially gold.

[dday9]

Totally disagree. I didn’t read anything past your first two words.

[dilettante]

Weird.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Which two words? Is "I'm" counted as one word or two? If it's two, then it's reasonable not to agree with that. If it's only one, then the first two words are "I'm no". It's hard not to agree with that.

[Shaggy Hiker]

And that's even weirder.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I have three days to recover from my last trip before I go on my next trip. It will be colder.

[dilettante]

Seems likely.

[wes4dbt]

Which two words? Is "I'm" counted as one word or two? If it's two, then it's reasonable not to agree with that. If it's only one, then the first two words are "I'm no". It's hard not to agree with that

I think he disagree with your first two words. "totally agree"

[Shaggy Hiker]

Well, I'll disagree with that, too. Just to join in.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I was expecting a cold storm next week. That would be bad, since I need high visibility to see the fish. It looks like the storm might turn out to be strategic. It might hold off while we get to the places we need to get to, then encourage us to not go to the places we don't NEED to get to. It might be fairly cold, though. I was sweating pretty hard, despite being at fairly high altitude (perhaps 6,000 feet). Even walking in the water wasn't much better. Next week...it might be freezing at night with highs getting only into the fifties. That will make walking in the water a bit colder.

[wes4dbt]

Is this just a daytime trip or do you spend the night?

[Shaggy Hiker]

It may be the whole week, though it will probably be just three or four days.

[dday9]

I think he disagree with your first two words. "totally agree"

I don’t think. Of course, I stopped after the first two words.

[dilettante]

I would think a big problem with being a gold bug is that each acknowledgement of it tends to imperil one's personal security.

[Shaggy Hiker]

That can be deftly avoided by not acknowledging it. Be it. Make it your reality, then it isn't a deviation.

You don't have to overlook all that much, either. Gold does have value today and likely will have value tomorrow. The fact that other things can gain more value can be overlooked because that's a different thing.

[wes4dbt]

I don't see gold being any different than any other non fixed rate investment. Some come with higher risks but tend to have higher gains and also higher loses in down times. If your buying actual gold bars there's little chance of it being worthless.

I've never been one to buy single stocks or commodities. Mutual funds were my choice. At this point in my life I have moved much more into fixed income.

[Shaggy Hiker]

It is better that your income be fixed rather than broken.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I might get rained out this coming week. The weather is looking pretty wet. Fish don't mind being wet, but rain makes it nearly impossible to see them. With a forecast of 50% chance of rain every day...it's iffy.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'm just waiting for the day when Google decides that I'm not human.

[dday9]

iHuman v2.1

[Shaggy Hiker]

I!Human v2.1

[dday9]

Mine was Apple, yours looks like bash.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The rain, 'tis plain, hath caused us to refrain. I won't be counting fish this week, but next.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Now I have to figure out lunch.

[wes4dbt]

No rain here, just several days of really nice weather in the eighties. We rarely get rain this time of year except in the mountains. Thunderstorms and lightening. With the lightening being a real problem, causing fires.

My favorite time of year for camping was September, especially the first half, the second half could have some pretty cold nights. But after labor day and all the kids are back in school, the camp grounds were pretty empty.

[dday9]

Went fishing with my son today and caught a couple of bream, but released them because they were like 3 and 4 inches respectively.

[dday9]

Personally, I much prefer to salt water fish, but my son's been watching a YouTuber going fresh water pond fishing and kept catching "bluegill".

[dday9]

I had no idea what he was talking about until I looked it up and realized that it's bream.