I'm going out with my daughter to look at a car for her. She's an adult, she's buying it, I'm just along mostly for moral support. Doing the dad thing. However, it's out of my wheelhouse, and I want to make sure we don't miss anything.

What sort of things to you look for or check when shopping for a used car?

Do you have any suggestions?

"A serious sentence is necessary to reaffirm a foundational principle of our criminal justice system: no one is above the law, particularly those entrusted with administering it," the DOJ says in its sentencing memo.

Etch, my daughter's guinea pig, crossed the rainbow bridge today.

He was her emotional support animal and went through college with her. He was a very good boy.

I wonder if they'll ticket the school buses that speed through the school zones.

I realized a while ago that in my whole career I've never worked for a for-profit corporation.

Recently I've been wondering if non-profit corporations could succeed in areas typically dominated by for-profit corporations. I'm in the U.S.

There are certainly plenty of non-profits functioning, employing people, and providing services to the public. Schools, Hospitals, public radio & TV, etc. But what areas are there where non-profits could exist and survive where they don't currently?

No Hello

When I'm using Android Auto, my phone will intermittently lose cell signal. It doesn't happen all the time. Sometimes I'll go weeks or months without it happening, then other times it will happen several times in a single trip.

There have been a couple times when the phone seemed to be acting up before it completely lost the signal. The only way to recover is to restart the phone.

It has never happened when not using Android Auto.

It happens in my current car, a 2022 Honda Ridgeline with wired android auto support. I recently bought a wireless adapter for the car, and it happens with that as well. It also happens when my phone is plugged into our 2020 Honda Civic.

It happened with my previous phones when I was using Android Auto in my 2011 Honda Ridgeline which only had an aftermarket Bluetooth adapter.

Current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S10. Previous phone was an LG Nexus 5x.

It seems that the only common issue is Android Auto.

Has anyone else experienced this?

What's your favorite production of A Christmas Carol?

Include as much detail as you can to explain why it's your favorite and what you like about it. Feel free to include your least favorite as well.

I'll start.

My favorite is the 1999 TNT version.

What I like about it:

It has an incredible cast including Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge and Richard Grant as Bob Cratchit (also Joel Grey, Dominic West, Saskia Reeves, Ian McNeice, etc.). The story is well realized. It stays true to source material and fills in where necessary for the television production. I particularly enjoy seeing the travels of the Ghost of Christmas Present as he visits various people to spread his blessing. I also like how Richard Grant's Cratchit reacts when first encountering Scrooge in his redeemed state.

If I had to give a runner-up, I'd say the 1951 version with Alistair Sim as Scrooge. I really love his Christmas Day performance after he's repented. The playful, manic, childlike joy he expresses really touches me.

After that, it would be the Muppet Christmas Carol, with Statler and Waldorf playing Scrooge's business partners, Jacob and Bob Marley.

My least favorite is the 2009 version with Jim Carrey. I can't get past the uncanny valley effect. It seems more gimmick than art to me.

What is your favorite "epic" movie?

By "epic", I'm referring to the old-school style of movie. Expansive story, massive production kind of movie.

I'm currently rewatching Lawrence of Arabia.

I had ordered a couple things for my wife from the Disney Store recently. PJ's as a Christmas present. However, I already received everything I had ordered.

Today another box showed up with my name and address, but it's nothing I ordered.

I just tried chatting with a cast member via their online chat, but I don't think the person I'm chatting with can wrap their head around the concept.

I know I don't actually have to do anything about an unsolicited package, but I'm trying to be nice.

They keep asking me about the things I had ordered.

Title covers it.

Is Tora! Tora! Tora! a Christmas movie?

Your personal information, including Social Security numbers, may have been accessed during a data incident involving the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

Back in August, the Attorney General's website, email and landline phones were offline. Days later, the office confirmed that a "cyber incident" had occurred.

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) says he “should have quit” his 2022 U.S. Senate race after suffering a stroke four days before the primary.

Penn appears to have experienced a cybersecurity breach on Friday after a series of mass emails were sent to students, faculty, alumni, and parents from accounts linked to the Graduate School of Education.

The email:

For many years, we would get very few trick-or-treaters coming to our door. We could never figure out why.

Last year, the weather on Halloween was very nice, so we left our front door open.

We could see people walking past our house. A few adults with young kids came up, but most of the crowd just walked past.

We heard one group of young teenagers discussing our house from the sidewalk. One of the girls said, "That's the creepy house!", and they all continued on down the street.

Our house is a 131-year-old Victorian, so I can see how it might look a little Addams-family-esque, but we have our lights on and a jack-o'-lantern out front, so we're clearly ready to hand out candy.

At the end of Halloween last year, I said I'd make a sign to encourage people to come to our house this year.

I took a piece of scrap plywood and painted it flat black. Then I covered it with painter's tape, used stencils to lay out letters, and cut the letters out with an X-ACTO knife:

Thanks to my constant idle YouTube scrolling, I've learned that you need to paint over the tape with the background color, so I put a coat of black on.

I painted over that with white.

I painted over the white with two coats of UV-reactive paint.

I went back to the X-ACTO knife to carefully peel away the remaining tape.

As it turns out, I should have put a second coat of black over the tape before I put the white on, but the specks of white that peeked out were easy to cover up after the tape was off.

I attached another piece of black plywood to the back with a hinge to make a stand, and mounted a blacklight on the bottom.

What do you think?

If I had more time (and energy), I'd attach a piece of wood to the base so the blacklight could be mounted a little farther away. However, I'm very pleased with the result.

I didn't know about the rest of you, but I don't bring my phone into the shower with me.

Edit: Sheesh. Some of you folks need this.

Dictionary Definitions from Oxford Languages

up·lift·ing /ˌəpˈliftiNG/

adjective

adjective: uplifting

inspiring happiness, optimism, or hope. "an uplifting story of triumph over adversity"

We're having sweet corn with dinner, which means the girls get to have corn silk which is one of their favorite treats.

Rose:

Daisy:

“Some people think now we have to double down on those things or we must become more progressive or more extreme,” said Fetterman, who has renounced the “progressive” label in recent years, continuing, “That’s absolutely not true. The seven or eight states that are going to determine who’s going to be our next president, you know, we have to win in those states, and I understand what that takes.”

If I am understanding this right, the mistake Fetterman thinks Democrats made was not being enough like Republicans. When they were shifting right before, they weren't shifting fast or far enough.