It’s cheaper to just send him out of the solar system.

Swimming.

Swimming two lengths of the pool was a requirement for graduating high school. They got me a college student tutor. I tried and tried and never got good enough to pass. They let me slide, I suppose because they could see I was trying.

Sportzing generally has never been my thing. I learned to ride a bicycle without a problem, and I can throw and catch a frisbee. That’s about it.

Slippery/sliding/rolling things underfoot.

I wanted to learn how to skateboard when I was a kid. I tried for several weeks, with a friend trying to teach me. I got tired of hurting myself, and gave up.

I know people don’t “grasp it easily”, but most people eventually get the hang of it, and it doesn’t seem to take them long.

Over the years I’ve tried roller skates, ice skates, and skiing. And, failed at all of them.

Twenty minutes to download a 1MB image.

Yes, really. 9600 baud modem.

ASCII art was popular then, and before: https://www.asciiart.eu/

The list is long and varied.

Can’t afford: New floors and AC in my house (~$20K)

Can’t justify: a XGIMI Aura 3 Max 4K 120Hz UST Projector ($2K)

Can’t afford: A camper van (~$60K)

Can’t justify: A new PC (~$3500)

One thing I did justify recently was $2K on a new bed. My old bed was over 20 years old.

Mitigations:

1. Use a range hood that vents outside, every time
   This is the single biggest lever. A range hood vented to the outdoors at high fan speed captures 80–90% of NO₂ before it disperses into the rest of the home. Run it before you start the burner, leave it on the entire time you’re cooking, and run it for 5–10 minutes after you finish.
   If your “range hood” recirculates (charcoal filter, no exterior duct), it does nothing meaningful for NO₂. Many over-the-range microwaves are recirculating-only — check the back of yours. Replacement with a true vented hood is the highest-value indoor-air upgrade most kitchens can make. [Editor’s note: replacing with an outdoor vent is expensive to very expensive, depending on where in the house the vent needs to be. Better to learn this when choosing a house to buy, local laws do not always require outdoor vented hoods over gas stoves.]

2. Open windows during and after cooking
   If you don’t have a vented hood, the next-best move is cross-ventilation: open a window in the kitchen and another window or door across the home to drive airflow. This is less effective than a range hood (slower exchange) but still drops NO₂ by 50%+ during cooking compared to closed-house operation.

Powered doesn’t mean the vent exits outside.

Vents that vent to the outside over gas hoods need to be required by law, otherwise, it may, or may not.

When I bought my house, I’d never seen a range vent that didn’t vent to the outside, so I didn’t know such things existed. I didn’t check, and mine doesn’t. It’d be at least $8K to have a hole cut in my roof for the vent to run to the outside.

For which I shall gladly pay you on Tuesday.

Clearly, the one, right choice.

Top marks.

Some of the opposite for me.

I thought I would be lonely. I am mostly alone now, but don’t feel lonely.

I expected to have worse back pain, but since my 40’s it’s gotten better, and I almost never have back pain now.

Two cups of caffeinated coffee a day reduces the risk of dementia: https://youtu.be/gy0FW6xj21o

I have two cups of caffeinated in the morning, and then switch to decaf the rest of the day. Maybe that would work for you.

I have a tablet next to my bed. I suppose a phone would world, too. Usually, when I wake up around 3, I can get back to sleep, but sometimes, not. Then, I pick an article on https://aeon.co/ and start reading. They’re long articles about things I mostly don’t care about. That has me yawning in no time, and clears my mind.

Usually works, not always.

Hope these changes will make using our restroom a more enjoyable experience.

If this doesn’t work, you could add a plinko game

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/two-florida-deputies-arrested-for-flock-alpr-abuse-after-tcpalm-query/ar-AA2dhkCD

Two Florida deputies arrested after TCPalm’s query of Flock, ALPR use Story by Jack Lemnus, Treasure Coast Newspapers

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office announced Sept. 30 it arrested two deputies following allegations of misusing automated license plate reading cameras.

The agency said it conducts regular audits of its license plate reader systems, it didn’t start investigating until TCPalm asked Aug. 20 about these deputies’ use of Flock Safety cameras. The deputies joined a growing list of now 27 law enforcement officials who have been placed on leave, fired or arrested because of a TCPalm-USA TODAY joint investigation into license plate readers.

One was Deputy Travis Stanton, 33, who ran the plates of a 17-year-old girl he was romantically interested in, said Sheriff Bob Gualtieri at a Sept. 30 news conference.

He used license plate readers and other databases to find out where the girl lived and would frequently show up at her high school and the fast food restaurant where she worked, Gualtieri said.

Even though she told Stanton that she was a minor, he continued to hit on her, officials said.

Stanton accidentally recorded one of these encounters at the restaurant where he acknowledged she was a minor. He asked her if she wanted to see a picture of a dead body, which she declined. He then told her he received a “hit” on her vehicle from the Sheriff’s Office’s license plate reader system alerting him that her license was suspended for truancy.

This was a lie, the sheriff said.

After TCPalm inquired about his abnormal searches using Flock cameras, Stanton was questioned by supervisors.

“Curiosity got the better of me," he told them.

Stanton was subsequently placed on administrative leave and arrested on Sept. 30.

The second deputy was Carl Gwinn, 57, who the sheriff said used license plate readers, including Flock, to track a “woman he was interested in dating.”

Gwinn searched her plate 300 times, 207 of which were off duty, the sheriff said.

“This high number of queries for this license plate was brought to our attention through a media inquiry,” Gualtieri said.

Supervisors found he had arrested the 35-year-old woman in 2010. He bought her jewelry and even put her and her mother up at a place in Indian Rocks Beach, the sheriff said. But she wanted to remain friends.

When supervisors asked Gwinn about his searches, he said it was “official use.”

He was arrested Sept. 30 and charged with four counts of misusing computer systems.

TCPalm’s original inquiry stemmed from searches made a Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office employee called “S ACC.” The user searched two distinct license plates a combined 670 times between February and September 2025. In the “reason” field on the Flock audit log, the user explained each search as “FLOCK API SEARCH.”

There are no staff at the Sheriff’s Office with the initials “S ACC,” according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement master employee rolls.

“S ACC” stands for “Service Account,” a special program the agency created to search license plate readers across its three vendors: Flock, Vigilant Solutions and Axon Enterprises, a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson originally told TCPalm on Sept. 21 the surveillance was “related to ongoing investigations, and all queries were valid.” When a reporter asked Gualtieri at a Sept. 2 news conference if there were any active investigations into Flock misuse, he said no.

On Sept. 30, the Sheriff’s Office informed TCPalm it had changed course.

"As a result of your original inquiry and after further research into our additional ALPR vendors, we did identify a misuse,” a spokesperson said Sept. 30, referring to automated license plate readers.

TCPalm and USA TODAY analyzed over 75 million searches of Flock license plate reader data spanning 3½ years and over 6,300 agencies. While this is a fraction of the total number of searches by Flock users, the analysis did not find anything similar to the Sheriff’s Office’s service account.

Flock records typically show information such as officer initials, case numbers and license plates. That helped reporters detect signs of potential misuse, such as an officer searching for a single person repeatedly over months.

Because the Sheriff’s Office’s service account is shared by multiple users, it is impossible for the public to know who is using it. Ensuring the technology is used appropriately is effectively left in the hands of the agency.

“We are able see the user on our end and can verify if the queries are valid, which they are,” a spokesperson said Sept. 21 before the announcement of the two deputies’ arrests.

Four other law enforcement personnel in Florida have been investigated or arrested since August because of TCPalm and USA TODAY’s analysis.

In Sarasota, Officer Cory Waiters was fired, arrested and charged with tracking an ex-girlfriend’s car at least 335 times over two months.

The Fort Pierce Police Department arrested former officer Josepher Crutchfield and charged him with using Flock cameras to stalk his ex-girlfriend.

Crutchfield was previously suspended two days in 2022 for inappropriate sexual comments and other behavior, according to an internal investigation. That included sniffing hair, touching the back of necks, tickling hands, caressing arms, showing videos of animals having sex, and twisting an officer’s engagement ring while petting her hand, according to the report.

He continued to work with the department until he resigned during the Flock investigation in September.

A week after Crutchfield’s resignation, the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office informed TCPalm it had placed Sgt. John Finnegan on paid administrative leave as it investigated his Flock use. A screenshot of an internal search audit after Flock Safety redacted most information used by the public to know how the technology is being used by police. Flock network audits used to include information like officer initials, case numbers and license plates.

Four days later, the Vero Beach Police Department announced it had placed Officer Chayse Allen Hatfield on administrative leave. Officials said he searched a vehicle connected to his household 107 times.

“The Vero Beach Police Department was recently contacted by a news organization regarding allegations involving the potential misuse of the Flock Safety system by a department member,” the Police Department announced on its Facebook, one day after TCPalm reached out about Hatfield’s Flock use. “The department takes these allegations seriously and has initiated a formal investigation into the matter.”

Upvote for alliteration.

No thanks.

In my case, they wasted their money.

But, yeah, too many people have been duped.

A quick search brings up a lot of references, and a company that makes them.

I suppose it might be one big ruse, but I’m leaning toward believing they’re real.