Costco is sampling a Halal beef bacon

RE: https://floss.social/@pleia2/115690895443552801 I still have mine from my internship at IBM!

On ice this morning Brother Aleem was running his program when I heard a huge crash. I turned around to see him on the ice with blood pouring from his face. We had to order him to keep the pressure on it. By the time the ambulance showed up the bleeding had mostly stopped; he cut himself near […]

Finally got my Peregrine Falcon today. It was just perched there. Saw the front and back. The rangers on the bird walk were surprised that it was a lifer for me. Yeah, I really want to get a good look when it's a lifer, and today it finally happened. #birding

Gloomy day. The only bird I saw all day was a male Northern Cardinal at a neighbor's feeder. #birding

The big lake currently has a Common Loon and two Tundra Swans. I was lucky that the swans stayed put as I walked to the spot on the other side of the lake #birding

Listening to the tape of my youth: an unknown* pianist playing Liszt's Rhapsodie Espagnole. On the other side, a few of Liszt's Transcendental Etudes, also unknown artist** * I didn't know enough to note the artist back then! ** There may still be a record somewhere?

I was in the middle of Area Lake looking at a Brown Thrasher and a Gray Catbird having a territorial dispute with a Northern Mockingbird when the email from my violin teacher came. We moved our in-person lesson today to virtual tomorrow. I probably would have gone somewhere else this morning had […]

I wanted to look at the guys laying the Trex deck, but one of the guys needed better fitting pants

Am I GLAD to have wrapped up my career in science and computing before this Genesis thing.

Went to a spot I haven't been for a while, not because of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Tennessee Warbler, and Red-breasted Merganser sightings, but because of Orange-crowned Warbler. Birder Ed was so disappointed that I wanted to see such a "common" bird. He showed me the spot. It was cold and […]

The Chinese grocery store was busy! Spouse and I each got a big box of food at the hot food bar for $12.99 each, then I did some grocery shopping -- picked up 2 15-lb bags of rice for $10.99 each.

Our Thanksgiving guest of honor: #challurkey No. 12.

The way the field "AI" exploded in the last 5-10 years inevitably leads to some low-quality work by researchers (such as they were) who will not withstand the test of time. That they would use AI to generate peer reviews -- showing utmost disrespect for the scientific method -- is almost […]

No reports of Evening Grosbeak since a couple birders retroactively claimed they heard one four days ago. I was at a neighborhood retention pond when Evening Grosbeak came up on Merlin (I had it on for something else). It was loud and clear. I looked up and saw a bunch of European Starlings […]

I don't think Merlin sound ID is as good as it used to be. It's like AI Slop: as Merlin gets more popular, more people are making recordings. Most of these recordings are of dubious quality -- go do some of the Merlin Sound Quizzes to find out for yourselves; hard for me to not see the Sound […]

I went to my "usual" patch (which I have not been for a long time). Ran into one of the photographers who showed me a photo of a Red-headed Woodpecker caching a frog into a tree. Then I ran into ZZ Top, who had stories! Yes I did get the photographer to show the picture of the woodpecker and […]

I finally saw Mila xiaolongbao at a Costco and got myself a bag. It is definitely as good as everyone says! Mila is cheaper & much yummier than the *other* brand sold at Costco. Maybe I'm just hungry, but it is also way better than those at that famous Taiwanese place in Rockville (that I'm not […]

The Challurkey is on its way. #challurkey

LOL "scope in the car" Dude you drove all the way to the bottom of the bay with your scope and didn't lug it on the 0.7 mile paved trail to the viewing area??? #birding

I wish Secretary Duffy would concentrate on keeping the skies safe and leave the moral hectoring to me. I'm better at it.

I've now visited two places that had Evening Grosbeak and came up with nothing. I've learned that they are more like finches & this could be an irruption year, and I've watched several Cornell's Ontario Feeder Cam clips multiple times to get their calls ingrained in me. It'd be really cool to […]

Today we had a bird walk in the rain. I volunteered to carry my scope in case we had ducks. The Plant Guy asked me to scope the Potomac because there was "something interesting". I looked and found a male Common Goldeneye. We hollered for the rest of the […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

The orchestra "concert" went well. Our conductor brought in "ringers" like my last community orchestra: a bassoon, a double bass, and the most useful, a tympany (the tympanist's day job, such as it is, is publicist for the music school). I was a little bummed that I flubbed the difficult passage […]

After coming home from the rink this morning, I never made it out of the house again, but the birds came to me: in the morning, about 50 crows arranged themselves in the trees around the block; in the afternoon, a flock of Cedar Waxwings buzzed about outside the living room window. #birding

I'm sorry, I have to step down from my role propping up a massive hype cycle based on fraudulent financial claims and broad product misrepresentation, because my correspondence with a pedophile sex trafficker revealed that I'm an immoral misogynist

Went over the toe picks this morning...Icing my rib cage and knees until it's time to go #birding #figureskating

Yesterday I mentioned I listened to my Suzuki Level 1 graduation tape. Yeah, I *did* purchase a tape player that uses Audacity to convert tape audio to MP3. I found a way to install Audacity on my Chromebook. Alas, the tape player was not recognized by Chrome. It was a good casette tape player […]

About a month before my retirement my CI poly was to expire and I would not be able to access computing for my last few weeks on the job. I scheduled the poly. It was the worst experience ever because my examiner was definitely screwing with me (I hope she loses her job). My boss thought for […]

I finally laid my eyes on some American Pipit. No photos because I had to keep my hands on the scope so it wouldn't get blown away. I am still convinced that most people that checked off American Pipit on their lists around here were in the wrong habitats & heard it wrong #birding

I just listened to my Suzuki Level 1 graduation tape, where I played the Gavotte at the end of Book 1. Gosh I was good, but my intonation was not there. Then the lady that graded me came on. Back then my teacher and I listened to it, but obviously I didn't understand what was said. It's only […]

[US Pol] I've ignored everyone who said that EIGHT Democrats betrayed us & should resign, blah blah blah. The correct number is SEVEN: Angus King is an Independent. Actually Fetterman has been the Joe Manchin replacement for a while so he probably doesn't count either. Anyone who doesn't […]

[US Pol] I am angry that my senator Tim Kaine folded. OTOH is there some sort of backroom deal there to get this vote with the bare minimum needed, that is, were there more Dems for the deal or were they one short & Kaine, who probably will survive a primary, took one for the team (so to […]

I was at the big lake when two birders ran into me. I had to show them the faraway picture of two "Redhead"...they weren't sure either. The man said, "you know when you are on this side of the lake the ducks are on the other side, and when you get there they […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

This is what the inventory of vehicle rentals looks like at Enterprise in Crystal City. The manager told me I got the last car that was available in northern Virginia. The CEO of Hertz, Gil West, is appealing for an end to the government shutdown, saying flight […] [Original post on journa.host]

It was a fine day for the bird club's bird walk! Ducks have been moving in for the winter, and there were many Red-headed Woodpeckers. The co-lead of the walk is a botanist and he explained this is a good year for the kind of acorns that fit in Red-headed Woodpecker's mouth. #birding

When I worked Downtown, I tried to leave early on Fridays. Bad things always happen after 3 pm on Fridays. https://www.threads.com/@justinwolfers/post/DQxbyGWCGWX

I'm taking a class at the music school. It's basically an adult community orchestra that meets every Friday at noon. We are working on Beethoven Sym no 2. It amazes me how people paying to be at this are not working on it, you know, like practice and listening to recordings so they'd know what […]

I opened my last 5-lb sack of flour and it was full of worms! I threw the whole thing into the garbage and took out the garbage. After vacuuming the pantry I ran to the closest store to get a new sack because the wet ingredients for pumpkin bread could not wait until tomorrow. Alas, that store […]

I've disagreed with plenty of SCOTUS decisions in the past, but under previous administrations mostly regarded those AS disagreements. Increasingly I just view the majority as partisan hacks acting in bad faith. And a lot of legal observers seem to be leaning that way for the first time these days.

Someday, when the permit for my porch finally comes and the guys finally build my porch, I am probably going to put a bird bath on the railing. But now the site boss is taking away the rest of the pile of wood because their trash guy failed. The project manager himself came by and took away half […]

One of the birds I always miss is the Brown-headed Cowbird. Well, not today. I looked up and there were 4 of them. They look nothing like when they are breeding, but the bill shape was a big giveaway. #birding

My health insurance premium has gone up by almost 40% for next year. This means a very large chunk of my pension goes to the fat cats at UHC, who also raised the copay, the deductible, and the out-of-pocket max. I don't see how this means I have more choices like some Mercatus Center a$$hole […]

I was looking for American Pipit, Orange-crowned Warbler, Peregrine Falcon, and Pine Siskin at Ticksville. Alas it was too windy. American Pipit came up on Merlin but I never saw it. Afterwards went to the pond up the street from Ticksville. By then it was […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

LOL Fairfax local news today @ffxnow #uspol

Still laughing hours after I read this. So true so true

The Arms Control Wonk does not disappoint! If you want to learn more about returning to nuclear testing, here's the pod: https://www.patreon.com/posts/return-to-142734704

Had a late start this morning, but there were some good birds. Found a few young White-crowned Sparrows mixed with the locals, and a very hungry Chipping Sparrow that kept on eating when all the locals flew off. #birding

Continued my quest to check out all the hot spots in my CBC Sector. Today's spot was another artificial lake, reminiscent of many other artificial lakes in our region. This lake turned out to be bigger than it looked: took me more than 3 hours to get around […] [Original post on mastodon.social]

We were at the beach when one young member saw a Dunlin flying over, the only shorebird other than the 4 very chill Killdeer. The Dunlin turned out to be chill too, napping on a rock while keeping an eye on all of us. I still need to learn to recognize […] [Original post on mastodon.social]