Uhg, I epoxxied a fridge drawer and forgot how much epoxxy stinks. And too warm and muggy outside to open up the windows.

Today was a pain. Truly. Nothing would touch it.

Welp, that's the end of last year's Halloween candy. That's almost like an accomplishment.

I don't know from GPSs.

The government shutdown is too big for me to hold in my head.

I would like a drink now, but I'm afraid that would be the end of me being awake. Maybe that would be okay? Probably I should stay up until it gets dark, at least...

I also got 33/36 on the Reading Emotions quiz. I'm a little surprised.

I liked my new TomTom better than my old Garmin. I'd still rather use a standalone GPS than the one on my smartphone if I can, solely because it runs down the battery so fast.

Today turned out to be so miserable, but now I have about 17 bags full of Halloween decorations to sort through so they can go up tomorrow. That should be super cheery, right?

How do either of the means I mentioned to get around the debt ceiling "risk 230 years of democratic principle." They are actions the executive is authorized to do by laws the congress has passed. They are for a goal the majority of the people, the majority of the senate, and even the majority of the congress supports. (If a "clean" CR and a "clean" raise in the debt ceiling were brought to the floor of the House they would pass. ) And they are completely legal. They are a creative solution to a small minority violating all sorts of legislative norms. (Holding the budget hostage violates norms. Holding the debt ceiling hostage violates major norms.)

I don't see how meeting massive violation of norms with creative but completely workable workarounds "risks democracy".

Aaand NRAO (Nat'l Radio Astronomy Observatory) North America just went dark for the shutdown.

Been seeing the occasional obnoxious comments grousing about websites being down; a friend in IT security at Goddard had a nice rant about it. They aren't doing it to make a point, they are doing it (at least at Goddard) because of security rules. No security staff? Lock down the servers so they can't be hacked by opportunists. Which means reroute to a public server with a closedown notice and take the main servers offline.

There's no internut without people, man.

JPL is still up and running, and I'm not sure how that looks to the outside world. Internal NASA webpages were working for me for basic info like the directory on Thursday.

Also, it costs money for sites to be up, no? If they aren't supposed to be spending money they don't have....

Of course, just the other day I finally realized I'm not on the Do Not Call list, and that's my problem, but yeah, no -- that's down.

Yes, a fucking temper tantrum on the part of the Republicans. (Sane Republicans in the House share the blame for enabling and not fighting the crazies.)

Not funny only because the consequences are so terrible and the stakes so high. Like the Three Stooges with rabies.

If nothing else, this is slapping some people in the face with how much the government does. "We don't need them--what do you mean I can't access XYZ.com! I can't function without XYZ.com!"