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RTDNTOTO šŸ» Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

I think Taylor is a good person deep down, despite her overzealous private jet use. She does purchase carbon credits I'm told she treats her staff and fans with respect and doesn't act like a diva IRL. I also think Miley and Lady Gaga are good people too, even though I don't really care for most of their music (Gaga has some jams!)
 
There's so much negativity in the world, give me a Taylor Swift story every day, all day long.

I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things. Your nemeses will defeat themselves before you get the chance to swing.
 
The Terminator said:
I think Taylor is a good person deep down, despite her overzealous private jet use. She does purchase carbon credits I'm told she treats her staff and fans with respect and doesn't act like a diva IRL. I also think Miley and Lady Gaga are good people too, even though I don't really care for most of their music (Gaga has some jams!)
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A girl on my bowling team won a radio call-in thing for tickets to a Taylor Swift concert and a pre-show VIP meet and greet with her. This was like 15 years ago when Swift was not nearly as big as she is today and the girl from my team was not really a fan of her at all... she just enjoyed calling into one of the local radio stations all the time to try and win things. After the concert and meet and greet she said Swift was one of the nicest people she had ever met and was super gracious to everybody there (even my friend who was obviously not a fan, was at least a decade older than most of the other people at the event, and was much more interested in the open bar) and seemed more than happy to talk as long and take as many pictures as anybody watend.

I've seen nothing over the years that has made me think she's become a worse person over the years.

In the grand scheme of things, I don't really care about the Swift/Kelce engagement (other than hoping that maybe Kelce will be too distracted to focus on football come Week 6) but I definitely don't begrudge anybody who does find the engagement newsworthy. Why yuck their yum?
 
btrage said:
There's so much negativity in the world, give me a Taylor Swift story every day, all day long.

I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things. Your nemeses will defeat themselves before you get the chance to swing.
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My wife is a big enough fan that I now know how to spot these references!
 
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Mom just called & asked me to come over & help her with an email she needs to send my brother. We're in the process of selling her old condo so I thought i was paperwork for that. I called my brother to get a heads up. He said she just needed to forward an email she got. She had called him earlier to tell him she couldn't "get it to work"

This is another sign we're seeing that she is having some memory problems coming into play. She'll be 93 next week & is doing very well otherwise.
 
btrage said:
People wouldn't think a 47 year old guy is a Swiftie, but here I am lol
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I like to listen to music when I run and a lot of the time, I just download a Spotify "Viral Hits", Top 40, or pre-made running playlists to my watch instead of using the dance music and old school hip-hop playlists I normally run to. I feel like using these Spotify playlists helps keep me young because it gives me songs I wouldn't hear otherwise because I've had the same songs on my other playlists for years and years. A lot of the times, I don't recognize the songs that Spotify gives me and I'm not usually curious enough to pull it up on my watch and try to read on the tiny screen who it is but every once in a while I am and am surprised by the number of Taylor Swift songs that pop up on there. She's got a lot of songs with a good beat and cadence for running to. I consider myself a fan, but not really a Swiftie.

FWIW, I realized after the fact that today's running playlist was a ton of songs from KPop Demon Hunters, a Netflix movie that my kids have been obsessed with over the past few weeks.
 
DVD said:
I love updating process guides and deciding I should just refer to the other easier process only to find out that process is out of date and needs updating too. Of course the guides don't really guide anything and don't tell you what they're for, they just kind of exist and we know how to use them.
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Story of my life right now. Oh we should have a policy or procedure for that! You mean we should add that to the mythical policies & procedure manual? Let me get on that for you.
 
So, I am getting a TON of interviews for state jobs, but, since HR is shut down indefinitely due to a major network issue, nothing can proceed past that stage (offer, second round, etc.) for the foreseeable future.

My goal is to find a job in planning OR government, and ideally both. I had one interview last week that is on both sides of that Venn Diagram, and applied for another today.

Jim
 
btrage said:
People wouldn't think a 47 year old guy is a Swiftie, but here I am lol
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With a soon to be 10 year old girl in the house, I wind up listening to a lot of her music. It's not my favorite, but she's got some catchy lyrics. It's way better than most of the other contemporary pop out there.
 
For those of you keeping score at home, the last time I was RIF'd (prior to the current session) was 19 years ago today, August 28, 2006. That was the third time in two years, so it was a bit worrisome. Luckily, it didn't happen again until July 2025. Hopefully, there won't be a fifth time.

January 19, 2005 (paid through February 4)
June 30, 2006 (paid through that day)
August 28, 2006 (paid through that day)*
July 7, 2025 (paid through September 4)


* This one was shady. It was at a construction company that was doing well. They told me they weren't when they RIF'd me, and that they had to "make some cuts." But a few days later, there is a new person at my desk when I come to pick up my things. Turns out it's the soon-to-be daughter-in-law of a State Senator, who was in charge of, among other things, state construction contacts.
I was a bit miffed they didn't just say that, but, it was all politics, not personal.
 
^^ As a fellow laid-off person, Congrats on getting the interviews! Many places are slowing down or halting hiring due to the uncertain economy.

I've had double-digit interviews, including second round, and seem to lose out to someone who either 1) will accept less $$$, or 2) went to school with someone with clout.
 
btrage said:
People wouldn't think a 47 year old guy is a Swiftie, but here I am lol
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Taylor is part of American Culture. I love Taylor Swift. I'm not ashamed to say that I was moved the first time I heard Exile . She's a talented songwriter and collaborator and I don't think there's any reason to deny that. I will not apologize, even though sometimes it feels like everybody is a sexy baby and I'm a monster on the hill.
 
They want $100 to attend the 50th HS reunion. For me add travel cost. = Me not going.
 
JNA said:
They want $100 to attend the 50th HS reunion. For me add travel cost. = Me not going.
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I think you should go. It's your 50th! Go and make fun of people at least. You could live stream it to all of us. I would totally watch that and you could tell us stories about all the people. There should be more live streamed normal things in the world for me to watch.

GO!! GO!!! :)
 
ursus said:
I think you should go. It's your 50th! Go and make fun of people at least. You could live stream it to all of us. I would totally watch that and you could tell us stories about all the people. There should be more live streamed normal things in the world for me to watch.

GO!! GO!!! :)
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I think you should go. Drive there. Take a road trip. See things you never saw. I bet you never saw the Big Mac Museum. Go!
 
JNA said:
They want $100 to attend the 50th HS reunion. For me add travel cost. = Me not going.
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Dude, it's $100. You'll probably get dinner and see a lot of people you haven't seen in years. And sadly, will probably never see again. You've made it clear you live simply so I'm sure you can do this. Like @kms said, have an adventure. You only get one life, LIVE IT!
 
ursus said:
Taylor is part of American Culture. I love Taylor Swift. I'm not ashamed to say that I was moved the first time I heard Exile . She's a talented songwriter and collaborator and I don't think there's any reason to deny that. I will not apologize, even though sometimes it feels like everybody is a sexy baby and I'm a monster on the hill.
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Exile is my favorite song of hers. Bon Iver was the perfect compliment to her for this song. I could listen to it on repeat forever if I had too, it's lyrics are so damn powerful in terms of relationship dynamics. I'm moved every time I hear it.
 
JNA said:
They want $100 to attend the 50th HS reunion. For me add travel cost. = Me not going.
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My 10th (nearly 20 years ago now! :wow: ) was something crazy like $75 and it was outside at a public park and the food was "catered" hot dogs and burgers and stuff like that and there was no alcohol. I was still good friends with a lot of folks from my graduating class and we all agreed that the price was definitely not worth it.

Instead, one our our friends who had just bought a house not far from where our high school was and a few blocks from the park volunteered to host on the same day for whoever wanted to stop by. A bunch of us pitched in and bought stuff for the grill, one classmate who was (and still is) a buyer for a local grocery chain brought a bunch of trays of sides from their high-end deli, some folks brought desserts, and then we announced it on the class Facebook page and told everybody to BYOB.

Our party "officially" started about an hour after the reunion and we had maybe 5 or 6 of us there. Withing about 30 minutes, people started trickling over from the park to our party and we ended up having a great time.

The organizers of the official reunion wised-up when it was time for the 20th and the cost was much more reasonable and they rented out the private event space at a local bar/restaurant. Great food was included this time. No open bar but we did all get a couple drink tickets, which as a nearly-40-year-old was plenty.

For $100/head the reunion better be catered by by somebody phenomenal.
 
I'm with TT, go to the reunion, but act like something your not to either impress everyone with your fancy clothes or look like such a loser it makes everyone talk for years. Maybe just dress as a clown and show up. See who recognizes you then.
 
Just finishing lunch. I cannot complain about new city hall. Third floor patio, sitting out here for a bit makes the meeting I'm going to seem unimportant.
JNA said:
Another reason I am not going is that I have not been nor have any of them been in touch
not even on Facebook,
in person - even back when I visisted Mom.
or email or phone (I dont have any of theirs nor do they have mine)
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I get that. I haven't stayed in touch with anybody from HS at all. I had some really close friends that I kept up with into our early twenties, but then kind of drifted. But you know what? Isn't that what reunions are for? In a way, it would be lame to have them if you didn't expect that a bunch of people might just show up cold, 50 years on. I'd think that would be kind of cool.
 
I swear, the next time my nephew opens our fridge/freezer (both of our fridges and freezers are very full, as is our pantry) and complains we donā€™t have anything to eat, Iā€™m going to volunteer him to go work a few hours at St. Vincentā€™s Dining Room.

I am so tempted. In the meantime, if he wants something we donā€™t have, nothing is stopping him from buying it. We could go weeks without buying anything except produce if we needed.
 
Having organized a couple of reunions, I can tell you it is not cheap and hard to figure out food and the other. Our 10 year (now 20 years ago) was $35 per person and $60 for a couple. It was at a VFW that was fairly new and they let us by a bunch of beer at cost. Liquor and after the initial beer ran out was a cash/credit bar. Food was chicken fingers and some extras. We had a cheap cover band. The classmate who organized it ran events for student affairs at a local college and knew how to get everything cheap and understood a budget. It was a blast. We came in under budget and blew the last 200 bucks on extra beer for the bar. A couple of the kids who did well in IT and Construction wound up picking up most of the tabs for the rest without anyone knowing.

Our 20 year reunion was a fiasco. The lady who organized was busier and agreed to help but not be in charge. A couple of the snooty girls complained that cheap beer and chicken fingers were a little low class, so she bowed out completely. I said I help a little but was 300 miles away. They decided to hold it at a distillery which was supposed to be free because a classmate was a manager there. Cost was $50 per person and $100 a couple. Wound up having to pay employees and security which somehow came out close to $2000 for hours. Only about 50 people pre-registered (out of 200 classmates and spouses). At least 130 showed up. Still had chicken fingers and sides from Publix. The organizer also decided we needed a bunch of custom cookies and desserts (she had a cookie business). Bar was either the distillery or byob. Music was an ipod. At the end the organizer said she was still $1,500 in the hole so we passed the hat to cover the rest. Looking at costs, I don't know how she busted the budget so bad unless she wound up charging herself full cost for the "treats" she made. It was ok, but not near as fun of a party as the first.

30 years is in two years. I'll probably go, but I'm going to stay away from any role in organization.
 
Came home yesterday afternoon, and when I opened the big rolling garage door, I saw the door from the backyard into the garage and the door from the garage into the house were both open.

I got a little concerned so I called the sheriff, who sent two deputies out. It was a bit alarming to have the deputies come and pull guns and walk around the house before I could go in.

Nothing was missing or seemed disturbed, and our birds were locked safely in their houses (chirping at their new friends), so my guess is that I didn't latch the doors properly when I left. Our neighbor across the street has a camera, and she looked at it for us and saw nothing amiss. Nothing but a shot of our driveway and front yard for a few hours. Ring didn't detect any motion, either.

I felt bad at having the cops come out, but they said it's their job and that's the proper procedure if you think someone/something may have gotten into your house. (The door from the laundry room into the main part of the house was closed, so the birds wouldn't have gotten out anyway.) Was pulling out their guns really necessary though?

Jim

JNA said:
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Wow. Nice spelling and proofreading!! Way to go!!!
 
jumbach said:
Came home yesterday afternoon, and when I opened the big rolling garage door, I saw the door from the backyard into the garage and the door from the garage into the house were both open.

I got a little concerned so I called the sheriff, who sent two deputies out. It was a bit alarming to have the deputies come and pull guns and walk around the house before I could go in.

Nothing was missing or seemed disturbed, and our birds were locked safely in their houses (chirping at their new friends), so my guess is that I didn't latch the doors properly when I left. Our neighbor across the street has a camera, and she looked at it for us and saw nothing amiss. Nothing but a shot of our driveway and front yard for a few hours. Ring didn't detect any motion, either.

I felt bad at having the cops come out, but they said it's their job and that's the proper procedure if you think someone/something may have gotten into your house. (The door from the laundry room into the main part of the house was closed, so the birds wouldn't have gotten out anyway.) Was pulling out their guns really necessary though?

Jim
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Yes. It was for their own safety in case someone was in your house. They also did it for you because you were wary of going into the house in case someone was there.
 
jumbach said:
Was pulling out their guns really necessary though?

Jim
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Yes, entering a potential home invasion without any predetermined knowledge of the situation.

I had a similar experience. Opened garage door to see the door into the house was ajar with the doorknob messed up. Police came (I actually knew one of them), did a sweep of the house with guns drawn. Finished up stairs & yelled clear. Guns were put away. We then walked from room-to-room as I pointed out things that were missing.
 
Planit said:
Yes, entering a potential home invasion without any predetermined knowledge of the situation.

I had a similar experience. Opened garage door to see the door into the house was ajar with the doorknob messed up. Police came (I actually knew one of them), did a sweep of the house with guns drawn. Finished up stairs & yelled clear. Guns were put away. We then walked from room-to-room as I pointed out things that were missing.
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Makes sense. In my case it doesnā€™t look like anything happened more than my not latching the door and wind blowing open the garage door (which then opened the door into the house.). But they said they didnā€™t mind and would rather I had called than not called.

Planit said:
Yes, entering a potential home invasion without any predetermined knowledge of the situation.

I had a similar experience. Opened garage door to see the door into the house was ajar with the doorknob messed up. Police came (I actually knew one of them), did a sweep of the house with guns drawn. Finished up stairs & yelled clear. Guns were put away. We then walked from room-to-room as I pointed out things that were missing.
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Sorry someone took your stuff. In my case it was just my not latching the door, so it all ended well.
 
Standing On My Head Again
By James D. Umbach, AICP
August 24, 2025

Copyright (C) 2025 James D. Umbach, AICP. Not for distribution.

AT THE LIBRARY

Recently, for the first time in years, Your Columnist found himself inside the Nevada State Library and Archives building in Carson City. Yes, I know: me, in a library. How is that unusual?

Nothing, in and of itself. When I worked a few blocks away, this particular library was one of my regular lunchtime destinations. I would eat lunch, walk out of the building, and, a few minutes later, find myself lost among the stacks. I would just wander over to the class ā€œHā€ section (which is the general equivalent of the ā€œ300ā€™sā€ in a Dewey library), and let my eyes and fingers do the walking. Iā€™d usually find a book or two to read during my daily bus commute between Reno and Carson.

On this particular visit, I was in search of a particular tome, so I went to look for the catalog computer. The helpful attendant at the front entrance told me that the library does not have a catalog computer, and that they had gotten rid of it because, among other reasons, people would have looked up the books wanted and their locations on phones or other computers before coming in, and, since it was so little used and taking up a lot of space, the catalog computer had gone the way of the card catalog decades before. Well, OK then. I do know the libraryā€™s website, and I can access it on my phone, but I much prefer using a computer. Thereā€™s a solution to that, too: I can bring my own personal laptop in, hook it in to the library WiFi, and, boom. My own instant portable catalog computer.

Well, poo. If thatā€™s the way it is, I will adapt, just as I have slowly adapted to Googling numbers instead of using the white pages, or using my phone to get into a concert rather than a paper ticket.
Iā€™m old enough to remember when the first library catalog computers came into being, back in the early 80ā€™s. The California libraries were hooked into a few different systems: MELVYL and OPAC come to mind, but I am sure there are others. Simple: just type in the name of the book you wanted, and it would tell you where on the shelves it was. Later renditions even told you if the book was already checked out, and, if so, when it was due. Really high-tech stuff back then, and it beat the old system of having three cards for every book (one for the subject, one for the author, and one for the title), and the pretty much full-time job it was to maintain the catalog.

As recently as the late 90ā€™s, when I was a student Sacramento State, they still had the actual card catalog, but there was also a sign on it saying it had not been updated since---I forget the date, but I want to say it had been several years at least, since then.

= = =

The December 23, 1984, Oakland Tribune praises the new MELVYL system, saying it will make ā€œinformation available to you in your living room, classroom, or office.ā€ ā€œCurrently a request for ā€˜film,ā€™ for example, will bring you 1,136 listings with subcategories ranging from ā€˜horrorā€™ to ā€˜electronic data processing.ā€™ā€ With the advent of the world wide web still a decade away, this was a remarkably prescient observation.

Do you enjoy my column, or do you wish that databases would just skip right over it when they search? Let me know at umbachjd@yahoo.com. I write back!
 
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Tonightā€™s Collin Raye playlist (Sparks, Nevada):

Real time playlist:



1901 ā€œOn the Vergeā€

1907 ā€œUndefeatedā€

1911 ā€œIn This Lifeā€

1915 ā€œOne Boy One Girlā€ (our wedding song!)

1919 ā€œLittle Red Rodeoā€

1925 ā€œIf I Were Youā€

1928 ā€œLittle Rockā€

1933 ā€œThatā€™s My Story (And Iā€™m Stickinā€ To It)ā€

1939 (Bob Seger Medley)

1945 ā€œI Get What I Needā€ (acoustic)

1950 ā€œViennaā€ (acoustic - cover)

1953 ā€œBig Shotā€ (cover)

1958 ā€œGreat Balls of Fireā€ (cover)

2001 ā€œThe Giftā€

2005 ā€œLove Remainsā€

2008 ā€œMy Kind of Girlā€

2016 ā€œLove, Meā€

2021 ā€œRunninā€™ On Emptyā€ (cover)
 
I am having ā€œthe procedureā€* tomorrow so I have to go all day today without eating. I am going to be one crabby SOB today. Wish me luck. At least I can still drink coffee.

Protein drinks are allowed so I may slam a few of those back today too.

* Iā€™m almost 50. Itā€™s routine and preventative, and the prep is worse than the procedure. All Iā€™m saying.
 
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My brother is nearly 6'5" and has super long legs. He complains constantly about car manufacturers not designing their products with folks like him in mind. I wonder what cars NBA players drive? Are there certain models of cars that really tall people do well with? And what about cars for the tubby?
 
Maister said:
My brother is nearly 6'5" and has super long legs. He complains constantly about car manufacturers not designing their products with folks like him in mind. I wonder what cars NBA players drive? Are there certain models of cars that really tall people do well with? And what about cars for the tubby?
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I used to have a little red Mazda B2200 pickup I drove to work. I was extricating myself from it one morning in the parking lot when my boss pulled up (who was 6'3") and said, laughing "You driving that thing or wearing it?" I still laugh my ass off thinking about that. He hated small cars because of his size.

I think you should used that line on your brother. "Jacket looks good, Carl -- OH, it's your car! My mistake!"
 
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