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Why...

...do you insist on bending spacetime and suddenly posting so many AI recreations of your original photographs, inserting a much younger you?

Several years ago, a lifelong friend and I were discussing aging and the effects it was having on our bodies. We decided that 28 was a perfectly fine age to be and that we were going to remain 28 from that point forward—regardless of evidence to the contrary. I've shifted it a few years forward from that to my mid-30s because in many ways those years were even better. All of us have an inner self and an outer self, and that hot, young, bearded guys is the real me inside, the person who is—and will be—driving this bruised and battered old body around until the final wheel falls off.

I wonder whatever happened to that shirt...
I love bending spacetime.

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"A Rabid Family Of Coked-Up Raccoons" 🤣

Yeah, but that family still has access to the nuclear codes, and I'm not sure there's anyone in the chain of command who would stand up and say no if the raccoon family decided to start WWIII...

Pour one out for Preznit Fuckwit. He’s going through some things right now.

No, strike that — pour them all out for Preznit Fuckwit. He’s going through everything right now. Donny knows that come January, once the Democratic majorities are sworn in, his life is going to totally fucking suck — and he’s having a rather hard time coping.

Boo fucking hoo.

The rabid family of coked-up raccoons that live inside Dear Leader’s fat, waterlogged skull were seriously working overtime yesterday morning, chewing through all the wires. Donny was wide awake and panic-posting around 5am, shitting out increasingly-deranged lunacy onto his crappy app. Every grudge and grievance got a good airing out.

And oh, look — Donny’s accusing-confessing again.

The Democrat Party, lead by one of the most Corrupt and anti-American groups of political leaders and hacks in the history of our Country, and even the World, is doing everything in their power to get away from MASSIVE BLUE STATE CORRUPTION by saying, over and over again, that the Trump Administration is corrupt. It is a sound bite that they viciously use, over and over again, in order to nullify the TREMENDOUS & UNPRECEDENTED theft that has taken place in our Blue States - Minnesota, California, and others, all over the U.S.A. I, perhaps foolishly because the Fake News refuses to write about it, including in my First Term, don’t even take a Salary, worth Millions of Dollars. I am the only President to have done so! In any event, THE DEMOCRATS ARE CORRUPT AND EVIL, and I am the exact opposite! Fight hard, Republicans, or you won’t have a Country left! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Corrupty McCorruptionface says what?

Next year, Democrats are going to have a field day, looking into Dear Leader’s malfeasance. Just off the top of my head, there’s the selling of pardons, the insider trading, the crypto scams, the market manipulation, and the doling out of massive defense contracts to his felonious failsons.

And the only thing Donny can say in his own defense is ‘I know you are, but what am I?’

Oh, and he’s still sending out Muggsy Blanche to issue vague (and illegal) threats.

Q: Trump said Liz Cheney should go to jail and Adam Schiff should go to prison, he declared Barack Obama of treason. What legal standard are you applying to distinguish what they say and what the president says?

BLANCHE: There can come a point when a criticism becomes a threat and when a threat becomes something criminal.

Holy shit, Blanche really is the tiny mobster from the Bugs Bunny cartoons. Look at him. All he needs is the clownishly oversized hat.

Muggsy Blanche is so fucktacularly terrible at being an enforcer. There’s nothing whatsoever that’s intimidating about him. And he can only dance around the reporter’s question and avoid answering it, because as much as Donny wishes it were true, criticism of Dear Leader is not yet a hate crime in the US.

Never bring a Muggsy to a Constitution fight. He’s out of his depth. Just listen to Jamie Raskin serve him up a big slice of Fuck You Pie.

“The government cannot intimidate people because they exercise their First Amendment rights in a way that government officials don’t like. That’s ridiculous. Somebody should tell Todd Blanche and his team to get a Supreme Court decision called Steffel v. Thompson, which says it’s legally actionable to bring an injunction action against the government if the government is trying to scare you out of exercising your First Amendment rights and your Constitutional rights.

In our case, it’s not just that these members were exercising their Constitutional rights; they were exercising their constitutional duties. We have a duty, as the Article I preeminent branch of government, to conduct oversight operations of the entire government, as well as the economy and other things happening in society.”

Jaime, stop it. He’s already dead.

Here’s the thing that Donny and his few remaining loyalists haven’t yet figured out: nobody is afraid of him any more. He’s the lamest of ducks. The other day, when he started whining about the election results, it was Megyn Kelly — Little Miss Fear of a Black Santa herself — who told Donny to zip it.

Quack fucking quack, Dear Leader. Enjoy your ever-increasing irrelevance. 

Look at this: even that strongly-worded-letter-writing milquetoast, Chuck Schumer, is getting all snarky with Donny.

I’m actually referring to your 30,000 stock trades (more than all Members of Congress combined), your Qatari-gifted luxury jet, your crypto scams, your Truth Social pay to play scheme, your billionaire-funded ballroom, your insurrectionist slush fund, and your pardons for big donors—just to name a few.

Meanwhile, Donny was still back at the White House, power-loading all the diapers.

Will the Seditious Six ever be prosecuted? What they did was a great violation to our Country and its Constitution! President DONALD J. TRUMP

The Seditious Six? Really? Donny is still whining about the six Congresspeople who put out that video reminding U.S. service members they have a duty to refuse illegal orders? That’s one of many bugs that are up Donny ass on this particular morning?

Well, allow me to answer Donny’s question. No, they will never be prosecuted. A Grand Jury declined to charge them, because they hadn’t committed any fucking crimes.

Got any other bright ideas, bro?

I have asked Vice President Vance to focus his complete and total attention on the Massive Corruption and Crime taking place in Democrat run Cities and States throughout the U.S. The Blue States, such as Minnesota, California, Illinois, and many more, are all poorly run, corrupt disasters.

Wait, seriously? Couchfuck McGee is now Donny’s corruption czar?

I’m loving this idea. I would pay good money to watch Couchfuck show up at the Minnesota State Capitol and go ‘so, how long have you been corrupt? HA HA, THAT’S GREAT.’

You’re such a bottomless well of amazing notions, Donny. What else ya got in the tank this morning?

Here we go again! With the perceived loss by the Republicans in the Midterms - I WAS NOT ON THE BALLOT- the INVASION of our Country is taking place again. Huge CARAVANS are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico. Many of the people in these Caravans are those that various countries don’t want - “Send them to America,” they say - But they will not be accepted! MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED. MEXICO, THE GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, THE VERY LIBERAL NEW GOVERNOR OF TEXAS, OUR GREAT BORDER PATROL, & ICE, HAVE BEEN SO INFORMED. There will be no leniency! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Holy shit, he’s off his rocker. This is what happens when you live in a fact-free bubble and get all your information from Nosferatu McGoebbels and the Diaper Nurse.

What ‘perceived’ loss in the midterms? What is Donny yammering about? There was nothing ‘perceived’ about the ass-whupping that Donny’s party got. And caravans? Really? No, Donny, no. You’re supposed to fearmonger about imaginary caravans before the election, not after.

Dear Leader is bugfuck nuts, and he’s just getting worse. All this batshittery is just from the anticipation of the investigations that won’t ramp up until next year. What’s going to happen then? He’s going to completely lose his fucking mind, and god knows what he’s dumbfuckery he’s going to get up to. He’ll probably try to nuke the Capitol building.

This shit is unsustainable.

25th Amendment, let’s go. I’ll take my chances with the couch fucker.

It’s time for our Hero of the Day — and it’s none other than Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, who has announced he’s running to replace Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader.

   

In this election, Americans called on us to unrig an economy rigged against working people & fueled by political corruption.

To deliver, we need new leadership. This isn’t about any one person – it’s about answering that call.

That’s why I’m running for Senate Majority Leader.

Fuck yes. Absolutely.

   

We need this. It’s time for the Democratic leadership to be younger and more progressive.

Yes, I know. Senator Van Hollen is 67 years old. That’s still younger than Chuck Schumer, who’s 75.

And he’s definitely more progressive.

Let’s do this.

this is going to be my closing message for the foreseeable future:

practice self-care. do what you need to do to keep sane. if that means you need to disengage with my daily posts for a while, I get it. this community of ours will still be here when you return.

to all the people who have signed on in the days since the election, welcome aboard. settle in as we all try to deal with the shitfuckery that’s ahead of us.

we are all in this together, and we are all here for each other.

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Adventures in Photo Restoration

Instead of some straight up photo restoration, I thought I'd inject a little whimsy in these photos from my first Christmas in San Francisco as a full-time resident.

Each December, the small architectural firm I worked for did something fun and off-the-wall for our holiday celebration. There were only five of us in total, so it left a lot of possibilities open. This particular year we took the ferry over to Sausalito, had a nice lunch, and wandered up and down Bridgeway, enjoying the shops and quietly laughing at the insanely overpriced art.

Every year it was something different. This first year was Sausalito. Subsequent years ranged from driving down the coast to Half Moon Bay, Santa Cruz, or Capitola for lunch, to an unforgettable (as much as I'd like to) trip on a small boat onto the bay in very stormy weather for Sturgeon fishing. (After that little experience Neil—the redhead in these pictures—became a vegetarian after witnessing one of the bosses bludgeon to death the one and only poor creature anyone caught. I myself tried to give up meat after that as well, but was ultimately unsuccessful. For the last year I was with them, they rented a house up the coast in Sea Ranch for a long weekend. I took Rory—the guy I was dating at the time—with me and the one thing that's stayed after all these years (beyond the drama we were going through that came to a head that weekend) was how dark it got at night. We were a hundred miles (or at least it seemed that way) from any city lights and you could literally hold your hand up in front of your face and not see it.

H&M was a good firm to work for, even when the recession hit after Black Monday. When business temporarily dried up they kept us on, instead of letting us go. We were asked if we'd be amenable to a 4 day work week (in other words, a 20% cut in pay) for the duration. We all agreed to it, and eventually the firm sprang back stronger than ever. I was there for the entire eight and a half years of my initial tenure in The City and even after I moved to Tucson and moved back, I continued to work as a consultant for them.

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I Have Questions

[source]

I generally like the floor plan (I mean, anything with an atrium, right?), although the exterior design leaves me cold. And I have questions about the utility room being wide open to the kitchen. Is this normal for Canadian homes of that era?

My first impulse would be to move the Utility Room to the Storage Room off the carport. Of course, that would kill any possibility of carport storage, but that's why they make backyard sheds, right? I would leave the washer and dryer in their current location, but add a pair of bi-fold doors to keep them out of sight. I'd then take that entire former Utility Room space and make it into a breakfast room/informal dining space. When I was growing up we ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the kitchen table, and while we had a formal Dining Room, it was seldom used, reserved for Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and birthdays.

I would love to get the hallway bath consolidated into a single room, but I see no way of doing it under the current wall constraints. I understand that having the toilet in a separate room from the tub is common everywhere except the US, so maybe it's not that big a deal to leave it the way it is.

I would, however convert that Storage Room off the large bedroom to an en suite bathroom to make it a proper Master Suite.

If I were to start making wholesale changes to the floorplan, however, I'd push that left wall out another ten feet to make room for a second car in the carport. This would allow me to add another five feet to the width of both bedrooms, making space to get the hall bathroom sorted out.

If you were willing to lose a bedroom entirely, I'd get rid of the wall between the middle bedroom and the hall, opening it up as a small family room or den and install a sliding glass door leading directly to the back yard.

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The Ravelcroft Estate

In 1910, the belle of San Francisco society, Marguerite Doe Rogers Courtney Ravenscroft (1890-1970), would arrive in Montecito, California for the first time with her mother, Eleanor H. Doe. Educated in Europe, Miss Doe, an avid swimmer, golfer, and horsewoman who drove her own car, was quickly admitted to the most exclusive circles in Montecito. ⁠

In 1911, she would purchase 5 acres along Cold Spring Road, commissioning architect Russell Ray to design an early Mediterranean Revival style home. However, by the early 1920s, a Spanish Colonial Revival was now en vogue, and architect George Washington Smith’s playful interpretations were all the rage in Santa Barbara circles. ⁠

For Ravenscroft, Smith would design a small Andalusian village constructed around courtyards, terraces, and gardens to create a perfect Montecito hideaway. From the massive central living room with staircases framing the fireplace to the rear covered loggia and the easy relationship between indoors and out, this home is a testament to Smith’s design capabilities.⁠

779 Ayala Lane, an 8 bedroom, 9.5 bath, 10,619⁠ square foot estate located on a 1.59-acre lot, is listed courtesy of Ron Brand and the Riskin Partners Group for $29,950,000.⁠

Images courtesy of the MLS and the Montecito Journal⁠.

ADDENDUM: Since Rick asked, I went looking...

You're welcome.

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