For The Archives -- Nothing About The Bakken -- July 20, 2024

Locator: 48198ARCHIVES.

Holy mackerel: what a great XFinity race at Indianapolis today. Amazing finish! I want to see that last lap once again. Herbst, Custer, Almirola. 1, 2, 3. Holy mackerel! It's amazing to see the skill and the slight difference -- but very obvious -- difference in speed.

Local temperature:

• high: 94°F today
• normal high: 96°F
• record high: 109°F two years ago, 2022 -- no typo -- 109°F two years ago
  

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For The Archives

Wow, what a great day.

Older daughter: two paddle board races over the weekend, Flathead Lake / Flathead River (Polson), Montana.

Oldest granddaughter: summer intern, Washington, DC.

Middle granddaughter: polar plunge, Iceberg Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana.

Youngest granddaughter: watching her mom in a paddle board race on Flathead Lake, Montana.

May: reading book reviews on The WSJ, The NYT.

Me: reading, reading, reading; blogging; watching The (British) Open; swimming later this afternoon.

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Rambling

Someday I may expand on this: exceptionalism.

American exceptionalism. 

The planet earth.

The human being.

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Exceptionalism

American exceptionalism: the gap between the US and the third world.

The planet earth: the gap between the earth and the rest of the rocks in the known universe. Exhibit A: the colors.

The human being: the gap between the human being and whatever other animal you want to compare "us" to.  I'm thinking the dolphin. Exhibit A: biggest global IT outage in history and it's resolved within hours for most.

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Reading

What I'm working on this weekend: Indian languages.

Link here. Sitting Bull. I checked this book out at the library. It's so good, I bought my own copy through Amazon.

Link here. Will take awhile to fill out / complete. I would like to buy my own copy of this book -- it's a great reference book but she's a "woke" author and she's followed that story, hook, line, and sinker. 

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Schwab

Absolutely impressed with Schwab.

It was a tough day for Schwab yesterday but, at least for me, they came through splendidly.

I don't know what it's all about, but upon market opening I put in an order for a "buy" for a tech stock for Sophia yesterday. I know the order went in but at the end of the day, the Schwab website showed the trade was still open. Normally, the "market" trades close immediately. I took Schwab's advice and didn't touch it. Moments ago, I got the confirmation that the order had been filled. Whoo-hoo!

Apparently Schwab was hit by the Microsoft / CrowdStrike fiasco, whereas Vanguard and Fidelity were not. 

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Something To Think About

CrowdStrike is considered the best tool at what it does -- protecting your system. Not all would agree but regardless, most consider it one of the best at protecting your system. 

Now, think about this, if you have a Microsoft device and it didn't go "down" yesterday, either your system is not protected against hackers by one of the best, or your system happened to be shut down when the upgrade was pushed out -- meaning you were simply lucky.

If your financial institution didn't go "down" yesterday -- whether you have a Mac or a PC -- your financial institution is likely protected by something less than the very best.

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And Now To Go Swimming

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A Musical Interlude

If the pool is empty, or relatively empty, I'll play my music on a JBL Flip 4 through an iPad / YouTube.

It's hard to find a great playlist. A lot of good playlists out there, but not great playlists.

My favorite singer might be Linda Ronstadt, but I don't like a Linda Ronstadt playlist. She has too many genres and any particular day I might prefer one genre and not another. Same with Cher. Roy Orbison may be close to perfect but I've listened to him so often I'm often ready to listen to something different.

The following never seem to disappoint:

• The Beach Boys
• The Mamas and The Papas (though the catalogue is too small)
• Blondie (likewise, the catalogue is too small)

Generally, great:

• The Bee Gees
• the entire catalogue of the James Bond theme songs
• Vietnam-era songs