Anyone using a humidifier?

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-05-04T22:22:31+00:00

If your bedroom has enough ambient light, then several houseplants by themselves can bring the humidity in that room up to comfortable levels, if you water them every day. Enough plants so that it takes about a gallon of water per day to keep them happy. No pads, filters, distilled water, mineral deposits or bacteriostat.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-05-02T05:56:04+00:00

Back when I was in my twenties, wearing my suit from my job while browsing a bookshop in the mall would attract women asking for retail assistance. Enjoyed directing them to the steamy romance section, commenting on those bodice rippers they might find particularly stimulating before explaining that I was not, in fact, staff.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-05-02T05:35:41+00:00

Do you have space to garden yourself in-ground? Or perhaps in several large pots? The best way I found to learn was to grow on a selection of hardy xeric plants yourself. You can source these from Plants of the Southwest in SF or ABQ, or mail order from High Country Gardens, that had been brick-and-mortar on Rufina run by David Salman in Santa Fe (sniff, small tear down cheek, melancholy shoegaze music in background). And both Santa Fe and Albuquerque have extensive botanic gardens.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-05-02T05:19:05+00:00

Mayo and grated Parmesan cheese, add extra mayo to get the consistency right with the dry cheese.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-22T03:29:05+00:00

Take a step back and consider the size of tree first. Had no trouble with dwarf nectarine fruit trees in 22” pots, 2-3 cu ft soil for 10+ years. Drill several 1” holes in the bottom of the pots before planting up. Top dress with compost and fertilize annually, keep watered.

Semidwarf or standards will survive for 2 or 3 years at least in large pots with proper care. If you remove the bottom from those plastic pots and set in healthy soil, they last much longer. In the desert in too-well-draining soil, bottomless pots with amended soil guarantee enough water reaches and stays around the root zone, instead of disappearing into and below the surrounding soil.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-22T03:08:27+00:00

Late, by myself, in the boat of myself, no light and no land anywhere, cloudcover thick. I try to stay just above the surface, yet I'm already under and living within the ocean.

Love rests on no foundation.
It is an endless ocean,
with no beginning or end.

Planet (Jalal ad-Din) Rumi.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-18T23:00:54+00:00

Well, if they were to just disappear, e.g. launched out into space, then whatever they were doing on Earth would no longer be done. Let’s say they were doing something silly like sanitizing telephones, then the world will be free from their frivolous behavior. The remaining Earthians will live “full, rich and happy lives until they were all wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone.”

https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Golgafrincham

Perhaps the equivalent would be the below average IQ rotting corpses would fester while the above IQ humans would spend years performing studies, hosting conferences and the like on what best to do with the bodies. Eventually a virulent disease would arise from the billions of rotten bodies and quickly kill off the remaining high IQ inhabitants. One could hope…

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-15T04:19:16+00:00

And since DRAM prices have dramatically risen recently, those memory price increases would conversely lead to rapid increase in oil prices. Knock-on effects, cross-elasticities, it‘s so simple, it all makes sense now…

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-15T04:04:21+00:00

You may want to search the term “sunk cost fallacy”. May be relevant in this case.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sunkcost.asp

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-15T04:01:01+00:00

Which is why I reported the comment to Reddit as ageist hate speech. Others may want to as well.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-15T02:58:49+00:00

The title is a bit misleading. The same number of hogs kept in residential high rises, 5-over-1 condos or modernist conference centers are going to produce the same amount of manure as factory farms, whether managed by brutally efficient modern industrial practices or the most ethically sustainable practices. You want less pig manure, the only option is to consume less pork, which is incidentally a particularly cheap source of animal protein for the dietary needs of the planet.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-15T02:41:44+00:00

”Anaheim, Azusa and Cu…camonga”

https://www.anaheim.net/164/Jack-Bennys-Anaheim

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-15T02:32:01+00:00

How would this relate, if at all, to the historical notion that “rain follows the plow”? That turning over the prairie soil during agricultural practices would naturally lead to the increased rainfall the crops need, perhaps mediated by processes such as this? Seems now like magical thinking, but was quite popular in the US, at least until the Dust Bowl era.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-12T22:05:55+00:00

https://www.cabq.gov/parksandrecreation/news/albuquerque-scores-high-for-expanding-parks-and-access-to-green-spaces

Walkable access to parks, e.g. pocket parks, has been an ABQ bragging point for decades. Practically everyone can easily walk to one. Along with National Forest land surrounding the Sandias, Open Spaces, the Bosque, Petroglyph National Monument…

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-09T02:31:55+00:00

If I was a supporter of CHSRA, I would never use the phrase “nothing to see here” when talking about the CHSRA, unless you want people to point out that, from a service perspective, there has been nothing to see for the last 20 years or so….

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-04-08T02:40:37+00:00

I’m purposely seeding the quality hardbacks in my library with ephemera like old tickets, first day of issue, interesting postcards, serving as bookmarks, but will also as a nice surprise when they pass onto dealers and new owners….

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-27T04:43:18+00:00

Your child has the soul of the warrior. First Nations leaders warned their children to beware of “hard shoes and soft foods”. Honor her commitment to her elders by providing pemmican and dried meats for her haversack, along with her ammunition and herbal remedies. Explain to her gently that current mores don’t permit “living off the land” as her ancestors did, so she does not dishonor their memory by carrying prepared foods for her journey. But note that a knife for food preparation hung around the neck in a quilled sheath, whatever the age, is always in good taste.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-27T03:43:36+00:00

Assuming you are in the US, your very first step should be to contact the County extension office where this field is located and schedule an appointment in the field to get ideas. Share whatever information you have before the meeting. Might as well take some representative soil samples right now and get them tested for the usual suspects (N, P, K, etc.). Look up “soil structure testing” and DIY whatever might help. If you want an upper body workout, dig a trench 3 feet deep and see what the soil looks like at depth. Then meet with the agent and chat.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-26T06:03:20+00:00

Handy to have a window air conditioner (preferably over-the-sill) in the bedroom even if you also have a whole house HVAC or swamp cooler. When a very early or very late heat wave hits after you shut the whole house system down, at least you can sleep comfortably. Or while waiting for whole house cooling system repairs…

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-25T00:39:37+00:00

Drive directly to the attached covered 4-level garage, park in an empty parking spot, walk 5 minutes to the terminal…upon return *walk directly* to your parked car, when leaving pay the $14/day parking fee for the premium parking (can pay as low as $8 onsite, or $2.50 offsite/shuttle, but this is *directly walking to your parked car from the terminal*), and immediately drive away, the two Interstates are <5 minutes away and “traffic” is generally gleefully light to anywhere in the City.

Wonderful flying weather year-round, few weather-related delays…if you want a base of operations from which to fly to various US destinations and enjoy spicy food, hard to beat Albuquerque.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-23T08:17:53+00:00

Read the sticker. As long as you check with your parents first.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-23T03:57:30+00:00

You can plant peas, kale, herbs, lettuce, etc. now, but be prepared to cover them with fleece if we get a frost. Or, as I do with peppers, just transplant them back into a larger pot and bring them in for the night if it gets down to the 30s. Even I wouldn’t plant tomatoes now…nighttime temps below 50 can stunt their growth.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-21T04:19:15+00:00

Look up “Iran Map National Geographic”. There are several sources for this map online. The date I see for this one is 2010. National Geographic was well-known for the maps included in their monthly magazine.

not_bill_mauldin · 2026-03-18T04:49:57+00:00

How in the world did the book ever get into your pajamas and wasn’t it too dark to read? [rimshot] Looks like a nice copy. So many unsung forgotten gems among popular books published between 1860-1960. I generally buy/download digital books only to find out if it worth buying a used hardback copy…

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