Another Metal-Tempered Engine on an Alien, Distant Shore

On Friday I got my first taste of what promises to be four or five more years of freeway access misery.

I headed out on my usual Friday errands, which involves getting on either northbound I35w or eastbound I94 at the Fifth Avenue on ramp. Which closed on Thursday, with scheduled re-opening four or five years from now.

Note that being closed did not phase at least one Minnesota driver; they attempted to turn left from eastbound Franklin Ave onto northbound Fifth Ave, making it across the other lanes of Franklin Ave before acknowledging the barricades and turning back onto eastbound Franklin Ave.

Franklin Ave was no treat - traffic was largely at a standstill.

I didn't have the time or inclination to follow the Detour signs - I'm pretty sure that the job of drawing up the detour route fell to the worst sadists at MnDoT.

For the immediate future, I'll probably start getting on the freeway at Lyndale. I expect that MnDot will shut that down pretty soon, which will probably drive me to 28th Street - which the city is determined to render more or less unusable for automobiles.

After 53(!) years in the same location, my employer will be moving us from Roseville to Eagan.

They are holding a Final Open House on June 15. And at noon on June 23, all employees are expected to be out of the building for good.

I have mixed feelings about this - "Meh" and "Oh, the humanity!".

https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/02/new-aslr-busting-javascript-is-about-to-make-drive-by-exploits-much-nastier/

The interesting thing (to me, at least) is that the architecture/OS I work on is almost certainly not vulnerable (the fact that we don't rely on/use ASLR for protection pretty much guarantees that).

to arkuat and musicmutt!!

...to netmouse! Fingers crossed that the coming year is filled with positive resolutions.

...to decadentdave.

...to tammylc!

Time for me to start thinking about filling in my absentee ballot and sending it in.

The Presidential race, as crazy as it is nationally, seems even more over the top here in Minnesota. Nine tickets for the office of President and Vice-President in Minnesota? Really!?

From the top:

Donald J. Trump and Michael R. Pence - No way I'm going to vote for this con man. Ever.

Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine - Probably not as progressive as I'd like, but more progressive than she stated out, and head and shoulders and trunk above all of the other tickets on the ballot.

Darrell Castle and Scott Bradley - another person who believes the separation of Church and State doesn't apply to his church.

Dan R. Vacek and Mark Elworth, Jr - you have to have positions on more than "Marijuana should be legal".

Alyson Kennedy and Osborne Hart - probably progressive enough, but I wouldn't know, as their web page made it too difficult to get their positions in a font large enough for these old eyes to read.

Jill Stein and Howie Hawkins - I like some of her positions; I find some of her positions abhorrent; I'm unwilling to risk putting the Man With the Tiny Hands into office.

"Rocky" Roque De La Fuente and Michael Steinberg - Not enough "there" there to get my vote.

Evan McMullin and Nathan Johnson - Looks to me like another warmed-over Republican peddling warmed-over ideas that haven't worked in the last 30 to 40 years, and are unlikely to start working now.

Gary Johnson and William Weld - A Republican posing as a Progressive.

I feel like I should actually do more analysis; I can't actually force myself to follow through.

...to carbonel!

...to rvrjoe775 and supergee!