This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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Nice to be appreciated…

Part of a profile of himself Alex is doing as homework.

Miley and her sleeping boy

The 2017 tree is a little different…

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Locked In

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan talk about Hong Kong, the Republicans who are starting to worry about Trump, Trump’s executive actions on healthcare and Iran, and Harvey Weinstein. Oh. And Sam gets locked in his office. Fun times!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2017-10-14
Length this week – 1:58:02

  • (0:01:05-0:23:08) But First
    • Agenda
    • Ivan in Hong Kong
    • Trump Puerto Rico comments
  • (0:24:24-1:03:55) Worried Republicans
    • Trump-Tillerson IQ challenge
    • Corker comments
    • Alex Interlude #1
    • Republicans containing Trump
    • Robert Reich post
    • Roy Moore
    • Breaking the wall
    • Trump understanding things
    • Downward spiral
    • Trump attacks on the press
    • Pence alternative
    • Fitness for duty
    • Alex Interlude #2
  • (1:05:04-1:32:44) Executive Actions
    • Birth control requirements
    • ACA Subsidies
    • Expanding low quality plans
    • 3 in Three Interlude
    • Tradeoffs
    • Alex Interlude #3
    • Iran false start
    • Locking the door
    • Iran Deal
  • (1:35:28-1:52:31) Weinstein
    • More and more stories
    • Blaming the victim
    • Blocking the story
    • Impact of Trump
    • The Pence rule
    • Locked in

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Sam rides Alex’s new scooter…

Alex got a scooter for his birthday. After the kids had a few rides, I rode the scooter too. I promptly fell. Alex edited together the video my mother took of the incident to add slow motion instant replay… a few times. My mother had started to record after Brandy said “We need to record this so we can show the hospital what happened.” Such confidence in me! No hospital visit needed. But the kids, Brandy, and my mom all had a good laugh at my expense, watching the video over and over and over… and laughing and laughing and laughing… now all of you can enjoy it too.

Alex is EIGHT!!

Just a few minutes ago… at September 12th at 15:14 UTC (8:14 AM Pacific, 11:14 AM Eastern), Alex was exactly eight years old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!!!

First of all, here is the traditional annual interview with Alex. As usual, he clams up and is not very talkative. But he goes along with the exercise anyway. Meaning he puts on a show of his non-answers to my questions. Or maybe he was answering in pantomime. In any case, here it is…

Now, a rundown of milestones from the last year. Each year of course the I provide less details, as it is more up to him to talk about himself. But I’ll allow myself a few highlights.

  • Alex’s YouTube channel is now up to 39 subscribers. Help him get to 50. Subscribe now!
  • Alex is now in second grade!
  • He got to see DanTDM live! Dan has dropped of his regular YouTuber watching rotation for the moment though. Every few months he seems to shift his favorite and spend lots of time watching as much of one YouTuber’s stuff as he can. His current one is Sqaishey Quack. There have been many others over the months though.
  • He loves his dog Miley. He is sometimes a bit rougher than he should be with her, but she loves him anyway, especially when they get to play in the surf at a local beach.
  • Alex is still a Minecraft wiz. He has some worlds that he has been working on for over two years. They are now very elaborate! He does both survival and creative mode depending what he feels like. The whole family plays together.
  • He has a best friend from 1st grade that we make sure to have playdates with at least once a month, more often when we can manage it. They run around the house chasing each other in between riding bikes and playing computer games. She hides a stuffed penguin to try to get him to do what she wants. But that doesn’t always work.
  • He goes on “adventures” with Grandma Ruth regularly and loves them. He usually prefers to just stay at home, but when she is coming for an adventure, he hurries to be ready and is super eager to go.
  • Alex and I went to a “family camp” together at Camp Seymour for a long weekend this summer. He fought and resisted and begged to go home almost the entire long weekend… in between the actual events. Whenever there was an activity… making home made stomp rockets, archery, swimming, nature walks, meals, camp fires, etc… he was fully engaged and having a great time. He said next year his sister Amy should go to Camp Seymour… instead of him. But he had a blast. So we shall see…
  • I’m pretty sure he is practically a grown up now given how big he is. But he is still reluctant to giving up occasionally being carried by Daddy. (And sometimes others in the family.) But I don’t know how much longer this will be possible. I can only do it for very short periods now.

As usual, there was certainly much more. But this is enough.

Happy birthday Alex!!!

Newly Minted Second Grader

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Proper Strategy

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan talk about… things other than Trump! Amazing! Topic include the Senate healthcare bill, Philandro Castile, Charleena Lyles, Grenfell Tower, useless press briefings, escalation in Syria, the special elections in Georgia and South Carolina, layoffs at pollster.com, Uber, Sam’s thoughts on recording candidate forums… and even some movies Ivan watched recently! A lot packed in this week… but relatively Trump light! OK, we couldn’t avoid him entirely. But closer than we have come for awhile!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

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1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
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Download MP3 File
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Show Details:

Recorded 2017-06-22
Length this week – 2:29:24

  • (0:00:15-0:34:25) But First
    • Paper
    • Agenda
    • Overshadowed
    • Forum adventures
    • Ivan movie: Interstellar
    • Alex interlude
    • Ivan movie: Sully
  • (0:35:40-1:04:51) But Second
    • Leaks on the Senate healthcare bill
    • Will they get 50 votes?
    • Healthcare cost drivers
    • Repeal or tweak?
    • Cynical ploys
  • (1:06:34-1:34:04) But Third
    • Philando Castile verdict
    • Charleena Lyles shooting
    • Grenfell Tower fire
    • Dealing with emergencies
  • (1:35:24-1:56:40) But Fourth
    • Useless Spicer briefings
    • Critical press, not stenographers
    • Spicy’s future
    • Syrian drones and planes
  • (1:57:19-2:29:04) But Fifth
    • Special election spin
    • Pollster.com layoffs
    • Approval ratings
    • Polling accuracy
    • Uber

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: The Russia Trump Hour

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan talk about… well… could it be anything else? Almost the whole show is on the many Trump-Russia developments from the last week. Developments in the Mike Flynn story. Trump talking about tapping conversations. Trump meets with Russians and says things that get him in trouble. Reports on Trump-Comey conversations. The Special Counsel. The continuing investigation. Talk of Impeachment and the 25th amendment. Basically all Trump this week. Except for a Wiki of the Day update.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

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1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2017-05-20
Length this week – 1:57:21

  • (0:00:54-0:14:08) But First
    • All Trump
    • Things not covered
    • Negative news tone
    • Wiki of the Day update
    • Alex interlude
  • (0:14:56-0:45:31) Trump-Russia Part 1
    • Ignored warnings about Flynn
    • Trump tapes?
    • Trump meeting with Russians
    • Trump is a moron
    • Fox effect
  • (0:46:36-1:25:09) Trump-Russia Part 2
    • Taking notes at meetings
    • Trump/Comey meetings
    • Coverup vs Crime
    • Special Council
    • Follow the money
    • McCarthy/Ryan on Trump/Russia
    • Kushner is a person of interest
    • Trump still likes Flynn
    • Russians bragging about Flynn
    • Who Trump people trust
  • (1:25:50-1:57:01) Removal Options
    • No President Hatch
    • Impeachment Route
    • 25th Amendment Route
    • What next?

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: That list is big!

Once again Ed and Bruce join Sam on Curmudgeon’s Corner. This week we have both Trump and non-Trump topics! On the Trump side, with Ed: Trump/Russia, the healthcare debate, and America’s wars. On the non-Trump side, with Bruce: Hyperloop technology, old school retail, terrorism, and Internet privacy. And as an extra bonus, everybody talks about their favorite podcasts. Other than this one. This is of course everybody’s favorite podcast. That doesn’t have to be said.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

CCCover20151125bw

 

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
View Podcast in iTunes
View Raw Podcast Feed
Download MP3 File
Follow the podcast on Facebook
patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2017-03-24
Length this week – 2:55:55

  • (0:00:10-0:06:04) Intro
    • Ivan still out
    • Agenda
  • (0:06:41-0:41:57) Ed from Pennsylvania Part 1
    • Fitness
    • Favorite Podcasts
    • Russia Stuff
  • (0:42:36-1:08:34) Ed from Pennsylvania Part 2
    • Healthcare
    • Distractions
    • Fighting the last war
  • (1:10:34-1:46:03) Bruce from Washington Part 1
    • Facebook Discussion
    • Small World!
    • TV Update
    • Favorite Podcasts
    • Hyperloop
    • Old School Retail
  • (1:47:18-2:19:56) Bruce from Washington Part 2
    • Last week’s guilt
    • London attack and terrorism
    • US making things worse
    • Alex Interlude
    • Internet Privacy
  • (2:21:17-2:55:16) Sam on Podcasts
    • Favorite podcasts with Alex help
    • The rest of the favorites on my own
    • News update podcasts

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.