h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Unexplained power failure today.

Probably something seasonal.

I'm reminded of a bit from Billy Connolly's first American show (on HBO, ya know!?)

He was discussing the differences in terminology between the US and home. Power outage vs. Power cut. Power cut was self descriptive and straight forward. "Oy! We cut yur power!"

"Outage" sounded too pretentious.

I like HEB.
http://www.twcnews.com/tx/austin/news/2015/12/27/h-e-b-won-t-allow-open-carry.html

Yep... there are some very conflicted Texans right now. They would expect this sort of thing from a Yankee grocer like Whole Foods, but not from the most Texan grocery chain there is.

I put something on Twitter earlier, and within less than a second someone had liked it.

Almost instantaneously.

*Someone who I don't follow and who doesn't follow me.

Must have been following a keyword in your tweet.

And likely a bot.

You could be right about that. Around 95% of the account seems to be template posts promoting a website (which I don't believe I'll be visiting). The only thing different about each post is the name of the @person it's pointed at, and sometimes it's in Spanish.

Yeah... I bet they keyed off of a hashtag.

I'm always bewildered by my new follower notifications. It's amazing how many attractive young women follow my account (and thousands of others).

Same here, and it's amazing (although probably not) how I keep seeing the same images of women in various states of undress attached to posts containing one of the currently popular trends, despite having nothing to do with said trend, and always from a different account (which I *always* report for spamming ), and those images don't open to a larger version of it, as they usually do on Twitter, but are a link to a dodgy website.

Why am I not following either of you on Twitter?

I'm @BaronGrim.

@BrotherBikini

I shall look you up

Open carry comes into force at midnight tonight, so happy 1886, Texas

I expect it won't be that much of an issue after the novelty wears out. I'm rather used to occasionally seeing rotund white guys in cowboy hats carrying side arms, now I just won't assume they're plain clothed cops.

I'm at that point in the week I dread even more than going back to work on Thursday morning (which is the worst day of the week for morning traffic in Austin ) after my delightful three-day weekends - trying to figure out what I'm going to cook that's going to last me through the work week so I don't have to cook anything more than a few vegetables (and sometimes not even that) when I get home each day, and then making a list, and then going to the shops to buy it

Girding up my loins for tomorrow morning with the help of a good dose of absinthe

I've never tried absinthe nor any of the American absynthetics.

From the descriptions I've read and heard I expect it would taste like licorice or anise and that's one flavor I've never liked.

Your bottles of Jaegermeister are safe around me.