I seem to recall that it sanded off the roughest edges, which is probably no bad thing...

Oh man! The D'Aulaire's books were my _jam_ when I was a kid - my gateway drug, dontchaknow. So awesome to see a(n apparently) recent edition!

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they do sound pretty great

Yup. Obvs it won't update anything not listed on the Ninite page, but it has no problem updating any listed software you'd already installed.
I got hooked on it back when it was nearly impossible to install Java or Acrobat Reader without also getting the Ask™️toolbar; Ninite gives clean installs.

(One question I get asked over and over and over: no, Ninite does _not_ run automatically, but only when you tell it to run. I personally consider that an advantage rather than an inconvenience, but ymmv.)

Ninite is also a really good way to get updates for some built-in Windows stuff: Edge, OneDrive, the .NET frameworks, etc. If it's on your machine anyway, it should defo be up-to-date, and Ninite is quick and easy.

Was just coming here to say this.
Once you've selected your apps and created your Ninite installer, it will: 1) install those apps if they're not already on your machine, and going forward 2) check for updates to ones you have.
Saves time, aggravation, and unwanted add-on installs.

Ray's Lolcat Regrets Six hundred bucks is a move. That's the Serious threshhold.

There's always an Achewood:
achewood.com/2007/07/18/t...

All joking aside...
Any 20-mile pole would mass many tons, so the force to turn it would be enormous. Applying that much force at one end would either make the pole 1) shatter or 2) twist and flex. If it flexes, the twist will travel as a wave down the pole; if it shatters...

I can imagine those walls leading to tragedy on a boozy evening...

You missed a 5150 opportunity there

Well, what else would you do with him?

I used to go to trivia nights at the Springbok - I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't try biltong until my third or fourth time, but I fell in love instantly.

Best tamales I've ever had have always been out of a busted Igloo in the trunk of an ancient Chevy in a strip mall parking lot, sold by someone's abuela. Heaven in a corn husk.

Jackson Five notwithstanding, the ABC is not as easy as 1-2-3

The day we were there, it was very hard to imagine it as an actual road; your painting makes it feel a lot more plausible.

(it was gorgeous though)

MotoHakone - ancient Tokaido cedar lane photographed 16 February 2010 with a potato

I have walked there! In February! In completely inappropriate footwear, and froze my ****ing toes!

I love grits and polenta; my sweetie does NOT. It's one of her few objectively wrong opinions.

Oh but please do form it into tamales!
Dammit, now I'm hungry.

I enjoy taking comparison pictures in exotic (to me) locales - local posters for American movies, McDo/Burger King window ads, etc. I'm fascinated by how American pop/food culture gets absorbed and evolved in other countries... but I'm not eating in those places unless a local friend drags me in.

Folk either love grits or hate them; I don't understand them as hates 'em.

Many people are saying that JD is quite ignorant about the history of religion in Europe and the Middle East but that overlooks his expertise on the ottomans.

rip to all the people excommunicated by the pope for their heresy but im different. and better. maybe even better than the pope

Since you mentioned that they sang the Doxology:

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Last One Goes The Hope - Gogol Bordello (karaoke) YouTube video by DPZ Karaoke

Should anyone be afflicted by the same strange compulsion as I am, I karaokified this song a few months ago:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=crqJ...

Operation Just 'Cause

I told her I was just echidna

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