I didn’t want to call today’s post “The Last Straw.” The debacle in my trying to downgrade my WordPress plan, which included an insult from them, is the turning point, the last straw in terms of my deciding what to do with my blog. No doubt exists that this blog’s days are numbered.
Granted this was some sort of form or AI response, but when I “told” WordPress the key reason why I wanted to downgrade my plan, here is part of the message I received, “You may want to focus on creating quality content and increasing traffic to your site.” While I really wanted to respond with a string of expletives I wrote, “don’t insult me…I will NEVER use Fack Fucebook or Guck Foogle to increase blog traffic and my blog is already excellent.”
In the bigger picture, and speaking of expletives, the world is fucked up and my writing about it is not going to change a damn thing. In a more narrow vein, researching WordPress and learning the identity of some of the “organizations” that use their services makes me want to disassociate myself from them even more. When (not if) I leave WordPress, a small probability exists I will write occasionally on Substack.
Some bookkeeping…technically, for however many days remain this blog’s URL is now https://disaffected-musings.com. I don’t know if using the “old” URL (no hyphen) automatically re-directs to the new one.
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Seems almost pointless to write anything else today, but I’ll give it a go…on this day in 2002 (!) my wonderful wife and I moved into the only brand new house we have ever purchased and it will almost certainly be the only one. Beazer Homes built the house in TEN WEEKS! I will not explain the reason, but the house absolutely had to be completed by a certain date. Beazer promised us they could do it and they did.
It was not a tiny house, either. It was 4,200 square feet on two stories with some premium features like rounded wall corners. Oh, they graciously left us the blueprints for the house, supposedly contrary to company policy, in addition to a map of the larger area with the development location highlighted. You can see the house in this photo.
As I explained the first time I published this photo, it had to be taken in February or March of 2007. That was the only period my wonderful wife had her Jaguar XK-8 and I had my 2007 Corvette. Oh, the ample 3-car garage was in the back and was accessed via the alley that ran behind the houses.
Speaking of Corvettes, my hierarchy in terms of looks has changed somewhat. I would probably now rank the Corvette generations, again in exterior design only, like this:
C2 (1963-1967)
C6 (2005-2013)
C4 (1984-1996)
C7 (2014-2019)
C5 (1997-2004)
C3 (1968-1982)
C1 “B” (1956-1962)
C8 (2020-Present)
C1 “A” (1953-1955)
I have taken to calling the C8 the snub nose, fat ass car. All that being said, if my wonderful wife wants to buy a C8 convertible as her new primary car, then more power to her. I cannot absolutely rule out buying a C6 or C4 Corvette for myself in the future, but it is a scenario with a low probability, <5%. “But you have the C6 ranked ahead of the C4.” A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. Actually, since I have already have owned a C6 I would be more interested in a C4, but only from 1992 or later.
C4 Corvettes are still inexpensive, to say the least. Of the 89 1992-96 Corvettes currently listed for sale on Hemmings with an automatic transmission, 16 of them have an asking price under $15,000. Given that 359,000 C4 Corvettes were built, including 109,000 from 1992-96, I wouldn’t be that worried about finding parts.
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Effective with the 2025 model year, Toyota is no longer offering the Supra with the 2-liter, 4-cylinder engine. I can only guess that few people chose that motor. In looking online for used Supras, and if I don’t filter out the 2.0 version, very few of them are listed compared to the 3-liter, 6-cylinder spec. Oh, have I written about the Supra before? 🤪
Of course, Toyota could be trying to differentiate the Supra from the (allegedly) returning MR2 and Celica. Those cars, with a supposed return date of 2026, will be powered by a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine. From Hallelujah, Toyota! here is a picture/rendering of the new MR2. Actually, the picture/rendering is from Japan’s top-selling car magazine, Best Car.
More ominously, although Toyota management has pledged that the Supra will remain in production even though BMW will cease production of the Supra’s sibling, the Z4, in January, 2026, it is possible that the Supra will be discontinued so as not to cannibalize sales from the MR2 and Celica. It’s also possible that Toyota could call the latter the Celica Supra, a model nomenclature used from 1979 to 1986 for the 6-cylinder Celica variant.
This is not my last post, on WordPress or elsewhere, but I want to thank those of you who read the blog on a regular or semi-regular basis. You are appreciated.
#TheTurningPoint
#DeathToAnti-Semites!