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2 yr. ago

  • 55m here (birthday is coming up next week so I'm owning getting older!)

    Get the kids, I have two teenage boys, through University and send them off into life well prepared. At least as prepared as my wife and I can make them.

    Retire before I die and at this point, I mean that seriously.

    That's it. In my youth I had aspirations to be a pilot and an engineer... But my eyesight precluded me from doing the type of flying that I wanted to do. I wanted to become an EE, but made some stupid decisions in my youth and thought I could make money early, then go back to school. Turns out, to make that money you have to work alllllll the time. I actually didn't complete my degree until age 42. Really stupid of me not to stay in university when I was in my early 20's.

    Things I did accomplish already:

    Skydiver and attained both my "D" master license and "PRO" licensed. Though long retired from it, I'm quite proud of my time in the sky. There are a several people in the air today, because of what I taught them many years ago. They have gone on to teach others. While my impact on the sport is not as great as some, it is far more than many.

    Found a life mate: Which is not something that I thought I wanted until my mid-30's when I met my future wife.

    At this point, I just want to make it to old age... Well oldER without ending up in a gutter homeless.

  • Not just circuit breakers, but why are high powered circuits being used in the habitable parts of the ship?

    Even modern cars no longer run high amperage circuits to the driver's controls. Back in the old days, you turn on the lights, the light switch carried a full 12v and a lot of current to control relays. Today, the light switch and turn signal stalk use a signal circuit to tell a body control module what to do.

    The bridge of a Star Trek ship should have control panels running on the future equivalent of 5 volt signal circuits that tells a distant and well shielded control module to switch the ultra high powered circuits.

    That leads me to the one thing that has always bothered me about Star Trek and its transporters and replicators. E=MC^2... When a replicator creates food or an object, it would take at least the same amount of energy to make, as it would if the same amount of mass were destroyed in a nuclear reaction. That DOES mean in areas where those devices are installed there ARE ultra high powered circuits (EPS conduits) in the wall. So high powered that they have the equivalent of multiple nuclear explosions flowing through them every second... YIKES.

  • Phone

    SMS/MMS

    Family Link

    That's it. Everything else can wait till I open it up.

  • Told a janitor to not unplug the equipment rack in a closet to plug in their vacuum cleaner. Why they thought that plugging in their vacuum there, rather than just using the outlet not 6 feet away outside the closet is beyond me.

    Further, why that closet wasn't locked in the first place. But this was almost 30 years ago and it was another time in IT.

    I spoke with the janitor and she started plugging in her vacuum in the adjacent outlet. Then I went to the director of IT and got the capitol cost approved to secure all of the networking closets in the building, which there were 6, one for each floor. Only the one floor was an issue as that closet also house a sink and drain for the janitors to use. There wasn't another place we could move the networking equipment to without laying out a lot of money.

  • As someone that literally spent 25 years driving a manual, including various stints in racing. Manuals have seen their day.

    It used to be if you wanted better mileage, you drove a manual. If you wanted to be faster on the track, drive a manual (caveat there is drag racing.)

    Today? The computer is just better at controlling a transmission. I drive a Camry Hybrid now and not having shifts is REALLY weird and the drone getting up to highway speeds is annoying, but I do like the 45mpg. Not to mention, when I sat down to learn how the Toyota Hybrid Drive works... It's a pretty clever system.

    There are a lot of times that nostalgia gets the better of me and I wish I had a car with a manual. My oldest is possibly joining a skating team that is a 2 hour drive away. It's tempting to let him use my car and then buy an older manual for myself as a toy. I'd love to get a hold of another mid-80's Corolla GT-S. I autocrossed one back in the late 80's early 90's. It still remains my favorite car I've ever owned.

  • That might be true at this moment. In another year? It will be used by billionaires to buy another island, or politician.

    SS will be privatized, then that private company will go bankrupt in the next few years and all the money in SS now, will be "mysteriously" gone.

  • Fellow X'er here. My wife and I have worked with a financial consultant for the last 20 years. From the get go she said not to count on SS at all.

    We have always considered all that money we paid into it to be just.... Gone. That's pretty much a reality now.

    I hope the billionaires enjoy what our money buys for them. It will probably be another politician.

  • House:

    No neighbors on the other side of the wall. Although, I live in a tightly packed neighborhood. My plot of land is only 10,000ft^2. That's not the size of my house, that's the size of my YARD. I do wish we had at least an acre. Honestly, I'd love to have 3 or 4 acres that are partially wooded, but beggars and choosers and all that.

    More room to spread out. When we started having kids, we had areas we could turn into toy rooms, a dedicated bathroom for diaper changes and bathing the kids. We finished the basement two years ago and that has added even more room. I have my own personal man cave now, which is nice.

    It's a home. Meaning our property looks like how WE want it to look. We're lucky in that we do NOT have an HOA. My wife and I love flower gardens and most of our property is taken up with flower beds. When we turn onto our street, we see our Home, not just a house. Never had that feeling in all the years I rented apartments.

    For reference, I rented from 1991 to 2006. My wife and I bought our house in 2006 and have been in it ever since. This is the longest I have ever lived in one place in my entire life. Even over and above the house I grew up in. We're about to go onto the next stage of life, as our oldest is going off the college next year and our youngest is about 3 years behind him. We might move when the youngest moves, but there are a LOT of things that will go into that decision.

  • I find distressed audio equipment and bring them back to life.

    Here is a photo of some of the pieces I've worked on:

    Top Shelf:

    Adcom GP-555 It's actually dead. I cannot get the left channel to work at all. Resoldered the entire signal path, replaced the opamps, cleaned the controls, bypassed the controls.. Just cannot find where the issue is...

    McIntosh MC7108: On/off circuit issues. This one I didn't really fix, just bypassed the affected circuit, because I don't care about turning it on and off via a switch. I use it every day.

    Second Shelf:

    Carver TFM-15cb: Needed new lights in the meters and the input level pots cleaned. That is all the one pictured needed. I have another one that required the same things, but also had to recap it. The one in the photo will need new capacitors before too long. Great sounding amps, but not very well built.

    Bottom Shelf:

    Soundcraftsman PRO-PA2X200: This is actually an amp my wife has owned for over 30 years. The power supply caps went out and needed to be replaced.

    Here is a photo of said capacitors:

  • Been in a plane crash.

    It was a Beech 18 that experienced fuel starvation on climb out. The pilot raised the gear and belly landed it in a freshly tilled corn field off the end of the runway. It was a lot like being in a car accident, just lasted longer with a lot more rending metal noises. The port engine was ripped off and was sitting about 50 feet behind where the plane came to rest.

    It wasn't cool, believe me...

  • Chili (I modified the "Joy of Cooking's" McCleod chili recipe with fresh chilis and roasted red peppers)

    Julia Child La Beouf Bourguignon (This actually gets better the longer it sits in the fridge).

    Baked Ziti (Cooks Illustrated)

    Chicken Tinga (Bon Appetite recipe)

  • Quite the metaphor mixing you're doing there.

    Must say I rather like it.

  • Got to see Chicago/ Beach Boys double headline back in 1989 (I think). Both bands were great. Saw the Beach Boys at the old Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, OH about 5 years later and it was a great show.

    Bad Company Holy Water tour. Brian Howe was front lining the band and he was great, but really would have preferred to have seen Paul Rodgers.

    Black Crowes opening for ZZ Top on the Recycler tour. ZZ Top had a great show, but musically, Black Crowes was much better.

    Duran Duran ... I was a closet fan of theirs back in my teens. I'm not in the closet any longer. Soup Dragons opened for them and they suuuucked.

    Linkin Park opening for Metallica at the Atlanta Braves stadium in 2003. They were great, Metallica was meh, but I've never been a huge fan of theirs.

    Live... Not a big fan of theirs, but they did have a good live show. (see what I did there! Yes, I'm a Dad.) They opened for the Counting Crows who were great too.

    Santana is a lot better live than anywhere else. I saw him on the Supernatural tour, or at least that was the album he had just released. Funny side story about this concert. This was in 1999 and was there with a friend. 25 years later, my wife and I were talking about concerts we have attended over the years. She mentioned she went to see Santana when she first moved to Cincinnati, which is where I lived at the time... Turns out we were at the same concert 5 years before we met and didn't realize it until last year.

    Yes, I'm old.

  • My Friday night group started playing 2024 rules a couple of months ago. Also made the change from Roll20 to Foundry VTT, so it's been a little bit of a learning curve for the group.

    I absolutely love Weapon Mastery. It's a mechanic that is long over due. Haven't been playing long enough to say what could be done better about it, as so far it's been pretty good across the classes. I play a Rogue Soul Knife and having Vex, in order to get Sneak Attack damage every turn is really effective. Plus, as a Rogue I can use tactics more individualized for my character.

    The lack of flanking giving advantage was annoying... At first. With that said, it has forced the party to actually engage in tactics that didn't just involve lining up in a row.

    So far so good... Just waiting for everything to go behind multiple paywalls due to Hasbro having a bad quarter. I really tried pushing my group to go to Pathfinder after the License dust up, but was overridden. My group is more important to me than the stupidity of Hasbro, so 2024 is what we play.

  • Hard... AGREE on this one.

    Why in the holy Tiamat didn't they just call it 6e? Got to be edgy or cringy...

  • My college girlfriend bought me a tri-fold wallet for my 20th birthday. It is still in daily use.

    Why? It is an expensive and well made wallet and it has always felt "right" in my back pocket. While it shows obvious signs of wear, all the stitching is still in perfect shape.

    That girlfriend dumped me, after 3 years of dating, for a guy that owned a fancier car. She contacted me two years later looking to get back together. I told her to pound sand, but I still use the wallet.

    Thanks for the wallet Shannon... It doesn't remind me of you, but it is a good wallet.

    Just remembered, she bought me the Led Zeppelin box set for Christmas that same year. It is currently sitting in my closet. I still "use" it, but I've long ripped the discs to FLAC files and listen to them via my Plex server.

    So two things from the same girlfriend.

    I will be turning 55 next month.

  • Just you.

    Vincent Price might have made his career in horror and playing creepy characters, IRL he was anything but. By the things I have read about him, he was a good person. He was also a chef in his own right, so seeing him in the kitchen baking cookies with someone would have been completely normal for him. He was probably having the time of his life, sharing his love of food with a child.

    I'm sure that photo documents one of the few healthy interactions Drew had during her childhood.

    Edit: Grammar

  • You are the Universe experiencing itself.