Just saw Patton Oswalt tonight. He was very funny but I feel like he phoned it in a little bit. He’s generally one of my favorite comedians but it just felt off tonight. Oh well, that’s the nature of this sort of thing.
Just as a public service thing: fucking sunscreen. I know I've joked about it a lot that I grew up on boats and stuff, but mother nature always wins. Always figured we'd be knocked off by a rogue wave or pirates, but that which gives life also takes it away: The sun.
I friggen love this place and hate that idea. I’m a terrible poster though, and either wind up popping on and off randomly or being buried in life and can’t come up for air. It’s a shitty excuse for inactivity especially as so many of the viewpoints here are so well written. I’ll do better I swear.
Honestly, it's all good, and expected. People's lives change as they get older. 10 years ago the people who were around here getting hammered on a Friday night posting tit pics are now dealing with 2 kids as a single mom in a new divorce. To say that their priorities have changed would be an understatement. A lot of us have matured and are into different things than we were. Initially the attraction was that of a train wreck, seeing what crazy or outlandish thing was going to happen next with a crazy cast of characters, but as we've grown older, we've mellowed and moved away from that shit and more to "real life" shit. Likewise, I think some people didn't mature, so have lost interest in the site because it's no longer what it was 10 years ago. I mean really... 10 years ago if you told me that "gardening" or "woodworking" or "home repair" or "cooking" would be huge topics, I'd have laughed at you. Now? I'm glad it's that way. As much as we don't have the same number of people hanging out, I think we still have some pretty good quality. And based on the number of lurkers that never post, I think others might think the same.
Raise your hand if you've ever had to put out a fire in your house thanks to shitty electrical work?..... No one?? Just me then. Our house was built back in the 40s, and from what I can gather, whomever wired the place was either drunk, clinically retarded, or both. Nothing like the smell of burnt plastic followed by smoke coming from you don't know where, followed immediately by the smell of melting paint. Hey kids! I know we just worked really hard to put yall to sleep, but guess what, y'all have to evacuate the house now because its full of carcinogens!!! I swear if it wasn't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all. My wife used to make fun of me for my keeping a fire extinguisher within 40 feet of any point in the house..... she isn't laughing now.
Shitty electrical work is why I’m SO goddamn leery ever buying a house again that isn’t new build. The things people pull because they’re behind walls are terrifying.
Never actually put out a fire, but I did wake up one morning to find that the outlet my AC was plugged into had completely melted, taking the plug of the AC with it. That can't have been good.
I know it hasn't been that much on the national news, but over the last few weeks Texas has gotten straight raw dogged by mother nature. I've posted on here about the floods, but what I neglected to talk about was when our house got hit by lightning. I shoot a lot of guns. Tinnitus is my friend. I've been in tornadoes. That sound was something I'll never forget. It melted all our surge protectors. Our house is old, the floors were built with saltillo tile. The surge protectors got melted into the clear coat. And if I never again have to use one of my wood working chisels in order to remove burnt plastic from melted clear coat, I'll die a happy man.
If you're worried about that stuff you should put in a whole-house surge protector. Not sure if it would help with a lightning strike, but when I was living in the middle of nowhere we were prone to wind storms, trees down over the lines, and weird power surges/spikes from the electrical grid. I put one in and it saved me a shitload of cash. Wind storm hit, electrical grid went fucked, and just about the entire neighbourhood ended up melting all the power outlets and power bars in their houses. Some people lost $10-15k of electronics that just didn't give a fuck about the cheap power bar that was being used. My neighbour had 3 power bars that had melted into his carpet and totally fucked up his computer and entertainment system (tv, etc). BC Hydro was taken to court for a few years because they refused to accept responsibility for the spike. I make a point of using a proper battery powered UPS / line conditioner for every major electronic purchase I have so that it guarantees that the power going into it is not too little, nor too much. Believe it or not, most hard drive failures are a result of a brownout (lack of power), rather than a overload/surge. A shitty fuse-based powerbar isn't going to do fuck all for any major surge.
We had a couple of melted breakers at the gym back in the day. That place is a giant dustbin and dried wood. I hope a fire never sparks. I’m terrified of electricity. I can tinker with plumbing or hang drywall or even help shingle a roof. Start talking ANYTHING that has a current and I’m out.
Worst part was when I told my landlord and he sent his handyman out to fix it, dude did the work without turning off the power to the room. I was standing like ten feet behind him being like "uh... shouldn't you throw the breaker before you start shoving metal pliers into live wires?"
Those are natural consequences my friend. He’ll learn or...your house will smell like fried bologna for a minute.
My wife made the mistake of allowing my phone to hook up to a speaker in the bedroom which she can't find right now. She wants to go to sleep. I don't. She's recently gained like half a pound and she's super self conscious, so I'm playing "Baby Got Back" and "Thong Song." If I don't post again for a few days, it's because she murdered me.
I lurk frequently here but rarely post for several reasons. One reason is that life has gotten in the way the last couple of years and while drive by lurking can be done with little effort I’ve been reluctant to slap out a crappy post that doesn’t add anything. Hell, this may be an example of that - I’m responding to a post nearly 24 hours old. I’ve been content to let you folks do the heavy lifting, and 10 years on you are still funny and informative. I’ll try to post more - if nothing else it will add a little variety.
Forums are funny that way. People come, people go. Some that were happy I resurrected mine a year ago are now MIA. For mine, I've decided to make some drastic changes and see what happens. But still keep a forum for the handful that still post. I've been here since the beginning, but lurked for most of it until the past year or so. I'd agree, the content is pretty damned good and it's a good group of folks here.
I’m in the same boat as long timers but now lurkers. Life did happen and posting on a message board fell way behind in priorities. But I do read you guys posts and am entertained. Thank you.
A while back we were talking about ditching helicopters... it was when that sight-seeing helicopter went down in New York and the passengers/tourists died. Smarter Every Day just did an interesting video on the ditched-helo training he did...