Topic: Blog Thread 5: A New Beginning (Read 180156 times)

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #600 on:** 10 Oct 2021, 17:20 »

What part of the US? People are almost 100% masked in my enlightened bubble.

cesium133 · « **Reply #601 on:** 10 Oct 2021, 17:36 »

Well, I've stopped at several places in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland so far. Masks were very rare. Nobody has hassled me over wearing my mask, but I'm almost the only person who does so.

hedgie · « **Reply #602 on:** 11 Oct 2021, 08:46 »

Where I am in California, they’re really common, even outdoors.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #603 on:** 23 Oct 2021, 13:49 »

We thought the printer was dead, since it wouldn't even work over USB after a power cycle. Was not looking forward to replacing it. But played a hunch that there might be a hard reset in the setup menus. There was. Had to re-enter a five word Diceware passphrase for the wireless network with arrow keys next, but it's printing over wi-fi again now.

Akima · « **Reply #604 on:** 27 Oct 2021, 05:20 »

Thumbs up for Diceware.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #605 on:** 24 Nov 2021, 10:23 »

Too bad so many places have password policies that reject Diceware passphrases.

The latest news is that someone in my elderly and sick father's pod tested positive. Everybody's vaccinated, at least.

EDIT:

My dad's test results came back negative.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #606 on:** 25 Nov 2021, 12:21 »

For example, I just tried to change a Paypal password. I clicked Save and there was no response, neither confirmation nor an error message. Eventually I noticed that the password length requirements I had breezed past (minimum 8, yawn) also had a maximum length of 20 and I'd had my password manager set to generate 26 character passwords. No way to get a secure passphrase through that.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #607 on:** 26 Nov 2021, 09:00 »

Another person in my dad's pod just came back positive. It's the one who usually drops in on him every morning for coffee and, unspoken, to make sure he's all right.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #608 on:** 30 Dec 2021, 18:09 »

I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Akima · « **Reply #609 on:** 31 Dec 2021, 15:50 »

What is a Holiday Inn Express? I don't remember any Holiday Inn I stayed at being anything better than the hotel equivalent of Burger King. The company I worked for in my regular-US-travelling days normally stuck me in Best Western, the snack-dispensing-machine of hotels.

pwhodges · « **Reply #610 on:** 31 Dec 2021, 16:11 »

The Express version is Holiday Inn's "upper economy" offering, originally with reduced facilities (e.g. no room service, pool, fitness centre). They now generally have most of these facilities, but are placed in less central or smart areas.

cesium133 · « **Reply #611 on:** 31 Dec 2021, 17:20 »

IICIH is referring to an ad campaign for Holiday Inn Express that involved people appearing really smart, and when asked how they became so smart, they answer “I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.”

LeeC · « **Reply #612 on:** 24 Jan 2022, 10:02 »

I've noticed an interesting dynamic between my two little girls (ages 2 and 3). The 3 year old (M) loves being a princess and will often be a princess in distress when daddy is being a monster/dinosaur/bad-guy chasing them. My youngest (C) seems to want to be the knight that fights off the dinosaur/monster/bad-guy and will often run from the other side of the house if she hears M cry for help. C will pretend to fight me and beat me up to save her sister. Another example is on the playground outside. I may grab M's leg when they're in the tower and make octopus noises (from Bluey) and C will say "I save you" and she'll try to pry my hand off the leg. Its incredibly cute. She also seems to be into swords. I played a French Hussar video on youtube out of boredom (I was on a Napoleonic War kick and it was in the recommended videos) and C came over from the other room and saw the Hussar pictures, swords raised high while on horseback, and she thrust a fist to the sky to imitate them and dance along.
https://i.imgur.com/0dgdVnf.mp4
What is a good age to get a kid to start fencing? I kid, but I am tempted to get her like a foam sword so she can play knight and princess with her older sister.

hedgie · « **Reply #613 on:** 24 Jan 2022, 10:25 »

You probably want to start them only, since the consequences of getting caught are much higher the older one gets, and people generally make mistakes as they learn.

Morituri · « **Reply #614 on:** 24 Jan 2022, 19:33 »

So, wait... at this age, your daughter is already a shameless hussar?

Congratulations! (And never ever tell her why that was funny).

Foam sword - probably a good idea. Fencing lessons - Probably not before third grade at the earliest.

But she's a kid. By Third Grade she'll be on Dinosaurs, collecting bugs, fairy tales, and some kid-catering singer who hasn't even started to get popular yet. After going through sixteen other things on the way.

Kids are little maniacs, and I mean that in the absolute best possible way. It is entirely normal for kids to learn by constantly devoting effort to a constantly shifting set of manias. They do deep-dive learning on whatever the subject of their most recent obsession, and then after a while the obsession changes and she goes from, I dunno, a mania for dance lessons to a mania for track and field events.

Farideh · « **Reply #615 on:** 24 Jan 2022, 19:35 »

Agreed. We never let our kids do a course on anything unless they ask for it for several weeks. No, I am not going to buy you fishing gear based on a whim (true story)!

hedgie · « **Reply #616 on:** 24 Jan 2022, 19:58 »

Quote from: Morituri on 24 Jan 2022, 19:33

Foam sword - probably a good idea. Fencing lessons - Probably not before third grade at the earliest.

Of course, real swords are more educational:

LeeC · « **Reply #617 on:** 25 Jan 2022, 07:45 »

I've only ever seen the comic version of this. Seeing the video was great!

Yeah I meant the fencing lessons as a joke, but I think the foam sword may be a good idea. Probably get one for her older sister too so they can duel/defend each other from the next monster attack.

edit: maybe some helmets too.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #618 on:** 19 Feb 2022, 22:50 »

I just need to avoid DIY plumbing.

The latest failure started with trying to replace a toilet's wax ring. This is generally considered a simple job. I wound up with parts not staying in place, situations that YouTube University did not address, and it climaxed with cracking the tank.

Gnabberwocky · « **Reply #619 on:** 09 Mar 2022, 21:08 »

I started playing Ultimate last spring. I'd gone to various pickup games and whatnot on and off before, but never in any kind of organized capacity.

Not only is that the most fun and most satisfying sport that exists, it attracts the kindest groups of people on the face of the planet.

LeeC · « **Reply #620 on:** 12 Mar 2022, 06:10 »

So I like to put together and paint miniatures and haven't done it in a long time. I decided to get back on track and build some space marines from the Horus Heresy game. After putting some together I felt like the torsos and legs were out of proportion so badly that I couldn't stick on their accessories (knives, ammo pouches, grenades, etc) with out really cluttering up the model and was largely unhappy with them. Then I saw that people were getting some "true scale" torso and legs from this company called Tortuga Bay, so I bought some and I put them together and they look really snazzy and I can't wait to prime them so I can paint them (once the temperature outside is warm enough). I was getting excited and was building the army in my head, looking up other models and what bodies from TB I could get them. And then I saw they were in Ukraine and my order was one of the last ones before the Russian invasion.

They are effectively shut down as they had to evacuate themselves and their families because their city was under siege. This was rather harrowing to find out, and although I do not know them personally, I do feel connected to them in a way. Apparently you can keep up with them on their journey through these tough times on instagram. So I signed up for instagram last night and was going through their recent posts. Now I've been seeing a lot of footage on reddit of the invasion and its really strange to see unedited videos of what is unarguably people being killed. I mean I remember seeing the Afghan and Iraqi invasions on TV, but those were usually journalists filming from afar or edited footage sent from the military, but seeing these up close and personal videos and watching TB's evacuation with jets blowing up the city just blows my mind. It made me understand the level of social technology we have now on a new level. And then instagram started suggesting friends to me. Which was fine, I signed up with my google account and it was suggesting facebook friends from when I had facebook years ago. But then it suggested people I met long after I left facebook. Long after I moved up the coast. In fact it was suggesting my 3 neighbors I am friendly with as instagram friends. Now I am rather tempted to delete the account.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #621 on:** 30 Jun 2022, 15:21 »

I'm getting money for my exercise program. It turns out that not only will people pay you to take walks outside, they'll even lend you their dogs!

LeeC · « **Reply #622 on:** 18 Sep 2022, 19:22 »

Recently we found Witch's eggs in the front yard by the Pine tree.

(click to show/hide)

Its a fungus that eventually sprouts and becomes smelly to attract flies to help spread its spores. I convinced my 2 daughters (3 and 4 yo) that they are real witch's eggs. That a witch laid them in hiding and would come back for them when they were ready. We kept checking on them before or after coming home from school until they all eventually disappeared. I told them not to touch them since the witch may come back looking for them and that if you harm a witch's egg, they'll come after you.. They were very careful around them. Well fast forward a couple of weeks after they disappeared. I had the girls kicking mushrooms in the front yard and my eldest daughter saw one and kicked it, thinking it was a mushroom and not a witch's egg. I asked her if it was a witch s egg, she said no (a lie). I said, "Okay, but if it was the witch will come after you." She again said it wasn't a witch's egg. So we went for a walk down our familiar street. She then started holding my hand and said she was scared. I asked her why and she just shook her head. I asked her what she was afraid of. She said the witch. I asked her again if it really was a witch's egg and she said it was. I told her that she should always come and tell me the truth so I could help and protect her. So I told her I knew how to protect her and we should go home so I could perform a witch protection ritual on her. So the three of us went to our back porch. My youngest sat and watched us. I had my eldest stand with her eyes close. I got some salt and made a circle around her (something I saw on hocus pocus and I knew she'd recognize) and made her make the sign of the cross a few times and turn around (something from Pirates of the Caribbean and Muppet treasure island, again something she'd remember seeing). After that I told her to open her eyes and she was now fine and the witch would leave her alone and not know she broke the egg. She asked me not to tell mommy so I said okay. The whole thing was cute. I later did tell my wife and while she thought it was cute, she is the more superstitious of the two of us and asked me to be careful about that kind of thing.

Is it cold in here? · « **Reply #623 on:** 18 Oct 2022, 20:40 »

25th anniversary today.

Farideh · « **Reply #624 on:** 19 Oct 2022, 00:03 »

Congratulations!

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Author Topic: Blog Thread 5: A New Beginning (Read 180156 times)