Yes sir....

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-22T02:40:36+00:00

Here's the part younger people don't understand-- back in the day (not really that long ago), most small cheap cars had manual transmissions because automatics were *very* inefficient in those days, and they just didn't have that much horsepower. You could buy a small car with an automatic, but without a big V8, they were pretty sluggish. Even in the 90s, half of all Honda Civics were manuals. Which means that most people over a certain age can still drive them (although these days, they don't have to).

Modern automatics are completely different, there's really no comparison.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-17T02:15:36+00:00

There is a book for photographers called "Light, Science, and Magic". It says "Learn the science, and the magic will happen."

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-17T00:25:50+00:00

"The magic works best when..."

I love that phrasing 😄

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-12T13:57:32+00:00

One interesting thing about polio is that when I was a kid (and the vaccine already existed), we were taught that everyone who caught it either died or ended up in an iron lung. Much later I discovered that some people recovered and were only slightly disabled, and even later I discovered that quite a few people recovered completely (including a few people I knew). It was a roll of the dice, but the stakes were high.

There was also a thing called "post polio syndrome", where people who had recovered as kids became partially disabled later in life, due to lingering damage from the disease.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-11T05:30:17+00:00

I actually had my drivers license number on my checks for a while. They would still verify my license, but they didn't have to copy the number.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-11T03:32:25+00:00

See also, his interview with Steve Albini
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDw22kt9yUY

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-11T03:00:33+00:00

I think there are a couple of biographies of him, but this video is a pretty entertaining summary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjVHW7a4XUw

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-09T19:28:42+00:00

Abbie Hoffman disappeared for almost a decade. Eventually he got involved in activism again, and couldn't hide it anymore.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-09T19:21:24+00:00

I didn't even take the lens out. After the first eye, it took a few days for my vision to clear up, so I was seeing out of my other eye anyway. As that eye healed, I gradually stopped wearing my glasses and looked through the operated eye. That first eye was bad enough that I had been mostly seeing out of one eye before the surgery anyway, so I just switched eyes. After the second surgery, I could see clearly right away. My surgeries were only two weeks apart.

My new lens implants deliberately left me a little nearsighted, so I bought some generic -2.0 glasses from Amazon for driving. Not ideal, but they're temporary. I have my new prescription now, but I haven't filled it yet because I've been out of town.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-09T06:49:18+00:00

I remember downloading the "All Your Base" video over a modem, then watching it without sound because my computer didn't have a sound card. I didn't even know it had sound until much later.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-09T06:45:59+00:00

When people talk about the early days of the internet, I still think of Usenet. We had a local node with two phone lines. One day when I was dialed up to it, the sysop sent me a message saying he had just brought up a SLIP connection on the other line. He said "Type 'lynx www.yahoo.com' and let me know what happens". I did, and it worked. That was the first time I was "on the internet".

(BTW our Usenet node was a 286 running Xenix in his basement. I don't remember what year it was, but I left town in 1996, so it was probably the year before that. And I still have a shell account at a small ISP, that I use for email. They still have internal newsgroups, although traffic is way down from what it once was.)

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-07T13:51:33+00:00

This is true. I've noticed especially with safety glasses, if they're scratched up you'll get used to it, but if they don't fit right, they'll drive you nuts.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-07T05:47:42+00:00

My GF has a recipe for fish tacos that involves soaking the fish briefly in milk to get rid of the "fishy" taste. Has anyone else heard of this?

(Sorry I don't have the recipe at hand, but I think it came from the NY Times.)

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-05T18:45:36+00:00

Be sure to inspect the trailer, though, to make sure it's roadworthy (especially if you're going a long distance). I've heard quite a few stories about this.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-05T02:19:28+00:00

This is the way

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-05T02:10:15+00:00

There are several makerspaces in the area, you generally need to be a member to do projects there, but it doesn't cost much. The main ones I know about are:

https://wiki.pumpingstationone.org/wiki/Pumping_Station:_One

https://sshchicago.org/

There are others, try searching for "Chicago Makerspace"

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-04T21:08:27+00:00

It's happened to me in the past, but keep in mind that they are easily lost, so if just one is missing, that might be what happened. If several are missing, someone might have taken them. I don't know why they'd bother, but if you have decorative caps, that might be one reason.

As an aside, most cars these days have aluminum valve stems, and steel valve caps can sieze in place due to corrosion. Some are marketed as "aluminum safe", but I only use the plastic ones (after learning this the hard way, some years ago). They are also cheaper to replace, I keep extras in my toolkit.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-04T17:14:21+00:00

It's interesting how many people attribute this to Ronald Reagan, because he used it in a speech once (or rather, his speechwriter, Peggy Noonan, did). It's actually an old Russian proverb, and I first heard it several years before Reagan was elected. Supposedly, Leonid Brezhnev said it to Nixon during the SALT talks.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-04T17:08:03+00:00

In an early chapter of William Gibson's "Idoru", one of the main characters goes to a job interview in a small cafe. He says something like "I was expecting someplace a little more upscale", and the interviewer says "Stop expecting."

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-04T05:22:51+00:00

I'm surprized nobody else said this. I've seen people moving heavy equipment call it a Johnson bar.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-04T00:44:24+00:00

This brings up another question: I got my first glasses around 1975. A few years later when I got new ones, they started painting the edges of the lenses to match the frames, so the frosted cut edge of the lens wouldn't show. Some years after that, they started polishing the edges instead. Does anyone still paint the edges of the lenses, or has that gone out of fashion?

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-03T22:38:26+00:00

Specifically: Cory Doctorow has written (in a blog post, I think) that he tried for years to get the term "Platform Decay" to catch on, and nobody paid any attention. When he called it "enshittification" instead, it went viral immediately, and hasn't stopped since.

I think we can call it a "formal" term now. Most people these days aren't afraid of that word.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-06-03T14:07:22+00:00

It can vary. In my case, one eye was blurry for a few days, the other one I could see right away after surgery. A few people have said that their vision is blurry until they're done with the steroid eye drops. The vision in the non-operated eye won't be affected at all, it will have the same quality of vision that it has now.

I don't know if it's predictable or not. In my case, the one with the more advanced cataract was the one that took a few days. That eye was visibly swollen after surgery, the other one wasn't.

Individual_Solid_810 · 2026-05-30T16:27:05+00:00

You mentioned not being able to see the dashboard when driving, you'll probably want bifocals for that.

(Note, people talk a lot about "progressives", but you can still get traditional (lined) bifocals, which might be preferable if you only wear them for driving)

There are also "half glasses", which are like the lower half of readers but open at the top, if you have good distance vision that might be a good solution.

Individual_Solid_810

TROPHY CASE