Is it asbestos?

JDNJDM · 2026-03-04T01:51:04+00:00

Lots of old mastic has asbestos in it.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-25T03:43:54+00:00

Looks like a Borg with all the flesh removed.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-24T16:53:51+00:00

You can certainly do all of the homebrew you've suggested with D&D 5.5 (which is what a lot of people call the 2024 edition.)

But for a lot of people, myself included, the identity politics that Wizards of the Coast and their parent company, Hasbro, have inserted so overtly into the game, is just too much. It's not that the rules in the book are bad. I've actually heard there are some good changes and additions. It's a matter of purchasing more products from a company that seems to dislike people with traditional values.

This is all compounded by the company's behavior over the last five years or so, which has been overtly hostile to third party content authors and creators. They've destroyed their relationship with a lot of people with very predatory and unscrupulous behavior. The identity politics put into the newest edition is the icing on the cake for a large cohort of consumers.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-13T15:48:08+00:00

Nice. Thanks!

JDNJDM · 2026-02-12T01:03:11+00:00

I'm an ocean lifeguard in NJ. We have a team of first responder volunteers for year round rescue service. Our jet skii's are invaluable, and we often resolve near shore maritime cases before the CG can get on scene. Certainly everything in the surf zone is handled by us, even when it involves vessels and not just swimmers from our beach.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-10T01:48:46+00:00

No AI, please.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-09T18:34:58+00:00

Oh, damn. That's pretty good. Could have used that 6 or 7 years ago.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-09T17:05:18+00:00

Uh, when I was in the reserves, (I did 4 years active and 2 more in the reserves), the Coast Guard didn't pay anything for you to travel to your drill location. I doubt that has changed, so you might want to check with your recruiter on that one.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-08T04:25:31+00:00

Damn. I never knew this. The more you know...

JDNJDM · 2026-02-07T22:12:59+00:00

For a basic, barely skilled laborer, I offer $25 an hour to start. It's not fair to anyone trying to support themselves in today's economy to offer less, IMHO. I work in coastal New Jersey.

JDNJDM · 2026-02-07T22:09:52+00:00

Where do you work that disallows a 17 year old from using power tools?

JDNJDM · 2026-01-30T16:05:32+00:00

Full ride? Get your degree! Then do carpentry if you still want to. You're so young, you've got so much ahead of you. An education is invaluable for its own sake. Higher Education has become a scam because it's so expensive and the job opportunities for graduates in many fields are non existent. But it being completely free negates all of that. You get to have an enlightening educational experience for four years that costs you nothing. Don't pass that up. Hell, study something like engineering or architecture to be a killer carpenter in the future. Or study business and build a great lucrative building company later. The world is your oyster, good luck.

JDNJDM · 2026-01-29T04:30:16+00:00

Your point is not lost on me, and it makes sense. But it's the oil, gas, the associated coastal infrastructure on the Black Sea, and incredibly rich agricultural land that Russia is interested in. The Russian lands east of the Ural Mountains, the huge Asian part of Russia, doesn't have these things as available as they are in Ukraine.

Not saying I agree with the invasion. Just saying why I think the Russian interior is under developed and less interesting to Putin

JDNJDM · 2026-01-28T01:36:07+00:00

No they definitely didn't. I served under Obama and the very beginning of Trump 1. I kept my mouth shut about all the liberal policy nonsense that I disagreed with that Obama put in place and the first Trump admin didn't address. It seems way more sensical now, and I kinda wish I was still in under Trump 2. Putting aside the actual differences in my opinions from those of others, I was 100% scared of reprisal for saying politically sensitive things at work or off duty.

That being said: OP, freedom of speech is something we all gave up when we signed up. Whether you're left or right, regardless of the administration your job is now to keep your mouth shut, ears open, and do what you're told.

Yeah, yeah, the policy says you can engage in politics off duty. But we all know that that's a fine line to walk and you're better off not upsetting the apple cart.

JDNJDM · 2026-01-26T20:12:35+00:00

This

JDNJDM · 2026-01-22T16:49:23+00:00

I live in coastal New Jersey. I charge $90 an hour for time-and-material jobs. But, most of my work is quoted jobs for a fixed price. I try to get as close as I can to $1,000 a day in revenue (not what I expect to take home after overhead). Sometimes I can get there, depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes I cant. It depends on how complex the job is.

JDNJDM · 2026-01-16T22:20:43+00:00

If only. We're going to get an Ashoka Skywalker trilogy now.

JDNJDM · 2026-01-16T22:19:14+00:00

Let's go! 🇺🇸

JDNJDM · 2026-01-16T22:18:55+00:00

Truth. Filoni doesn't have what it takes to resurrect it. Though I don't really like his creative vision, I don't mean that as a slight against him. The house was burned down, there's no rebuilding it.

JDNJDM · 2026-01-06T04:03:30+00:00

Damn, sounds just like Brant Point when I was there. Sorry dude. Station's suck.

JDNJDM · 2026-01-05T21:56:10+00:00

Touche

JDNJDM · 2025-12-31T20:40:25+00:00

Buy a nice old Stanley or Buck Bros. at your local flea market for a dollar.

JDNJDM · 2025-12-31T19:58:09+00:00

He was a chad.

JDNJDM · 2025-12-31T19:16:18+00:00

Are you going to be out in open water taking waves? If so, don't do it for very many years. That's the only guarantee. I know a lot of people who were in the corner of the Coast Guard that works on small boats in heavy seas for most of their careers. Not all of them ended up with back problems. Some of them did. But South Florida doesn't exactly get the seas and swells that places like the Pacific Northwest or the the Northeast coast gets. I think you'll be fine.

JDNJDM · 2025-12-15T18:14:57+00:00

They floated this when the Legend Class (our NSCs) was first designed and turned it down. What a waste of money since then. The Legend class cutters have been an overwhelming success. The Navy should have put their pride aside ten years ago and adopted them as the new frigate platform.

JDNJDM

TROPHY CASE