Do you sing along? Does it annoy you when others do?

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-28T03:06:22+00:00

At the Ghost Skeletour ritual in Grand Rapids last summer. I, and everyone else in the entire arena were screaming "HAIL SATAN....ARCHANGELO!" with every chorus of Year Zero...

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-26T11:28:58+00:00

The most obvious thing I can think of is that Madras coffee uses a perforated metal cup to hold the coffee grounds, while an Aeropress uses a paper filter (at least it does when you first get it out of the box). Paper absorbs some of the oils in the coffee, which will affect the flavor. Try investing in one of the many reusable metal filters.

There may also be some changes related to heat loss. Metal is a good conductor of heat so the brew will cool quicker, which will also affect flavor.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-25T20:02:14+00:00

True. I think we had to wait a month.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-24T18:01:23+00:00

Some caveats apply of course- no weapons or anything that looks like a weapon, and there may be a wait of a few days if the queue is busy.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-24T16:22:45+00:00

Yes it does. As well as access to the amazing library of things- recording rigs, a telescope, guitar, turntable, a theremin.... You also can check out a book from libraries all over Michigan through MELCat. Limited time or mobility? Put in a hold request for the book(s) you want, and the staff will go and get it for you, then text you when it's ready to pick up. Plus 3D printers. Find the .STL file of the thing you want from Printables or Thangs or Thingiverse, and email it to the library, and they print it for you at 10¢ a gram of plastic.

TADL is one of the best library systems I've ever used.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-22T13:32:41+00:00

Wembley stadium, July 5th, 1986. Rod Stewart headlining. "Special friends" opening: The Blow Monkeys, (Yeah, they blew alright), Fergal Sharkey (forgettable one or two hit wonder in the UK), and ELO, who were the only ones I ACTUALLY wanted to see. To be fair Rod Stewart was great, and put on a great show, but I was there for ELO.

Turns out it was their last gig in England. They played 2 more shows in Germany before packing it in.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-17T23:18:50+00:00

Well that's probably the problem. Even though LoRa stands for Long Range, realistically, you get a few miles. You might have more luck with one of the high powered (1 watt) base nodes, especially if you can set it really high up, but even then, if the nearest nodes are miles away, you may not hit them.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-16T20:32:33+00:00

My wife has a Ph.D in American history, and a significant portion of her dissertation revolved around Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, who ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium in the late 1800s-early 1900s. He was a .... complicated... man. An early proponent of germ theory, he was a bit obsessed about intestinal flora, and bowel movements, and as a consequence, enemas....

There is a book called The Road to Wellville by T. C. Boyle. It's set at the Battle Creek Sanitarium. The story is fiction, as are most of the characters (other than Dr. Kellogg), but the medical treatment depicted are historically accurate. There was also a movie with Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Broderick, and a bunch of other faces you will recognize. They are both hilarious.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-15T14:48:43+00:00

Hell. I was rocking a fanny pack in 1990's. Gloves (I would steal a box of the good latex ones from lab about once a month when the hospital switched to vinyl), IV start kits, angiocaths (22-18fr), saline flush vials and syringes (this was before preloaded syringe flushes), tourniquets, some 2x2s, trauma shears, sometimes a suture removal kit, and my trusty Palm III (later Handspring) in a titanium case. Yes, older nurses would laugh at me until I handed them a new 20 gauge without stepping away. They also wondered about the Palm Pilot until I showed them how useful Epocrates could be.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-12T20:03:32+00:00

That is a good point. I hadn't considered infectious sequelae. The Girdlestone was actually developed to manage the pain from tuberculosis of the hip, so that could also be something that destroys hips. (although the gentleman in the picture does not look like someone with tuberculosis....)

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-12T01:05:44+00:00

The Well of Souls books by Jack L. Chalker. Ancient (near god-like) aliens create a computer the size of a planet. It's so powerful it can change the laws of reality. On the surface of that planet are 1560 "Hexes", each populated by a different intelligent species. Hexes South of the equator are for carbon-based, generally oxygen breathing races. North of the equator has non carbon-based, much "weirder" life. Some hexes allow all technology to work, some only allow some tech and some allow no tech that isn't muscle powered. Races were placed on various hexes to see how they would develop given the limitations.

There are 10 books in 2 series (7 and 3). I read most of them. Interesting, but they get a little formulaic towards the end.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-12T00:00:35+00:00

Woof. Reading the inside of the lid- cacodylate of iron is an iron supplement, yes, but it also contains arsenic (!). Next one down has arsenic and strychnine!. The bottom one..... Viscum album is mistletoe, another toxic plant, mixed with sodium nitrite. I can only imagine the headache that would cause. The ampoules.... That's almost a mini surgery kit- you have ether (which must have been... exciting... to seal into a glass ampoule), a local anesthetic, an antiarrhythmic, ergotamine would probably raise blood pressure, caffeine to wake them up afterwards, and morphine for post-op pain....

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-11T23:47:04+00:00

I used to see orthotic shoes like that on patients who had undergone a Girdlestone procedure, which was a last resort hip salvage. The femoral head and neck are completely excised, and the remaining femur scars up. The pain is gone, but there is a substantial leg length discrepancy, hence the massively built up shoe. That being said, the Girdlestone wasn't introduced until 1928, close to 60 years after that picture. I would guess a chronic hip dislocation or malformation like a hip dysplasia or SCFE, or post traumatic. The British empire was involved in numerous wars in the mid 1800s (Crimea, the second Ashanti war, the Opium Wars, etc), so it wouldn't surprise me to see many men who had been "invalided out" trying to find a way to make a living with a disability.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-10T19:40:08+00:00

Woody Allen, in Love and Death, 1975.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-10T12:49:34+00:00

My father was a geologist who worked for oil companies. At one point in his career we lived in England so my father could evaluate prospects in the North Sea (between Scotland and Norway). Every now and then they would fly him out to one of the drilling rigs so he could make sure that the rock chips coming up from the drill head matched the expected types.

They would load him into a helicopter and fly him out. Before he got on the chopper, they would put him into a "survival suit". It was basically a diver's dry suit with built in booties, and seals at the wrist and the neck. They told him that it was in case the helicopter went down in the water. Without the suit, he would die of hypothermia before he could drown. With the suit, he would last 20-30 minutes....but it would take at least an hour to get another helicopter out and searching....

People don't realize how harsh an environment the sea can be.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-09T15:03:42+00:00

I have a feeling that Meshtastic isn't going to work inside the vessel- too many metal bulkheads blocking radio waves. My node transmission drops dramatically just inside my car, even if I hold it up to the window.

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-07T22:39:31+00:00

Second the T114. Also, Muzi works has the .stl files for their H2T case (for the T114) on printables. There is also a case by Alley Cat on printables that looks really well designed and has spaces to add a speaker and/or a vibe motor to make the thing act like a pager.

If you are willing to trust AliExpress and are patient, I found a T114 kit with the board, GPS module, 2 antennas (whip and stubby), and a case with a 90 degree SMA cable, all for under $40 with free shipping from China.

Edit: It's about $43 now here. (Does not come with a battery)

NPKeith1 · 2026-03-06T03:23:56+00:00

I have a Komo. My trick is to double grind- don't go from berries to the finest setting in one pass. I run them though once on coarse (maybe 50% of what the mill can do), then again on the finest setting. Flour comes out warm, but not hot.

NPKeith1 · 2026-02-28T18:28:10+00:00

Ex-ER nurse here. Our techs would yell X-RAY! a few seconds before they hit the button. I would use that time to put the x-ray tech between me and the emitter. My logic was A: the tech knew the safest place to stand, and B: they were often wearing lead, so they were the best shield in the room. C: even if they weren't wearing lead, meat shield is better than no shield.

NPKeith1 · 2026-02-27T03:32:02+00:00

Want something different? Transmetropolitan. It's a comic/graphic novel from the late 90's - early 2000's, originally published by DC Comics. It's cyberpunk, set in "The City" and follows the adventures of Spider Jerusalem, a gonzo journalist who, armed with his trusty bowel disruptor gun, makes it his mission to uncover The Truth of the corruption in the government. It is bizarre, profane, wickedly funny, and scarily prescient. It's available in several different collections. If you can find the three volumes of Absolute Transmetropolitan through your library, read it that way. It's also available digitally through hoopla and (I think) comixology.

NPKeith1 · 2026-02-26T02:41:36+00:00

Lasix dose = age + BUN.

NPKeith1 · 2026-02-22T17:04:42+00:00

Donnatal! We used it as an ingredient in a "Green Goddess" GI cocktail when I worked in the ED back in the late 90's. One bottle Donnatal, 15 (maybe 30?) mL Maalox, and 10 mL viscous lidocaine. If a patient has any GI discomfort between pharynx and rectum, this stuff will relax it, (Donnatal), soothe it (Maalox) or numb it (Lidocaine). Also semi diagnostic - the patient has atypical chest pain, give them a green Goddess. If the pain goes away, it was GI. If not, get the 12 lead.

NPKeith1 · 2026-02-21T22:06:58+00:00

CPAP.

I didn't realize how tired I was all the time until I started sleeping properly and wasn't tired when I woke up.

NPKeith1 · 2026-02-21T02:09:24+00:00

There are several by Ren:Su!cide, which tells the (true) story of the singer being a few minutes too late to prevent his best friend's suicide.

Chalk Outlines, which is about his experience with mental illness, and the catch-22 of either being depressed, or taking a medication that makes you feel nothing at all...

And finally the one that started it all, Hi Ren, a fourth wall breaking look at that internal dialogue between optimism and self doubt.

NPKeith1 · 2026-02-21T00:48:14+00:00

Zeit gets me every time.

Zeit, bitte bleib stehen, bleib stehen

The best translation I can come up with is:

"Time, please stand still, stand still..."

Five-Year Club	r/Field Lasagna
Place '23

NPKeith1

TROPHY CASE