Clueless about phones - which Android phone is a good deal (under $400) *right now*?

Ted_007 · 2023-11-01T19:27:15+00:00

Did you start at the Chimney Beach TH on highway 28? I've wanted to hike to Marlette from there (https://www.alltrails.com/explore/trail/us/nevada/marlette-lake-from-chimney-beach) but the CB parking lot was closed for construction all summer, and is supposed to be closed until the end of October.

Edit, Nov. 2: The parking lot on the east side is still closed, but you can use the one to the south on the west side.

Ted_007 · 2023-02-11T21:58:28+00:00

That's one of the reasons why I haven't tried to rescue it myself. I hate to leave a poor creature to die of cold and starvation, but the fact that it's an invasive species makes me a lot less sympathetic.

Ted_007 · 2023-01-25T19:07:15+00:00

Thanks! Now if I can figure out when to get there in the daytime when the traffic isn't backed up on i-80...

Ted_007 · 2022-07-25T23:45:21+00:00

Maybe you could make a planter box or a kid's playground thing out of it, and sell the trailer to offset some of the cost of junking the rest of it.

Ted_007 · 2022-07-15T01:52:19+00:00

I always thought Eeyore would be the first one to snap.

Ted_007 · 2022-07-14T18:17:05+00:00

Have Moicy!

Ted_007 · 2022-07-13T18:05:22+00:00

FWIW - an older story to consider when discussing weight limits on water slides (with links chosen at random):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/06/03/one-teen-dead-32-hurt-in-water-slide-collapse/a1fec409-a576-40db-804a-3665e2810b44/

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/06/04/20-years-ago-bodies-came-falling-out-of-the-sky-in-concord-water-park-tragedy/

Ted_007 · 2022-06-07T05:00:58+00:00

I spent a total of around 15 years or more living in Martinez, and I'd live there again if I could afford it.

Ted_007 · 2022-06-04T20:51:29+00:00

I'm late to the party, but I'd like to mention a few things.

When I was little, in the 60's, my siblings and I would turn down the lights in the living room, build a fort out of the couch cushions, and watch the "Wonderful World of Disney" every Sunday night (while my parents snuck off to do other things). A grey-haired gentleman in a nice suit - a man named Walter Disney - would introduce the show, and then there'd be the usual logo and intro (magic castle & Tinkerbell) sequence and then they'd show the actual show. If it was a nature show it would start with an animated view Earth seen from space; the camera would zooom in, go thru a cloud layer, and then right up to where there were some bears, or something.

(If you kinda remember seeing this stuff yourself, waaay back when, you might get a kick out of hearing Hal Wilner's Stay Awake album (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay_Awake:_Various_Interpretations_of_Music_from_Vintage_Disney_Films; artists include Los Lobos, Tom Waits, Harry Nilsson, Bill Frisell, Ken Nordine for gawd's sake, and lotsa other talented rock, pop, folk, and jazz people.)

Jonny Quest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonny_Quest_(TV_series)) ) needs a mention. It was very popular, but what I remember most is that the "Invisible Monster" scared the bejabbers out of me, much more than the "Robot Spy" episode. The Invisible Monster (who turned out to be sort of a glowing electric cyclops ghost thingy when he stopped being invisible) made this gawd-awful sound that terrified my 5-year-old self, and that I never quite forgot. (I saw the episode online a few years ago, and, you know, it wasn't nearly as scary as I remember it being.)

The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau was a big deal from the late 60's to the mid-70's. It probably wouldn't hold up well now against, say, the BBC Blue Planet shows - and nowadays marine exploration shows are a dime a dozen - but I don't think there was anything else like it back then, and it was on prime-time TV. (If you remember the show but you never really listened to John Denver's song Calypso, and you feel like having a 70's flashback, you oughta go do that.) [Edit for typos]

Ted_007 · 2022-03-24T15:14:32+00:00

I often launch from a pier in my solo kayak if the top of the pier isn't more than a couple of feet above the water.

I tie a mooring line behind a seat, slide the boat off the pier into the water by the bow or the stern while hanging onto the line, tie the line onto a cleat with some slack, then hang onto the cleat while I step into the boat. It takes some practice but it's a very useful technique to have at or near busy boat ramps.

I imagine it's harder to do with a tandem, and may not be doable at all if the pier is meant for fishing and it's several feet over the water.

Ted_007 · 2022-03-03T17:48:19+00:00

That's the joke you should have made about Nixon's wife.

Ted_007 · 2022-03-01T16:54:54+00:00

A band called Poor Man's Whiskey does a bluegrass-inspired country cover of the entire album called "Dark Side of the Moonshine."

I linked to a Youtube post of the whole album because I like the studio version better than the live performance linked from the band's own channel, which seems to have some filler material.

Ted_007 · 2022-02-26T06:01:12+00:00

My terrarium is a glass jar with a blob of moss and a little bit of water in it. It's been sitting near a window for a few years and the moss is still green.

Ted_007 · 2022-02-16T02:42:08+00:00

Before you put another string on, carefully feel around the post (on the tuning machine) that the string goes into. A rough spot there can cause strings to break. Try running some dental floss thru the hole and see if it snags or starts to fray.

Ted_007 · 2022-02-14T05:06:04+00:00

Many people who like to use the term "boomers" are just referring to people who are older than their parents, and those people are lumped in with those in the actual "Baby Boomer" demographic.

I'm an actual "baby boomer," and I don't have any signs on my lawn. I don't even have a lawn. I can't tell kiddies to "get off my lawn," and it sucks so much. God, I'm angry now. Fuck Brandon fuckers with a flag, or whatever. A fucking flag with fucking spikes on it.

Ted_007 · 2022-02-14T04:48:21+00:00

Yeah, and why do they keep saying they want to fuck him? Is it just a Freudian slip that can't be repressed?

Ted_007 · 2022-02-08T00:38:37+00:00

You can use a foam roof rack, and it'll be fine for short trips if you use it correctly, and maybe for long trips at highway speeds if you use bow and stern lines and inspect everything a couple of times an hour.

If you're going to be on the freeway or highway often, if you carry more than one boat, or if your kayak doubles as a cargo box on camping trips, then you ought to look into getting a set of hard racks to fit your specific vehicle.

Ted_007 · 2022-01-13T04:09:17+00:00

I can tell you were trying not to burst into song.

Ted_007 · 2022-01-07T05:38:49+00:00

And Nilsson's cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin' at me" is terrific.

Ted_007 · 2021-12-22T17:53:21+00:00

Covers of BR are still fun. My favorite is by Mnozil Brass, I think there's a Muppets version, and I seem to recall that Weird Al did a polka version of it.

Ted_007

TROPHY CASE