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August birthdays are of course the best birthdays. Company is going through a lot of changes, and tomorrow morning one of the top people from the corporate office will be in town having a meeting with the entire IT group. Not really worried, but still.. there is that little tiny bit of worry whenever they have one of these sort of meetings scheduled. Hopefully that nagging worry gets put to rest tomorrow morning and I'll still be gainfully employed. On the book thing, I'm just ignoring the book of the month thing as I've currently got a stack of about 40 books that I've gotten and not read yet. Finished one today (latest in the "Destroyermen" series by Taylor Anderson - alt history stuff) and started another one that seems pretty good so far, M.R. Forbes "Man of War". Kind of old school sci-fi aliens conquering earth stuff. Not heavy reading. The Locator fucked around with this message at 07:12 on Aug 1, 2016 |
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Aug 1, 2016 07:10
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some texas redneck posted:Yeah but I'll be one year closer to death. Based purely on numbers, I think you are still 15-20 years behind me though, so count your blessings! I'll be 51 on the 21st.
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Aug 1, 2016 07:13
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literally a fish posted:What's wrong with Pratchett? What makes The Long Earth not "real literature"? It's a book. It tells a story. It's a complex and sneaky story told in an absolutely beautifully assembled and described world with detailed characters and at least a few things you won't see coming. I love Pratchett's books, and have never read this one, so I think I'm going to have to add it to the queue. Thanks for the suggestion.
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Aug 1, 2016 07:22
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Dannywilson posted:Am I too late to recommend The Lies of Locke Lamora? It's good. A revenge story blended with a heist blended with a bunch of poo poo. I really liked the first book, but found it extremely difficult to get into this one. I don't recall whether I ever even finished it to be honest, it really didn't hook me at all like the first one. Some day when I get through the huge pile of books waiting to be read, I may have to go back and find it again and have another look. Not sure about others, but for me certain types of books appeal to me at different times, and I go through phases where I'll read very different things. I need a bigger house, this is less than half of my constantly increasing collection.. 
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Aug 1, 2016 15:08
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fridge corn posted:I think you've posted this pic before, are they all Science Fiction novels??? Might have posted it a while back, I assembled it a few years ago. It's a mixture of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction (think Dan Brown, Tom Clancy (old stuff), etc.) with a little bit of non-fiction/reference thrown in here and there. That largish set of dark grey books taking up half a shelf on the right is the old 'Epic of Flight' series from Time-Life.
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Aug 1, 2016 15:42
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Looks like a pretty nice truck, but I have no clue why it says "Tremor" on the side or what that plate is supposed to mean.
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Aug 2, 2016 15:01
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some texas redneck posted:In about 15 hours I'm supposed to have lunch with literally a fish. I'll let you guys know if he lives up to his username. I'd prefer lunch with literally a bird. 
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Aug 3, 2016 05:49
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Ugh. Work was poo poo today. Everything that could go wrong did. Twice. You are still alive and able to post, therefore not "everything" that could go wrong did.
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Aug 4, 2016 01:17
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CommieGIR posted:That hurt to watch. That and Youtube chat is awful. What the hell is that? Is that Lowtax and his kid?
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Aug 4, 2016 01:18
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Darchangel posted:
The only real reason I keep paying for dental insurance is for the negotiated prices on the services, because yea, the coverage itself is pretty poo poo. Eye insurance is the same way. What loving imbecile decided that your teeth and vision aren't important to your health and shouldn't be part of your health insurance?
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Aug 5, 2016 18:16
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iwentdoodie posted:The Olympics are I fixed that for you! Not a valid position if you actually live there
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Aug 6, 2016 04:24
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Stayed up way too late last night (well, this morning really), but no big deal since I have nothing to do today so could sleep in. Well, I should have been able to sleep in. Stupid missionary/witness's or whatever pounding on my door way too loving early (I guess they need to get their proselytizing in before it gets too hot) waking me up. I don't care what your stupid religion is, waking me up on a Saturday morning after only 4 hours of sleep isn't going to get me to buy into whatever your particular cult is, and is going to get me to yell at you to get the gently caress off of my property and stop knocking on my door and ringing my doorbell (because knocking once, or even twice, is clearly not enough to make sure nobody is home or is going to answer the door. Fucktards). In all seriousness, what makes anyone think that ringing the doorbell AND then knocking loudly, and then a few minutes later doing it again, and when that doesn't work, repeating it a third loving time is going to have any result other than getting whoever is in the house loving pissed off?
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Aug 6, 2016 20:12
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spog posted:Whereas my postman guy lightly brushes the door knocker then runs off with my ebay packages and dumps them in the sorting office. At least yours brushes the door knocker, mine doesn't even bother doing that most times. Luckily most stuff I get isn't signature required, so I just wander to the door every couple hours until I discover that a box has magically appeared on my porch.
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Aug 7, 2016 01:22
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What does your girlfriend do that her position affects your rent (also, that's a ridiculously low rent)? Property manager where you live or something?
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Aug 7, 2016 19:03
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fridge corn posted:I have finished reading The Long Earth I bought it, but haven't started reading it.
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Aug 7, 2016 19:10
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Tommychu posted:Well that went swimmingly They did capsize, but apparently it was because they held the event in too much wind, so the water was rough, and catching an oar on a wave when you are trying to bring it back for another stroke is a 'really bad thing' in that sport, and can cause serious injury or in this case, capsizing the boat.
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Aug 7, 2016 21:56
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Damnit... I got home from work and fired up the computer, got to the first video posted in an AI thread and ... no audio. After poking around for a while, the Denon A/V receiver that drives my speakers from my computer has apparently died. Switched to tuner and nada, so it's not the optical input, it's the output, and for both A & B speaker sets. Crapola. It make the typical 'click' sound when powered up, just doesn't output any audio.
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Aug 9, 2016 05:37
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88h88 posted:Is there a multizone output? If so, have you or anyone managed to mute them? I ask because I had the same issue and it turns out someone pressed buttons which killed the outputs to zone A. It was a button on the receiver too, there wasn't an equivalent one on the remote. Checked the multi-zone stuff. some texas redneck posted:Is there a tape monitor setting? Not sure on that one, will have to look at it tonight, but don't think that's it. Sunday it was working fine (watched the olympics on live streams all weekend) when I shut the computer down. Today when I fired it up it was silent, and I live alone so nobody else messed with it. Tonight I'll poke around on it, unplug everything and mess around some more. Worst case it gets replaced, it's lived a long life as it was my primary home theater setup from before moving into this house, and was moved to the computer when I upgraded the home theater. I'm guessing it's 15 years old or more, and since it was moved to the computer about 6 or 7 years ago, it's spent probably 95% of the time turned on. I got into that habit when I had another piece of gear plugged into it's remote switching power outlet, and just never shut it off to keep that outlet powered. Long ago re-did things to have enough outlets not to need to do that, but never started shutting it off. I suppose I should get into the habit of shutting it off when the computer is turned off.
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Aug 9, 2016 15:13
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Never could figure out what was wrong with the Denon A/V receiver I had connected to my computer for sound. Everything checks out fine, just no noise comes out through the wires (or out of the headphone jack). So I ended up just replacing it, and now I have sound again. Didn't really realize how much I use the sound on my computer until I didn't have it.
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Aug 11, 2016 02:47
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Phone posted:Also kids, the people on the internet weren't lying when they said that built-in speakers were a cardboard toilet paper roll base with a piezo buzzer driver. Truer words were never spoken. I don't think I've used the built-in speakers on anything in my house in well over a decade, except for an Amazon Alexa thingie in my hobby room. I get annoyed when monitors come with speakers, as it just makes them larger, heavier, and more expensive for something I'll never use.
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Aug 11, 2016 05:00
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I've no immediate need for drives (certainly not SAS ones), but I'd pay shipping to get some (say 4) if there are any left after the people who really want them get theirs. Could eventually build out a NAS to do full system backups or something, which I don't really have right now.
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Aug 11, 2016 17:23
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IOwnCalculus posted:What self-respecting goon doesn't already have a SAS-based NAS for serving their Linux ISOs? Me. It's me. I don't have a Linux ISO either.
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Aug 11, 2016 18:03
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ratbert90 posted:I have dropped 50lbs since last year. It should have been more but I moved half way across the country and the stress from doing so made me gain 20lbs back pretty darn quick. Only 30 more to go and I will be at my optimal weight! I've dropped almost no weight at all since I started going to the gym back in October. I am going to have to break down and talk to a nutritionist or something to get my diet sorted. On the other hand, I've gone from being heavy and pathetically out of shape to heavy and being sort of strong at least (relative to where I started anyway). I could barely leg-press 150lbs without hurting my knees when I started, and I can do over 400 now. Similar gains on pretty much every sort of lifting, although I'm still not where books like "Starting Strength" say I should be for my weight. Also have lost 3 belt-notches, so even though the weight is the same (sort of, fluctuates a lot), apparently I'm a bit thinner, although still too fat. My problem is that I really like eating, because food is yummy.
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Aug 11, 2016 23:13
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ratbert90 posted:You are gaining muscle and losing fat. Muscle weighs more than fat. I'm aware of this, and it's a good thing, but I'd still like to make some progress at losing the ol' belly and some pounds, as I certainly weigh far too much for my height/build even with more muscle. My diet is.. not good, so that's really the step I need to take, along with doing more cardio stuff.
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Aug 12, 2016 00:43
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Liquid Communism posted:I'll tell it to you bluntly, like my doc did. Yep... I know this, but am resisting because I love going to my favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch with the co-workers. Like Rhyno, I gave up soda (which I used to drink a LOT of) and a bunch of other lovely foods, stopped buying any easy 'snack foods' like chips, since if they aren't around the house, I don't eat them. Next step is clearly to fix the 'meals' part of the diet. I've been really good about cooking healthy stuff in spurts, just need to get into doing it all the time instead of on again, off again, and should get with a nutritionist or something to teach me actual good meal balance instead of just what I think is good. Also, stop breaking down and ordering Pizza when I'm on a good streak.
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Aug 12, 2016 02:51
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QuarkMartial posted:Homechef pretty much changed my wife and I's lives wrt eating out. That looks kind of interesting. PM me a referral link and if I try it I'll use it.
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Aug 12, 2016 04:20
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I suppose I should see the most recent Star Wars movie one of these days.
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Aug 12, 2016 04:30
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Magnus Praeda posted:Had my annual review (only a month late) and got all excellents across the board and $1/hr raise! Plus, I've got Monday off for my birthday! Everything's coming up Milhouse! Our review/raise schedules are really screwed up. Our review is on the calendar year, so we have to complete them in Dec/Jan and get the results by mid February after they worm their way through the HR bureaucracy . Our annual merit cycle, which is in theory based on that review - October 1st effective date.  So it's only a month and a half away. Hoping for a nice raise, had my 4th 'Exceeding Expectations' (the highest grade) in a row, and thanks to a promotion last November, I'm in the very low end of my pay scale, which also is calculated into the merit raises (the closer you are to the top of scale, the lower the possible increase). The Royal Nonesuch posted:$100 says it was a a DUI-n-run. Nailed it.
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Aug 13, 2016 05:35
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Wrar posted:What the gently caress? So nobody actually heard gunshots? Haha.. The new "yell fire in a crowded theater" is upon us I guess.
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Aug 13, 2016 21:24
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That sucks. My water heater is just over 11 years old now, and the water here is complete poo poo, so I'm expecting to have to get it replaced fairly soon. I don't have a vehicle to haul one in either, so will have to look into having it delivered and done by someone else. On the bright side, don't really need a water heater out here in Buckeye during this time of year, the water out of the 'cold' side is running about 98 degrees. loving shallow pipes from above ground storage tanks.
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Aug 13, 2016 23:00
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Previa_fun posted:The fiance and I have decided we want to do a roadtrip for our honeymoon. We decided on the southwestern U.S. (I've never been further west than Oklahoma, she lived in New Mexico for a year in high school) and so far on our list of places to visit we have the Barringer Crater, Grand Canyon, Four Corners, and Denver ( What time of year? That makes a significant difference in Arizona at least. There are a number of cool things to see if you are coming from 4 corners to the Grand Canyon - Petrified Forest & Meteor Crater before you get to Flagstaff, and Sunset Crater just north of Flagstaff.
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Aug 14, 2016 08:41
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Previa_fun posted:Early October. We'll be coming west on I40 from Arkansas if that makes a difference. That's a good time of year, on top of what I already listed, add Sedona to your list at that time of year, as the tree's will be changing color probably. It really depends on how far out of your primary travel line you want to go, there are lots of cool things to see in Arizona, even just sticking to the northern part of the state. If you like canyons and Indian ruins, Canyon de Chelly National Monument is worth a visit. It is just west of New Mexico and north of I-40. http://www.nps.gov/cach/learn/photosmultimedia/index.htm Next along I-40 would be the Petrified Forest - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrified_Forest_National_Park Approaching Flagstaff you come to Meteor Crater - http://meteorcrater.com/ NE of Flagstaff is Sunset Crater - http://www.nps.gov/sucr/index.htm SW of Flagstaff is Sedona and the red rock country - http://www.redrockcountry.org/ South of Flagstaff a reasonably short distance you can find Montezuma's Castle - https://www.nps.gov/moca/index.htm If you are interested in old mining towns, to the west of Montezuma's Castle (Verde Valley) is Jerome, Arizona, which is perched on the side of a mountain - http://www.azjerome.com/jerome/ Oh, there is that Grand Canyon thingie, which you can reach by going to Williams and taking the railroad - https://www.thetrain.com/ Depending on which direction you are exiting the state from there, it's worth the time to take a tour of Hoover Dam (Lake Mead), or if you are going North towards Utah, Glen Canyon Dam (Lake Powell). If you are going via the North Route to Glen Canyon, take a short detour and see Navajo Bridge over the Colorado River below Lake Powell. It's only about 10 minutes out of your way (plus however much time you spend there). - https://www.nps.gov/glca/learn/historyculture/navajobridge.htm Probably enough stuff there to keep you busy for more than a few days.
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Aug 14, 2016 22:48
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IOwnCalculus posted:Water heater status: Found a guy on Yelp with nothing but 5-star reviews, and he definitely earns them. Only cost me about $100-$120 over doing it all myself, which is totally worth it to have not wasted loads of time myself trying to get the piping to fit just right. Plus I would've had to spend a few bucks more for the air compressor -> NPT fitting he had set up to help push water out of my tank since, of course, the loving drain valve was mostly clogged. Did he bring the water heater with him, or did you have to go fetch it?
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Aug 16, 2016 05:05
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IOwnCalculus posted:Brought it with him. Two, for that matter, in case one had unseen shipping damage. Thanks, bookmarked that. His pricing is more than reasonable if he is using decent water heaters.
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Aug 16, 2016 14:56
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Previa_fun posted:Thanks a ton, man. The petrified forest national park especially looks pretty awesome. Definitely going to run this list by the fiance and see if we can't figure out a route soon. Meteor Crater is a fast visit if you aren't going to hike it, and the photo's don't do it justice. The scale of it is overwhelming when you are standing there, and use some bino's to see the structures at the bottom to put the thing in perspective for just how loving big it is.
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Aug 17, 2016 05:16
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Started out the day by having a wisdom tooth 'extracted' (i.e. yanked out). Waiting for the Novocaine to wear off and the pain to set in now so I can feel the reason for the bleeding I suppose. Hope everyone else is having a much cheerier day! Edit: Sorry Southside, hope you can work things out, that's much worse than a pulled tooth. The Locator fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Aug 17, 2016 |
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Aug 17, 2016 19:14
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My fancy thermostat system is to leave it set at 77 degrees 24/7 (1650 sq. ft. house). Just got my highest bill of the year (early July to early August) - $65  I love my solar system.
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Aug 18, 2016 01:53
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Enourmo posted:I think I could get into it, if I could actually play it. I got trapped on a planet, getting into the ship to leave crashes the game and no fix suggested anywhere works for me. With that little amount of time into it couldn't you just delete and start over?
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Aug 20, 2016 20:40
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So I got a free bottle of ice tea with lemon from the grocery store (new product free sample thing). I check the label, 0 calories, so not jacked full of sweetener or anything, so cool. I open it up and take a big swig... What the gently caress.. it's carbonated? Who the gently caress carbonates iced tea? What a stupid idea... blech...
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Aug 21, 2016 21:36
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leica posted:Why can't some people just drink regular water. I'm astonished at people I know that refuse to drink plain water because it's "gross" or whatever silly reason they come up with. No flavor? Hell no, I'm gonna squirt this blue poo poo in it that probably causes cancer! I drink almost exclusively water, but I will have an iced tea with food when I'm at a restaurant. I'd never purchase bottled tea, but this was free, so what the hell. If it was just tasty iced tea with lemon and was sort of fizzy, I'd probably be ok with it (but still weird and wouldn't buy it), but it was really super soda-water bitter tasting.. . just.. bleh.
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Aug 21, 2016 23:59
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