|
Ataxerxes posted:This rather neat thing is starting soon and I am happy I had the chance to help in construction. All volunteer stuff but it ended up epic. Wow, that looks like a huge undertaking and a great piece of teamwork!
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2024 17:18
|
|
|
|
| # ? Sep 10, 2024 22:32 |
|
|
This is the best thread.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 02:07
|
|
|
I can't figure out how to imgur on the app anymore so no pics but I got to take my astronomy gear into a retirement home the other night. It was super cool being able to share my passion with a group of people and we even got hot chocolates to boot, and I got to show them a couple of the really neat bits of the night sky! Unconditional giving is the best thing in the world.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 02:19
|
|
|
The Eyes Have It posted:Wow, that looks like a huge undertaking and a great piece of teamwork! Yea, at least 2800 hours of volunteer work this year and a whole bunch of stuff done for the first run in 2019 that was re-useable. And a lovely crew to work with. It's great to see what you can build when you have enough enthusiastic nerds together, someone competent leading the thing and enough people who know their way around powertools.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 10:11
|
|
|
Comrade Blyatlov posted:I can't figure out how to imgur on the app anymore so no pics but I got to take my astronomy gear into a retirement home the other night. Imgur is ephemeral. Posts made hours ago are sometimes deleted. Don’t use imgur if you want it to last. There’s work ongoing to integrate the current attachment system into the app, but you’ll be limited to one image per post at the moment.
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 12:45
|
|
|
My middle kid is a firefighter now. She completed her exterior class, and is now taking the interior class. She passed her air consumption test, which is all this, but you have to complete all this activity on one bottle of air: https://youtu.be/lRo2SnrR9cg?si=V_CcrOEafg86uUN5 She finished the last activity, the ceiling push/pull, as her bottle ran out - right down to the last breath. She got the award for “doug deepest” in order to finish - shes only 5’4” It was 95 degrees out and the test was outdoors. Im so effin proud of her yall 
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 13:31
|
|
|
After 44 years working on the tools I have finally laid them down and have a new job. Teaching apprentices how to use tools. 
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 13:44
|
|
|
Both of those sounds like really satisfying professional experiences. Every time I get to demo something to a newer jeweler makes me feel like a link in a long chain of craft people and it's great
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 14:42
|
|
|
Had an aspiring mama still on the beach and working on her best when I found her this morning 🥺
|
|
#
?
Jun 29, 2024 15:32
|
|
|
I've got a bad back that requires me to get a lot of physical therapy from the VA. I do community care and the place I went to for the last couple of months sent me a bill for 4,000 dollars saying "the VA denied the authorization when we sent it in, you are now responsible for paying this." I called the VA and told them and the dude asked me for a name and phone number of the lady at the hospital billing department. I gave it and he called them, with me on the line, and burned he place to the ground (verbally) over daring to send a bill to a veteran and also a bunch of contract violations. He told them that THEY screwed up the paperwork and either they can do it the right way, or they can write it off because that's their only option. So now I've got an email apologizing and saying I don't owe anything. I'm pretty happy that I don't actually owe 4,000 bucks.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2024 20:42
|
|
|
Nice! That’s always a good feeling.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2024 01:22
|
|
|
VA billing making the call for you to tell them they hosed up is always pleasant.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2024 13:43
|
|
|
Olympics have been fun to watch. I know nothing about break dancing but it is cool to watch, especially how those guys are strong enough to do flips with neck muscles.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2024 17:34
|
|
|
Ataxerxes posted:This rather neat thing is starting soon and I am happy I had the chance to help in construction. All volunteer stuff but it ended up epic. That is absolutely fascinating. Are there fixed objectives or scenarios for the game, or is it more of an emergent collaborative storytelling?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2024 15:02
|
|
|
Brute Squad posted:That is absolutely fascinating. Are there fixed objectives or scenarios for the game, or is it more of an emergent collaborative storytelling? It was kinda linear in that there was a main plot that could end several ways but all the characters had their own things. Also, each character was a member of a group (bridge crew, marines, engineering, science etc) and had duties that had to be done. So kind both, there was a main scenario that determined the survival of the ship and its fleet, but each player had personal things they could advance.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2024 22:41
|
|
|
Did you guys know little creatures just like, live in your yard?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2024 23:28
|
|
|
Finished Masters of the Air. It was pretty good.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2024 06:29
|
|
|
After twenty years I picked up my saxophone again. I'm completely out of playing shape but it feels good
|
|
#
?
Aug 23, 2024 23:19
|
|
|
My daughter was born 10 days ago!!!!! She’s the fuckin cutest button nose baby ever. I will fight you over this fact.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2024 02:29
|
|
|
windshipper posted:My daughter was born 10 days ago!!!!! She’s the fuckin cutest button nose baby ever. I will fight you over this fact. Congrats!
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2024 02:45
|
|
|
windshipper posted:My daughter was born 10 days ago!!!!! She’s the fuckin cutest button nose baby ever. I will fight you over this fact. Congratulations!
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2024 13:04
|
|
|
windshipper posted:My daughter was born 10 days ago!!!!! She’s the fuckin cutest button nose baby ever. I will fight you over this fact. Congrats!
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2024 13:46
|
|
|
  e: See you never, mammals! https://i.imgur.com/nVPUmfq.mp4
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2024 16:50
|
|
|
Thank you so much for posting those little fellas every year!
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2024 18:55
|
|
|
The Valley Stared posted:Thank you so much for posting those little fellas every year! I’ve got more, just trickling them out instead of one gigantic post. Too many little friends to post at once 🥺
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2024 23:42
|
|
|
The Valley Stared posted:Thank you so much for posting those little fellas every year!
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2024 01:54
|
|
|
windshipper posted:My daughter was born 10 days ago!!!!! She’s the fuckin cutest button nose baby ever. I will fight you over this fact. Congrats! Babies are cool. Icon Of Sin posted:
I look forward to these posts. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2024 03:26
|
|
|
We had a slight protocol change that means we don’t get near as many for us hatchlings to release this year, but we’ve still got some coming in here and there   https://i.imgur.com/orx9lH4.mp4
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2024 17:41
|
|
|
Happy turtles! Elderly family member had been declining mentally/physically last few years due to brain fluid issue, I think hydrocephalus & had resigned to expecting it to keep getting worse but doctors gave option of surgery to put in shunt to permanently drain fluid although they didn’t get our hopes up it would be a guarantee of improvement. About two weeks later he doesn’t need walker anymore & is easily getting up & moving around & is mentally so much more with it it’s like night & day. Tons of other stuff like again wanting to read books rather than flip through newspaper & enjoying life. So that’s good.
|
|
#
?
Aug 26, 2024 18:08
|
|
|
In late July/early August, two friends and I completed the Iceland Divide.. It was nine days, eight of which were spent in the saddle, to get from the northern town of Akureyri to the southern coastal village of Vik via Iceland's Highlands. It was 300+ miles in some of the most beautiful, intense, trying and demanding conditions I've ever been in, but one of the most rewarding things I've ever done. Here's some pics from the trip. Day 1  Farmland on the road leading out of Akureyri.  The Godafoss waterfall. We stopped here for a long, lazy lunch before we turned onto the first gravel road of the adventure. It would be days before we saw pavement again.  Climbing away from the Skjálfandafljót river with a storm coming in from the ridgeline to our rear.  Gradually, the terrain turned from gravel to a mix of kind of marshy soil with occasional patches of lava rock.  Ferðafélag Akureyrar, the Touring Society of Akureyri, maintains a number of small huts that can be reserved or occupied on a first-come basis. Our first hut was the Botni hut, which was warm and comfortable and got us out of the wind. Day 2  The first five miles of our second day involved a ton of "vibes-based navigation" as we hunted and pecked the best lines while trying to follow our GPS track through a lava field. Lot of hike-a-biking at first.  Gradually the terrain flattened out onto a kind of sandy gravel road. Views of the mountains and glaciers stretched for miles in every direction.  We ran into a pretty intense storm. Lots of rain and a severe headwind, which made riding to and from the last water source we'd see for 24 hours a bit of a task. Especially when you're a dumbass like me and forget that your spare Camelbak bladder is in your backpack, not your frame bag, requiring two superfluous trips in and out of the wind.  Realizing that we weren't going to make it another five miles to get to a more defined campsite, we elected to take advantage of a momentary break in the storm to do a safety stop and set up camp in as protected of an area as we could find. This picture still doesn't do justice to how windy it was.  ...but this one kind of does. I took this the morning after, when we had all spent a relatively sleepless night battling to keep our tents up as the storm came back with a vengeance. We all had heavy rocks on our guylines and stake points, and the wind was probably gusting to at least 45 mph- enough to cause rips in the durable fabric of our rainflies, and in my friend's case, destroy his tent entirely. This was a definite low point of the trip, and it was only our second night out. Day 3  Despite how awful the previous night was, we were committed to pressing on. The sun was out, and even while we were dealing with a whipping headwind, the riding conditions were otherwise great.  The wind was whipping dry sand into our faces, and all you could really do was pull your buff up around your nose and mouth and keep pushing forward. At times this meant actually getting off your bike and pushing it because climbing up the smallest bit of elevation with that headwind was drat near impossible, and I say this as a pretty fit rider.  Eventually we got out of the tundra and started climbing up into glacial areas. A huge chunk of Iceland is dominated by Vatnajökull National Park- we would be riding through this for two full days at least. This is Urðarháls, the remnant of a volcano which is now being carved out by glaciers inside of its caldera.  Yours truly, Dr. Cool Guy McBicycle, regarding the crater, in a self-timed shot that took a stupid amount of time to perfect. Good thing I was super far out in front of my friends!  One of the few times that the wind allowed me to take my drone out. This is one of my favorite shots of the trip- my friend approaching the turn to the Kistufell emergency hut where we'd spend that night. Day 4  Kistufell was the highest elevation of our journey and we began descending from the glaciers to the areas where there are rivers fed by said glaciers. These are ice cold and their speed and depth are difficult to gauge. We learned to spot the best lines to cross and which ones we could safely ride through versus which ones we would need to dismount and cross on foot under each other's watchful eyes, ready to intervene if someone lost their footing or got swept up by the current.  Make no mistake: the ones we could ride through were all a blast.  This day's ride was marked by tons of cool glaciers and old volcanoes.  We spent that night in the Nyidalur hut, one of the few huts that are actually staffed by park rangers. We enjoyed our first hot showers in four days (we had otherwise been taking wet-wipe baths) and paid WAYYYYYY too much for this food- but it was perfect and I would have loving paid double what I already spent. Day 5  A lot of my pictures from this day look just like this. Back to the tundra and its immutable shades of grey, black and brown.  The one big splash of color we saw was this random patch of wildflowers in a dry riverbed.  We were racing yet another storm to try and get to shelter. I had a great Type 2 fun moment when I was trying to throw on my rain gear while in 30 mph winds, frantically trying to keep my stuff from flying away in the wind. We made it to a hut owned by a horseback riding society, and hoped to find someone there who we could talk to and see if we could stay for the night. Finding the shelter locked, we instead tried the barn. Not only was it surprisingly devoid of horse poo poo, there was ample room in there for us. If anyone had shown up and questioned us, our plan was simply to point to our damaged tents and explain that they wouldn't survive another storm like the one anticipated that night, and that we'd be happy to pay to stay in the barn or leave if that's what they wanted. The only person who came by was an Italian cyclist who was also looking for shelter, so he joined us. The only food he had on him was a 2-kilo bag of peanut butter M&Ms but the kid seemed pretty drat happy.  I rolled out my sleeping pad and bag and slept in this disused Zodiac boat. Wasn't bad, honestly! Day 6  The first part of the day was spent descending through a rain and wind storm (what else) but for once, we were working with a tailwind so it was a pretty pleasurable riding experience!  Not a bad spot for a lunch break.  We entered the Fjallabak Nature Preserve a short time later. This was some of the most stunningly beautiful terrain I'd encountered in Iceland or anywhere else, and felt like something of a reward for the previous days of interminable tundra.  Our progress slowed yet again, not because of bad conditions, but because we were stopping every five minutes to take photos of some beautiful thing around each bend.  Fjallabak also hosts the Landmannalaugar hut and campground, a major destination for hikers, 4x4ers and cyclists. In addition to having beer, snacks and food, they also have a natural geothermal spring- a "hot pot"- that is absolutely heavenly to float in. We bought a bunch of beer and spent at least 90 minutes just soaking in this thing. We camped out that night, my buddy with the ruined tent splitting mine with me. Day 7  Our seventh day began with rain and wind that moved in overnight, but fortunately, this would be a tailwind. The first dozen or so miles were very flat, so we made some pretty great time with the wind pushing at our backs. Eventually, we started hitting steeper and steeper climbs as we began to ascend out of Fjallabak.  At times the sun broke through and we were treated to immense, sprawling views like this.  Getting up toward the highest elevation point of the day, the climbs and descents became incredibly steep- we were pushing our bikes up practically everything, and holding onto our brakes the entire way down on the other side. On the steepest descent, my brakes were screaming as I hit 31 miles per hour.  A high point was seeing the Krakatindur volcano.  We had to make a major decision point. We were facing horrible weather coming in that night- a truly severe windstorm that would persist for two days- and were starting to face time constraints. While we wanted to ride to Vik as originally planned, we instead elected to end our ride in Hvolsvullor, a small town that is kind of a regional hub. It wouldn't cut off many miles and we would still ride through the Highlands in their entirety, but it would shave off roughly 30 miles of road between Vik and Hvolsvullor, which could have been hazardous with the high volume of vehicles and severe weather. So we instead opted for Dalakoffin, a privately owned hut. We arrived to find the interior door separating an outer mudroom (an emergency shelter) from the interior of the building, but I found the owner's phone number above the lock and called him up. He gave us the code to the padlock and said he'd be there in a few hours. After getting settled in, I took my drone out for a flight and got some cool pictures of the river behind the hut. Gustav, the hut owner, arrived later that day and told us that while the hut had been booked solid by a family, they had canceled on account of the weather, so we were welcome to stay there. He also mentioned he'd invited a few of his friends to help him with a "special project" the next day.  Gustav wrote a book about his family history in Iceland. His grandfather had come to the country as an accidental German immigrant in the 1920s- he was a crewman on a ship who got drunk during a port call in Reykjavik and woke up in the morning to discover that the ship had left without him, so he basically decided to stay. During WW2, the "invading" British force discovered that his grandfather was a German immigrant, and so being fearful of spies and saboteurs, left a British soldier to monitor and guard him. One day, Gustav's father heard gunshots coming from their home and rushed there to find his dad and the Tommy drunk off their asses and having a shooting competition with each other's rifles. Gustav and his dad had built the hut 50 years ago, and he had continued to add to it and maintain the property as both a family destination and a rental. Day 8  We awoke to the slightly unsettling sensation of wind gusts so powerful that the hut was shaking with each major gust. For context, we were in the central highlands, west of the glaciers, so we were dealing with sustained winds of 33-52 mph with gusts up to nearly 80 mph. While we knew there was a 99% chance we wouldn't be riding anywhere that day, I tried to ride my unloaded bike up and down the gentle hill just outside of the hut. I flew up the thing without pedaling, turned around and tried to descend into the wind and found that it took every single bit of my bike handling skills to keep forward momentum. I was scared that if I dabbed or tried to walk my bike, the wind would rip it away from me. It was that powerful. So what does one do when you can't ride bikes yet you don't want to be cooped up inside all day? You help Gustav and his friends with their "special project" which of course ends up being digging a geothermal hot pot of their own.  We piled into Gustav's 4x4 and drove to the location he had in mind, passing this spectacular yet unnamed waterfall that appeared to be flowing upward with the wind.  We parked the vehicles, then walked about a half-mile into a wind-protected ravine carrying sandbags, shovels, plastic sheeting and metal pipes. We arrived at a bubbling geothermal spring that was churning out boiling water from within the earth. This flowed a short distance to where it joined a cold, glacial-fed creek. You thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?  We dug out the cold creek to increase the flow of cold water, and then set about building a dam with the pipes, plastic sheeting, sandbags and rocks. After a few hours of digging sandbags and troubleshooting, we finally had a hot pot that was cool enough for a person to enter, but warm enough to provide some relief after a long day of hiking or riding. We celebrated with a "barbecue party" that night- the guys had brought food to grill. Hot dogs- which are practically a delicacy and art form in Iceland-, pork tenderloin and horse. Yes, horse. Honestly, it's actually pretty decent. Day 9  Conditions had improved significantly overnight. While the wind was still blowing hard, the gusts were topping out around 30 mph and were a tailwind. Knowing we had less than 45 miles to go, we were less concerned about the rain accompanying it, figuring our gear could get us through the worst of it. We bade farewell to Gustav and his friends, pushing out into the storm. This is the first photo that I took that day, two hours after we left. It shows what we had just escaped- with the wind shoving us, it felt like we were on motorcycles flying across the Highlands. Any time we stopped, the wind and rain would remind us of the storm that always seemed on the verge of swallowing us yet again.  About an hour before we were due to exit the Highlands, a rainbow formed directly to our front. It intensified the closer we got to our last big turn to the south. This would bring the southern coastline into view, and basically indicate that we had exited the Highlands and effectively completed the Iceland Divide.  Seriously, look at this thing. As soon as the coastline came into view, the rainbow slowly faded away. I'm not a superstitious person, but Iceland is a very old country steeped in magic and sagas, and honestly, it's easy to think that the sky itself sent us its best rainbow to guide us away from the storm and toward the end of our journey.  This is probably my favorite photo of myself from that day. When the rainbow first formed, I turned back into the storm, kept my eyes open in the driving wind and rain long enough to pose for a picture, then turned back around and pointed it towards the end. Again, this was the hardest and most rewarding thing I've ever done. I've been home for about three weeks now and I'm still having dreams (mostly good ones) about being back out in the Highlands. It only deepened my love for Iceland, and I know I'll be back on another bike trip at some point, but for now, I think doing the Divide once is probably enough for the foreseeable future.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2024 22:26
|
|
|
gently caress me, that's some epic poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2024 22:34
|
|
|
Horse is delicious
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2024 22:52
|
|
|
Dumb frog somehow ended up in our bathroom, then confused me for a tree. Terrible picture, but nice guy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 27, 2024 23:10
|
|
|
Are those the waterfalls from the opening of Ridley Scott's "Prometheus"? edit: they are not, but they're still great. A.o.D. fucked around with this message at 11:18 on Aug 28, 2024 |
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2024 00:52
|
|
|
Vincent Van Goatse posted:gently caress me, that's some epic poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2024 03:31
|
|
|
Those photos own thanks for sharing!
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2024 03:41
|
|
|
|
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2024 04:31
|
|
|
Motherfucker, i did it. My wife hasn’t slept well in two nights while I had to work. We had to have a hard conversation about letting the baby just be, and put her down and cry, and that it loving sucks. I’m back after being at work…. I put her down to sleep. Baby lost her poo poo for like 15 minutes. Cried quieter for another couple minutes. The timeframe I had set was 20 minutes. 18 minutes in she was quiet. Went in at 20 minutes, she was cool as could be, changed her, snuggled her, fed her, and then put her back in her crib. We are coming up on an hour of her chilling in the crib. I’m feeling good to go to bed. gently caress yeah. give it 30 minutes and I’m gonna hate life again Edit: Biggest thing - I asked my wife if she could sleep while I/We did this. She said yes. I have the next 9 days off. I realized this when the other day, going to work, I realized baby had been training us. windshipper fucked around with this message at 05:45 on Aug 31, 2024 |
|
#
?
Aug 31, 2024 05:43
|
|
|
Baby Windshipper had liquid shits last night, and she had an episode while I was in the middle of changing her. She hit the nanny cam which was about 2 feet away from her butthole when she did it. I’m so proud. 🥹
|
|
#
?
Sep 4, 2024 01:26
|
|
|
|
| # ? Sep 10, 2024 22:32 |
|
|
windshipper posted:Baby Windshipper had liquid shits last night, and she had an episode while I was in the middle of changing her.  I hiked the tallest peak in England, Scafell, the other day with Mrs. Ralph and some friends. Mrs. Ralph and I are going up to Skye on Monday and will be hiking up Ben Nevis at some point next week. Views at the top of Scafell were poo poo thanks to the UK's on brand weather, but coming down we were treated to some solid views.    Really excited for Ben Nevis next week, but for now, I'm off to Berlin!
|
|
#
?
Sep 6, 2024 13:39
|
|