Then I thought maybe my TV was doing something wonky with the VGA but a VGA to HDMI didn't work either.
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Then I thought maybe my TV was doing something wonky with the VGA but a VGA to HDMI didn't work either.
Finally some 91% alcohol on the expansion pack and cartridge loader did the trick.
Next I'm going to introduce my son to games like Legend of Zelda and the Ocarina of Time, Goldeneye 007, and Cruisin' the World.
Basically I get to relive my childhood with my son.
I think I have a classic 8-bit and a SNES here somewhere. If so they've been boxed up a while. The kids don't want them and eBay prices aren't high enough to be worth my trouble yet.
At one point, I had a VecTrex tucked away somewhere. It's long gone, now. These days, that would either be a valuable collectors item, or a forgotten bit of trivia. Probably the latter.
I literally never heard of it until now.
Woah, that was super ahead of its time!
It was pretty good. Many of the games that could be added in were kind of trivial. You eventually would beat them or they would beat you. There was no middle ground. Either they were so simple that you would win every time, or they reached a level that was impossible and you would lose every time. I barely remember most of them.
However, there was an asteroid game that was really awesome. It was easy enough, and fairly routine, up to level 13, at which an invisible killer ship appeared. You basically couldn't see it unless you were looking for it and had really good eyes, and it would lock on you and kamikaze in. There was no real running from that, you either shot it first or you died. If you made it past that level, some increasing levels of weirdness started happening. It wasn't even clear if they were intentional or a bug. Even that killer ship seemed more like a bug than an intentional inclusion, as who would add a maniacal, invisible, opponent?
Ah yes, Adam Smith predicted this with "The Invisible Hand of Game Developers"
In this case, it was more of an "invisible finger of game developers". I might be wrong about the level at which it happened, too, as it might have been 32, not 13. Both numbers come to mind. Whatever it was, it felt like there was "the game as intended", a barrier that may or may not have been intentional, and then an infinite, barely thought out, expanse beyond that. If you could survive that invisible hunter, they never showed up again. You could then play on for a very long time in bizarre levels that seemed to be almost randomly generated rather than incrementally increasing difficulty as the earlier levels were.
Set out for a bike ride this morning, but quickly realized I had fixed the wrong thing. I fixed the front brakes, but they were working okay, and probably only needed a minor adjustment. It was the front derailleur that was a problem, and I think there's something broken in the mechanism. Without that, I would have been doing a LOT of pointless pedaling, as I couldn't get to the high range.
I decided that getting in a ride wasn't going to happen, so I went for a walk and got some yard work finished.
I just had a message from OneDrive about "My Memories From This Day". I was using OneDrive as a backup for a programming project (until I switched to GitLab) and nothing else. Those "memories" messages pick up whatever image file and show that to you. The images from that project are icons and the like. It's kind of funny seeing them.
People here are trying to bring on Summer early here. We've had some warm dry days and the grills are coming out.
Neighbor had me over for her "Grilled Potatoes Alfredo" which has ground beef and broccoli and was pretty good. I brought a fruity salad based on chopped apples, celery, and rehydrated sweetened cranberries tossed in lime juice. We ended up sharing it with a young single guy across the street from her who says he smelled it. He says he doesn't cook, so he brought some Bell's "Light Hearted Ale" IPA.
We had summer. It was fun. Maybe it'll come back in a few days?
We didn't break 70 degrees, but with the sun and some imagination we enjoyed not having nightly freeze warnings for a while.
We've actually only now entered the period where crabapples and redbud trees bloom along with daffodils and tulips, so we can't complain too much.
I've been chuckling like an idiot for the past hour, thinking of a video where a Brit mentions what saying "RC Cola" sounds like to him. Hint: not the best cola.
Is RC Cola still a product?
Haven't seen it around for a while but I don't buy soda's anymore.Quote:
Originally Posted by dday9
I started buying Dr. Pepper with Cream Soda Zero and honestly feel like my parents with Diet Coke.
I see no evidence that it isn't. That said I haven't noticed it for sale but I don't monitor such things.Quote:
Originally Posted by dday9
$4.98 at Walmart for a twelve pack. lolQuote:
Originally Posted by dday9
About all I ever drink is beer, wine and lots of water.
I was just hung up on the image of somebody encountering it for the first time thinking "Arsey Cola? Bleh!"
I went for a nice 30 mile bike ride, yesterday. Not sure of the actual distance. The loop is normally about 30, but it's spring, which means that road construction has started. I tried sneaking past one piece of construction, only to find that the road had a giant trench dug all the way across it. I still would have gotten past, except that there was active work going on at the site. They likely would have gotten really mad at me.
Therefore, I had to detour, which may have added two miles. I did go through a second, closed, construction site, but there was nobody there to say anything. Technically, I was even wearing a hard hat (bike helmet) and high-visibility clothing (bike shirt...I looked like a giant, slightly unripe, banana). Still, they probably wouldn't have been happy with me.
I'm going to do it again Sunday morning. Hopefully, the construction won't be happening seven days a week, though they might.
I'm not nearly as sore as I thought I'd be, this morning.
Went to go shopping and my car battery was dead. That was out of nowhere. Only 2 1/2yrs old. Hadn't given me any problems. Took AAA about an 1 1/2hrs to get here. Had them replace the battery, surprisingly their price was cheaper than Autozone.
Cell failure.
Nice thunderstorms, yesterday. They were nice because we got the light and the sound, but neither rain nor wind. That was because the storms missed my area.
Ghost riders in the sky?
I wasn't looking. Could have been. This would be the right country for them, and that was the right weather for them.
I ran out of string trimmer line and decided to buy a pack of prewound spools.
Convenient, but the line ran out 5 times as fast (or more) as with the bulk line I'd been using. Also, throwing a spool away that often seems like a criminal waste of resources and more crap for the landfills. I thought this set would last long enough to minimize the damage. I don't think that way any longer.
Does everyone buy this wasteful stuff, or do most people spend a little effort now and then to wind new line and get more life out of the spool?
I've been using the spool that came with the tool for at least 8 years if not more. The tougher line from my old bulk-pack donut clearly spewed far less waste fragment into the environment too. And that's without even talking about the packaging.
I don't go crazy "being green" but I don't see any good reason to go out of my way to be... "brown" (?) either. Even the guy at the local hardware store says people are getting lazier, dumber, and more wasteful. He doesn't think most homeowners even know they can rewind and reuse the original spool.
This feels like yet another inversion, where "deplorables" turn out to be far better people.
I'm not sure I even know what you're talking about. Are you talking about the spools that go in weed eaters? If so, I wasn't even aware that they sold prewound ones. I always just buy the line and respin it up myself, it doesn't take very long but it is annoying trying to get the last little bit out when replacing it if I ran the weed eater too hot and the line started to melt onto itself.
I purchase the bulk packages and wind it onto my spool. The trouble I have is that the local hardware stores almost never have any of the correct line in stock. Even finding it in stock online is a challenge.
I don't use a weed trimmer. I mow the lawn, but for the rest of it, I planted what I wanted, and let them fight it out from there.
Trimming isn't voluntary here.
As the California riche have come in building McMansions they have changed zoning and pressured for aggressive enforcement. We now risk ticketing and fines if we don't do things like shovel snow and trim walks in "an expeditious manner."
There are places here where trimming isn't optional, too. You may have it a bit different, or you may not, but out here, there are covenants for nearly every neighborhood. Covenants dictate all kinds of weird things about vegetation, upkeep, and other such things. Covenants also tend to evaporate over time. As long as they are enforced, then they are enforceable. Once some aspect of them stops being enforced, then that's it. Legally, once you stop enforcing a part, it can't later come back into force, which means that bit by bit, the covenants evaporate, since each article can only be removed and no new ones can be added.
I saw the covenants for the community I live in. We're supposed to be maintaining a playground for the kids. There's a house on the spot where the covenants say we're supposed to be maintaining the playground, which is a pretty sure sign that THAT covenant has evaporated. Considering the community is bounded on two sides by extensive parks with extensive playgrounds and recreational fields, that covenant was always a bit odd, but perhaps the parks weren't there when the community was built?
By the time I bought, all the covenants for the community had evaporated. I'm free.
These aren't covenants but actual ordinances.
We only have covenants and covens, and it can be hard to tell which is witch.
I live just outside the town limits (grant it my town's population is only 2,100) so I can pretty much do anything I want here as long as it follows the parish. The parish is so lax that its basic stuff like you need 5' of distance between dwellings and property lines, if you get a sewage treatment instead of septic you have to follow certain rules, but overall it is pretty lax.
There's some rules in the town like you can't own chickens or rabbits, but people do it anyways.
There's a rule here that you can't own roosters. Chickens are okay, but not roosters.
I was out mowing the lawn when a police officer stopped by. She asked me about hearing a rooster in the neighborhood. I told her that I heard it fairly often, but only from my bedroom and could only say that it was roughly west of my house.
I just thought of the obvious response, but I'd have to ban myself, so I'll skip it.
Here we can have up to 4 chickens or rabbits in any combination of the two. They also must be "registered" though I'm not sure how the license plates are required to be attached.
I didn't see any mention of roosters, but I wasn't looking too hard. After seeing rabbits categorized as "poultry" I found this and decided a cold beer sounds good:
Quote:
In the United States, rabbits are classified as birds. Yes, birds. Since chickens and turkeys are excluded from the two federal laws offering minimal protection to farmed animals, so are rabbits.
That might explain the Easter Bunny's relationship to eggs though.
That's some galaxy brain stuff right there.
Spring in Idaho means the "Green Up". It's the window of time when the hills are green, which lasts only a couple weeks before the hills turn brown. How long the green up lasts, and when it starts, depends on how much water there is and how cool the spring is. This is the one time out of the year when everything feels comfortable.
The forecast for the next few days is haze, which means that forest fires have already started. We're still in the green up, the only time outside of winter when the forests can't burn, but the forecast is still for haze. In this case, it's fires in Canada. They're robbing our brief time when we can breathe free. Even the winter tends to have inversions, so the air can be bad then, too.
It's gonna be a long summer....
Yes, our remaining local weathercasters always note the resumption of "Western Pollution Season."
Even when the haze isn't visible it can easily be detected by noting how filthy rains become. Bad enough that many people will quick-rinse cars after a rain to avoid needing to do full car washing. Nobody here did that in the past.
Can this really be considered natural? The crud level has increased dramatically over just the last decade, far outstripping every measure of climate change in its rate of increase.
I suspect changes in land use and tillage are factors. The crud seems to be dirt as much as smoke.
I'm not sure that's all from fires. A brief rain will leave your car dirty, out here, and that has nothing to do with fires. It has to do with tilling dry fields. A long rain will clean your car, a short rain will make it muddy. It's much worse in the spring, and not really an issue in the winter.
When I lived in Lewiston, we'd get windy days. The wind would start blowing, and all would be fine for a couple hours, but them the hills would vanish in a tan cloud as the Palouse came to visit. I imagine it was great for our lungs.
I don't know if that counts as loess. We get loess blowing across the Pacific from the deserts of western China. It's tan, fine, and accumulates out here...interspersed with ash, but I don't know whether it can be said to originate here. If so, then our loess is your gain.
There are two sides to this story - I'll start with the Bobcat's point-of-view.
Quote:
Bobcat POV: Sun's just coming up. I'm sneaking around the St Lawrence / Holy Trinity playground. Bird feeder is full of activity in front of Steve and Patty's house! Time to stalk! So many tasty choices!
Steve POV: Sure looks like Cocoa needs an early morning walk! Almost 16 years old, blind, down to four pounds - barely able to stand. I've been carrying him outside for a few months now - walking 10 feet is a chore but he is still a happy old pup!
Bobcat POV: Birds, Birds, Birds - and then the front door opens wide - a man steps out and drops a small brown dog into the front yard - then returning to the house! Door is closed! So many options - birds, dog, birds, birds and a dog! Start sneaking forward slowly!
Steve POV: Time to step back outside and see if Cocoa is done!
Bobcat POV: Door opens - my cat instinct says FREEZE!
Steve POV: Picking up Cocoa - then OMG! That's a big cat! Lots of face fur! I think it's coming towards me?!?
Bobcat POV: Dog... Birds... So many choices! WTH is this guy doing back?
Steve POV: Total disbelief! Do I stand up straight? Back away slow? Fast?
Bobcat POV: I'll do a quick pirouette - moving a couple feet down the hill! Still facing my prey - should I stay or should I go now!
Steve POV: That cat is spinning around and facing me down all at the same time!
Bobcat POV: ...If I stay there could be trouble...
Steve POV: Cat is spinning and moving down the hill...
Bobcat POV: Time to leave!
Steve POV: Cat runs back into St Lawrence!
So you like random?
Old guy two doors down from me called me over to his porch when I walked past. He was having lunch on the table on his long, wide porch. Seems that when his wife is away "he can have" his favorite sandwich. Pumpernickel with Velveeta and thick onion slices. Something he called "green tea punch" too that might be alcoholic.
Turns out he just wanted to know what it said on the front of my hat and what it meant.
You have this line:
but you left out the next line:Quote:
Bobcat POV: ...If I stay there could be trouble...
Quote:
Bobcat POV: ...If I go it could be double...
So, there are now bobcats in CT? Is that new?
Growing up in NH, I wandered all over the valley around my house. In the winter, I knew what animals were around and how many, based on the tracks. I never saw bobcat tracks, but then again, I never saw bear or moose tracks, and both of those have moved into the area since I left. Turkeys are there, too....and ticks, which are considerably less welcome.
The occasional visit became seeing multiple cats in the same day - seems we have a family in the woods now. I saw an aerial photograph of my neighborhood from 1934 and the lack of trees was incredible. Maybe count 10 trees in the dozens of acres that were in the pic. Seems European settler greed and need for farmland made removing trees a commodity!Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy Hiker
Moose hit by a car and killed in North Haven on the Merritt Parkway last month - so they are moving down from Maine and NH and VT to southern New England as well.
Mammals I've never seen before in CT that are now regular - and that have moved through my backyard as well: mink, river otter, coyote, bear and now bobcats! I know where there is a beaver dam within a mile of my house! In the past an occasional red fox was a cool visit.
Problem I see with all this is that the bobcat really has no natural predators - I guess wolf might have done that job in the past. With these cats we simply have less squirrels, chipmunks - even ducks in the brook are on the decline.
[edit] you got that Clash reference - saw them open for The Who in Shea Stadium in the very early 80's, lol! [/edit]
No joke, I was checking out at the grocery store last night and saw a frickin RC Cola.
I don't believe in bobcats. For one thing, how do you know their name is Bob? I realize that would be worse than finding a mittenscat in your back yard, but still, isn't that just stereotyping. The other reason is that I've never seen one in the wild. I've been with numerous people who've said, "look, there's a bobcat!", but when I turn, they say, "it just left." That has happened so many times it's pretty much a joke. Heck, I took a picture of one of those mini-front end loaders just so that I could show people that I had seen a bobcat in the wild (seriously, it was from the Pacific Crest Trail, and I still have the picture).
Bobcats are like sasquatch: Lots of people believe in them, several people think they've seen one, but I'm skeptical. I've seen Florida panthers (highly endangered), and a family of mountain lions (same thing as the Florida panther, really, just in a different area), yet I've never seen a bobcat.
Growing up in NH, stone walls were just a part of the scenery. They lined every road, passed through the woods in odd places, extended out across swamps, and I even found one going across the open, rock, ledges of a small mountain...the name of which I wouldn't even TRY to spell. They were so ubiquitous that I often overlooked the implication of those walls: They were the border of some farmers field. The walls were built because a farmer hit a rock and moved it to the edge of the field.
That shows how much New England is changing. At the turn of the last century (1900), my understanding was that New England was 90% cleared. Now it is 90% forest, and growing. The stone wall across the mountain meant that where now there are rock ledges, there was once enough soil for a farmer to till the land. The stone wall through a swamp meant that the land was once dry enough for a farmer to till. The increasing forests show that the land is returning to the way it was before white settlers began clearing it.
I had always heard that the moose couldn't live in southern NH because of a brain worm parasite, but they're certainly moving south, now. Either the parasite is no longer an issue, or it never was an issue.
Times, they are a changin'.
There was a Germanic tribe known as the Alans. Is that where we get the name Alan from? We certainly have the Goth name from a different tribe, but why not the Ostrogoths?
I think that name should be brought back: Ostrogoths by gosh!
Wild but hardly unprecedented, we have a frost warning for tonight. Just yesterday we reached 80 F or so.
Wow, there are some real consequences coming from the Jan 6th riot. This guy got 18yrs. https://news.yahoo.com/oath-keepers-...041627637.html
Yesterday I saw the guy that had his feet up on Pelosi's desk got 4 1/2yrs.
Maybe with a little luck their savior will win the presidency and pardon them.
Last I heard, this was Post Race...still looking for a cat named Bob. Feet on desk not a concern here, lol!