AMA

I'm here for a day since @Emrys suggested I visit to get all the deets about her new boyfriend. At 9pm EDT I turn back into a pumpkin lurker, so ask me anything over the next few hours.
 
Do you think you'll ever return to the forum (as a participant and not a lurker) on a more permanent or semi-permanent basis?
 
Do you think you'll ever return to the forum (as a participant and not a lurker) on a more permanent or semi-permanent basis?
I've only been here a little bit today and I'm already stirring the pot in politics. I can't resist the siren song of argument, and even that little participation is already bringing me down.

I'm hopeful, but it doesn't seem likely. Certainly not in the near future.
 
How you been?
Things are going well. I'm enjoying my job and they seem inclined to keep me around, so there's a reasonable bit of job security at the moment.

Our eldest son turned 19 and left for a mission. Our second son graduated and is preparing for a high school exchange (5th year of high school for a gap year - this time in Portuguese) to Brazil starting mid-August. The rest of the kids are doing well. We'll be down to 8 kids at home after the second leaves, and we're already feeling like things just aren't right, so I expect it'll feel really strange when we are empty nesters..... 18 years from now... when I'm over 60... if none of them hang around too long and none return... ah, who am I kidding, we're never going to be alone!

Still very busy, but was able to take a few vacations already this year, mostly to visit family. Just came back from New Jersey this last weekend, got everyone from my family together except for my sister and her family. Got to see a niece and nephew that we've only seen a handful of times over the last decade.

Any more babies? :p
Nope! This time I'm the one bringing up the idea of getting the snip, and she's still unsure about permanent measures. The risks rise rapidly at our age, though. We're using birth control, and will probably not settle on a decision for another few months.
 
How much would you want to move to my wonderful city, considering what's here?

(Google "101 S Lesueur, Mesa, AZ" if you don't know.)
 
How much would you want to move to my wonderful city, considering what's here?

(Google "101 S Lesueur, Mesa, AZ" if you don't know.)
I've not been to the Mesa Arizona Temple, but I have to tell you I'm not a big fan of heat. We have a smaller temple about an hour's drive from home, so there's no particular pull towards that temple, but it is on our list of temples my wife and I would like to visit at some point. It's a beautiful temple inside and out: https://www.mormonwiki.com/Mesa_Arizona_Temple

We were married and then sealed together in the Washington DC temple in 1998, and decided we'd try to visit every temple that was built prior to our marriage. Mesa was one of the earlier temples, so it's definitely on that list. https://www.mormonwiki.com/Chronological_List_of_Temples

Lots are overseas though, so it's an ambitious goal. We'll see...
 
Been out of town all day, we'll see if I make it under the wire.
-Why the name change?
-Did you ever replace the thermometer?
-Have you gotten a new projector yet?
-Did your remote Internet situation get solved, and if so, how?
-Were you expecting Gas' hackneyed question?

--Patrick
 
Been out of town all day, we'll see if I make it under the wire.
-Why the name change?
-Did you ever replace the thermometer?
-Have you gotten a new projector yet?
-Did your remote Internet situation get solved, and if so, how?
-Were you expecting Gas' hackneyed question?

--Patrick
- It amuses me.

- Probably, but I still don't trust it. The ear thermometer is more accurate than the forehead thermometer.

- Still using the Viewsonic PJD7820HD, it's 5 years old now and we've done one bulb replacement. I really messed up and ended up blowing dust into the light engine (not onto the DMD, thankfully) and had to take it apart and clean it back out. Up until today I hadn't found a 4k projector that supported 3D (looks like the Optoma UHD50 does, but nothing in the Viewsonic line yet), so one thing holding me back from upgrading is no longer an issue. Now it's just cost and content. I really can't justify it because our internet situation is so poor I can't count on 1080p from a streaming service anyway, and we've only just started buying 4k media (because everyone stopped producing 3D blu-rays) I can still see the individual pixels from my couch, though, so I'd eventually like to upgrade. Probably when this projector dies and a replacement bulb doesn't fix it - and given the flickering I see from the bulb I suspect that may happen within a year or two. I still have the previous 720p viewsonic projector out in my workshop with the same high voltage power supply failure I suspect this one is likely to fail from. I can fix them, but I'd rather upgrade. Of course, since 3D content is all 1080p anyway, I suppose it would make sense to have two projectors if a 4k non-3D projector was substantially cheaper than one supporting 3D. It doesn't help with the proliferation of remotes, though, and confusion people experience trying to operate the system...

- I wouldn't say solved, but improved. Last year AT&T started offering a nearly unlimited cellular internet plan for home internet and hotspot use. In theory they can rate limit after 22GB per month, but I've never experienced it and we use over 600GB a month. I've tried ganging the hotspots together (using a Ubiquiti Edge Router) but that didn't work, so right now we have the home phone/internet device supplying the needs of the house, a separate netgear hotspot for my business, which is often at home usually dedicated to one or the other gaming computer. We're still getting well under 10mbps on each generally. If I mounted them high on a pole outside the house I should be getting over 25mbps, but the convenience of being able to move them around and reset them easily (they are all battery backed, so pulling the power remotely doesn't work) is very useful. I keep knocking around the idea of pulling fiber, but I certainly can't afford it and so far my discussions with others suggests there's low desire for it in the area. Further, improvements to 4G and eventual 5G rollout - probably within the next year or two - would rival fiber in a lot of ways, certainly in cost, so it doesn't seem to make sense to go that direction.

- I wasn't, because I had already answered it previously - https://www.halforums.com/threads/a...hells-down-by-the-seashore.31813/post-1269718
 
Nope! This time I'm the one bringing up the idea of getting the snip, and she's still unsure about permanent measures. The risks rise rapidly at our age, though. We're using birth control, and will probably not settle on a decision for another few months.
:eek:
 
Welcome back! Did I miss you?

What’s your biggest challenge with having a large family? My mother is one of nine kids and they love having so many of them.

Did I already ask you my super serious, personality defining questions?

Coke v Pepsi?

Aniston v Jolie?

(I am totally planning to ask the soft drink one as an icebreaker in an interview next week lol)
 
:zoid:

I meant the Galileo thermometer.

--Patrick
Ah, yeah, that was a mess!

And for that reason, no, I have not. In my workshop it would only ever show its highest and lowest temperatures, though, it's never a comfortable temperature in there. That said, I do look at the thermometer I do have in there quite often, so maybe I should consider getting another Galileo - it would be visible from across the shop.

Welcome back! Did I miss you?

What’s your biggest challenge with having a large family? My mother is one of nine kids and they love having so many of them.

Did I already ask you my super serious, personality defining questions?

Coke v Pepsi?

Aniston v Jolie?

(I am totally planning to ask the soft drink one as an icebreaker in an interview next week lol)
Yes.

Biggest challenge is keeping everything straight in my head. Scheduling, todo, etc. They are certainly fun!

I don't know. Maybe they've changed, ask again!

Coke, though I generally avoid caffeine so very rarely drink it.

I'm equally disinterested in both, but I've never really had a celebrity crush. They both seem equally passionate about their work and philanthropy, and I imagine an interesting conversation could be had with both. I've seen more of Jolie's work than Anniston's.
 
Everything good with family, job(s) etc.?
So far, so good. My oldest two are out of the house, and the youngest recently celebrated her 3rd birthday. We put an Emporia energy monitor on our house, changed some habits based on what we found, and added some solar, cutting our grid energy usage significantly, but not quite in half - about 1.5MWH per month now.

I've been tinkering with digital currency, and have a few thousand dollars tied up in it, both mining and "investing" (read: gambling), and it's been interesting. I should have taken the advice I gave on the previous forum, though - just grab $10 of each digital coin and see what happens. If it dies or only gains a little, no big deal, if it goes exponential you'll be glad you had it. If anyone is keen on seeing what it's like these days, check out "invest answers" on youtube.

No one in my immediate family has suffered COVID, those who have had it in my extended family never had to go to the hospital. I'm vaccinated but disappointed that Bill Gate's microchip doesn't give me HBO.

I've got two barn cats now, and since COVID had me spending all my remote work in my workshop they have grown quite attached to me, and me them.

I 3D printed a few thousand face shield parts in the early days of the pandemic, when masks were unavailable except to emergency workers. I worked a little on the ventilator shortage problem, but determined it wasn't viable for a number of reasons, and investigated making masks but glad I didn't pursue that - mass production has solved that problem and then some.
 
Hey there. Glad to see you pop in, a little like a comet with a very eccentric orbit. Hope your life has not been disrupted overmuch due to the pandemic and all the complications which surfaced alongside it. Will look for your future check-in visits, ojalá.

—Patrick
 
So far, so good. My oldest two are out of the house, and the youngest recently celebrated her 3rd birthday. We put an Emporia energy monitor on our house, changed some habits based on what we found, and added some solar, cutting our grid energy usage significantly, but not quite in half - about 1.5MWH per month now.

I've been tinkering with digital currency, and have a few thousand dollars tied up in it, both mining and "investing" (read: gambling), and it's been interesting. I should have taken the advice I gave on the previous forum, though - just grab $10 of each digital coin and see what happens. If it dies or only gains a little, no big deal, if it goes exponential you'll be glad you had it. If anyone is keen on seeing what it's like these days, check out "invest answers" on youtube.

No one in my immediate family has suffered COVID, those who have had it in my extended family never had to go to the hospital. I'm vaccinated but disappointed that Bill Gate's microchip doesn't give me HBO.

I've got two barn cats now, and since COVID had me spending all my remote work in my workshop they have grown quite attached to me, and me them.

I 3D printed a few thousand face shield parts in the early days of the pandemic, when masks were unavailable except to emergency workers. I worked a little on the ventilator shortage problem, but determined it wasn't viable for a number of reasons, and investigated making masks but glad I didn't pursue that - mass production has solved that problem and then some.
And stomping my ass in Words With Friends. :p
 
And stomping my ass in Words With Friends. :p
Pft! I wish. You're ranked third among my friends, with an 89% win rate, average word score of 24, and average game score of 373. I'm sitting at 8th place with an average word score of 22 and average game score of 327.

I forget who else I was playing with from here that curb stomped me every single game. I was hitting 300+ points, and they were hitting high 400 point games. Ah, here we go, Animatogre I think was from here, but maybe not. At any rate, I don't think I ever won a game against him, almost every word he submitted was minimum 30 points, generally 50 points, and often 70+.

@MindDetective always handily beat me as well. I don't think I ever won a game against him.

I really enjoy our game(s) though, thanks for sticking with it all these years!
 
I forget who else I was playing with from here that curb stomped me every single game. I was hitting 300+ points, and they were hitting high 400 point games. Ah, here we go, Animatogre I think was from here, but maybe not. At any rate, I don't think I ever won a game against him, almost every word he submitted was minimum 30 points, generally 50 points, and often 70+.


I feel you on @MindDetective though, he'd beat up on me, too! :p
 
Pft! I wish. You're ranked third among my friends, with an 89% win rate, average word score of 24, and average game score of 373. I'm sitting at 8th place with an average word score of 22 and average game score of 327.

I forget who else I was playing with from here that curb stomped me every single game. I was hitting 300+ points, and they were hitting high 400 point games. Ah, here we go, Animatogre I think was from here, but maybe not. At any rate, I don't think I ever won a game against him, almost every word he submitted was minimum 30 points, generally 50 points, and often 70+.

@MindDetective always handily beat me as well. I don't think I ever won a game against him.

I really enjoy our game(s) though, thanks for sticking with it all these years!
Good to see you, missed you on my own return back here! Glad things are going well with the fam, and COVID gave you and yours a miss!
 
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