Canopyflyer

Oh crap…

Dungeon Crawler Carl “The Inevitable Ruin” Book 7

“Fellowship of the Ring” Lord of the Rings Book 1

Frodo and Donut are fighting their way through Moria to throw Cascadia into Mt Doom… Oh and Frodo is wearing boxers with a heart print.

God Dammit Donut!

Vancouver

That what watching Stargate SG-1 multiple times has done to me.

30 year IT Professional here.

The thing about AI that most people do not understand is the sheer amount of processing power required and just how much that requirement impacts everything. Entire data centers dedicated to one thing that can require the output of a power plant and the associated cooling requirement. I believe Microsoft is in the process of reactivating Three Mile Island TMI-1 reactor. TMI-2 was destroyed in an accident in 1979.

For what? What is it actually doing that is truly worth investing those kind of resources?

That’s not even considering the financial investment. Which has resulted in tech companies taking a “throw everything against the wall and see what sticks” tactic to get it to start making money. Tactics like that usually result in a bubble where the technology is perceived to have more value that it really does. The problem with this is people won’t spend their money on something that does not return their investment. So it’s a matter of time that we have these huge data centers sitting all over the country abandoned.

I discovered SAS back in the late 80’s when I worked retail. I made a friend who worked at the shoe store that was in the same mall where I was working and she recommend them. They were the only shoe that allowed me to last 12 to 14 hours on the floor.

I would replace them every year, just because I wore them that much working 60+ hours a week.

Retail job… Never again. But SAS shoes are great.

I like to wear hiking shoes as my everyday shoes. My feet are EE width.

For the past several years I’ve liked Merrell Moab 2, although they have been discontinued for the Moab 3. They come in a GTX model as well.

To be perfectly honest, I have had some issues that had to be fixed with the shoe glue that comes in a red tube. After fixing the issue, which has been the sole separating from the upper, the shoe would last for some time. I get out and hike at least 4 times a week, for about 2 miles. Fortunately, I have a nice county park near my house. With that amount of wear the Moabs last me for about 3 years and then it’s just the tread that is worn smooth. My original pair, one’s I had to fix, I still use for yard work.

As far as sports shoes go, I like New Balance. I usually keep a pair of cross trainers around for those yearly times I try to take up running but utterly fail.

My mother-in-law went absolutely insane when I told her that was a rule in Latin and not in English.

She was rather sheepish when she did her own research and discovered… I was right.

A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with!

That would be a lot of unsprung weight.

Handling and ride quality are dramatically and negatively impacted by every bit of weight that is not held up by the suspension. That’s why higher performance cars will have lightweight wheels. Rather than steel wheels you see on lower performance cars.

It’s better to just put all the heavy drive components inboard on the chassis and run drive shafts to the wheels.

You see motors in the hubs of bicycles, because they really don’t go that fast. So even if the bike has a suspension, it’s not that big of a deal. Motorcycles on the other hand would need to keep any heavy parts inboard.

The South Pacific on a true blue water catamaran.

Bounce around as many islands as I possibly could.

Rush: I’m going Bald

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Igz5SfBCE

Trick or Treating has definitely gone down in my neighborhood.

The neighborhood is 21 years old and I posit that is the reason. A lot of new families, like us, moved in 20 years ago and now the kids are all grown up. My kids are 18 and 16 respectively and have not gone out on Halloween for a few years. The family right next door to us have sons that are a bit older than ours.

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I introduced my wife to Farscape in 2008 and she absolutely fell in love with the series, as had I when I first watched it. We binged watched the entire series inside of two weeks.

We got to the final episode of season 4… And…she… was…piiiiiiiiissssssed. She absolutely abhors cliffhangers. I cannot count the number of times we’ve had to stay up late to finish on an episode that didn’t end on a cliff hanger.

I might have forgotten to mention “The Peacekeeper War” mini-series… evil laugh.

She stomped off and made herself a cup of tea, as I was “getting Season 1 of Battlestar Galactica 2004 ready to watch”. wink wink

She came back sat down on the couch and I hit play… “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!” She only uses the word “fuck” when she’s truly angry BTW.

We then stayed up late to finish “The Peacekeeper War”.

As to it being a mess… Yeah, I can see your point. An entire season was rammed into the equivalent of 4 episodes. I think it was done about as well as it could of been. With that said, it would have been great to get that 5th season.

It still remains as my all time favorite Sci Fi series. There was just too much creativity and uniqueness through out to just throw it out at the end as a fan.

How about a bit different perspective?

What long running franchise should be taking out of the hands of idiots and given to people who are actually talented and creative?

The one exception is the MCU, that is definitely one that needs a break. I feel I’ve been watching the same movie over and over since the second Avengers.

The worlds of Star Trek and Star Wars are so vast that there are tons of stories that could be told. It just needs to be in the hands of someone that is actually good at their job and not a profit crazy committee.

I SOOO want to see Rush’s tour next summer. Not seeing them for past tours is something I really regret.

Signed up for the pre-sale, signed on the day of AND… FUCK THAT.

I’m not spending the equivalent of my mortgage just to get decent seats. So I fired up the R40 tour video and cranked it up. I’ll just be happy with that.

It can, kinda. If you have a lot of spices to grind, it will work. If you just need a tablespoon or so, then it’s a bit bulky for that.

For spices I use this one: KrupsKRUPS F203 Grinder

It works for any amount.

I have the following two food processors:

Cuisinart Food Processor, 14-Cup

Cuisinart Mini-Prep Plus Food Processor, 24-Ounce Mini Food Processor

I have owned a 14 cup Cuisinart food processor for quite some time. I bought the one linked above back in 2018 to replace an older Cusinart that was exactly the same, except it had a white base. The older one’s motor died after 25 years. The newer one is going on 7 years and it still looks and works like new. It comes with the grater and mandolin attachments, as well as the normal and dough blades.

The smaller 24oz processor is indispensable in my kitchen. It does a much better job than the large one when I have to cut a recipe in half. It’s easier to setup, use and clean. However, it is not quite as heavy duty as its larger brother. I have to replace it about every 8 years or so. It actually sees a lot more use than the larger one in my kitchen.

You know who it is

Depending on the size of the canopy, there can be a fair amount of pressure required to pull a toggle. Tandem rigs, which have 500ft^2 mains are somewhat difficult to guide by one person. Most TM’s that I know require their passenger to help out. Not that they cannot be flown by one person, just that doing that 10 times a day wears a person out.

My personal mains: PD Spectre 150 and 135, and Sharp Chuter (used for demo jumping) all had very different toggle pressures. The Sharp Chuter being the heaviest. It was also 90ft^2 larger (240ft^2) than my Spectre 150. My 135 had almost negligible toggle pressure. The smallest canopy I’ve ever jumped was a Velocity 103 and that thing has almost no toggle pressure what so ever. Plus with such high wing loading made it down right twitchy. Personally I was never one for ultra high wing loadings. Having 40mph approach speeds to landing was never appealing even when I was young.

Also skydiving canopies are a LOT more square than a paraglider. While I could not explain the physics there, it seems to me that a thin wing would have lighter toggle pressures. Canopies that I’ve jumped that were more tapered seemed to have a lighter toggle pressure of equally sized non-tapered canopies. A paraglider canopy is extremely tapered compared to a skydiving chute.

Also, don’t you folks have 6 risers? While there have been 6 riser skydiving rigs, they are very uncommon. So each riser requires a lot more pressure to pull… I’m assuming paraglides do riser turns and other maneuvers with them.

There is a Paragliding club here where I live. Even met one when he landed at a local park when I was out walking. I currently have one kid in college and another going to be there in a couple of years, so it’s not going to be anytime soon, but I would love to try it out. I’d love to get back into the air. Skydiving is pretty much out, as I have a back injury that could be made really bad with a hard opening.

To make a short story long… Yeah, I can see a skydiver being ham fisted with a paraglider. A jumper with a lot of experience with very high wing loading (over 2.0 to 1) might not, but me? Yeah, I’d probably ham it up for the first few hours. It would be interesting to learn just how much skydiving canopy experience would translate. I’m sure some would, but definitely not all.