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Post by DE Sinclair on Feb 13, 2024 21:33:40 GMT -5
Don't tell me you're part of that stereotype that Comic nerds hate sports ? Nope. I love baseball. And I'm okay with football, but once the Seahawks are out for the season my interest drops to zero.
Cei-U! I summon the short attention span!
I'm the same way once the Packers are out. So our Super Bowl tradition is to go out to dinner at restaurants that are usually a long wait for a table. They're very empty that night.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Aug 3, 2023 22:47:09 GMT -5
To me at least, this seems like a problem that could and should be resolved with one or two phone calls to Amazon's customer service (and maybe also your credit union). That you actually have to seek the aid of outside legal counsel for something like this is ridiculous beyond words. You mean their outsourced "customer service?" Yeah, good luck with that one. My late wife had her dealings with that mess. My account got locked out, due to similar nonsense and I just flipped them the bird and order through alternative methods that don't involve Jeff Bezos and his blood money. However I don't have any digital purchases or libraries through them. For good reason, as I never liked the terms of such things, nor do I trust cloud servers. Call me cynical; but, I learned one valuable lesson in the military and that was Murphy's Law is absolute: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong." Plan for it and don't trust anything to work as advertised. That lesson has stood me well for the last 30 years. Murphy's Law's corollaries: "And it will go wrong at the most inopportune time" and "Murphy was an optimist"
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Post by DE Sinclair on Mar 15, 2023 21:56:21 GMT -5
It's been in the 40's here in Mobile and should be for the next week. The highs have been in the 60's though I don't mind cooler weather, but anything lower than 50 (especially when the wind is blowing) is too cold for me
Reminds me of my time in Charleston, SC, in the Navy (you can sail the seven seas....). I was born and raised in Central Illinois; so, I was used to the change of seasons, with hot summers and cold winters. My summer in Georgia, for the 6 months I was at Supply Corps School, was ridiculously hot (the heat index was such that even the mornings had warnings) and I spent a lot of time either in a swimming pool, at my apartment complex, or soaking in a cool tub, when I wasn't in an air conditioned classroom, studying (and nighttime roving watch, on the school grounds sucked, when it's 2:00 am and you are sweating profusely). Charleston was a bit more pleasant, but got fairly hot in the summer, though I was on the waterfront, most of my time, which meant ocean breezes. However, anytime the temperature dropped below 65, you saw the locals in winter coats. At best, I might wear a windbreaker, while some of these people were in down coats! I was only ever cold, once, when we got some freak snow and the waterfront was getting wind off the Atlantic and it was below freezing. We were standing watch in environmental suits, then (but only for a couple of days). These days, we seem to get little traditional autumn or spring weather (like a cumulative couple of weeks, each) and go from one extreme to the other. The last few years, we have had fairly mild winters, with maybe brief big snow storms, which have melted away within the week, rather than extended periods of snow and temps below 20 degrees. However, February and March are way ot of whack, going from one extreme to another. We seem to get more snow and ice storms when Spring is supposed to be blossoming and we have had a stretch of heavy rains when planting is supposed to be starting.. My childhood memories are of more of a balance, with certain years having heavy rain or snow, like the winter of '78. We had heavy snow all through January and didn't attend a complete week of school the entire month. On top of that, we had an ice storm, around Easter, that left us without power for about 5 or 6 days. Luckily, my parents grew up on farms and we could cope. However, we and all of the surrounding schools had used so many snow days we were going to have to make up the time, according to state regulations. Due to the severity, we would be in school for about half the summer and no district had the budget for that and the state had no money and declared a "snow day amnesty," forgiving the schools for the lost time. No climate change denier can convince me that we haven't thoroughly F-ed up the planet and it's weather patterns. I have seen too much direct evidence to the contrary. Interesting coincidence, I was also stationed in Charleston while in the Navy. Don't know when you were there, but I was there in 81 to 83. My ship was stationed at the Naval Weapons Station in Moncks Corner, outside of Charleston, though we also spent several months with our ship in drydock at the main base for refitting.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Feb 13, 2023 23:38:55 GMT -5
Anyone else waiting to hear that the US has downed: the Goodyear Blimp; a strange aircraft piloted by a mustachioed figure, who was herd to yell "Muttley, you dundering blockhead, stop that snickering and get us out of here!" and a dog house, with a funny looking pilot, who seemed to utter something like "Curse you, Red Baron!" Or is it just me? Nope, not just you. Plus I'm pretty sure I also heard they were chasing a guy with a jet pack and a helmet that looks like a hood ornament.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Feb 8, 2023 21:42:28 GMT -5
ps I stopped reading the Book of Revelations after peeking at the ending. Ruined the whole book for me. NO SPOILERS!!!!
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Post by DE Sinclair on Dec 18, 2022 12:46:33 GMT -5
The holiday season has officially started! Happy Hanukkah, Christmas, & Kwanzaa to all!
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Post by DE Sinclair on Oct 3, 2022 8:08:56 GMT -5
Those are really nice looking editions. I just re-read my copy to brush up for the "Rings of Power" series, which is sadly a bit worn. But those new editions prompted me to look at bit closer at it, and it's the 1st US edition from 1977. The dust jacket on mine is a bit more worn than this copy, but it shows what it looks like: Silmarillion
I like that cover very much. Is that a Tolkien illustration on the front? If it isn't, it captures the spirit of his Middle-Earth more than most other artists have done.
According to the dust jacket, the cover illustration was indeed done by Mr. Tolkien.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Oct 2, 2022 22:03:04 GMT -5
Even if I had the money to spare, I could hardly justify buying this (as I already have two copies of the book...) but gosh darn it, those publishers must have learned temptation from the devil himself!!! That book looks lovely. That is a pretty nice looking edition, I thought the copy I got last Christmas from my wife was swanky but that's crazy. And I have my eyes on this collection of the Lord of the Rings that matches Those are really nice looking editions. I just re-read my copy to brush up for the "Rings of Power" series, which is sadly a bit worn. But those new editions prompted me to look at bit closer at it, and it's the 1st US edition from 1977. The dust jacket on mine is a bit more worn than this copy, but it shows what it looks like: Silmarillion
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Post by DE Sinclair on Sept 28, 2022 22:35:12 GMT -5
To be fair, have any of you guys actually tried a venti double cold foam salted caramel frappe with oat milk? It's a mouthful, but it's freaking delicious. You can doctor it up with various milks, sugars, syrups, etc and it still tastes like overheated industrial sludge, to me. When I started out in the Navy, I tried to drink coffee to help stay awake, for night watches; but, I had to put so much cream and sugar in it to try to kill the taste that my hands would shake. I found that cold water and even a little movement keep me perfectly awake and alert. When I was in the Navy I didn't drink coffee either, though I've grown to like it better since. Obviously nothing wrong with hating coffee, and certainly Navy coffee was the absolute worst. When I first reported to my ship and was junior in the department, they tried to make me brew the coffee. I put a stop to that quickly by making a pot with about a pound of coffee. It reminded me of 10W30 motor oil. Never asked me again. There was also a guy there who refused to ever wash his coffee cup because he said it ruined the taste. It got so disgusting one of the women in the department finally washed it out. I thought he was going to burst a blood vessel.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Sept 7, 2022 21:00:17 GMT -5
Seems like a strange way to pick a leader, though I suppose it's a step up from relying on strange women laying in ponds to distribute swords to the right people. "You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you. I mean, if I went 'round, sayin' I was an emperor, just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!" — Dennis the Peasant
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 28, 2022 22:26:39 GMT -5
So very sorry for your loss. Truly unfathomable.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 12, 2022 23:38:10 GMT -5
One day I'd love to see a snake in the wild. Never have...not at home in the UK or abroad. They're such amazing but elusive creatures. Snakes are fairly common around here. One morning I found a snake in the lunch room at work. It was a garter snake, likely a baby because it was only about 8 inches long. I chased him around with plastic cup for a few minutes before capturing him. I took him outside and released him on the other side of the pond by our back door so he wouldn't find his way back in.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jul 5, 2022 23:01:40 GMT -5
Even when I was a kit and into comics, I never liked the Phantom or Prince Valiant strips in the paper. As as comics kid, I felt obligated to try to read and enjoy them on principle, but I always found them aggressively dull and boring. I was annoyed at being let down a by comic. I don't know they never clicked for me. I think I fell in love with Phantom because his whole shtick was scaring the bejesus out of people with legends and ghost stories about an African protector who couldn't die. It's both cool and campy "The Ghost Who Walks" Plus he had the rings that left skull marks when he punched them. Extremely cool and a little creepy. But Prince Valiant was boring as all get out.
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Post by DE Sinclair on May 28, 2022 23:46:48 GMT -5
I'm right there with you on calf fries/lamb fries/mountain oysters... not even on a good day.
I’m fairly open to new food experiences. Actually tried escargot about a decade ago and found that if prepared properly, it wasn’t half bad. Tried black pudding when I was in Wales a couple of years ago, and I can say it will never cross my lips again. My three “no way in Hell I’m trying” food items are mountain oysters, chitlins, and haggis. Can’t even remotely overcome the revulsion I feel when I think about those items. Never have, never will any form of testicles. Had chitlins unwillingly as a child, never again. Haggis though isn't bad (although I think I'm required to say that due to Scottish lineage). Tastes kind of like Braunschweiger (smoked liver sausage).
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Post by DE Sinclair on May 16, 2022 22:30:55 GMT -5
I don't even consider it "beer". It’s like sex on the beach. Gritty and ultimately unsatisfying?
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