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Post by DE Sinclair on May 7, 2020 14:34:14 GMT -5
I like the taste of Miracle Whip more than proper mayo, but I can't dispute that it's pretty much the condiment equivalent of Twinkies or Mountain Dew. One of my big divides is pickles. Proper dill pickles are delicious, sweet pickles are awful, and bread and butter pickles are criminal. I'm pretty much with you on the pickles. A big deli dill pickle is a thing of beauty. Miracle Whip as equivalent to Twinkies? Yeah, I can see that too, although I haven't eaten a Twinkie in decades.
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Post by DE Sinclair on May 7, 2020 14:30:53 GMT -5
I like mayonnaise. Miracle Whip however, is an abomination. -M I don't get all the Miracle Whip hate. I'll use either Miracle Whip or mayo pretty much interchangeably. I won't say they taste the same, but they're pretty close. Around the house though it's always Miracle Whip.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Apr 27, 2020 15:51:21 GMT -5
My pop passed away this morning. Non covid-19 related but he was admitted to the hospital two-weeks ago and stopped eating. He was 90 and I think was tired. He went almost every day to visit my mom who has dementia and when the shutdown occurred, he was not allowed to visit her anymore. I think he became depressed and gave up. He was my hero who always worked and never treated us with anything but love. So sorry to hear. 90 is a good run, but it's always too soon.
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Schwans
Apr 20, 2020 14:18:23 GMT -5
Post by DE Sinclair on Apr 20, 2020 14:18:23 GMT -5
We still have them here in Wisconsin too. Haven't ordered anything from them in years, but never had a problem with the quality when we did. Maybe I should look into that again to cut down on trips to the store. First need to clear out some freezer space though.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Apr 19, 2020 23:05:26 GMT -5
I was lamenting the fact that I probably won't go to a comic show for a long time. Even if they have them. Totally agree. I think I'm going into withdrawal.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Apr 19, 2020 11:00:27 GMT -5
On second thought, I forgot the Javits Center where NYCC is held had been converted into a field hospital for the COVID-19 response, so I am pretty sure that will take NYCC out of play. -M The Javitts center is mostly empty. Even the ship that was sent is mostly empty as well. But they cancelled everything for the next few months over here. It's great news that they are most empty. They prepared for the worst, but thankfully haven't had to use it much. In Milwaukee, they're setting up in our State Fair Park an auxiliary hospital space for hundreds of beds that will hopefully never see use. It sucks that many things we looked forward to are now cancelled, but it's a small price to pay.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Apr 16, 2020 14:21:32 GMT -5
The first video game that I was addicted to was Centipede (great taste in games, beccabear67 !). Our local supermarket had a machine at the front of the store, and when I went with my mom to do our weekly shopping, she would give me two quarters and let me play while she got through the store (I don't think she appreciated my "help" with that task). There was also a little arcade in the same shopping center as the supermarket, and it was there that I fell in love with Dragon's Lair, featuring Don Bluth animation of the adventures of Dirk the Daring, who was attempting to rescue the lovely Princess Daphne from a dragon and an evil wizard. It was done on a videodisc, so each motion of the joystick or push of the button caused the disc to skip to the next scene in the sequence. Some of the challenges were easy, but the majority were reliant on split-second precision to move just right through the castle. I was never great at it, but I was so into it. My best memory around this game involved my maternal grandmother, who lived in Memphis and made an annual two-week visit to Pittsburgh every summer. One year, she took me up to the arcade, handed me a sandwich baggie full of quarters, and stood there and watched me play this game for what seemed like hours, not once complaining or rushing me. She's the same one that gave me my first comic books, and I think what I miss most about her is that she "got me" as a person when everyone else in my family wanted me to be something that I really wasn't. After that, it was Gauntlet, 24/7/365. My buddies and I would go to the arcade at the mall in the next town over and pump an unending string of quarters into that machine. It was the first game I can remember that four people could play at once, which was great for our little group. These days, the only time I ever play an arcade game is on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD. There is an arcade there that has one of the Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga anniversary edition units, and I will play that while my wife and daughters play skee-ball. As well, there used to be a House of the Dead shooter that I enjoyed, but it wasn't there the last time we visited in 2018. On the home front, I had (in sequential order): Atari 2600 (favorite game was Track & Field), Atari 7800 (Robotron 2084), Nintendo (Legend of Zelda, duh), Sega Genesis (NHL 94, the greatest sports game for a home video console ever), and finally a Playstation 1 (I still replay Castlevania: Symphony of the Night every year or so). We currently have a Wii, but I rarely if ever play it; the only game for it that was specifically bought for me was Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, and while it's fun enough, the controls for these games have gotten so complicated that I have a hard time doing well at it. Fun thing about Centipede was the original port to IBM compatible computers back in the XT days (yes, I'm that old) had the game play geared to the PC's clock speed. When the 286 computers came out, trying to play the old game was impossible because the PC clock speed was so much faster. You'd start the game and the centipede would shoot to the bottom of the screen in the blink of an eye. Dragon's Lair was my absolute favorite game that I completely stunk at. It was so cool and beautiful looking that I spent a ton of quarters on it just trying to get beyond the first couple of screens.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Apr 16, 2020 14:12:43 GMT -5
I used to like Centipede the arcade game so much I would watch anyone playing it. I wasn't all that good at it (as with the Pac-mans). I think people would crowd around Frogger too. Home games that were likewise fun visually to just watch were mostly by Activision... especially Dolphin! I got to the points in River Raid and Dolphin where the secret word was revealed and you were supposed to be able to take a photo of the screen and mail it in for a sew-on patch, but being in Canada I didn't or couldn't. Atari's Adventure had a secret invisible dot you could take from a caste's torchlit maze's secret room accessible only with the bridge, carry it way down to a screen past the gold castle and enter a hidden screen that had the flashing letters 'created by Warren Robinet'. Frostbite was another Activision fun to watch game that had the character building an igloo brick by brick before the temperature dropped; the fun bit was if the bear got you it made a cute sound and we would get killed on purpose to hear it! My most played at-home games (2600?) were Adventure and Haunted House for Atari. No time limits or increasing speed but levels of difficulty. I bought one of those plug & play retro mini-consoles just to be able to try Adventure 2 and Haunted House 2 loaded on it... I think they were either never released or made up long afterwards, and Adventure2 was a lot of fun with extra castles and one more dragon I think added. It also had Activision's Pitfall and River Raid so that was neat. The weirdest Atari home game I had was some tiny company's release, Cosmic Ark, where you go to various planets and collect two goofy aliens (clomping about on the surface) with a tractor beam from above, but it gets so fast eventually I think it is unplayable really. Really fun up to then! Also had Donkey Kong which was by another non-Atari company (Coleco?) and it was well done, and Yar's Revenge had a little comic book by Frank Cirocco in it which I still have someplace. I bought three of the five Activision games I had all at once at some kind of special on-release promotion in a big store in Reno, Nevada. The fifth game I had which was also very good was Star Master. Activision were the best! I guess we could've had a video game thread. I go back to the original pong game as released by Sears. That must've been around 1975? We rented an Intellivision for Christmas once but the only game I remember coming with it was Baseball, but it was very well done too. Then my brother just up and bought an Atari (it came with Combat and I think Video Olympics). As a kid that was always getting or being sick I spent a lot of time with games, a little b&w tv given to me with an earphone, and of course comic books... also had a two speed kids' record player with radio, some micronauts, lego, and a couple of dozen china animal figures from Red Rose brand tea. I remember using the lid from the record player as a spaceship for the animals with some lego bits added. Well, back to our regularly scheduled Meanwhile? I had an Atari 2600 back in the day, and I have one of the retro mini-consoles too. I remember the thrill of finding that secret dot in Adventure and accessing the secret room. I've also always been a big fan of the Pitfall game too. I also have a hand held version with a bunch of the Atari games, including Pitfall. Nostalgia is a powerful draw.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Apr 11, 2020 22:43:19 GMT -5
My favorite arcade coin-op was Gauntlet. The perfect distillation of hack-and-slash dungeon crawling, until Diablo I and then Diablo II came along. And the sinking health bar was a diabolically brilliant way to get me to keep feeding in quarters. My favorite was Joust. It involved riding a battle ostrich, jousting with other battle ostriches and dragons. Last year I got a great deal on a stand-up video game console that had Joust and another favorite Rampage, along with a couple other games. Sadly I haven't gotten to play it as much as I'd like due to work and ongoing remodeling projects, but it sure looks cool in the den. Joust/Rampage game
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Post by DE Sinclair on Mar 29, 2020 11:36:16 GMT -5
Warning: grumpy old man alert! Apparently, the theme in today’s Sunday paper was “things will never be the same after this epidemic and as a society we will all become better because of it”. While I appreciate and even envy the optimism that prompts people to think so, I call b#####t on the sentiment. Because of what history tells us. After WWII, we said “never again”. And we continued killing each other over territorial, ideological, ethnic or economic issues, even risking nuclear armageddon on a few occasions. After the Holocaust, we said “never again”. And we witnessed more genocides against the Tutsis in Rwanda, the Yazidis in the Middle-East, or anyone whom the Khmers rouges felt like killing in Cambodia. To name but a few. After the financial collapse in 2009, brought about by unchecked greed and deregulation, we said “never again”... again. And in less than a decade, we had hamstrung most of the measures implemented to prevent a new crisis, because they interfered with greed. We will absolutely reach the end of the tunnel, and the covid-19 crisis will be remembered as an unpleasant period, yes. But I bet twenty bucks that we’ll go back to doing exactly what we were doing before, with no particularly enhanced sense of community. The “before and after” eras, as far as the coronavirus goes, will be as significant as the before and after eras of New Coke, Mullets, Superman Blue/Superman Red or the election of the first black president: we will not observe a whole lot of change. The positive aspects I do see are that in a time of crisis, we get to see what people are really about. Leaders who rise to the challenge with grace and competence will be recognized. Selfless people helping their neighbours in a time of need will have a chance to shine. And as societies, we will have had a dry run for the next crisis, which might be much worse; I am pleasantly surprised by the discipline shown by most everyone. That’s all for the good. But a true paradigm change as far as society goes? Not a chance. Too much inertia in human behaviour. Real change happens in little increments, not with any kind if sudden wake-up call. [/grumpyoldman] <Jumping on the grumpy old man train> We saw the same sort of thing here in the states after 911. "We're all in this together" in short order turned back to division and politics as usual.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Mar 19, 2020 23:27:39 GMT -5
Yeah, I work in technology, and if anything, business is crazier right now as everyone scrambles to support a massively increased or even new working from home situation. I worked from home several days a week, now it's all of them, and it's the busiest I've been in a while. You're absolutely right. I'm on the "support the newly banished work-from-home user" side of the technological fence. We've given nearly everyone laptops so they can work at home in case of emergencies (around here that usually involves snow), but did anyone ever think ahead enough to take the damn things home and make sure they know how to use them remotely before they actually needed to? Nope. Now, since my support role is considered "essential", I'm in the spooky, empty office answering phone calls and emails and Skypes about how to make all this stuff work. Today, for example, I spent a big chunk of the day going back and forth with an end user about why the monitor and docking station we let her take home weren't working right. I asked question after question trying to track down the source of the issue, finally narrowing it down to no power to the dock. But the dock and power supply were both good, because they were the ones she was using in the office. We're pretty sure we've figured out that she plugged the power cord into another round hole in the dock (for a cable to lock it down to the desk, which we don't use). I even sent her pictures and she still isn't getting it. <sigh>
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Post by DE Sinclair on Feb 20, 2020 19:54:07 GMT -5
We know what Philip Jose Farmer would do with this information. Now my brain is itching. Thinking about what a 70's police/detective multi cross-over across the USA criminal event could be like. I would want to see Kojak, SWAT, Rookies, Police Woman, Jim Rockford, Baretta, Starsky and Hutch, McGarret and the 5-0 crew, Columbo, Malloy & Reed from Adam-12, Rookies, Mod Squad, Mannix, Barnaby Jones, Charlie's Angels, McCloud, Cannon, Ironside's crew, Quincy, Stone/Keller from Streets of San Francisco, Dan Tanna from Vegas, Jon & Poncherello from ChiPS, and what the heck, toss in the Barney Miller gang. Make it big and fun!!! Speaking of crossovers, just saw the movie version of the Beverly Hillbillies (moronic but amusing) and at one point they hire a private detective.... Barnaby Jones. Who just happens to be played by Buddy Ebsen who also played Jed Clampett on the Beverly Hillbillies TV show.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Feb 15, 2020 15:56:59 GMT -5
My wife and I took a step out in faith tonight, as we left our two daughters home by themselves for the evening so we could go on a date, our first one without having to arrange a sitter in a little over 14 years. We went out to a local sports bar to watch the Penguins game and to shoot pool, and we had a wonderful time. We were gone for just about three hours, and when we got home, it was still standing ans both girls were still alive, so we consider it a win and plan to do it again sometime. On a "scary for the dad of daughters" note, the sixth-grade boy who lives two doors down from us has a crush on my younger daughter (also in sixth grade) and the feelings from her are mutual. Time to get my machete sharpened and my shovel ready, although it will be tougher now to dispose of a body since they cut down half the woods behind our house to build more houses. Think smaller pieces. Or wood chipper.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Jan 14, 2020 23:49:54 GMT -5
Upon booting up my laptop today, it created a loud, harsh hum. The hum subsided seconds later, but the laptop’s been behaving erratically as of late, so I’m afraid it may be nearing the end of it’s life. And I don’t have a backup computer. I’m not planning on departing, but if I should vanish into the ether one day soon, that’ll be the reason why. sounds like either a hard drive and/or fan might be about to go. Not expensive to replace, but if you've got any data you care about like photos, documents, whatever, this would be a good time to back them up. Those were my top choices as culprits as well. And if the laptop is acting erratically, then the hard drive is the most likely. Impulse is right, backup your data as soon as you can. Good luck.
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Post by DE Sinclair on Dec 31, 2019 19:50:05 GMT -5
I truly enjoyed playing my grumpy old man card over the weekend. Not once, not twice, but THREE times in one day on Saturday. The 1st occurrence was while seeing Cats at the movies. Just as Grizabella is finishing the song Memory (the emotional highlight of the entire movie) 2 idiot guys in their 30's come into the theater talking and turning on their cell phones for light to find seats and await the next showing. As I left, I called both of them out letting them know just how rude they were in disturbing the movie ending for those (5 of us) in the movie. They starting cussing and swearing at me and being jerks. I went directly out to the courtesy desk asked for the manager and told her what just transpired. She promptly apologized, gave me a free ticket and then went with some other workers and had the 2 idiots removed from the theater! YAY for JUSTICE. The 2nd and 3rd happened later that afternoon while I was in Target doing some shopping. As i entered a young teen was pushing a cart while her grandmother was shopping and at the same time on her cell phone. Idiot girl nearly ran over 2 people in the aisle in front of her and she kept wavering back and forth in the middle of the aisle so nobody could get around her. I walked up and "bumped" her cart for attention and then told her she needs to put away her phone while shopping as she almost ran into a small child and that she should put her phone away. If she cant live without it long enough to pay attention in a store and avoid hitting other shoppers then maybe she shouldn't have a cell phone. The grandmother thanked me for speaking up and said she always has this problem with the grand-daughter when they are out. The final occurrence was a young man and his girlfriend in their 20's I watched as they went through the store. He was riding one of the electric carts while they shopped and he would stop and go down aisles to get items and bring back to the cart as they shopped. When I was checking out they were just ahead of me and the guy actually ran over a display and banged into another shopper ahead of them. I politely asked if there was a reason he was using the electric cart, if he was hurt or disabled or something? He replied that no, he just didn't like walking around the store. I promptly blasted him saying how lazy are you? That the electric carts are provided for inured/disabled/elderly shoppers convenience and ease and not meant for a 20 something idiot to joy ride around the store and that by him using it that somebody who truly and really DESERVED the use of the electric cart was unable to do so. The guy was all indignant until the check out cashier stepped in and called for the manager and they pulled the couple out of the checkout line to go and discuss the situation. Is it just me, or are folks just this ignorant, rude and discourteous and uncaring and selfish these days? Man I can't wait to retire and move away into the mountains and become my grumpy old hill hermit of the woods and only deal with society once a month when I go to town for groceries. SHEEEEEEEEEEEESH I had to speak up on Sunday as well during Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Yet another self absorbed phone addict who kept lighting up his phone during the movie. Fortunately I only had to yell at him once, but why did I have to say anything at all?
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