• Fast

    From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Tue Sep 15 18:16:34 2020
    Wow I ordered a 1TB drive on Sunday morning and it arrived at my door before 10.30am on Tuesday. I'm impressed as it came from the other end of the
    country and the job wasn't processed by someone until Monday.

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  • From alterego@21:2/116 to Avon on Tue Sep 15 20:51:57 2020
    Re: Fast
    By: Avon to All on Tue Sep 15 2020 02:16 pm

    Wow I ordered a 1TB drive on Sunday morning and it arrived at my door before 10.30am on Tuesday. I'm impressed as it came from
    the other end of the
    country and the job wasn't processed by someone until Monday.

    Lucky you.

    I ordered something a week ago - that was shipped to me 9km away. It's currently sitting Sydney (910km away), with an esitimated delivery in 7 days time...

    Not happy Jan...

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  • From Avon@21:1/101 to alterego on Wed Sep 16 00:03:17 2020
    On 15 Sep 2020 at 04:51p, alterego pondered and said...

    Wow I ordered a 1TB drive on Sunday morning and it arrived at my door before 10.30am on Tuesday. I'm impressed as it came from

    Lucky you.
    I ordered something a week ago - that was shipped to me 9km away. It's currently sitting Sydney (910km away), with an esitimated delivery in 7 days time...
    Not happy Jan...

    Yeah that's pretty poor in this day and age. I guess you won't be using them again.

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  • From alterego@21:2/116 to Avon on Tue Sep 15 23:48:50 2020
    Re: Re: Slow
    By: Avon to alterego on Tue Sep 15 2020 08:03 pm

    Yeah that's pretty poor in this day and age. I guess you won't be using them again.

    Actually, to be fair, its our postal service.

    Since this COVID thing has locked us up in Victoria, and due to distancing, exposure and restrictions, and the significant increase in "online ordering", some of our post is being shipped interstate to be "sorted" for final delivery.

    My package fell victim to this :(

    (And for the record, our postal is normally excellent - with stuff normally taking 24hrs to go from major parts of the country to any other major part - but we find ourselves in new and strenuous times.)

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to alterego on Tue Sep 15 18:25:06 2020
    I ordered something a week ago - that was shipped to me 9km away. It's currently sitting Sydney (910km away), with an esitimated delivery in 7 days time...

    I've been amazed on both sides -- I ordered some face mask stuff from Uline (which is _not_ designed for your average residential customer), and the cheapest shipping ($16-ish) wound up having it arrive the next day. I think from the other end of California. With some much-smaller delivery company, or something Uline-specific (Not really sure).

    On the other hand, I chose one of the cheapest options ($8.50-ish) with FedEx for shipping my passport/visa back to me, and it took a few hours to get from San Francisco to Oakland, at which point it sat there for a couple of days because it wasn't time to deliver it. It starting the next city over or starting across the country was irrelevant.

    That said, 910km is not close. Is that really the closest hub to you, or is your package just going on a trip to see the sights?

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  • From alterego@21:2/116 to Adept on Wed Sep 16 13:42:02 2020
    Re: Re: Fast
    By: Adept to alterego on Tue Sep 15 2020 02:25 pm

    That said, 910km is not close. Is that really the closest hub to you, or is your package just going on a trip to see the
    sights?

    Well I'd like to say that my package is going on a sight seeing holiday - and I would be jealous, since we have been in "lockdown" (cannot leave your house bar an 1hr a day for exercise or to get food) for 4 weeks (or 6 - its all a blurr now), and for the best part of 4 months (might be 6, again all a blurr now).

    But the reason is our postal service has been affected by this virus and the follow on restrictions as a result. With the increased work (more online purchases), decreased staff in my state (due to infections and restrictions), they have taken to ship post to another state (where the restrictions are more relaxed) to "sort it" for its final delivery...

    That, on top of no flights (to my state anyway), 2 of those days is getting it to Sydney and back...

    What would normally take 1 day for any major parts of the country (and I live in a major city), this package will take 10+ days to get to me - and it was only posted "down the road"...

    As my kids say "wah wah wah"...

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  • From Charles Pierson@21:4/111 to Adept on Wed Sep 16 01:35:22 2020


    That said, 910km is not close. Is that really the closest hub to you, or is your package just going on a trip to see the sights?

    I'm not sure about now, but I do know years ago companies like UPS and FedEx had strange regulations they had to go by. If I were to try and ship something across town by them, it would have to be taken from here (Houston Tx) across state lines to say Louisiana, and then back to Houston. It's amazing they managed to stay in business.
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  • From Nodoka Hanamura@21:2/106 to Avon on Wed Sep 16 05:51:31 2020
    Honestly I'm surprised it took till tuesday. given how small NZ is you could easily (and affordably too) just airmail it from where it came from to Christchurch or whatever and have it on your doorstep same day or next day.

    Born too late to experience the scene.
    Born just in time to see it come back.
    Nodoka Hanamura - NeoCincinnati BBS SYSOP - neocinci.bbs.io

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  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Nodoka Hanamura on Wed Sep 16 23:45:35 2020
    On 16 Sep 2020 at 01:51a, Nodoka Hanamura pondered and said...

    Honestly I'm surprised it took till tuesday. given how small NZ is you could easily (and affordably too) just airmail it from where it came
    from to Christchurch or whatever and have it on your doorstep same day
    or next day.

    Nah it was very good (as per my original post) it came from Auckland and to
    get it processed on Monday when they opened to then at my door before noon
    the next day is very good :)

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to alterego on Wed Sep 16 15:50:40 2020
    Well I'd like to say that my package is going on a sight seeing holiday
    - and I would be jealous, since we have been in "lockdown" (cannot leave your house bar an 1hr a day for exercise or to get food) for 4 weeks (or
    6 - its all a blurr now), and for the best part of 4 months (might be 6, again all a blurr now).

    Huh. That seems more intense than the restrictions elsewhere. Probably reasonable, though.

    And, realistically, I've been on that sort of lockdown since March, as aside from... 4 times inside other people's houses (three of which were shortly before leaving for Germany, the other was to sign some documents), I've followed those rules, even though I'm sure I didn't have to.

    Though now I'm in actual quarantine, where I'm not allowed to go outside
    until I get the all clear (which is waiting on me getting my negative test results in the mail), and boy is it draining to not be able to go for a walk.

    But, hey, at least my sleep schedule is getting _close_ to where I want it
    for the time zone.

    But the reason is our postal service has been affected by this virus and

    Ah, yeah, okay. I suppose it does make sense, and is fairly reasonable for
    such issues to pop up. Can't really expect miracles, and thankfully the mail
    is still going, etc.

    But, still, annoying.

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Charles Pierson on Wed Sep 16 15:59:32 2020
    (Houston Tx) across state lines to say Louisiana, and then back to Houston. It's amazing they managed to stay in business.

    One thing I've been amazed with in logistics is how efficient it can be when you can cram a lot of things into one container.

    At which point the inefficiencies mostly come up when you can't pack very
    much in a container, because there's not that much to send.

    But what you're describing does sound like something where it's doing extra work in order to get around various laws. I know there are still requirements (e.g., the mailbox is for USPS.), I imagine most of the non-logistical
    reasons have gone by the wayside.

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  • From Charles Pierson@21:4/111 to Adept on Wed Sep 16 12:09:12 2020

    One thing I've been amazed with in logistics is how efficient it can be when you can cram a lot of things into one container.

    Yes. I worked a lot of years in the Shipping side of warehousing. You can get very creative.

    At which point the inefficiencies mostly come up when you can't pack very much in a container, because there's not that much to send.

    It does. That's where I got drafted by an old companies Logistics department to help on a project to set up a cross dock to consolidate their various US manufacturing facilities shipments into larger container sized loads for the international business. I almost ran it as well, until some VP decided no one could work in the Global Logistics without a college degree. So instead I just wound up fielding phone calls for months from those freshly degreed kids to explain to them how to do their jobs.




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  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Adept on Fri Sep 18 01:36:00 2020
    On 09-16-20 11:50, Adept wrote to alterego <=-

    Well I'd like to say that my package is going on a sight seeing holiday
    - and I would be jealous, since we have been in "lockdown" (cannot leave your house bar an 1hr a day for exercise or to get food) for 4 weeks (or
    6 - its all a blurr now), and for the best part of 4 months (might be 6, again all a blurr now).

    Huh. That seems more intense than the restrictions elsewhere. Probably reasonable, though.

    Those restrictions have brought the new caseload from 600-700/day down to 40/day in 6 weeks. I'm less than 150km away from alterego, but restrictions here are a lot less severe, and were significantly relaxed, because there's now few active cases outside Melbourne - only one in my local government area.

    Though now I'm in actual quarantine, where I'm not allowed to go
    outside until I get the all clear (which is waiting on me getting my negative test results in the mail), and boy is it draining to not be
    able to go for a walk.

    I went through that for a week in May, when I had a few mild symptoms and got tested. The results took a week, but they came back neative. I wore a track in the backyard from taking walks and the occasional run (which was tricky in a tight course only 28 metres per lap! :) ). The GPS couldn't track it, and it was slow going, and speed took a hit on the tight corners. :D

    But, hey, at least my sleep schedule is getting _close_ to where I want
    it for the time zone.

    But the reason is our postal service has been affected by this virus and

    Ah, yeah, okay. I suppose it does make sense, and is fairly reasonable
    for such issues to pop up. Can't really expect miracles, and thankfully the mail is still going, etc.

    Yeah the mail has been slow here lately, then all of a sudden, I got 2 parcels in the mail today. :D


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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Vk3jed on Thu Sep 17 20:26:54 2020
    Those restrictions have brought the new caseload from 600-700/day down to 40/day in 6 weeks. I'm less than 150km away from alterego, but

    Yeah, I'm not saying they're a bad idea; just that it seems more restrictive than elsewhere. Largely because elsewhere people are much more persuaded by people's hardships, even though it's an open question on what the best way
    is to lessen those hardships.

    GPS couldn't track it, and it was slow going, and speed took a hit on
    the tight corners. :D

    Hah! Too bad for RunKeeper (or whatever you used), though a pedometer on your wrist should've been fine.

    My Fitbit numbers have not been good once I arrived at my current place. I
    did some yoga today, as I think that's going to be the most-reasonable
    exercise for me if I can't get out of this quarantine any faster.

    And sheesh it's annoying to have gotten a call 5 days ago saying I had a negative test result, and still be unable to prove it to anyone.

    I do kinda worry that it's lost in the mail, wasn't delivered because I
    didn't have my name on the box on Monday, etc., but I don't know. Worst case
    is that I have about 6 days left of this, so not _that_ bad, but...

    Quarantine is not easy, especially when there's no reason for it.

    Well, maybe that doesn't impact the ease all that much, but I'd certainly
    feel more of a need to follow it if I had symptoms. But I'd rather not
    risk irritating the German government.

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  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Adept on Fri Sep 18 23:45:00 2020
    On 09-17-20 16:26, Adept wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    Those restrictions have brought the new caseload from 600-700/day down to 40/day in 6 weeks. I'm less than 150km away from alterego, but

    Yeah, I'm not saying they're a bad idea; just that it seems more restrictive than elsewhere. Largely because elsewhere people are much
    more persuaded by people's hardships, even though it's an open question
    on what the best way is to lessen those hardships.

    Well, a growing cluster in Melbourne is more proof that tight restrictions are needed to get a lid on things. The cluster was related to a small number of families visiting (in breach of rules). Where I am, the restrictions have significantly eased, because there's few, if any, new cases, few active cases and virtually zero community transmission.

    Now hoping the city people can just hang in there and get their numbers down, so we can all come out (relatively) together.

    GPS couldn't track it, and it was slow going, and speed took a hit on
    the tight corners. :D

    Hah! Too bad for RunKeeper (or whatever you used), though a pedometer
    on your wrist should've been fine.

    Wrist has a lot of inaccuracy, hips or small of the back are better places for pedometers.

    My Fitbit numbers have not been good once I arrived at my current
    place. I did some yoga today, as I think that's going to be the most-reasonable exercise for me if I can't get out of this quarantine
    any faster.

    Yoga is always a good choice., given that it will help with mindfulness, as well as the physical fitness.

    And sheesh it's annoying to have gotten a call 5 days ago saying I had
    a negative test result, and still be unable to prove it to anyone.

    I do kinda worry that it's lost in the mail, wasn't delivered because I didn't have my name on the box on Monday, etc., but I don't know. Worst case is that I have about 6 days left of this, so not _that_ bad,
    but...

    What's got lost in the mail?

    Quarantine is not easy, especially when there's no reason for it.

    Well, maybe that doesn't impact the ease all that much, but I'd
    certainly feel more of a need to follow it if I had symptoms. But I'd rather not risk irritating the German government.

    Asymtomatic people can and do spread the virus.


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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Vk3jed on Fri Sep 18 21:34:46 2020
    Wrist has a lot of inaccuracy, hips or small of the back are better
    places for pedometers.

    Yeah, though wrist is easier to just keep on, I think. I used waist-band-or-bra-mounted Fitbits back from when the Fitbit was a new thing (And not in any immediate danger of being owned by Google), and they were
    also fine.

    But, realistically, I don't care all that much. It's a neat gadget that tells me something. I also have the first Fitbit Aria, which is a wifi-connect
    scale with a variety of issues. I don't know that it's especially more useful than a regular scale, but it can make for some nice charts.

    Yoga is always a good choice., given that it will help with mindfulness, as well as the physical fitness.

    Yeah - I haven't done mindfulness meditation, but the warmups and cooldowns
    for yoga that I've done do seem kind of like what I think it'd be. It's occasionally nice to practice a certain style of breathing when feeling too wound up.

    What's got lost in the mail?

    My negative test result. They informed me over the phone that I tested
    negative on the COVID test, and generally with a negative test result one can be released from quarantine a bit sooner.

    Asymtomatic people can and do spread the virus.

    Sure. However, I'm a) asymptomatic b) have tested negative c) have been
    fairly isolated d) have been good on mask wearing e) had a nearly empty international flight.

    The flight _in_ Germany might've been more of a risk, and obviously it's impossible to know much of anything for sure when we're talking about
    something invisible.

    But at some point there's not much difference between me and anyone else
    living in Germany, and I think I'm already past that point.

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  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Adept on Fri Sep 18 18:40:55 2020
    On 18 Sep 2020, Adept said the following...

    Yeah, though wrist is easier to just keep on, I think. I used waist-band-or-bra-mounted Fitbits back from when the Fitbit was a new thing (And not in any immediate danger of being owned by Google), and
    they were also fine.

    In my job we're not allowed to wear rings/jewelry of any kind when on the
    plant floor, so I got myself a FitBit One that I was able to keep on my belt.

    I really enjoyed that device as it also had a built in altimeter, so it also counted how many stairs you did in a day.

    It also did sleep tracking by wearing it on your non-dominant wrist and had a built in vibration motor so it could wake you up without disturbing your partner. Unfortunately that FitBit took a trip through the washing machine.

    I ended up replacing it with a FitBit Zip which takes a CR2025 watch battery.

    It was supposed to last (up to) six months on one battery, which it did for about the first 4 or 5 months, but a firmware update brought that down to
    about once every 3 weeks. It now sits in a drawer as nothing was worse than coming home from a ~15,000 step hike to find your FitBit died sometime during the day.

    Now I just use the Apple Watch and carry my phone with me when on the plant floor as it also counts my steps.

    Jay

    ... I'm close friends with 25 letters of the alphabet, I don't know y

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Warpslide on Sat Sep 19 01:11:23 2020
    I really enjoyed that device as it also had a built in altimeter, so it also counted how many stairs you did in a day.

    Yeah, I liked that about the FitBit One, and was sad when they discontinued
    the model.

    disturbing your partner. Unfortunately that FitBit took a trip through the washing machine.

    ...which is one of the bigger problems with Fitbits that attach to clothing.
    I think my parents did that once or twice, though I think at least one of the times the company just sent them a replacement.

    Though I think there was also at least once where the Fitbit survived the
    trip through the washer.

    for about the first 4 or 5 months, but a firmware update brought that
    down to about once every 3 weeks. It now sits in a drawer as nothing
    was worse than coming home from a ~15,000 step hike to find your FitBit

    Ugh. Yeah, that's pretty terrible, especially for something that has
    batteries you have to buy separately.

    I guess my 5-year-old Fitbit is down to needing charging every 4 or 5 days, which isn't too bad, considering. But it's not like I've had to replace the battery at every recharge.

    But I've been fairly lucky with my Fitbits, the occasional losses due to
    things being too loose aside.

    Now I just use the Apple Watch and carry my phone with me when on the plant floor as it also counts my steps.

    So, wait, to be precise, you normally _do_ wear a wrist-based pedometer (of sorts), but you still take it off when you're on the plant floor?

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  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Adept on Fri Sep 18 21:37:09 2020
    On 18 Sep 2020, Adept said the following...

    Now I just use the Apple Watch and carry my phone with me when on the plant floor as it also counts my steps.

    So, wait, to be precise, you normally _do_ wear a wrist-based pedometer (of sorts), but you still take it off when you're on the plant floor?

    Yup, once that FitBit Zip went into the drawer I just deleted the FitBit app
    & went all-in with an Apple Watch. So now I normally use the Apple Watch to track my steps and to get all 3 rings as many days as I can.

    Because my iPhone & watch work together I can take my watch off and carry my phone and my steps still "count" while I'm in the plant.

    Jay

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Adept on Fri Sep 18 20:32:00 2020
    Adept wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    But, realistically, I don't care all that much. It's a neat gadget that tells me something. I also have the first Fitbit Aria, which is a wifi-connect scale with a variety of issues. I don't know that it's especially more useful than a regular scale, but it can make for some
    nice charts.

    My Aria died after a couple of years, and when I took it apart to see
    if I could fix it, I was amazed at how shoddy the hardware was.

    I bought a cheap, "dumb" scale, and enter my weight manually. I do
    wish I could track fat percentage, though.

    The new scale uses Bluetooth to talk to your phone, and measures BMI.
    Not sure how that works since the app tracks fat %.

    Yeah - I haven't done mindfulness meditation, but the warmups and cooldowns for yoga that I've done do seem kind of like what I think
    it'd be. It's occasionally nice to practice a certain style of
    breathing when feeling too wound up.

    I've done meditation for close to a year, daily. 5-10 minutes in the
    morning can provide increased focus and peace of mind.

    Coffee, then meditation, then plan my day.



    np: Nine Inch Nails, "The Fragile"


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  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Sep 19 00:30:27 2020
    On 18 Sep 2020, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

    My Aria died after a couple of years, and when I took it apart to see
    if I could fix it, I was amazed at how shoddy the hardware was.

    I have the original Withings scale & it's still ticking. I'm surprised how long the AA batteries last in this thing.

    The new scale uses Bluetooth to talk to your phone, and measures BMI.
    Not sure how that works since the app tracks fat %.

    The Withings has it's own wifi connection, so I don't even have to have my phone open/on to use it.

    I've done meditation for close to a year, daily. 5-10 minutes in the
    morning can provide increased focus and peace of mind.

    I had a 30 day free trial to Headspace through some coupon code I found somewhere. I told myself I'd never make it through 30 days, but I somehow
    did. So I took the plunge and paid for a year... and then never touched it again. I still have 4 months left, I really should open the app again soon.

    np: Nine Inch Nails, "The Fragile"

    :)

    Jay

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Warpslide on Sat Sep 19 13:18:41 2020
    Yup, once that FitBit Zip went into the drawer I just deleted the FitBit app & went all-in with an Apple Watch. So now I normally use the Apple

    Huh, cool.

    It does seem like a good solution, though a problematic one for me -- I don't have any Apple products, I actively do not want a smart watch (well, one that is any more distracting than a Fitbit), and my phone is almost always on a
    desk or in my purse (obviously, aside from when it's in my hand), as my clothing does not reliably have appropriate pockets for hauling a phone
    around.

    But I know there are some other fitness devices out there. I'll likely just
    not spend too much time considering them until I am forced to.

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sat Sep 19 13:34:17 2020
    My Aria died after a couple of years, and when I took it apart to see
    if I could fix it, I was amazed at how shoddy the hardware was.

    That is both unfortunate (for a scale that is _not_ cheap) and probably expected, given the software issues.

    I wanted to connect it to a different network, and ran into the following issues:
    1) It requires a 3-initials person in the setup, despite being able to have a space normally. This is problematic, as I do not have a middle initial.
    2) It requires the wifi password to have letters and numbers, and no other characters. The no other characters isn't too odd, but the place I was at the wifi had a phone number as the password, and thus it didn't work.
    3) If the scale is unable to connect to wifi, it will remain on and in setup mode until it does work. So, if you can't make it work (say, because you
    don't control the wifi network and thus can't change the password), you have
    a device that drains batteries but is no longer a scale.

    I can _definitely_ see missing those things, but it seems like a really bad
    QA process and/or a very rushed product.

    But hopefully that got better in a later iteration.

    I bought a cheap, "dumb" scale, and enter my weight manually. I do
    wish I could track fat percentage, though.

    I'm sad that the fat percentage number is entirely inaccurate. It _does_ seem like it kinda tells me when, if my weight is down, it's because of having
    lost water weight, but the fat percentage has done random jumps too often for me to trust it. Though there might be something going on with my scale, since it just went to saying, "BF?" rather than displaying a percentage.

    But all my complaining aside, I brought the scale with me to Germany, so clearly I thought it had enough value to justify the space.

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  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Adept on Sat Sep 19 23:31:00 2020
    On 09-18-20 17:34, Adept wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    Yeah, though wrist is easier to just keep on, I think. I used waist-band-or-bra-mounted Fitbits back from when the Fitbit was a new thing (And not in any immediate danger of being owned by Google), and
    they were also fine.

    I did find another issue with wrist mounted pedometers - watch your step count go up if you're doing a lot of digging, hammering or similar manual work, or shaking, or... let's not go there. ;)

    But, realistically, I don't care all that much. It's a neat gadget that tells me something. I also have the first Fitbit Aria, which is a wifi-connect scale with a variety of issues. I don't know that it's especially more useful than a regular scale, but it can make for some
    nice charts.

    I have a Garmin. By default it does what a Fitbit does, but I can also enable sport mode for timers and (for some sports), GPS tracking and other stats. I have an additional pod that goes in the small of the back, which collects a heap of other parameters, a couple of which are significant for my sport - stride length and frequency, in particular.

    Yoga is always a good choice., given that it will help with mindfulness, as well as the physical fitness.

    Yeah - I haven't done mindfulness meditation, but the warmups and cooldowns for yoga that I've done do seem kind of like what I think
    it'd be. It's occasionally nice to practice a certain style of
    breathing when feeling too wound up.

    The act of yoga itself does promote mindfulness.

    What's got lost in the mail?

    My negative test result. They informed me over the phone that I tested negative on the COVID test, and generally with a negative test result
    one can be released from quarantine a bit sooner.

    Oh, OK. We don't get them in the mail here. We get negative by text message and positive will result in a phone call from the contact tracers fairly quickly.

    Asymtomatic people can and do spread the virus.

    Sure. However, I'm a) asymptomatic b) have tested negative c) have been fairly isolated d) have been good on mask wearing e) had a nearly empty international flight.

    Yep, well you're covered.

    The flight _in_ Germany might've been more of a risk, and obviously
    it's impossible to know much of anything for sure when we're talking
    about something invisible.

    But at some point there's not much difference between me and anyone
    else living in Germany, and I think I'm already past that point.

    True, once you've been there a few weeks, you're subject to all of the same variables as the locals. :)


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  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Warpslide on Sun Sep 20 00:15:00 2020
    On 09-18-20 14:40, Warpslide wrote to Adept <=-

    It was supposed to last (up to) six months on one battery, which it did for about the first 4 or 5 months, but a firmware update brought that
    down to about once every 3 weeks. It now sits in a drawer as nothing
    was worse than coming home from a ~15,000 step hike to find your FitBit died sometime during the day.

    Ouch!

    Now I just use the Apple Watch and carry my phone with me when on the plant floor as it also counts my steps.

    I like my Garmin. It has excellent battery life, when used as a health/activity monitor. I charge it every few days, only because that fits in my routine, but the lowest I've ever got the battery was 68% And that was with doing at least one GPS tracked activity every day, which does use up battery much faster.

    Jay

    ... I'm close friends with 25 letters of the alphabet, I don't know y

    Hahaha :D


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  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Sep 20 00:21:00 2020
    On 09-18-20 16:32, poindexter FORTRAN wrote to Adept <=-

    I bought a cheap, "dumb" scale, and enter my weight manually. I do
    wish I could track fat percentage, though.

    I'd find fat percentage useful too, because my weight hardly changes. So far the best gauge for fat percentage seems to be the eyes of friends, and they've been saying good things lately.

    The new scale uses Bluetooth to talk to your phone, and measures BMI.
    Not sure how that works since the app tracks fat %.

    BMI is useless for some of us - those people who break the assumptions on which it is based. That includes a significant number of athletes (including myself), because a high proportion of muscle increases the BMI, but the amount og body fat is actually healthy. According to BMI, I'm slightly overweight. According to the last time I had body fat measured, that was in the middle of the healthy range.

    I've done meditation for close to a year, daily. 5-10 minutes in the
    morning can provide increased focus and peace of mind.

    Coffee, then meditation, then plan my day.

    Sounds like a great way to start the day. :)


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  • From Warpslide@21:3/110 to Adept on Sat Sep 19 11:36:16 2020
    On 19 Sep 2020, Adept said the following...

    I actively do not want a smart watch (well, one that is any more distracting than a Fitbit)

    There are some pros and cons I have found. One thing I LOVE about the watch
    is Apple Pay. I can double click the side button and my debit card is ready
    to be tapped. Here in Canada it seems that each and every store (except Walmart) takes tap-to-pay. (The watch locks the moment you take it
    off of your wrist, so I don't have to worry about my watch being stolen).

    Distractions from notifications is a downside. I can't tell you how many
    times I've been at work and robo-call has come in, so I have to stop a conversation, dismiss the call and go back to what I was doing.

    There still seems to be this "if someone looks at their watch, they have somewhere else to be" mindset, so I have to assure whoever I was talking to
    at work that - "No, I just had to dismiss a call".

    In my area it seems every second person gets a call from the "Canada Revenue Agency" one or two times daily threatening legal action against their social insurance number in a fake robotic voice.

    as my clothing does not reliably have appropriate pockets for hauling a phone around.

    I've never understood that about women's clothing. Why can men have cargo pants with way too many pockets but women have pants with pockets only big enough to hold one quarter?

    But I know there are some other fitness devices out there. I'll likely just not spend too much time considering them until I am forced to.

    My old boss was in the same boat, she had a neat looking fitness tracking pendant made by Misfit I believe.

    Jay

    ... I gave a valuable comb to a bald friend. He'll never part with it.

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Vk3jed on Sat Sep 19 22:52:26 2020
    I did find another issue with wrist mounted pedometers - watch your step count go up if you're doing a lot of digging, hammering or similar
    manual work, or shaking, or... let's not go there. ;)

    I mean, it doesn't really seem like a bad thing to have the pedometer go up when you're doing manual labor.

    Now, going up while you're in a car or something...

    Oh, OK. We don't get them in the mail here. We get negative by text message and positive will result in a phone call from the contact
    tracers fairly quickly.

    That seems reasonable. And I did get a phone call for my negative test -- I'm just sad that they didn't get my e-mail and send me some document that way. Since that'd get me out of quarantine.

    But, eh, only four more days to go, regardless, and then I can go outside.

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to Warpslide on Sat Sep 19 23:06:15 2020
    There are some pros and cons I have found. One thing I LOVE about the watch is Apple Pay. I can double click the side button and my debit
    card is ready to be tapped. Here in Canada it seems that each and every

    That does seem pretty neat. Not all that much of a difference from using
    credit cards directly (though maybe now that I'm no longer in position to easily receive mail in the US, being able to do things digitally would have some level of benefit), but it's certainly a nice advance.

    Though I'd kind of like to mess around with NFC more. But I don't really know what random application I could do with it.

    I've never understood that about women's clothing. Why can men have
    cargo pants with way too many pockets but women have pants with pockets only big enough to hold one quarter?

    I've heard that there was some theory about how women already have bumps in their clothing from breasts and butt, and thus adding more from pockets just wouldn't do.

    But, yeah, I assume there's not a particularly good reason, other than functionality getting the short shrift.

    That said, I've been glad that many of my dresses came from eShakti, where
    they include pockets as a matter of course.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Adept on Sat Sep 19 09:56:00 2020
    Adept wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    But all my complaining aside, I brought the scale with me to Germany,
    so clearly I thought it had enough value to justify the space.

    That's a whole different value system! As opposed to Marie Kondo
    asking if something brings joy, "Does the joy this item bring merit
    transporting its mass with me?"


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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Warpslide on Sat Sep 19 15:50:00 2020
    Warpslide wrote to Adept <=-

    There still seems to be this "if someone looks at their watch, they
    have somewhere else to be" mindset, so I have to assure whoever I was talking to at work that - "No, I just had to dismiss a call".

    I have a handful of smart things - a Fitbit Flex 2, Versa 2, a Mi
    band 4 and a knockoff; I like the Flex 2 the most for the subtlety of
    it. There's no display, just a series of LEDs. It vibrates and blinks
    when there's a call or notification, and it'll remind me to move,
    also through blinks/vibration - so there's no looking at your wrist
    to see what the device in your pocket is doing.



    np: Gary Numan, "I am Dust"

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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Sep 20 01:49:56 2020
    That's a whole different value system! As opposed to Marie Kondo
    asking if something brings joy, "Does the joy this item bring merit
    transporting its mass with me?"

    Yeah. Moving is a pretty effective way for figuring out how to reduce the amount of stuff one owns. Moving with a few suitcases does limit things
    pretty effectively.

    I do have a decent amount in storage, but, eh, I have only a little at this point, that I'd probably qualify under the Marie Kondo method, even if I've never quite gotten the, "brings joy" metric.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
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  • From Underminer@21:4/103 to Adept on Sat Sep 19 21:16:36 2020
    Re: Re: Fast
    By: Adept to Warpslide on Sat Sep 19 2020 07:06 pm

    Though I'd kind of like to mess around with NFC more. But I don't really know what random application I could do with it.

    Unlocking things comes to mind. I was thinking of trying to rig an rfid reader to a gun safe for convenience, maybe adding nfc would be cool.
    ===
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  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Adept on Sun Sep 20 03:21:25 2020
    Yeah. Moving is a pretty effective way for figuring out how to reduce the amount of stuff one owns. Moving with a few suitcases does limit things pretty effectively.

    I so wish that were the case with my family of hoarders.

    I do have a decent amount in storage, but, eh, I have only a little at this point, that I'd probably qualify under the Marie Kondo method, even if I've never quite gotten the, "brings joy" metric.


    How is the new country, place you're living, compared to the US? I've
    never been to Europe and from a physical adjustment prospective, I'd
    love to hear how you're doing and maybe some of the plus and minuses
    you're experiencing. In my defense, I haven't kept up on fsx_gen
    posts as well as I used to as it seems there are 100 new per day. I
    just have't had time to filter through the topics, and some have not
    changed the subject line when the topic changes .. but I'm curious to
    know how Germany is going? Is the beer better? I hear it is :)

    -tG

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  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Adept on Mon Sep 21 00:34:00 2020
    On 09-19-20 18:52, Adept wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    I did find another issue with wrist mounted pedometers - watch your step count go up if you're doing a lot of digging, hammering or similar
    manual work, or shaking, or... let's not go there. ;)

    I mean, it doesn't really seem like a bad thing to have the pedometer
    go up when you're doing manual labor.

    True, there is that argument, which is valid.

    Now, going up while you're in a car or something...

    Yeah. I know a lot of roads that would make a pedometer go up quickly. :D

    Oh, OK. We don't get them in the mail here. We get negative by text message and positive will result in a phone call from the contact
    tracers fairly quickly.

    That seems reasonable. And I did get a phone call for my negative test
    -- I'm just sad that they didn't get my e-mail and send me some
    document that way. Since that'd get me out of quarantine.

    But, eh, only four more days to go, regardless, and then I can go
    outside.

    Enjoy. :)


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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Sun Sep 20 16:54:40 2020
    Yeah. Moving is a pretty effective way for figuring out how to reduce amount of stuff one owns. Moving with a few suitcases does limit thin pretty effectively.

    I so wish that were the case with my family of hoarders.

    Hah! Yeah, I suppose the amount of stuff my brother has is still quite a lot, as he just paid to have movers move the bulk of it, and use as big a vehicle
    as necessary.

    And my parents downsized a bit, but only a bit, because of their house just being smaller.

    How is the new country, place you're living, compared to the US? I've

    Oh, it's not a whole lot different, as of yet, as I'm _still_ stuck in quarantine, thus haven't seen the outside world aside from through a window
    or at the mailbox as a futily check for a letter that would free me a few
    days early.

    My roommate has been getting me food, but aside from brands being different
    and whatnot, it's not wildly different.

    That said, my roommate somehow does not use a garbage can, as everything gets separated into something theoretically recyclable or burnable. I'm not convinced it's being done right, but I'll follow my household.

    So, so far it's mostly those differences. But I'm not sure if I'm the best to describe this, as a lot of things I might notice wind up being, "Oh, yeah, I
    do remember that from last time I was here", so it doesn't seem particularly unusual.

    I'm sure I could describe a variety of things (like can/bottle deposits, where it's pretty normal to actually get the deposit back, because there's return things in every store, as opposed to, e.g., California, where there might be one for every million or two in population), but I don't really know what'd
    be interesting.

    know how Germany is going? Is the beer better? I hear it is :)

    This'll probably be like my opinion with autotune, as being somewhat blasphemous, but I guess I don't have a strong opinion. Not that I've had any beer, yet. Heck, I haven't even had any sparkling water, and _that_ I'm a fan of, even if I try to limit my consumption.

    But the only beer I've actively liked was a Strawberry-Rhubarb beer that was
    a seasonal thing in Wisconsin.

    So far as I understand, that's not a beer, so far as German law is concerned.

    Which is probably fair. But there's a wide variety of beers available most anywhere, and having been from Wisconsin and gone to a variety of microbreweries, I'd have a hard time considering any beer better than that, even if I were much of a beer drinker.

    Unrelated to any of that, I do look forward to going to a Weihnachtmarkt, but am wondering how COVID19 will impact that.

    It might be that I don't really get to experience much of the area until
    after the pandemic has quieted.

    posts as well as I used to as it seems there are 100 new per day. I

    Yeah, it has seemed to be on the upswing, of late. I think the "Why are you here?" discussion caused a lot of messages.

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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Underminer on Sun Sep 20 12:58:00 2020
    Underminer wrote to Adept <=-

    Though I'd kind of like to mess around with NFC more. But I don't really know what random application I could do with it.

    Unlocking things comes to mind. I was thinking of trying to rig an rfid reader to a gun safe for convenience, maybe adding nfc would be cool.

    There have been NFC rings for some time, I thought that might be a
    cool MFA implementation.



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  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to Adept on Sun Sep 20 13:01:00 2020
    Adept wrote to The Godfather <=-

    I'm sure I could describe a variety of things (like can/bottle
    deposits, where it's pretty normal to actually get the deposit back, because there's return things in every store, as opposed to, e.g., California, where there might be one for every million or two in population), but I don't really know what'd be interesting.

    That's how it was when I was growing up, both for those old-school
    refillable soda bottles and for aluminum cans. It sure beat having to
    find a recycling center, and they're closing down around here. I
    guess it's a deposit tax now.

    So far as I understand, that's not a beer, so far as German law is concerned.

    Or common sense. :)

    I like my beer to be beer-flavored.




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  • From Adept@21:2/108 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Sep 21 02:02:48 2020
    That's how it was when I was growing up, both for those old-school
    refillable soda bottles and for aluminum cans. It sure beat having to
    find a recycling center, and they're closing down around here. I
    guess it's a deposit tax now.

    I vaguely remember some can-recycling thing from childhood where there were lots of bees and you dumped your cans in to be recycled, and then out came
    some change.

    Though it's kind of a travesty, at times, that the US doesn't do the refillable-coke-bottles thing from long ago, or milk containers, since it's more efficient to use single-use plastic than to transport glass bottles around.

    And the deposit tax is annoying. I guess there's still some amount of people who dig through recycling to grab cans and get the deposit, but I don't know that that's an actual positive use of resources, even if I did have times of having a separate container to leave out the cans for people to take.

    I like my beer to be beer-flavored.

    I've kind of gotten over it, but for the longest time I associated "beer flavor" as being vomit flavored. Because I was only really exposed to it as a college student, and, well, "in the can or keg" is not the only place that
    the beer wound up.

    That association was especially strong with the lighter beers.

    But, realistically, I'm just more likely to order a cider if I'm going to
    drink the entire thing.

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  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Adept on Mon Sep 21 00:53:47 2020
    I so wish that were the case with my family of hoarders.

    Hah! Yeah, I suppose the amount of stuff my brother has is still quite a lot, as he just paid to have movers move the bulk of it, and use as big
    a vehicle as necessary.

    Uhg. When my mom died, we downsized by over 1,000sqft. My wife would
    not get rid of anything. For 2 years our garage was packed wall to wall
    to ceiling. I finally just started having garage sales and donating everything. I now have a functional garage. It's hard to let go of
    stuff, but I like being a minimalist; clutter makes me anxious.

    Oh, it's not a whole lot different, as of yet, as I'm _still_ stuck in quarantine, thus haven't seen the outside world aside from through a window or at the mailbox as a futily check for a letter that would free
    me a few days early.

    I had read your entire reply prior to replying forgive if I don't quote
    every section. I'm curious, what is the lock down like where you are
    compared to the states? Can you go to the grocery store? Go to a
    park? etc..?

    And your roommate .. wow .. thats an interesting way to deal with trash
    .. seems like a lot of work compared to a simple recycle bin versus
    trash. Where does your roommate put each of these seperated items when complete? Hopefully in some form of bag and disposed of? That would
    be intersting to "roll with ..." I'd be a bit beside myself compared to
    the way we do things in the states (smile!)

    But the only beer I've actively liked was a Strawberry-Rhubarb beer that was a seasonal thing in Wisconsin.

    There is a beer in Indiana called Strawberry Blonde, and It's
    delicious. Tastes more like a sprite with a bunch of fresh
    strawberries added .. but on a hot day, its refreshing and about 5% so
    you can have a few without being tipsy or worse. But if you don't
    drink beer much .. I can understand not knowing. I've always heard
    that Germany has the best beer .. I'm curious to know why? I too think
    we have fantastic breweries here .. but like New Yorks food ..
    sometimes it's just "in the water" that makes the difference.

    Unrelated to any of that, I do look forward to going to a
    Weihnachtmarkt, but am wondering how COVID19 will impact that.
    It might be that I don't really get to experience much of the area until after the pandemic has quieted.

    Thats a real bummer. After moving like that I'd be so anxious to
    explore. Can you at least go to the country side and see the land?

    Yeah, it has seemed to be on the upswing, of late. I think the "Why are you here?" discussion caused a lot of messages.

    Maybe .. dunno. My goodness, I literally watched one football game,
    logged back onto my BBS as I had an email showing I needed to read, and
    there were 32 new FSXnet_gen emails to sift through. I almost missed
    your and Ogg's reply to me!! lol!

    I hope all goes well for you there.

    -tG

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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Vk3jed on Sun Sep 20 11:59:00 2020
    count go up if you're doing a lot of digging, hammering or similar
    manual work, or shaking, or... let's not go there. ;)

    So not so good for someone with Parkinson's... :P

    Spec


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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to Adept on Sun Sep 20 18:10:00 2020
    Yeah. Moving is a pretty effective way for figuring out how to reduce the amount of stuff one owns. Moving with a few suitcases does limit things pretty effectively.

    Especially when you move into a smaller location. My last move saw me get out ìof a 3br house with double garage into a 2br unit with no garage at all... ìwhee so much stuff just had to go...


    Spec


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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Sep 21 12:05:00 2020
    That's how it was when I was growing up, both for those old-school refillable soda bottles and for aluminum cans. It sure beat having to

    We used to have the "sody" bottles you could return for 20c which seemed like ìa lot of money when you we're about 7. But the place we excelled at one ìstage was recycling aluminium cans. Supposedly we had a close to 75% recycle ìrate, but of course that was to good so they had to bugger it up. You were ìable to bang in an afternoon wandering the streets collecting wander into a ìscrap metal yard and collect enough loot to feed yourself after all yakka, or ìsave if you were so inclined, and they'd give you ~1c/can, not bad for ìsomething you weren't paying for.

    The last time I looked into this, you had to be over 18, have photo ID and ìrecieve somewhere in the order of .5c can. Also the nearest scrap metal place ìwas about 25km away....

    Spec


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  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to The Godfather on Mon Sep 21 18:22:00 2020
    drink beer much .. I can understand not knowing. I've always heard
    that Germany has the best beer .. I'm curious to know why? I too think

    Interestingly enough those Deutches have a reputation for all sorts of ìalcohol... Beer, Cider, Schnapps... once upon a time I suspect they were all ìregional.. At heart greater germany is made up of four reasonably distinct ìareas/groups... Ich glaubst der Bayern ist der Ort fur beer und Cider... ìthe rest I don't know so much about.

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
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    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Mon Sep 21 15:17:03 2020
    Uhg. When my mom died, we downsized by over 1,000sqft. My wife would
    not get rid of anything. For 2 years our garage was packed wall to wall

    Yeah, that's rough.

    I know my parents have struggled through the years, since generally one
    parent found it fairly easy to find things of the other parent that wasn't particularly useful, but finding things of their own was harder.

    Heck, I even tried encouraging them to get rid of VHS tapes because they said they didn't have a working VCR, but the solution wound up being doing some
    tech support that got their VCR setup again.

    I even tried to get rid of some of my childhood stuff at their place, but was overruled by a parent.

    While I still have some sentimental things, a lot of stuff winds up being things that I take a picture of (or scan, if it's a document and I have a
    good scanner), and then have an easier time letting go.

    everything. I now have a functional garage. It's hard to let go of stuff, but I like being a minimalist; clutter makes me anxious.

    Yep. I think the thing that tends to overwhelm me is that there's so much
    stuff that has to be dealt with all of the time. If I have less stuff, then I never have to deal with it, sort it, catalog it, etc.

    every section. I'm curious, what is the lock down like where you are compared to the states? Can you go to the grocery store? Go to a
    park? etc..?

    So far as I understand, it's that people have to wear masks indoors and on transportation vehicles, and are generally fairly good about it.

    But pretty well no one has a mask on outside.

    But I don't really know yet, at least from actual experience, other than looking out the window and at the airport.

    Me in person, though, I'm under a legal quarantine, and while I doubt the penalties would be severe for me, under the assumption that I am not
    infected, it's still not legal for me to go outside. Technically, I'm
    supposed to limit my exposure to the common areas, too.

    trash. Where does your roommate put each of these seperated items when complete? Hopefully in some form of bag and disposed of? That would

    Oh, it's different because of the German system being different. There are
    four bins, if memory serves -- paper, compost, other recyclables, and trash.

    Glass bottles without a deposit are also separated out, as you have to take those to special drop off places (generally one in every neighborhood) where you put the bottle in according to color.

    But I suppose I still question what goes in "other recycleables" versus "trash". But I haven't read enough to have lots of confidence on the issue, unlike recycling in the US where half of what people recycle should be thrown away directly, and much of the rest thrown away because there's no market for it.

    that Germany has the best beer .. I'm curious to know why? I too think

    I assume it's some combination of the beer purity law and the fact that
    Germany has made a lot of very good beer over the years. And, seriously, is there anything that particularly competes with Oktoberfest? It's a
    reputational thing.

    But who knows for sure?

    explore. Can you at least go to the country side and see the land?

    Nope. Can't leave the house, except for when I went to get tested for COVID.

    Legally, anyway. Not like they're sending police around to check on me.

    there were 32 new FSXnet_gen emails to sift through. I almost missed
    your and Ogg's reply to me!! lol!

    Hah! I'm glad I added the, "check for messages to you" bit as part of my
    login process.

    I hope all goes well for you there.

    Thanks.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Spectre on Mon Sep 21 13:15:08 2020
    Interestingly enough those Deutches have a reputation for all sorts of ìalcohol... Beer, Cider, Schnapps... once upon a time I suspect they
    were all ìregional.. At heart greater germany is made up of four reasonably distinct ìareas/groups... Ich glaubst der Bayern ist der Ort fur beer und Cider... ìthe rest I don't know so much about.

    It's on my bucket list to visit there as well as Ireland prior to
    needing a walker to do so. I'd love to see the area and history in
    general, but the beer would be top of my list. I'd want to see a lot
    of the world war II sites while there also.

    -tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground ~ www.theunderground.us:10023 (21:1/165)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Adept on Mon Sep 21 13:34:51 2020
    I know my parents have struggled through the years, since generally one parent found it fairly easy to find things of the other parent that
    wasn't particularly useful, but finding things of their own was harder.

    I have purged so much of my stuff. I suppose I've always been of the
    thought that if I haven't used and or worn it in a year, I probably
    never will again. The only things I have trouble getting rid of are
    computer parts. I always think I'll combine them into one machine at
    some point -- then never do.

    Heck, I even tried encouraging them to get rid of VHS tapes because they said they didn't have a working VCR, but the solution wound up being
    doing some tech support that got their VCR setup again.

    Thats a hilarious story! We haven't had a VCR in years but my wife
    won't get rid of the Disney tapes she had bought for our first child,
    used, at a garage sale. Of course, I'm like, umm .. we have Disney+?
    When we first moved in together she had a 10x10 storage unit and I
    thought I was scoring on non bachelor home decor and furniture .. lets
    just say she liked to begin but never commit to collecting things:
    stamps, beanie babies, etc... She did eventually let me sell it all on
    ebay, which freed up half a garage. That was a milestone. It doesn't
    bother too bad as I realize not everyone is weird like me -- I like
    countertops free of clutter, everything organized, like walking into a
    freshly turned hotel room. Most I suppose aren't quite that particular.

    I even tried to get rid of some of my childhood stuff at their place,
    but was overruled by a parent.

    Honestly thats the only problem right now .. the toys. We have 3 boys,
    aged 3, 9, and soon to be 13. So many that you can't see my 9 year
    olds room, as not only has he gotten toys from grandparents and "santa
    clause," but he's also gotten everything his older brother no longer
    wants. We are at a stand still with him on getting rid of anything. I
    had to finally get a stuffed animal bean bag to free up space in his
    room. It's been a battle; and he doesn't go for the entire donate
    idea at the moment, unless it's a happy meal toy.

    So far as I understand, it's that people have to wear masks indoors and
    on transportation vehicles, and are generally fairly good about it.
    But pretty well no one has a mask on outside.
    But I don't really know yet, at least from actual experience, other than looking out the window and at the airport.
    Me in person, though, I'm under a legal quarantine, and while I doubt the penalties would be severe for me, under the assumption that I am not infected, it's still not legal for me to go outside. Technically, I'm supposed to limit my exposure to the common areas, too.

    So sounds about the same as here. We went shopping for fall school
    clothing yesterday and everyone was great about masks within the
    stores, but once outdoors (outdoor mall) the masks were off (myself
    included).

    How long is your legal quarantine? And is it the case with anyone who
    travels or moves there from another country?

    Glass bottles without a deposit are also separated out, as you have to take those to special drop off places (generally one in every neighborhood) where you put the bottle in according to color.
    But I suppose I still question what goes in "other recycleables" versus "trash". But I haven't read enough to have lots of confidence on the issue, unlike recycling in the US where half of what people recycle
    should be thrown away directly, and much of the rest thrown away because there's no market for it.

    I suppose thats not terribly different, just more adhered to then here.
    I compost for my garden, so no issues there. Recyclables as you know
    is just one bin; but all containers are supposed to be cleaned prior to throwing them away. I'm assuming in most states, but Indianapolis for
    sure, we are not allowed to throw away plastic grocery bags as they jam
    up the assembly line machine; and opting for paper bags is killing
    trees ... so Fresh Thyme at least has a place to recycle the plastic
    bags which is nice, but yet one more step within a persons week. But
    the other recyclables I'd be curious to know also, if I were there ...
    that seems odd unless you have to divide paper from plastic and glass.

    Hah! I'm glad I added the, "check for messages to you" bit as part of my login process.

    Lol, I took that feature out of mine but moved it to be asked as one
    enters the message area. Most login to play the games, which is
    totally cool; but I figured it was just one more hurdle for them to get
    to the game menu from login. I've been trying to speed up that process
    while still allowing peeps to see what I've changed, as I'm always
    adding new ANSi or scripts.

    -tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground ~ www.theunderground.us:10023 (21:1/165)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to The Godfather on Mon Sep 21 11:10:00 2020
    The Godfather wrote to Adept <=-

    Uhg. When my mom died, we downsized by over 1,000sqft. My wife would
    not get rid of anything. For 2 years our garage was packed wall to wall
    to ceiling. I finally just started having garage sales and donating everything. I now have a functional garage. It's hard to let go of stuff, but I like being a minimalist; clutter makes me anxious.

    My wife and I paid an organizer to come in and help with our garage,
    which was a 2-car garage FULL of stuff. Couldn't find a thing.

    We dragged *everything* out into the driveway with her and a helper,
    then we had to justify bringing it back in to her.

    1/3 went back in, 1/3 got donated, 1/3 went into a dumpster. Once we
    were done, everything was laid out logically, and we had space and
    places to put new things in.

    We're about to do the same thing in our new house, we need to
    sheetrock our storage area and fix some rodent issues.




    ... The exception also declares the rule
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to poindexter FORTRAN on Mon Sep 21 17:32:06 2020
    My wife and I paid an organizer to come in and help with our garage,
    which was a 2-car garage FULL of stuff. Couldn't find a thing.

    Funny you bring that up. Our neighbors across the street were really
    cool and owned a hoarding business (de-hoarding I should say ..) and
    were kind enough to take everything out of the garage that I wanted and
    take it to the dump or goodwill.

    We dragged *everything* out into the driveway with her and a helper,
    then we had to justify bringing it back in to her.

    Fortunately for us, it was stuff I didn't tell her was leaving :) lol!
    Most of it was just downsizing from having a 1,000sqft basement to no
    basement. So most of it was my old home theatre stuff anyway .. but
    half of it was toys and (dare I say ...) her things she had long
    forgotten about.

    We're about to do the same thing in our new house, we need to
    sheetrock our storage area and fix some rodent issues.

    Yeah, when my mom passed, we bought a forecloser with intent on fixing
    it up and reselling it. The "Bones" ended up having significant issues
    so much of my spare money went to fixing mechanical things .. The
    biggest was a plenum duct work system placed under a concrete slab.
    The water table would rise during heavy rains and fill the duct work,
    blocking airflow (heat or air conditioning) until the water table
    lowered. I paid someone to abandon the duct work, retrofit it between
    our first and second floor, and as a result needed a new furnace and
    air conditioner. It was the most costly repair, outside of new windows
    and doors. However, now we are down to just the kitchen, upstairs
    carpet and paint, and hardy plank siding (plus paint) and we'll have
    this house flipped. Just waiting for the pandemic to go away, start
    working again, then getting it all done at once. The good news is, the
    homes doubled in value from the cash we paid for it in 7 years.

    What type of rodent problem are you having? We had mice, and after a
    few people came to check it out, it turned out to be a small hole at
    the bottom of the siding by the sill plate of the foundation. We
    stuffed it with steel wool, per their recommendation, and the mice are
    no longer an issue.

    -tG

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground ~ www.theunderground.us:10023 (21:1/165)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to The Godfather on Tue Sep 22 15:06:00 2020
    alcohol... Beer, Cider, Schnapps... once upon a time I suspect they
    were all regional..

    I left out wine too... white in particular I think... where else would Rhein ìRiesling come from :)

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)
  • From vorlon@21:1/195.1 to Spectre on Tue Sep 22 17:37:37 2020
    Especially when you move into a smaller location. My last move saw
    me get out of a 3br house with double garage into a 2br unit with
    no garage at all... whee so much stuff just had to go...

    You'd be supprised how much stuff can be stuffed into all sorts of
    places!




    \/orlon
    VK3HEG


    --- MagickaBBS v0.15alpha (Linux/armv6l)
    * Origin: \/orlon Empire: Sector 550 (21:1/195.1)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to vorlon on Tue Sep 22 23:55:00 2020
    You'd be supprised how much stuff can be stuffed into all sorts of
    places!

    Yes but we're not going there.....


    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: (21:3/101)
  • From Vk3jed@21:1/109 to Spectre on Wed Sep 23 00:44:00 2020
    On 09-20-20 07:59, Spectre wrote to Vk3jed <=-

    count go up if you're doing a lot of digging, hammering or similar
    manual work, or shaking, or... let's not go there. ;)

    So not so good for someone with Parkinson's... :P

    Mor larger hand movements. ;)


    ... Synonym: A word you use when you can't spell the other.
    === MultiMail/Win v0.51
    --- SBBSecho 3.10-Linux
    * Origin: Freeway BBS Bendigo,Australia freeway.apana.org.au (21:1/109)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Tue Sep 22 15:58:46 2020
    thought that if I haven't used and or worn it in a year, I probably

    That seems like a pretty reasonable standard. I've occasionally not followed it, but it's for things like winter clothing (I haven't had winter), swimming (I haven't gone swimming), and special events (though even with those, I try
    to find an occasional excuse to wear the sequined or really-dressed up items anyway).

    It's good in the kitchen, too, though sometimes that just means things happen like, "I like having a pasta machine, so I have to make some ravioli, now."

    In my case that had me keep it around for a couple of moves, but eventually it didn't make the cut.

    computer parts. I always think I'll combine them into one machine at
    some point -- then never do.

    I've been bad about that, too -- once I had half a dozen old computers, and a variety of other parts. I wound up giving them away, or selling very cheaply, with the caveat that the person picking them up had to take _everything_.

    But somehow I still traveled to Germany with a couple of possibly-useless sensors for use with my Arduino, and some hockey-puck location beacons that I swear I'll get around to using eventually, but haven't really in the four
    years of owning them.

    But at least they're small.

    won't get rid of the Disney tapes she had bought for our first child, used, at a garage sale. Of course, I'm like, umm .. we have Disney+?

    Disney does encourage this sort of behavior, what with their occasional
    taking various movies off the market for some period of time.

    That said, there's a reason why I'm a fan of digitizing things. Might be some legal issues, but, again, if I had to destroy the original after making the copy, I'd probably still do it.

    just say she liked to begin but never commit to collecting things:
    stamps, beanie babies, etc... She did eventually let me sell it all on

    Collecting is fun! Though I do think it's the sort of thing where you get
    one, maybe two collections, and after that you should only keep the truly valuable items that you'd show off if you were showing off your collection.

    Or else be like my brother, with tons of collection, tons of storage, a full room given over to display, and more besides.

    bother too bad as I realize not everyone is weird like me -- I like countertops free of clutter, everything organized, like walking into a freshly turned hotel room. Most I suppose aren't quite that particular.

    Yeah, I'm certainly not like that. I think I'm fairly messy, though certainly less over time, and depending on a variety of circumstances.

    But I imagine your house is nicer to walk into.

    room. It's been a battle; and he doesn't go for the entire donate
    idea at the moment, unless it's a happy meal toy.

    Yeah, that does sound like quite the battle. And not like it's something that'll go away any time soon. Hopefully eventually there can be some level
    of compromise on it, though I don't expect anyone to be particularly happy about it.

    How long is your legal quarantine? And is it the case with anyone who travels or moves there from another country?

    Two weeks (again, should've been cut short with the negative test, but I have no proof.), and yeah, anyone coming from a country deemed more dangerous, COVID-wise.

    trees ... so Fresh Thyme at least has a place to recycle the plastic
    bags which is nice, but yet one more step within a persons week. But

    Eh, recycling plastic bags is possible, but these days I think the only
    plastic that actively gets recycled is clear plastic that's a 1 or maybe 2
    for the number, and fairly stiff, unlike the bags.

    Realistically, people should be focusing on reuse. With most recycling programs, there's not a huge difference between recycling and throwing away, for most of the recycled goods.

    Though paper, including cardboard (but not including thermal receipts,
    because that stuff is nasty), and aluminium (especially aluminium) are solid. Glass really _should_ be, but I think it mostly just shatters and
    contaminates the paper.

    I do hope that recycling gets better, but sheesh it's a hard thing. Which, again, is why reduce and reuse are what's needed, at least at this point, if one is trying to be non-wasteful.

    totally cool; but I figured it was just one more hurdle for them to get
    to the game menu from login. I've been trying to speed up that process while still allowing peeps to see what I've changed, as I'm always
    adding new ANSi or scripts.

    Yeah -- I've certainly gone mostly minimal with my login. But the message
    check thing is nice, because you don't have to make it a prompt. You just
    show the messages if the person has new ones. If they never interact in the messages area, then it'll never pop up.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From The Godfather@21:1/165 to Spectre on Tue Sep 22 13:12:10 2020
    I left out wine too... white in particular I think... where else would Rhein Riesling come from :)

    My wife is a wine drinker; all wine gives me heart burn so have to
    avoid. But I imagine their Riesling is good. My wife loves it, I'll
    have to find Rhein Riesling at our liquor store for her (?) if
    available. They have a huge wine section so maybe ..

    G

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Windows/32)
    * Origin: The Underground ~ www.theunderground.us:10023 (21:1/165)
  • From poindexter FORTRAN@21:4/122 to The Godfather on Tue Sep 22 11:05:00 2020
    The Godfather wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

    What type of rodent problem are you having? We had mice, and after a
    few people came to check it out, it turned out to be a small hole at
    the bottom of the siding by the sill plate of the foundation. We
    stuffed it with steel wool, per their recommendation, and the mice are
    no longer an issue.

    We appear to have solitary big-ass rats. I bought one of those zapper
    traps with wifi, and once every couple of months I get a huge rat in
    it. Vacuum up all of the droppings I can see, and all is clear. A
    couple of months later, get another one and repeat the process.
    There's so much stuff in there that I can't find where they're
    getting in, and need to remove and disinfect everything (and clean up
    rat droppings once and for all. We want it sealed and finished
    anyway, and put in better shelving.



    ... Remove ambiguities and convert to specifics
    --- MultiMail/XT v0.52
    * Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)
  • From vorlon@21:1/195.1 to Spectre on Wed Sep 23 15:01:08 2020
    You'd be supprised how much stuff can be stuffed into all
    sorts of places!

    Yes but we're not going there.....

    What's there, a spookie spider or something?

    %-)




    \/orlon
    VK3HEG


    --- MagickaBBS v0.15alpha (Linux/armv6l)
    * Origin: \/orlon Empire: Sector 550 (21:1/195.1)
  • From Adept@21:2/108 to The Godfather on Wed Sep 23 14:10:51 2020
    avoid. But I imagine their Riesling is good. My wife loves it, I'll
    have to find Rhein Riesling at our liquor store for her (?) if

    What's kind of nice with Germany and wine is that it's not exactly a huge journey for a bottle to come from Burgundy or Rioja, either, if you want a selection of good red wines, too.

    But, yeah, I think Germany, so far as I understand, has a variety of good
    white wines.

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A46 2020/08/26 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Storm BBS (21:2/108)
  • From Spectre@21:3/101 to The Godfather on Wed Sep 23 15:42:00 2020
    My wife is a wine drinker; all wine gives me heart burn so have to
    avoid. But I imagine their Riesling is good. My wife loves it, I'll

    Hope she's got a sweet tooth when it comes to wine... its right up next to ìmoscato for sweetness, although there are still 3 main grades of ìsweetness..Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese.. from driest to sweetest..

    Spec


    *** THE READER V4.50 [freeware]
    --- SuperBBS v1.17-3 (Eval)
    * Origin: Scrawled in haste at The Lower Planes (21:3/101)