Lorindól

Living in the same latitudes I could only take it as a compliment.

“You fucking Alaskan!”

I laughed uncontrollably for several minutes after receiving this compliment. Wrong continent, buddy.

This is the way.

I solely used Netscape Navigator since it came out and after it fell I chose Firefox. My interface has always been modded to look permanently like Firefox 3.6.

Everything is where I want it to be and everything works perfectly.

Many moons ago my employer tried to force us to use only Internet Explorer / Edge for reasons they were unable to explain - since there were none, technically or otherwise. I rebelled and remotely installed Firefox with Adblock / uBlock Origin to every personal computer (I was the unofficial IT guy) and told my co-workers to try it out.

At the next meeting we were told that the use of Firefox is not only approved but recommended. The magic of an “ad free browser” had taken hold, people found it vastly superior and had been vocal about their newfound dislike of MS browsers.

To my surprise I wasn’t even reprimanded in any way.

I remain baffled by this. But since I can barely differentiate red and green in optimal lighting conditions, it does not come as a surprise.

We X’s were born into the analog world and grew up as the digital age started to emerge. We have the luxury of knowing both.

I had the same exact approach back in the late 90’s. My friends had several band projects and when they were mixing their demos, I insisted that if the mixes sound good in a standard car stereo, they’ll sound good anywhere.

Leaf blowers in small yards are pointless, agreed. I would never use one in the suburbs.

But I do own one and I use it at my family’s farm, for one day every autumn. It would take 3-4 days just to rake the leaves, with the blower I can easily create large piles here and there. Then I gather all the piles and take them to my leaf compost heap.

Before the blower this used to take a full week. Now I can clear all the lawns in just two days.

The caps must be made of different plastic in my country.

When I came across first attached cap, I just ripped it off clean without thinking twice. No problem whatsoever.

I have never discarded a bottle without screwing the cork back, but I guess many people do. Why they would do so, that I cannot fathom.

My older daughter looked exactly the like her mother at the same age when she was 3-6 years old. When I compare their childhood photos it would be hard to tell which is which, if not for the hideous fashion of the 80’s being a a clear tell for mother.

After the age of 7 my daughter quickly grew into her own look, but when she makes certain faces the resemblance is still striking.

This is the true question. Also, do we still love lamp?

No magic tricks or diet fads.

Eat less, move more.

Eat more vegetables and salad, cut down bread and meat.

Stop drinking sodas and juices with extra sugar in them and learn to quench your thirst with water.

Limit eating candy or cookies to one day per a week, if you can’t let them go entirely.

This. Learn basic economics at a young age and compound interest shall serve you well.

I live in the Nordics and my house is prrimarily heated by a geothermal heat pump. The temperature here has been between -20C and -30C for the last week, the pump can easily keep the room temperatures at +19C until the outside temperatures drop under -25C, after that the electric resistor kicks in to provide assistance.

The secondary heat source is the giant baking oven, which i heat every other day if gets this cold. The fully heated oven alone raises the room temperatures by 5-6C, which helps a lot to take the load of the heating pump and keeps the electric bill smaller.

I have been planning to install air/air-water heat pumps to both floors, they would be a good backup during these cold spells and would also provide cooling during the summer. And if I install a smart control system, I can have the air units do extra heating/cooling automatically when the electricity is cheap.

I just haven’t had the time to do the research where it would be best to install them and the prices rose steeply after Russia attacked Ukraine. So I’ll wait for a while before I’ll get those.

It’s getting harder every year.

I remember well the constant fear of nuclear war in the 1980’s.

I remember the wonder we felt when the Berlin Wall fell and Soviet Union collapsed. A hope of a tomorrow free of fear.

I remember the dreadful recession of the early 1990’s and the steep economical rise that followed it.

I remember the amazing advancements in technology and the standard of living in the late 1990’s. And at the same time, it felt like the world was coming to it’s senses.

I was 21 in the year 2000. The world was full of promise, technological advancements were just pouring in, old mortal enemies were finding common ground and it seemed that we were slowly heading towards a Star Trek - like post scarcity utopia.

This age of hope eneded by the finance crisis of 2007-2008. Russia tried the waters with the war in Georgia. The general atmosphere of the world turned towards gloom again. And the downward spiral just seems to keeps going and going…

Yet I continue the work I started when I chose teaching as my profession in those golden years of hope. The kids are very different today, any class from 20 years ago would be a piece of cake compared with the problems they have now. But if a change for the better is to come, it will come from the kids. My generation is hopelessly lost in consumer greed and watching mindless “reality” shows that they somehow feel more important than real life.

I alone cannot be the change we need, but I CAN educate a few hundred kids and with good luck, maybe a dozen or few of them will have a some effect for a better future.

I have a a working box camera from 1930’s. Or it would work, if I could still find film for it at a semi-decent price.

My Sansui 1000X - receiver amp is in daily use and was made in 1971, it’s in near mint condition in every way. I did a complete internal cleanup and replaced a few electrolytic capasitors just to be sure to avoid any problems in the future. I believe the unit may well outlive me. I love the silverface-teak cabinet aesthetics. It’s paired with a Lenco - L75 turntable from the early 70’s and AR-7x speakers from the same decade, together they sound pretty much perfect to my ears.

And I also have my great-aunt’s windable table clock. It’s ~100-120 years old, but still works if only I remembered to wind it every other day.

Yes, cruiseboats in the Finland-Sweden route might be considered. But it’s still far from Vegas.

One definitely should use solid structures, metal or wooden. The damned thing cost ~10$ and I didn’t have time to build a proper support structure at the moment. I meant to use it only as a temporary solution, which I forgot when everything was fine.

The design of the arch itself wasn’t the problem. The interconnecting pipes were only 1-2mm thick, so there was no way it could possibly support the weight of a flourishing grape vine.

It was marketed as a “rose arch”. I guess it could’ve handled this purpose without any problems.

Buy wrong stuff, suffer the consequences.

Mine lasted a year with grape vine before catastrophic structural collapse.

This was also my previous assumption.

I remember reading some scientic article that examined what would happen if we eradicated the mosquitos entirely.

Surprisingly, they came to the conclusion that they’d just be gone and we would be a lot happier without the nuisance and the diseases they spread.

No other species is dependent on mosquitos as a food source, they could easily find enough to eat with them gone. Mosquitos apparently serve no known vital purpose in their ecosystems, although it was mentioned that males of some species have some little value as secondary pollinators.