The Summer of Chuff 2015

[yotsuya]

Oh, & I just picked up a brand-new bezel for Ms Pac-Man, along with a marquee that has great color on it, with just enough scratches and defects to give it an authentic air.

[Vigo]

All I got to say is that i do like to have ---my bottom--- robotically washed. They got this stuff all the time on my wife's side of the pond. They get really fancy with features like sphincter homing sensors, programmable massage jets, pre-warmed seats, touchless air dry and hurricane jets to ass blast you clean for times when a spackle knife would work better than toilet paper. The only important feature go get is a heated water rinse with a continuous on mode.  Crank that puppy on before you start your dump and never have a hard BM again. I equate it to a woman having a water birth for her child, a little something to help with the flow.

[Slippyblade]

...hurricane jets to ass blast you clean for times when a spackle knife would work better than toilet paper

Oh god, the visual!  It burns!!!!

[HaRuMaN]

Back on topic, just picked this up today...

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk

[pbj]

Damn it, now I can't stop thinking about ass washing toilets. I still have one more bathroom to redo...

Just go to the neighborhood pool in your loosest trunks and adjust the pant leg in front of a water jet when no one is looking.

Feels good, man.

[dkersten]

Not an ass washer, but I did get another little project done last night on my deck:

I had a big halogen flood lamp on the peak of my roof facing the back yard, but it was only really good for illuminating the back yard when taking out the trash, and with so much into the deck, I wanted a nice soft light system to add some atmosphere in the evenings.  So I picked up two packs of 8 feet of tea lights from Costco, an outdoor outlet, and ordered a z-wave light dimmer switch. 

First, I replaced the Halogen lamp with the outlet.  Then I went to work hanging the lights from the peak of my roofline to the corner of the pergola over the firepit, then around the pergola perimeter, then across the new sun shades, then back to the house and along the eve of the house back to the peak.  I then cut the last 10 feet of lights off the string and capped it off and tucked it away in the weatherproof outlet cover.

When the z-wave controller comes in, I will be able to turn the lights on and off or dim them up and down with my phone or tablet from anywhere, or of course from the switch inside the game room.  Even at full on (just a switch right now) the lighting is fantastic, changes the feel of the deck in the evenings dramatically.  Now with the sunshades I can block the neighbors spotlight he aimed at my back yard, block one of the street lamps that lights up my back yard, and with this new lighting the other street light that intrudes will be washed out enough that it doesn't distract. 

Here are pics, one at dusk and one after dark.

[BadMouth]

Looks awesome and makes me want to do the same (despite not having a back deck or patio yet). 

[dkersten]

Thanks!

You could just set up some Christmas lights around your bedroom and get the same effect, lol.

[yotsuya]

Looks good, Dave!

[BadMouth]

Thanks!

You could just set up some Christmas lights around your bedroom and get the same effect, lol.

I wouldn't be able to look at them without Three Days by Jane's Addiction playing in my head constantly.

I got a couple candle sconces flanking a 50" tv that puts off a nice glow. 

[yotsuya]

I wouldn't be able to look at them without Three Days by Jane's Addiction playing in my head constantly.

Saw them in concert back in 1990. Good times....

[BadMouth]

I wouldn't be able to look at them without Three Days by Jane's Addiction playing in my head constantly.

Saw them in concert back in 1990. Good times....

Saw them in concert (again) last year at the Shindig in Baltimore.  End of the show kinda bothered me.  Chicks with meat hooks through the skin of their backs swinging around.
Wasn't one of these deals where there were a bunch of hooks evenly distributing the weight.  It was two big hooks and a fair amount of bleeding.
It made me nauseous.  And the fact that it made me nauseous made me feel old.
It was anti-chuff at the end of being chuffed that I could still hang though a 12 hour music festival.

Hanging ability proven last year, I bought VIP tickets this year which gets me access to couches and air conditioned bathrooms. 
(chuff re-attained)
 

[pbj]

Good god, I saw something similar at Atomic Cafe in Austin in the 90s.  Except it was two dudes and they did the hooks through their chests and swung around while another one blew fire balls.  I guess it was that evening's 2am entertainment.  Thankfully they put Wumpscut back in the CD player before too long.

I still cringe thinking about it.

[Ond]

I'm sitting at a customer site twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to get their ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- together, meanwhile the customer gets charged around $280 an hour for me to sip coffee.  Luckily I have BYOAC to keep me entertained.  I am chuffed because I get to go on leave soon.  During my leave I'm finishing up the final details on my house so it can be sold. Lately I've been working on refurbishing my home theater to be a key deal sweetener.  Last weekend I prototyped a type of fabric panel which provides both acoustic transparency but also a degree of sound reflection absorption all in one AND is rear LED lit to boot.  After a lot of faffing about with failed designs I have something that looks pro.  Can post some pics here later.  My furniture subby is coming with me, but much of the sound gear is remaining.  I have to build a custom subby to fit the setup.  The new one will be constructed from concrete, as a sealed unit (no porting or passive radiator).  I told my neighbor about the concrete subby and he's keen to see how I tackle that.  If your'e sitting their smirking Beavis like going "heh heh, heh heh concrete subby that's stoopid"  I'm happy to share my progress, success, failure or otherwise on that.

[yotsuya]

Pretty chuffed with myself, did my first flyback swap today...

The Ms. Pac I got was untested monitorwise, so once I got everything fired up, the game worked perfectly, but the screen looked bad - it was wavy, with streaks and jitters all through it. I ordered a cap kit and replacement pots from Bob Roberts, but when he had his accident, I told him not to worry about it, and I ordered the cap kit from Twisted Quarter. I did the cap kit and the streak and waviness went away, but it still cut out jittery sporatically. While I was doing the cap kit, I noticed that the horizontal width coil was broken. So I placed an order with Twisty Wrist Arcade for the horizontal coil, a new flyback (because hey why not) and a cool kit he sells, that G07 Remote Pot Kit, that allow you to do all your adjustments from the front of the cab like on a lot of the newer 25" CRTs. It also replaces the B+ pot, so I decided to go for it!

They came in today, so I took off the coil and pots with no issue, but the flyback was giving me issues, so I went to Fry's Electronics and bought a larger desoldering nozzle. That did the trick! Flyback came right out, I tinkered with the new one to line up the pins. I soldered in the Remote pot kit and coil, put it all back together, fired up the monitor and dialed in the B+ to 120, then adjusted the screen with the remote pots to get it to my liking. It's probably at a 90 out of 100. I need to do some degaussing, but nothing that is a dealbreaker. I just need to do some touch up painting on the front, and this baby is done!

[dkersten]

Booked a vacation for me and the girlfriend to Orlando for October.. Leaving the kids (16, 18, 22) at home.  The crazy thing is this is the single most expensive thing I have ever done that doesn't involve my house or a car.  Airfare is a killer, and those Disney tickets seem expensive until you buy Universal Studios ticket.. holy hell.  To make up for the miniscule amount of guilt I feel for not taking the family with me, I also booked a couple days in Coeur d'alene that I can drive the family to next month and hit Silverwood for a day. (I can't take vacation time in the summer, so leaving Friday night, drive 7.5 hours to get there, lol)

Also, last night my Z-Wave light switches came in and I got the one hooked up to the new tea lights out on the deck.. works really well and is very responsive to the controller.  It maybe takes .5 seconds to respond to a command once the software is connected to the controller.  Now I can turn on and dim the lights on the deck from anywhere in the world.. lol.  I have 2 more to install, one in my theater room (was tired of getting settled in on the couch only to realize the lights are up too high) and one outlet that I am only putting in as a repeater to speed up the response time on the door lock and back lights.  Any AC connected zwave devices act as a repeater to strengthen the network range.

[HaRuMaN]

Leaving the kids (16, 18, 22) at home

Your house while you're gone:

[wp34]

Airfare is a killer, and those Disney tickets seem expensive until you buy Universal Studios ticket.. holy hell. 

Word on that. Universal Studios is crazy expensive.  Furthermore I made the mistake of buying our Universal Studios tickets at the gate.  Talk about buyers remorse.

[Vigo]

I hear ya about the airfare. I remember years ago I won some contest that gave me 2 free 7 day passes to universal and I think a heavily discounted stay at one of their resorts. Fresh out of college and I couldn't afford the damn flights down. I was too stupid at the time to even know to ebay those passes off.   

[dkersten]

Word on that. Universal Studios is crazy expensive.  Furthermore I made the mistake of buying our Universal Studios tickets at the gate.  Talk about buyers remorse.

I was down there about 7 years ago with my family and me and my son went to Universal and bought tickets at the gate with the front of the line passes and it was like $200 total.  Now for the same thing it's $511 with taxes for ONE DAY!  Disney with park hopper is nearly half that for one day.. And Disney has a heck of a lot more to offer. 

The upside to Orlando is you can stay just about anywhere for CHEAP!..  You can rent 3 bedroom houses with private pools for $130 per night.  You can get a nice room at the Waldorf Astoria for $220 per night!  If you are planning a Disney vacation well in advance and want the benefits of the Disney Vacation Club members without the price, you can actually rent points through a website and get rooms for 25% of the "rack rate" (I was trying to score a $450 per night room for $700 for 5 days but it was already sold out)... There are deals to be had, just not on airfare or gate tickets, lol. 

[dkersten]

Leaving the kids (16, 18, 22) at home

Your house while you're gone:

lol!!  Not this time...

Actually, daughter will stay with her mom, middle daughter will be at college, and son is on Felony Probation and if he did that would go to prison for 3 years, so I think I am OK this time.. 

[yotsuya]

That's HaRuMaN's house every Friday night. That was the ZapCon '15 Afterparty.

Here's HaRuMaN:

[Howard_Casto]

Finally got to test out the router table I got for xmas.  Works great!  I think I need a better shop vac though because it doesn't power the evacuation system well enough... I have sawdust in places saw dust isn't meant to go.   

[wp34]

Awesome!  BDW was in Des Moines last month for "Comic Con".  We didn't go but I told my wife I'd be more likely to have him sign a Colt 45 poster than I would anything Star Wars.

That's HaRuMaN's house every Friday night. That was the ZapCon '15 Afterparty.

Here's HaRuMaN:

[yotsuya]

Finally got to test out the router table I got for xmas.  Works great!  I think I need a better shop vac though because it doesn't power the evacuation system well enough... I have sawdust in places saw dust isn't meant to go.   

You and Rick can make us MDF sandwiches.

[Malenko]

I picked up these 2 beuts

pix are from the seller's garage, not my rape dungeon

[jdbailey1206]

pix are from the seller's garage, not my rape dungeon

Awwww...ok.

[shmokes]

I researched the everloving ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of discount Orlando amusement park tickets. There is one way. If you know anybody in the military, or a veteran, who is willing to go with you when you buy the tickets there's a huge discount, at least at Disney. Of course, it has to be someone in Orlando. And you have to buy him or her a ticket, but the overall cost will still be way lower.

[05SRT4]

Just ordered a PrintrBot Simple 3d Printer. I will let you guys know how it works out.

[Le Chuck]

I researched the everloving ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of discount Orlando amusement park tickets. There is one way. If you know anybody in the military, or a veteran, who is willing to go with you when you buy the tickets there's a huge discount, at least at Disney. Of course, it has to be someone in Orlando. And you have to buy him or her a ticket, but the overall cost will still be way lower.

As a vet I equate this morally to theft. Disney doesn't owe me ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and I'm no hero just because I wear a uniform but my integrity isn't for sale. It's great that they give that discount but unless you took an oath to write a check on behalf of your government payable upto and including your life then that discount isn't for you.

[shmokes]

Except that the discount is explicitly for the vet and everyone in his/her party. So it's not like you're impersonating a vet or something. I'm also not going to shed tears over Disney making less profit on tickets into their park.

[dkersten]

I researched the everloving ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- out of discount Orlando amusement park tickets. There is one way. If you know anybody in the military, or a veteran, who is willing to go with you when you buy the tickets there's a huge discount, at least at Disney. Of course, it has to be someone in Orlando. And you have to buy him or her a ticket, but the overall cost will still be way lower.

As a vet I equate this morally to theft. Disney doesn't owe me ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- and I'm no hero just because I wear a uniform but my integrity isn't for sale. It's great that they give that discount but unless you took an oath to write a check on behalf of your government payable upto and including your life then that discount isn't for you.

I wouldn't ever do something like find a vet and use them for the discount, but we did see if my girlfriends son, who is in the Army and stationed in Ft.Hood right now, could join us.  Not because of the discount (although if he joined us I would gladly have used it) but because she gets to see him twice a year at most, and in Feb he is going on his second tour to S. Korea and will be gone a year.  If he had been able to go, I would have also invited my 22 year old son who gets along with her son rather well.  I could have rented a 3 bedroom house for the same price as the hotel we are in, so airfare would have doubled (they each would have had to come up with that part) but the tickets would end up being a wash, and it would have been nice for about the same cost for me and free except for airfare for them. 

I have a friend in a wheelchair and we often get to take advantage of that.  I have no qualms, it isn't like I only hang out with him because of the benefits, but when I go to Seattle to go to Penny Arcade Expo with him and we get to walk in in front of 70,000 people and get in an hour early and have our run of the place while it is practically empty, I don't feel a single bit of guilt for getting in on his handicap.  However, he's been my closest friend since High School, and I am not one of those people who were hiring people in wheelchairs so they could get in the front of all the lines at Disney either. 

It is one thing to take advantage that way, it is something completely different to use a service that is available when it is legitimate.

[Vigo]

Just ordered a PrintrBot Simple 3d Printer. I will let you guys know how it works out.

Welcome to the 3d printing club (assuming this is your first printer). I've been at it for a little over a month and loving it.

[05SRT4]

Just ordered a PrintrBot Simple 3d Printer. I will let you guys know how it works out.

Welcome to the 3d printing club (assuming this is your first printer). I've been at it for a little over a month and loving it.

Thanks! I am really excited, this will be my first. I heard its a rough learning curve at first. May I ask, what printer did you go with?

[Vigo]

Yeah, I think the big thing is there are so many factors that affect a print. Calibration, bed temperature, extruder temperature, type of filament used, settings on the print such as fill percentage, layer height, whether supports on the print job are used, etc.

I can't say I was ever overwhelmed, but it has been a matter of me taking a lot of time, doing things slow and gradually trying to accomplish more and more until I understood the different problems and learned how to fix them. A few points of aggravation, but I am getting to the point that I know what will cause problems and what to do about it.

I went with a da vinci 1.0a, mostly because I needed something enclosed to keep moving parts out of reach from my children's hands. For the price, I have been very pleased. They do force you to use their proprietary software and filament, and charge a premium on the filament as well. I bought it knowing that because it is also very hackable so it can take any filament and use any slicing software. I haven't attempted to hack it yet. Soon.

The big thing I am still trying to figure out is good design software to make my own parts. I have used FreeCAD and 123d design, and I feel both are lacking in opposite ends. FreeCAD is very precise, but not user friendly on some simple things. Shapes get irritating to work with after you make certain changes, and the undo function doesn't even work as expected. 123d design is easy to make a design with, but i get angry trying to position things with precision, and even changing viewing angle irritates me.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Bought a new home last week. Been busy as hell painting. But the new game room will be worth it.

I've been looking for a PLASMA HDTV for the game room for quite some time (even before I closed on the house) for movies. Struck gold on Craigslist tonight:  $74 for a 50" Panasonic Viera. Woot!

DeLuSioNaL29

[pbj]

I discovered that this comes in gallons yesterday:



This is what passes for excitement in my life now.

[Howard_Casto]

I discovered that this comes in gallons yesterday:



This is what passes for excitement in my life now.

The Stars at night.... are big and bright...

[yotsuya]

I discovered that this comes in gallons yesterday:



This is what passes for excitement in my life now.

The Stars at night.... are big and bright...

You can chug that stuff in the basement of the Alamo...

[pbj]

The Stars at night.... are big and bright...

Deep in the heart of the Dominican Republic where this jug is from??

Talk all the smack you want.  More garlic lemon orange marinade for me.