chattius 2,523 Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 We have a cloudburst and I have time to type some emails, but can't send them. One was for an american friend asking me what we think about the situation in america. I have to find a political correct way to translate the headline of the newpapers from German to english. Amerika gleicht einem Pulverfass. Trump ist mit Feuer und Flamme bei der Lösungssuche. Pulverfass would be a barrel of gunpowder, but has the meaning of a political situation short before an explosion. mit Feuer and Flamme dabei - In Midage it was a punishment to be not allowed to have fire and flame. No way to heat your house or herd. So if you are into something with fire and flame you are in with all you have So political correct would be: The politcal solution situation in the USA is short before an explosion. Trump is all hooked up for a solution. But it lacks the word play with a gunpowder barrel and being fire and flame in finding a solution. 1 Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted July 9, 2020 Share Posted July 9, 2020 In Germany today is: STEUERZAHLERGEDENKTAG Steuer/tax, Zahler/payer, Gedenktag memorial day If you would be forced to pay taxes before all other stuff: Before this day all money earned would be taxes, after this day all money earned would be for ourself. So actually the day is in the second half of the year so more than 50% of income are taxes in average. 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,069 Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 And today... was 42 degrees... montreal hot? no way gogo Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 We had nice weather... Some places in Europe had a heat wave last days with up to 42C in shadows. The last days we had cloudy weather with a few rain drops early morning and sunshine starting late evening till night and around 24C. So no need to water the plants daily, kids have summer breaks and could do bicycle/canoo tours without suffering from heat. And me and my wife could walk with the dogs into a nice sunsetting before returning into an empty house. As I said nice weather. We normally do vacations every second year. We always have to find someone looking for the animals, taking the patients from my wife while we are away, ... Kids would normally be in summer camps in years without vacation. Corona changed this. Instead summer camps we build 4 big 8 people tents on the other side of the hill, moved a container with water (15000litres) and 3 dixie toilets there, also the field kitchen. Kinda our own summer camp for our kids, nieces and nephews, kids from neighbours (coming from netherlands), ... Since all my kids have rescue swimmer and kids firefighter licenses they can do trips to nearby lakes if they want, or campfires, or... Only one control call each day if they are still alive ;) Oldest is at the family from her husband for three weeks and second is at university to do some tests and interrogations this month. Link to comment
Perdition 10 Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 Excruciatingly dull and boring. First world problems, I know. Decided to reinstall Sacred 2 to see if that helps (still haven't beat it on Niob). I guess my computer has come full-circle. I bought Sacred 2 for my computer back in 2010, and I'll probably replace it this year. Still got some new CDs I gotta play too. 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,069 Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 2 hours ago, Perdition said: Excruciatingly dull and boring. First world problems, I know. Decided to reinstall Sacred 2 to see if that helps (still haven't beat it on Niob). I guess my computer has come full-circle. I bought Sacred 2 for my computer back in 2010, and I'll probably replace it this year. Still got some new CDs I gotta play too. Bravo on the reinstall! And after so many years too! gogo Link to comment
Perdition 10 Posted July 11, 2020 Share Posted July 11, 2020 1 minute ago, gogoblender said: Bravo on the reinstall! And after so many years too! gogo I reinstalled it a couple times over the last decade, but its been awhile since I played it. Thankfully my save games survived all this time. Unfortunately I can't remember what my planned builds or stat allocation were Link to comment
Perdition 10 Posted July 13, 2020 Share Posted July 13, 2020 Got a bunch of CDs in the mail today, so I'm busy with those. Got half of them ripped to FLAC, will do the rest later. My other order cleared customs today, so I should have that soon. I guess the order I received today took around 2.5 weeks, which is probably better than the 2+ months I've heard people getting from overseas orders. 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,069 Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 14 hours ago, Perdition said: Got a bunch of CDs in the mail today, so I'm busy with those. Got half of them ripped to FLAC, will do the rest later. My other order cleared customs today, so I should have that soon. I guess the order I received today took around 2.5 weeks, which is probably better than the 2+ months I've heard people getting from overseas orders. cd's? I dont even have a dvd or cd rom Player anymore :blink is it games or videos, music you're geting? gogo Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 We still have 4 dvd burner. My wife uses them mainly for reading and storing medical data, when laws prevent sending medical data via internet. I still have an old Amiga 1000 which needs 1,4 MB Floppy Discs to boot, the games for it are on a solid state disc now. Was frustrating to swap between the 5 floppies for Wizardry6 or Harpoon2 all the time. Pre-corona there were vinyl parties at a nearby club. I still have thousands of old vinyl discs, single ot LP's and could join the parties for free if I bring a rare single with me. Link to comment
Perdition 10 Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 4 hours ago, gogoblender said: cd's? I dont even have a dvd or cd rom Player anymore :blink is it games or videos, music you're geting? gogo Music CDs. I'm a bit of a derelict who still buys those things Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted August 3, 2020 Share Posted August 3, 2020 I had to visit a partner company today and the shortest trip was more or less 250km cross country with a motorbike. I thought my old BMW R80 G/S could use some driving to prevent sticking oil and such. I bought it when at army short before the fall of the Berlin wall. The bike was not the fastest. But it could beat any racing bike once leaving streets and going crosscountry. And it could beat any Enduro when leaving countryside and driving on an Autobahn. It was ideal to drive home at weekends from our airfield to my family. My father in law was bike racer and had a bike shop so the old beast is still in best shape. When at the company I rubbed my eyes: a nearly identical but brandnew retro styled BMW R nineT Urban G/S. Could have been the twin of my R80 G/s from decades ago. And the company owner said: if I would trade my vintage bike for his brandnew... Said no, but we exchanged bikes for a quick three castles uphill/downhill trip. Three castles is not much distance if there is a castle or the ruin of it on each surrounding hill. Now I wonder if I should buy a second hand Urban G/S and save my vintage one for the next decades. When my old army unit was disbanded because of reunion I was in search for a bike mechanic when I started university and new in town. The bike mechanics daughter is now my wife. So no way to give the bike away, all these trips through Europe with it and my fiancee/wife, .... Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Feeling pity for the people in Beirut. My mom was nearly in tears when she phoned me yesterday. She was watching TV and being remembered by the pictures what happened in 1987. A Truck with 35000litres of fuel had faulty brakes and was driving downhill into the small city of Herborn (11 kilometres away from where I live now). It was coming to a stop when it turned on one side sliding. The driver warned the people to run away, probably saving lot of lives. The truck exploded setting the inner city of Herborn in flames. Classmates from my sister met there regulary and my mom thought that my sister was there too ( no cell phones then). She watched pictures in TV and waited for a call. My sis however decided to do some extra handball training this day. One of her classmates died and two were injured. My sis was confused when coming home and my mother and father in tears. My sis had no information what happened. I was 3 weeks before going to be drafted to army and was a group leader at youth fire fighters at this time. We were put into perimetre guard to make free roads for emergency people and helped at the cleanup the next days. So many people dead or still missed in Beirut. I have the pictures of Herborn in my brain when a truck with fuel exploded. I work with explosives, was army fireworker and firefighter, and I can still only nearly imagine what a shipload of explosives will do. My brother is at volunteer disaster relief -water supply and clearing- and he said they were informed about a possible call once international coordinating of help is done. 1 Link to comment
Timotheus 416 Posted August 16, 2020 Author Share Posted August 16, 2020 (edited) So it's been a while since I've peeped in. Today is the last day of my summer vacation which was incredibly uneventful as one might imagine. We spent a few days in a hotel but most of the time was spent hanging out at home. The past 10 days or so completely sloth-like due to the constant heat (over 30°C, or ~90° F) and the fact our appartement wouldn't cool down. So it was the same temperature INSIDE. Getting a good night's rest was virtually impossible, I've had my fair share of siestas One of the only things I managed to get around to, was rebuilding my PC in a fresh, normal looking case, ready to be sold. I'm about to put a new system together. My current setup originated from a pre-built 2015 system, IIRC. It has seen 2 CPU upgrades, 2 GPU upgrades, a PSU upgrade, an SSD, additional RAM and a replacement motherboard. Of all these upgrades, only one was actually new, everything else was second hand. All that remains from that original system now is one stick of RAM and the harddrive, lol. Thrifty, as I've named it's latest iteration, is by no means slow or terrible, but it's time to move on. I hope to have better luck than my friend though: he recieved his brand new system with the tempered glass side panel completely shattered in the box... Anyway, it's Sunday evening now. We just had the rain and thunder that will finally end this heat. A fitting end to this summer... Edited August 16, 2020 by Timotheus 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,069 Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 4 hours ago, Timotheus said: So it's been a while since I've peeped in. Today is the last day of my summer vacation which was incredibly uneventful as one might imagine. We spent a few days in a hotel but most of the time was spent hanging out at home. The past 10 days or so completely sloth-like due to the constant heat (over 30°C, or ~90° F) and the fact our appartement wouldn't cool down. So it was the same temperature INSIDE. Getting a good night's rest was virtually impossible, I've had my fair share of siestas One of the only things I managed to get around to, was rebuilding my PC in a fresh, normal looking case, ready to be sold. I'm about to put a new system together. My current setup originated from a pre-built 2015 system, IIRC. It has seen 2 CPU upgrades, 2 GPU upgrades, a PSU upgrade, an SSD, additional RAM and a replacement motherboard. Of all these upgrades, only one was actually new, everything else was second hand. All that remains from that original system now is one stick of RAM and the hard drive, lol. Thrifty, as I've named it's latest iteration, is by no means slow or terrible, but it's time to move on. I hope to have better luck than my friend though: he received his brand new system with the tempered glass side panel completely shattered in the box... Anyway, it's Sunday evening now. We just had the rain and thunder that will finally end this heat. A fitting end to this summer... aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... end of summer post... nooooooooooooooooo Timo, i can "feel" what you wrote... these last few weeks here in mtl have been "slothy" (love that word) with so much heat goin on outside and tons of humidity. I felt like this sunday was one I should have gotten more outdoor use from but spent most of it indoors just on the computer lazing out Yes...siestas are in style! And ... side panel shattered in box? I hope thats covered by some kind of insurance on postage? That must have been heart breaking gogo Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Yes, this heat was ugly. One reason is that we central europeans have nearly no electrical clima control in the houses because we rarely needed it. I am happy that my mom and my parents in law live nearby in the villa of a neighbour who wanted to have people looking for it in covid19 times. Full of clima control and othe luxus. Our old wooden patchwork house is build half into a hill, has a deep cellar and is surrounded by Spalierobst (Espalier:)). We have wooden clads at the windows and at the doors and we keep them closed at the sunny parts of the house. We can open a 6square metre door in the hill to have a stream of cold downwind through the house. The 'wind tunnel' in the hill was used to keep food fresh or dry it. Not my doing or idea. ancestors build the house centuries ago. And that is one of the big disadvantages, it has historical value and has to be kept in the status as it is. So the heating is done with pipes below the old wooden floor planks. The block heating element (electric power and heat by gasing wooden pellets) is mounted outside between hill and house out of sight. The waste water runs into our own water cleaning, mainly pre filtering with wood splinters with an air flow from below, certain plants in a clay bottom pond which filter metals, ... The water living this system is as clear as the water from the big water plants in a city. This system done my myself choosing the best of things I looked at water cleaning meeting. We have the wood for the filtering for free, and the plants are brought to a bio gas company for free. Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted September 1, 2020 Share Posted September 1, 2020 We were blood spending, 3 older kids, wife and me. I got a bunch of flowers for the 150th time spending... Third won a swiss army knife at the lottery for spenders. And she it was just her second time spending blood. Life is so unfair - she has already 5 started when she was 8 ;) She was choosing this and it will be send. All her other knives are with saws, knives, ... This is her first for fingernail work. Army knives changed a lot with nowadays women in army it seems... 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,069 Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 On 9/1/2020 at 9:45 AM, chattius said: We were blood spending, 3 older kids, wife and me. I got a bunch of flowers for the 150th time spending... Third won a swiss army knife at the lottery for spenders. And she it was just her second time spending blood. Life is so unfair - she has already 5 started when she was 8 ;) She was choosing this and it will be send. All her other knives are with saws, knives, ... This is her first for fingernail work. Army knives changed a lot with nowadays women in army it seems... I didnt know the handles could be so ornate I'm used to the solid, red, (boring! ) handles gogo Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted September 3, 2020 Share Posted September 3, 2020 Special and collector editions used to be colourful for years. Especially the small 5cm/2inch ones for the keyring. That is the 5cm one I have at the keyring. Orange peeling, screwdrivers to repair glasses and other small things, nail tools if wife or kids got damaged ones at bike tours,... In fact this is the only knife where all tools are in use frequently, Mainly because it is tiny and at the keyring, and no useless tool just to have more. So I have it always with me. The BIG 100+ tools ones, who is carrying them around ? And then there are these cheap but very useful tools: 2.50Euro. I placed them with tape below the seat of the bicycles. For long tours we have tools for the backpack. But since even a normal ride to a friend is at least 5kilometres for us. Better to have something with you all the time. Gear shift repair, loose screws, loose tension-spokes at the wheels, small rope and belt cutter, .... 1 Link to comment
Timotheus 416 Posted September 6, 2020 Author Share Posted September 6, 2020 I like my Victorinox Swisschamp but I only use the knives or the scissors I would like a knife like the Moki Rabbit (although the Kershaw Shuffle is much easier on the bank account) Anyway, to leave something ontopic: I've just finished a horrible report for a client. In spoiler below because reasons... Spoiler My assignment was supposed to be: analyse and write a report in one day, fix everything you find in another, two weeks from now. The sheer numbers are just overwhelming, it blew me away. It's a small client with about 500 employees, but there are about 3000 user accounts in their database and I'm pretty sure there's about 1500 authorisations to check. There's pretty much seven years worth of maintenance that needs to be done... 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,069 Posted September 7, 2020 Share Posted September 7, 2020 4 hours ago, Timotheus said: Anyway, to leave something ontopic: I've just finished a horrible report for a client. In spoiler below because reasons... Hide contents My assignment was supposed to be: analyse and write a report in one day, fix everything you find in another, two weeks from now. The sheer numbers are just overwhelming, it blew me away. It's a small client with about 500 employees, but there are about 3000 user accounts in their database and I'm pretty sure there's about 1500 authorisations to check. There's pretty much seven years worth of maintenance that needs to be done... I can relate.... its like big companies realizing that the only part that can be "compressed" is the organic... but our synapses only work so fast... gogo 1 Link to comment
Popular Post chattius 2,523 Posted September 7, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted September 7, 2020 4 hours ago, gogoblender said: I can relate.... its like big companies realizing that the only part that can be "compressed" is the organic... but our synapses only work so fast... gogo 2 weeks ago the tax expert our company hired managed to place a bow shooting stand in a green park on the list of stuff which reduces taxes for the company. Some people at the revenue agency didn't understand that slow work is safe work when you work with explosives. And doing half an hour bow shooting in the open after 1-2 hours of high concentration at work makes you more concentrated for the next hour. I do bow shooting even when I do computer simulations. After a while you see only code and no longer mistakes in numbers or formulas. Five years ago a young high praised 'expert' from revenue agency checked our forest. He said that he would base his calculations on the price the forest would give if all trees were chopped right away and sold. I said that most of the trees grew in value the larger they are and it takes a century to reach the size for the most profit. He said there would be no formula for investments running a century. I phoned the agency and they found a forest expert in another district. He did a self written report and not filling an online formula. Some trees were planted 137 years ago. The diary of my grandgrandgrandgrandpa read: planted trees in the valley at the rivelet. Nice light from all sides should allow a straight grow. Should give great masts for ships. The wooden sail ships transformed into Flying P-Liners the body made from metal, the last Flying P-liners are museum ships now and the cargo transported by modern freighters (again with sails, but they are motr like high flying parachutes). I sold two of the trees to China for temple repair. People are not really used anymore for planing this much into the future. I am planing to plant a mix of trees next year to be on the safe side with global warming. 1 1 Link to comment
chattius 2,523 Posted September 8, 2020 Share Posted September 8, 2020 The girls in our house have a new hobby: Watching soup operas. With the corona rules the actors have to keep distance, limited number of persons in a studio, .... So it is a lot of discussion if kisses in the soup opera are a sign if the pair is real life connected too, because else it would be against rules, or if it are old unused pre-corona takes, or computer animated scenes, .... I wonder if the makers of soup operas have in mind that the tv-watchers watch with different eyes now. Link to comment
gogoblender 3,069 Posted September 10, 2020 Share Posted September 10, 2020 On 9/8/2020 at 2:38 AM, chattius said: The girls in our house have a new hobby: Watching soup operas. With the corona rules the actors have to keep distance, limited number of persons in a studio, .... So it is a lot of discussion if kisses in the soup opera are a sign if the pair is real life connected too, because else it would be against rules, or if it are old unused pre-corona takes, or computer animated scenes, .... I wonder if the makers of soup operas have in mind that the tv-watchers watch with different eyes now. lol soup operas... the years are going fast.. already im out of touch with tv gogo Link to comment
Gilberticus 374 Posted September 11, 2020 Share Posted September 11, 2020 I've got something slightly comical. I was over at a friend's house, the news was on the tv. They censored out someone's last name, my friend's kid (maybe like 8 or 9) heard that, and said "whoa, Ryan, that girl's name is bad words!" I laughed and explained why the news does that some times. The boy said "oh.... I wish my name was bad words." I found that funny; what profanity does a child that age know? I made the mistake of asking what he'd like his name to be; he uttered a sequence of words, some of which I'm going to have to look up on urban dictionary since they're new to me. But I learned a lesson about asking a child about their vocabulary. Link to comment
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