efaardvark

From a deranged individual that I've known since HS,... "Cassette tapes had a side A and a side B so it is only natural that the successor be called a CD."

A workmate recently went to Hawaii and brought me back some coffee in bean form. I have a cheap electric juicer that can function as a coffee grinder but it doesn’t produce consistent ground sizing. Some of the coffee comes out as flour while some of the chunks are like quarter-bean size. It also takes a while, which isn’t good for the coffee, and you have to clean it especially well afterwards or the juice starts tasting like coffee. So to do things right I had to go and get a new coffee grinder. Hand-crank so it takes a little work but it is ceramic and glass and easy to adjust for consistent ground size. The coffee is good too.

Welcome!

Nacho flavoring

Just saw a video of the place I was born. It.. isn't what it once was. Made me sad.

Subliminal Freeways - Threshold For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield

They're always happening somewhere nearby. Most of them are basically ignored by the locals. If you look at the USGS's earthquake site, every day there's a couple dozen or so of greater than 2.5 magnitude somewhere in the US. (Today they report 36.) Most of them will be here on the west coast. My SIL from back east seems to feel every single one. Most of them are less than maybe 3.5 in magnitude however, which is about what you would feel if a big truck drove down the street outside your house. That level typically doesn't even reach conscious awareness for me. On average there's maybe one a month that is either big enough or close enough for me to notice. They do tend to happen in clusters though so it's not uncommon to get 2 or three in the same week, then nothing for a few months. One of the problems with the "news" is that they tend to get fixated on one thing. If there's a big train wreck, all of a sudden train wrecks is all you'll hear about for a week. It isn't that trains are suddenly unsafe, it's just that now you're hearing about every single crash. Next week it'll be all about airplane crashes. (Or whatever.) I checked the news when I got home and according to the local news outlet, for this one there were no reported injuries or major damage. There was some minor damage however.. apparently an old water pipe broke and partly flooded a building. Come to Southern California. I hear they're currently offering free - though unscheduled - amusement park rides. For the scheduled variety you can always head to Universal Studios. Of course there's a fee for that one.

Yeah. It wasn’t that strong, just a bit closer than I’d like.

Just had another earthquake hit! This one was a bit less strong at 4.4 but much, much closer. The cluster of quakes from last week were about 75 miles away. This one was only about 5! Subjectively it felt a lot stronger than last week’s. My office at work is on the 8th floor and we could not only feel the shaking but the building was swaying as well.

Welcome!

Threshold - Lost Along the Way

Last night I put collars on some of my stock investments. I don't trust the markets any further than I can drop-kick a bowling ball. It's not even a market so much as a giant roulette wheel .. one with a dozen or so extra "0"s on it. But people are still bidding things up so I sold some calls to finance some puts. I picked strikes for the calls up around 5-10% where I could consistent with puts no less than 5% down from current levels. I'm fine selling (and taking the cg tax hit) if prices keep going up and I definitely feel better with the downside protection in place. I think relying on the "fed put" this time is ill-advised.

Foil! Those tupperware aliens just need some foil! The truth is out there! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urglg3WimHA

excuse me.. apparently I'm lost. (mods please feel free to remove. I posted to the wrong topic)

The USGS's page on the earthquake numbering system describes a 5 as, "felt by nearly everyone; many awakened. some dishes, windows broken. Unstable objects overturned. Pendulum clocks may stop." For things like collapsing buildings built with earthquake codes in mind it needs to be a high 7 or even an 8, though even a 6 can knock over an unreinforced brick wall or bring down a poorly-constructed structure. As someone who was born in and has lived in earthquake territory all his life I'd say that a 5.2 isn't particularly strong. If you were awake and alert then you would definitely feel it, especially if the epicenter was right under you. Depending on geography you might feel the shaking / rolling motion up to a couple hundred miles away. It generally isn't going to hurt you though unless it happened to catch you in an unfortunate moment such as while you're climbing a ladder. (Or defusing a bomb. ) The only damage it would cause might be knocking something over or causing liquids in pots or cups escape their container. It should have basically no effect on the structural integrity of a properly-constructed building. Depending on where you are and what you're doing you might not even notice it. Subjectively it probably depends on the person and how familiar they are with earthquakes. I once slept through a 6.7 earthquake. My sister in law who comes from back east, on the other hand, would claim that anything she can feel is terrifying and will quite likely lead directly to the end of the world as we know it.

Didn't it rain, children - Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Just had an earthquake here. Feeling a bit like I'm on an amusement park ride. Edit: felt a couple more so I hit the USGS site. There's been a number of them in the last few minutes, all originating a bit north of me. 75mi / 116km away but still strong enough to feel here.

Recently checking out 魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない , aka Dahlia in Bloom. Seems a little slow so far - I've only gotten to the part where her fiancé dumps her and she starts her own company - but I'm hoping it picks up a bit based on its Japanese title. (My translation would be something like "Magical toolmaker Dahlia won't give up" or "..won't look back". I'm a bit uncertain of how to translate "うつむか" here but it definitely seems more interesting than just "bloom".) Going to come back to this one at the end of the season.

Mondays. Ugh. A typical Monday is bad enough on its own but it looks like the Yen/Dollar carry trade is unwinding as well so add market crash to the mix. Just for giggles. There goes my 401k.

Hmmm.. how to best explain. It is MIDI music, but the MIDI events are used to not only play the music but also trigger animations of animated / mechanial instruments, with the whole event being "filmed" as an animation. In other words, each MIDI event triggers both the music and a corresponding animated event in the video. Takes music appreciation to a whole new level. The group was founded by Wayne Lytle in 1990, and they released 2 DVDs. (Of which I own both.) They also inspired a few other groups along the way to experiment with the concept. There was even a couple attempts to realized the concept in the real world with actual midi-driven mechanical devices, though with marginal success. (Mechanical engineering of equipment that must perform in realtime on demand is not for the faint of heart.) Back in the day the technology and animation skills required for the computer animation were challenging. I'd really like to see what they could do now, 30 years later with modern technology.

Reminds me of Animusic. Anyone remember Animusic? "Full Circle" .. and "Ambient Glow" "Stage assembly" for Ambient Glow and the real deal.. Pipe Dream

Still watching Vintage Story videos to catch up on modern gameplay mechanics.

So what happens if you set off a nuke in space close to the earth? If you said "Godzilla" then good guess, but you would unfortunately be incorrect. What you do is get a lot of power and communication outages and some out-of-place auroral displays.

A bit cooler today. Still warm but I actually went outside to get some vitamin D at lunch. No detectable smoke smell for a change either. Guess they got the local fire(s) under control. Last I heard the closest fire to me was 88% contained. Maybe the wind is just blowing it away from me. Either way, I'll take it! I do feel bad for the people dealing with the "park" fire up north however! That sure escalated quickly!