Useless Conversation

[ghost]

It's a damned shame too. At least up here in Canada our comparatively low physician salaries contribute to our vastly cheaper health care system rather than going to bloated insurance company profits.

On the other hand, I can't remember the last time I've had to wait more than 15 minutes for a scheduled appointment either with my GP or a specialist.  Perhaps Canadian doctors have lower expectations and don't feel the need to double book.

On second thought, we should probably move this conversation over to Politics before people get butt hurt. 

[Minvaren]

In other news, I got a book on drywalling, and my technique seems to have improved to nearly acceptable as a result - but doing sheet rock work still sucks.   

http://www.amazon.com/Drywall-Professional-Techniques-Great-Results/dp/1561589551

Great drywall book.

That'd be the book I have.   

[Cyrrex]

Plasma has burn-in potential, last I read.  Although I don't play the same game for six hour stretches anymore, but you never know what the future holds.

Plasma burn in?  I didn't realize it was still 2004, or whenever the last time that was a serious issue.  Most modern plasmas, you wouldn't have to worry about it unless you are literally viewing the same screen 24 hours a day (say, like those monitors in airport terminals that show flight information).  Buy a current gen plasma from a reputable manufacturer, and you don't have to worry about such things.

And it's ALWAYS okay to talk about TVs.  They are like men's babies.  I might send you a cigar.

[ghost]

Plasma has burn-in potential, last I read.  Although I don't play the same game for six hour stretches anymore, but you never know what the future holds.

Plasma burn in?  I didn't realize it was still 2004, or whenever the last time that was a serious issue.  Most modern plasmas, you wouldn't have to worry about it unless you are literally viewing the same screen 24 hours a day (say, like those monitors in airport terminals that show flight information).  Buy a current gen plasma from a reputable manufacturer, and you don't have to worry about such things.

And it's ALWAYS okay to talk about TVs.  They are like men's babies.  I might send you a cigar.

I have a very nice one, and there is a residual shadowing (that will eventually go away in a few days) if I watch something that has a constant pattern over a long period of time. I am not willing to take a chance on that sort of stuff considering the cost of the TV.  I don't think it would be a problem for most games or movies, however. 

[MuffinMan]

I get the temporary residual shadowing thing too on my 37" LCD that I bought in 2004-2005. Roommate left a game paused but it wasn't even very long. I didn't think it happened to LCD's but it's only happened a couple times.

[Sand]

Buddy of mine is formerly a reporter at the liberal independent paper here in town.
Posted to his Facebook status:
Fiance told me, I love you like planes love the world trade center. I fell in love all over again.

Definitely the best 9/11 line I heard all week. 

[Minvaren]

Do plasma TVs still suck down phenomenal amounts of power, or is that an older-gen thing too?

[ghost]

Buddy of mine is formerly a reporter at the liberal independent paper here in town.
Posted to his Facebook status:
Fiance told me, I love you like planes love the world trade center. I fell in love all over again.

Definitely the best 9/11 line I heard all week. 

That's fucking stupid as hell. 

[Der Helm]

Buddy of mine is formerly a reporter at the liberal independent paper here in town.
Posted to his Facebook status:
Fiance told me, I love you like planes love the world trade center. I fell in love all over again.

Definitely the best 9/11 line I heard all week. 

That's ... I ... wow... I got nothing... 

[Rasix]

Buddy of mine is formerly a reporter at the liberal independent paper here in town.
Posted to his Facebook status:
Fiance told me, I love you like planes love the world trade center. I fell in love all over again.

Definitely the best 9/11 line I heard all week. 

[Ingmar]

Do plasma TVs still suck down phenomenal amounts of power, or is that an older-gen thing too?

They still use a lot more power than the alternatives, yes, as far as I know.

[Tale]

'I love you like planes love the world trade center.'

There's this hot girl at work. We chat, we smile, I have my hopes. Until this morning when she says 9/11 was an inside job and urges me to watch Loose Change. 

[Paelos]

All hot chicks are crazy, man. That's like, the least crazy thing I've heard from a hot chick.

Still worth it. Just don't marry her.

[Lantyssa]

There's this hot girl at work. We chat, we smile, I have my hopes. Until this morning when she says 9/11 was an inside job and urges me to watch Loose Change. 

One of my former co-workers is a very smart guy.  Well read, stays current, thinks things through... he's started leaning that way, too.  Ditto with global warming.  (Also has a huge spiel about the evils of statins, but I actually agree with him about them.)

I just nod and talk in hypotheticals about any such subject he brings up.

[Cyrrex]

Do plasma TVs still suck down phenomenal amounts of power, or is that an older-gen thing too?

Depends on what you mean by phenomenal amounts.  I think my plasma sucks down around 450 watts. My LCD might be 250 to 300. 

Regarding burn in:  If it's disappearing, it isn't truly burn in.  And as someone else mentioned, LCDs can have that happen as well, just less frequently as I understand it.  Also, you probably have some kind of "grey screen" function on your plasma that is specifically designed to erase those shadows if they ever occur.  The rule of thumb these days is this: unless you are doing something to more or less deliberately display a static image for hours and days on end, you need not worry about burn in.  That has been true for many years now.  Even television broadcasts, like where they have the the little "Fox" logo (or whatever) up in the corner...they have little tricks to ensure that the image isn't static.

[Sky]

DLP doesn't have burn-in or persistent images, never has :) And power draw is 212W for my 65" (which is currently just $875 on amazon!).

On the crazy coworker thing...just remember Trump's Art of the Deal: plan for the worst case scenario. Do you really want crazy co-worker hot chick around when you inevitably have to dump her?

And as far as crazy coworker talk, I often float things out just to see how people react, find their boundaries, play devil's advocate (because I work with a ton of libruls and I'm a moderate).

[Merusk]

That's older than Trump.  You don't dip your pen in the company ink.

[Ghambit]

That's older than Trump.  You don't dip your pen in the company ink.

You do if you don't intend to keep whatever mundane job you currently have.

[Paelos]

In that case, fuck the ink on your desk.

[Johny Cee]

Hey Schild!  How do you feel about the US Postal system?   

[Minvaren]

So on the drive home, I hear on the radio that there's a grass fire about 3 miles from my place, at the "George Bush Park," which I think is what they renamed the Addicks Reservoir to sometime in the last few years.

So I look up, and see this:


Needless to say, traffic on the west side of Houston is totally screwed by this.  4 miles and 30 minutes later, it looks like this:


3 miles and another 30 minutes later, here's the view from my place:


News said 60 firefighters were fighting it, wishing them the best.

[Lantyssa]

Saw that as I was getting close to home from visiting my parents and thought, "oh shit".  Surprisingly there was only one small burn patch on all of 288.

[Minvaren]

288?  Isn't that about 15-20 miles from Westheimer and Hwy 6?  Or was there another fire?

[Lantyssa]

Different fire.  But considering I drove 60 miles, only having one patch of 1000 square feet of burned median was amazing given the weather.

[Minvaren]

Fire was out about 7:00 - 7:15pm or so.  Go HFD.   

[Polysorbate80]

To be fair, I make very stiff drinks.  I've probably had a fourth of a fifth of vodka already.

Mail me a couple of those, will ya?

We've been planning to move myelderly parents into our house with us for, oh, a couple years now while our old house sold and construction of the new place was going on.  Now that they're finally ready to move, they drop the bombshell that they plan to drag my crazy-ass sister along and let her live in the place too.  I had to tell them "no, not gonna happen".

It ended....not well.

[Selby]

Now that they're finally ready to move, they drop the bombshell that they plan to drag my crazy-ass sister along and let her live in the place too.  I had to tell them "no, not gonna happen".

You know, I hear this story time and time again from friends and my ex-wife too.  It's like everything is fine until you get told right beforehand that some crazy\bum sibling or cousin is "also coming to live with us too" and they get so damn bent out of shape when the law gets laid down not in crazy\bum person's favor.  I hate to be this way, but sometimes people need to live their own lives and live their own failures, having parents around to constantly be there when they don't does them no service.

[Merusk]

As a parent it's really, really fucking hard to let your kids fail.  Those that haven't managed to do it by the time they're moving-in with the successful ones aren't ever going to do it, sadly.

Sorry to hear about the discord, Poly.  My granma was the same way with a loser druggie uncle and it drove my mom and other uncle up a wall.  She finally figured it out after my granpa died 4 years ago, but I think she still sends him cash now and again.

[Arthur_Parker]

How old is the sister?

[Lantyssa]

Mail me a couple of those, will ya?

They'll spill in the mail.

To make your own at home, try one part vodka to two parts cranberry-pomegranate, with a squeeze of lime.  If you have a Sonic nearby, get a bag of their ice.  Drink three back-to-back.  Cook dinner (after a little time to sober up), then have another.

[Reg]

What's special about ice from Sonic?

[Murgos]

What's special about ice from Sonic?

You an get it smothered and covered.

[Merusk]

What's special about ice from Sonic?

They use one of those flake icers instead of one that makes solid cubes.  It's fantastic.

[Paelos]

What's special about ice from Sonic?

You an get it smothered and covered.

That's waffle house 

[Polysorbate80]

How old is the sister?

Sister is 37.  She's lived with the parents off and on over the years.  She's always been incredibly lazy, when Dad would finally have all he could stand he'd throw her out of the house, so she'd work for a while until eventually she'd talk Mom into letting her move back in.  Rinse and repeat.

Dad had a sister who was exactly the same way, and Grandpa and Grandma would go through the same cycle with her.  Nobody needs this continuing for a third generation.

Edit:  The nearest Sonic is 40 miles away, the ice won't hold up well even in a cooler I think.  Maybe I can find a substitute around town here...