^ I'm sending that photo to my sister. She will lock up (and want one.)

Pulled an 8000amp(DC) transformer out of a rectifier today. The baby rectifier too.
I love this stuff.


https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...26d81fe83a.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...daf4b8d4f1.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...5c618e08dc.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...488db1c30a.jpg

Interestingly, that looks almost identical to the plate transformer in a Harris FM-20K transmitter. Except those do pretty much the opposite thing. 2-3 amps, at 11 kV.

Also, I deface Toyota's FB advertising in a very small way.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...32c643b360.png

that time when your robot malfunctioned:

that time you mocked the silly:

that time you won a darwin award:

Texas boy shot to death by twin aiming for snake - Story | KTBC

here's some more darwin for today:

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1497586799

https://www.miataturbo.net/attachmen...1&d=1497586799

wow, a younger guy that doesn't want to censor but increase communication:

i cant believe these people just sat there...

^ I don't get it.

Also, here are some pictures of large, fiberglass bears:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6e79de5bbf.png


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a531ce2a67.png

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2d2bc6d0ea.png

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4f529b0a1f.png

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...65a5260006.png

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d9faf81526.png

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4b367e4f08.png

they do that same thing in OBX, but with horses.

And in Cincinnati with flying pigs.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b7705cae06.png


Anyway, my impression of New Bern is that it's not a shithole, which is a stark contrast to my only prior NC experience in Chapel Hill area. It is, however, rather... quaint in the downtown, and shockingly suburban everywhere else.

Downtown:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7d8f80aa05.png

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...2f5b3b0af3.png



Suburbia:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...67aa889344.png
(This picture kinda freaks me out a little bit... Hoping I can acclimate rapidly.)


Debating between a corded Black & Decker like I had back in 2002-04, vs one of them fancy-pants new lithium cordless units like these:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Greenworks-...wer/1000179065



Also, the BBQ here is weird. But this Brunswick stew thing I could get into.

Or in Tulsa with Penguinshttps://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ba713edee6.jpg
.

Joe, let me know what you decide re: Mowers. I'm going buy/build a house before the end of the year and I'm also looking at electric mowers. I'll have a small suburban yard like you posted. Mainly a 3-5 year stop gap to stop paying rent until I can buy something I really want. Or move.

Serous response to "just buying something to stop paying rent until I can get the house I want."

Compare the expected rent paid over 3-5 years against mortgage payments - equity gained + taxes and insurance + loan origination costs + realtor commission + an allotment for maintenance.

When I did this math back in SoCal years ago, the break-even point was nearly 8 years. So I kept renting.

It often doesn't make sense to buy if you don't anticipate staying parked in that spot for quite a while.

I agree, but in OK, our real estate is so cheap, it changes the dynamic. I can buy a new HERS 58 home 3 bed 2 bath 2 car garage for what I pay in rent.

I know I'm going to be here for at least 4 years, so might as well. I miss my tools and having a garage.

This I understand well. Been 4 years without.

Now I have a decent-sized garage, and virtually no tools. Everything fits into a single rollaround chest. No compressor, no drill press, no bandsaw, no chop saw, no welder... Just a craftsman socket set, a tiny jack, a few hand drills, an angle grinder, and some bicycle-specific stuff.

I pretty much finished the AutoCAD layout for this move, and I'm sad to report that I can no longer fit my whole life into a 16' Penske truck; gonna have to upgrade to the 22'. The new sofa and the non-inflatable mattress set pushed me over the edge.

The Queen mattress set.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...c9eca35f21.png

Modified Exit Sign

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...6e31ae476e.jpg

While it's obviously too early to be certain, all indications are that this may actually become a thing.

https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/16/a...-game-console/

https://www.ataribox.com/

Neil DeGrasse Tyson has always been a bad-ass:

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8c7e6108f3.jpg

Always.

They really do not want people feeding the pigeons beneath this freeway overpass:

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1bf9e2f700.png

I know that's my favorite thing to do on a warm spring evening. Hang out below the freeway by the L train exit and feed pigeons.

Also, this is how you know the humidity is too high. Boarding a CRJ at EWN yesterday:

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4ba48e6639.png

It begins:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...842f7e83a4.png

(Much whiskey was consumed.)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4265/3...36c3b558_c.jpg

http://pre02.deviantart.net/d8d6/th/...on-d978ryn.jpg

you know what we should make illegal?

Re: electric lawn mower.

Love this one:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-80-V...ower/999929526

It's the lowe's branded greenworks mower. Also got the trimmer. We're on a smallish suburban plot, and although the mower comes with 2 batteries, we rarely deplete one of them mowing - it's a rapid charger too, you could probably charge one of the batteries in about the time it takes to drain the other one. I don't use the bag, and I leave the mulching cover in place so that it chops the grass instead of throwing it. It handles tall, tough, wet grass without complaining - a hell of a lot better than the gasser that came before it.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...604e04832b.jpg

Four hundred and fifty dollars!!!!

bruh, your grass aint the only green that's mulching.

Here's "my" mower. Three of us in the neighborhood share it. The first of the same model died. Total cost for two was $20 plus the cost of a new blade. We already had extension cords.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d6fc7f1d1e.png

Child labor not included.

That's one of two I'm looking at. Didn't realize it was made by Greenworks (the shape of the motor head is totally different,) but comparing side by side, most of the hardware does appear identical.

Leaning towards this unit, which has a 60v, 4ah battery:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...4499190221.png


$100 less, and nearly the same total battery capacity.




Back in 2002-04, I had a corded B&D. Really had no complaints about it, and never ran over the cord, but over the years I've learned that sometimes it's ok to spend a little more for the nicer things. Yes, the battery adds an element of uncertainty as to reliability / longevity, but there's a strong convenience factor to consider. Plus, my new place has only one exterior outlet, and it's by the front door. That's a lot of cable to lug around to get to the end of the back yard:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...dc8bef704f.png

WTF? Where the hell are the trees? Is this in the US or some unnamed African desert?

that was EXACTLY what I was thinking. I'm in a new neighborhood that was once a farm, and there's still plenty of trees. Damn.

At least there's a marina for his boat.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Sign_2009.JPG

This is suburbia to the extreme. It's a new cookie-cutter HOA community which basically looks like it belongs in Edward Scissorhands.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d8ce8f888a.png

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ebba610125.png


Can't really tell the difference, can you?


Like I said, I'm only renting. Definitely would not buy here.

Yeah, as I walked downstairs yesterday to let my lady out of the building, I heard the front brakes of her smart car squealing. If I already had a house and my tools, no issue. Buy some pads, swap them out, done. And I'd be greeted to a home cooked meal when I was finished. Without said tools or space, I don't know what we are going to do, because I don't want her to pay for a shop to do something I can easily finish in less than 2 beers.

Oh boy. You can really screw your landlord.

You might want to check to see if electric mowers are allowed.

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images..._2_400x400.jpg

I don't understand HOA neighborhoods. What's the point of owning a single family home if you have to answer to the asshole of the neighborhood that has nothing better to do than police the neighborhood for landscaping that doesn't conform to his or her liking.

Its to give bitchy woman who have nothing better to do in life, feel like they are doing something.

True story: Most HOA's are not enforced by the community, but instead a business, or whoever built the community. At my last HOA I got a complaint about my truck being parked on the street with a trailer. I called the company that runs the HOA, and no joke, they said "not another fucking complaint". Apparently the people holding the meetings had "passed" a rule about trailer parking without approval from the company that ran it. They said ignore it, and they would tell them to stop bothering me.

Trees destroy underground utilities (supply laterals, sewer lines, etc) clog up things like storm drains, are a hazard to overhead utilities (power, phone, cable tv, etc) are a damage and liability concern to things on the ground (parked cars, children, houses, etc) buckle sidewalks and cause tripping hazards... the list goes on and on.

As a developer, why would you ever even consider planting a tree in a cookie cutter HOA neighborhood?

http://www.trbimg.com/img-551ef5eb/t...trees-20150403

</sarc>

My lawn mower is diesel

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...bcb5ea159b.jpg

Mine is battery powered...starter.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a704d2c10d.jpg

Can't screw the landlord. The terms of my lease require me to conform to the CC&Rs, and provide for the assignment of penalties stemming from non-compliance to me.

I've read them. I'm required to maintain the lawn & landscaping (there is no landscaping) in "neat condition." Specifically, the grass may be no taller than six inches as measured from the ground. No restrictions are placed upon the implements by which I may achieve this, meaning that a turbine-powered lawn mower is not entirely excluded from my future.




There are arguments to be made on both sides of the issue. On the one hand, HOAs to have the potential to become bitchy, micromanaging organizations run by people who have no actual skills or talent yet seek power. On the other hand, there's always that one homeowner who wants to paint their house pink, stick the washer and dryer in the front yard, and park six non-functional El Caminos on blocks.




The last house I owned was in an HOA neighborhood in Maineville, OH, in what used to be a corn field. The CC&Rs actually mandated the planting of trees by homebuilders, and went so far as to specify breeds and quantities.

The house in question, including the tress which I was required to plant when I built the place:

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...1306078fc5.png

(They've grown quite a bit over the past 13 years.)

My lawn mower is powered by VISA. I pay the bills, the grass get magically mowed. :)

--Ian

Huh. I fail to see the issue with this...

That's what I do. And the lawn care guy is my son-in-law, so I get the double benefit of helping to support my daughter and my grandchildren.

You're doing it wrong.

Buy an electric mower. Mount a cupholder on it. Download Podcatcher onto your iThing and subscribe to the following podcasts:

• Freakonomics
• Mystery Show
• Radiolab
• Reply All
• Science Vs.
• Surprisingly Awesome
• TED Radio Hour
• This American Life

It's like, a Zen thing, man.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...25e469ee13.png

It was 104 degrees this weekend, no thanks.

iRobot needs to make a lawn mowing robot. They could call it a "lawnba" :)

--Ian

Yeah, fuck those guys! Wait....that's us. :ugh: Okay maybe not a pink house or washer and dryer but the cars for sure hahaha

104° in Santa Clara? Fuck me... I mean, it was a little on the warm side in the summertime when I lived there ~4 years ago, but no way in hell it was 104°.

That being said, robo-mowers are old news.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d16a0bf408.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...90e9f6d206.jpg

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...7a2feb0614.jpg

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...8a5918313e.jpg


Something about this is oddly terrifying, in a Maximum Overdrive sort of way...

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ebe2a765a2.png






When I was in Jr. High school, it was easy to give people directions to my house. Go east on Midway Blvd, turn right between the sparkly pink and sparkly yellow houses.

Not making this shit up.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...624bfd0c96.png

Wow, a lot has changed since those days... The house on the right used to be sparkly pink, and the house on the left used to exist... and be sparkly yellow.

Most summers we get one or two weeks where it's in the high 90s/low hundreds, this year it just happened to come technically in spring, rather than in August. :)

--Ian

Anybody near MRLS should come out to refuel on Sunday :D

I'm driving this thing

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...88cecd6bd3.png

AWD, chain drive, all electric. Inboard brakes. Hoosier slicks. Should be interesting to drive to say the least.

You're driving a Palatov???? How the hell did you land that?

Some college friends work at a company that owns it. They offered me the drive.

That's bad ass as hell. I'm so damn jealous right now.

I'm pretty stoked.

REFUEL 2017 - Clean Power Motorsports Event

All electric track day.