UTMC

Not sure I'm liking it. I do think I've had the old avatar since, I dunno ... a decade?
I'll give it a spin, though.
Some youtube likes would be much appreciated ...

Jaeger wrote:

Rench wrote:WooHoo!!!! They're getting as old as us my friend. Keep her running!!!

Oh yeah, she's not going anywhere. I suspect I may need to find a replacement clutch cover -- not something I want to buy new for a 13-year-old bike.

The other thing I'm finally admitting is that I'm going to need "real" mufflers at some point. The Cherrybombs are an improvement over the last shit cans I had on there, but they're still more obnoxious than I'm comfortable with in what's otherwise a fairly polite neighborhood.

--Jaeger

Ah, the sweet death of responsibility, we know it well. Honestly though, if it makes the bike more fun for you to ride, I totally get that. I had occasion to swing a leg over a friends 450 KTM motocrosser with a Two Bros exhaust and while the bike was fantastic, the BRAAAP was a little off-putting. It sounded cool for my 2 minute blast about, but I cannot see myself enjoying it for anything longer than that.

Bigshankhank wrote:

Jaeger wrote:

Rench wrote:WooHoo!!!! They're getting as old as us my friend. Keep her running!!!

Oh yeah, she's not going anywhere. I suspect I may need to find a replacement clutch cover -- not something I want to buy new for a 13-year-old bike.

The other thing I'm finally admitting is that I'm going to need "real" mufflers at some point. The Cherrybombs are an improvement over the last shit cans I had on there, but they're still more obnoxious than I'm comfortable with in what's otherwise a fairly polite neighborhood.

--Jaeger

Ah, the sweet death of responsibility, we know it well. Honestly though, if it makes the bike more fun for you to ride, I totally get that. I had occasion to swing a leg over a friends 450 KTM motocrosser with a Two Bros exhaust and while the bike was fantastic, the BRAAAP was a little off-putting. It sounded cool for my 2 minute blast about, but I cannot see myself enjoying it for anything longer than that.

My buddy had a CB750 SOHC that he used for Land Speed racing. It had an open 4 into 1 exhaust and was unbearable to ride behind, even with ear plugs in. It did make some awesome fire balls on occasion.

Bigshankhank wrote:

Jaeger wrote:The other thing I'm finally admitting is that I'm going to need "real" mufflers at some point....

Ah, the sweet death of responsibility, we know it well. Honestly though, if it makes the bike more fun for you to ride, I totally get that. I had occasion to swing a leg over a friends 450 KTM motocrosser with a Two Bros exhaust and while the bike was fantastic, the BRAAAP was a little off-putting. It sounded cool for my 2 minute blast about, but I cannot see myself enjoying it for anything longer than that.

It's true. Kids seem to do that.

The thing is, I LOVE ripping around with her screaming her guts out. It makes me smile. Anybody who's ridden her knows she's not that damn fast -- certainly not off the line (though new clutch helps) -- but damnation, there's nothing quite like coming onto the highway, dropping a gear and pegging the throttle as you rip through the rest of the gears, deafening everyone behind you.

red wrote:My buddy had a CB750 SOHC that he used for Land Speed racing. .... It did make some awesome fire balls on occasion.

Oh, in a previous incarnation Athena used to spit big blue fireballs on decel. Scared the shit out of folks behind me. Always good fun.

--Jaeger

DerGolgo wrote:Not sure I'm liking it. I do think I've had the old avatar since, I dunno ... a decade?

And before that you had the "Cosmic Cutie" from HHGTTG (hence the moniker), and I had the fateful pic of my claw that bound me to Br'er Rock so many years ago.

We just gotta get guys like BSH their avatars back. It's confusing when I don't see the pic to tie the personality to the post.

--Jaeger

Jaeger wrote:

DerGolgo wrote:Not sure I'm liking it. I do think I've had the old avatar since, I dunno ... a decade?

And before that you had the "Cosmic Cutie" from HHGTTG (hence the moniker), and I had the fateful pic of my claw that bound me to Br'er Rock so many years ago.

We just gotta get guys like BSH their avatars back. It's confusing when I don't see the pic to tie the personality to the post.

--Jaeger

Sorry, too lazy to bother since the whole Photobucket debacle. I'll work on something new, the old trippin' into the mouths of gators was getting old anyway.

Bigshankhank wrote: Sorry, too lazy to bother since the whole Photobucket debacle. I'll work on something new, the old trippin' into the mouths of gators was getting old anyway.

Now here's something where my darling little forum here is easier to use than (not much of that left, so I cherish it!).
You go to User Control Panel select Profile from the dorp-down then select Edit Avatar from the other drop-down. Click Browse, select the image file from your machine, and Debauch.

You can use any image you like, so long as it's not illegal shit, no flat-earther bullshit, and so long as it fits those limitations:

The paranoid control freak who runs this place with his ironic fist wrote:Maximum dimensions; width: 140 pixels, height: 150 pixels, file size: 24.41 KiB.

If the image you wish to use doesn't fit those limitations. And it's neither illegal shit nor flat-earther bullshit. I will help, I will. One time offer.
Email me the image you wish to use (and, if necessary, any instructions as to where to crop what) admin at utmc-forum dot org.
I will bring out the GIMP and chop extraneous bits off of your image to fit it into the straight-jacket the weirdo in charge here has commanded. Then I'll email it back at ya, because while I can set any avatar to anything I bloody well like, for all of you here. You hear me? Your avatars are at my mercy!
While I can do that. I'd have to look up how to do it. And I'm too lazy to bother doing that.

DerGolgo wrote:

Bigshankhank wrote: Sorry, too lazy to bother since the whole Photobucket debacle. I'll work on something new, the old trippin' into the mouths of gators was getting old anyway.

Now here's something where my darling little forum here is easier to use than (not much of that left, so I cherish it!).
You go to User Control Panel

User Control Panel.png

select Profile from the dorp-down

Profile.png

then select Edit Avatar from the other drop-down.

Edit Avatar.png

Click Browse,

Browse and debauch.png

select the image file from your machine, and Debauch.

You can use any image you like, so long as it's not illegal shit, no flat-earther bullshit, and so long as it fits those limitations:

The paranoid control freak who runs this place with his ironic fist wrote:Maximum dimensions; width: 140 pixels, height: 150 pixels, file size: 24.41 KiB.

If the image you wish to use doesn't fit those limitations. And it's neither illegal shit nor flat-earther bullshit. I will help, I will. One time offer.
Email me the image you wish to use (and, if necessary, any instructions as to where to crop what) admin at utmc-forum dot org.
I will bring out the GIMP and chop extraneous bits off of your image to fit it into the straight-jacket the weirdo in charge here has commanded. Then I'll email it back at ya, because while I can set any avatar to anything I bloody well like, for all of you here. You hear me? Your avatars are at my mercy!
While I can do that. I'd have to look up how to do it. And I'm too lazy to bother doing that.

You asked for this, so check your email and reap the whirlwind.

Bigshankhank wrote: You asked for this, so check your email and reap the whirlwind.

--Jaeger

It hath been reapt.

I don't enjoy sports. Or exercise. Never had.
Theory is that it's because, when I was about a year old and should have been learning to walk, I had do stay in bed and even wear a helmet. In bed. Stuff that happens when you crack your skull before you can even walk.

My doctors had been telling me for a while I need to exercise.
So, three weeks ago, I finally manage to make myself sign up for a gym. Medical outfit, specializing in exercise for people who want to repair a broken body, or maintain one that is aging.
I managed to make myself hit that gym hard. First time in my life I managed to motivate myself into exercise, first time I had an opportunity for a workout in some place that didn't make me feel uncomfortable.
And I'd work through the pain. Hurting or sore muscles are a welcome distraction from the chronic pain. The body can't deal with more than one big flavor of pain at a time.
I'd walk there, 1.25 miles, do my 10 minutes "sweat up" on the exercycle, than the machines. Ten machines, one for each important muscle group. They set themselves up automatically when I log in with my RFID wristbandk. 45 second workout, then 35 seconds to get to the next machine.
I was told to start with two laps, three times a week. I know that, unless I do something in a way that must bring consequences, I'll eventually slack off. So I went five times a week, with only one day last week when I couldn't make it. Two laps didn't feel exhausting, so I'd do four. That's 30 solid minutes of pushing or pulling or stretching or contracting something or another.
Then 1.25 miles back home, also on foot.

I'm proud of myself like I haven't been since I don't even fucking know. Even staffers at the gym, unprompted, would come up to commend how hard I'd work.

Went in for the quarterly blood-panel yesterday, where they check my liver and kidneys aren't conking out under all the meds I'm on. Supposed to come in on Thursday to get results and stuff.
Got a phone call today. Which, after any medical test you're supposed to get results for next week, isn't good news.

One of my liver enzymes that was always slightly elevated, 68 when it shouldn't be more than sixty, is now seriously elevated.
Somewhere north of 560.

My medications are unchanged. I'm told to lay off one for now, but it's not it. I've been trying to extend the intermittent fasting I was on to outright ketogenic fasting. Breakfast, and then nothing for 12 hours, during which I'd burn off all that blood sugar. But that cannot be it, I'm told.
The doc says that enzyme is also produced by the muscles. When those are exercised.

So until further notice, I'm under doctors orders to NOT exercise. Yes, you read that right. A medical professional told me to sit on my ass for a week, or my liver might explode or some shit.

First time in my life I get in a good place with exercise. First time I manage to look forward to noticeable positive effects. Better stamina, endurance, and some actual muscles. Also helpful with the weight loss, exercising causes the body to go into the fat reserves even when it doesn't actually have to.
And now it's verboten.

Fuck.

DerGolgo wrote:...
First time in my life I get in a good place with exercise. First time I manage to look forward to noticeable positive effects. Better stamina, endurance, and some actual muscles. Also helpful with the weight loss, exercising causes the body to go into the fat reserves even when it doesn't actually have to.
And now it's verboten.

Fuck.

Fuuuuuuck. That sucks. They going to re-test in a few weeks?

--Jaeger

Jaeger wrote:
Fuuuuuuck. That sucks. They going to re-test in a few weeks?

--Jaeger

They'd re-test today if they didn't all shut their doors early on a Friday.
It's not a medical emergency at this point, but quite urgent, or so it appears.
They are closed till Thursday. When I'm supposed to come back in right first thing in the morning for a new test.
Until then. Lay off the modafinil, and NO exercise.

I am really sorry to hear that.

It's hard to live your life, do the right things, be responsible.

Even harder when setbacks are placed in your way, from infancy it seems.

Yet you keep working at it, doing your best

"Work your fingers to the bone and whaddaya get?
Boney fingers. . . . .Boney fingers"

Oh, I failed to mention. That enzyme that I've got too much of.
It's called "Gamma GT".

So begin the Suzuki jokes.

I'm trying to imagine if it'd be the 750 "kettle" in the RG500 frame, to combine scalpel-handling with an old, underpowered mill.
Like taking a super high-precision 8-axis CNC mill and controlling it from a Commodore 64.
Or getting a 100" 6k OLED TV, and watching old VHS tapes on it.

Or would it be the RG500 mill in the water-buffalo chassis?
Really squeezing .50 BMG sized power into a worn out side-by-side 12 gauge. You can probably shoot it, but you don't wanna be holding on to it at the time.
Or strapping a few crude but powerful J52 turbojets to a Piper Cub kind of a deal. Y'know. Swashbuckling, simpleminded, scorching, sheepheaded, searing suicide.

Anyone got some metaphors for mixing the Gamma and the GT in one direction or another?

Jaeger wrote:

Rench wrote:WooHoo!!!! They're getting as old as us my friend. Keep her running!!!

Oh yeah, she's not going anywhere. I suspect I may need to find a replacement clutch cover -- not something I want to buy new for a 13-year-old bike.

The other thing I'm finally admitting is that I'm going to need "real" mufflers at some point. The Cherrybombs are an improvement over the last shit cans I had on there, but they're still more obnoxious than I'm comfortable with in what's otherwise a fairly polite neighborhood.

--Jaeger

Remember the Supertrapp cans I showed you?

Also, this:


https://www.ebay.com/i/361998461825?chn ... 9228282780" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

guitargeek wrote: Remember the Supertrapp cans I showed you?

Also, this:


https://www.ebay.com/i/361998461825?chn ... 9228282780" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yeah, been thinking about the Supertrapps. That may well be the way to go. The Cherrybombs are a helluva lot better than those Emgo shit-cans, but they're still... well, rude, especially considering Spud's bedroom is directly over the garage. Makes it kind've hard to pull in/out while she's sleeping.

As far as the clutch cover, that's interesting -- my cover itself is fine, it's the crank-case breather hose/pipe that's bodged up. From our previous fiddling with it we were convinced it was pressed into the case at the factory. If it's possible to remove/replace the goddamn thing that will hopefully be a less spendy solution.

--Jaeger

Rench wrote:A pressed in breather hose?How incredibly...British...

-Rench

I started reading that and, knowing what you do for a living, I was like "WTF did I miss?! Someone is on a ventilator?!"

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me. Hunter S. Thompson

Cheers to you good sir. What a fucking week. With no end in sight.

-Rench

Slowly moving into the new shop.
Making the floor semi-shiny-


Toolboxes are here!


They look so tiny...


I think it'll work.


Don't have heat yet, and the wiring isn't near done, but it'll all happen as funds allow.

Dayum! Yeah, looks like your garage has the same footprint as my whole fucking house! Nicely done!

--Jaeger

Home shop.

Right now the footprint is level pegging with the house, but the house should be getting an addition to get the upper hand next year.

Enjoying my new video card.
When I built this machine (or, rather, had it built to my specs), I hadn't expected I'd ever be doing any graphics-intensive stuff ever again, for obvious reasons.
I have since discovered Kerbal Space Program. And, for over a year, was struggling with whether I should buy a new video card, or wait till I was ready to buy a new computer.
Problem: The old rules no longer apply. I got a cheap card three years ago, so for the same price now should have been able to buy something that'd compare to my own card like the monolith on 2001: A Space Odyssey compares to a Sinclair ZX80. Or something like that.
So I hounded the benchmark-comapre websites and was staggered to find. For the money I paid for the card I got in 2013, I'd be able to buy a card that would have something like exactly the same performance. Progress seems to have stalled.
So I bought a used one on ebay. Paid way too much, got the ebay-hunter-tunnel-vision. Whatever.

To install it, I first had to remove the old card. It wouldn't come out. I'm cursing and grumbling and fear that if I tug any harder, I might damage the mainboard. Turns out it's helpful to unplug your screens before you take the card out of the computer. Them HDMI connectors are pretty tough when they are in the way.
So when the new card is in, I start up the computer and shove it back into its corner. And it goes out again. I curse and grumble, assume I wiggled some connection loose. Nope, all is tight. Won't even start up.
Jiggle stuff some more. It starts up, but goes out again after a single lonely second. I curse and I grumble. I had thought I had a way-overpowered power supply, I remember grumbling they had nothing "my size" when I had to replace it about two years ago. Did I buy a card that requires the many watts? I removed it and made sure I hadn't forgotten to plug in an extra power cable like some cards need. Nopes. Symptoms persist, if the machine responds to the start-button at all, it goes out again after a second.
I curse and grumble. Great. Either I damaged something, probably something expensive, or I don't have enough power supply for the new card. Fan fucking tastic.
I jiggle some connectors once more and, suddenly. I find one that, when I jiggle it, makes the computer go out even faster when it won't start up.
In the end, after much jiggery pokery, it's running. I do believe I have a bad connector, but since the computer generally stands in its corner unmoved, it's not an urgent problem.

Right now, I'm kicking myself I didn't buy a better video card the day after first installing KSP. The one I got has benchmarks roughly twice as good as my old one, most of them. But if feels like upgrading from a Commodore 64 to HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Pretty fan fucking tastic, actually.

Renovation on the house continues only slightly abated! Removal of the offensive popcorn ceiling happened last week.

edit: Hmm attachment isn't showing up.

Bigshankhank wrote:Renovation on the house continues only slightly abated! Removal of the offensive popcorn ceiling happened last week.

edit: Hmm attachment isn't showing up.

Did you click "Add the file"?
I found that I easily forget that, after the "browse" dialogue.

DerGolgo wrote:

Bigshankhank wrote:Renovation on the house continues only slightly abated! Removal of the offensive popcorn ceiling happened last week.

edit: Hmm attachment isn't showing up.

Did you click "Add the file"?
I found that I easily forget that, after the "browse" dialogue.

Did it, downloaded file and waited for it to reach 100%, then clicked add file and the dialogue screen reset to blank. I will try again just for kicks.

Round two, electric bugaloo. Removing the popcorn from the ceiling of our house. (FYI that is not me, that is my son in law).

[media]https://youtu.be/Zpdeol1boLo[/media]

Bigshankhank wrote:Round two, electric bugaloo. Removing the popcorn from the ceiling of our house. (FYI that is not me, that is my son in law).

[media]https://youtu.be/Zpdeol1boLo[/media]

Yeah, if you tried uploading a video as an attachment to the post, that won't work. This board is quiet, still, a place of tranquility and contemplation. Where we appreciate the still, not the moving image. Or we just don't have the room to host a lot of video, and I never even tried implementing such a feature. Either one may be it, I dunno. It's like 9:30pm on a Friday, I had to deal not with one but with TWO fucking banks today, as you do when you try to do something as extravagant, vainglorious, and boorish as withdrawing money from my well balanced checking account, through an occult and demonic installation, referred to in hushed tones and never after dark, as an "ATM".
AND I just read a letter from my own lawyer informing me what a nasty person I am, daring to expect his henchman had been telling the truth when he told me he hadn't had time to work through my case yet, asking him for his professional opinion about stuff that's actually fucking important for me, and daring to complain when he missed the nth fucking deadline he had himself set for getting back to me.
AND I'm through fucking Netflix again, and youtube, the DVD I pre-ordered on Amazon won't be here before tomorrow, Apple has basically ruined the magnificent thing that iTunes U once was, making it about as difficult as possible to find university lectures in the mess of podcasts their store pimps, and all I have to keep me entertained is an entertaining skeptics podcast where three people are obviously having fun talking about sticking it to woo-peddlers.

Meh.
Most fun in recent days: wondering whether I was being extravagant when I gave something to a beggar who had come up to me in the street.
Not that giving to beggars is extravagant in the first place. I got more than I probably and technically need, they definitely got less (most do, anyway), so parting with a wee bit I won't even notice is no real question for me.
Just a few hours earlier, on my way to an appointment, I got a toothache. The same toothache I've been getting for well over 10 years, and that an actual half dozen dentists wasn't able to do fuckall about. And, besides the as-needed opiates, which will do fuckall for a toothache, had no pain meds on me. So I had stopped into a pharmacy, bought a €2.90 box of Ibuprofen, 400mg pill, took two (as various doctors had told me was fine), and put the box in my bag.
The beggar, meanwhile, told me how she needed money to redeem a prescription she had gotten because she had recently needed leg surgery. She showed me the prescription. For Ibuprofen, prescription strength, 800mg.
Being slightly odd from years of living from one doctors' appointment to the next, never without some kind of pills in my system, I had instinctively reached into my bag and just pushed the box still containing 18 Ibuprofen 400 into her hand.
"What's that?" she asks. "Ibuprofen" I say. She thanked me profusely.
Judging by what I know about Ibuprofen (an uncomfortable lot ... ), that should keep her medicated for 3+ days.
I wasn't even wondering about whether I should have given her the box of pills. They were legit pills, freshly bought, and she had a script for the same stuff in twice the strength. While I had a big box and a half, about 70 or so pills, sitting at home.
I'm just wondering whether I would ever have considered giving her the approximately €2.61 I had given her in pills without even thinking.

[EDIT]: Regarding said letter from my lawyer. Just got a call from my pa. Unlike me, he speaks "suit", and proficiently. Apparently, my lawyer was profusely apologizing. Protecting his henchman a wee bit, as you do when communicating with the outside. But, or so my pa interprets the letter, pretty like chewed said henchman out like beef jerky.
What a day. Feck.