Random randomness

[gilraen]

Why on earth would you think even for a second that a reputable hardware support rep would need to install a remote access program onto your computer??? You should have hung up on them the moment he suggested it.

[dbt1949]

Because I'm olde and stupid.
I'm as upset with me as I am him.
I never seem to fucking learn.

[hitbyambulance]

So I've been busy making sure his program taking over my computer is gone and changing passwords.

first i've heard of someone cold-calling a scammer from the phone book...

[Hipolito]

Potassium has a half-life of 1.2 billion years.

Long after we are gone, the bananas we ate will tell our story.

[Blackhawk]

So I've been busy making sure his program taking over my computer is gone and changing passwords.

first i've heard of someone cold-calling a scammer from the phone book...

It isn't a bad idea, I suppose. Collect the names of closed or rebranded tech companies, put out 'seeds' on the 'net that directs their customers needing support to your number, and wait for the victims to call you. Since the victims took the initiative, they're likely to be more trusting, too.

[Kasey Chang]

Was watching a "humane squirrel trap" when someone posted this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Ya6z-NlDo

[KKBlue]

Not sure how many of you have had the privledge of taking a shower with a spider? This was my 3rd memorable time since being married. The house had me in the stall with 2 of them, couldn't open the door for the longest time from the fear factor. As the years went by, my relationship with the 8 legged changed so when we moved in the condo (bathtub shower) I reacted more calmly for the next encounter.

Tonight, tonight, I panicked to a degree. I would have captured the large black spider (wearing a shower cap) myself but I called for reinforcements. Thank you telcta for again saving me!

[dbt1949]

There always seem to be spider webs (and associated spiders) in the upper corner of my shower. I look at them as my little buddies. The eat flies and gnats.

[Blackhawk]

Was watching a "humane squirrel trap" when someone posted this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Ya6z-NlDo

That's fucking disgusting. How that has managed to stay up for ten years is beyond me. The whole video is about how funny it is to fling wild animals into trees.

[Daehawk]

There always seem to be spider webs (and associated spiders) in the upper corner of my shower. I look at them as my little buddies. The eat flies and gnats.

Same. I move them if the web is too low . Ill move the spider if I feel I would harm it taking a shower too. Usually to the window sill or behind the toilet.

[Kraken]

There always seem to be spider webs (and associated spiders) in the upper corner of my shower. I look at them as my little buddies. The eat flies and gnats.

Same. I move them if the web is too low . Ill move the spider if I feel I would harm it taking a shower too. Usually to the window sill or behind the toilet.

I appreciate spiders as long as they're discreet. If they show themselves on my turf, they die. I'm helping them evolve. They'll thank me someday.

[Daehawk]

The older I get the more bouts of insomnia I get. In high school I could sleep all night then fall asleep at my desk no problem . For the last 2 weeks Ive had my sleep backwards. I go to bed at noon and wake up around 8:30pm. Well I dont care for it but I didn't feel like changing it. But now I find myself having to go to town today to do bill and food running. So I have to leave around 9am. Im going to mess my schedule Ive had up majorly instead of a little and then Saturday I have to weed eat..got no working mower so weed eat the entire yard. None of that is going to be good. Im worried now that all this will bring on insomnia. UGH. Life is fun until you grow up.

As a kid I thought adults had it made. After about 10 years of adult I wanted to go back

[GreenGoo]

We have a mouse problem. I've dealt with it early and often in the past, and been successful. Not this time, so they have taken root.

I spent an hour yesterday watching mousetrap videos. It was cathartic.

I friggin' hate mice.

[Paingod]

I spent an hour yesterday watching mousetrap videos. It was cathartic.

A few weeks back, folks around the office were discussing a self-resetting mousetrap that could keep catching them over and over. Basically, a bucket with bait in the middle of it with enough water to drown them. Put a ramp up the side so they can climb up, and then they try to cross a balanced beam to the bait hovering over the middle. When the mouse tips the balance, they fall in and the beam returns to normal for the next mouse. Also, rolling log trap.

My wife is at a point where she's ready to wage all-out war against vermin destroying her gardens, so we may end up going this way. She'll probably opt for a metal bucket with no water so we can "repatriate" the mice back to the deep woods.

[LordMortis]

I have found the not so humane peanut butter traps very effective. One mouse disappears an evening until they are gone. I've only ever had one infestation but infestation it was. An entire family moved in and bred or something. I went from no mice, to WTF? midnight noises, to a torn bag of ramen and droppings in the course of like two weeks. Then I was on a five day count down back to no mice.

[Paingod]

I have found the not so humane peanut butter traps very effective. One mouse disappears an evening until they are gone. I've only ever had one infestation but infestation it was. An entire family moved in and bred or something. I went from no mice, to WTF? midnight noises, to a torn bag of ramen and droppings in the course of like two weeks. Then I was on a five day count down back to no mice.

Still - a $3 bucket, $0.05 tin can, and a snip of wire can end a mouse problem in one night.

[LordMortis]

I spent an hour yesterday watching mousetrap videos. It was cathartic.

A few weeks back, folks around the office were discussing a self-resetting mousetrap that could keep catching them over and over. Basically, a bucket with bait in the middle of it with enough water to drown them. Put a ramp up the side so they can climb up, and then they try to cross a balanced beam to the bait hovering over the middle. When the mouse tips the balance, they fall in and the beam returns to normal for the next mouse. Also, rolling log trap.

My wife is at a point where she's ready to wage all-out war against vermin destroying her gardens, so we may end up going this way.

How are ticks up your way? Back in February they said the mice problem, therefore the tick problem, therefore a lyme disease problem was going to hit near epidemic levels in the Northeast this year. That prediction is being felt in the great lakes region. Everyone is complaining about ticks this year. For my parents, the last of their tick eating chickens died this spring and they want to start traveling a bit. No chickens being replaced plus the voodoo of that prediction and they now do a tick check every time the dog leaves the house and comes back in.

[GreenGoo]

I have found the not so humane peanut butter traps very effective. One mouse disappears an evening until they are gone. I've only ever had one infestation but infestation it was. An entire family moved in and bred or something. I went from no mice, to WTF? midnight noises, to a torn bag of ramen and droppings in the course of like two weeks. Then I was on a five day count down back to no mice.

edit: Just to be clear, Paingod already covered this, I was just throwing in my 2 cents of a description.

Yep, the easiest and most effective trap I saw was a bucket with a free spinning dowel across it, with peanut butter in the middle. The mouse steps out, the dowel spins, drops them in the bucket, the bait stays put since it's sticky peanut butter. It has almost no limit to the number of mice it can catch and drown without being checked on like you would have to with a more traditional trap. Less messy too.

The same thing can be done with a couple of coke cans and a wire from a coat hanger, but it's not as effective simply because the cans are wider and there is more friction reducing the ease of spinning. Tiny mice can still walk on them successfully. Larger mice will still fall in most of the time.

The engineering in some of the old tymey traps was cool enough to make the videos worth watching all on their own.

A modern one uses a C02 cartridge and a piston to crush their skulls. Sounds awful but it was really very quick and less stressful/lingering than drowning them, by far. or crushing them with a spring trap or snaring them with a rope/wire. It's the same thing used in slaughter houses (well, they used to do it, not sure about today). Think No Country for Old Men.

[Paingod]

How are ticks up your way?

I'd say it's worse than last year at this time. We've got a healthy collection going in my alcohol jar. I like to make sure they're dead, and it's fascinating to see how many can accumulate in there over a year. Just yesterday my wife spent some time working her dogs outside and came back in to find three on her. We're getting a lot of dog ticks and very few deer ticks. All of our animals that go outside have tick collars and she's crafted a home-made tick repellent to use on them.

I'm still a magnet for them more than anyone else I know. Just walking from the basement door to my car can net me a tag-along that I discover an hour into my workday.

[Kasey Chang]

I have a mouse problem again, but my 4 traps aren't catching anything. I bought the bait gel, but I guess I had to bring out the peanut butter.

[Max Peck]

Cool story, bro!

“Damn,” he said in a half-hushed whisper. “This guy’s good.”

I could hear President Obama as he walked up the path behind me and spied the multiple arrows I had placed, undetected, in the bull's-eye. I waited until I could sense him close by. Then, with the casual swagger that had become my calling card, I turned, and feigning annoyance, delivered the line I had prepared:

“What took you so long?”

Obama, recognizing me immediately, clapped his hands and doubled over in laughter. There’s no way he could have been as happy and amazed as I was to be there.

It was August 2011 and “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” the absurdly debonair character I played on the Dos Equis beer commercials, had become an international cultural phenomenon. Finally, after decades of trying to break through in Hollywood, I was a recognizable star with my meme-ready line, “Stay thirsty, my friends.” The character’s nearly mythical traits, recounted by a narrator in a nearly endless string of deliciously funny one-liners—“His personality is so magnetic, he is unable to carry credit cards,” and “He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels”—had generated a cult following. I had millions of fans all around the world. One of them happened to live in the White House.

The president and I had met earlier that year at a fundraiser in Vermont when he was just preparing for his reelection campaign. He had impressed me with his encyclopedic recall of the outrageous escapades of my TV character. Still, I was more than surprised when I later got a call from one of his deputies. Would I like to be part of a special surprise for the president’s 50th birthday celebration at Camp David? Ten of Obama’s best friends—most of them people he had known as far back as high school—were on the list. And me. All top secret. Life didn’t get any more interesting than this.

Would I like to come? You bet I would.

You'll have to click that baited link if you want to read the Origin Story of The Most Interesting Man in the World®. Totally worth it.

[Kraken]

My wife is at a point where she's ready to wage all-out war against vermin destroying her gardens, so we may end up going this way. She'll probably opt for a metal bucket with no water so we can "repatriate" the mice back to the deep woods.

I have two young cats would are enthusiastic about pest control. Unfortunately, the one who's prone to staying out for up to 24 hours at a time slipped his breakaway collar and is confined to quarters until its replacement comes. His brother (who's very good about coming back in) protests the unfairness nonstop.

Once they have the run of the yard I think my vegetables will be well protected.

[Daehawk]

Be thankful its mice. I have baby opossums as I said somewhere before. Mama died and at least one lives here. I grabbed him the last week and took him outside away from the house and let him go. Found him back in the kitchen 5 days ago. Never could grab him and he seems to have left on his own. Kinda cute actually,. Makes the most vicious little face though with lots of sharp teeth. But they dont bite unless in extreme stress. Sorta like a cute rat with a pouch for carrying cigs.

[Daehawk]

Gotta say Firehouse Subs have the best drinks. The sweet tea and the Cherry Limeade are the two best fast food drinks out there. Always get the large huge super ass cup for them. They have one of those Coke machines with the million flavor combo thing and I never use it for any of that lol.

[GreenGoo]

And I have improvised a mouse murdering engine.

Bucket, 5/8th inch wooden dowel, 2 nails, some water and some peanut butter.

Unfortunately I didn't quite nail the center of gravity on the dowel so I'm not sure it's going to work. It rotates relatively smoothly, but with the center of gravity below the axis of rotation, it'll have a stabilizing effect countering some (maybe all?) of the mouse's weight (my mice are tiny). Plus with a wooden dowel, I'm not sure whether the mice can get their claws into the wood enough to prevent them from falling. They are tenacious, agile little buggers.

Anyway, just using some stuff I had around the house. If it doesn't work, I'll have to do less improvising and more planning.

If I don't get at least one tonight I'm gonna be sad. Mouse poop is starting to show up and it's gross. Did I mention I hate mice? I didn't used to, but now that they are defiling my home, I have absolutely no concern for their well being.

They are vermin. They are going to die. If not this way, then some other.

[KDH]

Be thankful its mice. I have baby opossums....

I had raccoons living inside my bathtub .. inside the metal shell .. I could hear them banging around, trying to maneuver. They came up from under the house where all the plumbing comes in and lived in the walls in that pipe corridor where all the bathrooms lineup. Stayed for the winter and left on their own gumption ... we quickly placed the covers on the vents that we had been lackadaisical about before.

[dbt1949]

I found poisoning the best solution. Leave it where the dogs can't get it, like my sock drawer were the mice like to bed down. Or in back of the microwave. Leave some in the trash.
Altho the dogs have chewed on the dead mice a couple of times and for all I know ate them, I've never had any sick dogs. If the mice ain't movin they ain't interested.

[GreenGoo]

I've tried poison in the past, with mixed success. It worked for awhile, but the next mouse invasion they just sort of ate the poison and stayed for the hospitality. I assume the poison had a shelf life and we were past it.

[Daehawk]

Rats I poison. Seems to work ok.

Once around 1993 I guess it was our dog trapped a giant rat under the fridge. Its tail stuck out so I grabbed it and held onto that since it was jammed up in there and took a kitchen knife and stabbed it to death. Honestly Ive not gotten over the feel of that and the screams of the rat. Never could do that again. I still feel awful at times. Im weird maybe but man that was just ugh. The dog loved it though

[Daehawk]

74 pictures from then to now of a warming Earth




Also as a tidbit Larsen C...a giant ice shelf...should now be broken away and be a iceberg the size of Delaware.
LINK

A massive crack in an Antarctic ice shelf grew by 11 miles in the past six days as one of the world's biggest icebergs ever is poised to break off.

The crack in the Larsen C ice shelf is now about 120 miles long, and only eight miles remain until the crack cuts all the way across, producing an iceberg about the size of the state of Delaware.

[Shinjin]

Tonight, tonight, I panicked to a degree. I would have captured the large black spider (wearing a shower cap) myself but I called for reinforcements.

... I am still haunted by the image of a spider wearing the shower cap.

[Daehawk]

Im worried I originally read it the same way and thought nothing of it until now.

[Max Peck]

Ah, that flash of adrenaline when you mistakenly think you just shredded the new credit card instead of the one that expired. Now I'm awake!

[GreenGoo]

My apologies for my overly bloodthirsty posts. The mice seem to have returned in large quantities and are damaging my property and I'm annoyed. I'll try to keep it down.

My homemade trap caught a single mouse. On the plus side, it wasn't a complete failure requiring me to rethink my approach. On the negative side, I only got one. I'm fairly sure there is a swarm in here somewhere (due to the chewing and pooping evidence) so I was expecting multiple mice if it worked at all.

My backyard is a jungle so I think I'll just toss him in a corner of the lot and let the scavengers at him.

[Unagi]

Bucket, 5/8th inch wooden dowel, 2 nails, some water and enough sunflower seeds to cover the surface of the water. And a ramp up to the lip of the bucket.

I've seen work...

[Daehawk]

Used to toss them to our cat. Figured it was gone and as humanely as possible without me actually having to do it.

[Holman]

My wife is at a point where she's ready to wage all-out war against vermin destroying her gardens, so we may end up going this way. She'll probably opt for a metal bucket with no water so we can "repatriate" the mice back to the deep woods.

I have two young cats would are enthusiastic about pest control. Unfortunately, the one who's prone to staying out for up to 24 hours at a time slipped his breakaway collar and is confined to quarters until its replacement comes. His brother (who's very good about coming back in) protests the unfairness nonstop.

Once they have the run of the yard I think my vegetables will be well protected.

We had a tough cat for fourteen years. The year after he died, and every year thereafter, our yard and neighborhood were absolutely overrun with chipmunks.

He must have been killing them by the score.

[Daehawk]

I just had to call my step uncle. His brother had died....2 months ago...in my own town. I never know ANYTHING. Its so embarrassing to do that kind of call. I feel like such a loser. I get no paper, I dont watch any tv or listen to the radio and I dont really know people or family now. I grew up visiting them on weekends with my dad and step mom from the 70s through the mid 80s. I played with their kids. We were all the same age.

But after I moved out and got married I really dropped my entire old (young) life and started fresh with my girl . In the same town though. Heck I have a sister. Haven't spoken to her in about 2 years. I msg her on Facebook once every 6 months or so. She lives about 15 miles from me. Never see her.

When my dad died in 2002 it was my two step uncles who came to tell me. They had no phone number for me or anything. My step mom who helped raise me passed away in 2014...had no idea. About 3 months later I was doing just what i was doing now..looking at obits in a local funeral home website. I had to call my step brother and apologize and give condolences. He was always great. About 20 years older than me. His kid was my age and we grew up together. And there I was 3 months late to his mom and my step mom. He was there for my dad's passing and brother..but me..no.

I am both a fool and a jack ass and I dont see me changing. I just dont change. Its BS.

[Default]

I have my 55th birthday coming up in a month. Its a minor milestone birthday, when I look back on my life and note the ways I fubared it.

I should find a way to avoid retrospection. :-/

[Isgrimnur]

There's no time like the present to start making efforts to impact the present and future.