Random randomness

[Unagi]

Correct. However the aforementioned alum was more valuable than gold, used to dye wool. In the middle ages.

Wrong hill my friend.

Alum as a dye was used extensively for hundreds of years, so it's not likely it was worth more than gold. I'll go out on a limb and just declare, it wasn't.

But to the point of aluminiums value compared to gold, the wiki tells us:

Discovery of this metal was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, whose work was extended by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.

Aluminium was difficult to refine and thus uncommon in actual usage. Soon after its discovery, the price of aluminium exceeded that of gold. It was reduced only after the initiation of the first industrial production by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. In 1878, metallurgist James Fern Webster was producing 100 pounds of pure aluminium every week at his Solihull Lodge factory in Warwickshire, England, using a chemical process.

That's about 300 years too late for being a middle ages thing.

[Kraken]

Come July, when I can get 16 ears of corn for $3 straight from the field, CotC becomes a staple for the next two months.

Ah, to live in corn country. Around here it's a buck an ear for fresh and local at farmers markets, or as little as three for a buck at the supermarket. Still, an ear of corn is the easiest side dish one can make so we have it at least once or twice a week.

I always shake my head at the shoppers who husk corn in the store and then wrap it in a plastic bag. Which is to say, most of them.

[LordMortis]

Steaming broccoli is also another microwave gem.

I steam my broccoli in rice. 1 cup rice. 2 cups water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Cover. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add broccoli. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Ah, to live in corn country. Around here it's a buck an ear for fresh and local at farmers markets, or as little as three for a buck at the supermarket. Still, an ear of corn is the easiest side dish one can make so we have it at least once or twice a week.

I always shake my head at the shoppers who husk corn in the store and then wrap it in a plastic bag. Which is to say, most of them.

$3 an ear? This year was pretty crappy with regard to supermarket corn. It was 2/$1 and the corn was always not so premium. Especially when compared to going to a corn farm where they give you a bag and you can fill it from off the wagon for $3 aka about 16 ears for $3. Once you find a place like that, it's worth driving to... Unless the president is town and they shut down Middlebelt Road for the friggen press junket to follow him off the damned plane.

[Jaymann]

Correct. However the aforementioned alum was more valuable than gold, used to dye wool. In the middle ages.

Wrong hill my friend.

Alum as a dye was used extensively for hundreds of years, so it's not likely it was worth more than gold. I'll go out on a limb and just declare, it wasn't.

But to the point of aluminiums value compared to gold, the wiki tells us:

Discovery of this metal was announced in 1825 by Danish physicist Hans Christian Ørsted, whose work was extended by German chemist Friedrich Wöhler.

Aluminium was difficult to refine and thus uncommon in actual usage. Soon after its discovery, the price of aluminium exceeded that of gold. It was reduced only after the initiation of the first industrial production by French chemist Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville in 1856. In 1878, metallurgist James Fern Webster was producing 100 pounds of pure aluminium every week at his Solihull Lodge factory in Warwickshire, England, using a chemical process.

That's about 300 years too late for being a middle ages thing.

So change that to the middle 1800's.

[Unagi]

Not even 200 years ago aluminum was considered more valuable than gold. Now we use it to wrap up leftover chicken wings.

[Max Peck]

I know what leftover means, and I know what chicken wings are, but I can't quite grasp the concept of leftover chicken wings for some reason.

[Kraken]

Steaming broccoli is also another microwave gem.

I steam my broccoli in rice. 1 cup rice. 2 cups water. Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Cover. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add broccoli. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Ah, to live in corn country. Around here it's a buck an ear for fresh and local at farmers markets, or as little as three for a buck at the supermarket. Still, an ear of corn is the easiest side dish one can make so we have it at least once or twice a week.

I always shake my head at the shoppers who husk corn in the store and then wrap it in a plastic bag. Which is to say, most of them.

$3 an ear?

No, three for a buck. $0.33 an ear is as cheap as it ever gets here. And yeah, last year was not good for corn, or any other local produce thanks to our drought and heat. My own garden was a miserable failure.

[Blackhawk]

I know what leftover means, and I know what chicken wings are, but I can't quite grasp the concept of leftover chicken wings for some reason.

They're a perk of having family members who are light eaters.

[TheMix]

We only have leftover chicken wings when I either make a lot, or when we intentionally limit ourselves so we can squeeze another meal/snack out of the number cooked. Though, to be honest, the first category really doesn't exist; it's just part of the second category.

[Skinypupy]

Mrs. Skinypupy and I have a night without the kids tonight and have both really been wanting to finally watch "Everything Everywhere All At Once". Easy, right?

I knew it was on HBO Max at one point, so I logged into that app through Xfinity. it's no longer available on that service.

Figured it would probably be available on-demand through Xfinity. Nope. I can buy it for $26, but not rent it.

Xfinity helpfully informs me it's available on either Hulu or Paramount+...neither of which I have a sub for. Awesome. I've already burned my Hulu free trial and have no interest in signing up again, so let's try Paramount+.

I see there's a 7-day free trial available for P+, so I sign up (a rather tedious process with the cable remote). A search for that specific movie comes up empty. The P+ app lets me know that the combination of subscriptions required to watch that particular movie (Paramount+ with the Showtime add-on) is...not available through Xfinity. So, I would have to download the app on a mobile device, sign in using the account I just created, pay for the Showtime add-on ($12), then cast it from my iPad back to the TV.

Mrs. Skinypupy says Redbox has it, so I guess we'll just go that route instead.

I miss Blockbuster.

[Max Peck]

It's included in Prime Video here in Canada, but I have no way to see if that's the case in the US.

https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0OGS4 ... HCDSWSP8MQ

[Skinypupy]

It's included in Prime Video here in Canada, but I have no way to see if that's the case in the US.

https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0OGS4 ... HCDSWSP8MQ

Requires the Showtime add-on in the US.

[Blackhawk]

In other words, it's on Showtime, and there are multiple ways to access Showtime (at least until it's rolled into P+ soon and ceases to exist as an independent entity.)

[Unagi]

I know what leftover means, and I know what chicken wings are, but I can't quite grasp the concept of leftover chicken wings for some reason.

sigh. Yes, yes.
I hear ya.
It's actually like that here at my house too. We are a big chicken-wings house.


My family, growing up, put a good deal of importance on them (my dad - grhs), and on my wife's side - her family had luckily also randomly put importance on chicken wing grilling (her dad - grhs).

In a silly view of things, one could argue that our entire marriage was built upon the premise that the production and consumption of ever-increasingly high-quality grilled chicken wings were to come from our combined family lines.

For us, chicken wings are a constant. Think of 'snow' for the Starks of Winterfell.

Additionally, I have a (frankly pretty obnoxious) autistic child that will only eat certain items - and Chicken Wings are on the list. Feeding this child (I'd say 'him', or 'her' - but it's a "they" and so this is one of those fun Non-Binary parent moments) with a nod to health is a great struggle, and so something as 'wholesome' as chicken wings is a "to-be-repeated" event... In any case, we tend to make chicken wings with the anticipation of grilling 3-5 of them for leftovers. In truth, we tend to still eat them all - and don't often have leftovers... unless I made a direct point of the first meal having a lot of side dishes.


My autistic non-binary child (of 3 years-non-binary now) generally thumbs their nose at anything resembling complex gourmet dishes other than the celebrated Beef Burgeoning and Chicken Paprikash.

[Hrothgar]

Around here it's a buck an ear for fresh and local at farmers markets

Aye, matey. Do you have to have a parrot on your shoulder to get that price?

[Kraken]

Around here it's a buck an ear for fresh and local at farmers markets

Aye, matey. Do you have to have a parrot on your shoulder to get that price?

Not since I resigned.

[LordMortis]

Around here it's a buck an ear for fresh and local at farmers markets

Aye, matey. Do you have to have a parrot on your shoulder to get that price?

[Daehawk]

I wish there was a good site that had all old school yearbooks to view. You'd think as old as the net is now there'd be a single site that was just for scanning and posting old yearbooks from around the country. Theres a few sites like Classmates and such but they always require a registration and then dont have anything but a few people as members for my local area. Plus I want to see old yearbooks not have people contacting me or anything. My best resource now is the history branch of my local library but its collection is spotty at best but much more complete that anything else Ive found. But I have to actually go there and sit around viewing them. Even they dont have them online.

[dbt1949]

Thirty years ago I threw mine away as I never looked at it. There has been a couple of time since then when I might have but they would look nothing like back then anyways.

[Blackhawk]

I wish I had been able to get the yearbooks from the two high schools I attended, but we never had the money, and I wasn't all that interested at the time anyway. One I was able to find online last year and screenshotted a bunch of pages, but the other (the one from the school I graduated from) I have never seen.

[Daehawk]

I only have 4 of mine . We bought them every year but I now only have 1978 3rd grade, both my jr high ones and a high school from 1985 I think it was.

Whats neat about my 3rd grade pic is I found a girl in the 2rd grade pics who I didn't know then but actually ended up dating when I was 16 and again when I was 17 lol. One of my old preachers daughters in fact. I think they are always a bit wild lol.

[Kraken]

Wife went to FL to visit her brother and his wife (the Bickertons) for the first time since they moved there a few years ago. They told her that they had to pay an exorcist $200 to get rid of a ghost. They imagined that pictures were falling off the walls, doors were opening/closing, footsteps -- all the standard ghost tropes. The exorcist told them that the ghost had ridden along with some stuff they bought from Goodwill. They'd bought some haunted crap.

[Isgrimnur]

Sucker…

[Daehawk]

Tom Sizemore, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ actor, in critical condition after brain aneurysm

Tom Sizemore, the “Saving Private Ryan” actor, is hospitalized in intensive care after suffering a brain aneurysm, his spokesperson told CNN on Sunday morning.

Sizemore is in critical condition and is in a “wait and see situation,” said the spokesperson, Charles Lago.

“His family is aware and waiting for updates.” Lago said. “There is no further update at this time.”

Sizemore, a 61-year-old from Detroit, appeared in a number of hit crime and war movies in the 90s and 2000s, including in the films “Heat,” “Natural Born Killers,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down.”

[Daehawk]

Just venting.

I have been stressing myself out a lot lately. Almost felt like crying today. My back has been out over a week of pain on pain and nothing I take has helped. But I NEED to cut my shrubbery while its cold and winter before the warmth of spring starts the sap in them flowing and cutting them then kills them. Trouble is I cant get myself out of bed in the mornings. Ive tried. At night when I go to bed I tell myself I HAVE to get up in the morning...but I dont. I set an alarm for 9 hoping to be up by 10 but all I do is stay in bed until after noon. Today I got up at 1:30pm. I know if I dont get up I dont get anything done...if I can do it. I know my dog will have acid reflux and vomit. I only get up finally for him. I know its depression. It must be. I have nothing to look forward to in the day or to do. Nowhere to go or anyone to see. I dont have any money I dont have the food I dont have the back or my medicine. It just all adds up. Once Im up Im usually good. Its rare I go back to bed until evening. I cant straighten up and walk right and cutting those shrubs mean I have to stand upright and bend my back at my hips and lean over the bushes. I cant hold myself up..my back gives out at the waist and I fall into them or stay in worse pain.

Yesterday they called for a 10% chance of rain today. Its rained. I look at the weather and they changed it to 30%. They make themselves seem accurate like that I guess. Also its like 60 or so today and all week the temp goes up and rain chances vary. I NEED to cut those bushes. Thats always on my mind. Years ago I could do it in 2 days. Last year it took me a week. And I want to cut them short now not just trim them. They have grown so much I cant see over them. I cant reach the tops of some but on a ladder. I cant really do it but cant pay anyone else. So stressful and annoying.

Look at that weather..rain and heat. Not only would that heat be bad for the shrubs it makes me sick. And my car ac died last fall. Lucky it was then. But I thought Id have a lot sold by now and get it repaired before spring and summer. I could barely go anywhere last fall EARLY in the morn while it was 'cool'. Im not sure what Ill do this year as I cannot take the heat. I dont know if its me or my meds that cause me to be sick in heat. After I turned 50 my health totally gave up on me along with my body.



To top that my bp is high again all the time. Ive taken extra bp meds. They will only fill them every 3 months and Im gonna be like a month out of them. And with my bp high Im not sure how that will go. So I stress over that. Doesn't seem to end right now. My friend reminds me I should pay off the house next year. Thats something to look forward to yes but thats then this is now. Im trying to sell stuff but all I get are "Is it still for sale?" msgs..no one buys anything and if they want it they never get back to me. Thats just rude.

Also out of my fun meds that I self medicated with. On them My mood is lvld out and I have a good day. I actually get up looking forward to the day as Im mello and happy. I dont have waves of sadness that hit out of the blue. And I play games just fine and chat online all day. Oh well.

Anyways vent over. Ill handle it somehow...always do. Its just the stress and not being able to get out of bed and start the day. Im also not really playing games. I try but just get mad and quit.

[MHS]

You shouldn't be taking extra of your blood pressure meds without doctor approval, and if they're approving it they should be writing prescriptions so that you're not having to go without. I currently take 4 blood pressure pills a day but my doctors have had to change the prescriptions and dosages numerous times over the years. That's something that can typically be handled as a telehealth call so there's no reason not to do it.

[Max Peck]

Speaking from experience, if your BP medication isn't working, talk to your doctor about switching to a different option. I went through that back in 2019/2020 when I was put on amlodipine, which worked great at giving me swollen ankles but did almost nothing to control my blood pressure. After a few months of that, my doctor switched me to a completely different medication, valsartan/hct, which is so effective that a half-dose per day of the lowest potency variation is enough to keep my BP well below 120/80. Fine-tuning the dosage like that was also discussed with my doctor, not something I did willy-nilly.

As a bonus, the prescription (which explicitly cites half a tablet or a full tablet per day, as required) confused the hell out of the pharmacist. He pulled me aside to explain it to him the first time I picked up that prescription.

[Anonymous Bosch]

After I turned 50 my health totally gave up on me along with my body.

You have this backwards. Your "health" did not give up on you and your body. You have given up on your health and overall well-being. You are choosing to abandon the notion of making responsible healthy choices for your own well-being. Your high-sodium dietary choices are so absurd that they've become a running joke here. This is a recipe for pain, misery, and ultimately death for anyone with crazy high blood pressure like yours.

So, I would encourage you to abandon fanciful bullshit notions of sitting your arse upon a magical ebike you cannot afford that'll someday, somehow "get you in shape soon," and instead take responsibility and heed the wisdom Max Peck and GreenGoo offered you earlier:

Walking is as inexpensive as it gets (as long as you don't need to buy high-end shoes or boots).

When I was in particularly poor shape I found walking more beneficial than riding. At least early on. Squats helped build my walking muscles faster (squats when not enough time for walking).

Because do you know what would almost certainly improve your blood pressure, stress level, stamina, and overall state of mind and well-being? A modicum of consistent daily physical exercise -- especially when combined with eating less junk food.

[Daehawk]

Would be nice to do stuff but Im physically not able to. Just washing a sink of dishes or warming some food and my back is literally screaming at me now. I can walk into a store and that will be my limit. Something has gone to shit lately. I tried to simply bury a power line and used a shovel to dig a inch wide trnech for 3 feet and had to quit and come in for the day. And Ive cut way down on salt. Ive done things I can do. I can perform miracles liek you seem to think and preach about. You have no idea. Get cut your legs off so I can tell you to get up and walk.

As for meds Ive worked with my doc since the start of last year trying meds. I was on lisinopril it worked then stopped. I was then put on losartin and matoprol or something. Worked bu a week later the lotartin nearly killed me by super high bp , I had to stop it. The other is not enough. I called today and ask to add my lisinopril back . the yare checking.

My bp on meds is like 152/95 when I wake up. Comes down to 132/82 or so in the day. Then goes dow na little more or stays the same..sometimes rises..at night at bedtime. Then back up in the morn. It can range from 110/69 - 155/95 now. it averages 135/85. I cannot get the top number to stay down no matter what.

So I do what I can. I dont fuck it up or m y physical health. Ive been disabled since I was a kid and its only worse now and nothing will change that side. My back is shit and wont regrow.

EDIT: 140/90 right now. I get to take my bedtime medicine in about 5 or 6 hours.

[Blackhawk]

I don't always agree with AB (and I wouldn't take the tone he did), but he's correct on this. You have more control than you allow yourself to believe.

[Daehawk]

Theres really nothing to control when I cant stand up and walk.

[Blackhawk]

You can control what you eat (even given your budgetary limitations.) You can control calling the doctor to discuss medical concerns rather than self-adjusting your meds. You can control getting some exercise - even if you can't stand. You can control getting help with some of the things that trouble you and getting your own thoughts turned back around.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Would be nice to do stuff but Im physically not able to. Just washing a sink of dishes or warming some food and my back is literally screaming at me now. I can walk into a store and that will be my limit. Something has gone to shit lately. I tried to simply bury a power line and used a shovel to dig a inch wide trnech for 3 feet and had to quit and come in for the day. And Ive cut way down on salt. Ive done things I can do. I can perform miracles liek you seem to think and preach about. You have no idea. Get cut your legs off so I can tell you to get up and walk.

Dude, you're not some sort of amputee war hero; you have functional limbs, and they have not been removed. No one here is preaching that you perform miracles. As you yourself admit, you are capable of walking into and around a store. All I suggested was consuming less convenience junk food and a mere modicum of consistent, daily physical exercise, well within the realm of your own physical limitations and disabilities -- not that you become some sort of ironman triathlete. Consult with your doctor about safe exercise recommendations and healthier eating. If that means you're only capable of simple upper body exercises for seniors and walking 3, 5, or 10 minutes at a time…? By all means, do whatever you are comfortable with and your doctor advises you can handle. But do so consistently, each and every day, and your blood pressure, stress level, stamina, overall state of mind and well-being will improve. Man up, toughen up, rise up, but do not give up.

Or do nothing whatsoever, and continue fruitlessly bleating into the ether as you waste the rest of your life away as a lonely, depressed, anxious, and reclusive shut-in while your health deteriorates into decrepitude. Whatever floats yer goat.

[Daehawk]

I still remember first seeing this. Me and my new online friend were playing DOOM 2 back in the day and saw it. Its all we all talked about back then. Someone even make a AoD sound mod for DOOM 2 and I can still hear all those "Groovy!" and "Hail to the king baby" coming from Doom 2 lol. Then hearing them again in Duke 3d a year later.

I still can hardly believe its been 30 years! It doesn't feel more than 10 sometimes. 30 years is hard to grasp. Thats half a life to a lot of people. 30 years slowly sinks in. I was in my early 20s and just got my first PC. Everyone was alive. Man.

[Daehawk]

Is The Sarah Connor Chronicles as good as it seems? I had no interest in it when it came out because I thought "What do I want to watch a show about his mom for?" LOL silly me.

Ive been looking at clips...I love Summer Glau.....and it looks pretty cool. Is it worth watching now and also how does it end. Was is cancelled abruptly with no true ending? I dont want to spend seasons watching a show only for it to pop like a balloon. Also Im to type to hope for a John and Cameron romantic side but I dont think I see that from what I know. Does she at least grow as a ...what am I trying to say...as a 'person' so to speak?

[dbt1949]

I was a fan of it.

[Blackhawk]

I enjoyed it, but I saw it... 14 years ago? I honestly don't remember much about it. It was the very first show I watched on the very first streaming service I subscribed to (which would have been, I think, Netflix), watched on a PC running to a CRT TV.

I had no interest in it when it came out because I thought "What do I want to watch a show about his mom for?" LOL silly me.

Like Terminators 1 and 2, you mean.

[Daehawk]

Like Terminators 1 and 2, you mean.

Yaaa but they weren't really about her.....more about the terminators and action.

I saw her name and Chronicles and connected it to her daily life and raising and training John and stuff. I was wanting a John story with action. I guess I should have expect more and less both with it being a tv show and not a big movie. All tv shows seem to be a bit soap opera'ish.

[Daehawk]

Taking my bp makes my shoulder pop.

Another random ....Im starting to dread going to bed due to the weird and sad dreams I have. They're not scary nightmares but I have multiple strange dreams every night and some are always sad ones. I have enough sadness in my days I dont need to dream them all night too. Last night actually woke me up crying. God I dont need these. Im starting to stay up a little longer each night I think without thinking about it.

[dbt1949]

I can understand that. Still have bad dreams over 50 years later.