Octopus Overlords

Enough wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 12:42 pm I feel lucky I got to grow up when I did

Before and after the internet? Yeah, we've got a seemingly important perspective that's going to completely disappear once our generation is done.

Much like other perspectives have and will. Books, electricity, magnetic data storage, telephones, television, atomic weaponry, etc. If only there were a way to store it for future generations to peruse at their leisure.

I have a 9-year-old. It is his school's "screen-free" week.

This is hell.

AWS260 wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 9:16 pm I have a 9-year-old. It is his school's "screen-free" week.

This is hell.

Tish pshaw.

Declare it 'A man's home is his castle' week, and elucidate to the young 'un that the dictates of pedagogues do not apply in your humble abode. Problem solved.

We could get by without screens in May. The bugs aren't out in force and it's too cool to open the windows anyway.

Got to workout this morning to the theme song from “What’s Happening” blasting in the gym. So I can check that off my bucket list.

My wife likes to complain that I don't like to talk in the morning.
One of these days I'm gonna have to say something about that.

The Meal wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 5:28 pm

Enough wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 12:42 pm I feel lucky I got to grow up when I did

Before and after the internet? Yeah, we've got a seemingly important perspective that's going to completely disappear once our generation is done.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 5:43 pm Much like other perspectives have and will. Books, electricity, magnetic data storage, telephones, television, atomic weaponry, etc. If only there were a way to store it for future generations to peruse at their leisure.

Yours is a nice list. Thank you for putting it together. I'm not much interested in arguing opinions on the internet any longer, but since you put in the work in identifying these things, I'll at least share my opinions on them.

books - Books were rolled out in such a way that lead to a slow transformation of the world. The printing press would have possibly been a more significant "night-and-day" experience (or more in line with Enough's and my posts, a change within a generation) but even then there wasn't enough education and literacy for them to be considered transformative.

electricity - Discovery and experimentation with electricity also had a rather slow roll-out before really showing meaningful experiential change for society. Like most items on your list it's a damn important change (especially considering its value in light of my sticking-to-my-internet-guns), and certainly some people got to bear witness to living lifes before and after such things as pollution-free nighttime lighting.

magnetic data storage - Meh. Paper for computers. This is a pretty incremental change especially in comparison to some of the other items under consideration. If, however, we lumped long-term storage together with computing power and gave that combined entry credit for the resultant uses of that technology, I'd say the resulting change to folks' lives is probably on par with the additional changes associated with roll-out of the internet. Still it's hard to point to a 10- or even a 20-year span where all these things came on line and completely turned civilization upside down.

telephones - Along with commercial airlines I'd say this technology went a long way towards making the big world a whole lot smaller on the personal scale. Of course, I think the internet is the next level iteration for this change in lifestyle. Phones, and the long-distance, instant communication they offered provided the rise in suburbs, which is damn tranformative to how lives were lived. IMO (and all of these are IMO!), I'd give full credit to this one.

television - Mass-media and dissemination of one-way communication; this is a refinement to what the radio already provided. Was it a cool thing that folks had within their home and something which allowed for alignment of opinions (remember life when there were only three broadcast channels and we were all talking about the same programs the next day?), but ultimately not interactive enough to really compete with the transformation provided by the web.

atomic weapons - Certainly made for some sphincter-clenching awareness of how fragile civilization really is (acting as a precursor to the green movement), and allowed certain civic factions (those with) to dominate other civic factions (those without), but other than psychological torture the true affect was somewhat minimal for much of the civilized world.

Fun conversation, thanks for giving the opportunity.

The Meal wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 5:28 pm

Enough wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 12:42 pm I feel lucky I got to grow up when I did

Before and after the internet? Yeah, we've got a seemingly important perspective that's going to completely disappear once our generation is done.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Tue May 14, 2019 5:43 pm Much like other perspectives have and will. Books, electricity, magnetic data storage, telephones, television, atomic weaponry, etc. If only there were a way to store it for future generations to peruse at their leisure.

I don't think there's much that compares to having lived part of your life in the era of libraries and landlines, and the other part in the era of Google and cellphones. It lets you see just how amazing this technology is, and lets you see the less beneficial impacts. Others might later read about it or interpret it from a chart, but there is a profound perspective that comes from having experienced childhood before and raised children after.

In 1987 if I wondered about, say, the population of Paris, and what year the first motion picture came out, I'd be in for a road trip and research. Now - I actually just stop watched this: 2.14 million, 1888. 16.13 seconds. Language translation, watching a particular episode of a particular show, talking to my significant other when she's at work in the middle of nowhere, seeing what my sister is up to 3,000 miles away day to day. And if I get into a wreck, I'm literally inches away from an emergency line.

And yet, we also have the perspective to see how society is changing now that people can pick-and-choose their truth (and their reality), where the lunatic fringe can gather coordinate, where social behavior is flavored by the constant exposure to the kind of toxicity that comes from zero-consequence anonymity. We can all indulge in our personal interests and passions, which is awesome. The cost is that we lose a lot of common ground with our neighbors. We can have communities (like this one) of like minded individuals, but the cost is having local communities with diverse views we have to consider and adapt to.

Before and after the information age is profound. Before and after radio, or before and after electricity, all within a single adult lifetime, just doesn't compare.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2019 10:58 am Before and after the information age is profound. Before and after radio, or before and after electricity, all within a single adult lifetime, just doesn't compare.

Lines. And face to face meetings. And paper forms.

I remember when I actually had to go to the DMV to get a new drivers license or renew my registration. I've been doing that online for several years now. This year I am dreading having to go to the DMV in person to get my "RealID" compliant drivers license.

I had to close my old bank account and open a new one because we had a checkbook stolen yesterday. I showed up at the bank 15 minutes before closing. I thought I would have to sign reams of paper. Nope, he sent the forms to my email, I opened them up in my phone, tapped to sign, and was done in 15 minutes.

Because of the new account I thought I'd have to go to HR and fill out paperwork or submit a voided temporary check to change my direct deposit. Nope. Signed into my work account online, changed the account and routing numbers, and done.

Living in the future is pretty awesome.

I think the worst thing that happened during my life time is the population boom.
Except for Trumph most of earth's problems right now can be attributed to too many people.
Imagine going back to 3 billion people on the earth.

I blame those 3 billion people. The next 4.5 billion didn't pop put of nowhere.

dbt1949 wrote: ↑Wed May 15, 2019 12:54 pm Imagine going back to 3 billion people on the earth.

You might give this guy a call. I hear he has a plan for just that sort of thing.

Actually I was rooting for him.

So, it will be on Amazon Prime outside North America, on CBS All Access in the USA, and.. not in Canada?

Space Channel, where else?

my uncle Louie died three weeks ago, and immediately i thought 'i hope Felicia doesn't suddenly die now too'... well sadly enough, my aunt lasted only three more weeks after that. my cousins lost both their parents within the span of a month, and my dad lost pretty much his only friend (!). terrible.

I'm so sorry.

My condolences. I have seen this regularly, and it's heartbreaking. But many times one spouse will pour themselves into caregiving and have no energy or health left after the other's death. Sometimes it's literally dying of a broken heart.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 8:13 am But many times one spouse will pour themselves into caregiving

yes, this was totally her.

and i came down with a cold. i'm just going to stay home today.

Matthew Lillard (Shaggy in the live action Scooby Doo movie, as well as plenty of other things) is live streaming D&D as part of the Relics and Rarities campaign group. This is probably not new to some of you but I was surprised to see him there and was actually wondering what was going on with him and his career recently (still wondering, but at least I see he's doing stuff). They are playing in front of a live audience, which I think is pretty cool.

Currently live at:

Edit:. No longer live.

Didn't see that in time to check it out live. If you like the live audience element and haven't seen it, be sure to check out the Acquisitions Incorporated live games on YouTube.

You can also just link to a Twitch VOD (even while the stream is still live), if one is available.

RIP Mt. Log (2017-2019)



No match for Trent Steel and Smoove_B (but you did put up an impressive effort)

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 4:11 pm RIP Mt. Log (2017-2019)



No match for Trent Steel and Smoove_B (but you did put up an impressive effort)

Heh, you call that paltry wee stack a "mountain"!?



Back in the day, I used to have 1 - 2 full cords of wood (i.e. one full cord = a 4ft x 8ft x 4ft stack of firewood) delivered in the Autumn, and it took forever to get it all stacked up properly around back. They would dump it off the back of a truck in a massive pile in my front yard, which then had to be relocated and properly stacked around back one wheelbarrow at a time... ugh.

Needless to say, installing wood pellet fireplaces was a significant improvement to my sanity and quality of life.

Nah. That was my aging wood stash - been slowly drying for last two years because it's gigantic. I have a shed on the other side of my property (where Mt. Log was relocated after being mostly split) where ~2.5 cords of wood hangs out. As I've been told, "I know my wood". And yeah, I stack the ~2.5 cords myself. Takes a bit of time, but absolutely worth it. Happiness is a full wood shed.

Regardless, wood pellets are nonsense. Log 4 Life.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 9:33 pmLog 4 Life.

Would make a great tattoo across the chest in Olde English lettering.

I have a fireplace in my house. It will probably never be used by us.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 9:33 pm Nah. That was my aging wood stash - been slowly drying for last two years because it's gigantic. I have a shed on the other side of my property (where Mt. Log was relocated after being mostly split) where ~2.5 cords of wood hangs out. As I've been told, "I know my wood". And yeah, I stack the ~2.5 cords myself. Takes a bit of time, but absolutely worth it. Happiness is a full wood shed.

Regardless, wood pellets are nonsense. Log 4 Life.

Heh. The primary advantage I found with wood pellets was that I'd invariably end up running out of logs if/when the cold weather persisted longer than anticipated. But in NorCal, locating reliable additional supplies of firewood come Springtime was always a costly PITA. But wood pellets are pretty much available year round (thanks in part to the popularity of smokers and BBQ pellet grills). Cleanup is also SO MUCH easier and more convenient with pellet stoves -- they're a vast improvement over the aggravating filth of log-burning fireplaces. But perhaps they never caught on over on the east coast for whatever reason.

When I was a teenager in the late 80s in Reno, our only heat was a wood burning stove. Reno, at 5,000 feet, gets pretty cold in the winter. There was a factory a couple of miles away that used to toss out old palettes. If you hauled them, they were yours. We used to burn hundreds of those things over the winter. I used to spend hours outside chopping them up and stacking them under tarps along the back of the house.

I never had too much luck burning those stupid things. I think they were soaked in something.

Methyl bromide.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 10:12 pm I have a fireplace in my house. It will probably never be used by us.

Gas fireplaces 4 life.

We have gas jets, but it’s not quite the same thing.

I love a good wood fire on a snowy winter night. Preferably in a fireplace. Not that I have one, but if I did, I'd hassle with the wood.

Our house had a large fireplace when I was in college. Somewhere I found a telephone pole that someone had cut into convenient lengths: free firewood! Everybody died, and I learned about creosote. It's the only lesson I remember from college.

Anonymous Bosch wrote: ↑Sat May 18, 2019 10:33 pm Cleanup is also SO MUCH easier and more convenient with pellet stoves -- they're a vast improvement over the aggravating filth of log-burning fireplaces. But perhaps they never caught on over on the east coast for whatever reason.

This house had a pellet stove when we purchased it, but I ripped it out and replaced it with a wood-burning insert. Pellets were (and still might be) a wacky commodity here and the prices were all over the place. They both provide heat, but nothing beats looking at a fire. Indoors, outdoors - fire. Wood is not a problem in NJ, that's for sure. The new house we're moving to has a fireplace but I'm not inclined to use it as it will suck heat out of the house. If I can get a smaller insert to burn wood, I will but I don't think that's going to be anytime soon. I hate this house, but I love the wood burning insert.

My house (built 1900) has a good-sized fireplace that someone converted to gas in probably the 1980s. I'd love to convert it back to wood, but I'll need to have the chimney inspected to see if it's viable.

My current house has a chimney, but whatever fireplace it once had was likely walled in decades ago. That's actually pretty common around here.