Octopus Overlords

USA Today

The Coast Guard has issued a safety bulletin following the California boat fire that killed 34 people, recommending commercial boat operators limit unsupervised charging of cellphones and other electronics.

A preliminary report on the Labor Day fire that destroyed the Conception near Santa Cruz Island could be issued as soon as Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The cause of the fire likely won't be addressed, but NTSB members have said that how batteries and electronics were stored and charged on the boat was being scrutinized.
...
A total of 39 people were aboard the boat for a holiday weekend diving expedition. The Concepcion was at anchor when the fire started overnight. Five crew members who were on the deck fled and were rescued. The victims, ranging in age from 16 to 62, apparently died from smoke inhalation, authorities have said.

I wish with all my tiny fury that people in positions of authority would simply delegate tasks away instead of going "I CAN DO IT MYSELF!!!" breaking things, pissing off vendors, and then coming back to me with "Hey, this is broken, I don't know how to fix it. Oh, yeah, I cancelled our contract with this guy, too."



I have until the end of tomorrow to find a new Name Server host and get our services pointed to/from there - or our external emails will drop dead and our site will go dark. Its not hard, but it's also not something you like to have sprung on you with no notice.

Not to mention it can take up to 24 hours or more for propagation after a DNS change.

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 1:46 pm it's also not something you like to have sprung on you with no notice.

Like... anything ever... possibly excepting winning the lottery.

Math solves the meaning of life

42 was the last hurdle.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:45 am USA Today

A total of 39 people were aboard the boat for a holiday weekend diving expedition. The Concepcion was at anchor when the fire started overnight. Five crew members who were on the deck fled and were rescued. The victims, ranging in age from 16 to 62, apparently died from smoke inhalation, authorities have said.

CNN

The Conception dive boat, which sunk on Labor Day killing 34 people off the coast of California, did not have a crewmember on roving overnight watch as required by its certificate, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report and NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt.
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"Part of the certificate for this vessel required that there be constantly a roving watch person to keep an eye on the safety of the vessel," Sumwalt said. "The interviews, to this point, have indicated that the five surviving crew members were in fact asleep at the time that the fire broke out."

No night watch means the captain, any owners, and their insurance are f'd big time.

Those deaths were probably all preventable, even given whatever started the fire.

Its 5am again. I always go to bed around 1:30am. Ive had insomnia for a week. Had it come and go all my life. Its wearing on me this week as Ive had some things to do. Things I need sleep for. Come this weekend Im chugging a bunch of Benadryl and getting some dang sleep somehow.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:01 am Its 5am again. I always go to bed around 1:30am. Ive had insomnia for a week. Had it come and go all my life. Its wearing on me this week as Ive had some things to do. Things I need sleep for. Come this weekend Im chugging a bunch of Benadryl and getting some dang sleep somehow.

No caffeine.
Quit going to bed at 1:30am.
Get off screens at least 30 mins before you go to bed.

If you have the luxury of setting your own schedule, which IIRC you do, try to move closer to the normal day/night cycle.

I guess because I've drank so much iced tea all my life I find that caffeine doesn't keep me awake.
It makes up for it in making me pee tho.

Caffeine has never kept me awake either. It used to help me clear my head and help me sleep. What is has always done is make me lighter sleeper though and as I age that effect worse and worse and the effects of being a light sleeper take their tolls worse and worse.

I concur on the screen time thing. 30 minutes isn't enough for me, though. TV is OK, but I should to be away from any screen projection that engages me by asking for input for upwards of two hours before sleep. Computer, tablet, phone. All should be gone for two hours to keep my eyes and brain away from them and getting ready to sleep.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 8:44 am
Get off screens at least 30 mins before you go to bed.

Or better yet, get one of many blue-light blockers (try F.lux, it's free) and use it for the last hour or two before bed. It isn't some magic quality of 'screens' that causes problems. It is the fact that you're flooding your eyes with light the color of sunlight that causes problems. It tells your brain that it is time to be alert, and your brain responds with daytime chemicals (and by eliminating nighttime chemicals.) Personally, I read to slow down before bed, and this is the age of the ebook. I don't have room in my house for more dead tree books, and those require a light source anyway. I use a reader that lets me set a black background with light (not white) text, and I read in the dark.

And if you're one of the poor unfortunates whose natural sleep patterns fall later (I'm that way), make sure you're getting the right amount of sleep. That means not too little, but also not too much. If you go to bed at 1:30, set the alarm for 9:30 and never, ever hit the snooze. More sleep is not better. Sleeping for 11 hours has about the same effect on you as sleeping for 5. The most important thing is that you give your body a pattern and stick with it.

And get some exercise. Even if you're only taking 30-minute walks every day, get up and move around at some point. You'll sleep better.

We've been through all this before. I don't think he's interested in help, guidance or suggestions. OO is a way to vent, not process or consider advice.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 8:44 am

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:01 am Its 5am again. I always go to bed around 1:30am. Ive had insomnia for a week. Had it come and go all my life. Its wearing on me this week as Ive had some things to do. Things I need sleep for. Come this weekend Im chugging a bunch of Benadryl and getting some dang sleep somehow.

No caffeine.
Quit going to bed at 1:30am.
Get off screens at least 30 mins before you go to bed.

If you have the luxury of setting your own schedule, which IIRC you do, try to move closer to the normal day/night cycle.

As a former chronic insomniac, I can't stress how important a sleep routine is.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:14 pm We've been through all this before. I don't think he's interested in help, guidance or suggestions. OO is a way to vent, not process or consider advice.

*sigh*

I know. I just hate watching people suffer, completely unnecessarily, from mistakes I made and learned from. He still has to make The Decision before any of it will make a difference.

It is mostly to just type my thoughts out. But I have a schedule. I go to be around 1:30 am and have my alarm to get me up at 8am...which sometimes I snooze until 10. I drink a coke when I get up. Im not a morning person. Never have been. It takes me ages to get awake good. I may have that newly talked about non morning person thing I cant recall. Who knows. I just never wake up right usually. All my life. Even as a kid after a night of 9 hours sleep Id feel awful and fall asleep at school. After its gone around 3. I have a non caffeine soda like a rootbeer or grape. At around 7 I have some juice. And starting about 10pm I have a glass of milk. I quit the PC usually around 11:30 because I watch the tv news I record at 11pm. Then watch tv until sleepy and go to bed at 1:30am. I usually fall asleep by 2 or so.

But insomnia doesn't give a shit about a schedule or lack of one. It doesn't care about anything. It just hits and thats that. Its an all my life thing of off again on again. Ive not had the same life all my life. You cant control insomnia. You just have to outlast it. Sometimes its worse sometimes better. Usually I dont have any for long times. I think with the loss of my wife, the depression , and the change of weather / time / and darkness and the worst part of the year coming its just time for me to suffer for now.

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:35 pm As a former chronic insomniac, I can't stress how important a sleep routine is.

Glad to see you having typed former. That seemed to have gone on for years and you seemed exceptionally not so jovial for it.

It sucked. It made any endeavor that required getting up early into a nightmare of nerves the night before. It was purely driven by psychology, not physiology. I know that when Zarathud, RMC and others would go to conventions with me, they'd sometimes hear me get up in the middle night to just go walkabout until I could get to sleep. Sadly, I DID have a flare up at Origins back in June of this year, but that was a rare case probably brought on by staying up too late to game, as well as some other stress factors. Thankfully, I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a truly traumatizing time of it over the last 2 years.

We’re just traumatizing. But a well rested Hepcat is a happy Hepcat. These days I’m the one who doesn’t sleep.

Its 1128 degrees today. Well 98 with a heat index of 105. Its supposed to be 85 this time of year and 65 at night. its stuck at about 73 at night. Feels hotter. Yesterday was 98 and the record was 96 so go us.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 2:56 pm Its 1128 degrees today.

Damn, I hope you wore sunscreen.

Why don't ya'lll f fu- fade away
Don't try to dig what we all say

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:00 pm Or better yet, get one of many blue-light blockers (try F.lux, it's free) and use it for the last hour or two before bed.

There is this functionality built into Win10 now. I just wish my first-gen Kindle Fire would do this. I read a lot at night in bed.

Z-Corn wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:00 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:00 pm Or better yet, get one of many blue-light blockers (try F.lux, it's free) and use it for the last hour or two before bed.

There is this functionality built into Win10 now. I just wish my first-gen Kindle Fire would do this. I read a lot at night in bed.

maybe something like



or use an eInk Kindle... you can get a used one for around $20 here

I was watching How It's Made and they were showing typeset. They mentioned how the human word is recordable in so many ways these days. Anyone other than me have the thought that a book will be around a lot longer than any hard drive or tape or cd or the player for them?

The other day I was paying at a register and they mentioned how easy it was to use a card. I told her how when I was a kid they would take my dad's card, sit it in a manual sliding machine with copy paper on it and physically slide it THUNK THUNK over the raised card numbers to do basically the same thing. She said it seemed primitive. My thought in my head was ya but it was physical and would always be there and findable the way it was kept. If the power goes out today or a EMP goes off or a viri or something comes then all our world of easy is gone. But that paper copy would still be there.

Library of Alexandria

Very few papers these days are designed to last long-term. Paper is made out of wood, and the manufacturing process creates acid in the paper. Some books use more expensive archival paper, but most use the cheaper stuff that is literally dissolving on your bookshelf.

/edit - and before someone says, "they don't make it like the old days", it's the other way around. Paper today is the best it has ever been. Even stuff from the early 20th century is often so fragile now as to be unsuable unless it was kept in just the right conditions.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 6:52 pm

Z-Corn wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 5:00 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Fri Sep 13, 2019 12:00 pm Or better yet, get one of many blue-light blockers (try F.lux, it's free) and use it for the last hour or two before bed.

There is this functionality built into Win10 now. I just wish my first-gen Kindle Fire would do this. I read a lot at night in bed.

maybe something like

https://www.amazon.com/Bluelight-Filter ... B00FCWKY0M

or use an eInk Kindle... you can get a used one for around $20 here

I'm quoting to add the URL tags...but also to say, "Thanks!" I'll check it out...

I do have a regular Kindle (2 actually) that I should use but I use an alarm app on the Fire and old habits die hard.

Pulled a 12 hour day yesterday, and delivered over 100 orders (should be 120+ boxes). had to take 1/2 or 1/3 of someone else's order, and ended up delivering in two different regions, probably across 5-6 cities and towns. Apparently there were a bunch of injuries after they removed the hand holes from the boxes.

A 'head' crab.

How long do you reckon frozen ground beef is good fer? Kinda hate to say it but a lot (LOT) of the food stuffs I was given in Jan - March was out of date already. Sometimes a month sometimes a year nearly. Its as if a death is cause to give that person all your old stuff thats clogging your cabinets and freezer and still feel good about helping. I mean I ate some of the cereal and other stuff like a can that was within a month so dont want anyone to feel bad or seem ungrateful...but still.

Anyways I was given some ground beef in Jan. I forgot I was given it. Dont remember Jan much. Anyways its from a real butcher place..most likely a farm or something in a town in this state. It says on it July 2017. So thats most likely the packing date and that makes it over 2 years old. I can account for it in my freezer all this time because as I said I forgot I had it. But I cant say that others kept it frozen solid when they had it.

So Im thinking toss. What ya think?

Assuming it's been held at 0 degrees or below, it is safe to eat indefinitely. However, from a quality standpoint, whole cuts of meat maintain quality for about a year; ground meat six months, max. Again, safe to eat isn't the same as quality. If you're taking 6 month old ground meat and putting it into a chili, you might not notice the difference. If you use it to make a hamburger...it will probably be noticeably unpleasant to eat. So much comes down to how you're going to prepare it, but from a safety standpoint, it's safe (while frozen).

Why does every person who drives a large pickup truck have to be a raging douchenozzle? Had two run-ins this morning:

1. Went to Best Buy and some dude pulls his giant jacked up truck onto the sidewalk in front of the door, turns the hazards on, and he and his buddy get out. I walked in right after them, and went and found the game I was looking for. When I got back up to the cashier, he and his friend were both berating the poor guy for apparently "not knowing how to count" the giant stack of cash the guy handed him to pay off his Best Buy credit card. Given the level of distraction they were doing, my guess is they were doing it on purpose to try and confuse the guy and pull some sort of scam.

2. Pulled up to a stoplight, windows down, minding my own business drumming along to the new Tool album on the steering wheel. Jacked up truck pulls up next to me. I see the guy start to inch forward, not thinking anything of it. Didn't realize until the light turned green that he was lining up his exhaust pipe with my open window, so I got a lovely face full of ROLLIN COAL when he hit the gas.

Bonus: Buddy drives a mini-Cooper. Posted a picture last night of a nearly empty parking lot...with a giant pick-up that had pulled up about 2 inches from his driver side door so he couldn't get in.

I'm guessing the Venn diagram of "complete assholes" and "big pickup trucks" is just a circle.

This is why I fully advocate punching bullies right in their fucking faces. I will probably be murdered in public someday due to this worldview.

If I was your buddy I would have flattened every tire on that truck.

Speaking of pickups...THEY ARE TOO DARN BIG! In the old days they were small like a car. Really a lot like a car with a bed instead of a back seat and trunk. I love those old pickups. Todays trucks are just view blocking rolling bricks. No style no flair just slabs of giant metal.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Sun Sep 15, 2019 1:53 pm Bonus: Buddy drives a mini-Cooper. Posted a picture last night of a nearly empty parking lot...with a giant pick-up that had pulled up about 2 inches from his driver side door so he couldn't get in.

Needless to say, that's my car in the middle.

I often say "The worse the driver, the bigger the vehicle." Too Big to Hit is a self-defense strategy.

In rural Indiana, those trucks are like a uniform. When I pick up the kids, it's like the lot is 2/3 giant trucks.

I think I'll pass on dessert. And maybe dinner.

Tres Leeches Cake

Your fault for going to the George R.R. Martin-themed cafe.