Daily "Check In" Thread For Us

[Mark Leavy]

I'm leaving Prescott, AZ tomorrow morning. I have some errands to run in CA - for which I will dash in and out as quickly as possible.

There's a lot of good things about living in a cowboy gold rush town.

Nary a mask in sight.

A placer creek right below my cabin. I'm sure it's full of nuggets. Haven't stumbled on any yet, though.

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Prime rib and an old rye.

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Bartender with open carry. 2 belt knives, a cross draw revolver and corset. All loaded and operational.

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A strong foundation in science.

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[dualstow]

Each picture is better than the one before it.

[Smith1776]

I've got a date tonight, guys! Dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. Wish me luck!

[Dieter]

I've got a date tonight, guys! Dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory. Wish me luck!

Rock it, dude. Good luck.

[Smith1776]

So, first date with the girl went pretty well. Let's call her Hannah. We met at 6:30 last night and started off with a walk around the pier and harbour in her neighbourhood. We've been talking pretty extensively, so a first kiss actually happened after about an hour. We participated in the 7pm cheer for healthcare workers. A thought popped into my mind about how long that cheer will continue for, given that the city is striving to return to normal-is life.

I had made a reservation at The Old Spaghetti Factory restaurant. It was one of the few places in the city I could get a seat at all. And even then it was the non-prime hour of 8:15pm. We went there after our walk and, of course, the place was only operating at half-capacity. The feeling of the restaurant just isn't the same without the hustle and bustle of people. One of the reasons why you eat in a restaurant, especially on a date, is the atmosphere. I can make pasta at home. I come to the restaurant for service and environment.

One note, which I'm not sure if I should be proud or ashamed of: when Hannah went to the bathroom I asked the waiter to bring split bills at the end of the meal without asking. This sidestepped that potentially awkward situation I've had in the past of who's going to pay. I still haven't talked to her about my desire to be an equal partner who splits everything though. So that issue isn't resolved, just sidestepped. I do wonder if she was expecting me to pay though. When I'm in a restaurant, I usually just order a main course to keep my costs down. And even then I'm usually pretty conservative. I just got a simple pasta dish. She ordered steak and fries, a rum and coke, and dessert on top of that. I have had experiences were the date seems to be aggressive in ordering simply because they're expecting to be paid for... Hard to say if that was her intention.

Afterwards I took her home and we sat outside her apartment in my car for a considerable time. We had great conversation about life, future plans, whether we wanted kids, and the other usual "get to know you" topics. Some intimate stuff did happen, but we didn't go all the way in the car or anything. At about 1:30 we figured it was pretty late so we said goodbye for the evening.

P.S. I showed her my gold coins that I hold in my wallet when were sitting in the restaurant.

[Dieter]

Sounds great Smith. Thanks for the update.

[WiseOne]

Smith, that was quick! Not too many days ago you thought the world practically came to an end.

Visit to community garden today. The online seed companies and the local nurseries are out of stock on just about everything, so I'm planting what I have and/or have managed to find. It seems gardening is THE thing to do now. If any of you guys are planning gardens, better start collecting what you need now if you haven't already done so.

[vnatale]

Smith, that was quick! Not too many days ago you thought the world practically came to an end.

Visit to community garden today. The online seed companies and the local nurseries are out of stock on just about everything, so I'm planting what I have and/or have managed to find. It seems gardening is THE thing to do now. If any of you guys are planning gardens, better start collecting what you need now if you haven't already done so.

I actually have a farm stand right across the street from me that both sells both vegetable and flower plants for planting. Also, tons available a few miles from my house.

I have some packets of old seeds that I may finally plant this week. What is the general success rate of planting old seeds?

Vinny

[WiseOne]

Tapping into fire hydrants doesn't sound like a good idea. For that price though they could probably dig a well and have free water forever, or set up a city water connection. I know don't tell me, the requirements for a well in the city would inflate the cost by several orders of magnitude. Thankfully, my garden is not dependent on hydrant hacking.

I'm not sure how much water they really need though. I was worried about long stretches in the garden between rainfalls especially this past week, because I can really only visit the garden on weekends. A wiser, experienced friend told me that most people over-water, and if you let nature do its thing the plants grow strong root systems. Seems she was right - the garden looked amazing yesterday and I even gathered a few salad's worth of greens.

[shekels]

I have some packets of old seeds that I may finally plant this week. What is the general success rate of planting old seeds?

Vinny

Depending on the type and how they are stored, seeds only last a few years a a general rule.

I tried lettuce that were about 25 years old that I found and no go.

[Hal]

I have some packets of old seeds that I may finally plant this week. What is the general success rate of planting old seeds?

Vinny

Depending on the type and how they are stored, seeds only last a few years a a general rule.

I tried lettuce that were about 25 years old that I found and no go.

+1. Probably best to get some new seeds.

A very useful book is "The Seed Savers Handbook". Might be worth a trip to the library.
Also worthwhile is a series called "Discovering Soils" of about ten booklets. Looks like they are free now so have a hunt around on the CSIRO website. Heh, even remember the dust storms in the introductory book below

Introductory Booklet link: https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/pub?p ... 326517296f

Memories:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYyM2R-eQ3I

[vnatale]

Tapping into fire hydrants doesn't sound like a good idea. For that price though they could probably dig a well and have free water forever, or set up a city water connection. I know don't tell me, the requirements for a well in the city would inflate the cost by several orders of magnitude. Thankfully, my garden is not dependent on hydrant hacking.

I'm not sure how much water they really need though. I was worried about long stretches in the garden between rainfalls especially this past week, because I can really only visit the garden on weekends. A wiser, experienced friend told me that most people over-water, and if you let nature do its thing the plants grow strong root systems. Seems she was right - the garden looked amazing yesterday and I even gathered a few salad's worth of greens.

My entire garden area is covered with last fall's dead leaves from my property. Once I do the initial watering (generally the day of the planting and the next day or two) I do no more watering. The leaves definitely both keep the ground from drying out and help retain moisture on top of the soil.

Vinny

[Smith1776]

Went on another date today. This time to Jericho Beach here in Vancouver. It was a beautiful, sunny day with the tide out for most of the afternoon. We got together to build sandcastles and had a wonderful chat. Here are our creations!

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My sandcastle is on the left. Can anyone guess what lore the castle is from?

[Mountaineer]

Greetings all! My daily check-in message is a BIG THANK YOU to Xan for maintaining this forum. I personally appreciate his efforts.

Blessings, ...Mountaineer

[Kriegsspiel]

I'd say that looks like Helms Deep.

[WiseOne]

Doesn't hurt to try them.

A quick way to test: wet a piece of paper towel, put a few seeds on it, put this into a plastic ziploc bag and leave it for a day or two. The seeds will sprout if they're viable. You can then plant these sprouted seeds, also.

[vnatale]

Doesn't hurt to try them.

A quick way to test: wet a piece of paper towel, put a few seeds on it, put this into a plastic ziploc bag and leave it for a day or two. The seeds will sprout if they're viable. You can then plant these sprouted seeds, also.

Thank you for the above tip!

Vinny

[Smith1776]

I'd say that looks like Helms Deep.

Bingo!!

My favourite siege castle of all time.

[Dieter]

I'd say that looks like Helms Deep.

Bingo!!

My favourite siege castle of all time.

I am currently re-reading The Histories (on The Two Towers ; Merry and Pippen recently met Treebeard.

This was a related fun read -- https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ ... won-100477

And more in-depth, book and movie, look at the battle. (Warning - Time suck) -- https://www.google.com/amp/s/acoup.blog ... -gate/amp/

[Smith1776]

I am currently re-reading The Histories (on The Two Towers ; Merry and Pippen recently met Treebeard.

This was a related fun read -- https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/ ... won-100477

And more in-depth, book and movie, look at the battle. (Warning - Time suck) -- https://www.google.com/amp/s/acoup.blog ... -gate/amp/

Aight, it's official: productivity this afternoon is going to be shot.

In other news, guys, my father is back from his travels in China. He is staying in the house for two weeks while we have moved temporarily to Vancouver.

One thing that Donald Trump (or rather his ghost writer) remarked in The Art of the Deal was that living in a city gives you a different insight into its workings rather than just going to visit. I am definitely finding that to be true here even after just a couple days. The pace of life here is great.

[Smith1776]

So, I had the money conversation via text with my date. Here's how it went:

Her:

About money, do you have a preference for people dating to pay their own way like on Saturday or to split the bill in half? How are you generally with money - saver, splurger... ?

Me:

I generally like to split things so that everything is generally fair and equal. I like the idea of being equal partners with someone. I’ve had lots of bad experiences with women using me for money. Beyond that I also don’t like the feeling if a person expects me to pay their way for their company. It’s like I’m paying for the privilege of being with them or something, and they’re just here as a job or charity. It really hurt my self-esteem the times it did happen.

Her:

I respect your approach with dating and money. I also don't like the feeling that a guy pays for me and then he expects something in return or it feels like that.

That honestly went better than expected.

[Dieter]

Smith -- I'm just returning the productivity favor; your post/photo led me to those articles.

There has got to be something in between in terms of detail and length, but haven't made the time to find.

I watched a clip of the battle from the movie, and just thought, why did they wait until the Orcs are at the wall to start loosing? Were they shirt fletching? They did travel 200 miles in an afternoon, but still, you'd think they would bring more arrows if they could do that....

I like the second Link and the positive analysis of the receive in the book, or valid reason for lack thereof. Although long, and haven't gotten too the start of the battle after four posts!

###

Great financial discussion -- sounding good. Send so different not totally sheltering in place, although I suppose opening up on many places, but I haven't seen any friends / family outside my household since SIP started.

[WiseOne]

You're asking about the Two Towers movie, not the book?

The book's description of that battle was incredibly detailed, and with Tolkein's attention to detail it's hard to spot any logical missteps. I didn't mind the movie's simplification of this part of the book, but you have to accept that a lot of the changes were made for screen effect/eye candy reasons. There were many places where the movie completely mangled the storyline and characters, in order to make it more Hollywood-esque. This battle wasn't among the worst offenses.

[Xan]

That scene was remarkable for another interesting reason: it was too complicated to animate manually, so the combatants' behavior was controlled by an algorithm. When they first ran a simulation, many of them (quite reasonably) ran away from the battle, so they put in an extra rule that nobody could go backwards.

[Dieter]

You're asking about the Two Towers movie, not the book?

The book's description of that battle was incredibly detailed, and with Tolkein's attention to detail it's hard to spot any logical missteps. I didn't mind the movie's simplification of this part of the book, but you have to accept that a lot of the changes were made for screen effect/eye candy reasons. There were many places where the movie completely mangled the storyline and characters, in order to make it more Hollywood-esque. This battle wasn't among the worst offenses.

Watching the clip from the movie got me curious.

The long series of articles covers both the book and the movie.

The basic summary:
* The book is spot on strategically and tactically based on the forces and their experience. Especially their leadership. For as much as covered so far.

* The movie, not so much. But he understands many of the changes for cinematic reasons. An item be didn't like was the inclusion of the elves.

Taking civilians TOWARDS the enemy, no proper caravan force protection, lack of scouting, goblin scout attacking vs reporting, weapons used, ....

Those were mostly cinematic needed changes.