JackiesFridge

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

I’ll repair last chance socks and stockpile (clean) last chance underwear for long trips. Throw them out as the trip goes instead of stashing dirty laundry in your bag.

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

I lucked into having dinner with him once and he is every bit as genuine, smart, thoughtful, caring, and funny as you could hope. Kevin’s the real deal.

And he’s an excellent writer, too!

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

I have a Keychron K10 I got as an Amazon Warehouse deal. It was cheap enough (but not under 50, sorry) and is an enjoyable budget mechanical keyboard. Decent keys and features for the money. Based on that I’d recommend Keychron.

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

Begs the question - what exactly is the survey for, then?

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

“When was the last time your car spontaneously combusted? Please rate the level of inconvenience.”

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

I think you might be me. Did you buy it at Walden?

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

Oh good. I was worried I may be running around out there without my knowledge. But agreed - that cover art kicked off a lifelong love of Pratchett’s work, to the point where, when Good Omens came out, I bought it despite half of it being written by some unknown named “Neil” something.

JackiesFridge, 4 months ago

Our bidet doesn’t have an air dryer, so we did have to upgrade our paper from the cheap 1-ply stuff that turned to pulp on contact with any moisture. That said, we go through way less paper post-bidet.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

As far as “daily driver” tech, Motorcycle is 43 years old. My razor is 103 years old. Luckily I’m closer in age to the motorcycle.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

I don’t need any of these but wanted to say thank you for brightening people’s holidays!

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

The WWZ audiobook is really solid.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

Yup! Alan Alda and Henry Rollins are the only 2 I can remember off the top of my head. Get the expanded version - the original was abridged, but the new one has all the content.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

I played ToA! A friend and I would wait patiently for 45 minutes whilst it loaded to a Commodore 64 via cassette drive. Only once it finished loading would we find out if it actually worked - if not, load again.

Worth the wait every time.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago)

I’m still bummed that the band Splashdown was screwed over by the music industry. They were too jazz for pop fans and too pop for jazz fans but had an amazing sound and a brilliant vocalist in Melissa Kaplan. They released a couple EPs and a brief album (Stars & Garters) before their major label debut Blueshift was permanently shelved.

They posted a goodbye collection of demos & b-sides before dissolving into Universal Hall Pass, Freezepop, and Anarchy Club.

Edit: Got nostalgic and searched for news - happy Sol Invictus to me I guess! splashdown1.bandcamp.com/track/metamorphosis

There’s also the Pine Salad Productions fan-dub of a few Dirty Pair and Macross episodes from the late-80s, I think? I had a 5th gen VHS of a few (“The Dirty Pair Does Dishes” was one). Insane dubs that were absurd and utterly unrelated to the actual plots or even characters. I thought they were hysterical when I was a young edgy person.

A friend found “remastered” versions a few years ago and…the humour has not aged well, to put it mildly. Watch at your own risk. Glad I’m no longer edgy I suppose.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

The band is definitely greater than the sum of their (also exceptionally good) parts. I am saddened to hear about Adam’s health issues but selfishly delighted they’re back together and planning new releases.

When the band was dissolving after the Blueshift fiasco and Adam shut down the Castle Von Buhler label, I emailed him asking if there was any hope Blueshift would see the light of day. He apologised and said no. A week later, the Stars & Garters CD and a CD-R of Blueshift mysteriously landed in my mailbox. With no band, he had zero reason to pander to a fan base. He’s just a good person.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

Seriously everyone knows Pudge controls the weather.

What we need to battle climate change is to deploy more peanut butter sandwiches.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

'Tis the east, and Julicat has knocked a glass of water off the shelf.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

I can be pessimistic AND loud & angry.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

I would say perfectly willing and/or eager to go off the rails.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

Crap quality bluetooth headphones that hurt your ears cost twice as much as wired, but go on

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

What company? I know a number of them have been bought out and ruined over the years.

You may be able to find a replacement by asking after similar styles on an enthusiast forum (like Head-Fi).

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

Why should we come up with a new idea? They don’t.

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

Found an EMC Model 213 tube tester at a thrift shop this summer. It’s a cute little portable unit in a fabric covered hard case, from about the early 60s. Useless without the chart (typeset on a literal typewriter) that tells you how to set the row of 12 switches & three knobs that dial in the proper test for each type of tube. Luckily I found a scan online!

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

I’ve got plenty of vacuum tubes to test…if it still works. Who tests the tester?

JackiesFridge, 5 months ago

In the board game theme, have you tried any 2-player abstract strategy games? Some of my favourites include:

Quarto (complex 4-in-a-row game with a twist: your opponent chooses the piece you must play)

Quixo (from the same publisher, Gigamic - tic tac toe on steroids with an ever-changing board)

Hive (each piece moves a certain way, very portable defend-the-queen game)

Tak (simple rules, deep strategy - connect opposite edges of the board while preventing your opponent from doing it)

Not strategy, but abstract speed game: Nine Tiles by Japanese company Oink Games (not Nine Tiles Panic, tho that one isn’t bad). Oink has very clever, easily packable party games and a few can be played with two people.