The Bar 2014 Edition

[Patsh]

Playa covered with snow yesterday...

+heart pounding*

So lovely!!!

Indeed! It looks so serene!
*sigh*

[^Rhino!]

Yo, tin halo, the reason they use dynamite to put out oil well fires is that the size of the explosion robs the oil fire of its oxygen.

OK, you probably won't believe me but that is exactly the second idea I had originally typed, but thought it over and realized that I wasn't sure if the explosion would consume enough oxygen to kill the fire, so I deleted it.

I don't think it "consumes" it, so much as the expansion/concussion evacuates it, as in creates a momentary partial vacuum in an area around the actual blast.

Creates a partial vacuum in an area around the blast = robs it of its oxygen. I was keeping it simple for an obviously very intelligent crowd. I don't want to be TOO technical. You know, Red Adair used to get headaches on a regular basis because of the nitroglycerin in the explosives They would shape the charges used by hand, including a pancake charge called the 'flying saucer' that was nearly a foot in diameter and only an inch or two thick. He said that mixing nitro was a painful experience, and he wasn't kidding.

[ygmir]

*wanders in, makes tea*

looks over at Rhino, rolls eyes, and chuckles**


speed trip to Reno and back last night! wow, what a blizzard on the summit! I'm so glad, at times like that, I run studded mudandsnow, tires. no chains,and cruises right through the packed snow and ice.

[Simon of the Playa]

.

[Elliot]

...

speed trip to Reno and back last night! wow, what a blizzard on the summit! I'm so glad, at times like that, I run studded mudandsnow, tires. no chains,and cruises right through the packed snow and ice.

My brother is off to Indiana again, with the F-350 and 5th-wheel trailer. I chased him out of here Sunday, to get him ahead of the current storm. He visited a friend in Reno and left there yesterday. Luckily he has a lifetime of experience driving on wintery roads in Norway.

He went on a day-trip Saturday and came home beaming, saying the four-wheel-drive had paid for itself that day. He had gone to an "open house" at the PAWS elephant sanctuary (Performing Animals Welfare Society), and they were using a small bus to shuttle visitors around -- and that bus got stuck in mud on a dangerous hill. So Runar tied the big Ford to the bus and pulled it to safety, making himself the Hero Of The Day.
Gotta love four-wheel-drive -- specially with six tires.

[ygmir]

...

speed trip to Reno and back last night! wow, what a blizzard on the summit! I'm so glad, at times like that, I run studded mudandsnow, tires. no chains,and cruises right through the packed snow and ice.

My brother is off to Indiana again, with the F-350 and 5th-wheel trailer. I chased him out of here Sunday, to get him ahead of the current storm. He visited a friend in Reno and left there yesterday. Luckily he has a lifetime of experience driving on wintery roads in Norway.

He went on a day-trip Saturday and came home beaming, saying the four-wheel-drive had paid for itself that day. He had gone to an "open house" at the PAWS elephant sanctuary (Performing Animals Welfare Society), and they were using a small bus to shuttle visitors around -- and that bus got stuck in mud on a dangerous hill. So Runar tied the big Ford to the bus and pulled it to safety, making himself the Hero Of The Day.
Gotta love four-wheel-drive -- specially with six tires.

indeed! 6 tires and a low gear. My Dodge is that. though, without enough weight, the back will tend to float too much, and not dig in as well as with some ton or so in the back.
Yay for your brother, though!!

[trilobyte]

With a little luck, Yggy, these recent storms will have gotten things off to a good solid start for a solid winter season up there. Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope there's lots of tire-chain weather this year. So hooray for those traveling through it to have 4WD, and hooray for Elliot's brother being the hero of the day.

I've been making good progress on some software training I'm going through, but then yesterday I melted my brain completely by taking a break for some webinar. It was given by a really skilled expert with the program, he was doing a "45 tips in 45 minutes" session and figured that maybe I could pick up a few things that would help. Holy cats, that guy is doing some seriously next level stuff. I'm still getting the hang of the existing functionality and finding shortcuts to navigate the existing sea of buttons and menus, and he's offering up tips to write code to create whole new buttons. And of course he's on a time crunch, so he's just racing through at full speed. Wow.

The Hobbit marathon I did on Monday was a blast - the whole trilogy back to back (with short breaks between each), on the IMAX screen too. As an added bonus, all three were shown in the high frame rate 3D as well, which made it much much easier on the eyes. If you sometimes get a headache or don't enjoy the experience of a 3D film, it's most likely because normal 3D movies are only giving each of your eyes 12 frames per second (24 fps divided by 2)... good for an old WB classic cartoon, but not a high enough frame rate to convey smooth motion in a movie setting. High Frame Rate (or HFR for short) is something Peter Jackson and company pioneered for the Hobbit trilogy, it doubles the frame rate to 48fps which makes for 24 frames per second for each eye. No more eyestrain than watching a regular movie. Anyways, I won't spoil the film (which opens nationwide today), other than to say I really enjoyed it. We've got tickets to see it again tonight, actually.. I'm looking forward to that.

[trilobyte]

D'oh! Tonight's moviefilm plans are scuttled - I got a call from my gf's boss telling me she had a spill and hurt her ankle. She's on the way to the hospital to get checked out, fingers crossed that it's just a sprain or a twist.

[ygmir]

best wishes to her, Trilo!!!

[trilobyte]

Thanks, I'll pass it along. She fractured it, but she got a lucky break (ha!) and nothing's out of whack that would require plates, screws, or surgeries. She's being fitted out with a heavy boot and crutches, then be heading home.

[burner von braun]

*sips Bacardi drink*

Trilo, I hope it's just a sprain, and she can walk it off in a couple of days. (ETA: Yeeouch! ..sorry to hear it was a fracture)
..and yeah, Maya comes with a steep learning curve, but it is an amazing tool. Its 'radial marking menu' was very innovative when it first arrived. I'd be interested to hear your view comparing it to C4D. Best of luck chasing it down the rabbit hole!

Elorrum, always great hearing reports from the road. Hopefully the car is back in ship shape. Any pictures?

Gas is $2.29 here..

I cut down two more trees over the weekend; one easy, the other required cables and a good cut to persuade it back away from the garage. I took my time, and all went well. Nice bonfire afterward. It was too overcast to see meteors though, dang it.

Well, back to the grind.. *waves to all*

[MyDearFriend]

Hobbit Hobbit!!! Love it!!

But I found that trying a Middle-Earth marathon in a popcorn environment was too much cognitive dissonance. So we do our annual LOTR marathon at home with hobbit food & real ale. Next year, weekend sleepover double marathon with extra bacon!!!

Best wishes to your lovely dear lady, Trilo. Ankle injuries are a real pain.

[trilobyte]

Kudos to the moviefilm people for the way they organized it. They had check-in stations and then handed out fancy posters and laminates on lanyards that both served as a geeky keepsake and an easy way for staffers to know our tickets had been taken, so there was no digging into pockets to find a stub. There were short breaks between the films (with the start time of each one printed on the laminate for easy reference), so we could stretch our legs, go to the bathroom, get food/drink, etc), and then they had special additional content (coverage from the London premiere and personal message from Peter Jackson) between the films to both pad things a bit more and make people feel like it was something special. I think it also helped that it was on a Monday, so lines were minimal to non-existant. The IMAX screen at our cinema also has been doing assigned seating for a couple years now, which was nice.

BvB, I find that Maya does some things really badly... Units of measurement and scaling is a prime example, and from what I can tell it doesn't do a very good job with the sun and sky. That last one surprised me, I figured that coming from the drafting and design giants it would have long ago had support for GPS coords and realistic sky, star, and sun positions but no such luck. I'm still digging into modeling and texturing basics, and for that it's mostly just a case of things being done differently in one app compared to the other.

I had been hoping that between Maya and AutoCAD I'd be able to significantly change my CNC workflow, but unfortunately AutoCAD 2014 was missing some significantly important features that I can't really use that app as a solution for my 2D design/drawing needs. Maya may still prove fruitful, since once I get my head around it I can take my designs and design files and more quickly turn it into renders than I can in C4D. I'm also toying with the idea of designing something in Maya first and then seeing if I can use that in my workflow.

I don't know what gas is here, we don't usually use the van a whole lot in the off-season and I don't think we've had to fill it more than once since the burn.

I've got to get running, the girl will be home in a couple minutes. Cheers!

[robbidobbs]

<robbidobbs comes in, walks behind the bar, pours two cases of Hanks into the ice chest.>
It's beer thirty and nobody's gonna stop me.
<she plops down on the Dusty Couch, a cloud of dirt rises and fills the room>

[theCryptofishist]

With a little luck, Yggy, these recent storms will have gotten things off to a good solid start for a solid winter season up there. Don't take this the wrong way, but I hope there's lots of tire-chain weather this year.

We have a lot of catching up to do.

[robbidobbs]

Sitting in the foothills, snow pack is a serious subject, watched closely. We're not even close to recovering. Most reservoirs are at 50 ish percent, and it's the dang blamed rainy season. No, we are not out of the woods yet campers.
<she says from the couch, peanut gallery style>

[Aurelia]

Thank you Fishy, with the storm of misinformation I appreciate that.

one day I may tell you about meeting these guys at BRC

xoA.

[FIGJAM]

Sitting in the foothills, snow pack is a serious subject, watched closely. We're not even close to recovering. Most reservoirs are at 50 ish percent, and it's the dang blamed rainy season. No, we are not out of the woods yet campers.
<she says from the couch, peanut gallery style>

I heard this morning that you only need 11 TRILLION gallons to get caught up.

[unjonharley]

Got out of Portland onto The I5 at 4:45.. Three lanes full all the way to Salem..
Dumb ass n front of me for 40 mile. The car would slow and drop back 100-150 yards from the car in front.. Then go like hell to tailgate.. It also went out of its lane a few time...Finely got along side.. They weren't drunk.. She was on the phone.. This was in the right lane that runs 70-75 mph.. That kind of driving wears me out..

[lucky420]

Morning Bar!

[magicmarty]

Morning, Lucky. Loads of welcome rain that seems to be ending for a spell. Still overcast here this morning with a bit more of the wet stuff forecast for today and then a clear weekend thru XMas. Sorry to hear about Pandora, Trilo. Here's to her quick and full recovery. Had a lot to catch up on in here. Heads for the NEB and some snuggles.

(((LF)))

[Elliot]

.
Best wishes for the cracked ankle!
.

[Joeln]

Hoping Pani has an easy healing.
I enjoyed meeting you both on my first night on Playa.

[^Rhino!]

Trilo, get well wishes to your gf for her fracture, and much heaing mojo her way.

Everyone be careful on the ice and in the snow.

We finally got some this a.m. Two inches on the ground when I woke up. It wasn't wet snow, so I got out the broom and swept it off the truck in about a minute. Then, on to work.

I had a CAT scan on Monday. The surgeon came into the exam room after the scan, and told me he's not operating on me for a while - - no need. ***breathes sigh of relief***So, it looks like BRC is a GO for this year.

Big big plus for the week - - - THEY HAVE MY CHEESE WAFFLES BACK at the store! I went in on Tuesday and bought ten bags.

[Dr. Pyro]

Today is a great day indeed! The stock market (as measured by the DJIA) is up 421 points, which I think is a single-day record. The increase of 2.43% probably isn't a record, but it's nice nonetheless. Thank God they've scaled back, and hopefully will finally get rid of altogether, that absurd and counter-productive Dodd-Frank Act and let those of us in the financial service industry do what we do best: help the entire spectrum of the American public, from the poor to the union worker to the Hollywood bazillianaire, increase their net worth and overall well-being. It's a shame those of us who have worked so hard have been painted with a brush of deceit and unsavory behavior mostly by those on the left and can now breathe a sigh of relief and back to the business of making the economic fortitude of America great once again.

[Tin Halo]

[Tin Halo]

My brother is off to Indiana again,

Is he being punished?

[Elliot]

My brother is off to Indiana again,

Is he being punished?

Nope.

[MyDearFriend]

(((Doc))) thank you for safeguarding my financial future. Such as it is.

It's a dim & chilly morning here in DC, perfect for baking cookies, so that is what I am going to do. As soon as I have some more

[lucky420]

Morning MDF.

What a sweet cozy day you gave planned. Give the boys a hug from me and tell em we miss them out here.

And a good morning to everyone else out there, lurkers and early risers...