AMA
- Thread starter strawman
- Start date
I've only been here a little bit today and I'm already stirring the pot in politics. I can't resist the siren song of argument, and even that little participation is already bringing me down.
I'm hopeful, but it doesn't seem likely. Certainly not in the near future.
How you been?
Things are going well. I'm enjoying my job and they seem inclined to keep me around, so there's a reasonable bit of job security at the moment.
Our eldest son turned 19 and left for a mission. Our second son graduated and is preparing for a high school exchange (5th year of high school for a gap year - this time in Portuguese) to Brazil starting mid-August. The rest of the kids are doing well. We'll be down to 8 kids at home after the second leaves, and we're already feeling like things just aren't right, so I expect it'll feel really strange when we are empty nesters..... 18 years from now... when I'm over 60... if none of them hang around too long and none return... ah, who am I kidding, we're never going to be alone!
Still very busy, but was able to take a few vacations already this year, mostly to visit family. Just came back from New Jersey this last weekend, got everyone from my family together except for my sister and her family. Got to see a niece and nephew that we've only seen a handful of times over the last decade.
Nope! This time I'm the one bringing up the idea of getting the snip, and she's still unsure about permanent measures. The risks rise rapidly at our age, though. We're using birth control, and will probably not settle on a decision for another few months.Any more babies?
I've not been to the Mesa Arizona Temple, but I have to tell you I'm not a big fan of heat. We have a smaller temple about an hour's drive from home, so there's no particular pull towards that temple, but it is on our list of temples my wife and I would like to visit at some point. It's a beautiful temple inside and out: https://www.mormonwiki.com/Mesa_Arizona_Temple
We were married and then sealed together in the Washington DC temple in 1998, and decided we'd try to visit every temple that was built prior to our marriage. Mesa was one of the earlier temples, so it's definitely on that list. https://www.mormonwiki.com/Chronological_List_of_Temples
Lots are overseas though, so it's an ambitious goal. We'll see...
- It amuses me.
- Probably, but I still don't trust it. The ear thermometer is more accurate than the forehead thermometer.
- Still using the Viewsonic PJD7820HD, it's 5 years old now and we've done one bulb replacement. I really messed up and ended up blowing dust into the light engine (not onto the DMD, thankfully) and had to take it apart and clean it back out. Up until today I hadn't found a 4k projector that supported 3D (looks like the Optoma UHD50 does, but nothing in the Viewsonic line yet), so one thing holding me back from upgrading is no longer an issue. Now it's just cost and content. I really can't justify it because our internet situation is so poor I can't count on 1080p from a streaming service anyway, and we've only just started buying 4k media (because everyone stopped producing 3D blu-rays) I can still see the individual pixels from my couch, though, so I'd eventually like to upgrade. Probably when this projector dies and a replacement bulb doesn't fix it - and given the flickering I see from the bulb I suspect that may happen within a year or two. I still have the previous 720p viewsonic projector out in my workshop with the same high voltage power supply failure I suspect this one is likely to fail from. I can fix them, but I'd rather upgrade. Of course, since 3D content is all 1080p anyway, I suppose it would make sense to have two projectors if a 4k non-3D projector was substantially cheaper than one supporting 3D. It doesn't help with the proliferation of remotes, though, and confusion people experience trying to operate the system...
- I wouldn't say solved, but improved. Last year AT&T started offering a nearly unlimited cellular internet plan for home internet and hotspot use. In theory they can rate limit after 22GB per month, but I've never experienced it and we use over 600GB a month. I've tried ganging the hotspots together (using a Ubiquiti Edge Router) but that didn't work, so right now we have the home phone/internet device supplying the needs of the house, a separate netgear hotspot for my business, which is often at home usually dedicated to one or the other gaming computer. We're still getting well under 10mbps on each generally. If I mounted them high on a pole outside the house I should be getting over 25mbps, but the convenience of being able to move them around and reset them easily (they are all battery backed, so pulling the power remotely doesn't work) is very useful. I keep knocking around the idea of pulling fiber, but I certainly can't afford it and so far my discussions with others suggests there's low desire for it in the area. Further, improvements to 4G and eventual 5G rollout - probably within the next year or two - would rival fiber in a lot of ways, certainly in cost, so it doesn't seem to make sense to go that direction.
- I wasn't, because I had already answered it previously - https://www.halforums.com/threads/a...hells-down-by-the-seashore.31813/post-1269718
Glad to hear that you are doing well! Hope you come back more often!
Welcome back! Did I miss you?
What’s your biggest challenge with having a large family? My mother is one of nine kids and they love having so many of them.
Did I already ask you my super serious, personality defining questions?
Coke v Pepsi?
Aniston v Jolie?
(I am totally planning to ask the soft drink one as an icebreaker in an interview next week lol)
What’s your biggest challenge with having a large family? My mother is one of nine kids and they love having so many of them.
Did I already ask you my super serious, personality defining questions?
Coke v Pepsi?
Aniston v Jolie?
(I am totally planning to ask the soft drink one as an icebreaker in an interview next week lol)
Ah, yeah, that was a mess!
And for that reason, no, I have not. In my workshop it would only ever show its highest and lowest temperatures, though, it's never a comfortable temperature in there. That said, I do look at the thermometer I do have in there quite often, so maybe I should consider getting another Galileo - it would be visible from across the shop.
Yes.
Biggest challenge is keeping everything straight in my head. Scheduling, todo, etc. They are certainly fun!
I don't know. Maybe they've changed, ask again!
Coke, though I generally avoid caffeine so very rarely drink it.
I'm equally disinterested in both, but I've never really had a celebrity crush. They both seem equally passionate about their work and philanthropy, and I imagine an interesting conversation could be had with both. I've seen more of Jolie's work than Anniston's.
Everything good with family, job(s) etc.?
So far, so good. My oldest two are out of the house, and the youngest recently celebrated her 3rd birthday. We put an Emporia energy monitor on our house, changed some habits based on what we found, and added some solar, cutting our grid energy usage significantly, but not quite in half - about 1.5MWH per month now.
I've been tinkering with digital currency, and have a few thousand dollars tied up in it, both mining and "investing" (read: gambling), and it's been interesting. I should have taken the advice I gave on the previous forum, though - just grab $10 of each digital coin and see what happens. If it dies or only gains a little, no big deal, if it goes exponential you'll be glad you had it. If anyone is keen on seeing what it's like these days, check out "invest answers" on youtube.
No one in my immediate family has suffered COVID, those who have had it in my extended family never had to go to the hospital. I'm vaccinated but disappointed that Bill Gate's microchip doesn't give me HBO.
I've got two barn cats now, and since COVID had me spending all my remote work in my workshop they have grown quite attached to me, and me them.
I 3D printed a few thousand face shield parts in the early days of the pandemic, when masks were unavailable except to emergency workers. I worked a little on the ventilator shortage problem, but determined it wasn't viable for a number of reasons, and investigated making masks but glad I didn't pursue that - mass production has solved that problem and then some.
And stomping my ass in Words With Friends.
Pft! I wish. You're ranked third among my friends, with an 89% win rate, average word score of 24, and average game score of 373. I'm sitting at 8th place with an average word score of 22 and average game score of 327.And stomping my ass in Words With Friends.
I forget who else I was playing with from here that curb stomped me every single game. I was hitting 300+ points, and they were hitting high 400 point games. Ah, here we go, Animatogre I think was from here, but maybe not. At any rate, I don't think I ever won a game against him, almost every word he submitted was minimum 30 points, generally 50 points, and often 70+.
@MindDetective always handily beat me as well. I don't think I ever won a game against him.
I really enjoy our game(s) though, thanks for sticking with it all these years!
Good to see you, missed you on my own return back here! Glad things are going well with the fam, and COVID gave you and yours a miss!
Popping in for a bit, I'll come back tomorrow and answer any questions.
Perhaps notable:
- Became an amazon vine reviewer. They have a list of 120k products that I can request be sent to me and I have to review at least 90% of what I request. They report the purchases to the IRS as income, so while I don't pay for the products, I do pay taxes on their full value, so it's more like a discount than 'free'. It's been interesting, and I've tapered off on my participation due to the cost in both time and taxes, but if I'm patient I can get a lot of stuff I would have paid for at a fairly steep discount. Bigger items include a variety of welders, plasma cutters, and other shop equipment, but mostly it's smaller items. Halloween costumes, for instance. We did finally snag a rug tufting machine and made a weekend out of making small custom rugs with the kids. Got a button maker recently. USB cables and chargers, etc. I've spent a lot of time taking apart cheap third party power tool batteries and reviewing them for actual capacity and build quality - in general you can expect them to be about 40% - 70% of their rated capacity. Of the dozens of batteries I disassembled only one actually had the capacity it was advertised as. We hold more garage sales than we ever have before, and we don't break even, but we still feel we're getting good value out of the program.
- Got starlink (so I finally stopped using cellular as our primary internet connection!). Eventually got TPLink Deco mesh set up, and while it was fast I was surprised when I stopped using the routing function of the tplink and used a separate router. First Ubiquiti, and now Mikrotik. It improved speeds significantly and reduced latency noticeably. Lightning twice blew up ethernet cables we buried between my workshop (where the starlink dish is) and the house, and Vine was able to provide fiberoptic cables, media converters, and switches with SFP+ ports, so we've had a 10gbps link between the house and the workshop for awhile now with no issues. It's absolutely overkill, except that it has reduced latency a very tiny amount compared to the ethernet we had, but with internet speeds peaking at 330mbps it's 95% underutilized. I can now claim to have a 10 gig network at home, so I've got that going for me. We are slated to have fiber internet service near the end of 2025, but that's at the end of the provider's build-out from the rural development funds, and it's not uncommon for those funds to run out before the projects they were slated for were finished. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hopeful. Right now we're sharing our starlink with our neighbor to reduce both our costs. Starlink also fulfills some of my emergency preparedness needs, so I've stopped paying for a spot satellite communicator, for instance. In theory the direct to cell technology built into my phone would suffice as well, but when I've tested it in areas without cell service it hasn't worked well, and if everyone in the area is suffering the same natural disaster it is practically useless since it isn't meant to handle significant traffic. A small group of hikers lost or injured, yes. A large cellular outage in a city, no.
- I was diagnosed with depression a few years ago, but with no real cause, trauma, etc to indicate a source. I figured I'd just be on antidepressants forever, and was fine with that, but over time I was encouraged by counselors and my wife to be tested for autism and ADHD. So two years ago I did so, and have both autism and ADHD (moderate, inattentive for those in the know). This has provided some significant insight into my depression and how and why I behave the way I do. Still taking anti-depressants, but was able to reduce those and add ritalin which yielded an improvement significant enough that two of my superiors at work separately pulled me aside and noted my improvements (I hadn't told them any of this prior). So while I couldn't see significant changes, others could and that's good enough for me. Still have a lot to figure out, but it's nice to have a way to move forward. Can't fully blame depression on either of those, but I see a lot of coping strategies and masking that do affect how I see myself and how I relate to others, and could be affecting the depression. Also got my first ever official IQ test (which they do as part of the overall testing) and it's not super high, but if I had any desire to join mensa it looks like I'd meet their requirements. Autism, ADHD, depression are all heritable, and yes, a few of my kids have one or two.
- We are done multiplying and have stopped at 10 children. Our oldest is graduating with a computer degree and looking into PhD programs, and our youngest is over 5. No grandchildren on the horizon, but one of our adult children is in a relationship serious enough that they're visiting together on our next family event. I don't mind waiting to become a grand, but I have to admit I miss holding babies and playing with toddlers.
- We've had covid several times. I've been vaccinated many times. I know lots of people are still terrifically worried about it, and perhaps they have cause to be, but we now treat it like we do the flu or cold - stay home when sick, hydrate and rest, and see the doctor if oxygen drops, or some other symptom of significance shows.
- We camped out near the center of totality for the eclipse, and were again blown away by the experience. I spent some time getting a $10 telescope and solar filter together to take pictures that weren't terrible, but it was enough to sate my desire to get into yet another interesting hobby, and I was able to put it away - thus escaping the expensive grasp of astrophotography. Still have a few astrophotographers in my youtube feed. Also saw the northern lights for the first time this year, both on camera and with the naked eye.
- I'm trying to make a determined effort to cut back on all the things I'm involved in. I don't build my own computers anymore, we are hiring out automotive repairs more often, etc. Trying to spend more time with my kids and family, and just reduce my mental load. I am teaching a few classes to youth, so I still indulge my electronics design outside of work for programming and electronics classes. A 480x320 ips capacitive touchscreen display, raspbery pi pico, audio output, realtime clock, accelerometer, and two joysticks on a custom PCB makes a compelling little machine to teach python on, for under $60 each. I'm considering doing a ham radio class so I can spend a little more time on that hobby. I still follow over 930 youtube channels, though, so I doubt I'll ever stop thinking about a million different things all the time. What I'm hoping to do is focus time and resources spent on fewer things and enjoy them more deeply. We'll see, I suspect this is going to be a long, slow process.
- Still working for the same company I was last time I visited here. It looks like we might actually make it out of startup mode this next year, but we'll see. They keep paying me and I get to do a variety of work. In the last year I've worked on iOS and Android apps, low data rate wireless IoT networks, AWS servers and databases, regulatory compliance, electronic design, lots of troubleshooting, QA, etc, and a few interestingly unique algorithms. I enjoy it, and the company is still small enough that I can switch to a new project or different part of a project frequently.
- Added more panels to our solar system. It's close to 10KW of panels, and 30KWH of batteries. It powers my workshop full time, and we have a transfer switch that allows it to power the house, which it does almost every day most of the day. We have peak pricing with our power company, and this essentially covers all the power we would have used at the higher daytime rate. During the summer it covers almost all the power we need. Winter, not so much. The new set of panels are bifacial and will be directed toward the winter sun, so I'm hoping to get back up to having it take care of most of our daytime energy needs. We've also started charging the batteries at night on the lower rates, so a little arbitration is helping us save money there too.
- Black licorice and cilantro are still both disgusting.
- A few years ago we bought a 30 foot FEMA trailer (essentially a camper fitted out for Katrina temporary housing - no water tanks or pumps for instance) which was rotting on one end and we rebuilt it. Including the cost of the trailer we're about $2k in and we use it for almost all of our camping now. We replaced the rotting sections of walls and floor, replaced the entire roof (plywood and rubber), added tanks, an RV toilet, an on demand water heater, replaced the windows, added a AC/heat pump and diesel heater, and fixed a lot of little things. It sleeps 8 when we have the portable bunk bed set up in the kitchen, and we usually set up another large tent outside for the few adult children that come that don't want to be crammed inside an aluminum tube at night. It's been interesting, and has gotten us out more. Vacations in a large family, as you can guess, are expensive, and lodging and travel are the largest portion of the expenses. But it's now another thing I know a lot more about than I did a few years ago and is a fun project that we continue to upgrade little by little each year.
Probably lots of other stuff has happened or is happening that isn't coming to mind right now. Feel free to ask me anything.
Perhaps notable:
- Became an amazon vine reviewer. They have a list of 120k products that I can request be sent to me and I have to review at least 90% of what I request. They report the purchases to the IRS as income, so while I don't pay for the products, I do pay taxes on their full value, so it's more like a discount than 'free'. It's been interesting, and I've tapered off on my participation due to the cost in both time and taxes, but if I'm patient I can get a lot of stuff I would have paid for at a fairly steep discount. Bigger items include a variety of welders, plasma cutters, and other shop equipment, but mostly it's smaller items. Halloween costumes, for instance. We did finally snag a rug tufting machine and made a weekend out of making small custom rugs with the kids. Got a button maker recently. USB cables and chargers, etc. I've spent a lot of time taking apart cheap third party power tool batteries and reviewing them for actual capacity and build quality - in general you can expect them to be about 40% - 70% of their rated capacity. Of the dozens of batteries I disassembled only one actually had the capacity it was advertised as. We hold more garage sales than we ever have before, and we don't break even, but we still feel we're getting good value out of the program.
- Got starlink (so I finally stopped using cellular as our primary internet connection!). Eventually got TPLink Deco mesh set up, and while it was fast I was surprised when I stopped using the routing function of the tplink and used a separate router. First Ubiquiti, and now Mikrotik. It improved speeds significantly and reduced latency noticeably. Lightning twice blew up ethernet cables we buried between my workshop (where the starlink dish is) and the house, and Vine was able to provide fiberoptic cables, media converters, and switches with SFP+ ports, so we've had a 10gbps link between the house and the workshop for awhile now with no issues. It's absolutely overkill, except that it has reduced latency a very tiny amount compared to the ethernet we had, but with internet speeds peaking at 330mbps it's 95% underutilized. I can now claim to have a 10 gig network at home, so I've got that going for me. We are slated to have fiber internet service near the end of 2025, but that's at the end of the provider's build-out from the rural development funds, and it's not uncommon for those funds to run out before the projects they were slated for were finished. I'm not holding my breath, but I'm hopeful. Right now we're sharing our starlink with our neighbor to reduce both our costs. Starlink also fulfills some of my emergency preparedness needs, so I've stopped paying for a spot satellite communicator, for instance. In theory the direct to cell technology built into my phone would suffice as well, but when I've tested it in areas without cell service it hasn't worked well, and if everyone in the area is suffering the same natural disaster it is practically useless since it isn't meant to handle significant traffic. A small group of hikers lost or injured, yes. A large cellular outage in a city, no.
- I was diagnosed with depression a few years ago, but with no real cause, trauma, etc to indicate a source. I figured I'd just be on antidepressants forever, and was fine with that, but over time I was encouraged by counselors and my wife to be tested for autism and ADHD. So two years ago I did so, and have both autism and ADHD (moderate, inattentive for those in the know). This has provided some significant insight into my depression and how and why I behave the way I do. Still taking anti-depressants, but was able to reduce those and add ritalin which yielded an improvement significant enough that two of my superiors at work separately pulled me aside and noted my improvements (I hadn't told them any of this prior). So while I couldn't see significant changes, others could and that's good enough for me. Still have a lot to figure out, but it's nice to have a way to move forward. Can't fully blame depression on either of those, but I see a lot of coping strategies and masking that do affect how I see myself and how I relate to others, and could be affecting the depression. Also got my first ever official IQ test (which they do as part of the overall testing) and it's not super high, but if I had any desire to join mensa it looks like I'd meet their requirements. Autism, ADHD, depression are all heritable, and yes, a few of my kids have one or two.
- We are done multiplying and have stopped at 10 children. Our oldest is graduating with a computer degree and looking into PhD programs, and our youngest is over 5. No grandchildren on the horizon, but one of our adult children is in a relationship serious enough that they're visiting together on our next family event. I don't mind waiting to become a grand, but I have to admit I miss holding babies and playing with toddlers.
- We've had covid several times. I've been vaccinated many times. I know lots of people are still terrifically worried about it, and perhaps they have cause to be, but we now treat it like we do the flu or cold - stay home when sick, hydrate and rest, and see the doctor if oxygen drops, or some other symptom of significance shows.
- We camped out near the center of totality for the eclipse, and were again blown away by the experience. I spent some time getting a $10 telescope and solar filter together to take pictures that weren't terrible, but it was enough to sate my desire to get into yet another interesting hobby, and I was able to put it away - thus escaping the expensive grasp of astrophotography. Still have a few astrophotographers in my youtube feed. Also saw the northern lights for the first time this year, both on camera and with the naked eye.
- I'm trying to make a determined effort to cut back on all the things I'm involved in. I don't build my own computers anymore, we are hiring out automotive repairs more often, etc. Trying to spend more time with my kids and family, and just reduce my mental load. I am teaching a few classes to youth, so I still indulge my electronics design outside of work for programming and electronics classes. A 480x320 ips capacitive touchscreen display, raspbery pi pico, audio output, realtime clock, accelerometer, and two joysticks on a custom PCB makes a compelling little machine to teach python on, for under $60 each. I'm considering doing a ham radio class so I can spend a little more time on that hobby. I still follow over 930 youtube channels, though, so I doubt I'll ever stop thinking about a million different things all the time. What I'm hoping to do is focus time and resources spent on fewer things and enjoy them more deeply. We'll see, I suspect this is going to be a long, slow process.
- Still working for the same company I was last time I visited here. It looks like we might actually make it out of startup mode this next year, but we'll see. They keep paying me and I get to do a variety of work. In the last year I've worked on iOS and Android apps, low data rate wireless IoT networks, AWS servers and databases, regulatory compliance, electronic design, lots of troubleshooting, QA, etc, and a few interestingly unique algorithms. I enjoy it, and the company is still small enough that I can switch to a new project or different part of a project frequently.
- Added more panels to our solar system. It's close to 10KW of panels, and 30KWH of batteries. It powers my workshop full time, and we have a transfer switch that allows it to power the house, which it does almost every day most of the day. We have peak pricing with our power company, and this essentially covers all the power we would have used at the higher daytime rate. During the summer it covers almost all the power we need. Winter, not so much. The new set of panels are bifacial and will be directed toward the winter sun, so I'm hoping to get back up to having it take care of most of our daytime energy needs. We've also started charging the batteries at night on the lower rates, so a little arbitration is helping us save money there too.
- Black licorice and cilantro are still both disgusting.
- A few years ago we bought a 30 foot FEMA trailer (essentially a camper fitted out for Katrina temporary housing - no water tanks or pumps for instance) which was rotting on one end and we rebuilt it. Including the cost of the trailer we're about $2k in and we use it for almost all of our camping now. We replaced the rotting sections of walls and floor, replaced the entire roof (plywood and rubber), added tanks, an RV toilet, an on demand water heater, replaced the windows, added a AC/heat pump and diesel heater, and fixed a lot of little things. It sleeps 8 when we have the portable bunk bed set up in the kitchen, and we usually set up another large tent outside for the few adult children that come that don't want to be crammed inside an aluminum tube at night. It's been interesting, and has gotten us out more. Vacations in a large family, as you can guess, are expensive, and lodging and travel are the largest portion of the expenses. But it's now another thing I know a lot more about than I did a few years ago and is a fun project that we continue to upgrade little by little each year.
Probably lots of other stuff has happened or is happening that isn't coming to mind right now. Feel free to ask me anything.
IMPOSTOR!
No, I kid, good to see you man.
As for questions... well... um... what was your favorite thing you reviewed?
As someone who has met you in person and who was diagnosed with ADHD back in my single-digit years, I assumed you already had a diagnosis. I am surprised you hadn't. There is nothing wrong with following dozens upon dozens of YouTube channels, unless they take you away from more important things. Have you considered subscribing to Nebula?
Are you averse to being contacted for casual acquaintance renewal? Do you keep to yourself these days? Or do you (and the family?) socialize at all IRL? I mean outside of things like Discord or this forum. Have you downsized the fleet yet, or is that for further in the future? Have you considered using vertically mounted panels, or is that not possible due to our state's more shallow solar angle?
Did you remember your HF password on the first try?
I'm sure I will think of more later, but this will do for now.
Also black licorice is not disgusting, you must be confusing it with the double-salt licorice.
--Patrick
Last edited:
GasBandit
Staff member
Interesting! I got solar this year too, but I've got 14.4kw of panels (though because they're mounted on various roof surfaces, I never get more than 10kw at a time) and 13.5kWh of battery. I am thinking I need to add a second battery, and maybe a natural gas backup generator too. Fortunately my local power company does net metering, so when my battery fills up, any kWh I feed back into the grid comes off my electricity bill 1:1.
Did you roll your own solution or use an established product package?
Hey, man. Thanks for checking in. I'm glad you and yours are doing well. 10 kids, though! There was my limit. I don't dare imagine...
Yo steiny - good to hear from you! Interesting update. Be well, sir.