And now what did you do TODAY?

[Grahame]

Joanne and I are now à jour with the vaccine nouveau.

[Dusty Chalk]

23 hours ago, Grahame said:

Joanne and I are now à jour with the vaccine nouveau.

So...you're now a "vaccine influencer"?  Is that like the opposite of a denier?

Me:  I started learning Rust.

[Grahame]

I was on a boat

That crossed the bay

To "The City"

Where we had a guided tour by a retired lawyer of the TJPA/Salesforce Transit Center and Rooftop Gardens

Then saw some art

And took the new subway (only $1.9B)  to Chinatown,

for their night market.

And then a short rest*

Before taking the ferry home again.

 

*The more eagle eyed of you will spot the token foreground interest, bottom right.

Edited September 14 by Grahame

[TMoney]

Seats not as good as Al’s, but there are worse ways to spend a Sunday!

[Grahame]

This.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/08/23/californians-can-now-add-their-mobile-drivers-license-to-google-wallet/

Also, to be inclusive.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2024/09/19/californians-can-now-store-drivers-licenses-state-ids-in-apple-wallet/

 

[swt61]

Just sold a roll of poly sheeting to Elvin Bishop.

[morphsci]

So if you have been in the Drinks 2024 thread (where I live) you know that we had three University events on Thursday and Friday. One was the Women Kicking Glass Gala where Karen and I had to wear our Prom outfits

 

[swt61]

Did you bust a move?

[morphsci]

30 minutes ago, swt61 said:

Did you bust a move?

At my age, I am happy if I don’t bust anything.

[Augsburger]

Yesterday actually. Drove Mary and Emily to the airport for their flight to SFO to search for available/affordable apartments in Pacific Heights.

Emily starts her job on Monday as a clinical Pediatrics Speech Therapist so a new chapter in her life begins.

 

The airport round trip took over four hours.  The same time it would take to drive from LA to San Diego.

[Augsburger]

The cooler weather has brought an end to rattlesnake season and the beginning of deer season.

[Craig Sawyers]

Having just been to see Coriolanus (Shakespeare), we went through the list of Shakespeare plays we have seen. We've seven yet to see. But the most memorable productions were:

Merry Wives of Windsor. David Troughton (son of Patrick Troughton, one of the early Dr Who's)

Much Ado about Nothing. David Tennant and Catherine Tate.

The Winter's Tale. Kenneth Branagh and Judy Dench.

Titus Andronicus (a gore fest revenge play; blood and guts from beginning to end). David Troughton

Julius Caesar. Ben Wishaw.

Hamlet. Michael Sheen.

King Lear, Four notable productions. Frank Langhella (excellent), Ian McKellen (superb), Glenda Jackson (RIP, but was superb), and most recently (this year) Kenneth Branagh (surprisingly superb).

Macbeth. Patrick Stewart (the definitive play! For a treat watch this on You Tube), Sean Bean and Samantha Bond, Rory Kinnear and Anne-Marie Duff, and by far the worst one Christopher Eccleston. Have tickets to see David Tennant this autumn. As you might tell, we like this play!

Othello. Adrian Lester and Rory Kinnear.

[n_maher]

Not today, but Thursday night, the northern lights made a return visit.  Quite visible to the naked eye this time with pretty striking red and green hues across the whole night sky.  Wild to see in southern New England.

Today, replaced the rear brakes on the Volvo which my mechanic had said were "metal on metal".  That was a slight exaggeration but the pads were down to the wear bars so it was time.  The rotors actually looked pretty good (essentially no lip) but decided that it made sense to do them while I was in there since I already had the parts.

I did not end up doing the fronts as they still have a good 1.5mm to the wear bar and the rotors look fine as well.  I'll keep the parts on hand and plan on doing them next spring summer depending on how inspection goes in March. 

[n_maher]

Continuing the theme of "fix shit yourself" I completed the two week journey that was bringing a Ryobi One+ battery back to life.  It had sat (incorrectly) on a charger for too long and discharged itself to the point where it could no longer be charged.  I suspected the batter was fine.  Problem one - it has one effing torx safety screw so a quick shopping trip to Amazon for IFIXIT's smallest kit with the right bit and the chassis was opened.  From there I could check the cells, see that none were shorted they just all had very low voltage.  Problem two - how do you trick the charger into thinking the battery is ok?  A few YouTube videos and some hacking of wire later and I was able to float the battery up to ~13V which was enough to get the charger to recognize it and fully recharge the battery.  Sure, I spent $15 on the torx bit but I didn't put an otherwise functional battery in a land fill.  I call that a win. 

[Craig Sawyers]

Yesterday to London to see Oedipus. Astonishing, modern version of the Sophocles Greek classic with Mark Strong and Lesley Manville. Two hours without a break. If and when it gets to Broadway, go and see it.

Write up is here https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2024/oct/16/oedipus-review-lesley-manville-and-mark-strong-electrify-ancient-saga-turned-political-thriller

[swt61]

Last night my new landlord brought me a rotisserie chicken from Costco. So tonight I made chicken/green chili enchiladas. 

I also made a blueberry cobbler that I delivered to said landlord. She was very surprised, but one good deed deserves another.

Didn't take pics.

[Grahame]

To do something different for Guy Fawkes night (and as distraction from other events today),

This:

 

Here :

https://www.beltiblibrary.org/plan-your-visit/makerspace

https://www.beltiblibrary.org/plan-your-visit/makerspace/digital-fabrication-station

Producing

Because

EDIT: 
They have a nice collection of 3D printers .

 

and a Nice soldering station. I particularly appreciate the addition of a kettle as vital equipment.

 

 

Edited November 6 by Grahame

[Craig Sawyers]

To a harrowing play yesterday at the Bristol Old Vic. A stage adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name "Never Let Me Go"

Children are brought up, cloned, so that as adults they can be harvested for organs. None of them remotely question this. That is the basic plot, but it is completely brought to life by the script and wonderful acting. Even if they survive three "donations", they never survive a fourth. The word die is never used, when they do inevitably do so, they are "complete".

 https://bristololdvic.org.uk/whats-on/never-let-me-go

[n_maher]

 

Yesterday, removed half the sod to clear a 14' x 16' tract of land.  For context, that took about two and half hours.

 

This morning, continued to remove sod to clear the rest of the area.  Took about an hour since I'd already used the edger to cut the sod into roughly 1' square pieces.

Project then moved from demolition to construction, which involved raking and grading the area.  Then moved approximately 5,000# of crushed stone by hand along with installing permeable paving forms to make Lily a parking space beside the driveway. 

 

Grandma and grandpa chipped in.

The somewhat rough finished project.  I did a bit more raking/sweeping to level it out and smooth the high spots.  The paver box-out in the back is for an irrigation control valve that was annoyingly just at the edge of the excavation.

[Craig Sawyers]

That is some hard yards! Nicely done.

[skullguise]

Awesome work, Nate!  But oh, my: "...make Lily a parking space beside the driveway."  Is time flying that much?!

[n_maher]

7 hours ago, skullguise said:

Awesome work, Nate!  But oh, my: "...make Lily a parking space beside the driveway."  Is time flying that much?!

Indeed it is. She got her license in June.  Time flies and all that.

Works good though.

[Voltron]

You know  you can hire people to do that stuff every once in a while, Nate. Well done regardless of the easier alternative. 😎