I thought I'd add this future post, so it will always be at the top of my list as I've seen several people do. Feel free to use this as a place to send me general comments not related to my other posts posts, or request that I post some kind of information.  Also, now I'm adding links people may want to be able to reference quickly.

Persistent information:

Saturday morning Tea:
Just in case the world goes to hell:

( Comments will be screened, but I reserve the right to cut and paste them into a current dated entry of my own to start a topic unless you request otherwise. )

I should NEVER be allowed to go to Microcenter without adult supervision.

OK!! Enough of this "unfriend me if you voted for Trump" or wishing members of political party X dead, or treating any other human being as being lesser for any reason. This is not how problems get solved, this is how rifts between people start out small and grow huge. Go find someone you disagree with, buy them a beverage and sit and talk to them. You know what you'll find out? They made their decisions, take their actions, for important reasons to them, things maybe you don't understand because of your situation in life. Maybe they changed their mind, maybe they still think there's hope, maybe they only agree with a portion of the actions going on, or are hoping for a specific outcome. The majority of people are not idiots, they may not be aware, may not understand, may be misinformed, or may be focused on fixing a different problem than you're focused on. Find out, understand their perspective and how they got there, share your perspective (calmly) and own that it's your opinion, not fact, not gospel, just the thoughts of one human being, focused on the issues important to you because of your life experiences. If you're not holding out your hand to someone you disagree with, it's not making things better, it's making them worse. All you end up doing is hating people over a single issue, without taking any time to understand them. I've seen the world doing that my entire life, it hasn't worked so far, try something new!

New glass, PEI, a better extruder, and some solid state relays, and this second 3D printer will get some nice upgrades.

Last nights rain I think made some of my mortar not stick on the firepit. It's also got 6 inches of water in it too.

Do I know anyone who does residential HVAC work? My computer room gets super-hot while the rest of the house is cold, and I think it's because the return vent is near the floor, I'm thinking adding one to the ceiling would help, with some kind of seasonal diverter or something.

I think I found a good projector for my home theater https://ift.tt/2ynpIc2

Sorry about the rain I was told you had to keep concrete wet while it was setting

Looking at buying a solder reflow oven, or a new projector. Maybe both, any recommendations for low-cost but quality versions of either?

How can you tell "full-on Canadian hate?" They don't say sorry before saying they dislike Trump.

The irony of getting a "Share this coke with ..." and it's a friend's dead name. Um, maybe not.

Hey Waffle House, "Ihob" is focusing themselves out of the breakfast market, now's your time to take Illinois by storm!!!! Please!?

How about Ihop or Ihob or wtf they want to call themselves, why not Ihos ... Internation House of "Sorry, our bad, we'll improve our food" That's a better reason to eat there IMHO. The majority of the ones that have closed around here did so because they were poorly managed, had inconstant food,a and employees who .... were clearly not treated well. Fix that, not a letter.

Free idea to some company who wants it: Lithium Batteries are readily available, and us 3D printing folks have proven that you can print adapters to run one brand's tool off of another's battery. Someone please please come up with reasonably priced universal batteries based around an open-source connector? I'd love to be able to buy just one brand of battery and run all my tools on it.

Public service announcement to companies who think they're clever: 1) If after 2 months, you're still sending "Hurry up, your $15 dollar off offer ends tomorrow" emails or your "%75 discount ends soon". Not going to buy your shit. 2) If your software offers a paid feature of auto-updating itself, not going to buy your crap. This is 2018, auto-updating should just happen, it's not a Premium Feature. 3) If you offer trial software that has the paid feature of "Saving your work", not going to buy your garbage. 4) If you offer me a $25 Amazon gift card to increase my bill by $50 or more monthly, sorry to say it's NOT going to happen. Now, can we stop playing stupid games and just set reasonable prices and sell working software please?

Best part of owning my own place, and watching TV shows alone. When the bad guy gets his, I can yell as loud as I want.

2018 version of Rickrolling ... send links to Amazon, Ebay, and Facebook searches about embarrassing things, so that they end up on your friend's interest lists forever.

I just built 9 : 6-36v -> 5v 3A regulators on a PCB I designed. It's odd soldering surface mount components I can place by hand. Stress tested one with a potential 18A draw, probably got 5-6A out of it before it overheated and shutdown. Put a piece of copper on top of the regulator, and it happily took it and after a few min the inductor got hot enough to start smoking. It's still working just fine, great regulation, 5.04v

(copied from a Friend) I'm here if you need to talk. Always here, right? I'd like to see five of my friends post this message (no sharing) to show you are always there if someone needs to talk.

I swear, MoviePass's customer "support" is going to be the thing that makes me start drinking.

Garfield without Garfield was funny, let's have Rosanne without Rosanne. Just her reaction to it alone should be good for a chuckle.

@instacart I'll make a deal with you! Add Round Lake Beach's Aldi's to your service, and I'll let you keep the $15 promo.

Anyone free this weekend to help me figure out how to build a fire pit in my backyard so I can get rid of the pile of bricks so I can mow my yard?

My hand is still sore from trying to figure out how to sweat copper pipe last night. It's not QUITE a burn, but it's not not a burn. Fast reflexes! I think I got it, haven't pressure tested the pipe yet though.

Success, Power meter interface talks to Linux, I can now read very cryptic XML data out of it. Next step to write a nice little Java wrapper for the device, an incorporate that into my home automation software. I'm using a Rainforest EMU-2 device by the way. VERY nice device, lots of information, just technical in format.

Yanny vs Laurel .... I listened enough I can switch it between the two in my head at will now. That's cool.

The Cat Genie demanded it's once yearly sacrifice of my dignity by clogging up. It's working perfectly again, but .... there are some things that can't be unseen.

Hooray, I got an EMU-2 smart meter interface, which lets me (and my computer) read the power-usage directly from my meter. Boo, ComEd takes up to 5 days to connect the device to my meter. Hopefully it's quicker than that and I can start monitoring how much different things like dryer, AC, catbox, etc take to run. I already know the computer's usage from my UPS.

Anyone know how to work with fireplace mortar? Want to come over sometime and help me finish my fire-pit so we can burn things in my backyard?

It was a productive evening ... I just got my 110' movie screen hung in the basement, it's nicer than I expected it to be (it was ~$50 on Yugster). Also found my cable box, and a box of wires to hook up the TV/Stereo downstairs. Pretty soon I can hook up my cable and Slingbox and watch cable anywhere in the house. And if I can find my projector, on the big-screen too.

Anyone free over the next week or so who can help me move a work bench from one garage to another?

Micah's new hobby (he's my cat) ... jumping in bed when I get up in the middle of the night to go to the washroom, and then refusing to leave my side of the bed. On the other hand, he continues to bring to me his little glitter-ball all the time. So, we'll call it even.

Today's revelation : If you spend more time embarrassing someone for not knowing something than it would to teach them what they don't know, YOU are the problem.

I'm starting to feel a little bit like Tony Stark

Bakers, remember on Easter, if someone says "He is risen!" the correct answer is "e has risen indeed!" not "Well, then punch him down, and put him back for a second rise."

Yep, confirmed, PEI is the solution to 3D printing on my machine, I've got a print going using most of the print-volume of my machine, and it's got almost perfect adhesion (one corner came loose where supports are being printed, but it's ok, or I'd hot-melt glue it back down.

The new Borosilocate glass with a PEI layer on top of it is printing exceptionally well, I highly recommend it.

Hey ALDI USA and Instacart your page says that you two work together, how come we don't have delivery from out in Round Lake Beach yet? Soon? Please, the combination would be amazing!!!

So, the PCBs I designed and ordered on 3-19 are at my front door on 3-22 all the way from China. This is living in the future!

I sneeze at work and the room goes silent except for voices far off saying "Bless you".

I can't wait till this season of Walking Dead is over, this has been the least interesting season, I'm just watching hoping Negan dies spectacularly.

Here's a fun question for everyone, what's THE WORST tasting thing you have ever tasted? For me it's ATF4 transmission fluid, it was an accident.

How can a doctor decide that something is improving or not on the first visit ever that I've ever seen him? Especially after he asks, and I explain how it HAD been and how it HAS improved.

Weighing in on a couple recent hot button issues. Guns and Students. Just flow of thoughts here. First of all, student mental health. Quite frankly this comes down to us being a society, and a society exists for the protection and betterment of it's people. All people, even the ones who's brains are not fully matured yet. As a society it's our responsibility to look out for each other. If we see a danger we should help fix it. So, students, parents, teachers, people, if you see another person (student, parent, teacher, etc) who needs help, and it's safe to offer help, we're all in this together, go help. Help can be in the form of talking to someone, reporting that someone needs a level of help that you can't give, banding together for a cause. Help takes all kinds of forms, some obviously safer, easier, more comfortable, etc than others. Do what you can, it's all any of us can do, but do something to help those in our society. The balance might not be perfect, you might get it wrong, but try, and be willing to learn. Now on to guns. I understand why this is a very hot bed question, if the question was simply "should kids have guns in school" easy answer, no. A gun is never "safe" it's in some complex physical state of being closer or further away from making a hole in whatever is in front of it. They should be treated very carefully and by people with the proper respect for the resulting holes. Guns weren't invented, nor are they built because putting holes in things is fun (It can be in the appropriate safe settings like a shooting range) they were built to be a tool to kill things quickly and easily. This is where the problem comes in, when people react to situations either internal to themselves, or externally motivated, or both, where they have anger towards an individual or group, and quite simply have a tool to harm the targets of their anger. Sometimes these targets are beneficial to society as a whole (remember above we protect each other) and sometimes they're detrimental to society (sometimes people pick the targets our of anger or mental issues) . I think if a foreign power landed on our shores, and started attacking us, the general moral response would be clear, fight back, protect our people. So, how do we limit having a device that kills so that it only kills appropriate targets? Some people would say "no guns" some would say "training" some would say "nothing that can repeat fire" still others would say "evaluate people mentally before arming them" .... they're all right, any of those actions would have a positive effect, but the world-views of different groups don't always line up, we're a differentiated society of people who think in a wide variety of ways. Are guns a viable tool to use against and oppressive or out of control government, yes. Are they a viable tool for solving personal problems? Depends on the level of the problem. Home invader, yes, robbery, yes. Plenty of situations where the tool fits the problem. Now, how do we keep the tool available, what forms do we allow it to exist in that we can have it available for the obviously OK problems, yet keep it out of the hands of people who would misuse the tool. Quite frankly, I have no idea at all. There are any number of gun laws on the books that in theory keep them out of the wrong hands. Still, they can be stolen, resold, and quickly find themselves in the wrong hands. Who was initially a safe person can experience something in their life that makes them unsafe, how do we know when to take the tool away from them to prevent harm to society. I have no idea, honestly. Clearly the way to prevent tragedies is "no guns" at all, ever, world wide for all people. (Then we have other violence to contend with, but it's no longer "gun" violence, not much of a comfort to the targets, but it would end the problem of "gun violence".) Clearly this will never happen, criminals will always have their stash somewhere, other nations won't disarm, and rightfully so, there's a need for nations, for societies to protect themselves justly, and they need those tools for that reason. It would would be great if everyone could be peaceful, it can't happen quickly enough, but it's a long ways off, if ever. So, every law is going to be a trade off, of trying to dictate through a written rule, who, if anyone is safe to own a killing tool. Humans are clever, if they want a tool, and it exists they'll find a way to get it. No law will 100% exclude the wrong people from getting the weapons. No law will 100% prevent the most deadly versions of those weapons from being in the wrong hands. No law will protect the life of an innocent target who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's no easy fix to this problem, it has long traditional roots, and traditions don't bend easily. So the issue again returns to society, protecting it's own. How do we best protect each other? We work to put into place common sense laws that let the tools exist, in hands we're sure (we might be wrong, it's part of the chance we take trusting each other) will be safe. We teach people to be respectful of all killing tools, not just guns. We watch out for each other by providing ample opportunities, and encouragement for people to seek help for mental issues. We stop driving people into the shadows because they're different than us, we offer our hands, our ears, our hearts and our science to those who need them to climb out of dark places. We work to eliminate economic, food, cultural stresses that create situations where violence is a likely outcome. People need to teach others it's OK to be different, to have different friends, to respect people with differences, even vastly different opinions. As always the best way to teach is be an example, take a hand, talk to people, learn what's important to them and why, and respectfully disagree or agree with their opinions. Stand together in large numbers and demand something be done. If you don't know what needs to be done, join the conversation, learn the issues, discuss the options and slowly piece by piece put together the building blocks of a safer society. One that doesn't make outcasts of people just for thinking differently, but welcomes their words into the discussion, by doing so they are taught to welcome other ideas into their discussion. If you have ideas of how to accomplish any of these, speak up, write, record video, write software, get involved. Doing nothing will change nothing, and we obviously have plenty of things that need to be changed.

Went and saw Wrinkle In Time .... what they DID was really well done, very touching and amazing. It's really a movie that calls out to the outsiders in all of us, and reminds us that different isn't a judgement on one's self worth. However the end scene, the confrontation against the evil was way way watered down, and not well supported by any exposition or character development. It needed another 30 min minimum, more like an extra hour of run time to really support the end confrontation. It almost felt like they wanted the movie to be all smiles, and beautiful, and magical, without having to dirty their hands with really portraying evil as more than just a token "Oh well, there has to be something to fight" Not to mention that after the "win" the story goes on to reinforce how hard fought the confrontation was.

Is an Arby's Meat Mountain what happens when an Arby's opens up within the Shimmer from Annihilation?

I shouldn't be nervous, but I am, have an interview conference call tomorrow that means a whole lot to me. No I'm not leaving my current job or changing positions, I love where I work, this is outside work. Cross your fingers for me, in life's name.

I finally got to use my vacuum sealer tonight, cut up 2 huge Aldi chuck roasts into 8 nice pieces of steak. Of course I cooked one, rocket-hot in a cast iron pan with garlic salt and chili powder. That with a potato and 2 slices of chocolate zucchini bread (My dad's home made loaf) completes tonight's meal.

I managed to spend over $200 at Aldi tonight. That's a record. #dontshopwhilehungry

Ah, that's like moving out of an apartment into a house all over again. Just upgraded my machine from 16gb to 64gb, plenty of overhead space now.