Lorindól

Parkside’s value-for-money quality has been astonishing these past few years. I took the risk with them maybe 4-5 years ago and not one power tool from their lineup has had any problems yet. Today I just set up their quiet compressor at my garage, and the damn thing really is so silent that you can even have a discussion using your normal voice when it’s running.

This is the way.

I solely used Netscape Navigator since it came out and after it fell I chose Firefox. My interface has always been modded to look permanently like Firefox 3.6.

Everything is where I want it to be and everything works perfectly.

Many moons ago my employer tried to force us to use only Internet Explorer / Edge for reasons they were unable to explain - since there were none, technically or otherwise. I rebelled and remotely installed Firefox with Adblock / uBlock Origin to every personal computer (I was the unofficial IT guy) and told my co-workers to try it out.

At the next meeting we were told that the use of Firefox is not only approved but recommended. The magic of an “ad free browser” had taken hold, people found it vastly superior and had been vocal about their newfound dislike of MS browsers.

To my surprise I wasn’t even reprimanded in any way.

One kid sniffed lighter gas and jacked off during 9th grade chemistry class. He passed out and fell off his chair and hit his head to the floor with his dick still clutched in his hand.

The teacher was so terrified that she couldn’t do anything but stutter and shake violently. Me and a couple of my friends dragged the idiot outside to get fresh air while waiting for the ambulance.

The sniffer came back to school the next day like nothing had ever happened. This incident was never again discussed in any way by the teachers or other faculty members.

There were lots of totally crazy shit happening on a weekly basis. The early 90’s were pretty wild where I grew up.

I remain baffled by this. But since I can barely differentiate red and green in optimal lighting conditions, it does not come as a surprise.

Wow. That was far better than most of the official sequels.

We X’s were born into the analog world and grew up as the digital age started to emerge. We have the luxury of knowing both.

I had the same exact approach back in the late 90’s. My friends had several band projects and when they were mixing their demos, I insisted that if the mixes sound good in a standard car stereo, they’ll sound good anywhere.

I can do this too.

It’s fun to watch people freak out when one can raise his body hair up on command. And since I have an abundance of body hair, the effect is pretty profound.

Leaf blowers in small yards are pointless, agreed. I would never use one in the suburbs.

But I do own one and I use it at my family’s farm, for one day every autumn. It would take 3-4 days just to rake the leaves, with the blower I can easily create large piles here and there. Then I gather all the piles and take them to my leaf compost heap.

Before the blower this used to take a full week. Now I can clear all the lawns in just two days.

I am a lifelong fan of Tolkien and the colour of my hair is golden.

I’ve tasted both cat and dog kibbles, my kids used to love eating them when they were toddlers. I just wanted to know if I was missing out on something.

Neither tasted good, but the cat kibbles weren’t nearly as bad as dog kibbles. There most likely are brand differences, but my curiosity was satisfied by the sampling I had available at the time.

Tolkien’s Arda, First Age, Beleriand.

Yes, I know the clock for it’s utter destruction would be ticking. Still, the way it’s described in the books has kept me yearning to see such vistas with my own eyes.

My older daughter looked exactly the like her mother at the same age when she was 3-6 years old. When I compare their childhood photos it would be hard to tell which is which, if not for the hideous fashion of the 80’s being a a clear tell for mother.

After the age of 7 my daughter quickly grew into her own look, but when she makes certain faces the resemblance is still striking.

Empire stands high above the rest. The characters are fleshed out and the structure of the film is impeccable, the story just flows.

Kershner was the best director the series had.

This is the true question. Also, do we still love lamp?

Galadriel also has a pretty impressive list of horrors.

• saw the Two Trees die
• grandfather murdered by one of the gods before murder even was a thing
• witnessed the massacre of her mother’s kin
• cursed by the Valar
• walked across the Helcaraxë
• saw the rise and fall of the Noldorin kingdoms of Beleriand
• escaped the sack of Menegroth
• present in the War of Wrath and the following ruin of Beleriand
• rules Eregion with Celeborn until Sauron’s attack destroys the realm, escapes to Lothlórien
• daughter captured and tortured by orcs, leaves to the West heavily traumatized
• high royalty born into literal paradise, ends up holding the last pieces of elven civilization in Middle-Earth together and ruling over a forest

No magic tricks or diet fads.

Eat less, move more.

Eat more vegetables and salad, cut down bread and meat.

Stop drinking sodas and juices with extra sugar in them and learn to quench your thirst with water.

Limit eating candy or cookies to one day per a week, if you can’t let them go entirely.

This. Learn basic economics at a young age and compound interest shall serve you well.

I live in the Nordics and my house is prrimarily heated by a geothermal heat pump. The temperature here has been between -20C and -30C for the last week, the pump can easily keep the room temperatures at +19C until the outside temperatures drop under -25C, after that the electric resistor kicks in to provide assistance.

The secondary heat source is the giant baking oven, which i heat every other day if gets this cold. The fully heated oven alone raises the room temperatures by 5-6C, which helps a lot to take the load of the heating pump and keeps the electric bill smaller.

I have been planning to install air/air-water heat pumps to both floors, they would be a good backup during these cold spells and would also provide cooling during the summer. And if I install a smart control system, I can have the air units do extra heating/cooling automatically when the electricity is cheap.

I just haven’t had the time to do the research where it would be best to install them and the prices rose steeply after Russia attacked Ukraine. So I’ll wait for a while before I’ll get those.

It’s getting harder every year.

I remember well the constant fear of nuclear war in the 1980’s.

I remember the wonder we felt when the Berlin Wall fell and Soviet Union collapsed. A hope of a tomorrow free of fear.

I remember the dreadful recession of the early 1990’s and the steep economical rise that followed it.

I remember the amazing advancements in technology and the standard of living in the late 1990’s. And at the same time, it felt like the world was coming to it’s senses.

I was 21 in the year 2000. The world was full of promise, technological advancements were just pouring in, old mortal enemies were finding common ground and it seemed that we were slowly heading towards a Star Trek - like post scarcity utopia.

This age of hope eneded by the finance crisis of 2007-2008. Russia tried the waters with the war in Georgia. The general atmosphere of the world turned towards gloom again. And the downward spiral just seems to keeps going and going…

Yet I continue the work I started when I chose teaching as my profession in those golden years of hope. The kids are very different today, any class from 20 years ago would be a piece of cake compared with the problems they have now. But if a change for the better is to come, it will come from the kids. My generation is hopelessly lost in consumer greed and watching mindless “reality” shows that they somehow feel more important than real life.

I alone cannot be the change we need, but I CAN educate a few hundred kids and with good luck, maybe a dozen or few of them will have a some effect for a better future.