Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Colif]

Lava lamps was just a phase I went through. The temperatures we get here year around mean its only a few months of the year that they made any sense. In winter its too cold for them to work properly and in summer they just add unwanted heat to the room. So eventually I just had other uses for the power they were attached to in the room. And forgot about them.

I never bought them for their lighting ability.
Some of the shapes they made were cool to look at.

I should put them away before they break. Thats a mess I don't want to clean up

 

[Zloth]

I had a lava lamp at my desk at work for years. Good to look at after staring at the screen for too long. I've still got a couple downstairs but haven't used them in years.

 

[Colif]

One had a bad combination of colours, purple wax in blue water... it was always hard to see anything in it. The other two were better, I could see the wax in them easier, as yellow wax in blue water made more sense, and the other one was red wax in orange water which looked really good for a long time.

I think the red one is starting to wear out as the wax acted strange the least time I used it.

They fade in direct sunlight but that generally isn't a problem in my room.

they were something different to look at. Only really lit room up if all other lights were off.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I never knew the "lava" in those lamps is actually made out of wax. Is that why those lamps are always warm? Do they have a low watt heater to keep the wax soft?

 

[March's Ghost]

I never knew the "lava" in those lamps is actually made out of wax. Is that why those lamps are always warm? Do they have a low watt heater to keep the wax soft?

Pretty much exactly how they work. The bulb that lights the lamp also heats the water and wax. The wax warms up and rises and then near the top it cools off and descends.

 

[ZedClampet]

Well, that sucked, but it's over now. The worst part about being married to someone with a huge extended family is you just have many more deaths you have to endure.

******

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I spend a lot of time (not really) on message boards shooting down conspiracy theories. But here's one made by me: The US is trying to goad China into an act of war.

The US is drowning. There is no way we will ever be able to pay off the debt we owe China. Well, there is one way.

"Swing at me, bro."

Do I honestly believe this? Maybe, not sure. But it isn't as crazy as it sounds.

 

[BeardyHat]

Well, that sucked, but it's over now. The worst part about being married to someone with a huge extended family is you just have many more deaths you have to endure.

******

I feel this. My wife lost one of her sisters late last year. There's still 8 siblings left, so there's most certainly more in our future and it's been the family talk since then.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I spend a lot of time (not really) on message boards shooting down conspiracy theories. But here's one made by me: The US is trying to goad China into an act of war.

The US is drowning. There is no way we will ever be able to pay off the debt we owe China. Well, there is one way.

"Swing at me, bro."

Do I honestly believe this? Maybe, not sure. But it isn't as crazy as it sounds.

You might not be incorrect, but I would guess that's the idea behind the Billionaires currently in power, rather than the establishment itself.

Billionaires these days are subscribing to an accelerationist policy these days, thinking that if they can bring about "the end of the world", we'll see a rise a la Star Trek to our new Utopia.

The military at large has been sounding the alarms for several years now that we're not ready for conflict with China. We've been so focused on fighting one sided conflicts our troops aren't trained for a large scale one against another Nation-State and the new realities of going up against an equivalent force in different kinds of environments we've been operating in in the last 30 years.

 

[BeardyHat]

Is it stupid to say you've had your feelings hurt by a 5-year old? I feel like it's a little stupid, but it doesn't make it any less true for me.

I put a solid amount of effort into the 5-year olds birthday yesterday, baking cupcakes from scratch, making marshmallow (frosting) from scratch (surprisingly easy), making him a special dinner that was requested, buying gifts, picking him up early from school with a buddy and taking them to a huge indoor playground for 2-hours and then bringing them back home to hang out some more.

But all he's done since last night is complain that he didn't get more gifts, that his birthday was "stupid." and I just can't help but feel hurt by it. I know he's only 5 and obviously doesn't know any better, doesn't know how to be gracious yet and is still learning, but I'm just tired of him being an ******* all the time. His older brother was never like this and obviously, a lot of it is me, because the younger one is damn near a carbon copy of myself, but still, he sucks. Don't know if he'll grow-up to be any better, but at this point, I'm ready to give him up for adoption.

 

[Pifanjr]

Is it stupid to say you've had your feelings hurt by a 5-year old? I feel like it's a little stupid, but it doesn't make it any less true for me.

I put a solid amount of effort into the 5-year olds birthday yesterday, baking cupcakes from scratch, making marshmallow (frosting) from scratch (surprisingly easy), making him a special dinner that was requested, buying gifts, picking him up early from school with a buddy and taking them to a huge indoor playground for 2-hours and then bringing them back home to hang out some more.

But all he's done since last night is complain that he didn't get more gifts, that his birthday was "stupid." and I just can't help but feel hurt by it. I know he's only 5 and obviously doesn't know any better, doesn't know how to be gracious yet and is still learning, but I'm just tired of him being an ******* all the time. His older brother was never like this and obviously, a lot of it is me, because the younger one is damn near a carbon copy of myself, but still, he sucks. Don't know if he'll grow-up to be any better, but at this point, I'm ready to give him up for adoption.

If there's one thing I will not tolerate it's my kid being ungrateful. Not just because it sucks for me or anyone else she might be ungrateful against, but her own life will be much better if she learns to be grateful for the things she has instead of being angry she doesn't have more.

As for your kid, the only way he will grow up to be any better is if he learns how to. And the best chance of that happening is if you teach it to him. Which of course isn't easy, but I do think it is worth the effort.

 

[Colif]

speaking of lights.... this bulb is perhaps overkill for my house

The US is trying to goad China into an act of war.

I think they trying to fight a war economically instead of physically. Big stick diplomacy is how they fought all wars until now, but people not as scared of the stick anymore.

Feels this conversation is not meant to be on here...

 

[Pifanjr]

Feels this conversation is not meant to be on here...

Let's tie it back to videogames:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/4QzBlPugBks?si=qFuzA7VIO6ckI6h2

 

[ZedClampet]

Is it stupid to say you've had your feelings hurt by a 5-year old? I feel like it's a little stupid, but it doesn't make it any less true for me.

I put a solid amount of effort into the 5-year olds birthday yesterday, baking cupcakes from scratch, making marshmallow (frosting) from scratch (surprisingly easy), making him a special dinner that was requested, buying gifts, picking him up early from school with a buddy and taking them to a huge indoor playground for 2-hours and then bringing them back home to hang out some more.

But all he's done since last night is complain that he didn't get more gifts, that his birthday was "stupid." and I just can't help but feel hurt by it. I know he's only 5 and obviously doesn't know any better, doesn't know how to be gracious yet and is still learning, but I'm just tired of him being an ******* all the time. His older brother was never like this and obviously, a lot of it is me, because the younger one is damn near a carbon copy of myself, but still, he sucks. Don't know if he'll grow-up to be any better, but at this point, I'm ready to give him up for adoption.

Sorry you had to go through that. The only similar thing I have experienced is that when we took our daughter and handed her over to the Marine Corps, I was grieving as though she were dying, and the recruiting officer told me that she would need me during boot camp, and that if at all possible, I should write to her 5 times a week. More than that would get her in trouble, but if I could take the time to write 5, it would surely help her through.

I poured everything I had into those letters. My wife, who never encourages me about anything, read them after I finished writing them. Sometimes it would take hours for me to write a single page. And my wife, who's never impressed, told me they were excellent.

Naturally, I'm ridiculous, and I imagined my daughter reading them every night, so, to cut to the chase, when she told me she read the first two and didn't have time for the rest, I was just crushed. I haven't asked her, but I imagine she's thrown them away.

 

[ZedClampet]

Let's tie it back to videogames:

View: https://youtube.com/shorts/4QzBlPugBks?si=qFuzA7VIO6ckI6h2

To continue along this line, no one questioned it about a month ago when we signed a deal with Ukraine to have right of first refusal on all their resources.

 

[BeardyHat]

If there's one thing I will not tolerate it's my kid being ungrateful. Not just because it sucks for me or anyone else she might be ungrateful against, but her own life will be much better if she learns to be grateful for the things she has instead of being angry she doesn't have more.

As for your kid, the only way he will grow up to be any better is if he learns how to. And the best chance of that happening is if you teach it to him. Which of course isn't easy, but I do think it is worth the effort.

We'll get there, just not entirely sure how. My oldest is easier to train, as he listens to instruction and will incorporate that into his behavior.

The younger one, like myself, hates being told what to do, so he just gets mad and shuts down when you try to correct or instruct. I've been trying to appeal more to his emotional side by telling him he hurt my feelings, but I'm not sure that's working well either.

He's also just generally slower to learn. Not stupid, just consistently behind in milestones where his brother was at the same age.

Sorry you had to go through that. The only similar thing I have experienced is that when we took our daughter and handed her over to the Marine Corps, I was grieving as though she were dying, and the recruiting officer told me that she would need me during boot camp, and that if at all possible, I should write to her 5 times a week. More than that would get her in trouble, but if I could take the time to write 5, it would surely help her through.

I poured everything I had into those letters. My wife, who never encourages me about anything, read them after I finished writing them. Sometimes it would take hours for me to write a single page. And my wife, who's never impressed, told me they were excellent.

Naturally, I'm ridiculous, and I imagined my daughter reading them every night, so, to cut to the chase, when she told me she read the first two and didn't have time for the rest, I was just crushed. I haven't asked her, but I imagine she's thrown them away.

I would have imagined the same for my kids, but thinking about it, I probably would have done the same as your daughter had my Mom done that. Kids are just so flippant and I was no different.

But I can absolutely see how hard it is to detach, especially once we've put all this effort in to raising them. I'm trying to teach both mine to be independent, moreso than I ever was, but I also know what that ultimately will get me as they age. I just hope we can be friends when they're older.

 

[Frindis]

Took sauna today after bouldering and man was that great! Going make it a regular thing as it made my muscles less sore. Also a nice reward after training, something to look forward to.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Don't want to tell anyone how to parent, but having grown up the youngest of 5 brothers (including myself), I would say it's more about how you're socially raised than any gift giving. A young child can pick up on resentment at ages you might not expect, and resenting them for not appreciating gifts may exacerbate deeper issues, such as feeling like they're not the favorite child. You more than blatantly said so yourself. The bottom line is, you can't buy respect or love, even from a child.

At the same time, social spoiling I feel is far more of a problem than material spoiling. when I was like 10 I realized one day my older brothers, who were teens and old enough to know better, were doing things they really shouldn't have been, When I mentioned it to my parents (which at that point included a step mom), they just laughed. Older siblings are often given privileges younger ones aren't, and when they are also given more lenience, that's where the resentment really starts.

OK, now for my personal Monkey moments. I finally found out the reason my car wasn't going into EV mode anymore was my 12V battery was pretty much shot. It got to the point where 2 days after doing my freeway loop that the thing was already showing a red sensor icon on the dash. At first I thought it was just that I'd accidentally left my headlight switch slightly toward the parking light mode when I parked one time, but O'Reilly tested it to be too dead to take a charge.

I ended up getting a better than OEM spec one for the vehicle, which has about 700 CCA vs the OEM 590. It's an Optima Red Top, and they gave me a discount on it so it wasn't more than about $30 higher than their top end house brand. Immediately after installing it, my car then went into EV mode like it's supposed to. I figure the saved gas over time will more than pay for the higher price.

Another thing I just had to purchase is an umbrella. We get a fair bit of rain here, but where I live the wind can also swirl unexpectedly. I had a big pop up one for years called a Big Top model, it had a 48" diameter canopy, and sturdy hex shaped steel shaft. I must have had it for like 20 yrs. Yesterday while walking to the bus the wind swirled hard and yanked it sideways a bit and turned it inside out. I didn't notice until I got home that one of the canopy frame ribs had a broken joint.

So I just ordered a Repel Travel Umbrella on Amazon. It's a double canopy type, so theoretically the wind can blow through it, but I'm a bit skeptical, because where those dual canopy layers overlap at the ribs, the wind can also catch there. It DOES however use reinforced fiberglass on the frame, and thin, flexible rib tips. It also comes with lifetime replacements. You basically send them a pic of the broken part and they send a new one. It's got a 4.5/5 rating with over 100,000 reviews.

 

[Zloth]

I finally found out the reason my car wasn't going into EV mode anymore was my 12V battery was pretty much shot.

Now normally I would assume "shot" is a metaphor, but when you are going by the handle of Frag Maniac....

 

[Frag Maniac]

Now normally I would assume "shot" is a metaphor, but when you are going by the handle of Frag Maniac....

LOL, yeah the old Super Start must have caught a bullet I wasn't aware of rolling through the hood. Maybe someone was using a silencer!

 

[Frindis]

Going to the local pub for a couple beer and some book reading. The reasoning is that I'll lose and gain brain cells at the same time, it's bloody brilliant!