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Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

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Found my dog. At some point she hopped back over the fence. She was sleeping on the back porch.

*****

My wife is giving a four hour lecture at a national conference today. She spent all last week preparing what would go on the screens behind her on stage. It looked pretty good. I used to do Chamber of Commerce talks at various places, but I never had to talk for 4 hours. The stress of just being in front of an audience for 4 hours is not something I think I could handle anymore. I've grown soft in retirement 😴
 
Good to know dog is okay

Longest talk II have had to do was 15 minutes or so, 4 hours would be too much. And that 15 minutes I could hide behind my PC and press enter for next slide, for most of it.
Hardest part of the talk was that it was part of a course and I kept having to drop class two years in a row, due to family reasons, so I had 3 years knowledge that I had to do a 15 minute class... thats a lot of stress lol.
Hardest part was filling in the time. I just made up some questions for them to answer, that helped.
 
Yikes, glad your dog came back, Zed. I get worried about my cat for similar reasons, but thankfully she's old now and doesn't stray far.

A week or so ago my dog got out. Neighbor came over to pick up their kid whom I had picked up from school and after getting the kids belongings and seeing them out the door, my dog comes walking back in from the front. I'm completely baffled as to how he got out, so I asked the kids if the had let him out of the backyard.

Neighbor guy says to me, "Oh yeah, he ran out when I came in."

I'm just thinking, are you such a dingus that you don't bother to get someone's dog back in if it leaves and it's your fault?

Dude drives me nuts. I appreciate that he really wants to build a community in our neighborhood, but I think he's hella autistic because he does stuff like this and then likes to make sexist comments; I've been meaning to call him out on those, but I'm usually so dumbfounded when they happen, I can't think of anything to say.
 
I've been avoiding doing some additional work on my longterm car project. I'm desperately trying to force myself to get the radiator back in at the very least today, but instead, I've straightened my office a little bit from the several ongoing projects I've had going on.

I have so little motivation to do anything today, which makes me feel so stupid.
 
After the talk of cats bringing back dead birds and rodents, I was hoping the dog had brought back a dead motorcycle.
Talking about rodents and motorcycles at the same time reminded me of The Mouse and the Motorcycle, which either my kindergarten or first grade teach read to the class. I don't remember anything about it now, except that the mouse was named "Ralph" and that I liked it at the time.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRiEnU2MYuY
 
I've been struggling with that for a while. It doesn't help that I got a pretty severe cold last week. I thought I had pretty much recovered this week, but today I suddenly got really tired and fell asleep for an hour around 5 PM, so I guess I need some more rest.

It's my depression kicking in, really. I actually accomplished quite a lot yesterday, but was feeling crappy about myself because I hadn't been doing the thing that's been on my list for 6 years now.

I did end-up pushing myself and getting the two things I wanted done on the project car: install solenoid and install the radiator. The radiator was more of a fight than I anticipated, but the funny bit is how into it I get when presented with a problem to solve. I spent a good two hours messing with it before finally getting it done, because I wasn't totally clear on how it went back together initially. Anyway, plenty more to do and I'm hoping to motivate today to start installing my wiring harness, which is going to be a whole ass thing.
 
Talking about rodents and motorcycles at the same time reminded me of The Mouse and the Motorcycle, which either my kindergarten or first grade teach read to the class. I don't remember anything about it now, except that the mouse was named "Ralph" and that I liked it at the time.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRiEnU2MYuY

That has some real TV movie vibes going. Never heard of it before.

Both my kids came in with nightmares last night, so I've been up since 5. Not awful, given I went to bed at a reasonable hour, but of course I also had allergies when they woke us up and with four of crammed in bed, there was no way I was going back to sleep.
 
That has some real TV movie vibes going. Never heard of it before.

Both my kids came in with nightmares last night, so I've been up since 5. Not awful, given I went to bed at a reasonable hour, but of course I also had allergies when they woke us up and with four of crammed in bed, there was no way I was going back to sleep.
I should have mentioned I haven't even watched that video yet. I just found it because I was making sure I had the name of the book right. I actually thought it was "Ralph and the Motorcycle". A children's book adaption from the 80s is probably pretty brutal. 🤣
 
I'm struggling with the idea of "compromise" when it comes to my devices lately; it's a silly problem to have. But I end-up in this idiotic process where I'm carrying around 4 different devices, because they all fill some sort of niche and I can't help myself but think, "Oh, well what if I want to play a game this way?" or "What if I want to play this particular game that my other device can't or does poorly?" and then I end-up buying or collecting more, because I think, surely, this new device will fill the void.

I feel like I need to sell off a few and limit my options to get back to basics and cope with the things I have, rather than searching for something different.
 
@BeardyHat You mentioned at one point looking more into the naval side of WWII. This doesn't have anything to do with WWII, but this guy is pretty entertaining and this is a naval video, so that counts as something? 🤣

Anyway, I'm just now finding him. He probably has some navy WWII videos, but I thought this one was good. Obviously, I was familiar, to a point, with John Paul Jones, but I'd forgotten most of what I learned about him. He was a genuine British/American bada$$

Plus, this YouTuber basically reminds me of everyone I know IRL, living in the south for as long as I have...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcRZDhhHbeI
 
I'm struggling with the idea of "compromise" when it comes to my devices lately; it's a silly problem to have. But I end-up in this idiotic process where I'm carrying around 4 different devices, because they all fill some sort of niche and I can't help myself but think, "Oh, well what if I want to play a game this way?" or "What if I want to play this particular game that my other device can't or does poorly?" and then I end-up buying or collecting more, because I think, surely, this new device will fill the void.

I feel like I need to sell off a few and limit my options to get back to basics and cope with the things I have, rather than searching for something different.

Sounds like a kid in a toy store, I have to be able to do "anything"

I carry a phone that could play music, as well as a DAP that only plays it. I could just use my phone but I don't want calls during songs. Never did work out how to answer calls on any of my headphones. Prefer to ignore them compelely.
Some times you need to carry more than one thing... but 4 is approaching a crazy limit. Soon you take a suitcase everywhere to carry all the things you might want to play...

Family intervention time 😀
 
@BeardyHat You mentioned at one point looking more into the naval side of WWII. This doesn't have anything to do with WWII, but this guy is pretty entertaining and this is a naval video, so that counts as something? 🤣

Anyway, I'm just now finding him. He probably has some navy WWII videos, but I thought this one was good. Obviously, I was familiar, to a point, with John Paul Jones, but I'd forgotten most of what I learned about him. He was a genuine British/American bada$$

Plus, this YouTuber basically reminds me of everyone I know IRL, living in the south for as long as I have...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcRZDhhHbeI

Thanks, l'll check it out! Never heard of this dude before (the Youtuber or whomever John Paul Jones is).

Sounds like a kid in a toy store, I have to be able to do "anything"

I carry a phone that could play music, as well as a DAP that only plays it. I could just use my phone but I don't want calls during songs. Never did work out how to answer calls on any of my headphones. Prefer to ignore them compelely.
Some times you need to carry more than one thing... but 4 is approaching a crazy limit. Soon you take a suitcase everywhere to carry all the things you might want to play...

Family intervention time 😀

Thankfully, I'm not that bad. It's just around the house that I carry all this stupid crap with me. When I leave, I have my phone, wallet, keys and maybe a handheld, which I never use.

Also worth noting you can set your applications to not interrupt your music or podcasts. I have mine set to do that, since I use my phone for music and podcasts all the time. But I also have my phone set to silent, because no one is ever calling me for anything important.
 
There are other advantages to using a dap over a phone...
  • I can use wired headphones without a dongle
  • I can install an SD Card of up to 2tb and have my own music on it
  • The hardware inside is better designed to play music.
  • can use it as an external dac and attach to PC directly to power my full sized headphones, not that I have tried yet... could use it in games if I really wanted to.
  • I don't waste phone charge playing music...

Probably other reasons, thats off top of my head

It also runs Android and in theory could have message apps on it if I really wanted them. Or games. Just lacks phone functions and a camera.

only headphones it doesn't really have an advantage over phones is Bluetooth ones as they use their own hardware.
 
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I can't believe all the things you do Beardy despite the problems you go through. I can't imagine even attempting some of the stuff you do, like rebuilding engines.

I often struggle with MUCH smaller things, like getting both beads of a mountain bike tire to seat. I mean with a hand vs floor pump. This is becoming a more useful thing to be able to do since most MTB tires are tubeless ready anymore and fit very tight. Also because most riders go tubeless or with lightweight TPU tubes, which can take a LOT of pumping due to sheer volume (tubeless), or get damaged by heat put out by the mini electric pumps that are gaining popularity (TPU). For me it's more a thing of cost effectiveness and reliability to go with a small pump you can take with you on rides.

I was easily able to seat the tires on my new bike with my Silca Pista floor pump, but since it takes about 35 PSI to do it, a mini pump is a LOT harder to do it with. The first time I tried it with a mini pump is after I watched a YT video on how it's possible if you manually partially seat the beads with a sturdy tire lever that has a slick surface. That first attempt failed, but I forgot my pump's hose is meant to thread onto the valve, so I was pumping in an awkward position holding the hose tight against the valve, while struggling to brace the end of the pump in my palm. I was convinced I'd need to buy an electric mini pump and risk heat damage. Yesterday though, after receiving my new TPU tube due to the Pirelli one I had still having an undetectable slow leak even when submerged in water, I finally succeeded after threading on the pump hose.

I had to go halfway around on each tire bead seating them manually, then stroking away at my 7.5" mini pump 350 times to get to 35 PSI. This mini pump I use is a good bit smaller than the one the guy used in the video below, and his even had a telescopic shaft. The great thing about this pump though is it's good quality and is just small enough to fit with a spare TPU tube in the larger of the two bags that came with my bike for use in it's downtube storage compartment. The smaller one I put my toolkit and tire levers in.
This guy uses a Tyre Glider like I do to mount and unmount tires, but I prefer the Pedros tire lever for the manual seating of the beads. He's got a new tire there like I do, but I would wager my Maxxis Minion DHR II EXOs are less supple than his due to the EXO protection layer and may even have a tighter bead fit due to being rated for DownHill Race. My rims also have a narrower center channel than his, meaning more distance the tire bead has to go to seat on the unseated portion. Just the fact that he was nowhere near 25, let alone 35 PSI, tells me his are far easier to seat. Kenda tires are good, I've had them, but they aren't as robust and stretch faster than some.
This video, despite the author using somewhat questionable methods and descriptions, shows how much more efficient the modern pump designs are vs the older ones. The Lezyne is the one I own, and despite being much smaller and lighter, easily outperforms the Blackburn, which had a lot of popularity in it's time.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb_6ed9rtmw
 
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Starting to think I don't actually live in Australia
I do fear some spiders
I don't fear Magpies

She runs through all the standard animals people think kill Australians, and then mentions how many actually die from them each year.... very few. Then she says Australians actually Fear Magpies.... without mentioning that only 3 people have ever died from an encounter with a magpie.

Key Details on Magpie Fatalities
  • Total Deaths: There are only three widely recognized, direct or indirect, deaths caused by magpie attacks.
  • Case 1 (1946): A 13-year-old boy died of tetanus.
  • Case 2 (2019): An elderly cyclist in Wollongong died from head injuries after crashing to avoid a bird.
  • Case 3 (2021): A five-month-old baby died in Brisbane after a mother fell while trying to protect the child from a swooping magpie.
  • Rare Incident: Despite over 4,000 reported attacks some years, the chance of fatality is very low.
Magpies only swoop you if they in breeding season, and are protecting their nests. They can remember up to 1000 faces and are really intelligent birds. They won't swoop people they recognise. They ignore you completely.

I think main reason they on top is they about only native animal you see in a city. There are worse... good thing Emus don't go into cities.

 
Speaking of dogs, I wanted to share a story:

One day, I was in the forest with my Doberman named Shiva, and she suddenly ran off. I started to get worried as the minutes went by. She normally listened to my calls, so I wondered what she could possibly be doing that was so interesting.

I was also starting to get even more worried because of a nearby road—you know how it is when your mind jumps straight to worst-case scenarios. A few more minutes went by, and my search turned up nothing, so I figured she must have run off even farther.

I started looking a bit farther away, toward some local farms. Then I spotted Shiva! She was a dog who was very, very interested in water, and would you believe it—she was running up and down the field trying to bite the giant water sprinklers! So I went over and collected the muddiest dog I have ever seen while being happy she was all right🙂"
 
I can't believe all the things you do Beardy despite the problems you go through. I can't imagine even attempting some of the stuff you do, like rebuilding engines.

I often struggle with MUCH smaller things, like getting both beads of a mountain bike tire to seat. I mean with a hand vs floor pump. This is becoming a more useful thing to be able to do since most MTB tires are tubeless ready anymore and fit very tight. Also because most riders go tubeless or with lightweight TPU tubes, which can take a LOT of pumping due to sheer volume (tubeless), or get damaged by heat put out by the mini electric pumps that are gaining popularity (TPU). For me it's more a thing of cost effectiveness and reliability to go with a small pump you can take with you on rides.

I was easily able to seat the tires on my new bike with my Silca Pista floor pump, but since it takes about 35 PSI to do it, a mini pump is a LOT harder to do it with. The first time I tried it with a mini pump is after I watched a YT video on how it's possible if you manually partially seat the beads with a sturdy tire lever that has a slick surface. That first attempt failed, but I forgot my pump's hose is meant to thread onto the valve, so I was pumping in an awkward position holding the hose tight against the valve, while struggling to brace the end of the pump in my palm. I was convinced I'd need to buy an electric mini pump and risk heat damage. Yesterday though, after receiving my new TPU tube due to the Pirelli one I had still having an undetectable slow leak even when submerged in water, I finally succeeded after threading on the pump hose.

I had to go halfway around on each tire bead seating them manually, then stroking away at my 7.5" mini pump 350 times to get to 35 PSI. This mini pump I use is a good bit smaller than the one the guy used in the video below, and his even had a telescopic shaft. The great thing about this pump though is it's good quality and is just small enough to fit with a spare TPU tube in the larger of the two bags that came with my bike for use in it's downtube storage compartment. The smaller one I put my toolkit and tire levers in.
This guy uses a Tyre Glider like I do to mount and unmount tires, but I prefer the Pedros tire lever for the manual seating of the beads. He's got a new tire there like I do, but I would wager my Maxxis Minion DHR II EXOs are less supple than his due to the EXO protection layer and may even have a tighter bead fit due to being rated for DownHill Race. My rims also have a narrower center channel than his, meaning more distance the tire bead has to go to seat on the unseated portion. Just the fact that he was nowhere near 25, let alone 35 PSI, tells me his are far easier to seat. Kenda tires are good, I've had them, but they aren't as robust and stretch faster than some.
This video, despite the author using somewhat questionable methods and descriptions, shows how much more efficient the modern pump designs are vs the older ones. The Lezyne is the one I own, and despite being much smaller and lighter, easily outperforms the Blackburn, which had a lot of popularity in it's time.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb_6ed9rtmw

Don't sell yourself short. I struggled and never actually got a new inner tube into my kids bike tire. I struggled with it forever, but then my brother in law showed up, so I asked him to just do it for me 🤣

So I can do some stuff, but change an inner tube is not one of them.

I also have one of those little pumps; I doubt it's any good like the one that guy in the video has. I just got it with a little bike repair kit I bought off Amazon. Only ever had to use it like once so far, since I don't ride my bike much. This entire week, been meaning to get my wife to help me take the seats out of our van so I can take all our bikes over to a local shop for tune-ups and whatever they need, but I was busy the first part of the week and then yesterday and today I'm sick and have slept very poorly to boot.
 
Starting to think I don't actually live in Australia
I do fear some spiders
I don't fear Magpies

She runs through all the standard animals people think kill Australians, and then mentions how many actually die from them each year.... very few. Then she says Australians actually Fear Magpies.... without mentioning that only 3 people have ever died from an encounter with a magpie.

Key Details on Magpie Fatalities
  • Total Deaths: There are only three widely recognized, direct or indirect, deaths caused by magpie attacks.
  • Case 1 (1946): A 13-year-old boy died of tetanus.
  • Case 2 (2019): An elderly cyclist in Wollongong died from head injuries after crashing to avoid a bird.
  • Case 3 (2021): A five-month-old baby died in Brisbane after a mother fell while trying to protect the child from a swooping magpie.
  • Rare Incident: Despite over 4,000 reported attacks some years, the chance of fatality is very low.
Magpies only swoop you if they in breeding season, and are protecting their nests. They can remember up to 1000 faces and are really intelligent birds. They won't swoop people they recognise. They ignore you completely.

I think main reason they on top is they about only native animal you see in a city. There are worse... good thing Emus don't go into cities.

I don't even live in Australia, and I've been attacked by an Emu. Despite that we have an actual zoo, I was at a private zoo (maybe not a thing most places, but there are people here who collect exotic animals and then charge people to come to their property--this guy has a ton of different animals including tigers). It was actually a field trip for my kids' elementary school. I got off the bus and there was an emu staring at me. I walked up to it. It didn't like that, so it pecked at me 😆

Speaking of dogs, I wanted to share a story:

One day, I was in the forest with my Doberman named Shiva, and she suddenly ran off. I started to get worried as the minutes went by. She normally listened to my calls, so I wondered what she could possibly be doing that was so interesting.

I was also starting to get even more worried because of a nearby road—you know how it is when your mind jumps straight to worst-case scenarios. A few more minutes went by, and my search turned up nothing, so I figured she must have run off even farther.

I started looking a bit farther away, toward some local farms. Then I spotted Shiva! She was a dog who was very, very interested in water, and would you believe it—she was running up and down the field trying to bite the giant water sprinklers! So I went over and collected the muddiest dog I have ever seen while being happy she was all right🙂"
Some people don't think dogs can get lost. Where my dad used to live, one day he got up and there was a basset hound sitting on his front porch. The basset hound stayed there for 3 days. My parents started feeding it and giving it water the second day it was there. They looked for lost dog notices. Finally, a man from 3 houses down noticed the dog as he was driving by. It was his dog. It just couldn't find it's way home--3 houses away.

Also, my dad's hunting dog used to panic if they were in the woods and he couldn't see dad.
 
Finally, a man from 3 houses down noticed the dog as he was driving by. It was his dog. It just couldn't find it's way home--3 houses away.
My parents owned a miniature poodle called Rambo some decades ago, and one day he slipped past the front door and disappeared in the neighbourhood. One week later, a dog barked at the front door, and my parents opened the door and the poodle stood there!

The dog smelled of cookie dough and old home, and my parents soon found out that an old neighbour not many houses down the road had taken in the dog and fed him what was most likely not the food you should give a dog.
 

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