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Damor

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by Damor

  1. Anyone have any experience or recommendations on a reasonably priced outdoor projector?  I'd like to be able to set something up for the kids to watch movies in the evening and stuff (think Alamo-style Jaws showing in the pool).  I've looked around at places like AVSforum, but it's easy to go down the rabbit hole there and I don't want to drop $3000 on something that a kid is going to trip over and knock into the pool. 

    I have a 120" portable screen I picked up years ago on Woot (and hasn't come out of the box), and I was planning to plug a Chromecast into it for a source.  I have a bluetooth boombox I could hook up as long it has an AUX out for adequate sound.

    So far, I'd been led to the Optoma 142X and 143X, which look like they would fit the bill and the budget.  Then I also found the Dashbon Flix, which is intriguing as it's more like an all-in-one portable unit that would be easy to set up and move around, possibly worth the extra cost.  Any experience or thoughts?

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  2. Someone on the old board recommended Elmer Kelton.  I really liked The Good Old Boys, and plan on reading some more of his in the future.

    True Grit, if you haven't read it.

    I loved McCarthy, but I recognize he's polarizing.  You implied you'd read other stuff, but I found All the Pretty Horses much less out there than the other books in the Border Trilogy.  I think Blood Meridian is incredible, but it's definitely not everyone's cup of human entrails and effluvium tea.

  3. ^^^ In a similar vein, some of the Flashman books could make quite the extended HBO series.  There's no way anyone would take that risk these days, though.  Even the incredibly not-subtle satire and explicit statements in the books that Flashman is a horrible, horrible person would fly over a modern audience's ability to recognize.  It'd be like someone proposing to reboot Blazing Saddles.

  4. On 4/5/2018 at 9:40 PM, cactusflinthead said:

    I have thought about this for a couple of days. It's a reversal of what is usually asked. What NOT to do? it required a bit of thought

    1) don't mow it too tall. Thatch build up is a problem with zoysia. I shave mine at the house as low as the mower will go. Obviously if you're hitting high spots and dirt then you have to back it off some. 

    2) don't drown it. Make the plant use the water you give it. Very few things like to sit in standing water all the time. Most shit dies when that happens. It is not going to kill it to let it get dry and then water the hell out of it. This means you get to play with the water for a while. Crank on the irrigation and see how long it takes to make it runoff or puddle. Learn how long it takes to get the turf a good soaking and then how long it takes to use that water. Use the manual setting for a bit until you know what it likes. There will be some areas that dry out faster than others and some that seem to stay wet forever. Get a cold beverage of your choice and spend some time playing in the water. 

    3)Don't neglect to read the directions on the chemicals. I cannot harp on this enough. READ THE GOT DAM DIRECTIONS. /allcaps

     

    Thank you!

    I watered the hell out of it at first like the installer recommended, and have backed off now, fortunately for my water bill.  As an aside, I put in one of the Hunter Hydrawise controllers based on advice from the old board (thanks to @Blain, I think), and I love it.

    Are there any herbicides I should avoid on zoysia before I try to nuke the weeds that are already infiltrating?

  5. Currently:  Why We Sleep
    51HL0dOfXNL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

    Pretty fascinating explanation of what we do and don't know about sleep.  It'll make you take it much more seriously, particularly if you have kids.

    Recently finished: The Self-Driven Child
    41Lej0ZIWVL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

    I'm usually not much for pop science (despite the two books I've listed), but I have a newly minted teenager I'm trying not to murder.  Very interesting discussion of the physiologic basis of adolescent stupidity and how to not let it stress you out.  Getting the wife to read it now so that we can team up, as some of the recommendations here require some guts to institute in the face of the way things are 'supposed to be' these days.  It serendipitously dovetails nicely with the sleep book, particularly with regard to anxiety.

    Up Next:  Caesar by Colleen McCullough
    51rzsR38UAL._SX315_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

    A friend at work gave me a copy of this.  I've never read any of her stuff, but it sounds like I'm about to go down the rabbit hole.

     

  6. Careful, Glen just wants to squirt you with his sprinkler!

    Atrapitis.gif

    We had one of those Polaris units at an old shitty pool we had at another house, and I had the same issue with it constantly tangling, no matter what we tried.  I hated that wee sucky bastard.

    We just built a place with a new, non-shitty pool and got one of the robotic cleaners.  It's a Dolphin S300i.  I call  it "Angry."  We've only been using it a couple months, but thus far I have been much more happy with it.  It doesn't tangle around the cord, and it's nice not to have an auxiliary pump to worry about.  I very much like that it crawls up the sides and brushes the waterline.  We don't have a lot of leaves in the pool, but the basket can go a 2 or 3 cleanings for us without getting over-full, and it's easy to clean. 

    The only negatives so far are that we're having to have an outlet moved to allow it to stretch out to the farthest corner of the pool, and that for whatever reason it doesn't want to crawl up onto the tanning ledge, or whatever you call that shallower area.  The "i" feature is pretty overrated as well, as it's just a bluetooth connection, so it's not like you can turn it on from very far away from the control box, and the app is crashy on Android.  They are also expensive, but  IMO easily worth double the price of our craptastic Polaris experience.

    Roll cheesy promo video:

     

  7. Yes, Moab Brewery was good.  Zax and Eddie McStiff's were also good if not earth-shatteringly so.

    They can only serve 3.2% drafts in Utah, even at the brewery, so you're generally better off with bottles or cans.  Recockulous.

  8. Went a couple years ago, awesome place and I'd love to go back.

    I know at some point NPS suspended outside companies from doing Fiery Furnace tours, not sure if that's still the case.  We didn't get to do it, and since we had our boys we just stuck to the main short hiking trails.

    Stayed at Moab Under Canvas, which was pretty awesome.  Got the model with the separate tipi for the boys:
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    XYm8WPwT3xQT_AIrRzpQ2nwIYc3rzTrc0BMgRmQQ

    We could just make out the Windows from the porch:
    WY7fPQtejkGeEWLf-kwvPYTfQu55FzvqbWSP_LM8

    The town is cool. Had one of the best breakfasts of my life at Jailhouse Cafe.  Southwestern Eggs Benedict with chorizo:
    iigJiaPLG-HI2hRrEDoqJtV286l2azWUkUR3zfSL

    Too bad Kevin and Photobucket fucked up the epic summer road trip thread Scooter started.

  9. I have a new Zoysia (Palisades) lawn, ignorance, and a black thumb.  So many questions... BUT, I figured the best way to start was this:

    What should I absolutely NOT do?  My greatest fear is putting something on it (weed killer, excess fertilizer, etc) that will kill or otherwise screw it up?  Remember, I'm a moron.

  10. Look what I found whilst cleaning crap out of my office this morning:

    uTxzOt9.jpg

    Gentlemen, the bidding starts at 1 trillion Shaggy rep points or its equivalent in Ameros, Best Buy coupons, USB ports, or Derka Dogs.

  11. Yeah, there were a lot of good movies on the OG thread I didn't save since my boys had seen them.  Didn't plan on Kevin.

    Mine really liked Man on Wire, which kind of surprised me.  They also loved Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

  12. I recently installed a Nest outdoor and indoor IQ, as well as a Hello.  They are pricey to buy and you only get the  IQ features if you subscribe, but I think they just came out with a 5 day history plan which is less expensive.

    I went with Nest to integrate with my other Google stuff.  I do like the familiar face recognition as well as the ability to divide the image into zones (pool vs. porch vs. servants' quarters, &c.).

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