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Grimas

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Everything posted by Grimas

  1. I lived in SE Asia for a few years and talked to a fellow expat yesterday who is still there in KL. He said KL is still considered a Covid “red zone” so if you are there, you can’t leave the city. Traffic there is back to pre-Covid levels but he said he ditched his car as the MY version of Uber is dirt cheap and has fixed prices and it’s pretty much killed off the taxis there. He said many former expat enclaves are empty do nice, high end apartments in town are dropping in price as most expats moving out of the city and out into the “suburbs” like Bangsar, Mt. Kiera where they can have big houses and pools rather than high rise apartments. Also, most expats have had to give up their “house keepers” because of Covid restrictions so one of the expat wives “benefits” of not doing cleaning or laundry is gone... if I had to go back, Bangkok (or anywhere in Thailand) would be my choice - we loved the people and the city and will probably spend a lot of time living there when we retire... Singapore is nice but damn expensive compared to the rest of the region... Jakarta is great to visit but the whole place is a mess and is a step below the other countries in terms of being a “modern” country...
  2. Looks like AMZYF has bounced off the bottom... Still in red overall but I like the direction it's headed again...
  3. Got a custom made mattress from Houston Mattress Makers and it's a hell of a lot better than any of the "store bought" generic mattresses... Wife (no pictures) got her side softer than my fat ass side and got the added top layer with the "cooling fabric" that wicks away body heat. Bought 2 more from them for the teens when they grew out of their "kiddy" beds... If you are in Houston, it's a better alternative than the Sealy, etc then you can get at the mattress shops or Costco for the same price...
  4. I don't know if its been mentioned in this thread (didn't find it when I searched) is the BBC Series "Line of Duty" is a good watch. Basic story line is Internal Affairs UK coppers looking for corrupt cops. The first 4 series on Amazon Prime but the current real show is in the 3rd episode of season 6 (I'm watching the current ones via Kodi). Lots of good twists each season - you think it's going one way and by the end of each season. does a flip you don't expect but all the clues were there...
  5. Painfully riding the AMY slide down... (Insert image of the old aggy season roller coaster picture here...)
  6. Whole Foods (in the Woodlands at least) has Gulf Oysters for $.59 Amazon Prime members/$.69 non-Prime members...
  7. I've got a 3 node Velop Tri-band AC6600 mesh with my 80mbps Xfinity internet with 2 of the 3 hardwired to each other. Getting 1000mb fiber installed in the coming weeks. I currently get rock-solid signal across the whole house and no one in the house bitches about any lag or buffering (2 kids stream Xboxes and all the TV's and devices streaming as well and lots of Teams and Zoom conferences from the backyard). What's considered "fast enough" for a SpeedTest at a device?? Is it worth the coin to upgrade to a WiFi 6 mesh system? With my current provider, I'm doing fine with this current setup with a 80mbps connection but with the new fiber coming I should be able to increase the speed at every device by quite a bit. Yes, a WiFi6 would deliver even better performance but is it worth the money to do this upgrade when I'm content with the current mesh on a slower connection?
  8. Stream?
  9. Had a 3000w Champion generator (inverter) that kept the the 3 fridges/freezers, some LED lights, wifi and a tv powered during the storm but had to run extension cables across the house which was a pain. My frigging "heater buddy" is in my blind at the lease... After about 6 hours - whatever batteries that were keeping the internet from Xfinity in their "substation" finally died so even with power in my casa - no internet... (Getting fiber in the coming months and those who had it didn't lose internet at all during the outage) Glad I also have a digital antenna in the attic so could still watch crappy local TV. Lesson learned - gas furnace still needs electricity to run the blower fan and thermostats... Going forward, I'm going to buy a 13,000W portable generator to be able to power most of the house using an external 50A (male) connector and a lockout switch on the fuse panel. I will then manually turn on the fuses in the panel on what I want to power... Costs for the generator - around $1000 and another $6-800 to put in the connector and lockout switch. I have a 5 ton and 3 ton A/C but have the "soft start" switches in both so the start load won't bring the whole system down if running in the summer - would probably just run the smaller one upstairs. VSP pump on pool can be set to slow/low wattage flow. Can't justify a $8000 Generac and another $6-8000 install cost (gas on opposite side of the house from the panel) when I can basically power what I need for $2000 and can take it with me if we move... Info to consider if you go this route: Don't buy more generator than you can use - if you put in a 30A connection, a generator larger than 7500W is useless. The max power you can put into a 30A switch is 7200W. If you get a larger generator like 12000W, you've better off going with a 50A transfer switch... Watts / Volts = Amps A 7200W Gen is only really capable of feeding 30 Amps @ 240V (7200W/240V=30A) If you get a bigger generator like a 12000W unit, go for 50A @240V transfer switch. (12000W/240V=50A) Put in LED lights as they draw less than incandescent bulbs. Get a dual-fuel generator and a couple of propane tanks as they don't "spoil" like regular gas and use these first to save your carburetor from getting dirty. If you run out of propane, you can always siphon your truck/auto gas tanks so get a pump. Buy a small solar panel to trickle charge your batter in the generator when not in use. Buy a cablelock or chain so your generator won't "walk away" in the middle of the night when it's running outside... Once you fire up the A/C, set the thermostat (in the summer) to something like 60F so it just keeps running and doesn't have to turn on/off all the time... No need on a gas furnace(s) blower as it barely draws any power. If you have an attached garage, buy a couple of sheets of the 4x8' sheets of styrofoam with foil on them and cut them to size and put on the back of the garage door - my temp in the garage stayed above freezing this round and in the summer, never gets above 80 degrees even with direct afternoon sun beating on them... Helps the garage freezer and fridge as well... 15" of sprayed insulation in the attic helped keep the internal temp above 50F after 18 hours of no power with sub-freezing temps outside I'm putting in a separate connector from outside (posted in this tread) to be able to plug in my smaller inverter generator so I can still power my computers/tv/internet/UPS with "clean power" when those batteries die - the large portable generators plugged into the panel produce "dirty" power that can fry electronics... Total system to power most of the house is around $2k. Wait for the Sales tax holiday in late April to buy new generator as generators under $3K get the sales tax waiver for "hurricane" supplies...
  10. It’s been years since I’ve been there but check out Abe’s fly shop page for info. Looks like it is closed now due to Covid... https://www.sanjuanriver.com/ first time I went to the San Jaun, it was the first time I had ever fly fished. Still caught a bunch under the dam (catch and release). All you need to do is the “San Juan Shuffle”...
  11. Check it today... up 31%... Damn, I wish I had bought more...
  12. Just an FYI - you can now get Texas license plates for your cart. Plus is that the local sheriff/constable can't give you grief for driving on the streets. Negative - kids aren't allowed to drive them without a driver's license (not that they could before but I think there is more of a chance of getting a ticket now that it has a plate...) Also, my HOA can't bitch anymore for it being in the driveway as it's a "licensed" vehicle...
  13. A lot of the employees that were in the Austin office went to Repsol who bought out their share of the EF and they moved to another office across town.
  14. I figured it out. With sling, you can pause etc if you are watching a recording, even if it's in progress. So just press record, go to the recording, and watch from there. As a former PSVue user and current YouTubeTV user, I hated Sling that I did via the 3 day trial (Blue+Sports) for the game. Tried to pause to walk the dog and couldn't from the live feed... Argh... I finally tried the recording I setup earlier in the DVR and the recording was 5+ minutes behind the live stream. Pause worked there but I canceled the trial right after the game. Not sure what would have happened if I hadn't setup the recording earlier... Won't be switching from YouTube to Sling...
  15. There is a good show on the Smithsonian Channel called "The Weapon Hunter" that focuses on rebuilding/restoring WW2 weapons (mostly). The best part of the show is when he goes to some of he private collectors looking for parts and you get a chance to see some fantastic collections of WW2 weapons as well as other memorabilia...
  16. It looks like there are 2 more episodes (8 total) left.
  17. Pretty damn good!
  18. So for cord cutters, Sling is the only option now with PSVue gone? Sling Orange plus Sports Extra on the 3 day free trial?
  19. XOM has always trimmed the bottom 5% of performers and continued to hire from the Universities regardless of the oil price. If you weren't let go directly, they definitely let you know you didn't have a career there and to look elsewhere... What isn't mentioned is that XOM is still funding the pension plan and the 401K contributions were benefits in addition to the pension plan...
  20. So can a kid in one of the schools not playing now join the transfer portal to get picked up by one of the schools that will play in the fall?
  21. Put in a valve between the bidet and the shutoff valve on the wall. You can then regulate the amount of water coming out of the wand...
  22. Thanks. Will try that once they open back up...
  23. Where did you call/how did you contact them? I renewed my GE and finally got the conditional approval and need to setup an interview. The problem is that I added Nexus to mine (I go to Canada occasionally for work) but the nearest interview site for Nexus is in Dallas. I don't give a crud about the Nexus part anymore and just want to have the regular GE so i can do the interview in Houston...
  24. My buddy own a few McD franchises in Oz and he told me yesterday this”is a bloody f’ing disaster” for them...
  25. Oops, someone already posted. Damn search didn’t work...
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