Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread: 2015–2018 (plus one)

[young guns]

I tried that once at a mcdonalds when the drive thru line was really long. I think it still would have been shorter to go through the drive thru. My assumption is that drive thru gets priority.

[hawing]

I drove past a drive-thru coffee shop this morning and there were at least 10 cars waiting in line for the drive-thru. At what point would it be faster just to park your car and go inside? I know on the rare occasion I go to a fast food place, I go inside if there are three cars or more in line to order (not counting those that have already ordered).

I realize this reply belongs more in the What's bugging you? thread, but I get annoyed when we can't enter the parking lot of a place to eat because the drive-thru line extends back to the parking lot entrance.

[jerichoholicninja]

I've been watching the Little League World Series for the first time in at least 5 years and man how the game has changed. Almost every single kid has a great swing and they just look like athletes. I remember when I last watched half the kids were little pip squeaks who could barely hold a bat and tripped over themselves trying to field a ball. I guess they've made some changed over the last couple of years moving the fences back and switching bats but they really need to lengthen the bases. I just saw a kid get a stand up triple on an average depth dropped fly ball to left field. Any error is at least two bases and any ground ball that's not hit hard to an infielder is a single. It's basically slow pitch softball.

[nate82]

I want to see the bullpen car make a comeback!

[Patrick425]

Random question in the random thoughts thread: Throughout my son's high school life, especially in sports related team pictures, I would see boys that would show a #1 hand signal (index finger extended), however it really was not the traditional #1 (foam finger type, straight up in the air #1) that I grew up with. It was more of a lazy, sideways, finger not completely straight, rest of the fingers not really clenched type #1.

 

As an example of what I'm talking about here is a link to the Wisconsin Baseball Central twitter page (several examples on here if you scroll down, the first team picture that you see on August 7th...pretty much everyone is doing it):

 

 

I assume (hope) that this still just means #1, but is just a newer and cooler way of expressing it. Anyone familiar with this?

[jerichoholicninja]

I see what you're talking about and in my almost 10 years of working and/or coaching high school kids I've never seen this before.

[RobDeer 45]

My guess it's a spin off on the celebrity "flashing the deuces" (as Mike Greenberg calls it). Look at any pictures where celebrities are taking pictures together and on of them seems to always do that. Two fingers hanging off to the side. I'll probably start doing it in my selfies.

[DHonks]

Both related to bathrooms:

-Maybe it's just me, but when I have to pee, I always simply go over the top of the elastic. It's been that way me entire life. Most men's briefs/boxer briefs have openings that are too complex to work when peeing is urgent. Why have the opening?

-Why do some people stand at a urinal, then open their belt, top button, and let the pants hang down a little while peeing? Unlike underwear, the zipper opening works perfectly on pants/shorts, and provides plenty of room

[1992casey]

Initially posted in "What's bugging you? (2015–16)"

Btw Casey...never noticed that you have a Sigmund Snopek quote in your signature! Love Snopek. I actually have a Snopek album that I purchased when I was in high school or college (some songs on it...New York Jumpers, Hamburger Holocaust).

 

I remember in his "post-band" days, he would always open for Comedy Sportz on the comedy stage at Summerfest. I miss the comedy stage. I saw Dana Carvey, Billy Crystal, Henny Youngman, Emo Phillips, and Gibert Gottfried in the "heyday" years of the Summerfest comedy stage.

This is a good point to switch topics.

 

Here are a couple of videos of the Snopek band that existed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were posted about three weeks ago by Byron Wiemann, the band's lead guitarist.

 

Both videos are from 1980. That's discernible from content within them ([cite]First Band On the Moon[/cite] about to be released, part of "reëlect Jimmy Carter ad). In the time between the videos, the band switched bass players (Jim Gorton to Bret Tuveson). Mike Lucas is on drums. And of course, Sigmund Snopek is on keyboards.

 

On Madison television singing [cite]Avenue Motion[/cite]; [cite]If You Love Me, Kill Yourself[/cite]; [cite]Radio Hearts[/cite]; [cite]New York Jumpers[/cite]; and the beginning of [cite]Armpit Shuffle[/cite]:

 

 

On Milwaukee television singing [cite]Let’s Take a Trip[/cite] (along with an interview by Rosemary Gernetzke):

 

 

The quote in my signature comes from the version of [cite]Thank God This Isn't Cleveland[/cite] on Sig's 1998 [cite]Sigmund Snopek's Beer[/cite] album. This version of [cite]Cleveland[/cite] was recorded with Victor DeLorenzo (Violent Femmes). The song was initially performed and recorded in the 1980s. The newer version reflects the fact that the Cleveland Indians made the World Series while the Brewers sucked. It also mentions the cryptosporidium outbreak that occurred here.

 

Well they might be in first place,

And we might be in last,

And when you drink our water,

It comes right out of your ass…

 

Moving away from the music, here's Sig after catching a foul ball at County Stadium. Ernie Harwell is announcing:

 

[hawing]

David Hulse?!? My only (to date) Brewers birthday buddy!

[1992casey]

Until yesterday, I'd never been in a public restroom in this country that had a sign saying, "Please don't flush toilet paper."

[Thurston Fluff]

I would hate to be the one who has to clean those trash cans.

[homer]

David Hulse?!? My only (to date) Brewers birthday buddy!

 

David The Incredible Hulse

 

I was at a game at County Stadium and saw him drop a fly ball. That's all I got.

[Thurston Fluff]

When we first moved into our home over 20 years ago the guy who lived next door has some mental health issues. He was very nice on good days but he was very paranoid. He once told me he did better if he didn't watch tv because he felt it was talking to him. Sadly about 15 years ago he commit suicide in the house. Since then the house was sold and rented out. I was talking to the maintenance man a few years ago and he was telling me he couldn't figure out why a tv would shut itself off on occasion in one room upstairs. Everyplace else it was fine. I don't know which room he killed himself in but I do know it was upstairs. A few days ago I was talking to the new neighbors living in the house and they told me it happened to them once. I don't believe in ghosts but that is pretty weird. Not sure I should tell them about what happened or not. Probably creepy enough without knowing the history.

 

Update: Turns out the upstairs room in question has one outlet that is linked to the room directly below while all the other upstairs outlets are not linked to anything downstairs. That room is usually the one the downstairs tenants plug their AC into. My guess is they overloaded that circuit when the air was on and turned the tv off while everything else stayed on. Since it was two different tenants they probably never compared notes. If the downstairs person just flipped the breaker on the upstairs person would never really know when or why their tv suddenly went on again. So I think the mystery is solved. Our ghost turned out to be just messed up wiring. Which, come to think of it, was what our old neighbor had so in a way it is his ghost I guess. Only other question is who the heck wired it like that?

[reillymcshane]

Great name - Wisconsin WR Jazz Peavy

[jerichoholicninja]

I switched to my wife's cell plan a little over a year ago and carried my number over. Since the switch I get wrong number calls, telemarketers, and robo calls almost every other day. I'm pretty sure I never got one of those in the 10 years I was on my old plan. And she pretty much never gets these calls.

[MrTPlush]

I switched to my wife's cell plan a little over a year ago and carried my number over. Since the switch I get wrong number calls, telemarketers, and robo calls almost every other day. I'm pretty sure I never got one of those in the 10 years I was on my old plan. And she pretty much never gets these calls.

 

I absolutely hate telemarketers. Except when I am bored and am doing nothing. Then I will usually ask a bunch of questions, sound, interested, and as they think they are closing a deal I will usually mention I don't own a house making the whole thing not even make sense.

[jerichoholicninja]

I get alerts on my phone when my credit card is used. Today I was shopping and I had literally just finished swiping it when my phone alerted me that it was used for the purchase I just made. How the hell is it that fast?

[logan82]

How does the internet bring back a page so quick? The better question would be how can payments not go through that quickly?

[Invader3K]

I switched to my wife's cell plan a little over a year ago and carried my number over. Since the switch I get wrong number calls, telemarketers, and robo calls almost every other day. I'm pretty sure I never got one of those in the 10 years I was on my old plan. And she pretty much never gets these calls.

 

Download Truecaller. It's free, works great, lets you block numbers, and can usually identify unknown callers.

[GAME05]

Well I hadn't worked a forest fire until now. One of those things which is difficult but good at the same time. Right now I can't stop coughing.

[Baldkin]

Well I hadn't worked a forest fire until now. One of those things which is difficult but good at the same time. Right now I can't stop coughing.

 

Be sure you didn't burn anything in your throat/lungs. Glad you're safe. Hope the experience wasn't too dangerous!

[LouisEly]

Attention electricians.

 

The owners of my building recently installed really nice motion-sensored LED flood lights on the back stairs. Since I often leave before dawn, this really helps getting down the back stairs to the garage when it's dark out.

 

However, the lights are attached to the same two switches inside my unit as the back patio light. In order for the new lights to be on, the patio light has to be on as well. Since I pay for electric (and replacement bulbs), I don't want that to be on all the time.

 

Is it just as simple as disconnecting something going to one of the switches, or is it more complicated than that? I've done minor electrical work before (installed several dimmer switches and ceiling fans), but since I'm renting I don't want to try any major electrical work on my own. Thanks!

[1992casey]

LE, what you'd like obviously makes sense. But my guess is that power goes to the switch, then to the patio light, then to the motion lights. I don't see that being easy to change without running another hot wire somewhere.

 

If the power comes to the patio light then runs back to the switch, things could be changed around in the box that supports the patio light. But if the patio light was wired that way, the electrician probably would have bypassed the switch to begin with. You never know, though. It wouldn't hurt to ask either the landlord or the electrician.

 

The thought of a timer that would replace one of the three-way switches occurs to me, but that won't help you get from the car to the house. I wonder the bottom of the stairs is close enough to one of the switches for a remote option to work.

 

The easiest solution might be to make sure that the patio light has an LED bulb. Its wattage would likely be low enough that it wouldn't use enough electricity to be significant, and it would likely last long enough that replacement cost shouldn't be a big deal either.

[LouisEly]

Getting from the garage to the house isn't an issue because the motion lights are also on the back of the garage and are installed correctly on the first floor unit (their patio light isn't on but the motion lights are), so those go on when I come back in.

 

The issue with keeping the patio light on is that the patio is off of the master bedroom, which fills the master bedroom with more light overnight when I want it dark.

 

The owner of my unit isn't going to know squat. Hate to be stereotypical, but she is the stereotypical high-maintenance but know nothing about home maintenance Yuppie renting out a home for the first time. She isn't exactly responsive when I have minor issues/questions.