@bimmy-lee nice, like I said you really can't go wrong with a Greek restaurant in Greek town. Its like getting gas, it's all the same, just prices are different. Love house of blues. So much to do in that area around it too.
@Tyranexx Yeah, it's the same for my family: no living person directly tied to Germany, but we do seem to have family there, with the same last name, but we never met them. From what I've understood, ancestors from the Netherlands and Germany went to the States somewhere in the 1800's, and then some went back to Europe again. And in the 1950's, some of my direct family went back to the States again.
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
Back to work, and 45 minutes in there's issues. Amerigroup is getting BlueCross information crossed into their remittance files. They got chocolate in my peanut butter and I don't like it!! Time to pull up Notepad++ and deconstruct like a Decepticon.
#MudStrongs
Switch Friend Code: SW-7842-2075-5515 | My Nintendo: HobbitGamr | Nintendo Network ID: HobbitGamr
I never used Notepad before working in digital publishing, and I haven’t used it since; but I wore that program out while converting printed text into HTML digital documents. Those felt like long days. I usually needed a mid morning and afternoon espresso to stay awake/keep my eyes from crossing.
@bimmy-lee Always hard to tell if someone's ancestry was Dutch or German here depending on what era they arrived. In the 1600s & 1700s, most Germans were called Dutch by the prominent English here, because when you don't speak a word of the language "Deutch" sounds a lot like "Dutch"
@rjejr That post right there is why you're my hero! Still, planes and airports remain the worst. Planes themselves have the unique problem of recycled air, low air pressure, and a sense of entrapment that drives people extra crazy, additional airborne sickenss, and the problem of weather delays and such that wouldn't exist on a train (trains can barrel through snow and ice no problem. Electric trains can always get a diesel to pull it in an outage.) No de-icing delays, wind-shear delays, sitting on tarmacs for hours, etc. Planes aren't the dream they were sold to be in the 60's no matter how much a gazillion dollar industry they turned it into. They have unique problems. Airports vs train stations...well...the one big difference there is airports are far and few between. You have to land the thing and take it up again and you need x space to locate them, so everyone funnels like sardines into one awful place, where they have ONE door into the vehicle, and mammoth restrictions on what can be taken aboard etc. A ton of those issues are alleviated by train. More stations, larger stations with more loading platforms (yet taking LESS real estate without the need for runways, taxiways, parking, terminal ramps, etc.), with more luggage and less restrictions, no luggage sorting center nightmares (no cargo hold, you board the train, they stow it, in front of you, under the car compartments.), etc. Plains are simply unrealistic based on a half century old model that, essentially, only VIPs need to travel from point to point, and the rest of the population doesn't touch it. There's too many people trying to use what's essentially premium space for limited use. It's not functional at all. But everyone ignores it because there's no alternative. Look at NY Penn...not the current one that looks like a Vaultec experiment. The real original one before the build the Garden over it. Compare that to JFK......
Trains can also go right THROUGH cities without needing to land 15mi outside it (which, ironically, currently, the airport needs a train station to function in most cases............. even air travel is already rail dependent.)
"I'm saying there is no answer, no point in looking for one."
Can't argue much with that. I really do need to work on becoming a hermit. The less I have to deal with the world, the better.
@Link-Hero I think the main problem is that I'm still pretty early in the game and don't have a lot of upgrades yet. Spark Mandrill was only my second stage. The Mandrill himself wasn't the main issue. XD Thanks for the warning about not shooting the ice buster immediately, but it didn't take me long to pick up on that.
The enemy I was struggling with was that stage's miniboss. Part of the problem was that I stumbled across the fight at half health. I memorized the basic pattern, but it was a varied one. I looked up the fight after the fact and found that an upgrade i didn't have yet would have made things easier.
I'm sticking with it for now. I admittedly don't have a ton of experience with classic Mega Man besides the second game on the NES...and I had to abuse restore points (on 3DS) for that one even more than here.
@ThanosReXXX Some of my relatives have met the living branch on that side of the family (the paternal side of the same grandma mentioned above), but that meeting was several years ago. From what I understand, things went very well. Last I knew, they still even owned the family bell foundry over there.
There's also another distant offshoot of that same family that lives out in Washington state, but I don't believe I've met any of them at all. That connection was rediscovered in the 80s I think.
Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)
I really do need to work on becoming a hermit. The less I have to deal with the world, the better.
Yeah, of course. Why don't you? Might even enable you to free up even more time, to dedicate to listening to hard drives...
On the topic of trains, and something that ties in nicely with that video that I posted earlier, there's going to be a special news item on one of the commercial channels over here, that is going to detail the how, what, and why of the lack of high speed trains in the United States. As my mentor used to say: there's no such thing as coincidence. I'm definitely going to watch it, and perhaps it'll give an even better understanding of the problems and/or hurdles involved in realizing something like that over there.
I'll report back with my findings, provided I actually learn something new from it...
@Tyranexx Back in 2000, we were actually invited to come to Germany, for a reunion with all the original and added family members, so it would have been a nice opportunity to meet new people, and learn about our origins, but unfortunately, neither my parent's, nor my sister's or my own agenda allowed for the space and time to participate, sadly enough, so now that ship has sailed for good...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@ThanosReXXX Sure, I'm interested to hear what the show has on it. The video from the other day was unfortunately propaganda-ish, which is our big problem here. Even good ideas tend to be pushed from some sort of ideological angle that turns everyone off. And usually, of course favors special interests one way or another. OTOH they talk about the probem with boring and tunneling. That didn't stop the purely for-profit railroads in the 19th & 20th centuries. And they made BUCKETLOADS of cash. They were the GoogAzon of their day. All other business depended on them and they manipulated their prices to match, as unmovable monopolies per location.
That's a big part of why our rails were allowed to collapse. During the war the government ran the rails into the ground, literally...running excess trains, heavy industrial loads (tanks etc) over them....then never reimbursing the railroads. The rails were SHOT all at once by 1949. Meanwhile the rise of cars in the 50's put passenger rail in a hole. Too expensive to maintain, too little revenue, and inability to raise ticket prices, and the govt prevented elimination of unprofitable stops. The RRs wanted out of the passenger business. The money was in freight (still is.) Freight subsidized passenger by that point. But the real killer was the double whammie of union gouging at the height of union power, and the govt taxing RRs to fund the highway program. They actually mandated the RRs pay their own competitor to bankrupt them. The MoTown lobby helped push that through. But....the RRs made their own bed. It worked because the public didn't care...the public HATED the RR corps.....business HATED the RR corps for a century of gouging and manipulating pricing and business. So nobody actually cared they were being sent to bankruptcy. And then the PRR and NYC had their ill fated merger into PC....the world's first "too big to fail." There's some fun videos, I'll have to find one, of PC making these sad moneyhatting videos. I mean really sad. Railbed was mud, trains overturned all the time even at 10mph speed restrictions. The govt ignored their warnings (it was like GoogAzon going to congress saying "we're almost out of money, please bail us out!" Who would listen?") Then one day everyone woke up and the trains were gone. Parked where they left them. The company folded overnight. From there, Conrail, Amtrak, and the freight consolidation happened (up your way, Union Pacific never skipped a beat, though...they're still going strong.) But in the East, rail literally collapsed entirely overnight in the 70s and it's been a slow rebuild since.
I remember those old PC tracks and equipment. Imagine riding in a red wagon on a gravel road. Only slower. And bumpier. And the whole thing would precariously lean to the side while vibrating badly...... It was like that for decades until Amtrak rebuilt the rails. It's nice stuff now, but you don't forget those memories... Usually the "I'm gonna' die!" feeling is left for airplanes in turbulance, of about .09 seconds of a high speed train as it flies off the track. Only PC track can leave that magical "I'm gonna' die" feeling while going all of 10MPH.
Search for videos too, there's stuff from the old reel to reel at the height of the war years. The thing is insane. Still in use today for Amtrak, CSX, and Norfolk Southern, but with only half the tracks in place still. They blasted a whole road along the edge of a mountain.....because long term it was cheaper and faster than going around the mountain. And now we have the people in that NBC video about "well we have all those boring and tunneling to do." Huh? PRR did that on an insane scale almost a century ago purely for profit motive. We're not even talking about "worthwhile public infrastructure projects in need of government funding." We're talking good old capitalism ROI.
Another fun one, they were experimenting with in-transit refueling of steam locomotives. They build these steamers with water pickups below, and build these giant shallow reservoirs atop sections of track. The idea was that refueling was just too slow and disruptive. So with this, an express train can just plow through a reservoir like a log flume ride at 95mph, open the intakes, and refill the boiler without even slowing. It was insane. The spending was off the charts, and ultimately it never went mainstream because diesel was right around the corner. But it's a heck of a sight if you find some videos.
Flash forward to 2019 and we can't even build the locomotives here anymore, we buy them from Europe and Asia (though we built the motors they built them with.) Henry Ford, and subsidiary industries ruined the country.
@NEStalgia - The funny thing about old Dutch is that his dad was German (Braun) and his mom was Dutch, but he acquired the nickname because people thought he spoke with a Dutch accent. I never noticed it, but he didn’t talk much. If he had one, it must have been acquired, he worked for Pennsylvania rail for 50 years.
Incidentally, I had a couple travel days recently. After three hour layover number two, I was ready to douse myself in jet fuel. I don’t have a suggestion on how to fix it other than burn it all down and start fresh. Whenever I fly, it’s really the only time I wonder if we need more government in our lives. Maybe take domestic out of the private sector. It would probably be much worse though. I had a layover in Dallas FW. The terminals were individual buildings connected by rail. I had to ride a train to get to my plane. The only times I’ve enjoyed travel is on a train, or in my own vehicle.
@bimmy-lee Ahh, speaking of PRR! If he was lucky he retired by the PC years? You never think of teal the same way again....
I'm all for burning it all down. Though I don't think government would help. It was government meddling that gave us the TSA airport nightmare. And bailed out all the airlines that were bankrupt (how do we all forget half the airlines went bankrupt before they basically became government run industries for the benefit of shareholders?) Passenger train went bankrupt. Passenger airline went bankrupt. I think the real reality of the 21st century is to realize that moving people in bulk from place to play has always lost money and always will lose money, and the world should probably stop being built in a way that expects people to move around all the time. We've built this whole way of life based on misconceptions of future technology as envisioned in the 1940's and never thought the model might be wrong.
@NEStalgia - Ha, you could have a point. Everyone got too carried away after the ‘39/‘40 World’s Fair. The World of Tomorrow! Just imagine, one day you too can cram yourself in a dirty airplane that might be older than you and fly cross country in just 12 hours! There will be pretzels! You’ll only be in the air for four hours, which gives you plenty of time to explore the two or three airports you’ll visit throughout the day. Sheesh. Every time I think the government should get involved, I remind myself of TSA, among other things, and that changes my mind.
Edit - I think my great grandpa retired in the early 70s. My dad has his pocket watch, and he gave his whistle to my daughter. It’s ear shattering. It has a wooden ball inside, and it’s very distinct.
"No de-icing delays, wind-shear delays, sitting on tarmacs for hours"
No delays, they just shut the train down completely if they FORECAST 10" or more of snow - happens every year once or twice - or it gets too windy or icy.
@rjejr Hah, well that first one is an example of my own point though. 45 minute delays for a downed pole, is different than snow and ice. And an airliner would be grounded for hours or all out cancelled with the odd snow and ice and wind issues they get. 45 minutes is less delay than a sunny day in June for LIRR.
Well, sure they shut down the trains and the planes for foot+ blizzards. And the roads are nigh impassable too. Obviously at the weather extremes transit in general grinds to a halt. But trains run through normal weather issues including snow without nearly the amount of issues that air inherently and unavoidably has. It's just the nature of the vehicle, from the runways to the aeleron articulation to the aerodynamics, air is finicky by nature. Sure a foot of snow they need to send the plows out first, and they need point heaters on the switch points etc etc. (Though diesels run as their own plows....only reason electric can't is because the extra load of the plowing is too much voltage drain on the grid, so they send diesel MOWs out before service.
LIRR's a great example though....terrible weather compared to most of the country, yet the busiest railroad by volume. Their biggest problem (other than the union) remains the track layout. The unending flow of grade crossings and the fact that every New Yorker with an SUV is an imbecile that should be excised from the gene pool as rapidly as is feasible and thinks they can beat a train by racing under crossing gates in rush hour traffic.
Those trains are getting through a lot more snow than most airplanes....and any motor vehicle I'm within 1000 feet of at any time.
Besides, you have to give bonus points for the M7s. Any railroad that can procure modern MUs that look as if they were made in the 70's deserves praise.
And yeah, I know the tracks....read the above about the old PC days and the 10MPH 45 degree vibrator.
@NEStalgia OK, so you now admit there are weather dependent train problems. Based on the number of people that take trains now lots are complaining. Now imagine planes and airports go away and you replace them with more trains and train stations. Do you know what that means. More train delays. And with the weather getting crazier - pretty soon The Weather Channel is going to need a spin-off channel "The Tornado Channel" - you'll get more and more delays. And if the earthquakes start picking up there's a lot of busted tracks. If they ever build a high speed line between LA and San Fran - and there really should be one there already, no snow - within months there will be a giant earthquake that destroys it all.
I'm not going back and reading stuff, as tempting as the 10MPH 45' vibrator sounds.
Someday we'll find it
The rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me
On the topic of airports: I don't mind flying itself. Heck, I typically enjoy the experience as long as I get a window seat and the view is decent. It's also easy to just plug in my headphones and listen to Spotify in offline mode or play my DS Lite.
It's airport security that I absolutely hate, but I'm pretty sure I've been over that topic here before.
@ThanosReXXX Bummer. I'd love to go to Germany and briefly was offered an opportunity to see some religious and cultural sites there that would have occurred next year. However, that kind of fell through and I didn't think I'd be able to pony up enough cash by that time anyway.
@Link-Hero Good to know, thanks! The problem was he kept boxing me in; I kept vaporizing the puddles so X wouldn't get stuck, but somehow that still happened sometimes. Then the sucker's seemingly random pattern landed him on top of me in spaces I couldn't move sometimes.... 🤬
Currently playing: Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story + Bowser Jr's Journey, Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Switch)
Has anyone ever play Animal Crossing Amiibo Festival Wii U ?
I think i want to consider that game despite of all negativities.
What are the Pro and Cons from that game ?
Can i at least enjoy that game even just for their Mini games ?
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