To be fair, he did lose weight at the gym

Everyone should know, US flag code is relatively new phenomenon, with the beginnings of it forming around 1942. My grandfather predated US flag code.

Similarly, flying the flag at half-staff/mast only goes back to 1954-ish.

Regarding the US flag & how it is presented, treated, there is a lot of customs & nuance that we’re just kind of making up as we go along. It seems as the world gets smaller, the rate of divergency & traditions is accelerating.

Most soldiers I’ve met don’t really care about the flag code. They dislike the flag being burned but currently there’s not much we can do about that.

I am (mostly) mindful of “flag code”, just out of my own personal respect & love for America. But it’s not law; the flag is made for Americans. Americans aren’t made for the flag, to structure our actions around what some guys said in 1942.

Youth justice is for the many nuanced & lower stakes scenarios. Stealing a car, breaking windows, shoplifting/petty theft, getting into fights, drug abuse/addiction, arson, criminal mischief, etc.

Not stabbing strangers to death.

You can’t equate the two.

Depending on marketing & their dedication to bringing it to market…again… they can & they do. Digitally. Nintendo has sold old video games on the Wii, Wii U platform. Then, they packaged & released the NES & SNES Classic consoles, very smart move actually & it was a cute product that appealed to many consumers.

Since then, Nintendo’s greed has grown. They no longer sell because they don’t want you to own copies of old videogames…they want to rent them to you by the month or year. Via Nintendo Online subscriptions, you can browse the whole catalog & play all kinds of old games. It requires a Switch, an internet connection, and don’t forget that sweet, sweet Nintendo Online subscription. Once you’ve gotten your fix & you cancel your subscription, you own nothing & they’ve got your money. This is their goal, everything is going according to plan. Subscription models for endless reven on old games.

You will give them your money, you will own nothing, and you will be happy.

I know you’re being funny, and I appreciate the joke. 🙂 But I am so serious…alcohol-free. Not only is it less ‘sketchy’, but it’s better for you & will result in better breath.

Ever smelled a chronic alcoholic’s breath, particularly after they haven’t had a drink for a while? Rancid.

It’s the same with the alcohol in the mouthwash; it kills all the bacteria & flora in your mouth. Good & bad. It wipes the entire landscape clean, and unfortunately, the bad/stinky bacteria tends to be more resilient than the good bacteria. It multiplies & becomes a persistent, dominant presence. Which doesn’t help your breath, even with regular brushing & tongue scraping.

Even better, get a proper tongue scraper like this one. Scrape all that stupid, nasty bullshit of your tongue first. THEN brush your teeth & tongue. THEN an alcohol-free mouthwash.

It’s a lot easier to brush the bad bacteria & waste away if most of it has been physically removed before the brushing.

Your tone 🙄🙄🙄

Yes. I read it all. I particularly read this section here:

I don’t know that the actions are the same though. That’s sort of the point of the thing I posted. People like you are actually doing shit. What most people think of as ‘preppers’ are people who have a closet full of MREs, two giant jugs of water, and a massive guns and ammunition collection, people who tell you about how the world will end if Trump isn’t elected and they’re ready for it.

I think if those people were like you, even if they had stupid motivations, there wouldn’t be so much derision. But they don’t actually put the work in. They essentially think if they buy enough ammo and Jim Bakker rapture survival food buckets, they’re ready for every eventuality.

Perhaps you are correct that the popular definition has changed, much like the Greeks (hilariously) changed the definition of egregious through their use of sarcasm. But your understanding is just plain wrong, you are incorrect. Your downvotes mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer.

I see no need to rebrand to conform to ignorance & lack of understanding. If you would like to learn more about prepping, here are some channels you can look into. I’d also recommend looking at the Facebook group, The Phantom Planters. It’s prepping, kinda, but in a farming/growing way, whatever you want to call it. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to plant some fruit trees around Indiana. 🙂

…and yes, the timing is embarrassing on my end because Canadian Prepper just announced last night that he is building a bunker. But he presents lots of good information otherwise. You’ll probably like City Prepping more.

I quit probably 11 years ago. IIRC they did some dumb stuff to cap trades, and I played out most of everything that was very cool & interesting, and they kept adding new stupid skills that I had absolutely no interest in doing. Like the hunting/trapping skill. But then they’d release sick new quests, with good rewards/perks, but to do them you’d have to extensively train up that yucky, boring, dumb “skill” that you would never use otherwise. If not for that quest.

They turned my play into work, and took the fun out of it, and eventually I was like why am I paying these people so I can grind away hours on dumb stuff that I don’t even like?? So I quit.

Your grandparents, and great-grandparents, were probably preppers. The ability to not be forced to prepare for hard(er) times is the real luxury.

Well, according to Gray Man theory, this is actually good that you don’t recognize. But no…that man you’re talking to is very clearly a prepper.

The best way I can tell you is prepping… is a rainbow. A varied spectrum of people, with many different beliefs & motivations. Actually, I guess we can compare it to the current Democrat Party! The crazy ones get all the attention, they make the news and everybody points at them and says, wow, that’s crazy. That’s too far. I can’t get behind that. It’s the same with preppers. You have preppers that prepare for “zombies”. Or, as you said, when everything collapses badly. There are many more preppers that are just sensibly preparing for very real scenarios. Stockpile a little today for a better tomorrow. A simpler, stronger life.

The real preppers, the best preppers, don’t just hoard; they incorporate their preps into daily living. It is a lifestyle. You have tools for working the land, tools to move stuff around, you build out the life you think you’ll want & need. Not just stored in a bunker, but to use next week. The zombie shit is really dumb, most of the products are cheap & low quality gimmicks. Probably because they know you’re a sucker, anyway. As Canadian Prepper says… eventually…all preppers become farmers.

I prep, in part, for short to longer term no-power scenarios. Those assholes up in Chicago threatened to cut off power to downstate…2-3 years ago?..and I never forgot that. I said, okay. Guess this is something I need to think about now. ¯\(°_o)/¯ Prepping is much like a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply). System fucks up, no power? Well I’m going to be okay for a while, anyway. This isn’t the exact article I read, but here’s a source, anyway. People don’t understand how dangerously fragile, old our power grid is. It is susceptible to attack by foreign entities, or simply overload during peak usage.

Calling preppers selfish, idk where in the ever-loving fuck these guys get off…if I don’t require assistance in an emergency, that’s more assistance that can be sent to other people in need. I’m actively preparing, spending my own time, money, and efforts to help myself and others. In Israel, everyone is required to have a safe room & 2 weeks of food, water in it. They have inspections! And don’t even get me started on Switzerland.

I love it when people who very clearly are not preppers put words in the mouths of preppers, loudly espouse the beliefs of preppers, and label them all as bad & selfish people. They talk about something they don’t actually understand.

The overall tone reeks of quiet arrogance, like a cologne. The smug accomplishment of…taking no action at all? It is ignorant. Disrespectful. Foolish. Enough of the comment section isn’t much better.

Disappointing, but not surprising.

Omg I would love translucent

This Analogue group is very specialized in high-end, non-emulated resurrections of old consoles. They’re known for their passion & product quality, and also a shitty website UI. In my opinion. It sucks. Can’t be good at everything, I guess, and you struggling on their website isn’t their problem.

So as you noted, they’re charging enough for their product…and quite often when they do a limited run release (especially on a brand new console), they sell out within minutes. Sometimes they’ll do a restock, much later, if they feel like it.

I also don’t want to get anyone in trouble, buuuuuut it is heavily implied that while their hardware doesn’t involve emulation of any kind, there may or may not be physical cartridge emulators that can run ROMs of all kinds of games. Legal & not so legal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I got a used, working N64 maybe 11 years ago, and I had to pay $40. Maybe you can get it for less, but I sincerely doubt it. The decent, working ones only tend to become more rare with time, and what was $40 11 years ago…certainly…isn’t the same as $40 today. 🙄🙄🙄🙄

My friend went to a nerd convention & IIRC there were people selling “reconditioned” N64s for $130, more for exotic & limited edition colors. While expensive I think this is actually the way to go, because the nerds take them apart & give them a great cleaning, to where they’re basically like new! My friend bought one for his kids.

Then for a little more money, there’s new tech in this one. Crazy upscaling, modern connections, fixes to old problems in the original console. I have such fond memories of the N64, but I also remember sometimes when it was trying to render some very intense Super Smash Bros scenes it would struggle & lag out for a while. This should be fixed. 10x the resolution, but in keeping with the spirit of N64! And with the original N64, you have to find, buy hokey low-storage memory cards & such. This one has a microSD expansion port & modern 8BitDo Bluetooth controllers, ALL the bells & whistles.

…so… this appeals to millennials who want to experience their childhood on crack, just the best of what is old rendered & reimagined on snappy modern tech by people who care so much about retro gaming. To get together with their friends. To share with their children. Idk I think it has more than a little appeal, to the right person!

Oh. The ones I’m referring to are the modern Amazon lockers & such, reliant on modern technology. Courier goes up, enters auth code. It then asks you to scan a pkg. Then there’s the prompt, is the pkg: SMALL, MEDIUM, LARGE, X-LARGE? Upon selection, it pops open a corresponding door. One pkg per locker. Rinse & repeat until all pkgs delivered to lockers, and recipients are notified of delivery.

Once you get the hang of it, it’s actually super slick & helpful for everyone.

Kind of related but not as high-tech or secure, some nice apartment complexes are being built with sizeable delivery rooms. Which works unless you’ve got a klepto in your complex.

With varying degrees of success, you can create accounts with the delivery companies & specify what you want done with your pkg. Deliver to any address you like, or hold at facility or an access point. This is your best option, to dig a little deeper, take some time & really take control of how you want your deliveries. As best you can. 🙂

With most US residential pkgs, it is left because it’s easy & economical. A third to half of the time, it’s cheap bullshit. Theft or loss is often not a big enough problem to warrant not delivering the first time.

Calling every person that doesnt receive their pkg in person is patently ridiculous. Full-time drivers have anywhere from 130 stops to 300+ stops. Let’s say 2/3 don’t accept the pkg in person (it’s more than 2/3); that is 86-200+ phone calls or 86-200+ stops’ worth of pkgs, per driver, to be recycled back through facility.

The first time most residential pkgs are attempted delivery, the shipping company makes like 5-10¢ on that pkg. Say it goes back to facility, to be delivered tomorrow, as you said. That very low value pkg, to be recycled back into the system & taking up space, to be processed & put on a truck for delivery the next day, to be delivered for basically no profit/breakeven. Awesome 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻. Let’s say 2nd attempt is unsuccessful, and we can’t just leave the package on the doorstep when the person isn’t home because that’s such an obviously stupid thing to do. Driver starts swearing, sticks another notice on the door, 5+ people handle the pkg again…you know the deal…and the 3rd day it is delivered at a loss or, if failed, is held at facility for customer pickup. The company has lost money, and on some cheap foreign-made t-shirts from Kohl’s, no less.

In short: they’re doing the best they can, every single day, by the numbers. 🙂 Looking at the big picture, it works pretty well! Except for Amazon, they suck, but everybody keeps giving them money so basically they can fail up forever until that changes.

Hope this sheds some light on how logistics work behind the scenes. Leave some snacks, drinks out for your delivery drivers! The real-life Santas!

This is a relatively new technology; we have this in the states as well. As the systems get cheaper, more intuitive, more well-understood, they’re rolling out to more places. I’ve seen one in a very small town, and there’s a number of them outside of middle-high class apartment complexes.

Kinda relevant

I, personally, am a big fan of brevity. Fort Liberty: Short. Sweet. To the point. 🙂

There is no reason why we couldn’t do both! Commission a big plaque, a statue/picture, write it up on the website – Fort Liberty honors Shugart & Gordon, two Delta Force operators who gave their lives trying to protect a downed Blackhawk pilot in Mogadishu. Just bake it in, tasteful AF.

I just really don’t like things that get in the way of primary purpose, or title. For example, I type airport into Google. One of the results, do you mean the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport?? The honorary title, it’s longer than the place. Oh, and that airport is on Everett McKinley Dirksen Parkway, and god help you if you misspell that name, because Google won’t if you’re off by one letter.

Honor all the people you want, as much as you want, with all the weird names you want. Write a whole damn book. Just do it in the credits, not the goddamn title. There’s a proper place for everything.

*** On second thought & reading your comments…I do very much like, and appreciate, the sentiment of naming bases directly after honorable people. And it’s probably far less consequential to have an odd and/or long name assigned to a military base than it is a road or public transit. Now if you’ll excuse me. I need to go to the General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport on Everett McKinley Dirksen Parkway. 🤪

I just might, I mean good grief, we need something good that lasts.