[ OT ] So What's REALLY Going On..?

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
October 25, 2016 - 7:12pm
{EDITED from original 10/25/16 post courtesy of photosuckit & farcebook 3rd party imaging...images restored}

The board has been pretty dead lately, since there seems to be a lull in gaming topics howzabout we talk about non-SF stuff that's going on? Just for the sake of participation in...anything.

I'll start. I acquired some welding equipment earlier this year and have been dabbling with it, I'm no pro but it's been both educational and fun. Last week I jumped into my first bona-fide project with said fun stuff: I sectioned off a motorcycle fender and welded it back together as a shorter piece. It still need to be smoothed and finished but it's coming along nicely.

Said fender in its original condition:


After cutting a section out of the middle:


"Reassembled" with a wire feed welder


Test mounted with a seat pan:





I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website
Comments:

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
September 22, 2018 - 4:37pm
{EDITED from original 10/25/16 post courtesy of photosuckit & farcebook 3rd party imaging...images restored}

And last month was a super score...a 2012 model of the same bike with a paltry 2800 miles for a meager $500:


Missing a few minor bits, of which I happen to have spares...



I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

Tollon's picture
Tollon
October 26, 2016 - 6:39am

Beauty :)

 


JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 26, 2016 - 8:02am
Thnak you Shadow for posting something. I had noticed that there's been a lull, though I've been putting things up in the projects sections.

Let me search a topic to see if there is an old discussion first before I put anything up.
Joe Cabadas

iggy's picture
iggy
October 26, 2016 - 10:56am
What I'm doing? 

"Life, don't talk to me about life."

I'm not depressed like Marvin but things are sure busy.  Since school started I'm busy every night and weekend.   I go to work to just get some down time.  Wink  I've been called upon again to be a scoutmaster and rebuild a struggling troop.  This is taking quite a bit of time but it is worth it.  Plus there is a lot of school stuff with the kids.  I've been squeezing SF in late evenings after everything else is done.  I started the Celestia Frontier project and have a lot of stuff to put in the downloads there just needing to be organized and zipped on my hard drive.  I may get to that tonight after the weekly confrence calls to Malaysia.

We are also big time busy working on costumes for halloween.  My wife is sewing, l am working on 3D print parts, and my oldest son is working with his 9-year-old brother making him a chainmail shirt.
-iggy

Putraack's picture
Putraack
October 26, 2016 - 7:04pm
Work and school. The school being my two teenage sons', as well as the college hunt for the eldest.

JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 27, 2016 - 10:35am
As for real world things, I don't have anything as exciting as a motorcycle restoration, but I am working on several stories and other writing assignments including stories on
  • Jeep's 75th anniversary
  • A Byzantine Catholic priest who's been playing Santa Claus for 45 years and runs a program called the St. Nicholas Institute
  • An automotive supplier company that helps dealers, but it's history dates back to a firm that built many show cars for the automakers from the 1950s and up until ten years ago.
  • A preview story of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit
  • two new assignments looking at ground water issues
  • And a project to list the headquarters locations and CEOs of major gas and electrical utilities across the U.S.

Whew!

Joe Cabadas

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
October 27, 2016 - 3:26pm
With my campaign dead I haven't had much motivation to put any creative energy into SF.

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
October 27, 2016 - 6:19pm
JCab747 wrote:

  • Jeep's 75th anniversary
  • An automotive supplier company that helps dealers, but it's history dates back to a firm that built many show cars for the automakers from the 1950s and up until ten years ago.
  • A preview story of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit

That sounds like cool stuff to get involved in. While I've never owned a Jeep I've driven a few...just not in the terrain they're supposed to be in. I'm just not a car guy so I'm at a loss for the second one, but "show cars from the 50's" is more than enough to nab my attention. And despite not being a car guy, car shows are still heaps of fun.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 27, 2016 - 7:51pm
ChrisDonovan wrote:
With my campaign dead I haven't had much motivation to put any creative energy into SF.


I can understand. That's probably the sad tale of many whom I've seen as registered this website but haven't contributed any thoughts or comments in quite a while. Real life gets in the way.

My campaign has been stalled, but I write things as a positive creative outlet.

Your contributions to Star Frontiers have been rather creative and appreciated.
Joe Cabadas

jedion357's picture
jedion357
October 28, 2016 - 2:29pm
Cool bean, shadow.

What is Jedion up to? New day job: back to window washing but this time in Maine where commercial window washing is more residential than commercial buildings and occassioned the following statement by me:

"I dont always clean the windows of the ultra rich but when i do I sometimes see things that really freak me out!"

That comment was followed by, "This woman is the kind where you go to sleep in this house but you dont wake up."

I probably should not go into exact details but lets just say that for three men working on the house, one each in their 20's, 30's, & 40's, all three were freaked out.

Thankfuly two days latter we were in the mansion of a certain former senator of Greek decent and her house was very comfortingly normal and was a real pleasure to clean her windows.

I still uber but only part time.

My divorce finalized in July, Free at last, free at last and oh man is it nice to be happy again!

Seriously distracted with on line dating much to the detrement of my star frontiers activities. Hi, my name is Tom and I'm a little lonely. Its been 1 day since I've been on a date with a woman.
Actually starting to get good at on line dating, I've refined my profile and many women comment that it made them laugh. I come off as quirky and funny in the texting phase and I can "get" a date just about every week. Although the natural flow of things has me with two dates this week with two different women and it could get complicated but I'll certainly need to make a decision soon.
By the way when it comes to Christian mingle, Tinder and Bumble I recommend taking a pass on those. Christian Mingle does a poor job of protecting your email address and you will end up with scammers flooding your in box because of that one. Tinder is a hook up site with no real profile because serious dating is not the intent, and Bumble doesn't work well in my experience. I continue to use Plenty of Fish despite the accusation of it being for bottum feeders because it has a robust profile that lets you filter for any single item of information in the profile.

Future plans: reconnecting with my hobbies, Star Frontiers especially.

So I'm back, I just need to get rehabbed from serial dating, I guess.

Oh yeah, i was rejected for Maine Care, my new employer doesnt offer health insurance till you've been there one year and the Affordable Health Care Act (Obama Care) is not very affordable in Maine so I'm eating an apple a day and hoping I dont get sick. Maybe something will change in January on this front but for now it sucks.

EDIT: Tried to take a power nap after work to be fresh to uber but ended up sleeping 1.5 hours which then lead to me meeting the wife of a man that organizes a sketch group. I've missed the discipline of an organized time to go sketch. And the dog is so happy to be a country dog now and not a city dog. The kids asked for him to come back for a week over the summer to visit in Boston and he stopped eating for the whole week even though he loves the kids.

EDIT 2: found some Storm trooper armor patterns for 3d printers on Thingverse and my brother has agreed to print me two copies starting in Dec. The kids and I have a long term project of doing a Princess Leia costume for the youngest and myself and the oldest will be storm troopers and we'll attend Comicon Boston in 2017 and recycle the costumes for Halloween as well. Just need to purchase 50 lbs of abs plastic and drop ship it to my brother.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
October 28, 2016 - 6:34pm
JCab747 wrote:
ChrisDonovan wrote:
With my campaign dead I haven't had much motivation to put any creative energy into SF.


I can understand. That's probably the sad tale of many whom I've seen as registered this website but haven't contributed any thoughts or comments in quite a while.

Raises hand, retreats back into corner to sulk & pout...
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
October 28, 2016 - 6:53pm
jedion357 wrote:


My divorce finalized in July, Free at last, free at last and oh man is it nice to be happy again!

Glad to hear you closed this chapter, I recall some of the posts you made on the matter and how miserable things were for you.


Quote:
Actually starting to get good at on line dating, I've refined my profile and many women comment that it made them laugh.

A trick I learned --- well, I heard about it, I haven't had the need to try it --- hide your phone number in the description such as "I have three kids that are the light of my life. I'm into motorcycles, I have six that I ride along with two projects I'm working on. Blah blah blah I have four cats blah blah blah"...you get the idea. Then you simply ignore the email notifications and wait for the brighter ones to call you. ;)


Quote:
and the Affordable Health Care Act (Obama Care) is not very affordable in Maine so I'm eating an apple a day and hoping I dont get sick. Maybe something will change in January on this front but for now it sucks.

It's not affordable anywhere, the creators of ACA/ObamaCare designed it as such. They set up the smaller companies to fail so that only the few big boys could form a monopoly, and as of 2015 that has been the case. Rates keep going up and coverage keeps going down, I'm in my third year of the crap and I have over $5K in unpaid medical bills sitting on my table because the insurance isn't paying what they were contracted to pay. And it has already been widely covered how those rates will continue to increase while coverage continues to decrease.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

ChrisDonovan's picture
ChrisDonovan
October 29, 2016 - 3:50am
JCab747 wrote:
Your contributions to Star Frontiers have been rather creative and appreciated.


I appreciate the sentiment. :)

Re, the ACA: it was always a giveaway to Big Insurance.  Hopefully the Democrats will keep the White House and retake the Senate (a possibility that has been disussed in recently as a month or so ago) and Chairman  Sanders can get true universal health care back on the agenda.

JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 29, 2016 - 7:13am
ChrisDonovan wrote:
JCab747 wrote:
Your contributions to Star Frontiers have been rather creative and appreciated.


I appreciate the sentiment. :)

Re, the ACA: it was always a giveaway to Big Insurance.  Hopefully the Democrats will keep the White House and retake the Senate (a possibility that has been disussed in recently as a month or so ago) and Chairman  Sanders can get true universal health care back on the agenda.


Your welcome.

For the most part, I want to avoid discussing real world politics when doing gaming.

Best Regards.
Joe Cabadas

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
October 29, 2016 - 9:56am
I find it humorous how one side of that aisle insists on calling it only by one name and not the other. As in it's so bad that they no longer want to associate it with the name of the person whose legacy it is. ;)
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

Putraack's picture
Putraack
November 9, 2016 - 2:20pm
I have been doing some gaming, I see that I left that out of the above. I have monthly groups for Star Fleet Battles, Pathfinder, and any RPG but D&D, and a weekly wargame group. Pathfinder is me running the Kingmaker AP, we are now 2 sessions from finishing, hopefully on New Year's Eve? The "any RPG" group is attempting Far Trek, again me running, Episode 3 is in 3 weeks or so. The weekly wargame is on Scorched Earth, a WW2 East Front classic monstergame from 1986; we're in the winter of 1943-44, and us Germans aren't in bad shape, really.


Sargonarhes's picture
Sargonarhes
November 19, 2016 - 9:15pm
I've just been binge watching anime like crazy. And conventions, think I've been to more conventions this year than previously. Have not done much gaming on the table top, got hooked into some PC MMO games that went free to play like Wildstar, which some of those aliens from that game would make some nice additions to SF. The Aurin, Draken, Granoks and Mordesh would work quite well. Couldn't do the Mechari as SF already has the Mechanons as a AI robot race.
In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same.

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
November 19, 2016 - 10:36pm
I picked up the Star Trek TOS DVD package, I've not watched any of this since I was 9 years old and am getting a kick out of it. I'm starting Season 3 tonight, and will probably watch the six movies when I am finished.

But I'm still no Trekkie. ;)
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

jedion357's picture
jedion357
November 20, 2016 - 7:01am
Shadow Shack wrote:

But I'm still no Trekkie. ;)


I am. Love Patrick Stewart, I've been getting a kick out of the Strongbow commercial that he's in lately. The first few had him taking the acting gig to do the commercials serious and the Voice of the narrator interrupting him and making fun of him but the latest have him goofing the acting job at the narrator's expense which is even funnier.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
September 22, 2018 - 4:36pm
{EDITED from original 12/5/16 post courtesy of photosuckit & farcebook 3rd party imaging...images restored}

More inexpensive fun with the bike. I used chrome sink tail pieces from Home Depot for exhaust extensions. 

Before (also included is a new tank and repacement side covers) & After pics:



(front fender has been removed for trial painting)


I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
September 24, 2018 - 10:00pm
In light of recent (in)activity it's probably a good time to dust off this old thread...since there's nothing SF to talk about let's talk about other miscellaneous things we're doing.

I'll start by posting some of the numerous updates I've done on the Roadster from the opening post. I ditched the Clubman handlebar that was on the bike in favor of a drag bar along with swapping the smaller grey tank from the newer acquisition (more on that later):

Image may contain: motorcycle, night and outdoor

I wasn't wild about the way the new shortened fender sat on the bike. First I tried shorter shocks but that only resulted in bottoming out...

Image may contain: motorcycle and outdoor

..so instead I mounted it to the swingarm to hug the rear tire and move with it versus being stationary and with the tire/wheel moving up and down inside it. I also acquired a front fender and cut the leading edge back and added a sprung solo seat:

Image may contain: motorcycle and outdoor

On the port side I relocated the speedometer from the handle down to the right side of the frame/below the tank, you can see it perched just below the horn:
Image may contain: motorcycle and outdoor

I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
September 23, 2018 - 6:27am
(sheesh, I don't know why the pic files are so huge in that post, they're the same size as the ones in the other posts I made here)
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

iggy's picture
iggy
September 23, 2018 - 11:51am
Well, this summer has been very busy.  I think I am about through all the tasks and scheduled events.  This last month has been non-stop.  Summer has been full of scouting activities and this month doubled up with bottling fruit from my trees.  The fruit is about all done now, just one more batch of pears to bottle.  Then Saturday ends the string of weekend scout activities when we go repelling.  After Saturday the scouting slows down to one campout a month as it should be and the harvesting will be done.

The house is quieter now with the three oldest away to college.  The younger half of the family now gets to dominate their parent's time.  I'd say the funnest thing of this summer was busting away with the lower half of the family (my four kids not yet in college) and going to Universal Studios Hollywood for the Harry Potter experience. 
-iggy

jedion357's picture
jedion357
September 24, 2018 - 5:29am
Well lets see: since the divorce I live with my Dad which has been a good thing from the stand point of his age and health mean he really cant keep up the property. I've had some self assigned task:

Remove all the cobblestones originally used to demark the boundaries of gardens around the yard because I kept hitting them with the riding mower and they were a pain in the butt to mow around.

That led to some paving projects and fixing up the yard a little.

but.... my selfish self absorbed sister moved in supposedly temporarily and has caused lots of destruction and its fallen to me to fix those problems. I now have a back bed room closed off while I strip out carpet, sheet rock, and insulation to abate black mold. Fun, fun fun, like I didn't have enought to do while lugging cobble stones around the yard.

In the process of that I discovered that my grandfather lined the walls of the house with card board and that over the year it did get wet and so it kind of good that I'm doing this job; I suppose I should thank my sociopathic sister for causing this problem- maybe not.


I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

jedion357's picture
jedion357
September 24, 2018 - 6:09am
Funny, I don't seem to be able to upload any photos.


I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers!

Shadow Shack's picture
Shadow Shack
September 24, 2018 - 10:01pm
I hosted the pics on farcebook so the post is easier to read now...but of course that means the third party hosting will get disabled in a few weeks and then the post will make no sense whatsoever.
I'm not overly fond of Zeb's Guide...nor do I have any qualms stating why. Tongue out

My SF website

JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 15, 2018 - 4:55pm
Shadow Shack wrote:
(sheesh, I don't know why the pic files are so huge in that post, they're the same size as the ones in the other posts I made here)
 

I think if you try editting them, you can grab the bottom right corner of the photo and manually drag it to a smaller size. 
Joe Cabadas

JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 15, 2018 - 4:56pm
iggy wrote:
Well, this summer has been very busy.  I think I am about through all the tasks and scheduled events.  This last month has been non-stop.  Summer has been full of scouting activities and this month doubled up with bottling fruit from my trees.  The fruit is about all done now, just one more batch of pears to bottle.  Then Saturday ends the string of weekend scout activities when we go repelling.  After Saturday the scouting slows down to one campout a month as it should be and the harvesting will be done.

The house is quieter now with the three oldest away to college.  The younger half of the family now gets to dominate their parent's time.  I'd say the funnest thing of this summer was busting away with the lower half of the family (my four kids not yet in college) and going to Universal Studios Hollywood for the Harry Potter experience. 
 

Definitely sounds busy.
Joe Cabadas

JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 15, 2018 - 4:58pm
jedion357 wrote:
...

Remove all the cobblestones originally used to demark the boundaries of gardens around the yard because I kept hitting them with the riding mower and they were a pain in the butt to mow around.

That led to some paving projects and fixing up the yard a little.

... I now have a back bed room closed off while I strip out carpet, sheet rock, and insulation to abate black mold. Fun, fun fun, like I didn't have enought to do while lugging cobble stones around the yard.

In the process of that I discovered that my grandfather lined the walls of the house with card board and that over the year it did get wet and so it kind of good that I'm doing this job...


 

Yikes! Sounds like a load of work.
Joe Cabadas

JCab747's picture
JCab747
October 15, 2018 - 5:12pm
For me, I haven't been on this site or the Facebook group for nearly two months.

I had a rather long writing project for the Detroit Athletic Club's magazine, the DAC News, for October.

The DAC has this business luncheon group called the Beavers. They started 100 years ago with a bunch of pool enthusiasts who wanted to get together for lunch, have a business speaker, but do all sorts of shenanigans in the pool.

They've had speakers such as Henry Ford II, ex-President Gerald R. Ford, World War I flying ace Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Johnny Weissmuller -- aka Tarzan, the women's columnist Ann Landers, etc. So the Beavers basically wanted a book printed in the magazine. That's what they got. A 61,000 word story in twelve chapters ... plus a short introduction and an epilogue.

Needless to say, it was a lot of writing. Then I had to scramble to finish my stories for the November issue... a story on the founding of the Belle Isle Aquarium some 115 years ago; it was one of the top three aquariums in the world when it openned in 1919. 

A story about Detroit's response to the deadly influenza outbreak of 1918... i.e. the Spanish Flu.

And then a story about the Polar Bears -- some 5,500 American soldiers, many of them from Detroit, who were sent over to northern Russia in September 1918. President Wilson sent them there on the pretext of guarding weapons and ammunition to prevent the Germans from seizing them... except after the Russian revolutions of 1917, all the German soldiers left to go to the Western Front. The British and the French wanted the Americans there to fight the Bolsheviks...

The American troops got caught up in a Vietnam like experience -- though one with subzero temperatures of minus 40 to minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit where they were ill equipped for the weather.

Again, as a result, I've neglected posting anything here or responding to some things on the Star Frontiers Alive & Well site. I have a bit of backtracking to do there.

  
Joe Cabadas