What is making you happy right now

[Draco]

Answer: they're being stored in bins by future grand-parents. Along with WWI tin soldiers (with their lead paint). Waiting for the return to Imagination and Simplicity.

My Barbie Doll bin holds an old metal Band-Aid box I used to create her kitchen stove, long before Barbie had a kitchen (or car, or condo, or...all those pink plastic things she had later). Back when Band-Aids used to routinely come in metal boxes with flip-tops. Still has the magic marker circles I drew on top for the burners. I used to keep her earrings in a metal Bayer aspirin purse tin, too.

lol that's cute don't think i keep any old toys from my childhood..aside from a teddy bear or two, everything else would have been thrown out during the many times my parents decided to move.

Everyone opening at midnight is rough, but its not even 2am yet and my shopping is done and i'm about to lay down for the night. Walmart doesn't do its outside lines anymore since that one employee was trampled to death, so its interesting watching how people spend their time when they are stuck inside a store for 5+ hours.

Employee trampled to death? wtf?!
Is this a regular thing for walmart (opening at midnight that is), or is it only when there's some massive sale? But an employee being trampled to death...are the crowds that bad?

[Ominous Gamer]

Its common for WalMarts to be open 24/7. They used to clear out for big sales, so the store could be setup. On Black Friday that created lines of people that would go on for blocks. Think it was 3 years ago that one crowd got out of hand, and they kill the employee that opened the door that Black Friday. Wasn't around here, but some of those northern shoppers are fucking insane.

[BalticSailor]

It was awesome, walked away with a pocket full of screen names, tips, easter eggs, and $28 Batman, Forza 4, and BF3.

I guess I'm broken - as I read this, my first thought was "What the hell does Ominous need boron trifluoride for?". The second one was... yeah, still about boron trifluoride. It seemed like a very unusual item for walmart.

[Khendraja'aro]

I guess I'm broken - as I read this, my first thought was "What the hell does Ominous need boron trifluoride for?". The second one was... yeah, still about boron trifluoride. It seemed like a very unusual item for walmart.

If you consider that broken, then I have to be broken too

[Ominous Gamer]

Hit up the mall for some random shopping. Spent hours there but didn't buy a damn thing. Not all was lost however, spent $2 in the arcade and walked out with an Angry Birds stuffed animal, one of these weird inflated squishy balls, and an ipod shuffle. Seems I have my dad's arcade response time. Sister took a picture after I won the shuffle, but her lazy ass hasn't emailed it to me yet. Really happy about the shuffle since I was planning to pick one up for Brandy anyway

[Draco]

^^Wow, wish I could just walk into an arcade and leave with an ipod shuffle

Then again you'd have to spend as much money as it costs to buy one here to win something like that. Arcades are a rip off here.

[oldmunchkin]

Having spent a lot of the summer helping get this going, I am really happy to say...The Kid's website is up and running! If you want to check it out, it's http://www.landscape-lighting-styles.com/ I can guarantee it was a lot of fun helping him!

I am now the caretaker of the laundromat here! I have had so many compliments on how nice and clean it is, how nice it smells, and how nice it is to see someone putting a little work into it! I am going to try a laundry service for extra money! There used to be a lady here who ran one out of the laundromat, so am trying to get hold of her to see what she can tell me! I figured this is something I can do without having to overdo and hurt myself more! So far, in about a month, the traffic has almost doubled! I didn't realize so many people took their laundry to Douglas because this laundromat was such a disgusting pit! The only thing I know for sure I am not going to like is having to go shovel the door out and spread ice melt on the walk. I hate cold and snow, and am terrified of slipping and hurting myself more! Oh well, life is looking up for me at the moment!

[Aimless]

Super-cosy day liqueurs/infusions on the way: lemon, ginger+lemongrass, cinnamon, apple

[GGT]

Makes me happy to know there's still a culture of liqueur makers-drinkers, even if they're mostly European folks. My Greek in-law family is big on that---even brought some special libation from Greece to Boston to PA---served in pretty little liqueur glasses with toasts all around. Fermented cherry, clove, cinnamon. They also make a special wine made with cherries and some kind of nut, fermented for several months. "Family Secret".

It's special to them, knowing their extended family is toasting and drinking the same concoctions.

I secretly feel like an American curmudgeon because, quite honestly, it all tastes like cherry-flavored cough syrup to me. Might as well give me a shot of NyQuil with a wine chaser. But the ceremony and pretty liqueur glasses have a festive touch.

[oldmunchkin]

Makes me happy to know that, even though it's getting cold, the snow is still mostly going around us! Today was only about 25 degrees, but there was no wind, so it wasn't too bad!

[BalticSailor]

Me and a couple of friends organized a geoevent today, and I believe it went as good as possible! We even had a couple of participants from Finland, they said they really enjoyed the whole thing, and we've been getting mostly positive feedback from other participants too. It was the first event we've organized, so it appears we've made surprisingly few mistakes, and feel very eager to repeat the whole thing sometime next year.

[Ominous Gamer]

Work is going to start offering vacation payouts. Up to 40 hours a year, as long as you maintain a balance of 80 hours. I have ~250 built up, so this is will be a nice bump in my holiday season paycheck

[CitizenCain]

My newly printed, government issued ID.

It's now a matter of public record - I have "BRO" hair and "SEX" eyes. Guess that's a truncated field, was supposed to be "sexy" eyes. Oh well, when I go get it renewed, I'll change my hair color to "gay" and see if they miss that too... this time next year, I could have me a government ID card that says "GAY SEX".

[Bitter Jeweler]

I'll find out tomorrow if Santa will be bringing me this:

[Bitter Jeweler]

Santa said I was a good boy!!!


I'm so excited!!!

[BalticSailor]

Oh, and also, the incompetent coworker I was bitching about in the "messing with my groove" thread a week or so ago is going to be moved to another lab soon.

This happened finally.

[Bitter Jeweler]

Good for you Baltic. Work environment is important to work happiness!

[termite]

I'll find out tomorrow if Santa will be bringing me this:

Jewellers CNC?

[BalticSailor]

Good for you Baltic. Work environment is important to work happiness!

Yeah, it certainly is, although my primary concern regarding this guy has always been my safety (and that of other labmates, except the guy himself, of course. It's his health, and his fingers, so he can do whatever he wants with them, as long as it's safe for the rest of us)

His latest stunts:
- He had to add a reagent to a flask by Luer-Lok syringe. The Wikipedia article has a picture of such a syringe; the only difference from any other syringe being that the needle is securely connected to the syringe by screwing it on the end of the syringe. The screw threads hold the needle securely, it can't fall off, and it doesn't leak. Of course, this works only if one actually does screw the needle on. Guess, did the incompetent guy do it?
The answer is obviously "no". He just stuck it on the very tip of the syringe, and proceded to fill the syringe with the required reagent. Since the reagent was sucked in the syringe, the reduced pressure inside the syringe held the needle on during that particular operation. Then, he proceeded to remove air bubbles from the syringe by holding it with the needle facing up at slight angle, with its tip still in the container of the reagent, and pushing the plunger slightly.
Of course, this is when the connection gave way, the needle went in the container with the reagent, and the reagent that was in the syringe - all over the place. Luckily, I wasn't anywhere nearby (some other guy was looking after him at the moment, he got some of the reagent on his face) and the reagent was only somewhat caustic and non-toxic via skin contact. Knowing that we routinely handle stuff much worse than that, it could've turned out much quite tragic.
Of course, as unlikely as it seems, someone with any lab experience at all (and the incompetent guy actually has some, though he does his best not to let it show) might have never worked with the Luer-Lok syringes, and therefore, might not know how to secure the connection. BUT, firstly, it doesn't take a genius to figure it out once you see the screw threads on the tip of the syringe, secondly, one could ask what's the purpose of those screw threads, and thirdly, which is important, anyone with two brain cells to rub together might imagine that the needle is not supposed to just barely hold on the very tip of the syringe (you can't push it on any further than 2mm, if you don't screw in on, and then it is standing there very loosely - most of the times it doesn't even stay there if you hold the syringe in any other position than the needle ponting up) and dangle around when one moves the syringe. THEN, if it didn't occur to one before, he might ask "hey, the needle's not holding onto the syringe at all, is it supposed to be like that?"

- We use laboratory hotplate stirrers. It has two knobs, one controls heating, the other one - the stirring rate. Once, the guy had to stir a flask while cooling it in ice bath. So, he took a plastic bowl, filled it with ice, and put it on the hotplate stirrer. Then, he placed the magnetic stirrer bar in the flask, put the flask in the ice bath, added the reagents... Everything's fine that far.
Then, he proceeded to turn both knobs to the max. Yes, both of them - both stirring and heating.
I was in the room at the time, but I wasn't supposed to babysit him and check everything he does, so I didn't notice anything, until the point where it was already time to deal with the consequences. The bottom of the plastic container, of course, melted. Then, ice started to melt, and the water started pouring from the remains of the bowl. I noticed something was wrong when the water started boiling and sizzling on the hotplate. There was a small puddle around the hotplate stirrer, too. The guy's reaction was staring at all this and quietly saying "what the fuck?". He didn't realize what was wrong, I had to point out that the heating was on.
This accident was small, and it didn't cause much trouble, but it just further illustrated how little common sense this guy has. I'm glad he has been moved to another lab, and no longer is in the top position on the list of potential lab hazards in our lab.

[Bitter Jeweler]

Baltic, that's funny! I do like me some stories of stupidity.

Jewellers CNC?

Yes! I love it!
The Mill will ship on the 9th. I am beside myself. Once I get past the learning curve, this becomes about perfection and efficiency. With the mill, I am basically hiring a wax carver. Hurray for robots!

There are quite a few perks to CAD/CAMing jewelery. One is that I can create a a catalogue of designs, photorealistic renderings, that I can send out. I only put money out when an item is ordered. I can design a line of something like initial pendants, that are fully scalable and customizable. Place your order, I customize, throw it on the mill, and go do other stuff till the wax is finished.

The ring below...would have taken hours to bead set by hand, and I could never carve the tiny prongs in wax. So with this model, I save a little time modeling vs. wax carving by hand, but I will save hours in the setting process. And it will be flawless. This ring is on my plate right now, so I will take a pic when it's finished for comparison. I've already paid someone else to mill my models, the equivalent of one monthly payment, in 3 weeks. Buying the mill was a no brainer. Shipping time from using someone else is also a killer.

[Ominous Gamer]

Brandy's birthday and christmas shopping is done. Been picking up small things here and there, but the main presents, a Canon Rebel T3 for her birthday, and a Kodak Pulse digital frame for christmas, have been ordered. And to remind everyone how awesome Amazon is, a day after I bough the camera it dropped in price by $40, and amazon refunded me the difference.

[Nessus]

This is wondrous

[termite]

I have an 18 year old wife.

[Ominous Gamer]

Looks like I'm going to be downloading my Steam games onto the laptop while at work from now on

[Momo]

This is wondrous

Vapid and meaningless?

[Aimless]

Dinner and a library with mah baby. Cosy here. Yummy dinner. Three-hour nap in the afternoon pretty nice and very relaxed monday. Snow's arrived, and it isn't horrible yet.

[Bitter Jeweler]

You're lucky! I never really feel like it's xMastime till it snows. I can't play xMas music at work until it snows either. It just seems wrong. It's 45 degrees (F) and raining here, right now.

I <3 Snow.

[termite]

I've never seen snow.

[Nessus]

Really? Geez.

I guess I've never seen a desert.

[Loki]

Going to England (near London) next week for a month.