Lookin

I don't use closed captioning but I did notice that my new TV has audio settings, one of which is Voice Zoom. It really makes dialog stand out and much easier to hear at reasonable volumes, and has ten levels of adjustment. In case it helps.

Seems a little steep, but I checked the reviews and one guy got both rats and cockroaches so it's starting to sound like my kind of place! http://www.boytoy.com/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif For those who know the rooms, is a poolside room a good idea? Or would a pool view be better? All things being equal, I think I'd rather watch folks carrying on than hear them carrying on. http://www.boytoy.com/public/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif Unless I'm carrying on myself, and then the less commotion outside the better.

Practicing social distancing with my refrigerator. http://www.boytoy.com/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

Mine was walking through Chinatown when a cold rain started. I suddenly felt what I thought was lightning hit the back of my head. I reached up to check the damage and discovered a large drop of water had fallen from the fire escape above me and landed smack dab on the beginnings of a bald spot. It has continued to flourish since then and, to this day, I avoid Chinatown in the rainy winter months. ⛈

When I finally sent all my old AARP cards off to the landfill. http://www.boytoy.com/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

Perhaps he thought the topic was erection tampering. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

Something told me I shouldn’t go far But I got a free ticket to Hvar On the ferry from Split I remembered the bit That wherever you go there you are . http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif

Hotel clerk-o watch me lurk-o While he work-o make me jerk-o He’s a winner, ask to dinner Get him drunk and turn him into sinner Meet tomorrow with Lindoro When it’s dark-o take to Park-o I was horn-o before he born-o Someday soon I make him Mr. Unicorn-o

A truly amazing feature which I recently discovered following an oopsy-daisy coming back from the restroom at my favorite watering hole. All the beeping attracted the attention of a fellow patron who managed to prop me upright just in time for last call. Not a personal best but it did help turn what had been merely a toot into a full-fledged binge. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

Gevalt! Maybe I should just open a window

Even the best therapist can’t guarantee a happy ending . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . OKOK fine, then I’d have to be crazy to pay up front

When I turned 70, I Googled "How much exercise does a 70-year-old man need?". It said that 7,000 steps a day - half of which is at a brisk pace - should do the trick. For me that's about three miles and it takes less than an hour. I live on the side of a hill so I get a little cardio too. Last year a friend told me that my iPhone has been counting my steps since I first turned it on, as well as the floors I've climbed. Just checked and, for the last year, I've averaged over 8,000 steps and a dozen floors a day. So I figure I've got it covered. I'm in a semi-rural area so the views are nice but walking can be pretty boring. To make it more enjoyable, I usually have my afternoon bowl before I set out and let the entertaining thoughts flow. By the time I'm home, I'm ready for dinner. ? I know that, for some folks, this regimen will call forth a spate of "I hate weed!" and that's fine. For me, it's important not to hate anything that keeps me active or I'd stop doing it. Good gosh, look at the time! Those steps aren't going to take themselves. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

I've used Safari since forever and, for the first time in decades, I'm not experiencing any regular performance lags. I've got a dozen tabs in the window I'm using now and often have another handful of windows open. Not sure why, but I think it may have to do with improved memory management, especially swap memory when the Mac shuttles bytes between RAM and the hard drive. I got a MacBook Pro a couple years ago and it has one of those solid-state SSD hard drives, so memory-swapping happens pretty fast. But I also think Apple did something to improve memory management. I've got 8GB of RAM and I never see more than 6.5 GB being used, no matter what. The only time I see the spinning ball in Safari is when it's trying to open my Political bookmarks folder, which has over 800 entries. (Some dating back to the Harding administration. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif) I used to clear cache constantly, but haven't done it once in the last two years. This is the only computer I've had in forty years that hardly ever makes me wait while it's doing something, Safari included.

As @handiacefailure said, my gimmick has been to carry as few eggs as possible and to spread them around among multiple baskets. When in the U. S., my wallet stays in my car and I pull out a credit card only when I need it. A few years ago, in what I remember as the Great Brussels Train Robbery, my carry-on bag was lifted from right underfoot and showed up on another platform a few hours later with my passport intact. The only thing missing was my camera, sadly with the past week's photo card still in it. Had the thief taken my garment bag instead, he would have pocketed $2000 in cash. My credit card was in one pants pocket, and my wallet was in another, both zipped. When I renewed my passport last year, I sprung for the Passport Card and that will never be in the same place as my actual passport. Come to think of it, the only thing that comes with me everywhere is my library card. Though I should probably rethink that strategy, as it's proved to be the most difficult to replace. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_9hJs2J1RW1Y/TSE7yaDRzcI/AAAAAAAAAXk/XuQl-I2T4hU/s1600/angry_old_woman.jpg

He also turned an erstwhile non-opera-lover into an opera lover with this aria: Not to mention the eye candy Jean-Christophe Spinosi has assembled, including himself. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/whistle.png (Sorry for the highjack.)

Could somebody please give me a poke when it's January?

It wasn't the greatest idea, that's for sure! It started from the premises that (a) we should let folks know when they were being disruptive and (b) site managers and moderators do not want to waste their time running a daycare. I learned later that the coding to make the process automated would itself take a lot of work so, in a subsequent post, I backed off the automation idea and kept just the idea of a counter that tallied posts that folks considered disruptive. The final decision on what to do as numbers accumulated would be left up to management. Over the years, I've seen two kinds of disruptive posters: those who have no clue they are ruining the Forum for others, and those who knowingly come here to do exactly that. Personally, I like the idea of letting the first group know how others are perceiving their posts and giving them a chance to learn some new behaviors. That process isn't much different from the socialization skills most of us learn on the playground, and others learn later in life. The second group who is here to willfully engage in pathologic behaviors which drive others away, and create problems for moderators, would not change and would disappear over time. Just as they should. I'm not talking about those who hold "unpopular views" but rather those who are shit-disturbers: disruptors, if you like. I think we all know the difference and my hope is for a system that collects that knowledge and uses it to make the Forum better for those who remain. Over the past few days, others have added better ideas. No doubt that process will continue. It's most heartening to me to hear @Guy Fawkes, @deej, and @Cooper express their desire to see the Politics Forum continue and their willingness to make it happen. But they need our help and it's good to see so many step forward to offer it.

You're more than welcome! I like this site, and appreciate all the work that you and the moderators do. If I can't help financially, hopefully I can contribute in other ways. If the coding for the "automated bans" is onerous, perhaps just a "disruptive post" button and counter - similar to the "like" system and perhaps copying that existing code - would work just as well. As long as posters know when they're being disruptive, and as long as management knows who's cocking up the site - so to speak - most of the benefits would still be there. You could look at the counter and decide who to boot, and when. I like the idea of rating posts, rather than posters. My hope is that, by letting posters know when they're being a pain in the ass, they'll be able to clean up their act. On the other hand, if their intention really is to disrupt the site, then it's better that they disappear instead of sending everyone else to the hills. Thanks again for all your efforts to keep such a valuable Forum going! http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.png

That's certainly my take on it. But I wasn't born being civil. It took many years of socialization to learn that there were some things I could do that would get me included in the groups I wanted to belong to, and some things that would get me excluded. I was lucky to have parents and other mentors in my life who helped me learn those lessons. My suggestion wasn't meant to cure all of society's ills, or to hasten Armageddon, but rather to put a form of modest rewards and penalties in place to help those few adult posters who have not yet learned what it means to be part of a healthy social group. And for those very few who are unable or unwilling to learn, we would be able to carry on without their disruptive participation and without the need for time-consuming and heavy-handed moderation. The "ignore" button, while useful for some, doesn't really encourage a disruptive poster to modify his behavior. While being sidelined for a period of time just might. And it puts the responsibility for change squarely on the shoulders of those who need to change, and not on the shoulders of those who wish they would. I'm not here to beat a dead horse. I've participated in many groups over the years and one thing that's always proved useful for me is to offer a solution or two, sit back while others find all the things that are wrong with it, and eventually see suggestions and improvements emerge. In his original post, @Guy Fawkes challenged us to find a solution to a problem that has troubled him and many others for years. Maybe we can find such a solution, and maybe we can't. But I'm planning to stick it out through the process of finding all the things that are impossible and hope that my fellow posters and I can get to some things that are possible. I have little doubt that better ideas will soon begin to flow.

So can you think of a way to harness the wisdom of our forefathers to prevent the loss of the Politics Forum? I'm by no means married to the idea I put out there. My hope is that you and others can make it better. Just sitting around and losing such a valuable Forum asset doesn't feel right. As I mentioned earlier, there are those who would like to see conformity, passivity and obedience become the norm. I'm definitely not there yet.

A few months ago, we had a practice run. Everyone in the area got a pre-announced phone call and was told to go immediately to the community center. The idea was to drive or walk the route and see if there was any backed-up traffic and where. It was voluntary and I estimate that 5% - 10% of the community showed up. When I arrived, there were a dozen or so information providers: firemen, neighborhood coordinators, literature and folks to talk to. I brought a pamphlet to hand out that explained the urgency of clearing brush, how to do it, and who could help. A couple months later, there was a real fire nearby that burned around a hundred acres and was contained within a day. A hundred folks were evacuated that evening, again using a phone call with instructions. A few residents drove around the narrow roads yelling for folks to evacuate. We learned later that that's a bad idea. When evacuees got to the community center, the Red Cross and Salvation army were there very quickly with food and a hundred cots. I went to a community meeting a few days later and one of the guys who was affected got tears in his eyes talking about what the evacuees experienced. And they were a small percentage of those caught in the Butte fire last week, and had no injuries or property loss. It seems practice runs are a good idea. My biggest problem is figuring out what few precious things I'd grab on the way out the door. Perhaps I'll start my list tonight. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

OK, I'll bite. I'll start by saying that, like @Stormy and many others, I find the Politics Forum to be a great source of ideas and insights. It's unlike most other political forums in that participants are drawn in as members of a non-political affinity group, with a wide range of political beliefs and understanding. There's information and points of view presented every day that would be hard for me to track down on my own. I'll add that, with the number of people in this country who would like nothing better than to shut down opposing views, it doesn't make sense to help them do it. In some cases, we're fighting for lives and I'm damned if I'm going to surrender without a fight. And, finally, I understand that @Guy Fawkes and other moderators don't want to spend their days dealing with antisocial behavior on a message board that matters a great deal to them and, hopefully, contributes to making a living. So I'll throw out a suggestion that may cover some of the bases, and it begins with a software feature that would allow signed in users to hit a "disruptive" button much as we're able to hit a "like" button. As with "likes", there's a running count for each poster and, when a threshold is reached, a poster is prevented from making further posts for a period of time. I'd start with three disruptive posts locks me out for a day, five locks me out for a week, ten locks me out for a month, and twenty-five locks me out for a year. You don't have to explain why you found a post disruptive, just that you did. The system would rely on "the wisdom of the crowd". Once the software is modified, site management can sit back and let it do its job. Just like IBM's Watson computer learned how to win at Jeopardy by making mistakes and learning from them, posters who want to keep posting would figure out what they did wrong and make sure they don't do it again. It's not much different from how most kids learn social norms on the playground. If they want somebody to play with, they'll learn how to get along and handle disagreements. Just as we do with "likes", I'd suggest showing the name of the user who flags a post as "disruptive" so we'll know if someone is abusing the feature and should likewise be timed out for a week or so. Anyhoo, that's one idea. I don't think we should give up the Politics Forum. We need it now more than ever. But it's also not fair to make management act in loco parentis. I'm sure there are better ideas and I think it's worth finding them. Thanks for the opportunity to chime in and help solve the problem. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/thumbsup.png

I smoked a pack or so a day, from age 17 to age 27, and quit three times during that period. The third time was the charm since, that time, I realized that even one cigarette would start the addiction all over again. It took six months to stop wanting a cigarette every day, and three years to stop wanting a cigarette at all. To keep myself going, I focused on the benefits of not being a smoker: (1) I didn't have to obsess over making sure I had cigarettes and a lighter everywhere I went, (2) food tasted different and better, (3) the air smelled better, (4) my clothes didn't stink, (5) I didn't have to keep emptying ashtrays, and (6) I had more money for other things. Thinking about these things every day really helped. I'm still grateful not to be a smoker. Chantix wasn't around then, but one trick that really helped was to fill my lungs with air every time I felt like a puff. I'd repeat that a dozen times if I had to, just like I was inhaling cigarette smoke, until the temporary urge abated. It always did. As you've already discovered, when you quit smoking, you'll enjoy food more and you'll probably gain weight. Don't worry about it. Enjoy yourself. It will be your "reward" for giving up something even less healthy. To offset the weight gain, start getting a little more exercise. You and your lungs will be healthier, so an extra half hour of walking every day will be easier for you than when you were smoking. Try to find some form of exercise, however modest, that you can do every day. After a while, your self image will most likely change from someone who worries about his health as a smoker to someone who sees himself as a healthier ex-smoker. Keep focussing on the benefits and freedom that provides. Anyhoo, that's my experience. I do think that there are different levels of nicotine addiction and quitting is much easier for some folks and much harder for others. I believe it has to do with brain receptors and, for better or worse, you've got the ones you've got. If you find you can't quit, at least not today, don't beat yourself up. The idea is to make yourself happier and healthier. If you're going to be a smoker, at least be a happy smoker.

Relationship, hell. These days I can't even get a mercy fuck unless the guy is blind drunk. http://www.boytoy.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

I'll take my cut in Snausages®