Test Equipment Anonymous (TEA) group therapy thread

[grizewald]

To truly melt your brain, I reckon this is probably the best choice:

Nah, it's made in Frog land and after they put mines on a protestor boat and killed 2 last century at Auckland port we boycott any of their products.....wars have started over less !

Not to worry sir, we can offer our own Absinthe, locally distilled, at the same mind melting strength:



Guaranteed to have your grey matter oozing out of your ears after a couple of glasses!

[Cerebus]

It is my understanding that a toddy however is another thing altogether. A hot toddy is usually some form of tea, coffee, or cider with additional alcohol, drunk after dinner or before bed to aid sleep, or to take the chill off a cold evening. But it doesn't have to be hot; just that it's something alcoholic you like the taste of. The point in general being that it is some alcoholic concoction you make just for you, like some dishes are "comfort food".

I'm certain C will be along to correct this assumption shortly... I am, after all, a wine/whiskey/liqueur heathen. 

mnem
 

Well the name toddy comes from Indian 'todi' and was appropriated by British colonists and brought back home. In England a hot toddy is spirits (usually whisky)  with honey, lemon and hot water, taken for a cold, or as a warming drink when coming in from the cold and wet. In India todi (or toddy) was a sweet drink made with sap from the coconut palm. I suspect that grandma-ji or ama-ji probably held a hot todi out as a cure for all ills (cf Jewish grandmothers and Chicken Soup) and that's how it started its journey to what the British know it as today. So, for pukka hot toddy you should probably use palm sugar, not honey.

Ferment todi and you get palm wine. Distil that and you get Arrak (which is Arabic/Persian for "paint stripper and tar remover for camel's hooves").

The preparation of todi is old enough that the trade leant itself to a surname - variously spelt Todiwala, Toddiwallah, or Toddywallah.

An aside on Wallahs: The -wallah ending is typically used to mean 'bloke whose job is the previous word' so a punkahwallah is a man whose job it is to standaround and fan his betters with a punkah fan. The Brits took that ending to themselves so you'd get charwallah (teaboy) and so on. People who served in Indian were want to use the word Wallah to just mean 'bloke' as slang when they got back to the UK. My father served in the British Army in Indian pre-WWII and used to say things like "He knows a wallah who can get them for 10/- each.".


Cyrus Todiwala OBE
A well-known chef

[TERRA Operative]

these "environmental activists" have glued themselves to the streets over here. Preventing EMTs to get critically ill patients into hospital.

As far as I am concerned, they are terrorists.

They've been doing the same thing here in Stockholm, gluing themselves to major highways just as the morning rush hour starts. Given the geography of the city, blocking any north-south passage during the morning rush hour causes follow on disruption that lasts until the afternoon.

I don't think they are winning much support from the public!

Kind of counter-productive to trap so many motorists idling fuel away into exhaust fumes.......

[Cerebus]

The environmental protesters are spot on in principle.  However they aren’t marketing experts. Deciding to glue yourself to shit is what tends to come from student union pub nights. It just makes you look like a bit of a wally.

Quite so. Now, if they started supergluing Jacob Rees-Mogg and friends to things they'd have the British public on side in no time at all. 

[grizewald]

Getting worse here.... now 01H30, and it's still 30°C outside, 29 inside.... can't sleep with that kind of temperature...

Forcast says should decrease to 23°C in the morning when the sun rises... though it says it will feel like 28°C, probably because of humidity.. .so not sure that will improve things at all....

Summer sucks !

And a cockroach just landed on my desk !! 

I feel for you Vince. We were in the same situation a couple of weeks ago. The temperature was up in the mid 30s during the day and my well insulated, solid brick apartment just soaks up the heat during the day to release it once the sun goes down (or rather, dips slightly below the horizon for an hour or two, as it does up here). The AC is far too noisy to use in the bedroom when you are trying to sleep, so you end up just lying on top of the bed, sweating.

Thankfully, I don't think we have cockroaches here in Sweden. I've never seen one here at least.

[mnementh]

Poor old George Soros, the poor lad can't have two shekels left to rub together if he's actually funded all the things people say he has.

That reminds me, my Illuminati membership is up for renewal next month, and I still haven't paid my subscription to the Trilateral commission.

Yes. I wish I had enough of a reputation to be blamed for stuff I’m not responsible for. I’m still at the phase of trying to cause enough problems to be recognised for anything!

The environmental protesters are spot on in principle.  However they aren’t marketing experts. Deciding to glue yourself to shit is what tends to come from student union pub nights. It just makes you look like a bit of a wally.

Simple enough... steal the DDOS Botnets you've been protecting your employer from and do something with them. 

mnem

[tautech]

After signing out last evening a toddy of vodka and dry was the plan and a few minutes in front of the goggle box before retiring however there was Callahan from '76 with his 44 Mag and not to watch it would've been plain rude.
So Monday nights are Dirty Harry nights for a few weeks here, ain't watched that stuff in years. 

The .44 Magnum. A truly insane cartridge. Having shot them from a genuine Dirty Harry S&W Model 29 revolver with the 8 inch barrel, I wouldn't think of using just one hand when firing it. The recoil is like stopping a train! It's quite easy to be accurate with it though, as long as you take single shots to allow some time to recover your senses before the next deafening explosion!

 

The contrast when shooting .45 ACP cartridges with the classic Colt M1911 pistol and its comparatively stubby 5 inch barrel couldn't be more striking. I could get good groupings at 25 metres standing with the Model 29. Hitting anything smaller than a barn door at 25 metres with the M1911 was a real challenge. Partly because of the short barrel, but also because despite the fact I'm right handed, I shoot left handed which means I end up dodging the cartridges as they get ejected from the side of the Colt and fly past dangerously close to my eye.

Yep 44 Mag is a beast and discovered that after a single shot some decades back.
A chap that regularly shot targets here was a firearms retailer and warned me to really hang onto his stainless Blackhawk when discharging the thing. Personally I wouldn’t give you tuppence for the thing as we have no need for such firepower in NZ.
His little Beretta 22 OTOH I’d gladly give a left nut for as it was very accurate and would cycle anything you fed it !
Trouble is, short arm ownership is heavily regulated here and even another buddy that has a fetish for 44 Mags and owns 7 won’t bring them here for fear of any repercussions that might impact on his license.

[grizewald]

Kind of counter-productive to trap so many motorists idling fuel away into exhaust fumes.......

Local ordinances make it illegal to sit with your engine idling for longer than two minutes, so everyone turns their engines off. In the summer heat, this makes being detained by the activists doubly frustrating for the motorists as they are then not only trapped but also unable to use their AC to escape the heat.

Like I said, the activists are not exactly getting the general public on their side with this kind of disruption. They really haven't thought it through very well, even if their cause is good.

[mnementh]

And a cockroach just landed on my desk !! 

Teach him how to solder and hold probes in tight places for you!!! 

mnem
or you could do that...   *hands you a paper towel*

[grizewald]

After signing out last evening a toddy of vodka and dry was the plan and a few minutes in front of the goggle box before retiring however there was Callahan from '76 with his 44 Mag and not to watch it would've been plain rude.
So Monday nights are Dirty Harry nights for a few weeks here, ain't watched that stuff in years. 

The .44 Magnum. A truly insane cartridge. Having shot them from a genuine Dirty Harry S&W Model 29 revolver with the 8 inch barrel, I wouldn't think of using just one hand when firing it. The recoil is like stopping a train! It's quite easy to be accurate with it though, as long as you take single shots to allow some time to recover your senses before the next deafening explosion!

 

The contrast when shooting .45 ACP cartridges with the classic Colt M1911 pistol and its comparatively stubby 5 inch barrel couldn't be more striking. I could get good groupings at 25 metres standing with the Model 29. Hitting anything smaller than a barn door at 25 metres with the M1911 was a real challenge. Partly because of the short barrel, but also because despite the fact I'm right handed, I shoot left handed which means I end up dodging the cartridges as they get ejected from the side of the Colt and fly past dangerously close to my eye.

Yep 44 Mag is a beast and discovered that after a single shot some decades back.
A chap that regularly shot targets here was a firearms retailer and warned me to really hang onto his stainless Blackhawk when discharging the thing. Personally I wouldn’t give you tuppence for the thing as we have no need for such firepower in NZ.
His little Beretta 22 OTOH I’d gladly give a left nut for as it was very accurate and would cycle anything you fed it !
Trouble is, short arm ownership is heavily regulated here and even another buddy that has a fetish for 44 Mags and owns 7 won’t bring them here for fear of any repercussions that might impact on his license.

My shooting experience is from when I still lived in the UK and as you probably know, the politicians effectively destroyed the gun hobby after the tragedy in Dunblane back in 1996.

[cyclin_al]

Last summer the hottest place on the planet was here, in BC(over 50°C, IIRC).
And this is the current situation:

Ummmm, does that not put you uncomfortably close to a forest fire?
I guess it is not so bad so long as you are upwind of it...

When things get that hot, things get dried out ... 

It was already dry when I traveled through that area back in 2000

EDIT:  Oops, sorry, should of paid attention; you are not in or around Lytton.  The moderating effect of the ocean must be nice!

[tautech]

Kind of counter-productive to trap so many motorists idling fuel away into exhaust fumes.......

Local ordinances make it illegal to sit with your engine idling for longer than two minutes, so everyone turns their engines off. In the summer heat, this makes being detained by the activists doubly frustrating for the motorists as they are then not only trapped but also unable to use their AC to escape the heat.

Like I said, the activists are not exactly getting the general public on their side with this kind of disruption. They really haven't thought it through very well, even if their cause is good.

Good cause ? 
Who on earth is that teenager that thinks she can scold adults ?
Until she puts some decades behind her she has no idea !

[Vince]

And a cockroach just landed on my desk !! 

Teach him how to solder and hold probes in tight places for you!!! 

mnem
or you could do that...   *hands you a paper towel*

Yes I opt for the second solution. No paper towel, but I have used old sticky notes that I recycle as cockroaches annihilators. I flattened the one I mentioned in my previous message. 2 minutes later another one landed on my forearm, I managed to get that one as well. 2 minutes later a third one again on my desk... but I failed to catch this one sadly * These buggers run SO FAST, can change direction so fast, and hide anywhere, under the computer case, under the printer, under the monitor stand, inside my wallet, under the keyboard, between paper documents, underneath my calculator, speakers....  it's difficult to get them ! 

It's the first time in my life that I see these bloody insects.... I guess that's what you get for living in the country side. I see them only during very hot summer nights, when I stay up late at night with the light on and all windows opened. Then I will se 2 or 3 per night. Drives me nuts.

I can cope with flies and mosquitos, but somehow these cock roaches, I find them disgusting, I can't stand seeing them... 

EDIT : finally managed to got that third bastard in the end, a second ago ! It was hiding under the K/B.... now it's flat and immobile, just like his 2 brothers.  I wonder if there is some chemical or other way to trap these bastards, so that I can attract them all in one place, so they don't run all around the house...
There are electrified UV lights to get the flies.. maybe there is something to get rid of cock roaches... I hate these things so much that I am willing to spend some time researching the subject on the web, and maybe even fork out a few dollars to buy whatever product or apparatus that might help me get rid of them...

[grizewald]

Kind of counter-productive to trap so many motorists idling fuel away into exhaust fumes.......

Local ordinances make it illegal to sit with your engine idling for longer than two minutes, so everyone turns their engines off. In the summer heat, this makes being detained by the activists doubly frustrating for the motorists as they are then not only trapped but also unable to use their AC to escape the heat.

Like I said, the activists are not exactly getting the general public on their side with this kind of disruption. They really haven't thought it through very well, even if their cause is good.

Good cause ? 
Who on earth is that teenager that thinks she can scold adults ?
Until she puts some decades behind her she has no idea !

Greta Thunberg? Poor kid. Someone else is pulling her strings there and callously using her as a marionette to capitalise on most people's natural reluctance to be as harsh with a 'concerned young girl' as they would be with anyone else. The fact that she also has Aspergers syndrome and a few other 'diagnoses' makes her something of a WMD to use against state representatives. Being seen to attack her message, her perceived convictions, or to otherwise cause her distress would be a career ending move for most figures in the public eye.

The road blocking protests in Stockholm are organised by a group campaigning to 'restore the wetlands', not just in Sweden, but worldwide. I don't believe Greta is being used in connection with these protests.

[vk6zgo]

The environmental protesters are spot on in principle.  However they aren’t marketing experts. Deciding to glue yourself to shit is what tends to come from student union pub nights. It just makes you look like a bit of a wally.

Quite so. Now, if they started supergluing Jacob Rees-Mogg and friends to things they'd have the British public on side in no time at all. 

You really don't like him at all, do you?

I don't know much about him, but the name itself does conjure up the image of "privileged twit!".
But then again, they are not uncommon in every country!

[grizewald]

Ah well, I notice it's close on 2:30 on the morning here, so it's probably best I get some sleep - even though I'm still on vacation.

It was fun chatting with everyone!

[tautech]

The road blocking protests in Stockholm are organised by a group campaigning to 'restore the wetlands', not just in Sweden, but worldwide. I don't believe Greta is being used in connection with these protests.

Another bunch of absolute muppets too, have they no idea wetlands emit significant quantities of Methane into the atmosphere ?
Wankers just seeking attention, most of them.

[TERRA Operative]

And a cockroach just landed on my desk !! 

Teach him how to solder and hold probes in tight places for you!!! 

mnem
or you could do that...   *hands you a paper towel*

Yes I opt for the second solution. No paper towel, but I have used old sticky notes that I recycle as cockroaches annihilators. I flattened the one I mentioned in my previous message. 2 minutes later another one landed on my forearm, I managed to get that one as well. 2 minutes later a third one again on my desk... but I failed to catch this one sadly * These buggers run SO FAST, can change direction so fast, and hide anywhere, under the computer case, under the printer, under the monitor stand, inside my wallet, under the keyboard, between paper documents, underneath my calculator, speakers....  it's difficult to get them ! 

It's the first time in my life that I see these bloody insects.... I guess that's what you get for living in the country side. I see them only during very hot summer nights, when I stay up late at night with the light on and all windows opened. Then I will se 2 or 3 per night. Drives me nuts.

I can cope with flies and mosquitos, but somehow these cock roaches, I find them disgusting, I can't stand seeing them... 

EDIT : finally managed to got that third bastard in the end, a second ago ! It was hiding under the K/B.... now it's flat and immobile, just like his 2 brothers.  I wonder if there is some chemical or other way to trap these bastards, so that I can attract them all in one place, so they don't run all around the house...
There are electrified UV lights to get the flies.. maybe there is something to get rid of cock roaches... I hate these things so much that I am willing to spend some time researching the subject on the web, and maybe even fork out a few dollars to buy whatever product or apparatus that might help me get rid of them...

If you see one cockroach, there are many more hiding in the walls....
You saw 3, time to go thermonuclear. You got a nest of them somewhere.........

[KG7AMV]

Some one slap me hard.. Relapse 7/2022

[Cerebus]

I don't know much about him, but the name itself does conjure up the image of "privileged twit!".
But then again, they are not uncommon in every country!

Wait 'til you hear how he talks, and your conjured image will be confirmed. Then listen to what he has to say and you'll realise just quite how out of touch with the world he is. He's the sort of person who, upon hearing that some single or widowed mother is concerned about looking after their children while they go out to work would says something like "Yes, it is hard getting a good nanny nowadays.". People who are being relatively polite about him refer to him as "The member of parliament for the 18th Century" because he conducts himself just as a typical parliamentarian of that century would, but without the charm or élan that would go with it.

[Vince]

And a cockroach just landed on my desk !! 

Teach him how to solder and hold probes in tight places for you!!! 

mnem
or you could do that...   *hands you a paper towel*

Yes I opt for the second solution. No paper towel, but I have used old sticky notes that I recycle as cockroaches annihilators. I flattened the one I mentioned in my previous message. 2 minutes later another one landed on my forearm, I managed to get that one as well. 2 minutes later a third one again on my desk... but I failed to catch this one sadly * These buggers run SO FAST, can change direction so fast, and hide anywhere, under the computer case, under the printer, under the monitor stand, inside my wallet, under the keyboard, between paper documents, underneath my calculator, speakers....  it's difficult to get them ! 

It's the first time in my life that I see these bloody insects.... I guess that's what you get for living in the country side. I see them only during very hot summer nights, when I stay up late at night with the light on and all windows opened. Then I will se 2 or 3 per night. Drives me nuts.

I can cope with flies and mosquitos, but somehow these cock roaches, I find them disgusting, I can't stand seeing them... 

EDIT : finally managed to got that third bastard in the end, a second ago ! It was hiding under the K/B.... now it's flat and immobile, just like his 2 brothers.  I wonder if there is some chemical or other way to trap these bastards, so that I can attract them all in one place, so they don't run all around the house...
There are electrified UV lights to get the flies.. maybe there is something to get rid of cock roaches... I hate these things so much that I am willing to spend some time researching the subject on the web, and maybe even fork out a few dollars to buy whatever product or apparatus that might help me get rid of them...

If you see one cockroach, there are many more hiding in the walls....
You saw 3, time to go thermonuclear. You got a nest of them somewhere.........

Oh boy 

It's a brand new house there are now holes in the walls that they could come out of but... I think I know where they come from. From outside, south wall, right by the wall at every start of spring I see lots of insects (nice ones, not cock roaches...) coming out of the ground, climbing up the south wall. It lasts for 3 days then the walls are clear again. There must be nests in the ground right by that wall. Sometimes even when the window is closed, I can see a cockroach on the in-side of the roller shutter, behind the window... so I think they come from outside from that window. Which would explain why always see them on my desk, because it is situated by that very window. I don't see them elsewhere in the house, even though it's a small house. When the windows are closed, I never see them inside. It's only when all windows are open, late at night and it's very hot, that I see a few of them.

[mnementh]

Diatomaceous earth and boric acid. You trim the grass short around the house, make a trail of the stuff in the dirt around the foundation and across thresholds; keep it close to the wall so it isn't just instantly washed away when it rains. If you have places like a porch, patio or driveway where there's a crack between the house and a big pad of concrete or asphalt, squirt it down in there. Avoid using this inside the house where it can get into your stuff; it's not lethal, but not good for people. You can squirt it into holes around pipes, under sinks, etc. Also a trail of the stuff around the inner walls of the garage.

Inside the living space, if you see any in the kitchen or closets, Advion gel just plain works. You put a dab in corners of cupboards and closets, and on the back (fixed end) of drawer slides; just keep it in areas you're not likely to touch but they're likely to travel. Roaches like to travel along the walls and along thing like drawer tracks; look on yoobToob for videos.

The diatomaceous earth is like tiny crystal knives in their joints; this causes them to bleed out. They'll track it back to the nest on their bodies along with the Boric acid. They'll try to get rid of the DE powder as it is irritating, and they'll eat the boric acid which attacks their digestive system, and when they die, the other roaches will eat the fallen and die as well.

These two powders are also pretty effective on ants.

In Tejas, the battle is neverending. Their lease on the land predates ours by millions of years and they know it. We're just an obstacle and a food source to them...

mnem
"...and they'll still be around when men are fairy tales in books written by rabbits." Schmendrick the Mage - sortof.

[Cerebus]

No, no, no, no. The recipe is diatomaceous earth and nitroglycerine.

Oh, hold on. No, that's for something else...

[mnementh]

From my other favorite timesink...



mnem
*toddles off to the train station*

[Zoli]

Last summer the hottest place on the planet was here, in BC(over 50°C, IIRC).
And this is the current situation:

Ummmm, does that not put you uncomfortably close to a forest fire?
I guess it is not so bad so long as you are upwind of it...

When things get that hot, things get dried out ... 

It was already dry when I traveled through that area back in 2000

EDIT:  Oops, sorry, should of paid attention; you are not in or around Lytton.  The moderating effect of the ocean must be nice!

Last year we had the heat dome, that's caused the Lytton heat record; and before the heat dome, in May/June, wildfires like in the previous years. Practically, in June we didn't see blue sky(only smoke) for the past four years, but looks like this year we've get a break(sent down the heat dome to the states ); so far only two days over 30°C. There's almost no moderating effect from the ocean, thanks to Vancouver island.