Some of us are fiscally responsible adults, some not so much. Did you recently make an impulse buy? Post it here. We won’t judge (maybe we’ll snicker a bit).
@RiotDemon I would love a dragon based table. They had cool stuff like that at the Renaissance Fair I went to but I couldn’t even afford a stuffed dragon there.
@sammydog01 yeah, they sure love to sell expensive stuff there. About 40% of the stuff sold at mine, I can find online for cheaper. The handmade stuff is way pricy there.
I looked up your table. I found an auction, and another eBay listing. Both sold for over $70.
@OldCatLady if you have a smartphone (Android for sure, iOS uncertain) you can get the Google Translate app and use its camera feature to read the characters and translate them on the fly.
@baqui63 Thank you and your helpful friend very much indeed. Google says it means happiness is coming. Whew. I just went out and admired them again. They still delight me.
@OldCatLady Apparently, dragons are frequently depicted with a great flaming pearl and the image of two or more dragons vying for a great pearl is not uncommon. See in particular the fourth paragraph of this. There is also a Double Dragon video game series and I found several other references.
Regardless of its intended meaning, if any, you found something beautiful and got a great price on it.
I was at Cracker Barrel and I saw this little neon orange haunted mansion that said it was a magic trick with figurines inside.
There wasn’t a price on it.
I bought a few other things with it so I didn’t notice the price, and I didn’t ask.
It turned out to be $9.99 for two figurines that were painted like shit. The magic trick is if you pushed the bottom a certain way, you could make the stuff inside hide.
I should of skipped it and bought a little ceramic house at the dollar tree.
@sammydog01 Ask if your local shelter or other donation center can use them.
A friend works at a food bank that has a room of household goods and clothing. They give the stuff to patrons that can use them. Decorations are popular because it is a luxury that many people can not afford. I had never thought about it until we were talking about some other items I wanted to donate.
Note to self, get those boxes to the car and drop them off.
@RiotDemon I have a 6’ skeleton grave rubbing I made years ago when I lived in the UK. Gray wax crayon on black acid free paper. I was planning to ebay it near Halloween (been rolled up all these years and never used). Gotta find it again in the storage unit (saw it recently and then moved it to a “safer” spot - so much safer I don’t know where it is at the moment). If you have any interest email me at my user name the usual yahoo.
@f00l I think what I have are misters- it’s a little box you put in water, plug it in, and it makes a fine mist. Foggers use fog juice which I think is propylene glycol. Mine was a few dollars at the grocery store in November. They are cool.
@RiotDemon there’s a little occasional table at our local Cracker Barrel that I really want but I’m not willing to pay over $100 for. I’m waiting for them to put it on half price or sell it to some sucker that’s willing to pay that much for it.
@RiotDemon It’s the one thing I always put out but they are pretty inexpensive if you can find one that doesn’t come with a pot. Mine came from Kroger.
@sammydog01 I own 3 foggers. By far the most amazing halloween things I own. I built a fog cooler out of a garbage can for my largest one. I have one of the crap $100 ones too that works just fine for some fun effects. After last halloween I bought a commercial grade $900 one off CL for $35 because it was “Broken”. $115 in parts later and it’s running. I’m excited to get it out here soon and fog up my neighborhood.
@Bogie you’re sharing your Facebook with everyone. Here’s just the photo if you want them to delete the other link:
Fog looks awesome! I do my haunting at a friend’s house and I keep trying to get him to do the garbage can cooler, and then he never does. Every year he complains about the fog not sticking. It’s hot here, you need to get the fog cold.
@RiotDemon <sigh> I never get the whole image share via facebook thing. Thanks for letting me know. Maybe @thumperchick can help me out and edit out my original link
@sammydog01 In 1991, I was a little liquored up and after the sun had set, bought a brand new yellow Subaru Justy off the lot. Boy was that car a BRIGHT YELLOW the next morning in the daylight!
It was a pretty good little urban car. It wasn’t very stealthy though. Price: about 39 elephant tables.
@therealjrn That sounds more plausible only because it’s hard to think a much newer Subaru Justy could cost less than a Subaru 360 when it came out in the late 60’s.
@Thumperchick For a long time, my impulse buys were “fat quarters.” I have a rather sizeable box stuffed in my closet for whenever the urge to quilt again hits. It’s been in there for 14 years. Kinda have the feeling that urge isn’t going to hit anytime soon especially since they’ve started making the eyes of quilting needles so darned hard to see.
I bought (for my kid) one of those bouncy ball with a handle things kids can sit and bounce on from a garage sale today. It was a little flat, but they assured me it could be pumped-up to full size…we’ll see…
@cranky1950 Did you get the 610? I was eyeballing those last week. I have a cartoonist who works exclusively in pen/pencil and we have to scan everything which requires production manpower cleaning up the scans. I was considering this as an option to switch him to digital.
Oh, wait, that’s the one with the integrated display, innit. Beyond my budget for something that’s really just an experiment.
@ruouttaurmind This is a huion gt-190 it’s a 19" and cost $350. So far it’s been good, but it’s not a Wacom. Doing it over I’d spend the $100 more and get the 22" monitor. However this is a shot in the dark and it may never pay for itself. Usually I use IsoDraw on the job, but the last couple of times I ended up tracing photos. I work mostly B&W low/med res so it’s fine for what I do.
@sammydog01 We got those too but they all went out as Christmas presents during the great monkey years. Several years where my siblings had the videocamera running when they opened the box from their kids’ monkey uncle…
@duodec I get them from time to time. Often it’s for all eBayers, but occasionally it’s a targeted offer. Check your My eBay communication preferences:
Go to My eBay, click on the Account tab towards the top of the screen. On the left side, towards the top is the My eBay Views section with a Communication Preferences option. Click on that and scroll towards the bottom to find “Promotions and Surveys”. You can opt-in for special buyer and seller offers like discount codes, seller promos and special eBay Bucks offers.
Often eBay Motors items are excluded, but this time it was not. Unfortunately the offer had a max value of $100, but the kit was priced lower than I’ve found it elsewhere, and the $100 Bucks credit will go a long way toward the shotgun scoop I’ll need to properly top off those carburetors.
Wow, thats a lot of visible engine. I’m really an aficionado of the sleeper; looks like a mom-car even when all you can see are the taillights vanishing into the distance. But the monster engined cars sure are fun to watch!
@ruouttaurmind Beautiful. Believe me, just because that kind of car is ‘not for me’ doesn’t mean I don’t like them. I love watching those on cruises and at shows. And I love the amazing customization and detailing, though they’d be mostly out of place on a sleeper.
Back when i was looking for my first car I narrowed in on four of them before fortuitously finding the Challenger. One of them was a T-bucket roadster with a Ford small-block; it sold while I was deciding if I could handle the risk (of both keeping a very custom car running as a daily driver, and, well, it was a Ford…). Who knows how things would differ if I had bought it (other than getting more walking time )
just because that kind of car is ‘not for me’ doesn’t mean I don’t like them
I totally get that. For example, as much as I admire and appreciate the supercars (Ferrari, Lambo, Bugatti, etc) I would not choose to own one.
I’ve rebuilt and refurbished about a dozen classic cars, including a couple of Chevelles, a '72 Cutlass convertible, a Mustang, even a '76 Eldo convertible. But building the hot rods… it’s an entirely different experience. Driving down the road in a vehicle I conceived, designed and built from the bare garage floor on up… for me it’s like an artist with a bare canvas. They don’t always turn out to be Water Lillies or Mona Lisa. In fact, my first one was more like a Diego Rivera than a Rembrandt. But they all contain a piece of me… <sigh> Waxing existential about hot rods… now you will all think I’m batty.
@ruouttaurmind Bring it! Hot rods and resto cars are fun! I’m in awe of your accomplishments. But I’m not that creative or ambitious; I want my Challenger back on the road with a premium restification, updated parts where useful (brake for certain, steering/suspension very likely, engine and fuel system TBD but likely). Its going to look pretty stock on the outside. I even plan on keeping the chrome body-side moldings (chrome with a black rubber bump strip, this was a ‘secretary car’ not an R/T) . So it’ll have a ‘part of me’ but it won’t be the design; it will be the choices, the synthesis that results, and of course the inevitable blood sacrifices.
I parked the Challenger almost 30 years ago but life and loss of the places I could work on it lead to years of storage with little work done beyond stripping the interior and some of the body parts that are not readily repairable. There’s still little room to work on it, and little time due to work and family issues over the years. But I still have it, and my pile of parts.
So it sits, I collect more parts and info and the occasional special tool I’ll need; my one car restore is going to be my retirement project. But I still eagerly anticipate getting my first car back on the road.
@duodec My first car was a 1970 Camaro with a 250ci straight 6 and a 2-speed PowerGlide transmission. My first car was also my first project (at 18 y.o.). I ripped out the original engine/trans and replaced it with a 454ci big block and Turbo 400 trans I picked from an old Caprice Classic I found in a wrecking yard.
I had no idea what I was doing, and the project was a train wreck! I figured “how hard can it be?”, expecting mostly a direct bolt-in engine swap. HA! The foolishness of youth.
I wish I still had that car now that I have some vague idea what I’m doing.
@ruouttaurmind There’s just something special about your first car, especially if you worked and saved and bought it yourself. More so if it turned out you absolutely loved it. When I was still driving it, the Challenger was not all that unusual or unique, just another 10-16 year old ‘muscle’ car being driven around my home town. But I felt it was special, and when I was in it, damn, what a feeling. Even though it was just a 2bbl 318 V8, it had dual exhaust with Walker Blue-streak glasspacks, the slap-stik shifter, and it sounded like a million bucks. I just didn’t have the money to start building it up, and once I did, I lost the space to work on it.
But I’m glad I kept it. There were times when the pressure to let it go was pretty heavy. Like winter, when my wife’s car was parked in the driveway… I admit I felt guilty about that.
I bought 2 chocolate chip cookies at Panera on my way home tonight. Dinner. I’m pretty sure they are 5 million calories each, or something close to that.
@heartny If there is chocolate in them you subtract all calories derived from the chocolate from the calories derived from the rest of the cookie. That is the “rules”. Thus you are good.
Encyclopedia Britannica, the actual physical set with the leather-like covers. I always wanted a set when I was a kid but we could not afford them. It was a twelve block walk to the library for me.
So, when I started working, I easily fell for the salesman’s pitch and locked myself into three years of payments. I used them exactly no times. They looked pretty on the bookshelves for a few years though. Now they are in bins in the basement somewhere.
@ponagathos That is a great example! Pre-internet days…the pitch telling you can self-study a college education…the big fold-out picture thing they make you hold the bottom of…very compelling! I was so…so close to doing it.
@ponagathos I have those! Love the feel of them, read them quite a bit before PCs. My puppy had a hunger for knowledge and ate volume 8. They are still displayed, even the chewed one. Sadly, they’re worth nothing any more.
I was in Dollar Tree today picking up some things I needed for an art project. There was a dog toy abandoned in the aisle I was shopping in, and I thought “this is just the kind of toy that Tempest likes. It even has a funny ear like she does.” After I got home I realized, “stupid, you have two dogs.” They have plenty of squeaky toys which is what Zephyr likes but did I get one? No. Now that new toy has to wait in the closet for me to get Zephyr one.
@moondrake My monster Zoe has like 8 tennis balls but there is one in particular she favors, and she won’t go to bed without it. More than once she’s kept me awake with her frantic search for the ball. Eventually I get up and help her find it so I can get some sleep.
@ruouttaurmind Nah, just couldn’t resist it at Wal-Mart for all the potential fun.
The best so far was putting it on and walking in the house and getting reactions from the dogs. First they were all excited “Dad’s home!” But quickly that turned into “wtf!!!”
Don’t knock Five Below. I usually bought ballistic glass phone protectors on amazon. I was in 5 Below and needed protector quick and saw that they had some. Needless to say I wasn’t expecting much for $5. To my surprise this glass protector went on in seconds, any bubbles pushed out easily, and it looks great. The only problem is they carry mostly apple ones but just happened to have a Galaxy 6 one. Try one if you need a protector. You may be surprised.
@mfladd OMG, Amazon is always selling oil diffusers – they show up constantly on the deals page and the giveaways – and I’ve been wondering who wants them. Now I know!
Wound up with 6 copies of a magazine no one has heard of because there was a picture of my wife and I in it. Totally unknown to us until a total random stranger told us. No idea what we would do with 6 copies, but that’s all Barns and Noble had on hand.
@2many2no you just made me so hungry sitting here in the waiting room at the doctor’s too scared to eat breakfast because they didn’t give me clear indications of their expectations leading into an early Monday AM appointment
Needed a quick replacement for the rattan (resin) patio furniture that finally gave up all will to survive our Florida weather. Found this for $388 a week ago and it’s already dropped a few dollars more. It’ll be under our pergola so not subjected to downpours & lots of sun. Seating for 6 and a fire pit/cocktail table for under $400 and delivered to our door fit the bill for us.
Also, on a woot side note. I never new the woot map populates by shipped to state, not the purchasing state. I sent the dutch oven to my sister in CT and that is the state which highlighted, not MD.
I was at Goodwill and found a Tweety bubble night light! I was so jealous of everyone that got one in a fuko but now I have one of my own! And it only needs a little glue. I may sneak it into the fuko I just bought if it’s extra crappy.
@sammydog01 You win. I was at GW and for some reason I bought this. It weighs a ton and i have no idea what to do with it. It might be a magazine stand but what the heck is the upsticker on the bottom?
@sammydog01 A friend with decades of experience selling vintage and secondhand merchandise says it’s a fireplace accessory, a basket for holding small logs. Several similar are on Ebay. Several more are misidentified as magazine racks. I don’t have a fireplace, but I have a brass peacock firescreen, a copper and brass coal shuttle, and a (1940s) wooden mantle and surround in need of refinishing.
@RiotDemon For every “hit”, I’ve had tons of misses. Most of the Goodwill stores here have between 500 to 1500 t-shirts each. 6 different stores in a two week span can still yield zero “good” shirts.
I am up to three of these now, however!
The third one was an impulse buy at $1. On Thursdays, Goodwill puts the color of the week at $1 for anything. It doesn’t matter if was originally $1 or $100; it’s selling for $1.
(They change colors on Saturdays, so by blowing out the oldest stuff on the Thursday, the workers have much less to cleanup.)
@RiotDemon The greater LA metropolitan area is home to 13+ million people, so there’s a lot of stuff. The GDP here alone is also greater than 47 states.
The Goodwill stores have a full turnover at 5-6 weeks, which is longer than some other thrift stores. A couple Christian stores I frequent along with a local Veteran’s store (operated by a for-profit entity. :() has a 4 week turnover. A couple that I frequent much less (as they’re further away) has a 10-day turnover.
@jbartus Timing. Sometimes luck. But mostly timing, in that I happen to be at the right store at the right time.
@narfcake you seem to have it down to a science too. How do you learn their schedules and such to arrange to be there when new inventory is put out? I assume that’s what you’re referring to with the term ‘turnover’?
Google Home here on meh. Still trying to figure a way to make it useful without taking out a second mortgage. Looks like some smart surge protectors for the lamps might be a good start, but if they are wifi reliant I probably also need to buy a signal booster.
@cranky1950 CZ-52. I bought some years ago when SOG used to do their three-fers. I still haven’t fired them. I initially wanted to convert them from 7.62 Tok to 9x19, but lost my motivaiton. So now they just lay in the safe waiting for… whatever. For the zombies to come?
Probably the best commie purchase I made was the .380 converted Makarovs back when CAI was importing them like candy. $89. Nice shooter.
@medz I put one of these Pierce grips on my 9x18 Mak. Quite comfortable, and fits the Mak and my hand quite well. It’s a bit bulky for CC, but great for a range shooter.
@ruouttaurmind the issue was more the part just under the hammer would kick up/back and get you right where your thumb connects to the hand. that little sharp point on the back was like a axe coming down on my tender thumb webbing with every shot. Maybe it just didn’t fit our hands very well.
He considered some extended grips that would wrap over the top of the hand more, but he ultimately traded it in.
I accidentally bought a watch on eBay. I submitted a lowball offer… just on a whim. I never expected the seller to accept. I guess early birthday gift to myself?
@mfladd 30% less than ask. The original ask was the lowest listed on eBay for the same model (in various color combinations) with the solid link stainless bracelet. This model, but with the rubber strap instead of stainless bracelet, usually sells for about what the seller was originally asking for this one. So I didn’t expect my offer to fly. But apparently the seller was motivated to shift stock. So… an unexpected, but welcomed addition to my collection.
I bought a new Oculus Rift headset yesterday. My Crescent Bay prototype got software outmoded so I needed one if I wanted to make use of the Oculus Touch controllers I’d preordered before it was outmoded. I was shopping for a housewarming gift for my brother and a Rift came up on the homepage for whatever reason and I just added it to the cart.
@jbartus I just realize I lied. It wasn’t while shopping for the housewarming gift, it was because I wanted a wireless receiver for my Xbox One controller to use it with my PC. Since I planned to get a Rift eventually and knew it had one bundled I didn’t want to end up with two. So I ordered the Rift.
I went to the thrift shop to look at CDs. I didn’t need a table. I didn’t have anywhere to put a table. I bought a table.
Price: 15 pounds of candy corn. (Meh price, not Amazon- I’m not that irresponsible.)
@sammydog01 It’s, um… cute?
@sammydog01 Wherever you move around the room, do the elephant’s eyes follow you? I think that is a great table!
@sammydog01 I’ve been looking at one of those forever of a dragon.
/image glass topped winged grey dragon table
@sammydog01 Score! You always need things that make you laugh. Just imagine her draped in flashing lights at Christmas.
@OldCatLady Someone tried to buy her while I was bringing the car around. Suck it, lady, she’s mine,
@Barney That isn’t the word my husband used.
@RiotDemon I would love a dragon based table. They had cool stuff like that at the Renaissance Fair I went to but I couldn’t even afford a stuffed dragon there.
@therealjrn Yes, but she looks happy. If I ever get the feeling she wants to kill me she’s back to the thrift store.
@sammydog01 Keep going to thrift stores. This week GW provided this, for $10. It’s 33" x 21". I wish I knew what the characters say.
@sammydog01 yeah, they sure love to sell expensive stuff there. About 40% of the stuff sold at mine, I can find online for cheaper. The handmade stuff is way pricy there.
I looked up your table. I found an auction, and another eBay listing. Both sold for over $70.
@OldCatLady wtf. My goodwill sells artwork that big for a minimum of $30.
@OldCatLady That is beautiful!
@OldCatLady if you have a smartphone (Android for sure, iOS uncertain) you can get the Google Translate app and use its camera feature to read the characters and translate them on the fly.
@jbartus I did. It doesn’t like them. I tried them laterally and vertically. Next I’ll try erasing the background.
@OldCatLady Maybe they’re made up?
@sammydog01 We need to talk about the elephant in the room.
@OldCatLady Hi. I asked a friend about this, sending him a link to the picture. His reply:
The four words, going from left to right, translates to: “double dragon playing ball” LOL
(Also, @jbartus, @riotdemon, @sammydog01 and @pantheist.)
@baqui63 that’s hilarious, how literal!
@baqui63 Thank you and your helpful friend very much indeed. Google says it means happiness is coming. Whew. I just went out and admired them again. They still delight me.
@OldCatLady Apparently, dragons are frequently depicted with a great flaming pearl and the image of two or more dragons vying for a great pearl is not uncommon. See in particular the fourth paragraph of this. There is also a Double Dragon video game series and I found several other references.
Regardless of its intended meaning, if any, you found something beautiful and got a great price on it.
I was at Cracker Barrel and I saw this little neon orange haunted mansion that said it was a magic trick with figurines inside.
There wasn’t a price on it.
I bought a few other things with it so I didn’t notice the price, and I didn’t ask.
It turned out to be $9.99 for two figurines that were painted like shit. The magic trick is if you pushed the bottom a certain way, you could make the stuff inside hide.
I should of skipped it and bought a little ceramic house at the dollar tree.
The house is cute, but not worth $10.
@RiotDemon I have piles of Halloween stuff I need to toss because they were on sale.
/giphy sigh
@sammydog01 Sell it to @mfladd, he’s looking.
@sammydog01 got anything cool? I love Halloween stuff. I got excited the other day because I saw posters for a Halloween store opening up soon.
@RiotDemon mostly junk although I’m a big fan of foggers.
@sammydog01 Ask if your local shelter or other donation center can use them.
A friend works at a food bank that has a room of household goods and clothing. They give the stuff to patrons that can use them. Decorations are popular because it is a luxury that many people can not afford. I had never thought about it until we were talking about some other items I wanted to donate.
Note to self, get those boxes to the car and drop them off.
@RiotDemon I have a 6’ skeleton grave rubbing I made years ago when I lived in the UK. Gray wax crayon on black acid free paper. I was planning to ebay it near Halloween (been rolled up all these years and never used). Gotta find it again in the storage unit (saw it recently and then moved it to a “safer” spot - so much safer I don’t know where it is at the moment). If you have any interest email me at my user name the usual yahoo.
@sammydog01 I love foggers. Probably a bit too expensive for shipping though.
@Kidsandliz email sent.
@RiotDemon
What is a fogger?
@f00l I think what I have are misters- it’s a little box you put in water, plug it in, and it makes a fine mist. Foggers use fog juice which I think is propylene glycol. Mine was a few dollars at the grocery store in November. They are cool.
@sammydog01 Mine is like this- you can put them in anything that holds water.
@RiotDemon I used these foggers one time for the kiddos Halloween party. They really settled those sugar-hyped goblins down!
@sammydog01 those misters… If you’ve got extra, I might be willing to buy them off you.
@RiotDemon there’s a little occasional table at our local Cracker Barrel that I really want but I’m not willing to pay over $100 for. I’m waiting for them to put it on half price or sell it to some sucker that’s willing to pay that much for it.
@RiotDemon It’s the one thing I always put out but they are pretty inexpensive if you can find one that doesn’t come with a pot. Mine came from Kroger.
@therealjrn
/giphy you’re doing this wrong
@sammydog01 I own 3 foggers. By far the most amazing halloween things I own. I built a fog cooler out of a garbage can for my largest one. I have one of the crap $100 ones too that works just fine for some fun effects. After last halloween I bought a commercial grade $900 one off CL for $35 because it was “Broken”. $115 in parts later and it’s running. I’m excited to get it out here soon and fog up my neighborhood.
Let’s see if this work: {See below for photo}
@Bogie So cool! I love the fog blanket.
@Bogie you’re sharing your Facebook with everyone. Here’s just the photo if you want them to delete the other link:
Fog looks awesome! I do my haunting at a friend’s house and I keep trying to get him to do the garbage can cooler, and then he never does. Every year he complains about the fog not sticking. It’s hot here, you need to get the fog cold.
@RiotDemon <sigh> I never get the whole image share via facebook thing. Thanks for letting me know. Maybe @thumperchick can help me out and edit out my original link
@RiotDemon Us? Stalkers?
@sammydog01
<.<
No idea what you’re talking about.
@Bogie done.
Sigh
I supposed this means that I’m mentally a toddler, right?
@f00l I bought some Turkish Taffy not too long ago and it just wasn’t the same. -sigh-
@Barney Turkish Taffy is way better then Laffy Taffy. You get points for taste.
@sammydog01
@Barney
I almost started my criminal career at age 3-4 or so. I loved Laffy Taffy.
My sweet kind protective older brother kept trying to talk me into shoplifting it from the local 7-11.
I never had the nerve. Too scared.
The manager was watching and grinning the whole time. My Mom was watching too, almost out of sight. I didn’t get the significance of that until later.
Turkish Taffy has no similar memories to bring back for me.
Laffy Taffy it is.
/giphy "smooth criminal"
@f00l I never “lifted” anything. Never tried. I knew I would get caught.
@Barney the first thing I lifted was a pickle
from the deli at sullys just put it in my front pocket of my fighting irish starter jacket lol
@ragingredd So it wasn’t your last?
@f00l just proves yer a bit Daffy.
@UncleVinny
Yeah kinda.
@sammydog01 In 1991, I was a little liquored up and after the sun had set, bought a brand new yellow Subaru Justy off the lot. Boy was that car a BRIGHT YELLOW the next morning in the daylight!
It was a pretty good little urban car. It wasn’t very stealthy though. Price: about 39 elephant tables.
@therealjrn If 7 pounds of candy corn is $12, and @sammydog01’s table was 15 pounds of candy corn, she paid about $25.
39 * $25 = $975.
@narfcake
Woah. Deal.
@narfcake oops, my conversion math was wrong. How about 292 elephant tables?
@therealjrn I bet it was easy to find at the mall.
@sammydog01 lol, yes indeed.
@therealjrn That sounds more plausible only because it’s hard to think a much newer Subaru Justy could cost less than a Subaru 360 when it came out in the late 60’s.
More about the Justy’s great grandparent, the
submicro compact 360.http://oppositelock.kinja.com/subaru-360-the-oppositelock-review-1681936934
@narfcake But it had a nice face, and a good smile.
@OldCatLady And tiny.
About 20 years after that, Malcolm Bricklin’s was at it again, albeit importing a larger vehicle than the 360.
/image the Yugo.
@narfcake is it bad that I want one?
@jbartus The 360 is like small enough to hug.
Cinderella Liberty Vintage 1973 Pressbook with James Caan, Marsha Mason, Eli Wallach Directed by Mark Rydell
About $10
@f00l Nice!
What’s that?
/giphy "fiscally responsible adults"
/image teeturtle purple octopus mini
@narfcake
Shit you reminded me.
Must get.
@f00l Sorry!
https://www.teeturtle.com/products/reversible-octopus-mini-wave-2
Allan Sherman’s, My Son the Nut, CD. Please don’t laugh at me for buying it (or a CD).
/image Allan Sherman My Son the Nut
Price: One elephant leg.
@Barney
/giphy "cruel laughter"
@f00l Meanie.
@Barney
/giphy "purple meanie"
@f00l
/giphy very strange giphy
@Barney I buy cds as well… I rip them into my lossless library, upload to to my lossy library, and still have the physical cd as a backup.
My house is full of impulse buys. Most recent are either clothes for the toddler, or fabric to make clothes for the toddler.
@Thumperchick Hi, @puppycat!
@Thumperchick For a long time, my impulse buys were “fat quarters.” I have a rather sizeable box stuffed in my closet for whenever the urge to quilt again hits. It’s been in there for 14 years. Kinda have the feeling that urge isn’t going to hit anytime soon especially since they’ve started making the eyes of quilting needles so darned hard to see.
I bought (for my kid) one of those bouncy ball with a handle things kids can sit and bounce on from a garage sale today. It was a little flat, but they assured me it could be pumped-up to full size…we’ll see…
@medz That was a very nice impulse buy. I hope it works for your kidlet.
@Barney I was able to inflate it. Some Clorox wipes and it was all good. Kidlet was pretty excited.
@medz Yeah my kidlet loved one of those when she was young.
@medz Happy kidlet means happy Mommy and Daddy.
5 minutes ago.
https://tools.woot.com/offers/bliss-deluxe-xl-gravity-free-recliner-5
@mfladd
/giphy gravity free
This thing
@cranky1950 Did you get the 610? I was eyeballing those last week. I have a cartoonist who works exclusively in pen/pencil and we have to scan everything which requires production manpower cleaning up the scans. I was considering this as an option to switch him to digital.
Oh, wait, that’s the one with the integrated display, innit. Beyond my budget for something that’s really just an experiment.
@ruouttaurmind This is a huion gt-190 it’s a 19" and cost $350. So far it’s been good, but it’s not a Wacom. Doing it over I’d spend the $100 more and get the 22" monitor. However this is a shot in the dark and it may never pay for itself. Usually I use IsoDraw on the job, but the last couple of times I ended up tracing photos. I work mostly B&W low/med res so it’s fine for what I do.
I used to buy max quantity of every woot screaming monkey that was offered. It was impulse, but it provided some screaming fun Christmas present years
@duodec I bought three monkey slankets. I get it.
@sammydog01 Yep, those monkey slankets are pretty special.
@sammydog01 We got those too but they all went out as Christmas presents during the great monkey years. Several years where my siblings had the videocamera running when they opened the box from their kids’ monkey uncle…
I got suckered by eBay’s 10% eBay Bucks offer today.
<sigh>
@ruouttaurmind whats it going on?
I’ve been on ebay for 19 years but they’ve never sent me the ebay bucks invite. Maybe just as well.
@duodec I get them from time to time. Often it’s for all eBayers, but occasionally it’s a targeted offer. Check your My eBay communication preferences:
Go to My eBay, click on the Account tab towards the top of the screen. On the left side, towards the top is the My eBay Views section with a Communication Preferences option. Click on that and scroll towards the bottom to find “Promotions and Surveys”. You can opt-in for special buyer and seller offers like discount codes, seller promos and special eBay Bucks offers.
Often eBay Motors items are excluded, but this time it was not. Unfortunately the offer had a max value of $100, but the kit was priced lower than I’ve found it elsewhere, and the $100 Bucks credit will go a long way toward the shotgun scoop I’ll need to properly top off those carburetors.
@ruouttaurmind Sweet!
@ruouttaurmind Thanks, I will check
Wow, thats a lot of visible engine. I’m really an aficionado of the sleeper; looks like a mom-car even when all you can see are the taillights vanishing into the distance. But the monster engined cars sure are fun to watch!
@duodec A bit of a challenge for this to be a sleeper.
Similar to this one, except a little less @Barney in color. Bright yellow actually, with wide whitewalls.
Very similar to this, actually:
@ruouttaurmind That’s pretty cool, but you no like purple?
@Barney Purple is cool! I just prefer yellow on a hot rod.
@ruouttaurmind Speeding ticket yellow?
@Barney Something tells me I won’t be avoiding much attention in that car regardless of it’s color.
@Barney I never ever got a speeding ticket in my Justy.
@therealjrn That’s probably because you were pushing it everywhere you went.
@Barney
@ruouttaurmind Beautiful. Believe me, just because that kind of car is ‘not for me’ doesn’t mean I don’t like them. I love watching those on cruises and at shows. And I love the amazing customization and detailing, though they’d be mostly out of place on a sleeper.
Back when i was looking for my first car I narrowed in on four of them before fortuitously finding the Challenger. One of them was a T-bucket roadster with a Ford small-block; it sold while I was deciding if I could handle the risk (of both keeping a very custom car running as a daily driver, and, well, it was a Ford…). Who knows how things would differ if I had bought it (other than getting more walking time
)
Sweet!
@duodec
I totally get that. For example, as much as I admire and appreciate the supercars (Ferrari, Lambo, Bugatti, etc) I would not choose to own one.
I’ve rebuilt and refurbished about a dozen classic cars, including a couple of Chevelles, a '72 Cutlass convertible, a Mustang, even a '76 Eldo convertible. But building the hot rods… it’s an entirely different experience. Driving down the road in a vehicle I conceived, designed and built from the bare garage floor on up… for me it’s like an artist with a bare canvas. They don’t always turn out to be Water Lillies or Mona Lisa. In fact, my first one was more like a Diego Rivera than a Rembrandt. But they all contain a piece of me… <sigh> Waxing existential about hot rods… now you will all think I’m batty.
@ruouttaurmind Bring it! Hot rods and resto cars are fun! I’m in awe of your accomplishments. But I’m not that creative or ambitious; I want my Challenger back on the road with a premium restification, updated parts where useful (brake for certain, steering/suspension very likely, engine and fuel system TBD but likely). Its going to look pretty stock on the outside. I even plan on keeping the chrome body-side moldings (chrome with a black rubber bump strip, this was a ‘secretary car’ not an R/T) . So it’ll have a ‘part of me’ but it won’t be the design; it will be the choices, the synthesis that results, and of course the inevitable blood sacrifices.
I parked the Challenger almost 30 years ago but life and loss of the places I could work on it lead to years of storage with little work done beyond stripping the interior and some of the body parts that are not readily repairable. There’s still little room to work on it, and little time due to work and family issues over the years. But I still have it, and my pile of parts.
So it sits, I collect more parts and info and the occasional special tool I’ll need; my one car restore is going to be my retirement project. But I still eagerly anticipate getting my first car back on the road.
@Barney https://onpurple.com/pillow
@duodec My first car was a 1970 Camaro with a 250ci straight 6 and a 2-speed PowerGlide transmission. My first car was also my first project (at 18 y.o.). I ripped out the original engine/trans and replaced it with a 454ci big block and Turbo 400 trans I picked from an old Caprice Classic I found in a wrecking yard.
I had no idea what I was doing, and the project was a train wreck! I figured “how hard can it be?”, expecting mostly a direct bolt-in engine swap. HA! The foolishness of youth.
I wish I still had that car now that I have some vague idea what I’m doing.
@ruouttaurmind There’s just something special about your first car, especially if you worked and saved and bought it yourself. More so if it turned out you absolutely loved it. When I was still driving it, the Challenger was not all that unusual or unique, just another 10-16 year old ‘muscle’ car being driven around my home town. But I felt it was special, and when I was in it, damn, what a feeling. Even though it was just a 2bbl 318 V8, it had dual exhaust with Walker Blue-streak glasspacks, the slap-stik shifter, and it sounded like a million bucks. I just didn’t have the money to start building it up, and once I did, I lost the space to work on it.
But I’m glad I kept it. There were times when the pressure to let it go was pretty heavy. Like winter, when my wife’s car was parked in the driveway… I admit I felt guilty about that.
I bought 2 chocolate chip cookies at Panera on my way home tonight. Dinner. I’m pretty sure they are 5 million calories each, or something close to that.
@heartny
/giphy Cookie Monster
@heartny If there is chocolate in them you subtract all calories derived from the chocolate from the calories derived from the rest of the cookie. That is the “rules”. Thus you are good.
Encyclopedia Britannica, the actual physical set with the leather-like covers. I always wanted a set when I was a kid but we could not afford them. It was a twelve block walk to the library for me.
So, when I started working, I easily fell for the salesman’s pitch and locked myself into three years of payments. I used them exactly no times. They looked pretty on the bookshelves for a few years though. Now they are in bins in the basement somewhere.
@ponagathos That is a great example! Pre-internet days…the pitch telling you can self-study a college education…the big fold-out picture thing they make you hold the bottom of…very compelling! I was so…so close to doing it.
@ponagathos I have those! Love the feel of them, read them quite a bit before PCs. My puppy had a hunger for knowledge and ate volume 8. They are still displayed, even the chewed one. Sadly, they’re worth nothing any more.
I was in Dollar Tree today picking up some things I needed for an art project. There was a dog toy abandoned in the aisle I was shopping in, and I thought “this is just the kind of toy that Tempest likes. It even has a funny ear like she does.” After I got home I realized, “stupid, you have two dogs.” They have plenty of squeaky toys which is what Zephyr likes but did I get one? No. Now that new toy has to wait in the closet for me to get Zephyr one.
@moondrake My monster Zoe has like 8 tennis balls but there is one in particular she favors, and she won’t go to bed without it. More than once she’s kept me awake with her frantic search for the ball. Eventually I get up and help her find it so I can get some sleep.
The things we do for our pets!
@djslack Uh… furry fetish?
@ruouttaurmind Nah, just couldn’t resist it at Wal-Mart for all the potential fun.
The best so far was putting it on and walking in the house and getting reactions from the dogs. First they were all excited “Dad’s home!” But quickly that turned into “wtf!!!”
@djslack Half the fun of having dogs is messing with their heads…
@ruouttaurmind
/giphy furry fet… never mind
@sammydog01
/giphy precarious giphy search
That reminds me… I’ve never seen giphy and Bigfoot in the same place at the same time. Coincidence?
@sammydog01
/giphy The Shining Kubrick furry
Edit: <sigh> I give up.
Last week I bought another 3x3 cube, a Valk 3. Definitely didn’t need it, but I’m hoping it’s buttery smooth.
@UncleVinny A what?
@sammydog01 Behold!
https://thecubicle.us/cubicle-valk-p-7468.html
This oil diffuser. Amazon had a similar one as a deal of the day, but that led me to look at others. Of course, the one I liked was more expensive.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JLW8PRC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2KUZVNQ9LP7N9&th=1
Which then of course is going to lead me to buy oils, but I am pretty sure I saw them at Five Below.
Don’t knock Five Below. I usually bought ballistic glass phone protectors on amazon. I was in 5 Below and needed protector quick and saw that they had some. Needless to say I wasn’t expecting much for $5. To my surprise this glass protector went on in seconds, any bubbles pushed out easily, and it looks great. The only problem is they carry mostly apple ones but just happened to have a Galaxy 6 one. Try one if you need a protector. You may be surprised.
@mfladd Yeah, I’ve been known to shop the off-brand deal sites. Most recently I bought this:
from Yugster.
Did I “need it”? Probably not, but I needed a new pepper grinder…
@therealjrn Oh Lord, it has been a while since I was on Yugster. But I think I did by a refurbed Logitech Harmnony 880 remote there about a year ago for a very good price. You don’t see them around much anymore but I love this remote.
Look what these assholes are trying to sell them for:
https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Advanced-Universal-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B00093IIRA
@mfladd Dayum. Assholes!
/giphy assholes
@mfladd OMG, Amazon is always selling oil diffusers – they show up constantly on the deals page and the giveaways – and I’ve been wondering who wants them. Now I know!
@UncleVinny Yup. It’s a sad day in Whoville.
(I think the constant sale of them on the deals page finally just wore me down)
Wound up with 6 copies of a magazine no one has heard of because there was a picture of my wife and I in it. Totally unknown to us until a total random stranger told us. No idea what we would do with 6 copies, but that’s all Barns and Noble had on hand.
A stromboli at Costco.
It was good!
@2many2no Team Italian Sausage and Three Berry Smoothie forever!
/giphy Costco Italian sausage
@2many2no Yum!
@2many2no you just made me so hungry sitting here in the waiting room at the doctor’s too scared to eat breakfast because they didn’t give me clear indications of their expectations leading into an early Monday AM appointment
Needed a quick replacement for the rattan (resin) patio furniture that finally gave up all will to survive our Florida weather. Found this for $388 a week ago and it’s already dropped a few dollars more. It’ll be under our pergola so not subjected to downpours & lots of sun. Seating for 6 and a fire pit/cocktail table for under $400 and delivered to our door fit the bill for us.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Better-Homes-and-Gardens-Warrens-5-Piece-Aluminum-Firepit-Set/54501666
@LaVikinga How did the furniture stand up to Irma?
@ViperOne
Want.
@ViperOne
I bought a pina colada starter kit. It was 80% off so I had to, right?
@sammydog01 in six to ten years it’s gonna be a great cocktail
@thismyusername I was thinking 20 years and a move to the tropics.
@sammydog01 Well…some people just tape a picture out of a magazine to their cubicle wall…but whatever works for you.
I purchased this Lodge Dutch oven on wOOt. I had purchased this exact one before for $45 and was happy with the price. But at $22 I could absolutely not resist buying another for a Xmas gift ($22 was a no brainer - there were only 4 available, I got the third)
https://home.woot.com/offers/lodge-6-qt-cast-iron-dutch-oven-purple-7?ref=hm_cnt_wp_1_40
@mfladd You bought @barney an xmas gift? How sweet!
@mfladd I bought the first.
/image because purple.
(I’ve been eyeing it for a while, but didn’t take the plunge. Finally did last night before bedtime.)
@narfcake LOL Nice! I couldn’t believe the price.
Also, on a woot side note. I never new the woot map populates by shipped to state, not the purchasing state. I sent the dutch oven to my sister in CT and that is the state which highlighted, not MD.
@mfladd
/giphy pout
Because I didn’t get one. Because I didn’t get a purple one.
@f00l Sorry. With only 4 remaining, it didn’t take long to sell out.
I was at Goodwill and found a Tweety bubble night light! I was so jealous of everyone that got one in a fuko but now I have one of my own! And it only needs a little glue. I may sneak it into the fuko I just bought if it’s extra crappy.
@sammydog01 You win. I was at GW and for some reason I bought this. It weighs a ton and i have no idea what to do with it. It might be a magazine stand but what the heck is the upsticker on the bottom?
@OldCatLady So the magazines don’t fall over? Nice score!
@sammydog01 I’ve never seen a magazine that wouldn’t fall over. I’m completely baffled.
@OldCatLady Found it!
@sammydog01 Etsy calls it a divider. Wait, when did the seventies become “vintage”?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/529622951/vintage-brass-magazine-rack-mid-century?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=newspaper rack&ref=sr_gallery_16
@sammydog01 The same time as 90’s music being played on the oldies station.
@sammydog01 A friend with decades of experience selling vintage and secondhand merchandise says it’s a fireplace accessory, a basket for holding small logs. Several similar are on Ebay. Several more are misidentified as magazine racks. I don’t have a fireplace, but I have a brass peacock firescreen, a copper and brass coal shuttle, and a (1940s) wooden mantle and surround in need of refinishing.
Typo. ‘Scuttle’, not ‘shuttle’. AKA ‘hod’. Apparently I’m going for the retro look in decor.
@OldCatLady That makes way more sense. Cool!
I didn’t need another drill. I bought another drill anyway. It weighs about 24 pounds and at 265 ft.lbs, it can put out more torque than a good number of car engines.
/image Milwaukee 2404-1
https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-2404-1-4-Inch-Drill-Morse/dp/B00004T16O
I paid nowhere near that much, of course.
@narfcake That puts Meh’s “massagers” to shame.
@sammydog01 You are one sick puppy.
@sammydog01 LOL! Yeah, definitely more powerful.
@narfcake what did you get it for? That’s one hell of a drill
@jbartus For as in purpose? - I dunno. For as in cost? - About three catshirts.
@narfcake I’m really jealous of your thrift stores.
I remember seeing a telescope at one that I was seriously interested in, but they were asking MORE than retail!
@RiotDemon For every “hit”, I’ve had tons of misses. Most of the Goodwill stores here have between 500 to 1500 t-shirts each. 6 different stores in a two week span can still yield zero “good” shirts.
I am up to three of these now, however!
The third one was an impulse buy at $1. On Thursdays, Goodwill puts the color of the week at $1 for anything. It doesn’t matter if was originally $1 or $100; it’s selling for $1.
(They change colors on Saturdays, so by blowing out the oldest stuff on the Thursday, the workers have much less to cleanup.)
@narfcake wow. Your goodwill must have a lot more turn around because mine never does that. The shelves are never bursting to capacity.
@narfcake want to sell it? I’ll give you half again what you paid
Seriously, how do you find these deals? I’m really jealous.
@RiotDemon The greater LA metropolitan area is home to 13+ million people, so there’s a lot of stuff. The GDP here alone is also greater than 47 states.
The Goodwill stores have a full turnover at 5-6 weeks, which is longer than some other thrift stores. A couple Christian stores I frequent along with a local Veteran’s store (operated by a for-profit entity. :() has a 4 week turnover. A couple that I frequent much less (as they’re further away) has a 10-day turnover.
@jbartus Timing. Sometimes luck. But mostly timing, in that I happen to be at the right store at the right time.
@narfcake you seem to have it down to a science too. How do you learn their schedules and such to arrange to be there when new inventory is put out? I assume that’s what you’re referring to with the term ‘turnover’?
@jbartus New inventory is every day at any given hour; there’s no science to that beyond visiting whenever I’m in the mood.
The full turnover is because of the colored tag of the week that’s discounted. For example:
Google Home here on meh. Still trying to figure a way to make it useful without taking out a second mortgage. Looks like some smart surge protectors for the lamps might be a good start, but if they are wifi reliant I probably also need to buy a signal booster.
The church up the street had a yard sale. By the time I got there they were handing people boxes and telling them to fill them up for $5.
A DIY church fuko? Yes please.
What to buy- angel figurines, doilys, lighthouse coffee mugs, empty cookie tins- there were tables and tables of useless junk to choose from.
Here’s what I got:
I got this too:
I don’t know what it is but it’s shiny! (I’m leaning toward ashtray.)
@sammydog01 Nice! Too bad more places don’t do stuff like that.
@sammydog01 What’s on top of the cookbook?
@RiotDemon Yankee Candle Illuma lid (sits on the candle and helps with drafts).
@sammydog01 The Williamsburg cookbook is one of my all-time favorites. Truly great haul.
@sammydog01 Huh, the design on that reminds me of the bagua, but two of the trigrams are missing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua
Possibly a knockoff bit of wall decor trying to capture “oriental” design without any actual feng shui properties?
@Kawa Maybe Pier one? It’s actually a heavy box with random stuff stamped on the sides. I just like the top the best.
This is the most interesting impulse buy:
Commie guns are cheap and fun
@cranky1950 CZ-52. I bought some years ago when SOG used to do their three-fers. I still haven’t fired them. I initially wanted to convert them from 7.62 Tok to 9x19, but lost my motivaiton. So now they just lay in the safe waiting for… whatever. For the zombies to come?
Probably the best commie purchase I made was the .380 converted Makarovs back when CAI was importing them like candy. $89. Nice shooter.
@ruouttaurmind That ball of fire should scare the hell outta MZBs
@cranky1950
Buddy got a makarov (9mm). Was fun until the top of the grip started biting into a person’s hand something fierce.
@medz I put one of these Pierce grips on my 9x18 Mak. Quite comfortable, and fits the Mak and my hand quite well. It’s a bit bulky for CC, but great for a range shooter.
@ruouttaurmind the issue was more the part just under the hammer would kick up/back and get you right where your thumb connects to the hand. that little sharp point on the back was like a axe coming down on my tender thumb webbing with every shot. Maybe it just didn’t fit our hands very well.
He considered some extended grips that would wrap over the top of the hand more, but he ultimately traded it in.
@medz I have a couple of shooters like that. They just don’t fit my hand well and become uncomfortable to shoot after a couple shots.
@ruouttaurmind
/giphy pew pew
@medz Extra starz 4 u! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I accidentally bought a watch on eBay. I submitted a lowball offer… just on a whim. I never expected the seller to accept. I guess early birthday gift to myself?
Happy birthday to me! Love love love.
Sucker must weigh about a pound and a half though!
@ruouttaurmind How low ball from asking price? Percentage is fine.
@mfladd 30% less than ask. The original ask was the lowest listed on eBay for the same model (in various color combinations) with the solid link stainless bracelet. This model, but with the rubber strap instead of stainless bracelet, usually sells for about what the seller was originally asking for this one. So I didn’t expect my offer to fly. But apparently the seller was motivated to shift stock. So… an unexpected, but welcomed addition to my collection.
I bought a new Oculus Rift headset yesterday. My Crescent Bay prototype got software outmoded so I needed one if I wanted to make use of the Oculus Touch controllers I’d preordered before it was outmoded. I was shopping for a housewarming gift for my brother and a Rift came up on the homepage for whatever reason and I just added it to the cart.
/image oculus rift
/giphy virtual reality
@jbartus I just realize I lied. It wasn’t while shopping for the housewarming gift, it was because I wanted a wireless receiver for my Xbox One controller to use it with my PC. Since I planned to get a Rift eventually and knew it had one bundled I didn’t want to end up with two. So I ordered the Rift.
This thread is quite long. I think we have a problem.
Facebook ads often get me… Here’s one I bought as soon as I saw it: https://luuup.com/