It finally happened...
37…I met someone who shops on meh while wearing (one of) my meh shirt(s).
I’m sure you don’t care about all these details but I’m gonna tell you anyway…
Upon arriving in Phoenix I was able to meet my mom at her gate, like in the old days, because I didn’t exit past security after getting off my flight. That was cool.
First thing she said was “I’ve got a surprise for you!” and by coincidence my Uncle Matt and his wife Bobbi were visiting Bobbi’s sister in Phoenix and we were invited to stop over there to see them before driving up to Sedona. I hadn’t seen my Uncle Matt in like i dunno 10 years so this was indeed a good surprise. Of course I was wearing my black meh shirt because it went perfectly with my travel leggings (thankfully I wasn’t traveling United).
So we are hanging out for several hours and then Bobbi’s sister and brother-in-law had to leave to go to a party, but before they left, her brother-in-law said “Oh I meant to tell you, I use meh”. I’m like… “the word? or the website?”. He said the website and I said, “Cool, I helped build that site.” He looked stunned for a moment. I asked if he used the forums but he said no. I proceeded to explain I didn’t work on much of what you can see but I did do the poll, and figure out how to make the text color change inside the bars after you vote. I said “it was really hard” to sound impressive, but looking back it wasn’t really hard, lol. l should have told him I did the item selector on the checkout page, that’s way more impressive (though I’d be surprised if @shawn hasn’t gotten around to rewriting that yet, because it’s very confusing code and needs to be redone in React).
Anyway, I wish he’d told me sooner so we could have talked about it some, but oh well.
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Perhaps that will be incentive for you two or you all to talk more.
Very cool. Glad you went public.
That’s pretty cool. Also cool that it happened in my home state.
Sounds about as awkward as me going somewhere and saying “oh, I know this place; I designed the fire protection system here”.
“Can I see it work?”
“Only if you want to be drenched in black stagnant water. The pump puts out about 2,000 gallons too. Per minute.”
“Oh. Nevermind.”
“But I haven’t even mentioned the fines for false alarms and cleanup costs for the flooding yet!”
“Uhh, yeah. Nevermind.”
@narfcake So now I’m curious: Is the water inside the fire protection system ny-ass-ty black and stagnant?
I have to imagine it would be, sitting there at “room temperature” for years, but I honestly hadn’t thought about this until you brought it up.
@simssj What @meh427 said below. Here’s a barrel full of it, linked in case you’re eating right now.
And I can vouch what you don’t get from this pic is the smell.
There are other ways to fight fire (gas and foam systems), but they have their drawbacks too. Like it can suffocate people in the vicinity.
@narfcake Urp.
Ummm… “Thanks?”
@narfcake I see some sprinkler systems are ‘dry’. I have always presumed they do not have water in them except when there is a fire. Is that basically correct?
What is the disadvantage of a dry system? Seems like not having water in the sprinkler system, causing rust and general decay, would be a win.
@simssj @narfcake Huh, I just assumed the sprinklers were fed by the water main. Is this just the water sitting in the pipes that gets nasty or do they have reserve tanks in most systems?
@bdb Besides additional components, the response time is much greater, so much so that a dry system needs to be sized for a 30% larger area – which means everything else needs to be sized up, adding costs. The pipe is never going to be 100% dry either, so the pipe actually has a greater propensity to corrode.
Dry systems are usually only used in areas that can freeze. Everywhere else, the municipals and insurance companies want to see water.
@jqubed Yes, it’s the sitting water. Tanks are typically only necessary if the water supply is inadequate.
@narfcake Thank you, great answer
I keep waiting for the day I see a likely candidate to flash them the @carl669 breakfast octopus sign without the overwhelmingly huge chance I end up only appearing like a giant doofus.
Of course that day may never come as evidenced by @MrsPavlov laughing over my shoulder just now reminding me that I am in fact an actual doofus.
@Pavlov
@Pavlov
For safety about the “doofus” issues, teach the handsign to the kid and get the kid to do the handsign thing with the likely target.
If the target feels threatened or weirded out, apologize, retrieve offapring, mumble something about “we’re working with him”.
If the target is simply puzzled or bemused, legend has it that many people think that kids and even teenagers are kinda cute. So no prob.
Add an “I seem to be raising a practical joker/comedian” explanation if needed.
If handsign is recognized and interpreted correctly, WIN.
(One hopes.)
Most fire companies purge and test all sprinkler systems once a year - but yes - portions of the water become black and naysty.
i’ll never look at that colored text on the bars the same way ever again.