Work… as a pyrotechnician. 8-10 hours of grueling manual labor, followed by 8-20 minutes of pure, unadulterated joy and painting the sky with fire, followed by another 2-4 hours of grueling manual labor. It’s a blast (and hopefully rather a lot of them, and only in a coordinated manner), but fireworks shows are also nearly always the most work (in a physics sense) I do all year. I do love my crew, though. Stay safe, y’all, and Happy New Year!
@InnocuousFarmer Those are actually pretty easy to build if you’re using a ball shell; you just lay the stars out in the pattern you want to see in the sky, add enough filler to keep them there, and close the shell. The explosive force is applied symmetrically, so the pattern expands at about the same rate. The annoying thing is that there’s no way to guarantee which way the shell will face when it detonates - at all - so the pattern might be upside down, edge-on, or any number of unpleasant orientations. We keep ordering them because people like them, but we only get maybe one case per show (out of 20-200+ cases per show, depending on length and extravagance). Anyway there used to be a couple of good videos on YouTube about constructing these pattern shells but I need to pack up and head out, so I’ll have to leave looking those up as an exercise for the reader.
@InnocuousFarmer@jsfs@moonhat So Cool!
about 15 years ago we were in Interlaken (Switzerland) for New Years. They had a MASSIVE fireworks display from several different countries’ pyrotech companies. It was AMAZING!
@chienfou@InnocuousFarmer@jsfs@moonhat The ones the 4th of July in NYC are fantastic - or at least used to be anyway. I was working on tall ships that would be there in the parade of sails, then dock on the rivers, etc. and we’d have a wonderful view. As crew, if we were close enough, we’d be in the rigging in case any remains fell out of the sky on to the boat rigging (happened once in Norfolk - lots of them hit the boat which was full of people due to the wind shift and we were busy running around the rigging flicking them off into the water). One time, on the 3rd, we were anchored off the statue of liberty and had a completely unobstructed view of fireworks.That was pretty amazing looking out over the water and seeing the fireworks.
@InnocuousFarmer@jsfs@Kidsandliz@moonhat one year when we lived in International Falls they did a particularly bad job of packing the shells and they all went off WAY to low.
The city spend a fortune on repairing holes in Landau roofs (remember those) on cars in the stadium parking lot. It’s a wonder none of them caught fire completely.
OTOH it was a pretty spectacular show since they were so close…
@chienfou@InnocuousFarmer@jsfs@moonhat That story reminds me of 4th of July at mom’s. Her apt building was next to the football field at the high school where they set them off. Wind blew them over our direction and stuff was raining down on cars in the parking lot, including mine, trees, and the roof. Fortunately nothing caught fire.
There’s some kind of thing in town but I don’t know. Every time I turn around, society’s making these unreasonable demands: that I go outside, wear clothes, talk to people. wear pants again. It never ends.
@vfrdirk Fun! Where abouts in Costa Rica are you? I went there years ago and LOVED it! I spent a little time in San Jose, Limon and Puerto Viejo. It was so lovely there.
@qwerty82@vfrdirk …ditto. Definitely glad I booked a 4x4. Spent our last night lodging in a coffee plantation north of the airport and made a quick trip to volcan poas before take off. Had a great time and have a necklace I made from a shell I picked up that gets more comments than anything else I wear.
Late (10PM) 5-course dinner at a lovely restaurant (Lily’s Bistro, in the Oregon District) which should finish up just about in time for the toast at midnight.
@msklzannie That’s even worse. At least I’m stuck here 'til 0530 so no chance for any celebrations. You’ll only just miss them! Lame. You should duck out early.
@qwerty82@ratman@msklzannie I’ll get off at 2315… just enough time to get home and count down the last few minutes with SWMBO… if she is still up…and we aren’t super busy at the end of my shift.
@qwerty82 Kinda difficult to duck out early when I have to close the store at midnight. What will make it even more difficult is all our sales will be changing so old signage has to come down and new go up. It doesn’t really matter as I wouldn’t be partying anyhow.
@msklzannie@qwerty82@ratman well, I left at 2353 and slid into the driveway about 10 seconds before midnight, ran to the front door and busted in yelling Happy New Years… scared the crap out of my wife who was watching a movie and had no idea of the time!
We did pop a bottle of bubbly and well… never mind.
@chienfou@qwerty82@ratman I didn’t get to leave until about 12:30 am, but I did text my sister happy birthday and have some sparkling grape juice after I got home.
I will perform my annual Changing of the Calendar(s) ritual this evening. I will (with all due ceremony) flip the desk calendar to Jan 2020, then proceed to the kitchen for a mug of herbal tea. There I will take the kitchen calendar off the wall, proceed with it ceremoniously across the room where it will be placed with reverence into the trash bin. I will then open a shiny new 2020 wall calendar, which will be hung on the wall, after which I will intone solemnly to anyone (a couple of house spiders and the Amazon Echo) listening: “Well, that’s done for another year.” Then I will finish my tea and go off to bed, where I will be sleeping soundly long before midnight.
I’m getting my yearly eye exam and glasses. I don’t really need new glasses yet but since I paid into my insurance all year, I figured I’d be stupid to not get them.
haven’t really decided yet. i’m finally better after being sick since xmas (just a cold, but it was terrible), partner is at work with a toothache. we usually go to a club night/event that our friend(s) run, but we’ve squashed that idea this year. not in the mood for spending $$$ (esp with a potential out of pocket dentist visit looming), dresscodes, long waits at the bar, etc.
another friend is having a house party so if anything we’ll do that. if we do i hope it’s of the raging variety, the thought of awkwardly standing around trying to make quiet small talk is nightmarish. if i’m gonna actually leave the house i want the hangover to be worth it.
@therealjrn actually, no. i mean like fetish gear. (yes, i’m serious.) i don’t feel like wearing a corset and vinyl, or feeling under/over-dressed (since i know the people running it i could ignore the dresscode but i usually try to play along).
@Kabn Last year, here in my wonderful city, an Uber passenger was shot and killed by the Uber driver after he puked in the back seat. (A little too much to drink) So, I don’t know about Lyft but, try not to puke on the way home.
Work… as a pyrotechnician. 8-10 hours of grueling manual labor, followed by 8-20 minutes of pure, unadulterated joy and painting the sky with fire, followed by another 2-4 hours of grueling manual labor. It’s a blast (and hopefully rather a lot of them, and only in a coordinated manner), but fireworks shows are also nearly always the most work (in a physics sense) I do all year. I do love my crew, though. Stay safe, y’all, and Happy New Year!
@jsfs
That’s sounds like a wonderful job.
@jsfs Like trajectories and asplosions? Do you ever have to calculate those kinds of fireworks that explode into rings or other shapes?
@jsfs where do you live?
@InnocuousFarmer Those are actually pretty easy to build if you’re using a ball shell; you just lay the stars out in the pattern you want to see in the sky, add enough filler to keep them there, and close the shell. The explosive force is applied symmetrically, so the pattern expands at about the same rate. The annoying thing is that there’s no way to guarantee which way the shell will face when it detonates - at all - so the pattern might be upside down, edge-on, or any number of unpleasant orientations. We keep ordering them because people like them, but we only get maybe one case per show (out of 20-200+ cases per show, depending on length and extravagance). Anyway there used to be a couple of good videos on YouTube about constructing these pattern shells but I need to pack up and head out, so I’ll have to leave looking those up as an exercise for the reader.
@moonhat Texas.
@InnocuousFarmer @jsfs @moonhat So Cool!
about 15 years ago we were in Interlaken (Switzerland) for New Years. They had a MASSIVE fireworks display from several different countries’ pyrotech companies. It was AMAZING!
@chienfou @InnocuousFarmer @jsfs @moonhat The ones the 4th of July in NYC are fantastic - or at least used to be anyway. I was working on tall ships that would be there in the parade of sails, then dock on the rivers, etc. and we’d have a wonderful view. As crew, if we were close enough, we’d be in the rigging in case any remains fell out of the sky on to the boat rigging (happened once in Norfolk - lots of them hit the boat which was full of people due to the wind shift and we were busy running around the rigging flicking them off into the water). One time, on the 3rd, we were anchored off the statue of liberty and had a completely unobstructed view of fireworks.That was pretty amazing looking out over the water and seeing the fireworks.
@InnocuousFarmer @jsfs @Kidsandliz @moonhat one year when we lived in International Falls they did a particularly bad job of packing the shells and they all went off WAY to low.
The city spend a fortune on repairing holes in Landau roofs (remember those) on cars in the stadium parking lot. It’s a wonder none of them caught fire completely.
OTOH it was a pretty spectacular show since they were so close…
@chienfou @InnocuousFarmer @jsfs @moonhat That story reminds me of 4th of July at mom’s. Her apt building was next to the football field at the high school where they set them off. Wind blew them over our direction and stuff was raining down on cars in the parking lot, including mine, trees, and the roof. Fortunately nothing caught fire.
The same thing I do every New Year’s Eve.
Sleep.
@narfcake I remember one New Year you were going to confront some street thugs shooting off guns into the sky. So glad you lived to tell the tale!
@narfcake I assumed you would be trying to take over the world
@j2 @narfcake One is a genius, the other’s insane~
@InnocuousFarmer @j2 @narfcake
@InnocuousFarmer @j2 @mike808
@InnocuousFarmer @j2 @mike808 @narfcake truly my most favorite cartoon. And that’s tough 'cause I grew up with Buggs and Elmer and Marvin
There’s some kind of thing in town but I don’t know. Every time I turn around, society’s making these unreasonable demands: that I go outside, wear clothes, talk to people. wear pants again. It never ends.
I’m in Costa Rica on vacation. I feel like there might be a party somewhere…
@vfrdirk Fun! Where abouts in Costa Rica are you? I went there years ago and LOVED it! I spent a little time in San Jose, Limon and Puerto Viejo. It was so lovely there.
@qwerty82 @vfrdirk …ditto. Definitely glad I booked a 4x4. Spent our last night lodging in a coffee plantation north of the airport and made a quick trip to volcan poas before take off. Had a great time and have a necklace I made from a shell I picked up that gets more comments than anything else I wear.
@qwerty82 @vfrdirk You should probably wear some pants too, just to be fair about it.
@qwerty82 @therealjrn @vfrdirk maybe he has nice legs and he wants to show them off
Late (10PM) 5-course dinner at a lovely restaurant (Lily’s Bistro, in the Oregon District) which should finish up just about in time for the toast at midnight.
@Foobarski nice! With wine pairing?
Trying to coax mediocrebot into changing the scapegoat on time.
Work… 12hr overnight shift.
@qwerty82 I have to work too, but only until 12:15 AM.
@msklzannie That’s even worse. At least I’m stuck here 'til 0530 so no chance for any celebrations. You’ll only just miss them! Lame. You should duck out early.
@qwerty82 I’m on the 9pm to 6am shift. Just another night for me, like right now.
@qwerty82 @ratman @msklzannie I’ll get off at 2315… just enough time to get home and count down the last few minutes with SWMBO… if she is still up…and we aren’t super busy at the end of my shift.
@qwerty82 Kinda difficult to duck out early when I have to close the store at midnight. What will make it even more difficult is all our sales will be changing so old signage has to come down and new go up. It doesn’t really matter as I wouldn’t be partying anyhow.
@msklzannie @qwerty82 @ratman well, I left at 2353 and slid into the driveway about 10 seconds before midnight, ran to the front door and busted in yelling Happy New Years… scared the crap out of my wife who was watching a movie and had no idea of the time!
We did pop a bottle of bubbly and well… never mind.
@chienfou @qwerty82 @ratman I didn’t get to leave until about 12:30 am, but I did text my sister happy birthday and have some sparkling grape juice after I got home.
Here at home to make sure the place doesn’t get all shot up or burned down by errant fireworks.
Hanging out at home, but watching a Fred Astaire movie marathon while doing it.
Snowboarding to bring in the new year with fresh tracks. ^-^
Hanging out in my jammies
/giphy pajamas
I will perform my annual Changing of the Calendar(s) ritual this evening. I will (with all due ceremony) flip the desk calendar to Jan 2020, then proceed to the kitchen for a mug of herbal tea. There I will take the kitchen calendar off the wall, proceed with it ceremoniously across the room where it will be placed with reverence into the trash bin. I will then open a shiny new 2020 wall calendar, which will be hung on the wall, after which I will intone solemnly to anyone (a couple of house spiders and the Amazon Echo) listening: “Well, that’s done for another year.” Then I will finish my tea and go off to bed, where I will be sleeping soundly long before midnight.
I’m getting my yearly eye exam and glasses. I don’t really need new glasses yet but since I paid into my insurance all year, I figured I’d be stupid to not get them.
As for this evening, no plans.
Celebrate with Australia (via TV). Happy New Year Mate! Then get some sleep.
@hchavers Yeah, it was touch and go for the Sydney fireworks this year…
Already celebrated Ramones hour.
2020 24 hours to go…
Taking the little ones to the small town library to celebrate New Years 3-5PM. ( Theme: It’s NYE somewhere!) Afterwards a quiet evening at home.
I’ll be working. Tending the bar at the party.
haven’t really decided yet. i’m finally better after being sick since xmas (just a cold, but it was terrible), partner is at work with a toothache. we usually go to a club night/event that our friend(s) run, but we’ve squashed that idea this year. not in the mood for spending $$$ (esp with a potential out of pocket dentist visit looming), dresscodes, long waits at the bar, etc.
another friend is having a house party so if anything we’ll do that. if we do i hope it’s of the raging variety, the thought of awkwardly standing around trying to make quiet small talk is nightmarish. if i’m gonna actually leave the house i want the hangover to be worth it.
@jerk_nugget Dresscodes? You mean like pants?
@jerk_nugget @therealjrn Looming dresscodes. Sounds frightening.
@therealjrn actually, no. i mean like fetish gear. (yes, i’m serious.) i don’t feel like wearing a corset and vinyl, or feeling under/over-dressed (since i know the people running it i could ignore the dresscode but i usually try to play along).
Let’s see:
@accelerator are we the same person? lol
Although I also got some champagne and hope to stay awake until midnight.
@kewlchick086 I do hope to finish a bottle of wine with dinner. There is hope that I will stay up until 2020 but, it may just be a dream I’ll have.
@Kabn Last year, here in my wonderful city, an Uber passenger was shot and killed by the Uber driver after he puked in the back seat. (A little too much to drink) So, I don’t know about Lyft but, try not to puke on the way home.
@accelerator @Kabn Uber must be really strict in other countries.
I’ll probably be asleep by 11…
Duke basketball game then hang at home. Sleep.
early evening dinner and then get off the roads away from the drunks and cold weather.
Work, or nope.
/giphy undecided
Supposed to go dancing but I hurt my knee. So I’ll just sit, listen to the band, and drink.