@awk@blaineg@LaserEyes@mediocrebot@yakkoTDI Well some of the “food” on the plate might be where those extra “biologics” as reported from crashed alien UFO, um, UAPs ended up.
@phendrick huh, haven’t seen this suction cup variant before. That looks like it might grab on to a shell pretty nicely, too… Where did you find that? I’mma recommend them to my fireworks friends. Unless you think they couldn’t hold about four or five pounds straight vertical…
@jsfs I have several sets of these and love them. My main uses for them are picking up junk off the floor (sometimes my dog just loves to shred things) inside the house and picking up litter outside from my yard (the prevailing winds blow trash from the CITY park across the street directly into my yard and then the CITY leaves nasty notes on my door about litter in my yard). I should just consider it exercise and pick up without these, but my knees and back would fuss at me. They also do quite well at putting canned goods on shelves and retrieving them.
The image above came from Walmart and in fact they have them https://www.walmart.com/ip/32inch-Lockable-Foldable-Grabber-Reacher-Lightweight-Extender-Gripper-Tool-Garbage-Picker-Blue-2Pcs/670819197 for shipping. I always just bought in the store there or elsewhere. The brand I like best is “Deluxe GOPHER II Pick Up and Reaching Tool”, usually found in the “As Seen on TV” section there or at drug stores. Seems like I usually paid around $10 for one, but INFLATION…
Right now I have an indoor set, an outdoor set, and two still packaged in reserve. I have had trouble finding them for sale at times, so like extras available.
I hadn’t ever considered what weight they could handle, so just did some testing. I picked up a 5 pound dumbbell, but not between the suction cups, but rather with the cups underneath the bar. The frame is strong enough for that, but not enough lateral grip force between the cups. It did pick up a 2.5 pound dumbbell between the cups. And as far as what they were designed for, I had a couple cans still in the bag on the floor I needed to stow into the cupboard, and I was able to lift a 3 pound can between the cups and it held till I got it on the shelf.
IMHO, every senior citizen should be awarded a lifetime supply of these. (But beware the cheaper ones without the suction cups, they are generally crap.)
BTW, these are quite durable. What usually happens though is that a tiny screw holding the suction cups on to the flexible metal bands comes lose, and you lose the suction cup and the screw. (Outside, usually!) And I don’t have any idea how to replace the cup, other than buying a new complete grabber.
@jsfs
Additional (and Final) thoughts:
About 7% of Azon ratings are 1-star. Most of those complain about difficulty locking/unlocking from the folded position or in getting the “jaws” to lock or unlock. IMO most of these people are morons, and unfortunately, they swing elections. WD40 is not great on plastic, but a little will help with the new plastic parts. Even better, use some silicone oil or spray. Most difficulties with the “locks” comes from alignment problems. To fold/unfold, work the halves back & forth a tiny bit while pushing the “button”. Same on locking the jaws; squeeze the gripper handle off and on a little while using the lock control.
It’s not rocket science. Hard to expect perfection from a tool with metal and plastic that costs $10. IMO, this tool is great for what it costs.
@chienfou@jsfs Well, yes, in that I haven’t thrown the old one away. Yet. (I’m an optimist of sorts, and keep thinking that screw and cup will turn up inside my lawnmower grass catcher. Or inside my slippers in my bedroom. Stranger things have happened in my life. I think one of Dobby’s kin lives here somewhere.)
Now that you got me thinking about it, I just might have another mutilated one somewhere. Do two halves still add up to one whole? But I believe they did change their cups a bit for the Gopher II model.
@blaineg Well… this is what I’d bring when I’m going somewhere. If I’m hosting… that’s a weeks worth of work. We used to do a Christmas party every year with 10 courses of hand passed hors d’oeurves for 40+ people. Logistically it was problematic, but I can throw an F’ing party I’d cook for 4 hours straight, but nobody left hungry
@blaineg@Kyeh Heh… I’ve been known to go overboard occasionally. Most folks don’t mind. The more complicated the recipe, the better my ADHD brain gets in the zone
@OnionSoup I work in AV integration and we used COVID cables (and that URL) for years, so when it came out as being called “COVID” we had lots of fun with it… needless to say HR eventually told us to stop reporting COVID “discoveries” … what buzzkills!
@IWUJackson@OnionSoup “buzzkills”
In my dealings with HR people, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are the people who couldn’t get jobs doing anything else. But they generally bring credit to their profession. Ha!
@ircon96@IWUJackson@OnionSoup@phendrick Part of the downhill slide of a former employer was when the sweet little grandmother type that was the head of Personnel retired.
The first thing her MBA-type successor did was rename the department to Human Resources.
@blaineg@ircon96@IWUJackson@OnionSoup@phendrick Yeah, that is certainly an unfortunate choice of words, but still seems to be standard. No more persons, just resources to exploit until they are run dry, then abandon them with no pensions or benefits. After 35 friggin years. Bitter?, who me, no!
But actually worse was in the 90’s when the new corporate bosses put in a Director of Quality who enforced that we must have weekly meetings about how to track our quality and how to improve it, especially with charts and graphs, in color if possible, to show how much we were doing to improve quality. Didn’t matter quality of what, as long as it made pretty graphs.
@blaineg@ircon96@IWUJackson@OnionSoup@pmarin A reminder to fans of the now-gone series “Person of Interest”. I always was amused by the fact that the corrupt police faction was referred to as “HR”.
OK, I’m now back to thinking of what I’m not eating tonight, with no cookout around here. The spicy Buldak (korean) ramen is still good, though, for something that takes so little actual work to prepare. Fixed it with some canned chicken breast thrown in, along with some vegetables. Almost like an eastern version of chicken & dumplings.
@phendrick I loved “Person of Interest”!
However, as a true mid-westerner, I scoff at your “chicken and dumplings”. (Though I, myself, prefer chicken and noodles. Yes, there’s a difference.)
I think there’s also a feature where you can take your own photo and pick the words, and it will format it into that “motivational” style that was “the thing” back in the 90s. Ugh! Work harder, not smarter. Or wait, maybe that was wrong.
Cooks.
A beverage for me because I don’t drink alcohol.
@tweezak Alcohol for me in case it’s a “dry” cookout. Unless banned by local ordinance.
@charliedoggo!!
@tinamarie1974 One more hot dog at the cookout!
/showme my appetite
@mediocrebot Why is the floor made of hair? Why is there hair on the plate? Why is the utensil made of hair?
@awk @mediocrebot None of that is as terrifying as those FINGERS!!!
@awk Wow, you have a really weird appetite.
@awk @mediocrebot @yakkoTDI Yes, those fingers are definitely going to give me nightmares
@awk @mediocrebot @yakkoTDI I can overlook the fingers.
@awk @LaserEyes @mediocrebot @yakkoTDI
@awk @blaineg @LaserEyes @mediocrebot @yakkoTDI Well some of the “food” on the plate might be where those extra “biologics” as reported from crashed alien UFO, um, UAPs ended up.
Beans!
@ybmuG just recently taught my niece a fun song about beans!!!
@ybmuG Do you make a point of leaving early?
@tinamarie1974 i know that song!
@werehatrack why would i leave early if there’s beans?
@werehatrack @ybmuG They’re the magical fruit!
@werehatrack @ybmuG @zinimusprime its why you should eat your beans with evey meal!!
Somebody else who will do all the work so all I have to do is eat.
A long pair (plural?) of those grabbers.
/image grabbers
eh, not quite what I had in mind, bot.
@phendrick IF you want it done right…
@phendrick huh, haven’t seen this suction cup variant before. That looks like it might grab on to a shell pretty nicely, too… Where did you find that? I’mma recommend them to my fireworks friends. Unless you think they couldn’t hold about four or five pounds straight vertical…
@jsfs I have several sets of these and love them. My main uses for them are picking up junk off the floor (sometimes my dog just loves to shred things) inside the house and picking up litter outside from my yard (the prevailing winds blow trash from the CITY park across the street directly into my yard and then the CITY leaves nasty notes on my door about litter in my yard). I should just consider it exercise and pick up without these, but my knees and back would fuss at me. They also do quite well at putting canned goods on shelves and retrieving them.
The image above came from Walmart and in fact they have them https://www.walmart.com/ip/32inch-Lockable-Foldable-Grabber-Reacher-Lightweight-Extender-Gripper-Tool-Garbage-Picker-Blue-2Pcs/670819197 for shipping. I always just bought in the store there or elsewhere. The brand I like best is “Deluxe GOPHER II Pick Up and Reaching Tool”, usually found in the “As Seen on TV” section there or at drug stores. Seems like I usually paid around $10 for one, but INFLATION…
Right now I have an indoor set, an outdoor set, and two still packaged in reserve. I have had trouble finding them for sale at times, so like extras available.
I hadn’t ever considered what weight they could handle, so just did some testing. I picked up a 5 pound dumbbell, but not between the suction cups, but rather with the cups underneath the bar. The frame is strong enough for that, but not enough lateral grip force between the cups. It did pick up a 2.5 pound dumbbell between the cups. And as far as what they were designed for, I had a couple cans still in the bag on the floor I needed to stow into the cupboard, and I was able to lift a 3 pound can between the cups and it held till I got it on the shelf.
IMHO, every senior citizen should be awarded a lifetime supply of these. (But beware the cheaper ones without the suction cups, they are generally crap.)
BTW, these are quite durable. What usually happens though is that a tiny screw holding the suction cups on to the flexible metal bands comes lose, and you lose the suction cup and the screw. (Outside, usually!) And I don’t have any idea how to replace the cup, other than buying a new complete grabber.
@jsfs Here’s an A’zon link to the ones I have (but I try to not give Bezosbub any more money than I have to – got mine locally). And still 10 bucks there!
https://www.amazon.com/Ontel-BHBUSAZIN028619-Gopher-Pick-Up-Reaching/dp/B00SB83XFM/ref=asc_df_B00SB83XFM
Note the ratings, and that it is folded in half on the package (so stows nicely in a cabinet or cupboard, if you like).
@jsfs
Additional (and Final) thoughts:
About 7% of Azon ratings are 1-star. Most of those complain about difficulty locking/unlocking from the folded position or in getting the “jaws” to lock or unlock. IMO most of these people are morons, and unfortunately, they swing elections. WD40 is not great on plastic, but a little will help with the new plastic parts. Even better, use some silicone oil or spray. Most difficulties with the “locks” comes from alignment problems. To fold/unfold, work the halves back & forth a tiny bit while pushing the “button”. Same on locking the jaws; squeeze the gripper handle off and on a little while using the lock control.
It’s not rocket science. Hard to expect perfection from a tool with metal and plastic that costs $10. IMO, this tool is great for what it costs.
@jsfs @phendrick
Good thoughts. BTW, I am sure you are parting out the (unlost) screw and suction cup from the old set before you toss it … right?
@chienfou @jsfs Well, yes, in that I haven’t thrown the old one away. Yet. (I’m an optimist of sorts, and keep thinking that screw and cup will turn up inside my lawnmower grass catcher. Or inside my slippers in my bedroom. Stranger things have happened in my life. I think one of Dobby’s kin lives here somewhere.)
Now that you got me thinking about it, I just might have another mutilated one somewhere. Do two halves still add up to one whole? But I believe they did change their cups a bit for the Gopher II model.
I’ll stop by Costco or Sam’s Club and bring something from there. I can’t cook, and when I do manage to cook, it’s just a nightmare.
I’d probably get up about 3am and get the smoker started and bring:
And probably some
but we’d probably want to start with some
and wrap up with some pie
But I’d probably need at least two days notice
@capnjb Can we get an invite?
@blaineg Well… this is what I’d bring when I’m going somewhere. If I’m hosting… that’s a weeks worth of work.
We used to do a Christmas party every year with 10 courses of hand passed hors d’oeurves for 40+ people. Logistically it was problematic, but I can throw an F’ing party 
I’d cook for 4 hours straight, but nobody left hungry 
@blaineg @capnjb Yeah, if I hold a cookout, I’d like to invite you! Wow!
@blaineg @Kyeh Heh… I’ve been known to go overboard occasionally. Most folks don’t mind.
The more complicated the recipe, the better my ADHD brain gets in the zone 
COVID.
@OnionSoup https://www.covid.com/
@IWUJackson now that is really clever marketing using that url. Easy to remember and will catch a lot of people by accident.
@OnionSoup I work in AV integration and we used COVID cables (and that URL) for years, so when it came out as being called “COVID” we had lots of fun with it… needless to say HR eventually told us to stop reporting COVID “discoveries” … what buzzkills!
@IWUJackson @OnionSoup “buzzkills”
In my dealings with HR people, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are the people who couldn’t get jobs doing anything else. But they generally bring credit to their profession. Ha!
@IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick I always figured a lot of HR people were sadists who couldn’t get into dental school.
@ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick Part of the downhill slide of a former employer was when the sweet little grandmother type that was the head of Personnel retired.
The first thing her MBA-type successor did was rename the department to Human Resources.
@blaineg @ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick Yeah, that is certainly an unfortunate choice of words, but still seems to be standard. No more persons, just resources to exploit until they are run dry, then abandon them with no pensions or benefits. After 35 friggin years. Bitter?, who me, no!
But actually worse was in the 90’s when the new corporate bosses put in a Director of Quality who enforced that we must have weekly meetings about how to track our quality and how to improve it, especially with charts and graphs, in color if possible, to show how much we were doing to improve quality. Didn’t matter quality of what, as long as it made pretty graphs.
@blaineg @ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick Sorry this topic became kind-of a bummer. Wait, where was the cookout we were heading for?
@blaineg @ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @pmarin A reminder to fans of the now-gone series “Person of Interest”. I always was amused by the fact that the corrupt police faction was referred to as “HR”.
OK, I’m now back to thinking of what I’m not eating tonight, with no cookout around here. The spicy Buldak (korean) ramen is still good, though, for something that takes so little actual work to prepare. Fixed it with some canned chicken breast thrown in, along with some vegetables. Almost like an eastern version of chicken & dumplings.
@phendrick I loved “Person of Interest”!
However, as a true mid-westerner, I scoff at your “chicken and dumplings”. (Though I, myself, prefer chicken and noodles. Yes, there’s a difference.)
@IWUJackson
I’ve seen women that have reminded me of dumplings, but never of noodles.
@IWUJackson @phendrick Twiggy?
@ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick @pmarin
@blaineg @ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick I’m going to retire in a few months (yay, me!). I’m definitely going to save this image.
@ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick @pmarin You can buy a poster or mug.
https://despair.com/products/retirement?_pos=1&_sid=76813a746&_ss=r&variant=4375939121173
One of my dream goals is to replace some of the conference room “motivational” posters with Demotivators.
@ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick @pmarin Like this.
@blaineg @ircon96 @IWUJackson @OnionSoup @phendrick I actually remember many years ago browsing the Demotivators site and I think bought some things. Glad to see they’re still around.
I think there’s also a feature where you can take your own photo and pick the words, and it will format it into that “motivational” style that was “the thing” back in the 90s. Ugh! Work harder, not smarter. Or wait, maybe that was wrong.
A rotating schedule of all of the poll options.
I MUST show off my cooking skills to the group. You’ll love it, now eat it!
I used to volunteer to bring the Alka-Seltzer, but nobody seems to know what that is anymore.
@werehatrack Yeah the Ozempic they are all taking has messed up their stomach more than Alka-S ever did.
@werehatrack I guess “Speedy” conjures up other thoughts, now.
/giphy plop plop fizz fizz
Usually a few bucks for the host towards overall costs. Most family gatherings have plenty of food. Couple people go all out and I am not one of them.
/showme meat