Octopus Overlords

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Sun Aug 28, 2022 6:10 pm

Kraken wrote: ↑Sun Aug 28, 2022 1:59 am Maybe I should've just bought another pair of BOBs, if they still exist. But Reebok got sold and re-sold over the past few years so I'd be surprised if they're still making BOBs.

The only BOBs in the shoe market are from Skechers.

I think the Reebok style number was 608. It looked like BOB in their font, so that's what I called them, and I bought Bobs at least three times.

Bobs on twitch are boobs Keep reading that as that.

If you do end up liking the Adrenalines, the next time you buy them, check out a site like Slickdeals...you can likely get them for less than half what you paid. In fact, if you find you really like them a couple weeks or so after you wear them around, put an alert on the site and it will ping you when "Brooks Adrenaline" sales pop up (which is often, just like almost all other running shoes from previous years - which as noted above, are sometimes better than the latest model).

For my feet, the first pair of Saucony Triumphs I bought have never been matched (but that could have also been the 'wow' factor coming from relatively cheap and crappy NB shoes).

Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Sun Aug 28, 2022 11:54 pm If you do end up liking the Adrenalines, the next time you buy them, check out a site like Slickdeals...you can likely get them for less than half what you paid. In fact, if you find you really like them a couple weeks or so after you wear them around, put an alert on the site and it will ping you when "Brooks Adrenaline" sales pop up (which is often, just like almost all other running shoes from previous years - which as noted above, are sometimes better than the latest model).

I know nothing of this wizardry. I did search for sales and coupon codes, and my CapitalOne browser plugin didn't find any lower prices. It's usually pretty good at saving me money.

Since they were mentioned as a brand up-thread:

Woot has Saucony running shoes on sale.

TheMix wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 9:53 am Since they were mentioned as a brand up-thread:

Woot has Saucony running shoes on sale.

$100?! ouch.

I have these from Walmart...$9 right now....and have had them a couple years. I mow in them and weed eat and yard work. One of the most comfortable shoes Ive ever owned. Prob not great for runners though.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/AND1-Men-s-P ... /678854712

anything Oster. my nine year old toaster oven started ignoring the set oven temperature and eventually heat to the maximum temp of the oven (and maybe beyond, i don't know) - it would start smoking, the bake pan would warp from the heat, food would be absolutely carbonized, etc. i wrote to Oster about this and they asked a bunch of weird questions, and after just a little bit of back and forth and requesting a photo of the oven, they are now shipping out a brand new replacement toaster oven and also sent me a pre-paid FedEx label to have the defective oven sent to their QA dept for analysis. i guess home appliance fire hazards are a pretty serious thing, even years out of warranty.

also their pro-grade hair clippers are great. i purchased refurbished ones (standard clipper and a t-finisher) a couple years ago and both have been absolutely reliable and work well.

I should have gotten an oster blender years ago but went cheap and am now paying for that mistake.

Does anybody use a chair mat? I've had my chair on the carpet for almost 20 years now, and the carpet is worn through to the wood. It's impossible to roll now, which is causing me some problems, including some back pain issues. I've never owned one. Any advice or suggestions?

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:30 pm Does anybody use a chair mat? I've had my chair on the carpet for almost 20 years now, and the carpet is worn through to the wood. It's impossible to roll now, which is causing me some problems, including some back pain issues. I've never owned one. Any advice or suggestions?

Are you sure it's not the toxic mold from downstairs eating its way thru the floor?

We do. But nothing fancy. Back when I had carpeting, I used some I picked up at CostCo.

For our wood floors we have some that look like fake wood on top (and also don't have the little points on the bottom that you'd use with carpet.

I don't know if there is enough difference between brands to matter. I'd say use whatever is easiest for you to get your hands on.

Hairdressers have the most comfy chair mats.

stimpy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:34 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 4:30 pm Does anybody use a chair mat? Any advice or suggestions?

Are you sure it's not the toxic mold from downstairs eating its way thru the floor?

He makes a joke about this, but those chair mats can cause dampness underneath them particularly in an environment that's already susceptible. I think they make some with holes to prevent that.

...and the only ventilated mats I see are crazy expensive. My friend drilled holes in his instead, not sure how that turned out though. I've replaced wheels on my chair with much higher quality wheels at a cheap price. You might try that as part of a solution https://www.amazon.com/s?k=chair+wheels ... _sb_noss_1

You are supposed to lift them up on a regular basis and vaccuum underneath, you know...

Never heard of a ventilated mat. I have a vinyl one that doesn't have carpet spikes, something like this one.

gilraen wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 7:45 pm Never heard of a ventilated mat.

https://bisonmat.com/chair-mats/hot-springs-series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX7nWasVDiM

We're actually pretty fastidious house cleaners. Vacuuming is regular, including under things.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:28 pm We're actually pretty fastidious house cleaners. Vacuuming is regular, including under things.

Which is great if you lived in an environment that's under your control and of your own making.
You dont.

stimpy wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:35 pm

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon Sep 26, 2022 8:28 pm We're actually pretty fastidious house cleaners. Vacuuming is regular, including under things.

Which is great if you lived in an environment that's under your control and of your own making.
You dont.

It's as under control as I am going to get it. Moving on.

I must have the model before this one with no remote but otherwise this is the same battery powered camping fan from Aldi. Worked great thru two hurricanes and still running on the batteries it came with.

You rode out two hurricanes in a tent?

Does anyone have any opinions about Chefman kitchen appliances? My air fryer is starting to crap out (it keeps shutting off when I am adjusting the settings or setting the timer), so I'm thinking about replacing it with a multifunction Chefman air fryer/rotisserie.

How does everyone light their large rooms? We're having living room lighting problems.

Part of the problem is that we lack surfaces to work with - one whole corner is taken up with the two pigeon cages, and another corner is taken up with the computers (which don't have much real estate.) The third corner is the TV, and the fourth is the end table. Right now, all the lighting we have is the backlights for the TV and computers, the lighting for the birds, and one table lamp on the one table. The problem is that the bird lights are off most of the day (because the birds aren't in their cages - that's their flight time, limited to the living room), and go off shortly after the sun goes down, while the backlights provide practically zero illumination (that's not their job.)

On a cloudy day or after sunset, the living room is just dark. Some of the time that's OK, but other times (like when we're playing board games), it's a huge issue.

The ideal solution would be a ceiling mounted light, but we can't really do that here in this rental with century-old plaster ceilings. Maybe if we could afford to hire a contractor, but short of that? Not happening. If it wasn't for the birds, it would be easier. Hanging lights with cords or chains might do the trick, but the cords to hang them could present a hazard to the pigeons. Floor lamps are the obvious solution (the bright ones that light the room by reflecting off of the ceiling), but again, the birds. We can't go with anything that produces heat, as they'd end up landing on it and getting injured. We've had a couple of LED floor lamps that worked - except that the one we've found were of really crappy quality, which made them wobbly rather than stable. And of course, when the pigeons landed on them, it tipped them over and broke them.

Help me attack the darkness (I don't know Magic Missile.)

Maybe something battery powered that "sticks" like https://www.amazon.com/LEASTYLE-Kitchen ... 08SM632YW/

Caveat: I haven't used something like this, so I won't vouch for quality, battery level, etc.

We do have a floor lamp that is pretty sturdy. I would imagine that it would support birds. It's LED and doesn't get hot. However, it does shine down. It's either this one or close to it (we got it off Woot).

LED torchiere floor lamp

I've been thinking about gaining power by selling the souls of neighbor children to the Cenobites, so imagine my pure delight when this showed up on the Walmart site!

You pinhead!

Pyperkub wrote: ↑Wed Nov 09, 2022 4:13 pmYou pinhead!

Now a Disney princess

I don't trust stick-on lights. I've yet to stick anything to these walls/ceilings that didn't fall off within a few days, regardless of the quality of the adhesive. The problem with the birds knocking over the lamps is that suddenly plopping a pound of weight onto them tends to overbalance them - the bases just aren't heavy/wide enough to allow for it, and arm lamps are even worse as they tend to land at the ends of the arms. It doesn't help that the cheap garbage poles tend to not be all that sturdy. They don't attach tightly to the base, and they don't attach tightly to the top. They loosen over time, and they don't stand up quite straight. After that, they're easy to overbalance.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Nov 09, 2022 3:52 pm LED torchiere floor lamp

...is what they just broke via the method above.


A good quality floor lamp would likely do the trick, but I can't spend hundreds of dollars, and you can't test them before you buy them, so you don't know how they're going to stand up to use. Too many companies are putting out cheap, poorly engineered junk. It's flooding the market, and it's impossible to sort the tiny number of quality products from the glut of junk.

Canopy weights or sandbags

I recommend a nice electric blanket for the cold weather. They feel so amazing on winter and comfy too. My only gripe is they only work from 1 -3 seasons. 3 if very lucky. My last one the blanket is fine but the controller died and I cant find a replacement as the company never has them in stock and I aint buying no used one.

Can anyone throw out the name of a decent brand of kitchen knives that will hold their edges better than the Wal-Mart crap I'm tired of (badly) sharpening? I use them mostly for vegetables. I really need at least a paring knife and a chef's knife that won't keep going dull after a week, but I also can't afford to pay a premium. And as usual, there seems to nothing but $150-per-knife professional tier and the $20 discount tier, with nothing in between.

I can't claim to be a knife expert, but we purchased this set just before the pandemic started and haven't had any issues. Sharp, stay sharp, etc...

McCook MC29

Currently a "lightning deal"

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Nov 09, 2022 5:32 pm
A good quality floor lamp would likely do the trick, but I can't spend hundreds of dollars, and you can't test them before you buy them, so you don't know how they're going to stand up to use. Too many companies are putting out cheap, poorly engineered junk. It's flooding the market, and it's impossible to sort the tiny number of quality products from the glut of junk.

Perhaps a tripod lamp?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YR2WYQ/?t ... AAAAAAAdV6

It's one of Wirecutter's recommended, and it's not ridiculously expensive. And I would think a tripod base would be sturdier for unexpected pigeon landings.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:47 pm reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential - Knives

?

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Nov 16, 2022 10:08 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:47 pm reddit.com/r/KitchenConfidential - Knives

?

I'm guessing he was trying to direct you to one of the threads like this one?

https://www.reddit.com/r/KitchenConfide ... ch_knives/

The consensus for awesome cheap knives seems to be the Victorinox Fibrox series. I have some of their paring knives and I can endorse. I've been using them for probably 10 years and they keep an edge well. My go to chef's knife is a Wusthof, and it's been going strong for about 15 years. It is a bit more, though - I think closer to $100.

Trying, but badly.

Many moons ago I bought JLab headphones based on a recommendation I got from somebody here. They were around $50. All these moons later I'm still over the moon about them. Sound quality is decent, battery life is excellent, they fit comfortably over a baseball cap or stocking hat, and they don't slip when I'm walking. I only wear them for an hour at a time, but I probably get 10-12 hours before they need recharging.

I have some Jlabs wireless earbuds I love too. Had them over a year now. Still going. And were fairly cheap.

Heartily recommend "Trim" brand nail clippers. Not expensive and sharp. Why is it so hard for everybody else to make a decent fingernail clipper?