Watching yourself evolve on the forum

[hbelkins]

Haha, I was more worried about the "I ain't buyin' some house with them commie solar panels on it" types, but you do have a point.

I probably should visit more of Colorado than Baca County before deciding where I want to move . . .

How do solar panels fare in Oklahoma hailstorms?

As for evolution on the forum, I was already well-established on misc.transport.road and the Yahoo road-related groups, so I just brought my game here.

[Scott5114]

How do solar panels fare in Oklahoma hailstorms?

Not all that well, unfortunately. Cost of eventual repair is something people have to take into consideration here. (But then a storm that's bad enough to damage the solar panels would probably have damaged your roof enough to require replacement, so it's a wash at worst, or you may even come out ahead.)

[kkt]

(6) I originally went by just "jake", and I remember being pretty ecstatic when I found out that it was available as a username. I eventually learned that there was already a well-known Jake, Jake Bear (agentsteel53); to avoid confusing people, I had my username changed to my standard "jakeroot". With Jake's departure from the forum many years ago, I suspect many younger and/or newer users here know me best as just "Jake", but anyone active beyond this forum likely knows me as the "other Jake" as Mr Bear is still active elsewhere.

I know most forum users on here primarily by their username, and don't usually assume that's their real name unless they said so or I found out from context. So, I always thought jakeroot was a cool username but it was only more recently that I found out it was your actual name too. 

I wonder how many people still think my name is actually Max Rockatansky and don't get that it is a movie reference?

You and abefroman329

You mean, he isn't the Sausage King of Chicago?

Does he at least drive a red Ferrari?

[JayhawkCO]

How do solar panels fare in Oklahoma hailstorms?

Not all that well, unfortunately. Cost of eventual repair is something people have to take into consideration here. (But then a storm that's bad enough to damage the solar panels would probably have damaged your roof enough to require replacement, so it's a wash at worst, or you may even come out ahead.)

Colorado gets just as much hail if not more than Oklahoma. My panels are guaranteed against it, so hopefully they don't have to get worked on next year.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

In 14 years on AAroads, I've become older, quieter, grouchier, but more social.
---
Now if we're including my time on MTR....

[Ned Weasel]

I can't remember how long I've been on here. It has to be over a decade at this point. I always loved road design and traffic engineering more than most things. At some point, I jumped on the New Urbanist bandwagon, because I had read a bunch of books on the subject. But I grew to appreciate Landscape Urbanism moreso, and when the New Urbanist author James Howard Kunstler turned out to be a huge bigot, I couldn't associate myself with New Urbanism, because the organization included him as a fellow. That changed fairly recently, and they dropped his fellowship, so now I can appreciate some things about New Urbanism again, but I still despise the zealotry and trite rhetoric that surrounds it.

I'm not consistent about many things here, except I've long been in favor of toll roads, because it's better to have a reliable revenue stream than wonder how the maintaining jurisdiction is going to pay for--you know--maintenance.  And you can't implement congestion pricing without tolls, so they're an effective tool at both generating revenue and fighting congestion.

My best contributions here have probably been some of my sign assembly redesigns in the "Redesign This!" thread. Most of my Fictional Highways ideas have probably been silly, though.

I was pretty anti-smartphone for a while. But I've gotten used to them. I just wish I could find one with an actual freaking keyboard for a price that isn't ridiculous.

Some folks here have always had some really poorly thought-out opinions, and it's hard not to lash out at them. I really just need to remember that old quotation about why you should never argue with a fool. I end up deleting a lot of my posts, when I feel like they sound stupid or reveal too much.

I still wish I had more worthwhile content to contribute.

[index]

Having multiple users with the same name is fine. We have two well known Scott's (both admins) on the forum.

I am also a Scott, but it isn't my username and I don't think I would qualify as a super notable member. I just wanted to point it out. We should start a club or something.

[zachary_amaryllis]

...Heck, I only started logging non-interstate mileage on TravelMapping during the height of the pandemic...

Lucky you. I wish I would've known about and used TM during those days. Cheap gas, little traffic, a girlfriend to hit the road with instead of going out alone, and lots of spare time to go out whenever and easily work on clinching.

Ah, 2020, such a bittersweet time.

I think I finished up about 40% of Colorado's mileage in 2020. Easy to social distance when you're only passing a car every 10 minutes on some rural, mountain highway.

I'm sort of embarassed - I've lived in this area for ... ever, save a few short stints elsewhere, and I've explored nowhere NEAR that.

Sad, because there's so many -interesting- miles to drive.