News:

Thanks to everyone for the feedback on what errors you encountered from the forum database changes made in Fall 2023. Let us know if you discover anymore.

Main Menu

Random Thoughts

Started by kenarmy, March 29, 2021, 10:25:21 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Flint1979

Quote from: Bruce on January 07, 2023, 05:45:01 PM
Quote from: kurumi on January 07, 2023, 02:29:40 PM
I wonder if any newcomers to Michigan had an eye-opening moment where they found out "Major's" (seen in print) and "Meyer's" (heard out loud) are the same supermarket chain.

And it was founded by one Frederik G. Meijer, not to be confused with Fred G. Meyer who started his own hypermarket chain, Fred Meyer, in the Northwest.
Actually Frederik was the son of the founder, the founder was named Hendrik Meijer.


Bruce

Misread former chairman as founder, chairman.


Flint1979

Quote from: Bruce on January 08, 2023, 04:50:48 AM
Misread former chairman as founder, chairman.
That's easy to do I think. Frederick was only 2 days older than my grandma, she died about 14 months before him. I remember when Frederick died.

Flint1979

And actually Frederick's wife just died about a year ago. She was 102 years old.

hotdogPi

Magic items store:

The store would be located as part of 1600 Osgood St., North Andover, MA. This is a magical world, so there is no need to hide it from Muggles.

There are 19 aisles, and checkout and the exits are next to the lower numbers. Aisle 18 is the 18+ aisle, and Aisle 19 is the "trusted" aisle, where you need the trusted flag to enter. Not even all employees have it. Aisle 19 contains things like a (cased) Sphere of Annihilation and other really dangerous things.

The currency is diamonds, abbreviated ◊. The currency is backed by actual diamond, although 1◊ is just a few milligrams of actual diamond. (Diamond prices are lower compared to our world as they have use, e.g. Minecraft-brand diamond tools and swords, so there's no artificial scarcity on the production side.) The current exchange rate is US$1:7.5◊; this was US$1:8◊ when I first came up with this because the US dollar has had inflation but diamonds have not because they're backed by a valuable material. There are no fractional diamonds; everything is an integer.

The cheapest magical items in the store cost 9◊, which are candy bars that are basically the equivalent of espresso. Non-magical snacks and candy are also sold the same way e.g. Home Depot sells snacks and candy despite being a hardware store. The starting wage for employees is 140◊/hr, and there is a union.

There are two large lights above checkout that are normally on. If the yellow one is off, there is a power outage. If the red one is off, there's a magic outage. As long as at least one light is on, the store can be open. Checkout isn't normally used, though; unless there's a magic outage, exiting through the door (or in any other way, e.g. teleporting out) will simply deduct what you've purchased from your account, and if you don't have enough, you'll be blocked from exiting through a (non-damaging) force field. (If you teleport out and you don't have enough money in your account, yes, that is stealing, and you'll probably be arrested. This being Massachusetts, you probably won't be killed, unlike most video games.) Many magic items work even during a magic outage the same way battery-operated items work during a power outage. If you use a limited-use magic item while inside the store, it will know, and it will consider the item immediately purchased.

There is a job role that is to buy objects from customers. This is a dangerous job, as some customers try to bring in cursed items, which, being illegal, typically results in an arrest of the customer, but it can be devastating for the store if it's accepted without knowing that it's cursed. Items are typically bought for about 2/3 of the price that they're sold.
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

J N Winkler

Does this store collect sales tax?  (It appears the rate is 6.25% in North Andover.)
"It is necessary to spend a hundred lire now to save a thousand lire later."--Piero Puricelli, explaining the need for a first-class road system to Benito Mussolini

hotdogPi

Quote from: J N Winkler on January 10, 2023, 11:56:46 AM
Does this store collect sales tax?  (It appears the rate is 6.25% in North Andover.)

Yes, rounded to the nearest integer. Food items are free, as they're considered grocery items. Non-harmful potions (e.g. love potions, found in Aisle 18) are considered to be drinks, so they are also tax-free.
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

vdeane

^ Wouldn't a love potion essentially subvert someone else's free will?
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

CtrlAltDel

Quote from: Flint1979 on January 08, 2023, 03:49:55 AM
Quote from: Bruce on January 07, 2023, 05:45:01 PM
Quote from: kurumi on January 07, 2023, 02:29:40 PM
I wonder if any newcomers to Michigan had an eye-opening moment where they found out "Major's" (seen in print) and "Meyer's" (heard out loud) are the same supermarket chain.

And it was founded by one Frederik G. Meijer, not to be confused with Fred G. Meyer who started his own hypermarket chain, Fred Meyer, in the Northwest.
Actually Frederik was the son of the founder, the founder was named Hendrik Meijer.

In college, my friends and I often called it Mee-eye-jer.
Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

Scott5114

Quote from: 1 on January 10, 2023, 08:17:55 AM
Magic items store:

I've had to create a number of these, running a D&D game. One of my favorites included a rack of innocuous-looking mushrooms and flowers that, when consumed, performed the same effects as the corresponding Mario power-ups. One of the players bought a few of each, not knowing what they did. I was disappointed that they all remained in inventory at the end of the game.

This same character had a habit of digging through the garbage, so I made a table of 100 items they could conceivably find in the trash if they rolled a d100. A few of them were magic items. Some of them were even good.
uncontrollable freak sardine salad chef

Flint1979

2-hour flight delay from Denver to Detroit because they can't find a pilot.

Flint1979

Quote from: CtrlAltDel on January 10, 2023, 03:15:17 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 08, 2023, 03:49:55 AM
Quote from: Bruce on January 07, 2023, 05:45:01 PM
Quote from: kurumi on January 07, 2023, 02:29:40 PM
I wonder if any newcomers to Michigan had an eye-opening moment where they found out "Major's" (seen in print) and "Meyer's" (heard out loud) are the same supermarket chain.

And it was founded by one Frederik G. Meijer, not to be confused with Fred G. Meyer who started his own hypermarket chain, Fred Meyer, in the Northwest.
Actually Frederik was the son of the founder, the founder was named Hendrik Meijer.

In college, my friends and I often called it Mee-eye-jer.
Lol. I've always known how to pronounce that one.

MultiMillionMiler

Quote from: Flint1979 on January 15, 2023, 07:15:12 PM
2-hour flight delay from Denver to Detroit because they can't find a pilot.

That was one of the reasons my NYC to Charlotte flight took so long, one pilot was late due to maintenance issues from the previous plane he was on.

US 89

Quote from: Flint1979 on January 15, 2023, 07:15:12 PM
2-hour flight delay from Denver to Detroit because they can't find a pilot.

I once had a 3-hour delay from Atlanta to Salt Lake for this reason. Only when they were about to start boarding the plane did they realize our copilot was stuck in LaGuardia.

jgb191

That's it; that does it!  No more burger buns for me when I home-make my own grilled chicken burger.  Since Texas Toast turned out to be way better than buns, I am sticking to that.  If only there were whole-wheat Texas Toast that would be my first choice, but since there is no such thing, I'll go with multi-grain Texas Toast that I bought from my local H-E-B.  I'll even take sourdough Texas Toast if there were such a thing.
We're so far south that we're not even considered "The South"

kkt

Air Canada changing planes at Montreal last summer.  The lack of pilots wasn't the initial problem, but they had just about solved the lack of availability of the planned aircraft and the lack of catering food and transfering the checked luggage from one plane to the other and THEN realized that the planned aircrew was going to time out before we reached our destination.  Total delay in Montreal was about 12 hours, and all taken a couple of hours at a time so we couldn't leave the airport and maybe see a sight or two in Montreal.

D-Dey65


ZLoth

Quote from: D-Dey65 on January 19, 2023, 12:30:25 AMAnother reminder; I miss old toll plazas, and the traffic signals and signs that go with them.

My only experience with manned toll booths in my driving life has been the San Francisco-area toll booths, especially the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, the Carquinez Bridge in Vallejo, and the Benicia bridge. I do not miss the traffic backups of people fishing around for their tolls.

Electronic Toll Collection for the WIN!
I'm an Engineer. That means I solve problems. Not problems like "What is beauty?", because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems and call them "paychecks".

D-Dey65

Sometimes I guess it depends on the plazas themselves. Everyone entering NYC is backed-up 24/7, but the southern toll plaza on the New Jersey Turnpike, almost never is.

hotdogPi

The official gender ratio of this forum is about 14:1 (I can't see it myself). But by post count, it's an even more abysmal 34:1.


  • These statistics are pretty much unchanged if you exclude members who are no longer active.
  • Taking the square root of each user's post count rather than the full post count doesn't change the overall picture much.
  • There are 11 women in the top 500 posters (I don't think I'm missing any labeled, although some might be hiding it): vdeane, vtk, Kacie Jane, sammi, LilianaUwU, Laura, Hwy 61 Revisited, Darkchylde, DJ Particle, mariethefoxy, and J3ebrules.
  • Of these 11 women, vdeane has made more than half the posts. Without her, the post gender ratio would be 75:1.
  • We have one openly nonbinary member here. If male:other rather than male:female, it would be 32.5:1.
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

kirbykart

Quote from: 1 on January 21, 2023, 09:27:08 PM
The official gender ratio of this forum is about 14:1 (I can't see it myself). But by post count, it's an even more abysmal 34:1.


  • These statistics are pretty much unchanged if you exclude members who are no longer active.
  • Taking the square root of each user's post count rather than the full post count doesn't change the overall picture much.
  • There are 11 women in the top 500 posters (I don't think I'm missing any labeled, although some might be hiding it): vdeane, vtk, Kacie Jane, sammi, LilianaUwU, Laura, Hwy 61 Revisited, Darkchylde, DJ Particle, mariethefoxy, and J3ebrules.
  • Of these 11 women, vdeane has made more than half the posts. Without her, the post gender ratio would be 75:1.
  • We have one openly nonbinary member here. If male:other rather than male:female, it would be 32.5:1.

I knew this forum was predominantly male, and I honestly expected the user ratio to be even more disproportionate than 14:1. But I didn't expect post count ratio to be that different to user ratio.

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: kirbykart on January 21, 2023, 09:51:27 PM
Quote from: 1 on January 21, 2023, 09:27:08 PM
The official gender ratio of this forum is about 14:1 (I can't see it myself). But by post count, it's an even more abysmal 34:1.


  • These statistics are pretty much unchanged if you exclude members who are no longer active.
  • Taking the square root of each user's post count rather than the full post count doesn't change the overall picture much.
  • There are 11 women in the top 500 posters (I don't think I'm missing any labeled, although some might be hiding it): vdeane, vtk, Kacie Jane, sammi, LilianaUwU, Laura, Hwy 61 Revisited, Darkchylde, DJ Particle, mariethefoxy, and J3ebrules.
  • Of these 11 women, vdeane has made more than half the posts. Without her, the post gender ratio would be 75:1.
  • We have one openly nonbinary member here. If male:other rather than male:female, it would be 32.5:1.

I knew this forum was predominantly male, and I honestly expected the user ratio to be even more disproportionate than 14:1. But I didn't expect post count ratio to be that different to user ratio.

This hobby has always been male-centric.  Every woman I've ever dated (including my wife) never understood what I got out of driving around weird roads and hunting for interesting signs.

kirbykart

Enchanted Lake, township of nuh-POHL-eye, New York.
https://www.zaepfelcenter.com/history Might be worth two minutes of your time. Not horribly unique or interesting but the plans were certainly ambitious. Sort of interesting to think how it would have been if the project had succeeded.

Takumi

Quote from: 1 on January 21, 2023, 09:27:08 PM
The official gender ratio of this forum is about 14:1 (I can't see it myself). But by post count, it's an even more abysmal 34:1.


  • These statistics are pretty much unchanged if you exclude members who are no longer active.
  • Taking the square root of each user's post count rather than the full post count doesn't change the overall picture much.
  • There are 11 women in the top 500 posters (I don't think I'm missing any labeled, although some might be hiding it): vdeane, vtk, Kacie Jane, sammi, LilianaUwU, Laura, Hwy 61 Revisited, Darkchylde, DJ Particle, mariethefoxy, and J3ebrules.
  • Of these 11 women, vdeane has made more than half the posts. Without her, the post gender ratio would be 75:1.
  • We have one openly nonbinary member here. If male:other rather than male:female, it would be 32.5:1.

Kacie Jane is male. He once mentioned it in a post.
Quote from: Rothman on July 15, 2021, 07:52:59 AM
Olive Garden must be stopped.  I must stop them.

Don't @ me. Seriously.

elsmere241

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 21, 2023, 10:04:07 PM
This hobby has always been male-centric.  Every woman I've ever dated (including my wife) never understood what I got out of driving around weird roads and hunting for interesting signs.

My wife is just starting to grasp the logic behind interstate numbering (or what's left of it).  I remember her asking me not too long ago why I-4 was in Florida, but I-5 was on the west coast.  A Facebook meme helped her with that.



Opinions expressed here on belong solely to the poster and do not represent or reflect the opinions or beliefs of AARoads, its creators and/or associates.