Post a Picture of Your Silly Purchase of the Month.

sometimesdee wrote:

That reminds me that I should order some more Girl Scout Cookies; you can order those straight from the factory as well!

This put an image in my head of a three-panel comic:

panel 1: a girl scout arrives at sometimesdee's door, excited to sell some cookies
panel 2: sometimesdee hides a giant box of girl scout cookies labeled something like "THIN MINTS: DIRECT FROM FACTORY" in a closet by the front door as she opens the door
panel 3: girl scout dejectedly walks away from sometimesdee's house

If I could draw, I would have drawn it, but alas.

BadKen wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

That reminds me that I should order some more Girl Scout Cookies; you can order those straight from the factory as well!

This put an image in my head of a three-panel comic:

panel 1: a girl scout arrives at sometimesdee's door, excited to sell some cookies
panel 2: sometimesdee hides a giant box of girl scout cookies labeled something like "THIN MINTS: DIRECT FROM FACTORY" in a closet by the front door as she opens the door
panel 3: girl scout dejectedly walks away from sometimesdee's house

If I could draw, I would have drawn it, but alas.

I can't have GSC in the house, so I just donate to any troop that I run into selling cookies. I figure they get more out of my $10 cash donation than they would out of my buying 100 boxes of cookies.

Probably true. I just couldn't get that silly scenario out of my head.

They are selling GSC at QF C now

BadKen wrote:
sometimesdee wrote:

That reminds me that I should order some more Girl Scout Cookies; you can order those straight from the factory as well!

This put an image in my head of a three-panel comic:

panel 1: a girl scout arrives at sometimesdee's door, excited to sell some cookies
panel 2: sometimesdee hides a giant box of girl scout cookies labeled something like "THIN MINTS: DIRECT FROM FACTORY" in a closet by the front door as she opens the door
panel 3: girl scout dejectedly walks away from sometimesdee's house

If I could draw, I would have drawn it, but alas.

Panel 3 is so full of bullsh*t. I'd still buy cookies from the girl scout. And the local troop gets a cut when you order from the factory, anyway.

I'm glad to learn the local troop gets a cut of factory sales.

Even though my imaginary comic is complete BS, it still makes me grin that something so evil just popped into my head.

I may need therapy. Strike that, I definitely need therapy.

BadKen wrote:

:D

I'm glad to learn the local troop gets a cut of factory sales.

Even though my imaginary comic is complete BS, it still makes me grin that something so evil just popped into my head.

I may need therapy. Strike that, I definitely need therapy.

Yeah. They get a cut. They always get their cut.

IMAGE(https://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/1478189936-20161103.png)

Silly? Maybe. Glorious? Most definitely

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/BKvkVGj/IMG-8405.jpg)

JC wrote:

Silly? Maybe. Glorious? Most definitely

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/BKvkVGj/IMG-8405.jpg)

Magnificent! What's the model?

I haven’t actually picked mine up yet, but someone posted this to my neighborhood’s Facebook group page and tonight is the inaugural night of our weekly Dads and Dudes Big Wheel Ride.

https://ifunny.co/video/there-s-a-gr...

And now I have one of my own.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/bWe92PH_d.webp?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium)

My son’s was a little too ahhhh... size prohibitive.

Coldstream wrote:
JC wrote:

Silly? Maybe. Glorious? Most definitely

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/BKvkVGj/IMG-8405.jpg)

Magnificent! What's the model?

Samsung Odyssey G9 at 240hz. 49" of widescreen beauty (5120x1440).

There's a part of me that regrets not getting one of those (or something similar) instead of the 34" UW I got. By itself, 34" isn't quite big enough to be the only monitor I have, but it's wide enough that the only way to run a second monitor is in portrait mode. I don't actually mind that, but finding wallpapers for that arrangement is basically impossible.

Chaz wrote:

By itself, 34" isn't quite big enough to be the only monitor I have, but it's wide enough that the only way to run a second monitor is in portrait mode. I don't actually mind that, but finding wallpapers for that arrangement is basically impossible.

Same. I run an Alienware AW3418DW at 3440x1440 as my main monitor, with an Acer XB270HU as my secondary monitor in portrait mode. The Alienware monitor is really great for gaming and is probably the limit of what my GeForce 2080 can push in terms of resolution at reasonably high/ultra settings. The monitor in portrait mode is really useful for references and occasionally to have large sections of a document visible at once. I've pretty much become an expert at the windows snapping tool, especially if I'm working on some school stuff that requires me to have six or seven active windows at any point. Beats alt-tabbing for sure.

For backgrounds, I tend to just use very high-resolution images and then span them. With the right images, you get a nice contiguous picture. Right now, for example, my portrait monitor has some large trees and the beginning of a path, which subsequently wanders its way across the main monitor surrounded by flowers. Very relaxing!

JC, how's the curve on that monitor? It's much more aggressive than my own curved UW. I can imagine it's incredible for immersive gaming, but how do you find it for multiple windows during normal browsing/working?

My previous monitor was/is the Alienware 34" and I'm keeping that one for work. It's really nice to be able to have side by side spreadsheets, etc.

The curve on the Odyssey is WAY more noticeable compared to the Alienware, but really only "stands out" when you look left or right or view it from the side. I think I'll adjust fairly quickly and not notice it as much after a day or two. I'm still adjusting and getting over the "wow" factor right now.

Having multiple windows does make you notice the curve but not in a bad way. The 34" alienware felt like having 2 windows open side by side was the "limit" and with the Samsung, having 3 open is really nice. One of those things that I didn't know I was missing until I had the ability to do it. Incredibly sharp images after some minor tweaks. I'm sitting about 32" away from the screen after mounting it on the wall and that feels just about perfect.

Gaming is, as you would expect, nuts. The vistas that spread out in games like Valhalla or Odyssey are impressive. I think that's partly because it feels more natural using your eyeballs to look around (if that makes sense).

The reviews all mentioned that the edge-lighting zones were lacking and they weren't wrong. Only 10 and those show up as columns. If you've in a black loading screen with a mouse cursor you can see them light up which is odd but in game I need to spend more time to see if it's as noticeable. Same goes with HDR implementation. Have to mess around with that a bit more.

All in all- I was on the fence after I pulled the trigger on the purchase with some buyer's regret. Now that I have it set up and running.... Totally different story. I wish I had done it sooner.

After yet another power surge turned off the computers and fried a power supply I had enough and ordered this UPS:
IMAGE(https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71dxHJwUIPL._AC_SS450_.jpg)

What I didn't expect is that it's the size of a computer tower!

My Series X was feeling shame that it had to drive a ten year old 27" 1080p monitor, so...

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/grcQCyz/PXL-20210329-193745219.jpg)

LG CX OLED 55" after price dropped when LG announced 2021 models. I haven't owned a TV in over ten years so this thing is constantly astounding me. When not playing games, I have been streaming 4k Dolby Vision movies non-stop since I bought it. I got a nice Atmos sound bar at the same time.

I did not expect to be able to afford a TV this nice. It freaked me out a little that with my crappy credit and disability income, I still qualified for some hefty financing. I can afford monthly payments as I just paid off a big long term loan. So to celebrate... more debt!

Worth it.

It is hella thin.

IMAGE(https://media.wired.com/photos/5ef51d69f435e6f478b28a47/master/w_1024%2Cc_limit/Gear-LG-CX-OLED-Base-SOURCE-LG.jpg)

I have been drooling over those OLEDs for years, but I also JUST bought a new TV a few years ago, too, so I can't justify it.

Nice one Ken! Every time I'm at the store and see one of those OLEDs I'm astounded at how thin it is.

I have a 5 year old E6 and it it still works perfectly. Great sets! The only downer is my older model doesn't support eARC so that means I have to choose Dolby Vision + Dolby Digital audio through the TV apps, or 1080p Dolby Vision + Atmos via Roku.

Man... TV is complicated these days.

BadKen wrote:

Worth it.

It is hella thin.

IMAGE(https://media.wired.com/photos/5ef51d69f435e6f478b28a47/master/w_1024%2Cc_limit/Gear-LG-CX-OLED-Base-SOURCE-LG.jpg)

Absolutely!!! They are very nice. I waited & saved for a year so I could replace my old 55" 1080p projection with a CX 65" in Feb.

Going from this:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/IAXlht9.jpg?1)

To this:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/46yM7xY.jpg?1)

Happy.

That’s crazy thin. Could you imagine taking that thing in a time machine back to 1987 and blowing people’s minds. You’d probably get stoned to death or burnt at the stake for witchcraft and crimes against god.

I totally forgot to post this back in February and it definitely qualifies as a silly purchase: an Apple Watch charging stand in the shape of a classic iMac.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ZzuuK3e.jpg)

It's so simple and so damn cute! The same company makes them in Gameboy, Mac Classic, and iPod shapes too. I think I deliberated more over this $15 purchase than I did my last TV!

Here's my silly purchase

https://www.repfitness.com/bars-plat...

IMAGE(https://www.repfitness.com/media/catalog/product/cache/8ee77ff8d52a52191b036bb3475b95ba/w/e/web-technique-bar-1x1.jpg)

My son, 11, has expressed desire to start building some strength. He's kind of scrawny and a 45lb olympic bar is going to bury him on a squat or bench. On a side note, he can deadlift it from a rack pin pull...

Latest addition to the home gym.

Nothing silly about that. I could use one of those for my wife, too.

Jesus, lifting bars are ridiculously expensive for a heavy piece of metal.

NSMike wrote:

Jesus, lifting bars are ridiculously expensive for a heavy piece of metal.

Wholesale commodity market price of aluminum is ~ $2/lb. So that's $30 of aluminum, plus markup from the supplier (cos remember that $2/lb is stock market price of aluminum, not retail cost).

I'm not a product guy, so maybe I'm completely wrong on this, but it doesn't' seem too far fetched that the final product price is ~ raw material price x 4, once you factor in manufacturing costs, sales and distribution, advertising and profit margin.

Of course, my math goes off the rails when we get to steel 45lb bars, cos steel is only $1/lb, and the bars run $300-and-change, so yeah, jesus, lifting bars are expensive.

EDIT, I found an article that goes into the reasons why you pay so much: TL:DR - fine tolerances and tempering are both expensive to achieve.

Fair enough. In my mind, I'm thinking about how manufacturing is actually getting easier, even with precise tolerances, but tempering is a lengthy process, and when we're talking about supporting that much weight when a human is using it, it has to be done right, or it could literally kill someone.

NSMike wrote:

Fair enough. In my mind, I'm thinking about how manufacturing is actually getting easier, even with precise tolerances, but tempering is a lengthy process, and when we're talking about supporting that much weight when a human is using it, it has to be done right, or it could literally kill someone.

Yup, safety is hella expensive. And kind of makes sense why the heavier bars designed to carry more weight are exponentially more expensive.

Could always look at the secondhand market. We got our home gym used.

It's not just the metal. The bar itself is designed to have a certain amount of flex to it without bending permanently. Different bars are tuned to have different amounts of flex depending on the lifting type (powerlifting bars need way less flex than an olympic bar that's specifically supposed to have a reasonable amount of spring to it for those lifts) or personal preference. The knurling is also (ideally) machined or milled really precisely so that it gives enough grip, but doesn't have any rough spots that'll catch.

Then the sleeves at the end need to be cast or milled to a very specific tolerance so that they fit standard size plates with minimal clearance, because you absolutely don't want any play between the bar and the plates. Of course, those sleeves also need to spin, so they need bearings. Those bearings need to be able to spin freely even when loaded down with hundreds of pounds of plates, not introduce any flex that'd bind up with that weight on them, and also be able to handle being dropped from fully overhead while fully loaded.

On top of all that, the entire thing has to weigh 45lbs to within an extremely tight tolerance.

I used to think it was bonkers to spend that much on a bar, but once I started actually getting into lifting, it started to make sense, so when I put together my home gym, a $300 bar became a totally reasonable buy. You can definitely go cheaper, but the cheaper you go, the more compromises you make.

I really need to get back to lifting. I miss it.