The Apple Cyber Cafe

[spydah]

I figured I would continue the Apple Cyber Cafe. Although I think that Apple should be the one starting this thread. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter who starts it, but who participates in it.

Here is her original message:
Good morning ladies and gents (and those like me that have a difficult time falling into either category ). I thought it would be nice to have a place we can all come and say good morning and share things that may not be smart spending related but will allow us to interact with each other to share whatever is going on (or just say “hi”). Also, there are a few stalkers—er, lurkers—out there as well that might not have things to post specific to any one thread but would come and expose themselves.

So, kick back, grab a free goodie and share…

--apple

[emptypockets]

*grabs a cup of decaf and a danish*

Welcome to the first Monday of the new year 2011. I filed for old age social security benefits online today. Guess that means I am an official senior citizen, e.g. old fogey. Welcome to a new adventure and great tomorrows.

[bobbysgirl]

Apparently one of the mods - Virgil - created a bot that can move entire threads for MSN over to proboards. Is anyone interested in that?

APPLE: I copied this message from the GC thread. Could this work with all of the recipes and such?

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I can file for Social Security benefits it 17 years, 3 months, and 14 days.

[Apple]

SPYDAH!!!!
I hadn't started the cafe back up since there was already a chat thread tacked to the top, BUT, if people are interested enough it will live, if not, well, that's ok too...

Jan 3, 2011 15:51:31 GMT -5 @bobbysgirl said:

Apparently one of the mods - Virgil - created a bot that can move entire threads for MSN over to proboards. Is anyone interested in that?

APPLE: I copied this message from the GC thread. Could this work with all of the recipes and such?

I do know Virgil was trying to limit the moving of threads to favorites, not entire boards, so it's up to us to request a specific thread if it's really important to us.

The problem I've ran into with recipes is that most of them are not found in a "recipe thread" but buried all over in different threads. What I've been doing so far is looking up key words, scrolling through old threads that look like they have potential for recipes (but, I might go through 100 posts and see two recipes). I've literally copied hundreds by just doing this, and I know I don't have close to all of them I don't think we'll be able to save them all, but I'm doing the best I can. This is one reason I'm happy we have a specific section for recipes. It would be nice if, when we post one in a thread, we can make a copy in one of the recipe folders, or, just do it in the folder and provide a link in the thread.
Actually, I was up until 4 this morning copying recipes and it's pretty much all I've done all day (it's ok, DS won't starve, I have a pork roast in the crockpot!)
If you know there is a favorite recipe you might lose, it might be best to find it before the boards go away later this week. I won't be able to post everything I've saved here before then.

[Apple]

Oh, coffee sounds good right now, I haven't had any today!

[spydah]

My pleasure Apple.

[motherto2]

well, it's not morning, I spend that time getting breakfast and lunch together for work, work my way through a couple of cups of coffee and then exercise, so I don't have time in the am to get the computer up and running. And, I'm sure I'll get caught up looking at the other new posts, and would be late for work. So, I'll post in the evenings, and tell you how the day went. First day back to work since 12/23. For the most part is was ok, but I sure was missing nap time after lunch but muscled through to my exercise time in the pm. Some of the ladies I work with and I get together and do a walking video before we shove off to home. With kids and other stuff, it's hard to fit time in when we get home (or in my case, too tired!). Currently watching Biggest Loser where are they now show - gearing up for the new season!

[NastyWoman]

Jan 3, 2011 15:57:45 GMT -5 ❤ mollymouser ❤ said:

I can file for Social Security benefits it 17 years, 3 months, and 14 days.

But who is counting ;D

[Deleted]

I've been collecting mine for so long that I don't remember when I started!

How come I haven't seen Apple's cafe before? I'm thinking that once I got to the "chat" thread, I quit looking. Or something.

Anyway, here I am, and you're stuck with me ;D

[Apple]

Lol, Miss R! Yeah, with the chat thread pinned to the top I think this one will get burried easily, but glad Spydah at least started it. Maybe I should go to the old SS and save my house plans from cyber-death and put them here
Today we'll be baking MissR's Parsnip Cake, I'll get DS to help out, and I think I'll have enough left over to make spiced parsnip bread as well. Or I'll ship him off to Grampa's to watch a foot ball game, I'll need to check and see if there are any on later today.

[donnafreedman]

Sitting around with my foot elevated and iced. I'm finding it hard to ask for help -- I feel so high-maintenance! But am learning it's OK to ask for a cold drink, a pillow or more ibuprofen. DD and DSIL's two cats keep me company and I get a kick out of them.
Later today: Mexican food in Scottsdale. I paid $16.92 for $40 worth of social buying vouchers. (See tinyurl.com/25k4wvn for more details on how that shook down.) That should get us plenty to eat plus leftovers for tomorrow. And I have a free Cold Stone Creamery voucher for afterwards, plus coupons and a gift card for DD and DSIL to get ice cream, too.
Gee: Enforced idleness and high-calorie food -- what a good idea!

[Apple]

Hope it gets better soon. Even if it's hard, enjoy being catered to! I had surgery last week and no one to cater to me Similar surgery two years ago I was babied. Even though I thought I was being a PITA, I realised this round just how much better it was.
Can't get much better than free! Enjoy your day, find your inner princess and revel in the pampering (hahaha, doesn't fit me either, but do it anyway).
DS will be at grampa's for the game, I'll be baking cake, making home-made bleu cheese dressing and wrapping up hamburger for the freezer.

[bobbysgirl]

Pampering doesn't fit most frugalistas. We're too busy! Feel better Donna. You could probably get a 1.00 DVD chick flick out of this deal. Hmmm I think my foot hurts! Oh DS... Can you get mom a DVD at Redbox today?

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Mmmm.... Mexican food and icecream!!! Mexican food with guacamole is what my wonderful DH has requested when he returns from Iraq. I'm sure he'd like icecream, too ... but THAT they have over there.

[Apple]

Peachy always did a quote of the day over in the Coffee Shop, so that's given me the idea to try my own little twist on it. I don't have a blog so I'll bore y'all here with...

Apple's Random Thought of the Day
I'll try to make each one original, but I don't always have original thoughts so I'll use quotes when needed. However, today, after packing my lunch and getting ready to go to work in a few minutes this came out of nowhere (and I'm gonna take credit since I've never heard it before )

MONDAYS: BECAUSE EVEN THE DAYS OF THE WEEK NEED A VILLAN.

[Deleted]

Good morning from a snowy, icy Georgia!

Apple, I'm like the American Legion...haven't had an original idea since 1919 ;D

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Hey, do you want this stickied to the top of the page like the other chat thread?

[Apple]

Lol, that's ok. I'm a fan of few stickies I figure if anyone is interested it stays afloat, if not, it'll fade from the first page. EE is a little different, two chat threads with very different feels, but at SS everyone is more on the same page so both will probably be similar enough to just go to one. But want to make sure Spydah knows I'll use it if it seems to get any reads...

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Okie Dokie, artichokie. I didn't want to seem as if I was playing favorites with the other chat thread, ya know?

("MOM! You like the other chat thread better than me, don't you?")

heh heh heh .... yes, I'm being silly tonight.

[Deleted]

I like this one, it's easier to keep up with. Good morning all

(note the appropriate use of the coffee drinking emo )

[Apple]

My random thought for today:
When the world "comes to an end" in 2012, it will be caused by a single CFL lightbulb.

There's a full history to that one thought, but I'll spare everyone the entire backstory. But, since they will be outlawing incandescent lightbulbs next year, someone will put a CFL light in a plant that has DC emergency backup, the light will cause an explosion, tripping the plant offline, causing another plant to lose power, another light to explode, until all the plants everywhere go dark from the domino effect. (The effects have already been seen at work this morning. Be aware, be very aware )

[Deleted]

We have time. What's the full history?

[spydah]

Yeah Apple, what is the full story?

[Apple]

OK, the rest of the story (much of it was copied from my post on EE, apologies if you read it already)
I work in a very old facility where you can't rely on any of the prints (as people update things they don't document the changes, pretty frustrating). There is a lot of "mystery" about how things actually work sometimes.
We have a "kid" who works in our electric shop who's main job is changing lightbulbs and little stuff like that (no "hot" work, he's not an electrician). He'll often decide he knows how to do things better than we do and will do things his way without checking to see if it will work (it can be pretty dangerous depending on what he does).
A couple days ago he decided to change our emergency lights to CFL bulbs instead of incandescents so he wouldn't have to change them as often (he'd been told not to do it when he did it about a year ago, someone "caught" him again this time). Normally the emergency lights are wired to AC (the same kind you have in your house) so there is no issue. However, if we lose power (AC) to the plant (it has happened, and yes, I helped cause it at least once ) all the lights will go out except those that are wired as emergency lights. These will swap over to run on DC during the AC outage (our DC is a big "bank" of batteries. Take your car battery and imagine one that is about 4 times that size, that is the size of ONE of our 2 volt batteries--the larger the battery, the more power, or "time" it can provide, even though just one has less voltage than the battery in your remote control--and we have 120 batteries all tied together in a large room, and another room with even more batteries tied together to provide power for other circuits).
So, the government in all it's wisdom has decided to outlaw regular old incandescent lightbulbs. Problem is, many CFL lamps cannot run on DC. Some will just not turn on, some will melt, some will explode (some will also work, depending on the manufacturer). Depending on the conditions, the blown light can trip a breaker or, in extreme cases, carry back to the batteries and cause an issue there (again, extreme but possible, so that is where the end of the world happens, you don't ever want to be around when a battery of that size explodes).
Here, some people thought the emergency lights must "be in a special socket," some thought that they would run on a special type of AC voltage, some thought they were always DC, and some thought (correctly) that the power would swap to DC. Of course, we can't trust the print, so several people were researching it to see what would happen and how it REALLY worked (something we do way too often due to those unupdated prints).
After we found out how it really works, we hooked a light fixture up to a test board. One brand worked fine, one would not turn on, and the other blew up and blew the fuse. Right now we have let the people doing the ordering know that we need to only stock the brand that works. Of course, after a while, no one will remember why we went with this brand, and they will order something else. So, if we ever do lose power we might be completely in the dark, we might have some lights or we might get to have a bunch of little explosions. And, when you get enough explosions, you can wreak havoc on the power grid. So, one little lightbulb will cause the domino effect and start taking out the power generating plants and large industrial plants and your homes. Dams will fail, causing flooding, I'm sure an earthquake will happen, all kinds of fun stuff
CFL lights also generate a lot of electronic "noise" that can make some circuits go screwy. I've worked on generators that have a "run light" and if you put a CFL bulb in it they start acting wonky, slamming gates and tripping themselves off-line. They simply can't work with the wrong kind of light bulb.
Electricity really is an amazing, but scary, thing.

[Deleted]

Wow! A light bulb really could do it!

[Apple]

Jan 14, 2011 16:34:00 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

Wow! A light bulb really could do it!

Yeah, I've tripped an entire powerhouse, part of a substation and the powerlines to a small town once (the lines were quickly recovered) by changing a small indicating lightbulb--smaller than your pinky. The wiring to the socket wasn't quite right.

[Deleted]

Apple! Were you the one responsible for the East Coast black out?!?!?!?!

[Apple]

Lol. Nope, I won't claim that one! The small town was probably my biggest blackout and it only lasted a couple seconds. (West coast, and we're on a completely different grid so it couldn't have been me! I felt sorry for the relay techs that day though. With old transformers and switches that you can't take down for maintenance, it's sure to happen at some point).

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

::: resolves to be nicer to Apple so she doesn't zorch out my power! :::