LadyCrimson

@ majestic - yeah, no inheritance tax here either. Which is definitely a nice thing. I have too many ... issues ... for persistent employment that's worth much of anything, and after hubby's income grew higher and higher I just stopped trying. So I haven't officially worked in a long time. I made up for it in the long run tho, I guess, by having parents with a surprising (to us kids) amount of money to pass down, in the end.

Yeah that's about the size of the house we rented near Morgan Hill. It was a nice size for us. I miss that house, rental or not. Sigh.

I live a bit north of Hurlshot and our 3bd/1 bath/1 car garage, 980 square foot house would sell for around 1.3 million right now. The house was built in the 1950's as cheap worker housing, looks cheap, and is not "updated" to the nines. I call it a "postage stamp house." At least the area is pretty decent (eg, "safe" and pretty 1st time buyer/family attractive), that's about the best thing. Hurlshot's area he might get something newer/bigger but it won't be a mansion for $800k. For us personally, 980 sq. feet, combined with a cramped layout (not a lot of "communal" living space) feels like a glorified apartment. Hubby and I don't have kids but we're space hogs, what with our two dedicated PC/offices. It works and we're used to it by now but it's amazing how much difference even another two or three hundred sq. feet can make in terms of function and feel. Smallest I've lived in was a 675ish sq. ft. 2 bd apartment, which was ok when I was 19 but would drive me nuts now. On the flip side, if it was much bigger than 1600-1800 sq. foot my response would be "Ok, but I'm not cleaning it." I understand where Hurlshot is coming from - we struggled with that same issue/thought we'd never buy, living here - and we thought that way even back in the late 1980's. For most, income won't increase faster than housing inflation. I assume it's like this mostly everywhere, only in some areas, like popular or business centralized urban/suburbian, the rate of increase is so magnified it eventually drives people out of the area if their jobs/lives allow it. House size wise - the average size of American homes has been increasing since the 70's or so, I think. Nationally it might've been around 1500-1600 sq. feet once, it's probably closer to 2500sq ft. now. But like everywhere, it vastly depends on the richness of the area and/or the age/region of the area, even down to what block. As far as hiding - well, in some areas, more modern/newer houses 2500+ sq ft might have more bathrooms than bedrooms, so, y'know, they can all hide in those? And yeah, inventory vs. demand/population is always problematic, as well. If it wasn't, the prices wouldn't get quite as crazy.

Santa Cruz doesn't have as much rain, tho. ...maybe I'm weird, but weather is one of the main reasons I'd move somewhere. I've always wanted a house with a giant plate glass living room wall so I can watch storms. So parts of OR would be great for that. Hmm...that makes me think I'll spend the afternoon looking at homes for sale up there, again.

The critic reviews have been pretty positive overall ... hopefully they'll at least finish the first season. That's all I ask. tbh, I'm not sure Resident Alien would hold up for more than two or three seasons anyway - it's great initially but I could see it getting "old" before too long if they don't up the ante and tighten things re: plot/device content. A little more mystery/murder/mayhem and a little less sitcom, over time, for example. SyFy once had some decent shows on their space for a while, like Battlestar, Eureka, and Stargate, but yeah ... maybe this could be the start of a new period for SyFy. Edit: I still can't stand typing out "SyFy."

SyFy put the first two episodes of that new sci-fi/comedy Resident Alien series on their YouTube channel. I don't know if they'll put up any more, but I watched those. And it's great. I mean, it's totally silly, but great. To quote one of the top comments under the 1st episode: "Alan Tudyk is an intergalactic treasure that must be preserved". Such an adorkable hottie. Also, he's killing it in terms of the fish out of water alien in human disguise mannerisms. The whole cast is pretty good, humor is right up my alley. I hope they don't cancel it mid-season or something. At least finish a full season first.

In the US, even the better tap water still has a ton of stuff in it that the cities add for disinfection etc. Usually nothing to be concerned about but they can produce unappealing smells even if it's perfectly "safe" for drinking... Our current city uses so much chloramine (not the same as volatile chlorine) that sometimes it smells like pool water. Some days it's pretty mild/almost not noticeable, what I'd call normal for the whole Bay Area, and some days it's very strong. There's nothing wrong with it for drinking per se - and I suppose a pool-smell is slightly better than a swampy smell (like some well waters) - but after a while (some years later - it's gotten worse over time) we bought this large gravity filter.

I have a truck/jeep thingie. That's new (to me). Has lots of storage space and not the worst to drive, but it can come to dead stop on very steep hills, so no Everest driving. Plus it's a gas hog, haha. Still, I might actually use the thing to go from one town to another, vs. using the previous putt-putt mini-scooter, never.

...for some reason that makes me feel old. On the bright side, since I never had any kids, no one is ever going to call me grandma! ...another topic, I've had the same game on (and nothing else inbetween) for 6+ hrs per day for three days in a row on the OLED tv. Not even a hint of image ghosting. Can't speak to if one did that for weeks on end, but with other stuff (like tv logos) I'm less fearful re: burn in at this point. I'm sure it could happen but the way I use it anyway, doesn't seem much of a risk. Still too small tho. Maybe I should go projection screen for adjustable size.

Tablets are great devices. I probably use mine more than the desktop these days.

Netflix kept recommending a sci-fi movie called The Titan. I ignored it for ages. Finally said what the heck and tried watching it. I have no idea what I saw. It was both terrible and boring, something about mutating humans to survive on another planet. But it did have a few moments that vaguely reminded of The Fly (80's movie) in a sideways manner. I should watch that again, I don't think I've seen the full thing since the theater back when.

Ready to game now! ... Joke aside I usually just use the thumb brace but I sleep with all the metal fingertips on both hands so they don't curl/lock up while sleeping. It's so annoying. Pfft. @Azdeus Pet loss ... never gets any easier. Sorry to hear.

Hmm, night vision goggles actually work now. Still prefer the headlight mining helmet instead but it's pretty cool. Reached the end of the world, I guess....since I can't craft an ocean liner. Or even a wood raft. Not that type of survival game. You can swim underwater and find loot, tho.

Became temp. bored of streaming TV and YouTube so I fired up 7 Days to Die current build again. I left zombies off per usual. As a time waster I simply like generating new world maps every few days and farting around in the environment. Anyway I wanted it to rain more often so I modded the files to increase the chance. Still didn't rain that often, but when it did, it was a huge dark storm that seemed to go on forever. Which was cool. What was not cool was that at one point I noticed the "you are wet" percentage kept increasing (leading to temp. survival issues). Oh sure, you're out in the rain, doesn't matter how good your raincoat is, of course you'll get wet, I hear you say. ...I was 20 meters underground, carving rooms out of solid rock, nowhere near any windows/doors/holes etc. I don't recall that in previous versions. In 15-20 minutes I was 100% wet and dying from hypothermia. Game cheatz! So I turned off weather survival, too.

I suddenly want some orange taffy. ...looks pretty cool - pun intended. I'd be way too scared (and unskilled...) to do something like that myself. It's strange how I'm not typically into light-shows or colors or "windows" etc. on my PC's, but sometimes those water cooled towers are really neat-o looking. So space-age-y or something.

The Sinner season3 is on Netflix now! Matt Bomer is in this one. 1st episode seems as good as ever. *binge hat on* Oh, I also kept watching Cobra Kai, giving it a longer chance. I started to kinda like it more for a bit but then my interest flagged again - I quit after episode 9. Even with nostalgia elements - just not for me.

Apparently there is no such thing as a decent waterproof thumb stabilizer/splint. At least not one that is: one, easy to take on and off with one hand, two, actually keeps the first thumb joint from bending, and three, allows you to actually still minimally use the thumb to at least grip things with (the metal clamp-like single-finger splints are great but you can't do anything with them on). Thus, washing dishes or any kind of similar work is still a problem. Darnit.

...but Sean Connery is still alive somewhere, right? Right? Sigh. RIP's all around.

This is why I prefer seeing sci-fi movies with someone who knows nothing about tech/physics/space etc. And don't take geologists to volcano/earthquake etc. disaster movies. I also remember taking my mathematician brother to a couple movies where the chr. was one of those super smart math type people. Bro snorted a lot.

I think my main point is your guys' 'stuff' sounds at least a tad more practical than my 'stuff.' Speaking of practical, this is reason #38 why my husband is best husband: Me: *trying to dump lumpy food contents from giant floppy plastic bags into storage canning jars, first directly then with a ladle ... dribbling everywhere ... cursing...* *some days later a package shows up on the doorstep* Me: "I didn't order anything? What cha get, honey, huhhuhhuh? What cha get?" Hubby: "Here, have this giant-mouth funnel." ...it's his version of flowers.

^ The start of Booby Trap had Geordi on a hologram date with some crew member - except she rejected him, which is probably why he found Ms Hologram so kewl. Rebound! Did they ever show him having a gf in even a one-off episode? I can't remember.

Mel has not shown himself to be particularly "educated/enlightened" or "progressive" when it comes to certain things. I remember the hoopla (and theater audience reaction) re: when the King tossed that one guy out the window... That said, from an artistic standpoint I can kinda understand wanting to have more of a David and Goliath visual representation vs. any type of accuracy. I really like Braveheart as a rousing entertainment but to me it was obviously nothing but pure fantasy even if inspired by a historical person.

When I spend $300-$400 it's usually on something like beef jerky, video games, giant pillows, and plushies.

I've grown to like watching videos like these when I have nothing better to do ... which is most of the time.

Space Sweepers on Netflix: Hm. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it felt a little disappointing. Some great visuals (mostly in the first and last 30 minutes) and some ok to charming group dynamics but kind of a jumbled mess. Also fairly generic, like taking some pieces from better movies to emulate. I did like how language was used in the film where outside of the main S. Korean stars, most talking in their own language (some kind of 'universal translator' concept I guess?) at each other so one group is speaking French while the other is still using Korean, vs. Star Trek's translator with the audience only hearing English, if that makes sense. The middle hour drags and could have cut 15-20 minutes without anyone missing anything. Maybe a 6/10. Considering S. Korea hardly ever deals with sci-fi, not a bad attempt but they still have some learnin' to do.