The 10,000 Post Thread v2

[Duke87 1,070]

(6991)

I am not concerned about losing power. The lines in my area are all underground, so no storm is going to knock the power out. It would take some sort of grid malfunction to make me lose power (which has happened... the northeastern US had total blackouts due to grid malfunction in 1965, 1977, and 2003).

[Larks2242 251]

6992.

How long did that last?

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

6993

I remember that last power outage. I was in school up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula so we were unaffected while my family downstate and in Ohio suffered through like three days of no power. My dad had to go buy a power generator to keep their food cold.

Also, despite living in a suburban subdivision with underground utilities, they are connected to a grid that has a network of above ground wires, so they still get the occasional power outage (last February in an ice storm power was out for a lot of our neighbors for days). In Japan, we've had power flicker at our apartment in the typhoons that struck earlier this fall, but no prolonged power outages after they sorted out the mess of Tokyo Power's grid.

[Duke87 1,070]

(6994)

the '65 and '77 blackouts were before my time but I believe they lasted 3 days and 1 day, respectively, at least for New York City (varies by location). The '03 blackout I remember... I was living in Connecticut and we were fairly close to the edge of the affected area. My aunt and uncle half an hour away didn't lose power at all. We did... went out at about 2 in the afternoon. For us, it was back on the following morning. New York City I believe had their power gradually restored over the course of the day after it went out. Some areas in Ohio near where the problem started were out for a week. Cleveland had their water supply tainted because the backup generator at the treatment plant failed.

That 2 PM to the following morning was at the time about the longest we'd ever had our power out for, but it would be a record later exceeded several times.

Labor day weekend, 2006, we had the remnants of a tropical storm blow through... knocked out power friday night, didn't get it back until sunday morning. I avoided that one by simply going back to my dorm saturday morning.

March 2010, we had a hell of a nor'easter that brought hurricane-force winds. Power was out from saturday night to tuesday morning.

August 2011, Hurricane Irene - the record: power out for over five days.

October 2011, freak early snowstorm, heavy wet snow, leaves still on the trees... my parents lost power for three days, but I had already moved out by this point and so I did not. I missed a real freaky experience, though. The way my father described the situation, it was at night, it was cold, the power was out, and every so often you'd hear *crack* *thud*, another piece of a tree breaking off and falling. He likened it to being in London during the blitz - "well, that one missed us".

[astronelson 339]

6995.

The lines are underground here too.

[Larks2242 251]

6996.

Happy pre new year.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

6997

Happy actual New Year!

[617squad 52]

6998

Happy New Years from Las Vegas!!!

[Larks2242 251]

6999.

Approaching yet another thread milestone.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

7000

Don't worry you guys. I got this.

EDIT:

  Edited January 1, 2012 by NMUSpidey  

[Duke87 1,070]

(7001)

Ugh, it's going to mess my spreadsheet up that an x000 post fell on a holiday....

[Larks2242 251]

7002.

Why is that?

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

7003

Aw, and here I was feeling all good about myself for actually being the one to hit a milestone...

[Duke87 1,070]

(7004)

On the list where I tally up how many posts are made per day, I put a note next to the day if there is something of significance that might influence the number, such as "site down most of day", or if it is a major holiday. Thing is, I also put a note whenever any x000 milestone is reached noting it along with how many days it took and the average posts per day for the last thousand posts.

So, when that falls on a holiday, now I have two notes I'd make but only one slot to stick them in.

It's not a huge issue, though, the inelegant solution is to just put the x000 milestone note down a tick, so it's next to today rather than yesterday. No big deal, just a slight misalignment.

[RipRap 4,400]

7005

D: Really?

[Frdm920 50]

7006

Whatever you say Duke

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

7007

Ah, I see. Just some of the limitations of Excel then, eh?

[Duke87 1,070]

(7008)

Or just limitations of two things being unable to occupy the same space at the same time.

Suppose I could also put the two notes next to each other.

Suppose I could also merge a couple cells so both could be next to the same date.

But both of those options are more unsightly than my solution, if you ask me.

[mc12345 3]

7009: I wonder how Chinese people memorize all their letters... Chinese is really hard for me. ( I speak English, and I am learning Chinese.)

  Edited January 3, 2012 by mc12345  

[Larks2242 251]

7010.

2nd language is always harder, English is one of the hardest to learn second.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

7011

Japanese has the advantage over Chinese of having hiragana and katakana which serve as alphabets. They usually supplement kanji (the Chinese ideograms) and in the case of obscure kanji or children's books, they usually sit above the kanji to tell you how to read them. I have found it relatively easy to remember the parts of the kanji. If I remember how to build a kanji from basic parts (which often by themselves are their own kanji) I can read more and get a basic idea of what the meaning is. There was a guy I met who said you should make a story for the kanji you are trying to remember, as you'll end up making them more, uh, memorable. I prefer just sitting down and writing them over and over again, but then again I have too much time on my hands.

[Duke87 1,070]

(7012)

Learning a second language is a huge endeavor, especially if you start as an adult. And not everyone can be equally successful at it. I, for one, could never fathom becoming fluent in a second language. I'm nowhere near into the idea enough to put the time and effort in.

[vivapanda 422]

I've had Japenese and Chinese both for half a year, and learning the charactets is pretty hard, the language itself is pretty logical actually. Half a year is of course not long enough to learn a language but it is always nice to see how it works. I used to see these languages as some drawings but nw I see there is actually a lot of sense in it. I barely remember anything from it: helanren (dutch person) and in Japanese, "arigato bado kun ken desu" which has something to do with a key I believe...

[RipRap 4,400]

Numbers are a part of it ^^^

7014

Well, they are seemingly easy once you move on...

[Duke87 1,070]

(7015)

Part of my issue I think is a personality issue. I'm generally more interested in picking up trivia than in becoming an expert on any particular subject. I treat "hey, did you know that blah means woof in such and such language?" as a fun fact, not something I want to study extensively.

As such I know something about everything, but I'm no expert at anything. And the subjects that I do happen to know a lot about? Well, they're all things that it's either nerdy or downright weird that I know a lot about them.

  Edited January 3, 2012 by Duke87  

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

7016

Jack of all trades, master of none.

It did take me a while to go from saying "drawing kanji" to "writing kanji." I'm nowhere near being an expert, though. Heck, I'm still learning new words and phrases in English, and I've been studying that for a LOT longer than I have Japanese.

[astronelson 339]

7017.

Ponting's finally got another Test hundred.

And almost everyone in this thread has no idea what that means.

[RipRap 4,400]

7018

Cricket?

[Duke87 1,070]

(7019)

I actually got that it was Cricket, since I know of "Test Cricket". Though I will admit I have no idea how that works.

[Larks2242 251]

7020.

Chirp Chirp