13
votes
What are you doing this weekend?
Even if you don't have any plans for the weekend and just want to talk about how you are doing, this is a good place to do that too.
A list of all previous topics in this series can be found here
So, what (or how) are you doing this weekend?
I'm going to build about 9 square meters of bookcase.
Actually, I'm going to purchase and assemble about 9 square meters of bookcases from IKEA, bolt them to my wall, and then trim them so they look like they belong there. I haven't done any proper carpentry in quite a while, and it's been fun to plan it out. We'll see how it goes.
My ultimate goal is to have a small light in each section of shelf, so that I can hold a book (rather, its ISBN) up to a camera, and a light will turn on, indicating which shelf the book belongs on. I can write the software no problem, but I've never done that much wiring.
For now I'm going to get the shelves built, though.
That's such a cool idea for a book shelf! We live in the future.
Edit: could you do the same with a spice rack? I have mine alphabetized but sometimes other people cook at my place and don't understand. It would be awesome if it lit up red if the wrong spice got put in a spot, maybe a little spritz from a surreptitiously placed water gun?
I don't know how this didn't already occur to me, but yes I also need this for my spice rack.
We've been planning to do the ikea-into-wall in our living room sometime this fall so I'm curious how it goes. Be sure to post back how it turns out!
Going to Audio SF today to listen to some house DJs and dance.
Sunday I have lunch with my parents and my brother. I asked my brother to set it up as a "take food back" situation because I plan on telling them about my gender identity and sexual/romantic orientations because I figure it's about time I let them into my life, but I guess he failed to understand that part and now it's at a restaurant... so I hope it doesn't end up causing a scene. 😩
At some other point this weekend I'm going to help a friend return "way too many dresses" that she bought, like so many that she needs another person to help her return dresses. 😂
Best of luck on Sunday—I really hope that lunch goes well for you. I had a nearly devastating sort of coming out to parents, but it recovered and turned around. Family is surely difficult to wrangle some times, and even if it's not perfect it'll smooth over with time. 💜
Thanks, love. 💜 I'm anxious about it but at the same time I've never really looked to them for validation so it's not a big deal to me if I get ostracized. I don't expect it, but I don't expect them to accept it with open arms either.
I feel you - my wardrobe is now unconstrained by the need to look like a corporate drone, my size is not yet within range of my older clothes, and I need warmer things soon 'cause Winter is ComingTM.
There isn't big city shopping nearby, I hate overpriced, labor/environment-unfriendly brands, and online shopping has resulted in some notable fit catastrophes. The whole process is gut-wrenching, with repeated findings that my body wasn't in the design specs, until it eventually seems like everything I try on makes me loathe myself, instead of building the basic primate sense of victory at successful foraging.
Answer: thrift stores, which are now restocking with fall/winter wear during the U.S. Labor Day weekend. Fun, low risk, huge ranges of sizes, colors, and styles.
You can shop with the knowledge that someone once found these clothes satisfactory, you're not contributing to waste, and you can create your own fashion without submitting to Instagram tastemakers.
That's a rad idea. Go to a gallery, find something that matches your aesthetic, and grab a business card. You get help articulating your thoughts, and you're supporting working artists.
I might do this.
no joke - Where's the reward in having so many clothes or shoes? I'd go bananas managing all that stuff, though I recognise I'm an extreme case - same dress (model, not THE same; I have a stack) since I started going around clothed - again, no joke. Especially since the shopping gets on your nerves. Isn't it easier to pick the most comfortable stuff you have and rotate that? I'm not daft or anything like that, it's a genuine question. I mean, most men do that; why would we need 1000 shoes or shirts?
Okay I see, thanks for explaining. So you dress a certain way to feel a certain way and vice versa? I may sound like a halfwit, but I'm from elsewhere and saw very few other women; who dressed for conditions, not fashion. Here in Europe, suddenly it's sense overload, because I was used to sameness.
About your 1st link (https://www.pinterest.ca/owlpinemoon/style-fashion/), you should go to a big french city, they're like that there. I was in Bordeaux a few times and saw lots of people who looked like that; very nice, I thought. It's such a contrast with baggy sportsstuff and plastic sandals, stretchpants and such.
Definitely what I do. I have a few combinations of pants + shirts + shoes on rotation. Most of my stuff gels as my t-shirts tend to be solid colors (and a few variations of white+blue stripes) and my pants are mostly black. Throw in a few solid-color hats and a couple of jackets for the cooler season and that's basically my look, at the moment. Pretty versatile, I think. Maybe boring, but, eh.
Anyway, settling on a look that's a step or two removed from "cartoon uniform"* is pretty nice and liberating. You still have choice, but not overwhelming choice, and you can still maintain a personal aesthetic within those narrow bounds.
*read: same clothes everyday
That's plenty, yes. I need something I don't feel, or as little as possible. My father found a traditional undergarment in egyptian (super-soft) cotton that makes a perfect dress in hot countries; bought 200 in increasing sizes for .47¢/piece! Stylewise I'm not sure, but from seeing old films I wish men would wear suits more and women dresses and skirts. It just looks nicer than trousers with holes and t-shirts with huge names and numbers.
That's changed a lot these last 20 years I would say. I do buy some things for functionality but most I think about and match with what I have. I'd go batty seeing myself in the same togs every day. Maybe try a little variety see what "suits" you? (sorry had to)
There you go again non sequitur'ing ... So how do you do that without people asking things?
? Nobody asked back home, and here in Europe they think it's because I'm a foreigner. Would you really ask someone that?
I guess not.
I have been reading Fluent Forever by Gabriel Wyner and following the book's plan to learn Spanish. Essentially, it's an Anki deck that cuts out English whenever possible. The front of the card is the word in spanish, and the back is a picture I associate with it. I also download the pronounciation from Forvo so that it plays when the word comes up.
It takes some time to make cards (and download all the pronounciations), but I'm at 64 right now and I really do feel like they're all sinking in. There's a master list of 625 words in the book and I'm hoping to knock them all out. After that, it'll be a two-pronged attack of continuing the Anki deck and Clozemaster to learn enough vocab and grammar for semi-fluency.
Learning to roll my R's is another beast altogether.
I'm hoping to harvest my cannabis plant. It's been growing indoors since May, and it's my second grow ever. I learned a lot and I'm finally starting to get my watering right. My first grow I kept over watering the plants and they didn't reach their full potential (though I was still happy for a first time). I'm going to check it tomorrow and if it looks ready, it's time to chop and hang it to dry for 7-10 days.
I'm thinking I will probably get an ounce out of it, which isn't bad for my small setup. Really looking forward to getting the next grow going too.
Just bought new PC parts for a desktop. Haven't had one in a few years since the old one broke, which lasted me about a decade with a new GPU once in a while.
It's definitely not the cheapest but I like having something that lasts me a long time.
Not entirely "weekend" but the parts will arrive next week, really looking forward to that(can I skip two days ahead?)
I upgraded my PC a few weeks ago. Over the years I've accumulated a lot of parts, and I really don't like the idea of throwing them away. I have almost everything to put together a full PC that I can give away for free (hopefully someone will be interested). I already bought a power supply for it but today I tried to connect my old hard-drive and it made some nasty sounds, it's definitively dead. I'm trying to buy a used one now.
The downside of upgrading your PC bit by bit...
The first PC time I built my PC was early 2009, with an i7-920 (first i7 model) and some graphics card that was medium-high end at the time. Built it around a huge Thermaltake Tower case, that thing was 80x80x30 cm or 31x31x12", lots of room for activities. Still have it lying around but I won't use it as it's super unwieldy and doesn't have good usb ports/ssd bays, so I'm getting a new case as well. I started around 8GB RAM and, over the years, upgraded with new RAM(up to 24 total) and a new graphics card once in a while.
That PC lasted me 10 years until early this year when the motherboard started acting up and generally ended up being pretty slow. Still, I could play GTA V on medium-high settings no problem.
I'm trying to do the same with this build; build a decent PC and have it last a long time. Thanks for the idea of making a pc out of old spare parts; I'm sure there's people around that can't afford a decent PC, so I might sell it for cheap / give it away for free if I can find someone who needs something.
I've also got a collection of monitors I've collected over the years, currently using only one of them (LG IPS with red/green color streaks and brightness issues) until the new parts arrive. I suppose I could still sell the other good screens for cheap.
And, piles upon piles of hard drives..
edit: new build's specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 3700X
GPU: MSI RTX 2080
RAM: 32GB DDR4 (2 slots, 2 slots open for now, may upgrade to 64 if that's needed)
Storage: 1TB SSD + 4TB HDD (Raid1, so 2x 4TB for a total of 4TB of space)
Monitor: LG 27" 27UK650-W IPS 4k screen
Some fancy case with lots of room for things to go(I like big cases)
Way too much RGD for my liking (turning that all off ASAP)
Use case: Rendering, 3D visual work, digital art, playing games. Lots of RAM is nice because modded minecraft draws a ton of memory lol
I also got a 3700X (upgraded from an i5 2500k). I've been maintaining continuity for almost 20 years now, I've got files created in 2002 on my pc that I copied from hard drive to hard drive.
I know you mentioned giving it away for free, but have you thought about turning your old computer into a home server?
I did a full upgrade this past December (holiday sales and whatnot) and decided my old machine would best serve me as a personal server.
A personal home server is the kind of thing that you might not realize you could use until you actually start thinking about what you can do with it. If you're into tinkering with computers at all, it's something to consider.
That could be an idea but I don't really have the space for it, and I'm not super fan of the idea of having electric stuff working 24/7 at my place (specially if I don't use it that much).
That's fair, I can understand that.
Not that I'm trying to pester you or anything, but there are some serious power optimizations you could make if you were to run Linux on your server, to the point where the desktop would basically be off until awoken (woken? awakened? woke?) by a process.
I've never actually optimized power consumption down that low, but it's totally doable.
Again, not trying to pester you, I just figured I'd point out that there are ways to mitigate those concerns.
Yeah, my issue is mostly space, I live in a very small flat. It would be nice to have my own email/dropbox/whatever.
Heading to the end of Forge LAN Gaming party near Akron, Ohio.
https://forgegaming.us/lan/
I've been building a sort of tiered platform in a huge tree by a pond in the woods. I made it irregular and only used wood found at the site so as not to spoil the place. Nobody else goes there (about 45m slogging through underbrush if you know where to go) and it's part of the remaining primeval forest left in Yoorp; stunningly beautiful.
Need to make a roof that won't leak with stuff I find there, then a cot and a barrier so I don't roll off, and maybe a small temporary charcoal firepit. Right now it's only a diving platform, put I hope to integrate it with the tree like a nest. Good fun, and keeps busy.
I have a somewhat busy weekend this time around. I've been working ahead on my classwork, trying to finish all of next week's assignments this weekend.
Today though, I have to finalize the character sheet and homebrew class for my character in my friend's D&D campaign, which he's going to begin DMing for his players tonight.
This is one of my old friends in North Carolina. He's been working on this campaign for a few months now while his group has been wrapping up another player's campaign. Not too long ago he asked me if I (living 1,000 miles away) wanted to play the part of the "big bad guy" for his campaign, and that we'd just run everything through Discord, almost like playing by post.
I won't be directly in control of the character or present for combat or anything, but he wants me to basically make decisions for what the "big baddie" is doing throughout the campaign, while the players are fucking about or whatever.
I thought it was a neat idea so I agreed to do it and we've been collaborating on crafting the character for the antagonist. He's given me a lot of freedom to just go totally over-the-top with this guy, mind control, necromancy, lots of magical powers and very tanky. He's the "big bad" so he's supposed to be OP and I think it's going to be a lot of fun messing around in this world he's built with what is a very capable character. Almost no real limits on the amount of stuff I can do.
I recently finished Metro Exodus, which was great, and I started Wolfenstein: Youngblood last night. I still need to try out Oxygen Not Included, which I bought weeks ago, and I haven't even given Factorio a fair shake yet either, so I'm way behind on doing that. I'm just in the mood for linear shooters at the moment.
I also have a blog post that I'd really like to post before August is up, which gives me today and tomorrow to finish it. Kind of iffy as to whether that will get done in time or not.
I did manage to install NixOS onto my laptop a few days ago and the experience has been very interesting. I'm still getting acquainted with the differences Nix introduces over "regular" Linux distributions, but I think I can see myself sticking with this in the long run.
Finally, I've got some OpenStreetMap stuff I'd like to work on this weekend. In addition to the dozen or so different mapping projects I still haven't finished, I've been working on some schools around the Houston area, adding details like parking, trees, buildings, roads, and just trying to map out as much detail as I can.
Going to see The Matrix's 20th anniversary re-release in theaters with a friend, later. Also, working on transcribing some of those new Tool songs for shits-n-giggles. Starting with Pneuma...which isn't so difficult harmonically or melodically, but transcribing the rhythm is a damn pain. Well, I got the first couple of minutes down, at least...
I've been playing Monster Hunter again in anticipation for the dlc coming out. Labor day my wife is planning to go HAM on a cookout for some friends. I just wanted to do a simple BBQ but she took it up to 11 with a pulled beef BBQ, crab cakes, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked Mac and cheese, and a cheese cake. All home made except for the hot dogs. This is only for like 5 or 6 people lol.
Playing games like GTA5, Paladins. Boy I am bored.