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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

The Terminator said:
I would love a vintage watch that is Rolex Submariner-esque but is not actually that level of rarity/expensive. Should I start looking at Seikos on ebay?
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What's not to love about the Submariner? Well... the price!

I'd love a vintage Submariner as well but no way I'd ever pay the prices they command these days.

Thankfully, there are a ton of other options out there for much more reasonable prices. eBay is a good source if you know what you're looking for and I buy from there every once in a while but I always worry about receiving maybe the case that you're buying but some sort of franken-watch monstrosity when it comes to the movement and it's sort of "Buyer Beware" on eBay when it comes to less expensive watches. They do have a lot more buyer protections with higher-priced pieces but that's not the fun of eBay!

Seiko is great, and there is some exceptional value in their dive watches, especially if you're looking for older/used ones, but if you like the look of vintage Submariner (but not the price) I'd recommend looking for older Heuer/TAG Heuer or Zodiac watches with the "Monnin" case. The Zodiac in particular can be a great value especially if you're willing to go Quartz. Search for "Zodiac Professional" or "Zodiac Red Dot" or something along those lines. Monnin was a French manufacturer of watch cases for other brands in the '60s - '90s and made them for Heuer, Zodiac, Aquadive, CWC, Zenith, and a ton more. Zodiac and Heuer are probably the best values out there. There was another manufacturer in the same time frame called M.R.P. that also made cases of the same design. I think M.R.P. was somehow related to Monnin and you may see the two case manufacturers used interchangeably (IIRC Monnin may have licensed the design out to M.R.P. for a time) but they both have great quality. If you like a Submariner, I think a watch with a Monnin case looks a bit closer to that than most of what Seiko has offered over the years.

Here's my old Zodiac "Red Dot"
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If you like that case design but decide you want to go with something newer, you should check out a company called "HGP". They bought the "Monnin" name and designs a few years back and make more affordable versions of Monnin dive watches with the exact case sizes of the original using new Seiko automatic and mechaquartz movements. I don't own one but they have pretty good reviews on WatchuSeek and I've definitely been tempted.
 
luckless pedestrian said:
This reminds me of a favorite story I have with my eldest - when she was in daycare, maybe she was not quite 3, they asked her what her Mom did while she was at daycare and she said "she waits in the car until I am done playing" - lol
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Our youngest is in 4th grade and they've buddy-ed them up with kindergartners and once a week they have lunch and recess together, library time where the 4th graders are supposed to read with the kindergartners and do some other stuff, etc. One day our daughter had to interview her kindergartner and one of the questions was something like, "Something unique about my buddy is..." and our daughter wrote (in the giant all caps she uses for everything), "EMMA HAS CRABS!" My wife and I saw that and were like WTF? and asked our daughter about it and she was all excited to tell us about Emma and her two pet hermit crabs. :rofl:
 
DVD said:
So do other lunches like my leftover Mexican food think the lobster is a pretentious snob or do they live in a world of equality?
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I am unsure. Maybe. Some lunches may aspire to be more like the lobster pie - rising above their soup-can roots and making the chicken stock they came from proud and a little envious. But then again, some food is just bitchy. Just facts.
 
People complaining about Sabrina Carpenter & Taylor (who dont get me wrong I think suck, but dont need to waste wind hating) in the present day, dont remember a time when Karen Carpenter, Huey Lewis & "you light up my life" were everywhere and mainstream rock was morphing into cringe sunset strip Hair Metal like Motley Poo

Edit: Karen was legit a great drummer who could have used that talent to make boss heavy metal but the music industry in her day didnt let girls rock. Sabrina Carpenter on the other hand feels like AI
 
DVD said:
So do other lunches like my leftover Mexican food think the lobster is a pretentious snob or do they live in a world of equality?
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i don’t worry about leftovers, as I finish the good stuff before it can get comfortable. My cheese drawer, though… it’s got Havarti, Gouda, string cheese, American, Parmesan, and pepper jack all living together like a weird reality show. They never know when the door opens and the light comes on who’s gonna be removed from the drawer to never return?
 
The Terminator said:
People complaining about Sabrina Carpenter & Taylor (who dont get me wrong I think suck, but dont need to waste wind hating) in the present day, dont remember a time when Karen Carpenter, Huey Lewis & "you light up my life" were everywhere and mainstream rock was morphing into cringe sunset strip Hair Metal like Motley Poo

Edit: Karen was legit a great drummer who could have used that talent to make boss heavy metal but the music industry in her day didnt let girls rock. Sabrina Carpenter on the other hand feels like AI
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word

Thanks Thank You GIF by SWR3
 
jumbach said:
Wondering if I should even bother scheduling stuff for the December 24, 5 p.m. PC meeting. I think there is a zero percent chance it will be held.
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We move them up a week in November and December. Ours are on the 4th Tuesday generally which puts us in Thanksgiving or Christmas weeks. We wouldn't have a quorum and we'd get roasted for trying sneak things through during the holidays. It sucks because we only have 3 weeks to get everything prepped.
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
We move them up a week in November and December. Ours are on the 4th Tuesday generally which puts us in Thanksgiving or Christmas weeks. We wouldn't have a quorum and we'd get roasted for trying sneak things through during the holidays. It sucks because we only have 3 weeks to get everything prepped.
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Same here. We do a lot of rearranging to make this work the last two months of the year. We have 6 appointed boards and commissions so we sometimes have to do them on a different night of the week and a different week.
 
jumbach said:
Wondering if I should even bother scheduling stuff for the December 24, 5 p.m. PC meeting. I think there is a zero percent chance it will be held.
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That's absurd. Every place I've ever worked; whatever board or commission or council it is votes on the upcoming year's schedule. Hard to believe people looked at that and said "yeah, let's run with December 24th".
 
bureaucrat#3 said:
We move them up a week in November and December. Ours are on the 4th Tuesday generally which puts us in Thanksgiving or Christmas weeks. We wouldn't have a quorum and we'd get roasted for trying sneak things through during the holidays. It sucks because we only have 3 weeks to get everything prepped.
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Exactly. 2nd and 4th weeks, so it happens to be during those weeks.

I am guessing both "4th" meetings get pushed to January.
 
If this contractor calls me ONE MORE TIME with another harebrained (hairbrained? huh. never thought about it before) scheme to circumvent the subdivision process I will quit my job and start an onlyfans. It would have to be very......niche? But dammit, I'm at the edge!!!! :)
 
Received a written complaint about a property this morning. The complainant closed his email with the words "just saying". I don't know about you, but part of me wants to respond, "Uh no, you're not 'just saying'. Seems like you're filing an official complaint."
 
Maister said:
Received a written complaint about a property this morning. The complainant closed his email with the words "just saying". I don't know about you, but part of me wants to respond, "Uh no, you're not 'just saying'. Seems like you're filing an official complaint."
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I'm not saying, I'm just sayin'...
 
Maister said:
Received a written complaint about a property this morning. The complainant closed his email with the words "just saying". I don't know about you, but part of me wants to respond, "Uh no, you're not 'just saying'. Seems like you're filing an official complaint."
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omg I hate that saying so much when used in a professional situation
 
SlaveToTheGrind said:
The total number of different shuffles of a deck of cards is 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000.
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If one person could shuffle a deck of cards in 30 seconds which is near world record speed, it would take approximately 77,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years without sleeping, eating, restroom breaks, or breaks of any type to shuffle a deck of cards 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 times.
 
One of the things that I do leading up to every Tough Mudder is stop drinking alcohol for the month before the race. This year was like no different and the next beer would be that in celebration after a completed course. This year was a little more difficult than normal. Around mile 3 of 10, I rolled my ankle in a hole in the farm field near a dry steam. I hit the ground, got back up, and walked it off. The pain continued to radiate though my foot and my leg for the next 7 miles. But I finished and with a better time than last year, but I think it was because I didn't want to get shown up too bad by my oldest during the running sections. I had him for all the obstacles, but the kid can run circles around me. I cross the line, I get my headbands, my finisher metal, and my t-shirt. We get the bag and take the finisher photo as I tried not to show the pain that I was in.
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Then it was time to make our way to the beer tent for our free victory beer. BUSH LIGHT... all they had was f-ing bush light! If you know me, I am a beer snob. I pulled my free beer wristband off, handed it to someone else that was in line, and decided to wait to get something that qualified as beer. We did find a locally owned brew pub that was much, much better.
 
^^^I guess Busch Light was a continuation of Tough Mudder Punishment - another obstacle on the course so to say.

Congrats mskis & that little one is no longer little.
 
Got my Covid vaccine on Friday. Felt okay all weekend but have a headache today. Not sure if it is Covid vax, tension, dehydration, or lack of sleep that is causing the headache.
 
Maister said:
Received a written complaint about a property this morning. The complainant closed his email with the words "just saying". I don't know about you, but part of me wants to respond, "Uh no, you're not 'just saying'. Seems like you're filing an official complaint."
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It's like prefacing a statement with, "Just so you know . . ." Umm, why would tell me something other than so that I know?

"Just so you know, we close in five minutes" does not convey any more information than "We close in five minutes."

Off to the state planning conference later this week. This will make three in a row, so it's officially an Annual Tradition for me.
 
dandy_warhol said:
Got my Covid vaccine on Friday. Felt okay all weekend but have a headache today. Not sure if it is Covid vax, tension, dehydration, or lack of sleep that is causing the headache.
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Got Covid + Flu about a month ago. Just the normal kind shitty feeling for the next half a day or so, including headache and body aches.
 
Doohickie said:
Got Covid + Flu about a month ago. Just the normal kind shitty feeling for the next half a day or so, including headache and body aches.
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I did the combo as well and thought I was doing ok. Even ran a 5k on Saturday. Wow is me.

Planit said:
Take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning.
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I took 2 ibuprofen but you probably don't want me to call at 2am.
 
We are in the thick of reviewing and scoring our first ever competitive RFP for the state affordable housing trust fund.

Ten applications fell out in threshold review, we have 35 left to score in the next 10 days 👀
 
kjel said:
We are in the thick of reviewing and scoring our first ever competitive RFP for the state affordable housing trust fund.

Ten applications fell out in threshold review, we have 35 left to score in the next 10 days 👀
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Is the RFP to manage the State's trust fund, or to provide the fund...or...I'm pleading ignorance.....
 
JNA said:
As posted on twitter
Why do they have a sign telling rattlesnakes to stay on the trail? And do they listen?
View attachment 65549
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It's to keep stupid midwestern hikers from screwing up the desert. Actually, snakes generally stay off the trail and live under rocks or other shade. So when you go off the trail you are more likely to hear the rattle and then it's too late.

If you ever need it ask me for snake hunting tips like how to catch them with a fishing pole #mispentyouth
 
Our potential next bird is coming to visit me at City Hall tomorrow. One-year-old Lutino cockatiel named "Little Miss Diva."

I have a feeling I know her personality already. Rio and my wife will be joining us on the conference call to see if it's a match; if so, we will pick Little Miss Diva up and officially adopt her Saturday.

I've been spying on Rio during the day when we are both gone. Poor little guy is so lonely even with our music or TV on for him. :-(
 
Found this while doing my USGS National Map editing -

Posted on: October 20, 2025
City Offices Remain Closed to Public

La Vergne city offices remain closed to the public until further notice while city officials, along with a third-party cybersecurity team, the FBI, and TBI, investigate a compromise in the city’s network.

Unusual activity was detected Friday morning, and staff immediately took the city’s network offline. Employees were sent home early Friday and are scheduled to return to work Monday afternoon while supervisors and managers determine work processes.

With systems temporarily offline, the city will be using old-school processes to continue operations.

“We are checking all computers on our network,” said city administrator Bruce Richardson. “It’s going to be a long process but we are here to continue supporting our community. We ask for patience and understanding as we go through this situation."
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Has your fair city experienced anything like this ?
 
JNA said:
Found this while doing my USGS National Map editing -



Has your fair city experienced anything like this ?
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Nothing like that here. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department had a cyber security issue a couple of years ago, and I thik they are still dealing with issues from that event. A City in the region did have a fire event that triggered their fire sprinklers and flooded City Hall - they had a long summer of using temporary offices and salvaging all of their old stuff.
 
JNA said:
Found this while doing my USGS National Map editing -



Has your fair city experienced anything like this ?
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The entire State of Nevada's system was offline for a couple of weeks over the summer due to a cyberattack. It's mostly up and running again, but still has a few things offline.
 
dw914er said:
Nothing like that here. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department had a cyber security issue a couple of years ago, and I thik they are still dealing with issues from that event. A City in the region did have a fire event that triggered their fire sprinklers and flooded City Hall - they had a long summer of using temporary offices and salvaging all of their old stuff.
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I think Riverside had an issue like that a few years ago . . . I remember hearing about it from my family in Redlands.
 
DVD said:
If you ever need it ask me for snake hunting tips like how to catch them with a fishing pole #mispentyouth
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A fishing pole seems like it would be safer than using a shotgun. During my high school days, we use to go out to spot that had a good size rock outcrop and hang a white gas lantern. On a cooler evening snakes would be attracted to the heat The key was to shot them as they were leaving the brush and rhododendron thickets. We just assumed every one knew not to shoot near the lantern or how shotguns worked, evidently our buddy Brian didn't Watching the lantern explode was cool until the reality set in that we were on the verge of large brush fire. Thankfully, we were sitting on 5 gallon buckets and there was a large stream just a few feet away. Brian didn't get invited back.
 
JNA said:
Found this while doing my USGS National Map editing -



Has your fair city experienced anything like this ?
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We have not experienced that at the county I work for but there have been a couple school districts here in Metro Detroit that were victims of cyber attacks and ransomware attacks over the past couple years, including our kids district. They had a day off last spring because of some sort of cyber attack (the district was a bit cagey on what exactly it was) and there were a couple of districts in the area that missed a few days because of ransomware attacks, one of them was closed for an entire week.
 
JNA said:
Found this while doing my USGS National Map editing -



Has your fair city experienced anything like this ?
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The town I live in yes, recently had a shut down for days - we had a breach here a couple of years ago but it didn't cause a complete shut down - in a previous community, there was a bribe-hacker involved but the FBI handled it
 
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