The "What made you happy today" thread!
- Thread starter wonko the sane?
- Start date
Okay, that raven is awesome.
Maybe Mars can be convinced to remake the famous M&M's Santa commercial someday, which was still airing every December last I checked and still looks pretty cheap on an HDTV.
Having phase two of 86 Devestator, in other words, the next part that forms the torso, thus I am 2/3 of the way to completion with a arm and a leg out standing, techinally it arrived the other day but as I didn't have a notice to say it been delivered, it was hiding in the storage box in the garden and spent over 24 hours there! My impressions so far, the robot modes are good, Devestator, not so good, stupidy big back pack, the chest plate doesn't stay on very well, there's a hole for Hook's head to appear and really looks out of place in Devestator form and the wing parts of the chest plate, don't cover up that hole and its rather glaring to look at as your eyes are drawn straight to it, Scrapper is to far to one side, I really think whoever was in charge of this project, should of sent the bots that make up the torso back to the drawing board as there is other ways to lock the two parts together, thou I'll grant that I might be nitpicking here, but the race for who completes first is on, will be Devestator, or will it be Superion?
Some of you might remember me posting about getting a bunch of uselessly-obsolete old iPads from a school that was tossing them. Well, they also had a fairly new one that was getting tossed because someone shattered the screen. Well, due to one thing and another, I only this summer got around to buying the replacement screen and repair kit from iFixit, and today my dad and I (because he's an electrical engineer whose hobby is messing with broken electronics, and because I knew it was a two person job no matter how you slice it) finally got around to using it.
...Even for a savings of over $100 over what the repair shop wanted to charge for the job, I do not recommend going to the effort. For starters, iFixit prides itself on their easy-to-follow disassembly guides, but do you know what? They don't have one for actually installing the replacement screen they sell! I had to figure it out myself, and I still don't know why they included an extra home button bracket and gasket. Also I'm just now realizing that the strips of adhesive they included might have also been spares, in case you screw up and have to scrub it off the glass, because this thing is no longer flush with the edges like it used to be. Definitely gonna have some back and forth with support on that when I feel up to it.
But the thing works and has a smooth, unbroken screen now and it's nicer than my old iPad and that's what matters. After feeling like we were doing every step wrong, it's a miracle. I don't know how those Chinese kids do this day in and day out.
...Even for a savings of over $100 over what the repair shop wanted to charge for the job, I do not recommend going to the effort. For starters, iFixit prides itself on their easy-to-follow disassembly guides, but do you know what? They don't have one for actually installing the replacement screen they sell! I had to figure it out myself, and I still don't know why they included an extra home button bracket and gasket. Also I'm just now realizing that the strips of adhesive they included might have also been spares, in case you screw up and have to scrub it off the glass, because this thing is no longer flush with the edges like it used to be. Definitely gonna have some back and forth with support on that when I feel up to it.
But the thing works and has a smooth, unbroken screen now and it's nicer than my old iPad and that's what matters. After feeling like we were doing every step wrong, it's a miracle. I don't know how those Chinese kids do this day in and day out.
Pain wouldn't normally go in this thread, but I just burned my eyes cooking garlic. But the result was tasty and it did make me happy.
Suffer for your art!
Haywire3 and his neighborhood friend and I played GI Joes outside, and way too late, I remembered that we had a Cobra Base in the garage that was too big for inside, but perfect for this kind of thing. The resulting battle was brief but epic, and oddly enough, the Cobras won! Viper, H.I.S.S. Megatron, and a Classified B.A.T. were on loan from my collection.
Honestly, it was a lot of fun! Other than the small, easily-lost accessories, it's easy to forget how well-suited to playing outside GI Joes really are...
(Credit where credit is due, the Cobra Base is not my work, but 2 of my brothers for Haywire3's last Chistmas GI Joe book.)
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It looks to me that the big Helicopper won the battle given everyone else is overturned and the monster laying on its side while the plane is preparing for the mission to launch the final strike!!
Espresso chip frozen yogurt my beloved.
My son: "Hello. My name is Haywire. You killed my father. Prepare to die!"
Me, doing my best James Earl Jones: "No, Haywire, I...am your father!"
My son: "No! That's not possible! If you were my father, you would be dead!"
....can't argue with that logic!
Me, doing my best James Earl Jones: "No, Haywire, I...am your father!"
My son: "No! That's not possible! If you were my father, you would be dead!"
....can't argue with that logic!
TMM and I did something we've been half thinking about for years yesterday: we went to Block Island. Caught the first ferry out. Got my hands slobbered by some cows, saw a camel who was having fun taking selfies (sadly he went back inside before I could get a pic), and saw some other critters like a zonkey. There was also a farm shop nearby with killer cinnamon buns. Ate some small stuff walking around and a grossly overpriced lunch. Walked a nature trail looking for hidden glass floats but didn't find any. Had dessert and headed back after about 5hrs on the island. We saw a seal on the way back, too! We also hit the glass workshop associated with the floats on the way back.
The ferry ride was chilly even with a jacket, but it was a gorgeous day out. The island had a LOT of bike and scooter rentals but we just walked. Even with motion sickness pills and a calm sea I'm still feeling the waves a bit.
Probably would've stayed longer if we didn't have to worry about our old dog at home. Spent entirely too much money and currently dealing with a mixup at the ferry parking lot, but it was a nice day trip and break from everything.
Pics:
Block Island 9/20/25 Edit: fixed the link
The ferry ride was chilly even with a jacket, but it was a gorgeous day out. The island had a LOT of bike and scooter rentals but we just walked. Even with motion sickness pills and a calm sea I'm still feeling the waves a bit.
Probably would've stayed longer if we didn't have to worry about our old dog at home. Spent entirely too much money and currently dealing with a mixup at the ferry parking lot, but it was a nice day trip and break from everything.
Pics:
Block Island 9/20/25 Edit: fixed the link
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I got my chores for the week done today.
Went to go drop the $30 for the extended Windows 10 updates, and when I logged in, it turns out I qualified to get it for free under the "Windows Backup enabling" clause even though I -don't- have that enabled! Maybe it got confused because I do use OneNote?
Also got a commission back of another of my ESO characters, so that'll be going in my Mayhem thread, alongside another one I just noticed I'd forgotten to post yet
Also got a commission back of another of my ESO characters, so that'll be going in my Mayhem thread, alongside another one I just noticed I'd forgotten to post yet
Had the remaining 1/3 of Devestator arrive today, so I got all of the constructicons in hand, I messed around with the trailer for Longhaul and came up with a sort of base mode for it, well, battle platform, pretty much stick the combined mode legs out to the sides, slap on the missile pods, stick the wings of the chest plate in the ports, balance the whole thing on the connection to Longhaul himself and call it a day when the panel is sat on top with the wings facing forwards or you can move them to make them become shields for whoever behind them and currently, its Mixmaster as the rest are MOSTLY standing on my desk