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Madelaine McMasters

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Everything posted by Madelaine McMasters

  1. Madelaine McMasters
    Though it was a bit of a dud, we did make thermite with aluminum powder from an Etch-A-Sketch and some magnetite obtained from the beach.
  2. Madelaine McMasters
    I have a new kayak. I might need a new kite!
  3. Madelaine McMasters
    Or write self modifying/writing code.
  4. Madelaine McMasters
    Man-lifting kites have been around forever... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man-lifting_kite We routinely sent things aloft on the kite string (not on the kite, that degrades stability). At summer parties or public kite festivals, we'd do candy or teddy bear drops... Eventually, we started lofting cameras... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_aerial_photography We lost that 21 foot delta into the lake long ago, but I still have my 14, a few soft kites used for camera lifting, and several two and four line stunt kites. A few years ago, I watched a young man riding on a little "buggy" being pulled around by a four line power kite. That looked like great fun. When the winds were right, I used small kites to pull my bicycle down the road. Pedaling back was a challenge, as it was both difficult and prone to send the kite looping.
  5. Madelaine McMasters
    As the 70s child of an engineer, I was taught to make my own toys. Dad taught me woodworking and mechanics, mom taught sewing and welding. The earliest of our dangerous toys were kites. We made a 21 foot delta that could lift me off the ground. We'd tether it to the tractor's winch and send it up into stable winds. Then I'd "walk" up the line, hand over hand, until my feet left the ground. Mom had words with Dad after coming outside to find me sitting on a swing seat he'd fastened to the line, placing me at about his head height. I'll never forgive her for stopping him from sending me higher. Once I'd grown too heavy for the kite, we switched to trebuchets. The first was a pea-shooter I happily aimed at mom (payback!). The last was 16 feet tall and could hurl tomatoes over the tree line and onto the roof of my emergency backup mom's house. It was built specifically to discourage her from overwhelming us with tomatoes at the end of the growing season. It didn't work. She was the ultimate in stubborn Germans.
  6. Madelaine McMasters
    Dad was a city kid, raised by his grandfather, a civil engineer who worked in the field. They showered every other day or so. Weather permitting, they'd take soapy dips in the Mississippi or showers in the rain. During his early years in the submarine service, Dad showered no more often than every other day and, if there was an evaporator malfunction, considerably less often than that. Mom was a farm girl, one of fourteen kids. Though she got dirtier than dad, there was more competition for the scarce hot water. During summer, she lathered up and rinsed off in the cow shower. The barn had better plumbing than the farmhouse. She probably got one hot bath per week until her teens, when the house was significantly upgraded. She was thrilled to move to Milwaukee where the apartment she shared with two sisters had hot running water for showers. It was rare to find her soaking in a tub after that. When I was little, I took hot showers twice/week unless I got really dirty or sweaty. The acoustics of the shower in the master bathroom are fabulous, so it was a great place to sing, or practice voices for our puppet theater. I think I spent more time using the bathtub for experiments than for bathing. It was the test bed for the floaty things I made in my various attempts to build something that would float across the lake to Michigan. My ex-hubby is a daily showerer, so during our marriage, I was too. If the shower was already warm and wet, I might as well jump in it. That took a toll on my hair. (Yes, I know about conditioner, but I'm lazy.) Now that I'm on my own again, I'm back to twice a week (Tues/Fri) unless I need more, usually during summer. By the end of July, I'll be taking soapy dips in Lake Michigan and rinsing off in the yard, just because I can. I remodeled my master bathroom nearly two years ago replacing the old tub with a heated whirlpool. I've been in it only once, to test for leaks.
  7. Madelaine McMasters
    And the matching drapes!
  8. Madelaine McMasters
    This one's for @Ceka Cianci...
  9. Madelaine McMasters
    Only the Zevia. I can't drink that stuff.
  10. Madelaine McMasters
    I've tried 'em both. They're interesting, but I'd rather drink water. I don't think I metabolize stevia leaf extract quite the way I want.
  11. Madelaine McMasters
    " 'Lysol' acts in a way that makeshifts like soap, salt, or soda never can." Nuh uh. Root beer* FTW!!! *Diet!!!
  12. Madelaine McMasters
    Depending on the duration of "short", you could be describing normal behavior, Saemantha. It takes some time for the SL servers to send your viewer all the data for a new location and all the avatars there. Objects in the scene will initially load in gray, then get textured. Avatars will show as white (SL viewer) or orange (Firestorm) clouds until their data arrives. If I TP into a busy venue, it can take a minute or more for everyone to rezz for me. Are you experiencing delays only in the loading of avatars? Is this delay much greater than you've experienced in the past?
  13. Madelaine McMasters
    I'll say you're freaking adorable, too. I don't want you bearing the burden of announcing that all alone.
  14. Madelaine McMasters
    I never engage in impulsive behav
  15. Madelaine McMasters
  16. Madelaine McMasters
  17. Madelaine McMasters
    Point it at someone else. That's what I do!
  18. Madelaine McMasters
  19. Madelaine McMasters
    When I was little, I was taught that "To the casual observer, it is intuitively obvious that..." often precedes nonsense.
  20. Madelaine McMasters
    Satan tried to get Jesus to jump, too! According to the story. You don't think this is a case of Satan trying to devour his own children?
  21. Madelaine McMasters
    I was on Mac's roof yesterday, for spring cleaning. As I climbed over the peak, heading towards the gutter, the little voice way in the back of my head suggested I take a running leap. Once I'd settled into a crouch to scoop out the muck, the voice kept nagging me to just roll over the edge. Honestly, there's nobody more dangerous to me than me.
  22. Madelaine McMasters
    I did wonder how that happened. Spoils of a fight?
  23. Madelaine McMasters
    It's hard to explain how I've made it this far through life when I can't remember how to edit a post.
  24. Madelaine McMasters
    I've never seen such a clean wing print in my yard. I've seen both owls and hawks swoop in for lunch, and I've heard an owl eating a bunny on my chimney at 2AM. The prints I've seen in my yard have indicated tussles on the ground rather than the clean sweeps I've seen during daylight. Long ago I saw what I think were eagle prints in the snow on the beach, where I imagine it snatched a seagull. It was a fairly clean print wider than I could reach, with a distinctive tail strike. I've also directly seen an eagle snatch a gull off the water. During alewife die-offs, gulls would crowd the beach and eagles would crash the party. Eagles were rare then, but alewife die-offs were not. Now the alewife populations are (thankfully) way down, and the eagle population is (thankfully) way up. ETA: I agree with your assessment. The arc of the wings favors raptor over owl and the deer was clearly going opposite the hare. I've never seen prey tracks escape an angel of death print, have you?
  25. Madelaine McMasters
    I wonder if he's peeved about that hilarious wayward feather. Have you ever seen "Angel wings of death" out in the snow?... Those will make you think.
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