Ha

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
McMansions are hideous, and they're built so cheaply that I'm astounded people actually buy them. I've seen treehouses made with better material.

WaPo:

• At block parties in the Lowes Island subdivision, chatter often revolves around home maintenance.
  
  In the 15-year-old Loudoun County development, residents have started replacing their roofs, air-conditioning systems and window frames. The houses, built from 1992 to 1998, don't have any known defects. They simply are aging, and some materials used in construction are approaching the end of their service lives.
  
  Like many area homeowners who buy from a single builder in a subdivision, Lowes Island residents have figured out that a neighbor's house often is a maintenance bellwether for an entire block.
  
  "Just in the last two, three years, things are starting to break," said Janet Roth, a family counselor who has lived in Lowes Island since 1992. "It's been interesting in that all the houses are aging at the same time."
  
  Watching a subdivision mature is a bit like monitoring the progress of a high school graduating class: At commencement, graduates are fresh and eager to stand up to the world; at the 10-year mark, slight changes can be noticeable -- a roof or two may be thinning, or units may require extra care to recapture their youthful glow; and by the 25th year, many require major cosmetic or internal overhauls.
  
  Even those in the best shape need more maintenance than before.
  
  "Many products that go into houses have life expectancies. When you purchase a home in a subdivision, you're probably not going to get top-of-the-line equipment, because, in general, builders use the lowest-grade equipment. It's how they keep the prices down," said Kathleen Parrott, a professor with Virginia Tech's Department of Housing, Interior Design and Resource Management.
  
  "Builder's grade" materials, as these are known, often have shorter warrantees and life spans than their pricier counterparts. For example, at Lowes Island, many heating and air-conditioning systems were builder's grade, and they are among the first systems to need replacement.
  
  Roth recently bought a new unit for her two-unit heating-and-air-conditioning system, and she was told to expect to replace the other within a year.
  
  "Everyone's having to do it," she said.
  
  Other repairs being made at Lowes Island include replacing window trim, window seals and landscaping that hasn't held up, such as shallow-rooted Leyland cypress trees.
  
  "Talking to the neighbors really helps," Roth said. "Sometimes you'll find out something before it really breaks in your house."

more

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop

"Over?" No, no, I think this means that goth is just hitting its stride. With not only teens and druggies but now CEOs embracing the look, I think it's well on its path to world domination.

[Did you just call me Coltrane?]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
WaPo:

• At block parties in the Lowes Island subdivision, chatter often revolves around home maintenance.
  
  In the 15-year-old Loudoun County development, residents have started replacing their roofs, air-conditioning systems and window frames. The houses, built from 1992 to 1998, don't have any known defects. They simply are aging, and some materials used in construction are approaching the end of their service lives.
  
  Like many area homeowners who buy from a single builder in a subdivision, Lowes Island residents have figured out that a neighbor's house often is a maintenance bellwether for an entire block.
  
  "Just in the last two, three years, things are starting to break," said Janet Roth, a family counselor who has lived in Lowes Island since 1992. "It's been interesting in that all the houses are aging at the same time."
  
  Watching a subdivision mature is a bit like monitoring the progress of a high school graduating class: At commencement, graduates are fresh and eager to stand up to the world; at the 10-year mark, slight changes can be noticeable -- a roof or two may be thinning, or units may require extra care to recapture their youthful glow; and by the 25th year, many require major cosmetic or internal overhauls.
  
  Even those in the best shape need more maintenance than before.
  
  "Many products that go into houses have life expectancies. When you purchase a home in a subdivision, you're probably not going to get top-of-the-line equipment, because, in general, builders use the lowest-grade equipment. It's how they keep the prices down," said Kathleen Parrott, a professor with Virginia Tech's Department of Housing, Interior Design and Resource Management.
  
  "Builder's grade" materials, as these are known, often have shorter warrantees and life spans than their pricier counterparts. For example, at Lowes Island, many heating and air-conditioning systems were builder's grade, and they are among the first systems to need replacement.
  
  Roth recently bought a new unit for her two-unit heating-and-air-conditioning system, and she was told to expect to replace the other within a year.
  
  "Everyone's having to do it," she said.
  
  Other repairs being made at Lowes Island include replacing window trim, window seals and landscaping that hasn't held up, such as shallow-rooted Leyland cypress trees.
  
  "Talking to the neighbors really helps," Roth said. "Sometimes you'll find out something before it really breaks in your house."

more

Well, I'm pretty sure most A/C units don't have a life span in excess of 20 years, so replacing it after 15 years is probably fairly typical.

[patentparanyc]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
WaPo:

• At block parties in the Lowes Island subdivision, chatter often revolves around home maintenance.
  
  In the 15-year-old Loudoun County development, residents have started replacing their roofs, air-conditioning systems and window frames. The houses, built from 1992 to 1998, don't have any known defects. They simply are aging, and some materials used in construction are approaching the end of their service lives.
  
  Like many area homeowners who buy from a single builder in a subdivision, Lowes Island residents have figured out that a neighbor's house often is a maintenance bellwether for an entire block.
  
  "Just in the last two, three years, things are starting to break," said Janet Roth, a family counselor who has lived in Lowes Island since 1992. "It's been interesting in that all the houses are aging at the same time."
  
  Watching a subdivision mature is a bit like monitoring the progress of a high school graduating class: At commencement, graduates are fresh and eager to stand up to the world; at the 10-year mark, slight changes can be noticeable -- a roof or two may be thinning, or units may require extra care to recapture their youthful glow; and by the 25th year, many require major cosmetic or internal overhauls.
  
  Even those in the best shape need more maintenance than before.
  
  "Many products that go into houses have life expectancies. When you purchase a home in a subdivision, you're probably not going to get top-of-the-line equipment, because, in general, builders use the lowest-grade equipment. It's how they keep the prices down," said Kathleen Parrott, a professor with Virginia Tech's Department of Housing, Interior Design and Resource Management.
  
  "Builder's grade" materials, as these are known, often have shorter warrantees and life spans than their pricier counterparts. For example, at Lowes Island, many heating and air-conditioning systems were builder's grade, and they are among the first systems to need replacement.
  
  Roth recently bought a new unit for her two-unit heating-and-air-conditioning system, and she was told to expect to replace the other within a year.
  
  "Everyone's having to do it," she said.
  
  Other repairs being made at Lowes Island include replacing window trim, window seals and landscaping that hasn't held up, such as shallow-rooted Leyland cypress trees.
  
  "Talking to the neighbors really helps," Roth said. "Sometimes you'll find out something before it really breaks in your house."

more

it isn't the same thing but the building spurt in the Poconos--they used sub quality materials...one woman paid 3K a month in heating. everything fell apart. developers went out of business there was little recourse. So---people had to declare bx and move back in the city. NY Times had a series on this.

[ltl/fb]

can you please send me your address again? I lost it, and I finally retrieved Strawberry Shortcake from where it hid under the desk.

Is anyone into stupidly violent movies? Involving savage Viking invaders bent on death and destruction, with scenes too violent for theaters.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Did you just call me Coltrane?
I bet.

G.O.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
can you please send me your address again? I lost it, and I finally retrieved Strawberry Shortcake from where it hid under the desk.

Is anyone into stupidly violent movies? Involving savage Viking invaders bent on death and destruction, with scenes too violent for theaters.

I worry about the people who like nudity in their violent movies. Like nudity is great and violence is great, but I really don't care for violence to the nude*, like your Vikings killing half nude Native american women or something. I don't get the audience, or i think I do get the audience and it scares me.

*obvious exception is those that have sex in a hatchet kill movie. they deserve to die before getting dressed again. but that isn't a sexual sentiment, it is from my Catholic upbringing.

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
can you please send me your address again? I lost it, and I finally retrieved Strawberry Shortcake from where it hid under the desk.

Is anyone into stupidly violent movies? Involving savage Viking invaders bent on death and destruction, with scenes too violent for theaters.

I didn't know Strawberry Shortcake was into that kinda stuff. Kinky.

[ltl/fb]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
I worry about the people who like nudity in their violent movies. Like nudity is great and violence is great, but I really don't care for violence to the nude*, like your Vikings killing half nude Native american women or something. I don't get the audience, or i think I do get the audience and it scares me.

*obvious exception is those that have sex in a hatchet kill movie. they deserve to die before getting dressed again.

I worry that you seem to know what movie I was talking about, based on my quoting one line from the back of the DVD case.

Gatti, Strawberry Shortcake is having some kind of berry-rific celebration. Other than proximity of boxes, she's totally not involved with the Vikings.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
I worry that you seem to know what movie I was talking about, based on my quoting one line from the back of the DVD case.

I don't know what movie your talking about, I was guessing. perhaps the movies you rent are a bit formulistic and predictable?

[Hank Chinaski]

we just put in place a new spam filter- we just get a list of email identified as spam each day. if you try to open one of them it will say it fails. you have to go to the filter guy and ask him to open and send one to you.

Question: a friend has been seriously shopping for penis enlargement products, so he would like to receive all of those emails. any advice on how to struture the request. I'm in IP so i guess I could claim a pharma client who needs me to be up to speed on the competition.

[Icky Thump]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
we just put in place a new spam filter- we just get a list of email identified as spam each day. if you try to open one of them it will say it fails. you have to go to the filter guy and ask him to open and send one to you.

Question: a friend has been seriously shopping for penis enlargement products, so he would like to receive all of those emails. any advice on how to struture the request. I'm in IP so i guess I could claim a pharma client who needs me to be up to speed on the competition.

Why, your IT people speak english?

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally posted by ltl/fb
can you please send me your address again? I lost it, and I finally retrieved Strawberry Shortcake from where it hid under the desk.

Is anyone into stupidly violent movies? Involving savage Viking invaders bent on death and destruction, with scenes too violent for theaters.

Done. I'll be happy to send cookies in return. I've been told my chocolate chip cookies are better than my mother's cook's.

In unrelated news, I continue to be in love with my Keurig coffee maker.

[Sparklehorse]

Originally posted by Anne Elk
You're lucky you don't live in Boston where we have those red lights atop the Fire Department's emergency pull boxes. Those things never change.

I went for a walk this weekend with a friend who is, among other things, a safety officer in her work place. She told me she went to a Cambridge FD presentation recently and learned that those fire boxes date back to the late 19th century and transmit the fire message in Morse Code. The fire people apparently also said that the message is transmitted faster than a cell phone calling 911.

[Replaced_Texan]

Did any of you other geeks know about this? (spree: geeky psa from 1982)