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Messages - lvstephanie

Pages: 1 2 3 ... 154
1
Off-Topic / Re: Charlie Manson
« on: January 04, 2017, 10:01:50 am »Message ID: 1115210
If this is the first celeb. death of 2017, I won't be too devastated...

2
Off-Topic / Re: Radio Christmas music torture!
« on: January 04, 2017, 10:00:44 am »Message ID: 1115209
It seemed like one of the radio stations that I listen to this year (er, last year) seemed to gradually increase the number of Christmas songs that they played. They started a little before Thanksgiving, but it was only a couple every hour or so. But by the week before Christmas, it seemed almost non-stop with Christmas music. I liked how they did that; it didn't completely burn you out of listening to Christmas music so once the holiday was finally here, you were still in the spirit to listen to those songs.

3
Off-Topic / Re: Self driving cars
« on: January 04, 2017, 09:51:15 am »Message ID: 1115207
Ijust can't  see myself using one, when we have to commute, we drive between 80 miles and 160 and there are so many wrecks on the freeway, not that i  have anything against them, but it is the other drivers i worry about.  You just don't know what they are going to do. Like weaving in and out of traffic at high speeds. Even motorcycles going between to 2 trucks just because they don't want to slow down and those truckers at any given time  could have swerved toward the center and  crushed him.  Nope not for me at this time.

I agree that the main danger on the roads is the unpredictability of other drivers. However, you must note that a computer's reaction time is even quicker than a human's, and can detect things that a human may miss (eg the motorcycle threading between 2 trucks being in the trucker's blind-spot)... We are already seeing safety features with the advent of collision avoidance systems that can be found on a number of modern cars. I think that as that technology gets more refined, then it becomes more likely that we will begin to see self-driving cars.

4
Off-Topic / Re: California...no more cells while driving
« on: January 04, 2017, 09:33:48 am »Message ID: 1115205
I think it goes a little too far by saying that you can't even touch your cell phone. While I understand that the goal is to deter distracted driving, there are times that you may have to touch your phone while driving. Even if your phone is "hands-free", you may have to touch the screen to answer a phone call. Many people are also using their phones as GPS devices, which may require some interaction. You have to remember that "driving" can be constituted as being behind the steering wheel while the engine is running. So you're at a stop sign in a low traffic residential neighborhood setting your phone's map for your road trip, and you could get fined even though your action is not going to lead to an accident. Or even you get a phone call, pull into a parking lot and answer it; whoops, that's breaking the law too. Your phone is dying and you plug it into the charger while at a traffic light; there's another $20 fine. Although I doubt that the cops are going to be writing tickets for those examples listed above, it is possible and provides a way for the police to stop an individual perhaps in hopes of finding a more serious crime. Unfortunately, it could also be used by police to harass certain groups of people; it just gives any racist cop coverage to racial profiling. 2016 was all in an uproar about excessive police force when interacting with people of color; imaging handing these same police the means to pull over a black man in a low-income neighborhood that tosses his cell into the empty passenger seat because the incoming phone call was distracting him, and the stop ending in a Rodney King-like incident.

5
Off-Topic / Re: Do you use a computer at work?
« on: January 03, 2017, 10:39:29 am »Message ID: 1115002
Being a software engineer, I spend 90%+ of my time on the computer. When I'm not on the computer, it's either because I'm in a meeting or I'm gathering information on a project for my next program.

6
Off-Topic / Back-up / Reverse Lights on Parked Cars
« on: December 30, 2016, 09:39:56 am »Message ID: 1113643
Whoever thought that this "feature" was a good idea should be fired. I just spent a few minutes at the local shopping mall waiting for a car to back-up out of a parking spot, only to find out that the car had already been parked and its occupants had already left to go into the store. I guess I'm not the only person that thinks this is a design flaw instead of a feature. From what I've read online, this is a "feature" on GM cars in which any time a person hits a button on their key fob, it lights up the headlights as well as the reverse lights. I guess the idea is that it is to help illuminate the car to help people navigate to and around their car in the dark. Although this makes sense, it does not make sense to use the reverse lights for that illumination, esp. since people have been accustomed to seeing the reverse lights as meaning that the car is backing up. If they really wanted the illumination around the car, why not incorporate puddle lights to this feature as other models do under their side-mirrors or along their undercarriage. After all, the point of this feature is to provide illumination, not necessarily showing the light source itself as in other signaling lights. Keep the reverse lights as a signal for a car in reverse and add separate illumination lights to help with the navigation.

7
Off-Topic / Re: Does anyone have a good tip on how to save money
« on: December 30, 2016, 09:15:42 am »Message ID: 1113641
I'm a couponer. I save money on everything I buy at the grocery. You'd be amazed at how much you can save. We have a local Kroger and I follow Kroger Krazy on Facebook to find out about the deals.

Someone also mentioned the Penny Challenge on here. Start by saving one penny a day and add a penny each day for a year. Or, save your change. Like another person said, it adds up quick.

Good luck to you!  ;)

I was gonna mention the Krazy Coupon Lady's website. Although you don't need to become an extreme couponer, there are some very good tips on the site that even an average person could use. One thing that the extreme couponers are good at is to find ways to combine savings. For example, in addition to using coupons, there are several apps (like ibotta, savingstar, etc.) that reward you for making purchases, and since the rewards are different than coupons, the "savings" can stack. Another example is that our local grocery store has a gas-savings loyalty card that will offer cents off per gallon for making certain purchases. One of these gas-savings deals that they constantly offer is 5-cents off for every $20 in gift cards that you purchase. So before shopping at Target or Walmart, I pick up a few gift cards to those places first, and then use those in place of money to purchase my deals at the other store.

8
Off-Topic / Re: Does anyone know of a good Potato salad recipe ?
« on: December 30, 2016, 08:48:35 am »Message ID: 1113638
I've made a baked potato salad where you mix the mayo with sour cream, add bacon bits, chives, and shredded cheddar cheese, but I have since lost the actual recipe.

9
Off-Topic / Re: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
« on: December 29, 2016, 08:34:49 am »Message ID: 1113409
I went to see it on Christmas and thought it was amazing (even better than The Force Awakens, which seemed to parallel A New Hope a little too much). It was by far the best of the "prequels", adding more to the original trilogy by closing some of the plotholes that Star War fans have pointed out over the years. Once it comes out on DVD, I'd love to watch this right before the original trilogy; I've heard others that basically went home and watch ANH right after seeing this in the theater, and were very impressed how smoothly it integrated into that plotline.

10
Off-Topic / Re: George Michaels
« on: December 29, 2016, 08:10:24 am »Message ID: 1113403
As 2016 comes to a close, this "Year of Death" has to take away another great talent. One of my favorite songs of his was One More Try. RIP

11
Off-Topic / Re: Carrie Fisher passed away
« on: December 29, 2016, 08:04:30 am »Message ID: 1113402
This was very devastating news. And then the next day her mother has a stroke and passes away too. 2016 has been a very sad year for the number of deaths, esp. the ones leaving us at such a young age (as like Carrie). The Force is with her, she is one with the Force! RIP

12
Off-Topic / Re: Debbie Reynolds
« on: December 29, 2016, 07:51:31 am »Message ID: 1113400
I guess her last words (to her son Todd Fischer) was "I Want to Be With Carrie" So sad. RIP

13
Off-Topic / Re: Sick at Christmas Time
« on: December 23, 2016, 10:01:00 am »Message ID: 1112378
I was afraid that I was coming down with something last weekend (started to get a throat "tickle"), so I just went into prevent-mode by taking more Vit. C and Zinc and I think that did the trick. Hopefully you will feel better by the time Christmas rolls around... Merry Christmas!

14
Off-Topic / Re: do you go to someones house or stay at home for christmas
« on: December 23, 2016, 09:57:37 am »Message ID: 1112377
We were planning to visit my sister in ND, but earlier this week, she had texted me to say that their weather reports were talking about heavy snow and possible blizzard conditions. So it looks like we'll have to postpone our Christmas until sometime in Jan. when (hopefully) the driving conditions are better :(

15
Off-Topic / Re: Electoral college
« on: December 21, 2016, 01:09:25 pm »Message ID: 1112044
You have to remember that we live in a democratic republic, not a strict democracy. Thus even when voting for a president, we are actually voting for representatives / electors from our state that in turn vote aligning to our wishes when voting for the president. If we voted for president strictly by popular vote, then all of our presidents would be elected by 4-6 states, namely California, New York, Texas, and Florida (with Pennsylvania and Illinois having a slight influence). This would mean that the candidates could basically campaign in those few states and ignore the rest of the country. If you feel that not going by the popular vote is somehow disenfranchising some voters that sided with the popular-vote winner that loses in the electoral counts, imagine how the people in the 40-odd states would feel were we to eliminate the electoral college and go by popular votes instead.

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