Unfinished Business

[arewethereyet]

Do you have a project that you started but just can't seem to finish?

Or maybe you bought all the gear for a new hobby you've since neglected?

Tell us about the road not taken.

---

I've got two main ones.  

I had a large file storage array start to crap out on my main computer.  I had an old file server that had been decommissioned that had held those files, so I pulled that out, and as long as I was going to be using it again, I figured that I'd upgrade it so that it could hold more stuff.  That required buying 8 used hard disks, which I figured I'd purchase over the course of 6 months as I didn't have the money to buy them all at once.  Three years later, all 8 disks are in it, and it works, but I've yet to start using it, and it sits, running, in disarray in the corner.  About 6 months back, I saw some add-in cards that would handle up to 16 disks, so I bought two, and planned to add 4 more disks before I put the machine into service.  Six months later, I've only managed to buy 1 more disk.  Thanks to the money I saved on my bed, I now have the money, but I'm sure something will come along to sidetrack it yet again.

I also bought two, slide-out, in-cabinet lid holders for pots and pans.  And I emptied out the cabinet, and all it takes is driving four screws.  Yet the slide-out racks and all my pan lids are just piled in there to this day, yet it's been close to a year since I bought them.

I blame the pandemic.  Or something.  The phases of the moon?

Whatever project someone succeeds in doing, or fails to do, the passenger jet, no matter, first class, business class or coach, the plane called life takes off and ends the same way.

The only thing humans really can do in life is the best they can, even if they fail. There is no shame in failing, or not reaching the top. 

My best friend from Oklahoma always reminds me, and rightfully so, his family would never fault someone for being a gas station attendant or hotel maid if that was all they did their entire life. 

Of course there are always things people do or don't do that they look back on and regret doing or not doing. But I think the key to good mental health isn't to chase after what others think. I did that growing up far too much, and all it did was make me miserable. 

You can't change the past, but more importantly, you should not put yourself down because others don't like the way you did things. There is a huge difference between criticism in order to help someone who is asking for help, and bullying because they don't like you.

I have failed at lots of things. I never moved up the economic ladder either. But at the same time, I have seen plenty  of poor and middle class people and worked with them at work, that have far more morals and empathy than some asshole like the former guy.

In general, be it business or personal, it is quite normal for someone, anyone, to look at a "project" or "task" and have all the good intent in the world to do it, but life gets in the way, or they realize they are in over their heads.

"The Road Not Taken" to me is a myth. It certainly is worth the shot. But the idea that if you try there is a 100% certainty you will succeed, is the myth. The math is not there for all 7 billion humans to be Jeff Bezos all at the same time.

What the hell are you babbling about?

[Ranjr]

Like an enviromentally friendly maglight....


I collect those... Got a bunch of LED conversion bulbs... A 5 D cell light will go about 12 days continuous...

Here's a BOM if you wanna play around with it.

LED   (3-7)  10 ohm resistor (per LED)  L- ion battery   Charger  Switch

[Brian37]

Whatever project someone succeeds in doing, or fails to do, the passenger jet, no matter, first class, business class or coach, the plane called life takes off and ends the same way.

The only thing humans really can do in life is the best they can, even if they fail. There is no shame in failing, or not reaching the top. 

My best friend from Oklahoma always reminds me, and rightfully so, his family would never fault someone for being a gas station attendant or hotel maid if that was all they did their entire life. 

Of course there are always things people do or don't do that they look back on and regret doing or not doing. But I think the key to good mental health isn't to chase after what others think. I did that growing up far too much, and all it did was make me miserable. 

You can't change the past, but more importantly, you should not put yourself down because others don't like the way you did things. There is a huge difference between criticism in order to help someone who is asking for help, and bullying because they don't like you.

I have failed at lots of things. I never moved up the economic ladder either. But at the same time, I have seen plenty  of poor and middle class people and worked with them at work, that have far more morals and empathy than some asshole like the former guy.

In general, be it business or personal, it is quite normal for someone, anyone, to look at a "project" or "task" and have all the good intent in the world to do it, but life gets in the way, or they realize they are in over their heads.

"The Road Not Taken" to me is a myth. It certainly is worth the shot. But the idea that if you try there is a 100% certainty you will succeed, is the myth. The math is not there for all 7 billion humans to be Jeff Bezos all at the same time.

What the hell are you babbling about?

Babbling is what you choose to call it.

But the truth is, personal or business, everyone has things they think about doing but don't. My point is that life is what it is. If we dwell on all the things we didn't do, big or small, we could all spiral into a black hole of insecurity.

I can think of a lot of things I wish I had done but did not. But that solves nothing. If you have a roof over your head and don't have to fear starving, you are always on the right track, regardless of the things you did or did not do.

[arewethereyet]

What the hell are you babbling about?

Babbling is what you choose to call it.

But the truth is, personal or business, everyone has things they think about doing but don't. My point is that life is what it is. If we dwell on all the things we didn't do, big or small, we could all spiral into a black hole of insecurity.

I can think of a lot of things I wish I had done but did not. But that solves nothing. If you have a roof over your head and don't have to fear starving, you are always on the right track, regardless of the things you did or did not do.

Angrboda was asking what projects we hadn't finished. As in hobbies, household repairs or upgrades, etc. Not what life goals we hadn't reached.

You are just an idiot.

[vulcanlogician]

I've been trying to finish worldbuilding for a science fiction setting to be used in a series of short stories (or maybe even a tabletop RPG). I'm being too much of a perfectionist about it. I get overly focused on certain details. What I need to do is just write the damn story or build the damn game system, then go back and try to correct errors before publishing.

I think it's going on two years now.

[Brian37]

Babbling is what you choose to call it.

But the truth is, personal or business, everyone has things they think about doing but don't. My point is that life is what it is. If we dwell on all the things we didn't do, big or small, we could all spiral into a black hole of insecurity.

I can think of a lot of things I wish I had done but did not. But that solves nothing. If you have a roof over your head and don't have to fear starving, you are always on the right track, regardless of the things you did or did not do.

Angrboda was asking what projects we hadn't finished.  As in hobbies, household repairs or upgrades, etc. Not what life goals we hadn't reached.

You are just an idiot.

Yes. I am sorry you thought I missed that. I did not miss that. I once offered to re finish a piece of furniture only to strip the paint off of it to discover it was plywood and not natural would. I used to have my own poetry show on a cable access TV show, but since it was all volunteer it was always hard to find camera people and editors. Not because of my content, but because it was all volunteer.

Yes I do know what it is like to intend and want to do something but end up not doing it

I was only adding to that, that life doesn't always end up the way the intender intends.

[Angrboda]

I neglected to mention one of my biggest unfinished projects. Back in 2009 I decided that my old futons had to go, as they were hard as rock. My dad offered to buy me a new bed, as I had no money at the time, I just had to go pick one out. But I procrastinated, and at one point convinced myself that I was incapable of sleeping on my old futons and got an air mattress to put on top for as long as I needed before getting a new bed. But I was in rough shape at the time, and wore my winter boots to bed a few times because I was always cold for some reason, and the air mattress quickly developed leaks. So I went back to the futons and eventually got used to it.

Fast forward 10 years and I decide that it's finally time to do something about my bed. In the meantime, I had slept on my sister's bed, which is super plush and decided that I absolutely had to have a plush mattress. So I saved up a few hundred dollars and ordered a bed advertised as plush from Walmart. When it arrived and inflated, I discovered that it wasn't plush at all and was quite firm. So, since you can return mattresses for up to 100 days, I ventured into uncharted waters and initiated a return. I was just sure I was going to lose my $300. But I wrapped the mattress in plastic, wrote the tracking number on it in big letters, and when the Fedex man came, I used a plastic mat that serves as an entryway runner and slid it down the hall, in the elevator and out the door to the fedex guy. A few weeks later I had my refund.

Feeling a bit burned by the experience, I had some time later tried a Serta at Fleet Farm that was on display and liked it. But the Serta was $600-800, so it would have to wait until I had some money. A couple years went by, and my habit of continually emptying my bank account had slowed, so I decided it was time to try again. I started shopping for a plush mattress, but realized it would be best if I could try it before I buy it. So a few weeks ago, I went to Mattressfirm hoping to try a mattress there, and then order it online. But at the last minute, the salesman offered me $200 off one that I had liked, so I signed on the dotted line. I get home and look at the reviews for that mattress, and they're terrible. Some of the worst I've seen. So I call Mattressfirm and cancel.

So I go back to browsing online to find a mattress I can order without worrying about it too much or likely having to return it. I tried a couple mattresses at Menards that seemed good, but the one was $600 through Amazon, and the other was only at Menard's where there's no way to return it. I had for some time been interested in deep memory foam mattresses from Lucid. I found one that supposedly was plush, and I liked the internal construction and the Lucid name, and it was only $400 after taxes. The only drawback was that it was from Amazon, who typically only allows mattress returns within 30 days. Most quality mattresses insist you try it for at least that long before returning it, so people have a chance to adjust to the newness before deciding the mattress is unacceptable. So I ordered the Lucid, in part because I'm cheap, but also, it sounded like it would work out fine.

I set up the mattress a few days ago, and it's slightly less plush than the $600 mattress that I looked at, but it's fairly comfortable. The only issue is that I feel some slight compression at the shoulders, but with my head raised on a pillow, that more or less goes away. Plus, apparently Amazon allows 100 days for a return of this mattress. It's 14" of memory foam which is bulky and heavy and floppy, so if I do return it, I may see about getting help (paid or free). But I think I'm still in the adjustment period, so I don't think there's any reason to panic. I imagine after sleeping on it for some time that I'll forget all about returning it. And I really like the toys I bought with that extra $200. I meant to hold onto the extra in case I needed to return it and buy a more expensive mattress, but I've spent a lot of my reserve on junk already. But since I've got 100 days, there's plenty of time to save up again. And in a pinch, my couch is quite comfortable to sleep on. It even folds down into a bed, though it's a pain to fold back up again.

So I'm in my breakin period on a new mattress. I'm about 95% satisfied, and I suspect I'll reach 100% after sleeping on it for a while. They say that mattresses lose their initial firmness over time, so I suspect it's just a matter of sleeping on this one for a while. Supposedly you can speed up the process by walking on the mattress, but I'm not sure I'm keen on that idea.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Do you have a project that you started but just can't seem to finish?

Or maybe you bought all the gear for a new hobby you've since neglected?

Tell us about the road not taken.

---

I've got two main ones.  

I had a large file storage array start to crap out on my main computer.  I had an old file server that had been decommissioned that had held those files, so I pulled that out, and as long as I was going to be using it again, I figured that I'd upgrade it so that it could hold more stuff.  That required buying 8 used hard disks, which I figured I'd purchase over the course of 6 months as I didn't have the money to buy them all at once.  Three years later, all 8 disks are in it, and it works, but I've yet to start using it, and it sits, running, in disarray in the corner.  About 6 months back, I saw some add-in cards that would handle up to 16 disks, so I bought two, and planned to add 4 more disks before I put the machine into service.  Six months later, I've only managed to buy 1 more disk.  Thanks to the money I saved on my bed, I now have the money, but I'm sure something will come along to sidetrack it yet again.

I also bought two, slide-out, in-cabinet lid holders for pots and pans.  And I emptied out the cabinet, and all it takes is driving four screws.  Yet the slide-out racks and all my pan lids are just piled in there to this day, yet it's been close to a year since I bought them.

I blame the pandemic.  Or something.  The phases of the moon?

Whatever project someone succeeds in doing, or fails to do, the passenger jet, no matter, first class, business class or coach, the plane called life takes off and ends the same way.

The only thing humans really can do in life is the best they can, even if they fail. There is no shame in failing, or not reaching the top. 

My best friend from Oklahoma always reminds me, and rightfully so, his family would never fault someone for being a gas station attendant or hotel maid if that was all they did their entire life. 

Of course there are always things people do or don't do that they look back on and regret doing or not doing. But I think the key to good mental health isn't to chase after what others think. I did that growing up far too much, and all it did was make me miserable. 

You can't change the past, but more importantly, you should not put yourself down because others don't like the way you did things. There is a huge difference between criticism in order to help someone who is asking for help, and bullying because they don't like you.

I have failed at lots of things. I never moved up the economic ladder either. But at the same time, I have seen plenty  of poor and middle class people and worked with them at work, that have far more morals and empathy than some asshole like the former guy.

In general, be it business or personal, it is quite normal for someone, anyone, to look at a "project" or "task" and have all the good intent in the world to do it, but life gets in the way, or they realize they are in over their heads.

"The Road Not Taken" to me is a myth. It certainly is worth the shot. But the idea that if you try there is a 100% certainty you will succeed, is the myth. The math is not there for all 7 billion humans to be Jeff Bezos all at the same time.

That’s a lot of typing to tell us you still haven’t fixed your barstools.

Boru