Random thoughts that are pointless and too dumb to say anywhere else thread! (2024 edition)

[NeedMoreFans]

I have been at my current job for close to two and a half years.  Today was the first day all lanes of traffic were open during my commute, and apparently the first time in 20 years there is no construction on University Ave in Madison. 

[nate82]

In-N-Out burgers suck that is all. 

[Thurston Fluff]

I googled Thurston Fluff for the heck of it. The first result was Brewer fanatic and the second was my facebook page which I primarily use as a storage space for original humor. There are zero other Thurston Fluffs out there.

[SeaBass]

2 hours ago, Thurston Fluff said:

I googled Thurston Fluff for the heck of it. The first result was Brewer fanatic and the second was my facebook page which I primarily use as a storage space for original humor. There are zero other Thurston Fluffs out there.

I just assumed it was a cat name.

[TURBO]

I thought it was the Gorilla's name.

😀

[Thurston Fluff]

17 hours ago, SeaBass said:

I just assumed it was a cat name.

The third most popular one was Thurston Waffles who was a cat. He's dead, so an ex-cat.

I wonder if this site was ever first in a Google search before. It was definitely a first for me. Either way WE'RE NUMBER ONE, WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!!

[Thurston Fluff]

Yesterday was the first football game I've watched in several years. When did football become an endless string of penalties, refs talking, injury time outs, and replays with a play or two sprinkled in over three plus hours? Or was it always like that and I just never realized it? It was kind of boring to be honest. But when at thanksgiving with family one must do as family does.

[GAME05]

Did a blind writing test with the Mont Blanc pen I gave a sister for Christmas. Everyone, including me, liked the cheap-o pen better.

[TURBO]

On 11/29/2024 at 12:56 PM, Thurston Fluff said:

Yesterday was the first football game I've watched in several years. When did football become an endless string of penalties, refs talking, injury time outs, and replays with a play or two sprinkled in over three plus hours? Or was it always like that and I just never realized it? It was kind of boring to be honest. But when at thanksgiving with family one must do as family does.

You forgot to mention the endless commercials.  

[Thurston Fluff]

Found out our van was on it's last legs Monday, passed a kidney stone on Wednesday and yesterday our water heater died. There was a certain uniformity to it all. It was every other day and it was one each of home, auto and health issues.

While I can't say it was the best week ever The van didn't leave us stranded somewhere, the kidney stone came and went in about 12 hours. From what people tell me I was lucky, and I discovered the water heater leak before the entire basement was flooded. All in all not as bad a week as it could have been.

[TURBO]

3 hours ago, Thurston Fluff said:

Found out our van was on it's last legs Monday, passed a kidney stone on Wednesday and yesterday our water heater died. There was a certain uniformity to it all. It was every other day and it was one each of home, auto and health issues.

While I can't say it was the best week ever The van didn't leave us stranded somewhere, the kidney stone came and went in about 12 hours. From what people tell me I was lucky, and I discovered the water heater leak before the entire basement was flooded. All in all not as bad a week as it could have been.

That is a healthy attitude, hopefully next week is a better one.

[homer]

O&H Kringle is 1000x better than Racine Danish Kringle. 

[nate82]

1 hour ago, homer said:

O&H Kringle is 1000x better than Racine Danish Kringle. 

You trying to start a war?  Because that’s how you start a war.

[nate82]

The great Kringle war of 2024 started by Homer.  

[Thurston Fluff]

Just heard Party City is closing all stores. I feel bad for the employees to get the news just before Christmas but it's hard not to feel a bit of pride in our operation. They started in 1986 which was three years after we did. Outlasting a major corporate entity in the same field shows maybe small mom and pops places have a place in our country after all.

[GAME05]

If Superman got weak and near death when he was exposed to kryptonite, does that mean before the planet was destroyed everyone was just walking around like that?

[homer]

On 12/20/2024 at 4:58 PM, Thurston Fluff said:

Just heard Party City is closing all stores. I feel bad for the employees to get the news just before Christmas but it's hard not to feel a bit of pride in our operation. They started in 1986 which was three years after we did. Outlasting a major corporate entity in the same field shows maybe small mom and pops places have a place in our country after all.

Private Equity killing chain stores may end up helping the little guy!

[greeg35]

4 hours ago, GAME05 said:

If Superman got weak and near death when he was exposed to kryptonite, does that mean before the planet was destroyed everyone was just walking around like that?

No, it was the yellow light of the sun that both gave Superman (and anyone from red-sunned Krypton) super powers on earth, and made him vulnerable to Kryptonite fragments. 

Don't ask me to explain the science though, you wouldn't understand. Now let me explain how flying around the earth backwards can make time go backwards...

[Thurston Fluff]

3 hours ago, homer said:

Private Equity killing chain stores may end up helping the little guy!

That might be part of it. I think it might be more a symptom than a cause.

In general large corporations are slow moving and don't react to changes as quickly as small places can. When helium got scarce the prices shot up a lot in a short period of time. Party City didn't adapt like small places did. The change from a helium balloon arch to an air filled one for example took us about a day to adjust. We called a local awning shop and had them bend us some conduit and never had to say no to anyone. It took them months to stock and sell the framework for arches. Even then it was a DIY and not very easy to do. Not only were they slow to adjust their solution was not very good.

Large places also set their prices higher up. When the circumstances change on the ground it takes time to trickle down. They always relied on volume to make up for a narrow profit margin so when the price of helium quadrupled in a few months they were losing money because the changes in prices rose slower than the cost of the product. Another semi-related problem is most large places project inventory out a lot further than small places do. When they buy balloons that need helium it could be for next year. Suddenly they have inventory locked in that can't be moved.

Which is all to say a private equity firm would look at that and decide to cut their losses but it was due to the built in weakness of a large scale entity more than it was consolidation to maximize profits.

[GAME05]

4 hours ago, greeg35 said:

No, it was the yellow light of the sun that both gave Superman (and anyone from red-sunned Krypton) super powers on earth, and made him vulnerable to Kryptonite fragments.

Thank you, that helps. I don't know why I thought it, but I had always understood that his powers came from Krypton having a way higher gravity than Earth. Well, no matter, I was rooting for Richard Pryor, anyway.

5 hours ago, greeg35 said:

Now let me explain how flying around the earth backwards can make time go backwards...

The obvious question here is if he had spun the earth North/South would that have stopped time?

Maybe once he spun the earth back the right way he could have slowed it down just a tad so we can do away with Leap Year.

[hawing]

May I randomly say that I am randomly enjoying the juxtaposition in this thread of "demise of Party City" and "Superman + kryptonite" posts? ☺️