The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Cesar R M]

I certainly see the advantageof having hard copies but I do wonder how many people, especially the younger generation, will still want a DVD player in their home. I personally have movies stored on a USB stick and memory card in case the internet goes down and haven't owned a DVD player in many years.

Same, but I actually have a mediaserver where all my ripped movies are. So I can stream them anywhere on my home with my wireless signal. pretty useful!

 

[21stamps]

its not a normal everyday cellphone. It is pretty much a replacement for a phone AND a tablet.
That thing has 3 screens, including the first commercial foldable seamless screen. that is HUGE.

Wait, what? I’m gonna need to google this. It sounds huge. I couldn’t even go to phablet because of their obnoxious size.


Edit— googled. 7.3”. Yeah, No.
how does that fit in anyone’s pocket?

 

[Cesar R M]

Wait, what? I’m gonna need to google this. It sounds huge. I couldn’t even go to phablet because of their obnoxious size.

For what I read, its going to be the size of a Samsung Galaxy Edge 9+ and extends a bit once you unfold.
Only issue was going to be the thickness. This phone will be a bit thicker than usual, like those flip phones.

And it will have dual battery (no surprise since it has to feed 2 screens, then 1 screen + processor)

 

[21stamps]

For what I read, its going to be the size of a Samsung Galaxy Edge 9+ and extends a bit once you unfold.
Only issue was going to be the thickness. This phone will be a bit thicker than usual, like those flip phones.

And it will have dual battery (no surprise since it has to feed 2 screens, then 1 screen + processor)

I just edited my comment. The Edge Plus group was already too unrealistically big,. This one is worse.

I want phones to stop growing!

 

[Cesar R M]

I just edited my comment. The Edge Plus group was already too unrealistically big,. This one is worse.

I want phones to stop growing!

I actually really like my Note 9. so yeah XD
I like big phones..

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Heck, I still have a VCR as well. They cannot stream the video's of my kids plays or recitals. I don't know what I will do when mine breaks down. And all those years of Disney Vacation videos are no longer viewable.

There are some companies that will digitize your VHS tapes, put them on DVD or USB drives. I have been thinking about doing this but haven't researched any companies yet.

 

[Goofyernmost]

There are some companies that will digitize your VHS tapes, put them on DVD or USB drives. I have been thinking about doing this but haven't researched any companies yet.

I suppose if I want to do that I should review them now to make sure that there isn't some unwanted stuff before transferring it, however, I still would lose a lot of old VCR movies or have to repurchase them for digital. I will admit though that it has been literally years since I last looked at one of them.

 

[Cesar R M]

There are some companies that will digitize your VHS tapes, put them on DVD or USB drives. I have been thinking about doing this but haven't researched any companies yet.

You can do this yourself, you only need a VHS and a TV Capture card in a computer.
Most TV Capture cards have programs explicitly for saving the analog video to digitals, then you can use your favorite program to put them on DVD or blurays later on.

I still recommend Pro companies, since DVDS and Blurays DO DEGRADE. Most have a shelf life of 15 years or less.
Professional Companies that do crystaline or "pressed" dvds and blurays.. they can last up to 50 years.

 

[KBLovedDisney]

Has anyone been to Carowinds recently? Did you buy Fast Lane Plus?

@KBLovesDisney ? I can’t remember if you got them or not.

We went but we didn't get the Fast Lane Plus. Oddly enough, we were waiting in the long line for Night Hawk and this couple behind us were getting so very frustrated about waiting. So, about halfway into the line, the couple exited to go get Fast Lane Plus tickets. In order to get the pass, you have to go back to the entrance of the park and get them from the ticket booth. About 30 or so minutes later, we were about to get on the ride and here comes the couple that was right behind us waiting in line...behind us to get on the ride again.

Eh, I honestly don't think it is worth it because other than Night Hawk, the lines aren't terrible.

 

[donaldtoo]

Half-day Friday...!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Time to go back for some ketchup...!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

Sorry was pretty much offline much of yesterday. I would love to be a permanent snowbird. So, whatever that type of bird is, that is the one I want to be.

Permanent snowbirds are known as sunbirds...!!!

 

[donaldtoo]

We are supposed to start with sleet and freezing rain and turn to all freezing rain tonight through tomorrow. I am done!!

Maybe needing to move to South Carolina...?

 

[donaldtoo]

I agree about the finances. I think that for a large company like Denny's or Disney for that matter, those companies should have funds set up to help their employees pay for dental care, because we all know that dental insurance pays for cleanings and maybe a root canal or a couple of fillings in a year. So if you have major work to be done and no money, you will never be able to afford it. When we were at Disney a bunch of years ago we saw quite a few cast members that really needed some dental care. I assume with their salaries that many could not afford a copay. I even thought at one point that a large corporation should employ dentists and have an onsite office where employees could get dental work done at no charge. A healthy mouth can be important for maintaining a healthy body. Dental care is also a heck of a lot cheaper than medical care when you catch things early. A cavity is a lot cheaper than a crown or root canal.

Based on a few other posts over time, and now this one, is your hubs a dentist...?
No worries if it’s “nonma” (none of my bidness )...just curious...!

 

[Songbird76]

My son did both the Disney College Program half way between his bachelors degree. When he finished he did an internship for a full year ultimately when he graduated from his University.

It opened quite a few doors for him that would have not happened without Disney World on his resume. He has no regrets. As a Mom me either.

What is your friends kids
Role with Disney?

She's doing Merchandise, and her "home" is Mouse Gear in Epcot. She only just started a few weeks ago. I've been seeing the pictures from her days off on her mom's facebook. She went to Universal when she first got down there, and last week she had a day off and decided to meet as many characters as she could, so there were pictures with Gaston, and Daisy, and Ariel, and a bunch of others. It looks like she is having a great time.

 

[Cesar R M]

Trip Report Part 11:


St. Maarten

Before we were getting closed (the day before) we rushed to the tours area to try to get one of the BUS tours that go around the island so my sister and her sons would get to see what the city as to offer.
but the horror!
all was sold out!
the only available was one of these "accessible" minivans for people with disabilities or mobility issues.
So we decided to get that, then the classic moans of "arggh no money, etc..etc.." my mom and I paid for their trip, problem solved.
Then my mom and I went to the mini tour of the island plus the submarine. As we were not a fan of the other tours that are mostly active, more boats or jetskis or more shopping crap

So .. the next day we got up kinda early.. the ship arrived at around 8 am and when we finished eating, we were already approaching and getting into the pier.
The ship was surrounded by ships this time.


On our left, it was the first Viking Ocean cruise ship, the Viking Sea.
On our right, it was full with the big Royal Princess, then the P&O Azura, then the Aida Diva which arrived later on...



First a Panorama of the Phillipsburg bay.


Some of the ships...


Then the Allure of the Seas and the Viking Ocean.


Then one of the beach where we arrived to get to the submarine.



The trip itself wasnt very eventful, we woke up, went to eat our pancakes, etc.. at Windjammer.
Then once we successfully arrived and the doors opened, we went downstairs to get in line for our number of tour.
Thankfully every area was very well positioned and the signs visible. We found our group rather easily.

Then once the time was up and the counting, we moved from the pier into the Sint Maarten bus section and we entered a tall.
Now the thing is.. we got the MOST HILARIOUS AND SASSY Tour lady.
She was constantly joking around and throwing real sass to his exhusband (the driver lol) and telling everyone she's the boss in the bus.
It was so funny and made lot of expressions, think of her as a very large lady with dreadlocks teacher and we were the students.

Anyway, the tour went in a quick way from the french side first, doing a mini tour of all the place thru the road, we had no stops until the beach where the submarine/boat was and then to Marigot for shopping mementos and stuff.
Unlike the other tours which stop at various places, including L'Orient Beach.. a lot of the places were also cut because they were unavailable thanks to the hurricane damage.
It was pretty sad but the visuals of the damage were still clearly around. Full of houses, hotels and restaurants still demolished or severely damaged. The heaviest hit seemed to be in the popular zones of the french side. With Marigot losing huge chunks of beach properties AND even full blown bridges.



On the submarinebeach area, there were only 6 restaurants operating out of the 20+ (I think she said 30?) and a lot of buildings were barely started to get fixed in this area. so it was yeah, pretty bad.

The submarine itself was pretty simple, its a medium sized (small yatch) sized boat, around 6-8 meters long, which had a small pressure hatch with stairs which leads down the lower part of the boat, which is full of glass on both sides, and seats that you set up after entering. They had AC on that made things very tolerable temps wise.. And you then advanced towards the reef and protected area.

Inside you could see a ton of fish in the rocky area.. then a scuba dude would go down and feed the fishes, causing a huge flurry of fish go around the windows. Also the windows had a big increment , like a magnifying glass or loupe. so you could see the details.
By the time the tour was ending, we passed the "grassy" area which was full of algae and there were a few turtles (pretty big) laying down and eating grass.


Once back up (the whole thing was like 1 hour and half).
We took the bus again and went towards Marigot, the interesting part was the huge monstrous clouds gathering on the french side of the island (towards the L'orient beach). It looked like it was going to rain hard.
But despite very strong winds on the first minutes, it barely chipped some tiny amounts of rain.
Which was hilarious as we were shopping, buying some stuff to gift our family back home.. and then everyone was scattering to cover their products, we went running back to the bus, where the tour lady asked if we went to the "world famous public Marigot restroom"... ??? XD

After that, we went the fastest way out of Marigot, as some of the main bridges were taken down by the hurricane and were still not available.

After that we went towards Philipsburg. Where you could drop off to make shopping or eat.
So we went down to eat something and pass the time. as We still had 3 hours left before we had to embark. And also the other problem was.. NOONE OF OUR PHONES WORKED.
It seems Marigot and Phillipsburg lost their North America compatible network signals and were using foreing (EURO?) and noone of our cellphones could get signal at all ( I had signal last time I was there if I remember correctly).
So we were wondering how we would find each other (remember I was with my mom and my sister with her sons on the other tour).

Anyway we had some food at the local restaurant by the entrance of the bay beach zone.. and we then decided to walk back.

The differences in Phillipsburg were clear as day.
When we entered the bay via the BUS from the opposite side of where the pier was.. one of the famous hotels made of wood.. was completely demolished.. and a ton of houses were lacking roof or severely damaged.
Also the Marina area was completely new and lacking all the vegetation that made the zone special.





Continued in Part 12

 

[donaldtoo]

Hi everyone,
Sorry I've been absent, real life got very real and I didn't feel like being online.
I hope you are all doing well.

Howdy, and welcome back!!!!!!!
No worries, as real life is what it is, and I hope all is well for you now!!!
I, myself, have had the 2x4 of life broken across my face enough times to relate...
Thanks for the well wishes !!! All is fine with us, and we also became grandparents last October...!!!!!!!!!!!
This is our dear little granddaughter Emory (Emy) on Valentines Day...!!!!!!!

 

[Cesar R M]

Part 12, Extra pictures..










Ships Laving..


Pros showing their skill (including the staff)


The Azura leaving..



All ships in the horizon...




All the 3 ships together.. the Aida behind us going to Europe.. (took to our left and not to the front-right like the rest of the ships)



Continued on Part 13.. San Juan, PUERTO RICO

 

[12in12]

Howdy, and welcome back!!!!!!!
No worries, as real life is what it is, and I hope all is well for you now!!!
I, myself, have had the 2x4 of life broken across my face enough times to relate...
Thanks for the well wishes !!! All is fine with us, and we also became grandparents last October...!!!!!!!!!!!
This is our dear little granddaughter Emory (Emy) on Valentines Day...!!!!!!!

View attachment 351913View attachment 351915View attachment 351923

Your granddaughter is beautiful and sooooooooo cute! Congratulations on becoming grandparents.

 

[Songbird76]

MA has auto excise tax based upon the book value of the car. Since I always drive heaps, it's only $30 a year. Some people pay hundreds of dollars. Like many taxes, it wasn't supposed to be permanent, but of course, they made it permanent years ago. A dog license is a tag that identifies your dog if he's lost. It's also a law that all dogs have rabies certificates and I have to produce that every year to get the dog tag. City keeps tabs on the number of domestic animals in the area, too.

If a dog is off leash and no owner in sight, the dog officer can impound a dog without a tag (and when the owners finally call around to the cops to see if someone has seen a dog with their description), the cops call in the owners and levy a fine on them. Strictly enforced here.

That's the way ours worked too...you had to get the rabies shot and such to get updated tags. And if your dog is running around loose, you got a fine. Over here, I don't know as I've never had a dog, but I know you DO have to pay a tax on each pet and there is a limit on how many pets you are allowed to have. Someone from the city came to my door once, saying a neighbor had called in to report that we had unregistered dogs. I have to wonder if it was legitimate....none of my neighbors had ever been IN my house...how would they know whether we had pets or not? Either they had the wrong house, or someone was stirring up trouble. I just told the guy truthfully that we had no pets, and he left.