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What funny/interesting thing happened in your life today?


Ultimate Steve

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A few days ago, a club at my college had a giant paper airplane contest. We had about 20 minutes to build them and could use a 2' x 3' sheet of paper as well as tape, scissors and craft knives. Most people just built large versions of regular paper airplanes, but my friend (who I later found out to be @Sparrowhawk) and I went for a more ambitious design with a triangular-cross-section fuselage, a V-tail, and an actual airfoil! We were pretty rushed in building it and realized after a test flight that the center of mass was too far back, so we taped some crumpled-up paper to the nose to add weight. In the actual competition, the plane didn't perform well and scored third-from-last (the contest was for greatest distance from the start). We kind of got it to work on successive flights but it also depended a lot on how it was thrown.


Here's a picture of my friend holding the plane:

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Ironically, the "plane" that actually won the contest was just a tape-wrapped brick made from folding the paper many times. The person who built it had a good throwing arm and didn't want to worry about pesky aerodynamics.

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I’m a little behind the times, but TIL you can buy a 13-lb utility bucket of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. :blink:

Like one of those big Home Depot 5-gallon buckets of like paint, or glue….  but filled with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

It even has a graphic warning on the side not to dive in head first. 

How truly absurd. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go give my diabeetus’ diabeetus diabeetus. :unsure:

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Ok so it is no secret that I am an AV geek or that I am a licensed RC pilot (pretty sure ive mentioned it at some point lol) or that I am a flight sim pilot of a pair of study level 737’s (-700 & -800 variants by PMDG). Ive thousands of hours in various flight sims across the years. I have (what flight simmer hasnt :D) flown in and out of my own city hundreds if not thousands of times and buzzed my own home too just for kicks. But today? Today was something beyond expectation. Where I live I can watch departures from the airport and arrivals too. Today as an experiment to check a theory on an issue ive been having I wanted a 4 or so hour flight. I chose to fly from JFK to my city. Nothing special normally. But tonight as I got within about 120-130 miles (30-40 miles into descent) from the airport I started looking around at the area. I saw coming into view the city lights of my states capitol, a pair of cities between the capitol and my city and my states capitol city. 
The view was beautiful. MSFS2020 really is beautiful. But what I didnt know was that I was minutes away from having my mind blown. Remember when I said I can easily see aircraft arriving and departing my city? If they depart from a certain runway 90-99% of the time they overfly (or close enough) my neighborhood. Approaches are fairly similar too. The thing is, a certain STAR (Standard Terminal Arrival Route) or two will take you to 2 runways. 1 is the one, well its far end from the one that departs over me and another flies you past my neighborhood a bit to the north but still visible from my home to an intersecting runway to the first. 
So, how did my mind get blown doing something Ive done many many times before? Well tonight I was watching my aircraft fly its flight plan (autopilot with VNAV ((vertical navigation)) controlling descent with the MCP alt set and LNAV ((lateral navigation)) controlling flight path to waypoints and the approach path where approach mode and vorloc can take over is fun) and that combined with just how well done terrain textures are in MSFS2020 let me spot something Ive never noticed in prior iterations. I noticed when I was maybe 20 miles out that my approach was going to take me over my own home. In disbelief I hit a button on my MCP (mode control panel) marked ARPT which displays near by airports. And one stood out. The USAF base near my home. I jumped to 3rd person camera and my jaw dropped. I saw the area around my home and knew I was seeing it as certain roads in the area are very recognizable if you know what to look for. I was in complete shock that by pure chance I was flying an approach (to be fair I dont recall ever flying it before, as I think Im more used ((espec as a passenger)) to flying in from  the other side of the airport in sim and irl) that I can see real aircraft fly daily from all around the area near my home.

It was and likely will be forever (because its so personal to me) be the most absolutely satisfying and interesting approach I will ever fly!

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Edited by AlamoVampire
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My folks and I are on a road trip. Was trying to find a place for lunch, accidentally found a Mexican place we really loved but haven’t been to for 5+ years and originally forgot the name. Their tortas were really good (Mexican sandwiches).

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Spent 25 minutes in the hardware store, came out with a good few new plumbing parts (aka big boy lego blocks) but I forgot to get the ones I came for. :sticktongue:

Also, my vegetables are above ground! :D

My mom noticed before I did, since she grew up on a farm, and could recognize them better than my city brain.

Why am I growing food? Well, doesn’t matter where you are, Africa or Alpha Centauri, you’re gonna need to eat.

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3 hours ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

Also, my vegetables are above ground! :D

My mom noticed before I did, since she grew up on a farm, and could recognize them better than my city brain.

Why am I growing food? Well, doesn’t matter where you are, Africa or Alpha Centauri, you’re gonna need to eat.

When we bought a house with my mom she liked the backyard, saying if times went tough we could grow food!

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3 hours ago, tater said:

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The floor reminds me of my grandparents’ house. :) Though they appear to have sanded down the spiky stick out bits, and it’s lighter. (Less dark)

Also: wrote my maths exam, felt too easy, but that’s probably because it was completely totally algebra free! I love geometry, but since I am not an abstract thinker, hate algebra, and find it hard.

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1 hour ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Earthship? 

Yeah. airbnb. Hot tub, pool, sauna and sweat lodge. Was really nice. My house is not an earthship, but shares a few elements of one—now I want a real one, lol.

Amazing what you can do with some old tires, dirt, and rebar.

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(Not so) Fun Fact: my faulty memory conflated fond memories of Earth Ships (from my time living in the SW) with Acosanti. 

 

Wasn't quite what I wanted to showcase to my Architect-interested daughter when I took the fam on the Phx-Sedona-GC loop. 

Edited by JoeSchmuckatelli
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39 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

(Not so) Fun Fact: my faulty memory conflated fond memories of Earth Ships (from my time living in the SW) with Acosanti. 

 

Wasn't quite what I wanted to showcase to my Architect-interested daughter when I took the fam on the Phx-Sedona-GC loop. 

Taliesin West is pretty cool.

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