In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2) by SIGNYM

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

In the garden, and RAIN!!! (2)

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 2, 2026 00:07
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VIEWED: 270554
PAGE 147 of 147

Thursday, May 28, 2026 3:18 PM

Last thing before I went to sleep I discovered that I had two pretty large things savecd on my work drive that were being dismantled on the large drive and so they were no longer needed. Some of that stuff will be coming back in a different form, but it has been trimmed down significantly and has either already been backed up elsewhere or will be backed up shortly. I don't know the exact sizes right now, but I'll know them when I'm done. I might get an additional 500GB on my work drive out of this when it's over.

Going to go out and finally tackle the lawn today. It's only 68 degrees right now after 3 or 4 straight days pushing 90. We're back to 83 again tomorrow.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 5:21 PM

BRENDA

Lousy morning at mah jong. Got the booby prize because I finished the morning with only 330 points. I couldn't do anything. Almost had winds & dragons but couldn't get rid of two tiles. Ugh!

Got a bit of shopping done though.

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 7:21 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Jeebus...

3 hours to mow the lawn today, and that was just with one 5 minute break in between.

I gotta stop letting it get that long. It's almost June and I've only mowed the lawn 3 times so far this year.

There was a ton of grass seed growing though, so maybe that isn't such a bad thing. I should probably end up with more grass now.

Now I think I can finally go out and sand things. I was thinking about doing that today, but there's only about 2 hours of sunlight left and I don't really feel like it after the lawn anyhow.

Think I'll just go back to the computer and see where my transfers are at and what I still need to do to get my final backups all put together. At least I know that project is finally coming to an end and I can move on to other things. I'm getting tired of babysitting all these transfers too.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 7:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Oh... lol

I ain't going to show them, but I did snap before and after pics of the lawn for myself because it was so bad.

I'm going to go look at those and get a good laugh now.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 10:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I am a happy man.

I didn't go into this thinking there was a chance that I'd ever be able to back up everything, at least in a way that wasn't putting me out. I just thought there's be some stuff I'd roll the dice with, and hope that if a data loss happened that there wasn't anything too important that I'd ever miss.

Nope. I'll have it all.

Just doing a last few transfers of backups that might take a few more hours tonight before I set the last few things to send to the 2TB drive tonight, and then that one can go in a box for the next 7 years with only around 15% free space.

Feels good. Finally got the lawn mowed so I can go out and sand what I need to and get this bathroom finished, and the digital part of the dehoard is almost complete.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Thursday, May 28, 2026 11:29 PM

BRENDA

Way to go SIX. That all sounds really good.

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Friday, May 29, 2026 1:10 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thanks Brenda.

Yeah.... Still wrapping things up here and there just because transfers take so long and I'm trying to find other things to do in between.

In the process of making a few cool tech things to give away to some friends and family right now. Can't remember if I mentioned what I'm ultimately doing with those Kindles, but instead of just giving a used kindle to my friend that he'd take and just put it on top of a stack of his own crap and probably forget he even had it 2 weeks later, I'm putting some really cool stuff on there.

Got his favorite book along with a few other's we've talked about over the years, and some of my favorites as well. I know several of his favorite bands and I've got some cool things related to them like old magazines where they were interviewed back in the 80's and 90's. I even found a coffee table book with tons of photos of his favorite band, but unfortunately that one is a little too much for the kindle.

I'm going to give him that separate as something he can open on his computer if I have to, but first I'm going to see what I can't do about ripping the images out of that, downsizing them by quite a bit, and then having a much smaller document on the Kindle for him to look at. I think the images inside must be huge, and the file is about 50 times larger than any other book I've got.

If I can do that, he's not going to notice the difference on that kindle. You do have the ability to double-tap and zoom in on pages, but it's really not a device meant for that. So I'll probably make sure he gets the full sized one too in case we ever get his computer situation set up and he can read it from his bigscreen TV if he wanted to.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Friday, May 29, 2026 7:33 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Still at it. Used the down time during transfers to tweak the 5TB build to work in tandem with the 15TB drive for what little had to be pulled off of it after I removed enough from the smaller drive to have more than 10% space freed up.

I spent some time planning it out and doing it in the way that both made the most sense and was the easiest to replicate or reverse in the case of a large enough hard drive down the road. Everything removed from the 5TB drive has also been backed up elsewhere where it makes sense and isn't in the way of anything.

Just wrapping up a few more things now and I'll begin the final transfers to the 2TB backup and that should be it. It should be done transferring after I wake up.

It's kind of a marvel to behold now. When I'm finally done transferring stuff and the resources are freed up, I'm going to have to do a final file/folder count on that drive. It's going to be a stupid number even after all the purging that was done.

Looking forward to my new external drive cases coming in a few days. Got one more for the 3rd laptop drive I had loose and an upgrade to another one I have. I'm going to give the old one to my friend. The old one is fine and there's never been a problem with it. But I had two varieties and the one that was a couple bucks more has an on/off switch which is great to have if you're literally running around moving files like I've been doing. You're not always pulling the drive out while it's still powered up with that switch. He's not going to need that. And I have a feeling that ancient laptop of his is going to end up in a landfill and we'll at least be able to salvage that drive and give him decent external storage out of it.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Friday, May 29, 2026 1:03 PM

BRENDA

Out soon in the rain. Things to do.

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Friday, May 29, 2026 1:06 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Thanks Brenda.

Yeah.... Still wrapping things up here and there just because transfers take so long and I'm trying to find other things to do in between.

In the process of making a few cool tech things to give away to some friends and family right now. Can't remember if I mentioned what I'm ultimately doing with those Kindles, but instead of just giving a used kindle to my friend that he'd take and just put it on top of a stack of his own crap and probably forget he even had it 2 weeks later, I'm putting some really cool stuff on there.

Got his favorite book along with a few other's we've talked about over the years, and some of my favorites as well. I know several of his favorite bands and I've got some cool things related to them like old magazines where they were interviewed back in the 80's and 90's. I even found a coffee table book with tons of photos of his favorite band, but unfortunately that one is a little too much for the kindle.

I'm going to give him that separate as something he can open on his computer if I have to, but first I'm going to see what I can't do about ripping the images out of that, downsizing them by quite a bit, and then having a much smaller document on the Kindle for him to look at. I think the images inside must be huge, and the file is about 50 times larger than any other book I've got.

If I can do that, he's not going to notice the difference on that kindle. You do have the ability to double-tap and zoom in on pages, but it's really not a device meant for that. So I'll probably make sure he gets the full sized one too in case we ever get his computer situation set up and he can read it from his bigscreen TV if he wanted to.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

That will be a great present for your friend.

I didn't know that kindles couldn't do that, so that makes them useless to me. Using one without my computer glasses on would be a waste. I need the zoom feature for my eyes.

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Friday, May 29, 2026 1:07 PM

BRENDA

I have to find a few minutes to get a birthday present for a friend of mine. There's a set of DVDs she wants. Just have to find the time to do it.

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Friday, May 29, 2026 4:08 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That will be a great present for your friend.

I didn't know that kindles couldn't do that, so that makes them useless to me. Using one without my computer glasses on would be a waste. I need the zoom feature for my eyes.

Oh.. You can do it, but it's not something I'd want to be doing on a device as small as a kindle, especially if you had to do it for every page of every book. It would take forever to read and constantly pull you out of the action.

Properly scanned books, or books that are recreated by scratch professionally to be displayed on them look as clear as the real books and the screen is big enough where you should be able to read it fine. And the professional books, I believe my dad said, you can actually make the text larger (and end up with more pages to read in the process).

This was just a scanned book in PDF format, and it's got a ton of black and white and color pictures in it. Kind of like a coffee table book. It may have been a coffee table book. Even at the full size scan it's not the easiest thing to read, especially when text is printed over one of the colored images. When I shrunk it, that made the text even a little more blurry. But it was the only way I could get the book to load up without crashing. And when the pictures are just scans, they're essentially photographs. So zooming in on them is like zooming in on a photograph. It doesn't realign the text to stay on a single page as you zoom in and make the text bigger like the professionally done books.

I'll bet a newer kindle wouldn't struggle with that full-sized book at all, but the one I'm giving away was either one that I bought refurbed about 8 years ago, or was a hand-me-down sometime shortly thereafter, so these things are probably at least 10 years old now.

I'm still keeping it in there though. I think he'll appreciate the pictures and the handwritten notes that are all over the book and are quite readable compared to the tiny text. At least the magazines I found for him are a lot more readable.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Friday, May 29, 2026 7:39 PM

BRENDA

Back and done for today. It has now dried up and the sun is out. And I am eating a burger from the local A&W.

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Saturday, May 30, 2026 1:16 PM

BRENDA

Laundry today and then a walk. Once again weather can't make up its mind.

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Saturday, May 30, 2026 6:32 PM

BRENDA

Done, done and done for today. Having a nice sit down now.

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Saturday, May 30, 2026 10:51 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Sanded down the medicine cabinet, decorative shelf and the bi-fold with the louvers today.

It FINALLY dawned on me where I had that toilet paper roll holder. What a stupid place to put it... I have a very large work bench with 4 large nooks underneath, and one of them is near full with various wood bits small enough to fit under there, but not small enough to throw away. It was in the back underneath some new stuff I had put in there later. I had no idea it was from my buddy's house until now. I thought maybe I took that off an old bathroom remodel job years ago, but no... it has the signature of the same artist who made all the other oak stuff I got from my friend when he remodeled his bathroom and replaced the oak with new barely-wood BS.

So I got that sanded down too. Had to do pretty much that entire thing by hand. But I'm glad I found it because it's going to look so much better than the old one would have with oil-rubbed bronze spraypaint on it.

I just have to figure out if I want to paint it white to match the window/door trim, or if I want to paint it the dark grey I made the vanity and the cabinets. I'm leaning toward white, since it's right under the window and the white baseboard will eventually be down there too. Maybe keep all the dark grey stuff on the vanity wall?

My neighbor saw me out there when he was grilling and he invited me over for a late dinner, so that was cool. Even have 2 more brats and some pasta salad sitting in the fridge right now.

What a long day of sanding. That's what happens when you've got to do everything by hand. I thought for sure I'd get a coat of primer on everything today, but it's almost 10PM right now, I've got a full belly and I don't feel like it.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Saturday, May 30, 2026 11:30 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
That will be a great present for your friend.

I didn't know that kindles couldn't do that, so that makes them useless to me. Using one without my computer glasses on would be a waste. I need the zoom feature for my eyes.

Oh.. You can do it, but it's not something I'd want to be doing on a device as small as a kindle, especially if you had to do it for every page of every book. It would take forever to read and constantly pull you out of the action.

Properly scanned books, or books that are recreated by scratch professionally to be displayed on them look as clear as the real books and the screen is big enough where you should be able to read it fine. And the professional books, I believe my dad said, you can actually make the text larger (and end up with more pages to read in the process).

This was just a scanned book in PDF format, and it's got a ton of black and white and color pictures in it. Kind of like a coffee table book. It may have been a coffee table book. Even at the full size scan it's not the easiest thing to read, especially when text is printed over one of the colored images. When I shrunk it, that made the text even a little more blurry. But it was the only way I could get the book to load up without crashing. And when the pictures are just scans, they're essentially photographs. So zooming in on them is like zooming in on a photograph. It doesn't realign the text to stay on a single page as you zoom in and make the text bigger like the professionally done books.

I'll bet a newer kindle wouldn't struggle with that full-sized book at all, but the one I'm giving away was either one that I bought refurbed about 8 years ago, or was a hand-me-down sometime shortly thereafter, so these things are probably at least 10 years old now.

I'm still keeping it in there though. I think he'll appreciate the pictures and the handwritten notes that are all over the book and are quite readable compared to the tiny text. At least the magazines I found for him are a lot more readable.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Okay, I get it. I've never used a kindle so I have no idea what the print on them looks like.

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Saturday, May 30, 2026 11:34 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

I'm back, for a while, just catching up on all your latest doings.

SIX, dehoarding all those electrons, sanding, mowing .... you sure you got enough going on there, buddy?

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Saturday, May 30, 2026 11:42 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Okay, I get it. I've never used a kindle so I have no idea what the print on them looks like.

I wish I could lend you my Paperwhite Kindle so you could see if you liked it for reading.

I'm not a fan of the other kindles for reading at all, and I'm sure you wouldn't be either. They are better than looking at a tablet or a computer screen, especially if you get the brightness down to the right level, but it's still like looking at a computer screen to me.

But the Paperwhite? That's a different story.

My brother gave me one many years ago and when I was doing that mechatronics course I had all of the notes I'd typed up and some books loaded up into that thing and they were awesome to look at with that type of Kindle, in my opinion.

I don't know what happened to my brother's Paperwhite. I may still find it packed away in one of my boxes in the attic. It wasn't down with the rest of them. I thought it was at first until I realized that the Kindle my dad gave me last year with a lot of his favorite Sci Fi books on it was the Paperwhite in that pile.

Anyway... I'm getting way off topic. If anybody you know is ever getting rid of a Paperwhite Kindle, you should give that a shot. Instead of looking at a computer screen, I would compare it more twoards looking at an Etch A Sketch. But it's bright, and totally readable. It doesn't make my eyes go buggy like trying to read a book off a full color kindle would.

EDIT:

Wow. Way more expensive new than I thought they would have been.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFYWDGW6

$160!!!

I hear that these things get 2 weeks of battery life off a single charge though. I believe it.

It's really hard to explain to you how cool it is unless you see it, Brenda.

It's even cool how it displays the full colored covers to books. It's all black and white, but they look really neat in the book selection screen and when you first pull up a book to read in full screen.

I actually thought those were special black and white books on my dad's Paperwhite, but when I ripped them onto my computer and put them on another kindle they were the full color pictures. It's just how the Paperwhite handles them.

I'd never tell you to spend $160, but if you ever see one used going cheap in your travels, give it a shot. I don't think you'll regret it.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 12:43 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Oh... forgot that I also sanded down the hinges for the louvered bi-fold door (because they REALLY needed a bath on my belt sander) and primed and painted that hardware and the over-the toilet cabinet with the oil rubbed bronze stuff. That might or might not be done. I'll have to see how it looks in the morning when I can really pick it up and touch it.

And I've decided on which vanity light out of the 3 I have that I'm putting up. It's going to be the oil-rubbed bronze one with the three stems and 3 very large and nice looking, large glass shades that go over the bulbs.

I looked at the other two and even though I really like the design of one of them, I have to go with the legit oil-rubbed bronze. I know I can make that other one match and it would look decent, but I really think that it would look tacky with the metallic spraypaint on it. Maybe I'm wrong, but the one I'm going to put up is even fancier than the chrome one that I'd have to paint.

My one hang-up on using this fixture before was because it takes bulbs I've never seen before and I was worried about what the price for them might be to replace. They are expensive, but not too bad. I can get a 3-pack right now without a sale for $18, and I probably could do much better than that if I was hunting for them. I already forget what they're called, but if you've ever seen them before they have two thick prongs coming out where you'd normally have the part you screw in. These two prongs go into 2 holes and then you just give like a 1/3rd turn clockwise and they're in, and just as easy to screw back out. Kinda nice when you think about how high you have to reach for them. I think the one time I might have to change those bulbs it's worth the $6 a bulb.

Boy... was there a 2nd hang up though... holy crap. My friend, or whoever painted the bathroom before him was an absolute SLOB with the paint. I'm not talking just getting paint up on the sides when cutting into it, which there was a TON of, but there was a good deal of primer and paint that was brushed and dribbled on the top and the stems too. It gave me something to do while waiting for the spraypaint to dry in between coats, but cleaning that all off without damaging it was a JOB.

If you thought the bathroom looked classy so far Sigs, just wait until I've got this thing hung up over my yet-to-be-painted-but-finally-sanded oak medicine cabinet.

I dunno... I think I'm starting to breech the "this house looks too good to be in this neighborhood" status.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 12:55 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Oh... right.

I wanted to ask you both what you think in case you didn't see me ask before...

Now that I've found the wooden in-wall toilet paper holder and I've got it sanded down, what color do you think I should make it? Do you think it would look better with the high-gloss white paint I use for the window and door trim? Or do you think it would look better with the dark grey paint that is slightly darker than the wall grey?

You can see how the wall is trimmed out in the two pictures below and the hole that I've got to make slightly bigger to fit this box. The box itself is really cool. It's a literal wooden box that's framed on the outside with a few bevels and really classy.

I'm thinking white to match all the trim right around it. I'm already thinking that I'm going white with my new toilet when that time comes around too, so the white does flow back along the cabinet wall up to the sink basin and back to the white trim of the door.

I think that the dark grey could be interesting, but I'm kind of thinking that I'll end up regretting that and wishing I'd done it white.

What do you think?

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 1:29 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Some pictures to go along with my walls of text...

Here's the toilet paper box. I didn't think to take a picture before I sanded it down today. That hole is also on the opposite side and where the spindle goes.

My god... was this piece a bear. I did everything I possible could with the power sander about a month ago, but that wasn't much. My fingers and thumbs got a hell of a workout today.

Here's our over-the-toilet cab. The doors will go on the top, and I've got a huge nook underneath them for my beard trimmer and whatever once I get an electric box inside of it.

The doors to the toilet cabinet, and the shelves to the medicine cabinet.

I don't believe I've ever shown you the inside of the bathroom door where I'd already sanded down and painted a few of these pieces by the same woodworker and attached them to the inside of the door before, have I?

This last picture involves finally solving a Scooby-Doo Mystery I've been pondering for a few weeks now...

When I was first looking through the old light fixtures I had, I noticed that one of the 3 glass shades for it looked quite a bit darker than the other two... almost as if there were some soot on it. And then when looking at the plastic washer things you screw into the vanity to hold in the shades, it also looked like there was some black crap but only on one of them...

Huh... Was there a fire with this thing? Couldn't be. My friend would have thrown that thing right out and not given it to me. And then today I was looking at the unit itself and the center of the 3 outlets looked like it had soot on it...

I cleaned that up and put the wires into my wall outlet with the 3 bulbs in and it worked just fine. (Which, incidentally, was great since I just found out these bulbs were $6 a pop today).

Then I looked at my medicine cabinet and it all finally clicked...

A few months back when I first pulled these cabinets apart to start working on them, I finally got around to pulling the few layers of some really expensive looking black tape that was most of the surface of the top. I figured somebody put that up there to protect the surface like I did with contact paper, but not realizing how much damage tape like that could possibly do to it. But nope...

That was holding in a bunch of burnt wood.

I figure that it had to be from some sort of candle that somebody had lit on top of it and maybe forgot about when they went out of town for the weekend and when they came back home they thanked god their house didn't burn down.

So it all kind of clicked for me...

They have MUCH higher ceilings in their house than I do. It's not quite a McMansion, but I'm sure it was among the bigger houses back in the day before they started making them all STUPID big. If a candle burned on top of my medicine cabinet, the smoke would probably be coming from higher than the vanity light shades by quite a bit, but he probably had a candle burning the medicine cabinet right under that lamp shade and that's where all the soot came from.

Nothing a little wood filler can't fix. It's getting painted, and unless I start hanging out with the Indiana Pacers, I doubt I'll ever have anybody in my house who would see it anyway.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 1:58 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Okay, I get it. I've never used a kindle so I have no idea what the print on them looks like.

I wish I could lend you my Paperwhite Kindle so you could see if you liked it for reading.

I'm not a fan of the other kindles for reading at all, and I'm sure you wouldn't be either. They are better than looking at a tablet or a computer screen, especially if you get the brightness down to the right level, but it's still like looking at a computer screen to me.

But the Paperwhite? That's a different story.

My brother gave me one many years ago and when I was doing that mechatronics course I had all of the notes I'd typed up and some books loaded up into that thing and they were awesome to look at with that type of Kindle, in my opinion.

I don't know what happened to my brother's Paperwhite. I may still find it packed away in one of my boxes in the attic. It wasn't down with the rest of them. I thought it was at first until I realized that the Kindle my dad gave me last year with a lot of his favorite Sci Fi books on it was the Paperwhite in that pile.

Anyway... I'm getting way off topic. If anybody you know is ever getting rid of a Paperwhite Kindle, you should give that a shot. Instead of looking at a computer screen, I would compare it more twoards looking at an Etch A Sketch. But it's bright, and totally readable. It doesn't make my eyes go buggy like trying to read a book off a full color kindle would.

EDIT:

Wow. Way more expensive new than I thought they would have been.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DFYWDGW6

$160!!!

I hear that these things get 2 weeks of battery life off a single charge though. I believe it.

It's really hard to explain to you how cool it is unless you see it, Brenda.

It's even cool how it displays the full colored covers to books. It's all black and white, but they look really neat in the book selection screen and when you first pull up a book to read in full screen.

I actually thought those were special black and white books on my dad's Paperwhite, but when I ripped them onto my computer and put them on another kindle they were the full color pictures. It's just how the Paperwhite handles them.

I'd never tell you to spend $160, but if you ever see one used going cheap in your travels, give it a shot. I don't think you'll regret it.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Never know. I do love my gadgets at times.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 1:59 PM

BRENDA

Think later SIX. I'll slip some "Phantom of the Opera" in that old Dreamtrove thread.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 2:00 PM

BRENDA

Just a Sunday around me. Not much doing.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 8:55 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Never know. I do love my gadgets at times.

If you see one and you don't mind the asking price, you should give it a shot.

My dad surprised me by switching to the new regular Kindles because he said they're so much better than they used to be, but for years he only would use the Paperwhite. And Kindles all around seem to have a really excellent battery life. Out of all 5 of those that I tested, only one of the two that were 10 years or older had a battery that seemed to die pretty quickly on you. People like my Dad upgrade theirs every 2 or 3 years or so, so I'm sure you could find one with a lot of years of battery life left in it for a decent price.

I wouldn't be able to tell you about the quality difference myself since I'm pretty sure the newest one I have is at least 6 years old. It's a pretty nice device with a lot of storage space, but I still wouldn't want to use that to read a novel off of. But if my Dad made the switch after all these years of refusing to, there's probably something to that.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, May 31, 2026 11:45 PM

BRENDA

Huh. I might take a lot at things out of curiosity.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 12:49 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Could be a future project for you now that you're learning more about how to use a PC.

Officially, they would want you to use the Amazon store to buy books, but there's nothing preventing you from acquiring your own elsewhere and putting them on the kindle.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 12:56 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Oh... By the way, I finally got around to doing a final count on the 15TB drive now that I'm done dehoarding and backing things up.

Over one million, one hundred and twelve thousand files.

And that's only what I'm keeping.

There were probably easily over 3 million files on that drive once I got everything over there and started going through it all.

Granted, a good chunk of those files are the final build of my project and the earlier build. I do now have that one single disk image that replaces more than half of it. But having it all separate is still valuable to me.

I'm working now on making a much more curated build that wasn't trying to encompass everything and does a better job of prioritizing that which people would have the most interest in if free space is an issue for them. It's also a good way of filtering out a lot of "noise". If I had to do it all again, I would have programmed in some code to do that regardless, but it's on my to-do list if I ever go back to the work.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 1:41 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Could be a future project for you now that you're learning more about how to use a PC.

Officially, they would want you to use the Amazon store to buy books, but there's nothing preventing you from acquiring your own elsewhere and putting them on the kindle.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

My library lets you borrow e-books. Just have to sign up for the feature.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 1:42 PM

BRENDA

Oh, SIX. Those pictures you put up for the features in the washroom look really great.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 1:43 PM

BRENDA

Out in a minute. Just a couple of small things to do.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 2:28 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
I'm back, for a while, just catching up on all your latest doings.

SIX, dehoarding all those electrons, sanding, mowing .... you sure you got enough going on there, buddy?

Heh... Yeah.

The funny thing is, I don't feel like I'm doing any more than I've been doing the last 2 years. It's just real-world stuff and physical stuff, vs. non-stop slaving away against tedium, deep in a harddrive somewhere.

I think I'm probably talking about what I'm doing now more than I normally would too because of how much down-time there is when transferring a large amount of files or making backups. I'm sure most of the stuff I'm writing about that now is super-boring to everybody but me, but if I spent every night in here talking about my project as I was doing it I'd have bored you to death a long time ago.

Strange thing about the relativity of time for sure... When I'm doing this real-life stuff, time seems to move much slower because the day's aren't all melding into one. It doesn't matter if I'm working on different parts or aspects of the computer project when at the end of the day that means sitting on my couch for 12 or more hours a day. They all blend together so much that it's like "where did the last 2 years go?".

Yesterday I didn't do much, and today I don't feel like doing all that much either. I'm still plenty busy with the computer at the moment, doing some things that would never have been possible to start until I wrapped the project up, but eventually those things will be done too and I won't have any excuses for sitting around all day when there's REAL work to be done.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 2:33 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Could be a future project for you now that you're learning more about how to use a PC.

Officially, they would want you to use the Amazon store to buy books, but there's nothing preventing you from acquiring your own elsewhere and putting them on the kindle.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

My library lets you borrow e-books. Just have to sign up for the feature.

Oh cool. There you go.

I knew you could "rent" them out online at Archive.org, but I don't know how that process works. I figured if you ever got yourself one we could figure that out, but if your library already does it I'm sure they'd walk you through the process and you'd be all set.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 2:35 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Oh, SIX. Those pictures you put up for the features in the washroom look really great.

Oh... Thanks, Brenda.

Yeah. I think it's coming together nicely...

I just got to get motivated to get back to it. It's my 2nd day in a row now where I don't feel like doing much but working on my computer and this stuff isn't going to paint itself.

My old man will be coming by sometime next week. I don't think I'll have it done by then, but who knows. I've had 2 recent BURSTS of work where I got a ton done in a single day. If I can get 2 more days like that before he's back in town it's still possible.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 4:18 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

I guess I lied again...

Got me feeling guilty about not working when I wrote that post and I just finished priming the toilet paper holder and the medicine cabinet.

Taking a little break before I do the nightmare paint job that is the decorative shelf and towel rack.

This will be the real test on whether or not my painting skills have really improved or not.

I'd almost consider spraypainting it if I didn't think it would look tacky, and if I wasn't worried that I wouldn't be able to color match it perfectly.

I figured I had to do this today though if there's going to be a prayer of this work being done before my Dad comes over. There's just so many steps left with drying time in between that need to take place, and none of that is happening if I don't at least get all the pieces I need primed finished.

I also sanded down the wood filler on the inside of the window jambs and primed that. It will need just a tad more wood filler on the bottoms by the sill where the gap was the largest, but not much.

Once the primer dries on that medicine cabinet, I can fill in the valley on the top where the wood had been burnt away by a candle. It's important that I get this far today because that's a pretty deep valley and I don't expect it to dry to the point of being sandable or paintable for probably a few days.

While I'm at it, I can tape off a section of wall next to a small piece of the trim where I trimmed all of that out so I can get my wood filler in there too. Sadly, the house doesn't have perfect angles everywhere and I've known for a few months that needed to be filled in. I was just waiting for the time where I'd be using it all up at once since the stuff goes bad pretty quickly after it's opened.

I'm pretty sure I have enough for all of this. I didn't buy the stupid big tub because I knew I wouldn't come close to using all of it. I just hope I have enough in the smaller container because if I don't I'm going to have to buy a 2nd one and that will end up costing me more than the big tub would have, for only about 1/4 the amount of filler. I kind of forgot that I wanted to fill in the top of the medicine cabinet when I bought it.

EDIT: Should be plenty of wood filler. Got the final filler on that window, and put painter's tape on the wall in 2 spots with the stairwell trim so I could fill that in without getting it on my painted walls. Those might need a 2nd coat in a few days, but it wouldn't be much.

I was right about the medicine cabinet though. It's deep enough that the putty wants to pull out and travel with my knife as I try to smooth it out. I may be able shape it a bit better if I think about it before it dries too much, but that's going to need a 2nd application either way. I've got way more than I need for those 3 spots left in the container though. It would probably go bad in about a week, but I should have used it for everything I needed it for by then.

Okay.... I guess now I'll paint that thing.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 5:12 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Brenda... Sigs...

White or the same dark grey I did the vanity for this thing?

I'm leaning toward white because all the trim on that wall is white and it would be the only thing painted the same color as the vanity and the cabinets.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 6:22 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Could be a future project for you now that you're learning more about how to use a PC.

Officially, they would want you to use the Amazon store to buy books, but there's nothing preventing you from acquiring your own elsewhere and putting them on the kindle.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

My library lets you borrow e-books. Just have to sign up for the feature.

Oh cool. There you go.

I knew you could "rent" them out online at Archive.org, but I don't know how that process works. I figured if you ever got yourself one we could figure that out, but if your library already does it I'm sure they'd walk you through the process and you'd be all set.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Huh, never heard of that web site but that doesn't mean anything.

Oh, yeah. My library is great about walking people through things like that.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 6:25 PM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Brenda... Sigs...

White or the same dark grey I did the vanity for this thing?

I'm leaning toward white because all the trim on that wall is white and it would be the only thing painted the same color as the vanity and the cabinets.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

I think the white would better. It would give things a nice contrast.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 6:27 PM

BRENDA

SIX, don't worry about feeling guilty.

I have started something for that publisher but I haven't finished it yet. I thought I'd get back to it today but garbage was more important. I leave the kitchen one toooo long and I will be feeling it later this evening and tomorrow.

So, you aren't alone in putting things off.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 6:28 PM

BRENDA

All done for today and it is just gorgeous out.

Over did it some when shopping and my hands are not happy.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 6:40 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
SIX, don't worry about feeling guilty.

I have started something for that publisher but I haven't finished it yet. I thought I'd get back to it today but garbage was more important. I leave the kitchen one toooo long and I will be feeling it later this evening and tomorrow.

So, you aren't alone in putting things off.

Heh... I think that means we're just both putting things off though.

Guilt is my prime motivator some days, when all else seems to fail.

Like today.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think the white would better. It would give things a nice contrast.

Well that's 2 out of 3 people I've asked saying go with the white now. And that's how I've been leaning myself. I'm curious to see what Sigs thinks too. Thanks.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Huh, never heard of that web site but that doesn't mean anything.

Oh... that's an web archival site that came out quite a few years ago when somebody realized how much internet history had already been lost to time. Especially the "Web 1.0" stuff. I believe one of the colleges in California run it, if I'm not mistaken.

It's not the website that I use to save snapshots of news articles, because they've been caught deleting stories that had been backed up there on behalf of Democrats before. It's also not the same website I archive posts here by Second and Ted either for the same reasons. But for anything that isn't political it's really great.

It's archive.org. You can look for any old websites there you want. They also have a huge collection of books and video games and all sorts of other things on there too.

Quote:
Oh, yeah. My library is great about walking people through things like that.

Yeah... Nice. If you got one, they should set you right up with how to do that.

They'll give you a copy of the book that's locked with DRM (Digital Rights Management) that will not allow you to make a copy somewhere else and open it without your credentials unless you do some hacking, but you would basically just rent out the books like you would a paper book. They have limited "inventory" though. Even though you can copy a file a billion times, they're not allowed to do that. They have a certain amount of licenses per book for rental, and if they're all rented out they can't rent out another one until somebody "returns" it.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 6:47 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Some more pics.

I think I did alright on the shelf. We'll see if I have any drips or leaks when I go to paint it.

Somehow I managed to prime that whole thing in one go. I don't need the back painted since it will be up on the wall. I might not be able to paint it all at once though. I'll probably do that for the first coat, but the final coat I think I'll save the bar for last after everything else is try since that makes a great handle to move it all around as I'm painting from all those different angles.

Medicine cabinet is primed too, along with the final shelf for the over-the-toilet cabinet.

That wood filler is going to keep me from being able to paint for at least 24 hours if not 48+. If it's not dry tomorrow, I really ought to consider figuring out my electrical situation and what I still need to buy so I can start working on that instead.

I'll tell ya... I really lucked out when my friend was going to throw all of that stuff away. Everything you've seen so far painted except for the huge over-the-toilet cabinet is from that same set.

I don't even want to know how much something like that would have cost me new. It's all solid, real wood. And the guy who made it all has every right to be proud enough to put his John Hancock on the back of each piece. He does excellent work.

It was all in great shape too. If I hadn't already gone with the everything white theme on trim and the like, I might have considered keeping it as is and just hanging it up. Even though I went a different color than white for them along with the vanity, the wood grain would just not look good or match anything else in the house, so it had to be done.

Of all the things I do my best to keep out of a landfill, I think these are my favorite pieces.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 6:57 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Yanno... It's still pretty early... Very early for me, actually...

Maybe I can get some painting done today after all. Why let the top of the medicine cabinet stop me if I feel like doing it? I could just paint the rest of the thing and at least have one coat done.

Actually, I could probably start with that toilet paper holder, and by the time I finished the medicine cabinet and shelf and took a few breaks in between, I could probably have a 2nd coat on that holder and have it ready to install tomorrow.

It'll be a while before I'm not constantly carrying my toiletries in and out of the room, but at least I could have the toilet paper back up where it belongs instead of having to reach behind me on the tank.

Oh... right. I think the shelf for the toilet cabinet might only be temporary. It's more of that pressed would pulp crap. The veneer they had on the front was peeling off, so even though you wouldn't see it because of the lip of the front of the cabinet, I took the time to superglue it down. But the glue I had wasn't setting fast at all and behaving differently than the stuff I get from Menards usually so I just put a bunch on, set it on its side and balanced the end of a small paint bucket on top of it. When I came back it was on there solid, but I had used way too much glue for the job and it leaked down both sides, which is the top and bottom of the shelf. And because that's all micro-thin veneer on top and bottom too, I couldn't sand it off. I was doing damage to the veneer before it was doing anything to the glue.

It's super thin and maybe after a few coats of paint you wouldn't notice it. And again, it's probably all so far to the end of the shelf that nobody would ever see it.

I think I'm over thinking it.

But if I don't like it, I'm just going to cut out my own shelf for it made out of actual wood, which is probably what I should have done in the first place.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 8:44 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Nah... I don't want to do any more painting today.

I thought about it while I was sanding down the filler on the window, but then I remembered I needed to put some caulk up on the top, and I don't want to rush painting over any of that just to get a coat of paint on that toilet paper holder.

I did cut out my hole for a dry fit though...

It's only got 1 coat of primer on it now, but for sure we're going with white.

I cut that thing so tight that you can barely push it in or pull it out. I won't need to be shooting any brad nails into the face of it when I'm done. I'll just put a good bead of caulk all around the inside of the frame and push it in until it squirts out a little and have my wet painter's sponge on the ready.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 1, 2026 9:42 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Very nice!

FWIW I would have voted for white.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Monday, June 1, 2026 10:54 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK

Thanks.

Yeah. For sure white, right?

I'm either going to build tile baseboard or put in white PVC baseboard when I'm done, but without even considering that, there's just all that other white right there on the wall.

Boy, do I love my cordless Whizzer. I had to actually look up the real name of the tool when I first saw a corded one on the job with a few old guys. They just called it the whizzer. It's an Oscillating Multi-Tool.

*(This is the one I own. They all look pretty much the same, but the Ryobi is the only cordless one I've ever used. I assume they all pretty much work more or less the same, but I will say that using a cordless one over a corded one for a lot of tasks is far superior. There's some jobs where it's just straight cuts and nothing's in the way or the cord isn't going to bother you, but if you're doing some intense work with it you don't want that heavy tail whipping all over the place while you're working.)

All I had to do was put the box up to the wall after making a few measurements down from the window sill and mark around the box with a pencil. Then I had to get my shop vac going and whizzer in handheld (non-safety) mode, and it sucked up all that garbage as I cut it all to fit. It's such a well designed tool and pretty easy to use with only one hand after you've done it a couple of times. It really helps to be ambidextrous if you don't have a 2nd set of hands around to hold the vac for you.

That reminds me... I always talk about how thick the original walls and ceilings are in this house and how weird it was done. I should take this opportunity to show you that.

It's so weird to push the tool through one layer and get that instant relief, only to be immediately be cutting into the 2nd layer. Usually when I feel that relief I have to pull away very quickly because I'm cutting into something and I don't know exactly what's behind it.

If it was just drywall I probably would have just cut it off with a keyhole saw and avoided the mess I ended up not making with the vac on at the same time. That multi-tool will make the debris fly everywhere if you're not sucking it up as you're going along.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, June 2, 2026 12:07 AM

BRENDA

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
SIX, don't worry about feeling guilty.

I have started something for that publisher but I haven't finished it yet. I thought I'd get back to it today but garbage was more important. I leave the kitchen one toooo long and I will be feeling it later this evening and tomorrow.

So, you aren't alone in putting things off.

Heh... I think that means we're just both putting things off though.

Guilt is my prime motivator some days, when all else seems to fail.

Like today.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
I think the white would better. It would give things a nice contrast.

Well that's 2 out of 3 people I've asked saying go with the white now. And that's how I've been leaning myself. I'm curious to see what Sigs thinks too. Thanks.

Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Huh, never heard of that web site but that doesn't mean anything.

Oh... that's an web archival site that came out quite a few years ago when somebody realized how much internet history had already been lost to time. Especially the "Web 1.0" stuff. I believe one of the colleges in California run it, if I'm not mistaken.

It's not the website that I use to save snapshots of news articles, because they've been caught deleting stories that had been backed up there on behalf of Democrats before. It's also not the same website I archive posts here by Second and Ted either for the same reasons. But for anything that isn't political it's really great.

It's archive.org. You can look for any old websites there you want. They also have a huge collection of books and video games and all sorts of other things on there too.

Quote:
Oh, yeah. My library is great about walking people through things like that.

Yeah... Nice. If you got one, they should set you right up with how to do that.

They'll give you a copy of the book that's locked with DRM (Digital Rights Management) that will not allow you to make a copy somewhere else and open it without your credentials unless you do some hacking, but you would basically just rent out the books like you would a paper book. They have limited "inventory" though. Even though you can copy a file a billion times, they're not allowed to do that. They have a certain amount of licenses per book for rental, and if they're all rented out they can't rent out another one until somebody "returns" it.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

Yeah, I do put stuff off and there is guilt factor as well. It worked for the garbage but not the book stuff.

You're welcome.

No worries about the website I will check it out. I once had a web site for books that I could go to. It was called "Guttenburg Project" or something like that. The site was named after the Guttenberg bible.

It is nice and handy. Yeah, if I go through the catalogue either in the library or on your own computer it will tell you if what you are looking for is in or at another branch or all in use.

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