Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins

No_Pressure

Members
  • Posts

    7,920
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Profile Information

  • Washington Football Team Fan Since
    Since birth.
  • Favorite Washington Football Team Player
    Darrell Green...hands down.
  • Location
    Allentown, PA Born and raised in Rockville, MD
  • Interests
    Football, Videogames
  • Occupation
    Student

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

  1. I'm 26 and I grew up in a household where we didn't have cable TV. There was broadcast, sure and we watched some shows here and there, but the television was not really the center of entertainment in our household in the way that I noticed it was with, say, my friends at school. My dad always saw it as an unnecessary expense. He always said "you're paying for commercials and 90% of the channels are special interest things you probably don't have much of an interest in." I still agree with that sentiment, and television has always been the sort of thing I could take or leave. It isn't where I derive much entertainment. Even when we were kids we usually just watched the news, maybe watched the simpsons (if my mom let us, she hated the show) maybe some saturday morning cartoons, and a movie here or there. My wife's family however always had cable and they have always watched what I consider to be far too much television. They will sit around for hours watching shows, catching up on other shows they recorded, etc. I think it's all a bit odd and unhealthy. Not to say that I have the healthiest of entertainment habits. Sure I work out, like to go play basketball, etc. but I also have played a great deal of PC games in my lifetime. The thing is, those games are social and interactive. I'm actually doing something far beyond mindlessly watching something. That's my justification for why my vice is better at least, and even with age and responsibilities my video game hours have gone from insane to barely anything at all. When we got our house I had to battle my wife over cable. It's so ****ing expensive! She was freaking out saying she couldn't live without it, and what was she going to do. I compromised. We had an internet connection because it's an absolute necessity for my work (plus videogames I mean c'mon...) and that was expensive enough, she could just get a netflix subscription and stream shows on the TV. She found this to be acceptable, and so we've avoided the cable bill by going for streaming netflix. When there is something current that she wants to watch, she goes to her parent's house and watches it with her mom (with whom she would rather watch shows anyway because I constantly critique the quality of programming) and we save money. I don't think the high price of tv is justified. Comcast and Verizon try to keep it at a high point by controlling channel packages and adding technology which is largely unappealing to me at least. I already pay far more than I should for cell phones with a data plan (which I wouldn't use if I didn't need it for work), and I don't want to bump the total payment to Verizon up to essentially a car payment...a NICE car payment just so my wife can sit on the couch with dead eyes and stare at reality TV shows.
  2. From all of my experiences with this crap (and no, I don't have time to elaborate), it is the worst of both worlds. That is to say, it neither brings the actual admirable aspects of socialized health care, or the useful aspects of free-market health care. It's a disgusting merger of bureaucracy and corporate health care. It's such a ****ing disaster, and since they neither changed enough by implementing it but changed just enough to somehow create a system most people dislike even more than the prior one, I'm totally looking forward to the day when this stuff all goes away. Either go a full measure or scale it back, but this half assed **** is supremely frustrating.
  3. Its nice to see the Chinese seem content to let the North Koreans stew in the crap they've been stirring up. The Bank of China cut off their business with the North Koreans just a few days ago.
  4. Guys, in NBA2K13 I developed Jan Vesely into the white Shaq, so clearly he has great potential!
  5. This just is: cross dressing guy whose only talent in life was jumping up and grabbing a ball out of the air better than everybody else caught preaching in hotel bar about how the dictator of a totalitarian government which has been perpetually at war since 1950 is actually a really great guy.
  6. If you're going to replace what is already there, I mean terraced levels rather than one wall. Typically when one makes a retaining wall, they level everything leading up to it. Putting down one wall would leave a hillside and then a small retaining wall at the bottom, or you would have a gigantic wall multiple feet high which must be back filled with dirt to match the level of the ground in front of your house. Neither option is appealing. If you made two straight walls extending to the outer portion of the existing mulch bed you could get some extra soil and fill/level the space for each terrace. The end effect/desired result would be something like this: Though yours would be on a smaller scale, and of course you could choose to landscape that any way you please. The alternative with one wall would be a very high wall and back filling it with a whole lot of dirt which would likely not look all that nice, it would be difficult, more expensive, and create a greater safety hazard on your property. I'd go with terraces. Just remember, if you do something like this you're going to want to build the lower wall first and then prepare well for the 2nd. You will need: - A hand tamper. - A good shovel. - A good level. - A measuring tape. - A chisel for prepping your lower level of blocks. - A rubber mallet for knocking things into place well. Measure out how long you want your wall to be, and make sure you have space enough to mark and dig out your base. Try to calculate your aggregate needs in advance- a 10 foot wall will need to sit on a base which (ideally) is about 10 feet 4 inches long, and depending on the width of your block (let's say it's half a foot wide) your base is going to be a foot and 2 inches wide. You may be up against a driveway which restricts the "4 inches on each side" rule, and certainly when you're up against the house you can't observe this rule. Anyway, you would have 10'4 by 1'2 base ideally at a depth of 6 inches. V= L*W*H so 10.33 times 1.16 times .5 = around 6 cubic feet unless my math skills have become atrophied from lack of having to calculate crap like this anymore. The point is, in order to make it cost effective for yourself you should calculate in advance the volume which will be needed for the base of each wall. Also keep in mind the source of your gravel. If you have a work truck which can take a load of gravel being dumped in the bed, I'd buy in bulk and shovel it in. Sure, it's extra work, but buying it in bags or having bulk loads delivered can get pricey. Level the ground all the way across, in small sections at a time. Be mindful of getting it perfect. Tamping the dirt prior to adding the gravel base and leveling the dirt will help make this a quicker process. Tamp, level, tamp again, level again. It's time consuming and tedious. I've also seen work that I did in year 1 landscaping which is in excellent condition today alongside work of a corner cutting crew which is lopsided and looking quite aged. You won't notice mistakes in months or a few years. After a decade however you'll know the difference between quality work and shoddy work. When you complete your first wall, and after the glue is dry, I'd fill in, tamp, and level the dirt behind it so you have a flat surface. For the upper terrace, you will likely need to do a decent amount of digging to give yourself space to once again dig out a 6 inch base and repeat the process. Be mindful of keeping straight lines when putting together your wall and digging out your base. Tamp the **** out of everything- the dirt your base is sitting on, the dirt around your base, the base itself. You need solidly packed ground and a strong foundation. When you make the 2nd tier fill dirt in behind that, and level it off. Plant something nice in there for god's sake!
  7. I did landscaping for 7 years, and did pretty much every job imaginable. It isn't difficult to stack stones like that, but it's an extremely difficult and time crafted skill to make it look excellent. Furthermore, I wouldn't recommend a wall such as that as a retainer against very much earth, or in an area that gets a lot of fast drainage in a storm. That isn't to say that a stacked stone wall won't work in the area you're talking about, but from my experience there are better alternatives. On top of that I don't think it would look as nice as it could. Dry stacks are best left to encircle a modestly sized tree in the front yard, or to outline a mulch bed near your front walk. I wouldn't use it as a terraced retaining wall on the side of your house near the garage, it would be sort of like putting a beautiful and ornate chandelier in a double-wide. If I were assessing this as a potential job, I'd of course say if you want dry stacked walls I'll go right ahead, but my professional recommendation would be a short retaining wall with grooved wall block. This video on Lowes' website is fairly comprehensive and goes through the steps to making something such as this, though naturally they add extra steps and things you don't need because they want you to buy unnecessary things at Lowes: http://www.lowes.com/cd_Build+a+Block+Retaining+Wall_193857656_ Basically, whenever we did retaining walls that were between 0-3 feet, we used something comparable to this. We would always be mindful to dig 6 inches down, and 4 inches wider than our block base on both sides. We typically used CR6 aggregate which you could probably find at any good landscape supply place. Some people feel that 6+ inches is overkill, and sure- the wall will look fine for a while if you place it on the dirt or do 1-4 inches of gravel underneath. The problem is with the freeze-thaw cycle, and in areas which receive a fair amount of water through all seasons, the blocks will most certainly move if they're not on a super stable base. We always spent 90% of our work time on getting that base perfect and LEVEL (I can't stress the importance of a uniformly level base which is slanted ever so slightly in one direction to foster water runoff moving in a specific and desired direction). The rest was just stacking and gluing blocks together- not that complicated. The interlocking wall blocks are simple to understand, and can be used to make straight or circular retaining walls. All you really need is the glue and a caulk gun to finish it up and the rest is fairly simple. I can't say I recall personally making a terraced retaining wall spaced apart from one another like you would want, but as long as you dig out properly and tamp the dirt in the terrace before adding and tamping the gravel, it should be simple to complete, and if both walls are straight you likely wouldn't have much need to rent a diamond blade masonry saw and cut up your own product. Hopefully I didn't make this sound more difficult than it is, but if you want to build something which lasts decades, concentrate on making a good base, leveling and tamping that base well, and I'd go as far as to level the dirt on the 2nd terrace (perhaps even adding some) so you end up with two flat terraces which can now be used to house some beautiful landscaping. Plants in those areas with non-invasive roots help hold the soil together and will look a lot better than the current barren hillside look you're going with :pfft:
  8. I tried Sam Adams Alpine Spring the other night and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I am a massive fan of a bunch of German/Belgian wheat beers along with other varieties, so it was somewhat up my alley. It's funny, I like to trips with my cousin down to Philly to go to one of the German bars down there, since they keep stuff I love on tap. Recently however I've been stuck in my local area which only carries local/American/microbrew stuff. I do however live down the road from a Sam Adams brewery. It's always cheap and on special around here, and I gotta say I've developed a love for Sam Adams as my fall-back beer that everyone carries on tap when I go out. Their märzen for oktoberfest was awesome, the winter lager was a little similar to their regular boston lager, I don't care much for their summer ale, but this recent beer takes the cake so to speak. It's nice to have something decent that they carry everywhere...since I wouldn't be caught dead trying to choke down a disgusting miller/bud/insert beer here. Also, I live in PA, everyone loves Yuengling, and I just don't get what all the hoopla is about. IMO it's a little below average at best.
  9. Korean War, 60 year ceasefire with no peace treaty, crazy people caught in personality cult, all in on weapons programs, sanctions on weapons program, US is devil and S. Korea is devil number 2. Was that 50 or fewer?
  10. We should schedule a random test of our anti-missile defense systems for the same period the Koreans schedule their test of a missile which could hit the U.S. Afterwards we should schedule a test launch for all the Nuclear Submarines we have lurking in the Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea, East China Sea, etc.
  11. Yeah, I thought he was just going to hold on to it and stand still until the clock ran out, like some sort of colossal moron.
  12. Ahahahaha I was actually hoping that Nene would take a shot. :silly:
  13. I noticed this...wouldn't you want one of your best shooters out there? ...and after I type this he misses an open 3
×
×
  • Create New...