What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[samsonlonghair]

Looks like I'm going to be moving to Richmond soon. It's not totally official yet, but it looks good.

I have been having serious financial trouble here in Mercer county, WV. I am well respected by the city and business owners in Princeton, WV. At the last town hall meeting, they voted to officially induct me into the community improvement commission (a branch of the city council). It's been nice, but esteem doesn't pay my bills. I have been living in a house with no heat, no electricity, and no food to eat. I have been working the same part time minimum wage job for the last three years. I haven't missed My part time job at the radio station doesn't cut it, and my freelance graphic and web design work hasn't been making up the difference. My savings has dwindled down to practically nothing. It's time to get out while the getting's good.

The same company that owns my radio station (alpha media) also owns radio stations in Richmond, VA (and for that matter stations in many other markets). I drove down to Richmond a week ago and interviewed for a job there. It's not much more money than I'm making now, but there's room to grow. There are opportunities available to me in Richmond not available here - especially in terms of art and design.

Do any of my fellow Racketeers live near the Richmond / Fredricksburg area?

[MrPopo]

Amiga 500. Don't have it yet, just ordered it. Very excited.

And yeah, stove pellets. My favorite type of heat source ever.

Cat in the lap is a much better heat source.

[fastbilly1]

Amiga 500. Don't have it yet, just ordered it. Very excited.

And yeah, stove pellets. My favorite type of heat source ever.

Good choice. I lament that my 500 died years ago and I got rid of it.

How many pellets do you go through in a year up in Maine? I was looking at getting one installed in my existing fireplace, but was told I would go through tons of pellets during the winter. I thought the amount was ludicrous, but it was going to cost alot more than the fake log replacement, so I opted for the logs.

[noiseredux]

the 500 was codenamed "Rock Lobster."

[prfsnl_gmr]

Amiga 500.

I don't know why you're getting this. As far as I can tell, no one ever ported an Ys game to that system...

[Michi]

Amiga 500.

I don't know why you're getting this. As far as I can tell, no one ever ported an Ys game to that system...

There must be some obscure homebrew or something we're not aware of.

[noiseredux]

I know you guys are just ribbing the homey, but Amiga rules. Check out the demo version of Amiga Forever - which is an official emulator (IE: They hold the rights to sell it commercially) that you can buy in various packages (well worth the $). And start checking out some of the great Amiga freeware out there. For instance developer Factor5 has made their Amiga ports of Bonk's Adventure and R-Type available for free on their website. Feel free to hit me up if you need any help setting up Amiga Forever with controllers or anything. But seriously, Amiga was such a great and ahead of its time system.

[BoneSnapDeez]

No, no Ys on Amiga. True story tho - Ys I is on Apple II (and DOS). Those ports are pretty rare though.

How many pellets do you go through in a year up in Maine? I was looking at getting one installed in my existing fireplace, but was told I would go through tons of pellets during the winter. I thought the amount was ludicrous, but it was going to cost alot more than the fake log replacement, so I opted for the logs.

Well this kind of thing varies greatly based on weather, design of your home, other heat sources, and so on. In addition to pellets I also heat with wood, oil, and electric (infrared).

My pellet stove is on the main floor in a corner of the living room. I run it for about 17-18 hours a day October to April (some people never shut theirs off).

It's hard to give a perfect "per year" estimate as I've only lived here 1.5 years but I'd say I used <3 tons last year so $800 or so on pellets. I get the highest quality stuff locally - that's $300 a ton + $50 delivery charge. Add in the additional costs for electricity (for the blower) and a professional cleaning and I'd say the stove expense in total is about $1000 per year. Again, this is with several other heat sources in the house. I know people who use nothing but pellets (traditional pellet stoves + pellet boiler + a pellet cooking stove) and obviously they end up spending quite a bit more.

I have a finished basement so I may add an additional stove down there in the future. The stove I currently own (came with the house) retails at $3700 or so.

Oh, and I've found that some heating companies can be terrible at estimating fuel costs. Despite my instance that I planned on using supplemental heat my oil company estimated that I'd be using an average of $450 worth of oil per month. In reality it turned out to be $145 per month.

[MrPopo]

Smile: I can consistently get to stage 6 of Raiden Fighters 2 with ~6 bombs in stock.

Frown: And then I proceed to do something stupid, take a death and lose all the bombs, take a second death, then finally get in the groove of bombing out of trouble and I may or may not have a bomb left for the boss.

[fastbilly1]

Good to know Bone. I dont know if I will go for one for my main heat, but one in the garage would be pretty awesome.