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Started by billy rubin, October 12, 2019, 11:51:22 PM

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billy rubin

i've participated in a few forums from time to time. most of them have threads where new people expose themselves. but i'm actually more of a voyeur, to tell the truth.

what exactly is this place? who are you people?

i'm very interested in noticing that it appears NOT to be a place for people with axes to grind, and tedious points to make about how other people have no sense about what really matters. or at least they're not interminably active, if they're here.

no flames? no feuds? no years-long discussions about why-you-are-wrong-again?

what are your common denominators? or am i missing subtle, deep, and hidden undercurrents?

if i'm not being too forward for being curious. i've got nothing to hide about myself, but i've known myself for so long i get bored listening to what i have to say.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

No one

This is the taco palace. We are tacoers. Did you bring your share?

hermes2015

"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames

Tank

Hi Billy

This forum started in June 2006. Tom62 is the longest serving active member with JoeActor less than a month behind him. I found my way here in March 2010.

Thousands of people have come and gone since HAF started, that's the nature of the beast. We're generally a peaceful lot and one could say that this is a bar or pub with a bunch of locals who enjoy each others company.

What are you having?

Regards
Chris
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

Recusant

Hello and welcome to HAF, billy rubin. Grinding axes is OK here, but the grinder will generally only get a few to play the game. It seems to me that most of the really serious campaigners have chosen to devote their energies to other venues (primarily Facebook), leaving discussion boards like this. Young firebrands mostly don't even bother with discussion boards, perhaps because they think that places like this don't provide a large enough audience. HAF was never a huge place to begin with and since the rules of the site discourage flame wars, those who enjoy them didn't get a foothold.

I hope that you enjoy your time reading and posting here.  :)

:spagwelcome:
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


billy rubin

well, all this is interesting.

personally i have mostly ground all my axes to nubs by this time. i'm interested in learning things anz spend my physical life trying to perfect new skillz. by the time i die i might be worth something.

i drive a brine truck in the american oil fields some 12 hours a day, so my customary social contacts tend to be electronic. except for twice a year, when i spend an intense 8 or 9 days racing a very old motorcycle to speeds it was not designed for. blew it up at 131 mph this past july, in fact, and its not back together yet.

aside from that, i live in appalachia with the wife and the teenaged kids, plus catz, dogs, turkeyz, goats, a donkey. and local wildlife. the coyotez sing every night.

i tend to be a cement head about things, and sometimes become quite overbearing without realizing it. let me know if im being an asshole. 


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Tank

Quote from: billy rubin on October 13, 2019, 12:14:56 PM
well, all this is interesting.

personally i have mostly ground all my axes to nubs by this time. i'm interested in learning things anz spend my physical life trying to perfect new skillz. by the time i die i might be worth something.

i drive a brine truck in the american oil fields some 12 hours a day, so my customary social contacts tend to be electronic. except for twice a year, when i spend an intense 8 or 9 days racing a very old motorcycle to speeds it was not designed for. blew it up at 131 mph this past july, in fact, and its not back together yet.

aside from that, i live in appalachia with the wife and the teenaged kids, plus catz, dogs, turkeyz, goats, a donkey. and local wildlife. the coyotez sing every night.

i tend to be a cement head about things, and sometimes become quite overbearing without realizing it. let me know if im being an asshole.

Only if you get to be a really bad arsehole :D
If religions were TV channels atheism is turning the TV off.
"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." ― Richard P. Feynman
'It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it's called Life.' - Terry Pratchett
Remember, your inability to grasp science is not a valid argument against it.

xSilverPhinx

I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


Icarus

BR your description of yourself is Intriguing.  As a generality, people who live in Appalachia are not often interested in consorting with atheist types.  Matter of fact we don't hammer out the atheism bit much at all.  If you are a "cement head" you are not coming across in that way. 

There are some motorcycle guys on the forum, including me.   I was once a professional road racer.....Laconia, Daytona, etc ... Al that is in the distant past.   I would still love to ride but I fear the little old ladies and jackass teen age drivers who are not mindful that left turns in front of an oncoming bike is not cool.  The race track is a safer place than the damned city streets.

Tell us more about your racing and also tell us more about what a brine truck does. 

billy rubin

professional? that's genuinely rare. if i had my life to do over again i would be torn between field parasitology and trying to master the isle of man. neither likely, unfortunately, but the skills involved in mastering a road race circuit fascinate me. i'm building a machine now out of spare parts to take to track days around here where i live and see what i can do with it.

right now i run a naked 1965 triumph bonneville, 650cc, in land speed racing. top speed only, no concessions to anything other than a straight line. just a frame, a motor, and a place to sit:



the only places in america where you can do it are in the california dry lakes, bonneville, or the eastern B-52 bases. there are a few scattered runways in colorado or texas where you have a bit of room. i race in loring, maine, where there is an old SAC base with a 12,000 foot runway. my machine uses a production frame, a production engine (pretty heavily modified), and gasoline. no nitromethane, no nitrous oxide, no fairings. at 135.259 mph, it's currently the fastest triumph bonneville in the world.

next autumn we're taking it to the bonneville salt flats. if i can squeeze 140 mph out of it, it will be the fastest british twin running gasoline that has ever been. so i have a goal.

but road racing is vastly more complicated, a rider's game, whereas LSR is a tuner's. you're going to have to talk about that.

as for appalachia, i'm not a native, although that gets complicated. just prior to this,i was a commercial beekeeper in california, and moved the operation to ohio  only to see my bees all die.

so at the moment i drive a brine truck to pay the bills. one like this, but not this one:



in any porous rock layer, the spaces will be filled with natural gas, oil, or most commonly, salt water, heavy stuff, with a specific gravity of around 1.1 or even 1.2. after a well is completed, the natural pressure of the gas (around 4800 psi around here) will push the fluids to the surface. the separators at the well pad divert the gas to pipelines, and the oil and salt water to tank batteries. the oil can be sold, but the brine is a waste product.

so i drive a straight truck called a water bottle to the well pads and load up some 80 barrels of salt water at a time, and take it somewhere else. the somewhere else is either a frac pad, where the water is recycled back down into the same formation it came out of, as part of the process of completing the well, or it goes to an injection well.

the injection wells are either older dry wells being used to channel the salt water back underground using a pre-existing hole, or they're new wells drill specifically into a porous formation for disposal.

i typically drive 350 to 450 miles per day, and make two or sometimes three trips between source and destination. long repetitive days, but i spend most of the time in my head anyway.

and you're right about appalachia. the coal fields are a different world.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

billy rubin

did i mention i cant be concise?


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Recusant

Concise is overrated.  :grin:
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


xSilverPhinx

I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


xSilverPhinx

Quote from: Recusant on October 14, 2019, 12:29:12 AM
Concise is overrated.  :grin:

:this:

A forum is no place to be concise. It is known.
I am what survives if it's slain - Zack Hemsey


hermes2015

That's fascinating, billy rubin. I love to hear about the lives of our members.
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
― Charles Eames