The General Chat Thread (2026)

[The Late Night Gourmet]

Oh, and one more thing: New York is NOT a city of uncaring people and dark cynicism. Here's a sentence I never thought I'd say: Everyone we've met in New York has been incredibly nice. Movies and TV shows tend to show a city full of people who didn't care what happened to strangers, but it's actually been the opposite. People you expect to be helpful - like the guys at the front desk of out hotel, or the servers at restaurants - are not just helpful, but genuinely friendly. There were several times when I got lost trying to find places with the navigator on my phone. Each time, someone took the time to stop what they were doing to point me in the right direction.

And, yeah, it is The City That Never Sleeps. There's a positive energy crackling almost anywhere you go, and I've never felt in any danger. I do understand that there are places that aren't quite so safe, but past stereotypes about NYC have been shattered.

Looking forward to a carriage ride through Central Park today.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Well, I wasn't expecting that.

Let's just say i live half way between Canberra/Queanbeyan and the centre of the earthquake. It rumbled on for quite a while with tremors still happening 5-10 minutes later.

Ironically, my oh found out today that we're in the most earthquake prone area on Australia.

Nothing jumped off walls, but i suspect there are now bigger cracks in places than we had before. We'll check tomorrow in daylight. We couldn't hear the TV over it though.

It seems that it will probably be classed as 4.4. I'm find out tomorrow.

 

[Barriehie]

I recall while living in Santa Cruz CA, San Andreas Fault line, that while taking a nap in the afternoon waking up on the floor. Things were coming off the walls, the ground looked like it had, it did have, waves in it, the power lines were swinging wildly. Freaky event. I don't mind living where those things don't really happen.

 

[Barriehie]

Finally had enough putting air in my tire with the slow leak. Picked up a tubeless tire plug repair kit at Harbor Freight for $7 that comes with 5 plugs. The first one disappeared in the tire, oops, and got the second one in properly. It passed the spit test so I should be good!