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Fire and Iron.


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I don't even have TV (other than what we watch thru Amazon Prime and Nextflix) and I honestly do not miss it. When Gold Rush first came on, like five years ago, it quickly turned into the standard reality TV fare of as was mentioned "contrived drama", hollow plot devices and a bunch of other behavior that would get me in trouble here if I were to extrapolate on what I really thought of it.

It looked kinda promising at first, but it went downhill fast. The obviously manufactured drama really turned the whole thing sour on me, and reminded me of an Alaska edition of West Coast Choppers and Company reloaded.

Once the production team had the voiceover narration (done by some studly sounding, gravelly voiced Alpha Male) billing the free facet block some Doctor did on James Harness as "Radical Back Surgery" I was done. 

Gee, can't tell you how many facet blocks and epidurals I've had on my jacked up back, and none of it was ever considered "Radical Back Surgery" by any stretch of the imagination. :rolleyes:

But of course, accurate and truthful storytelling with actual skilled craftsmen (and women) performing real tasks without manufactured drama and conflict would be boring as all get out, and would likely not keep the attention of anyone (save for sane, real individuals with an appreciation for for the craft) for very long. I haven't seen any of this particular program, but it sounds like the same, worn out standard reality TV script, just with different characters. More bluster, big egos and bleeping out bad words than anything actually useful or truly entertaining. For the largely brain dead masses that can't get enough of that stuff, Discovery, Inc and the rest watch the profits come rolling in and they can brag about the latest Number One Show On Cable.... At least until the next greatest thing comes along.

Its sad and unfortunate that with most reality TV, the only worthwhile stuff quickly takes a backseat to the set up conflict and ego laden performances of the cast.

All hoping for their 15 minutes of fame...

MAN, AM I GLAD I DONT HAVE TV ANYMORE!!! :D

Sorry for the rant :lol:

IMHO of course

 

 

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Yeah, I gave the Cable TV fed tube up when my ex and I split five years ago. I drank too much and spent too much time in front of it so excising both of those things from my life helped a lot. Now don't get me wrong, we LOVE our guys from Moutain Monsters and I get a big kick out of their search for Bigfoot, etc. We like some of the ghost hunting shows too and Finding Bigfoot is another favorite as well.

At least in my opinion tho, those guys get along great, there's no mugging for camera time and it's just good fun. Of course, the Moutain Monsters thing is a put on, but it's entertaining and I genuinely like the cast. It's really sad that a show about blacksmithing comes on, but quickly turns into another run of the mill reality show with all the crap that comes with it. It seems to also be standard practice to create or insinuate constant tension and conflict when it doesn't exist, since I guess it boosts ratings. I've had a few ppl tell me I should make a YouTube channel, but watch me wrench on machines would get boring in a hurry.

I suppose watching me flip out when I lose my temper (sometimes frequently :D )might be interesting, but I already have enough problems and the whole world knowing what flips my switches isn't my idea of "good programming" :lol:

Oh well. :D

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No TV for me either---I can waste all the time I want to on the computer and reading books.  (We stopped by a ReStore in Greeley Colorado that had a large number of books at very cheap prices and I drug my wife in and we bought two boxes worth mainly at 5 for a US$1 and 3 for $1 for hardbacks.  Hope it holds me till Friday and the library bookstore is open late...) One book was Vol 1 of a 1909 book on use of the Framing scale; fascinating at what you could do with it before calculators were the norm...

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Algrove publishers (a subsidiary of Lee Valley tools). republished a book that was concerned with the framing square. A quick search should turn up the title. Then again that reprint may also be out of print, But there should be second hand of that reprint available. I remember that it was a slim text.

Also, Lindsay publishers may have reprinted it too. (I do not know how the font changed whilst typing, is it a heretofore natural talent that I never noticed in me ??? )

Life can be strange.    SLAG.

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7 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

No TV for me either---I can waste all the time I want to on the computer and reading books.  (We stopped by a ReStore in Greeley Colorado that had a large number of books at very cheap prices and I drug my wife in and we bought two boxes worth mainly at 5 for a US$1 and 3 for $1 for hardbacks.  Hope it holds me till Friday and the library bookstore is open late...) One book was Vol 1 of a 1909 book on use of the Framing scale; fascinating at what you could do with it before calculators were the norm...

I work for an auctioneer once in awhile cleaning out places and setting up auctions. We did one a few weeks back. An older lady who happened to be a pretty good painter. She had some medical issues and suddenly died. The kids hired the auctioneer to sell the house and contents.

Four auctions worth. The place was packed to the rafters. Literally.

One auction of nothing but old postcards. That'll be a truckload of dough right there.

But one thing worth noting was the fact that she had THOUSANDS of books. Books of all kinds. All of them, high quality and some were very expensive when purchased retail.

He couldn't hardly give them away. Many boxes stuffed full of them remained unsold. How sad. I understand the Internet has made written information such as this largely obsolete but for a fella going to go out into the bush and live off the grid, he would have reading material to last him ten years easy. I grabbed a few books on birds (my wife does feeders for them) and old depression glass. Prolly a thousand records too, and the majority sold as a single lot for five dollars. Yes, five dollars. :(

I prolly spend too much time on the Internet, but most of it is as an administrator on another welding forum. I'm not big into videos on YouTube, it just isn't my thing. Should read more, but work keeps me pretty busy. Since joining this board, it's the only one I do besides WW. Just something else to keep me perpetually occupied :D

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"A Practical Treatise on the Steel Square and its Application to Everyday Use"  Fred T Hodgson; 2nd Edition, published in 1909 (First Edition copyrighted 1903)

Cover says "Practical Uses of the Steel Square, Complete Modern Treatise" Volume One

It has 246 pages plus index and a series of house plans you can order from them and estimated prices to build them:  eg: an 8 bedroom  56x43' house, 2 bedroom, cost to build US$4000 to $4250 depending on location...    arghhh the huge manatee!

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