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 Dedicated Citizen
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Sat May 15, 2021 5:56 pm |
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Hey Lillie!
Is this thread up to date for selling?
Enjoy the requested hug below!
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Knight of Zantarni
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Tue Jun 01, 2021 10:29 pm |
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Hi Yoari, great to see you again. 
As up to date as it could possibly be, considering I haven't been here since last year. A lot has happened in the past six months.
I have to log into my mule account and see what items I still have stored in there.
How have you been?
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Dedicated Citizen
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Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:06 am |
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Life's going! I wish I would have remembered about this place earlier into the lockdown 
Long story short life is going well right now - new job and with that I can finally get a new car. I have gotten back into reading and finished some games during the lockdown (my previous company did layoffs) and I am finally past the recommended 2-weeks post second vaccine!
Next up is planning a vacation this fall in Vegas for my parents anniversary, I have never been there before
How have you been?
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Knight of Zantarni
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Wed Jun 02, 2021 3:33 am |
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Good to hear!
Lockdown, oh dear. I am just glad our PM went hard out and closed the borders early. Which now means, life has pretty much gone back to normal in New Zealand after the lockdown in March last year. We were as good as gold by Christmas. 
That is wonderful to hear. I know a lot of companies in the US had let go a lot of people, so I am glad you're all sorted now. It happened here in NZ also but on a much smaller scale. I got to keep my job over lockdown but I resigned at Christmas and have a new job now at a different company since February.
A new car, how exciting.
I finally got my driving license in January, so I have a new car as well. My husband traded in our truck for a smaller car for me.
Kudos to you for getting vaccinated. I am still waiting on it, the rollout has begun here in NZ but it's been going slowly, since this is such a tiny country. Border workers and the most vulnerable go first, then the rest of the population. I am sure we will get there eventually. Glad to hear that you have no complications.
That's exciting! I've been to the US but not to Las Vegas, sadly. I hope you have a great time. Good to hear that people can finally get out and about and travel.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Wed Jun 02, 2021 4:12 am |
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Oh I forgot you are in NZ! I was so jealous of how well your country handled this, or it at least looked really good from where I was!
My state is split blue/ red by a mountain range so my side of it is pretty well vaccinated and we have so many open appointments
Hopefully we start donating the vaccine to other counties
I am just hoping we don't shut down again but my travel is months out at this point. My dad is finally planning to get the vaccine once a Johnson and Johnson apt opens up.
I had 0 side effects but my husband had a fever for 1.5 days, overall not to bad (Pfizer)
I worked at Boeing (on the 737 Max) so they had a few issue before Covid popped up 
Oh a new job! Wait does that mean you are in the "office" or whatever your version is? Many office jobs are still remote in the USA but everyone else is going back or never left work.
Oh congrats on a license! What sort of car did you guys go for? And I have to ask this - what does gas cost there?
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Knight of Zantarni
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Wed Jun 02, 2021 5:32 am |
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I can honestly say, I approved of everything the PM did. It was reasonably well organized and I know it was inconvenient but the results speak for themselves. We were so lucky but again, it was mainly due to the reason this is such a tiny country and it's an island to boot.
My parents got vaccinated back in my home country, my brother is refusing to do so. I leave it up to personal choice - at this stage, nobody is forcing anyone to take the vaccine but I do think it's a reasonable idea. I am certainly going to take it because I plan to do international travel, as soon as it's possible. My husband doesn't want to take it but he is not planning on travelling anywhere, so I won't try to talk him into it.
The Pfizer vaccine is the one that was purchased by NZ.
Yep, I am working from an office.
My new job is designing kitchens, my old job was just manufacturing countertops.
So I can do some work from home but a lot of times, I have to meet people on site to measure their kitchens or take appointments in our office to discuss designs and choose materials.
I never had an option of working from home during lockdown, as there wasn't much to do. People were not building or renovating at the time. That came after the lockdown. And boy, did it blow up.
Thanks, I certainly took my time with it.
I went for a Suzuki Ignis, it's a small, compact car, very economic and easy to handle.
I think it's about 2.30NZD for a liter of standard 91 unleaded. Which is just over 6USD for a gallon? If I calculated that correctly.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 12:25 am |
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If being an island helped then England would be rocking it 
Yeah I know people traveling who refused to get it so I am past the personal choice part of the spectrum, which isn't fair to think that is based off one careless person. Granted I do think she got covid on her... 2nd/3rd of 4 planned trips but wouldn't get tested so we'll never truly know
Ohhh designing kitchens! That sounds so cool! Please tell me white on white kitchens are out 
SQUEEEE that's such a cute little car! The color choices look fantastic!
$3.80 USD for regular near me but I do hear everything costs more on islands
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Knight of Zantarni
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:10 am |
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LOL! Well, I can't argue with that. But it doesn't help that the UK is so near the continent. You have to bear in mind, NZ is a tiny island in the middle of the ocean with Australia being the closest "land" nearby.
I just think it's a sound idea overall if you plan to travel. No point in exposing vulnerable people to danger because you WANT to travel but don't want to get vaccinated.
Yep, I am loving it. I'd show you what I've done but the photos I have are huge.
We still do a bit of white on white but with accent colours or a different coloured countertop, different coloured handles, etc.
I am just doing one at the moment which will be white, black and woodgrain. Should look cool once it's finished.
Yes, I love my little car. I can admit embarrassingly that I went for boring white.
It's the colour that holds up best in the harsh UV light we get here in NZ. Darker colours don't last very long before they start to peel.
That's good. Yes, everything costs more on islands because you have to add the cost of shipping.
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 Defender of the Realm
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 5:08 pm |
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I think there are a few reasons that it worked well for NZ and not the UK.
First, NZ acted almost immediately and included quarantine for their own people returning home. Also, NZ has limited ports of entry and their size and location made it much easier to control access to their country.
As the Professor mentioned, UK is very close to EU and have a ton of ports of entry, including the Chunnel. The UK delayed in trying to shut down access, like many countries did.
And then there is the difference in population. . .NZ approximately 5 million and the UK approximately 67 millions. . .compare that to the US 328 million.
The worst of it all is hindsight is always 20/20. . .and we can all see things that could have been done, but weren't.
Congratulations, Professor, on the new job, the driver's license and your new car. It truly sounds like a new beginning.
Unfortunately, it appears that the prices are going up everywhere because of transportation costs. . .even here the States, it is almost like a snowball rolling downhill and affecting everything.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Thu Jun 03, 2021 11:12 pm |
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But I wish to see huge pictures! Coming back I learned photobucket was no longer supported so I moved some of my images to Imgur but the whole process has been a pain
I am glad to hear complete-hospital-room-white is not happening now. Accent colors are perfect since they can be swapped with the seasons unless you mean like backsplash. Handles would also so odd to switch out a lot. Are people still doing gold handles or has HGTV lied to me?
Okay... can I ask how hot it gets? Scarz was telling me about Vegas and I basically melted from residual heat all the way from the PNW (pacific northwest)
Like peeling paint off cars is crazy! I would have said you can get a vinyl wrap but maybe not at that heat.
Oh white - you can add accent colors
I had the opportunity to visit Hawaii once and everything was upcharged except pineapples (and other native items). Good thing I love pineapples!
Ah all good points Scarz! The UK would have way more ways to enter than NZ. I would expect with a well controlled lock down population size wouldn't matter much assuming it happens prior to many people getting infected. After that then we should judge by percent since our raw numbers will always be higher given the larger size.
I guess people can't quite figure out when it truly arrived so having a quick and proper lock down wouldn't of happened anyway (well and we didn't really pay people to stay home). I still recall people just heading to other more open states to eat/ drink then driving back home to states with harsher lockdowns.
Scarz given the sunshine out there how is solar power and the electric car industry going?
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Defender of the Realm
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Fri Jun 04, 2021 5:08 am |
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| Yoari wrote: |
| Scarz given the sunshine out there how is solar power and the electric car industry going? |
We are getting m ore solar, but there are problems getting approval through the power company (yes, the power company has to approve it). . .as to the cars, they sell (for a lot of money) but they don't help the environment because to charge them you plug into the the home outlets, powered by either coal or gas fired powerplants.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Fri Jun 04, 2021 6:08 pm |
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| Scarz wrote: |
| Yoari wrote: |
| Scarz given the sunshine out there how is solar power and the electric car industry going? |
We are getting m ore solar, but there are problems getting approval through the power company (yes, the power company has to approve it). . .as to the cars, they sell (for a lot of money) but they don't help the environment because to charge them you plug into the the home outlets, powered by either coal or gas fired powerplants. |
It feels weird having power companies with control over that. I see alerting them incase you may have a transfer switch installed and want to sell them extra power.
Most of my states electricity comes from renewable sources and is aiming for 100% renewable
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Defender of the Realm
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Fri Jun 04, 2021 7:59 pm |
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Yoari, I am sorry, but I can't read that chart. . .I looked up Ohio and the only thing I could find with numbers was that in 2019, renewable energy was only responsible for 3% of the State's electricity.
Solar doesn't work if the sun don't shine and turbines do not work without wind...most of ours is natural gas.
The power company actually controls a lot here. . .partially because a couple of solar companies, thought they could just install without advising Nevada power. . .they lost in court. If I remember correctly, a lot of the people who had the systems initially installed were told the power company would be paying them for any excess electricity they produced.
Some of the engineers at work, have small solar units for emergency back up (like having a small gas generator).
Cali made it mandatory that all new cars will have to be electric or zero emission by 2035. . .but without an infrastructure of charging stations, that might not be totally possible.
I saw where someone did a study of how long it would take a gas powered car vs an electric car to drive from Bangor, ME to San Diego, approximately 3,200 miles.
The gas car would make it roughly in 48 hours, while the electric would take 108 hours (even with Tesla's best mileage of around 500 miles per charge, they'd have to charge about 6 times, and take 10 hours to recharge each time), so we still have a long way to go.
*oops* sorry, Professor.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Sat Jun 05, 2021 4:29 am |
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Sorry for shrinking it, the other image was a tad to big link
We have an advantage of rivers for hydropower here outside of just solar and wind. I always wondered if solar would work well here due to the amount of cloud coverage on the western side we get but my family in England has no concerns using solar and makes some money from it.
Yeah we do need to put money into our infrastructure structure but we had to do the same thing for coal and gas too. I don't think it was aesthetics that put gas stations on every corner
And at least this one isn't a finite supply
Granted I am also a fan of nuclear over coal/ oil but I can see why that would be a stretch dream
Why in the world would anyone drive that far
And I did think Tesla has charging stations but they can be few and far between depending on what part of the country you are in - so another hurdle
After like 500 miles I thought flying was better environmentally then driving?
Honestly I want a decent interstate railway set up with high speed trains
We will also run into an issue with non-home owners. If everything is electric and you say live in an apartment or have street parking you can't charge overnight and work/ public spaces have few chargers
I do want to go that all electric route but we have a loooong way to go as a country to get there
I do feel like you are setting me up for a math problem where I have to determine how fast the cars are going and where they will intersect
But the biggest question of all? How many watermelons can they fit in said car
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Defender of the Realm
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Sat Jun 05, 2021 5:01 am |
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I just believe we should use all options, including nuclear.
Plus, I don't fly, so driving is something I love.
Now as to the watermelon question. . .does that include how many watermelons are in the driver?
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