How do you get the cat to stand still for the vacuuming?
This vacuum comes with bungee cords!
God, I really want a new vacuum. My friend has a dyson (inherited) which I borrowed once and now I desperately covet one.
Don't make me start with the Hoover-lover links.
Sounds like your vacuum really sucks, heebie.
We are on our second Ricoh, which we work to overload and send to the shop every six months. See there is a doggy door and a backyard of bare caliche. "Dust" doesn't describe our problem. "Chunks" is closer. Blow on it and it doesn't move.
Also have a Eureka shampooer, but add water to caliche and you very quickly need to disassemble the machine.
"I" need to disassemble the machine. With a screwdriver. Anyway, I vacumn daily.
The Geebies could have put that on their wedding gift list! They thought they didn't need anything. Hah.
Are you sure you don't need a, um, let's see. Vacuum cleaner is about it in that category. Shoot. I guess you can't really ask for mops and brooms.
I haven't found bagless vacs to be up to the hype. We bought a bagged Eureka from Costco that got a good review from Consumer's Digest. Works as well or better than anything else we've owned and cost a lot less.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11297982
Bagless is fun because you get to see exactly how much you just vacuumed up. I didn't know that it generated much hype, but I'll join the fray.
"It's sucking my will to live!"
I used to vacuum cats, until the plea bargain and the consent agreement. Maybe I shouldn't have used a shop vac?
We just bought a Roomba. I'm not sure what I think about this new world of easily anthropomorphized household appliances.
Roombas are the dance craze that's sweeping the nation.
16: If only bumping into walls and spinning around in confusion had been the ticket to popularity at dances back when I was in middle school. To think that all my gangliness was wasted!
My Miele vaccum cleaner stopped working a couple of months ago, and I hadn't realized until then how very much I appreciated it. Then I changed the bags and filters, ran a bunch of water down the tube, discharged a great snarled clog of human hair, and restored it to service! A tale of vacuum lost and found!
Anyway, the Miele is great.
We like the Kenmore canister vacuum we got last year. HEPA! Powered brushes! Pet/stair cleaning attachment! Who knew there had been improvements in domestic tech? Also, vacuum cleaner bags are wicked cheap on eBay.
14/16: It's pretty much all we need. No kids or pets and not much carpet ....
So I take it the Roomba isn't worth the hundreds of pounds it costs in the UK, then? Shame, because I'm lazy enough that I would have spent it if I knew it could replace my proper vacuum.
Best used for a customised Roomba I've seen yet.
Gswift notwithstanding, having got a Dyson (or equivalent knock-off), I could never use anything else.
20 is pleasingly ambiguous between two interpretations:
1) "we only need a Roomba to keep our house clean, because it's a fairly easy house to clean - not many carpets, and no kids or dogs to cause serious mess"
and
2) "we led a comfortless, joyless life - no kids or pets to brighten our lives with their activity and chatter, and not even a carpet to soften the heavy, deadly thuds of our footfalls on the wooden floor as we tramp bleakly towards the grave - but now we have a Roomba and our lives are made happy by its cheerful spinning and bumbling!"
I would totally put microfiber mop supplies and cloths on some sort of registry. The more the better so that you can wash them up in a load with just microfiber cloths with fabric-softener-free detergent.
My BF's parents have a central vacuum in their basement. You plug tubes into holes on each floor.
10: A friend used to have a deaf Siamese cat she could vacuum. Ours teleport out of the vicinity of a running vacuum cleaner.
They also leave a cat's weight of fur on everything every day without losing weight themselves. There's a thesis in that for someone.
"It's sucking my will to live!"
There are worse things.
I had a Roomba. I gave it away.
we have a Dyson "Animal", and two long-haired cats. don't let em fool you - Dysons will lose suction, if the bottom filter gets clogged (which it often does). and when this happens, the Animal doesn't just lose a little suction - it loses all suction, as the intake switches to a little overload port on the back, when it can't get air through the normal pathway.
I admit to having lust in my heart for one of those Dyson Ball vacuums. But it also triggers my "that's too expensive!" reflex, so all I do is pine.
28: That's outrageous! I've heard that guy talk about how the Dyson won't lose suction like other vacuums at least a 1000 times.
Can't we sue?
(I don't actually own a Dyson, but I think I should get some money for the emotional pain caused by being lied to over and over)
I've never heard of a Dyson. Sometimes Unfogged makes me feel uninformed in the most novel ways.
31: Oh, you're just showing off now. You don't own a TV, right? Or you own a TV, but it's been years since you watched a show with commercials?
I think we're actually an ideal Roomba family - 90% hardwood, tons of dog fur - but it hasn't been a priority.
The Hoover my dad gave me for Xmas 12-13 years ago is still going strong, thanks to periodic and cheap tune-ups. Thanks, Sweeper World!
lust in my heart for one of those Dyson Ball vacuums
Doesn't seem like an improvement on shaving them, really.
33: We have a ten-year-old Hoover that we've never tuned-up. Does it really help? If so, where is this Sweeper World of which you speak. I was thinking we'd have to replace it soon because it wasn't sucking like it used to.
31: For what it's worth, I've never heard of a Dyson either.
but 32 holds.
It's how Freeman is paying for his retirement.
My BF's parents have a central vacuum in their basement. You plug tubes into holes on each floor.
Wait, what? I've never heard of this! Do the tubes also deliver pneumatic mail?
38: I had a friend with that type of vacuum also. The problem is that you don't get the rotating brush (or at least you didn't in 1988), so it doesn't work as well for carpets. Also, you have to have a very long vacuum tube as there are only so many outlets.
My BF's parents have a central vacuum in their basement. You plug tubes into holes on each floor.
I've seen this before too, but I can't remember where. I always wondered what happens if they get jammed.
It's how Freeman is paying for his retirement.
I thought he was paying for that with hush money for agreeing not to fire up Project Orion.
I'm skeptical of bagless vacuum cleaners. I don't buy that you can effectively confine dust using centrifugal force*. Plus my only experience with them involved sucking up a bunch of dust and then having it blow everywhere when I emptied the damn thing.
*Yeah, I fucking said it. You want a fight? Bring it on, you non-inertial reference frame hating bigot! We'll spin you right round, baby! Like a record baby! right round round round! Motherfuckers.
40: I'm sure apo has some links to stories about things getting jammed in vacuums.
Three days, no cigarette. Hence belligerence. You guys get it so I don't kill my cow-orkers. Motherfuckers.
37: That was his original plan.
But now it turns out that nobody watches TV anymore so all that money he spent on commercials was wasted. So he was forced to sign up as shill for the oil companies, and do interviews denying the existence of the greenhouse effect.
(just a joke! don't sue me, Freeman! I'm broke, anyway)
44: I've been on the patch more or less continuously since 2004. It has worked for me, just not very quickly.
Bring it on, you non-inertial reference frame hating bigot!
That should be "intertial reference frame ...", toglosh. HTH. HAND.
Awesome, togolosh! Believe it or not, you are almost past the hardest part!
I've been on the patch more or less continuously since 2004
I've heard you can wean yourself off the patch with only a few cigarettes a day...
Also, all joking aside: toglosh, that's great. The first few days are rough, but it does get better.
||
Disquieting research result: if zombies attack, we're f*cked.
|>
Rather than getting the lower dose patches, I'm now cutting the 21mg patches in half. They all cost pretty much the same, so I'm saving a dollar a day. Suck it recession.
48: I don't think there's such a word as "intertial".
52: and did you see that one of the researchers is called Robert Smith?? That is, his surname is "Smith?". Not "Smith". Presumably the "?" is silent.
52: I thought zombies were more into brain-eating than intercourse?
55: Maybe he's related to ?uestlove?
My grandparents also have a central vacuuming system. It only works so-so. Good luck with it, togolosh. I've been off cigarettes since January (I've bummed the odd one here and there during that time, mostly while on vacation, but no real relapses). While it does get easier, I still do miss them. Especially when I'm driving.
What I really miss, much more that cigarettes, is snuff (Copenhagen). If only being toothless wasn't such a negative social status signal.
45, 49, 59: Thanks. I know I can quit, as I've done it before. This time I decided to minimize use of the patch and gum and just go for it. Working OK so far.
What I really miss, much more that cigarettes, is snuff (Copenhagen)
I've heard someone say from personal experience that he found it easier to quit heroin than Skoal.
Skoal is for people who want their nicotine to taste like candy.
48: How Does Intertial Works? Still needs an answer.
62: Yeah, heroin isn't sold in most corner stores.
For some reason, snuff was illegal in England but legal in Scotland. At least when I was there in the early 1990s. I didn't check in Wales.
62: The thing about that is that coming off heroin and similar makes you wish you were dead for a few days, but after a while you do just pretty much shake it off. Nicotine addiction is a more psychologically drawn out process, and often (see 59.last) so integrated into daily life you keep bumping up against it.
Yeah, heroin isn't sold in most corner stores.
Right, more likely on the corner outside the store.
62: my guess is he'd used a fair amount more Skoal than heroin. Or at least that's been my experience with people making similar claims. It's no surprise that it's hardest to quit the thing to which you're most addicted, but this shouldn't be taken as evidence that the one substance is necessarily "more addictive" than the other.
and often (see 59.last) so integrated into daily life you keep bumping up against it.
BE CAREFUL!!!
Snuff isn't illegal here. At college high table dinners one of the junior fellows brings it round in a silver box.*
I think it's the Skoal 'bandits' that were made illegal.
* tragically, that is not a joke.
one of those Dyson Ball vacuums.
What a missed opportunity to sell Dyson Spheres.
The Americans stick snuff inside their lower lips and drool, rather than inhaling it in the true Ox/ford manner, ttaM.
I know I can quit, as I've done it before.
Heh. Yeah, I'm getting really good at quitting, too -- I do it all the time.
re: 73
I'll bet they don't even have proper tweed and calve's leather bibs.
Tragically I didn't think it was.
There was a snuff factory in suburban Sheffield until about 30 years ago. Just a surprising thing to see.
71: I meant snuff in the 'pinch between your cheek and gums' sense, not the snort-up your nose like it's low-rent cocaine. I don't know about now, but when I was there it was illegal to buy (but not possess) all types of Skoal and related products (snus). The bandits are a relatively new thing, maybe 20 years old or less.
71: By "snuff" do you mean the stuff one snorts up one's nose? Or the stuff one tucks between one's cheek and gum and sort of sucks on?
re: 78
The up the nose stuff.
re: 77
Skoal bandits were a brief craze here in the very early 80s.
79: I didn't know they were that old. Maybe they didn't get to America until late.
A lot of restaurants have centralized vacuum systems. Or I should say, the two I've worked in did.
75: England still leads the world in the provision of high-quality artisanal dribbling infrastructure, ttaM.
What a missed opportunity to sell Dyson Spheres.
Some lawyer probably informed them they couldn't trademark it.
83: To which they replied "that sucks!".
"Chewing tobacco" seems to have been renamed "snuff" in the US at some point in the last five years. I guess with actual snuff no longer existing, the word shouldn't go to waste.
re: 82
Damn straight. Generations of Lincolnshire artisans working in small thatched workshops, the soft setting sun glinting on the kyne lowing gently in the fields as the horse drawn wagon bears off the latest Duckworth's Patent Neck-ledge.
Yep. Every time I quit successfully it lowers the bar to starting again. Just for tonight, that is. I mean this weekend. This week, I mean.
85: Down here in some colleges I've seen signs outside lecture halls specifically prohibiting chew. Seems to be pretty regional.
One time, this was in Durham, N.C., I asked for snuff and got up-the-nose snuff. I have no idea why because every other time I've asked for snuff, and this goes back 25 years, I've gotten the small round cans with tobacco that you put between your cheek and gum. In my experience, 'chewing tobacco' can mean snuff, but it usually means the giant leafy orally-delivered tobacco that has 'western' names.
Up-the-nose snuff is kinda nice, though I never see it anymore.
My swim coach in college was a huge user of snuff*. I tried some (clearly too much) at practice one day and found it to be one of the quickest and most unpleasant "highs" I have ever experienced. Lightweight = me.
* The cheek kind, called 'snuff' even back in the early '70s. He said he picked up the habit as a participant in Modern Pentathlon where it was viewed as a way to get a nicotine fix to calm nerves for the shooting without the negative effects on the lungs.
91: Eight years ago, you could get it at a corner store near Brightleaf Square. I'm thinking it was off Gregson, but maybe not.
OTOH, decorative snuff boxes are a great way to carry prescription drugs around when you're out.
94: I love those old-timey pill boxes that ladies of yore carried aspirin around in.
Aspirin. Yeah, right. I suspect that there were all sorts of goodies in those pill boxes which would now count as serious Class A.
I like going to the vacuum cleaner shop, because ours has a museum.
There's a tobacco store on the High Street in Oxford that sells dozens of varieties of snuff. In a very studenty way, I went through a phase of snuff-taking when I was there, untill I realised that it wasn't worth having brown shit coming out of my nose all the next day.
What a missed opportunity to sell Dyson Spheres.
If you think emptying a Dyson is messy, try emptying a Dyson Sphere. Where do you think all that interstellar dust comes from?
"I realised that it wasn't worth having brown shit coming out of my nose all the next day."
If you get a sinus infection, the brown could be a nice contrast to the green.
Down here in some colleges I've seen signs outside lecture halls specifically prohibiting chew. Seems to be pretty regional.
Indeed, boy was it gross when a student up-ended his dip-cup all over the place during a final exam last year.
31: Oh, you're just showing off now. You don't own a TV, right? Or you own a TV, but it's been years since you watched a show with commercials?
We own a TV and I love watching it? Maybe I just don't have a head for commercials.
100: Down here in some colleges I've seen signs outside lecture halls specifically prohibiting chew. Seems to be pretty regional. Indeed, boy was it gross when a student up-ended his dip-cup all over the place during a final exam last year. s/b "Flowbee!"
I've seen signs outside lecture halls specifically prohibiting chew
A law outlawing smokeless tobacco use on school property went into effect when I was in school. The unintended consequence of that was that many of my classmates developed the capacity to swallow the tobacco spit.
I'm skeptical of bagless vacuum cleaners. I don't buy that you can effectively confine dust using centrifugal force*.
Wait, where is centrifugal force being used? It just sucks a lot, and then you dump out a plastic bucket at the end. It doesn't seem whirled.
103: I learned how to do that in high school.
102: s/b "Boy was it gross when a student up-ended his dip-cup while using a Flowbee"? That's not really what happened.
102: Oh, I get it. Like Kobe!
My BF's parents have a central vacuum in their basement. You plug tubes into holes on each floor.
Wait, what? I've never heard of this!
I actually have a potential client who wants to do this in their new house.
There's a gorgeous house near here by a significant local architect (sort of Pgh's answer to Charles Rennie Mackintosh) that has a primitive house vacuum - there's a water tank in the attic, and when you let the water out, it creates suction in the pipes that go to each room. Reputedly not actually that effective.
We have a ten-year-old Hoover that we've never tuned-up. Does it really help? If so, where is this Sweeper World of which you speak.
Right by Tessaro's. Cheap, and it makes a world of difference. So great.
108.last: Because having a guy working a bellows would be too Fred Flintsone?
I still do miss them. Especially when I'm driving
Before my mom's accident, she was cutting down. One of her methods was not smoking in her new sporty car. She said the morning drive to the golf course was the hardest one of the day to skip.
I grew up hearing the in-the-cheek kind referred to only as "dip" and with relatives who did the up-the-nose sort of snuff, referred to as "snuff."
Next weekend is the 18 month mark for me without a single cigarette the entire time. My plan is to get a pipe when I turn 40 and start smoking again the day I retire. By then they'll either have fixed cigarettes somehow, figured out how to grow me new lungs or I'll be so old it just won't matter. I still find it difficult to watch movies or read books that feature a lot of smoking but I have found that saying aloud that I would like a cigarette causes me to be able to get over it.
There's a gorgeous house near here by a significant local architect (sort of Pgh's answer to Charles Rennie Mackintosh) that has a primitive house vacuum - there's a water tank in the attic, and when you let the water out, it creates suction in the pipes that go to each room.
We call that an aspirator in the lab.
I still do miss them. Especially when I'm driving
Have you tried texting?
Also, every time I read "HEPA" my memory produces a line of audio from Twin Peaks: "HEPA... I want to cook with you, HEPA."
Chew works just as well as the up-the-nose kind used rectally. Maybe even better.
116: Have you tried cigarettes?
A little pinch between your cheek and cheek.
120: Just try to be a little more gentle. Last time you pinched me down there it left a welt.
Have you tried cigarettes?
Where do you put the butts?
Where do you put the butts?
Have you tried ashtrays?
No more masturbating to Robert Novak.
Have you tried ashtrays?
I can't find one with a flared base.
108: In high school a friend's house had a central vacuum system, but her dad was an architect and he designed their house. I wonder how common it is in less bespoke houses.
123: a joke too good for just a blog comment.
I can't find one with a flared base.
Just pinch it between your cheeks.
125: Wow. Imagine the welcome banner they've hung up in Hell.
125: I see the devil came to collect his debt.
126: I'll bet you couldn't tell one with a flared base from a hole in the ground.
125: Robert Novak hadn't long since cast himself upon Ronald Reagan's funeral pyre?
125: I've never been happier not to be masturbating.
Imagine the welcome banner they've hung up in Hell.
But he's still gonna be mighty pissed when he sees that the bigger room with the nicer view is marked "reserved for Bill Kristol".
It's surprisingly hard to google a picture of somebody with a cigarette stuck in their butthole.
137: Sometimes you just have to do something yourself.
138: It hardly seems worth creating my own search engine.
It's surprisingly hard to google a picture of somebody with a cigarette stuck in their butthole.
...but it pays off in the amusement it provides to sysadmins snooping on your server logs.
I was going to make a joke asking whether he dived into an empty pool again, but then I remembered that was Krauthammer. Alas.
Didn't Novak get busted a year or so ago for ramming his sporty little overcompensator into a bicyclist and then trying to flee the scene?
He hit a pedestrian with his Corvette and claimed he didn't notice. Wikipedia says this claim is what led to the tests that revealed his brain tumor, as hitting something and not noticing it is an early indicator of brain cancer. That this happens enough for someone to make the connection is, itself, fairly terrifying.
Watching people hit things and not notice it and not making the connection to brain cancer is a sign of brain cancer.
146: What the hell kind of crazy zodiac shit is that?
The etymological link between the astrological sign and the Novak-killer is pretty fascinating, really.
137: It's surprisingly hard to google a picture of somebody with a cigarette stuck in their butthole.
Yes, failing at that so far, but for some reason am coming up with a few ads from back in the day that remind what a different world of smoking it was. Santa. Doc. It's a Psychological Fact. Mom. The Creepy Guy in the Bar. Athletes. Uncle Ronnie.
150: You have a pristing mind, and nothing has ever entered it?
153: Why you dirty man, he's never pristed!
The Creepy Guy in the Bar.
"Blow in her face and she'll follow you anywhere." Wow.
What, you don't know what the verb "prist" means? Hicks.
It was on the secret syllabus at my school.
156: what does the verb "hicks" mean, though?
158: It's a non-Brahmin thing. You wouldn't understand.
The masturbation-fodder supply of South Korean ex-presidents is dwindling alarmingly rapidly.
104: I'm thinking about the bagless cyclonic type. I'm even more skeptical of the non cyclonic type, but maybe I'm just grumpy because the onion fell off my belt.
My experience with bagless vacuums is that emptying the not-bag leads to great clouds of dust, so the best bet is to go several tens of feet out into the yard and dump it there. Or just buy a new vacuum cleaner when the old one is full.
I'm thinking Richard Perle should be celebratinng Robert Novak's death.
Now he is the uncontested "Prince of Darkness".
I have a gadget-minded friend at work who is making his own Roomba lawn mower* , but I have trouble getting past "unattended", "outside" and "whirling cutting blades". He loves working on it though; in the '30s he'd be the type building on his own personal gyrocopter.
*Yes, he knows that they already exist.
161: My onion is firmly fixed in place, but I have always had the same problem with bagless vacuum cleaners. It isn't like vacuum bags are expensive. I don't see how 'bagless' is a selling point.
163: Depending on the state, I'm sure I can find somebody to represent any toeless children in the neighborhood.
What Moby and togolosh said. Wandering out into the yard to empty the cannister? And I've got to keep washing the damn filter? Screw that.
I don't see how 'bagless' is a selling point.
Zackly. Bags aren't just receptacles, they're filters. Who wants the apparatus itself to be filled with dust and pet hair?
165: Maybe they would become the next John Edwards.
There was a law student I knew who used to chew tobacco a lot (I guess it was snuff, there was another s name in highschool too.) He had a water bottle on his desk that he'd spit into. Law school exams were supposed to be anonymous, but his always had a tobacco juice stain or two on them.
Rereading the thread, McManly reminded me that in high school people called it dip.
169: Usually, people try to avoid spitting into vessels with clear sides. Ugh.
It isn't like vacuum bags are expensive. I don't see how 'bagless' is a selling point.
For me, it's because of the moment when I need to vacuum and realize that the bag's full and I'm out of bags, and there's noplace nearby that sells the right ones.
(I also think about the ease of retrieving something small that accidentally got vacuumed up, but I've never actually done this.)
172: It's like trash bags. There's "full" and there's "I was out of options full."
And I have had to retrieve small items from the bag. Just cut it open. It's still neater than the alternatives.
Again, for me, "buying bags" goes on the to do list, and never actually gets done, so I'm always running into "out of options full". This thread is making me want a Dyson.
155: Hover text.
Personally, I prefer bagless because I hate the idea of having to remember to buy bags. I guarantee I would not remember to do so and would face constant frustration. That said, our bagless Dirt Devil bought five years ago is officially worse than not vacuuming at this point. If I vacuum with it, it smells like burning rubber and there is, somehow, more on the floor than there was when I started. I am going to have to buy a new vacuum. It will be bagless. A filter I could rinse would be awesome.
Never would I buy a Dyson. Maybe they're great, I dunno, and I never will. I cannot fathom paying that much for a vacuum cleaner.
175: For a filter you can rinse, you want a shop vac. They make small ones now. Plus you can vacuum water.
(I may be less worried about buying bags because there is a grocery store about 3 blocks from my house.)
169: Snus. Now a brand name as well.
Plus you can vacuum water.
In case it gets dusty.
179: Apparently you've never had a water heater die in your basement.
180:
Apartment dweller says: Not my problem.
Bagless isn't a huge selling point. But it's fun to see how much dirt you picked up. And dumping it in the trash can didn't generate a big dust storm. Or any dust storm.
Also, the argument about how you don't want dust inside the vacuum cleaner doesn't make much sense to me. Tube -> disposable bag or tube -> plastic cannister? Plus, I'm totally saving the environment.
"Plus, I'm totally saving the environment."
I rode the bus to work today. That's my offset.
Bagless isn't a huge selling point. But it's fun to see how much dirt you picked up. And dumping it in the trash can didn't generate a big dust storm. Or any dust storm.
Also, the argument about how you don't want dust inside the vacuum cleaner doesn't make much sense to me. Tube -> disposable bag or tube -> plastic cannister? Plus, I'm totally saving the environment.
Plus, I'm totally saving the environment.
And bandwidth.
heebie's bandwidth is 8 miles wide.
LB is correct that remembering to buy VC bags is a PITA. I prefer to just leave things dirty until I'm driven to make a trip to the store, but I understand that's not an option for everyone.
Plus, I'm totally saving the environment.
Until you pissed away all those electrons on the double post, that is. Don't you know there are kids in India with barely any electrons at all?
I'd send my extra electrons to those poor kids in India, but I don't have the bandwidth.
When I had a vacuum cleaner that used bags, not only would I forget to buy bags, but on the occasions that I remembered I would not find the right kind of bag to fit the vacuum cleaner I was using, or I would get confused about which model I had and which bag was supposed to fit it. Bagless is much easier, and I don't see any downside.
Apparently if you live in an area where the air is filled with sand and dust there is a downside to bagless vacuums.
remembered I would not find the right kind of bag to fit the vacuum cleaner I was using, or I would get confused about which model I had and which bag was supposed to fit it.
Yup. It's like sponge mops, which I don't think I've ever successfully bought refills for -- whatever I buy, whether or not it's the same brand as the mop, doesn't fit. I hate them.
189,191: I see an opportunity here for an online company that remembers what kind of mop, vacuum cleaner, razor, coffee filter, etc. you need and delivers them at the press of a button. "RefillReminder.com" or something like that.
I think with the sponge mops, it's deliberate -- the mop looks cheap because it's ten bucks once, and then two every couple of months afterward when you replace the head. Because the heads are irreplaceable, it's ten bucks, then six for a threepack of replacements that don't fit, and then ten again for a new mop, every three months.
I avoid this cycle by not mopping -- when the floor gets sticky enough (um, yearly?) I wash it with rags.
I use baby wipes in the high traffic areas. They are so good at getting stuff off the floor, I'm starting to wonder how than can be safe for baby-ass.
Indeed. I have bitter feelings toward Big Mop.
(This isn't just me, right? When I say this to people in person, they confirm that they, too, are unable to successfully replace spongemop heads. And the lurkers email me about it constantly.)
Apparently if you live in an area where the air is filled with sand and dust there is a downside to bagless vacuums.
Yeah, it's impossible to find a Dyson repair shop on Mars.
I don't mop that often, but when I do I don't use a sponge mop, so I don't really know. String/cloth strip mops are the way to go.
195: Isn't swiffer just baby wipes on a stick?
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise a mop.
Isn't swiffer just baby wipes on a stick?
They're perfect for people who wouldn't change a diaper without a ten foot pole.
Mop compatibility problem confirmed. Exacerbated by two incompatible swiffer modalities.
Also the shitty little batteries in led lights, calculators, anything small. I can't wait to be farsighted and trying to figure out hearing aid batteries.
DVD+RW and DVD-RW, whose bright idea? And don't get me started on library incompatibilities from "different" compiler versions.
Since this is the cleaning thread, does anyone know how to get old dried-on soy sauce off a wall? It's complicated by the fact that the quality of the paint isn't the highest, so I need to be no more aggressive than absolutely necessary.
Put a condom on your tongue before you lick it off.
Try those melamine foam magic sponges. I love those things.
Soy sauce? I'd think a damp paper towel should do it, maybe with some dish soap. If that's not working, there's always getting a Magic Eraser, but I'd expect a damp, soapy paper towel/cloth/sponge to do the trick.
"Oh no, that's fine. I love having old soy sauce on my wall. No problem. You just hang out there. No, no, it's not because the paint's too cheap to clean you off without messing up the wall and costing me money. Really. Yeah, great."
202: When I quit smoking, I got lots of food on my walls also. Irritability and clumsiness both increase.
208: same thing happened to me when I gave up swallowing.
Magic erasers are really the best thing ever. Like, you think we have all the technology we could ever need and there is no room left to revolutionize daily tasks, and yet.
I have bitter feelings toward Big Mop.
You have no idea.
201: This is more obscure than mop heads, but if you work with plants much, there are, literally, several hundred different types of 4" plastic pots (this type of thing), each with slightly different dimensions and angle of slope on the sides, so that no two different types nest well with each other.
Plus, each type has to have its own type of tray (this kind of thing) or it won't fit very well into the slots.
At the nonprofit I spend way too much time with, we grow a lot of our own starter plants for our gardeners, and we use and reuse pots donated from nurseries and random people, and sorting the things so that you get a full tray of pots that don't fall out easily or crowd each other or overshade each other is a f&*king pain in the ass.
I hate Big Small Plastic Pot.
175: If I vacuum with it, it smells like burning rubber and there is, somehow, more on the floor than there was when I started. I am going to have to buy a new vacuum.
1) You have an internal clog.
2) Your roller is damaged and/or wrapped in hair and/or the belt is elderly. The burning rubber smell is the belt. (Or should be; it's faintly possible the suction motion has an issue.)
Nothing to do with it being bagless though.
193: I avoid this cycle by not mopping -- when the floor gets sticky enough (um, yearly?) I wash it with rags.
Never had much luck with mopping, if I wanted the floor actually clean. Sweeping and then breaking out a pot of hot water, some spray-on chlorox and sponge worked way faster and way better.
max
['I think the people they show mopping on commercials start with clean floors. Mopping as masturbation.']
Our kitchen floor and counters are this mottled granite stuff, and it is absolutely magical about hiding the need to mop or clean. It will look sparking clean, but if you were to run a damp paper towel in front of where we make coffee and it will be dark brown with general grime.
219: we have a dirt floor in the kitchen for the same reason.
I pot my plants in ramekins.
But do you plant your pot in ramekins?
220: You just need to mop a little harder, Sifu. There's tile down under there.
222: uh huh. That's what those guys on Mars said, too. Can't fool me twice.
general grime
I'm imagining General Grime as a uniformed cartoon villain. Maybe with his underlings Corporal Clutter and Major Mess.
224: Don't forget Private Shame and Lieutenant Leftthemilkoutagain (played by a British actor).
224: General Grime's Chicken is inexplicably less popular than General Tso's.
Lieutenant Leftthemilkoutagain (played by a British actor).
Pronounced "Leftenant Logan", of course.
Lieutenant Left-Tenant, your dastardly neighbor who plays loud music at all hours.
230: I thought it was pronounced "Freddy Mercury".
JP's link to docs selling cigarettes reveals that, as I suspected, Don Draper's brilliant use of "It's toasted" after the gov't said no more health-claiming ads was bunk. They already used it.
233: Being relatively innocent of Mad Men (and many other things), I knew not of what I revealed. However, it was already sitting out there in The Hitchhik Wikipedia.
In 1917, the brand started using the slogan "It's Toasted" to inform consumers about the manufacturing method in which the tobacco is toasted rather than sun-dried, a process touted as making the cigarette more delicious. The message "L.S.M.F.T." ("Lucky Strike means fine tobacco") was introduced on the package in the same year.
Why I need an industrial strength cat vacuum:
I washed a cashmere sweater and laid it out to dry on a rack. Oh, says my climbing cat, something else to scale! And a nice, soft, albeit damp, thing to lie upon and leave my hair allllll over.
How many disposable razors will it take to shave a cat?
235.3: Disposable presumably because like me you have an awesome collection of mismatched razor blades and razors in your bathroom cabinet.
LB, You need a microfiber mop. I got one as a gift, and I do need to buy some replacement pads. The thing is that you can't go too far wrong, because it's basically an awesome rag velcroed to a mophead.
an awesome collection of mismatched razor blades and razors in your bathroom cabinet.
Seriously. I refuse to buy the 3, 4, or 5-blade razors, but it's increasingly hard to find the 2-blade kind, so I keep growing this collection of different varieties of 2-blade razors and accompanying razor blades depending on what I manage to find in stock at the store.
192: drugstore.com used to do that, send you refills on schedule. Probably still do.
I also am an unsuccessful mopper. Do the microfiber mops self-squeeze? because getting the dirty water out is what I end up on my knees by the bucket to do.
You could get a safety razor, essear.
238: Target used to sell a store brand that fit Atra. I think Gillette paid them off the way HP bribed the generic ink cartridge makers.
You could get a safety straight razor, essear.
242: I was wondering about that.
Can you use straight razors on your legs?
214: where ever we go we bring our potted plants with us
Brass potted plants! Those funky potted plants!
242: I assume that's what neb meant. I'm clumsy and cut myself often enough with the "safe" kind, though.
241: I have some that I picked up at the grocery store that claim to fit both Atra and Trac II and yet fit neither. I wonder what they do fit.
241: Yeah, I'd rail against Big Razor, but that would sound as though I had some problem with rude boys circa-1964. And I don't.
246: Hm, I'm trying to decide if using them would be economical or just lead to an early and embarrassing death.
1) You have an internal clog.
Maybe YOU have an internal clog!
I assume that's what neb meant
No, I meant safety razors. They have the following advantage over straight razors: they are safe. Also they are easy to use regardless of chirality.
But, uh ... isn't that what he's using already? I'm so confused.
252: I assumed it was clear from the above that while I refuse to buy many-bladed monstrosities, I use safety razors of the sort that take cartridges with two blades.
I assume neb means the kind that you put an actual razor blade, not a disposable cartridge, into.
I think neb was speaking of this general type of safety razor.
These, when I can find them. It hadn't occurred to me that Amazon could be an option for this sort of thing.
255, 256: Ah, I see. Maybe I should consider that.
256: That's the "safety razor" I used as a beginner long ago. I still have scars from it. One thing I figured out is that it helps to pop the zits first. (This was when benzoyl peroxide was prescription-only and hard to get, but "diet pills" and Quaaludes were easy and common.) I was so happy when disposable razors came out. Now I sometimes daydream of using a "cut-throat" razor like in the old Westerns -- has anybody hear tried that? I read some peoples used to tweeze their beards off; I tried that, but after 45 minutes or so I gave up and shaved.
I've never tried a straight razor, and they kind of creep me out, but I want one. Specifically, this one.
I have never heard someone use the term "safety razor" to mean the modern disposable-cartridge kind of razor, rather than the comparatively less modern disposable-razor kind of razor.
My father used safety razors, presumably during his flâneur period.
I've lived in a couple of places with those old mirrored metal medicine cabinets that have slots for blade disposal. Who the hell came up with that idea? The blades just go into the wall space, when they should go into recycling.
It's handy for those who want to build up collections of used razors.
265: But nosflow, one has to bust a hole in the wall to get to those. It's much easier to save them in, say, an empty jar. Then when Halloween comes...
Jesus, $1,350 for a razor? If I were going to spend serious money on my facial hair I'd get it lasered off forever.
267: Jesus is talking about spending serious money on a razor, not on your facial hair. Who would pay money for your facial hair? Does it contain fossilized mammoth ivory? Or hand-forged Damascus steel? I don't think so.
Who the hell came up with that idea? The blades just go into the wall space, when they should go into recycling.
I don't think they had recycling in 1947. Also, sharp things in a thin plastic bag leads to trouble.
has anybody hear tried that?
For about ten years, yes. They work well.
I should add that I don't currently use one. Being in academia, I mostly don't bother these days.
268: Read 267 again and your mistake should be obvious. If I can see it, anybody can.
264: And all those needles at the hospital. Just one stick and then into a red plastic bin.
You know, that razor would pay for itself in about 20 years. I'd be a fool not to buy it.
271: Ain't tenure wonderful?
There's no especially real reason why I should care how I look either, but I still try to look at least basically presentable around 2 or 3 days each week. Too bad for the rest of the world those days are seldom sequential.
276: Jesus, you're very young, aren't you.
Did you factor in strop replacement?
276: By then, razors will be sentient. And rich!
I don't see M/tch's mistake. Can you clarify?
Why would it be better for the rest of the world if you looked presentable two or three days in a row?
277.3: On the internet, no one knows you mourn your misspent youth.
278: I did! If I shaved more often, I could bring the payback period down to ten years, maybe less. Damascus steel, man!
Christ, in 20 years we're all going to end up working for the razors, aren't we?
They're going to liberate themselves at some point. The important thing is not to let them organize, or learn to read.
The important thing is not to let them organize
We must outlaw drums and only allow them to travel about with passes.
Should I do this? I would have to purchase or borrow some equipment (most notably a tent and an air mattress).
REI rents tents. Ours was very nice. Don't know about the air mattresses.
Dear nosflow, why not just email me a death threat?
But then, hey, back in 8th grade this girl named Helen used to pick on me all the time. It got so I'd flinch and duck at the thought of her. Then after my 14th birthday party she got my virginity: it turned out she paid so much particular attention to me because she wanted me BAD.
Poor nosflow. I've wised up a lot in 32 years.
Sounds like fun, neb, but, uh...you don't want to carry an air mattress that far. Unless you mean one of those little Thermarests.
Oh, never mind, I just read the fine print. In which case, go for it! I've done parts of that trail and it's always been enjoyable.
(a) yeah, one of those little things. You know what I'm talking about. They roll up.
(b) they move the equipment from camp to camp!
Oh, shit, you mean you aren't still a virgin? Nevermind, then.
() is right. I find air mattresses less comfortable than the standard-issue foam pad, anyway.
There's a Zowada razor on eBay right now at $300 with 21 hours to go, but it has wood scales. Fuck that. It's mammoth or nothing.
(b) they move the equipment from camp to camp!
That's cheating. Get yourself a proper backpack.
I always wanted to take on of those cycling vacations where the put your stuff in a van so you don't have to carry it.
For a moment I thought 292 was directed at me and I was very hurt.
296: I'd be gentle. If that's what you want.
I've always wanted to experience nature while being toted about on a palanquin.
I see that "air mattress" refers to something other than what I meant to refer to. I wonder what the correct term is!
Jesus, I'd get motion sickness. I'd want my bearers to stand perfectly still.
297: Well, I just didn't understand how my sexual experience or lack thereof affected my opinions on camping, you see.
298: On the back of an elephant, on a bed made of linen and sequins and silk? (Damnit, now I'm going to have that Decemberists song stuck in my head, and it's going to keep evoking that bit of Mad Men that uses it.)
301: My snoring scares bears and coyotes but attracts racoons.
One summer in Hyde Park I slept on an air mattress after some sort of confusion about whether the apartment I was renting would be furnished or not. Ah, youth.
(Damnit, now I'm going to have that Decemberists song stuck in my head, and it's going to keep evoking that bit of Mad Men that uses it.)
That was really disconcerting.
301: My misunderstanding. I took "I've done parts of that trail and it's always been enjoyable" the wrong way.
Hmm. That makes me disinclined to watch Mad Men. That and not having a teevee, of course.
Who needs a tv when you have a computer? (I always said I'd never have a TV in my bedroom, but, uh, I realized that the computer is just as bad when it comes to encouraging watching DVDs in bed.)
"sleeping pad", apparently.
Ah, yes, these are important. You'll have an uncomfortable night's sleep without one. They make regular solid foam ones, and a sort of semi-inflatable kind that some people prefer. I like the solid ones, as they tend to be cheaper, quicker to set up, and last longer since they don't have a valve that can wear out, but tastes differ.
310: This is true, which is why my proud teevee non-ownership is disingenuous. I have in fact watched teevee programs recently (The Wire; Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman; and Nature's Great Events, for those of you keeping score at home).
I'm sleeping on the floor these days. At first it was because I couldn't decide what kind of bed to buy, but after two weeks I'm getting used to it.
Jesus, are you familiar with the Blue Cranes?
Yes. They're local to you, you know.
Ah, now I see. Let me give them a listen.
Huh. Now I'm wondering how they've escaped my attention. I'm liking the clips on their site. Did you hear them when they were down your way last weekend?
I heard them then, and the last time they were down my way, and once I walked past a cafe where they were playing my favorite tune of theirs ("Polaris"), but I first heard them on CD, in late 2007.
I guess they did. It's awfully quiet around here now. Just when I finished the work I should have been doing earlier this afternoon instead of reading old threads about letter closings.
I'm failing utterly at the "who's Googling me?" game this week. There's still a Lehman Brothers?
Indeed. I'm trying to do my keynote presentation for tomorrow's lecture and finding myself completely uninspired.
It took me a moment to associate the word "keynote" with the software. I'm thinking, what is a keynote presentation for a lecture? I've heard of keynote speakers at conventions...
Inspiration sounds like a high bar to clear for a lecture. "Inspired" isn't a word that comes to mind when characterizing most of the classes I took in college.
Well, really, I'm pushing for barely adequate at this point. But it's a long class and I would like to help retain my students interest with a well-done presentation, since unlike others I can't entirely rely on my magnetic delivery.
re: 238/240 etc
I use a safety razor, with the individual razor blades. I find them far superior to the multi-blade cartridge razors. I cut myself far less, and don't get a shaving rash like I get with multi-blade razors. Also, once you've bought the initial razor [which is only 20 quid anyway], much much cheaper.
243 Can you use straight razors on your legs? They're great for scarring.
"One man asks another, one man tells another". (I was looking for—but not finding—an old electric razor* commercial where one too many blades is stuck into the medicine cabinet slot and the building collapses.)
*I think. Or maybe it was for blades that claimed to last longer.
I want receptacles that allow me to drop things into the walls of my house! No more taking out the recycling!
It reminds me, obscurely, of the mail slot at a building I worked in, which was sealed, had signs all over it that said "mail slot is non-operative", yet was still used by the lazy, lazy receptionist for outgoing mail. Not outgoing very far, as it turns out.
Why "obscurely"? That's not "obscurely". That's "predictably". Geez, Sifu.
Seriously. I probably follow a piece of tape on the floor like Omnibot.
But how do you get the tape to move?
Straight razors are impractical because they won't let you bring them on airplanes. So you're stuck with checked bags, and all the accompanying bullshit.
Fortunately, I don't have to fly often enough that it has any effect on my grooming habits. I have no intention of getting a straight razor, but that's because of my fear of cutting through my neck.
Straight razors are impractical because they won't let you bring them on airplanes.
Also the case with the razor-blade kind of safety razor.
Some microfiber mops self squeeze. One site said you could buy a tool for scraping off excess water. You can also pull off the cloth and ring it out. When you get too much dirt on one, you can switch it out for a fresh one, then wash them all in the machine.
Aren't we all pretty much stuck with checked bags and the accompanying bullshit ::cough::extra charges::cough:: anyway, now that you can't carry on things like prescription meds or non-tiny bottles of shampoo or a manicure kit?
now that you can't carry on things like prescription meds or non-tiny bottles of shampoo or a manicure kit?
Aside from non-tiny bottles of shampoo, you're allowed to carry on all of that stuff.
The TSA page also seems to imply that you're allowed to bring safety razors in your carry-on, but it's a little unclear. It says the following items are banned:
Razor-Type Blades - such as box cutters, utility knives, razor blades not in a cartridge, but excluding safety razors.,/blockquote>I'm not sure whether they merely mean a safety razor is allowed only if it does not have a blade in it, or that you're in fact allowed to carry on a razor blade so long as it is loaded into a safety razor.
Stupid formatting. The second sentence in the blockquote is mine.
It sure looks as if it means that you should be able to carry in a razor blade in a safety razor.
344 is an example of what is often called "dry humour".
