Everything posted by DougO
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Birding
I used to find a decent looking stick or limb somewhere and put it out in the yard on some kind of stand around the feeders and bird baths. Sit quietly and wait around for birds to stage on the stick in good light while working their way to food or water and get some shots. If the birds were in a shy mood I would even put a blanket over my head or something as a makeshift blind, put another chair in front of me to block my obvious humanness from the birds. I used to get some really nice shots that way, and it's a great way to learn bird photography. it was especially fun when the painted buntings would come around.
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The Guitar Pron Thread
I have my Dad's old baritone uke that he had since the 50s. So the top string is lower, rather than high pitched, which is less confusing. Has a lot of flaws in the wood but still plays and sounds pretty good. I pick it up every once in a great while just for grins, but I don't really know much to play on it. I reckon you can tune it about any way you want, if it will stay in tune. Just don't tune it too high or too low.
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Birding
I'm still using my D500 all the time. I bought a Z8 mirrorless and some lenses over a year ago, but still have not bonded with it. I like the 1.5x "Crop" sensor for what I do, sports and birds. The mirrorless stuff is a totally different animal, doesn't work the same and I don't have the obsession for new gear to dig deep into how to make it do the stuff I already know how to do with my outdated stuff. But my photography has slipped the past couple of years. I get caught up finding the "new to me" birds and overlook better photo ops for birds I've photographed before. The new birds seem much more difficult to get the kinds of pics that satisfy me photographically. I don't seem to have the drive I used to. And I'm not getting to shoot higher level sports as much as I used to, which sucks. I'm too young to give it up, but too old for anyone to give a shit any more. Sports photographers are a dime a dozen now. Sometimes I wish I could erase my memory of birds and start over getting to know them all again and just enjoy the hell out of photographing cardinals, blue jays and chickadees.
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The Guitar Pron Thread
I'll have to look for that video. I know they tend to lowball pretty hard. I once bought a USA Stratocaster in great condition from a good friend of mine, I think it's even a 50th anniversary. 1994? Somewhere in there. He set the price, and I didn't really need it, but it was a deal that was hard to pass up. He was in love with that guitar for a week, but then had found another guitar wanted even more. I didn't want to take advantage of him because he wasn't really good with money. I said, really? That's a really low price, should be worth hundreds more. He said, "Well, it's more than Guitar Center would give me."
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The Guitar Pron Thread
I hate selling. Not that I don't have stuff I need to move, but shipping bulky stuff sucks hard, and costs too damn much. I used to sell smallish things on eBay, but it ain't what it used to be. And I'm not crazy about meeting people somewhere in between, either. Consignment used to work pretty decent when we had actual music stores that weren't Guitar Center. Even if it didn't sell for a while, a least it was out of the house. Unfortunately, I bought a lot more them I sold, and now I'm hurting for space.
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The Guitar Pron Thread
Folks tell me Facebook Market is the thing nowdays.
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Dallas Cowboys 2026 Offseason Thread: All in for one more win
Seattle has a badass defense, really the key reason they are in the Superbowl. Their defensive coordinator is Aden Durde, for the least two seasons. His previous job was defensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Way to be on the ball, Jerry.
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Dallas Cowboys 2026 Offseason Thread: All in for one more win
Yeah, but there are ten times as many "future hall of famers" than there are actual hall of famers. Especially with Cowboys players.
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Bijan Robinson is special
Awards are weird. How can the 6th best offensive player be the league MVP?
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Dallas Cowboys 2026 Offseason Thread: All in for one more win
Witten will be coming up against TEs with bigger stats pretty soon. I have a bad feeling he'll get Woodsoned. Good class, but could have used a couple more.
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The "Post a Picture You Took" thread
If the old "good" camera still works fine, use it.
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Random thoughts that don't warrant a thread
Tell me more about this Gobbler's Knob? Asking for a friend.
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Bill Belichick Rides Again: Hired at North Carolina to build NIL NFL Factory
There is far too much weight in Superbowl wins when it comes to the Hall Of Fame. A player can't control much about who else is on his team or who is coaching. Lots of shitty franchises had great players that deserve consideration, and too many sometimes great but not HOF great guys get in because of rings. One of my other beefs is with Kurt Warner. One of the greatest underdog stories in NLF lore, and seems like a great individual. But most of his career he was a turnover machine and a bit of a joke around the league. He had a few great years with huge stats supported by great receivers and passer friendly systems. If he was like that more of his career he would be deserving, but he's not anywhere near the greats of NFL history over his career arch. You might say the same about Joe Namath, but then it was a bit different in his time. He kinda gets a mulligan for the fucked up knees and a historic upset putting the AFL on blast. He gets extra credit for the character that drew a ton of fans. As far as Warner, his horrendous100-yard pick 6 that turned the whole Superbowl game around for Pittsburgh should have been a final nail in his HOF coffin, even if he were close to having a worthy career. Good for him, but his career play didn't remotely deserve it.
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The Guitar Pron Thread
She has a lot to be proud of. I bet she bought that guitar through Adorama.
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Bill Belichick Rides Again: Hired at North Carolina to build NIL NFL Factory
Halls of Fame are generally a bunch of bullshit, driven by elitist shitbags with selective memories and bias. But anyway... Lots of very deserving finalists in this class. Belichick is the most dominantly successful head coach of his era, and the Superbowl era in entirety. There's not much debating that. Him not being automatically in is bullshit. Videogate was a bad deal, but deflategate was total fucking bullshit, the haters trying to pile on, that fuckstick fraud Goodell trying to flex muscle. I say that being about as objective as possible, since I never wanted the Patriots to pile up so many Superbowls out of pure team envy, but otherwise am pretty indifferent. I had no other real reason to hate. My main interest in with the Cowboys, who tend to have their legendary players unjustly fucked out of shit like this due to the hatred by same elitist shitbags that dominate the media. I'm afraid if Witten doesn't get in now he may never get in, and will go through the Drew Pearson brand of torture for decades. But Witten should be in , because he's basically the last of the REAL NFL TEs, all around players that do the dirty dirty work besides raking up some nice stats. He deserves it for sure. Darren Woodson not being in already is criminal. So is Harvey Martin. Several others deserving, but passed up over stats guys like Andre Reed. And fucking Eli is a damn joke, but he'll get in now or in a few years because New York, and the blind luck of a shitty random prayer of a pass sticking to a guys helmet, and having his defenses do most of the work for his teams.
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Dallas Cowboys 2026 Offseason Thread: All in for one more win
If you think Cowboys fans are curse now, just wait until Fat Mike brings another Lombardi trophy to Pittsburgh.
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Dallas Cowboys 2026 Offseason Thread: All in for one more win
Defense is the main reason, but he is proving to be a damn good qb. It goes to show how even the Cowboys could have a shot if they had any understanding of how to build a complete team from the inside out, and not all the shiny glittery things first.
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Dallas Cowboys 2026 Offseason Thread: All in for one more win
I grew up in the glory days of the Cowboys and was a young man in the second round of glory days. It is impossible for me to release all emotional ties. I'll always be a Cowboys fan, for better or for worse. But I haven't had any expectations for a long time, and I never will again. But I will continue to have PTSD every time they start looking like a playoff team, because I know it's going to be a series of gut punches followed by a kick in the balls. And that's just what it is. I love the building process of an NFL team, and that is more or less what drives me in my interest of the NFL and Cowboys as the game continues to decline and be cheapened by stupidass rules and idiotic leadership by its commissioner. It's still fun to watch a team put things together and take another step. Watching Sam Darnold prove people wrong this year has been my favorite storyline. I've been a believer for a long time. There are lots of ways to ruin a promising qb, and Sam has had everyone thrown at him and taken a lot of shit. Fuck them all. I hope he wins the whole damn thing, which means he will probably choke like a bitch.
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Dallas Cowboys 2026 Offseason Thread: All in for one more win
I would think he's already seen a lot of Cowboys film, since they played the Cowboys twice this past season.
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Cowboys V Bears
I don't even remember that game now. But it's funny how the last time the Cowboys played the Bears it seemed like an embarrassing blowout loss to a shitass team getting its first win of the season, instead of a shitass team getting blown out by a number 2 seed.
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NFL Black Monday, 2026
Pretty much my thoughts. Both too old fashioned, struggled to change with modern football, won a championship ages ago. Basically a honkey Tomlin.