misteraven

@6Pennies Was actually planning to get a .22 long gun myself, though I'm thinking a classic bolt action rifle. Part of it is to try and mop up some of the ground squirrel population that's killing my fields, but also to see if maybe starting with that might be a way of opening the door for both her and my wife. Was planning to get a suppressor for my AR anyways and figure this would turn that .22 into something we could even plink with in the front yard. Also have a Sig MPX at my moms house brand new in the box that I got for a bargain. That and I thought HRC was going to win the white house and figured there might not be too many more days to get it. It looks mean, but being 9mm, it should be a really soft weapon to shoot. Also thinking I'll buy an upper and short barrel / rail, another suppressor I can interchange with my G17 and have 2 stamp gun that I can easily switch out between ultra compact and standard sized carbine.

HAHA!

@Mercer Not sure I entirely agree with that. Look at GitHub or Reddit. Both are profitable, both have very loyal followings, both remain solid and maintain loyal user bases and flourishing communities. I think what we see Zuckerberg is greed and probably a God complex of some sort. I really don't think you have to suck to be a financial success. I also don't think profit and good intentions / good product (service) are mutually exclusive of each other. My issues with Facebook is that they want to be the gatekeeper to the digital world, which is becoming increasingly integrated into the living world. They started as a gated community and propagated like a virus turning the entire internet into a series of gated communities with them having a near monopoly on being gatekeepers. Then they turn around and misuse all the detail they pick up regarding traffic and activity, while also forcing their own agenda on you. Its one thing to claim its a private virtual environment and you don't have to participate, but seeing as how they literally have tentacles spread across the entire web, we all know you're ability to fully appreciate and consume the web compromised if you decide to opt out of their game. That's my problem with Facebook. Also considering how they've already proven how they're quick to abuse that position makes me think its time to rethink it all and if there's something that cane be done, we should try. That and the fact that most people yearn to be connected to people and subjects that interest them and Instagram is doing a poor job servicing that. It wasn't much better back in the day to be honest, but the novelty and convenience of it sucked everyone in. After a while, there were few options for interaction and content online that don't require a subscription of some sort. And again, most would acknowledge that the time spent here on 12ozProphet was far more enjoyable / satisfying / entertaining than Instagram or Facebook even at their peak. That's because it wasn't about 12ozProphet, it was about all of us. We can still do this and I'm doing all I can to deliver and sustain a platform capable of that.

@luhem Appreciate you popping through and chiming in man. Welcome back and thanks for finally dropping a comment. Likewise, I feel you a 110% on all this. Crazy time's we live in and for you, the rest of the people who have posted in here, as well as the remaining people lurking or passing through checking things out... I don't think we need to even consider competing with social media platforms (as if we could). Think I already said as much, but I started this thread thinking they were competing. Now I realize they're two separate things that do have some overlap, but are vastly different once you actually get into it. Likewise, we have something like 55,000 followers on Instagram. Real followers, not some fake group we manipulated through the savvy use of social media strategies, not some paid follower shit and without a bunch of gimmicks or really much in the way of a concerted effort to have a massive following. I can say it openly and honestly and with the benefit of hindsight that though we have a ton of registered users, we've never had anywhere near 55,000 active members on here. In our hey day, we'd see maybe 1200 people logged in, but even that wasn't entirely accurate since "logged in" was defined as someone that was on the forum in the last 3 or so hours. In reality, it was more like 300 users active within the last 10 minutes. That said, our user base was more significant back then despite being exponentially smaller than the user base that follows us on Instagram. In other words, we accomplished so much more with much less back in those days. It would be great to have 55,000 active members on here and maybe one day we can accomplish that. But again, I don't aspire to compete with social media, let alone believe I can. And we don't really have to. My goal is to extract ourselves from the controls of Facebook and Instagram. To no longer allow them to middle man the relationship between 12ozProphet and you guys. It's already fucked up they won't allow any of us to see the content we take the time to follow, in the order its posted. But we've also seen how they've manipulated the entire internet to track us, to profile us, and then to sell our data at great profit, so other companies can more effectively target us and optimize their potential to sell us shit we don't need or really want. Then there's the whole cooperating with the government side of shit and who the hell knows what's happening there. Its common knowledge the NSA helped develop facebooks facial recognition algorithm and now we see Zuckerberg testify that he's illegally sharing data with analytics groups that are being hired by political campaigns. One can only imagine what else is really going on. All the while it's also fact that Instagram at its best, was never as fun as the forums were. This is completely in our control. We can decide what we chose to support. Where we chose to connect. The discussions we have and what we share. After reaching out to a ton of people, I can't tell you how many responded with a comment along the lines of "glad you guys are doing this", "Glad you guys are bringing it back", or yeah I've been hating Instagram, been off Facebook for a while and just maintaining myself waiting for something else to come up so I can keep following friends and topics I'm into". I'm not saying these forums can solve all the issues we're griping about in this thread. I also know that this isn't right for everyone. What I can say confidently is that it used to be a shit load of fun. That a lot of us made some great friends on here, learned a lot and had a lot of laughs. I can also say, it really doesn't take a lot of people for it to start being fun again. In fact, we've grown a little over 300% in the last two weeks since I started this new mission to revive the boards. I'm already finding myself breaking concentration on work shit, to check the responses on here. I've helped recover a couple dozen accounts in these last days, seen a ton of original crew come back on (some sticking around and posting regularly again) and see a lot of new accounts being registered. I really think that collectively we can regain control of our connections and conversations and really believe we're already well on our way.

More glimpses of life in the mountains of NW Montana... Sunrise. Another shot of the same road with my son riding his bike down it. Work in progress... Chicken / duck coop and a fenced in area that makes up the fruit tree orchard and the raised beds for the vegetable garden. Posted the pole barn a few times, but here's another angle. Generally used to keep hay dry and to store shit like tractors, we're actually using it as a covered outdoor living room. I have a nice smoker out there and we're hanging up string lights and stuff so we can chill outside and eat nice meals out in the open while still being in out of rain and sun. View over my computer to the front yard. Caught a flock of wild turkeys out there, which is pretty common in addition to deer and coyotes and all kids of other wild life. My dog Otis not too psyched by the afore mentioned wildlife that frequently hangs out around the house. Good friend of mine that lives close by is a breeder / trainer of military and private security K9's (Dutch Shepards and Belgian Malinois). This is a pup out of his last litter named Mr Nobody that I really bonded with. He now belongs to another friend of mine. Old pickup from up the road that I thought was cool. Love the patina on these old farm trucks. Fresh trout straight out the stream. Butter, olive oil and sea salt in an old cast iron pan is a hell of a meal.

Teal FCK. Fun factoid... Teal was the very first 12ozProphet employee back in early 1996 when it was being run from my moms house.

Here's my ride. Still stock, but was convinced by @dekayfa to buy it since it was a great deal and I literally live minutes to a major downhill mountain biking place and have trails everywhere. Unfortunately been way too busy with 12ozProphet to make it out much despite the great weather we're having.

Damn @Joker whats the story with that paint job / graphics?! So sick!

Dash 167th FCK and a nice one by Os Gemeos VLOK. And shameless plug for the 12ozProphet Bic pen.

@6Pennies you should jump in and post that unicorn I’ve seen you post up on the gram. That said, feels good to be able to EDC a Benchmade folder and not get worried about being arrested like back in NYC where the laws are so loosely written a nail clipper can be interpreted as a weapon if a cop wanted to be a dick. Also amazing how often I pull my knife out every day for usual mundane tasks. Tempted to get a fixed blade for EDC with how often I’m actually using my knife.

Curious how many people still wear fitted hats? All the people I knew that did, seem to all prefer snap backs now. Also, baseball cap or admiral cap? Personally I usually prefer the lower profile of an admirals cap or at least an unstructured baseball cap that sort of sits low. Regular baseball caps makes me look like an over grown toddler half the time.

So a lot of news this week talking about some of what we touched on. Besides Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook who now also owns Instagram) illegally shared all their user data with Cambridge Analytica to compile profiles and strategies used to sway election results with better targeting, it seems they’ve also been cutting deals with handset makers to scrape and share data. One of the handset makers is a major Chinese company that’s apparently already being monitored as a national security threat. https://www.businessinsider.com.au/australian-parliament-mark-zuckerberg-huawei-2018-6 Facebook’s response for Zuckerberg not mentioning it when he just spent 10 hours testifying before congress to specifically address the sharing of user information... That it really wasn’t successful so they had already decided they were going to phase out those partnerships. Meanwhile Apple announced their next big OS update would include completely new privacy technologies that combined with the new Safari browser that drops with it, essentially kills the exploit Facebook has been using to gather data about online users that browse the web beyond Facebook and Instagram. https://www.apple.com/macos/mojave-preview/ “Enhanced Tracking Prevention When you browse the web, the characteristics of your device can be used by advertisers to create a “fingerprint” to track you. Safari now thwarts this by only sharing a simplified system profile. And now improved Intelligent Tracking Prevention keeps social media Like buttons, Share buttons, or comment widgets from tracking you without your permission. We know you’ll like that.” It’s a step in the right direction, but personally feel it’s too little, too late. Seeing as Apple has also announced its stepping into the advertising space and has to compete against key players Facebook and Google, I also have to question how noble this security update actually is. Anyhow, scary stuff that honestly should lead to people protesting in the streets and probably dropping Facebook and Instagram, as well as their *smart* phones.

Fresh shirt, Ha! How did it go? Have they taken to it? My son really enjoys it and wants to go anytime I invite him. My daughter on the other hand hasn’t wanted to go. Obviously don’t make her, but it’s a bummer because I know she’s an awesome shot. Few years ago at a carnival she shot an air rifle and seemed to have a really great eye abd trigger control instinctively. But all the anti News has her shunning the idea of it before giving it a try. Hoping she ends up having some friends that hunt or shoot considering where were at and maybe that’ll open her up enough to give it a chance.

You sir, just won this thread.

@6Pennies LOL, thinking you might dig the previous post.

John’s Pizza - Bleeker Street, Village NYC - Classic tomato and mozzarella cheese pizza with fresh roasted garlic and pepperoni. Andiamo on Biscayne in Miami - sundried tomato, onions, arugula and ruffle oil. Jersey Boys in downtown Whitefish, Montana - Classic tomato and mozzarella cheese pizza with fresh roasted garlic. Best pizza I’ve had anywhere. Though, not for nothing but making dough at home is so easy and so cheap and tastes almost better than the best pizza. Fresh and doughy. Tomato sauce costs nothing (cheaper even than spaghetti sauce) and other toppings are easy. Cheese is always expensive but overall it literally costs like a $1 to make a pizza all in, takes maybe 20 minutes if you make the dough ahead of time (easier to make batches and freeze them). Suggest trying it out.

Amazing how many styles of Bates and how fresh each style is on its own. Especially when you consider some writers will spend an entire career just trying to dial in one signature style.

Burger and fries. Rough day, broke my diet for a little comfort food.

You guys are talking about getting neutered and then placing bags of frozen veggies on your giesh and then putting the bag back in the freezer? Don’t know man. Trying to keep an open mind, but kind of struggling on this one.

On a related note, apparently Solo will be the first Star Wars moving in the franchise to loose money. Summary: They marketed it poorly.

@El Mamerro Will certainly require a little bit of adjustment for a lot of people. Also, you're super behind so once you get caught up on a few key threads, you naturally fall into a rhythm with it so not too bad. Welcome back! Lots to catch up on.

Ooof! Good luck with that dude.

Welcome back! So psyched to see your screen name light up a recent post.

Futures forecasting? Can you explain a bit more about that and what you do, not to derail the topic.