Joe_Moose

I did at one point. Let me see if I can track it down. Fair warning, part of my UL motivation is saving weight for luxuries like a kindle and deodorant.

We had a baby in March so I haven't been on a trip since last fall. Hoping to do a few more sections of the MST this September.

Edit: I found my old lighterpack account, but the most recent packing list is from a few years ago. I should probably be responsible and make one for current trips. I'll send you another reply in a day or two with an update.

In the meantime here's my lighter pack from a lightweight hammock trip.. I've since decided I prefer the ground and switched to a quilt, pad, tarp, and bivy. I traded the pocket rocket for an alcohol stove (safe over here in the super damp southern US). I also cut some unnecessary weight from the FAC, cooking tools, ditty bag, etc.

Yes, I would say it generally costs more. But it doesn't have to.

For example, ultralight tents are expensive, so I embraced tarp life. My tarp and bivy are lighter than most UL tents and cost hundreds of dollars less.

My individual pieces of clothing cost more, but adopting an ultralight approach means I don't carry needless extras, so I don't buy as many clothes in the first place.

UL stoves can cost a lot, but the BRS stove or an alcohol stove are cheap and weigh less. Eating cold food is even lighter.

You get the idea. It costs exactly what you spend on it. It can be done affordabley if you are strict about what you are carrying and strategic with purchases. Leaving unneeded items at home will have a bigger impact on your base weight than any $700 tent.

OK, I came up with a new plan, and I want to make sure I'll be within the base size rules.

I'm working on a Celestial Lions conversion using the Sgt Castus model. It will be based on a 40mm base and will not be using his necron scenery. Sgt Castus is the same size as other Primaris marines, but he shipped with a 50mm base. I want to confirm I'll be OK to enter him in the contest as long as he's on that 40mm base instead.

I keep imagining the dedicated seal stamping machine that can plop out 400 lbs of sealing wax in one go.

That's fair and I understand.

Perhaps for future competitions the defining factor for small models should be the "infantry" keyword? Between scale creep and GW's arbitrary basing decisions it can be hard to define model size by the base.

How strict is the base size requirement? I just picked up a Leviathan Captain for a conversion, but he has a bigger base. It also rules out characters like Helbrecht.

You should get on discord! It's like the instant messenger of our youth but with more features. You can find a discord for every hobby.

I think part of it is because lemmy has historically been welcoming to people with different ideas. If your views aren't welcome elsewhere, you can just host your own instance and say whatever you want.

But I also think we're witnessing coordinated propaganda. It reminds me so much of the pro-russian trolling and memes that took over 4chan in 00s and early 10s.

This is awesome! I might have to dive back in.

You're right that most utility markets are regulated, but it is typically handled at a state level, not local. In most of the US, municipal governments are not the provider of electric and gas utilities, although there are certainly many exceptions. Additionally, when those small local utilities are given a service territory they are often just reselling energy purchased from a large utility.

I've worked for a large utility for the last decade. We're a business just like McDonalds. We take in raw materials and convert them to a product that our customers want to buy. We try to attract new customers through advertising and good service. We lobby the politicians that regulate our market. We do all those business things, and we do it in the name of profit.

There are a lot of small co-op utilities that don't work quite the same way. If large utilities were banks, those little co-ops would be credit unions. That type of utility is awesome because they are able to be more customer focused. Unfortunately most of them lose out on economies of scale, so their customers may not actually see any savings in comparison to the big guys.

If you still don't believe utilities are big business, look at NextEra Energy. They're worth about $150 billion, give or take a couple billion. That means they have a higher valuation than the combined worth of Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Longhorn, etc), Dominos, Wendy's, Papa John's, Chipotle, Burger King, and the Yum Brands (KFC, Pizza Hut, etc).

These large utilities aren't just bigger business than most restaurants. They're an order of magnitude larger.

No big business utilities? PG&E is worth $35 billion. Duke Energy is close to $70 billion. The list goes on. These are fortune 500 companies that employ small towns worth of people.

Utilities are damn near as big as it gets.

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