Comments on: What are the odds?

By: Green Destiny | Cosmic Variance

Green Destiny | Cosmic Variance — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 03:32:07 +0000

[...] So today the sun came back, properly. And we’ll have at least a week of perfect sunshine. I was beginning to wonder, I’ll admit. I was also beginning to worry that we would not get a stretch of sun before the rainy season begins, and I needed desperately (recall the chat with JoAnne and Ann Nelson; see comment thread of this post) to paint deck surfaces around the house before the bleak MidWinter hits properly. So today was painting-the-deck duty, mostly. There’s something vey satisfying about getting all the right kit, doing the prep, and then looking at the task laid out before you. [...]

By: Aaron F.

Aaron F. — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 01:45:07 +0000

Noooooooooooooo! I took a statistics class last year, and now whenever someone asks what the odds are, I feel compelled to actually think about what the odds are. It’s a curse! x_X

But fortunately, I’m not so far gone that when something really portentious happens, I can’t ignore the large P-value and pretend it was fate.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 06:41:10 +0000

Yep JoAnne…. That advice was on the short list of things my mum told me to avoid before I left home for the big city, with my few possessions in a cloth sack over my back: 1) don’t talk to strangers, 2) stay away from loose cars and fast women, 3) never use a roller on a deck. …And, 4) don’t set your integration constants to zero without a damned good reason.

-cvj

P.S. And I blew it on two counts: I talk to strangers all the time….that string theory community to which I belong is full of strange folk… …and it took two years for me to figure out the significance of an integration constant in one of my most interesting contributions to the field. So there. (ok…she didn’t say the bit about integration constants.)

By: JoAnne

JoAnne — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 06:04:53 +0000

Clifford, brush, definitely. Been told numerous times to never use a roller on a deck.

By: Clifford

Clifford — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 21:26:37 +0000

Ann, thanks! I think it is the same oil-based paint on all the decks at present, so I’ll be down at my local hardware store armed with everyone’s advice. (I’ll just be repainting…not trying to go for a fancy stain job.) Then it will be all hands -and knees- on deck for a long while.

One last thing: Big brush, or roller, for application? I’m guessing rollers are not appropriate….would give a finish to the surface that I’ve never seen on a deck before….. (?)

-cvj

By: Ann Nelson

Ann Nelson — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 20:59:03 +0000

Having owned 3 decks now, I say the facts of decks are that :
Painted decks need repainting about once a year and you need to use oil based paint.
Never paint oil based paint over latex. Painting only takes a few hours so this yearly maintenance job is not a big deal.

Stained decks need restaining less often, maybe only once every three years.
It is crucial to use exactly the the same brand of stain each time and to powerwash.

Converting a painted deck to a stained deck requires days of sanding, much more integrated work than just repainting.

By: Arun

Arun — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:59:55 +0000

Here in NJ, rainy, moist climate, Home Depot’s Behr stains seems to work well for me; the procedure being to power-wash and (re-)stain. The Home Depot Husky 1750 electric power washer also worked out well this time round, though having only recently purchased it, I can’t speak to its longevity.

By: Plato

Plato — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:20:22 +0000

Just hit me…so who was the real Shakespeare?

By: Plato

Plato — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:14:46 +0000

What are the odds…

I’m having mine durdeked with new railings that we can see through…certainly not 100,000. but, a lot better then using wood to the elements(cedar and quarter round decking). Plus, it provides for living area underneath.

It’s replacing a bad contractor work that by son had to structurally redo…bla bla bla:)

ah so the article was really about deck building? That’ll work wonders on your resume’.:)

I like the idea of expeirmental research though on wood weathering. I had that same idea on fiber construction of paper products. Actually left in the elements for a couple of months to see how it would deteoriate.

Non! I think I’ll use and have used products that do not deteoriate and rot to soon. Made me thnk about new home constructionan and all, in tornado alley. Europeans like concrete and brick so why not build accordingly?

Oh it’s about blogging, sorry:)Oh no, its about a day in the life..knock knock. No it’s about why one didn’t get tenure, remember?

So let’s remember the “rules of blogging” then shall we. Dialogos of Eide and what our ancestors did for us in Solvay while they pondered their interesting thought experiments in dialogue.

By: Atdotde

Atdotde — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 11:01:20 +0000

How to read blogs and how not to write blogs

Which blogs I have monitored