Running Bear's May 2026 Coffee Shop

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For those talking about Elizabeth Montgomery, someone in Japan agrees with you. I saw this sign multiple times when my MIL was living in Amagasaki. This sign was down a street a km or so from her apartment and just off a main road that lead to a shopping mall (Aeon of course) that we would go to. I finally got a picture taken with my (2011 tech) phone after seeing it many times.

The pic at the bottom of the sign on the building is our very own Samantha. The second photo attached is just a crop and my bad attempt at blowing up the crop so you can see it -- which of course, with the low res phones of the day, was not really recognizable and even the "super enhancement" driven by AI of "Pixelmator Pro" could only fix it so much.

I don't know f it is still there. I have not been down that street in forever and when we drove by a year or three ago I tried to look down the street but couldn't really tell.

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Well howdy there internet peeps and those who understand that karokee is best practiced alone in the shower.

It's Troy again.

Wife got her first watermelon of the season. Had to import it from Mexico. they're not growing here yet.

Evidently I missed some drama over on the NMRA forum. Or facebook page.

Seems that Prez Gordy made a post a few months ago about people being negative and highly opinionated calling out the "rank amateurs of the MRR form" or such ;) and harming recruitment and retainment efforts for the NMRA.

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Gordy's message just showed up in my e-bulletin form the NMRA. But my membership expired six days ago. I don't plan on renewing. I would have, but the negativity was too much. And it wasn't from the posters on the NMRA forum or social media.

You might remember my run-in with Lucy the NMRA social media manager. She started a personal page on facebook with a blue checkmark. It has NMRA as part of the custom web address (URL), and she had NMRA graphics on it as header photo, etc. It went as expected for a few months, but as soon as she got the checkmark, the political posts started in.

This was right before the Charlie Kirk assassination. Up to then she was posting her political opinions, some of of Mr. Kirk's religious org's activities that had strong political ties. There is a reason that most forums have the no politics nor religion rules. She wasn't following those norms, and was in a role where she should have known, and followed them as a communications professional.

When I and others questioned why she was posting stuff like that on what amounts to a "I'm a professional for this org" page, she started blocking everyone.

OK. I wrote a letter to the Board at the NMRA, ran it through Chat to make it polite and professional. As a comms person myself, I know I can get grumpy, so having the AI soften it up, keep it polite and professional was a good thing.

The reply I received from a board member was well... curt. I asked my AI assistant to characterize it after providing the Email exchange to the AI. Here's what it said about the response:

A masterpiece of institutional non-accountability dressed as professionalism. They deflected to contractor status, passed responsibility to the president, and used their closing sentence not to address the substance but to scold the sender for email etiquette — specifically for using blind copies. An organization more concerned with protecting itself than engaging with a legitimate member concern.

I agreed with that assessment. But I emailed the board member back pointing out I was talking about protecting the brand and trademarks of the NMRA.

And got a two sentence dismissal back. And the sentences were very short.

So, yep. I let my membership lapse.

Now I'm debating on sending another email, but to Gordy himself. One that says: the call is coming from inside the NMRA house. Let him know I would have stayed in, and probably tried to get to the show in Tennessee this summer.

Instead, I put the $$ toward paying Ray at the Around the Layout podcast to be a part of the patreon and support his efforts.

OK, rant over. I'm going to make popcorn and do some reading.
 
Sounds like they need to do some house cleaning. Put some folks in the ark and then flood the entire organization and start again. They also need to put some rules in for intellectual property so that folks cannot use their branding for personal use.
 


troyphoto said:
Well howdy there internet peeps and those who understand that karokee is best practiced alone in the shower.

It's Troy again.

Wife got her first watermelon of the season. Had to import it from Mexico. they're not growing here yet.

Evidently I missed some drama over on the NMRA forum. Or facebook page.

Seems that Prez Gordy made a post a few months ago about people being negative and highly opinionated calling out the "rank amateurs of the MRR form" or such ;) and harming recruitment and retainment efforts for the NMRA.

View attachment 265153

Gordy's message just showed up in my e-bulletin form the NMRA. But my membership expired six days ago. I don't plan on renewing. I would have, but the negativity was too much. And it wasn't from the posters on the NMRA forum or social media.

You might remember my run-in with Lucy the NMRA social media manager. She started a personal page on facebook with a blue checkmark. It has NMRA as part of the custom web address (URL), and she had NMRA graphics on it as header photo, etc. It went as expected for a few months, but as soon as she got the checkmark, the political posts started in.

This was right before the Charlie Kirk assassination. Up to then she was posting her political opinions, some of of Mr. Kirk's religious org's activities that had strong political ties. There is a reason that most forums have the no politics nor religion rules. She wasn't following those norms, and was in a role where she should have known, and followed them as a communications professional.

When I and others questioned why she was posting stuff like that on what amounts to a "I'm a professional for this org" page, she started blocking everyone.

OK. I wrote a letter to the Board at the NMRA, ran it through Chat to make it polite and professional. As a comms person myself, I know I can get grumpy, so having the AI soften it up, keep it polite and professional was a good thing.

The reply I received from a board member was well... curt. I asked my AI assistant to characterize it after providing the Email exchange to the AI. Here's what it said about the response:

A masterpiece of institutional non-accountability dressed as professionalism. They deflected to contractor status, passed responsibility to the president, and used their closing sentence not to address the substance but to scold the sender for email etiquette — specifically for using blind copies. An organization more concerned with protecting itself than engaging with a legitimate member concern.

I agreed with that assessment. But I emailed the board member back pointing out I was talking about protecting the brand and trademarks of the NMRA.

And got a two sentence dismissal back. And the sentences were very short.

So, yep. I let my membership lapse.

Now I'm debating on sending another email, but to Gordy himself. One that says: the call is coming from inside the NMRA house. Let him know I would have stayed in, and probably tried to get to the show in Tennessee this summer.

Instead, I put the $$ toward paying Ray at the Around the Layout podcast to be a part of the patreon and support his efforts.

OK, rant over. I'm going to make popcorn and do some reading.
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I'll let everyone know how it goes next week at the Pacific NW Region NMRA convention. I have never been an NMRA member, but wanted to attend an event just to see what it was like.

I quit the NRA several years ago after being a member for 18 years because of their BS. Even though the bad guys are now gone, the damage is done.
 
Haha, yeah, we shouldn't be called out. The hobby should be a fun place and not stiff.

I do appreciate standardization, such as the dcc protocols, wheel gauging, stuff like that, but not personal stuff like you can only run trains that were running in BumF@ck on 29 Feb, 1921 @ 1549 and be burned at the stake if you don't comply.
 
chadbag said:
This particular sign is in Itami on the border with Amagasaki right next to a Shinkansen viaduct and down the stream from an Izumiya store.

I don't doubt there are other similar signs -- maybe it was a chain. I'll ask the wife what it says.
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I asked the wife when I went downstairs. I 'm already back upstairs and forgot what she said but it was something about some sort of comfort system for your home or something so this was probably a local affiliate that installed such systems. (The big sign above the small Samantha sign). She couldn't really tell what the word/s above Samantha were from the pic on my phone...
 
Wierd weather. West side of town got a full 12" last night, and I would guess we had 6"-7" here. Nearly 3' in the Northern Rockies too. Badly needed.

I saw a prediction a while back that this might develop into a "Super El Nino" this year, which suggests a lot of water all summer. Crossing fingers--we are still way undersoaked, but it's getting better.

Limbs down all over the yard too, and I've got my work cut out for me and the electric chainsaw. And the polesaw.
 
If this is against policy, please delete.

I've mentioned before that I was laid off and out of work. It's now been 14 months, and while I've had a bunch of interviews, some through to the end, nothing has worked out. I've taken a class to enhance and expand my skills, have also worked on otehr short term courses, books, and other new skill learning, and have my side projects, including the DCC Throttle, to help me keep up on and enhance my skills. But right now, with AI the buzz and companies laying off, it's murder to try and get a job.

Our house is in foreclosure and we're at the end of the default period. I don't like to share my needs and struggles, but I finally set up a GoFundMe to help us get caught up with the bank to buy time for me to get a job. If this interests you at all I can share the link through a personal DM. Just DM me here and I can send you the link. Or search for "Chad 14 months out of work" on GoFundMe

I should have done this a month or two ago as we're actually out of time but it's a last ditch attempt.

If this is against forum policy, please delete.
 
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I learned just last night that Mike Danneman's Rio Grande N-scale Moffat Road layout has been dismantled. Dunno if he's even in this area anymore. A real shame, as I'd been angling toward an invite for quite a while. Even had a small gift for him which I think he would have got a chuckle or two out of.
 


Good evening gang!

It rained a good bit of the day until about 3 pm. Then the sun came out and was quite pleasant and dried out by 6 pm, so we got some play time in with the pups so they can sleep at night.

Troy, I see your point with the NMRA. I haven't been a member for a few years now . I am geographically situated in a "dead" division and too far from me to the west and east of me to join an active division. I was working on my MMR (I did receive my Author certificate) and probably could have completed several more certs toward the MMR. I recently started looking at them again, but then I have heard of several people who were steam rolled by this Lucy character. I've parked my interest for now, waiting on reports from some friends who are current members. Hopefully this will blow over soon. In the meantime I'll stay here, and play with my trains . I may re-join if a National Convention comes back to the central east coast, but nothing on the calendar yet.

An a lighter note, after a 2 year search, DIL #1 has landed a new job, at a significant pay bump from her previous position. Noone is happier than Son#2 (hubby) as he's been paying for everything the last 2 years. I really don't know how they have managed living in a D.C. suburb, where the monthly rent payment is double my mortgage, but somehow they managed.

C-Ya 2morrow!
 
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