• 0 Posts
  • 99 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 1st, 2023

help-circle
  • Okay but YouTube suggested videos are genuinely way worse than they used to be. I can’t even fall down rabbit holes anymore. Trying to “curate” the algorithm is like swimming against the current. I can try and try to get YouTube to recommend me live music, but even when I manage to find something, the next video is going to be either a video I already watched yesterday or Rick Beato’s daily rant about the top 40. Every time.

    I used to be able to spend hours just browsing, drifting from topic to topic. Now it’s like they’re trying to trap me in a loop of their most profitable videos



  • I had one geography and pre-algebra teacher in junior high that was like this. She practically refused to give out 100% on any assignment or test, and as far as I know no one ever could. She took the time to pick out any little flaw. Word misspelled? You lost points (granted, that’s fair for place names in geography). Handwriting not typewriter-perfect? You lost points. Didn’t quite erase something to her standards? You lost points. Didn’t format a handwritten page precisely as she defined (and she was extremely precise)? If you’re lucky you lost points, but she often threw those away with a zero. Used the wrong type of pencil? Allegedly she could tell if it wasn’t written with a #2 pencil, and would throw the it away if it wasn’t. The best grade I got in either of those classes was 99.5%. What did I miss? One of my 'i’s had the dot slightly touching the rest of the letter. Real Umbridge character personality-wise too, more than anyone I ever met.

    All this allegedly to prepare for college. So it was a shocker when I got there find out that I could straight up get 2/10 correct on a calculus test but still be graded at 80% because (read this in a slavic accent) “you made mistakes in algebra, but you know your calculus”. Go figure




  • If I need it now, I’ll go to any major auto parts store. They’re all decent imo, so whatever’s closest, but if you put a gun to my head and told me to pick I’d probably go O’Reilly’s. If I can wait for shipping and I need a few things at once, I’ll do rockauto, and for anything harder to find I do eBay, maybe Amazon but they suck so I avoid them if I can. And occasionally I’ll go to a third party site if it’s the only place I can find something.

    I don’t have firsthand experience but I’ve been meaning to swing by the local parts yard to see if I can find hatch mat and other bits and pieces.










  • There is no such thing as good winter drivers and bad winter drivers. There is only those with snow tires and those without.

    I don’t agree with that. Good tools are useless in the hands of the ignorant. Somebody can have the best winter tires ever engineered, but if they stop and turn on ice like they would do on perfect pavement on the dryest summer days, then they’re fucked and they’re a cocky jackass. A good driver will know the limits of their tires, whatever they are.

    True, it follows that having this knowledge will generally convince good drivers to get better tires, but it’s not like buying fancy new rubber will turn you into Ken Block (rip).

    TL;DR: Get the winter tires, they’re great and worth it. But PLEASE for the love of god take the time to learn how to fucking drive on snow and ice or you’ll be stuck in the medium with the rest of them, because even with the best winter tires it’s NOT the same physics



  • For driving: If there’s snow on the ground and you’re in a safe place to do this, get up to 5 mph or so and slam on the brakes. That’ll give you a good feel for your much traction you have. Of course, conditions vary, so don’t sue me if you had grip on your home street but not the freeway. Other than that, keep acceleration to a minimum, and I mean that in any direction. Ease on the gas, ease on the brake, slow down BEFORE you need to turn, and turn easy. Be calm, a panicked reaction to a slide can make it worse. Abs and traction control can save your ass, but they’re emergency systems. If they are activating frequently, SLOW THE FUCK DOWN.

    Driving aside, nice winter clothes are great, but how you wear them is much more important in my experience. Keep body heat in and cold wind out. Assuming that your clothes actually fit, the best, free way to do this is to simply tuck your shirt into your pants, and if you have them, coat sleeves over your gloves and neck gaiter into your coat. You lose so much heat in those areas, by addressing them you can be out many degrees colder before you need another layer. However, if you’re physically exerting yourself in the cold, don’t let yourself sweat, because as soon as you stop that shit will freeze. Be mindful of when you start getting warm and be prepared to untuck clothes, open vents, or remove layers.

    Finally, and you should be doing this anyway but people forget in winter, drink plenty of water.