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Previa_fun posted:First tornado watch of the year. Y'all be slackin... we didn't even get out of January without two confirmed tornadoes touching down within DFW (a total of 6 for the region in that single event) Weather has been loving nuts so far this year, I'm kinda scared of what April and May are going to bring in terms of storms.
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Mar 1, 2017 11:03
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Wrar posted:Avocados are awesome. One of the things I miss from living in FL was making awesome guac with my Dad and eating it by the pound. Wrar posted:Avocados are awesome. One of the things I miss from living in FL was making awesome guac with my Dad and eating it by the pound. Sliced avocados are just fine on a taco pizza. But that's if you use a good homemade salsa as the base, and mixed cheeses, ground beef, green onions, jalapenos, and diced tomatoes as the toppings. And don't put the avocados on until it's cooked.
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Mar 2, 2017 20:05
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Darchangel posted:I have an HR complaint from someone in our host company. Not only that, but it's apparewntly my second complaint Admit it, you told them to do the needful, didn't you? cakesmith handyman posted:I found out today one of my co-workers thinks rice is a sort of pasta. I'm still not entirely sure he wasn't just trolling. Maybe he's thinking of orzo, which is sort of rice shaped? Coredump posted:drat both of you destroyed my hypothesis. In my experience people who like dark meat like well done steak and sweet potato pie. And then people who like rare/medium rare steak prefer white meat chicken and pumpkin pie. Medium here as well for steak, medium well for burgers (I spent enough time in a meat department to know just how disgusting ground beef can be). Chicken: white meat only (same w/turkey). Can't do dark meat. Pie: pumpkin pie with a ton of whipped cream on top. I can't do sweet potato anything. Just keep the insulin nearby. mariooncrack posted:Good luck. Cable companies are notorious for that kind of thing. Chances are, they'd erase the $70 service call and add on another $20 service call for calling them about their gently caress up. In addition to locking you into a new contract without telling you... then extending it every loving time you call. The Locator posted:What you just described is called a tostada. Not a pizza. NO SIR. A tostada has refried beans as the base, lettuce, tomato, maybe beef or chicken, and cotija cheese sprinkled on top (cheddar if you're in a place that has a bit of a gringo crowd).  (and comes on a crispy fried corn tortilla... not pizza dough). Some places include guacamole and/or sour cream on them; I'm all about guac, but keep the sour cream away from me.fridge corn posted:i shave wirh a Gillette fusion blade that i change maybe once a year lol Jesus Christ. If I use those they're DONE after 4 or 5 shaves - they just start ripping and cutting my face. I just use body clippers with no guard on my face. gently caress actually shaving. I don't have to impress anyone, I just knock it all down when it gets itchy. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Mar 3, 2017 |
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Mar 3, 2017 07:18
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Darchangel posted:That's the hell of it - I don't know what I did, or to whom. Or, more accurately, which I did or they thought I did. Sounds so much like amazon. They let go of us at the drop of a hat, tell you the dates that the "infractions" occurred, and if you wish to appeal, you have to give reasons for why those infractions occurred. Also, it's all done from overseas via email. The people who actually terminate you are the warehouse managers, but they won't ever tell you they're terminate you (they'll sure as gently caress threaten it multiple times a day though), and they can't reinstate anyone. There's been a lot of people terminated even if they weren't working that day. And if you do get axed, they won't tell you anything except "customer reported not receiving a package, what do you have to say for yourself" when you may have delivered 100 packages that day, and won't tell you even what city it happened in. Just the date, if you're lucky. Or sometimes "a customer reported you were rude during the week of <x>, you are now terminated. If you wish to appeal, please explain why you were rude to this specific customer, but we refuse to tell you what day this happened on". Lately they've taken to terminating people because their cars aren't big enough to fit routes that wouldn't fit in a full size cargo van. For the division I work for, all they require is an enclosed vehicle with 4 wheels. For logistics, they want a "mid size 4 door sedan or larger", but give a Honda Civic as an example. My car isn't a sedan, but it does have 4 doors, and it's bigger than some Civics they never said what year Civic, it's definitely larger than an EK. I gave up arguing and just pile poo poo up to the ceiling, and make drat sure I take pictures of my lack of rearward and side vision. I've been talking to their internal HR about the dispatchers in my warehouse, and they're... very unhappy (and even getting ahold of them took over a week of fighting with our India-based "driver support" who kept sending form letters that had nothing to do with what I was trying to convey.. it took an email to Bezos to get HR to contact me). It's a goddamned shitshow, and it's so loving tempting to just add "Please do the needful" to the end of every email interaction I have with driver support now. Instead I add "Please escalate this to a human that's authorized to do more than reply with a generic form letter" (which still gets a generic form letter most of the time; usually I don't get a reply, only once have I received a followup). Dealing with them as a customer is just as bad these days (same people handle email and chat customer service). The warehouse managers are now threatening to terminate people if they take too long delivering a route, during rush hour. Doesn't matter if everything is delivered on time, if you're 1 minute late getting back to the warehouse for your next route, you get a guy in your face screaming at you and bumping up against your chest trying to provoke a physical response. They have signs all over the place stating "AUDIO AND VIDEO RECORDING IN PROGRESS", which seems like 2 party consent for me to keep my phone in my shirt pocket recording everything with them (1 party consent state, but still) (none of their cameras cover the driver waiting area). They also threaten to fire you if you don't run the entire way to your car. None of this poo poo is even in our contracts. The main manager guilty of this turns purple when you refuse to back up (when he's chest to chest with you) and just speak calmly like a rational adult. When I get really pissed, I get a very low volume monotone voice and hold my hands behind my back, even though at that point the veins are about to pop out of my face. e: they treat W2 employees similarly. I think my blood pressure just skyrocketed 50 points just typing this. Liquid Communism posted:Ban and a 30 day. Nothing wrong with that. Don't they have the ability to do a 999 or 9999 day?  KozmoNaut posted:Shaving? I bought a $30 trimmer 3 years ago, and maintain a manly beard I have this guy (which, holy poo poo, I've now owned 4 years... I didn't think it'd been that long). If I let it go too long, then I'll have to knock it back a bit with actual hair clippers first, but I generally run that over my face without a guard, and crank the guard up as high as it goes for my little chin goatee thing. I do'nt exactly have to look professional at work, so long as I don't look homeless. If I have to interview for something, or go to a wedding, or a funeral, etc, then I'll actually shave. But I might shave for real a few times a year. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 10:37 on Mar 4, 2017 |
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Mar 4, 2017 10:06
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So So they sent me the contract and asked that I "sign and return immediately". So I read it.... I have to pay for my own background check. Oh... kay. I've had to do that a couple of times with these companies, not a fan, but whatever, one of them panned out decently. I even had a staffing company try to make me pay for my own drug test once though, NOPE. I have to submit to a drug test, and it can only be done at a facility of their choosing, AND I have to pay for it.  Their car requirements are "model year 2000 or newer, with at least 4 seats, and working air conditioning". I'm good on that front, my car left the factory with a total of 4 seats (this would be parcel delivery anyway though, and my passenger seat is currently out of the car because of the loving dispatchers at Amazon). Under that, "vehicle must have and maintain under 100,000 miles for the duration of our relationship". Wait, what? I have a friend with a 2009 with over 315k. My 2006 has almost 170k. Good loving luck there. "This contract is valid for one week of our relationship" - there are no provisions for extension. Hahahhaha no. "<company> does not provide any form of insurance, including liability or contents, including for client contents" AHAHAHAHA gently caress NO I'VE NEVER SEEN A DELIVERY COMPANY NOT PROVIDE AT LEAST INSURANCE ON WHAT I'M TRANSPORTING NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE "Drivers must drive vehicles with no visible damage of any kind, interior or exterior" hahahahahhaaha oh god I drive a GM, any GM more than a couple of years old is shedding paint, and my carpet on the drivers side has holes worn from there my heels rest (while on the gas and while my left foot is looking for something to do) "Drivers must submit current interior and exterior photos of their vehicles". Exterior photos I get. Interior? If I was expected to pick up people, I would expect that. But for packages? Who the gently caress cares what the inside of the car looks like so long as there's no roaches running around? "Drivers must wear all black" wow that sounds like a uniform to me, which is a bit against the whole "independent contractor" bit. I can understand "dress professionally", but "dress in all black" is blurring the whole employee vs contractor bit. "If items are damaged in transit, contractor must repay the cost of the item via payroll deduction, cash, or PayPal" wait paypal or cash wtf Also they apparently only pay via paypal The coupe de grace? Binding arbitration that you cannot opt out of. I needed a good laugh. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 11:49 on Mar 4, 2017 |
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Mar 4, 2017 11:44
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nm posted:I wanna know who. I'm guessing that uber delivery service? No. Uber's been sued too many times to pull that poo poo. It's a company called Deliv. The contract contradicts itself in a few different ways too.  I didn't sign it, but I have a copy of it.
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Mar 5, 2017 06:27
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Goddamnit. Usually I'm going to bed about now. Went to bed at 11 last night, with hopes of waking up around 6. Nope, body said gently caress you, we're getting up at 4. Powershift posted:You say that, but they keep doing piles of illegal poo poo. Oh I know, but they're not as blatantly obvious about it. I still work with Uber occasionally (but on the package and Eats side). I only work for them once or twice a week though, and only to make  here and there. I stay active enough that I qualify for instant pay, so if I need gas money, I'll sign in long enough to make enough to top off my tank, then cash out - they do a reverse debit to my debit card, takes about 15 seconds for the money to appear in my account.Made $20 in about 45 minutes with them last night. That's all I really wanted to make - I have a little over half a tank of gas, that'll top it off for today's work with Amazon. Supposedly they've (Amazon) removed our daily and weekly caps for the time being (8 hrs a day/40 hrs a week), gonna try to work 10-12 hours today. Even went so far as to pack a lunch, something I never do. Applebees Appetizer posted:After owning a condo then owning a house I can honestly say gently caress condos they suck. It seems like condos tend to be cheaper to rent vs an equivalent apartment around here, generally with the owner (not tenant) paying the HOA fees. It also seems like banks won't finance the purchase of a condo here unless the entire condo property is mostly owner-occupied. There's a lot that are almost all rentals, but those tend to be the really crappy ones. Supposedly (according to maintenance) the place I live now was originally condos, converted into apartments a long time ago. Explains why it was a decently nice place when it was built.
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Mar 5, 2017 11:12
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So I finally got to a real doctor. This insurance poo poo in the past year has made it impossible for me to afford regular medical care, and pretty much nobody but low income clinics run by nurse practitioners accept my insurance within a good 15 miles (I drove 35 miles to see this doctor today). Plus two ER trips this year for bad anxiety that had me thinking heart issues. My insurance is poo poo and almost nobody takes it... the nearest hospital that takes it is 15 miles away.  Friend of mine recommended the clinic she goes to. I called them, and they have one doctor on staff that takes my insurance (who happens to own the place). Went in today. Super nice doctor, really great to deal with, and all of the staff was great. I never knew you could do a lipid panel via a finger prick and a glass tube. Turns out my LDL is high (as I expected). They did an A1C, and my A1C is firmly at "not even close to diabetic stage" (5.3) (when I was diagnosed, it was over 8). They did a blood draw too, for the typical CBC, but also for liver function - I expressed concern about the statin he was going to put me on, so he ordered a liver test as part of the bloodwork. He also said he'd bill all of the bloodwork under a yearly wellness checkup, so that I wouldn't have to pay anything. Since I already have documented diabetes and high blood pressure, it's a non-issue to bill the bloodwork that way. So.. removed one beetus med. Added a cholesterol md. 1 month supply of 4 meds (1 beetus, 2 blood pressure, 1 cholesterol) was less than  . Walked out of the dr's office without paying a penny, with a followup in 6 months (assuming they don't see anything alarming in the bloodwork).Ephphatha posted:DashCommand? Looks nice apart from the absurd permissions requirements (contacts, identity?). Probably gonna give that a miss unless they update it for on-demand permissions. If you're on Android 6 or 7, you can disable individual permissions after the app is installed. I assume they use identity if you actually buy the app - to verify it's being used on a phone using the same identity. Palmer Performance (the company behind DashCommand) is old school as hell too. Remember ScanXL? That's them. NitroSpazzz posted:I'm think Carmax will do the same thing, buy it not requiring you to buy one of theirs. Might be worth looking at to see how the offers compare if you haven't already. FWIW, Carmax gave me a very fair deal on my old car - I was planning on selling it PP for $1500, with wiggle room down to $1000 (paint was rough, 2 body panels rough from being t-boned while parked, front bumper damage, rattling timing chain, dying ac compressor, but a clean interior, new clutch, and transaxle was recently replaced). They gave me $1200 for it, and I knew from the start it'd be going to auction (running the VIN a few months later confirmed that it went to auction). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Mar 7, 2017 |
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Mar 7, 2017 08:05
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So this isn't someone I know very well, but it's someone my old roommate tried to hook me up with. We had talked a bit, and always wanted to meet eventually. He got drugged (supposedly GHB, but must have been a very bad batch, as his kidneys have called it quits) and raped. He's been in the hospital for several days now, and it's really touch and go at this point. In semi happier news... had to lay into the brakes pretty hard today and heard that lovely GRIIIIIIIIND (and felt it in the pedal). The pads up front had at least 60k on them, and were $7 clearance pads from Rockauto 3 years ago (still ceramic, at least). Went ahead and ordered new ceramic pads online using a coupon from Advance for in-store pickup while between deliveries, and picked them up after work.  I think I got my money's worth out of those $7 pads.  One of them had a rivet just starting to make itself visible, but there were no grooves in the rotors that I could catch with a fingernail, so I caught them just in time. One pad crumbled once removed (the friction surface, that is). I also had 2 neighbors that I'd seen around before, but never talked to, offer me flashlights while I was doing my patented pad slap. The parking lot lighting was enough on the driver's side, and I was able to do the passenger side by feel alone. Bedded them in a bit going up and down my street, and drat near ate the steering wheel once they started grabbing. I think I'm gonna like these a lot better than the $7 NASCAR!!!! branded pads I had (rebranded Raybestos service grade).60k out of the old pads. The pads I put on tonight are the same ones I put on my mom's car (CarQuest Wearever Gold Ceramic); if you so much as look at the brake pedal funny in her car, you bottom out the front suspension and take a bite out of the dash, and you make drat sure you like it. I think I may have a little air in my lines, as it takes a bit more pedal travel to get the same effect in my car.. but I can definitely get the same effect. Front suspension almost bottoms out and my teeth come dangerously close to the steering wheel if I lay into them. This is how brakes SHOULD be. What's kinda funny is when I called my local Advance to see if they had these pads in stock, they said they did, but suggested I go with the "professional" line, as "the pro line includes new shims". Guess what was in the box with these? The weird clicking I've had for several months while braking is gone now too. The last set didn't come with the shims, so I just reused the old ones. Guess they were moving around a bit. fridge corn posted:i once had a nightmare where I went down into the basement and the whole place was flooded and the shark from jaws was there and also a raptor from jurassic park and also the terminator and the whole place was on fire like in the film backdraft I've had a recurring nightmare for ages where I'm caught in the middle of a nasty thunderstorm, start running for shelter, and get hit by lightning, making me explode like a squirrel that touches two wires on a power pole. Always wake up immediately after that with my entire body tingling. wallaka posted:The first movie I remember seeing was a Song of the South in 1986. The first one I remember seeing in a theater is one of the Star Wars movies. I couldn't tell you which one without watching them again. IOwnCalculus posted:I think my first R was a Kazaa download of The Matrix. Up until now, I thought we were at least somewhat close in age... kiddo. totalnewbie posted:A counterfeit spark plug came in to the office today. Looked pretty good at first glance. Only some really small details gave it away. Well, that and throwing it in the xray machine, but who's got one of those at home? Welp that rules out Amazon, thanks to their "oh same SKU from multiple resellers? no prob, let's just mix all of them!". I need to do plugs again sometime this year... I think the owner's manual suggests every 80k? I'm sitting around 70k on these, which are the AC Delco model # that supersedes the original plug part number. totalnewbie, you're probably the one to ask about this. Do 4 wire (assuming narrowband, as the emissions sticker states O2 instead of A/F, but it's a 4 wire) O2 sensors eventually wear out, or do they just quit working, or does the ECU just compensate over time? My mileage is still decent, oil consumption is basically nil (I'm pretty sure most of the 1.5 quarts I lose between 8-9k oil changes is from the valve cover gasket), but I'm coming up on 170k on the original sensors. IOwnCalculus posted:I'm That Guy at work who bangs away on a Model M for eight hours a day. A few of the key caps are getting smooth but the mechanism is as tight (and loud) as ever. At my very first real job - a job doing tech support for credit card terminals in the late 90s - I managed to talk them into getting me a Model M. That didn't last very long. My typing speed even back then was approaching 100 WPM, and it could be heard through the entire NOC and in the hallway outside of the NOC. Did I mention the credit card tech support and the internal helpdesk (I was in both queues, but primarily internal) people were inside the NOC? These days, well, I'm clumsy as poo poo, so I just buy a new Logitech K120 anytime I spill another drink on it. You can usually find them for if you look hard enough.
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Mar 8, 2017 |
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Mar 8, 2017 10:33
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totalnewbie posted:Because we're a large manufacturer, we run into counterfeits not uncommonly so we have a rep at Amazon who will help us take care of this stuff. Our Aftermarket VP gave them a call and I assume took care of that particular storefront, but there's bound to be others out there. Amazon is still famous for mixing anything with the same SKU, no matter who sells it (because nobody would ever produce a counterfeit product and slap the same barcode on it  ). They've gotten better about it, but it's still a frequent occurrence with them, despite claims to the contrary.Mom's car does use a 4 wire Denso, and the sticker under the hood states it uses an A/F sensor instead of O2 sensor. No idea who the OEM is for mine (GM), but if it helps, NTK 21546 is a direct replacement. I assume NTK or Denso is the OEM. I do have one sensor giving a code, but the wires going to it were nibbled on by rodents. It's just unplugged for now as it kept popping the emissions fuse (it's the post-cat sensor) until I can afford a new one.
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Mar 8, 2017 20:05
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Metal Geir Skogul posted:I have a budget of 2 grand, looking for a commuter car in Phoenix. Have a few options so far: Don't even look at a Trooper, they're nowhere near as reliable as anything else you listed. You know the CRV decently (and a 2000 will still be the B20 you're used to), the LS400 is a tank. On the Crown Vic, look for weeping coolant around the thermostat housing, and check the ECU for lean codes (and if possible, look at the fuel trims). I don't know if they'd fixed the intake manifold issues by then, but the intake is prone to cracking on the mod motors. When it cracks you get coolant seepage and start getting lean codes (and some crazy fuel trims). Dorman makes a good replacement manifold that addresses all of those issues. Personally, I'd probably go for the Vic, simply because the domestic depreciation curve means you get a much newer car for the same money. And if you're looking at former law enforcement cars, if you can find out the history, a detective or highway patrol car will be the best bet. Seminal Flu posted:Also -- Amazon is down again, this time affecting the storefront. I don't think this cloud thing is working out so well. Goddamnit. No wonder I couldn't get any hours before 6pm today. totalnewbie posted:I'm not too familiar with Toyota's strategy, but I think they end up using the 1-cell wide-range both up and downstream. 2006 model year, June 2005 build date. Ecotec 2.2 (L61), specifically in the Saturn Ion, though I don't think that makes much of a difference - I think all of the L61 engines for that model year were the same except for the version in the HHR (which added flex fuel capability, but AFAIK that's just an ethanol sensor in the tank and a different tune, and probably some fuel system parts to handle the extra corrosiveness of E85). I'm pretty sure it has NTK or Denso on it. The Boschs I've seen looked a bit different, anyway (seemed like they had a thicker body).. Still runs great at nearly 170k, still gets close to advertised mileage even when driven in anger. BraveUlysses posted:It's also insane to assume that poors are buying 800 dollar phones instead of a used one. What those shitlords fail to include is that in most states, a home is not considered inhabitable without a working refrigerator. Or kitchen sink. Or hot water. I'm a poor if you go by my net income after all the deductions I took, and I own 2 fridges.. plus the one that came with the apartment. Granted, one of those is my old dorm fridge, and another is a broken one I found in a dumpster that I fixed (thermostat was bad). Meant to sell it, never got around to it. Been sitting a few years now, but I plugged it in last year and it still worked fine. My old dorm fridge is basically a snack fridge next to my desk at this point, until I can Anyone in DFW need a mini fridge? fridge corn posted:man loads of posts itt, i was expecting a meltdown but... 😔 Don't worry, it's been awhile since I had one.. I'm overdue. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Mar 9, 2017 |
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Mar 9, 2017 09:06
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So I normally try to stick close to the speed limit, and/or go with traffic. I was running really late getting back to the warehouse from a delivery. I hopped into a TEXpress lane (normally I do everything possible to avoid tolls, but when I got on, traffic was at a standstill) Most TEXpress lanes here have a 75 MPH limit. I was doing a little over 80 (NOBODY in the express lane) when.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIavYKAaV8I  He never went after me... and when I looked at the dashcam video tonight to pull that clip, I noticed I had passed a 65 mph express lane speed limit sign. So... blew past doing 15 over.  I could have sworn those were binoculars he was holding, but a LEO friend assures me they now make LIDAR units that look exactly like binoculars. I was positive I was about to get a ticket. I guess he was in a good mood; traffic on the actual highway had just started to get moving again, but I saw him looking right at me briefly. Thankful I didn't get a ticket, and I'm definitely slowing down a bit.Junkyard run coming up this afternoon. A coworker's 2009 Malibu (with 320k, that's pretty drat impressive for an 09.. moreso for a Malibu) needs that little rubber boot that goes between the final intake resonator and throttle body. Hers is torn. The only way to get it from GM is to order the entire loving air intake assembly - from the airbox to the throttle body - for well over $200. I'm going to go looking for a new clutch pedal for my car as well - my clutch has gotten to where I have to shut off the engine when the car is stopped so I can get it into first, then start it when I need to move again. The rod from the pedal to the master cylinder no longer moves until the pedal is almost to the firewall. Completely random, but monsterzero posted:Dishwashers are the worst. I feel like everyone I know replaced a 20-year old washer and are now on their second new one in three years. I looked up the dishwasher (lowest end 2016 GE model) that my landlord put in. MSRP on it was less than $300, and I'm sure they have some bulk price setup since this company owns a ton of properties. And I suspect the one it replaced (lowest end mid 90s Hotpoint model, so pretty much the same thing, except the new one uses a little less power and water) ran about the same. Personally, I'm glad they put in a low end one. I would have prefered the low db version (which my last apartment had installed - so much quieter, but essentially the same model with a bit more sound proofing), but if it breaks, it'll be easy to fix. The Locator posted:Only one problem with that as a commuter - I hope you like driving at the speed limit or slightly below. In the past few years, I've seen exactly one P71 still in active service. Watched it sneak up on someone and pop them for speeding. Metal Geir Skogul posted:
I'd suggest cleaning the throttle body before anything else, but I don't quite know how Ford does their DBW poo poo. I know the idle on my GM gets really wonky if I don't clean the throttle body every couple of years - bogs way down when the ac kicks on (almost stalls before recovering), sometimes the idle will bounce a little, etc. And yeah... like others said, coils are a known issue on Ford mod motors. A dirty MAF will gently caress with them too. But RWD V8 couch on wheels with working ac for under $2k? Yes please!
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Mar 10, 2017 11:12
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The Locator posted:Still a fair number of them around here in service, both marked and unmarked. I know the State Troopers still have a good number (one of them parked about 6 houses down from me until about 3 months ago, but he has an SUV now). More importantly everyone has lived with them as police cars for so drat long that it will take a while for people to not assume a Crown Vic is a cop. Now of course, it's mostly Ford Explorers and Tahoes depending on the department, and everyone is getting paranoid of SUV's behind them, although the Sheriff's department here has a lot of Chargers. I've seen some staties driving them, but by and large, TX state troopers have moved to Tahoes. Most of the cities have moved to a mix of Chargers, Explorers, and Tahoes, with a few of the Holden-based police interceptors. The city I'm in has all of the above; I've asked a few cops about them, and they all prefer the Tahoes. They say they have the best compromise of space and power, and tend to be reliable, with the Chargers being the least reliable.
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Mar 10, 2017 15:27
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So the friend that died a few weeks ago.. his dad told me today they think he had a heart attack. Autopsy is still pending of course, but heart issues run in their family, and I remember him telling me he had been diagnosed with high blood pressure but didn't want to take meds. 37 years old.  e: welp, not even an hour later the person who found him got ahold of me.. he was found with a needle in his arm. Damnit. Enourmo posted:FHP is what everyone I know calls em, no real special name for them. I dunno, Michigan has a pretty classic look  beep-beep car is go posted:What do you guys call the State Police? Most people in Texas call them state troopers, but I'll use the term staties occasionally. Which confuses the poo poo out of a lot of Texans. Highway patrol is sometimes used, but they have jurisdiction state-wide, and on parts of the Dallas North Tollway, they're the only officers who have jurisdiction of any kind. They're also part of DPS, so just saying DPS will get the point across too. Clear as mud, right? randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Mar 11, 2017 |
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Mar 11, 2017 05:02
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LloydDobler posted:Man, sometimes product research really gets me down. I hate buying something when I assume it can do what I think it can, only to find out later that it can't. I just bought a home theater receiver with multiple inputs and one HDMI output, only to learn that it doesn't convert analog video to digital. This is the first time I've bought a receiver in 22 years but still, how much research should someone have to do? I spent a considerable amount of time settling on the unit I did. On the other hand, I really didn't want to spend more than what I did, so I'm out of luck anyway. I've learned that receivers that can A to D are much more expensive. I learned this the same way about 5 years ago. 4 HDMI inputs, a few analog (composite and component), 1 HDMI output, 1 component output, 1 composite output. Doesn't convert between any of them. The higher end models from the same brand (Onkyo) do, but this was a low end one. But.. I already have a digital audio connection from the TV to the receiver (optical) for when I actually watch OTA TV, and the TV has its fair share of inputs. Not ideal, but at least I can still hook up my NES and Dreamcast.. just has to be to the TV instead, but still get audio from the receiver.
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Mar 13, 2017 03:56
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So the friend that died a few weeks ago... his dad reached out to a bunch of his friends locally and asked if they wanted to have dinner before he left TX for good. Having dinner tonight with him and a few other friends. He's bringing his son's ashes though, that's going to be.... awkward. Darchangel posted:So, my wife is taking a photography course as an elective at college, and has decided she'd like a nice camera. She's using the school's Canon EOS Rebel, T5, I think, may be T4. You can't really go wrong with Canon or Nikon. But one thing to be wary of with Nikon - their lower end bodies don't have the focus motor in the body. And their AF series lenses... don't have a focus motor in the lens, they rely on the focus motor in the body (so they're essentially manual focus on a body that doesn't have the motor). If she goes Nikon and winds up with a D5xxx or lower, she'd need an AF-S lens (which does have the focus motor) if she wants autofocus to be a thing. That's one thing you don't have to worry about with Canon I have a D5100 myself, and the only lens I ever use is a 35mm f/1.8. Think I paid $100 for the lens and $350 for the body (both used, both years ago - the 5100 is as low as $200 now depending where you look, and it's still a solid entry level body if you can make do with only 16.2 MP). I think the current version is the D5500? It still has manual controls for everything, or you can just go newb and leave everything in auto. ISO 6400 on mine is still pretty clear, and with this lens, fast enough that I can often shoot handheld at night. What's kinda nice about the 5100 in particular is it has a flip out LCD, so if you're trying to shoot something while holding the camera way up in the air, you can turn on live preview mode and aim the LCD down. I don't know how long they kept that feature - 5200 has it, don't know about others, but I think it was exclusive to the 5xxx series. keh.com is an excellent place for used camera gear. also, what totalnewbie said about Canon stuff. The Rebel line is a good beginner's camera, but I'd compare it to Nikon's D3xxxx line. The Door Frame posted:Beginner stuff isn't too expensive, and a beginner only needs 3 cheap lenses for their camera and they'll be able to shoot basically anything I have a kit lens from another body, but haven't touched it more than a couple of times (come to think of it, I haven't seen it since I moved). For #2, the 50mm 1.8 is probably the most popular option for Canon and Nikon. It's sharp as hell, fast, and cheap. I personally prefer the 35mm 1.8 I have now, more because I don't have to step back as far. It's about as sharp as the 50mm I had before, and a 35mm AF-S was cheaper [locally, on Craigslist] than a 50mm AF-S when I switched to my D5100 (which lacks the autofocus motor.. AF-S puts a motor in the lens - I used a 50mm AF when I used my D70S). I never got around to getting a telephoto. My own opinion is a prime lens forces you to put a bit more thought into composing your image. Granted, with the 20+ megapixel cameras out there now, you can always just crop if you wind up too far back, but you still have to position yourself to frame the shot, instead of just zooming in or out. They also tend to be very sharp, and relatively cheap. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Mar 13, 2017 |
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Mar 13, 2017 22:38
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Rhyno posted:I read about a woman who snuck her dead husband's ashes into a meal she had prepared for their family. We're going to a fairly nice restaurant, so.... hopefully that doesn't happen. On my way out the door now though. Goddamn traffic is gonna SUCK getting there.
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Mar 14, 2017 00:04
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Welp... went to dinner with dead friend's dad, and dead friend's urn full of ashes, plus some friends. His dad confirmed to me that he did die of an overdose.  He didn't specify what drug, but did say needles were involved, and when I asked if Narcan would have helped, he said "absolutely" (his dad is no stranger to drugs himself, but never got into needles), so yeah, opiate OD. Never even knew he got into them, but I have some pretty strong feelings on IV drug use, and opiates in particular, so he probably kept that info from me. His dad said my friend had been struggling for a few years now. His dad got to turn in my friend's Mustang.. 2015 or 2016 5.0. He said he made drat sure the tires were as bald as possible while still holding air on the way to turn it in, so at least his car got one final proper thrashing.  Darchangel posted:Hmm. How does that compare? I can see it's 10 years old or so. I glanced at some specs and reviews, but only briefly at the moment. How is lense availability/compatibility. I know some of you prefer the motor to be in the lense or on the body for AF - I forget which was deemed to be more desireable vs. price. Minolta lenses will work fine on the Sony alpha series of cameras - they're "DSLR" in most ways, but no mirror, and quite a bit more compact than a regular DSLR. And Minolta lenses are pretty cheap. And yeah, everything except the highest end stuff should have a full auto mode, also a "programmed auto" mode where it still respects some settings (ISO, white balance, etc). Then there's stuff like "aperture priority", "shutter priority", etc where there's still a little bit of automatic stuff going on - aperture priority keeps the shutter speed automatic, but keeps whatever aperture (f/stop) you've set for proper exposure, while shutter priority is the opposite. Canon uses slightly different terms, but it's the same thing. I generally shoot in aperture priority, autofocus on, with manual ISO. I don't bother with white balance settings since I shoot in RAW (NEF on Nikon) anyway; the file is just the raw, unprocessed image. GnarlyCharlie4u posted:I actually got my wife's family's tax guy to do our taxes for free. I had already done our taxes and he said if he can't beat my number then he won't charge me. My dad is a CPA. I usually have him give my taxes a once over, but so far Turbotax has been pretty good. But up until last year, my taxes have been dead simple. You can always buy pigtail connectors on Amazon and eBay. When I reverted back to stock-style bulbs for my fogs (from my lovely HIDZZZZ kit), I spliced in new pigtails that I picked up from Amazon for a few bucks. If they're all the same style bulb, you can buy a 10 pack. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Mar 14, 2017 |
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Mar 14, 2017 06:48
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The Royal Nonesuch posted:That's largely true, but there's something about actually working with film and learning what the terminology really means outside of an Adobe menu that is incredibly useful, satisfying, and can help with more intuitively navigating Photoshop/Lightroom. I've taken college credit photography classes.... one of which was long ago enough (2002) that it required a specific model of full manual SLR 35mm (I believe Pentax, actually), and learning how to use the campus darkroom (that darkroom is now a closet).That camera had NOTHING automatic; it had a light meter, and that was it - everything else was up to you. The other classes were a bit more recent (2011), and were 100% digital, though the instructor did take us to some presentations by some famous photographers who always shot film. But the first (of 2) classes required that we present all of our work in B&W, and required at least an entry level DSLR. Had to learn how to mount prints as well, which even then, I think was a dying art. So many people didn't see the point, while I still have most of my (mounted) prints from that class. scrubs season six posted:I have some experience with this situation. A guy I used to commute to work with at my old job got his taxes done by one of the major nationwide tax preparers (by an actual human, not a software). I'm kind of in the opposite boat. For the longest time, I thought I couldn't deduct mileage to and from work. This is true for the great majority of people. And if I had one job (or in my case, one contract), with a single work site, that would still be the case. So I wasn't tracking commute miles. However, even with my main contract (Amazon), there's one of 8 locations I can be sent to. I also work for Uber Eats and GrubHub. My father is a CPA, and based on what I told him recently, he told me I can absolutely deduct all commute miles for work, since I don't have a set pickup location, so long as I'm not going out of my way to, say, go to a restaurant on the way, or go way out of my way to do grocery shopping on the way home (I do pick up groceries on the way home occasionally, but it's literally on the way home.. as in no extra miles, I pass by the grocery store once I get off at my exit, so I might add 1/10 of a mile driving through the parking lot - my odometer doesn't show tenths anyway, and my mileage tracking app generally combines short trips into one long one - but it does keep a GPS track available online). A coworker has a parent that's also a CPA, and kept telling me I could deduct commute miles. I didn't listen to him, as my dad had told me so long as I had a single job, I couldn't do that... but once I explained the nature of the whole multiple start locations to him recently, he quickly changed his tune and told me I absolutely need to track every mile. I haven't filed yet, so I could go back and add on the estimated commute miles (one way; I didn't track where I was when I dropped my last package), and probably cut my taxes in half (if not better) - I know the exact distance from home to the warehouse I normally worked out of, but I didn't keep track of which location I started at each day, nor did I keep track of how far it was from home from my last dropoff. And I could probably get away with it. But going back and guesstimating the mileage, every day, and going back and editing the daily mileage entries in Quickbooks Self-Employed, then doctoring all the mileage spreadsheets I used for tracking (one per month)...... it's almost worth paying the $800 just so I don't have to gently caress with spending a few weeks doing that, and for not having to worry as much about an audit.I figured for consistency's sake, I'd start tracking commute miles on Jan 1st, and I'd also start using automatic mileage tracking software. I just swipe left for personal, swipe right for business. It probably misses a few miles here and there, but there were days where i'd completely forget to record my odometer readings when I did it via pen and paper (or later, Google Keep, which then got exported to Google Sheets, and manually entered into Quickbooks Self Employed). The app I'm using can export CSV files that Quickbooks Self Employed can import too. And hey, the subscription fee for both Quickbooks and MileIQ is a tax writeoff anyway. I have a dedicated work phone (phone itself is one I've had forever, but I can write off the expense of the plan (a whopping $30/mo) since I don't use it for anything personal), I use the IRS mileage deduction, and I write off any equipment that I only use for business (such as the combination hand cart/hand truck I keep in the car). I'm probably going to write off 50% of the cost of a new printer soon, since mine finally crapped out, and I'd say about half of what I print is work related. Thankfully I can also write off my medical insurance premiums, since I'm technically self-employed - but deductions got my income so low that I barely even qualify to get a subsidy. I'm fully in agreement with the need for tax reform. But until it happens, I'm going to maximize my deductions as much as I legally can.
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Mar 15, 2017 05:54
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I have a small portion of a small wall covered in 4x6s of some of my own photos (the only one not shot by me in the collage is one of my dad, but the photo is at least 25 years old - I'd say he's mid 40s in it since he had zero gray hair and very few wrinkles, he's 70 now). They're just stuck to the wall with a single piece of scotch tape on the back, so they look lovely, but it's the only wall decor I have aside from a single section of a 3 or 4 section painting I found at Goodwill... plus a Ren & Stimpy thing I found on ebay sitting on top of said painting. Even a lot of the 4x6s were printed off of the web-optimized versions I had uploaded to deviantArt years ago, but came out pretty decent once printed. All printed on matte, of course. Amazon had a 50 free prints into deal awhile back, and I took them up on it with about 40 photos. Some didn't come out good due to resolution, a handful were ones I liked but didn't have the rights to (those are on a corner wall in the kitchen, I don't feel right posting a picture of that collage since they're not my own photos, and I'll likely eventually destroy them since they're not mine to print). Painting + Ren & Stimpy hanging out on top. Wish I had the full set for that painting, but it works well in that space, and it was all of at Goodwill. I lost an absolute shitload of photos in a HDD crash years ago, and I'm really wishing I had them now - lots of photos of friends who are no longer alive, family members that also woke up dead, etc. The older I get, the more I wish I had that stuff. Even with a lot of my more recent stuff, I stupidly got rid of the RAWs and only held on to the web-optimized JPGs. I did recover some photos from an accidental HDD wipe, but never really went through the recovered files until after Clint died last month - found a few of him that I was able to send to his father for his memorial.I really need some more wall decor. Those two photos show all of it. I kind of want to just throw up some band posters again, at least to have something. But my tastes tend to be a bit on the odd side - I want stuff like some of Lora Zombie's stuff. A local photographer. Justin Terveen, also has some amazing stuff of Dallas. Talked to him a few times, he's a great guy and has some great work.
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Mar 15, 2017 06:45
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Olympic Mathlete posted:Yeah learning how to make the shot in camera is the best thing you can ever do. I hated editing digital poo poo, I really didn't enjoy it so I made sure my shot was pretty much what I wanted it to be in the first place. I'm not about making more work for myself AFTER I've clicked the shutter. My guilty pleasures with editing are a very blue sky (if a sky is involved) and a little bit of a vignette. But beyond that, it's just white balance tweaks, and brightness/contrast. Some stuff I do like to purposefully overexpose.. or sometimes the shot just comes out overexposed and it just works. This one came out overexposed as hell straight off the camera, so I went batshit crazy with the editing, thinking the photo was a throwaway anyway. I think in this case it worked, but I could have composed it a lot better to begin with. Even with the 35mm I was using, I just couldn't physically move much further back, unless I wanted to get run over.  This, on the other hand... all I did was desaturate it a bit. It looks like a boring picture unless you're familiar with the location (Scenic Drive in El Paso TX), once you do know the location it becomes a bit nostalgic. I wish I had rotated the photo slightly to make the highway a bit more level, but it's a hilly city to begin with, and the winds were gusting up to about 40 MPH that night, so getting a clear shot (even @ ISO 3200 and a heavy tripod) was challenging.   The Dude seems to like practically new (in that it's never really had anyone sit in it much - it's certainly faded pretty good) Saturn seats. I think he'd also like to say hello to Rascal; he's always been super chill with every dog he's met since I've had him. Seems to hate most cats tho (but that's every cat at first). Enourmo posted:Apparently my uncle died very suddenly. Go see them. It's going to be painful, you'll probably break down at the most unexpected time, but you'll regret it for the rest of your life if you don't. I had a (tenured) professor threaten to fail me if I went to my grandmother's funeral and had the balls to suggest I have my mother record it via smartphone and email it to me... it's been 5 years, and I still regret not going (and still regret not beating the poo poo out of that entitled prick professor).  Cop Porn Popper posted:Because on the floor is a terrible place. The dining room table has ample lighting, room and climate controled conditions. The perfect place for projects, I think you'll agree. Well since it's now revealed that he hopes to revive it.. Walmart sells decent little folding tables (I think as a TV dinner table or something?) for . I use one as a laptop stand whenever I'm on the patio. They're not rated to hold a whole lot of weight, but they work. Beefier ones are , and I used to use one of those as a microwave oven stand. That one is now used as an end-table, since I'm a cheap bastard.SCA Enthusiast posted:It would've been less of a big deal if I hadn't just gotten home from work at the time, when all things are more annoying. It just bugged me to have dirty car parts on the table where everyone eats dinner, and I say this as the member of the household who spends the most time with dirty car parts. I ate dinner next to a friend I've known for 20 years the other night, and the fucker never even said a word. He stunk a bit too. You might say he was... deathly silent. sorry I'll go hide now If I can do that, I think you can eat dinner with a car battery. My shirt still smells like, well... death. Death ashes. I mean I'd be annoyed the battery wasn't at least placed on something to protect the table, assuming it's a table you give a drat about.... I kinda wonder what the restaurant staff thought about that... the smell wasn't great, and we wound up getting pretty loud randomidiot fucked around with this message at 07:40 on Mar 16, 2017 |
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Mar 16, 2017 07:35
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I'm still kinda processing it, while simultaneously putting off going to see my mom and grandma. I've never been great at expressing grief.
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Goddamnit. Alarm spergin a bit here, but... Tried to finally add a motion sensor to my home alarm (which is a pro-level DSC system, not that lovely Simplisafe poo poo - it's the same system ADT put in my parents house), but using the zone input that already exists on the keypad. That way I could use a motion sensor I already had, and not run wire all the way back to the panel itself. I never could figure out how to enable the keypad zone input, but I corrupted the programming in the system badly enough that I did a factory reset. Then spent an hour wondering "why the gently caress does it keep saying zones 2 and 3 are open, I've already enrolled the wireless door contacts!". Downloaded the programming manual for the version of system I have (there's multiple revisions). Scratched my head and rear end awhile. Finally downloaded the manual for the add-on wireless receiver, and... Enable the wireless zone attribute for each wireless zone (PC580, PC1555, PC501X v2.0, PC5020 v3.0 and higher only) (sections [101]-[132]). The wireless zone attribute in those definitions in the manual for my particular version of the system says "For future use", instead of "hey dipshit toggle this bit to make it a wireless zone". It's not DIY friendly at all (as this kind of poo poo is oriented at pros), but FFS, you'd think going into programming for that zone and adding the serial number for the wireless sensor would be enough. The worst part is I've owned this system for a loving decade now...
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Mar 17, 2017 09:01
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jamal posted:Pretty much, although clean and clear lenses, good bulbs, and proper aim go a long way. Meguiar's plasticx works really well for something you just rub on with a towel. After clearing the lenses, putting in sylvania xtravisions, and getting them pointed the right way I find the lights on my 98 Subaru acceptable. But an HID projector just puts out way more light in a much better pattern; it's something like 3x the light compared to a 55w halogen. Newer halogen projectors are pretty decent though. My mom's new forester just has halogens and they work very well. It seems like fitting motorcycle projectors (both halogen and HID) into regular headlamp housings is a bit of a thing now. Certainly not DOT legal, but if the original housing had a clear lens, and you take the time to aim them properly, I can see that working well. Swap the originals back for inspection time, if your state does that. I'll admit to having considered such a swap strongly, the major tipping point is it would cost a bit more to add high beams (since my stock headlamps use a single bulb for both - I guess high beams on a single bulb setup involves a shutter or tilting the bulb itself?). Plus the whole "disassemble, install HID projector, reassemble, aim"  part. https://www.theretrofitsource.com seems to be pretty popular.Metal Geir Skogul posted:Okay I thought I was crazy for this on mine but now that I know it's standard I'll live with it. This has been a thing on "fleet white" domestic vehicles forever. I guess on "your fleet can be any color you want, as long as it's white" vehicles, they cut as many corners as possible on prep and paint. You notice it more on P71s simply because there's so many of them, but any of the big 3 has the same issue on their fleet vehicles (vans and pickups mostly, but it hit every white GM model really hard in the 80s and 90s too). I remember on a brand new van that my dad had custom built for his business (1989 Chevy 1 ton, 350/700R4, no ac [in TX, rear end in a top hat], AM radio, ABS, no other options at all), the paint was pretty much gone from the roof before 100k. The odometer got stuck when it tried to roll over the 3rd time; I can say at 399,999 known miles (very likely closer to 500k), the roof and hood had no paint at all and it was falling off in chunks from the front fenders. Fucker was still on the original drivetrain, AFAIK. His fleet was made up of Ford and Chevy (newest was a pair of 92 Fords), all had the same issue except for the 77 Ford, and the 77 was originally a Club Wagon before he got it (it was that funky off-white/beige that Ford loved in the 70s). Somehow that drat thing looked the best, but ran and drove the worst (had blown head gaskets, could see the road through holes under the pedals, typical Ford I-beam handling issues, etc... it was the backup for the backup van by the time they sold the business, also occasionally used as the "hey, you came to work hungover *tosses remains of keys for 77* good luck!" van, as it was the only one with a portable cleaning unit instead of truck-mounted). scrubs season six posted:Regular halogen headlights are garbage, aren't they? My last four cars have had either projectors or HIDs or LEDs and when I borrowed my bosses F-150 that had plain jane halogens I couldn't believe how dim they were. It didn't even really feel safe. It seems like late model Ford halogens are maybe shittier than most based on the complaints I've seen though, maybe to try and get people to upgrade to the higher trims. If it's something with a dual filament single bulb, I fully agree. You make a lot of compromises designing those housings. My Saturn is this way, and the headlights go from "am I on the correct side of the road?" to "I can sort of see a lane marker 100 ft ahead". My 2001 Accord? "wow these are pretty decent, I can see pretty far with the high beams on when I'm on back r*deer runs into side of car*" (this really did happen )Mom's Toyota Avalon? I THOUGHT IT WAS NIGHT TIME, GIMME SUNGLASSES, THEN GIMME SUNGLASSES FOR MY SUNGLASSES. HOLY poo poo MY RETINAS. The high beam bulbs are original to the car (2003 model), the low beams were replaced a couple of years ago "just because" (they seemed dim... when I pulled them out the glass was pretty heavily silvered). randomidiot fucked around with this message at 10:50 on Mar 18, 2017 |
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Mar 18, 2017 10:44
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long-rear end nips Diane posted:So, uh, how hard is it to learn stick? If I bought a Focus RS or Civic R with no manual experience would I just gently caress up the car and cost myself a ton of money? FWIW, I had a friend try to give me a lesson once. Once. Fucker kept putting it on hills though... plus it was a 60s Beetle with a trash clutch to begin with. He could never drive it smoothly, and he grew up driving manual. I taught myself by buying a beater with a manual, then trying to figure out how to get it home in rush hour traffic. The hardest part is getting the car to start moving; once it's moving, you're golden. It's better to stall than to rev the snot out of it when trying to get it moving - stalling is embarrassing, but isn't wearing out the clutch like a 3000 RPM slowwwwwwww launch will. Drive a manual car around in a parking lot - every car has a different engagement point on the clutch (even two identical cars, once they've been driven for a few months by different owners, will have clutches that feel a little different from each other). Some people call it the bite point, slip point, etc. It's where the clutch just begins to grab; from there you give it just a tiny bit more gas and ease the clutch out as you slowly increase the throttle. The goal is to learn to do a smooth launch without putting much wear on the clutch. Your first attempts will be a mix of hopping, stalling, and peeling out, and possibly a bit of burning brake smell if you let it slip too much (that's you destroying the clutch). Once you have the car moving and the clutch fully engaged (foot off of it in 1st), the hardest part is done. Upshifting will be herky jerky at first, you'll get a feel for it pretty quick (within an hour). Downshifting is something I try not to do unless I need to pass someone, or I'm slowing to speeds that require a lower gear (I never downshift to slow down, for example - it's just more wear on the clutch). The other hard part is reverse. You pretty much always have to feather the clutch and throttle while backing up; reverse is geared a little lower than 1st on most cars, but I generally don't go much higher than ~1000 rpm when backing out of a parking space. It's a balancing act of feathering the clutch and keeping the engine from stalling. It's rare that I actually take my foot completely off the clutch while reversing; the car just goes too fast if I do - I'll alternate between slipping it a little to keep the car moving and having the clutch to the floor. tl;dr it ain't hard. hardest part is getting it moving. I don't know how forgiving a Civic Type R or Focus RS clutch would be (though I'm told the Focus ST clutch is pretty forgiving), but I know Honda manuals + clutches tend to be pretty decent to drive (I've owned 6 Hondas... 5 were manual). I'd be a bit wary about learning on an RS, more because it's an AWD.. so if you accidentally dump the clutch, there's more poo poo to break. On a FWD or RWD car, if you dump the clutch, you just peel out. On AWD it usually just hooks up and goes, and sometimes breaks a few things if you drop the clutch too hard too often. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Mar 19, 2017 |
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Mar 19, 2017 08:01
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Darchangel posted:That's for rolling up on perps and/or stakeouts with the engine running, but no lights to give it away. There's also a plug or setting to disable the dome light. You can also switch the trunk button from ignition or constant power. Both connectors are there behind the panel. And the rear power windows can be disabled by unplugging the connector in the B-pillar. Look online - there's a Ford Police Vehicles supplement to the owner's manual, and the wiring diagrams have P71-specific pages for all the extra power and signal wiring in the car. My fav is the 30-amp 12V feed in the trunk. Made wiring my amp easy. There's a ground feed straight back to the battery ground, too. I dunno, having the battery in the trunk made wiring my amp easy as hell. My positive cable from the amp to the battery is probably 4 feet. Though I doubt Ford was thinking of sub amps when they ran that circuit.I wish I could (easily) switch the trunk release button in my car so it only works with the ignition on; right now, even if the factory alarm is on, if you smash a window, you can hit the trunk release and the alarm won't give two shits, so long as you don't open a door to do it (it's easy to reach from the drivers door). There's a toggle switch in the trunk lid to disable the release solenoid, but that also disables it on the keyfob. And pisses off the alarm if I unlock the trunk with the key without hitting the trunk button on the fob (or unlocking the car with the fob). Metal Geir Skogul posted:I also discovered the passenger-airbag disable box under the passenger kick panel, complete with key. I thought Ford had been doing this for awhile? Or was it just on their trucks? Stepdad's 2001 F-150 has an airbag disable keyswitch on the dash, you just use the regular key in it.
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Mar 20, 2017 05:37
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Weather is pretty nice out, so I'm out on the patio with my laptop. And I'm quickly discovering that there's gotta be a wasp nest somewhere nearby. jammyozzy posted:Finally made it back "home" to Indy after 10 days on the road in Florida. I slept properly maybe one night in that, and that was after closing out two bars in Clearwater. I've not been this happy to sit on my arse and vegetate on the sofa in a long time. I'm gonna have to see if I can find the pictures of what I sent Motronic for AI:SS one year. Well, one item in particular.e:  can't find the pics
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 00:20
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if you're easily offended:
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Weird.. just saw a beat to poo poo mid 00s Altima (complete with mismatched bumpers) roll+creak through my parking lot... Outfitted with the license plate camera setup that I've seen in some neighboring cities. 4 cameras total on the roof. Looked brand new, and definitely the same camera setup I've seen on marked police cars. e: guessing a skip tracer, but that camera setup is worth more than the car is worth. He's been driving through my apartment complex for the past 15 minutes, and occasionally getting out to look inside cars randomidiot fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 01:32
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No logo on this, and I doubt the city, as lovely as it is, would have such a beat up car. Plus the city can't enforce registration laws in a parking lot. I talked to the city already, they said it definitely does not belong to them. I snagged a couple of pics as he went across the street to the other phase of my apt complex.  e: city took it pretty seriously and sent 4 cops (3 squads), guy drove right past them and got lit up. Turns out it's a repo guy. Just amazed how much money they spent on a camera setup for such a beat up car, cops said they see skip tracers driving total shitboxes all the time... they just tend to be a bit more discreet with the cameras. At least I know not to call the city about that particular car now. The cops said they appreciated someone actually looking out around here, since this isn't a great part of town. I don't bother them around here unless I hear screaming, gunshots, or see something that really stands out as weird (like a car crawling through the entire complex several times). He's still driving through the area. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 02:20 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 01:57
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Yeah exactly. I was listening to the police scanner when they called in the tags... it's a 2004. That has to be one of maybe a dozen early QR25s still running. There's a city I drive through quite a bit that has a Ford Escape with the same camera setup, except it's black, with a roof rack, and the wires actually run through grommets in the body instead of through the doors. You don't notice the cameras unless you're right behind it or next to it; they use it mostly to catch expired registrations with street-parked vehicles Powershift posted:I could see that being useful for a repo guy or something. Yeah definitely, if the person avoiding repo hasn't swapped plates. Easy red flag is if someone printed off 7 day temporary tags, you see that on something matching your repo list and you just hop out and check the VIN. I would think it'd be more useful for a dedicated skip tracer though, instead of one repo outfit - #1, because that's one hell of an expensive setup, and #2, one skip tracer could probably find multiple cars for multiple companies per day (they're usually paid by the car, right? not by the hour?). I would imagine repo is hell in this neighborhood, it's all apartments with a ton of parking. My apartment complex alone is around 850 apartments. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 02:27
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The cameras on that car don't do video, IIRC they're not "cameras" in the traditional sense. If you're gonna do that, just do what RepoNut on Youtube does and clip a bunch of GoPros everywhere (including wearing one).
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Mar 21, 2017 02:32
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Welp, a tow truck is now doing the slow roll through the parking lot. Guess the skip tracer found a car.
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Mar 21, 2017 02:35
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Yeah if it had blacked out windows and was on the highway with that setup, you can pretty much count on that being a cop or parking enforcement or something along those lines - I know the city my parents live in have a few cars with the same setup, and they claim they use it to catch stolen vehicles. I've seen cops use some weird as hell unmarked vehicles... I've been stopped by an 80s Aerostar (in the 2000s) that was more bare metal than paint before (blacked out windows and red/blues behind them, and a uniformed officer that I'd seen before). This was the first time I'd seen that license plate reader setup in a non-law enforcement role.
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Mar 21, 2017 02:46
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So I snagged the Forza 3 Horizon PC demo. ...... my PC seems really lovely now. I can play the demo, but it struggles to maintain 30 FPS. I think my CPU (i5-2500k @ 4.2 GHz) is enough (even though their spec page says it's not); pretty sure it's my GTX 650 Ti SSC that's holding it back. Had CoreTemp and an EVGA utility running on the second screen, CPU temps didn't go up much (and load never really got past 40%), but the GPU temps skyrocketed. Video card fan sounded like my hairdryer after a few minutes.Rhyno posted:I'm 5'8" and currently hovering around 200lbs and the Doc said I'm 30lbs overweight, Subtract an inch, but I'm around 200 myself... doctor says 30-40 pounds over. I mean... I'd love to be about 165-170. 160 seems a bit on the skinny side for me, personally. I'm in a 34" waist (down from 40!), I wouldn't mind being back down to 30. My dad, on the other hand, claims he weighs more than he has in his entire life, at 70 years old. He's 5'10 and 170, and I'd say he's very physically active for a 70 year old (far more active than I am, by a few times). I definitely got my mother's metabolism instead of his.. and going by my latest round of bloodwork, I also got my mother's thyroid (numbers are at the extreme low end of "normal", which is kinda unusual for my age) funny Star Wars parody posted:I'm 6'9 and 420lbs so whatcha doin after work? 
randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:31 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 05:21
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Rhyno posted:My little brother is 5'7" and like 140lbs. He's horrifyingly skinny but he's totally healthy. I didn't break 130 lbs until I was out of high school - in 2001 I was about 150, 2002 about 170, but got a job loading 18 wheelers and dropped to about 120, eventually back up to 140 or 150 after leaving UPS. At 26 or 27 I was 230 and in 40" pants. I'm not a big framed guy, I'm not muscular (I'd say pretty average to below average in the muscle dept). I gained about 80 pounds when I quit coke and meth (but even before I got into drugs I was really skinny - was doing coke less than a year, meth off and on for about 4 years), and it's been a constant battle to get the weight off ever since. People I know who have a history of stimulant abuse in their past have seen similar weight gain when they quit.  e: depending on your brother's age and build, 5'7 and 140 may be pretty healthy randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Mar 21, 2017 06:37
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everdave posted:Your CPU is fine (crazy how good old i5's still are). Maybe go with a 1050ti? I have been using them in budget builds, they are as little as $135 these days. EVGA's Ti SC version is currently $145, the Ti SSC version is $160. Those are both for the 4GB versions too. That's... not bad at all, and has to be a hell of an upgrade over my 650 GTX Ti SSC. I'll probably try to justify the SSC version in a few weeks. Only had to use EVGA's warranty once, but their customer service and warranty has sold me. I'd need an HDMI to DVI adapter for my 2nd monitor, but that's not expensive. Kinda surprised they don't need their own power supply connector, I guess they've done some real work on the efficiency. long-rear end nips Diane posted:A 1050ti or 1060 would be a good upgrade regardless, if you're playing lots of games. I'm not at the moment, but I'd like to get back into PC gaming again. Video card definitely seems to be the bottleneck when I look at CPU and GPU temps when gaming; the video card is  with the fan screaming, and the CPU is in the low 50s (both degrees and utilization).funny Star Wars parody posted:
That's less than I pick up when I vacuum.. my entire apartment though, and that's on a weekly basis. I thought grey cats didn't shed much.
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Mar 22, 2017 02:02
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mariooncrack posted:The nice thing about lower end graphics cards is that they've come a long way in the last couple of years. They are a lot more efficient than they used to be and much more powerful. Intel's onboard video these days isn't too bad. Yeah, I plan on doing a full new build at some point in the next year. Everything on this thing is showing its age.. one of my HDDs have over 7 years of spinning time on it (another one has 6 years), for example. I got my money's worth out of this build many times over, and the oldest drive + optical drive are carryovers from my last system (a spacer heater of an Athlon 64 X2 5200+). The monitors are showing their age too, one is about 8 years old (I think.. it got RMA'd at one point, the newest it could possibly be is 7 though), the other is 5 years old. Anything really important is backed up to Dropbox and OneDrive, and anything I think I might need at a later date gets backed up nightly to an external 4TB (... which is on the bottom shelf of my printer stand, where it can't get knocked over or bumped, but accessible enough that I can grab it on the way out the door if, say, there's a fire) The onboard video on this thing can run Counterstrike smoothly, which probably isn't saying much, but (this is showing my age big time) when it first came out you needed a decent video card for it. I didn't realize a 1050 was "low end" either. The 1060 has my eye too, but it's an extra $100 (for the 6GB version vs the 1050 Ti SSC 4GB, both EVGA). I'll probably pick up a video card soonish, then carry it over to my next build. I haven't kept up with what's what in a long time though. The monitors are gonna sting a bit, I think. I'm tired of having mismatched monitors (one is a 24" Acer, the other is a 22" Dell, both low end ones), I'd like to finally get a matched pair of something decent. Powershift posted:It's unbelievable how relevant the 2500k still is, but the 4 thread limit is being hit. I never did hit 4.8 - I think the highest reliable speed I ever hit was 4.6. Unfortunately, when I decided to download the UEFI to replace the BIOS for my board, it wouldn't even attempt to boot until it was dropped to 4.1, then I could bump it back up to 4.2. It reboots fine, but if it's off for more than a few minutes it tries to boot a few times before defaulting the settings and giving an OC FAIL message, and I get to do the 4.1, let it POST, then bump to 4.2 bit again. For my motherboard, there's no going back to BIOS once you're gone to UEFI (the update tool fails - there's a couple of workarounds, but you risk bricking the board... like I can just walk into Micro Center and pick up another Z68 board these days?), and Gigabyte only released one version of UEFI for this board (but they've released plenty of BIOS updates since then). Damnit Gigabyte. Honestly though... I don't notice a difference between 4.6 and 4.2 in 99% of what I do. Core Temp shows this thing chilling at ~900 MHz most of the time. Aside from the boot hassle, I've had exactly two BSODs on this build... both due to driver issues. Whenever I do upgrade, the CPU and RAM are going into my mom's system (also Sandy Bridge, but it's an i3). I think it'd be a decent upgrade for her. She'll probably get the 120GB Samsung SSD I have in here too. scrubs season six posted:All of my relevant driving is to/from Bay Area (I live in Reno and sis lives in Berkeley)(and it's not in a rental) but unless it's significantly different elsewhere, you're never going to unwittingly drove through a toll. Not everyone has EZPass and they still want their money so there will be cash lanes. And they are cash lanes, don't bother trying to hand them a credit card. NTTA and TxTag did away with cash lanes entirely. I believe all of the Texas toll systems did. They've ripped out the majority of the toll booths except at a couple of old toll plazas, but they have them (and the lanes going to them) walled off with concrete barriers now. It adds up reaaaaal quick if you space out on a bill or five. NTTA stacks on the late fees like crazy (which turned about $300 of tolls into over $1000 for me last year). IOwnCalculus posted:A GMT400 Suburban with Altezzas and a missing door, a thirdgen Firebird on too-big RIMZZZZZZZ, and an Expedition, all parked on the grass? Yeah, I probably wouldn't want that as a neighbor either. That definitely looks less like "too many cars not enough parking spaces" and more like "on any given day, only three of these run". Yeah really. city code enforcement where I'm at doesn't let anything with expired tags park on the street, doesn't allow parking on an unimproved surface (so no yard parking, unless it's been designated as a gravel parking area - can't park on dirt either), and you can't have obviously inoperable vehicles on your property (such as that GMT400 missing a door). Also, if your car is parked such that the tags are visible from the street, even if it's in your driveway, it's considered "inoperable" (since, well, technically it's not legal to drive). Thankfully our tags are on the windshield, so keep air in the tires and keep the front toward the house and you're good as long as you don't give code enforcement a reason to walk up your driveway. They don't like it when they're in the back yard either, but so long as you keep your fence in good repair and don't have a 2 story house next door with neighbors you don't get along with, nobody's gonna hassle you about that. tl;dr that's not a collector, that's a hoarder. I'd be pretty pissy if that was in a neighborhood I owned a house in too, personally. I wouldn't give a poo poo what's in the back yard, but obviously non-running vehicles parked in your front yard? No thanks. It's one thing if it's something getting parted out (I'd be asking them how I could help in that case), but those look like they've been sitting for quite awhile. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Mar 23, 2017 |
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Mar 23, 2017 00:15
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Well I guess one way to bond with a new neighbor is to help them find their dog. Heard her outside yelling her dog's name. Found him playing frogger  She told me he would run away from me, so I ran across the street, waited till traffic died down, and chased him back across... where my very annoyed (at her dog) neighbor was waiting to catch him.
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Mar 23, 2017 01:00
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Jesus tittyfucking Christ, Sallie Mae. Choke to death on a dick. I forgot about a payment. Big whoop, it happens. Made the payment online 2 days ago. It cleared my bank today. They called me 6 times yesterday, cosigner 8 times. They called me 15 times today, cosigner 12 times. I've talked to them 4 times in that time, asking why the gently caress they're calling when my loan is current, especially when I've sent them a certified letter informing them I do not wish to receive phone calls (FDCPA applies to first party collectors in my state). One person cussed me out and told me the only people who know about the FDCPA are those running from debts (look at my payment history, dick... I've been late twice in 3 years, and less than 20 days both times). The others said they don't know why they're calling, but they have no record of my letter (of course not) but they'll enter it into the account notes (of course) and remove all phone numbers (of course)... I even got a call while on the phone with them. I hope their CEO and their collectors all collectively choke on the same hot dog. CFPB complaint filed (again). My stepdad drat near lost his job over his phone ringing nonstop at work today, since he doesn't know how to block individual numbers. When I go online, it shows my loan is current, nothing past due, with the next payment due in 3 weeks.  Powershift posted:I coasted straight up to a hard stable 4.8ghz limit at 1.3v vcore. no multiplier, frequency or voltage would let me past it. I've never touched the voltage that I can remember. I'd heard horror stories about Gigabyte boards having crappy voltage regulation, so I've always left the voltage stock. This board + CPU was the best i5-2500k + name brand Z68 combo Micro Center had at the time - I think if you went by the retail price on the i5-2500k, I wound up paying about $20 or $30 for the board itself (it was a $160 board if you bought it without the cpu, at the time). They may have had a MSI board that was a little cheaper in a combo deal, but I've never had good luck with anything from MSI except for their laptops (which they didn't build at the time anyway; I think the same OEM for Gateway was making them back then?). I've been sold on Gigabyte motherboards ever since.... except for the "oh hey here's a beta UEFI we're trying, you can downgrade back to BIOS at any time and we'll keep this up to date" "oh j/k you can never downgrade without physically desoldering the EEPROM" poo poo that they pulled on me. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Mar 23, 2017 |
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Mar 23, 2017 05:12
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kimbo305 posted:They described it as: if you opt out, CA will fine the plate, and Dollar you on top of that. There are external transponders that mount to the license plate (usually front). But it's likely the latter of the two. I know in TX, they can see if you have a tag/pass based on your license plate, and if you do have an active tag that happened to not get read (or is missing), they just bill it to your existing toll account at the discounted tag rate (I dunno if CA has different rates, but NTTA bills differently based on if you have a funded tag or not.. if you don't, you get an extra 20-40% charge).
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Mar 23, 2017 05:43
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keykey posted:Just do yourself a favor and do auto debit. I've done that from day 1 and don't have to think about poo poo other than how loving expensive school is. Last time I did auto debit for something, I wound up nearly a grand in the hole between NSF fees and the charge going through something like 15 times. I gave it a shot with Sallie Mae recently.. they pulled the money, then claimed I never paid. It took several weeks to get that straightened out, since they wanted an actual bank statement (which I obviously only get once a month) showing the money had come out, and wouldn't accept a screenshot from online banking, a letter from my bank, etc. I don't trust auto debit now. At least not EFT auto debit. Geoj posted:I was (up until last month) a computer janitor at a call center, FWIW the people you're talking to literally have no idea why they're calling you until they start talking to you. They don't even dial your number unless they're working for some shoestring outfit - they sit at a computer, their CRM application pops and they're connected with whoever and likely read prompts off an on-screen script. I did. And the call center reps I spoke with told me they worked directly for Sallie Mae. Previa_fun posted:I'm all about you should pay your bills BUUUUUT: Oh I agree, collection agencies are mostly scum. This is Sallie Mae themselves calling though, and I was still in the drat grace period. I haven't had a call today (yet), though I left a very nasty voicemail on their "consumer advocate" voicemail last night.
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Mar 23, 2017 20:55
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