MAY 2017 CHAT THREAD - All my freinds are getting married

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > MAY 2017 CHAT THREAD - All my freinds are getting married

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Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Gamechat - I haven't played PUBG, mainly because you basically have to have friends that play, which means you have to have friends, so...
Naw, not that bad. It just seems like none of my friends game - the price I pay for being a 47 year old kid. That, and getting curb stomped by 11-year-olds with ridiculous reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

I did play the closed beta of Quake Champions a little over the weekend, and I can say that they're on the right track. It feels like Quake, anyway. As I hear it, Overwatch has a lot of the fast-paced shooter feel that Quake Arena used to, and I guess Halo still does. I do like playing the fast paced FPS games like I did as a yoot. I also still suck mightily at them, and boy has it been a while since I played with mouse and keyboard. I mostly game on the Xboxen, but I recently got a 2011 iMac that has a decent enough processor and graphics card to run newer games on Win 10. Until then, I had an old Mac Pro from 2008 or 9 with a dual-core 2.8 GHz Xeon.

# ¿ May 2, 2017 05:38

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:19

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

rdb posted:

That's for your AMG merc, right? Is that 6 months or a year? And did it qualify for the tax relief bit?

Just wondering. The first time I registered my old duramax in Henrico I was shocked at the 700ish tax bill for 6 months. Apparently 3/4 ton trucks didn't qualify for the 50% off tax relief that normal vehicles did.

Adiabatic posted:

Thankfully it's for all my vehicles aside from the boat (which also came but it's in both our names) and it's for the full year. There's discounts involved? I didn't look at it too intently just yet.

What in the gently caress is this poo poo?
Taxes on land and buildings are bad enough. Where in the hell is this, so I don't move there?

scuz posted:

Got that '92 Buick Roadmaster in my garage tonight to swap out the power steering pressure hose. Until I made a trip to buy metric crow-foot wrenches/sockets(?), it was nearly a failure, but with the crow-foots it was a manageable quagmire. There really is NO room to swing a wrench around in there, yick. Pictures coming in tomorrow cuz I'm phone-postin and pretty tires.

Crow's foot wrenches are on my list. They're rarely necessary, but when you need them, they're a life saver.

# ¿ May 4, 2017 08:10

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

I can't decide whether to love or hate this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzlMlv0M6zo

# ¿ May 6, 2017 02:27

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Korwen posted:

I feel like an idiot.

3 weeks ago while commuting home in my DD the battery charge light came on. I figured my alternator was dying since the car has 188k on it. Since replacing it would be a pain in the rear end (Either have to pull the front bumper/headlights or intake manifold) I parked the car for a weekend I could work on it, and used my weekend car to commute.

Today I go out to test the voltage to confirm my diagnosis of bad alternator, pop the hood and get to the terminals, and my positive post has all sorts of corrosion on it. Why didn't I check this first? I cleaned everything up really well and put it back together. 14.0 volts while running, 13.9 with the lights on.

I guess the moral here is, check for the easy poo poo first, don't just assume you know what the problem is.

Been bit by lovely and/or shitted up terminals before. I feel your pain. Worst was I had my entire car shut down once because of it, back in my youth (early college), freaked out and called my dad out all the way from home (50 miles) to have him tell me to clean my damned battery terminals. So embarrassing, since I am supposedly a car guy.

# ¿ May 6, 2017 23:35

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Raluek posted:

I was on a first date once, and my car wouldn't start as we were heading to the bar afterwards. So I had to disassemble the clamp and try to clean it all up without an actual terminal brush or wire brush. Got it going, but I'm sure I didn't make the best first impression

See, now if she (I'm assuming, no offense) were smart, she should be impressed that you fixed that poo poo with nothing.
I would be.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 00:14

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Would I be stupid to buy an E320 for $1000?
Neighbor renting next door has it. It's moved once. He says it won't start, meaning that it will not crank. It worked once to get it off the street and into the driveway to avoid getting towed off, meaning that it actually runs and drives. I figure it's starter, ignition switch, or some obscure German superior relay or something.
It's a W210, appears to be a later facelifted model. Don't know the exact year - was just bullshitting with him the other day.
Body seems to be in good shape. He says the interior is bad, because he went to school in AZ and it got sun-baked, but it looks OK through the windows (what I could see of it - they're storing crap in it.) Leather looks dry, but intact.

Interior shot didn't come out at all:

Only real damage I've seen:

Wikipedia says it should be a '99-'02, and a straight six.

# ¿ May 7, 2017 00:19

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

financially racist posted:

stay way way the gently caress away

Metal Geir Skogul posted:

Those are hellcars

You Am I posted:

Yeah, that's from Mercedes Malaise period. Avoid

Seat Safety Switch posted:

Talk him down to $250, then teach yourself to hotwire a car.

And replace an entire wiring harness, by which I mean the starter wire. Maybe the brake light wires if you're feeling punchy or you live somewhere with inspections. Sell the wire you don't need to a scrappy for copper value.

For engine management, JB weld a swap-meet weber on the intake manifold after tin-snipping a hole in the hood to clear it. Sell everything in the interior, strip the door cards, permanently jam the windows in the upright position, sell the entire power window apparatus on eBay to afford the car.

Drift stitch all the old-man body damage, or better yet just remove the bumpers and sell those on eBay/to a recycler as cores.

InitialDave posted:

Darchangel posted:
Would I be stupid to buy an E320

Yes.

Darchangel posted:
for $1000?

Someone else's, eh. Your $1000? Hahaha...

OK, I think I'm getting the vibe that there may be better options out there.
This is why I love you guys.

edit: sorry to hear about the horse, angryrobots. My sister deals with rescue horses, but has fortunatelynot had one anywhere near that aggressive.

Darchangel fucked around with this message at 03:37 on May 7, 2017

# ¿ May 7, 2017 03:31

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Seat Safety Switch posted:

I think you should do it.

Do exactly what I said. Post it on a Mercedes forum. Watch a bunch of 17-year-olds who refer to everyone as "cuzin" get immensely angry at you.

I don't have a good solution for how to do spark on the cheap, but maybe there's a trigger wheel that fits that you can jam into a Speeduino. But then more wires!

It was just a target of opportunity. I know I can fix stuff that ordinary "users" can't or won't. If it were a decent car, I'd fix it and drive it for a bit and sell it on, unless it just caught my fancy. I like my Crown Vic, but MB, leather, wood, class, you know. Too bad it's one of the crap-rear end ones.
Is it just the wiring harnesses that are biodegradable, or is the whole car a rolling dumpster fire?

# ¿ May 7, 2017 10:37

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Applebees Appetizer posted:

The whole car is a rolling dumpster fire, probably was before the warranty ran out on it. If you want a good cheap luxury car get an old Lexus basically.

Yeah, I actually like the LS400, etc. Would not mind having one if I get tired of the Crown Vic.

financially racist posted:

if you want a good cheap luxury car, hunt down a subaru svx imo. they are some fuckin baller-rear end poo poo, and if i ever wanted something that was not a two-seater it'd be that.

Are you serious? You can't even get parts. How is that better than a malaise MB? At least parts are available for that.
Also: LOL Subaru luxury.

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

In late 2004 or early 2005, I got brought in by an IT contractor that was subcontracted by a moving company... to pack up all the computers at every desk, label everything, and hook everything back up. At Tandy/Radio Shack's old and new HQ in Ft Worth.

My god... their new campus was ridiculous. You needed a goddamn map to get through the place, and getting lost was really easy. Their old HQ was pretty easy to navigate - 2 office towers connected by a mall (?!?). The new campus is 4 buildings and around 900,000 sq ft. They had over 2300 people working there at the time... they wound up selling the campus to a real estate company shortly after moving in, who eventually sold it to Tarrant County College - and RS currently occupies a tiny portion of the campus. They were half a million behind on rent when this article was written 2 years ago, and a more recent article claims they may be moving out completely.

I remember walking into the place and wondering how the hell they pulled off financing it back then; it was pretty well known that they weren't doing great even then.

I will say the CEO suite in the old HQ was pretty sweet... even had its own private elevator, bathroom (with shower), etc, and was all dark wood with brass or gold plated fixtures. Only got to step foot into the CEO suite for a few minutes though, and it was just so a few of us could gawk at it. Also got to see what was left of the mall (which had been shut down for a couple of years, though Radio Shack had a concept store in there - they had one or two concept stores in the new campus, too). Didn't get to see their private subway, it'd also been shut down for a few years by then.

You mean the tram in from the parking lot on the river to the west? I rode in on that several times to go ice skating, or just wander around downtown Ft. Worth without paying for parking. It worked. It was a lot like the old version of the DFW Airport tram. Slow, and basically a guided electric bus.
I always wondered how Tandy could afford that campus - I guess the answer was they couldn't, and it pretty much typified how Tandy Corp was run. I used to work for Computer City, and while they weren't the worst employer, I hear that they weren't the best at employee treatment. I didn't work there long enough to find out, really.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 15:17

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Applebees Appetizer posted:

We went from driving a Crown Vic for over ten years to an LS430. Should have made the switch sooner, no comparison whatsoever. The LS is the best used large sedan you can get for the money imo.

Cool. The LS has been on my list for a while. For one thing, the Lex V8 sounds wicked with an exhaust.

My cop car was $1500, so it's a tough value to beat. I'll drive it until I'm tired of it, or it breaks too much, most likely. Right now, I have no job, so the point is moot, I guess.

# ¿ May 8, 2017 21:40

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Looks like Europe is about to punish all the diesel owners after years of penalizing gasoline cars:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a33255/why-diesel-is-done-for-in-passenger-cars/

RIP small diesels.

In other news, I got tired of the 4-colors of bad paint and surface rust on my '90 RX-7.

(Click for embiggen)

Before (well, sort of during - I'd already sanded on the right side of the hood):

During:

After:

(stupid finger)

Full album here

I actually sanded it out pretty well. Got most of the chips smoothed, rust down to bare metal, etc. I didn't do any filler work, though, and with the fresh paint I can see all the hail dents in the hood. Ah, well - it was mostly just to get rid of the surface rust, which was on the hood, tops of the fenders, roof, and rear around the hatch. Pulled off the broken OEM urethane wing in the process. I have a fiberglass one to go back on.
Budget respray doesn't even begin to cover it. That's Rustoleum bare metal primer (sands well, actually) on the hood and fenders, and Rustoleum satin black for the finish. The left fender has cracked original paint, but I didn't want to spend the time to sand that to bare metal just yet, so it's a bit ugly, but at least one color. Got a few runs and sags, two paint cup drips on the hood, and a fisheye reaction on one of the headlight doors (I originally wasn't planning on painting those, so prepped inadequately. I'll pull them off and do them separately later,) using a HF HVLP gun that I just bought for $10 with a coupon. Sprayed pretty well, not that I have anything to measure that against. First time using an HVLP, and really only the second using a spray gun.
I don't really like the original color (too much gold in it), but there's not many other colors that go with the burgundy interior, and I don't want to do the jambs, etc. Planning on selling it soon anyway, so two-tone it is.

Factory brazed seam that I thought interesting:

Bonus PPE pic:

# ¿ May 10, 2017 20:24

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

The Door Frame posted:

Your post is pretty loving cool, and while I'm not a fan of that style of two-tone paint, as far as I can see on my phone screen, it looks like it came out well.

Better than I expected. Spray guns work so much better than spray cans!

quote:

However, I don't want that diesel thing to slip by me. How in the gently caress do you realistically enforce a $30 a day tax for driving inside of the city?

Well, remember that the UK, and London in particular, is all about surveillance. And they already implement a congestion charge in downtown London. Presumably, they'll use the same mechanism for the diesel surcharge.

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

Texas has enough assholes.

e: welp guess who has a monitor that decided vertical banding is awesome. At least it's my 2nd monitor (~9 year old 20" Dell) instead of my main one (~5 year old 22" Acer).

Want a Viewsonic VG2230wm 22"? May need a cap kit for the power supply. I ended up with several that sometimes take a few minutes to power up. Their wider than 4:3, but not quite 16:9. Probably 10 years old, but I'm using two that I replaced the capacitors on, and they're working fine.

scuz posted:

I'm paid to computer janitor.

I mostly sit around all day but the prozac is helping(?).

I was paid to do that. Currently, I'm not paid at all, and doing house and car projects, as long as they don't cost more than about $20.
Job hunting is absolutely the worst thing in the world for your ego outside of dating. My wife tells me three interviews in two weeks is good, but it still feels like failure.
At least I now know I will absolutely love retirement, provided the house is paid for and savings are sufficient for bills. I really thought I would do more movie/TV catchup watching, but I've been fixing stuff more than I've been doing that.

slidebite posted:

I will nth this but I will add that if you're not a tech guy and like working with your hands people good with fluid power, Hydraulic and pneumatics also have a lot of demand also due in large part to automation. If you can do the whole deal and also program/controls you have it made.

How does one get into this? Part of my problem is the whole "I'm 47 years old with a family and a house." Starting over is tough when you're used to a half-way decent salary. I'm not in any way ambitious or interested in climbing the ladder/management. I just want a job with some variety that I won't hate going to every day, with the seemingly-impossible additional requirement of paying a decent wage that at least keeps up with inflation/cost of living.
I'm a computer janitor with a (very) little experience in server and networks, I understand basic electronics and can actually solder (my MegaSquirt works!) and I work on cars a lot.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 04:43

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Applebees Appetizer posted:

I'm pretty much there at 46. Been a security guard for 7 years now, and although it's tempting sometimes, I'm in no mood to start another career again from the bottom so it's looks like I'll be doing this the rest of my life. The good thing is I like my job, work on the beach, great atmosphere and cool people that's ten minutes from my house so the lovely pay doesn't bother me as much. Sure I'd like to make more money but I'd probably be miserable in the long run starting over. Plus my wife makes way more than me so it takes the pressure off. Overall I'm just happy I don't hate my job because I've been there and it sucks.

The good news is my wife is graduating with a degree in Paralegal Studies tomorrow, so should be able to look forward to a bit mere income from that direction. She loves the company that she is an office manager for, but she's pretty much topped out for a small construction company role.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 16:08

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

I may take you up on that. I already have a TV that needs the same, I can eventually knock them both out at the same time (emphasis on eventually). Looks like the resolution is the same as the 20" Dell.

e: hm... I just realized I'm running it over VGA. Might try it on DVI, if I can find one of my DVI cables. May or may not help.

As a matter of fact Randal, I do. $8.25/hr at a local chain of 24 hour places.

I don't think they've raised it (... the pay, that is) since minimum wage last increased.

Cap kit is like $20 on eBay, probably less if you source the parts yourself. I'm trying to declutter a bit, and have all I need. Free to a good home. There's a chance it'll work perfectly - some of them got EOLd even though they didn't have the issue (yet?)

# ¿ May 12, 2017 16:15

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Oh holy poo poo I'm being called back for a second interview.
OK, how do I screw this up, because I know it's going to happen, so I want to do it right.
no I don't

# ¿ May 12, 2017 21:09

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Safety Dance posted:

Nice! With who / what industry?

Computer janitor at Trend Micro. Their headquarters is here in Dallas, as I just learned last week.

# ¿ May 14, 2017 18:14

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Enourmo posted:

Man, I was looking at getting cop style center caps for the car, but they're like $40-70 on ebay for a full set, and like another 50 for the chrome trim rings I want. Guess I'll live with the granny hubcaps for now.

I don't know about the trim rings ( because I hate the look of trim rings in those wheels), but I found a set of the caps on eBay for $35, so that's about right. I already had two, so I have a pair of spares. I found a wrecking yard that had a lot of ex-cop cars, but I think someone makes a living of snagging all the hubcaps and aluminum wheels.

In other news, and in no way aimed at you, Enourmo - completely coincidental - my wife graduated Cum Laude with her BS in Paralegal Studies yesterday. I'm unbelievably proud of her for sticking with it, and terrified of the debt....
For reference, we're both in our 40s, and she works full time and is raising a daughter and husband. It can be done. Her request for Mother's Day was to do nothing. This is the first day in several years that she hasn't had something due, or a schedule to plan, or financials to arrange.

# ¿ May 14, 2017 18:33

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Enourmo posted:

I mostly want trim rings to avoid the murdered out look, kinda visually break up the mass of black.

My P71 is white, so the black wheels offset that anyway. I just don't like the rings on those particular wheels - I don't feel like it works well with wheels with so little dish.
I found some Mustang 18" wheels I liked on Craigslist, so I'm not running the cop steelies anyway - but the Mustang wheels are all-black, too.

I also replaced the stock "Mustang" center caps with black "Ford" caps. Turns out Ford uses the same size center caps on almost all of its aluminum wheels.

To add a little not-black, I got blue tuner lugs, and the most recent addition are valve caps made from .45 casings. The plastic valve caps fit perfectly inside a .45 shell, and I felt it fit the feel of the car.

The .45s replaced some aluminum grenades that used to be black:

# ¿ May 16, 2017 05:50

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

InitialDave posted:

Just had a long chat session with an Ebay rep after they sent me a snotty message about not giving people contact info and complaining about "selling outside of ebay". They really don't seem to get that when you're selling poo poo like used engines, people want to come and look at them before buying, and if someone's driven 100+miles to look at something and wants to buy it, you can't really force them to use the buy-it-now option. Apparently you have to make people buy something before giving them an address or phone number, and hey, you can cancel the transaction if they don't want it, and they might remove any resulting bad feedback.

Favourite bit is that they don't want to have any kind of option to allow people to say "yeah, I've sold this" and pay the fees. They literally refuse to let you pay them the money they're upset about not making from fees, while trying to force you to do things in a way that makes it harder to sell stuff and thus generate fees in the first place.

Speaking of Ebay people, FFS, if you buy a set of four alloy wheels with tyres - which have clearly been descibed as being less than brilliant condition and not that great at holding air - for forty quid, don't turn up and act disappointed that they are, in fact, a bit manky, then ask what "best price" is.

Just always put in the eBay ad that the item is for sale locally, and may be ended due to local sale, and then pull it because "the item is no longer available" when you hand it to the buyer. eBay doesn't need to know that you sold it to someone who contacted you via eBay. They got your listing fee. If they won't make accommodations for the situation you described, gently caress them. They need to change to fit how people want to use the service, not the other way 'round.

InitialDave posted:

Conversely, good luck finding performance-oriented tyres in small sizes. 14", 13" other than classic Mini common sizes and so on. 15" still not too bad, helped by a lot of older performance stuff like classic Ford hot hatches, though this used to be your best bang for the buck diameter. 16" hasn't fallen off the radar yet, but it seems 17" is a good price sweet spot for decent tyres nowadays.

*Pours out a 40 1.1L for the dudes running metric wheels*

Yeah, the last good tire to fit the stock first-gen RX-7 wheels (13x6) was the Yokohama AVS Intermediate, which could be had in 205/50-13. that looked mean on those wheels, and was great for stock-class autocrossing.
I stuck a GSL-SE suspension on mine, which gained me a standard PCD (4 x 4.5") so I have a lot more wheel choices available. It currently has 16x7 wheels from my wife's Kia Spectra5 on it (205/50-16).

# ¿ May 16, 2017 06:19

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

InitialDave posted:

Unfortunately, you generally get a zero listing fee in the UK, so they are losing out on money, and they can see if you've has someone asking about addresses or phone numbers - I specifically asked about all the listing with contact details in the description, and apparently THAT is a breach of policy too.

But your attitude is the one I took with them, and they're just not bloody interested. All they want to do us threaten people with account suspension for breaching a policy that really doesn't work for certain types of sale.

It's a pretty typical computer-says-no scenario.

Well, I got nothing. eBay's not nearly as relevant or be-all, end-all as they want to believe they are. They seem to be actively alienating users who don't happen to be businesses. They used to be great for all us small-time sellers, but now you're poo poo unless you're selling stuff constantly.

Olympic Mathlete posted:

Cool as poo poo.

Thanks. I like my cheap cop car. Needs to be lowered a couple inches, which I will do when I feel like spending $400 on springs.

# ¿ May 17, 2017 05:20

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

Exactly.

So far they've shotgunned the following:

New 24v transformer
New relays and heat detectors in the furnace
New start and run caps outside (5th time they've been replaced since I moved in last year... 2nd time this year)
New contactor outside
Pulled new wire from the breaker panel to the outside disconnect
Pulled new wire from the disconnect to the ac

I threw the old thermostat back up to appease him.

They brought me a window unit to keep the bedroom cool overnight, and I already owned a portable (which has the exhaust hooked up to the dryer duct right now). He's bringing a new furnace tomorrow morning. I should have made a bet with him about that not fixing anything. I would have preferred they put me in a hotel since it's about 90 degrees inside, but that's not happening.

To be fair though.. he showed me the old parts. Caps were bulging (again.. this is the 5th time they've been replaced in the past year). Contactor was welded. The safeties in the furnace looked like they'd been sitting at the bottom of a lake. Drain was clogged. Coils were clogged to poo poo (funny, they "cleaned the inside coils" a few weeks ago at my request). So new parts needed to be shotgunned at it. But he's ignoring the fact that there's no way the furnace could be tripping the breaker for the condenser.

e: just tried turning on the fan by itself to at least get some air moving. Nothing. Put my multimeter on the thermostat.. no power, even though the breaker for the heater is on. So he broke it even more.

120v x 20 = 2400 watts

But wait, there's more! It's a double pole breaker... 240v x 20 = 4800 watts. And since they had swapped it for a 30 amp.. 7200 watts. Through 12 gauge wire.

Also uh... the data plate on the ac does specify that it should be on a 30 amp circuit.

Your maintenance guy does not understand electricity or how AC units use it. I can't understand how people like this have a job, and I have to fight to find decent employment. Presumably it's a personality thing.

e: f, pretty well beaten.

# ¿ May 18, 2017 03:06

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

In other news, my recruiter called me today and told me that the company looking to possibly hire me no longer wanted to do the second interview.
they decided to just go ahead and hire me

That's a load off my mind!

# ¿ May 18, 2017 03:09

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

About loving ti.. I mean, congrats!

Thanks!

Seat Safety Switch posted:

Nice job dude.

I hope it is!

Boaz MacPhereson posted:

Congrats, man. Great news.

Yes it is, thanks. I haven't been out of work since 1992, and that for only a month. I'm on my third week now, and this time there's a house and family involved, so I was starting to get nervous.

e: it's not as much as Tata was paying me for the last 9 months, but it's more than Wipro was paying me before that. Fair enough - I won't be the sole admin of all the Macs in the company at this job, just normal desktop support (Windows and a few Macs.)

Darchangel fucked around with this message at 03:50 on May 18, 2017

# ¿ May 18, 2017 03:48

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

BraveUlysses posted:

the IPA wars need to stop right now, i hardly drink beer any more but its insane how much of the craft beer market is tied up with ipas. ill take a good german style beer or a nice amber please.

QFT.

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

Still no ac. Dipshit maintenance came up, replaced the heater, and surprise surprise, breaker still trips as soon as he switches the thermostat to cool.

He brought up another maintenance guy... who I'm pretty sure just cussed him out in 4 or 5 languages, then dragged him outside to show him how to electricity on the outside unit.

e: now it's a race against the clock for them to fix/replace the outside unit... really nasty storms moving in pretty soon. They did tell me they have a spare one they can put in temporarily if it comes to that, at least.

Why yes, because it's always the heater that makes the breaker trip when on AC. What?
"Show him how to electricity". I love that phrasing.

That was some ugly stuff they took out.

monsterzero posted:

Nice. Mine is something like 'foreign helper'. Don't know where my people came from before they went to Ireland and took'erjerbs.

Mine is English for "guy who makes things." My paternal grandmother's family name is literally German for "beer puller", so apparently we were bartenders.

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

Guess what wound up pissing water everywhere? If you guessed "loaner ac", you win some soaked carpet.

I can't even get mad at this point. At least they had another one, and we (maint guy and myself) looked this one over closely before throwing it in.

Isn't that usually an installation problem on window units? They just dribble out the back, and have to be installed with a bit of a slope to the outside. I noted on the one I use in my garage that the fan on the condenser is designed to dip into the condensate and spray it onto the condenser for a little bit more evaporative cooling.

Larrymer posted:

No apologies, no regrets. poo poo is delicious.

I've got an EKU 28 sitting here, but I'm saving that for a semi-special occasion since they're hard to come by for some reason.
If you don't know, that's a 12-percent German beer that's pretty tasty, too.
Somehow I have no other beers or ciders in the fridge, and only about a finger or so of Jim Beam. How did that happen?

# ¿ May 19, 2017 05:29

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

The Locator posted:

Same except conservative Christian instead of LDS.

I've tried all kinds of alcoholic drinks as an adult and only really like stuff like Mike's Hard Lemonade and fruity mixed drinks that cost too much so I have avoided any sort of issues with beer abuse.

I was raised Catholic, and German, so I'm no stranger to alcohol. As they say. Where you find four Catholics, you'll find a fifth.

Tablet posting ATM, because my power just went out. Got some storms rolling into DFW. It woke up my wife, and I'll have trouble sleeping, because we both use CPAPs, and neither of us has a battery pack for them. At least the temperature is dropping, so the lack of AC won't be fatal. Currently sitting out in the garage watching the weather come in.

# ¿ May 20, 2017 06:51

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

The Locator posted:

I hate when the power goes out for that exact same reason. Sucks waking up that way!

Every time it happens I think about a battery backup of some kind, but it's not common enough that I ever follow up on it.

Our CPAPs are D.C. anyway with a big old brick adapter. They definitely make battery packs for them, at least certain manufacturers.

# ¿ May 20, 2017 15:40

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

OMG JOHN WICK 2 IS SOOOO loving GOOD

With a pencil just completely and utterly delivered. When is Chapter 3 coming out.....?

Yes it was. They, and Keanu especially, made an effort to make the gunplay believable, if not strictly realistic, and it shows.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was also quite good. I went and saw that on Friday. I'll echo some other reviews in that it didn't have quite the "wow, this is new" balls-out factor of the first one, but of course it really can't. They still made it plenty of fun, and funny. I like that they didn't try to "top" the first one, because they rarely works. The Stan Lee cameo was priceless, and is 3 epilogues a new record?

# ¿ May 20, 2017 15:46

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

UK folks, I understand that you're upset that the USA stole your Brexit stupidity thunder by electing Trump, but please stop trying to top that:
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/theresa-may-internet-conservatives-government-a7744176.html

I can't believe someone says poo poo like this out loud in front of people.

# ¿ May 21, 2017 20:46

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

angryrobots posted:

Some people can't have nice things...

My wife does treat the inside of her cr-v like a dumpster, but fortunately she takes care of the outside, and I guess it's nothing that 30 minutes and a shop vac can't fix. ...And an at-fault little wreck knocked the new off when it was two months old, so gently caress it doesn't bother me (new front bumper cover and fogs).

If it makes it another 7 years, it'll be the oldest kid's first car. If it survives that, it'll go to the youngest 5 years later.

Kind of the same here, for my wife's Kia Spectra5, though the minor accident was actually her fault in our case. She takes it to be cleaned up every couple of months or so at the local Simoniz car wash.
It helps that she picked it out, including emailing all the local dealers for best price before we went to go look at one. It's a 2008, so it's made it almost 10 years so far. 2 clutches, 1 transmission (warranteed), and one AC compressor are the only major work, and none of those were her fault. Looks like it's going to need struts and bushings, though. It's getting a little squishy and weird in the handling. And the clear coat is peeling on the painted plastic bits - door handles, mirrors, and hatch wing. But not on the actual body, thank god.

# ¿ May 24, 2017 00:34

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

everdave posted:

I have a low deductible and full coverage on this paid off car would they fix the paint fuckup too? I'm not used to dealing with insurance for something we're at fault for. I'm just thinking about finding a tail light and realigning and popping out bumper best I can.

I'd almost leave it for a few months as a reminder.
Not sure on the paint - most likely varies with insurance company.

# ¿ May 24, 2017 00:36

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

First day at the new job. So far, the rep from my staffing company hasn't shown up. Well, I was here at 8:40, so my behind is covered.
Man, I did not miss morning traffic. At least I don't have to come in at 8 when it's worse, and it's still only 20 minutes or so. Funnily enough, new job is within a few miles of the old job. I can drive by and flip them the bird at lunch.

# ¿ May 24, 2017 14:56

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Adiabatic posted:

Well one of mine does. The other one is locked the gently caress down though.

This is one of the few advantages of being the computer janitor. Even then, sometimes Security can wield a big enough stick to keep us out.

# ¿ May 24, 2017 14:58

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

fridge corn posted:

theres no point in owning a pc for gameing anymore just buy a ps4 duhh

I know that you're being sarcastic, but that's exactly why I got an Xbox 360 years ago. I got tired of trying to keep up with PC hardware, and all the drivers, etc., not to mention trying to afford it. I now have an Xbox One, but there are a few games on the PC worth playing, and the higher resolutions available are tempting.
For instance, I'd like to play Player Unknowns Battlegrounds.

# ¿ May 24, 2017 15:03

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

blk posted:

So, who here would give up beef for sports cars? I know I would.

Wouldn't eating beans just move the source of the greenhouse gas to us :v:

nm posted:

Does this account for the massive increase in methane produced by humans eating beans?

gently caress, beaten.

The Locator posted:

I've never been able to get into console gaming. I think it's just that I'm too old, as I can never get used to the controllers. KB + Mouse is just ingrained into my soul from the days of Doom and Duke Nukem I guess.

Counterpoint: I switched to consoles around the PS2 and 360, and have had a devil of a time getting back to the mouse and keyboard for the Quake Beta. I did set up some of the older games I still have though. Thank god some enterprising folks have made new engines for stuff like Duke Nukem and Doom, and DosBox. Hell, I even got Oni to work.

New job trip report:
Looking good so far. Actually had a login and access card waiting for me. Don't have domain admin rights yet, but I'm still training and shouldn't be screwing around with admin anyway. Place is pretty chill, and I'll get to help out with stuff that's not strictly desktop support (networking, VOIP phones, servers) when needed. Learn by doing - I imaged my laptop, and set up my phone and voicemail from the Avaya console, which methodology I heartily approve of. I really hope this goes well.

It's been a really long time since I was the FNG, and didn't know at least mostly what I was doing. Kind of refreshing, if I'm honest. I like learning new poo poo, at least when I'm allowed the time and resources to do so.

# ¿ May 25, 2017 05:03

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Rhyno posted:

I can't put those anchors where we currently live.

https://www.harborfreight.com/6000-lb-capacity-scissor-lift-91315.html

There are some safety mods that a few folks have done (better/stronger/more positive locking when raised), but reviews on YouTube and such are surprisingly positive.

# ¿ May 27, 2017 07:02

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Tomarse posted:

It was narrated by Ringo Starr over here back in the 80's. I had no idea he didn't do the US version too

Ringo did it here in the US, too, then Carlin. I think that's the right order.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 00:39

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Fo3 posted:

I've been trying to replace the cat pipe on my falcon. no chance of getting the bolts off, and australia doesn't sell pb blaster, liquid wrench, or kroil retail, stuck with wd40 and selleys rp7 which do jack.
Can't get a 4-5" grinder in there on one side - too close to the tunnel/floorpan.
Using an old dremel cutting disc I got halfway through, and that was the last of them. I went to the hardware to buy more and they all are made to fit the new ezyfit twist and turn now. gently caress that system is rubbish, they're all falling apart much quicker than the old screw on ones, even the collet is falling apart already. Getting loving nowhere with this poo poo and can't find my chisels. E: I've only got a lovely jack and axle stands that don't lift very high, so not much room.
Anyway that's my story about why today sucks.

They still have the regular reinforced cutting discs at the Home Despot by me.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 06:50

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Fo3 posted:

I managed to shove the downpipe past the steering arm enough so it's low enough to use a proper grinder now.
E: note to everyone, don't bother with the "EZ lock" system and the new wheels if you need to use a dremel, get the old discs instead.

I haven't had any problem with the ez-locks, but I don't feel like they're worth the price premium over the regular reinforced cutting disks.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 21:42

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Yu-Gi-Ho! posted:

Fo3 is in upside-down land. No Home Depot there.

e: they do have a chain called Your Home Depot, but it looks like it's kind of like our Bed Bath & Beyond.

I knew that and somehow forgot.

# ¿ May 29, 2017 21:43

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 10:19

Darchangel: Feb 12, 2009; Tell him about the blower!

Ferremit posted:

Everyone keeps asking me why Im not a professional mechanic with how good I am at fixing mechanical poo poo and it boils down to the fact that if i did this every day, i'd hate it. Never make your hobby your profession unless your 100% comfortable with resenting your hobby for the rest of your life.

This, so very much.

Re: $40k car. I still can't afford one at 47. I probably could, but I'd have to give up some other stuff.

# ¿ May 30, 2017 17:35

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > MAY 2017 CHAT THREAD - All my freinds are getting married

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