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[Kagus]

Coachgun or bust

[Iduno]

That's the US, though. That clip seems to have came from australia.

Yeah, I made the connection that both were idiots and then...even I don't know what I was going for on that one.

Couple months back, building maintenance dude replaced the fill valve in the toilet, ‘cause it was leaking. Flush is subsequently very poor, needing to be held down basically until the water is gone lest it don’t actually flush, and I then have to plunge the toilet every day.

About a month or so ago, I came home from work to find the maintenance guy and some other dude unloading three toilets from a truck, and taking them upstairs.

End of last week I receive a note under my door (apparently the exclusive means through which my building manager likes to communicate) informing me that they will be testing the smoke detector and checking the windows for fogging or some such, as preventive maintenance. This note also informs me the check will begin on Monday at 9am, and will happen between then and today. It doesn’t take 3 days to check if 20-odd smoke detectors are working, I thinks.

I return home from work yesterday to find what I assume are the old toilets that were replaced, in the foyer of the building. Most welcoming.

I return home from work today to find the same, and also bits of cardboard and a shop-vac outside my apartment door. Enter to find people working in the bathroom. Evidently they replaced the toilet, the showerhead, and added some really stupid aerator thing or whatever to the bottom of the sink faucet, one of these things that is stupidly high pressure and splits the stream into like 8 bits in a circle which makes it very difficult to actually wash your hands, while simultaneously spraying water everywhere in the vicinity.

Folks explain what they have done (except the sink faucet thing, I got to discover that myself) and how the new toilet differed from the old one. I overhear one of them ask the other about the smoke detector, which they assume is hardwired and presumably wasn’t tested prior to my arrival. They then ask if I’ve seen fogging over Winter, to which I say “I don’t think so” because it’s not exactly been anywhere near theist of things I need to give a shit about, and I really just want them to go away.

I am thus left to feel maintenance didn’t do what I was told they were going to do, and performed three tasks that I’m aware of that I was in no way shape or form prepared for them to do, particularly when the only thing that wasn’t working was something that was their fault in the first place, but otherwise bearable to live with.

Toilet is slightly higher than the old one and has an elongated bowl rather than round. I pooped in it and was underwhelmed. Seat digs into my thighs and is consequently uncomfortable. The flush is real good though, makes everything disappear quickly. Much wow. Will check out the shower tomorrow.

TL;DR my building manager is not very good fucking woeful at communicating and miscellaneous first world problems.

That sounds a lot like my landlord experiences. Except for them fixing the problem the first time. Given how few companies own all of the small shell leasing offices, this may have been a corporate thing.

[McTraveller]

We need to replace one of our vehicles, and have been waiting to look at the new hybrid Explorer Ford is going to sell this summer.  (Wife really wants an Explorer, but I don't want to pay for the gas for such a thing since our current car gets 30+mpg and she drives about 18k miles/year.  Hybrid Explorer claims 30mpg, so I'd be willing to give it a chance.)

Starting at $53,375!  WTF... no wonder US car companies' sales numbers are dropping...


I'd be better buying a used "gas guzzler" Explorer at this rate... I mean, at 18k miles/year and the what looks like $3/gallon gasoline again, that's $1800 a year currently for gas.  Going to 20mpg instead is $2700 a year in gas...  that extra $900 a year in fuel is nothing compared to the extra monthly cost of a lease or purchase on a $54k vehicle...  (the difference in monthly cost between a $25000 used vehicle and a $53400 new vehicle over 60 months is at least $473 a month - and that's at 0% interest. Heck even if you keep cars for 120 months like I do, it still doesn't even work out unless gasoline prices triple )!

So for all those people wondering why people don't buy more "green" vehicles - holy crap they cost so much it's not worth it!  And this is even taking into account the present-value-discounted cost of pollution.

What I mean is - if "global warming" is going to cost me $100 in 20 years, then the cost to fix it in today's dollars better be less than $55.37 (assuming 3% interest).  That is - if it costs more than $55.37 to eliminate that $100 in the future, I'd be better just putting $55.37 in a conservative account and paying the $100 in the future than spending the money to 'fix' it now.

[Lord Shonus]

Don't discount the convenience factor. 20 mpg instead of 30 means 33% more time spent fuelling the thing.

[Doomblade187]

McTraveller, maybe there's a tax break if you buy a hybrid? I forget if that's consumer or dealer side though. May help a bit.

[Kagus]

Norway had lots of concessions for owners of electric cars, such as not having to pay yearly car ownership fees, being exempt from payment on toll roads, and being allowed to drive in the bus lane.

...but then lots of people bought electric cars, and the gov't wasn't making nearly as much off of car ownership fees and toll roads as they used to. So they stopped allowing electrics in the bus lane.

Then there was an outrage, and they put them back in the bus lane.

But then they took them out of the bus lane again. And then they put them back.


It's simple, really.

[McTraveller]

Eh, taking 200 seconds instead of 150 to refuel doesn't really matter.  US gas pumps are fast.

Yeah I suppose if you add it up over a year it's... not even an hour a year. (We fill up once a week, so 1 minute x 52 weeks a year).

Also: Neither the US nor my state have no credit/deduction for hybrids, only for full electric.

[Mephisto]

For environmental issues relating to cars, you need to think about more than just fuel use. Take a look at how we do cobalt mining.

[McTraveller]

For environmental issues relating to cars, you need to think about more than just fuel use. Take a look at how we do cobalt mining.

Well, yes, the most environmentally friendly vehicle of any sort is almost always a used one (you can burn a lot of fuel and make a lot of CO2 before you exceed the pollution/energy/emission cost associated with manufacturing a new vehicle).

Fuel use is important to me because it has an immediate cost - my checkbook is indeed a zero-sum economy.

CO2 is somewhat important because even though it has a probabilistic cost in the future, it impacts me.

Cobalt mining issues - well those are so localized that I'd really have to be concerned only from a moral imperative standpoint.  And if I was concerned about that there are a thousand more bang-for-buck initiatives I could join.

Great, now I feel bad because I'm not really actively involved in any initiatives; only indirectly

[Castlecliff]

Jordan Petersons book 12 steps to shooting muslims got taken out of bookstores in this cuntry cause of some fucking loser who got mk:ultra mind controlled to kill some religos for the purpose of free speech being censored, you know there were four people doing the shooting right the other three wer wearing gear as well but oops we wont report about that. Just put them back on the sleeper cell agent list and keep em fresh for the next op.
Hail santa

[TamerVirus]

Jordan Petersons book 12 steps to shooting muslims got taken out of bookstores in this cuntry cause of some fucking loser who got mk:ultra mind controlled to kill some religos for the purpose of free speech being censored, you know there were four people doing the shooting right the other three wer wearing gear as well but oops we wont report about that. Just put them back on the sleeper cell agent list and keep em fresh for the next op.
Hail santa

[bloop_bleep]

The book's real title is "12 Rules for Life"; the "shooting Muslims" part was probably ironic. Apparently 1 of 7 guys in a religious shooting made a reference to the book in his manifesto or whatever and now the book is banned in the whole country.

[Iduno]

Wait, the crazy rightwing nutjob who is at best Nazi-light is popular among Nazis? Who'd have thunk?

[Mephisto]

And nothing of value was lost.

[Rolan7]

Why the hell would they ban it?  Do... do they think that'll make it less likely to reach its audience?  Isn't book-banning kinda last century

All it does is feed his audience's "Globalist" (Jewish) conspiracy theories, and make his ideas seem like a threat to "the establishment".  (Those ideas are essentially: Clean your room, women are only interested in powerful men and infidelity, I'm not saying I'm Christian but God is the most powerful being and we should follow Jesus's example, and we should find strength in our racial heritage).  one out of four ain't bad I guess