Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

The court of public opinion is a crappy court. That’s why it’s not lawfully recognized.

Truck has infuriated me today. I almost lost my cool, which I hardly EVER do. Stalled 19 times in a two mile stretch. Limped back to office, disconnected battery to reset PCM, seems to have adapted to new part replacements. We’ll see once I leave.

@NEStalgia I just hate people making assumptions based on hear-say or half truths. That's just not how things are logically supposed to work. Then again: finding actually logical and reasonable people in today's world is practically getting harder by the day. It's all short-term thinking, no planning, easy and quick judgment and damn the consequences.

That might make me sound like some bitter old man, but that is how I often feel about it. And a little bit too often, of late...

In a way, I both applaud and envy your still present conviction of being able to do your part in making some people consider otherwise, but as my previously mentioned sentiment has probably already given away, I've already lost hope that I would be able to convert even a single one of these short-sighted individuals. They often also come up with reasons or "proof" of why they are in the right. In this particular case, I believe the archetype is present in the form of that teacher guy.

Like as if him mentioning being a teacher immediately invalidates any and all things that you had to say, and prove that he's absolutely right, because "reasons"... Ugh... makes me nauseous just thinking about it.

But having said all that, I suppose that, for completeness' sake, I do also have to mention that over here, the justice system is completely grounded in the "innocent until proven guilty" way of thinking, so even though people that are ultimately proven innocent will still sometimes be stigmatized/traumatized for life, it happens far less than in a system where you are charged as guilty from day one, and subsequently have to fight a battle to clear your name and reputation.

So, obviously, that's what I'm used to and that will undoubtedly have also had its effect on my own views and way of thinking, after all of these years of living here...

There remaking resident evil 3. Why don't they remake eternal darkness of release a new one, I'd buy that.

Guess I’m catching a ride home. I’ll get the truck over to the shop tomorrow, it’s only a stone throw from my office and has a back road to it. They can figure it out. I’m done.

@Ninfan re3 would be cool if it comes to switch but i highly doubt it will. Capcom doesn't release big "new titles" on switch. And it's only a rumor at this point right?

@MarioLover92 I'm kind of surprised there aren't any Rosalina ornaments, I guess Hallmark only kept it to the more well known Mario characters. At least to the general public. Honestly, I think it would have been pretty cool to see other Nintendo ornaments.

@Ninfan If that's true, I know a friend I went to school with who's a big Resident Evil fan who will be happy for that.

I found out today that my mid 80s grandma is mad because she canceled her internet service, but nobody told her she would no longer be able to use facebook without it. What a weird time to be alive.

@HobbitGamer - Maybe the fuel pump? I don’t think you’ve mentioned replacing that? If she had always been rambling around my parts, you’d need a couple tank straps with that pump.

@bimmy-lee lol that's hilarious.

@bimmy-lee Never replaces that, but the delivery definitely isn’t an issue. No compression loss, no oil in the TB, no misfiring, no knocking. When it stalls, it’s pretty immediate like a key turn. If it almost stalls but recovers, it’s like a sleep apnea person taking a gasp. I admit I dropped the new IAC from 4 ft onto hard concrete, but I dunno. I’ve got a test to check it. If it’s a bad/broke part, I’ll swap it. If not, I’m letting the shop look.

Tell your gramma to pay the Facepeople

@NintendoByNature - Dude, it slayed me! Like FB is a program on her PC or something. I can’t wait until I’m saying stuff like that. Raising my voice with ISP call center staff because they messed up my facebook when they shut off my innernet. Bless her heart, she taught me how to play video games on her old 2600. I’ve fixed a lot of computer, internet, and television problems for her over the years to pay her back. Just wish she would have consulted me about this internet situation.

@HobbitGamer - I’ll let her know, I’m sure they already have multiple ways to access her banking accounts. Should be an easy transaction. It could be a fuel pressure issue, sometimes the pumps get irregular before they completely go, but now I’m having a vague recollection of incorrectly diagnosing a pump on a prior issue; so I’m definitely wrong.

@bimmy-lee hahaha. My grandma is 91, And she's surpringsly still there. But, it's fun to mess with her every now and then. Shes always complaining about Comcast so when were all over. Either myself or my brother will call her house line and one of us will immediately pick up so she doesn't see the caller id. We then pretend to be Comcast and tell her how thankful we are that she upgraded to the premium package and ordered several movies recently. She proceeds to say a few cuss words at us, thinking were a Comcast representative, then we all (mom and aunts included), start laughing and she realizes it was just a goof.. I know what you're thinking. NBN is a little rascal and treats his grandma poorly, but i can assure you, my brother and i do an awful lot for her, and us two are far and wide her favorite grandchildren 😂. So i think we're in the clear. Not to mention, her and my grandfather who passed, have what they called .... a $*@t list. And if you were on said list, well....you were stuck there. We were never on the list thankfully lol. So yea pranks aside, I'm a good grandson and she loves it.

Legend says one of my overly religious aunts had (perhaps still has) an infamous “gay list”, which allegedly included basically every bachelor in the family.

Let's leave it up to interpretation for the sake of the thread.

@NintendoByNature - That’s a great grandma gag! I’m sure she loves playing her part in it. My FB grandma used to answer the phones at my grandpa’s shop, and I prank called her all the time. My other grandma had the same list. I was lucky to never be on it. I was one of the good grandkids, and could have committed a felony right in front of her, and she would have just looked the other way.

@Eel - My mom has six sisters, and every one of them has their own unique list, as well as the list NBN mentioned above. They’re always keeping track of everyone, making judgements, and adjusting their rankings. I love them, but it’s suuuuper petty. One of the many reasons I’ve never joined FB. That’s where all the pageantry and judgement occurs.

@bimmy-lee Haha prank calls to your grandparents is classic for sure. As long as it's nothing too serious lol. It's good being the favored grandkid in the family, always get that extra bit of slack. My grandma is now doing the same for my children. I feel bad now that I'm older and can see how she's favoring mine over my cousins, but we also take the time to see her more, and I call her at least once a week which she tells me every time, " you're the only one who calls me." So I guess it makes sense.

One time when I was tiny, my great gramma took out her dentures and spooked me. I went running away bawling to my mom and gg was just cackling away having a riot 😂. She was awesome.

@bimmy-lee I am going to mention the pump or regulator to the shop later. And possibly camshaft position sensor. I mean, the think is 20 years old with over 190k, so it’s one of those wear parts. Gonna be annoyed if I broke that IAC though.
With the new labor statute for exempt employees in effect Jan 1, I’m hoping to get a significant pay bump and get a 5 year plan rolling that includes replacing the truck in two years.

@Eel @Link-Hero Traditional Mexican Roman Catholic? Yeah....gonna go with against on that one.

@ThanosReXXX Hah, you give me too much credit. I certainly don't think I'll ever change the thinking of the argumentative types I end up debating. Sometimes some of them, at first, I at least think they might see reason. Occasionally they actually do, and consider the other side of the arguments. Others show quickly, in a first response they might pretend to be actually debating viewpoints, but within another reply or two they usually show that their idea of "understanding" means "making sure everyone agrees with my views." No, it's the lurkers not participating I hope to affect. The web is filled with one-sided diatribes from the "my view is the only right view" zealots, with little alternate viewpoint. Adding to their response another way of seeing it and a deeper look into all the aspects that aren't considered by the shallow talking points won't change the opinion of the zealots, but the other people reading, lurking, etc, that might eventually just accept all those rants as absolute truth ("If the lie is big enough, and you repeat it often enough, eventually it will be accepted as truth." - One of the wisest quotes ever stated, even if it was stated by one of ill intent) also get exposed to that deeper look into different angles of the problem and can quietly evaluate things for themselves by reading the exchange. On a small degree it's effective, you can see in that thread, he was unchallenged in his politically correct viewpoint until that exchange happened, then a few other people that may have been silent chimed in, questioning his absolutism as well. Sometimes people are silent until they see others are thinking what they're thinking. That accounts for the posters, but there's probably 100 lurkers for every poster who also got some brain wheels turning.

Can't fix the world, but at least it's something!

And for reference, that poster is Canadian, so we're all on equal footing of being raised with the adversarial legal system. Although inquisitional systems sidestep that issue more significantly via different means - mainly buy not even filing charges until the prosecutors believe they have sufficient evidence in hand for conviction (where adversarial systems allow pressing charges based on accusation and then hashing out the evidence to render a verdict), so it tends to be "guilty until proven innocent because we're already sitting on more than enough evidence to prove it, unless you can prove that this mountain of evidence is in fact flawed." - at least in societies with that system that aim for actual blind justice, much of Europe, Japan, etc. "Tin pot" countries are a different thing. Both systems are derived from the Roman Code of Justinian - so both tend to just use different mechanisms for the same overall results.

Although tech is going to mess with the courts in disastrous ways. nVidia keeps hyping that photo editor that can take any picture and change the season completely and realistically to the same scene in another season. They're working on one that can put anyone into any picture. They're working on one that can create completely imaginary people from scratch (imagine how that can be used - build-a-criminal and associate real people with him/her.) And I know there is at least one (or more) Chinese company with pretty sophisticated software that can edit ANYONE'S face VERY believably without some extreme forensics atop anyone else's face into a video. They keep demoing it as a novelty, but it works disturbingly well, and you KNOW they're not using it simply as a novelty. We can see where this is going. I can have video proof of you inciting protests in Beijing as evidence of your crime just by having some other video of you in any other situation and a video of some other random person inciting protests. I can have photo or video proof of you being in a restricted area during a particular time after a snowstorm, based on video or photos of you having been there in autumn 5 years earlier. I'm not sure how valid evidence is even going to become in the future when you can create evidence out of thin air. Sure deep forensics can probably expose the frauds (for now), but how long can court forensics keep up with every bit of evidence and tech enhancements - particularly when military grade software is in play. The world does get ever bleaker.

And you're right about short-term thinking - in many ways, not just social matters. It's been a plague, world-wide in very deep ways. Has the "retail apocalypse" hit EU and NED yet? It was known for the US, but I know it's ravaging the UK and likely many other places as well. You're an S&M guy ( ) so I figure you're probably onto that. I've been following it all too heavily, and it's the brilliant case of 40 years of short-term thinking in every way. Building tons of retail on cheap 60's & 70's real-estate. A commercial real-estate bubble caused by borrowing against imaginary rents, that were possible only because big chains were willing to bet ever rising spending, leveraged buyouts that never made any sense at all finally coming to roost, obsessing over quarterlies at the cost of the functioning of the whole store. Short term, short term, short term...the entirety of society has been built on short-term thinking since the 80's with 2019's money having already been spent in 1985 on the assumption it would have octupled by 2019. Short-term thinking isn't just a social media ill, it seems to be the central operating principle of post WWII Western society (including Japan, which is, economically, Western.)

Hey kid....you want a ditto?

My dittos bring all the trainers to the nursery

And they're like "you're better than taurus"

@bimmy-lee Truck fixed. It was that IAC valve I waranteed out yesterday (and subsequently dropped). Went to a totally different parts chain and bought a more durable brand, immediately noticed the spring worked better in my hand. Popped in on the truck, let it settle back down to normal idle, and was able to drive around a few blocks. Stopping suddenly, moving foward suddenly, gunning it, reverse turning while stopped and under a load. Perfect. It's almost like wearing glasses the first time.