Miles O'Brien

My wife started out with tons of republican views, she just didn’t vote ever.

Through conversations about the state of things, pointing* out hypocrisy, and validating the feelings her religious family was telling her to suppress, I’m happy to say I’ve managed to marry a leftist. She didn’t even really have the liberal pit-stop many of us take.

I’ll take 100,000 leftists married/dating/whatever to 100,000 liberals over 200,000 conservatives any day of the week.

And what country are you from where racism is not an issue?

No really, where, because a non-racist place to live sounds fantastic, especially nowadays.

Well, it’ll be taught, just not as official curriculum.

I learned about a man from Nantucket at school.

And the United States government, whose nuclear launch systems for decades had a default “0000000” password on systems so old they figured nobody would know how to hack them in person anymore, and they’re incompatible with the internet.

It’s disturbing to me that my high school hobby of fixing and operating old computers meant I could have launched nukes.

Too many to count, and more than I even remember.

I went without internet in an area not friendly to children being outside, so I watched movies in no particular order over and over. Just “yeah I haven’t watched this in a few weeks” and re-watch.

Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, Monty Python (all), Princess Bride, MIB, Evolution, Terminator 1&2, Starship Trooper… Honestly most popular Sci fi movies from the 90s… The sound of music, fiddler on the roof, a bunch of musicals…

I’m sure I watched the classic disney movies many times.

I know people who buy watch a movie and then don’t feel like watching any of them ever again.

Why do that and risk actually losing, when you can go after the small guy and send a message to the plebs?

worth

From someone who remembers the people’s champions…

[X] Doubt

Everybody gangsta till the snow starts speaking Finnish.

I’m not a fan of nukes.

I say we get about 1,000 people, some bulldozers, and then squish everything into one big pile in the middle. That should be enough, but we can always run over it a few times with a steamroller for good measure.

Call it “Mt. Capitalism” or maybe “Mt. Inheritance” and leave it as a warning.

I’ve slowly gotten a couple people around on “collective bargaining”, I’m avoiding using the big scary U word to them

My employer “encourages” everyone to clock in for the day and from lunch up to 7 minutes early.

My employer also likes to take any and every opportunity to punish people for “abusing breaks” which here means “you walked to the break area and took your 15 minute break and walked back to your station” instead of "15minutes starts at your station and ends at your station so you really only get an 8-12 minute break depending on how far you have to walk.

And forget about bathroom breaks outside your 15s and lunch.

My employer also pays the same every single week, regardless of whether you clocked in 7 minutes early every day or exactly on time.

My employer calls our “abuse” of breaks and lack of clocking in early “wage theft”

The first time I got written up for going to the bathroom and he said “wage theft” I went and printed out 100 copies of a wage theft guide with sources and graphs to demonstrate how employers are the #1 driver of wage theft and it’s not even close. Plastered them all over where there are no cameras.

Thanks!

Source?

I used to sell and fix bikes, now every time I’m out I’m judging people’s choice of bikes.

Not in the “ugh you’re riding a mongoose?” way but the “you need to give that bicycle to a teenager and get a larger one that fits your size, how tall are you? What kind of riding are you expecting to do?” and many other such questions if I strike up a conversation with them.

I want everyone to have a pleasant time while out on their bike. If they don’t have fun, if they are too tired after a ride, or in pain, they won’t want to ride more, and then less people are out not driving cars.

Lpt: (in general) when riding a bicycle, you want the top section of your leg (femur) to be no higher than parallel to the ground at the top of the pedal stroke, and you want your leg to be extended, but not fully straight, when at the bottom of the stroke. You can injure your hips, knees, and leg muscles if you ride an incorrectly sized bike for long periods.

Most adult bicycles should be measured from the spot where the pedals go to the frame to the hole where the seat post goes in. If it’s not measured in inches or centimeters, it might have letter sizing, and if it has bone of those, I wouldn’t trust the quality of the bike. These measurements are more of a guide, when in doubt, use the leg position rule.

The type of bike you have will change your experience quite a bit. If you try to take a road bike (super skinny tires, often has ram horn handlebars) on the mountain trail, you’re gonna have a bad time. Mountain bikes are geared for more power, road bikes are more geared for speed. Hybrids have a good balance and make light off-roading possible. Downhill bikes are like mountain bikes but with a steeper angle on the front fork, to give you better handling while, you guessed it, going down a hill.

I die a little inside every time I see an adult riding a child sized bike.

“well the teenager at Walmart said I needed a 26 inch bike for the hiking trails so I got the 26 inch bike” he said, standing at 6ft3 next to a 15 inch frame bike with 26 inch wheels and tires about an inch wide…

And now when I see aluminum construction, I wonder how it’s been done and try to figure out the various extruded pieces they used.

Ah, then no forced air through ventilation ducts to move air around.

My current house doesn’t have vents either, but I have fans that move air around the important bits that get occupied the most. With my dogs needing to go out, and work, the doors are open enough, and there’s enough leakage to not worry about co2 levels. Except my wife sometimes trips the sensor in the hallway when she takes a long bath while burning multiple candles…

Lpt: if your residence has central heating/ac and was made within the last 50 years then your house is probably getting sufficient airflow.

That solar panel looks useful.

Since I have never gone out in nondescript black clothing at night to destroy these things, I can’t say from firsthand knowledge…

But yes, yes they are. They make great trickle chargers for large batteries that only get used intermittently. Or string several together and enjoy an ebike battery charger. I have a similarly sized and shaped panel I found somewhere that I use to charge my 18650 bank.

I feel very bad for whoever considers me a villain in their story.

Like not to belittle them or their struggles, but uh… gestures to self just look at me…

A couple flock cameras near my town keep getting taken out and put back up.

The latest blurry security camera footage to catch the culprit has led to sweet FA since they ride a nondescript dark color mountain bike, wear all black clothing without logos or text, and seem to avoid riding their bike unmasked near businesses with cameras and houses that might have door cameras.

I don’t even think they know gender/skin/hair color. Anything other than “average human height” really.

Anyway, shout out to everyone who destroys one of these things. It’s illegal, but it’s the morally correct thing to do.

Lmao my mom used to say real men don’t cry.

One day as a teen I was angry and tearing up and she said that, so I just screamed at her “I’VE SEEN DAD AND GRANDPA BOTH CRY SO SHUT THE FUCK UP” And honestly I think she realized she was wrong at least about that, because she has never said it since even to my sister’s kids, and I didn’t even get in trouble for swearing at her.

Cry away, fellow human. Disregard those who cannot allow themselves to feel emotions for fear of seeming “less than”.