Commenting again to say that I can definitely vouch for the recipe. It was pretty good!

I know. I was just seeing if you would notice. awkward laughter

(But thanks, I was trying to wing the conversion and started off with 3.3ft =1m and then did the numbers meme while my fingers typed gibberish.)

I have an FDM printer (Ender 3 clone) that is mostly 2020 aluminum extrusion as the frame. A few years ago I found some 2020 on sale and built a set of shelves for my wife’s plants out of it. (Now - I know. It’s not the most economical use of materials, but it was the middle of winter, and I didn’t want to go work in the garage. Plus the 2020 was on sale.) It’ll support a slew of plants over a 4-foot span (~1.2m) without any sagging or other concerns. It can be wobbly side to side, but that’s a matter of bracing and connectors.

Well. Hm. I currently have all those ingredients…

Excellent idea.

That’s a medical complaint to your local licensing board.

Yeah, so during my procedure, my doctor either didn’t numb me up enough or whatever, but I said “I felt that.” right at the start and he said “Do you mean you felt some pressure?” To which I responded: “uh… no. You just put a clamp on my left testicle.”
At which point he said “Oh! Well, let’s get you numbed up a bit more then!” And they did.
That didn’t really stop my body from going into full freakout mode. My BP went up, temperature spiked, and I laid there trying to meditate while the nurses dealt with the physical symptoms.

It was so weird. I had a full physical reaction, but my emotional state was pretty solid, because I trusted their reaction and could tell they cared about my comfort.

We had to stop buying bananas because the ziplock bag for bananas is bulging and can’t possibly fit another.

I really should make some gross banana bread.

hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on religion

This means anyone who wants to tear down separation of church and state is a terrorist. …. right?

In my community, street racing seems to be the entertainment du jour for people with nothing better to do. I live about a half mile (800m) from a major roadway, and very often am jarred by the noise of people racing full tilt. There are a few people who even have modified their cars to be louder, and you can distinctly pick out the sound of their cars.
I’m a light sleeper, and these people will wake me up in the middle of the night with their ‘shotgun exhausts,’ racing down the street. They kill about 5 people a year. Earlier this year, a street race injured over a dozen people, and killed a kid.

As a result, the city has re-timed the lights so that when traveling at normal speeds, traffic is stopped at every stoplight, which means that most drivers now just wontonly disregard speed limits to beat the light timing and not get trapped in a frustrating cycle where a 2-mile drive down the road takes upwards of 15 minutes instead of 5. This just causes the street racers to race later, when they can run the lights and wake everyone up. Plus the increase in speeding by normal drivers decreases safety on the road.

Both the direct and network effects of their stupidity are pretty significant.
So - yes. Street racers are bad people. They are callous, immature, and both actively and passively endanger other motorists. Also, I’m fucking tired, and my dogs are traumatized.

Most people haven’t even tried the soap box.

The limited-time rebrand to Maxwell Apartment […] is one of two [marketing] campaigns debuting from the coffee brand

It’s just advertising.

This 2021 article paints a damning picture.

Oklahoma coach preyed on players while school looked the other way, lawsuit alleges — The Oklahoman

Back in the bad old days of the 2009 recession, I got caught in the churn and wound up at a temp agency to make ends meet.
One of my assignments was driving about 6 hours a day, from gas station to gas station to “buy” cigarettes. I never actually bought anything. What I did do, however, was wait until they asked me for either my ID or money. If they asked me for ID, they got a green card. If they asked me for money with no sign of ID’ing me, they got a red card.
It was a voluntary program by Philip Morris to curtail underage smoking. I don’t know what actually happened to the cashiers. I was told no one got punished. (And folks reacted with disappointment, but not sadness or anger. Folks with green cards reacted happily, though. So I assume it was an Incentive-based program.) These interactions got logged, and I turned in the log sheet at the end of the day.

Because we’re victims of our own experience, that immediately came to mind. I feel like we need to start blindly testing if mandatory reporters are reporting things they witness. I mean - no idea how that gets worked out. Seems horrible.

I remember the routes, too, but you don’t have random road congestion or construction that sometimes necessitates alternative routes? It’s like having a psychic friend that tells you when the most direct route is fucked.

I guess I also want to add that when I go out, I’m always in a helmet, knee and elbow pads, and wrist guards.

You never quite know what’s going to happen out there —
A few years ago on a wide trail, someone in front of me panicked right as I was about to pass them and they moved directly into my path. I had to bail off the trail to try to “run off” my momentum, but they stepped more into the way and caught my skate with theirs just before I could get a foot down. I wound up in a semi-uncontrolled fall that saw my wrist guards taking the brunt of a tree I was going to dodge if I’d had my feet.
Last year on a freshly paved road, my wife let out blood curdling scream from behind me as we were bombing down a hill. I swung into a power slide to stop but instead of sliding, my wheels just kept traction and I suddenly found myself heading for a curb at about 20 mph with only a few feet to maneuver. It was bad, too. Curb, couple feet of grass, then broken and uneven sidewalk, followed by mangled and rusty metal fence. Clipped the curb and went down hard on my pads and helmet – cracked my helmet on the sidewalk. Walked away fine. (Buy good helmets and always replace your helmet after a crash.) My wife was fine. She hit a small rock and panicked. Didn’t even fall.

I know – same! I fall constantly on traditional skates.
My wife is the opposite. She can’t figure out in-line skates, but traditional skates just work for her.

In that instance. I’d probably drag a wheel, or use the alignment of my feet to slow myself down, paired with an occasional spin stop.

I’ve never really thought about it. I’m not a fancy skater – my skates do have brakes, so my technique isn’t such that I have to plan for never using them.

If I have the width I’ll slalom down hills to bleed speed - even doing little loops up the hill at the turn of each switchback to bleed off speed. If there’s not enough room to slow down, I might bomb though if it’s safe to do so (because that’s why roller blading is so fun, anyway). I might skate on one foot and drag a wheel behind or make my toes point toward each other slightly, just out of parallel - the greater the angle, the more drag the out of alignment wheels produce. I often tend to drag a wheel or use the brake, then spin to stop, before resuming.

There are other techniques for stopping or slowing down, but those are my go to’s.

I never learned to ride a bike and every attempt has been met with injuries as soon as I build a modicum of confidence. But I can rollerblade like nobody’s business, so I got that going for me.

I honestly have no recollection. It was about 10 years ago. I probably just used like half the seasoning packet with salt and pepper. (Because that seems like something I’d do.)

I once forgot about it in a crock pot using the fast cook method and basically boiled the whole thing into mush. It made for a delicious bean dip.

Everything you said is valid, and in my experience mailings easily take a week to orchestrate.

If you have to send out 5,000 letters, you have to first print 5k letters — assuming the local water department already has a robust template in place, and it doesn’t wind up dragged on by reviews and approvals.

If they haven’t made generic prints to keep in stock, they have to have their own print facilities, or have an on-call printer capable of doing all other work to deal with emergencies, or possibly work outside of business hours.

Even then, it’s a minimum turnaround of a day. The mail has to go into the system, be sorted and sent to local post offices, then given to mail carriers. The few times I did direct mail, they estimated a minimum of 3 days to deliver, even when dropping off first thing in the morning and the addressee was in the same city.

Even if they managed to get next day delivery, they’d still have a 24h delay in which people could be drinking contaminated water.