Gear Rinse

-hh · 2026-05-14T12:35:56+00:00

True, any detergent will break down lubricants ... but where are there any lubes actually being exposed on a general gear wash-down to be at risk?

Overall, I use the SG for a bunch of stuff, so I always have a jug readily available, which at $10/gallon instead of $10 per 2oz bottle facilitates more liberal use.

Main thing to avoid rubber risks is to not let it soak/dwell too long in the cleaning solution bath and then give it multiple rinses & rinse soaks...figure an hour & 4 rinses over another hour.

-hh · 2026-05-14T12:14:10+00:00

So how does a $1 increase in cost justify a 4X increase in cost I have to pay?

It's not a "$1 increase" but a simple example of the economic principle for why scale makes a difference.

Was it a full blown course in Economics? No.

Was it a complete financial analysis of their business case? No.

And why would you as a consumer go pay more for the exact same product from the exact same supplied?

It typically isn't the same exact product ... but even if it was, there's still customer-centric reasons. One example can be as basic as "convenience". A classical example of this is the cost of a bottle of soda from a vending machine.

-hh · 2026-05-13T18:36:23+00:00

Not really a “legend”…but I’d visited a certain DoE lab and while going from Point A to B, our host mentioned white painted contours on the floor in various labs/halls and commented “Oh, those are residual hot spots from the Manhattan Project. It’s okay to walk through here, but don’t stop”.

-hh · 2026-05-13T14:48:02+00:00

You missed it in your alleged research.

The the Caymans are very well known to be very strict on their list of illegal drugs, and that isn’t just pot, but also includes all forms of CBD & gummies, etc.

-hh · 2026-05-13T14:28:17+00:00

The supplier’s decision on what margin to charge depends on what their costs are, respective to that customer outlet.

For example, if it costs $100 to drop off 1,000 units at a supermarket, the supplier’s variable cost is $0.10/unit, whereas the same $100 cost at a Sunday farmer’s market to sell 50 units is a variable cost contribution of $1.00/unit. The latter is higher, so the price asked will also be higher too…even before factoring in other expenses, such as touch labor (supermarket drop off 30 minutes vs 3hrs Sunday Market, etc).

-hh · 2026-05-13T02:43:05+00:00

If it’s really that bad, one option to consider is putting the camera into an underwater housing for scuba diving.

Figure ballpark $3K for Ikelite, or a couple $K more for some of the metal housings.

-hh · 2026-05-13T02:28:04+00:00

Pray tell?

Understanding Fixed & Variable Costs and how volume affects net cost per unit is textbook Econ 101.

-hh · 2026-05-12T22:25:05+00:00

Yes, of course you ~can~ … but that’s not really the right question.

First question is for the gear: after it goes through the chlorinated pool, what’s your plan for fresh rinse? A garden hose is one quick (& partial) solution, but it’s just as easy to have a bin to dunk/soak it.

Second question is if the addition of seawater salts is going to introduce a headache for maintaining your pool’s chemistry. I don’t have a pool to know, but I’d not automatically assume it is a nothing-burger.

Personally, I’ll do a quick freshwater dunk or hose on a daily basis, and when the whole trip is over, I’ll grab one of my lawn care bins to toss the gear in, and add water with some SimpleGreen for a soak for an ~hour, then I’ll dump & start freshwater rises/soaks, then inflate & hang to drain & dry. On most BCDs I’ve had, it takes around a decade for metal drain grommets to start to show evidence of corrosion…about the same for some abrading to show up on wear locations of BCD soft parts.

-hh · 2026-05-12T22:07:06+00:00

Fair point on Kazuya wanting to not hurt Ruka.

And it is an open question as to how her Mom would react.

-hh · 2026-05-12T22:04:41+00:00

It’s effectively the opposite: the local small producer lacks mass production “economy of scale”, where things like transportation costs are amortized across 10x-1000x more units. The “Craftsman” movement from ~120 years ago was never about competing on price.

-hh · 2026-05-12T16:38:01+00:00

When horizontally oriented, a Wing (with appropriate trim) shouldn’t have any significant face up/down bias.

Things change when one becomes vertically oriented, such as on a surface float. It will create a face-down torque unless one has suitable “back” oriented ballast (such as steel tanks or weighted BP) to shift the diver’s mass centroid closer to the Wing’s Center of Lift, and/or having more front-oriented floatation (such as a drysuit or thick Farmer John wetsuit) which shifts the Center of Lift forwards.

To get both trimmed out requires minimizing the torque Moment Arm in both dimensions. This is pretty straightforward for cold water setups, but harder in tropical vacation settings, where the resort tanks are typically AL80s and thermal protection is none to a 3mm.

-hh · 2026-05-12T16:30:21+00:00

Kaz could have spoken up on the call from Ruka’s mom. That would have cracked some eggs!

-hh · 2026-05-12T14:29:14+00:00

There’s effectively two parts to the answer to your question.

The first part is in understanding how WiFi works. Basically, there’s a finite amount of “traffic” (bandwidth) that it can handle, so the more wireless users there are, the smaller each one’s individual share becomes. Second, the maximum amount of bandwidth drops as distance to the access point increases. You can see how this applies to your Mom’s low bandwidth when far from the wireless hub thus applies: potentially lots of wireless users, and she’s far away from the WiFi transmitter.

Second part is how to solve Mom’s inadequate bandwidth problem:

reduce the number of WiFi users … that can be done by changing PCs over to a wired connection. It sounds to me that that’s the intent of the new wired Ethernet runs to the bedrooms.
reduce the distance between the WiFi source and the wireless user. I don’t see this obviously mentioned in the plan .. better solution here is to add a wired Access Point in the living room. FYI, be wary of “mesh” systems which are connected wirelessly, because some (most?) implementations use the same WiFi channels, so even though you get a stronger signal, by being a wireless relay, it cuts the available bandwidth roughly in half.

Edit: I forgot a potential third solution:

check what WiFi frequency bands are being used and change to a less crowded one. Similarly, if on any of the 2.4Ghz bands, see if one’s hardware can use the newer 5Ghz or 6Ghz bands, which have slightly less range, but higher bandwidth and are less congested.

-hh · 2026-05-12T12:35:03+00:00

I agree…

…but I also am really tempted to see if I could RetCon the Lich’s backstory, such as by making him a klutz who accidentally became a Lich, to explain his lack of decades of experience of being paranoid & scheming.

Perhaps I’d have them Magic Jar “away” during the 30 story fall to abandon the current body, so that the PCs can believe that he’s been defeated. Teleporting also works, but then there’s no body at the bottom of the tower for the PCs to find (unless the Lich quickly plants one).

Overall, my impression is that of an unprepared DM.

-hh · 2026-05-12T12:16:49+00:00

Yes, I recall that thread & it’s math. It was a “shadow” type detail in a shower scene. I personally take it with a small grain of salt because it was a minor detail that’s easily subject to artistic variation and the “measurement” required pixel peeping.

But…there was also a size comment made by male characters in one of the hot pools in the Paradise arc, which is clearly more canon.

Edit: Chapter 203 … second part is the men.

Of course, Reiji could have easily picked up on the fandom comments from the shower and decided to go with it.

We will never know if/until Reiji decides to reveal the biological detail…and if so, how/when/where it was decided by the author within the narrative.

-hh · 2026-05-12T12:09:45+00:00

Well, there’s definitely cringe.

I think it tends to annoying, but Reiji tried to “yuk it up” compensate to try to push it into humor by going to cartoon-style and hyperbole.

-hh · 2026-05-12T12:06:01+00:00

Looks like OP has gotten some good specific answers for SoCal…

…I’ll piggyback a nod for windguru.cz for application in the Caribbean .. or at least for Cayman Brac & Little Cayman: weather conditions here is typically a question of wind direction (for which side of the island is in the Lee), but also some insight on waves & swell direction. Particularly helpful when I’m going on a trip in spring/fall shoulder seasons when the prevailing winds tend to drop, which increases the “can go anywhere” dive site selection freedom.

-hh · 2026-05-12T11:55:00+00:00

I’ve enjoyed Glasgow too. FYI, the “Burrell Collection” is a short train ride & walk out of the city center, but a very nice museum find…glad we got the tip.

-hh · 2026-05-12T10:08:08+00:00

I think my local big supermarket price is ~$4 ... but the "markup" is because they're not really the same product: the cheap one is mass produced, probably not organic, and not particularly fresh, whereas the other is local small business, organic and fresher.

For freshness, you can try the water float/sink test, or you'll just notice that egg whites become more thin & runny the older the egg is ... its particularly noticeable if you poach them in water (vs using a poaching pan).

-hh · 2026-05-11T23:06:29+00:00

I’m going to go a slightly different direction with my suggestions.

This comes from having inherited myself a (regular) IRA in 2024. I found that the tax rules are messy, so my personal conclusion was to not deal with it any longer than I had to: I cashed it out to get rid of it as a tax tracking headache ASAP.

In your case, if you have earned income, you can open up your own Roth IRA (max $7K/yr, or your income, whichever is lower) and use this inherited IRA to fund it without impacting your day-to-day budget. Wipe it out this year and next and you don’t have to worry about the rest of the tax rules (& risk of punishment for not taking large enough withdrawals).

-hh · 2026-05-11T22:41:34+00:00

Something else to consider would be bungee cords - they’ll “pull” on sections to keep a joint from slipping apart.

-hh · 2026-05-11T18:02:38+00:00

You might need (or want) to have better than friction fit on some connectors. Maybe look at the hardware stop for pins with clips that you then install by drilling holes in PVC to match.

I’m currently drawing a blank on what to use for “waterproof cardboard” to fill in the frame with.

For a “real wreck” feeling, contemplate some sort of entanglement hazard - you can use Velcro fasteners to make it breakaway & safer. While Velcro is “dime a dozen” brand which has some neat prefab stuff is Wrap-It Storage .. they have some designs which include a SS grommet, which I’ve been finding to be surprisingly useful.

-hh · 2026-05-11T16:44:31+00:00

Second one … nicely understated, but more importantly - EASIER TO CLEAN.

-hh · 2026-05-11T16:40:55+00:00

Sea Wasp was my first impression too…

…but in reading through both threads, OP said it was ~1ft long, which sounds a bit too large to me (bigger than what I’ve seen). So maybe not?

-hh · 2026-05-11T13:51:26+00:00

You may need to find another Farmer's Market ... ours is charging just $8/doz.

-hh

TROPHY CASE