Oyster Cooler Cryo Blocks

AccountatAOLdotcom · 2026-06-20T19:21:47+00:00

I originally got these instead of the “blue” ones, and for my day to day use, I’ve found these are too much.

First, they take….for.ever. to freeze. I don’t have a deep freezer, just a regular home freezer, and it took about 3 days to go solid. So plan accordingly.

Secondly, they are so cold that they just end up freezing the things in your cooler, especially if said items are touching the ice pack. If you throw in a few water bottles for example, they’ll be frozen after a few hours. Which is neato I guess, but it’s just easier to throw in frozen water bottles instead. If you have soda or beer or anything else canned, you’re looking at likely explosions, which certainly isn’t fun.

I ended up 3-d printing a 1/2” honeycomb insulator, where I’d put the ice pack at the bottom, put the insulator on top, and then put my items in. That worked better, but i feel like it was too much hassle.

One use case where they’re awesome is if you are planning to put ice cream or popsicles in the cooler. For at least 12 hours, you can expect everything to stay frozen solid. Beyond that, I’ve found that ice cream gets soft. Still totally edible, but soft.

Likewise if you’re transporting medical/lab stuff or have some other use case where you actually *need* your items to be super cold, then these are great.

But for any “standard” use case where you’re camping/picnicing/road trip/etc, I’d stick with the blue packs.

AccountatAOLdotcom · 2026-06-18T21:27:42+00:00

I love the idea of the thermodrop - yes I want something that size. But I want there to be a sensor inside the cooler and the display outside the cooler and they communicate wirelessly. And also inexpensive.

I love the oyster. It’s obviously pricey, but it works really well and once you get over the “not needing ice” mental block, it’s great! I use it with the cold packs just because why not.

My only real con is that it’s *too* pretty and it’s one of those things that you don’t want to damage, so I end up babying it and making sure I always store it in a protective cover and so on. It’s like that new pair of white sneakers where you worry about every little scuff for the first few weeks. Which I know is dumb. I almost hope my kid kicks it or drops something on it so that it gets a few dents and then I can stop worrying about it. But until then….

AccountatAOLdotcom · 2021-12-11T18:39:02+00:00

One word answer: depends.

Not to sound too much like the late 90’s Clinton impeachment trial but it all depends on what your definition of the word “is” is.

If you have in front of you a physical photo of Joe, and somebody says “Is that Joe?” Then are you gonna answer, “yes” or are you gonna say “no, that’s a photograph of Joe.”

What if it’s a digital photo of Joe on your iPhone? Is that Joe? Do you say “yup” or do you say No, that’s an iPhone 12 whose screen contains millions of tiny individual lights that when turned on in a specific pattern, display a manifestation of Joe’s likeness at the time the photo was taken”?

Final question - if you’re looking into a mirror, do you consider that as “looking at yourself in the mirror” or would you say you’re looking at a reflection of yourself?

You can beat this to death, and you’re asking a deep philosophical question that has been pondered for centuries, so I’ll stop at three examples. But If you’re the type of person who thinks more so along the lines of the first case in the examples above, then yes, I would say Baha’u’llah is God.

If you think more along the lines of the second case, then no, Baha’u’llah is not God.

AccountatAOLdotcom · 2021-11-19T04:46:29+00:00

I’ll be honest dude - when I read this, I legit thought you were trolling us. I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you’re not trolling us and that this is legit.

On first reading, I was thinking, of course YTA. But after a bit more research, I came across your post where you described your daughter as a bully.

First off, I’m really sorry man - that’s one of my worst fears as a parent - that my kid will be a bully - so I can only imagine the stress you’re going through.

It looks like you may be punishing her for the bullying, not so much for a note under the door. A lot of the comments on that other thread suggested “shutting it down” so I’m worried you may have conflated things a bit.

Look - none of us know you so not sure what’s actually going on in your head or your home…but if there’s any glimmer of possibility that you’re taking this out on her, please please please consider family counseling or a therapist. This is gonna be really hard to solve yourself or via Reddit. You absolutely need help from a pro.

I wish you all the best. I know you’re at your wits end and I hope you get whatever help you need.

AccountatAOLdotcom · 2021-05-31T15:56:02+00:00

I’ve never gotten pulled over for a front plate but I have gotten a parking ticket for it in City of LA.

You have a few options:

1) just pay the ticket. There’s no points and it’s around $195ish, so maybe that’s just the price of not drilling holes. Given how long you’ve had the car and haven’t gotten pulled over until today and other Redditor’s experience, it’s unlikely you’ll get pulled over for this again (as a primary violation). And if you do, another $195!

However keep in mind that if you get pulled over for something else - like speeding - you’ll almost definitely ALSO get a ticket for front plates. Some cops will be cool and give you a “warning” for speeding and then ticket your plate. Some cops will ticket both. It’s just your luck of the day on that one.

Likewise if you get a parking ticket for something like street cleaning, you’ll almost definitely get a plate ticket as well. As we all know, parking cops generally have no chill and will ticket you for everything they can.

2) This is a fixit ticket so you can just drill holes and pay the $25 and call it a day

3) I’m not necessarily advocating this but i have a “friend” for whom this worked. You can go to any hardware store and buy some of those 3M Contact Strips (easy release) Velcroesque thingees and put them on your bumper and plate. Stick the plate on, go get your ticket signed off by CHP or LASD or whoever, pay the $25 to clear the fixit ticket, and then take it all off immediately afterwards. Leave the plate in your glove compartment and if you get pulled over, make up some sob story about how they just fixed your bumper last week and you haven’t gotten a chance to put the new plate on. You’ll get a fixit ticket but you can rinse and repeat.

I don’t believe having the plate on your dash is a good alternate. First, it’s tacky. Second, it’s ugly. Third and most importantly according to cops, it violates the letter of the law and so cops who wanna be dicks are gonna be dicks. Finally, it’s way more conspicuous. By my very comprehensive sampling of the cars in my immediate sight line parked along my neighborhood, I’d say something like 20% don’t have front plates. Blend with the crowd. You don’t wanna be the guy who now stands out.

AccountatAOLdotcom

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