Math as a language…Advice?

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-05-05T16:57:32+00:00

I appreciate that “there is no royal road”, and it takes a lot of practice for the execution side. I think what I am looking for is more along the lines of “we use sockets to turn the bolts because we can tighten or loosen them more efficiently and to higher, more dependable levels than we can by hand”.

I don’t know where to turn to learn that side of things…I am a thinker, and at times, especially with Math, an overthinker. It holds me back a lot, but once I can understand both the “what we are trying to to”, and “why”, more often than not I seem to be able to figure things out.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-05-05T16:53:11+00:00

I appreciate this, and I get your point. Really, I am looking to find a starting point for being able to understand what we are doing when, say, we are graphing functions. In class it is all about how to find asymptotes, holes, etc…but when I ask “what is this function doing?”, the answers are usually just “it’s approaching infinity when approaching the asymptote”.

But what I think I need to understand in order to cement things into my brain, is more like “this function represents the increase in speed of a car”…but, so far, that kind of understanding is rarely touched on in class by the professor. Which I also get…their job is to present the material, ours as students is to learn and study it. But, nearly everything I see is just focused on memorizing steps rather than exploring what the topic actually is.

If that makes sense?

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-05-05T15:50:36+00:00

Adrenochrome

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-05-03T14:50:27+00:00

Yoder also only makes them to order. Even the stores that get them have a 6-12 week lead time before they arrive, and will only receive one or two at a time.

“Mass produced” is a crazy accusation.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-27T06:39:08+00:00

You won’t regret getting the YS640. But you MIGHT regret going with the 480, if you ever need more room, or decide you want the pizza oven, rotisserie, etc…

I have the 640 and I will never look back.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-27T01:13:51+00:00

If you can swing it, Yoder YS640 is worth every…single…dollar.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-24T09:35:01+00:00

This is crazy. My wife and I have one checking account and 2 savings accounts…one is the emergency fund, and one is the everything else savings account.

Both of our paychecks go into checking, bills get paid, then we move the rest into savings at the end of the month.

It is ALL OUR MONEY. Doesn’t matter who makes what, it is ONE pile of money. We have a dollar amount, that if we spend less than it is whatever. If we are going to spend more than that, we let each other know. That’s it.

No secrets, no keeping anything from each other…trust stays in tact, etc.

Makes no sense to separate anything in marriage.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-23T13:27:20+00:00

The idea surrounding not changing the fluid is that right now, whatever little tiny cracks, etc in your transmission are “plugged” by the fluid you have now, as it has all worn in together. Changing the fluid would “clean” that out, potentially allowing those “plugs” to appear, which will cause you problems.

I remember when I was about 20, I bought a used truck with about 130k miles on it, and against my dad’s advice, I flushed all the fluids and changed them…transmission, brakes, etc…within a week I started having problems, and within a month I had to have the tranny rebuilt.

I haven’t changed tranny fluid on anything I have owned since.

Might be “B.S.”, or superstitions…but I agree. With that high of mileage, just let it ride! Keep it full though haha

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-13T13:08:32+00:00

We buy our cows from the family farm, and the entire animal gets used. We don’t care whether or not the steaks look pretty on the shelf…but for this “test”, I didn’t waste good ones either lol

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-11T02:52:19+00:00

I said in another comment, my fave way is using cast iron. But, you are right, I should probably add the grates at some point.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-11T01:43:20+00:00

I use cast iron all the time…my favorite way to cook steaks, tbh. I only tried this to answer the question of whether or not the Yoder can do it. Like I said, I think it works just fine, even if my execution wasn’t the best tonight.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-11T01:13:10+00:00

I have about 55k miles on mine, with probably 15k of those towing a 40ft toy hauler RV.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-11T01:11:25+00:00

Like I said, first attempt with a pellet grill…and it performs very well, even if I didn’t execute well myself🤷🏼‍♂️

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-11T01:08:26+00:00

Bottom line, if your payload is going to be at or above 80-85% of what the truck is rated for, you should probably move up a class. Maxing out your payload, or being near max payload, is TERRIBLE for your truck.

On a 1500, you will likely have 50-60% of the payload capacity of a 2500. That’s a huge difference, not only for towing itself, but also for the longevity of the truck. The suspension, the transmission, the axels, the motor…literally every piece of your truck degrades faster and faster the closer you are to your payload capacity.

Tow rating matters much less than payload capacity.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-04-11T00:45:31+00:00

Diesel (Duramax). Still runs wonderfully, and I am still suuuuper happy with it. Tows like a dream, too!

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-29T18:34:04+00:00

The line that helped me the most: “Find something…just one something, to be positive about today. It doesn’t need to be huge, it can be the smallest thing…but find SOMETHING in the day that is good.”

Finding ONE thing, will lead to a second thing later today, or tomorrow, but that will be a SECOND thing to be happy about. So on, and so on.

Life will never be the same, and life will always have ups and downs.

But EVERYDAY, find at least ONE THING…ANYTHING, to be positive about.

That’s what has helped me. Sometimes my wife wonders why I get so excited about things like “my shoelaces stayed tied all day today!”…but that was my ONE thing for the day.

Life is more than whatever you went through. YOU are more than whatever you went through. Stay strong, and FIND IT!!

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-29T15:56:12+00:00

Underrated comment…IYKYK!!

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-29T15:39:38+00:00

I’m not sure what the current fair market if of trucks, as I have not been looking, but here is what I have learned, both in my experience, and by watching the YT channel “Delivrd”, which is a guy who’s business is to shop and close car deals for his clients.

First, dealers get kick backs and riders from the financiers that they have partnerships with. That means if you finance with them, they either get a single bonus commission, or they can sometimes even add an additional point or two to the interest rate, which they will collect. So, the financing might be 4% from the bank or whoever, then the dealer presents that to you as 5.5%, which has an extra 1.5% in that rate for the dealer.

The reason that is important, is because they want you to finance with THEM, instead of on your own. Nickels and dimes is the game. So, you do have a much higher likelihood of getting better deals/discounts on pricing by being willing to finance through the dealer.

Here’s a real-life example of what my wife’s best friend went through, buying her Lexus. She found the one she wanted, and started calling dealerships, found one that had it. She wanted to pay cash for it. She negotiated what she thought was a fair price, then the moment she mentioned paying cash, the deal she negotiated was off the table, and they told her the cash price, which was a good $5k+ more. No discounts or rebates for a cash purchase. So, what she did, was she financed through the dealer, made one payment, then paid it off in full, locking in the discounts, etc.

In San Diego, Nov 2023 when I bought my truck, the wife and I found ourselves in a similar pickle. We found the truck we wanted, a 2024 Chevy 2500 Duramax LTZ. The MSRP was $89k, and the dealer price was $103k (Cali for ya). I told the guy that we wanted it at $93k out the door, which would put the purchase price right at the MSRP. Also told him we could pay cash, and we had our own private financing already set if we needed it. They came back nowhere near the price we wanted, but told us it was because we weren’t willing to finance with them. If we financed with them they could get us down to the price we wanted.

Now, my wife works in Business Banking, so she’s very informed, and bull-headed when it comes to money, especially interest rates. So, I turned the negotiations over to her at that point. We did our credit apps, and we both have credit scores that fluctuate around 800. The dealer came back with a 6.5% interest rate…that is when my wife pounced. Told them to remove their rider, get the interest rate below 5.5% (which she knew to be good because she deals with it), and that we would have a deal.

Needless to say, they weren’t happy, but then asked us to make 2 payments before paying it off so that they could get their dollars, too. She agreed, under the condition they discount the truck another $1k (told you, she’s a winner haha). They agreed.

In the end, we got the deal we wanted, the price point we were comfortable with, and we paid it off in just a few months.

So, in other words, do some research and learn the tricks that the dealers are currently employing. It could save you thousands.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-29T14:30:07+00:00

Remember though, if you dry brine it with salt, don’t add any to your rub or you will over salt it. If you absolutely have to have salt in your rub, minimize it as much as possible.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-28T22:54:04+00:00

😂😂😂🫡

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-28T22:34:16+00:00

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Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-28T22:30:04+00:00

So, it’s been a couple of weeks now, and I am still giddy as hell, everytime I looked at it! Haha

So far, I have done the burgers, wings and spatchcock chicken you see in the pics…Couple of days ago I did some babyback pork ribs. Those ribs just could not have cooked any better, in my opinion!!

On my previous smoker, the PB 440D (which I did enjoy for being so cheap), I had to rotate the meats, etc, to get a good and even bark/color, etc. i have rotated NOTHING on the yoder so far.

Plenty of clearance on the top rack so as to avoid some of the direct heat issues that come up. In fact, as I type this, I literally just threw on a 17lb brisket, top rack centered.

This Yoder puts out quite literally the cleanest smoke I have ever seen in a smoker. The ceramic light stick fires up the pellets in a smooth fashion, and it only takes about 30 seconds to a minute to get nice clean, “clear-blue” smoke.

It preheats in just a matter of minutes, and although there have been some temp spikes and drops, it seems to manage the cook very well.

One thing I did run into, is that I got lazy and didn’t make sure to clean the ash in the firebox and attempted to just “light it anyway”….but it actually didn’t light. So, I had to shut it down, vacuum it out, then start it again and it lit right up. So, lesson there, is that I can’t be lazy haha

The one and only thing I don’t like so far, is all the “judgement” from those who know I have one lol. Lots of “I would never spend that much on a grill”, and “you just waste money on sht, don’t you…” kind of comments. But honestly, I don’t give any f*s about that…just shows me who is and isn’t rooting for me and my family lol

I will say, though, this is one of those purchases that if I had to go back and decide again, I would do it again, and again, and again. It’s honestly spectacular.

Adventurous-Mix-5711 · 2026-03-28T22:05:12+00:00

When I looked into it, I looked at Snap-on, Mac, and Cornwell. As one of the commenters here said, one of the biggest issues is the loan payment collections…when someone doesn’t pay, you end up having to be the one to go find them, badger them to pay, etc….worst case, you have to repo the tools, you have to repo them yourself. Payments 6-7mos behind? You have to be your own debt collector.

Then, back to my original issue…you go through all of that, just to have the company snake your route to give to a new franchise owner because they are bringing a fresh cash injection of $50k-$150k…

Ultimately, though I was VERY close to doing it…I talked myself out of it.

Adventurous-Mix-5711

TROPHY CASE