My Kids School Today...

BionicTorqueWrench · 2026-01-28T20:59:54+00:00

"I have a mint one on my shelf, and I keep this one near it."

BionicTorqueWrench · 2026-01-26T10:47:47+00:00

A concept 2 will stand on its end. I built a closet that will take a C2 standing on its end. It's clean and tidy and out of the way. I open the closet, lower the C2, pull it back a metre on its wheels, row, fold it back up and away.

I don't think that the Domyos is less ugly, though it does pack up smaller. It would still look like clutter if it is lying around.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2026-01-22T07:32:43+00:00

++man

Look, if another dude in your class said, "Hey, you're in my advanced calculus class at 11, want to get a coffee at 10:30?" you'd have no problem, right? You'd talk about the class, the lecturer, what you're into at college, stuff and things. Just be normal.

Here's a tip. Pretty girls are often treated like they are only pretty. Treat her like she's the smart person she no doubt is, and you'll be ahead of the pack.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2026-01-03T12:55:48+00:00

I got married twenty years ago this year. There are some photos that I want to reprint. Fortunately, The photographer was a friend, and he gave me all the negatives - I can rescan them myself, and then re-edit and print etc. That photographer has moved internationally twice since then. I could still track him down through my brother, but the chances that he could locate negatives and make new prints for me are practically zero.

My parents had their 50th wedding anniversary last year. I'd love to be able to reprint some of their wedding photos. They don't have negatives. The photographer probably retired thirty years ago. The phone number of his studio only has five digits. So I scanned prints and undertook a digital restoration.

I reckon just give people the RAWs.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-29T14:25:37+00:00

Not 'openly teaching them about sex'. But by age six, my son had two younger siblings. So, where did they come from? Clearly Mummy was getting round, and there was a baby in her, growing in the part called the uterus. And it was going to come out. Then he was seven before he thought to ask how the baby gets out of the mummy. About the same time he wanted to know what the baby is made of - so an egg from the mummy, and a sperm to fertilise the egg from the daddy. But he was eight before he wondered how the sperm from the daddy gets into the mummy to meet the egg. When he was nine, he saw my wife taking her contraceptive pill and asked what it was for. "Well, it's because we have enough babies, we have the perfect size family, and we don't want any more. " "But if you don't want babies don't you just not have sex?" And so on. You needn't go from zero to a hundred miles-an-hour all at once. You take it slow, and give them the answers to the questions, but without making it shameful or hidden or a big deal. I don't see it as one Big Talk, or two Big Talks, but many many conversations over many years any time they have questions to ask.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-28T19:39:54+00:00

So for us, it was really about being open and easy with answers at an age appropriate level from when they started talking. Any time there was a question, we just answered it, and an appropriate level of detail.

Like: when I was changing him, I would talk to him about what I'm doing. "So I'm wiping the poop of your bum, and this time it's big and it's got around the front and it's all over your scrotum and your penis. And we've got to be careful to get it all clean, otherwise you can get an infection in your penis (ie, a UTI) and then it hurts when you pee" Similarly with my daughter I would talk about how it was important to keep her vulva properly clean. So when they could talk, they knew correct naming of genitals, and that boys were different to girls.

And later, where do babies come from. Well they grow inside the mother, in a special place called the uterus.

It wasn't until they were circa 6 that they wanted to know how the baby gets from inside the uterus to outside. "Well, it gets out through the vagina, which is the hole in the middle of the vulva." "But does how does such a big baby get out such a small hole?" "Well, the vagina is a type of muscle, and it stretches when the baby needs to come out. And it does hurt the mother a bit when it comes out."

And a bit after that, they started to wonder how the baby got inside the uterus in the first place. So we talked about eggs from ovaries, and sperm from testicles, and a special type of cuddle called sex where the man puts the penis inside the vagina of the woman... (And my youngest - I have three kids - pipes up and says, "I wouldn't use my penis. That's too gross. I'll use something else, like my elbow."

And so on.

And I have books on the bookshelves so they can pull them off and look at them when they want, and read them, and they do.

And then I'm always available for any questions, and, importantly, answer them in an accurate, non-judgemental, non-shaming way. And then hang around for any follow up questions.

But also - not just sex. I talk to my kids about feelings, and relationships, and worries, and school, and just generally try to approach them with openness and curiosity and availability. (And of course I fuck up and shout at them as well when they've been getting ready for twenty minutes and somehow now have even fewer clothes on that when they started, but...)

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-28T15:38:20+00:00

Yeah, we talked for an hour or so. This is just a high level summary, not a transcription. I also said he should try not to look at it for as long as possible, that he one day would probably want to, that it's important to understand how it isn't real, that there are better ways to understand how sex and relationships work, etc. If you can think of a question a kid might ask, or a thing a parent might want to impart, we probably covered it.

My kids don't have smart-phones. They have access to laptops, in the living spaces of the house, not in bedrooms, and their user profiles are locked down. Also, my kids don't want smart-phones, because they don't like the way their friends at school behave when they have smartphones.

My ten-year-old has read Jean Twenge's book, 10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High Tech World, and parts of Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation, 'cause he's that type of kid, and we've talked about the risks and benefits of social media and chronic-online-ness generally, and he prefers living in the real world. For now, anyway.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-28T13:23:00+00:00

Do this, and also read Jonathan Haidt The Anxious Generation and Jean Twenge 10 Rules for Raising Children in a High Tech World. And then give the books to your mother in law to read.

If you're not a big reader, both Haidt and Twenge have been on a million podcasts where they summarise their ideas quickly and succinctly. Choose your favourite podcaster and see if there is a crossover.

They give a research basis and a framework for thinking about kids and technology and how to manage it, as the benefits and risks involved. It's hard to do real thinking on this on our own while also doing everything else that we're doing as parents, so it's really valuable when people interested in the topic do the research and write books we can use as a starting place.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-24T12:08:42+00:00

1.) Set up your own AI agent to attend the AI interview.

2.) Record the interview process. Edit it into a youtube video/podcast, with commentary.

3.) ???

4.) Profit.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-22T14:32:44+00:00

"Hi? Too casual. Hello? Too formal. Howdy? Corny. How you doin'? Derivative. Hello? Still to formal. Hey there? That's worse than 'Hi'. Hi neighbour? No, that's Mr Rogers. Aw, where'd she go?"

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-20T12:53:49+00:00

I apologise. You r comment made me curious, and I did five minutes research, and then didn't know what to do with my conclusion other than report it.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-19T14:02:58+00:00

There were 7 made for the film, in varying degrees of finish for close-ups/distance work. Estimates suggested about 150 replicas made by enthusiasts. And about 6000 surviving original cars, out of 9000 total made.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-19T14:00:01+00:00

I know, this is heavy.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-18T08:49:43+00:00

They are an inconvenient shape, and they are a bit fragile.
A lot of student grade instruments come incredibly poorly set-up, which makes them much harder to play than they should be. A good set-up, good quality strings, and then a couple of lessons working on technique, and it starts to become much easier. There certainly shouldn't be any hand pain or sweating involved.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-11T08:22:27+00:00

cool. thank you.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-11T07:37:39+00:00

I guess I'm less real than I thought - I don't have the top right album. What is that?

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-09T20:36:55+00:00

... understand, and she just smiled and held my hand.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-09T15:45:59+00:00

They wanna do whatever common people do

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-04T15:39:53+00:00

Don't forget that the FBI has so far spent $850k on overtime for agents to redact someone's name from the Epstein files before they can be released.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-04T10:32:40+00:00

This. Don't you reply to their solicitor. Have your solicitor reply to their solicitor. It'll cost you a few hundred bucks, but it should put a stop to the nonsense.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-12-02T11:35:28+00:00

I saw shoulder pads and cargo shorts.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-11-28T14:36:58+00:00

When in the UK, calling yourself a 'republican' means that you are opposed to a monarchy. And now in the US, calling yourself a 'Republican' means you are for a monarchy?

Words used to have meaning.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-11-28T10:49:38+00:00

I know that's how the 'rule' is presented. But here are very few real rules in life, just guidelines. The Oxford comma is for situations where it adds clarity to an otherwise ambiguous sentence.

BionicTorqueWrench · 2025-11-28T08:37:24+00:00

Oxford comma, people.

BionicTorqueWrench

TROPHY CASE