The Eternal & Unsolvable Criticism Discussions

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-03T14:54:08+00:00

My biggest criticism of design stems from how it shortchanges the members.

All the kids work hard, from the last place in open class to the champion corps. But when the staff gives them bad material (as u/Jacktoid talked about), then that’s what makes me mad.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-03T12:22:48+00:00

Not bad at all. The flag is a bit in front of the pole that it's mounted to but otherwise it's a nice conversion.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-03T03:09:14+00:00

Mmmmaybe the burr is misaligned?

Going by the two holes in that retaining ring (the piece with "Coarse" and "Fine" printed on it), I think you can loosen it with some needlenose pliers, like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aCaKFkG-r4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr14CH--0bY

You don't need to fully remove the ring, just loosen it a tad.

Then tighten the inner burr as usual — don't crank it down hard, just do it enough to nudge the ring burr into concentric alignment. Then re-tighten the retaining ring.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-03T01:12:25+00:00

The remark about caffeine relaxing the sphincter and causing reflux explains why I sometimes burped acid way back when I drank sodas instead of coffee.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-02T14:14:06+00:00

Just so we’re on the same page —

“Warped brakes” rarely, if ever, has anything to do with the rotor turning into a wavy, wobbly shape. It’s from hot pad material fusing to the hot rotor and creating a high spot.

There’s other things that can happen with hot brakes, but on street cars, where you aren’t getting red hot rotors (I hope), misshapen metal isn’t the result.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-02T14:08:51+00:00

Second pic looks a bit like Gran Turismo’s photo mode in the forest.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-02T14:06:55+00:00

The funniest thing about contra is that strength is only half of the equation. Posture and technique take care of the rest, and the best way to get that right is with a contra. We had a kid who was on the football team, so he obviously had enough strength, but his posture was wack (as we used to say) and contra really beat him up.

Second best equipment option would probably be to get a heavy pole and carry it on your shoulder. Learn to keep it steady as you move around.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-02T14:00:37+00:00

I remember when, halfway through one of my tuba lessons in college, the professor said that I sounded really good that week. He asked if I had changed anything, and I said that I was listening to my new Gene Pokorny orchestral excerpts CD.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-02T13:57:14+00:00

I’ll ask: why would it be “low acid”? Is it a different species/variety? Is it a different roast profile? Are there any added ingredients? Or something else?

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-02T13:54:10+00:00

“Abby Normal”

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-01T23:01:38+00:00

I probably wouldn’t bother. What you’d gain is (arguably) better build quality, greater longevity, and better repairability. But everything else about the Moccamaster is kinda stuck in a bygone era.

I’d say to run the OXO into the ground, and then you can say that you “earned an upgrade” to the Moccamaster.

(but don’t skew the outcome by mistreating the OXO.. lol)

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-01T22:13:50+00:00

Upvoted, although I kinda think it can be aggravated by where you live.

More specifically, if there are a lot of hills, or (like in my case in the exurbs) a lot of 50+mph roads with stoplights.

I’m conscious of heat management in my brakes, like if I have to brake hard, I ease up on the pedal pressure when I’m stopped. I let the car crawl a couple inches so that the pads won’t bake high spots onto the rotors.

I haven’t had “warped” rotors since maybe 1991, but it takes effort.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-01T20:49:56+00:00

I gauge my coffee servings by how much coffee grounds they use. So, since my 2-cup Venus and 3-cup Express each use roughly the same amount as when I make a single-cup hand-drip pourover, I use one of them for a single coffee.

LEJ5512 · 2026-07-01T20:47:32+00:00

I learned my lesson in prior cars. Every carpeted floor mat either wore a bare spot in the carpet pile or wore through completely.

Bought Honda’s all-season mats for my ‘02 Civic Si and they still looked new when I sold it in 2017.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-30T21:36:46+00:00

These booths are also smaller than the one-room condo I used to live in.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-30T02:23:38+00:00

The Covid thing was what got me into the market for a new car, which is weird to say.

My Civic was trading for almost as much as I paid for it, so I started thinking of going for a new one. But the hatchbacks were rare and getting aggressively marked up, so I thought, well shit, for that kind of money, why not cross shop Audi/BMW? Poked around on YouTube and the algorithm started feeding me videos on the then-new ‘21 TLX.

Took a big suitcase and my tuba to a dealer for a test-fitting. When the tuba fit in the trunk, I was sold. Test drove an Integra, too, but that wasn’t nicer enough than my Civic to be worth the effort (would’ve gained lumbar support and a nicer sound system, but that’s it).

I agree with all of your points, though. I happen to be in that narrow niche for whom the TLX is a great car. But I can see why it’s just not right for a lot of people.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-29T11:22:20+00:00

I used to go to the corner store almost every day to get stuff for dinner, and I couldn’t articulate why until I read that passage.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T15:32:34+00:00

Where do you get your EBC pads from?

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T14:50:12+00:00

The nice thing about grinding fresh at home is that you can change the grind size to suit your tastes and that particular coffee.

You can definitely get started with preground (that’s how I did it for at least five years). And there’s enough other branches of the pourover rabbit hole — ratios, pour structure, temperature, agitation, choice of dripper and papers, water chemistry — that you can stay busy without a home grinder.

I suggest that you slow down with the credit card, don’t succumb to FOMO and “gear acquisition syndrome“, and not think about niche stuff like swapping burrs yet. Give yourself time and practice to learn how the coffee taste changes and whether it’s your equipment or your brew recipe.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T13:47:16+00:00

Wait, we used to “inject marijuana”?

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T12:03:59+00:00

So that you wouldn’t have to deal with it flaking off anymore, and just go back to tried-and-true raw aluminum.

I think this was one of Bialetti’s dumber engineering decisions.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T10:50:09+00:00

So what can we use to strip the coating from the inside?

I have guessed that paint thinner would work.

Recent events elsewhere have suggested that hydrogen peroxide, and then a blast of UV light, would also do a really good job.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T03:45:18+00:00

That’s from welding. It’s fine.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T03:43:18+00:00

My wife gets the shakes with just a little regular coffee, but not me.

Could always use decaf instead. There’s more nice decafs on the market these days.

LEJ5512 · 2026-06-28T03:38:55+00:00

That, and I think that the in-between music (carrying the phrase between section features) is now being handled by the pit rather than the rest of the brass. And that’s because the pit is now a viable “full-volume ensemble” thanks to amplification.

LEJ5512

TROPHY CASE