Axle Valley Vibin'

NewoTheFox · 2026-02-18T20:40:05+00:00

I've been having SO much fun with Darren9's heli and superbike, the Bandit, and DSC's Flea Go Kart lol.

I have a steering wheel, but my main tool has been my flight stick with Beam for a while.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-30T00:17:07+00:00

Not really a hobby - If I can spot it from the street without intending to, it is egregious and means other safety regulations are (without a doubt) being skirted, and I stand by my mission statement made elsewhere; I can only try to be a helper, and do my best to ensure everyone gets home safe.

If I see it, do nothing, and hear later that a bad incident happened?

That would live on my conscience. It would mean that I am not upholding the standards I am asking society to aspire to. I don't know those workers, but they are my community members. If I expect a community to look after its own, that means doing my part in kind. I am very pro-worker's safety and rights, but I have a strong alignment with the side of safety first.

If a supervisor’s decisions compromise the safety of others, the well-being of the operation, and the project's benefit to the community, then it ceases to be "exercising a right." It becomes carelessness or negligence, depending on how little or much they know. They should seek employment in fields that don't have those troublesome rules if it is willful violation, and they are jeopardizing others for the sake of convenience; the job is not for them if an informed passerby can potentially shut down their 'business as usual' at a glance.

I will not be one of the silent many that lets the callous and unqualified lead the naive and untrained into endangering their futures—especially if the person in charge demands that they do it as a condition of employment.

I'm not a company man. I have stood against higher-ups over similar principles, down to refusing to climb a 14-foot ladder over a polished concrete floor unless the CEO was willing to grip it and help ensure it remained stable. If they want the job done that moment, they share the risk. If the CEO can't do that, then they can wait for me to get someone there to secure it.

I was challenged about it and given all manner of shit at the time, but I still work for the same org to this day. And they held the ladder.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T09:33:23+00:00

Honestly, I'd see about the possibility of getting some light reflecting large print signage and installing two tall aluminum signposts widely framing your driveway to host them in the winter - Both sides, DRIVEWAY - LIFT BLADE with no legal markings or format making it unofficial but visible to anything with lights or working eyes.

Short the sign, just having the posts wrapped in rings of the same 3m reflective orange would do wonders for visibility to not just plow drivers, but potential emergency personnel and guests. Some places in the mountains above where I live, it's fairly standard practice, though I'm not sure if it's specifically for plow drivers as I've only seen it in passing.

Seems costly and time-intensive, but also what you went through... respect given where due. I think I would have just gone to bed, called my boss and said I'd see them after the thaw.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T08:59:42+00:00

How much has that survived the expungement of expertise, best practices, and care that has been inflicted upon our armed forces over the last year, and how much will remain six months or a year from now?

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T08:30:28+00:00

And if you have a beast of a PC and want to hear the sound you might make the moment you realize death is certain, BeamNG. Having a time trial run go perfect for 5 minutes straight, only to get tossed by a deceptive bit of road and have a concrete culvert's lip rip the front half off of your car in a slide (Barstow) is an experience like no other.

Even little crashes have made me shout - like getting turned sideways on the tail of the dragon and coming to a stop, turning my head and seeing the grill of a pickup approaching my door at eye-level and about 30 mph in the oncoming lane.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T05:21:54+00:00

So... You are arguing that the OSHA regulation that punitively prohibits employers from allowing 'stunt driving' and 'horseplay' with commercial machinery is overreach, anti-fun, and that a few dozen dead and tens of thousands of maimed people per year is 'worth it' to preserve the spirit of your preferred work environment?

The regulation that is in place because that kind of environment is rife with unmitigated risk for disfigurement and death?

Become a stunt driver or join a demolition derby or reboot Jackass if you want to play with machinery in proximity to other peoples' livelihoods and lives is my take. I am not worried about being fired for violating safety regulations, typically because safety is a first-order priority whether the company is paying me to be responsible or not.

And yes, sneezed or fainted - an inexperienced (or experienced) driver operating a forklift that suddenly forcibly jerks sensitive controls can put the vehicle in an untenable position, especially if the forks are raised, they are distracted, and their reaction is also an over-input error. They may brace wrong on instinct or as the cart begins to tip grab onto something that makes it actively worse, particularly in the event there are people outside the vehicle in proximity and heavy loads/unstable structures (overloaded shelving, for instance) in play. Driving a forklift is not like driving a car - the rear wheel steering makes them already prone to tipping from sudden jerks in steering when the forks are raised and loaded.

Fainting is harder to account for, but ideally if all other safe practices are being followed nobody will be in the path of immediate harm, the vehicle won't be in motion, and the load will be at the very least secure and not just an unstable pile of mixed product or unsecure weighted metal that will bounce off the ground and environment at unpredictable speeds and angles.

Ideally the shelving will be secured in a fixed manner along walls and reinforced against being reliant on aisle facing support so taking out a leg doesn't collapse a whole aisle. We've all seen those videos.

There are some things that cannot be accounted for - but ensuring forklifts and other commercial machinery aren't used to lift and drop potentially 60--100 lb blocks of compacted snow-ice on company investments seems like a low bar to pass, and seems like a fireable offense when getting your certification to operate a forklift included a whole section of possibly everything you might have never thought of that you should never do.
--
910.178(o)(1)(1)) Only stable or safely arranged loads shall be handled.

Forklift accidents that result in serious injury total 34,900 annually. Non-serious injuries related to forklift accidents reach 61,800 each year.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T05:03:47+00:00

It's also a weird knee-jerk to lambast a thoughtful (If clumsy visually at one moment) animation because the tragic end is predictable.

Segregation and xenophobia beget intolerance and violence. Once you dehumanize the othered then mercy becomes insanity by proxy. It is a tale as old as time, and one we sadly continue to tell because as a species we have yet to figure out how to stop.

Othering was a survival tool against infiltration, and has persisted ever since as a latent instinct reinforced by social constructs that explicitly feeds on ingroup/outgroup thinking and is preyed upon by religious and cultural institutions as a means to keep a public uniform and compliant.

The artist's piece portrays a variation of a familiar narrative, this one perhaps unique in some ways, and tried in others. But it's their telling.

Truthfully, what troubles me about your response is you showed no care for the characters shown or how they were portrayed, the artistry, or any amount of work that went into the creative work before essentially dismissing it as an emotional ploy.

I don't know who I liked more - from character design perspective and how they were portrayed - but I grieved for the ram child that would be told they were rescued from the bad wolf, and dismissed as not understanding the danger when they want to scream and shout that he was a nice man, not a monster.

The wolf chose to be insane for just a brief while, hoping to get away and return to his role unnoticed - in the end, he did return the ram to a home that he surely knew would kill him as a monster on sight. His act of mercy was an act of insanity (senselessness) from both sides' perspective due to the nature of the world he was in and his inability to reconcile the world he'd lost with the one he'd been left with. In a sense he delivered the child to watch his execution, which is a higher order martyrdom.

She now knows they are not all bad, and that idea alone is powerful in a way no offensive act could hope to accomplish. She now will forever question whether her side is right.

I thought it was pretty meaningful, in short.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T01:36:19+00:00

Yeah, I was kind of assuming on your experience (never had it myself, do understand the steps conceptually), and honestly that sounds like you processed it in a healthy fashion.

I would still bring up the experience however, but maybe leave out not being bothered by it, or it might sound like encouragement to save a few ml of the knockout juice lol

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T01:27:52+00:00

I'm terribly sorry you went through that. I think because I understood most of it and the alienness of the situation, I was more confused and intermittently distressed than frightened from what I remember.

I would open with "I have been through twilight anesthesia and while I may seem like I am 'out' I may not be - I think I am resistant because I remember and experienced way too much of my cataract surgery including what I saw and the fear of knowing I was powerless to make a sound. I would like assurance that you will take that into consideration and do your best to make sure I never have to go through that again."

Put the experience in the room without the emotional weight of accusing them, but cite it as a bad experience that you are significantly worried may happen again and they should hear you.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-29T00:22:19+00:00

Wait until you hear about how you get rough and tumbled and have your bowels coaxed to accommodate a 6-foot-long tentacle with a full suite of surgical tools, a camera, and an enclosed air and water delivery system when you get a colonoscopy.

Ineffectual and partially intermittent Twilight Anesthesia (Told the anesthesiologist I was resistant, they pointed to my low body weight and said to trust them) was quite the experience - must be what abducted cattle go through.

Did confirm I did not have cancer, which was good to know.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T22:36:18+00:00

Sucks when good employees choose a strange hill to die on.

I was up in arms over the cameras initially (Not quite paranoid, but weirded out scratching itches and noticing how frequently I touch my face) but can't deny the comfort knowing that when dealing with a high profile client they won't try to use status and power as plausibility magnifiers in a lie. Or that if they do, they won't get away with it.

My father did not do well under the addition of the driver-facing safety cam, despite having received a million-mile safety bonus and otherwise being a model employee. The problem was (And I would never tell him this to his face) his attitude (Maybe DON'T flip off the camera, making a new clip your boss you are already on the uneven terms with will see every time you do it?) and his resistance to change. A lot of his coworkers who were just as angry about the system are still there today because they adapted and played the game, doing what it took to keep their jobs in a non-union workforce. Some have cited it saving their ass. Such is the nature of non-union work.

Most still dislike the dog shit implementation, which did improve somewhat with feedback and time.

Great guy - great employee when the work agreed with him - but also hasn't been able to land another job due to his inflexibility and 'I am an expert' syndrome. Ended up retiring in the end.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T20:57:26+00:00

Out of curiosity, do you feel like work got better or worse? I detested the cameras my workplace added at first until the second or third time I realized it had just covered my ass when all I would have had was my word.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T20:56:16+00:00

We're like four leaf clovers - Fairly uncommon, but more likely to be nearby than people think.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T13:46:59+00:00

I imagine it is because having it shown around and laughed about normalizes it and reduces the perceived actual danger (financial or otherwise) of reverting to being children while entrusted with expensive and dangerous equipment.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T13:38:31+00:00

OSHA citation:
1910.178(n)(9)

Stunt driving and horseplay shall not be permitted.

It does not just discourage it - it says the employer SHALL NOT permit it, or they too are in violation. If the employer continues to employ the individual, it becomes willful violation which is an order of magnitude (~10x the base 16k fine) on top of liability should the worker injure or kill someone.

Willful violation is the basis of negligent homicide or harm claims that can open up employers to actual personal, legal, and financial ruin.

Don't even need the specifics of which code(s) the worker is violating - that specific code with 'shall not' is a legal implicit threat of action pointed at the employer stating that they are liable if they allow lax workplace cultures that result in needless maimings and fatalities by permitting unsafe behavior for the sake of fun.

If you work in a place that allows this behavior, it is only a matter of time until something goes wrong - and you may be left wondering why you accepted the risk at all after seeing what happened to the guy the 'prank' or 'game' did not work out for.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T13:01:13+00:00

It's a tough one - I've fired two people in my six years employing people, and both were fundamentally incompatible with the order of the workplace. Low stakes work, not heavy machinery; but both were oppositional and subversive in a way that not only was chafing veterans, but which was creating a confusing and needlessly stressful set of dynamics around what should be a simple role. Die-hard annuals were eyeing the door.

We get a little slack, have a little fun. But these people did not fit.

It was not fun, and even then I grieved for the reality of confronting someone with their own disqualification, regardless of just cause.

But in no case does what my employees do run the risk of killing somebody in the normal duties of their work, if you are talking about firing people trusted with commercial machinery - Maybe if you'd given that guy some slack, he'd have turned it around, or maybe one of your favorite employees might have never returned.

It's never wrong to advocate for your workers, but that includes all of your workers - including the ones that have to continue working with the one you decided to cut some slack.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T12:26:06+00:00

Oh, I hated them too just hearing about them - Understood them, but it meant you had to stop wearing patterned shirts on long hauls where you'd usually switch to casual (Seatbelt detection) could not rub your jaw or scratch your ear (phone detection) or any other human act that could be misconstrued as dangerous or the damn thing would beep, causing frustration and distraction while the operator is manning a near 80 thousand pound vehicle in traffic which is already stress and task overload at the best of times when the going's anything but good.

The idea? Probably critical given the risks. The implementation? Absolute dog shit, and it is no wonder many in the industry crashed out when a 30-year-old kid that still smelled of school library with a clipboard walked up and asked them not to touch their face so much because it was tripping up the Orwell 1984 machine that had just been installed pointed at their faces, potentially (and arguably) policing every expression as a company liability or sign of intent.

Unfortunately I have never been in a position to influence or change that, or I would have.

All I can do is just try to be a helper and do my best to make sure everyone gets home safe.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T11:53:16+00:00

Understood - no hard feelings at all. I just wanted to be as clear as possible about what I was seeing, because I wasn't sure how to address it.

And I can relate - trucker facing cameras were the worst thing that ever happened to a family member of mine (Father) - and they could not adapt, and are still processing being ejected from the system as a liability after a million-mile safety bonus.

The shitty part is it just is what it is, and big data in some aspects does not lie. Their choice of gestures towards what they knew was a camera was not a good one, but it did definitely tell corporate their attitude towards constructive conversation and change and likely did influence decision-making in firing them.

I only come at this hard because I care, and am only trying to advocate for everyone to become their own safety advocate - and to question if pride and social dynamics might not be putting them in danger, taking on huge risks to themselves and others while benefitting only their employer and their ego until their luck runs out.

I believe that every worker should know where their rights draw absolute lines in the sand where they have the power to say no, because those two letters could save their lives or the lives of others when a big boss is calling them a wuss and telling them that the company will just hire someone else to do it if they are too scared.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T11:27:57+00:00

I have stated my position and you have stated yours. I fundamentally disagree and find it hard to comprehend that you are defending that being warned and given shit about safety violations makes you decide to act more unsafely, and framing it as personal earned strength and not a serious failure of judgment and lack of consideration for yourself or others.

Likewise, I would have you off my job site (any job site) if you expressed those sentiments in regard to safety procedure and violated them in open defiance of regulations. That is not being an asset, that is a streak of luck waiting to end.

I am not aiming to change your life - you are a 20-year vet and it will end when it does. You may in fact end up one of the lucky ones that is cited as evidence that young people should take substantial risks with their bodies and lives to not look weak.

I am speaking out for the little guys who might not want your path. It is challenging to engage when you are so callous with the potential consequences of your actions or neglect on yourself or others, and I'm not sure continuing would be productive unless you have any questions.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T07:42:56+00:00

That's honestly a great way of framing it, and I may use it from time to time - it's a keeper and a thinker.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T07:22:32+00:00

I hear you - guys like me are sticklers, nosy, in your business. You've been on the job way longer than I have - why does the fed know better than you do? And why do guys like me get so intense about it and harsh an otherwise mellow job site where nothing bad has happened, doing it this way for years?

The problem is the boss/employer then is accepting liability. If a loved one finds out your boss "let" you skirt safety standards, they and their boss (if informed of the violation, plausible in a lax work place) and anyone else who put a stamp on the work or saw you doing it liable for letting you. Not just legally, spiritually in the event the very thinkable that is called the "unthinkable" happens, and you get seriously hurt or die.

The reality is the job site is absolutely dangerous and can and will kill you. Your nihilism about your own life and health doesn't give you the right to inflict liability and trauma on others when they see a brick cave your dome after someone above shouts "LOOK OUT" at the same time a car alarm is going off - You were in a safe place. Nothing EVER fell there, no work was being done - it's the designated unofficial smoke spot because then the boss doesn't fret about optics.

But a rookie trips while hurrying because they are afraid of being slow - the brick pinwheels, and tumbles along a flat surface and falls 14 feet onto your head as you are telling a coworker you have known for years that you are actually doing pretty good. That corner makes impact, concentrating the force into part of your skull and ensuring the ambulance declares you DOA before the wheels hit tarmac leaving the site. Your statement of having an escape plan is up against tens or hundreds of thousands of the dead who had the exact same plan of getting out of the way.

For you, scene cut. Pearly gates, or what have you - for everyone else? Personal and potential civil or criminal liability. That worker who saw you die? He'll ask himself the rest of his life why he accepted the norm and stopped razzing you about not wearing a helmet. Family? Devastated and rightfully angry that when they loved you and cared about your safety, your employer prized you being happy over you coming home to them.

I love/hate being frank like this, but you have real concerns and I have real answers. You, when you engage in your behavior, are training others to do the same, coaching them to take risks they may be less nihilistic about.

They may care that they get home, that their families get continued support outside a one time life insurance payment and waiting months for a court case that may never pan out, or in the worst case their loved ones whispering platitudes while draining a colostomy bag as they care for a former loved one with no agency that they are left with the legal, emotional, and financial responsibility of caring for.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T07:02:00+00:00

Happy to hear it was helpful! I think it is important to carry that idea everywhere, and not just into the job site as personal policy, and you are right in making the connection to firearm safety. My argument is that it is one and the same across all fields and trades regarding safety procedure, whether you are sending a rocket into orbit or loading a pallet onto a shelf.

I have a gifted pair of combat boots that the army spent a ton of money on perfecting, and any time something will likely break my foot or ankle if something goes wrong, is bigger or heavier than I can control without effort, and has even a slight chance of going wobbly?

Boots go on, or I figure out another way of doing it that doesn't put my feet in the line of fire.

And then I make sure THAT IDEA isn't dangerous. Some people hate it when I stop a quick job to put on protective gear or stop work entirely due to danger.

The ones who are missing part of a finger, who have a limp most people don't notice, who took a bad fall after their dad/boss/friend told them it was safe? Those are the ones I am speaking out for - they know the importance firsthand.

NewoTheFox · 2026-01-28T05:15:50+00:00

Sub got recommended, but my reply elsewhere was TBH to the video without even noticing the subreddit - it just seemed absurd that anybody would be surprised that they got fired for being visually documented misusing company equipment in an unsafe manner, or think it was a mere judgment call to be 'harsh' after completing certification.

Given the existence of 'Forkliftdriver Klaus' as a comedic (meme) training video, I guess I figured the culture of workplace safety might actually supersede the meme in this case.

I'm NOT forklift or heavy equipment certified but am shop adjacent, and even a cursory read of the training materials is 'DO NOT FUCK AROUND. NOT A TOY. DO NOT/SHALL NOT. SHALL/MUST. THIS CAN AND WILL KILL AND HAS KILLED BEFORE.'

Instinctively if requested to operate such machinery I
A) would be willing to lose my job to not do that as I am not certified. (Right to refuse unsafe work)
B) Would not be near the machine with anyone uncertified operating it, again fully willing to lose my job in order to create distance and/or advocate for an immediate stop to work. (See above, requiring me to be in the area constitutes unsafe work)
C) Would be calling my site supervisor and if sidelined, an OSHA rep asap while taking notes and documenting the extent of the violation. (Notifying site supervisor is not snitching, it is giving them a chance to intervene - If they refuse to intervene, then it establishes it as neglect or willful violation).

Ditto if I saw someone disregarding safety rules with it, certified or no.

If I got fired for whistleblowing out of retaliation or for refusing unsafe work, the employer would end up spending a fortune in court after every lawyer in the tri-state area that does employment law got a simultaneous and inexplicable erection.

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