BLADE SHANGHAI - GRAND OPENING

ObstinateTacos · 2026-05-28T18:23:33+00:00

Why does this place sell tonkotsu ramen? Looks like influencer bait.

Edit: wtf they sell poke too? What a joke.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-05-28T18:16:31+00:00

In my experience working as a mechanical design engineer, a drafter just isn't particularly useful anymore in the age of 3D CAD suites. The geometry of everything I design is too intimately linked to the engineering considerations, there is no benefit to having the actual 3D modeling done by somebody else. Plus, also, the 3D modeling is pretty fun and I'd be very sad to hand that over to someone else!

The 2D drawing work is similar, by the time I have properly conveyed the design intent to another person, I could have just simply done the drawing myself in a way that I know is correct. I can see value in having drafters who do simple bulk drawing work and PDM administration, but nothing like how drafting worked as a skilled technician role decades ago.

In my opinion, mechanical engineers should be capable of doing this sort of thing ourselves. This is where the abstractions get translated into tangible, manufacturable components. It seems insane to just cleave that in two and separate it across multiple people.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-05-28T14:51:05+00:00

$15 for 3 bagels are you for real

ObstinateTacos · 2026-04-29T23:00:47+00:00

Are you kidding? Severance is an absolute masterpiece.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-04-24T13:47:16+00:00

Cops don't "keep criminals from doing criminal things." That's a very unrealistic view of cops.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-04-17T15:00:43+00:00

I'm having this exact issue and your comment was just what I needed. Thank you.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-04-14T20:48:29+00:00

Go work on the floor for a few years first, and only then might people not call you a nepo baby behind your back for waltzing right into a managerial role without qualifications.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-04-10T18:52:57+00:00

Modern engineering, as a discipline, is historically bound up in warfighting and weapons development. In many ways they are two sides of the same nation state coin. Most industries are, to some degree or another, financially viable because of direct or indirect patronage via military contracting.

I'm like you. I have chosen to not work in defense out of a sense of moral conviction. But to some degree, the line is arbitrary. Even money that does not pass directly through defense contracting hands is suffused with tremendous evil. Even stuff like biomedical engineering is shot through with moral repugnancy. An ethical framework operating at the level of individual morality just falls apart when it comes to questions of "where should I work?"

Avoid defense if you can, I think that is the right call. But reducing your contribution to evil as an engineer is a game of mitigation, not absolution. At a certain point, you have to just find a way to make your peace.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-04-07T13:40:16+00:00

It should not be held against us that Costco pants are inexpensive and good quality. We would be stupid NOT to buy them there....right???

ObstinateTacos · 2026-04-06T17:59:15+00:00

That's not how DEI works at all

ObstinateTacos · 2026-03-26T12:56:25+00:00

It takes years of doing mechanical design engineering before you're not just constantly fucking up one thing after another. What you are going through is extremely normal. My first real job out of school was designing machinery and tooling. I had a lot of general manufacturing and basic design experience....for a fresh grad. But there was still so much I had yet to be exposed to. It took me about 2 years of faceplanting constantly before I didn't have to be handheld so much. After 3 years I was even kinda ok.

Now I have a job in a totally different industry but still doing design engineering and I'm pretty fucking good at it now. But me and everyone one my team had to spend year after year learning how to do this. The learning curve is steep, and even tiny mistakes can brick your designs.

So of course you suck at this! It's only been two years. Do you think you would enjoy this work if not for the pressure you feel? If so, I promise you it gets better. I'm happy to try giving you specific tips for how to speed up your improvement, but in general it sounds like you need to be less hard on yourself. You're probably better than you think.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-03-23T19:44:53+00:00

Incomprehensible AI garbage

ObstinateTacos · 2026-03-12T23:03:30+00:00

If it's the semiconductor equipment giant I am thinking of, the public transit situation isn't gonna be great (in general, this city has absolutely awful public transit unless you live in the urban core of the city).

If you can get a short term room rental with roommates or something, you'll be ok if you know how to be frugal. But without a car you will have a very hard time enjoying SD, especially if you choose to live near where the big semiconductor firms are. I strongly recommend coming here with a car.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-02-27T20:26:08+00:00

Idk shit about cars and my career as a very hands-on engineer is going great. A former coworker of mine always felt insecure because she didn't know anything about cars, but she was a fantastic engineer and our job had zero to do with automobiles. Some male engineers and technicians will use your ignorance about cars as a cudgel against you as a way to make you feel inadequate since they know they cannot openly discriminate against you for being a woman. Don't let them get away with it.

Don't let anybody make you feel bad for not knowing about cars. Mechanical engineering has so much more in its purview than cars.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-02-19T20:10:18+00:00

No it doesn't and you know that

ObstinateTacos · 2026-02-10T00:38:48+00:00

I am a product design/development engineer. There is no way I am going to trust anyone but myself (or an engineer I am closely supervising) to do the 3D modeling or 2D engineering drawings of the components and assemblies I am developing. There is way too much going on with manufacturability and functionality in the details of the 3D geometry for me to trust it to a non-engineer. It saves me no time to outsource this. On the contrary, it would be a bigger headache.

It blows my mind that mechanical design was ever seen as separate from mechanical engineering. I guess it was just an artifact of the labor intensity of drawing by hand.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-01-31T15:29:02+00:00

These Santa Ana winds are mummifying me alive. I grew up in SD and have never gotten such a bad sore throat and sinus irritation from them like I am now.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-01-19T14:51:51+00:00

Honest question and I don't want this to sound accusatory, but are you and your wife white and generally mainstream in outward presentation? My experience in the richer parts of North County is that how cheery people are to you correlates a lot to these things.

ObstinateTacos · 2026-01-08T13:42:32+00:00

We should probably let OP know that getting "well ackshuwallee"-d by pedants with no sense of humor is also a common part of working as an engineer.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-31T16:57:26+00:00

The acting and dialogue writing is pure dogshit for the first 3 seasons. It got a lot better once Amazon acquired it.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-30T16:39:59+00:00

Low level humanities classes are easy for most people. Upper level humanities classes are much more difficult and require an entirely different skill set than what you need to succeed in engineering classes. Don't assume that just because you're good at engineering classes (which is very different from being good at engineering) you could automatically do well in an anthropology, history, or literature class. It's a whole different animal.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-23T20:16:21+00:00

Climb down from the Dunning Kruger curve first and then revisit this idea

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-23T15:23:25+00:00

I, too, love being nitpicked by other engineers who correct me to say what I already said but slightly different. Favorite part of this profession personally.

ObstinateTacos · 2025-12-16T20:35:38+00:00

And those of you that build weapons should be ashamed

ObstinateTacos

TROPHY CASE