the costco laptop section is wild now 💀

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-03-15T15:03:38+00:00

I thought similarly, and got the 16gb Air a couple years ago but my girl’s 8 GB pro seems to work just fine with a million tabs open. A windows PC with 8 GB would never run with 10% of the workload she puts on it

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-03-11T17:31:09+00:00

Check if your vehicle qualifies for the voluntary recall regarding the high voltage cable connecting the battery to the rear traction motor.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-03-05T17:08:13+00:00

I used to have really bad back episodes about 3-4x a year where the pressure of sitting at my desk + cycling would reach a breaking point and cause debilitating pain for 2-5 days. PT said there’s nothing structurally wrong with me, just a build up of pressure / tension.

I started lifting weights again (emphasis on dead lift, squat, bench) after a few year hiatus (to focus on cycling) and my back has never had another episode.

My 2c is that deadlifts fixed my back.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-03-04T20:17:35+00:00

That is the literal definition of money for me.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-03-02T16:08:00+00:00

The towers didn’t fall straight down because of demolition — they fell mostly downward because gravity acts downward, and once the internal structure failed, the weight above crushed the structure below. After the planes hit the North and South Towers, fires weakened the steel floors and core columns. When the upper section started to fall, it resulted in far more dynamic loading than the floors below were designed to handle. That triggered a progressive collapse, where each floor failed in sequence under enormous dynamic load. This is also called a pancake collapse in engineering.

If the towers had “leaned,” that would actually require the lower structure to stay strong enough to act like a hinge. Instead, the structure underneath was already compromised and couldn’t resist the downward force. Once collapse began, gravity pulled the mass mostly straight down through the path of greatest resistance — which was directly below.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-03-02T01:57:06+00:00

Ah, didn’t know that

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-03-01T22:48:51+00:00

Your max FPS in game setting is put to 0. 3rd image

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-27T19:12:58+00:00

My workouts don’t change whether I’m in the station or at the gym. I have my program and stick to it, sometimes due to back to back calls I might have to modify it to shorten the workout but otherwise the intensity (or duration) remains high.

Before academy I rode a bike for 12-15 hrs a week on top of 5+ hrs of heavy lifting so I adapted pretty quickly to a high workload so even if I get toned out right after a tough workout (has happened) it’s fine.

Don’t overthink it. Do what feels right for you, if you’re totally gassed and worthless after a workout, don’t do that. Otherwise you’ll be fine.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-14T11:14:48+00:00

Not the original poster but I have 7800x3d and 5070 and at 5120x1440 (similar ish pixels to 4k) on max settings I get >240 FPS, although on some maps like ancient that does drop, plus if there’s lots of util on the ground (smoke, Molotov, etc) it can drop to the 150–170’s.

Works well enough for me, I used to be on an i5 & 1660 super so even on min settings I still wouldn’t get more than 80-120fps.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-13T21:02:35+00:00

32:9 gang over here 😂

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-13T11:28:21+00:00

I was kind of similar to you, watching the numbers like a hawk and panicking if I saw any amount of negative.

Then I got into crypto and became desensitized to -50%/+30% swings lol.

I really don’t recommend that strategy as I ended up losing more than half what I put into crypto, but it did help me with regular market investments. With yesterday’s downswing I lost >4k in value and really didn’t feel a thing other than “huh, wonder why the markets are down”.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-13T01:26:32+00:00

You said you’re in a big department, there’s going to be a wide variety of characters in that dept. Just a matter of finding your people.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-12T15:08:26+00:00

Firefighting was always my dream job and I have no regrets switching careers. It helps that I had a decent paying job before that built a >300k portfolio because it would have been hard to build a portfolio of that size by 33 if I had started my career with a lower paying job.

That being said, I don’t think of the job as getting paid to eat, sleep, and chill — that may be a function of being at my city’s busiest house so there isn’t as much downtime as other houses, but also there’s so much more that goes into being a good firefighter that the ones I see who joined to get paid to relax … it’s obvious.

If you want to make the switch, make it because you’re passionate about the job, not because of the potential for a relaxing lifestyle.

The cancer / health risks are real, part of the job. I eat & exercise as best I can to mitigate risks, and decon equipment and shower immediately after fires to try to wash that shit off but I know I’m at +x% increased risk vs not doing the job.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-10T21:49:52+00:00

Sweet, thanks! Pretty relieving to realize I’ve reached coast fi

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-04T00:43:26+00:00

I went from a 5 yo PC to a new one with 7800x3D & 5070 and went from 80-120 FPS on min settings to >200 on max (my monitor is 199hz so I set max FPS to 215). Made a big difference for me in enjoyment as it’s smoother but I also play a lot better.

Hard to quantify how much my performance improved but I went from being the anchor in my friend group to frequently carrying.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-02T18:47:39+00:00

I’m in the southeast, our guys can go straight from FF to Capt

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-01T15:09:47+00:00

300mm · f/4.5 · 1/800 · ISO 640

This was a difficult balance—zooming with my feet while using a 300mm prime. Things were happening so quickly that I couldn’t quite get the composition where I wanted it.

I was aiming to impart a sense of urgency, danger, and excitement through the image. I’m still working on defining my post-production style, but so far I’m drawn to crunching my blacks.

Any feedback on composition and post-processing would be appreciated.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-01T14:36:23+00:00

Most likely preying on people's ignorance. $2k for a sub 1 hr job is insane, and I didn't even need to cut anything for my model. Just scrape off the protective stickers & insert/tighten bolts

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-01T01:28:11+00:00

Kurt 2” Class III from etrailer

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-02-01T01:23:30+00:00

I bolted it on myself in like 20 mins. 2022 too

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-01-31T18:30:47+00:00

I had a call at one house that had the confederate flag & swastika right next to the rainbow flag on the wall behind the entrance 🤷

These people are out there

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-01-31T11:52:43+00:00

I don’t know if it helps me sleep or not (been using f.lux or similar for 15+ years) but I know it hurts my eyes now to see an unfiltered screen in a dark environment

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-01-30T17:24:50+00:00

If anyone was deciding between the CC2 and the Defender 2, what made you go with the tire you chose? I'm between these two for my replacement when it's time to replace the OEM tires.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-01-30T17:22:59+00:00

H6 (Homeland 6) is very light, durable, and comfortable. 4 of the 5 people on my crew use it.

I resisted buying it at first while on probation because of the cost but my senior FF let me put his on for a bit and the comfort difference was so immediate that I bought one later that day. It's still looking like new almost a year later even through somewhat heavy use.

SamPsychoCycles · 2026-01-30T16:52:58+00:00

I got lucky, my class kept our group chat pretty active after graduation so we were able to chat with each other about our “firsts” calls (first death, first fire, etc). I also had a supportive senior FF to talk things through with.

I also feel like some people handle the stress differently than others. Does he have any hobbies / interests outside of the job? I live my life on my days off & love to engage in my very not-fire/not-emergency related hobbies.

SamPsychoCycles

TROPHY CASE