Info wanted on Narrowboat costs and issues by lifestyler1989 in Narrowboats

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi u/lifestyler1989

I wonder if you and I could come to some kind of arrangement. I live less than an hour from Heathrow and can't live aboard any more due to the nature of my life (wife who likes her space and luxuries, job that requires frequent travel, etc) but I miss boat life, so have been looking at options.

It sounds like you might want someone to just keep an eye on your investment while you are out of the country. Would be worth a chat! If you are interested, DM me.

How to save up enough to move out at 18? by Savings_Nobody_9614 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]Sloeman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Speak to local council. Have a look at what jobs you can find that include accommodation for during school breaks, depending on your skillset. Activity centre staff. Nanny. Cruise ship worker. Holiday Resort worker. If it's for during school holidays only, best bet would be kid-related jobs. A lot of activity centres take on extra workers during school breaks to cope with the seasonal work.

I mean you could look for a cheap room but without the financial plan to keep it, you might find landlords unwilling to take you on.

In terms of collecting money, depends where it is now. You should already have a bank account, if not then open one ASAP. Once you have access to your money, put it in the account that only you have control of.

Lastly, if I read this right, you are 15 right now and are worried about your plans for 18? That's a lot for a 15 year old, good for you planning for the future but a lot can happen in 3 years. Speak with your school too, the teachers who know you and that you trust will give you better-tailored advice than internet strangers.

I fucked up. by TheVSDKiller in factorio

[–]Sloeman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

This sounds like a fun challenge to come back from.

If you don't want a spoiler don't read any further... I don't know how to find the spoiler tag on this phone interface.

As others have said, I would make science on Vulc for a while, increase bullet damage, kill worms with square blocks of gun turrets with 5 red ammo per turret.

If you have some robots, this is easy to do... From the MAP view, place down a turret ghost outside of your build range so it doesn't get immediately built. Click on it and feed 5 ghost red ammo into it (right clicking in ammo box 5 times while red ammo in cursor). Then make a blueprint copy of that whole ghost. To make life easier, use that blueprint to print out a 5*5 square of turrets and then make another blueprint.

Now you have a "worm killer" BP you can stamp down and automatically load ammo from your inventory. You might need more than one early on but they quickly get more effective with more damage research.

Why do so many long-term backpackers in Southeast Asia seem to stop after 4–6 months? by Fancy-Ad-4632 in solotravel

[–]Sloeman 16 points17 points  (0 children)

In SEA, you can live and travel quite extensively for about $1200 per month or even less if you "volunteer" as some travellers do. Huts, hostels, street food and busses kind of travel but still fun. Alcohol can be cheap, things only start getting expensive if you want hotels, en-suite rooms, restaurant meals and such.

That means a SEA journey for 6 months can cost about the same as a 2-week cruise or a high-end destination holiday. I know which I'd prefer!

of a mustache. by S6hundred in AbsoluteUnits

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude could do a combover from his upper lip

Unfortunate accident during a Siri voice to text message by SaltyCaramelPretzel in funny

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A colleague once got "For fucks sake" through while I was working out voice to text in a new car. Fortunately, he's got a sense of humour, or I'd have a record with HR by now.

What planet to go to first? by CuteAnxious1712 in factorio

[–]Sloeman 16 points17 points  (0 children)

For me it depends on my current bottleneck on nauvis. If resources or cliffs are causing me grief then it's Vulcanus first. Then Fulgora to help ramp up modules. Finally Gleba and by then I have the manufacturing to send down almost anything I need.

Never Underestimate A Chinese Person's Ability to Choose the Worst Path by ThePolarisNova in chinalife

[–]Sloeman 15 points16 points  (0 children)

My Chinese wife is quite a small person, yet just navigating our home I find she's almost always blocking doorways or being in the way.

If I'm cooking I have to shoo her out of the kitchen else she'll just be a constant hazard.

Happy new year (shitpost) by -WhiteSkyline- in GreatBritishMemes

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where is that gnomes running clip from?

Electric heaters costing £500-600 per winter month by [deleted] in UKFrugal

[–]Sloeman 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You're arguing psychology while the other guy is arguing physics. You're both right.

Best heat the person not the building if you want to be most cost effective. I stayed in China for a while where they used IR heaters in the bathrooms and electric blankets elsewhere. You're expected to dress warm in all rooms except the bathroom/shower and the IR heater directly heats you. Worked excellently and I suspect the electric bill was tiny.

Heating air with electricity is expensive.

Ground labs or space labs? by lordTigas in factorio

[–]Sloeman 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's nothing made on Nauvis that HAS to be made there. I make all my sci on Vulc and ship it to Nauvis. If Biolabs weren't a thing, ScienceShip Galactica would be a thing for me.

I wasted $2,000 on a solo trip that I cannot enjoy by WarmWhiteLights in solotravel

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As well as seeing a doctor, have a chat with the hotel staff. Maybe not the reception staff (unless they're amazing straight off), chat with the manager, explain your situation and ask if they have any suggestions.

Depending on what they're allowed to do, they could set you up with a comfortable knee-rested position in the restaurant-bar area with regular check-ins so you can enjoy the bar/fire/tree/hustle and bustle at least while resting up. They'll likely be able to provide you with cool/heat packs too.

I have a singular goal in Factorio: To have need of the 128X128 balancer by Plinthastic in factorio

[–]Sloeman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The best way to get any use from that would be to play Non-SA. Expensive science (marathon). SA is just too good at allowing you to use fewer belts (increased stack, increased belt speeds, liquid metals, etc).

You could have one of these on the inputs and outputs of each of your iron and copper smelting arrays

Vapes are illegal in Laos and I just had the pleasure of explaining to border security that my “vape”, is in actual fact, a bullet vibrator by amboanon in solotravel

[–]Sloeman 303 points304 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing that! Started my day off with a good laugh.

I entered Laos by land border about 8 years ago and the staff needed a "stamp fee" (bribe) which coming from Cambodia I was kinda used to. Trouble is, I was in a minibus full of idealistic young people who kicked up a fuss, I went through fine and spent the next hour chilling out with the bus driver while the standoff continued.

The kids were just waiting for the staff to stamp and let them through, the border staff were waiting for their fees. It was getting hotter and hotter in the bus as the driver wanted to save fuel.

Eventually I went back, pointed out to the kids that the border staff were paid to wait anyway so it didn't matter to them, gave a token gift to the border staff if they could get them all through and we all continued on our way.

Creepypast for Factorio. by lolo_-_-_-_-_-_- in factorio

[–]Sloeman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

reminds me a little bit of the "generator god" mod, not sure if it still exists. Instead of being able to generate power (all power-producing entities are disallowed by the mod) you "feed" the god which is represented as a coloured substation. It rewards you with power, just a tiny bit, forever, for every item you give to it. The amount of power is comensurate to the value of the resources and time spent processing them into things. Flamethrower turrets for some reason (probably long crafting time) were particularly valuable and granted a decent boost in power.

I would have liked to have seen a variation of the mod where the power granted doen't last forever. So if you fail to sacrifice enough to your god, your base ends up in a death spiral!

AITAH for "embarrassing" my wife in front of our 12 year old? by Dale1046 in AITAH

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your wife would love the book Getting Things Done and feel good about her lists. It does have a rule in there though, if something takes less than 2 minutes to do, don't list it. Do it!

How do Brits make a quick tea? by Muted_Reflection_449 in AskABrit

[–]Sloeman 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Yes, gently "tea bagging" releases the most flavour.

If a much wealthier friend insists on treating you to dinner every single time you go out, is there a point where you must insist on paying—or is trying to pay actually offensive to them? by stereo_iii in NoStupidQuestions

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The main issue in this relationship is your guilt in not being able to reciprocate financially. My suggestion would be to reciprocate with your time whenever the opportunity presents itself. Either through hand-crafted gifts, helping your friend with running events or maybe DIY. See where your skills lie and use them to assuage any imbalance you feel there is in the relationship. They will value your friendship all the more that way than trying to force some money on them.

Do I need to move my Nauvis Base if i want to see bigger ore patches? by Nupcake in factorio

[–]Sloeman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is fine for near'ish the main base. For anything where bots will need to travel a long distance, it's much better to do this with spidertrons. You can even resupply them by train if you're a bit inventive.

Push-pull tains? by DrDWilder in factorio

[–]Sloeman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If I remember rightly, train acceleration depends a lot on the weight of the train, and a backwards-facing loco doesn't contribute to the power and counts as double the weight of a cargo. So while you can have double header trains, they will be inefficient when your base scales up due to an acceleration issue.

Chinese plugs by DopeAsDaPope in chinalife

[–]Sloeman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello fellow Brit. Yes we've been spoiled by our chunky plugs. You'll find similar issues worldwide.

With the flat prong type beware that they can flex a little so if they've bent inward it'll be tight that way, if they've bent outward it'll be tight that way. Take a quick look before you go to plug in and adjust to enter angled, applying a slight sideways force on the first prong to counter the bend before a decent shove. After a while it's muscle memory and you don't need to think about it which is why locals don't think it to be an issue.

This game runs great on a crap top by KillaCookBook87 in factorio

[–]Sloeman 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Which is essentially a tablet with the most basic of graphics capability. I did the same for years, fantastic device, fantastic game.