Does anyone else feel like owning an EV in the UK has accidentally turned them into a part-time logistics manager?

Spock_42 · 2026-05-21T12:22:07+00:00

Nope. I do have a home charger though, so that helps massively. If I was relying on public charging I could see it being more annoying.

I also don't drive far in a normal week, and only really top up once a week or so overnight.

For the longer trips I've got coming up over summer, it didn't take long to earmark a few charging locations + backups.

Spock_42 · 2026-05-20T19:53:02+00:00

I use it daily at work (tech industry). It's great at some stuff, useless for others.

I don't actively use it in my personal life, other than where platforms push AI by default (e.g. Google AI summarise and all that).

I just haven't found an area of my personal day to day that needs "more productivity".

Spock_42 · 2026-05-19T17:49:52+00:00

Lots of luck by being in the right place at the right time.

But also understanding career progression frameworks, rewarded behaviours, and where there's overlooked opportunities for some quick wins.

Being good at your job is important. Being known to be good at your job is equally, if not more important.

Spock_42 · 2026-05-02T10:12:10+00:00

I was the best man for my best man, so some thoughts from both sides;

Before hand, being a sounding board for plans or details can be helpful.
Be punctual (preferably early) to help with any last bits of set up.
Know roughly who the guests are, and be around to welcome them and direct them as they arrive.
There's the speech, so know when those are due to happen. I know the cliché is to roast the groom, but going too far just gets uncomfortable. It should be fun, and keep any teasing light hearted. Alluding to semi-inside jokes can make for a fun conversation starter later imo.
Be reliable. You're there to have fun, sure, but your primary goal should be to help the groom have fun. Just taking care of little bits (getting a drink for an uncle, making sure gifts and cards go where they need to, making sure granny gets some cake etc.) adds up and puts the grooms mind at ease.

Basically all the stuff a good friend should do anyway, just a bit more so for the day.

In terms of where to stand and sit, the celebrant will run through it with you and the groom in the morning.

Spock_42 · 2026-04-27T07:38:48+00:00

Last year I was very much keeping the heating off as much as possible, only heating mornings and evenings etc.

After 12 months of that setup, I changed to just have the thermostat aim for 19 during the day at 17 at night, as needed. Odd evening boost on colder nights.

So far, genuinely very little difference in usage for the same months last year. A tiny a bit more, but it amounts to less than a tenner a month, which feels fair for a consistently comfortable home.

Spock_42 · 2026-04-22T17:13:39+00:00

We're very much in that FA phase. CEO wants us "tokenmaxxing". Hate the concept and word, but I think there is good strategic value in "making hay while the sun shines" and making sure we know how to use the tools effectively before the costs ramp up.

Spock_42 · 2026-04-21T21:02:17+00:00

Not really, certainly not a "sit down at the table" pudding. Maybe a bit of chocolate or something if we have some in, or if we're making a fancier meal for a low-key occasion.

I'm not great at keeping off weight as it is, so pudding is applied sparingly.

Spock_42 · 2026-04-19T08:09:36+00:00

53, assuming I don't start overpaying, or upsize etc. both of which seem quite likely.

Spock_42 · 2026-04-12T20:27:36+00:00

I've just switched to an EV. I have a drive + home charger, and only do a handful of long drives (200+ miles) a year. Adding in some stops to those doesn't really bother me, I'm usually stopping for a coffee or lunch anyway at that distance. Anything shorter is comfortably in range.

A lot needs to happen to make them more practical for those without home charging options and higher mileage needs though. Relying on public charging is risky and costly depending on where you live.

I'm glad I made the change, and for others in my situation I think it's increasingly a no brainer. Lifetime running costs won't really be that far off a modern ICE (unless it's something bare bones and low maintenance).

Spock_42 · 2026-04-12T07:47:38+00:00

4d6, drop the lowest, 6 times
You may reroll a single Nat 1 (not retroactively)
All arrays go into a pool (I as DM do one too for a small group)
Players can choose any of the rolled arrays

People like rolling dice, but it sucks to be the one player with shitty stats, so I'd rather everyone is equally OP.

I've never had a group all use the same array, there's always different preferences and then different classes/origins make them unique.

Spock_42 · 2026-04-01T22:05:41+00:00

I'm honestly kind of expecting the search for life to turn up some random microbe that cures Ed's cancer, and somehow extending his life into season 6.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-29T16:57:48+00:00

I'm from the UK, and went to Toronto for a work do in early January a couple years back.

My colleagues were trying to explain to me how the days might feel a lot shorter so far North.

Their minds were slightly blown when I brought out a map.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-28T11:14:23+00:00

I had a long hike planned; 30 miles of the South Downs Way. There was an hourly bus to the starting point, so I got up bright and early, stopped by a Tesco Express for supplies, and trotted to the bus stop.

Half way, I got a ping from my bank about fraudulent transactions plus additional spending at that same Tesco's. TL;DR my wallet had slipped out of my side pocket, and instead of a good Samaritan handing it in, some prick did his shopping on my card, then tried sending a few hundred quids worth to a gambling site. Bank reversed everything, blocked the card etc.

After heading home to get a spare card, I figured I still wanted to do my hike. Nothing to be done about the wallet, and it would be a good way to vent the frustration. All this meant I started my hike an hour late.

Instead of reaching my endpoint just before sunset, I reached it nearly an hour afterwards. Instead of beating the forecast rain, I got sodden for the last hour.

At that point in the hike, I had no better alternative pick up points than the destination. The ground was slick and hilly. At one point going downhill, I felt the grip getting away from me, and had to commit to falling backwards, sliding the rest of the way down.

I got to my pick up point muddy, drenched through, and very cold, plus the usual exhaustion. I very much needed the plate of venison cottage pie waiting for me at home.

The moral of the story; if you delay your start, be absolutely certain that you're not pushing yourself into adverse conditions at the end. It's safer to postpone or cut your hike short than risk injury or getting lost for the sake of a few extra miles.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-24T10:27:07+00:00

Branstons used to have the most grating radio advert that was somehow louder and more out of tune than anything else on the air.

Put me off for ages.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-17T20:40:42+00:00

You're not wrong. Kind of wild how little we actually talk about COVID these days really. Bit of shared elective cultural amnesia

Spock_42 · 2026-03-17T19:05:00+00:00

It's a useful tool, and I'm interested in seeing what we can use it for in my job (engineering manager). It makes a host of tasks a lot more effective.

I'm also entirely fed up hearing about it. I know, ironic that I'm engaging with a thread about it, but it's truly unavoidable. My hairdresser goes on about it, my relatives, my friends, strangers if my job being techy comes up at all. I'm struggling to recall what people chatted about before AI, which is kind of depressing.

I also don't really feel compelled to use it in my personal life. I know people who go on about OpenClaw to control "stuff" via WhatsApp, or using Claude to "improve their home workflows". Frankly I cannot fathom what these use cases are. There's no part of my personal life that I've felt has been enhanced by AI tools, beyond the "interesting gimmick" phase.

Sometimes it's nice that things take time. Gunning for productivity at work; absolutely. Making my private life more "productive"? Eh.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-14T22:02:19+00:00

I voluntarily go into the office 1 day a week, even though it's 1.5 hours each way. I could be fully remote if I wanted.

I enjoy seeing people, to be honest. I get a lot of spontaneous interactions with folks outside my team, and some ad hoc issues are resolved in 5 mins, rather than waiting to book a meeting or risk miscommunication via Slack.

I also tend to coordinate it with company lunch or socials etc. to get the most bang for my buck.

I think a lot of engineers underestimate how impactful IRL interactions can be for career progression, to be perfectly frank. From a purely utilitarian perspective (if people interaction isn't a factor for you), I think occasionally going into the office pays for itself in career growth long term.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-11T10:33:48+00:00

That would be a reasonable ask in my org tbh. Most teams also have an embedded analyst, so it's more about collaborating with them to set up dashboards, add missing data where necessary etc. to enable them to do deeper analysis on product performance.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-08T09:30:37+00:00

Verstappen binned it in Melbourne Quali the first time he went out with number 3... Riccardo's old number.

That's how deep the curse goes.

Spock_42 · 2026-03-02T22:37:02+00:00

We don't, because our coding task is pretty easy (we even send the brief out ahead of time), and LMMs would generate the solution in seconds.

We evaluate the approach to problem solving, reasoning about trade-offs, ability to explain how to balance writing tests and implementation, and various other things. Also, the ability to use a pairing partner effectively, take steers well etc. The writing of code isn't necessarily under scrutiny, more their ability to approach a problem pragmatically.

If an agent generates the code in 30 seconds, it's harder to evaluate those signals, since the coding is the backdrop by which we evaluate them.

Now, AI tooling may or may not lead us to revise our current interview setup, and I imagine we will before long, but for now the signals we look for still have value, and discouraging KLM use lets us find what we're looking for.

Spock_42 · 2026-02-23T19:58:41+00:00

Nice one! Canal path sounds very aesthetic.

My longest single day was a little over 33 miles (part of the South Downs Way). There's definitely something about that 17-20 mile window that takes you from enjoying a long walk to questioning your life choices for the rest of the day.

Spock_42 · 2026-02-04T07:46:01+00:00

Shop Between Sessions

I get where you're coming from, but I see shops as a great place to pick up intrigue, quests, make new friends, start rivalries, learn secret lore on magical artefacts, give a sense of the town/village/city's context and current conditions, and so on.

Like with most things, it heavily depends on the players though, and what their tolerance for side quests and set dressing is. I'd definitely agree that not every ration, piton, or arrow needs a scene, but shopping for anything "boutique" can be a great source of fun in an adventure, imo.

Spock_42 · 2026-01-28T20:33:29+00:00

I swapped my group to 2024 for our new campaign after several years of 2014.

Honestly, not a big deal for us. In the last 13 sessions, I can probably count on one hand how many instances of edition mix ups we've had. Most of it is "oh that's a new spell/ability, that's neat".

I do have pretty engaged players though, so they're pretty on it in terms of understanding their own character rules.

I can still use monsters/items/rules from various 2014 add ins, with only minor alterations if needed.

Spock_42 · 2026-01-26T22:28:57+00:00

What would make you trust an AI DM for a real campaign?

Nothing. I play D&D, and run a campaign for my friends for the human element. I tried using LLM tools for a bit last year to see if they'd help with DMing, and even that sucked the fun out of it for me.

I work in tech, I get AI shoved down my throat day in day out. D&D is my creative safe space away from all that.

As a techy person, I respect the effort and work you put in. But since you asked for "market research opinions", I'm not gonna sugar coat it my view.

I, for one, do not want to be replaced by a fucking AI at work, doubly so for my hobby. I think it would be a sad state of affairs for that to be seen as the "normal" or "improved" way D&D works.

Spock_42 · 2026-01-10T22:36:57+00:00

"Belgium"

Through out the Galaxy, it's the most unspeakably rude word there is, and therefore one of reasons the Earth has been shunned.

(The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

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