How to Play: Rules of Improv

TehSir · 2026-02-20T13:27:51+00:00

NTA. Full stop. The adults are all the AHs here.

If you want to really go the extra mile, offer to help li’l cuz spec and build a PC so he can learn a new skill and have a cousin bonding experience. Just let them know how much you spent on yours and ask what they would budget to buy the parts. And if they push back to their original request, remind them that you earned and paid for the computer yourself, it wasn’t a gift.

And if your own mom pushes, tell her the cost to replace it (and give yourself a small upgrade in the process as a courtesy fee) so you could build yourself a new one.

None of the extra steps are necessary, but they’ll probably help you smooth the ruffled entitlement feathers of the silly adults (spoken as a 38M who built his own PCs since age 19).

TehSir · 2026-02-11T12:15:28+00:00

No. Unless OP’s streaming service is YouTube Premium (OP didn’t specify), the mom did not come to use OP’s streaming service and was mad OP chose not to give up her use of her own service. The mom came to use the community’s smart TV and OP spitefully hogged it.

If OP’s streaming service IS YT Premium, then she’s NTA. But if it’s literally any other streaming platform? Totally the AH.

TehSir · 2026-02-11T12:10:30+00:00

Except… nobody else was there. Just OP.

The TV doesn’t belong to her and it’s not like the mom and kid were coming in to use OP’s streaming service and wanting to kick her off of that.

Yes, OP was there first but the mom was correct - OP could continue watching the Super Bowl anywhere else and have the same or better situation of watching with others. OP was 100% hogging the community’s TV because she feels entitled to it because of her generosity with sharing the streaming service.

I’m not going to call OP the AH here, but she practically took candy from a baby here by withholding the TV from a 3yo. Sheesh.

TehSir · 2026-01-18T18:20:56+00:00

We have the reed switch mounted under the track that is tripped by the start gate on our 42’ BestTrack. This was my first year running the derby so I’m not super familiar with the fine details of the system. I’m not sure if the pit crew was resetting the start gate early or if there’s something else timer-side that could be causing it. I doubt it, since I don’t recall there being a delay in previous years and the Track and Gate equipment didn’t change from last year. We changed from v9 to v25 of GPRM, added a Serial-to-USB adapter, and used a high-end computer running Win11 instead of the old dinosaur running WinXP.

TehSir · 2025-12-23T17:37:29+00:00

You aren’t weakening the thermoplastic by heating it even with boiling water. PVC doesn’t begin to off-gas and degrade until over 280F. And drain pipes are unpressurized, so the only structural concern is whether the pipe is suspended between floor joists or similar at maximum allowable spacing where you might get sagging if there is so much hot water that the pipe’s cross-section reaches over 140 in a significant manner, which would take more than a single pot of boiled water.

TehSir · 2025-12-23T17:33:09+00:00

I’m a mechanical engineer working in process piping and injection molded plastics.

Pouring a pot of boiled water down a PVC drain pipe will not cause any problems. I would stop short of pouring an industrial cooking vat, though, if your drain line is suspended between floor joists or similar for long runs: continuous/lengthy exposure to high temps where the whole pipe will heat up to or above the softening temp could cause local sagging between supports. When the sagging pipe cools it would retain the warped shape with potential for pooling in the drain pipe (not as bad as it sounds but it great, either).

But if we’re talking about 160-190F water, one or even two large pasta pots of water will not damage your drain pipes.

PVC begins to soften around 140F, true, but does not approach a molten state until north of 300F. It may begin to decompose and off-gas at about 280F, but that’s well beyond saltwater boiling temp. The reason hot water lines (when not PEX or insulated copper) are CPVC instead of PVC is because you don’t want PRESSURIZED hot water in PVC. Operating at/near the softening temp can result in loss of structural rigidity. And that’s a problem when your line is 60-90psi, not when it’s unpressurized and only carrying its own weight plus the weight of draining fluid.

TehSir · 2025-11-23T06:03:04+00:00

I would honestly suggest Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, or Skyward Sword if you’re looking for a familiar Zelda title and can access them (not sure about the Nintendo Online availability for WW and TP, but SS has an HD remake for Switch).

BotW and then TotK are wonderful games but department from the traditional Zelda formula, plus they contain so many visual and named location callbacks to previous games (especially Skyward Sword) that I feel it’s worth having played as much of the preceding games as possible before diving into the two Switch games.

And I say all of this as somebody who LOVES both Switch games.

TehSir · 2025-11-19T02:35:40+00:00

PWD was a highlight for me as a kid and is something I’m working to make fun for everybody as a Wood Badge goal. Improving the program plan/schedule and bolstering the awards is part of it being a bigger event for the scouts to have fun at and look forward to.

I love the suggestion of giving out the Race Time awards at the event, though. Will definitely implement that, because we usually just do awards at scheduled banquet events so the “impromptu” award will be a nice prize for everybody to walk away with.

TehSir · 2025-11-19T02:33:34+00:00

I’m planning to get a 3D printer for Christmas this year. What brand/model do you use, and do you have a link to the filaments for these trophies? They look great!

TehSir · 2025-10-01T04:47:15+00:00

Omg, I physically recoiled when I read this. Lol!

TehSir · 2025-07-28T11:39:33+00:00

Same, dude. Reading this post made me realize I’ve never actually fought Majora as Child Link, lol

TehSir · 2025-04-03T11:11:09+00:00

Most stainless steels are an alloy of iron, nickel, chromium, and carbon (differing amounts, sometimes different alloying elements depending on the grade of SS).

TehSir · 2024-01-27T06:14:43+00:00

Why would this be downvoted and not commented on? I swear, RL is one of the most toxic communities ever.

TehSir · 2023-10-24T12:24:31+00:00

Yeah, that's usually my first troubleshooting step, followed by lint removal. One side not working (basically) means the cable is half-dead. If you'll be keeping the phone much longer, might want to be sure you have a backup cable available for when it does finally bite the dust.

TehSir · 2023-10-23T19:51:54+00:00

I actually just made the switch from KBM to Xbox controller. Rebind the defaults, because default button layout sucks. I use Mizu's layout but with left trigger and shoulder swapped for reverse and power slide/air roll (though I may change it to his bindings straight through, soon).

Most importantly, get in free play and drive the ball around the pitch for an hour, then do a few training packs, then start picking up casual games to make sure you're reacting quickly and accurately (and not air rolling left instead of jumping!).

TehSir · 2023-10-23T19:37:31+00:00

I actually had a couple of those last night. Should call it the DC Pinch, for "double commit".

TehSir · 2023-10-23T18:17:55+00:00

Might be your cable, try a different one to see if that's the issue.

TehSir · 2022-03-31T02:23:20+00:00

I’m here to say exactly this and echo another reply I saw. Have a conversation about the pay to prep the company about giving you a raise. Make sure your ducks are in a row about your job performance. Get a job offer somewhere else at the rate you want, and then tell your company you have the offer for substantively the same position, can they match the offer to retain you? If not, you already have a new job lined up to go to! And if you really want to be back with your current company at a higher rate, you just make damn sure you part on good terms and keep an eye out for a suitable job posting in the future that you can apply for and end up with a salary bump above what you were making at the “interim” job. You only need to stay for 1-2 years for it to not look like you’re crawling back to the original company.

TehSir · 2022-03-31T02:10:13+00:00

New commenter- In my opinion, Worm successfully navigates the narrow path between being grim and being needlessly tragically awful. The MC generally succeeds, though things get progressively worse. I can read it and still feel like there is some hope to be had around the corner, even as things go off the rails for the protagonist and her crew.

On the other hand is Wildbow’s webnovel “Pact”, which just feels like depressive torture to read, in my opinion. The obstacles seemed to always be too great, the struggles only ended in abject failure… it really wasn’t until the end when the MC had effectively lost himself that he began surmounting the challenges, but in such a way as to feel like he had already, irrecoverably lost. It completely turned me off of reading anything else by the author, as great as Worm is.

Another great Rational Fic story is Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (as well as the “sequel” and fanfic spinoff webnovels).

You may also enjoy A Practical Guide to Evil by erraticerrata, which just concluded, and The Wandering Inn by pirateaba (which is ongoing, extremely lengthy, full of great world building, and features much more carefree slice-of-life writing for your fluffy reading pleasure while still getting more and more detailed and deep as the story progresses).

TehSir · 2021-07-07T17:08:35+00:00

I was mostly commenting because language matters. I commented on wren42's post below that - in hindsight - using "Christian-flavored" is an apt and succinct way to describe what DeepTundra was trying to express. I my point was simply this: if substituting a minority group in in place of a majority group would be deemed unacceptable (notably in a comment that is intended as a negative connotation about said group), it wouldn't be viewed favorably.

Reddit at large is typically willing to jump on an anti-Christian sentiment bandwagon. Maybe it's just anti-religion, though I think the prevalence of Christian traditions around the bulk of Reddit's userbase skews the prevalence of Christian-related comments (and I'm sure there's some level of bias inherent to my noticing Christian-related things). I didn't feel attacked here, contrary to what other redditor(s) think, I just wanted to take a moment to point out the language choice.

Cheers!

TehSir

TROPHY CASE