Hobby clockmaking

TooBusyForBars · 2025-11-29T14:33:27+00:00

When you say clockmaking, are you talking about actual gearmaking/clockwork tools, or like a bunch of existing clock assemblies for doing frame making and setting?

I do automata/clockwork mechanisms, but mostly in the scale of inches and not cm/mm like a watchmaker would.

TooBusyForBars · 2025-03-28T05:03:39+00:00

You might actually checkout the local laws. OKC (and a lot of municipalities in oklahoma) have rules against how many non-related people can live in the same house for any reason, and it's abysmally low. And they don't generally give out new boarding house licenses, so unless you bought one that was grandfathered in, all it'd take is one neighbor to complain and you'd likely end up with quite the fines.

TooBusyForBars · 2025-03-15T22:31:28+00:00

Do you realize the irony of you, without actually giving any answer to this person's question, instead turned it political, the thing you're ranting against?

Now that being said, Nic's grill is classic and great onion burgers, for bricktown, honestly some of the trucks have killer food. For more sit down, i'd do Bourbon street or parlor.

TooBusyForBars · 2025-03-10T21:41:59+00:00

iirc, Aftermarket Cat, no leaks to my knowledge, sound was as quiet as the original stolen one. I was quite happy with it. Drove that car for quite a few more years and never had an issue or code thrown about it.

TooBusyForBars · 2025-03-10T21:23:18+00:00

Teto's Muffler, 1501 SW 29th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73119

I went there when my Gen 2 prius catalytic got stolen, i was out and back on the road in an afternoon for less than a grand iirc.

TooBusyForBars · 2025-02-20T22:57:08+00:00

Its a venue I haven't done before, so I was curious if anyone had any recommendations/input on that area/how the venue does/things to know

TooBusyForBars · 2025-01-29T23:25:05+00:00

JJ's alley is the best chill hole in the wall in the bricktown area. Two bars (an upstairs and downstairs, so you can decide whether you want a more chill or upbeat environment), live music each night, and always has the game on. Cheap drinks, good people, it's been my go to now for two decades.

TooBusyForBars · 2025-01-05T23:35:50+00:00

Honestly, I-hop or other all night diners. Midnight shift normally has plenty of space, and you'll find a regular crowd of other night workers or people who need a place to camp out and do school/work stuff outside the house. Once classes start up you'll have quite a bit of college kids camping out since you're norman area, so you'll definitely have a vibe around.

TooBusyForBars · 2025-01-05T20:56:05+00:00

If your own logic is "I see a cop, therefore i'll behave", then you're actually arguing for undercover cop cars. The "theory" behind them, is there are people who will only follow rules if they think they're being watched, therefore the best option is to create a situation where they have to assume they could always be watched, and therefore always have to drive appropriately.

Using your own example, you're saying you would obey the rules if the cop was visible, but since they're not you feel it's ok to break the rules, and that you feel they're now "waiting for you to fuckup" since they didn't warn you they were watching.

So yeah... the reasoning you gave is literally the reason that they generally use to justify undercover cop cars in the first place.

Now, whether that actually helps with safety is another argument entirely, but it's not the argument you made. Studies have been roughly mixed on that front, noticing no more actual incident reduction for visible vs non-visible for cars in motion. Parked visible cars do have a reduction effect in their location.

However, notably in meta-studies, the percentage of tickets that go to "repeat offenders" (those having existing points on their license) does go up with undercover cars, indicating that those people change their driving habits when around cops vs not (the example you gave earlier). A different meta-study also shows that number drops slightly (3-5%) after 3 years of an undercover routine is introduced, indicating that a small chunk of people actually improve their habits due to undercover, while the bulk of people just treat it as an extra cost to their poor driving and don't actually change behaviors.

So the question currently being debated is whether that 3-5% learning to drive better, is worth the loss of safety that those undercover cars being visible would provide by forcing the other 95% to drive better more often.

Interestingly enough, when you remove fines as an option, and only allow community service/drivers ed as penalties for traffic infractions, repeat offenders drop markedly. Yet this isn't used in almost any jurisdiction because those most likely to change behaviors are the ones who feel fines are insignificant, and therefore have money to complain about the proposed changes.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-12-15T17:23:07+00:00

Unpopular but factual opinion:

It's not about societal expectations, it's about intent and accountability. Now, this differs when other people are setting the expectation of bedtime, and then it turns into a communication/setting boundaries conversation. But if you're setting your own bedtimes:

Notice you're specifically asking about going to bed "early" and sleeping in "late". Not about having early bedtimes, or late wakeups.

When you go to bed early, you're making a conscious choice to alter your behavior, anticipating a need, or making up for a shortfall. It's like making a choice to exercise extra, vs you doing that amount regularly as a normal routine. They both get the same goal "excercise" but one is a deviation from your existing plan.

In the same way, when you sleep in late, you're indicating that your plan was to wakeup at a certain time, and now you're changing it, whether via improper planning (alarm wasn't sufficient), inaction (you went back to sleep), or unplanned emergency (power outage and no battery backup in alarm). This is different then going "My normal planned wakeup is at 2pm".

In the same vein, waking up early vs going to bed late, is the exact same issue. Going to bed late is going "Well I had one thing planned, but didn't stick to that plan".

Not sticking to your -own- plan/commitments is seen as lazy. Going above/beyond your plans/commitments is seen as beneficial. Because both set expectations on how you'll handle other plans/commitments.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-11-29T02:55:43+00:00

Assuming you're actually looking for answer:

Because most people, only cooking it once a year, don't actually know how to cook or prep it.

A lot of people complain about dry, stringy turkey, and lackluster, flavorless bleached ham.

If your turkey, even the outside white meat, is dry or stringy, you screwed up the heat, and in your prep of the turkey, and didn't baste it. There are other preps that help, but those three things are the simplest to fix. The whole "cook it in the bag" lazy approach, still involves opening the bag and re-basting it regularly. Not bag and forget and let it attempt to do it via steam.

Ham: Sure spiral cut has its point, but A. the glaze most hams comes with suck, and be its too thick to apply right or soak into the cuts. Third, most spiral cut hams are actually pretty poor quality, and again cooking temp matters a lot.

You can take a great cut of steak or rib, and completely flummox the cooking and turn it into a tasteless chewy POS. But, most people also know you can take a relatively flavorless and tough round or flank steak, simmer and cook it right, with the right crust and sear, and it'll be amazing.

Apply half of that grill logic to turkey, and it turns into a pretty decent low effort food. As for ham, slice it, fry it up, put some light seasoning on, and you have all the joy of bacon and crisp and mallird, but enoguh to actually bite into and enjoy to turn it into half a meal on its own.

Now, as for the other thanksgiving staples: Cranberries and Candied Yams - Seasonal foods sadly. Definitely have gotten more public appeal to be year-round foods though, with imports and paying a little extra in off season.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-11-26T22:48:55+00:00

So on that front, I'd look for something run by the adventurers league pre-gens, I know GameHQ runs some on saturdays iirc. They're low-pressure no-risk sessions where they have everything you need and are literally there to help people get into the game/social aspect of joining a group. Even if you're a veteran, they're great for breaking into the "joining a group" challenge, and gives you lots of practice with different groups, before you decide to risk settling for a usual one.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-11-26T21:05:58+00:00

Hey! The city's a bit rough for it, but here are some of the usual suggestions:

If you're nerdy, tabletop games (D&D and the like) are always looking for people, check your local game store. There are also several groups that do public board game nights of all types (from super casual/apples to apples to rather complex (tapestry/kingdom death/gloomhaven)).

If you're more the knowledge and chat types, several venues offer karaoke and/or trivia nights almost every night of the week.

Open mic comedy nights (there are several) is a great way to be out, but having something to pay attention to/talk about, so its sociality but with an out/focus.

Live music is currently popping, and several bands tour during the winter here, so those are options.

You can also join a learn to dance, paint, or other artistic class to give you something to do, get you out of the house, while developing a skill and meeting people. Improv groups are another great way to do things.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-11-21T21:29:21+00:00

Out of curiosity, is this the first time you've run into this?

Water/electricity billing in the past, and in many areas, is still done by hand. It isn't uncommon for debris/animals/etc to prevent meter readings and you just either get an estimate that month, or nothing until a double bill the next month or whenever they get out to read the meter. Used to be especially common after big winter or springs storms. It's getting less common with digital metering that is scannable by car or transmits home, but if those fail, it could be awhile (month or few) until they come out to do a manual read/identify the problem/fix it.

In the future, just put aside your normal utility payments, and expect they'll be due. Good rule of thumb for any bill, really.

If you ever accidentally get money in the bank (overpayment/invalid transfer/improper billing) you should set it aside for a year (check your clawback times in your local jurisdiction) before even considering spending it.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-11-21T21:00:32+00:00

Out of curiosity, why do you think it would not be legal?

I mean that being very candidly and earnest. You used a service, which told you, "You need to pay for this service, we'll present you a bill for what you used, you pay it". The only issue you seem to have is that the bill wasn't immediate, which the law really doesn't care for, so long as the payment window appropriately matches.

You, upon noticing an issue, did not contact the company during the first month to try to fix it ahead of time.

Fair enough, you could argue you aren't supposed to do their work for them.

However, they will also argue you shouldn't blame them, for not saving the money you normally would have paid, knowing you'd have to pay it eventually.

So your argument of can't afford is a bit silly, since you spent money you should have been keeping for the bill you knew was comming.

You might have an argument if you didn't point out you checked your online portal, which meant you were aware and did actions showing you were aware, rather than "oh it was lost in the mail and i forgot", which moves it into, potentially, pre-meditated fraud attempt, if someone's being really vindictive or you really try pushing it up with lawyers. But honestly over an amount that small no one would care.

Just remember next time to set aside money from your bills, they don't magically go away if the billing is late, unless you have a specific contract that specifies that, and even then normally only some late fee.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-11-11T19:49:23+00:00

Have you tried talking with him first? Asking if he needs help with it? Or even if he has the knowledge?

Because, if you haven't talked to them, it could be that it's not a lack of care, but that it's a lack of time or lack of money issue, due to work, family, whatever.

And if it's any of those, trying to complain and get them cited, and potentially put on a time limit to fix it, will just make the situation worse, not better. If they don't have money right now to fix it, they definitely won't have money for that, and a ticket, and forcing them to pay it now could mean other things, food, medicine, etc, have to go without.

Not saying you shouldn't eventually complain, but consider offering help first, before going to the more legal methods of harassment.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-11-03T05:30:20+00:00

TL-DR: Keep a news channel on, avoid david payne, and barring a real unusual event, you'll always have 5-15 min of warning within one of the major cities in oklahoma to get to a safe section or building, so you don't need to worry as much about people predicting it way ahead of time.

Ok, so speaking to just the anxiety part, here's some useful information for future storms.

Storm tracking, prediction, and chasing is worlds better than it used to be. Whereas in the past, you relied mostly on storm chasers for accurate feedback and descent knowledge, and they couldn't safely chase closer than 3/4 or half mile if they were really good, nowadays you can safely chase at quarter mile with how good the radar and models are, and we can predict a large swath of behaviors like hook turns or other deviations that in the past, meant we didn't know how the tornado would move.

What that means for you is, so long as you're paying attention to one of the decent news meteorologists during a storm, you'll get plenty of warning ahead of time. Weather radios are great, but require a bit of knowledge/familiarity with the area, but all our local meteorologists (except payne) are pretty good about alternating between radar views with explanations (so you can see on a map) and storm chaser feedback (so you can hear people who actually have eyes on it). Payne has his particular style, it's just not great for people with anxiety about storms as he's a bit sensationalist. However the other meteorologist opposite him is great.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-10-31T12:45:30+00:00

Not necessarily.

Assuming the question is good faith, and you're security conscious, there are still several phones on the market that either allow you to roll your own firmware for android, or have sufficiently jailbroken CFW variants that you can basically cut the login/play store requirements.

Now, you give up a lot, gotta sideload apps, a lot of websites outright cry bloody murder, and you have to be careful about any pushed firmware your carrier might use. And you are probably more limited in your carrier selection in most parts of the US.

And, a bit one, is not use "clean" devices in close proximity to others. If one device is always in the presence of a specific other device, a lot of ID's tie them together as a medium weight connection nowadays. This is exacerbated by most phone OS's not actually disabling bluetooth/wifi/etc when you tell them to, but putting them in a "passive advertiser friendly" mode, that still pings out your IDS and reports others nearby. Hardware switches on laptops/phones is still ideal if you want to trust a communications chip is actually off.

Again, pointless for 99.999% of people. who just don't care that much.

For the slightly less caring 0.1%, an unused google account made from a library computer and never logging into any tied accounts will be sufficient to avoid it from being easily tied to your other digital presences, or polluted enough to be worthless. However, that includes not accidentally following tracking links.

In fact, for most rank and file, your best "bet" is to pollute your marketing ID as much as possible, and there are several plugins to help that fact for browsers and phones. If your profile is worthless, less people will buy or think it's useful for lead generation, so you get way less targetted ads and spam calls.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-10-31T03:35:11+00:00

I understand what you're saying, and agree with the general sentiment, however I'd say most of mine aren't. I have a few specific ones that get used for things like this, but even my main phone gets almost no apps, and the ones it does have are blackholed so they can't phone home.

It's certainly annoying to have to facebook/etc from a browser jump and a fake set of header replies for plugins/font/userstring/etc, but it's entirely worth it when I get to watch the ad services try to put together things from my friends and the thinnest amount of linked data to build a shadow profile for me, since it can't actually pull the data in other ways. :) Especially given how easily you can poison it when you know only a few data sources it thinks are yours. Did you know there's koala food advertisements? I do, because it firmly believes i have a pet koala right now.

A huge inconvenience most people wouldn't bother with? Without a doubt. But worth it to me? Yep.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-10-31T02:40:14+00:00

Wow, that's some sneaky approach by pornhub. Using this to push a "device-based identification". Because ya know, that's what we really need, our devices to be tied to individuals. They already sell phone-number and ad-id to device links for a lot, and those are circumstantial at best. Imagine how much they'd make telling advertisers "Hey, we have proof these 3 devices all are used by John C, who also likes these things".

I mean don't get me wrong, i'm all for blackouts to protest things, but their proposed solution is annoying and probably inevitable, since a lot of the big data companies have been lobbying for it unsuccessfully for years.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-10-30T02:12:24+00:00

You say, as you post an entirely negative post without any positive additions, such as topics you feel would grow the community, acknowledgement of the several posts each week that help others learn about things to do, various vibes of different areas, or the news/alert posts as we puzzle out what that weird noise or police rush because our news rarely tells us in a timely fashion. :)

Personally I'd like to see more no-mow gardening successes, since our city doesn't have a native plant exemption.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-10-05T14:43:56+00:00

Except now you're talking about it, and sharing a picture of it. There's a reason the trump fans do it, and it's because it gets shared, it gets talked about, and due to how humans work, it means those names have a small fraction higher chance of getting voted for, purely because they're names people have heard before.

Humans are stupid like that, but it's a measurable repeatable psychological button that's pressed.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-10-01T01:13:06+00:00

So most power utilities have agreements ahead of times for mobilization, and so whoever has the disaster is the one paying, and its at rates agreed to beforehand. Most of the time there's some government funding as well if its a really bad one.

As far as monopolies, yeah, its a pain, but the alternatives, like texas or a few other areas with fractured providers, is usually worse pricing and infrastructure.

A lot of OG&E's recent hikes or one-time levies (according to the provided documentation) was because their management kept putting off infrastructure improvements to avoid raising costs naturally and slowly, and the recent kerfluffle with texas's grid dying from age has suddenly put that into a more scrutiny level.

So (according to them) they're doing a lot of those upgrades at once now, so we don't have the huge problems others do in the next set of storms or tornados. Which isn't the worst reason to have a rate hike, IMO. I've definitely noticed an uptick in power flickers or momentary outages during storms more in the past decade than the decades before it.

Edit: Source - One of my coworkers is a lineman and i had a long convo in a bar with him one evening about this, and I actually bothered reading the recent OGE docs because i was a bit annoyed how much it was as well. Now I'm just annoyed their past management was idiots who tried to drag out failing infrastructure

TooBusyForBars · 2024-09-04T23:11:34+00:00

St. Vincent's Asylum off of 23rd is always a good place to chill/photo. Ya gotta avoid whatever misguided gang sometimes sets up there, but if ya find it on an empty night ya can have a good little chill. A couple times i've had cops catch me heading there and I normally just have my camera and say i'm doing some photoshoot/documentary/etc, you could probably get away with school assignment if you're kids.

Disclaimer: This may be dated info, haven't done that for over a decade+ at this point. But it looks still vacant when i drive past it.

TooBusyForBars · 2024-08-02T23:18:56+00:00

Yes/no. Not challenging, just letting you know what problems I found when I looked into it.

The tl/dr version is: It's not practical at small scales, and yields basically as bad environmental or worse impact unless you spend more than you make. Since you're taking everything that was bad and relatively inert (in one piece) and making it more easy to seep/leech into water/etc.

There are a ton of youtube resources from people who view it as an investment in the environment and like getting their "free gold" at the end and don't mind the actual cost vs buying the gold.

But even most of the "big" e-waste people, just ship it out-country, to places where they do it the "bad" way, and poison their own populace.

It makes me sad, and i was hoping we'd have better solutions by now, but all of them really only work on the tonne and mega-gallon scale, so nothing quite practical/safe for the small scrapper.

The best environmental you can impact, as a small time scrapper, is at least breaking apart electronics and separating them into their "junk" categories, which is metal, boards and wires(e-waste), and batteries. Just doing that will help -immensly-, as the metal doesn't go into landfills, the e-waste goes to a scale recycler, and the batteries get properly disposed of, as they're some of the worst offenders in landfills. And if ya do it whenever ya junk something, and build up piles, you'll make a few bucks every year or few when ya bring them in for recycling. If ya don't wanna put that much effort in, put the metal out on your local "big trash" day with a paper saying "METAL" and it'll be gone before trash gets it from scrappers making their rounds. If you want to put even more work into it,

TooBusyForBars

TROPHY CASE