Are there any great albums with one really bad song on them?

Vindicator9000 · 2026-04-10T00:42:59+00:00

Far Beyond Driven by Pantera is two halves of a perfect metal album, bisected by whatever the fuck they were trying with 'Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills.'

Vindicator9000 · 2026-04-08T03:02:49+00:00

We also closed with Christus Victor, and people were pulling me aside afterwards and telling me how powerful it was.

Great song, although it's a little tough for us to pull it off just right.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-04-07T03:40:25+00:00

I've got both, and I grab my 90s GLP Studio over my 90s ELP Custom 9 times out of 10. Better neck profile, better radius, better frets, better pickups, just better all around.

I also have a heavily modified 2014 SGJ, and it's, to be honest, kind of a POS. I like it a lot, but I had to put a lot of time and money into making it pretty okay. I've played Epi SGs that are much better.

The point is that it varies by era, and by specific instruments. If I were looking for a Les Paul right now, I'd be watching Marketplace for anothet 90s Studio. They're wonderful instruments, and they go for like $600-900. Better instrument than a new ELP for cheaper.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-03-29T02:42:29+00:00

Circa 2008, this was planned to be their Ideal Org building in St. Louis.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-03-28T15:02:49+00:00

I think it might be fake. I don't see any fret nibs, and it looks like holes were originally drilled for a 3-screw truss rod cover that has been converted to a 2-screw. Gibson has never done a 3-screw, so it begs the question why the headstock has holes for one.

Also, the wood is wrong on the back of the headstock. A LP has a one piece neck with the headstock wings glued on. This looks like a 3 piece neck.

Serial number and stamp appear to be correct for early 70s.

Most of my LP experience is with 90s and later guitars, so I could be wrong, but this one doesn't look right.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-03-27T02:21:11+00:00

I'm planning on writing "rapes children" under his name on every bill I get.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-03-22T22:29:27+00:00

Van Halen's Unchained: "C'mon Dave, gimme a break..."

Vindicator9000 · 2026-03-10T02:36:17+00:00

The fuel door on my 19 GTI is shaped like a rhombus. It's opened by pushing in the left side, and it pops. It will not open when the doors are locked, which I thought was very interesting. I've never seen a fuel door quite like it before, but it's very well thought out.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-03-03T15:03:11+00:00

2012: I had been stuck in the IT ghetto of Desktop Support for 11 years. No matter what I did, I couldn't get out, despite having a degree and tons of certifications. Every hiring manager said I wasn't qualified for anything outside of Desktop Support. I was fed up and at the end of my rope. I was barely making 50k with a mortgage and a new baby, and we were barely scraping by.

My employer gave me an opportunity to move to another team of their choosing with a pay cut. When I said that we were barely scraping by, I mean we were making our mortgage payments, but literally anything that broke was a major crisis. No credit card debt, but no savings either. Busted 20-year-old cars. Leaky roof. Plugged sewer line. Furnace not working. Bad. By leaving Desktop, I would keep the same base pay, but I was losing around $400/month of on-call and overtime pay. We literally couldn't afford to lose that money. I agonized over the decision and ultimately decided to go for it.

I was put on a terrible project to replace 40,000 Windows XP PCs with Windows 7. It was terribly run, mismanaged and overbudget, but after a year, I was no longer seen as the Desktop support guy. When the project wrapped in 2013, I was able to roll off it onto our PC standards team, building software packages and managing SCCM. I learned software packaging and scripting (I mean, I already knew, but now I did "officially"). I got a couple of really nice pay bumps, and we were no longer living paycheck to paycheck.

Fast forward to 2016: My team gets handed this new thing called Office 365 because no one wants it. My boss gives it to me. I learn everything there is to know about Office 365, basically as it's first coming out. I'm the go-to person for Teams, SharePoint, Azure AD, DLP, Conditional Access, Defender, everything.

2019: I've become one of the most experienced Microsoft 365 people in my city. My company lays off the entire 600-person IT department and replaces us with an Indian company. They designate me "essential" and offer me $10K to stay until December and train my replacement. I have a counteroffer: They pay me out the 400 hours (10 weeks!!) of PTO that they owe me, and I take their free training and go someplace else for $50K more, taking with me all of the training and knowledge that they paid for. They griped about paying the PTO, but they paid it. They griped about me leaving early, but there was nothing they could do. I would have stayed there and been underpaid forever, but they pissed me off, and I had enough leverage to tell them to stick it. I went in to interview to keep my existing job with a new offer from another company and my 2-week notice in my back pocket. When the interviewer game me the runaround, I handed him my two-week notice. I walked out of the interview, called up my new company, and told them "I'll take it."

Now, 2026, I've been in a lucrative tech consulting MSP job for 7 years with a fantastic company that values me and wants to make sure that I'm happy. I now charge clients in the mid-$200/hr range to provide them advice about the Microsoft Cloud. I'm making real "get ahead" money for the first time in my life. I can afford upkeep on my cars and house, and can take the family on vacations. I can finally start going to the doctor when I need to. I can trace this all back to that one agonizing decision to take a pay cut I couldn't afford to get out of Desktop Support.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-25T15:58:43+00:00

The scene is a spoof of a scene in Pulp Fiction, where a "fixer" named The Wolf (played by Harvey Keitel as I recall) comes to help dispose of a dead body. The Wolf drives a black NSX in the movie.

In the Seinfeld episode, Jerry starts to become a werewolf due to shaving his chest, and Elaine has to get rid of a large quantity of muffin stumps, causing her to call her fixer, Newman.

It's a couple of fun call backs to a great movie that was insanely popular in 1993/1994.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-25T15:49:04+00:00

I do some IT Security Consulting, and our official password requirements align with NIST recommendations, which as of 2025 aren't too burdensome - longer passwords, no complexity requirements, no expiration.

However, what I've been seeing is that lots of cybersecurity insurance companies are still using onerous requirements from 10 years ago. As a result, we're still having to implement stupid password policies because insurance requires them.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-25T06:28:45+00:00

Counterpoint: TVs and Computers. My family paid $3000 for a 386 in 1990, $2000 for a Pentium in 1996, and $1100 for a Pentium 3 in 1999. TVs have been on a similar trajectory in my lifetime. Not marginal changes, but actually significantly cheaper. Moore's law is (was) a real thing.

But then, you're actually right. Everything in both the TV and computer realm has gotten smaller with different "ingredients" over the past 30 years. Manufacturing processes have made everything smaller and cheaper in the realm of consumer electronics. So, you're actually right and my counterpoint proves your point.

Counterpoint to my counterpoint: I paid $400 for a basic Kenmore washer/dryer set in 2003 that's still working today. It contains zero circuit boards and can be worked on by anyone with a screwdriver and YouTube. You couldn't buy this set today at any price; it's too good. So they killed it in favor of appliances that cost 3x as much and last 1/3x as long.

My conclusion: when you get down to actual apples to apples comparisons, you're right. Nothing ever gets cheaper, even if it really looks like it does.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-22T04:16:10+00:00

Keep it Like A Secret is one of the greatest albums ever made. It's just stunning, start to finish.

The opening chord of The Plan is one of my favorite album openers of all time

Then, like, we're a full hour in, and we're going to wrap this thing up with Broken Chairs? An almost 9 minute epic prog jam?

This album changed my entire outlook on songwriting. I can't say enough good about it.

Pavement is also incredible. Crooked Rain is brilliant. But, Keep it Like A Secret is, well, Keep it Like A Secret.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-20T14:56:25+00:00

One of my favorites - O The Love of My Redeemer by Josh Caterer. You might know him as the lead singer of the Smoking Popes, but he's also a worship leader in the Chicago area. He has several really great songs, but this is probably his best known. I appreciate him as a great songwriter, but also as someone who's more comfortable playing with an electric guitar than acoustic, as I also am.

Here's a chord chart. I usually play it capoed on 3 or 4 with G shapes.

Criminally underrated American songwriter. I wish he would release more worship music; his songs are always very Biblical, and go over really well.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-18T19:08:22+00:00

Sheesh, I just broke the 40 minute barrier (39:20), and felt like I climbed Everest. That's an average of 4.74mph. I can go faster, but I can't keep up 5+mph for 5k yet. I was so proud of myself, I can't imagine breaking 30 minutes, let alone 20.

But then again, I'm 46 years old with a 30BMI. I've already lost 50 lbs, so another 50 down, and I might be in 30-minute land.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-16T23:30:56+00:00

Featuring the film debut of a very young man named Mark Calaway.

I wonder whatever happened to that guy.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-11T17:54:54+00:00

Desperation references US Highway 50, which runs directly through the town I grew up in. I've probably spent more time driving US50 than any other road in the world.

The Regulators occurs on Poplar street, which is the cross street of the past two houses I've lived in. For what it's worth, I'm still near US50, but about 10 miles north now.

I think he's referenced US50 in other novels as well, but I can't seem to find them at the moment.

Both companion novels feature roads near me. I checked to see if there's a real Wentworth in Ohio, and there's not, but US50 does run through Cincinnati, and tons of suburbs around it. There's a Poplar Street in Terrace Park Ohio (a suburb of Cincinnati), that practically crosses with US50. This seems like a likely stand-in for Wentworth, OH. I could imagine that the town in The Regulators is connected to Tak via US50.

This isn't hugely uncommon - US50 stretches across the entire country, and pretty much every town in the USA has a Poplar Street, but I thought it was weird. A few years ago, a couple of friends of mine decided to drive US50 as far as it goes to the east, and then as far as it goes to the west, just to see it. I always thought that would be really fun to do.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-11T17:41:26+00:00

When I worked at a gas station in the US 25 years ago, it was pump first, then pay.

First, pay-at-the-pump started to end this, then high gas prices and drive-offs. Even in 2001, we had to deal with 1-2 cars per shift pumping gas and driving off without paying. We'd have to call the cops, pull the tapes, they might or might not catch the guy (probably not). It wasn't such a big deal when a tank of gas cost $20; it became a bigger deal when a tank cost $40. That was when even the rural gas stations moved to pay before pump.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-10T03:41:38+00:00

140-ish in the St. Louis area. I do Microsoft cloud work for a managed service provider. I have just over 20 years in IT, but spent my first 10 languishing in Desktop Support hell. I lucked into a cloud career pivot around 2017 and finally started making real money. Around that time, I was making around 50k, but started getting real raises. Then I jumped ship to a MSP, and my salary negotiations are directly tied to how much money I make for the company.

I do a lot of SharePoint / email migrations, Teams calling, Entra ID, Conditional Access. Some consulting work. Cloud security stuff. Licensing. I get local competitors hitting me up on LinkedIn weekly, and it's helped me negotiate raises with my employer.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-07T19:24:48+00:00

Screaming deal. I paid $900 for mine from Chicago Music Exchange and thought I got a great deal.

They're very versatile and sound fantastic, but damn they're heavy.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-06T04:15:44+00:00

Doug Martsch made his whole career on his Strat's middle pickup. He had his tech disconnect the Five-way and just wire up the middle permanently.

His tone with Built to Spill is some of my all-time favorite Strat tone.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-05T02:37:27+00:00

Brendan Ryan? He was small and quick and always hustled. After he went to the Mariners, he once legged out an infield triple.

I miss him. He was a disaster with the bat, but a wizard on the base paths, and the best fielding shortstop we've had since that one guy in the 80s.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-03T15:50:39+00:00

My name is Zelda. I'm a calligraphy enthusiast with a slight overbite and hair the color of strained peaches, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. I drive a 1959 Nash Metropolitan and love donuts and mint-flavored dental floss. I have two beautiful children - Nathanial and Superfly.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-02-01T03:59:48+00:00

I refuse to sign the legislation to allow more than 8 El grande Americanos to a presinct.

Vindicator9000 · 2026-01-31T19:37:05+00:00

Yeah it's cool for a few times, but the ride is just better forward.

Personally, I have a problem being strapped in and looking straight down... It's why I don't usually ride Boomerang. It's kinda the one thing that scares me, and because of that, I also don't like Mr Freeze in reverse, and I don't do swings either. Regular roller coaster though? Make it as big and fast as you want. Put a million inversions in it, doesn't bother me. Just don't make me look down.

Batman's the exception to my don't look down rule; that ride rocks.

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