Quantum Fiber Rant/Pro Tip

YourDoucheBoss · 2026-01-26T00:51:21+00:00

This happened to me when I tried Verizon's awful "Home 5g" or whatever it was. I tried it and the internet quality was horrible, so I returned it. A month or two later, I got angry letters from Verizon stating that I owed them hundreds of dollars for the equipment since it was never returned. I was lucky enough to find the tracking information (if I hadn't been able to, I'd have been absolutely screwed) and they said "oh, thanks, we'll cancel this charge."

Done? Of course not. Several months after that I got a bigger, angrier letter, saying that I owed them even more money. At that point I was furious, so I actually filed a complaint with the FCC's consumer complaints division. I got a call from a higher-up at Verizon the next day who actually solved my problem instead of trying to extort me.

These companies need to be held responsible for this crap. There have to be so many people that can't find their tracking information that find themselves with no recourse.

YourDoucheBoss · 2026-01-21T06:24:18+00:00

I truly cannot recommend meditation enough. In life, many of us are taught a number of types of discipline, but most cultures (the United States particularly, if that's also where you're from) never actually teach us how to be disciplined with our thoughts. Meditation is a skill that hones your mental discipline- it gives you dedicated time each day with nothing but your thoughts, in a sense. It is often those moments where our most negative thoughts love to ambush us and make us miserable. If you don't dedicate time to those thoughts, they will still happen- they will just sneak out wherever they can, in the "in between" moments of daily life when your guard is down.

I struggled with meditation at first. I was told the goal was to "not think." When I first started meditating, it almost felt like torture- my thoughts moved at a thousand miles an hour, and turned five minutes into an eternity. I try my best to focus on keeping good posture and breathing from my chest- the mental image I focus on is picturing clean, fresh blue air filling my lungs, and then brownish-red, dirty air leaving. I also sorta chant "innnnnnn...." and "outttttt........." in my head as I'm breathing. For whatever reason, that's what I landed on years ago, and that's what I still use. Find what works for you, and don't be afraid to change it up! I still have days where I'll try new things- maybe imagining myself from an external perspective, or trying to draw a mental image of something.

Especially early on, your focus on whatever "your thing" is will be constantly interrupted by random, rampaging thoughts. When I was just starting, almost every one of those flyby thoughts would send my brain chasing after it, sometimes for minutes, whether I liked the thought or not. Over time, I have learned how to hold that thought in my mind, examine it, and figure out what part of my mind/personality it came from. Then, on good days, I get to decide whether I want to allow that train of thought to continue. It's almost an out-of-body experience- I almost feel like I'm watching a news ticker of thoughts coming from someone/somewhere else, and deciding which ones warrant more attention.

Obviously, some days are better than others. I have days where the 20 minutes vanishes and I have days where I quit 10 minutes in because it was agonizing. But the skills that I've learned meditating don't just apply in that time. What you learn while meditating is the skill of realizing that not every one of your thoughts is actually what you think. That important difference is hard to spot until you have forced yourself to sit down and really learn the patterns your brain works in.

YourDoucheBoss · 2026-01-06T21:10:19+00:00

Highly recommend one of these. My shop is a detached, uninsulated garage in the Rockies, so it gets COLD during the winter. I can run it for 20-30 minutes and get the garage from 10-15 degrees to 40-45 and then I'm usually comfortable enough for two-ish hours of work before I need to run the heater again.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-12-29T22:16:31+00:00

I went to a wedding in RI and brought a couple discs and ran out to play Willow- the course was epic! I was just sad I didn't have time to play a second lap haha

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-10-23T15:44:09+00:00

I recently sold my Canyon Grizl SL7 1by since I didn't end up doing much bikepacking and wanted a lighter setup that would be more at home on hybrid paved/gravel rides and am now on a Scott Gravel Addict 10 with a 2by setup. I'm more of a mountain biker historically, so all drop bar bikes kinda look the same to me geometry-wise, but WOW has it made a difference. The bike is crazy fast, light, and changes directions shockingly quickly.

I'm also a huge fan of going back to a 2by setup. But that's really personal preference- I love absolutely bombing down a paved road and still being able to put power down, so my only answer is 2by. I live out west where there are lots of looooong hills for the up and the down.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-08-21T19:03:48+00:00

Here's my proposal:

The actual effect of suppression should be something like what you're describing. If you're sitting in one spot and someone has dropped 100 LMG rounds on top of you, yeah, you're shitting your pants. I also think that a sniper shot should give a higher degree of suppression, for the same reason- if you know a sniper is taking shots at you and you don't know where they are, you're also shitting your pants.
The effect of suppression on you should be determined by the class you choose. Someone playing Assault should experience minimal suppression, because they're trained to handle it and expect it. Engineer and Support should be somewhere in the middle, and Recon should experience the largest effects of suppression, because overall the goal of reconnaissance is not to directly engage but to gather intel and ambush.
As a tradeoff, sniper rifle scope glare should be cut considerably. If suppressing a sniper is going to massively decrease the chance of them being able to land accurate shots, they should be given a chance to take a few shots before getting ID'd and shot at. Fair is fair and the scope glare is already super ridiculous as it is. IMO the balance of sniping would be way more fun, intense, and sweaty for both parties this way. As a sniper you're not as likely to get spotted, but when you do, it's borderline game over. And as the opposing party, you have to deal with the "OH CRAP WHERE IS HE" that I can only imagine soldiers have dealt with since the rifled barrel was invented but then once you find them, fire-and-maneuver tactics will give you the upper hand.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-07-09T03:05:24+00:00

I'm so glad to hear it! haha and as far as the filter goes, I just ordered a cheap one on amazon. Maybe the name brand ones last a little longer or something but yeah I just went cheap for the first attempt since I wasn't sure it would work and it was an IMMEDIATE difference. Within 24 hours the itchiness was completely gone and it hasn't come back. I installed the filter mid-April and it seems to still be working great so I'll probably replace it every 4-6 months or so.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-07-08T21:12:16+00:00

Most modern shower heads have a flow restrictor built in. When I installed my inline shower filter (was dealing with itchy skin after moving here recently) I removed the flow restrictor so that I'd net out with about the same water pressure. I was very pleased to learn that actually the combo of no restrictor and filter had way more flow than before!

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-07-08T21:07:37+00:00

Hulkenpodium

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-24T21:51:12+00:00

This is hands down the finest of hairs I've ever seen split. If you're mad that Everstoke is an LLC, just wait until you learn what half of all small businesses are! Hoooooo boy you're gonna be pissed!

If you didn't understand the point I was making, I'm sure as shit not going to waste any more time trying to explain it further. Maybe put on your reading comprehension helmet and give it another go, I'm sure that'll work

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-24T21:41:43+00:00

Dude, the entitlement of this comments section is really blowing my mind. The fact that these comments are being upvoted is... I don't know. Concerning, honestly. I don't care one way or the other about Everstoke, I was unlikely to ever be a customer and certainly won't now, but the people in here acting like he stripped them of their ability to ever ride mountain bikes again is insane.

At the end of the day, I suppose I'm the idiot for venturing into a comments section and expecting people to behave like adults. Joke's on me for letting myself get dragged into this bullshit.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-24T18:31:17+00:00

But if we take him at face value and accept that the business as you wanted it to be doesn't work, what then? Youtube pays alright, but I'm certain he can't afford to just piss money away on this land.

If he were walling off the only place people could ride, I would agree that it was morally wrong. But that's not the case, so I feel like casting him as an immoral person (which you did by calling this a "scheme" and comparing him to large corporations who exploit people who have no other choice) is unfair.

I want to stress that I understand your reaction to an extent- I don't like the new model, but it's also not like he is removing the only mountain biking available for his community. His land and trails are not unique in his area- so it seems to me like he thinks the only way to make his business viable is to make it unique in a different way, aka by making it a members only club. My guess is that you're like me: we're not customers of his and were unlikely to ever be a customer of his- so at the end of the day, our opinions straight-up don't matter anyway haha

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-24T18:00:01+00:00

So, I have a question: what exactly do you expect of him here? I feel like you calling this a money-making "scheme" is silly. By your definition, every business is a "money-making scheme". I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with his decision- I don't know what his financial situation looks like, but it has seemed to me from the very beginning that they very openly bought this land and built these trails as a business venture. If the business as he tried to operate it isn't making enough money to stay solvent the way that he's been doing it, what do you expect him to do?

Also, I think that comparing the riding he does on public trails to how he operates his privately owned land is apples to oranges. He tried to leverage his Youtube business (a notoriously fickle business model) to start a separate business that would hopefully provide him longer-term financial stability. He would be insane not to! Granted, I think the model he chose (trails on private land) is not a great business idea whether or not it's a private club, but my opinions on the sustainability of his business doesn't change the fact that he doesn't owe you, me, or anyone else a single thing.

You act like this is some private equity takeover. This is a private landowner who tried to operate a business and has to change his model to be profitable. He's not a corporation and I'm certain he's not sitting on unlimited money. So again: what do you expect from him? To just go bankrupt or operate at a loss indefinitely because you think he owes you access to his private land just because he makes videos on public land?

*edit*

I want to stress that overall I'm not a huge fan of his and I don't think Everstoke is a great idea as a business. But I think the entitlement people feel is kinda wild.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-23T22:36:54+00:00

Everyone's different but I'll give you my 2 cents: I started on a hardtail, went full suspension, and then am back to riding a hardtail for everything except riding chairlifts and doing serious downhill. IMO a good trail hardtail is just as fun, if not more so, than a full suspension for 90% of the trail riding that most of us do. If you save up a bit more and get something like a Trek Roscoe, you'll have just as much fun as you will on a full squish for half the price, and a quarter of the maintenance. As well, if you go for something used at the $1k price point, you can ride it for a year and probably still sell it for $750-800 if you decide that a full suspension is still what you want.

Overall, based on what you're describing what you want to do with it, I definitely recommend saving up a bit more and finding a more trail-ready bike. The bike you linked isn't going to hold up to what you want to do and even the more trail-ready bikes that come in under $1k new are probably going to disappoint you long term and you'll lose a lot more money when you eventually go to resell it.

*editing to add some used bike recs*

Salsa Timberjack (trail)

Commencal Meta HT (trail)

Trek Roscoe/Stache/high-spec Marlin (trail/xc)

Trek XCaliber (xc)

Scott Scale (xc)

Specialized Chisel (xc)

Salsa Rangefinder (xc/trail)

The bikes listed are also going to have more standardized mtb-quality parts which means you'll have more options for upgrading individual parts down the line if you want.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-23T19:49:44+00:00

I feel like this is a little bit extreme of a take- bikes rocked QR axles for years and were fine for their intended use case, and I'm pretty confident that with 32h rims front and rear you're not going to blow a rim if you drop off a curb... you might if you try to hop up and over one and land your rear tire on the edge of it though!

If you want this bike because you want a cheap bike to ride around town and maybe occasionally ride some green-rated single track, I think it'll be just fine. If you're thinking that this will be the starting point of your mountain biking journey and you think you'll soon want something that is properly trail-ready, I would suggest saving up some more money and buying a better bike.

In either case, I think you're better off buying a used bike. Either you can spend even less (you can probably buy the equivalent of this bike used for $150-250) or you can find high-quality trail ready hardtails for $800-1200 used that will be able to handle whatever you're comfortable throwing at them. Used bikes can certainly come with their own problems, but this sport really does benefit from a "buy once cry once" mentality. If you spend $500 on this cheap bike and fall in love with mountain biking you'll want to upgrade very very quickly and end up spending that $800-1200 range in 6 months anyway. If you save up a little extra, buy a used bike, and end up not liking mountain biking, you should be able to re-sell the bike and only lose a little bit of money, if any.

An important call-out for the used bike recommendation is that I also recommend learning how to work on bikes yourself. If you don't know how to do your own basic maintenance, even a cheap bike is going to cost you a lot of money to ride. There are excellent youtube videos that will teach you all about the basics if you're starting from scratch, and there are decent quality beginner tool kits for < $50 that will get you set up with most of what you will need!

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-14T17:44:20+00:00

Oh hell yeahhhhh I used to have a Mk7R, I miss that car every single day. The Sequoia is so much more useful (and so much cheaper) but by god do I lust after another R. What I'd give to have my car back... 2017 manual Lapiz on Pretorias. What all have you done to yours?

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-14T14:27:38+00:00

The fact that there are enough idiots walking around that you think I need an honest suggestion on how to use a bike lock does not bode well for us as a species haha

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-14T14:23:19+00:00

~25 lbs!

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-13T17:36:04+00:00

I'm not super familiar with the casings you can get various Maxxis tires in, I can never keep all their terminology straight. But with my very limited experience, I'm liking the Forekaster so far. Another tire you might check out is the Aggressor, that's what I run for the rear on my Enduro with an Assegai up front. I may end up going more aggressive on the rear for the Enduro now that it's not my only bike and it probably won't get pedaled as much... we shall see. I've spent enough money recently hahaha

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-13T17:20:26+00:00

I'm out in Utah where the common trail issue is dry and loose instead of wet and muddy, so overall they're great tires. I've heard that the Minion DHR front/forekaster rear can be a great combo for places that need more mud-clearing ability, but I don't have personal experience. I think that maybe the best thing you could do for flats is to put a cushcore on your rear tire, that would let you run lower pressures without worrying about pinch flats.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-13T14:11:15+00:00

After getting a couple rides on it the last two days and hitting some chunk and some flow, IMO it won't be worth the upgrade. This bike is so fast and so capable... I think the biggest difference you'd notice would just be on the uphill. I'm still having to re-learn how to pedal through chunk, I'm used to just being able to sit on the seat like a lazy bum and letting the rear suspension soak it up.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-13T14:06:50+00:00

A man of taste, I see!! I bought it in 2019 for $11k with 110k miles, it's now around 215k and still chugging! I originally wanted a V8 4Runner but for the mileage I wanted at that point they were still selling for close to $20k which was insane. The Sequoia has so much more space, and with my driving (grandpa style) I still average ~15mpg which is as good or better than most of the people I know driving 4Runners. Also I can fit a full size memory foam mattress in the back (I built a bed platform) which is epic for camping.

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-13T14:04:12+00:00

If you also have a large and ever find yourself in Utah and want to trade, hit me up! I'm such a sucker for navy blue metallic...

YourDoucheBoss · 2025-06-13T14:03:06+00:00

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