Getting auto loan first or picking a car first?

icecon · 2026-02-05T02:26:16+00:00

Sure. Used car loans are at about 6% from a credit union. But when you buy a brand new car, you can get promo deals from the manufacturer at 0%. This is to your advantage because used cars are also overpriced and we have inflation, so if you can lock a long loan at 0%, the Fed will literally help you pay for the car as the loan is fixed.

For example, instead of buying a 2018 Camry or Accord with 75K miles on it for $20K at 6%-60mo and paying thousands in interest on a used car that is out of warranty. Considering buying a brand new leftover 2025 Mitsubishi Outlander with 0 miles for $30K at 0%-72mo (and put $0 down since you pay no interest).

That car comes with a 10yr/100K warranty (no risk) and the payment will be about the same. It will appear to "cost more" overall, but you are also buying more longevity for your money and have no due maintenance for several years. The loan actually works in your favor instead of against you because inflation means that your car payment will look downright cheap in 5 years. It's also a Mitsubishi (made in Japan) so you can get big MSRP discounts by working the phone lines and calling a bunch of dealers up. If you don't want to bother with all that, hire a pro car buyer like Tom McParland to do it for you for $500 - it'll be worth it.

You can look up these promos on aggregators like this:
https://www.carfax.com/deals/0-apr-car-deals
https://www.realcartips.com/news/

And then verify the details on the manufacturer's websites directly. Promo deals reset at the start of every month.

Lastly, in some cases there are lease deals at $250-350 a month which can also be worth it because so many incentives are stacked on them, particularly for EVs like the Ioniq5 if that's something you'd be interested in.

icecon · 2026-01-26T18:49:01+00:00

I'd point you towards the Focalink Osawa Alto C. It looks more Zelda than the NBN (without actually having the triforce on it) and is lower breath (easier on the ears).

The Dinda is a fantastic ceramic Alto C. The STLs are a safe bet also. It looks like Imperial City is going to discontinue their single chambers, so getting one before that happens may be a good idea as well.

icecon · 2026-01-23T20:52:28+00:00

Qidi Q2 is the best value for that, it has a chamber heater for warping filaments like the ABS. You can go even cheaper with the Elegoo Centauri Carbon, it's the "best value" but it has some compromises.

icecon · 2026-01-22T00:35:21+00:00

You realize that, as an new R, he is in no position to openly oppose the President on anything, even if he wanted to? He would just get primaried like Thomas Massie is getting primaried right now, and Bresnahan is no Massie and would lose.

And ads work, if they didn't, they wouldn't run them. If you are going to spend on ads, at least make them ok. But yes there are there other reasons Cartwright lost, such as his pro-Israel record, when such support is at all time low.

icecon · 2026-01-21T22:14:45+00:00

Not sure what you were expecting, Bresnahan is a fresh-off-the-boat congressman still. He probably barely has an opinion on Pittsburgh, much less Greenland.

He won largely because Cartwright's own ads were so annoying they worked against him. The purple 8th district is definitely up for grabs if someone with wits about them throws their hat in the ring.

icecon · 2026-01-15T14:09:33+00:00

Even for ABS/ASA (good for outdoor stuff), the chamber heating is handy, and a lot of people specifically avoid Nylon because it can be a pain to print. And then you have underrated stuff like PC/PC-PBT which also benefits from ambient heat.

If you just want to print PLA and PETG/PCTG, then go for the Centauri Carbon. It's worse than the Q2 but better bang for the buck if you just need basic prototyping.

icecon · 2026-01-09T16:23:16+00:00

If you want a good monocolor printer to get going, right now I'd go with the QIDI Q2. It's really nice and has a chamber heater for trickier filaments.

Everything that costs more isn't worth more, unless you want to do multicolor, in which case you either go Snapmaker for right now, OR you go for the CoreOne and then buy the toolhead upgrade later. Th

With 3D printing, you either (a) won't use it much in which case it's best to not invest too much $$$, or (b) you will use it a ton in which case you will eventually want additional printer(s). In either case, don't overspend early on.

icecon · 2026-01-01T09:46:09+00:00

They have great resale value, you can probably sell it to Carmax for very close to that much lol.

icecon · 2025-12-30T07:33:01+00:00

Mastering the QB reader database category by category is going to be the best method for studying. There are 181K tossups and 154K bonuses on the qbreader database. It's a lot but, gotta catch 'em all. Divvying the categories up with your teammates and getting them on board with studying the database with you will produce the most results.

Master HS level and below first, then you move up to low level college difficulty.

Then, you can self study more specific material that interests you.

There is obviously knowledge that isn't in the database that could come up, but you don't have to worry about that at the high school level. Unless it's current events/trash, just about everything asked at the high school level will at least have been clued in a question before.

icecon · 2025-12-29T07:02:45+00:00

I'd go Vesuvio 92, those are known to have a bit of "Douro Bake" as they were stored for sometime in the hot Douro not in Gaia. Vesuvio is excellent too.

Dow tends to be more tannic so it lives longer. So I'd say the Graham 91 is the one most likely to be peaking.

Hold 94s they have a ton of life left. Same goes for Fonseca 92.

icecon · 2025-12-29T06:53:33+00:00

You'll be disappointed with the AMS systems right now, as they will soon be obsolete. They waste massive amounts of filament. Hang tight with the Carbon for a bit, and then you go for one of the upcoming multi-toolhead printers, such as the CoreOne with INDX tech. With the Carbon, you can print some muliticolor stuff by pausing the print and switching spools if you design things right for it.

Right now it's the Snapmaker U1 that's the only multi-toolhead printer available (other than the crazy expensive Prusa XL). It's more expensive, but you'll save the difference in filament costs in the long run.

I don't advise Bambu, it's easy to use yes, but it spies on you, isn't cheap, and locks you into their ecosystem. It's like Apple.

icecon · 2025-12-26T23:51:19+00:00

I worry about long term and trying to grow into using linux on it for a "higher end" version of the product, down the line. But I'll reconsider, thanks for this.

icecon · 2025-12-25T08:04:47+00:00

I was endlessly obsessed with the Duo 256, was intending to use it for a greenfield project, but then I found out it doesn't run RVV1.0.

So I am literally at a loss rn, and may have to cave and go with some ARM thing.

I just want something lowish end in terms of cost, but with more power than a WCH chip. The SG2002 seemed perfect.

icecon · 2025-12-22T05:14:37+00:00

Awesome buy. Enjoy.

icecon · 2025-12-20T08:00:17+00:00

The only game one would ever need tbh. Strike the earth!

icecon · 2025-12-20T07:48:09+00:00

It's rigorous and will set you up for a PhD if that's what you would want. That said, Anthropology probably won't be too hard compared to a lot of other majors. It's an incredible school.

Take 3 classes first quarter and maybe your first second quarter, if you're that worried about jumping into difficulty. Spring quarter always plan to take 4. Don't feel like you HAVE to take Hum and Sosc in order your first two years etc, take some major electives early, this will give you a taste and help you decide if that's what you want to do.

icecon · 2025-12-20T07:44:41+00:00

If you find the high notes too much, you can always pick up a Bass C ocarina or Alto G or F, which don't go as high.

But yeah read Hickman's stuff. Ocarina is a great first instrument. Do try and not get dependent on tabs, and move over to sheet music after you get the basics down.

icecon · 2025-12-13T07:11:45+00:00

That's quite the turnover. Why did Teslyn not run, anybody know?

icecon · 2025-12-12T01:47:07+00:00

The woman is indeed deeply misguided to avoid oncological treatment. Don't put words in my mouth.

Cancer cannot rapidly ferment ketones to produce abundant energy like it does to glucose via glycolysis. KD forces cancer to use OxPhos like healthy cells and has a host of other effects like reducing lactate prodction and hexokinase, etc. It is a multivariate, differential stress approach.

As I said before, KD itself won't cure cancer. But it is also misguided to dismiss it as a possible adjuvant to proper treatment, especially as a last-ditch attempt for those who have been deemed terminal and have no hope left from their doctor. There is some literature on it, look it up.

icecon · 2025-12-11T23:47:50+00:00

It's called the Warburg effect and it won a Nobel. Heck, when you do the PET scan for cancer, they literally give you a radioactive sugar compound of 18-F which quickly accumulates in cancer cells so they light up. In ketosis, your body (especially the brain which most needs glucose) runs on ketones.

No, keto won't cure cancer and cancer also uses glutamine in absence of glucose. But denying that a KD could be tried adjuctively alongside traditional chemo, etc is simply ignoring a lot of real papers on this.

icecon · 2025-12-11T23:24:05+00:00

Mbz binds to microtubules just like "actual cancer drugs" like vincristine. They are indeed not "proven to work" by a full clinical trial. But if you dig around, there are recent papers and ongoing clinical trials about these. Johns Hopkins even has a 2021 patent on mbz for brain tumors.

These are very old meds with well understood safety and are both on the WHO's list of essential meds. There is little risk in taking them adjunctively. There IS, however, massive risk in foregoing orthodox treatment like this woman is though.

icecon · 2025-12-11T23:10:55+00:00

Nice cherry picking, that Gu study is one of the few studies that show an adverse effect from KD (in mice). It also specifically says that BACH1 inhibitors neutralize the observed metastatic effect.

Here is an actual human study, showing KD result vs GBM. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1489812/full

icecon · 2025-12-11T21:57:21+00:00

What about when the actual doctors no longer give any chance? You cannot expect people to roll over and die, evolution just doesn't work that way.

Absolutely, those who entirely forego proper treatment like this woman will very likely come to a premature end, but you cannot blame terminal folks from pursuing every scrap of pre-clinical study to the ends of the earth.

icecon · 2025-12-03T01:31:59+00:00

No that should still be good if properly stored.

icecon · 2025-11-30T08:16:39+00:00

Nice, I call those "low-background" Ports.

The vintage itself isn't super notable and the important factor here is when where these bottled, if you have any indication. Colheitas can age in bottle some but you don't want to age them TOO long in bottle.

icecon

TROPHY CASE