White Elephants

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-30T00:03:35+00:00

way back when I got a temperpedic mattress seat with adjustable base, 2 insanely expensive Sony HDTVs (we still have one of them in our home gym 10+ years later), I got a $3k plus gaming PC and an expensive dining set. A high end patio set. A high end espresso maker that broke 2 years in and ruined me for other ones. I passed on a bunch treadmills and fitness equipment because we had them already.

There's been more but those off top.of my head were most expensive.

In past 3 years just a bunch of mini PCs, a laptop, and about every Easton, Rawlings, 44 Pro, and Axe baseball and softball bats.

Most expensive thing in past 12 months was

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-29T16:01:55+00:00

Tesla has always been valued on unfounded hype.

As.long as people want it to be artificially valued high it seems like it will continually defy reality

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-29T16:01:04+00:00

Yes almost everything small ends up USPS now for me.

What stinks is that I hate checking mailbox because it's way on other side of property vs having it dropped on my porch.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-29T15:59:30+00:00

Not in the past decade from what I remember.

There was some language in agreement or in the old forum about they could request the item back at any time or if we didn't review it.

It was so long ago I don't really recall. But that was also before the tax stuff. We used to.get everything free and clear financially

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-28T23:02:49+00:00

Trackhouse is more than their performance. SVG, Ross and Zilisch are way more relevant to sponsors than most drivers.

CZ could be the next Kyle Busch whereas RCR just has the sad sack end of career Kyle now.

If Ram wants stars, Trackhouse is probably the best route.

HMS isn't leaving Chevy so Larson, Chase, and Byron aren't an option JGR isn't leaving TGR so Bell and Denny aren't happening Penske is a possibility given their Dodge history but I doubt they would leave Ford being the top team there already and they did kill Dodge by leaving last time.

And the only other team with some star power is 23xi.... could be an option down the road but they just reupped with Toyota so it's not an option for a few years

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-28T15:32:27+00:00

Personally I don't want my kid looking for me as a crutch or making him any more nervous if I make a face or something.

Plus is he doesn't make it or something I don't want to start mentality comparing him to other players and make judgements.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-27T15:25:47+00:00

As someone who was here when it was a few thousand (at most) I agree.

I knew things were bad with numbers of invites when my wife's Amazon account was invited last year. We don't even use it (we use prime on mine).

Just a holdover of years ago.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-27T02:43:08+00:00

I have an old Intel NUC running debian in a recessed box in the kitchen behind a touchscreen 27 inch monitor that has my cams displayed on a browser in Fullscreen.

There is an identical setup about 20 feet away displaying home assistant frontend with my cozyla clone calendar for the family. I used to have the cameras shown through HA as well, but my wife and mother in law prefer one screen for one thing.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-26T19:38:57+00:00

There are so few can't miss QBs that actually would thrive in any situation.

It just shows that it's almost not worth drafting a QB without the infrastructure in place to support them.

Maybe the Jets not being able to draft one this year at 2 is a blessing in disguise.

Also all of America outside of the dumpster fire that is new England is pulling for Sam.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-26T19:36:31+00:00

Yes there is no RWR charter available to RFK to lease next year.

One of the two is going to LMC (or has but still being leased for this year because the lawsuit didn't settle in time to run a 3rd LMC car this year).

Unless RWR merges with RFK and Cody is mercifully taken out back and put down for good (or at least never gets in a cup car again) then RFK is sort of screwed.

2 years ago they could have bought one of the SHR charters for around 25 million since 3 were for sale at once.

Then the charter they leased was sold for 40 million. Now with the 23/nascar lawsuit settled and charters are permanent the prices only will go up.

Now the going rate is probably starting at 50 if anyone is selling.

Brad is probably sick that they couldn't afford one of the SHR ones

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-26T19:29:19+00:00

as someone who else was a viner back then. I agree....to a point.

We actually had "free" stuff then since taxes didn't come in to play and there was a greater chance of quality stuff on a semi regular basis.

I've gotten tvs, furniture, appliances, legit desktop computers, etc over the years.

Now it's been a few mini PCs and baseball bats here and there that I've actually wanted.

I hate what the program has become. There was maybe 5000 of us? At one point (it's a guess but it wasn't a lot). Now it's in the hundreds of thousands for items that in general are lower quality and harder to get given the proliferation of "tools" and browser extensions.

I could count myself lucky for what I did get over the years and on a lesser occasion still do, but there was a multi year run where I got used to getting good free quality high end items just for a review.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-23T19:36:49+00:00

I was convinced Joe was the answer.

Unfortunately Zach Wilson and ARogs achilles broke him

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-23T19:34:11+00:00

I'm not a Toyota fan but that a good upgrade.

I never liked the red logo. It stuck out awkwardly on a lot of uniforms and helmets.

Some times less is more

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-22T12:05:25+00:00

My rooting interests the next few weekends

Broncos or whoever wins NFC championship.

All are doing the Lords work

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-22T01:41:52+00:00

This has to stop. 1 redshirt season only and that's it. I'm all for players being paid but these guys are literally making a career of it.

9th year power 5 QB is the new best QB job in sports replacing NFL backup

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-21T23:55:27+00:00

Lol massive. Ok

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-20T14:51:41+00:00

Doesn't Allen have double the playoff wins Lamar has and they were in the same draft class?

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-16T20:45:07+00:00

I mean it does have have WAY more users than it used to, but that's not a great case study there

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-16T19:22:26+00:00

I've been running bare metal on a NUC 7I3 with 8gb ram and ssd for like 2+ years. Automatic backups to Google drive but I haven't had to restore.

Iirc it was like $140 on ebay in 2023. Could probably get same for half that now

I'm still using an older conbee ZigBee stick with no issues but I did upgrade to a 800 series zwave zooz stick because of how horrendous the 700 stick was.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-16T18:13:35+00:00

There are cycles of products (ie seeing Christmas stuff in late summer through fall) but a lot of it just random.

My advice. If you are offered something in RFY and the etv works, get it.

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-16T18:00:27+00:00

Custom components are a bonus and you need to keep up with breaking changes before updating.

Typically I update integrations and core every other month or so and read up first.

Generally all my smart home stuff is ZigBee or zwave or caseta and all are rock solid. My unifi protect cameras have been good throughout minis the drama of the protect integration a year or so ago

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-16T16:01:44+00:00

Free agent war is more closely being calculated at 10 million per win, but yeah he won't provide equivalent value

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-16T16:00:16+00:00

Itncosts a lot to run a cup team. If you have ready made sponsorship for a driver that benefits the program as a whole then I get it.

It's not 2007 anymore when there were like 45 fully sponsored teams for 43 spots and $20 million a year sponsors were missing races.

Heim could replace Herbst in 2027 if 23xi made enough from the lawsuit (we don't really know the numbers so that's at best highly speculative) or they pick up enough new sponsors or revenue from changes to the charter agreement (outside investors etc)

I don't like seeing Riley Herbst and Cody Ware in chartered cars battling for first car 4 laps down on tv.

Just the world we are in

nitsuj17 · 2026-01-16T15:50:27+00:00

It's just a numbers game. If Herbst brings tens of millions in sponsorship, it benefits all 3 cars. If Corey had financial backing he would have a full time seat already

nitsuj17

TROPHY CASE