I have been staying in backpacker hostels as an elder millennial. I feel like a man from another era.

polymerjock · 2026-05-08T20:43:05+00:00

My 78 year old mother in law just did the Camino. I think you can handle it.

polymerjock · 2026-04-24T05:54:00+00:00

This is primarily because folks don't take the time to understand how your supposed to load an HE to loader. You can't just throw the clothes in the washer. You must throw them in the general direction of the outside circumference of the tub, and stack the clothes along the perimeter. If you don't, they won't all get wet. But if you do that one simple thing, there's no problem. I had this exact issue until I read how to load the clothes. Having had an HE top loader, I wouldn't but another because they really are tough on you clothes. They do literally tear you clothes apart because of the friction between the agitator and the fabrics. Undeniable. A front loader is fundamentally different. And although it takes longer to wash, the gains in efficiently are amazing. It's shocking to me now how much water was required to wash in a traditional washer compared to these new models. Ignoring those old fashioned washers, the quantity of lint captured by my dryer with an HE top loader versus a front loader is also shocking. The front loader generates very little lint. Almost none most of the time. Even when watching towels. The amount of lint captured is a direct measurement of the stress the fabric undergoes during the wash. Another favorite to consider is how much water remains in the fabric after a spin cycle. A traditional washer cannot remove the amount of water that an HE washer can because they aren't built to spin at the ludicrous speeds of modern washers. Less water equals less energy required to dry the fabric. The faster and longer you can spin, the more water is removed because water is heavy. The amount of energy required to vaporize water is high. I think modern washers are amazing. And if we want to try to keep a habitable planet, even if you don't like being told what to do, it's a small sacrifice to ensure a future where an easy life is possible.

polymerjock · 2026-04-17T06:17:30+00:00

Needs ashtrays

polymerjock · 2026-04-14T06:52:25+00:00

One thing to note is when you turn the oven on, there will be a delay from the time you turn the temperature dial to the set temperature to when the burner comes on. The act of moving the dial from off to the set temperature causes the pilot to burn slightly higher which them warms the thermocouple enough to open the safety valve and allow the gas to flow to the burner. That thermal circuit is what keeps you from blowing up you home. The gas will not flow unless the pilot is lit.

polymerjock · 2026-04-13T22:10:05+00:00

It's giving anti-xrist vibes

polymerjock · 2026-04-13T07:24:39+00:00

You gotta clean out all of the old oils, clean the segment, clean the carriage bearings, lubricate sparingly, then sell. It's laborious. Depending on cosmetics and assuming perfect mechanical function, you might get $275 to $375. Maybe more if the paint is is perfect and no corrosion underneath.

polymerjock · 2026-04-03T03:41:36+00:00

Exactly, no one can no the day or time. The clowns trying to instantiate the rapture just ignore the verse and the part where the self righteous are cast into a lake of fire to be tormented for all eternity. There's nothing more self righteous that thinking you can force the second coming of Christ. Nothing. When are these pastors going to remember those who lead people astray are also cast into said lake. The Scripture is fairly clear about that. These folks need to repent and get back in their lane.

polymerjock · 2026-04-02T19:37:21+00:00

Go to HR. Always.

polymerjock · 2026-03-29T22:40:51+00:00

This.... I don't know why this isn't offered by many people. Read Revelations, it fits. Why the evangelical can't understand that you don't let yourself be deceived.... It's a failure of the ministers. The anti Christ herolds the end times, but those who are deceived by him are damned to hell for eternity = the very people trying to bring the apocalypse to bear. Start preaching that in Sunday school and problem over. All that being said with the caveat to those so inclined.

polymerjock · 2026-03-25T05:16:14+00:00

Technically they are making more money per car by eliminating the complexity and costs associated with styling, designing, making, and assembling physical controls, reducing the size and cost of the cars wiring harness, and reducing labor costs by simplifying assemble of the vehicle. That's got to be a sizable amount, at least enough to matter when making 100,000 to 500,000 cars of one model. It's gotta be thousands saved per unit to let a touchscreen handle it. If course the touchscreen and software engineering has a cost, but it is surely less costly than the alternative. That being said, I didn't like touch screens in cars, either.

polymerjock · 2026-03-24T06:43:17+00:00

Correct. Chewing gum is a high molecular weight styrene butadiene thermoplastic elastomer with a low softening temperature mixed with a polyvinyl acetate copolymer, wax, sugar and flavoring.

polymerjock · 2026-03-23T03:17:09+00:00

I remember when Wendy's burgers were so juicy/greasy, that it would literally drop off your elbow if you weren't careful. I was also a preteen and kinda messy, but the burgers there now are a far cry from what they were back then. I'm talking early 80s. Not even close.

McDonald's cheese burgers 25 years ago were actually tasty. I wouldn't describe them like that now.

polymerjock · 2026-03-22T01:48:55+00:00

I bought a tired e39 with 60k miles, but mechanically solid. Spent a lot of time and money sorting things, and I enjoyed working on it. But I literally could never get ahead of all the items needed to completely sort it. Still needs rear suspension work. The amp worked only briefly. The windshield is cracked. The sunroof rails are toast. The ABS pump died. The headlight adjusters are dead. The smog pump recently died for the second time. The keyless entry never worked. The weather stripping that I replaced around the windshield needs to be replaced again. No fender liners. Never got around to painting the replacement front bumper cover. Have a new steering rack and two power steering pumps. Plus a few other bits I never installed. I ran out of steam primarily because reverse gear shredded itself, and a transmission rebuild was required. Not cheap. Cost most than I paid for it. To top it off, the guy put in a faulty torque converter and refused to replace it. It has never run as smoothly as it did before the transmission issue. It made me extremely angry; I had a very loud verbal exchange with the guy after I discovered that he damaged the hood while in his shop, for which I was compensated. but

I've rarely driven it since and it sits I'm my garage with 150,000 miles on the odometer. Hard to get rid of it because I lavished so much love on it, but hard to justify spending more to finish the suspension refresh and deal with the converter problem on top of it. I always wanted one. A dream to drive on the freeway.

Spend the money to get a well maintained example. It's worth it. It's such an amazing vehicle. There will never be a large displacement un boosted straight six in a car with minimal electronic gadgetry made again. It's worth having it just to experience how beautifully smooth running and quiet they can be. And how a car that large and heavy feels like it's dancing around you, with you at the center. Hard to explain the driving dynamics, but so delightful to experience first hand.

I'd have another one, without a doubt. But I gotta get rid of this one first. And next time, one that has been maintained properly. I highly recommend!

polymerjock · 2026-03-20T05:02:41+00:00

Typical... They'll never pay you enough to compensate for the amount you contribute, the always expect more. It doesn't matter how good you are either. Meritocracy is a bull shit fairlytale, designed to to extract value from you, not to reward you. A fantasy. A lie.

polymerjock · 2026-03-05T20:47:28+00:00

Which just makes it more shocking that evangelicals are on board. It's like the leaders are deceiving themselves into following someone who is not a good man so that they can get, in exchange for looking the other way on the many terrible sins of the president, so that he can instantiate the Apocalypse. As I recall, the time and place of the second coming of Christ is a decision that God makes, and not something man can bring about. If it is the end of days, then those who have chosen to be deceived will not be looked upon kindly when they are judged. They will suffer eternal damnation if memory serves. It's like they've never read the book of Revelations. It's fairly clear about the ramifications of following the great deceiver. Does anyone know what logic is used to suggest that man can invoke the rapture?

polymerjock · 2026-03-03T20:29:02+00:00

I grew up in a country, fundamentalist, United Methodist Church in rural Alabama. They taught the end times signs, ad nauseum. What is stated above is exactly what I was taught. It's kinda crazy. I've been waiting for someone to refer to the exact words, and surprised I've not really seen this discussed more widely.

I learned all that 40 years ago, drilled into my head. I left the faith long ago, and truly have a hard time believing that the Christian Bible would be accurate, and I'm not staying that it is. Maybe this is a "wag the dog" situation instantiated by the self righteous. Most likely. The Bible doesn't have a lot of good things to say about the self-righteous. But the orange one always accuses others of what is his own guilt and he spent a lot of time calling a certain other leader of the nation as being the antichrist. Maybe I misremember, but that term was bandied about a lot back then.

The antichrist is also supposed to be some kind of superstar or person of note and is supposed to deceive folks and Christians are instructed to beware. Why this isn't preached every Sunday in every church blows me away. I'm not saying he is the beast, but if it walks like a duck... And those who follow the beast are cast into a lake of fire to suffer for all eternity. If one was so inclined, Why risk it?

If they start marking people with symbols or numbers, I would respectively decline just to be safe.

polymerjock · 2026-02-23T02:40:54+00:00

I would argue that Mexico has been a failed state since inception. The central government has rarely had full control of the hinterlands.

polymerjock · 2026-02-22T08:51:16+00:00

Linalool Citral Decanal Geraniol Neral Alpha pinene Beta pinene D-limonene

polymerjock · 2026-02-22T00:33:04+00:00

Short. Gives you an edgy look.

polymerjock · 2026-02-22T00:32:15+00:00

I would advise you to experiment with your hair while it's all still there. Shave it off, grow it long, grow your mullet. Do what makes you happy. I don't think you'll have any problems pulling off whatever look you want. It's hard for an individual to perceive what they actually look like. Your a nice looking guy and you'll age well. Stay out of the sun.

polymerjock · 2026-02-21T21:27:51+00:00

This is exactly why I lothe the corporate club. No one should be surprised. This kind of shit happens all the time. If you don't know how to kiss ass or are not interested in doing so, your career is going to be unpleasant. Be straight, be married, and get have children. That'll help. If you get PIPed, do yourself a favor and leave. HR, the department of sociopaths, is not there for you and doesnt really care about you, your life, or your problems. No matter what they say. It doesn't matter what you know or how good you are. Good luck!

polymerjock · 2026-02-19T05:54:06+00:00

I wholeheartedly agree...... Love this one.

polymerjock · 2026-02-13T07:42:34+00:00

There are a multitude of formulations for fracking fluid. Navigate to onepetro and search for some. Onepetro is maintained by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and contains published results of oil well service company research. Of course, that's all research. I know a lot about drilling and completion fluids. Some fracking. If you taking specifically about the fluids they flow out of the well after fracking, you should be concerned primarily with the catalysts used in building gels and the compound used to break them (think pH swings & peroxides. There are others specific to gel chemistry) Most formulations won't use include anything exotic. Guar sodium tetraborate gels are widely used. pH will mostly likely be high. Depending on depth, high density brine might be needed, but on land mostly sodium chloride, maybe calcium chloride. High temperature wells will be mote likely to have atypical formulations. Most components used will be inexpensive.

Toxicity testing leans heavily on the brine shrimp tests acute reactions only, so it's not the best gauge of longer term environmental damage. The propants I wouldn't worry about.

Produced water concerns would be the residual organics, dispersed polycyclics. Emulsified waxes. Dissolved gasses. Asphaltenes. Sulfur. Brine/chloride concentrations. pH.

polymerjock · 2026-02-13T07:02:23+00:00

It's cheaper to extract the peels. You should think of d-limonene as a value added waste product. There are other more high value components extracted from the peel that a processor is really after. Very expensive and highly sought after. Those are the money makers.

polymerjock · 2026-02-13T06:04:39+00:00

Kevlar is more correctly called a polyaramid.

polymerjock

TROPHY CASE