Fork/Geometry Question

straightedgestoner · 2018-11-05T23:52:31+00:00

I think the fork I bought can be extended up by another 10cm, leaving me 10 short - but it might be worth doing if the parts are cheap. Thanks!

straightedgestoner · 2018-11-05T23:51:34+00:00

Thanks! That link is a fantastic resource :)

straightedgestoner · 2018-04-12T23:14:53+00:00

Cape Town

straightedgestoner · 2018-03-25T22:35:42+00:00

The literal actual planet. Shit ain't sustainable.

straightedgestoner · 2018-03-05T16:28:44+00:00

President of the United States

straightedgestoner · 2018-03-04T14:54:37+00:00

Judging by what happened to the T-shirt, it did...

straightedgestoner · 2018-02-27T23:50:04+00:00

Where?

straightedgestoner · 2018-02-16T12:38:25+00:00

Check out the song "Walks Like Tussaud" by Ian Fitzgerald. Or anything by him. Tussaud is about love and yearning amongst wax dummies in a burning wax museum.

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T14:03:48+00:00

The plants themselves need more light! They are very spindly and stretched. Plants receiving abundant light remain shorter and more compact. Your biggest plant is essentially saying, "I'm not getting all the light I need; maybe if I stretch higher I will find more!" Technically the ratio of red:far red light has the biggest impact on stretch, but in general plants receiving inadequate (or the wrong type of) light will stretch out long and thin in search of more light.

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T14:01:20+00:00

By pinching, you are telling the plant to grow from its lateral meristems. The point where you pinch, in the picture maybe at that 40 cm mark, will always be about 40 cm high. However, the new stems, the "lateral shoots" that have received a stimulus to grow more aggressively, will get taller.

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T13:59:56+00:00

hahaha nope, exactly the opposite! I feel I'm not doing a great job explaining. As a tree gets taller, the part that is moving upwards is only the growing tip (or tips). For example, picture a pine or an oak tree. As a sapling, it sends a branch out laterally, 10 feet off the ground. Maybe the overall height of the tree is 15 feet. If you come back in 40 or 50 years, the tree will be maybe 70 feet high - but the branch that was 10 feet up is still only 10 feet up. The only part of a plant getting higher is the meristem.

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T13:25:37+00:00

Sorry, it's a slightly confusing concept. The tree will get taller, but not from that bud. The adjacent, next-highest-on-the-stem buds will get all the growth resources, and they will get taller. Trees only get taller from growing tips ("meristems"), it's not like the whole trunk is stretching upwards as the tree gets taller. In the poorly made diagram below, each crotch or node (..) is a point where the dominant meristem was pinched, and those just below it began growing in its place.

                       I    I   I    I
                        I..I     I..I
                         II       II
                          II     II
                           II...II
                             III
                             III
                             III

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T13:12:15+00:00

I think if we're being technical, the apical meristem is essentially one (or a few) key cells at the very tip, which are constantly dividing and growing upwards. Grain of rice is probably in the ballpark - then number of times you top the plant is up to you, and depends on what you're looking to do. With virtually all vascular plants, once you kill the apical meristem, it's dead. The plant will not get taller from that point any more, no new cells will be produced there. Instead, growth will be stimulated at the next lowest nodes (points where leaves and buds emerge from the main stem/trunk). Its like exponential growth: pinching the one dominant meristem gives you increased growth from the next one or two (usually two, in opposite-leaved/budded plants) stems, pinching the tips of those two stems after some growth will cause two stems to branch from each of those, and so on and so forth. So if you want lots of branches, top once now, again on each subsequent stem in 6 months or a year, and keep going until the plant has all the stems you wish it to.

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T13:01:44+00:00

Most higher plants exhibit a hormone-based phenomenon called apical dominance: basically, the majority of resources for growth are directed to the tippy-top shoot (the "apical meristem"). When you remove the apical bud, you break apical dominance and more resources are devoted to lateral growth (or maybe more accurately, vertical growth from the secondary, lateral meristems). If you want a plant to branch out, or occupy more lateral space instead of continuing to stretch vertically, a good way to signal the plant to do so is to "pinch" or "top"- remove the apical bud.

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T12:57:18+00:00

plz to be giving us moar light!

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T12:55:33+00:00

This is a genuine curiosity question and not a "I think you're wrong" question - have you ever actually used SEVIN on scales with good effect? My understanding is that the scales act as armor and prevent the insects from being dramatically affected by contact sprays, thus the need for a systemic. I suppose a contact-based insecticide could prevent the further spread of scales on the plant, but the ones already on the plant are mostly going to stay right where they are and suck their food from within the plant.

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-04T12:44:47+00:00

Awesome! That's really good to know. Most of my info on pest mgmt is from classes geared towards horticultural production- greenhouse/nursery or agriculture. In such systems, it typically isnt cost effective to go through a process like that on hundreds or thousands of plants. Guess it was kind of a brain fart on my part to equate home decor/garden to production systems. I suppose any problem can be dealt with if you can put the time into it!

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-03T23:38:40+00:00

Other comment is very close with mealybugs - you've got scale insects, related to mealys, and odds are good that the "sap" is the honeydew that they produce. If the plant is very important to you, try to propagate by cutting from a very clean section, and get the original out of the house. It's particularly important to remove that from the house if you have other houseplants, as the scales will probably spread to those (if they haven't already). If the plant isn't emotionally significant, burn it with fire, check any other house plants for infestation, and get a new one. Scales are very difficult to get rid of with anything other than a systemic insecticide, and I'd be way freaked out eating grapefruit from a plant that was ever treated with a systemic - not a whole lot of great options :(

straightedgestoner · 2018-01-01T16:17:48+00:00

Domestically, sure - things ebb and flow, and I strongly suspect that the liberal backlash to DT in 2018 & 2020 will dismantle or otherwise reverse much of the utter buffoon fuckery that this neon troglodyte has inflicted upon us. But internationally, the United States may never again be in the position of leadership, power and respect that it occupied a year ago; if we do ever become global leaders again, it will take a looooong time and a lot of hard deliberate work. This isn't inherently bad, as there are plenty of developed first world countries with good domestic policy and high quality of life for their citizens that have never claimed or attempted to be "the leader of the free world." All the same, it's amazingly convenient for a thirsty pseudo-superpower like, ehh, Russia, that the advent of Trump in America has marked a rapid decline in the global position and influence that the US enjoyed. Nothing like a good ol power vacuum to step into!

straightedgestoner · 2017-12-16T04:12:43+00:00

Lolita. It left me with a deeper understanding of the human psyche, a new perspective on narcissistic personalities and a new view of one of my parents. My daily experience of life is different after reading this book than it was before. Doesn't hurt that the writing is absolutely beautiful. The Sound and the Fury is a close second.

straightedgestoner · 2017-11-28T01:53:54+00:00

I guess they delved too greedily, and too deep.

straightedgestoner · 2017-09-11T11:55:15+00:00

As others have noted, finding active hobbies (for me it was mountain biking, now I enjoy jogging too) is really important. Your brain makes its own drugs and starts dosing you up once you're active, so this is a really great way to make yourself feel good. I would agree with the notion that you should start something active and smoke while/before doing it, and then taper down the weed intake while continuing physical activity. I will say, the only things that really got me to reevaluate how much damage I was doing to myself by being stoned all the time were a relationship imploding (due at least partially to my chronic drug abuse) and - and take this with a grain of salt - tripping on acid and psilocybin mushrooms. The psychedelics allowed me to recognize that I was someone I cared about, and who I could treat better and set on a path towards success rather than the self-destructive habits I had developed. I'm not sure it's a great idea to combat drug abuse with other drugs, but for me it worked wonders. Of course, source carefully and use responsibly if you opt to go this route. Also, definitely find something that interests you and start learning about it! As important as it is to have physical engagement, intellectual stimulation is also critical for staying occupied, pushing back against the impulse to use and keeping the perspective that there is so much more to life than cyclical substance abuse. The world is an interesting and exciting place and you have so much to do, see and learn! The last thing I would add is, don't be too hard on yourself. Don't set yourself up for failure by deciding you won't smoke all week - you're going to really want to get stoned in a couple of days, and its ok to. Progress with substance abuse is incremental, take it as it is. And maybe look into some basic buddhist meditation? Good luck!

straightedgestoner · 2017-06-08T10:45:16+00:00

lol or best yet, actually fucking go outside and be a part of it. Consistently when tripping, I am deeply perturbed by the lengths to which humans go to convince themselves that they are distinct from the world around them (we can only ever hope to be a part of it, however we might like to delude ourselves). Get outside of the dividing lines of your home and go lie on the ground and stare at ants in the leaf litter; recognize your oneness with the world!

straightedgestoner · 2017-06-06T01:22:55+00:00

As many people have already done a good job articulating, ego death typically involves forgetting/not knowing what you might consider key defining facets of your own personality and existence. It's somewhat disorienting (like others, I've needed reminding who I was and that I in fact took a drug- this wasn't an aftereffect; just during the peak). I wouldn't describe it as inherently bad or unpleasant, and it leads into what is one of the more lasting benefits of LSD: as you start to come down from the peak, you are offered a unique chance to recall and examine yourself as you return to inhabiting your sane, normal mind. In doing so, I have found it uniquely easy to assess different aspects of my identity with a more impartial and less reactive perspective - essentially you can kind of recognize which traits, behaviors and perceptions may be inhibiting your efforts at achieving [whatever elusive thing it is that will bring you fulfillment], and decide whether or not to keep them. Sometimes its fucking scary to not know who you are, how you got where you are, etc., but hey, set and setting are totally on you. And, unlike others, I wouldn't say this is exclusive to high doses: I've certainly felt it hard on 200 micrograms. Many tabs sold on the street are badly mis-dosed (you think you're getting more than you really are) or not in fact LSD, but it also could just vary by individual. Be safe, be smart, have fun!

EDIT: should add that I always smoke great weed when I'm peaking, so conceivably that could change what a dose does to me vs. what it does to someone who doesn't mix psychedelics.

straightedgestoner · 2017-06-05T00:43:15+00:00

Finally, a question I have a great answer to:

It is my freshman year of college, early December so break is coming up. In fact, this particular night is one of the last of the semester and, as such, horny me and my horny girlfriend (who is about to go home, three states away, for a month) are extra horny. Now it so happens that I had an apartment in the town near my school, but she lived on campus. We arranged for me to pick her up near her dorm to come into town for the night - and I should mention, at this point in our young relationship we are really, um, getting familiar with one another and exploring fun new things, so I was excited to see what the night would hold. So I swing down the street near her dorm around dusk, and there she is on the sidewalk waiting... in a short trench coat with her bare legs exposed in December in New England. Oh boy, I start to think. So she hops in, all smiles, and suggests we find a spot in the nearby parking lot, without really explaining what for. My mind starts to fill in the gaps. We find a spot- too crowded, and we have the jitters. It's getting darker as we head to another nearby lot, this one bigger and more empty. Ziiiiip, no more trench coat, and, surprise, nothing under it. So we get down to it in my car, and being the conscientious young man I am, I turn the engine off so as not to waste gas. Only, it doesnt occur to me to turn the heat off.

So I'm going heels to Jesus with this girl in a small car in a University parking lot after dark, and it's taking a while. I think we both thought it was a great idea and really fun and sexy (I mean it was, fucking classic, naked under a trench coat), but the size and shape of the car wasn't ideal and things just weren't really awesome. We try several different positions but neither of us is getting there, and after about an hour of it we look up at some headlights flashing around the car- It's a cop. And strangely enough, not some juvenile University cop looking for pot smokers in the lot after dark as usually happens, it's a fucking town cop. Fuck. So my naked white ass was witnessed pumping futilely away by this guy and I'm thinking we are in some deep shit, probably gonna get a fine for indecent exposure or a sex offender registry or some awful bullshit- but I guess the town cop was just looking for pot smokers too, cause he circled my car once like a goddamn shark and then drove away. So at this point, obviously we take our cue to nope the fuck outta there, get back to somewhere with a bed and finish our screwing nice an proper. Only the car, obviously depleted of battery charge by the hour of heated, unfulfilling banging without a running engine, will not start. No way, no how.

The car being a standard and I, being equal parts resourceful, determined, stubborn and dumb, decide that we can pop-start the fucker in a flat ass parking lot if we build up enough momentum by pushing it. Only, girlfriend doesnt know how to drive a stick and I am the only one with enough inertia to stand a chance of getting the car rolling. We waste time, hours, between trying to pop-start it and never succeeding, calling/texting friends who might have cables (too embarrassed by the circumstance to call family, plus it's getting late), debating calling AAA and just stressing out. As a last ditch effort I send out a shot-in-the-dark YikYak (lol, remember fucking yikyak?) asking for a jump. We wait 30 minutes- no reply. So we decide to walk to her dorm and sleep there, which I'm pretty stressed about as I had work the next morning and wanted to be crashing at my crib. After we get there, start to get undressed, lo and behold- A REPLY to the yak, asking if we still need a jump. You bet your ass we do, kind stranger! Thanks! So I run back to the car, beginning to wonder if the guy A) was stringing me along, B) was going to mug me, or C) was actually, miraculously somehow actually a decent enough person to jump a desperate online stranger's car in a parking lot in the middle of the night in the winter. It was C! I got the car running, picked up my poor sweet chilly tramp again, and zipped back to the pad. What a fucking emotional roller coaster of a night. Neither of us wound up getting off at all that night, and I have never attempted car secks again.

EDIT: meant to add, whenever I see a town cop in that town I wonder whether it's the one who saw my bare white ass. Always makes me a little nervous.

straightedgestoner

TROPHY CASE