[Toshi]

Yes, she will.

Season pass duly acquired for Yuna.

I'm psyched about skiing with everyone. Jessica will get to deal with getting Mariko up when she falls, although she falls much less now than initially. I'll get to rub the baby belly through her snowsuit and carve some turns with her. Win:win.

I'll just have to make sure to not squash Yuna when lowering the safety bar on the lift.

 

[Toshi]

GoPro Support is still trying to do anything other than give me my money back.

Synopsis of the GoPro Karma Grip saga:

- got it in December
- initial good results turned bad, with horizon tilt and "shaking death" failure skiing and on the RC car alike
- resetting and recalibrating does nothing
- got the stabilizer portion replaced
- immediate horizon tilt and "shaking death" with replacement on RC car: this replacement is worse
- tried GoPro's suggestion to take everything apart, still suckage
- GoPro refuses refund because it was replaced (wtf kind of logic is this?) and now is going to replace the handle portion, too

I predict this replacement will produce the same results and I'll have yet more YouTube fodder for "Karma Grip horizon tilt". Will they replace everything again, finally refund me, or keep on dragging their feet?

The cynics out there might wonder if flipping the RC car a million times may have something to do with the failures. I wondered that myself. That the replacement stabilizer immediately produced poor results right out of the box (so before crashing it at all) leads me to believe that this is not the case.

 

[Westy]

The rich get richer.

And when I say "rich" - I'm talking about ALL of us around here.

RideDentist.com

 

[Adventurous]

Synopsis of the GoPro Karma Grip saga:

- got it in December
- initial good results turned bad, with horizon tilt and "shaking death" failure skiing and on the RC car alike
- resetting and recalibrating does nothing
- got the stabilizer portion replaced
- immediate horizon tilt and "shaking death" with replacement on RC car: this replacement is worse
- tried GoPro's suggestion to take everything apart, still suckage
- GoPro refuses refund because it was replaced (wtf kind of logic is this?) and now is going to replace the handle portion, too

I predict this replacement will produce the same results and I'll have yet more YouTube fodder for "Karma Grip horizon tilt". Will they replace everything again, finally refund me, or keep on dragging their feet?

The cynics out there might wonder if flipping the RC car a million times may have something to do with the failures. I wondered that myself. That the replacement stabilizer immediately produced poor results right out of the box (so before crashing it at all) leads me to believe that this is not the case.

Cynical me says they will replace the handle portion and if that doesn't work blame it on user error or abuse. But good luck on that anyway!

 

[Toshi]

Everyone enjoyed the day. Winning.

Videos on the Facespace:

Jessica: Mariko: Me + Yuna is forthcoming.

Basically every clip had horizon tilt. I can edit this out, but that's the whole point of the gimbal...

 

[Toshi]

 

[Toshi]

Shit's broke, even with this replacement unit post multiple resettings and recalibrations. I'm sending in the handle portion tomorrow but as noted above by Adventurous the probability of such a replacement fixing what ails it is negligible.

 

[Toshi]

Another edit of Yuna footage, since everyone seems to like seeing a baby on the slopes:

 

[Toshi]

Attn @Pesqueeb

I drove a Pacifica today, and I did not like it. It felt big, which makes sense. It also felt very dark with obstructed over the shoulder views.

The dashboard layout is a hot mess, too, which ultimately is the deal killer. To turn on the seat heat/ventilation or steering wheel heat one must click something like three times on the center touchscreen. No hard buttons for hvac that I saw—maybe I missed them. Meanwhile the parking assist has its own hard buttons! Stupid, stupid choices.

It was a breath of fresh air to hop back in the RAV4 EV after that. Hard buttons for HVAC and seat heaters, clean layout, good sight lines, and much spritelier feel despite probably about the same curb weight as the gas minivan (!).

Thus the Pacifica plan is out. I do not care for it.

 

[StiHacka]

Attn @Pesqueeb

I drove a Pacifica today, and I did not like it. It felt big, which makes sense. It also felt very dark with obstructed over the shoulder views.

The dashboard layout is a hot mess, too, which ultimately is the deal killer. To turn on the seat heat/ventilation or steering wheel heat one must click something like three times on the center touchscreen. No hard buttons for hvac that I saw—maybe I missed them. Meanwhile the parking assist has its own hard buttons! Stupid, stupid choices.

It was a breath of fresh air to hop back in the RAV4 EV after that. Hard buttons for HVAC and seat heaters, clean layout, good sight lines, and much spritelier feel despite probably about the same curb weight as the gas minivan (!).

Thus the Pacifica plan is out. I do not care for it.

Cannot be worse than this, can it?

 

[Westy]

Cannot be worse than this, can it?

Better than having to navigate through screens for basic functions while driving.

Not that a genital heater is a basic function.

 

[Toshi]

I regularly heat my genitals, because that's how I roll

 

[Westy]

I regularly heat my genitals, because that's how I roll

Might be an easy way to avoid that 3rd crotchspawn.

 

[Toshi]

Might be an easy way to avoid that 3rd crotchspawn.

For better or worse my junk is highly functional despite heating it and sitting on bike saddles for multiple hours each week.

Next level:

 

[Toshi]

1) I'm not alone in my horizon tilt issues with the Karma Grip:

http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/15/14922328/gopro-karma-drone-review

One major issue was the horizon line. Often when I got airborne, after calibrating the unit on the ground, the horizontal alignment would be way off, giving me a horizon that leaned at a 30 degree angle. This is something that happens, and can usually be resolved by calibrating your gimbal. But usually the horizon is off in one, consistent way. With the Karma, the issue seemed to shift, from 20 degrees to the left, back to 15 degree off to the right.

2) Got paper #20 accepted yesterday. That's the magic number for promotion, should I stick around here. This one was actually amusing in its time course:

- buddy of mine who is the editor of the journal solicits a big data commentary piece from me
- I write such a piece
- he says it needs more examples, to which I reply it's already chock-full of them
- I ignore the whole thing at that point since IDGAF about this particular little piece
- 11 months later (!) he sends it back with one paragraph worth of revisions from a 3rd author
- I accept changes, fix up formatting of references, and then it's accepted right then (again since he's the editor)

11 months of doing nothing to it was all the difference.

 

[Toshi]

I posted a thread on NASIOC's OT board on a whim. Here's its OP cross-posted, and here's the whole thread link.

So I currently have a Land Cruiser:

I bought it to do this, and I did. Then I scratched the sides one too many times and decided I wasn't going to do it any more. (I got the scratches buffed out and the damaged-by-my-own-stupidity-with-a-shovel-in-a-snowstorm hood repainted.)

Now I'm getting the itch for something different, and turn to the idiot savant nature of teh OT for "advice" or at least some lulz.

Requirements:

- $20-25k budget
- new or used is ok as long as it fits said budget, and for EVs and the like the price cutoff is after $7.5k Federal and $5k Colorado credits
- if used, it must be a 2004+ for Tier 2 emissions, and side/front airbags mandatory, so no 25 year import rule thread crossposting
- reliable, so Japanese unless there's a damn good reason to consider something otherwise
- at least 39" front headroom because I need this for reasons
- fun to drive, manual transmissions preferred
- I like station wagons
- good outward visibility
- smaller physically than my Land Cruiser, which is 192" long and super, super wide for reference
- wouldn't look ridiculous with a roof rack and skis up top
- non-suicide rear doors and a real rear seat, as I have two kids still rear facing
- enough range to get to and from ski mountains
- don't really care about fuel economy since I am primarily a bicycle commuter anyway

Remember the most important part here: AT LEAST 39" FRONT HEADROOM. I will make fun of your suggestions if you post up something with miserly headroom. 38.5" might do in a pinch.

 

[StiHacka]

Are you buying a double decker?

 

[Toshi]

Is this a shitting on the boss's desk metaphor a la upper decker? Doing it twice?

As I noted in that thread, this is all for amusement at this point anyway:

Anyway, thanks to all for the non-serious and serious suggestions alike. Thinking about cars is an amusing way to waste time.

As it turns out I may be moving to Seattle in around a year, and if I do we may end up having a third kid. That'd mess with everything, plus I don't know if I could bike commute there depending on where I'd actually be working each day. Until I know specifics for that and whether both components are happening I'll be sitting tight with my current lineup of vehicles.

 

[Toshi]

Selected good suggestions from that thread, since my worklist is clean yet I don't have enough mental bandwidth to edit and revise a paper at the moment:

Civic hatch, 1.5T with the stick shift.

Bolt.

Prius Prime.

1st gen RDX (my own suggestion).

I wonder how the potential 3rd kid might throw a wrench into all this. A little googling and common sense (it's narrow in there with just the 2 admittedly wide car seats) shows that 3 car seats across in the back of of the RAV4 is a non-starter. Therefore Jessica would have to move to something else.

Would I need to haul all 3, though? @SkaredShtles: how did you handle it, or was your oldest already in a booster or the like by the time the youngest came through?

 

[Toshi]

Relevant reading, Volt 2 vs Prius Prime: http://www.caranddriver.com/comparisons/2017-chevrolet-volt-premier-vs-2017-toyota-prius-prime-advanced-comparison-test

Perched on the Prius’s comfortable vinyl seats, we felt an airiness engendered by the hatchback’s expansive windshield and tall side windows that read as a minivan’s or SUV’s panorama more than a car’s. Look in the rearview mirror, and there are two panes of glass in the hatch that make parallel parking and backing up easier. The Volt isn’t particularly difficult to see out of, but vistas abound in the Prius.

This is good.

In hybrid mode, the [Prius Prime's] run to 60 mph takes 10.2 seconds versus the EV mode’s 12.2, and the simulated freeway merge, represented here by our 50-to-70 run, is a still-leisurely 7.0 seconds. [...] The handling is minivan-like: soft, safe, and dull. On broken pavement, the suspension sends shudders into the structure that sound like a street performer drumming on a plastic bucket.

This is not good.

The [Volt's] primary controls are suffused with accuracy and consistency. Clear feedback comes through the steering, the body roll is kept in check, the damping has the right dose of starch, and the structure stands up to any assaults from the road. The 403-pound battery that runs through the middle of the car lowers the center of gravity, keeping the car glued to the tarmac.

This is good. Also note "The Volt qualifies for a federal tax credit that’s $3000 more than the Prius Prime’s ($7500 compared with $4502)." The only real downside they noted was the backseat and the visibility. Again that might be a kiss of death for me since I'm so obsessed with that.

I just priced out a reasonable Volt (no leather or the like but heated seats and steering wheel, and a trailer hitch that could be modified after the fact for a 2" receiver for my rack) at $35,050 MSRP. TrueCar says $2,530 off MSRP is common, so after lopping that + the Federal and CO state credits off that'd be a net price of a cool $20,020.

:notbadobama:

37.8" front headroom, though... Hmm.

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip>
Would I need to haul all 3, though? @SkaredShtles: how did you handle it, or was your oldest already in a booster or the like by the time the youngest came through?

Fucking minivan. Duh.

 

[Toshi]

Fucking minivan. Duh.

Yeah, I get that for the big vehicle. What was your other vehicle at the time, or did you pare down to 1?

 

[SkaredShtles]

Yeah, I get that for the big vehicle. What was your other vehicle at the time, or did you pare down to 1?

Other was our Outback. Don't ever remember putting them all in the Subaru when they were little. Used the van for pretty much everything involving the kids.

 

[StiHacka]

Don't get the RDX. It's too much fun to drive.

 

[6thElement]

Just remember I'll give you tree fiddy for the LC.

Let me know if you're going to sell as it may divert me from getting a 3rd gen 4runner.

 

[Toshi]

I'm thinking I'll sell it in most any scenario. Since I have a note on it probably easiest to draw down on investment, pay it off outright, then sell it with unencumbered title. Maybe by late April?

If you're serious you are welcome to borrow it for a few days, take it to a mechanic, etc.

Edit: Updated timeframe is probably more like May. I shouldn't do anything with it until I've had my Seattle interview (May 8), because if I don't like it there for some reason then I'll be sticking around here, and the Land Cruiser is a fine vehicle for Denver's unpredictability.

 

[Toshi]

Desire to pay off then sell the Land Cruiser is waning. A large part of this is that the "best" choices to replace it (Outback, Forester, RDX, etc.) are all ones I considered initially and wouldn't save much money. Is saving garage space worth the transaction cost? Probably not. It's certainly not worth anything for gas savings, as I average about $40/month even at 15-16 mpg...

I am just getting generally antsy about change. I want to know whether the move to Seattle's happening, and, if so, if Project Thing 3 will occur. I want to know if I'm going to go postal on a few of my more annoying co-workers (one of whom decided to essentially do diddly squat all of Monday afternoon). I want to know if I can beat my Strava times on the fun bits at White Ranch.

I don't like waiting.

 

[Westy]

Desire to pay off then sell the Land Cruiser is waning. A large part of this is that the "best" choices to replace it (Outback, Forester, RDX, etc.) are all ones I considered initially and wouldn't save much money. Is saving garage space worth the transaction cost? Probably not. It's certainly not worth anything for gas savings, as I average about $40/month even at 15-16 mpg...

I am just getting generally antsy about change. I want to know whether the move to Seattle's happening, and, if so, if Project Thing 3 will occur. I want to know if I'm going to go postal on a few of my more annoying co-workers (one of whom decided to essentially do diddly squat all of Monday afternoon). I want to know if I can beat my Strava times on the fun bits at White Ranch.

I don't like waiting.

I have coworkers that have been negatively productive for the past 30 years.

 

[Toshi]

Does their unproductivity directly affect your workload? For me it does, as on one rotation in particular there are usually 2.5 (one half day person in afternoon) or 3 attendings on at a time. If one of those attendings doesn't pull their weight the workload for the others increases substantially.

Practically speaking it'd probably be best for me to suck it up with regard to the inequity, since I'm fast enough that I can compensate for the slackers. I don't like inequity, though, so if this opportunity to be in an environment with less of that (or at least less of that affecting me since the group is so huge) along with marginally more money and substantially more vacation then I'm going to jump. This would be partly for the opportunity itself, and partly as perceived retribution ("won't you miss me now?").

This latter part could be a bit awkward since I have to give 6 months notice.

 

[jstuhlman]

GL/R class. Not manual, not Japanese, but befitting a doctor of your caliber and able to handle 2+ kids plus gear. the other ///M.

 

[Toshi]

GL/R class. Not manual, not Japanese, but befitting a doctor of your caliber and able to handle 2+ kids plus gear. the other ///M.

I have two colleagues with GLs. At least one of them regrets it now. The other is in a two physician household so plebeian considerations of money are absent. (He has a vacation home in the mountains, etc.)

 

[jstuhlman]

I have two colleagues with GLs. At least one of them regrets it now. The other is in a two physician household so plebeian considerations of money are absent. (He has a vacation home in the mountains, etc.)

I have few complaints about our Rtreefiddy. Bought at 3 years old with less than 30k miles for under 30k.

 

[canadmos]

Is saving garage space worth the transaction cost? Probably not.

Its a truck...can't it be parked outside? I know it might dissolve in the snow, but parking outside isn't that bad if you have heated seats.

 

[6thElement]

Its a truck...can't it be parked outside? I know it might dissolve in the snow, but parking outside isn't that bad if you have heated seats.

Until you get a spring hail storm.

 

[SkaredShtles]

Its a truck...can't it be parked outside? I know it might dissolve in the snow, but parking outside isn't that bad if you have heated seats.

He probably has covenants that preclude him from parking in the street/driveway.

 

[Toshi]

Heh. No RVs in the street but cars are ok. They get dirty too quick out there. It fits in the garage fine, I just have to back in just right so that there's plenty of room to open the tailgate and walk around it, etc.

 

[canadmos]

Is there room to shovel it in the garage though?

 

[Toshi]

Is there room to shovel it in the garage though?

 

[canadmos]

You shovel your cars, no?

 

[Toshi]

Just the once. But that makes no sense for an indoors structure. Down in the states garages have roofs and walls.