They are trying to cause riots

This is my exact read on the matter. We can’t be the only ones to see it this way. What surprises me is that more analysts and pundits aren’t talking about the economic violence from this angle. And when the masses finally reach their threshold, the Conservatives will do their “Whaaaat? So much for the tolerant Left.”

Tacos, burritos… it’s all good.

I agree with your point, however I should conduct some empirical testing. Side-by-side, of course. Just to be sure.

Incorrect! It’s not burritos; it’s tacos. There’s even video evidence: https://youtu.be/zYpuuLLKQx4 (Ask Your Doctor About Tacos)

Horror movies, at their core, are about subverting expectations. You cite “Suspiria” and “Midsommar” as favorite movies. The second and third acts of both movies are a massive subversion of audience expectations. And the best horror movies can most jarringly break what viewers anticipate, all without using jump scares.

Technical writing and/or communications. I got my minor in TechComm, and it has been my sharp end into every job. “You can communicate effectively across a wide range of media for a wide range of use cases?! Hired!”

Public presentation, meetings, project management, interpersonal dynamics, documentation, elucidating articles, proposals, DevRel, requirements gathering, specifications, business analyses, enrichment of peers’ skills… All dependent on tech writing and tech comm skills.

TW also makes a decent fallback if (when) you burn out. Hypothetically, let’s say you burn out at the 15 year mark. You’ll have solid, senior- or principal-level skills and experience in your field which allows you to effectively liaise with professionals in your field. You could switch temporarily to a TW role, move into project or product management, or take over the docs backlog. And there is always a docs backlog.

Since you brought up IT: networks and hardware are always going to require hands-on personnel. It’s a solid career choice; just be ready for the continuous learning curve (like most things computing).

Meow Mix

Wants Costco for a first date? Absolute keeper. Loads of green flags there.

What were the handful of instances wherein violence wasn’t required to defeat fascists?

Wait, you said a 1x can have a similar range, and then immediately followed up with:

you do have to sacrifice either a bit of top end speed or climbing ability

It is impossible for both statements to be true at the same time.

superior due to the narrow-wide chainring

Fully agreed. Narrow-wide rings are absolutely a boon to mountain biking as are derailleur clutches. And 1x is superlative for hard trail riding on that factor alone.

A factor in the issue I take is the proprietary nature of modern bike drivetrains. With older drivetrains, we could mix and match to our hearts’ content. But now, even within a component line, e.g. Deore XT or SRAM X[n], specs such as pull rates can be different even for the same cog count. “These are the only combinations of components we think you should use, and we will do everything we can to block you from customizing.” Shimano is especially egregious about this expensive mess, and they know it, which is why they tried to un-hash things with CUES.

Pretty much everything 3x9 all works together. Road derailleur and cassette with mountain crank and bar-end shifters? Sure! Gear range for days. I sincerely believe this is to sell more bikes. Want to climb hard pack and mixed surface? You need a gravel bike! Want to get groceries? You need a commuter or loaded tourer! Want to go on a fast road ride? You need a road bike!

It used to be really easy to build up a bike that could perform most bicycle functions well. Mixed-surface, loaded, commuter/grocery-getter, randonneuring, snow, rain, club rides… one bike with maybe a wheel change*. Good luck with that now. Gravel bikes are kinda filling that niche now, but the components and frame manufacturers are again trying to fracture that even further. The gravel drivetrain won’t have the range to cover all the use cases without a cassette or crank change.

Moar rant, moar example: my partner works in an LBS. We can literally afford to buy any bicycle we could want. She wants a general-purpose gravel bike, and it’s not even a case of “just spend more money to get these additional features.” Component selection on a pre-built, geometry, wheel selection… all tightly engineered to cover as few use cases as possible. Okay, we’ll build from a naked frame. Oh, the more racy geometry frames lack braze-ons and can’t fit a 50mm tire.

*It makes complete sense to have a full-squish mountain bike for the aggressive off-road stuff, and those bikes are necessarily different. Even for that case, I can hang with the LBS trail/flow rides on my do-almost-everything bike. My current do-everything took me more than six months to source compatible parts and troubleshoot. This used to be a matter of just pulling the trigger on the parts I wanted.

The root cause of what you describe is a build or maintenance issue. Properly built, tuned, and maintained bikes don’t drop chains.

Bicycle drivetrains keep getting more complex and expensive. A 3x9 drivetrain is beyond adequate, bulletproof, and inexpensive. But NooOoOoOooo, it’s nearly impossible to get a quality bike with 3x9 now, without a full custom, DIY build. Everything has to be 1x11/12, which is expensive, touchy, and very particular, all while still lacking the gear range of 3x9.

It all seriously sticks in my craw.

No paywall link: https://archive.ph/bn5e5

That’s your example of softcore porn? There’s much racier content on magazine covers in the grocery checkout line. Stop trying to impose your puritanical aesthetic on the rest of the world. It’s called /all for a reason. What’s wrong with you?!

CBL is one of my all-time faves! Add in Sync24, which is Daniel Vadestrid, AKA ½ of the studio lineup of CBL.

"There was a moth. I saved you from it "

For the coffee drinkers: https://velo-orange.com/products/soto-helix-coffee-maker?keyword=coffee. We use these as daily drivers with a really good manual coffee grinder. Added bonus: our coffee can be about the same as we get at home.

There were a couple books I read long ago, one of which I think was “Catwatching” by Desmond Morris. I can’t recall the other one. Both books indicated the chittering was a frustration sound.

• The United States is a righteous, fair, and just country.
• Success and a comfortable life necessarily followed hard, diligent, smart work
• Adults, by virtue of having been around longer, necessarily knew more and knew better than I.
• Socialism bad.
• All kids get beaten on a daily basis for transgressions such as a B grade on their paper, a speck of food still stuck to the dishes after washing, or for listening to music on the radio that their parents didn’t like.

How do you think the gaskets are made?