#the big one being limited prep vs normal prep

[carbonatedcacti]

Sometimes, on nights like these, I get forcibly reminded of the time I was forced to do poetry at a speech competition. Another person had entered into the event for a state tournament, but decided last minute they didn’t want to anymore, so I got slotted in so we didn’t have to pay the drop fee. The poem set I threw together last minute was about insomnia, I collected the poems from various places online, most without authors, and made a program in just a day and had it performance ready in a week. It was shitty, and very clearly hobbled together, but I was proud of it nonetheless. I wonder what happened to the nameless authors, whose poems are likely lost to the sands of internet time, but who’s works and thoughts and feelings are cemented forever in my mind and the little black binder I still keep

[ledenews]

Santorine: Presidential Debate a Miscarriage of Politics

Sometimes I think I’m living in a dystopian film, in a warped society where we send warriors out to fight our battles for us, and the winner of this one-on-one combat chooses which set of ideologies will prevail until the have two warriors face off again. The fact we are doing this today, with a couple of geezers standing up in front of our nation making outlandish claims makes me pinch myself to make certain I’m awake. Is this really happening? Is this the best our nation can do? The competition is macabre at best. We all know there are two competing schools of thought. Big Government and Huge Taxes vs. Limited Government and allegedly lower taxes. Two completely different types of governance. With each side sticking to its guns, there is no compromise, just a bit of wiggle on taxes, and it’s back and forth every few years. So, we spend a lot of money figuring out the most tax advantageous way to arrange our lives until the current tax cuts expire. Talk about not being “fair,” but we always punish our best and brightest, don’t we? Aspirational America is no longer about the brightest and best but instead about the most politically connected. I’ve been told that I say that “Trump is a New Yorker” too many times, and maybe it’s how he acts. The TRUMP brand has always been about shiny and bold, and just a little “over the top.” Like the man. But that is how you need to roll when you’re playing in the city that never sleeps. On Thursday night for the presidential debate, former president Donald J. Trump had his businessman’s face on, including that look of incredulity that each of us has when we are faced with an excessive load of untruth. The non-stop lies coming from President Joe Biden were nothing short of incredible. The Trump “you’re full it of” face was on for most of the two hours. It’s obvious that Biden has never been in a grocery store or had to fill up the family car in recent months. The costs are staggering due to inflation, and wages have not kept up. The average family really does not care that some obscure employment metric is three-tenths of a percentage point better under him than it was under Trump. Of the excuses from the left trying to justify Biden’s performance, one sticks out in my mind –  “Biden has a cold.” Really now, after a week secluded at Camp David to prep for this, a mere cold took down the leader of the free world in a debate? Thank God we weren’t in the middle of multiple international conflicts and domestic unrest caused by inflation. Or are we? I think it’s obvious that we need a brawler in the White House for a bit. A troubleshooter who’s not afraid to take on the entrenched bureaucracy. Someone who has done the job and has had time to reflect on his “Wins-Losses-Ties” from term one. Someone who clearly calls it like it is. Much like physicians, the best ones usually have really poor bedside manners. When I look at a politician, the litmus test is always, “Would I like to have dinner with that man?” I think an incredibly interesting conversation would be had breaking bread with Donald J. Trump.  Sure, he’s a bit of a braggart. That goes with the territory (another way of saying ‘He’s a New Yorker’). He connects with the common man, and that makes him seem much more real. The debate was a demonstration of two old men, one with words and the other with mumbles (from a person who is clearly not as sharp as he once was). The debate proved that Biden is completely incapable or leading the greatest country on the face of the earth, and that Trump has reached the limit of what one human should have to endure as far as attacks and untruths. In pugilist terms, when it was obvious that Trump had Biden bloodied and beaten, he didn’t let up. In normal times, he would have. Continuing the fight served no purpose, save for one. The former president needed to get some of those frustrations out, and he did so by showing no mercy. In retrospect, I don’t blame him. I hope the political operatives who organize such things know better than to subject the American people to another one of these spectacles. It was, in every way, disgraceful. Unless the Democrat Party decides to risk blowing itself apart by replacing their presumptive nominee at the last minute, this is the pairing for the general election. We know what we have to deal with in November and I’ll be passing out clothespins that may help with the stench in the voting booth. Is it possible that, maybe, we are getting the government we deserve? Read the full article

[agl03]

Hi so if episode 10 could be a daisy and coulson centered episode what kind of things would we see there?

Hi Anon,

I don’t think that 10 is going to be a Coulson/Daisy centered episode.  Stolen is going to be the lovely all sorts of things go absolutely south kick in the teeth kinds of episodes.  And its title will cover multiple meanings and situations from: 

Someone or something being stolen

It relates to Nathaniel stealing Daisy and hopefully no other Inhumans powers.  

It can also speak to Stolen lives in people dying and simply the loss of everyone’s normal day to day lives.

There is the Stolen Time, for example Fitzsimmons have had time with each other and with their daughter Stolen away.

Based on Thomas having a Stunt Double in 10 we know that Nathaniel is in the mix and if he’s gong to go toe to toe with anyone its going to be Daisy and Sousa, both having a score to settle with him personally, the Malick family, and Hydra.  If he’s gotten a handle and a leg up from his new friends with his ill gotten Quake powers this will be our one change for an epic Quake Vs Quake fight.    

I also feel that this is one of those situations where yes he is a threat and needs to be stopped but he’s also a decoy.  With him dragging a fair chunk of the team to him and leaving Jemma with limited back up to get to Fitz.    My bet is she is going to go to get him and doesn’t get there in time and he’s gone.

Coulson I do think would be stay on the Nathaniel front but more of the focus will be on Daisy and Sousa’s blossoming relationship.   If May is in this group then this is where we could see Coulson prepping May for whatever he’s decided to do when all is said and done.  I’d also enjoy Coulson watching one of his favorite Shield Legends and the person he sees as he daughter growing closer.   

While some of the characters are getting their arcs wrapped up and now in a holding pattern til the end now, others will take the rest of the season to play out.  Coulson is a big one here as is Fitzsimmons since their arc and “We Had Time” will be one of the last things explained, and Enoch.  I see 9 being big for Coulson, Enoch, and SIBYL because “As I have Always Been” is something we’ve heard a number of times from the Chronicoms.  

[frostyogurt1]

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[nabsthevulture]

Maceration Vs. Simmering

Maceration and Simmering are both bone cleaning methods that attract a lot of negative attention, Some deserved, some not. Despite their general similarities, there are some key differences between the two methods that really beg the question; Which is better? Neither! No one bone cleaning method is the ‘best’, it’s just all about what works for you! We’ll be comparing the two methods now, both their pros and cons, to maybe make it easier for someone down the line to choose between the two.

Depending on the tools you’re using, the space you’ll need will vary. For simmering, many people will use a crockpot. They keep good, consistent temperatures and can give you a flesh free skull in under 6 hours depending on the level of prep. A crockpot can sit just about anywhere and really doesn’t take up too much space. Other times people will lightly simmer skulls on the stove, which would give you the same result but may have a more damaging effect on the bone.

Maceration will have a bit more variance. Depending on what you’re cleaning, be it a skull or a skeleton, you’ll have to find a container big enough to house it. It’s easier and generally less of a worry when Maceration is done outside, so as long as you’ve got a safe place outside for it then you shouldn't have a problem space wise. If you’re doing it indoors, choose an out of the way spot in a room that offers decent ventilation if you need to air out. Once your space is figured out, the time it takes something to fully macerate depends on several factors; Temperatures, the animal itself, etc.. You could be looking at as little as a week, to as long as a 6+ Months.

When it comes down to it, simmering is a less time and space demanding method than Maceration generally can be.

Maceration shines when it comes to the level of prep you have to do to a specimen. You can throw a full carcass into maceration, and really only have to worry about the fur at a later date. A skinned carcass, including the organs, will rot down as intended with maceration. That being said, full carcasses do require larger containers. You can do as much prep work as desired, such as fully flensing down the bones and breaking the body up, pre soaking to remove oils and fats, whatever you’d like. That will help cut down the time and (honestly) the smell as well!

Simmering is best done to a skull or skeleton that has been prepped. As much meat removed as possible, debrained, eyes removed, jaws separated, and so forth. You don’t have to, per say, but fully prepping will cut down your times and will in turn protect the skull from having to be in prolonged heated conditions and lessen the chance of it soaking up a ton of grease. It’s different from maceration in the way that you will still have a lot of work to do on a skull that's not properly prepped, rather than just letting it all rot away in the water.

I’d personally give Maceration the card when it comes to the work you have to put in to achieve the same result.

Though you can use it for rotting specimens, it’s generally good to simmer fresh/semi-fresh skulls. Heating up a rotting specimen can drive liquefied fat and grease into the bone much faster than it would a fresher specimen, and will kick up one hell of an odor. Simmering can be used to clean full skeletons, partial skeletons, and skulls with relative ease, but the difficulty and unpleasantness rises with the decrease of freshness in your specimen.

Maceration can be used on all specimens with roughly the same results time after time. The decomp time may increase a little from an actively rotting specimen to a mummified specimen, but you’re going to end up with clean bones regardless.

Though it revolves around what kind of specimen you tend to work with, Maceration is the method that can clean any state of decomp with little change to how it normally works.

When it comes down to it, both methods are less than clean. Maceration is undoubtedly the nastier of the two, both with smell and mess. It’s to be expected, but often times it can quickly become overwhelming and a dreaded thing to deal with. I never suggest maceration to anyone sensitive to smells or with a weak stomach. It seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how often people don’t think about it until it’s a problem! Disposing of maceration water is thankfully really the only bad part. Flushing it down the toilet is an option if you don’t mind your house smelling, or you can dig a decent sized hole outside and dump it in there. Make sure you keep the dirt from the hole handy so you can push it in to soak up the water. That’s the least offensive way I’ve found to get rid of rot water.

Simmering is more messy than it is smelly. If you don’t fully prep a specimen then you’ll have to deal with disposing of decent quantities of wet cooked muscle and fat. You can just throw it straight into a trash bag and then into a dumpster, but it can end up becoming a smell problem if it sits too long. If you’ve made sure you have all your bones/pieces out of the pot, then you can also just dump the whole thing into a strong garbage disposal or down the toilet. Chase it with a little bit of bleach and a brief spray or air freshener and you should be good to go. Just be careful to not clog any sinks or your toilet flushing simmer remnants; That will drastically raise the chance of a smell problem or even something worse like insect involvement.

Its safe to say that If you’re looking for a less messy method, simmering is probably the way you’d want to lean.

Simmering a bone for even a little too long can have some drastic effects. The bone can become chalky, brittle, or flaky and turn to mush over time. Having a bone exposed to prolonged simmering will also likely bake the grease right into the bone, which will make it increasingly difficult to remove and may not come out at all. People use this as those as their main reasons to bash simmering, but it’s all about making sure you keep your eye on it and pulling the skulls before any damage is done. Anything beyond 5-6 hours is really pushing it, and even then 4 is the ideal limit you want to be at.

Maceration has its own cons when it comes to bone condition. Often times during maceration, bones will turn different colors due to bacteria or random objects falling into the rot bucket. These are pretty easy to remedy for the most part. Gravewax (Adipocere) is a concern, though it won’t damage the bone or anything. It’s simply caused by long term exposure to ‘cold’ water, and can be scraped or scrubbed away with a toothbrush. Extremely long exposure to water may end up warping or weakening the bones, but generally speaking the bones would have to sit for much longer than they would take to fully macerate to begin with.

Simmering offers expediency at the cost of potentially damaging bone, while maceration may have a few ill side effects but nothing serious. It’s hard to really call a draw between the two, though as far as not doing irreparable damage to the bones, Maceration is the more giving method.

Maceration, despite its unpleasant nature, often times will produce totally ready bones. If you macerate in a hot place, bones will start to degrease while they’re rotting down, which means at the end of the day you may not have to do any degreasing at all. On the other hand, you will have to whiten bones if you want them brighter, and there’s a chance you’ll have to give them a deodorizing bath if the peroxide doesn't take the smell out initially. There’s also the fact that teeth like to fall out during maceration, so you’ll have to glue those back in yourself. If the bones have been in the water long, you may also be dealing with removing grave-wax.

Simmering doesn’t have as many variables as maceration, but it’s almost certain you will have a little work to do. It’s mostly in the degrease, as simmering can result in a heavier grease build up in the bone. With a strong degreaser you can make semi quick work of it, though. Beyond that is the whitening, but that’s based on personal preference. Sometimes, teeth will fall out during simmering, but they usually stick around where they’re supposed to be unless you force them out.

Neither method is guaranteed to offer you 100% ready to go bones. Maceration can also degrease bones, but you have smell, gravewax, and teeth to deal with. Simmering will result in a need to degrease, but you won’t have to deal with gravewax and teeth are more likely to stay put. It’s a toss up between the two!

Overall, Simmering is a fast and effective method that doesn’t take up too much space and can be done tidily. It’s got some cons, such as higher grease levels, possibly damaging bones, and not being as useful for different types of decomp. It’s a method for someone that wants to dominantly process inside and that wants to churn out clean specimens quickly.

Maceration on the other hand is a very effective method that can be used for practically any specimen no matter the prep, runs incredibly little chance at damaging bone, and doesn’t require too much work after the fact. Downsides are the smell, the possible wait times, and the space you need to macerate comfortably. This is the method for someone with space, time, and a strong stomach that needs to clean entire skeletons or large batches of skulls all at once.

There’s no clear winner between these two methods, since they both exhibit their own pros and cons. For that reason, they’re both winners! Maceration is a great bone cleaning method that requires little work and little involvement during the process. Simmering is great for those trying to clean skulls and bones quickly and efficiently without taking up too much space. One method may not work for someone, while the other could be their absolute dream method! It’s just a matter of opinion, and I urge you to try both methods and form your own.

If this guide was helpful and you wanna show some support, maybe Buy me a coffee? 

[maeamian]

Some D&D theorycrafting for y’all, since unearthed arcana came out with a playable centaur I wanted to take a look at the mounted combatant/sentinel combo in that context. It’s probably gonna be a bit wordy so here’s a cut underneath which it is (sorry mobile users):

So my current dude is a dwarven druid, and one of the interesting paths you can take with the moon druid is specing into full time mount duties for a qualified rider, but the key to that long term is the rider taking mounted combatant and the druid taking sentinel. The rider gets advantage on attacks against creatures smaller than their mount, which is pretty nice, and can force attacks directed at the mount to instead be directed at them. The mount meanwhile gets an improved evasion where they take half spell damage on failed saves and none on successful ones. Sentinel meanwhile gives you an attack of opportunity against creatures who attack your allies and hitting with an AoO means their speed for the turn becomes 0. 

A rider with mounted combatant provides a huge amount of frontline survivability to an otherwise squishy mount, which in the druid’s case means fewer burnt wild shapes and better damage output, but for a centaur it means you can put a normally squishy character on the frontline with a much more limited risk than usual, since mounted combatant provides good cover against both attack and spell damage, excepting pretty much the no save spells like magic missile. It’s not quite as good for the rider here as it is for the druid who has access to very big shapes while a centaur is gonna be the same size barring an enlarge spell. Sentinel in a mounted target meanwhile means that your rider is constantly drawing attacks meant for you which in turn means you get to use your attack of opportunity every single turn and it has the added bonus of forcing lockdown by setting that target’s speed to 0, it’s helpful not essential if we don’t go a class that uses attack damage, but if we go this route we do want to keep an eye on our AoOs. 

Basically what we want from this is a rider who can be the target of a lot of attacks without dying from it as well as crowd control options, your traditional tank essentially, and a centaur who can output a lot of damage or some other form of utility and take advantage of frontline positioning that they might otherwise die super hard in. What follows is a quick overview of the 12 classes and where they might fit in in all of this:

Barbarian: Raging barbarians can output a lot of damage per weapon attack, meaning that your AoO is gonna get decent value, and since barding is pricy the unarmored defense could help in the early game, but the huge hit pool is a bit redundant with the damage avoidance you’ve got. Those hitpoints make it good for a rider who will be taking more hits than usual and should armor themselves accordingly, but none of the paths really offer the combat synergy that other later options will. Overall Barb is a great frontline class, but it isn’t going to really benefit from either side of this combo.

Bard: This one’s pretty funny to imagine, consider a decked out knight charging you down on a horse whose head is a human with a fuckin’ hammered dulcimer and rage in their eyes. With the college of Valor it’s also fairly plausible, it gives you the proficiencies you need to stay safe at later levels in shields and armor and it also gives you the ability to use inspiration to improve your rider’s AC which they’ll be thankful for. The College of Swords (Xanathar’s) also offers some interesting options for combining attacks with your bardic inspiration to get some neat effects as well as some improved damage as a baseline. Not the strongest choice here, IMO, but there’s a lot to work with mechanically and concept wise.

Cleric: Clerics are generally already known for being able to kick it on the frontline without having to worry too much, so they don’t need the extra survivability as much. Clerics have access to a powerful selection of buffs and healing spells that are nice to have on hand up front, which is why they tend to be there even with their generally lower HP.  The life domain is an obvious choice and makes you very good at healing and buffing, but overall I think it loses value by not being able to do other things and I don’t think it takes advantage of the combo. The War domain offers that utility in combat and provides some very nice buffs as a constant on your spell list. The Grave domain (Xan’s) offers some interesting combo options including cursing them to take double damage from your rider and turning crits against them into normal hits. Solid choice for our centaur, and there’s some excellent RP options with your rider if they’re a Pally, and an interesting choice for a rider if you’re looking to get a bit more support from that portion of the combo

Druid:  Druids have a lot of spells that work good at the front like gust and vine whip, but generally want to stay back due to their prohibition on having good AC, since you’re not taking the hits you don’t need the AC, so Land druid and their stronger spell casting focus may be the way to go here. The circle of dreams (X’s) is also a good option with healing, rest protection and later on combat teleportation which you can use to get space in which to charge. The circle of shephards lets you overwhelm the front with summoned creatures and change battles with powerful totem effects to your allies. A lot of the best druid spells require concentration which means you’ll need to grab war caster too, which is a solid pickup for any caster on this list. A solid centaur choice too, but in many ways redundant.

Fighter: This is the first of our rider choices, a protection fighter lets you impose disadvantage on attacks that you don’t chose to soak, and of course fighters can put together some of the highest AC in the game, and the battlemaster archetype has some very powerful combo moves in its maneuvers, for instance pushing attack plus sentinel can strand a frontline enemy in the backline for a turn letting you charge into the backline and mess it up, while trip+sentinel lets you keep an enemy prone by leaving them without movement speed to stand up with. Cavalier (X) seems like it would be good for a mounted combatant, but ends up being fairly redundant or else unhelpful for the play style this combo encourages, since your mount won’t be taking many hits. Fighter is a very strong option for the rider, and a bit less definied in characterization than our other major rider options.

Monk: Monks are the quintessential wants to be upfront and doesn’t want to get hit class, and combos alright with your extant hoof attacks, for the first four levels your unarmed strikes are a die better than they would be, but that’s a problem regular monks can solve with a monk weapon. Even the baseline options for spending ki can do you a lot of good, the disengage bonus action can prep charges and extra attacks are nothing to sneeze at. The way of the open fist offers even more melee options as well as bonuses to your flurry of blows. Way of the shadow offers solid ambush options if your party is more built for opening bursts, as well as movement options. A very strong centaur candidate, but miss this class for your rider.

Paladin: Now here’s a fuckin class for the rider. the 6th level aura of protection improves the already excellent spell protection from mounted combatant by adding the rider’s cha bonus to saves vs spells, the healing options and high AC let the Pally kick it up front and soak those nasty shots intended for his centaur friend. Oath of the Ancients is a strong choice here with good buffs added to the spell list and can use the channel divinity to cast a targeted entangling vines. Oath of conquest (X) has powerful combat options especially for lockdown, but not everyone wants to play that character style and I get why. A generous interpretation of the Find Steed spell gives you some nice combo bonuses allowing the paladin to target the mount with self-only spells, nice if your GM allows it, but don’t be shocked if they don’t. One of the go to choices for a rider

Ranger: ,The Hunter archetype offers some really powerful combat options, especially for someone who doesn’t have to worry too much about getting hit.  Monster Slayer (X) has some really strong options for dealing extra damage and punishing strong targets as well as locking down the backline once you truck your way into it. Strong choice for the centaur.

Rogue: Sneak attack reads “You don't need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn't incapacitated, and you don't have disadvantage on the attack roll.” If you’ve got a rider you’ve always got an ally within 5 feet of your target. This is very good to get every single round. The rogue’s evasion feature is wasted here, but a your cunning action can let you zip around the battle field really fucking shit up. None of the thief archetypes really offers too much, although the thief’s second story work seems to negate the one major drawback of the centaur: garbage climbing skills. Swashbuckler (X) seems to be the only option that actively benefits the play style, but the rogue’s base kit is very strong in this anyhow so all of the archetypes are going to be somewhat viable. Alternatively, this is an interesting option for a rider who gets that sneak attack advantage and can wrangle a rather high AC out of dexterity. A great choice for our centaur and a maverick choice for the rider

Sorcerer/Wizard: WotC tried to separate these two more, but essentially these are both backline casters and have no place on the front line even in the context of this combo, they’re good to support it especially benefiting from spells like flaming sphere that hurt opponents who stay in the same place a lot, a useful member of this party perhaps but not someone who should be involved as the rider or the mount

Warlock: is pretty similar to the above, but offers one somewhat interesting frontline option in the Pact of the Blade, particularly down the Fiend path. Their play style is to get hit and deal out massive retribution through hexes and curses, so in this context you’d want them as the rider more than as a mount. That means you’re going to want a more supportive class like cleric on the mount to make sure that as they’re taking in the hits they’re also staying up. The hexblade version might work for your centaur

A few generic notes if you’re considering this route: First, the strength of the feat combo runs on AoOs so you want to be careful about things that use your reaction to do things other than hit. Secondly, since this feat is best applied on single strong targets, you’ll want to make sure you or your parties have some strong AoE options to deal with larger groups of enemies

Anyhow, this has been one person’s thoughts about an fun D&D roleplaying thing you can do and how to make it mechanically powerful, by no means am I an expert except that I’ve thought about this sort of thing a lot. It definitely has the opportunity for a very cool interpersonal dynamic for the two of you in addition to some of the best single target lockdown available in the game.

[tolathachuxui]

[GRAD 701] [Design Studio V] Interview 4 20/04/2020, 2:39pm

Week 5,

What do you do for a living? Practicing artist since 2002, freelance design since 2013, teach as a secondary high school teacher since 2015

For how long? [Answered in first question.]

3 Words to describe yourself…  systematic, gamer, indecisive  

3 life goals… ensured I completed tertiary education, to be successful at anything I apply myself to, try all the butter chicken in the world and find the best one

How do you start your day (no need to go into too much detail - lol)? School week: wake up at 5am, shower, wait for Jason (husband) leave home by 6 to teach 9-3

Tell us about your living situation. I live with my husband and our 2 cats. We are currently renting in Māngere, Auckland.

Favourite food and why? Chocolate, it is an addiction: when I was 15, I scored my first job at the supermarket making money and having chocolate on hand, it was easily attainable. Early on my mom would be chocolate biscuits and chocolates, Butter chicken. I. also like bananas ...anything chicken.

Relations with preparing your own food and/or takeaways? Since being in lockdown, prepping my food has been fairly easy. Both Jason and I are both good cooks and bakers... they are times when I get lazy, and all I want to do is order takeaways because it’s convenient ...we do often prep our own food.

How do you keep track of food quality? If we pre-prepped food, it usually has the date on the food that is being prepared. Normally we won't prepare anything longer than 5 days ...if smells off on day 5 or day 6, then it goes out.

Best before dates. Do you still ignore it? any rules of your own? I actually try to keep to the best before dates. If its tinned food and some packaged fruit ... if it’s preserved, it can actually last 3 months more than the best before date. The only reason why there's a best before date is to imply that you try to eat it by this date. The only rule that I have that if is been sealed and there's no damage to the product then it can keep for an extra month or 2.

What do you do if your food does expire? Why? Generally, smell test, the taste test, the look test: if it looks ok, if it smells ok, and tastes ok. it's still ok for like a day or 2. Generally try to eat it within that time frame. If it's off, then that goes in the bin.

How often do you forget about the existence of certain food products in your household? We try to limit how much food we have in the house. For example, we always have fresh fruit, we always make sure that the fresh fruit is in a place that is visible, so it always be at the kitchen table... We try to limit the amount of food we have in the house because there's only 2 of us... We’re not big eaters, the only time we forget about types of food would be pasta, but pasta has a long shelf life for forever and that’s the same as rice... and tin tomatoes...

Tell me a story about the last time you discovered spoiled food/ingredients? When I was at school, I always take my lunch to school every day... and there was a time I had in a sealed bag and in the sealed container... I completely forgot about it... And this one time, I left the container, my lunch bag, in the office... And I think I had left it in there over like a couple of weeks. It was chicken and salad and had cheese, I went back to it later when I realised there was a smell and I like pinpointed it in my bag, I went over to my bag and unzipped it and I freaked out, because when I opened it, inside the container, was like swarming maggots there was so many maggots... long story short, I threw the entire thing out excluding the bag... it was super gross.  

How did you feel about that? How did you react?  I was super embarrassed that I had left it there for such a long time, but at the same time, no body mentioned anything, so it was just like something I picked up fingers crossed. I'm really like scared of maggots and worms. When I see maggots, I would freak out.

Fridge vs Freezer vs Pantry effectiveness. How do you Categorise each item into each of the storage methods? Freezer - freeze food that I want to last longer than a week or if I'm not ready to use it: meat, frozen veges, fruit, bread, milk, pre-prepped meals, stews, casseroles.  Fridge-: spreads, condiments, large bottles, water, butter, eggs, fresh veges and fruit compartment: lettuce, spinach, cucumber, tomatoes... large cavity:  massive water jug, pre-prepped meals, pre-contained, pre-jarred...  pantry: soups, long-life milk...protein powders, almond milk, tablets, seeds, container of rice, tinned food, dried noodles... baking, oils, chippies, other appliances, booze and a large bag of flour...and some lunch stuff.

How do you feel about your food usage, how much food is thrown out on a weekly basis? In previous time, a lot of food was thrown out... but since moving into our new house, we’ve kind of restricted the amount of food that we have... I don't think we've thrown anything out since moving here (any food) because most of it has been eaten and rationed out properly.

What food items are the most thrown out? Usually it’s like cooked food...

Any interesting facts/information regarding food expiration in your household? Nope.  

Where did you get your food knowledge from? Ministry of health recommendations? Family? Many years ago, I did a food program, a cafe barista course... and working in hospitality has taught me a lot of things.

Your one “wish” when it comes to food expiration/quality. Affordability. Good quality food comes at a cost.

Your one "quote” when it comes to food expiration/quality.  “Try to stick to the date.”

[ambronite]

Zero to Keto in 16 hours Experiment: Meals, Measuring Tools, Results

Keto is not a miracle, but exceptionally useful for burning fat and losing weight without hunger and cravings. People have more success losing weight with keto compared to other diets, thanks to its powerful satiety effect. There are two problems with experiencing the benefits of keto in my everyday life: 1. Starting keto can be hard 

2. Finding keto meals that take me to optimal ketosis can be stressful and suck up too much effort, time and money So, with my cofounder and recipe mastermind Arno, we wanted to share the results of a simple experiment: Zero to Keto in 16 hours! In this post, we’ll tackle the tricky business of getting into ketosis without hours of planning, stressing out or breaking your bank. This is something you’ll obviously need to nail first. If you’re curious and want to try keto for the first time, or if you’re experienced with keto and want to make it easy and tasty, this one’s for you. “Easing in” VS Zero to Keto in 16 hours? In my previous newsletters, I’ve talked about taking it slow and not going “full keto” within 24 hours. Easing into keto gradually can be helpful, especially if you normally tend to eat meals high in carbs. Too fast a transition to a fat-heavy diet can upset your stomach and lead to loose stools, which can make social life the wrong kind of “exciting” for a few days. After eating carbs for a while, I’ve often preferred to prepare my body by gradually increasing the amount of fats in my diet for 1-5 days before going full keto (<20-50 g of carbs / day, 70-75% energy from fats, 20% from protein, depending on my goal). For me, this has meant adding more fats like extra-virgin olive oil and butter into my foods, preferring plant-based bowl foods like veggies and avocados with eggs and tuna, and leaving out potatoes, starches, rice and oats. However, a faster route is also possible: Simply enjoying a simple low-carb meal 2-3 hours before bedtime, and starting my day with an Ambronite Keto Meal Shake Chocolate. The last time I followed this simple method, my evening meal was an avocado with some cherry tomatoes, a handful of almonds and a salad with greens and veggies like spinach and broccoli with some tasty extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and tasty Italian balsamic vinegar. This “pre-keto” evening meal doesn’t even have to be ketogenic or too strict with limiting carbs: I’ve noticed that for me, it can easily contain 10-20 grams of carbs, although I’ll reach ketosis a bit faster if it has less.

With Arno, we’ve turned our salad game into an art form. Here’s Arno’s simple yet elegant recipe for the first evening of Zero to Keto in 16 Hours. It’s ketogenic and packed with gut and stomach healthy fibre to aid with the transition, so it’s a great choice for any keto meal.

Arno’s Big Keto Dinner Salad

Calories (kcal): 600-650 kcal in total (scale to half for smaller appetites!)

Prep time: 10 min

Ingredients:

1 avocado (~300 kcal)

1-2 boiled eggs (~75 kcal each) and / or handful of nuts (e.g. macadamias are great)

2-3 cups of spinach (~7 kcal per cup, 30 g) or other greens

Half cup (50 - 100 g) cherry tomatoes (~15 kcal)

30 g olives (~30 kcal)

Optionally add feta cheese on top.

Preparation: Mix spinach and greens in a bowl, add avocado, add eggs. Voila!

Top it off: Extra virgin olive oil (1 tbsp), balsamic vinegar, squeeze of lemon juice, salt, pepper.

Pro tip: You can add more olive oil for more keto-friendly calories: 1 tbsp is ~120 kcal. Also, you can add more eggs or nuts for more protein.

The role of this evening meal is to aid with the fast zero-to-keto transition while being stomach-friendly.

In the morning, I’ll have a full Ambronite Keto Meal Shake. Then I’ll just wait for a few hours. Normally when transitioning into ketosis, I’d go for a long walk or easy jog while listening to music or podcasts or take calls on work days, but with the keto-accelerating mix of premium fats and MCTs in the Ambronite Keto Meal Shake, this isn’t even required. Before dinner on the same day, I’ve reached ketosis. Often my ketones pop to over 0,5 mmol/L roughly during the time I’d normally reach for an afternoon snack, around 3 PM. Within 4-5 hours after my Keto Meal Shake breakfast, a simple CareSens blood measurement from my finger tip reveals that my blood ketones are at 0.6-0.7 mmol/L. With very little effort, I’m now in ketosis, and already enjoying many of the benefits - including fat burn, weight loss and satiety. Cravings and hunger are a common question at this stage. Hiding high-carb treats can make everything easier. Personally, I don’t even feel the need to hide the high carb treats and snacks in my house anymore, because the craving-stopping effect of keto is pretty strong for me once I pass the 0.6 mmol/L threshold. Don’t try this at home if it’s your first time though, or if you know you love your high-carb treats A LOT. It’s weird to look at your favorite treats and not feel tempted to munch on one! This shouldn’t be too surprising though: blood ketone levels of around 0.6 mmol/L and over seem to suppress the hunger hormone ghrelin that’s partly responsible for the cravings we normally feel. Optimal ketone levels for weight loss: 1-3 mmol/L What’s the optimal keto level to lose weight and burn fat? The optimal level of ketosis is best measured by the concentration of ketone bodies in blood. When we restrict carbs, fast, or exercise intensely for several hours, ketone bodies are produced by the liver from fatty acids and used by our body and brain for energy. Ketone bodies consist of the water-soluble molecules acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB, popular in exogenous ketone products) and acetone. The sweet spot and optimal ketosis for weight loss is between 1-3 mmol/L. When I’m above 1 mmol/L, I start to feel the satiety effect keto is known for more clearly. It’s a strange feeling of clarity to be free of the “urge” to snack on something. Reaching the optimal ketone level for weight loss typically takes 2-3 days for me, but can be achieved within a single day with meals that are designed to not only support, but accelerate ketosis. How I measure my blood ketones affordably at home The best way I’ve found to measure my level of ketosis is a blood sugar and ketone level measuring device like the KetoSens Ketone Monitor Kit. This is the one I use to measure my ketone and blood glucose levels. I’ve also tried the Precision Xtra Blood Glucose and Ketone Monitoring System and the KETO-MOJO system, but prefer the KetoSens for convenience, price, and the fact that it needs less blood to get a reading and wastes less of the expensive ketone strips. A kit for blood glucose and ketone measurement can be obtained for $40-50 or 36-45 € - I paid $40 (38€) for my kit, and it came with 10 keto measurement strips and a lancet (Count Dracula’s tool for medical-grade finger tip poking for the blood). The single use keto strips fed into the blood ketone measurement device are typically model-specific and tend to be a bit pricey when bought in small batches - I’ve found they can cost up to $1 or 1€ each in boxes of 10! In my experience, this is hardly enough when starting out. A week’s worth of measurements can cost $7-20 or 6-18 € if I’m doing an experiment, so to save a bit of money, I’ve ordered these in larger packs of 50 keto strips and 50 lancets. There are also breath analyzers like the Swedish Ketonix device, that you essentially exhale into for a breath ketone reading. I’ve tried the Ketonix and met their team members at Biohacker Summit. The tech is really cool, and allows for unlimited measurements throughout the day at no extra cost, eg. after every meal if you wish (no strips, no needles!). I love the fact that it’s non-invasive and doesn’t require you to poke a small needle through your finger for a drop of blood. However, since it relies on measuring exhaled ketones in the breath, namely acetone, I’ve found it isn’t as useful for me as blood ketone measurements, which are the medical-grade gold standard. Furthermore, comparing breath and blood ketone levels is complicated as the Ketonix team points out. Referencing and comparing my data with other people and clinical studies is more straightforward with blood measurement devices, since these are used by studies and lots of folks doing these n=1 measurements. You can also use the urine strips to measure your ketone levels. These reagent strips for urinalysis are originally made for diabetics, so you can find them in pharmacies everywhere for roughly $10 or 10 € for 100 strips. I’ve used the Bayer Ketostix that are widely available in pharmacies in the US and Europe. After soaking a strip in urine, you get a rough estimate of your ketone levels, indicated by the changing color on the tip. Determining exact ketone levels with these is almost impossible, so I rarely use them anymore. They’re cheap but not ideal because of their low reliability, especially when you’re just entering ketosis and are at or around 0.5-2 mmol/L. And frankly, I don’t enjoy peeing on measurement strips that much.

The difference between keto-compatible and keto-accelerating meals? With the right meals, it’s possible to get into ketosis faster than with normal ketogenic meals. The optimal mix of premium fats and medium chain triglycerides or MCTs that are rapidly turned into ketones by the liver without requiring the actions of bile and rapidly promote ketogenesis in humans. This is exactly what we designed Ambronite Keto Meal Shake to do: make it easy for everyone to start and reach optimal ketosis for weight loss, fat burning, and experience all keto health benefits faster than with any other meal, without giving up on convenience and great taste. Typically, just one or two 400-calorie Keto Meal Shakes are enough to get me into the beneficial ketosis zone where I can also feel the benefits. A medium-carb or low-carb evening meal (which can also be a Keto Meal Shake for even faster results) and a Keto Meal Shake breakfast later, you will be in ketosis. Most people who prefer keto for shedding extra fat appreciate the freedom from hunger and cravings it provides, and spend most of their time between with their blood ketones in the 1-3 mmol/L range. I tend to lose weight fast when I’m on keto. This means it’s not optimal to be in keto for weeks at a time when I’m aiming to build muscle, endurance and speed. Personally, I’ve done some cyclical keto weeks (1-5 days of keto at a time, followed by a few days of refeeding) as part of my current mountaineering-focused strength and endurance goals, as I’m not looking to lose too much weight right now (and that seems to happen unintentionally when I’m on keto). With that said, let’s get down to the experiment: Zero to Keto in 16 hours: Arno’s experiment, meals and blood measurements How fast is it possible to get into ketosis without stressing out? Arno did a short keto experiment with blood measurements with Keto Meal Shake Chocolate using my KetoSens device for blood ketone measurements. Here’s his account on getting into ketosis in less than 24 hours, without exercise or any real prep, a few days ago: Evening before keto day

20:00 “A “Big Ass Salad” for dinner, much like described above; avocado with some cherry tomatoes, a handful of almonds and a salad with greens and veggies like spinach with some tasty extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I also added some Feta cheese and topped it with sea salt and pepper. The meal contained approximately 20 grams of carbs.” Ketones at 0 hours: 0.0 mmol/L

Morning of keto day

08:00 “The next morning after waking up I poked my finger with the lancet and measured a 0.5 mmol/L level of ketones in my blood, using the KetoSens device described above.” Ketones at 12 hours: 0.5 mmol/L “I enjoyed an Ambronite Keto Meal Shake Chocolate for breakfast.” 12:00 “Around lunch time, 4 hours after eating the Keto Meal Shake breakfast, I measured my Ketones again and the device showed a 0.7 mmol/L result. -- I was already in ketosis!” Ketones at 16 hours: 0.7 mmol/L

“I have to say being in ketosis feels great. Not only because I know that my body is literally burning fat for energy, but also because of the mental clarity which increases work productivity significantly. The metaphor of fat-metabolism and ketosis being like driving a Tesla while carb metabolism is more like driving an old gas engine Ford definitely feels true. Also, what holds true is the satiety effect and the craving-stopping effect. It feels like I have more willpower against food or treats once I get into ketosis.“

This was the first 16 h of the Zero to Keto experiment. Arno’s results are roughly the same as mine, even though he’s noticeably leaner (my current body fat % is well over 20% right now after a season of heavy lifting). A lady in her 30’s or someone with more body fat or less muscle might expect similar results after a few more hours due differences in basal metabolic rate to the lower muscle-to-bodyweight ratio. I’ll keep following Arno’s keto measurements and sharing the results with you. As always, these experiments are n=1 experiments - we’re not doctors, this is not medical advice - and we simply want to share our real experiences and results as we create new useful things for you guys. For me, personally, the biggest benefit of the Keto Meal Shake Chocolate so far has been that I have to think less about keto meals, especially in the morning. It’s not that I didn’t have tasty real food keto meal options before - but often these are not as fast, easy or affordable as I’d like, and tend to be a bit heavy on dairy and meat for many people and occasions. According to my own measurements, my time from zero to keto with one or two of these shakes is now down to 16 hours - roughly the same as Arno, and what other users are reporting. Over to you: what would you like to know about starting keto? What’s your go-to keto breakfast? Article written by Simo Suoheimo

[hydrus]

Version 353

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a great week. I finished the basics of the new file maintenance system I wanted, cleaned up the duplicate filter a little more, and fixed a bunch of bugs.

file maintenance system

There are a number of large file re-checking jobs the client wants to do, both now and in the future. Going back to figure out more accurate video durations and image rotations, discovering webms that were formerly incorrectly detected as mkvs, eventually integrating videos into the duplicate checking system, all of these will require a combined whack of maintenance CPU that I don't want to hit all at once. I have previously sketched out some disparate systems for these jobs, but none were really doing the trick, so this week I unified it all into one nice system that can handle all sorts of jobs. This new system is simple for now but will get more work in future.

You do not have to do anything, but if you pay attention to your maintenance work, you may notice some new file metadata and thumbnail jobs running in the background or on shutdown. This new system fits into normal maintenance just like database analyzing or repository processing. You can govern whether it is permitted to run in regular idle time and/or shutdown time under options->maintenance and processing and also change its in-built 'throttle', which limits the number of files it will work on (rather than running full bore on what in future may be quite large jobs). The default throttle is 200 files every day, which for most jobs on most machines will be about 30 seconds to three minutes work. Do not expect it to do much work yet.

Existing file regeneration routines now work through this system, and it does its job much better than before. If you hit right-click->regenerate->x on some thumbnails, the job now runs in a regular popup button (rather than the locking 'modal' one from before), letting you keep browsing while it works. And if you select more than 50 thumbnails (think, say, right-clicking on 2,000 video files and saying to regenerate their thumbnails if they are the wrong size), you will now get the option to schedule that big job for later, at which point those 2,000 jobs will end up in the normal idle maintenance queue, to work at 200 files a day or whatever you wish.

This system is fairly opaque at the moment. You can trigger it with the thumbnail right-click, and certain db operations may schedule new jobs for it, but there is no UI to review it yet. In the coming weeks, I expect to write a new 'review' window off the database menu that will let you review total pending jobs, start work manually, and add and remove pending jobs en masse through the regular search interface. I'll slowly integrate more of the client into it as well, letting it add more jobs into the queue by itself.

Let me know how this all works for you!

duplicate filter

The duplicate filter interface got some more work this week, particularly in cleaning up some of my original version's over-engineering. The actions you can choose on the right panel are now split more clearly into 'yes, these files are duplicates, and here is how' decisions vs the 'alternates' and 'not dupes' decisions. Also, 'this file is better' is now split into two buttons for 'delete the worse file' and 'keep both'. This 'delete or not' is split at the shortcut level into two actions as well, if you wish to map both. Existing shortcuts (left-click by default in the filter) will update to the 'and delete the worse file' version.

The complicated 'duplicate action options' object (which governs how to merge metadata across duplicates) therefore no longer handles file deletion. It is also now only attached to the 'better/worse' and 'files are the same' actions--we never found a good reason to merge metadata across all alternates or 'not duplicates', so I have removed it completely. If you want a complicated file delete action, hitting the 'custom action' button now asks you if you wish to delete the file you are looking at, the other one, or both.

Also, to reduce confusion with alternates--which are also technically not duplicates--'not duplicates' is now renamed across the program to the more precise 'not related/false positive'. The 'false positive' action is a record in the db saying 'despite the similar files search thinking these files were related, it was incorrect, so do not bring it up again'.

My hope is that filtering is a bit faster here. If two duplicate files are of very different quality, it is still easy to delete the bad one, but if they are more close and you want to keep both, it is now just one click.

As for the big db-level rewrite, I prepped the duplicate db code for it this week. I am standing at the cliff-edge and feel great about jumping off, so next week I hope to get started on the new code properly and migrate one or both of the current 'alternates' and 'false positive' data to the new system.

the rest

I fixed an issue with the recent 'collect by' session saving where the accompanying sort was not being renewed on a session load. Also, several problems with collected media and sort by 'approx bitrate' are fixed.

There's a new checkbox under options->sort/collect that makes it so the default sort is updated every time you click a new sort in regular browsing. It sounds a pain but is actually pretty neat!

The 'all local files' domain is now hidden from view in new page selection and the tag autocomplete dropdown if you are not in advanced mode. This domain, which is fairly technical and covers both trash and 'my files' and the sometimes-hidden repository update files, is often confusing to new users and is rarely useful even for people who know what it does.

If you use the client's local booru and need to override its host when you copy an external link, this option has moved from options->connection to the local booru's manage services panel. You can also override scheme and port as well! The old host override option is gone completely, and the only other place it was used, the manage upnp dialog, now fetches this info more efficiently and fails more gracefully.

full list

duplicate filter:

duplicate action options no longer handle file deletion

renamed 'not duplicates' across the program to 'not related' or 'false positive'

'alternates' and 'not related/false positive' duplicate actions no longer have duplicate action options. no merge content update now occurs on these actions

the duplicate filter hover panel now splits 'this is better' decisions into two buttons--whether to delete or keep the worse file

when selecting 'custom action' in the duplicate filter hover panel, it now asks if you would like to delete the current file, the other file, or both

the 'duplicate_filter_this_is_better' shortcut action will be auto-updated to 'duplicate_filter_this_is_better_and_delete_other'. an alternate 'duplicate_filter_this_is_better_but_keep_both' is now also available

the 'duplicate_filter_not_dupes' shortcut action will be auto-updated to 'duplicate_filter_false_positive'

separated the buttons on the duplicate filter hover panel to more carefully split 'yes, files are duplicates' vs other decisions

in prep for the duplicate db overhaul, refactored all PHash search code and Duplicate management code apart

misc other prep work for duplicate db overhaul

.

file maintenance:

wrote a new unified manager to handle various long-term file maintenance tasks like regenerating file metadata and thumbnails

options to govern how this manager can run are now in options->maintenance and processing. you can enable it for idle and shutdown maintenance time and give it a throttle to limit how fast it will work on files, defaulting to 200 per day

unified the previous db-level attempts at file maintenance to the new system, which supports async job queueing, and moving regen code up to the new manager, out of the db lock

unified a variety of file and thumbnail regen code to work through the new simpler and saner path

the right-click->regen thumbnail commands now run through the new manager and no longer need a modal popup. you can keep browsing while they work. they will also not hang the ui as the old system could on big jobs

when right-click->regenning on more than 50 thumbnails, you now get a dialog asking if you want to do the job now or put it off later

file maintenance tasks can now run in shutdown time! you will get previews of the jobs with file counts and status progress reports on the shutdown splash

cleaned up some file extension renaming and dupe-removing code

in future, I will move the current file integrity check to this new system and have some ui to prompt and set up other big jobs, like fixing various historical misparsing issues

thumbnail resizing during thumbnail fade that resizes down is now more efficient

moved the ClientFilesManager to ClientFiles.py

.

the rest:

the 'manage upnp' dialog now moves the duplicated external ip display from the column up to the status text at the top. it fetches the ip after the initial mappings fetch is done. this ip is no longer affected by the external host override option

cleaned up options->connection page and removed the now defunct external host override option

the manage services page for the local booru now has optional override for scheme, host, and port for the 'copy external url' function

fixed an issue with the recent 'collect by' session saving where a restored session that needed a collect was not sorted

fixed an issue with collections being sorted by approx bitrate

added a new checkbox to options->sort/collect to set it so the default sort updates every time you choose a new sort anywhere

fixed an issue with 'remove trashed files from view', which was incorrectly removing on 'all local files' pages

the 'all local files' file domain, which is frequently confusing to new users, is now no longer an option for new file pages or the autocomplete file domain if the user is not in advanced mode

the client now searches for versions of urls both with and without a final '/' character when looking up file url import status at the db level and in import lists. system:known_url is unfortunately still an inefficient mess

improved how the server code deals with some connectionLost errors

cleaned up and unified some older dialog button code

fixed a problem in manage tag siblings when petitioning existing pairs and then cancelling when asked for a reason

fixed a miscount issue when uploading pending tags while many new tags are coming in. progress would sometimes be -754/1,234, ha ha

db maintenance, repository sync, and file maintenance processing will all now wake on a force idle mode call

deleted some old code

misc fixes and cleanup

some misc gui layout fixes

next week

I have quite a few smaller jobs waiting for me, so other than the new duplicate db tables, that's top priority. Some UI bugs to deal with, maybe some Client API work, an experimental jpeg quality estimator, possibly support for some new filetypes, and hopefully a fun new way to quickly add very complicated OR search predicates thanks to a clever user's work.

Just a note, E3 is coming up soon and I will take my shitposting vacation week for it as usual. I think it'll be 356 that's delayed a week.

[robertkstone]

War of the Worlds: Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor Performance vs Jaguar I-Pace EV400 HSE vs Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

“Randy’s just gone off Turn 2,” the walkie-talkie barks. I look up from my laptop. What happened? Our Jaguar I-Pace is most definitely in the wrong place and has come to a stop amid drifting dust.

Today is just getting weirder and weirder—Randy Franklin Pobst never goes off a racetrack. For all the tire marks that spaghetti away from the Streets of Willow’s racing line and loopily disappear at its broken edges, they’re never the graffiti of our resident championship racing driver. Randy is a model of consistency.

A walkie-talkie hisses for a moment, and then … “The Jag suddenly put on its emergency brakes and sent me off the track.” Wait, what? The Motor Trend testing staffers eyeball each other. For the past two hours, Randy had been chasing software curveballs. Even through the metallic fidelity of our Motorolas, the terseness in his voice says he’s getting a little weary of it.

“At least it wasn’t just us,” mutters a Tesla-hatted voice behind me. Earlier, the Tesla Model 3 Performance with Track mode didn’t exactly stop as planned approaching Turn 10, going straight off at 90 mph, then bouncing through the bumpy desert terrain and sagebrush before re-entering the front straight and rolling into the pits, with a blown left rear tire courtesy of its off-road excursion.

We expected some surprises today. Bringing together two trackable battery-electric vehicles to challenge the best classical internal combustion sport sedan in the world right now—the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio—would be the beginning of a battle for the ages. Who knew it would also wind up a battle in the sages?

Let’s rewind the clouds of dust to earlier this morning.

It’s 8 a.m. in the California high desert, and already the sun has our asphalt stage brightly lit. To our left is “Big Willow” with its white-knuckle turns and village of backstage garages and paddocks needed for Willow Springs International Raceway’s blockbuster, high-speed productions. This, though, is “Streets,”  its more intimate second stage. A more technical setting for our trio of performers.

Amid the hiss of tire pressures being adjusted by co-evaluators Alan Lau and Derek Powell—and the rattle-grrrrrrrrr of photo czar Brian Vance’s incessant coffee bean grinding—I’m staring at the cars and unable to piece together a good argument for why the Alfa beats the Tesla around the track or the other way around.

It’s easy to pencil out why the Jag is going to lag behind: Compared to the Alfa, its motors’ combined 394 horsepower falls 22 percent shy of the Giulia’s output, while its 4,946-pound mass renders it 31 percent porkier. Those SEMA-ready 255/40R22 Pirelli P Zeros the Jag is wearing won’t erase the high-heeled physics of its crossover height. The Jag seems a preordained but not dishonorable third place around Streets. But the tea leaves from our real-world testing of the Giulia and Model 3 point in contradictory directions.

Leaf One tilts toward Tesla: The 505-hp Alfa’s 0–60 time is 3.8 seconds; the 450-hp Model 3 clocks at 3.3—its dual-motor AWD launches it like a rail gun. Leaf Two, to Alfa: The Giulia clings to corners like sweaty underwear, pulling a 0.98 g skidpad compared to the Model 3’s 0.95. Leaf Three, pick ’em: The Tesla stops shorter—but fractionally so. Leaf Four, mox nix: Their figure-eight lap times are identical at 24.2 seconds. Time to ditch the tea and grab some of Vance’s coffee.

The cars are prepped, and Randy is good to go. The Model 3’s cooling system is screaming as it pre-chills the battery and dual motors. Belted in, attired in his black helmet, black racing suit, and ever-bright mood, Randy asks the Tesla engineer leaning into the cockpit, “What do I do to set the handling?” The guy taps the do-everything center screen’s icon with the words “Track Mode.” That’s it. Randy raises his eyebrows. The guy climbs out; I lean in to check that our Vboxes are powered up and SD cards clicked in, then give the passenger door a good slam.

The Model 3 whirs away. A minute later it reappears, slaloming past the apexes of the last four corners of Streets. Its tail is drifting dramatically, left, right, left, then it pitchy-hops midway around the last “skidpad” corner and tail-wags onto the straight. Everybody is watching—nobody has ever seen a Tesla handle like this.

Five minutes later, Randy climbs out, I grab the data cards, and Angus MacKenzie starts readying to try it himself.

The fastest EV ever at Streets was the Randy-driven Mitsubishi MiEV at a 1:10.90 … no, not the goofy Google-car you’re picturing but a sleek slicks-and-wings, Pikes Peak racing car we tested in 2014. The Model 3’s time appears on my screen—1:23.90. A production-car EV record. A blink quicker (0.07 second) than the Mustang GT Performance Pack 2. Process that. The Mustang GT PP2.

However, Randy needs to chime in: “It’s very easy to get understeer, the car’s handling is sometimes inconsistent, and there’s something weird happening when I lift off the brake.”

What Randy is feeling is a lingering deceleration after he releases the brake (before he’s moved his foot to the accelerator)—it’s the undepressed accelerator pedal’s heavy regenerative braking setting that’s confusing him during the transition. Compared to the car’s normal “heavy” rate of 0.2 g (matching that of the Jag), Track mode applies a more noticeable 0.3 g’s.

Angus rolls in from his hot laps: “It turns in quickly, especially with throttle lift, but there’s not a ton of feel from the front end. Get to the power too early, and the handling just devolves into massive understeer. The good news is a big lift off the accelerator will get the car to rotate. Roll on the power, and the Model 3 nicely drifts out of the corner. There’s never any sense it’s going to spin. Drive it like a rally car, and it’s fun. But for a traditional race driver, where smooth is fast, I can imagine it all feels a little discombobulating.”

The tall Jaguar goes out next and returns seven minutes’ worth of laps later. I pop out the SD cards from the Vboxes and open the file—a 1:27.00. No MiEV, but not bad for a 5,000-pound, five-passenger crossover that’s quicker than the Golf R and WRX STi. Geez.

“There’s a lot of understeer, and the brakes could be inconsistent,” Randy notes. Those two words—inconsistent and unpredictable—keep coming up during his Jaguar download.

Finally, it’s the big-dog Alfa’s moment to break the EV silence. We hear the Giulia’s bark and baritone as Randy warms the tires. Judgment time. Which will win? Twenty-one thousand gasoline combustions per lap, or software code swarming through silicon chips? The Alfa moves dartlike through the same corners the Tesla just drifted through. Randy pulls in wearing a smile we haven’t seen yet today. Mr. Consistency just laid down a 1:22.78. That’s 1.12 seconds quicker than the Tesla. “It just does exactly what you expect,” he says. “No surprises. Always predictable. Rear-wheel drive just gives me the control that I want.”

Then somebody notices the Alfa’s Pirelli P Zero Corsa AR Asimmetrico front tires. They’re asimmetrico, all right: Half of each tread block’s rubber is gone after two sets of three hard laps. The Tesla engineer points to his car’s Michelin Pilot Sport 4Ss that are at worst scuffed. “We could do that time if we were willing to destroy our tires,” he says. The Tesla’s rubber contains complex compounding across its tread for minimal rolling resistance but stickiness for corners (with foam glued into its interior to reduce noise). The technical investment in this tire—which can generate 0.95 g’s of cornering grip from a 4,078-pound car without significantly damaging the rubber and still deliver 310 miles on a charge—is remarkable.

Nevertheless, the conversation drifts toward imagining sliders on the Tesla touchscreen to fine-tune Track mode or tapping the names of tires you bring along to have their performance characteristics loaded. One idea I like: “Randy mode.” Ludicrous for the road racing set.

Track Mode

Four years ago, I drove our long-term Tesla Model S P85+ to Laguna Seca for a similar lapping day. When I arrived, I unloaded 17 bags of ice from a 7-Eleven along Route 68, plus a dusty roll of bubble wrap I found at Home Depot. We shoved the ice bags under the car until they were stacked up against the battery, then I encircled the car with bubble wrap like a floor-length insulating skirt, taped it to the bodywork, and waited for the car to charge. We had tried to lap the Tesla a few months before, but it couldn’t get to the hilly track’s Turn 11 before it self-limited its power output, due to heat buildup. This time it would start refrigerated.

Thermodynamic experimentation be damned, the Tesla power-limited at just about the same spot anyway. And our photo of the wrapped car touched a nerve with Tesla. The “Teslas can’t lap” rap has remained a thorny issue with Elon’s crew, so a month ago Tesla invited me up to Marina Airport after Monterey Car Week to finally sample its solution.

Rather than a vender-sourced patchwork of stability- and traction-control systems, Track mode is a holistic solution to enthusiast EV driving. It begins with a unified piece of clean-screen, Tesla-written software. Rather than look up tables of approximated data to pick a prerecorded response to steering and chassis angle, the system simulates each tire’s available grip in real time (it estimates the force on each contact patch from the car’s acceleration, braking, or cornering rate). The result is a higher-resolution picture of those patches, exploitable by each axle’s precisely controlled, fast-reacting electric motors; laterally, it’s vectored by individual brake dabs (the differentials are open). Track mode’s agility is like a cat with espresso in its water bowl—but it’s also alert to nervous-looking inputs and decreases the chassis’ cornering angles until they cease.

As to the heat problem that limited our early Model S lapping at Laguna, Tesla has a solution. Before the car heads out, setting Track mode tempers the overheating issue by launching into a (loud) coolant-chilling frenzy of both the low-temperature battery system and the high-temperature motors. Unlike in the Models S and X, both of the Model 3’s cooling circuits can be merged, allowing the hotter motors to briefly use the giant battery as a heat sink. For how long? Maybe four or five continuous laps. Weekend warrior Derek Powell makes a face. “Track sessions are normally 20 to 25 minutes,” he says, “and there are four or five sessions per day.” I don’t think he’s impressed.

We’ve figure-eighted the Model 3 Performance with and without Track mode. I did a 24.3-second lap sans assistance but a 24.2 with it. A teensy time difference, but to moi at the helm, the car’s cornering attitude suddenly became open to playful interpretation—almost to distraction. As Angus noted during our lapping at Streets, big, drifty angles are more about fun than fast.

Technology

If there were a book simply titled The History of the Sport Sedan, you’d find a dramatic picture of this exact blue Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio on its last page. The story line building up to it would ping-pong between Turin and Munich, and with every turned page there’d be episodes of engineers finding new ways to polish the sport sedan’s ingredients to a perfect gloss. Like this car’s twin-turbo V-6 engine, eight-speed paddle-shift transmission, multilink rear suspension, and 505 horsepower laser-beamed to two rear tires.

Tesla nods, closes the book, and places it on the shelf with the rest of automotive history. Park the Giulia next to the Model 3, and Leonardo da Vinci beside Robert Oppenheimer. The ultimate artist-engineer meets the calculating disrupter of worlds.

The other day, I read Bob Lutz espouse that “Tesla has no tech advantage, no software advantage, no battery advantage. No advantages whatsoever.” With all due respect, Bob, that’s bull. As I sat in the plugged-in Model 3 at the Supercharger station in a Valencia, California, parking lot, I watched a number grow on the car’s multitouch screen. That’s so cool. Just by plugging the charger in, the Supercharge from PerformanceJunk WP Feed 3 https://ift.tt/2NWW5WH via IFTTT

[gardenglowswithdesign]

I have taken a ton of classes over the years.  Many of the classes were just to gain extra knowledge in a specific area.  The funny thing about me is that I never received an actual degree for anything.

To this day, I still feel that having that piece of paper hanging on a wall somewhere in my life would not make a bit of difference in the amount of knowledge I have accumulated.  My father always wanted me to get one; in his eyes, it was a sign of prosperity.

Please do not misunderstand, I agree that in certain fields a degree is preferable: Doctor, Lawyer, Scientist, and any profession that puts someone else’s life in your hands.  I want to know that the person that pulls me from a burning building, pulls the knife out of my leg, or protects me from a Road-Rage whack job; has had the proper training and education to handle these types of situations.

When it comes to me and professional learning institutions, we butt heads.  My first experience left me feeling that I was taking a bunch of “extra curricular” (E.C.) classes that were required, but to me felt completely useless.  I am never going to EVER use physics.  I knew it back in my early twenties and by golly, I was right.  My closest connection to it would be through the show The Big Bang Theory, which I absolutely love.  (FYI, my favorite person is Penny.)

(If you have never seen, check out the Halloween and Christmas – Bath Item Gift episodes.)

I felt that all the extra classes a person is forced to take to get that piece of paper was ridiculous, but I wanted to learn.

This was Hint #1: The thrill of  learning new things.

I took a small business class because I wanted to run a small business.  Part of the class required Accounting 101 – made perfectly logical sense to me.  As that turned out, was when I fell in love with Accounting.  I looked further into becoming a C.P.A. (Certified Public Accountant) – but then again, I would have to take all the E.C. classes – grrr.  I found that I was overly excited about learning more about Accounting, but not so much in the other gunk.

My next hint came several years later.  I had a job that was alright.  It allowed me to work in an accounting field – Bookkeeper which kept the thrill going for a while.  But I needed more and I was not sure what “more” I was looking for.  A friend told me about The Aptitude Test that the local community college provided.  The first time I took it, I had to pay ten dollars for the results.  It was all hand written back then (The old-fashioned pencil and paper type. Man, I am old – eeek!) and took about four hours to complete.

I hate tests.  Every time I take one I panic.  The normal grade school through high school tests were alright, but then I took a Speed Reading class which, as it turns out, blew it for real testing.  Yes, it taught me how to speed read, but the down side to doing it is missing the important details.  Well, I was glad to know that this was not that kind of test.  There was no judging, no grades, and no pressure to finish on time.  The test is simply to help you to understand what you currently hide in your brain, vs. things you have a passion for but may not know yet.

I received my results in the mail along with an in-depth explanation of how to read and interpret the graph.  They also included long lists of the types of jobs related to the different fields on the graph.  According to my results, I could have been in:

Customer Service (that was a given due to my waitressing years),

Accounting, or Math Related field (They had me at Accounting.)

Then it actually said that I could have been a Nuclear Physicist – me? I don’t think so Lucy!

The results even listed a Psychiatrist as a possibility.  I found this very funny because I had been a bartender several times in my life.  I used to make-sport of the fact that I should have been a Shrink after listening to everybody’s problems in the bar.  The bummer of this is I have somehow earned The Bartender Face, not by choice, it just happened.  People you do not know will just start spilling their problems at you.  I have seen others with this face.  If you have ever been a Bartender for more than six months, you will get one.

(The face on this guy tells me that he has been dong it for way too long!)

Hint 2: Understanding that I have an Impatient Passion for doing many things.

Then my ultimate favorite thing ever happened…The Age Of Computers (insert dun-dun-daa sound here!).  The amount of information a person can get, and store, was amazing.  My main thrill was not in the storage, but in the information.  One class that I did take, complete, and get a certificate in was Computers 101.  This was way back in the early 1980’s.  We got to dissect a computer just like you would a frog.  Somehow tearing the box and its guts apart was calming for me.  The whole thing boiled down to bits of metal and wires.

This was followed up by two more historic moments for me:

Having an employer that paid for all the office related computer classes that I wanted to take – so I did.

Getting to know a Computer Tech who told me: “There is nothing you can do in that computer that I cannot fix.” Best, dumbest, words ever spoken.  I made it my life task take him up on that.  During the day, I got to take all the “heater” calls.  Then, when everyone else got to go home at five, I got to work with the I.T. department.  I made him live up to that statement (for a story at another time).

The very first time I got to push buttons and see something happen I was hooked (yep, a button-a-holic also.).

10-Key by touch.

Type 100+ w.p.m.

Obsessed library researcher

Persistent question-asker.

Roll those all into one and you have me with a computer.  The best thing the computer age has brought about is learning.  There is nothing you can’t find, do, or save in a computer.  I have even taken multiple classes through my computer.  This thought led me to the final definition for a Learn-A-Holic:

Hint #3: You have several projects going at the same time.

I currently have the following:

Knitting projects

5 working

Crochet projects

7 working

Card Making

Valentines and Happy Birthday (hope to complete 20 of each by month end)

Blogging

3 working blogs, 2 of which I try to post at least once a week.

Surveys for cash

Signed up for 3 different ones with a goal to complete 1 survey on each per day.

Writing

Working on 3 how-to e-books.

Farm/gardens

Day-to-day standard duties (feed, water, clean up, and prep for next season.)

Taking online classes through Udemy

26-hour, slam-dunk class on Character Drawing.

Marketing Strategies (something I am in DIRE need of!!).

Learn how to use Canva (my fav right now).

My mind and my hands must be busy at all times!  I even find that when I sleep, my fingers still move about.  I know my mind wanders because of my various dreams.  This, to me, is the biggest part of a Learn-a-holic.

You never stop.

You do not have to go fast,

There is no set speed or time limit except for the ones you set on yourself.

You may also have several projects going on at the same time, like I do.  You maybe lucky enough to only have one big project going on, and all your being is tied up in getting it done.  It doesn’t matter how you handle it, you just have to keep learning something new or you think you will die.

This all came about because I received the following email article:

Will Traditional Colleges and Universities Become Obsolete?

I used to love going the traditional route, but for the last eight years or so, it has become faster, easier, and better doing it online.  This makes me happy and sad at the same time.

WE NEED TEACHERS!  Yes, I am yelling that out because I firmly believe it.  I can teach a few things that I know well, but I don’t believe I have the patience to be a full-time, in front of class type of teacher.  If it’s one-on-one I do OK.  This is what makes the Learn-a-holic in me feel sad.  What if shutting down the colleges, turns into no one wanting to be a teacher anymore?  How awful our world would be without them?  So I give Kudos to all those Teachers in my life – past, present, and future.  We Learn-a-holics could not survive without you!

You can also check me out on:  www.helbergfarmstories.com for fun stories from our farm.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671027034/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=helberg58-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0671027034&linkId=357cd9e82a6db4c0ed73b80a52786d27 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553386697/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=helberg58-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0553386697&linkId=0b9ec17eb443f8b0550d9763640860a3

How To Know If You Are A LEARN-A-HOLIC? I have taken a ton of classes over the years.  Many of the classes were just to gain extra knowledge in a specific area. 

[bajabox-blog]

Fresh paint, knick knacks, trim work and a DIY wide-plank floor... from PLYWOOD!

Both the interior and exterior of the house got a touch up of paint since the last post and is looking much less like a beat up construction zone thank god. I put up a few ‘home-making touches’ like an industrial piping towel rack and TP holder, an entryway shoe hanger, My ukulele and of course my mini basketball hoop and finished the interior trim. The trim work is a matter of order and when things can be installed and finished… “this needs to go in before this can, have to wait for this to be done before that can go in” etc… but it really does make a huge difference in finished appearance for such a small touch. and the big project of late had been the finish flooring; an old school wide plank floor like our grandaddies did it back in the day, but made from plywood! The plywood theme continues!!!

So my original plan was to just put in an engineered maple floating floor and even went as far as ordering it all from the hardwood dealer, picking it up and making plans for installation. But after waking up in the middle of the night one night a week or so ago I had a change of heart. I’d heard of people experimenting with plywood floors in the past and had the idea tinkering in my head for a while, but figured the smarter thing to do was just get the manufactured stuff like everyone else, follow the instructions like a robot and get it done. But then I woke up and thought to myself “this whole project has been an experiment to this point and there isn’t a single thing in this house I haven’t thrown together from scratch… why would I stop now????” Plus, it doesn’t hurt that it saves me over 600 buckaroos!!!! 🤑 and so, I hauled all the other stuff back to the dealer, headed to Home Depot to pick up a van full of plywood and let the experiment begin!

I started by ripping all 6 ½ in sheets into 8 in planks, and individually sanding each one down to a smooth finish. Starting in the left hand corner with the longest wall, I started gluing and finish nailing each plank, being careful to randomize the cut lengths, and stay level with my lines as I had to make some intricate cuts around obstructions. The drawback of such a small floor plan in this case is that there are a lot of things to cut around and it makes a floor installation much more strategic and labor intensive then a normal house. after cutting around all the built ins, pipes and framing I eventually worked my way across the floor, said goodbye to my last sliver of good old beat up subfloor (I’ve been staring at and beating that subfloor up for over 7 months now, it was almost sad in a way to say good bye… almost) And then the real work started. I spent the next two days on my hands and knees filling each individual nail hole with wood filler and consuming another couple pounds of sawdust as I hand sanded each fill hole and then the entire floor again to get rid of that ratty plywood texture once and for all in preparation for a series of finish clear coat. After turning my freshly painted, clean house once again back into a sand box of saw dust and filler crud, I did another thorough cleanse and prepped for poly. The next three days I spent by doing two coats a day of water based polyurethane (4 hours in between), sanding each morning and once again before the last and final coat.

So there it is… who said You can’t make a floor from plywood? Feels sturdy as hell at least and if it gets all beat up, “hey! It’s just plywood right???” But in all seriousness… no more shoes on in the house. This is officially a “shoes-off household”! Haha.

So the lasting question is… do-yourself-plywood-floor… would I do it again? Depends on what I was basing my decision on. Based on limited budget, durability, creative fun, experimentation, and final product… absolutely! Based on the amount of labor and time spent on my hands and knees vs the monetary savings… mmmm I’d have to think about it.

Anyway, the build is getting closer and closer to the finish line every day! Its pretty exciting. But a few new pics are up if you wanna check ‘em out.

Please bring on the spring weather, im so over being cold!!! Peace ✌️