little munchkin posted:

more cool thoughts from the dude who hates having muscles

A_Bug_That_Thinks posted:

Physical strength isn't the same as violence, but being strong gives you the capacity for violence. Emotional strength is important for being a good person, man or woman. However, an exemplary man (a "man's man") will have a capacity for violence, in a way that an exemplary women will not. I believe that firemen are sexually admired due to a combination of their good physical conditioning, and also their bravery in risking their lives in going into a burning building. It sounds really pedantic, but I would say that that sort of bravery, ties directly with violence and warfare.

Triticum Guzzler posted:

RETARDED VERSION OF WERNER HERZOG: [observing a fireman carry a soot covered dog from a burning building] Here in this America, this man's brazen and abhorrent crimes are celebrated. A staccato chorus of applause from the slapping together of wet pussy lips.

at the date posted:

you're some regressed form of life, a test tube half-rat-half-man engineered by the CIA as a sort of subversive "bad taste bomb" in the freewheeling 80s of laser missile defense and "anything goes if it hurts the Soviets," only the Cold War ended before you could mature and be deployed against a foreign power so you were just swapped at the hospital for the stillborn baby of an alcoholic Methodist

e: gently caress you

Chuck Buried Treasure posted:

Kelp Me! posted:

Not really, because "I acted sexy on my wedding night and my new husband watched football instead" is equally hosed up, and the way the story is being told that dude is pretty far gone on the spectrum

Lutha Mahtin posted:

Kelp Me! posted:

sorry, is "the spectrum" on the list of words we aren't allowed to say on the forums anymore or is a borderline obsessive fixation on one thing to the detriment of all social norms not one of the main symptoms of autism anymore

Solice Kirsk posted:

Everything is a spectrum nowadays. Gender, sexuality, race, autism, ADHD, hair colors, McDonald's Value Meals. There is no end to these darn spectrums!

Disgusting Coward posted:

You sound stressed, calm down. Nobody likes a full spectrum worrier.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Powaqoatse posted:

way to cut the spectrum short! *mic drop, crowd wylin*

Absurd Alhazred posted:

That's some low pass filter, son.

Powaqoatse posted:

Well F... _{just turn up the attack man} I mean Spectrum right? hehe

ChickenOfTomorrow posted:

*holds up dark side of the moon poster in background*

bEatmstrJ posted:

Today I ripped out the sub-floor where my tub is going to be installed. Took surprisingly more effort than I expected, until I found a good way to cheat.

devicenull posted:

Are those engineered I beams that you cut the top off of?

angryrobots posted:

drat, when I used to run electrical, I was only allowed to drill the middle 1/3 of these engineered beams....you've removed all the compressive strength of the joists in an area of heavy loading!

bEatmstrJ posted:

Got the plumbing installed for the new tub. Also chopped about two inches off the top of the I beams (I know, I know).



Next up:
- Put some new tops back on the I beams
- Beef up the I beams some more
- Install the new subfloor

Bibendum posted:

I started writing up a big post but I don't think it will be constructive.
Basically the jist is this: You've done a really bad thing and are making some choices that will have serious consequences. I suggest stopping here for a bit and thinking things over. Also ask lots of questions and listen to what alot of people are about to say here.

Raised by Hamsters posted:

Bare in mind that I am no engineer and hopefully one of those will show up, however - it really isn't "code compliance" that you should be worried about here.

Those beams are using a couple of individually weak members, which when locked together form an individually strong whole. Cutting the top off​ didn't weaken them by 25% or whatever vertical distance you went through. Instead you kind of made then non functional. And did this to a bunch in a row.
Also on rereading, you were planning to lower the tub into the floor? I don't think that will be an option here...

kid sinister posted:

Holy loving poo poo. We have a new grover.

You aren't supposed to cut the flanges on engineered beams!!! You just made your project a LOT bigger. Those beams will need to be replaced.

Baronjutter posted:

I think much in the way an immune system with absolutely nothing to do sometimes just ends up attacking its self, the suburban home owner with a perfectly nice house with nothing that needs remodeling or fixing can go a bit nuts and just start attacking its self to the point that it begins to gnaw away at the load bearing elements of the building. It's like an auto-immune disorder, except with amateur builders.

bEatmstrJ posted:

This may come as a shock, but i'm not actually a licensed contractor, just a lowly ambitious DIYer. Mistakes will be made. Fortunately I can afford my mistakes. If you're ok with builder-grade bathrooms then more power to you, but I like a different level of house.

Motronic posted:

What's the popcorn smiley again?

Seriously dude.....you are in over your head. Lots of people do perfectly well at DIY remodels and know where they hit a reasonable limitation. But you don't have that. You blew through multiple structural members and thought there was nothing wrong with that. In fact I'm still not convinced you even understand the scope of what you did.

Bad Munki posted:

I look forward to the part where he carries on with the rest of it and then when he has someone actually come in to repair the underlying structure, it turns out all his improvements have to come out because they're going to have to rip up the whole floor to replace those I-joists.

Or, the bathtub self-installs to the floor below at some later date.

canyoneer posted:

I was thinking more like the bathtub falling through the floor in Breaking Bad, because there will probably be blood

Facebook Aunt posted:

Baronjutter posted:

I think much in the way an immune system with absolutely nothing to do sometimes just ends up attacking its self, the suburban home owner with a perfectly nice house with nothing that needs remodeling or fixing can go a bit nuts and just start attacking its self to the point that it begins to gnaw away at the load bearing elements of the building. It's like an auto-immune disorder, except with amateur builders.

bEatmstrJ posted:

I would definitely consider myself more of a designer than an engineer. I'll admit, there wasn't enough thought put into this particular piece of the puzzle, but I'm also not convinced that there isn't a relatively safe way to restrengthen those joists to an acceptable level. Granted, as said, i'm not an engineer, but I find it difficult to understand that these joists can't be retrofitted. But before you go on about not believing that I don't know anything about joists and should go stand under my inevitably collapsing bathtub until the date of my most certain doom, rest assured that I am seeking proper help.


Much to your disappointment, even if the floor had to be ripped up, it wouldn't impact my previous improvements. But I'm glad you're enjoying the ride. I'll try to keep the excitement level up for you. =)

Jerry Cotton posted:

Hedrigall posted:

The Hunched Crack of Not-Your-Dame

Outrail posted:

I looked at the photo for quite a while. Then I googled 'engineered beam'. Then I looked at the photo a bit more.

loving lol why. And he wants to put a pool of water that weighs how much on top of that?

He's a few steps from invoking the puppet master defense.

Democratic Pirate posted:

I recently went to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for oyakodon since I wanted to try something new and the serious eats recipe seemed really easy. The recipe calls for 1 cup of dashi, and says you can use hondashi to make it. While at the store I missed the fact that hondashi is stock that you add to water to make dashi, so I bought 4 containers of hondashi to fill up a measuring cup as per the recipe. I realized my error when I got back home, and promptly hid the receipt + containers from my wife so I don't have to explain why I just bought $20 worth of fish stock that is used a teaspoon at a time.

Facebook Aunt posted:

Yeah it's a bit of a thinker. We may be witnessing the birth of a new Groverhaus here.


e:

wayfinder posted:

Who called it Home Depot and not Grovery Store?

wayfinder posted:

Who called it Home Depot and not Grovery Store?

Tiggum posted:

razz posted:

Last night I was bored and I started browsing the Library of Congress website. There is an entire list of bills, resolutions, and public laws. I'm really confused by a lot of them. Do dudes really sit around and discuss these things, and vote on getting these things passed, and spend time sitting around and typing up these things? If so, why? Why does congress have to write a bill to rename a courthouse? Aside from the really asinine things, there are a bunch that just don't make much sense to me.

- A bill to designate the United States courthouse under construction at 98 West First Street, Yuma, Arizona, as the "John M. Roll United States Courthouse".

- Theft of Trade Secrets Clarification Act of 2012. An act to clarify a previous act? Why can't they just, I don't know, clarify the original act if it's vague?

- Further Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011
- Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011
- Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011

- United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act
- United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act
- United States-Panama Trade Promotion Agreement Implementation Act

These are cracking me up. There's a bunch like this. So it's not enough that we have a free trade agreement with Panama. We have to create another law telling us to implement the agreement.

We also have the Border Tunnel Prevention Act of 2012, the National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act, the Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act, the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010, and the Pesticide Registration Improvement Extension Act of 2012. What happens if your small business doesn't improve it's pesticide registration? Do you go to jail?

why do we need these things

Noni posted:

Since nobody answered your question yet, I guess I'll give it a shot even though I know little about Congress.

Congress is a big huge game full of the spergiest people who have ever lived, only with access to both power and money. There are two main factions, the Horde and the Alliance, and the only way that they can actually do battle is through legislation. Some people are on P2P servers, but that's mainly during election years, unless the player is really into griefing (Michele Bachmann, for example, is one of the more successful and hilarious congressional griefers). As such, while one might imagine that the two groups mostly spend their time engaging in massive, semi-scripted battles over big issues, they really spend most of their time grinding by spatting over bullshit for the sole purpose of gaining XP and leveling up.

Because legislation is the means of battle, this results in a lot of idiotic and repetitive legislation. Strategically, fighting in a way that forces your opponents to spend resources is equally as good as voting for something that actually benefits you. For example, a member of the Horde from Cooperstown, New York wants to look good, so he fires out a little proposal about commemorating his local baseball museum. Nobody but him really gives a poo poo about this, but half of the people don't want to appear like they hate baseball. The Alliance folks decide that they can't let this guy and the Horde have that tiny prize for free, so they pretend to be against it and force the Horde to invest a lot of political GP in a small battle that they don't really care about.

A good deal of taunting is involved throughout the process. In the battle itself, you usually have some high level players on both sides casting buffs on the newbies and drawing on large mana pools of public support to do so. Obama is a sorcerer, for example. This is similar to a mage or a wizard, but the sorcerer class permits a larger variety of races and skills, which is why President Obama does quite well as a bard Dunmer halfgiant sorcerer. There are also Tanks, like Bill Clinton, who can take a lot of damage but don't perform many attacks. Tanks generally serve to purposely annoy the enemy and draw aggro so that the rest of the team can secretly get away with a lot of bullshit. Usually, there are DPS characters standing right near the tanks. The DPS group serves to dish out political damage to the opposition as rapidly as possible. They are typically classes that can use AP/mana-based skills to sustain their rate of damage. Class types are not exclusive; Strom Thurmond was one of the most amazing combination Tank/DPS rogue characters ever to play the game. He could take 50 critical hits in a row, 10 being accidentally self-inflicted, and he would not ever die. This is because he had a surplus of buffers and a nearly-infinite mana pool. There was no way that Strom Thurmond would ever lose a reelection and leave the game. Eventually he just got bored and left, handing the mantle to Lindsey Graham, who plays one of the newer ninja DPS classes and favors using short-blade chain combos while being buffed by wealthy shamans.

Rangers, in my opinion, are assholes who take potshots and cheerlead from afar while never actually ever doing much of anything. They're also sometimes known as "pundits". Each team has a few rangers who focus on keeping their own team members in line. These guys are armed with giant whips.

In the game, there are guilds which are also known as "subcommittees" or "caucuses". Guilds, oddly enough, often contain characters of both factions. Sometimes a guild member who doesn't play very much has a sudden realization that he's about to get booted, so he quickly gets involved with a bunch of bullshit minor resolutions. That way, he can say that he took part in some raids. It's busywork, but you can also do this kind of raiding to earn political GP. Pro-Panamanian donors, to take an example from your post, will give valuable rare drops toward your guild's coffers if you take part in a Panama trade raid. This is why some players will do the same raid again and again, in slightly different ways, despite not giving a crap about Panama.

In public chat channels there's a lot of griefing, posturing, name-calling, and generally behaving like assholes. The game is designed to make players feel like they're important. Everybody perceives themselves to be a good guy on a team of good guys, just like in America's Army. You are always on the side of America. Nobody wants to play a game if they're not a big drat hero, so players take on these sorts of rear end in a top hat personas and call other people names while simultaneously pretending to be greatly offended. Typically, they argue about ideas that neither side has any actual knowledge of. They are professional arguers, you see, not debaters, if you can understand the distinction. It's the difference between a town crier and a print journalist. The actual subject of the argument, be it tax reform or the Border Tunnel Prevention Act, doesn't matter because it's all just a battle on loving Hamburger Hill. There are a few GMs, however, but they are mainly for show. In theory, GMs like the Senate Pro Tem have a lot of power over the game, but the reality is that they can't actually use the power in unpopular ways or else they'll get accused of nerfing.

Every 2 or 4 years, there's a server reset that often accompanies an expansion, which adds new quest lines, events, and raids. A new race was added in 2008. The 2012 expansion was all about fixing the buggy trade system. Big expansions might include server-wide events such as hurricanes or entire wars with previously unheard-of nations, started for dubious reasons. The 2001 game expansion featured the fictional in-game nation of Afghanistan, and both the Horde and the Alliance had to temporarily join forces in fighting this new foe. It had fantastic sales (practically everyone bought it!) and was initially a critical success. It seemed well written at the time, but in retrospect, most people now think that this game expansion and the later Iraq sequel were idiotic. However, these areas of the game are still available as ongoing platforms for the occasional legislative quest or raid.

If you're new to the game but plan on sticking to it for a while, then a worthy goal is to get yourself an epic mount. This is when you get to co-sponsor a big, important bill and harp on a single issue for the rest of your career, even if it means riding it right into the ground every chance that you get. Generally, you'll see only high-level or wealthy players with epic mounts. A notable exception is Paul Ryan, who is low-level but rides a flying epic pro-life pig. By contrast, Joe Biden has no mount, but instead chooses to summon them depending on the situation. He's been riding a Gun Control Panda lately, but usually he summons a Flying gently caress, but only so he can not overtly give it to someone. Last week, it was a dead horse. You do need a mount, though, or you won't get anywhere very fast--Even if it's a level 4 Pesticide-Registration Mule, which you asked about. Everyone knows that this is a worthless mule that, as you pointed out, shouldn't even be in the game. But someone is riding it because they just need some sort of mount.

One final note: The legislation is both the means of execution and primary ammunition in this never ending war. However, the idea that the legislation actually affects non-player lives in meaningful ways does not matter or even occur to the majority of congressional players. They do not give a poo poo about us, the NPCs. If this idea matters, it does so only temporarily and in election years when they are busy questing. When questing, we NPCs can start to seem like we're real, live humans. Then they go right back to the game and we're all just cannon fodder--technically part of the game, but held as worthless.

Therefore, it's a common misconception that these players are acting unselfishly and in our best interests. Sometimes, you'll hear about a player poopsocking and hogging the battlefield waiting for something like a rare drop. This is known as a "filibuster." You might think that someone filibustering is nobly standing up for his beliefs. In reality, he's probably just poopsocking while ganking someone on the other team.

Slime posted:

all this autism about D&D and you don't even get how motion works

Gato posted:

This one?

PopeCrunch posted:

Okay so i have sort of a Holy Mission. Whenever someone I know or sort of know or am in the same space as has a kid, I deliver The News. Nobody tells you this, the ob/gyn doesn't tell you this, no baby book on the planet tells you this, but when your kid hits about nine months old (plus/minus 3 months), they will explode. poo poo geyser. After a panicked call to the pediatrician (the boy filled his hat. his hat), ONLY THEN did the doctor go 'oh yeah i forgot to mention that, blah blah changeover in gut flora words words and that is why your baby detonated'. We had some Very Strong Words about how it is important to remember to warn new parents about some things, and then I decided that since NOBODY TELLS YOU ABOUT THIS, i'd be the guy. So: Mmmaybe make sure any fancy, sentimentally valuable, or otherwise notable baby clothes you put your kid in from about 6-12 months can stand up to a good washing in concentrated bleach and terror-tears, and even THEN consider burlap sacks, because there is no solvent on this or any other world that would get that onesie clean ever again.

his hat

edit to add: Seriously he was just sitting there happy as can be then he looked up, concentrated a moment, and then it sounded like someone was firing off a pressure washer full of cottage cheese and oh my CHRIST the STENCH. His diaper didn't even THINK about containing it, we had to throw that high chair AWAY, and his clothes were a total loss. HE FILLED HIS HAT I AM NOT EXAGGERATING EVEN SLIGHTLY

Gato posted:

This one?

Alaois posted:

can we get a ban on Noni quotes in here because seriously, gently caress that

purple death ray posted:

Wasn't Noni the one who wrote fan fiction about the struggling Alabama town that needed our money so a heroic man could bring hot dogs back and restore the soul of America or something? I would really hate to see that one get banned

Alaois posted:

can we get a ban on Noni quotes in here because seriously, gently caress that

Alaois posted:

Yes. That's when he was a mod, too.

Akapursch posted:

davidspackage posted:

Heh, typical Yale girl

Alaois posted:

can we get a ban on Noni quotes in here because seriously, gently caress that

trapped mouse posted:

are goon attention spans so low that quotes longer than 4 paragraphs require banning

trapped mouse posted:

are goon attention spans so low that quotes longer than 4 paragraphs require banning

trapped mouse posted:

are goon attention spans so low that quotes longer than 4 paragraphs require banning