I used to be about the slashers, but now I like stuff that makes you use your imagination. It’s hard to make something that will scare a large group of people, but if it gets you to engage your mind or feelings to fill in the gaps, it fills it in with things you do find scary.

I just watched Weapons last weekend. I wasn’t expecting much, it sounded like a simple plot, but it really created a disturbing vibe that was creepier to me than the on scene deaths. It kept my attention throughout and though the ending went gorey, I think it would have been just as good without showing the result.

I just recently got a PZ2 driver from Vessel for my Honda. It was remarkable how nice it was to use compared to a Phillips screw and driver. I felt so much torque could be applied while the grip stayed rock solid.

Also learned PZ screws are often used in cabinetry, and lo and behold, all my kitchen cabinet do in fact have that tell-tale X mark to indicate they are Pozidrive screws.

I’ve still not had the opportunity to use a square drive Roberston screw, but would still like to use them for something one day.

It thankfully wasn’t anything directly monetary. It was basically an administrative oversight in removing a portion of another property used as collateral. It resolved itself not too long afterward, just not on the originally promised timeline. All the more reason really I took it so personally.

Our whole family has banked with them for 3 generations, including 2 small businesses and back when they were cool we’d get greated by our names as we walked in the door, even for a few years after things went all direct deposit and I rarely had to go in. Then they got bigger and stopped doing all the nice things and events and such for customer appreciation, lots of the old staff left, and then they act crappy to me over something that really didn’t affect either of us in the grand scheme of things.

They’re still not a bad bank, but that day permanently changed our relationship to me.

I went to my bank one time when there was an issue with my mortgage. They weren’t honoring part of their original terms, so I went in to talk to them.

They’d recently bought some other local banks and rebranded the whole thing.

I go talk to the mortgage manager and say you’re not honoring your terms, and the lady looks at me and says that deal was with the old bank.

I said you are literally the same person I made this deal with, and if you aren’t the same bank, why do I still owe you money?

They had been a really great local bank my whole life, and after that, I’ve never looked at them the same or trusted them all that much ever again. Nearly every business here is some mega chain, and it burns me to see the remaining local companies turn into something just as bad.

I started One Piece about 3 years ago and have read all the manga and just recently caught up on the anime.

Some of the things I really enjoy about it:

The story progression ramps up nicely. Nobody is that OP from the get-go, and the stakes and power levels have increased steadily as the story goes on. There is definitely plot armor, but it’s not like every bad guy is on the same level as the previous one.

There is great representation. There are people of different races. There are gay-coded, trans, and gender fluid characters, there are young and old people. And none of them are really played for laughs for those traits. All character types have heros, villians, comic relief, and serious characters. And none of the characters with real screen/page time are flat and one dimensional. This along with the power scaling, really makes the adventure feel important and like a fleshed out and lived in world that you are part of. I can only imagine this is even moreso true for people that have been fans since the late 90s.

At almost 1200 chapters, I feel like I understand this fictional world and how it works. There are macguffins and such, but nothing that feels out of place. Characters still behave how you would expect them to behave and the creator doesn’t just pull stuff out of nowhere. There is still great continuity with the earliest things that happened in the story. There are many familiar characters, but more still come and go, but not before becoming necessary parts of the full tale. It’s not like Star Wars where it feels there’s about 2 dozen characters with names in the whole universe.

And the last thing I’ll say is in spite of all this, it still does stuff just for laughs regularly. It knows it’s a story primarily for young boys, and despite being one of the best loved anime/manga ever, it doesn’t take itself all that seriously. It’s a damn fun time to read and watch almost every bit of it with few exceptions. The stuff coming out now is as good or better as it’s ever been.

Like anything else, it won’t be for ever single person out there, so if you don’t like it, you don’t like it. I saw a few random episodes on Toonami in the 90s and was WTF is this random stuff then. It is a weird thing to dive into the middle of, and a lot of it is outright silly. But I had people at work keep telling me I’d like it, I finally gave in, and I was hooked from the first chapter.

Very true. That’s something that will keep pulling you in.

Most of my lathe time was threading and knurling on a metal lathe, so more hands off than a wood lathe.

Interesting article! There are so many parties and motivating factors involved in all these things. No wonder patent law is its own field of practice!

Reminds me of all the format wars like Beta/VHS, DVD/DivX, and Blue Ray/HD-DVD. It’s not necessarily the best idea the wins, but the one the industry and/or consumers finds the most accessible or valuable.

That’s a heck of a saw!

The feedback the unit gives is pretty nice. Cameras in a dust prone environment and AI detection makes me a bit nervous, and price aside, I might prefer the less tech version of the saw stop, but very cool demo!

Wow, I spoke too soon! I just saw the demo of the slide unit at the end… Amazing engineering and craftsmanship! Thank you for sharing this!

Seems like there is an override for federal/military use, not private industry, and the PTI (power tool industry lobby) seems very against being made to use the tech by fiat.

I lost a fingertip working in a supermarket deli. The part I cut off thankfully grew back, but it’s a reminder to watch my fingers!

I didn’t take your previous comment as being against the system. I’m fairly neutral as now I live in a place I can’t use any tools like this. It’s kind of crazy this hasn’t already become a law or someone to have found another way to do it without violating the patent. It’s not like the issue has gone away.

I think it’s to prevent brands that would just continue selling cheaper saws without it, as it increases the price of each unit (25% production cost plus 8% license are the numbers in the wiki). Having it mandated levels the playing field.

I’m not going to argue for or against that, and that may not be the exact reason. After 25 years, search results are full of such biased posts on both sides that I can’t find anything from the inventor.

It’s a good case to self reflect on one’s feelings on patents. Bosch and others shouldn’t be able to steal his idea if we’re a society that values them. Even those here against patents typically could find his goal noble, and would likely be against a megacorp stealing from a single amateur inventor. At the same time, him giving it away from the start could have saved many people injuries.

I just skimmed the wiki and it’s interesting to read about some of the hang ups of negotiations like his patent license fees and disagreements on share of legal liabilities should a saw stop not function as designed.

I had heard about the blade damage, and it seems more things like the wet wood you’ve mentioned have surfaced since I got out of woodworking. Even so, it’s quicker, easier, and cheaper to patch or replace a saw than one’s hand, at least in America where we get the pleasure of paying directly for our misfortunes.

I thankfully never heard of any injuries at our high school. We did have the anti kickback wheels and the lifting blade guard and were taught to use push sticks and not standing directly behind the work, etc.

The table saw looks so simple, but there is no room for any margin of error and there is no opportunity for warning, and I think most people that don’t use power tools can’t quite appreciate that.

I had always been iffy on this, as the tech has been around for 25 years but is patented, so all manufacturers would be forced to pay a single person.

The linked article mentions this, but also said the patent holder has expressly said that if it becomes mandated tech to save people from injuries, the reason he invented the system, he will give up the patent to the public.

This is great to hear. Table saws are irreplaceable in woodworking. Fingers are pretty irreplaceable as well. I don’t know if any other machine comes close to a table saw for demanding my respect and full attention. It is just so fast, powerful, and the random structure of wood adds unpredictability to every cut. Anything else I’ve acclimated to using, but every time on the table saw I treat with the caution as if it were my first time.

Not sure how much saw stop would change that, I don’t want to really even be knicked by one, but that is way better than the current potential outcome.

More of these guys want to keep the “official” post while dropping the “public” part…

Lol who knows? I mean, I’m sure he’s still better than we would have got with Oz, but that presidential run thing made me laugh too. You already lost half the people that voted for you, and as we’ve seen playing across the aisle isn’t getting anyone anywhere.

At this point they’ve been doing it long enough, if you haven’t blocked them, then you’re seeing them because you want to rage about it.

Seriously, other than the thorn, sxan’s comments are just regular stuff, nothing antagonistic or unusual. Go annoy people that have obviously commented without reading linked articles. That’s the real crime!

Using thorn: 100 years dungeon!

Yeah, I got Brian Fitzpatrick as my rep, the “#1 Most Bipartisan Member of Congress” for however many years now. Still votes with Trump 51% of the time, and it’s only on money things he’ll break with Republicans on, very rarely ever is it a moral thing.

Meanwhile Fetterman is polling better with Republicans (around 60% favorable) compared to with the Dems (around 50% favorable).

Want to come up with a compromise on farm aid or disaster recovery? Go right ahead. Compromising on genocide and using the military on US soil? You better not reach across the aisle on that if you want my support. Fetterman deserves to be judged by the company he keeps.

Oct 16 - Daily Beast

Top-ranking Democratic Party officials in Pennsylvania are gearing up to run against Sen. John Fetterman in a 2028 primary contest, according to a report.

Big names in the state who could well run against the increasingly embattled incumbent include House Representatives Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio, along with former Congressman Conor Lamb, Axios reports, citing multiple inside sources.

Axios added it was not clear whether Fetterman, who is understood to have ambitions of running for the White House, plans to run again for the Senate or the presidency in 2028.

Fetterman texted Axios saying, “enjoy your clickbait!” and requested “please do not contact” in response to follow-up questions. He also shared an article citing him as one of “the least Trump-aligned Democratic lawmakers in the state.”