StrangeSox

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Aug 14, 2013 -> 12:42 PM) I didn't really think there was much to read into any of this, and I don't really see why people are having such a hard time seeing the obvious. Maybe it's too obvious? Or maybe I'm crazy? It doesn't seem like any sort of mystery. Walter White will be found out as the drug lord Heisenberg (well, actually, he already was). As it unfolds and super-angry Hank does what a super-angry DEA agent does and moves forward with the "bust", it will be a big f***ing story as "former science teacher and current car wash owner runs drug empire from suburban home". At some point during this Hank will either give Walter a headstart or Walter'll just straight-up flee. House is seized and emptied and then left to be vandalized. Walt returns 6-9 months later for the ricin, presumably he's been on the lamb and POSSIBLY thought to be dead. Carol is really f***ing surprised to see him. Or maybe SS2k5 is right and Hank just randomly decides to torture Walt. What a great guess! I'm more curious if Skyler will be implicated. That's pretty much what soxbadger and I were saying.

yeah that makes more sense, I couldn't read what the "no trespassing" signs said, but it was "dept. of _____"

I liked that Walt gave up his meth empire dreams but then started envisioning a car wash empire instead. They also put him and Skyler in matching, bland clothes as they were trying to "blend in" and have a more normal life again.

I'm sure at some point the DEA will search the house, but it looked like it was straight-up vandalized and then condemned. The whole inside was trashed, the appliances were gone, it was filthy, the inside and outside was covered in spray paint, the flooring looked destroyed.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 13, 2013 -> 11:36 AM) I think it's safe to assume that (1) Hank doesn't back down, but instead forces Walt to go into hiding and a massive manhunt ensues, (2) the house was raided (hence the condition) and (3) Heisenberg becomes a house-hold name (queue the reaction of the neighbor being terrified, although I guess she could have been told Walt was dead and reacted that way because she thought she saw a ghost). The house looks like it was heavily vandalized and trashed by kids (e.g. skateboarding in the drained pool). Heisenberg was also spray-painted on one of the walls, which would mean that Walt's story and alter ego became public knowledge.

QUOTE (Chilihead90 @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 06:10 PM) Couldn't have been more than like 6-9 months I'd guess. Last season started with the flash-forward to Walter's 52nd birthday at the Dennys, and then later we saw his 51st birthday. It had been "3-4 months" based on things Marie said since Skyler had her meltdown and they took the kids, so there's about 8 months between Hank finding out and Walter coming back to the trashed house.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 13, 2013 -> 01:12 PM) Oh man, if only it was as easy as that tutorial. I would be a lot more reckless around the redline in my Miata if swapping a head gasket was as simple as that tutorial says. I've never had to change a head gasket but if I ever did I wouldn't trust myself to do it. People who've DIYed it have compared to some of the worst and most time consuming engine jobs. If you've got a mechanic friend and he'll accept beer as payment (and he'll bring the needed tools) go for it, but other than that its gonna have to go to the shop. It's not so bad until you strip out a bolt for the coolant port and have to helicoil the head. Ugh. It's a hell of a lot easier than a bottom-end rebuild or pulling apart a transmission. With a head gasket replacement, you're going to need, at a minimum, a decent torque wrench and a set of sockets, wrenches, drivers, extensions, and screwdrivers. scs, if you are going to tackle it, make sure you've got little baggies labeled for all the hardware you're going to take off so you don't lose pieces, nuts and bolts. If you let this go too long, you could do some serious damage to your engine. The engine relies on that oil to keep it lubricated and to keep metal from scraping on metal, and bearings really don't like the oil/water/antifreeze mix.

milkshake does sound like a blown head gasket

QUOTE (illinilaw08 @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 04:31 PM) Glacier is the best national park ever. Hands down. Of course, I'm somewhat biased since I spent time there every summer for the first 22 years of my life... the benefit of parents who were teachers. jealous. If I were a teacher as well, that's what my wife and I would be doing. Yeah, Many Glacier Lodge has a bunch of these as well. Cool to see, but also sad. Right now they're estimating the the glacier will be gone as early as 2020. That's why we pushed through the pain to still do that hike. We drove up to Red Rock Canyon (the other road was closed) and did a short hike to Blakiston Falls. We really liked the area up there and would definitely consider staying for a night or two when we go back. I'd love to go to Banff, but my wife is set on "no bear country" for our next trip. Some day, though.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 03:52 PM) They're actually more like $80k with any sort of meaningful options before a nice government subsidized $7500 tax credit. By the way, complaining that poor little Tesla cannot be compared to the larger companies when 10% of every sale is incentivized by the government and the company itself spent all of its life except the past 6 months suckling on some form of green initiative teat doesn't fly with me. Their lack of innovation annoys the crap out of me. You are aware that the larger companies also benefit from these electric vehicle subsidies and rebates, yes? What isn't innovative about an electric car that is luxurious, fast, spacious and gets about 300 miles and a charge? And can be refilled back to 200 miles in 30 minutes if you hit their supercharger station? Is it ground-breaking technology like the first Benz was? No, but it isn't trying to be. QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 03:52 PM) I mean instead of getting bogged down in the tired old arguments that circle around batteries, charging times and ranges that wont solve themselves for probably another decade Couldn't you have said the same thing a few years ago about an electric GT cruiser getting close to 300 miles and having a 1-hour full recharge time?

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 02:55 PM) Watch that if you're interested in what's possible with electric cars. Here's the problem I have with Tesla. Mercedes is just throwing s*** against the wall and seeing what sticks and coming up with stuff like torque vectoring and these interchangable chassis/engine output settings that completely change the identity of the car. Press a button and your comfortable, efficient highway cruiser can gain AWD and be great in the snow. Its traction control on steroids, it starts defeating the purpose of brakes altogether (and the most inefficient thing you can do in a car is brake)... brilliant. It start creating an identity around the electric car that instead of trying to be the ICE it does something wildly different that you average driver will probably find better. Tesla isn't doing that. They are making ICE cars and just swapping out the drivetrain components, accepting all the faults of electric cars with only one or two of the real benefits (no gas, great torque). The Model S, when you compare it with cars in its pricerange, just gets smothered. Would you honestly have a Model S instead of an M5? Or F-Type V8S? Or maybe the greatest GT car ever (DB9)? Because that's what its competing against directly. It not trying to be that different at all... The Tesla starts at $64k. The M5 starts at $91. The Jag starts at $93. The Aston, as russ pointed out, is $180k+, or close to three times the price of the Tesla. What you said is the equivalent of saying "why would you want a Ford Focus? A BMW M3 is so much nicer and faster!" The Model S is and will be a niche car. It's a transitional vehicle. Mercedes can try all of that great new tech out, but Tesla is actually on the road today and developing their next, less-niche models.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 12, 2013 -> 01:42 PM) Yeah, Normal, IL seems pretty random. But their schedule for adding new ones looks very aggressive on that page. Should be some in Chicago in 2014 it looks like. It's gotta be some partnership with the engineering department at ISU or something along those lines. edit: this article just mentions it being part of their national roll-out and doesn't mention anything about the universities. It's about half-way between Chicago and St. Louis, so that could be why. I'd imagine that's a frequent commute for some.

There's a lot of random electric vehicle chargers, but the Tesla "Supercharger" is a much-higher-amperage charger only for Tesla vehicles.

Tesla has a map of their current "Superchargers" as well as their planned roll out available here. http://www.teslamotors.com/supercharger I thought there were some already in Chicago, but apparently the only one in Illinois is down in Normal. Probably in conjunction with the university. 200 miles in 30 minutes isn't really in the road-trip range yet, but that's still pretty impressive. You could stop for lunch on a long-ish drive and charge your car back to full for free.

And more and more places are installing charging stations. The economy garage (and probably the daily garage) at Midway have them. Stores are putting them in. Tesla is installing more and more of their "supercharge" stations in populated areas. Even for people who want something like the Model S, track-driving isn't the major concern. It's a luxury cruiser with good handling and a lot of power. It's not a little Lotus. For an overwhelming majority of people, a 200-300 mile range is more than enough for almost all of their driving.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:04 PM) Tesla has done fantastic stuff with the S. Consumer Reports called it one of the best cars they had driven, in any class, ever. Sales are sky-rocketing despite a high price tag. Early quality measures from the usual evaluating firms are positive, though it is still very early to say for sure. And they used a very smart business plan... they knew early adopters were the ones with cash, so they went highest end first (their sports car), in small numbers... then the less expensive but still pricey sedan, at much larger but still relatively small numbers... their next project in the pipe is an SUV slightly cheaper... then they want to do a cheaper-still sedan at more like 40-50k. This allows them to go into economies of scale as they make their way into lower price points. That one infamous newpaper article about the Tesla S, trying to get from one super-charging station to another and not making it... turns out the driver didn't follow the instructions. The author even posted a partial retraction of the original article. And Tesla is smart enough to realize the fears are in part about reliability (new car, new brand), and about the battery (staying power over the years), so they are putting long warranties on the cars. I may seriously consider getting one in the next few years. If you followed the back-and-forth when that article first came out, it was pretty hilarious. The Tesla guy (Elon Musk IIRC) was a little over-the-top in his responses, but the car was loaded with data-logging equipment. They had hard evidence that directly contradicted most of what the author claimed. Shortly afterwards, multiple Tesla S owners made the exact same trip on their own with zero problems because they actually charged their car and didn't whine about going 100 miles before running out of juice when the gauge said 50 miles left.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 9, 2013 -> 09:28 AM) So I emailed my buddy who works in the car industry about the Volt. He basically said not to get it now (or if I do, lease it) because the 2015 will be faster and have a 20-40% increase in range. The value of the current model will drop like a brick. He also warned me that the battery loses a lot of efficiency after 70k miles. I think we'll still check it out, but maybe think about leasing it for a few years instead of buying it. Re: Tesla, he knows someone who works there and apparently they have a goal of releasing the generation 3 model S in 2016 for about $35k. Everything I've heard about the Volt is that, as a car, it's kind of a POS.

QUOTE (DukeNukeEm @ Aug 8, 2013 -> 04:50 PM) On a racetrack going flat out through every straight? That's what I meant by "tracked them". Obviously your regular daily drive isn't going to run the thing flat in 11 minutes, but if you want to enjoy the performance of the things you are severely limiting its battery life. FWIW the Tesla Roadster can usually last for 3-4 15 minute lapping stints without a recharge. Not sure about the Model S. If a track installed the "supercharger" thing, you could run as much as you would in a gasoline powered car at a track day by plugging it in in between sessions. The Model S is more of a GT car than a track car, though.

QUOTE (SnB @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 08:59 PM) I passed the cpa exam! Without a doubt, the most challenging thing ive ever done. Congrats!

QUOTE (Jake @ Aug 4, 2013 -> 04:08 PM) I was recently diagnosed with adult ADHD. What a weight off of my shoulders. There are so many things that I do (and cannot do) that I have long felt were my character flaws and I am now realizing are explained by this disease and can be controlled with sensible treatment. I'm feeling very impatient about my upcoming appointments with my psychiatrist and counselor, but that's a symptom of ADHD too I had a similar diagnosis several years back. Even if you don't go the medication route, just learning some of the behavioral/routine tools ("Stop, don't switch tasks" is a good one for me) and being self-aware can make a huge difference. It also helped my wife (then-gf) understand to not take it personally when I'd forget things.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 31, 2013 -> 11:04 AM) We are taking the kids down to Mammoth Caves next weekend, plus the Lost River cave down there. How was Mammoth? Enough to do without having to slide through narrow passages in the cave?

Even with both me and my wife injuring our knees on our first hike at Glacier, we had an incredible time. The injuries forced us to modify our plans a little bit (and I couldn't believe that none of the camp stores, aside from the one way down in Two Medicine, sell ace bandages), but we got to see two different areas we didn't originally plan on. We drove down to Two Medicine for an afternoon and went up to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canukistan last Friday. Pushed through the injuries to do the Grinnell Glacier hike, too. We'll definitely be back here. Now we are trying to plan our next trip. We're hoping for the Grand Canyon, but we're probably way too late to book anything down at the Phantom Ranch at the bottom. We're also considering a Pacific NW swing (Crater, Portland, Seattle, Rainer, Olympic, maybe Vancouver) and a Utah trip (Arches, Bryce, Zion, SLC), and maybe even Acadia. If anyone has any recommendations on these or other day-hiking oriented trips, it'd be much appreciated. We're focusing on National Parks right now as a starting point, but we're definitely not limited to them and not trying to visit every last one. We both loved hiking around Lake Tahoe and rafting in the Laurel Highlands in SW Pennsylvania. Here's a shot of the Granite Park Chalet from the Highline Trail, right before we started the steep descent down the Loop Trail (dropping over 2000 ft in 3.8 miles) and ran into a black bear right at the top. Ironically, this remote mountain chalet with pit toilets had the best cell reception I found on the west side of the park.

QUOTE (Buehrle>Wood @ Aug 5, 2013 -> 08:54 PM) I'm back into Fallout 3. It's so good. I would say best or second best game ever along with Ocarina of Time. I liked New Vegas more than FO3

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 29, 2013 -> 04:44 PM) Probably one of these three, maybe SF, either way a hell of a lot closer to the mountains. Spokane seems pretty awesome

Southwest?