Ace-Garageguy

Some cool stuff, and I can hear the big Pontiacs calling "save me" from here, but I'll have to pass. Last thing I need at this point is more long-term projects. But I hope they all find good homes.

"Qualified" to run at LeMans is a major accomplishment in itself, no matter whether a car finishes in the money or even finishes, period.

It bears mentioning at this point is that the whole reason the PhotoBucket debacle happened is that so many "free" users were running ad-blocking software that the site was losing money. No business can offer a "free" service indefinitely while continually losing money on it. The well runs dry eventually if "free" users violate the implied agreement to see advertising to offset the expense incurred by providing the service. In return for using PhotoBucket for "free", advertising was shown during the upload process, and said advertising generated income for the service. PAYING users did NOT have to sit through the advertising, and as I run ad-blockers, it seemed to me to be the right thing to do to PAY for the service. And because I'd been a pay-to-play user from the beginning, I did NOT lose access to my photos when the site revised its business model (which is not to say I agree with the way that site handled the transition). But back to the point: simply put, using an ad-blocker while accessing a "free" site that makes its income from users seeing advertising is cheating, no more, no less. All the proposed paying tier here is intended to do (as I understand it) is to allow users who hate ads (and have a conscience) to avoid them without cheating the system.

The people who run the forum seem to be reasonably fair, so... I'd expect the "free" part of the forum to remain as inclusive as it is now, for just the reasons you state. I'd expect any additional "tier" benefits or content to be material or features NOT currently available on the all-free forum. So free users would lose nothing, and paying users would just get a little extra. This is what I'd expect, anyway, but it's not my decision... EDIT: And as far as "fair" goes, the way I see it, a pay-to-play tier is not to punish free users, but rather to allow those users who HATE advertising (like me) to directly support the forum while running an ad-blocker, which otherwise would deny the forum revenue for that user's exposure to ads on the forum.

I gotta be honest...that's something I really enjoy. That virgin old kit smell really takes me back in time.

Load whisky in that thar wagon in the back, and I'll folla her all the way to Tucson.

"Why" was never a word I used in the same breath as "whisky".

Hmmmmmm...sortof a "reverse ignore" button. I like it.

And even if it's a potato, you still have a potato...maybe...

Easy enough to find with Googli's reverse-image-search (now Google Lens), which I'm sure nobody ever uses 'cause that would be cheating. I had absolutely no clue as to what this one was. I'll pass.

Unless he forgets to put the bowl out, and then pours the milk on the counter while wondering why his feet feel wet and cold suddenly.

Notification that I'm losing the storage of four cars I had to move away from MY OWN PROPERTY when some neighborhood Karen-car-counter called the county...because a recent tenant in the industrial area I've been storing them at (they're in the parking lot of a huge vintage car shop that I subcontract with) has some kind of Karen-esque problem with "cars with no tags". Kinda like moving to a neighborhood next to an airport that's been there for decades, and complaining about the noise from the nasty loud airplanes going over OMG OMG OMG!!!!!! Unfortunately, the vintage car shop rents their two huge buildings, and the new tenant, rather than dropping by and asking US about the "dead scary cars that make our customers uncomfortable" (a Neon, a Jag XJ6, a PT Cruiser that needs paint, and an '89 ASC Celica convertible, all clean on aired-up tires) went to the PROPERTY OWNER, who went to one of the shop managers, who is apparently too nadless to talk to me directly and got another manager to call ME. I'll deal with it, but dambety ding dang dumb, I'm getting sick of getting hosed pretty much every time I turn around. There's a lot more to this situation that I'm not going to go into, just because, but it's really starting to suck to be me.

Very nice. First impression is that of a real car.

Drink one for me, fellas.

It already exists. Go to your own page, click "see my activity" in the upper right, and then select "topics" on the LH side of the screen. Every thread you ever started will be magically displayed by the last date anything was posted on it. I'm closing on 40,000 posts, and it's not hard to find a thread I started years ago.

Yup. And why it was so helpful when the instruction sheets called out the names of the real parts...which is WHY I knew a lot more when I was a kid than a lot of these guys seem to know now. Of course, yootoob is full to overflowing with hobby vids where the presenter/producer seems to in fact know very little about the subject he "models", trains being one particular example...

Reorganizing the competition car topics into groups that make more sense and have more in common wouldn't add any topics. A lot of comp cars that go mostly round in circles or ovals have absolutely nothing to do with NASCAR, so under the current grouping where does one put IMCA or DIRTcar builds, for instance? Or historic pre-NASCAR (1948) asphalt cars? Dirt trackers are the still-very-much-alive granddaddies of all roundy-round motorsports, including Indy cars. Drag racing classes evolved directly from dry-lakes classes, that also evolved into LSR cars. They all go fast in straight lines, and have a common heritage. Road racing and Formula cars mostly have to turn in both directions in competition, and also descend from common ancestors. ----------------------------------------------------------------- As for the rest of the topics, I'd probably go for something like this: A section for US or "ferrin" showroom-stock (including "day 2") cars, light trucks, and vintage or "classics" like the occasional Duesenberg or '31 Caddy. A section for rods and customs, pretty much anything modified very much beyond "day 2", including light trucks, "ferrin cars", and full-on no-go showboats. A section for heavy trucks/equipment, including the very rare hot-rod or custom, as I believe these have more appeal to the big-truck guys than to the average car or small truck guy. Dios. Motorcycles...and everything else. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes, this adds one topic to the total, by essentially splitting the "model cars" heading into two, where the subjects would have more in common: (1) pretty much stock or close to it, and (2) modified beyond wheels/tires/paint/spoilers/graphics. Just my dime's worth (2cents adjusted for inflation).

"Solvent" takes in a wide variety of materials that will dissolve other materials, as sugar and salt are dissolved by water.

Yeah I can. I just did. See?

Curd from milk is used to make casein glue, what Elmer's used to be and why there's a cow on the package, but today Elmer's is polyvinyl acetate (PVA) glue.

Only irk today is my lack of get-going energy. Time to just drag myself out the door and get on with it... ...but sitting at the computer feels like doing something, even though it's actually nothing but escapism/procrastination.

Makes sense, kinda like putting drag cars with LSR cars...straight line performance/competition. Another competition section for road-racing and rally cars, anything that turns in both directions while racing, should round out the competition selections nicely.

"Beauty is an ultimate value—something that we pursue for its own sake, and for the pursuit of which no further reason need be given." Roger Scruton

Trade school enrollment has been reported to be at a record level, with some sources reporting it's TWICE what it was in 2020. This is also said to be largely a knee-jerk reaction to the doom-and-gloom projections that AI will replace workers in many sit-behind-a-keyboard jobs, and the reality that many college degree programs leave graduates facing crippling debt, but essentially unemployable as anything but baristas, Walmart checkers, and dog-walkers. Whatever the reason, it's a good thing, because a "developed technological society" that has few qualified and competent plumbers and mechanics and HVAC techs is in serious trouble. The problem, of course, is a shortage of really well-qualified teachers, as "blue-collar" employment has been on the decline for so long. I have worked with licensed A&P (airframe and powerplant) aviation "mechanics" who were trade-school grads, and who were, frankly, grossly unsafe if given any technical responsibility whatsoever. But...it's a step in the right direction.