Although I agree, as a thought exercise, how about we also split up companies worth 1 billion dollars? We used to call them monopolies, but corporations have become very good at staying technically just under that bar. I’d argue this is part of the problem.

1968 Chrysler Wagon.

Finally had a bit of time this weekend, started replacing the main seal for the rear differential so that it would hold oil. Got the whole thing apart only to realize I had ordered the wrong seal. So, going to be up on jackstands for another week. On the upside, gave me time to replace the rear shocks and also do an oil change.

Write it down.

I use two whiteboards to separate priority. The one in the kitchen is for timely stuff: Take the trash out, doctor’s appointment Tuesday. The one in the office is for longer term stuff: Fix the garden gate, paint bathroom.

If you’re stressing, pick something & make some progress on it. You can only do so much in a day though, while you are working, stop & realize that hey, you’re making progress! And perhaps the biggest thing for me is I don’t erase my projects when I complete them, I cross them off. Then on Sunday morning, I take a moment to look at everything I completed before clearing the whiteboards & starting over for next week.

I made peanut butter at home last night. Both batches came out great.

It really is pretty darn simple. I buy normal roasted peanuts at the store, then grind them up in a Vitamix (think blender, but on steroids), then add a pinch of flavors to taste.

Reddit’s bot detection bot banned me for being a bot. The irony was too much.

First off, everything you wrote is excellent. And I love the Halloween vids below too - particularly the night shot with the flame bulb!

I did go the bigger turbo route with mine, and was autocrossing & doing track days with it for probably the first 10 years of it’s life. So, I wasn’t exactly being easy on the trans. So hopefully you’ve got more life left in yours. Also, good to know that if I ever have issues with the block, it sounds like I have a lot of options.

Only piece I can add is I did also look into STI transmissions. The bell housing side will bolt right to the block, but nothing else fits. The gear ratios are wrong compared to the rear diff, and the mounts for the halfshafts are different as well. In order to do the swap, you need the whole STI drivetrain all the way out to the hub & wheels. Sure you can do that, but finding all those parts is going to require a donor STI. And if you have a donor STI, why aren’t you building that out instead…

The metal portion should not be radiating heat. Implies there’s something not quite right with the vacuum seal. If it’s new, you might try returning it & asking for a replacement. If it’s only mildly warm, that might be normal - have you considered getting a knit hat to place over that area to further insulate it (yes, I’m too cheap sometimes).

FWIW, I’ve had great luck with my Stanley thermos for doing exactly what you’re doing, keeping coffee hot for hours. I also like Zojrushi’s products - I have a smaller one I use to keep my creamer cold.

Short answer on the Subaru - needed a transmission and could not find one at any price. Did eventually find a decent one, but it was more dumb luck & word of mouth than anything.

I gotta say that when I started looking, I saw an alarming amount of “Bugeye for sale, Excellent condition, just needs transmission”. To Subaru’s credit, every other gasket/washer/seal I needed was still available, right up until I got to actually cracking the transmission itself open. So, can’t find a transmission, and can’t find the parts to fix one either. So, yeah, if you want to try & future-proof yours, consider keeping an eye out for transmissions.

Speaking of, your WRX sounds bad-ass. I did at one point (briefly) consider putting a tow hitch on mine and ditching the truck, but the only hitch I could find was a class 1. Is that what you are using, or did you find bigger, or simply fabricate your own?

Wait, the block from a 2019 STI fits the heads from a 2003 WRX? Okay, that’s… you clearly know more about mixing/matching Subaru parts than I do. I knew the 2004 STI block matched, but that’s a 1 year gap, you’re talking about a 16 year gap. Wow. Perhaps I should be asking you if there’s any other transmissions that drop right in? I’m aware that the later (~2008?) Legacy Spec B transmission is supposed to be a drop in - has the right gear ratios & connections for the halfshafts. But the clutch is different somehow and the pickups for the speedometer have changed from analog to digital. Still, supposedly it can be done. I didn’t have any luck finding one of those transmissions either though…

I have an 20 year old Subaru WRX and an 30 year old Ford F-150 (2 door). Honestly, I can’t imagine a better combo if you have the space for 2 vehicles. The car is sporty, fun, and can carry 4 people, while the truck can haul or tow nearly everything I would need. Purchased both brand new, both are still running strong, although parts for the Subaru are starting to dry up.

Although I’m not currently shopping to replace either, they’re both gas burners. If they die before I do (feels unlikely), I’d like to upgrade to electric. But I haven’t seen anything I would consider affordable - which is to say designed to be repaired by the owner. Slate is the only possible thing on the radar, but their trucklet in this weird middle spot where it’s too small to be (fully) useful to me as a truck, while also too big to fill my hot hatch/4door car needs either. Hopefully they’ll be super successful and bring more models to the market in the future.

I have the same nausea issue. Once you clear Skyrim’s tutorial level, you can switch to over the shoulder camera. But I didn’t know that on my first try. Ended up putting the game down & uninstalling it. Only came back to it years later after seeing some videos.

For what it’s worth, there are mods that let you skip the introduction entirely. “Live Another Life” used to be the go-to, but I think it’s been depreciated. Still would be a good starting point to search.

I would LOVE to believe this will force automakers to return to using buttons instead of touchscreen.

Yeah, I know. But I’d sure love to believe it.

I’m thinking about things where the brand name has become “the name” of the thing. Kleenex & Google come to mind. Here in the SE corner of the USA, we say “Coke” instead of soda or pop.

Apparently, there’s a name for this. “Generic Trademark”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_trademark

Also, I really like Hershey’s. Family grew up not far from their site, was always the chocolate we had as kids. So I like your bizarro universe. :D

$500/mo. Single person, SE USA. I eat 2 meals per day and a snack. Cook all of it except for one treat meal per week.

I should add, that price might be a tad high, as my grocery bill includes things for the household like laundry detergent.

About 6-7 years ago. I had a friend who still had some files on a 5-1/4 floppy. I kept an old Win95 PC specifically with a bunch of old drive types and a DVD burner, so I could rescue old files & move them to DVD. Sadly, that PC stopped booting about 2 years ago. I did consider trying to resurrect it, but neither of my current PCs even have a built-in DVD drive, so I think it’s safe to say that moving files to DVD isn’t moving the files forward enough anymore.

Probably doesn’t count as I didn’t buy it, so I’m technically not dealing with it. But let’s talk about electric riding lawnmowers. Last year I was looking to replace my 20+ year old riding lawnmower with an electric one. Could not find a single manufacturer who would also provide the parts lists. Digging deeper, seems like they simply do not sell parts, like at all. The mowers just aren’t repairable - straight up, if it breaks, buy a new one. That’s irresponsible when talking about an electric drill, but a full riding mower? WTF?

To be fair, this might be a chicken & egg problem. Low adoption rates means there’s a very small market for parts, so there’s no aftermarket support. And that aftermarket is where I get parts for my current mower. So maybe it’s not fair to blame the manufacturer? But I think that’s a stretch. From where I’m standing, it sure looks like intentional planned obsolescence.

For a unique answer, I’m going to say my model trains from the 1940s & 50s (Lionel, O gauge). They were designed to be taken apart & serviced, and it shows. And they have enough common parts that even though they’re now 75+ years old, you can still get parts.

I’ll also throw my 1997 Ford F-150 into the mix as a more common answer. Ford made literal millions of these, so not only are parts still available, they will be for decades still to come. Heck, I replaced the motor last year, and was able to get most of the bolt on parts I wanted straight from the dealership. Not bad for 25+ years old.

Couple years ago, I finally got off my ass & started making time to actually fix the stuff I said I would fix. It’s been transformational. This year, I made time for the ‘good’ car. I replaced the transmission along with a lot of other little bits that had been bothering me. Took close to 5 months in total, but I’m at the point now where both the good car & the beater truck are both reliable runners. It’s a good feeling.

My co-worker & I have the exact same lunchbag, except the label has a different gibberish name on it. Yup, both from Amazon.

Remember that any advice from your parents (or anyone over 30, apparently) is, at best, 20 years past its best by date. Doesn’t mean it’s not still good, but give it a sniff test.

USA, Southeast. In general, you have 1 trashcan for trash and 1 recycling bin for everything that could potentially be recycled. Sometimes it’s just one can for ‘combined recycling’ though. And if you’re in an apartment, it’s usually all just one big dumpster. A service comes around once a week to collect those.

If recycling is being done, the load gets dumped through an automatic waste separator (a building sized conveyor belt with machines that separate items by density). They find all the metal & recycle that. Particularly nice services will also grab the cardboard/paper. But none of them can really separate the different types of plastic from each other, so all of that goes to the landfill.

Interesting to me, the most poor/rural areas appear to be the best at recycling, as for them you must bring your trash to a transfer station yourself. And those stations have voluntary bins for each of the recycling waste streams. So if you care enough to separate your plastic into the different types (we number them 1 - 7), there’s a bin for that.