The backyard terraces need fencing. Since there are two terraces, it almost made sense to connect the two and create a verdana/gazebo/pergola/palapa over the middle terrace.


Rather than pick and haul 24 4x6es, 10 2x6es, etc., I did flat rate delivery and figured I might as well cache the materials required for the remainder of the murder room upgrade.

1. Paint and prep

Things are always easier when you paint before assembly. The name of the game - for me - is sun and termite defense. So pressure treated posts and stained using a paint sprayer. This still leaves the ends susceptible to termite infestation, so I was sure to stain after every cut.


I had zinc hardware mixed with galv stuff, I just took the "cold galvanizing" rattle can to all of it.

2. Measure and place anchors

Not the actual bolt.

The anchoring job was much the same as the deck fix from years ago.

1. Hammer drill a hole
2. Brush it out
3. Fill with epoxy (the nozzle approximates the anchor)
4. Place the footer and anchor
5. Cure
6. Tighten the anchor with a socket

Dad and I dusted off the hammer drill and put anchor holes at 8' spacing.


... then waited.

3. First posts

The first few posts required the most measuring, cutting, and leveling.


Since the 4x6 top beams were 8' on center, the post caps weren't ideal due to the single retaining bolt. We mitigated this with nailing plates over the top seams.

4. Turning the corner

The center bolt location was good for the corners as we could put a lag bolt into the center of the cross piece. Being 8' on center, that left a gap to place a nonstructural end piece (not shown).

5. Connecting the frames

We spaced the 2x6 hangers at 4' on center. So each 'wall' is 4x6s vertically and horizontally at 8', they're connected by 2x6s at 4'.


The 4- and 8-foot spacing meant there'd be some overlapping post tops at a predictable cadence.

6. Finishing the frame

The 2x6es dropped in, measured to maintain square.

Hammer drill just drilling

One thing I learned about my hammer drill: even with rare use, I'm going to need to look up maintenance on the oil reservoir(?). When we started drilling the anchor holes, the hammer drill didn't do any hammering. It'd been so long since I used it, we kind of just powered through for awhile. Eventually the hammering started and it worked just fine for the rest of the day.

When I returned to drill one more hole, I again had no hammering motion. The service light was not illuminated, but a quick lookup told me that the hammering mechanism is reliant on oil that needs to be changed. I had just one more hole to drill, so on a stroke of genius I left the drill bit-down for ten minutes (it was already warm, if that matters) and voila it started hammering again. This was just a temp fix, future me will have to youtube how to change the oil.


An oil pipe got cybered and the east coast briefly returned to covid hoarding mode. Just thought I'd write that one down.

This is why Always Sunny should be required watching.

The legal consequences of the Boomerkrieg seem to have hit some harder than others.

The dip

The market dipped a bit. I'm still holding out hope that energy will survive even if last week was the catalyst of the big slide.

/u/DeliciouslyUnaware This isn't the bottom, we just stopped to let a few billionaires off the elevator.

/u/RUatrollorRUserious I'm bearish, but seeing the reaction to a 1% drop is only encouraging me.

/u/SapientSausage It's 2008 wall street chaos after any 1% drop lol

HolderofFour

The funniest part of all this was a billionaire dressed up as fuckin Wario before it all came crashing down. Lmao

I like Bear Gang's sense of humor more than Bull Gang's.

The dump

Source.

Eclipsing the NASDAQ correction was the 30% value collapse of Bitcoin (similar amongst all cyptocurrencies) in the space of a day.


I ventured outside WSB to see how the crypto sub was handling it. I guess the second largest economy in the world doesn't even make the list.


The first mention of China in the comments received some upvotes, but the conversation quickly deteriorated.


I much prefer Connie's take.


"Bag hodler", amazing.

So much for this one.

GME rides yet again

/u/Manofindie Damn but I can't see mine GME unless they give mea a billion, I got a family to feed ;(

/u/alexparker70 my family only eats caviar and foie gras

/u/TCV24 My gf wants a cyber truck or she's leaving me

/u/Tendynasty If you get it for her BF, then you can be a cyber cuck

And GME and AMC are back into squeeze mode. Fun.

The space race

With Virgin Galactic tanking after the last flight cancellation, it's not exactly a novel perspective that their recent successful flight might pump the share price (note, I began writing this on the 21st but took a while to complete). Present volatility aside, I'm thinking SPCE could be a long term hold, and so maybe this is/was a good buying opportunity.

• Their competition is SpaceX (and maybe Blue Origin), but it seems like space tourism is a big enough market for a few players.
• The SpaceX and Virgin flights are as different as this armchair astro-investor can image; SpaceX puts you on a rocket that can reach the ISS, Virgin Galactic sends you to the edge of space in a plane. In short, it seems like SpaceX offers an astronaut experience and Virgin offers a guided tour of space. Different experiences, different capacity, different price points.
• Space travel isn't safe. If anything's going to suffer a major incident, my money is on the rocket. Any incident would probably close the floodgates for awhile, but on reopening I would see people flocking to the alternative.
• Space Tourism is probably largely recessionproof based its cost of admission. Space freight serves governments and large companies, so that might survive economic austerity as well.

Then again, buy the hype, sell the news, maybe there'll be an even bigger dip between now and when they send Sir Richard up to the stars. I guess the other concern is profitability, what was Branson's quote about the easiest way to become a millionaire...

Maybe I should just let Connie manage my funds, she seems to have Kobayashi Marued the market.

Lordstown motors and WSB, part II

It's no secret I'm a huge fan of Elizabeth Holmes, Billy McFarland, and Trevor Milton. Last month I dipped into the astroturfing (marketers pretending to be real people) that WSB was seeing from electric startup Lordstown motors. So what's new? I guess the Lordstown baja truck retired after the first leg of the race and more recently had a somewhat dire (pre-)earnings call.


Also, Reddit banned the totally legit dude from my last post. Not to worry, others have stepped up to carry the banner. The bot comments are hilariously repetitive, translations provided in italics:

• "Why was this post taken down?" I don't understand Reddit and now I won't get paid.
• "The media/short sellers are evil" I wish we hadn't retired from that race.
• "This is just like TSLA/MVIS/GME" = Fellow yoloers...
• "Let's squeeze this!" I'm not aware that WSBers simply like the stock.
• "RIDE or die", "Murica", "RIDE to the moon" and any number of other stupid catchphrases. These WSBers love memes, let's make some!
• "I may be a new account, but I'm authentic" I wish comment history was private as I only comment here and on the propaganda sub.

Speaking of the Lordstown sub, the bots seem to not know if it's a fan sub or a place for the propagandists to share tips...

WallStSister

In wallst bets conversation, this is what one of the reply said. Can you help me give them counter argument? Who says the in-wheel motor is better tech? There is a good chance it is not a viable candidate for a reliable economical vehicle. It is a very unproven tech. The SF250 had them going 40 miles (versus 60 mile range they projected between charges) at 20 mph (when competitors averaged 50-70 mph over that stretch, based on publicly available GPS data). Practically the parts saved by in-wheel motors vs mounted motors and it making it "simpler" is a pretty large overstatement. Getting rid of a transmission, engine, and all the complex parts there is a huge deal, which is already accomplished. The main parts the in-wheel motor eliminates is the halfshafts and differential. I am very skeptical that it makes more sense to build multiple in-wheel motors vs one mounted one that connects to a diff which connects to the halfshafts which drive the wheels.

As you might imagine, that totally legit Redditor then used the responses to praise the wonders of in-wheel motors.


Anyway, hilarious stuff. Reminds me of the Theranos and Fyre documentaries and of Nikola's WSB presence last year. As Abraham Lincoln said: "Fake it til you exit and leave the shareholders with with the bag."


The Dimitri run continues.


The Hapi paralogue had a tenuous start but ended with a fun traffic jam around my currently-tanky protagonist and house leader.



Me and J finished our first and second playthroughs of Remnant, we're nearing the end of the DLC. Some thoughts...


The end battle is pretty good. It, like some of the other bosses, has a critical mechanic that we kind of caught on to but decided to look up anyway. So mission accomplished; we won the right to row a boat!


No, seriously.


I said previously that Remnant most stands out for its interesting and detailed environments, that statement holds for the duration of the game and DLC.


Other than neat maps and fun shooter mechanics, the game's longevity comes from unlocking new mods and, to a lesser extent, weapons and traits. This is good for a couple playthroughs, but probably not more than that. I also didn't see much sense in respeccing out of my one-shot damage build and into, say, bleed or elemental. We found ourselves kind of wishing we could minmax a bit more.


The DLC has a few areas that are each visually quite different, but with a similar feel to the main game. The DLC does introduce an area with a puzzle mechanic, though if I'm honest I'd rather have it be straight gunplay instead.

Bosses

Among the procedurally-generated things that get rerolled with each playthrough are the bosses. There aren't, like, a zillion of them, but we saw a handful of new enemies on our second lap. While tough (especially on hard), vanquishing bosses is rewarding and offers a unique weapon/mod that can open or focus your build.

After dreading facing Ixillis on hard - and then validating that dread - we were happy to find you can just blast the Undying King and bypass that battle.

Gallery

More imagery. Well done, Gunfire Games, in some ways this experience feels like the first Borderlands.



Cause it's May and lovely outside.

Did I ever tell you about the time me and my grandpa took the bus the Memphis to go visit Graceland and...

?

Related / internal

Related / external