Just spent eight days in Costa Rica. Learned a lot from this subreddit, so hoping this trip report helps anyone with future travel plans.
 
Airport

• We flew into Liberia.
• Customs (crowded, but quick) and bags were easy.
• Duty Free store prices seemed reasonable for a Westerner.

 
Car Rental

• I don't think there are any on-site car rental agencies.
• We rented through Hertz. Online quote was $297.55. Online said $18/day third-party liability, in-store they said $25/day. Also, everything is subject to another 13% tax. And another $18 for roadside assistance. Total was close to $600.
• None of this is delivered in any formal manner. The new quote amount is written on a business card and shown to you at the counter.
• We were able to waive the CDW by getting a Letter of Eligibility from eClaimsLine (I used a Chase Sapphire Reserve)
• They are very thorough with documenting the condition of the car. If you damage anything, they'll definitely notice.
• Probably the worst renting experience I've ever done. And I came in knowing all about TPL and CDW waivers, etc.
• Only drove from Papagayo to Rio Celeste to La Fortuna, then back to Papagayo. Roads and other drivers were great. Only one small stretch of road/dirt where I was glad we rented an SUV. A sedan got stuck on that stretch on our drive back.

 
Lodging

• Andaz Papagayo - Exactly what you expect. Reminded me of a more lush Park Hyatt St. Kitts. Easy to stay on property. Very sterile. People exaggerate how busy the carts are on the walking paths - it's like every other resort with carts. Probably not worth cash rate and maybe not even points. Food was fine. If you're Globalist, do all your breakfast at Ostra. All service staff (servers, bartenders, drivers) was excellent.

   

• Tabacon - I think the rooms were nicer and liked walking the property more than the Andaz. On-site pool kind of disappointing. The thermal pools are down the street and open to the public. The first night we went it was a little too party/clubby than we expected. Bartenders were great.

 
Attractions

• Mega Combo Zip Line Tour and Volcano Hot Spring at Rincon de la Vieja. Price included round-trip transit from Papagayo. The ziplines were cool. We were ahead of a large group, so we got through all ziplines pretty quickly (which was fine). The waterslide was really good. I could have skipped the horseback riding, lunch, and the volcano hot spring.

   

• Rio Celeste - Easily the highlight of the trip. Walk the whole thing if you can. If you're late for your time, they'll let you in with the next group. They won't let you in early. We were able to park and swim just up the road from the park entrance.

   

• Arenal 1968 Volcano View - It's a fine hike. I think they said the full loop is around 3 hours and I think we did it in close to 90 minutes. The viewpoint is whatever and early into the hike. If you don't want to hike, you can just go to the cafe which is the last stop of the hike.

   

• SkyAdventures Ziplines & Hanging Bridges at Arenal Park was good. I think a more polished zipline experience than the one we did at Rincon de la Vieja, but a lot more waiting around between the ziplines because of the big groups. The hanging bridges walk was good, but they give you 2.5 hours to finish it (and a zipline ticket for that time). We did it in less than 90 minutes and they wouldn't let us zipline until our ticket time. I don't know how this compares to the Mistico Park Hanging Bridges, but I think I'd rather have just done ziplining here and the bridges at Mistico Park.

 
Food

• Mostly ate at the resorts. Probably not helpful for those not staying at the Andaz or Tabacon, so I'll post those in the Hyatt subreddit.
  
• La Ventanita in El Castillo (next to SkyAdventures) - Went here because sand-in-my-toes71 said they're the "Best burritos I’ve ever eaten". Apparently the owner is from California, which makes sense why you're getting Mission burritos in Costa Rica. Very good food for Costa Rica and great views.
  
• Blue River Brewery in Bijagua de Upala (next to Rio Celeste) - Went here because I wanted a beer after Rio Celeste. Food is fine, beer is good. The trees across the way have toucans. We saw a bunch. The lady who worked there told us that one of the best places to see sloths is at the Finca Verde Lodge (we didn't go, so unconfirmed).
  

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/LonghornNation Daily Off Topic Free Talk Thread

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4. 5/17 University of Texas Women's Golf vs NCAA Championships
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1. Red Robin
2. My pizza stone is almost 20 years old. Each line is a pizza I enjoyed.
3. TIL that in 2013, a man tried to dribble a football from Seattle to Brazil to promote a charity. He was run over and killed by a truck just 250 miles into his 10,000-mile trip
4. That's a crime that has been committed
5. Who took the L ? You decide

/CFB

1. /CFB Donates $18,000.00 to Toys For Tots & Children's Hospitals, thanks to the 8th annual Holiday Drive!
2. [Mandel] News: UC Board of Regents has voted that UCLA shall pay Cal $10M in revenue for the next three years (through 2026-27), with another check-in at that point. Original recommendation was for six years.
3. [Dellenger] Documents sent to presidents detail House settlement terms, including damages of $2.776B; $21M athlete rev-share projections. If they lose in court, NCAA & conferences estimate that they'd pay as much as $20 billion in damages - a figure that'd necessitate them filing for bankruptcy.
4. College Gameday heading to College Station for Notre Dame @ Texas A&M Week 1
5. (Yoder) NEWS: Denard Robinson has been dismissed from his employment with the Michigan football program
6. SMU announces 2025-2026 home-and-home series with Baylor

/LonghornNation

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4. Men’s Basketball to compete in 2025 Maui Invitational
5. 2024-25 Women's Basketball SEC Matchups
6. 2025 3* OL Jackson Christian commits to Texas
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Introducing Lotteria Bay RP - The City of Tomorrow Are you tired of cities driven solely by greed, where every corner turns into a money-making scheme at the expense of genuine roleplay? Look no further. Lotteria Bay RP is here to redefine the GTA RP experience. We've heard your frustrations and we're determined to make a change. Founded on principles of fairness, integrity, and community, Lotteria Bay RP promises an immersive and enriching roleplay environment unlike any other. What sets us apart? Let's break it down: No Pay to Win, Only Play to Win: Say goodbye to the days of feeling pressured to empty your pockets just to enjoy the game. In Lotteria Bay RP, we believe in a "Get Paid to Play" system. Your dedication and involvement in the community will be rewarded, both in and out of city! The PowerCash Lotto: Imagine winning real cash just for participating in our city. With our innovative PowerCash Lotto system, every month we contribute $100 of our own money into the pot. Additionally, profits generated by the city, from imports to donations, go into the PowerCash pool. It's a true non-profit initiative designed to give back to our players. Fair Economy, Affordable Assets: Sick of exorbitant prices for basic in-game assets? We offer a fair and balanced economy where players can affordably access MLOs and imports without breaking the bank. Our debadged imports are 100% compliant, ensuring a seamless integration into the city while working towards whitelist eligibility. Serious Roleplay, Longevity Guaranteed: At Lotteria Bay RP, we're committed to fostering a community of serious roleplayers who value quality over quantity. Our city is built for longevity, with a focus on creating memorable experiences that keep players engaged for the long haul. Join us as we embark on this exciting journey to create the city of our dreams. Whether you're a seasoned roleplayer or just starting out, Lotteria Bay RP welcomes you with open arms. Together, let's build a thriving community where everyone has the opportunity to play, thrive, and win. Visit us today and make Lotteria Bay your new home. We can't wait to see you there!
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My husband and I are doing a DIY cross country move. I’m pregnant so we are looking for a couple of people to come help load the heaviebulkier items into the U-Haul for 1-1.5 hrs maximum, including brining the items down stairs from the second story and out to the trailer (our unit sits back from the street about 60 meters). Everything will be packed, we just need help with lifting and carrying stuff. Anyone have suggestions for this type of service?

Hello, I recently bought a 92 ext cab 4x4 4.0 and I’m having some difficulty buying some parts. I was hoping someone has ran into something similar. First issue is the rear u joints, for some reason the joint is longer than it is wide? Approximately 3” x 3.25”. The only thing I know is the previous owner changed the truck from auto to manual transmission. So I don’t know if they had to change the drive shaft as well, regardless the joint is different than what’s showing at the parts store.
Secondly the front callipers and pads seem to be off something else or possibly a different year? The ones on there are a 2 piston and the ones they show at the parts store shows a single piston. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

I'm located in Washington State. I'm about to pick up a Tracker Super Guide V16. The package weight is about 1,800 lb. I'm just curious if I need trailer brakes. The boat will be towed with a U-Haul pickup truck until I get my Ford F150 this fall.

Here's an idea for a mod.

• Persistent online world
• You spawn in one of the cities
• You can hunt animals for resources, chop tree's for wood, mine ore etc.
• You can sell there materials to NPC's for gold, or sell them to other players
• With your gold you can rent out one of the houses in a city
• Each city has a bank, you deposit your gold in your bank account
• Rent is taken out every 12 hours (real-world time), if you fail to pay rent you get kicked out.
• There is a skill tree for each profession
  • Blacksmithing
  • Tailoring
  • Woodworking (create furniture)
  • Alchemy
  • etc
• If I am a tailor I might need certain items that only a blacksmith can make (e.g. belt buckle)
• Players rely on trading with other players to get materials they need
• Each city has a marketplace, you can rent out a stall (daily cost) and hire an NPC (daily cost) to sell your items for you, so you can still make money while offline.
• You can also rent out a empty block of land outside of the city where you can build your own house or place of business.
• For example, I can save up enough gold to rent a block of land outside a city and build my self a lumber mill, I can hire some NPC's to go out and chop wood and cart it back to the mill where they will process it into wooden planks and other timber materials, then I can instruct the NPC's to deliver the processed materials into the city and hand them over to my vendor NPC.
• Business is picking up, I make a lot of gold, more and more players are joining the server, rental properties are starting to run out. I rent some more blocks of land and build some houses and rent these out to new players.
• There are NPC service workers such as guards that patrol outside the city to kill wild wolves.
• We as players are unable to fight, so wolves kill us easily.
• There is a tax system where each resident has to pay a daily tax that pays for NPC service workers (such as the guard)
• Players can vote on the tax rate and where the tax money is spent.
• For example players decide to lower the tax rate, this means there's less funding for guards, in turn the wolf population starts to rise and more players die to wolves.
• Other areas tax money can be spent is welfare, new players get a daily pay-check to help them get started.
• When you rent one of your houses out to a player you both sign a contract which looks something like this:
  • John Doe agrees to pay 12 gold per day to Bob Smith
• If John misses 3 payments in a row then Bob has the option of going to the property and removing all of Johns belongings and placing them outside in crates. The door lock is also replaced, now Bob can find a new tenant.
• John will have to go bring a cart to haul away his crates of belongings if he wants to move them into another property.
• John is sent a letter from the court saying he owes Bob 24 gold and the payment is due in 4 days, if he fails to pay he will be arrest by guards and put in court where other players will play the role of jurors. John will have to use VOIP or type out his defence and try and convince the jury to extend his payment due date, otherwise he goes to prison.
• Optionally instead of all players voting like a democracy, one player will be king and they will choose the tax rates.
• Each server has a list of laws that the king can change.
  • Tax rate %
  • After how many missed payments can a Landlord evict the tenant
  • How many guards are currently hired
  • Welfare pay-check
• If the community are not happy with the king they can cast a vote to dethrone him. Once this happens an election period start that lasts 3 hours. In this period any player can register them selves as a candidate to become king, they have 3 hours to go around to each other player and sweet talk them to convince them to vote for them.
• After 3 hours the vote is cast and a new king is in place.

Ethernet has landline 1900s phones two pairs wires reserved in the spec sheet its 8 or so wires when crimping the ends uses like two with one for ground and one seemingly empty and then has two for phone and some unused, with old 10/100 baseT coax with terminating ends exactly like optical or coax 90s cable TV with optical fiber 99% of the way just your block has coax to the rest which uses the 'same'DOCSIS data over cable standards as fibre optic.. just slightly worse latency and bandwidth is calculated by latency things like wifi lan has like 11 channels or 15 channels of frequency which optical calls wavelengths of light. A 2015 or around there linus tech tips video of him going to a swedish lan party called dreamhack had a bunch of multiple redundant 8Terabit or was it bytes of fibre optic internet they explained with light having 7 colors but having 8terabytes of bandwidth with different wavelengths of light called frequencys or a better term for optics is known as LASER ARRAYS of light at fixed frequencys that often plugs into the PC via ethernet cables or whatever for a gamer lan party or home/residential or small businesses at realistically within budget of anything with enough users to require that bandwidth or 'web hosting or web servers' you dont need to be an undersea cable or international link with 200terabits plus for an internet exchange to your main CBD or the fastest like the netherlands IX...
So the problem im trying to solve is, here in australia we got our undersea cables done wrong they kept breaking and we didnt have a navy or defense force securing our countrys communications to prevent war crimes and keep us connected to the global banking systems or whatever.. and then when our biggest telcos cable or fibre all had dialup speeds for around 2 weeks in the early years 2000s to force us to pay other countrys to connect to their links and be ' end of the line' maybe paywalled or proxied off the internet randsomewared to connect to and borrow bandwidth from other countries satellites and other countries undersea link cables which truly were indestructible to any cruise liner ships anchors whatever being flexible giant steel braided cables big as a CAR when australia finally paid to lay small sections of that stuff to link up to others and not pay randsome to internet butt bandits or have private businesses and multi nationals run their own links and ignore the public our lack of a defense force actually let somalian pirates literally somehow pick up and walk off with our expensive undersea car sized cables filled with a few arms thick of hair thin fibre optics which is cheapest clear resin enamels plastics about $3 not sure if USD per kilometer and resembles modern glass/glazing. How does anybody steal that stuff without people noticing like you cant just load it onto a truck and drive away? or a boat? if only satellites and some sort of defense organization existed to prevent us from being impersonated or whatever.. So now in australia ANYTHING with words like gigabit costs a fortune for a mainboard or switch or ethernet hub.. but the ancient 1900s 10/100 telephone land line wires of ethernet 10/100 clock in at a whopping 13 or so mhz sometimes 27.. and 60 or more mhz for like gigabits and whatever it increases shockingly fast with each mhz clock cycle as its units of work over time in nano seconds or zeptoseconds you see billionths of a second nano second RAM and PC with windows realtime kernel actually uses like ryzen hardware negative latency faster than reality freely syncing with any device in the universe and fixed mhz frequency bus can drive like 50 to 100 or thousands of GPU's and HDDs and monitors or whatever from the one modern multicore PC or whatever.. 90s AMD business server still holds world records for most connected devices though it had stackable CPUs opteron and would have used infinity cache type stuff probably software 3dnow and evolving game worlds tech of 80s and 90s AMD gaming evolved advertising.
So in australia anything gigabits costs hundreds of dollars for a switch router some thousands for lots of ports.. but its the shittiest weakest bandwidth ever with mhz and performance miles short of a raspberry pie or whatever. I had to pay a fortune for a mainboard with 10gigabit LAN port and everytime i got a high speed LAN port its been broken or missing so some pricks can sell ebay routers or switches for thousands here.. not knowing why its so expensive is youre paying fortunes for any real bandwidth because australia has to pay literal somalian pirates for their internet connections or privately owned businesses like telstra for access to their private links and glares at countries like new zealand and hawaii for being super technologically superior.. a cheap USB ethernet adaptor costs under 10 bucks on ebay or whatever and is maybe gigabit and your switches and routers 90% of the time you want the cheapest UNMANAGED switch possible. Yet the mainboard i recently purchased ASUS pro art creator x670E i recall had an issue with some asshats trying to steal pathetic measly 40gigabit USB4 chips from all the boards at the computer store to sell on EBay as other junk, when anything in the universe with an M.2 ULTRA slot does 40gigabits since PCI express 3.0/4.0 as PCI express 3.0 SSD drives famously use a specific I/O controller chip which gives them 38gigabits of the ultra M.2 slots 40gigabits of bandwidth. But for a couple years when AMD had pci express 4.0 and better than M.2 ultra intel was playing catch up on PCI express 3.0 and still had regular m.2 in all their boards until AMD was ready for pci express 5.0 my friend on intel bought the same NVME drives and complained they had corruption errors or issues i later learned his board wasnt fast enough and he was maybe trying to use the samsung magician RAM disk and enable NVME features and functions intel maybe did not yet support.
So.. why is USB 4 so many years late and why is it so dang expensive when terabits of ethernet or anything optical is like the cheapest stuff ever and comes with every internet connection since the 90s at the lowest cheapest mhz and 1900s land line wire telephones ever, remember digital isnt a physical thing and everythings literally analog with a sensor or multimeter whatever mathematically translating it to a graph or algebra equation mapping it into different values digitally +10 -10 whatever using microphones or camera sensor whatever. the gigabits tax and uhh LAN port taxes for dumb gay australians being literally see it via satellite outerspace levels dumb and gay astrogaylian should not apply to the cheapest of raspberry pie free 3d print or laser CNC yourself something computery like risc V for the cheapest of USB flash drives or memory cards etc.
I get intel pretends to have invented court ordered USB to probe their hardware after it was proven to have used other peoples code and chips by the chip makers and them selling computers with keyboard and mouse hardwired in so you bought a whole new computer when a key broke on the keyboard couldnt replace them.. and every other device had USB but theirs didnt free open standard and it kinda being the only way to connect any device in the universe and freely sync with it (mics/phones whatever).
why is 1900s phone tech ethernet so dang expensive to go from 20mhz ranges to 80 or whatever mhz ranges or use something very similar to 90s optical audio SPDIF output or anything remotely like a laser in australia? and who would be dumb and gay enough to be so financially retarded as to think that USB 4 was expensive or special as to steal it? am i... missing something?
also before you complain, but ethernets not the same as USB you cant power over ethernet or use your houses electrical wires as ethernet. You also cant use ethernet for monitors or displays, and its not like you can extend HDMI range limit of a about 10 to 15 meters by swapping its ethernet wires with optical ones for it to maintain its HDMI 0 latency spec or type C USB 0 latency spec. USB lets you connect heaps of devices you cant do that with an internet or ethernet for things like keyboard and mice or monitors or whatever. I understand what you mean power over ethernet or PPOE standards suck theres no way those are a thing. using devices over the internet and not the intranet who does that? thats so dumb. remote administration, theres no such thing youre mistaking malware or rootkits im sure. you cant connect a heap of devices up or entire computers to a ethernet port thats the dumbest gayest thing i've ever heard in my entire life! My gaydar is going off and it looks like the wifi symbol.
when trying to use anything ethernet with lame awful bandwidth thats limited, on my AMD board where the website images show AMD ethernet lists as marvel yukon controller i cannot use as its maybe broken there no light on the back, in devices managers advanced tab you can see the send receive or transmit buffer sizes and countless other ethernet settings are MISSING or a blank space. and are limited to 128 on send and 256 on receive up to 4096 or whatever max. But low latency 128 or 256 is maybe best but not all are an option and most networking features on the intel LAN adapters are missing countless advanced ethernet properties and settings because they're fake and lousy and the worst latency ever and they literally seem to swap your windows kernel out with something not realtime so you cannot ever hope to record or playback audio or video or anything close to a video game in hopes of slowly selling it back to you. Linux distros did this too its the dumbest thing ever that to hear or record or playback or play games you must patch in a realtime kernel for free to game like its the 80s and 90s or DOS or whatever. most 90s PCs were CAS 1 or lower nanoseconds. DDR 3 1600mhz depending the maker might be CAS1-4 latency. How can we verify our kernels are correct? and our ethernet and I/O bandwidth is correct? the youtube video about linus tech tips dream hack lan party of gamers in sweden was edited and reuploaded by illiterate asshat buttpirates maybe from somalia or the ones randsoming us some of their internet connections as a proxy piggy back on the international links as we dont have a defense force or army or whatever and dont know what war crimes are or why they are or what the heck a bank is and sure as shit dont know the cost of anything cheap USB or LAN. The dreamhack linus video falsely shows as 6TERABIT. they wanna steal 2TERABITS of EVERY optical or ethernet devices which isnt the government doing it if they wanna see whats in your computer they can document their reasons of why which is what a warrant is they dont need one if they believe a crime is occuring and literally take the computer by law to inspect it then give it back when nothings wrong they leave you a claim ticket and have you document it at the nearest policing station or whatever fill out forms sign 'they are taking my PC and i can get it back when it wasnt used for crimes." when australia doesnt technically have an internet and doesnt technically have RAID arrays which is required to use USB or SSD or NVME or storage tech with no moving parts and multicore a 2TB SSD is twice as fast and often has 2x 1TB wafer chips in there figure it out the IO controller chip supports many and you can buy the cheapest USB sticks with like 16terabytes of storage space i just see a $extend folder or uhh file format header thingy in the partition in my mainboard bios on that particular drive and using any cheap SSD or USB devices makes linux cry about the partition managers cant write or read extending past the storage limit. it doesnt take a genius to figure out what dumb gay fags the whole internet is.
infinitybitdepthinfinitygraphicsinfinitypixelsinfinityresolution.7z ~ pixeldrain

As the headline says, I got some pretty mind blowing news today. For context, I’m the oldest of 4 grown adult children in my 40s, mom is in 60s my siblings are 12 years + younger with the baby 26. Long set up but I promise it sets the tone…My mom has always been very controlling of everything, utilizing her children as commodities for visits with family and other parents etc. I never knew my dad and when relationships ended with the other siblings fathers, they only got access on her say so etc which was not often. By the time I was 16, I was in high school raising 3 siblings ranging from infant to toddler. She was barely home working long haul trucking while stepdad at time was recovering from flipping his big truck. He ultimately tried to kill himself again in my presence with my siblings asleep (he was Vietnam vet with ptsd) one night and I stopped him and called for help. He went away for a few months but ultimately she brought him home one day months later, shipped my siblings off to my aunt and told me at 17, I had 24 hours to find place to live. I was still in high school but newly dating a guy who had lawyers for parents. They stepped in took custody of me.
Needless to say I was traumatized, she took off with stepdad and went back on road with him. I didn’t get to see my siblings often because they were hour away from me and I barely spoke to my mom. She ultimately didn’t speak to me till the weekend of my 18 birthday. She called to tell me to come back home and quit school to take care of siblings because my aunt was no longer going to do it while they continued to drive cross country. I was senior in high school months from graduation and said NO. She said she would never speak to me again because I was selfish and I couldn’t see my siblings either.
This started decades long cycle, I barely got to see my siblings as they grew unless I did what she wanted which as I grew up, I chose less and less to conform. I only got to see them at family affairs that I was invited to with all family. My grandparents came to my 1st wedding when she refused to. Ultimately the stepfather in questioned that she chose over her own kids in my teens left her and cleared their bank account of his inheritance money the night she came to my house to visit with my second child shortly after I gave birth.
She has been relatively a single parent since, she had to come off road long haul trucking because she had no one to watch 3 young children all the time. The siblings grew into teens and young adults with some major issues. The two older ones cannot stay out of prison, the youngest struggled early in teen years, I tried to help where I could but it was not easy. Their 1st born was in dfcs custody before 2 months old, I took guardianship of both child and parent but they did not stick around and did their own thing. After 2 + years of failed parenting plans etc, we adopted to keep them in family despite the fact my own children were teens at this point.
My mom was angry and said I should have left them in dfcs to disappear but later tried to say I stole the child. My sibling does not feel the same way but they are still very heavily reliant on my mom financially (she control their bank account and money) she would not let them tell me she was pregnant with 2nd child and I didn’t find out till they were 4 months old. They hid pregnancy and baby from rest of family. By the 3rd child we had a better connection but they are still very reliant on my moms financial assistance and when she does not want me to know something or participate in certain events they won’t tell us or avoid contact. I don’t play into the antics though and one of my mom’s biggest issues with me is that I don’t call/text her on daily basis as my siblings supposedly do. I’ve explained that I have a busy life of my own multiple times. I have full time job, manage care of a special needs child and assist with care of aging fil while running a household of 6 people. My grown children still live at home because college and living expenses are too much to handle in this economy.
I do make an effort to text or call every few weeks. I connect for sure on holidays, birthdays etc. I knew when she called to come over today it was important and I was available despite it being a work day normally. She came in bluntly told me about her widow maker heart attack and triple bypass surgery that occurred while she was out on a run in the truck. My sister and aunt where has power of attorney over her will etc was notified in time for them to travel several hours to another state to be there by time she was out of surgery. Per my mom she told them to notify those who called or were in her 2 week call history. Which apparently left me out. I went back into both my call log and text history and showed her our communication with in 10 days of the event and she said she had no idea about it, she was high on morphine at time. I showed her the multiple text conversations we had had since no more than 3 weeks apart between each conversation since January, asking why she never mentioned it during those conversations. She never answered my calls during that time but that was not too unusual. I had met up with my baby sibling a few weeks ago to get the kids together and they never mentioned it either. My mom has been living with them since the event full time and has not worked since. No mention what so ever. I did find out two of her own siblings were also left out intentionally as well and found out much later too. The only reason I found out today was because she found out she had cancer in her kidney and has to have another surgery soon and wants me to get test to make sure I don’t have it. She is not apologetic about leaving me out of the loop at all. She says I have to call her or text once a week in order to be considered for notification of such events.
I’m hurt, I’m flabbergasted and have no idea how to proceed. I’ve discussed cutting all contact with my husband and adult children in relation to mom but that means cutting contact with my baby sibling who is bio parent to my youngest, this cutting their connection to their younger siblings. The older siblings are easier because well honestly they are in jail more than not. I feel like this will never end and she will go to her grave trying to control the narrative.

For a fun game: count how many trucks you see hauling stuff—anything at all, even the groceries. I’d be surprised if it exceeds 10%. Carbrains may be wrong about more lanes fixing traffic, but it seems we’ve finally added enough pickup trucks to solve the hauling problem! There’s nothing left to haul! Good job guys!
Of course, the gigantic dump trucks driving to and from construction sites are always full of shit. If we could get some pickup drivers to volunteer to help out, I think we could get some of these infrastructure projects done quicker. I guess the all these suburbanite alpha males like their air conditioning too much to get their hands dirty and help out! As things are now, they just drive around at midday and keep work vehicles held up in traffic, especially when they crash into each other like real alphas! Stop discounting the societal value of such manly activities!

So let me begin with saying the ranger has been my all time LD truck and here recently I have been wanting to get me a ranger i know I want a 09. My goal is to try to bring it as close to the modern era as I can like if ford decided for fun to build a 09 crew cab today with all of today’s bells and whistles features. So with all that out of the way I wanted to ask a community for help. My first concern after getting a good clean 09 ranger or at least as good clean as I can get. What would be a good place to hunt for a new or refurbished engine and transmission for it? I’m not picky 4 cylinder or V6 would be fine either way my only concern is mpg I’m not hauling anything but people and super light loads like furniture or something of that sort. But yeah any help with finding a good engine and transmission to start fresh with I actually plan on driving it till it dies or gets outlawed lol thanks y’all.

Hello all, I’m planning on moving from MD to TX in early August. It seems like every moving company is filled with bad reviews everywhere I look. So instead I have come to ask for your guys opinions on what company should I use for my move. Or if I should use a different method of moving my belongings like pods or u-haul crates.
I have roughly 1.5 bedroom worth of stuff to move. I do not drive so I cannot rent a U-Haul and do it myself.

Last week, General Motors announced that it would end production of the Chevrolet Malibu, which the company first introduced in 1964. Although not exactly a head turner (the Malibu was “so uncool, it was cool,” declared the New York Times), the sedan has become an American fixture, even an icon, appearing in classic films like Say Anything and Pulp Fiction. Over the past 60 years, GM produced some 10 million of them.
With a price starting at a (relatively) affordable $25,100, Malibu sales exceeded 130,000 vehicles last year, a 13% annual increase and enough to rank as the #3 Chevy model, behind only the Silverado and the Equinox. Still, that wasn’t enough to keep the car off GM’s chopping block. The company says that the last Malibu will roll out of its Kansas City, KS, factory this November; the plant will then be retooled to produce the new Chevy Bolt, an electric crossover SUV.
With the Malibu’s demise, GM will no longer sell any sedans in the U.S. In that regard, it will have plenty of company. Ford stopped producing sedans for the U.S. market in 2018. And it was Sergio Marchionne, the former head of Stellantis, who triggered the headlong retreat in 2016 when he declared that Dodge and Chrysler would stop making sedans. (Tesla, meanwhile, offers two sedans: the Model 3 and Model S.)
As recently as 2009, U.S. passenger cars (including sedans and a plunging number of station wagons) outsold light trucks (SUVs, pickups, and minivans), but today they’re less then 20% of new car purchases. The death of the Malibu is confirmation, if anyone still needs it, that the Big Three are done building sedans. That decision is bad news for road users, the environment, and budget-conscious consumers—and it may ultimately come around to bite Detroit.
When asked, automakers are quick to blame the sedan’s decline on shifting consumer preferences. Americans simply want bigger cars, the story goes, and there’s some truth to it. Compared to sedans, many SUV and pickup models provide extra cargo space and give the driver more visibility on the highway. In a crash, those inside a heavier car have a better chance of escaping without injury—although the same can’t be said for pedestrians or those in other vehicles. (That discrepancy inspired a headline in The Onion: “Conscientious SUV Shopper Just Wants Something That Will Kill Family In Other Car In Case Of Accident.”)
This narrative of the market’s dispassionate invisible hand tossing the sedan aside holds intuitive appeal, but it leaves gaping holes. For one thing, federal policy has, in many ways, ]distorted the car market to favor larger vehicles](https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/24139147/suvs-trucks-popularity-federal-policy-pollution). Fuel economy regulations, for instance, are more lenient for SUVs and pickups than they are for smaller cars, nudging automakers to produce more of the former and fewer of the latter. Another egregious example: Small business owners such as real estate agents can save thousands of dollars by writing off the cost of their vehicle—but only if it weighs more than 6,000 pounds, a stipulation that effectively excludes sedans entirely.
Carmakers, for their part, powerfully influence consumer demand through billions of dollars spent on advertising. Because SUVs and pickups are more expensive and profitable than sedans, manufacturers have a clear incentive to tilt buying decisions away from small cars and toward larger ones (which helps explain ad campaigns designed to confer an undeserved green halo on SUVs).
Even those who don’t want a big car may feel pressure to upsize, if only to avoid being at a disadvantage in a crash or when trying to see what lies ahead on the road. Such people find themselves trapped in a prisoner’s dilemma, preferring that everyone had smaller cars, but resigning themselves to buying an SUV or pickup since others already have them.
For all these reasons, modest-size sedans like the Malibu are disappearing from American streets, supplanted by SUVs and pickups that seem to grow bulkier with every model refresh. (The Chevy Bolts produced at GM’s Kansas plant will be bigger than the previous Bolt model, which was retired last year.) This pattern of ongoing vehicle expansion, a trend I call car bloat, is especially advanced in North America, but it’s visible worldwide. In 2022, SUVs alone comprised 46% of global car sales, up from 20% a decade earlier.
From a societal perspective, the decline of the sedan is a disaster. Consider road safety, an area where the U.S. underperforms compared to the rest of the rich world, especially for pedestrians and cyclists (deaths for both recently hit 40-year highs). Larger cars have bigger blind spots, convey more force in a collision, and tend to strike a person’s torso rather than their legs. They’re also heavier, with propulsion systems that guzzle more gasoline (or electrons) to move, producing more pollution in the process. Their weight also catalyzes the erosion of tires and roads, spewing microscopic particles that can damage human health as well as aquatic ecosystems.
Despite the myriad problems of car bloat, the federal government has taken no steps to restrain it. In the absence of regulations or taxes, carmakers have ample reason to abandon their sedan models in favor of SUVs and trucks. The higher margins of larger cars is especially precious now, as the Big Three scrabble for money to invest in electrification and autonomous technology, as well as to pay for the rising costs of wages and benefits that they agreed to last fall during negotiations with the United Auto Workers.
Realistically, it would be a Herculean task to pivot back toward selling small cars, even if American automakers wanted to. Although adept at selling high-priced, feature-laden SUVs and trucks, they’re far less experienced at the low-margin, high volume business of producing cheaper small cars. That is one reason (though hardly the only one) that China’s booming market for EVs, including many modest-size and affordable models, is sowing fear throughout Detroit—and in Washington, too.
Where does the shift from sedans toward SUVs and trucks leave everyday Americans? With a strained wallet, for one thing. With its MSRP starting at $25,100 the Malibu has been one of the most affordable U.S.-produced cars, costing barely half as much as the average new vehicle, which exceeded $47,000 in February (the Malibu is also at least a few thousand dollars cheaper than the Bolt that will replace it at the Kansas factory).
Especially when factoring in higher interest rates and spiking insurance premiums, cars are becoming a financial strain for many Americans. According to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the average annual, inflation-adjusted cost of owning a vehicle and driving it 15,000 miles hit $12,182 in 2023, an increase of over 30% in just six years.
Over time, the elimination of sedans leaves the Big Three vulnerable if consumer preferences shift away from enormity. “Legacy car companies haven’t done a great job of thinking long term,” said Alex Roy, a cohost of the Autonocast podcast. “Gutting lineups is probably good for manufacturing efficiency, but not having one vehicle in a given product segment is short-sighted.”
Due to sprawled development patterns and woefully underfunded transit, many American families will still want a car even as they become more expensive. But, as I argued previously in Fast Company, a surge in vehicle prices could compel some households to swap a second or third car for a minicar or e-cargo bike that offers limited range, but costs only a fraction as much. Already, golf carts are popping up in places far removed from the retirement and beach communities where they have been a mainstay: In New Orleans, they’ve become so popular that the city is adopting new ordinances.
With the Malibu’s death, is clearer than ever that Detroit has abandoned the affordable sedan. They may yet live to regret it.

O.J. Simpson is gone-dead from cancer earlier this year. Rewind back to the 90's. O.J, or not O.J. depending on who you ask, stabbed his ex-wife and her boyfriend to death in Los Angeles. The whole country was subsequently held hostage with round the clock O.J. coverage in the wake of the murders*. Its all anyone talked about and there was no way to escape it. There weren't thousands of channels to flick to, or dozens of streaming services available to seek refuge-in far away from the insanity.
However, after his acquittal he seemed to simply fade from public view-absorbed back into the stained fabric of American society. That was of course before he was locked up for nine years in 2008 for attempting to rob his own memorabilia at gunpoint. So what was he doing with his freedom in the years prior?
Nothing. Well, almost nothing. In 2006, executive producer Rick Mahr, famous for the highly-cerebral Backyard Wrestling series, decided it would be a good idea to tap into the reality show boom with an MTV Punk'd themed prank show featuring O.J. Simpson.
It was a one-hour special that featured O.J. himself engaging in a series of pranks ranging from dressing in rags while selling oranges on the side of a highway, to him serving and insulting fat customers in a fast-food drive thru. At the end of the gig, he'd come clean and tell the victim with a smile "you just got Juiced!" Most of the pranks fell flat on their face: people sometimes didn't recognize O.J. or didn't understand the prank, or the whole idea was just too damn stupid.
But the icing on the cake was the skit where O.J. attempted to sell a replica of his white Ford Bronco, which incidentally was discontinued for years after the murders (but that's another story, you can see below for a few more details). The Bronco even sported a real bullet hole, which The Juice himself signed right above it.
O.J. seems to reflect on the whole Bronco chase as simply comical. Is this some dark type of new-age therapy? "It has great escapability!" he keeps informing customers. Does he admit that there was a dead body in the car? Was it him who placed it there? I have never heard O.J speak so candidly about details from the aftermath of the murders.
Here are some exchanges between O.J. and potential 'customers' as reported in the NPR This American Life episode 564-Too Soon?:

Man: Is there $10,000 in here?
O.J: Nope, Nope. No $10,000,
Man: ...You were carrying it, you know?
O.J: Naw, naw. They say that, I was carrying about $3.
Man: $3?
O.J: Yeah, that's why they never brought it up in court.

In another exchange:

O.J: It was good for me.
Man: Yeah?
O.J: Got me out of harm's way.
Man: ...Ok, I'll sit in it...there was a dead body in there.
O.J: Yeah. Well, um, hopefully there's no bodies in this thing. And I can guarantee you, the car has escape-ability. I mean, if you're ever getting into some trouble, and you've got to get away, it has escape-ability.
Man: (Laughing)

He'd be locked up soon after this aired. Apparently only about 100 DVDs ever sold, and there are no other details about the profits made from the pay per view event, or O.J.'s fee for appearing in the special.
All in all, it was a completely ill-conceived idea with even worse execution that somehow was spewed into existence. It reeks of a desperation for money from all parties involved, none of whom seemed capable of creating any well-written gags for the camera. However, it is memorable in the shock-value of seeing an accused murderer making light of the truck he rode in after he supposedly stabbed his wife and her boyfriend to death.
Most humans will live a rich, full life never knowing this even exists. For the woeful few who do see it, you can't help but leave with an overwhelming feeling that O.J. was a twisted and broken man at this point, straining to grasp at even the the slightest hint of his former celebrity and adoration.
\To most people born post 1980s, OJ Simpson was a famous athlete accused, then acquitted of murder who'd later serve time for a completely unrelated crime.*
But to the rest of us, OJ is the single most infamous athlete name of our lifetimes--the shockwave that was sent through the country when it was announced that his ex-wife and her boyfriend had been murdered in Los Angeles, was unprecedented.
Its impossible to recreate the magnitude of this mono-cultural event that was the OJ Trial, and words don't begin to describe the fall from grace of one of the most beloved sports stars ever.
We'll never be able to forget the image of the low-speed white Ford Bronco chase with dozens of police cars in not so hot pursuit, or the inhumanly long trial that fractured the country along racial lines, or the glove that don't fit (so you must acquit!).
To the younger generation: try to imagine waking up to read that one of the Manning brothers had been accused of bumping off their significant other. Maybe that serves to illustrate the disbelief that we were all hit with that one night in June, 1994.
After the 8 month murder trial (yeah, how many of you had forgotten it lasted that long?), OJ was a free man. Images of him happily golfing sent waves of anger through white America, who felt like justice was cheated by a slick defense team that highlighted the racist tactics of the LA police department. On the heels of the Rodney King video and subsequent riots, this was not only a brilliant strategy, but one rooted in a great deal of truth.
A civil lawsuit followed in which OJ was found responsible for the death of Ron Goldman and ordered to pay his family $33 million. To my knowledge, they never received a cent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOEcsIghRpg

I (39) am an aunt to two beautiful kids: Michelle (almost 3) and Matthew (2 mos). The only thing is that I live about 5 hours away from them by way of the Trans-Canada highway, one way, and I don't feel safe driving, due to medical reasons, so I've never gotten my license. I also am on disability income assistance due to my health and I'm not able to work right now, making any sort of travel very difficult due to very little money.
When my niece was born, it was the height of Covid. My dad knew just how important it was for me to meet and hold her as an infant, as there's nothing like holding a beautiful, new life, but he didn't care and went to meet her on a business trip. I had no idea he went to meet her until he showed me the picture and I was extremely upset. He told me to "get over it." I didn't get a chance to meet her until she was around 1.5 years old. While it was still nice to meet her, obviously, the joy of meeting her as a newborn was long since passed. I've never forgiven him for it, he never apologised, but I had no choice but to move on.
We were going to meet him together over the Mother's Day weekend but my dad got sick and things had to be postponed.
As I was getting picked up by my stepmom this morning for an appointment, she told me that she and my dad (why she goes with him is beyond me as there's literally nothing for her to do) will be going out that way, where my brother lives, for my dad's work. I immediately figured out that they were also going to be visiting my brother and meeting Matthew and I was extremely angry. I wasn't yelling and screaming or using any kind of language, but I was angry. First my stepmom, after telling my dad that I would be angry about this, tries to skirt around the issue saying, "Oh, we haven't really decided..." then says it makes no sense to not drop in as they'll be driving right past them. She then carries on to tell me to grow up and that anyone would tell me that I'm acting the fool especially when I said they could skip visiting this once and we could go again later.
I called my dad and told him how angry I was. He told me that I have no right to tell him how to live his life and that I'm being a bully and that he does not take kindly to how I'm reacting.
My dad said in a text that I could try calling my brother and ask if I could stay at his place for the time that they're there but I don't know if I want to put him out like that. I want to meet my nephew, not impose. He then added I could come back in the rental truck with them or take the bus back and he doesn't care.
For a bit of context: my dad's been like this all his life and never took my late mom's feelings into account, and always did whatever he wanted and it left my mom feeling like crap more than you can imagine. When she passed away, my aunt, her sister, told me that my mom was even considering an annulment because of how he so often never cared about her feelings.
I love my dad and stepmom very much, but but this has hurt me and I honestly don't know what to make of it. Why is it so important to me? The joy of meeting a newborn is as special as anything. That's why. Yes, I've been crying, too.

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I’m picking up a 2019 Silverado 2500HD high country with 41,000 miles. Im using it mostly for farm use pulling our skid steer that weighs about 9,000LBS and hauling hay which weights vary between 2,500LBS-8,000LBS. I’m wondering is it worth to tune and delete the truck? Will i gain anything or will I do more long term damage? I also want to add air bag helpers and if I gain anything with that?