Most rental cars I've had lately have that rear-view camera. They are so great. I didn't know after-market versions existed, but now I'm going to look them up. I don't really care much about parallel parking as much as I have this fear of reversing over a child.
I guess I should also worry about comatose adults.
1: Yes, I'm not sure if it would help me with parallel parking -- it seems like it might confuse me in the same way that I'm even worse at tying a tie when I look in the mirror.
My optimistic read is that the skill of parallel parking will dramatically increase, since people who would never try parallel parking without a camera will learn to do so with a camera. Even if they rely on it every time, they're still parking, right?
When I got my first adult job and bought my first car, I intentionally shopped around for a car with a stick, since I loved driving them.
Then I had to commute to my adult job in rush hour traffic. Turns out "driving stick is fun!" means "driving around at night on empty roads with a stick is fun!"
Something something variable rate oysters with a liquidation preference.
I miss driving stick sometimes. REALLY REALLY hard to text while you drive, fwiw. (To drop the shtick for a sec, I really don't do so.)
I feel like most of my parallel parking problems stem from misjudging where to begin the turn and how sharply to back up. I guess a camera would help me tell when I could salvage the situation or when to give up.
The time I rented a car that had a camera it was definitely useful for seeing when small living things were behind the car.
Any brand recommendation, heebie? I've wanted one of these too. I parallel park now, but not in tight spaces, and I still don't have a good feel for how close, once straight, I can get to the car behind me.
9: Jammies says this was pretty easy to install, and so far it works fine for me.
SPouse backed into a car because our minivan doesn't have a camera and someone parked a black car on an unlit street across from the driveway we were leaving. Who parks a black car on an unlit street?
Dented for no other crime than parking while black.
I have a colleague with a Tesla. I want to steal it, but I guess that still counts as "crime."
Rear view cameras are so last year. These days real cars park you.
Forget back up cameras, the current state of the art is vehicles that parallel park themselves at the push of a button. I've driven one. The technology works impressively well. It's wasted on me because I don't find parallel parking difficult. But as this type of technology diffuses, future generations may come to view parallel parking as an optional skill, like driving a stick shift.
It's nice that you delurked just to be pwned.
I already regard parallel parking as an optional skill. I just park in the closest regular spot and tell people that I feel I need the walk.
Pretty sure chris y was referencing the car leaving a person in the parking space while it saunters off to the salon.
The lower & rougher sorts of cars go about riding their own people; but the better sorts will only be seen taking sedan chairs.
I don't know why they call them sedan chairs when I've never seen one with four doors.
I'm sure you haven't, in Pittsburgh.
Is the difficulty of parallel parking that you can't see behind your vehicle? I thought it was that people don't get the feel for what the angles need to be and when to cut the wheel back. If you don't have that feel for the geometry, it seems like a backup camera will only aid in the endless little up and back adjustments that you have to do when you haven't gotten into the space very well.
Blume!
Also, yes, that's my problem.
Blume!
I really enjoy parallel parking on the driver's side, when you're on a one way street. I actually pride myself on my parallel parking in general, of course, like I'm sure every single commenter here.
I also suck at parallel parking! And suck even more now I haven't driven in two years.
I'm bad at parallel parking in general, but astoundingly horrible at it on the left side of the street. My brain doesn't work for that.
I'm good on the right side of the street but could never figure out how to parallel park on the left. Fortunately this wasn't an issue in Pittsburgh because there are barely any one-way streets, instead there are narrow 2-way streets where turning left is a perpetual adventure.
I thought it was that people don't get the feel for what the angles need to be and when to cut the wheel back.
A camera wouldn't help for when to make the first wheel-turn, but I think it would help for the second, by telling you how close you are to the curb. And then, yes, the little adjustments after that. Not speaking from experience.
Back when I drove a Mini Cooper, I actually more than once had people stop on the street to watch me parallel park in absurdly small spots.
*Okay, it was twice. That's more than once, though.
my car has a blind side camera too and those are sweet as well.
Blind spot cameras should be mandated by the NHTSA. I am paranoid of the risks of blind spots and still have had some near misses merging.
Apparently, if you adjust your mirrors right, there are no blind spots.
I also suck at parallel parking! And suck even more now I haven't driven in two years.
This describes me as well (though I have driven within the last two years I don't think I've had to parallel park within the last two years).
My current car has side mirrors that tilt down automatically when you reverse, so you can judge curb distance for parallel parking pretty easily. That's a really, really nice feature. It also has backup sensors (not a camera) which is a great feature in general (including for the hitting-kids anxiety) but also somewhat annoying for parallel parking, because it starts beeping like crazy when it thinks you're too close to something and thus it feels like panic mode when you're just squeezing in to a really tight spot. It's a smaller car and I think the sensors have made me more conservative than I otherwose would be parallel parking. Though since my depth perception sucks and I'm overconfident they've probably also kept me from ever hitting anything.
38-39 -- Re-adjust your side mirrors using this method immediately. I think Ogged mentioned it here before, but it's one of the few "one weird tricks" in the world that actually 100% works. No more blind spots.
Now that you mention it, I think I did hear of it here.
43: Wow, thanks! Now I'm mad this isn't the factory default. Or maybe it is but users/dealers "fix" it.
It would work as a factory default only if drivers were all the same size and nobody moved the seat.
Honestly, that fix would work wonders for the fashion industry also.
43
I have a blind spot camera (for the right side) but I also adjusted my mirrors the way the link suggests several years ago, and both are useful. Almost everyone I know who has a bs camera (/haha) wishes there was one on the left side as well.
I've had a backup camera for about a year now and yes, it's very nice for getting into tight spaces because you can see exactly how much room you have behind you.
This can be disorienting for drivers used to seeing the flanks of their own car in the side mirrors.This literally (and weirdly) makes me queasy to read. It's like finding out that most people think they're supposed to walk like Igor.
What the actual fuck is wrong with people? How can anyone think that's how side mirrors are supposed to work? Why the fuck would you need to see the sides of your own car? Are people afraid that the back fenders will come off and they won't find out until later?
I mean, I'm aware that some people do this, but I think of it as a rarity done by appallingly clueless people. But it sounds like there are millions of people out there who probably also need SAE guidelines to avoid running over their own dicks.
I've never had the 36 experience, but I have been complimented by strangers for especially adept parking.
Our street is two-way, but there's no parking enforcement, and the 4 houses across the street from me were long ago replaced by a parking lot that exits to the alley on the other side. The upshot of which is that parking spaces in front of my house are equally likely to be on either side, and there's no real reason to turn around to always park facing the right way. So I don't even have a strong sense anymore of which is the "normal" parallel parking direction (it helps that the other place I park most often is Penn Ave in the Strip District, which is one way). I mean, I'm sure I park on the right side more often, even much more, but it's like 2/3, not 90% or whatever.
My dad's car has the camera, and it's useful-ish because A. I'm not used to driving it, and B. rear visibility sucks, but I don't care for it much.
I'm going to miss this pre-digital car when it passes on. No screen, no gadgets, and the only driver assists are ABS (biggest safety improvement since airbags IMO) and I think some sort of traction control, although it's AWD* so I don't even know if that's true. Actually, I think I"m thinking of my old Jetta.
*which I didn't want but was basically mandatory for the other options I wanted. I was adamant enough that the dealer barely charged me for it (I'm sure he did fine, but I didn't pay remotely the listed uncharge for it).
50 - almost everyone has their side mirrors set to see a portion of their own car in the window, which creates a blind spot. I don't have hard evidence at hand but I would bet that 95%+ of US drivers have their mirrors set that (clearly incorrect) way. I did too, until I read the article linked in 43 (because a friend wrote it). Why mirror ignorance persists, who knows, but I believe that is how almost everyone was taught to set their side mirrors.
You know what camera I want? One that can fly out in front of me when I'm trying to pull onto a street but my view is blocked by parked cars. Good lord would that be useful.
What the actual fuck is wrong with people? How can anyone think that's how side mirrors are supposed to work? Why the fuck would you need to see the sides of your own car?
MEEEEEEEE. I like to see a teeny bit of my own car in order to anchor what I'm seeing in the mirror.
55 - Like the car periscope from Curb Your Enthusiasm. That was a good idea.
On the third thing:
I'm sure it's a coincidence or false memory or whatever, but I swear that, during the current round of Daniels news, I've seen more cleavage pics of her than the entire scandal to date. Like, the news outlets have ISTM mostly been sticking to non-salacious pictures of her at events where she basically just looks like any (busty) actress in a fancy dress. But the last couple days I've been seeing much more risqué pictures. Still in fancy dress, but much more of a "the dress everyone talks about the day after the Oscars" thing. And I think not from the same event, either, although I wasn't paying that much attention.
Addendum to 57: I also look over my shoulder every time I'm changing lanes and check my blind spot. I do not rely on my mirrors.
57: But, but... sigh.
Look, when your mirrors are right, they form a perfect triptych of what's behind you. So your side mirror is showing what's just off of your center mirror*, which shows a cone centered on your own car. It's a continuous panorama; why would you need an anchor? When you turn your head, do you hold up a finger to keep track of where your field of vision started?
Gah!
*obviously with some overlap, but not much
I was good at parallel parking when I first learned how to drive. But then I didn't have a car and a few years later I had lost the skill. The rest was easy enough to remember.
I think of seeing the side of the car in the mirror as the default position, but the linked article points out it's also the position that lets you use the side mirrors to back up if you want. Which is not a good reason to set them that way, but it is at least a little more of a reason than "because that's what I like to see".
There are probably hundreds of instructional YouTube videos on parallel parking and I've never found one that really helps me, because their directions assume I can see the car from the outside. I don't intuitively know what my wheels are lined up with, folks!
My car doesn't have a backup camera or the tilty mirrors or power windows and locks or air conditioning or any of that fluff. But does have a stick, at least. I do enjoy it so.
54: It's the heterosexual male equivalent to wearing the wrong size of bra.
"I also look over my shoulder every time I'm changing lanes"
AAAAAAHHHH.
Seriously, I think you would fail your driving test for doing that over here.
(And I was similarly aghast to JRoth to hear that lots of people are driving round with their mirrors set wrong.)
You should, on the other hand, be turning round to look while you are reversing, especially in a confined space, rather than relying on mirrors.
Or ideally you should get someone else to stand in front of you and marshal you in. But that's obviously not always possible.
Seriously, I think you would fail your driving test for doing that over here.
It's in our state driver's handbook here:
Before changing lanes, look into your rearview mirror for nearby vehicles and over your shoulder to check for blind spots. Blind spots can hide a motorcyclist, a vehicle, or a bicyclist.
If you need a kick ass name for a short story, you could do a lot worse than "Certain Still Images".
Right. SMOG. Signal, Mirrors, Over the shoulder glance, Go.
68: The best backer-uppers are truck drivers and they rely completely on mirrors. And even in a car, three mirrors give a better field of vision than cranking your neck around, even before adding a backup camera.
Agreed with everyone else that you are taught in driver's ed that blind spots always exist and you need to turn your head to look when changing lanes.
5: My DC-based sister learned that about her manual transmission! But she drives it like a rockstar now.
The right-side-view camera, IMO, is far more important than the back-up camera, although both are nice.
74: Yes. Right after don't spit out of the front window if the back window is open and somebody is sitting there.
69: Ditto here.
Finally, pay attention to what is happening in the left-rear and right-rear areas behind you (Areas 4 and 5 of the space management diagram). You need to know how close other vehicles are to your vehicle and how fast they are traveling. These areas are blind spots, always check them by turning your head before changing lanes.
I like having some visual overlap to make sure there isn't a gap; I'm slightly paranoid that there's going to be an internal blindspot. This does require turning my head around. Doing so means I might not attempt some lane shifts I could have made had I been more responsive (or if I didn't drive an underpowered car). I've thought about changing it to the system suggested here, but it's a hard thing to retrain.
Honestly, I usually pick a lane and stick with it until it exits the road or I do.
(or if I didn't drive an underpowered car
Let's fight the real enemy!
OT: Should I get an Essential phone?
80: Enh, I've gotten a lot of years out of my Volvo 240; I can get a few more out of it. Maybe. It's starting to be uncomfortable and the cost of repair is going up. The shift to a modern car will be amazing, though; I imagine it'll be similar to when I switched to a smartphone.
Man, I wish Volvo still made cars like that. I loved my parents' 240 wagon.
Current Volvo wagons are pretty sweet though. And there's a new V60 in 2018.
The new Volvo wagons may be as nice as the Volvo 240 of the 1980s, but you don't see as many of them winning Formula One races.
I think Ogged mentioned it here before
My work here is done. I was reading up from the bottom and had decided not to be the crotchety old man who kept saying "ADJUST YOUR MIRRORS." And now I don't have to.
And modesty aside, I'm a goddamn fantastic parallel parker. Here's the secret, or at least what you should practice: make your first cut into the spot, THEN STOP AND TURN THE WHEEL ALL THE WAY IN THE OTHER DIRECTION before proceeding. If you make the cut and then slowly roll while turning the wheel, you'll hit the curb.
Why mirror ignorance persists, who knows, but I believe that is how almost everyone was taught to set their side mirrors.
It's unsettling to not have a fixed reference in view. That feeling, as all are, is irrational.
Current Volvo wagons are pretty sweet
Volvo is making the nicest mass-market cars these days.
Volvo is making the nicest mass-market cars these days.
Bi-directional trolling is classic ogged -- a rare skill indeed.
Current Volvo cars are awesome, but indulgent luxuries. Not at a point in my life where I feel like I can put that much money into a rapidly deprecating asset. Honestly, I'm just waiting for a mid market electric car I can drive cross-state in on one charge.
Or, alternatively, move to Rhode Island.
On preview, Kreskin stole my joke. Except I was going to say Delaware.
I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Delaware.
"Fixed interval" and "intermittent" don't really belong in the same description of the same thing.
From Stormy Daniel's twitter feed:
I actually took a screenshot of my favorite troll a couple days ago. I laughed so hard I couldn't even respond. When someone can't even insult you correctly ( you're all welcome. Enjoy)
(screenshot text)
"ROFL as if Donald trump would sleep with a disease ridden slut like you, all you are is a glorified prostitute after quick cash. Why would he want you when he has Ivanka? better looking and miles more classy than you could ever hope to be. People like you give women a bad rep."
(I'm assuming the jerk actually meant "Melania".)
You can almost get across PA in a Bolt (and all the way in a Tesla S or Model 3). But really all you need is a level 3 station and you can get across, with a half-hour for lunch during the charge. But it looks like PA in its wisdom put all the Level 3 chargers on the Turnpike right next to Philadelphia.
The better to service the Tesla-driving elites of the East Coast corridor.
It's like we don't even exist in this state...
A useful graphic from Josh Marshall showing the players in the Stormy Trump saga. The universe of folks who may have seen or heard about the 'certain still images and/or text messages which were authored by or relate to DD*" seems problematic for DD.
*DT in his David Dennison persona.
I was a good parallel parker when I lived near Golden Gate Park, and after a few days in a row of having to parallel park I start to improve again noticeably. But when I live somewhere where I rarely have to do it, I get out of practice very quickly.
Not that it matters since we're on the verge of presidential greatness in this country.
Erin Burnett* from CNN opines this evening:
Just an extraordinary evening and, of course, opening the door to the big question," she said. "If President Trump could truly solve this problem, that would be going down as a great president. There is no getting around that.*Actually I generally find her relatively decent compared to her peers, but prone to getting carried away in the moment. We end up watching her for a bit when we frantically click away after watching Jeopardy! (because if you ever actually hear the Wheel of Fortune theme you turn into a pillar of salt). She is certainly preferable to misogynistic flapping nitwit Chris Matthews. Hockey when available is the best of course. Or nothing at al of course.
It's funny, I can back up using the mirrors only, but I almost never do. I should probably force myself to be more conscious about these things and train myself to use the mirrors consistently, but usually when I get home I just want to get the fuck out of the car and I'll pass up any space that requires almost any work in favor of one that's easier to park in even if it's farther away. Almost anywhere else I go, parking is in marked spaces in a lot.
I have gotten really bad about judging the curb near where I live in the past few years and I have no idea why. It could be the arc of the road leading me to think I'm closer than I really am. I live on a flat street but the road has a slope steep enough that the doors on one side of the car will slam shut on their own.
78: Although the same Manual (PA) has the procedure that pretty much corresponds to setting mirrors wider than most people do.
5. Adjust the rearview and side mirrors - To remove blind spots around your vehicle, the rearview and side
mirrors may have to be adjusted differently for each driver. The rearview mirror should be set so you can see
the traffic directly behind your vehicle. The side mirror(s) should be set so when you lean left/right you can just
barely see the side of your vehicle. Set the mirrors after you adjust your seat.
Right, "barely see" the side of the vehicle is what I learned too. But that's still quite a ways from that optimal mirror positioning suggested above.
104: No, the key is barely seeing when *leaning* left or right (but the manual probably errs by not stating how much and I think most would still not set them wide enough) . I think the guideline for left is to lean far enough so your head is touching the window and *then "barely see" the side and to the right when you are the center line of the car and then "barely see."
Leaning against the window to look at the mirrors is a completely foreign concept to me, I'll admit.
my brother- and sister-in-law have three old volvo 240s and they're the best. they live in a neighborhood with a lot of maseratis and such tooling about, so it's nice to pull out of the driveway in 2,000 lbs of american steel, confident that other vehicles would crumple like bugs on a windshield if they should ever hit the car. plus they are getting custom plates that say "kunst immer trotzdem", one word for each car. nothing like your favorite lukács quote I guess. they have kunst and immer and are just awaiting trotzdem. it's so adorably like them.
I am the crochety old man of mirrors. Set up is easy: head in normal driving position, rearview set to see straight back. Now set up each side mirror to pick up its side exactly where the rearview leaves off. DONE.
These areas are blind spots, always check them by turning your head before changing lanes.
OK, I suppose "turning your head" is not necessarily "turning right round and looking behind you". and the Highway Code says "Overtake only when it is safe and legal to do so. You should: ...use your mirrors, signal when it is safe to do so, take a quick sideways glance if necessary into the blind spot area and then start to move out..."
so it's nice to pull out of the driveway in 2,000 lbs of american steel
Swedish steel, no?
Used Volvos are the vehicle of choice for parents in my town who want to buy a car for one of their teenagers. "They're safe!"
I tend to turn my head slightly to the left/right when I'm about to change lanes, because I believe our visual processing is willing to fill in an area with made-up background unless we are looking more directly at it.
Volvos are pretty roomy. Sounds too easy to get pregnant in one.
It's like Moby has never even seen the Volvo symbol.
British, so I'm pretty good at parallel parking, and at driving in absurdly tight spaces. This isn't because we get handed a special skill when we learn to drive, it's just that this is a car dense island with roads, that, in most towns, were planned and built before cars existed. So 'too narrow for cars' is basically the default in a lot of places.
So while I know people who can't parallel park, and who panic on reversing, I'd say it's probably a much more useful (and thus more common) skill here.
I guess he does look a little chopped off.
If you're going to have an old car, my current thinking is that it should be a tiny 70s Datsun that you retrofit with a huge electric engine. I know a guy who's imitating the dude in the linked video by swapping an electric engine into a 70s Datsun 280Z to get insane torque, no weight at all, and the awesomeness of being the coolest guy of 1977 with a superfast engine from the future. Some of you are probably handy/nerdy enough to pull that off.
117 California weather FTW, I haven't seen a 70s era Datsun that wasn't completely rusted to shit since, well, the 70s. I remember once seeing rusted to shit Datsun pick-up truck that had repainted the Datsun name as Rotsun on the tailgate.
I pretty much use mirrors only when reversing or parallel parking. Truck-driver style.
There's a car park where I often leave my car in Ealing, where the Ghanian guy who runs it insists you all park super close (so he can get more cars in), and he'll carefully guide you into the space. It's transparently obvious when watching others park which drivers are using their mirrors to park, and which are not.
It's also transparently obvious that drivers of SUVs are generally shit drivers.
I'm ok at reverse parking, for the same reasons as 115- I do use my mirrors a lot but also like to glance back (nowadays I have to do the stereotype man thing of putting my arm behind the passenger headrest to turn myself sufficiently) AND I love my parking sensors sufficiently to have paid to have after market sensors installed when I changed cars (both cars bought second hand, previous car though older was obviously slightly higher spec as the sensors came as standard).
The sensors are more useful for getting into weird spaces rather than parallel parking per se (I generally reverse into all spaces, in work this involves some complicated angling around idiots who park where they shouldn't.)
Not sure a camera would be an improvement as I find swapping the frame of reference tricky.
(Somebody might change 121 to actual thinly disguised pseud though I'm not sure it makes much difference at this point)
I can't change anything. The best I can do is bury it in a sea of bad puns.
If your mirror is adjusted so you can't see the side of the car, how do you figure out if you are driving around with your gas cap door open?
Far and away the worst "blind spot" I have experienced several times has been as a relatively tall person in a smallish car where the rearview mirror makes a nice car-shaped blind spot to the front-right that can come into play with a road entering from the right at a slightly higher elevation. Have had two near-misses where I was just taken completely by surprise by the sudden appearance of vehicle in that quadrant.
The surprise, sudden appearance of a DeLorean can mean only one thing.
126: We're saved from this timeline?
Who knows how many killer blindspot intersections exist?
The Shadow* knows.
* of the pillar.
81: I got an Essential Phone a few months back and have been generally happy with it. It definitely has the "elegant" smarphone thing going on, but to be honest the only reason I bought it was that it seems to be the only Android phone that doesn't have Facebook baked into it. Giving up the SD card slot has been less a problem than I thought, but losing the headphone jack has been slightly more annoying than I anticipated because I once had to charge it while on the train and so couldn't listen to podcasts. I guess bluetooth headphones solves that, but I don't want another thing I have to charge regurlarly in my life.
90: I'm the guy who was tipped into buying the V60 Polestar on the strength of Halford's recommendation, and I say every single one of you should buy one. Though the 2018 V60 does look very pretty. Or there's always the new Polestar 1 if you want a bitchin hybrid electric grand coupe...
85: No, but they did win the World Touring Car Championship, beating out Ferrari, McLaren, Audi, and Porsche teams.
Thanks. I don't really use headphones, so that's not a problem. Mostly, I want to avoid forced software and paying more than $500.
133: It definitely has the least bloatware of any Android Phone I could find, and even most of what it comes with you can remove.
the 2018 V60 does look very pretty
The new one is the 2019 (and that's when, according to the Volvo site, it will be available).
81, 130: If you want a basic Android sans the annoying ware manufacturers add for branding purposes, the Moto X4 fits that bill pretty well. $249 via Google Fi.
I was thinking the VW Golf Alltrack might be the eurowagon that's more in my price range.
115: Can I tell you that this business of cars parallel parking in both directions on either side of the street in this country damn near got me killed over and over while I was still learning the right way to look crossing the street during my first year.
The narrow roads are among several reasons I have no desire to drive here but in London I don't even love walking.
I adjusted my mirrors this morning and realized that around here I still have to glance before changing lanes to check for people suddenly merging from the other side of an open lane.
I might buy a Subaru just to angry up Halford again. Although it's the category of car the Crossfit is in that I want, not any specific car.
Now that I have a car I don't understand why anyone buys luxury-tier. Entry-level cars are so good these days there is no feature that I can see is worth the price differential. (Discarding engine power as an adolescent desire, obviously.)
Discarding engine power as an adolescent desire
You have fully become your economic servitude.
In seriousness, I hear you. My mom has a new Civic, which is infinitely nicer than my 15-year-old minivan, and lacks for nothing (save good speakers, which can be added for a couple thousand bucks, tops), but...fast cars are a lot of fun, bro.
You all know my priors, but 100% seriously and honestly I think that 142 is just plain not true. Whenever I've upgraded to a better car, I've felt an immediate and profound quality of life difference. Power and handling and build and feel matter, not for "adolescent" stuff but just because the car is for driving and better driving makes you feel better. Not to mention finishes and whatever. If you spend at least 45 minutes- an hour a day total in a car small things start to become really important, and you just will have a better quality of life in, e.g., a new 3-series (to pick the most basic "luxury" car) than in a new Honda Fit. For me it is extremely noticeable and important. Maybe the opportunity cost of the money you'd use to upgrade to a better car makes paying for the upgrade not worth it (I certainly think this is for real -- I have a nice but not extraordinarily expensive car, even though I love cars, because I'd rather not scrimp in other areas like food or trips to pay for one), but it's just wrong to say that fancier cars aren't significantly better in ways that are immediately meaningful.
Which isn't to say that most entry-level cars these days are not pretty great. They are! A new Honda Fit is such a profoundly better car than just about anything on the road in, say, 1989.
"if you spend at least 45 minutes- an hour a day total in a car".
So glad I do not live like that at all.
(Just hit 15,000 miles in the car I bought 3.5 years ago and pretty much only use on the weekend).
Whenever I've upgraded to a better car, I've felt an immediate and profound quality of life difference.
I suppose I should not deny your lived experience, at least.
144. My quality of life improved immeasurably when I moved so that I could stop driving to and from work, and could walk for about a third of my errands.
Harried commute on a crowded road makes me hate the the other drivers, similarly about half of parking lot experiences. Driving is just a shitshow, do less of it to have a better life.
For myself, I like walking best of all, but I'd rather have my 1/2 hour car commute than the 45 minutes on the subway I had (briefly) in NYC, and preferred the subway commute to the few times I've had a bus commute, which was the worst (I'd probably prefer an 1-1/2 hour train commute to a 1-1/2 hour drive, though). Just personal taste. Walking and empty roads on the weekends to drive on would be best of all, but that would definitely favor a nicer car.
I honestly don't mind my commute. It's about 30-40 minutes. Traffic is no longer nonexistent like it was 10 years ago, but it's not yet a problem. I like my podcasts, I like forced unproductivity, I like letting my mind wander or thinking in a structured way about my day.
I get really annoyed walking while carrying heavy things or getting too sweaty in work clothes, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about a 30 minute walk to work.
I guess I'm the guy in Repo Man. I can think on the bus or metro most of the time. Even when I can't think, I generally feel benevolent towards and aware of the other people as human beings. I have a hard time doing that while driving.
I have lots of workdays where I mostly interact with a computer-- maybe that's part of my antipathy to car commuting.
Much prefer a subway commute even if longer. I read a lot of books on the subway.
This is Trump's play to "win", isn't it: peaceful surrender of North Korea or war.
It looks like he's already walking back his offer to meeting with North Korea.
As usual for a Friday, I took the afternoon off to go skiing. Took my 2000 Passat: the wife washed her Subaru, which we usually use for skiing, in preparation for our weekend trip to Helena, and I don't like to drive my leased 2016 Passat -- business only, really -- on the very muddy road up to the hill. So, I'm cruising along, loving the V6 and the stick, when a deer comes bounding across the road. Sees me the same time I see it, we each try some evasion, but it's not enough. Shattered my drivers side mirror, no other damage. Deer was stunned for a few seconds, got up and ran off.
I looked around on the way home. No blood anywhere, no birds circling. Seems like it was just one of those things.
(I'm sure I mentioned back when I lived 100 ft from DC, I preferred the bus to the metro. Sunlight and, for some reason I never understood, way more female passengers, make for a more pleasant commuting experience.)
Glad nobody got hurt and the deer apparently didn't get hurt too bad.
LISTEN, PAL, WHERE I COME FROM I'M REALLY SOMEBODY!
2nd 148/153. Buses really suck if you have to stand though. (Here, anyway. Probably better with dedicated lanes.)
Um, so since this is the current(ish) going thread for noodling-around, miscellaneous topics:
Has anyone tried an online-only bank? I see that a number of places offer something like a 1.50% interest rate on savings account -- sounds good!
I'm looking at Synchrony Bank, something called CIT, and Ally. Any experiences, or am I speaking Greek here?
My mom has banked exclusively with Synchrony for a couple of years. She likes it. I have several friends who bank exclusively with USAA, which is what, were I not too lazy to switch, I would do.
Κρύβουμε χρήματα στο ψωμί πίτας.
I wasn't aware USAA had banking. My dad was in the military, but my parents weren't members themselves: I've tried to sign up as a child of military, but apparently if your parents weren't themselves members, it's not straightforward. (Last time I looked into it, they didn't recognize who my father was ... I should pursue it.)
Anyway, Synchrony had been my first choice. I'll need to poke around a bit more.
I've noticed over the past few years that I'm an obviously less good driver than I used to be, including when it comes to parallel parking. Getting old is no joke, turns out.
Also, I like my Volvo just fine. It's treated me well, handles nicely on the highway (I never drive fast enough for such things to matter in town), and is quite comfortable: good seats and pretty quiet. I bought one before they switched to the touchscreen, so my media/etc. interface is crappy. But I'm used to it, so it's not a big deal.
Trump has cut taxes and promised stimulus spending plus done his level best to start a trade war. There's a very real risk of significant inflation. Anyway, this is not financial advice, but my financial advice is don't do long-term CDs. There's also a very real risk of a nuclear war starting for reasons that make Dr. Stranglove seem reasonable, but I don't know what to do about that.
166: Yeah, no, everything is shorter-term here. Hoping to buy a home this year, so I'm keeping cash in reserve.
The 240 was a hell of a car but the seats were the most uncomfortable of any I think I've ever sat in.
110: US steel was the best at the time so they imported it.
How are the mighty fallen, and the trade-patterns of yore perished.
OT but yesterday I tried that chilli recipe that ogged posted a couple of weeks ago and it's damn good. Thanks.
Possibly a little spicier than I expected but at least now I know what bird's eye chillis are and why you should use them sparingly if at all. Still very enjoyable. Ate it with plain rice and lime juice which seemed to work well.
Just hit 15,000 miles in the car I bought 3.5 years ago
I have 21K on a car I bought new a year ago, but probably 1/3 of those miles are driving around town in the middle of the night flipping pokemon gyms.
You're one of those guy? I see them buzz in and out while I'm standing there.
I'm having to go further and further afield to find gyms I haven't gotten a gold badge on already. Currently at 67.
I didn't realize there were different levels of gym badges until now. I see I only have six gold badges (the three gyms closest to my house and the three closest to my office).
500 gym points to turn it bronze, 4000 for silver, 30,000 for gold.
I'm very close to gold at the local Holocaust memorial. I probably would already be gold, but I feel a bit creepy hanging out at the Holocaust memorial at night.
The Holocaust memorial is a Pokemon Go location???
It's not a very sobering one, as far as these things go.
I'm focused on East Durham around NCCU right now. I've had several late-night conversations with police, who have been consistently friendly and amused. Last night I got my first prostitute proposition while I was parked behind the Fayetteville St. library branch. She was also friendly and amused when I explained I was just playing a children's game and not actually looking for company, despite appearances.
I don't have a single North Carolina gym badge.
182: literally the first, second and third things I thought of were terrible, tasteless, insensitive jokes. I am a bad person.
182: If anything, a lot of drinking went into it.
185: Your tasteless joke probably would have lacked the local knowledge of the tasteless joke in 186.
I guess it's not even tasteless, but you need local context to know why it isn't.
I love USAA for, among other things, its reimbursement of your ATM fees (to compensate for no ATMs of its own).
I get that it's a membership organization, with a continuing focus on military families, but I don't get why they spend so much money on advertising when their rules don't let the average non-military-connected person sign up for much of their services. Maybe car insurance for randos subsidizes other services that members get, or something.
Maybe their advertising kick was an experiment now abandoned.
189 I could bank with USAA and probably should but I still use my credit union for my US banking needs.
Well, I went with Ally Bank: 1.45% interest, compounded daily, on a high-yield savings account. Nearly 2% interest on an 18-month CD (over $5,000).
So far very good with respect to the online interface, including live chat.
I have done all this because Bank of America recently congratulated me heartily on qualifying for a whopping 0.06% interest "booster" on savings. Hm, those guys are funny.
Those assholes once lost my whole paycheck.
I mean, they found it after a few days. But how long could it take to find something in a tiny ATM?
BofA hasn't done me particularly wrong, but 0.06% on a savings account is just silly at this point.
Interest rates (and inflation) have been so low for so long it's hard to remember there was a time not too long ago when 4-5% or so was the normal rate for a savings account or six-month CD. I can't even project back to what that felt like, since my working assumption since forever has been that a savings account/CD produces no interest income that you can see in any meaningful way whatsoever, like you might get $5-10 a year or whatever but it's all in the who gives a fuck zone.
I guess that comment shows $10 worth of privilege but so be it.
|| I'm taking on an engagement where I'll be helping another firm with a big case. Their carrier/management/somejerk has concluded that they have to not only know all my current clients & adverse parties, but every client I've worked for in 26.5 years as a lawyer. I'd like to just say 'RTFA assholes' -- because, really, what possible relevance does some railroad law research project I did in 1994 have to this lawsuit (which is not about railroads!) -- but, you know, the case is interesting, and the pay is ok, so . . . |>
198: Can you bill them for the research time it'll take to list all of your clients? That could be the time sink sweeter.
196: Same. My immediate assumption when I saw 192 was that this couldn't be FDIC-insured, but it looks like I was wrong.
Nope.
It's easy to do from July 2009 onward -- it's all in my billing system (but it's taken a couple of hours to get the names right, because I keep times with acronyms, abbreviations, and nick names).
I've asked my former firm to send me a print-out -- the request is wending its way through the bureaucracy. Even then, it'll take half a day to edit. And some poor clerk at the other end is going to have to input it all. I'm just hoping I don't have to spend all day tomorrow trying to remember 18 years worth of projects. RTFA, assholes!
196 is correct. I don't even know what makes my savings account different from my checking account except that it can't easily be drained if someone steals my ATM card.
Probably anyone under 40 shares these assumptions, based on lack of any evidence to the contrary:
There is no noticeable inflation. Prices will probably rise on some things but also go down on other things, like technology.
You do not get any interest on bank accounts, only on "investments".
You do not expect a raise unless you get a new job, because there's no need for cost of living adjustments.
Further to that... inflation is the last thing I worry about. However I have these expectations:
- Bills will go up every year (utilities, cable, internet)
- Rent will go up every year
- Price of goods will not go up noticeably, and some will go down
So the things that are going to go up are things you can't pay for now rather than later. You are just doomed to have less disposable income because of these fixed costs. It's not like the inflation of the 70s where you'd better buy the refrigerator now because your dollar will be worth less in a year. How can we do anything to adapt to it?
- Health insurance will go up every year
I don't understand how rent and health insurance going up isn't seen as noticeable inflation in a generalized sense. Housing and health insurance are my two biggest expenses.
I mean, my housing cost is largely fixed because we own. It's actually gone down a bit since we bought because of property tax reassessment, but if it were going up, I'd would call it noticeable.
Rent, utilities, and health insurance are all counted in CPI. If those are going up, then something else must be going down.
I don't think utilities are going up. The gas bill has been very low lately, because fracking. Water is going up, because of shit in the river issues. Electricity about the same. The phone bill seems very cheap to me, because I'm getting landline and internet for less than I paid for just the landline back in the days before the internet (let me tell you a story of long, long ago when you could call your mom and it would cost you $10 for just the one call). And Hulu plus Netflix is less than I paid for cable back then.
Growth in housing costs is kind of bimodal by location, isn't it? Outside the denser metro areas, they just keep building out and prices stay fairly level - as long as you can offload the social cost of all the cars and car infrastructure, of course.
I think food and clothing prices are pretty flat over time, that's another counterbalance.
Have cars gotten cheaper, on net? It costs more to buy a car, but they are so much cheaper to run and they last so much better.
That could just be me because I hardly drive anywhere these days.
OK, I was wrong about food, though a lot of the growth there comes from restaurant food.
Annualized inflation Jan. 2013-Jan. 2018 by major category, in order of how much the CPI weights each category:
Housing: 2.5% (weighted 0.42)
Transportation: -0.7% (0.17)
Medical care: 2.7% (0.09)
Food at home: 0.5%
Food away from home: 2.5%
Education and communication: 0.2%
Recreation: 0.7%
Apparel: -0.4%
Alcoholic beverages: 1.2%
Other goods and services: 1.9%
All items: 1.5%
211: That's one of the problems with CPI, isn't it? Adjusting prices for quality is super-fraught.
But to answer your question, the price index for "new cars and trucks" only grew by 0.15% annually from 2013. "Used cars and trucks" dropped 1.23% annually.
Similar picture if you look at 20 years, 1998 to 2018. New cars up 0.08% annually, used cars down 0.4% annually.
211 I've mentioned before that the sale price of my leased 2015 Passat was 20% lower than the purchase price of my 2000 Passat, in nominal terms. Is that like half price, inflation adjusted? Both gas powered. I don't know but my guess is that the electronics in the thing, and the electronics used to make the thing, are way way cheaper now than in 2000.
Used cars and trucks" dropped 1.23% annually.
I'm curious how much of that is diesels. Here in Europe, the bottom has fallen out of the market.
I don't think America has enough diesel cars and trucks (excluding semis) to hurt the market.
I'll add that VW makes a couple of models now that they didn't have in 2000, which are quite expensive. So you can end up with the fleet average price going up a bit while the price for a particular model has gone way down.
It wouldn't surprise me if this was pretty common.
I would never buy VW again after the shit they pulled.
I keep hearing about how nobody buys sedans anymore, everyone buys those things that are like SUVs but slightly smaller, so that would make the fleet average price go up.
Nothing looks as rented as a rented sedan, but mostly because of the little "Hertz" sticker they put on the trunk.
Crossovers.
I still haven't taken the car rental stickers off my used Hyundai.
||
This comment, in the wikipedia entry for Tracy Chapman, is depressing: "Rolling Stone ranked 'fast car' number 167 on their 2010 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[6] It is the highest-ranking song both written and performed by a female performer. "
It's not really surprising, but it's so stark. Can it really be the case that the 167 greatest songs of all time were all written or performed by men? That no woman has written and performed a better song than "Fast Car" (which is fantastic but . . . )
|>
Aimee Mann has a few I would rate higher, but I might be overvaluing morose white women.
I was thinking about it on the way home. Joni Mitchel is the most obvious person I'd expect to see high on that list. You could make a case for Carole King (in part because, like many of the people on the list, she was extremely influential). Aimee Mann . . .
#49 on the list is "Hotel California." I think it should be possible to literally come up with 48 songs by women that are better than "Hotel California." (and I am somewhat fond of the Eagles).
"Do The Locomotion" is a better song than either Fast Car or Hotel California, and was written by Carole King.
I'm not a big boomer hater and like me some classic rock but agrwarfh Rolling Stone and its lists. There are probably 48 songs by Carole King or Joni Mitchell, individually, than Hotel California. "Walk Like An Egyptian" is a better song. I bet we could cone up with 2000 examples in a matter of days.
I don't think "Walk Like An Egyptian" was written by a woman. I thought it was written by Prince, but Wikipedia says I'm wrong. It was written by somebody named Liam.
Agh, shows what going from memory does. How about as a dark horse "That's what friends are for" sung by Dionne Warwick, written by Carole Bayer Sager.
I just figured out Carole King wasn't in Taxi.
Anyway, this is too stupid. Take ten Patti Smith songs, ten Joni Mitchell songs, 10 peggy lee songs, 10 Stevie Nicks songs, 10 Dolly Parton songs, 10 PJ Harvey songs, 50 Carole King songs, and you have 100 better songs right there.
110 better songs,whatever. Oh Sade wrote her songs, obviously "Smooth Operator," which was secretly dedicated by Sade to me, is the best pop song of all time.
In particular RS put "It's a man's man's world" ahead of every song written and performed by a woman.
Jolene's at 219 and really should be top 50.
232.1 -- that is hilarious.
232.2 - right on. I think I'd personally put every single song on the album Jolene above either Hotel California or Fast Car. It has "I Will Always Love You" on it which definitely never produced a successful cover version.
I'd put "Call Me, Maybe" above "Hotel California".
RS lists are a waste of good trees. Always were. However, specifically 226, 230 are clearly right.
227: Just to clear things up for you, Moby -- Manic Monday is the Bangles song that was written by Prince.
236 is truth.
All those kinds of lists are stupid, but some stupid part of me always has to study them.
Honestly, I think music is mostly overrated across the board.
