Canonical_Warlock

That just seems painful. Also not sure the handle on those is wide enough to be considered a flaired base.

Duck imposter.

Ah, gotcha. I thought I was having a stroke for a second there.

What?

So I know you're just wearing a hat but when I first saw your reflection it looked like a duck and now I can't unsee it.

I once quit one of my antidepressants (venlafaxine) cold turkey and got to feel my brain throb nonstop for a month straight.

Are you kidding. This is murica! Cheese is practically a waste product of our over subsidized dairy industry. Theres a reason that there's 1.4 billion pounds of cheese in our strategic cheese reserves. Theres no reason those enchiladas couldn't be 50% cheese ~product~.

It really depends on the furnace and what exactly is breaking. For example, it isn't unusual to have to clean or replace a flame sensor every once in a while. Fan motors, sensors, and valves of all sorts will die ocasionally. If it's a really old one with a pilot light then that can also be a frequent but usually easy to fix issue.

I work in HVAC and I've still had mine quit for a bit just about every other year. I've had to replace a flame sensor a couple times, a gas valve, a sensor for the exhaust blower, and a fan motor. But my furnace is from the early 90s and was not a high end model even then. Old equipment eventually just starts breaking all over the place but if you have the skills then it can still make sense to just keep limping it along for as long as you can.

What do they even get out of cutting these cables? How does this benefit china in any way?

I've worked very closely with engineers and I'm engineering adjacent myself. Most of the highly technical types I know in every field (myself included) struggle to talk to people about their job because they no longer know what normal people do or don't know and they don't want to come across as condecendong. Like for me the basic refrigeration cycle feels like something everyone should know but I logically know that actually isn't the case and at the same time I don't know where the laymans actual knowledge on the topic begins. Like do I need to start with explaining that boiling liquids remove heat? Do I need to start with what boiling even is? Do normal people even know that things boil at different temps at different pressures? If I start explaining any of this are they jist going to look at me like I'm an ass and say "Of course I know how thermodynamics works"? Eventually I just decide it's better to not to talk to them.

At the same time though, if you do manage to break the ice with them then you are more likely to sucessfully get a passionate stream of consiousness rant from them because they're passionate and now they know that you can be trusted not to see them as being condescending when they overexplain. Honestly the best way I've found to break the ice with technical types is to get them to start complaining about some part of their job. That also sounds like exactly what you're looking for if you're trying to make their jobs easier. But if they start seeing you as someone who it is safe to complain to then they will start seeing ypu as someone it is safe to talk to about other things.

Also as always there is a relevant XKCD.

https://xkcd.com/2501/

You don't go to subway because you want a sandwich. You go to subway because you know you need to put a food like substance in your food hole and you don't have the time or mental capacity to do it properly.

I wonder if all of the places like Subway that are asking for tips and getting $0 because who the hell tips at a Subway, are throwing off this stat at all.