Miles O'Brien

worth

From someone who remembers the people’s champions…

[X] Doubt

I used to sell and fix bikes, now every time I’m out I’m judging people’s choice of bikes.

Not in the “ugh you’re riding a mongoose?” way but the “you need to give that bicycle to a teenager and get a larger one that fits your size, how tall are you? What kind of riding are you expecting to do?” and many other such questions if I strike up a conversation with them.

I want everyone to have a pleasant time while out on their bike. If they don’t have fun, if they are too tired after a ride, or in pain, they won’t want to ride more, and then less people are out not driving cars.

Lpt: (in general) when riding a bicycle, you want the top section of your leg (femur) to be no higher than parallel to the ground at the top of the pedal stroke, and you want your leg to be extended, but not fully straight, when at the bottom of the stroke. You can injure your hips, knees, and leg muscles if you ride an incorrectly sized bike for long periods.

Most adult bicycles should be measured from the spot where the pedals go to the frame to the hole where the seat post goes in. If it’s not measured in inches or centimeters, it might have letter sizing, and if it has bone of those, I wouldn’t trust the quality of the bike. These measurements are more of a guide, when in doubt, use the leg position rule.

The type of bike you have will change your experience quite a bit. If you try to take a road bike (super skinny tires, often has ram horn handlebars) on the mountain trail, you’re gonna have a bad time. Mountain bikes are geared for more power, road bikes are more geared for speed. Hybrids have a good balance and make light off-roading possible. Downhill bikes are like mountain bikes but with a steeper angle on the front fork, to give you better handling while, you guessed it, going down a hill.

I die a little inside every time I see an adult riding a child sized bike.

“well the teenager at Walmart said I needed a 26 inch bike for the hiking trails so I got the 26 inch bike” he said, standing at 6ft3 next to a 15 inch frame bike with 26 inch wheels and tires about an inch wide…

And now when I see aluminum construction, I wonder how it’s been done and try to figure out the various extruded pieces they used.

Ah, then no forced air through ventilation ducts to move air around.

My current house doesn’t have vents either, but I have fans that move air around the important bits that get occupied the most. With my dogs needing to go out, and work, the doors are open enough, and there’s enough leakage to not worry about co2 levels. Except my wife sometimes trips the sensor in the hallway when she takes a long bath while burning multiple candles…

Lpt: if your residence has central heating/ac and was made within the last 50 years then your house is probably getting sufficient airflow.

I feel very bad for whoever considers me a villain in their story.

Like not to belittle them or their struggles, but uh… gestures to self just look at me…

I’m sure that England has been glad to be rid of us for quite some time. We haven’t been very good allies in my lifetime, let alone before that.

I’m also equally sure plenty of Americans today would rather be somewhere in the UK.

Nationalists will attack anyone who doesn’t hold their exact narrow worldview from their narrowly defined area, regardless of which nationality they hold.

American nationalists are just called “republicans” (although plenty of democrats could be considered nationalists, it’s a bit of a “not all squares/rectangles” situation)

My parents are definitely in the “resist status-quo change” group, but I would argue they do understand “the cause” at least when it comes to American politics. They’re vocally against fascism in private, but any sort of resistance is illegal and therefore wrong. And it’s too bad these politicians are doing fascism, because they’re supposed to be good God-fearing types who just want abortion to stop.

Without an ounce of thought behind it, my mother will say medically necessary abortions should be allowed, and vote for someone who loudly tells everyone they won’t allow any at all. Will say ICE shouldn’t be executing people, but will happily support funding for them. Doesn’t like that the US keeps putting its military boot into other countries’ doors, but still says “support our troops”

I don’t get the fascination with sports either, but I get emotional about the stories in video games. I imagine someone who loves sports but doesn’t care for video games might view my tears over pixels as pathetic. My outrage at imginary injustice from a judgemental npc as ridiculous.

I have all these feelings for random collections of pixels on a screen. They can have their feelings for random groups of people.

I have to stop myself from mocking my brother in law for yelling at his TV on apparently bad plays, because I definitely have yelled at my screen before over a death, or plot twist.

Having children.

That’s a mistake I’m not going to repeat.

For interacting with kids, I always try to act like I’m interested in the things they’re talking about. It doesn’t matter if it’s their tiny life goals, or that cool rock they saw yesterday that wasn’t as cool as the rock they saw last month at the museum.

Nobody was ever interested in anything I have to say, and even after being with my wife for 6 years, she’s still trying to get me to talk more. Even I want to share something, my brain still says “they’re not interested, don’t bother” and I just keep it to myself. That’s probably why I like to comment on platforms like this so much, I can speak my piece and then move on and if anyone is interested in replying, I get a (usually) nice interaction with someone for a few minutes.

My wife’s dead sister used to scream at her children when they spoke because she “doesn’t want to hear [their] bullshit” and whenever her youngest would start giggling at something she was talking about she would scream at her to shut up because she’s annoying. The oldest was old enough to remember all of this perfectly, the youngest just has night terrors she can never remember.

My wife’s living sister just ignores her 8 children when they’re talking. Almost never even looks away from her phone or laptop when they talk and goes “yeah, uh-huh, mhmm, yep” and so on to make it seem like she’s listening. The oldest has caught on and has started saying off the wall stuff like “my head came off at school and the teacher kicked it into the trash” and things like that to see if her mother even notices. Usually she doesn’t.

It’s not enough to just be technically listening. You have to show interest. It’s not always easy, and when you have a lot on your plate it’s even harder, but you can sit and listen to babbling for a few minutes, it won’t hurt you, and you might make that kid’s day.

I’ve started yelling “NO PRONOUNS” and “USE HE/SHE BECAUSE HE/SHE IS NOT AN OBJECT” at my conservative relatives and acquaintances who complain about pronouns and gender-neutral anything.

No, Deborah, the non-binary person who helped you figure out your phone today is not the cause of societies’ downfall, nor are they responsible for high grocery prices.

They complain about pronouns, but use them constantly. Clearly they don’t truly know what a pronoun is. They complain about gender neutral stuff, but use neutral language all the time.

So I’ve been loudly pointing out every time they do.

I’ve been uninvited from a lot of future family gatherings. oh nooooooooooo

If you have a rule that is interpreted as “you can’t ask questions about the rule” or “no questioning the rules” then it’s a fucking stupid rule.

I’ve been shot, I’ve been stabbed, I’ve had thousands of pounds of aluminum fall straight toward me and get caught in the last half meter, I’ve had semis clip my clothing while on a bike and send me flying, I’ve been pushed off the road by shitty carbrains who can’t share anything, and I’ve been told I have less than a week before most of my organs shut down.

I’ve thought I was going to die many times. And not once did I think anything other than “huh. So this is it”. Most of the I was laughing afterward, and I’m not 100% why except maybe a nervous response.

Ultimately I don’t know if I’m emotionally prepared to die, but there’s things I am absolutely willing to die for. I’d rather NOT die, but I’d say I am accepting of it.

Uhhhhhhh I’m not actually sure I answered your question, sorry.

I got an email like this a few weeks ago, and then about 2 minutes later I got a new email with the corrected replacements.

I replied with a screenshot zoomed in on the “candidate name” bit and left it at that. Didn’t even get a half-assed “lol sorry Bruh”

We also didn’t need multiple movies with Russians as the bad guys, yet here we are.

corporations not knowing what fair use is

pretending to not know. They’re fully capable of understanding when it helps them make money.

Supposed to be. But I woke up and decided I didn’t want to go in.

Supposedly I’m giving up my holiday pay tomorrow but if I read my hiring packet correctly, their version of “holiday pay” is “well give you an hour of PTO for the day instead of the usual 3 minutes”

Of course, it doesn’t yet talk in Majel Barrett’s voice yet…

That can be arranged. I’ve heard they recorded her saying a bunch of frequently used words/phrases, as well as phonetic sounds, so that her voice could be used in the future for the computer. I’m not sure how true that is, but I am a little afraid to look it up.

I’ve always hoped to hear her in the new trek shows.

I think I’ve said this before to you a few weeks ago, and I totally understand that it’s easier said than done to cut family off, but your family are negative influences in your life and on your psyche, and you should be ignoring their bullshit and get away from them.

Sorry your family still sucks, all I can offer are platitudes I’m afraid.

To answer your question though, I think a good, solid “Shit up, shit-bagel, you wouldn’t have shit if it weren’t for me and no amount of denial on your part can change facts.” and walk away/block/slam the door.

I started out using PS but when they decided to be a subscription model, I started using GIMP.

I can’t stand trying to use photoshop anymore, and while I would love the user experience to be improved and the interface to be a little more intuitive, I’ve never been able to not do something I needed to do on gimp.

Maybe my needs are more simple than a lot of people here, I’m definitely not a photographer so if you’re using it often enough, I suppose it could be better to use photoshop.

Honestly I barely talk to my immediate family, about 60/40 because we live under one roof, and most of our communication is just sharing memes anyway.

The only relatives I care about are three democrats that realize capitalism is a problem and the rich are the true enemies of the people. The rest are all corpo-throating republicans.

And even when I was younger and dumber/more “conservative” , I still didn’t care to keep in touch with them. Just never really cared to.