Slipknot puts on a pretty damn good show.

They’re not a band that’s in my usual listening rotation, I don’t dislike them, they’re just not my usual kind of music. When I saw them it was a situation where someone I knew ended up with extra tickets somehow and I was more interested in the other bands they were touring with

I’d say they stole the show but I think they were actually the headliner, so I don’t know who they would’ve stolen it from.

I’m admittedly a sucker for a spectacle, and let’s be real, that’s kind of slipknot’s whole schtick.

Yeah, malls in the US at least are really dying in a lot of places.

I stopped into one of the smaller ones near me a few months back, I had maybe an hour to kill before I had to meet someone for dinner and it was close by so I figured I’d walk around for a bit, and it was downright eerie.

There were probably as many vacant spaces as actual stores, and half of the occupied stores were closed at like 5:00 on a weekday. Parts of the mall actually seemed like they only had some of the lights on, half of the escalators were turned off or out of service and there were maybe a couple dozen other people walking around the mall.

There was one part of the mall with no open stores, dim lights, and I didn’t see anyone else around and for a minute it almost felt like I had noclipped into the backrooms.

Can’t speak for OP’s situation, but I live near one of the largest malls in the country, and there’s maybe about a half dozen smaller malls scattered around within about an hour or so.

The big mall is still doing pretty alright, but if you were around maybe about 10-20 years ago, it’s pretty obvious that the crowds are way smaller than they used to be.

The mall used to pretty much be the place to go meet up with friends, spend time walking around hanging out, a lot of times there would be different events going on at the malls, they were always packed Friday nights and weekends, etc.

Now except for maybe a few key days during the holiday season, they’re just not busy.

The smaller malls are almost deserted, lots of empty stores, and some of the spaces are being rented out for kind of weird purposes (I think one of our local politicians- a state representative something, has their office space in a mall) a few of them have closed down entirely.

It really kind of depends on the type of anchor and the intended use

The most common little plastic ones that you’re probably picturing are pretty bad in most cases, but some of the heavier duty ones are pretty damn strong if used properly

I’d tend to chalk that up to user error, if you’re putting enough force on your toilet paper holder to pull it off the wall you’re doing something besides just pulling toilet paper off of it or maybe you installed it with the world’s shittiest drywall anchors

I’ve always thought that most toilet paper holders are over engineered. You don’t need a little springy rod between 2 posts, you just need an L-shaped bar with the short end screwed to the wall and maybe a little knob on the end of the long side to keep the roll from sliding off. And it’s not that the spring style is especially difficult to use or prone to failure or anything, it just seems like a no-brainer to me to use a one-piece holder with no moving parts instead of one that has at least 4 parts (the base, 2 halves of the roller, and a spring) I’m seeing more of that style around these days, which I appreciate.

Stove vent hoods that don’t actually vent outside are fucking stupid. My over the range microwave basically just takes smoke from my stove and blows it back out over my head almost directly at the smoke detector.

I’ve frequently run into shelves, mounting brackets, etc. that seem to totally disregard stud spacing. We got one of those fancy Samsung frame TV’s a while back, to get it to sit so flush to the wall it has its own special mounting brackets, 2 little plates with sort of a modified keyhole slot that you slot 2 little knobs on the back of the TV into. It’s actually not a half bad way to mount a TV, probably one of the easier TV wall mounts I’ve ever personally used, the tv itself is actually pretty damn lightweight (because they moved all the heavy electronics into a separate box you need to hide somewhere) but still I wanted to make sure my fancy TV wouldn’t fall off the wall, so I wanted to mount it to the studs, but of course the spacing of the brackets doesn’t allow that option. I was able to bolt one side a stud but I had to get some toggle bolts for the other side. I’m pretty sure the whole TV is well within the rated weight capacity of one of those toggle bolts in drywall, let alone 2 in drywall and 2 in a stud, but still, it feels like a dumb design choice. (It’s possible that other sizes or newer models do allow for mounting entirely to studs, the size and model I got didn’t)

I helped a friend replace the wax ring on his toilet recently with one of the newer style rubber gaskets, which as it turns out made the toilet sit imperceptibly higher, which meant that the bolts holding it down were no longer quite long enough to screw the nut onto to tighten it down. With a quick trip to ace hardware and a minute perusing my options, I settled on some Danco zero cut bolts, and I definitely think that is a far superior design to the standard bolts that are probably holding down damn-near every toilet you’ve ever used.

On the subject of toilets, I can’t think of any particularly good reason for the tank to be a separate piece from the rest of the throne like on most toilets. The gasket and bolts there just add more places for something to start leaking. It’s probably an ease of manufacturing thing, but we have the technology to make one piece toilets now, the two piece style should be obsolete.

HAAAWOOO!

HAAAWOOO!

HAAAWOOO!

Something you may want to consider is a cell signal booster, cell phones are a bit limited in the size of antenna and how much power they can transmit at because everything has to fit in a neat little rectangle.

But you can get a device to hook up to your car that will retransmit your signal at a higher power. With that you "might* be able to get a signal further out than you normally would.

It would be useful for stuff like this of course but probably also just in general if you’re in an area with spotty service.

I don’t have any particular brand recommendations or anything like that, I think WeBoost caught my eye as a pretty decent-looking option at first glance but I don’t know if they’re actually any good. They’re mostly a product I’m aware exists and I intend to look into more when I have some spare time and money because I camp and hike in areas with spotty reception a lot, but it’s pretty far down my to-do list, so you’re on your own for research right now.

Went to a nudist resort with a couple friend last year, it was a great time.

We camped out, I got there first and started setting up camp. I didn’t exactly have a solid plan but I was kind of figuring I’d set up my tent first so I’d have somewhere to leave my clothes, but it was one of those hot muggy days where the second you step outside your clothes are drenched in sweat, so after about a minute of feeling gross and sweaty unloading my car I decided screw it and ditched my clothes and immediately felt so much better.

Also I’m pretty sure that literally everyone hates doing laundry. If you’re not wearing clothes you don’t have anything to wash and put away. It was pretty nice being away for a few days and having basically no laundry to do when I got home except the clothes I wore for the drive.

Also all-around just a very positive experience. A lot of nudists aren’t exactly the kinds of people you’d necessarily want to see naked, I can pretty much guarantee that whatever you don’t like about your body someone there has the same thing or worse on full display. And once you get over the initial sensory overload you pretty quickly set noticing people’s bodies or the fact that they’re naked.

The average hamster lifespan in captivity is usually only something like 1-2 years, this guy lived for like 4.

He was in rough shape towards the end, his fur was falling out, he’d pretty much set up camp in one corner of his cage and rarely left.

Eventually my mom decided to take him to have him put down. I strongly suspect that we may be the only people to ever request that at the local SPCA

I’d like some PC support for HDMI CEC

My use case is a bit niche, my PC is hooked up to my TV and AV receiver.

My tv, av receiver, and even certain game consoles all talk to each other well enough through CEC controls that I can do a lot from a single remote, and not even a fancy pants universal remote, just the one that came out of the box with my tv. It was a little mind-blowing when I realized I can more or less navigate the menus on my PS4 with my TV remote. The TV remote turns up the volume on the AV receiver, most of the inputs on the receiver, depending on what’s hooked up to them, will come up on my TVs input menu, the TV will wake up the PlayStation when I go to that input, etc.

I’m aware that CEC is a bit of a mess with how different companies implement it, but personally I’ve been lucky and a lot of it has worked pretty much out of the box for me.

Mostly I just want the volume controls on my keyboard to control the volume on my AV receiver.

I recently got a pulse eight dongle that I think in theory will let me do that, but it’s not exactly the most intuitive thing to configure.

We need the old timers running the party to step aside. Give up the reigns, retire when they’re able and let younger blood fill their seats, or give their blessings to 3rd parties and choose not to run against them (and preferably without outright endorsing them either so the Republicans have a harder time making the claim that they’re just the same Democrats wearing a different hat, just step aside, choose not to run a candidate, and let the new parties do their thing)

We need younger people to step up. Run for office, call and write to your elected officials, show up to vote, demonstrate in the streets, etc. pay attention to politics (no one like politics except fucking sociopaths, but they’re part of how the world works, trying to ignore them because it’s boring or it makes you mad or whatever has the same kind of energy as pretending gravity doesn’t exist because you don’t like it when you fall and scrape your knees- you’re just going to get hurt even worse if you don’t take those basic forces of the world into account.)

We need to take a step back and agree on a list of priorities. Ask 100 liberals/leftists/democrats what the most important issues are to them and you’re probably going to get 100 different lists. Climate change, LGBTQ rights, wealth inequality, healthcare, police reform, Ukraine, Israel/Palestine, homelessness, drug abuse, legalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage, foreign policy, domestic surveillance, free speech, corruption, term limits, etc. just to name a few off the very top of my head

And frankly, we need to pare that down to a handful of solid issues that appeal to as broad of an audience as possible and that we can agree that these issues are the most pressing and we must make real progress on right now because there won’t be a later, and we need to agree to suck it up on some of the other issues that need to go on the back-burner for now, especially since those issues don’t have as broad support yet and so trying to bundle them in with our overall policy is just torpedoing our efforts to make any sort of progress at all.

LGBTQ rights for instance, they’re human rights, and they should be a goal that we’re striving for. We also don’t really have the popular support needed to get much done there, often even within our own “liberal” parties the numbers aren’t looking great. We should be proud of what we’ve accomplished and fight tooth and nail to hold onto whatever gains we’ve made, but we may need to walk this back from being a top-of-the-ballot issue and accept that maybe we need to deal with, for example, the climate catastrophe that is happening right fucking now and do whatever we can to prevent world war fucking 3 from breaking out in Europe first.

And we can also claim some pretty significant victories for LGBTQ people if we just avoid framing them as an LGBTQ issue. If you slap an LGBTQ sticker on a law, CHUDs will come out of the woodwork to make up excuses about why it’s bad. But if you play your cards right and avoid their trigger words you might just be able to slip some healthcare, wealth inequality, education, and police reforms through that will both help LGBTQ people now (because a rising tide raises all ships) and pave the way for further advancements down the line (because a better educated populace with less issues of their own won’t feel as much need to make LGBTQ people their scapegoat for every minor inconvenience)

Or if you don’t have the patience or will to do that, the other two options are

1. Accept defeat. You live in maga world now, live by their rules or risk the consequences.

2. Full-on revolution, no half measures, organize fast, hit them hard before they have a chance to do anything about it and rebuild the world better.

I have no desire to live in maga world. I also don’t have any desire to live through what would surely be bloody revolution with no guarantees that the right people will come out on top, so I am really hoping people get the hell on board with plan A.

I don’t remember ever hearing the word “phonics” except in commercials for Hooked on Phonics

That said, the concept of phonics was absolutely part of how I learned to read, even though they never outright told us that that was what we were learning.

I was asked to officiate my friend’s wedding a few months back, I’m no writer, and I wanted to do a bit better than just a generic wedding ceremony for them

So I fired up chatgpt, told it I needed a script for a wedding ceremony, described some of the things I wanted to mention, some of the things they requested, and it spit out a pretty damn good wedding ceremony. I gave it a little once over and tweaked a little bit of what it gave me but 99% of it was pretty much just straight chatgpt. I got a lot of compliments on it.

I think that’s sort of the use case. For those of us who aren’t professional writers and public speakers, who have the general idea of what we need to say for a speech or presentation but can’t quite string the words together in a polished way.

Here’s pretty much what it spit out (Their wedding was in a cave)

Cell Phone Reminder

Officiant: Before we begin, I’d like to kindly remind everyone to silence your phones and put them away for the ceremony. Groom and Bride want this moment to be shared in person, free from distractions, so let’s focus on the love and beauty of this moment.

Giving Away the Bride

And before we move forward, we have a special moment. Tradition asks: Who gives this woman to be married to this man?

[Response from Bride’s dad]

Thank you.

Greeting

Welcome, everyone. We find ourselves here in this remarkable setting—surrounded by the quiet strength of these ancient walls, a fitting place for Groom and Bride to declare their love. The cave, much like marriage, is carved out over time—through patience, care, and sometimes a little hard work. And yet, what forms is something enduring, something that stands the test of time.

Today, we’re here to witness Groom and Bride join their lives together in marriage. In this moment, we’re reminded that love is not about perfection, but about commitment—choosing one another, day after day, even when things get messy, or difficult, or dark. And through it all, we trust in love to guide us, just as God’s love guides us through life’s journey.

Declaration of Intent

[Officiant turns toward Groom and Bride]

Groom, Bride, you are about to make promises to each other that will last a lifetime. Before we continue, I’ll ask each of you to answer a very important question.

Officiant: Groom, do you take Bride to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?

Groom: I do.

Officiant: Bride, do you take Groom to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?

Bride: I do.

Exchange of Vows

Officiant: Now, as a sign of this commitment, Groom and Bride will exchange their vows—promises made not just to each other, but before all of us here and in the sight of God.

[Groom and Bride share their vows]

Rings

Officiant: The rings you’re about to exchange are a symbol of eternity, a reminder that your love, too, is without end. May these rings be a constant reminder of the vows you have made today, and of the love that surrounds and holds you both.

[Groom and Bride exchange rings]

Officiant: And now, by the power vested in me, and with the blessing of God, I pronounce you husband and wife. Groom you may kiss your bride.

[Groom and Bride kiss]

Officiant: Friends and family, it is my great honor to introduce to you, for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. [Name].

I pretty much just tweaked the formatting, worked in a couple little friendly jabs at the groom, subbed their names in for Bride and Groom, and ad-libbed a little bit where appropriate

For what it’s worth, I work in 911 dispatch, so I’ve heard pretty much every reason someone could call the police, some good, some not so good, and there’s always weird exceptions or edge cases where a situation that I normally wouldn’t personally think warrants police involvement can get tipped over the edge (regardless of whether I think they’re needed or not, if someone calls asking for police, I’m dispatching them, if the cops want to ignore the call, that can be on them)

My general rule for fights/domestics, is I’ll call for situations that are or look/sound like they’re about to become physically violent, neighbors yelling at each other next door-not my problem. If I start hearing them throwing things around, I start hearing mention of weapons, they’re suddenly out in the street, etc. then I’ll call.

I’ll also call when it’s just a verbal argument in a situation where that sort of behavior is totally uncalled for, like an irate customer yelling and screaming in a store, manager is asking them to leave and they’re refusing.

Or if I witness a crime where the victim is a person, small business, or public property.

Situations where a person is or might be in significant danger or distress.

Reckless drivers if they’re really excessive, not your run of the mill bad driver or asshole speeding and running shop signs, you need to be a couple notches worse than that- swerving all over the road, or speeding to a ridiculous degree.

Certain road obstructions and other traffic hazards.

When in doubt, I say err on the side of calling. Take a deep breath, keep a level head, stick to the facts, and answer the dispatcher’s questions, and please, for the love of God don’t start your call off with anything like “well I guess it’s not really an emergency but…” that’s basically our “it didn’t scan, so it must be free” and don’t apologize repeatedly for calling, if you feel bad about tying up an emergency line, all of that apologizing just makes the call longer which means you’re just tying up the line even more.

The situation is different from one area to another, but overall a lot of places have moved to a sort of central dispatch model, more or less everything is going to go through the 911 center and very little gets dispatched from your local police station. In a lot of places, even if you call the non emergency number there’s a good chance it’s coming to us, and if it does go to someone at the station there’s a good chance they’re going to transfer you to us, or just take the information and call us after you hang up. In most cases I’d prefer you just called 911 and cut out the middle man, especially if you don’t know exactly where you are so I at least have a landline address or cellular location to work with. The station can handle administrative things, getting a copy of a report you already filed, answering general questions, lost & found, etc. but if you need a cop to do something, even if it’s just give you a phone call, that’s probably going to come through us.

In your situation, I probably would have called when someone was banging on your door. That kind of tells me that the situation was out of hand and was potentially even presenting a threat to yourself. You seem to understand that as well since you went for your gun. If there’s a situation where you think you may need to defend yourself and you have the time to do so, you should probably be calling 911.

I probably also would have called the front desk about the yelling. Cops may not care about your noise complaints, but the hotel probably has their own noise rules, and if the guests are breaking them, management can have them trespassed, and the cops will care a bit more about that.

Final thoughts, since I’m somewhat on the inside, I have a pretty good handle on the overall attitude of the cops in my county. Overall, I trust them not to show up and shoot someone having a psych episode, or be too unreasonably racist, or otherwise do something that’s going to end up on the news in a bad way. Certain officers/departments I trust more than others, and I’d be more or less willing to call about minor issues based on that. In a situation where I don’t know the local cops I’d err more on the side of not calling. My overall guidance of “if your not sure, call” still applies through.

People always chime in with stories about how chiropractors helped them with XY and Z problem they were having.

And overall I don’t doubt them. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong with your spine or other joints, and I’m certain that some of them can be addressed by physically manipulating and adjusting it.

But the basic premise of chiropractic treatments is that basically all human ailments can be fixed in that way, which should sound like total bullshit to anyone with half a brain. And that’s before you get into all spiritual nonsense that pervades a lot of the field.

Now some of them understand that that’s a load of bullshit and may even be realistic about the things they can treat, but it can be pretty damn hard to sort them out from the ones who think that your pancreatic cancer is caused by ghosts in your spine and they know how to get them out or some bullshit like that.

Now if you have a good idea what your issue is and what needs to be done to fix it, take the time to carefully vet your chiropractor to make sure they’re not going to try some crazy bullshit on you, you very well may be able to get a decent treatment from them. Maybe you’ll even be able to save some money going with that.

But for most of us who aren’t doctors and so only have kind of vague ideas what exactly the issue is and that the treatments we’re doing actually make any sense, and don’t necessarily have time to do all of that research and carefully vet that the person treating them isn’t secretly a quack, you could just get the same sort of treatments from actually physical therapists, orthopedists, physiatrists, etc. with the added benefit of them actually understanding the issues and how to fix them properly.

Chiropractors are kind of like the rednecks of the medicine world. Some of them know exactly what they’re doing with that harbor freight welder, they may not do things by the book but they know for certain what works and what doesn’t and more importantly know when something is beyond what them and their buddies can accomplish on a free Saturday with a case of beer and when they need to suck it up and limp their truck to the shop and let a professional deal with it. Others know just enough to be dangerous and while they can get the job done 90% of the time or at least not make things worse, that 10% of the time something is literally going to blow up in someone’s face. And still others are just meth heads looking to make a quick buck and it’s a miracle they’re not behind bars. And when you see them hanging around the local watering hole, it may not be totally clear which is which until it’s too late.