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I saw this and thought it was super cool, then I pulled out my wallet and counted my cards (5). I'm not putting my government CC on there, I'm keeping my primary credit card for places that won't accept this like the USPS, and I'm not shoving this thing into an ATM so I'm keeping that. Which means this will replace my Target card and my backup card. 5 cards to 3, and one of them is gonna cost me $100 to replace in 2 years. Oh well. I'll hold out for mass Google Wallet adoption.

I dig it. Thanks.

Another episode of the Vettel show. In other news, -- Kovalainen continued his streak of finishing out of the points (62 I think I read). Valsecchi is not amused (apparently Heikki had no KERS, but meh) -- Webber shocks crowd by actually passing Hamilton, but then true to form failed to put together a successful run against Grosjean -- Grosjean is the new Kimi? -- Hamilton gets a new tub and is quick to blame the old tub for everything bad that's happened recently -- Sutil wrecks himself, blames Maldonado -- Valtteri Butt-ass gets his first points, and there is much rejoicing in the Williams camp. Massa is not amused. Anything else?

Everything you say is 100% true. You're all a bunch of buzzkills.

You keep answering your own confusion. F1 is basically just reality TV that happens to involve "racing" expensive cars, and every show needs a villain. Subconsciously, impulsively, instinctively, that's Vettel. He's the stereotypical cocky blonde kid from every '80s movie ever.* *At least, in my version of reality, he is.

Yeah, totally. Clearly you do understand it, you just explained it. I like Vettel as a person and as a driver, but ever since the tire change after Silverstone, he's made what might have been an interesting year into a dreadful bore. Sure, on some level I know it's not his fault, but when he takes P1 from Webber at Abu Dhabi and then proceeds to lead for the rest of the race, a race which is already pointlessly irrelevant because he effectively locked up the championship like 3 months ago, I can't help that I'm watching the TV going "fuck that guy."

This is a great point. I don't know about their VDS, but the initial quality studies also take into account meaningless quibbles like "The cup holders feel cheap." (Incidentally, the cup holders on BMWs feel stupid cheap.) A much more useful dependability indicator would include the cost to fix each problem. My cousin had an older 540i that needed one ignition module, cost him 10 times what an entire distributor would have for a Honda. I'm a big believer in the "If you couldn't afford it new, you can't afford it used" mantra after witnessing events like that. Also, owning German cars under warranty. Incidentally he then bought a 335i and went through the typical expensive fixes (noisy wastegates, valve cleaning, he had the fuel pump replaced but it was probably under warranty). He spent nearly 2 grand on this "tune up" and then the engine promptly caught fire on his third lap at Shenandoah. Off topic, after his 425hp (chipped) ultimate driving machine tried to kill him, I let him drive my 146hp econo-shitter for the rest of the track day, and he immediately shaved 4-5 seconds off the best lap time he could muster in the bimmer. You'd think this would have opened his eyes about what a car can do when it's properly set up and not just an understeering horsepower machine, but he promptly decided that he needed even _more_ horsepower and bought an E92 M3. Le sigh.

God I wish they'd hurry up and cover this so I'd know what I'm supposed to be angry about.

You must not watch Fox. It hasn't even hit their homepage yet and I'm already feeling angry. So very angry. But not like red hot rage, it's more of a warm simmer that's slowly growing.

I'm waiting for the media to tell me how I should feel about this.

Next up, a gay muslim citizen of middle-eastern descent tricks voters into thinking he's a straight white christian. All lolz stop.

The original paint for all exterior window/door trim in my house is lead. Most of it has been painted over 10 times so the lead is well hidden, but that window has never been cared for. The paint has mostly weathered away, but I need to chip the rest of it off and repaint it. The ladder is from the Bunk and Loft Factory (free plug!), and I'd actually ordered a slide from them as well. The guy tried to talk me out of it because it'd be too steep. I told him my kids weren't pussies and ordered it anyway, but armed with the actual slide measurements I calculated the angle and it'd be waaay too steep to be fun. (There's a door at the bottom there so there's not much room). The climbing blocks were my wife's idea after we nixed the slide. Thanks for the kind words everyone! I assure you if you saw it in person you'd point and laugh at the shoddy quality.

I know this isn't a garage or a man-cave, but I absolutely suck at construction so this is about as good as it gets. There's a door in my upstairs hallway that leads to this little storage room/attic access. We have a whole basement for storage so when we bought the place, I figured I'd turn it into a little playroom for the kids. (I'm also terrible at documenting my progress.) Here's what I started with, after I cleaned it out and gutted it. The "walls" were this terrible mid-century fiber board, it was like working with fiberglass. Also, there was a bunch of fiberglass. You can still see some of the (sagging) fiber board in the ceiling. http://steronz.com/random/playroom/IMG_0007.JPG It kicks out to the left by the window there, the length of that back section is about 6 and a half feet. http://steronz.com/random/playroom/IMG_0009.JPG I had to frame out the ceiling and build in an attic door, plus I added some framing to the walls where I felt it was required. I added some plywood to even out the roughly hewn floorboards and to remove one of the "steps" up to the smaller area. Lastly, overhead lighting and a power outlet. http://steronz.com/random/playroom/20131022_092422.jpg And yadda yadda yadda, here it is now: http://steronz.com/random/playroom/20131029_122830.jpg I still need to clean up and repaint all the exterior part of the window here, but it's all lead paint so for right now I've chained the window so it will barely open. I love that in 1926, a crawlspace got its own window. http://steronz.com/random/playroom/20131029_122850.jpg I first gutted it in January 2012, but it was always low priority. I finally got sick of it and pushed myself to finish it up these past two weekends. Couldn't be happier that it's done. Could be happier with how it turned out, but the kids like it.

Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track

It's a bit busy with all of the 80s excess, but man is that a sharp looking car.

I'm hesitant to trust any numbers from the Heritage Foundation, considering their political bend and their long history of trying to torpedo Obamacare. Curiously, they're the ones who came up with the whole idea behind Obamacare.

It won't affect abs because there's typically no wheel speed sensors on the rear. I don't think a 98 neon would have skid control; traction control will just be on the front if it exists. So I think you'll be fine.

What car? Does it have traction control?

I can agree with that!

And by that I mean have the balls to raise taxes. Still +1 me? :)

Good question, if you ask me the debt ceiling is a moronic idea in the first place. Maybe when they first proposed it a hundred years ago it seemed like a good way to force congress to balance a budget, but after a century it should be fairly obvious to everyone that having an artificial "debt ceiling" over congress' heads doesn't motivate them to do jack squat. "But this time, man, this time we mean it." Malarkey. Just get rid of it and focus on balancing the goddamn budget.

People, people, go make fun of the poor somewhere else. This thread is about the BRILLIANT Tea Party strategy of holding the government hostage in order to repeal, defund, or otherwise castrate the core provisions of Obamacare. A strategy that was completely boneheaded, both in foresight and hindsight. A strategy that saved the government no money and cost the economy billions. A strategy that, thankfully, won't be as likely in the future thanks to the Default Protection Act of 2013 that just passed last night. This provision of the agreement makes debt ceiling increases automatic unless Congress and the President agree that it shouldn't be raised. This bill, sensibly put forth by Senator Mitch McConnell (R, Kentucky) way back in 2011, not only means that the Tea Party strategy failed, but that it failed big time. And I, for one, am happy that some Republicans in congress still have a brain cell or two.

Except you don't always have room to spin the ratchet. I can't think of any time I would need one either, but for a mechanic it's one of those things that can be the difference between 10 minutes of cursing and 30 seconds of rummaging around for that one tool that will solve the problem.

Don't grow up then It sucks that way.

He should join a union. It's hard for me to comment without knowing the specifics; how big the company is, what their profits are, what your friend does for them, etc. Companies have been converting full-time positions to part-time for decades as a way to cut costs, and a lot of companies are using the ACA as an excuse to divert bad press about it. I assume this isn't happening until 1 January? Because companies were cutting hours and blaming the ACA years ago, before it was anywhere close to being implemented. Makes them seem insincere. If there really is nothing the company can do about it, then that's bad. I applaud you for this. :thumbup: