Drew Dowdell

I think it was successful. The spam account signups have dropped way down. I’m getting way less spam in my admin email account. And comment spam is down to just 2 since the attack (typically runs around 100 a week, you just never see them) so I think we can call this a win.

Just a place to swap stories about our vaccine experiences. I got the Moderna shot on Jan 11th. Other than a sore arm for a few days (same thing I get with a flu shot) I had no side effects. I got my second shot on Feb 11th at 6pm. The next morning I woke up feeling feverish with body aches and chills. I took Advil and drank Gatorade and felt blah all day. In the evening I had to pick up a curbside grocery order, I didn’t feel well but I went anyway. On the way back I really felt awful and almost pulled over to make Albert drive back. I made it home and went right back to bed. I had fevers during the night for the next few nights. I didn’t start feeling normal again until day 5 and didn’t catch up on my sleep for a week. but I’d do it again to avoid getting Covid.

But.... it only just started on the market.

That looks cool. I need 78 though. I have all of my grandparents records and I haven’t been able to play them.

That looks really close to Oldsmobile blue. When did they stop using green on the Buick engines?

I'm sure I could find one... I just want something a bit better. This is what I am aiming for. https://amzn.to/2OhVU9M

I could understand a worn belt making the record play slower or inconsistently, but I'm not sure how it would make it play faster. Anyway, it's a 30ish year old el'cheapo unit from Bradlies (anyone remember that chain?) and it is connected to an oversized stereo. I'm going to get something that hooks up to my surround sound either via USB or Bluetooth and downsize substantially.

Somehow, even with partial WFH, I'm already at 10,000 miles on the truck since August. I don't even know where I'm driving to be doing that. But I also noticed this week that I've put only 1,000 miles on the Toronado since June. So since Sunday the truck has been parked and I've been taking the Toronado when I need to go places and I'm moving back to WFH a lot more. And of course taking the bike on every nice day I can.

Yes, those visitors are what is keeping the site alive via their ad revenue. We do fairly well on search results for niche automotive things. We get a huge number of hits for the 4.3 V8 Baby LT1 and for some reason no one knows how to pronounce Impala as those two threads still get a huge number of hits.

I don’t know the album, but it reminded me that I need to get a new turntable. Mine is malfunctioning. Even though the speed is set correctly it seems to be playing faster than 33 but not quite 45. It’s just enough off for you to think “something is not right here “ but not fast enough to be the Chipmunks.

With how little you're driving lately, it will probably take 8 years to get another 25k miles.

You're absolutely correct. I pretty much stopped writing after Jan 2020 because I lost all my heart for it because of the flame wars. Before that I was writing 4 - 6 news clips a day during the week and one or two vehicle reviews a month. Plus William was writing regularly too. William got a new job and could no longer devote time to the site, so that's why he doesn't post much anymore. The thing is, I want to get back into it. I keep telling myself I'm going to start writing again.... but every time I log in here there is some flame war going on. Don't get me wrong, I love to debate stuff and I encourage it. But having a spirited debate and having a flame war are two very different things.... one person got himself suspended for 5 days because he was losing the debate and turned it into a flame war and added bigotry to the mix as well. And after I pulled the trigger on his suspension, I just logged off and left the site for a while out of frustration until I started getting e-mail notices that another flame war was going on. Can you see why it would get exhausting?

We get enough traffic that the ads pay about 90% of the costs. If I have to throw $10 - $20 a month at it, it's no big deal, however, I haven't had to add money to the site checking account for a while now, so if I went and looked at the reports, it is probably self-sustaining since at least September. It was not at all profitable when I was still traveling to all 4 of the car shows and 4 ride-and-drive media events each year. I did those because I enjoyed them and yes that money came from my own pocket. What I'm struggling with lately is not financial. In the past 4 years every. single. discussion. turns into a fight.... not just here... but Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, whatever. I don't want this site to become a place where it's just flame wars all the time. I want to come here to discuss cars. Unfortunately, a number of people have done their part to kill my passion for this site with their near constant negativity about cars and/or people they don't like. This site will be 20 years old in August. I'd like to see it continue into its 20s, but damn if some people aren't doing their best to kill it before then. I'm just not sure how much fight I have left. Where will my passion to write reviews come from if every article comment section turns into yet another flame war? Is a flame war site some place you'd want to visit? (not just you, everyone) If you guys just want to flame each other over stupid shit, I'll just leave the site running as long as it is financially self-sustaining, turn off notifications, and go ride my motorcycle and you won't hear from me again... when something breaks, oh well. Give me a reason to want to write again and run this place again...

No. I’ve had to suspend premium members in the past.

Well, a second person got themselves put into a 5 day timeout. This is not Reddit or 4chan. This is a place for respectful discussion about cars. I don't care if I have to ban everyone except Balth, Horse, Robert, and Dave. After the year we just had the very least we can do is just be nice to each other. But if you want to keep acting up.....

I did... I pulled yours for the next 5 days. Edit: Because you are still doing it... I made it 7.

oh look, the server bill just came in.... I guess I’ll have to decide if I want to pay it anymore if fucking adults can’t act like adults.

Up until about 30 second ago, we had been keeping it civil and philosophical, and then @dwightlooi ruined it again.... he is now under moderation watch... anything he posts will have to be approved by me until his points start expiring.

Silly. Just bury the problems in the desert instead of dealing with them and actually using it to our advantage.

hmmm..... except.... it's a problem.... Nuclear Waste Costs Americans Billions Every Year | by FSI Stanford | Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies | Medium "We’re spending $6 billion a year trying to deal with the problem, and we’ll continue to spend $4.5 to $5 billion a year without solving the problem." So, spend $12 billion... two years of maintenance on the problem and build a few breeder reactors to break down the waste and eliminate the problem and generate a few gigawatts of power at the same time.

That's an awfully convoluted way to get grift. There are far easier ways to get it than creating a global lie and getting 96% of scientists to agree with it.

And that's why none of us can take you seriously when you're not talking about engines or transmissions.

@dwightlooi - I have to ask... what is the motivation of the Global Climate Change cabal? What ends are they trying to reach? Why commit a fraud on a global scale for no reason... there's gotta be a reason.... how will climate scientists and NOAA profit from this?

1) I said large organizations I do not trust. The federal government is a large organization. Right wing wants just as much control over the individual, if not more. 2) You're only counting air temps right? Did you just ignore the whole thing about water temps and water acidity going up? If so, Go buy property on the Miami coast then.... or oceanfront in Virgina Beach.... or any other beach. My parents live on property 9ft above sea level.... I know I'm not inheriting anything.

Oh yea, I was talking about the pebble bed reactors that are self regulating. Breeder reactors are an unfortunate necessity to deal with the waste from traditional reactors. Breeder reactors are extremely expensive, so I would figure out what ratio of traditional reactor to breeder reactor we needed to deal with the waste and only build enough of those to cope with the waste. I do think that hydrogen fusion has potential, but at this point they have only been able to power a single light bulb because it takes almost as much energy to run the thing as it generates.