December 2020 · 4:23am Dec 4th, 2020
Yo! It’s the first second—
<checks calendar>
—It’s December!
Which means we’ve entered into the last century of 2020.
I was gonna spend Novelember working on OPP, and y’all see how well that went. Can I make it up to you with a cute pony picture?
Mmm, Thinmints
Anyway, the tale of my trip North will be along in the next decade or so, sooner than the podcast about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge anyway. And new chapters of things, you’ll see those, too. Don’t believe me? Have a teaser:
After his brief training, he was sent to the head end of the salsa line. That gave Serrano plenty of time to check out the tail end—a constant barrage of pneumatic noise, a giant roll of unfilled sauce packets feeding like newsprint into a machine, and with each ca-chunk another dozen now-full packets got sliced off the sheet and into a holding bucket, which dumped them out by the hundreds into a box below.
One man watched that end of the line, occasionally pulling defective sachets out of the bucket and tossing them into a waste basket.
The unformed packets were fed into the machine on a roll; the salsa arrived in a hose and that bothered him. Sauce wasn’t supposed to be in a pipe.
As an aside, I think I mentioned Identifix (a professional website for automotive technicians) in a previous blog post when we were talking about Hondas with “trust issues.” I was diagnosing a Toyota 4Runner with a misfire on cylinder four, and when I looked it up, the article specifically said “don’t be confused by the [ignition wire] numbering.”
Third comment: “I was confused by the numbering.”
Cylinders have numbers, that’s how you can identify them. How they’re numbered is based on which the lead cylinder is (always number 1) and then whatever pattern the automaker decides. On the 4Runner, Toyota had the odds on the right and the evens on the left, but they were hybrid coil on plug and wire and the wires were numbered for the coil they were attached to rather than the cylinder they went to. Confusing!
(don’t think too hard about it)
I’m also back to the point at work where I’m on overtime by Thursday, and even where last night I dreamed about being at work.
Which means that there’s good odds a really cute fluffy pony story might percolate out by the end of December! Yay!
Also, for at least one reader who cares:
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The McRib is back.
Speaking of overtime. I have family that works for the Post Office. Christmas is the only time of year they get overtime, I think. So. Many. Packages. If they work Saturdays, they get double overtime. Basically double pay for a single day.
She's not lazy. She's gone from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m during December most days. She has 400+ houses that need to be delivered every day.
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Take care, Biscuit! And don't worry, we'll leave the light on for you. You're worth waiting for!
I remember Effie! I'll have to get a McRib, just because.
God, that first pick is absolutely adorable.
It crismis
Merr crismis
Of course not, soup is.
5409489
Bastard beat me to it.
So instead I'll use my runner up comment about that poor fillyscout having her wings under her harness... That's got to be even worse with sensitive bat wings (she's still adorable)
Doing good. Managed to make my goal on National No Novel Writing Month of zero words.
Absolutely.
Glad to hear of things coming along, they're always a nice thing to see and experience. :)
Wish you glad futures ahead, with many a warm cup of your beverages of choice. :)
Pic 1: D'aww
Pic 2: Someone get that pony a proper cart harness and get that lousy thing off from around her wings. That's painful.
Pic 3: Have you considered S P I N E ?
Pic 4: Blep
5409473
I work for for the package delivery company that is associated with a single color. We have been busy like crazy since March. From early July and until the beginning of September I was getting overtime in a job that almost never gives overtime at the levels they where giving out. My shift will be doing it’s second Saturday sort in a row this weekend. They told my manager that there would only be running two Saturday’s this year and nobody in my department bought it.
Just keep hooking those wires up to different cylinders, you'll (probably) find the right combination eventually.
Fair enough.
re the scout picture:
Huh. I wonder why the band and harness are going over the wings... Maybe there's a badge for living without flight for a certain period of time to experience some of how the non-winged tribes live?
"Sauce wasn’t supposed to be in a pipe."
Right. Obviously, pipes are for soup. :D
What actually defines the lead cylinder, if it's not just the fact that it is numbered "1"?
...Possibly I'm thinking too hard about it (Sorry, if so. :D), but how was one supposed to match wire to proper cylinder, then?
...I'm not sure how those conditions lead to cute fluffy pony stories, but yay? :D
(And with that and the picture at the end, I'm now thinking of kirin mechanics... :D)
(By the way, random question you don't have to answer, but if you're interested, what do you think the best way to get engine braking from a two-stroke opposed-piston diesel, with cylinder wall ports used for both air intake and exhaust, would be? Would the engine itself need to have a dedicated compression release valve in the middle by the injectors, or something, or would devices outside the engine proper such as restrictions in the air intake and/or exhaust systems work?
(Just for a mental exercise, not something I'm actually planning to physically build. I'm asking it here partly because I thought you might find it something interesting to turn over in your head too. :)))
5409489
5409492
...Well. Doubly beaten to the punch, apparently. :D
I miss OPP. I swear it's been nearly 6000 years since you updated it. Hopefully it won't be more than a couple thousand for another chapter.
5409514
She just has her hips/legs rotated 90° off her chest...? I'm more concerned about the just regular Fallout laser rifle...
5409663
Eh, you could just chop off the stock and pistol grip and the design makes sense.
5409468
media2.giphy.com/media/cl72XB7TqPdjq7uQ3S/giphy.gif
The devil take us both in that case... Anyhoo! Merry Crimmus! Dun forget ta hug yer favorite pony! (And keep them out of the tinsel box... Sweet Jesus the horror of '09...)
5409682
This is an Equestrian laser rifle built for pony usage.
What is depicted up there is just a regular laser rifle and would be useless to a pony.
5410070
There is a method to my madness.
I don't want to clutter this thread with off-topic walls-o-text, so linky.
5410194
There is no method there, only madness. https://www.fimfiction.net/group/240/fallout-equestria/thread/448432/earth-ponies-and-combat-are-frustrating-to-write#comment/7333559 has the right of it though
5410246
In the context of the thread, many Fallout: Equestria offshoot stories depict ponies as not quite as phenomenally strong and durable as they are in the show; it varies according to the individual author. My points are based on that depiction.
Don't ask. :b
pbs.twimg.com/media/Eoe_KkEVoAEIy7b?format=jpg&name=large
Et tu, Biscuit?
I'm sorry.
If it's any consolation, you have at least four stories to look forward to from my end before January (he said, knowing full-well it wasn't going to happen but committing to it regardless in the vain hope that it would oblige him to set Real People Work aside long enough to do so)?
Fast food never ceases to disturb me. Does it also come with a free packet of the Mulan sauce and a cyanide tab in case it gives you Covid?
5409473
I can imagine the workload around Christmas, all the cards and other deliveries and of course everybody expects them quick.
The mail carrier that serves my house sometimes (or all the time, I’m not entirely sure) also gets her Jeep serviced at the shop, and she called the shop one time when she heard some alarm going off in my house, which was really cool of her. Luckily, nothing was wrong; one of my smoke alarms had just malfunctioned.
5409474
I don’t think I’ve ever seen her in any other art, or at least not that I can remember.
5409484
Isn’t it just? I have no idea what’s going on there, but it warms my heart to see it.
5409486
derpicdn.net/img/2015/12/8/1039752/large.png
5409489
Yes, exactly. Pipelines are for soup.
(I didn’t click the link, but I know what you’re referencing and I know that you know that I’m referencing that in the preview [which in turn implies that Como Salsa is in the Soupverse]).
5409492
For all the great art that people draw (and there’s lots and lots of it) very few of them get the harnesses right.
Heck, I was just watching Rainbow Roadtrip, and Twilight has her wings under her saddlebags and then she goes flying off and tucks her wings back under her saddlebags.
Here’s one that’s at least plausible:
derpicdn.net/img/2017/4/7/1406169/large.png
Granted, she hasn’t got a breeching strap, but she’s a unicorn and could plausibly activate wagon brakes with her magic.
5409509
Woo! Congrats!
I was less successful, and managed somewhere around 20k of rough draft, give or take. Not all of it pony.
5409513
Thank you and thank you!
Same back to you!
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5409514
And yet she looks so happy . . .
I am pleased that my audience picks up on harnesses done wrong.
Who says ponies have spines. Maybe they’re more liquidy, like cats.
5409528
I’ve got to figure with the pandemic and people buying more stuff online, you’ve got job security and then some. Good for you, and I hope you’re keeping sane. Too much overtime is nice for the pocketbook but not for the spirit.
5409562
Faster than you’d think, since three of them are coil on plug, so you’ve only got three to guess at (which if I remember math right, means that there are only five wrong ways to hook them up).
Ford Tauruses have a almost but not quite perfect order off the coil (I think it’s 1-2-3-5-6-4), and I always double-check those because I tend to get it wrong (I think I usually do 1-2-3-5-4-6).
5409574
Cute pony pictures always temper disappointment
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5409576
Most likely, artist doesn’t know better, drew a harness like the ones in the show, and didn’t worry too much about it. Or else there is a suffering merit badge.
Yes, indeed.
The number 1 cylinder is the one that’s closest to the front of the engine (which is the end the transmission isn’t mounted on). For an inline engine you go back from there (so the next one is 2, and so forth). If it’s a V- or opposed engine, the rest can be numbered however the manufacturer desires, and they’re not always consistent across product lines (for example, one year of Ford’s cylinder IDs for V6s says something like “All V6 engines except 3.0L”)
In case you didn’t know, railroad cars have an ‘a’ and ‘b’ end. The ‘b’ end is the one with the brake wheel; the ‘a’ end is the other.
It’s being stressed out from work and wanting to think opposite thoughts is what does it.
Every now and then we think of solving our problems with cars by setting them on fire; a kirin could do that easily.
I honestly don’t know. I’m not up on diesels, to be honest, and I don’t think that anybody currently makes a two-stroke diesel in a production car or truck in the US (I might be wrong). I still can’t completely wrap my head around how valveless opposed piston engines work, and I’ve seen illustrations of them. . . .
5409594
There was at least one chapter this year, although yeah that feels like 6000 years ago. I need to find my happy place with OPP again, although I fear that getting properly back in the groove would require a time machine.
5409985
That’s both amazing and disturbing.
5410000
Indeed.
I have so many favorites, I just can’t decide! Better hug them all!
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5410319
But I need answers
5410564
I mean, at least I’m not unemployed like some of my friends who work in hospitality, so there’s that.
I do look forward to it!
Also, true story, just this week I was thinking of finishing both Stained Glass and Celandine, King of the Minotaurs, and we’ll see how that goes.
I think that you only get they cyanide tab in civilized countries, like Canada. Here in the US you’ve got to drive to Flint and drink the water. Luckily, I live in Michigan, and Flint’s only an hour and a half away, so it’s not a huge imposition.
5412214
That is my goal. I am lucky in that even with all the overtime I have gotten this year I feel I got more done in my personal life. I just hope it will all die down around March so I can enjoy life.
5412233
Sometimes it works out that way. Heck, when I was putting off pre-reading something I wasn’t quite in the mood for, I turned to cleaning instead (after all, that’s a reasonable reason to not do it, right? Gotta vacuum.)
In my own experience, after a while too much overtime weighs on a person, especially if it’s unanticipated. Like, I normally work 45-50 hours a week at the shop, and I’m used to ten hour days, but when it stretches to eleven or more, I start to get stressed, especially if it happens more than once in a week. Even if I don’t have anything else I have to do, I want to be on my own time at six, not still working on stupid cars in the stupid shop.
5412235
Well the stuff over the summer was slightly unexpected as it dropped suddenly on me, but it was voluntary. My job quickly added a new shift and I was trusted by my supervisor to work it without supervision and do a good job. Needless to say by the end of the second week I had sent an SOS for help due to volume being much higher then expected. The shift was put in place by corporate after very little talking about it. It took until fall before they even had an official crew and managers.
5412213
Ponies are Euclidian when we're looking.
5412251
Seems legit.
5412222
Well, my liking for Watsonian explanations and my thinking that one's funnier than the other are both aligned in favor of the latter, soooo... :D
:)
Ah, thanks!
(Do front wheel drive vehicles, by the way, still have the transmission behind the engine, it just then goes back forward instead of towards the back of the vehicle?)
Aye, I believe I'd heard that, but thanks. :)
Ah, thanks. Well, sorry about the stress, but at least we all get ponies out of it?
Hah! :D
Ah, righto; fair enough.
I'm surprised that you have that much trouble imagining how valveless opposed piston engines work -- but I'm also wondering if this is me being on the wrong high side of the knowledge curve, and not noticing some issues that you do notice and people still further along know solutions to.
(Though I wonder if you might find this old text on the Junkers Jumo 205 interesting and/or useful for understanding it. I remember I read (at least some of?) it a while ago, at least, and put some thought into figuring out how things worked from the text and drawings (though at the time I was primarily interested in understanding the fuel injection and throttling system, as I recall).)