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    Distraxi

    @Distraxi

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    Location Auckland, New Zealand

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    Best posts made by Distraxi

    • It doesn't *seem* all that wet out there.

      IMG_5784[1].JPG

      The GPS on our JDM Leaf has never really coped with the fact that it's 6000 miles from Japan, and insists on trying to place us somewhere that it has a map for. And we've never figured out how to turn off the nav warnings. We've therefore become accustomed to having a nice Japanese lady (who we call Motoko) burble at us at random intervals warning of railroad crossings and other nonexistent hazards.

      This is a new low though - normally it at least manages to place us on an actual road. And more disturbingly, Motoko hasn't warned me I'm about to drown. Maybe she's starting to suspect we've kidnapped her 😢.

      I'd say "go home Motoko, you're drunk", except that clearly she has no clue where home is.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • I’ve got this for a week. AMA.

      For major birthdays and anniversaries, we have developed a tradition of going on holiday somewhere in NZ, renting an interesting car, and staying in a luxury lodge. This week’s our 20th wedding anniversary, and we’re visiting Christchurch, the wineries of the Waitaki valley, and Oamaru. In a gorgeously blue 2001 Alfa Spider V6.

      Review so far:

      Getting the obvious out of the way first, we’ve done 150 miles so far and it hasn’t broken down yet! Here’s hoping that lasts, but it comes with roadside assistance if not.

      It’s in remarkably good condition for a 20 year old car, never mind a 20 year old Alfa, though it’s only got 60k miles on the clock. Paint and wheels are perfect, no rust that I can see, everything seems to work, and there’s very little sign of wear on the interior.

      The Busso is everything they say it is. Smooth, a linear power delivery that keeps on giving all the way to 7k and feels like it wants to keep going, and sounds great anywhere north of about 3k, though not as loud and sharp as I’d like it - you can hardly hear it over the wind with the top down. There’d be a sports exhaust in its future if I owned it. The guy who we picked it up from also has a 155 with the 2.5 in it, which he says sounds way better. I guess being just about the last Busso- engined car it’s suffered from noise regulations.

      Gearshift is very nice though takes a bit of getting used to. The lateral planes are closer together than the amount of free play in the shift, so it feels like you don’t move the shifter sideways at all, you just apply pressure in the relevant direction and let the spring loading do the work. So for example 4-5 is just apply rightwards pressure to the lever and push straight forward. Once you figure that out and stop stirring it around trying to find a slot, it’s light and fast. Pedals are incredibly badly positioned for heel & toe though (and close together and offset, in traditional Alfa style). Steering wheel position is also traditional Alfa - designed for gorillas. It does have adjustable reach, but even at full stretch it’s too far away for me if I’m seated in the right place for the pedals.

      Handling (at 7/10 or less) is good - precise and easy to place. More power- on throttle steer than any other FWD car I’ve ever driven though - it goes incredibly wide if you give it some boot out of a corner. Lots of scuttle shake with the top off - it threw my phone out it’s holder over a mildly bumpy road - but the top up improves that a lot.

      Top is electric, with a couple of body panels that lift themselves up for it to hide under. Which again, works so far, though it does come with a rubber mallet in the trunk and instructions on where to hit the mechanism if it seizes! Impressively little wind buffeting with it down. Insanely good A/C, which I guess isn’t surprising given Italian summers

      Trunk is silly - very deep but mostly full of spare tire. Two squashy bags were a stretch for it. There’s a nice lockable bin behind the seats though.

      206FB5C8-0308-4943-A186-6AFC08CCCE85.jpeg

      You can tell it’s an Alfa because there’s a loose trim clip in the ashtray

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      4A349D3E-D56A-44E4-9197-9013E60EFBC4.jpeg

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • DOTS

      Mk2 Jaaaag. Only a 240, but still, there are worse gentleman’s clubs to take for a relaxed cruise to a waterfront cafe on a summer afternoon.

      D58C4D93-E1FE-4EDD-B9D5-1C355DD72B40.jpeg

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • This is a good idea

      Kids bike park with road markings and signs so they can learn the road rules in a safe environment.

      ED091A7A-2287-4227-A3B9-9BE8BBE7FBB3.jpeg

      F943A67D-16E2-4BBB-8F85-F8503A83AA1A.jpeg

      And so older kids on pit bikes can set lap times in the wee hours, no doubt...

      (Seent in Oamaru, NZ).

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • This is why I don't get too much shit about the time and money I waste on cars

      I am not the only one with a problem.

      IMG_5872[1].JPG
      Admittedly mine's a more expensive problem, but not by as much you'd think: women's shoes are crazy expensive.

      This is not all of them, BTW.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RIP Captain Tom

      Colonel Sir Thomas Moore, the 100 year old UK veteran who raised a totally insane amount of money for healthcare worker support by shuffling round his yard on his walker, has died of Covid-19. I bet he got the best hospital care anyone’s ever had.

      The Beeb has a great obituary.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: For those wondering...

      @facw ...or the crowd is big enough for the Mustang to crash.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • Dog names

      The City Council of Wellington, NZ's capital, have just released a list of the most popular dog names in the city. Dogs have to be registered here, so they have a database, and we're approaching summer break, so they obviously have nothing better to do than read it.

      Of the city's 10,000 or so registered dogs, the most poplar names are Charlie (184), Bella (151), Poppy (139), Molly (120), Max (115), Coco (108), Ruby (104), Archie (85), Luna (82) and Toby (79). The most popular breeds are Labrador, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Border Collie, Miniature Schnauzer, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Miniature Poodle, Bichon Frise, Jack Russell Terrier, Golden Retriever, Huntaway

      So far, what we appear to have proved is that Wellingtonian dog owners have no imagination (though I'm impressed to see Huntaway making the top 10 breeds)

      Fortunately however, in defence of their city's reputation as the creative hub of NZ, and with the assistance of a few adult beverages, they have combed the list and brought us the list of what they deem the "best" dog names in Wellington. Without further ado, let me introduce you to:

      Alphonse Capone
      Amy Pineapples
      Baron Zeus Winston Von Pugglesworth 3
      Bruichladdich Ochdamh-mor
      Captain Nana Spider-Pig Wolfenstein the Second
      C Fluffy Dog Web Test
      Chaise Destroyer of Worlds
      Cheese
      Chipolata Von Fox
      Coco Tui Megalodon
      Colin Ladykiller
      Detective Justice Butterfield
      Duke Berling Saunders-Ellingsen
      E Fluffy Dog Web Test
      Fenrir Baldur von Ritzweber
      FN2187
      Gofetch Quantum Leap Frankie
      Hinekehua Dixie
      Eaglesham Isabel Pistol Packer
      Lord Percy
      Los Pollos Hermanos
      Miss Penny Money
      Monty Woof McGavin
      Mr Fish
      MURPHY IRISH STOUT
      Newt Commander
      Norman Pint Imperius King
      Obie Jupiter McWoofington
      Poppadom Banana Pants McGee
      Richie McPaw
      Roxy-tala Moemalo
      Russel Sprouts Gordon Bennett
      S
      Samson Kung Fu Panda
      Sir Tobias Wigglebottom
      Smutley
      Technical Adviser Megabyte
      The Hulk
      Vivienne Westwoof
      Zoeroceros Flauschige

      I suspect what we learn from this is that at least 40 Wellingtonians either let their kids pick a name each, or are tech geeks with a mental age of 12. Given that Wellington is the home of Weta Digital (the SFX company behind LOTR, Avatar, and a good chunk of the Marvel universe), the latter isn't too surprising either.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • OK, this whole sharkfin antenna thing is out of control

      I bet they were holding their breath and hoping the wind stayed down.

      67m long wind turbine blade being transported in Germany.

      1609223036545.jpg 1609223036763.jpg 1609223036655.jpg

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • One point seven tree two

      The square root of tree

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi

    Latest posts made by Distraxi

    • RE: OPPO is now the 700 Club

      @davesaddiction

      Svartpilen

      posted in OPPolitics
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: Sway with me, all the way to the bar

      @vincentmalamute @Old-Busted-Hotness @MybirdIStheword

      Sway my way
      Yeah I need to know
      All about you

      Bonus points to anyone who can identify the car she's being a creepy stalker from

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: Searching the Jimisaherb archive

      @whoistheleader Unfortunately that one's got its own searchability issues, as it only indexes by postIDs and not titles. So (unless someone has a better method?) you either need to know roughly when you posted it (in which case the other archive works better as it's by-date categorised) or be prepared to click into all your posts (several hundred in my case) one by one to find the one you're after.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: the future of Afghanistan

      @dipodomysdeserti Fair point, though I think it's a question of degree. It was never going to become a mini USA, but it might have become more culturally forward-looking than where we've wound up.

      posted in OPPolitics
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • Searching the Jimisaherb archive

      Does anyone know a way to do it? Google doesn't seem to have it archived, and I haven't found a way to find my old posts other than knowing what month/year they were posted in and doing a "find in page" on that month's index for my handle.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: the future of Afghanistan

      @davesaddiction Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting we could have fixed it in a year - as you say, changing the course of societies is a generation-scale project. I just think that most of the bad calls that made it impossible to win long term were made in that first year. Not least of which was the complete failure to have a plan for "What happens after we successfully invade?"....

      In the case of Iraq, at least, this was pretty well illustrated by the contrast between the UK zone around Basra and the rest of Iraq in the first few months after the invasion. The Brits - who have more than a little institutional memory of how to run what was, lets face it, a colonisation program - were well on their way to having the region stable and the general populace on board with the liberation, until their region was infected by the issues that had become well established elsewhere: I remember how obvious that contrast was at the time - NZ troops were deployed in the UK zone, so we got a lot of local news focus on that region as well as the wider focus from US media. Broader good management of the "occupation" phase could have bought time to allow a stable local government and economy to be established, which would have made the insurrectionists lives a lot harder - people are less likely to support rebellion when they have hope for the future and something to lose.

      Personally, I think the winning strategy would have been to firehose money into creating a more materialist and aspirational society among the lower middle classes and even into the rural areas: MTV and Nikes as the modern bread and circuses. The one area where the US has been wildly successful is in exporting culture, and the one resource you've got more of than anyone else (or at least had, 20 years ago) is money to toss around. The examples of Russia and to some extent China and recent-era Iran show that an aspirational middle class is what worries totalitarians more than anything else, as it's a very hard thing to shove back in its box. Create that and support it long enough to become self-sustaining, and the rest has a decent chance of following.

      posted in OPPolitics
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: the future of Afghanistan

      @davesaddiction I'm very much with you on that one. I feel that Afghanistan could have been brought into the modern world if the whole mess had been handled properly in the first year of the invasion (as could Iraq), but ever since then it's been a hopeless cause, and there's a limit to how long the international community can keep occupying the place with no real ability to make a difference. So it's hard to criticize the decision to pull out, but its also hard to accept that we're abandoning people who need us.

      posted in OPPolitics
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: Bill Gates now controls me, also I'm an active 5G tower

      @ranwhenparked When I was a teenager, I was a big fan of the Illuminati card game. Unfortunately, when I was happily building world domination structures involving the Servants of Cthulhu controlling the CIA via the Boy Scouts, I failed to realise that it’s all true!.

      Unlike Q, who’s obviously never seen a conspiracy he couldn’t get behind.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: Bill Gates now controls me, also I'm an active 5G tower

      @dipodomysdeserti That revelation certainly makes some of QAnon's theories more plausible. QAnon being right would also help explain where the Ever Given fits in. Something something Zionist something - it can't be coincidental that it "accidentally" wound up stuck just down the coast from the world's highest density of microchipped sheeple.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi
    • RE: Bill Gates now controls me, also I'm an active 5G tower

      @dipodomysdeserti said in Bill Gates now controls me, also I'm an active 5G tower:

      The fact Bill Gates gets mentioned every.single.time someone gets a shot is starting to make me think covid was actually just a guerrilla marketing campaign launched by the Gates Foundation.

      That's just the second layer of Peter Thiel's maskirovka.

      posted in Oppositelock
      Distraxi
      Distraxi