Shame. I’d watch Gal Gadot in anything.
“It even has sound!” (t/w: slideshow)
Friday Afternoon Links
About The Author
Riven
[riv-uhn]
noun
1. a gaming, lifting, shooting, intoxicated, ravenous, and happily-taken nerd.
2. often aims to misbehave.
3. and though she be but little, she is fierce.*
And rumor has it that she (and her husband) are also delightful dinner companions. You didn't hear it from me, though.
Thanks for the Bach piece. Always enjoy different interpretations of “Little in G minor”.
Ah! Bach
Jawohl! sehr schön.
Considering how terrible WW84 was, I’m not surprised in the least that there isn’t a sequel being made. You know… besides the fact that the DC movie universe is being rebooted anyways.
WW84 was terrible, but the first movie was good. I think she makes a great Wonder Woman. I’d have a hard time seeing anyone else play that role.
The DC movies were nearly all just bad across the board. For the ones where they got a decent first movie (Wonder Woman, Shazam) the sequels were just terrible.
Likely means Aqua Man Dos will be a flaming bag of shit as well.
It isn’t like the first one was Shakespeare in the first place, really.
Good popcorn movie. Which is all I ask for those movies.
Good news is that James Gunn managed to make the only sequel in the entire DCEU that was better than the original.
Yeah, Peacemaker wasn’t bad… true.
Or maybe Indian folks require more direct supervision, for cultural or other reasons. I’m guessing that a lot of companies in the States have a different experience. I’d also hazard a guess that any loss of productivity is at times more than offset by the savings in the various expenses of running an office.
That’s why they’re the ones who most prefer working from home: they think they can get away with being more unproductive.
Here’s a rare moment where I’ll agree with Ted S. There is a distinct laziness and sense of entitlement for the demand among the laptop class to work from home.
Sort of like the writers in Hollywood, they don’t seem to realize that many of their jobs are disposable and becoming increasingly so. They aren’t the great commodity they think they are.
My initial urge is to argue that because I certainly don’t feel that way. But I suppose I’m somewhat of a unicorn in that I worked my way onto a laptop after years of working on the shop floor and learning skills to get me off the shop floor. Those who went from HS to college to laptop probably have a different view of things.
I didn’t mean that people who want to work from home are necessarily more unproductive; i menat that the unproductive would have a greater deaire to work from home.
Of course, a lot pf my experience comes from working with people who think everyone, especially businesses, is out to scam them, and they wanted to put one over on the bosses.
Agreed.
However, in this specific example, it’s data entry, which is quota-driven. You aren’t going to have a job for long if you’re unproductive at the rate they set. So either the rate is unattainable, they can’t find more workers fast enough to replace the unproductive ones so they don’t fire them, or their term of measurement is within the window of firing one and replacing with the next one.
“Yeah, our productivity went down immediately by 12%.”
…
“And then we fired them and replaced them with new people.”
Aren’t we skipping over the fact that they’d simply be firing more people with the WFH model compared to in person? So, I get your point, these are bottom of the barrel employees especially in India. But they are being put in an environment where they are more likely to fail . Turnover is a sunk cost most businesses hope to avoid, as well.
There is an element of the work culture being lost. You have employees starting out with no real mentorship. You are adding barriers between management and new employees. Part of my job is to teach younger employees how to move up and do their job. There’s a lot of people on the laptop class who lose sight of this. It isn’t all on management.
I can see why they’d pick data entry as it is quota based and very easy to track productivity and it is the quintessential job that can be done from home with seemingly no great loss if someone has the focus to do so.
When I see people insist they’re more productive from home, I’m reminded of the many drunks who say they’re better drivers while intoxicated.
And I have no doubt there are people more productive in WFH, even if maybe not as great as they think. But the vast majority of employees I’ve encountered in my life? Fuck no I wouldn’t trust them at home. I don’t trust them to do anything in person.
If someone is self-motivated and driven with the ability to focus on their own (basically, the type who doesn’t need management), sure. That person is going to succeed in any environment. But that isn’t most employees which is why we have so many god damn managerial positions in the first place.
And those sorts of people are a net benefit in the office. Just in a way that they don’t care about or necessarily view as part of their job. Because it isn’t just about your own performance.
When I see people insist that people can’t be more productive at home, I’m reminded of old men telling kids to get off their lawns.
There’s no more mentoring or (people) networking using Slack from a corptop in a cube with no one around you but Sales than using Slack from a corptop at home. You’re missing naming the requirement where the company has a colocated team in the first place, Bro.
That isn’t my argument. I know those people exist. I think you are overestimating the number of those people, though.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you. But nobody expects to move up from a data entry job. Nobody expects mentoring. The only work culture putting a bunch of low-level workers (probably mostly women) in a room of computers to punch in data is micromanaging Karens and catty office drama on breaks. I’m saying the industry they chose to use for this measurement is not valid for the larger point they’re trying to make.
Yeah, I haven’t had a team all in one office since about 2001.
Possibly. But I also think you and others overestimate the productivity level of the office. Or discount or underestimate the number of people who don’t work with people in the same building anyway.
I think another thing that tends to happen every time this comes up is, us being humans and all, we pictures our job and our situation then make pro or con declarations about WFH based on if our specific job translates well to WFH. The truth is there are far, far too many variables to make absolute arguments. And I contend the anti-WFH side tends to do that more often than the pro-WFH side.
IMHO WFH can work for a lot of jobs. For most it won’t work. And there’s a large number that would benefit from a hybrid schedule.
The problem with “hybrid” schedules is companies lose money when butts aren’t in chairs every single day.
I get the sense they only grudgingly offered it because of intense demand from workers. But they’re looking at their bottom lines and realizing they can’t afford to pay for real estate that’s empty 2 or 3 days a week.
Every situation is unique. Corporate America/corporate HR hates nuance. They will carve out special identity groups worthy of protection all day, but they aren’t about making special privileges for the more productive/responsible or for those who simply don’t have a good reason to be in-office.
So, there’s the rub. If the majority of workers can’t handle it, then it’s not going to be the new normal it was pushed as. And the groups most likely to ask for it are likely the ones least able to handle it (the younger generation). There will be some exceptions, but the general trend is going to be back to office and there is no great worker revolt on the horizon to stop it. People will largely be returning to the office whether they like it or not.
Don’t expect me to shed any tears. WFH being pushed as some magic bullet is a huge part of the reason covid restrictions became pulpable. It was the undesirables in the economy who could be forced into work while people with small businesses had them nearly destroyed if not completely ruined. And the laptop class largely supported that. Was all in. Far too many saw it as a big vacation.
My position is part spite, but also just realistic. I don’t trust your average gen z’er or Millennial to manage themselves from home. It aint going to happen. They’re fucking retarded.
Adjacent, but mostly rambling:
The Boomers I used to work with doing medical transcription weren’t great at their jobs. Production? Top-notch. It’s a production-based (paid by the 65-character line), 1099 job. The more/faster you worked, the more you got paid.
Quality, though? Not great. Between speed carelessness and lack of general medical knowledge (“baloney amputation,” anyone?) (no, it’s not a dickectomy), the quality largely suffered. They weren’t replaceable so they never cared about getting better.
When the Indians came knocking with their cheap rates, docs and hospitals jumped at it because, as one of my bosses said once, “If you’re going to get crap, you might as well get cheap crap.” India got better and their costs went up, so everybody went to the Philippines. Filipinas got better and their costs went up, so everybody went to voice recognition. Not everybody. You know what I mean. Voice recognition isn’t great, but it’s still cheaper than well-trained humans.
Yeah, I haven’t had a team all in one office since about 2001.
#metoo
No, I got what you’re saying and I agree. The converse was X% of people who wanted to work in the office were more productive or some such “finding”. No shit. A lot of self selection going on.
My initial urge to argue was Bro’s claim that the “laptop class” think they aren’t disposable.
“IMHO WFH can work for a lot of jobs.”
I would say there are certainly laptop jobs that can be done from home. Whether it will work or not depends entirely on the individual employee.
^Yes to both. And a tightrope to walk on the company’s side. If a job can be done from home and remote work is commonly offered by competitors, then the best people in the field for that job will not consider working for you unless the job is remote. An onsite or hybrid employer won’t have a chance at getting them. At the same time, the vast majority of the applicants for that the job won’t be capable of working productively from home.
It seemed like every single person in my company who either wanted to work from home or was bitching about being called back to the office inevitably eventually mentioned that they wanted to WFH because they wanted to look after their kids or do something else non-work related. Which kind of soured me on it.
I continue to believe WFH is a good idea on a purely individual basis, depending on who it is. Some people do well, some (many?) don’t. And when you get outside of something like data entry, it is very difficult to tell on an ongoing basis if a laptopper is fucking off 7 hours a day, or working 8 hours a day.
That I don’t get. How hard is it for a manager to tell if you’re doing the work they gave you? Either it’s getting done or it isn’t.
Either it’s getting done or it isn’t.
Well, there is the absolute hellish in between zone where the work getting done isn’t satisfactory and the manager has to spend months documenting the inadequacies in carefully structured papertrail to give HR the legal footing to start a performance improvement plan ultimately leading to termination in another 3 months. And such employees are skilled in using their own language that flags for HR to slow the process down. Things like “I wasn’t trained how to do that”, requiring a month of emails very bluntly pointing out that this training is occurring.
That was a nightmare but taught me exactly what to look for when hiring for my remote team. There are 5 people out of 400+ applicants for the latest opening that I thought could handle remote work. A little over 10%.
Ummm…
I’m going to assume either it was supposed to be 50 or 40 applicants total.
Heh. Math is for the help.
Oops. Fortunately for me, Legal has cracked down on math assessments as illegal.
Way to stomp on your own narrative, amirite?
*hangs head in shame*
Yuck.
To be fair, I am happy with all of my coworkers. There isn’t a slacker in the bunch. About 75% of them are at least partly WFH.
That is rare.
I had a great team too. At first a small team of exclusively A players. All high IQ and all highly motivated. It was a joy.
Then as my team expanded past 10 and towards 50, I folded in B players who were conscientious… people like report writers who got shit done well. Didn’t need to invent the cure for cancer, just pull the correct data and display it in a meaningful and digestible way. Or QC guys who ran through the test scripts under supervision.
The top tier and core of each team were still A players, but none of the rest were a drag on productivity. They did their jobs and didn’t require lots of supervision to be sure it got done right.
And it was just wonderful going to work. Every meeting was full of energy. And the one full-time work from home lady was the most productive grunt in the pack. If you had 1 genius and the rest of the team were clones of her, you could build anything, ahead of schedule and under budget.
I hope the job description doesn’t require math. :-p
Like someone pointed out a few days ago, there’s also often major home-life differences between India and the US. Much smaller homes, multiple generations living there, and lack of air conditioning were a few things brought up that could easily account or a 12% drop.
All my India peeps have houses with AC and good room. They have no issues. It’s been super hot so they don’t even want to travel.
Yeah, I really don’t have any data on that. Just repeating what someone said that had been there. Can’t recall who and I’m too lazy to go looking. I’m busy slacking while WFH. 🧐
I might have.
I’ve actually been there and seen that many people don’t have ac or don’t consistently run it. The people you work with may be a higher caliber than data entry people…
Power and water cuts are a possibility as well,
.
Yeah, it was you. Now I remember you also mentioned the power and water cuts.
That’s my thinking.
True, I don’t have any models on my side but I have me – and I am vastly more productive than ever, and I refuse to accept that I am so different from the average worker.
It is also true that none of the “go team” nonsense applies to me. My team is all over the world, and we function just fine.
Finally, I have to wonder if they factored worker happiness in their models and studies. Back to the office would be an immediate 30% pay cut for me – time is money. Probably more like 40% considering that is much more expensive to commute.
What the fuck is “worker happiness”?
Do you have a fusion reactor at home, too?
It’s one of those things that leads to greater productivity.
Yeah, I know I half assed it, but look at how much money you saved by me working at home!
Face it you would have half assed it at the office too.
I will admit to quarter assing it.
Exactly. Acting as if “the office” is some magical place where people work non-stop is a hell of a stolen base.
I’ve also noticed that the divide on this issue is generational. Gen X seems split on it, older folks act like it’s nothing less than the destruction of the American Workforce and youngsters act like it’s owed to them.
Winner! I’m on the oldest end of X.
I’d prefer to work at home, my employer asked for three days in the office and I complied. I expected to be in the office 5 days a week until retirement.
I look at the 2 days as a bonus.
Honestly, I really don’t care about wfh, because it doesn’t affect me, and I can’t relate to a 40 hour type week to begin with. But it does seem that there is a significant percentage that isn’t up to the standards held to here at Glibs. It also greatly depends on the type of work being done at home.
Another problem I have is the growing trend of the employees trying to tell the employer how it’s going to go. That extends way beyond wfh.
That’s the bottom line for my working group / larger organization. Even before COVID — multiple offices on multiple continents… the odds of us actually working with someone in our building was low… so there’s zero benefit in going in (and a distinct benefit in not being distracted when you’re trying to concentrate on triage of a bug by the never ending chatter of the Sales folks who admittedly do depend on personal connections / chattering on the phone all day).
Already could / did wake up at 2AM with my subconscious having worked a problem and logged in to test the theory — this just makes it easier / more official.
And yes, I’m laptop class — but I really don’t think I’m an unproductive slug. I (eventually) help push out real products, dangnabbit. Not just a paper pusher.
Part of the story on my end is my office became a satellite office after we got swallowed by a bigger fish.
The mothership has big office in another city – one with a much shorter commute time – with lots of young workers who probably benefit from “Team”.
My office? Not at all. Everyone IT is gone, except me and my boss. And my boss has his projects; we barely communicate as it is because my job is to “run” my team so he doesn’t have to.
Yup.. that’s part of it. I was hired by a smallish company. Main office in a different city, but this office set up and well staffed to work on a particular aspect of the product. (Like, we solidly had the entire floor all related engineering). Lots of collaboration, high value to going in.
Merger #1 happened. Aspect of the product de-emphasized / re / de / re /de (flip flopping higher management). Lots of folks transferred to what was Main Office to work on main parts of product, a couple building moves later… and we’re probably 25% of a floor. Still some value to coming in.
Merger #2 happened. More shifting around… eventually got to the point where we were one aisle… and assigned to different teams. So while we could talk, it was rare that we’d have anything to talk directly about.
Then COVID and they consolidated buildings during the shutdown, more folks moved, etc. Now there might be two people in the closest office to me that work in the same general area, etc. And 1.5 years ago they explicitly pushed me to officially go remote instead of “technically in an office but manager doesn’t really care much if he doesn’t drive in often”.
So my attitude to “You have to start coming in” is much closer to “Pound sand”. No benefit to it, pushed to be formally remote… it would just be stupid.
Knowing a lot of Americans, I would have to disagree with this premise.
They studied data entry.
That’s an entry-level job, the desk equivalent of a teenager working at Walmart after school. You’re not getting the best and brightest. You’re getting the young, the just starting out, the desperate for a job. I can’t imagine it’s much different in India than it is here.
To say that data-entry workers represent the “laptop class” is grossly overstating its place in the pink-collar ghetto, which is in the sub-basement. These aren’t members of mid-level management or their teams, or even administrative assistants. They’re just schlubs scrabbling for a living.
IOW, I find the whole article disingenuous just for basing it on the data entry industry.
Very good point.
I probably would have slacked off the last three years too if I was at the beginning of my career instead of in the latter stages of it.
IOW, I find the whole article disingenuous just for basing it on the data entry industry.
#metoo
I tapped out of the article.
Remote work isn’t working for companies
Bank I’m familiar with went back to three days a year ago. AFAIK, WFH is 99% workable for 99% of what the office in question is doing.
CEO runs card swipes: turns out almost no one is doing the three days a week (or someone is holding the door for hundreds of his colleagues).
CEO announces immediate move to four days a week. [The beatings will continue until morale improves]
My vote is the CEO takes a 10% cut in total comp for letting a “problem” go unaddressed for a year.
Notice that none of this has anything to do with productivity.
Yes. With prejudice
Remote work isn’t working for companies.
No shit? You could knock me over with a feather.
There are a small subset of jobs where WFH can be effective and there are a small subset of workers who can be effective while WFH.
Getting those two subsets to align requires a lot of evaluation and leadership. The people who can do that are an even smaller subset.
There’s also a floor of technical knowledge you need people to have to effectively WFH. If you can’t tell there’s an issue with your internet without calling into the ISP/help desk, you probably shouldn’t be WFH.
My comment about half assing it isn’t directed at you Neph. As far as you know. ;p
Seriously. And that floor of knowledge is getting higher, and the cohort of people who can reach it is shrinking.
I don’t really understand wfh productivity loss. I mean I’ve never seen an office with actual productivity to begin with. I don’t see why people can’t take the nothing they do at work and instead do nothing at home
Yeah, going by my first-hand, anecdotal experience, I don’t see (generally speaking) how there could be major productivity losses with WFH. I have far fewer distractions at home than in the office.
This.
Either it’s complete horseshit or I’m way off the spectrum of the average human.
My company is starting to push people back. I’m moving away in a few weeks and I’ll either be remote or I’ll be out of a job. Half my fucking team is remote and if they won’t let me do it out of spite well, what can I say.
Agreed. For project work, it makes zero difference. Hourly employees, absolutely should be in office.
Also. Data entry is quota-driven. You must enter so many data points in an hour. It’s easily tracked, especially if you use a keylogger.
So if production in a quota-driven job went down 12%, there’s something else going on. A data entry worker with that kind of consistent fail rate would be replaced in the blink of an eye, because there’s always more where that one came from.
I would play Doom on a graphing calculator.
It’s a Friday, and while I’ll be out (hoping the rain doesn’t happen), the Zoom will go on.
If I worked from home I’d just be on Glibs all day. Much the same as now.
I resemble that comment!
Sam Bankman-Fried is sent to jail for alleged witness tampering
A federal judge revoked bail for FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried Friday during a bond hearing.
There is probable cause to believe that the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice, US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan said.
Kaplan said Friday that a gag order would not be sufficient given Bankman-Fried’s repeated toeing of the line.
Bankman-Fried was remanded, at least temporarily, to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, while the parties sort out details of how he will review discovery materials ahead of a trial scheduled for October.
US marshals handcuffed Bankman-Fried and escorted out of the courtroom after Judge Kaplan’s ruling.
Sam didn’t kill himself!
What what? That’s a gigantic First in MikeS’s butt.
Yeah, getting ready to drop into the toilet.
Well, I went and ordered the Chinese Resin Machine.
Gotta find a good respirator. Any ideas?
https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/respiratory-protection-us/
Looking at the options I suddenly realize I don’t know what is in those fumes other than “Fumes R Bad” and the filters are particular to the fumes in question.
🤔
Organic vapor. Color varies by manufacturer.
Cloth mask. It blocks viruses.
And you make them yourself from old t-shirts!
He can wear two for extra protection!
+1 Obstacle course
The biggest issue is once you open the filters the activated charcoal will saturate from air exposure.
You can ziplock them, but you still need to change them. I usually push it because I am cheap and not wearing them for extended periods like a worker would.
Would using those packets of silicon dry-up stuff solve that problem? It would keep the humidity super low.
I’ll leave that to others who may know better. It’s the crap that it binds with and not the moisture that is my understanding.
That’s right. Activated carbon gets used in fishtank filters, so super saturated environment without any issue.
No. Officially you get 8 hours of use out of them, unofficially as long as you don’t smell anything you’re ok*
*varies according to the odor threshold of that you’re blocking.
Interesting. Sam Bankman-Fried got his bail revoked for talking to a NYT reporter.
kinnath wins again
Novel argument.
Step one: Send Sam to Jail
Step two: He accidentally hangs himself
Step three: Profit!!!
Now what do the Feds call it when they illegally leak details of cases to the press?
Public relations
Something that is illegal but never prosecuted for drones above a certain level.
See also: Perp Walk
/Looks upthread
Missed it by that much!
Speaking of movies, I watched Damn Yankees last night. If I had seen it before, it wasn’t in the last fifty years. It was really good.
Ah! Damn Yankees holds a special place in my heart because during the summer between my junior and senior year of college, I stuck around on campus to take a couple of classes, including working stage crew for the university’s summer repertory theater production of same. (One number, though – “Who’s Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo?” – holds a special place of contempt in my memory.)
If I had my education/career path to do over again, I might take a stab at becoming a theatrical stage manager.
also because I hate the Yankees.
Looking at the options I suddenly realize I don’t know what is in those fumes other than “Fumes R Bad” and the filters are particular to the fumes in question.
My guess is solvents. I’d go with something suitable for painting cars.
It’s an epoxy. So that’s probably a good call. Something for two stage epoxy auto paint.
So, something like This?
That particular model is not for commercial sale, but the same filter carts fit other models.
Have you come across this article yet? I only skimmed, but it seems very informative.
That exact selection looks like overkill since it includes particulate filters. I’m not expert, but I believe you want these filters and then it’s your choice for the facemask to attach them to.
👍
Good point he doesn’t need particulates like somebody spraying paint.
That looks right.
The cartridge is the thing.
Organic Vapor Cartridge 07046
So that’s what you should research.
stoked more flames
Client burned up their old equipment.
We installed new, better equipment.
Client just burned up our new equipment. Further, site maintenance manage is copying the corporate world with emails that are at least half true. Corporate guy called to admit he knows they burned our stuff up.
It’s nice to know we’re not on the hook, but there’s another job on that site, seven figures, but I think we should walk away: why deal with asshoe incompetent who’s just going to much us miserable on the other project. I’ve advised we cut and run.
“Shame. I’d watch Gal Gadot in anything”
You’re in luck, check out ‘heart of stone’ on Netflix.
I’d rather watch her in nothing.
::waggles eyebrows::
Candid movies? Say no more! Say no more!
RIP Alan Funt.
RIP Bob Crane.
Last call?
New versions of the Mustang muscle car will begin shipping next week and more than two thirds of the orders include the big, 5-liter V-8 engine, Ford said Friday.
Demand for roaring engines remains strong in an era when Detroit automakers are starting to phase out the rumbling gas burners and transition to electric vehicles in order to meet strict government emissions and fuel economy requirements.
There are about 13,000 U.S. orders for the 2024 Mustangs, Ford says, which also can be equipped with a four-cylinder turbocharged engine. Of those orders, 67% have the V-8, and more than a quarter of the people seeking that Mustang want the six-speed manual transmission, spokesman Mike Levine says.
——-
People are going for V-8 Mustangs with stick shifts in part because they may be the last of the gas-powered muscle car era, said Guidehouse Insights eMobility analyst Sam Abuelsamid.
“The most hard-core fans, they’re going to go out and grab one of these because you don’t know when it’s going to end,” he said.
When a new Mustang comes out, the V-8 order rate is almost always higher than the other available engines, as is the demand for manual transmissions, because fervent Mustang fans are often the first to order, Abuelsamid said.
“We tend to see more demand from enthusiasts for the V-8 whenever an all-new Mustang is introduced,” Jim Owens, Mustang brand manager, said in a prepared statement.
I just hope they’re being bought to be driven, and not stashed away as an “investment”.
❤️ manual transmission ❤️
Having driven the RAM2500 for a number of years with her 6-speed manual, I will say that when sitting in city traffic (Indy, Cincinnati, and such) pulling a 12,000 lb trailer……that Allison auto is a gift from G_d for the clutch leg. Start/stop is a killer in the manual.
My husband is also on the no-manual-transmission list, now that he’s getting older. He has a left knee replacement and he says he would not do well with that.
I learned on a stick shift at the bottom of a hill that was the only exit from my neighborhood.
Fuck that noise.
I had an ’89 Mustang LX5.0. I used to regularly drive into San Francisco for the day.
I initially misread that as “I used to regularly drive into San Francisco Bay.”
+1 engine thumping like a disco
Untz untz untz?
That wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
At least they had the honestly to admit this is because of government regulation. Nobody is asking for it.
And it’s not going to be pretty when reality hits. Will Detroit automakers be able to ramp back up the production of “rumbling gas burners” when it becomes obvious that the green utopia is a childish fantasy?
ramp back up
the good news is the US is so good at getting rid of regulation that has proven ineffective
I’ve seen talk that Dodge is going to keep an ICE Charger/Challenger around due to massive amounts of negative feedback through their dealer network over electrification of the Charger and Challenger. However, it will be a 6 cylinder. No more Hemis.
A mustang is the only car I’ve been interested since I was little, but I’m also a cheapskate. Maybe I should bite the bullet and but one before it’s too late. 🙁
DEG loves his. Ask him about it next time he is on.
Will do, thanks for the tip.
I have a 2021 GT Convertible. V8. Manual.
Yes, I love it despite a few annoyances.
First annoyance:
I wanted a 2020 because the “safety package” (includes auto start/stop, auto-braking, lane keeping assist, and I forget what else) was optional for 2020. It is standard for 2021 and later. I placed my order too late in 2020 to get a 2020 model year car. My choices were order a 2021 or take dealer stock in order to get a 2020. Everything in dealer stock (the dealer ran a multi-state search) included that package. I talked with the sales guy. He explained these features can all be turned off, but the auto start/stop and auto-braking have to be turned off every time you start the car. I decided to order a 2021 based on this. Lane keeping assist stays off, but those other two I have to turn off every time I start the car. It’s an annoyance.
It is a little tight getting in and out of the Mustang. Nothing I can’t handle, but I’ll note the 2021 Challenger (I’m looking at one, thanks again RJ for your help and advice!) is much easier to get in and out of.
For road trips, the 15.5 gallon gas tank is a drag. Combine that with a thirsty engine (the smaller engines will be less thirsty of course, but I have a V8 in mine), and I stop for gas often on a road trip.
I’ve had one thing fixed under warranty: The driver’s seat belt got bound up inside the interior panel (part of the seat belt mechanism is inside the interior panel on the convertibles). I couldn’t get it unstuck. The dealer couldn’t get it unstuck. The dealer replaced the seat belt under warranty. The dealer also told me that Ford has had problems with other cars that use this style of seat belt, but didn’t specify which ones use it.
That’s all the annoyances for me.
Note the backseat is damn near unusable, but I don’t use it at all so I don’t count this as an annoyance for me. If I need to carry more than one passenger, I take my daily driver. It might be an annoyance for you. Only you can decide that.
I love the car’s looks, both inside and out. But, I’m also biased towards the Mustang.
Handling and performance are good. I had some concerns about the transmission and shifting – clunking and gears grabbing. I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong. Clutch pedal to the floor, shift smoothly, and still occasionally getting noise and gear grinding. I took the car into the dealer. Their transmission tech looked at it. He told two things. The transmission still needs to be broken in (I think the car had 700 miles on it at this point), and I’m still getting used to driving it. He gave me some pointers on how to shift it. I did what he said. Much improved.
I don’t remember all the options I got. I’d have to go dig up the paperwork.
Anything specific you’d like to know?
roaring engines
the contrived Mustang exhaust note is well executed, but it’s lame: compare and contrast
what sounds cool to a real engine guy is authenticity: a real two-valve head bumped by a fat cam feeding headers; we loved it because that’s how you made ponies with what we had 50 years ago
Folks who buy performance cars with manual transmissions are enthusiasts, and will hopefully treat their toys as such. FWIW, V-8 Mustangs in the hands of skilled drivers are exceedingly capable track cars, as are Corvettes (notice I wrote “skilled drivers,” not the knuckleheads you see leaving Cars & Coffee).
I like that Ford is keeping the Mustang around with a V8 and manual.
As God Intended.
So the new English Premier League (roundball) season started at 3pm Eastern today. I tuned in and just before the opening whistle blew, I remembered why I stopped paying attention last year.
They are still fucking kneeling against rAcIsM.
TBF racism is very much alive and well in Europe. The most racist person I’ve ever met was a Dane, and it’s not even close. The Rednecks in West Pennsyltucky, as bad as they are, have nothing on the Scandinavians.
True. But this is just woke, self-flagellating nonsense – it’s not going to change any minds.
The most racist places I’ve ever been were big blue cities and it isn’t even close.
Agreed. City grifters, for all their bluster, are racist POS. Why that doesn’t get called out more is beyond me.
Heard a long time ago- “people in the north pretend to like blacks; people in the south pretend to hate ’em.”
Having been to Korea, and dont lots of work for Toyota, Ill say that asians are some of the most racist mofo’ on the planet. And nearly everyone else, too.
I’ve always thought this was due to culture clash. Blacks brought an alien culture up north.
IOW it’s more a north/south thing than a city thing.
Eh…the culture ininner cities is nothing like the culture of the South. I think it’s very much a white/black thing. As much as the white progs will say the right words when being watched, they can’t help but notice the cultural and social decay in predominantly black areas. There’s a disdain there that they mostly try to hide, but which a few will voice vocally. I’ve seen both sides of that in person.
What Gender Traitor says is mostly true. Blacks are more integrated in with the white and Hispanics. It is, ironically, more diverse. There are black areas still, but the cops don’t put up with the same bullshit.
Thomas Sowell had a few things to say about that. There are aspects they brought from the south, for sure.
Variation I’d heard: “Southern whites let blacks live close as long as they don’t get uppity. Northern whites let blacks get uppity as long as they don’t live close.”
As a group, there is no one more racist than the Han. They fucking hate other Chinese.
They don’t much care for non-Chinese, either. Though it ebbs and flows depending on how much propaganda there is (currently it’s very high).
So, something like This?
That looks like a good place to start. You could get one of those full hoods, but that seems like overkill.
the contrived Mustang exhaust note
Ford spent a ton of money to develop a flat crank motor which wouldn’t sound like a flat crank motor. Why?
Because Ford?
Ford management apparently thinks Ferraris sound like shit?
Looks like I got a gig at the Kroger five min from my parents’ place. In the produce dept doing that sort of thing. Thankfully just polite helping customers for human interaction. Will definitely be part time. Haven’t had that talk with People to determine scheduling. I’m aiming for 25 or so hours/week. Flexible. Night shifts are a-ok some of the time.
Structure is necessary. I am bad at creating it from scratch. This has been an odd day. I have many of those. Got some x-rays of my skull today. Pretty much wanna see if there’s something physical going on with those couple skullaches I had. I had another one today but that felt different, like I actually DID just sleep wrong. Went away just like that does.
Strange thing, my life.
The union life for you!
Enjoy the UFCW- they own Kroger.
Former member!
Oh, dear! Hadn’t even thought of anything resembling that. Doubt it will come up. If I’m working there after three months, then I’ve done something wrong/am unlucky to not have found something more long-term.
Editing is honestly what I actively enjoy. I’ve worked with UCS before. I’m keen to explore that more, but I need to start with something more structured at this point in my life. I have a book or three in me, but that isn’t a profession I’ve earned (yet/ever). I haven’t started the deep dive but also the zoo. Studied animal behavior and worked with lions and tigers before. SiL worked at the Indy zoo. She had to do certain types of writing for them. Not sure what, but not brochure stuff.
We shall see what happens. Couple more appointments for next before outpatient kinda/sorta begins. Scheduling comes into play. Hrm. I’ll think about that further when I know more. I’m in a strange mood.
(One number, though – “Who’s Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo?” – holds a special place of contempt in my memory.)
There were some weird dance scenes in that movie.
Well, Bob Fosse choreographing for Gwen Verdon.
Twisted Metal series….it’s very diverse. I don’t know if I can watch Anthony Mackie’s bland ass play an anti-hero character for 8-10 hours of TV.
And then we get a bunch of cheesy CGI action scenes.
That was a mediocre Playstation 1 game. Had bad controls and camera work. Amazing how low people will stoop for content.