*shuffles into the back on the line*
saw the server link in one of Sargon of Akkad's videos, thought "I leave servers over politics enough, may as well try one that is about politcs"
so here I am to see how that works out.

I can't tell if this headline is satire or not, guess I will have to read the thing to find out huh?

that was mostly my thought, also kinda hoped to find some likeminded people chatting with eachother about such topics.

eh, I wouldn't worry about any Brony apocalypse, Bronies are done their growth phase and now it's mostly a matter of how things go form here.

sadly I don't know of any way to have my avatar diffrent for each of the servers i'm in, else I would change it to something more generic.

would it be proper to introduce myself based on my politics? or do i just wait for people to figure that out over time?

well i will likely be lurking around for a while at the very least, waiting to see what interesting topics come up.

I find lots of stuff interesting, but I only have a few things i tend to activly think about.

mostly "things I would like to build but will never have the resources to build"

close, I would like to build an engine form raw stock but I have no experience in anything of the sort.

found some guy on youtube rebuilding a really old CAT engine and thought "that looks simple enough"

well, to be fair those old engines were very simple, i'm lucky enough to be driveing a truck older then me for work right now.

as far as engines go I find myself wondering why we don't see the valve train being done by electronics rather then haveing a cam shaft.

I know the tech is out there and it seems like it would make the engine easy to tune, and it could be tuned on the fly.

that's fair, I kinda want to be able to do my own work on my own truck but the electronics are a bit overwhelming for me, mostly because the wireing is a rats nest in most everything.

even though I would still take it to a shop most of the time, it's nice to know how it is built and wired so I can take a good guess at what is wrong.

at least in a PC everything is more or less standardized.

but yah, take that and scale it up to about 10 or 20 feet, now make it so the case covers most of the wires and needs heavy equipment to move.

that's what a truck is like.
what's worse is the one I have is a bit of a hodgepodge.

from what i know, the brand of truck no longer services the brand of engine, then I know the fuse box got replaced at least once, and the gauge panel.
the good news is the brand of engine is one of the most common so most shops can service it just fine.

lots of fun! but at least the big trucks are not really proprietary for the most part.

I kinda knew i would be getting into a bit of crazy land when i bought a truck old enough to be exempt form most of the modern emissions standards.
makeing it much cheaper to work on and more reliable besides.

I should note the truck I drive for work is not the truck I own, not right now at least.

its mostly the emissions equipment, far more complex then it should be and was forced into use before it was ready for market.

lots of sensors and crap.

if I had the money I would try experimenting with an after burner to reduce emissions.

well, 03 is when things started getting bad for trucks, so I don't think Obama is to blame for that.

that's why I got a 2000.

real nice starter truck, would have been better if I had just said "screw the rules" and not spent a pile of money on an APU.
i would have been able to replace bolth differentials when the one blew and that would have ment i wouldn't have been running with mismatched differentials, that would have saved me form buying an extra set of 8 tires that i didn't really need.

but really, i'm the reason i'm not driveing it, had a mental breakdown and haven't been able to fix myself yet.

cuz she(the truck) was able to pay for all of that when I was driveing her.

a very good one. lots of power and took good care of me.

you have never lived out of a truck, you gotta like them this much to survive on the open road.

that's alot of miles for a car!

well it's a Volvo truck with a Detroit engine, so i don't know what that would be for nationality.

i'm more of a Toyota driver for cars (and pickups)

I think my Carola is an 11 that i got new.

i'm gonna drive that car till it dies, it was just before they started putting those dumb touchscreens in place of a radio.

heh, i find it funny that on the one hand I love what you can do with tech, on the other I HATE most consumer tech.

If i were building a truck with all the money I needed for everything I want it would have more bells and whistles then most supper cars.
but if i'm buying something of the shelf I would rather just have the old mechanical engines.

I don't think I have ever seen a highway Truck "lifted" mostly cuz 13'6" is the max hight anyway.
but I think I have seen pictures of "low rider"s cuz air ride is standard now.

but an active suspention would be one of the things I would want if I had enough money to get such a thing working.

being able to lean into the corners would be so much fun!

have you seen that Bose experimental suspension? they had a car that would keep itself level no matter what it went over.
they did a demonstration where it hopped over a 2x6 form a flat road.

found the vid if you wanted to see, i'm sure there are others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KPYIaks1UY

that sounds nice.

my dad was a truck driver and he took me out a few times, I would have had a better chance if he had given me hard drugs.
I think i'm a truck driver for life now and i'm ok with that for the most part.

I have been all over the US, I didn't keep track but I think I have been in every state, if i missed one it would be someplace in the middle.

yah, or one that doesn't have much highway.

looking at a map though, I am quite sure I have been in all of them.

I have been to Canada a few times, only reason i have a problem with that is getting back, the border agents are kinda A holes about that.

one load I picked up in Washington and drove it all the way to Nova Scotia!

funny enough, I think Canadians have the same problem getting back into Canada.
it's like our own governments don't want us!

that or the agents just know that they can give us a hard time because we just want to go home.

last time i was out there the guy was giveing me a hard time because he didn't want to directly ask for the "toll" and they had just changed the rules so you were supposed to prepay.

they call it a usage fee or some such rot, but it's just a toll.

only for trucks.

only comeing back into the us.

no idea, sorry.

also, trucks are very discriminated against, as are the drivers.

for me there are "trucks" and "pickups"

"trucks" are big and build to haul goods, most of them have trailers. they are build by the likes of Mack and Freightliner.
then there are "pickups" and those are built by the likes of Ford or Toyota.

they make pickups sure.

yah, I know.

so when i say "truck" you need to read "semi"

:)

a pickup is still just a 4 wheeler to me.

i'm a US truck driver.

so a "truck" is gonna be a U-haul at least.

uhhhh..... yah i guess.

language doesn't always make sense.

i'm trying to find a road sign that is the perfect example of discrimination against trucks.

I know the sign i want, I know the pice of highway it's on.

I have no idea how to quickly search for it.

no, not maximum clearance, those at least make sense.

you gotta have a height limit at some point, and the industry is going to build that high.

yah, those ones, as well as haveing 10mph lower speed limit.

in most states in the US trucks can only use the 2 right most lanes.

for what ever dumb reason.

I love NH cuz they don't care at all.

if they weren't being taken over by mass I would move there, the license plates there say "live free or die"

also they have liquor outlets where most places would have highway rest areas, so that's funny even though i don't drink.

well i give up, i'm just gonna explain the situation on the "Atchafalaya Basin Bridge" in Louisiana.
it's a 2 lane each way highway bridge that goes over a swamp or something.
a straight line for nearly 20 miles.
Speed limit is 60, unless you are a truck then it is only 55.
also trucks MUST stay in the right lane.

it's really just a trap for truck drivers because they know that you won't try and fight the fine and you don't live there to get the rules changed.

that they are, I wish i could make anyone complaining about being oppressed learn what they have to put up with everywhere.

but that bridge was the last straw that broke me, I finished the loads i had already signed up for and drove empty home.

the officer wasn't able to give me a good reason for why that was the rule, he gave me some BS about cars going in the breakdown lane because of trucks being in the left lane?

I wasn't slowing anything down, not blocking anything, just keeping up with traffic.

now part of me wants to patrol that bridge with a wrecker and drag any car in the breakdown lane off the bridge.
and then cuss out the cops for unsafe parking.

and at the same time it would be a good service, because it would keep the lanes clear of brake downs!

it's just some crap stuck in my head now that i can't get rid of.

that sucks.

a while back I learned about something called "seasteading", if i could think of a way to make the money to maintain such a thing I think I would very much like to do it.

just go out to sea and anchor somewhere, possibly with some like minded people.

I find myself hopeless over politics, I'm very much a live and let live person.
as long as you aren't physically hurting someone I don't really care what you do, sadly such ideas are quickly overwhelmed by all of the people who think they know best for everyone everywhere.

my state just outlawed "single use grocery bags" by Executive Order (or the equivalent of it anyways)

gotta be one of the dumbest things i have ever heard of, those bags don't get into the environment very often.
and they have many secondary uses.

yup, didn't even go to a vote, that's how much they thought it was needed.
more like they knew it would get shot down if it went to a vote.

nope, ME.

I would be thinking about leaveing if i thought i could escape such stupidity, but I know that these ideas will spread given enough time.