I confess I drink way too much diet soda.
That said, I am making this my last day with soda. Switching to water, tea, coffee and gatorade zero (and kombucha on occasion)
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Iāve never gotten into pop (soda is the wrong word man, I thought you were a Midwesterner at heart?!), but Iām not sure I could ever give up milk. Not that milk has as much sugar as pop, but it still has plenty of calories.
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I am from Wisconsin. Itās itās own thing
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I confess Iām old enough to remember bicycles cost 50 bucks. Mountain Bikes. 70USD was the good shit.
This blew my mind.
Itās being sold for 4K USD on the CHEAPEST Amazon-like platform in the country. The fucking platform you go when you see something you like on Amazon and you find the same shit 1/3 of the price.
Thats the bicycle equivalent to a flamingo.
I donāt want to ride a flamingo. Thats some Liberace territory there.
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DOOOOD I just saw a fucking 7K USD one on my local amazon-like platform.
What the fuck LMAO?
If these are normal, commercially available products, how much would a professional one cost? Holy crap. Iāve not even bothered to check out if there are any with higher prices.
What is so special about these things?
That really is nuts. Iāve been out of the loop on bikes for a while, so Iāll plead ignorant, but I just dont see 7k work of bike there.
Not when I can go to Walmart and get a mongoose for $200.00 and beat it like it owes me money for a couple of years before it breaks.
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Btw, I now have a ācat behavior consultantā on retainer lol.
Sheās pretty damn smart too. Knows chemistry and shit plus, sheās a vet tech who can work as a vet in some states.
Please pardon me, Colonizers and ex-masters who are vet techs at clinics here. I love one dude in a clinic I frequent here cos heās the only one my most crazy one is afraid of and remains completely still while he washes his ears and I call him āDrā. Other clinics need 2 people to hold him down. One gave up and put him into one of those REALLY STRONG cat restraint bags and the fucker. Fucking completely tightly encased with only the head exposed and IT STILL TOOK 2 OF THEM TO HOLD HIM STILL,
So the idea of a country having states which allow vet techs to practice as vets was as mindblowing as higher qualified nurses being authorized to prescribe medication cos we have vet techs here with DVM qualifications from countries like the Philippines but their degrees arenāt recognized here so they canāt practice.
And the vets here are idiots. And I think some of you know I donāt make statements questioning medical professionals since theyāre the experts in their fields. But, again, the same people should know that if I make a statement like this, it means I can back it up,
If you want proof, give me a way to contact you and Iāll tell you how something like a SINGLE PHONE CALL would have saved me 5K+ USD and 3 months of trauma for one of my parentsā cats. Iām talking about 2 or 3 hospitalizations (one was needed), 3 or 4 ultrasounds, 3 X-rays, blood and urine tests 2x a month up to getting a session with one out of 2 fucking specialists in that area of veterinary medicine in the entire country.
Well, this vet tech immediately told me to tell the vet make that phone call when I had only racked up a bill of a couple of hundred bucks after looking at his bloodwork and urinalysis. And then she made the right call again for another cat when looking at his bloodwork which saved me probably over 1K USD.
So anyway, hereās how you stop cats from fighting once thereās a war going down because of spraying.
Do note that Iām ONLY talking about spraying being the cause of aggression and the āterritorialā part is a reaction, not a cause. Iāll explain why below. This may not apply to any other situations. And I completely ruled out every single fucking medical reason including fucking gingivitis and FIC. I had complete bloodwork and urinalysis and some other shit was done like a couple of days before the spraying and fighting started, which I think was like 3-4 months ago but I know I did the latter for ONE of the assholes who just joined in and thatās another fucking story which keeps me repeating that vets here are idiots.
Again, I wouldnāt be dissing anyone in a profession whoās gone through a rigourous education in a field I have no knowledge of so for everything Iāve written here, I can back up everything I say with dates, times, prices, clinics, vet seniority, gender(because 1 fucker is ONLY AFRAID OF MALES SO HE KEEPS COMPLETELY STILL. 3 female vets canāt restrain him. The catās the sexist fucker, not me. And no, Iāve never encountered a gender binary vet before.) etc but not here. You wanna know what went on, just give me a way to contact you.
I save EVERY SINGLE TEST, BILL, MEDICATION INCLUDING SHIT LIKE BACTERIAL STRAIN FROM WHAT THE VET SEES UNDER MICROSCOPE TO BACTERIAL CULTURES etc. EVERYTHING.
(I do this for most things, not just cats. My business mentor told me very firmly to do this 15+ years ago with the rationale being that if I encounter a similar problem, at least half of the work is already done for me, be it a ātemplateā that can be used for a component of the problem to analyzing my business as the years pass based on historical data. This was before the term āBig Dataā became a common term and even before I knew how to turn a computer on (I.AM.NOT.KIDDING.). Dudeās not around anymore but he was a real visionary.)
Ok, hereās what Iāve learned.
First, if vets where you live have bad reps, donāt fucking listen to them. Go online, ask a couple of questions on one of those platforms where you pay a membership for asking professionals questions. Iāve mentioned it before. Find someone who knows their shit by asking hard questions based on shit youāve faced in the past and you already know the answers.
Second:
Donāt do that āseparating them and then gradually re-introducing themā nonsense. If you have a sprayer who does it in response to stress, you really want a room full of piss? FFS lol.
Do this:
- Space out ALL the litterboxes if you have a litterbox room and if youāre going to put one in other rooms, which Iāll bet most people will think of placing it in a corner and hiding it, donāt unless youāre willing to make them visible. This is because the fuckers feel safe when they have line of sight when attacked, especially if theyāre cornered. (you can actually look this up on YouTube. That Jackson Galaxy dude said something similar and he definitely knows his stuff although his āflower essencesā spray sounds like bullshit to me).
I made the mistake of using completely enclosed ones side by side thinking cats feel safer when they have āprivacyā so this current spraying fucker did spray like once every 2-3 months before, which is kinda negligible. I changed to using the ones with a big hole on top and a front entrance. The top cover with the from ādoorā attached to also acts as a āhoodā for easy cleaning so you can pull it up to around 1/3 of the length of the box. If you wanna put one in your living room, it gives you several options depending on the character of your cat.
But you see how thinking like a pack animal is so much different from thinking like a solitary predator thatās in the middle of the food chain hierarchy?
- Again, you can watch see that Jackson Galaxy or Galaxy Jackson dude saying something similar to:
If shit starts blowing up, you need to create a separate āvertical pathwayā (the Galaxy dude calls it a "Kitty Super Highway) lol. Itās not some elaborate interior design project. I found it was pretty easy for me in my living room because I have a big L-shaped table for my workspace there and several shelves, a long bar counter table and a couple of āChineseā side wall tables in my storeroom. For the tall shelves (1.8m and above), I just turned them sideways.
For sofas and stuff, just arrange them in a way that creates a path but add something that links to any preferred spot at the wall. This isnāt rocket science lol.
Rationale is you donāt wanna increase stress by isolating one or 2 of them. You wanna slowly mitigate tension it while allowing giving the fuckers more chances to avoid each other by having another path to their desired destination(s). You isolate a sprayer in any room with fabrics or plastic bag type of material and youāll fight the cat yourself since itās the fucking STRESS (it was the vet visits for ear cleaning. See above for the description of the sprayer. The motherfucker would spray for 5 days consecutively after each visit. Yes, I counted and recorded EVERY SINGLE LOCATION, item and estimated days based on strength and/or dampness of any soiled fabric)
And I recorded down every catalyst grouped into different categories for each wailing match and the most frequent prior to that amazing Relaxivet diffuser was mutual grooming, which would look like āsoliciting playā and bonding if you record a video of it and turn the volume off.
Hereās the most interesting thing which I kinda knew but decided to differ to the vets here. Which is why Iām an idiot AND another reason why I call the local ones idiots:
-
Domestic INDOOR cats remain in a āneo-natalā state throughout their lives, which is why you see even geriatric cats playing with each other daily. Thatās cos their primal instincts donāt lick in unless thereās some big, trigger. Itās why dogs try to dig a tiled floor and why one of my cats tries to āburyā unfinished food in his bowl. Itās to keep predators away.
-
The smell of the spray probably triggered their natural, āadultā instincts and play fighting turned into brawls. And hereās the thing. If the spray gets on porous material, only enzymatic cleaners will solve the root of the problem by neutralizing some shit like urea or whatever in in piss. Commercial pet ones do BALLS.
I can still smell the fucking pee if I use an entire Naturalās Miracle āUrine Destroyerā soaker (which means itās for soaking fabric) on a fucking small 38x38cm ottoman just to test its efficacy. I COULD STILL SMELL IT.
For solid surfaces like floor tiles, you can just use soap and bleach (cos itās the bacteria interacting or growing or whatever the fuck happens with the stuff in the pee that causes the smell, which is why you only smell it after itās been there for a couple of days) since youāre just cleaning it up.
For certain types of fabrics, you still need an enzymatic cleaner because of chemistry and shit. But mix it like 1:3 ratio for it to work. Which means youāre gonna have to go through like 4-5 wash cycles in a row if youāre allergic to the enzymatic cleaners.
BUT hereās the problem. Just because I canāt smell it DOESNāT MEAN THE CAT CANāT so if you have soiled stuff thatās not worth keeping nor the effort of constant re-washing, just throw it away.
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Go check out your local amazon. I saw one over 7K USD IIRC. Iām got a Prime membership so I get suggestions cos shipping from the US to here is free for lots of products. Some are even cheaper on the US site than my local one and shipping is free.
EDITED:
But then you get fuckers from China selling shit like ācamera microscopesā for 50x the price on my local platform (I mean the local Amazon site, which may be a lot more or slightly less for the US site.). And goods on Aliexpress, which is the English language China version of Amazon fucking sells the same shit 10x the prices now than 4 years ago after the Western market increased adoption substantially.
So itās a pretty funny situation.
China vendors from the same shop sell an item at, e.g, $100 here cos weāre not fucking going to pay that kiind of prices and the online store industry is pretty competitive. It costs $20 or less on their Chinese language platform called Taobao so if itās a bulky item, itās ok if itās not available here although it will only deliver by sea freight, which isnāt cheap either now. I donāt know about the US, but even budget airline ticket prices to China will cost at least 3K NOW and will go up to 15K by mid December. A BUDGET AIRLINE WHICH TAKES 3.5 HOURS to fly Guangzhou.
$15,000USD. Let that sink in lol. Our PPP is more or less the same as the US. Probably more disposal income since we donāt have those insurance plans which I know BALLS about but our housing prices will blow your minds.
Ok, back to the hypothetical product. Itās $500 on Aliexpress and $888 or more on Amazon.
TL: DR
China sells a product for $20 locally on their Chinese language, Amazon-like platforms. Sells it to S.E Asia at $80-100. Only communication using English is allowed here and will only ship via sea freight for larger items. $500 on their English language platform that caters mostly to the Western market (Mostly European countries) and $800 to $1,200 on Amazon US.
LMAO.
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They shouldnt have to ship them too far, theyāre made in Taiwan by Pacific Cycles!
Not that I know where you are. Just assuming its somewhere on the other side of the Pacific.
Edit:
Yeah. We have Harbor Freight retail outlers here for tools. They have off label products that are nearly identical (or exactly) to some brand names. I got a welding machine last year for about $900. The name brand one is around 3k. And a hood that would be $700 for like $130.
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Every time I type a post on this forum using my phone I have to edit it at least twice because of double and/or misplaced words - even though I swear Iāve proofread it.
Confession: This has nothing to do with the forum or my phone and everything to do with the fact that I probably need glassesā¦ Getting old SUCKS!!
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So gym owner casually said yes to me storing a barbell there
Thinking of getting the rogue ohio power bar e-coat. Thoughts?
Also, I just realized, elitefts bars are 28.5mm, I wonder why? Isnāt the powerlifting bar usually 29mm?
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Here is another testament to my complete lack of skills with my hands and how my brain is wired that renders me worthless when it comes to ANYTHING DIY:
It took me 2 days to figure out how to assemble this. And I mean FIGURE OUT. Iāve not done it yet lol.
This is why every time I go to the hardware store near my house, the old dude there looks down, shakes his head and gives me a look of both āoh fuck this moronās here againā and pity.
I only have a hard copy of the instructions. If you can find the instructions online (how to screw shit in under the table), you will understand this thing should be idiot proof. The fucking screws are all labelled concisely and packed accordingly in 3 separate bags. They didnāt design this for an idiot at my level.
And this, btw, will cost $300USD on a platform like Aliexpress or Amazon. It costs $55 on my local platform.
And I fucking found a local platform that lets vendors sell direct from Taobao since the Chinese-English translator apps are getting more and more accurate.
Taobao, if anyone got through my last post, is the China version of Amazon. This should have cost like $40 bucks at most. The bastards use the Taobao page of my local platform and do this:
āBig Sale! $1,200 - 80%!
$295!ā
The same product on the real Taobao page costs less than $30. This was purchased from a LOCAL VENDOR who delivered it the next day.
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God, the Universe, or what ever it may be gives with one hand and takes with the other.
I will admit that with diy furniture I have to tap into a special place in my mind that is reserved for such tasks. Like you, I pay particular attention to the bill of materials, required tools, order of assembly, etc.
And I keep a bottle of wood glue and wooden toothpicks handy in case those infernal anchors twist loose or any screws going in to the wood core out that cruddy particle stuff that everything is made of now. 
The toothpicks can be glued, clipped and shoved into the holes to repair the damaged crud holes.
Unlike changing the bearings and re-centering the drum on a wood chipper, these things require finesse, which I have very little of.
But I do have a good oxy-acetylene torch and a wide selection of sledge hammers.
I wish you good luck and lots of patience.
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Oh pleaseā¦ Iām Chinese. Weāre the undisputed Kings of false humility lol.
Joke! Joke!
Seriously, Iāve marveled at your handiwork for those stained class windows and wooden casings/borders(?) when you posted them at different times over the years even though Iām not sure if I commented.
Youāre a bloody maverick at that shit, man.
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Thank you, truly.
I just feel fortunate to have worked with some great people and do some cool stuff.
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Dudeā¦
Show Us Your Other Hobbies/ Talentsā¦ - Off Topic - Forums - T Nation (t-nation.com)
I studied advanced Art History for 2 years (that was tertiary level although I studied it in secondary school but the exams were the same as the tertiary students) and just got past the Byzantine era, which was mostly about architecture, before I dropped it.
This shit isnāt something normal people are capable of by a long shot.
You guys and gals here be the judge. This was a post like 10 years ago and I still remember it lol.
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Wow!
I guess when you put it like thatā¦ 
Iām humbled.
I really like the way that big one turned out. That was the craziest design- just a whole bunch of triangles of various types and sizes. We approximately fit it in the shop, but to see it in place and glazed is kinda stunning. If I ever make it out to Bend Oregon Iām going to have to see it in person.
Its hidden on the other side, but I knicked that gold one with a grinder right on the face in that center round. Just about messed my pants.
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Hi, Britain here. Iād like to dispute something, if itās not too much trouble.
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Lol, from what Iāve observed from my Brit friends IRL, you guys do that like kind of self-effacing statements with a hint of sarcasm.
I do not have the descriptive powers to describe how Chinese people do it lol. You gotta ask @anna_5588 since the way she describes her parents is exactly like how traditional Chinese people behave, or an old fart like @punnyguy.
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