Not putting tools away says: I don’t respect others’ work.
You’re saying, “The work I’m doing is important. I know where the tool is for the next time I need it because I know where I left it. However, the work you’re doing is not important. Because it’s not important, it’s ok for you to spend your time looking for the tool.”
I installed a new car stereo this weekend [1], which has Bluetooth audio and phone and is in every way superior to the standard Toyota stereo [2]. Except that it looks like the sound system from a 1977 shag-carpeted pleather-lined van doubling as an on-call mobile cathouse.
All the other ones in the Crutchfield catalog were right up there in style. Fake plastic chrome on the buttons, disco show lights (how is that the default in a moving 3000 lb agent of death?). I’ve read nothing good about any of the touchscreen versions, and CarPlay is still too damn expensive.
Car stereos are still in the dark ages of electronics, and it’s a couple of years before they get with the program (CarPlay). But it’s not like the first decent touch screen phone didn’t come out almost a decade ago.
Auto manufacturers are way behind the curve. Someone is going to eat their lunch. Or to use an en fleek catchphrase – they can either disrupt themselves, or someone else will.
I started to write “charging two grand for a GPS/stereo system that doesn’t work as well as the one in my pocket is going to bite them in the ass. Ripping off your customers is not a good business model”, except that, of course, it is.
That said, it was surprisingly easy to get the stereo to work with the phones.
In order to install this stereo, I had to modify the brackets. Thinking I’d be stymied by needing to let the Dremel charge up after sitting in the garage for probably three years since I last used it, I was more than pleasantly surprised when the Dremel fired up and cut through both (surprisingly) substantial bits with no problem. Yay, Li-ION batteries!
[1] Pro-tip: pay someone else to do this.
[2] Because the 3rd party iPhone adapter I bought crapped out literally just after the warranty expired, and GROM refused to replace it. Fuckers. Do not bother with this sort of crap. You can buy a pretty good stereo for between $100 and $250 that has BT, iPhone compatibility, better sound, and Pioneer doesn’t fuck you over an extra $25 for a special cable because they used a custom connection instead of USB so they could pry that cash out of you.
I just went through a carton of a dozen TJ’s eggs, and 11 of them were double-yolked. There must be some folklore about that…
Away
I’ve been off climbing in one of my favorite places in the world. I might have some pix – I haven’t uploaded them yet to see, but given that it was pretty cloudy and wet and I was with someone who was completely and actively uninterested in my desire to make art, I didn’t take many pictures, so the probability is low.
I also didn’t send my project, falling off twice at the last hard move. Several one fall burns, but I just couldn’t pull it off, even with my lucky charms showing up at the last minute. But it was third day on, third try. I repeated the high point.
The good news is that training seems to work. Despite failing, I climbed well, and I found things that felt impossible last fall to be not that difficult.
In other news, the fourth amendment is still dead, cops kill two citizens per day (way more than terrorists), and the TSA is 95% ineffective for billions of dollars per year.
Anyway, not dead yet. It was worse, it was raining.
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