rosco's recent activity

  1. Comment on Cargobike recommendations and advice in ~hobbies

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Sounds like any way you can get them rolling is perfect! We might switch over to a backloader after the baby stage but TBD on how we like the front loader!

    Sounds like any way you can get them rolling is perfect! We might switch over to a backloader after the baby stage but TBD on how we like the front loader!

    1 vote

  2. Comment on Cargobike recommendations and advice in ~hobbies

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I'd go for a back loader but we need the front end cargo bike for the carseat mounts. When they are older the world is our oyster!

    I'd go for a back loader but we need the front end cargo bike for the carseat mounts. When they are older the world is our oyster!

    1 vote

  3. Comment on Cargobike recommendations and advice in ~hobbies

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Great call outs all around. The main issue here we're trying to solve for it that this will be shared by me and my wife. She wants a step through so unless we have a major shift after trialing,...

    Great call outs all around. The main issue here we're trying to solve for it that this will be shared by me and my wife. She wants a step through so unless we have a major shift after trialing, that's likely what we'll get. We also need a bigger frontend specifically to mount the carseat, so not necessarily one of the land boats, but at least something with enough room for that.

    I've heard the Bullit is the "bikers bike", sounds like the muli is similar, though it felt twitchy as hell when I rode it. The other ones do feel much more like seadoos, not in a bad way though.

    1 vote

  4. Comment on Cargobike recommendations and advice in ~hobbies

    rosco
    Link Parent
    What an amazing write up!!! I really appreciate you pouring so much thought and detail into it! It's easy to imagine the fun we'll be having from the way you describe it! I'm definitely going to...

    What an amazing write up!!! I really appreciate you pouring so much thought and detail into it! It's easy to imagine the fun we'll be having from the way you describe it! I'm definitely going to be stealing all the little touches like the sting lights and the Wonderboom. i've got more to noodle on here but feeling very confident with our choice to invest! Thank you so much!

    Also, I'd love to hear more about the Schleptastic Tow Monster once you have some miles using it. Sounds like the perfect option as the kiddos get older.

    1 vote

  5. Comment on Cargobike recommendations and advice in ~hobbies

    rosco
    Link
    Calling out @gpl and @DynamoSunshirt specifically based on the recent bike thread and Dynamo's wealth of knowledge with biking - I'm guessing there is cargo knowledge in there too ;). Cheers!

    Calling out @gpl and @DynamoSunshirt specifically based on the recent bike thread and Dynamo's wealth of knowledge with biking - I'm guessing there is cargo knowledge in there too ;). Cheers!

    3 votes

  6. Cargobike recommendations and advice

    ~hobbies Ask (recommendations)
    My wife and I had a baby a few months ago and we learned that you can put a carseat in the front of a front load cargo bike starting at 3 months. I was already keen for a cargo bike, as was my...

    My wife and I had a baby a few months ago and we learned that you can put a carseat in the front of a front load cargo bike starting at 3 months. I was already keen for a cargo bike, as was my wife, so we're taking the dive. There are a few common brands available in the USA, namely Urban Arrow, Omnium, and Harry vs Larry's Bullit Bike, and while those are still in contention we're currently in Munich and considering buying one and getting it home. Lots context on what we're thinking and doing and then to questions.

    I was able to test drive the Muli Classic and the Carrie from Riese and Muller as representatives of shorter bikes, and we're considering the Load from Riese and Muller, the Loven's s75, the Urban Arrow Family, and the Bakfietz.nl Cruiser. We also rented the Lovens for the month we're here and pick it up today.

    Ok, so we have a few questions on our plate. Do we go compact cargobike - like a Muli - or do we go for the full family van - like a Lovens or Urban Arrow? Within those categories are there any considerations we need to be mindful of like repairability? Our concern is that the Bafang engine is loved by all but seemingly hard to get parts for stateside. Whereas Bosch or Shimano would be easier. Could we rock a non-electric version like the Muli Muscle, or is that impractical?

    I've been able to talk to a few owners and everyone loves the bike they have. The Muli guys love the Muli. The Lovens moms love the Lovens. It's great signal that cargobikes generally work well for the people interested in them, but not much as to which way we should go.

    Last is context on what we hope to do and what we want to use it for. I'd love to go down to a 1 car family. We live within 6 blocks of all our core needs - grocery store, hardware store, pharmacy, repair places - and within .5 miles of our main recreation areas - the forest and the beach - so largely we're set walking. But there are so many great things that are just outside that area, within about 10 miles, that a cargobike would be great to have - parks, larger stores, everything really. And our Costco is about 500 feet off the main municipal bike trail so I would Looooooove to do my Costco runs on the bike. We also have one kiddo and there will likely be a second. I'm going to be getting a shotgun seat for my normal townie and mountain bikes for when the kids are old enough, but I'd also really love to be able to ferry them to school, have their friends join us, and make it the primary transport until for the family. Our friends in town have a street legal golf cart and I'd love to do something similar with the cargo bike. There is some possibility that we end up with 2, like a Muli and a Lovens, but with storage space that is currently very impractical. Also we live up a hill - about 150ft elevation gain over 5 blocks - from the main trail that connects us to the surrounding towns. We live a weird place where our pennisula is bisected by a military base and golf course so that is literally the only way to access any of the other surrounding towns. Also I'm currently a deep memeber of the Surly gang and am finding myself drawn to bikes like that - probably why the Muli keeps coming up on here - but realize that may be a foolish way to choose a family cargo bike. Also the price range is fairly steep $5-10k, so I'm trying to be level headed about it.

    I'd love to hear about your experiences with cargobikes: what you rode, what you loved, what you'd skip. If you have friends or family who have indulged. Or just any thoughts really! I realize it's a small group that owns them so any info helps!

    19 votes

  7. Comment on Has anyone else seen a LOT of dead birds on the side of the road this year? in ~enviro

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Yeah, looks like a couple compounding issues. The one that showed up locally looks like it died from exposure from a toxic algae bloom, same for the one in Watsonville. Otherwise I think it's...

    Yeah, looks like a couple compounding issues. The one that showed up locally looks like it died from exposure from a toxic algae bloom, same for the one in Watsonville. Otherwise I think it's mostly been from starvation, particularly the ones in San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound.

    2 votes

  8. Comment on Has anyone else seen a LOT of dead birds on the side of the road this year? in ~enviro

    rosco
    Link
    Lot's of dead whales by us. I think the count washing up on California beaches is 40+ this Spring. It's been a bloodbath

    Lot's of dead whales by us. I think the count washing up on California beaches is 40+ this Spring. It's been a bloodbath

    7 votes

  9. Comment on How has inflation changed your quality of life? in ~finance

    rosco
    Link Parent
    Funnily enough, our landlord owns the entire block and a good portion of the next block over. She inherited it from her father, who had deep Sicilian roots. I only mention because our area had/has...

    Funnily enough, our landlord owns the entire block and a good portion of the next block over. She inherited it from her father, who had deep Sicilian roots. I only mention because our area had/has quite the relationship with the Italian mafia - see Jimmy Panetta - and we suspect it was likely the case here.

    We had an older woman in her 70s ask us if we lived in our house and then proceeded to tell us about how her family owned it and during a sleepover on her 8th birthday a bunch of guys broke down the front door and beat her dad within an inch of his life. The had vacated the house the following morning. I'm not saying that our landlord's father used violence to acquire all the houses on our block, but hearing that story only strengthened the thought.

    Also very funny, I rent a little office downtown from a 94 year old man who was born and raised in the area. The first thing he said to me when we looked at the office was "Don't worry, I'm Spanish... Not Italian! But this guy..." (points at his nephew) "His mom is Italian, so you watch out for him and deal with me!" It was all in good fun but it was clear it had been an issue. He'd stop in some times and tell stories about it.

    So... yeah, definitely still an issue. Also see any large landholding in the US. El Sur Ranch is the first one that spring to mind for me.

    4 votes

  10. Comment on How has inflation changed your quality of life? in ~finance

    rosco
    Link
    My wife and I don't eat out much, like special occasions only, and when we do we do it at restaurants we know we'll enjoy and feel happy spending the money we did. Pre-Covid we both made less...

    My wife and I don't eat out much, like special occasions only, and when we do we do it at restaurants we know we'll enjoy and feel happy spending the money we did. Pre-Covid we both made less money and exploring restaurants and bars was something that made us both happy, for both the good and mediocre evening. It was fun and exciting. Now everything costs so much money that unless we had a nice night out, it just doesn't seem worth it. Honestly, unless we had a really nice night out it doesn't seem worth it. We also noticed that the low end restaurant prices have like doubled, while the high end restaurants have gone up maybe 10%. High end feels worth it, low end not so much.

    We're also effectively done with take out. No more cold food for the price of an expensive date night. When you could get a good Chinese or Thai for about $10-15 each it made sense. Now that it's $60+ for dinner you can forget about it. And absolutely no delivery. Who can pay $80 for a mediocre, tepid dinner. I'd rather grab the mac and cheese at that point. Pizza might be the only thing we ever do takeout with now and even that is when we're feeling like we need a break but want something a bit... more.

    I've also been more selective at the farmers market. It used to be my happy splurge. It goes directly to the farmers, get's you really fresh produce, allows you to pick amoungst a crazy variety of produce, and you know where each and every bite comes from. But these days prices have also started to climb there. I still indulge, but everything I get I make sure to eat within 4 days to fully take advantage of the premium I'm paying.

    Currently all "luxury" foods not gotten at the farmers market are gotten at Costco or Gross-Out. As others have mentioned Costco's prices are also rising, so I'm not going so crazy on the cheese anymore. Treating it more like an indulgence than an expectation. Even things like cereal I refuse to buy from our local grocery store. $9 for a box of off brand raisin brand, are you joking?!?!? Rice Crispies at $10!!! We wait to see what comes up at Grocery Outlet and just buy a bunch of boxes when it's what we like. The orange halloween rice crispies were a bit weird to look at, but for $2.50 a box I couldn't say no!

    Lastly, gas prices have really shifted how I'm thinking about activities. I like to mountain bike and while I think of it as a cheap hobby once you have the gear - so long as you can tool on the bike yourself - the gas to get out to fun locations is getting harder to swallow. If I stay local, like within 15 miles, it's a pretty reasonably priced trip, like $5-10. But if I want to do a nice big weekend ride with friends at a really quality location it'll usually cost $35-40 round trip so it's much more of a consideration.

    All to say, yeah inflation has us rethinking lots of things.

    7 votes

  11. Comment on Is AI profitable yet? in ~tech

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I did not know that about Copilot and Github, makes a ton of sense.

    I did not know that about Copilot and Github, makes a ton of sense.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on Is AI profitable yet? in ~tech

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I hadn't thought of that, GPT is definitely the google of LLMs. Our whole go to market team uses claude because it connects with Slack, Notion, Linear, and Hubspot. I figured there would be more...

    I hadn't thought of that, GPT is definitely the google of LLMs. Our whole go to market team uses claude because it connects with Slack, Notion, Linear, and Hubspot. I figured there would be more places where that was true too.

    4 votes

  13. Comment on An interview with Timo Furuholm, Finnish parliamentarian and former footballer – exploring why so many players lean right-wing and discussion on the upcoming 2026 World Cup in ~sports.football

    rosco
    Link
    Aren't athletes of all stokes more likely to be conservative? I assumed it has to do with an amount of them being overly celebrated, leading to narcissistic tendencies. Somewhere between the...

    Aren't athletes of all stokes more likely to be conservative? I assumed it has to do with an amount of them being overly celebrated, leading to narcissistic tendencies. Somewhere between the mindset of "I worked hard and deserve this, anyone could do it." like Arnie, and "I am a god, why do I need to care for these losers".

    Either way it's not surprising to see by any measure.

    1 vote

  14. Comment on Is AI profitable yet? in ~tech

    rosco
    Link
    I was surprised to see Anthropic has less revenue than OpenAI. Isn't Claude the backbone of much of corporate America?

    I was surprised to see Anthropic has less revenue than OpenAI. Isn't Claude the backbone of much of corporate America?

    1 vote

  15. Comment on The cost of safetyism - what we lost when we stopped letting kids leave the front yard in ~life

    rosco
    Link
    Maybe adding a different angle, violent crime against kids is down, but pedestrian deaths and injuries from cars are up. In our small town, one 4 lane road that bisects the town is responsible for...

    Maybe adding a different angle, violent crime against kids is down, but pedestrian deaths and injuries from cars are up. In our small town, one 4 lane road that bisects the town is responsible for stopping parents from sending their kids unaccompanied to after school programs. The size of vehicles has ballooned, the threat to kids on foot and on bikes is real, and articles like this miss that. I'm not worried my kid is going to get kidnapped or stabbed, but from my own hair raising experience on my bike I am worried they'll get rundown by some asshole in a lifted Dodge Ram. I'll then have to endure the Nextdoor thread where all the conservative neighbors call them retarded for biking in the road. Where should they be Frank?!?! And we don't use that language it's 2026 for fucks sake!!

    4 votes

  16. Comment on When did you realize you were different? in ~talk

    rosco
    Link
    I moved schools in 2nd grade to the better school system, my mom was concerned about my sister entering middle school in the bad neighborhood. I went from being a "normal" but as my mom liked to...

    I moved schools in 2nd grade to the better school system, my mom was concerned about my sister entering middle school in the bad neighborhood. I went from being a "normal" but as my mom liked to say "busy" kid, to actively problematic compared with my peers. My mom came in when we dissected a cow's eyeball and noted that while all the other students were attentively dissecting theirs, I was pretending to be Zorro and brandishing about an exacto knife. I was just... extra. The school wanted to get me tested but my mom had seen other kids who had been medicated with bad outcomes so she just continued to say I was busy, well that and get me extra tutoring for dyslexia. I had a pretty hard time in school, got my ADHD diagnosis at 30, and still have friends who think of me as the frenetic one.

    4 votes

  17. Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance

    rosco
    Link Parent
    This would be a good example. It's a silly post, I don't get what's got everyone worked up.

    This would be a good example. It's a silly post, I don't get what's got everyone worked up.

    1 vote

  18. Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I thought it was hilarious and gave me quite the giggle. I was surprised to see how heated and defensive the comments got. I mean, so many of us are going through it right now and many of the...

    I thought it was hilarious and gave me quite the giggle. I was surprised to see how heated and defensive the comments got.

    I mean, so many of us are going through it right now and many of the issues are direct downstream effect from these folks. I think it's ok if we mother fuck them every now and then. They won't hear us on their yachts anyway :)

    3 votes

  19. Comment on I'm going on vacation in ~tildes

    rosco
    Link
    Have an awesome time and enjoy being disconnected! We'll be excited to hear about it when you're back!!!

    Have an awesome time and enjoy being disconnected! We'll be excited to hear about it when you're back!!!

    3 votes

  20. Comment on Is there a "Razor" for the idea that "If a Billionaire is against it, I'm for it?" in ~finance

    rosco
    Link Parent
    I read this as more of a fun catharsis. We're in a society that is getting disproportionately out of whack. Wealth inequality is at a pretty untenable level, the average person is having a hard...

    I read this as more of a fun catharsis. We're in a society that is getting disproportionately out of whack. Wealth inequality is at a pretty untenable level, the average person is having a hard time getting by, and those with extreme wealth are actively trying to change our media, regulatory, labor, political landscapes to their benefit. I think a big of off gassing is warranted and this seems like a fun to way to engage with it. Obviously it's not actually going to function as a law, like I agree with Tom Steyer's stance on the Environment. But, on the flip side I came across the voter guide in the Palo Alto Daily in 2020 and it was literally the exact opposite - on every single proposition - than what I was planning to vote for. So it also kind of works? Regardless, it's harmless fun.

    7 votes