Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large. 

Ask any car enthusiast

A very sad thread on the r/cars subreddit today. A guy’s dream car - a 2024 Nissan Skyline GT-R - got stolen right out of his garage while he was away on business. The original poster says the R35-generation GT-R has been a dream of his since high school, and he’s worked his butt off to finally make the purchase. Then boom, gone in a flash like that. As a fellow car enthusiast, I empathize greatly. Having your pride and joy stolen is just about the worst nightmare.

Even if yo get it back, it’ll never be and feel the same.

Some of the responders mocked OP for being overly dramatic. A dream car is still a car - this isn’t like the lost of a family member. Besides, being so new, insurance will surely cover the full replacement cost no issues. It’s a loss, yes, but OP will soon be made whole.

For sure from a monetary standpoint the GT-R owner will be made whole. But from a mental perspective, the entire game has changed. To have something so valuable stolen right off your property is an act of violation that’s difficult to erase. A house has turned to not a home. Even if OP were to buy another GT-R, he would always have PTSD-like second thoughts when parking in that garage. Every strange noise emanating from there will jolt him to stressful alert.

It’s not simply about dollars and cents, my friends. Peace of mind is worth infinite.

Insurance on cars such as the GT-R (and other often-stolen vehicles such as the Dodge Charger/Challenger) must be ruinously expensive. It probably costs a whole car payment’s worth per month to cover the risks. Also: it’s seemingly that easy for thieves to clone an electronic car key and drive your car away? I guess anything electronic - like the push-button ignition start that most new cars are equipped with these days - can be hacked, if the incentives are high enough.

If it’s not save even in your own garage… what else can you do, honestly? Press F to pay respects.

Ave Maria.

Uh, what to do?

How are you handling the great Reddit blackout? Every subreddit that I care to go to have gone private in protest of the onerous API fee changes Reddit is set to implement by the end of this month. There goes the last bit of social media that I use! Though I would say Reddit is more like discussion forums. I quit twitter about a month ago, and you can’t pay me enough to use the Chinese spyware that is TikTok.

Interesting to see the (let’s call them) NSFW subreddits have not participated in the blackout protest. I guess horniness is still the dominant factor above all else…

The protest is only suppose to last a few days. But because Reddit refuses to backdown from the untenable API changes (effectively dooming any third-party clients), many subs have decided to stay private indefinitely to force a change. I say, good for them. A vibrant Reddit is good for the Internet. Plenty of times I’ve googled something, and ended up on Reddit with the correct answers to questions. Let’s take some momentary pain now, for a better long term future. (So un-American!)

Reddit is nothing without its army of volunteer moderators, and the millions of users contributing content. I am surprised the company have decided to essentially go to war with the people that made it great in the first place. The problem is: it’s extremely difficult to charge for something that was once free. Excellent third-party apps have sprouted up because the access APIs have been free. To now charge for those APIs, exorbitantly to the point of detrimental, is going to make people incredibly unhappy.

It doesn’t help that Reddit’s own official app is utterly garbage. The best way to surf Reddit is via browser, with an ad blocker on. Sorry, not sorry.

Cans.