Peter Vieira
Wow, you're reading this? Thanks! If you're into RC cars and I seem vaguely familiar, it's because I spent over 25 years writing and editing RC car news, reviews, and tech articles in print and online. What else, what else ... I have a degree in Film Studies (useless), most of a degree in Graphic Design (useful), and I'm married to a wonderful woman with horrible taste in men. Thanks to her, we have a terrific daughter who just earned her Journalism degree and is way, waaay more together that I was at her age. Or right now.
Read All My Posts »
Man. How do you folks get anything done and online?
In And Out consumption in Texas can get you killed by the Whataburger gang.
But, of your initial list, Culver’s, BK and Qdoba are the only ones I could stomach. When I don’t fend for myself, I prefer to find some local, family-owned place to support. Americanized Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Italian are what I usually gravitate to. And the best Italian and Greek food I’ve had were in restaurants owned by Albanian immigrants. Go figure.
Velvet Taco isn’t worth going to.
I’m not proud to admit this, but I’d have almost definitely gone with LJS. There isn’t one in my state and sometimes I’d almost kill for some of that delicious, tan, artery hardening batter and everything else fried in questionable old fryer oil. And lets not forget about the Crumbs! Those yummy, crispy, life-shortening pieces of garbage!
https://youtu.be/VrW1wlKAWgM?si=WRC1o-RVQwwaN-W0&t=104
All of this ended with an uncrustable! Oh god Peter, that’s the saddest TFTS ending I’ve ever heard.
All the girls wanted to know more about the guy who had a job, a fishy smell and talked like a pirate. They thought he was hot. He never knew. Nobody told him.
Maybe eat, like, vegetables next time
I find I get inadvertently judgy about people with unadventurous palates. I eat the occasional fast food but I don’t think I can abide a preference for tan foods. More fun stuff for me I guess.
It’s been said before, but Americans eat like they have free healthcare.That Double Down looks like someone was trying to come up with a main course to go before a deep-fried Mars bar.
(In reality, the culturally appropriate aperitif for a deep-fried Mars bar is eight pints and a bottle of Buckfast.)
Oh man, you guys’ diets! I sure hope the Autopian health insurance plan covers triple bypass surgery. Good Luck.
They operate in different markets for the most part, but Culvers > In n out, in my opinion. INO is solid, but just so overrated.
NO. (-:
https://www.nhra.com/news/2022/n-out-burger-has-long-and-famous-history-nhra-drag-racing
Is there a new contributor that hasn’t been announced? Wondering about the redacted info in the chat.
It was mentioned: Pete didn’t want to reveal whose spouse is about to undergo a medical procedure
Ah, ok.
It’s not “tan food” it’s “golden brown and delicious” GBD if you will!
And coleslaw is amazing, but I try to avoid murphy slaw. It never ends well for me.
My partner always calls any meal of battered and fried food, ‘the beige sampler’
Fried stuff with cheese and some coleslaw. Don’t forget the Metformin. I can’t believe there’s really a chain called Velvet Taco. I thought you made it up. I guess Pussy Galore got in the restaurant biz.
Uncrustables are pretty much carbs on carbs on carbs, but compared to fast food they’re downright healthy.
Uncrustables don’t quite taste like food to me. Crustoffs, which is like their Canadian cousin, are decent.
LJS hits so good about once a year. But you have to get the crumbs too, that is nonnegotiable. If they are out you mind as well leave and come back another day. Because extra tan bits on the side of your tan food is what it’s all about.
Back when I could afford to eat fast food, LJS was a treat. Saturday LJS feasting with my brother watching bad movies. Our only hard rule was we couldn’t drink beer until after the LJS was done. Alternately eating deep-fried LJS between sips of beer was always stomach upsetting, but waiting to drink beer until afterward seemed to prevent the queasiness (it didn’t prevent the inevitable carb nap that followed though).
Crumbs!
https://youtu.be/VrW1wlKAWgM?si=WRC1o-RVQwwaN-W0&t=104
Culver’s. Def beats an uncrustable
Never Long John Silver’s ever again. I had poisoning so bad I probably should have died. I certainly wish I had at the time.
It’s a feature think diet plan
Shoulder bolts? Those are the ones left over after a project’s completed and one doesn’t remember where they go. Toss ’em over the shoulder and DONE!
And yeah, Culver’s.
The navy recommends a float test for used hardware.
If it floats, re-install.
First time I ever visited Florida was the first time I ever had Culver’s. I was visiting my aunt and my uncle who had recently lost his eyesight; I spent a lot of time driving him to places my aunt won’t so I ate a lot of fast food.
I’ll take Wendy’s over any of those places and Arby’s over Wendy’s every day and twice on Sunday. But, I don’t eat fast food 99% of the time because I have a difficult enough time controlling my diet and weight without it.
Are you me?
…have I doubled in size and pinched off a clone in my sleep without noticing?
Because you sound just like me, Other Me. And I fear two Arby’s orders on top of a Wendy’s order could very well be the black magic combination to trigger such a nightmarish mitotic misadventure.
Mmmmmm. Arby’s…
Ummm, We may be the same person. Arby’s on top of Wendy’s sounds AMAZING! Too bad I’ve had a couple drinks and can’t drive anywhere.
Hold my Dr Pepper. If you buy, I’ll fly.
Oof, I’m not a Dr Pepper guy. But I’ll hold yours if you get me a Pepsi.
WE HAVE THE MEATS!!!
Sorry, had to be done
Arbys is peak fast food. I don’t even need to suggest you fight me, as it is fact.
Wendys, number 2. Baked fucking potato!!
It’s just like I say about Red Vines:
Nature’s Perfect Food ™
And chili!
Arfys was great long ago.
The lamb wraps are the only thing I would eat there now.
I’d say I thought pinching off clones was the domain of Taco Bell, but it’s more shapeless liquid mass than anything you can pinch off.
Unless, of course you are an amoeba, in which case I humbly apologize, and the comparison is in fact apt.
Wendy’s is my go-to.
They have their $4, $6, $8 meals, which is a good value these days.
Jr Bacon Cheeseburger!
Was just talking to someone this morning. McDonald’s hamburger tastes like “McDonald’s Hamburger” flavor. It’s a homogeneous flavor throughout.
Wendy’s actually tastes like the ingredients it’s made of.
I like Arby’s, but the extruded homogenized meat puts me off a bit.
Oof. Yes, fiber is important in one’s diet, I found that out later than I should have, along with the revelation that diverticulitis runs in the family. Dang.
I ordered some stainless steel shoulder screws from McMaster Carr to replace some that fell out of my front suspension after an accident on the quadricycle, as well as to upgrade the normal hardened steel ones that are in the front suspension on one of my trikes with the new rust-resistant stainless. Both quad and trike use air suspensions, kept at about 50 psi in each shock, and work beautifully.
The Satan bike will ride again this weekend. Silky smooth at 80 mph, too. I’d actually be able to maintain 80 moph without anything overheating if I had a streamlined body on it again, but it only cruises at 55 mph.
McMaster is pretty amazing on their fastener selection (if not the cheapest).
McMaster-Carr. Why pay less?
Hah! Quite true! We use them as a source for work, though on occasion for parts like threaded standoffs, you can get the manufacturer part# from the bag they come in and reorder via the manufacturer for cheaper. But if all you need is a particular screw and a couple dozen of them and your local nice little hardware store doesn’t have them, then might as well order from McMaster.
Ditto on tools, metal stock, etc., they carry it, but if you know exactly what you want, it’s usually cheaper elsewhere, like Zoro.com or OnlineMetals.com. But McMaster does stock all sorts of useful items and for us (as a business) anyway, the shipping charges are reasonable and we get it nearly always the next business day.
Be careful. Stainless hardware has reduced shear strength vs. hardened steel. Learned that on our Makino Horizontal when they used stainless bolts on the pallet changer. Twelve 10MM bolts all sheared at the head over the course of 8 months.
Oh, good to know. I love picking up bits of metallurgy without doing the actual work of studying it.
I’m aware. My quadricycle currently weighs all of 90 lbs, and each suspension uses 10 shoulder screws, 3/8″ thick. Barring an accident, or hitting a barricade or curb at speed, it won’t be failing. I always make sure to use Loctite Red on them during installation. There’s a left-front, right-front, and rear suspension. The rear end of the quad functions as a live-axle with posi-trac, while the front hub motors each have an independent controller.
This thing will be capable of over 100 mph when I get done with it. The idea is to build a streamliner electric microcar disguised as a pedal “bicycle”. With body, roll cage, and safety harness, I expect it to weigh around 120 lbs complete. I currently have unpowered, Class 2 ebike, Class 3 ebike, and unrestricted operating modes to suit whatever jurisdiction I’m riding in. I regularly take it on bike/pedestrian trails with the motors disabled, or in class 2/3 mode, depending. I also take it on state highways unrestricted and hold speed with the car traffic. It’s still very pedalable when I turn the motors off. I can do over 25 mph on flat ground for brief periods using only my legs.
Using the motors, it can accelerate from 30-70 mph in about 6 seconds right now, and I don’t even have the rear motor installed yet. Or a body shell to cut wind resistance. Or upgraded higher-amp controllers that will allow more torque. It also corners at over 1g lateral.
It’s already delightfully dangerous. It does 0-60 mph in under 9 seconds, the launch a bit tepid because of the conservative ramp function and low current limit of the control system(it can still peel out with the front wheels, mind you). But its acceleration at 50 mph is still about the same as it is at 10 mph, only slowed by aero drag, because the torque is the same. At some point, I’ll have it able to do 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds with AWD, but it’s not there yet. I need more powerful controllers and the third motor installed to power the rear wheels.
Unloaded on jack stands, the front wheels spin to 119 mph.
Toecutter, please do a write up about this for the Autopian. I’m really curious and would love some pictures.
I’ll do a write-up when it is finished. Might be a few years. I still need to finish making the next body shell, install a roll cage and safety harness, and add the middrive motor to power the rear wheels. The battery pack is working great. I currently run it at 12 kW. It is capable of about 50 kW peak, and I plan to run it at 18 kW with my 6-6-6 drive system(6 kW to each of what will be 3 motors, at 666 Nm torque combined on an AWD layout). I spot-welded the pack together with a KWeld, copper sheet, and nickel strip.
Here’s some pics of my “bicycle” in its current state:
https://i.imgur.com/kcljOKX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/wteajxk.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Ilm6CDQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/63VH9GE.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pSFAYXU.jpg
I performed both chaos magic and blood magic rituals during its construction. I chilled here in St. Louis at the brothers’ place of a former roomate I had when I lived in Texas, and their pitbulls were going off on the bike and trying to attack it as it sat parked, chained to a fence. Perhaps the dogs could sense the demons I may have summoned that humans cannot sense? It is what it is, the dogs didn’t like my bike and felt compelled to attack it(and not me) for some reason. The idea is that the demons can get trapped in the bike if they choose to do so, and will not be released unless the bike gets totalled, or I die. Fine tools that demons are, much like angels. Their purpose is to invoke chaos everywhere that I ride it. And I’m going to ride it around dressed like and looking like the Heath Ledger Joker. Because why not?
That looks like epic fun to ride!
It’s like a go-kart, except with full suspension and useful-sized wheels that can absorb potholes.
I love racing cars with it. While its 0-30 mph time of roughly 3.5 seconds isn’t impressive, pulling even next to a car in the adjacent lane from 30 mph can embarass many cars that otherwise do 0-60 mph ~6-7 seconds. Right now, the torque vs rpm curve is flat from 0 to about 65-70 mph. I have enough power to mess with most cars, I just need more low-end torque to be able to take them in a stoplight drag. If I had 50% more torque in my front wheels but didn’t increase the peak power, I bet it would do 0-60 mph in under 6 seconds(at least when the tires successfully hooked up), and that’s without adding the third motor to power the rear wheels.
I have at least one Mystery Cat that can “hear” a relay sing in the well, or otherwise sense it!
I’d briefly considered that maybe the dogs could hear the frequency emitted by my control system that human ears cannot, but I had the bike shut off as it was parked, and when I put my multimeter in series with the battery terminal, found no drain. Not even microwatts. I want to create a truly cursed occult-themed vehicle, and would like to think I’m well on my way to success at that.