Show Idle (>14 d.) Chans
← 2020-02-02 | 2020-02-04 → ↓
00:03 whaack dorion: the tax + insurance was quite deceptive on the reservation receipt. It says after the price "The total price includes all mandatory taxes and fees."
00:04 jfw whaack: oops, got the math way off there, mine came to $100/day, from a base rate of ~32
00:04 whaack It's the bottom bullet point "Your rental may have mandatory insurance requirements that result in additional charges at the time of rental." that tripled the price.
00:19 whaack jfw: aha. yeah well tbh the real price I was given ($50 / day) was just what I expected the price to be prior to today. The only reason I believed the $530 price was because someone told me that they had rented a car for $6 a day. When he told me that the $6 a day was from a rental company, I laughed and called bullshit and questioned him. But he insisted that indeed got the car for that cheap. So when I went to rent a car today an
00:19 whaack d saw the listed prices I thought to myself "holy shit maybe the guy wasn't lying - there must be a fake car rental economy." (Like how there's the fake taxi economy in cities w/ subsidized Uber/Lyft prices)
00:20 * whaack has some #o to read
00:29 BingoBoingo whaack: There seems to be a sort of "cheapskate braggart" that inflates they degree of the bargains they find much like "big fish" stories
00:29 BingoBoingo Or their story and price is right, but they ignore the whole... inflation thing.
00:30 BingoBoingo Or they omit material facts of the story.
00:33 BingoBoingo For example, Montevideo does have hotels that are price competitive with the local hostels much of the year, but... 1920's Latino poured concrete construction doesn't age well if it isn't maintained...
00:35 whaack BingoBoingo: Right, I think he was being a "cheapskate braggart." He saw the price listed for $6 a day so he said he paid $6 a day (and conveniently excluded the fact that the insurance/taxes made it closer to $40 a day or w/e.)
00:36 BingoBoingo Or maybe he rented an air cooled VW beetle from a farmer he's known for some years in an informal sorta deal, or...
00:37 whaack BingoBoingo: No he specifically said it was from a company. The most likely thing I can think of is he already had car insurance back home that had international coverage.
00:38 BingoBoingo Maybe. Could also be a flexible definition of company or some other sort of fabrication.
00:39 whaack sure, who knows
~ 1 hours 33 minutes ~
02:12 trinque http://logs.ossasepia.com/log/ossasepia/2020-02-02#1016787 << because I'd rather rely on this than "one should not" and then deedbot isn't in chan for a week while I'm elsewhere.
02:12 ossabot Logged on 2020-02-02 04:40:39 diana_coman: http://logs.ossasepia.com/log/ossasepia/2020-01-31#1016753 - hm, why? I can see the point if you expect this sort of accidental to happen much but otherwise dunno, if one wants the bot in there, one should not kick it "accidentally" and certainly not complain if they have to wait for it to get back if/when they kick it.
02:13 trinque /kick d<tab><enter> oops and so on
02:13 trinque remote controls on the thing would ftr be a better solution than this.
02:14 trinque but at any rate, connected and not in chan is a useless state, so I prevented it
~ 30 minutes ~
02:44 feedbot http://younghands.club/2020/02/03/ejb-review-week-6-jan-27-feb-2/ << Young Hands Club -- ejb review: week 6 (Jan 27 - Feb 2)
~ 33 minutes ~
03:18 whaack diana_coman: EOD Report: I botched today. I wasted time with the car crap and then only did a bit of saltmines work. I spent some other time talking to friends from the states in the evening.
03:24 feedbot http://younghands.club/2020/02/03/wh-plan-for-week-17-feb-3rd-feb-9th/ << Young Hands Club -- WH Plan For Week 17 (Feb 3rd - Feb 9th)
~ 2 hours 43 minutes ~
06:07 feedbot http://younghands.club/2020/02/03/jfw-plan-week-of-feb-3-2020/ << Young Hands Club -- JFW plan, week of Feb 3 2020
06:19 feedbot http://younghands.club/2020/02/03/jfw-review-week-of-jan-27-2020/ << Young Hands Club -- JFW review, week of Jan 27 2020
~ 1 hours 30 minutes ~
07:49 diana_coman http://logs.ossasepia.com/log/ossasepia/2020-02-02#1017016 - it is indeed so I can see your point and yeah, if aiming for this, some remote controls would make more sense; my point was not at all that you should rely on "one should not" but that it's not really on the bot's operator to protect users against themselves and especially not if the available solution swings it to the other side ie "can't kick bot out, need to ban it ...
07:49 ossabot Logged on 2020-02-02 22:26:54 trinque: but at any rate, connected and not in chan is a useless state, so I prevented it
07:49 diana_coman ... entirely to even keep it out"
07:54 diana_coman whaack: you know, on one hand a car by itself won't solve *all* the problems, not even all of those related to santa cruz & co; and otoh, if you keep trying to sort this out by ignoring complexity, you'll only make for yourself even more - and more difficult - things to sort out.
~ 4 hours 46 minutes ~
12:41 diana_coman serban85 ai si tu putintica rabdare stimabile.
~ 2 hours 13 minutes ~
14:54 whaack diana_coman: of course a car in itself will not solve all the problems, I only see it as a step in the right direction. Getting a car has little to do with the santa cruz issue, and more to do with being able to get out in the evenings. Atm I'm having my cab driver friend look for a car for me.
15:07 diana_coman whaack: listen, why don't you do this properly and thoroughly instead of delegating it on blind faith so that you further end up having to handle the friend-part where it doesn't belong
15:07 diana_coman sure, ask the guy if he knows of any good cars, fine; but don't ask him to look for a car for you, he's not your daddy, wtf
15:08 diana_coman *you* get off your ass and figure out all the options around, figure out what you want and especially what you do NOT want
15:08 diana_coman try out several cars via rentals; look at all the rest with a cool head and unhurried mind
15:09 diana_coman whaack: for that matter, was it a 1 year lease you got there on that flat?
15:09 whaack diana_coman: Yeah it's a 1 year lease
15:10 diana_coman are you happy with that remote location/is the being-on-the-beach more important than being in a town or what
15:10 diana_coman because do realise also that going out in the evening by car is fine but then not exactly much party if you need to drive afterwards too and so on.
15:12 whaack diana_coman: There are parts of it I absolutely love, but yes I miss the socialization that i've always had from either living in a big city or a popular town.
15:13 diana_coman there will always be some tradeoff, obviously; the question is which part is more important to you and especially more fitting to what you are aiming for really.
15:14 diana_coman because I can see the appeal of living on the beach, sure, but it's pretty much holiday/retirement mode unless you have otherwise all the resources to basically make your own anything right at home, wherever that might be
15:15 diana_coman or by the sounds of it, you are nowhere near that, not even having a clear idea as to what that might be really (and yeah, not expected or anything either, there's plenty of time for that later on)
15:16 diana_coman admittedly CR is all of it holiday land for that matter but anyways.
15:16 diana_coman if beach & surf is important, make sure they are within reasonable reach, sure; but is that the most important/the goal really?
15:16 whaack diana_coman: As for the cab driver friend looking for cars, he is currently helping someone else buy a car (and he goes to San Jose to see more options) so I asked him to let me know of any good options he sees. Buying a car is a time consuming task so I thought it may be best to have someone I trust who knows more about the process doing the leg work (and I would pay him for the effort, not sure what a good amount would be yet)
15:17 diana_coman whaack: yes; question is: what's your trust based on? to what extent and why do you trust him on this?
15:19 diana_coman yes, buying a car (and also maintaining afterwards a car) IS a time consuming task; and for that matter, having a car is a liability too, not an asset; what this means though is that you need to make sure it's worth it.
15:20 whaack diana_coman: The trust is based on having many repeated relations with the guy, we talk for long car rides every week, have been to each other's birthday parties, etc. I asked him how he bought his car. He said he made 2-3 trips to San Jose, checking them all out, first sign of any problem he bails, until he eventually finds one. Then he talked about the process of finding a lawyer, how since he pays in cash it is very possible to
15:20 whaack be robbed (at gun point!) in San Jose, and also how there are many fake lawyer shops - so you have to go to a 'buffet' a place with lots of lawyers and then agree to one there.
15:21 diana_coman that robbing at gun point in San Jose sounds rather hard to believe to be honest.
15:21 diana_coman so why not go with him instead of passing it on to him
15:22 diana_coman ask to go with him, you get to see some interesting things and learn something too, if it's oh-so-dangerous
15:22 diana_coman not to mention better than any other socializing of the boring sort
15:23 diana_coman if he really knows what he's doing, there's your opportunity to learn too, why pass it on anyway
15:23 whaack diana_coman: He did not say that he had it happen, but that he considers it and always meets in a public place. He insisted himself that I go with him to San Jose to try out the cars myself.
15:24 diana_coman whaack: yes, but go with him and look at cars, ask him to explain to you what he's looking at and why and so on
15:24 diana_coman this is not to say to not pay him otherwise, sure, pay him
15:24 diana_coman but learn too, that's the main gain there, if indeed there's something to learn.
15:25 BingoBoingo whaack: diana_coman seems to have the right idea with trying a handful of shorter term rentals. Since you haven't driven much it's the only real way to see what you like and what will annoy the hell out of you in a car fast.
15:25 diana_coman you get to learn and socialise, what salsa and jiu-jitsu classes bah
15:26 whaack diana_coman: lol well yeah but as much as I like my cab driver friend that is the one person I speak with on a regular basis and I'm trying to branch out here..
15:28 diana_coman whaack: yeah, well, better -as in more useful- branches though; talking to those lawyers, fake lawyers and so on is still better than talking to organised classes people, ugh.
15:28 BingoBoingo whaack: How many people do you estimate live in your neighborhood?
15:29 diana_coman BingoBoingo: that depends on his definition of people :D
15:29 BingoBoingo diana_coman: AHA
15:29 * whaack waves at billymg
15:30 BingoBoingo Or, an estimate of featherless bipeds with flat nails could be informative as well.
15:31 whaack I believe on the order of 500. There are a few large families that make up the town. Pretty much everyone is the primo/a of someone I know.
15:32 diana_coman question is how many of those you'd really *want* to know, if it weren't for the accident of them being in the vicinity, eh.
15:33 * diana_coman tries to keep the ruralia-sudden-barf in check.
15:34 whaack the number is low to zero.
15:35 diana_coman kind of sucks.
15:37 diana_coman possibly travel_billy has the masterplan of bringing in some life worth knowing to that place, maybe better off talking to him and see if he needs help with it or something, if at that; meanwhile though, the visits to san jose and learning what your cab driver friend supposedly knows sounds like the only actual opportunity for anything useful.
15:37 whaack BingoBoingo: Regarding lots of short term rentals, that seems smart but another expensive and time consuming task. I could see myself gathering a list of cars I like and then going to Tamarindo (40 mins out) renting a car i'm considering buying for a week, and doing that 4x, which will run me close to $2000 + 5 round trips
15:39 diana_coman such is ruralia where there's nothing: everything is suddenly expensive, time consuming and overall not worth it.
15:39 BingoBoingo whaack: Four times sounds like a solid number of times, but a week per car sounds long. Maybe try a day or two. Each. Weeklong rental maybe to shakedown an outlier that you like.
15:39 diana_coman I suppose his next trouble is that then he won't find that particular car to buy second hand or something
15:40 diana_coman whaack: car rentals in CR don't deliver the car or what?
15:41 diana_coman for that matter, did you even calculate taxi costs for nights out and came to the conclusion that it's actually cheaper to have the trouble of your own car for that or what?
15:42 whaack diana_coman: Actually yes they can/do deliver cars.
15:43 BingoBoingo diana_coman: I guess I'm taking it for granted that the rental company inventories would overlap with what other fleet buyers in Costa Rica buy, which... if gringos are renting "sport sedans" could tilt the rental fleet susbtantially out of whack.
15:44 diana_coman BingoBoingo: yeah, I'm not so sure they overlap all that much because renting are probably mainly tourists, buying/selling mainly locals so you end up with second hand market mainly tiny-toyotas if what I saw on the roads is any indication.
15:46 whaack diana_coman: I imagine that it would be cheaper to not have a car and only use cabs. But I would like the freedom of having my own car and not having to base my schedule around cab driver availability
15:46 diana_coman but I suppose whaack can get a clear idea of what is usually available on the second hand market ...if he goes with this friend and sees with his own eyes.
15:46 diana_coman o.O how is that "cab driver availability"??
15:46 diana_coman wtf now they are somehow.... not available?
15:47 diana_coman lmao, the cab service that is not available, how does that work?
15:47 diana_coman and in fairness, for all the time I was in CR, I *never* had any trouble ordering or finding a taxi
15:48 diana_coman and I don't mean in San Jose where there were plenty just waiting; I do mean out and about wherever really; sure, needed to call and order but they always came within 10 minutes max really, never heard of "not available"
15:50 diana_coman whaack: you know, if you want the car-toy, sure, fine; you want the toy and that's it; but yeah, be responsible about your toys and use them to learn at least.
15:50 whaack diana_coman: Only once here did I have the 'not available' situation come up. Usually the problem is just having mins of waiting
15:51 diana_coman well, compared to the mins of waiting in traffic, the 5-10 minutes that are even *predictable* (ie can PLAN so that *they wait* for you, not the other way around, you know?) don't seem exactly relevant in any way.
15:52 BingoBoingo Minutes of waiting probably unavoidable most places unless, you're located at some sort of hub of activity.
15:52 diana_coman as to "not available", on one hand have several options so if one not available, next one fine.
15:52 diana_coman and on the other hand probably once you are regular client, less not available anyway.
15:58 whaack diana_coman: Also, travel_billy and I spoke briefly at dinner about finding / bringing people worth knowing here. Hopefully he can use his bnb to this end. In any case I am more than happy to help out.
16:04 diana_coman whaack: to sum it up though: if you absolutely want a car to call your own, then invest the time to learn wtf you are doing there so go with that friend and learn, don't avoid the opportunity now, what sense does that even make to you; figure out what can be found anyway, what it would cost to maintain, what you will actually do with it supposing you have it and how well/if it really fits the purpose anyway (as a toy it's rather on ...
16:04 diana_coman ... the expensive side but well, your money and your toys after all).
16:07 BingoBoingo If it's a used toy, probably budget to replace the shocks and brakes on all four corners.
16:09 diana_coman and the tires; and the battery and ...
16:09 BingoBoingo Right
16:10 * BingoBoingo just remembers in the last iteration of this coversation that shock/brake weird on a particualr vehicle was being presented as "normal"
16:11 diana_coman myeah; honestly, I don't follow why would one *want* all that trouble but possibly because whaack happily discards the trouble and imagines it all "just works"
16:17 BingoBoingo My parents always had a broken attitude towards their cars. "they just worked, until they stopped doing so" except, not really. They came up with all sorts of stupid and rituals to work around the fact their cars didn't work like that.
16:22 BingoBoingo Still, I've come to see far weirder "My car just works like this" coping.
16:25 diana_coman myeah, the mystical approach to everything, push the button (or more buttons, until something happens) and it magically "works" (until it doesn't,sure, but then buy another one if it *really* doesn't).
16:26 diana_coman that being said, a very young me got to help take apart and put back together again one of those Dacia cars and there were several interesting "works" involved for sure (mainly because well, the local/communist/of-the-time industrial process was not all that...precise)
16:26 whaack diana_coman: I admit that I have always seen cars as much more reliable than as they are presented in this channel. It's clear to me though that I am going to have to eat a financial loss to get this new toy.
16:28 diana_coman whaack: the poor cars are made to be reliable; but they are also *mechanisms* and as such require maintenance to remain reliable; and moreover, your approach of "the car is reliable" (by itself, as a given, no need to have any idea really or any bother with it) is exactly what stupid is made out of.
16:30 BingoBoingo There's also a lot of space for maintenance to be done in wrong ways that are far more expensive than the right way.
16:30 diana_coman ^^^^^
16:33 BingoBoingo The worst I remember was the fascination "Cheapies Used Tires" of Alton, Illinois inspired in the AA crowd back home. One particular trainwreck/snowflake got a 500 dollar car that needed a new shock in one corner (maybe 300 USD). Because the shock was "expensive" she instead bought a 50 USD used tire roughly every week for that corner of the car. Sometime she needed two in a week. Sometimes no one would drive her to the damned used
16:33 BingoBoingo tire shop and she'd go a month without car to her great financial benefit.
16:34 * BingoBoingo was simply appalled by the idea of a used tire shop
16:35 BingoBoingo Yet the damned used tire shop HAD REGULARS!
16:35 whaack ahahaha
16:38 BingoBoingo "It's cheaper", "They don't nickle and dime you on the labor cost", never mind that in the best case these regulars were spending 200+ USD every six months on tires when a bit more than that opens the door to new tires good for years, plural.
16:41 travel_billy whaack: i can ask some of my meatwot here (tico and expat) about finding a car as well
16:41 whaack travel_billy: ty, please do
16:42 travel_billy i know that the previous owners of the proprety bought their hyundai suv used from a rental agency. and that when i rented a car here a few months back the guy at the rental agency told me about this as well
16:42 travel_billy i know buying from rental agencies has sort of a stigma about it, "the car's been abused by a series of non-owners with no stake in its longevity"
16:43 travel_billy but i don't know how true this actually is (i've always taken good care of rental cars so as not to be on the hook for damages)
16:43 diana_coman as opposed to the car being abused by a few idiots with no idea of maintenance
16:44 travel_billy ^ exactly
16:44 diana_coman supposedly the rental agency has actually quite an interest in maintaining the cars properly
16:45 travel_billy yeah, that as well. it needs to be running smooth for the next customer always
16:45 travel_billy so might be another avenue for your search, contact a few agencies and see if they're selling any old stock
16:45 whaack when rushing to catch some waves the phrase "it's a rental, don't be gentle" pops up around here
16:46 travel_billy lol
16:46 diana_coman so possibly go to agencies in san jose instead where there's no rush to catch waves, lolz.
16:47 travel_billy i think it will also be like buying any used car, need to do an in-person inspecition, and know what you're looking for (perhaps your friend could help with this)
16:47 travel_billy inspection*
16:48 whaack diana_coman: yes that is what the cab friend told me, he goes to SJ because the probability that someone is offloading their problem that came from driving in shit roads is much lower there
16:51 BingoBoingo Depending on the make and model of the car, problems inflicted by driving on shit roads can sometimes simply be unbolted and replaced. Other times not so much on cars that were cheaper new where cost saving measures like a solid rear axel are used in building the car.
16:59 travel_billy i've personally settled on something with body-on-frame construction vs. unibody for this reason
16:59 whaack From my understanding / what cab friend told me agencies charge a markup for being a safer option than buying on the street. He prefers to save the money/gamble by using his ability to judge cars.
16:59 BingoBoingo ^ solid axel isn't necessarily a bad thing if it's sitting on a bunch of leaf springs in the manner used in constructing small trucks.
17:00 whaack (But that is a necessity of having less capital.)
17:02 BingoBoingo whaack: It's also a skill that can be built. Plenty of farmers and mechanics don't like to buy cars that aren't 10+ years old.
~ 57 minutes ~
17:59 diana_coman !o uptime
17:59 ossabot diana_coman: time since my last reconnect : 0d 0h 7m
~ 2 hours 12 minutes ~
20:12 jfw re http://younghands.club/2020/02/03/jfw-review-week-of-jan-27-2020/#comment-348 , dorion is invited to kick me in the ribs, but bearing in mind that intact bones & lungs are important for productivity, and there miiight be a thing or two he owes me too :p
20:14 diana_coman jfw: the question still stands as to what you owe yourself.
20:15 jfw diana_coman: I think my top priority needs to be getting the wallet work done, at the very least so as to make good on the promise and make time for whatever the business may need from me next
20:17 diana_coman jfw: ah, that "needs to be", how much it says, you know? but the question was even wider (or if you prefer, in yesterday's obv re trees - on upper levels of that tree) than the wallet really.
20:19 jfw well some levels up would be needing to make money, and further up: to survive & grow
20:20 diana_coman jfw: those might be needs of all sorts, sure; none of them necessarily a priority unless you choose it as such; the q at any rate was what is your top priority, as you choose it, that's all.
20:21 diana_coman but you know, the one you care about, not the one that "needs to be"
20:23 jfw hm. I see how it's necessary to care about something and just saying it's important isn't enough
20:25 jfw I know I'm still not answering the question though, not sure what to say.
20:26 diana_coman jfw: think it through, it's no rush and no need for an answer right now.
20:26 jfw alright
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