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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 10h

It’s weird - the intro says directed by Derek Cianfrance (“Blue Valentine”, “The Place Beyond the Pines”) and written/created by Kirt Gunn, and they just got back together for the Channing Tatum film “Roofman”. But this project is nowhere on Cianfrance’s Wiki or IMDb, which lists Gunn as director.

Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 10h

Update! I've finished running the entire Lucky Ones series through the upscaler - it gave the Mac Studio's M3 Ultra a good workout - but I'm happy with the results, and while YouTube caught some of the music, it still passes copyright validation so they're all here: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 11h

A wild 337 appears!

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 17h

Hell, the Seagull/Dolphin Mini made its rounds through all the EV fansites as the $10,000 EV that *it's just so unfair* we don't get, and that $10k price point was relentlessly mentioned, but when they went on sale in Mexico last year they started at an equivalent of $21k.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 1d

I know, there are some scenes where faces take on odd, James-Cameron's-4K-release effects, but trust me - the source material on the DVD was the version that was compressed for streaming. There's not a lot to work with on the original in places.

Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 1d

BMW might have given us the Clive Owen short films, but Mercury gave us the miniseries Meet The Lucky Ones. I just bought a DVD of the episodes and am starting to run them through an AI upscaler to remove 20-year-old compression and 480p "quality".

Anyway, here's the intro: youtu.be/sg3a-z6xbKY

Meet The Lucky Ones - Intro

YouTube video by Wes Graham-Paige

youtu.be

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 2d

I might have bought some tile tonight.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 5d

Yes, I just bought a DVD of the online miniseries “The Lucky Ones” that was made for the launch of the 2004 Mercury Mariner. Yes, I have the theme song stuck in my head. Yes, I am not normal, thanks for asking.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 8d

At least with the FWD New Yorker, you could still plainly see the E-Class underneath, but Chrysler just skipped the step where they stamped the rear window out of the quarter panel.

Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 8d

Ah, Tesla, the company a thousand fanboys are quick to defend as the undisputed kings of car manufacturing technology, taking a page from (checks notes) the 1980s Chrysler Fifth Avenue, which just slapped vinyl padding over the quarter windows because it was cheaper. Note the opera-light wiring.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 8d

Once you see the filthy, gunked-up headliner in the "Baby Driver" WRX, you'll never be able to watch this scene again without noticing it.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 11d

What nobody tells you about rolling out a layer of RedGard is that, for at least a brief moment, you can have your very own Barbie Dream House.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 12d

To be fair, they raised only $4.5m, which isn't even worth noting in terms of funding. It's a rounding error. It's a "we'll give these dorks some cash and maybe we'll get 5% ROI on it" wager. It's a vote of non-confidence, hoping that maybe the company will incubate someone worth poaching.

Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 15d

It’s become an affectation of the useless influencer class. “Ohmygod, guys this *insert thing* is sooo aesthetic.”

I feel like there’s an simpler, Occam’s Razor, plaque-between-the-dendrites explanation to your question, though.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 16d

Me, when the SN95 was introduced: 😐

Me, seeing yours today:

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 20d

I’ve washed my hands, like, five times and I still can’t bring myself to take it out of the sealed bag.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 22d

But it comes with a free frogurt.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 23d

No.

Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 26d

*410A, not 140A. Dammit.

Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 26d

3/ I'd expect the disadvantages to disappear over time as designs get better—like how we got to hear Boomers bitch about R-134 not being able to make icicles when it debuted, and now they bitch about R-1234yf not being as cold as good ol' R-134 systems were in the 90s.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 26d

2/ to the same setpoint. Evidently a 454B system requires around 15% more coil surface area to be as efficient as 410A.

The other was that 454B is still more expensive than 410A. If you get a leak or there's a failure, the parts are warrantied, but usually you're on the hook for a charge

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 26d

I just installed a Bosch R-454B mini-split in my backyard office.

R-454B has about a fifth the GWP of R-140A.

Its downsides were that 454B is slightly less efficient than 410A in the same systems - so the previous year's Bosch was 410A and had the same size coils and required less power to cool

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 29d

I had the extended warranty on that transmission that GM provided, and when their obligation to honor that was vacated post-bankruptcy, the Vue’s space in my garage was vacated as well.

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · 29d

Fun fact: I bought, new, a 2003 Vue AWD with the 2.2 Ecotec and a CVT. In 2008 I was on the launch trip for the Astra and related this fact to Jill Lajdziak - then General Manager of Saturn - and she patted me on the shoulder and looked me in the eyes and said, "Oh, my, I'm sorry."

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Westley Graham-Paige @wesnotfewer.bsky.social · Sep 11

Not going to disagree that the current Washington plates are very nice, but more surprising is that the sequence of "420" isn't blocked automagically here, like '69' is on vanity plates. WA sent these for the GT350 and they must have thought I really liked weed. Or K-pop.