After a year, my reasonably smart cats (potty training them to use the toilet took 3 weeks) have learned that the “outside” makes me open the door, because they rush towards it when I push it. But they never use the button themselves.
Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit: Bangkok’s full name. It makes it sound very stately, I wish there were more cities that did this.
Mormel: Our late cat’s name. The literal translation is mongrel, but it’s gotten a completely different meaning for me. Also in Chinese pronunciation it sounds like māo māo, which just means “cat cat” :)
I have one of the new Nightsters, it’s a harley-davidson that isn’t a vibrating air cooled dinosaur. It’s smooth, fast, and quiet. It handles great. It gets decent gas mileage.
If it’s raining or cold, I drive an old Samurai. It’s not a vehicle for those on the spectrum like myself who have trouble talking to people, because it sometimes draws a crowd.
We got a set of these for our puppy, and she picked up on them pretty quick. We’ve got walk, food, play, and outside. It’s not perfect though. Like she’s supposed to hit the walk button when she needs to go potty, but occasionally instead she’ll take a shit on the floor and then hit the button. “Look dad I pooped on the floor so we can go outside now!” And I feel like a play button may have backfired cuz she slaps that fucker all day long. I mean they aren’t going to train your pet for you but they are a useful tool. I’m much happier that she’s smacking the button instead of clawing at the front door.
Never used those buttons, but my idiot cat does have his ways to tell me what he wants, and some of them are a bit abstract. For example, I tried to teach him to “knock” on the window when he wants to be let out / in so he won’t wail at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night when he wants me to open the window for him. It worked after a few weeks, but what he learned is “knocking on glass = human lets me out” so he will sometimes go knock on the glass door of the cabinet instead and then make a beeline for the window once I open it for him. When I play dumb and open the cabinet instead, he’ll just knock harder or THEN move to the window. He isn’t interested in the actual cabinet or its contents at all.
Tapping a button to let the human know what you want can’t be that much more different / abstract for a pet than tapping on glass. You just have to be consistent in showing them the right behaviour and reward it with the correct action whenever they do it right, so they eventually make the connection.
I currently drive a hybrid escape, ~600 miles per 14.5gal tank, pretty happy with it. Mine has the lane/brake assist but I turned off the lane since my state is so bad at painting lines it was trying to steer me out of lanes due to old lines being still visible or no lines being visible meant it was worthless too. That’s really my only complaint so far, had it 2 years now.
My driving is a mix of city and highway, I average low-mid 40s
I went from £400 a month fuel spend to just over £100 going to hybrid. My insurance came down from £700ish to £450 p/y (all the anti collision toys etc). The services were 4-600 a year now 250-300. It’s been 4 1/2 years and I’m keeping it. It cost me about 10k more than I’d normally pay for a car and I reckon I’ve made my money back and then some. That anti collision stuff has also saved my arse a couple of times.
a cheap e-fatbike. it’s almost free to ride and it has a decent range of about 30 km without pedaling so it gets me anywhere i need to go. i regret that i didn’t get one that has studded tires available, riding on ice is scary (finland). it also squeaks on bumpy roads like an old bed…
I like long, ridiculous names like Sylvester Birtwistle from Lovecraft Investigations or Thockmorton P. Ruddygore from Jack Chalker’s Dancing Gods novels.
2016 Toyota Camry. Up until that, I always bought used old beaters and ran them into the ground, but in 2017, my new job required a car less than 6 years old, so I bought the Camry.
I might be jinxing myself, but, besides normal (disposable) things like tires and brakes and minor tune ups, it hasn’t needed any major repairs since I bought it.
I bought a used 2015 Camry and have had no problems that I couldn’t handle myself. Or just ignore, like tire pressure sensors that give false failure signals.
I bought a 2019 Corolla, the Camry’s cheaper cousin, for the same reason. Hoping it lasts til 200,000 miles with no issues. 300K would be fantastic. Last Toyota I had was a Tacoma and it made it to 270K buy replaced the transmission twice 😭
I have an escape plug in hybrid. I get about 40 miles all electric, and about 500 miles on gas. I just took a camping trip where I towed a trailer, so my average mpg is down to about 50. Normally it rides around 70-80, since most days I drive less than 40 miles.
I like my fuel efficiency, and that I can plug it in to charge. I wish I had a little more cargo space, since I’m just shy of “project” capacity, and more “flat pack furniture”. I dislike that the towing capacity is low, since the hybrid drivetrain is more complex, and the car just weighs more, so I can only tow about 1500 lbs, which limits your choices for campers and such.
I originally started the buying process because I needed a new car, and I had a three hour round trip commute. Now I’m working from home, and it’s even better because I basically never use gas, but haven’t sacrificed range. Only my poor, beleaguered bank account. Which I don’t regret.
Almost the same, but the RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid. 50mi electric range, AWD, we almost never have to fill it and there’s free slow chargers in our town!
asklemmy
Hot
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.