Mr.P

oud<3er
Oof flying that drone is not exactly relaxing as I learned to fly on a smaller lightweight craft running on lower voltage packs. This thing is just all over the place and the small motions I used to use to compensate for drift or avoid obstacles translate into really rapid movement. The tiny whoop drones make the living room seem huge, whereas this thing makes athletic fields and gymnasiums feel tiny and constraining. I need to find a real wide open space to fly this thing or else tune the autopilot to respond slowly and limit throttle. I was thinking i was a good pilot with the little whoop drone... this makes me feel in some ways like I did when I was a teen the first few times I drove in traffic or had to parallel park.

And I looked up the Outcast - that’s a high performance vehicle you’ve got there. I have a traxxas slash 1/16th scale. It’s a lot of fun and has really endured a lot of punishment. I’d was thinking of putting an fpv camera on that but realized the range isn’t great so fpv becomes kind of pointless.

and then there’s this guy:

 
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Mr.P

oud<3er
Here’s the latest addition. Just finished modifying this - it has a night vision camera which works at dusk or by dim light.

This looks like a toy but it’s the most stable and well designed and tuned of the aircraft I have flown. This one can navigate in very small spaces. Weighs 50g without a battery.
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Mr.P

oud<3er
There’s a lot to this, but the short answer is that to me it’s just an exhilarating and intellectually challenging hobby. I would race if I had an opportunity but only when I eventually get good enough to actually not just embarrass myself. Right now I’m learning to fly in something called acro mode or rate mode - a challenging method of flying a drone that is hard to learn initially and relies less on assistance from the flight controller, and is apparently really necessary to be able to do precise high speed flying.

I actually enjoyed building and troubleshooting the drones as well, all the initial set up process which is really quite complex, and I also enjoy modifying and subbing in new parts and trying to figure out how to get them to all work together

Additionally the software that runs on the flight controller (basically the brains of the drone) is open source and very flexible and feature rich. Tuning the software can radically change what it feels like to fly a particular drone. There are also auto-pilot features to maintain attitude or level, and to counteract wind gusts, collisions, propellor wash and other turbulence... the motors themselves have little brains of their own and modifying the software they run has huge effects on flying.

it is an amazing challenge... time consuming, sometimes very frustrating, but ultimately a blast, and I’ve learned a lot from real experts on the dynamics of flight controllers and autopilots.


And the flying itself is sublime. It is absolutely exhilarating and just a complete blast. With that particular drone I can fly around my house and through little gaps in chairs and table legs, as well as flying way up when outside and divebombing things and rocketing over and around trees and buildings. Pretty amazing!
 
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Mr.P

oud<3er
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I feel like a neurosurgeon - splicing tiny wires together, attaching them to little pads that link to various sensors or circuit boards. Literally wiring up the nervous system of this little drone. I’ve never done soldering before and this work is very very challenging. I feel like every time I do this there is a high risk I will damage something, which makes it ”exciting”.

The contact points are only 1mm square and packed in very close proximity. Getting the solder to flow onto the tiny contact points while not flowing too far and covering other components is, for me, almost impossible. I have practiced on dead circuit boards but I just can’t get it to look good. Somehow I managed after many false starts to get these wires attached, about 7 in all. Just waiting for the camera to arrive now so I can try it out.
 

Andrew Salkin

it's aboud time!
Staff member
I love Oolong teas as well. I got into them because everyone here seemed to really appreciate them and puerh tea as well (which I'm still not a massive fan of - but also need to explore more)

In any event, on the oolong side I've tried soooo many vendors. Domestic and international (I'm in USA). It's been tough finding good quality and like oud, lots of times if you want a good deal you need to get a fair bit of it. Buying tons of samples can be costly and leaves you with lots of opinions but not a lot of tea :)

So I know this isn't a tea forum and this vendor isn't part of ouddict, but I think she definitely matches the ethos of what ouddict represents. I think y'all would vibe with her very well. This is Floating Leaves Tea out of Seattle. She is an oolong specialist and has incredible dong dings and lots of roasted tea. Her pricing is very fair compared to others in the market and if you are from the USA, it means cheaper shipping - free above 100 bucks.

Be on the lookout for her House Oolong which only releases once in a while (every other month-ish) and is the best price/quality ratio roasted oolong on the market that I've found. 18 bucks for 150 grams for some really good tea that you won't feel guilty about drinking all the time. In the beginning I was silly, buying teas that were 70-90 bucks for 150g. That becomes unsustainable for daily drinking.

These 3 bags - total of 450 grams (plus a 25 gram sample not seen) was 103 shipped. Not too shabby and this will last me a while! Check her out if you like a heavier roasted oolong!
 

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RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
I love Oolong teas as well. I got into them because everyone here seemed to really appreciate them and puerh tea as well (which I'm still not a massive fan of - but also need to explore more)

In any event, on the oolong side I've tried soooo many vendors. Domestic and international (I'm in USA). It's been tough finding good quality and like oud, lots of times if you want a good deal you need to get a fair bit of it. Buying tons of samples can be costly and leaves you with lots of opinions but not a lot of tea :)

So I know this isn't a tea forum and this vendor isn't part of ouddict, but I think she definitely matches the ethos of what ouddict represents. I think y'all would vibe with her very well. This is Floating Leaves Tea out of Seattle. She is an oolong specialist and has incredible dong dings and lots of roasted tea. Her pricing is very fair compared to others in the market and if you are from the USA, it means cheaper shipping - free above 100 bucks.

Be on the lookout for her House Oolong which only releases once in a while (every other month-ish) and is the best price/quality ratio roasted oolong on the market that I've found. 18 bucks for 150 grams for some really good tea that you won't feel guilty about drinking all the time. In the beginning I was silly, buying teas that were 70-90 bucks for 150g. That becomes unsustainable for daily drinking.

These 3 bags - total of 450 grams (plus a 25 gram sample not seen) was 103 shipped. Not too shabby and this will last me a while! Check her out if you like a heavier roasted oolong!

Welcome to the Oolong Club!!

I don’t know how there isn’t more crossover with Oudheads and Tea
 

IntheRedwoods

True Ouddict
I love Oolong teas as well. I got into them because everyone here seemed to really appreciate them and puerh tea as well (which I'm still not a massive fan of - but also need to explore more)

In any event, on the oolong side I've tried soooo many vendors. Domestic and international (I'm in USA). It's been tough finding good quality and like oud, lots of times if you want a good deal you need to get a fair bit of it. Buying tons of samples can be costly and leaves you with lots of opinions but not a lot of tea :)

So I know this isn't a tea forum and this vendor isn't part of ouddict, but I think she definitely matches the ethos of what ouddict represents. I think y'all would vibe with her very well. This is Floating Leaves Tea out of Seattle. She is an oolong specialist and has incredible dong dings and lots of roasted tea. Her pricing is very fair compared to others in the market and if you are from the USA, it means cheaper shipping - free above 100 bucks.

Be on the lookout for her House Oolong which only releases once in a while (every other month-ish) and is the best price/quality ratio roasted oolong on the market that I've found. 18 bucks for 150 grams for some really good tea that you won't feel guilty about drinking all the time. In the beginning I was silly, buying teas that were 70-90 bucks for 150g. That becomes unsustainable for daily drinking.

These 3 bags - total of 450 grams (plus a 25 gram sample not seen) was 103 shipped. Not too shabby and this will last me a while! Check her out if you like a heavier roasted oolong!
Awesome, thanks for sharing. I really enjoy tea as well, but am still trying to find good sources.
 

Andrew Salkin

it's aboud time!
Staff member
Of course! What did you end up with? Her traditional dong ding is one of my all time favorite teas - like across the board. Really nice and fruity.
 

RisingPhoenix

Resident Artisan
https://floatingleaves.com/
https://taiwanoolongs.com/

to start :)

and I was going to say @RisingPhoenix - since I met you, my disposable income has steadily depreciated....lol

what's even funnier, is that I'm grateful to you for it. Thank you for helping me spend my money, JK :)

Soooooooo sorry about that! :Roflmao:

You can blow it on shit...or you can sip bliss

I make 2 L of tea from about 5-10g of tea every morning while I’m cooking breakfast for my wife. I work primarily at home. She works in an office. A bit of the traditional role reversal. Haha

We split the tea between us and it lasts us the rest of the day.

We tend to cycle between a Russian Tea and a Thai Ruby Oolong that we get from a company out in Savannah, 509 and their top shelf Li Shan from Ten Ren, the English, Irish, and Nepalese Breakfasts from Teabox ... these are the teas we drink most frequently.

The teas we drink range from $5 - $10 / 120g to about $150 / 120g and honestly - they are all equally as enjoyable and are enjoyed on a wide range of occasions.

I know my life looks extravagant on the surface because of this oil and incense work - but that’s business and it’s not as extravagant as folks think. Haha Honestly - I don’t spend much money outside of tea and eating healthy. Wife and I are both foodies and we love to cook.

Most of us aren’t rich, by any means - which makes it ironic that we are surrounded by things like Tea and Agarwood. Modern goods that most folks don’t think twice about - yet they were lavish and extravagant luxuries through most of History. We can pour a cup and light up some incense for less money now than at any point in previous history. We can live like Pauper Kings and no one will know.

PS - at the time of the Boston Tea Party - Tea was about $3500 / kg. Even the most expensive tea we might drink today would be cheap in comparison. Most folks don’t realize there was an equivalent of hundreds of millions of tea dumped in the Harbour...perspective, right? :Roflmao:
 

Sproaty

Sproudy
Staff member
I've taken a recent interest in my car's appearance - not modding it, but just getting its paintwork nice. It's 11 years old with a fair amount of scratches and stone chips all around. I've wholly owned this car for a while now (8 years in total) and it's very reliable and doesn't cost me much annually to keep running. Last year I think I paid £150 in repairs and servicing over the course of the year which is fantastic - cheaper than a month of finance for a new car!

I've recently:
- replaced the rear fog and reverse light holders because both were cracked slightly
- replaced the wheel center caps,
- fitted stock carpet mats - I had third party ones which didn't fit under the seats properly, these new ones are amazing
- cleaned all the inside, restored seats and stains on ceiling (e.g. bike tyre marks from my mountain bike!)
- started washing and waxing it, really cleaned up the wheels, freeing up brake dust and other gunk

Next steps will be to fill in little chips and scratches and tidy up existing "touch up" jobs I've done that didn't really come out well - paint applied unevenly, colour doesn't match properly etc. It'll take some time but will be worth it if I can do a good job.

Then I'll machine polish the whole car to hopefully remove these "swirl" marks on the paintwork and bring out the depth of the colouring.

I may get new license plates (not custom ones) because mine are a bit discoloured and have a car dealership's name, presumably from where it was sold new)

Also, being a Ford it's starting to develop little bits of rust which I wanna sort & paint over.

My 2 front wheels are slightly "curb rashed" and I've been quoted £60 per wheel to restore them properly. I'm unsure if I want to go ahead with this one....maybe in a few months.

Last week with the cracked rear fog/reverse (and a bit dirty)

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After todays clean

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soulfoud

Oud Fan
Funny, I just finished a 150k mile refresh on my 2002 M5 - replaced a few leaky components, flushed power steering, tranny and diff fluids, interior/exterior wash and detail, paint correction, polished headlight lenses, and fresh CQuartz ceramic coating. It's ready for the next 150k miles!

Ct2AtGM.jpg
 

Arsalan

True Ouddict
Funny, I just finished a 150k mile refresh on my 2002 M5 - replaced a few leaky components, flushed power steering, tranny and diff fluids, interior/exterior wash and detail, paint correction, polished headlight lenses, and fresh CQuartz ceramic coating. It's ready for the next 150k miles!

Ct2AtGM.jpg

Great ride! Hand built engines...last generation of the Ms before it all went downhill with computers and plastic.
May it serve you well the next 150k!
 
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