#bargelike

[aubreyad-indexed]

In which Stephen causes grave insult, is viciously punished for it, and thereby gains sympathy and forgiveness

From the main and the fore yards hung broad but extraordinarily shallow square sails, so low that when Stephen was led on deck to see them he asked where they were intended to be hoisted. ‘They are hoisted,’ he was told, in a voice of strong displeasure.

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Since the ship was very well found in bosun’s and sailmaker’s stores, she wore all the staysails that could possibly be managed. 'It is just like Bridie Colman’s washing day, I do declare,’ cried Stephen, in another unfortunate attempt to please. 'Everything is within an easy hand’s reach, so it is.’

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'This is an extraordinarily small piece of plum-duff,’ he observed at dinner - Sunday dinner - in the cabin. 'I wish it may not be an ignoble stroke of revenge for my innocent words this morning about our harmless, meek, and bargelike appearance -innocent upon my word, and even, I thought, amusing - a mild pleasantry. But not at all: prim faces, wry looks, and now this meagre, despicable pudding. I had thought better of my shipmates.’

'You mistake, brother,’ said Jack. 'Mr Adams and I, in our joint character as purser, cast our accounts yesterday, reckoning every last firkin of oatmeal, every bin and locker in the bread-room, and dividing the whole, private stores not excepted, by the number of mouths aboard. That piece of pudding is your full ration, my poor Stephen.’

'Oh, indeed,’ said Stephen, looking rather blank.

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'And Stephen, may I beg you not to be facetious when speaking of the barky? The people are surprisingly susceptible, if you know what I mean, about her appearance. And if ever you intend to be complimentary, you might well be advised just to throw up your hands and cry “Oh”, or “Superb”, or “I have never seen anything better”, without being particular.’

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'The Doctor has been choked off for being a satyr,’ said Killick to Grimble.

'What’s a satyr?’

'What an ignorant cove you are to be sure, Art Grimble: just ignorant, is all. A satyr is a party that talks sarcastic. Choked off something cruel, he was; and his duff taken away and eaten before his eyes.’

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Although the ship was wonderfully busy the news spread forward with its usual speed, and Stephen, making his way to the forecastle to watch albatrosses and the nondescript petrel that had been following the ship for some days, was greeted with particular kindness, brought a coil of soft manilla to sit upon, given a pair of belaying-pins to hold his telescope steady, and told about the birds that had been seen that day.

-The Wine-Dark Sea, Patrick O'Brian

(An ongoing series of condensed sagas)

[smoothshift]

Upgrading to oem sport suspension? via /r/cars

Upgrading to oem sport suspension?

I've grown really sick of running coilovers. First of all, the ones I have are shitty Megan's, so no huge surprise that they're shitty, but the current list of issues is:

terrifying, ice-like braking on bumpy surfaces

awful ride

incessant pitch oscillation after stopping

weird behavior on highway

height and camber adjusters loosening up and being noisy, all the God damn time

even when set as high as possible, ride height can be annoying and stressful, especially with the shitty roads in my area

damper settings never seem to be correct for more than 5 minutes, probably doesn't help that compression and rebound can't be adjusted seperately, causing problems 1-3

rear springs made of chinesium, have bent noticeably

weird noises all the goddamn time

It really does handle well though. Sometimes.

Anyway, I'm torn between upgrading to a nice set of coilovers, and possibly having all the same issues, but with less money, or not having some of them (who knows which one), or just reinstalling an oem setup, and knowing damn well I would have none of the problems. I no longer have the oem springs and dampers, so I'd have to buy them new. But it seems that I could just install the oem sport tuned suspension bits, and from what I can tell it won't be any more expensive than going with the bargelike stock suspension. The question is which of these 3 things I should do? Will the sport suspension ride nicely or is the bushing choices/suspension geometry different in such a way that it won't ride nicely? Will fancy coilovers really be that much better?