Dad, physics teacher, musician, and sailor. Originally from the subtropics now living in the New England Tropics.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • I’m not seeing the most basic bit of advice in my brief perusal, but even so it needs repeating: find a camping buddy. That is by far the easiest way to get into camping. And honestly you shouldn’t be going out on your own as a novice anyway.

    Ask the people you know, or the people THEY know. If that doesn’t work then try local camping groups near you. Lots of people are looking for others to go camping with, so you’re a commodity! Get together with them before your first trip to go over packing lists and menus, and maybe even go grocery shopping together before hand. I really didn’t recommend going out there in your own, buying everything you need, etc etc. Start with someone else, see if you’re into it, and next steps will be obvious. You were born to live out there, it comes pretty naturally no matter how many thousands of years your people have been in the city–you were out there much much longer!














  • My washing machine’s making this weird string of beeps?

    Oh I got this. You have to put it into diagnostic mode, and then it will flash lights at you, giving you the error codes in binary. I’m not kidding!

    For more info you can lift up the top of the machine by unscrewing some screws on the back. There are lots of screws on the back, but only three or four of them attach the top. If you lift the top up you can push the drum back and then slide your hand into the space between the drum and the frame. There’s a ziplock bag in there with the service manual, and it’ll tell you how to spin the knob to enter diagnostic mode. On my Maytag I have to spin the knob R, R, L, R, not to quick, not too slow.

    I was blown away when I learned this all. I was having a problem with my clothes not drying, but still the components seemed to be working. I was getting a specific error about one component, but when I tested it it was fine. In my case the problem was where the wires from that component plugged into the control board–it was just slightly loose! So I pushed it in and everything is nominal.