PennSilverTaco's "Perfect 5-Lug Regular Cab" Build, Aspergers, and General BS MegaThread!

December 19th, 2017:

 

December 19th, 2017:

Ugh...

The Wawa...

 

December 19th, 2017:

Waiting to get out of the Wawa parking lot after buying smokes for my boss...



FINALLY!

 

December 19th, 2017:

 

December 19th, 2017:

More of that "photo-chop"...

 

December 19th, 2017:

 

December 19th, 2017:

 

December 20th, 2017:

 

December 20th, 2017:

Another silver 2nd Gen!

 

December 20th, 2017:

 

While I've got my external hard drive hooked up to my other laptop (won't work the with the Macbook), do you have any vehicle photo requests?

UPDATE (February 18th):
@Iamraiderpower , just realized I didn't tag you in the post and that's why you didn't see it, LOL

 

Question for the parents of children with autism, how do you get them to get ready to do things on time? In the past we’ve had to use a schedule or timers. He had gotten pretty good about cooperating up until lately.

One of the biggest things I’ve learned about autism, at least from my son is that he can’t leave what he’s doing unfinished. Makes it so hard when he’s playing and got to be somewhere at a certain time.

Me and my wife have our own differences on how to handle him. Hers work better for her but do not work for me for whatever reason.

Any advice is appreciated.

 

OP here...

I'm pushing 30, and a perfect example for me with regards to not wanting to leave things unfinished would be LEGO models...

I have literally stayed up until 3am working on LEGO replicas of vehicles, even when I had to be at work by 10am the following morning...

I also find it quite hard to pull myself away from my computer in the morning when I need to be leaving for work, so I set a rule for myself of not firing up the ol' MacBook before I go to
work...

Us Aspies are like everybody else...

We are human! What are humans?!?! Creatures of habit. Force yourself to do something, and it will become habit!

That's what my dad's been telling me to do, and it's been working!

 

Aspies are pretty much perfectionists, which is why we have a habit of not wanting to leave things unfinished. Unfortunately, we have another habit of only focusing on things that actually interest us.

My best friend John, who also has AS and happens to be Asian, is one hell of a guitar player. He started out on piano in his preteen years, also took up the drums for a time, and started playing the guitar at like 15. Now I call him an "Asian Eric Clapton." Seriously, he happened to be at my house with one of his guitars this one time, and I played "How Forever Feels" by Kenny Chesney on my laptop. I asked John if he could match it, and then played it. Keep in mind that this was an MP3 file being played on so-so laptop speakers. John had heard this particular song on the radio once or twice when he was younger, but unlike me, he is not that into country music.

John played the opening instrumental to "How Forever Feels" damn near flawlessly.

John is also a neat freak while I'm a bit of a slob. My bedroom is regularly a mess, and unfortunately the cab of my Tacoma is a bit of a mess as well. I wash my truck every week or two, vacuum the interior, and pay my friend to do a full interior detail from time to time...

John had owned three cars in the 9 years I've known him, and when it was warm out it was not uncommon for him to detail his car EVERY WEEK! He even helped me detail my Tacoma a couple times...

THE VERDICT: Aspies will hop to it when the task interests them. Otherwise, they have to be enticed with something that interests them.

As they get older and more mature, only a good upbringing can guarantee a positive outcome.

 

NOTE: The title is just a rhetorical question...

Those who follow me here on TW know that I work at a bar.

However, a surprising number of strangers are asking me what a barback is when I tell them what I do for work!

When I first got the job, my parents didn't even know what a barback was!

So, the most basic definition of a barback is that they are a bartender's assistant. We do just about everything the bartenders do not want to do, and in exchange we get paid $10 an hour plus a nice cut of the bartender's (or bartenders, as in plural; on really busy nights we have two bartenders; some bigger bars have three or more!).

Also, $10 an hour and a minimum 10% cut of the tip money is how it's done at my bar. Barbacks always get paid more per hour than the bartenders and waiters/waitresses/servers,but how much they actually get paid varies from bar to bar depending on a number of factors.

I've heard anywhere from a little over minimum wage up to $10-$12 an hour. My bar pays the staff on the books, and we get a paycheck every two weeks. Some bars still pay all of their employees in cash (some under the table, some on the books). One bar owner in my area pays his barbacks a $50 lump sum per shift regardless of how many hours they work, with the rest of their money coming from the tipout the bartender gives them at the end of shift.

During really slow weeks, or on the rare occasion I've called in sick, I've made less than $100 in an entire week.

The most I've ever made in an entire week is $400 (after taxes and not including an tips).

I plan on becoming an HVAC technician and eventually moving out on my own, but for a single guy who still lives with his parents and drives a reliable Toyota truck, the money I make working at a bar is plenty...

My goal in creating this thread is that people who don't know what a barback is will find it and learn. This also just the original post...

I plan on adding much more to this thread in the very near future, so please stay tuned!

 

Aorta Of The Bar!

 

I would like to first point out that while I am on the books as a barback, and on last year's tax return I listed my occupation as such, I am really more of a runner.

I make the same amount of money per hour as a barback, and perform a lot of the same tasks as a barback, but you will not often find me behind the bar assisting bartenders. Most of my work is done behind the scenes.

You see, at the moment, I am one of only two bar employees with a pickup truck, and the only one with a reliable pickup truck. Our sound guy has a Ford F-150, but he is too busy making sure the show runs smoothly to run errands for the bar. Also, his truck is typically loaded with sound equipment all the time and doesn't have room for anything else.

Also, a Tacoma is much better suited to running errands in Doylestown than any full-size pickup! It's reliable, it's nimble and not only easy to drive but easy to park as well, and it uses a lot less fuel than something with a V6 or a V8!

 

Just over a month and I haven't even put a thousand miles on my truck during that time!

FYI, my truck had a little over 79,500 on the clock when I got the oil changed just a few days into the new year, I preparation for a trip up to the Poconos during a recordbreakingly cold weekend...

 

Funny you mention Legos because that was what he was doing this morning when we we’re trying to get him ready to go to a social event designed for kids to work on thier social well being. Couldn’t get him to stop building until he was done. Kept telling him he had all day to build when he got back home but he couldn’t pull himself away. When these situations occur it seems it’s a no win situation. We try to peak his attention, try bribing him, and try by threatening to take things or privileges away from him. To me it always seems to come down to him. Sometimes he’s very cooperative and then we have them times like a switch is flipped.

 

How old is your son?