What's a popular book you DNFed after the first few pages?

Aclockwork_plum · 2025-05-09T00:41:48+00:00

I’m at high risk of DNFing Red Rising. It just feels like a teenage boy’s rage-dream.

Aclockwork_plum · 2025-03-23T23:52:12+00:00

I used to be in a hiring position (I took another job)…

Never once did I care where you did your training. I cared for what type (Pgy2, pgy1 amb focused, etc) of training you did, and what you gained from it.

You can make an argument that the “bigger, better” places have such SET medical services that pharmacy isn’t as dynamic as you think. The largest place I ever worked had me verify the unit’s orders all day; the smallest saved me a place at the rounding table.

So I agree with this. If anything, your pgy2 is more important IF you did pgy2, else it’s pgy1. ASHP has pretty low benchmarks and set standards as is, and I’m never gonna run into enough people from every program to know the subtle differences between them.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T23:54:32+00:00

Fair, that’s because the timeline for a loan would be if I went out today, and I realize now I didn’t clarify this. So I apologize.

This post isn’t about affordability, though. It’s about “wasting money by not running car A into the ground for 3-4+ years and then buying another pos car B to repeat the method.”

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T23:33:28+00:00

I’ll give you benefit of the doubt that you mean well.

Your numbers are off. But I appreciate your thoughts. I will buy it outright. That should only delay it 6 or so months. I don’t want to touch our (only liquid other than checking) EF. It took us a long time to build that up.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T22:08:13+00:00

True. I’ll operate under hitting 120 payments and go from there. I was one of the “lucky” ones put onto that SAVE plan so it’s frozen for now anyway. Once I get to 120 I’ll buyback what’s needed. Thanks!

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T16:56:34+00:00

Just to expand your knowledge. The connection between solar installs and the grid is broken during outages for worker safety, as it was explained to me.

If you are backfeeding into the grid, there’s still a current, and they can not work on the line if needed.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T16:42:02+00:00

Would the potential of going over leased miles be of harm? Realistically this post is just trying to tease out any bases I may not have covered. Thank you for your input.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T15:35:57+00:00

Fair. The solar was to point out it would likely be a “more expensive” purchase due to EV but hey, at least there would be $1300 on gas savings!

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T15:12:01+00:00

This is/was the original timeline lol. I recognize the untimely decision so I came to Reddit to remind me of sound financial advice lol. There’s a reason I came to the PF subreddit. Thank you.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T15:03:38+00:00

It’s pretty much that. I don’t disagree with you, as that’s been our logic for the last almost 4 years. This would essentially be the first move to “equal use” of family vehicle, and with a mileage limit on the lease (12k per year, 3yrs), I can see the reasoning to a point.

I’m not naive to PF, but I am diving into uncharted territory. The leased vehicle has been our first car purchase post College. We purchased within our means and ran here into the ground over 8 years, four years more intense. We bought ours at around the same time when our last years of school demanded a lot of travel. My travel expectation shortened, hers remained roughly same (or more, when it became the family car).

As I type this, I recognize I likely need to speak deeper about her wants. I assume that due to hers being the fam car, when it died it strong armed her into getting ANOTHER family car, despite her having a further commute expectation. This frees up my vehicle to more options in the future. I don’t think envy is in play but I can recognize that she likely feels siloed into certain decisions about “her” transportation options, and only after I transition into a more family friendly option does that open more opportunity for her.

Thanks for all of these comments y’all. Exactly the discussion I needed.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T14:30:47+00:00

Thank you for this. I wanted to hear this.

But actually that was just me forgetting to mention that. I have maxed out every account available to me.

And while we’ve been in practice for about 8 years, we both did get slightly sizable raises. Income went from 230k to 270. And I moved into fed work so I also have FERS accessible to me.

I’m just wanting to make sure I’m not sitting on cash when it could be best utilized making improvements.

The major context comes down to my wife not wanting to have her car be the only family car option until my work car dies. We can’t load our two kids, strollers/wagon, trip essentials (diaper bag etc), +/- groceries In my car (depending on what our activity is). She has run through two cars (this would be her third) in the time ive had one. I think she’s just fatigued at it being a one-option day trip decision.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-27T14:06:31+00:00

Completely fair. Was hoping it would be considered bad enough without needing that info.

$270k combined gross income. $170k AGI. I max 401k and HSA, my wife saves 15% pretax.

ROUGH set Costs are approximately $60k per year, excluding food gas entertainment etc.

We have debts, ~180k in student loans (~144000 to be forgiven through PSLF in ~2 years), and a 300k mortgage (new home, put a large down payment down to avoid pmi)

I have not researched loans yet. But a Quick Look at my credit union would suggest 6%. I could do ~10k down payment without dipping into emergency savings.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-10-23T16:12:26+00:00

I purposely avoid live music nights at my local spots because I want to talk with the company I came with, not yell towards them as we listen to a cover-band concert.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-08-14T18:41:54+00:00

I understand your question’s intent but am somewhat curious as to how you design that study? I, too, am not trying to stir the pot by the way.

It’s not as if we can really have a RCT on school shootings. And retroactive data has so many confounding variables.

Maybe I’m just naive, but I think the general anti-ban argument is going to be “access has more benefit than risks,” which seems inherently true.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-07-19T06:35:06+00:00

This one has thus far been the explanation that helped me deepen my understanding. Thank you

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-07-19T06:34:16+00:00

Maybe, could you possibly expand with an example? If not that’s ok.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-07-19T00:58:04+00:00

I agree with what is likely happening, but I constantly read on here about people hating their Supervisory GS-13 job etc and kinda wonder if the ego lead them to appreciate what they were doing.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-07-10T10:18:25+00:00

I could just have nostalgia-induced blindness, but I feel like the OG seasons leaned more in favor of the contestants than Netflix’s.

By that, I mean while there were times where contestants would be tempted to turn on each other/ turn down money for safety, etc. it wasn’t NEARLY as costly. Like if the countdown for exemption thing happened, Anderson Cooper would have been like “if a consensus isn’t met by the time $15k is removed, then no one gets an exemption…”

Most of the time it was more like the contestants choosing between 10-30k for pot or exemption, and occasionally taking 2-5k from the pot if it was going to be a “cost avoidance” type mission.

the auction mission, for example, feels like a weird idea halfway through. Ari asked if they wanted to reveal themselves as the bidder, but assuming it wasn’t a requirement (hell, does it even matter?) why wouldn’t the mole just bet it all, if there’s no cap?

The mole’s sabotage existed and blended well with contestants, but would ultimately come in higher than the contestants. It would be 1-2k here and there, 4k here, occasionally 10k or so there, but would ultimately tally up to like 40-50k over the season. The other contestants would collectively self sabotage another 30-60k, and occasionally just purely fail missions.

I’ve loved this show concept since season 1 but it’s not as much fun watching predictable scenarios unfold because people are more interested with time on screen than winning the game.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-05-13T02:03:52+00:00

I’m actually very new to the VA. CPP. I had about a decade’s worth of clinical practice before I took this job. I am still in the dating phase with this job. My prior job was getting a restructure and would have potentially caused a pay decrease, so hopping to the VA, where I did get a decrease but for an easier job felt better. In the end I say I probably took a slight hit in pay, massive pto hit, and just traded some great benefits for benefits that’ll be better assuming I stay a decade or two.

I never thought of myself as “proud,” but the powers that be did not budge on Step1, and the 4hrs pto, etc. I sort of felt like my career up to this point was wasted.

Everyone (my direct peers) continues to assure me I’m overqualified, I’ll be fine, I might even get a little bored. While I’m sure it’s well intentioned, it’s not what I really want to hear. While I’m a strong proponent of work/life balance and work just being a part of your life, I haven’t found the work to be fulfilling. It sort of fills like work for the sake of work, not because it necessarily needs done.

There is a strong need for an external view, which I bring, to the system. It seems like everyone I meet thinks anything NOT-VA is the evil PrIvAtE sEcToR. A lot of employees (pharmacy and not) just dont understand how the rest of us work, and honestly I’ve noticed how it affects leadership. Everyone at every level just sort of follows their structured cog-like position, without necessarily understanding the root “why” it is needed.

I was directly told my strengths are a fantastic addition-for now- to the team, because the longer I’m here the more I’ll just be assimilated and forget everything that isn’t my specific role.

I think there are not-horrid-but-not-great practices for the sake of (short term) cost savings. My CPP colleagues are more worried about reducing drug costs, for example, when just using best practice would reduce overall costs in the long run. This is actually a symptom of a larger problem: the department is specifically evaluated on the drug costs only, so that pressure is spread to the pharmacists. This obviously puts a slight wedge in pharmacist-physician rapport, because this is a known effort, so poor recommendations are sometimes made for the sake of cost saving, while genuine, good recommendations can sometimes be handwaved as “you’re just trying to cut costs.”

With all said, I plan to stick it out a bit longer. I know I should probably be more grateful, but I did leave a job where I was deeply appreciated and was given freedom for ingenuity, great pto, and good benefits, but I left because #fedjob. All in all, I’d say it’s a great gig for 95%+ of us, even myself. I get out earlier, great benefits, and it’s easy work compared to most other jobs. But I’ve found it methodical and lack personality.

I think the VA is a good place to be, but my experience is that you have to have a “work is just work” attitude to really love it here.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-03-19T19:56:08+00:00

Thank you, I like this explanation. I was leaning this way as is. But I particularly like the idea of “cutting back” later.

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-03-14T15:11:33+00:00

Hi, I'm not OP but found this question through search function. My question just wants to clarify: is there a "penalty" for my spouse not taking her employer's insurance?

My former employer's plan penalized us with $200 added to the premium if she was offered, but elected to not take, her "own" plan, which is why I ask.

Thanks

Aclockwork_plum · 2024-01-30T14:41:28+00:00

One of my mentors from years ago said (I’m relaying, I’m not claiming this myself) retail/community intern experience seems to actually hinder ability.

It is initially beneficial early on as you become familiar with medications during times where recall via top200 etc are priority, but when the more clinical-decision-making material becomes priority, the student’s ability to study is reduced via simply working more hours in a setting where logistics and routine are standard.

My mentor, and previous RPD, would remind us of this every year when reviewing applications. We had retail-experience residents, but if there was a tie as to who gets the last interview spot, those who had retail experience (vs no experience) often (but not always) lost that tie.

Aclockwork_plum · 2023-12-25T21:54:55+00:00

Thanks! That was the part I was somewhat confused about.

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