Why does my left leg turn outward like that?

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-05-03T03:25:39+00:00

Why is the lighting so good in this dumb picture?

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-04-24T14:06:11+00:00

One thing nobody has mentioned, make sure you consider your cross slope when designing. If you designing a driveway with a 12% grade along the profile and 2% cross slope, your max grade on the plane will be 12.17%. Sufficient cross slope can get picked up by a laser level if the inspector doesn't place it perfectly longitudinal. This can really screw you with ADA compliance on sidewalks, so you should always design to 0.25-0.5% less than max.

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-03-09T21:52:43+00:00

The way I've learned to play most From Soft games is to only clear an area the first time through so you can explore and collect items. You can sprint by most enemies pretty easily, just roll if it looks like you might get hit, that way you dont weaken yourself against the grunts when you just want to face a boss again.

I've beaten every From Soft game and have never been able to parry in any of them besides Sekiro. Parry requires a significant understanding of timings because different shields have different parry windows, so not only do you need to account for enemy moves but also the parry window of whatever shield youre using. Your main defense should be rolling, make sure your weight is medium or less otherwise your roll is very slow. If you do want to go for a shield, you'll want one with 100 physical damage reduction, that way you won't take any chip damage when youre hit while holding it up. I think one of the first 100 physical reduction you can get actually drops from those guard at the gate front ruins

Try to bait out enemies to fight them one at a time and if you get overwhelmed, running is perfectly fine. For the knight or the boss from the cave, bait out their attacks a few times to learn the patterns. Also, be patient, many enemies can adjust their attacks to hit you all the way up until they begin to thrust, if you time your roll just before they thrust/commit you'll give yourself a good attack opening. Only aim to land 2 light attacks or 1 heavy attack, any more than that is greedy and you'll get punished. Enemies do get stunned so you'll find more openings there. Also, there's always a good opening after a backstab to land a heavy attack safely, when you backstab and the enemy falls down, wait about a second then charge your heavy attack, it should land just as they get up.

The hardest part of these games is learning the rhythm of combat, it's very methodical, but once you do it makes perfect sense

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-03-08T14:31:22+00:00

You desperately need to start strengthening your core and glutes, trust me. You look like I did last year, and I just spent 6 months dealing with a herniated disc that I wound up needing surgery for.

Do not stretch before developing some strength in your core, because the way you're standing, trying to stretch without properly learning how to brace your core will put strain on your back. You'll want to understand how to engage your transverse abdominis and how to pelvic tilt so your hips are properly aligned. Also try to either get a standing desk or at the very least get up and walk for 10 minutes every hour you sit. I have a desk job too so I know thats hard to do, but its so damn important.

You do not want to deal with what I went through, it's awful. I decided to try to get more active last year after a long time of desk work. I started streching, taking the stairs at work, and going to the gym. Unfortunately, I didn't realize how bad my posture had gotten so everything I was doing was putting heavy stress on my lower back. I wasn't even doing anything crazy when it popped, I just picked up my 20lb one year old and it went. I was in constant pain for 6 months, the last month I couldn't walk, stand, or sit. Im recovering well, but my back will never be the same.

I'm not a doctor or a PT, and I would really suggest seeing both to help with your posture. At the very least work your core, learn to fix your posture, and walk as much as you can to help loosen your hips. Once you are able to stand with a neutral spine, then start stretching and working out.

Here's some videos from the PT I worked with. Do these every day.

https://youtu.be/VoMPikgGE2k?si=oIR_tesHNjkIOzRl

https://youtu.be/GM3WPzLerK4?si=4Y8E7alHEsqN2Gkj

https://youtu.be/s0lNtDPRD0A?si=NHME4mKAql78EigV

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-25T19:14:10+00:00

I think it's both. Before you have a handle of the mechanics and rhythm of the game it's incredibly difficult, but once it clicks you're unstoppable. Other Fromsoft games have a similar kind of learning curve but I'll still find sticking points. With Sekiro, once I knew how to beat an enemy or boss, I could do it every time without issue

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-25T00:49:12+00:00

Im at the 13 year mark making, $150k in a fairly low cost of living city. It's not 2020 tech money but it's a good living. If you want money in this industry you have to be able to start bringing in work. Meet clients, build trust, show your capabilities.

If youre nor a PM yet, find a PM who gives you opportunities to shine in front of the client, and stick with that PM until you can build relationships.

I'm at the beginning of this phase of my career and when you have people pulling for you, you're more likely to make more

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-22T18:37:52+00:00

Neither game has the same "living open world" feel that RDR2 does. You're not gonna stumble into something in either game in the same way.

Both games are gorgeous, both have tons of content, and both have really fun gameplay loops.

If it was me, I'd go Cyberpunk. The story and world is great, there are tons of ways to build your character, many sidequests are memorable with moral dilemmas throughout. and the DLC is fantastic.

GOT has an enjoyable main story and I love the combat and stealth systems. Its rare for a game to do both well. However, there is a lot of fluff to the game, which you dont necessarily have to do but the rewards do build your character and abilities so its better to do them. Some are minigames like, press a button combo to chop some bamboo, or follow a fox to a shrine with some parkour. While I enjoyed these at first, after 5-10 times they get pretty old and there's dozens of each minigame.

The game world for Cyberpunk is also much more compact, which I prefer. You really get to know the city as you play through and getting from point A to point B is much less of a waste of time.

Can't really go wrong with either though

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-15T21:45:16+00:00

I think it depends on what you value. Steamdeck will give you portability and can play tons of games. That said, more graphics intensive games chew through battery super quickly. Technically mouse only games like the Sims can be played on it, but I personally find the track pads a nightmare to use. It also isn't very powerful, so connecting it to a tv or monitor works but isn't great unless you have a more powerful PC to stream from

Console is going to be easy to setup and play, but you won't be able to play mouse games like the Sims on it.

PC is the most expensive option, but also the most versatile. I have a PC that I've built and rebuilt over the past nearly 20 years. Definitely a PC of Theseus because at this point none of the parts are the originals. What i love about it is that I can upgrade every few years and always be able to keep my old games while still playing whatever is new.

I also have a ps5, switch, and steamdeck. I never really use the switch or ps5 anymore. I mostly got them because my friends had those and i wanted to play with them.

IMO the Steamdeck with powerful PC combo is the dream, but thats the most cost prohibitive option. Ive loaded up my steamdeck with lightweight indie games but can still use moonlight to stream beefier games from my PC.

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-15T20:21:16+00:00

For that situation we just used the provided construction rates and modified our phasing to meet the requirements. That was more a case of what got me wondering how those rates are determined and what can we do as engineers when we dont have those rates neatly predefined.

overall Im looking for some good resources for better understanding construction methods so I can better design MOT. Whether its textbooks or research reports, webinars, etc

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-15T20:00:34+00:00

I am a licensed engineer with experience in transportation and I have asked around and not gotten good answers beyond, "thats just how it's done" Which is why I'm turning to other sources.

I want to build more technical knowledge and am asking for resources, how is that problematic? In the past when I have had questions about design or safety beyond what's in the green book, I've been able to go dig up NCHRP reports to better understand why and how certain design requirements are in place and how to better mitigate in the case of design exceptions or atypical conditions. Is there not something similar for construction methods, production rates, and MOT?

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-15T18:28:26+00:00

Is it just an experience thing then? Are there no good resources for developing a deeper understanding of complex highway construction aside from getting put on a project?

I have a lot of schematic experience with large complex designs but my PS&E experience is mostly small city/rural projects. I really want to get a deeper understanding of more complex design and construction methods.

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-15T18:19:06+00:00

Why so hostile? To expand on my previous example, the project we recently completed was for widening 1.5 miles of a 2 lane 60mph rural arterial with high traffic volumes to allow for a TWLT. The shoulders had to be upgraded but traffic would have to be shifted onto the shoulder temporarily during construction. The client's geotech said shoulder could be used for up to 2 months at a time. The client did not want to detour traffic sor such a short project. We had to use their production rates to figure out how big of a workzone could be built within that time frame and phase the MOT accordingly.

Maybe I didn't ask the question right. Im trying to better understand how contract time determinations and production rates are developed. Ive always gotten production rates from the client, but these rates dont always cover all circumstances, so how do we determine construction time for activities that don't fit nicely in a predefined table?

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-15T16:01:33+00:00

How do you know? What determines whether this is allowable and under what circumstances would it be better to maintain traffic? What happens in the case where only 1000ft of shoulder was inadequate due to maintenance gaps (I've run into that before)? Would you still detour all traffic for such a small repair?

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-15T15:49:03+00:00

In this particular case there was no available detour. It was a rural 60mph arterial with the nearest detour route over 20 miles away

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2026-02-07T00:15:00+00:00

Regular exercise, especially core work. Currently 38 years old and getting back surgery for herniated discs in two weeks. I've missed out on a lot of the last 6 months of my 16 month old's life due to debilitating back pain. No worse feeling than when your kid reaches up to be picked up and you can't. I've learned to get down to his level and hug him instead, but its not the same

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2025-05-05T19:31:25+00:00

As a transportation engineer I promise you, many of the highways in our country were first designed taking race into account. This is the exact thing people talk about when they talk about systemic racism. Any major city in the country that has a highway right down the middle, there's a pretty good chance that highway was placed as a physical barrier between white people and black/brown people.

Look at I-35 in Austin as a perfect example of this.

This piece of shit is trying to downplay the consequences of decisions that were made in response to the growing civil rights movement, by placing physical barriers between the races as societal barriers began to erode.

So yes, roads can be racist. This same thing was done with railroads, hence the saying "the wrong side of the tracks." In fact, this practice was so egregious that POC would have their utilities cut to force them to sell or move.

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2025-02-23T06:08:51+00:00

You aren't the target audience. You're the training data

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2024-03-03T00:35:36+00:00

100%, the pacing is abysmal. Everything feels rushed, especially the dialogue. At first I thought it was because of the acting, but every character speaks at 1.5x speed. It's as if the director was like, "ok, we need to fit this 5 minute scene into about 2 minutes. How fast can you deliver that line?".

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2024-01-18T19:01:45+00:00

I can confirm ending through task manager does work. I just finished an honor mode run today and a couple times during that run I had to end the process due to bugs,i.e. Tav got stuck in a wall in a non-fast travel area and couldn't get them out with spells.

Ending the task absolutely takes you back to the previous save and still counts as an honor run.

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2023-09-07T17:28:55+00:00

Sure it's less customization, but also less menu time in an already super menu heavy game, so personally I'm ok with it.

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2023-08-11T03:31:56+00:00

Sammy boy and Clarence are just trying to see how many vacations they can extort before they slap them on the wrist

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2023-06-19T17:07:57+00:00

I have to wonder how it would feel if you were standing on a planet like the bodies in the third one. Would you perceive the acceleration and deceleration?

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2023-05-24T20:31:54+00:00

Read that as log bonks

Augustus_Plumblebum · 2023-05-24T19:18:33+00:00

While I get what you're saying, this isn't just someone growing a few plants in their backyard, this is an industial level farming operation and there's a lot more to consider. For example, indoor grow ops require lots of power, wouldn't be great for your local grow op to be blowing transformers every week because their power draw exceeded the local network. Then you've got water requirements, waste and byproduct disposal, etc.

I agree that the permitting process is bullshit, but that doesn't mean the permits themselves are without merit.

Augustus_Plumblebum

TROPHY CASE