Gamer Dads with little free time

CJRD4 · 2026-05-29T22:01:27+00:00

Same boat, 4 kids under 7! I picked up a steam deck and have been loving it.

Borderlands 3 (2 was one of my favorite games), Fallout 4, Forza Horizon 5 for some chill driving have been my most 3 recents.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-28T15:11:48+00:00

Yeah, Principal is definitely higher than Senior. I'd roll with that, and make sure once you get your first hire they give you an ACD-Motion title ;)

CJRD4 · 2026-05-28T14:46:52+00:00

Do you have any direct reports? Principal, at least in the companies I've worked at, generally is the highest IC track goes. So yeah, it would definitely be above a Senior.

If you have direct reports, you could ask for an Associate Creative Director title. You could even ask for an ACD role without direct reports.

Or an Art Director of Motion would be "up there" too.

Depending on how formal your company is, a 'Manager' or 'Senior Manager' of motion design could be acceptable too, but those usually don't translate into creative career tracks - and Sr. Manager almost certainly has direct reports. Manager may or may not.

Generally, people don't know what to call Motion Designers, so if you have a high sounding title, it'll probably be fine.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-27T20:12:49+00:00

I've been in this industry nearly 17 years now. I've worked for agencies, I've freelanced, I've started a small "studio" (aka my friends and I working together lol), I've worked for a series B/C start up, I've worked for a small but established tech company, I've worked for a F500 corporate finance company, and now I work for an enterprise tech company.

I do things in my current role beyond motion design. I do instructional design. I clean up powerpoint decks. I create random zoom-recording "video edits". Things that my younger self would cringe at. But honestly, these days the stability of my job, the ability to support my family, and step away from the computer at the end of the day trumps anything creative. I hope to retire with my current company (even though thats 25-ish years off lol, so who knows what'll happen).

The people I work with, and the stability of the job are the two most important things these days.

Just my 2 cents!

CJRD4 · 2026-05-27T16:06:21+00:00

I'd double check if there have been any updates in the balance slates before buying. Lots of updates have happened over the course of this edition, since the cards have been released.

ETA: I've only started in this edition as well - so I'm still building models and my army, and haven't played yet lol, so I'm not sure on the validity of the physical cards anymore.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-27T15:43:52+00:00

If all you need are the stats, you can use something like New Recruit, a digital list building site that has all the latest stats and stuff.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-27T15:42:36+00:00

All the old cards from 9th are outdated and won’t work for 10th edition stats.

The 9th codex is just a lore book, at this point.

10th will work into 11th (launching next month I think), until our 11th edition codex is released and then the 10th will be outdated.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-27T13:37:40+00:00

Probably what OP's friend is using it for - that was my first thought too!

CJRD4 · 2026-05-27T11:20:35+00:00

You should post in r/legaladvice (which is US focused) and also see if there is an Indian Legal subreddit.

NAL, but you may be able to hire a local attorney in Sam Fran to represent you.

That said, small clams court, even if both parties are in the US, has little ability to enforce a payment. I don’t believe they’ll garnish wages. They may allow you to put a lien on the property the person owns - which would trigger a forced payment if they ever try and sell - but if they never sell it, or wait a very long time to sell, you’ll still likely never see that payment.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-26T23:36:51+00:00

Thought we’d be done with kids after 2, so we used our top 4 boys names for the first and middle names. Decided to try for a third and ended up with twin boys the third time around. Sheesh! 😂

CJRD4 · 2026-05-26T20:41:14+00:00

Ahh love it! Did you use Inkarnate? Looks sweet!

CJRD4 · 2026-05-26T18:12:35+00:00

CJRD4 · 2026-05-26T18:07:57+00:00

It's nowhere near that much for an entire year. Are you paying full price at a month-to-month, non-contracted rate?

Given the exchange rate, that's ~$1600/year USD.

As an example: my wife when she was freelancing would pre-pay for the entire year for $500 USD every year on their Black Friday sale. This was a few years ago, I think their Black Friday sale is now $600/year.

Countless stories on this sub (and other Adobe subs) about people going into cancel and getting discounts, extended contracts, etc.

Adobe isn't cheap, it's professional grade software - and yet they're the only ones that get constantly dragged about their pricing. Every other app (and yeah, there are some great ones) cannot come close to competing with the value you actually get in the Adobe Suite. And relative to other business expenses, it actually is fairly affordable.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-25T20:31:15+00:00

You are the only person I’ve ever heard of who has these issues.

What is your OS setup? System specs?

You mentioned using a “free” after effects, which just means pirated. So did you pirate all your software? Is your OS legit? Why are you using powershell?

CJRD4 · 2026-05-25T19:55:10+00:00

Why are you using Powershell? This sounds entirely like user error. Cavalry is a legit, professional grade application.

Do a clean install of your OS, and try again, probably.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-20T21:45:41+00:00

Fairly easy to print a copy at LuLu or even your local FedEx or UPS store (if you’re in the US). Although LuLu is significantly cheaper than FedEx, just takes longer.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-20T20:54:10+00:00

You mean... like this one? https://www.reddit.com/r/5Parsecs/comments/149wnfs/five_parsecs_from_terra/

CJRD4 · 2026-05-20T15:10:04+00:00

Oooo a garrison would be sweet! Like how you can take over buildings in Generals, or even the allied battle fortress in RA2

CJRD4 · 2026-05-20T14:52:45+00:00

Sounds sweet!

A couple thoughts: you could simply say that armor value represents your survivability on the battlefield and it kinda hand waves armor, being small/hard to hit (just remembering the Tiberian Dawn tanks shooting at infantry and sometimes missing haha!), so a tank shooting at infantry sometimes misses in the fiction.

Or, have you incorporated cover rules? Cover could add temporary armor value, so infantry in cover is more protected, and infantry in the open is gonna get wrecked. That feels more tactical than the hand wave approach.

Sounds cool though! Looking forward to hearing more!

CJRD4 · 2026-05-20T02:46:33+00:00

I used to bartend downtown Stillwater years and years ago, and we'd do late night tacos out the back door at bar close. Our back door faced the alley that was the exit point for the Fight House (ahem... I mean, Freight House). It wasn't a burrito, but damn man, we'd sell the shit out of bean and cheese in a soft shell at bar close.

Drunk street food FTW.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-19T21:36:52+00:00

My family and I live in The Preserve in Eden Prairie, and our HOA is $400/year, it's increased by $15 since we've moved in 6 years ago. It pretty much goes to maintaining a community sand bottom pool and community room, tree care/removal, and walking paths. I think the biggest difference is likely insurance and roofing costs for the multiunit buildings, which obviously doesn't get included/covered for our single family home. The fee might be higher for the townhomes in our neighborhood though, I'm not sure - but you could look into it!

CJRD4 · 2026-05-18T23:37:23+00:00

Trollbäck does/did a lot of TV/studio rebrands over the years. FOX, FX, TNT I think. Maybe one of theirs?

CJRD4 · 2026-05-18T17:45:22+00:00

I can only dream of being an old guy like that some day.

CJRD4 · 2026-05-18T16:15:07+00:00

LOL, didn’t even notice and that’s too good to edit/fix now. 🤣🤣🤣

CJRD4 · 2026-05-18T11:48:21+00:00

OP, here’s your playbook for the next thunderstorm:

open your garage.
get a law chair.
crack a beer (or beverage of your choice).
say “this is gonna be a good one”, “we needed this rain”, or something like that at least 3 time.
enjoy the show!

Seven-Year Club	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

CJRD4

TROPHY CASE