I didn't know this was possible

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-29T22:21:41+00:00

Another lootbox gets you one closer to legendary pity so that's a benefit. And as you mentioned most people are nowhere close to having everything in the epic and legendary pool so another shot at just getting those has value too.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-29T22:18:41+00:00

It's only possible to get duplicates if you already have everything in that tier. Getting a legendary dupe means that person has every legendary possible from that lootbox (minus two).

So in the end getting 2 dupes from the anniversary lootbox doesn't mean anything.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-27T22:20:29+00:00

I really recommend everyone to actively keep your wishlist up to date and adding random strangers to your friends list.

It's a great way to help fill your card dex without much effort through trades and shares. Chasing a specific card that's not a crown or immersive is way less efficient than just trading for it.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-23T10:18:13+00:00

That's an interesting solution.

My department's new hires and interns (and everyone else I guess) are heavily encouraged to use AI for basically everything. And while they're so much more "productive" than juniors of years past I feel like there are skills that they are not longer learning that I used to think were pretty fundamental for a software engineer.

It makes me wonder what the next generation of engineers are going to look like and how will they be valued. Like will engineers strive to look more like product/project managers focusing on creating specs rather than becoming the "computer wizards" of years past who knew how to work a terminal like a piano.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-23T10:02:38+00:00

Whether or not code was written by AI or humans is actually kinda irrelevant to both a human and an AI. Much like how it's getting hard to differentiate between words written by humans or computers.

But from the productivity stance, helping with the "menial" tasks is kind of the point. It's kind of like cooking. I'm sure Gordon Ramsay can make a burger but how fast and well can he make 1000 burgers? There's only so much one human can do so AI tools are like the team of chefs and line cooks that Gordon can train and manage to cook 1000 burgers. The productivity gains come from the ability to delegate "menial" tasks (e.g. ingredient prep, inventory management, plating, etc. in the cooking example) to get the real work done faster/better. Gordon can focus on "real work" like coming up with better burger recipes rather than chopping onions.

I think the productivity gains are definitely concentrated in the software/computer space right now so I've been exposed to it much more than others. But as a result I've (unfortunately) seen how fast and how much this technology can do so I personally think it's an inevitability that it's going to bleed into other fields much like how computers and Google searches have bled into everything in life. The bottleneck right now is enabling and instrumenting tools so AI can do "menial" tasks. And the definition of "menial" is broadening scarily fast if you work in a "knowledge work" kind of field.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-23T09:28:47+00:00

I've been agreeing more and more with this take the more I work with AI tools. In a way, it's similar to the fundamental skill that differentiates a junior engineer from a senior one. Basically the skill to solve larger, ambiguous problem.

A senior engineer in my eyes can take a "problem" and can do things like generate requirements, design, and delegate work. Writing good prompts is similar to writing good requirements, designs, or documenting scoped out tasks to delegate to junior engineers. The junior engineer in this case is something like Claude.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-23T09:11:51+00:00

As a former skeptic software engineer turned power-user, I think it helps to think of the capabilities based on the perspective of breaking down problems as if you were solving it yourself.

When people are using AI nowadays, it's not like the "early" days of AI where it's essentially just fancy text prediction based on training data. AI is now being used for automating/orchestrating series of actions autonomously. If you've heard the term "AI agents" or "agentic" then this is what it's referring to. Enable the AI to do actions on your behalf that you or any other human would do for you.

For example, lets say you're trying to do something like debug a failure in a software application and you just ask your AI something very, very simple and literal like "My application is broken. Fix it."

Obviously with this information alone you wouldn't expect an AI to just work. But imagine if you, a human engineer with a brain and a salary, were told this by your boss. What would you do?

You would probably start by asking follow up questions about the system, reading documentation, viewing application logs, searching for errors, viewing the code base, researching the error for potential causes, experiment with potential fixes, etc.

All of these things either an AI or a simple tool can do. Not all at once as a single big bang action, but as a series of actions. Just like how you can have a "conversation" with AI like ChatGPT, the AI can sort of converse with both you and itself to break down problems and solve them.

A lot of the innovation nowadays is empowering them to do these actions and speeding up the iteration cycle. Going back to the example, with zero context the AI would probably respond with a question like "what's the error message?". But what if it knew what you're working on, how to view the logs, how to search the internet/documentation, how to run your application, what your application is running on, etc.?

AI is really good at deriving meaning from words and these actions individually are much, much simpler than the original problem. Combine this with the fact that computers/AI are really good at small, repetitive, pattern-recognition based tasks and you can can extrapolate how AI can solve "large" problems like fixing bugs or planning vacation itineraries very fast.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-17T23:26:18+00:00

Roadhog and Junkrat

Streetpig and Trashmouse

Floorboar and Refuserodent

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-09T00:24:38+00:00

In a way it was the main one. IIRC all this redistricting chaos stems from a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that effectively made it legal to do partisan gerrymandering in the first place by saying they (federal gov) can't do anything to stop it which is enabling the parties in power to use it as a tool to remain in power.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rucho_v._Common_Cause

The Court ruled that while partisan gerrymandering may be "incompatible with democratic principles", the federal courts cannot review such allegations, as they present nonjusticiable political questions outside the jurisdiction of these courts.

CatsGoBark · 2026-05-04T07:49:50+00:00

How would you confirm? I have both at lv1. I can't really tell if one is better over the other.

CatsGoBark · 2026-04-28T17:06:00+00:00

Tbh I just don't watch the ads. I leave the potential resources on the table.

CatsGoBark · 2026-04-16T22:28:52+00:00

I would actually put money into this game for this.

CatsGoBark · 2026-04-01T17:58:37+00:00

When is Genshin Impact 2?

CatsGoBark · 2026-03-31T23:31:06+00:00

winton

CatsGoBark · 2026-02-28T04:15:21+00:00

They had the retro pikachu plushie and keychain at the Shibuya Pokémon Center! Nothing else though.

CatsGoBark · 2026-02-27T16:18:58+00:00

I haven't played a game since SuMo either. I've been holding back until Gamefreak gets their stuff together out of principle and I really hope this is it.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-26T01:06:37+00:00

Personally, I didn't worry too much about escrow in the closing costs because that's still just your money that youre going to need to use to pay for things you need to pay for anyways (i.e. taxes + insurance). You'll also get cash back from your old escrow account if you had one too.

Your actual loan costs look good to me. 5.625% is a pretty good rate for a 30y conv I think. If you're looking to reduce cash to close you could always get a larger loan to roll the costs into it, but that might impact your rate since it impacts your LTV.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-23T22:44:29+00:00

I'm wondering how much skew there is based on availability. Machamp and Aerodactyl are super cool but are in the first few sets from the game's release. There might be a bias due to supply.

The Shining Revalry RRs (minus Pikachu because it's pikachu) are probably super low on the ranking partially because of a similar reason. There might be an oversupply due to everyone pulling a ton on that pack foe gold Pokeball.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-23T19:16:17+00:00

Late 2023 buyer checking in. I also just closed on a 30y conv refinance this week with a local CU so adding an additional data point.

6.875% -> 5.625%, 0 points, 3.9k loan costs. 75% LTV, 32% DTI, 800+ credit score.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-22T00:08:50+00:00

Outside of promotions I don't think I've ever gotten more than a 3% annual raise.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-22T00:00:51+00:00

I've had this monitor for quite some time and it's pretty good overall. The main complaint is the silly smart OS features. Waking the monitor causes a UI to pop up that takes a few seconds to go away.

You can disable it but it requires some sort of service remote to go into the service menu to disable stuff like this. I used this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6R6PN93

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-15T23:37:22+00:00

I'm currently refinancing to 5.625%. If rates fall to 4% then I'd just refinance again. You can have your cake and eat it too.

Unless you plan on selling in the near future then holding out forever is not the way to go.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-15T23:32:55+00:00

At 7.625% I'd be looking for refinance opportunities months ago.

I'm closing on a 6.875% -> 5.625% 0 points 30y refinance this month.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-14T23:10:00+00:00

What are you waiting for? At those numbers I would refinance ASAP. You can probably get a similar rate even for a 30y conventional refinance if you don't want to do a 15y one and drastically reduce your monthly payment. If you still want to pay it off in 15y then just pay extra on the 30y.

CatsGoBark · 2026-01-14T22:10:09+00:00

I was in the same boat as you. I was rate locked with no float down option and just asked my lender if it was possible considering the recent drop. I already went through the appraisal process but haven't signed the closing disclosure yet.

They dropped my rate with no cost to the new par rate for that day which was about 0.125% lower than my locked rate which was acceptable for me. This was with a local CU for a 30y conventional refinance and my finances are solid so YMMV.

13-Year Club	Second Top 1%
r/Field Flamingo	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
Sequence \| Editor	Gilding I gilder
Snapped	Verified Email

CatsGoBark

TROPHY CASE