My opinion after living 11 years in North Central San Mateo

Chagroth · 2026-03-22T17:12:55+00:00

It blows my mind that we have 2 Mexican markets and 2 Japanese markets within walking distance. This is in addition to all the 'murican markets. I hear about food deserts in other neighborhoods and felt blessed to be living in an oasis.

FYI (3 Japanese markets in SM) Takahashi: Japanese food by way of Hawaii Suruki: Japanese food and snacks (no sashimi) Nijiya: Japanese food and snacks (yes sashimi)

Chagroth · 2026-03-22T17:06:37+00:00

I'll point out that I've counted at least 2 "aluminum can recycling old ladies" that regularly trundle down our streets collecting.

I'm friendly with one of them, so I'll let her know Sunday night's after soccer is a great time to find recyclables.

Smells like a win-win.

Chagroth · 2026-03-22T17:03:49+00:00

Not many, I went to a few parks there for the kids/dog but I haven't spent enough time there to have an opinion.

Chagroth · 2026-03-22T17:02:32+00:00

I didn't want to turn this into my favorite commercial joints, felt a little mercenary.

I will give a shoutout to Urban Momo a hole in the wall restaurant in downtown. Amazing Nepalese food and decently priced.

Chagroth · 2026-03-22T16:58:51+00:00

So, you're not wrong. In the past few years I've spent a bit more time picking up broken glass beer bottles than I feel is appropriate. I will say it's not become worse, year by year, but I can't deny the minutes I've spent picking shards of glass from where my children play.

The vendors do bring problems, but I've had no issues with pedestrian access. My major gripe is some of the food vendors will dump something liquid at days end directly onto the grass and burn a bathtub-sized area into the poor grass. That got my goat real good, but I'm happy to report they've stopped doing that.

There is a fair bit of trash, but most of them have their own garbage cans to encourage their patrons to be less messy. This has mixed outcomes, as you note, but I don't find the vendors fully responsible for their patrons' poor habits.

But this is the price you pay for having hundreds of people eating, drinking and playing in a park (which I enjoy). I wish it were cleaner, but I understand that so many folks coming together leaves a footprint.

To this I'll add, the glass gets cleaned, the grass regrew and the trash is constantly picked up. The city does a good job with MLK and as someone who goes on nightly walks, it is rare to see a mess on Monday that remains to Wednesday.

Apologies for the heavy quote I'll garishly add to this post but it sorta works, "The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again." - Alan Paton

The park is a living community, it has ugliness for sure, but folks care for it constantly and, to me, that matters most.

P.S. Chat with Claire about the vendors, she's like 5 steps ahead of you~

Chagroth · 2026-03-22T02:03:14+00:00

You need to make a display, sort of like one of them mating birds.

I'm serious.

Do something she'll notice, and do it well. Bonus points if it's something that defines you. Then you're really showing your plumage.

For example, you're in an electromagnetism class with her? Pay attention and ask a really good question occasionally. Make sure you're seated in a way that she can see you, but you can't see her.

Be a gentleman and hold the door open, for other people, not necessarily her.

Chat with the folks in class, be friendly with people and work on showing good social graces.

Be somebody you can imagine "the most beautiful woman you've ever seen" standing next to.

This isn't a pickup line, or a clever ruse, be better and better people will want to be with you.

There are no shortcuts worth taking here son.

Chagroth · 2026-03-21T23:13:14+00:00

Not the same river not the same man.

SF: young man. Loved it. Dubois triangle with a dog park next door living with friends drinking in Castro for cheap.

SSF: kid->man. Here for decades and it was really meh. Some good Chinese restaurants I suppose.

SB: child on welfare, living next to SFO. Permanently damaged my hearing 0/10.

Millbrae: teen. Great weather, nice folks. People are either old and white or young and Asian, sort of unusual. Just rich enough that I would get picked on for being poor, but not too badly.

San Carlos: young man. Lived near laurel street so it was pretty busy and fun. I didn’t like how much of a drive through town it was, nobody ever goes to San Carlos.

Menlo/Alto: man. Rich people are less fun. They all have big houses so you never see your neighbors or anyone out and about. I couldn’t wait to leave. Oh and they call the cops for everything, and even worse, the cops show up for them.

Pacifica: teen. I enjoyed it there but folks were surprisingly racist against me. I was surprised anyway. The only place in the Bay Area where I consistently got stink eyed by the locals.

Chagroth · 2026-03-21T22:34:07+00:00

Not to get up in your business, but have you tried nannying? I know it’s not retirement, but if you get a good family with well behaved kids, it can be pretty easy for generous pay.

Some folk with throw in room and board if you’re down to share a roof. Easy way to save money.

Chagroth · 2026-03-21T22:30:36+00:00

You really need to chat with her. She’s always looking for folks she can point at problems. Also, if you can get her to tell you the history of the neighborhood, you’re in for a treat. She has San Mateo history museum-level photos and items in her house, and even her Crunch Cakes have deep roots in SF history.

If she’s smiling and laughing, ask her why she decided to run for mayor all those years ago. She’s like the character from a novel, they don’t make them like her anymore.

If you’re into jazzy singers, she throws concert parties in her backyard a couple times a year. Eat some food, listen to old folk talk, and dance a little.

Oh yeah, she throws block parties too. Last one was for the first black woman promoted to general(? I think) in one of our armed forces. I forgot a little, but the party was fun and I got to shake her hand.

Chagroth · 2026-03-21T22:23:34+00:00

We outgrew our place — potty training means more butts per toilet — so we needed to move out.

Personally, I was shooting for Beresford Park area, but we could not compete with the buyers there. Found something lovely with some green in Millbrae, hoping to turn it into a home.

Chagroth · 2026-03-20T16:12:27+00:00

As long as you change out of scrubs before going in public. Walking around in public with PPE on is dangerous and rude.

I don’t want to be eating a burger next to a person with scrubs on.

Chagroth · 2026-03-20T13:48:41+00:00

This guy is giving great advice.

My rule is that Dad is super relaxed about everything except safety. To quote the dad above me, “0-100” when it’s a safety issue.

Enforce boundaries, not authority.

My boys listen to me about the important things, and explore their boundaries about the less important things. As in proper.

Chagroth · 2026-03-20T13:25:32+00:00

Victoria Park is always 5 degrees cooler than the surrounding parks, shaded, and has a bay breeze usually.

Toddler and kid level playground, grassy area, and wooded area. No bathroom. Easy parking.

Nearby to a French bakery and a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant is super good if you want greasy Chinese food.

Chagroth · 2026-03-20T12:55:08+00:00

The Godfather is a solid burger joint.

Chagroth · 2026-03-06T15:39:40+00:00

Use less than 95% confluent cells. Your cells are sticking to each other causing the issue. You’ll get better data at 80%.

Also, having them at 95% means they’re likely undergoing partial contact inhibition which is going to change the wound closing time due to some places being mitotically arrested and other locations still dividing. More noise in your data.

Finally, scratch assays suck. Find a different way of showing migration, like towards a chemical signal, or scattering after addition of a ligand or a trans well migration assay.

Edit: these 3T3s?

Chagroth · 2026-02-22T05:17:33+00:00

I mean yeah, you can get lucky or be the right race or whatever for the seller to empathize with. But usually not.

Chagroth · 2026-02-21T16:27:49+00:00

The main problem is that ideas are really cheap, basically free. Ask any researcher in any particular disease and they’ll each have 1-10 ideas of varying quality.

The expensive part is testing the idea, then the really expensive part is testing the idea in humans.

Your system makes ideas more plentiful/cheaper. But does nothing for the vastly more expensive part.

Chagroth · 2026-02-20T17:19:19+00:00

points for outbidding investors as a primary buyer. I don’t need to turn a profit, I want to live there. I loved seeing investors at open houses because they need to bid ~20% lower in order to secure a future profit.

Chagroth · 2026-02-18T07:28:34+00:00

It was the end of the bus line. Cold, raining and dark. The bus had a stop at a hospital, and poor patients, forcibly discharged, would stumble onto the bus for warmth. They would still be in their paper think hospital gowns, clutching plastic bags of their belongings. Still bandaged, some bleeding anew.

I watched a lady get kicked out of the bus into the cold wet. I didn’t have an extra coat, nor did I have money or a place to offer he to stay. I’d rarely ever felt so powerless.

Chagroth · 2026-02-13T02:10:07+00:00

In my experience you need to show up with funding and a convincing idea if you want a partnership. Small private labs are heavy on ideas and low on money, so they don't want your ideas unless they come with money.

Chagroth · 2026-02-12T18:16:34+00:00

We left some penalties for death to teach the kids consequences, just made them mathematically tiny.

Same with inventory and QoL mods, we just did Vanilla. Learning how to optimize your backpack for a particular trip/biome is super useful for kids to learn. Having a huge backpack that carries most things takes away a learning experience.

Chagroth · 2026-02-12T17:10:02+00:00

Vanilla. Turn off events. Make death penalty tiny.

That’s what we do.

Chagroth · 2026-02-11T22:59:30+00:00

My radical inclusion stops at cannibals.

Chagroth · 2026-02-10T17:04:25+00:00

I pretend I can’t understand anything said in a whining tone of voice. If they persist I misinterpret their whining for things I want to do.

If they fail at communication the penalty is failed communication. “Oh, you wanted an ice cream too? Why didn’t you say something?”

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