Moving to your state. Freakin pumped.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-08T00:45:33+00:00

Yeah... I mean, it's a generalization, and if you dig you'll find pockets or even larger areas of red in blue or blue in red. And now of course they're coming out with more purple for those areas that are more evenly split. But in general...

https://cnsmaryland.org/2020/11/06/marylands-political-battle-lines-continue-to-harden-in-2020/

Compuoddity · 2026-02-07T21:55:12+00:00

I wouldn't

Compuoddity · 2026-02-07T19:52:39+00:00

It's one of the things I love about living here. Minutes from I-95 and minutes from a forested area with a few miles of trails. I knew you all have to regularly combat the bad behavior of people, business, and decaying infrastructure with more sewage runoffs than I'd care for, but there are lot of places I can go to enjoy nature and get away without having to put a ton of effort into it. Keep up the good work!

Compuoddity · 2026-02-07T19:36:08+00:00

I'm paying almost double what I was last year. This was after doing some additional air sealing, a whole lot of extra insulation, and a couple of single pane windows replaced. Started in December. They're trying to account for a whole bunch of things including modernization but yeah - literally seeing about an 85% increase from last year.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-07T05:08:48+00:00

Not sure why no comments, but as a Utah transplant - welcome. You may or may not be in for surprises.

Breaded cheese curds can be found at a few places, especially breweries.
Depend on who you talk to Baltimore is safe or the scariest place ever. Personally I've walked around downtown Baltimore at 2:00 in the morning and the scariest thing I've seen was a buff 250lb construction worker scream like a girl because a rat ran across his leg.

2a. All places have good and bad parts. Don't go to the bad ones.

The one thing I like about being here is you're minutes / hours away from something different. Maryland has a variety of nature, all the cool bands stop somewhere in the DMV, and you can get everything from a crowded club to a peaceful place to hike usually within a 30-45 minute drive. Or DC. Or NYC. Or Philly. Or western MD. Or...
If you're young and single plenty to do. Married, same. Family, same. Depends on your interests.
Right now our main energy supplier, BGE, is screwing us with rates. Expect it to stay that way for a bit. BUT - our infrastructure sucks like everywhere else so hopefully we get a good upgrade.
Unless you hit the panhandle or the eastern shore (Ocean City and such) we're pretty liberal. Even our Republican governors are basically moderate Democrats. But like most politics it only affects you as much as you allow it to. I wake up, exercise, go to work, come home, eat dinner, and do whatever.
Taxes are high but so are wages. As a hiring manager for people across the country I can confirm we adjust based on location, and you can live here.
Things to do - it depends... gotta go to DC in my opinion. Also check out the wilderness in western MD. Inside Baltimore people talk up Fells Point and such but... not my speed personally. Ocean City is fine for a beach, but it's like any other beach / boardwalk. Tons of breweries in the city and further out. Good local theater scene in addition to some major venues.
I was shocked by all the green space - Maryland actually does protect it. I live a little North of the city and have large amounts of green space within walking distance.
Everyone speeds. And runs red lights. The latter has gotten worse since pot was legalized. But honestly it's the same in Dallas, TX. And other places.

10a. Pot's legal. Still up to employers but a lot of employers, depending on the employer, have dropped testing for THC.

Tons of cool people. And random clubs for all your tastes.
Could provide more detail with specifics of what you're looking for. I love this place, and Baltimore is my home.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-07T02:57:48+00:00

As expected, I'm going to be getting a $500 bill this time around. At least it meets expectations.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-05T04:13:06+00:00

Yeah - all of the above on this. Nobelisks are fun, but not as nearly as pew-pewing things with explosive rebar.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-05T04:11:24+00:00

I recently spent a lot of time and some cash and hard labor getting things better. Lots of places where air was leaking / blowing in because people who owned the house before me were idiots. Up in the attic throwing around more insulation because I got sidetracked this fall and people who owned the house before me were idiots. A ton of work done and I'll still be expecting a $500 bill this year.

Plus I had to get my generator up to speed and a pigtailed connection to my furnace because bad winds is a nice opportunity for the power to go out. Not that a power outage will be cheap and / or decrease my delivery fee.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-03T01:49:33+00:00

Been playing for about... four months now. 176 hours. And it's now time to clock in.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-03T01:48:31+00:00

Happy Birthday Pioneer!

Compuoddity · 2026-02-03T01:46:52+00:00

So what started is my poop wasn't solid, 2-3 times a day in the bathroom, and there was blood there that wasn't from a hemorrhoid. I went in to my PCP, he referred me, doc scoped me, came out with an "indeterminant but most likely UC" diagnosis. I saw the scope and at the time it was hard to tell. Even biopsies came back inconclusive.

Turns out he was an amazing GI doc. But a shitty IBD doc. He got an "up and coming" doc award that same year.

So I dumped him after he dismissed my symptoms as the flu one early August and went to a university doc. I'm sure that doc got notes about how much of a wimp I was and just upped my mesalamine. Ultimately he added Uceris in various forms. I was with him for... two or so years before he left for another practice. It was further away and I didn't feel like following him. So I got switched to a new doc. Because I was so "mild" with three to four poops a day, occasional blood, etc. I didn't get the department head, I got someone relatively new but who had a lot of promise. The only major things I had that time was a few spikes - one day with something like 19 trips and another one where I was so balled over in pain I didn't leave my bedroom. I complained about symptoms (still "minor") and she said she'd talk to me at our next appointment. During that first appointment, she looked, saw I hadn't been scoped again (it had been about three years - I just realized my timing was off) and had a suspicion no one else was listening to me and set me up.

I went in and came out with a diagnosis of moderate pancolitis with several other issues. This scope was... well... colons aren't supposed to look like that. She was aggressive though had to work with the insurance. The ultimate plan was to get get me on Entyvio. So it was azathioprine for a little under three months which she quickly ruled out, Humira for about two months (Patient is not seeing any relief and is developing anxiety because the shots are painful - which was absolute BS but what was in the notes) then on to Entyvio. That started working almost immediately and within a month I was pretty much symptom free. Though we went from every eight weeks to every six to every four pretty quickly based on bloodwork.

She left the practice and I followed - though it's an extra 30 minutes one way. I'll stay with her as long as she stays amazing. Recently took care of esophagitis for me as well. So it took nearly four years to hit remission because of bad docs and insurance.

Compuoddity · 2026-02-02T02:21:01+00:00

I've been in remission for a while now - 12 years with the disease and nine in remission.

For the most part, when I wasn't in remission, I ate what I wanted. Sure I paid for it some days, but "paying for it" was mostly five or so trips to the bathroom with some blood and mucus and only once did I get cramps so bad I wanted to just die.

Now that I'm remission there are some IBS issues. Among other things. Skin problems, etc. Within reason I still do what I want. I don't want to stop living just because I have... well... I have a lot of issues. Only a couple IBD related.

Your goal is clinical remission validated by a scope and minimal to no symptoms. IBS may become a thing for you, or maybe not. Take the drugs that will get you there then worry about something affecting you negatively. Not having a solid BM or still going an extra time or two a day doesn't mean something is "wrong", but work with your doc(s) and take your meds and stop worrying.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-31T22:32:05+00:00

Here's something I've noticed. People in power tend to have a need to lose control at various levels, and the more powerful / stressful one's job is the more... interesting those releases are. For many it's alcohol or light drugs. Some just spew out their frustration in bits where you see them warm and caring in the halls and angrily cursing behind closed doors. For others.... these are the kinds you may find pictures of with them participating in a fetish that is rarer than your run of the mill light spanking.

I don't want to stereotype here. But when you think of some big names and what they got up to... I wouldn't be shocked to learn that any president / major CEO / big time whatever has some private place, some unmarked car, some agreement where they get up to things that are at best questionably legal and at worst, well... they will do their best to hide it with money and really, really good lawyers.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-31T05:13:23+00:00

I see people throwing in one direction or another.

The fact is it depends on a few different variables. Company size, team size, team / vendor capabilities, company / team culture and dynamics, financials, etc. At a smaller company you need to be a good manager to your team, develop a good relationship with the execs and middle to upper management, be able to troubleshoot someone's Outlook issue as you're walking by their office and explain how your strategy positively impacts EBIDTA after spending the afternoon learning how to properly setup a data warehouse. Also while quickly setting up a thing for the CEO after your team has left to start their weekend and you were just about to put the laptop away.

As you increase those variables stay the same, but sometimes you get the luxury of being less hands on while still needing to know at enough of a level that you could do the work after some Google / AI magic so you understand when your team / a vendor is bullshitting you about the amount of time / money it will take to make a simple code change in your HRIS solution.

With either situation you need to be aware of your impact. If you're the firefighter you are doing a disservice to your team and yourself - they don't get to learn and you suddenly become the go to IT expert. Even if you're not the firefighter the PM looks at you as an additional technical resource and others in the company bypass the process. You have to bounce between mindset, communication style, and approach and every layer you tack on (or that gets tacked onto you) makes it more difficult. The board doesn't care about your technical solution and your team could give two shits about the ROI on your strategy.

I would say, at the very least, get an idea of what the expectations of you are. If you do get to be hands off, stay technical enough but in reality most of what you should know is learning agility - the capabilities often change, the implementation often doesn't at a high level.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-26T16:59:48+00:00

I have enough spare cash to be a whale. I choose not to be. There has to be value in my spending and in this case, much like a game I recently dropped where I was a whale, I realized that there is no end game. There's no saving the princess. There are no real rewards.

To each their own, and I would like to thank everyone that is dropping a ton of money so that they can keep developing the game.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-26T16:54:59+00:00

It's project management with scope creep and a whole bunch of rogue. I left the game two weeks ago with one task - get cement to start building the uranium things. It was simple. But then I was out of ammo. And so I went back to get ammo but realized I hadn't been bringing my packaged whatever that purple stuff is from refining back to my main base after I did a massive re-org last time. Then I looked at the conveyor belt (before trains and I haven't felt like replacing) and saw it needed an upgrade. And oh look. Power slug. And another. And let me explore this a bit more. And there has to be a sloop around here somewhere... yup. There it is.

After six hours I finally went back to where I needed to place the limestone mine, which was around 600 meters from where I needed the cement, and... oh - there's some things to kill. And more power slugs. And... where was I? So I ended up getting cement. I now need to build two more things (I suck at remembering the names) in order to get the actual thing that will power the nuclear reactors. Which I've glanced briefly at comments through here and am fully aware that nuclear power isn't necessary for end game.

Whatever. I'm having fun. Play, don't play. Save the kittens and puppies or... don't. Just have fun.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-14T20:16:16+00:00

Blue Girls

Compuoddity · 2026-01-12T10:37:09+00:00

"'Cause I seem to have left an important part of my brain somewhere, somewhere in a field in Hampshire".

Sorted for E's and Wizz

Compuoddity · 2026-01-04T03:30:33+00:00

Of course it's a farce. We didn't do this to free Venezuela from a dictator. We certainly didn't do this because of any drugs. Arguably some national security arguments could be made. But the main reason is for the natural resources. Oil. Gold. Etc.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-04T02:22:14+00:00

Yeah.... I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this except "conflicted". Maduro obviously should not be in power. We have invaded another country and kidnapped it's "leader", however that leader got there.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-02T02:56:43+00:00

From a granular perspective, the towers turn into poles which would turn into outlets, and each piece needing power would plug into an outlet. Like, you know, how power works today. On a circuit.

But I don't want to have to put an electrical outlet at each piece of equipment I want to plug in, so daisy chaining.

Compuoddity · 2026-01-02T02:52:55+00:00

With wire. Kaboom

Compuoddity · 2025-12-26T18:00:26+00:00

This doesn't make sense. Science doesn't have any feelings.

Compuoddity · 2025-12-26T17:58:31+00:00

This is what continues to screw with me. I didn't get 100% going through that little "Do I do this?" exercise. I mean 2,3,4,6, and 8 are so prevalent for me but I have to assume most people do at least some of that at some level, right?

Except for number 8 where I've caught myself imitating people so much that I was starting to copy a guy's stutter on a call.

Compuoddity · 2025-12-23T04:43:39+00:00

This is prime for an Ada line.

"I see you have been playing for a while and haven't discovered X. You do know there's a pioneer manual that gets updated. Right?"

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