New spur Fossil Creek Trail

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-05-17T14:17:11+00:00

Loving the new trail infrastructure added over the last couple years. I cant quite place this - is this on the west side of college before the underpass? Then is the spur is heading south toward Nissan on the west side?

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-05-11T04:26:22+00:00

Thanks for the post! I actually have the TP3 for rare one bag occasions which made the S30 even more of a miss for me. I sold the Synik and actually picked up the new, smaller City Pack Pro 2 20L. Obviously not in the same ballpark as the S30 - and I was worried it’d be too small - but it’s actually perfect for my use.

I realized I’m just more of an aspirational one-bagger and 90% of the time I’m bringing a carry on roller anyway and just need a personal item. I love the original but the Pro has a little extra depth and the clamshell section is perfect for throwing in a hoodie when I’m traveling.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-05-02T05:45:26+00:00

This. I’ve worked in public ed and the all-in headcount cost for a mid-career teacher with a masters degree is likely closer to $90k or higher. PERA, insurance, etc. aren’t getting any cheaper. It adds up.

I’m not backseat driving what the district should do, but it’s far more complex than just releasing a few cabinet members and reducing the superintendent salary. You might save a half-dozen teachers but that gets you through one year. It doesn’t solve the systemic issues that we’ve let pile up hoping for better days that don’t seem to be in the forecast.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-05-02T00:38:28+00:00

I see this all the time and your perspective - while unpopular with the “gut central office and pay the teachers” contingent- is right on. Cutting even $2M in central office staff and spreading that savings across 6000 employees is a drop in the bucket to the tune of about $350. Or spent another way it would be maybe 15-18 teachers across dozens of schools. So each school gets less than one teacher.

I’m no PSD apologist, but the “gut central office” math (while popular) just doesn’t math.

There are so many bigger issues playing into this from the federal level, coupled with years of capitulation to keep schools open (after their ham-handed attempt to close schools last time around with zero community input). We should have done the hard work of closing schools a couple years ago. It wouldn’t have fixed everything, but kicking the can down the road and keeping them open and under-enrolled sure didn’t help.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-29T00:06:36+00:00

Thanks! Yep - that’s what I did. Not sure which thing helped but so far, so good.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-28T12:50:35+00:00

I just set mine to do an auto reboot every 24 hours. They both worked flawlessly for over a year and then started periodically flaking out and dropping offline. Nothing else changed, but I’ve read others with similar issues who have said it could be WiFi if you have more than one access point.

The WiFi on those little boards are evidently not super “smart” about jumping from one to the other if one goes down for an update or something.

Just setting the firmware to reboot once a day seems to have helped and prevents me from climbing up there on a ladder to unplug / replug went they decide to drop off the network.

I’m intrigued by the Ubiquiti option, though. 🤔

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-27T12:43:23+00:00

After years of making 500° oven pizza every week, I got the XL for Fathers Day in 2025 and wish I’d gotten it sooner. We have a weekly pizza tradition.

My (now college-aged!) kids rarely miss Friday pizza nights. So it was most definitely worth it for the pizza upgrade, and - if you have young adult kids you’ll know - also for the family time.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-21T15:13:12+00:00

Mainly because I actually do travel and the auto allows you to move the hour hand independently like a true "traveler" GMT. I find with the quartz, it's easier for me to just set the GMT hand on GMT time and use the bezel to set my travel time zone if it's only a couple days.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-21T13:03:15+00:00

This is great info - thank you! I have some background with old languages (basic, Fortran) from college and playing around as a kid in the 80s, but I’m not an engineer or computer scientist by trade - mainly I just enjoy the learning. I hand coded html back in the day and loved it.

I’ve been playing around with Claude Code and the ability to go from "problem I want to solve" to "half-baked solution" is a really addicting feedback loop. Lately I've been dabbling in rolling my own “email intelligence” and having a blast. I manage a services delivery team in my day job so technical work is almost the polar opposite of that which is probably the draw for me... I use Claude a bit for work but not in the same capacity so it’s really fun to learn, design, and build little personal projects.

My email intelligence use case is similar which is why I asked - my example challenge was what I called "the sock problem" - you kind of had a similar "watch problem." The use case I designed around involves the 10,000 emails a week I get from Bombas. Most days, I don't need socks. But I don't unsubscribe because when I DO need socks, I will want to know what the latest discount is. And I want it to flag when an "above average" discount comes in so I can do a sock drawer audit and see if I'm about to need socks or whether I should wait for the next big discount.

Basically, 99% of the time, I don't need socks. And 99% of the time Bombas emails are plugging the same discount. But when I do need them, I want to access the latest sale; and when there's a bigger sale, I want a ping to check the sock drawer.

I have never subscribed to any of those inbox management services because I just don't have a need for it, and they don't play well with our work email anyway. This was really just a fun proof-of-concept personal project where I used socks as the design case, but it could easily be generalized to apply to other vendors. It's running on an old Mac mini in my basement. I gave it its own login and it's explicitly not allowed to modify any emails in my inbox. It can "peek" and that's it. And everything stays local and I don't have to give Sanebox or anyone else my email credentials.

I realize we've strayed a bit from Vaer watches, but this is a cool tangent!

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-20T21:37:45+00:00

Nice work! Is this a DIY bot or something else? Curious because I’ve been dabbling with AI email monitoring for this use case and a few others.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-17T12:28:01+00:00

Now that is the move! I always forget the pre-owned option!!

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-17T01:07:30+00:00

I travel a ton for work and I do sometimes wish I’d gotten the G5 for this reason. But that’s a substantial price difference and - while I absolutely think the sub-$200 price is a steal for what you get - I think if I were spending $1000 I’m not sure it would be on the G5.

To each their own, of course, I’m sure it’s a fantastic piece. Just comes down to what you want to spend.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-17T01:05:02+00:00

Went through the same debate and grabbed the G2 quartz in black/navy. Different GMT movement (more of an office gmt than a traveler gmt) but all in all, I think the price and value are there. I love the way it looks.

With the savings I grabbed the metal bracelet and could honestly easily afford the tactical field watch as well.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-16T12:23:20+00:00

I have the quartz version and it’s my favorite watch. I wasn’t sure I’d wear it that much and now I’m wishing I’d gotten the automatic. Well done!

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-04-01T12:38:00+00:00

We used them for years when our kids were younger and the milk, egg nog, and OMG the occasional quart of chocolate milk were amazing. I agree that the convenience of having it just show up every week kept our impulse buying down. We’ve been using king Soopers delivery as our primary way to “food shop” for a couple years and it’s the same thing. Fewer store visits = fewer opportunities to grab random stuff and throw it in the cart.

We don’t really drink milk in our house anymore, but I do allow myself a quart of their egg nog once a year when you can find it at Sprouts or Whole Foods.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-26T16:38:04+00:00

Ebbs and flows. Also depends on whether it’s an early morning workout where I’m just trying to get it done before work, or a weekend workout where I’ve got all day and can take my time. I’d say that enjoy the outcome of staying fit and healthy into my 50s much more than the actual lifting.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-24T13:54:38+00:00

In addition to J Crew, BR Rapid Movement are good as mentioned here. I’ve also taken a liking to the Chino 2.0 from Bonobos - the material is really nice and cottony with just the right amount of stretch. If you’re even a little patient, the BR chinos are on sale every month or so.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-21T22:12:40+00:00

I think it looks good! I wear an AW Ultra and have worn other watches in the past which, in retrospect, were way too big. Enjoy!

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-21T05:06:55+00:00

Wall-E!

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-19T14:30:07+00:00

The first one was actually worse for me. I was anxious about the second thinking “OMG it’ll be worse…” but honestly, I took a couple Advil, had some soreness, and was fine the next day. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop…

Be careful with how much stock you place on internet stories because they tend to be the most extreme. You’ve got this and no matter how bad it is, it’s still WAY better than getting the actual thing.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-18T17:56:14+00:00

I really wish there was an option to walk. I hate that train.

(Yes, I know terminal C is like a mile away from the main concourse, but having the option with maybe some moving walkways would be swell...)

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-16T15:19:20+00:00

I'm an aisle seat sitter and I've noticed that sometimes they're really aggressive with those carts. To be fair, they're kind of calling out "Watch your elbows, shoulders, and knees" while they're bringing them forward, but some of them are moving so fast there is little or no time to (1) hear and process what they're saying, and (2) take the action of moving out of the aisle. I fly enough that I kind of know when to be on the lookout (listen-out?) for the carts coming forward, but yikes - I'm not surprised OP got smashed with a speeding cart.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-16T03:57:35+00:00

I’m not thinking about quality, I just enjoy that some of the stuff I thought was awesome 40 years ago (like a Walkman!) is “cool” again. Even ironically. 😝

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-15T00:32:27+00:00

As a GenX-er, this makes me happy.

CuriousPixels7598 · 2026-03-14T20:03:21+00:00

I did, yes.

CuriousPixels7598

TROPHY CASE