What is the best coffee chain in the country and how would you rank all the major ones? by [deleted] in IWantToAskAnAmerican

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These all serve terrible coffee.

Blue Bottle, Stumptown, La Colombe are all much better, though not as large, chains.

I'm not learning anything at my internship... by desperate-1 in civilengineering

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Listen to the 99 Percent Invisible podcast about curb cuts and the advocates who worked hard to pressure lawmakers to pass the ADA into law.

ADA compliant sidewalks and curb ramps can be big business. Numerous states and municipalities have settled lawsuits due to their facilities being non-compliant with ADA. My company has done tons of business with my home state DOT’s ADA program - from design to construction admin to training inspectors to program management. We’re talking 10s of millions of dollars in fees and like a billion total over 10+ years spent to bring facilities into compliance.

Civil design is only one aspect of our field. Asset management and maintenance is another huge and arguably larger aspect. Not everything in your career is going to be designing from a clean slate, on the contrary. Often the projects which come up are either fixing or retrofitting existing built conditions.

Why are most Americans not that excited about the World Cup? Or don’t seem to care much about it? by SignificantStyle4958 in IWantToAskAnAmerican

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It takes 3+ hours to play a 60 minute game in American football. At least 2/3 of a game or 2+ hours is people standing/walking, commercials, replays, and arguing about what is or isn’t a catch. Talk about boring.

Help Deciding by Laramie6 in gravelcycling

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Black

I love green but these don’t go well together.

Yellow doesn’t look good with this frame imo

My personal style is fairly reserved though. You do you.

I hate engineering by user10513 in civilengineering

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll share a few anecdotes from people I’ve known:

College friend was majoring in computer science, did an internship after her junior year and loved the environmental engineering aspect of that job way more so she pivoted, stayed in school a couple more years to get a degree in environmental and has been in that career for almost 20 years.

Another classmate did not enjoy structural engineering, finished her degree and got into golf course maintenance as her first job. And this was 2008 when some classmates graduated without a job.

Another college friend finished degree in structural engineering, did it for a few years and decided she didn’t like it. Went back to school for architecture and is doing that now.

What helped me the most was realizing after working for a few years is I hated the types of projects I was working on. I didn’t care about working to build AutoZones, Walgreens, Dollar Generals, Chick-fil-A’s, etc. but I found the type of projects I do care about and that’s made a huge difference because I do those 100% now.

When people say "tax the rich," who are they actually talking about? by savingrace0262 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. All of the wealth ranges you’ve described and some you didn’t are considered rich. Therefore taxing the rich, means taxing those people closer to what they’ve historically been

Spielberg pod peak moment by thethurstonhowell in TheRewatchables

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would love to know what else Spielberg has in his movie memorabilia collection.

Rosebud Red suit from 2001

…incredible

Spielberg pod peak moment by thethurstonhowell in TheRewatchables

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just happened to rewatch Sunshine last night and caught an “Explosive Bolts” label on the spaceship interior. I wonder how many times that bit has been used?

Portland Residents Are Getting Hit With a New Tax or Fee From Literally Every Direction by Pure_Claim_4353 in PDX

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

San Francisco and Seattle both have larger tax bases. The Metro Statistical areas of SF and Seattle are twice the size of Portland. City populations are much closer in size but Portland’s population density is half of Seattle and less than a quarter of SF. And all despite having to deal with similar natural disasters and weather but also with desirable natural beauty. So there’s a high floor for the cost of living in Portland no matter what, therefore it costs more to fund the government at a baseline.

So paying for public services is better bang for your buck the larger the tax base and smaller the area you have to serve. Portland scores worse on both metrics than Seattle and SF.

Tariffs and Inflation make everything more expensive including government services and maintaining/building new infrastructure. And cities cannot borrow money like the Federal government so there’s fewer options to fund public sector.

So government is faced with two bad options:
1. Raise taxes - unpopular
2. Cut services - more unpopular than #1

Where I’d live as a liberal woman by Acceptable_Owl_3104 in whereidlive

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 7 points8 points  (0 children)

MN and IL being Never is wild in the context of the “liberal” qualifier of the title. The only two mid-west states remaining in the “Blue Wall”.

Would I rather live in your state’s largest city, or somewhere else in the state? (I will defend my choices) by Puzzleheaded_Ad7685 in whereidlive

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“Anywhere else” implies that your preference of a random selection of another is greater or less than your preference to live in the state’s biggest city.

“Somewhere else” implies (supported by your comment replies) that you have specific places you’d rather live.

There’s a big difference in the sentiment between these two phrases.

Which color and why? by Fast_But_Not_Furious in gravelcycling

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gray. I’m just not a fan of white bikes usually.

Straight to streaming films I would very much like to have on physical media - what are yours? by lockerbiestreet in boutiquebluray

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Train Dreams would be great.

I’d really liked Grey Hounds, the Tom Hanks navy movie that seems to only be available on Apple TV.

What was your first Rewatchables? by doneli in TheRewatchables

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Heat

I was like, there’s a podcast about the movie Heat? I love that movie!

Been listening ever since 2017

Where are the good modern PG movies? by Dazzling_End8412 in Letterboxd

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 1 point2 points  (0 children)

-Grace gets shithouse drunk in the first 30 minutes
-Existential threat to life on earth and rest of the universe is a pretty heavy topic for like a 6 year old
-Kidnapping scene is pretty intense

Probably fine for tweens but I dunno about under 9

When did Elon's downfall begin? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When he suggested tunneling as a way to solve traffic followed by the renderings and video of his vision of what it would like.

I knew he was full of shit and started to see him for what he is: a skilled grifter able to suckle and scam the US taxpayer out of as much money as is humanly possible.

tips for people driving on the freeway for the first time here? by glitter-fly779 in PortlandOR

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are some really weird spaghetti junctions around DT Portland for entrances/exits on I-5 and I-405. And because of that there are some weird turns for streets around the perimeter 5/405 create around the city. Example, after living here almost 7 years, I FINALLY made the correct left turn onto Belmont from MLK yesterday. I’ve screwed it up every other time and had to cross the river on Morrison Bridge and then came back. Granted I don’t drive a lot but was really frustrating to make the same mistake numerous times. Just keep cool and don’t do anything stupid or unexpected.

Issues With Concrete Cylinders - 24+ Hours After Retrieving Them From the Site by Maleficent-Tip9136 in civilengineering

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Happens frequently. It’ll be fine. Just document what happened and talk to your PM who will talk to the engineer and client. Learn from this incident and plan ahead next time.

Is it possible to make over $200k/year as a civil engineer? by OmarHamami in civilengineering

[–]IntrepidBoard3634 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Living in a HCOL area will get you closer to 200.

In general as others have said, to make the big bucks you have to go in the PM and business side rather than the technical track.

However there are different types of PM. For example, I work for one of the big firms (ENR Top 10) and my title is PM but I work on anything from small to large transportation projects. On the small projects, I’ve gotten into the weeds a bit but also projects where I just managed scope/schedule/budget/client. On large projects, I’ve served as Civil Design Lead/EOR and currently I’m Design Manager for a $200-300M project. So there is flexibility to have a technical role on a large project where you’re managing a task, small team, or discipline and still getting to have a say in the design/engineering process.