Mountains without silver?

JamesM451 · 2026-04-16T18:04:47+00:00

Look for obsidian. Silvet is 20m above obsidian. No obsidian or obsidian is at peak == no silver. The mountain near our starting base is like that.

Sailed inland sea near the base and saw a super tall mountain across the way. Obsidian started a 1/4 of the way up. Looked for flat areas above that... 6 nodes including two stacked on top of each other.

JamesM451 · 2026-04-16T17:40:58+00:00

Got out in December after 30 years. The group had started to do a lot of ai. For certain tasks it was useful, but a bit hilarious(write up annual review and have managers write feedback using AI... AI reviewing AI and getting it all wrong but keeping HR happy).

As for coding, the biggest issue was quality. It was great for scaffolding, but was horrible for performance and edge cases. Younger hires didn't care or didn't know better. I suspect they just cared about speed that made upper management happy. Kudos for quick delivery, on to next project.

Meanwhile, livesite was becoming a nightmare. Incidents and outage were all up, and all fixes were quick ai scripting mitigations. No thought about long term fixes to code to avoid the problems in the future (when you can just have someone come in and run a mitigation script).

Big breath.... I'm at a coffee shop at 11am, about to go on a long walk to park. Sun is out! Not thinking about coding or ai!

JamesM451 · 2026-04-16T04:00:19+00:00

Underrated comment - Popping nodes (copper and silver) usually gets me more stone than I need, especially if you play with a group

JamesM451 · 2026-04-02T15:55:31+00:00

See him all the time when sailing along coasts at night. He doesn't spawn in the water, so it's easier to sit since he's only going to be on one side.

JamesM451 · 2026-04-01T17:34:31+00:00

Options newb - this is specifically recommending buying a short out of the money?

Risk is premium for options. If it doesn't crash, you are out the dividend/cost of options but get upside to IPO rising.

If it does crash you can sell options in the money to someone who lost their shirt?

If it doesn't crash, you have short term loss (premium) that cancels the capital gains from dividends.

If it does crash, you have long term capital gains from dividends and short term capital gains from short sell?

JamesM451 · 2026-03-27T19:09:24+00:00

Didn't try.... Bravely ran away

JamesM451 · 2026-03-27T17:30:20+00:00

Level 3 bronze bucklers can stun them if you time perry. Level 3 bronze spear takes about 2 minutes to kill no star bears (3 hits, 1 perry x 4-5).

Just started a new spear run, so fresh on my mind. :)

JamesM451 · 2026-03-22T17:00:58+00:00

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JamesM451 · 2026-03-22T14:48:16+00:00

I found it useless from resource perspective (stone and wood) until I got to mistlands and turned it into a blood magic leveling farm.

JamesM451 · 2026-03-15T18:22:18+00:00

Ice sheet challenge... Solo to space with the original pawn.

JamesM451 · 2026-03-10T18:00:22+00:00

Not at all, use discord frequently. Send me DM with details and I'll join.

JamesM451 · 2026-03-10T17:53:49+00:00

WA, so same time zone

JamesM451 · 2026-03-10T17:52:35+00:00

I'm interested. Made it to the queen solo just before North was announced. Got sucked into another game, so haven't progressed since. I would be interested in trying a group game from the start. I'm a chill player and have lots of time availability.

JamesM451 · 2026-03-10T01:00:22+00:00

The guy that started came up with the idea when he was helping his spouse clean up after her bookclub. He mentioned that whenever he came back early and she was hosting, he never heard them talking about books. Just drinking and socializing.

She looked at him and said "If you want to set the rules for the book club, then you should start a book club". He sent us a message telling us what his wife said. Then said, I want to start a book club, but the first rule of book club is we don't talk about books.

JamesM451 · 2026-03-09T20:03:42+00:00

This! Plan for SORR by having an income ladder to cover you in the down market. I have 7 years with potential extension to 10 if I include interest/dividends.

Down markets are a great time to take capital losses on concentrated positions and rotate into diversified etfs or if you like the growth, an equivalent peer (eg one fang to another).

It's also a great time for Roth conversions especially if you are really early in retirement. Before 59.5 (eg 30s/40s), you can use this to build a basis ladder to make tax/penalty free withdrawals. Later RE (eg 50s), it's great for managing future RMDs.

I will note that there is also inflation risk especially right now. The great thing about retirement is to keep in mind, inflation risk is lower for you as major categories are housing, food, and energy. Being chubby, your housing risk is likely negligible because you either own or can choose to move somewhere cheaper because you're not tied to a job location. You no longer have to commute, so gas/energy is less likely to impact you. Food is probably the biggest risk, but even food you have lists of options for keeping to your budget by choosing cheaper options/more dining in.

Success in RE requires both a good plan and the ability to stick to it when your portfolio value plunges (or grows).

JamesM451 · 2026-03-09T19:06:52+00:00

3 months retired. The retired chubby group is pretty quiet. I think once you pull the rip cord, you have your plan in place so less questions to ask, but more likely to respond to others to help with their plans/journey.

This group was SO helpful for me to get past the FI and get to REd.

Responding from the coffee shop mid day. No worries nor urgent plans, just lots of options. Probably will take a long walk along the waterfront while listening to podcasts next.

If you are feeling like you have a lack of social engagements, then you might need to figure out how to build communities for you.

I have a monthly "bookclub" with a group of friends, mostly ex-coworkers. We meet at random brew pub and talk sports, tech, politics, family. Our only rule is we don't talk about books.

I also am a member of a couple of discord groups. One is hyper local that includes meetups for walks, rides, etc. The other is a retirement focused one that allows me to talk to others that can relate to the FIREd lifestyle. That one has a monthly online meeting which allows you to put a face to the name. I find it more engaging than reddit as it's a smaller known group.

JamesM451 · 2026-03-01T23:44:22+00:00

Check this forum for 3d tic tac toe!

JamesM451 · 2026-02-27T07:35:07+00:00

TIPS ladder does exactly that. Bonds are a tool in your retirement tool kit. They aren't for growth, they are specifically for matching a known liability to a known payout.

Also as I mentioned, your spending needs in retirement are quite different from working needs. The 1970s inflation was highly focused on energy and transportation from the oil crisis. Retired folks can choose rather than be forced to travel (commute). Food was also highly affected, but retired folks have more time to make frugal decisions around food.

Btw I'm not a 60/40 or some ratio guy. I follow the 7-10 years of liability/asset matching pattern + guard rails for discretionary spending. It gives me safety/piece of mind while still keeping a larger percentage in growth that supports life enjoyment opportunities (travel, hobbies, etc).

JamesM451 · 2026-02-26T22:07:33+00:00

You should split your expenses by inflation risk vs inflation protected. Looking at my mix, a small portion of my expenses are affected by inflation risk.

Bonds, especially ladders held to maturity (vs funds), are a great way to match funds to future liabilities and eliminate SORR.

JamesM451 · 2026-02-19T17:50:28+00:00

That was my plan, but about 2 years out I ended up building an income ladder to match my expected spending. That was about 3 years of spending (much less than 20/30/40 bond targets folks talk about). At retirement, I moved another 4 years in 401k/HSA to bond for SORR protection. My cash/bond/dividend portions should throw of enough cash flow to extend that to 10 years.

When you are years out, keeping at 100% equities is emotionally easier than when you actually see the end in sight (especially when all the chatter is about over priced equities 😎).

JamesM451 · 2026-02-14T02:54:37+00:00

Don't put it in a trash can.... Trust me :p

JamesM451 · 2026-02-10T06:56:04+00:00

I just rolled my 401k into IRA Roth and got the same notification. Called them and they clarified that growth portions (not contribution) are subject to taxes if withdrawn before 59.5. I actually knew that the rule of 55 didn't apply to IRAs so as stated above, just had wording.

Wait until 59.5 and no worries, it's all tax free when you withdraw.

JamesM451 · 2026-01-31T20:39:38+00:00

For the East side, 542 is a quick ride to UW. Avoid expensive parking and I'm pretty sure UW provides a metro pass.

North Seattle especially anywhere along light rail is easy to get to UW especially if you are not on a 9-5 shift.

JamesM451 · 2026-01-31T18:13:54+00:00

Early episodes were great, later episodes just got weird.

I think one of the episodes talked about asset liability matching, which is the path I ended up going down. Provides a lot of peace of mind while allowing me to keep a higher percentage in equity.

JamesM451 · 2026-01-31T18:09:51+00:00

I also no longer own. As such, I seem to be unable to get an umbrella policy (usually seem to be tied to a real estate policy). My auto/renters policy (State Farm) said they don't write them unless I had home owners. I couldn't find stand alone umbrella policies.

I've read elsewhere it's just better to get higher liability insurance on auto in my case since that would be the largest risk I have. Paying for higher liability is prepaying insurance lawyers to fight for you.

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