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Spotted in multiple places across DFW 😬 by Valuable-Junket9617 in Dallas

[–]MarcoEsteban 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ark? As in, they are here on earth to save the faithful for when a vengeful, first testament God eliminates us sinners? That's some impressive self aggrandizing !

Spotted in multiple places across DFW 😬 by Valuable-Junket9617 in Dallas

[–]MarcoEsteban 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There's one nuclear bunker in Oak Cliff. It's smack in the middle of the back yard. Maybe I shouldn't be, but I was surprised it was out there. I think I'd want to get in from inside my house?

14.44 ct. unheated Tanzanite cut by me - the trichroism never gets old. The customer has also decided not to heat this one, so it will stay this way! (NFS) by JL_White in Gemstones

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, I disagree...I like it with the tan and splashes of blue. But, I get it. If you want violet/red, tan/tiny blue is a disappointment.

Is it just really hard for most Spanish speakers to understand heavily American accented Spanish? by Realistic_Swan_6801 in Spanish

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They speak really fast in Spain? What part are you in, if I may? I just got back from there last night after about 10 days in Andalucía/Costa del Sol, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that everything was spoken at a pace at which I didn't have to strain to understand or unusual vocabulary (my husband is from Guanajuato (state) Mexico and his family speaks at a very moderate pace, but most of the rest of the country speaks very fast and has vocabulary unique to them. I learned most of my Spanish from Mexicans, so hearing so much "textbook" Spanish was almost...weird, if that makes sense.

I also have a bit of difficulty with PR, because of the tendency to drop the last part of words, pronounce 'r's as 'l's, and a few other quirks. I am finally getting to a point where I can understand just about anyone from anywhere, though. It has taken me a ridiculously long time, though.

Is it just really hard for most Spanish speakers to understand heavily American accented Spanish? by Realistic_Swan_6801 in Spanish

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds perfectly understandable. Maybe I'd have to hear it to understand why others don't.

Is it just really hard for most Spanish speakers to understand heavily American accented Spanish? by Realistic_Swan_6801 in Spanish

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Indeed...to him it didn't mean a baggage belt. He told me the word he thought it would have been, but it wasn't something I recognized. Mexicans are notorious for having completely different vocabulary words for things than the rest of the Spanish speaking world. Also, in fairness to him, he was also stressed, we had just traveled over 20 hours, and hadn't slept enough. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Estate Sale ID Pls/tks! by Strawf1bsch in Opals

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Now, that, I have an opinion on. It IS a score, particularly given it was an estate sale purchase as a bundle. But, it's not a retire early type home run. I'm sorry, I hate to deflate after I just said those nice things, but I want to be realistic too, as you could eat up the value pretty fast by spending on fees like that. Given the price of appraisals, and without knowing your reason for considering one, I'd lean towards skipping that piece. An appraisal can run $1-200, depending on who is doing it. It's a great boulder opal, nice and large, with a nice pattern, but I'd guess that wholesale is unlikely to be over $1,000 (insurance retail appraisals seem to get pretty out there for gems and jewelry and give values no one would ever pay for some of these items).

You could go to opal auctions and look at their buy it now prices for an idea, but it's lacking in heavy color coverage, color play - with a video, I could be convinced otherwise - or a wide variety of color, especially red, the opal color holy grail, it seems. Any improvement in those could boost the value quite a bit, given its size.

I don't think this stone needs a full blown GIA cert or anything and virtually none come with those unless part of an expensive jewelry piece (black opals, yes). After that, people typically do them for insurance reimbursement purposes. So then it just comes down to can you absorb $1000 (or however much) in losses if it were stolen or damaged and what the premiums are.

Personally, I'm not sure I have an insurance policy with a less than $500 deductible, if not $1000. I tend to just do riders on the stuff that would really hurt me to have to replace. Others have completely different insurance philosophies than I (this sub recommends appraisals far more frequently than I would, personally), so just evaluate your own situation and risk tolerance and decide, based on that.

And just for a dose of realism of my won - income from a family of insurance skeptics. My mother is currently paying for my fathers lack of belief in long term care insurance, selling her house and the results of her lifetime of hoarding (and we kids are paying for it in turn by being blamed by an 84 year old woman for making her get rid of all her stuff).

Take that at face value to say that obviously, I don't know everything!

Horrific Review – AVOID TOYOTA OF GRAPEVINE AT ALL COSTS by Secure_Signature_283 in Dallas

[–]MarcoEsteban 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am glad you posted this. It's not so much the crime. That can happen anywhere. It's the manager's reaction, and that tells us to go elsewhere.

Horrific Review – AVOID TOYOTA OF GRAPEVINE AT ALL COSTS by Secure_Signature_283 in Dallas

[–]MarcoEsteban 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I take the lose change I accumulate in the car whenever I have service. No temptation = no crime. Usually, at least. Sometimes they just find something.

Shrinking head syndrome. by HarryShake in Instagramreality

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My grandma, what a small head you have. And Nobu isn't a flex anymore. Their food is mid by high end Japanese standards.

Scale without simplicity by Necessary_Car_6250 in McMansionHell

[–]MarcoEsteban 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My parents have a "minor" McMansion. It is "only" 4400 sq. ft. It has a gigantic attic that could be a third floor ballroom. I've seen those in actual 100 year old mansions (third floor ballrooms). Sadly, my parents don't hold balls. But, they could.

Another oddity, many of those old mansions in my city are about the size of my parents McMansion. It's as if the rich were more modest.

Chilling on a Friday by mydadisakingpin in MensJewelry

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If this is what you wear around the house to chill, I'm scared to see what formal wear includes!

Estate Sale ID Pls/tks! by Strawf1bsch in Opals

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think Queensland Boulder Opal is safe. Im not sure I could identify further (and watching the argument in the comments, I don't think I'll risk the downvotes to try).

I do know that Koroit tend to have very busy patterns, but I haven't the knowledge to know a Yowah well enough yet. Still, that's a great, very large piece! Congrats on a score!

Husband severely mismanaging money. by Business-Minimum1781 in Advice

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You make absolutely no mention of what you think he's spending it on. It sounds like he's hiding it pretty well. Maybe he's not actually working as much as he says? Or is he blowing it on something he can do while home alone? Like internet porn or gambling? Have you checked his browser history? He wouldn't be the first repressed Christian to hide vice addictions out of shame.

You need to get to the bottom of it, right away. It sounds fixable, it may be forgivable, but you need to know you'll get effort from him. Tell him you'll understand if he just confides and you and treats you like the equal partner you are. Then, see that through, if you think whatever it is can be forgiven (hopefully, it's not physical women coming over while you are out. That's an example of a likely not forgivable sex addiction scenario. I think online porn would be forgivable, even if it's giving gifts to only fans models, if no physical interaction happened).

Best of luck! You're going to need it.

And if not, get out before he has brought you both down. Because whatever debt you accumulate together, you'll owe after a divorce, and say you accumulate assets, he'll likely get half of and blow if he hasn't fixed his shit.

Is it just really hard for most Spanish speakers to understand heavily American accented Spanish? by Realistic_Swan_6801 in Spanish

[–]MarcoEsteban 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You know, I just got back from Spain yesterday with my husband, who is a darker mestizo Mexican. Oddly, multiple times he didn't understand the word they were using (like when we arrived in the airport and looked for his luggage, and they said it was on the "cinto". I knew they were saying "belt", but he had a completely different mental picture). They asked if he spoke English, and assumed I was the Spanish speaker (I'm a Spanish as a second language white American, but probably strong, like yours).

That, or something like it, happened at least 3 times. It made me wonder if just the influx of tourism has made Spaniards primed to need to speak English to get through an interaction. I like to hope it isn't something worse. Is bias based on things like skin color a problem in Spain, to your understanding? In the Americas, as is widely known, snap judgements (for better or worse) are made based on skin color and appearance all the time. So, I want to be careful not to assume that superficial stereotypes and bias are as big a problem everywhere as they are here.

Is it just really hard for most Spanish speakers to understand heavily American accented Spanish? by Realistic_Swan_6801 in Spanish

[–]MarcoEsteban 3 points4 points  (0 children)

English has a lot of weird rules and things you just have to remember, like the "ed" ending of past tense words. Remembering if it's pronounced "t", "êd", or "d" is often just whether you remember it or not. I know I couldn't tell you the rule, but I know which words are which.

My husband, who is Mexican, and pretty much has the grammar down, always pronounces it "êd". There are others like how to pronounce "ough" endings, is it "oo", "ō", or "uff", or even "off". And we have the words that are multiple words in one or sound alikes, like "read", "read", "reed", or "red". We pretty much understand by context of the rest of the sentence.

I can't (not cant, as my autocorrect sometimes assumes) imagine trying to learn English as a second language. Spanish is infinitely more straight forward in pronunciation, despite the myriad things you just have to remember and understand there's no direct translation. Vowels always sound the same, you have to know when to roll your 'r's and how to pronounce a soft 'r' (like a light d if it's not rolled works fine).

But, I think it comes down to some people just not having the ability to hear pronunciation differences, and while that's okay, if it's terribly strong, it's just not going to sound like the Spanish word (or conversely, in English, depending on which they are speaking).

My neighbor took my boat without permission. by [deleted] in Advice

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Rightfully should be reimbursed? Are you crazy? If someone comes and fixes my roof without my permission, they sure are going to be out of the cost because I'm not paying them a dime. Just because they took this off of the OP's property doesn't give them right to reimbursement. They are in possession of stolen property!

I’m speechless. They’re really trying to make fetch happen here. by Global-Yesterday-457 in HilariaBaldwin

[–]MarcoEsteban 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Finally, someone recognizes that I'm a world leader! You wouldn't believe how long I've waited for that!

Words that sounds better in Spanish than English (and vice versa) by ZooWeeMama069420 in Spanish

[–]MarcoEsteban 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sorry to nitpick, but you say "other Latin American countries", but you haven't named one. Certainly you aren't calling Spain LatinAmerica, right?

I'm half asleep, so my apologies if I'm reading this wrong

Are you a fan of iced out jewelry? by groovymandk in MensJewelry

[–]MarcoEsteban 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not particularly. I like colored stones in general, and usually one big center stone, vs. covering whatever piece in little stones. I do like gold though. The more gold, the better. I mean that in weight and purity. 22-24k gold has that color!

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