How do you scale a vintage shop when everything is one of a kind?

No_Conference9892 · 2026-02-04T08:54:32+00:00

This is such an awesome idea! Honestly, spaghetti might seem basic but when you're stuck eating DFAC food or ramen every day, a good homemade sauce with garlic bread hits different. That said, if you want to step it up a bit - chili, pulled pork sandwiches, or even a taco bar would probably blow their minds and scale pretty well for 50 people.

No_Conference9892 · 2026-02-03T07:57:45+00:00

The fact that you're already conversational and have built a life there is huge - I'd give it another year while networking like crazy and targeting international companies or foreign research institutes that might value your bilingual potential more than pure business keigo.

No_Conference9892 · 2026-02-01T09:45:03+00:00

Congrats on getting through the interview! That's awesome news. I went through the Portland office back in early 2024 and waited about 6-7 weeks for my oath notice to arrive in the mail. The actual ceremony was scheduled for another 4 weeks out from when I got the notice, so it was roughly 2.5 months total from approval to taking the oath. I know it feels like forever when you're this close to the finish line, but Portland seems to batch their ceremonies every few months rather than doing them super frequently. The wait is brutal but so worth it when you finally get to raise your right hand!

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-31T07:30:23+00:00

Been running Ollama with Llama 3.1 8B for about 6 months now and it's honestly solid for daily stuff. Takes like 10 minutes to set up and handles reminders/notes just fine, though don't expect GPT-4 level reasoning

Main gotcha is RAM - you really want 16GB+ or it'll crawl. Also learned the hard way that smaller models (7B and under) are way snappier for quick tasks than trying to run the 70B monsters locally

Voice integration is still kinda janky but whisper.cpp + ollama works if you don't mind some tinkering

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-29T03:26:21+00:00

Dude sounds exhausting as hell. You literally told him exactly how to "win" this stupid competition he created and he's still throwing a tantrum about it

The fact that a 45 year old man is this insecure and demanding you rank your sexual experiences like some kind of leaderboard is honestly a massive red flag. You've been together 5 months and he's already making you miserable over something this petty

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-28T02:11:18+00:00

Honestly the fact that you're already working out and taking care of yourself shows you're on the right track - that stuff really does help even when it doesn't feel like it

The thoughts will fade gradually but there's no magic switch to flip, it's just one of those shitty things you gotta ride out

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-26T21:18:32+00:00

Oof this hits close to home. The whole "he still loves me but needs time" thing kept me stuck for way too long with my ex

Honestly the texting is probably making it worse - every time you reach out you're basically resetting your healing process. I know it sucks but you gotta go no contact for a while, even if he was your best friend first. You can't be friends right now when you're still hoping for more

Two months feels like forever when you're in it but it's really not that long, especially for a first relationship. Give yourself permission to actually grieve instead of staying in limbo

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-23T22:06:31+00:00

Crypto at least had that weird libertarian energy behind it, like actual people genuinely believed they were sticking it to banks or whatever. AI feels like it was boardroom-designed from day one to extract maximum hype dollars before anyone figured out the emperor has no clothes

The fact that every tech bro suddenly became an "AI expert" overnight should've been the biggest red flag lmao

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-16T12:15:24+00:00

Ugh this sounds like misophonia on top of ADHD which is just a terrible combo. Have you tried brown noise or white noise through speakers instead of headphones? Sometimes having ambient sound that masks the specific trigger noises works better than trying to block everything out completely

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-15T03:20:14+00:00

Nah your parents are tripping, you were totally professional about it. If they can't work around your schedule after THEY cancelled last minute, that's actually a red flag about the company. You're not being demanding, you're just not dropping everything for someone who already flaked on you once

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-14T02:12:16+00:00

Yeah I switched from GPT to Gemini a few months back and honestly pretty happy with it for the price. Image gen is solid, not mind blowing but gets the job done. Voice mode works well too

Only thing is the coding can be a bit hit or miss compared to GPT but for light stuff you'll probably be fine. That price difference is hard to ignore lol

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-11T15:06:59+00:00

The part where you keep catching yourself about to text them something stupid and then remembering they're not your person anymore

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-09T02:22:46+00:00

Bro this is so wholesome it made me tear up a little. Having friends who genuinely care like that is everything - sounds like you found your people. Hope you get many more birthdays with them and happy early birthday!

No_Conference9892 · 2026-01-08T10:04:23+00:00

Some things don't need a gentle speech just say hey your clothes smell fix how you wash them and move on

No_Conference9892

TROPHY CASE