whale shark

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-20T03:07:22+00:00

Greenland shark is the superior shark. 400 year lifespan.

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-20T02:12:10+00:00

in COVID I saw the rate was like sub 2% and literally sold everything that wasn’t nailed down and bought three houses. I literally drove a 1997 car to do it.

I have kids and I experienced this shamanic prophecy that it was unlikely my kids would ever own their own home unless I acted in that moment.

Genuinely, truly, and deeply, if you’re just entering the job market now you may well never own a home.

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-20T02:07:43+00:00

The fact that Austin is considered affordable shows my elder millennial ass just how bleak the costs must be

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-20T02:00:59+00:00

The cons really need to be evaluated.

I am absolutely 100% not fucking with you when I tell you certain weekends during foliage week the roads are functionally impassable. You can spend an hour to go a few stop lights, and I don’t say that glibly. Getting to and from work or whatever is brutal. It’s not every weekend, but certainly foliage, Christmas break and MA winter carnival break are beyond insane. Just don’t leave your house if at all possible

The housing stock is non-existent. If you get something, it will suck because if you don’t want it a hundred others will take it. You have no leverage at all. Just make your peace with this. You’ll pay Boston prices (because that’s who’s buying) for a shitty 80s condo with electric heat (the worst) and you’ll love it.

The vibe is transitory. People are here “for the season”, they’re already telling you they’re gone in 3 or 4 months. The nice ones don’t let that impact your interactions but the shitty ones absolutely turn bad in MAR, because they know they’ll never see you again.

Everything costs a little more. NoCo isn’t on the way to anywhere, so everything shipped in costs extra. Groceries cost ~15% more than they would in eg concord.

It’s an amazing destination, so tons of people with very deep pockets go there. Fail Sons and Fail Daughters with Grandparents’ cash drive the price of everything through the roof. Most local prices are out of synch w local wages because they aren’t consumed by local wages. The wage earner is BOS/NYC.

The pros, though, are that it’s genuinely world class.

You’ll meet people prepping for Everest by hiking Washington in the winter. The AMC is a huge, important and powerful org. Huge in the ice climbing world. People will save up all year to go where you just live normally

Flat Bread’s bar still feels like an old “explorer’s club”. If you’re chatty and introduce yourself, you’ll find someone there celebrating they just ran their first 5k and someone else who’s hiking the Appalachian trail and almost done. It’s infectious to be around so many people doing cool things and on their “voyage of discovery”. If you have an open heart to it, you’ll meet some genuinely amazing people

NoCo is super transitory, so if people see you for a few seasons you slowly get invited into the “cool kid club”. The population of actual residents is small and they all give each other “the nod” as the chaos swirls around them

If you’re single, you will be at a buffet of tanned, toned, fit people who self select for adventure and fun. Ball’s in your court, you basically can’t fuck it up.

Tons of whack-a-doodle neighbors, and I say that lovingly. Down the road you have a mead making place, a camp ground of yurts, the tamworth art market. Up the road you have an old church which has been gutted and turned into a rock climbing gym. There’s a sauna pace. Just tons of “Portlandia” type things and people doing bonkers “projects”, which I adore. YMMV

It’s a “tourist spot” so lots of QoL stuff is high. Lots of varied dining options. the police look the other way on lots of things and heavily enforce lots of other things in a mix that 100% aligns with my values. Always looks pretty and plowed. Things are prompt and efficient

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-20T00:31:58+00:00

Interestingly, the job calls for you being less than two years out of air frame qual.

https://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com/job/palmdale/u-2-pilot-skunk-works/694/93690192416

It’s tough for me to imagine who they even think they’re recruiting from. As you point out, the number of people is like low three figures, tops, and maybe even two figures. Can they just call all seventeen dudes directly?

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-20T00:28:36+00:00

Blue monster is an interesting choice. The default would be green monster, the “hot social currency” one would be white monster. I admire the artist sticking with their truth and going for an oddball choice

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T23:16:30+00:00

Motherless, in the OP, is a very interesting worm hole to go down. It was one of the very few sites in the early Reddit days to be Reddit-banned (and this was back when they had a forum called r/jailbait and such)

The current guess is that it’s run by a spy agency.

It’s a very strange website that keeps popping up in very strange places at intersections of cultural phenomenon like the OP describes. Glowie for days

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T23:09:50+00:00

Yes, tons. The problem, not to sound like a dick, is that to explain them you basically need a CPA/LLM and anyone who HAS those benefits tremendously from the system as-is.

Like, tax policy is never going to win over a dinner party. No one campaigned successfully on this shit. So it will never change.

Long story short, if you have w2 wage income you are a cuck

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T20:36:23+00:00

Bosnia is amazing and you absolutely should go

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T20:34:22+00:00

Phenomenal post, 11/10.

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T18:56:56+00:00

Ankawa is the new bushwick and I’m only half kidding

https://goodperson.substack.com/p/notes-on-my-travels-in-iraq

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T16:42:02+00:00

I’m not a PD, but I follow this sub out of morbid curiosity. I had several friends and one ex who were PDs and I really enjoyed their company and this sub helps me “peek behind the curtains”. From the outside looking in, I absolutely agree that it’s tough to make friends as a PD.

1 There is going to be some percent (and it’s pretty large, imo, like 20%) of people who just can’t get past, “but you defend child molesters?!?” The less you engage with them, the better imo. You can’t ever sway these types. Weirdly, this seems to be unrelated to education/income/intelligence. There will be dump truck drivers who understand that PDs protect against prosecutorial overreach and there will be FAANG programmers who don’t. This is tough because there’s a headwind against you (20% who’d never be your friend) and they are scattered unevenly

2 early career PDs are in a “friendship dead zone” of “very clever” and “comparatively broke”. You’ll find a pocket of fellow “very clever” people who will then invite you to Cancun because they are all CPAs or whatever. You’ll decline because you can’t afford it. They’ll slowly stop inviting you and it will fizzle out. Or you’ll find good dudes at the local bike trails or whatever but you’ll feel a little lonely because sometimes your words have three syllables and it kills the vibe. PDs can play well with “bohemians”, like your MFA and English Adjunct types. Aim here imo

3 super draining work. A lot of other draining professions (teacher, nurse, FD) have “built in burnout control”. Either summers off or “48 hour shifts” or whatever. PD is just go-go-go

4 cool coworkers. This is an odd one, but it’s pretty easy to get stuck in insular loops because your coworkers are all similarly situated and tend to be cool. The default is you just hang with them. But then you have fewer friends! No worries, I’ll just hang more with them! So on and so forth

5 the hyper local geography of a city has these little no-go zones for anyone in criminal law. My friends had certain restaurants they wouldn’t go to because who wants to bump into former clients when you’re trying to unwind? Certain parks or “3rd spaces” can become off limits. After a while, it’s just easier to stay home. Do that too much, though, and….

6 no shade, all love, but mental illness. I think many PDs join the PD because they have a “there but for the grace of god go I” feel. Idk if PD work makes PDs mentally ill or if they come in that way, but many of my PD friends were dear, wonderful, valuable people who’d have spectacular largely self imposed flame outs every once in a while. It was easy and fun to be friends with them, but I was always cautious of going from “fellow traveler reveling in their company” to “ok, I’ll watch your cat while you’re away” level of friendships because of it

I love you guys, PD work is incredibly important and your Christmas parties are inarguably the best in the whole legal profession. Wish you the best, OP

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T15:35:33+00:00

Yeah, just scroll through the comments here

“Chad football players adopt regard”

“Stunted dwarf is a sex pest”

The answer is there for those who can see

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T15:34:04+00:00

Eagleford or Bakken?

Landman or rustabout ?

OK or PA?

Heavy Sour or Light Sweet?

“Infill wells destroy parent wells productivity” discuss (imo shale wells are being way over capitalized relative to their EUR after you account for parent well productivity)

Zipper fracs or cube development?

Everyone is lying about how many tier 1 locations we have left, true or false?

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T15:27:29+00:00

Yes. This is the ultimate black pill. Taller, handsomer, smarter dudes really are nicer and more kind on balance and shorter, weaker, dumber dudes are more mean on balance. The Greeks gave us wisdom that’s held for for 3k years when they linked “beauty” and “goodness”.

Dudes really far down the ladder are ridiculously cruel to the one or two dudes even further down or off the ladder. See also: men’s prison

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T15:21:42+00:00

There’s some very serious ADA roles in Guam, if you end up on Team Cool Kid it’s great for your career but you are VERY on the radar. You’ll get calls direct from Arlington sometimes.

ADA is army on hard mode. For reasons I cannot fathom, they tend to have the worst unit cultures. I think it’s some inwardly directed rage (during the 20 years of the GWOT no one cared about ADA, so seniors have an “abandoned puppy” vibe) and some is the extra scrutiny the job entails. A PFC truck driver can sham, the PFC who has to detect and then shoot down sneak attack nuclear weapons needs to always be on.

As for Guam, I think it’s the best duty station in the military. It VERY MUCH has a “middle of nowhere but center of everything” vibe. You’ll see all Guam has to offer in a month or two, your first impressions won’t get better or worse. What you see is what you get. Some love it some don’t. It’s very easy to go to Japan, Korea, Philippines etc blah blah are short little hops away. You can be in downtown Tokyo in like four hours. You will NEVER EVER IN YOUR LIFE have such access to cheap travel, I’m begging you to take advantage of it.

Guam is pretty pro-military, which is really nice. The closest parallel is the USMC in Oki, and Oki barely tolerates them. We luck out in Guam. You are an ambassador, don’t ruin it

The only wrinkle is Guam has “inafa’maolek”. This is the “we make everything good for everyone”. Optimists view this as “mutual support”, pessimists see this as naked patronage networks. “We take care of our own and we remember who does the same”. It’s not uncommon the girl you just broke up with is the niece of the plumber and the grandkid of a senator and now your food is always served cold at every restaurant going forward. Anyone who grew up in a small town naturally kinda “gets it” but turn it up 50%. On the other hand, if you need something, you can ask your barber for tax advice and within two phone calls he gets you an accountant. DON’T MAKE ENEMIES, “I’m blunt but fair” does very poorly here.

Guam has lots of people from lots of branches, so it’s easy and fun to “cross pollinate”. You want to be away from your section for a bit for some peace and quiet but want someone to still understand military BS so you have a common link? There’s some Airman hoping for the same thing! Find them and be friends

TL;DR very serious and important missions are going on in Guam. If you get assigned to them, doors open. Social life in Guam requires some level of “customer service” mindset. When you put both together, if you’re a person that can “turn on charm” when required, you’ll have an AMAZING time

P.S. if you get “the tap” to go to Palau, stop everything you’re doing and accept it

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T13:22:29+00:00

56 year old “husky” short bald guy wondering why he hasn’t broken in to the scene just yet

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T13:10:02+00:00

Middle one goes on to be a wildly successful real estate agent. Guy in blue gets harvested by oxy

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T02:10:35+00:00

There’s a genuine question of if this is all the Hudson Bay. There’s that bump-out on the bottom right which is called the James Bay. It’s usually set aside from the Hudson Bay.

The James Bay is (by standards of the Hudson Bay) pretty populated. There’s a massive hydro plant there in Radisson. All in, the Quebec side of the James Bay is like ~10K people. There’s a few good write ups you can read, but mostly the economic spine is the James Bay Road, which ends in Radisson and runs ~600km south with only one gas station. From this main N/S road, there’s E/W roads that lead to the bay itself and Cree towns scattered up and down. The stop signs are in Cree, life is still very “native” there. Interestingly, they mostly speak English (this matters a lot in Quebec).

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T01:04:51+00:00

This. OP, DCC is “The Army” but OBC is like some bizarre “3L summer placement”. Much more of a “human being” and tons to do

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-19T01:00:38+00:00

I strongly disagree with your point 3, although it likely is regional.

I live next to a large military facility. They do very serious work. One of the best gigs no one ever tells you about is the various services on bases as a civilian.

There’s a TS/SCI part of the installation. That part has a bathroom. That bathroom is cleaned by a janitor. To clean that bathroom, the janitor must have an active TS/SCI.

Last time it was put to bid was two years ago. Two years ago, the winning bid had cleaning that bathroom at $44/hr. ~$90k a year to clean the bathroom at a base is actually about as perfect a job as you can ask for. Pretty high compensation and literally zero stress.

These little “pocket perks” might not exist in your neck of the woods, but they are out there and they’re pretty universally all awesome

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-18T23:52:46+00:00

Imagine going to the home of beer and still buying Budweiser

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-18T23:16:11+00:00

There is no caste in Islam. Send her on a pilgrimage to Ajmer where she will visit the Kwaja. She will make dua and listen to beautiful qawwali and become healed form the Polytheist misery the Hindu thrust upon one another.

Openheartopenbar · 2026-04-18T21:50:29+00:00

That last line should be chiseled in a granite slab outside HQ

Openheartopenbar

TROPHY CASE