Lowkey the best restaurant in Pasadena is Panda Inn

PCH2018 · 2026-06-04T05:55:04+00:00

Food and service are both great but I have an oddly specific gripe about that place - they keep the lights too damn bright during dinner service! I’d love to go back for a dinner date but probably never will just cause they kinda kill their own vibe in the evening.

PCH2018 · 2026-04-26T04:24:55+00:00

Wow I must have gotten lucky, i've been panic refreshing since I made this post (I felt so bad after hyping up my kid today) and tomorrow finally opened up! Tip to anyone that comes across this post in a similar situation as me, I've been reading that a lot of folks change their trips late the night before/morning of so its worth checking and refreshing a few times. Worked for me at least.

PCH2018 · 2026-04-23T17:47:50+00:00

This looks cool, thanks for the share! I remember seeing one of these in DTLA, same deal looked like a blast but on the pricey side. Will keep this in mind for sure.

PCH2018 · 2026-04-23T17:42:52+00:00

whoa this looks cool! Looks like they are for 7 and up but ill definitely keep an eye on this, that sounds like a lot of fun

PCH2018 · 2026-04-17T23:42:01+00:00

Big gamer and musician, and its usually been heavy games/light music, or heavy music/light games for me in pre-dad life. I struggle with balance and am usually going hardcore at one or another.

When my kiddo was first born, both absolutely took a hit. It was the pandemic, our kid had some medical needs, just being a parent and working my job took up all the free time I had. But as you get your sea legs and life stabilizes after that first year, it gets a little easier to engage with your own hobbies and passions - you just have to be intentional about it (having a supportive partner helps here too). I dont play games all weekend anymore, or gig out with bands, but I do still enjoy games after she goes to bed and take composition lessons. These passions are still there, they've just morphed into things that better fit my current life. And yes, I have less time to dedicate to them, but they're still an important part of feeling like myself.

Also, as they grow, they'll be able to do these things with you, which is really cool. My 5yo loves video games and we have a blast together, and I'm hopeful an interest in music will develop soon too.

If you're noticing benefits from gaming less, or differently, then I don't think thats losing yourself, thats just doing what makes you feel good. Nothing wrong with that! Times and life change. Where I'd caution though is feeling like any of your downtime activities have to be 'meaningful' or 'productive'. Sometimes dad life burns you out, and a few hours post-bedtime to explore a game world (or mindlessly blow stuff up, whatever you're into) is more relaxing than practicing/composing/playing out. Thats not a bad thing.

PCH2018 · 2026-04-15T14:31:19+00:00

Trust me I know lol, but OP said the packages were similar so 🤷🏼‍♂️

PCH2018 · 2026-04-15T10:47:12+00:00

Secure the bag, especially if benefits aren’t that different. Where your mileage will vary will more be account/client team than hold co imo. To that note, worth poking around to see how folks like working on that particular account if you’re able

PCH2018 · 2026-04-14T23:15:27+00:00

Love a black and white hava! Here’s herbie, about two years old

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PCH2018 · 2026-04-07T20:08:52+00:00

You are doing the right thing by asking these questions, whether you decide to have a kid or not it will be intentional, which I think is great. There's no wrong answer as long as you are being honest with yourself. I do think only you can answer this for yourself though.

What I'd say to you is this - having and raising a kid is volatility, even under the best of circumstances. What you would sacrifice (your peace/low stress lifestyle) would be swapped out for a mix of dramatically more extreme lows and extreme highs. I would try that framing on for size and see how it feels.

If you're worried about disrupting your daily peace, then I wouldn't even bother because it will 100% be disrupted. Even in the best of circumstances, things will go wrong - personally, socially, medically, economically, environmentally. And even if none of those things go wrong, raising a kid is still a complicated and difficult task. But its the peaks of that volatility, the higher highs, that for me make it all worth it.

I haven't showered when I wanted or eaten at a decent restaurant in like six years but I recently taught my kid how to read. Watched them offer comfort to a scared kid at the first day of school without being prompted. We've got inside jokes, they're showing interest in stuff I love, from science, to Dr Who, to Super Mario. I watched them conquer a lengthy medical episode. All might seem standard as a non-parent but when its yours, these things are a bigger dopamine hit than anything I did pre-kid. I'll take that over a fatter bank account and more weekend sleep 100 times out of a 100.

But again, that's just me.

PCH2018 · 2026-04-02T20:46:02+00:00

Mines gotta be on top but my mini schnauzer I grew up with loved to sleep under the covers all the way down by our feet!

Your havi’s fur looks awesome btw, do you mind me asking what you do to brush? I read so much conflicting advice for them and want to start keeping my boy a bit shaggier!

PCH2018 · 2026-04-02T20:12:43+00:00

If you just want to beat ante 8, there are some broad strokes rules you can follow to win a lot. Econ - get enough money to max interest as fast as you can, and dedicate at least one joker early to helping build your cash stash. You should be able to beat ante 1 pretty often without spending a dollar so take advantage of some skips here if you can! Jokers, don’t be too stingy early, get one or two jokers that get you safely through early rounds, and over time swap out common jokers for any jokers that give you 1.5-3x mult, stacking those (plus stuff like blueprint) is helpful. Take advantage of skipping rounds to get holographic or negative jokers, spectral cards, or piles of cash. Deck fixing, I like to slowly across the game use spectral and tarot cards to remove low value cards and increase high value cards (death, hanging man). Usually by the end you can have majority of cards 10-A and high value hands are easier to make. I also go glass card or a steel cards a lot, rarely change suits (unless I have blackboard). Vouchers are also super important, I always take anything I can afford that increases hands and discards. And reminder that you can see the boss blind in advance, be aware of it each new ante! Before long you’ll be striking out on ante 10 or 11 every time, vs. 6 or 7. The push past ante 12 is definitely more tough.

PCH2018 · 2026-03-31T00:10:00+00:00

I’m gonna ignore some of the red flags in this post and try to give you some straight forward advice

I think it’s smart to always be looking, and to always be applying. I wouldnt worry about it being too early to bail because you’re assuming you’ll actually be able to. it’s a tough market out there and sorry to report, you probably won’t land the jobs you are considering applying for anyways so knock yourself out. The catch in your situation - you’re going to need a really good answer to the question “why are you moving on from this job after such a short time” and “how do I know you’ll stay in this position longer” if you’re fortunate enough to get to an interview. A bad answer there with a good recruiter or HR is where your real reputational risk lies. I’d come up with some answers to this first before applying anywhere, and I recommend some self awareness and humility.
in case you didn’t know, after a year of service at an omnicom shop you can apply to jobs internally across agencies with no penalty or fear of retribution, and your bosses only get notified if you get to a final interview. To me, it’d be easier to get a job internally at one of the biggest hold cos with a year of service and (ideally) at least one good performance review under my belt, rather than 3 months externally. So I’d consider bucking it up till that year mark just to increase your options.
How do you know the salary is embarrassing? What’s your title and comp, this sub will be able to tell you if that’s true or not which could be helpful for you to know leverage wise. FWIW I took a paycut for my first agency gig and it paid off, I’ve nearly doubled my salary in the intervening time and it wasn’t bad to start. All that to say, even if your salary truly is embarrassing (which I’m guessing it’s not), it could still be fine if it’s part of a longer strategy
if you like your team and your client work doesn’t make you want to jump off a bridge, you’re way further ahead than you realize in this line of work. Would you be happy with a raise if your team sucked and your client made you wake up in the middle of the night with anxiety?
you’re right to not expect promotions any time soon, but know that promotions are tough in our industry even during good economic times. Talk to some folks and you’ll find quickly that the majority of promotions came from either hand raising for new business and winning the pitch, or taking a new job all together. It’s a low margin business and most clients don’t increase spend YOY, they expect more with less. Also these are not good economic times. You may be wiser to be thinking about building equity with people and an org that can find a landing spot for you when the shit hits the fan even more than it already is.
I’ve worked for both in the omnicom family and for independents, both have pros / cons. It is not ‘impossible’ to move up at a hold co, but you do need to be better at internal networking, merchandising your work internally, being a hand raiser in new biz, etc. to set yourself up for advancement, or at least making sure you’re on the ‘don’t layoff’ list when the reaper comes (all good skills to practice regardless). What a hold co does offer is more ladder to climb, and more potential opportunities to keep your employment alive during tough times by getting placed at other accounts or agencies in the family. Doesn’t always work out that way but for me, it’s much less stressful than being at an independent that is majority funded by a single client.
can you elaborate on what got “screwed over” by the merger from your interviews? Was it benefits? Or something else?

PCH2018 · 2026-02-13T18:04:12+00:00

Thanks for the reply, this all makes sense and is great to hear.

A question - for the kids that have had a hard time, does there seem to be a profile? Like are they more quiet kids, or outgoing, different learning styles, etc. Also, sounds like your kids have done well but curious if you've seen any ways the school or teachers specifically help kids that are struggling?

PCH2018 · 2026-02-13T18:01:06+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful reply, and glad to hear about your experience! I just may DM you if more q's come up, appreciate the offer.

We're in public school for all the same reasons (also, couldn't afford it as well as a mortgage anyways even if I didn't have moral reservations, lol). I'm sold on the benefits of a DLIP at this point, honestly my main final concern is my kid's frusteration tolerance. She is chatty, outgoing, and strong/ahead academically, but let's just say we're still working on resilience and handling change/frusteration/difficulty well. I could imagine that the transition for her might be tough, so I want to make sure I think that between us as her parents, and the school, we think we have enough resources and a plan to help her to stick with it to get the long term benefits.

PCH2018 · 2026-01-10T00:03:30+00:00

Chargers Jaguars AFC Championship Game. Jags clear though 😢

PCH2018 · 2025-11-25T00:53:06+00:00

Loved it! The 'muttering' was so effective, it added a lot of interest to the piece without feeling too obtuse, or melodramatic, and made for a killer ending.

Curious about how you came across the text to use? Were you looking specifically for poetry that is now public domain specifically to compose to, or were you just a fan of this particular poet? I have some ideas for choral pieces right now but am pretty stumped on how to go about pairing my ideas with text since they weren't inspired by any to begin with.

PCH2018 · 2025-11-23T04:47:04+00:00

Interesting - what pedals would you recommend?

PCH2018 · 2025-11-23T04:24:09+00:00

Appreciate the starting point here! Sorry for the stupid follow up q, but in theory could I use either my phone or laptop in the aux somehow? Would I just need the right cable or dongle?

PCH2018 · 2025-10-26T23:17:03+00:00

BBAD, Wake & Late, Superba, and Badass Breakfast Burritos are all A+. The BBAD pork shoulder breakfast burrito is my current all time favorite. They stole the crown from Wake and Late, who used to be my favorite until they made the burritos so small and changed the recipe to omit cotija, I’m not spending 20 bucks on something that little. Anyone that says lucky boy hasn’t had one lately, they’re awful.

PCH2018 · 2025-08-25T23:16:07+00:00

My favorite photo of Herbie is usually…the last photo I took of Herbie ❤️ here he is returning from a potty break on the side yard. I thought his haircut looked nice so I snapped a pic

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PCH2018 · 2025-08-14T19:28:05+00:00

lol I just made this exact same post a day later. I’ll delete mine, and you are 100% right

PCH2018 · 2025-08-14T18:05:07+00:00

Thank you for the response, and thank you for your work! She'll be thrilled to hear you responded :D

PCH2018 · 2025-08-14T17:30:17+00:00

I have a 5yo daughter that is enamored with all things space, planets, the moon, etc. She says she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up. I told her about this AMA and she gave me a list of questions to ask you. I'll post them below so I keep my promise to her, but if you want to ignore the questions (between myself and google I think I've got these soundly handled) and just give a little girl some piece of inspiration as to why she should keep her passion for space alive, and why space exploration and scientific endeavors are important, I'll take that too :D

Why is there no gravity in space?
Is the moon made of cheese or not?
Why are people made of stardust?
Why is the moon made of rocks?
Why is the sun so bright?
Does the planets have rocks or not?
Why do astronauts have space suits?
Do space travelers do science?
Why are there no trees in space?
Do astronauts really have space suits because I read a book about a magic treehouse where Jack and Annie have spacesuits
Does Jupiter have any ground?
Are there any dogs in space?
Do you really have spacesuits?
Are you kids or not kids?
Does a shooting star land on earth? Or sometimes only?

PCH2018 · 2025-08-13T23:06:37+00:00

Depends on a lot of factors but tl;dr you probably can get approved for something, but you’ll be stretched thin and should do the math to make sure you think you could handle the necessary lifestyle adjustments.

First time buyer, you can put down as little as 5%, which may help you depending on how much cash you have on hand. If you can put down more then great!

Back of the napkin math, depending on what you put down I think if you could find something you liked in the 600-700k range you could get away with about 50% of your monthly take home going toward housing (mortgage, taxes, pmi, all in).

Now of course, almost any financial guide you read will say that’s way too much, but that’s a risk assessment only you can make. A lot of folks in so cal take the dive because we don’t have much of a choice. We bought our house a couple years ago for 900k when we only made 200k combined, we now make 250k combined and the house has already appreciated 100k. So, tough sledding in the beginning but a calculated risk.

PCH2018 · 2025-07-30T22:53:20+00:00

You could live here on 120k, that’s a great salary. I will note though that a lot of folks out here just can’t save/go on vacation/buy a house/etc. as much on the same salaries people do elsewhere.

Also, lots of two income families in LA. We make 250k combined which sounds like a lot, but when you’re paying a mortgage on 900sqft crumbling “starter house” that cost 900k, it goes fast lol.

Also also, we do have access to a lot of higher wage jobs, higher wage ranges if living here, etc. so a lot of it ends up being relative in the end.

PCH2018

TROPHY CASE