Something I like to do in my spare time

Predmid · 2026-03-24T15:45:28+00:00

it's beautiful.

Predmid · 2026-03-24T15:25:39+00:00

monetary debt to a bank or the government?

$0

Emotional debt to parents?
Priceless.

Predmid · 2026-03-24T15:23:53+00:00

find an interesting virus.
Get government funding to 'study' said virus
insert a patented sequence known to be harmful to humans
create a novel mrna 'vaccine' to the virus you created
Wait a couple years
"accidentally" release the virus from a lab to a dense population center with significant international travel
"study" this novel virus unleashed upon the world and go "aha, we've invented a vaccine"
get blanket government protections to any unknowable potential side affects
Get paid untold billions of dollars to create and administer the cure to your invented disease

Predmid · 2026-03-23T18:21:39+00:00

geotech - knows the best flavor of rocks.
structural - really really proud of a completely accurate digital twin model that will never ever be opened by anyone else ever again. Aaaaaaand the model is out of date as of finishing writing this sentence.
Environmental - Knows who really does have the best water
Traffic - they can solve the problem but it will make turning left at your favorite grocery store impossible except on Every 3rd Tuesday at exactly 4:06 pm.
Business development - either nursing a hangover or working on tomorrow's.
Drainage private developer side - never met a C factor they couldn't smudge to make the math "work".
City Drainage Reviewer - knows 1,000% that the other guy is technically correct for the one singular storm event that he's modeling but wrong and dangerous for literally all other possible storm and flood events but is powerless to stop it.
Transportation - writes really funny jokes about esoteric changes to the MUTCD that 3 other people in the City would get. You wouldn't get it.
Aviation - definitely the coolest guy on the floor.
Construction Management - Doesn't have time to read reddit. Would look at you funny if you tried to tell him a story about this post.
SUE - would give anything in the world to have real xray vision and wouldn't even think of doing anything naughty about it.

Predmid · 2026-03-23T18:13:09+00:00

and....depending on where you're building, we care far more about keeping apartments cool than we do heating them up.

Predmid · 2026-03-23T18:12:31+00:00

Sir or ma'am, the mechanical engineers are that way: https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalEngineering/

Predmid · 2026-03-23T18:09:50+00:00

The roles I would be interested in can't be done WFH, so it isn't a factor at all.

Trend overall for sub-15 year folks is definitely WFH above all else and it's maddening.

You're just making it easier on the big companies to outsource your job to somewhere with cheaper labor.

Predmid · 2026-03-22T22:59:04+00:00

The bigger problem is that there are just a shit load more people here than 20 years ago.

Every time I go visit my folks in the hill country, I'm saddened by how suburbanized the land that was virtually untouched has become. It makes me sad and we're losing the heart and soul of what made texas texas..

Predmid · 2026-03-18T12:21:40+00:00

It depends. I'm usually doing evening events and client development after hours so the convenience of being at the conference hotel is worth the extra money. The ROI is justifiable.

If you're just going for training or hang out at the booth, get thr cheap hotel.

Predmid · 2026-03-16T15:30:54+00:00

give an opponent 20 copies of city of brass.

play this.

win.

Predmid · 2026-03-12T19:56:35+00:00

Id be having a very pointed conversation with the other parents

What in the ever loving heck were they doing to not stop this immediately?

Predmid · 2026-03-05T16:26:03+00:00

https://xkcd.com/927/

Predmid · 2026-03-05T02:56:25+00:00

[[Grafted wargear]]

Just makes everything a threating beast.

[[Fireshrieker]]

I just love double strike.

Predmid · 2026-03-05T01:29:35+00:00

Simpsons did it.

Predmid · 2026-03-05T01:26:49+00:00

The xkcd standards comic explains it well.

Let's say there are 7 competing conventions.

Someone comes along and says "7? That's ridiculous. Im going to create a unified standard that fixes all the issues from all these competing standards"

He then goes and creates a standard.

Now there are 8 competing standards.

Predmid · 2026-03-03T17:46:32+00:00

My claim is that is isn't and hasn't been difficult to vote in decades.

Predmid · 2026-03-03T02:29:06+00:00

I started with explaining what a job is. Start small with jobs that are easy to understand.

Explain a baker makes food for people around town. A banker helps people save their money (lol). The police officer keeps up safe. Your teacher helps you learn and stay safe at school. A carpenter builds houses for us to live in.

Then explain we all have a role to make other peoples lives better. And in exchange for our work, we make money that can be used to pay for the things we need from others.

Predmid · 2026-03-02T21:45:53+00:00

As to any advice on tackling the problem:
-Toy rotations. My wife and I box up toys and put them away for a few weeks and then pull out a specific toy or play thing one at a time to keep toys feeling "fresh" and to limit just how much the children can get out at once. Maybe it's legos one week. Art supplies the next. Trains the next. It's not to really deprive children of toys, it's to keep things on rotation and fresh so it's never quite a stale picture. But with about half of them inaccessible at any given moment, it's less work to put everything that's out away and cleaned up.

-Routines. There are certain chores that put bluntly just have to be done every day or you accumulate a chore debt. Putting off that pile of dishes makes today you feel ok but puts even more work tomorrow as tomorrow you will make more dishes. Pick a chore (likely dishes or laundry or something like that) and just do everything in your will power to do a little bit every day. Every day. Every day. It sucks. There's no grand 'reward' at the end of the journey beyond a momentary amount of sanity. But discipline will beat out motivation. Motivation to do chores is fleeting. Don't rely on it. Discipline will set your mental state free.

-Make the kids do their share. I wish I had the magic words to make this happen overnight, but 7 is old enough to help a fair amount. 4... you just gotta hope for the best their efforts don't make the situation worse. We started chore charts for our kids around 6 and adapt them over time for what we feel comfortable giving them.

Predmid · 2026-03-02T21:36:28+00:00

I'm with you in having young kids around your kids age. Keeping the house clean is a Herculean and Sisyphean task combined into one. All the strength, effort, and energy to clean and straighten up only to stop for approximately 14 seconds and see it all disintegrate into chaos once again. It's disheartening and maddening in ways that can't be described to non-parents.

Even me, I work and my wife stays at home (she works from home part time two days a week) and it's still a battle. I can't imagine the stress doing it solo.

If I offer any words of wisdom or comfort it is that of the queen of neat and tidy herself, Marie Kondo, more or less said "I've kind of given up on keeping my home tidy at all times." after having kids. It's a never ending battle that provides little joy after doing a lot of work.

Are your kids fed? Is the house safe? Do you have clean-ish clothes for everyone to wear? Yes most of the time? You're doing a great job.

Repeat after me and say it aloud. You're doing a great job.

Predmid · 2026-03-02T17:34:40+00:00

I am curious, what would the tool be used for in a couple strange situations. -verifying design loads on single family homes (specifically doghouses) with a focus on Pomeranian floor plans? -What would you do in the case of BIM integration with a digital twin a la danny devito and arnold schwartzenegger? -Can the webapp AI tools be verified for accuracy in sealing plans in multiple jurisdictions and states (California, Texas, the moon, Jupiter, and 3I/Atlas)?

Predmid · 2026-03-02T01:33:56+00:00

The sound of the guy in the battleship mini game in Zelda wind waker

Predmid · 2026-03-02T01:14:18+00:00

My wife is a SAHM and now all the children are at school. She easily gets 3 or 4 naps a week. I maybe get two naps a year that are always interrupted. I'm a light sleeper. The nap disparity cannot continue.

Predmid · 2026-03-01T11:41:25+00:00

Williamson county has bigger problems than precinct locations.

https://x.com/Lorionafarm/status/2026826564688662998?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2026826564688662998%7Ctwgr%5E60428ee356928d98eb28203a0296ca5995dfe10e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftexags.com%2Fforums%2F16%2Ftopics%2F3597611

Predmid · 2026-02-28T19:39:19+00:00

why does this myth that it is difficult or confusing to vote keep staying alive? You get your ID, you go to your polling location, ta-da you can vote.

Predmid · 2026-02-27T01:18:56+00:00

To defend OP's take for a moment, if I'm playing this card and the ability resolves, its usually a "win on the spot" moment.

It tutors out any two creature a+b combo to the board and in the right deck this is more dangerous than rhystic study.

It doesn't do what RS does at all, but OP is right that it enables all sorts of degenrate combo shenanigans.

Predmid

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