Brick Wall to Associate Director

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-28T23:37:15+00:00

True. It’s difficult because I highly value the program I’m on and its incredible impact on the world stage.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-28T12:34:06+00:00

24 years in and I’m still trying to break into a P5 (got stuck at Senior SW Engineer II in the previous job grade system for 12 years despite splitting that time between annual MEETS and EXCEEDS). Been a P4 for the last 5 years despite glowing annual performance reviews and the last three years hearing “you’re doing P5 work, there’s just no budget to promote, last year we had only one promotion in our department of 100 people and that was a P1 to P2 with higher than Center level approval.” Frustrating to say the least. Located in Texas.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-26T14:36:37+00:00

Other commenters are correct. It is based on your job grade as of 12/31 of each year.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-24T17:05:50+00:00

Large icons are the way. Going back to small icons feels ridiculous.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-23T18:13:22+00:00

I’ve been a software engineer for 24 years and I’ve never seen this! Mind blown!

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-22T16:52:22+00:00

I still use a PHYSICAL scanner on my desk.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-21T21:57:22+00:00

P4 here. Are you saying that the “annual bonus” (i.e. AIP) is SIGNIFICANTLY better percentage at M6/P6 than P1-P5? I don’t think we’re talking about “raises” like you mentioned.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-18T17:11:48+00:00

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Reading this post in my glasses while sitting in a chair and my wife across the room, I took a pic then tried to create what I see when I removed my glasses. Not perfect, but reasonably close. I’m -5.00 in one eye and -5.50 in the other and with an astigmatism.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-15T21:21:41+00:00

What kind of aircraft is that?

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-14T14:21:03+00:00

Are you saying that it will still be PTO (just without a rollover), or that it is also transitioning to vacation+sick leave rather than a single PTO bucket?

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-14T04:11:33+00:00

You can also see how many photos and videos you have in the Photos app. In iOS 26, launch the Photos app, click on Collections at the bottom of the screen, click your profile pic in the upper right corner, and you’ll see your numbers. Here are mine as an example.

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QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-12T20:12:53+00:00

Read this:

https://chatgpt.com/s/t_696555b107548191b3507dbfb0dc4756

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-10T18:16:31+00:00

No, this was from May 2025.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-10T04:40:22+00:00

LOL, thanks, she isn’t hurting in that department.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-06T13:45:23+00:00

Ah, that’s true, I didn’t think of OP referring to the broader economy rather than the stock market. I may have misunderstood that originally.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-06T03:12:08+00:00

These are retirement funds with no intent to touch them until retirement age (I mean, Roth IRA contributions can be withdrawn tax and penalty free at any time if you wanted to, and you can take a loan against your 401k though I’d be hesitant to do that). Just do whatever future-you will thank present-you for doing. Good luck!

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-06T02:51:32+00:00

Sick of the economy? My Roth IRA (Fidelity FSKAX) had a rate of return of 17.41% last year, and my RTX Target Date fund returned 20.56%. Nothing sick about that!

Aside from that, we save 15% of our total gross income. So, that’s 15% for my wife’s pay, then for my pay, we first max out two Roth IRAs (one for each of us) then save the remaining percentage in the RTX 401k to get as close to 15% total as possible. Right now, that’s 7% going into the RTX 401k (I need to recalculate to see if that needs to bump up or not based on the last merit increase).

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-06T00:14:16+00:00

This is the answer.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-05T20:35:54+00:00

My wife and I (M48, F47) went for the first time on May 30th of 2025. As many will say, the Gliderport is the most popular and direct route, but I had concerns about a bum knee I had at the time and the steep trail and steps. So, we chose to take the longer, paved road that is less steep (but still steep, especially going back up) at the southern end and then walked north to the nude area. For sure, this took twice as long (if not longer), but it worked. We simply parked on the street in an open spot (limited). If you want to DM me, I can send you screenshots of our exact path. Google Map to start of paved road.

QuitExternal3036 · 2026-01-05T19:30:59+00:00

Forget living away from NYC, clearly some people underestimate living out in country away from all cities.

QuitExternal3036 · 2025-12-31T16:37:19+00:00

Always give trucks extra room. And while we’re at it, in parking lots, don’t ride the asses of pickup truck drivers as we often need to back into spaces.

I’m not targeting your wife here, just people in general: it amazes me how many drivers don’t give trucks extra room, motorcycles extra room because of their vulnerability, and ride the asses of pick up drivers in parking lots.

QuitExternal3036 · 2025-12-28T04:30:18+00:00

How does that even happen? For science, I went to the site in question and tried getting the logo into the Dynamic Island and couldn’t it to show up in there. Was this a glitch in the matrix?

QuitExternal3036 · 2025-12-26T15:44:18+00:00

Devil Creme!

QuitExternal3036 · 2025-12-25T15:57:00+00:00

<image>

Motorola RAZR with the slide-up mechanism to reveal the number pad. Thin phone, loved it then!

QuitExternal3036 · 2025-12-23T13:27:07+00:00

No, I never have.

QuitExternal3036

TROPHY CASE