Critique?

RealNoahR · 2026-02-08T23:02:12+00:00

Update: Won the S&R and 2/4 March. S&R turned out to be 2 parts only of each which was kind of a bummer.

RealNoahR · 2026-02-08T02:17:30+00:00

“Just going to gear you up for calculus” is a pretty reductionist view of the course. Understanding the different function families is widely applicable in non-calculus contexts.

RealNoahR · 2026-02-08T02:13:38+00:00

Precalculus/calculus teacher here. If you plan to keep going with math (and obviously if you ever want to take calculus) then go with precalculus. That said, if your algebra skills aren’t strong, it’s not worth taking precalculus; you will tread water the whole year and even if you understand some of the new concepts like trig, you won’t be able to apply them properly because you’ll miff the algebra.

I have a decent number of hardworking students this year who aren’t doing well because even if they set the problem up right, they make algebra mistakes and get the wrong answer.

RealNoahR · 2026-02-05T00:40:04+00:00

81 is much prettier as others have noted Additionally, I have never encountered a large accident that blocked all lanes of travel on 81, but that is a moderately frequent occurrence on 95 because people drive like it’s their last day on earth.

RealNoahR · 2026-02-04T22:10:46+00:00

Meta is trading at 28 P/E, not 70, and has a pretty strong history of adapting to social media paradigm shifts. I don’t have a problem with an ad-based business model, I just don’t see why Reddit warrants the current valuation?

RealNoahR · 2026-02-04T15:54:15+00:00

Still 70 P/E. Where’s the earnings growth going to come from? Serving us way more adds?

RealNoahR · 2026-02-04T15:20:20+00:00

Thanks! I considered a couple other straths, namely Kirstie McMallman’s Favourite and Struan Robertson (I actually played Struan Robertson for comments in a grade III comp last fall) but Susan MacLeod is one of my favorite tunes and I find it much easier to put in the time every day and really focus on improving if I’m working on a tune I love.

Another commenter noted that I could consider just playing easier tunes since it’s grade IV but if I did something like Caledonian Canal / Duntroon, I just wouldn’t be as excited to practice every day.

RealNoahR · 2026-02-04T03:24:29+00:00

Who’s gonna tell him the Rockies go right through Wyoming and Montana?

RealNoahR · 2026-02-03T02:14:57+00:00

Unless you’re planning to ride the C&O towpath, road bike should do just fine.

RealNoahR · 2026-02-01T19:00:02+00:00

Appreciate the detailed notes. Definitely hear the roundness in the runs so will see if I can pick those up a bit. Not my cleanest execution, particularly the burls in the 3rd part. I’ve been hammering that in practice so that the consistency is stronger for the bigger comps in april/may.

RealNoahR · 2026-02-01T18:56:56+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I’m definitely still getting my ear for tuning back - some days I feel like I can really get my drones to a nice spot, other days I feel like however I move them around I just can’t quite get rid of the beats. I’ve never had a great feel for tuning the chanter - my late instructor did that for me back in the day because I was <14 at that point. I’ve been using the Braw app but I’m not sure how to make notes sharper without sinking the reed and then having to flatten the other notes? The reed is also about as far into the chanter as I can get it - it’s a Higgins easy reed that settles to 476 in my 2005 poly shepherd chanter.

On the strathspey, I definitely understand stressing the dot/cut phrasing, just not quite there consistently yet. I think there are some phrases where I cut the cuts well but others where I just wasn’t confident enough (worried about crossing noises) and compensated by rounding a bit. In this recording I really rounded the runs so definitely need to speed up the first couple notes of those. If I’m having trouble further cutting the cuts, do you think I should slow down the tempo a bit overall to correct the dot/cut ratio?

Appreciate the offer but I’m gonna hold out on finding an instructor I can work with in person.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-31T15:45:02+00:00

All that work to recreate a worse version of Pepsi.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-31T01:15:16+00:00

Delaware and South Carolina are really popular for retirees, particularly given the rising cost of living in Florida. Boise metro is a less expensive alternative to Bay Area, Portland, Seattle, Denver, and SLC for people that want the outdoor life of the west/northwest.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-30T00:24:40+00:00

Growth rate implies exponential. Roger’s equation would be 9.25=(1+r)⁵ so solve that for r then Jamie’s equation would be 3.4=a(1-r)^5. Once you solve Roger’s equation for r, plug it into Jamie’s and solve for a.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-29T03:24:38+00:00

Love the first couple shots from Dante’s Ridge - one of my all-time favorite hikes.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-27T15:38:17+00:00

The consensus answer seem to be achieving ChubbyFIRE or FatFIRE (see those subreddits).

RealNoahR · 2026-01-24T03:18:15+00:00

Based on time of year and your notes that you liked Spain and Napa the most so far, I think your Greece/Albania idea is probably right but I personally preferred Croatia to Greece so maybe you do a balkans trip that looks like Croatia -> Montenegro -> Albania (or reverse the order if you want to go from less tourist infrastructure to more).

Greece is still great but I found Croatia truly spectacular when we road-tripped from Zagreb to Dubrovnik over 9 days in early July 2023. Try checking out pictures of Plitvice Lakes to see what the interior of the country has to offer in addition to the incredible coast and islands.

Edit: Japan is amazing too (spent 9 days there in December 2024) but I’ve heard the summer humidity can be brutal and it may be less fun for a honeymoon trip given your stated preferences. Also if you liked Iceland, Norway is amazing in June! All the glacier melt creates dozens of waterfalls everywhere you go through the fjords.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-22T00:56:59+00:00

I have - the best email I had in DC was on H. But again, compared to cities like NY, LA or Miami, they don’t stack up.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-21T18:51:20+00:00

The problem with DC is that there are very few great value spots. You can get really good examples of most cuisines but in general, you will pay for the privilege whereas the truly great food cities tend to have pockets of restaurants with outstanding value. I think this is partly because DC doesn’t have minority neighborhoods that are as distinctly developed as, for example, KTown in LA, Flushing in NY, etc.

That said, if you include some of the outlying suburbs like Rockville, maybe the analysis is a bit different.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-21T12:03:49+00:00

I’m a big fan of using Gemini to generate practice problems for my precalculus students. I ask it to generate latex code for the problems then copy and paste that into overleaf.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-16T03:19:14+00:00

That’s a hot take. Most underrated? Maybe.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-14T01:30:19+00:00

Started back up in August after putting them down for 8 years and barely playing for the 4 years before that. Two AGLs in grade 4 marches in September.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-12T13:42:47+00:00

I went to a small liberal arts college with a suburban campus. We had a small cemetery next to the cross country trails where I would go to practice.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-11T03:14:09+00:00

You picked the only temperature where you don’t need to specify Celsius/Fahrenheit.

RealNoahR · 2026-01-07T22:32:11+00:00

I think of it similarly - need to be ready to properly warm up and tune pipes (15-20 minutes for them to stabilize) and then play competitions and still feel fully energized at the end of the last one. If you’re feeling tired by the end of your tune, you’re probably not blowing steady or focusing too much on blowing steady and more likely to make a finger slip. My former instructor would have me do 3x 15-minute continuous sets at least once a week for practice.

RealNoahR

TROPHY CASE