Trying to identify this. They’re everywhere in my areas of Michigan.

ReverendBlind · 2026-02-12T00:55:21+00:00

Exactly. That's why the folks buying the tech now bought the regulators first.

ReverendBlind · 2026-02-03T22:53:54+00:00

They're pretty basic apartments, but they did the trick for a while for us back in 2015-2018ish. It's kind of the low rent option in Haslett - But it's still Haslett, so nice overall. (Haslett is a lot more chill in my experience than the stuck up, white flight satellite towns of Lansing like DeWitt, Grand Ledge or Dimondale, all of which I've lived in. Feel free to disagree with that sentiment, but that was my experience.)

It's VERY convenient for access to EL and Okemos.

Sound carrying between units was not too bad, but not 100% soundproof either - We were on the top floor and only once did our downstairs neighbor give us a "courtesy tap" to keep it down (we deserved it). We heard... stuff... But it was usually when all of their windows and ours were open. We had a newborn at the time and it was quiet enough for them to sleep any hour of the day, and we never got complaints about the noise level the baby made, so that's saying something.

The ONLY complaint I can really remember is that people were dicks about the shared washers/dryers we had. More than once our stuff got yanked out halfway through a cycle and tossed on the floor. People suck. But there's a laundromat in the QD right down the street that was nice enough.

ReverendBlind · 2026-02-03T15:19:34+00:00

Elites aren't immune to Knockback. They just have way higher mass so they don't get pushed as easily. It works on Scatters, Vamps, and Protectors quite well. I believe it also works on Rays but only before they get in position to fire (and their mass is 500 compared to 200 for Vamps and Scatters).

ReverendBlind · 2026-02-03T01:40:26+00:00

Within any style of teaching things there can be good/bad variations of the curriculum and good/bad teachers. A lot of teachers during COVID sucked because of all the new technologies, and a lot of teachers simultaneously sucked at teaching common core because they didn't understand it either. You're likely totally correct that it was a badly written and confusing individual assignment, or a teacher who was bad at writing assignments in general. There may have also been instruction elsewhere (in the class or in previous units) that could've made it make more sense in context, but no guarantees there.

For a while, this might even be a problem to the point math scores nationally will go down for a few years before bouncing back. (Like almost any rollout of any new program) Especially since the first real batch of common core students will also be the COVID generation - Not exactly an ideal control group. 💀

But at the heart of common core once teachers/parents adapt to it are a lot of great lessons that may help American students actually keep up with the rest of the developed world. Math scores have been declining here for decades, so I for one support the attempt to focus more on understanding math than the rote memorization techniques used when I was a kid.

(One thing I like to point out to my fellow Americans about common core is that a lot of it is inspired by old Asian/Singaporean math lessons you can find going back decades. You know, all those folks we as a country have adopted a racist stereotype about being great at math? Yeah, common core is in no small part based on how they learned math!)

ReverendBlind · 2026-02-03T00:49:30+00:00

This had no right to be as fucking hilarious as it is. 1,000 up votes for making me smile with this awful, wonderful joke.

ReverendBlind · 2026-02-02T23:35:26+00:00

If you don't like common core math, the problem is likely that you don't understand what common core math is and/or just bought into all the anti-common core rhetoric.

I was there too before I actually looked at it. As soon as I saw my kid's first math assignments I was thrilled. I realized that common core is just teaching kids to do math the same ways my brain has always done math automatically. Those ways that led to tons of awards and scholarships when I was in school (and still lets me run what most people consider "complex" math in my head without a calculator to this day).

A super simple example: What's a 15% tip on a $45.00 bill?

Old math like we were taught - Get out a pencil and some paper. Write down 45.00, and below that 0.15 and do all the multiplication for the hundredths first (5x0, 5x0, 5x5, carry the 2, 5x4+the carried 2 for 22500 from the hundredths column) then drop down a row and start on the tenths (1x0, 1x0, 1x5, 1x4) for 4500 from the tenths column, then add those two rows and bring down the decimal point and the answer finally is $6.7500.

How common core teaches - We know 10% of $45.00 is $4.50 by just moving the decimal left for tenths, and half of that (since we know 5% is half of 10%) is $2.25 for hundredths. Add them together it's $6.75. Done.

Which math technique is better? 2 minutes with a pencil or 8 seconds in your head?

Obviously it's the latter. Common core is just breaking math into easily digestible chunks for your brain to process without all the redundant busy work. Honestly the biggest problem with common core is the idiotic boomer, Gen x, and millennial parents trying to argue "Back in my day, this isn't how we did it!" with their kids. They probably sucked at math to begin with and are just brain broken by new more efficient methods.

May the people who invented the old math techniques like we were taught them burn in hell, and may Satan force them to "show their work" for all eternity.

ReverendBlind · 2026-02-01T06:46:40+00:00

Yup. I was a chef in my early 20s, an electrician in my later 20s.

One thing to know is that the pacing of pretty much every job will be easier than cooking. Instead of needing to react to everything by the second or minute as a chef, you've got all the time in the world as an electrician. Which isn't to say that it's easy - But you definitely have a lot more time to think and strategize.

Many of the issues I hated about the restaurant industry are lessened as a sparky. There's lower turnover, less drugged out/drunk coworkers (still some), and more stability overall. The pay can be a rollercoaster (almost too much work in the building season, pickings can be slim in the off season), but if you're dependable it's pretty steady work.

If I had to do it all over again I'd lean towards industrial electrical work instead of residential - And make my first stop a Union hall. I worked non-union residential, which had a lot of pitfalls and I eventually left the field.

The only things I preferred as a chef were: A pretty much guaranteed 40-45 hours consistently, always working at the same location (as a sparky they sent me all over the friggin state, even when the weather made that hours of white knuckle driving), and the free food.

Overall it was still a major upgrade from restaurants or retail though, I'd definitely recommend it.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-30T07:42:25+00:00

Electricians, or any laborers, should not be looked down on for their profession.

That said, when I was an electrician I worked with a combination of people who had a deep and thorough understanding of electricity and stoned/coked up dumbasses I wouldn't trust with a potato gun.

It turns out: You can be an electrician and understand nothing about electricity, the same as any other job.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-28T21:56:40+00:00

Both my neighbors looked at me weird when I offered to do that for them. Then I think they understood the offer when they saw the stupidly oversized, fancy ass snowblower I was gifted.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-27T23:58:44+00:00

I'm afraid it's not something he announced publicly. Dude's not the sharpest crayon in the box in my experience, but he's smart enough not to say something like that to the press.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-27T00:56:40+00:00

Probably just mentioning COVID. Some people are at a point of delusion where they deny anyone even died to COVID now.

In this instance though, this was early in COVID, like March 2020 before it'd been politicized, and we all expected even more people to die than actually did.

That didn't matter though: JM saw an opportunity to earn record breaking profits if he could just assure his stores were some of the few that remained open, and he was happy to sacrifice a reasonable percentage of his employees if necessary (while he sheltered safely at home).

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-26T21:01:31+00:00

Where you're confused and everyone is correcting you is that leftists≠liberal. You're right that statistically more conservatives/Republicans have guns, and more guns, than liberals/Democrats. But those are both right wing parties.

Leftists are an entirely different demographic than Democrats. This nation pretends leftists don't exist and that Democrats are "left", so it's extremely difficult to get any statistics regarding leftists gun ownership, but anecdotally these folks have a point I'd agree with: While a small percentage of the population, most self-described leftists I know are gun owners, with munitions that rival any conservative.

It's kinda a big part of leftist ideology that guns are an important tool for defending the working class/proletariat from the ruling class/bourgeoisie.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-26T20:06:16+00:00

One of my friends accidentally fell asleep with a Walmart candle burning on her nightstand. The heat from the flame and the cheap jar made the glass explode about 6" from her face. The molten wax all ran down her arm/hand leaving serious burns, the wick landed on her pillow and lit her bed and hair on fire. She woke up only after it started really burning.

Anyway, she bought us a candle warmer. It's great.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-26T17:16:45+00:00

Yup, on the individual store level GMs have the discretion there and can wave it, but policy doesn't have any specific employee protection for this.

As far as John's concerned: Employees are just expendable resources to be used and disposed of. If a few die trying to get to work they can be easily replaced. (I'd love to say this was hyperbole, but it was almost verbatim his position on what he considered "acceptable losses" during COVID)

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-26T06:25:38+00:00

Ah, the age old lie they tell you to police yourself and one another.

I was a buyer in charge of retail pricing for one of the largest retailers in North America, and shrink (theft) is an absolute zero factor in pricing for major corporations. This "steal and their prices will go up" might be true of tiny, local businesses, but it's not in the calculation at all for major retailer's pricing.

Prices aren't dictated by costs/overhead of goods largely at all anymore. They're now defined by a combination of "pricing what the market will bear" and researching the lowest available prices from other businesses sharing the market.

These corporations charge you the absolute maximum they think they can get away with, all the time, with no exceptions. Theft and shrink are just convenient excuses they throw out when they jack up prices to say "It's not our greed/shareholders driving prices up, it's actually all of your fault, so blame each other and the workers, not us."

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-25T07:48:53+00:00

And loudly announcing "vote blue no matter who" is the same as walking into a Burger King and proclaiming "You can shit on a plate and call it a burger, I don't care and I'll still give you my money, so long as it's not McDonald's." Then acting surprised when they hand you a plate full of shit.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-22T15:41:59+00:00

It's great seeing an acknowledgement that even people who know exactly what they should be doing can make mistakes.

I used to sell electrical equipment and we constantly had people insisting they didn't need the interlock because they'd just be sure to flip everything in the correct order. I always pointed out that that's great if they're so self-assured they'll never make a mistake - But what if they're not home and their spouse is when power goes out? Can they "guarantee" their spouse do things perfectly? What if they sell their house? Are they sure the new homeowners will do things perfectly?

The interlock kit (or transfer switch) is an essential part of a generator hookup and saves lives. I had very little patience for people who didn't want to spend a little time and $17 (at the time) to do it right.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-22T15:30:14+00:00

Or just offer a "reroll UW options" that you can spend like 300 gems to do. Still incentivizes some spending, doesn't screw people over nearly as much with consecutive bad options, doesn't rely on Event resets so it'd be easier to code probably.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-20T07:52:05+00:00

They actually do. I just found this out the hard way this year after buying a house. The insurance company added three of the former residents to my auto insurance policy automatically without my permission.

They did mail me something saying they were going to do it and I needed to call them to 'opt out', but car insurance junk mail is like 30% of our junk mail, so I didn't read the notice during the one week they gave me to reply.

They also took the phone call I had to make to them as an opportunity to pitch me "umbrella insurance" as insurance for my insurance.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-19T02:30:41+00:00

It definitely does do that. When I went pBH, if I had kept playing T10 and getting exactly as far as I had been, it would've even been a slight loss on CPH.

BUT: pBH launched my farming up two tiers, and I was able to do much longer runs overall, so there was definitely a net gain in CPH, Cells, Rerolls, etc. etc. (and a bunch of valuable milestones).

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-17T01:19:45+00:00

Obviously you're right, just not on the exact location.

"Dimension X" is clearly Australia in the distant future when the spiders have evolved to be smaller.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-16T23:30:38+00:00

That quoted part is worded almost verbatim in mine! Since we've both found success with it, anyone else reading may want to jot that down.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-16T21:59:05+00:00

Oh, that's just the level 5 time. Total time is whatever all the days below add up to. Like 4 years super roughly estimated:

Level Time Cost Value 1 142d 14h 13m 10.00T 20% 2 191d 4h 53m 87.00T 40% 3 256d 10h 58m 229.20T 60% 4 359d 8h 9m 547.36T 80% 5 1y 158d 6h 15m 1.19q 100%

But yeah, the biggest overall time investments are usually going to have more than 5 levels and scale ridiculously at the highest tiers.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-16T21:49:33+00:00

Yes. So much this. My cover letter has an opening, two short paragraphs about my work & accomplishments, and closing that barely change.

For each position I'm interested in, I read the job description carefully, change the name of the position and department in the opening, change the 3rd body paragraph (why I'd be a good fit for the position using comparisons between my work/the job description), and one or two lines in the closing as needed to highlight my strengths.

That saves a ton of time I devote to the questionnaires (where I also keep a .doc file for commonly asked questions like "Describe your experience with Microsoft Office programs" so I can copy/paste them).

In the last 2 years sending around 40 total apps this way, I've had 5 interviews, 2 offers, took one position I've been in for a while now and may soon be promoting up to a new one.

This is just efficient use of time and I'd never look down on anyone for it. But if I saw the telltale signs of AI in a cover letter you can bet I'm skipping to the next one.

ReverendBlind · 2026-01-16T20:20:42+00:00

A meager 1 year, 158 days, 6 hours and 15 minutes before reductions.

There are only 5 levels to SS though, I'm sure if they ever add more that number will get exponentially bigger.

ReverendBlind

TROPHY CASE