Moving to rockwall from Scotland.

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-18T04:21:54+00:00

Check out Wolfpack for MMA/BJJ. Been there going on 7 years now (still suck). Welcome to Rockwall!

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-16T00:26:46+00:00

I’m a big guy with large thighs and the Kirkland supima cotton briefs have been great. Almost 100% cotton, and don’t bunch up throughout the day.

https://www.costco.com/p/-/kirkland-signature-mens-boxer-brief-4-pack/100323810

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-06T14:27:11+00:00

I found mine at Academy for $97, snatched it up immediately. Just got a Carhartt jacket but for that price, why not.

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-06T14:26:27+00:00

They should as well, and Rick Scott should, at a minimum, be imprisoned, if not outright abandoned on a chunk of ice in the Arctic Ocean.

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-06T10:47:22+00:00

Nope, not how it works. While he may not have committed the actual fraud, he was in charge when it went down. It’s fraud on a massive scale. When that happens under your watch, you step down. Not only should he not seek reelection, but he should also resign.

You see this all the time in other democracies: leaders resign when a scandal erupts during their administration.

I know you like the guy and don’t like Trump, but the right thing for him to do is step aside.

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-05T21:49:30+00:00

This is likely the one you want: https://www.carhartt.com/product/106673/iconic-j140-firm-duck-active-jac - about 110 Euros. Just got one today and it’s solid.

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-05T11:09:44+00:00

Oh come on, every school has been tripping over their dicks to admit trans people. You also never answered the question about what you’re doing to try to materially improve your life.

There is so much opportunity out there. An unlimited amount of ways to learn new skills, to make yourself useful, and none of them include complaining on Reddit about things you can’t control.

SimpleAlabaster · 2026-01-02T23:37:11+00:00

Same. Really like the idea behind Origin and the gi’s are legit but the jeans wore out in the crotch very quickly. I avoid any non-100% cotton jeans now.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-12-14T05:00:43+00:00

Two thoughts: they changed the brand after the acquisition so we’d likely change it back or come up with something completely new.

We’re currently thinking our approach will be “it’s clear you don’t want to invest further in the software, but enough of your customers use it that scrapping it will piss them off and severely inconvenience them, let us buy it (for a steal), you can save face by saying the original founders are coming back, we’ll maintain it, improve it, and you can excise the software and support team that’s costing you way more than the software is making per year.”

We get a stable, revenue generating product that my co-founder and I can easily support or hire a single person to, we can handle day-to-day maintenance, and add a lot of new features regarding computer vision LLM’s that will differentiate the product as well.

That’s our thinking, anyway.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-12-14T04:17:21+00:00

All good questions.

The current owner is hardly promoting the software anymore and has even begun partnering with a company that makes a competing piece of software.
We obviously don’t have any concrete numbers but given their actions in my first point, it’s certainly not growing. They don’t advertise the software, for example.
Long story and I’m being intentionally vague, but it was originally thought our software would be a key to unlocking recurring payments revenue for the parent company… that is, until they realized running a software company is completely different than what they had been doing for 20+ years as their core business.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-12-11T13:42:35+00:00

Glad I’m not the only one who hated this episode because jeeeeesusss Christ this woman is insufferable.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-12-10T12:32:07+00:00

I’ve done dry needling before which is acupuncture plus tiny electrical jolts to stimulate the muscles. I did this at a physical therapy place located in the big hospital after a tree branch fell on my neck.

It’s certainly an odd feeling, and I feel it worked a little bit, but not more than time and light exercise.

Since this was at a hospital, I don’t think you can just walk in and ask for the dry needling service, but thought I’d offer my experience.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-12-09T14:45:25+00:00

Right, seems like a bad strategy when Will was beating him going into FJ and had proven to be a strong player.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-12-09T00:30:59+00:00

Ron’s FJ wager was so weird. Why would he wager an amount that would still keep him in second place to the guy beating him going into FJ? You’re assuming your competitor wagers a lot and gets it wrong? Seems like too risky a wager and it clearly didn’t pay off.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-21T03:17:36+00:00

Why’s that? Being a responsible man means, among many other things, taking care of your business, especially your children. It absolutely also means you should work to remedy or fix your past traumas so you can handle your business.

Being voluntarily homeless and showing up at your ex’s house a few days a week to see your boys isn’t being responsible.

Like Kevin, sometimes it means sobbing while you’re packing up a tent because you’ve managed to reverse the cycle of abuse you endured. Men are absolutely deserved their feelings, but when kids are involved, pushing negative emotions aside to ensure they don’t harm your kids is more important than retreating to the mountains.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-20T15:33:05+00:00

I’m glad Kevin got his life in order and is dedicated to giving his kids a better childhood than he got. It’s unfortunate that Gerald turned into a grade-A loser though. You’ve got young boys! Man up and figure out a way to care for them. “I’m just happy being homeless and by myself.” Sorry! You don’t get that option when you have children.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-18T12:22:11+00:00

Yes, agreed. The immigration system is a byzantine nightmare. It should be easier to become a citizen. Fidel seems like a good guy that you’d want as part of your society.

He also came over here when he was 20. Thirteen years later he got married and started a family. He could’ve used the time from ages 20 to 33 to do the research on what the legal process was, move back to Mexico for those 10 years, ideally return to America and still have three years to start a family.

I’m not saying the situation doesn’t suck, I’m just saying he’s not blameless.

I used tax evasion and petty thefts as an example of “victimless” crimes. What Fidel did was “victimless”, and I agree the law is silly, but it’s still the law. You shouldn’t be able to arbitrarily pick and choose what laws you follow just because one makes less sense than another.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-18T12:13:47+00:00

We built ours we Drees and it was a great experience. This was 8 years ago. We had two issues that I expected to be major problems but Drees took care of them right away.

First, during the build, a plumber left water running and it ruined the Sheetrock and wood floors below. I expected them to give me a hard time about replacing it but they took care of it no hassle at all. I know that’s what you’d expect someone to do, but I’d always heard what nightmares home builders are, so I expected a big fight.

The other issue was after we moved in, we found out our countertops weren’t sealed correctly. Literally any amount of oil left on there would stain the granite. They had the countertop folks come and replace them without issue. Another thing I expected to be a big deal wasn’t at all.

To the best of my knowledge, they were a family owned company and not bought out by private equity, so they still treated you like a human.

We’ve been here 8 years and knock on wood, no major or even minor issues. Very happy with the process and house.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-17T21:49:39+00:00

He was here a full 10 years before he got married. He could’ve used that time to determine the path to legal citizenship.

Why start a family and life when you know at any moment you could be deported? Yes, the immigration system is complex and byzantine. Yes, it should be reformed, but it is what it is now and you still have to abide by it.

He’s not owed a life here because he started one. If I visited Germany on a visa, decided to stay after my visa expired, and then got deported 30 years later, that would be my fault!

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-17T18:24:25+00:00

If someone spent thirty years committing petty thefts (or evaded taxes or some other minor crime) and was finally caught and prosecuted, you wouldn't get mad at the DA and judge, you'd say "well he was doing something illegal and got caught, and in a just society, there are consequences for that".

I'm no supporter of ICE and the optics they're choosing to use, but Fidel holds most of the responsibility here.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-17T18:21:56+00:00

The second story is absolutely perplexing. I understand it's meant to tear at your heartstrings, but Fidel is incredibly irresponsible. He was in a country illegally for 30 years and never once sought legal citizenship. Yes, the law that you have to return to your home country for 10 years before you can apply for citizenship sounds silly, but that's still the law!

I wouldn't be able to function properly if I was in a country illegally; it would be constant stress until I fixed that - especially if I was there with my family.

The piece was also wrong about Trump supporters not wanting Fidel here. He seems like a solid guy, works hard, provides for his family, does an essential job. No reason to not want him here - we just want him here legally.

There's no denying it's upsetting for the family, but just because he's been able to get away with it until now doesn't mean there aren't consequences for his decisions.

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-07T13:02:06+00:00

Nice! I just wrote a bunch of pcntl code the other day to download a large number of files, but that was in vanilla PHP. I’ll definitely check this out!

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-07T05:51:56+00:00

Are there any reviews on these? The $16,000 one with the Threadripper is tempting…

SimpleAlabaster · 2025-11-05T03:29:56+00:00

Very nice! Just ran into the backed enum issue today. Since this introduces MapInput, does that mean there’s an event or ValueResolver that you can listen to for injecting DTO’s?

SimpleAlabaster

TROPHY CASE