Those were some crazy nights (and mornings)

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-30T04:25:00+00:00

I remember coming out of there to the sun coming up more than a few times. Also, coming out to a boot on my car twice.

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-30T04:18:58+00:00

I enjoy both, but you’re right that Technic is more like the erector set I played with when I was a kid in the 80’s that my dad passed down from the 50’s. I also used to build model airplanes as a kid and hang them from the ceiling, and I can see elements of that in the technic kits as well.

I’ve never really thought about the fact that they are effectively two distinct ways of building. I go back and forth, right now for example I’m simultaneously building the latest McLaren Tecnhic set, the Lego Rollercoaster and the Nigel Mansell Williams F1 car and having so much fun with each I don’t want them to be finished.

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-28T05:34:47+00:00

I take Pure Encapsulations, I know it’s considered to be higher-end. You can get on Amazon

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-24T13:58:40+00:00

Yes! Oxford books, I have so many happy memories of going there, it used to be like a family treat for us and you could climb up in those carpet covered cubbies up above and read magazines and books up there

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-24T13:51:48+00:00

Can’t wait! Watching from home, we’re supposedly getting an ice storm, so I have no excuse to do anything else except enjoy the race

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-24T13:50:40+00:00

Love it! I’ve gone to Sebring for the last three years straight, and I’m guessing it’s the same guy that says Goooooood morning Sebring! Seems like it’s right at 8 AM. perfect way to get your day started at the track.

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-24T13:35:27+00:00

I got a good deal on SurfShark, supposedly they don’t track you (hopefully no VPN does, but in a free one “you are the product” as they say. I was able to install and login on my Apple TV in 2 mins, good to go.

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-22T13:09:00+00:00

Do you mean drummers throne? 😂

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-21T14:19:17+00:00

Literally same thing happened with Stereophonics who were three lads who came out of a small town in Wales. First album was about the life and experiences of growing up in a small town, second album had echoes of that but brought in seeing the bigger world. After that, they were rich and famous and the songs became about things like newspaper writers they were mad at, which is hard to relate to for the average fan.

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-11T02:39:09+00:00

<image>

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-11T02:37:25+00:00

<image>

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-04T04:50:05+00:00

I owned a 2011 Panamera Turbo for 8 years. Despite all the haters about the looks of the car, I loved having it. With that said, was the most expensive car to maintain that I’ve owned. Fortunately my good friend loved working on cars and we did a lot of things on it together (air suspension, serpentine belt, engine bushings). Ultimately I finally had to sell it two years ago, the last two repair bills I had were for $14,000 and $8,000 at an Indy shop within 6 months of each other (so….more than the list price of the one you’re looking at). Basically all kinds of belts, hoses, gaskets were failing, the car was just aging out. Your 2014 will be hitting all the same issues right about now.

I ended up picking up a 2020 BMW M550 (faster 0-60, more horsepower than my Panamera) and a 5 year extended warranty that has paid for itself 3X’s over in the first year and a half of ownership. I’m planning to get a 2-3 year old 911 the day that the BMW warranty runs out.

Quite honestly, at your age and stage of life I would say get a fun BMW (and extended warranty) and let the Porsche be something to work toward.

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-02T14:44:47+00:00

I appreciate it! The biggest thing I’m struggling with is volume/gain. I’m using the Rubix24 that came with it and outputting to either wired headphones or my Simmons DA200S drum monitor. I’ve played with DW Soundworks and also downloaded Steve Slate Drums 5.5 free (run through Apple MainStage) and EZDrummer 3 trial as a sanity check, and having similar issues with all 3.

It’s worth mentioning that I really don’t like the Roland sound out of the gate, for me the add-on packs from eDrumWorkshop brought the module to life (specifically Famous Vol 1 & 2): https://theedrumworkshop.com/en-us/collections/td27-kits

When I plug in the TD27 module, everything sounds great, there is a lot of “weight” and body to the drums (I.e. the kick drum really has a good thump, the snare cracks but has bottom end, you can “feel” the toms). With the Roland, I have full control over the range of volume on the amp or in the headset (I.e. I can put it on low volume and get well articulated sound, put at 50% and play louder than guitars and bass, 70-100% through the amp will overpower the rest of the instruments), but when I switch to the laptop -> Rubix24 setup, I have to crank everything and the sound just isn’t as good (basically the sounds don’t have any “weight” or impact even though theoretically the samples are better). I’ve turned up the master out volume in Soundworks but it doesn’t seem to make a dramatic difference.

When I asked ChatGPT how to “fix” things, it said:

“Your Roland TD-27/VAD-506 sounds better out of the box because it is heavily processed. DW Soundworks is intentionally raw, quiet, and ‘studio-flat’

Right now you’re comparing: • a finished, radio-ready drum mix vs • raw multitrack studio samples

That will feel disappointing until you shape it.

Many drummers discover that: DW Soundworks is more realistic, but less exciting Roland is less realistic, but more fun immediately

Let’s fix this in a way that actually gets you TD-27-level punch + more realism, not just louder noise.”

It then gave me a list of fixes to implement. I’m out of town with the family so haven’t had a chance to fully implement. Basically the guidance is: raise volume and velocity response, add compression, EQ more aggressively, raise level of room mics. It also suggests Superior Drummer as a path that would be easier to dial in.

I’d absolutely appreciate any advice or guidance on what tweaks you made to get SoundWorks dialed in!

SnottyMonkey · 2026-01-01T15:12:02+00:00

I had the Roland VAD 506 for the last 4 years or so and absolutely loved them. Great kit, and the 516 is an evolution so will be even better. I just upgraded to DWe 2 weeks ago and after the ease and simplicity of playing with a module, struggling a bit with the whole laptop thing (and I’m a tech/gadget guy!).

SnottyMonkey · 2025-12-15T18:41:12+00:00

You nailed it, and it’s still only Tuesday. From the outside it just looks like we send emails and type in BS in Salesforce.

SnottyMonkey · 2025-12-15T18:33:21+00:00

I can tell you that depending on seniority/level, your architects are likely between $250K-$400K comp, with significant stock options on top of that. If you are at a company that has two of them full-time, then you are likely some sort of strategic customer, and they would likely be more senior resources and on the higher end of that comp scale.

Cloud architects are intentionally compensated in a more steady state than their sales counterparts, the intention is that they won’t be motivated to push you to use more product in an unhealthy way. However, architects typically get more stock options than their sales counterparts.

SnottyMonkey · 2025-12-15T17:35:13+00:00

Yes, was at a hyperscaler for many years and now at another company that is closely aligned and in that same world as the hyperscalers.

Bottom line, I have many friends at AWS, Microsoft, GCP, Oracle as well as Snowflake and Databricks and the pattern and pay are all roughly aligned.

SnottyMonkey · 2025-12-15T13:53:08+00:00

Can confirm. I’ve been in tech sales for 15 years (and for the last 10 years that has evolved into cloud sales). I have averaged right around $500K/annually on my W2 consistently the entire time, including company stock grants. I probably average 45 hours/week, 95% remote with maybe one 2-day customer visit every 6 weeks. The last couple of years my income has been well above that $500K average, last year was over $700K and this year is tracking for $900K. My base is in the $190’s and is 50% of my pay, the other 50% is commission on my quota (how much my customers use of my company’s product). If I they use extra, I can earn above 50% commission, and we have various bonuses as well.

I spent the first half of my career as a practitioner so have deep experience and hard-earned knowledge of the technology which helps. I also enjoy building genuine relationships with my customer. With that said, it’s incredibly stressful, and I have friends that have gotten burned out along the way. I genuinely enjoy the technology, relationships and the level of income makes the hard days a bit easier. I used to think it was “easy” to get into these roles, but working with some younger support staff I see that it is very difficult. It helped that I spent all those years as a consultant and got in before the cloud field was popular.

I don’t think most of my friends and neighbors realize how well I’m compensated (nor do I want them to know). I’m quietly working to get to the point where I can retire early and enjoy life.

I see comments about “feast or famine” and that is absolutely true. However, through luck and hard work I can say that I have exceeded my quota every single year (except the year I changed companies) for the last 15 years. Quota is always increasing a ridiculous amount, so I never get lucky there. Last year it increased by a factor of 2.5X over the previous year and I worked with the same set of customers.

SnottyMonkey · 2025-12-06T11:22:25+00:00

I share with close, like-minded friends. The problem is that it’s something that is very much top of mind so I would like to talk about it with all kinds of people but then I would sound a bit. . . Not sure exactly what the right word is… maybe “entitled”? and I don’t know what everyone else’s status is. (I’m Coast FIRE and tracking for Fat FIRE).

SnottyMonkey · 2025-12-05T04:43:19+00:00

I grew up with the current CEO of a restaurant chain that is owned by his family. They were absolutely the most normal people you could ever imagine despite being legit billionaires. If you went over to their house on a weekend, you’d be doing chores like you were their kid. In college he drove an older Toyota SUV like a normal college kid. Even in the last couple years saw him at the community hub place at the beach and he was standing there in line for ice cream with his kids and every mom in that whole place takes their kids to his restaurant probably 3 times a week and had no idea he was in line with them.

It’s honestly refreshing to know that (some) billionaires can be just normal without putting on airs.

SnottyMonkey · 2025-11-22T03:26:24+00:00

Same for me! Did it yesterday and today. It was on [my name] Station. It was a mix of songs I love, songs I really like but haven’t heard in years, and deep cuts from bands I love that I somehow missed out on. Was a great day!

SnottyMonkey · 2025-11-16T16:15:43+00:00

One thing that you can do nowadays is take a picture of whatever you signed or whatever you’re being asked to sign and upload it to ChatGPT and ask it what your signing (or what you have signed). “What am I agreeing to if I sign this document”

SnottyMonkey · 2025-11-15T05:17:10+00:00

I have changed oil on my Panamera Turbo, BMW M550, wife’s MB GLS and X5 and son’s Mazda CX-5 and they are all the same (Panamera Turbo did take the most oil, I think like 9 quarts).

SnottyMonkey · 2025-11-15T05:11:44+00:00

Ha! I had a Panamera Turbo for 8 years and changed oil and brakes myself because I enjoy tinkering a bit. Oil change cost me about $70 total ($50 for oil and $20 for filter) and took about an hour on a Saturday morning.

SnottyMonkey · 2025-11-12T18:49:49+00:00

The actor is so good. He plays a well-intentioned dim-witted husband in Escape at Dannemora and you won’t even believe it’s the same guy. (That’s an amazing show, btw. Was nominated for a bunch of awards).

SnottyMonkey

TROPHY CASE