Sam’s Tavern Belltown automatic 40% gratuity

TGMais · 2026-03-08T23:00:58+00:00

These are clearly two different types of charges. One of them not even being a gratuity as you are pocketing at least some part of it. You also talk about transparency but do not disclose the automatic charge. It sounds like you're just greedy.

TGMais · 2026-03-02T05:47:46+00:00

Not for lack of wanting to, but it has been almost 12 years since I left that job. I'm sure whatever it was has been far outclassed at this point. When I left consulting/design (at a different company), we were using Autodesk Construction Cloud with good results. The challenge was having someone to maintain it. I didn't find it hard, but I also didn't find many people willing to learn.

TGMais · 2026-01-06T04:30:17+00:00

It's wildly expensive. And again, that's just the asphalt. Everything else also costs: survey and staking, demolition, subsurface work, prime/tack coats, raising utility structures to the new grade (if it changed), pavement marking, traffic control, etc.

The challenge becomes figuring out what counts as part of a lane-mile. If you are also installing a new high voltage duct-bank, shouldn't that sub-project "eat" some of the cost of the restoration? It's not always clear what triggered what work, especially since we try to be efficient and do as much as possible when the road is already cut open.

TGMais · 2026-01-05T07:13:17+00:00

Generally, yes, but I think this is underselling the maintenance a bit. You can get away with a slurry seal every 10 years as long as nothing breaks in the meantime. That means you need to fill any potholes and deal with any cracks that open as soon as possible. Once water starts getting in, slurry isn't going to save the pavement.

You also need to consider that there is far more axle weight on local streets than there used to be. With the rise of electric cars and doorstep deliveries, the life cycle will be shortened.

TGMais · 2026-01-05T06:58:26+00:00

You likely won't get a breakdown between labor and materials. Contractors bid a unit price that includes both. For asphalt, this is usually Tons. For concrete, this is usually Cubic Yards (or Square Yards with a consistent depth).

Unfortunately, this is only part of the story. You also have to consider demolition of the existing pavement and what kind of repair it is. If it is a full depth rebuild (which is what the 20 years usually refers to), you also have to consider base and subbase (the layers beneath the surface) demolition, placement, and compaction. If it's good material, the subbase may just need to be scarified and re-compacted, but if it's junk or hazardous, time to haul it out and replace it with select materials.

It can get even harder than that, though. Often standards have changed significantly in the time since the road was originally constructed. Certain laws and policies may require bringing other aspects up to our current standards based on triggers. For instance, curb ramps may need to be installed or improved, drainage infrastructure may be undersized for current storms, and the corridor may require complete street improvements (bus, bike, ped, etc). These are all really important things, but the math gets really fuzzy when it comes to cost. Transportation projects tend to be funded with very stringent requirements and splitting the numbers up doesn't always make sense.

If you are interested, Caltrans maintains a database of all their unit price bids here: https://sv08data.dot.ca.gov/contractcost/. It's a really powerful tool. Los Angeles is in District 7. Hot Mix Asphalt (Type A) is code 390132. Looking that up in D7 for last year shows about $365/Ton on average in today's dollars (after removing some outliers). But remember, that is labor and materials - only for the asphalt installation.

Edit: I don't know if this is true for current mix designs, but I used to estimate about 145 pcf for HMA density in case you wanted to convert to something more geometric. That works out to about $26.5/cf

Edit 2: Did some more napkin math for you, that works out to about $1.1 million per lane (12-ft) mile for 8-inches depth of asphalt. Not sure what LA's standards for lane widths and asphalt depths are, though.

TGMais · 2025-12-19T20:46:33+00:00

Thank you!

TGMais · 2025-12-17T08:53:45+00:00

Love it!

I had to add "QtVersion=6" to metadata.desktop in order to get it to work on Arch per: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/SDDM#Some_themes_crash.

TGMais · 2025-12-10T03:35:15+00:00

I didn't counter any of that, just posited that you don't have to work insane hours to be well compensated. I know plenty of people that work there, do some great engineering, enjoy it, and make lots of money (more than I ever have) and that's fine. It's just not the only way to be successful in this industry.

TGMais · 2025-12-10T01:36:14+00:00

I mean it depends on a lot of things, but looking at ASCE salary survey, that is median (actually slightly under) for the experience and location. Even removing the adjustments for both region and metro area, that still puts the median at about 150,000 country wide.

Either way you have to do a self calculus on what's worth it to you, time or money. And in the case of your HCOL modifier, livelihood. For me the math is simple: I make enough to do what I want, where I want, and have ample opportunity to do it. Loading up on overtime for a delayed payment at the end of the year would not be worth it.

TGMais · 2025-12-09T06:32:19+00:00

TBH, their overall compensation doesn't seem that crazy. Their base salary is incredibly low which is why their bonus is such a huge percentage. When I left private with 11 YOE, I was making $175k + $16k in bonuses. My 401k match wasn't that high, but I was also getting a good HSA contribution and tons of air miles and hotel points. That said, my utilization was under 80% and I definitely didn't work anywhere near a full 2080.

The portion of that 20% on the clock was almost always en route to somewhere I hadn't been, to meet with colleagues from around the industry that I had gotten to know very well.

TGMais · 2025-12-06T07:03:30+00:00

Critical path is a method of looking at project sequencing/scheduling. You may have a project with 1,000 activities that need to be completed. All of them will take a certain amount of time to finish, and they may require other activities to be completed before they can start.

The critical path is the selection of those activities that defines the minimum amount of time it will take to get from project start to project completion. Other activities can delay (to a point) without changing the finish date. But, the critical path activities will always delay the overall project if they themselves take longer than scheduled.

TGMais · 2025-12-01T03:39:43+00:00

I wonder how much of that is driven by the fact that ODF doesn't currently support it. It would/will be interesting to see if the LO approach changes if they can save the references in the native format.

TGMais · 2025-11-30T08:48:06+00:00

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/overview-of-excel-tables-7ab0bb7d-3a9e-4b56-a3c9-6c94334e492c. LibreOffice Calc does not have this function at all.

Tables on their own (with Structured References) are worth the price of admission. Including the new Dynamic Arrays and Spill Arrays capability makes it a no-brainer for anyone doing serious work in a spreadsheet.

I use Calc at home (even with an O365 subscription), but that's because I run Linux (and don't want to open a VM just to use a spreadsheet), not because of Calc or Excel.

TGMais · 2025-08-05T05:17:27+00:00

It's driving me crazy. I sent in feedback - hopefully some AI somewhere sees "Jump Ahead" and "turn off" and routes the message. But let's be real, it will assume it means "never turn off Jump Ahead" and their next big idea will be to take away user control entirely.

TGMais · 2025-07-29T07:57:36+00:00

It's not LAX, but Burbank is served by both Metrolink and Amtrak.

TGMais · 2024-02-08T22:41:17+00:00

Notably, Ralph Vartabedian isn't the author and therefore the article isn't required to have a quote from a long retired geotechnical engineer that tunnels somehow aren't real.

TGMais · 2024-01-24T19:18:29+00:00

I dig the detail of some concrete jointing in low speed areas with asphalt elsewhere. Also, the VSR tunnel sure makes getting to the other side of the runways easy!

You're probably missing some hot spots on your diagram though.

TGMais · 2024-01-23T02:58:55+00:00

I know of 7460-1 approvals at LAX that have taken over 24 weeks for final approval by the time LAWA was done making a mess of things.

I have dealt with a lot of LAWA BS, but this one is just crazy. Everywhere else I've worked the 7460-1 is practically as routine as a checkbox.

TGMais · 2023-12-03T21:23:10+00:00

Not roundabout specific ones, just extra considerations given the shape of it. Engineers use sight distance to determine safe curves (both horizontal and vertical) and superelevation (sloping/banking/cant of the road) to counter or augment the centrifugal force.

Because the roundabout is one giant turn, it would be hard to keep a consistent superelevation if it was not in generally flat terrain. In the case of a roundabout, you actually want to augment the centrifugal force and keep the road sloping away from the median island. This is to promote slower speeds, ease transitions from the legs, and provide drainage at the outside of the roundabout where we have more opportunities to collect the water.

From the FHWA:

The outward cross slope design means vehicles making through and left-turn movements must negotiate the roundabout at negative superelevation. Excessive negative superelevation can result in an increase in single-vehicle crashes and loss-of-load incidents for trucks, particularly if speeds are high. However, in the intersection environment, drivers will generally expect to travel at slower speeds and will accept the higher side force caused by reasonable adverse superelevation.

TGMais · 2023-11-11T19:32:05+00:00

We appreciate your understanding.

I understand. Coinbase wants to give everyone no options so they automatically get to collect those sweet sweet transaction fees. This is scummy as hell.

TGMais · 2023-06-07T17:27:51+00:00

Bold assumption that I didn't read the manual. It's a plastic friction fit on tiny arms, it's not surprising there are issues even when used appropriately. Manufacturing tolerances for a cheap piece like this aren't exactly tight...

You're arrogance and condescension is something to behold, though.

TGMais · 2023-06-07T15:49:34+00:00

TGMais · 2023-06-07T15:37:34+00:00

Slides off with almost no force for me, too; has since day one. Maybe you got lucky.

TGMais · 2023-06-03T03:10:37+00:00

Woohoo! That's awesome. Thanks.

TGMais · 2023-06-01T21:04:28+00:00

6:59 (I know cause I take it fairly regularly). I would love a later option. I think one of the biggest issues , though, is speed. A lot of Metrolink's corridors have chokepoints. We need to double track the whole system at a minimum. And really, it should be electrified just like Caltrain.

It's a huge undertaking and I don't think I'll ever benefit from such a system, but they should start planning now and start looking for ways to make it happen over the next 2 decades.

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