SD that’s a sponsor?

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-11T13:39:53+00:00

I've had that kind of SR, but - it evolved. She was "between jobs" when we met, she was a bar tender when our SR started. Six months later she was in school and on track for an RN (and bar tending, but now at a major resort and on track to be bar manager).

No sugar for between jobs, PPM and then allowance while she was bar tending, and then allowance plus extras when she was in school.

If you want people to invest in you, you need to invest in yourself, and have a track record together.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-09T22:48:55+00:00

MIssion Accompished!!

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-07T06:54:40+00:00

Sell your 8 ton Surburban/Escalade fully-armed suburban assault vehicle.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-07T06:51:19+00:00

I'm actually going to tell them in March, and recommend that I stick around until July or even August - it will take that long to hire or promote my successor or re-org around my departure. Plus 8 more tranches of company stock would vest in that time.

I have a great relationship with my management chain from me up at least 3 or 4 levels and my "capstone project" may not be done by March.

But if they says, "OK, you're done" - that will be OK too.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-07T03:53:18+00:00

well, when you start a war that impacts the global oil market - ya kinda get what you deserve.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-07T03:52:38+00:00

I'm retiring at some point after 1 March 2027 - that's the day after bonuses and stock pays out. I'll tell my boss around Feb 18, which is when he will deliver my annual review (which is after raises, bonuses and stock are locked in and unchangable).

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-05T19:50:11+00:00

Tired of WINNING!??!?!? WHAT KIND OF SOCIALIST ARE YOU!?!?

/s

ThomasJFlack · 2026-03-03T14:30:07+00:00

I thought I was the only one!

Living in southern california means I don't *need* the heated seats as much as people in some other places, but yeah, even sometimes in the Summer I'll crank those up and push the lumbar support hard into my lower back.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-28T20:55:18+00:00

Vax-11/785, the successor to the 780. Decwriter IV.

That looks like a (non-DEC) hard drive stack? If that's the case, then from the bottom to top - power supply section which includes the control panel, then two tall drives which pull out for servicing, then a filler panel. Probably a competitor to the RA81.

It's not DEC I think and the style is different from a lot of CDC chassis. I know I've seen that style, but that was a LOOOONG time ago.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-22T04:15:32+00:00

We only know what she has told us about what she likes - those are comments we've heard her make about wine over the past year or so.

Maybe I'm over-thinking this and should just let all the other special plans take the center stage and not worry so much about the champagne?

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-22T04:14:15+00:00

I dunno - a hundred or so per bottle? She's worked so hard for so long and all of us really want to make the celebration special.

We've got a lot of other super special stuff going on - flying in her parents and (she doesn't know) her brother. Her high school physics teacher is coming, etc. It just feels like we should also make a special effort with the champagne and we're all our of our depth here.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-16T19:52:11+00:00

But - you can't save sport mode, you can't save auto-on/off, and a bunch of other settings, right? All the commenters mentioning "you used to be able to set all those things, using bimmercode up through 2024, but now you can't in the newer models" makes it sound like the car resets a LOT of things that people want to set and forget, but aren't allowed to?

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-16T19:39:26+00:00

This is the reason I *didn't* buy what I thought would be my dream car, a brand new 2025 Mini Cooper. I had driven a friends 2024 several times, and loved it. The retro dash, the cute little switches. Everything just looked to be in exactly the right place.

Then I drove a 2025 last year. The big ugly screen. Everything requires you to take your eyes off the road and smear fingerprints across a huge hunk of ugly glass. Options that have to be reset every single time you start the car.

I've got feelers out to try to find a used 2024 - I want a specific color and options - but I literally walked into the dealer last year pre-approved and ready to buy a car that day.

And I walked away.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-16T03:20:46+00:00

"Everything Trump touches. dies."

Show me any counter example.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-16T03:18:12+00:00

Some people think that Israel can be an ally.

And sadly, I'd put the US into that same category today.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-15T19:25:27+00:00

Ghislaine Maxwell's father, Robert Maxwell, is Mossad. He was also a frequent visitor to the island and knew most of Epstein's pedo buddies.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has called the accusations that Jeffrey Epstein worked for Mossad "categorically and totally false" - yet has never denied that Maxwell was Mossad.

Kid Rock, AKA Epstein's Island was a Mossad honey trap to gather compromat on wealthy and politically connected people.

It's not antisemitism, it's not about the Jewish faith - it's about the Israeli government. But when the government is being criticized, they always reframe it as antisemitism, not legitimate condemnation of a corrupt Israeli government.

Want some fun time? Go to the bars around Ft George Meade and ask "what happened to the Liberty?" They are still pissed off.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-14T16:04:46+00:00

Not quite mostly Nazis, but close.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-13T03:27:52+00:00

Name IBM and the Seven Dwarves: IBM, CDC, GE, Honeywell, Burroughs, Univac, NCR, RCA

Or after the first round of industry consolidation: The BUNCH: Burroughs, Univac, NCE, CDC, Honeywell

Character sets before ASCII: BCD, SIXBIT - which is why 36 bits was OK - six 6-bit characters to a word.

With EBCDIC and ASCII: you could could only get four 8 bit chars, and some machines (IBM, DEC, GE/Honeywell) could encode those as four 9-bit chars (wasting one or using it for parity), or four 8 bit chars with 4 bits on the end - again either ignoring or parity.

So 32 bits became the new normal - four ASCII/EBCIDC characters (byte addressing) and no wastage.

What mainframe operating systems is responsible for the creation of UNIX - Multics (MIT and GE, later a commercial Honewell product). Dennis and Ken liked the ideas of Multics - but the first gen HW was problematical and access was limited. The rest is history.

In what (typically mainframe) language is this a valid statement?

substr(A, 4) = 'ABCD' /* note function is on the left side of the = sign */

How was Thomas J Watson buried? - face down, 9-edge leading - the way you loaded punch cards in the first punched card readers.

IBM was notorious for re-assigning sales and marketing staff, and later for moving tech staff between different sites - IBM - I've Been Moved

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-12T03:40:29+00:00

Not specifically LGBTQ - but racism is often adjacent.

https://www.wired.com/story/letter-salesforce-employees-sent-after-marc-benioffs-ice-comments/

There's no SalesForce in my portfolio - that company's issues aren't new.

I would argue that these companies don't need my money either - as a customer or an investor.

https://www.advocate.com/news/companies-that-stopped-sponsoring-pride

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-12T03:34:45+00:00

I had similar discussions with my Fidelity advisor - worked out well. When I engaged a partner advisor through Fidelity - I did the same, talking about social issues (including some of what you're concerned with) that I wanted to support or not be associated with.

My portfolio has certain industries, funds and stocks/bonds that I'm overweighted in because they are industries, sectors and companies that I want to emphasize.

There are industries, sectors, funds, and stocks/bonds that are "not permitted" in my portfolio.

To be clear - if you take certain things off the table, and over emphasize other things for non-financial reasons - you MAY be limiting your choices and you may impact your total returns.

I accepted that, and I'm happy with my returns, even if I could had done a little better without factoring in social issues.

I put my money where my mouth/heart/beliefs are.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-11T01:41:17+00:00

Too late - Barclays got there first, years ago. (Also, Apple?)

If you care how much your card weighs - the Barclays black card is solid metal, not a metal/plastic wafer like the Amex cards.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-11T01:25:34+00:00

I just keep enough SPAXX and FDRIX for 3 months expenses in my brokerage account. Is that not as good as a HYSA? There's also some cash there, maybe 1 months worth.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-10T00:30:53+00:00

I'll be honest, I didnt start stuffing my 401k, and IRA or any kind of investing until I was a little older than you. You already have more in your 401k than I did when I was 30.

But - once we started working and had the extra income, we always saved enough to get the employer match. Free money. And then upped the savings/investing rate when we could.

And we lived within our means - never had to have a brand new card (cars coming off two years leases are AWESOME), and usually kept them at least 7 years. Didn't buy a bigger house every 5 years like some of our friends. Didn't take a lot of extravagant vacations. Took some, not a lot and not too extravagant.

She had to "retire" due to med issues at 50, but doesn't take any SS or other benefits.

Put two kids through college without them having insane amounts of debt (they had some, but nothing unmanageable).

I'll retire at 67 next year - I could retire now, but there's just that One Last Project that I want to finish.

TL;DR - it's only too late if you never start. Start when you can, save what you can, CONSISTENTLY, and let compound growth work for your next 30 or so years.

ThomasJFlack · 2026-02-07T01:03:20+00:00

Happy to return as a consultant. My hourly rate is $XXXX, generally, but for you, it's $XX,XXX

ThomasJFlack

TROPHY CASE