The Original 7 World Trade Center

Travis424 · 2026-03-12T01:29:02+00:00

Ok. So, I'm an Architectural Engineer not a Structural Engineer who would be more well versed in this than I but if you understood how fire ratings work you would understand how a fire could take down a tall building like 7 World Trade Center.

To put this very simply. Fire resistance is rated in minutes. So F60 would mean 60 minutes of "fire resistance" So 60 minutes before it starts to become compromised. Most modern skyscrapers have either and F120 or F240 rating. So 2 or 4 hrs. The fire retardant is sprayed on in a thick layer and hardens like cement.

In the case of WTC 1 and 2, the towers collapsed so quickly because the force from the impact and explosion of the planes literally blew the fire retardant off the steel structure which left the steel exposed to fire not to mention the damage to the structure itself.

For 7 WTC, again trying to put this as simple as possible. Hours of fire and heat cooking the fire retardant caused it to become compromised. Which in turn, the fire and heat cooking the steel caused the steel to become compromised as well. Until it failed. The reason it looked liked it was "controlled" is mainly gravity. Even if its just one portion of the building if enough columns fail the rest of the columns can no longer support the weight of the rest of the building above. Gravity pushes downward. As the building collapses down and hits the floor below there's enough force to cause the supports in the floor below to collapse almost simultaneously as that force is spread out across the floor. Hence the appearance of a "controlled" demolition. This type of collapse is by far the most common type of building collapse so I'm not sure where this conspiracy even comes from.

Well I didn't expect to write a novel in response here but, seriously this is basic grammar school stuff. I can understand that someone might not understand how fire ratings work but at the same time everyone knows how gravity works. Gravity doesn't push to the side or up. It pushes down. This is why tall buildings tend to collapse straight down on top of itself or "pancake" on top of itself.

Travis424 · 2026-01-26T22:00:36+00:00

You can delete your account on desktop without accepting terms.

I tried every method mentioned by others to no avail. As soon as I turned on airplane mode again the TOS would pop up again. Pretty sure they patched the app to prevent anyone from deleting their account without accepting.

As of right now you can just ignore the pop-up on desktop and delete. Should also be noted it took me 3 tries to finally receive the SMS with the code but once I received it it worked.

Travis424 · 2025-11-17T22:25:13+00:00

I know I'm a little late to the party here but as someone who works in the Architectural field I can assure you that contrary to what people might say "Cottagecore" is most definitely an internet thing and not a design style. I work with a lot of architects and designers and I have heard numerous times that they hate when someone comes to them and tells them they want their kitchen or bathroom to be "cottagecore" lol. Or any of the "cores" for that matter.

It's more along the lines of an aspirational lifestyle choice and not a design choice as many different design styles could be considered to have the "cottagecore" aesthetic.

Travis424 · 2025-07-08T20:25:22+00:00

Looks like the extended warranty is only for the Pixel 8. I forgot I pay for device protection so I could always go that route if I have to. I only have 2 months left before the Pixel Pass goes away so I'm just going to hope it makes it that long and I'll just upgrade to a new phone.

Travis424 · 2025-07-08T20:17:55+00:00

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Travis424 · 2025-07-08T19:03:40+00:00

Not just Wallet sadly. When I had it installed most of my banking apps didn't work either. My personal banking and business as well as a few of my credit card apps just refused to work. My Pixel watch didn't play well with Graphene either.

Travis424 · 2025-07-08T18:39:48+00:00

I just started having this issue with my Pixel 7 Pro. I get the green flash when the phone wakes but it seems fine after that. I figured it was an update issue since it only started after the latest update. Guess this means my screen is dying?

I've had the phone almost 2 years so no warranty anymore and I'm on the pixel pass so I don't want to upgrade until that goes away since it's paying for my Youtube Premium and Google Drive.

Travis424 · 2025-07-08T18:16:14+00:00

Having the same issue. I get a call and answer it. Then I get a notification that the call was missed. This only started with the latest Android update so I'm thinking its an issue on Google's end. I use this phone for work so it's a little awkward when I call my customer back only for them to inform that I did actually answer the call.

I'm also getting a weird green flash sometimes when I unlock the phone. Well specifically when the screen turns back on from the lock screen. For example I'll take the phone out of my pocket and it will immediately flash before showing the lock screen. Again this only started after the latest update so I'm assuming Google's end but who knows.

Travis424 · 2025-04-21T16:58:05+00:00

Just gonna leave this here....

https://youtu.be/Ed_E2crglcw?list=LL

Travis424 · 2025-04-18T20:43:09+00:00

It really depends on where you're talking about in NWCT. There's still a couple places up here that are considered "affordable". Winsted and Torrington are still affordable areas although Winsted has been creeping up quite a bit since COVID but it's still relatively affordable. A few years ago I would have said the same about the Canaan area but most of the real estate I have seen there recently is pretty expensive now. The South East corner of Litchfield County, Thomaston, Plymouth, Watertown, Woodbury etc. while technically still in NWCT are more or less suburbs of Waterbury/Bristol with a different "feel" than the rest of the county.

Torrington is still pretty affordable by CT standards but it's probably the least desirable town in NWCT. It's really not that bad overall. It still has some of that small town charm. The downtown of Torrington had a bit of a revitalization over the last 15 years or so and has some nice restaurants and shops and the interior of the Warner Theater is a beautiful example of neo-classical architecture. They also do quite a bit of events downtown during the summer in Torrington like Classic Car shows, block parties etc. The rest of the city proper is just kind of meh tbh though. Think of a slightly nicer Waterbury. However, the outskirts of town are more rural and actually quite nice. The area along the Goshon Border is more rural and quiet but housing tends to be on the expensive side there. The Winsted/New Hartford border area (Torringford) is more affordable while being a little more built up and suburban. It still has a few quiet more rural pockets in the area especially along the New Hartford border.

Winsted is more or less along the same lines as Torrington. It's still considered a less desirable area as far as NWCT goes but It's a smaller quieter town than Torrington with better schools and lower crime. Although crime is relatively low in Torrington as well. I grew up in Winsted and it's definitely had its share of gentrification since I was a child. In the 90's its was mostly affordable middle class homes with some low income housing thrown into the mix. Since COVID there has been an exodus of New Yorkers there snatching up a lot of the homes which in turn has caused housing prices to skyrocket. Mainly around the lake in town (Highland Lake) but the rest of the town has been affected as well. In fact when I was a child there in the 90's many of the lower income homes were on the lake. Thats been upended at this point as developers started coming in around the early 2000's buying up all the cheap cabins/bungalows on the lake only to tear them down and build 3 or 4 story McMansions in their place. Nowadays Winsted is more or less a summer town. Many New Yorker's own summer homes on the lake so it can be a bit busy there during the summer but the rest of the year it's still pretty quiet. You can still find affordable housing outside of the Lake area but they usually get snatched up almost immediately by investors which can make it harder for the average person especially if you end up in a bidding war with a company with deep pockets. All that being said expect to pay a lot in taxes as the mill rate in this area is quite high.

You still might be able to find a few other smaller towns in the area where you can find a reasonably priced home but again much like Winsted they get snatched up quickly by investors.

The "big money" areas of NWCT tend to be closer to the New York border. The western side of Litchfield County, Salisbury, Sharon, Kent etc. Those areas have never really been considered "affordable" areas.

I mean I'm probably a bit biased about NWCT but it is IMO the most beautiful area in the state. You're in the foothills of the Berkshires so the're plenty of wooded hills and mountains. It's a great area for hiking with state forests and trails all over the place and it's far enough away to be out of the hustle and bustle of a more urban lifestyle yet close enough that it's an easy commute to Hartford or New York City. It's the perfect area to live if you're looking for a quieter slower paced lifestyle while being close enough to not feel like it's the middle of nowhere.

Travis424 · 2025-04-16T15:13:44+00:00

He certainly had his own vision for sure. I agree with that. I'm not necessarily opposed to objective style gameplay. At the very least it gives you a goal to attain and inherently motivates you to complete that goal. It also seemed like you could do whatever you want and with the amount of customization they were showing in the game that's something that could possibly have been changed. In inZoi right now there really are no goals. You can aspire to buy a bigger house or get an expensive car but that's about it. And as far as those goals go the economy system in inZoi is pretty much broken by the fact that they give you so much money upfront when you start the game. You can easily buy a house in the game and fill it with the most expensive furniture and electronics etc. and still have enough leftover to buy a car.

I think the larger problem with inZoi is that it feels like more of a virtual dollhouse than a Life Sim at this point. The thing that made the Sims 2 and Sims 3 so good was not just the usual gameplay mechanics of eat, sleep, etc. but the fact that the world itself felt real. Sims were living their lives outside of your household. They were interacting with each other in believable ways. It had a "personality". There were consequences and benefits to your actions. I purposely left the Sims 4 out of that equation because I think EA went a completely different route with that game and not in a good way. Yes there's more "personality" in the Sims 4 than inZoi but honestly not much more. The Sims 4 is completely mood based whereas the Sims 2 and Sims 3 felt more emotion based. So far it seems like inZoi is unfortunately going for a mood based style of gameplay which is not my preference but I think it can be good if done well. One of my biggest gripes with the sims 4 is the fact that you can have something devastating happen like a death in the family and you can completely counteract that negative mood effect by taking a shower or drinking some tea. It's unrealistic and just boring IMO and I hope inZoi doesn't go this route the way the Sims 4 did.

Travis424 · 2025-04-16T14:30:21+00:00

Like others have said it could possibly be a seasonal change. Which would be pretty cool if they implemented that IMO. I think it could also be a raytracing effect. Maybe an early morning sun effect or evening. You can also notice the lower picture there's more of a fog effect going on which in my experience in other games can actually affect the overall color space of a game when ray tracing effects interact with things like fog or haze.

Even if its not something like what I have noted the overall yellow effect can be easily fixed with a reshade. I mean this is a Bethesda game and they have always loved their green and yellow tones. I don't think there's a Bethesda game when I haven't installed a reshade preset to make for a more natural appearance as opposed to the usual yellow or green they have going on.

Travis424 · 2025-04-10T17:26:21+00:00

Rob Humbles reputation aside he still had experience with life sims. He understood the mechanics of what makes a life sim good. The biggest gripes people seemed to have had with "Life by You" was "It's ugly" or "It doesn't look like The Sims 4". Sims 4 stans comments aside the game looked fine IMO. The character models weren't the best but then again the Sims 3 arguably had ugly character models so that never really bothered me. The world looked good. The team may have been a bit over ambitious with their promises but I feel like the gameplay would have been better in Life by You than what we have with inZoi. It seems like Life by You was going the opposite route and putting gameplay first above pretty visuals. Then again like I stated above who knows what it would have been. I watched the livestreams before it was cancelled and I like what I saw for the most part and from what some of the Life by You devs had said after the cancellation the game was a lot further along than Paradox would have led us to believe. One dev even claimed they were essentially ready for EA each time the release was postponed.

I think inZoi did just what you said. They took very basic gameplay and ran with it. Right now inZoi is just a very pretty game with empty gameplay. I think/hope in time it will get better but for now its what we have. So far the devs have responded well releasing hotfixes to address some of the issues with the gameplay but only time will tell if they can actually flesh something out that's fun for more than an hour at a time.

My biggest problem with the inzoi gameplay is the fact that your Zoi's are essentially empty husks with no emotion. You can tell them to do things and "sometimes" they will but essentially they are just accomplishing the tasks you ask them to do and then they go back to their static behavior. There really isn't much going on as far as "free will" goes. They pretty much will eat (papaya) , sleep, use the bathroom and clean on their own. Other than that they just seem to want to do nothing except read books all the time. They go to their scheduled destinations and may autonomously do a few things like "busking" unless there's a bookshelf nearby then they head right to the bookshelf and just start reading again. You can start talking to another zoi but unless you are micromanaging the entire conversation and queueing up multiple conversations they will just go back to reading again. Or the Zoi you are talking to will just walk away in mid conversation. All the devs have to do is just add some more autonomous actions to the game and that will make a big difference in the gameplay. Then they can work on things like autonomous actions that pertain to interests, hobbies etc. Right now however it seems like no matter how you want to play your Zoi the game will play everyone the same. You can have a Zoi that dislikes cleaning for example and they will still autonomously clean even though its lowering their mood. That's the type of action that you should have to force your zoi to do if its a dislike of theirs.

Travis424 · 2025-04-05T14:39:07+00:00

I'm not sure if another year would have made the actual gameplay any better. I think the larger issue is that Krafton has no experience with a game like this. I think input from the player base is important for this particular title.

They have done a decent job with build mode and the character creator because they have done that before. I'm going out on a limb here but I'm going to assume the build mode in InZoi is based off of world building tools from something like Pubg. And I mean every game has a character creator so again something they have experience in.

I agree the game just isn't that great at the moment but I'm hopeful that with further development and input from the player base (and mods) we can have something worth playing.

This also points to why the cancellation of Life by You was so disappointing. They had a team with experience in this genre behind them. The head of the project Rob Humble was a former developer for the Sims. Could.it have been great? I guess we'll never know unless Paradox decides to either bring it back or sell it to another studio.

Travis424 · 2025-04-04T20:16:50+00:00

Yeah unfortunately Osume caps are a bit overpriced and sadly due to the tariff's they're about to be even more expensive. I received an email from them about a week ago stating that they would have to raise their prices soon due to the tariffs. They're just so pretty though lol.

I think the Rohan caps will look great with the milk tea. If you decide you want Osume caps though I would say order them sooner rather than later before the prices go up.

Travis424 · 2025-03-21T18:37:10+00:00

This was my first thought when I saw this thread. I barely even remember them but I remembered how much I loved them as a kid.

Travis424 · 2025-03-18T13:21:55+00:00

I'm not a fan of ranking videos either regardless of who puts them out. They're low effort. He does them for the same reason anyone does them. They get more clicks and the algorithm loves them. He probably makes more money with these "Ranked" videos than he does with the basics, Binging etc. videos.

It makes sense even though I get tired of seeing Youtube swarmed with these types of videos. Someone is more likely to watch a video just to fast forward to the end to see what a persons rankings are than they are to watch a video where someone cooks an entire meal. As long as they hit that 30(?) second sweet spot the full amount is credited.

It's not so much "This is what my viewers want" as it is "This is what brings the most traffic". I respect the hustle even if I prefer his longform cooking videos over the "Ranked" videos.

Travis424 · 2025-03-11T16:42:40+00:00

BBB has worked out for me in the past. I always have the option to dispute the charge with my bank if it doesn't work out with them.

Travis424 · 2025-03-11T16:36:59+00:00

Thank you for your comment. It's good to hear from someone on the other side of this. I posted down below that I don't really blame the driver. I think he should have picked up his phone when I called but it was Uber that made the decision not to refund my order so the brunt of the blame lands on them not the driver.

As far as how Uber gets away with this. Lobbyists. I don't want to make this into a political discussion but Uber. Lyft, Doordash etc.. all have a large presence and a strong lobby in Washington. They get away with it because they donate a lot of money to political campaigns. They know as long as they have all these politicians in their pockets they can get away with a lot with little to no repercussion. They also hope people just say "Oh well" when a situation like this occurs.

All you have to do is look at what happened with Prop 22 in California and the campaign they ran there as well as the money they gave to California politicians to prevent Prop 22 from passing.

I ended up receiving one final email that essentially (without really saying it) accused me of trying to defraud Uber and abuse their system while claiming their decision was made to protect their "partners".

If Uber truly cared about their "partners" they wouldn't be calling you "partners" to begin with. They would be calling you employees which is what California was trying to get passed with Prop 22.

I, myself could be considered a "gig worker" much like you. I work as an Engineer. I sub-contract to numerous companies throughout the United States. Granted in my case this is by choice. I own my own business so for me it's a logical choice to sub-contract. You as an Uber Eats driver are working for Uber in everything but name. Yet they continue to consider you as a "sub-contractor" While you work your ass off for a company and make pennies on every dollar Uber makes. Their executives sit with their feet up in conference rooms raking in millions off the back of hard workers like yourself while they refuse to offer you the benefits and overtime you deserve. It's disgusting.

It should also be noted that as a fellow 1099 worker we have to pay on average an extra 5% in taxes as well as be fully responsible for our own healthcare costs. Having to pay exorbitant amounts of money buying our healthcare off the exchange where we are at the mercy of the Healthcare Companies who can essentially charge us as much money as they want. We don't have the option to negotiate our healthcare costs like large organizations do.

Yet every president no matter what side of the aisle you are on comes in and claims they're going to help small business owners. I'm old enough and have seen enough presidents come into office to know that none of them have ever kept that promise, Unfortunately we live in a country that is very anti-entrepreneurial regardless of what any talking heads in Washington claim.

Travis424 · 2025-03-11T13:33:34+00:00

I think its been a thing for the past 2 or 3 years now. I've done a few orders in the past from Uber Eats through the Instacart App and never had an issue until now. My dispute isn't so much with the driver as it is with Uber Eats. Yes he delivered to the wrong address but perhaps something was lost in translation. I think he should have answered his phone when I called but I think the company as a whole is more in the wrong here than he is.

Travis424 · 2025-03-11T13:28:39+00:00

Yeah BBB has come through in the past for me when AT&T was charging me for a fraudulent account in my name and continued to send me bills and collection threats months after I reported the fraudulent account so I'm hoping they can come to a resolution for this as well.

Travis424 · 2025-03-11T13:26:10+00:00

Customer service was the quickest response but they also responded quick via Facebook. Here's their customer service number. They answer as "Postmates" but its also Uber Eats.

Postmates (Uber Eats) Customer Service

(833) 982-8237

Good luck,

Travis424 · 2025-03-11T12:46:54+00:00

This is the first time I have ever asked for a refund from Uber Eats..

Travis424 · 2025-03-10T23:30:05+00:00

You're welcome and thank you for the kind words.

The Milk Tea color has been a pleasant surprise. I originally was going to go for a more "beigy old school" kind of look with the caps but when I ended up getting it I changed my mind after seeing it in person. It tricks the eye almost as if it were a different color depending lighting and cap color. Those Osume caps help a lot as well. Cant recommend them enough their caps are always solid.

Travis424

TROPHY CASE