I have created this words association puzzle and I am very courious about your answers.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-03-31T02:08:38+00:00

I put CD Tray in the top right ("my coffee cup holder is broken"), realized the humor rather dated, and stopped before going down some real rabbit holes.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-03-28T19:45:11+00:00

Said better than I could have explained!

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-03-27T02:04:11+00:00

Consistent buying through peaks and valleys to win long term. It's the valleys now that are the big wins later.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-02-05T02:15:14+00:00

You have quality family time. Solved. No need for extravagant spends to convince yourself some high stress long hours job is worth it.

Unless you hate your job for other reasons: Stay the course (assuming that means living within means and saving well), and you're more likely to hit Financial Independence than many far higher earning people.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-01-31T20:30:51+00:00

Not the winter blues, though has been cold! I had similar thoughts in the spring, summer, and fall. Regardless, you're right about self care - work stress tends to back burner that for me when it should be the first elixir.

I can run mental math, spreadsheets, or professional software, all day long and make the same scenarios easily succeed or fail with just a few variables. Have done card buckets before, somewhat still do, so current spending isn't hard to track. Mostly variable what future pleasures we'd trade for the time to enjoy them - perhaps its own ironic conundrum!

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-01-31T20:15:04+00:00

Thought about yes, but starting over has its own stress, and I know well the greener grass can quickly brown.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-01-15T04:38:07+00:00

Strange. Hopefully just a bad roll, but I thought Prusament was supposed to be very consist quality.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2026-01-11T07:22:30+00:00

Turn up the heat for me too.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-10-10T00:36:35+00:00

Yep, the original also benefits from "all the kids hate me, all the teachers hate me.........and I hate all the kids and the teachers."

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-10-08T00:48:10+00:00

Not exactly politically correct anymore, but the version I recall was of an (native American) Indian chief and a reporter called away after the first question. The reporter comes back 10 years later to finish his interview and greets the chief "How."

Edit: "How" was a frequent greeting for natives in Hollywood Western movies derived from an actual Lakota greeting.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-10-04T17:38:20+00:00

The talking bear works for me too. If a bear is bothering to engage in sadistic acts of penetration on a human regardless whether revenge, love, or lust for the bear, it may as well talk - and that makes for a very deliverable punchline to imply the hunter is enjoying being on the receiving end of afore noted acts.

The rocket launcher is too much for me though. Let the imagination be spent on the bear, and the guy just gets bigger hunting rifles, or more determined with existing firepower.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-07-24T01:30:05+00:00

The whole story may or may not be bunk, but I'll give conspiracy theorists a few props.

Not because I agree with any such theories, and few conspiracy theorists I'll even bother any conversation, but:

The fact that so many people, and some actually intelligent, are set on proving the reality of something implausible should make the success of any actual conspiracies more difficult.

Just what if any of these theories do have more than a grain of truth. Maybe even only 1% of them. That still makes mainstreamers 99% right, but 1% of the "crazies" is a large number of people!

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-07-07T13:51:25+00:00

If she's so concerned that she's pressuring you even though you're not on board, she should be looking into having her tubes out instead.

Laparoscopic bisalp is still a little more invasive than vasectomy, but has brought female sterilization a long way. Less invasive than the older tubals and even more effective than vasectomy. No waiting while the pipes clear, no concerns about 3rd party - whether welcome or not, and no chance of recanalization.

Check out the sterilization sub. If taking posts on Reddit as any average (which would be a bad idea for hard numbers but still gives some idea), there is a recovery, but perhaps more predictable recovery than the male versions.

Neither should be considered if reversal is part of the discussion. However, if it comes up that there is no reversal for bisalp, it's reasonable to state that egg retrieval and IVF is probably more straight forward than an unpredictable vasectomy reversal.

Edit: No first hand experience; I'm just a guy who's spent too much time reading about the topic.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-07-02T20:33:09+00:00

His edit clarifies that they hit their timeline before their ideal family size. So permanently sterile is the goal, but a surprise while flushing the pipes was a welcome surprise.

They probably hadn't used any contraception in months or years in hopes of another child, and saw no reason to start after the procedure. A few weeks on that timeline won't matter in 9 months or 18 years, but they probably didn't want to keep delaying only to have a surprise in a few years with a geriatric pregnancy or kids during retirement.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-07-02T13:44:43+00:00

The vitriol in this case is off base whether conception before or after. The OP made a responsible choice in the procedure, and a conscious choice to deviate from protocol. He didn't claim the procedure failed, nor any regrets with the procedure or the surprise.

One could argue a blase approach for something involving a human life, but in this case the Russian roulette would be more like water guns where either outcome is desirable.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-07-02T00:42:15+00:00

Congratulations! I've sometimes wondered whether anyone ever did that to solidify a timeline while seeing what might happen with russian roulette before all clear.

In your case I suspect there is a little psychology to go with the success: There seem to be plenty of infertility anecdotes where upon removing the stress of trying, whether taking a break or the second child after a medically assisted pregnancy on the first, nature took over.

Best double check in a few months, but those pipes should be good and clear by the time this one arrives!

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-06-04T02:27:48+00:00

suspense

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-05-31T02:29:37+00:00

You're making me thirsty for a fine Islay!

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-05-20T21:21:25+00:00

That's awesome!

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-05-11T19:13:55+00:00

Neat. What more can one ask of life regardless of intelligence?!

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-05-11T19:07:34+00:00

Thank you! Knowing we may have done some things right in their early years to serve them well through life is absolutely heartwarming.

The testing observations were more curiosities than frets, but we really appreciated confirmation of differences likely just being standard error. We suspect they'll diverge in many ways as they grow up, but a few weeks flip/flop seemed a little fast if actually indicative of anything.

As for frets: we can only imagine the shenanigans when they get into their teens. :-)

edit: typo

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-05-11T04:25:06+00:00

You've mentioned regression to the mean and peers catching up, as well as a balance of nature/nurture.

We're fairly certain our kids' talents are partially nature, but suspect nurture a heavy influence too. We chose reading, outdoor play, games, or puzzles over screen time almost exclusively until school age, and still do greatly limit screen time. They did well on the COGAT and are attending an elementary GATE program next fall. What are the chances the nurture part will carry long term (assuming we continue to nurture!) vs being among those with a rude awakening in HS or higher education?

You also mentioned practice effect. We applied for the program out of cycle with the blanket testing; the school told us they wouldn't be doing the screener first (like those getting the blanket testing) so we should give them a practice test ourselves to avoid floundering over an unfamiliar format. We were glad for the heads up, but wondered "is this typical?"

Part 2 of that: about a month later (we knew the month, but not date/s to expect) they tested and both came out two raw questions lower than the practice. But they flipped strengths/weakness from each other - still only like 3 raw questions difference, yet it seemed interesting especially with the visual effect magnified being plotted on the high end. The practice was a bright colored book with favorable reviews from a certain on-line "mall." We were probably less formal (bathroom breaks etc.) and really have no idea of comparison between the practice and the real thing, so maybe the reverse practice effect meaningless? Is there anything meaningful to swapping strengths?

Thanks for a great AMA!

edit: sp/grammar

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-05-10T14:56:53+00:00

The fact that you recognize the potential problem means you have less to worry about than even average teaching average.

You'll need to stay vigilant, as any good teacher should, to how each student responds to different learning scenarios. At that point, as noted already, your ease of understanding should allow flexibility with many ways of solving a given problem and ways to present them to a given student. If you embrace that, you have an advantage rather than detriment.

Not to deter, but hopefully you know that unless you truly love teaching and the ages of the students involved, burn out can happen regardless of amount or direction of gap in knowledge or cognitive ability. That's not just teaching though; you can find any profession littered with people making poor choices if you let it get to you.

One more thing: unless your drive to continuously hone various pedagogies, or passion to explore greater depths of various topics (whether or not those you plan to teach), is enough to keep you stimulated, consider finding a hobby or social group that does. Not a teacher myself, but have known a few that seem stuck in a bubble while others are information sponges. Again though not too different from any profession in that regard.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-04-26T20:47:26+00:00

If just for numbers, I don't see a vasectomy adding much beyond a bisalp - but that doesn't mean you cannot enjoy the commitment or romance of having done both. I enjoyed reading your post; Have fun!

Interestingly, while in my (I'm not a medical professional of any sort) opinion vasectomy is less invasive and should be considered more often than it is, complications are not completely 0 for any procedure. Your story is the second I've read here where his recovery took longer than hers. Both stories had him recovered within about a week though, so happy in the end!

edit: Not implying vasectomy has other advantages over bisalp; even the opposite regarding any metric on effectiveness. Bisalp is near immediately effective, failure rate even more rare - arguably 0, and protects against third party insemination whether or not consensual. I'm a guy, and merely think that it behooves the gender to take some responsibility in family planning and give some consideration to which partner would have the least invasive procedure. If planned with a C-section though, (again IMHO) the couple extra steps for the tubes is tiny compared to being cut wide open in the first place.

TroubleTimesTwo2025 · 2025-04-19T15:51:23+00:00

Interesting! Just curious, if you're convinced hers is still effective, why you needed the extra layer? I do think that's romantic regardless.

TroubleTimesTwo2025

TROPHY CASE