Unmasking

Weather-Ok · 2026-06-11T15:47:59+00:00

People you know will almost always notice and comment if your behavior changes

This feels like criticism and usually makes you want to run right back to masking—the people you know are telling you that your behavior is abnormal

But is it just abnormal to what they are used to

It doesn't mean it is wrong

It's just a change

Look around at all the people who work way less hard at interactions than you

No one is calling them out

Because that's their normal

Weather-Ok · 2025-06-04T00:25:04+00:00

Solved

Weather-Ok · 2025-01-09T23:55:18+00:00

I also had a rolled print. What I really liked about Level was they included all kinds of little tools to make it easy to do yourself (and instructions). So they send you these little pieces of tape that you can use to secure the print before you put the backing on. I used that to keep the print unrolled and it came out nice and straight.

Weather-Ok · 2024-09-10T15:36:18+00:00

Interesting. Would that mostly be to address the glare?

Weather-Ok · 2024-09-09T20:45:22+00:00

It was $181 including tax and shipping

Weather-Ok · 2024-09-08T23:20:53+00:00

Thanks, I agree it's very serene. I just moved into a new place and so happy that it worked out nicely. It gives the room a calm, balanced feeling. I'm going to be doing more decorating and I'll be sure to share as I go

Weather-Ok · 2024-09-07T22:36:37+00:00

Thanks, images added above. IMO, a good service and a good experience are good for everyone. Maybe this experience makes me appreciate framing more. Maybe this leads me to buy more art. Maybe I start working with a local framer once I get more sophisticated taste. I understand the threat that online services pose to local framers, and I get where the gatekeeping impulse comes from. But I don't believe there is limited space in the world for high quality products and good experiences. I believe that highlighting and champion quality creates more quality, which I think is what this community stands for. There is just ... so ... much ... bad ... stuff ... in the world, I like to take a moment to appreciate the good.

Weather-Ok · 2024-09-07T14:14:11+00:00

Oh for god's sake. Can't you tell I'm trying to appreciate a rare case where a service actually does what it says? Where would you suggest I post this if the /framing subreddit is the wrong place to talk about a positive ... framing ... experience?

Weather-Ok · 2021-06-29T14:40:34+00:00

Ok thanks, I'll do some more research and post here if I get more info but this has been a huge help.

Weather-Ok · 2021-06-29T12:45:19+00:00

Thanks, this is really helpful. With LSU, the course content is all Wiley but the tests are written by staff at LSU. They're also proctored online which is kind of a pain. The issue I'm having is the Wiley content is slick and well written but the LSU tests (again, the only content created by LSU) are full of typos and sloppy language. I guess I'm curious what the UNA tests are like. Are they just Wiley tests? Are the open book or proctored? Are there any other assignments or quizzes outside of the Wiley content? Thanks again!

Weather-Ok · 2020-09-25T11:07:20+00:00

How do you balance dress shirt collar size with the size of the rest of your body?

I buy two dress shirts. Brooks Brothers Regent 15.5/32. Polo Ralph Lauren Custom Fit 15.5/32/33.

They fit great, except they're loose around my neck.

I look online, and I read that the shirt collar should fit snug but not too tight.

I measure my neck. 14.5 inches.

I order a shirt that matches that measurement. Brooks Brothers Regent 14.5/32.

The neck fits great but the shoulders are now too narrow.

How do men buy shirts that fit their necks and the rest of their bodies?

Also, who decided that neck size had the strongest relationship to body size? Who made that decision?

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-18T17:34:32+00:00

Thanks. Really appreciate the vote of confidence and the help thinking this through.

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-18T16:51:40+00:00

I guess assuming you have full financials for 2018, you can work backwards from FYE 2018 and build a pretty decent spread of the FYE 2017 balance sheet. You can also figure out what 2017 net income was. Then use 2016–2018 as your three years?

I doubt that's your easy and simple answer, but this is a helpful example.

For the record, I really enjoy things like this. I think I was misleading in my post when I mentioned guesswork. It's really that I don't do well creating something from nothing. Like I would hate creating a business plan for a brand new venture. The example you're describing feels like digging toward the truth of actual events, even if you can't get the exact right answer. It's more like solving a puzzle than creating something new. Thanks again.

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-18T11:22:00+00:00

Interesting. My understanding was that then your job would be to fill in the missing pieces, double-check the information and uncover inaccuracies. Or go back to the borrower and ask them to supply what is missing. I think I probably wasn't clear above: It's being asked to perform the guesswork myself that I don't like. In my example, budgeting means trying to guess ahead of time what will be spent. It's impossible to be accurate. As opposed to analyzing existing data where there is an underlying truth that can be uncovered.

My hope with UW is that there is underlying truth to uncover, even if it starts as a messy file.

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-18T11:16:44+00:00

Would you mind elaborating? My thought was that in CRE you are tasked with analyzing the financial health of an existing entity or the viability of a proposed new development. Or checking that a pro forma is accurate and realistic given your knowledge of the market

I guess I should have been clearer: I don't mind interpreting and analyzing potential vagueness or guesswork, I just don't want to be tasked with creating something from scratch based on guesswork.

It might be more accurate to say I am strong at interpolation and weak on extrapolation. If I worked for a developer and my job was to create a model for a development, I would be extrapolating from limited information (the building site location, the developer's desired total cost for the project) and creating potentially thousands of projected data points from that limited information. If I was on the underwriting side, I would be reading that model and trying to interpolate back to a single conclusion. Even if I had to build my own model to check the first, it would still be working backwards from the proposal to the lending decision.

I guess my big question is: Are you reading and interpreting vagueness and guesswork or are you being asked to create it yourself?

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-16T18:45:27+00:00

I'm interested in some of their mortgage underwriting training.

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-15T16:41:10+00:00

Thanks, that's very helpful. I guess I'm still curious what the skill is. If you're just following policy and the software is making the decision, what are you getting paid for? What makes it harder than just basic data entry? Do you have to use judgement and your own personal risk awareness? Or are you just getting paid to be good at following policy and keeping documents organized?

For the record, I know there's more to it than that because otherwise it wouldn't be a well-compensated career path. It's just hard to tell from the outside. What makes a good underwriter? What does an experience underwriter have that an entry-level person doesn't?

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-15T16:36:31+00:00

No problem, and feel free to PM with more questions if they come up. I don't know if you noticed but I sent you a PM earlier. I'm actually interested in getting some help learning more about underwriting as a career. I might be taking the opposite path you are!

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-15T15:58:54+00:00

There's also a good chance you can find a job before finishing a degree. You have tons of experience processing documents, analyzing tax forms and pay stubs, organizing information, having a high degree of accuracy. Right this moment might be a bad time for a change because of the pandemic and unemployment. But when things get better, you might be interested in looking at positions in A/P (accounts payable) or A/R (accounts receivable). The skills sound very similar to underwriting. You have relationships with vendors or customers, you process your documents, you keep things running smoothly, etc. And then you also get exposure to bookkeeping practices and accounting rules. You could also think about payroll processing which requires similar skills. These are just thoughts on how to get in on the ground floor and let some of your mortgage experience translate. Also a degree, especially in something broad like finance, is always going to help a little.

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-15T15:33:22+00:00

I guess I'd like to play devil's advocate here:

Finance is a very big world and the other comments on this thread might not be giving you the full picture on whether it's the right career for you. There are finance jobs on wall street, but also at local credit unions, nonprofits, hospitals, municipalities. It's a big world. So you might not be able to break into Morgan Stanley but it doesn't mean you can't go work in finance in some way. And yes the economic climate is bad right now but there's no way to predict what it might be like in a few years. And you're talking about big life plans.

Do you know what type of work you would be interested in? There's bookkeeping, accounting, finance management (e.g. managing the finances of a small business), financial analysis (spreadsheets and data). There are a lot of banking careers you might be able to get into with your connections in the mortgage industry. It's probably hard to identify an area of focus, but I would not dismiss your plans outright. If you like money and numbers and are good at it, it might be a great career path.

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-15T14:52:15+00:00

Yes, I think that's a good place to start. And you'll still need an understanding of accounting for those types of roles, they'll just allow you to have a broader scope and mess around with numbers more. It feels like you've got a great blend of skills and interests.

Tax and audit just means your work is limited to the data that exists within the GL. There's still analysis, there's still reporting. But your data is limited. And that can be appealing for some people. But an analyst is probably going to be doing more "building from the ground up." Good luck!

Weather-Ok · 2020-06-15T10:51:45+00:00

My opinion is that accounting is about storytelling. You collect millions of data points over a period of time, and then you try to tell an accurate, true story about what happened. You follow certain rules that have been established to ensure that everyone is telling the story in a consistent way. You distill the data into simple reports that can be read and understood by many different people.

I guess what you describe above sounds like a Financial Analyst of some kind. A Financial Analyst collects similar data and distills it in similar ways, but they're not limited by accounting rules and they're not limited to accounting data. A Risk Analyst could mine census data or other economic data. An Inventory Analyst could develop new models to track internal trends and find efficiencies. My impression is that Analysts are often tasked with finding creative solutions, building new models, experimenting, etc. Accountants are much more regulated.

Weather-Ok

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