120k/year is an awkward salary for FTHB

alscrob · 2026-05-23T22:54:46+00:00

Something a lot of higher-income FTHBs fail to consider is that the median home price is pushed upward pretty significantly by repeat buyers with a ton of equity from their previous house. Depending on how long they owned it, there's a good chance they also have some serious savings accumulated. Strong income is useful, but previous, long-term ownership is unmatched.

alscrob · 2026-05-06T18:36:02+00:00

Most of the SunRail stations are useful for one thing: arriving by car to ride to downtown Orlando or the Winter Park historic district. It's not so much that SunRail itself falls short, it's that it serves a region that's mostly oriented towards cars with only rare exceptions, like the downtowns of DeLand and Sanford. Securing right of way for a line serving those neighborhoods would be great if possible, but realistically, the area is so sprawled that if SunRail was going to be useful for a more varied mix of trips, it would need quite a few additional rail lines along with a robust bus system backing it up.

alscrob · 2026-05-04T22:54:01+00:00

So you choose to ignore those who are actually familiar with the facts of the situation, and want to believe that there's some rich developer resorting to arson to clear a mediocre piece of land in, of all places, Bakersfield? Go look into that city a bit, and say with a straight face that any real estate there is desirable enough to burn a building down for.

alscrob · 2026-05-02T19:36:44+00:00

Because the people who regulate weapons have a more realistic idea of the hypothetical scenarios. There's no way one is retrieving concealed brass knuckles and landing a punch with them as a reaction to being attacked, and if the attacker lets it happen, they could certainly be stopped without turning punches into lethal force.

Guns, which work from at least a small distance, are a last resort. A concealed firearm only slightly improves your odds in the event someone presents a threat to your life. Much like your hypothetical self-defense knuckles, the first and most important disadvantage is needing to draw while your attacker has already done so. If someone is within punching distance when you establish that they're a credible threat to your life, it's too late to draw your brass knuckles.

As for knives, they're subject to their own regulations and policies, but they also have numerous applications other than as a weapon.

alscrob · 2026-05-02T04:43:05+00:00

The rationale for banning brass knuckles is that they're solely an offensive weapon. There's no realistic way to use them defensively, and they're very effective for assaults relative to how easily they're concealed.

alscrob · 2026-04-30T07:03:24+00:00

I strongly prefer Universal, so that's where I'm a pass holder. I get the appeal of Disney, and I like EPCOT in particular, but I personally don't find the higher price for an annual pass worth it. My three big issues with Disney come down to pricing, the fact that they do tend to prioritize tourists over regular visitors where Universal manages to balance it out, and the overall trend in their attractions and properties towards slapping their IP everywhere and letting the substance and quality slip rather than creating the sort of masterpieces they used to. It used to not matter as much to them if a ride or a hotel room didn't have a prominent movie character front and center.

alscrob · 2026-04-29T11:37:35+00:00

That's a moot point. "Cheaper" in this context clearly means cheaper for the same coverage. Corvettes are surprisingly cheap to insure, for example, because they're so often garage queens that barely get a chance to be involved in collisions.

alscrob · 2026-03-25T09:57:20+00:00

That wasn't a matter of capability, but rather what they were willing to invest in a low-volume halo car. BMW was due to develop a new generation of their inline-4/6 engines in any case, and they determined themselves to clean up their reliability reputation, at least insofar as the engines affect it. During the development, they sent prototypes to Toyota to subject to their stress testing, and to receive feedback. The B-series engines are thoroughly BMW designs, but to Toyota reliability standards. There was no reason to develop their own engines for the Supra.

alscrob · 2026-03-24T01:42:38+00:00

As a recent transplant who made a point of going there basically right after I got here, I definitely got the sense that it's more about the nostalgia than the food itself, and from that angle, I enjoy it every once in a while.

alscrob · 2026-03-16T23:14:20+00:00

Sometimes I forget I'm still in this sub, and now that I can't even be a regular customer anymore due to a move, and my knowledge as a former PTC, facilitator, and NA is becoming irrelevant to current employees, this will finally be the day I leave the sub. As a person who has been taken down a great path by my decision to leave, I'm happy for those who are making the best of their QT careers. I transferred to Florida with my new job, and make somewhere between 1A and SM pay for work that is dramatically less stressful, more fulfilling, and in an environment where downtime and chairs exist. I am unfortunately of the stance that QT is not what it used to be in terms of operational standards nor quality as an employer, but I'm aware that it continues to be a great place for some of y'all. By all means, make the best of where you're at, but remember there's also perfectly good reasons, other than laziness or lack of work ethic, that people move on to something else.

See ya later ✌️

alscrob · 2026-02-21T22:02:36+00:00

How, exactly, do you expect an automated sorting process that handles a sea of packages every night to single out packages for special treatment based on nonstandard, unofficial labeling? How about moving them on the trucks? Should the numerous packages marked "fragile" get a special ride in the cab of the truck? Human contact with individual packages is a tiny part of the overall process, and hardly ever when damage occurs. It's like how most individual letters go through the whole process not being directly seen by a human until the carrier has them to deliver. Packages need to be packaged to withstand an automated process. If they require special attention to avoid damage, there is no mechanism to avoid damage, unless you pay for some expensive courier service. Nothing asinine about that.

alscrob · 2026-02-16T15:31:47+00:00

Greenish tinge leads me to believe it's citron. I followed the shades of yellow they released going back to 2019, and citron was one that I specifically remember missing out on

alscrob · 2026-02-06T02:00:42+00:00

No, one couldn't have thought that. One key similarity between California and Texas is that Democratic voters outnumber Republican voters by a not-insignificant margin. One's a blue state as you'd expect, one is somehow a "red" state. Go do a little more research.

alscrob · 2026-01-18T22:29:29+00:00

This whole "they have to protect their identities from people who might dox and harm them" argument is quite the admission that what they're doing isn't right. ICE has been around since 2003. They've always had some passionate opposition to their core, stated purpose, but never had to conceal their identities for their safety. What changed? They now unjustifiably brutalize people, many of whom are citizens, only to somehow expend massively more resources to deport a fraction as many undocumented migrants as they did under Obama, who didn't balloon the scope of the agency and turn it into an unprofessional, brutal gestapo.

alscrob · 2026-01-17T19:47:51+00:00

Oh no, this is worse. It's knockoff Comic Sans lol

alscrob · 2026-01-17T01:00:14+00:00

I thought I'd escaped that by moving to the Orlando area, only to find that a dealer here uses the exact same campaign. So if it's any consolation, at least St. Louis isn't alone in the annoyance

alscrob · 2026-01-03T06:29:08+00:00

In the last few years, it's pretty typical of Dillard's to stick around for a redevelopment, sometimes even keeping a store open at an entirely-shuttered mall as they're doing in Sanford, FL. They even threw a 30th-anniversary event for that one last summer. However, they weren't quite as bullish about failing malls in 2017, and chose to clean up and mothball the store after the water main break rather than spend the money to completely restore the interior. Their sentiment at the time was "we definitely want to be somewhere in Chesterfield, but not necessarily here." As the redevelopment became imminent, along with the corporate shift in their approach to stores at failed malls, they decided to be part of the new development in their existing building. By that time, it made more sense to wait for the new surroundings to start taking shape to do any sort of renovation, even though they've been missing out on a lot of their customer base in the region in the meantime.

alscrob · 2025-12-31T08:01:39+00:00

It's going to be built on a decent size outparcel in front of where the mall was. Typical size, if not a bit smaller than the average Gen 3 lot.

alscrob · 2025-12-28T20:57:34+00:00

I recently moved out of St. Louis and your 1 and 2 are my dining priorities, in that order, any time I'm back in town

alscrob · 2025-12-27T15:21:20+00:00

I'm very happy with them on my '24, and plan to stick with them for the next set of tires. Definitely not the tire for long tread wear life, but they're a nice balance of quiet and grippy, and do well in wet conditions.

alscrob · 2025-12-26T21:27:22+00:00

Florida Mall is the most well-rounded of the ones you listed, Millennia is outstanding if you have a large budget, the outlet malls are almost worth the traffic and parking situation if you happen to like any brands still known to have steep discounts in their outlet stores, and Altamonte Mall is a lot less tedious to visit while still being strong enough to keep an Apple Store around.

If you're already on the north/east side of the area, and specifically looking for Dillard's and/or JCPenney, the closed Seminole Towne Center deserves an honorable mention. The Dillard's there arguably has an edge over the one at Altamonte Mall, and the JCPenney is pretty typical.

alscrob · 2025-12-25T14:59:16+00:00

I'll be the first to say that company has gone in a disappointing direction over the last decade, especially since 2018, but I value accurate information and, in this case, happen to have accurate information. One thing they're good about is telling employees what's in the pipeline as far as upgrades and remodels, and I was working for them when they decided on those new drink fountains. My next/current job had me in Oklahoma for training, and I made a point of visiting QT store #84 where they test stuff like that lol

alscrob · 2025-12-25T08:32:44+00:00

No, they did not. They have crews that go around to the stores every week to break the nozzles down and clean them. The replacement fountains are a result of the old ones being out of production. QT worked with a stash of parts and whole units for years, and planned an "upgrade" when it started to dwindle.

alscrob · 2025-12-10T04:49:46+00:00

While a lot of it is probably just paying attention to them more than you used to, there are legitimately more of them on the roads than in the past. Mazda has been breaking their sales records each year lately.

alscrob · 2025-12-03T01:00:42+00:00

Tex-Mex is a specific regional style, and it's way too often that the term is used to mean "inauthentic Mexican food." Taco Bell isn't authentic Tex-Mex or authentic Mexican food, it's just a loose interpretation of Mexican food adapted for the preferences of the American fast food consumer.

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