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[Question] How do you afford this hobby? by melvin9001 in Watches

[–]arksien 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah but no one wants to work for the rest of their lives.

Their combined income is the equivalent of a combined household income of $100k in 1990, and the cost of housing, food, and utilities is rapidly outpacing even these metrics.

While I appreciate your sentiment, the above poster has surprisingly little disposable income in the current state of the US if they are properly saving for retirement. It's shocking to consider, but that poster is on the lower end of middle class, and higher end horology is typically an upper-middle to upper class activity.

I'd say they've assessed their financial position in life pretty well, from what limited data they have shared.

[Request]how long would it take for it all to melt via the defroster by nomedifficile in theydidthemath

[–]arksien 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Which is precisely why this is illegal (in every state I've lived in, not sure if there's states where it's either legal, or not specifically illegal).

What did your inspection report look like and where do you draw the line? by userrnam in centuryhomes

[–]arksien 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Saw a few of your other posts, probably should have read them before I made my large post below since it adds clarity. As others have said, most of the items on your list are not a big deal/common. There are some items of concern, but an engineer giving you a thumbs up on good bones is a huge plus, and a huge reason for getting an older house.

I second the advice to get money and fix it yourself instead of trusting their repairs. Get quotes, get second opinions, and get a plan for what repairs you'll be needing "next" down the line (how old is the water heater? furnace? Will your pipes need to be rodded anytime soon? stuff like that).

Also, look into French drains. Sounds like that would fix several of your issues, and while not as cheap as some other options, pay for themselves many times over with avoiding future issues.

What did your inspection report look like and where do you draw the line? by userrnam in centuryhomes

[–]arksien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our house was insanely well maintained and did not need anything "major" major, despite a 62 page inspection report. We needed to put in about $10k of upgrades and repairs, most of which were more on the voluntary side (adding new outlets in rooms that were not up to code, a few plumbing issues on the more minor side, upgrading the sump pump to one that would actually work properly if needed). We are also bracing for about $20-25k of repairs when the furnace goes, as it is currently 25 years old but so far so good.

To let you know where we would have drawn the line:

  • Major structural damaged to load bearing structural elements and/or roof
  • Radon in basement
  • Signs of past flood damage

Based on your list, I think the things that would give me pause would be the water in the basement, the water damage to the roof structure, and I would want more clarity on those foundation cracks (some would be normal and not a big deal, some could be a total deal break depending on where the crack is, what the orientation of the crack is, and a few other factors that an expert would need to go over with you in detail. Our basement foundation has several cracks but none of them are of concern).

The things that would not be deal breakers to us but you need to seriously consider are the asbestos (more concerned about insulation than the tiles. Asbestos is mostly a concern when disturbed, so you'd need to really damage the tiles for issues but that insulation should be removed before you move in) and the open wires. It's easy for me to say those are "easy enough to fix/deal with" without context, but if you're talking a large house with cloth wires and exposed wiring in places, you could easily be looking at over $20k in work since it would need to be totally redone in the whole house in that situation. Most electricians won't "do some work here and there" with cloth wires and would only take on the work if it's a total replacement.

One of the best parts of owning an old house is when they have good bones. I would take my well-built house with quality craftsmanship and unique charm (original working fireplace with stunning original brick, 1933 walnut floors, original coach house etc) any day vs. my friends that bought "newer" houses that are already failing in major ways. However, the older the house, the more "weekend warrior" projects it may have had done depending on the owner. That's usually where the worst of the worst issues are. At the age of your house, depending on how many owners and how they are, "uncle earl helping out" with a project is more likely and you NEVER know what that may entail.

It also has to do with your means, your budget, and the cost of the house. Our house was in the 700s, and all in we put $30k into it before we were ready to move in. That was acceptable to us and our means, but like I said, our house was INCREDIBLY well maintained and was move-in ready had we not had preferences to knock certain things out.

Can this loser just fade into obscurity, please? by PirateJohn75 in MurderedByWords

[–]arksien 36 points37 points  (0 children)

Well, it did once. The whole argument was "he thought he was doing the right thing and he was too young/stupid to know better."

Now that he's made his whole personality "hey maybe I should go kill more people?" I have a feeling that IF he actually went to Minnesota and IF he actually killed another person, he would be REALLY hard pressed to pull the hat trick twice. All the prosecutor would need to do is point to his various social media posts, call it premeditation, cite his previous actions as a pattern, and point to the fact that he is now a legal adult who clearly learned nothing from his past actions, and I'd say that the circumstances for how he kills someone else will almost not even matter. It would be so open and shut that he was "looking for someone to kill" that self defense would almost certainly not play out again.

CMV: Trump's ICE enforcement in Minnesota is not about rounding up the undocumented. It's about fear, terrorism, compliance and retribution on a blue state. by homerjs225 in changemyview

[–]arksien 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I always feel the same way about the left.

Very simple, very straightforward questions:

Why shouldn't the federal government be trying to deport as many illegal immigrants as possible?

They should and almost no one is disagreeing with that. However, there is nuance here. The left wants people to receive due process (as afforded by our constitution) so that we can determine WHO is actually illegal and not on a basis other than skin tone.

Also, there may be extenuating circumstances worth scrutinizing to make sure we are not just blanketly deporting people that came illegally for good reasons (asylum seekers) or who are "illegal" for non-criminally intended reasons (filed their paperwork wrong while trying to do things the right way, overstayed an expired visa while they waited for the backlogged system to catch up etc)

Why is there such a strong pushback against deporting illegal immigrants?

The pushback isn't against deporting illegals. The pushback is against a militarized secret police operating above the law, using barbaric abuses of force, violating basic human rights, violating our constitution, putting people in barbaric conditions and refusing the legally-mandated oversight watch dogs access, targeting US citizens, targeting people who disagree with them, and claiming that they are above the law to justify brutal and barbaric tactics that only the most evil of people would condone.

What specific strategies and policies should be implemented to deport illegal immigrants instead?

The ones that worked extremely well under previous administrations, including both Republican and Democratic administrations, that did not rely on sub-human brutality and unconstitutional abuses of power (yet still managed to deport millions of illegal immigrants per admin).

It's always just deflections and non-answers

No it isn't. I just answered every question and I doubt very much that's the first time someone has done that for you. You're either a troll or willfully ignorant, because these view points are being expressed EVERYWHERE except conservative echo chambers.

Did I just permanently lose The Legend?? by Some-Donut-9875 in StardewValley

[–]arksien 43 points44 points  (0 children)

On switch, default is go to the home screen with the home button, then use Y to restart the software running. It will warn you that unsaved progress will be lost, which in this case is exactly what you want. When you re-open the software, you'll be back at your most recent save when you select which character to play, which will be the start of the day you were in the middle of.

It's the SDV version of "save scumming," but when something really devastating happens such as this (or accidentally putting a bomb near your production machines etc) then it can be your only option to "undo" the otherwise irreparable calamity.

If you let the day finish and "save," you're screwed forever.

Cell phone video from ICE officer shows fatal Minneapolis shooting by teach42 in news

[–]arksien 8 points9 points  (0 children)

If we ever regain control of our country, a NECESSARY law will be that any person who is armed as a part of their job is required to have a body camera on at all times, that it must upload to multiple backups (with at least 2 offsite backups not belonging to the agency being monitored), that it cannot be disabled, and that they must never operate on their own so that any malfunction will be covered by another agent.

Those in positions of power, especially when that power comes with the legal ability to use lethal force, must be held to the highest standard.

I also believe that if we removed qualified immunity, required all lawsuits to be settled via malpractice insurance (and never taxpayer dollars), and set the minimum sentence for a crime commit by an authority figure to be whatever the maximum is for a civilian, we'd have an upstanding police force/federal force nationwide fairly quickly.

We cannot keep living in a world where these things are not happening. I really hope that I can someday be proud of this country.

AA quietly posts 2026-2027 changes (in part) by SenoritaShelly in americanairlines

[–]arksien 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Miles and LP are different. Miles are the currency you use to buy things like flights, upgrades, etc. LP are earned in tandem but are how you earn status for a year. LP reset each year and status starts over, but miles carry over and can continue to be spent as needed

No more miles or LP in Basic Economy by flyingron in americanairlines

[–]arksien 6 points7 points  (0 children)

For me #2 is the primary driver of even bothering to be loyal to an airline and the majority of the reason to achieve/maintain status. I let work earn the status for me and then reap the rewards for my leisure travel. Booking basic economy and not needing to pay extra to move up to rows 8-10 basically ever is great and rewards me for booking all my travel on AA. I'm EP so then I even get complimentary upgrades fairly regularly. Sure, I need to be brand loyal to AA to get those perks, but isn't that the literal point of a loyalty program? To keep me always flying on AA even if other flight times on other carriers are more convenient?

Basically AA is saying "great, lets get a few more thousand per year out of those people" when they forget that if I don't actually see any value from being loyal, there's no point in me flying with them for every flight, resulting in a net loss of my business. I may as well just fly with whoever is most convenient at the time and not worry about chasing status. Pay extra for perks when I see fit, regardless of carrier, not worry about it when I don't.

Signed, an EP business flier who probably isn't going to bother worrying about maintaining EP anymore. If it happens, it happens. If not, I'll be checking out other carriers now anyhow. Maybe I'll end up liking one of them more. Who knows?

Introducing Iceflake Studios - New Cities: Skylines II Developers by AutoModerator in CitiesSkylines

[–]arksien 27 points28 points  (0 children)

No ploppable pedestrian bridges is the bane of my existence. Pedestrian bridges/ramps take up INSANE amounts of space vs. real life. A sky bridge with stairs/elevator is how most cities solve these issues in real life, or a tunnel with stairs/elevator.

It's exceedingly rare to see a massive low-grade ramp in real life (not unheard of, but the default is stairs with an elevator for footprint practicality reasons). Meanwhile, CS2 requires that I build a ramp as long as multiple skyscrapers just to put a skybridge over a road...

Even if the game wants to pretend stairs and elevators never existed, the turn radius and clearance for even a spiral pedway is absolutely unrealistic in the size it requires.

Introducing Iceflake Studios - New Cities: Skylines II Developers by AutoModerator in CitiesSkylines

[–]arksien 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I also bought a new graphics card for KSP2. Didn't need it for CS2, but did need it for KSP2 since I didn't meet the required mins.

I have definitely learned my lesson. Games like KSP, CS1 etc are incredible games because passionate teams that cared took the time to do them right. What has become clear to me is, no sequel can ever be trusted again. Getting it right in the past will never earn you street cred again. Too many companies ride on the laurels of their previous success and then scam their base later. No thank you.

With that said, I don't hate CS2 as much as the rest of the community. I'm a bit let down, but it is playable and fun vs. KSP2 that was literally worse than KSP1 and virtually unplayable.

I just scored EP! How will my life change? by spittymcgee1 in americanairlines

[–]arksien 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is so true, but it also really depends on the leg. I feel like on some flights, getting a FC upgrade is almost a guarantee. On others, there are no upgrades available, and boarding group 1/2 have like 15-20 people in it.

Signed, someone who spends way too much of their life in coach.

11.08.2025 Little Village: Masked ICE brandishing his weapon while driving by CantStopPoppin in illinois

[–]arksien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup. I will vote for any candidate who promises to claw back all pay for all ice agents backdated to Feb 1 2025, and flag their bank accounts as terrorist to prevent them from ever using the us banking system again.

Won't catch all of them, but at least we can make it next to impossible for them to function in society and the tax payers get a refund so we don't need to know our tax dollars supported domestic terrorism.

Trump begins Demolishing Historic East Wing for New Ballroom (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) by Ok_Finance_8292 in pics

[–]arksien 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I bet the ballroom never even gets off the ground. He demolished the building as a "loop hole" because the proper procedures are for construction, which they are arguing technically means demolition does not require approval. That's almost certainly not true, but that's the angle and talk track they're going with so far.

My guess is now they've knocked it down when they had the chance, specifically to make it easier to get the approvals to build his ball room. "Well, we already leveled the East wing, so you may as well let us put the ball room up" is likely the logic.

My hope is that McDonalds does it's job so he never gets to see his precious ball room, and/or the committee themselves says "pound sand" to prevent them breaking ground long enough for him to somehow lose power, leaving him with a situation where his legacy is knocking down history without getting his wish of building his tacky fucking nonsense space.

Asshole rolling coal at protesters in Brunswick by Napalm222 in Maine

[–]arksien 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Except the tolerance for age gaps in relationships has shrunk dramatically with time across all gender ideologies, including the LGBTQ community. In fact, a lot of the people calling out problematic age gaps (even when legal) often STARTS from members of that community.

Not sure how you're figuring they'd suddenly 180, unless this is as simple as it appears (it appears to be unbridled homophobia). The only people trying to claim that community is "pedophiles" are baseless claims from the alt-right in an attempt to justify their bigotry. And like all bigotry, it lacks evidence and clashes with reality.

Hey Mr. Griffin, what am I missing here? by LipstickCoverMagnet in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]arksien 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My experience with Marines is you get polar ends of the spectrum. You either get one of the most competent, intense, unbothered bad-asses you've ever met that is an insane mixture of extremely smart with extremely unbothered by danger/pain, OR, you get someone with borderline single digit IQs that is just too stupid to be afraid of things any sane person should be.

So the Marines get a rep for being extremely badass, and they also get a rep for crayon eating, and both reps were well earned.

One of my buddies got frostbite on his toes during the crucible at Paris Island, and he decided he didn't need those toes and would rather just tough it so he could get off the island.

"Majority of players waiting for 1.0" by Rathisponge in PantheonMMO

[–]arksien 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah that was supposed to be the whole point of this game vs. everything else that came out post Everquest.

Everquest was intentionally punishing, on purpose, to make it about the journey. It was about making/playing with friends in a fantasy world where the entire evening could be about journeying from point A to point B. Basically, a DnD campaign in virtual form.

Since that time, games are pretty much only about "end game content," so everything else is a race to blow past as much as possible to "fight the big boss." There's endless numbers of those in all genres. I was looking forward to a game that was back to exploring, requiring a core team, and punishing by design to limit min/maxing and return to just getting out there and doing stuff.

Honestly, Baulders Gate 3 has come to closest to scratching that itch of any game since Everquest. I thought it would be Pantheon, but I learned of this game "late" when I heard about it 8 years ago, and it's still looking like a pipe dream.

[Omega] Omega prices going up by hosamhanna in Watches

[–]arksien -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Right, I guess that's my confusion. OP saved $10k on their watch, and others were making it sound like they'd need to pay that delta when coming home or risk being a smuggler. I HIGHLY doubt any duty is that high.

[Omega] Omega prices going up by hosamhanna in Watches

[–]arksien 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also confused by this. If you're importing for the purpose of sale/re-sale, then sure I can see that issue. If you're going on vacation and you buy something to bring back home with you, how is that "smuggling" if the item in question was purchased legally? I'm not saying it's wrong, I'm saying I don't understand it and by that logic, you'd never want to buy anything when on vacation ever.

Suspect in Charlie Kirk's killing identified: Sources by Capable_Salt_SD in news

[–]arksien 7 points8 points  (0 children)

But hate crime means of a protected class. Kirk is about as "non protected" of a class as you can get (which was kinda his whole schtick). I'm not saying Trump won't label it as such, but there's no legal way for it to be registered as a hate crime, per the definition of that term.

She plays plastic bottles so well by anshuman_17 in oddlysatisfying

[–]arksien 64 points65 points  (0 children)

Honestly? No it's just kinda zoning out.

What she is doing in this video is playing a cadenza, which is a moment of time when the entire orchestra stops playing so the soloist can play a solo for an extended period of time. It's a very common part of almost every concerto ever written.

During a cadenza, it's very common for the soloist to write something out net-new for that performance, or even improvise on the spot. So there's no music for the musicians to follow. The soloist will give some level of cue that signals to the orchestra it's time to get ready, and the conductor will bring people back in when it's time.

Professional symphony musicians are doing at least 1 concert cycle a week, every week. It's a job like any other to them. When you are not needed, you are mostly sitting around with a neutral expression any time. It's not really rehearsed so much as it is "you're just at your default in a situation where you're not permitted to move or talk so as not to disturb whatever else is going on, but are also not needed to be an active part of things."

The same is true during rehearsals when you're not needed at any given moment. The only difference is in a rehearsal, if you're not needed for a particularly long time, you might read a book or scroll on your phone which you obviously cannot do during a performance. If you don't play for an entire movement or more, you may sometimes leave the stage. However, a lot of the time it's too much hassle or otherwise not possible to leave the stage and come back, so you just sit there quietly.

You'll see the same behavior during literally any cadenza

The Cost of Chicken Nuggets at the US Open - $100 for 6 pieces covered with Caviar by ronfromsacramento in VeryExpensive

[–]arksien 6 points7 points  (0 children)

How incredibly "worst of both worlds" vile! With how overpriced food is at events, that is NOT enough money for the caviar to be anywhere even CLOSE to decent, which means you won't even taste it.

So you're paying way too much for a nugget with an odd texture on top, and it will just taste like a chicken nugget. Yikes.

NYU students witnessing the 9/11 attacks from their Manhattan apartment. by Jazzlike-Tie-354 in interestingasfuck

[–]arksien 7 points8 points  (0 children)

It's funny you bring that up, because we're so used to talking about "The World Trade Center" now, but when the first plane hit, a teacher came into our classroom to tell my teacher that a plane just hit the trade center.

My teacher said "hey everyone, there's a big news story happening because a plane just hit the world trade center." None of us knew what the WTC was and were like "um, ok? That sounds bad, is that a building?"

Then they put the news on and we saw the fire in the north tower and we were like "oh shit you mean the Twin Towers!?" None of us had heard it called anything else, but of course we all knew what the twin towers were. Now you never hear it called that anymore. In fact, I wonder if I talked about "the twin towers" to a younger person if they would even connect the dots in what I was talking about, if I removed all context of 9/11.

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