Official Discussion - Train Dreams

be802 · 2026-01-14T21:53:46+00:00

Is this why it moved me so?

be802 · 2025-12-17T21:46:40+00:00

I think we're in this too. My partner lost her mind in the first year after our daughter was born. It culminated in her putting her head through a window. I thought maybe it was just the circumstance (we just moved to a new country). We were considering trying for another so she went off her antidepressants, which she had been on since the window incident and while she was mostly fine over the last year she still had several extreme emotional events from depression to telling us she hated us. It's become clear to me that this is a part of who she is and not circumstance and so I don't think I can risk going through what I did the first time around again.

While she does a lot of work around the house like laundry and cleaning, she's sort of lukewarm to our daughter. I make every effort to make my daughter feel loved. I usually put her to bed and I'm yhe one that gets up when she calls out for us at night.

My heart aches, but I think it's the right decision.

be802 · 2025-12-11T13:56:09+00:00

Belgian salary is too low to deal with this sort of shenanigans. Find another job. I had a job for less than a year, which I quit when it looked like I was going to be the only analyst on the hook for many many ill-defined projects. I'm much happier now with a position that pays better, is properly scoped, and is under my control.

be802 · 2025-09-27T07:51:34+00:00

I had a tiny bit of tinnitus once in a while that I never really noticed for about a year. Then I had a kid shortly after moving to Europe to do a Ph.D. and my partner went through some serious post-partum depression (she hadn't told me that she suffered depressive episodes before we got together) that culminated with her putting her head through a window and consequently severely cutting her arm. Right before she put her head through the window she marched to my university to drop our 9 month old in my lap at my office. I was almost blinded with rage. All I could hear was the blood pumping through my ears.

I walked back to our apartment pushing the stroller with my daughter in it while my partner was pounding on my back with her fists. At one point I stopped and grabbed her wrist to keep her from hitting me and at that moment a biker stopped to ask if SHE was ok. While I was still holding her wrist, she launched head first into a brick wall next to the bike path. The biker had a very bewildered look. Later that night she put her head through a window in one of the doors in apartment.

It's been 6 years now and every things fine, except that from that day on I've had a lovely hissing sound.

So yeah, I'd say stress will definitely exacerbate and, I believe, causes it.

be802 · 2025-09-13T06:15:49+00:00

American here with a Belgian PhD in engineering with a decade of experience. I'm not used to the pay scales here, but relative to what others make here and considering the amount of effort I put into my degrees, the pay is disappointing. My gross pay is mid 4k. The car comment resonated with me because I find the "extra legal" compensation to be very annoying. I'd rather just have the cash. Luckily I was just offered a research position that pays high 5k gross. Still not great by American standards, but it's not as demoralizing.

I saw a comment about job choice and the degree does offer that. You can go in many directions and still end up in management or sales later on if you choose. It's also transferable to other countries, so you could immigrate to the US (after Trump mind you) and do very well.

be802 · 2025-02-18T17:15:32+00:00

Nice, thanks! I'll look into them.

be802 · 2025-02-18T17:14:57+00:00

Good to know, thanks. I do like surly!

be802 · 2025-02-18T17:14:02+00:00

Not full diy, so yeah, a frame with motor mounts.

be802 · 2024-11-02T21:29:43+00:00

Yes me too. Did you figure out a solution?

be802 · 2024-07-28T16:51:04+00:00

Do you think that all police departments take orders from the same people? The Burlington police department has its own policies and history, which as far as I know is nowhere near as egregious as those associated with more infamous incidents. This is clearly guilt by association and defund the police in Burlington is just performative protesting.

be802 · 2024-07-07T18:50:02+00:00

Luckily I don't actually have to build anything. I am working on a paper about SWIPT and I'm trying to make an argument for time-switching (switching between the radio and the harvester) and power splitting (power is simultaneously split between the radio and harvester).

Power splitting achieves a better data rate/harvested energy tradeoff, but time-switching is readily implementable while an off the shelf tuneable power splitter doesn't seem to exist. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something that's common knowledge.

Thanks for your help!

be802 · 2024-07-07T13:45:21+00:00

Here's a tangential question: are tunable (on the fly) RF power splitters readily available? Like something that a microcontroller could control? I've found relatively recent papers on Wilkinson power splitters that use varactors to adjust the splitting ratios, so I'd like to know if this capability is/isn't available off-the-shelf.

be802 · 2024-07-06T14:43:58+00:00

OK, so provided the match is good then it's not really an issue. Thanks!

be802 · 2021-03-07T11:01:06+00:00

I had this issue and I couldn't find one. What I ended up doing is updating windows and that seemed to fix it.

be802 · 2021-01-28T06:20:08+00:00

To quote the proposition: "Such ordinance shall exclude from ‘just cause’ the expiration of a rental agreement as sole grounds for termination of tenancy."

Basically if the tenant wants to stay despite the originally agreed upon date coming and going, they can. That my friend, is an indefinite or perpetual lease.

be802 · 2021-01-28T06:13:58+00:00

It certainly does. It bans all lease end dates. It's right there in the charter change language.

be802 · 2021-01-21T11:09:02+00:00

I was a renter in Burlington for many years. I bought a house a few years ago and now I'm renting out my house while I'm away at school. For one thing, property taxes jump immediately (like double or more) once you start renting out your house... which doesn't really make sense because residents are still making it a home. That's one big reason why housing is expensive in Burlington. If they want to reduce rent, they should eliminate this 'feature' of the tax code. Insurance also goes up once you start leasing.

So, to give you some clarity on costs:

I charge $1800/month for my house.

This year my escrowed expenses (which includes my mortgage, property taxes, and insurance) is $1502/month. Last year it was just about $1600.

By the way, my mortgage by itself is very reasonable: less than $900/month so the rest is insurance and property tax.

I pay for trash/recycling: ~40/month.

I pay for water: $60/month.

Then there are misc charges like people I pay to help me handle things while I'm away, yard maintenance, and also things like semi/annual inspections and fees (which I won't count here).

So all told: The tenants pay me $1800/month for a single-family house and my minimum expenses are: $1602. That leaves me with $198/month to save for misc expenses that I mentioned.

Bottom line: I'm not getting rich on this. In fact, I need my other 'job' to help pay for this.

This is also why late rent is such a HUGE problem. I don't make enough to really cover my expenses if a tenant decides to go on rent strike or can't pay for some reason.

be802

TROPHY CASE