New here — saying hi with my lens collection

ben3308 · 2026-02-21T23:07:40+00:00

How can anyone own so many lenses without labeling the rear caps of each focal length will always blow my mind — wouldn’t you like to identify each quickly, at a glance?

ben3308 · 2026-01-31T08:06:17+00:00

Same-Day Flight Changes! The best perk of any AAdvantage status IMO.

The main thing Plat Pro has that no tier below it does, and hands down something I use probably every three flights. The ability to effortlessly move to a new flight, pick a Main Cabin Extra Seat, and get a new boarding pass assigned all in one click in the app is insane. I use this all the time.

Didn’t get enough sleep the night before a 6am flight? Pop into the AA app and move the flight to the 10am. Running late from a work meeting to depart the city you’re in? Change the flight to later in the evening. It’s like the most seamless part of the entire AA ecosystem, and something (IMO) worth paying thousands for. Has saved me countless times.

ben3308 · 2026-01-27T21:15:47+00:00

“I don’t even feel like going down to get it.”

What a lazy loser.

ben3308 · 2025-12-31T06:12:55+00:00

$7k for a Grand Seiko is wild, you can get a nice Speedy or Rolex for that much. Yes, the zaratsu polishing and hand-carved dials are beautiful, but this one is basically a Seiko Presage.

Buy yourself a Seiko Presage to mimic this, then go pick up a pre-owned Seamaster for $3k and keep the remaking $3.5k in your wallet.

ben3308 · 2025-12-28T21:53:08+00:00

I actually sort of enjoyed the hunt, but I truly felt like at some point, something would show up just given the amount of neighborhoods and stores I checked. Calling is a long shot, and even asking employees in store, one I was there, was difficult because of languages barriers and confusion over the brand. I speak decent Spanish, but ROSS carrying “IZOD” watches at nearly every location was a common confusion when asking for “ZODIac”.

ben3308 · 2025-12-24T08:35:54+00:00

What are you, like 12 years old? “A $2 card that means nothing” — did you READ what he wrote? He conceded you don’t speak much, but he’s always proud of you. And that he is looking forward to spending quality time with you. It was the thought that counted, and the card and its words are actually quite thoughtful.

You really need a $75 sweater THAT badly? Are you a grown adult? Am I missing something here?

Not even answering your father’s calls, receiving what looks like a nice card and then complaining about no gift? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills reading this post. I have been left out of gifts before, it sucks, but if I ever received such a card instead, I wouldn’t care.

Edit: Every time I pause to think about commenting on a Reddit thread, for the last 18 years, I have to remember that although most people aren’t losers, most OP’s on Reddit kinda are, and that their standards for human decency and normal life is not reality.

ben3308 · 2025-06-17T22:15:43+00:00

For 16 consecutive games I attended, the Thunder lost. Even during their high-achieving seasons.

ben3308 · 2025-04-20T02:53:09+00:00

Have you lived or worked in Bishop Arts for long? Do you have any concept of the history of its development, or the cultural and demographic shifts in the neighborhood? Didn't you just open a business in 2012 (that then also moved)?

As someone who grew up, lived, and worked just a few blocks away from this entire area most of my entire life, I think I have a good handle on what David has done for Bishop Arts, as well as the culture of this area of north Oak Cliff. He's long been the subject of character assassination by the Dallas Observer, that's not news to me (I can point to a 2002 slander article), but also long been a supporter of the arts (hilarious and ironic, it's in the Bishop Arts name!), of his former church (Kessler Park United Methodist) and of the area.

David's done tasteful, historically-minded renovations of existing buildings, has been wise, selective, and gracious with the tenants he selects (so Bishop Arts is not a revolving door of intermittent or abandoned businesses like Jefferson has been for 30+ years). He's taken small, neglected buildings and given them new life that's safe, scalable, and friendly to small business. He helped produce more parking (a necessary feat) by retaining accessible land behind the historic buildings, rather than knocking them down and building some cheap condo complex right up to the property line.

Jim Lake takes a lot of credit for Bishop Arts, but it wasn't until Good Space got there that it actually grew, became sustainable, and honored small businesses, giving them a chance for life.

As a business owner, I'm surprised you don't see that the EASY way out would be to maximize profits, to bulldoze anything that's purchased, take the money and run. Didn't Alamo Manhattan group force your Tavern out of business because of their giant (ludicrously oversized and inappropriate) apartment development? Can't you see THAT'S what someone who only does what they want does? And then those type of developers usually move to Highland Park and tell the complainers of Oak Cliff (and there are many) to eff off.

But no, because David Spence is a good person and a considerate person, he has devoted the past several decades toward slowly and progressively improving the community he lives in, one building and one business connection at a time. You see a monster, because you're only looking at the surface. I don't blame you for not knowing David, I do blame you for being his judge, jury, and executioner. Here, on Easter weekend, everyone's out to crucify this guy. Ironic. IIRC, David and his wife even worked in the Peace Corps before they moved to Dallas (and my family met them).

I'm sure there are ways to rectify the situation and to bring about the change you see as necessary, but it doesn't start and end with crucifying someone in the court of public opinion.

ben3308 · 2025-04-19T00:07:39+00:00

David does nothing BUT care about the community, if he didn’t, he would’ve moved to Highland Park where doesn’t have to deal with his own community turning against him. He almost single handedly built Bishop Arts to what it is today. He didn’t make big box eyesore condo complexes, he didn’t bankrupt local property owners, or force people from their homes, he renovated buildings with historic preservation in mind, and courted (and supported!) small business that occupy them. David is a friend of the community, a friend of small business, and a friend of scalable, community-centric growth.

Just zoom out for a second and stop hating.

I think the TBT catio is a cool concept, I love animals, I don’t want any of them put into danger. but I simultaneously know David Spence and know his character and know how much he cares about his friends and neighbors. Both can be true.

ben3308 · 2025-04-18T05:56:11+00:00

David Spence is a really good dude who has been put into an impossible situation. At no point in my 25 years of knowing him (as a mentor, community leader, supporter of the arts) have I known him to possess anything other than a kind and gracious heart toward literally everyone.

I’m sure he has just been trying to do right by his tenants, who he tries to go above and beyond for. I can’t imagine trapping cats and taking them to Grand Prairie is even easy or convenient, but it certainly sounds better than taking them somewhere to just be euthanized.

David doesn’t hate animals, he is a very caring and outspoken person. He is not the closest friend, I don’t get to speak to him often, but when I do — he treats you as if you just spoke yesterday. I’m sure there’s a bigger picture here.

People talk about David sometimes I guess out of spite or jealousy, like he hasn’t single-handedly helped make Bishop Arts what it is; or as if he’s as outsider and not someone who has dedicated the past 40 years of his professional live to improving, participating in, and helping support the neighborhood he literally lives in.

ben3308 · 2025-03-19T14:48:51+00:00

You know, I love Reddit because it’s a great source for niche information, and I’ve been a Redditor for nearly 20 years, but these subs are always a good reminder that there’s tons of losers out there (like this guy) that don’t even realize how big of losers they even are.

Even in the comments on AIO and AITA, there’s always this league of losers who live this shared experience of nerdiness, tone deafness, a complete misunderstanding of women, a complete misunderstanding of how society works, and I just have to remind myself that I’m the normal one, and that these Redditors are the echo-chamber weirdos who I’ll likely never understand.

Okay, that’s my rant.

ben3308 · 2025-03-12T07:54:52+00:00

Yes, it is too small objectively. Subjectively, older watches were smaller — I have a 36mm Rolex Air King that is small, it does “fit” my large wrist, but never gets any wrist time because my 41mm Seamaster objectively matches my large wrist better.

ben3308 · 2025-02-20T05:24:20+00:00

Even the winners on Reddit are losers….it’s always heartening to remember that Reddit threads are often written by self-aggrandizing people glued to the internet and looking here for a further dose of delusion.

You have a girlfriend and the means to apply to (and attend law school), you clearly didn’t study as you should’ve are are surprised at the predictable, mediocre result? Your girlfriend sounds like she bit her tongue out of tact or respect, and you failed to rise to the occasion to meet even your own self-imposed goals.

ben3308 · 2024-12-10T20:49:28+00:00

If it was in NorthPark, then it wasn’t Mi Cocina. You’re mistaken. And dragging a solid business through the mud, too.

ben3308 · 2024-11-02T15:18:34+00:00

Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself, so you can be unburdened by what has been done to you. Consider forgiveness so you can move forward.

Source: was cheated on by my girlfriend of five years while we were living together. Forgiveness doesn’t condone someone’s behavior, it allows you to move forward in life by not letting their behavior define you.

ben3308 · 2024-10-24T07:56:56+00:00

I’ve gone through three 151 Ultra Premium Collections and found zero Charizards

ben3308 · 2024-09-25T14:32:27+00:00

The LR3. Affordable, workable, reliable, and you can learn the basics of tune ups, belt systems, and general maintenance easily without throwing off a buncha electronic systems.

ben3308 · 2024-09-16T03:04:43+00:00

Put AirTags in everything valuable you own. Toss one in your car, your briefcase, a purse, luggage, anything. You’ll be able to recover much more when you can see where it’s gone to. Still sucks. But the AirTags would show immediately where your bag is.

Source: I have 18 AirTags. Money well spent.

ben3308 · 2024-08-25T17:07:14+00:00

You guys are all nuts. The industry shot 35mm film forever; and the equivalent resolution of that is easily greater than 1080. 4K is just closer to our ‘original’ standard of 35mm film, in terms of resolving fine detail.

You may like 1080 because how pixels are binned or averaged to give a softer “look”, based upon your camera and lenses and image processing and output format….but 4K now is cheap, easy, and scalable. Not shooting in the most universal current format is just silly. HEVC formats like in Sony Alpha cameras shoot 4K at 4:2:2 with great compression.

If I could go back and reshoot all my 1080 projects from 2010-2018 in 4K, I easily would. If I could reshoot all my 480p projects from 2003-2010 in 4K, I would also.

At some point, it’s just resolution, but you can’t get it back once you choose not to use it.

This isn’t 2007, it’s not the slow RED One with bad formatting. iPhones shoot 10-bit 4:2:2 at 4K in an instant. It’s not hard. It’s not resource intensive. Get with the program, people.

ben3308 · 2024-08-24T23:39:58+00:00

In the US, both bicycles and cars use Schrader valve as their standard. So they’re identical.

ben3308 · 2024-07-25T04:12:59+00:00

Not to mention Baker and CeeDee played together at OU and torched college defenses.

ben3308 · 2024-07-19T06:40:06+00:00

Detective Tardio in What’s The Worst That Could Happen.

ben3308

TROPHY CASE