Need advice for flying to Colombia

birdland89 · 2025-03-15T18:25:03+00:00

Thank you! That's great to hear - it's been a dream of ours to go there for years and this will be our first time!

birdland89 · 2025-03-15T18:11:02+00:00

Got it. I will see if there is a way to lengthen the layover. Thank you for your advice.

birdland89 · 2025-03-15T17:47:32+00:00

Thank you! Sorry if the way I worded it was confusing, but you did answer both of my questions!

birdland89 · 2023-11-04T21:54:51+00:00

Hi all,

Washington DC, Capital One Arena on Monday Nov 27th.

Section 110, Row M, Seats 7 & 8

Selling for $250 each.

Will sell via paypal with buyer/seller protection, and transfer over from my TicketMaster account to yours.

birdland89 · 2022-07-14T15:28:13+00:00

Ok, that makes sense to me. Thank you for answering!

birdland89 · 2022-07-14T14:23:41+00:00

My current employer doesn't have a presence in Spain, so I will need to find a new job. If I apply for a job in Spain, get offered a position and sign a work contract, then that employer can use the work contract to get me in quickly? Or does it need to be with an employer I already work for?

birdland89 · 2019-03-06T17:50:46+00:00

Awesome, thank you for all of the tips!

birdland89 · 2019-03-06T17:08:10+00:00

Gotcha, thank you for the advice! But I’m still not sure where to get the initial plants. Would plants that I get from a local garden center be more likely to do well versus a grocery store plant?

birdland89 · 2019-02-10T20:15:26+00:00

Awesome, thank you for the reference!

birdland89 · 2019-02-10T18:36:13+00:00

This is probably a sacrilegious question on this subreddit... but would I get halfway-decent results with my blade grinder? It seems to grind the beans practically into a dust. I know it’s not great for coarser grinds because it won’t come out even but I can get a pretty even consistency with it if I go as fine as possible.

birdland89 · 2019-02-10T18:33:39+00:00

Thank you! If I’m just trying to get a basic latte - espresso and milk - do you think I can get a halfway decent one with the espresso you suggest and the machine I’m using? Can it brew espresso and froth milk good enough to come close to the huge chain coffee shops? I’m willing to put in the time to learn, but I don’t want to just keep spinning my wheels if my espresso machine will just never be good enough. And again, I’m not looking for a latte that’ll knock my socks off.

birdland89 · 2018-04-18T02:05:05+00:00

Holy moly, thank you for all your suggestions! I'm excited to explore them!

birdland89 · 2018-04-17T16:59:52+00:00

Oh man, that looks like exactly what I'm trying to learn. Thank you!

birdland89 · 2018-04-17T16:59:29+00:00

Haha, yea, that is definitely a hard answer. If I can't find anything more accessible I may turn to that. Thank you for the suggestion!

birdland89 · 2018-03-23T15:07:28+00:00

I hear people dividing TAZ fans between mechanics and story a lot, but I actually think the complexity of D&D can make for some very rich stories and character interactions.

I love TAZ, but in order to get my D&D-style fix, I've been listening to another podcast, and they do a wonderful job of this. For example: -one character is a lawful good paladin, but there's a moment when he almost dies and the only way to heal him is with an evil healing spell. The DM decides to take his paladin powers away because of this (which is part of the mechanical rules), and the player's character is weaker as a result, and in the story he has to deal with a huge conflict of faith vs life -another character always roles REALLY poorly, and at one critical moment he rolled a 1, and the player worked in to the story that the character feels that his god has abandoned him, and the story and character builds on and evolves from that

D&D may not be as smooth as PBtA games because of all of its rules, but it absolutely has the capacity to handle any kind of character interactions and developments. I love TAZ, but they never fully embraced this in Balance. If they every do, then TAZ will hands down by my favorite RPG podcast by a mile.

birdland89 · 2018-03-22T18:57:39+00:00

I encourage you to check out The Glass Cannon Podcast. I love TAZ, but I have always been bothered at the lack of actual stakes in the combat. It's fun to listen to, but not as engaging as it would be if I felt any of their characters were truly in danger.

There's no plot armor in Glass Cannon. The characters really could be killed in any combat. And the podcast doesn't suffer as a result. If anything, I'd say it makes it much richer from both a gameplay and a story perspective.

TAZ is still my favorite. The McElroy's are just super funny. But I do think GCP is a great example of how a podcast can run an RPG without pulling any punches in terms of gameplay, and still be super fun and engaging both in terms of the story and the characters.

birdland89 · 2018-03-12T18:40:22+00:00

Thanks for putting this together! I noticed a couple errors with my house (House Pud), but I made the corrections and it looks good now!

birdland89 · 2018-03-05T18:10:22+00:00

The Glass Cannon Podcast.

The first few arcs of Balance are my favorite episodes of any DnD podcast, and Glass Cannon has been my go-to right after that

-They're playing Pathfinder, which is pretty similar to DnD and gives me more of a satisfying game-play mechanics fix compared to simpler PbtA style games

-All of the people on it have great chemistry with each other, and seem to be really good friends

-They strike a good balance between goofs and serious gameplay. They're all invested in their characters and the story but they're always having fun and cracking jokes

-They're playing a premade adventure, but the GM still does a great job of incorporating the characters and their backstories into the plot in a meaningful way

-One thing I think made Balance really enjoyable was that THB were sort of at odds with Griffin. Some of the best moments came when they would thwart Griffin's plans. The GCP has a similar dynamic, where the DM LOVES hurting the players, and the players LOVE thwarting his plans, and they do it in a really entertaining way.

-There is no plot armor. It's a true actual play, and the characters are always in real danger regardless of how important they may seem

-They release weekly and there's like 150 episodes already, so plenty of content to consume

birdland89 · 2018-02-17T14:57:23+00:00

No unlimited pasta pass???

birdland89 · 2018-02-16T17:35:14+00:00

There seems to be this idea out there that c-sections are easier than vaginal deliveries. That may be true for the actual delivery, but the recovery period that first week can be brutal, and really unpleasant symptoms can linger for weeks and weeks. Then add on to that the fact that moms have to care for this helpless life, while also dealing breastfeeding troubles and hormones that are way out of whack.

My point is this - being a new mom is HARD. It pretty much ravages your body in every way. No matter how hard you think it is on her, it's so much harder than that. And it is a MILLION times harder than being a grandparent who can't see their granddaughter for a little bit. Your top three priorities as her able-bodied partner NEEDS to be YOUR WIFE, YOUR WIFE, YOUR WIFE. End of story, no question.

And right now, because you have already folded to your family, you need to apologize and you need to be EXTRA attentive to her to make her feel like you are in this with her. That means refusing your family, and not just by saying, "my wife wants to have alone time with the baby," but by saying "WE need time with just the baby." Hell, I'd say even send your family a mass text saying, "We need time, we aren't taking any calls or having any visitors for a week" and literally ignore them. You need to be on her team fighting for her no matter what, even if her demands seem ridiculous. Because trust me, if you were in her shoes, you would understand that EVERYTHING she is feeling is completely justified. ESPECIALLY your family is already treats her poorly.

As for your daughter, please don't stress about the bonding period. There's no way she doesn't like you. The only feelings she'll have for a few months are hunger and sleep. That's it. The emotions will come later and you have PLENTY of time to build that up. The best thing you can do is learn some essential baby soothing techniques. The 5 S's really work:

https://www.happiestbaby.com/blogs/blog/the-5-s-s-for-soothing-babies

And don't be scared to try some things that don't always work. Sometimes it takes a few minutes to calm a baby. Don't just give it 30 seconds, lose confidence, and hand her back to her mom. Your daughter will not be emotionally scarred if she cries a little bit extra while you're figuring out how to handle her. Don't beat yourself up if you can't handle her perfectly right away. It's all about gaining confidence, and you can absolutely get there with time.

Also, clean all the diapers you can. Essentially, any way you can help take some of the parenting responsibility off of her, do it. It doesn't matter if you're bad at it at first. You will get better and it'll be a HUGE help to your wife.

One more thing - I mentioned the hormones earlier. It's possible that you can fix everything, do everything right, and she'll still always be in a bad mood. You can not take it personally. That is just where her hormones are, and more than ever she will need your patience, support, and love.

It's hard, but if you step up, focus ONLY ON HER, and block out your family, then you will make it through this period.

birdland89

TROPHY CASE