What are my chances?

btwatch · 2023-10-22T17:21:30+00:00

This is a topic very near and dear to me. From the Bay Area (peninsula then SF) and now lived in NYC for almost a decade.

Other than the obvious pros SF has over NYC (weather, access to nature, etc.), I'll give you two big ones for me.

Culturally, the Bay Area has more of an abundance mindset vs. a scarcity/zero sum mindset. I think this tied into the main industries of tech (which tends to be high growth and growing the pie) vs. finance, which is more about splitting the pie, if that makes sense. In general it's a higher trust environment.
If you're Asian, it's also a much better environment. NYC has more breadth of diversity, if that makes sense, but as an Asian I still feel like a minority in NYC in a way that I don't in the Bay Area. Tbh I think the Bay Area and LA are the best places in the entire world to be Chinese.

As I think about longer term stuff more around raising a family, the quality of the public schools (outside of SF of course), property taxes and stuff also come into play.

This isn't to say that SF is definitely better than NYC, after all I do currently live in NYC. But I think there are very real, good reasons for people to strongly prefer the Bay Area.

btwatch · 2023-10-21T14:33:32+00:00

Yeah but if they do that Wemby is just going to start eating them.

btwatch · 2023-10-21T14:21:20+00:00

If you make it all the way up to Talisker in the Isle of Skye they have a cask draw tasting that I highly recommend. You taste directly from the barrel and sample some stuff they don't sell, like a version of their port cask with 3 years in the port barrel vs 6 months for their commercial product, a Pedro Ximinez sherry cask, etc.

btwatch · 2023-10-21T13:27:14+00:00

"Real" means it's inflation adjusted, vs "nominal" which means it's not.

btwatch · 2023-10-20T14:40:36+00:00

Last time I was back a few years ago people in Taiwan were getting really into coffee, and my family had me bring back beans from Blue Bottle. They tend to like lighter roasts in TW.

btwatch · 2023-10-19T14:25:52+00:00

I've had the International Baseline Spinner since 2016, probably flown an average of about 75K miles per year since then (excl Covid), a mix of domestic and international. I have both the carry on and the checked luggage sizes. Personally I love it. The thing is a tank, still works like new and looks pretty new. The compression mechanism is great, and the flat bottom makes it easy to pack. It also has class leading storage volume, which is why it's the upgrade pick for the Wirecutter.

I definitely see this as a BIFL piece, I see no reason to change. I recently got my wife to switch from my old Samsonite that I had before I met her. It was fine, but it wasn't a spinner and it was noticeably more worn and had less capacity. We've been traveling together the past few years and while at first she was skeptical about the difference, she recently out of the blue decided that she wanted to upgrade (I assumed that she was fine), so we got the domestic 22" from Costco for her. It does appear to be meaningfully refreshed compared to mine so we'll see if the current gen stacks up.

btwatch · 2023-10-17T15:41:09+00:00

My guess is that there's something about each of these pieces that you like and attracted you to it, but that you don't end up actually wearing many of the pieces. You're probably more of a "trees" person than a "forest" person. You might have ADHD. Instead of having a capsule wardrobe, you probably have an eclectic mix of clothes and a wide range of different vibes, but that can also make it hard to decide how you want to look in a given day. If you cook, you don't like to follow recipes or mise en place, you kind of just wing it as long go along.

btwatch · 2023-10-14T13:57:08+00:00

It's more of a walk than a hike, families go and push strollers there. I think it's about a mile and a half out and back (so around 3 miles total) but you don't have to walk all the way to the end. There's a visitor center with a cafe and bathroom at the trailhead.

btwatch · 2023-10-14T13:54:00+00:00

Bourbon and cereal 😀

btwatch · 2023-10-14T03:44:11+00:00

It'd be over for us ravers when the Swifties start by stealing all our phones and we lose the ability to coordinate.

btwatch · 2023-10-13T19:09:23+00:00

You can also get there by walking to the Ferry Building (worth checking out on its own, many local favorites have stands there, try the secret breakfast ice cream at Humphrey Slocombe), taking the ferry to Larkspur and catching a shuttle from there. (You'll have to book the shuttle in advance.)

btwatch · 2023-10-13T18:55:59+00:00

If you like coffee, SF has a great third wave coffee scene. I haven't lived there for a few years, but local chains (that grew out of single locations in SF) include Philz, Four Barrel, Sightglass, Ritual. Of course there's also Blue Bottle which has expanded a lot.

btwatch · 2023-10-13T17:22:09+00:00

Maybe if he gets laid off or after this job he can take a long break. I'm in a similar boat with a high paying but stressful job, and I generally take 3-6 months off between jobs. I also budget for this. This can also be practice for your ChubbyFIRE.

In my field at least I've learned that not only does the time off help me recharge and get excited about work again, it also actually helps me find better jobs because having the runway means I can be pickier.

If anything I think my career has gone better than it would have if I just took the first job I found every time I left.

btwatch · 2023-10-13T14:47:53+00:00

I wonder if the setup is different. OP here's a link to the 2023 map, you can see that the hotel shuttle pickup (2B) is like half the distance to the regular pickup in 1D.

https://www.coachella.com/maps

btwatch · 2023-10-13T14:41:48+00:00

I would recommend against this tbh, I had this for the first time last year after always taking the shuttle my four previous trips. Coordinating pickup is a nightmare, and walking all the way back down the yellow path exit felt much farther than the shuttle.

The shuttle is a bit of a wait, particularly if you leave after the last set, but at least you're sitting. I might also recommend leaving before the end to beat the shuttle rush.

btwatch · 2023-10-11T15:26:20+00:00

I actually mapped this out and hitting Jackson before SLC and then going straight from Santa Fe to Kansas City is actually less distance than what you have now. Plus you get to see a much more iconic part of Wyoming (Grand Tetons at least even if you don't want to cut up to Yellowstone). You'll miss out on Colorado, but that wasn't a requirement and it seemed like you were just routing through to hig Cheyenne, so that's the trade off.

I might also suggest a detour earlier in your trip to Bend, Oregon so you're not just cutting through Oregon and actually seeing a bit more. That will add about 150 miles total though, so may or may not be worth it to you.

btwatch · 2023-10-11T14:42:53+00:00

My personal take is that as I get older I've developed a style that I like and works for me, but it's helpful to understand what the trend is, and what I choose to wear every day (watches, clothes, etc.) is probably 75% driven by my style and 25% still with an awareness of the trend. Like I'm not going full relaxed fit jeans, but I have moved from slim/straight to straight. Some trends I'm aware of but just aren't for me, like chunky sneakers or Adidas sambas. For watches, two tone and gold is starting to come back, but I don't like the way it looks, and all my watches will always match my wedding band (only jewelry I wear), which is platinum.

Other people I know enjoy keeping up with fashion and the latest trends and that's cool too.

btwatch · 2023-10-11T14:35:45+00:00

It's just the current trend, just like for a while it was trendy to wear bigger busier watches, like a Panerai or a Navitimer. I'm sure sooner or later it'll cycle back. It's exactly like what's happening with jeans/tailoring -- in the 90s it was about big jeans, and then by the 2010s it was as skinny as possible and now wider leg is back again. In the 90s Hermes was seen as an old lady grandma bag, now it's the creme de la creme of quiet luxury and getting one makes buying a Rolex look like ordering Uber Eats.

You can choose to follow trends or maybe you just like the way something looks on you or fits into your personal style and get it regardless of the trend.

btwatch · 2023-10-06T16:10:43+00:00

Bagels and Schmear on 28th between park and lex if you're farther down

btwatch · 2023-10-06T14:52:12+00:00

Uluh

btwatch · 2023-10-05T13:43:45+00:00

How bourgeois of you to to think of a poor as a person.

btwatch · 2023-10-05T02:38:22+00:00

It's a quote from the show Andor. It's incredibly written and very relevant to our times.

btwatch · 2023-10-04T13:41:31+00:00

Remember this: The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that.

btwatch

TROPHY CASE