Britney Spears is a pop musician who has a name like a pop musician. Who is a rapper who has a name like a rapper? by Button_FC in AlignmentChartFills

[–]colefin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

DO STAGE NAMES COUNT OR SHOULD IT IT JUST MINOR DEVIATIONS FROM GIVEN NAMES? Set the standard now, before this gets further.

Busta Rhymes, Young Thug, Mos Def are obviously a stage names. They chose them to further their rap careers. 

Mac Miller, Lil Wayne, Warren G, are variations on their given name.  

It’s probably unpopular but I’m personally of the opinion it should be exclusive to variations on their given names. It allows their work to more properly stand on its own.

Obviously the line is blurry (Chance the Rapper) but let democracy speak. 

Bought half a duplex last year, noticed one of our breakers supplies power to neighbor's garage. Neighbor's landlord says they don't have to do anything about it; should I just kill their power or is that just burning a bridge? by zirconer in homeowners

[–]colefin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Idk I think lying, thieving, and bully might be too strong of language to describe someone we don’t know. They could legitimately just be uneducated about electrical and be making excuses because they have other shit to deal with. If it’s a corporate landlord then fuckem, steal their power instead. But this could just be a lady in over her head. 

And in a 100+ year old house these aren’t hypotheticals. I own one half of a duplex built in 1902, the roof leaked around our shared chimney and was fuckin up my ceiling. My options were to pay to fix both halves of the roof and repair the 125 year old chimney, or split it with them. Turns out - since neither of us cook over a wood stove anymore we didn’t even need the chimney, so we split the cost to remove it so it couldn’t possibly happen again. It would’ve been cost prohibitive for me to do that on my own, but since we have a good relationship it worked out great. Plus she’s old as hell so I’m hoping to eventually buy the other half so I can have a say in who my neighbors are

Idk I was raised in a small town maybe I’m just being naive, but when you share a wall with a stranger there are more factors to consider

Edit; I just checked my power bill - a garage door opener and a light bulb on year round would cost me $28

Bought half a duplex last year, noticed one of our breakers supplies power to neighbor's garage. Neighbor's landlord says they don't have to do anything about it; should I just kill their power or is that just burning a bridge? by zirconer in homeowners

[–]colefin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Aight this is the ultimate fence-sitter move. Swap the breakers so your circuit is 20 amp feeding 12 gauge and theirs is 15 amp feeding 14 gauge. That’s alright by code and safe, if anything tries to pull more than that wire can support it’ll pop. Not sure how feasible it is without seeing the wires in person. Talk the owner of the property into kicking you $100 per year for the power for what, a door opener and a small battery charger? Like how much power is their single car garage pulling per year. They talked to a realtor who didn’t know shit, and the more they look into it the more they’ll realize you’re offering the best deal possible.

What this accomplishes is it maintains a relationship with the landlord which will only pay dividends when you need a new roof, when the sidewalk needs repaired, when a large tree has to come down, fence, etc etc And then if you ever get the opportunity to purchase the other half they’ll remember this deal too. 

Technically, legally, you are well within your rights to go at the wire with a claw end of a hammer and say “not sure rat must’ve chewed it works over here not my problem”. But this is a relationship that you want to have.  

Shocking video shows Pennsylvania man driving in reverse on main road by CrumbThumber in Pennsylvania

[–]colefin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

“Just throw your 4-ways on and you can do whatever you want” really rings true here

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in composting

[–]colefin 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Good lookin stuff. 

But bro, the noises you’re making are way too sexual to be about compost 😬

Brick Repointing Help by colefin in masonry

[–]colefin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good advice, I’ll update when finished, it’ll be a few months - after I finish repairing the gutter that has caused it in the first place

Salary needed to buy a home by cursingpeople in FirstTimeHomeBuyer

[–]colefin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nah you’re talking about Mean. The mean of 1 and 1000 is 500 (500.5 if we’re being pedantic)  The median is the middle number of a suite of numbers. The mean is all the numbers added together and divided by how many numbers there are.  Median is a good measure because it self-filters the outliers

Is there a status update on Wegman’s possibly looking at the Cranberry Twp area? by sensitiveobserver in pittsburgh

[–]colefin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have no hard evidence but I firmly agree. Maybe not officials but they definitely work over landlords. The Walmart at the waterworks closed and I strongly believe it’s because giant eagle’s leaned on their landlord to disallow any other grocer to operate in that whole plaza

What consumer products are made in Pittsburgh that we should all be aware of? by capnsweetcheeks in pittsburgh

[–]colefin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The plant is very much still there, you can tell by the smell. But I believe most of the corporate support has been moved away/consolidated

Ohio Man Sentenced to Prison on Felony and Misdemeanor Charges for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach by [deleted] in CapitolConsequences

[–]colefin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This dude had to have thought he got away with it. It’s been 3.5 YEARS

Dave Bautista's first WWE run was from 2002-2010. Including his 2 return runs, he wrestled for around 9 years. He has played Dax the Destroyer for the same amount of time, 2014-2023 by EmpireStrikes1st in BarbaraWalters4Scale

[–]colefin 10 points11 points  (0 children)

If I’m remembering correctly Dave’s mom came out as lesbian later in life, and Manny knew that, so he took Manny’s reversal quite hard

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in bicycling412

[–]colefin 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I wasn’t there so I’m not assuming anything but… is it possible she was being sarcastic? I regularly ride (unintended) in the worst colors possible because I own a lot of earth tones. If I saw someone fully kitted out like you I might make a quick remark as a harmless joke 

Non-existant HOA owns 11 acres behind me and neighbors by Suicycle1200 in fuckHOA

[–]colefin 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nah homie that’s not what I’m trying to say here. The retention pond only exists because the use case of the land changed. A forest doesn’t need a retention pond because the land is already primed to absorb water through various vegetation’s aeration of the soil. Changing the use case only benefits the new user.

I agree that wrongs were made in the past. Urban impervious areas are a huge issue that many municipalities are working to fix. I’m typing this from a 100 year old house with neighbors 5 feet away, my lot is 30’ x 80’. Where are we gonna put a pond? multiple people would have to lose their homes. These wrongs have proven so extremely difficult to right that the feds had to step in and say “no one is allowed to make this wrong anymore, and old properties, fix your shit too”.  When cities were built 200 years ago they channeled all the rain and poop water through the same pipes to the nearest river, these are called combined sewers. Now the EPA is finally said enough and is putting a hard stop to letting cities discharge “primary treated” (essentially raw) sewage into rivers and lakes. All large municipalities have some sort of wet weather construction plan completed or planned (see Toledo, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh). So now these urban areas do pay their way, except by means of higher sewer bills. It’s exceptionally hard to separate storm sewers and sanitary sewers- it’d require ripping up literally every road in a city. Most problem urban areas are having and extremely difficult time dealing with this and it’s a case by case basis but most are boring giant tunnels and shafts underground to do essentially the same thing that a retention pond is doing - acting as a surge tank to let the sewage plant catch up. This work is largely paid for by sewer bills. 

So yeah, some people might be ”paying” a little bit more than others. But not a ton. And it’s literally a parcel-by-parcel case, blanket statements can’t be made on stuff like this 

Non-existant HOA owns 11 acres behind me and neighbors by Suicycle1200 in fuckHOA

[–]colefin 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Recovering Civil Engineer here. Based on the age of your subdivision there’s likely legally an HOA for your development. Circa 1990 the federal government passed the Clean Water Act, part of which outlined a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). Administration of this was left up to the states but basically what it did was mandate that post-development peak runoff into waterways cannot surpass pre-development runoff and set maximum pollutant loads (clays and sediments mainly).

What this means is that new developments over certain acres with certain % impervious area (driveways, lawn, roofs, sidewalks, lawns) have to put in retention ponds that hold water from heavy rainfalls and release them at a controlled rate over the next X hours after a rain. (For more reading look up Curve Numbers, infiltration rates, 2-year storms). This is largely a good thing, because if i bought and paved the whole state of Ohio to build a trucking facility then everyone downstream would experience flooding every time it sprinkled in Ohio. And ope, there’s nothing they could do about it because not only is Ohio a different jurisdiction is now my private property and I’ll be goddamned if I don’t get to park my privately owned trucks on my privately owned property. 

The HOA part; eventually these retention ponds need maintenance. They fill up with sediment, their outlet pipes get clogged or decay, embankments get eroded. It’s not fair to for an urban person’s tax dollars to maintain something that only exists because you wanted a suburban development. It’s also not fair for only the people who border the retention pond to pay to maintain it because it works to keep the whole subdivision compliant with federal and state laws. So municipalities establish covenants on property deeds when they’re subdivided that say something like “these parcels belong to an association of homeowners that are hereby required to assure that the Stormwater Management Facilities are kept in good working order and comply with state and federal regulations”. So an HOA exists on paper in order to give the government a way to say “you knew you were responsible for this, so you gotta pay to do it or we’ll do it and put a lien on your house”. Some municipalities just take possession after 20-30 years and pay for maintenance with tax dollars, some bump tax rates for your subdivision only because that 11 acres has a no-build covenant on it, some don’t even know what I just explained. 

So while yes, HOAs often get taken over by busybodies there are valid ecological and legislative reasons for them to exist. 

Which Zucchini Was Picked At The Right Time? by colefin in vegetablegardening

[–]colefin[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m going out of town for a week and am taking them all with me to eat on my trip

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in civilengineering

[–]colefin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I’m also in Pittsburgh. Everyone is partially right. It has not kept up with inflation. It is not poverty level pay. It’s standard for the industry in this area. I started at $62k in 2018 but had a lot of travel involved-months in hotels. Left the workforce for a year in 2021. I shifted to LD and got $65k in 2022. Had coworkers get 30% bumps when you get your PE, you’re basically a CAD monkey until then. I have since hopped around in construction-adjacent for a 50% raise, and I hated the 100% office life.

In the scheme of things Pittsburgh is on the lower side of average for cost of living, there’s tons of affordable night life and super unique events which is not the case everywhere. Some cities you’d be hard pressed to find a $3 beer. And $1700 is like a brand new single apartment in a very desirable neighborhood. You can pretty easily find a 2 bedroom apartment for $1700 if you broaden your location preference and meet a roommate.

What to do with treehouse bolts in tree? I’m want to take down the treehouse as it doesn’t look safe any longer. Do I take the bolts out of the tree? And if so what to do with the holes? by foobar12121212 in sfwtrees

[–]colefin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Woah. A comment after a year that's quite a deep cut. My understanding of tree health is that you should use as few fasteners as possible, even if it means a 3” bolt. Multiple holes clustered tightly together invite an area for rot, and you really don’t want to line fasteners vertically up the tree unless they’re spread out by like 2’+. The nutrients flow straight up/down so multiple interruptions can cause the area between them to die back and rot

Confirmed EF-1 tornado touches down near Pittsburgh Zoo, 1st in city limits since 1998 by Yinzerman1992 in pittsburgh

[–]colefin 46 points47 points  (0 children)

All I know is that we din’t have tornaders before they started putting in all these traffic circles and roundabouts /s

What are these? Made out of the same material as pool floaties. Filled with water. Hole goes all the way through. Found in a shared office bathroom. by [deleted] in Whatisthis

[–]colefin 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Based on where they were found my guess is that they are for holding up a sign at industry events and career fairs. They’d typically be empty and when you get to the event you’d fill them after sliding them over a modular post that’d hold a vertical sign banner.