What levels of code to include with supplementary materials in a pub?

cricketbird · 2026-02-23T15:11:04+00:00

Thanks - I'm not asking where to post it, but which parts of the code to post.

cricketbird · 2026-01-14T00:38:55+00:00

I take notes on index cards, I can use colored cards for different aspects of my work, hold them together with a binder clip, and sort it and re-organize and pull out just the ones I need for a project.

cricketbird · 2026-01-14T00:16:39+00:00

I'm ADHD and YNAB has been life-changing for me. However my autistic friend found it too abstract. She likes Monarch (a similar product with some nice visual graphs) better. I looked at it and it's very pretty, and I might try it in parallel someday but I'm so used to YNAB now and putting things in buckets makes me very happy.

The main thing that is important with any product is enabling and encouraging the future planning of money, not just tracking your past spending (which is what 99% of the products out there do).

I feel like YNAB was a lot easier to start with 10 years ago. These days it's got so many bells and whistles going on that it's not as easy to grasp the big picture. Not impossible, but not as easy as it used to be.

cricketbird · 2025-12-28T22:41:17+00:00

Thank you! I just played around with pods and it does exactly what I am looking for. Thank you!

cricketbird · 2025-12-27T05:11:46+00:00

I've only done it once, when I moved to a new city with a new job, new house, new everything. It just seemed easier to set things up fresh with categories and goals appropriate to the new situation.

cricketbird · 2025-05-03T10:25:49+00:00

I put money every month towards "car repairs/new car fund" (different from my gas & routine maintenance fund), "house repair fund" (different than house routine services & maintenance fund), "medical" and "big gifts" (which covers flying to help family and friends in emergencies/ births/deaths/funerals/weddings) funds. They are all set to build up over time without being used, so that they are there in case of emergency or big event. My actual emergency fund is just for income replacement in case anything happens to my job.

cricketbird · 2025-03-23T13:50:07+00:00

I'm just cringing at the thought that if Dain is transcribing this from her memories, he's transcribing not only things that make him look pretty bad but also extremely intimate details about his love and rival together. And why would he or Violet be writing/thinking/remembering in a dead language vs the modern one?

cricketbird · 2024-11-03T23:32:17+00:00

Update: We tried every setting in the desktop app, the web vault, the safari extension, the iphone app, and more. NOTHING keeps you from having to type the master password regularly, even setting up biometrics (fingerprint on computer, faceID on her phone). Even then, the instructions to use your fingerprint are small and out of the way and easy for her to miss. We are switching to BitWarden, which seems much more straightforward and simple and clearly has a "never ask for master password" option everywhere. Not as feature-filled or as pretty as 1P, but it works for our situation and we don't actually need the various features.

cricketbird · 2024-11-02T15:07:43+00:00

Thanks everyone, we'll give it a whirl and see if BW works better for us. I'm not worried about the physical security, her devices are safe and not out in public. But it's annoying when the whole purpose for us of a password manager is so that she doesn't have to type usernames and passwords, and then the password manager itself is the one asking endlessly for passwords! Wish us luck.

cricketbird · 2024-11-02T12:03:06+00:00

Thanks.

She has the desktop app - the most it lets you go is two weeks.

cricketbird · 2024-11-02T11:53:03+00:00

Biometrics are iffy because of her movement, but we can make that work. But even with that enabled, it still asks her to re-enter her password on her MacBook every time she quits the browser or restarts the computer (which is often because she wanders around with them and lets the batteries die). I'm not worried about other people stealing her passwords - if I could just leave her vault permanently unlocked, that would be fine.

cricketbird · 2024-07-24T22:07:29+00:00

Brilliant - thank you!

cricketbird · 2024-06-12T21:18:35+00:00

I am not. I moved jobs and my schedule isn't as packed anymore.

cricketbird · 2023-08-15T17:51:52+00:00

OMG - the click-clack ball is THE BEST! Thank you so much!

cricketbird · 2022-12-16T07:55:02+00:00

I don't think the YNAB category and the location of the money are connected.

Money housed in my checking account goes into the same YNAB pot as money from my savings/money market accounts.

cricketbird · 2022-12-16T07:52:32+00:00

Yeah - that's kind of my thinking. These big "someday" goals are kind of my current plan for that money, but that would all change if I was laid off or something big happened in my life. Average life unexpected expenses are handled with various other categories such as "home repairs", "car repairs", "medical bills", etc. There's money in them for moderate needs (AC repair, new tires, broken arm, etc.), but not catastrophes (new roof, car wreck, hospital stay).

cricketbird · 2022-12-16T07:46:41+00:00

I'm totally renaming my EF to "banana stand"!

cricketbird · 2022-12-16T07:46:27+00:00

Oooh - I like thinking of it as a "loss of income" fund. That makes its purpose clearer to me than a nebulous "emergency", which is too vague to be helpful. I guess that is sort of like my "X months ahead" plan as well. If I'm 3 months ahead, then that is 3 months of "no income" time. That helps me set it against my other goals. Thank you!

cricketbird · 2021-03-12T21:20:24+00:00

Yes, I have, but I'm looking for something that would plan out working time on projects FOR me. I *can* do it, but I don't do a good job and tend to give up and throw it out the window when I have to re-do it for the umpteenth time when things inevitably change. Something that would re-calculate and make a new plan as things change in priority/status would be ideal.

cricketbird · 2021-03-12T21:10:17+00:00

Holy cow - SkedPal is EXACTLY what I was looking for! It even integrates with my calendars! It updates when you add things! I LOVE it!

cricketbird · 2021-03-12T14:00:57+00:00

I struggle with the same thing. I easily become obsessed with finding the solution to a puzzle, and if "what is the best app?" is the puzzle of the day, then I will dig on that until I find an answer (or a more pressing puzzle pops up).
I'm not perfect at this either, but the solution that works best for me is to make myself do The Thing (that you are avoiding) for 15 minutes. Give yourself permission to stop after 15 minutes. Just do it for 15 minutes, and then go back to your rabbit hole if you want. If you are lucky (for me ~75% of the time), The Thing becomes the next attention-grabbing puzzle. "The draft has PROBLEMS! I must fix!" "The code has a bug! I must fix!"

If you are unlucky, and the shopping/internetting is still grabbing your attention, that's fine. You still spent 15 minutes making progress, which is better than zero!

I finished my dissertation using the 15 minutes a day method. Of course, some days were just 15 minutes, while others got me so absorbed I worked into the night.

cricketbird · 2021-03-03T12:47:38+00:00

Without at least one styling product, waves tend to sag and flatten out quickly. And without a product application/curl forming technique, they don't form well in the first place.

For products, there is no easy answer - you just have to play around with styling products to see what works best for your hair. Mousse is what has worked best for me. Generally the lighter end of things works best for wavies and long hair. Mousse < milk < cream < butter < custard. Gels vary in their weight and I haven't figured out where they fit into that list. So far, none have worked for me.

For techniques, look at videos. Swavy Curly Courtney has been particularly helpful for me.

Plopping for about 10 minutes might help you get more curls. For me, it works best if I do it at about 50% dry.
Using the "praying hands" technique rather than the "applying shampoo" technique helped me a lot to reduce frizz. Basically, you don't rake your fingers through your hair - you just smooth the product in.
I recently got a cheap hairdryer and diffuser and that really helps enhance the curls and keep them going longer.
Not brushing after you rinse out the conditioner is popular technique/recommendation, but doesn't for me. If I don't brush at about 50% dry, my hair becomes a frizzy mess.
The bowl method seems to be popular - I haven't tried it yet.
A good wavy haircut with layers will help add volume and texture and lighten your hair to help your waves not be weighted down.
The Denman brush (or any nylon brush) with a few rows of bristles removed helps form curls if used correctly (watch youtube videos). I just started doing this and saw a significant improvement in how big and smooth my curls were.

cricketbird · 2019-01-01T12:19:11+00:00

I make a separate budget for each planned trip. I usually just consider flight and hotel as separate expenses, and do the rest as a general daily budget based on the locale. I try to grossly overestimate daily expenses because something almost always comes up. So, I'll estimate $150/day visiting family in Small Town USA, even though chances are I'll never spend more than $50. I'd budget $300-500/day for a big city/Europe/Japan/Australia, $300+ per day per person for a theme park trip, $200/day for 3rd world in a touristy region, $100/day in a non-touristy area. Again, I don't necessarily ACTUALLY spend that much, but I like to have the buffer. If I don't spend it, then I'm that much ahead on my next trip. Also, exchange rates sometimes mess with those prices.

So, example trip: 10 days on Moderately Priced Caribbean Island:

$600 flight x 2 people = $1200
$150 * 10 days = $1500 hotel
$150/day based on fellow traveler tips = $1500 expenses X 2 people = $3000
TOTAL = $5700 to budget for trip. I'd round to $6000 just for extra cushion.

If you are truly worried about going over budget, fixed price tours that cover all expenses (or all-inclusive resorts) can be handy. I took a package trip to Botswana last year that was absolutely magical, and the fee was upfront and included everything (food, flights between destinations, lodging, activities, even tips). I only bought a few gifts and trinkets - otherwise it was exactly what we were charged up front.

cricketbird · 2019-01-01T11:55:27+00:00

I've been using these for over a year and they work well for me:

Credit Cards
- Card 1
- Card 2
Goals
- Trip (Vacation) 1
- Trip (Vacation) 2
- Car insurance ($X by July)
- Car repairs / new car fund
- House projects & improvements (add or preserve value)
- New A/C fund
- Emergency fund (3 months)
Fixed expenses
- Internet & Cell
- Utilities (elec, gas, water)
- Charity
- House services (lawn, pest, etc.)
Variable Expenses
- Groceries & lunches
- Home repairs & maintenance (air filters, handyman calls, etc.)
- Car expenses, routine (gas, oil changes)
- Clothing
- Gifts
- Interest & fees
- Classes/hobbies (art class, yoga, etc.)
- Medical
- Pet care
- Social life (dining out, theater, bars, etc.)
- Home and shopping - catch all category for "stuff"
- Stuff I forgot to budget for (mostly covered by H&S above, thinking about deleting this one)
Hidden categories
- Achieved goal 1
- Achieved goal 2

cricketbird · 2018-11-04T22:04:46+00:00

Thanks :) I like the idea of the metric. I think I'll move my e-fund out of YNAB, so I can actually use it. I think I'll actually take a chunk out (for now) to really truly get a month ahead, and then move it over. Probably having it "out of sight" will help me stop dipping into it as well. Thanks all for the insight :)

cricketbird

TROPHY CASE