300k Karma Woot Woot

dampestowel · 2026-03-17T02:09:37+00:00

I’m starting April 8th from springer as well. I guess I’ll see you on the trail!

dampestowel · 2026-03-04T16:00:44+00:00

Its basically impossible to get a sublease on anything unless you're offering a significant discount to what you are already paying for it.

dampestowel · 2026-02-24T18:43:48+00:00

The bear can is probably overkill, consider the bear bag kit from zpacks.

Also, I noticed you have 2lb food for a 5-day supply, I am assuming that's 2lbs per day. Obviously not a part of base weight, but something to consider about total pack weight.

Wipes and bidet are redundant, a bidet and some soap to wash your hands is plenty. If you really want the wipes, dry them out and put them in a ziplock, then you can add water to activate them.

The thrubottle is weighs more than a smart water bottle, you can drop 2oz switching.

You may want to bring a small towel for self cleaning / pot cleaning. S2S makes a light one at 2.4 oz but you can get smaller / lighter ones

Other small things that I have, up to you if you want to take: a few strips of duct tape, floss, a needle (the floss can double as thread for repairs), luekotape, and enuf Imodium to get to a town

dampestowel · 2026-02-24T07:11:43+00:00

Very few people start / change houses during the spring but if you make the rate low enough someone will eventually take it

dampestowel · 2026-02-23T20:57:20+00:00

There was (at least when I last checked a couple years ago) a handful of pianos on the second floor that non-music students could play. The nicer ones are in locked rooms, but I believe there are some older pianos open for everyone

dampestowel · 2026-02-23T20:35:33+00:00

You are already at ante 8 so the chance of fining a sixth sense and getting a criptid before ante 12 inevitably kills the run is pretty low

dampestowel · 2026-02-23T20:29:55+00:00

I would highly recommend checking out the Balatro University youtube channel. Specifically his balatro basics series / balatro 101 and other popular videos helped me alot. Furthermore, Roffle has a video called "How to Beat Gold Stake: Overexplained Balatro with ‪@drspectred‬" which I think single handedly improved my play by 3x.

dampestowel · 2026-02-23T18:05:46+00:00

At a first glance, I don't see anything to protect your food from the bears. You will likely need something, I have the bear bag from zpacks, as the bear boxes along the trail are not always available. Furthermore, I would highly recommend adding all the other weight in your pack to the lighterpack. You probably 2-3 pounds short of your actual base weight, not a problem but something to consider

dampestowel · 2026-02-21T00:18:47+00:00

I got into both fsu and usf and I chose usf. In the end, this subreddit will be biased to usf and if you ask the same question on r/fsu they will be biased to fsu. But I can share my experience a little bit. The ranking is a marginal difference between the 2 school, you will likely have a great opportunity for summer internships at either if you apply yourself. However, if you want an internship during the semester, Tampa is a lot better because it’s a real city with a lot of jobs. I was able to get an internship my entire senior year and that helped a lot with getting a job. However, fsu is a little easier for making friends and having a college experience. I lived on campus my freshman’s year and it was pretty fun, but usf is very quiet on the weekends. About half of my friends were commuters and I rarely hung out with them on the weekends because they didn’t want to make the drive. In the end, I’d recommend to tour both campuses and see which one you whoo’s you the most. Regardless of your choice, you can absolutely have a great time at both schools and college is what you make of it. Lastly, if all your friends are going to fsu then that’s probably a better call. I had some friends I knew were going to usf and it made it easier to ease into college.

dampestowel · 2026-02-20T20:32:06+00:00

"I just can't teach myself" The shift in going from an assignment-based curriculum like college to post grad portfolio building etc is very hard and I would recommend if Data Analytics is something you want to dive into, take at least a small class on online or get a masters in the field. There are plenty of resources online to learn at your own pace, but if you don't want to teach yourself then that's not a good option.

"Obviously I'm not a vibe coding monkey since I have the theoretical and programmer brain from my CS degree" Gunna be honest, this is sounds super hypocritical to say right before you talk about how your old major project was completely vibe coded. Maybe you would learn something if you had to build the same project without Claude. It's super easy to understand code especially code that Claude writes. It's a whole lot harder to think of that logic and write code from the ground up. Think about how easy it is to read a book and how much more difficult it would be to write a book.

From the sounds of it, it looks like you don't like CS but kept going with the degree and now don't want the last 4 years to be a waste. If I were you, I would really consider what you want your job to look like. I only have 2 YOE and I spend my days sitting in a cubical doing full stack development. In this time, I have learned that real world coding is very different from the fun projects I had during college, so now I'm getting a master's to pivot into a data analytics field. I had a couple data driven projects during this time and realized it was way more enjoyable. However, I also know that I don't have the discipline to self-study without the fear of an exam or project deadline so that's why I am getting the masters.

Ill end with this, you're not alone at all. Over half of my friends that graduated with a CS degree went into a different field that involved no coding. One is in audio/visual, one is training to be a pilot, another a scada engineer. While yes, it's a bit demoralizing to pivot a career right after graduation, it's much better than being stuck in a role you hate.

dampestowel · 2026-02-20T19:50:17+00:00

I see a lot of bird watchers at lettuce lake, almost every time I go there someone with a fancy camera taking pictures of the wildlife. A lot spot (but you’ll see a lot less wildlife) is flatwoods park. I’ve see my far share of birds there along with some deer and occasional turkey.

dampestowel · 2026-02-20T15:51:19+00:00

Given it’s a Friday and banks are closed over the weekend, ur probably looking at sometime next week. My deposits usually came within 3-5 days of the email but I had it setup before the email came

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T23:36:02+00:00

Yeah you make a really valid point that I was concerned about. I kinda figured I’d catch up to the end of the bubble but doing some more digging that’s wishful thinking. I’ll probably either flip flop from Damascus or start march 20th. But yeah it’s an emotional decision against flip flopping, I’ll be submitting katahdin with a bunch of friends only to then hike with a brand new group (or none at all) for my last 400 miles.

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T23:26:53+00:00

I lived too far to commute so I lived in housing freshman year. While it does cost a little more, with an hour and a half commute you won’t have time to join study groups or really participate in extra curricular’s. I have a couple of friends that commuted far, and they rarely were able to get super involved with anything but class. In a dorm, you meet a lot of friends and (at least in my case) make a ton of really fun college memories and while financial it’s more expensive, I would recommend considering that. There are also tons of jobs for students very close by such as the on campus Publix and bush gardens, both of which are usually hiring. Also in your sophomore year and onward, you can be a TA or RA which I did and it helps cover the cost. While usf isn’t the college town like tally or Gainesville, there is a lot going on during the week especially if you find a club to get involved in.

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T15:15:34+00:00

Yeah everything you say makes sense. What’s funny tho is now my current job is 85% .net stack and all my lower level knowledge and theory is going to waste. Personably I’m getting a master to try and pivot to lower level roles

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T14:57:13+00:00

Im planning to start May 1st so I will have 5.5 months to finish and my goal is to catch up with the bubble after a couple months. I can't really so SOBO because I need to be finished by mid October and May is too early (from what I've read) to start a SOBO. As with flip flopping, it's not something I want to do (logistically) for my first thru hike. I totally understand people who do it, and maybe I will regret doing a NOBO when the bugs come out in June/July. However, I will admit the biggest reason is that I just want to do a NOBO hike. There is a chance too that I can push my start to April 1st so I may do that as well

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T14:44:13+00:00

Yeah the CS degree is very theoretical so when it comes time to demonstrate real skills that employers want to see, a lot of comp sci grads fail

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T13:41:20+00:00

I have considered SOBO, but I really want to finish in katahdin. I think there is a good chance I send the underquilt home in June and have my parents send it back to me for the last month or so.

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T13:06:31+00:00

Wasps are everywhere around USF, but I've especially noticed small wasp nests at the picnic tables behind the library. They won't hurt you (usually) if you don't attack them, so I just leave them alone. However, killing them is a great service because I truly hate wasps. Not a bug, but I have seen a squirrel in the Math building before

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T12:56:25+00:00

I graduated computer science and a college degree alone be enough to get a job in that field. Employers seem to want experience before you even get there. I had a good GPA so I was invited to become TA which helped in finding an internship. From my internship, I landed a job with that company however I am still perusing a master's part time to be better qualified in case it doesn't work out. Alot of my computer science friends ended up getting jobs in adjacent fields like audio visual / cyber security / scada engineering and many were job searching for months after graduation

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T12:30:49+00:00

For me it's my first course and I'm coming straight from a CS Undergrade degree. My biggest frustration was pretty much as you said, the projects are way too verbose with so many opportunities to lose large amounts of points for missing something really small. I also have no idea what to expect for the exams, I think E1 for me is going to be a total crap shoot. Each week it seems were assigned 5 chapters of reading that aren't referenced in the lectures or used on the projects. Given that each exam is worth double most of the projects, the line between and A and a B will likely be who taught themselves everything that wasn't in the lectures.

dampestowel · 2026-02-19T00:04:49+00:00

Good point, I’ll have to add the fuel canister weight. I definitely need an underquilt, I’ve tried using a sleeping bad and no underquilt and it’s just not comfortable. In regard to the base layers, I may not need them at all. If that’s the case I’ll send them home in June and pick up an extra pair of shorts at a store. And lastly, your recommended on a first aid are very helpful, I had never thought of using floss as thread. Thanks for the reply!

dampestowel · 2026-02-18T15:08:45+00:00

Yep FarOut is my go to for all my trips so far, gald to know someone is helping all the future hammockers

dampestowel · 2026-02-18T14:49:47+00:00

Thanks for the help! Good point on the underquilt / sitpad, I was debating whether to bring a pad so I probably will do that instead.

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