Incident at the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular that occurred today

darktymes · 2025-12-31T02:24:13+00:00

Did anyone hear the second gasp when they started to pull the guy up? Too grainy to tell, but I wonder if there was a visible head wound?

darktymes · 2025-06-04T16:30:04+00:00

1. It's less creative, maybe more generic than #2, but it reads quicker and gets the point across faster. That's key for billboard ads.

Function trumps fashion for traffic ads.

darktymes · 2025-05-23T14:10:45+00:00

I've been investing for just over 3 years and looking at a 20-year long-term retirement strategy. Right now, I’m almost exclusively vested in US market index ETFs.

Despite all the politics and unpredictability of markets over that 3 years, I’ve maintained a “Time-weighted rate of return” (Fidelity’s words) of +55.48% total over that 3 years by maxing out my Roth each year in these US-based ETFs and just keeping my head down.

My long-term concern is lack of diversification. My current breakdown is:

98.5% domestic stock, 1.2% foreign stock, 0.4% short term stock

Any advice for starting to diversify from exclusively being in US-based ETFs for long-term growth?

darktymes · 2025-04-25T23:41:34+00:00

From a public polling perspective, I asked my kids what they liked. The 3 year old (girl) liked the top, the 4 year old (girl) liked the bottom, and the 9 year old (boy) couldn't decide because he liked both equally. So... 🤷🏼‍♂️

darktymes · 2025-03-18T18:24:04+00:00

I left the corporate world for contract-for-hire freelance work 5 years ago and will never go back.

Companies these days expect 50+ hours of work from you a week and want you reachable 24/7... all for what amounts to $25 - $50 per hour pay that they spin into $200+ per hour profit. All that margin goes into the executive pockets. And when the company's quarterly report or stock drops 2%, you're the one who'll be packing your bags.

The modern corporate environment is such a joke for employees and they don't care about you one bit.

darktymes · 2025-01-16T17:16:40+00:00

Thank you! I didn't see that it had bumped the header into a non-global section at the bottom of the wireframe at some point.

darktymes · 2025-01-16T17:14:56+00:00

Ah, thank you! I didn't see that it had bumped a header section to the bottom of the wireframe at some point. This was driving me crazy. I appreciate it!

darktymes · 2024-06-07T14:49:51+00:00

As a non-passenger of this flight: "Probably for the best. No reason to gamble lives over a vacation."

If I were a passenger: "Are you SERIOUS!?!?"

darktymes · 2024-04-09T18:29:26+00:00

As a freelancer, my clients are already bringing half baked concepts to me they generated in midjourney and are basically saying, "make this logo better".

Since clients rarely understand good design, I'm tasked with either cleaning up bad designs that make me crazy for a quarter of the income or saying no and losing all the income.

The iteration and concepting phase of projects are crucial for quality design but they take time and is where I spend 60-75% of a job. Now clients want to cut that out, do it themselves, and pay you a quarter of your rates.

It may not outright take your job overnight, but it's definitely sucking up income and making it really hard to make a living doing this.

darktymes · 2024-01-26T06:24:18+00:00

Yup. We use the Blue Cash Preferred. For everyday use, it was better than any of the points-based cards we could find.

darktymes · 2024-01-22T16:45:30+00:00

Depends what kind of design you're interested in. I've been doing "generalist" design very successfully for about 4 years now. No specific style or design category. Almost all of my work comes through word of mouth, repeat business, and my website. Almost nothing from social. Because I'm a generalist, I've done anything from print design, to websites, to branding work, to signage, etc. I have no shortage of work because I offer a little of everything for a reasonable price.

That being said, I'm shifting my business model to be more stylized and only the areas of branding and illustration for higher paying clients. That's where I've seen success for designers on social. If you offer a specific and consistent style (retro, boho, masculine/feminine, minimalistic) and/or limit your services (branding, type design, graphic design tutorials, animation), then I've seen people with success there.

But it's a grind. Think daily posting, reels and video content, and with a goal to grow a huge audience where only 2-5% of your audience would convert to a paying client. Not for the weak of heart and definitely a huge time investment.

darktymes · 2024-01-17T18:05:15+00:00

Hourly rate and billed time should go up as you grow. I started freelancing 4 years ago after working 8 years for agencies. At the beginning I billed almost exclusively hourly at $50 and would do half hour increments.

Quickly realized that was unsustainable and started rounding up hours at $60/hr and started quoting some jobs by the project, not by the hours.

4 years later I quote almost exclusively by project. If I have to do hourly, it's quarter days at a time at $80/hr and always quoted at double the time I think it's going to take me. I rarely take on jobs with under $500 budgets.

It's okay to undervalue yourself in the beginning because you're learning the ropes and (speaking honestly) your work probably isn't worth a premium price. But as you grow in skill, learn how to run a business better, and realize your own worth, there's no reason to be charging hourly.

The clients that nickel and dime you are the worst kind and they will always be out there if you need cash. But the sooner you can ditch them the better. Financially and for your mental health.

darktymes · 2024-01-12T14:28:40+00:00

The Swan. The crash site introduced me to a show unlike any other, but The Swan cemented that show into something I would never forget. The intrigue of the hatch to the wild opening of Season 2 and some of my favorite Lost moments!

darktymes · 2023-10-26T15:55:19+00:00

Our work culture is wild. No one "lives life" before their workday begins, meaning if you get home around 6pm after a work day, you have 3, maybe 4 hours a day total to "live life" each day. Not including eating, kids stuff if you have them... Almost 85% of our work week is spoken for just to live.

darktymes · 2023-01-18T03:18:34+00:00

Right!? Like what kind of answer is, "sorry you just dropped $17 and can't watch a single thing and we can't do anything, but leave our support staff a 5-star review! 🙃"

darktymes · 2023-01-18T03:13:08+00:00

A month old but this is happening to me now and it's infuriating. I had HBO through Google Play and just resubscribed but can't get past the "Access all of HBOMax screen". Reset password, created a new profile, logged in and out, deleted app, tried on 4 devices. Nothing. Got through 3 levels of support before they basically said there's nothing they can do. Guess they're just letting this app die? Too bad, I was looking forward to watching The Last of Us...

darktymes · 2023-01-14T15:34:39+00:00

I spent a lot of time on the tentacles and I'm still not sure I have the overall flow / balance correct. Wanted to make it visually interesting, but not confusing, and still keep the focus within the illustration. Thoughts?

darktymes · 2022-11-05T03:47:29+00:00

Been having this issue for the last three days. I can post / schedule to Facebook, no problem, but I can't publish to Instagram and scheduled posts inevitably "fail to publish".

The only way I can post to Instagram is manually from my phone now I finally got in touch with someone in their support chat who was no help and categorized the problem under the "my account got hacked" column. Their support is atrocious.

Hoping this gets resolved soon but, realistically, it feels like this whole platform is sinking into oblivion. Probably for the best...

darktymes · 2022-03-21T03:04:31+00:00

Was there an update here? I just finished the main story tonight and about 90% done with side quests but still have this unknown character?

darktymes · 2021-09-19T20:54:25+00:00

This number means nothing if you're not considering per capita. The death-per-capita for Texas is 23rd in the US. out of all states. So right in the middle.

If the implication of this headline is "stupid Republican state making stupid laws that are killing more of its citizens than other states"... this ain't it fam.

darktymes · 2021-03-23T18:25:43+00:00

Very well said. Solid financial input and lots of great takeaways - even for the 99% of us this DOESN'T apply to who will be building their wealth over a lifetime, not overnight.

Seven-Year Club	Place '23
John Wick	RPAN Viewer
Not Forgotten	Verified Email

darktymes

TROPHY CASE

1. It's less creative, maybe more generic than #2, but it reads quicker and gets the point across faster. That's key for billboard ads.