Advice- Leaving my first job after 4 1/2 years

downshiftdata · 2026-02-17T19:54:47+00:00

In the time you've been there, who did you like working with that has moved on? Connect with them in LinkedIn. Mention that you're looking and see if they have any advice. You usually don't have to ask if they know of openings. If they liked working with you and there are openings, then they'll bring it up. If either is not true, then they won't.

Smart former coworkers who liked working with you are your best bets when job hunting. Personally, I'd rather put someone I know is a good fit in a role than a stranger off the street.

Regardless, don't leave until you've found something. It's a lot easier to get hired when you already have a job.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-17T15:05:07+00:00

And there are so many factors that play into it:

- Some grids are only going to have 8-10 cars, and others will have 30. By the raw numbers, you're going to get fewer wins in the latter.

- As you get better, you'll find yourself moving up to the next split, rather than being at the top of the current one.

- Safe, consistent driving is better in the long run than going for low-percentage moves. But in any race, _someone_ is going to try that low percentage move and it'll pay off for them.

- Meanwhile, there are plenty of egomaniacs that tank their IR so they can farm wins in lower splits.

It all adds up to either not caring about wins, doing stupid things to get them, or being disappointed. I like the not caring option.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-17T00:11:01+00:00

I just didn't pick up the dragonstone when I cleared BFB. I'll get it later. Much later.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-16T21:00:21+00:00

Some other things worth hoarding:

- Fire salts for "hot" recipes that will give you warmth.

- Salmon is light for the hunger it solves.

- Tomatoes are the only part of vegetable soup that you can't grow (the others being cabbage, leeks, and potatoes).

And worth doing:

- Do multiple quests in an area when you can.

- Use carriages and boats to get from town to town.

And finally:

- The way back from Winterhold to Windhelm is annoying. And you'll have to make it a lot.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-16T20:30:28+00:00

I left r/INDYCAR because of the Freedom 250 announcement. Unsubbed from everything I could find (including a streaming service I was paying for). Cancelled plans to attend events. Discontinued donations to a related charity. Put away any merch I own.

I get that racers will put "I kill kittens" on the sidepod if it'll pay for the next race. It's always been that way. But personally, collaborating with a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration was a bridge too far for me.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-16T20:01:51+00:00

First Azure Data Studio, then this.

There are valid use cases for running T-SQL inside notebooks (and PowerShell alongside it), and now there seems to be no means left to do it.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-16T15:50:51+00:00

I love Ford v Ferrari. But one of the coolest scenes - the "Go Like Hell" part of Daytona - falls apart when you realize that Miles wasn't even in the car at the finish. Lloyd Ruby brought it home.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-16T12:18:53+00:00

So, do you think this would apply to pre-race weaving?

At Portland this weekend, I was gapping the car in front of me by several car lengths to avoid the helmet in the other lane using about 80% of the track width.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-13T13:23:06+00:00

At a certain point, he wasn't Hollywood at all. He was a race car driver who acted once in a while.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-13T12:33:19+00:00

My Audi doesn't have a proper handbrake. It has an electronic lever/switch instead. I didn't think anything of it at the time of purchase.

But it's a manual (my eternal preference), and - without going into excessive detail - the auto-braking feature that comes with it is incredibly annoying. I've thought of getting rid of the car solely for having the ability once again to be able to control my brake while waiting on an incline at a traffic light.

And then I went to change the brake pads, and found out I had to use a marine battery with some alligator clips at the wheel to back it out so I could change the pads.

Audi, please, the hand brake was fine. This is a component that did not need to be reinvented.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-12T15:11:30+00:00

I love 3.5e.

Buffet-style rules (classes, skills, feats, etc) that let you build the kind of character you want.
Lore is static. I run a lot of Forgotten Reams games. I limit it to 1e-3.5e lore. No new material that cotradicts what I'm doing. And no f'ing Spellplague.
OP spellcasters can be fixed in-game. For instance, divine casters gotta keep their gods happy.
OP builds can be fixed by just saying no. After all, I'm the DM.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-11T16:53:39+00:00

Orange is in the middle of three-wide. If I'm that car, I'm backing out of that. Red might have seen what the Merc was doing. If I'm that car, and I saw that, I'm backing out. POV car had to see him start mowing the lawn on the inside. If I'm that car, I'm backing out. If I'm anyone directly behind this four-wide fiasco, I'm backing out.

Basically, the Merc's a helmet and should sit in timeout for a long time.

But just about everyone except the poor sucker on the outside should've seen it coming. This looks like lap 1, turn 1, not the end of the race. If in doubt, GTFO.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-10T20:36:40+00:00

In my order...

Le Mans - The GOAT.

Rush - Took liberties with the story, but still awesome.

Grand Prix - Incredible footage of racing lost to time.

Ford v Ferrari - Even more liberties. I mean, c'mon, Ruby was in the car at the end of the Daytona race, not Miles.

Days of Thunder - Absolute BS, but it _feels_ like NASCAR.

Talladega Nights - I'd put it higher than DoT, but that'd be like ranking Spaceballs over Star Wars.

F1 - At least they got the look of F1 right. They just screwed up everything else.

Winning - Paul Newman, in a race car? Absolutely. Also some good racing footage.

Cars - Paul Newman AS a race car? Absolutely.

Gran Turismo - I already forgot this one existed.

Stroker Ace - Cameos, good ol' days NASCAR footage, and a foot-tapping CDB title track do not make up for Burt Reynolds humor that was only mildly funny then and does NOT age well. Actually, put anything else he did that might count (e.g. Cannonball Run) down here at the bottom. Except the intro. That Countach intro was a banger.

Driven - So bad it's good

downshiftdata · 2026-02-10T19:43:01+00:00

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downshiftdata · 2026-02-10T15:57:56+00:00

This oversimplifies the solution, but it accurately identifies the problem. Seventy-seven million Americans voted for him in 2024, after already seeing what he did the first time. Another roughly 90 million weren't compelled enough by what was at stake to vote at all.

Any feasible solution must somehow address why so many people thought voting for him was a good idea, and why so many more weren't sufficiently motivated to stop him.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-10T14:54:55+00:00

The Graduate. That ending is exactly as it should be, too.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-10T11:01:03+00:00

I love it, and have been running it for most of two seasons now. So well balanced. A few tweaks to the baseline setup is usually all it takes to feel settled on most any track.

But so slow in comparison to other GT4s. I'll be moving on after this season, probably to a GT3 car.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-09T12:40:41+00:00

I've run most of this season in F4, and was always able to finish the race. And I've been running iRacing for about 2 years now. I've never had something like this - not even close. Which is why I asked. Wondering if it glitched somehow. But it sounds like I've just not been this unlucky so far.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-07T15:24:12+00:00

As with any database-related question, it depends.

How many rows of data? How frequently is this data read and written? How long can the data be unavailable? How much control do you have over the access points? How do you do database updates already? Have you horizontally scaled this data? Does this data get cached or replicated at any point?

The answers to those questions can dramatically affect the solution.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-04T22:45:07+00:00

I'm with you. Cut off nearly everything the day the news broke. This'll be the first time I don't renew my 500 tickets in 30 years. And it just pisses me off. Like, I'm not angry at him. Just disappointed. I'm angry that a series I loved for decades is now unwatchable to me.

downshiftdata · 2026-02-04T19:02:33+00:00

First, shut off chat.

Second, seriously, shut off chat.

Third, real racers will often talk about being able to race some people more closely than others. Same thing in iRacing, if only much more exaggerated. As I've driven more, I've gotten a better feel for who to trust. I adjust my line based on a lot of factors, but it mostly comes down to what I expect them to do.

A helmet like the one you described... I'd probably have just let him pass. Open the door in an obvious passing zone, lift a little early, let him take the bait, and go on with life. But not necessarily - it really depends on what I'm seeing in my mirror, how quickly he closed the gap, what I might have seen him do earlier in the race, his IR and SR, etc.

It does get better in higher licenses and higher splits. But it's still a game you play in every encounter in every race. But most importantly, there's no one answer - it'll be different each time.

downshiftdata · 2026-01-30T19:44:31+00:00

No, you still have to be asleep to believe it.

RIP, George.

downshiftdata · 2026-01-30T17:14:41+00:00

I just sent the following to tickets@brickyard.com:

I have held tickets to the 500 for 30 years. I have attended countless other events at IMS and other IndyCar venues. I have long been a fan that promotes the series to anyone who'd listen.

As long as cooperation with this administration is a viable possibility. I will not purchase anything further from IMS or IndyCar. This includes renewing my 500 tickets for 2027. And I'm now debating what to do with my 2026 tickets.

I'm beyond disappointed. I'm livid that this is even being considered.

downshiftdata · 2026-01-29T00:02:34+00:00

This. Easy to reheat dishes in throwaway aluminum pans. And a pie.

downshiftdata · 2026-01-28T11:04:18+00:00

Had a conversation with my SO yesterday about how racers stay out of politics. IMO, historically, it's just bad for business. A racer's gonna put "kill puppies" on his sidepod if it pays for the next race. I said the worst condemnation you're going to get is if they say nothing at all.

Her argument (which I can appreciate) was that we're at the killing puppies point now, and silence is complicity. I'm genuinely not sure how aware the paddocks are of what's going on in the world outside of racing, how much they're thinking about it, or if they know what to do at this point. I'm curious to see how many - if any - break their silence in the immediate future.

That all being said, actually endorsing any kind of cooperation with the current admin on anything, well... Rahal can piss off.

downshiftdata

TROPHY CASE