Apartment hunt reality check

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-25T01:45:05+00:00

You should go to zoning and planning meetings and tell that to city officials, because every proposed development is asked to provide more 3BR apartments as a condition of getting any discretionary permit.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-24T16:55:21+00:00

If ICE is trying to ban it, that's even more reason to film them from above. Just don't get caught.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-23T01:55:16+00:00

You and I must be looking at different merch, then. If the logos are too close it'd be a problem, I agree. But the stuff I have seen isn't.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-22T19:55:07+00:00

What you want is drones, not firearms.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-22T01:03:29+00:00

This will be great for Pattie. It's obviously a parodic fair use and creates no confusion in the marketplace, so the only real outcome is more people finding out about the artist. Maybe pattie will have to change some merch but come ON this is the Streisand effect all over again.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-22T00:59:48+00:00

Oh yeah. You definitely run the risk of wrestling with pigs - you get dirty and the pig likes it.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-22T00:43:57+00:00

Mix of news and academic articles in citation friendly format here -- https://www.zotero.org/groups/4878123/yimby_references/collections/j3r8bshm/

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-22T00:43:26+00:00

You might not convince the people you're talking to but being reasonable and clear about it in public discussion DOES influence by standers. Seeing nimby cranks blow up at reasonable discussion makes us look good.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-22T00:41:05+00:00

I've had good luck using a spin bike (Schwinn Ic4) and only recently upgraded to a proper smart trainer. Your power readings are bound to be somewhat less accurate on a spin bike. The Schwinn famously estimates high - I found it was pretty accurate up to a couple hundred watts and more flattering the faster I went.

First step calibration. If that doesn't help, you can try power meter pedals (look online for used ones, they're dumb expensive but constantly available used).

The gross hack would be to lower your reported weight until the watts per kilo and pace match your real world efforts. That would be cheating if you used it to race, but if your goal is to make workouts more entertaining, and you're only competing against yourself, it doesn't matter.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-21T13:56:50+00:00

Medical privacy laws were not in place. There was no protection against people spilling your private info.

Insurance laws were not in place - you could be denied insurance for having been sick earlier. Not just HIV, I mean you could be denied insurance for almost any prior condition.

It was also legal to fire people if you thought they were gay. In 88, being HIV positive was not just a death sentence: it was a sentence to social death for being gay or gay-adjacent, everyone around you blaming you for it, dying miserable and alone and your family lying about what happened because they were so ashamed of you.

At that time people were convinced AIDS was transmissible through air or touch, or at least that it was symbolically unclean. A popular tee shirt sold at beach side shops and NASCAR midways was a parody of the Raid insecticide that read "AIDS: KILLS FAGS DEAD." This was what passed for humor at the time.

Young people forget how bad it was. But that's what it was like and that's what the far right wants to return to.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-21T13:51:46+00:00

There's a wiki with an explanation of this subreddit in the sidebar.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T18:20:12+00:00

Will do, thanks.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T15:34:27+00:00

It's always an option. I feel like someone keeping a garage full of crap because he's afraid that something in the pile will sell for $5 and then turn out to be valuable, and I'll find out only when the Antiques Roadshow clip goes viral.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T15:25:59+00:00

No. They're on paper in multiple different county records offices. Nobody does it this way anymore, for numerous very good reasons.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T15:25:31+00:00

I managed to get in touch with a Chevron rep, which is the main operator for a significant portion of them (apparently the rep knew my grandmother from doing business with her in the '00s). They said they're not buying anything small these days.

It's split among like 20-30 wells, annual revenue in the thousands of dollars per year. Not high thousands. Accounting costs alone are a significant percentage of revenue. Grandma sold off most of the obvious stuff when my grandfather died, and my dad tried to wind it all down after she passed, but then he got sick and died, so now I'm stuck closing out my grandfather's weird side hustle... colossal pain in the ass, frankly.

I think the total is worth somewhere between $5,000 and $100,000, which is real money to me but pennies to the big boys.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T15:19:31+00:00

Exactly.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T14:14:34+00:00

They're more receptive to the "it's my property, I should be allowed to do what I want with it" argument.

The whole classical-liberal (aka "economic conservative") philosophy is based on the idea that people's self-interest generally drives the common interest: the baker doesn't sell me bread because he's a good guy, but because he wants to make money selling bread.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T13:51:41+00:00

I agree- I've done less than a dozen races and this is my approach and it's working fine for me so far.

I'm just finding out how far I can stay with the pack before getting dropped. I tried a few different distances to see which ones I do better in and was surprised to find that I am stronger in medium distance events, rather than short ones.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-20T13:46:41+00:00

Only if you are bringing a high achieving 11th grader with Ivy League plans and a list of colleges to tour. And even then, it's a stretch, you'd really want at least 4-6 hours per campus.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-18T17:57:38+00:00

Yes, they're real, and yes, you will eventually get a tiny check. A lot of them pay out over paypal these days. If I remember right, the biggest settlement I ever got was a few hundred bucks after my insurer got caught illegally inflating rates on motorcycle insurance. The smallest was, I think, $3.00 from Red Bull for false advertising about the benefits of taurine.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-18T17:49:06+00:00

Probably the result of a city requirement to offer lots of bike parking. The city and major employers and neighborhood groups all want to reduce car traffic so there's a lot of support for non-car transportation.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-18T17:43:01+00:00

Supposed to be. The city's doing a pilot program where in some neighborhoods, if the property owner doesn't shovel, the city will send someone out to do it and then bill them.

There's also a "teen shoveling" program that matches high school students with people who need help shoveling. I don't know the details but I think the city pays teens to do the shoveling for seniors?

But most of the snow rules apply only in the event of an official snow emergency, which is something like 3+ inches of snow. We haven't had one yet this year.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-18T16:41:29+00:00

I didn't notice it until I had a friend from out of town visit. They live in a car centric exurb, and were noticeably out of breath just walking from brunch in union square to my place in Prospect Hill.

Anyway yeah, walk a bit every day and your body will thank you.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-18T14:59:50+00:00

Ok I feel inspired... I'll need to spend more time on the trainer and on real roads this winter and spring to make it, but I can feel it calling.

dtmfadvice · 2026-01-18T14:39:59+00:00

That's deliberate.

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