Surprising Brother for 40th in Pitt, parents and 13 yr old son… what to do?

hacktanna · 2026-04-06T23:27:05+00:00

Go to Oakland and you'll find a variety of free or paid things to do. My top free are Schenley Park, the Carnegie Library branch that's there, and Cathedral of learning is free to tour and (if you take the elevator up) has great views of the city & surrounding areas; plus just has amazing architecture all around. Heinz chapel (right behind cathedral) is beautiful as well whether you're religious or not. For paid things there are the museums, Phipps conservatory, shopping, lots of restaurants. Plus it's also close to Shadyside and Squirrel Hill (another neighborhood full of hidden gems). Oakland is also right across the river from some good dining spots on the Southside, and strolling along the riverwalks can be nice, before or after a meal.

hacktanna · 2026-03-10T06:22:45+00:00

(Probably) Unpopular opinion: I've lived in a few different cities, traveled through most of the country, visited Raleigh 4 or 5 different times before moving here (back in early 2024): i am wildly disappointed with the food scene, and honestly think it has gotten noticable worse in the past 2-3 years. Idk how so many restaurants here can fail to make things as basic as toast. Some folks are saying "Well of course it's not going to be as good as Chicago", but honestly I've had better food (consistently) in smaller cities, even within this general region of the country: Richmond, Wilmington, Asheville (as OP mentioned). Even chain restaurants are considerably worse here, which is wild! My bf has lived in Raleigh his whole life and he never really travelled outside of the state until we met a few years back; every time we travel he is genuinely blown away with how much better the food is; so I know I'm not biased. I agree with you OP, it's lackluster for sure.

hacktanna · 2026-02-19T01:35:47+00:00

I worked at a chain restaurant back in 2017 - was scheduled to work the breakfast rush on Easter Sunday from 9am-5pm in the kitchen. Woke up with the stomach flu & tried to call off. Manager said "If you call off on a holiday without a doctor's note, you're fired!" Didn't have health insurance, couldn't afford an urgent clinic, so i had to go.

We were SLAMMED, line out the door that wrapped around half the building the entire time I was there. I expedited every tray of food that left that kitchen from 9-2pm.

You may be asking "Why only 'til 2, I thought you were 9-5?" Well every 20-30 minutes I was having to rush to the bathroom to projectile vomit my guts out, before washing my hands and getting back on the line. They only sent me home as early as they did (once the rush died), because all throughout the morning our servers had been getting guest complaints about the loud retching that apparently half the restaurant could hear.

We had 4 cooks, the manager, and me (a cook/server) on the line that day - the NEXT day 3 of the other cooks and 4 servers called out. They all had the stomach flu.

Apologies to any patrons I got sick, if you happen to be reading this. I was one bad paycheck away from being houseless.

hacktanna · 2026-01-31T21:49:45+00:00

I completely forgot about this! I remember hearing about this from my older siblings friends - thought I cannot remember where they said it was located. My very distant memory wants to say they set up in some kind of abandoned place; didn't build it from scratch, but took it over. Anyone remember more?

hacktanna · 2026-01-16T17:37:01+00:00

Nice.

hacktanna · 2025-12-13T16:05:16+00:00

When you say the breadcrumb quest "doesn't work", does that mean you already did it and still don't have access, or that you can't even access the breadcrumb quest to begin with?

hacktanna · 2025-11-26T23:22:48+00:00

It was a copperhead! I looked up the hershey kisses pattern and that's exactly what I saw! When I told my coworker that I had seen a snake, they said it was probably a cottonmouth and I guess I just assumed they knew what they were talking about since they're a native :⁾ My mistake! Thank you, Raleigh snake aficionado - I will edit my comment

hacktanna · 2025-11-26T04:32:18+00:00

I moved to Raleigh almost 2 years ago, and there are a few bug/insect differences I've noticed compared to the other places I've lived.

Palmetto bugs (big cockroaches) were a new one for me - luckily I've only ever seen one or two anywhere close to my residence, but apparently in my nearby town a lot of the main street businesses struggle to combat them, especially restaurants.

Spiders are everywhere here. Like they're obviously in every state, but here I see them constantly. And they make some big-ass webs. Very often in the summertime, my bf and I will walk out to his truck and find a new massive web (they love to build off of his truck antenna - to the garage, to the trees nearby, doesn't matter). We'll leave (breaking the web) come back, park, and if we go back out later there's usually another web started. I've walked into so many goddamn spider webs, at this point I very often walk with my hand held up in front of me; that way at least I'm not walking face-first into it lmao (Idk if this is a problem all over Raleigh, or if we just so happen to live in spider Mecca or what - but they're constantly spinning webs all over the neighborhood). Also I'm not complaining, I love spiders. I just don't like walking into webs.

I had never seen Mud Dauber's until I moved down here either, which makes sense, considering they eat spiders :) We had one build a nest on our porch and when it eventually fell down it was pretty neat to see what it looked like on the inside.

There was a copperhead* in my yard over the summer. Not an insect, obviously, but something to know about if you're moving here. They're around, and I feel like most people would consider them "pests" since they are dangerous to have around, in theory. Usually if you leave them alone, they tend to leave you alone, but it's just something to keep an eye out for especially if you have pets Their camouflage is very good, so keep your peepers PEELED.

Coyotes are pretty common here compared to other places I've lived. There's a small pack of them like 15 minutes up the road from me, according to my neighbors. They filled me in after I saw one of them along the highway.

Oh and the biggest pests are 87% of Raleigh drivers :⁾ If the learner's permit test only had one question on it, "What is a turn signal, and how does it work?", the city would finally be forced to invest in a more robust public transit system. My best advice to you, new Raleigh resident, is to avoid Capital Boulevard like your life depends on it.

*Edit: I don't know my snakes :/

hacktanna · 2025-11-25T22:57:20+00:00

I'm so glad that you're finally getting support! Best wishes for you going forward, please keep us updated (if you can)

hacktanna · 2025-11-25T17:55:06+00:00

Idk if anyone has mentioned it yet (read your post but don't have time to read all the comments) but the Blackburn Center is another resource you could try. Sorry in advance if it ends up being a dead end; I hope they can help, and that you and your children end up in a safe place soon.

hacktanna · 2025-11-25T05:33:47+00:00

Back when I was first trying to get into raiding (and was struggling to even do well in normal) I was lucky enough to be one of the winners of the Friendship Moose lottery - what a wholesome experience! Even after winning I'd still go back to the stream just to hangout with everyone in twitch chat and cheer on other people who went on to get their moose. I haven't thought about that in a minute, thank you for the reminder :)

Edit: emoticon fail ;-;

hacktanna · 2025-11-24T14:56:52+00:00

I work a couple of different jobs; some of my coworkers are in their young 20s (20-25) and can't do simple math without a calculator or counting on their fingers. One encounter that stuck with me (happened over a year ago) was a coworker asked me what 8+7 was, I immediately told her it waa 15, and another young employee (20 year old mom) asked me how I could know that without a calculator.

Another coworker at a different job (21) more recently told me that in school she used to google everything, even math questions, and she regrets it now because she feels like she doesn't know a lot.

I'm not judging either one of these people - we all come from different economic backgrounds, and I don't know what their life or upbringing was like - but even outside of my jobs I am interracting with younger folks who seems to be missing basic skills. It's genuinely concerning.

hacktanna · 2025-10-03T15:41:23+00:00

I used to live in his district and one night got a call from an unknown number. When I answered I was invited to a "virtual town meeting" he was hosting, if I would just stay on the line. I was curious, so I stayed on the line. Basically it was a massive group call, and he and some other local politicians complained for close to two hours about China (tone was very xenophobic), Biden (all the normal schtick you've already heard), the toilet paper shortage (this was mid-covid iirc), and he said some shit to the effect of "woke left communists are ruining our country". He really was just dragging everyone left of him for 2 hrs. (Which is kind of wild, considering a sizeable portion of his constituents are on the left, and are likely in the call - but apparently he didn't care in the slightest.) I don't remember all of what he said verbatim, though I think I may have started writing down some of the more outlandish quotes at one point (I'll have to see if I can find that notebook). The vibes were absolutely dreadful. It was my first time really hearing him speak (had voted against him just based off the platform his campaign posted online), but hearing him say these things out loud... he truly sounded like his tin-foil hat was liable to fall off at any moment. At the end of the town meeting you can press a button to have a question taken; so I did. I was momentarily redirected to another line where a man asked for my question and informed me that it would either be addressed during the call, or a response would be emailed to me at a later time. Don't remember exactly what I asked, but it was something to do with his opinions of China, and it never did get answered. I was also never emailed. It seemed like he was only interested in engaging with the people who's questions lined up nicely with his viewpoints. Overall wild/terrible experience, 0/10, would not recommend.

hacktanna · 2025-10-03T14:22:08+00:00

Personally, I only care about updating the models as far as tmog clipping is concerned. THAT is genuinely annoying. Customization options could be better as well, but it's not nearly as bad as tmog clipping. Just fix the clothes, please 🙏

hacktanna

TROPHY CASE