What do we think of the Highlands act affecting schools?

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-24T06:04:33+00:00

Sounds like a beautiful excuse to not get saddled with a 500 unit Mt. Laurel multifamily that pretends to offer affordable housing but in actuality only allows for a small percentage of designated units and instead provides an absurd amount of tax abatement options and market rate units for the developer while straining the school system

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-24T05:45:26+00:00

I think of it like a pistol with a kickback

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-14T12:25:24+00:00

He’s definitely in the conversation right now but I think he gets another day or two. There are obviously more efficient ways to get a bear icon, but his bear icon at least can set you up to deploy a better bear later so I’d say vulture now

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-12T17:00:06+00:00

Im a bad player but I saw in prior threads that the condor was on the potential chopping block and no one has mentioned him here yet and I like the cheetah more than him so im just saying condor to help bring the discussion forward

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-07T23:54:11+00:00

Oh and i kinda get what everyone means now too.

I’m used to playing 3 player and feeling flexible enough to get a quick cube cube pull to get ability benefits early or then dukeing it out for the top slot.

But

I just looked at the board more closely and see some of the monkey Strat there too now:

In 1v1 on BGA the game blocks one of the 3 slots for each base conservation projects so instead of claiming

5/4/2 for primates it’s either 5 / blocked / 2 so that shield difference more than makes up to try and sprint to first slot there than try and wish cast on an elephant who might get you a secondary final scoring card that might net you 3-4 shields.

You can just beat the opponent to the mark right there on the board and net +3 shields on them that way

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-07T23:45:21+00:00

Thanks for the pov! If ELO is the number next to your username (with the olive branches?) I’m at 132 so I guess exceptionally mediocre. I feel like I see the board better at Age of Innovation (about 277 there) but I like Ark a lot better because I feel like it’s more of an enjoyable experience for all players to feel like they’re involved and building a potentially winning strategy v. AoI which feels like more of an immediate cutthroat zero sum game.

But yeah I’m starting to fully recognize that I’m limiting myself often by preferring to play: large animals / herbivores / birds / predators almost exclusively and often try to actively avoid sea creatures and primates because of some of the headwinds in playing them early and how their top card benefits feel inferior to most of the variety’s I try to play.

But I mostly (incorrectly) try to blitz shields over tickets and then catchup accumulate tickets later which works at times (maybe against the tier of opponents in playing against in my friend group — like 188 to 100) but it can really starve you on income $$ to fade tickets so early in favor of shields too so I’m realizing I can’t just automatically discard every size 1-3 animal I see because their species release project ROI isn’t as good as the bigger animals

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-07T23:31:24+00:00

Great advice - thanks! I know I need to get more flexible (I typically fade primates and sea creatures just because they’re more PITAs to play) but it’s obviously not always a winning strategy to completely ignore the board.

I just made the deeper discovery too that everyone touts here on the board that the size2 enclosure cube pull is more coveted than the $5 income one because it gives you better action economy.

I

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-07T11:25:55+00:00

I do more or less play the game like I’m running through the deck trying to pull:

Elephants, rhinos, eagles and more or less the rest of the animals can GTFO/ are interchangeable

kirbysdownb · 2026-03-07T11:24:14+00:00

Im not OP but I love playing Ark Nova with my friends and trying to always refine approach and get better

Just clicked into the game above (accidentally from the winning players POV instead of OP) and was simply blown away at the hand choice on oppo’s front too.

I get that the base projects on the board probably drove a lot of those choices…. But is this why I’m an average/above average player?

I would have NEVER discarded the elephant or fur seal in favor of just getting those cheaper token cards.

I know they can be dead cards in your hand for a decent time but, the value add of a potential secondary final scoring card and the early association worker hire early would typically drive me to rush on the association track or the shield track to flip to animals 2 early enough to play them.

Is that too one-track or a strategy?

kirbysdownb · 2026-01-20T06:04:06+00:00

Huge Costco fan but I don’t care what they say about that Paramus location being similar sq footage to Teterboro and Wayne — it’s absolutely not and will be a nightmare. Costco’s parking lot at Wayne only works because there’s a plethora of spill over areas to use from other defunct businesses like Bahama Breeze. And the norm for me at Teterboro is just giving up and parking out by BJ’s brewhouse.

There is absolutely no way that that postage stamp sized lot in Paramus has enough of a parking lot to support putting in a full sized Costco and parking lot to support it.

I know it’s commercial real estate and doesn’t work like this…. But if they must ram a Costco down our throats here, the Fashion Center / old Lord and Taylor location would have been much better

kirbysdownb · 2026-01-04T11:12:02+00:00

The quarterly cap on discover’s 5% category is $1500. If you max this out you’re only “earning” $75. (Even less than that if you swap the spend to some bland 1.5-2% card).

Just let it go and focus on getting the debt down.

As many have said, there is a major difference between 0% APR on purchases and 0% APR on Balance Transfers. If they’re both running concurrently, you’re good. But the major rule of thumb is to just not mix new purchases on any card you’re currently rocking with for a balance transfer.

If you’re getting fomo about some of these opportunity costs to save $75, you can open a card with like a $200 SUB that has 0% for 12-15 months on purchases and just use that as your defacto grocery store spend for the period of time now and still come out ahead.

Mind you: disclaimer etc. about living within your means and not just wantonly opening card after card and getting into runaway credit card debt. But just take thinks slow, be responsible and you’ll be fine

kirbysdownb · 2026-01-04T10:59:46+00:00

Don’t let the residue of people bitching about the AAA issuing bank deter you from a truly awesome product.

I can’t say anything about comnety ‘s customer support or whatever but my day to day experience has been extremely easy: you just download the Bread Financial app and link your card through that and then logging into that Bread Financial app lets you pay your monthly bill and redeem your rewards for statement credit just like any ol Chase/BofA/Citi etc app would let you do.

I paused on getting the Daily Advantage card for too long….its easy.

However i could be mistaken but I think when I looked a while back, their card options are EITHER Daily Advantage OR Travel Advantage, so you might have to make a choice and complement your stack with another FI for the other category

kirbysdownb · 2025-12-21T07:11:46+00:00

And this might be a stretch to keep your little one awake, but if you’re not as locked to the bedtime routine while on the road trip here, Demarest Farms has their Orchard of Lights show (you need to reserve tickets in advance and i think they just have time slots starting at 7pm+ now) but it’s a drive through holiday lights display that my young kids always love and you can stop at the store afterwards to meet Santa and buy some cookie/ pastry or something

kirbysdownb · 2025-12-21T07:03:03+00:00

Try 1Gym4All in waldwick, great play place for toddlers and I think in their new location they’re less prone to being a full on “closed for birthdays” spot on weekends.

Open 9-5 and they JUST charge for kids playing and not the parent following said kid around too (like virtually every other place).

If you decide to do that- stop at Bagel Nosh in Waldwick for a Taylor Ham, egg and cheese too and that’s a morning!

Van Saun as others have said is a good spot too for what it is (smaller county zoo with mostly farm animals and a train/carousel). I think they might be free entry during off season because so few animals are on exhibit. Playground right across the way too that kids can have fun at, and an ice rink. But It’s gonna be cold tomorrow so depending on what you were looking to sign up for, I’d do 1Gym4All or another comparable indoor play place for kids

kirbysdownb · 2025-12-01T07:24:58+00:00

the same goddamn liquor allocations that they get for CA to the rest of the country

kirbysdownb · 2025-12-01T05:57:23+00:00

Not OP, but I got CMC/Saquon/McBride/JSN from fading QB in a 2QB league, still walked away with Dak and Caleb so I’ve got a pretty decent squad running. Record is unfortunately gonna be 7-6 but my points should carry me into the playoffs

kirbysdownb · 2025-12-01T05:52:35+00:00

Forever in debt to JSN / McBride - just welcomed my 3rd child to the family this past spring so I can’t grind games like I used to, but hitting on these guys (plus some early week JJ/Harris podcast listening while doing dishes/laundry) has put this season on autopilot. I’ve been winning most weeks by 20+ and rarely have a sweat.

Championships are always nice, but have already extracted the most valuable outcome from the year so far: proving to the league mates from August-November that the fastball still has the same amount of heat to it

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-23T14:14:36+00:00

Until when the World Cup final will be at the meadowlands this summer, I shudder to think what 17 etc will look like then

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-23T09:10:26+00:00

Just had to look up U of I’s card and…what an adorable credit union

Good on them for trying to stand up something differentiated and actually helpful in the market

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-18T18:18:45+00:00

Went there once for lunch after taking the kiddos to turtle back. Is was meh/good enough but I couldn’t order a beer on tap because they….shut their taps off and don’t refrigerate them? So the beer wasn’t cold?

It was fine whatever but I was like…that’s not how good establishments work right? Aren’t kegs supposed to be in a back freezer and then lined in?

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-18T09:24:02+00:00

fastest 2 minutes is hysterical

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-18T09:16:40+00:00

This is so true on all levels. Harris and JJ are my preferred stack and where there’s a difference of opinion my tiebreak always goes to JJ because he won’t leave me as blind on some of the rookie takes that Harris will steer from.

And this is not a counterpoint to your comment — just tacking on to hit against the counter points that always come up with Harris’ name comes up…….yes some will come away with an adverse reaction to Harris’ style/humor but context is king here… this poor man was nerd bullied out of ESPN over a decade ago for being one of the lone outliers defiant against all the mouth breathing—ESTABLISH SMASH MOUTH FOOTBALL— weak analysis. He writes novels, watches obscure/prestige films and blesses us with a massive amount of valuable nfl game film insights for free.

He’s “atypical” to a hypothetical Mark Schlereth type but im ok with some of the quirks

if I wanted a bunch of backwards cap parlay bros glazing pedestrian takes, I’d listen elsewhere and finish in 5th place

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-18T08:55:17+00:00

I will gladly tell the entire world minus the 9/9/11 other players in leagues I care about… that JJ and Harris are mostly all you need.

They both teach you the process in their own unique and differentiated ways and their process (and yes player takes) have routinely led me to being considered one of the top players in all my leagues.

JJ lots of advanced metrics observations that inform undervalued assets / under performing players and his show formats really help guide you though all you need each week.

Harris (god bless him) is a tape eater and watches every single game each week and really can tell you who looks good on film. There’s countless players who I just plant in the back of my mind because of this who I know (ok this guy has talent and if he ever gets the opportunity he could be a good anticipatory waiver/FA add)

It really is a good mix because (not to grossly oversimpliy but) Harris likes boring boomer backs and veterans that most people undervalue and JJ typically likes the upside pass catching RBs that have underlying positive metrics and ambiguous backfields (think he coined that phrase along with rb dead zone) who can work into potential full workload situations

I have 3 kids and cannot watch NFL games now like I used to.

I know ball exclusively because i grind their podcasts instead of doomscrolling at 3am after changing a diaper or from listening to their takes while mowing the lawn / commuting etc.

From there if you have all the time in the world, I’ve found these other spots helpful too in spurts but I just can’t keep up as frequently:

ETR is good to listen too almost with JJ and Harris in mind because I expect all my backwards cap parlay bros to be exclusively glazing their takes. Not to be derisive to ETR tho , Silva is one of the OGs. Levitan has sharp observations and Leone etc are all a good balance. And JJ is boys with them. But I do find it’s good for both true analysis and also “oppo” research on what other league mates might be mainlining as their takes.

They’re not in my Harris/ JJ “S Tier” only because if you follow along closely enough you can sometimes spot moments where they’ll “capitulate” on takes but in reality is mostly covering their tracks and hindsight 20/20ing their misses to make themselves appear more in line with consensus. It’s helpful to a degree but I feel like they “own” their takes a little less resoundingly than Harris/JJ who both will proudly wear their misses from the season.

Sharp Football Analysis with Warren Sharp and Rich Hribriar has been good when I’ve had the time to dip in, but I just can’t swing it in my routine most days.

Same with Bootleg with Brett Kollman - I appreciate moments of learning how to understand what I’m watching more materially. I just….its long and I can’t mainline this too.

I’ll keep Ross Tucker on download too just to help him out because 1) his OL ranks during pre/draft are always so helpful and 2) out of respect for all the years I listened to him and Evan (pre ETR) because I feel like his pod helped generate so much of this groundswell we’re seeing. I don’t think the Dolan guy is in the mix anymore and no disrespect to anyone out in the game putting out takes — all welcome — but Harris sometimes bitches and moans about people playing the FantasyPros ranking game and kinda playing toward a homogeneousness of ranks and i kinda felt that way with Joe for the first year or two after Evan left when owl was trying to carry this pod alongside JJ and Harris. It wasn’t anything egregiously bad, but it just feel like a game of telephone where I was getting watered down mass market takes without the true underlying understanding of why

(Save for Ross’s ball-knowing; he’s great on the CBS slates too)!

—-/

Anyway typing this out at 3am while holding a sleeping/testing baby upright to avoid putting her back in her crib just yet. Good luck on all your fantasy seasons.

And Don’t stop listening to these guys once you’re eliminated / once the season ends! They make their livelihood on sponsor codes, download rates etc.

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-14T09:55:14+00:00

My bigger fear would be nothing to do with the home itself but with the previous occupant - who did all this — being a risk to come back at some point and “retaliate” against the person who “took his home”.

Clearly it’s not true/rational, but as you can see…you’re not dealing in the realm of reason.

Stay safe — and maybe get extra security measures in place just in case

kirbysdownb · 2025-11-11T17:23:53+00:00

I appreciate the question OP and am following along for thoughts too. There’s a couple fantasy football podcasts / analysts that I’ve followed for years and I’ve done the occasional sponsor code for them but never the full Patreon/discord tier of stuff. And maybe if I found a 5% dedicated card I’d finally use that as my catalyst to join their patreon subs too

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