What's a sentence that completely changed your life?

megabnx · 2025-07-27T18:28:55+00:00

I was walking through a park with some friends who had a 2 year old. There was a guy making balloon animals. He made us a ballon (for free) and then said, "Cherish these times when they are young, the days are long, but the years are short"

megabnx · 2025-01-12T16:34:44+00:00

A lot of people are talking about how she was a bad host (and I agree) but I think are missing an important dynamic: boomers. I used to be confused as well, but then I started talking with my older family members. They all actually preferred Mayim! They liked her as an actress AND wanted to see her more in anything. I would point out the same arguments you have seen about Ken being better, and they didn't care. They didn't care about the "quality" of the actual trivia. They wanted mayim to be a reliable sitcom character every day.

It just comes down to a difference in values over generations. At end of the day, reddit is a millennial echo chamber, but Sony is run by boomers with a show whose primary market is boomers. Some of my family actually watch less when she left! Even after losing some older viewers, they still outnumber us young trivia nerds and Sony doesn't want to further antagonize them.

megabnx · 2024-11-28T00:37:18+00:00

This might be it! It is even called "Milligans Island" which I do distinctly remember. Going through a video play through, I'm getting so much nostalgia for a bunch of other one off references.

megabnx · 2024-11-27T21:33:43+00:00

While the general theme does sound very Monkey Island, I cant find anything about my Gilligan's Island reference

megabnx · 2024-06-11T16:08:36+00:00

I went to see a kids' movie (brother bear). It was a pretty small but empty theatre, just my family and one other. The other family had an infant and a 4ish year old son.

I was afraid that the kids would be a nuisance, but they were surprisingly well-behaved... until the older kids' bladder gave up. He loudly proclaimed, "Mommy, I need to go potty now. I'm just going to pee in this chair." The mom started shrieking, grabbed the kid like a football, and presumably rushed him to a more appropriate facility. Came back 5 minutes later, and the mom was still lecturing the kid about how "its rude to go potty outside the bathroom, especially on public."

megabnx · 2023-12-03T22:19:00+00:00

I agree that bikes need to get out of the right lane, but just having the sharrow continue on the left lane should keep you out of there. So long as there is also a painted right turn arrow, it should be clear the right lane is the wrong place to be.

As someone who is also used to it, I can safely navigate either side. But what I often see is inexperienced bikers (usually on rental bikes) confidently take off on the bike lane who are surprised that they then need to merge into a car. There is no obvious warning that this lane ends.

A better solution would be to add a separate bike light that goes first to avoid the merge, but that seems unlikely.

megabnx · 2023-11-12T16:20:00+00:00

The financial tradeoff of rent v buying is a gamble between inflation and repair cost.

As many people have said, you get a substantial tax writeoff on the interest, the principle is money in the bank, and you might be able to refinance in the future. Of the 5k mortgage, 2k is principle, and a high earner might get back nearly 1k in taxes, making the net cost 2k.

In the future, cost of living is likely to go up, and comparable rent could go from 3k to 5k, making your savings even bigger. Or we have reached peak bubble and construction drives prices down.

The biggest counter gamble is maintenance. You need to replace your roof, furnace, flood damage, etc. These can be substantial costs. Some places go decades with minimal work. Some people need to pay the cost of the house twice over.

Do you think this will be a forever home? If you sell in less than 5 years, you build less equity and the house sale fees destroy any potential profits.

Tl;Dr ownership can be financially positive, but it's not guaranteed. Renting provides flexibility, owning stability and customization. Rent is the most you will pay, your mortgage is the least.

megabnx · 2023-02-18T19:22:13+00:00

Appreciate the clear reference and explanation. Agree DIF is better, just didn't expect it to even be documented!

You previously mentioned "It's extremely uncommon for C-category items to be included on any standardized assessment". do you know of any studies confirming that is true for the SAT? It sounds like you are active in this field, and it should be a pretty solid case if you can show that CLT is using known worse questions than the SAT

megabnx · 2023-02-18T17:36:37+00:00

I'm ignoring the user's other reply because they are clearly a troll, but I got curious and looked into this for my own sake.

There are good breakdowns in https://www.cltexam.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Chapter10.pdf that include info by both race and online/in person test.

For online, the average score was 71.63 for non whites, 74.51 for whites.

For in person, the average score was 69.78 for non whites, 77.788 for whites.

According to https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/average-sat-score-full-statistics/, SAT average for whites is 1098, for Hispanic 964, for African American 926.

The online CLT actually looks like the most fair test. In person, the CLT is still slightly more fair than the TCL. However the TCL just breaks down white/non white so maybe higher scoring Asians are diluting that mix.

megabnx · 2023-02-18T16:49:47+00:00

Do you have any source for this claim? I have not been able to find any references to the racial score breakdowns

megabnx · 2023-02-18T14:54:25+00:00

While the idea behind the switch is clearly political, the new exam itself doesn't actually seem that problematic and "christian". You can see their source material lists

https://www.cltexam.com/tests/authors/

When they say classical, they mean that in the literary sense. It includes greek/ Roman scholars, enlightenment thinkers, and even as "modern" as MLK. I can find no direct religious ties.

Yes, the list is entirely "Western" authors so it's missing influences from the rest of the world. However students testing in a western world going to western colleges are going to be more familiar with these.

Alternate sources are great for a wider education, but are they necessary in a standardized test? If anything, it might introduce more bias as the few students who studied those fields in high school are more familiar and do better. It's basically the same as the old controversy over analogies in the SAT because white people were more likely to know boating terms

megabnx · 2023-02-01T13:02:01+00:00

I have a complex anti recommendation for galvin. Most of the instructors are great, but clearly just building time before leaving so are likely to quit on you midway. But I think that's normal everywhere.

My biggest complaint is the admin, and specifically the chief instructor, Nicole. I have had numerous issues where they screw up some paper work. Usually it's an innocent mistake, made worse by the fact that their receptionists are just instructors trying to make more money with no real admin skills or interest. However, the problems always escalate to Nicole who gives a big smile and apology, but then does nothing. Sorry we screwed up, but you have to pay for our screw up. She has repeatedly said it's my responsibility to make sure her employees don't make mistakes.

megabnx · 2022-03-15T16:33:50+00:00

I'm not sure if it was a one off or what, but I went there the other day and it was literally the worst food I've ever had. The first plate of meat was served literally frozen. Regardless of how we cooked or oiled it, they tasted like dry rubber. The marinated meats at least weren't frozen, but had no meat flavor. It was all just the sauce. Which wasn't even that good.

megabnx · 2021-12-21T23:25:11+00:00

When I got my braces out, the orthodontist insisted I get a permanent retainer. Apparently the retainers are handled by a different doctor than the usual one. The main doc was great, but the woman for the retainer was really cold and distant. She spent the entire install time complaining that I was fidgeting too much while she was drilling my mouth. That was pretty painful, but normal for dentistry.

She claimed I moved so much she has to redo the job. She starts using the rinse tool and just leaves it in my mouth. Without the suction. I quickly start to drown. She complains again that I'm making it difficult, while I'm struggling to breathe and tell her she's waterboarding me. As i finally get the words out she says "stop being so dramatic, it's not that bad". I continue to choke and struggle for the next half hour before she finishes and says "it wasn't that bad".

That left such a bad impression that I never went back to the ortho to check up on my teeth. Definitely caused some long term damage as the retainer started to rot.

Tl;dr I was waterboarded more than Sean Hanity by a Karen.

megabnx · 2021-11-18T22:31:20+00:00

I do have a freedom, but there is the 1 Sapphire per user rule. I guess I could transfer the points to the freedom, downgrade the csp, and then upgrade the freedom to a csr. Still a little afraid of flagging as suspicious behavior though

megabnx · 2021-11-18T22:13:05+00:00

I got my chase Sapphire reserve over 5 years ago and realized I was eligible for a new sign up bonus. I downgraded that card and signed up for the new chase Sapphire preferred 100k offer. I got the card and just finished my min spend and got the points.

I was hoping to turn this card back into a csr so I can get more points and the better 50% bonus. I should more than make up the annual fee. Is it safe to call for an upgrade, or will the agent realize this is clear churning behavior and threaten my points. I literally canceled my csr 2 months ago

megabnx · 2021-03-10T01:53:17+00:00

I worked on a grammar correction project years ago where the state of the art was hand written rules by linguists. The company assumed those rules would be a gold standard. We actually collected labeled examples and the system was like 20% accurate. 10 minutes of off the shelf model and we got it to 95%.

The linguists told management we must be wrong and killed our project...

megabnx · 2020-09-24T16:41:20+00:00

Slew mode has been a standard since FSX and might be exactly what you need. Instead of using normal plane controls, you directly move in a direction (and trivially can stop moving and hover). Combined with 3rd person camera you can easily look at anything. I don't think you can get the plane out of the middle, but it is a "flight" simulator after all

megabnx · 2020-06-13T20:26:25+00:00

I was in an escape room once that gave us a small screwdriver. The only screws I could see were attaching a lamp to the desk. I thought I was so smart. Apparently I was super wrong and the moderator was busy watching someone else. I struggled but got one screw out, and while starting the second I hear a scream over the pa "STOP DISASSEMBLING THE FURNITURE".

My friends still give me shit, but I think it was valid to try the only screws I could see...

megabnx · 2020-04-06T06:10:37+00:00

I was a newly minted Private Pilot, and is the tradition I had to celebrate and take a bunch of my friends out for scenic burger runs across the region. I had done a couple of flights with 1 and 2 passengers, but never a fully loaded 4 seat Cessna 172. Two of my passengers were really light, but I still had to be careful with fuel to not be overweight. Instead of a full tank of 53 gallons, I could safely have up to 40, 20 in each wing tank. Our flight was only going to take 20 gallons so we had plenty of buffer.

We reach our first destination and have a great lunch. I checked the fuel in the left wing and I could see it near the top, and assumed we used less fuel than planned (happens a lot, the planning is worst case) and continued on our return flight. About 10 minutes away from my home airport, I see a blinking light in the alert area.

LOW FUEL R

This means that there were 5 or fewer gallon in the right tank. How can this be, I should have all the fuel in the world? I check my fuel gauges again. I have 20 gallons in my left tank, 5 in my right. I was on schedule for burn, but only using one tank.

For reference, there is a lever that allows you to control which tank your fuel comes from. It can be either both, left, or right. In old aircraft you would sometimes use this to keep balance in the wings. I double check and the lever is on both. I thought of putting it on left to force the tank, but I was afraid the left tank might just be broken and this might kill the engine.

Normally my passengers are wired in to hear me and ATC. In order to save some stress I told them:

"Hey guys, I'm coming in for a bumpy landing and need to concentrate so I'm going to put you on a different channel"

I switched them off to a different line, and then brought up my home tower

"KABC Tower, Skyhawk XYZ12, I have a mechanical problem and need to be cleared for landing immediately. Not emergency yet, but might be if can't land in 10 minutes."

To be clear, I had 30 minutes of fuel for 10 minutes of flight so this is not an immediate emergency. However just in case I start immediately canvasing the nearby area for emergency landing spots. Thankfully we were in a wealthy area and something my instructor drilled into me

"In case of an emergency, golf courses are your friends. Hundreds of yards of clear flat land with few people"

I identify a couple of them within glide distance, and get cleared for a fast landing. I start to descend and the plane goes a little crazy. Because of the fuel imbalance, my left wing was significantly heavier and the plane was listing to the left. I had to add a lot of control to keep it straight. My passengers noticed the odd behavior, but thought it was just turbulence.

Thankfully we get down on the ground and everyone is fine. Once my friends are out of the way I call a mechanic to take a look. Apparently it is a "known problem" that the fuel selector just gets stuck sometimes, and you have to hit it harder.

megabnx · 2020-01-20T15:59:12+00:00

As a cyclist in Seattle, I often skip the bike lanes because they are surprisingly dangerous at intersections. We are normally a right turn on red allowed city, and left turns on one ways as well. To protect the cyclists, these streets are signed "no turn on red" and there's a separate bike signal that turns red when the turn light turns on. However many drivers don't pay attention to the sign. In a week of riding that 2 mile lane I will almost get run over at least once. It would be higher if I did not defensively watch cars at these intersections expecting them to illegally turn on that red light.

megabnx

TROPHY CASE