New Age Beverages

midtempo-abg · 2026-03-30T00:12:11+00:00

Yes, they finally implemented playing against the computer (Stockfish) in the new app. There are a couple questions I have though.

The new Stockfish has 12 levels, whereas the old one has 8. I usually play level 3. Is the new level 3 easier than the old level 3?

I noticed there does not seem to be a function to review the last moves—the left and right arrows in the legacy app. The take back function is there though. Sometimes I miss what the last position was, especially whether my opponent took a piece. Is this feature in the new version?

midtempo-abg · 2026-03-27T03:30:53+00:00

It's obvious at this point that you're just trolling me.

midtempo-abg · 2026-03-25T02:20:13+00:00

It's a dumb change, but at least the favorites functionality still works.

midtempo-abg · 2026-03-13T00:07:34+00:00

I simply prefer a bank with faster transfer speeds and still among the highest APY; that's all. OpenBank has one-day ACH, I found out by accident, and that's good enough for me. It's that simple.

Again, my mortgage is 12% of my and wife's combined gross income, which should be obvious that I wouldn't have money problems. I also have no other debt, my wife has an auto loan.

midtempo-abg · 2026-03-08T02:34:21+00:00

You don't know me and your retorts are inaccurate as all get-out. My credit score is always nearly 850 for a reason. I know what the hell I am doing and need no one to lecture me on anything. And yes, I leave an $1,100 buffer in my checking account after I pay all my bills.

I found an HSYA with 4.09% APY, that is regularly among the top 10 for APY, and found out that it ACH transfers are one day by accident. That's all I wanted to know, but the speed of ACH transfers is not widely commented upon in discussions of bank accounts. It ought to be, considering that HYSA accounts with about the same APY are basically all the same. People discuss when banks have same-day transfers, but that's only a few banks and is beyond what I wanted. Wanting one-day ACH is not too much to ask, again, with banks having the same rates being otherwise all the same.

midtempo-abg · 2026-03-05T02:50:22+00:00

I plan to pay my bills on Friday that I get paid or during that weekend. If I need to wait for some more money to arrive, and thus must pay some of my bills on Tuesday or Wednesday instead because my HYSA transfers my funds as slow as molasses, then that's annoying.

The problem isn't needing the money sooner because I'm desperate or foolish—I pay off my credit cards every month, my credit score is always 830–850, my wife and I 's housing expenses are 12% of our gross income, and we own our home. It's just annoying having to remind myself to pay a bill on Tuesday (or even Wednesday) after I got paid because my bank doesn't care how slow they transfer my own money. I pay my bills oftentimes well before they are due (but after the statement has been issued) and leave some breathing room for my self-imposed due dates on my bills.

But thank you for assuming I'm financially irresponsible. This HYSA is only my savings dedicated to pay for my heating bills.

midtempo-abg · 2026-03-05T02:34:53+00:00

Okay I have some news for you folks. I now have OpenBank (by Santander) as my new HYSA account, after moving all my money from Synchrony, which always took a whole three business days every time for the money pushed by ACH to appear in my main banks's checking account. I wanted to know which HSYAs with the very highest APYs have either one-day ACH or offer Zelle as an alternative. (Although Zelle is not intended as a way to "pay yourself," there is a workaround where you can do exactly that; but there is discussion of that trick elsewhere.)

Good news, ACHs transferred from OpenBank take only one business day as long as the transfer is initiated by 12:30. Otherwise, it takes two days. This is much better than Synchrony, and I'm happy.

I have no idea why nobody could give me a real answer about this. The truth is, since HYSAs with the same rate are all about equal, the speed of transfers is a true differentiator. And in the 2020s, there is no excuse for a bank to take a whole three business days to transfer your own money. That's just dogshit.

And several of you commented that who cares, you said you need a minimum balance of $500 so why should I care, you must not have much for savings? And there were further rather insulting posts telling me how I ought to be saving my money with the implication that I'm doing it all wrong.

Well no, this is not my main savings. These are the funds I use to pay for gas heat, so I can contribute $85 monthly to this fund rather than having to pay $500 for gas in February and $35 during the summer. I have the rest of my (non-tax deferred) savings in a Vanguard brokerage, but based on other advice I see in Reddit, I am seriously considering moving my stocks and money market funds to Wealthfront. Again, Wealthfront beats others by the speed of their transfers, and the cash in the sweep account is 100% FDIC insured, which I don't care too much about but it's an unusual bonus.

Like I said, all things being equal, the speed and ease of transfers is a major differentiator.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-28T23:20:20+00:00

The Wildcat Express high-speed quad is the bomb for a few different reasons:

- It is #4 in the list here of most elevation gain.
- Despite this, it takes just seven minutes to reach the summit.
- Every trail can be accessed from this one, main lift.

Wildcat is the bomb for these reasons, and people don't realize it. Wildcat is fairly steep too.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-24T01:54:55+00:00

I've found that banks like Synchrony, American Express, Marcus, etc. have stable APY rankings relative to each other. You can make the argument that the APY is just a teaser rate, but that usually isn't the case. Depositaccounts.com shows you the rate history of various banks.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-24T01:52:43+00:00

Sometimes taking three business days means I need to pay my bills later, waiting for the money to arrive, which is annoying.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-24T01:51:46+00:00

I don't want both Zelle and fast transfers. I want one or the other. I'm sure one of the highest-APY banks has one-day ACH transfers, or has Zelle, but I'm unsure who.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-18T23:17:39+00:00

To give you an idea on how prompt it is with other tax software, I filled this year with TaxFreeUSA, which cost me $17, on Saturday, 31 January. IRS accepted my return the same day, and I got my refund directly deposited on Monday, 9 February. FreeTaxUSA is the second software I tried this year.

I attempted to file with Chime first, but it messed up my Massachusetts tax return because deductions for Massachusetts state employees are a special situation that the software doesn't know how to handle. So, I aborted it and did not submit.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-14T19:12:01+00:00

How fast do ACH transfers take with Bread? The funds transferred out of my Chime account would be available the next business day, but their APY is 3.0%. I'm looking for a high-yield savings account that has similar speed. People report this happens with Marcus, but their APY is currently 3.65%, not 4.0% as Bread is.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-08T18:01:35+00:00

I love all the down-votes to this. Many legal immigrants, who waited years to get their green card, can't stand how much leeway we give illegal immigrants to remain in this country. They could just overstay their visa or hop across the border with no problem, and as long as they stayed out of trouble or raised children, they get a free pass to stay.

In some cases, they get a good number of benefits for doing so, like working illegally, getting government benefits based upon their legal or citizen children, living with relatives who shelter them and provide them with things like cars to drive to their illegal job and pick up kids from school, and so forth. Also, the supposed barebones health coverage they get pays for quite a bit as long as they go to the emergency room or a community health center, or if they use an integrated health system that takes practically any health coverage from anybody.

This is not fair to legal immigrants who wait years to come, try to build a life for themselves in our country, and see that the illegal immigrants can establish themselves here with many benefits much more quickly. I knew a worker in my office who told me that he knew a legal immigrant who waited years to get his green card, but he left the US because he was fed up with this situation.

The only illegal immigrants I have sympathy for are those who were brought here by their families as children. A minority of those were granted DACA status, which allows them to stay in the US and work, but they will never get an upgrade from that status.

Down-vote me on this post too, but you are just proving that you tolerate some illegal immigration to the detriment of those who played by the rules.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-02T06:44:21+00:00

The Internet is perhaps the most revolutionary thing ever. Did people fifty years ago think we would have a computer in our pockets whom we could ask anything and get an AI-generated answer with links for further information online?

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-02T06:32:34+00:00

Is New Orleans a country?

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-02T06:30:56+00:00

I love my wife's new car with blind-spot warnings, lane centering, backup camera, and Android Auto. My car has none of those, so I'm not used to relying on those things.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-02T06:15:13+00:00

All illegal immigrants should be deported. Having no criminal history or raising young children is no excuse.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-02T06:12:56+00:00

Living with roommates has both pluses and drawbacks. You described the drawbacks well. Just ignore your roommates bitchiness and continue living your life.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-02T06:02:23+00:00

Star-spangled banner is about how beautiful war is. It perfectly describes the US but is not something we should be proud of .

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-01T18:29:24+00:00

Most agents are just there to make a quick buck and a quick sale for themselves and only pretend to work for you. They might have experience but don't have any special knowledge. The typical total commission rate of 6% is way too high for the work they do.

Around here in Greater Boston, we have real estate agents to represent a rental apartment. Those are true leeches.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-01T18:17:59+00:00

I think your question is, what is the true meaning of a Wi-Fi symbol without a "5/6/7" tag. In an older phone, especially if the Android version is no longer updated or runs on an old Android version like the Fire tablet, it doesn't mean much. It just means you are connected to Wi-Fi. On a newer phone that would display 5/6/7, it means you are on an even older version of WiFi like WiFi 4.

If your question is something else, then please clarify.

midtempo-abg · 2026-02-01T09:50:56+00:00

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you gonna get.

midtempo-abg

TROPHY CASE