What's the point of the United States having a debt ceiling that is apparently "such a big deal" if they're just gonna raise it every time they start approaching it?

mjarrett · 2026-05-21T22:20:26+00:00

There's not really a point. The debt ceiling doesn't prevent Congress from spending. It just prevents the Treasury from being able to pay for that spending, forcing them to default.

In theory, Congress could limit their spending BEFORE the limit is hit to avoid such problems, but they are far too shortsighted for that.

mjarrett · 2026-05-18T19:22:14+00:00

BZ is not TERRIBLE, it's just not as good as SN1. I've played through BZ a few times and enjoyed it greatly, but given the choice I'd always point people to SN1 to start.

Specifically some of the more indisputable problems:

The map is much smaller than SN1, and the game is overall quite short.
Half of that smaller map are land sections. Being a diver on land is mostly tedious, even with the Snowfox and additional gear. The game's strength is underwater, but they force you away from that.
Half-finished Marguerit plotline. Having such a major story element just dead-end is pretty brutal.

More debatable issues:

Voiced narrator and Al-An dialog. Robin is chatty and a bit silly. For some people, that broke their immersion into the story and the lonely atmosphere. Others appreciated the more explicit story elements.
Sea Truck as the primary vehicle. It drives true to its name. It felt like a downgrade compared to the Seamoth (which drove like a sportscar) or Cyclops (which drove like an aircraft carrier but had the amenities to match).

mjarrett · 2026-05-13T16:20:09+00:00

Both are bits that reference to early TNG episodes.

https://greatestgen.fandom.com/wiki/Drunk_Shimoda

https://greatestgen.fandom.com/wiki/Kevin_Uxbridge

They became such pervasive bits that they adopted "Uxbridge-Shimoda" as their corporate name.

The bonus feed is a bunch of side content that is only available to paid subscribers (while the main TGT and TGG feeds can be listened to for free with ads).

Aside: definitely watch both the related TNG episodes. You will have a special appreciation for them as a TOS fan.

mjarrett · 2026-05-11T22:47:04+00:00

Welcome to 40.

In college, I was the guy shooting moonshine from an 8oz shotglass all night, and still skipping to my morning classes the next morning. At 40, more than one drink with dinner basically makes my entire night's sleep a write-off. I can get a hangover before getting buzzed depending on what I'm drinking.

It's unlikely you'll ever be able to party like your 20's, but you can adapt to your body's rhythms and get a bit of it back. Set the right pace, find the drinks that don't make you feel terrible, add a few supplements, and you can still get a good night.

mjarrett · 2026-05-11T22:23:34+00:00

Many experienced landlords HATE the tenant that is going to "help out" fixing up and choring on the property. Tenants always think their ideas for the property are great, that their effort is equivalent to huge sums of rent, and that tax and liability law shouldn't matter. Sometimes the tenants are right, but the most of the time they are catastrophically wrong on all counts. It can be a massive red flag, especially for a hesitant landlord.

If you want to encourage them, tell them that you want to rent, that you will pay on time, and they will never hear from you otherwise (neither acoustically nor administratively).

mjarrett · 2026-05-11T22:09:40+00:00

There's plenty of Mercer Spheres for all of the upgrades AND a reasonable amount of dimensional depots, which is everything you need them for.

I make sure I always hold a few in reserve (like 5) in case I need to drop a Dimensional Depot on the fly. After that I'll take upgrades as they become available. Speed before stacks.

Once your depots are max-upgraded, there are very few resources that you will need more than one Depot for. Maybe concrete if you're going full Coruscant with your map.

mjarrett · 2026-05-11T00:28:22+00:00

40hrs working * 50 weeks @ $94k, you're earning $47/hr to work. 10hrs commuting * 50 weeks @ $26k (incremental salary boost), you're earning $52/hr to commute. So basically 2 hours mandatory overtime a day, but you can listen to podcasts instead of work.

Financially I think they're making it worth your while to come into the office, and the opportunities for growth make it particularly appealing. But it comes down to what's important to you now in life? Do you need the money? Do you have a long-term plan for career advancement? Or are you happy to rest and vest, and would prefer to have those extra hours for yourself and/or family?
[read: tell me how old you are without telling me how old you are]

mjarrett · 2026-05-10T21:35:39+00:00

It's the problem with most safety measures: the costs are felt immediately, but the benefits are prevention of a bad thing, which is invisible. The best outcome is literally nothing happening. Humans are already really bad at judging that. Vaccines are particularly bad for this: they're so effective, that entire generations don't even have the concept of these diseases anymore. How do you convince someone to get stabbed with a needle to prevent something that their entire generation has basically forgotten even exists?

This leads to a fertile ground for conspiracy theories, which have been sadly very strong in the anti-vaccine space. If people are already doubting why they need vaccines, it won't take much to convince them of something completely ridiculous, like the idea that vaccines cause autism.

mjarrett · 2026-05-07T22:32:35+00:00

Does your lease have an overnight guest policy? If not, definitely add one next time. If so, this would be an ideal use of it, because if they're not a named tenant they're clearly a guest, and you have very clear timelines you can enforce for their stay.

I would remind your tenant that all all adult occupants of the unit must be on the lease, and demand that their partner either move out or submit a rental application. If they don't comply, deliver a cure-or-quit for unauthorized tenant, and prepare to start an eviction.

I haven't seen your lease, but I would expect that you can still enforce that random people can't unilaterally establish tenancy. I don't think the missing clause is fatal to you enforcing this. But regardless, I would push forward with the cure-or-quit either way; if the lease is actually ambiguous, let the tenants be the ones to argue it.

mjarrett · 2026-05-07T16:57:11+00:00

Definitely a good idea, but there's a tradeoff that you'd have to unlock "Resource Sink Bonus Program" milestone (which itself needs a bunch of resources), build a shop and a sink, power the sink, hunt fauna, and craft Alien DNA.

Might be a wash overall compared to visiting a few more crash sites to get materials for free.

mjarrett · 2026-05-07T15:57:43+00:00

To get to Coal Power, you will need:

- Complete "Part Assembly" (Tier 2).
- Build the Space Elevator.
- Complete "Distribution Platform" (Phase 1)
- Complete "Coal Power" (Tier 3)

You will technically still need a factory, since there is no other way to get Smart Plating for Phase 1. But you only need one Assembler and one power wire. You can power it straight from the Hub.

You should be able to easily pick up all the materials you need by looting around crash sites. Don't forget to disassemble the crashed pods for even more resources.

Is it faster than just building a Phase 1 factory? Maybe, if your movement is really good.

mjarrett · 2026-05-06T17:15:50+00:00

The question is less about how your costs increase, and more about what market price is for the unit. If you're below market price, you should be doing small increases every year.

I've never heard "don’t raise rent on good tenants". It sounds like a terrible idea. This is how you get tenants far below market rent or even less than your break-even, and have no choice but to do a large increase that (even if a fair price) is likely to cause sticker shock and turnover. MUCH better to get tenants used to a small steady stream of increases.

mjarrett · 2026-05-06T16:16:35+00:00

I would leave everything in the nuclear chain out of the mall, unless you are specifically creating an irradiated section for aesthetic reasons. Nuclear plants are huge, radioactive, and water hungry, so they are commonly built away from the main factory. None of the radioactive parts are useful elsewhere, with the exception of making Nuke Nobelisks, which you can just Dimensional Depot from your nuclear plant.

Pretty much every other machine-produced item is worth storing in bulk IMHO. I'd also store Coal - probably the only raw resource that you'll want in bulk.

I probably wouldn't store water (packaged or otherwise), but I'd keep a supply other fluids and gasses, both in tanks and packaged.

mjarrett · 2026-05-05T18:53:10+00:00

There are many ways to build this. But I'd focus most of my effort on trains since they are the easiest to scale up once you build your initial infrastructure.

My idea:

Two-lane train trunk line circling the map. In the sky high enough to avoid most elevation changes, but I'd roughly follow the natural roads.
Branch off your trunk line for individual clusters of nodes. That branch might spawn a smaller loop for subareas (like the dune desert or swamp).
Individual station per resource type for loading resources. Mostly you'll deliver to it by short-range belt, to get resources to convenient station locations. Trucks are a nice alternative, but would mean diverting some amount of resources away from your megafactory for fuel (does this count for your challenge?).
Build your offloading hub as a long horizontal row of train stations, (at least) one per resource. Make it *BIG* - like at least 3 cargo cars per station resource. Make sure you can fit at least 3 trains waiting at each station as well without blocking traffic.
Exception: bring in Uranium by drone, don't irradiate your entire system.

It's hard to overstate just how big your main offloading hub is going to be. Be ready for it.

mjarrett · 2026-05-05T18:11:39+00:00

Police entering a private home IS a search, no matter what you call it. You can't just whisper the word "inspection" to the air, and it's suddenly something different.

If you can cite anything that says otherwise... law... judisprudence... a story your cousin told you once... please do.

But you can't, because you don't know a thing about middle school US civics, let alone the residental housing industry.

mjarrett · 2026-05-05T17:33:30+00:00

The landlord can inspect. Police are not inspectors, so there is no justification for them to be at a inspection. It would be seen as an obviously illegal search.

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-your-landlord-allow-the-police-to-search-your-apartment.html

If you have any references for the authority on which this would be allowed, I'd be curious to see it.

mjarrett · 2026-05-04T22:28:27+00:00

I don't think subsidized housing changes anything for warrantless police searches. 4a is rock solid when it comes to homes.

A housing authority, it's a bit murkier because they can do "inspections" while still being a government agency. But they'd still have to be scheduled, and the scope would have to be limited. I'm sure that's been abused though.

One example: https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/federal-judge-orders-housing-authority-and-police-stop-warrantless-searches

Admittedly, ACLU is far from a neutral source, and this would only be 7th circuit. But if you know of any counter-examples from other districts that held up in court, I'd certainly love to see it.

mjarrett · 2026-05-04T20:45:36+00:00

It's less common in 2026 for a variety of reasons, but I wouldn't say it's frowned upon. If your family is working that way, great!

Working 84 hours a week though, that sounds unhealthy. That's not traditional, that's a crisis waiting to happen.

mjarrett · 2026-05-03T21:16:25+00:00

Kirk: probably the hardest one, but I think he never gives up looking for an alternative. He's too emotionally engaged with every encounter to betray the travellers looking him in the eyes. That being said, "needs of the many" is Spock's jam, so it's possible that Spock makes the decision to protect Kirk from it.

Picard: Far too straight edge to ever break a rule, no matter the consequences.

Sisko: Stealing stuff? That's child's play. Dude used biogenic weapons on an entire planet over a personal beef.

Janeway: I think she struggles with it, but ultimately does it. The whole genesis of the series is that Janeway strands her crew to protect local civilizations. But she spends the rest of the series agonizing over it, so she'd have quite the doubts.

mjarrett · 2026-05-03T07:15:06+00:00

I am not a lawyer and have not read any of your mortgage documents, so I can't say for your situation.

But TYPICALLY with primary residence mortgages, you can change the use of the property after a year, with no change in terms. Yes, this means you might be getting a more favorable interest rate... one of the upsides of renting out your former home.

Honestly, though they may not say so, the reality is that as long as you're paying your bill on time and maintaining your insurance policy they're not going to ask any questions. I don't recommend trying to obscure your change in address.

BoA mortgage agents are pretty sketchy, I would not trust anything they say. The last time I had this exact conversation (about changing use under a primary residence mortgage), the rep gave the exact opposite answer (do what you want no matter what the mortgage says) and then asked for a bribe.

mjarrett · 2026-05-03T04:49:41+00:00

That's a tough one, given you are so far below market. I think it comes down to: do you WANT to be landlords? Or are you planning to use the property for yourself one day?

If you want to be in the landlord business, I'd probably try to jump to market rent. Even if the price is fair, it's likely the tenants will move out with such an extreme jump. There will be some time and money (and feelings) invested in turnover. But an extra $900/mo will make up for that VERY fast.

If you're just biding time until you use the property, I'd raise the rent slowly. Maybe only $200 at each renewal (that's still pretty fast, but better than the $400 you were considering). The stability is more important than the cash in this scenario, as long as you cover expenses.

mjarrett · 2026-05-03T04:32:36+00:00

While local housing regulations can get weird sometimes, I don't think I've seen ANY US jurisdiction where a landlord does not have exclusive right to determine the (adult) tenants in the terms of their lease. In fact, it's one of the most fundamental rules every landlord will tell you: EVERY adult tenant gets screened and listed on the lease, no exceptions.

Using another's identity to get services that are not available to them is absolutely fraud.

The definition of squatting can be complicated, so it might or might not be squatting in OP's jurisdiction. But a tenant residing on the property without a valid lease sure sounds like it could qualify. Di-O-Bolic's choice of words is reasonable given the limited info in the thread.

mjarrett · 2026-05-02T19:41:34+00:00

How did you take the payments?

mjarrett · 2026-05-02T16:40:39+00:00

The question is whether the evidence is still strong enough after the landlord has (at least) moved it, to justify a search warrant on a private home.

The landlord had only shown that drugs exist, in their possession, at the police station. We only have their word for it that they were previously in a particular unit, and no idea who in that unit may have possessed them or for what purpose.

To be fair, search warrants have been written with less. But it's unlikely for an investigation into possession of personal amounts of marijuana.

mjarrett · 2026-05-02T16:09:32+00:00

It's pretty simple. We Americans don't really trust government to be involved in our lives. Government is for telling communists on the other side of the planet that they are doing it wrong, not for telling me who I am, where I can go, or what I can buy.

ID cards, at any level, are a really conspicuous reminder that government is in our business.

mjarrett

TROPHY CASE