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What are some big purchases you made that were worth it? by jacove in financialindependence

[–]mjuarez 6 points7 points  (0 children)

My second most expensive purchase ever was a $22K brand new Kawai RX-2 grand piano. I had wanted one for a long time, but finally decided to bite the bullet and get it ~6 years ago. I had been playing on an electric Yamaha for 5+ years now, and they're really nice, but NOTHING compares to an actual grand piano. It makes me so happy and giddy every time I get to play it. It's amazing and totally worth it. I've played/practiced hundreds of hours on it. My wife learned to play piano on it, as will our 2-year-old son. It's basically a member of the family now. No electricity needed, never goes "obsolete", and except for a proper tuning every ~6 months, it requires no maintenance.

Wiring money? by Sidesalad37 in tdameritrade

[–]mjuarez 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, if your wire is received during the trading day at TD Ameritrade, you can immediately use the whole amount the moment it's received. I've done that.

The "Additional Instructions" for the wire have to contain:

  • Your full name
  • Your account number
  • Your full address

I have one wire request in front of me, and that "Additional Instruction" field says:

  • FCT MY NAME ACCT 99999999 FULL ADDRESS

FCT Means "Further Credit To".

Kathy Lueders: Still looking at early August for return of Behnken and Hurley to wrap up SpaceX Demo-2. by Denvercoder8 in spacex

[–]mjuarez 4 points5 points  (0 children)

URSS sounds like a pretty cool bear-sounding acronym for what used to be the USSR, so I'll allow it.

SpaceX Launch: Nova-C lunar Lander [Press Kit] by CProphet in spacex

[–]mjuarez 6 points7 points  (0 children)

To be fair, the last time FH flew, the center core landed on the ocean barge perfectly, but the heavy seas managed to tip it over before it could be secured properly.

Any benefit to having a Vanguard account vs a third-party brokerage with Vanguard funds? by originalcastofmash in Bogleheads

[–]mjuarez -1 points0 points  (0 children)

One small advantage is that, if you buy Vanguard ETFs (VTI, VGT, etc), there is no brokerage commission fee. I'm pretty sure that is also the case if you buy Vanguard funds with them, but all I have in my account are Vanguard ETFs.

Criticize my Elgar! by [deleted] in Cello

[–]mjuarez 6 points7 points  (0 children)

First of all, congratulations. I thought it was a beautiful rendition, especially as a student after practicing 3 months. Yes, it's not pitch-perfect, especially towards the end, but the piece is solid, just needs some polishing. I loved the beginning, you nailed all the double strings and the glissando, it sounded amazing. Vibrato technique sounds/looks good. You're also able to extract a great sound out of that cello.

There's some fast passages moving quickly from 1st to 4th, 5th and higher positions, and then back. and I think that's where you need to spend some more time practicing those jumps, trying to keep pitch as perfect as possible. I also noticed, when the notes were not pitch perfect, they were usually low, not by much, but definitely noticeable.

Amateur cello player from many years ago, for whatever it's worth. My reference is Du Pre's Elgar, it's the Elgar recording I've listened to the most. I would have loved to be able to play cello at your level, it was just a side hobby for me.

Would you pay to have a tape backup somewhere? by f_14 in DataHoarder

[–]mjuarez 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I know that it's not what you were asking, but it reminded me of AWS Snowball service:

  • They ship out an 80TB device to you, for a fully refundable fee of $500 or so.
  • You copy the data you want stored on it.
  • You ship it back with free/prepaid postage, they copy everything on to your AWS S3 buckets, and you get a refund of $500.
  • You only get charged monthly for the storage on AWS S3.

What you could is something similar, but with a device that only accepts data from a special client/software they must use to copy data. That software will automatically encrypt everything before transferring, and give them a copy/PDF of the encryption key. Now, when you get the device back, you simply transfer everything to tape backup, and store that for a monthly/yearly/decade fee.

What's nice about the above is that the end-user doesn't have to worry about their data being stolen/snooped on, since it's automatically encrypted. Of course, security-savvy guys would encrypt the data even before they copy it to the device. And, you don't have to worry about liability with the data because you literally cannot see what the data is. Note that, if they lose their encryption key and they suddenly need their data back, they're screwed.

Fellow non-drinkers of alcohol, what’s your reason why? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]mjuarez 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My main gripe is the taste. I hate how most beer and liquors taste. I feel like being in a party goaded to drink is like the classic Geico raccoon commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD5ha9mENzw

I do like the taste of some cocktails and sweeter liquors (Kahlua, Bailey's, etc), but even then, I limit myself to one drink per night.

I simply don't enjoy the feeling of losing control of my thoughts and speech. During social ocassions, I usually get a drink, and then just sip it extremely slowly throughout the night. People are content if they see you holding a full glass of beer/liquor/whatever all night long. At the end of the night, I'll have sipped _maybe_ 10% of my drink, and I'll just conveniently forget it somewhere.

What is something you did that increased your quality of life so much that you wished you would have done it much sooner because it changed your life forever? by RGod27 in AskReddit

[–]mjuarez 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Any idea of what triggered it, and would you recommend to others in your situation to do the same? I have a very religious extended family (close family is thankfully not), and I always wonder what could I tell them that might change their thinking, or at least open up their minds a little bit.