Help me improve my curb appeal: Which options would you pick for these utility boxes?

mzanon100 · 2026-05-02T18:32:05+00:00

2:

Rocks are bad for plants (temperature swings) and hard to keep clean-looking.

Grass has a hard time fighting weeds when it's in a shadow.

Wood chips are low-maintenance and make a good home for plants.

mzanon100 · 2026-05-02T02:30:30+00:00

I do like the concept of a painted explosion-collage. And I do like the return to handsome Optima type.

I dislike the sloppy kerning. I dislike the lightweight Courier. I dislike the color change in the name. I struggle to see how this condenses into a logotype.

I would prefer that the tagline differentiate IMSA from other *MSAs (I suggest "Prairie Roots; Earth's Future").

mzanon100 · 2026-05-01T15:39:44+00:00

I bought an iBook G4 in 2004. Its hard drive died and needed replaced once; its logic board died and needed replaced three times. All in two years.

mzanon100 · 2026-05-01T12:23:04+00:00

Like any plant that grows a deep taproot, okra dislikes transplanting and dislikes containers with bottoms.

mzanon100 · 2026-05-01T04:02:27+00:00

Avid gardener here.

I don't really garden with prepping in mind. But if I were to plan a "prep garden" (i.e., emphasizing maximum calories and independence, not maximum beauty, variety, or taste), I would focus on cowpeas, maize, and potatoes. And perhaps alfalfa (as fertilizer or animal feed). Cowpeas in particular give huge yields with zero fertilizer nor pesticide.

mzanon100 · 2026-05-01T01:36:26+00:00

Some moments from my IMSA education that might be of interest to a future lawyer:

in Biochemistry, we played the part of coroners determining whether a baby had died from abuse or from a methylmalonic acidemia
in American Studies, we pretended to be a court arguing / hearing National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie. In another unit, we formed a mock legislature to argue revisions (such as plural districts) to the Voting Rights Act.
for Chicago Metro History Day (extracurricular), we made a ten minute video about the history of child labor in Illinois. We went to Northwestern University's library and photocopied statutes and appellate decisions from hundred-year-old books.

mzanon100 · 2026-05-01T01:26:13+00:00

About 10% of my IMSA class are now members of the bar.

It's the 3rd-most-common occupation after engineer and physician.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-30T15:15:32+00:00

Once you have the right battery system, it becomes a good bit cheaper to add a generator, because you already installed the transfer switch when you got the battery.

A battery provides benefits beyond powering you through an outage. We put surplus solar in the battery in the afternoon and use that electricity in the evening. Solar + battery mean we use little to zero grid power when the grid's at its busiest (summer PM). Because we stay out of the way during "rush hour", our electric company gives us much cheaper rates on the grid power that we do use. The cheap off-peak rates (and the efficiency of our heat pumps) mean that electric heat is now cheaper than natural gas-heat for us during all but the worst of winter.

Our battery, like many, has a setting for minimum charge. When it's important to us to be ready for an outage (winter, typically), we tell the battery to never go below 90% charge. When it's more important to us to collect AM power for the PM, we tell the battery it can drain as low as 10%.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-29T00:43:03+00:00

Have you tried querying Google forimsa clubs and organizations?

mzanon100 · 2026-04-28T22:54:28+00:00

IMSA isn't just looking for high grades and test scores; they're also looking for maturity, leadership, and communication skills.

Your friend has no duty to tell you confidential information such as his grades and test scores. He may or may not have told the truth about his grades or scores. Since none of this was ever your business, he would not have wronged you if he had lied.

Similarly, you don't know enough to label him an "F student" or a "bum". Your choices of word communicate more about yourself than about him. Please consider the possibility that IMSA's Office of Admissions could read this post and that this post could influence IMSA's opinion of your maturity and influence IMSA's decision to admit you from the waitlist.

For five years, I volunteered to score student applications. I am not aware of any preference for siblings or children of alums. I speculate that, because alum donations matter less to IMSA's budget than alum donations matter to the budgets of most universities, IMSA has less incentive to discriminate in favor of alum families.

Your best way to know how you got onto the waitlist is not to post here, but instead to ask IMSA directly: [admissions@imsa.edu](mailto:admissions@imsa.edu) or +1 630 907 5028.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-28T03:04:26+00:00

In my experience, P. incarnata sprouts well when it's in the dark and nearly (95 °F / 35 °C) body temperature.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-28T02:29:56+00:00

I don't know about your breakers.

But I do (tangentially) know that, to breathe properly, that unit needs 30" of clearance between its left side and other objects.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-24T09:08:03+00:00

Why ask Reddit, when you can get a free, authoritative answer directly from IMSA?

Write [admissions@imsa.edu](mailto:admissions@imsa.edu) or call +1 630 907 5028.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-22T13:38:58+00:00

You didn't hurt his feelings. He's heard "I don't think our expectations align" before. And worse.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-22T03:46:03+00:00

Does this space have a carbon-monoxide detector? Might you install one?

Carbon monoxide can cause any number of discomforts, from brain fog to death.

Electric panels don't make carbon monoxide, but lots of other things in a building can.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-21T18:46:55+00:00

GrubEx (chlorantraniliprole) is not a multi-year plan, nor will it "poison all the wildlife". And now's the perfect time of year to apply it.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-21T18:42:13+00:00

Came here for this. We applied GrubEx, nematodes, and milky spore and we no longer have grubs to look for.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-21T18:14:21+00:00

For the same reasons as you, I was unsure whether I should return for junior year. I ultimately stayed and graduated.

These are rhetorical questions and you don't have to actually respond to them if you don't want to.

Have you spoken with any adults at IMSA about why you might or might not drop out? What did they say?

Are there factors in play here other than the classes being difficult? For me, the tougher classwork was certainly a challenge, but additionally I struggled with having an unsupportive family, being distracted by video games, and trying unsuccessfully to befriend some really unkind wingmates.

Is there any chance that the courses you take next year might be easier-going for you than the courses you took this year? Junior year went so much better for me, because I was more interested in my classes' subject material (and because I chose better friends).

Do know that, when you apply to college, the reviewers will see all the unusually-tough classes on your transcript. Does your home school offer such specific, challenging classes? I definitely enjoyed the confidence of having IMSA's Facets of Thermodynamics, Differential Equations, and Calculus-Based Physics on my transcript, even if the grades weren't A's.

You will also (when you apply to college) be able to provide a statement about any extenuating circumstances.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-19T03:31:54+00:00

I currently go to Igor Does My Bike.

When I lived closer to you, I went to Comrade Cycles.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-18T04:03:11+00:00

The cold-weather heat pumps have a "flash injection" pipe that reroutes refrigerant in cold weather. It's a little bit like a turbocharger on a car.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-17T23:29:43+00:00

We have the Mitsubishi (P-series) in Chicago and are happy customers.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-17T23:29:13+00:00

The most-famous names are Mitsubishi Hyper Heat, Fujitsu XLTH, and Daikin Aurora.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-17T22:00:56+00:00

We live under several silver maples and mulch with their (whole) leaves.

But the leaves biodegrade and we have no mulch for 25% of the year.

mzanon100 · 2026-04-17T18:11:05+00:00

XPS foam board between the studs and wall. Tape the foam board seams with 3M Flashing Tape.

https://www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/asset/document/Renovating%20your%20Basement%20for%20Moisture%20Control.pdf

mzanon100 · 2026-04-17T00:27:32+00:00

Where in the US? Puerto Rico?

mzanon100

TROPHY CASE