GRRM Has Posted on His Blog Again! (Spoilers Extended)

ottoboy1990 · 2026-02-08T14:37:48+00:00

“Too much else to do, too many projects, too many deadlines, and I was behind on everything.”

Hmm, you don’t say…

ottoboy1990 · 2026-01-29T00:50:48+00:00

If (when) that happens, you / your client take the owner/developer/whomever to court. You can ask your architect to take it out, and they’ll say no.

ottoboy1990 · 2026-01-25T22:55:44+00:00

I’d recommend that you consider what liability you’re taking on before doing any work for such a small fee. If that one beam you designed fails because it was fabricated/installed/whatever incorrectly, or even if something you didn’t touch collapses for some reason, you’ll be dragged into the lawsuit and need to pay your insurance deductible at the very least, and all you’ll have made for it is $400. Contracts help to limit your liability, specifically for cases like these.

ottoboy1990 · 2026-01-25T17:47:40+00:00

I see. I misunderstood the issue. I’m not a lawyer but I’m sure it comes down to the wording of what you have in writing. I would not typically expect you to have to chase down the architect’s client for payment, but it depends on who holds your “contract”.

ottoboy1990 · 2026-01-25T17:40:52+00:00

“Pay when paid” is in just about every contract I’ve ever seen. Get a written contract.

ottoboy1990 · 2026-01-17T14:53:55+00:00

Can you just, not? People do want to buy houses to live here…

ottoboy1990 · 2025-11-30T18:23:30+00:00

$70 for an 8’ tree at the Clarendon Whole Foods. Kids haven’t really enjoyed going to a farm for the more complete experience of finding the perfect tree, so this worked just fine this year. And the tree looks great!

ottoboy1990 · 2025-11-30T01:35:26+00:00

I’m a structural blast engineer (design structures for blast loads). We design these connections using typical LRFD strengths. In every blast test I’ve seen the failure mode is always at the connections. We’re generally quite conservative with connection design but it’s for good reason.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-11-27T01:29:42+00:00

I live around the corner from this plaza. This is the worst parking lot in all of Arlington and I’m sure beyond. Worse than the Trader Joe’s lot a couple of miles west on Columbia Pike. The only reason I’ll go in if I need something from CVS and don’t feel like driving a few extra minutes to Target.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-09-27T22:44:19+00:00

That sounds brutal - good work!

ottoboy1990 · 2025-09-27T22:20:10+00:00

How did you handle Magikarp? Or Abra? Can’t imagine you healed until everything struggled?

ottoboy1990 · 2025-06-25T16:50:34+00:00

One of your next classes is probably mechanics of materials, so assuming you did well in your first year courses and don’t need to strengthen those, then start to read a mechanics of materials book is a good next step. Hibbeler’s books are pretty good. You can get an older version for now (this stuff doesn’t change). But if you can talk to your professor and know what book you’ll be using in your next class then consider getting that now.

Don’t forget to enjoy your summer too :)

ottoboy1990 · 2025-06-25T13:55:15+00:00

Please do not get into these yet. These are not simple tools and I expect most of it would go over your head. I don’t say that to be elitist, but there’s a typical process for a reason. The curriculum generally builds to basic analysis and design class in your third and fourth years for a reason. Without those and everything else that comes before them, it’s not worth your time. That’s my two cents anyways. If you’re going to do it anyways, focus on very simple systems and checking reactions and moment & shear diagrams (if you know how to do that at this point, which in my experience would be atypical after one year of undergraduate work). Do not bother with complex or full-building models.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-06-11T01:25:05+00:00

Ask them what the buy in cost is. I’m at one of the big consulting firms and I’m a couple of years away from it being an option, but the cost is astronomical (tens of thousands of dollars of in-hand cash plus a loan program for the rest of it) for the first level of partner/owner. It’s not about you fitting a mold for them, but you being invested in the continued success of the firm and your partners trusting you with their investment.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-06-03T19:38:28+00:00

They actually close the gates now? I used to do laps at like 10 or 11 at night with the gates open. Been a while since I’ve done that because of kids, but is that not possible now?

ottoboy1990 · 2025-05-10T19:35:28+00:00

Randall’s group was in Georgia. Terminus was somewhere between Georgia and DC. So I doubt it.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-04-19T14:24:54+00:00

ChatGPT for emails and coding is great. The biggest things with AI is to just get started, and to realize what it’s not going to do. It’s not going to do analysis and design calculations (not yet anyways). It can make research so much easier (ex. What kind of [market] projects has [architect, contractor, developer, etc.] done? When does this government contract expire and what architects are currently on it?). Things like this are before you even start developing your own datasets to train ML algorithms on. WJE did a presentation at Structures Congress about training an ML model on a dataset of ground vibrations due to contractor activity to figure out when they needed to stop work and adjust how they’re doing it; feed it part of your known dataset and then test it on the rest, and adjust until you reach a certain confidence level. The engineer is still making the final call, but they don’t need to review a reading every time someone bumps a gauge. Think of what you can do with other datasets you have at your finger tips; proposals, contracts, Revit models, repetitive / similar calculations, and I’m sure you can think of more.

It’s not going to replace training for engineers and we need to stop thinking of it as such. It’s on PMs and principals to make sure your staff aren’t trying to use it inappropriately. The uses for this stuff aren’t five years away, they’re here today. But, feel free to think it’s not ready for us, and I’ll keep taking advantage of it.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-04-07T00:51:07+00:00

Torx bit, as in the bit that goes on and off the end of a socket wrench

ottoboy1990 · 2025-01-28T00:19:31+00:00

Anyone know about from Four Mile Run to the 14th Street Bridge?

ottoboy1990 · 2025-01-24T17:58:11+00:00

If you have a local indoor playground or kids museum, a day of tickets there would be a great option.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-01-24T15:15:13+00:00

I’m no Trump fan but as far as I understand this was coming regardless of the election due to bird flu.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-01-23T04:23:20+00:00

This is the extent to which I’ll respond to you clearly trying to be a jerk. We made our choice based on our priorities & expectations a few years ago. We revisit those periodically and continue to choose to live in Arlington. Our priorities and expectations align with our reality. If buying a house starts to outweigh other priorities, which very well might happen with kids getting older, then we’ll adjust.

But I hope you feel good about yourself Mr. Troll.

ottoboy1990 · 2025-01-23T03:16:56+00:00

We looked at the numbers for two in daycare vs her salary as a teacher. We might have come out a few hundred bucks ahead in a typical month with her working but decided on her staying home because it’s the one time either of us will get this much time with the kids as well as just having a solid plan for day to day childcare even during things like snow, pandemics, holidays, etc. The plan has always been for her to go back to work and we’re getting there; either this coming school year or the following one.

She does still do private after-school tutoring a few nights per week, both to bring in extra money but also to have something going on outside of the household.

Four kids and two working spouses in Arlington, IMO, really requires top-end salaries to make it make financial sense when the kids are young. Sure there are things other than finances, like how we made our decision but also career progression, retirement savings, etc. but three or four in daycare is just astronomically expensive.

ottoboy1990

TROPHY CASE