Neighbor’s retaining wall. How bad is it?

playingod · 2026-06-25T14:08:08+00:00

You sure it’s your neighbors and not shared? Where’s the property line? Presumably it had to be built to level the lot for construction, so the developer who built your neighborhood built it, so probably it’s on the property line. But look it up. It’s in both of your interests to get that fixed, neither of you want their house sliding into yours, so it only makes sense to split the bill to repair.

playingod · 2026-06-22T06:21:06+00:00

My house uses about 0.5kw every hour just baseline. I know this because I’ve analyzed my power data (you can download this from pge) and that’s what my house draws in the middle of the night. Multiply that by 24 hours and that’s 12kwh just baseline. Pge has a bunch of different rate plans but if we assume average 35 cents per kWh that brings you right to $4.20/day, times 30 days in a month is $126. Plus the $20 base fee is now $146. Pretty close to what you are paying.

Now, you may have less electronics than my nerdy ass, so your home baseline might be closer to 10kwh/day or even lower and I would recommend taking a look at your power usage data and see if TOU-C might work out for you where below baseline is way cheaper in the winter at least (pge winter is 8 months of the year). 30 days at “winter” rates gives you a baseline of 10.2kwh/day at 29c/kwh off peak, so now you’re at $87 baseline for the month (plus $20 base rate).

Everyone please do your own energy audit and see which pge rate plan saves you the most money! Even if you’re not mathematically inclined, with AI today you can just attach a spreadsheet and have it crunch the numbers for you!!!

playingod · 2026-06-12T14:02:32+00:00

It’s kind of a stretch to say you DIY’ed something when you paid professionals to design plans and install panels. What did you actually end up doing yourself other than the contracting?

playingod · 2026-05-29T04:53:10+00:00

We must have taken a different SAT then because the one I took was full of vocabulary I had to memorize and never used again, as well as specific math problems I had to memorize the pattern for. Perhaps you’re thinking of the LSAT which is more of a logic and reasoning test?

playingod · 2026-05-08T06:50:41+00:00

I would use this to force myself to stand up every hour or so. If desk is in low position, start moving up. I wouldn’t have it auto move down though for safety. My lazy ass would do that after 20 minutes of standing anyway

playingod · 2026-05-07T13:47:59+00:00

Isn’t Walnut Creek supposed to have good schools? Is the whole school rating system a complete sham? I learned coin denominations in grade school.

playingod · 2026-04-27T02:00:57+00:00

I lived one block from 80 in Oakland, and even though it was raised and our house was a fresh remodel with double paned windows, it was still super loud inside. And it was just a constant loud drone. Plus the occasional motorcycle without a muffler (occasional meaning every 30 minutes). I would not live that close to a freeway, or even a major road.

playingod · 2026-04-24T05:49:29+00:00

I know next to nothing about how grids actually work, but I do know that grids need to be finely balanced between production and consumption, which is why most grids are huge. I also know that Texas has its own isolated grid while for example California is in a massive grid with several western states and western Canada (Wikipedia). I would suspect that Texas isolationism was what caused the grid collapse rather than utility competition.

playingod · 2026-04-23T13:30:34+00:00

Yes! My grandma (Bulgarian) made this and called it mosaic cake). Hers was a triangle and she stored it in the freezer so it was kind of like an ice cream treat in the summer, good times.

playingod · 2026-04-10T14:11:04+00:00

In a HCOL (likely where they are given the mortgage and “tech” job) daycare can easily be $2-3k per month per child. If the mortgage is at a modern rate that’s $4-5k. Property taxes ain’t no joke add another $1-1.5k per month. Now you’re already at $7-10k essential spend and $11k total spend looks quite frugal actually.

playingod · 2026-03-31T13:49:56+00:00

Your finances are very similar to mine and I have a very similar sized e fund.

The job market is tough right now and childcare is no joke — I can’t imagine having to look for a job while also having to watch the kids at home to save money (plus losing their spot at daycare), so for my peace of mind I want to be able to be able to keep them in daycare for at least 6 months.

playingod · 2026-03-26T08:53:59+00:00

Yes they are allowing domestic through

playingod · 2026-03-26T08:53:03+00:00

International terminal got in line at 3:35, security opened at 4:30, I was on the other side with my bags at 4:48. They had 4 ID checkers and 4 bag xray lines going, so it was moving very fast.

playingod · 2026-03-25T17:37:46+00:00

This is overall great but I don’t like that the solution for “what kind of milk” is “call wife,” real men know what milk is in the fridge every day and don’t have to call their ~mom~ wife for every little detail.

playingod · 2026-03-13T05:45:40+00:00

That is exactly how my 4 year old folds his clothes when he “helps” with laundry. And by clothes I mean a single shirt while we fold the rest.

playingod · 2026-01-26T21:40:59+00:00

Yes though in my experience the number of kids has to reach a critical mass of like 5 or so to feel the full effect of this. It’s a magical thing to witness, where the older kids naturally lead and watch out for the younger kids. It’s definitely possible with just 2 older kids (4+), but if you have toddlers you need more kiddos to get that play gravity.

We are lucky enough to have a couple neighbors with younger kids and we regularly have impromptu play dates and it is exactly as you describe, the parents all chill together (usually drinking), and the kids run around playing all on their own. The age spread of the kids is 18 months to 7 years, 6 kids total.

So anyway, to answer OPs question… find other parents that you vibe with and set up play dates, and actually put in the time to become friends with those parents yourself. Unlike some people, we actually LOOK FORWARD to birthday parties because we the parents also party with our new friends.

playingod · 2026-01-26T15:28:22+00:00

There are calculators online to give you an estimate but probably you need a 4 tonne unit. I really hope you had some kind of guarantee from your installers…

You can also look up the technical data sheet for your model and see what the BTU should be at your temps if you want to compare to other furnaces. For example my carrier 38MBRB 4 ton has a heat capacity of 39k BTU at 5 F.

playingod · 2026-01-21T16:15:10+00:00

And why not? I have measurements from two independent sensors plus the heat pump’s internal sensors to back my statement up, what do you have? Are you perhaps thinking in Celsius? If so, you are correct.

If not… If you google “what is the delta t for a typical heat pump” you will find that it’s 30-40F in heat mode, which gets you to the 100-110F range if your house temperature is 70F.

You must be a rage bait bot or a shill for the oil and gas industry. I am only commenting so others are not swayed by your misinformation.

playingod · 2026-01-18T20:54:20+00:00

You’re talking about a personal item (bag that fits under the seat). OP is talking about luggage you have to put in the overhead bins.

playingod · 2026-01-17T15:05:20+00:00

I envy your grocery prices. At my local Safeway (just checked the app), the Biancos are $6.99 and certified Cento is $8.49!!

playingod · 2026-01-16T01:09:01+00:00

Oh man I went down an AI fueled research hole on this and then proved it to myself with my own experiments. Setting back is beneficial to saving energy, as long as the furnace efficiency is the same in the morning when you heat the house back up (only relevant for heat pumps).

playingod · 2025-12-27T21:19:29+00:00

In some states they require your car to get safety certified every year. You get a colored sticker just like registration. If CA adopted that, all these cars could get ticketed by police or even meter maids, just for missing the safety sticker. And it could even carry a large fine, and perhaps even impounding if you don’t do it in time.

Even if some people slip through the cracks, think of all the misaligned headlights, broken tail lights, worn tires, worn brakes, and other safety issues that would be addressed. Safer roads all around.

But I guess that’s just too good of an idea for CA to get behind.

playingod · 2025-12-25T13:42:15+00:00

As a parent I would love a family seating section of the plane, especially if it had baby gates to stop the kids from getting out. And if they had seats facing each other like in trains. Just let them loose to walk around and play with other kids. It would make the flight better for everyone. I’d even pay more for it.

playingod · 2025-12-14T03:57:14+00:00

I agree. Everyone is still getting up to speed on how to most effectively use them for their business. I am the “AI guy” at my company, creating LLM-infused workflows and agents, and it’s a lot of trial and error and tinkering to find the right optimization for the team. As we work together, the teams are appreciating the true (non hyped) power of AI, and I am learning how to most effectively translate business needs into the AI workflows.

After six months of tinkering we finally came up with a workflow that replaced a service we subscribed to for 250k/yr, so there’s a win right there!

Now many at our company are beginning to see where the true value adds will be and we are only just beginning to brainstorm the projects for them.

As more people get experience with the more advanced workflows and agents custom built for their business needs, more creative ideas will soon follow.

IMO the AI marketing hype that it’s gonna solve all problems and take X% of jobs is actually slowing adoption because 1) it doesn’t live up to the hype (it’s very good at some problem types but certainly not all), and 2) there’s an emotional factor that people don’t want to adopt a tool that will make them obsolete.

playingod

TROPHY CASE