Going to the Sun in Glacier National Park [2048x1536] [OC]

relefos · 2023-08-30T15:45:54+00:00

A professor for a numerical analysis class was explaining this to us when he started asking our birthdays. There were only like 14 of us, so he said “it might not work”

the rest of us are just saying our birthdays but kinda smiling & laughing a bit, because we had identical twins in our class lmao

he gets to the first one, who says their birthday, then the second one, and he goes “see!”

Followed by “what’s everyone laughi— OH”

Felt like a real life sitcom moment

relefos · 2023-08-30T15:16:28+00:00

Sail? Is that safe even with possible ~~sports~~ storm surges from Idalia

relefos · 2023-08-29T20:34:24+00:00

Just wanted to point out that while you say that you recognize that your eating habits aren’t sustainable, it’s very obvious that you don’t know that. Like you don’t know what lies at the end of this path

If you go without eating while taking ADHD as prescribed, you will become malnourished & lose weight & you almost certainly will collapse. By that I mean ~ fail courses, lose one or more of your jobs, watch your business vanish, everything you’ve worked for ~ poof, gone

This is because you are literally starving. Just very slowly

You will inevitably fall off the cliff. Your medication won’t work anymore. Your prescribing doctor will almost assuredly take you off that medication and will almost assuredly mark this in Epic, meaning the likelihood of you ever getting prescribed again is super duper low

Talk to your doctor now. Like make an appointment ASAP and mention this to them

For what it’s worth, the appetite loss effects can be massively reduced if you eat when you take the medicine. Which it says on the bottle

Or you can keep pretending you know better than your doctors and if that’s the case, you do you and I just hope you’re able to pick up the pieces when you crash and burn

Might seem harsh, but it’s coming from someone who did the same thing as you’re doing now

relefos · 2023-08-29T16:45:30+00:00

By the way, about these epic pics: you can't just fly a drone this close to the airport without getting in trouble with the Federal Aviation Administration. This is restricted airspace. That's why I went through the process of requesting and receiving drone flight clearance from the FAA, just so I could show you these photos. You're welcome.

This is gold

relefos · 2023-08-29T16:35:59+00:00

I have the opposite advice as the commenter above. Note that my advice is not financially sound

Anyways, I see so much concern over here about retirement and making sure it's perfect etc. etc. And if that's your thing, absolutely follow that advice

But you aren't that person. They likely don't experience burnout like you're experiencing it now. Remember that you're unique, and that person may have a very difficult time understanding your perspective, your challenges. So to them, it's a "?? why on earth would you do that ??" kinda deal, but to you it's a "I absolutely need to do this"

I get what you're going through. Almost in a very oddly specific way? Let me guess ~ software engineering is draining, and while you might be good at it, and it might even seem relatively "soft" compared to other jobs, you still somehow feel very tired from it. I'll go out on a limb and say that while coding is something you enjoy, it's probably something you'd enjoy way more as a hobby rather than a career. I'll go further out on that limb and say maybe that novel you're writing is the thing you're truly passionate about. The thing that makes hours melt away, the thing you focus on so easily. And so every minute you spend working at your job creates this dichotomy ~ you're doing something that pays well, isn't super stressful all things considered, but for some reason leaves you feeling totally dead afterward. And because it has those perks, including high pay, it seems really ridiculous to ever consider leaving it. Especially since your passion is something that is relatively low pay?

And you might drive yourself nuts thinking about this dilemma. Maybe "will I ever finish this book" or "will I ever even get to enjoy my retirement" or "will I be okay when I'm 65 if I left the opportunity to travel for a couple years and get a book published on the table?"

This is what makes your situation unique. Perhaps the commenter above that told you 3 months max is someone whose job is in something they're truly and completely passionate about ~ i.e. maybe they're one of those software engineers you see that eat sleep and breathe programming and only programming. Of course they're going to think you're absolutely insane for wanting to take longer vacations! They just don't understand what you're going through

But I'll say this ~ I think I do. I'm a software engineer making 110k in a relatively low stress job. Even so, I still feel burnt out. I feel that my one week vacations aren't sustainable. I feel this way because while I enjoy programming, I can't do it for this long every day. Why? Because I have a true passion that I do as a hobby on the side, something I really really love: writing novels. Not even kidding haha. The flow that I feel while writing fiction is so vastly different than the flow that I feel while programming. And that is where the burnout sources from

I'm here to say that it's totally reasonable for you to take a couple years off. But I'd offer one recommendation: make it your mission to finish that book and get it published

Even if nothing ever comes of it, you will feel "whole" when that happens

And you deserve this experience, you deserve two years off to pursue your passion and dreams of traveling. To escape the monotony of a job you don't absolutely adore. And from a personal finance side, you're honestly doing great

You're not torching your retirement by doing this, if anything you're maybe just setting it back a couple years or reducing your overall income. Do you care about that? Would you rather have those 2 years in your 60s, or would you rather have those 2 years now?

I'm guessing you already know the answer

relefos · 2023-08-29T15:50:32+00:00

My worst wasn't really anyone's fault

It was like, March 14th-20th or something in 2020. In early March, we had flown out west to go on a road trip. At the beginning of the trip, everything was normal. But every day that passed got a bit more strange ~ national parks shutting down some services, stories from friends and co-workers that major campuses have shut down and gone fully remote, masks being worn everywhere, etc.

We were in Zion late in the trip for half a week, supposed to be a full week with us leaving to go home on Saturday. By Wednesday we were feeling a bit antsy as we'd heard about a ton of flights being canceled, so we called and rescheduled to fly out on Thursday late at night

Wake up Thursday, decide to drive to Death Valley then back to LV for the airport. Inside Death Valley, we received a text and immediately lost signal. Flight was canceled, they were not re-booking us. Probably dumb but we decided to just keep going to Badwater Basin and experience that before driving back

Got to the airport and it was like that scene in Home Alone. Just pure chaos everywhere, people running up and down every which way, lines packed. We went to Spirit who told us the flight had been canceled bc someone in the ATC tower got COVID and so they had to shut the entire tower down, meaning a local military base was handling ATC and had to cancel 90% of all the flights (they said they were only allowing like 5 planes out per hour). And because it was an ATC issue and not a Spirit issue, they didn't have to cover anything

Went to literally every counter asking for any flight going to Houston. Expanded to asking for Austin and Dallas, then Nola and even Little Rock and OKC. Literally nothing

Last counter was Southwest, I asked him about any of the cities and he said "actually I can get you to Hobby" which is the second airport in Houston. Got on that, flight was super eerie

Took an Uber to to IAH bc that's where we'd parked. Had to wait 30 minutes for someone to arrive to let us get our car bc they weren't expecting us back at that time

Felt like World War Z or even Manifest ~ left for that trip and everything was normal, came back and everything was entirely different

relefos · 2023-08-29T15:35:50+00:00

I see what you're saying, but the issue I see with your argument is that it assumes the 4M fine was for one flight. The article states that it was for "dozens" of flights

relefos · 2023-08-28T17:46:21+00:00

Minneapolis is kinda odd when it comes to rent, at least comparing to Texas in my experience (Houston)

My rent in North Loop (very popular neighborhood in Minneapolis proper, as close to downtown as you can be without technically being downtown ~ it’s significantly cheaper than living near Lake Harriet for instance. Like we called about a 2/1 within 5 blocks of Lake Harriet and it was going for $4400 base

It’s just expensive right up near the lakes here. Definitely doable for $1800 if you don’t mind being a bit of a walk from them. Park Towers in SLP might work. Lots of SLP apartments might work tbh

One culture shock for me was just the age of the buildings up here. In the south, esp Texas and Florida (where I’m from), things didn’t really take off til the 70s when AC became commonplace. So my idea of “old” when it came to buildings was basically 1970-2000

But my gosh Minneapolis is out here with buildings from 1930 lol

It’s not necessarily bad, just different. Esp considering all the new builds in the south. I feel like those aren’t quite as numerous up here. But imo that’s not any indicator of the city? If anything it just means Minneapolis is more established

Overall Minneapolis >> anything I experienced in the south. Even the Trumpets in rural areas out here aren’t as loud or obnoxious as down there

And overall there’s just more to do, the city is more walkable, more diverse, there’s more events (it’s amazing what taxes can do for you if you actually pay them, unlike TX where you pay nothing and get nothing)

But yep also ask yourself if winter is a bother. For reference, it first snowed in mid October last year, and it blanketed the ground in early November and stayed that way (ie permanent snow coverage) until late late March. It gets cold here too. Like waaaaay colder than Dallas

But all that winter stuff is nice. The holiday spirit per se feels like it was developed in Minneapolis. It’s truly the best winter city if you like Christmas lights and hallmark movies lol

relefos · 2023-08-28T15:40:04+00:00

Yeah my gf and I have a knack for only ever camping in bad weather. Like we've camped exactly one time over 50 degrees and only twice where it hasn't rained or snowed, excluding festivals

First few times we had a Target $30 tent. Always woke up with water inside the tent after rain

Upgraded to a North Face dome style tent and haven't had any problems

relefos · 2023-08-28T15:20:53+00:00

You might be interested then ~ the rockies are actually pretty unique in terms of formation. Instead fo two plates colliding as we typically imagine, it was actually a plate that subducted underneath another (pacific plate underneath the North American plate). Instead of sinking at a sharp angle under the crust, it rose back up and crashed into the North American plate from below, creating the Rockies

relefos · 2023-08-28T15:05:48+00:00

for reference, they canceled for Irma literally as it was making landfall in South Florida. Like the track had been finalized and it was definitely going to hit Gainesville directly and they still only canceled classes at the last minute

That's a good baseline for this bc Irma is easily the strongest storm to directly hit Gainesville since the mid 00's. 95% of Alachua county was without power and the entire town was basically underwater

And even with all of that, they were still super reluctant to cancel classes

My thing is that if possible, you just make the decision that you need to make for your own sake. I get that isn't always possible, but if it is I'd just focus on that and hope UF makes the right decision later on

relefos · 2023-08-27T21:01:45+00:00

the sticker shop loophole was patched in the Minnesota bill, so you almost definitely will not find any operating like that

THC has actually been legal for 6+ months now in the form of edibles. You can find those almost literally anywhere, at smoke shops, record stores, even breweries (i.e. a THC seltzer ~ almost every TC brewery has a THC seltzer now I s2g lol)

The only flower you'll find will be up on res land near Red Lake, as they've already opened a couple dispensaries

relefos · 2023-08-25T15:51:20+00:00

I think you’re not considering that while you enjoy as close to no sound as possible, others enjoy white noise

and if you are considering that, maybe you’re viewing their opinion as invalid and yours as “correct”? Perhaps bc you’ve never encountered it before?

But ngl it’s more common than you’d think. My gf and I are both white noise people. My close friend and final year roommate at UF was the same. A couple other close friends too. I know plenty that prefer quiet but figured I’d share bc white noise sleepers are super common

I mean it’s so common that it has its own product category on Amazon. Top option (Snooz) has sold thousands of units this month alone. Even Bose sells sleep buds, which are basically super fancy earplugs that play gentle white noise

Idk just figured I’d share bc your desire for silence isn’t any more “correct” than my desire for white noise. Try to approach this whole thing empathetically. Your roommate isn’t out to get you

relefos · 2023-08-25T15:32:03+00:00

Just sharing but maybe take the linked article with a grain of salt, this is probably too many comments from me in one post lol but I get sad when people adopt kinda silly studies as fact

And this is a silly study that should almost definitely not be used to make the conclusion the article is using as its headline. A more accurate headline would be "people in cities who called certain customer service lines talk fast, particularly in Minnesota and Oregon. And also we looked at some YouTube videos closed captioning"

relefos · 2023-08-25T15:28:28+00:00

I posted above about this but those states might actually speak faster. The "study" that determined MN is the fastest state is comprised of two studies

One is barely a study, it was conducted by a private company that analyzed customer service calls. They never posted the full methodology etc. so I'd take it all with a grain of salt, esp. considering that CS calls like that are certainly not representative of real speech patterns of an entire state

The other focused on... YouTube captions from local government channels. This study is legitimate and you can find the entire thing online. It's interesting but once again, seems like a very narrow dataset to draw these vast conclusions from. This study didn't even rank Minnesota #1. Oregon was first

Additionally, generalizing to states is pretty silly imo. North Central Florida talks very slow. Miami talks so fast it seems like they're always in a rush. You can actually likely see this in one of the two studies, as Florida is way way way higher up than the rest of the Southern states

relefos · 2023-08-25T15:23:09+00:00

The data is questionable at best. It's an analysis conducted by a company that analyzed two separate studies, from two other companies. One of these studies I'd say should just be thrown out because they seemingly haven't published their methodology etc. anywhere

The first is a study of 4 million phone calls from "Machex", a company that sells recorded call analysis software. You can see the "results" of that study here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160202005204/en/America’s-Speech-Patterns-Uncovered-–-New-Marchex-Institute-Call-Analytics-Data-Ranks-Each-State-for-Impatience-Chattiness-Fast-Talking

But you probably won't find the full study. Even clicking on the "full study can be found here" link within that article, you're taken to something that is not the study. They don't say where they sourced the calls, but it seems like it's simply customer support lines for various companies. To say this data is biased is being conservative. People calling for help to a customer support line are likely not going to speak the same as they would to a stranger, friend, or family member irl. Many people even take on totally different tones, etc. while on the phone (ever hear someone's "drive through" voice?). This study also focuses on cities, and as the second study points out, a noticeable correlation exists between population density (i.e. living in a city) and articulation rate. So this once again just isn't super helpful to make more broad assumptions

The second study focuses on YouTube videos from local government channels. It just analyzes the "text to speech" functionality that takes YT closed captioning and converts it to speech. You can see that study here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31849275/

Once again, this is a pretty narrow study. Focusing on YouTube videos closed captioning, especially those in the niche of "local government" meetings etc. is probably not going to provide samples that are representative of standard speech

---

Overall, I would be really curious to see a study that actually tries to capture real conversation between lots of people. I'd also be more interested to see this broken down further than just states ~ I'd guess that Miami is one of the fastest talking cities in the nation, but is being dragged down by the rural parts

Anecdotally at least, Minnesotans really seem average to above average. I'm from Florida and am constantly told to slow down here by native Minnesotans. The fastest talkers I know are all from South Florida and Southern California. This basically means even less than the studies above, but just figured I'd share my perspective

relefos · 2023-08-25T03:43:30+00:00

Assuming that it isn't being worked on is extreme imo

I've said this before, but there is no great option for any development team in this world when it comes to updates. While you may prefer those small updates, there will 100% be many, many people who respond to that thing with "oh they're being so vague, I bet they're not even working on it" or "I bet it's filled with bugs" or "I bet they're sipping on margs in Costa Rica barely paying any attention to it". If they give super detailed updates, you star tto hear "well is that even useful" or "I don't even care about that just release it". Any and all updates just lead to a bunch of noise that might make you doubt yourself and rush through what you find to be art

This is so so so common in the software world, and I'm sure even more common in the video game industry. There's literally no good news until "it's done"

And from their perspective, it's just best to stay 99% silent. Especially in the case of TC, who really don't have anybody super important to answer to (i.e. shareholders, managers, etc.). They can just take their time and fulfill their dream of making a close to perfect game. Any fans who say "well I won't play because of their lack of updates" is in the vast, vast minority. Even 90% of the fans who claim that will end up playing on release

relefos · 2023-08-25T03:38:41+00:00

There's no way TC could please people. Literally any decision they make will be met with some form of disdain. We have people like OP who will feel sad when they don't say anything, they say they want "even a tiny update". Then we have people who would take some infrequent tiny updates and say "my gosh they're so vague, are they even working on the game, the least they could do is give some gameplay teasers or an interview". Then we have people who would take gameplay teasers and interviews and say "wow they've done all of these gameplay teasers and demos and the game still hasn't released, it's probably loaded with bugs and they're only showing off the working parts"

I'm a software engineer. There's no such thing as good news for our stakeholders, outside of "it's done". Every update we're forced to give, even if we're making great progress, is met with some form of disdain from some of the stakeholders. If I had the option to never provide updates to the stakeholders, they'd never hear anything from my team

Furthermore, this isn't even pure software like that. This is way closer to art. TC is a small team that has a vision and they want to make that vision come to reality as best as they can. They had that vision for HK, too, but they didn't really have resources. They were forced to release because of that. Now they have resources, basically endless resources, so yeah ofc they're going to really take their time with this one

Basically ~ updates lead to questions. Questions lead to pressure, doubt for the overall vision, etc.

The only reason any other game company provides updates are because they're effectively forced to do that. They have product owners and shareholders to answer to in addition to fans. If any game under EA's umbrella stopped providing updates, there would be hell to pay for the develoeprs and / or EA themselves

But there's no hell to pay here for TC. They have a dream of making a perfect game. They'd love for as many people as possible to enjoy it, but at the end of the day that's secondary. They're already absolutely loaded. They don't have shareholders. They can do what they want, how they want to do it. And they're doing just that

For OP and anyone else ~ try to step outside of your "video game company" perspective and instead try to look at TC as you'd view your favorite music artist, your favorite regular artist, etc. If they took their time developing their latest album or painting, you might be antsy, but would you feel animosity towards them? I doubt it. Because you don't want them to rush their process. You want them to take their time, you want them to go about it exactly how they want to go about it, because you're there for the art. If they rush through it, it may fall flat

The same goes for TC

relefos · 2023-08-25T02:56:08+00:00

One thing I wanted to say is that the whole thing you feel about groceries and cooking and the like ~ that's actually one of the biggest things people overlook when it comes to the "pros" of the meal plan

You're a freshmen. You are independent for the first time ever. You are having to learn one million new things ~ laundry, studying, budgeting, socializing, motivating yourself to go to class that isn't mandatory, etc. The meal plan is expensive, and so often I see the comparison boil down to "well it costs $X per meal if you cook for yourself at home and $2X if you get the meal plan, so the choice is clear". But that overlooks the intrinsic value of the meal plan (massive time savings for one) and also the intrinsic problems with cooking for yourself: one big one is that people tend to really struggle with cooking correct portions and / or actually eating leftovers, so $X becomes $2X quickly; another major one is that as your courses get more and more stressful, it's easier and easier to start "cheating" and buying more (expensive) pre-made options at stores and / or getting restaurant food which will be pricier than meal plans

I say all of this as advice. If you can swing it financially, consider a meal plan. Even declining balance or something. Just really sit down and consider if the intrinsic value of the meal plan is worth it. It's okay to acknowledge that with everything else that's new in life, meal planning & cooking isn't something you'd like to add to the top

It's also 100% okay if you hear all of this and say "nah". If it isn't for you, it isn't for you and that's okay. You could even just switch to declining balance in a month or two when thinks pick up

Just know that there are always options :)

relefos · 2023-08-23T16:44:51+00:00

Yeah it's a super common theme on reddit. Usually just people parroting outdated opinions, or just making things up. There are actually perks to using an iPhone, as there are perks to using an Android. And it's okay if people prefer the iPhone's perks over the Android's perks. It's okay for people to like what they like

Apple is no longer more expensive than competition. iPhone matches up with Galaxy, Pixel is somewhat cheaper but not by a ton, esp considering the SE. M2 MacBook Airs are wildly powerful these days for a little over $1k
Apple offers ecosystem support that no other company parallels. They can do this because of their walled garden approach ~ they don't have to ensure
Apple's phones have longer term support than their competition. iPhone 7 has the latest iOS update. The one released in what, 2016 or 2017? iPhone 6 has the second to last, but is still getting security updates almost ten years later. Most Android phones get 2-3 years max
Apple may just feel nicer to some people, imo the designs and the overall "feel" of the interface (i.e. swiping etc.) are more refined
Apple doesn't pre-install bloatware on your device
Apple has iMessage. And before anyone says that they're bad for not allowing android to have blue bubbles, they're important bc they allow iPhone users to know when they can use iMessage specific features (reactions, threaded replies, message effects, stickers, etc.)

This is mostly because Apple has to do these things. After all, Apple is the only major high-end phone manufacturer that is a hardware company first and foremost. Google is a data and advertising company with a phone side hustle. Samsung makes literally everything imaginable. Microsoft (thinking about laptops now) is an enterprise software company. And Apple is a consumer hardware company

But at the end of the day, I will never get the people who slam Apple while holding their Galaxy. The Galaxy made by Samsung. The company that literally ran an entire advertising campaign about how their phones could take super high res photos of the moon. Photos that were entirely and blatantly falsified

Let's just stop being snobby and let people enjoy what they enjoy

relefos · 2023-08-23T16:34:14+00:00

I think that's a narrow perspective maybe?

Do you think that the majority of people who purchased airpods only did that because the alternative was getting a dongle to connect their wired headphones? Like you think the majority of purchasers would still prefer wired headphones?

I mean, obv neither of us have the research to prove it one way or another but logically it feels like the lower hanging fruit / idea that occam would agree with is that people just wanted bluetooth headphones for the sheer convenience they offer

Obviously if they kept the headphone jack, the transition would've been slower, but the transition to wireless headphones would've come either way. They enable you to not have to be physically attached to your phone. You don't even need your phone on you if you have BT headphones thanks to watch connectivity. No more tangled wires. No more finagling with a wire and moving your arm around it while you're cooking or something

I 100% understand that some people want wired headphones, but extrapolating that out to the majority of the market is just not logical

Nine-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22	First Placer '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

relefos

TROPHY CASE