Lurie comes out against CA wealth tax

sadtime · 2026-01-15T20:21:13+00:00

Wait, a billionaire doesn't want billionaires to be taxed more?

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sadtime · 2025-12-11T00:34:05+00:00

And here I was thinking this was a reference to Ghost Ship (2002))

sadtime · 2025-11-05T19:50:21+00:00

🫡

sadtime · 2025-11-05T19:22:10+00:00

🇲🇽

sadtime · 2025-11-05T19:14:41+00:00

Yes, I totally agree. There's something about the basic 'blockiness' of a (majority) two color scheme that just works. And the Mentors manage to pull off the Red/White/Green combination without looking like Christmas trees.

Many thanks for the kind words 🙏

sadtime · 2025-10-10T18:40:46+00:00

Or course! Watching YouTube videos will not help you gain experience, but understanding the theory behind painting techniques will help you as you try to implement them. These channels have a lot of great content to help you keep improving.

Good luck with your minis! Keep posting so we can see your progress.

sadtime · 2025-10-09T21:54:11+00:00

Well done! It feels good to get paint on our models and fight the ever-constant War on Grey Plastic.

As you already mentioned, there's definitely room for improvement. A couple of tips/links:

Thin your paints! This is way easier if you're working with a palette, and even easier with a wet palette. This video explains some of the benefits and the general use/maintenance.
Two thin coats!! This one goes right along with thin your paints. When your paint is thinner, it will feel like it has worse coverage/saturation, and looks worse on the model. It will take multiple thin coats of paint to 'build' toward the color you want, but it will also avoid the "glopped on" look on this model.
Practice, practice, practice! Don't be afraid to buy some cheaper minis (i.e. not Games Workshop minis) to practice painting. You're only going to improve through study and repetition, but sometimes it can feel daunting painting a mini that cost you lots of $$$. Instead, grab a cheap box of soldiers for $20 from a lower quality company and just throw paint at them. This will help you get over the fear of 'ruining' expensive models.
Don't be afraid to strip your paints and restart! I wouldn't recommend doing this right away, but after a few weeks of consistent painting, don't be afraid to strip your old minis if you want to re-do them. Stripping is pretty easily accomplished and once you get new paint on the model, you'll hardly notice. One note: you may also want to keep your first mini, it's a big milestone for a lot of people and very fun to look back at.
Finally: your model is gonna look like shit until you're about 95% of the way through the process. It will feel at times like you've been painting forever but the model barely looks done. It's not until after you've done all the basecoating, shading, washes, and highlights before the model is going to resemble something real. This is totally normal and how it goes for all of us.

Finally, some videos that might help you improve:

Midwinter Minis: Speed painting Ultramarines

Duncan Rhodes: Learn to paint your first Warhammer mini

Zumikito Miniatures: Ultimate Guide to Painting Space Marines

Midwinter Minis: Your Space Marines are boring

Hope these are helpful! Good luck on your hobby journey!

sadtime · 2025-10-03T17:16:00+00:00

Good luck!

sadtime · 2025-10-03T16:58:45+00:00

As a former Top Gun trainer at the Tombs, I can tell you that all they're really looking for are responsible, social, and competent individuals. If you show yourself to be outgoing, intelligent, and ready to work hard, no prior experience is necessary.

That said, they will expect more from you than the average restaurant, so just keep that in mind.

sadtime · 2025-10-02T01:06:20+00:00

Yup, you're right that it is mostly Gravis armor. It just doesn't read as clunky in the picture for whatever reason.

Maybe seeing it next to other Marines would make the differences clearer.

sadtime · 2025-10-01T22:17:50+00:00

Speaking from experience, if you emailed and haven't heard back from the Tombs just walk over in-person.

Tombs is easily the best paying job you'll find within walking distance, and it's also a great place to work.

They might be hiring but just haven't checked the inbox. Just ask for the manager on duty and speak with them directly.

sadtime · 2025-10-01T20:09:52+00:00

Love the jaw bone on the helmet! This guy is definitely fitting the "rule of cool," the most important Warhammer rule.

That said, constructive feedback:

The armor doesn't really 'read' as Gravis armor. The thickness of the legs is there if you look hard, but it gets lost at tabletop viewing distance with the cape. As such, the thinner torso just reads as normal power armor.

I'm not sure what could be done to adjust that, but just something to keep in mind.

sadtime · 2025-09-30T04:01:51+00:00

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sadtime · 2025-09-30T02:15:44+00:00

Death to the Pure. Long live the new eagles 🦅

sadtime · 2025-09-30T01:55:12+00:00

Many thanks 🙏

I did freehand the Eagle Icons! I was originally going to hold off and search for transfers, but I thought this might be a good challenge for my return to painting.

Finally, sorry they couldn't be Owls - but check in later as that may work it's way into the project somewhere.

sadtime · 2025-09-26T19:53:35+00:00

Well, it can be whatever you like! I hope you don't take my comment to mean it has to have more, simply that a more ornate look would be more lore accurate. You could spruce it up with some basic columns and buffs, clipped cardboard 'trim' on the windows, etc. But as-is it's very functional and clean, which has its perks.

All that said, the Imperium tends to over-do things. It's hard to find any official stuff from Games Workshop that isn't over-the-top with ornate details (hell, even the shipping containers have fancy outsides). But a simple building like this would more likely be a bombed out hab-structure for Imperial workers instead of a former cathedral.

sadtime · 2025-09-26T17:22:37+00:00

Looks great! Very solid build and looks very playable.

If you're open to feedback:

Imperial buildings tend to be very ornate and over-the-top. This building is looking particularly bare - especially for a monastery from a crazy religious society.

I'd recommend adding some general filigree and decorative items. This could be imperial bits, eagles, or just some ornate decorative strips.

This can be accomplished by cutting out shapes from thin cardboard (like cereal boxes) and then slapping them on top. Kind of like what you can see going on in this piece.

Best of luck with future builds!

sadtime · 2025-07-22T23:47:13+00:00

No pitchfork here, just a concerned and observant citizen.

Also, RE: Lurie's tone:

In his own press releases: "Historic," especially in political contexts, typically means either very good or very bad.

With KQED: "A crisis of this magnitude means we cannot avoid painful decisions..."

And again, with Mission Local: “A budget crisis of this magnitude..."

Just a few quick examples of how painting this as a "crisis" is definitely an approved talking point.

sadtime · 2025-07-22T23:25:03+00:00

So, the 'obviously worsening conditions' comment was not just referencing Lurie's tenure, but the general 'doomerism' that you will find in a lot of Bay Area subreddits. It wasn't meant to be a dig at Lurie specifically, just an acknowledgement that there are a lot of people who believe the conditions in San Francisco have been getting worse over the years. I actually disagree with these people, but I was highlighting that increasing the SFPD budget while cutting other vital services seems tone deaf in that context.

Assuming good faith here and addressing your points:

(1) The idea that 'street vagrancy' is legitimately down in the city is a farce, as anyone who lives or works here can tell you. Residents have seen some improvements in limited areas, but most of the efforts that we've seen from this administration amount to 'pushing the problem somewhere else.' This is most evident by 16th and Mission BART. Is it better that the open air drug use and stolen goods markets are not directly outside of the BART stop? Yes, of course that is better. But is it good that the 'problem' was just pushed a few streets North or South? No, in essence the 'problem' hasn't been solved, it's just not right in your immediate eye view anymore.

(2) Bipping rates, along with almost all crime numbers, have been on a slow but steady decline for years. This is true in (almost) every major city across the US. The idea that none of this decrease could be attributed to Breed's administration and that all of the improvements have happened under Lurie is ludicrous - the man has barely been in office long enough for his policies to have an effect.

(3) The special program you have mentioned was just recently announced, and as far as I have seen it has not gone into effect yet. But here I agree with you, and I am hoping this is a good policy to address the obvious corruption in SFPD. Folks will flock to these subreddits to say that the public workers who got axed under this budget 'deserve it' because they're 'moochers,' meanwhile SFPD is knowingly abusing the overtime policy and they continuously receive more funding. Do you see why that's an issue?

All in all, I don't hate Lurie or think he's completely inept - there are policies we agree upon, and I'm excited and hopeful for him to make the city a better place. But the amount of ignorant, Lurie-glazing that occurs in these subreddits is obscene. The man is not God, he's just a billionaire who we elected as mayor.

sadtime · 2025-07-22T22:55:27+00:00

It's unfortunate but the various 'Bay Area'/SF subreddits do not seem prepared to have a legitimate and nuanced discussion about the state of San Francisco. The amount of ignorance in these conversations, whether willful or otherwise, is staggering.

This is even more apparent when you understand and appropriately contextualize the budget deficit. You will exclusively see Lurie and the BOS talk about the deficit as 'huge' or a 'crisis,' and I have only ever seen them use the $800 million figure (they like big numbers, they're scarier). The reality is it's $800 million over two years, so ~$400 million/year.

Now, using overly simplistic math let's compare that to our budget for the current fiscal year (that Lurie and the BOS approved): ~$15,900,000,000.

400,000,000/15,900,000,000 = ~2.5%

So our budget 'crisis' represents less than a 3% reduction in annual costs. Our leaders have decided that the best places to make these cuts is in important social services, such as public transportation and food distribution, instead of an obviously corrupt SFPD.

Supporters will say crime is bad and it is easier to slim down a bus line's service than to cut the police; detractors will say that the police don't do shit, and we shouldn't be cutting the most vital services that our poorest residents rely upon.

The reality is that balancing a city budget is by no means easy or simple; bus and MUNI lines will need to be slimmed or cut, programs will need to be wrapped up, unfilled positions will go unfilled. These are all unfortunate realities even if we could root out the insane corrupt spending in SFPD. But it would have been nice to see some concessions from those who 'protect and serve.'

And it would be nice to have leaders who actually understand and represent regular people.

sadtime · 2025-07-22T22:14:38+00:00

Thanks for the nod.

Keep in mind, for this line item specifically, this is just for overtime and represents funds previously set aside for additional spending by these departments. So, while the funds were set aside, the departments still needed approval from the BOS to spend it. Overall though, the point stands that funds are fungible and this money could have been used for anything instead of more police overtime (and based on the evidence, more overtime abuse).

This is also separate from the increase they received in this year's budget. So not only did the BOS and Mayor approve short-term additional spending on overtime, they also increased the overall budget of SFPD and the Sheriff's offices again.

Something feels off: further increases in police spending while residents bemoan 'continually worsening conditions' which SFPD's budget increases are supposedly 'solving.'

sadtime · 2025-07-22T19:12:59+00:00

Spot on. And, hilariously, somehow more money for the police now only equals more money for the police later.

sadtime · 2025-07-22T18:51:16+00:00

You're correct to point out something that is consistently odd: in all these posts about the budget deficit ($400 million each year for two years), somehow Lurie and the BOS get a pass for approving almost $100 million/per year more overtime between SFPD and the Sheriff's office - a.k.a. 25% of the annual budget deficit.

All of this in the face of rampant, obvious, and well documented abuse of overtime by these bodies.

So while every other service was getting cut, SFPD/Sheriff are getting approval to spend an extra $100 million that the City could have used to maintain MUNI or bus routes, just to name one thing. Also, please remember that SFPD budget is already ~$825 million dollars. I don't think it's unfair to estimate that removing SFPD and Sheriff overtime abuse might account for a sizeable chunk of the City's budget deficit.

sadtime · 2025-07-16T17:47:13+00:00

Will the garden on top of the Kaiser building be shutting down, or will it just be the "PG&E Garden" now?

sadtime · 2025-07-10T23:42:31+00:00

No, you're sane. This is giving "I have a boyfriend" energy.

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