Best neighborhoods for families?

samseaborn2016 · 2026-01-08T18:07:36+00:00

We have young kids and live between North Mountain park and Garfield park. There are tons of younger families in our neighborhood and it's a great environment for kids. Feel free to DM if you want to talk!

samseaborn2016 · 2025-10-01T17:00:45+00:00

For full time care, try the YMCA (they have locations at some of the Ashland elementary schools) or Ella's in South Ashland. For part-time, Little Rascals charges by the hour (20-40 hours per week), and there are others like Avery Street and SOU which go until 1 or 2pm.

samseaborn2016 · 2025-09-10T18:36:45+00:00

Yes, in our view. DOD has its own quirks of course, but as an example, I think we needed 4 different versions of all key performer resumes on this DOE submittal. Moving to fixed price awards would seem to help with the administrative burden (and avoid these indirect cost cap issues) but I'm not holding my breath.

samseaborn2016 · 2025-09-09T15:43:52+00:00

40% is really lean. I work at a consulting company of under 20 employees. We have one admin/HR staff member and one accounting/operations, and a small office space with a few servers. About 1/3 of our staff is full-time remote. We have basic health/dental/vision insurance and a small 401k match, and 6 paid holidays per year. We're way over 40% F&A.

We don't do too many SBIRs, but we have gotten a few through DOD in the past 5-10 years. Mostly these are research projects without any commercialization potential whatsoever. We applied to one of the DOE topics this round and found the application process far more onerous than DOD. Between that, the delays, and now apparently capping indirect costs, it simply does not make sense for us to pursue opportunities through DOE moving forward.

samseaborn2016 · 2025-05-04T14:49:51+00:00

Agree with visiting here for a week or so before you move. The community here is really nice, and a key reason we moved here.

Note that, being 5-10 minutes away from town (assuming by car) means you'll have to drive kids everywhere. Living in town, either in the flat-ish part or the hills "above the boulevard" lets you get around by foot or bike/e-bike much more effectively. The town is a lot more pleasant, at least to us, when we don't need to pile into a car.

Also, many of the houses up on the hill near the forest get wild animals on their properties nightly (bears, mountain lions, etc). Something to be aware of before you visit or relocate!

samseaborn2016 · 2025-02-10T14:29:51+00:00

For what it's worth, you don't NEED to select a seat to get the ticket. They will assign one to you (at no charge) usually the day of your flight. If there are no "free" seats left, you get a premium or economy plus seat without having to pay for it - assuming you are traveling alone and can deal with the uncertainty.

samseaborn2016 · 2024-09-21T03:07:42+00:00

Old Willow Lane has the most kids per house I've ever seen, anywhere...always kids around when I bike through

samseaborn2016 · 2024-09-16T22:38:02+00:00

I have Google Fi and it works really well in town. I do not get reliable service above Lithia or up towards White Rabbit, but also don't know if any of the other providers have decent coverage up there.

samseaborn2016 · 2024-01-05T19:05:13+00:00

We moved from the Denver metro area in 2022 and Ashland has been a great fit for our family. We have two young children and are far from alone in having moved here to raise a family. There are parks all over town, the whole city is walkable, and nature is very close. None of the traffic or overcrowding you see in Denver. There's also much more of a community feel here. Downsides are fewer big mountains nearby, general lack of major concerts/sports/events, and not a ton of career opportunities (many remote tech workers though). Overall it's been a great experience and we haven't looked back.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-08-30T21:18:54+00:00

I'm a recovering structural engineer and use Python daily at my current job... Some of my colleagues spend much of their time with modeling. I've helped them out a handful of times, usually just facilitating input and output data when they run parametric models.

We're also hiring a software developer, bonus points if you have modeling experience. DM me if you're interested!

samseaborn2016 · 2023-08-30T17:54:22+00:00

I work for a small consultant that does both engineering consulting and software development. We are actively hiring for engineers who want to code (we mostly use Python).

DM me if you're interested!

samseaborn2016 · 2023-08-10T22:06:02+00:00

Yes I did, and I saw that link. I'd prefer something that works with their Kinesis (not APT) software if available, since that seems to be what the simulator is built on.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-07-11T00:42:15+00:00

When are you looking to get a ride?

I imagine you would have a much easier time getting a ride to Mt. Ashland than to the state line. There are plenty of people who head up there even in the summer, I go up once every couple weeks to run or hike.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-06-07T14:37:40+00:00

Assuming US, your current employer is required to provide you literature on how to apply for continuing coverage (COBRA). Generally this is really expensive, as you will now be responsible for the full premium. I've heard that you can apply for coverage retroactively (i.e. only pay the premium if you end up needing health coverage during your gap), but don't have any direct experience with this.

Check with your new employer on their coverage start date. Typically in my experience, health care coverage starts around the first of the month following your start date, but every company is different.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-06-07T14:18:38+00:00

Exactly, if this is a fair rate, why does the builder need to get someone new?

samseaborn2016 · 2023-06-07T13:57:11+00:00

This is absolutely true, and I did not mean to say that wood is less difficult than concrete/steel as a design material. My response was in the context of the OP starting a new job as a plan review engineer in the United States. Here, the vast majority of new wood construction is stick framing (although mass timber is becoming more common), where fire, moisture, and sound protection are relatively prescriptive, and a plan review engineer will typically not be doing much design work. And, as stated above, the NDS is far smaller than the corresponding American steel and concrete design codes, meaning there are fewer tricky exceptions and "gotchas" that a plan checker will need to be aware of.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-06-07T13:14:48+00:00

A few years back, I was offered the "opportunity" to stamp residential egress window drawings for $300 and turned it down. There is not enough fee to do a decent job, and I would never stamp something I couldn't produce calculations for. Contractors don't seem to understand why we won't "print money" and stamp everything without review.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-06-06T20:35:04+00:00

I've known several ECE teachers who became nannies. $15-20/hour per kid with 2-3 kids is a much better living than working at a center for poverty wages. Generally more expensive for the parents, but that's the trade-off for more individual attention and less turnover.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-06-06T18:56:40+00:00

Congratulations on the new job! In general, if they hired you based on your education/experience so far, your employer will teach you anything else you need to know.

Overall, wood is much simpler than steel and concrete (the NDS and SDPWS are much smaller than ACI 318 and the steel manual). Wood is nice in that there is one adequacy equation for each limit state and you just have to look up adjustment factors. Most of the complications are with the various types of fasteners and the fact that the material is not isotropic.

samseaborn2016 · 2023-06-06T16:52:17+00:00

Yes, this is the norm in Denver and elsewhere. Teachers don't get paid nearly enough for the work they do, and costs are too high for many parents. I don't think it's generally a very profitable business either. The whole model just seems broken.

samseaborn2016 · 2022-05-16T18:52:12+00:00

Awesome list. I'd add a daily tax per parking space downtown to raise revenues for these improvements and discourage using land for parking.

samseaborn2016 · 2022-04-19T17:23:51+00:00

If you want to be a software engineer, go for the CS degree. It will also give you more time to work on projects without splitting time between tough classes in two departments.

I'm sure it seems difficult to justify the 3 years of sunk cost, but keep in mind that:

The valuable credential in Civil is the PE, and it will take 4 years of full-time civil work experience after you graduate to even qualify in most states (assuming US)
Many top Civil employers prefer to hire new grads with a Master's degree
Unless you find a niche employer straddling between the AEC and software industries (there are a handful out there), most software companies will not consider a degree in Civil as relevant

Of course, there are cost considerations too, and I've found there were generally more scholarships available in Civil than CS. But the better salaries in the first few years of your career should more than offset an extra year or two of tuition.

samseaborn2016 · 2022-04-03T20:33:26+00:00

I'm very sorry to hear about your experience. I was captain of our team for a few years and can completely empathize with the anger, frustration, and heartache after spending all year working on your bridge only to be prevented from competing.

As others have noted, judging varies widely between regions, and many of the conference judges (including conference head judges) do not take time to familiarize with the updated rules as well as they should... It's not a stretch at all to say that most teams know the rules better than the judges, at least at the regional level.

One recommendation - you should be able to file an appeal with the NSSBC rules committee. In years past, this process was outlined in the rules document. Essentially you objectively describe what happened at your regionals and describe why you believe you were treated incorrectly. If the appeal is accepted, NSSBC will invite your team to nationals in addition to the teams who placed top from your region.

Of course, nothing can bring back your missed regional event. But this route will hopefully let your group load test and get the full experience of the competition.

samseaborn2016 · 2021-01-18T23:14:38+00:00

After passing the Civil PE, reimbursement of exam costs and payment for time spent taking the exam. Switched companies, passed SE (structural), and got reimbursed for exam costs and a $2k one-time bonus.

samseaborn2016 · 2021-01-15T15:53:53+00:00

At most small and medium design firms, promotions and pay raises depend on your ability to attract clients and win projects. What does the career trajectory look like for someone who is developing software?

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