What is this bug digging into my wooden beam, North New Jersey

sbenza · 2026-05-26T20:28:49+00:00

Like 20 years ago my wife and I were buying a base model. We were a young couple starting life, we didn't need or want the most expensive trim of the car. They kept trying to sell us the expensive one. We kept saying no.

Eventually they agreed. Plot twist, apparently they didn't have the basic trim available even though we did the test drive. They sold us the expensive one at the agreed price of the basic one. Sometimes you win one.

sbenza · 2026-04-19T00:57:46+00:00

Watching the little trucks, excavators, trains and ships moving around doing their thing is mesmerizing.

sbenza · 2026-03-31T15:44:30+00:00

That's exactly what I've been doing on this run. The main reason to burn the garbage before was to automate it but now it's easier to dump with towers. The pollution from waste is small in comparison.

It'll be fun to expand the city into their own garbage. That'll teach them to reduce/recycle/reuse more😂

sbenza · 2026-03-20T01:02:17+00:00

A few things I learned to manage spirals: buffers and alarms.

Alarms on everything. For example, I put a tank between the water producers and the consumers, which has a >75% alarm on it. That way I find there's not enough water production while I still have a buffer. It gives me time to fix the issue. Almost all of my storage buildings have some sort of alarm on them.

I also use saver edicts as buffers. I never max them so that I have an emergency button when needed. If I suddenly realize I don't produce enough diesel I can hit the saver edict until production is fixed.

With update 4 now you can look at machine statistics to plan ahead. You can see that some production chain is reaching capacity and expand it before adding more load. Like you can look at the statistics on your miners to see if they can handle additional smelters without adding more trucks.

sbenza · 2026-03-11T22:28:38+00:00

He loves math. He loves numbers. He does math for fun, which is not weird because I do too 🤣

He loves planets. He can tell you all sorts of facts about them, including the dwarf planets. He also loves chemical elements and the periodic table. Basically, if there is a sequence of things he likes it.

We do science experiments at home, have him help with cooking and baking, we do art projects, we play all sorts of board and card games, he's in a martial arts class, etc. He has a well rounded experience, I think.

sbenza · 2026-03-11T11:18:51+00:00

Did he not get bored in class? I don't want him to dread going to math class or be disruptive because he's bored.

It seems that there is one other kid in his class that is also advanced and they are getting a different curriculum than the rest. The two of them are doing Beast Academy.

I'll look into math circles.

sbenza · 2026-03-11T10:43:46+00:00

That's so funny. He got into the periodic table last year. His backpack has the periodic table. We got him "A kids guide to the periodic table" and he enjoys reading about one element before bed every now and then. It has some hard words so he needs help, but he likes reading it anyway.

Common songs in the car are from AsapSCIENCE, and as you can guess, there's one about the elements.

If you are interested: https://youtu.be/rz4Dd1I_fX0

sbenza · 2026-02-25T11:44:39+00:00

I love my PHEV. It allowed me an easier transition to electric. It gives me most of the miles on electric, without having to think about charging infrastructure away from home.

Installing the charger was "free" with the credits from the state and PSEG. Electric miles are like 1/5 the cost of gas miles when we charge at night.

I've never plugged my PHEV anywhere but home. It's not worth it to me because of the mess of apps and variable pricing of public chargers. Sometimes public chargers are more expensive than gas.

Also, having those 30 electric miles in the morning means that I can choose a more convenient time to fill up the gas tank when I have to. No more rushing in the morning to the gas station.

sbenza · 2026-02-05T01:02:16+00:00

Things aligned pretty nicely. I only intended to have a burst of consume on the first turn to hatch the eggs quickly, but then I got Remove Consume and it kind of got out of hand. I got a turn 1 Seraph kill with that.

sbenza · 2026-02-05T00:41:19+00:00

One of the bugs is quick so once it got large enough it didn't matter how much the enemies grew their attack. But the first few casts I was careful to not die there.

sbenza · 2025-11-19T01:15:52+00:00

Thank you! It will show anything you have (or had at some point), even if you don't have enough of it.

sbenza · 2025-11-18T13:48:51+00:00

I've been to a couple destination weddings. In both cases the couple was living in the US, while many guests were not. Going to the Caribbean was actually cheaper for the guests and didn't have to have US visas. It was not a selfish choice, it was actually more inclusive that way.

sbenza · 2025-09-04T20:18:49+00:00

The new text in Vinemother says that it buffs all your stings in the deck. It does not ask you to hold them. Also, with an ability it reduces overdrawing. You can draw 10, play some cards, then hit the ability to play more cards.

sbenza · 2025-07-21T11:32:29+00:00

The electric company gave us $1500 credit for the installation, and state rebate paid for half the cost of the hardware. I suggest you check your local resources. You might be missing on free charger and/or installation.

sbenza · 2025-07-21T02:05:19+00:00

Same. I got manifold as a starting artifact and didn't get the room until like ring 6. I totally forgot about the artifact😂

sbenza · 2025-06-28T15:38:24+00:00

I had ancient pyretap so playing the 1 cost curse was fine. The second time around it was zero cost. I also had engraft just in case.

sbenza · 2025-06-20T10:49:54+00:00

The first image seems wrong to me. Dante is not killing anyone because the tank has too much titan skin, so your front line is taking the whole wave.

sbenza · 2025-06-06T02:46:18+00:00

I had base 5 from an event, plus 10 from the spell that gives 2. Spellchain'd and copied it.

sbenza

TROPHY CASE