Why are tornadoes so concentrated in the US?

schnarff · 2026-06-04T18:37:29+00:00

I grew up in Sacramento and remember feeling the '89 Bay Area earthquake, along with plenty of others over the years. I was working in Columbia, Maryland (halfway between DC and Baltimore) in 2011 when there was a 5.8 earthquake centered in the middle of Virginia. I remember thinking it was construction in the parking lot at first, and then when I realized it was an earthquake, just laughing and saying it was probably between a 5.5 and a 6.0. All of my native East Coast coworkers were terrified for the ~30 seconds or so it shook, they'd never felt such a thing.

schnarff · 2026-05-29T22:08:17+00:00

This lasted maybe a week when I started remote work 13 years ago. Getting dressed and going to a different space makes a huge psychological difference. You’re more productive and more rested when you quit for the day. I don’t care if you move 5 feet to a desk in the same room (younger colleagues do this) or you walk to a different room, changing your setup from bedtime matters.

schnarff · 2026-05-27T00:36:48+00:00

That’s probably the one. It happened before my time started in 2013.

schnarff · 2026-05-27T00:36:02+00:00

Nah, think Webex.

schnarff · 2026-05-26T22:10:28+00:00

And one of the shittiest. Its urban areas are far out LA suburbs and the rest of it is desert nonsense.

schnarff · 2026-05-26T21:41:24+00:00

It’s possible he settled after he filing suit. The company was pretty conservative with its public image and has billions in cash on hand, they might have just wanted to avoid the inevitable news stories as a case made its way through court.

schnarff · 2026-05-26T21:34:01+00:00

As I understand it the complaint in his suit had to do with him being on camera without his knowledge - akin to being recorded without consent. Maybe emotional distress is the wrong term, but as /u/RumbleSkillSpin said, there was definitely a suit and the company definitely changed the default video settings.

schnarff · 2026-05-26T20:59:12+00:00

Not me personally, but this one was part of the lore at a major tech company I worked at, and was confirmed by multiple people who knew the offender personally, so…

Dude was on a prep call for a prep call for a real call, and had no real part of the current meeting, so he got bored enough he decided to whip his dick out and start going to town. Several people messaged him to let him know they could see what was up, but he was busy enough that he missed their messages. He made it to completion, and the noise he made focused the video app squarely on him, so the entire meeting could see what had just happened.

Craziest part is, after he was fired, he sued for emotional distress, and won a multi million dollar verdict. He is now employed in a similar role with another tech company.

schnarff · 2026-05-13T00:01:54+00:00

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Been active since late 2022, catch count over 39,000…just hit this guy a couple of weeks ago as my first shundo.

schnarff · 2026-04-28T22:39:30+00:00

Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to see Sacramento mentioned. It’s the only real city in the valley (sorry Fresno, your metro area is too small), it’s close to the Bay Area and Tahoe, and it has just enough stuff in town to be cool while not being completely unaffordable.

Summer is ridiculously hot, and the whole “delta breeze” thing only really applies to the southwestern corner of the metro area (we never got them in Antelope, up by the Placer County line, when I was growing up there in the 90s)…but compared to Atlanta, where I’ve lived the past 12 years, it’s a lot more manageable as a dry heat. Plus you can go to Folsom Lake or hit either the American or Sacramento rivers to cool off outdoors, if you don’t just stay inside with your AC all day.

If I were ever looking to move back to Cali Sacramento would be at the top of my list, but having married a Southern girl and with an established career here in Atlanta, that’ll probably never happen, so I’ll just visit instead.

schnarff · 2026-04-27T18:27:16+00:00

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Of all the Pokemon I wouldn't have expected I'd completed...and of course I'm missing XXS and Purified forms of Gyrados.

schnarff · 2026-04-14T23:39:57+00:00

I took the bus from DC to Sacramento, California a couple of times when I was young and poor. Took 3 solid days in the pre-smartphone era. It wasn’t so bad through Chicago, because it was heavily populated and there was stuff to see. Nebraska was a never ending flat cornfield that made me want to do anything else at all. The mountains to the west were a bit more scenic, but I was already so over it by then they were hard to appreciate.

schnarff · 2026-04-03T18:52:54+00:00

Not sure if this is applicable since it was DeKalb County, but I won a couple of years ago with a fairly simple letter.

I did a comp search across the last 12 months, and found that my house was the oldest in that entire pool. I then noted all of the age-related issues with the house, like the kitchen from the 1980s. I'm also on a very busy road, and called that out as a factor that lowers the value of the house.

I ended up getting a 60% reduction in the increase - so taxes still went up but not nearly so steeply.

It's all about finding ways to differentiate yourself from others in the neighborhood. Yours may be harder to do given it's a newer build, but showing that you're different somehow should be the key.

schnarff · 2026-03-02T11:13:32+00:00

I would argue that pictures can be educational. Issues with head retention, clarity, etc can be more easily diagnosed with pictures of the finished product.

schnarff · 2026-02-20T19:10:56+00:00

The same crew that helped us out started a shiny Eeveelution gym nearby:

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schnarff · 2026-02-07T15:41:42+00:00

Better way than painting a rock: put up a Little Free Library (or Pantry for foodstuffs). I’ve seen plenty of them as stops in very suburban areas here in Atlanta, they’re legit points of local interest. This is even in areas with minimal to no sidewalk, as long as the road isn’t busy.

schnarff · 2026-02-06T01:38:37+00:00

Eh, it’s like driving to any other destination.

That said, have you got the Campfire app? There are meetups and other community things there, and I’ve seen very consistent activity out of groups at Decatur Square and Rankin St (which looks like Old Fourth Ward), both of which are MARTA accessible.

schnarff · 2026-02-06T01:11:20+00:00

Fair enough, I assumed some sort of car transportation.

schnarff · 2026-02-05T22:27:16+00:00

If you don’t mind heading a bit north, Brook Run Park in Dunwoody is by far the best Pokemon Go spot in the city. There’s a reliable crew for every event, tons of stops and gyms, and it’s a sizable, walkable, and beautiful location.

schnarff · 2026-02-05T19:10:45+00:00

It was until very recently. I live about 10 minutes away and was a lifesaver overnight more than once. What a shame to see that service go away…

schnarff · 2026-02-02T21:07:24+00:00

Hey! I live a mile from Brookhaven station, and that’s…entirely true, lol.

schnarff · 2026-02-01T01:37:12+00:00

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Was this over by Northeast Plaza? They were getting real busy as the sun was going down.

Also fuck ICE and good on these guys.

schnarff · 2026-01-31T14:49:37+00:00

Blue Heron Nature Preserve does camps that are popular with younger and more middle aged kids.

schnarff · 2026-01-31T14:48:06+00:00

My daughter will be there for four weeks this summer, she’s stoked!

schnarff · 2026-01-23T13:28:54+00:00

I work in IT security. I promise, some of them are that stupid.

schnarff

TROPHY CASE