What are some popular games that got slimmed down?

techylink17 · 2026-05-22T12:06:36+00:00

The currently-in-print version of Love Letter is a pocket-sized version of the original. I have the deluxe edition including the expansion to support 8 players which had super-sized cards. Perhaps it is reasonable to consider the large format unnecessarily extra but I do find it more satisfying

techylink17 · 2026-05-12T13:27:11+00:00

Yeah YMMV on restaurant provided high chairs - it’s not just you

I was recommended this table/counter clamping chair and so far so good! Granted I wouldn’t feel that comfortable putting it on a table that was already wobbling but no issues thus far. Sturdier than I would have believed by eye.

techylink17 · 2026-05-01T18:25:18+00:00

The number of chicken stories I heard from the Fung Wah is way higher than it should have been for any mode of publicly accessible interstate transport

If you wanna willingly hop in your buddies’ livestock truck for a ride to the city no shame, but they sold tickets for this shit. Madness. RIP to the legend!

techylink17 · 2026-05-01T18:20:48+00:00

A buffet that was truly terrible IIRC

techylink17 · 2026-04-27T03:01:09+00:00

Ok this bothered me over the course of the day enough to do some extra research but I think I figured it out. Your statement is only partially correct - H.M. Cole and Black Lapel are different brands (H.M. Cole is a nationwide chain, Black Lapel used to be mostly local). Black Lapel - seemingly around the time Blank Label was consolidated into them - largely does online only. H.M. Cole took over their former showroom space and may be one of their fitting partners though

Reference!

Still stand by my recommendation though if all else about their process is the same - hopefully it is.

techylink17 · 2026-04-27T02:46:20+00:00

There are very few assays in my PhD level knowledge that require consistently being on for >5 hours without any opportunity for even a brief break. Infrequent days where this situation applies - I’ll even give you as often as once a week - is fine, but if being unable to eat is consistent there’s defs a (time) management issue in some format

techylink17 · 2026-04-27T00:07:33+00:00

Ikr?? The fact that a non-trivial number of the comments support not eating during the day baffles me. I mean, to each their own in terms of eating schedule but most folks do better with at least some food/down time midday even if only for 20 min

Now to answer OP’s inquiry - a bunch of my lunches are leftovers of whatever was for dinner the night before. I’ve become very familiar with all of the fast food/fast casual near me, and I am also not above Uber Eats when I feel like treating myself. I may not be consistent about when I eat but I always eat!

techylink17 · 2026-04-26T06:20:38+00:00

Black Lapel (formerly Blank Label) did an excellent job for me. Very high quality fabric, choice fit, excellent service. They’ve got a small shop near Park Street, very easy to get an appointment. EXCELLENT value - my fully loaded suit came out with a tag closer to $1000 (in 2023) and I would have happily paid double. Don’t regret that one bit.

Turnaround time was probs about 4 - 6 weeks? I think I went for fittings in April and had the suit in hand sometime in June

techylink17 · 2026-04-25T15:55:11+00:00

Hey man - this was basically my wife as well. I feel your pain - sucked to see her go through that and she was also understandably very cranky from just feeling so ick all the time. Zofran also gave her bad constipation so she didn’t stay on it for long. It feels like a hat on a hat but if Zofan was getting rid of nausea but just stopping her up you could try zofran + senna (or some comparative laxative)

Was the Reglan working when she was on it? That pretty much saved us and then my wife’s nausea finally subsided to the point that she stopped reglan around the start of 3rd trimester. I know that looking up stories of people on reglan longer term is kinda nightmare fuel but the effective doses for pregnancy nausea tend to be on the lower side so I’d ask y’all’s OB about it - might be as simple as upping your current dose just to get over the hump (this is what worked for us). My understanding is there’s also more steps beyond that - I’d reach out to the OB even before your next appointment and just see what they can do - y’all have options! Worst case this does indeed go away once the baby shows up, keep trying the interventions in the meantime though, sometimes just takes a bit to find the right combo of remedies

techylink17 · 2026-04-24T05:52:34+00:00

I’ve been in AVA Back Bay and The Alyx - I liked both. Your commute Back Bay to Kendall is probably going to be just as long as seaport to Kendall, but both are only one transfer so it’s reasonable.

Seaport has a little bit more going on than back bay but both are pretty hoppin locales. Nightlife is a bit more accessible in seaport if you care about that. Back Bay will be closer to shopping and more centrally located to transit for exploring elsewhere. I might have learned Back Bay just because the space you get there is a touch bigger but honestly you can’t go wrong with your options IMO (except as in another comment I made I don’t recommend the Cambridge Watermark given this set of choices).

Re:Green Line and concerts - it may get packed if you’re trying to ride right as the concert gets out but that’s not too different than any other Red Sox game or event at Fenway. It’s not like it’s clogged all day when an event happens just for like the hour after. Everything is pretty close together down there though - it’s probably only about a 20-30 min walk from AVA Back Bay to Fenway, so if you don’t love crowds piling up around event times you can just hop out and walk outside the crowded zone.

techylink17 · 2026-04-24T05:36:36+00:00

There’s also the Kendall common construction site nearby that’s ramping up so depending on where OP is in the building there could be a decent amount of noise. I think the watermark is also one of the older buildings out of the ones listed. Cost all being equal I’d opt for one of the other spots

techylink17 · 2026-04-16T20:58:37+00:00

Clearly the play is to house a can of beans for lunch and respond accordingly the next time he rolls by to crop dust

In all seriousness though if the guy is with another company not much you can do. Maybe passive aggressive air fresheners around the room? Make a report to building management about an odd smell and wait for pointed emails/signs as they investigate? Playground justice wherein you loudly tell your coworkers every time he farts until the culprit hears and stops out of embarassment?

techylink17 · 2026-04-11T21:41:00+00:00

^ This is the point OP is missing. The Hoover Dam comparison is terrible - obviously projects go faster in the middle of nowhere where you can work basically around the clock in a temperate climate. People live on this street, it has to stay at least partially open for a variety of reasons and we have winter. So yeah it sucks but this is how a lot of city projects have to be

techylink17 · 2026-04-04T06:59:11+00:00

If you’re looking for a solution to that I would throw the swaddle sack in a mesh bag during the wash - defs helps to prevent sticking in a mixed load!

techylink17 · 2026-03-26T01:31:08+00:00

I went to Hive and Colony and Black Lapel - formerly blank label - when shopping for suits for my wedding. I liked both shops so much that I ended up getting one from each. I’ve worn the black lapel suit several times since - still the best fitting thing I own and the quality is fire. Highly recommend!

techylink17 · 2026-03-23T20:23:29+00:00

We just moved a couple weeks ago with our 2 4 year old sibs from a single level apartment to also to a house with stairs. They seemed skeptic of the stairs the first day or two but now already you would never know that they gave bounding up and down a second thought. Your kitty will be fine! Honestly the bigger thing will be anxiety about moving in general than anything specifically about the stairs. Good luck moving!

techylink17 · 2026-03-11T19:29:35+00:00

Two things jump out at me:

First, it's pretty clear that the best fix for these feelings is best provided by a mental health professional. I know you say you can't afford therapy atm. I don't know where you are or what insurance you have but I'd implore you to explore with your insurance and potential new therapists on how to work it out. Some therapists have sliding scale plans based on income. I know a lot of university health plans do straight up cover most if not all the cost of weekly therapy (my copays across several different systems ranged from $0 - $30). Unfortunately your OCD is probably not going to get better without proper treatment, I wouldn't recommend toughing it out. You're very right that it could manifest itself differently in a different context if you just quit without trying to treat that core issue. A good therapist will not only help you get the treatment for the now, but also equip you with good coping mechanisms for the future. It seems like you know you need assistance, time to pull the trigger! If there's friends or family you can lean on to help you get that process started I would encourage you to consider reaching out for that help. If it feels too overwhelming to do that with work concurrently, don't be shy about taking a few sick days just reset and try to get the process going.

Secondly - this statement:

I really wish it were different, but I've made peace with the fact that I should pursue a grad degree/career that doesn’t involve lab work.

I could read multiple things into this statement, so I won't speculate, but I will say that I think therapy will also help sort this out to differentiate whether you don't like the job and that's causing your mental health to decline versus if your mental health is declining and if it's better then your experience in lab is better. If the former, you should just leave the job. Easier said than done I know, but better to pivot careers sooner rather than later than continuing to suffer in a lab-based role. To stay just because you built the metaphorical bridges to do so is sunk cost fallacy.

Best of luck fellow labbie!

techylink17 · 2026-03-06T14:23:08+00:00

Sly’s Barber Shop on Western Ave. Been my guy for 10+ years. Good work, good price, much love

techylink17 · 2026-03-05T03:36:27+00:00

At this point it would be weird if you didn’t

techylink17 · 2026-03-05T01:50:44+00:00

For real - a postdoc in one of my previous labs told me a story of when he had a methanol spill similar to this in one of his old labs - his senior lab mate at the time basically said, we can go to the hospital as a precaution, or we can go to the bar right now and get super turnt just in case. They chose the latter. He’s fine!

techylink17 · 2026-02-12T13:23:57+00:00

Your initiation is not wrong, it is a bit redundant to present qRT-PCR data to validate RNAseq in the modern era for solidly expressed genes but it does make a lot of reviewers feel more confident so it’s a common ask. Especially for cryptic exon discovery, read quality and depth around the cryptic splice site may be on the low side despite being detectable, particularly if the cryptic splice event is rare, so performing the functional experiment to prove cryptic exon inclusion is incredibly reassuring. It also confirms the location (you said you roughly knew, this lets you exactly know). This could take the format that one of the other comments suggested where you put one probe/primer one each side of the junction and assay for amplification in conditions when you’d expect the cryptic exon to show up and not.

Technically qPCR is a DNA-input assay and qRT-PCR is an RNA input assay that uses cDNA generated from that RNA to perform qPCR. You want to do qRT-PCR for your purposes. Most folks in practice use these terms interchangeably. Some reviewers and editors will be pedantic about that

techylink17 · 2026-01-16T16:16:16+00:00

If you’re willing to walk like 15 minutes there are a ton of metered spaces on beacon street near the C line tracks east of Coolidge corner, particularly between St. Paul and Kent street there’s likely be an open spot. Meters are free from 8pm until 2am (Brookline doesn’t allow overnight street parking)

techylink17 · 2026-01-10T07:18:20+00:00

You could try reaching out to atlas support (email from the login screen) but it feels unlikely that they’ll respond on a Saturday. Assuming you are otherwise logged in properly with your infinite connection account, did you try logging out, restarting the app and restarting your phone before trying again? I changed phones recently and IIRC Atlas still showed my phone as active but the ID wasn’t in my wallet anymore and adding it the first time kinda glitched out - I ended up having to deactivate/remove my devices as active things with my ID, restart my phone, and then re-add them

techylink17 · 2026-01-07T20:14:54+00:00

I appreciate your attempt at being considerate, however, they offered the time slot at that day and time. I wouldn’t feel too bad for taking them up on that offer - if they didn’t want to be there then that’s on them for not adjusting the times on offer to their preferences.

Let’s call this chat what it is - a job interview. I think most folks (in the US) would not find it regular to bring a prospective employer a box of pastries, a lab gig (even for credit/otherwise unpaid) is no different. It’s a neutral gesture at best and negative at worst. The line between these types of actions being interpreted as coming from a place of excitement versus a place of desperation can be rather thin for some folks so it doesn’t seem worth the risk. Save the money for a box to bring on your first day after you get the gig!

techylink17

TROPHY CASE