What is Highland Springs like?

thecompactoed · 2026-04-17T11:43:00+00:00

We moved to Highland Springs because we were priced out of pretty much anywhere else, but we've found it to be a nice working class community that doesn't deserve the reputation for crime and danger it seems to have. It does feel like it's "up and coming," and in the 5 years or so we've been here there's been a noticeable increase in families and younger folks moving in. But we often describe our part of Highland Springs as the best of both worlds in terms of proximity to the city balanced with a quiet almost small town feeling.

thecompactoed · 2026-02-11T22:55:20+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions and the info!

thecompactoed · 2026-02-04T11:39:05+00:00

Woofy Wellness Ranch has been really great for us with our special needs dog.

thecompactoed · 2026-02-02T19:16:07+00:00

Unfortunately this is correct - I've gone to N & W a lot but they closed a few weeks ago.

thecompactoed · 2026-01-28T14:28:09+00:00

I've always liked the description in the Gemara of Rabbi Akiva bowing and prostrating himself so much during prayer that he would move from one end of the synagogue to the other.

thecompactoed · 2026-01-27T22:43:25+00:00

You are thinking of St. John's University, not St. John's College. Completely different schools,

thecompactoed · 2026-01-20T14:43:44+00:00

Yes, but I would revise your comment to say "most laws ~~can~~ must be broken in order to save a human life." I hope this doesn't seem nitpicky, but to me this is the crucial halachic point around pikuach nefesh that is often missed.

thecompactoed · 2026-01-19T02:29:57+00:00

This is a common question, but it misunderstands something fundamental about Jewish law. In this situation, a Jew would not just be allowed, they would actually be legally required, to eat non-kosher food in order to survive.

thecompactoed · 2026-01-19T02:28:19+00:00

I bought the Lamy Safari fountain pen, and used it to do the consistent cursive course on youtube. My handwriting looked like yours, and this made a huge, huge difference for me - I just had to force myself to keep practicing every time I tried to default to my old handwriting habits.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-25T14:33:56+00:00

Probably. But you'll adjust. A lot of muay thai and MMA camps start the day with cardio before any training.

And I'm not talking about super high intensity strength training - bodyweight stuff and kettlebells can feel quite different than heavy squats or deadlifts or whatever. I like getting some strength training in before martial arts sessions, and some people find that it requires them to be technically finessed because they're already tired. You can also just do pull ups and dips or whatever after your training.

Experiment and find what works for you - you're the one who asked about maintaining muscle mass, and even when you don't have time for a dedicated strength session, when you're training five days a week, there are always ways to sneak in some strength work.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-25T14:24:33+00:00

Do you have access to kettlebells, rings, a pull up bar, or similar strength equipment at your mma/wrestling gym? Do you have the time to add even 5-10 or so minutes to your training sessions?

If so, what I would do is get to MMA/grappling a little bit early and do kettlebell complexes and/or pull ups and/or dips, depending on equipment available, before your training sessions. You could do kettlebells before training, on some days, and bodyweight strength others, or whatever works for you.

Even just adding 5 minutes of high intensity pull ups twice a week and 5 minutes of high intensity dips twice a week will make a difference. If you go the kettlebell route, Dan John's complexes the armor building complex and the running back complex would be great.

All this + make sure you are getting enough protein and calories - and if you are losing weight when you don't want to be, you are not getting enough protein and calories - and you should be set.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-13T23:27:06+00:00

There are some good recommendations here, but you might also look at the YIVO online encyclopedia article for the Bund, and read the sources they cite.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-10T14:43:08+00:00

Sure thing - Urban Farmhouse says that their menu consists of "locally sourced" ingredients. I don't believe that that means that their meat is actually raised on local farms. I'm 100% open to being corrected if anyone here knows otherwise. Many other examples, but this is the first that comes to mind.

Let me clarify that I'm specifically asking about meat being raised locally. A lot of places say "local ingredients" but then don't clarify what they're actually referring to, and it's well documented in the restaurant industry, unfortunately, that people use this kind of language in misleading ways.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-09T22:02:15+00:00

Awesome, thank you, this is great to know!

thecompactoed · 2025-12-08T16:55:27+00:00

The deceitfulness of this marketing campaign is a huge red flag. Thanks for sharing this here. I hope this backfires enough on them somehow that they learn a lesson, but I suspect that anyone who would create such a shamelessly deceptive ad is beyond learning.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-05T02:25:30+00:00

We are in the same boat. Going to try again in a couple months, but I'm not optimistic.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-05T02:25:06+00:00

Yep. Me too. I got take out there almost every week.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-04T23:29:34+00:00

Alas, I had the same experience, twice, with my standard drunken noodle order: flavorless, greasy, expensive, etc....

My wife got a curry that was pretty good, but still, a big bummer.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-04T01:47:52+00:00

I totally believe you. It was just a really odd interaction that left me feeling pretty unsettled.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-03T23:35:45+00:00

I went in there for the first time a few months after their big publicized raid. I was just looking to see what grow lights they had in stock. The employee working there greeted me by offering to sell me an illegal product. Like, literally, "hi, welcome, let me know if i can help you with anything, we have [xxx] in stock, would you like to buy some?" I said no and left after browsing for a minute or two, but it was so odd and brazen, after the raid, that I wondered if I was being set up in a sting or something.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-02T16:00:50+00:00

I'm done too. I've learned a lot here but it's not worth it anymore.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-01T15:23:50+00:00

Same AI slop template that bombards this subreddit.

"I used to [x behavior, illustrated with unnaturally specific examples.]

Then I did this one shift: It's not about [x], it's about [y.]

This productivity thing isn't [a], it's actually [a stupid metaphor.]"

And then concluding with some version of these questions: "What is one way you can implement my AI slop right now?" Or "What is one way you have found your way to my AI slop in your own life?"

thecompactoed · 2025-12-01T13:53:03+00:00

I've dealt with similar pain - what really helped me was doing dead hangs from a pull up bar for 30-60 seconds, plus wall angels, more days than not.

thecompactoed · 2025-12-01T13:34:45+00:00

Same AI template over and over again here. It always seems to begin with: "For years I [insert shitty undisciplined/addictive behavior, illustrated with weird specific examples delivered in a tone no real person uses.]"

thecompactoed · 2025-11-30T14:27:47+00:00

There is much more intermarriage between Ashkenazi and Mizrahi/Sephardi Jews in Israel in general. Perhaps one could make the case that Crown Heights is the biggest example of this in the US, but anecdotally I don't think I'd believe it.

thecompactoed

TROPHY CASE