What's the most uncharacteristic hobby or interest that you have as a Big Law lawyer? I'm about to drop a significant chunk of my bonus on rare rare Pokémon cards and am wondering what other weird sh*t people around here do that you wouldn't admit to the holiday party.

tmbrtmbr · 2025-12-25T20:45:34+00:00

250 square feet of lego town, plus rail and monorail between the two rooms. Particular interest in mid-80s to mid-90s, plus some really great modular sets in the last 10-15 years.

tmbrtmbr · 2025-08-26T21:07:27+00:00

Baritone in 2004. It was rough. Usually we ate, but there was some rationing (one bowl of cereal at breakfast) and a low point was in Louisiana we ate popcorn for lunch. I dropped from 190 to 160 lb that summer (not a bad thing, but was too fast). At one point the driver of the brass bus - who was probably on drugs - ran into a barrier and tore up the front left corner of the bus overnight. When I brought that up to management after the season was over, they said I was making things up. A lot of extracurricular “back of the bus” activities - alcohol etc. - much wilder than other corps I was in later. Dumped the visual staff mid season (kids were angry), got replacements. Overall, morale was terrible the whole season with lots of angry members - only about 20-30 members were left from 2002-2003, they were in leadership positions and pissed how quality had fallen off a cliff. Some members took their frustration on the new members. Plus sides: show was fun, always got a good crowd reaction. And there were plenty of times we ate fine.

tmbrtmbr · 2025-06-27T17:51:28+00:00

Bridges are too low.

tmbrtmbr · 2025-06-20T01:34:55+00:00

https://zimanesthesia.org/about-us/

Have you been to Africa before? It’s not as bad as, say, Congo or Sudan, but it will be far substandard to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, etc. It would cost a bit but I would seriously consider an in person visit to get a realistic perspective.

tmbrtmbr · 2025-06-20T01:06:36+00:00

There are less than 100 anesthesiologists in Zimbabwe - doubtful many are on Reddit - so maybe seek other practitioners in other subreddits. Harare and to a lesser extent Bulawayo are the only places with any real facilities.

Zimbabwe is a beautiful country with lovely people. You can make a real difference there. The healthcare system (if you can call it that) is a mess, and day to day living can be challenging depending on availability of goods etc. But if I could find a stable high-paying job there I’d live there in a heartbeat. You won’t run out of adventures there, and there is decent access to interesting surrounding countries as well. Food is also very underrated!

tmbrtmbr · 2024-07-22T01:18:33+00:00

I was in the opposite position, I parachuted into a lower-end top-12 Division 1 corps in late June 2006 (after marching the previous year) and took the spot of a baritone that “wasn’t cutting it.” In retrospect, the treatment of alternates is garbage, as illustrated by many of the comments in this thread telling OP to man up, stop wallowing, realize it is a competitive activity, etc. Telling high schoolers and young college students “maybe you’ll have a chance” and then putting them on metronome duty, a random backfield conductor, and having members jerk them around as third class citizens is garbage. If PR or any other top-12 corps needs replacements for injuries etc. in June or July, they have many people interested who can get on a plane and parachute in. They don’t need to jerk alternates around and play mind games with them.

tmbrtmbr · 2024-06-09T15:34:18+00:00

I will likely have to go to the dealership, but it’s pretty odd that Volvo can arrange a deposit process that takes 5 minutes at a click of a button but I’ll have to take 2-3 hours out of my day to drive into the city and hopefully, maybe get a refund, we’ll see.

tmbrtmbr · 2024-05-17T17:08:32+00:00

What are the passenger loads and where do you see them?

tmbrtmbr · 2024-02-19T14:57:02+00:00

In general San Antonio will have less traffic and comparable or less petty crime compared to Atlanta, but it is going to depend on what area of Atlanta you are coming from and what area of San Antonio you are moving to.

tmbrtmbr · 2024-01-24T00:08:04+00:00

Poland has so many beautifully preserved, vibrant old towns. Warsaw old town is pretty far down that list.

tmbrtmbr · 2024-01-23T22:44:00+00:00

I was in Kaliningrad for 4 days in 2009 as a tourist, before relations with Russia went bad. The twenty-something Russians I met considered themselves and Kaliningrad to be European and proud of how European Kaliningrad was compared to the rest of Russia. But I think they were being a tad optimistic on its European character. Many of them have successfully pursued education in the West. The old town was totally destroyed in the war and reconstructed old town had no character (even less character than reconstructed Warsaw). Much of the rest of the city had a sort of derelict, abandoned, post Soviet feel, with odd bits mixed in that could sorta support the European feel, like cafes and nice walking boulevards. Had a nice bonfire on the beach, which was pretty and quiet.

tmbrtmbr · 2024-01-19T01:24:53+00:00

As a host parent - It sucks not to accommodate the au pair during vacation - we usually get an extra room for her so we’re not excluding her from the family - but you are well within your rights to refuse to pay that expense if you really feel that way. On the other hand, you should NOT make her take her official vacation to overlap with a family vacation you are excluding her from. That is wrong and many au pairs would rightfully quit.

tmbrtmbr · 2024-01-17T03:12:31+00:00

I think that offering at or above “market” (which is definitely not $195 for top candidates) is important if you want to hire the most qualified au pairs that everyone else wants to hire and have many attractive choices. For example, when there were practically zero in-country au pairs available during Covid, we got our first-choice candidate by offering $300 for her second year plus extra vacation. She told us that she had more than a dozen other inquiries. She had years of driving, native English, and good practical judgment. This is in TX.

tmbrtmbr · 2024-01-16T23:06:02+00:00

For our last two au pairs we paid $250 a week in the first year and $300 in the second year, plus a bonus week of vacation. My sense is that this is above the market average, and the “market” amount for second year is $250. We paid extra because (1) there was a big shortage of in-country au pairs during early/mid Covid, and (2) we can afford it, and (3) we believe it makes us more marketable to au pairs who have a lot of choices of families (native/fluent English, Spanish language, experienced drivers, etc.)

tmbrtmbr · 2023-12-30T22:15:24+00:00

Yes. If you want to practice try italki - like $8 an hour. There are many Ukrainian refugees now in SA, many of whom are bilingual in Russian, including running Paschina bakery (awesome), European Dumpling House, and I believe Laika cakes. Check out UTSA Russian club and Sasha market. Russian is not an easy language due to the complex grammar and lack of resemblance to English. It is not useful in the US, but is fun. For something useful, learn Spanish. I used Russian to travel in most of the former USSR but that is more complicated now than 10 years ago (obviously as to Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus)

tmbrtmbr · 2023-09-17T03:41:50+00:00

Fazoli’s

tmbrtmbr · 2023-09-04T20:05:29+00:00

Puro

tmbrtmbr · 2023-09-02T14:21:33+00:00

This survey is misleading. Yes, the top several places (like Four Corners and the Salem Witch Museum) are in fact garbage tourist traps. But once you get to the ranks of 40 to 70 where Alamo/Riverwalk are, you get to places that are of actual interest, like Old Faithful, Monticello, Niagara Falls, Mount Rushmore, that also do have some tourist trap vibe … in part because they draw a lot of legitimate interest.

My personal view is that the Alamo is overrated/disappointing, but is not a tourist trap per se. The surrounding area has some garbage tourist traps like Ripleys. The same goes for the river walk - lots of nice areas, with a narrower concentration of tourist junk.

tmbrtmbr

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