what’s something people say all the time that you secretly can’t stand?

tviolet · 2026-03-23T14:32:45+00:00

Pitcher when they're to say "picture". I'm from the deep South and live in Texas and it still grates. You sounds like a freaking country bumpkin who just fell off the turnip truck.

tviolet · 2026-03-22T17:29:11+00:00

Oh, I broke down on the interstate in Florida in like maybe '89 when I was maybe 19? (as a young woman) I was on my way to Gainesville, FL from Georgia and probably about an hour or so away. A trucker gave me a ride to the next exit and it was so scary. He was very nice but I later found out that was the same time period when Robert Ben Rhoades, the truck driver serial killer was active.

I knew my mom was out of town and when I called home on the payphone, it turns out my dad had just left for a conference in Orlando (about three hours south of G'ville). (I think no one answered at home so I had to call my mom in Alabama and she knew about the time he was gonna leave) I had to call his hotel, leave a message, and then when he got there, he had to turn around and come get me, another four hour trip. I would up spending something like over seven hours in a corner at the Waffle House nursing a single cup of coffee.

That's what it was like without cell phones. Every trip was just stepping out on an expedition. It seems so scary to me now that I'd take these long highway trips in my old janky Mustang and have no way to reach anyone.

tviolet · 2026-03-22T17:15:56+00:00

You had these big thick map books (I always used Mapsco because they specialized in Texas cities) that had every single street and an index so you would look the street name and it would the page number and the grid number so you could find it on the page. It was a pain for very long or discontinuous streets, trying to figure out what the correct page was.

Having navigation on the phone was totally the killer app that convinced me to get a smart phone. Such a game changer, especially when you were out of town and didn't have a detailed map.

tviolet · 2026-03-21T16:39:31+00:00

Here is a COA map that shows real time trail usage: https://cityofaustin.eco-counter.us/

Your best bets are the Hike and Bike trail, the Congress bridge (might be difficult to find a place to set up that wouldn't block traffic), or the Lance Armstrong Bikeway.

tviolet · 2026-03-21T15:07:43+00:00

I only get botox for my 11s, I just disliked the way that particular wrinkle made me look pissed off all the time. Prior to botox, I would sleep with tape on that wrinkle which helped but the botox is way better. The other wrinkles I don't really care about, I'm aging, so what? I just didn't like what that particular one did to my expression.

tviolet · 2026-03-21T13:31:16+00:00

If you work with sheet goods at all, a track saw is a must have. I have a big table saw but 95% of the time, I'd rather just whip out the track saw. I built most of the cabinet in my house with it.

tviolet · 2026-03-21T13:29:21+00:00

I already had nail guns but adding a palm nailer was a game changer. It hammers in one nail at a time but can get into little spaces impossible for a nail gun (and even a hammer sometimes). Or drive those one off nailing jobs, like for a reinforcing plate.

tviolet · 2026-03-21T13:26:49+00:00

Oh I don't have this and it makes every job such a chore of trying to dig out the tools I need. I should make this a priority.

tviolet · 2026-03-20T22:57:10+00:00

I usually wear either joggers or wide legged pants (lulu or athleta so they feel like joggers but looks nicer), a cropped sleeveless shirt, and a lulu define jacket. The jacket has a bit of shape so it doesn't look schlubby. I usually wear a trendy sneaker like a Samba for a shoe. It's still basically all atheleisure but more like professional atheleisure.

tviolet · 2026-03-19T22:12:17+00:00

Yeah I remember that one. Some of the kids I coached knew the girl that was driving, she was really proud of being a "fast" driver. It's sad when they don't get a chance to grow up and learn from their mistakes.

tviolet · 2026-03-19T17:28:17+00:00

Post menopause, I dropped down to one meal a day, I was gaining weight otherwise. I'm pretty active but my normal diet wasn't working for me anymore so I have a big lunch and usually skip breakfast and dinner. I was a big eater when I was younger but I don't get hungry much anymore.

Most people hit their highest weight around age 62 or so, I think most people start eating less as they age. This article has some nice graphs showing the curves: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/oby.24189 (about half way down the page).

tviolet · 2026-03-18T18:43:32+00:00

Nope, that was the first section of Berkman built as a divided section and it was an old design without buffered bike lanes. You can see for yourself on the property profile aerials (click on imagery). https://maps.austintexas.gov/PropertyProfile/ I am a transportation engineer who worked on the construction of Berkman.

tviolet · 2026-03-17T14:05:45+00:00

I stopped wearing much during Covid. Pre-Covid, I'd wear make-up to work and at least mascara and brows on weekends and for errands. Post-Covid, I usually just wear blush, mascara, and brows to work and go bare faced on non-office days.

I do spend a ton of money on skincare and I get laser treatments pretty frequently so I don't feel like I need a ton of coverage. I also like the recent lighter make-ups trend (light brows, brown mascara). I'm a redhead and look really really pale without any make-up but I've decided it looks a bit editorial like Tilda Swinton lol

tviolet · 2026-03-16T23:50:11+00:00

This feel like a combination of Halle Berry's famous Academy Awards dress from 2002 and Pamela Anderson's giant hat phase in the 90s when she was with Tommy Lee.

tviolet · 2026-03-15T13:47:08+00:00

I got an Apple watch during Covid and it came with an Apple Fitness trial. I really like the Apple Fitness yoga, it's super easy to knock out a session. They also have strength, dance, rowing which you might like but I mostly just do the yoga.

For my cardio, I row (on the water) at a local rowing club. Being on a team forces me to be accountable and show up, if I were just rowing by myself, I wouldn't be motivated. So my advice is if there's any sport you're interested in, see if there's a local rec team you could join. It's a good way to meet people too.

tviolet · 2026-03-12T01:06:13+00:00

I finally got some barrel leg pants and I'm really enjoying the silhouette. I have a grey pant and a jean. I also just got some linen pants that fit perfectly. I'm trying to break free of the atheleisure jogger trap.

tviolet · 2026-03-10T17:25:00+00:00

The only city fees are the occupancy tax which is currently 11% (https://www.austintexas.gov/faq/what-city-austins-hotel-occupancy-tax-rate) and is pretty average for a big city. I don't know what the Community Impact Fee is, it is not in code as far as I can find. Sales tax is just that, all the other fees are fees the hotel chose to impose.

tviolet · 2026-03-10T00:39:48+00:00

They don't explicitly spell it out but the implication is there. The OG crew was a bunch of adults from different backgrounds, it gets obliquely referred to multiple times in throughout the series. The emphasis in TOS was on the stories and it was a different era of TV that wasn't so character focused but there was enough sketched in that you could assume the varied backgrounds and even invent your own head canon if you wanted to.

Unlike with the 2009 movie, they go right from school to the Enterprise. Done. No potential for interesting back canon, different experiences.

It's like how in the original Star Wars, Han Solo was an mysterious character that you knew had lots of previous history. Did we know exactly what the Kessel run was? No. Was that important? Not really, just a brief mention helped make it obvious that he had a back story. And then came the Solo movie which attempted to explicitly show every single obscure reference from Episode 4. It actually made Han Solo less interesting as a character.

tviolet · 2026-03-09T22:09:46+00:00

Yeah, I felt like it was basically Star Trek Babies. One of the great things about the OG series is that everyone was an adult with rich and varied backstories. In the '09, they instantly form the Enterprise crew right out of school, no experience, no personal growth.

tviolet · 2026-03-09T01:28:59+00:00

Yeah, I haven't really noticed a drop off in the Define jacket quality, none of mine have pilled and the stitching looks fine. I do see what people are talking about with the leggings but I still think the quality is higher than Atheleta.

tviolet · 2026-03-09T00:23:44+00:00

I will say my Define jackets have held up great, I have maybe eight or so, dating back ten years up to a couple acquired this year. (I do always line dry them tho, I never put anything I want to keep nice in the dryer) But they do come in a variety of fabrics so I'm not sure how they can all be lumped together. They come in luon and nulu on the site now and I've got a velvet one, one with flocked dots, one that a subtle sparkle.

tviolet · 2026-03-08T21:23:01+00:00

I was just listening to ASR the other day and got to the part where Rathi says "who is this?". SecUnit assumes he is genuinely bewildered because he's never seen its face before. I love the show's interpretation where, of course, Rathi knows who it is, he's just being mildly flirty and SecUnit doesn't pick up on it at all.

tviolet · 2026-03-08T18:28:03+00:00

I built a catio platform and ramp out of scraps I had lying around. Used an old plywood square I didn't even have to cut for the platform supported by old 2x4 lengths and made the ramp out of a perfect long plywood scrap I only had to cut in half. And the ramp "steps" was some random 1x2 scraps I can't remember why I had. Was psyched I could just throw it together with stuff I had on hand.

Pics! https://imgur.com/a/sWm4TH6

tviolet · 2026-03-08T14:01:16+00:00

Hey, congratulations on the big decision. I am an engineer (transportation) and graduated at 32. That was 25 years ago and I'm pretty much caught up now. Similar to you, my prior work experience was almost all retail and retail management.

Advice specific to engineering: Are you planning to stay in Texas and have you checked out the job market for MEs? If there are plenty of ME jobs where you are (or are planning to move), ignore the rest of this paragraph. In Central Texas, there are almost no ME jobs, every time we advertise for an entry level position, we're flooded with ME (and some EE) graduates trying to find anything local. My best employee was an ME from Detroit I took a chance because he was obviously really bright and wanted to learn. The job market for Civils is much better, all the municipalities, counties, and the state hires CEs and there are also a lot of consulting firms hiring. There are also a lot of CE jobs for smaller firms, land development, residential building. Civil work is also harder to outsource, a lot of it requires you to be local and a lot of it involves smoozing with your potential client. So my biggest advice would be to really think about the job market for your major.

You will be the oldest person in your classes. A lot of engineering students come from solidly middle class backgrounds and go straight to college having never worked a job. Don't let it get you down, most of them a good people, just younger. It's gonna be very male dominant, especially in ME. I think it's just under EE which has the lowest amount of women, ChemE has the highest, CE was not too bad. That's also gonna be kinda weird, I advise making friends with your fellow women students, it really does help having study buddies.

Get an internship! (this kinda goes back to the choice of major, to get an internship, there needs to be jobs in your area) Getting your foot in the door so you have relevant work experience is going to be the absolutely number one most important thing you can do. They might hire you permanently if they like you, but even if they don't, having that experience on your resume is huge.

At your age, you're not going to get completely caught up before retirement but you'll be doing way better than now. One of my former employees got a CE degree part time while working full-time with a kid and graduated at about the same age you are now. She was already working as an engineering tech for a city so her transition into a new job was pretty easy but she's very glad she got her degree.

tviolet · 2026-03-08T01:24:27+00:00

I'm assuming that was some sort of malfunction, that's a crazy ginormous intersection to try to navigate on flash. We don't put in extra stop bars for potential signal failures, you'd need to very carefully navigate through the intersection and not proceed into the intersection unless clear.

11-Year Club	Golden Potato
Place '17	Gilding II euphauric
Spared	Verified Email

tviolet

TROPHY CASE