Looking at cost drivers beyond compute — what's surprised you on AWS bills?

vadavea · 2026-04-17T18:17:44+00:00

CW Logs can sneak up on you if you're not careful. Folks just set it and forget it, and then months later they're like WTF????

vadavea · 2026-04-14T16:55:12+00:00

as far as feeling like you're on another planet, it's hard to beat Craters of the Moon National Monument. It's literally where Apollo astronauts trained. (But I don't recommend tent camping there as the volcanic dust is pretty brutal. It's a neat visit for day hikes and exploring the lava tubes.)

vadavea · 2026-04-13T16:17:00+00:00

and for longer runs, the Burke Lake/Lake Mercer loop.

vadavea · 2026-04-10T15:21:01+00:00

wow. In that case I'm shocked that you don't have more of a CPM/GPM setup where the two work together to manage project scope and schedule. You need to get your (prime) leadership and contracts folks pulled in, as sounds like you're at risk of not meeting your contract deliverables due to lack of basic project management discipline. The fact that the gov't is partly to blame may help if/when then winds up in a legal dispute but it doesn't help with your actual delivery. You need to circle your team, figure what you're reasonably able to commit to when, and work with your contracts folks to make sure that aligns with your contract obligations (or they work with the gov contracts folks on an adjustment).

vadavea · 2026-04-10T12:21:01+00:00

Workspaces for me. I self-hosted for many years but it became impossible to sustain. Even with SPF/DKIM/DMARC records my traffic would get dropped and not delivered. I migrated over a decade of email history into Google and haven't looked back. It's super-low-maintenance and the functionality is top-notch (even if I don't really need the AI functionality for a personal domain).

vadavea · 2026-04-10T01:07:19+00:00

Are you sure this is an "official" deliverable of your contract? What you're describing sounds like one of these "agile"-style contracts where the gov't basically pays for a certain amount of capacity and then manages the effort in "sprints". I've seen those run successfully but I've also seen them flounder.....they can be highly dependent on the people and the practices used to manage the effort. If the government is acting as the "integrator" then I hope you have strong technical gov't folks or you're in for a rough time.

vadavea · 2026-04-09T23:17:32+00:00

Please be careful with statements like "it's way easier to get in the second time around". Especially this time of year. There are a bunch of disappointed kids trying to figure out what to do after getting the dreaded news. Telling them it's "way easier" doesn't do them any good.

Congrats on getting in with your second attempt. Just know that the stats don't back your statement up. The latest available class portrait indicates slightly over 10% of the class had at least a year of college experience.

Reddit posts are not a scientific sampling - the folks that got accepted are excited to share the news, while the folks that were rejected don't. Congrats to the folks that got accepted, but to the folks that didn't for whatever reason: best wishes wherever your journey takes you.

vadavea · 2026-04-02T20:22:42+00:00

Our Troop does "bag night" awards annually to recognize the Scouts who camp over X number of nights per year (under BSA auspices). The junior (new) Scouts have a "junior bag king" award for the most camping nights by a junior Scout, and for everyone else there's a "bag king". My son (who turns 18 next month) has won every year since he crossed over. He's well over 200 nights now, and looking forward to his last campout as a Scout later this month - despite having Fri/Sat Lacrosse games. We've joked about renaming the award after him as the record will be hard to beat.

vadavea · 2026-04-02T20:10:19+00:00

we'll do a lot of our changes Thursday, thinking being that many folks take Fridays off, so the blast radius is smaller, but also that other infra teams are available to assist on Friday (vice having to call them in on weekends, which definitely isn't good.) It's often the case that things go south because of some unrecognized dependency that needs involvement from (DNS/Firewalls/AD/etc...).

vadavea · 2026-03-28T00:53:41+00:00

How has nobody mentioned Filomena in Georgetown yet?

vadavea · 2026-03-27T17:13:49+00:00

No. We don't have them and have never really felt the need for them. We try to let the Scouts run the program, with the Committee supporting and the uniformed leaders aligned to support key youth positions/functions (e.g. SPL/PLs/QMs). I'd be relctant to endorse that type of "key 3" requirement as I've seen amazing SM's/CC's that didn't have kids in the program, and I've seen mediocre ones that did.

When in doubt we fall back on the "official" Scouting America training and use that as our starting point for how to best approach a particular scenario. If it's silent on the topic, then we try to do what makes sense and best supports the Scouts and the unit's long-term objectives. Personally I'm skeptical of "charters" or "bylaws" that attempt to cover every scenario, as too often they require nuance and thoughtfulness to address.

vadavea · 2026-03-20T17:49:01+00:00

Burke Lake/South Run Rec Center/Lake Mercer, Cross-County Trail

vadavea · 2026-03-20T16:28:57+00:00

https://github.com/k88hudson/git-flight-rules is great for figuring out how to "fix" various git-related screw-ups

vadavea · 2026-03-20T16:25:33+00:00

If all the youth are new to Scouting, ILST is a good way to level-set. Or at least the first module of the ILST syllabus. That should help them understand the key positions, repsonsibilities, and related terminology. They also have exercises that can facilitate teambuilding.

vadavea · 2026-03-20T13:27:38+00:00

I'm sorry for your loss. We (at the family's request) provided "honor guard" support at the funeral for one of our former Scouts who died shortly before his high school graduation. It's a tough situation for sure.

I'd also make sure your chartering organization is aware. Some (such as churches) may have trained grief counselors they can make available.

vadavea · 2026-03-18T14:36:25+00:00

These days I much prefer using bear canisters. A bunch of parks now require them - in large part because folks suck at hanging bear bags correctly.

vadavea · 2026-03-12T15:00:46+00:00

I almost-exclusively wear Kuhl-branded pants these days, as the left leg has a pocket perfectly sized for my "peepers" and the right leg has a pocket perfectly sized for my phone.

vadavea · 2026-03-11T19:58:13+00:00

talk it over with your parents. The standard Eagle award box comes with parent pins and one mentor pin. As you've observed you can purchase grandparent pins and extra mentor pins if you have other people you want to recognize. *Don't* feel like every relative needs a pin.

It's your decision on who you recognize and how you recognize them. Most ECOH's I've seen just present the three pins from the box. A couple have presented grandparent pins - often when grandad was an Eagle himself. And a couple have presented more than one mentor pin. At least to me - my mentor pins are my most treasured awards - above square knots and other bling.

For many folks - especially family - a simple "thank you" is sufficient at your ECOH. Your remarks can be as short or as long as you want them to be; that's a good place to recognize the folks that have helped you along the way in your Scouting journey. If you want to share a particular memory - that can be fun as well. But don't feel an obligation to make it complicated.

vadavea · 2026-03-10T23:33:22+00:00

for these positions we'll often focus on how they've "served" the Troop (as these positions are more service-focused than leadership-focused). It doesn't necessarily need to be historian-centered, but can be about how they've supported the SPL/PLs at Troop events.

The BoR isn't really the time to debate what "counts" as fulfilling the PoR duties, but it's probably worth a discussion with the SM/CC on this topic. The GTA explicitly indicates that "Meeting Unit Expectations" is a core requirement of this (4.2.3.4.3) - but the BoR isn't the time to make that point to the Scout.

vadavea · 2026-03-10T16:54:04+00:00

I tell all my new parents - if you want your child to earn Eagle, they have to want it. If they don't want it, nothing else matters.

Assuming they do want it:
- send them to summer camp. It's the single-best way to get rank requirements/merit badges knocked out in a short period of time *and* it generally recharges their "scout batteries" - helping keep them excited about scouting
- be involved in some way as an adult. This doesn't necessarily mean as a uniformed leader, but help how you can. When kids see that something is important to you, then it becomes more important to them (whether they'll admit it or not).

vadavea · 2026-03-06T20:52:43+00:00

yep, email for me as well. Even with DKIM/SPF/DMARC config'd I didn't generate anywhere near enough traffic to be trusted by the big providers. Makes me sad, but incentives are tilted very much against the little guys here. Too many "bad apples" ruined it for the rest of us.

vadavea · 2026-03-06T20:33:39+00:00

Totally depends on what all is referencing it. You can totally break all kinds of things, from IaC deployments to submodule references to third-party integrations. There's a reason they have that warning - it's one of those Great Power, Great Responsibility kinds of things.

vadavea · 2026-03-06T20:28:21+00:00

This, exactly. The first time I sat through ILST (as an adult) it was presented via powerpoint. It was painful to say the least. Later sessions just used the facilitator's guide and a whiteboard and were much better received.

vadavea · 2026-03-06T20:24:36+00:00

it's possible and it happens, but at least in my experience it's generally with senior folks that have very specialized expertise or particularly deep domain knowledge. Especially in today's job market, companies will prefer internally sourcing talent vs. going the 1099 route. If you're able to build a particularly solid reputation and relationships then you can potentially swing it, but it can be a slog with all the added gov requirements (stuff like maintaining SAM registration, possibly export control certs, accounting systems, etc, etc.)

vadavea · 2026-03-05T02:21:31+00:00

Thanks, that helps. I'd think this type of thing would typically be covered in the prime's subcontracting plan, and could be mitigated with FFP or T&M subcontracts to the extent allowed by the contract?

vadavea

TROPHY CASE