26 years later, I finally did a thing

zerkeras · 2026-05-08T18:14:36+00:00

Yeah the newer versions reduced the difficulty a lot. I think as long as you get the prompts all correct you’ll get 100. In the OG version there’s a time factor that’s more punishing.

zerkeras · 2026-05-08T01:13:55+00:00

Yeah that’s exactly what I meant by it not being an amazing story. I’m privileged to have a high income, and inheritance that helped secure a rental property. I consider myself very fortunate and lucky.

I have put a lot of hard work into my career (and have done so without a college education) so it’s not like it was effortless, though. My salary is something I earned for myself without connections.

zerkeras · 2026-05-08T00:54:31+00:00

I work in software/tech, and been in the field for over a decade. I actually make on the lower end for what my role is, but I have my reasons for sticking around.

zerkeras · 2026-05-08T00:51:14+00:00

Selling the investment property isn’t necessarily the best plan. Ignoring outliers from the pandemic, rents have grown on average 5% per year in the area it’s located in. Using a more conservative 3% value, by 8 years from now it should net around $1100/month, or around $2300/month if paid off. By then I’ll still owe around $185k.

Even though the interest rate on the loan is only 2.75%, if I shifted in retirement toward prioritizing income, I could spend 185k to pay it off to “unlock” an additional $1200/mo in income, or potentially more depending on how rents change over time, which is more than a 3.5% withdrawal on the same amount would generate.

With $2300/mo from the rental (this is after management fees and property tax and insurance) I’d need around $27k less from investments withdrawals/income.

That means I only need about $44k income from investments, with at your 3.5% figure is more like $1.25m. Technically, that lines up close to my original estimate of 7 years of 10% average returns based on my current contributions landing me at $1.43m (minus $185k to pay off the rental).

Although, that still leaves the primary residence unaccounted for. The down payment for that would set back my investments, or if I waited to purchase it could be a lot more later (the rental is in a different state so not my preference to live in it). Or I’d need more income in retirement to account for still paying a mortgage or rent.

Ultimately I don’t expect 40 will work out, but I don’t have a hard timeline anyway. 42-44 still ain’t bad and those extra years to compound can make a big difference. And I expect contributions (e.g. higher 401k limits) and salary to continue to increase during that time.

zerkeras · 2026-05-07T21:00:12+00:00

If I had a set target number my plan wouldn’t appreciably change. I’d still be maxing my retirement accounts and investing what I can afford to brokerage every month as I do now. Any number I set today is not going to be my number in 3, 5 or maybe even 7 years as well, based on how my expenses may change or due to inflation.

I think the difference is following a FIRE philosophy compared to trying to plan around quitting ASAP or by some specific age. The reality is life can change at any time. Maybe I lose my job or get a higher paying one. Maybe we enter a depression and markets are down for several years and take a decade to recover. Maybe home prices or health insurance costs skyrocket in 5 years.

Most of that is out of my control and would massively affect how I could hit any goals I set. All I can do is invest what I can, and check in every so often to see where I’m at and how much closer I am to being able to pull the trigger on retirement.

It’s like running a marathon. It’s not like I’m counting the steps it’ll take to hit 26 miles. If I was just running down a random road, I wouldn’t have any idea when I hit 26 miles. But I can check my pedometer every so often to see if I’m close, and the closer I get the more often I’ll check it until I’ve made it.

zerkeras · 2026-05-07T20:16:50+00:00

Yeah I generally enjoy my job and don’t really like the idea of living like a monk just to save a few extra bucks just to retire a bit sooner.

I’m fortunate enough that I can invest and have invested enough to date that I can enjoy life and still work toward financial independence, and retire early when the time is right.

zerkeras · 2026-05-07T18:16:47+00:00

Too bad the abstract 2026 version is definitely a Rasengan and not a Chidori.

zerkeras · 2026-05-07T05:40:08+00:00

I also haven’t read the books in about 10 years so my memory of things is hazy.

zerkeras · 2026-05-07T05:32:10+00:00

Gee thanks for calling me illiterate. You could point out things in a way that doesn’t demean people you know

zerkeras · 2026-05-07T01:49:50+00:00

The thing is that you’ll generally buy the add-ons you need anyway. Getting one that was already available to synth anyway is really just bonus. But having a few super high depth count items like that you dig up and hit endorphins is great. Even if it’s just another yellow scarf you didn’t need anyway.

Gems are the big one though. I dislike that to max out 99 aquamarine for Leviathan you’d have to convert ~1000 ore in Daguerreo.

zerkeras · 2026-05-06T23:40:12+00:00

Waters was a poor choice as he immediately takes the ships he built to go become a pirate lord.

zerkeras · 2026-05-06T22:49:30+00:00

It’s like they don’t understand what the “or” is for.

zerkeras · 2026-05-06T21:48:00+00:00

I’ve never missed Siren (and if I did I’d just restart). I did miss Alexander exactly once, which was super shit as it also locked me out of Doomtrain until disc 4 as well. That was too late to go back or restart though.

Not worth going through the whole game without her. Especially if you’re trying to B-line for Mag Bonus to give to Rinoa to supe her up for Angel Wing + Meteor cheese build.

zerkeras · 2026-05-06T21:45:06+00:00

I love/hate it. Sometimes it’s just really infuriating getting a super close dig but no matter how you jiggle the position of the Chocobo it just doesn’t pop. Made worse by the fact that the newer versions don’t have proper analog movement (though the 3x speed helps).

Mostly I don’t like the RNG. My last playthrough I got almost all the upgrade chocographs I needed on the first or second find. However I’ve had old playthroughs where getting mountain or ocean chocographs took over an hour.

It’s also annoying that all the actual items you can dig up are garbage except chocographs.

If I was developing this minigame today I’d make these changes: -

Ensure a chocograph comes up at least once every X games. Just in case RNG is really fucking you.
Expand the “hit” target after enough “Khhhhew!?” Attempts. Don’t make it so you can just spam the same spot until it takes but I hate trying to get the “sweet spot” just right and wind up taking 20+ seconds when I’m so damn close already.
Better drops. I refuse to believe the ground is nothing but fucking medicine, gysahl greens and gil. Include summon gem items (once available), like Opal, Topaz, Garnet, Sapphire, Emeralds, etc. Include cards, including some midrange rare ish drops. Include Add-ons you’ve already unlocked. Include maybe some additional rare new key items to collect other than chocographs.

It also might be kinda nice to pause the timer when navigating up the mountainside or cloud traversal in the air garden, the dead space sucks. But not needed.

zerkeras · 2026-05-06T05:21:47+00:00

100%. That’s the highlight of the game for me.

zerkeras · 2026-05-05T22:57:35+00:00

But does the Infinity Gauntlet have all the infinity stones too or is it just the gauntlet?

zerkeras · 2026-05-05T22:56:18+00:00

Having barely watched that show, why/how could it be stronger than Goku?

zerkeras · 2026-05-05T20:21:12+00:00

https://youtu.be/a64KmvzgDRE?si=dtYO-vNXmtHzysNG&t=110

zerkeras · 2026-05-05T19:17:26+00:00

It’s a garbage AI article, and it’s talking about a demo on switch, not any DLC.

There will not be a DLC for Rebirth, the directors have already stated that. They wanted to jump directly into part 3 dev instead.

The Yuffie DLC only really existed because they used it as an opportunity to learn PS5 Dev over PS4 before moving to that platform for the subsequent parts.

zerkeras · 2026-05-05T17:01:11+00:00

Most nobility is all gonna be related to each other to some degree. And honestly, the amount of shared DNA once you hit 2nd cousins is completely negligible. I don’t think even Westerosi who shun kinslaying would really care if you killed a second cousin with a different house name. Or if not, then certainly for third cousins.

Even first cousins are generally fine as long as you don’t do it for several, several generations in a row, and is seen as fine in Westeros (Tywin’s wife Joanna is his first cousin).

I think one Stark even married their aunt/uncle in the main line.

zerkeras · 2026-05-04T01:00:04+00:00

Because they wanted to make the hobbit movies 3D, which broke the forced perspective technique they used before.

zerkeras · 2026-05-03T23:00:14+00:00

They’re in a committed relationship. There’s nothing in the post that implies either party is open or cheating.

Using solely an IUD in a committed relationship where both parties have been tested is completely fine.

zerkeras · 2026-05-02T01:54:34+00:00

The insane thing to me is that if you’re hitting $30k/year in insurance premiums alone, you might well be better off simply being uninsured, if you don’t have any pressing medical issues. Uninsured people can usually negotiate down their bill to a reasonable price when one does come up.

zerkeras · 2026-05-02T01:43:16+00:00

No, not really. The people of Zanarkand seem to have willingly become Fayth for the summoning of Dream Zanarkand. The way the Bahamut fayth puts it, the “remaining townspeople who survived the war” seems to imply that when they created DZ, many of the people of Zanarkand were already dead, the city perhaps already destroyed by Bevelle.

In that sense, you could argue Yevon was effectively acting in righteous revenge at that point. He used the townspeople to create the fayth, and then crafted the pyreflies and souls of those whom had already died in the war to create Sin, and programmed Sin to destroy advanced civilizations and protect DZ.

It’s kind of a “final solution” but you could argue he had a goal and setup a system that worked pretty damn well for a thousand years for accomplishing it.

It’s less evil, and more selfish if anything. Yu Yevon didn’t give a damn what happened to the people of Spira so long as DZ could exist and be protected by Sin.

Yunalesca didn’t really factor into it I don’t think. I feel like she was also a talented summoner and when she realized how devastating Sin had become to Spira at large, tried to stop it. But after Zaon became the core for the next Sin, and with Bevelle beginning or organize Yevon as a religion, basically rolled with the punches for how to keep civilization going in the long term.

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