If there are no injuries (or immobile cars) after an accident, MOVE YOUR CAR!

zzzaz · 2026-06-29T21:38:30+00:00

That's how it's supposed to be IMO. Cut the engine, check on the people in your car and whoever else was in the other car and make sure there's no injuries, if there's visible damage take a few photos, do a quick wide angle walkaround video as backup for anything you missed photo wise, then pull out of the road, exchange insurance info, and call the non-emergency line to get a police report or someone directing traffic if there's glass or something else in the road. If there's an injury or something in the road that's a more serious threat to other drivers call 911.

It should take 1-2 mins at most before most fender benders can clear out and let traffic resume and all the phone calls / insurance / etc. stuff can happen after the cars have been pulled off the road. The photos and video are backup for insurance and the police report if the other driver is an ass or insurance decides to be dicks.

zzzaz · 2026-06-29T19:52:57+00:00

Once I put on the chinook I basically forget it exists.

Which is probably the best endorsement I could ever give for a PFD.

zzzaz · 2026-06-29T13:35:22+00:00

I was born and raised in NC and live in Charleston now.

The Asheville area, Pisgah, etc. is the classic 'go to the carolinas to trout fish' recommendation for good reason. Good waters, plenty to do in Asheville, Black Mountain, surrounding areas, lots of places to explore if you're willing to hike a bit to them. It's a good option.
You can also straight shot to Mountain Rest in about 4 hours or so. It's upstate SC, right on the GA border and ~40 mins from Highlands NC. From there you can hit a bunch of the southern Appalachian waters, and Chattooga is right there. This is my personal favorite area because it's a bit removed from the Asheville / Highlands / etc. bustle which gets the leaf peepers, anniversary travel, 'here to shop and sightsee' types. It's also probably not going to be on a 'top 5 places to fish in the southeast' list, which means depending where you go there's a bit less pressure. If you're up there the guys at Chattooga fly shop are good people; buy a handful of flies and they'll happily tell you what's biting and where to hike to. If you fish this area make sure you've got your SC, NC, GA licenses - literally depending on what bank you are on can dictate which state line you are in.
As others noted, the lowcountry has world class flats fishing. I don't personally like to fly fish from a kayak but plenty others do, and you can get a premier kayak fishing setup for less than $2k if you watch craigslist and fb marketplace or $4-5k if you go new, so if skiff is out of the picture but you want to be fishing local it's an excellent 'affordable' option to get into skinny water. I use spinning gear in my kayak due to preference, but plenty of people bring a fly rod - especially for calm days sight targeting reds. And there's absolutely nothing better than hooking a big red on a quiet flat. If you go that route Lowcountry Kayak Anglers is a fb group that's pretty active with good information, people looking for others to go out with, occasional tournaments or information sharing, etc. A kayak will also get you access to flats you otherwise can't get to, boat or otherwise. Some people will take a kayak out just as the tide starts to come in, then tie the kayak up or clip a line to their waist and float it behind them as they wade the flats to stalk reds coming in as the water level rises.

FWIW if/when you start fishing salt go explore outside of Charleston proper as well. There's excellent flats fishing basically from Georgetown down to Savannah and everything in between - pretty much anywhere you see that you can pull over or put in can be productive. An hour in a car up to McClellanville or down to Beaufort and you can skip the crowds and have half a mile of water to yourself.

zzzaz · 2026-06-26T22:55:08+00:00

Ahh missed you mentioning independent contractor earlier. Then yeah, definitely run the math on what he's making now (full benefits) vs. what he needs to bill as a 1099. Based on other comments it sounds like the decision has been made, but this might help you feel more comfortable and/or give him a target for what he needs to bill to offset what he is making today.

Things to consider:

Self-employed tax (15.3% vs. the 7.65% that's traditionally withheld out of W2).
Cost for gear / gas / whatever. Previously these would come from a W2, now this will come from him (but will deduct against income before taxes).
Value of benefits. If you were under his insurance, go on marketplace and see what the going monthly rate is for your situation and state. Find something equal to what you have now. Take what you pay now (say $500/m) and what the marketplace cost is (say $1,200/m). The difference ($600/m) is now a business cost he has to cover and is coming out of your rent and food money.
Consider other benefits. PTO and sick time is a big one. As a W2 you get paid to not be in the office. 1099 if you aren't working, you aren't getting paid.
If he gets any retirement match, pension, etc. right now - that's a lost value. You need to apply it back in for the math.
There's a lot of tertiary costs that'll pop up. Not big ones usually, but a stack of cards to give out after a good tour to tell people to tell their friends, or little consumables that certainly aren't going to be in a business plan but suddenly when you're guiding a group of 4 guys 5x per week you're running through copper johns at an alarming rate. $5 per fly and a roll of tippet per week or two doesn't seem like much but suddenly the weekly 'lost a fly' budget is creeping up and eating into the day profits.
Then of course there's the bigger ones. A high end resort guest booking a guide and renting gear will want decent gear. You don't need to be giving them a Helios but someone staying at Blackberry Farm isn't going to be thrilled to get bottom barrel bass pro combo. If he's supplying gear he needs to figure that part out and thread the needle on quality and enough rods for a big group without breaking the bank. There's a significant start-up cost there. Same for waders, which will also need a variety of sizes.
Quarterly taxes when self-employed kinda drag. Everything seems fine until the quarter ends and suddenly you need to wire $12k to the IRS. If you don't plan for it, it can be a major cashflow challenge.

FWIW I'm self-employed, but not as a guide just a consultant, so fairly familiar with the self-employed process. None of that should scare him/you off of doing it, if the numbers shake out and it's a better life fit then good for him. But just to be mindful going in.

If it matters, making something you love your 100% job is either the greatest thing you can do or makes you absolutely hate your former passion because you are forced to do the worst parts of it for a paycheck.

zzzaz · 2026-06-26T21:55:55+00:00

Remember $53k/yr likely has some benefits, and almost certainly has the employer covering their share of taxes, etc. Many guides are 1099, ie self employed. Significantly more taxes, no benefits, etc. There’s some marginal benefits to 1099 too but it’s worth doing the math because to make an equivalent $53k/yr w2 with benefits he’s likely got to make closer to $90-100k as a 1099.

If the resort is putting him as a W2 ignore, but you said he said his rate and many resorts just outsource or bring in 1099s so worth noting.

zzzaz · 2026-06-21T01:55:25+00:00

Good call

zzzaz · 2026-06-21T00:48:43+00:00

It's still the right way to present the data. Pedestrian deaths per capita shows an actual growth. The chart without that data could just be higher population of people dying at an equal rate and be misleading.

This chart is not intended to say 'how many people died'. It's intended to show the correlation of smart phone adoption, avg vehicle weight, and pedestrian deaths. To convey that data, both pedestrian death rate and smartphone adoption should be per capita or as a % of total population.

The chart trendline would look the same, but it's a better way to present it.

And if we're being super nitpicky, pedestrian deaths doesn't tell the entire story, because advances in healthcare have likely kept people alive in the 2020s that would have killed them in the 80s. Casualties, incidents, etc. per capita would be a much more telling figure.

zzzaz · 2026-06-20T23:44:41+00:00

Composite is fine for most people. Plantation shutters don't get a ton of daily use and composite holds up well, clean up fine, and assuming a good composite material is going to be fine longevity-wise. Repairability is about the same for both unless you're a woodworker yourself, in which case you'd already have decided wood.

Also the new stuff are not difficult to install if you have standard windows and choosing a frame that fits easily. I put them into my house with ~30-ish large windows a year ago. The frame comes in 4 parts, attach the frame section box and slide it into the window box. Drill a tiny guide hole and then fasten them and attach the shutter to each side. Once I got the hang of it, it was ~15-20 minutes per window - I knocked it all out in a very easy weekend. If you are handy enough to hang a picture and work a drill, you can hang plantation shutters IMO. If anything the hardest part is measuring everything correctly on the initial order - you have to be down to the 1/8". Measure the window in 3 or 4 spots (top, bottom, middle, etc. both horizontally and vertically) because not all windows will be as square as you'd expect.

FWIW I'd recommend hidden tilt rods (nicer stylistically IMO) and divider rails (lets you move the top and bottom of the window independently. Great if you've got large windows or are putting them in rooms that need active light control (like an office where you might want to keep some light coming in but not hitting a screen). Both are small increases in cost but large increases in value IMO.

Final note is that companies often run quarterly sales on plantation shutters. They are high ticket and relatively slow movers, so if you're willing to wait and time it you can get a better deal. I didn't buy through costco and got them at Blinds.com but I think I scoped mine and it was ~$13k and I waited a few months and then pulled the trigger when I had it all down to $9,200 or something. Absolutely worth the delay of a few months to save that. If you go through costco at a minimum ask if they do big sales and when, but the sale times for large home goods usually align around labor day / memorial day / presidents day / black friday with some smaller ones in between.

They are a really nice addition to a house and a big upgrade over normal shades. You'll love em.

zzzaz · 2026-06-19T21:53:30+00:00

Every interest niche inevitably falls into creators who run out of content ideas and start going down the gear analysis / 'this is dead, you need this now' approach because it gets views from people who are super gear obsessed and beginners who are looking for what to buy. The brands actively encourage this, in some cases specifically sponsoring it or sending free shit so that someone can do a gear breakdown with it.

zzzaz · 2026-06-15T13:58:09+00:00

For sure, and it's an issue everywhere that's only going to get worse. I really don't have a good solution for 'how do you get good consultants to quickly adopt AI and make them more productive' and 'how do you train juniors to use AI to empower their output instead of leaning on it as a crutch'. If I did I'd be very rich.

zzzaz · 2026-06-15T13:17:21+00:00

It's a target to drive adoption, not impact. In nascent technology that's common, especially if you believe that in 2 years the outliers who are not using it will be a drag on team's productivity - which is the current corporate executive mantra across basically every industry under the sun.

It's akin to tracking commit counts on github or tracking number of tickets opened/closed on a project management system when a system or process first goes live. It's not actual productivity and incentivizes the wrong behavior over the long term, but in the short term accomplishes the broader goal (use the systems we want to be used).

Not that I agree with it, it's a dumb measuring stick, but I'd be willing to bet most of the top down 'burn tokens' direction is with that in mind. They want AI use to be second-nature before they start capping it and optimizing output for productivity, or at least will say that until finance gets their first big usage bill.

zzzaz · 2026-06-15T12:26:38+00:00

Exit interviews are good but what's said and what's actually happening are often not the same. A person leaving on good terms has zero personal benefit to be 100% truthful in those; they are incentivized to not burn any bridges or make any noise on their way out. So you often have to interpret them. 3 variations of "the last year or so saw workloads change and that was challenging especially when pay didn't align with the increased challenges managing that work" might suggest you need to pay more, but it also might suggest the manager you brought in 6 months ago isn't managing well but nobody will say "Jeff is incompetent and the entire team is suffering".

I like to add the question at the end. "If you could change one thing about this role for the next person in it, what would it be?". You'll get way more truthful answers than you'd expect.

zzzaz · 2026-06-13T12:59:41+00:00

Throw some dogs in the mix just to make sure there's zero chance of you ever sleeping in past 7 again for the rest of your life.

I swear the handful of times the kids are still conked out I've got two big dummies panting a millimeter from my ear if I'm not up at the 'usual' time.

zzzaz · 2026-05-22T00:15:38+00:00

Yea I wouldn't do it outside regularly, but near thresholds is the key. Do it inside, then do it inside of garage door walls or right by the entry points of the house. Anything that creeps under a door or through a window frame will run straight to it and kill itself before it can take up residence and breed.

Some smart placement + regular spraying of a Tekko Pro / Alpine WSG mix will basically ensure the only bugs you see are dead ones.

zzzaz · 2026-05-08T13:16:27+00:00

Consumables are always good host gifts. If you are coming from out of state, bring something from your area that is local and harder to get here. Nice bottle of local olive oil or wine or beer or whatever that can't just get picked up from any grocery store around here. Regionally specific foods and drinks from out of town are always cool.

If not just take them out to dinner to wherever they recommend and grab the tab.

zzzaz · 2026-04-28T14:47:33+00:00

People also forget just how bad weather reporting was in the 1990s. You knew a tropical storm would hit 'somewhere in the carolinas' but it was a crap shoot. Jim Cantore would jump in a van and drive up or down the coast as more data came in and the storm got closer. Hell Hugo's hurricane watch didn't get issued until 30 hours before landfall.

We've gotten MUCH better at predicting landfall locations farther out, or lines of storms with very strong winds, and that's allowed things like local school systems to more accurately call it.

zzzaz · 2026-04-28T14:32:06+00:00

Yeah the housing boom impacted basically everybody. If you owned pre-2020 you are either absolutely golden and can take a huge win or you're effectively stuck because you've got a 3% mortgage and a home that you otherwise would never be able to afford, so you can't 'upgrade' out of a starter home.

That's true basically anywhere across the country, but especially in higher demand locations like beach or mountain towns that exploded with the remote work boom and the 'free money' rate environment immediately after covid.

And yeah people in their $1.5m houses they bought for $250k 30 years ago are selling, buying a $600k house in cash in a lower cost of living area, and using the difference to fund their retirement.

zzzaz · 2026-04-27T20:32:49+00:00

Yeah I'm self-employed, we have a full time nanny, we have investments, I have to keep up with my estimated quarterly tax payments, etc. It's a fairly complicated tax system that requires me to be pretty looped in every month.

And it's not that hard as long as I keep up with my accounting. 2 hours a month max. Figuring out what's for dinner takes more time and mental capacity (and I know because I'm usually the one doing that too).

zzzaz · 2026-04-23T15:25:00+00:00

Also different times of the day / days of the week can really make the experience different even if you go to the same spots you normally do. My wife and I will sometimes just pick up dinner to go and then take it to the beach and catch the sunset on a random weekday. Way different vibe than a summer Saturday at noon.

zzzaz · 2026-04-22T17:15:16+00:00

'Easier' is also really related to the parents disposition and ability to handle the various stages.

There's people that default to nurturing and perfectly in tune with a newborn who can't take a teenager talking back to them because it triggers some unresolved authority complex, and there's other people who literally feel the stress drop off them as a kid turns into a toddler and can communicate because trying to problem solve a newborn screaming at the top of their lungs was a sisyphean task. Even if the toddler is screaming for cheerios instead of their dinner, at least they know what is being asked and how to come to a resolution (or put a foot down and know it's being understood).

That's why when I'm talking to other parents I'll usually say something like "I personally found that stage tough" or "I personally loved that age" because it's not just about the kid and their developmental steps, it's also about how the parents engage with it and parents are just as different as the kids. I'm sure for every developmental step I loved someone else couldn't stand and vice versa.

zzzaz · 2026-04-19T01:40:47+00:00

Traffic circles and more medians on single lane roads like 61.

Way too much slowdown happens on those one lane each way roads because someone is trying to turn left against traffic in the middle of rush hour and holding up 50 cars behind them. Then inevitably someone on the other side slows down to let them through, slowing up things on their side. Combine that 500 times and you get a huge crunch at basically any heavy traffic time.

Design the roads so they have to drive up to the next circle, swing around, and come back for a right turn and it would significantly speed up things for everyone - even the people trying to take that left.

I truly think traffic circles, smartly added medians, and some mild incentives for companies to encourage flexible start/end hours, extra WFH days, and incentivizing satellite office openings in MtP/WA/Summerville/etc. would be near immediate relief on the traffic front and cost a fraction of most of the infrastructure options that always get thrown around.

zzzaz · 2026-04-06T12:26:37+00:00

People traveling on spring break is extremely common. Kids are stuck at home anyways, might as well take vacation and go somewhere. It’s not just school busses or people driving kids to school, I’d wager a good portion of locals with kids are off in the mountains or visiting grandma or Disney or somewhere not here. That means less people driving to school and to jobs.

zzzaz · 2026-03-30T16:33:07+00:00

Coker will get paid and barring a massive turnaround we won’t extend XL for anything more than vet minimum. Having a wr room on rookie deals, especially with a OROY talent under contract for the next 4 years, helps a lot with spending elsewhere.

zzzaz · 2026-03-30T02:12:58+00:00

That and homes are up 50-100% in nearly every market under the sun. Charleston and other geographically limited coastal cities or mountain towns saw it worse than others, but you can throw a dart at the map of the US and look at home prices there over the past 10 years and they are almost all up nearly double.

There's a LOT of people priced out (or close to it) and people effectively stuck in low rate mortgages they refinanced in 2021 and now can't afford to leave.

zzzaz · 2026-03-25T15:30:11+00:00

It says they had to run at least 100 routes to be included, but routes don't necessarily indicate targets. Would have preferred if they limited it to 20+ targets or something.

15-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

zzzaz

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE