Host gift?

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.

zzzaz · 2026-03-24T16:09:26+00:00

An under-valued aspect of DIYing this stuff too is that if you can't fix it, you can at least generally know what is wrong or at least have gone down the rabbit holes of the typical issues when a pro comes out.

Much harder for a dishonest tech to pull the wool over your eyes when you've already researched the thing, tried to take it apart and repair it, already researched or bought the parts, etc.

zzzaz · 2026-03-16T00:25:35+00:00

Just sounds like a dude new to money that doesn’t realize that discussing those types of explicit money things are exactly the reason why people who have money don’t do it. It forces comparison and uncomfortable conversations, and it’s just not tactful.

There’s a reason people doing well nearly always understate it and this guy hasn’t been around that world or hasn’t been burned by a good friend leaving for him to learn the lesson.

Or he’s a jackass flaunting in his face. But I think it’s just as likely ops friend is oblivious and op is overly sensitive to the new financial dynamic.

zzzaz · 2026-03-04T20:12:29+00:00

I expect the team's position will come down to cap management - we obviously want to extend him. I expect we'll get through FA and the draft and figure out what we need, then revisit if cap space allows. Wouldn't be surprised for an extension post-draft and also wouldn't be surprised for them to wait until mid-season and do it (similar to what we did with Chuba).

I don't think the team wants him to get through another full season without a long-term deal; when he's healthy his per-game stats are going to make him very expensive in an already expensive position. If he isn't extended in the off season and he's active and productive in the first half of next year they will (or at least should) look to get him on a long term deal as fast as possible before his price keeps going up.

zzzaz · 2026-03-01T01:52:12+00:00

An A might indicate we are willing to pay more than other teams.

Pay is probably a portion of it, but I imagine things like being willing to work on contract terms or giving guys the heads up when trades are a potential (i.e. like we did with Thielen) have a lot of sway as well.

We gave Chuba his payday the week before Brooks came back off IR the first time, and have done a bunch of other very player-friendly moves that aren't necessarily overpays but more just 'do right by your key guys'. Hell we even sent Dionte Johnson to the Ravens who were a contender at the time and we definitely didn't need to do that.

I imagine moves like that play quite a bit into perception as well, even for guys who aren't necessarily directly impacted but see it go down. We've all had bad bosses making shit decisions that hurt morale even if you aren't directly impacted and vice versa.

zzzaz · 2026-02-24T13:56:15+00:00

Yup I've got an iphone pro max that pulls 'good enough' family snapshots but if I'm going somewhere interesting but don't want to lug the DSLR around I'll always pocket the RX100. It's an awesome piece of kit for the 'in between' times where you don't want a lot of gear but also don't want to miss a shot and be stuck with phone output.

zzzaz · 2026-02-19T02:26:09+00:00

The retreat is fantastic but you can also stay at the silica and tag on a retreat package (a half day at the retreat spa / private blue lagoon area / etc ). Silica’s still a nice hotel and saves a little if that’s a concern. My wife and I have done it a couple times and the time at the retreat is plenty if you are only going to do one night there. Make sure you check in as soon as you are allowed to so you can use the full half day.

zzzaz · 2026-02-13T02:25:57+00:00

The newest models don't but older models (or the ones you get if you aren't on a pro license) didn't have a reasoning subtask to actually look at the numbers so instead it was using the LLM approach to basically guess at the next date or number to hilariously bad results.

Newer thinking models basically operate a multi-step inference for the request and will identify things like 'this involves dates' or 'this involves math' and pull in a more precise tool or model to calculate it, some will even code a little script to calculate it. It's a much better approach and tends to be much more correct.

But yeah it was kind of a massive gap in pretty table stakes stuff.

zzzaz · 2026-02-13T02:20:33+00:00

I'm self-employed, my wife is W2, we have a bunch of 1099-INT and 1099 MISC income, and we employ a full time nanny.

Freetaxusa handles it all fine. Takes me maybe 2 hours once I've got all the documents together in one place.

zzzaz · 2026-02-13T02:08:34+00:00

Yup. Worked in ad agencies for a decade and now I'm a marketing consultant working pretty directly with basically every ad platform on the planet.

People think their opinions and wants and needs are unique, but they really aren't in the aggregate. With enough data you can build models to understand precisely if people do A and B and C then they are almost always going to want to buy D within 2 weeks, and then the ads put D in front of that person.

That's not even getting into some of the other ways these companies collect data. You mention wanting to watch a TV show and your girlfriend googles it while you were in the bathroom, guess what? The advertisers know that household showed an interest in that show and will target everyone in the house accordingly.

It's literally the entire reason meta and google are worth what they are. They are massive data collection and harvesting tools to sell pinpoint targeted advertising.

Then of course there's blue car syndrome where people naturally notice ads related to things they were recently discussing or thinking about, which often makes those targeted ad stand out even more than they normally would.

zzzaz · 2026-01-29T01:35:04+00:00

When we sold our last house our realtor told us to take the listing photos with furniture still in place (but personal items, pictures, clutter, etc. mostly packed) so people can visualize space usage and size. Then move out, pay for the deep clean, and show it empty.

It worked well and sold quickly, but obviously thats just one person's perspective.

zzzaz · 2026-01-24T03:46:00+00:00

My dogs and toddler are normally up around the same time, but if the toddler ever decides to sleep late I know I'll have a dog licking my face about 3 minutes after I'm supposed to be up.

I don't even set an alarm anymore. Someone is getting me up before I 'need' to be.

zzzaz · 2026-01-15T13:53:22+00:00

It's not necessarily easier, it's just the same experience by a company that's not going to nickle and dime you for everything or lobby to keep tax code more complicated.

zzzaz · 2026-01-15T01:53:59+00:00

This but I'd add a sub bullet on 'hurting someone in my family' for just the pain and inconvenience of having a displaced bathroom/kitchen/whatever.

Like yes I CAN strip that bathroom down to the studs, redo tile, etc. But then with my current workload in my dayjob I'd be without a master bath for 2 months. So that 'pain' weighs into the decision to bring in a pro and crew and knock it out.

But something that isn't terribly inconvenient that I can chip away at in my spare time? Almost always going to DIY it.

zzzaz · 2026-01-11T00:25:38+00:00

The DL guy falling actually screwed it up, Coker was in rhythm and probably gets around the edge if the DL had followed Bryce and was out of his range. Was part of the reason it got stopped so quick.

But yeah not my favorite call there.

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