Snake Diggity

My weather app is showing a high of 85 in SW Austin next Wed. I’m sure that’ll hold and we can go ahead and close this thread for the year.

First time reading through this thread and it’s been sobering/depressing. Next to relationships ending, job hunting is my least favorite life experience. The last time I changed jobs 5 years ago, I made a move I thought would set me up for a good decade or more, moving into what I thought was a role that would give me extreme marketability (at least until AI replaces me 10-15 years from now). As someone who has been a pretty good saver, I figured this might be my last job until early retirement. I have a job that most people would kill for. I’m fully remote, I have tons of control over my schedule, I don’t have any direct reports to deal with, my boss trusts me, and I make $150k+/yr with just a bachelor’s degree. For the first 3 years, this current gig was the first real job I’ve ever had that I could legit say I really liked and felt lucky to have. But the last year and especially the last couple of months, I have been feeling burned out. I think some of that is just my own personality, as it seems like I’ve gone thru a stage like this at every stop once I hit the 3-4 year mark. Some of it is that I’ve gotten some really crummy clients in the last year that have been difficult to deal with and made the role more stressful and less fun. But some of it I think is that I don’t have much more room to grow in this company and feel like I’ve maxed out here, and that I would be stupid to not have my resume updated and feelers out. My job seems very secure but I’m in a sector that appears to be facing headwinds and I’m seeing plenty of folks in my role at other companies get laid off. Reading this thread has me terrified that I’d be totally fucked if I got laid off. My calling cards are that I’m very good with clients, I’m usually one of the most well-liked people at every job I’ve worked at, and I’m sharp enough to generally pick up whatever is asked of me pretty quickly; but I’m mid-40s and I am a highly paid individual contributor with limited technical expertise. Reading this thread makes me feel like I’d be looking at a big pay cut if I have to make move. So all that tldr is that I am feeling burned out after 5 years but am worried that my age has already started working against me and my skills aren’t in high demand despite an extremely low unemployment rate. Is it stupid to just accept that without actually going through the motions of seeing what else it out there? When does it make sense to update the old resume and start the absolute grind of looking for a new gig?

That poster is awful and has been crowd sourced several times. He should be completely ignored.

JV was 2-3 ticks down on his FB, hope he ain’t hurt.

That was so unfunny it made me mad.

The casting of Hera, Sabine, and the young blonde dark side Jedi is really bad. Not only bad visual fit but pretty bad acting. I am ok with Dawson as Ahsoka but she’s not great in this role. Visuals of the first 3 episodes have been pretty good. Plot is ok. This show is watchable but nothing great.

Meh. Of course it ain’t just one thing and I referenced that in my comment (something like the Dell phenomenon was probably inevitable given the things you mentioned that were already in place). To stretch an analogy, the seeds were in place by the 50s (or even earlier), and sprouted and grew over the next 30 years, but the shade those trees produced didn’t start killing the other vegetation until the late 80s early 90s when Dell got big enough to shift city priorities and attract the wrong kinds of people.

Dell killed Austin. That may have been inevitable given the factors that made Dell successful. But Dell is what expanded Austin out of Govt/University/music being the whole of the city and its culture. Once it became a hub for business, it was over. I loved the version of Austin I moved to in 1998, but it was already dying by then.

Haley is the only one of those shitbirds who would beat Biden.

6’1”, 253 lb. Weight will underwhelm because he has lost weight and because he is not as tall as he says. He’s still fat.

The replies on that tweet are some of the scariest shit I’ve ever read on the Internet. It’s depressing as fuck to know there’s that many people out there that believe shit like that and who are aggressively against things like sourcing information. Fuck me running.

A lot of the locals are my family and I love them dearly, and their hearts are good but their brains are poisoned. Most of the tourists coming from Victoria and Houston are true pieces of shit. People who would just as soon piss on you rather than let you walk past them. It’s sad.

Apparently the speedy stop in port Oconnor won’t let you into the building unless you’re wearing a pair of those.

I am not a religious person but if I was I would believe we are being fucking smited. I would guess 1-2 more summers like this and we will start to see a shitload of upper middle class people leaving the state to move somewhere cooler. Real estate bust might be pretty likely. This fucking sucks.

Prepping for watching this, I realized that the “prequel trilogy” really should have consisted of Episode 3, Rebels, and Rogue One.

Handicapping the odds: 1a.) Trump gets convicted 60%* 1b.) Trump gets imprisoned 2% 2.) Terrorists attack govt buildings 90% 3.) Trump gets the GOP nom 80% 4.) Trump wins the ‘24 presidential election 35% 5.) Terrorists attack to get Trump out of prison <1% *60% includes plea deal to admit guilt but avoid prison/jail time.

Spent the weekend down at the Guadalupe just past the canyon lake dam. Water was 59 degrees. Insane standing with half your body in that freezing ass cold water and the other half in 106 sun. But spending a few hours in that water I was actually cold sitting outside afterward. Took several hours for my body to actually feel warm.

You motherfuckers

Well god damn I didn’t know it was like that tho.

It is fucked. You can either take them to an indoor bacteria farm like Urban Air where they are guaranteed to be sick within 48 hrs, or take them to the movies where they sit on their ass just like they would at home. We are very lucky to have a pool in the back yard but even that is only good starting at about 5:30; before then it’s too damn hot even in the water. My kids have been home this week and they haven’t been outside before 5pm. Luckily they are girls and play really well together so it’s been hours on end of play kitchen/restaurant and Barbie bullshit. But definitely nothing like my summers as a kid where I was pretty much outside by 10am and only came in for lunch and supper.

10 years from now, the few dumbfuck managers/execs who pushed back against WFH who still have jobs are gonna look around their offices and wonder “why do we only have shitty employees who can’t work independently and don’t have any other options but to work for our failing company?”

Fucking bullshit. I have 2 kids under 10. Would you rather have an employee that is constantly taking half days or full days PTO to run kids to doctor appts or summer camp or whatever other bullshit that would require someone to leave the office and run across town (or stay home for half/entire day), or someone who is able to work a full day AND get all that shit done? Perfect example this week: both my kids are home because there were no camps available and school hasn’t started yet. Instead of me having to take a half day (or full day) off to watch them, I’ve gotten a full work day in (9 client calls) while checking in on the kids when I can. During the schoolyear, I’m able to leave the house, pick my kids up from school, and be back online within 20 minutes. Throw in a commute to downtown and that’s easily over an hour. You can call me a liar but fuck you then because not only are you an asshole, you’re dead-ass wrong.

Aside from standard brokerage instruments and real estate (residential/commercial/land), I’ve at least looked into crypto currency, foreign currency, art/collectibles, precious metals, and additional insurance products/investments. None of them seemed worthwhile to me. But I am not wealthy enough to feel like I’ve maxed out the reasonable amounts in cash, bonds, stocks, and residential real estate. Not that I’m qualified to give advice, but if you feel like you’ve got more money than you want to put in the standard stuff, I’d do one of 2 things: 1. Talk to the wealthiest people you know/trust and let them know you have some extra capital you are looking to invest. They may let you in on investment deals with big potential payoffs that are invite-only. I have been offered ins to invest in startups but the minimums were always too rich for my blood. But people can make a shitload of money if they do their homework and are lucky enough to get in on the right deal. 2. Spend it. If you are accumulating wealth well beyond what you can imagine holding in the standard instruments then at that point it becomes less foolish to buy luxury items like vacation homes, boats, etc. Same goes for making larger charitable contributions.

Defining the baseball analogy parameters: “Born on 1st base”: You are a US citizen who was raised in a non-abusive, 2 parent household “Born on 2nd base”: everything above plus at least one parent holds a 4+ year degree and/or your childhood household’s income was in the top 25%. You might’ve gone to private elementary and high school. Your parents probably paid for some/all of your college. You probably got to go to Disney World as a kid. ”Born on 3rd base”: everything above except it’s top 10% of household income. Your parents probably own more than one home. You almost certainly went to private school. You probably traveled internationally as a kid. You probably stand to inherit significant money when your folks die. ”Born into a home run”: your parents consistently held a net worth over $10M (likely much more) from the time you were born until the time you became an adult. You might’ve gone to boarding school. Your decisions around career/work never considered money. You might have a trust fund that puts out 5 figures per month. ”Didn’t even have to play the game”: Your parents are on lists of wealthiest people in your state/country. Your family name is on buildings and shit. You are detached from the reality of 99.99% of peoples lived experience.

They were never very high on those lists. But it's not just that Houston does well with int'l signees, its that they do well with low/no bonus signees. THeir track record with the big bonus guys (Nova, Leon, etc.) is actually not very good.