General

@benstylus agreed! I have my consultation this week. Hoping to have someone much smarter (clearly I'm not) deal with this going forward.

It's gonna be like every other pop. Big sell off inbound and crypto will crap the bed again.

Ooorrrrrr it blows up and we miss out.

Haha this is the insanity I struggle with.

You have a good job, make good money, and have a (probably) great family.

Don't worry too much about having more money than you will ever need - that's a curse, not a blessing, for people with bad money management skills.

@benstylus I love the sentiment, wish I could live like that. Growing up in poverty, always worried I'll lose my job, it's just something I can't turn off. The unending quench to be more than financially stable and to retire early to spend time with my family will always be a drive. Post kids tho, I've lost a ton of my energy to climbing the ladder and hitting C level spots. In great shape now, but man, the idea of retiring my 50s is so hard to not crave. Our generation will never retire at current rates and I want to live a very easy life in a couple decades from now!

Still, lessons learned. 401/roth/ESPP from here on out. Missed all the easy money makers and question if it'll even happen again anytime soon.

You may want to look into 529 college savings plans for your kids too.

bill wrote:

One of the best things I ever did. I set them up for all three kids the month they were born. Between all three (6, 4, 6 months), nearing $50k already. I'd like to put more in there but between 401/ESPP/life, not able to go as heavy.

Still, I had $0 to go to college myself. Put myself through (didn't finish), racked up $30k that took me way too long to pay off. They'll be in a much better spot.

Haha, was $150 away from breaking even, and of course... The dip. Gdamnit! Shoulda got out while I could. Back to waiting.

I think it would be funny to watch an old Japanese monster movie that is poorly dubbed into English, but each character speaks English with a different foreign accent.

I finally have some sort of a plan for selling my home and moving to TN. Unfortunately it requires a lot of money upfront, that I don't have.

So I guess it's time to start selling off my entire gaming collection.

So I bought a rather nice Pioneer Blu-Ray drive for my laptop, thinking "hey if I'm stuck in a hotel room with con folks I can watch stuff from my old-fart physical media collection".

The software that came with it doesn't work for on Windows 10. Turns out that's a known issue that Pioneer did frak all to resolve other than "oh yeah, this doesn't work, sorry about that": https://global.pioneer/en/support/oshirase_etc/pcp...

CyberLink wants me to fork over another $60 to upgrade to PowerDVD 22 and I'm like "nah mate". So now I have a nice Blu-Ray player for my lappy but no good software to use. Leawo is OK, but having to use it when I SHOULD have working player software and seeing ads just feels like salt in the wound.

Anyone got a cheap PowerDVD 15 or later lying around?

Got home from work late and decided to order Mexican from a food truck rather than cook. Adulting.

Street tacos rule.

Is the thought that the upcoming BTC halving will drive up prices? Seems like that may be a good exit point as they're on the rise?

MrBean wrote:

I think we're a bit early for that actually. I'm not sure why it has been climbing. Basically, once FOMO starts to build, it just keeps building. All of the ETFs likely helped. People who are "investors" of things like gold, silver, whatever kinda went "Oh, so, I can get into this Bitcoin thing without having to know anything about Bitcoin now." And any move that moves Bitcoin more "mainstream" creates more FOMO in people.

So, I think the raise is because of that. Not because of the ETFs directly like some would hope -- but more because their existence makes other people think about it more -- which creates more FOMO -- which increases the price.


That is always the big question. We're at at the new All Time High right now. Last time this happened, it dropped to 1/4 of what it was, right? But whether or not that will happen again -- and when -- is very hard to predict.

I almost sold half of my holdings when it hit $63k recently. But I was slow and then it dropped a bit, so I waited. Now it's up a bunch from there and I'm still holding. Always because of FOMO, of course.

Long story short: No one can answer that question you without it just being a big guess. You could exit now and end up being at the ATH and having made the perfect decision before it drops to 20k again. Or you could exit now and it could go to $100k as it approaches the halving mid-April and you'll feel foolish for selling at "only $70k".

It's all about FOMO. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You just need to decide to go for it when you think it is time to sell.

For me, like I said, if/when I do it, I'll likely do half. That way, I get some out -- without totally missing out of it goes crazy after -- and without feeling like an idiot if it drops significantly after. Helps balance the FOMO.

I'm up $1,500 in the last 24 hours with my crypto. If you guys would like to get in and make easy money, check out my bio and sign up for Coinbase!

Porksta wrote:

That's great!


This is not so great and is very dangerous.


Unless you just meant the little signup bonus money.

I highly enjoy sauerkraut. Be it canned, jarred, or refrigerated jarred, (refrigerated jarred is best, I think). Has anyone ever made a fried sauerkraut dish? I've been thinking about doing one with sauerkraut, bacon, onion, (which I would think the flavor would be overpowered from the sauerkraut). Possibly some spicy Dijon mustard. Not sure if cilantro would ruin it, or not. It probably would.

Sauerkraut is not used in nearly enough dishes... Kinda like horseradish.

lordly_llama wrote:
Sauerkraut is great. Now that you mention it, I recently had a food made with it that used similar ingredients to your sauerkraut, 🥓, onion, idea.

It was a thin dough on the outside, filled with a layer of thinly sliced cold cuts, sauerkraut, and mustard. Then baked. It was delicious.

I don't know whether there were onions or not, but they should work well, I would think fried onions especially. But even if they're not fried, the cooking process would decrease their sharpness.

Go for it! Of course, report back here with your results. Pictures of the dish are definitely appreciated :)

I like horseradish, but I rarely use it. I end up using too much and my nose burns, lol.

That sounds delicious. I will eventually make it, but I've been lazy here lately. I don't think I'll use cilantro, though. I like it quite a bit, but doesn't seem a good compliment for sauerkraut. I'll probably toss in some minced garlic, too. I could be lazy and use onion and garlic powder, but that's not as good as fresh fried onion and garlic.

Same for Wasabi, not used nearly enough and it's amazing.

These are awesome lighters

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRTLPv8b/

If you are reading this when I post it, go to bed.

Don’t tell me what to do. I’ll do what I want. It just so happens, I’m tired so I’m gonna go to bed.

So a few weeks ago I said I started the process in trying to find my Birth Mother.

Fast forward to today and I got a letter saying that my half sister is looking for me. I don't know what to say, think or feel. I want to meet her that's not in question. I think I may breakdown once I have a chance to process this. I have wanted to meet anyone that was blood related for so long! I wanted that whole in my life filled and it largely was when my daughter came into this world... But reading this letter today makes me think that maybe the whole was not completely filed.

Do what feels right. Follow your heart and you can’t go wrong. I went through the process of finding my biological father when I turned 18 and it didn’t go well at all. But, I semi-understand the feelings you’re filtering through right now. Don’t allow yourself to get too attached too quickly and let some of the newer people take advantage of you or the situation. That’s part of why my thing didn’t go so well.

I’m happy for you and I hope everything goes great!

That's amazing Finn! Let the emotions come as they do and take your time to process things. Sounds like an exciting new chapter for you, keep us posted :)

Finn wrote:

I can see the curiosity of wanting to know about blood relatives, but I don't really see how blood relations make you family.

My mom was married three times, and I grew up with a full brother, 3 half-siblings (2older and 1 younger) and a step-sibling. What made us family were the shared experiences. Our caring for one another didn't come from a shared bloodline.

If you like your blood relations and want to build a relationship that's great, but you are under no obligations just because you share genetic material.

Finn wrote:

Is she on any social media platforms, like instagram, facebook or twitter?? Maybe communicate through one of them first to get comfortable with her before you meet face to face..
Where is she in relation to where you live?

@Tony

I can see the curiosity of wanting to know about blood relatives, but I don't really see how blood relations make you family.

I get that, I have 1 brother and 2 sisters and they are my family. I was never treated any different. But I can say growing up I always felt I was missing something. I can definitely say there is a connection with your biological siblings/parents. Maybe when you grew up with it your whole life you don't really feel it. Not sure, never had that. The first person I ever had that connection with was my daughter. It was amazing to hold someone that is part of you to see them and interact with them. It also made me really appreciate the family I do have. My parents loved me and never made me feel different. I wish they were here to see this.

Over the many years I have dreamed about this I have thought of all the different ways this could go from the bad ones to the good ones. Depending on how this goes I may actually do the DNA thing and find my Bio father. We will see. I could see that one maybe not going as well.

I have all my adoption records and while some info is blacked out I still got a lot of info. Like my uncles and what they were doing, religious back round, musically inclined... I also seen (every time I look at it, I notice something new) that my biological mother as going though a hard time and had another caseworker that was working with here concerning my half sister. What if she had her taken away? and years later she found out that I existed?

I would like a relationship if they do, I know who my family is and that will never change but maybe I can add to it. We were never given the opportunity to grow up together to get to know each other for what ever reason that was in no way under our control. Would definitely like to explore it but if there is resistance I would never force it. At least I will have a chance now to find out.

@BucketofJustice

There are going to be a lot of emotions and it maybe hard to navigate them but your advice is solid and I will use it. I wonder why now? Why not sooner? But I am guilty as well. I have been talking about this for 36 years wanting to find out but did not get the ball rolling until 2 weeks ago. My parents never discouraged it, they were supportive, but fear, I thought what if other people think I am trying to replace my family or what if I gradually forgot about the family I have... things like that. When you think about that stuff for so long it's powerful anchor. Even after my Mother and Father past away I did not want people to think I was "cheating" and trying to find replacement parents. My Child and that dream I had finally gave me the kick in the pants I needed. My Radar will be up for sure, that's one thing my current job has taught me and will take this slow and see what happens and keeping distance until I get a better feel.


@BioHazardMan
Will do!


@shadyfozzie

When I ordered a copy of my adoption records because I had lost the copy somehow in one of my many moves, the new one I got had much of the information "De-classified" I actually got her full name
I went to social media right away and found nothing. I found one woman who could have fit the description though she had a daughter that had recently graduated but I also forgot that my birth mom was not very. old. It's kind of weird my Biological mom is pretty much the same age as my Wife's mom and my Mom and Dad would be the same age as her grandparents. But I did message here at the time but never got a response. I dought it was her, I kind regret doing it now... But I wanted to take the chance.

But I do know where she is from and where her family probably still resides... And I know where she was at the time of my adoption and where she had worked... she was unable to hold a job but going of the info I don't think it was because she was lazy or entitled or whatever she had a lot going on and she was probably unable to focus and I get that, it had to have been a very difficult time in her life. I honestly think she moved back to Victoria.

I was listening to Spotify and a song from Hades (the videogame) started playing. Brought me back to playing it. Do I regret having sold it? No. You can't hold onto everything. Put 100-200 hours into it. Was time to move on. But boy did I have a good time with that game. Very fun.

Was in an accident March 1st, only 5 minutes down the road from my apartment coming from work. Had no transportation for a week, finally got a rental from the at fault driver's insurance company...

I'm still alive... in bearable, yet discomforting pain that keeps me awake most of the night. I'm feeling like I won't be walking the same anymore... and I'm right handed so the pain in my right arm makes doing things difficult.

Don't want to put too much into this, but just letting y'all know where I disappeared to lately.

Damn how did that happen? Are you going to be OK? I hope so. I’m sorry that you got in that wreck. Glad you’re still here man.

Got an email from FamilySearch telling me...

image

That would help explain why I celebrate Burns night with a haggis and have an insatiable appetite for neeps.

I'll live. I had an MRI done today. They gave me a disc with the images on it, but it's not going to do me any good as I don't know how to read MRI scans... what could be fractures to me could be something else, except I can easily tell what's bone and what's a vein. I'll find out what the images say on Monday when I follow up with the dr that ordered the scans.

One thing for sure, the pain shot up to a 7-8 during the 25 min imaging process after the first 5 min and the technician said I did a great job managing to stay still through it.

No one reviews cottage cheese on YouTube. I think I have an in.

MrBean wrote:
Made me actually laugh out loud. Go for it.

I kind of now want to get some cottage cheese with sliced peaches... never really was a fan of cottage cheese on its own but w/ peaches... oooh yeah that's good.

HybridCRoW wrote:

The only reason I can think of for doctors giving us disks of our MRIs, x-rays, and such is so that you can give it to a new doctor if you change providers or so that you can easily take it somewhere for a second opinion. Sharing records among doctors should be extremely easy with everything being stored digitally. The ones I've been given aren't labelled well at all.

This is fairly normal. We do IT work for a spine/neurosurgeon. They have this system that basically you just stick the MRI CD into and it automatically adds it to their master database, indexes all the photos, and allows him to view them from anywhere. Pretty slick.

But it is a daily thing. People go get their MRIs done elsewhere and then just bring the CDs with them to their appointment with the neurosurgeon.

HybridCRoW wrote:
Cottage cheese and peaches? That's a thing?

Canned peaches? Fresh?