I agree with what you’re saying. They got the phone from Carrier A with the expectation the phone plan went with it. Once the phone is paid off, they can take the phone to Carrier B. Since they phone is basically bought on an interest free loan, the interest is recouped by the plan, and the collateral for not paying is a loss of the phone plan and use of the phone. To leave the plan, payoff the phone.

That does require that, the moment the phone is paid off, it should be automatically unlocked. There shouldn’t have to be a request or additional waiting. And the customer should be notified that it’s unlocked along with an explanation that they can now use the phone with any other provider.

I had one done recently due to breaking a filling while eating a Jolly Rancher. The whole thing took maybe 2 hours.

The shot of novocaine to numb my jaw was the only pain, and even that wasn’t bad because the dentist used topical numbing before that. It was no different than getting a cavity filled.

My dentist has a cnc machine (CEREC) in the office to make the crown, so I didn’t need a temporary cap. Waiting for that to be milled was the longest part.

I had a bruise on my gums for a couple days from the shot and the retainer clamp, but it wasn’t even bad enough to stop me from eating.

If that were the case, how did you know to post about it?

I have, conservatively, two dozen playthroughs under my belt at this point, including the original trilogy and remastered versions. If I had to guess, I’d say im about an 85/15 split FemShep over MaleShep. Apparently I’m in the minority, but I much prefer Hale’s performance.

I’m curious as to the paragon vs renegade percentages for each character type. As in, do more people play FemShep as paragon or renegade? Same for MaleShep.

Carl and Donut?

Before I start, I want to be clear, this process works for me. It isn’t for everyone, so take it with a grain of salt.

Outlining is personal. Everyone does it different. Some writers architect the full story, some outline the plot, while others discovery write everything. Personally, I get decision paralysis when I attempt to outline everything and when I attempt to discovery write everything.

When I start an outline, I tend to be detailed with setting and plot. I flush out my world and know roughly where I want the story to go. Characters are left fairly open. I create just enough of each character to get into their head. That way, I can take the characters, plop them into the setting and situation of the plot, and see what happenes. Discovery writing characters works for me, but only if I know where they are and what they should do.

Step 1: Sticky Notes… Starting out, I tend to brainstorm on sticky notes. There is something about writing ideas manually that helps me see things better than typing them. Typically, I have a vauge idea or two to start with, and not much more. I’ll write it on a sticky note and stick it to my desk. Then write something else - whatever comes to mind. I keep going until some ideas start to grow. It could be a character trait, plot point, setting, whatever. I’ll rearrange them to see what, if any, ideas make sense together. I’ll cross things out, throw some away, pull them from the trash, rewrite them, etc. Just an idea board type activity. Sometimes I will leave them on my deak for weeks. By the time I’m done with them, they are usually sad remnants of sticky notes.

Step 2a: Outline in Word… Word worked for me for a while. I created a template in Word that helps me straighten things out. It has custom headers that fill the Navigation panel, giving me sections. Default Word has this, I’ve just customized the look to something more pleasant to me. The problem is exactly what you said, things get lost. It grows fast and by the time I’m done with a full outline, it’s a little much.

Step 2b: Outline in OneNote… For the most part, I have transitioned to OneNote for the majority of my outlines. I created an always expanding template. It has tabs for things like Characters, Plot, Locations, Religion, Economy, Government, Magic, Weapons, Science, etc. I copy my template and start a new Notebook for each story I write. What I’m writing determines which tabs I keep. For example, if I am writing fantasy, I typically wont include the Science tab. Each tab has a page template that is automatically used when adding a new page. My character template, for example, has a table for physical traits, motivations, character arc, internal secrets, etc. I try to put down enough so I feel like I understand the person. Going overboard is easy, but I try to keep to to just what is needed.

Step 3: Scenes… Once I have a good understanding of the story, I start figuring out what scenes I need. These are typically one or two sentences and can help with plot, character development, or just something random and awesome. “A lazy pet cat that wakes up just in time to scratch the eyes out of an intruder.” I throw it in. Then, rearrange. Scenes never seem to come to me in an order that make sense. I’ll prune and expand, but by the time I’m done, I know the story.

Step 4: Fill in the blanks… I go one scene at a time, not necessarily in order, and fill them in. For example, Mr. Whiskers scratches Billy the Kid. Maggy sat straight up in her bed. The door banged agaist the cabin wall. Her eyes fought to stay closed as she forced them open. She couldn’t make out the silhouette in the door. The moonless night was no help. “You owe me money,” a gruff voice said. “Oh shit,” thought Maggie. She knew that voice. If Billy came to collect, she knew he would collect - one way or another. Billy took a step into the room. His boot was muffled by a thick layer of dust. Before he took a second step, a hissing filled the room. Mr. Whiskers sprung from the end of the bed. He landed on Billy’s face and started scratching the man like he was a mouse caught in the cupboard. And so on.

Step 5: Edit it together… Once you have I have all of the scenes, i stitch them together and edit it so it flows. This is where I add transitions and such. By the end, there is a completed story. It isn’t perfect. There might be some fillers, but it is about 95% done.

Step 6: Rewrite it all… I bring up a blank Word document, set it to 14pt Times New Roman, double spaced, and rewrite literally everything. I have my last draft and this one open side by side. Since I’m reading the story as I’m writing it, I notice thinga I missed or phrases I don’t like.

Again, this isn’t for everyone. It is a process that works for me.

I think I get where you are coming from here, though I question the certainty in it. There is too much nuance to humanity to never trust or always ignore.

If you never anticipate good in others, you must be very lonely - never trusting, always defensive, waiting for the next attack. We all have different levels of trust shaped by our own experiences. Personally, I try to anticipate good until a person proves otherwise. I’d rather be disappointed occasionally than miss a possible connection to someone because I never anticipated goodness.

As far as receiving advice, take it from anyone and everyone. We constantly do this, even if we don’t notice. We take in the world around us. We decided if it was good, bad, or somewhere in between. If I see someone hit their thumb with a hammer, I learn not to hold the nail in the way way did. It’s non-verbal, yet in its own way, is advice. Verbal advice works similarly. Take it in, listen to it, accept or reject it. Ether way, it is part of you. You will adapt it to your own view. If someone says that jumping of a bridge is the best thing ever, you can ignore them or you can do it. Ignoring them shapes a picture of that person as irresponsible or dangerous while shaping you to be more conscious and risk-averse. Doing it shapes that person in your mind as someone to listen to in order to do something fun. I suppose what I’m getting at is a simple question, can you really ignore advice?

I’m probably just thinking more into it than you intended.

Of course not. There is also hair styles, acessories, and makeup… I meant beer, football, and boobs.

Fear and caution are not the same thing.

Do you really think the US has any real concern about being attacked? There is plenty to say about US policies, both good and bad. Part of that is the nearly $1T per year spent on the military. I don’t think you’ll find many credible people who think attacking the US will be good for whoever does it.

Attacking the US has been, historically, one thing that tends to unite the country. We - Americans - like building shit and we like fighting people. We never stop building new weapons. But when there is no-one to fight, we fight each other. There is a huge social divide in the US right now. You want to fix that, attack us.

*Edit: spelling

I played a ton of 3d movie maker back in the day. I’m with you; I wish there were games like that today. It might be a niche, but you can’t tell me there isn’t a market for it.

AC as refrigerant, not coolant. Although that might be semantics.

AC is a type of heat pump. You are moving heat from inside to outside. The physics behind a heat pump, is fairly simple. There are three principles to work with.

1. Take a gas, compress it, and it gets super hot.
2. Take a compressed gas, let it rapidly expand, and it gets super cold
3. Different temperature gases move from hot to cold

Let’s focus on AC since most folks are used to that concept. In an AC, you have a closed loop of refrigerant. Outside, there is a compressor that compresses the gas, which makes it very hot. The gas is pushed through a radiator with a fan pulling air through it. Since hot moves to cold, the heat trapped in the gas moves to the outside air, and the gas is slightly cooled. (As long as the gas is hotter than outside).

Inside, there is an expansion valve that lets the gas rapdly expand, making it super cold. It is pumped through a radiator that has inside air blowing over it with a fan. Since hot moves to cold, the heat in the inside air moves to the cold gas, cooling the inside air. (As long as the gas is cooler than the inside temperature). It is then pumped outside to start the loop again.

So, inside gets cooler while the heat is moved outside. The physics also establishes the limits of the heat exchange. You will only grab heat from inside if the expansion makes the gas colder than the air inside. Typically it expands to around 0 degrees. Likewise, it will dump the heat outside if the gas is hotter than outside air. The compressor typically makes it 130 to 140 degrees (temps vary depending on many factors).

To use a heat pump for heating rather than cooling, reverse the process. Pick up the heat from outside and dump it inside. This will work as long as outside is warmer than the expanded gas (0 degrees or so). Although you can get some that go to around -20.

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

-Samuel Beckett

I like some of the concepts of agile and scrum. Two week sprints rather than multi-year projects. Faster turn around on bugs. Having a prioritized backlog so we know what we are doing next. Small standups to get ahead of blockers. Spending less time documenting everything and more time developing. You don’t need a PM or scrum master in those things. A good team lead can do it. If the PM needs an update, they can look at the board.

A lot of the crap that gets add in to it is so freaking useless. There is an AVP at my company that keeps pushing everyone to sign and share team agreements so “there can accountability.” It’s so cringy. If someone is getting stuff done, do you really think having them sign something saying they will do it is going to help? If someone is getting stuff done, then it isn’t going to change anything. It’s infantalizing. So much of it is micromanagement and lack of team trust.

As manager, I have to say that is uncalled for. As a developer, I will say you are 100% accurate.

I agree that it isn’t as good as it was. The last two updates have definitely decreased its effectiveness for multiple things, not just dev. It is still my starting point when looking for something. It is just not as good as it used to be.

Obviously, you can’t take what it gives at face value, but you shouldn’t do that from SO either. In general, I see faster results using GPT than I do with Google and SO. You can also extend the responses with any customization or changes specific to what you are trying to do, where you can’t with SO.

I’m not saying SO is bad. Not by any stretch. I still use it a lot. It just isn’t my starting point anymore.