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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 7th, 2023

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  • The rate on our house in the Houston Metroplex has more than doubled within the last year despite no historical damage or flooding since 1980.

    The broader market in this region is not in good shape though since developers keep building homes in riskier areas and taking away natural grasslands and forests that can accept water.

    We were shopping for insurance on some houses we were looking at and got quoted $16k/year on an average size/cost house out in Missouri City. This area is rapidly going the way of Florida/California with insurers pulling out or dramatically rasing rates. Our insurance broker specifically said companies have pulled out of Fort Bend County citing the risk.




  • Texas sucks. Everyone talks about how much it has a low cost of living and minimal taxes because there is not a state income tax, then the homeowners insurance rates go up or get cancelled and you can count on property taxes going up 10% annually. We bought our house in 2016 and the amount has gone up 10% every year since, not including the other bond issues which increase the tax rate on top of the existing rate.


  • If you have a good foundation for a relationship, an equitable partnership with open and compassionate communication, shared empathy, and respect for eachother, you are going to be in reasonably good shape.

    The thing is, the process of having a kid is stressful, once they are here, it is physically taxing and can be emotionally draining. You don’t get sleep in regular or meaningful amounts or patterns, your pattern is disrupted but you also have to do all the other things you had to do before to maintin your life. Chores and work get less time and things pile up. Which makes it harder to do other things you have/want to do. Even if you find the time, you may not have the energy or mental capacity to do it. It can be a very lonely experience even with a good partner.

    That said, if you remember, its you and your partner working together for the baby, for eachother, or against the problem, its manageable. You WILL need to adjust to it but it gets easier over time.


  • Around here (houston metroplex) there is not a bidding war but sellers are acting like there is or should be one. There are several houses we liked that have been on the market for upwards of half a year and the sellers are unwilling to negotiate on prices that are significantly higher than market value or prices of comps. We had an offer on a house that we walked away from recently where the seller outright refused to negotiate on price after the inspection found it needed a new roof and 2 new ac units despite being priced higher than it should have been already.









  • I have been really happy with hosting my stuff via Emby even with my friend’s library on Plex. I have found the media recognition and identification system in Emby to be much better/easier to use.

    While the music player in Emby is nowhere near as good as plexamp. I mostly store a local copy of my music on my phone anyways so it is not really an issue. I am going to start playing with navidrome when I get time but a one directional sync with syncthing fromy server to my phone would also work for my needs.

    The Emby app on android tv is decent but not flashy and does not have streaming content by default, it is fully functional as a media player for library files.