By “performer” do you mean musician? Playing bars or coffee shops here and there? I’ve done that for a free drink or two here and there. I think that would be one of my retirement activities if I had loads of free time, but it takes a lot of energy to set it all up and be “on” regularly while also working full time.
*puts on glasses
Oh! Oh. My crush had a crush on me the whole time. Oh, I’m an idiot. My dog is not at a farm upstate. My day is ruined.
I’m guessing that EI is what you call unemployment benefits where you are? In which case, unfortunately no. Previous employer made up bullshit to fire me over so I wasn’t eligible, and I was told I didn’t work long enough at the place that burned down to qualify. My savings got almost entirely wiped out just paying rent and buying groceries.
It was a dark time full of struggles, but I got through it and I’m doing pretty well now. The silver lining is that, when I’m having a rough week, I can think back to how that chunk of life was going and know that I’ve gotten through worse. I was homeless for about two months a bit later, but by then I found a job and knew that I’d find stability soon. Things didn’t actually start getting good until I quit the kitchen career. And I’m one of the lucky few who never even got sucked into the hard drug aspect of that life. Never even smoked a cigarette lol.
I was unemployed for a while in late 2010, early 2011 and was constantly on the job search. I was a line cook previously and was looking for similar work. I finally got in at a sports bar, but they only had an opening for a host at the time, so I took it. When I went in on my third day, I found that the place had fucking burned down.
I was unemployed for another few months before finding a new job. That was a rough year or so lol.
Not so much weird, but it’s weird that it’s simultaneously hilarious and day-ruiningly depressing.
I saw a little bowl with small jewelry in it like charms and earrings. Among them was the right half of a heart that read “FRIENDS” and just below that was “EVER”. I’m 100% certain that there exists somewhere the left half of that heart that reads “BEST” and “FOR” with identical formatting, and that friendship either ended dramatically or fizzled out over time.
It made me think about some previous close friendships I’ve had and how people can either just grow apart or have a violent falling out. And I wondered who in their right mind would buy just half of that best friends forever charm. Why would a thrift shop even have that available?
Kinda fascinating that an entire coming of age story can be told by just half of a piece of jewelry I found at a thrift store, and I’ll never know the truth, yet I’ll never forget it.
Haha, brilliant. I’m still running my 5a, so that sounds kinda crazy to me.
Yes, Biden clearly showed signs of losing his mental acuity. I didn’t really believe it until I saw it in the past couple of months. But a lot of conservatives weren’t really articulating acuity, they were saying he was too old.
Age in general is a concern to me as well because these old fucks don’t understand how different the world is now compared with 30-50 years ago. Wealth is also a concern to me because wealthy, privileged people haven’t struggled like average Americans have and/or do. Congress needs more people like Katie Porter who understand what it’s like to make difficult home finance decisions and be thankful that there’s even any semblance of choice involved.
Yes, I was fully on board with Sanders in 2016 and 2020. I also liked Warren. One day in the future, maybe Buttigieg or Jeffries. It’s exciting to speculate on all of the rising, younger Democratic stars.
I have my issues with Kamala Harris, but I think that she’s probably the best person to run against trump in 2024 especially with only 3.5 months (which sounds like plenty of time to pick anybody to me, but I’m not qualified to assess that). She’s not my favorite, but I’m more excited about her than I would’ve been for Biden.
My only real concerns for Harris running are what the media spoonfeeds to the gullible masses and what the October surprise will be this time. There’s a part of me that wishes Biden would resign just to take away the talking point of “trump has been president and she hasn’t; is she capable of running the country?” Plus we would already have had a couple months of a woman running the country before the election, so people could see that that’s not an actual thing to be concerned about.
I never said to fall in line. I said to look up bullet points on what Project 2025 is, look up who is for and who is against it, and get to the polls. I didn’t even say who to vote for. Everybody voting will result in the will of the people, and as somebody who likes having a democracy, that’s what I’m advocating for. I have my own opinions about which party is more pro democracy, and it’s probably pretty obvious to anybody who is paying attention to politics, but I was intentionally vague so that people can come to their own conclusions based on “doing their own research”.
But I guess for you, telling people to inform themselves and vote based on factual information makes me an authoritarian. Cool.
For those who struggle with math, that means that Biden is less than 4 years older than trump. The people criticizing Biden’s age and not trump’s as well never actually gave a shit about Biden’s age. Look forward to those same people making up bullshit reasons that Harris is less capable than trump. They know they’re full of shit, but it’s not about making sense, it’s about trying to obfuscate what’s pretty clear so that independents and undecideds give up, get frustrated, get confused, and/or get demotivated so that they either stay home or vote 3rd party. There are only two viable parties in this bullshit first past the post system; one of them wants Project 2025 and one of them doesn’t. Look at bullet points for what that is and then get your ass to the polls. It’s that simple. The only people trying to convince you that it’s not that simple are the ones who don’t want you to look at those bullet points because it’s pretty obvious whether most people are for or against that playbook. It’s damning.
Somewhat related to this so I’m piggybacking here, look into power plants. Once you’re generally competent holding wrenches and understanding OSHA compliance, you can easily become some form of laborer at power plants. From there, learn everything you can about power plants while getting friendly with some in-house people and you might get yourself into Operations or Maintenance. It took years and luck, but I got in as an entry level outside operator at a bit under $40/hour a few years back; after raises and a promotion I’m now operating the on-site ZLD plant for $52/hour. Control Room Operator starts around $60/hour here. This area is expensive so these rates might be higher than you’d find near you, but I’ve heard of higher rates than this in some plants. The only real drawback is that rotating shift work is pretty standard.
I’m not sure what it might be called, but I totally get that. I think it has something to do with the anxiety of expectations. Maybe you feel judged for how you’re choosing to spend your time, or maybe you feel like there’s an expectation that you’ll get better at whatever it is that you’re doing, or maybe it’s as simple as just not wanting to be viewed as predictable. If you’re unhappy with this tendency that you have, I highly recommend working with a therapist to either find a way to change your behavior or change how you feel about your behavior. It sounds like you’re not hurting anybody, so it seems like there’s just some unhappiness for one reason or another that a professional could help you out with so that you can get a little more enjoyment and peace of mind. If the 94 in your username is your birth year, then you’re 30ish and maybe just struggling a little with being comfortable with your identity in some capacity, like you “should’ve” figured out who you are and become comfortable with it by now, and you might be feeling some additional anxiety for not achieving that? Idk, I’m just some guy on the internet who had a similar thing, and it’s helped for me to adopt a slightly more complex version of the hakuna matata philosophy, which I think of as a sort of optimistic existential hedonistic nihilism: nothing matters, so there’s no sense getting spun up; just do what you feel like doing so long as it isn’t fucking others over. You like CAD? Then fuck around in CAD. Enjoying a video game? Hell yeah, that’s something cool to look forward to spending some time with this weekend. Knock out chores and errands for a bit and then you’re free to do whatever the fuck you feel like doing. Hell, light a scented candle while you’re at it. Really enjoy it.
I’m genuinely not sure whether this is a teachable skill or something more like a character trait.
Depends. At a meh bar with bar food, probably an IPA. Mexican place with Mexican food, probably margarita or tequila sunrise. At a cocktail bar, I’ll pick a signature cocktail, probably one with a whiskey of some kind. If it looks like they know what they’re doing but they focus on botanical type stuff (which I don’t really like), then I’ll usually go for something like an old fashioned or a Manhattan, and if it’s not too busy I might request it with the bartender’s choice of unique flair on it. Or I might order a carajillo if they have an interesting one on the menu and if I see an espresso machine.
I disagree since I met the woman who is now my wife through Tinder lol. We both were looking for something casual and found something worth much more. But it’s almost certainly gotten shittier like everything else, so I understand your reluctance to try it.
In that case, get yourself cleaned up and head out to a bar/club and see if you can meet somebody organically. Be ready to talk about your job, hobbies, and interests. Maybe get a few clever jokes locked and loaded. Passionate, nice, and funny will make you a magnet to decent people. Just temper your expectations because it sounds like you’re probably gonna a swing and miss a few times until you find a comfortable batting stance.
It varies from person to person. The act itself imo is pretty good, but I don’t really enjoy it unless there’s a real connection. Others mentioning things like hiring prostitutes here are recommending that you miss out on what I think it’s a pretty key part of it, plus I think you’d be assuming some real risk in terms of whether that’s criminal, will you be robbed, could you get an STI from them, and of course whether it’s even affordable in the first place. I can understand the desire to try it once, but I can’t imagine it being much better than masturbating compared to the risk and cost.
I think I’d recommend getting on Tinder or something similar and just making it clear in your profile that you’re looking for something casual but want to message a bit first to make sure they’re at least somewhat of a match for you. Sometime before getting naked, it’d be a good idea to say that you haven’t done this before and ask for clear communication so that both of you can enjoy yourselves. You want to be on the same page. And go slowly. You almost certainly won’t have a good time if you’re feeling pressured and rushed.
Overall, yes it’s worth trying, but a lot of people stop thinking rationally entirely when sex is a possibility and I think that’s a bit silly. It’s okay to come to the conclusion that it’s not worth the hassle or even not enjoyable at all to you. It’s totally subjective. Just don’t do anything you don’t feel comfortable with.
Lol happy to help! Yeah, nowadays it’s easy to hit a gig in data usage without even realizing you’ve used any at all. I wish the unlimited tier were cheaper. It feels like we have gotten to a point where we should be able to use GPS or do a Google search without considering a cost. Kinda feels like if anything, they should be paying us for allowing into our pocket this ever changing billboard that scrapes our metadata. But that’s unrealistic to get anyone else onboard with, so I’ll settle for free connectivity to knowledge in exchange for advertising and spying on me.
What state are you in? I’m in VA and considering going from Google Fi to Mint mostly because we would go from minimal data usage to unlimited for about the same price. Definitely not making the switch if you’re also in VA and can vouch that it doesn’t work here.
I’ve been on Google Fi for 3 or 4 years and it’s been pretty much flawless. I’ve traveled to Mexico and Spain with it, and there’s a sort of calibration period of like 30 minutes before you have service in another country, but that’s literally the only time I’ve been without service for any period of time. My wife and I are on it and use very little data, so covering both phones is typically about $60/month. We usually have 5G service around our home in northern VA.
Proof of bill cost: 
Toxic by Britney Spears. Absolute fucking banger. Musically interesting for an American pop song. Each chorus has the chords walk down, which is pretty cool, but then on the next bar something really interesting happens. Instead of walking down from the second of the four chords, there are back to back tritone substitutions! So fucking cool!
Steal from the company, not from the employees.