I haven't seen a moat in at least the last 100 years
This is a you problem pal. I personally have a moat defense system installed around my home and also around each individual room within the home with draw bridges for isolation in case of emergency. Safety is just common sense.
I mean I'd argue there's some serious room to help out the consumer since the price of cars has been outpacing inflation pretty handily since around 2014 (and been beating it into a bloody pulp since 2020). There is some insanely obvious price gouging going on when the average price of a new car in 2024 is over 49k. There is room for BOTH higher wages and at least semi reasonable car prices for the American consumer. In my eyes if you clearly aren't willing to help me as an everyday clearly struggling American today, then goooo right ahead and kiss my ass as I buy foreign if it's cheaper.
This is what I've done since but I was inexperienced and naive the first couple states I lived lol. But they are relentless! Every single time I go they typically ask for email or phone so it's happened where I'll remember not to give it for most of the time but will randomly slip one day after donating cause I'm a moron. I've also had several places that somehow got my number and I swear I've never given it to them. I have no clue how they obtained it. Probably from my email or something. The place I'm currently at I have given a fake number and email so far and it seems to be working but they do ask to send confirmation emails for appointments which causes some issues so I've just been going when my wife goes and seeing if I can get in then or just make an appointment in person. I'm sure they'll pry it out of me at some point 😄
I've lived around and have donated to blood banks in every city I've lived in pretty much. The amount of calls I get asking for me to donate is absolutely insane. They don't stop no matter what I do. I'm getting calls from places in states I haven't lived in for like a decade.
I'm pretty sure if I ever went missing or got kidnapped at this point, the blood banks would track me down and beg me to donate way before my family or the police.
The real grandmasters were the old guys we made along the way
How dare you. Just for one second think of someone other than yourself. How do you think the pharmaceutical companies are gonna feel about that? Or their poor shareholders? Pfizer's CEO only made $33 million last year. How the hell do you expect him to feed his kids when he's not making that much because your precious healthcare system ate into his meager earnings. The medical corporations are barely scraping by!!
That's really interesting. I've lived in 9 states and I can honestly say that outside of the southeast, it is legitimately difficult to consistently find people that dont think the us is a flaming sack of shit or at least headed that way. Seriously, I've heard waaaaaaaaaaaaay more negative talk on the us from Americans than anything positive. Especially in like the last decade. But this place is so damn big that anyone's experience would vary a crazy amount so that makes sense.
Behold and bask in the glory of working from home! Here, all your free time can actually be spent free! No more alt-tabbing to a random Excel spread sheet or dumbass email everytime the floor boards outside your crap ass cubicle squeak. No more desperately searching for mildly enjoyable activities that are only slightly conspicuous when viewed from over your shoulder. Revel in a world where if you bust ass and finish what you need to you are actually rewarded with the free time to cuddle your dog, take a nap, binge stardew valley, or just do absolutely nothing.
The fact that it is for this exact reason working from home is hated by old farts is so unbelievably frustrating it's difficult to put in words. I know they like to word it differently like "lack of productivity" or "lowered team dynamic" (which have both since been repeatedly disproven by what little research we have) or some crap but we all know they just can't stand not knowing exactly what we're doing at all times. It honestly feels like they're just irritated that workers are genuinely happy for once.
My last land lord raised rent by 2.5x after the first year. When we moved out he kept the full security deposit because "the inside of the oven was dirty"
Your mileage may vary
How the heck did you find not one but two 200k houses for 30k? Or are you saying you bought them for 30k and now they're worth 200k? Either way holy balls I wish I could do either of those lol
I've come up with the idea of an annual test of basic facts and current events (very basic). Once I get to the point where I can't pass this test with flying colors, off me and launch my corpse into the ocean via trebuchet plz. Game over. Not interested in seeing where the rest of that ride goes. Seen it many times before with family members and I don't like it.
Here's the problem, it's a solution to a problem nobody had. Never once have I heard someone say "well it's a solid phone but God I just wish it didn't have that pesky 3.5mm headphone jack!" It's just another feature stripped from the phone to clearly get you to buy more shit. I don't want yet another damn thing I have to charge. I dont want to deal with keeping track of two tiny ass earbuds and if I lose one I gotta get a whole new pair. I don't want to deal with the fact that now if I want to listen to wired I have to buy more shit like an adapter and if I lose those headphones, now I gotta buy another one of those along with new headphones. And I hate that if I do go wireless and lose them or they break, I can't fall back on wired because it's not even an option unless I happen to also have the adapter.
It's just another in a long line of clear middle fingers to consumers and it's annoying. Does it like ruin the phone and the experience of a phone? Of course not. Is it a completely pointless pain in the ass with the obvious and sole purpose of funneling consumers into buying a cycle of products they almost definitely don't need and don't already have? Absolutely. And for that I say they can eat a big bag of crap.