I love these guys, and all the conspiracy or conspiracy adjacent people (as long as they’re mostly harmless.)

I’m jealous of all of them. The world they live in is so much more interesting than mine.

Vote and volunteer in local elections. I think most people would be surprised how few resources campaigns for state legislature have. You and a few friends can make a huge difference. Volunteer for the Dem (out of necessity) primary candidate that wants to replace ftp voting with ranked choice or another similar system, and show up to meetings regardless of election cycle to give input. It wouldn’t take much to get their resources up to the level of establishment candidates.

If a few good sized states could get this the others would get jealous about them having real choice and I believe it would start a snowball effect. It has to come from state legislatures though.

It’s not too heavy. That’s “premium feel and materials.”

Shut the fuck up! Now Vader, he’s a spiritual brother, with the force and all that shit. Then this cracker Skywalker gets his hands on a lightsaber, and the boy decides he’s goinna run the fucking universe - gets a whole Klan of whites together, and they’re gonna bust up Vader’s 'hood - the Death Star. Now what the fuck do you call that?

And what about those assholes that never wanted to pay? Just pay the kid you cheap ass. I see your cars, your lights are on, I know you’re home motherfucker.

I identified so hard with that “I want my two dollars” kid from Better Off Dead.

No they’re not the same. The multinational conglomerate is far better.

Chores for the neighbors and the paper route paid peanuts. Once I was old enough to work for the conglomerate (where I received food safety training) my pay after taxes more than doubled (a little more than minimum wage, which did, and does, exist), I started contributing to my future social security check, I received paid breaks, and there was a maximum amount of hours I was legally allowed to work.

Flipping burgers beats the hell out of lugging Sunday papers around the neighborhood or knocking on doors to mow lawns in the summer heat or shovel driveways in the freezing cold. Back then I counted the days until I was old enough for a “real” job.

Right?

Learning things a little at a time, when the stakes are low/non-existent is the way to go. From early teens to partway through college when you get an off campus apartment you can learn how to apply for a job, how to interview, responsibility, managing your money, responsible credit use, professionalism, bill paying. All this over the course of years, with a support system when you make mistakes (hopefully).

I guess some people think you should just have all that dropped on you like a ton of bricks the day after you get a diploma.

I had a paper route when I was 12.

The work itself wasn’t important but learning responsibility and the value of money was important.

It was the first time I did anything completely on my own without being directed in some way by a parent, teacher, coach, etc. Without that job and after-school/summer jobs I had when I was older there is a good chance I would have made poor financial decisions in early adulthood.

With 18 year-olds getting credit cards shoved in their face the day they show up for orientation, after probably signing up for student loans, it’s probably a good idea for them to have earned money on their own for a while.

Are the novels good? I’m not interested in any of the tabletop stuff but I’d love to have a shitload of books to read.

The footprints of chargers and gas stations aren’t the same though. A lot of places I go have a row of 8-10 spots with chargers. No added footprint really, just installed at the front of the spot. Compare that to an 8-10 pump gas station, even without a convenience store. If you removed a gas station and replaced it with rows of spaces with chargers I think you’d get more cars through over a given period of time.

Malazan.

Most books, including the ten book series, are by Steven Erickson. There are several other books by Ian C. Esselmont. Read them in publication order regardless of author.

All the bullshit with tipping on food delivery apps made me stop using them years ago.

First I hear the apps are stealing tips. Then they’re not stealing tips anymore. Then maybe they’re stealing some of the tips.

To try and avoid all that I tried to use cash. The drivers don’t get their base rate reduced and they get the entire, non-reportable cash tip. Then my food started taking twice as long and arriving cold because the drivers thought I was stiffing them.

My theory is the apps do this (pre-tipping) on purpose to discourage cash and after-tipping so they can lower what they pay the driver and they’ll still accept the order because they see the higher after tip amount. So now the apps might not be technically stealing tips, but they’re using up front tips to allow them to reduce their shitty base rate for everyone.

Now if want delivery it’s pizza, Chinese, or one of the few other places with their own drivers. I’ve had this policy for years now and I don’t see myself ever going back unless it’s an emergency.

Bonus to me: all my takeout/delivery is now 20-30% cheaper. Everyone should really take a look at the inflated prices they’re paying and decide if it’s really worth saving a short drive.

I didn’t mean to suggest 90s rap was one-dimensional but it does seem like there is more variety now. But I wasn’t in an environment where I could buy local/touring hip hop tapes out of the trunk of a car, where I was that sort of thing was mostly punk and metal, so I never experienced all there was to offer. Maybe what I perceive as an increase is just due to streaming services making discovery so much easier.

That’s an interesting point about the accessibility of digital tools. Without a completely new way to craft a sound nothing could sound all that different.

Although I do like “real” country music (sorry about the gatekeeping) “pop country”, Nashville pop, or whatever you want to call it, is the one genre of music I dislike the whole of. I guess it’s different from other country but it’s similar enough to generic pop I wouldn’t consider it new.

I do agree about rap/hip-hop though. The artists I listen to now are very different than what I listened to in the 90s and there is a much wider variety of style. I wonder how much of that is due to how easy it is to discover new artists now. Back in the 90s learning about underground rap artists, or underground anything, wasn’t easy.

Not Nirvana, wrong genre. But it wouldn’t be out of place on one of my metal stations, but I don’t have to wait for that because now I have a station based on them, thank you for that.

But Morbid Angel came up after a few songs (to be fair it was a more recent song) and that’s kind of my point. Stations based on a 90s band will get me recent stuff and vice versa. If I make a Who station, Elvis doesn’t come up. If I make a Joplin station, L7 doesn’t come up. You usually get a pretty narrow time frame for anything pre-90s, after that it’s anything goes.

That’s not to say Igorrr sounds exactly like anyone from 30 years ago, but it’s an evolution as opposed to a revolution.

Edit: several songs later I got NIN, Mr. Self Destruct, it doesn’t get much more 90s than that.

I like today’s music but it seems derivative. Maybe I’m full of shit, and feel free to tell me why, but it seems like music from my dad’s youth (which I also like) was way different than mine, but nothing has changed that much since then.

You could take today’s music and put it on a radio station in the 90s and it wouldn’t seem out of place if you didn’t know any better. I don’t think the same is true for 90s music on a 60s or 70s station.

Normally you’re right. It seems like every day there is a new revolutionary battery tech with no real estimate when it’ll ever be in use. But in this case, according to the article, deliveries will start next month which means they’re already in production.

But there is a penalty for littering. Some people might refrain from littering not because it’s the right thing to do, but because they don’t want a fine.

The lack of repercussions for being a scumbag and abandoning your cart is what makes it a good test.