I used to live across the street from a relatively popular tourist attraction and would occasionally get tourists standing in front of my windows and commenting on things in my apartment. Once my girlfriend and I were eating breakfast in front of an open window and someone tried talking to us about how expensive something was in our apartment. Besides that the only regular rudeness was groups acting like they own the sidewalk. Usually its large families but I do remember one time what looked like a Russian oligarch trophy wife surrounded by an entourage of stereotypical body guards that had people swearing at them because they were not letting anyone else use the sidewalk as they headed for the tourist attraction.

No. Haggling has zero appeal and makes me feel like an asshole. I want a set price that is predefined, and I want the purchase process to have minimal friction. I don’t want to have to argue with someone when I buy things.

Raised “Christian” in the evangelical/born again/southern baptist milieu. Strip mall churches and unaccredited schools with unqualified teachers and Bob Jones text books. Became atheist as soon as I was able to think rationally. The thing that did it for me was the hypocrisy, which became too obvious to ignore.

The Verge

Techpowerup

I think Diaspora by Greg Egan had a chapter with a crab planet, or maybe it was a crab universe. Its been a long time since I read it but I remember a scene where someone kind of turns themselves into a crab so they can talk to alien crabs about math and physics.

That might potentially work if you timed it exactly right but I’m skeptical of the idea of gold as a store of value, I think it will get hammered like every other asset class if we’re talking about the end of the US as a liberal democracy governed by the rule of law. Especially if you have actual physical gold you need to keep secured, if things get bad enough that becomes a real liability. If its not physical gold will it still be there without the US legal system to enforce your rights? I would much rather have a pile of freeze dried food than a pile of gold or a pile of GLD ETF shares if it’s actually a worse case scenario.

I disagree that they aren’t as tech savvy as Millennials. I would say on average its younger GenX and older Millennials that have the highest tech skills, with GenX probably ahead. That’s referring to percentage, not total numbers.

I saw the failure on multiple news sites yesterday. I didn’t notice anywhere that seemed like they were covering up anything about what happened.

Not sure yet, more than 1 year at least. It takes AAs so they are easy enough to replace.

Kitchen faucet is hands free if you put batteries in a thing under the sink. I don’t think the last people used it because it didn’t have batteries when we moved in. Works great though, turning a faucet on and off without touching it is really convenient when your hands are dirty.

A few weeks into a new job someone reported me for being a dick to them. Management was not happy with me until I proved I had never interacted with this person. Turns out it was just a dumb asshole playing some kind of weird office politics.

We had a joint account where all our income was deposited even before we were married, now we have shared access to basically everything. I mostly manage our money because she hates dealing with it. There’s not really been any drawbacks, it makes life a lot easier having a single primary account that all our cash flows through.

My entire life. I grew up attending Christian schools where we were taught that we’re living in the end times.

Just weird nonsense, nothing explicitly gross. Closer to schizophrenic ramblings but more comedic because they were doing strange voices and sounded like they were having fun.

I was in a Goodwill when an insane person took over the stores PA system and started saying crazy shit. The weirdest thing was that I didn’t see a single person reacting at all, it kept going on and on but everyone in the store was acting like it was totally normal. I couldn’t handle it and had to get out of there because I was laughing too much and feeling creeped out at the same time.

200k per year, maybe. I have a heavy wool sweater like something a North Sea sailor in the 1800s would wear, I can’t handle it without a thick long sleeved shirt underneath because of how rough and itchy it is. It’s also incredibly warm. Sleeping in that thing would be like having a full time job every night.

I’m not sure I would. If I could have avoided the bullshit or done the things that would have optimized my income and wealth, I don’t think I would have ended up where I am now. The risk doesn’t seem worth it, I would be a completely different person with a completely different life.

“Everything is good, thanks. Staying busy with work…” and then either get back to work or stare at them until it gets awkward. Its possible they have trouble with social cues and you seem friendly or nice or whatever, people are weird and being a new employee is stressful so trying to latch onto someone who comes across well can be a thing that happens. I try to redirect people like this to the topic of work and answer any personal question with something boring. What did you do this weekend? Laundry. If they have any self awareness they will eventually only talk to you about work. Stay professional and don’t be rude while making it clear you are at work to do work and have no interest in their personal life or sharing any details of yours.

It may be unlawful but I have over $100 in useless gift cards because the companies went out of business before I could use them. Cash is inherently superior. Although both cash and gift cards have the problem of being potentially tacky or offensive to give as a gift, depending on the context.

Impossible to say but Harris is winning the popular vote for sure. I think however it goes there’s going to be some chaos and violence, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s blatant attempts by MAGA cultists to sabotage what they can and drag out the vote counting and electoral processes. Its probably going to be a shitshow, and possibly a horrorshow. I don’t expect it to be called on election night unless its a significant and obvious win, which currently seems very unlikely. I would be less surprised if there was a terrorist attack on election night than a clear and obvious conclusion to the election.

Congress I think Dems are likely to outperform, the RNC is no longer what it was and doesn’t have the ground game they used to. All their money and resources have been sucked into the black hole of Trumps campaign.