Curious why you say that. I used to do the slog to lower Manhattan every day, 90 minutes by train, and another 10 or 20 minute walk, depending where I was going. I'd get back in the train later in the day knowing I should open the laptop up and work, but just couldn't do it.
Now, in fairness, if I was driving 90-120m, I'd kill myself. But at least I'd do so listening to the Wheel of Time audiobook.
And extra fairness, my job went remote after COVID (for the majority of it). Public meetings have returned to in person sadly, but my day work is 90% remote. And on those rare occasions I get dragged out of my home wearing a suit, I do so belligerently. I'm done showing up 20-30m early, I get there when I get there. And I gotta leave early now too. I have really just started to not give a fuck, which is not great as an independent contractor.
I'm sitting here reading every comment to find this, so glad you said it. This is the way, OP. If you focus too hard on this global view that we've been gifted (cursed with), you're going to get wrapped up in the negativity. Focus local. Attend local meetings. See what's happening around you. Join the environmental commission. Plant trees. Donate time or money or both to a local YMCA.
One of my most rewarding experiences was riding on a rescue squad. Having two kids put it on the back burner, but doing a 12-hour shift once a week left me feeling fulfilled, and sometimes very tired, and helped to bring my focus to problems I am more capable of dealing with.
Now, it's kids. Soon enough, it'll be something else. I have decided that it won't be saving the world, though.
Yeah, you just got a throw your hands up and say yeah, I realize someone's pulling the strings, it's just that there's so many possible "someones" that I can't begin to imagine who it actually is. Which is also by design.
Yeah, or maybe "rest of the time" is literally when you're sleeping, because you spent 16 hours searching for berries, with maybe an hour or two nap when the sun was high. Life was certainly not easier a few hundred years ago, whether you lived in some community or were nomadic or whatever. Wherever it was, it was work, and it's work now, except where my work used to benefit me and my family and perhaps my community, now it buys some dude a yacht, and a private jet, and some wineries in Napa Valley. But I get to watch Netflix, so it's a fair trade.
You're judging them based off of what is ostensibly a first impression they have chosen for themselves. I can't imagine a scenario where that's not fair. And you don't need to form an entire opinion, but the opinion starts there. If their picture was a sports team I didn't like, some furry shit, or even MAGA, I'd form some opinions out of the gate.
In this (dubstep) vein, I never miss an opportunity to rep one of my favorites from back in the 2010-2015 dubstep days: Stinkahbell - Don't Tell Mum About Ibiza.
Right. I can't ride my gun to work or the grocery store. I get that there's a lot of negatives associated with car culture, but it's a tool in a way that firearms are not.
Yeah, I'm in Jersey and it's pretty easy to find places with outdoor seating. Got several in my small town.
I will say that the feel is not quite the same as sitting somewhere in Paris, or Nice, or Aix. They angle all the chairs to face outward, I've noticed, and the tables are so often just tables for two. I'm sure I'm misremembering a bit, but the sentiment still stands, to me. The outdoor seating is almost geared toward sit here and look out, not at your tablemate, and do some people watching. I love it.
So I can appreciate all of this. It is not a race. I can wait 5 seconds. I think I'll give a toot at 5 seconds, because 5 seconds is legit a lot of time to not be looking where you're supposed to be. And I have lights in my town that go green for 15-20s, before going red again for 45-60s. So when you eat up 25-33% of the green signal, it's kinda rude, and so a double toot, to me, is more than appropriate.
Yeah, personally I'm all about clear the intersection. There's conflicting movements and it's a bottleneck, let's all get through as efficiently as we can. This doesn't mean flooring it, but we can at least apply some throttle, and not just through but beyond the intersection, because contrary to what some folks believe, there are people on the road other than you.
Just throw bodies in front of it?