What are you up to this weekend?
JCPhoenix @ JCPhoenix @beehaw.org Posts 30Comments 382Joined 2 yr. ago
JCPhoenix @ JCPhoenix @beehaw.org
Posts
30
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382
Joined
2 yr. ago
Agreed. from an electoral standpoint, it's bad.
Of course, if Trump wins, then it's still a bad pick, but for completely different, terrifying reasons.
We'll see, at least with regards to Trump. Usually a VP is selected to "round-out" the ticket, to bring in additional votes from those who iffy on on the presidential candidate. But if this guy is already MAGA to extreme and a Trump loyalist (though he wasn't always), what segment is that bringing in that wasn't already planning to vote for Trump?
In other words, how many Republicans are there who don't like Trump and wouldn't vote for him, but now that Vance is there, will vote for Trump? I feel like that's a pretty small number.
I've been working through a replay of all the original mainline Ace Attorney games, via the trilogies on Steam. Played these all on DS/3DS back in the day. I just finished Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, and now I've started Spirit of Justice, the last game of this second anthology. Love this whole series. Can't wait for the release of the "Investigations" spin-off games in September!
Otherwise, still playing FFXIV. I started Dawntrail, but I haven't gotten too far into it. I put a pin the MSQ (Main Scenario Quests) a couple weeks ago and just kinda left it there. I have enough other things to work on. Class/Job leveling, finishing up some Alliance Raids/Normal Raids from Endwalker, trying to suck less while healing on Sage, and whatever else side stuff I find.
I figure that it's gonna be at least a few months til the next big content update, and at least two years until the next expansion, so what's the rush? I'll get back to the MSQ eventually.
Talk about a massive failure of the Secret Service. No matter how ones feels about Trump, he -- nor Biden -- should have ever be in this situation. I've been seeing reports that some rally attendees saw the guy on the roof and said something to security, but nothing was done. Sounds like the roof wasn't even that far away and obviously had good enough sightlines on the stage.
I do feel bad for the family of that attendee who died. I know these are Trump supporters and all that, but still. You don't expect to die at a political rally. I've been to some rallies before for Dem candidates. My brother, who's not a Trump supporter, went to a Trump rally in Vegas last month as a gag. And this isn't Jan 6 and that dumb woman who tried to break into the congressional chambers and got shot by police.
This is Beehaw; argue the issue or topic, but not stuff like this.
Honestly, I think we'd be better off if we got rid of primaries. I do think they tend to lead to more extreme/radical/fringe nominees, since the party candidates try to out compete each other on their party/ideology bona fides. Maybe it is better if go back to the party establishments picking a candidate.
There are other reason as well. One is that parties are private organizations. So why does a government often run them? I know that's not true all states. In some states, the primaries/caucuses are almost entirely run and organized by the parties. But in others, primaries are done by state and local governments. Do the parties pay the state back for this? Idk. Regardless, still seems strange.
Sorry to hear that =( At least she's got two interviews lined up quickly, and yeah, hopefully one of those will turn into something.
Best of luck to you both.
If I may ask, how did it go? Hopefully better than expected for her?
Oh for sure. Like in my current city (Kansas City), public transportation is so pathetic. A person has to have a car here. There's just no way to survive without one. And I live in the city, in the urban core.
While I fought paying even $50/mo for parking on apt property, I always thought it was funny when people complained about the price for parking garages/lots downtown. At one point not that long ago, it was like $2-5 on nights/weekends. There are barely any parking meters around. And, as far as I know, there's no parking permits required for street parking. And it's plentiful. But people still bitched and moaned about "not enough free parking." Because they didn't want to pay and/or have to walk more than a block from their car to their destination. Sheesh.
But in my soon-to-be new city, DC, it looks like someone could get away without having a car? I won't be living in DC proper, but pretty close. So I'll see.
I think if I had to pay the city to park on the streets, I'd strangely be more OK with that? But having to pay my landlord for parking privileges seems ridiculous because I'll already be paying them out the nose for rent and such.
Oh well, such is the price for owning a car.
Definitely outrageous. In my current city, I've only ever paid for parking access at one place. And it was only like $50/mo. Which I still fought! I think only in the final year did they actually start making me pay for it, but at a reduced rate, like $25/mo.
I've definitely been thinking about getting rid of my car. I did ask the leasing agent if monthly parking was annual commitment or not. And they said it's not. Or rather, it could be easily removed from the lease with no lease-change fee.
So maybe I stick with the car for the first 6mo to a year, learn how to get around, explore, see if I can go carless and fully rely on the public transit system (which I'd done before over in Chicago). I'd hate to get rid of the car ASAP and then realize that I do need it more than I thought.
Car is not even 4yrs old and it's held it's value remarkably well, according to KBB. So I'd potentially get like 95% (or more) of my money back if I did sell.
Most of my friends will vote D/Biden. And if they don't, it's because they don't normally vote in the first place. For those that will vote, none will vote for Trump. Nearly all of us are left-leaning to varying degrees. Even a conservative friend will hold his nose and vote Biden. He doesn't like "Sleepy Joe," but he absolutely hates and loathes Trump. FWIW, I think the youngest of my friends are mid/late 20s, while I'm late 30s. Most of my friends are 30 and up.
My parents (60s) and brother (early 30s) will vote D, too. Parents are more moderate/center-left, while my brother and I are more more solidly left. We've all either always or almost always voted, at least in these bigger elections.
No one I know IRL (which includes online friends because we've met in person many times) has really talked about not voting for Biden or sitting it out because of his debate performance, age, and/or perceived lack of lucidity. My friends and I joke about it, sure, but that's it. A couple of us have brought up the possibility of replacing Biden, as part of casual discussion, but they didn't really go anywhere. Which I took as not really caring to doing so or that it wouldn't matter and wouldn't change their positions.
Anyway, at least in my circles, in my bubble, I haven't come across anyone who's now on the fence with Biden or were going to vote but now are unsure.
Back to work. With the US holiday being essentially a 4day weekend, plus getting back into town from a weeklong biz trip the week prior, didn't do a whole lot of anything last week, other than sleeping and gaming and occasionally looking at email/Teams.. So it's a bit hard to get back into it.
I think I've settled on a new apartment in my soon-to-be new city. It's expensive. Parking alone is like $120/mo (street parking requires a city permit). But it is what it is. It has what I want, particularly being close to a subway stop. Maybe I pay out the nose for the first year, then once I have my bearings, learn the area, I can find something cheaper elsewhere.
Dealing with apartments is a pain in the ass. I live in an apartment now and have lived in a few different apartments for the last 9yrs. So it's not like I have no experience. But god, some of these places makes it very difficult to talk with a human. No, I don't want to chat or text or have a phone call with a chatbot or AI assistant. No I don't want to start the application process online before I get my questions answered. I just have a few questions; call me, please. Luckily someone -- a real someone -- finally called me today.
Also, what the fuck is an "administrative fee" at an apartment, and why is it so high? I get having an application fee of like $50. I get needing a deposit. But a $500 "administrative fee?" Have never come across that before. And this isn't the only place I'm looking at that has it. As always, just another way to wring money out of folks.
Hopefully I'll have this all settled within the next week or two.
Otherwise, back to FFXIV. Taking my time with the new Dawntrail expansion.
I'm sure they do, but I feel like even on r/datahoarders, I only ever see people talk about masses of HDDs, tape drives, or cloud storage.
Worst controller? Eh, I have controllers I don't like. N64 controller. Original Xbox controller. Dreamcast controller. But are they the worst? Idk. Maybe I just didn't have a whole lot of experience with any of those (didn't own any of those consoles).
Maybe the Wiimote. Like I get the idea, but as a dedicated controller, meh. Same with the Switch Joycon; maybe even more so. I have a Pro controller because the Joycons just don't cut it. When they're attached to the Switch, they're OK, but not as individual controllers.
Welp, did helped run my last conference with my current employer. This is my 18th annual event and like...Idk, 25th altogether? It was successful enough with no major issues. Nothing that attendees saw, anyway.
I'll probably never go back to Miami. At least not in the summer. Summers in the Midwest are already hot and humid and disgusting, yet somehow Florida in the summer is like 10x worse. Though I will say the food in Miami is to die for.
Either way, that was my very last one, hopefully forever. Though I said the same in 2019 and then ended up going back to the that company in 2021, so...never say never?
Relatedly, finally gave my new employer a start date. Hopefully they agree, as it's a couple month out still. But I need the time. I also gave my apartment property manager my move out notice.
Now to find a new apartment in the new city. Hopefully I can get that squared away this week.
So yeah, things are happening. itshappening.jpg
And you know we'll bitch and moan the whole way "Don't you know what I am? I'm a goddamn American! I have rights!" a la Randy Marsh.
I just don't go outside. AC running throughout the day, though I do set max temps at different levels throughout the day to take advantage of lower electricity rates or avoid higher rates.
This past week I did have to do some rare outdoors work for work over a few days. My team elected to do it in the evenings and early in the mornings. Was still quite warm, but not sun glaring down on us, we're gonna get heat stroke from this, afternoon sun.
Wow, I feel dumb. I've been here for a year and never looked closely at the bee (old or new). Never noticed the cowboy hat!
So I thought I was good to start a new job (though I've yet to set a start date), as the HR person assigned me said it was all good about a month ago, but then today he me tells me there was "a problem" with my drug test. A drug test I took 3 months ago. So I need to take another.
While I've only taken a few drug tests for employment during my career, they've never taken 3 months to get results. Like 2 weeks at most. Something tells me my HR person screwed up (which isn't surprising), got this notice a couple month ago, yet just now noticed this. Hate to say it, but typical government. The irony is that I'll soon be a govt worker. If we can get this straightened out.
On a more positive note, I just paid off one more student loan! After 19yrs of paying and thousands of dollars in interest on this one -- more than the principle at this point -- it's finally done. I had to get a hefty loan from my parents, but their terms are much better: 0% APR at the Bank of Mom & Dad versus the current variable 10.02% APR with the bank. Though I still have lots more students loans to go. Such a shitty, shitty system. At least I'm lucky enough my parents can help in this manner.
Stay in school, kids. But only if you don't fuck it all up like I did. I may be paying student loans til I die.
I'm in Seattle for a little vacation. Went to the "Bite of Seattle" at the Seattle Center today. That was unexpected, as my brother and I just wanted to go to the Space Needle. Instead, we walked around the festival grounds, got some beers, and listened to some of the local artists rocking out. We also met up with our parents for a bit who are vacationing up here, separately, too. Bit of a nice surprise for our mom. This was my first time here; it's a cool place!
Now I'm trying to get home, which is proving a little tougher due to IT issues stemming from Friday. My airline, Delta, has been heavily affected. I was supposed to go home Saturday, but flight got cancelled. Now I'm supposed to leave today, Sunday, but I'm getting nervous. Feel like my flight will get cancelled again. Or my connecting flight home will get cancelled, leaving me stranded in another city So yeah. Nothing like a relaxing, chill vacation ending in some mild anxiety!
Ah well, I'll get home eventually, one way or another.