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2 yr. ago

  • I lack that enzyme genetically. I am allergic to alcohol, and so when my stomach can't digest beans corn, or even eggs, they sit in my intestines, start to ferment, and I am in a world of hurt.

  • The rich don't want to impress you, they want to impress other rich people.

  • Doubtful it would be a pipeline exception in Jenkins

  • This. I was eight when I found out. My mother was in denial and kept using santa as a manipulation tool for good behavior until I was maybe 13, but she was an alcoholic with the tentative grasp of reality. I got super bitter about Christmas until I was homeless as a teen.

    Christmas was the first major attempt to wrestle back what I felt I was owed as a child. I refused to be bitter, because I saw that as giving in to the people who wanted me to fail. I enjoy Christmas as punk as fuck.

    Still hard, though. I can't find anyone as into it as I want to be and don't have the energy to really go all in as I want to.

  • No age limit in this household. I'd say "just show up with a bag," but I just gave treats so some 4yo with no bag. If an adult asked? They'd get them.

    I just want to be kind. I wasn't allowed to trick or treat as a kid. I did as a teen, and you know what? Nobody cared how old our group was. We got candy like the rest of them. God bless those neighbors.

    And God bless Halloween.

  • It's not always about sexual attraction, but also power.

  • Because we made too much (over minimum wage, dual income household). I was making $13k as a sales manager, my wife was making $8k as an assistant manager, and minimum wage was $3.35/hr or just under $7k/year back then. After taxes, we made about $1200/mo, and our rent was $650 for a single bedroom apartment. No car, we took the bus, barely had enough for food and utilities.

    But we were considered way too over the "poverty line," which was I think less than $6k/year then. We had been using birth control but when they say some form of birth control is 99% effective, the DO mean 1% failed. I have no regrets our son was born, because it turned out we couldn't have kids later when we tried. And then later my wife died when he was 22, so if we had kids later, I would have been a widow with younger kids.

    I feel awful he grew up poor with us until he was about 10, though.

  • I can answer this: my son was born in 1990. We were extremely poor.

    We had midwives help us out as best they could, to the tune of about $3200 at the time. The birth got complicated due to a variety of health factors, and both my son and wife almost died (not because of the midwives). Luckily the midwives had a direct line to Georgetown Hospital, and the cesarean was done there. The total hospital bill was $58,000, or $138k in today's money, although hospital costs have rose much higher vs inflation, so maybe it would be in the $200k range now. She was in the ICU for a week, hospital for another week, our son for about 3 weeks.

    My wife job didn't have health insurance, because it wasn't required back then. Because she was gone a week, her job fired her for an unexcused absence. Oddly enough, this made her unemployed and Washington DC had some law (or rule or something) that immediately dropped the hospital bills because of her unemployment. In the end, we had to pay $15k to about two dozen practices who individually sued us, which took 7 years to pay off and a lot of court visits and wage garnishments. It financially ruined us, pretty much. Both suffered a lot afterwards because we just couldn't afford minimal care. It was hellish. I can't imagine how much worse it would be today. We got evicted from our apartment, and lived in government housing for six years.

    So, yeah. Don't have a baby in America unless you can guarantee it will be healthy and you have a lot of money. Most of my friends don't have kids, they simply can't afford it and look at it like the previous generation looked at concepts like summer homes and yachts. Nice luxuries, but way out of affordabilty.

  • I have used Kubuntu since 12.04 and had few issues. I get everyone has favorites, but don't understand the visceral tribalism present. Maybe I'll hate Kubuntu when 24.04 comes out, I dunno. I have 20.04 as a daily driver and run into very few issues that are specifically Kubuntu related. I could use debian with KDE someday, I dunno.

    I just want Linux, bash, and a decent browser at the end of the day.

  • Zombies have a unique problem where their only means of reproduction are also their top predator and only food source.

  • Worked a job where I had to be a Linux admin for a variety of VMs. To access them, I needed an VPN that only worked inside the company LAN, and blocked internet access. it was a 30 day trial license on day 700somthing, so it had a max 5 simultaneous connection limit. Access was from my heavily locked down laptop. Windows 7 with 5 minutes locking Screensaver. The ssh software was an unknown brand, "ssh.exe" which only allowed one connection at a time in a 80 x 24 console window with no ability to copy and paste. This went to a bastion host, an HPUx box on an old csh shell with no write access to your home directory due to a 1.4mb disk quota per user. Only one login per user, ten login max, and the bastion host was the only way to connect to the Linux VMs. Default 5 minute logout for inactivity. No ssh keys allowed. No scripting allowed, was like typing over 9600 baud.

    I quit that job. When asked why, I told them I was a Linux administrator and the job was not allowing me to administrate. I was told "a poor carpenter always blames his tools." Yeah, fuck you.

  • It really depends. Autographs can seem very tangible, but photos are a better option IMHO, because I can show them off as "See, I was there, I didn't buy this off eBay," or something. But it really depends on what you want. IMHO? Neither appeal to me. Now, it may be because I used to run these things, and have met celebrities on and off the show floor. I see them as people in a weird profession, and feel a little... skeevy? Like I don't name drop until it's vital to the story, because I feel like I am using them. I have friends among these ranks to this day, and sometimes we hang out and shoot the shit, because they know I won't ask them for anything. And they know I won't spread gossip. Now, some people have wanted to take photos with ME, as "omg, that's the president of Katsucon Entertainment" when I was that, but it was rare. I think celebs did it more than my attendees. Maybe as a scrapbook thing for them. So there are photos out there with some of the Power Rangers, for example, that I don't have a copy of, but one of the actors has in his or her personal collection.

    Embarrassment: I am in some of these people's photo albums, and I don't know who the fuck they were. Just a selfie in the green room. Because when I am at the con, I am working, not schmoozing. So the photos are probably pretty bad: just sweaty old me with a confused "uh, okay" stare in the photo.

    I know with Stan Lee, and I name drop him because of the controversy of people taking advantage of him in his later years, I saw him at a Comic Con, practically being dragged to imbalance by a staff that was churning through attendees like an assembly line. This was about 4 years before his passing. He looked so old, tired, and frail. I was not working that con, I was working my table, but I just... felt so bad for him. And they were so strict about the rules. They actually walled him of with pipe and drape over 6 feet high so people couldn't snap a pic of him while in line. You got something like 15 seconds with him, he was allowed to sign one thing, one snapshot, and answer one question. Then ZAP you were ushered out of the area. I recall it was something $210 for those 15 seconds.

    One guest I worked with said the Marvel booth was terrible about how long she could spend with attendees. That's why she often had her own table, to sit and chat with her fans. And some celebrities, like Mark Hamill or Patrick Stewart, are fucking pros at this. I never worked with them, but I have seen Mark, sleep deprived and exhausted, be as kind to the first person in line as the last. I feel like despite it all, he's GRATEFUL of the opportunity. I can't imagine the crazy either of them has to put up with. I saw a video where Patrick hugged an abuse survivor, and while that is amazing and kind, I bet con security just cringed in anticipation.

    So whatever you pick, I guess my point is, be kind to them. They work hard, and they put up with a lot. It's such a weird and surreal experience for a human to endure as a job.

  • Concussions. Especially when they are used as plot vehicles where someone is knocked out, and they wake up in a jail cell or whatever.

    If you got hit THAT hard on the head that you're unconscious and unresponsive for hours? You are going to wake up dizzy, nauseated, and disoriented with a huge headache, loss of motor control, and a disorienting tinnitus. Possibly permanently. Your brain swelled up and cut off blood flow. You might look like a stroke victim. You will not wake up, rub your head, then pick a lock in a dark room and construct a bomb with a gum wrapper and a smoke detector battery. You will weep, vomit, and be unable to walk straight until you get real medical attention.

    Some action stars get knocked out almost every episode. I think MacGyver would have been mentally incapacitated after just a few shows.

  • I had a boss who did this! He just abruptly hung up when he was done with the conversation. People used to call back, worried they'd been cut off, or my boss was mad at them. Nope, he's just overly autistic-efficient.

  • People will want to have kids if the schools are properly funded and attended.

    1. If we can't have free healthcare, have free health care for children under the age of 21, from neonatal to age 21. This includes paternal leave for the first year.
    2. Free daycare from infant to teen, with well-paid daycare workers who are trained and certified, and no overcrowding.
    3. Pay teachers well, at least a living wage, with pay bumps for length of stay, with federal paychecks so poorer states don't suffer
    4. No overcrowding of schools, less than 20 students per teacher
    5. School food programs with delicious, nutritious food, for free
    6. Free college
    7. Tax incentives for kids

    If we actually prioritize our children as a better foundation, more people will have them. Kids who are "left behind" due to poverty will get a better chance.

  • I work at furry cons, and have done security at Bronycon. There is far more money in that fandom than people realize. A lot of it is IT of course, but you'd be surprised how many young and attractive women are in those suits with real professional careers in law, business, and medical. Furry fandom lets them be themselves.

  • Drywall patching spade that is a stain scraper.

    Many years ago, I lived with two slobs. They often left dried food on the counters, floors, and other flat surfaces (like the stove top or floor of the oven). In addition, one of them fed their dog with human food that gave it the shits, and was not attentive towards talking the dog out to poop. So the floor would have clay-like puddles of drying dog diarrhea. This scraper was used to deal with the dollop of whatever organic matter was dried onto the counter, floor, or otherwise. Then washed in the next dishwasher cycle.

    "But you'll scratch the [surface material]!!!"

    I don't care. My house, my problem. Clean up after yourself, for fucks sake. Plus, I was always wiping down the counter with cleansers, so any cross contamination was not a concern. I am a voracious cleaner.

    Those slobs have left, the dog passed away, and the dogs my wife and I have now are mostly housebroken and don't have diarrhea. The scraper only rarely gets used these days. When she moved it, I had to explain to her what it was, though.