When my SO does this I always reference this scene in Duck Soup as a way to gently point out what they’re doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcbglml9KRo

The sound… of MEAT

All this effort to communicate the idea of bigger or smaller rolls instead of just giving us the total surface area. But then, this isn’t about informing the consumer it’s about making it seem bigger. If they just gave us a total measurement in sq ft that would make it too easy to compare prices.

It’s like guys measuring their dick, they aren’t terribly concerned with the validity of the measurement as long as the result sounds good.

I’ve seen people object to a 13 month calendar based solely on the idea that you can’t divide the year into quarters. But it’s actually really easy to remember. A quarter is 13 weeks, or 3 months and 1 week. So Q1 ends a week after month three, Q2 ends 2 weeks after month six, Q3 ends 3 weeks after month nine, and q4 ends after month 13 aka the end of the year. And since the calendar doesn’t change, you don’t even need to remember it, just mark the quarter ends once and you’re done forever.

Just compare that to the unnecessary complexity of the Gregorian calendar and the effort it takes to remember basically anything that changes from year to year, or what day of the week any given date or holiday falls on, or even just which months have 30 days and which have 31.

In this case, the post was asking for people’s expectations regarding this story specifically, and the response is entirely valid. It’s very reasonable to think that this one news story isn’t likely to be the tipping point.

It’s different when people reply to every story that is in any way bad for Trump with a comment about how none of it matters, nothing will change, and no one cares. As though anything that doesn’t result in Trump being immediately impeached, incarcerated, or inhumed is completely worthless. Much like how sit ups are useless because no matter how many I do today, I still won’t have a six pack when I’m done.

All those comments do is demoralize people and discourage them from trying to support opposition to Trump in any way.

Average age of a first time homebuyer is now over 40. Even at a reasonable interest rate, most buyers would die before they actually own the house.

Ordering a lot for yourself doesn’t necessarily mean eating it all at once. Leftovers are good too.

That said, there was a time when I worked in a pizza place that sold by the slice. I had to predict what we’d sell 10 minutes in advance without creating too much waste or leaving customers waiting. Sometimes fat people would come in, order way too much, complain about needing to wait for more, and generally making my day worse. I realized I was starting to resent fat people and it was adding to my already miserable mental state working that shitty job. So whenever it came up I started playing baby elephant walk in my head, and I wasn’t so resentful anymore.

For deliveries, the only customers I judged were the ones who treated us like shit, lied to get free stuff, or who were terrible tippers despite clearly having the money.

Wasn’t expecting to plug the Children of Time series again this week, but here we are.

From the same article:

In the United States, several states have enacted legislation to implement permanent DST, but the bills would require Congress to change federal law in order to take effect. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 permits states to opt out of DST and observe permanent standard time, but it does not permit permanent DST.

Spoon rests are just another thing that needs cleaning. If you are using a pot with a hole in the handle for hanging, a clothes pin can grip a mixing spoon while the other side of the pin gets wedged in the hole. Spoon drips back into the pot, and no additional cleaning is needed.

I have always wanted to check out the timeline where Chris Farley was Shrek.

It also doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Even if there is some specific issue that keeps you bound to Amazon, seeking out alternatives the rest of the time is still an improvement.

I know someone who has extreme difficulty taking pills and who frequently needs pain relievers to function. The only thing they have ever found that works for them is the Walmart brand Tylenol (aka tiny lol). They don’t buy anything else from Walmart on principle, but thos pills are a necessity.

That said, in my experience at least, while Amazon’s shopping experience has gotten significantly worse over time, smaller local and regional businesses have been making things much better over the last few years. It’s easier to find what I need on the website of my local hardware store than Amazon, with prices that are as good or better on most things, and without the glut of trash items clogging my search. I can even get 2 hour delivery if I need it. I can’t get a fucking pizza delivered to me but I can have a socket wrench and a change of underwear here at a moment’s notice.

I can’t say that there is a better option available to everyone for anything they need. But I would bet that there are good alternatives available the vast majority of the time.

Chicken is dinosaur meat.

Electricity is basically magic. It only seems mundane because we take it for granted. If sorcery, the force, investiture, or any other fictional magic system you could think of were real, we’d harness it, get used to it, and stop thinking of them as magic too.

Dont let familiarity diminish the sense of wonder. Understanding doesn’t make electricity less magical, it just makes you a wizard.

I am not saying that we will necessarily go down the road to fully automated luxury, or that if we do that the journey there would go smoothly. The current “AI” bubble is an unsustainable mess which is causing a lot more problems than it solves. In the long term, we are looking at the development of incredibly powerful and dangerous technologies that can potentially reshape society.

I mainly just wanted to highlight the weird, shortsighted reasoning behind this post. The argument that we need to keep cashiers so that we have a human connection feels a lot like arguments for going back to an agrarian lifestyle. It’s a losing argument that requires glossing over a lot of downsides and ignoring much better alternatives.

People should have to work shitty service sector jobs so that I have someone to talk to. Because obviously I will never encounter other humans if they aren’t being forced to trade half their waking hours for money. What am I supposed to do, talk to people who aren’t being forced to put up with me if they don’t want to lose their income?

The “AI” being pushed on us now is trash, but if we do eventually get to the point of being able to automate away the vast majority of jobs, we ought to use that to free people from the need to work. Give us UBI, make robots do the shit that you wouldn’t do for free, and let us all have free time to do the things we actually want to do.

Not to mention that the bullshit in AI videos made by the left would absolutely get called out in every propaganda outfit on the right. It would just give them more ammo (without the usual lies).

But even more important, it will grant legitimacy to everyone who responds to damning video evidence by claiming it was AI. We don’t need to make shit up, the reality is already horrifying. All AI will do is make it harder for people to believe their own eyes.

So if your character is from Alabama it could still work then.

Things that have helped me include:

• an alarm across the room that I have to get up to turn off.
• a light that turns on before that alarm
• an alarm app on my phone that can only be turned off by solving puzzles.
• having an engaging activity that I want to do ready for me and fit into my schedule
• getting up a little earlier so I have time to make a decent breakfast instead of grabbing some trash or just not eating.
• a TV set to turn itself on and set to a channel that shows stuff you can’t easily get used to (the history channel used to show random documentaries in the morning, no idea what it’s like now)
• strict discipline about never sleeping in even when I can.
• avoiding spending time in my bedroom when I’m not trying to sleep.
• setting a reminder to start getting ready for bed
• popping melatonin when that reminder goes off if I’m not already tired.
• drink water before drinking caffeine.
• stop caffeine at least 6 hours before bedtime.
• prescription medication in the morning. Not enough to replace all the other stuff, but definitely something that makes a huge difference with my sleeping disorder.

Had a coworker who was riding a motorcycle on the highway by a semi when the tire next to her blew out. She ended up dropping the bike and sliding along the road. Fortunately she was covered head to toe in protective gear, but it’s still amazing that she wasn’t seriously injured.