We were told growing up how decent we should be

This rings so true with me. I was raised in the church and I truly believed in what was taught about loving your neighbor, and caring for the less fortunate as my family and church taught.

Then my senior year of high school my dad (a Deacon in the church) told me that he notices that I tend to make friends with broken people instead of friends that can help me out. And that’s when the first cracks in religions hold on me started to appear.

Today I’m the only one in the family I grew up in not voting for trump. I’m also the only one who gave up on church. My sister went even deeper by seeking out a fringe Baptist congregation that believes some really fucked up shit, and my brother followed in my dad’s footsteps and became a Deacon. Last week my mom explained to me how it’s the culture of the inner-cities that makes violence and crime so common. It isn’t race, it’s culture. She thinks she’s being open-minded. And they all think they are good people. ‘They’d do anything for you’… as long as you’re part of the church - even then, don’t ask too often.

I’m ranting now, but damn, how is it so hard for people to just genuinely be good and helpful?

My mom keeps investing in diamond jewelry. I’ve tried explaining to her that diamonds do not hold their value, but she won’t hear it.

I was in the surgery waiting room for 12 hours while my mom had spinal surgery and some piece of shit Boomer kept watching political commentary videos on his phone and would very aggressively say to people “This isn’t bothering you, is it?” And when we let him know it was, he’d just move a few seats away - not far enough to make any real difference. I wanted to beat the asshole to a bloody pulp, but I was equally as mad at the hospital who didn’t put an end to it.

Same with fuckers in restaurants watching sports on their phones, or on speakerphone calls, or kids playing their fucking preschool games with their volume turned up. If we can’t kill these motherfuckers then we should at least be allowed to smash their phones out of their hands.

But … there are other billionaires out there who are not going into hiding because they are billionaires.

I’ve installed Amazon’s app store, and FDroid and never had an issue. Are these not considered third-party stores?

In my 40s I had to have a signed document from my wife giving me permission.

I’m in the Indianapolis area, and we do have public transit… though I don’t know why.

I kept putting it off… I wanted it when I was 20 but couldn’t afford it. I still wanted it at 30, but didn’t want to spend the money. At 40 I finally had more than enough in my HSA to cover my annual deductable, so I scheduled it. And I’ve LOVED it! However, around 45 I noticed that my near sight isn’t as good as it has been. Now at 48 I’m realizing that I’ll soon need reading glasses.

I still think it was worth it… but I REALLY wish I had done it in my 20s so I could have enjoyed going glasses free for all those years.

I’m loving the juxtaposition of the headlines:

We need municipal datacenters that can be integrated into the municipal water departments, and municipal electrical grid. Use the hot water to provide ‘on tap’ hot water for local businesses that need it.

Oh, don’t worry about upper management, they can continue to work remotely - but they’ll still have dedicated offices in several locations in case they are forced to travel. And that will be one less office for the schmucks who have to come into the office.

And this isn’t just Amazon. This is an orchestrated push by the CEOs of many large companies, all conspiring together to claw back some control of their employees. And you’ll do it because fuck you, of course you’ll do it… what choice have you got?

I saw a similar thread on Reddit about 12 years ago and one of the suggestions near the bottom that didn’t have any comments on it is something I’ve incorporated into my daily life and it has made a huge difference: Adjust your car mirrors so you have no blind spots.

Most people have their side mirrors adjusted where they can see a portion of their own car in the mirror. This leaves you with large blind spots. To adjust them where you have no blind spots, sit in the driver’s seat and lean your head over to the left as far as you can (basically putting your head on the window), then adjust the driver’s side mirror to where you can just barely see your car in it. Then lean your head over to the passenger side about the same amount and adjust that mirror.

When adjusted properly if you can see a car in your rearview mirror, you shouldn’t be able to see that car in your side mirrors, but as soon as a car is no longer visible in the rearview mirror it should be visible in one of your side mirrors. Then when it is no longer visible in your side mirror it should be in your peripheral vision.

It takes some getting used to, but once dialed in and you’re used to it then it makes changing lanes a breeze. It also helps at night if someone behind you has bright lights because you’ll only see them in one mirror instead of all 3.

Rejecting a policy just because ‘the other side’ is the one who implemented it supports it is bad policy. It’s basically the way the republican party operates in Congress.

If you don’t want to pay for a pool then don’t move into a neighbor that has a pool. If you don’t want to have an HOA, don’t move somewhere that has one. If you don’t like how the HOA is run, volunteer to help run it.

What you don’t do is hold up the rest of the neighborhood that actually wants to take care of things properly.

The change to the dues required a change to the bylaws, which required 100% participation in voting, and required 60% approval. The change passed with over 85% approval. Most HOA dues in our area are $600 - $1000 per year, and many of those don’t have a pool. There are also many places around that don’t have an HOA.

Then don’t move into a neighborhood that has an HOA and a pool?

Mostly the neighbors who don’t pay their dues or needlessly hold up needed improvements.

Our HOA board does a great job, they are volunteers who live in the neighborhood. Our dues used to be $100 a year, plus $150 if you wanted to use the pool. Then the pool needed to be replaced (it was 45 years old) and we didn’t have the money for it, so we changed the dues to $250 and everyone gets access to the pool. That still didn’t raise enough money, so they tried to get everyone to agree to a one-time assessment of $1000 but too many people complained. So they’ve now raised the dues to $350, likely going up to $450 soon.

The good thing about the higher dues is we will now be able to afford a lawyer to go after the 10% of the homes that aren’t paying their dues. And maybe even force the people who are hoarding cars in their yards to have to move them.

Edit to add from a follow up comment;

The change to the dues required a change to the bylaws, which required 100% participation in voting, and required 60% approval. The change passed with over 85% approval. Most HOA dues in our area are $600 - $1000 per year, and many of those don’t have a pool. There are also many places around that don’t have an HOA. The HOA was created at the same time the pool went in, anyone already living in the neighborhood who didn’t want to use the pool didn’t have to join the HOA, we still have a few ‘grandfathered’ homes and I have no issue with them, it’s the people who moved into the neighborhood knowing there’s an HOA and a pool and refuse to pay their share.

I find a young doctor in a suburb almost 10 years ago. He’s been great and he listens to me, has no problem taking my suggestions into consideration, and he often admits when he doesn’t know something and will literally Google it right there in the room. It took as while to find someone I like, but it was worth looking.

Honestly I’ve mostly been playing around with image generators and learning how to write a good prompt. But LLMs are where I see real value and would love to learn more about self-hosting one, and custom training it.

I find it interesting that the M2 is better for LLM than the M4 will be… what’s the reason for this?

He really went off the deep end when Grimes dumped him. I’m not saying he didn’t have issues before, but his compete public persona changed when their relationship ended. When his relationship with Amber Herd ended her did an interview with Rolling Stone where he was crying and talking about how life just isn’t worth doing anything of you aren’t in love. I think he really thought that with Grimes he found his true soulmate. My guess is that once she became a mother she realized that he isn’t someone she wants raising her children and she broke his heart and he’s gone full incel now.

One day she will be free of him and she’s going to tell her story. I can’t wait to hear it.

Yeah, I hate Discord too but that has been the best place I’ve found the best information, but even then it doesn’t really feel like a community.

I’m running on an Apple M1 at the moment, likely to upgrade to an M4 when it is released.