punkwalrus

@punkwalrus@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨[deleted]⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I can see that being very possible. You see this when taxes are levied to “improve something” and then that money doesn’t go to that something in a directly helpful way. And then the budget that is the main staple of survivability of that something is kept static because of the “new influx.”

  For example, say that you have a toll road increase to help the infrastructure of your roads. Say your Annual Budget for Transportation is $50mil for 2021. In 2022, you requested $60mil. You decide to implement tolls in new ways and increase tolls in other ways (like fines, mileage taxes, and so on) to make up that shortfall. This brings in an additional $10mil, let’s say, in 2022. The revenue is forwarded to 2023. But in 2023, you actually need $80mil because of the two years of shortfalls where it stayed at $50mil, yet costs continued to increase. That $10mil from 2022 now puts you $10 mil behind in 2023. The fact that the previous budget needed steady increases were ignored because “well, we’ll just make things more expensive to make up 2022’s shortfalls of the $60mil request.”

  That’s IF that $10mil isn’t siphoned for other things. Fresh money brings fresh ways to spend it. Grifters via backroom contracts to “fix roads” that go over budget with nothing to show for it. So these new fees and increases actually made things worse due to no oversight.

  So yeah, I could totally see UBI being siphoned off by similar things.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon opines on a clown named Ronald⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Watson and Crick ends with the breach at 23andMe

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon opines on a clown named Ronald⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
  • The grandson of an amateur naturalist rejects the church, and hooks up with a Southern Chicago native, resulting in a breach of intricate personal human data the scope of which could be disastrous.
  • A boy nicks a ticket punch from a bus operator, and now I have to attend mandatory training on social engineering.
  • Someone figured out how to store electricity in rocks, and now democracy is being threatened by liars
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨text don't call⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  When I was 19, I had friends from high school who were still younger, and one of them was my friend Julie who had helicopter parents (she would have been 17-18). I was doing security at an event where the radio headsets we had were super-shitty, and the guy running security was a dumpster fire on his own. Julie’s parents forbid her from going to the event, and grounded her to her room. Then her dad called the hotel where the event was being held, was told Julie had “run away” to this event, and that I was somehow responsible. Given she was a minor, the event runners were understandably concerned, although they were frustrated that Julie’s dad was unable to describe her in a way that was useful: “Asian, wearing black, or a tee-shirt, or something. Ask Punkie where she is.” So they contacted the head of security to find me on my rounds to see if I knew what this crazy man was talking about. The head of security said “okay” and did nothing.

  At some point, the head of security was fired for a variety of reasons, and this increased the level of miscommunication. Meanwhile, Julie’s dad was calling every few hours, demanding to know where his daughter was. And soon there was a concerted effort to find me, which was complicated because of the communication issues. By the time someone found me and the connection was made, my response of, “I have no idea, Julie said her dad forbid her coming here,” was not what they wanted to hear, and met with skepticism “You’re not hiding her, are you? Like she ran away with you in some tryst? She’s 17 and you’re 19, that could have legal ramifications!” No. We’re platonic friends, I don’t know where she is. if I tried to bonk the poor woman, she’d clobber me.

  Meanwhile, Julie’s dad finds Julie in her bedroom, right where he left her. Julie later told me that she was ignoring her dad calling for her, and didn’t “come downstairs” like he demanded because she assumed it was a trap to get her punished for leaving her bedroom while she was grounded. So naturally, her dad assumed she wasn’t in the house. Because he called for her and she didn’t answer.

  Poor Julie. Her parents were crazy-nuts.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can you survive on pickles alone, for a while?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Hah! It’s so true.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Can you survive on pickles alone, for a while?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Well, it really reminds me of that famous GreenTest about pickles Image

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what has worked for you to stop getting angry thinking about people who hurt you?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  In my rare cases, it’s been one of those issues where I didn’t know they were keeping it from someone BUT it’s something that should be obvious if you thought about it for a second, OR, they claim they told me it was a secret, but it was not obvious. And I have to say, “At no point did you tell me this was a secret.” Which, you know, makes them look WORSE because now it looks like it was not only a secret, but they were intentionally covering it up as well. And then somehow that’s my fault. It becomes a game of “he said, she said,” and I lost some friends over that over the decades. Was I right? Yeah, but that’s not the point.

  The problem is people lie all the time. I do my best, but sometimes I don’t get those clues. And sometimes? I have had people lie FOR ME when there was no need to begin with. Like someone tried to “cover up” where I was some evening from my wife, when my wife knew where I was (a goth club). But then he claimed I was with him, and I wasn’t. So that started a whole mess. I had to explain, “I was still at the goth club, he thinks I was with him, because he thought you weren’t supposed to know I was at the goth club, and ‘was doing me a solid’ for no reason.” It got to the point I told everyone, “Never lie for me. Either I can stand on my own actions, or I deserve to get caught for being stupid. I am not someone who can keep track of things that actually happened, much less lies.” Lies make me panicky because, well, like I said earlier, I have accidentally exposed people.

  I try not to. But I make mistakes.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨what has worked for you to stop getting angry thinking about people who hurt you?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I rarely get angry at anyone, which, sadly, means I didn’t gain the skills to deal with it very well. Thus, if someone DOES make me angry, it can linger for YEARS. The record so far is some 50 years with my parents’ abuse, followed by a few friends’ betrayal as a teen (separate incidents). I have about half a dozen incidents where I have been seriously fucked over by people I trusted, and hate my continued anger over it more than I hate the event itself.

  I found, however, patience has its own reward. If you’re the type of person who really fucks me over, and it’s definitely not my fault, eventually your behavior will fuck yourself in other ways. I don’t “get revenge” like some cartoon, but years later, I’ll find out, “Yeah, that asshole? After her did that thing to you that took you years to get over, his super-special kid went to jail, his wife left him, his business tanked, and last anyone heard, he’s living with him mom (whom he despised) in his 50s with zero prospects for his future.” If you fucked me over, but it’s partially or wholly my fault, then, well, I deserved it. Sometimes I make mistakes, like screw someone’s lie over by revealing a secret I didn’t know was a secret. I try super super super hard not to do that, even if I hate their guts, or the lie needs to be told for some esoteric moral bullshit (like cheating on his wife I didn’t know he had). But I try to keep my nose clean. I try not to gossip when I can help it. This also helps to know “I did my best, given what I knew.”

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Most legible scottish person⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I got all of that except “shag ye x,” because it sounds like “shah (fuck) you x,” where “x” is the subject that is a bit vague. Like, “I’m trying to shag you, love?” or “Fuck your ex,” as in, the lady person you broke up with?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨it always interesting when multi billion dollar company's costing system is a 63 tab excel 97 spreadsheet at it's core...⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Worked for a company in 1998 that had all the employee data on an excel spreadsheet: everything from emergency contacts to date of last paycheck. All of HR. And “for security” it was stored on a floppy disk. One single disk. Which was put back in the safe every close of business. One day, the disk got corrupted. The “backup” was an end-of-year printout, but any changes since then were gone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do people understand each other?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  My wife stayed in a rural town near Shichigahama for a week. Nobody spoke English except a few students. But the citizens did speak Japanese louder and slower, showing that’s a universal trait. It actually helped, as my wife knew SOME Japanese.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is it safe to use pans with peeling nonstick coating?⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I would rather deal with the (often exaggerated) care of a cast iron pan than deal with non-stick Teflon or similar. And have. But stainless steel is a comfortable favorite for common jobs like cooking soup or quickly frying an egg or two. Light, easy to clean, and practice usually means it won’t stick if you know how to grease a pan and keep the temperature right.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨True Story⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Why people get these treatments is complicated. Some might to attract men, but others might to “look like their competition,” or “at least I don’t have saggy, wrinkled lips.” It might not have anything to do with men at all, but a general body dysmorphic disorder for deeper mental issues. Or really bad advice from a plastic surgeon. Could be lots of things.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A psychopath getting 3 wishes from a genie would be a great horror movie.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I am sure the mystery of disappearing limbs will FAR overtake the one person who wasn’t affected. Worldwide panic and who knows what else. You could also wish 99% of people lose a random limb, and that would mean 70 million people would still have all their limbs.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Very few people realise how environmentally devastating this game is.⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I used to hang out with those types. It’s similar to country clubs, airline lounges, and first class travel. It’s not so much about the amenities of the luxuries as much as it’s about whom you meet. Or don’t meet. You become good at golf as part of an upper class social thing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I'll never not want to⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  Image My cat Hatsune Miku

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Companies lower salaries in job postings as pay transparency laws take effect⁩ ⁨⁨6⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m not saying you’re wrong, never worked there, but if you’re not worried about job stability personally, it doesn’t matter. Do your best, learn everything you can, take no criticism personally, get fired for bullshit reasons, and learn from the experience. Just use them. They don’t care about you, you already know you could be fired, and ride the wave as far as it takes you. The lifestyle is not for everyone, but a lot of younger people know this these days. They see the companies like stepping stones. Any company probably won’t last ten years, anyway. Loyalty is bullshit on either side.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨How do poor people in the states give birth without money?⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

  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.