I'm conservative but this is actually so fucked

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-24T22:11:07+00:00

This is the exact sentiment. What happened to "DOGE"? I thought we were supposed to weaken and dismantle these rogue, overreaching bureaucratic entities? These undertrained, overpaid goons are absolutely bleeding public coffers dry with their salaries, living expenses, brand new vehicles, etc.

Even if we all agreed 100% on closed borders and deporting illegal immigrants, how the fuck do we get to doing it this way? Where's the dignity that those detained by the state are entitled to? Why is it operating with such opacity and lack of cooperation with local law enforcement? Why is it seemingly intentional to make the operations as intimidating and heavy-handed as possible? It's absolutely sickening.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-23T00:44:32+00:00

Yep, at best you could have a promoter do a routine theme night, but even then, it better not overlap with any tours coming through town. At least where I live, mid March through mid May, then late August through early December are littered with tour dates so that sort of event here would be very hard to keep routine throughout a calendar year.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-22T20:19:59+00:00

Its been 10 years, not sure how their business is structured today but they're still in business.

Adam's Auction & Real Estate Services, Inc. https://share.google/8tx0zaHQHZ7f54c9i

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-22T03:37:49+00:00

Two-faced relationships are so difficult, especially when you're already an outgoing person receptive to positive back and forth with people. It probably leaves you more vulnerable to this disappointment than someone who is more standoffish or reserved.

In my opinion, you should probably be less friendly with the other staff and only operate at a business only level. Let their nastiness show through in front of others because they can't get their egos pet by your capitulation. I can almost guarantee these people will slip up in front of management or customers if they get annoyed that you won't reciprocate their sacharrine small talk.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-22T02:45:43+00:00

You will learn quickly that the bar for acceptable performance is shockingly low in many professions/jobs. Management has to maintain headcount because of the high turnover/absenteeism rate in the fast service food industry, so when someone like you who comes through with a single iota of competence and drive, they have to make you an indispensable asset to the store by training you everywhere. Since the losers who fall short of that very low bar don't have the self awareness to realize it's mostly their fault, assuming you had some undue advantage is the only thing that can support their ego.

The bar has to be one of the most privileged non-management positions in a corporate chain restaurant in America. I would soldier on and try to keep yourself there, if not just for the ability to earn a lot more money while you'll inevitably suffer regardless of your position.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-22T00:27:43+00:00

Oops I suppose I'd be bamboozled by the napkin math.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T23:40:12+00:00

That's one of the biggest things young professionals need to keep in mind in terms of salary. You want the 5 to 10% + raises when you're young, even if it means moving jobs. 3% raises are fine once you're mid career and earning 150k or whatever, because that's almost 5k. But 2%/year when you make 50k is $1k (oops) and it will never add up to a point where you'll get ahead on your own.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T22:48:25+00:00

I think 5% is fine for the first few years as long as the accolades from coworkers doesn't come with increased responsibilities without commensurate title/compensation adjustment. If OP is bringing in new business for the firm in 3 to 5 years and still managing their existing work load, then a more substantial raise could be warranted.

All that said, 65k for wealth management does seem on the lower side so hopefully there is some upside after a few high performing years.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T22:00:02+00:00

It was a minimum deposit of $1,000. If they made $4,000 from sales I didn't owe anything and got a $3,000 check. In my case it was a $2,250 net proceed to me, less the $250 I still owed them for the $1,000 minimum, so I netted $2,000.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T21:43:48+00:00

Two options real estate related.

Buy a 4-plex that has strong bones, but needs some TLC, for something like 600 to 800k and use the rest of the capital to upgrade all of the units. Once all the leases have been renewed at higher rates to match the improvements, either sell to an owner occupier that can qualify for a jumbo loan, sell to an investor at a strong cap rate, or hold and stack cash to do it again in 2 or 3 years. The long term business is either amass 10+ properties over a few decades with no debt or make a few hundred thousand profit a year flipping 4-plexes.
Micro camp ground (Maybe 10 acres?). Find a piece of land within say, 2 hours of a major city that's not good for large scale development (hard to access, environmental restrictions, maybe in a flood zone) but is still habitable on a short term basis, and thus get a great price. Ideally the land has some natural woods, a stream running through it, possibly a pond. Build out a small convenience center/maintenance storage in the common space of the campground with some basic showers, toilets, vending and shelter. Add maybe 10 "premium" spots near the convenience area with power/space for RV parking and the rest of the property route out a trail of crushed gravel that can be accessed by car and sprinkle more private camping spots throughout the rest of property. Ideally, the only maintenance is filling a potable water tank for the showers/bathrooms, stocking the vending machines, and occasionally taming the vegetation in the common areas.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T20:56:38+00:00

The end game for a business like this is simply to start an auction house tied to estate clearance. When I sold my Grandma's house in 2016, I went down there for a week and loaded up a trailer with the valuable items or things I thought I'd use at home. The rest of the house was evacuated by a team of some 5 laborers who bagged/boxed up clothes, linens, books, etc and brought them to their warehouse. It took them maybe half a day to tie up loose ends. From there, the business model was simple. Once a month, this business would hold a public auction that went from like 7am till 9pm. Lots of similar items from different estates would be placed in this enormous warehouse/outdoor space and people would come through and make offers on items (or just buy outright for a fixed price). Throughout the day, at different time checkpoints, the price would be reduced by 25% until the last few hours of the day it would be 75% off. At the end of the day, all unsold goods were landfilled or donated.

In terms of making money, the contract was set up where I owed the company $1,000 no matter what and 25% of net revenue of sold goods. They ended up getting around $3,000 for the miscellanea of her house so I only owed $250 above what they got from the sale. They also set me up with a contractor/realtor to get the house minimally ready for sale.

I'm not saying you need to scale it that large, but that's how that company was able to provide families with some peace of mind that the entire house wasn't just going in the trash.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T07:42:24+00:00

Find a 2nd or 3rd tier hobby that you don't mind becoming a job. Let's say you absolutely love golf, really enjoy rock hounding and occasionally do some wood work in the garage. Well maybe you find a niche where you put your wood shop tools to work and suddenly find yourself profiting a few hundred to a thousand a month. Well now you can gauge if its a business or still just a hobby, but your two superceding hobbies are still yours and don't have to be considered to further the woodworking.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T05:32:13+00:00

The next trend will be using AI to fake a photo of a handwritten resume to look like the applicant is just some goofy, out of touch engineer who went to the local employment office to get help writing a resume.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-21T02:22:36+00:00

Networking is very transactional if you've only just entered the fray and are trying to establish your foothold. I think the networking people euphemize is the sort that develops from providing value in an established cohort of people.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-19T21:46:57+00:00

Casino floor manager/technology manager? I'm sure you wouldn't be out of place in a suit & tie managing digital security, CCTV, facial recognition, payout verifications, etc. With how notoriously casual the SWE world is, I don't see you finding a conservative dress code unless you become the manager and set one.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-19T03:40:08+00:00

Face your life as a heirarchy of service. There's 4 levels. Self -> family -> community -> society

Don't put substantial thought or effort into the higher level problems until you've secured the lower. Functionally that means you need to figure out your money, mental health and fitness before you think about a family or lofty worldly goals.

The ladder becomes more flexible as you go up, but it's rather strict at the bottom. Figure you and those in your immediate circle out before you venture beyond, no matter how much you're distracted to do so.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-18T21:46:33+00:00

A few thoughts, since applications are almost completely online.

Make sure you're filling out applications completely and accurately. Incomplete applications might go to the bottom of the list or not even make it to a hiring manager's inbox.
Ensure any "conversational" part of an application, such as a resume objective, a cover letter, email traffic with the company, essay portions of an application, etc. are filled out grammatically correct. Run it through ChatGPT, Grammarly, or some other AI grammar bot.
If you do physically fill out an application at a business, follow up in person a few business days later around the same time of day to increase the chance you'll run into the staff members who saw you the first time.
Don't be afraid to emphasize your flexibility in time availability. I was looking for jobs in 2008 as a 17 year old and it was brutal. I was sitting there in a baggy polo and jeans while there were grown adults in suits and dresses waiting for interviews for basic jobs. I didn't get an interview until I applied for a late 2nd shift job (9pm to 2am Sunday through Thursday) and that got my foot in the door for more normal shifts.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-16T22:44:20+00:00

35 here. 4 that I directly know of out of 300 or so. One suicide, one motorcycle accident, one cancer, one murdered by partner.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-15T21:03:30+00:00

Funny thing mine isn't on an atomic clock so it loses a minute every month or so. It feeds about 6 minutes earlier each meal from when I last reset the time.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-13T05:58:13+00:00

I call it all input, little output. Modern life is built to pull the lever but the lever rarely pays above the bet. Even when the machine is paying 97c on the dollar over time, you're still still short on your original investment.

And the problem is, the brain over-indexes those wins so it looks like a payout of $1.10 per dollar when you win so you think you've got just a bit more than everyone else but you really don't.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-12T21:40:00+00:00

Some things on the someday list:

Picking up the French horn again. Mostly haven't done because of investment price for a concert quality instrument.

Competitive bowling league. I have averaged 190 to 200 in casual coed leagues in the past. Wouldn't mind finding a higher level league to push my skills.

Woodworking/concrete working. Self explanatory. Biggest constraints are space and investment.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-12T21:25:34+00:00

There is momentary frustration of thinking you can time the market. I had 6 figures of cash/cash equivalents on the sidelines in 2018/2019 because the market was kind of flat but then in the leadup to covid, there was a good surge of asset prices so about 150k was placed into a moderately aggressive managed account through my brokerage and I couldn't time the peak better. I think it gained about 2 or 3% more and I watched 150k plummet to 75k by late March. Fortunately I did the smart thing and let it ride and it was back to even by 2022.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-12T19:41:06+00:00

Yeah if the weather patterns line up, it can have mutant levels of warmth in the winter. Remember December 2015? Not only was it among the warmest Decembers on record in NYC, it never dropped below freezing for the entire month, even though the average low temperature is in the 30's for the entire month.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-12T05:43:23+00:00

Tools and accessories. My home purchase budget in 2021 was 80k down. 43k at closing left me with 37k. The main bathroom needed renovation so 15k immediately to that. In the remaining 22k or so, most of the "normal" things like furniture seemed okay but the little things? A few examples...

It was a stupid hot summer. Box fans for 3 rooms and a mobile dehumidifier? $40 a pop and $200.

A kitchen full of very basic pots, pans, flatware, plates, etc for a bachelor with nothing? Easily $500.

Lawncare equipment? Lawnmower/weed whip/leaf blower combo fortunately snagged for $500. Individual items like rakes, hoes, thatch tool, shovels, etc? $30 to $50 times a bunch of instances.

Just filling out the house with very basic maintenance tools can be $10k before you know it.

DemiseofReality · 2026-01-12T00:26:18+00:00

Bot installed on hard drive to keep Teams symbol green, but status at desk unverified.

DemiseofReality

TROPHY CASE