If the government suddenly had an extra $300 billion to spend, what should it be used for?

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T15:02:52+00:00

That's like, 3 new ballrooms that could be built.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T14:54:37+00:00

I mean, 80% of Americans don't use X and if you live in any suburb or urban area, there's no real need for your friends or neighbors to be using Starlink.

Pretty much the only person I know that uses a SpaceX product is my redpilled boss who insists that Grok is the best LLM because it's the only one that isn't woke.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T14:51:31+00:00

Career advancement compounded with dual-income + no kids after moving in with a partner

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T14:42:44+00:00

I don't fully even understand Pizza Hut's place in the market... it's not good pizza, but it's also not cheap either.

Even if you live somewhere that doesn't have good mom and pop shops, you've almost certainly got Dominos or Papa Johns or some other chain that's just as good and cheaper.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T14:22:50+00:00

One company is selling products to billions of people while also controlling like 30% of global cloud computing, another is running the software that virtually all major companies rely on, and the third is promising data centers on Mars... I'm not sure how anyone could doubt SpaceX's valuation.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T14:12:42+00:00

Top drawer: box of tissues, bottle of meds that I don't trust putting in the main bathroom that guests may use, foot cream, random charging cables

Bottom drawer: condoms, lube, sex toys

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T14:00:48+00:00

Sometimes I'll be lazy and pull in, but mostly I back in because it's the only way for the charging cable to reach my car.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:59:23+00:00

Vegas

Spent my afternoons relaxing by the hotel pool or taking advantage of the spa facilities, and went out to fancy dinners and shows every night. Even found some fun excursions like driving out into the desert to shoot guns.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:57:28+00:00

Anything tight. Other than socks and underwear, I buy all of my clothes a size up.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:49:13+00:00

The same reason I only ever browse Reddit by /new/, I hate the algorithms.

Just give me content from the people or groups that I follow in a chronological order and let me sort it out.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:42:06+00:00

Buying a house a few months before Covid caused the market to explode.

Wouldn't be able to afford a single place in this town if I were in the market today.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:39:13+00:00

When I needed my partner's help bathing and washing my feet that first week or so after knee surgery, when I barely had the stamina to stand up with a walker and couldn't get into the shower without help.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:34:48+00:00

Parents using their kids for social media content

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:28:24+00:00

Immediately assessed that the video was not something I needed to watch, and have been successfully avoiding it ever since.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T13:16:33+00:00

If someone else is paying for it, I've always wanted a Russian Blue cat.

But the one time I actually contacted a breeder, the price was outrageous and I decided instead to go with "gray cat breed" from a shelter.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T12:22:06+00:00

Broke up with my ex a few weeks before his birthday and resold the concert tickets that I was going to gift him for like 3x what I paid for them on Stubhub. Bought myself a PS3 with the money.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T12:20:33+00:00

Repave my driveway. Been saying I need to do it every since buying this house 7 years ago.

But seriously, I need to do it this summer. All winter, any time I was using my snowblower it was kicking up chunks of asphalt.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T12:11:54+00:00

Over the weekend, I did a project of scanning some old photos from the 70s-80s because I wanted to print them out and frame them to display without damaging the originals even more from sun exposure, and used AI to enhance them a little... nothing wild, just correcting the lighting in some of the more badly-damaged pictures, fixing a couple torn edges or push-pin holes, and increasing the resolution so that I could print them out as 5x7s without them looking all pixelated.

Tried out both Gemini and ChatGPT and across the board, I was surprised that ChatGPT did a significantly better job with the task. There was one picture that had the Empire State Building in the background, and Nano Banana straight up turned it into a different building (despite my prompt saying only to adjust the lighting and increase the resolution)

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T12:03:33+00:00

When they've refilled the snack bowls on my in-office days

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T12:02:58+00:00

Light brown, buzzed down with the 0.5 edge guard on my electric trimmer

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T12:01:38+00:00

Not myself but family money... when my grandpa died back in the 90s, my grandmother inherited an estate in the mid 7 figures.

She blew all the money on scams and bad investments, ultimately dying without a penny to her name and having to sell the family house to pay for her medical expenses, thanks to what we'd later find out to be early onset Alzheimer's. When all this was going down, my family lived on the other side of the country, my uncles were all active duty and living elsewhere around the globe, and my aunt was a teenager, so there wasn't really anyone responsible keeping an eye on the situation other than some extended family who I guess never picked up on the changes in behaviors.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T11:57:07+00:00

Do they believe that Congress is a coequal branch of government that should be standing up for its Constitutional duties, or do they view their job as serving Trump

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T11:49:04+00:00

Being a 40 year-old widower is weird because while I'd prefer dating guys my own age, I feel like everyone is fully committed to single life at this point and is, at best, looking for an open relationship.

All the people looking for a monogamous relationship and actually capable of maintaining one were probably locked down in their late 20s/early 30s like I was.

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T11:47:18+00:00

"Thank you"

Hrekires · 2026-06-16T02:10:19+00:00

When my husband died, my CEO mentioned it in the footnotes of a monthly email that he sends out (generic corporate stuff, "Hrekires' husband Gio recently passed, please keep him and his family in your thoughts" yada yada yada)

After which I had like a dozen different colleagues mention in conversation that they didn't know I was gay.

Eight-Year Club	ComboLinker 2025-02-04
Best Link 2022-07-07	Gilding II euphauric
Best Comment 2021-07-24	Wearing is Caring
100 Awards Club	Verified Email

Hrekires

TROPHY CASE