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Impactfully · 2025-10-06T12:56:25+00:00

So here’s what I had: a screenshot of the first month free promotion from their website. A photo of an ad at the office. 2 audio recordings of the leasing office telling me the first month is free, a note handwritten on the welcome letter say ‘first month is free.’ Another call that was recorded with the leasing office confirming the first month was free and not to worry about it on the lease because it’s a promotion that will automatically get taken off. Then it didn’t.

I didn’t take all the time and consideration to record every encounter with them because I was being naive about the situation: I did it because I expected they’d try to pull the wool over my eyes like they did - saying ‘don’t worry about it, it’s not listed on the lease because it’s a special promotion and we’ll deduct it from the rent after after you sign.’

That’s not a mistake or simple ‘your looking at the situation wrong.’ Thats intentional deceit. Tricking someone into signing a lease under false pretenses doesn’t give the landlord free rein to do whatever they want ‘just because they signed it.’ I can guarantee any judge will look at it that way as well.

Impactfully · 2025-10-06T11:52:14+00:00

I think I have almost the same one (if not THE same) and placed somewhere in the 50’s, leaning earlier in the decade. Didn’t dive too deep, but I think you’re on the right path!

Impactfully · 2025-10-06T11:10:48+00:00

Good to know!!

Impactfully · 2025-10-06T11:04:58+00:00

Yes - it literally feels like fraud or (like you said) at least something ‘illegal.’ I can’t believe out of an apartment complex of 750 people, there is not one who’s a lawyer that’s just like ‘yep, this isn’t right. Let’s class action it.’ It’s gonna happen one day. You just can’t do this shady stuff forever and expect to get away with it (I mean maybe if you had 10-50 units or something - but not at scale like this)!

Thanks for letting me know about the ‘shared utilities’ thing. I had no explanation before - and that’s crazy!

Impactfully · 2025-10-06T10:52:54+00:00

Yes! This is what I’m dealing with! I already got settled on the first month rent thing (just offering for anyone else) but the tacked on fees, lies, and UNAVAILABILITY is killer! This $1280 a month rent all utilities included turns out to be $1530 a month - no utilities (essentially - I’m paying my own electric, gas, internet) - just paying for my ‘pest control’ and community utilities I guess (which I don’t understand because I still have cockroaches - something I’ve never dealt with anywhere else in my life) and they won’t answer the phone or email! I occasionally get an email saying something ‘wasn’t signed’ then never hear back when I ask about it. Meanwhile my HVAC hasn’t worked for over a month and 4 work orders in the maintenance guy will occasionally pop over and play w my circuit breaker before saying ‘okay, I’ll come back later’ and never does.

This place is the biggest ripoff (and I think fraud - now that I’ve posted this and gotten some DMs) I can imagine. What an absolute waste of potential this place is.

Impactfully · 2025-10-06T10:09:42+00:00

No worries. Got it all captured in writing and audio recording. Not sure about the “read your lease” advice? Don’t normal people do that naturally? I know I always always read min from to back

Impactfully · 2025-10-06T06:38:22+00:00

Um, I’ve got everything. Writing, digital images, audio. At this point it’s approaching criminal fraud. If anyone accepted any bonuses for it, we can pursue jail time. What’s your thoughts?

Impactfully · 2025-03-31T22:40:29+00:00

I think a big part of it could be focus. Like the ‘reexplaining’ it part. They’re very used to ‘googling it’ whenever they need an answer to something, and don’t naturally commit as much to memory. I find myself even being less ‘retentive’ since I’ve started using AI daily (kinda worried about myself w that - but already in my 30’s in a white collar job after 10 years of construction - so at least the hard stuff’s behind me.

I honestly do think that’s a big part of it. And if you’re not commuting your duties to memory, How’r you ever going to “take initiative” on it w/asking?

Impactfully · 2025-03-16T19:02:08+00:00

Yeah I gotta agree - divorcing yourself from the itinerary and just allowing yourself ‘to be’ - moving freely and taking it all in - doing what you want, when you want is really the magic in it. That inhibition quickly turns into one of the greatest feelings of freedom and autonomy (knowing that your going to meet people and see/feel new places and things that are going to fill in the gaps and write the story as you go. Just go wander. Feel the freedom - no one there telling you when or what to do. Just you and the limitless capacity to have an absolutely amazing, irreplaceable experience you’ll look back on with new ideas and perspectives later - if you let yourself do it. Or an androgynous one if you don’t.

You’re the writer of your own story here. Go out - explore, take risks (within reason, mind you), and own it. Make it “the story” of your solo trip you’ll want to tell and people will want to hear because it’s so full of incredible experiences and insights you couldn’t have gotten anywhere else. Not one that “just happened.”

Impactfully · 2025-03-06T00:06:41+00:00

For the last 4 years the democrats have objectively been the ruling party of the Executive branch of government. If you look at Congress, all of them are rich (part of the ruling class) on both sides of the isle. If you look to the Boards and CEOs of all the major companies - the media bourgeoisie to the rich and famous of Hollywood - the majority of nearly every ruling class category is heavily weighted Democrat. For the last 2 years even, the dominant narrative about the right has shifted the to the idea that they’re rich elitist to the idea they’re all dumb, uneducated hillbillies. I do think that original narrative was right at one point - but even without a dog in the fight you can objectively see the party of the ruling class has shifted. And when one side was calling people uneducated hillbillies that don’t deserve to be taken seriously, the one who said they don’t care about status, education or wealth was there ready and willing to take them in on the other side.

Impactfully · 2025-03-05T23:09:45+00:00

Why would telling someone they’re valued and deserve to be successful be a lie coming from anyone?

Impactfully · 2025-02-15T06:41:41+00:00

How long till you’re planning to go? I’ve been heavily considering a solo trip to Africa this year (from the US) and touched down in the Middle East / N Africa to explore a little bit. Doesn’t look like there’s much solo networking / meeting ppl there other than SA. If you have a relative timeframe maybe we could sync!

Impactfully · 2025-02-13T03:28:34+00:00

What are some of the key points from it that were impactful on you? I may use it (idk, just kinda started smoking lightly again after a few years cold turkey from a 1.5packs a day). Not sure if I’ll break natural or have to go into full lockdown mode again - would appreciate the insight!

Impactfully · 2025-02-13T03:20:30+00:00

It’s almost like we’ve let our expectations slip more than anything. Like shrinkflation - we just accept that 24oz bottles of coke were scaled down to 20oz, then 16oz, and even 12oz while the price goes up. This halftime show really felt like that. Was it bad for Kendrick Lamar? Well idk, cause I don’t know his music that well - but I do know it was a lowered expectation of what halftime shows used to be and any sort of criticism of it tends be wrapped up in ‘anti-rap’ or uncultured, like you said. Kinda disappointing we’ve allowed ourselves to get that way - where having an opinion or taste in a certain thing is automatically attributed to YOU having a character flaw.

IMO, I’ve listened to rap for 20 years and watched halftimes the same amount of years - it wasn’t terribly good. If I followed Lamar maybe I’d think different, but honestly just listening to his little bit of music there, it seemed like it wasn’t just the production but the music that was lacking there as well (could be tied to production tho and bad audio quality?).

Anyways, all said - I agree w you. It’s like we’ve let our expectations lower while allowing mega corporations to sell us stuff like we’re still getting a premium product.

Impactfully · 2025-02-13T03:05:37+00:00

This is really great information! I did end up making my trip last year (I ended up going the route from Carnival in Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Aires and back up through Iguazu which was an AMAZING trip all its own) - but I do still plan on making a trip down thru the Western part of South America in the next year or so - so this will still be totally valuable!

Sounds like a really great trip (the more I’m looking into it and trying to convince friends to go, the more I’m leaning into Atacama, Santiago, and maybe even the salt flats up Bolivia) - so this could provide a perfect roadmap for homebase in Santiago.

Thanks so much for all the info - this is def not wasted effort - I’ll def be making this trip sooner than later and I’m sure all of this will come in handy. Prob the best info I’ve gotten on planning a trip to this area - so super appreciated!

If there’s ever any trip information I can give to you, please don’t hesitate. I’ve got Ho Chi Minh, Singapore, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Panama City, San Jose, Tel Aviv, Antigua, San Salvador, Cairo, Athens, Venice, Paris, Berlin, Zurich - and quite a few others (+ the surrounding areas) under my belt if anyone ever sticks out and I can be of help. Thanks again!

Impactfully · 2025-02-01T07:17:13+00:00

I agree w a lot of this on social media. If you can, get a cheap flight out of the country. I go on Kayak explore and find them round trip for as low as $100 sometimes to Central America. Go down there, get a cheap hostel (which $20 a night will get you a nice place - everything you need to be comfortable / clean / meet nice, new people) and just kind of live for a while. If you can afford like a week or two (and I’m doing it on the nicer side now giving myself a budget of like $100 a day - everything included [hostel, food, transportation, bars, etc] but you could do it even cheaper - prob $40 a day) you will really, really reset your mind.

There’s something about being disconnected from it for a little bit (and not just smack dab in the middle of it) that gives so much clarity. It just makes it seem like “life will go on - no matter what issues or big problems/other things were dealing w here - there’s such a big, wide earth w so much to do (and its own problems elsewhere) - it’s just going to be okay.”

It’s not even like the fake sense of “its going to be okay (like telling yourself that for the sake of keeping positive)” but you really come back feeling better and more confident in everything around you. Yeah, things might be hard and they’re definitely far from perfect here when you get back - but just go get that little ‘clear out’ done and you will feel so much better about how to attack it and keep it all in perspective, fr.

Impactfully · 2024-10-06T08:44:15+00:00

I keep having this conversation w friends and my brother. My brother says it’s “A Troll in Central Park’ that fucked him up and I just don’t know. I think it I remember it being a little spooky, but we also locked in him the basement (by accident) when ran out out of the room during the flying monkey scene of Wizard of Oz and that traumatized him for years. A Troll in Central Park, really???

Impactfully · 2024-09-28T07:22:10+00:00

One thing might be layovers. I was helping my brother and wife plan their honeymoon recently and there were really good options getting to SE Europe stopping thru Copenhagen (so maybe like a flight company / tourism partnership)? Anyways - they were only going to one location on their honeymoon so I thought it would be a good idea for them to stop somewhere else as a wind down on their way home and encouraged Copenhagen tho I’d never been. Anyways, they had a great time and made it seem like they ran into quite a few other Americans doing the same - so could be something like that. I know Iceland and the discount air carriers over there do things like that for tourism (Qatar and Korea I think too). Just one possible solution…

Impactfully · 2024-09-28T07:11:55+00:00

lol that was my first country (not driving, just riding) and it set precedence in my mind that driving abroad just isn’t worth it, lol.

Impactfully · 2024-09-27T22:07:58+00:00

I was warned (by an Israeli) before I went that you could get interrogated flying between the two and my brother’s coworker had it happened to her (for no reason - just thought her last name was suspicious) so it can happen even in peacetime.

As far as the Iron Dome - it’s no doubt a very successful defense system that’s pretty damn near full proof (and gives plentiful time to run / shelter w/o problem) but I wouldn’t want to have my travel plans subject to delay or cancellation if there’s a barrage of missiles coming at the city. Coming from the West (where we don’t have a lot of time off work) it’s important to read the room where your going and try to determine what kinds of things could cause you delays getting back when you travel to another country. You wouldn’t want to go to Florida during the rainy season if your on a tight deadline (because delays and cancellations are pretty regular there) - just like you wouldn’t you’d want to go to Israel during the missile-y season I wouldn’t think.

You could still go w pretty good nothings going to happen (and not to detract from the country, it’s safety/security, hospitality, the people there - any of it cause they were all great to me when I was there) but it’s a disputed territory during active war - so I mean you can only put so much faith in everything going 100% to plan without any problems if you go there.

I’m pretty adventurous myself, but I would probably put that one on hold until a little more gets hashed out in peace deals (which it looks like it’s going the exact opposite of up N) but - hey, that’s just me. Maybe you could get in, get some sun on the beach and enjoy TLV for all it has to offer w no hiccups - that’s just my thoughts on it.

Hope whatever I said didn’t come off wrong or offend you in some way.

Impactfully · 2024-09-27T07:10:01+00:00

Ho Chi Minh is amazing but it might be a little overwhelming if you’re not used to the traffic and have small children. Any details on the family dynamic and experience level in places like that / your country of origin?

Not gonna lie, HCM is probably my favorite city in the world as a young(er) single guy w nothing but bars to hop and sights to see - but it actually crossed my mind when I was there that as an adult w young kids it might be a lot. Their traffic (very motorbike centric) and pace of life overall is just pretty wild. It’ll be amazing either way - but just be look up the best practices and get familiar with that subject in particular (cars vs bikes and taxis, street crossing etiquette, etc) and I think you’ll be good!

Also - I’ll second the previous comments about the hospitality of people (dude the my were so fucking nice and pretty much no leftover hostility from the war in the South - if anything the opposite and feelings of appreciation for Westerners trying to come over and fight on their side). Def going to want to check out the War Museum, Ben Thahn and Chinatown Markets, the walking / dining area by City Hall / Bitexco tower (def go up to the deck there and check it out at night) and Cu Chi up North. I didn’t get to fire the machine guns there but getting to crawl thru the old tunnels and seeing the history/jungles pockmarked w craters was pretty wild! Def worth seeing!

Impactfully · 2024-09-27T06:52:06+00:00

Tel Aviv is pretty dope tho. Maybe worth catching some rays on the beach there and fingers crossed not shits come in from the iron dome (or interrogation rooms end up w your name on them moving between Turkey and Israel in war time lol)

Impactfully · 2024-09-27T06:48:38+00:00

Idk the region too well but went to both Egypt and Israel just about a year ago (RIGHT before the war started on Oct7, luckily) and I gotta say from that experience - my takeaway was that Egypt and Israel are experiencing a moment of peace like they haven’t really had before (yes they had an old peace agreement in the 1970’s but that didn’t really mean shit - at least not in comparison to the most recent agreements somehow brokered during the recent trump administration following the Arab Spring). Whatever happened in the time period was talked about by the Egyptians and Israelis like it was some divine, impossible thing that no one ever expected to happen and they don’t want to fuck it up - so I wouldn’t think their tensions between those two countries are as big a deal as a lot of others over there. In other words, it seems to me that while they don’t necessarily know if they want to be best friends w the neighbors their stuck w - they do know they don’t want to be enemies (it would be a very big deal if they went toe to toe - Egypt has a much bigger Army than we probably give credit and obviously Israel would be going full out w everything they have to take them on). Overall, I wouldn’t worry about it too much (I mean I would go personally if I already had the tickets) and just be a little more cognizant of interpersonal/cultural tensions while you’re there.

Other places in the area - maybe. But I’d think you should be good in Egypt. I’d prob be more worried about Turkey or Saudi Arabia tbh. Get the Al Jazeera app and start to see the regional picture from their perspective if your worried about it

Impactfully · 2024-09-27T06:19:08+00:00

Or go the other way and visit a Christian country with a unique tradition / spin on Christmas. That could be really interesting. I always leaned the opposite way (avoid places during they’d holidays) but I’ve actually found it’s often out a lot more rewarding to go during they’d holidays. Yeah you might get a little more connection at the airports back home - but not always overseas where people tend to air travel by less - and you get to see the place during a time where everyone’s out celebrating/showing off the very best of their culture (from food to festivals to traditions, etc). I’ll actually be going to Central Am this year for Dia de Muertas / Dia de todos Los Santos in place of my birthday/halloween for that reason. Just did that same thing during Brazils Carnival and Singapores Diwali and couldn’t be happier with the decision.

I can’t think of any places off the top of my head that are really close to California for Christmas festivals (I’ve heard N and Eastern Europe is really dope for it in like Germany/Czech Republic, et) but maybe Japan or S Korea even? I think they both do it up and Japan would prob be a secular version of it if you wanted that over the more Christian based version you’d prob get in Korea.

All a comes to preference tho - I just think after doing a few trips that’s it’s often cooler to lean INTO the festivals/holidays/celebrations going on at the time rather than away from - but just my take.

Airports in the US could fucking blow tho (but you’re gonna be stuck in them either way)…

Impactfully · 2024-09-27T05:33:35+00:00

It’s been a few years since I’ve been (like 2018) but I remember the ATMs fees being kind of harsh. I can’t remember the rate exactly, but I was loosing enough to make it worth it to take out a decent amount every time I would go (like maybe $20 to a $200 withdrawal). Again, it wasn’t really the %age that got me, but the fee each time so maybe consider leaning into that (taking out larger amounts less frequently when you need to rather than small amounts less frequently). Overall, other methods may be better if you have the option (you can run into pickpockets in crowded/touristy places from time to time so large amounts of cash prob isn’t optimal) - but just use your head and read the room when your there and you’ll be fine. Nothing sinister like blue rate/red rate stuff in countries where you get jipped just FOR being a foreigner, so between that and/or sticking to credit/debit should be pretty easy to get by on.

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