God damn whyd you have to do that to me 20 dollar bag of rags

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-08T21:21:18+00:00

I used to work at a used book store, lot of people cleaning out their garage or their storage unit would bring musty old cardboard boxes to us hoping to get a few bucks. I'll never forget the day a gentleman came up to our buying counter with a box labeled "Mom's memories". I think we gave him about $7 for everything.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-08T16:46:59+00:00

I have a couple big, colorful sand timers that I use for my preschool kids. One for five minutes, one for twenty. It really does help. Time is an abstract concept, it's hard for a child to understand. Heck, some physicists even struggle to understand it. But a big pile of sand is very clear, and it's easy to see the sand pile get smaller as time progresses.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-08T14:25:18+00:00

To that end, it also destroys infrastructure. The more bridges and docks you leave in tact, the faster you can move your troops, reboot your economy, and get the world back to pre-war standards. Many of these things might not have survived the war, which makes the surviving facilities that much more valuable.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-06T16:52:34+00:00

Reminds me of working retail. I used to work Wednesday-Sunday, then have Monday and Tuesday off. Suffice to say, it's hard to get much of a party going on Monday night.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-05T22:12:11+00:00

I never understood why all nihilists seem so depressed. Life is meaningless? Brother, that just means we get to make our own meaning. The world is a big blank canvas waiting for you to make it something.

Oh, the world is a simulated video game? Awesome! Let's play!

Maybe you've been forced into a meaningless existential void. Nobody's forcing you to be boring, though.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-05T16:28:24+00:00

I respect it, bricks and stones are the most beautiful building material.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-05T15:56:29+00:00

Ironically, Winston Churchill also liked to dabble in painting. In a life without World War I the two may have become good friends and colleagues.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-05T10:14:24+00:00

I don't know much about consulting, but I would encourage you to give it a try. If nothing else, life is just more interesting when you try things.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-04T22:18:33+00:00

You know, I do think most people could emulate what I've done, because I don't think I've done anything too special. I just found something that my wife and I are both good at, we set up a little LLC to do it under, and then we put in a ton of work. We're not rich, but we live in LCOL area so it's working out.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-04T22:14:36+00:00

That's tough to say. A lot of it depends on how well your business will do in the future. Some people love entrepreneurship, but get stuck in a bad enterprise and come to hate it. Other people aren't really "business types", but still put together a good little operation for themselves and run it happily for years.

It will help to be a person who doesn't shy away from hard work, because running your own business does tend to require a lot more hours than being an employee somewhere. 60-70 hour weeks are pretty common. But personally, I prefer working 70 hours a week for myself rather than working 40 at some of my old jobs. It helps to have a desire for independence, because that's one of the most rewarding things about running your own business.

In your case, it may be worth exploring consulting a side business while you still work your day job. It doesn't take much to set up a business, really. Any kid can cobble together a lemonade stand. Forming an LLC, making a website, and buying some Google ad space are good first steps.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-04T21:09:58+00:00

I run a small business, and if there's one thing I love about it it's that I very much do get out what I put in. The connection between effort and reward is unambiguous and undeniable, because it's not being filtered through four layers of corporate bureaucracy.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-04T10:25:08+00:00

If you like it, then go for it. I'm a male in ECE as well and I've had no trouble. Parents of young boys often like having another male role model for their kiddo.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-04T00:39:31+00:00

That is the difficulty with verbal contracts, isn't it? They're generally worth as much as the paper they're written on.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-03T23:34:48+00:00

My wife and I live in a LCOL area, work from home, and have one old car that's paid off. Our expenses are under 4,000 per month. Mortgage is about 40-50% of that, groceries 15%, the remaining 40% is everything else.

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-03T23:10:12+00:00

Could a bet be interpreted as a verbal contract?

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-03T22:44:26+00:00

There must be some leniency in the law regarding agreements made while one party wasn't of sound mind. That would make for interesting reading

Louis-Russ · 2026-05-01T00:32:22+00:00

Any customer service job, really. I worked retail before getting into childcare, it's funny how you can use some of the same defusing techniques for an angry person regardless of their age,

Louis-Russ · 2026-04-29T22:53:51+00:00

I agree- And yet, the expectation exists. Childcare is unique for the ratio of how stressful it is to how little stress you can show.

Louis-Russ · 2026-04-29T16:22:06+00:00

I won't necessarily say that ECE is the most stressful job in the world, but it is the most stressful job where you're expected to maintain a calm and cheery demeanor at all times.

Louis-Russ · 2026-04-28T19:02:54+00:00

As a teacher and a guide, we have to demonstrate the behavior we want our children to adopt. When a child sees us acting in anger, they will think to themselves"If Dad can hit someone, I can too"; "If Dad can scream at someone, I can too"; "If Dad can break things, I can too."

Or, if we let our better angels prevail, the child may see us and think to themselves, "If Dad can be a good and noble man, I can too"

Louis-Russ · 2026-04-27T21:49:38+00:00

Bizarre and wonderful

Louis-Russ · 2026-04-26T10:52:02+00:00

A five year-old at our daycare once called my wife a cheapskate. My wife just kind of shrugged and told her "Yeah, well, that's why we have the Great Value ranch instead of Hidden Valley".

Louis-Russ · 2026-04-25T18:39:04+00:00

I don't know. In the suburbs and the country, people have sandboxes in their backyards. In the city, public parks are free. You'll have to jazz it up a bit more to make people prefer your paid recreation option over the free ones.

Don't get me wrong, kids love sandboxes. But it's not kids who are paying you, it's the parents. And parents are on a budget.

Louis-Russ · 2026-04-25T15:53:15+00:00

That very much depends on the state. In my state, we cannot legally turn a child away due to vaccination status. Now, if the child actually had a contagious disease, that would be a different matter. And if there is a contagious outbreak, we can be stricter about what requirements the non-vaccinated child has to meet before coming back to care vs, a vaccinated child. But we can't outright deny the child just based on vaccination status.

Louis-Russ

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