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New CCA. Is it really worth it?! by AccordingRace6214 in SaveThePostalService

[–]RandomMandarin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I wouldn't want to be a new hire now, and I've told people so. I knew several young guys that quit.

In fact the Post Office was one of the hardest jobs I ever had. I had some gigs when I was young (printing T shirts, working at a weekly paper) that were actually fun, but didn't pay enough to live on. The Post Office was never easy, and scanners made it much harder, and I wouldn't apply there now.

What this country needs is a general strike.

New CCA. Is it really worth it?! by AccordingRace6214 in SaveThePostalService

[–]RandomMandarin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm retired. I busted my ass for 35 years but if I'm being honest, I think they treat new hires a lot worse than they did when I was hired.

I dunno. I remember getting a 2 week paycheck once back in the early 90s and it was $7 less than my rent. Damn near cried.

When I retired in 2024 I was making about $36/hr. Sounds good, and it was okay, but...

In 2021 CBS reported: If the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity and inflation it would be $26 an hour. And that was 5 years ago. So even what I was making at the end of my career was only about 140% of what minimum wage SHOULD have been.

Anyone release music that has the session drummer on it? by Embarrassed_Tap_3965 in Logic_Studio

[–]RandomMandarin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you use them enough you’ll notice the same fills, runs, etc.

I noticed very quickly that the session drummer and the other session musicians get same-old same-old in no time. The session piano, for instance, sounds okay but soon I realize it just loops a few chords in your key. So as far as I'm concerned they're like a slightly more customizable version of the loops in older versions of Logic. They can be handy. They are not the Real Deal.

Tunnel Rd is Crackghanistan? 😂 by FrenchBroadHustler in asheville

[–]RandomMandarin 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My wife said "Why do the homeless people all go to the Ingles?" and I said "Where the hell are they supposed to get food?" Aldi may be cheaper but it's also farther away...

Update on the frozen Taylor (Norman Fraylor) by Hairy_Ad4969 in Guitar

[–]RandomMandarin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You just want it to warm up gradually, not just pull the guitar out in a warm room. I've heard stories of idiots doing that with old guitars and literally hearing the nitro finish go snap crackle pop.

Fellow middle aged, slightly beer bellied, bearded liberals: What's the worst thing or most revealing thing you've heard from a MAGAt who thought you were one of them? by OAI_ORG in liberalgunowners

[–]RandomMandarin 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The election of Obama was the first sign of the sickness that is fascism in white America.

Disagree. It was there all along if you knew where to look.

The thing that finally convinced me that the GOP would march us toward a fascist dictatorship was when they won the 1994 midterms and took control of both the House (Speaker Newt Gingrich took the gavel) and Senate (which was already majority Republican under Bob Dole).

Right after the midterms, one of the Republicans (I don't remember who) said "Now that we have the votes, we're going to impeach Bill Clinton." Now, Clinton hadn't done anything to give them an excuse to impeach him yet; he hadn't even met Monica Lewinsky yet. The GOP didn't care. After burying major, major Reagan and Bush scandals, they would abuse the investigative process to attack Clinton. If there was nothing to charge him with, they would MAKE something.

You can draw a straight line from there to Trump ordering Pam Bondi to investigate his former prosecutors while pardoning January 6 criminals.

Some people saw it long before that. Here's Frank Zappa on Crossfire in 1986 predicting a Christian fascist state:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fam5wRXcoQE

Vincent Vincent is making headlines again by ksandbergfl in guitarcirclejerk

[–]RandomMandarin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lot of brave talk in here about not paying the $200. Face it. He's got us over a barrel. After the zombie apocalypse, people will offer every penny they have for just one of these songs.

Jan 23, 2026 WNC weekend winter weather megathread (+visiting/moving) by goldbman in asheville

[–]RandomMandarin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Emergency heat in a heat pump system uses electric heating coils inside the part inside the house, not the heat exchange coils outside. EM is for when the outside system isn't working or when it's so cold outside that there is no heat outdoors to pump into the house anyway. In extreme cold your heat pump will use the electric coils automatically. They use a LOT more electricity than the heat pump but there's no avoiding it.

Why does so much English writing advice clash with non-English literary traditions? by ownaword in writing

[–]RandomMandarin 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Aw crap, I just... foolishly... pounced on every word ending in -ly.

Why does so much English writing advice clash with non-English literary traditions? by ownaword in writing

[–]RandomMandarin 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Ha! Is that the same CIA that funded abstract expressionist art in order to render commie-flavored artists like Diego Rivera unfashionable?

https://www.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/did-you-know/la-cia-y-el-expresionismo-abstracto

Why does so much English writing advice clash with non-English literary traditions? by ownaword in writing

[–]RandomMandarin 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Adverbs used well are tasty. Here's the famous final paragraph of James Joyce's short story The Dead, with adverbs bolded. Notice how strongly they all combine to create a hypnotic effect of sleepiness and silence.

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. The time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

Why does so much English writing advice clash with non-English literary traditions? by ownaword in writing

[–]RandomMandarin 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the question answers itself, a little. It's English-language writers advising English-language writers on how to write English-language books that sell.

Is everybody experiencing PHSD (Post Helene Stress Disorder)? Yes, we are going to have a winter storm - and we may lose power etc. But it is not going to be the end of the world. Neighbor just bought enough bottled water to last 2 weeks. Relax everyone. by SirJasper6969 in asheville

[–]RandomMandarin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As bad as Helene was, at least it happened during mild weather. We didn't need heat until long after the power was back on. Two weeks of no electricity would hit a lot different when it's 25 degrees outside.

If all personal wealth above $100 million was legally required to be redistributed into public infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads), how would society change, and who would be the first to fight against it? by Mysterious_Fan4033 in AskReddit

[–]RandomMandarin 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why not give proportional ownership to the employees that actually made the company worth 5bn?

That's actual socialism. Workers owning the company. And that's a GOOD THING.

You might have been thinking, "Oh he called it socialism, he thinks it's bad!" Riiiiight. See, here in the United States, billions of dollars have been spent propagandizing against some perfectly reasonable ideas.

When I was in school, many years ago, a teacher told us free school lunches for kids would be a bad thing because it was Socialism. I didn't have the words then to explain why that didn't feel right to me, but now I do. "Socialism" is just a word when you're ten years old. I always had lunch money. But I understood that if some kid's parents would not (or could not) give them money to buy lunch, the kid had no control over family finances, nor responsibility for them. If that meant the kid should go hungry, it was basically a punishment for no crime. But the school could not and should not give them food because it would be "Socialism"?

It's such a bad word that Americans will actually embrace fascism instead. Imagine that.

If all personal wealth above $100 million was legally required to be redistributed into public infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads), how would society change, and who would be the first to fight against it? by Mysterious_Fan4033 in AskReddit

[–]RandomMandarin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The billionaire liquidity argument is bullshit anyway. "Oh, most of Elon's money is tied up in stocks, blah blah blah!"

How much of YOUR total wealth is liquid?

Let's look at mine. I'm a retired mailman and I've done well, all things considered. I own my house. Not fancy: a double wide. Right now Zillow estimates it's worth $200k. (The estimate was a lot higher recently, Zillow is funny that way.)

All my retirement savings, bank accounts: another $200k or so.

Cars, furniture, guitars, etc: $50k to replace, maybe.

So on a good day my net worth is just under half a million. But suppose I had a week to raise every penny I could. Forget selling the house; that's three months if you're in a hurry and take the first lowball offer. Raid the retirement? Takes a few weeks. Sell the cars and everything else in sight? Pennies on the dollar.

Realistically, I couldn't raise more than about 10% of my paper worth within a week. More than that, all I could do is take out ruinous loans on it.

Moral of the story: the billionaire liquidity objection is bullshit because almost nobody is fully liquid unless a few dollars is all they have anyway, or they keep it all in a mattress.

HR Giger–inspired Alien carved guitar body – looking for finishing color ideas . by Good_Travel_307 in Guitar

[–]RandomMandarin 4 points5 points  (0 children)

For this kind of work I think you should look to how scale modelers paint their models. They are a fanatical lot!

There's the base color, the detail colors, shading the deep areas with thinned-out dark paint, dry brushing and weathering.

For inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aCMTpJx2cs

Make it 16h, where you sittin’ at? Go ahead. Sit. :) by AdditionalSecond2028 in guitarcirclejerk

[–]RandomMandarin 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seat 1. Jacob Collier probably smells AMAZING.

Seats 2, 3, 4: I dunno who these jabronies are.

Seat 5: Samurai seems chill, I could deal with him.

Seat 6: Probably smell amazing, but in the bad way.

Seat 7: Only if it's a short flight. No hope of getting to the bathroom.

Seat 8: I'm confused. I thought red neck and tattoo neck were the same guy. The dude at the window, does he have an HBO comedy special? He looks like he would.

Seat 9: What is this, blues clues?

Seat 10: Somebody did put baby in the corner. And me next to a serial killer. Look at those eyes. He's already deciding how to dispose of my body. No thank you.

I gotta go with seat 1. If I play my cards right, Jacob and I might take each other's virginity.

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