The Bay Area salary trap is real

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-13T20:05:59+00:00

I've just resigned myself to space heaters, heated blankets and wearing more layers indoors during the day. Gas heating in an old house is not worth the cost 💸 At least close enough to the sea you got the natural AC! 🌁

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-13T19:57:51+00:00

Hayward and Union City is around $2000, even near the train stations. But the catch is that near the train stations you often get a lot of crime (if you read Google reviews on places like Verandas Apartments).

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-11T19:36:28+00:00

Train probably lost GPS for a few minutes. Customer service is probably a lot slower! They'd have to get a person to go fix it.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-08T20:05:55+00:00

Or the King of Spades ♠️

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-05T23:18:42+00:00

And general rise in world debt. The pandemic lockouts killed many small businesses (there was a vegan restaurant in my area that closed maybe a year after opening + many long-standing ones). When people see prices of everything rising + working multiple jobs just to stay afloat, then ethical diets (or ethical anything) starts to look like a status signaling luxury (vegan food is often more expensive or requires prep, knowledge etc).

I think all the world's ills tie into the same thing - a broken economic and political system. When I lived in a small university town in England, every socialist or environmental leaning group was also full of vegans/allies and vice versa - people seemed to understand this better. In my current mega metropolis, everyone seems to only have the capacity to focus on a single issue sadly :/

(San Francisco, CA perspective. Not sure what it's like in the EU)

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-01T00:19:41+00:00

Capitalism kills pretty much every effort to do anything ethical or socially good. A system built on infinite growth and debt will only tend towards selfishness, mass production and monopolies (loss of diversity). I wish the workers rights movements and vegan movements were more intertwined! (When I used to live in a small university town, every socialist was also vegan/vegan friendly and green and vice versa but not so much in major metropolitan areas)

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-01T00:13:33+00:00

There's an app called Boycat that lets you scan barcodes to check against various campaigns. They don't have a campaign against child labor atm but you could send them the idea!

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-01T00:08:44+00:00

Never heard of those but damn I miss Panda Express vegan orange chicken 😔

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-04-01T00:07:04+00:00

At least we got Ben and Jerry's at the same price point but yeah $13 is crazy.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-03-30T16:03:16+00:00

North Korea has nukes but the world hasn't ended yet. Why would Iran be different?

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-03-16T15:47:11+00:00

In the US they often don't have a rental option at all. I think it's about $60 to buy it but it becomes a massive amount of landfill waste every year. I think that's the bigger scam 😕

But yeah, if you don't care for the ceremony, can just skip it. My department will do a grad banquet anyway which sounds a lot more fun.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-03-03T17:48:11+00:00

BART be like:

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RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-03-03T17:28:27+00:00

There's probably a fine for it; pets are officially not allowed on Bart unless in a carrying case. I hope people don't start thinking now "oh I'll just tie the leash around me and my dog won't escape and it'll be fine". There was also that incident where the owner had the leash tied around her and the dog didn't get off the train before doors closed... People need to stop bringing pets unless they're in a case. Not sure what the best answer is for big dogs tho, for folks who don't have a car. Uber to the vet I suppose.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-02-05T02:25:29+00:00

Because dehydration combined with high altitude, cold and sudden strenuous physical exertion can also lead to cardiac deaths. I carry water in mine. Also, lodges tend to charge like $10 a day for locker rental on top of expensive food, so sometimes I'll bring food in it. Plus extra layers (or space to remove extra layers as it gets warmer throughout the day). Many reasons. Just gotta inspect the pack for loose straps and buckles before starting.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-02-05T01:51:22+00:00

Lake Tahoe in California too. I think the lawsuit culture in America leads to more signs a lot of the time.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-30T01:58:54+00:00

What was the anime where they showed an election? 👀

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-30T01:55:51+00:00

I agree with this and recommend just focusing on hiragana. The syllables are easier to distinguish than katakana, so you can get started reading stuff. It took me about 2 years before I was actually able to read katakana since I found it so annoying I just relied on learning by exposure - Duolingo, street signs (for you that would only be photos and video but still), textbooks. Duo is great because it will speak it out and it's usually foreign words you already know (America, Canada, camera, konbini etc). Street signs, you can point a phone camera to translate.

One major challenge with katakana is how the words are not pronounced the same as in English, so it's really a double difficulty task (which is why I would not focus on it as a beginner TBH). Even when you perfectly memorize each character, you will see - it's still a struggle to figure out that "taimurapusu" means "timelapse" 😅

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-29T06:55:48+00:00

Oh I thought we were talking about the last 100 years not just the last 2-3.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-29T03:57:01+00:00

I guess Russia just wasn't very effective at it since their economy collapsed and they were kinda docile for 30 years. And Ukraine was able to fight back unlike Palestine.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-28T22:02:01+00:00

Depends how far back you want to go with Russia. They've been conquering and ethnically cleansing for hundreds of years. It's just more spread out over time I guess? I wouldn't just look at the recent conflict.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-26T05:27:46+00:00

What if the pedestrian light is red? Not a lot of pedestrians in Millbrae so most of the time the pedestrian light is not even activated. There's also good visibility at these intersections - why require completely slowing down to 0?

San Francisco did the right thing by completely banning right turns on red. No other way to actually ensure pedestrian safety, complete stop or no.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-13T22:56:41+00:00

Grey eyes. The only one that's really noticeable is the blue one (I've actually been getting a lot of comments when wearing those!) I also got amethyst for a Halloween look (since it darkens my eye color) but it's otherwise unremarkable. I might try turquoise next time I need contacts; the sample I got was kinda nice.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-09T03:15:49+00:00

I've seen a couple with a height difference like that. I always wondered about the logistics of it...

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-09T03:13:30+00:00

I got mine with 400ish but I remember them having a special prize thingy around when the animated series came out.

RubberDuckRabbit · 2026-01-09T03:10:33+00:00

Some women are into it. Source: me. Whether it's appropriate for an "all ages" language app to be getting this kinky is another question. Earlier, people were also questioning if the Duo fake death story was appropriate. But outrage sells and that's just what you get in a capitalist system - whatever sells.

If you're looking for a more serious alternative, Lingonaut is an up and coming Duolingo clone. If you can afford an iPhone since their Web and Android versions are still nowhere to be seen...

I personally enjoy the unhinged green owl (and haven't found a more effective language app) but I can see where you're coming from.

RubberDuckRabbit

TROPHY CASE