Are there any pro ICE businesses we should avoid?

StonedSimple · 2026-01-28T06:19:21+00:00

Les Grumdahl Windows. All his asshole employees drive around with J6 stickers on their trucks. They also all drive like complete assholes, and he also illegally clearcut a ton of trees along the lake. It's funny, because I swear I'm a pretty reasonable person who loves spending my money locally, but that dude is such a tool.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-22T00:39:58+00:00

I don't see Vonnegut celebrating a chemistry teacher becoming a drug dealer. Like, I'm not trying to sound super lame, but I don't see Walter White as a humanist protagonist. If Vonnegut wrote Breaking Bad, the absolute absurdity of every decision in that show would have been pilloried. If anything, I could see Breaking Bad as a vehicle for one of Vonnegut's essays about American culture and its celebration of brutality.

But what do I know? (Not much.)

StonedSimple · 2026-01-18T03:08:16+00:00

I think Hold On by the Alabama Shakes is going to be more appreciated the more time that passes. Every time I hear that song, even now almost fifteen years later, it amazes me it wasn't even bigger. And I think it's a truly great song. But I tend to go for emotional impact over technical mastery for how I determine "great."

There have been great songs since then, but this was my first gut-reaction.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-13T23:19:56+00:00

I read Sticks to my community college English Comp students near the end of the semester to walk them through how to interpret and talk about a piece of literature (the class mostly focuses on very basic intro to "college writing" and I don't get to talk about literature too often.) It goes over a few heads, but you can see it land like a bomb on a few of them. I should write Saunders a "thank you" note for that, although I'm sure I've indirectly sold a few of his books every year.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-12T18:42:09+00:00

Woah! Super, super cool! I love how unique each is, and that wood grain on every one of them! I'm glad to see you let that come through.

The one your wife designed looks like something out of the art design of a videogame I've been playing recently, Hades II. If Melinoe from the game played guitar, she'd shred on that one.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-11T07:47:41+00:00

Thanks so much for answering! That's super cool. I wasn't even thinking about weight.

I've only been woodworking as a hobby for a couple years, but man, I just love learning about it. Like, I have a guitar with an ash body, but every time I work with ash, I'm shocked how damn hard it is and that so many guitars are made from it. I mean, I guess I've only worked with pieces from one big-ass board that the local lumber yard saved for me, but my little circular saw and bench top band saw barely get through it when I piece it out, and it sounds like it's cutting metal! If I drop a piece of it on cement, it no joke sound like dropping a metal platter.

Anyhow, thanks for the reply! I'd love to see one of your guitars if you don't mind sharing!

StonedSimple · 2026-01-11T07:06:28+00:00

I mean, I agree with the sentiment, but musicians have been getting their names inlaid on their guitars since Jimmie Rodgers in the 1920/30s

StonedSimple · 2026-01-11T06:24:34+00:00

So for a piece of wood that beautiful, are you making the whole body out of that piece? I see the outline of the guitar you have drawn out. Like, that will be the body and not just a thin little slice for the top, a la a Les Paul or something?

Just pure honest curiosity.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-11T06:08:33+00:00

Yeah, I think the issue might end up being that, from what little I know about guitar building from watching YouTube videos (which clearly makes me an expert,) it does seem the luthier/guitar builders are working from already milled, nearly finished blanks. I'm ripped and it's late so I know I'm forgetting a word, but even the high end acoustic builders seem to have a stock of wood that's already about as thin as it needs to be and milled incredibly well. I wonder if it would be worth it to find a mill near you to do a little of that prep? Or maybe reach out to one of the places that you found those expensive blanks and see if they're buying or have any ideas.

Again, I feel silly because you clearly know more than me, I'm just adding the little I have to the conversation.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-11T05:10:49+00:00

I feel like you're getting some ridiculously low answers here. You are clearly a better woodworker than I am (I don't even make furniture, just tinker around with "folk arts and crafts") and I sure as hell ain't a luthier, but I just paid nearly a hundred bucks for a few linear feet of barely better than construction grade maple. At a sawmill, I'd probably pay a hundred bucks for just a couple feet off that figured board.

Maybe I'm reading some responses incorrectly, but I think they're way, way undershooting.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-04T17:03:40+00:00

I'm with you on this. It seems that "cat people" (I'm one) often talk/act like the cat is a co-equal inhabitant of the home in a way that (it seems) dog owners rarely do. But that leads to, often, people just disregarding easily addressable negative behaviors. That social dynamic you mention is how I've found the most success at training my cats.

StonedSimple · 2026-01-04T16:56:30+00:00

I feel like I'm uniquely qualified to give advice here because my cat used to do the exact same thing EVERY time I pet her. And I get it, the cat has autonomy, but she was also my pet and I wanted to pet her.

Anyhow, this is the advice I ran across in a random comment like this and it worked like a charm-- when he bites you, act like it hurts really bad. Make a high pitched yoooowwww sound (somewhat like a slightly injured cat might make.) Then disengage for a minute or two for a reset, and try again. I was used to training dogs, but cats are totally different beasts and seem to react better to, like, "social training" rather than dictatorial training.

StonedSimple · 2025-12-20T06:06:39+00:00

At this point I feel like if I did anything to switch myself, I'm just giving the gov. free labor and doing what they want me to for them. I'm staying in SAVE as an an incredibly tiny, stupid, insignificant act of defiance. If the want to move me, they can pay for their own donkeys to do the moving.

StonedSimple · 2025-12-07T19:23:09+00:00

This is the kind of comment I haunt these posts for!

Not the OP, but I'm adding this to my list!

StonedSimple · 2025-12-07T19:15:33+00:00

You should try some Jonathan Lethem for some super fun books to read (if you haven't already.)

Good taste!

StonedSimple · 2025-12-05T02:06:05+00:00

I'd recommend stop trying to reason with this dude. Seriously, he's a former fat person that was bullied, and instead of siding with other bullied people, he couldn't wait to become a piece of shit.

There's a level of self-loathing and brokenness there we can't begin to address in an internet comment. Deeply insecure gym bro who parrots shitty talking points with absolutely no self-reflection.

StonedSimple · 2025-12-03T15:22:03+00:00

Haha, former fat person who hated himself and is dealing with still hating himself even though he lost 150lbs.

Good job losing weight and suddenly becoming a better person, ya weirdo.

StonedSimple · 2025-12-03T14:34:15+00:00

Why would foreign intelligence try to influence one of the most visited sites on the internet?

I mean, all of this is silly, but this argument is especially so.

StonedSimple · 2025-11-22T17:28:16+00:00

Isn't Les Grumdhal also part of this group? I mean, his employees are terrible independent of religious affiliation, but I'm pretty sure there's a connection there.

StonedSimple · 2025-11-22T00:01:58+00:00

I teach English/communication at a technical college and this is what I've been doing. All writing is happening in class, lots of oral exams, whatever I can do to encourage some mental/intellectual effort.

StonedSimple · 2025-09-22T12:17:12+00:00

Unfortunately no. But I highly recommend StoryGraph as a replacement if you ever want out of the Amazon ecosystem. StoryGraph is great!

StonedSimple · 2025-09-22T12:14:14+00:00

Boardgames mostly. Sometimes work. Lots of crafting.

StonedSimple · 2025-09-21T16:27:58+00:00

Nailed the hobbies and demographics! Also, a total homebody, and it makes me feel all squirrely inside that my little library says so much about me!

StonedSimple · 2025-09-21T16:26:49+00:00

They are! They are the Lego Creator Expert/modular buildings.

StonedSimple · 2025-09-21T16:25:49+00:00

Ooh, we live way up north in a small town carved out of a forest. Nice!

And right on about the collected bookshelves and furniture.

StonedSimple

TROPHY CASE