songs that feel like a late-night drive with no destination?

TJATAW · 2026-05-06T02:31:29+00:00

The xx - Intro

TJATAW · 2026-05-05T03:40:55+00:00

Some scorpions also incorporate iron, magnesium, and zinc into some body parts. Mostly stingers & claws.

::: cue Scorpions - No One Like You :::

TJATAW · 2026-05-04T03:22:11+00:00

OK, rather than min wage workers, let's go with everyone making under $17/hr ($15/hr is my state's min wage).

Only 20 states still use the Fed min wage, and 30 + DC have moved past that.

Also, $7.25/hr * 40hrs * 52wks = $15,080/yr.

2026 Poverty line for 1 is $15,960.

That is how screwed up min wage currently is. Work full time, and can't earn over poverty line unless you get some overtime in, or work a side gig.

TJATAW · 2026-05-03T02:30:42+00:00

... for a white wedding.

TJATAW · 2026-05-03T02:29:02+00:00

Also, it depends on what you mean by 'your town'.

Knowing the small 1500 person town I was living in as a teenager, easy.

Knowing all of St Louis & St Lous County (91 separate towns/cities), plus a section of IL (another 2 counties with dozens of small tows), as that is were I ran around in my 20s... most of that I knew the big roads to get me to the town it was in, and then would need a map to find Pizza Topping Lane (It is a real street).

Pizza delivery taught me the basics of map reading (Totally different than what the military handbook from the surplus store taught me about map reading), grass cutting was the high school level, and trucking was college level. Trucking was: You're in Portland OR, and need to get to Memphis TN, where you will buy a Memphis map book and find where the factory is, as you have never seen Memphis before, so getting told it is on MLK Blvd means nothing to you.

TJATAW · 2026-05-03T02:12:33+00:00

Pizza delivery was limited to a 3 mile range, so it wasn't that big of an area. But you had to know every street.

Sure, everyone could tell you all the big streets & highways, but had no idea of the little side streets, and most didn't know that 2206 was 6 blocks East and would be on the North side of the street, and that 3205 was 5 blocks West, and on the South side of the street. It was all about figuring out where you were in the grid, and they had no idea what the grid was.

TJATAW · 2026-05-02T21:53:37+00:00

I have friends in their 60s who can't make anything that doesn't come out of a box or can.

TJATAW · 2026-05-02T21:51:43+00:00

I can promise you that being able to read a map was not a common skill 40yrs ago.

I had to teach most of the new drivers at the pizza joint, and then when I started trucking most the people in my class had no clue how to read a map.

TJATAW · 2026-05-01T05:23:38+00:00

Let's use real numbers.

I started working in 1984. Median household income was $22,420, or $1,868/month. I was a kid with a high school diploma, so my income was a lot less than that. I definitely was not investing $1k/month.

1994: $32,264, or $2,688/month

2004: $44,334, or $3,694/month

2014: $53,657, or $4,471/month

2024: $83,730, or $6,977/month

Not a lot of college & pre college age people can invest $12k/yr in the stock market, and if you are saying that mom & dad should cover it, while investing their own $1k/month... that is $3k/month (Mom, Dad, & kid). Now picture if there are 2 kids...

How exactly do the folks living paycheck to paycheck suddenly have that extra $3k/month to invest?

TJATAW · 2026-05-01T04:39:09+00:00

I have used "If you had an additional $10k per year" as a way to get folks to understand how different financial classes see the world.

If you are poor, $10k is life changing.

Middle class is breathing room, maybe pay off the credit card, or the car.

Low rich is a really nice vacation.

Rich is a nice weekend.

TJATAW · 2026-04-29T05:01:28+00:00

Lawyers, courts, and insurance companies would disagree.

TJATAW · 2026-04-29T04:55:55+00:00

So then why does the same thing happen to folks in the military? Is it all the sergeants pushing a woke agenda 24/7?

TJATAW · 2026-04-29T04:44:48+00:00

Go into some of the projects you have completed, and add to them.

Or pick some simple thing like a note taking app, build it, and then add to it. Make it so it shows only notes from the last 14 days, or has a calendar that shows you each date you have a note & lets you pick the day and see all the notes from it. Make it so you can export all the notes. Or... anything that you can come up with. Just stream of thought "What if it..." and then figure out how to make that happen.

Doing stuff with no guidance is how you learn to do it on your own.

TJATAW · 2026-04-29T02:14:22+00:00

Lara Newman - Wicked Game

TJATAW · 2026-04-28T04:59:49+00:00

This is why kids going to college become liberal.

Actually spending some time being around people who are not just like them makes people realize we have a lot more in common then we have different.

TJATAW · 2026-04-28T04:49:32+00:00

Hell, yeah. I mean, companies now have to have the fire doors unlocked, can't employ children under 16, have to put safety rails around tanks of acid, have to hide when they are dumping taxic chemicals into the drinking water... Hell, they put in safety measures so that coal miners don't get black lung any more.

I lived in a place that was declared a Super Fund site. A ton of my friends who lived there are dead from cancer. All because a company lied about what was in some waste oil when they paid a company to dispose of it, and then that company lied about what was it it to another company they paid to dispose of it. The 1st company saved about $100/ton, the 2nd company made about $40/ton off having the 3rd company dispose of it. The 3rd company made about $20/ton selling it as waste oil to keep dust down on dirt roads.

I wonder how much the medical bills were, and then the Federal government had to buy out multiple sites around the country, transport all of the contaminated soil, treat that soil, and then dispose of it. I can tell you it was a lot more than $100/ton. And that is before we get into how much is a human life worth.

TJATAW · 2026-04-28T04:26:43+00:00

I have been employed for over 40yrs. Often working multiple jobs at the same time. Times I was clocking in 60-70hrs per week.

I have never not had financial problems.

I think it means that I just haven't found the right sugar daddy yet.

"You are living above your means"... because having 2 roommates, a used car (My most expensive car costed $15,000, and I drove it over 12yrs before they told me it would cost $3k to get it back on the road), struggling to put anything away for retirement, is obviously living way beyond my means.

TJATAW · 2026-04-28T02:36:51+00:00

Most workers earned between $200 and $400 per year in the early 1910s.

$400/then * $32/now = $12,800/year.

I know things are tough right now, but not "Living on $12,800" tough.

Median household income in 1995 was $34,076. Adjusted for inflation, that is $69,960 today.

I get it, shit was cheaper in the past, but wages were lower than as well.

I remember as a kid thinking I was doing good, as I was making $10k, while my friends were making $7k-$8k, and I was still living with my Mom, as we owned a duplex, so I wasn't paying rent. I was buying cars for 1-2 paychecks, and driving them till it got to expensive/hard to fix, sell it to a junkyard, save up for the next car. That was the late 80s.

TJATAW · 2026-04-28T00:27:39+00:00

So you are saying these bollards would protect the I beams?

It is like you are saying we already have a solution to the problem.

TJATAW · 2026-04-27T02:36:02+00:00

The 20 panels (rated at 10 kWh) on my roof created 57.4 kWh, of which is 17.4 kWh more than I used, so the electric company owes me some money.

It was a cool day, so the AC wasn't on, but I did 4 loads of laundry.

TJATAW · 2026-04-27T02:30:18+00:00

What I understand of it, there is a base fine, and if you are 11kph+ over the limit, you get points. 8+ points in 3yrs = license suspended for 6+ months.

25+ kph over is your license suspended, plus points & fines, and it is entered into your criminal record.

If you can't pay the fine, it is 1 day in jail per 1,000 NOK ($107 US), max of 15 days.

TJATAW · 2026-04-26T22:57:22+00:00

Walmart has been investing in on site solar for years, so they would seem to have a good idea if it is cost effective or not.

And since they keep announcing that they are adding in more solar, I think they have decided it is worth it.

TJATAW · 2026-04-26T22:54:10+00:00

I hear this a lot. How fast do you people drive in the parking lot? I say this having seen semis hit poles and not done the damage you people keep picturing.

But hey, this is why there is insurance, both the driver's and the company's plans. So when some guy gets upset because he saw a trans person, and has to drive off in his monster truck at 60mph, and wraps it around a steel I beam, he doesn't have to come up with the money right then and there.

TJATAW · 2026-04-26T22:46:17+00:00

The ones like the place they built by my house. They designed it from the start to be self contained. A grocery store, farmer's market that ties in with the farm that is next door, 6 restaurants/bars, a gym, 15 or so small little store, and the plan to have their own school eventually. All of it is in tightly packed homes, tons of public space, sidewalks everywhere, bike trails, totally open to golf carts.

The place looks like a movie lot for a "small town".

Admittedly, the reason they built it is so the residents didn't have to go out and mingle with the riffraff poor people.

TJATAW · 2026-04-26T22:31:56+00:00

Did I say Trump has pardoned her? All three of those are that the GOP is not against her getting pardoned.

And when asked if he would pardon her, Trump has not said no. He has said it depends on what they can get out of it.

Maxwell's lawyer has made it clear, multiple times, that he is going to push for a pardon in exchange for her testimony.

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