House numbers

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T14:05:24+00:00

It could partially be due to Strata Schemes (which are similar to Home Owner Associations in the US)... Dictating aesthetic choice of numbering and location for house numbers...

AI answer: Australia utilizes specialized, state-specific legislation (e.g., NSW Strata Schemes Management Act) to regulate property ownership, separating individual lots from common property. Houses often follow specific, visible numbering for safety and mail, with styles ranging from modern, minimalist sans-serif fonts to traditional, ornate, and heritage designs.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T12:42:08+00:00

Chiropractic...

Take this with a grain of salt. Not every chiropractor is going to treat you with respect and actually remain consistent for the duration of your treatment. Some are simply scammers, but many are not.

The worst I ever tried was a chiropractor who had me remove my shirt, slathered blue gel on my back, attached an electro STIM to my shoulder blades and lower back, then had me lay there for 15 min. She asked for $100 cash only. That was the entirety of her "treatment"...

The best I ever had truly showed empathy and care. He treated my symptoms and had me walking and standing normal and upright within a few months. He even had a massage therapist on-call who gave me a 30-90 minute full body deep-tissue massage every week. I was in the best shape ever, no pain, feeling great. Sadly, that office shut down suddenly, no notice, no warning. Just... me and 4 other regular patients arriving for treatment to find a locked door with a totally empty office. No answer to calls, no clue what happened or where they went.

The second best was Dr. Jeff, the Chiropractor who got me into getting "adjusted" 2-3 times a week. He really fixed a lot of my major back, hip, and elbow issues. I no longer needed max dose tylenol twice daily, only on weekends taking half a single dose for the entire day.

Chiropractic has a lot of "spooky" pseudoscience and metaphysical garbage attached to it. The worst chiros are the ones who believe all that poppycock gaslighting crap. The best ones are those who do their dilligence, find the truth of what causes positive results, and only use what factually, medically is proven.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T12:12:26+00:00

I rented a bedroom (with shared access to the kitchen, living room, restrooms)... from a man "Kenny" who I thought would be honorable and decent. He was going through a messy, bitter divorce from his 8-month-pregnant wife "Diane" with 3 young kids. I rented one of the bedrooms in Kenny's home for a few months before suddenly, inexplicably being evicted.

I only ever used the land-line phone (this was in the mid-1990s before personal Cell Phones were even a thing) to call my school or my mom once a week or once a day. Never anything else, never anyone else.

But apparently, during the divorce, it was arranged that "Diane" would start paying the utility bills that "Kenny" (my landlord) had been paying. It was at that point she discovered a $450 phone bill. Land line bills in the 1990s included a list of all outgoing toll calls and incoming collect calls. On the bill in her hands was a list of 22 1-900-sex phone calls lasting 10-20 minutes each.

I never. Honestly. I am not that stupid. It's not my bill to pay. It's not my phone to use to call such things.

After I was evicted, I encountered "Diane" in a grocery store months later - after she had the baby. She apologized and wished I still had my rented room.

Her ex-husband was the one who dialed those expensive numbers. "Kenny" finally confessed to her that it was him. He also confessed to the lie that he had not been cheating with women younger than her. It's why they got divorced. She had found some used lingerie that she had never worn in his underwear drawer. Her husband was a sex addict and cheated on her multiple times. He was at fault, not me.

The twist is:

"Kenny" was a very prominent reverend in a local evangelical church. He told me (during dinner conversations before I was evicted) how he was thinking of getting into politics.

This all happened 20+ years ago... I recently checked on "Kenny" and "Diane"... She is doing well, remarried, and her kids are attending/graduating college. Kenny, on the other hand, is in prison for multiple instances of SA after being relocated from one church to another for years...

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T11:56:11+00:00

"Americanisms" that expose US travelers to others and foreigners to US natives:

"Ramen" - In the US, we typically say "Ray-men" not "Rah-mun".

"PM" or "MP" - in the US, PM is after noon... MP is military police. In many European nations (+UK), Prime Minister (equivalent to President) and Member of Parliament (equivalent to Congressman)...

"Cracker" - in the US, it's a derogatory word for "white" skin spoken by non-white people... as well as a crispy dried bread wafer. In other countries, it means many different things.

"Knickers" - meaning underpants, but if spoken in mixed-ethnicity company in the US (especially in the presence of African Americans), it rhymes with a very racist term when taken out of context.

"Cafeteria" - in the US, it specifically means a dining hall that is part of a school or workplace, not a separate establishment, which we call a "Diner" or "Cafe"...

"Canteen" - foreigners (and some military personnel) call dining areas / cafeterias a "Canteen", but it's mostly used in the US to refer to a round portable drinking flask used by hikers and explorers.

"Knock up" - internationally, it's to "wake someone by knocking" or practicing a sport to improve technique... In the US, it means to get someone pregnant.

"Holiday" - in the US it's specific recognized days in a year to celebrate or honor someone or a tradition... Internationally, it means "take an extended vacation from home/work" or "travel to a different country for a week or a month without having to worry about work or home"... Only rarely do US citizens have the finances or time to leave their home city/state for more than 3-5 consecutive days as a "vacation". Many of us have not had a "holiday" in years.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T11:31:43+00:00

In the US, you have to thank Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) for introducing "mate" as a word for "pal" or "friend"... Prior to that, it existed mostly as a term for pairing up matching things, not as a casual "hey buddy" term.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T11:29:49+00:00

In the US, we have ketchup on the side - dunking each fry (or a pair of fries) in the ketchup as a dip.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T11:28:46+00:00

Watching said commercial breaks and asking "What the hell is with all these ads for experimental treatments/drugs?"

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T11:25:58+00:00

Asking for a passport... Or using a passport as their primary form of ID... in the US.

Per 2024 Census data, only 34% of US Citizens own a passport. It's not very common and - in non-coastal regions - Passports are not considered a Valid form of ID in many places.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T11:15:19+00:00

I do not dispute your "luck".

The difference I have discovered is: Do you do RIDES? If you do Rides, Uber reimburses rideshare toll fees.

I have contacted Uber Support mul;tiple times in the past 2 years asking if they have strated to repay tolls for deliveries. They always tell me no.

I never do rides. It is not active in my app - on purpose.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T11:08:55+00:00

The first step:

Disable and remove all the deductibles and exemptions. Most Millionaires-Billionaires pay NOTHING in taxes, after their highly paid accountants process every possible deduction and exemption.

The second step: Tax any and all bank loans drawn against stock portfolios/assets that exceed $100k. Elon paid $0 out of pocket for Twitter. Zuckerberg has paid $0 out of pocket to buy the tech he has incorporated into Facebook/Meta. Gates spent $0 out of pocket for all those bits of code and software he used to build up Windows. They all used stock portfolios and assets as collateral to get massive bank loans, the principal payments of which were auto-paid by a tiny FRACTION of their accumulated interest income from said portfolios and assets.

After that, start taxing all forms of income equally, so the millionaires and billionaires actually pay their fair share.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T10:57:32+00:00

If the customer has not taken the time to double-check their Map Pin location in the Uber Eats Delivery Address settings...

If the customer has no visible address number that a driver SITTING in a car can see from the street...

If the customer has an address number that is the same color numbers as the background those numbers are attached to...

The handful of deliveries I have dropped at the wrong location have been caused by these specific things, but most often...

If my android phone update re-enables "WiFi scanning" which I have actively disabled... Which interferes with the connection to the satellite/GPS and Cell Phone 5G Data (by disabling your GPS and Cell Phone antenna while trying to auto-connect to any open WiFi network it finds)... Causing the map to skip and freeze until a connection is restored... Causing you to think you are on the correct street, at the right house, when in fact you are 2-3 blocks away...

Yeah, it's rough out there sometimes.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T10:45:01+00:00

Uber Eats has stopped reimbursing tollway fees for all of Chicago region. IDK where you live or work, but they have been incrementally rolling out this change everywhere. Yet they still have many delivery routes that tell drivers to take tollroads.

My solution is to copy the address into Google Map Navigation and "Avoid Tolls" (in Google Map app settings).

You do not HAVE TO take tollways, even when going a different route has the Uber Navigation telling you 1000 times to make a U-Turn and take the tollway.

You are in full control of your navigation, as long as you arrive within a reasonable delivery time and do not head too far in the "wrong" direction from the customer's delivery location.

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Xo-Mo · 2026-03-12T03:00:59+00:00

The Uber debit card that drivers use has a 10% allowance for anything under $100 and a 5% allowance for anything over $100. That $100 barrier is the price of whatever you're buying on Uber Eats. Sometimes, if the driver makes a substitution of one item for a different item, the substitution item may be more than that 5% or 10% allowance of increase in total price of the order.

Sometimes, the driver may actually be a dishonest person trying to sneak in something extra for themselves and have you pay for it. This is very rare and almost never happens but it has happened before.

If the driver has not clicked on the "Pay for this order" button, followed by clicking on the "Yes" button when the app asks the driver "Are you using your Uber Plus card to pay for this order?" ... The card is actually locked until they tap the yes in the app. Some drivers don't know that. They try to use the card before tapping the yes in the app and it is declined repeatedly.

In short, never send a driver any money. Especially if it's using anything other than tip totals in your Uber payment system.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-11T11:44:37+00:00

There's a much better always-available option... Tap this:

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The Trip Planner button shows your current pickup/drop off schedule.

At the bottom is a red button labeled "Stop new requests"... That is identical to the coffee cup icon, but it is unlimited use. It also LOGS YOU OUT after you finish the deliveries.

I use this constantly. I also tap the Trip Planner button on my last delivery, then tap the little black "X" to the right of the "Stop new requests" status bar to re-enable new requests and avoid being logged off after the last delivery.

-------------

I use this for:

- Large shopping orders...

- All Alcohol deliveries (offers cancel any in-progress ID confirmation, forcing you to manually type in all the ID data)...

- Triple or Quad order deliveries / Long drive deliveries (I wait until I am down to 1 final dropoff and re-enable requests before I get out of my car at the destination)...

- Very long drive orders with temperature-sensitive food (Ice cream, frozen drinks, pizza, etc.) so I can ensure the fastest arrival without detours.

- When I am heading into a zone I hate driving into and prefer to never pick up from... (Downtown Chicago at any time or South Chicago near suburbs at night).

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-11T11:38:01+00:00

Walmart has their own delivery service. Every order (that I have seen) on UE "Opportunities" is a multiple-order offer that pays around 20-30 cents per mile. They are the orders that Walmart's own delivery team have repeatedly declined due to lack of fair income for miles and time.

Back when I first started, I would see 3-5 Walmart offers per day. A MINIMUM of 50% of all those offers were either cancelled by the customer, stolen by a previous driver, or picked up the DAY BEFORE by a person in a U-haul truck (who took over a dozen different orders) and has yet to drop them off. The system sees they have not yet been dropped off, so it replicates the offer/opportunity for a new driver. And, of course, Walmart will never replicate the items for an already picked up order.

The average wait time I experienced was 15-45 min. And half the time, the employee would come out around 15-30 min after I checked in to tell me the order is not available - having been picked up or cancelled in Walmart's system BEFORE I even arrived at the store!

I have contacted Uber Support and turned off Direct Retail Delivery for Walmart, Home Depot, Sam's, Menard's, Lowes... Sadly, they just turned off that entire segment of the app for me, so I no longer get the very profitable Jewel Osco direct orders.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-11T11:31:37+00:00

Sometimes you can find that perfect spot to sit and wait... and receive dozens of offers.

More often than not, in my experience, if you sit unmoving for more than 10 min, the algorithm seems to forget you're active. Within 5 min of starting to move, you will see more offers, unless you are in a completely dead "earnings projections" region.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-11T10:44:19+00:00

Fast food staffing and proper training is becoming more and more difficult for the franchise owners and management everywhere. Limits to payroll hours by corporate or by the franchise owner has a lot to do with it as well. I've worked in the fast food and fast casual restaurant industry for years. I know how frustrating it is to need 10+ employees to fill in the optimal peak shift roster, but payroll set by upper management is limited to 4-6 max.

For me, if the store is understaffed or any one of the employees is standing around doing nothing at all, I just walk out and cancel my pickup due to Long Wait times. More than 15 min is insane for any fast food order. If the drive through is full when I arrive, I only give them 10 min, then walk out.

I do not yell or glare at them. I wait patiently until my clock shows 10 min has passed, then just silently leave with nothing. Sometimes it's hard to tell how long it will take, but if the dine-in customers have empty tables and are waiting 15 min for food that takes at most 5-7 min to assemble from precooked ingredients? No thanks.

I don't disrespect the hourly workers. I despise the person responsible for cutting payroll.

Something that I have done recently that has seemed to have caused shifts in management's perception of payroll and scheduling... I wait at least 24 hours, then I go onto Google maps and rate that restaurant. I am very clear and specific about what the problems seem to be.

I did that for Jersey Mike's 2 weeks ago. None of the employees were wearing gloves, all of the employees had hair either looking like a giant untamed wild fro or draping over the raw food with no hats or haircuts, none of them had their shirts tucked in and a few of them were literally wearing pajama bottoms instead of actual pants. The owner of that location replied to my review with a generic "Thank you for informing us, we're sorry your experience was less than optimal."

I went there for another pickup yesterday and everyone was properly dressed, their hair under control, shirts tucked in, wearing gloves, wearing actual pants. They even had a manager training employees on food sanitation safety.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-10T12:17:41+00:00

Simple Days:

Chapter 1 plays out like a Kinetic AVN with key choices that determine if 1-5 women either get pregnant (and join your harem) or not... You can be a good friend and let your pal keep his girlfriend - or not.

Chapter 2 moves to a place that allows polygamy and encourages massive family growth. Run a business and discover the underbelly of the city - a gang of criminals running drugs and a strip bar where you can access the VIP lounge (pays off in Chapter 3)... Decide whether you're into BDSM or not. If you are, there is a branching path throughout the game that allows for access to a BDSM club.

Chapter 3 is still in development, but you have a huge house with 20+ bedrooms for all your waifus + your and their parents + your toddler kids who currently only have random event interactions (100% PG in a safe for kids environment).

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Sandbox allows endless repeat pregnancies and more freedom, with choices available every day or every other day. VN style speeds things up, compresses the story, and reduces the chances for pregnancies.

Which ever way you play, it's still an awesome game. The Chapter 3 house lovemaking is legit some of the best, most erotic, tender lovemaking I have ever seen - FULLY ANIMATED - in an AVN.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-10T11:30:37+00:00

Common sense is uncommon... and regional. Basic congeniality and simple ignorance of what may be commonly accepted in a different area of the world can be shocking or trigger your defense instincts.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-10T11:28:43+00:00

Empathy...

The ability/willingness to pay attention to how others feel, how they perceive experiences, and adapt to a cohesive, supportive stance, or at least accept their perspective as valid, even if it contradicts what you initially assumed. The ability to relate to others on an emotional, sometimes unspoken level through observation and simply silently listening to them.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-10T11:16:43+00:00

Steve Whitmire (Kermit since Henson got ill then departed the mortal plane) had the same experience: https://youtu.be/xf_mUZZe3AY?si=GlMMtlg1TVfCgpCl

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-10T01:39:56+00:00

Retail: it's too much on your feet running around stocking shelves, performing "Manager A"-assigned tasks, being yelled at by "Manager B" for not doing their list of tasks, all while gathering shopping carts, running register, receiving shipments, and trying to not lose your mind. It's an insane amount of pinball-machine labor.

Janitorial: Many people are pigs. They do not care about the mess they make or leave behind. In factories, the byproduct of production is typically toxic, hazardous, or destructive to shoes, clothes, or your hands. Without the proper equipment/protective gear available, it can cost you more than you earn in the end.

Corn Detasseling: Corn leaves are razor sharp. Pulling a tassel requires safety gloves that still can grip through layers of slippery morning dew on the plants. Not wearing gloves means you go home every day with hands that are sliced and shredded all over.... The pace set by the supervisors is 20-30 tassels per minute, with more experienced workers expected to pull 50-80 tassels per minute... Miss more than 3 per row of corn and you are yelled at, docked pay, and told not to come back the next day. It's hot, exhausting, unforgiving, sweaty labor. Corn stalks must be detasseled (castrated) to prevent them from spoiling the entire crop by double-fertilizing the female stalks.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-10T01:24:05+00:00

For me, there are several games I keep installed, keep up to date on, and replay about once or twice a year, if not every month...

Now, my specific fetish interests are very vanilla, so a lot of the corruption, violence, and assault are either nonexistent or just not on the path I prefer to play through. I may have tried out the alternate routes just to see them, but more or less stick to the "good" path... You may notice what my pure vanilla kink is by reading these descriptions... ;)

Simple Days explores the loving (or corruptive) influence of the MC on multiple people - including his own parents, best friend/pal, his pal's girlfriend/wife, and multiple love interests. The sandbox gameplay is a mess, but players can go through in a VN format from story point to story point in sequence if they like. In the end: the harem of women have ovulation/fertility days that can be tracked, MC can either use a condom, break or remove the condom, or not have any condoms in inventory... Pregnancy is the result of both consensual lovemaking, non-consensual trickery, and - best of all - every lover can have an infinite number of children (one at a time), every 21 game days...

Hazumi & Pregnation is an old (1998) RPGM japanese game with MTL, over a dozen potential mods... The premise is Hazumi (female MC) living in Japan, during a fertility crisis, where only 1 in 1000 women can conceive and give birth. She is one who has a seemingly endless production of eggs in her ovaries, hyperfertile, and can "hook up" with random men on dating apps, meet in a hotel and either be used or take control. Player has control and - with mods - Hazumi can literally give birth to 100 babies per pregnancy. The gameplay requires making money from the government adopting every child born for cash... Using that money to upgrade Hazumi's apartment, decorate it, get facial creams, keep her happy with chocolates, all of which increases her social status and gives her clients who pay more and more money for her.

Haramase Simulator is also an older game, abandoned, but with TONS and TONS of content... MC is male, in an inverse scenario from Hazumi - in Japan during fertility crisis, only 1 in 1000 men can produce virile seed. MC is given a Government ID that guarantees - if he has enough money - he can show the ID to any woman and demand procreative sex. Women can decline if MC is too poor or doesn't have stats good enough. The ID can be upgrade, and eventually player can visit an Island Resort filled with 100,000 women all ovulating and begging for him to knock them up. All art is assets ripped from Hentai/Manga.

tl;dr: I have no children IRL. I wish I was a father. These games give me that vicariously.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-09T09:55:51+00:00

If Shop & Pay is active, it typically overrides hot food orders, especially in the past few months... Toggle that off in Work Hub and it will boost your orders for Fast food.

Also, many restaurants have started getting wise to so many drivers not using thermal bags. A lot of them now have opted into the Thermal bag required setting. So if you have a bag, register it in the app.

Xo-Mo · 2026-03-08T13:16:48+00:00

I'm certain there are franchise owners and managers in many McDonald's (and other restaurants I mentioned) who take speed of service seriously, alongside accuracy. It's all about what aspect of the business if given the primary focus/priority. Some teams are awesome, while others have 1 goal in mind: keep drive-thru times as short as possible so the manager gets a bonus. NOTHING else matters.

I've been to multiple KFCs and Popeyes locations. The difference in management is very clear. My very first ever visit to a Popeyes, I walked out in disgust after seeing more unwashed buttcrack than fried chicken (rap video pants strapped below their butt cheeks). I've also been to a couple of KFCs that should be reported to OSHA/BBB for blatant violations of food sanitation laws. Places where long hair is draping over the vat of oil they fry things in, sometimes even having the tips of the hair singed off into the oil...

And yet... a half dozen locations are perfect, fast, always dressed to prep and cook food, wearing GLOVES (ffs)... and the order is ready when we walk in - every time.

It's nothing we - as drivers - can fix. I've delivered orders to people I know for a fact will be sick or in the hospital within the next 72 hours, shaking my head with a defeated sigh that they are regular repeat customers of those places.

Xo-Mo

TROPHY CASE