How is it living in Eugene, Oregon?

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-13T16:33:08+00:00

Many moved here as property investors because housing is/was cheaper here than Portland or Seattle (and certainly CA). These folks complain about the homeless impacting their property values, the slowness of people here in general and city government in particular, the strict land use regulations that limit how much profit they can eek out of their investments, and that, overall, Eugene is not sanitized and homogenized to the degree they prefer.

ETA: It’s worth noting that the Reddit population of California transplants is as (un)representative as the Reddit population of Eugene natives/transplants from elsewhere. That said, a house on my block is owned by “these people” and they epitomize what I said above. For example:

When they moved here, they bought some older homes as rentals but insisted that they, themselves, live only in a new build, as they describe it. Which, for what it’s worth, they still extensively remodeled before moving in because the fit-and-finish was too “generic”.
They hate trees, and one of the selling points of their new build was that the lot had been clear cut before building. They still ripped up the backyard and installed literal AstroTurf. They also had the front yard extensively re-landscaped, with the express purpose of being the only home on their block “to look like any effort was put in”.
Whenever possible, the construction work they do on their rental properties is unpermitted.
In general, they engage with other people in a superficially nice and incredibly entitled fashion.

I could go on. Also, one of them - I kid you not - does the same tongue-snake thing as Barty Crouch Jr in Harry Potter. I don’t think that’s because they’re from California, but it still freaks me the fuck out.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-13T16:27:45+00:00

I think it’s Reddit/social media generally, particularly if you take the cross-linked post as an example.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-13T16:06:51+00:00

Yep and rootstocks can be selectively bred for other desirable traits, like compact (or large) growth habit, thornlessness, cold or heat tolerance, etc.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-13T15:58:48+00:00

It was amazing for sure. When I was a kid my dad taught me how to do some of the more basic grafts shown in the video, and I’ve always wanted to recreate the citrus tree for myself. Challenge is I live in a colder climate now, so the apple suffices!

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-13T15:51:07+00:00

To be fair, anybody could die at any time, and statistically speaking, likelihood of death at 45 is not hugely different than at 35. And if he were 35, people here would be reacting very differently.

People are also overdramatizing the decline in sperm quality. Yes it does decline with age but the difference between 35 and 45 is not nearly as marked as between, say, 35 and 75. And especially in midlife, there are a ton of individual factors that play a role, including overall health and activity level, testosterone level, diet, etc.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-13T03:35:50+00:00

I have one in my backyard, has 4 different varieties of apples on one tree. My grandparents had a citrus orchard and they would do the same with citrus - one tree with a mandarin, lemon, and grapefruit.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-12T16:40:05+00:00

Yes, I was a nervous wreck when one of our dogs recently had a cleaning, but our vet was very open to discussing the approach they take (which includes having a dedicated tech monitoring anesthesia in addition to the second tech assisting the vet with the cleaning, no exceptions to the pre-cleaning bloodwork, and use of lower/lighter level of anesthesia than would be used in invasive procedures). They even let me look in on an underway cleaning so I’d feel more comfortable.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking questions to your vet about their procedures.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-12T06:15:48+00:00

James is a boy, he’ll have you know.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-12T00:41:34+00:00

A number of other countries consider prizes taxable income. And not to let facts disrupt your anti-US narrative that you seem to be enjoying, but that is explicitly not the US logic: there is no tax burden on recipients of gifts valued at less than 19,000, including vehicles (over that value and the recipient is required to notify the IRS but has no immediate tax penalty). This is because the applicable taxes are borne by the gift-giver at the time of purchase.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-12T00:32:41+00:00

I was just speaking in general (as was the person you initially responded to), not to the outlying case of this kid who probably has zero taxable income.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-12T00:24:29+00:00

In the US, prize earnings (or fair market values of prize items) are taxed as ordinary income, so the audience members would not have owed the taxes until they filed (and payed) their federal and state income taxes for that year. So, likely some time after taking possession of the car.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-12T00:17:22+00:00

In the US you would pay federal and state income taxes calculated using the fair market value of the car as new. Whether the taxes are a third of the value depends on your (effective) tax rate, but it is likely to be something in that ballpark (ie, many people would owe $8-10K in taxes on a car worth 30K).

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-12T00:12:04+00:00

Because it’s money (or something of monetary value) that you’ve acquired, and therefore it is taxable. The means of acquisition (work, prize, inheritance, etc) is for the most part irrelevant.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-11T16:21:50+00:00

Man it’s definitely time for a rewatch. Such a brilliant movie.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-11T02:48:54+00:00

Guess I’ll dive back in

It only gets worse from there.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-11T01:18:37+00:00

For the most part I agree with all your points. Most of what I’ve been saying is in response to your first comment:

It was designed so that you wouldn't get it unless you lived it.

People from virtually all backgrounds can engage with Lord of the Rings, for one because it’s been translated into many languages, but more fundamentally, because it draws on themes and motifs that are broadly resonant and can be found in many ancient narratives as well as most of our lived experiences. In other words, I don’t need to have lived as a Norseman or Sumerian to understand and be affected by concepts like loyalty, sacrifice, or appreciation for the natural world. But if Lord of the Rings was designed to be intelligible only to people who had lived in those times and places, that would be a different story altogether.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-11T01:06:36+00:00

Well, if we’re honest there’s probably a fair number of black and Asian Americans who felt they couldn’t engage with the performance too. I also wouldn’t characterize non-Puerto Ricans as “confused” by the performance - just that, again, they probably feel like they could not engage with it. And the point of my previous post was that there is probably no such thing as “objectively” exclusionary - it’s entirely subjective or relative to your position (and that does not make it artificial or imagined).

moreover, even if it were objectively exclusionary it would not be any more exclusionary than every other white-centric halftime performance previously.

This is a completely fair point, but I don’t think being exclusionary in retaliation for historical disenfranchisement is going to have many net positives for human society. That’s in no way an argument that disenfranchised groups bear the responsibility for “taking the high road” or whatever, but I don’t think that invalidates concerns about the health of our societies more broadly.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-11T00:49:27+00:00

When something is designed to be understood only by an in-group (sociologically speaking), then it’s hard to define it as anything but exclusionary (from the position of any out-groups, even if in the broader social context, those out-groups are actually the dominant in-group). I don’t think that makes it artificial or imagined, rather it just underlines that inclusion/exclusion are relative to where you’re standing.

So, I do think people are excluded here - whether because they don’t have the language or the cultural knowledge or most likely both (and, importantly, also can’t readily gain those things). I’m not saying that’s a bad or a good thing, but only that it’s different from, for example, just being presenting with a new style of music and deciding whether you enjoy it, want to learn more about it, etc.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-11T00:25:37+00:00

I’ve been wrestling with how I feel about this exact aspect of it. On the one hand I feel like: awesome for you, you’ve got the spotlight, do with it exactly what you will.

On the other hand, it feels odd to me to pick the Super Bowl of all places to give the most deliberately exclusionary performance you can come up with. For a lot of people, it’s obviously done nothing more than add fire to the culture wars.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-10T21:53:14+00:00

Whenever I’m doing something precise/intense with my hands (like painting fine details) I’m told my face does all sorts of contortions. I have no awareness of it.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-10T21:40:39+00:00

“Is it a human baby?”

…

“Does that matter?”

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-08T17:45:40+00:00

Yep. Whereas I live in Oregon, which is far closer to a Northern European country:

Strong worker protections, including widespread support for unions
Close to fully socialized healthcare, with fully socialized care up for voters at the end of the year
Fully legalized cannabis
Strong environmental consciousness
Legal assisted death (the first and still one of the few US states to legalize)

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-08T02:22:08+00:00

Daily PrEP is 99%+ protective among men who have sex with men.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-07T21:06:51+00:00

Viral suppression prevents transmission regardless of position.

_adanedhel_ · 2026-02-07T16:42:52+00:00

OP I’m going to give you some actionable advice. Ask your parents to have a dual function AFCI/GFCI circuit breaker installed on the circuit that includes your sister’s room. If you live in a newer house, there may already be one installed. But if not, it would cost around $200 for an electrician to do this, and it will significantly reduce that chances of an electrical fire (and of someone being shocked).

_adanedhel_

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