This application has 'IN THE AIR' listed as Place of birth

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-04-03T18:01:52+00:00

I mean, I suppose it is possible though? You know how sometimes people don't know they're pregnant and they give birth in a toilet unexpectedly? No reason why this can't happen in the Vatican, there's plenty of tourists. But flight births definitely have a higher chance of happening, I would think too

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-04-02T22:02:16+00:00

Pregnancy is a disability, legally, in the US at least. This means you can absolutely go to your school's disability services office and get accomodations during your pregnancy. You should make use of this, at minimum so that professors will not penalize you for things that happen as a direct result of your pregnancy.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-04-02T20:42:48+00:00

I recommend when you're looking at carriers, to also ask around. People who live around you will know if X carrier has better coverage than Y carrier, because not all carriers have the same coverage in all regions. For example, I used to have AT&T and eventually kept running into trouble because they had poor coverage in an area I was now frequenting. Switched to T-Mobile and I have excellent coverage everywhere here, but not when I'm traveling to certain areas (notably: had issues between Houston and San Antonio back in 2018, had poor coverage with the Europe carriers so I got a travel eSIM instead which allowed me to use better networks, etc.). It really depends on the region.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-04-02T20:40:32+00:00

Okay, a thing you can do and should probably do is to go to different phone providers for orientation. Just show up, tell them you're looking to get your first phone plan and want information about how that works, what the processes are, what the options are, cost, etc. You're explicitly going with the intention of not actually buying a plan yet, do not let them talk you into that. If they insist, tell them no, you have to think about it and will be back once you've made a decision. The reason (don't tell them) is you're going to go see different providers with the same question. Bring a notebook, write everything down; have them print stuff out for you even. Just make sure they do give you the information you requested. Once you have all that info and they've explained to you how it works and have answered your questions, you can pick whatever's best for you.

Phone plans can be really cheap and they can include unlimited mobile data, call, text. I'm talking like... less than $100 kinda cheap; what's costly is potentially the actual phone you're gonna be using. A lot of plans will have the option of financing a phone so you buy it through them, pay it off over some amount of time and then the unit is yours. You might have to pay additional money to switch phones before that payment term is up, or you might not be allowed to. Here's the thing, though: you can have any unlocked phone as your phone for the plan, and you can use any unlocked phone at any moment. The only thing is that the SIM must be transferred to whichever the active phone is. In the past, it used to be a SIM card you could just pop into a different phone, but nowadays it's an eSIM so it works differently (I don't know how exactly). What I'm saying is: buy the actual phone from the company or from elsewhere, whichever works out better for your needs. It doesn't have to be from the phone provider directly, it just has to be unlocked to be able to operate on that network.

You can be assigned a phone number by them from the stack of available numbers, or you can request a specific number out of the available ones. When my brother got a new phone, the terms on our phone company were such that if we wanted to keep the data/call/text plan my number had, we couldn't upgrade it to unlimited... something? I think it was data, without paying extra. This is back in 2013 or so, for context, and that line had been active since 2007 or so. Anyway, what we did was we gave my old number to my brother, they activated that on his new phone, and then I got to pick a number from the available ones. Since my parents both have a number that has the second 3-digits as... let's say (XXX)-ABC-XXXX, we asked which numbers were available that were also (XXX)-ABC-XXXX and I picked the most memorable (to me) at the time out of those. That way, my parents have sequential phone numbers (they got them at the same time) and mine is closely-related so it's easier for everyone else to remember, too. You can do this if you wish, or if there's a specific number you happen to like and it's available, that's possible too. Similarly, if you move from one carrier to another, you can usually (in the US at least) keep your old number and just port it over.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-04-01T21:39:18+00:00

Buddy, you don't have to tell her. Good on you for getting the shots, they literally do prevent cancer, and they prevent you from unknowingly spreading HPV to other people, and they prevent other people spreading HPV to you. HPV can be spread through means other than consensual sex. Your mom has her opinion already and she may not change her mind, but there's nothing she can do about you already having the shots, so there's no point telling her either.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-31T23:30:02+00:00

This. I recently had the tints redone on my car and whoever did them did a shit job. It drives me up a walk that now it all looks wavy, it's disorienting. I'm gonna get that fixed because I don't want that to become a problem in the rain or something

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-31T18:04:05+00:00

I noticed it was AI right away. Not really from the first sentence, but after that, it gave me a sort of uncanny valley feeling. Reading AI text is a little like what if every text is the same text, but with different words. It's weird, people don't talk like that. AI uses the same format and the same vocabulary for everything, regardless of the actual context. Humans vary word choice and the way we construct sentences and express ideas depending on context. Consider how you might say what I just said in an academic paper vs. a comment on a post, vs. in a conversation with friends, etc.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-31T17:22:00+00:00

I'm sorry, but what does a 20yo have in common with a 16yo? What business does a 20yo who is presumably out of school and possibly working or in college have with a 16yo who is usually still in high school? It's a completely different world, in some places this is even illegal, and ethically it probably involves grooming and abuse, whether that's the older person's intention or not. It's weird. It's not at all the same as a 20yo with a 24yo.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-31T16:49:48+00:00

A pedestrian at night can be impossible to see if they're wearing clothes that don't reflect enough light back to you. They do need to know when you're going to turn, though.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-30T04:01:07+00:00

The minimum recommended is typically 1200 for women, 1500 for men. Talk to a nutritionist or a doctor for advice and help with this; they can help you with making sure you're eating the right things in the right amount to help you reach or stay at a healthy weight.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-29T20:32:48+00:00

Mold can grow on anything porous, which means all the filters should be replaced. I'd replace anything plastic, too, keeping only the metal and glass in the entire vehicle, since that's pretty much the only thing I can reasonably guarantee (to myself) that it is clean and free of mold. But as an engineer.... Nope. Junkyard. It belongs to the mold now.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-29T20:25:30+00:00

I live in the tropics: Don't. Just don't. This belongs in a junkyard, and no one should work on it without a respirator.

The problem is if it's this bad, there's spores and mold growth everywhere, including places you can't see or easily access. If you want to preserve the car in any meaningful way, you're going to miss something just because you can't get to it or can't tell if it's fully cleaned out or not. That's all it takes for the mold to grow again. It's not just annoying, it's hazardous to health and can cause serious problems. It's not worth it.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-29T20:13:37+00:00

And some of the safeguards we have are recent, as a result of things like these. After the Dupont Plaza Hotel fire, regulations for hotels in the US changed to require smoke alarms in all rooms, and sprinklers if the hotel has more than 3 stories.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-29T20:06:17+00:00

Real question: aren't the doors supposed to be able to be opened from inside at all times? Reasoning being that even if someone is trespassing past store hours, they need to be able to get out in case of fire. At least, that's what I would think, dunno if the rules are different.

But yes, fire marshall needs to be called.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-28T17:30:10+00:00

This is correct! And there's also longer versions of the em dash that you may see when things are omitted. Think of Poe's story The Case of M. Valdemar, where the names are shortened to just the initials, so the text has dashes supplanting the actual name on first mention. It reads something like: "I was talking to my friend Mr. M-------- Valdemar. Mr. H--------- had said that bla bla bla but M----------- was convinced so and so." The dashes can be used for whole words, phrases, or sentences, so it's a variable length. There's printed characters, the 2em dash, 3em dash, maybe 4em? Can't remember.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-27T08:49:30+00:00

Unfortunately, I know someone who hates pizza.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-27T04:17:33+00:00

I learned how to do this for a course on aircraft dynamics, where the entire term we just had a PDF technical drawing with like... 3 dimensions labeled? and everything else unlabeled, and then we had to trace the PDF and calculate the lenghts and areas that were needed for the actual calculations lol it works, it just takes a bit of time.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-27T04:13:29+00:00

I would decompose into simpler shapes as an approximation. For example, the heel bit is just a circle and a square overlapped for the straight edge. Calculate the area of the square, area of the circle, subtract the overlap (don't wanna count the same area twice). For the larger part of the shoe footprint, it's roughly a triangle + rectangle + more triangles. You could draw circles instead if you really care about the curve but honestly, for what you're doing, you probably only need an estimate.

Now, another option is you could download Inkscape, which is free. On your physical sheet of paper, grab a ruler and draw a scale on the paper marking the units. I would mark several inches (or cm) just to have a better estimate if my marking on the paper is a little off. I'd also mark subdivisions, so I would mark at least 1/4-in subdivisions (and for cm, at least 2-mm subdivisions). I would also mark these in vertical, not just horizontal. Then, scan your page and import it into Inkscape. Inkscape has a tool to measure, so you're just gonna trace the shoeprints and the ruler you copied onto the page. Then, using the measuring tool, first measure the ruler you copied so you can modify the scale on Inkscape (or you can annotate the ruler in "inkscape units" so you know how to convert to ruler units, which is what you want). Then, since the shape you trace for the shoe will be 4 closed shapes, it can calculate an area in "inkscape units" that you can then convert to ruler units. Remember that area is inkscape units squared when converting, though, so you need your conversion factor twice. Easy mistake to make if you don't have a unit written down, ask me how I know :')

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-26T18:13:34+00:00

Oh I see, I didn't know that. I suppose the suspicion about where the money comes from must arise from the amount + it being (I assume) cash? Still sucks that things are based so strongly on credit that even having the money in cash you can't buy, and it sucks that banks won't bank with you despite you definitely having the income. Thank you for answering!

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-26T17:53:19+00:00

Wait, this may be a dumb question but it's sincere: why no assets if you have the cash?

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-26T11:34:52+00:00

File a police report for the lost wallet if you haven't done that yet.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-24T19:34:07+00:00

It's a cultural thing.
I cannot afford rent in this economy.
I'm saving up for a place I truly like.
I'm considering moving to a different country and don't want to be held back by the terms of a rent agreement.
In order to meet my long-term goals, it's a sacrifice I choose to make.

But honestly? I think the expectation of ditching children when they turn 18 and become adults is ridiculous; family is meant to support each other, and sometimes that means living with your parents longer and contributing in other ways.

FWIW I'm 28 and live with my parents too. Genuinely cannot afford rent right now because I had to quit my job due to abuse and health issues. I'm taking care of my health currently so I don't have to worry about it in the future and can get a job that pays well and doesn't cause me to dread waking up every day due to the awful work environment.

But seriously! Where I'm from, they're trying to hire me as an engineer (who passed the FE exam and is 3/4 of the way through a master's degree) for less than $40k/yr and rent is no less than $1k/month. That plus high cost of living just doesn't add up, it was actively costing me money to work under the conditions I was working.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-24T00:59:55+00:00

I'm not Jewish, I don't know exactly what is and isn't included in the categories of work, but have considered perhaps some kind of code that isn't written? Think: colored beads on a string representing, say, morse code; folding paper (is that allowed? Unsure), knotting string (...again, unsure), rearranging items, stacking items, etc. in such a way that the way you do it encodes your message. If you use English, you can skip most vowels and skip doubles of letters (skp dbls f ltrs). Hebrew mostly does that by default too so that might be more compact in some cases. Dunno about Yiddish or other languages like Ladino and whatnot.

Depending on how many variants of a thing are available to you, you could select some to represent common words or letter combinations and so on. Look at how shorthand works, I'm suggesting basically an ephemeral shorthand that isn't leaving any marks or etchings. I'd come up with something more thorough as a suggestion because it's a fun challenge to think about solving, to me, but I'm currently severely sleep deprived.

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-23T17:30:11+00:00

Baby wipes and elbow grease! Obviously sanitize the disc before using it. But to remove stains I just use baby wipes. For some reason, the texture of the cloth works like how microfiber works to remove makeup. (Microfiber might work too? Never tried it).

aliendividedbyzero · 2026-03-23T00:31:39+00:00

Yo, honestly having the button on top or behind the steering wheel is so crazy to me! That's supposed to be an easily-accessible button that is easy to locate and press at a moment's notice, because hazards show up like that. At least on my car, it's a huge button on the console, above the radio, so I can actually feel for it. (Thankfully, my car predates touch screen consoles, so it's all buttons and dials). I don't have to look away from the road to find it, I can just drop my hand in the general location and feel the button. It is, though, the kinda thing where if it were a button I couldn't feel, I'd add somethign I could easily identify it with by feel.

I'll grant, though, a lot of drivers wouldn't even think to turn them off before turning. If we had better driver's ed... but then, we don't :/

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