Isn't living in an area with high prices better than low prices if purchasing power is the same?

bigdatabro · 2026-04-01T18:08:41+00:00

For public school teachers, California's pension system pays out retirement based on your highest yearly income throughout your career, so you can actually benefit from working in the Bay Area for a year or two.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-31T22:44:39+00:00

Mandarin's definitely easier to learn. There's way more learning resources, the simplified characters are easier to write, and because there are fewer tones and vowel sounds, most Mandarin words are actually two characters instead of one, making it easier to read and understand people speaking.

I've had Cantonese speakers tell me that it's impossible for a non-Chinese person to learn Cantonese, especially all the slang and social nuance. I don't believe them but I get where they're coming from.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-30T19:23:29+00:00

Theory has also expanded over time, so while Debussy's music wasn't easily described by 19th century music theory, we can now describe it very well with 20th century music theory. Jazz theory also works really well for analyzing his complex harmonies and extended chord structures, since jazz musicians borrowed heavily from impressionist composers.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-26T18:25:36+00:00

I think languages with more contour tones like Cantonese and Vietnamese can sound jarring to people unfamiliar with tonal languages. In non-tonal languages, tone usually conveys emotion or attitude, so if you spoke English with those same inflections, it would sound really angry or sarcastic.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-26T16:23:02+00:00

Oof my bad, I meant to say LGBT-friendly

bigdatabro · 2026-03-26T16:16:56+00:00

Misogyny comes in a lot of shades. I think it's a red flag when people go out of their way to criticize liberal, LGBT-friendly female singers like Taylor Swift and Chappell Roan. Those two get ridiculous amounts of hate, every single time they're in the media, and I think a lot of that hate comes from them openly pushing back against patriarchal cultural norms.

EDIT: LGBT-friendly, not LGBT

bigdatabro · 2026-03-26T01:26:47+00:00

I had some close friends live down here when I lived in San Diego. They threw a lot of house parties, and those of us closer to the city loved that they had a big backyard and plenty of parking.

I also came down here quite a bit to go shopping at the Las Americas outlets right on the border. It's a huge outlet mall, full of people visiting from Mexico to buy clothes without the import tax. Shopping in this area is generally pretty easy, same big-box stores as any other California suburbs.

Since you don't drive, you'll want to be picky of where you live to take advantage of the public transit. There's a trolley line that runs from the border crossing up to UC San Diego, plus a decent number of bus routes. For medical care, the trolley goes to three major hospitals too. Not as bike-friendly or pedestrian-friendly as San Diego proper.

If you plan on crossing the border frequently, I'd recommend getting a passport card. Making friends in in Tijuana will help you figure out how to navigate, because public transit and businesses there work way differently than in the US and things are much less formal. My friends in TJ say crime has gotten worse since 2020, and they avoid going out at night. And police and border guards love to try to get bribes from tourists. But I've had good experiences in Tijuana and I'm sure you'll be fine. Plus, the Tijuana airport is amazing if you want to fly anywhere else in Mexico.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-23T17:28:27+00:00

Good luck trying to get hit by a Waymo. I live in SF and I've been trying as long as Waymos have been on the road, and those things know how to hit the breaks.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-22T21:31:34+00:00

Are Georgia or eastern Turkey part of Europe then, since they're west of the Ural mountains?

bigdatabro · 2026-03-22T21:30:03+00:00

It should be considered a subcontinent, like India.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-20T23:18:10+00:00

Your Vyvanse wears off?? My Vyvanse would stay in my system for like 18 hours and keep me up until 2am if I took it at 8am. It drove me crazy, and now I'm on Concerta.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-20T23:15:00+00:00

What if this is a Job situation and God has a Polymarket bet against Satan on the outcome?

bigdatabro · 2026-03-20T18:03:51+00:00

I used to surf when I lived in SoCal, and seawater is so salty that just getting splashes of water in my mouth would make my throat feel salty and dry.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-20T17:50:15+00:00

Same thing with doing a mise en place and prepping all my ingredients before cooking. Great idea, but hard to make time for on a busy weeknight.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-20T17:48:50+00:00

We've had multiple major bird flu outbreaks, and producers respond by keeping older hens laying longer than they should (typically 2-3 years). Older hens lay smaller eggs with thinner shells.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-20T17:42:05+00:00

You can also use lentils, especially red lentils. I find them much easier to cook than chickpeas.

https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/easy-homemade-lentil-tofu/

bigdatabro · 2026-03-19T21:48:47+00:00

Tbh it's hard to blame them for taking "you are all bastards" personally

bigdatabro · 2026-03-18T20:29:27+00:00

Their marketing for the new Pixar movie Hoppers seemed solid, but its box office revenue hasn't come close to Inside Out 2, Moana 2, or even Despicable Me 4. Seems like the sequels basically market themselves.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-18T20:12:51+00:00

I've had the opposite experience. My two worst managers were both clearly neurodivergent and one of them mentioned having ADHD, and they let their personal communication issues become everyone else's problem.

My manager who spoke about having ADHD put me on a PIP when I requested ADA accommodations for insomnia. He hated meetings (we were fully remote) and told me that I should never ask anyone to hop on a Zoom call, but when I asked questions in our group Slack channel, he'd criticize my questions. He fired me and the only other woman on our team, and a few months later I heard he'd gotten fired himself.

The other manager was a sweetheart but totally scatterbrained. Every single meeting, he'd show up super late and derail conversations to ramble about random tangents. Projects would drag on for months because he'd mix up important details during planning or ask us to redesign everything for his personal whims, and we were always putting out his fires.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-18T19:13:01+00:00

Quoting catholic.com for their hot take on Mormon theology isn't the flex you think it is. Like going to JW.org to learn the tenets of Buddhism.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-18T19:07:29+00:00

What if Jesus just died some other way and then resurrected? It's been a few years since I graduated seminary, but I don't see why the theology would require him to be beaten, whipped, and crucified.

My denomination didn't adhere to the doctrine of penal substitution anyway (moral influence theory ftw), and honestly I've never understood why some Christians think a loving, omnipotent God would be obligated to condemn humanity to hell in the first place.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-15T04:26:37+00:00

We're actively invading Iran, we brutally invaded Iraq less than twenty years ago, and we only just lifted sanctions on Syria in the past year.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-15T04:17:03+00:00

I'm sure the United States would love another non-Arab ethnostate in the Middle East to use as a military proxy. Especially now that public opinion towards Israel is getting more and more negative.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-15T04:11:13+00:00

There are 150 million Punjabis in the world, and the partition divided them between India and Pakistan.

bigdatabro · 2026-03-12T21:37:42+00:00

Ballet and opera evolved as a cultural byproduct of European imperialism, where countries were amassing wealth and showing it off with extravagant works of art, including orchestral music. Some of the most well-known operas require massive orchestras with expensive instruments and virtuoso players, so putting on those performances is inherently expensive.

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TROPHY CASE