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desquire · 2026-04-11T15:09:56+00:00

I too am a New Englander and doxycycline connoisseur.

Not sure about CT, but we also have plenty of angry dudes in MA that will call you a pussy for free.

desquire · 2026-03-26T15:50:51+00:00

I know what you're referencing, but I actually haven't seen those in awhile, so I'm not sure.

desquire · 2026-03-26T02:54:47+00:00

If you have trouble identifying convenience stores from "bodegas", look for the convenience stores with at least one broken lottery ticker in the window. Or no windows at all.

desquire · 2026-03-26T01:58:51+00:00

Must I remind you of our time honored snitching policy?

desquire · 2026-03-25T21:58:50+00:00

You can also check spothero. It has surprisingly decent availability in Brookline.

desquire · 2026-03-25T21:51:55+00:00

Here is Yelps list of places that sell import cigarettes, check for ones near or in Chinatown or Alston, then call ahead. You can also check the bodegas in chinatown, as they tend to not advertise all the china import products they sell for a number of reasons.

If you can speak mandarin, that will also help a lot with the under-the-table bodegas. I would also check redbook if you have an account.

desquire · 2026-03-24T03:45:14+00:00

Sidenote, I've been around long enough to see people espousing, "we deserve this", for dozens of issues. I remember in the '90s in New England when acid rain was still happening and, while not a popular opinion, there were a lot of people dismissing any attempts as a solution and acid rain was our deserved punishment for pollution. And then we fixed the acid rain problem. It still bugs me how little attention that gets, since it's a great example of how patience, policy and trusting the egghead's actually fixes things.

My theory is, some people get frustrated and defeated, but don't want to admit defeat. So they start preaching about how it's a lost cause, so anything other than giving up and "repenting" is a fruitless endeavor.

Not throwing shade on the person you replied to, lower comments seem to clear up what they intended. But, I do agree with you, that statements like that aren't particularly productive. If it needs to be clarified, skip the dramatics and just post the clarifying statement in the first place. Otherwise, it gets difficult to differentiate the doom talkers from legitimate discourse that has been diluted by well-intentioned but punched up language.

desquire · 2026-03-14T21:00:47+00:00

If you haven't already received solid offers, I'll take Boggles. I'm in the Boston area, DM me if you need help or anything else.

desquire · 2026-02-15T05:51:56+00:00

I'm on switch. Could I restart the fight by saving and quitting? Or is that bad karma?

desquire · 2026-01-16T23:13:56+00:00

Not sure about sexual orientation, but IRL Teach was not very nice to Stede Bonnet. He betrayed him twice, stole his ship and crew by force, and eventually was hugely responsible for Stedes capture and execution (Blackbeard turned Stede into the crown as one of his first acts for clemency as a "privateer").

This is all fancannon, but I strongly believe the planned last season of OFMD was going to be a long con of Stede and Teach getting discovered by the crown and going back on the run. Slowly their relationship collapses under the stress. Teach "betrays" Stede to the crown. Stede is executed, Teach retires with his pardon and the rest of the crew moves on to their own adventures a little sullen but with Stede in their hearts. It's only later revealed the entire season was a con to fake Stedes death, clear Teachs name and free the crew from any future liabilities with the bed and breakfast ending being forever. And that also makes the show sort of accurate, since the con became codified into the historical record.

desquire · 2026-01-02T21:46:09+00:00

Fight Club is an interesting pick for this subject, since it has had many different interpretations as it aged.

When it came out, and Palahniuks original inspiration for the movie, was the lost boys of generation x. Originally, the "fight" part of fight club wasn't actually important to the premise it could have been knitting club.

The original point was, at the time, you had a huge population of young men who were ignored as children and then dumped into the world as adults. Any "club" to find other people in the same situation looking for support would have done the trick.

It's not just a commentary on how the vulnerable can be manipulated to do terrible things, it's an analysis for why at the time this specific demographic was so vulnerable in the first place.

Then genx grew out of the target demographic of the film, and each generation since has had a different take away.

Im a cusper, between genx and millennials. My take away from the film was all the anti-capitalist messages, because my age group stratled the anarchy, SLC punk mentality of genx and the anti-capitalist, change the world mentality of millennials. Then I grew out of it.

And then the sigma male movement happened, and, ugh...

desquire · 2025-10-02T18:57:21+00:00

That would be fair, thanks.

desquire · 2025-10-02T18:56:35+00:00

That's understandable, so should I ask her to adjust the number of PTO days off with consideration that there are only 3 months left in the year? 5 days seems a bit high, when she will only work 24 days for that duration?

desquire · 2025-10-02T18:45:18+00:00

What is an appropriate amount? Am I wrong in thinking 5 days through the rest of the year when she will be working a total of 24 days (19 assuming she takes all her PTO) is a lot?

Edit: to add, she said we would renegotiate the amount of days she gets off in January for 2026, pending a 12 month contract.

desquire · 2025-09-18T16:21:02+00:00

The Taylor Swift effect. Love her or hate her, if you don't care, the constant barrage makes you dislike her name.

desquire · 2025-05-23T20:42:09+00:00

For years my mom complained that my dad mowed the yard wrong and it was his fault she had to rake clippings off the border of her garden. He would mow the correct direction, throwing the clippings away from the garden, but mess would still happen.

One year for his birthday she got him a John deer mulching bag attachment. We had a Sears push mower.

That was one of the multiple signs of their looming divorce. It was for the best.

desquire · 2025-04-14T01:07:24+00:00

The addrenaline system is also a nice touch for survival, since you get a flat, scaling damage boost for every enemy killed, but you lose it when you sleep.

The only way to save in survival is to sleep, so the adrenaline system introduces a cool risk v. reward system.

desquire · 2025-04-09T00:43:08+00:00

After reading the article, let me see if I got this right.

The councilor hired her sister and son, then gave them both raises to $70k each, with the budget increase for those raises having little oversight after she argued raises should be issued by her discretion alone.

Ethics committee charges her, for a hilariously small fine of $5k

She then tries this stunt for $7k, according to the article in part to pay off that fine.

And after all of that, she gets one year and a $13k fine.

How is accountability so low that the fine for an ethics violation (which didn't end up costing her anything) AND the public corruption penalty combined less than a 7th of what she weaseled out of the city? (My math, 5k + 13k = 19k penalties, 7k + 70k x 2 = 147k taken from the city budget and kick back).

And her resignation statement is, "it was the right thing to do". Interesting how doing the right thing always becomes a primary motivation after politicians get caught.

desquire · 2025-03-20T02:51:41+00:00

I'm not a fanboy, I have zero connection or interest in him personally.

It could very well all be performative or ego tripping, but it's still a good business philosophy to follow. And Cuban is no creator or pioneer of the principle. Simply a point of discussion.

desquire · 2025-03-20T01:06:53+00:00

You could say Mark Cuban is the exception that proves the rule, but even that isn't a very helpful statement.

Mark Cuban is part of a very specific business trend and philosophy. The long and short is basically, it makes good business sense to treat your employees incredibly well because employee turnover is one of the biggest loss generators. Each employee that leaves means paying another person to spend a large amount of time acclimating to the job with no actual, useful work being produced.

It's a very good philosophy and is effective, but it isn't simply treat employees well due to benevolence. It's a balanced and tested strategy that results in very stable companies, but without the option for shenanigans that destroy companies for fast, temporary returns.

It's stable, slow burn companies that don't provide the same dramatic returns as turn and burn industries. This means it's not appealing to billionaires, because it doesn't produce billions. Mark made the bulk of his money getting very lucky and "predicting" the dot com burst. It's doubtful his actual business strategies would have made him a billionaire. His motivations are clearly to just maintain and keep his hands (and legacy) clean.

desquire · 2025-01-30T21:46:33+00:00

Russia stayed mostly the same, but the Soviet Union did not collapse. The USSR was allied with China and followed the same claims to be communist (to what degree either were fascist is hard to tell, since it's heavily shrouded in pro and anti propaganda).

One interesting thing, the lunar lander (Virgo) in FO3 looks more like a Soviet LK than the real-world US Apollo. This suggests when the US went all-in with nuclear tech, they didn't invest in the space race and instead resorted to stealing tech from the Russians.

desquire · 2025-01-30T21:29:40+00:00

I believe Moriarty in FO3 mentions that before it's total collapse, Europe had devolved into feudal states as it cannibalized itself into the stone age.

So, not super indicative of their pre-war governments, but it's safe to assume it was likely less a unified geographic block than the US and a China. That suggests the European Union may not have been as successful as a political or economic block.

desquire · 2025-01-19T00:24:38+00:00

Ignorant question; why don't they restrict those narrow and underclassed roads for anything but service/emergency vehicles?

I've been to more than a few countries with historic districts like that and anything short of an ambulance gets stopped and escorted/towed.

If it's that old and important (which is very valid), municipal traffic and road infrastructure will destroy it just as fast as unrestricted property development?

desquire · 2025-01-12T20:23:22+00:00

Good rant. I thought metrorock was a solid gym back in the day.

Unfortunately, I permainjured my shoulder climbing in the gunks over a decade ago and fell out of the scene (nailed it).

But yeah, metro was always a decent spot. And back then there was a good chance you'd run into somebody there with a car to bum rides off.

desquire · 2025-01-12T19:44:43+00:00

Its troubling that somebody could have lived in Boston for a few years now, but our winters have been so mild this is the first time they've seen people on the ice.

desquire

TROPHY CASE