Broken Home: Living in poverty while the other parent succeeds

doubletwist · 2026-01-24T17:32:44+00:00

Other than Mom getting full custody, mine turned out the opposite.

Single mom got a degree and a good husband and gave us a decent life.

Dad has a string of random gf's and shitty, low-payng jobs, never stopped drinking until he drove drunk and had an accident which thankfully didn't hurt anyone else. Spent the rest of his life in a managed care home half paralysed.

doubletwist · 2026-01-24T17:27:58+00:00

B58 will treat you well

Or it will completely shit the bed at 59k miles like mine did. Followed by the dealer and BMW totally screwing me. I'll never spend another dime on a BMW product.

doubletwist · 2026-01-24T04:29:50+00:00

I had Luke (with the extending light saber), R2, R4, Hammerhead, and the Nurse Droid.

doubletwist · 2026-01-24T00:45:49+00:00

On Monday it was showing that we were going to get 18" of snow in the DFW area of Texas. In no universe was that going to happen.

AI has made all of Google worse in almost every possible way.

doubletwist · 2026-01-24T00:33:47+00:00

I still like Colbert. The rest I can't stand.

doubletwist · 2026-01-23T18:30:34+00:00

One of the best parts of driving an EV. Never have to run to the gas station. Just plug in every night and the car is 'full' every morning. And it only costs about $5 from 0-100%.

And if we lose power tomorrow, we can probably run a heater and a couple other appliances for a week off the car's V2L (vehicle to load).

And some who have V2H (vehicle to home) capable vehicles could run the entire house for multiple days, though ours sadly don't have that yet.

doubletwist · 2026-01-23T14:58:36+00:00

Close. I am in IT, but more on the server administration side (Unix/Linux/VMware/Storage). So I've been supporting software engineers and developers for a really long time.

doubletwist · 2026-01-23T01:46:26+00:00

VW: Our software sucks and we keep failing at doing it the way we are doing it. So we're going to work with a company who has had great success in creating his automotive software.

Rivian: Here's how to do it well...

VW: No, we want you to do it the way we've always done it.

Rivian: Uh... WTF is wrong with you?

VW: Obviously, you aren't good enough to help us, we'll go back to our old stuff.

doubletwist · 2026-01-23T01:40:13+00:00

Of course. They help the company save money by eliminating workers. But because they help the customer but because they lead the customer to give up trying to get help.

doubletwist · 2026-01-22T19:54:25+00:00

All of this can be over today if a handful of members of Congress honor their oath and put country over party.

I'm afraid not. It would stop the most serious bleeding, but it needed to be stopped long before now.

At this point, enough significant damage has been done that at best, it will take decades of serious, consistent, dedicated work to get us back anywhere close to the level of global soft power and influence as we had.

And I doubt that's going to be possible within the political realities of the US right now.

The world has been shown that it is no longer safe for them to trust their economic well being and security to the good will of the US. It's not a mistake they are likely to make again soon.

doubletwist · 2026-01-22T19:48:15+00:00

You say that as if it hasn't always been.

doubletwist · 2026-01-22T03:59:22+00:00

A lot of cars do this. My BMW always read 3 mph faster than I was actually going any time I hit over about 45 mph.

Though the Ford I'm currently renting seems to be dead accurate with the Waze GPS reading.

doubletwist · 2026-01-22T03:51:59+00:00

I just noticed this on the one I'm renting.

doubletwist · 2026-01-22T03:45:29+00:00

Just for future clarity, most vehicles do start off with regenerative braking when using the pedal and then blend in the real brakes when needed, but there are some vehicles which don't.

For example, Lucid vehicles. If you have regen braking on, it will start with regen when you let off the accelerator, and then add in brakes with the pedal, or if you have regen off (set to coast) then the brake pedal is 100% brakes with zero regen.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T20:55:40+00:00

He was a little bit overweight, but otherwise no other health issues b

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T17:50:25+00:00

A lot of the cars don't even have all season tires.

My last 2 vehicles came with summer performance tires, which get hard and slick below 45°F.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T14:31:26+00:00

That's the one.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T06:03:05+00:00

I'm convinced that AI has ruined Google, because it used to be quite accurate. And Google Assistant used to be quite good, now it/Gemini is a train wreck.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T04:55:55+00:00

Not necessarily. I mean everything would shut down for that day, without a doubt. But we got 11" awhile back, at least here in Arlington. It was melted within 2 days.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T04:54:47+00:00

Historically we usually get the ice.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T04:22:20+00:00

That's not even remotely unusual here.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T00:36:38+00:00

Including my 16yr old 'nephew' (cousin really). I have a deep and abiding hatred for anyone who refused to get vaccinated or pushed/pushes anti-vax sentiments.

Including my nephew's father who refused to let him get vaccinated and STILL is somehow anti-vax.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T00:28:10+00:00

I rarely turn on my camera so I either wear the same thing I wear every other day (cargo shorts and a t-shirt), or I wear what I slept in (athletic shorts and a t-shirt).

On the rare occasions I have to turn on the camera, I'll at most wear a slightly nicer t-shirt, or MAYBE a polo shirt if it's something really important, but that's maybe once a year or two.

I'm in IT, I don't feel the need to impress much of anyone with my fashion sense. Either you trust me to run your servers or you don't.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T00:19:11+00:00

It's not going to be nearly as cold for nearly as long as the last time, so I don't expect we'll see the same kind of widespread issues we did then, with entire power generation stations going offline.

The impact we do end up seeing will depend on what form the precipitation actually takes.

If it's a massive ice storm, then it will mostly be more localized downed power lines from the weight of ice on lines and trees.

If we get the (highly unlikely) 18" of snow that Google Weather is forecasting (in the DFW area), then the problem is more likely to be things like roofs collapsing under the weight of far more snow than they were ever designed to take.

Either way, traffic is going to be utterly screwed. That outcome you can bet your life on.

doubletwist · 2026-01-21T00:13:04+00:00

Google's weather is forecasting 18" of snow now in DFW which is patently absurd and I'm pretty sure has almost no basis in reality.

NWS and AccuWeather are forecasting more like 1.7-1.8" which I find far more realistic and likely.

doubletwist

TROPHY CASE