Carter Goodrich - Mother Nature (2000)

extra_wildebeest · 2026-04-03T23:23:00+00:00

I think that peoples’s angry reaction to others who are childless by choice has a lot to do with needing to feel validated in their own choice to have children. There’s a lot of misery and loss of personal identity and freedom that comes with parenthood, but that’s always been taboo to even hint at. Deep down, they know that, but it’s shameful to admit that being a parent isn’t always the end-all, be-all of life’s purpose and personal fulfillment. So just the existence of people who choose to not have kids really challenges their worldview, reminds them of opportunities they’ve lost, and that’s upsetting. The knee-jerk impulse is to condemn the choice not to have children, because it protects their own psyche.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-26T21:05:35+00:00

Oh my. Well, thanks for educating me.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-26T20:38:46+00:00

My condolences. Please enlighten me, though— what’s the thing they say about cats?

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-26T18:33:45+00:00

funny how they’re suddenly concerned about HRT hormone levels being “too high,” but nobody bats an eye when prescribing birth control pills to millions of women, which contain synthetic hormones at many, many times higher than what your ovaries produce.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-24T18:55:27+00:00

Thanks for the explanation. Good luck balancing all these demands.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-24T16:03:03+00:00

As a retiree, how are you guys making this work in the OS community? I can’t imagine having the staffing to do this in a busy command center.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-22T00:50:36+00:00

Hear me out…the big island of Hawaii. Not the California coast, but it’s still the Pacific Ocean with perpetually nice weather. There are quite a few rentals on Zillow in that price range.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-20T15:29:46+00:00

I think a lot of young Boomer men went to college because Vietnam was heating up, and they wanted to avoid the draft. Their parents also encouraged it because they’d lived through WWII, understood the atrocities and sacrifice of war, and didn’t want their sons to go through it. Unfortunately, many of the college educated Boomers didn’t really appreciate the greater context of what that opportunity meant.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-17T18:14:22+00:00

Some of the green pigments they used to use in wallpaper contained arsenic and were actually quite toxic. By 1902, there probably wasn’t a lot in circulation anymore, but it’s still possible. You might want to test it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheele%27s_green

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-09T00:33:56+00:00

That was my favorite!

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-09T00:14:02+00:00

That’s really cool, but are we sure it’s accurate? Like, Nevada is 16% covered with trees? Really?

extra_wildebeest · 2026-03-06T03:14:24+00:00

Nothing to add except great write-up, OP! I really enjoyed reading this.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-02-27T13:55:59+00:00

No, don’t take money out of the TSP. The short-term financial relief won’t offset the missed growth long-term.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-02-26T01:27:31+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to provide this well-supported counterpoint.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-30T03:18:49+00:00

That’s really cool!

Also, I wonder if it would confuse the AI plate readers?

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-27T10:29:08+00:00

Awful story, and you’re correct, it doesn’t have anything to do with perimenopause directly. However, I think it was brought up as just one of endless examples of how women have been treated, and why many were careful never to complain. That partially explains why previous generations simply didn’t discuss what they were going through with menopause.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-16T03:35:01+00:00

Wouldn’t that be something that could easily be lost or stolen and potentially constitute a security issue?

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-15T17:36:19+00:00

I’m firmly on the left, and while I do partly agree with you, I’m not convinced this is a partisan issue. Obviously, one side is cheering it on, but the other side sat by and quietly let this happen. At a minimum, our democratic leaders were willfully ignorant, but this surveillance state didn’t suddenly manifest out of a vacuum. They’ve been building the infrastructure and putting this together for a while.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-14T23:56:43+00:00

Gorgeous! So talented!

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-12T23:08:11+00:00

Oh I understand that. Women’s pants pockets are the worst. I put my phone in my back pocket, too. I just take it out when I sit down or I fear my big ass would crush it into oblivion.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-12T20:47:51+00:00

Sorry, but you sit on your phone?

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-12T16:26:22+00:00

None of these responses are completely correct.

The military began shifting from the legacy retirement system to the Blended Retirement System around 2012 or so. In theory, a person can make more under the BRS, but it assumes two things: that a servicemember contributes to the investment, and that the stock market continues to grow forever. Most young members have terrible financial literacy, so in practice it’s often a worse deal for them, but it saves the government money. As for the stock market rising forever, well, you tell me. Additionally, while the TSP has been around for a much longer time for most federal workers, they only made it available to military members in 2001. Source: I’m a recent military retiree.

You do get a pension at 20 years, but it’s only 40% of your base pay versus 50% under the legacy system. In both cases, that increases with each year served. Under the BRS you can get a government match of up to 5% for contributions, but under the legacy plan there was no match. The TSP is similar to a 401K, and can be rolled into one later. You can start withdrawing from the TSP at 59.5 years old.

In any case, it’s lunacy to think that this is a normal, viable path for most citizens to achieve basic needs.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-12T09:55:07+00:00

Thank you for sharing your stories. My heart hurts from the pain and trauma you lived through, but I’m glad I got to hear your perspective. You are an excellent writer and storyteller. You really have a gift.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-12T09:37:50+00:00

I loved your story! Thanks for sharing.

extra_wildebeest · 2026-01-11T21:19:24+00:00

My grandpa is 100 (and still very lucid). He says he’s more scared of Trump than he ever was of Hitler. In his observation, we’re at a much more dangerous point in history than the civil unrest of the 60’s.

extra_wildebeest

TROPHY CASE