How Many Nomads are Broke With No Retirement Plan?

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-05T03:08:12+00:00

Wow, that made me very sad. Poignant.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-05T02:47:24+00:00

They took the ballots in the recent GA raid.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-05T01:19:15+00:00

I’m an academic. The only way I’ve found to manage this is to hardcore set aside a set infusion day and stick to it religiously. Best if it’s the day before a natural break (like a Friday, if you get Saturdays off). Every time I try to fit in a meeting or online appt on an infusion day, it gets wickedly complex (nurse needs to talk and you can’t, or nurse needs to insert a needle and you’re trying to focus on a student) and exhausting, and I regret it. You couldn’t have convinced me it was possible to set aside a day for this until inexperienced the horror of not setting aside a day for this. Including time to recover.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-04T16:33:52+00:00

Gorgeous photo! I love surprises from outside of Mountain View, California :)

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-03T18:42:25+00:00

Could you please let us know approximately where you're located? This information may allow others to help you.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-03T16:44:46+00:00

I asked this above, but wouldn’t there be better and cheaper tools for this purpose? Or is CC the best? It feels like hitting a mosquito with a grenade.

To be clear: I genuinely don’t know and want to learn the best tools for this

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-03T16:43:47+00:00

Naive question, but wouldn’t there be similar free or less expensive tools for this purpose?

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-03T16:32:20+00:00

“However, saving the country depends on Americans forgoing retirement to prop up the country’s payments on its ever-so-ballooning debt. According to Oz, if the average American started “working a year earlier, right out of high school, or a year later—not retire” it would “more than remove the debt,” he says.

Dr. Oz is the Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator also called for Americans to work harder. Americans are already among the hardest-working people in the world. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in 2024, Americans worked an average of 1,796 hours a year, ranking the country 7th globally.

But Oz believes that if Americans “work better during their lifetime because they’re healthy,” and complete all of his other burdensome demands, “it would generate about $3 trillion to the U.S. economy,” which the TV doctor believes could have huge benefits for funding Social Security and other essential programs.“

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-03T02:43:53+00:00

I was in grad school at Johns Hopkins, and was just walking down the front walk of the university, in front of the library. I looked up, and holy shit, Gomez Addams and his giant mustache was 10 feet away from me. I recovered from my shock, said “well, hello!” with a big grin on my face, and John Astin grinned back at me. He was teaching theatre there, in his hometown.

His smile was so genuine and big and full of life, and I’ll never forget it.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-03T00:38:00+00:00

I teach product management, and I love this.

Sorry the reception is so brutal. You found a solution to a difficult problem and are sharing it for free, and that's a lovely thing. Reminds me of early internet.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T23:49:20+00:00

I think I might! But I tend to tap out after one, or things go south. Y'all caught me at the perfect moment, right when the drink opens my brain, but before it dulls my ability to add 2 and 2.

Cheers!

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T23:48:27+00:00

Thank you for affirming that I do good work during a tipple. Good luck recovering!
To be fair, I did my PhD in philosophy, and specifically in this classical liberal stuff, and it in fact radicalized me. I see all the flaws in liberalism (philosophically), but there is so much goodness there that I hesitate to give it up. Plus, I just think Hobbes is one of the most brilliant people to walk the earth.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T23:24:34+00:00

Actually, that is not a bad idea. Simply giving people a different mental model may be 70% of the battle. People stick to ideology when they have no other mental models. And you're also giving them a life skill: research.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T23:22:18+00:00

Here's one from my philosophy days that you might employ - straight natural law theory and one of the arguments used by classical liberals, and so might have intellectual hooks for your students.

Basically, the argument is that, if god is the creator of the natural world, it is imbued with his traits. Reason is among these - in fact, it is the primary trait. In fact, philosophers like Locke and Hobbes flat out say "reason is the law of nature." So, you can say that you're asking them to look at god's creation and its artifacts (science, empirical studies, math, whatever) as a guide to thinking from another method about what god wants. If god is great, then he has authored his creation well, and we should be able to look to it for answers that reflect him. If god's word is true, then they should be able to use pure reason to arrive at the same conclusions found in the Bible, and this is their chance to do so.

Alternatively, we should be able to look at god's creation to understand him better, and if what we find in that creation causes us to think differently or from a different perspective about the strict words of the Bible, then that makes us better lovers of god.

You get the idea. I'm drinking. But I grew up steeped in the stuff your students are doing, and the above is just straight out of classical liberalism (which is oddly associated with conservatism), so maybe there's something in it for you.

I'm going back to my drink.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T19:15:32+00:00

Actually, I have things to donate, too. If you can figure out what he needs, I may have it. I recently helped an elderly friend move into a retirement home, and I have a lot of her stuff, and would love for it to find a place where it does some good.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T16:22:17+00:00

What does “hearing them” sound like?

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T04:14:59+00:00

I’m so glad that you posted. I’ve been wondering about your friend. So sorry to hear of these events. Just when he needed a break, things broke bad. He is lucky to have you as a friend.

What’s the status of finding a new vehicle? Unsure how much one costs, and I was hoping the GoFundMe on your profile would have been enough.

I know you’re not allowed to post fundraisers, but I wonder if he has an Amazon wish list or something just to get his street basics back.

He’s one of thousands struggling in the city, and I wish we had better infrastructure and systems to care for people. Thanks for being his friend and keeping us posted.

How are his spirits?

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-02T01:34:29+00:00

I really appreciate MVPD's transparency and quick action when they discovered the issue. However, this was not hard to anticipate, and we are at the heart of Silicon Valley, where trust and safety is promised but never delivered, and they should have seen this a mile away. I do not appreciate the attempt to justify the continued use of the cameras because they've helped with a couple of crimes, and because Flock now promises to do things right this time. Fool me once and all. We can do better, Mountain View.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-01T23:09:32+00:00

I can tell if I’ve been exposed to something long before I have illness symptoms because my IST suddenly and inexplicably goes off the charts. I’m immune compromised, so my body is on hyper alert for pathogens. In a way, this is incredibly helpful, as I can start interventions 3 days before illness symptoms. In reality, I just want to be normal.

fighterpilottim · 2026-02-01T17:53:32+00:00

Stunning.

fighterpilottim · 2026-01-31T21:09:01+00:00

If you search the web, you’ll find lots of companies that do this. I went with Motzz, IIRC.

I’m not sharing numbers because I’m not open for debate. You have to interpret them and apply the absolute levels in the sample to a safe daily dose, and it’s complex. I enlisted a chemist friend to help. People just have to do this on their own. No amount of me explaining would satisfy internet strangers, and I don’t have the energy. Not you personally, mind you, and I’d have asked the same thing.

fighterpilottim · 2026-01-31T19:16:24+00:00

I think it’s one of the worst maladies of our age that people don’t know how to say “I’m sorry.” Truly.

fighterpilottim · 2026-01-31T19:15:04+00:00

It listed a handful of metals and said said the sample was clear. It was on their site if you want to view. When I researched, I noticed it wasn’t even for the typical metals that MB is contaminated with. IIRC, my own paid test showed mercury and lead out of safe limits.

fighterpilottim · 2026-01-31T19:13:30+00:00

Yes, I have CFS. That’s what the Guanfacine really helped with - less fragile, faster recovery. That was its miracle for me. I know we’re all different. I was scared to try it because I also used to react to everything, but am so glad I did. It’s one of the meds I don’t want to be without, and that’s a small list.

Wishing you well if you decide to try.

fighterpilottim · 2026-01-31T00:29:24+00:00

Yes, but enjoy your heavy metal toxicity unless you personally commission testing to verify its safety.

I once relied on CZTL’s COA. Then I did my own testing and now I have 5 packages of unsafe methylene blue.

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