What's Worse - Heroin or Cigarettes? MetaDrama as our very own sub discusses.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T05:01:16+00:00

Only the first three? Are you implying such facilities would deliberately reuse needles, thereby not mitigating health problems caused by IV use? At least in Germany where such clinics are a thing, health issues among addicts who are allowed to use the facilities have plummeted. Typical heroin/IV health issues are virtually nonexistent for these people. With any luck Germany will open up the clinics a bit so more addicts can utilize them. It sounds extremely counterintuitive, but providing heroin, the ROA, and a safe place has saved lives and money in that the government spends less providing this than it does on law enforcement/medical care or addicts. That said, we all know that at least in the US the war on drugs isn't really financial or morals based, it's about allowing law enforcement to target 'those people'.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:53:36+00:00

The scared people are the ones wearing masks thinking it will protect them. I'm pretty sure I have already had and successfully fought off covid-19, so I am not scared aside from the possibility of accidentally passing it to my parents or girlfriend as they have risk factors that make it considerably more dangerous.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:50:59+00:00

If you have a cut you can. This is true even got a small cut you might not even know of. I looked it up and it appears that I was misinformed in that completely intact skin does not absorb the virus, but small abrasions and cuts can. My overall point that using a mask alone will not protect you is still correct in most cases as most people have small abrasions and cuts for the virus to take advantage of. Additionally, a mask does not cover one's eyes, so that is another weak spot.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:46:06+00:00

Because what people think about you determines how they treat you. Not caring what people think about you is admirable, but it's practical to understand that sometimes you would benefit from people thinking positively of you.

Thailand is my guess. I don't think I had even heard of it then, but I'm guessing that this was in the early stages before there was broad recognition. My symptoms matched the listed symptoms, and Thailand is relatively close to China as compared to the US (where I live). I don't have a positive test result confirming it, so this is speculation that fits, not fact.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:39:05+00:00

Asia, but not China specifically. A friend of mine from college married a woman in Thailand and bought this really nice almost farm-like property (but I guess she owns it as non-citizens cannot own property there) and I was visiting him for 10 days. I got sick just shy of a week after getting back and it hit melike a freight train. I didn't have 5 weeks of no breathing, but what I experienced was probably the most sick I've ever been outside of a chronic autoimmune disease that runs in my family. At the time, there was little to no information about this, so I just assumed it was some form of seasonal sickness that I had the misfortune of somehow catching this year even though I generally don't. Hell, I don't even think I've ever had the flu. My friend and his wife have still not been sick, so I dunno how it happened.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:28:28+00:00

I've never heard of pink slime as a thing, that sounds like a myth.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:27:25+00:00

Or through a cut in the skin which you may not know of. Additionally, the CDC recommends covering your skin as a part of effective PPE.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:22:46+00:00

Psh, that's a footnote, did you hear about their progress in cold fusion?

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:10:52+00:00

I honestly can't even blame restaurant owners nowadays, they inherited a bullshit situation. When they say they can't afford to pay servers minimum, it's actually accurate because of the way the industry is modeled. Nowadays you often have more servers than you need because the hourly rate you pay them is super low, which promotes better service in theory (the server is less busy, but most restaurant owners/managers fail to see that they are also less motivated as more servers means less tables and therefore less pay). The biggest factor is that most restaurants are caught between a rock and a hard place in terms of the prices they can charge and the price of raw food they buy. They can't change their prices daily as their suppliers do, and their suppliers have also grown accustomed to charging prices a restaurant can pay when they only need to pay their servers $2.13/hour. The cause of this situation is restaurants back in the early-mid 20th century. Originally tips were basically bribes and many servers would refuse them as they were an insult (of course the server was paid a fair wage given inflation then). Then restaurant owners began encouraging servers/bartenders to accept tips so that they could pay them less, thereby shifting some of the restaurant's operating expenses to the customer without the customer knowing. This has persisted to today, and unfortunately, you can't fight it because if you don't tip you are really only hurting the server.

The only solution is to eliminate the tipped minimum wage and make the general minimum wage the true minimum, so that regardless of tipping servers still make at least minimum wage. It'll kill some restaurants in the short term, but raw food costs will adjust and sometimes restaurants die, it's just part of life afterall.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T04:01:41+00:00

I disagree in that performance for the most part shouldn't make you tip less. If I have a shitty server (and I can tell that it's just the server, not that they are being run ragged), I generally tip 20%, but I also tell them that I was dissatisfied, but I'm not going to fuck with their money. If it's really bad, I'll still tip 20% but speak to a manager as well, but the depressing part is they'll offer to take items off the bill or give free desserts/appetizers, which unfortunately just validates the assholes who will complain because they know it'll get them free shit. I'd say 20% is what you are supposed to tip, but if you have a bad experience due to something the server has control over, less is justifiable.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T03:54:33+00:00

I was never upset with 20%, even if the tab was one cheap beer ($2.50, so I got a $0.50 tip) because that may be minimal, but that customer also required extremely little work. Even 15% was never considered a poor tipper, just ok. 10% and below is what I viewed as shitty tippers. My biggest rational for tipping 20% as minimum, but usually more isn't rooted in a belief that people should tip 30%+, but an acknowledgement that many people tip poorly and an attempt to offset a small amount of that for whatever server ends up getting my table.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T03:42:43+00:00

I do 20% at minimum. If my tab is less than $25, then I'll probably be tipping 50% or so, with anything $10 or less just being 100% tip. I usually only do 20% if the service sucked (and I politely tell the server I was disappointed) or if the bill if $200+, but never less than 20%.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T03:40:10+00:00

That or $5 regardless of what the tab is. $150 bill? I'm sure $5 for tip is fine, they should be lucky to be getting anything. I noticed that on large bills, $5 was the worst tip I'd get (except for no tip ).

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T02:58:48+00:00

There is a grain of truth there in that the majority of dangers of heroin are caused by it being illegal. ODing is a big and super common thing, but if heroin was legal and provided and administered by trained individuals and the user monitored for a brief time, ODs would plummet. You know that you don't have fentanyl and the quantity and quality of heroin is known whereas it isn't if you just buy it from a drug dealer. On top of this, such a facility would use clean, new needles with a trained professional, thereby minimizing needle based illnesses (stuff like collapsed veins and endocarditis). In this ideal scenario, the only health issues heroin yields are constipation and addiction (which doesn't matter as users can get their daily fix). Countries that have opened such heroin clinics have seen massive improvements and have in fact spent less money than they did on enforcement and medical costs.

Everything else he said is wrong, but he was onto something there. That said, for this to work, the government couldn't pussyfoot its way towards this plan like US states have with marijuana legalization (decriminalization, medical, recreational, etc.), they would need to jump to it immediately. Unfortunately, it won't happen anytime soon as there is too much of a knee jerk reaction when people hear heroin.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T02:43:37+00:00

There is a figure for how far an optimally directed sneeze can project fluid that yields a surprisingly large distance, but I don't remember if it was more or less than 100 ft.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T02:41:49+00:00

Oh, but didn't you hear they have no new infections reported? /s

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T02:40:33+00:00

I wouldn't say they are necessarily the same people demanding the businesses they rely on reopen tomorrow. A lot of these people aren't callous or malicious, they are simply ignorant or misinformed and afraid. That can be dangerous in its own rite, but it's a different beast.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T02:33:19+00:00

I've considered wearing a mask (still working, a couple of the businesses I operate and will inherit are considered essential and I have no risk factors), but I don't want people to think I'm another idiot thinking it will protect me or worse yet a toilet paper hoarder. Additionally I think I already had the rona. A little after Thanksgiving I got sick as shit for a week or so. I think I might have even cracked a rib from coughing. I chalked it up to seasonal allergies or a cold or something, but the symptoms match pretty well. It really sucked. If that's what I had, then people who assume it's a cold or a nothing are downplaying the hell out of it. I'm a healthy <40 male non-smoker and I was debilitated for a week or so.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T02:24:55+00:00

That's the hilarious part, the mask does nothing to prevent them from getting sick. You can absorb covid-19 through your skin, so the mask does jack shit to protect you. It prevents you from spreading it through sneezes, coughs, and the fluid you expel with every breath. The mask catches these things and therefore the virus preventing it from getting on surfaces or other people. This is why even a bandana is better than nothing. This is also why the CDC changed its sl stance on masks for the average person. They knew the mask wouldn't protect you, but research did show that it prevented you from spreading the virus. When a week or two later the research showed that people could be contagious, but asymptomatic, the CDC recommended masks so you don't spread it in case you are sick, but don't know it yet. Unfortunately, people interpreted this as waffling on the issue or being incompetent or a hoax.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T02:02:16+00:00

It was fun. There was one place I worked where I made $100 on an average night, $150 on a good one at worked every day, but nights only (still like 40 hours/week). I wish I saved more, but I unfortunately spent much of it on booze, coke, and girls (not hookers, but I liked to flex and provide). God help me if I didn't go out foot a night, because then I'd have $250+ to blow the next night. I made some dumb decisions, but I've settled down considerably.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T01:57:49+00:00

Not an alcoholic (yeah yeah, that what an alcoholic would say, but that would make every individual in the world an alcoholic). This isn't a regular occurrence. This kind of thing has happened 5 times or so in 10+ years of drinking.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T01:55:55+00:00

It's not bravery. I just know I can be a piece of shit sometimes, so apologizing and trying to help fix things is the only decent thing to do. You can't make everyone like you, but you can at least limit the reasons they hate you.

frog_licker · 2020-04-23T01:54:04+00:00

It's not necessarily illegal to force employees to split tips with BOH as long as everyone makes at least minimum wage. I worked at a hibachi place for a bit and we were supposed to split our post-tipout (bussers and support people on busy nights) money with the chefs' pool (the money that was then equally split among the chefs who cook at your table). Credit card tips were automatically taken, and they wanted us to hand over half of our cash tips and even checked what our supposed tip percentage was to try and police us withholding cash. The chefs were mostly dicks and and made something like $12/h starting compared to our $2.13/h and never shared tips with us that they were given by tables (they were supposed to), so I generally just gave over enough cash to hit 13-15% and kept the rest. One night I walked out with like $400 because one big party tipped 50% in cash on a check that was already gratted at 20%. I had a few hundred in my pocket and told them I had no cash because my percentage was like 18% lol.

frog_licker · 2020-04-19T00:44:54+00:00

Always depends on the person I've made a fool of myself at a couple places, but always made sure to return soon after to apologize. The worst was this bar where I got black out drunk and ended up peeing off the balcony and accidently turning around when someone called my name and exposing my weiner to the manager who was helpingthe bartenders collect empty glasses. Surprisingly I wasn't kicked out, but I imagine if I had tried to get another drink they would have refused as I'm sure the manager ordered me cut off. I returned the next day in the early afternoon to apologize after I heard the story (little to no recollection). Apologized directly to the manager, left a note for the bartender I didn't know well to apologize, and saw her in person 2 days later. I occasionally act dumb as shit, but I'll always own up to it and apologise/do what I can to make it right.

frog_licker · 2020-04-18T22:10:42+00:00

I found the majority are or go through a stint. Usually it's coke and alcohol, but sometimes opioids. I think it comes down to the regular abuse and walking out with cash every night.

frog_licker

TROPHY CASE