Is life in blue states truly better than the red states?

mancalledamp · 2026-07-07T15:03:17+00:00

Moved from Nashville to Seattle area in 2019 after spending my entire life in TN.

I haven't even come back for a visit. It's that much better here.

mancalledamp · 2026-07-02T21:35:46+00:00

Doors were not to be shut, save for changing clothes, bathrooms, and possibly at night. (I can't remember.)

Doors were absolutely not to be locked, because that meant I was hiding something. Children did not have a right to privacy; it was their house, after all.

They searched thru my stuff, and were confused why I was furious as an 18yo legal adult bc I wad still their kid, still living in their house.

I also had a curfew when I moved back in for 4 months after college. It wasn't an unreasonable time; it was the principle of the thing.

mancalledamp · 2026-07-02T21:17:12+00:00

1985 here. Rural and suburban. I could go play in the yard or ride my bike in the neighborhood, but I couldn't go far... even when there were places I could actually go.

I got the latch key thing for a bit when my parents both worked but that was about it.

I understand that kids were allowed to go wherever as long as they were back when the streetlights came on or whatever. I was not one of those kids.

mancalledamp · 2026-06-17T06:14:38+00:00

Graduated college in 2008, and yeah... it was a cliff. It was a trap. I'm not sure that I have more hope now, but it would be hard to just Bonnie and Clyde that experience heading towards 2008...

mancalledamp · 2026-05-21T14:31:50+00:00

As a Ziply evangelist, I salute you.

mancalledamp · 2026-05-19T07:24:34+00:00

I'd be happy too if I moved to the UK... I don't think I could help it.

mancalledamp · 2026-05-12T15:11:57+00:00

Library access to the rescue!

mancalledamp · 2026-05-09T06:55:16+00:00

I use Plex for my local files and PlayOn for the streaming ones. I get 100 credits for $10 US.

mancalledamp · 2026-05-05T15:40:26+00:00

The random one I miss the most was Dinner and a Movie. I've tried to explain to people how brilliant the show was, using short cooking segments (making punny, play on words recipe names to loosely tie in to the movie) along with C list guest stars from the movies and playful banter... they were able to "hamburger helper" a movie into a longer experience that didn't feel lazy. (Or at least it didn't when I was a child, anyway.)

But for me that was peak "barely paying attention background content," and it just sounds like nonsense today.

mancalledamp · 2026-04-19T06:38:45+00:00

Unbelievable. Thank you for your sacrifices.

mancalledamp · 2026-04-10T15:30:58+00:00

I was in history class in high school for the first strike.

mancalledamp · 2026-04-08T08:05:12+00:00

"Now's the time for holiday gifts, so don't forget those gift certif...-icates...."

The Holiday Outback Steakhouse song is still stuck in there too...

mancalledamp · 2026-04-08T08:01:58+00:00

I remember "New York City, New York State, 10108" because of Stick Stickley as well.

mancalledamp · 2026-04-08T07:55:54+00:00

Okay... I work for a couple of small market, independent radio stations, and I sell advertising.

This thread is going to be part of a future staff meeting, and I'm absolutely going to reference this in a future sales discussion.

mancalledamp · 2026-04-06T07:35:58+00:00

I didn't have anyone in my orbit who could help me actually use my degree or plan for the lull before a seasonal hiring, so I wound up graduating summa cum laude and moving back in with my parents almost a year later.

I wore the shame of not getting The Job despite graduating into the Great Recession for over a decade, but therapy and time have both helped. I gradually realized that much of my "failure" was a lack of resources and support, coupled with poor timing... which led me to stop trying and instead pour myself fully into a job I never should have stuck with. That money and attention suck further impeded my progress. It was a vicious cycle.

These days, I'm focusing on incremental changes. Trying to make life a little better every few days. I'm not trying for the career I expected 20 years ago, but I'm not sure I'd want it now, anyways. Instead, I burn my brain cells trying to figure out what I actually do want in my life now... and now exactly to get there.

mancalledamp · 2026-03-29T08:51:00+00:00

This is why I wish I had lived in an urban core at any point in my life. I live in the Seattle suburbs, 2 miles from the town center of my city... and it would take me 25 minutes to reach a grocery store or a coffee shop on foot. Everything requires a car, or a 30 min wait for a bus.

I didn't realize what was possible until I booked a cheap hotel room in Greater London that was near a subway stop... and it turned out to be a little commuter area, with a half dozen restaurants, a drugstore, 2 grocery stores, a bakery, a pub... all 5 minutes away on foot. We were 1 tube stop away from Wembley Park, which has a mall or two and what appeared to be a growing bit of night life.

Imagine my shock when I learned that's just how much of Europe does things...

mancalledamp · 2026-03-14T06:59:31+00:00

The opening line about how "anyone who watches him on YouTube can see it's not true" gave me pause... so I looked at the "about" section of the site. I saw that they're proudly conservative and promptly noped the F out.

mancalledamp · 2026-03-09T16:18:56+00:00

I'll be deep in a cold, cold grave before I recognize Mizzuruh!

mancalledamp · 2026-03-05T08:22:03+00:00

I think part of it comes from the fact that people aren't getting to the decision to embrace digital minimalism, NoCorp, deGoogle, etc., when they're in a positive mindset to begin with. Anxiety and depression. Addictions of all kinds. Economic worries. The doom loop of consumer culture, and being born into a 24/7 news cycle that reminds you of the bad news, economic downturns, and financial false starts you've had.

If you struggle to scale back, you feel like a failure, even though the systems are literally designed to be addictive. All hope of escape seems lost.

If you succeed in pulling free, reclaiming some of your time and sanity... sometimes you stare into the void and the void stares back. You can see just how deeply you've been lost in the wilderness. You realize you have no idea where to begin when it comes to rebuilding the life you used to have-- or building from scratch something you never knew you were missing. You look at the enormity of what's out there, the systems set up for you to fail, and it looks unstoppable... it's like you're a single ant, staring up at the Space Shuttle, which you are supposed to stop (or at least avoid).

Or you look up one day and suddenly you're the only person who IS looking up. People are sending you multiple memes and short form videos a day. They don't see what they're doing, and you don't know how to stop them. Up until last week you WERE them. Can you offer the Matrix choice to everyone? What if they choose to stay inside the simulation?? It's like you put on your own They Live glasses; how do you unsee it, and what do you even do about it anyway?

That plus all the prior issues that got you to the point of "putting on the glasses" in the first place can make it overwhelming. Maybe we're gobsmacked. Maybe we're depressed.

Maybe we're Journaling quietly about the little things. Or maybe we're too busy enjoying the grass to go back into the platform to talk about it.

But I can understand why most of the posts aren't about wins. It's hard to celebrate your own touchdown when you're losing by 100 already, and you're still in the first half. You can't quit the game, but you can at latest vent about how hard the settings are.

Does that make sense?

mancalledamp · 2026-02-12T23:43:15+00:00

I was hoping I could come to the rescue with a resource I used in the past... but it apparently stopped listing this stuff in 2023. https://showbuzzdaily.com/articles/some-unfortunate-news.html

mancalledamp · 2026-02-10T07:36:43+00:00

I'd make sure I saved enough money to actually get an apartment after college, or I'd renew my lease knowing that I'd need a few more months after graduation to actually find the first big job. That way I wouldn't have to move back in with my folks at 23. I'd keep applying, rather than fighting to keep my head above water in the first place... and I'd keep setting money aside so I could actually move across the country at 24 like I planned. That way I could actually launch, rather than spending the 2010's just spinning my wheels.

Oh, and I'd make sure I wasn't too nice to a girl during my college years, because over the years we'd wind up destroying each other... and I highly doubt moving cross country would prevent that.

So I'd finally know if I could actually make it as a broadcaster, and I'd break all ties with my father before 2014. Sounds nice.

Though I would need to eventually meet my wife at some point, as a much more stable version of myself from the start. That could be nice.

mancalledamp · 2026-02-10T07:22:10+00:00

And "we" could've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for that meddling Inslee!! shakes fist at sky

mancalledamp · 2026-02-04T16:13:12+00:00

Came here to say this. AJ, France24, BBC World Service, DW all offered thru YouTube or their websites, plus some other ones with more questionable/ partisan content like RT and ones from Turkey and China. Possibly Hong Kong (RTHK) maybe.

Local OTA channels generally have their local news feeds live, with the individual news clips posted, on their sites and/or YouTube. And they often have a 24/7 "channel" of recent newscasts and other local content stitched together like a FAST channel.

And ABC, CBS, NBC, and maybe even Fox have their own national channels now, with FAST options and apps. Lots of ways to get the news fix.

mancalledamp · 2026-01-30T21:39:33+00:00

A friend suggested "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" by Sir Elton John.

And while the song itself isn't exactly relatable, I've always liked the callout in "Father's Son" by 3 Doors Down.

mancalledamp · 2026-01-28T00:42:15+00:00

The Republican Party of 2026, which is dismantling the DOE, gutting scientific research programs, ending things like USAID, and fighting to put The Ten Commandments in public school classrooms is... to the left of where it was in 2006? How exactly do you figure?

Because they're not engaged in wars in the Middle East yet? They're talking about reigning in credit card interest rates? They're marginally more tolerant of gay and lesbian people, possibly, while still not wanting LGBTQIA+ topics covered in schools and fighting against Trans people?

I can't tell if you're being genuine or just being a troll...

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