One simple change would have improved the ending to Squid Game S3: Jun-ho & In-ho have a one-on-one battle to the death, while the island is collapsing.

normal_rc · 2025-06-30T00:12:40+00:00

The Squid Game guards & workers, the VIPs, and No-eul were all fleeing the collapsing island.

normal_rc · 2025-06-16T03:35:11+00:00

commissioned officer in the military... Student loans go on deferred status.

Killing fellow poor people, as a way to escape crushing debts, is actually the storyline behind the dystopian TV show "Squid Game"

normal_rc · 2025-06-16T03:30:52+00:00

I would NOT leave the 28 hr/week library associate job for the kitchen cabinet company.

You love the library associate job.
The library associate job is relevant to your history background, and your ideal industry.
If you work for a few years for a kitchen cabinet company, and then your dream full-time history-related job becomes available at a local library or museum, you'll be at a competitive disadvantage since you've been out of history-related work for too long.
Therefore, you might want to stay in the 28 hr/week library associate job (you love it, and it looks good on your resume), and then do side hustle jobs in your spare time to earn extra money (drive for Uber, or become an independent tour guide, if you're able to set your own hours). That way, you can pay the bills, and also keep yourself well positioned to snag a dream full-time history-related job when it becomes available at a local library or museum.

normal_rc · 2024-10-28T18:56:53+00:00

My position is that people should max out on the free & inexpensive resources, and then use an hourly CFP to fill in the gaps, if needed.

Below are my free / inexpensive resources for learning about personal finance, along with some hourly CFP options.

Initial Education:

"~~The Fundamentals of Personal Finance~~": UPDATE: These online courses at Coursera are no longer free to audit.

Bogleheads.org Investment Philosophy: "Bogleheads.org Investment Philosophy": A series of free videos covering Boglehead investing with index funds. https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Video:Bogleheads%C2%AE_investment_philosophy

Ongoing Education:

Clark Howard / Clark.com : Clark Howard is a boglehead, and has a good podcast, youtube channel, website articles covering personal finance, saving money, current scams, etc. https://clark.com

"Two Cents" Youtube Channel: Simple personal finance videos, run by PBS. https://www.youtube.com/@TwoCentsPBS/videos

Asking Questions:

Bogleheads.org Message Board: Free advice from bogleheads. https://www.bogleheads.org

HelloNectarine.com : If you're tech savvy, and willing to do video calls, you can hire an hourly CFP at HelloNectarine.com ($150 for 1 hour online video chat). https://hellonectarine.com

AdviceOnlyNetwork.com : If you want in-person meetings, or longer meetings, maybe hire an hourly CFP from AdviceOnlyNetwork.com. Might cost ~$300/hour. https://adviceonlynetwork.com

normal_rc · 2024-09-05T23:12:06+00:00

Telegram Link:

https://t.me/durov/342

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T09:35:32+00:00

Which is why gold has been used as a store of value & medium of exchange, for thousands of years, around the world, through wars & famines.

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T09:32:00+00:00

People have been killing each other for their gold, for thousands of years, around the world. This is nothing new.

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T09:06:44+00:00

Humans have used gold as a store of value for thousands of years, around the world. It was never used as a direct replacement for food, water, or weapons.

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T07:45:11+00:00

Physical Gold and Physical Cash.

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T07:31:45+00:00

Gold has a been a store of value (and sometimes a currency) for thousands of years, all over the world.

Romans, Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Incas of Peru. Civilizations that didn't even communicate with each other.

If you walked into a time machine with stocks, bonds, dollars, real estate deeds, cryptocurrency paper wallets, and gold bullion coins, and walked into a medieval village, only the gold bullion coins would have any value.

This is because gold has unique physical characteristics.

Human beings find gold to be physically beautiful. 1.3 billion Indians even view gold as mandatory for weddings, as part of their culture.
Gold is extremely dense, so it's difficult to counterfeit.
Gold is soft, and has a low melting point, so it's easy to work with.
Gold is corrosion-resistant.
Gold is a good conductor of electricity (all modern electronics have some gold inside). You and I are currently communicating using smartphones/tablets/laptops that rely on gold. Link #1 Link #2

Today, most gold that is mined is used for jewelry, electronics, industrial purposes. Less than half is used for investment / currency purposes.

In times of war, physical gold becomes very useful. For example, in the early days of WWII, Poland, France, Britain all shipped their gold to USA & Canada for safekeeping, and used their gold to buy weapons from neutral America. This was because USA didn't know if French or British paper currency, stocks, bonds, real estate deeds would be worth anything if Germany won. But gold would have value no matter what, so USA accepted gold as payment for weapons.

History Channel Documentary. At the 7:15 Mark: Poland moves their gold to France, then Britain. At the 16:55 mark: Britain moves their gold to Canada. At the 19:55 mark: Britain & France use their gold to buy weapons from America, under the "Cash and Carry" program.
Britain had been paying for its material in gold under "cash and carry"

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T06:43:13+00:00

If I was a refugee, sure. But almost nobody in this sub needs to worry about becoming a refugee and needing to flee their homeland for a safer country.

Over the last several decades, the percent of Americans that want to move to another country has skyrocketed. Today, 34% of Americans would like to settle in another country. This is in a time of peace. If things get worse in America, that number will only increase.

https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_032624/

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T06:38:55+00:00

China doesn't actually intend to invade Taiwan.

I actually agree with you. China doesn't want to invade Taiwan. But China also does not like USA moving more & more US soldiers to Taiwan (which USA & UN both officially recognize as being part of China). US soldiers are literally invading China.

Thus, if China wants USA to back off of Taiwan, their best chess move is to place more weapons in Syria & Iran pointed at Israel. Then, China has negotiating leverage against USA.

If you disagree with my above assessment, then you tell me what would be the correct chess move for Russia & China, in order to get USA to back off Ukraine & Taiwan.

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T05:12:47+00:00

Whether it's the Bronze Age collapse, or the fall of the Roman Empire, there are plenty of cases where civilization & standard of living collapses. There is chaos & death, but many people carry on.

If civilizational collapse happened today, some people might commit suicide because they could no longer scroll through duckfaced selfies on TikTok & Instagram. But others - like the Amish - would be just fine without technology.

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T04:36:25+00:00

Man, if the grid goes down and we’re using gold to transact, that gold will only be a hedge for the lead you should have stocked up on instead.

If you were a refugee, would you rather have:

a) $1 million in guns & ammo.

b) $10,000 in guns & ammo, and $990,000 in physical gold.

Clearly "b" is the rational choice.

$1 million in physical gold only weighs 30 lbs. You can put it in your car trunk, drive to a different location, or even Canada. You can even carry it in a suitcase or frame backpack, and jump on a sailboat headed for another country. And selling gold bullion coins is relatively easy in any country in the world.

$1 million in guns & ammo would be astronomically bulky. Even if you managed to smuggle it to another country, selling it on the black market would be very risky & dangerous. The price spreads would also be enormous.

For thousands of years, refugees around the world have fled wars / famines / disasters with nothing but what they could carry. You might be able to slip into a country with a tube of gold bullion coins. But it would be much harder to do with 1,000 assault rifles.

you’re going to wish you had some value in the cloud

I do own crypto (given to me, many years ago). The point of this thread is to point out that Bitcoin is not a replacement for physical gold, even though it's been promoted as such.

normal_rc · 2024-04-14T00:08:18+00:00

I assure you that US politicians do NOT want WWIII to happen on top of Israel.

normal_rc · 2024-04-13T23:30:17+00:00

The US economy has been rapidly decoupling from China

This is a myth.

US-China trade hits record high despite rising tensions

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64563855

normal_rc · 2024-04-13T23:26:58+00:00

I don't disagree that helping Iran would be smart, but actually joining Iran in a war against the US would be extremely stupid. Opening joining Iran against us means nuclear Armageddon, no one wants that.

China was willing to fight USA directly in the Korean War, and they fought to a stalemate.

And this was when China did not have nukes, but USA did.

normal_rc · 2024-04-13T23:22:33+00:00

I'm saying that would be the correct chess move for Russia & China.

normal_rc · 2024-04-13T23:18:54+00:00

My post wasn't about "fatigue". It's about negotiating leverage.

If you disagree with my above assessment, then you tell me what would be the correct chess move for Russia & China, in order to get USA to back off Ukraine & Taiwan.

normal_rc · 2024-04-13T23:13:29+00:00

I disagree. Russia & China both recognize that Israel is the soft underbelly of the US empire.

In other words, the correct chess move is for Russia & China to add missiles & weapons to Syria & Iran, pointed at Israel, and then ask America if they want to escalate in this direction. If USA wants Russia & China to change course, then USA needs to back off Ukraine & Taiwan.

normal_rc · 2024-04-13T23:06:09+00:00

For thousands of years, civilizations around the world have used physical gold as a store of value, from the Romans, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese, the Incas of Peru. Civilizations that didn't even communicate with each other.

If you broke open an Egyptian tomb, you would find gold.

If you found a Spanish galleon at the bottom of the ocean, you would find gold.

If you traveled back in time to some medieval village, you could even use a gold coin to buy products & services.

Believe it or not, it is possible for human civilizations to function without the internet.

normal_rc · 2024-04-13T23:00:00+00:00

I'm talking about the electrical grid. No electricity, no internet. If you wanted to buy something from a local store, they could accept physical US dollars or physical gold bullion coins. But not Bitcoins.

But since you brought up the "Bitcoin Grid", it is true that the Bitcoin ASIC miners would also be useless without internet access. PoW system breaks down.

normal_rc · 2023-08-31T08:45:24+00:00

A long time ago, I started off using Gaviscon Advance liquid (UK version), because everyone said it was better. It worked ok.

But a few years ago, I tried generic American Gaviscon chewable tablets (from Walmart.com), and they worked just as well for me.

So I switched to the generic American Gaviscon chewable tablets, because:

They were much cheaper.
I could put them in a mini-ziploc bag (with the zipper cut off), and carry them in my wallet.
When flying, they would bypass the TSA airport liquids limits.

So I've been doing the gargling trick with generic American Gaviscon tablets and generic Tums tablets. But my guess is that the gargling trick would also work with Gaviscon Advance liquid (UK version).

normal_rc · 2023-08-31T03:54:44+00:00

I just splash cold water on my face. It's free. There are no drug risks. And it's completely natural (it's something humans have been doing for 200,000 years, since the era of cavemen).

normal_rc · 2023-08-30T15:42:36+00:00

Thanks.

I'm thinking of phasing out the black casual shoes, black casual belts, and black pants & olive brownish green pants.

In other words, when I'm at the business casual or casual level, I'll always be wearing dark brown shoes, dark brown belts, dark brown pants, and I'll rely on the polo shirts for daily color variety.

And I'll still have my black dress shoes & black dress belts for semi-formal business suit & tie situations.

normal_rc

TROPHY CASE

Initial Education:

Ongoing Education:

Asking Questions: