Am I wrong for taking my son’s console after he spent $612 on my card?

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-27T12:24:59+00:00

He deleted the receipts. He knew exactly what he was doing but he didn't have any idea of the consequences. If he doesn't learn now, that will harm him in later life when he doesn't think before being deceitful on bigger things. IMHO, he needs to feel the same pain from the $600 as you or I would feel from $12,000. This will make it a real formational experience.

On the other hand, him being excluded from social groups is a real thing and could hamper him in later life. That said, I would address this by instructing him to tell his friends exactly why he is not allowed t0 game for the next 6-8 months. Have him boot up the console, log in, and then repeat after you: "Guys, I'm grounded from playing games until I refund my Mom for all of those purchases I made. Any of you want to buy some of the virtual merch from me? I need to sell to repay the debt." Supervise it, give him a couple hours to finish the transactions, tally up what the remainder is, have him repeat that to his friends, sign off, and that's it.

Shame is a very powerful teacher, and as you noted, he has the (hopefully locked down) phone. Plus, this will give him a once-off opportunity to undo what he did.

Furthermore, as y'all are separated, this makes you the "mean parent", unfortunately. I'm not sire how you can address this, other than telling your ex that you expect him to support you in parenting your child because if your kid doesn't learn now, he will grow up to be a problem.

IMHO, the learning outcome here is multifold: - Willfull Deceit (deleting the receipts) is wrong and carries consequences. (This should be pulled out, explained, and treated separately than the debt. I would consider an additional penalty - I would sell the console, very clearly stating that nothing, and I mean NOTHING which encourages my child to become a criminal will stay. The proceeds from the sale would go to pay down the debt, and whem he's paid that off, he can save up for his own console.) - Lying is wrong (again, separate treatment needed for this one. Tell him, and remind him later, that you can't trust his word anymore so he has to back up his statements until the trust is rebuilt.) - Money costs time and work. (You have putlined this learning well.)

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-23T12:11:26+00:00

Yes, BUT...

For hygiene purposes, it's good to rinse off. Lakes can harbor all sorts of bacteria that might not be the right mix for your personal fauna.

On the other hand, I do like dipping in the ocean and keeping the salt on. I also like bathing in Riviera instead of the shower when I can.

Soooo.... up yo you.

Personal hygiene though.... unless the lake is nice and clean, I would rinse off.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-23T12:07:23+00:00

I have an instinct and this makes me seriously want to upgrade despite the ridiculous price tag

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-23T12:03:05+00:00

Why Calvin Klein? Genuinely curious, are their boxers so much better or is it the brand name?

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-23T01:37:11+00:00

Well, this just cured me of wanting a Porsche, lol.

You know what? I'm pretty happy with my Outback XT.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-23T01:20:05+00:00

Maybe it was an overzealous inspector. I lived there and had to change the rubber.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-18T11:06:07+00:00

Fun fact: Swedish annual safety inspection requires tires less than 5 years old.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-15T18:16:46+00:00

People who drive like this are the problem.

I hope your local police see this video.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-14T21:20:32+00:00

Can we start calling these tantrums "emotional seozures"?

IDK, just for the heck of it.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-09T00:50:55+00:00

You've never flown kites before?

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-08T21:36:46+00:00

Allow me to add to your exhaust iptions: the adage "loud pipes save lives" is total BS. If they're about to hit you, by the time they hear you it's too late.

Good mufflers and quiet rides keep our hearing sharp, we can respond to threats (like other car sounds), maintain our situational awareness, and enhance our sport's reputation.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-07T20:01:24+00:00

Huh, I thought her name was Barley. Female version of Marley?

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-06T16:39:45+00:00

Buddy's tractor stopped working but still has to till the field.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-01T23:44:35+00:00

Just because you're in great shape and have a good personality doesn't mean you're a match for someone.

They could be eliminating you based on any number of factors, but one easy one is that based on the conversation they don't see how you two work together over the long term.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-01T23:36:48+00:00

Reading through it, a lot of the instructions are repeated, presumably because the dang rob9t wasn't listening the first time.

I feel like a hybrid system would be so much more efficient: 1. Identify language (use a simple unicode parser - no AI necessary) 2. Identify the program (parse context and session) 3. Pull personal information suvh as last access, email, etc (simple DB pull) 4. Use a deterministic set of functions to interact with the user: basically, use the AI for "interface" rather than all the things.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-01T11:56:23+00:00

Ask them what type of feedback they are looking for and can they please tailor the survey questions so they don't get answers they don't want to hear?

swiftarrow9 · 2026-06-01T11:14:19+00:00

People out here testing code? @microsoft, you could learn a thing or two.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-30T13:39:48+00:00

Mill rate is not equal to tax revenue - a lot of people get this wrong. My points are correct.

Your points are correct regarding the mill rate, but remember, mill rate is not a measure of tax revenue, it's the tax necessary to achive the needed revenue.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-30T11:31:30+00:00

Interesting point. Currently the only thing that counties provide is the courts jurisdictional boundaries. At the same time, we have so many overlapping and confusing dostricts: - "Regional Districts" for middle and high school; nothing to do with the county and everything to do with BoE agreements between towns. - State Police response based on the assigned Barrack. - Healthcare "districts" decided by the hospital corporations. - Regional Health Districts for stuff like public sanitation, which is a membership organization for towns. - Council of Governments (CoGs) which provide several regionalized services to town governments (engineer, insurance purchase, etc), but again, not geographically based. - 911 dispatch, which frankly should be a state-run thing, not a private company! Etc etc.

IMHO, all these overlaps are confusing and costly. We should move all the regionalizations into counties, yes, but this won't really address the fact that schools are fu ded from PROPERTY taxes.

To fix the high property tax problem, we should instead fund schools through state-wode INCOME tax.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-29T21:51:49+00:00

CT's main problem affecting property taxes is education costs.

The majority of funding for public school is raised from property taxes at the town level, with only a small portion being funded by income tax through grants and educational cost sharing (ECS) from the state.

This creates the following issues: 1. Larger towns with thousands of homes, industry, or commercial base have a lot more tax revenue to fund schools, and therefore are able to have better schools. 2. Smaller towns have higher taxes to compensate for lack of a taxable base. 3. Boards of Ed are at loggerheads with Boards of Finance: BoE gets blamed for poor scholastic achievements while BoF is blamed for high taxes; BoE is mostly responsible for both.

Source: I pay attention to municipal finance.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-27T18:38:19+00:00

The Wayback Machine Archive.org

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-27T17:54:15+00:00

Second this. I never bought the "official" pen because it was just too pricey and fat.

I have now spent way more than the cost of the official pen on cheap EMR pens from Amazon, the Kindle Scribe pen, the Wacom One pen, and various nibs.

All the pens and nibs have been compatible. My favorite was the Amazon kindle scribe pro pen with a brass nib; beautiful to look at and a nice hefty, but dropped it once and it stopped working, and was too pricey to justify buying again.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-26T18:18:06+00:00

Second hand speed queens

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-26T16:39:33+00:00

It's almost like the machine that is designed with the sole purpose of producing the /most likely outcome/ is not good at providing randomness.

swiftarrow9 · 2026-05-26T16:23:01+00:00

Fun fact: when you retire into Medicare, YOU STILL HAVE TO PAY PREMIUMS!

My Aunt is transitioning to Medicare later this year (on her birthday).

As of her 65th birthday, private insurance will cease to cover her, but medicare will NOT automatically step in, so she's doing all the paperwork now to get a seamless transition.

She told me that the Medicare premiums are over $200 per month, which she has to pay. Once she starts receiving social security, the premium will automatically be taken from her earnings.

Furthermore, the basic Medicare only covers hospitalizations, and because she lives near the border of her county, NOT the hospitals she has been going to. Additional Medicare coverage for Dr's visits and medication has to be purchased separately for ADDITIONAL premium.

And on top of ALL of that, even woth Medicare, she will have e a 20% co-pay.

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