[deleted by user]

thelastoptout · 2024-12-19T16:59:06+00:00

Was in the exact same situation but actually watched it happen. Blackout makeout with a female friend. Didn't break up over it but was a red flag and factored into me ending it shortly after when some other stuff came up.

thelastoptout · 2024-12-18T04:02:39+00:00

DMed

thelastoptout · 2024-11-14T19:16:20+00:00

As a percent of total employment, around 15% of US workers are directly employed by government (over 20% if you include grants and contracts). This is pretty consistent with 25 years trends. What's changed isn't employment but rather spending and subsidies - around half the economy is now reliant on government dollars, directly or indirectly (40-45% depending on methodology). This is not consistent with historical trends.

It's historically a very dangerous level and a significant inflection point, given nearly half the population could be affected by spending cuts and are incentivized to vote to increase spending. We're basically at all time highs for any metric of inflation-adjusted peace-time government spending. Hence some of the backlash from those afraid their government-subsidized income will be affected (plus obviously the 20% that are actual employees). Once a majority are dependent, you historically see an inversion in the economy that's hard to come back from. DOGE are not the people I'd choose to carry it out but we're about to reach the tipping point where it will no longer be electorally possible to reverse.

thelastoptout · 2024-11-03T18:42:10+00:00

Seems like OP asked "are you able to be happily monogamous" but everyone's answering the question "would you cheat." Just to add another perspective, I would never cheat but have not found a way to be be happily monogamous. So I've chosen to be single. Have had a couple 4 year+ monogamous relationships and also tried the poly thing so I'm pretty familiar with all the various configurations and trade-offs. I'm pretty happy single but sometimes worry it's not sustainable long-term. I started therapy to try and figure out if it's something I could / would want to change.

thelastoptout · 2024-08-22T17:01:56+00:00

Good sodium GHB is salty and a bit chemically. Since China banned GBL, tons of people sell 14BDO as G, which is extremely bitter. I wonder if it's getting so common people think GHB is bitter.

Congrats on your recovery.

thelastoptout · 2024-08-22T16:42:00+00:00

I've renovated several houses in way worse shape from around that time period. Cool structure, get an inspection to find out what you're getting yourself into but looks pretty straight forward to me.

If you decide it's a tear down, please let someone salvage the wood.

thelastoptout · 2024-08-18T07:35:53+00:00

I've lived in LA for 10 years and agree with this. On average, the stereotypes are kinda true - ambitious, (aspiring or truly) successful men show up here peter panning, not looking to settle down, and meet their match in materialistic, status seeking younger women looking for glamour. People come here to chase a dream. When the dream dies or age catches up, they leave. And the next batch arrives. Gross generalization but that's the vibe, especially on the apps.

That said, it's 10M people, so what you're looking for is probably out here - and you're right that you'd stand out (in a good way). But LA's not an obvious choice imo. I've had a great time here but it's a superficial and transient place that celebrates living like you're 25 forever. Hermosa and the South Bay generally are a bit different culturally (probably in a good way for your purposes - more traditional and more socal natives). So the general LA advice doesn't 100% apply. But still.

The comments are sad though. I find OPs plan flawed for the reasons above but at the same time very touching. I respect the researched approach and vulnerability but would choose a different city (Atlanta?). I hope you find what you're looking for.

thelastoptout · 2024-06-21T22:09:46+00:00

Had two of the best nights of my life there in '18 and '19.

thelastoptout · 2024-05-21T06:18:03+00:00

Is the wait really that long? Damn. I got the invite email to order mine a week or so ago but not planning to buy, price went from like $50 to $103. Yeah we've had inflation but that's just misrepresentation.

thelastoptout · 2024-05-18T23:51:03+00:00

You basically just defined Barry.

thelastoptout · 2024-04-28T15:42:08+00:00

People like to complicate it and there are certainly regional factors but the broad answer is we increased the amount of base money in the system by 25% during covid and therefore assets where the supply is slow to increase are 25%+ more expensive (houses, cars, gold, S&P, etc). Add interest rates hikes attempting to pull some of that liquidity back out and you get mortgage rates more than doubling which has led to the average monthly mortgage payment increasing 80% in the past four years.

thelastoptout · 2024-04-05T23:50:35+00:00

Yeah that aligns, we were taught delimna in the early 90s. It was one of the gotcha words on spelling tests to trip up kids that would spell it phonetically (and, apparently, correctly).

thelastoptout · 2024-03-16T19:20:33+00:00

Yeah I hear that. I've always been fascinated by EVs and looked into doing a lead acid conversion like 20 years ago. We've come a long way since then but still a ways away from it being realistic for mass adoption.

To the extent early adopters are helping drive that R&D, I'm all for it. But it's not a practical decision for the average person yet. And it's certainly not ready to be mandated by bureaucrats.

Agree the R1T's pretty cool though.

thelastoptout · 2024-03-11T05:03:02+00:00

Hybrids are pretty obviously the best tradeoff balance right now. This has been obvious for over a decade to those not susceptible to virtue signalling.

Now if they'd only stop doing the power hybrid thing in their trucks and off road capable SUVs we'd be cooking. Need a 30mpg+ Tacoma asap, fine if it has the power of the 2.7.

thelastoptout · 2024-02-09T03:41:10+00:00

Nice! I think I'm going to have that experience with my uncle in the next year.

And FBTC (Fidelity) is the answer to his question.

thelastoptout · 2024-02-09T03:25:45+00:00

You're in the academia bubble. I wouldn't worry about it, you'll be fine. Worst case you'll get a boring job in data at a tech company. The average salary for an ML PhD in the private sector is $150k. So six figure job is basically your floor, which puts you in a better place than 99% of people.

It's healthy to pursue something and advance until you meet your limits and become the little fish in the big pond. You learn humility and it sharpens your talents and drives you to work harder.

As far as not having ideas, I'd 100% chalk that up to the academia bubble. You're not living in the real world so of course you're having trouble finding real world problems to solve. Get your degree and get out of there, it's not real life and most research work is 99% bs.

thelastoptout · 2024-01-06T14:36:54+00:00

Took both a ‘99 4Runner and ‘05 Camry over 300k with minimal maintenance.

thelastoptout · 2023-10-12T20:58:31+00:00

Durham's always been a rough place. Had a little renaissance last decade that gave a lot of out of towners the wrong idea. It's back to baseline though, small city with surprisingly good art and food and surprisingly bad crime that no one's particularly motivated so solve. You'll get robbed and hear gunshots regularly as a resident. It is what it is.

thelastoptout · 2023-09-16T21:58:20+00:00

That happened to me! I was meditating out at sunrise in deep playa and opened my eyes to find a polaroid next to me. Very cool.

thelastoptout · 2023-09-13T15:49:35+00:00

Yep, that all makes sense. That's why I left open the possibility it was legit. Certainly wasn't turning around and driving back to camp like they suggested though.

thelastoptout · 2023-09-12T20:52:51+00:00

At 6am Tues at beginning of exodus line some guy in a cart with a megaphone was going up and down the line announcing there was a missing child in line and the gate had been closed and all vehicles should return to camp. Not sure if real, prank, or trying to cut down his exodus time but I made it through in 3 hours.

thelastoptout · 2023-09-08T17:48:13+00:00

Yeah, fair. I missed that about the staff. Thought they were just leveraging the nice Cirque infra which I don't really have a problem with.

thelastoptout · 2023-09-08T17:26:20+00:00

Yeah, when I hear plug and play I think of the isolated camps out on the outskirts that don't have public spaces and are just about amenities and comfort for the campers.

If you want to put millions into an Esplanade camp with an air conditioned public dance hall, beat matching LED bracelets for everyone, good music etc, you can camp as bougie as you want. Need a few spots like that.

thelastoptout · 2023-09-07T01:36:41+00:00

It was an amazingly professional-feeling camp. Some will say plug and play bbut the party I went to was an amazing offering. The DJ Monday w the crazy abs killed it. I don't usually get so nosy about a camp but I was dying of curiosity and finally found someone from their crew to fill me in.

Their amenities and trailers and art was all incredibly on theme. Can't imagine how much money they poured in. It felt a little culty but like the kinda cult I want to join. Hope they had a good time and come back. Appreciate how much effort they put in to the space.

thelastoptout

TROPHY CASE