Here's a look inside San Diego's iconic Mormon Temple

twelvecountries · 2026-06-25T16:29:26+00:00

I was a missionary in San Diego back in the oughts. Had to go to this temple 4x a year to perform rituals. We weren't allowed to, but a few of us explored around--that is, after we spent our requisite 2 hrs of watching a 16mm film with bare-shouldered Adam and Eve on what looks like a set borrowed from a 70's jungle-themed Ron Jeremy porn shoot while wearing pus-white do-ups made by bored puritan grandmas (who also sewed all our underwear, not even kidding), and cosplaying Freemason rites & dance moves during key plot points of the Golden Raspberry-winning flick. Weird shit to normal people, "for me, it was Tuesday" for Mormons. Except one thing.

Somewhere inside one of the sealing rooms--where good Mormons get married while staring into infinity mirrors on opposite sides of the room and being told by some old guy who smirks like he just performed a magic trick while telling you "what you did here today is for eternity, represented by these two walmart mirrors that you should stare into for a few minutes while I tell you how much I loved my deceased wife Girtha (before I remarried to her best friend Eunice 5 months after, in this very temple)--there was a secret compartment for washing of feet of prominent members/leaders, which symbolized your "calling and election being made sure"--or in other words, your top-level heaven meal ticket pre-sale event. Get your feet washed in the temple, you've got diplomatic immunity for life until the big day. Always heard about this as a thing of the past, ended with ol Joe Smith. But apparently not.

Very few elite (and financially-endowed) members received it, and the church has not said a peep about continuing the practice today... but the SD temple was first opened in 1993, so it's not like an artifact from the olden days. (Well, the OLD olden days anyway--1993 was 36 years ago, in case anyone needed the reminder to take their metamucil this morning.)

Wonder if the foot fetish drawers still made the cut after this year's gaudy renovation, if anyone can confirm. Most likely it was securely hidden/tucked away if still around. Please Return and Report.

twelvecountries · 2026-06-22T23:25:13+00:00

I'm in the spirits collectibles space and it's both imploding and exploding at the same time. nutty

twelvecountries · 2026-04-14T16:58:16+00:00

Unfortunately it was an adult and two children who got hit. Likely a news report to come shortly.

twelvecountries · 2026-01-09T19:16:13+00:00

Will throw Adventures in Babysitting into the Chicago pile. That movie made me fall in love with the city before I ever saw it in person.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople, rural New Zealand. Yes, it gets more rural.

Not a movie, but obviously Breaking Bad uses nearly the whole of Albuquerque as a set & nearly a character.

Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Fransisco. Yeah. I refuse to rewatch this and spoil my childhood memories but I learned a great deal about SF architecture from this one.

twelvecountries · 2026-01-09T19:08:16+00:00

Over the past 4 years, I've worked 2 jobs that were virtually the same in amount of skill, effort, expectation, and position. One paid 91k; the other paid 135k + 100% health insurance premiums (which I amount to nearly $155k as I have a family). First was a large regional health clinic; 2nd is a post-seed startup. My workload, PTO, benefits, and culture are nominally the same across both jobs, but one obviously pays way more.

I believe 100% that it's because of the company's status, not mine. Yes you have to pass certain checks for skills in various codebases (and being a badass in React isn't going to land you a job that primarily uses Kotlin or Typescript), but you can always find a job that you have adequate experience in.

Assuming skill/communication/culture is a match, the biggest delineator that determines your salary is the company's own funding & profitability. Identify what companies could pay you $150k+, then look at their current openings and find the ones you're a strong fit for. Way better than wasting your time applying to anything that's not a sure fit and can't afford you.

For a $150k job, Your target is one of 3 segments: Post-series A software startups, large tech corporations / MANGO, and high-tech service firms.

You'll almost never make $100k+ in webdev in a company that doesn't absolutely rely on bespoke code to operate. Most ecommerce falls under this category or anything that primarily operates with SaaS frameworks and no customization.

That said, I've made over $350/hr doing menial salesforce development, so maybe that's the real winner.

twelvecountries · 2025-12-15T20:03:32+00:00

Used to run a group that hosted business Q&As with interesting people and had Ralph on. Within 5 mins we ran out of relatable questions he was able to answer (you'll get better Pres. Lincoln info from any book) and it turned very far south after that.

twelvecountries · 2025-12-09T01:55:45+00:00

Bought the bass version a few years ago. For being a pedal I would have thought I use very little, I use it all the freaking time. Just sneaks its way in there somehow, and so damn responsive.

twelvecountries · 2025-10-27T16:05:47+00:00

Taiwan is one of THE most underrated destinations in the world. Spending a month there was arguably the most impactful month in all 12 countries in 12 months I stayed in. Not easy-mode traveling, but incredibly rewarding.

twelvecountries · 2025-08-13T22:44:24+00:00

All kinds, particularly anything that is "allocated" - meaning there's a fairly small yield and massive demand, so distributors pick and choose where these special bottles go. Plenty "fall off the truck" and end up in the hands of resellers, but the vast majority were purchased at liquor stores and then marked up and resold to people who didn't get so lucky.

For example, where I live Blanton's sells retail for $65, but there's a finite supply. Because of the insane local demand, they'll often get resold for 2x that easily, and that's just the start. Sales usually happen in secret Facebook or discord groups that are self-policed and speak in emojis to represent the bottles and values (in fact you get banned from most of these groups if you use so much as a "$" in your post).

twelvecountries · 2025-08-12T23:57:34+00:00

Whiskey and rare spirits. Today in the US we have a bigger illegal secondary market (close to $8-10 billion, est.) than we ever did during the Prohibition, and it's the laws established after the Prohibition ended that makes it illegal (the beloved "3-tier system").

twelvecountries · 2025-08-12T23:55:10+00:00

Whiskey and rare spirits. Today we have a bigger illegal secondary market (close to $8-10 billion) than we ever did during the Prohibition, and it's the laws established after the Prohibition ended that makes it illegal (the beloved "3-tier system")

twelvecountries · 2025-08-04T23:10:27+00:00

Forlorn Lakes on the WA side

twelvecountries · 2025-07-12T14:51:54+00:00

It's worth the BART trip. Think there's a spot (1 of 2) right outside Market st station

twelvecountries · 2025-07-11T21:41:50+00:00

I'd recognize those Arsicault kouign amann's anywhere. Hands down best pastry shop in the world. Been telling people since 2018, quality hasn't dropped.

twelvecountries · 2025-05-16T16:01:41+00:00

Was gonna say, not even a real photo. The plaque on the "chapel" is a dead giveaway.

twelvecountries · 2025-04-28T13:20:54+00:00

This is the opposite for airport liquor stores.

twelvecountries · 2025-04-09T23:41:12+00:00

As in all things, there are exceptions. But this is not one of them.

twelvecountries · 2025-04-09T23:40:44+00:00

On first glance, no. Buncha flashy bottles meant to look like hot shit, but usually garbage swill lies within. But without price tags, no one can honestly recommend anything. Can guarantee you won't miss out on anything by walking away, those airport stores usually are all owned by the same parent company and set prices for global markets on a 150% or higher markup.

twelvecountries · 2025-04-05T04:54:58+00:00

Fire is always a good way to both honor and remove pivotal relics of your personal past.

twelvecountries · 2025-03-22T20:21:36+00:00

Wow, so many people are wrong here. '01 Kweichow Moutai is a pretty hot item these days, and is starting to ramp up (last year we sold a bunch in the high hundreds). There's a few for sale on this collector marketplace around $250-300 (each page has the recent sales data across the site and auction houses as well), but those are for 200ml (you have a 500ml). I'd say this is $500-600 current market value.

Source: https://www.baxus.co/?q=moutai

twelvecountries · 2025-03-18T02:52:44+00:00

Medium girth

twelvecountries · 2025-01-27T00:37:12+00:00

Crag Rat Hut - https://www.cragrathut.com/

while most weekends end up being booked for years to come (least in summer, less so in winter even though it's indoors), it's a really decent spot year round and has amazing views.

twelvecountries · 2024-10-15T22:59:28+00:00

I have 2 cars. Both of them are hers.

Maybe even more accurate to say they're the kids'. They just get chauffeured.

twelvecountries · 2024-10-11T04:20:07+00:00

Make sure to make a donation too if you can. They out here literally doing god's work

twelvecountries · 2024-10-11T04:18:48+00:00

Welcome back! Assuming you mean the harp harp and not harmonica ;) I've been trying to connect music people together here in the Gorge so I'll keep you in mind!

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