likebudda

I voted blue and donated to contested races as much as I could afford. I am too lazy/socially anxious to canvass or do anything active like that. In my bubble, there was plenty of Kamala hype and even though I didn't believe it, all I could do was ask anonymous online strangers to vote and hope enough of them voted my way. I shouldn't have been surprised at the power of racism and sexism in the country but it was still a shock to the system. In my circles supporting him was utterly unthinkable so I have no explanation on how it happened.

I worked for a financial advisor who made most of his money through a textbook he wrote. It was on its 14th edition over 10 years ago. It's a business calculus textbook. Calculus hasn't changed in hundreds of years but the word problem examples needed to change from companies to dotcom companies to AI companies. He has dozens of co-authors at this point, he hasn't added anything beyond his stamp of approval in many years. He made almost as much as a passive author as he did as a financial advisor.

Me and my buddy were sitting on the couch smoking bowls watching news coverage about all the crowds at the theaters. We were a couple of blocks away from one so we decided to drive by and see how crazy it was in-person. Once at the theater, there was plenty of parking and no lines. We went to the box office expecting there were no lines because everything was sold out but we were able to buy two tickets to the next showing around 9p. We had enough time to go back and smoke more bowls and when we got back to the theater, we had plenty of choices for seats. I remember how much I hated the acting performance out of young Anakin and Natalie Portman, and whatever it was that Jar Jar was supposed to be. When The Force was explained as a blood disease I questioned why I ever liked Star Wars at all. I enjoyed Episode III when the jedi kids were slaughtered, The Force Awakens, and the last bit of Rogue One, but haven't kept up with any of the side stories or origin stories. The first time I questioned my fandom was when I went to the theaters for the specialized editions. When I saw the CGI I thought if this is what his vision was supposed to be maybe I don't like his vision.

It's a learning tool like an answer key is a learning tool. I'm pretty sure my college textbooks included correct answers for odd numbered problems but never complete solutions.

Cigarettes are so awesome I craved them while on ecstasy. If you didn't BYO you would be stuck bumming a menthol. Cigarettes are so awesome that I would smoke a menthol. They are so awesome I am scared to smoke another one.

I went with cannabis. After legalization, 70%+ concentrates are widely available for $15-25/g and I'm down to ~$120/month to cover my stayfaded lifestyle. I think I was paying $100/quarter oz of 15-20% flower pre-prohibition.

I'm lucky to have only had access to crappy cocaine in my life. I think I did like 3 consecutive 8-ball weekends but felt like shit every Monday so I just stopped. Now I'm too scared of fent to even try to score some coke.

Rolling over a payday loan. You write them a check for $300 post dated for payday, they hand you $255. On payday, I would go back with a fresh $300 check to replace the one they just cashed so they could hand me another $255. This would be after exhausting overdraft from my checking that cost something like $35 to overdraw by $200. I wasn't even on hard drugs or drinking, just weed and nicotine. By the time I was 30 I had $15k in financial judgements against me, it took another 4 years to pay everything off. It almost cost me a promotion during the credit check. Apparently you shouldn't be a financial advisor if you're terrible with your own finances but I talked my way out of it (and then failed as a financial advisor).

It's called catfishing and they were VICTIMS!

"Our next models are showing little to no improvement."