Corporate Pride is an indicator of societal change, not a driver of societal change.
And I think a lot of people get those two mixed up.
Magic cards variant game
My partner and I wanted to play the recent Fallout expansion for Magic: The Gathering, but it was prohibitively expensive to try to buy boosters for it. (I’m not sure if they only did Collector Boosters, or if the local store was just sold out of Draft/Play boosters.) Additionally, the Commander decks were pretty expensive; I wanted this game to be my treat, but I didn’t want to shell out for two of them.
Continue reading “Magic cards variant game”A song mashup no one needs
Alternate lines of “do not stand at my grave and weep” with lines from “This is Halloween,” preferably the cover by Marilyn Manson.
I am the thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glints on snow
I am the who when you call “who’s there?”
I am the wind blowing through your hair
A dichotomy in financial advice
Something that crystallized recently, for me, is that financial advice from friends seems to come in two basic shapes:
- “Should you really be spending money on that right now?”
- “Have you put a line item in your budget for that?”
I used to be more the first; but now, I’m striving to aim for the second. It’s less judgemental and more accepting of the fact that not all of us have the same financial priorities, and that’s okay.
Oldest and Fatherless: The terrible secret of Tom Bombadil
Today I was reminded of this amazing essay on Livejournal about the true Eldritch Horror nature of Tom Bombadil.
https://km-515.livejournal.com/1042.html
Enjoy.
Polysemy and Sorry
I saw this video on Instagram and it reminded me of one of my soapboxes about words.
“I’m sorry” is a phrase that has (at least) two meanings in English. One is “I apologize for the wrongs I have done to you.” The other is “I offer my condolences for the bad thing you have suffered.”
The neat part is, both of these are valid meanings!
Anyway I’m sorry her hamster exploded. I didn’t mean for it to end up like that.
Short opinion : landlords
Being a landlord is not “passive income” and the people who treat it that way are bad people.
Being a landlord is a job. You have to maintain the property your tenants live in. That is your responsibility for your part time job that you took on when you bought or inherited this property.
You can pay a property management company to do the landlord job for you, if you want. That’s definitely your prerogative, and it’s a good solution, especially for the people who just want to rent inherited property out until they’re ready to retire into it, or whatever.
But landlord is a job.
Cost of living increases and housing
When I got my first job and moved into my own apartment, in 2006, I rented a “one bedroom with den” for $1000. It was about 1000 square feet.
At the time, I was making about $45,000 a year. By the 30% rule, my monthly max for housing costs should have been $1125, so I was doing okay there. (And it definitely helped that I had no student loan debt or car payment. I have a lot of class privilege.)
For grins, I went back and looked at that same apartment complex today. At first, I was impressed: the one-bedrooms are still being rented for $1000! But then I looked closer. The $1000 unit is 450 square feet. There is no “one bedroom with den” option.
Turns out, that’s now listed as the “two bedroom deluxe” unit, and it rents for $1750. (The “den” did have a window, so I don’t know why it wasn’t listed as a Bedroom in 2006. I don’t know what year the complex made this change.)
For comparison, someone at my same entry-level job today would be making $60,000. By the 30% rule, their maximum on rent should be $1500. So they probably shouldn’t live in the “deluxe 2 bedroom” apartment, but they’d still be okay in the 1-bedroom; and they’d be able to spend the “extra” $500 (girl math!) on, I don’t know, student loans or something.
I honestly think more places should be renting out efficiency apartments like that. It’s one part of a solution that’s going to have to be many-faceted (because one single solution can’t fix everything).
For reference, with the Maryland minimum wage of $15, the annual salary would be $31,200, so about half of what this Entry Level person today would be making. So to live in a 450 square foot one-bedroom efficiency, where I live, you’d need to have a roommate. Two people could swing it for the two-bedroom, if they were thrifty, but it would be tight. They could get a roommate for the second bedroom, which would make it a bit easier; 3 adults in 1000 square feet is not the most fun thing, but it’s workable.
In my ideal world, a single person earning minimum wage would be able to rent the aforementioned 450-foot efficiency apartment for 0.3 of their monthly gross wage, period. This should be our societal standard for “can someone afford to live on the baseline level, y/n?”
Anyway. Small soapbox over. Just ran those numbers today and thought it was interesting. (And if you’re local and you want to know the name of the complex, let me know. I’m not posting it here though because they’re not paying me and I didn’t love them THAT much.)
It’s okay to change your mind
TikTok video by Abraham Piper:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8HCyJqo/
A past decision can be canceled by a present decision without either decision being the wrong one.
Or, like I tell people all the time: just because a relationship has ended doesn’t mean it has failed.
Differences: phone on silent or no?
A dichotomy I’ve noticed a ton over the years is the different ways people handle their phones at night (or when they sleep).
Some people keep their notifications turned on, and expect their friends not to send them text messages (the way, in the olden days, we didn’t call on the POTS phone after 9 pm because it was inconsiderate).
Other people set their phones on silent or Do Not Disturb at night, and simply check their messages in the morning.
I’m a part of Camp 2. I generally lose touch with Camp 1, because I’m never sure if it’s okay to text them or not.
In general, I treat texting as asynchronous. If something is urgent, I make a phone call (or other workaround if the person does not use the phone).
I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect someone to wake up to text message notifications. That level of sleep interruption is unhealthy (not to mention literally torture). Similarly, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect someone to *not* send a text message when the thought strikes them; texting as a medium is very different from speaking (in person or on the phone). Again, it’s wholly asynchronous.
I’m aware that this probably makes me a Very Geriatric Millennial or whatever. Now get off my lawn.
In any case: like most Differences, this is something that folks hold in a very deep-seated way, where you’re unlikely to change the other person’s mind; all you can do is acknowledge the way they feel, and do your best to get along. Which is really disappointing, I know.
Emilybook 