One day, I decided to buy a amateur porn magazine that was on display by the door. And with a bagel in my mouth, I paid the 25 cents for the magazine. Maybe it was 75 cents. I don’t really remember. It was full of “swingers” and “home style” pictures of a sexual nature that people in that some group would post.
Some were gross. Just gross. While others had some pretty attractive gals, and one caught my eye. SO I bought the magazine and headed down the street to my apartment.
It was full of all kinds of people. Young, but mostly old and many fatties. Not a “playboy magazine” for certain. But just porn taken with 35mm film, or Polaroids and submitted to the magazine for publishing. If you got your picture published, the magazine would give you a $100. Pretty reasonable money in those days!
So I make it home, lay out my text books for my nightly study and finish eating my bagels. I’m going through the magazine and then I saw it…
… no doubt about it…
… there was my mother. With her current husband. And they were getting it on. Only one picture. But that was enough for me.
Oh, I never told anyone. I was discrete and kept all this info to myself. But I will never forget the shock that I had to my young 19 year old self in seeing my mother in a compromising position near our houses front door…!
Ah.
We all live our lives. Some of the things we want to keep private and confidential. While other things are ok to become public knowledge. My siblings no nothing about this. I never told anyone.
For whatever it is worth, I have a vault in my head full of these confidential confidences that I keep to myself. It’s a sign of maturity.
Don’t you know.
Today…
Chinese history lesson
In the year 290 AD, there was a retarded young man became the emperor in China.
His emperor father actually had more than one son, but ultimately chose him as his successor. The main reason was that this retarded son married a wife from a very powerful family, and a retarded emperor was actually very advantageous for his wife and father-in-law to control the power.
Today’s Biden is somewhat like this retarded emperor.
The people who truly hold power in America are those people around Biden, and they actually don’t mind Biden becoming increasingly incompetent. I
n fact, an incompetent Biden is very beneficial for them to control the power of America.
By the way, China fell into a bloody civil war after this retarded emperor.
As a police officer, what law do you rarely enforce?
Here’s a list of 10 in my state that I won’t be enforcing any time soon… however my actual answer is far more basic/universal and, if any other US Cop out there thinks about it, it would be theirs too. But first, that 10 that immediately come to my mind:
- Feeding the birds in public parks.
- A shop selling toy handcuffs to minors.
- A business that has more than 10 signs on its premises.
- Dissemination of informational fliers on windshields of people’s parked cars.
- Any car mod that is unrelated to lighting, noise, air emissions, or plate visibility. (Example: having custom tires on your vehicle that are wider than the chassis/fenders.)
- Gambling (even if it’s between family, friends, or coworkers).
- Stopping/Ticketing the rider of an eBike or Motorized bike for no other reason than that it was is traveling faster than 25mph (as long as the rider is under whatever the posted limit is, and not operating it in an obnoxious way, they won’t get a second look from me.)
- Before it became legal, I never busted anyone who grew personal use amounts of pot plants on their private property or carried personal use amounts on their person.
- Busting a kid who was riding an electric/motorized skateboard on the street for not having a Driver’s License.
- Busting an intoxicated golfer when they drive their cart across the road to get to the next green. (For the moment they’re on a Public Way, that still fits the OUI/DUI Statute.)
Only when you become a Police Officer do you have true awareness of the voluminous amount of codes that make up a the Criminal and Motor Vehicle sections of the State.l’s law. A majority of people (and many police officers) would be/are shocked by the numbers and feel that a great many are weird, unnecessarily, or just really stupid. Heck, the “Drivers Handbook” available for free from the DMV in my state is 56 pages of diagrams of things like intersections, sign shapes, stopping distances etc, all in relatively large print. In contrast, the Motor Vehicle Statute book that the State Legislature releases to all law enforcement agencies here, is in excesses of 460 pages! It contains no pictures of any kind, and is written in exceptionally small print. So the simplest answer I can give— as would any other US Cop if they’re being super-honest with themselves— to the question of which laws I “rarely enforce,” is, literally, this:
“Most of them.”
Shorpy
TOS-2 Wiped Out Canadian, French, and US Soldiers In CHASIV YAR┃Russia Captured STEPOVAY-NOVOSELOVKA
Why are Hong Kong people willing to accept that the British government’s BNO status is a trap when they know they are pawns against China?
Many who went to UK on BNO status are ”criminals” who had broken law 1 way or another.
Some genuinely do not know a thing. They just follow others.
See, UK & USA have run their scheme for more than 30 years. In the case of UK, it started in 1984 when UK realised China demanded return of HK in 1997. No negotiation.
UK’s plot was extensive covering all walks of life. Education is one of them. One whole generation was brainwashed to hate & fear of China.
So when UK opened door to accept BNOers, many people fled HK. They did not know UK was just sucking their money. That said, even they knew UK was sucking their money, out of hatred & fear of China, they might still go.
Human nature is funny.
I recently asked a person why she is afraid of ghost. I asked her if she has seen one. What is her experience with a ghost?
She cannot answer. Why then fear of ghost? Somebody told her ghost is terrible or evil Not good anyway.
I asked what makes her think god is not evil. Of course she cannot answer.
My point: it is all somebody who says so.
Same here with China. If you ask a BNOer why they hate China. They will repeat what others told her eg dictator. No freedom. Poor etc. If you ask them whether they have ever been to China, of course they have not. … again, it is somebody who says so.
Humans seldom do their own thinking.
BREAKING NEWS: Mike Johnson Hammers Joe Biden After Presidential Debate
As an attorney, have you ever experienced a case that made you re-evaluate your life?
Yes. I was appointed by the court to defend a gang member for armed robbery. He thought he was super cool and wanted to take the stand. I told him no, I warned him, he insisted over my objection.
There was only one thing going in his favor. The clerk at the place robbed said the robber had blue eyes. My client had brown eyes.
I felt my client was a very very dangerous person. I was sure the prosecutor would ask him if he had color contacts. They were in his pocket. When he lied and said no, I would ask to be recused from the case as you are not allowed to knowingly let your client lie on the stand. The judge would then know he was lying and I would probably be excused as counsel, etc. The ignorant prosecutor never asked. He was found not guilty.
The judge had a fit. He excoriated everyone but me…he said I was just doing my job. Two days later my client shot and killed an 8 year old girl in a rival gang revenge attack at the girl’s birthday party. The newspaper headline was the judge’s quote that he would never sleep again until every member of that gang was six feet under.
The judge called me and advised me that I would NOT be appointed to represent the guy again (Thank God).
The police declared a vendetta on that gang. Five years later the headlines said that gang was “eradicated” from Texas.
I never took another criminal case. I became a real estate attorney and did pro bono work for battered women and men who paid child support but were denied visitation with their children.
Aromatic Chicken Curry (Vietnam)
Ingredients
- 2 medium-size potatoes, cut into chunks
- 4 tablespoons peanut oil
- 8 shallots, minced
- 4 stalks fresh lemon grass, minced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 fresh hot red chiles, minced
- 2 tablespoons best-quality curry powder
- 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts, chopped into bite size pieces
- 1 teaspoon sea salt or 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1 (14 ounce) can coconut milk
- 1 (14 ounce) can chicken broth
- Fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- Fry the potato chunks in the oil until nicely browned, then drain them on paper towels.
- Add the shallots, lemon grass, and all of the spices to the pan, and stir-fry for a few minutes.
- Add the chicken and cook, stirring, until it is opaque.
- Add the potatoes, salt, coconut milk and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently for about 30 minutes.
- Garnish with basil leaves before serving in bowls with rice.
12 Minutes of Modern Women Moral Decay
A Woman’s World
Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt
Rebecca Parker
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. We went wrong.”
“We were right on target to hit Mars.”
“This isn’t Mars.”
It was then that Robert noticed the huddle of young women standing a short distance away, grouped under a copse of trees next to a river. Lilac-coloured water cascaded from an eight-foot drop into the shimmering pool, before winding away through the trees. Robert stared at the waterfall, the women, the sky.
“Martin?” he said, his tone still strangely neutral. “Am I dreaming, or am I dead?”
“Neither,” his colleague hissed at him. “You’re on Venus.”
Robert nodded, tasting the words even though his brain couldn’t comprehend them.
“But we were on target for Mars.”
“Mars is red, Rob, not purple.”
Robert nodded again, sipping the purple drink as one of the women broke away from the group and sashayed over to them. She might have been the same one that had been crouched over him before; she had the same silvery-blonde hair and violet coloured eyes. Her dress was lilac and her feet were bare. If Robert squinted, he could see that all the women were wearing dresses of a similar colour and not one of them wore shoes.
Martin got to his feet as she approached and Robert staggered up next to him. He felt oddly light-headed but pain free.
“Do you think they want to kill us?” he asked Martin as he drained the last of the water. In response, he received only a glare.
The woman paused in front of them, looking suddenly unsure of herself.
“Tia,” she announced. “Robert and Martin, correct?” The pair nodded. She chewed her lip, her eyes straying disdainfully over their clothes. Martin was half in his spacesuit, Robert was only in a t-shirt and jeans. “But…” she said, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “Where are the rest of you?”
The two men exchanged glances. “The rest of us?” Robert repeated. “There’s only us two. We crashed.”
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” she said. “The water here helps with healing very well.” She paused, a light breeze playing with her hair. “But surely more are on their way? We have thirty women here, all waiting for you.”
Robert could feel his head begin to pound and not because of the crash-landing.
“We’ve come from Earth. Have you heard of it?”
If Tia had heard the sarcasm in his voice, she didn’t show it. Her eyes dropped to the floor, her lips twisting into a frown.
“Earth? No. I don’t know any Earth.” Her eyes narrowed then and her tone became suddenly accusatory. “You are from Mars. All men are from Mars!”
Robert stared at her. She glared defiantly back.
“Love,” he began, feeling his patience start to wear thin. “Nobody lives on Mars. The place is a rock, totally uninhabitable! We are not from Mars, we’re from Earth. Kindly tell me what planet you are from?”
“Venus.”
Robert opened his mouth to shoot back a snide reply, but Martin cut him off.
“Are there any men here?” he asked Tia.
“No,” she replied, clicking her tongue in annoyance. “All men live on Mars. There should be thirty of you arriving today for the Spring Festival, but so far we have only two and not even a decent two at that.”
She scowled at them both and turned on her heel to storm away, but Martin hastily dashed after her, apologies spilling from his mouth as Robert stood and watched, realisation beginning to dawn on him.
The sun suddenly broke out from behind a cloud and the brilliance of it dazzled him. He sat back down on the grass, his eyes straying from Martin and Tia to the group of women huddled by the river. When Martin returned, he was carrying another glass of water.
“She said this might help your head,” he said handing the drink to Robert. “Shame it can’t help your attitude.” He smirked but looked away hastily as Robert glared at him. “The boys stay here until they’re eighteen. She’s going to see if they can help us out with a ship. In the meantime, we can stay in the village.”
“She wants us to go then.”
Martin crouched down on to the grass in front of him. “This isn’t our universe, Rob. I don’t know how we’ve ended up here, but here we are. There’s no Earth in their solar system. All the men live on Mars and all the women live on Venus.” Robert found his eyes wandering back to the group of women. They were all young, in their late twenties or early thirties, and they were all beautiful. “This Spring Festival,” Martin continued. “It’s a mating festival, Rob. Thirty men come over to meet thirty women and they couple up and well… you know…”
“So what you’re saying is, we’re stuck on a rock in some other universe, who knows where, and we’re the only men? That’s what you’re saying?”
Martin grinned and hit him playfully on the shoulder. “More men are coming. When they get here, they’ll help us find a ship. We’ll get a ship, Rob, don’t worry.”
They waited for three days, but the men didn’t arrive. The women became fretful. Each day they turned up in their purple dresses with their hair and make-up done to sit by the river from sunrise to sunset and each day they went home by themselves. They weren’t interested in befriending the two astronauts. The majority of them seemed to blame the pair for the loss of their men.
It was late in the afternoon on the third day when the silver-haired Tia approached them, leading a teenage boy alongside her.
“This is Jay,” Tia said as she reached them. “Jay is seventeen and he studies solar engineering at the college. He will help you find a ship.” She smiled at them but her eyes remained troubled. “Maybe then you can return to your own planet.”
“And your men?” Martin asked. “Shouldn’t they be here by now?”
She turned to gaze into the sky and sighed. “Something must have gone wrong. You crash-landed in our meadow and they haven’t arrived. Maybe they crashed somewhere else? But what if there is no one there to help them?”
She patted Jay on the back and thanked him before leaving. He quickly dived into conversation with Martin, but Robert wasn’t listening, he couldn’t stop thinking about Tia.
Jay proved to be very helpful. He took them on tours around the village and surrounding areas. The village looked more like a city to Robert, with its sky-high buildings and its colleges, but it was welcoming and friendly. The women watched them in interest as they passed, and many trailed after them, like excited girls wanting autographs from their favourite pop-stars. The teenager took them to his college workshop where other young boys clubbed together to help build the pair a new ship, modelling it on what they had left of the one that had crashed. They were quick and nimble workers and it was completed in only a week. Jay told them there was a takeoff station at the bottom of the meadow where they’d crashed and they arranged to have the ship transported back there. When they arrived, a tearful Tia came rushing up to meet them.
“Something must have happened to them!” she sobbed, the tears streaking down her face. “Please, please, before you go, look for them! They could be danger!”
Robert gazed at her, at her shiny, soft hair that fell elegantly over the curve of her breasts, at the lilac dress that hugged her waist, at the tears that fell from her beautiful violet eyes.
“Of course,” he told her. “We’ll find them.”
A whole host of women gathered in the meadow to watch them leave, along with Jay and the other boys who had helped to build the ship. Martin pressed his face to the glass of the window as they rocketed away from the planet into the depths of space.
“We were on course for Mars,” he said softly, as Robert took the wheel. “How did we end up on Venus in another dimension?”
“Another universe,” Robert shot back. “We must have passed through… through a… a worm-hole or something.”
Martin gave him a sharp look. “You told me worm-holes don’t exist.”
“I must have been wrong.”
They trawled through space, searching for anything unfamiliar or unknown, anything that might have rooted an explanation as to how they travelled between universes. Robert had lost track of the days completely when he noticed something in the distance.
“Martin!” he hissed, squinting through the window of the ship. “Martin, get over here!”
His companion joined him, concern plastered over his face. “What?”
Robert didn’t answer, but merely pointed.
It was hard to tell what it was at first. It was if there was some sort of light distorting the view. It was a shimmering line, like the mist rolling in off the sea.
“We’re in the middle of space,” Martin said flatly. “We’re not going near that.”
“Yes, we are,” Robert replied, easing forward on the accelerator. “That might be just how we got here in the first place.”
Martin grappled with him for the controls but Robert was stronger and slammed the accelerator down, sending the ship careening towards the shimmering line. It widened as they approached, yawning open like a great mouth. Martin screamed as it swallowed them and they found themselves spinning and spinning and spinning through a mass of swirling, blinding colours.
When it spat them out, they both felt the engine lurch, and Martin grabbed Robert’s arm in panic.
“That’s how we crashed!” he yelled, but Robert was barely listening; he’d spotted the rocky, red planet of Mars and sent the ship spiralling straight for it.
Martin bellowed at his companion, trying to pull the ship up before they crashed, but it jarred against a mound of rocks and flipped on to its side. They piled out of it, helmets on, and sprinted away before it could burst into flame and meet the same fate as their old ship. It didn’t fortunately, but it didn’t look safe to fly either.
“Great going, Rob,” Martin grumbled, gesturing towards the heap of battered metal. “We finally make it to Mars and you go and break our transport. Again.”
Robert could have shot him a snide reply, he wasn’t sure it was entirely his fault they had crashed on Venus in the first place, but he wasn’t listening. His attention had been snared by a far superior, more colourful ship that sat proudly atop a rocky outcrop. A rather dilapidated ribbon was tied around it. It might have looked smart at first, but it was dirty from red dust and the bow had come undone. He began walking towards it, his heart pounding, leaving Martin muttering to himself amidst the rocks. He thought about the lack of atmosphere, the lack of hostile environment, and began to run, panicking even though he didn’t know these men.
Martin yelled after him, suddenly noticing the ship for the first time. They both raced towards it, knowing the men would have been unprepared, knowing they would have lacked oxygen.
Robert reached the ship first and banged on the metal door, bellowing at them to let him in. Martin was quick on his heels and joined him, banging on the door until it opened.
There was a cluster of young men, all late twenties or early thirties and all beautiful. They were stood behind the air lock, frowning at the two strangers in their space suits who were waving at them from the inhospitable landscape of Mars. Wordlessly, they welcomed the astronauts on to the ship, though they seemed wary and kept their distance.
“Where are you from?” the first one said, as Robert took his helmet off.
“Earth!” Robert replied proudly, ignoring their puzzled glances to continue. “We were on our way to our Mars, when we crash-landed on your Venus.”
“What my friend is trying to say,” Martin interrupted, as the group of men muttered amongst each other in confusion, “is that we’re from a parallel universe, and we crashed in your universe. You apparently, have gotten lost in our universe, but we can guide you back.”
The muttering continued but a few smiles began to appear among the bunch.
“You crashed,” one observed.
“You can’t return in that wreck,” another said.
“Guide us back to our Venus,” the first one said, “and we will ensure you can safely return to your own planet.”
The two astronauts gladly obliged and took the controls to return the vehicle to Venus. Martin was a bit dismayed about leaving the red planet so soon, after only just arriving and without conducting any of their research, but Robert found he didn’t care that much; he longed to return to Venus, to Tia.
They landed safely the third time around and the relieved, yet tearful, silver-haired Tia came running up as the group disembarked. She weaved through the handsome young men, searching for the alien astronauts who had brought them to her. She found Robert and threw her arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder.
“Thank you,” she wept, “thank you so much.”
He didn’t say anything, but hugged her close. Martin took his shoulder, telling him they had to sort a new ship and get back to their own universe, but Robert had made his mind up.
“We’ve found a planet inhabited entirely by women,” he told his friend, as Tia straightened and wiped her tears from her flushed face, “and you want to leave?!” He turned back to the beautiful woman standing in front of him, took her hand and kissed it.
“Allow me to introduce myself, properly this time,” he told her. “My name is Robert, this is Martin. We come in peace.”
Giggling, she took his hand and led them both through the meadow towards the waterfall. The sun shone down on them through the purple sky, sparkling on the purple river. Far behind them, deep in space, the shimmering dimensional gap, the stitch in the universe that had brought them there, slowly faded to melt away completely in the unfathomable depths of space.
Nam Jim Wan
(Sweet Dipping Sauce | Thai)
This is a simple dipping sauce usually used with deep fried items such as spring rolls and stuffed chicken wings.
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 3 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup vinegar (preferably rice vinegar)
- 3 tablespoons Chinese pickled plums
- 3 tablespoons thinly sliced prik ki nu daeng (red birdseye chiles)
- 2 tablespoons garlic, very thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons ginger, julienned or grated
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Boil the water, and add the pickled plums (sometimes sold as ‘salted plums’), and simmer for five minutes.
- Remove the plums to a food processor and puree them.
- Continue to boil the water, adding and dissolving the sugar, then adding the vinegar and salt. If any sugar is still undissolved, add a little more water until it dissolves.
- Return the plums to the mixture, and then pour over the other ingredients in a sterilized preserving jar, and keep in a cool place for at least a week before using.
Can you introduce me as Joker? | Joker [UltraHD, HDR]
Why does China want to go to war with Taiwan even though Japan intervened? Do they really think they will win that fight?
Today’s China is militarily strong.
China is not afraid of USA. It of course will not be afraid of Japan.
A year or 2 ago, Taiwan asked Japan if it will help Taiwan in case of war,
Japan said they only plan up to the point of evacuation of Japanese in Taiwan. Translation: Japan’s war simulation tells Japan that it will not win China.
Neither can USA.
Some other art
As a Vietnam vet, what was the saddest thing you saw during the war?
Well, here goes, and it’s taken me 50 years to write or even speak of this event. I considered writing anonymously but that’s no way to get something off your chest.
I was with an infantry platoon in the Mekong Delta during the summer of 1969, we walked out of a woodline into an open paddy area and found several individuals dragging an unexploded 500 pound bomb across the paddy toward a wooded area. They were dressed like V/C, black trousers and white shirts, and probably about 500 yards away. This bomb would have made a devastating booby trap.
This was a so-called “free fire zone,” meaning all civilians and non-combatants had supposedly been relocated and only the enemy remained.
We opened fire and the subjects scattered into the woodline and we did not pursue them. It was getting on toward sunset and we heard crying and moaning from deep within the jungle. I, along with two other soldiers, was sent to investigate. We found a male subject laying on his back in great distress, when his shirt was removed there was a bullet hole in his upper chest/shoulder area but no exit wound. He was not bleeding, but that blood had to go somewhere, and it did, straight into his lung.
The other two guys with me argued that we should take him out and call for a dustoff (Medivac) but I was in charge and would not allow it. I said we were not going to endanger a flight crew to evacuate an enemy soldier who was going to die anyway. And besides, he might have been one of V/C who ambushed our platoon the previous week causing extensive casualties and loss of life.
So we waited as his breathing grew gradually more shallow; I kept shining my flashlight into his eyes and after about 20 minutes his pupils became dilated and non-reactive. This enemy soldier had died. Except. . .
The next morning our platoon was sleeping on dikes near the woodline and I was awakened by terrible screaming and crying from a woman and her children who had seemingly come from nowhere, there were no hooches or villages in sight. Our “enemy soldier,” whom I had watched and saw die, was in fact her 13-year old son.
At the time, and over the years, I’ve tried to rationalize my actions that evening: it was dark, V/C were all young looking, we couldn’t have saved him anyway, but the only true answer is that war had stripped away a bit of my humanity.
I saw plenty of sadness in Vietnam, but nothing was as sorrowful as watching a mother weep for her dead son.
And then I heard Phil Collins – In the Air Tonight (First Time Reaction) *
Hungry Food Porn
A crying mother trying to drag a man to her dying kitten. Just unbelievable
What is the largest amount of money you have ever lost in a day?
Seven hundred quadrillion dollars. (USD)
This was about 10 years ago. I had a lunch date planned at a restaurant next to where I was working. We had a pleasant enough meal and at the end I was about to pay. My credit card was declined.
That didn’t make any sense. It was direct drawn on my bank account, I had plenty of money in it. Lunch wasn’t all that expensive for the two of us.
So I take a moment to go over to the ATM and attempt a withdraw. The machine tells me I have no money. I print out the balance and I’m over drawn by:
$700,000,000,000,000,000
Somehow I’d lost $700,000,000,000,000,000 and my account was now negative that amount.
I walked back to the office, borrowed $50 off a coworker to pay for lunch and walked back over to the restaurant. Needless to say I didn’t get a second date out of that.
So after lunch I start making phone calls and the bank just runs me in circles giving me one lie after another and telling me it must be my fault, and that I clearly “lost the money” and have “spent it on something I don’t remember” and that they will be “adding over draft fees” and various other fines.
I couldn’t get one idiot on the phone to actually acknowledge the total amount that they were claiming I’d lost. They simply saw the flag that I was overdrawn and proceeded to tell me it was my fault for spending more than my limit.
The next day I went into the bank and asked for a manager. That took a while, the cashier kept assuring me she could handle my needs and insisting that I didn’t need a manager.
I finally told her: look, unless you can explain to me why you stole 700 quadrillion dollars from me, you really can’t help me and I’m going to need a manager.
She told me I was making up numbers. I told her to go fuck herself and she shouldn’t be working in a bank if she didn’t know what a quadrillion was.
She went to get a manager to have me thrown out. I handed him the ATM slip and he just stood there without saying a word for a couple of minutes while his brain processed how many zeroes were on the paper.
He shooed her away and asked me into his office. I told him the run around I’d been getting from phone customer service and that I’d come in and asked for a manager only to be brushed off by the girl at the counter, I just wasn’t in the mood for any more bullshit.
I told him he needed to explain to me how they could possibly think I’d lost 700 quadrillion dollars beyond my spending limit.
We sat there for an hour while he made phone calls. At the end of that he assured me that it was all fixed and that the money was restored and my account would be usable within the next few hours.
I had to remind him to remove the over draft fees and various other fines. That took a few more phone calls.
So there you go. I lost $700,000,000,000,000,000 to a bank error. Thankfully it was found the next day after much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Edit: To those questioning the authenticity of this answer; realize, I didn’t have that much money to lose. My real balance was only about $1000 at the time. This was a bank error and the loss was a negative balance.
So yes, I “lost 700 quadrillion” in a technical sense but in the form of debt being added to the account. Restoring 700 quadrillion to the account (which they did) only put me back to my original balance of about $1,000.
The amount in overdraft fees was comparably small: only a few hundred dollars. However this would have been added daily until repaid and of course since the error was on their side: I shouldn’t (and didn’t) owe any of that either.
The bank was: Bank of America. I had used them for many years prior without a problem and continued to use them for a few more years after without any issues. (I later closed my accounts and switched banks for entirely different reasons)
Edit 2: Since it’s been asked: No I don’t know the details of how an error like that actually occurred. From the phone calls the manager made, I could only hear his side of the conversations. Most of it seemed to involve server migrations and backup systems, something had gone wrong in one conversion of systems with another, I can’t tell you the specifics. Such is the nature of computers, stick a decimal in the wrong place while moving numbers around and automated algorithms can do strange things.
Edit 3: I don’t know if I still have that ATM slip. Realize this was a decade ago, and that type of paper fades. The last I saw it, it was almost unreadable. I’ve moved 6 times across 3 states since then and one of my apartments was demolished. It may be in a storage box continuing to fade, or it may be gone. I don’t even know where to begin to look for it at this point.
I’ve had a lot of random adventures in my life, this is just one day of many that were weird. I’m lucky I can retain some of the memories; the baubles (and slips of paper) collected along the way come and go.
About Last Night’s Debate…
China’s workforce is aging out of their productive years and lacks the young people to replace them. As China fails out of being the planet’s factory, how will that affect CO2 in the atmosphere?
Sorry are we already in 2057?
This is 2024 and China just recently graduated 11.24 Million people and typically after 18 months – as many as 850,000 of these people will not have a proper advented job and after 36 months around 332,000 of them will not have a proper job
In fact after 18 months – only India with 2.265 Million unemployed graduates will beat China in 2026 as per the extrapolation
In 2023 – Chinas Factories created 1.37 Million new jobs and this year the target is 1.50 Million new factory jobs
Guess how many factory jobs Germany created in 2023?
Negative 86,800
They closed 86,800 Jobs
The previous year it was 72,000 Jobs
In all of Europe – Hungary is the only Nation that created an additional 10,740 jobs in 2023
US has lost a whopping 4 Million Factory Jobs in the last decade (2010–2020)
China has added 18.3 Million Factory Jobs in the last decade (2010–2020)
It is expected that China will add 12 Million Factory Jobs from 2020 to 2030 and 7.2 Million from 2030 to 2040
Yet they will be more and more specialized jobs and skilled jobs
Meanwhile China will see a transition to the Service Sector
Today Manufacturing commands 36% of all Jobs and Services 13% (26% is still Agriculture and 8.3% is Government Jobs and Civil Service including the Army)
Yet a decade ago it was 41.2% for Manufacturing and only 7.8% for services
By 2030–2040 – you will see only 20% Manufacturing Jobs and upto 45% Service Jobs on the Mainland
Take a look at Nations with the largest NEW factory jobs created in 2023
- China (1.37 Million)
- Russia (670K) [War Production included]
- Mexico (311K)
- Vietnam (273K)
- India (221K)
- Bangladesh (157K)
- Brazil (131K)
China nearly created the same NEW factory jobs as the next 4–5 Nations combined
South Korea & Japan are far worse than China in demographics yet Japanese Workforce showed 22,000 more factory jobs than workers and Korea showed 6050
With a huge rural population – the earliest China can reach the same situation is 2057 and that’s the absolute worst case scenario
The truth is Ceteris Paribus – China is unlikely to have any major demographic work issues until around 2075–2100 AD
By then I am sure you will have enough Robots and AI to do the needed work
Balsamic Marinated Flank Steak
Ingredients
Balsamic Marinade
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
Steak
- 1 beef flank steak (about 1-1/2 pounds)
- Salt amd pepper
Instructions
Balsamic Marinade
- Combine ingredients in small bowl. Place beef steak and marinade in food-safe plastic bag; turn steak to coat. Close bag securely and marinate in refrigerator for 6 hours or as long as overnight, turning occasionally.
Steak
- Remove steak from marinade; discard marinade. Place steak on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 11 to 16 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, 16 to 21 minutes) for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally.
- Season steak with salt and pepper, as desired.
- Carve steak crosswise into thin slices.
Why do people expect so much out of an Uber when it costs less than a cab?
I will never forget the girl who ordered a Uber Comfort which is up to 4 passengers. I showed up. Granted I have an SUV and can fit 6 passengers. Well she had a group of 7. Not squeezing you all in, sorry. Order 2 rides. They didn’t want to split the group so I said I couldn’t take them. She had such a sassy attitude. With all of the sass in the world she told her friends, “Wait, this is still on my dollar, so…” and she turned to me, held out her hand rolling her eyes a little bit and said, “Can I at least have a water or something?”
My jaw dropped a little bit. Not only was I cancelling her ride because she wanted to disobey the rules and the law, but she had the nerve to give me sass and ask for water! As if I carry water, candy, snacks, etc. for all of my passengers. She was going to pay $10 for a trip home for 7 people and expected water and snacks and candy and for me to let an extra person squeeze in the back??? Nope! Not happening! I don’t carry water for passengers. I don’t carry candy. I drive people from point A to point B and provide good customer service and a good attitude, decent music, a clean nice-smelling car with air conditioning. If you want water or snacks I can take you to a gas station! But to give me sass? I was so amazed at the nerve this young lady had to ask me in such a way for a water.
So, why do people expect so much out of an Uber?
Entitlement
People expect so much for so little. They want to pay less than a taxi service, expecting private car service. Some drivers offer amenities to boost ratings or tips, or allow passengers to break the rules to not lose out on a fare. Over time, this has led people to expect more from the service. If 1/10 drivers allow it, then all of the drivers should allow it, which simply isn’t the case.