As a young boy, my father would take us out periodically out of our city (Bridgeport, CT) and go for a ride into the country. And there we would go to a roped off hole in the ground. Turns out that twice a day, this hole would gusher out a tall column of water. And it was really cool to watch as a young boy.
It’s something that I haven’t seen in decades. And truthfully, I have forgot about it all. But you know, the other day, by chance, I remembered the blow hole. I was thinking about it the other day whilst musing about what to expose my young daughter to. Yup. A natural ocean blow hole.
If you can spend sometime at a local library and chat with the people there, they might be able to point you all in the right direction for some fun excitement for the family. You never know.
Today…
Have you ever been asked or told something so offensive you found yourself momentarily stunned?
I worked in a coffee shop and many tourists would come by. This guy from another state came one day doing the « have we ever seen each other before » act. I said no and gave him his coffee. Just a reminder that I had a fiance at that time (now my husband). He then waited for me at the end of the counter . I thought he had a question so I went up to him and asked if everything was ok. He told me the classic « you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, I would love to take you on a date … blahblahblah » I refused and said I have a fiance. He replied « but do you love him? » I was stunned.
I confirmed that yes in fact I was very much in love with my fiance to wich he replied « are you sure? ». I was getting frustrated a bit so i just said « I know I love him so don’t ask me that again it’s rude ».
The next thing he said was even worst. He simply said « Not even for one night? ». That was enough, I went up to my boss and told him everything. My boss escorted him out.
Very shocked how a person can ask such questions shamelessly!
America today
Yogurt Cake (Yiaourtini)
Ingredients
Cake
- 1/2 pound butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 cup yogurt
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves
- 6 egg whites
- 1 cup chopped walnuts
- 1 shot glass cognac
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
Syrup
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Sift flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and baking powder and set aside.
- Cream the butter well. Add the sugar and continue beating until very light. Add egg yolks one by one and continue beating. Slowly add yogurt and dry ingredients alternately. Whip egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold the egg whites into the cake batter. Fold in chopped walnuts. Mix the baking soda with the cognac and fold into the batter. Pour into pan and bake 45-55 minutes.
- While the yiaourtini is baking, prepare syrup. Bring the ingredients to a boil and gently boil for 20 minutes.
- Let both the yiaourtini and syrup cool for about 20 minutes and then very slowly pour the syrup over the yiaourtini. You may not need all of the syrup.
- Cut into diamond shapes. Cover to keep cake moist.
You have to suffer
What are the most difficult and useful things people have to learn in their 20s?
This is an idea I read somewhere a while ago, and it’s been really helpful for me in developing patience:
Most people completely overestimate how much they can do in a day, but underestimate how much they can do in a year.
In just a day, you can’t change much.
Say one day, you go to the gym, eat healthy, sleep 8 hours, talk to a girl you have a crush on, and work on your business for a few hours. You do some breathing exercises you found on YouTube, read a book, and even call your mom and ask her about her day.
You had a great day.
But at the end of the day, you’re frustrated because your life is pretty much the same. You still kind of suck. You’re still a mess.
Your muscles are still small and you’re still overweight. Your business is still in the red. The girl you have a crush on still keeps forgetting your name. You still have anxiety, your mom is still worried about you, and reading the book was hard — there were a lot of words you didn’t know.
“Fuck this!” you think.
You want to give up because you’re frustrated by how little progress you’ve made.
A whole day of work, and you weren’t rewarded… What the hell?
Right?
Wrong.
Positive results come from compounded efforts.
Most people understand that things like fitness or weight loss take time (if you don’t, you should get that in your brain) but we often lose patience when it comes to other things.
Things like:
- personal finance
- relationships
- reading skills
- mental health
- or anything else worth it really
ALSO take a long time to build.
These skills are a result of mental fitness, business fitness, social fitness, etc.
The most important thing you can learn in your 20s (or any age, I think) is the value of patience and persistence.
After a year in the gym, you’re still not at your goal weight, but you’re close. Your confidence has improved. You know the names of all exercises now and you know what muscles they work. When you walk into the gym, you have a plan. The guy at the front desk remembers your name now.
After a year of working on your business, you’ve turned it around. You’ve made dozens of mistakes, lost clients, made marketing errors, and nearly given up 100 bajillion times, but you didn’t. You’ve been rewarded with your first high-paying client. When you got the Stripe notification from them, you cried. Baby steps.
That girl you have a crush on doesn’t just know your name now, she’s in love with you. You’ve been together for almost a year. Working up the courage to “talk to her” became working up the courage to ask her out, then the courage to kiss her. You’re happy. You want to marry her one day.
Those books you read have gotten a lot easier to read. You actually enjoy reading now. You look up fewer words. Each book teaches you a new lesson — even if sometimes the lesson is just “some ideas are not worth writing books about”.
Your anxiety has gone down a lot too. You’ve done those breathing exercises every single day. You’ve learned that it’s called “meditation”, and whenever you feel stressed about work or your relationship or anything else in your life, you try and practice it. It doesn’t always “fix everything” but it usually helps.
It also helps you realize that progress is a neverending journey. There’s something infinite about sitting in a finite space and doing nothing but existing.
Oh, and your mom?
She’s still worried about you because that’s your mom. She’s never not going to worry about you.
But hey, we covered most of our bases, didn’t we?
Are there any known ancient Chinese civilizations that existed before the Xia Dynasty and are not connected to the Shang Dynasty or mentioned in historical texts or myths?
Two keywords are mentioned in this question: history and myth
Historical documents are very serious matters to the Chinese. It does not mean that just randomly discovering some stone carvings, scriptures, or parchment scrolls can be called “historical documents.” The “historical documents” recognized by the Chinese are actually is very limited. Basically they are serious, formal historical archives and books.
The Xia Dynasty is the first dynasty recorded in Chinese historical documents, there is no earlier one.
In addition to formal historical documents, other civilizations, countries or dynasties before the Xia Dynasty will of course be recorded. However, in the Chinese view of history, these records can only be classified as “myths” or “unofficial histories”, and they are not recognized by history.
In order to respect the historical habits of the Chinese people, I think it is inappropriate to use mythology and unofficial history to discuss the civilization before the Xia Dynasty.
But this issue can be discussed using archaeological findings. Although in the eyes of the Chinese, simple archaeological discoveries cannot be regarded as trustworthy history. But their credibility is higher than myths and unofficial histories.
1. Liangzhu Civilization
Existing in today’s Zhejiang Province, China, it appeared 5,000 years ago and lasted for 500 years, 1,000 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.
Archaeologists have discovered large-scale urban ruins here, tens of thousands of acres of rice fields, granaries with hundreds of thousands of kilograms of rice, huge dams and palace ruins. Countless tombs, jades and pottery.
UNESCO has designated the archaeological finds here as a World Cultural Heritage. After measuring the scale of houses, tombs, and rice fields, archaeologists estimate that tens of thousands of people once lived in and around this city. It was the capital of an ancient country.
But there is not a single word about it in Chinese historical documents.
2. Sanxingdui Civilization
Sichuan Province, which exists in today’s China, appeared 4,800 years ago and lasted for 1,400 years. It was 800 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, and its existence spanned the Xia Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty.
Not only ancient Stone Age ruins were discovered here, but also a large number of relics from the Bronze Age. Huge, complex and exquisite bronzes, ivories, and jades filled the sacrificial pits.
UNESCO has designated the archaeological finds here as a World Cultural Heritage.
However, there is no detailed record of it in Chinese historical documents. There are only some approximate accounts, and they cannot be completely confirmed.
3. Longshan Civilization
There are multiple sites that exist in today’s Shandong and Henan provinces of China.
It appeared 5,000 years ago and lasted for 100 years, 1,000 years earlier than the establishment of the Xia Dynasty.
A large number of jades, pottery, architectural and urban ruins have been discovered in multiple sites of the Longshan Civilization. Because of its location and cultural relic style, it has a certain connection with the Xia Dynasty. Archaeologists tend to believe that it is the predecessor of the Xia Dynasty.
However, there is no record of it in Chinese historical documents, only some vague records, and they cannot be completely confirmed.
In addition, China has also discovered the remains of many ancient civilizations that date back to earlier times, such as the DwenkouCivilization, Yangshao Civilization, Hemudu Civilization, Hongshan Civilization, and Majiayao Civilization. The earliest urban ruins discovered so far date back to about 8,000 years ago.
However, there is no record of these civilizations and their cities in Chinese historical documents. Therefore, they are not regarded as “official history” by Chinese historical circles, but are uniformly classified as: “prehistoric civilization”
What is a passport bro
If a random person came up to you in the street, ready to fight and asked you “What the F are you looking at” How or what would you do in response?
Happened to me a few years ago.
I live in a pretty nice neighbourhood but it’s right next to a sketchy one and the nearest Domino’s is between the two.
I had stopped off for some pie and wings and was hurrying back to my car laden with goodies, filled with anticipation, ready to stuff my face whilst I watched trashy Sci-Fi reruns. As I passed a bus stop an absolute unit of a young lady lurched out of the shadows and, looking up, I realised she was part of a crowd of teens I could generously describe as “scruffy”.
As is typical for creatures of this sub-species she engaged my attention with the wittiest of retorts “oi, Fuck you lookin’ at?”, to the sniggers of the rest of her pack. (ever seen the episode of Buffy where Xander is a jackal? Yeah, got flashbacks).
This is where things could have gone very badly for me because my brain HATES me. Normal folk just grunt and scurry off at this point, maybe agress back if that’s their jam. Not me and my brain, ohhh no.
Me? I just froze up.
Evil brain that hates me? That bugger made me look her up and down, slowly, and say “I don’t know, 3am pity fuck?”
Let’s be clear here, these are the kind of teens that carry knives and use them, my sphincter slamming shut damned near caused the wind to change directions and there was a moment of absolute stillness.
Then one of the pack started laughing and the rest joined in (sounding even more like jackals) and, deprived of her support this behemoth of a fight starter just kind of stalled in place and so, regaining control of my me, I scurried off to my car, hopped in and wasted no time getting out of there.
Resting heart beat at the time? Hummingbird after it’s fifth line of coke.
What is the most wrong you’ve been in judging someone?
One day, a stranger gave me a ride in Afghanistan.
This isn’t normal: he was just an Afghan man, and I was a uniformed active duty US Marine. I had stepped off the base for some reason, I don’t remember what, possibly to go to the bazaar which was held just-off base which we were allowed to visit, and after I exited from one gate, I realized I needed to be on the opposite side.
As I turned to walk back the other way, I understood just enough Pashto at the time to understand when an Afghan man in a truck offered to give me a ride to where I need to go.
Without thinking, I hopped in. And the doors locked. I could not unlock them. It immediately hit me just how stupid I was, and I realized that due to the confined space in the front of the vehicle my long rifle was useless. Trying to conceal my hands, I tensed and gripped my knife, ready to kill the driver, and stab and slash my way out of the vehicle at the slightest provocation.
But nothing happened. The driver stayed very calm and quiet. When I arrived at the other gate, he came to slowly to a stop, and unlocked the door. Relieved when I left his vehicle, he smiled and waved, wished me well, and continued on his way.
It was then I learned that even in Afghanistan, strangers can be kind.
But I never told anyone, because what I did was also astoundingly, immensely stupid.
What sets Huawei phones apart from other Chinese smartphone brands such as OPPO and Xiaomi?
Before 2019, Huawei mobile phones were not much different from Chinese brand mobile phones such as Xiaomi and OPPO.
The differences are very limited, such as better-looking photos, better mobile phone signal, and more beautiful casing.
. The difference between Huawei phones and Xiaomi phones at that time was the same as the difference between Samsung phones and Xiaomi phones. “A little better”, that’s all.
They have more in common. Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, and Samsung are all global products. Their CPUs come from professional suppliers such as Qualcomm and MTK; their screens come from LG and Samsung; their glass comes from Corning in the United States; their memories come from Micron and SK; and they also have accessories from various multinational suppliers such as SONY, TI, and Infineon. The operating system comes from Google’s Android.
They are all products under the background of globalization and the result of global cooperation.
But the Huawei mobile phone in 2023 is a unique case, it is completely different.
It is completely different from Apple, and also completely different from Samsung, Xiaomi, and OPPO.
It is no longer a global product.
Due to U.S. sanctions that began in 2019, Huawei is unable to cooperate with global suppliers, and they are unable to purchase most parts.
95% of the components of the Mate60 mobile phone to be launched in 2023 will come from Chinese suppliers, and the remaining 5% will be general-purpose components.
In fact, almost every component of this mobile phone comes from a Chinese company. Huawei has built a complete supply chain with the support of its Chinese partners.
- They even printed the American Raimondo, the promoter of sanctions against Huawei, on their advertisements.
- They are declaring: Thank you for making us stronger
- this is really cool
This mobile phone has almost no components outside of China. All its semiconductors are produced in China, and its operating system is also developed by Huawei itself. Since its launch in September 2023, this mobile phone priced at US$1,000+ has continued to sell well in China, with 4 million units sold in just 3 months.
It is the first time that one country has completed the entire industrial chain of a smartphone since humans invented the smartphone. It is also a regression to the globalized division of labor among human beings.
All this stems from politics, because the United States believes that Huawei is too powerful and threatens “U.S. national security.”
Of course, there are many Chinese elements that threaten U.S. national security now, such as garlic and rubber tires.
How Women Hide a Promiscuous Past
High body counts do not make wifely material.
What factors influence individuals to become physician assistants instead of doctors, despite the potential for higher income and more career options as a doctor?
My friends daughter made this decision. She had a 3.7 plus GPA from an excellent university. She scored well on the GRE so I am pretty sure she would have done well on the MCAT. She had volunteer work with a very reputable research group. She is attractive and charming and as a former member of the Admissions committee at the medical school that employs me I think she would have been admitted. I also think she made a good decision based on what she wants in life.
first she spent 2 years in PA school post college versus 4 in medical school and a minimum of 3 more in residency. Her debt for 2 years of PA is significant but nothing like it would be in most medical schools. She began full time work as a PA immediately so was able to start paying off that debt immediately. As she is employed in a federal hospital she received vacation, health care and time off to get married and have a baby before the age of 30. She went back to work and is paying off her debt. She does not have regular night call or weekend work. She works directly with patients and she likes that. She has time off to see her family and she is close to them. She and her husband are saving for a home. Unless she went into a highly paid medical specialty she will probably come out as well financially or near so because she has less school debt, will pay it off faster, will be able to afford a house which is a major wealth building maneuver, and if she decides to put extra time into her job and works weekends she will get paid extra for that, as opposed to a DO/ MD resident or fellow who may be there at no extra pay at all hours. I personally think she made a smart financial decision and from a health point of view one with less stress.
I don’t think I would ever make the same decision but I wasn’t keen on starting a family early, and I wasn’t keen on marriage until I met my wonderful husband, I was interested in research and in making my own decisions and I didn’t have enough financial perspective to realize how bad the debt could be (fortunately I went to a relatively cheap state med school). I wanted to be a decision maker and change the world in some small way. I love science and read science even in my time off. Everyone is different and each of us has to find our path.
Is it fair that if a girl punches you, you can punch her back?
As a trained kickboxer I will say that I’ve been in this position before and it’s a catch 22. If u do ur fucked and if u don’t sane outcome, you’re fucked. I had a girl get in my face and began spitting insults and saliva. I asked her to back up and get out of my personal space and she continued the assault. I will note her bf was in the vicinity and watching the entire thing. I yelled to him to please get control of his GF before things escalate further. He didn’t. She tried to hit me with her beer bottle and I open hand slapped the taste outta her mouth. She deserved it and then I had to deal with the bf. I wasn’t hurt and in all honesty she was fine too. It could have been much worse but it didn’t need to happen at all. Females, especially young ones, tend to think they can actually assault a man and have no repercussions. It’s simply not right! The truth is cops usually take the side of the woman regardless but that doesn’t make it right. My opinion is if anyone (regardless of gender) causes me harm I will react accordingly. Call it what u will but I call it not being a doormat.
The standards are wrong
What is the single insight that most changed your life?
About 8 months ago, I decided to move to Austin, Texas.
I struggled with anxiety about the move for months — from April to July.
I’d lived in Chicago for roughly 20 years and wanted a change. I also was struggling to find world-class training for Jiu-Jitsu in Chicago. I also was sick of freezing my booty off every winter.
I was terrified that the fear of not making my move “work” would stop me from making it at all.
In the end, I just packed my car and drove all the way down to Texas to begin a new life. I left my friends, family, and everything I knew behind and “gave it a shot”. Instead of quitting when things got hard (although I definitely wanted to at times), I kept going.
As of today, I have been living in Austin, Texas for 7 months.
About 9 months ago, I met my girlfriend.
I struggled with anxiety about my new relationship for the entire first few months of it.
Fear of past traumas ruining a good thing before it began. Fear of the relationship failing despite the obvious potential it had. Fear of having everything I’d ever wanted in a partner and still not being happy.
I was terrified because I cared.
Despite my fears, I decided to carry forth in my relationship and do my absolute best. I decided to love openly despite being scared of being burned. I decided to try.
Today, I’m in the happiest relationship I’ve ever been in.
About 11 months ago, I started writing my first book.
I struggled with a lot of anxiety about the book for a very long time.
The fear of the book not being good. The fear of the book being good but not selling well. The fear that my stupid ADHD wouldn’t let me even finish the book in the first place.
I was terrified of doing something I had always wanted to do.
Nonetheless, I kept putting one word in front of the other and writing. Then, when I’d finished writing, I started editing.
The book will be available in a little less than 3 months.
About a year ago, I quit my job.
I struggled with a lot of anxiety about it for weeks and weeks.
I lost sleep over it. I worried about becoming broke and unemployed and “a bum”. I was taking a big leap and essentially trying to make a full-time living through Jiu-Jitsu seminars and writing on the Internet.
I was terrified that fear wouldn’t “let me” quit my job and chase my dream.
In the end, I went up to my boss and told him I was quitting and why, and he was cool with it. Life’s been good since.
The lesson is this:
The human experience is so much more customizable than most of us are aware of.
You can quit jobs, move cities, and meet new people. You can write books, make art, and do all the things you’re afraid of.
Yes — sometimes things don’t work out — but realizing that you have more control over your life than you think is deeply empowering.
You are not a 10
What did someone say/do that made you close down your account and go to another bank?
I didn’t close my account but since this is a lot about Wells Fargo I will offer my experience. I have been with Wells Fargo over 60 years. During that time I have had the following experiences:
- When I was about 25 I got a notice that my 90 day $30,000 unsecured note was due. Not mine! Someone sure had excellent credit!
- I also had a business account and mistakenly wrote checks on the wrong account and had overdrafts. They charged me no fees. But I had made a few other errors which I had always talked them out of the service charges. Finally they told me that they were putting a note in my file and would no longer forgive the service charges. I quit making mistakes.
- Many years later I called the bank to check on my balance and it was thousands of dollars too high due to an erroneous deposit. I told them to get it out of there and they did that the next day. Someone had a pretty good payroll check for more than $4,500 and that was over 30 years ago. When they reversed the deposit the person’s social security number showed up on my bank statement!
- Recently I had to fight for several days to get my $50 back for a check they charged to my account. They needed several days to “investigate” it when one look at a copy of the check revealed that it was not my name and address, not my account number, not my signature, and not even my bank (Wells Fargo Minneapolis) but Wells Fargo New Jersey!
- How these things happen is beyond me. Thank goodness I don’t have any loans with them.
This is How Unattainable the 1% MAN is For Women
What is the strangest thing a teacher has gotten fired for?
The strangest? A colleague was fired for disagreeing with a disembodied voice.
Jim was working a few hours a week at a small language school. Many of the other teachers were backpackers, but Jim was a teacher through education and experience.
Each classroom was outfitted with a two-way intercom that, if used, boomed out through a speaker over the chalkboard. Jim hadn’t a clue that it existed.
He was teaching a lesson that included his spelling words for the students to write down. When he spelled out ‘t-h-e-a-t-e-r, ’ a disembodied voice boomed out, “That is incorrect. The correct spelling is ‘t-h-e-a-t-r-e.”
The Thai owner often used the intercom to listen in on classes. He had lived in England for a few years and was more than a little proud of his English language skills. He KNEW that he cheaply and illegally hired young people with no experience, other than being native speakers, and he used that as his reason to ‘spy’ and to correct when he felt it necessary.
Jim’s reply, using a polite, even tone, explained that it was a difference between British and American English. His words were for the students as well as for ‘the voice.’
Silence for about 5 seconds…then ‘the voice’ said, “Pick up your final pay packet from the office after class.”
He did it right
Is Jack Reacher’s completely nomadic and baggage-free life possible today?
Yes, but it’s not cheap.
- The average motel in rural areas is about $45/night. In the city, it’s about $80/night. So, average, say, 60 dollars. That’s about $21,900 for a bed at night.
- Most motels do not provide toiletries, which means Jack needs to buy new ones, at least for the time he stays in the same motel. The TV show does mention he carries his toothbrush around, but that still leaves toothpaste and at least a bar of soap. These things aren’t expensive, but because Jack moves around a lot, he needs to buy new ones every time he moves from one motel to another. Say he buys a bar of soap + toothpaste to last him for a week; that’s about 5 – 10 bucks. Say he moves every week. That’s about 500 bucks a year.
- Quite a few people feel the need to tell me that even cheap hotels provide some kind of toiletry. Sure. Let’s say Reacher doesn’t need to buy those. That’s 500 saves. Good job. Surely, that offset the other 60K-80K he must spend on room, food, and weekly new sets of clothing.
- Now clothing, because he doesn’t have luggage, so he doesn’t have any spare clothing. It doesn’t seem like he uses self-service laundromats. After all, what would he be wearing when he laundered his only clothing? That means he buys new clothing every single time he needs to change. Let’s say he changes underwear every other day and changes his jeans, T-shirts, and jackets every week. Mind you, while he could buy bulk, he had to throw whatever he didn’t wear away when he moved. So, say he buys a 6 pack of underwear for 10 bucks, plus a t-shirt, a new pair of Jeans, and a Jacket every week. And from what we have seen, his Jeans, T-shirts, and Jackets are relatively high quality. So even if he bought from the thrift store, he wasn’t going for the cheapest, and considering his size, I’d say 100 dollars per week for clothing. That’s another 26,000 for clothing.
- This is a very very conservative estimation. Obviously, you lot 1) never shop for yourself, 2) didn’t know how hard it is to find clothing that could fit a very tall person with wide shoulders, and 3) never visited a thrift store in years. Could Reacher find a good jacket or a nice Levi Jean once in a while from a thrift store? Sure, he could. But every single fucking week, even in a small town? LOL. I don’t think so. Unless he wears smelly clothing all the time, I suspect the majority of the time, he will have to visit a department store that carries his size.
- Thrift stores aren’t “J Crew for the cheap.” There isn’t a wealth of perfectly good clothing for you to pick. Especially with the rise of fast fashion, what you get in thrift stores nowadays are 1000 different pieces of garbage clothing from Shein or Modcloth. None of them will fit Reacher. There’s a reason why the majority of people do not shop at thrift stores once they have the money to shop at regular stores.
- Reacher couldn’t sustain his weekly (if not more frequent) clothing needs through thrift stores. It is a fantasy. It doesn’t work in real life. He has to buy from regular department stores.
- Keep in mind that he can’t wait. He can’t pick and choose because he only has one set of clothing, and if that set of clothing becomes dirty, torn, smelly, and covered in blood, he must get a new set immediately. He didn’t have the luxury to shop at different stores until he found the cheapest.
- Realistically speaking, considering he might need more than one set of clothing per week, he will have to visit the department store or even specialty stores like Big and Tall for clothing at least half of the time, and his clothing cost could rise to 35K-40K.
- Travel. Jack probably utilizes his veteran discount, so I’d say if he travels every week, 20–30 bucks a week, we’re looking at about 1,000 dollars for traveling. And it’s not going to be pleasant. Because there’s no public transportation outside major metropolises, Jack would spend a lot of time waiting for buses and walking for hours. Because of his gender and imposing height, he probably won’t have much luck hitchhiking.
- He doesn’t cook, so he dines out every single day, and we know he occasionally drinks alcohol. On average, a meal costs about 20 dollars, very conservatively. We’re talking about small diners and fast-food joints. 60 dollars a day for 365 days, plus maybe a few fancy steak dinners plus top-shelf hard liquor here and there, that’s 25,000.
- And there’s the medical cost. Jack helps random people. That’s his thing. And he helps people by doing violence. That means he deals with injuries, cuts needing stitches, fractured bones, concussions that need MRIs etc. etc. all the time. He most likely gets treatment from the local VA, but since he isn’t disabled, there will be a co-pay. And there will be times when he couldn’t get to a VA. He might need to visit an emergency room right away. I have no idea how much co-pay is there, but knowing the American VA system (and health care in general), it’s not going to be cheap. So I’d say maybe another 10,000 just for medical costs (do you know how much it costs to have an MRI? A brain MRI is about 2000 dollars).
- And there are the miscellaneous spending, movie tickets, extra coffee for the day, occasionally needing a gun, etc.
Everything considered, I say to sustain this kind of bag-free lifestyle, you are looking at 80K – 100K a year.
Yes, I’m aware that Reacher sometimes steals from criminals. This answer isn’t about where his money comes from; it is about how expensive it is to live his lifestyle.
And what would he be doing all day long? There’s only that many “small towns” he can visit without getting tired of the pisspoor diner food and suspicious look everywhere he goes. I suspect he fills his day by playing Batman. I think he goes out of his way to look for trouble. That means he’s most likely running away from local police and/or getting in and out of hospitals. Still think my 10K medical cost is outrageous?
So, can you live a nomadic life like Jack Reacher? Sure you can. It’s not cheap, it’s not pleasant, it’s not easy, it’s not romantic, it’s dangerous. Unless you’re punishing yourself for some past sins, or you’re running away from something, not a life style I would recommend.
I didn’t realize this answer touched a nerve. I get it. You imagined if you wanted to, you could leave your job, your family, everything and live like nomads. How hard can it be? Jack Reacher did it! Surely you, a regular dude who can’t sleep without your Ambien, can do the lifestyle if you want to. That’s why you bought that gigantic F150, isn’t it? Even though you have never towed anything in your entire life. But you dreamed of being the tough guy who drives around in the wilderness. And you dreamed about being this loner vigilante who roams the American small towns delivering justice with nothing but his fist.
And I’m not sure when is the last time any of you visited a thrift store. What do you think thrift stores sell? Armani for 20 bucks? People do not donate high-quality clothing to Goodwill, and when they do, trust me, the employees get the first pick. You’re lucky if you can find anything that isn’t broken down Shein or Old Navy or other fast fashion brand garbage. That’s why I specifically said thrifting is not sustainable for someone like Reacher with his size and the wear and tear of his clothing.
The simple truth is Lee Child didn’t think it through. It’s like J.K. Rowling insisted that there is only 1 magical school in the entire British Isles, and that created a lot of worldbuilding problems for Harry Potter. Lee Child could easily solve all of the practical difficulties by simply saying Reacher had a backpack. If the backpack is too dorky, Reacher could have a manly leather overnight tote. That would solve a LOT of problems and make Reacher’s odyssey across the US much cheaper and easier. But noooo, we can’t have that. Lee Child wanted to create a mystery lone wolf character, a modern-day “The Man with No Name.” He shows up in some random town, beats up some bad guys, saves the girl, and leaves town with only the clothes on his back.
Wake the fuck up, dude. Jack Reacher is a fantasy. You can’t live that kind of life on the cheap or even with money.
Some of my friends who are evolutionists & atheists told me that all humans have ancestors who were fish going back hundreds of millions of years. Why would they say such a ridiculous thing?
Neil Shubin is an American fish paleontologist. Behind him is a fossil he discovered (and a reconstructed model of it) he named “Tiktaalik”. It’s clearly a fish, but it also clearly has elbows.
When he’s not doing paleontology, he teaches anatomy in medical school. His students think he’s excellent. When they ask if he’s a surgeon or an internist, he answers “I’m a fish paleontologist. Do you want a refund?”
The reason Dr. Shubin is so good at teaching human anatomy is that human anatomy is simply modified fish anatomy. Human beings evolved from something like Tiktaalik, which lived 375 million years ago and is the ancestor of all terrestrial vertebrates, including amphibians, birds, reptiles, mammals, and us.
Finding the same structures between fish and humans isn’t hard. Fish even have five major bones in their fins, just like we have five fingers. Sometimes the bones are modified for another purpose (like hearing) but you can find many one-to-one comparisons.
Rewrite the marriage laws
Have you ever been to jail? For what?
I have been to prison. For speeding.
I was hauling Caterpiillar equipment from Surrey, BC, to places like Ft. Lauderdale, Richmond Va. El Paso Tx, and Long Beach Ca. this was oversize equipment meaning I was overheight, overwidth, over length and overweight. (I had to buy overdimensional permits in every state.
My little brothers wedding was on Saturday, so when I got home the week before, I declined another trip since they usually take 7 to 10 days. I was told this load was going to Salt Lake City, so I should just make it down and back by Friday.
I loaded up and called the customer once I crossed the U.S. border. He informed me they this machine had been sold to a customer in San Antonio Tx.
Fuck.
I hauled ass, and had the load off by Friday morning. I informed dispatch I was leaving the truck and trailer in the customers yard and flying home for Wade’s wedding. I missed my flight by 5 minutes. It was an $1800 ticket, non refundable, and the ticket agent took pity on me. She said if I could make Phoenix Az by 2:30 AM, I could catch a flight there and be in Vancouver by 8:30 and still be home by noon.
I got pulled over in Tucson Az, at 11PM doing 87 mph in the far left lane. (Almost zero traffic.)
Charged with speeding and public endangerment. (A felony count with 10 years minimum) the jail was full and they considered me a flight risk (Canadian) so they took me to Pima County Maximum Security, and put me in F+G, the highest security.
Allowed one collect call per day except those phones wouldn’t accept collect to Canada. So I was in there 5 days before my cell mates lawyer called my family back home to tell them where I was. Last they had heard was Friday when I said I was gonna make it. My folks sent him 30 grand for bail which arrived an hour after I didn’t need it anymore.
Tuesday I plead guilty to speeding, $100 fine and 2 day driving course. Thursday I got shackled up with 6 other guys and put in a van, which was left for an hour, midday, with the windows rolled up. Before we all passed out I remember everyone telling why they were in there and what the charges were. Every single guy in there was a murderer, and a couple were in for more than one. They pissed themselves laughing when I told them I was in for speeding.
They have double jeopardy in AZ and I’d already plead guilty to speeding so it got thrown out. I was released later that day.
The lawyer gave me $100 and I was buying some shoes when I got to talking with a well dressed guy, who, after hearing a bit of my story, insisted I come stay at his house while I got things sorted out tto fly home. His name was Todd, he was a Professor at the University of Arizona. He took me home to his place up on the mountain, to his wife and 4 year old daughter. I stayed 4 days and he drove me to the airport. Gave me $100 which I told him I would repay, but I lost contact and never did so if anyone knows who I’m talking about, get ahold of me.
I lost all the wedding presents that were in my truck plus all my personal effects. It cost $18,000 US, for what I don’t know. I sold my 1972 short box fleet side chev pickup, factory 4 speed, 20,000 original miles, to cover the money put up by my folks. I lost my job, never made it to the wedding, and now I have to explain what happened every time I cross the border.
What will be the future of the Chinese economy?
Notice this?
This is a list of sectors and their contribution to GDP growth
In 1995, Govt spending was the largest contributor to GDP growth as is the case in all Socialist economies
Yet by 1999, Manufacturing & Services AKA Industry contributed the most to GDP Growth
This trend lasted 22 years until 2021
In 2021, notice that Consumption has become a bigger contributor to GDP growth
Consumption contributed nearly 40% to GDP growth in 2023 (Retail and Other) , it’s contribution rising by 120% in the last 30 years
This is the future of the Chinese Economy
In the next 25–30 years, China will transform from a EXPORT DRIVEN ECONOMY to a CONSUMPTION DRIVEN ECONOMY like US
The US had the same transition from 1968 to 1988
Yet China has a population and 48.1% still low income or poor
So China will produce for its entire consumers and thus ensure maximum value is retained by their economy
Unlike the US they won’t outsource at half or quarter the speed
What small thing can tell you a lot about a person?
One small thing that I pay attention to in people is how they react when small things go wrong.
There’s a long line in the coffee shop.
Traffic.
Someone cut them off on the road.
A lot of people nowadays freak out when things like this happen to them.
I think that there is more insight into who someone is when small things go wrong than there is when things go right. I also think catastrophic incidents (losing loved ones, accidents, etc) are a bad time to judge character.
But when something small goes wrong, the strongest people I’ve met are completely unfazed.
They simply adjust and go about their business.
“A long line in the coffee shop? That’s okay. I’ll wait.”
“Traffic? I’ll put my book on and let everyone know I’ll be late.”
“Someone cut me off on the road? That’s okay. They must be in a hurry.”
Before you can become truly strong — the type of strong where major problems don’t phase you — you must first become strong enough to deal with minor inconveniences.
It’s kind of terrifying to me how many people nowadays can’t handle something small going wrong.
Has anything funny happened to you lately?
Well, it was funny to me and my dad.
Discovered that the septic system isn’t working like it should be. So dad explained that he would just dig up the pipe and run a sucker stick through it to unclog it. (If you don’t know what a sucker stick is, ask and I will tell you. Basically, a long metal rod.)
Dad suffers from angina, and at the age of 87, there are limits as to what he can do, physically. So when he gets involved in a project, I usually hang around and “help”, which actually means that I’m there in case he has a bad attack and needs nitro.
So there we were, with every digging tool we could find on the place from spades to sharp shooters to post hole diggers to regular shovels and everything in between. Right away, Dad showed me a hole in the ground and told me to be careful not to step in it. He gingerly stepped around that hole, and I watched him each time. Then I went to grab a sharp shooter to help him dig, and dammit! I stepped in that dang hole. Left foot sank inside, lost my balance, couldn’t get my rubber boot clad foot out of the hole. By then I was on my hands and knees in the muddy muck, yanking and yanking to get my foot out. Finally with a great gurgling noise, the hole let go of my foot and I gave a might tug, causing me to fall flat on my front. Managed to keep my face out of the mud. But I was a total loss. Surprisingly, I landed more on the grass than in the mud, so it wasn’t too horrible.
My dad said, “OH NO!” as he watched me go down, and when I busted out laughing, he did too.
We never did find the end of that dang pipe, and tomorrow some professional septic tank people are coming out to redo the whole nasty thing.
It takes a sense of humor to survive around here.
Blow Bang
Sykotakia Ladorigani
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken, lamb or calf liver
- Flour for dredging
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
- Olive oil for frying
- Salt
- Pepper
- Oregano
Instructions
- Wash the liver very well. If using lamb’s or calves liver, cut it into strips or cubes. Season the liver with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour. Shake off excess and fry in the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the oregano, lemon juice and garlic if used.
- Pour the contents of the pan onto a serving dish and serve with lemon wedges and bread for dipping into the oil/lemon/oregano mixture.
- May also be served as a main course. Simply increase the quantities according to how many people are being served.
- Serve with either fried potatoes or plain white rice.
Serves 4 to 5.
What was the most ungrateful reaction you’ve seen from an employee who got a really good bonus?
The guilty party was me.
I was working at a relatively small company, the last establishment I would ever be employed by in the U.S., but I didn’t know that yet.
I was in before all others, every day, getting an early start. I loved my job, my colleagues and the owners. I felt I had a comfortable, rewarding future there.
For New Year’s, the company held a lavish ‘Thank you!’ dinner and gave us expensive appliances as well as cash bonuses.
I was surprised by the generosity and grateful…until a few days into the new year, when I met with the office manager for my yearly evaluation.
She praised my work, and my ability to get along with clients and colleagues. She was aware that I wanted/deserved a promotion (one step up) but told me the position was going to an older woman (in her early 50’s).
I will never forget the reasons offered: The woman was not effective in the position she had (equal to mine), they felt sorry for her re her possibly having to look for a new job ‘at her age’ so they were promoting her to free up her current position so a better employee could be found.
I was then given a substantial raise while being told how much everyone loved me because ‘I was so easy to kick around’ (Exact words).
A short time later, I resigned because I discovered I had an intolerance for disrespect that money could not fix.
The same office manager felt I was ungrateful for leaving, never accepting that she had insulted me.
Note: The older woman found the higher position beyond her capabilities and quit a few months later.
By that time, I was on my way to a much better life in Thailand.
The Man Who Fought World War II for 28 Extra Years
January 22, 2024
The jungle sweltered, a thick canopy choking out the sun. Insects buzzed in a relentless symphony, punctuated by the occasional screech of unseen creatures. For 28 years, this had been Shoichi Yokoi’s world, a far cry from the rice paddies of his Japanese village. A soldier declared dead, he was a ghost haunting the verdant shadows of Guam, oblivious to the war’s end and the life that had moved on without him.
Yokoi’s story begins in 1941, a young tailor swept into the maelstrom of World War II. Stationed on Guam, he found himself amidst the brutal Battle of 1944. As American forces closed in, Yokoi, along with other Japanese soldiers, retreated into the island’s dense interior. They clung to a desperate hope: that the tide would turn, that reinforcements would arrive. But the tide never came. The war ended, the world moved on, but Yokoi and his dwindling comrades remained, prisoners of their own denial.
Life in the jungle was a constant struggle for survival. Hunger gnawed at their bellies, the threat of disease ever-present. Yokoi hunted small animals with sharpened bamboo spears, fished with traps fashioned from vines, and cultivated meager crops in hidden clearings. He built flimsy shelters, patched his decaying uniform with leaves, and kept a tattered diary, chronicling his loneliness and yearning for home.
The years blurred into one another, marked only by the changing seasons and the slow fading of hope. Two of his companions succumbed to illness, leaving Yokoi utterly alone. Yet, he persisted, driven by a samurai’s code of honor and a flicker of faith that he would one day see his family again.
In January 1972, two local hunters stumbled upon Yokoi, a wild-eyed, skeletal figure emerging from the undergrowth. The war, they informed him, had been over for nearly three decades. The world he knew was gone, replaced by a bewildering landscape of peace and prosperity.
Yokoi’s return was met with international media frenzy. He was hailed as a living fossil, a relic of a bygone era. Some saw him as a hero, others as a tragic figure, a victim of his own unyielding loyalty. Yokoi himself struggled to adjust. He grappled with survivor’s guilt, mourned his lost comrades, and yearned for a normalcy that had become foreign to him.
He married soon after his return, fathered a daughter, and attempted to rebuild his life. Yet, the jungle’s grip never fully loosened. He dreamt of verdant shadows, woke to the phantom sounds of unseen creatures. Shoichi Yokoi, the man who survived 28 years lost in the jungle, could never truly escape the war that had claimed not just his youth, but a part of his soul.
Yokoi’s story is a stark reminder of the human cost of war, a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit, and a cautionary tale about the dangers of blind obedience. It is a story that lingers long after the echoes of gunfire fade, a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring shadows of war.
DARK Reality Of Marriage That Men Are PURPOSELY Never Told
Watch the entire thing. They look at Western marriages and the laws that differ depending on your sex. Very interesting and very disturbing.
Can you sleep at night in jail?
Sleep can be such a precious commodity in lockup that you take it when you can get it.
Personally, I got some of my most productive snooze time after breakfast was rolled into the day room.
While my cellmate was engrossed in THE PRICE IS RIGHT, our living space would temporarily transform itself into a snore free zone.
So by lunchtime headcount, I could typically get caught up on any sleep I may have missed during lights out.
Nobody sleeps through the night in jail.
It’s a physical impossibility.
The lights may dim, but they never go completely out, so unless you mask up, the florescent bulb over your stainless steel shaving mirror is going to shine in your eyes all night long.
And I don’t know how you feel personally, but I was never really comfortable wearing eye shades while incarcerated.
Call me overly cautious, but I don’t want to be fumbling with a blindfold when the shit goes down.
CO’s make a particular point of creating as much noise as possible when they walk their respective rounds during graveyard shift.
Deadbolts rattle.
Armored doors slam.
The hours rumble along like a gurney down a shuttered hallway.
The pallets are hard and unforgiving.
You take comfort while you can.
Have you ever accidentally opened someone else’s email and found something interesting?
A couple of years ago we bought a house, after leaving the house we’d been in prior for over 25 years. The new home was our dream home in many ways. It checked all the boxes for us and we couldn’t wait to move in.
The Sellers were a slimy couple. The guy was a b.s. artist, an alcoholic and a bit of a scammer, and his wife was the breadwinner with a 1-year-old, too busy to either notice who her husband was (who was about 12 years older than she was at 44), or she didn’t care. I think a little bit of both. The husband tried to scam $7,500 from my husband and me regarding a mirror that he claimed he’d recently bought which was affixed to a parlor wall in the house. He said his wife had bought the large, gilded pier mirror and if we didn’t pay them, it was going with them. This mirror was a fixture and should have remained in the home, and I fought for it, but didn’t win. I came to find out that the mirror had been in the home for 23 years and was, indeed, affixed to the wall and should have remained. The owners before our Sellers had bought the mirror at a yard sale 23 years prior for less than $300 and had had it permanently affixed to the wall. So, the scam artist husband Seller lied to us about his wife having bought the mirror, and also lied about it not being a fixture (fixtures remain with the house, they don’t get taken).
This was a very difficult closing. Their attorney was a real b—-h and in many ways she enabled them to not fulfill aspects of the contract we had with them. We could have sued them over some, but we didn’t. Our closing attorney was no better, but on the opposite end. He had no spine and was unable and unwilling to go after their attorney on our behalf. Instead, he just kept talking us down off the ledge into giving up rights we had under the terms of the contract for sale.
We get to closing day in Septemeber, finally, and we get a call from our attorney early that morning telling us the closing isn’t happening. Mind you, all of our belongings are packed and piled everywhere, and only one piece of furniture, a sofa, is unwrapped. Turned out that the title company did one more check just before closing, and it turned out the Sellers had two federal liens on the home for non-payment. One was a HUD mortgage they had taken out during COVID, and guess what – the government was pretty much shut down, because this was 2021; so, there was no reaching HUD. You can’t close on a home until liens on it are satisfied, or transferred to another property. We’re pretty sure they knew about the liens and were trying to hide them until we closed. They had been in the house for only two years and had pushed for a quick closing. Now we knew why.
The Sellers did nothing to resolve the liens, and we sat there with all our belongings in boxes and our dogs for two months. We wanted to get out of our Contract for Sale, but we were told by our attorney that we couldn’t, or the Sellers could sue us (it was actually the other way around, but our attorney was terrible). September turned to late-October, and all our winter clothes were packed, so we didn’t even know which boxes our winter clothing were in. October turned to November, and we were still living that way, no plates, no pots, no pans, so we couldn’t even cook a meal for ourselves.
Finally, we started calling around trying to resolve our Sellers’ lien problem for them so we could close on our new house. Finally my husband spoke with a biz associate of his who knew someone who had worked for HUD under the Trump administration. He put us in touch with him, and on the phone the gentleman asked us the address of the home we were trying to close on. It came right up on his computer. Then he asked us if we knew to where the Sellers were moving. I had done some research on them and found out they were moving north several states away and had the address. He could see that, indeed, they were the owners of that property. In a few strokes on his keyboard, he transferred their HUD lien to their new property, which they’d already purchased.
There was the matter of the second lien. For that, we had to have a tax attorney in my husband’s office offer to discharge the second lien for them, but he was going to charge them for this, of course, not do it for free. So, the Sellers said they wanted to hire their own tax attorney, which my husband’s tax attorney found for them. Within a week, she got the second lien discharged and applied to their new home so we could close on our new home. This was in late-November of 2021, two months after our September closing date got canceled.
When we closed, finally, we went to the house and found that the Sellers had left furniture in the home they should have taken, left food out in the basement, dirty diapers in garbage containers around most of the home, and more. I had to hire a cleaning company to clean before we could move in, which would be another two days. Not a big deal, but these people were so inconsiderate and so nasty in the way they treated us. You would think they would have left a bottle of wine with a note for us saying ‘congratulations and thank you,’ but they didn’t.
Over a year went by, it was summer of 2023, we were happy in our new home, enjoying it, and fixing it up (needed a lot of work). I come in one day with the mail, and open a letter. It’s a notice for the former owners’ Tesla saying it was going to be repossessed for non-payment. LMAO. The next letter I opened was another overdue notice for a storage unit of theirs that hadn’t been paid in several months. I had another good laugh, and I wondered if the mirror they took out of spite was in that storage unit, but I had no way of finding out. I would guess it probably was. It would have cost almost as much to move it as what they had asked us to pay to leave it.
Typically, I wouldn’t take any glee in anyone’s being in debt and in way over their heads, but these people were so inconsiderate of us in every way and so thankless about what we did for them in doing the work to get their liens discharged so they could sell their house, that I thought what they had gotten themselves into was just pure Karma.
Learn from Bruce Lee
Have you ever been taught something in school that was completely incorrect?
When I was in elementary school in the 1950s, we had a science book that said, “it might look as though western Europe and western Africa could nest against the east coast of North America and South America. This is just a coincidence. Continents don’t move.”
Within ten years, tectonic plate theory had spread into the high schools and suddenly we knew that continents are drifting all the time and causing earthquakes. We found out that rock formations in England seemed to continue tha Appalachian Mountains. Now it’s hard to remember how recently Continental Drift became consensus science.
When I was young, Big Bang was used derisively for the hypothesis that the universe had a sudden beginning.
The Martian Chronicles was still highly recommended as science fiction, even though Mars was known to be uninhabitable before the stories were written.
The double helix model of DNA was not taught in schools when I was first taking science classes, and the terms genes and chromosomes were our main genetic vocabulary.
But that’s just a function of science gradually improving on what was known before. Just as I had to learn new names for a lot of countries as they became independent: Bechuanaland to Botswana. Tanganyika and Zanzibar to Tanzania. The Rhodesias and Nyasaland to Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. And many other examples. So I learned the true names, then history happened, so the truth was revised.
What do you do when someone has road rage and tries to follow you home to fight you?
I’ve done this once, when a drug crazed fool did a U-turn over double lines and began to chase me down (to this day the cops think it’s only because my car was similar to one of his enemies/dealers/customers cars). After driving around 2 local suburbs, double tracking & looping the same route several times, it was clear he wasn’t giving up. He didn’t try to pass, he simply tailed me everywhere with his high-beam on, and honked his horn occasionally.
I was smart enough to only take back roads, so I wouldn’t get caught at a red light, and tried to use intersections where I didn’t have to wait. Anything to prevent him from having an opportunity to get out and do something nasty. My hope was to spot a passing cop car and somehow get their attention, but this never happened.
So I simply drove to the nearest Police station – which always has cops going in & out the doors, and a clear view of the carpark from the front counter, which is manned by 2–3 cops at all times. He followed me in, so I blasted the horn to get their attention. Fortunately a duty car came in behind, stopping his exit. Cops came out as he was getting out of his car, and promptly grabbed him for outstanding warrants. They had a chat to me about what I did, and told me it was the right thing to do, and had the added bonus that it saved them having to find the guy later.
I always think of that now, but haven’t had to do it again.
What is the biggest scam an auto mechanic ever tried on you?
I’ve been sitting on this incident for too long: Some 7 years ago I bought a car I’d lusted after for years.
RenaultSport RS Megane 275 Cup Special. Then the ultimate front wheel drive with multiple Nurburing lap records. 12 months old 4,000ks, immaculate with balance of 5 year warranty remaining.
2 years later, 34,000 ks and one morning it just wouldn’t start, flat battery. Charged it, 10 minutes after trying again to start it battery was flat. So I’ve narrowed it down to the fuseable link under the battery.
Rang the local Renault dealer – Brian Hilton Toyota/Renault in North Gosford and explained. ‘No worries we’ll send a tow truck to collect it’ …and again explained my suspicions. I rang them the next day and ‘Its the starter motor and there’s not one in the country(?) Renault will airfreight from France’ Me: So you checked the fuseable link? ‘Yes, its definently the starter motor’.
3 weeks later (warranty hire car – (only because I phoned Renault HO) I get a phone call: ‘Its a big job because we had to remove engine to replace it (B/S). We’ve changed the starter motor…(wait for it) but have found that the fuseable link has also blown (WTF) and we’ll get the part tomorrow so you can pick it up the next day’ (I said nothing about initial conversation)
Picked it up and all seemed fine, other than a bit of a front-end clunk within 2 days, within 4 days there was a clunk from the front end even on slow Speed Bumps. Took it to my regular and very trusted Workshop (who race RenaultSports) ‘Gosford European’. Franck Donniaux the owner took a quick look: ‘They’ve rattled gunned the engine mount bolts and the gearbox is bouncing off the subframe cause the bolts on LHS mount have snapped. They helicoiled 2 new bolts in, gave me the bill, and said this is Brian Hiltons cost.
Spent the next few days thinking about it the best response …eventually rang Brian Hilton Dealer and booked it in for a full complete service to replace everything serviceable that could be done: Wiper blades, all filters, brake fluid and coolant flush etc etc. (didn’t say a word about the engine mount).
2 weeks later dropped it off and then a call from service department: ‘We’ve noticed a broken D/S front ball joint boot and the front disc ABS sensor needs replacing’ A: Fine do everything that looks like it needs doing. Picked it up and bill was $1,375. Asked to speak to the service manager ‘But why all the works been done’, asked again to speak to service manager…he wandered across and I said this is one for your office – unless you’d like the rest of the waiting room to hear.
Very nicely and courteously explained the process from the beginning:
1. Fraudulent miss-diagnosis, I had clearly asked twice that they check the starter motor fuse link
2. My car off the road for 4 weeks,
3: Broken engine mount bolts and that engine did not need to be removed. (He immediately agreed to refund me Franck’s bill)
4. Broken tie-rod boot and broken ABS sensor (ABS was a warranty anyhow) could only have been their doing when it was there
My suggestion: – they not only pay Franck’s bill, they waiver the service fee or this would go right up the chain. and very public. I then said nothing and just watched him whither in his seat.
Outcome – all costs paid…found out that the Renault Service Technician was sacked 2 weeks later. This however was evidence of bad management from the top down.
….and would never go anywhere near Brian Hilton Gosford ever again!
So nice though having a mechanic and workshop that I can trust = Gosford European
Woman instantly REGRET their life and hit the wall
Decline in American marriages
Damn.
Check this one out too…
How to Stop Rationalizing Choices That Go Against Our Values
January 22, 2024
We’ve all been there. Stuck at a crossroads, staring down a choice that gnaws at our gut, whispers contradictions to our core values. Yet, with a deft mental sleight of hand, we weave justifications, construct elaborate rationalizations, and somehow convince ourselves to take the path of least resistance – the one that may offer immediate gratification but leaves a lingering dissonance in our souls.
But here’s the truth: rationalization is the kryptonite to a fulfilling life. It’s the thief that steals our authenticity, leaving behind a hollow shell of who we aspire to be. So, how do we break free from this self-sabotaging habit and align our choices with the values we hold dear?
1. The Pause Button
In the heat of the moment, our rationalizations run on autopilot. Take a time-out. Step away from the decision, even if it’s just for a few breaths. This conscious delay disrupts the momentum of rationalization and gives you a chance to reconnect with your core values. Ask yourself: How does this choice align with the person I want to be? Does it resonate with what I truly believe in?
2. The Value Inventory
We often hold our values close but don’t articulate them regularly. Take some time to revisit your personal compass. Write down your core values, the principles that guide your decisions and define your identity. Keep this list handy, a constant reminder of the north star that should guide your choices.
3. The “Why?” Drill
Our rationalizations are often surface-level justifications. Peel back the layers. Ask yourself “why” repeatedly, digging deeper into the motivations behind your choice. Is it fear, convenience, or immediate gratification driving you? Uncover the true root of your desire and see if it aligns with your deeper values.
4. The Mirror Test
Imagine looking at yourself in the mirror after making the choice. Does the reflection radiate self-respect and integrity? Or is there a flicker of unease, a sense of betrayal to your own principles? This visualization hones your decision-making by confronting the immediate consequences and long-term impact of your choices.
5. The Compassionate Coach
We often fall into the trap of harsh self-judgment when we rationalize against our values. Instead, approach yourself with compassion. Acknowledge the human tendency to slip up, and remember that progress, not perfection, is the goal. Learn from the experience, strengthen your value compass, and move forward with renewed self-awareness.
Breaking the cycle of rationalization requires self-awareness, honesty, and a commitment to your values. It’s a continuous practice, a dance between impulse and intention. But with each conscious choice, you create a ripple effect, aligning your life with the person you truly want to be. Remember, your values are your compass, not a cage. Embrace the discomfort of choosing integrity, and watch your path unfold with an authenticity that resonates from within.
Have you ever had a car that a mechanic said it’s unfixable and told to sell him the car or junk it but turned out to be a minor fix?
One of my friends told me about his friend who had totaled his MG Midget and wanted it gone.
I said cool I’ll look at it. He took me over and we looked at the car. I accepted his price of $150. I asked if I could work on it for a day in his garage, as the right front wheel was jammed by the fender. He said sure. I actually pulled the fender out of the wheel with my hands. I also pulled the hood straight enough to close. I replaced the brake line and bled the brakes. I drove it out after 2–3 hours.
I had to do some bodywork on the hood and fender before repainting them with spray cans. My repair costs were about $20. it was the late 1970s.
Drove the car for about 4 years. During that time it was totaled again by a reckless corvette driver. His insurance gave me $2000 plus the car. I again repaired the same bumper, hood and right fender. I also cut down a plastic chevy grill to replace the the mangled MG grill. Repairs from that accident totaled $30.
I eventually .sold it for $1200.
What has been your weirdest elevator incident?
When I was in college myself and two other football players had to get clearance from our orthopedic doctor to play in a game. So we got on the elevator along with young nurse or medical staffer. All of a sudden the lights and elevator went out, emergency light kicked on. The young nurse really hadn’t paid much attention to who she was on the elevator with until then. I’m 6′5″, white, at the time 265 lbs,two of my tackle friends 6′6″ and 6′7″ 305 and 325 lbs two or so. I’ve never seen a woman panic so fast, or badly. I don’t know if it was claustrophobia or just outright fear, she started crying and collapsed. She literally peed her scrubs. Thankfully the power came back on as Jeremy had reached for the emergency phone. We yelled for help, medical staff got her in a room, next I know the police were there to talk to us, thank God the cops were willing to talk to me, otherwise there could have been real trouble.
How strict was the dress code of the strictest company you’ve ever worked for?
Back in the 1970’s I worked for a bank in the City of London. The dress code for men was suit and ties. Not unusual at that time, my parents bought me a suit. As this was my first job, I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on clothes, but, I did purchase some navy blue trousers and a navy blue blazer. I wore them to the office and I was called into my managers office and he said, that it was OK, but on the limit of the dress code. The blues didn’t match 100%. OK, not a major problem. Several months later, and a bit more money, I went and had a suit made to measure. It was dark green with a red silk lining, very smart, so I thought. Again I went to work feeling very proud to be in my super new suit. Again I was called in to see my manager, he again said, OK, it’s a suit but it’s not navy, black or some other sombre colour. As I worked in the personnel section, I had access to the company rules and there was nowhere that stated what colours clothes had to be. I worked in an office on the 3rd floor and the only contact I had with customers, was when I went out to lunch and had to walk through the banking hall. In the morning and evenings when entering and leaving the bank was closed to customers. I left shortly afterwards, but that’s another story.
What’s the most savage way you’ve seen someone get fired?
If the question had not been asked as phrased, my experiences would not have come to mind. I’ll tell you about two of them.
I survived three attempts that are by some of those that worked for me that tried to fire me! By murder!
In a war zone, I was in charge of over 100 men. Some criminals, joined up to avoid jail. Morale poor. Racial tensions taut as a bow string. I was in charge of discipline and as much of their safety, as could be handled by command. My job # 1, keeping all mine alive and getting them home, with as little damage as possible!
I was that command and I took my job seriously, on base and in the field. I was a more disciplined superior than the bunch had been accustomed to and a few were not, not only unreceptive, but very much in contempt!.
The first two grenades that exploded under my bunk at different times, were largely defeated by precautions taken with flooring and a blast shield I had created under my sleeping mat.
I failed to move my bed after the first and second attempts. A near fatal mistake. The bastards almost got me with the third. The laminated layers of 3/4”, pressure treated plywood and inserts were sufficiently degraded from the first two blasts to allow schrapnel from the third to penetrate the floor and blast shield I had created with tightly packed body armor between frame and my sleeping mat.
A single piece of grenade schrapnel penetrated all protection and wrecked the slide action of the M-16 (I kept, in bed, when asleep, right along side of my body), at the time of the explosion. My issued weapon was ruined. My hooch was wrecked and I don’t recall how long the bells kept ringing.
So, if given a choice between how they tried in the RVN and the way, years later when Big Al, fired me while camping in the Canadian Rockies, for not leaving a phone contact, I’d take the later.
ps; Speaking of the later, I suited up Monday like I hadn’t heard I was canned. Everyone acted like they had seen a haint when I walked in and as for Big Al, well , he must have forgotten. He never said a thing. Check the Quora search engine for the full story.
Women are NOT saving for retirement!
The future is bleak in the USA…
The contents of this book may be of some use on the ‘fragmentation and re-integration’ challenge that each one of us faces…. https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Michael%20Nehls%20-%20The%20Indoctrinated%20Brain%20-%20How%20to%20Successfully%20Fend%20Off%20the%20Global%20Attack%20on%20Your%20Mental%20Freedom.pdf
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