I’m a power plant operator who will be working day shift on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The shout-out is appreciated. Even our own families often don’t understand that this is just how it’s gonna shake out most of the time. My in-laws get annoyed that we just won’t be able to visit at the same time as everybody else, but they just don’t really think about the power they’re relying on for their holiday at home. They’re weekday office workers, and they could probably do more than half of their work from home.

Thankfully my wife very much understands it and we schedule all holidays based on actual availability instead of expecting me to try to cram things in before or after my 12 hour shifts plus 1 hour commute each way on the day of. A lot of people in this industry wind up divorced, and I think the schedule is mostly what’s to blame.

The paycheck will be great, but it’s still nice to hear that appreciation for the time we and our families are sacrificing to provide for the rest of society. In this way, I sort of get to be one Santa Claus of many. We are making sure that Christmas comes to everybody.

You son of a bitch, I’m in

Idk about you, but at this rate, I don’t dare try to tell them otherwise.

Not OP, but with the aforementioned schedule, there are still weekends before and after that are still very valuable. The weekend before vacation could be used to catch up on chores and errands that would be nice to get done before the vacation, plus maybe pack. Then when you get back, your coming home to a clean place and not having to deal with running around straight away. Just be ready for only two days of work. Then another weekend to get rested up before a full week of work.

Two weekends bookending two half weeks of work bookending a week off from work is very nearly the same as a week of vacation and a week of staycation for only 5 vacation days. Sure you can’t go out of town for an extended period with that plan, but I’m kinda ready to go home after 4-5 days away anyway.

I appreciate the nuance and detail of your comment. I wanted to make sure I started with that so you don’t think I’m just here to shit on your comment. I’m upset that we’re here and slapping bandaids on this shit instead of actually thinking about solutions.

Congress can’t pass a budget, but they can raise their own pay. They haven’t passed any meaningful legislation in two years, but they can raise their own pay. They can’t raise our minimum wage, but they can raise their own pay. Idk about you, but I’ve never gotten a raise for pisspoor performance at any job I’ve ever held. I’ll be receiving a 3.5% raise in a couple weeks, and I’ve very much earned that, and it’s thankfully a bit higher than the ~2.8% inflation over the past year so it’s an actual raise. Not everybody has been so lucky. I’m completely on board with paying Congress well so that it’s not gated off for only the wealthy elite to have access to, but let’s not pretend that passing a raise for themselves right now is eradicating all semblance of corruption once and for all.

Why does Congress actually need to be in DC anymore anyway? Why not have an office in their district and securely remote vote? Having them in DC maintaining two residences is costing them more, keeping them physically distanced from their actual constituents, and making corporate lobbying significantly easier since they can easily talk face to face with dozens of reps/senators in a single afternoon. We could also raise the cap on the House since it’s been undersized for proper representation for decades; no need to cap it to a number that can regularly gather in the chambers anymore. I’d rather they just stay in their district and lock their pay to their local inflation rate. If they want better raises, then they need to actually help their district.

No, this is the long term effect of voting for “eLeCtAbLe” politicians in primaries. Putting a centrist in the general to run against the right in hopes of pulling voters from the right DOES NOT FUCKING WORK. Can we please finally accept that and move on?

Media is desperate for a distraction from people collectively being at least not upset about the CEO getting killed. If they don’t jingle some keys in front of our faces asap, they risk us finally putting aside petty differences to band together over the actual class struggles that we all face together. Together we stand, divided we fall.

It’s not too difficult to buy a pack of boneless skinless chicken breasts, prep them, throw them into the oven, cool them, and slice them up. That’s an option if you want a new little project to master which is also serving your function of healthier, fresher lunch meat.

Easy rundown: trim off and discard fat. Butterfly the breasts. Spray a sheet pan and put them on there. Either put Italian dressing or custom seasonings and white wine on the chicken. Throw the pan into the oven at 325°F until it hits 160°F (165 is food safe but residual heat will get it across the finish line). I’d set a timer for like 20 minutes and then temp and assess. It’s easier to slice up without tearing if the chicken has had a chance to cool down.

I have been taking more or less the same sandwich to work for about ten years now. Whole grain bread, mayo, two slices of cheese (different kinds), and a bunch of lunch meat (usually turkey or chicken). Rarely, I’ll sub a good mustard in for the mayo. Or I’ll add tomato slices or avocado. A while back, my wife pickled some cucumbers so I had homemade pickles on my sandwiches. For a good while now since then, she’s been pickling jalapenos for me to put on the sandwiches.

If I didn’t have that, I’d probably reach for my spicy BBQ sauce or Sriracha from Underwood Ranch. They’re not paying me, but I really want them to succeed so I can keep buying their sauces. They got fucked over by that green cap rooster brand that makes Sriracha, so now instead of supplying their peppers to them, they just make their own shit and it’s amazing. They have a garlic pepper sauce that I blew through really quickly. That shit would probably slap on my sandwiches too, but it didn’t last long enough to try lol. It was good in mac and cheese though. And stir fry.

Is it weird that I try to make sure to say fuck somewhere whenever I recommend any specific product just to avoid any accusations of it being an ad? This isn’t an ad. Fuck Disney. Cum on a Big Mac. Shit on a Bugs Bunny plushie. There, now no corporation would want to be associated with this comment.

Yeah, we don’t have healthcare. We have profit-motivated health insurance. We pay in case we get injured or sick, and they only profit if they find a legitimate way to not cover us when we get injured or sick, so they try their damnedest to do that.

His mortality terrifies him because it shouts in his face that he is ultimately no better or different than the poor. The great equalizer comes for us all, and most of us will be forgotten within just a handful of generations as though we never existed at all. That’s easier to reconcile with when you already know that you’re not special. Peter spent quite a long time believing otherwise. With every passing year, his desperation grows. A decent guy would use his absurd resources to improve life for all, cementing a positive legacy, feeling more fulfilled; he’s a quantity over quality kind of guy though. Fewer, happier years are not as attractive to him as maximum, if miserable, lifetime.

He looks like a child’s drawing of if John Cena didn’t go to the gym.

Right. It’s just yet another example of progressive ideas being popular with everybody, so long as it’s pitched in a vacuum without any labels attached. Everybody wants better healthcare. Everybody wants cheaper groceries. Everybody wants privacy in their bedrooms. Everybody wants money out of politics. But most people aren’t paying enough attention to realize that they’re actually voting against these things when they vote for conservatives, no matter what those conservatives pretend to stand for.

My wife and I hung out with a couple just a few times. They were cool, but it’s hard enough to find time when my wife and I are both off and awake; lining that up with two other working adults (plus they have a kid) was impossible to do regularly.

I can get along okay with pretty much anybody, but most people I’ve met have proven to be a little too incurious or even hateful for me to want to go out of my way to spend time with. With every passing year, I value my time more and more (as I’m sure almost everybody must) so it’s hard to justify setting time aside for building friendships with people if I don’t naturally want to hang out with them. That having been said, I work rotating 12 hour shifts, so I’m not off every night and weekend like a lot of people are, and even if I am off I may be swinging my sleep schedule to prepare for not being off. A lot of people just can’t understand that yes, I may be off that day, but I didn’t get home until after 0500 and I need to sleep at some point. Or yes I’m off that day, but I need to be in bed by 2000 at the absolute latest because I need to get up at 0230 for work the next day.

I would recommend making a friend or two with neighbors if your work schedule isn’t as shitty as mine is lol. Especially if your neighbors suck less than a lot of mine have. Just don’t force a friendship where there doesn’t need to be one just so you can feel better about asking them to water your plants while you’re away for the weekend. If they’re cool, they’ll do it for you just knowing that they can ask you to return the favor down the road.

They could certainly try, but the trump appointed judges will throw that shit out. I would love to be optimistic, but how could anybody have faith in the judicial system that got us here to reverse course to achieve actual justice in any capacity? It’s hard to win against cheaters when you adhere to playing by the rules. “When they go low, we go high” will be the death of us all.

I had nothing but headaches from my old gas/oil weed whacker. When I replaced it with a battery one, the only issue I had was that the included battery didn’t last nearly long enough. 1.5Ah battery included, but I fixed the problem by buying a compatible 4.0Ah battery, and the 1.5 was still available for the little leaf blower included (double pack for only like $100) to clean up after if the main job totally drained the big battery.

Soon, we’ll see lawn mower roombas get affordable enough for more people. I’m looking forward to that. Fuck yardwork lol.

That’s roughly my current commute. New mid budget ($40kish) EVs seem to generally have a range of like 300 miles, and that’s only a little less than my car’s range yet still plenty for my needs if I can charge at home every night or maybe every other night.

That 500e sounds like it was designed to be more for people with a <15 minute commute. It’d be great for people who live and work within one city and have everything they need within 20 miles or so of home.

I think it’s probably too early for this to mean much of anything. Most people who bought an EV bought it new within the past ten years and probably haven’t needed to replace their car yet. I don’t doubt that the vast majority of EV buyers will choose an EV as their next car, but over 99% would be an incredible statistic if that’s what we see ten years from now.

I bought a gas RAV4 in 2016 because I didn’t think the tech was quite there yet and I couldn’t sit around on a waiting list even if I was ready to trust the tech yet. But even then, I said to myself “this is the last gas powered vehicle I’ll ever buy.” Just a few weeks short of 9 years later, I believe that now more than ever. If my car dies today, I’m shopping for an EV, probably a Ford if they’re still doing that incentive to throw in the upgraded home charging station installation or whatever that promo was. And once that infrastructure is in somebody’s home, why go back to using gasoline? Even without that, charging on a standard outlet overnight is plenty for most and is already a massive change in habits and routines that people won’t want to change back from. I don’t like having to stop at a gas station every few days. I don’t like oil changes. Who would choose to go back to all this bullshit after tasting life without that level of hassle? Especially now that the gap in cost between ICE and EV has dropped so much.

The generation that raised you will say “yeah, duh, it’s common sense” without a hint of introspection to realize that it was their job to teach you this kind of shit.

Between the Technology Connections channel on YouTube just being legitimately interesting and having just bought a house, I’m speedrunning a lot of information about DIY maintenance to mitigate the disasters. When it comes to knowing how your water heater works or where your main water valve is, better late than never. Routine stuff like cleaning your dishwasher filter and running the machine properly will have immediately recognizable effects that greatly benefit your life. And unlike other people who you’ve heard shit like that from, I’m not selling anything lol.

Oh good, that’s me. 9/11 in middle school, wars through high school, '08 housing crash in the middle of college which pushed me to pivot to an AA instead of bachelor’s, COVID wedding at 31, insane inflation through now. We finally bought our first house a few months ago and I turned 36 a few days ago. Things were starting to seem like they might turn out okay after all. Serves me right for having a whisper of optimism in my brain for once.

Pensions in this country are nearly non-existent. Without social security either, only the wealthy can retire. Thankfully, I’ve had retirement accounts for years, but they’ll be wiped out by the first late life medical emergency I experience. Without social security to look forward to, I think a lot of people would rather live through total societal collapse than give their everything just to prop up this system that gives nothing back. It’s a bad fucking deal.