We had a brief talk where I said I like my name and wouldn’t change it. I also said that while I prefer the tradition of her changing hers, that I understood it’s not really my choice. She did anyway

I can sell you one with real floppy drives!

Maybe kids are too short sighted to see the risk, but who says they don’t do that? Among the stupid things I did as a kid was try to turn any tube into a gun/cannon/firework mortar, and hold it in my hands to aim and launch. We even had the benefit of my grandfather losing a couple fingers as a cautionary tale, that we completely ignored. If something happened, could you really call that an accident?

Or the time we were playing with fireworks …. In a barn full of dry hay? I don’t know how my grandfather let us live after that one

…… but there’s a threshold of stupidity where you really can’t call it an accident. I’m happy to have survived in one piece all too many bouts of stupidity but the adult me wouldn’t call it an accident if something happened

Financial aid debt is way too high but there is a bit of a turnaround in places. Or there was. It may not last past Jan 20

There were millions with student loan debt forgiven or partly forgiven, and several states made public universities partly free.

In our case my ex still has student loan debt. She’s a teacher which ought to get it forgiven, but she consolidated so is no longer qualified. However several of her peers benefitted

My older kid goes to a public university and his first year was free, based on his mom’s income.

It most definitely makes a difference. We have laws about that and expect our police to follow them

I moved to a bluer state and …

ive been waiting 30 years for them to end the ‘war on drugs’. or enact ‘universal health care’.

We’re we’re one of the first to decriminalize pot, and created sort of universal healthcare that served as a model for aca.

college costs an arm and a leg

Free community college, means tested free public universities

And what was the capital gains tax rate at that time? Why do wealthy people get to call their income something else and get taxed less on it?

You have to go even further back, for a time when both sources of income were taxed the same

• https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/whole-ball-of-tax-historical-capital-gains-rates

Right, that’s the real problem. We’re over hear bickering about income tax rates, while the wealthy are sitting there playing a shell game with : income? Find the income. Which cup is it under? If you tax the right one, you win a prize. Just like any shell game, the only way to win is to not play.

As a grandmom, my Mom has decided on boxes for really lame gifts that might make you wonder if she has dementia, for gift cards.

If you don’t give her sufficient ideas for her to buy you something you enjoy, you’re a Scrooge and deserve this box of instant jello …… containing a gift card so you can get it yourself

There’s also the very important concept of a capital gains tax. Why does their income from stock sales get to be taxed at a special low rate, as if it weren’t income? That’s ridiculous

We’d go a long way toward evening it out just by deciding

• income is income. No special categories of income for the wealthy
• when your company or trust spends money on your personal life, that’s also income
• tax brackets keep going. They don’t even have to be specially high, but why does it top out so early? Why is my doctor’s income taxed at the same rate as the richest man in the world’s income?

We have global standards defining what is “international waters” vs what a country can claim ownership of.

If this terrorist group is attacking anything in “international waters”, they are in the wrong

Too old to understand why you’re asking about American Sign Language

Convenience appliances? You can do a lot with a microwave oven, air fryer and coffee maker, without any flame, or really any exposed hot surfaces

I wonder if we listen to Trump more than they do. I have a hard time believing people can listen to him speak and come out with ideas like “he’s real”, “telling it like it is”, “he’ll do better with the economy”. Ok, maybe the last one because people are dumb

People here always talk about conservatives getting their news from Facebook or Fox.

But the connection I didn’t make until way too recently…… maybe they don’t know any politics firsthand. My Facebook tells me Trump is “telling it like it is”, so I don’t need to listen to him

Maybe the opposite. Biden’s policies turned the economy around. All the numbers look good and were poised for growth that Trump will take credit for

How quickly and widely will he actually apply tariffs? If they don’t take widespread effect for two years, they’re home free

Not at all. Most of those Workstation or Fusion users are likely employed by their enterprise customers, and they need an inexpensive way to try to keep them.

I know it’s anecdotal, but when I worked for an enterprise that used VMWare, most of us also tried to use VMWare in our home labs, even though the company didn’t provide licenses.

Back when VMWare was a desired skill, many of us had VMWare in our home labs even when we didn’t have an employer that used it, to maintain proficiency. This doesn’t seem likely anymore but they probably want it

Cool setup!

What do you have for network equipment? I have 1G symmetrical unlimited, but anything faster seems to require a jump to much more expensive networking. And even then, most user equipment can’t support that

If it’s just not wanting to deal with people, it seems like most restaurants do takeout, since COViD.

Last Spring I went to this Thai restaurant I’ve been eying. The restaurant was pretty much what you’d expect and the food pretty good. Most of that meal we were the only customers, but there was a steady stream of takeout orders. That seems typical now

My remaining fast food vice is Chipotle.

We have a bit of a tradition going. When my teenager drives over from his mom’s house Friday after school, I send out a Chipotle group order so he can pick what he wants, and it’s ready for pickup as he approaches.

So fast, so convenient