It’s the thing that bothers me about the obligatory 1-on-1s we do every month with our supervisors, asking “On a scale from 1 to 10, what’s your stress level? Are you dealing with any personal issues?” And the one time I pipe up and say, “Yeah, they raised my rent $300 and it’s putting strain on my budget.” The response was “Do you know anyone who could move in or that you could move in with to alleviate that?” I haven’t gotten a raise in two years. Fuck this shit. Don’t act like you care.

I heard that guy got prosecuted.

I mean, the point of the special is to find meaning in the holidays regardless of the rampant consumerism, but the impact of the message is dampened a bit by Hallmark putting out new charlie brown Christmas tree ornaments every year.

That said, it’s also okay not to have holiday spirit if you don’t find anything about this time of year meaningful. For many who aren’t practicing Christians, it’s a time to be with family because most companies tend to give days off anyway, but for those of us who have cut ties and don’t see the significance of decorating and whatnot, it’s perfectly fine to enjoy the time off without feeling festive.

https://www.zombo.com/

For younger generations. Lovingly remade in HTML5 because flash is dead.

In a short story, the monkey’s paw is an artifact that grants three wishes of the person who holds it, albeit in the worst way possible.

The story goes that a pensioner and his wife receive the paw from some guy who warns them that the paw twists the wishes, but they pay the warning no mind and wish for a sum of money. A finger on the paw curls, and a factory foreman shows up with the money explaining that their son has died of a horrific mutilating accident in the factory. The insurance policy pays the money out to the surviving members of the family.

The wife wishes that their son were alive again, another finger curls, and a few hours later they hear another knock at the door. The wife rushes to welcome their son, however, recalling the stranger’s warning and imagining how terrifying the mutilated body of their son might look, the father uses the last finger to wish the son dead and buried again. Incidentally, there doesn’t appear to be a negative on that wish apart from the horror that’s already been visited on them.

Funnily enough, I do feel like an adult, mostly because I’ve been aware enough for long enough that everyone else is making it up as they go, that I can sense when people are on their bullshit and navigate it pretty effectively.

Also I’m making a lot of decisions that will hopefully insulate me from the consequences of my inevitable failure, but I hold no delusions that the safety net will ever be perfect or even good, or that some arbitrary amount of austerity would have bought me a house at this point, so I don’t starve myself of the little pleasures in the moment - today is the rainy day. I use my PTO, I get a little treat every once in a while, and I make myself as comfortable as I can. My life satisfaction has increased drastically with that in mind.

I can name that complication in five words, Bob!

Everything wrong with this:

• “Breakfast Pizza”
• Pepsi for breakfast
• “Medium” 64 oz drink
• $4 for not a lot of value

Give me the bullet points

We all know damn well the four day week inevitably comes with a pay cut. Big business won’t cede anything without getting theirs back.

Still all for it. Four day workweeks are better for the environment and mental health.

Steam Deck. I travel a lot and it’s become a constant comfort in cramped airplane seats and backwater hotel rooms all over the states.

Like, even within the bounds of the ‘thought experiment,’ the good lasts maybe a couple minutes if it even happens and the bad lasts an entire fucking lifetime, of course OP is going to get shouted out of class, the shit falling out of his mouth would make his ass jealous.

“Please call me”

Translation: I want to tear you a new one through a non-written medium so it doesn’t get recorded.

“No”

Translation: You have no power here.