I’ve already heard her saying I’m not friendly and I don’t know who should I react.

I don’t understand why we can’t just do our jobs and go home.

Self aggrandizing people being gossipy and passive aggressive…sounds like grad school.

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a great book about this called Nickel and Dimed. She was a full time journalist and set out to get a job at a diner and find a place to live on the salary. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed

Matthew Desmond’s books Evicted and Poverty, By America are amazing, well researched, easily readable books about poverty in the US. I can’t recommend them enough. https://www.npr.org/2023/03/17/1158230630/poverty-by-america-book-review-matthew-desmond-evicted

Would still be a little difficult for people living in apartments. I always think about this when it comes to EVs, and owning “dumb” cars and maintaining them yourself, which I would like to do. My apartment complex has 3 or 4 EV chargers, which are assigned. So you would have to rent the apartment that comes with the EV spot, which I’m sure makes the rent go up by far more than it’s worth. And no way is there room to work on your own car within the assigned spaces. No guest parking either. I guess it’s just more stuff to add to the “cycle of poverty” list

Sociologist Matthew Desmond has an amazing book called Evicted that talks about criminal act evictions and profiles people who have been the target of them. The book follows very low income renters in Milwaukee through years of their struggles to find and keep housing. It also follows individual landlords from the same neighborhoods. It’s technically an academic subject and is impeccably researched (the notes section in the back could be its own book) but it reads like a novel. It won a Pulitzer iirc.

He also just published Poverty, By America last year. I’ve only just started it, but it’s just as readable. He explains overly-complicated regulations and social services red tape in a way that’s concise and easy to understand, and he illustrates their consequences through his interviews with real people. His books should be required reading for every American.

I would not go to grad school. Especially not in the city the program was in. Unless you’re an MBA or in engineering or something ultimately pretty lucrative, I wouldn’t recommend Academia Extended Stay to any sane person who values their own time, money, and dignity.

If I had to do it again, I would have gone for a more specific skill. Not the skilled trades. I know everyone’s all about that now, but we weren’t all born to be electricians. Just something more specific like a counselor, Auto CAD, etc etc

I know, I think this a lot when I’m on here. Especially the whole “don’t vote for Biden because Israel” thing. I just saw some comments saying that Trump would be better to have as president because he’s just dumber and wouldn’t be able to carry out any kind of war. I honestly can’t tell anymore whether a real person would actually say that.

Thanks for talking about it. It’s more than I could do. It’s interesting and aggravating to have spent most of your life in a certain situation, then working to help other people in that situation, then studying it…then reading a bunch of comments by people arguing over it who are so certain they’re all right when it’s obvious that most of them have never come close to experiencing it.

This must be what it feels like to be a lawyer and have to talk to a sovereign citizen or something.

This is so stupid.

Freight trains. The funny thing is that I was never really interested in them as a kid, only once I got into my early 20s. There’s tons of adults who love trains, but for some reason it’s still viewed as kind of a childish interest and I’m not sure why.

The last time I drove out to watch some I was kind of disappointed though. It’s been a long time, so I was actually surprised that out of hundreds of freight containers, 90% of them are now just giant Amazon logos, and the other 10% are giant Walmart logos. It kind of sucks. The engines make it worth it though.

You shouldn’t disturb other people whether they’re asleep or awake. Buying a pair of slippers or flip flops for indoors and not slamming doors and cupboards isn’t exactly a monumental ask at any time of day.

You must live below the people in the apartment next to me.

Why are people like this. Really. I want a serious, well thought out answer from people who act like this. I would be fucking appalled if I found out people had been losing sleep because of me. Or they weren’t able to concentrate when working from home, or had to get a bluetooth converter for their tv to connect headphones because otherwise they can’t even enjoy tv with all the stomping, banging, furniture moving, and door slamming. I would feel so fucking guilty and especially embarrassed for coming off as such an entitled piece of shit. I literally cannot comprehend that there are people who know they’re disturbing others, in their own homes, day and night, and they either don’t give a shit, or they get mad at the person they’re torturing for asking them nicely to keep it down. Or both. And yes I have brought it up with my landlord countless times. They could give a fuck. The next step is to contact the city and have them come in with a decibel meter or something. In my state, landlords must ensure “peaceful enjoyment” for tenants. But I’d have to prove it’s over a certain level, then deal with filing a complaint and/or civil court or whatever, so nothing ever changes.

This is one situation where I think an eye for an eye is perfectly reasonable, because after living through over a year of daily constant noise, I think my next door neighbors aren’t deserving of a single moment of peace from now on.

“Nothing happens in god’s world by mistake.” “God never gives you more than you can handle.” Etc etc.

When 1 in 6 women has been sexually assaulted in their lives (and many men and NB folks), that’s a really fucked up thing to say. You never know what someone’s been through, and I’ve personally been through a lot of awful things. I guess it helps some people to tell themselves this kind of shit, but it is impossible to me to think of any kind of meaning that would make being a victim of violent crime “positive” or “worth it” or “a learning experience” blah blah blah. I think the term for that is “toxic positivity.”

So either “everything happens for a reason” is utter bullshit, or god is a sadistic fucking asshole.