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Sort of like the game where you pick absolutely any random page on Wikipedia, and within six clicks, you can get to Bestiality.So, it turns out if you do a search for Nine Inch Nails and The Muppets in the same day on YouTube you get some pretty f%*!ed up videos, which only leads you to more f$#%ed up videos and the next thing you know you're watching True Facts about the Sea Pig.
This is why I'm not allowed on YouTube.
You know what they say, we are only separated by six clicks of love.
EDIT: Well now this is awkward.
|
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So NH, you know I'm running Jade Regent.
They are now in book 5 and yesterday they went to talk to the Geisha's.
Of course, no one is a talky character. They all botched their rolls to pass on a secret message, and too socially awkward (as characters) to back out.
So now they have hired the Geisha network to look for a remaining surviving Amatatsu.
Instead, of, you know...
It was hilarious!
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Impus Major is writing a literary analysis of A Modest Proposal.
It is now his favorite essay ever. He wants to read it aloud from the stage at the Dickens Faire.
I do not know that it would go all that well...
Would you recommend attending Dickens Faire?
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Tiny T-Rex (after showing off his mad duck calling skillz): I feel like I'm THIS close to understanding duck. I just need a translation sheet!
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It's my second day and I can tell I like this job.
I haven't made that statement in over a decade.
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Would you recommend attending Dickens Faire?Impus Major is writing a literary analysis of A Modest Proposal.
It is now his favorite essay ever. He wants to read it aloud from the stage at the Dickens Faire.
I do not know that it would go all that well...
That's a question very much in line with, "Would you recommend attending the Ren Faire?"
Because it's almost the same thing: A lot of vendors, actors, and actresses wandering around trying to re-create Victorian England while selling you foods and wares at 2-3x the price you'd find the same stuff on Etsy.
I *do* prefer the Dickens Faire to the Ren Faire because:
(1) It's in "winter", so it's colder and you can actually wear a costume without dying of heat stroke.
(2) It's nowhere near as overrun with disruptive visitors; the Ren Faire took the approach of, "We need more money, so let's mass market this!" and so it feels much more like a theme park: Thousands of tourists who care nothing whatsoever for the ambience of the place nor their fellow visitor, so they make the whole visit unpleasant for all. The Dickens Faire is still primarily populated by people who actually respect the cast members and the ambience, so it "feels" more welcoming.
(3) It's significantly smaller and easier to get around.
(4) It's indoors.
On the other hand, Freehold would bemoan the distinct lack of cleavage.
But yeah, "Indoor Ren Faire with a Victorian theme" is about it.
(And I am always irritated that Autumn runs from September 23-December 21, so all of our traditional "winter" stuff actually takes place in Autumn. That's what we get for having no seasons.)
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Tiny T-Rex (after showing off his mad duck calling skillz): I feel like I'm THIS close to understanding duck. I just need a translation sheet!
ROTFL
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Speaking of insulation, I have to say I'm pretty stoked about our forced experiment with having no heat in the living room. It's been in the low-to-mid 40s every night, with highs in the high 60s to low 70s, and we have yet to turn on the lone gas heater we have in the core of the house. We've been living off two portable electric heaters and one electric blanket. Which, when you have solar, is probably the more environmentally-friendly, more economic model anyway.
Anyhoo, after 3 attempts to get the company that did our core heater to even put in a bid on replacing our living room heater, plus learning that we can use our HELOC for heaters, GothBard wants to put in a gas fireplace, which would look much nicer, and free up a ton of wall space for desperately-needed bookcases. And the guy who does such things can't even show up 'til next week.
The scariest part is that the initial estimate for, "Tear out 15' of your wall to put in a full fireplace," is only about triple the, "Replace this hideous putty wall heater with another hideous putty wall heater."
We'll see how it goes...
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Would you recommend attending Dickens Faire?Impus Major is writing a literary analysis of A Modest Proposal.
It is now his favorite essay ever. He wants to read it aloud from the stage at the Dickens Faire.
I do not know that it would go all that well...
That's a question very much in line with, "Would you recommend attending the Ren Faire?"
Because it's almost the same thing: A lot of vendors, actors, and actresses wandering around trying to re-create Victorian England while selling you foods and wares at 2-3x the price you'd find the same stuff on Etsy.
I *do* prefer the Dickens Faire to the Ren Faire because:
(1) It's in "winter", so it's colder and you can actually wear a costume without dying of heat stroke.
(2) It's nowhere near as overrun with disruptive visitors; the Ren Faire took the approach of, "We need more money, so let's mass market this!" and so it feels much more like a theme park: Thousands of tourists who care nothing whatsoever for the ambience of the place nor their fellow visitor, so they make the whole visit unpleasant for all. The Dickens Faire is still primarily populated by people who actually respect the cast members and the ambience, so it "feels" more welcoming.
(3) It's significantly smaller and easier to get around.
(4) It's indoors.On the other hand, Freehold would bemoan the distinct lack of cleavage.
But yeah, "Indoor Ren Faire with a Victorian theme" is about it.
(And I am always irritated that Autumn runs from September 23-December 21, so all of our traditional "winter" stuff actually takes place in Autumn. That's what we get for having no seasons.)
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Oi,
I cant keep up with you guys posting anymore! :P
But I enjoy trying! :)
Yep actually in the 30's today when we woke up,... And it aint getting any warmer.
Tonight we'll actually be,...
BELOW freezing!
GASP!!!
From the response of the locals, you'd think it was a hurricane or zombie apocalypse.
>_<
THAT'S what you get when you drop freezing temps onto people who are only used to 2 seasons,...
Hotter than !@#$, and not quite so !@#$ hot.
;P
They are calling it a 'Hard Freeze warning',...
People, HARD freeze is when you get below freezing and STAY there for a while, like a day or more.
By my estimate we'll be below freezing for maybe an hour and a half.
O_o
Meh Im no weather scientist, what do I know?!? ;P
Have a good week!
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Anybody got a spare $12k lying around so I can properly fix my furnace and AC situation? (No, I'm not seriously asking; we'll figure out a way to get it done and we're not in any danger of freezing to death.)
I've mentioned it before, but my house was constructed comically using technical standards as toilet paper. The previous owner was a general contractor and he was really good at making things look good on the surface while cutting severe corners underneath.
There are things that didn't turn up on the home inspector's report that should have, some things that did, and a lot of things that couldn't have without tearing down drywall to look at it.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oi,
I cant keep up with you guys posting anymore! :PBut I enjoy trying! :)
Yep actually in the 30's today when we woke up,... And it aint getting any warmer.
Tonight we'll actually be,...
BELOW freezing!GASP!!!
From the response of the locals, you'd think it was a hurricane or zombie apocalypse.
>_<THAT'S what you get when you drop freezing temps onto people who are only used to 2 seasons,...
Hotter than !@#$, and not quite so !@#$ hot.
;PThey are calling it a 'Hard Freeze warning',...
People, HARD freeze is when you get below freezing and STAY there for a while, like a day or more.
By my estimate we'll be below freezing for maybe an hour and a half.
O_oMeh Im no weather scientist, what do I know?!? ;P
Have a good week!
This morning's air temp when I woke up was 6°F.
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Anybody got a spare $12k lying around so I can properly fix my furnace and AC situation? (No, I'm not seriously asking; we'll figure out a way to get it done and we're not in any danger of freezing to death.)
I've mentioned it before, but my house was constructed
comicallyusing technical standards as toilet paper. The previous owner was a general contractor and he was really good at making things look good on the surface while cutting severe corners underneath.There are things that didn't turn up on the home inspector's report that should have, some things that did, and a lot of things that couldn't have without tearing down drywall to look at it.
LOL. At least YOUR previous homeowner was licensed.
As far as we have been able to determine from the atrocities revealed every time we open a wall, from the 1950s-1960s this house was owned by a "frugal handyman" who believed that scrap wood and big enough nails could solve any problem. Roof sagging? Nail some scrap 2"x4"s against the bending rafter. Termite damage? Figure out a way to nail on a 4"x12" without replacing the old one.
Once he was done utterly ruining the framing of the house, for the 1970s-1990s we got a very stereotypical "ethnic family sending their daughter to U.C. Berkeley and then keeping the place as a rental income property", so ALL the repair work that needed to be done thanks to Mr. Handyman was done by under-the-table, "What's the cheapest possible option?" contractors.
I've pulled the repair record on my house. None of the work was permitted, in spite of the fact that the studio was rebuilt, the garage was extended, the heat and windows were replaced, etc.
The amount of non-permitted work done on this house would make an inspector sob.
And none of it was competent.
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Sitting back and chilling while my seniors ask the SRO about drug stops.
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Oh...let me clarify. The "was" part. He *was* a general contractor. He officially retired about 3 decades ago. So no, he wasn't licensed at the time of his adventures into adding on to the original 1933 construction. He started the project around 2001, but didn't finish until 2013, just before we bought the house.
The only thing he was competent at was hiding his sins.
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And if he didn't, I'd shut up about it. Incessant whining is fundamentally annoying, and both males (one of Impus Major's friends) and females (Impus Minor's friend yesterday) are guilty of it.
So we started talking about how even when I was in middle school, I'd go out to eat with my friends and not expect their parents to feed me, and I realized that I'd paid for it using a paper route. And I started complaining about how professional gardeners had taken away kids' gardening jobs, and professional paper delivery people had taken away kids' paper routes, and I pointed out that, contrary to certain administrations, the people taking the jobs were just older people from any area; the guy who took our paper route was a middle-aged white guy.
And GothBard immediately piped up with, "See? Boomers ruin EVERYTHING!!!"
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** spoiler omitted **
<Facepalm>
Potentially TRUE, but still,...
<Facepalm>
;P
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** spoiler omitted **
<Facepalm>
Potentially TRUE, but still,...
<Facepalm>
;P
OR;...
,... are the BOOMERS taking the kids jobs because the kids can't be bothered to get off of their electronics, or you know, actually GO OUTSIDE to do anything?
;P
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** spoiler omitted **
<Facepalm>
Potentially TRUE, but still,...
<Facepalm>
;P
OR;...
** spoiler omitted **
;P
There may be a potential grain of truth there, but I think a bigger part of the reason the unemployment numbers have been coming down is because a lot of middle-aged people are being forced into jobs that were previously considered "teen" jobs. Paper routes, fast food jobs, etc. So...yeah...those people are technically working...but teens that are looking for jobs are having a harder time than ever finding a job opening.
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I was *really* trying to let it go, but seriously?
EVERY job that I had to make money as a teen is no longer available to my kids:
- Paperboy
- Gardener
- Tutor
- Video store clerk
The jobs that are available (box store employee, fast food worker) either don't have hours condusive to being in school (try to work part time at McDonald's and tell the manager you can't work the lunch shift... ever...), or are so coveted that you need to know someone (the two kids I know who got school-friendly hours at the local Target both knew the local owner personally).
The whole, "Kids are too lazy to get jobs these days" is just such a stereotypical "OK Boomer" moment it really explains the entire meme.
Geez, even a simple babysitting job for my kids fell through because the parent was unwilling to work with them at all; she wanted me to arrange the times, manage things, be around, etc., because she didn't trust my kids to manage their own time. and watch the kid on their own.
So, er, if you don't trust my kids to plan their time or watch your kid on their own, why are you even pretending you're hiring them?
EDIT: It doesn't help at all that there are over 10,000 local U.C. Berkeley students trying to afford housing and tuition and willing to do anything high school kids can do, and employers, given the choice between a high schooler and a U.C. Berkeley student, have a no-brainer choice to make.
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The Target thing surprises me. As of my quitting Target 3-4 years ago, they were happy to have high school kids closing (usually gave them 4:30-9:45 shifts) on weeknights. The problem, at least at my store, was that they tended to flake. No-call-no-shows were frequent, and it was rare they'd last the first 90 days (policy was 3 no-calls in the probationary period meant you were out). I can think of at least three separate occasions where I trained someone for the food court only to find out they'd quit or been fired, meaning another 35 hour week for me on top of being a substitute teacher...
But my area is in all likelihood different from your area, and the policies could have changed in the past few years. I imagine my area Target has stiffer competition here than I had in my hometown as a high school sophomore, seeing as there's K-State and all.
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Also, all the home repair conversation is giving me anxiety seeing as I just made an offer contingent on inspection and some minor repairs.
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The Target thing surprises me. As of my quitting Target 3-4 years ago, they were happy to have high school kids closing (usually gave them 4:30-9:45 shifts) on weeknights. The problem, at least at my store, was that they tended to flake. No-call-no-shows were frequent, and it was rare they'd last the first 90 days. I can think of at least three separate occasions where I trained someone for the food court only to find out they'd quit or been fired, meaning another 35 hour week for me on top of being a substitute teacher...
But my area is in all likelihood different from your area, and the policies could have changed in the past few years. I imagine my area Target has stiffer competition here than I had in my hometown as a high school sophomore, seeing as there's K-State and all.
Well, like I said, we have a college population in the tens of thousands, rents run $2500-$3500 a month, and tuition is over $10,000/year.
If you were a Target manager, would you hire the college kid, the unemployed twentysomething desperate for any work, or the high school kid with the highly restrictive hours?
When employers can pick and choose, high school kids end up close to dead last on the priority list.
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That's fair! Like I said, my hometown wasn't a big college town, so that vastly shifts the demographics of applicants.
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But yeah, I'm noticing a lot of shifting on the high school jobs prospects just from the area I work in. A lot of the kids only have summer jobs because they help with construction or lifeguarding. Other kids have to go clear into the city to find something because there just isn't much in this little town. Convenience store wants 18+ so you can sell tobacco products. Same with several of the restaurants that serve alcohol.
Shows I was spoiled for choice growing up in the 'burbs.
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I'm glad the weather is dipping towards freezing
Woran, the things you say....
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Also, all the home repair conversation is giving me anxiety seeing as I just made an offer contingent on inspection and some minor repairs.
No house is without fault. It's really not a lot different than a car in concept. Do the basic maintenance and that will stave off a lot of major issues from developing, and minor problems will always crop up.
It's just something that you have to accept, prioritize, and determining if something is worth fixing.
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Anybody got a spare $12k lying around so I can properly fix my furnace and AC situation? (No, I'm not seriously asking; we'll figure out a way to get it done and we're not in any danger of freezing to death.)
I've mentioned it before, but my house was constructed
comicallyusing technical standards as toilet paper. The previous owner was a general contractor and he was really good at making things look good on the surface while cutting severe corners underneath.There are things that didn't turn up on the home inspector's report that should have, some things that did, and a lot of things that couldn't have without tearing down drywall to look at it.
LOL. At least YOUR previous homeowner was licensed.
As far as we have been able to determine from the atrocities revealed every time we open a wall, from the 1950s-1960s this house was owned by a "frugal handyman" who believed that scrap wood and big enough nails could solve any problem. Roof sagging? Nail some scrap 2"x4"s against the bending rafter. Termite damage? Figure out a way to nail on a 4"x12" without replacing the old one.
You gotta be kidding me.
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Oh...let me clarify. The "was" part. He *was* a general contractor. He officially retired about 3 decades ago. So no, he wasn't licensed at the time of his adventures into adding on to the original 1933 construction. He started the project around 2001, but didn't finish until 2013, just before we bought the house.
The only thing he was competent at was hiding his sins.
Wow.
Just...wow.
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** spoiler omitted **
So many cultural issues here, it is hard for me to speak up. I certainly stepped in it a few times growing up, and my cultural background was at odds against my teenage impulses. If I had a time machine and could be a teenager visiting your house, it would be weird for me to ask you for food, but also given that my mom didnt want me working as that was a direct insult to her, I might walk with my own food.
Which I learned was also insulting in other cultures...*sigh*
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I was *really* trying to let it go, but seriously?
EVERY job that I had to make money as a teen is no longer available to my kids:
- Paperboy
- Gardener
- Tutor
- Video store clerkThe jobs that are available (box store employee, fast food worker) either don't have hours condusive to being in school (try to work part time at McDonald's and tell the manager you can't work the lunch shift... ever...), or are so coveted that you need to know someone (the two kids I know who got school-friendly hours at the local Target both knew the local owner personally).
The whole, "Kids are too lazy to get jobs these days" is just such a stereotypical "OK Boomer" moment it really explains the entire meme.
Geez, even a simple babysitting job for my kids fell through because the parent was unwilling to work with them at all; she wanted me to arrange the times, manage things, be around, etc., because she didn't trust my kids to manage their own time. and watch the kid on their own.
So, er, if you don't trust my kids to plan their time or watch your kid on their own, why are you even pretending you're hiring them?
EDIT: It doesn't help at all that there are over 10,000 local U.C. Berkeley students trying to afford housing and tuition and willing to do anything high school kids can do, and employers, given the choice between a high schooler and a U.C. Berkeley student, have a no-brainer choice to make.
man. It's gotten bad.
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But yeah, I'm noticing a lot of shifting on the high school jobs prospects just from the area I work in. A lot of the kids only have summer jobs because they help with construction or lifeguarding. Other kids have to go clear into the city to find something because there just isn't much in this little town. Convenience store wants 18+ so you can sell tobacco products. Same with several of the restaurants that serve alcohol.
Shows I was spoiled for choice growing up in the 'burbs.
I encountered that too, but I also had more opportunities to work odd jobs.
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I was *really* trying to let it go, but seriously?
EVERY job that I had to make money as a teen is no longer available to my kids:
- Paperboy
- Gardener
- Tutor
- Video store clerkThe jobs that are available (box store employee, fast food worker) either don't have hours condusive to being in school (try to work part time at McDonald's and tell the manager you can't work the lunch shift... ever...), or are so coveted that you need to know someone (the two kids I know who got school-friendly hours at the local Target both knew the local owner personally).
The whole, "Kids are too lazy to get jobs these days" is just such a stereotypical "OK Boomer" moment it really explains the entire meme.
Geez, even a simple babysitting job for my kids fell through because the parent was unwilling to work with them at all; she wanted me to arrange the times, manage things, be around, etc., because she didn't trust my kids to manage their own time. and watch the kid on their own.
So, er, if you don't trust my kids to plan their time or watch your kid on their own, why are you even pretending you're hiring them?
EDIT: It doesn't help at all that there are over 10,000 local U.C. Berkeley students trying to afford housing and tuition and willing to do anything high school kids can do, and employers, given the choice between a high schooler and a U.C. Berkeley student, have a no-brainer choice to make.
Send them here, they can easily get those jobs.
I can have them starting tomorrow if you want.
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Oh... Interesting development...
Congratulations!
Finally?
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Anybody got a spare $12k lying around so I can properly fix my furnace and AC situation?
I think I must have put the money that would let me live comfortably for four years (for a definition of comfortably that is enough for me, though might be considered moderately frugal by more demanding people) in the other pants...
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I encountered that too, but I also had more opportunities to work odd jobs.But yeah, I'm noticing a lot of shifting on the high school jobs prospects just from the area I work in. A lot of the kids only have summer jobs because they help with construction or lifeguarding. Other kids have to go clear into the city to find something because there just isn't much in this little town. Convenience store wants 18+ so you can sell tobacco products. Same with several of the restaurants that serve alcohol.
Shows I was spoiled for choice growing up in the 'burbs.
Yeah. There are options here - grocery store, pizza delivery, a few restaurants or other stores. But it's a really small town, so there just isn't the volume. Whereas where I grew up, we had a glut of retail and fast food options in addition to babysitting, dog walking, lawn mowing, etc. And while there were some colleges in the area, they were really small compared to, say, KU or KSU, so it didn't feel like there was quite as much competition. The market is just a very different place.
Hello, everyone! My back is feeling much better, today.
Hurray! Hope it continues in an upward trend!
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Yeah. There are options here - grocery store, pizza delivery, a few restaurants or other stores. But it's a really small town, so there just isn't the volume. Whereas where I grew up, we had a glut of retail and fast food options in addition to babysitting, dog walking, lawn mowing, etc. And while there were some colleges in the area, they were really small compared to, say, KU or KSU, so it didn't feel like there was quite as much competition. The market is just a very different place.I encountered that too, but I also had more opportunities to work odd jobs.But yeah, I'm noticing a lot of shifting on the high school jobs prospects just from the area I work in. A lot of the kids only have summer jobs because they help with construction or lifeguarding. Other kids have to go clear into the city to find something because there just isn't much in this little town. Convenience store wants 18+ so you can sell tobacco products. Same with several of the restaurants that serve alcohol.
Shows I was spoiled for choice growing up in the 'burbs.
Yeah, there are pretty big cultural gaps on display, here.
Sincerely: I know both the kids who can and would like to get a job, and the adults who struggle with it. As a tutor, it’s a thing I struggle with sometimes, too. “You’re taking away a job opportunity from kids!” Really? There are problems on all sides with this.
On the one hand, sure, perhaps there are Highschool kids who could do the job. But the idea that I shouldn’t have a job because some kid might hypothetically want one is a bit difficult. But let’s suggest that I intentionally open the market by removing myself: how far does that extend? If younger kids are off limits for Highschoolers, are Highschoolers themselves off limits for college students? Limiting myself to only adults would basically he saying I’m not a tutor anymore. There simply isn’t the demand.
And the demand is the important part, here. There really ain’t that much, even for a tutor with solid success stories. (I could maybe get more business, but I’d have to start fishing in a wider area, and I’m really not organized enough for that, which brings me too...)
Beyond this is the questions of if kids would and how they should.
One of the things I’ve run into is the question of qualification and organization. Basically questioning if I’m a fly-by-night. Those who know me know that to am not, of course, but with the existence of professional groups, it becomes harder to prove beyond your immediate circle. Also, have I had specific training? These are valid questions - investing money and trusting education to a relative stranger can be a difficult thing. You want to have a quality assurance. It’s why people prefer contractors with actual paperwork to unlicensed handymen.
And the flaking issue is real. You have good kids who really want work and who are sincere about the willingness to put themselves into it... but who can’t. Not from malice, but from simple teenager hood - whether it’s flaking as Scint pointed out (which is often nonsense, but can actually be legitimate or honest mistakes), or a simple inability to keep up with demands forcing them to back down, teens are often unreliable workers. Whether your a corporation, private business, or just a house parent paying a kid to do things, that is a frustrating experience.
But, of course, much like me, there are going to be kids who show good work ethic, stick around, won’t be overwhelmed, etc. So what are these kids to do? I’unno. I don’t have an answer.
Kids need experience. But what jobs they should do is a different thing from what jobs they can do. Figuring out if they’re reliable is reasonable. But when demanding reliability and assurances, prices and restrictiveness increase quickly. It’s a trade off in any work environment. And those kids who are given chances that fail (and there are a ton) make it incredibly more difficult to trust the next kid: they might be perfectly fine, but they’re unlicensed and untested; cheaper, though. I’unno. Different communities are different.
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There's also been a big swing in thinking when it comes to things like babysitting jobs, too. Many places have effectively regulated the teenager out of the babysitting business entirely, requiring specific training, certifications, licensing, and insurance at a state or local level. The teen would be fine doing the babysitting gig as long as nothing goes wrong. If something did go catastrophically wrong, the state/local regulators could come down hard on both the kid and the parents, even if there was nothing anybody could have done differently.
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Also, all the home repair conversation is giving me anxiety seeing as I just made an offer contingent on inspection and some minor repairs.No house is without fault. It's really not a lot different than a car in concept. Do the basic maintenance and that will stave off a lot of major issues from developing, and minor problems will always crop up.
It's just something that you have to accept, prioritize, and determining if something is worth fixing.
Also...let me add to this one.
You've had your dad helping you on this, so you've probably picked a house that he's counselled you on. He probably mentioned a lot of this already.
Cosmetic stuff can always wait. What's important when you put the offer in on a house is the big structural stuff. Good, not too old roof. Solid flooring and other beams. Plumbing. Electrical. Insulation and HVAC - your weather is just like mine. Good seals on the windows.
Where I failed in my home purchase was not recognizing the plumbing issues, but some of those I had no hope of seeing and neither would a home inspector. There's only so much a home inspector is legally allowed to do, depending on the state. Or you get one like mine who flagged something important as being done wrong, we asked for it to be fixed, the prior owner said he fixed it, the inspector looked at it again and signed off on it. Therefore I thought it was ok at that point, but he shouldn't have signed off on it at all. But the inspector should have also flagged a few other things that he didn't. That's the stuff that hurts the pocketbook and your morale.
I took a calculated risk on the AC and furnace situation, and it lasted longer than I expected before giving me problems. It unfortunately skipped over the "a couple hundred will get it going again" phase and went straight to "you *could* fix it, but it will only be about $1000 less than a complete replacement". And since my house unnecessarily has two furnaces and two AC units (see previous comments about the previous owner), both died at the same time.
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There's also been a big swing in thinking when it comes to things like babysitting jobs, too. Many places have effectively regulated the teenager out of the babysitting business entirely, requiring specific training, certifications, licensing, and insurance at a state or local level. The teen would be fine doing the babysitting gig as long as nothing goes wrong. If something did go catastrophically wrong, the state/local regulators could come down hard on both the kid and the parents, even if there was nothing anybody could have done differently.
Well, the overall thing that gets to me is that when someone says, "Yeah, I'd like to go out to dinner but I don't have any money and I can't find a job that works with my schedule," you have multiple options for a response:
(1) "Oh, yeah. I remember when I was your age, and it was really rough trying to balance my life and my friends. Don't worry; it'll get better."(2) "Really? You know, when I was your age, I had a lot of luck doing xxx. Have you looked into that?"
(3) "That's because you're lazy and you play too many video games."
So, one of those three responses will get you an "OK, Boomer".
And what's really terrifying to me is that virtually everyone over 50, Shiro included, feels that that's the appropriate response. "I had it worse, so suck it up, stop whining, and deal with it."
And it doesn't help that Gen Z can factually demonstrate that Boomers didn't have it worse, but that's beside the overall point.
EDIT:
- When I was in high school, we had a one-semester Driver's Ed program, at the end of which we went straight to the DMV and got our licenses at 16. And for reasons I don't understand, insurance was much cheaper for teens, then, so every high schooler I knew had a driver's license and at least occasional access to a car. In Impus Major's graduating class, thanks to massively-changed license laws (you have to pay for at least 10 hours of online training and 10 hours of behind-the-wheel training before you can even get a permit), fewer than 10% of the graduating seniors had access to a car. When you're looking for a job, mobility is HUGE
- When I was in high school, California had a minimum wage exemption for working high schoolers, so they could work for below minimum wage. This encouraged employers to hire high schoolers. This exemption has been closed
- When I was in high school, the school itself offered paid opportunities. You could work in the tutoring center (which I did). You could be a paid intern for the office or the school district. No such jobs exist today
- More apropos of Albany than anywhere else, but the school day was moved from 7:30-2:50 to 8:00-3:50, and homework went from 10 hours a week to 20. This reduces a high schooler's available working hours by 15 hours a week, which is not insignificant
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Teenagers are much easier to break these days! Why, back in my day you had to get a job doing odd jobs for the local old crackpot, and then they'd pay you a nickel a day so by the end of the week you earned yourself a whole quarter!
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Also, all the home repair conversation is giving me anxiety seeing as I just made an offer contingent on inspection and some minor repairs.No house is without fault. It's really not a lot different than a car in concept. Do the basic maintenance and that will stave off a lot of major issues from developing, and minor problems will always crop up.
It's just something that you have to accept, prioritize, and determining if something is worth fixing.
Also...let me add to this one.
You've had your dad helping you on this, so you've probably picked a house that he's counselled you on. He probably mentioned a lot of this already.
Cosmetic stuff can always wait. What's important when you put the offer in on a house is the big structural stuff. Good, not too old roof. Solid flooring and other beams. Plumbing. Electrical. Insulation and HVAC - your weather is just like mine. Good seals on the windows.
Where I failed in my home purchase was not recognizing the plumbing issues, but some of those I had no hope of seeing and neither would a home inspector. There's only so much a home inspector is legally allowed to do, depending on the state. Or you get one like mine who flagged something important as being done wrong, we asked for it to be fixed, the prior owner said he fixed it, the inspector looked at it again and signed off on it. Therefore I thought it was ok at that point, but he shouldn't have signed off on it at all. But the inspector should have also flagged a few other things that he didn't. That's the stuff that hurts the pocketbook and your morale.
I took a calculated risk on the AC and furnace situation, and it lasted longer than I expected before giving me problems. It unfortunately skipped over the "a couple hundred will get it going again" phase and went straight to "you *could* fix it, but it will only be about $1000 less than a complete replacement". And since my house unnecessarily has two furnaces and two AC...
Yeah. I've gotten extremely lucky so far. The property itself is actually pretty new. There's only a few things realtor and I noticed on the walkthrough, and we'll be getting an inspection done as soon as we agree on a price...and we've asked for a warranty to help stave off immediate disaster.
I also feel like I lucked out with finding this guy. He's been very upfront and open with me about everything involved in the process, and I don't get the impression that that's the most common trait in a commission-based industry. He'd helped one of my coworkers move in last year, and she absolutely raved about him.
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- When I was in high school, we had a one-semester Driver's Ed program, at the end of which we went straight to the DMV and got our licenses at 16. And for reasons I don't understand, insurance was much cheaper for teens, then, so every high schooler I knew had a driver's license and at least occasional access to a car. In Impus Major's graduating class, thanks to massively-changed license laws (you have to pay for at least 10 hours of online training and 10 hours of behind-the-wheel training before you can even get a permit), fewer than 10% of the graduating seniors had access to a car. When you're looking for a job, mobility is HUGE
Yes. The changes from 30 years ago to today for getting a DL are staggering in Illinois.
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Why, back in my day you drove the driver's ed teacher to the bar and back if you wanted that easy A.
True story!
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That didn't work with mine. She was pregnant.