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Ha!!!
"Those who don't study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who DO study history are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it."
Or what the definition of a Cassandra complex is.
YES!!! Naked history! So easy a caveman could do it!
Note for posterity: Costco pumpkin pie is pretty crappy.
This honestly surprises me; Costco's bakery is usually surprisingly solid.
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I'm bemused.
GothBard is ordering several artisan pies for Thanksgiving to the tune of over $35 per pie.
I was at Costco and I grabbed a $7.99 pumpkin pie that's roughly quadruple the volume of the artisan pies.
GothBard both pooh-poohed the pie and complained that I couldn't possibly serve 6-day-old pie at Thanksgiving (we're hosting on Friday), even if it's in a sealed container the entire time.
So I let the kids have at today.
Happy kids.
They tried pulling that scam at work (grocery/drug store).
Turns out even in an allegedly 'affluent' community, folks don't want to spend more than fifteen dollars on a pie, thirty if it's made in a local bakery to custom order.
So Corporate in their Infinite Wisdom had bought... fifty pies per store in a local chain that has around 150 stores...
...and they wonder why the company isn't making any money.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
GothBard is ordering several artisan pies for Thanksgiving to the tune of over $35 per pie.They tried pulling that scam at work (grocery/drug store).
Turns out even in an allegedly 'affluent' community, folks don't want to spend more than fifteen dollars on a pie, thirty if it's made in a local bakery to custom order.
At our local farmer's market we used to have an amazing baker and her pies were well worth the $35 she charged for them.
Unfortunately, she retired to become an accountant.
GothBard continues to search for another such artist.
And considering the Costco fail, I'm perfectly willing to spend more for an edible pie.
$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...
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You know what cheeses me off about Supernatural? They investigate a paranormal event in an old house, and what do they always ask? "Have you noticed any problems with the electricity? Cold spots? Strange smells?"
And I want to yell at the damn screen, "Seriously, genius? You know what three things old houses are full of? You went to Stanford, but you can't figure that one out?"
Let's see... our floor vents periodically smell like the anus of Cerberus, there are cold spots *everywhere*, and, yes, there are lights that flicker, go out for a while, and then seem to turn on and off by themselves. I either have a haunting, a demon infestation, or IT'S JUST A REALLY OLD SPOCKING HOUSE.
Sigh.
Got up on the "cold spots and odd smells" side of bed this morning. Still haven't made coffee.
GothBard is ordering several artisan pies for Thanksgiving to the tune of over $35 per pie.They tried pulling that scam at work (grocery/drug store).
Turns out even in an allegedly 'affluent' community, folks don't want to spend more than fifteen dollars on a pie, thirty if it's made in a local bakery to custom order.
At our local farmer's market we used to have an amazing baker and her pies were well worth the $35 she charged for them.
Unfortunately, she retired to become an accountant.
GothBard continues to search for another such artist.
And considering the Costco fail, I'm perfectly willing to spend more for an edible pie.
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You know what cheeses me off about Supernatural? They investigate a paranormal event in an old house, and what do they always ask? "Have you noticed any problems with the electricity? Cold spots? Strange smells?"
And I want to yell at the damn screen, "Seriously, genius? You know what three things old houses are full of? You went to Stanford, but you can't figure that one out?"
Let's see... our floor vents periodically smell like the anus of Cerberus, there are cold spots *everywhere*, and, yes, there are lights that flicker, go out for a while, and then seem to turn on and off by themselves. I either have a haunting, a demon infestation, or IT'S JUST A REALLY OLD SPOCKING HOUSE.Sigh.
Got up on the "cold spots and odd smells" side of bed this morning. Still haven't made coffee.
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$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...
What gran said. I've been to London multiple times. I suspect there are many bakeries in London with £20 pies, and if you were looking for a special seasonal pie (such as us yanks and Thanksgiving) they might run to £25-£30.
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$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...
One would think that's the case, but they use the crap sweeteners and additives but put it in a brown paper bag to make it look 'artisan'.
So we couldn't even eat it IF we could even afford it on our budget.
About thirty years ago that began to change because we got put on one of those lists of 'best places to live'.
Sure, 'best' places for white folks to live other races and ethnicity can go live in these narrowly defined neighborhoods on the outskirts of town oops, we overdeveloped because we're trying to cash in on the 'affluence' so they can go live in another community they can afford!.
The mythology of the 'affluence' sprung from a billionaire and a couple of high multiple millionaires buying property in town, completely taking a dump on local ordinances, then fighting it in court.
Most of the 'older money' in town is of the 'fiscally responsible sort', ie, 'don't spend money you don't have to, and be mindful of expenses'.
So corporations try to cater to insanely wealthy folks who don't even buy anything in-town and have it all delivered and the other bulk of money won't buy the overpriced garbage that corporate is trying to sell.
As a result, we are exceptionally high-theft location because the stuff is so expensive that even taking a discount folks can steal it (free) and sell it off to other locations for a massive profit.
And they wonder why we're not making enough money.
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You can blame some of it on high overhead. But most of it is the "Time v. Money" thing.
I had a gift certificate for two free slices at a pie shop here in Dallas that sold 30-40 dollar pies, and honestly, it was just pie. Neither the recipe nor the ingredients were any better than what I could make myself.
But a good pie takes 1.5 to 2.5 hours to make, depending on the type of pie and whether you make your own crust (not including shopping for ingredients).
I figure bakery pies and cakes like that, their target demographic is people who make at least that much per hour.
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GothBard is ordering several artisan pies for Thanksgiving to the tune of over $35 per pie.They tried pulling that scam at work (grocery/drug store).
Turns out even in an allegedly 'affluent' community, folks don't want to spend more than fifteen dollars on a pie, thirty if it's made in a local bakery to custom order.
At our local farmer's market we used to have an amazing baker and her pies were well worth the $35 she charged for them.
Unfortunately, she retired to become an accountant.
GothBard continues to search for another such artist.
And considering the Costco fail, I'm perfectly willing to spend more for an edible pie.
You wouldn't fit through the kitchen window, and if you tried to swing through the sliding glass door, you stand a chance of tripping over laundry baskets and falling into the cat litter.
Try it. I'll watch.| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
Heck, lisamarlene, you could put it on Youtube and make book, help cover the bills and all. :>
$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...True, but NH may be paying the Bay Area equivalent of what a British food channel I watch on YouTube would call the "high-end London department store tax". I.e. paying more for something just due to where it is from, rather than how good it is.
Yeah, that makes sense. Six-figure plus salaries/properties all over the shop would have that effect...
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GothBard is ordering several artisan pies for Thanksgiving to the tune of over $35 per pie.They tried pulling that scam at work (grocery/drug store).
Turns out even in an allegedly 'affluent' community, folks don't want to spend more than fifteen dollars on a pie, thirty if it's made in a local bakery to custom order.
At our local farmer's market we used to have an amazing baker and her pies were well worth the $35 she charged for them.
Unfortunately, she retired to become an accountant.
GothBard continues to search for another such artist.
And considering the Costco fail, I'm perfectly willing to spend more for an edible pie.
I'd normally say I was in the wrong business because I make killer pies and that's a hell of a profit margin.
But then I realized I just installed a 200k project practically by myself and I stand by my choices.
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It pays to have a niche skill! While everyone else in the company is helping the lawn division today and tomorrow with fall cleanups because the material for our next project won't arrive until next week and is super surly about it, I get to carve boulders.
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$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...One would think that's the case, but they use the crap sweeteners and additives but put it in a brown paper bag to make it look 'artisan'.
So we couldn't even eat it IF we could even afford it on our budget.
** spoiler omitted **
And they wonder why we're not making enough money.
We're roaming deeply into the political, but I figure if I'm not irritating Freehold over a holiday, I'm not doing my job.
But yeah, even if we eliminate the whole, "Corporations buying up housing as a permanent and steady source of income," we have, "Realtors make their commissions on the sale price of the home, so they do not have your best interests at heart when they're advising you on what to bid."
So, a house goes on sale here for $1 million. Every realtor is going to tell a prospective buyer, "Oh, this is a really nice neighborhood with low crime and great schools! There's no way this house will go for under $1.3 million!"
And people buy that malarkey, and they bid $1.3 million, and suddenly the house is worth 30% more than it was yesterday. And when the new owners move out in 5-6 years, they're not going to sell at a loss, so that increase is locked in. And houses become unaffordable for all but the uber-rich.
I was curious, so I looked up the original posting for our house. Our realtor was a long-time family friend: GothBard grew up playing with his son. Yet sure enough, our bid was 10% over asking.
When there's a profit in hosing your clients, clients will be hosed.
EDIT: I'm saving my whole, "Why is NobodysHome a millionaire?" tirade for the "Why aren't you a millionaire?" thread, but the short version is that it has nothing to do with intelligent life choices and everything to do with the ZIP Code in which I grew up.
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Coffee achieved. Made breakfast. Bread dough rising.
Today's "vacation" projects include two more loads of laundry and baking a couple of chicken pies to put in the deep freeze for days when I'm too busy to cook.
Like next week, when Hermione has tech rehearsal Wednesday after school, dress rehearsal Thursday after school, and performs Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
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You can blame some of it on high overhead. But most of it is the "Time v. Money" thing...But a good pie takes 1.5 to 2.5 hours to make, depending on the type of pie and whether you make your own crust (not including shopping for ingredients)...I figure bakery pies and cakes like that, their target demographic is people who make at least that much per hour...
That's almost it in a nutshell:
(1) Yes, I consider my time to be at worth $20 an hour.(2) I'm terrible at baking.
(3) Our corner store no longer has good baking ingredients, so I have to plan another 30 minutes for shopping on top of the time to make the pie.
Put it all together and $40 for a homemade pie isn't unreasonable. I'll agree with Wei Ji, though -- trying to foist a corporate corn syrup pie on me for $40 isn't going to cut it. Even our local upscale supermarket keeps its pies under $15, because they know their mass-produced stuff won't compete with the few local artisans who really know their baking.
We live in an extremely foodie-intensive area. Sell overpriced subpar crap and you won't last a month.
Overpriced decent stuff? You'll make a decent living.
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$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...
$35 = 146 złoty. That better be gold-plated pie...
You might or might not recall that I mentioned before spending around 100 a week on groceries. Sometimes a bit more, but it is still a pie that should nurture me for a week or so.
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$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...$35 = 146 złoty. That better be gold-plated pie...
You might or might not recall that I mentioned before spending around 100 a week on groceries. Sometimes a bit more, but it is still a pie that should nurture me for a week or so.
I try to keep it to 150-175 for the four of us. I budget 200/week for groceries and gasoline.
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Sale on Far Cry 6? Already?
Bah, it still not on Humble Bundle/Steam, still too expensive for me.
Anyway, the GoG has 50% sale on Cyberpunk 2077, and that will take most of the internet money I have remaining for now.
Argh. There is also a 50% sale on AC: Valhalla and it is on Humble Bundle, but it is either CP2077 or Valhalla. I am currently playing AC: Odyssey and it is mighty fine game. Cyberpunk will be more of an unknown...
Choices, choices...
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I try to keep it to 150-175 for the four of us. I budget 200/week for groceries and gasoline.$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...$35 = 146 złoty. That better be gold-plated pie...
You might or might not recall that I mentioned before spending around 100 a week on groceries. Sometimes a bit more, but it is still a pie that should nurture me for a week or so.
Welcome to the Bay Area! For the four of us it's $700/week, but that's everything: Groceries, gas, hair care, clothes, restaurants, entertainment, anything.
It's a monumental amount anywhere else in the country. Around here it's prepping 4 home-cooked meals a week, eating out once, and making sure everyone looks decent.
Someone once said, "If you want to know how well-off someone is, look at their shoes."
Given that, I'm surprised people don't see me walking down Solano and hand me their spare change...
EDIT: And let's be totally honest here: We don't try to save money. We could switch to Trader Joe's for our shopping, stop eating out, use Supercuts for our haircuts, and probably cut ourselves down to $300/week. So a lot of that spending is discretionary. It represents, "How much does it cost to live in the Bay Area if your focus is on convenience rather than cost savings, and you want to eat out at least once a week?"
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Well, now I feel less extravagant. I was feeling like a spendthrift.
Well, now I feel less extravagant. I was feeling like a spendthrift.
LOL. I'm guessing you managed your place in the Bay Area at under $200/week. I'm sure it's do-able. We're just very lazy.
I still remember the sticker shock when we moved back to Albany from Davis in 1996 and our grocery bill went from $100/week to $300/week without our changing anything about our buying habits.
But that was our downfall -- if you want to live around here inexpensively, you need to put in the work to figure out where to buy all your staples, and it's typically 2-3 stores to maximize your budget.
And as I mentioned, we were lazy about it.
EDIT: As a totally separate, highly political tirade, that's one of the massive contributors to junk food addiction around here. A pound of dried beans costs $0.99. A Taco Bell taco is $1.39. McDonald's still offers a $1 meal. Because food chains set their prices nationally, it's much cheaper to live off junk food than it is to cook. So saving time and money for something that tastes better. What's the disadvantage again?
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(1) By GAAP accounting (all assets - all debts), I'm a millionaire.
(2) If you take the simple and reasonable step of removing the house I live in from that equation, I'm tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
(3) If you also remove retirement funds I can't touch for another decade, I'm hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.
So I call myself a millionaire somewhat ironically: While it is technically true that I could sell all of my property, pay off my debt, and live comfortably off the proceeds in most areas of the country, if I want to retire in the area in which I grew up and have spent almost all of my life, I still have a LOOOOONG way to go to build up enough retirement savings to do so.
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OK. Stones. Glass houses. And all that.
But Impus Major's math instructor is really starting to tick me off.
At the start of the semester, he announced four midterms and their dates. For Midterm 3, the students arrived in class expecting to take a midterm, and the instructor's TA was there, telling them that due to a power outage there wouldn't be an exam that day and the instructor would be late.
I checked. It was a 35-minute power outage at 7:30 am, and the class is at 12:45 pm. It was a really weak, watered-down excuse for missing a midterm, but I was willing to cut him some slack.
Today was supposed to be midterm 4. At 11:00 am Impus Major got an email that it's going to be a take-home test due on Friday. Impus Major believes that this means the professor will lecture today.
Er, NO. Today is a holiday week. The kids are supposed to have a day off. You can't move the midterm into their holiday time so you can get in an extra lecture. That's called stealing time from the kids, and it is NOT OK.
This instructor makes me sad, because he's yet more proof that as the technology industry has boomed, science and math education at the high school and college level has suffered because everyone's getting poached.
And in my opinion the answer isn't to tell teachers to suck it up and accept grossly subpar pay; it's to lay off half the administrators and pay the teachers what they'd get in a comparable job in industry.
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$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...$35 = 146 złoty. That better be gold-plated pie...
$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...$35 = 146 złoty. That better be gold-plated pie...
I might be missing a context?
Unless you wanted to go the simple route of making reference to (cow) feces? Coincidentally that works similarly Polish too, we use a word that might refer to pies or cakes to refer to "cowpies" as well.
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OK. Now I'm incensed.
The instructor is lecturing, and won't release the exam until after class.
On a HOLIDAY WEEK!!!
So... how many students are in the same boat as Impus Major where this was their last class for the week, so they've already made holiday and travel plans under the assumption they'd be done by 2:15 pm today!??!?!
Impus Major is booked solid through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He cannot do the exam at another time, other than later this afternoon, after the lecture.
Which is inexcusable.
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Oh, great... More sales.
Nope. Nope. Nop.
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OK. Now I'm incensed.
The instructor is lecturing, and won't release the exam until after class.
On a HOLIDAY WEEK!!!
So... how many students are in the same boat as Impus Major where this was their last class for the week, so they've already made holiday and travel plans under the assumption they'd be done by 2:15 pm today!??!?!
Impus Major is booked solid through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He cannot do the exam at another time, other than later this afternoon, after the lecture.
Which is inexcusable.
Just so you know I show the General and Crookshanks these whenever they complain about Madison schools.
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Just so you know I show the General and Crookshanks these whenever they complain about Madison schools.OK. Now I'm incensed.
The instructor is lecturing, and won't release the exam until after class.
On a HOLIDAY WEEK!!!
So... how many students are in the same boat as Impus Major where this was their last class for the week, so they've already made holiday and travel plans under the assumption they'd be done by 2:15 pm today!??!?!
Impus Major is booked solid through Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. He cannot do the exam at another time, other than later this afternoon, after the lecture.
Which is inexcusable.
If Impus Major were under 18 the dean and the administration would be getting a very angry letter. Since he's an adult, I told him he should write one himself and I'd help him but he responded, "Nah, I'm just not that invested."
And he's playing video games throughout the lecture and ignoring it, so it's only his time that's being lost.
(As he puts it, I can clearly explain in 6 minutes what his instructor manages to make an inexcusable mess of in 90.)
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$35 = £26. That ought to be a pretty gold-standard pie...$35 = 146 złoty. That better be gold-plated pie...I might be missing a context?
Unless you wanted to go the simple route of making reference to (cow) feces? Coincidentally that works similarly Polish too, we use a word that might refer to pies or cakes to refer to "cowpies" as well.
PM.
Thank you. Didn't know that meaning.
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And yep, the exam wasn't posted within 30 minutes of the end of class, so Impus Major had to move on to his other social obligations. We'll figure out a time for him to do the exam, but I'm sorely tempted to do it with a note, "If you don't tell that someone else did the exam, I won't tell what a loser you are in scheduling your exams."
But that would be wrong...
And now, for the debate question of the decade: I have never purchased an office chair for myself. I've repurposed dining room chairs, looted corporate dumpsters, grabbed chairs off the street, etc., but I've never spent money on one.
My old beloved chair from my first corporate job was finally showing its age, with exposed wood and stains so dark it looked like someone had been murdered in it. Honestly, I've been using it for working from home for 17 years straight, so it's not a surprise.
So... we have an Amazon credit card that gives us Amazon points to buy Amazon products. A few months ago GothBard joined the "never shop at Amazon" bandwagon, but still used the card, meaning we accumulated hundreds of dollars worth of Amazon points.
So... I needed a chair. I did my research, chose a chair, and then ordered it for "free" from Amazon using the points we weren't otherwise using.
Technically, I didn't spend a penny on the chair.
Morally, I feel that since I could have spent that money on other Amazon products (my family always sends me an Amazon Christmas list), I did indeed spend "money" on an office chair.
Opinions?
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It's a form of currency (and will probably be the only medium of exchange in the impending Bezostopia), even if it doesn't have a national hero's face on it and its own lovely little symbol.
Is it one of those executive-style chairs with the threaded middle cylinder and no hydraulics?
If so, then look at it as 'sticking it to the Beozos' using his Bezobux.
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Is it one of those executive-style chairs with the threaded middle cylinder and no hydraulics?If so, then look at it as 'sticking it to the B
eozos' using his Bezobux.
I’m a simple man. It’s a simple office chair. Since I spend most of my time leaning back, I got the seat tilt upgrade, but it’s still something that wouldn’t look out of place in any peon’s cubicle.
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I understand the impulse to boycott Amazon. I really do.
But(t).
In the era of unfettered American capitalism, any product you buy from any vendor is going to be in some way morally problematic.
You simply can't participate in our society without being somehow complicit in its problems. You needed a chair, and unless you went directly to an independent craftsman who made it out of completely renewable resources with absolutely no tools forged from steel and yada yada yada...
I'm not saying ignore the problems, but each individual can only do so much unless you are truly committed. And that's a damn difficult bar. Don't beat yourself up too much.
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I understand the impulse to boycott Amazon. I really do.
But(t).
In the era of unfettered American capitalism, any product you buy from any vendor is going to be in some way morally problematic.
You simply can't participate in our society without being somehow complicit in its problems. You needed a chair, and unless you went directly to an independent craftsman who made it out of completely renewable resources with absolutely no tools forged from steel and yada yada yada...
I'm not saying ignore the problems, but each individual can only do so much unless you are truly committed. And that's a damn difficult bar. Don't beat yourself up too much.
GothBard is boycotting Amazon; I’m not. I just buy so little outside of week-to-week groceries that my choices hardly matter…
EDIT:
In other words, an ideal job for teenagers just moving out of their parents' houses and trying to get started in their own place. GothBard delivered pizzas. My brother washed dishes (which he still considers the most brutal job he's ever done). My mother washed dishes. I was lucky enough to have a paper route and be able to tutor.
We all had crap jobs with unreasonable hours and expectations.
So, as long as the working conditions are safe, I have no issues with Amazon grinding through workers as if they're a bunch of teenagers fresh out of high school who can afford back-breaking labor for a couple of years until they move on to something better.
Contrast this with Tesla, where Elon Musk refused to follow COVID protocols, won't allow trucks to have back-up beepers, removes yellow warning tape because it's ugly, and has one of the highest worker accident rates in the state, and I'll take Amazon, thanks.
As far as I know, working for Amazon sucks, but it won't kill you. The same can't be said for Tesla.
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I boycott purely out of vengeance.
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Former Coworker and his guy's task for today: Clean up our shelves in the hog shed and organize our tools.
Texts I got from the boss an hour ago: Can you please clean up the hardscape shelves and organize the tools?.
It wasn't unexpected.
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I boycott purely out of vengeance.
GothBard's major issue is their "quality control": If you buy something from "Amazon Marketplace", you can rest assured it's going to be a cheap counterfeit.
Which, considering most of the stuff there is already cheap crap, is an impressive feat.
EDIT: But yeah, selling counterfeit items on Amazon is apparently a multi-billion dollar business, and Amazon doesn't do anything about it, so GothBard boycotts them.
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I boycott purely out of vengeance.GothBard's major issue is their "quality control": If you buy something from "Amazon Marketplace", you can rest assured it's going to be a cheap counterfeit.
Which, considering most of the stuff there is already cheap crap, is an impressive feat.
EDIT: But yeah, selling counterfeit items on Amazon is apparently a multi-billion dollar business, and Amazon doesn't do anything about it, so GothBard boycotts them.
Yes, this is also why I avoid it, The General and the kids are a bit more cavalier about it but it's not my place to rain on their parade.
Edit: I haven't noticed anything outright counterfeit but I have noticed that Amazon has almost no quality control as it's easier and probably cheaper just refunding and returns.