State farm tried screwing us over years ago and we switched to GEICO and I haven't been happier.
At least in Madison, State Farm is shady as hell.
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Unrelated, Facebook is indeed the way to go as far as dating goes.
Of course, now I have to, you know, go on a date (which is Saturday I guess) which is something I haven't done in about 24 years.
So, yeah, it's probably going to be weird! But I've already looked over the divorce 3 times and it's definitely real, so I shouldn't feel guilty like I'm cheating or anything but it still kind of feels that way.
At least I know I can still do my job at the highest level while being distracted by my own head (even though I absolutely should not).
Life is weird.
I just keep things to a handful of downloaded games per platform.I had to force quite Connect. Steam does that better turning play button into stop button while a game is on (including after those crashes that are not properly registered by Steam launcher making it think* that the game still runs).
*it's funny how we humans are hard-wired into anthropomorphizing our surroundings and considering behaviors/events of everything around us in terms of thinking, intent, emotions, and intelligence, even when it clearly is not.
Ohhhh... don't get me started on the non-Steam launchers. I'm pretty sure I had that exact same problem with Ubisoft, and then Epic's won't recognize installed games so even after you've downloaded 100+ GB of stuff, a single glitch and it's, "Nope. Sorry. Re-download ALL of it."
Everyone pines for a good competitor for Steam. So far no one's made even a functional one...
The limited size of my HD partitions does that for me.
"The man on the opposite sideline also founded the team 42 years earlier as one of the league's charter members, and ever since then he's owned them, made every football and personnel decision, made every business decision, and is in his 34th season calling the shots as their head coach, the first nine of which he doubled as a player lining up at both wideout and defensive end. Other than that, he's pretty hands-off."
Yep. Sounds hands-off to me.
Duh. Obviously, he isn't using his hands for doing all of that.
*SIGH*. Another morning, likely another day waiting to find out whether the Celica can be repaired at all.
I'm well aware that body work is a delicate, intricate pseudo-science where they have to poke and prod and dig around just to figure out whether or not they can rescue something. Add to that that pretty much none of the Celica's parts are manufactured any more so they're either going junkyard diving or buying third-party materials, and getting an estimate is obviously pretty darned hard.
But waiting to find out whether the first car you ever bought can be saved at all is agonizing.
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Final random thought on the car before I get to work for the day: In spite of California's EPA spearheading a strong drive to get older cars off the road (they'll pay me $1200 cash to junk the Celica), the economics are ludicrously in favor of driving antique cars:
The other driver's registration showed she was paying $2500/year for a 2022 car. I pay $135 for the Celica.
Insurance for a 2022 car is $3000/year, even without kids. I pay $800 for the Celica, including both kids
In short, the Celica saves me around $4500/year in registration and insurance fees. So if I can pay $9000 to get it fixed, I can make up the difference in only 2 years.
So why not try?
Duh. Obviously, he isn't using his hands for doing all of that."The man on the opposite sideline also founded the team 42 years earlier as one of the league's charter members, and ever since then he's owned them, made every football and personnel decision, made every business decision, and is in his 34th season calling the shots as their head coach, the first nine of which he doubled as a player lining up at both wideout and defensive end. Other than that, he's pretty hands-off."
Yep. Sounds hands-off to me.
Its been a while, is it the offensive or defensive line that can use their hands?
Its been a while, is it the offensive or defensive line that can use their hands?Duh. Obviously, he isn't using his hands for doing all of that."The man on the opposite sideline also founded the team 42 years earlier as one of the league's charter members, and ever since then he's owned them, made every football and personnel decision, made every business decision, and is in his 34th season calling the shots as their head coach, the first nine of which he doubled as a player lining up at both wideout and defensive end. Other than that, he's pretty hands-off."
Yep. Sounds hands-off to me.
Oh, American football is quite the entertaining assortment of rules.
In this case I'm sure you're thinking of "offensive holding", where if an offensive lineman uses his hand to grab a defender it's a penalty. It's such an issue that if you look carefully during a game, you'll see that many offensive lineman tape all their fingers together so they can't accidentally grab hold of anything.
So they can use their hands to push against the defenders, but they're not allowed to grab.
I gave up and called the body shop. They'll know whether or not the Celica can be saved on Monday.
At least it's a time frame. And in the meantime it's time to start trying to figure out how to pay for whatever it is that we decide to do...
I've heard stories about how if it weren't for carvana and the like, the used car market would be fat, far worse. Kelly Blue Book is apparently a scam or something?And the information keeps trickling in. Apparently the body shop owner was saying that he didn't think they could fix the suspension, so they might have to replace the whole thing to the tune of $5000, and he didn't think Brendan would be willing to pay that.
He doesn't know how much I love the Celica, nor how much used cars cost in this area. Until he breaks $10k, it's still cheaper to get the Celica repaired than to buy a used car.
And that's about how pathetic things are in the Bay Area.
No.
Carvana specifically has been banned from selling cars multiple times in Illinois due to shady business practices. They've also been known to sell stolen cars.
The used car market went nuts, not just in the Bay but simply everywhere, after COVID exposed "just in time" supply chain theory as a major issue when anything disrupts any leg of it. In the case of a global pandemic, well, cars are far more computerized than people really realize. Those computer components, specifically the chips, come from China. Fact is, pretty much every modern computer chip in the world right now can be traced to only two chip foundries in China.
COVID made them unable to produce any processors for months.
Then, when they could spin up some production again, they focused on their high volume chips first. Phones. Laptops. Tablets. The chips used in the automotive industry use a design that's a couple decades old. The reason is because it's a proven design known to work in the automotive industry and any change means a complete redesign of several systems. Which basically means having to go through all the red tape to get it certified as well. Which means they had to wait until the chip manufacturers got around to making their chips again. Which meant companies either had no new cars to...
Intriguing.
Thank you.
Its been a while, is it the offensive or defensive line that can use their hands?Duh. Obviously, he isn't using his hands for doing all of that."The man on the opposite sideline also founded the team 42 years earlier as one of the league's charter members, and ever since then he's owned them, made every football and personnel decision, made every business decision, and is in his 34th season calling the shots as their head coach, the first nine of which he doubled as a player lining up at both wideout and defensive end. Other than that, he's pretty hands-off."
Yep. Sounds hands-off to me.
Oh, American football is quite the entertaining assortment of rules.
In this case I'm sure you're thinking of "offensive holding", where if an offensive lineman uses his hand to grab a defender it's a penalty. It's such an issue that if you look carefully during a game, you'll see that many offensive lineman tape all their fingers together so they can't accidentally grab hold of anything.
So they can use their hands to push against the defenders, but they're not allowed to grab.
One of my favorite and incredibly rare anime, Eyeshield 21, goes into this a bit. One of the special techniques they come up with would be quite illegal in football irl, which is a shame.
Today's fun on facebook:
Gorbacz is asking for advice for a friend of his who got paid by American publisher with a check, and now they are looking what to do with it.
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Sell it to the highest bidder.
While first marketing it as a unique NFT.
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Well, as expected, the other driver's insurance company went dead silent the moment State Farm decided it was 100% the other driver's fault. I'm not surprised.
But it did give me time to come up with what I consider reasonable demands:
(1) If the Celica is totaled, I'm going to ask for $5000. It's well above the blue book value of $3000, but I took extremely good care of the engine and I have extensive records to prove it. Plus at least half a dozen 1996 Celicas selling online for $7000-$9000 all over the country. It'll be a push to get them to go that high, but their alternative is to have me start fighting them and possibly even lawyering up (I do get legal services from Global Megacorporation, so lawyering up really isn't that big a deal for me), so my guess is that they'll argue to the point that I decide to get a lawyer, I'll pay the lawyer $500 for one phone call, and I'll get my $5000.
(2) If the Celica can be saved, I'm going to ask for a rental car for the duration of the repairs. This'll be much cheaper for them (probably $3600 or so) and isn't an unreasonable ask, so I suspect this is the outcome we'll both be hoping for.
Let's see what they say... if they ever bother to call again, of course...
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Seriously considering a career change.
Trouble is, after fifteen years of Montessori teaching and a decade of Executive Assisting and office management before that, I have zero idea of what I might be qualified for or capable of.
I know that I don't want to go back into my previous (before teaching) career.
I love teaching but I'm sick to death of dealing with school administrators.
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Give in to the hate and become school administrator yourself!
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Wildlife photographer?
YouTub bird watching personality.
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Seriously considering a career change.
Trouble is, after fifteen years of Montessori teaching and a decade of Executive Assisting and office management before that, I have zero idea of what I might be qualified for or capable of.
I know that I don't want to go back into my previous (before teaching) career.
I love teaching but I'm sick to death of dealing with school administrators.
Yeah, it's unfortunate. 24 years ago I would've immediately steered you into technical training -- you'd've been teaching adults who want to learn, getting paid 2-3x the salary, and dealing with administrators who actually understand what you do. Now it's all prerecorded online claptrap and the job is joyless. Almost all of our openings now are in UI design.
You can check Global Megacorporation's recruiting site to see whether they have any openings you want; we have a major center in Dallas and even though the jobs are pretty boring and the pay is sub-par for the industry, it's still tech industry pay and the benefits are hard to beat.
EDIT: Or did you want a job that you enjoy and that gives you satisfaction?
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Seriously considering a career change.
Know how to run an excavator?
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Seriously considering a career change.Know how to run an excavator?
Doesn't matter. As long as she can pass a drug test, they'll train her.
It looks like it's on Crunchyroll.One of my favorite and incredibly rare anime, Eyeshield 21, goes into this a bit. One of the special techniques they come up with would be quite illegal in football irl, which is a shame.Its been a while, is it the offensive or defensive line that can use their hands?Duh. Obviously, he isn't using his hands for doing all of that."The man on the opposite sideline also founded the team 42 years earlier as one of the league's charter members, and ever since then he's owned them, made every football and personnel decision, made every business decision, and is in his 34th season calling the shots as their head coach, the first nine of which he doubled as a player lining up at both wideout and defensive end. Other than that, he's pretty hands-off."
Yep. Sounds hands-off to me.
Oh, American football is quite the entertaining assortment of rules.
In this case I'm sure you're thinking of "offensive holding", where if an offensive lineman uses his hand to grab a defender it's a penalty. It's such an issue that if you look carefully during a game, you'll see that many offensive lineman tape all their fingers together so they can't accidentally grab hold of anything.
So they can use their hands to push against the defenders, but they're not allowed to grab.
Oh really?
I own the series so I didn't really check to see where else it was.
I need to finish collecting the manga for the "true" ending.
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Today's fun on facebook:
Gorbacz is asking for advice for a friend of his who got paid by American publisher with a check, and now they are looking what to do with it.
The obvious answer is "send it to me, you windbag". Tell him I said that.
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Seriously considering a career change.
Trouble is, after fifteen years of Montessori teaching and a decade of Executive Assisting and office management before that, I have zero idea of what I might be qualified for or capable of.
I know that I don't want to go back into my previous (before teaching) career.
I love teaching but I'm sick to death of dealing with school administrators.
I have a few suggestions...
1.
2. My job is hiring for multiple positions. It's a commute, but still.
3. Become one of the administrators and change things from the inside.
4. Zoom private Montessori-trained teacher. Its a method, and you can file off the serial numbers and just work privately. With your own hand picked clients.
5. Leg breaker for local Polish crime outfit. I would certainly pay bills on time if it was a choice of eating paczi or eating fists. No, you cannot attach paczi to your fists and then start punching. That would be unfair. Delicious, but unfair.
6.
7. Professional Bellatrix Lesteange cosplayer. I'm not kidding. Private events can make SERIOUS money, but it isn't exactly a stable income nowadays.
8. Internet baking video person. Your food is gorgeous, and your cultural links means you can build an audience over time.
9. Hiking guide. Yes, a professional Ranger.
10. Apprentice yourself to Captain Yesterday. You'll get in on the ground floor of landscaping.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Seriously considering a career change.
Trouble is, after fifteen years of Montessori teaching and a decade of Executive Assisting and office management before that, I have zero idea of what I might be qualified for or capable of.
I know that I don't want to go back into my previous (before teaching) career.
I love teaching but I'm sick to death of dealing with school administrators.
I have a few suggestions...
1.
2. My job is hiring for multiple positions. It's a commute, but still.
3. Become one of the administrators and change things from the inside.
4. Zoom private Montessori-trained teacher. Its a method, and you can file off the serial numbers and just work privately. With your own hand picked clients.
5. Leg breaker for local Polish crime outfit. I would certainly pay bills on time if it was a choice of eating paczi or eating fists. No, you cannot attach paczi to your fists and then start punching. That would be unfair. Delicious, but unfair.
6.
7. Professional Bellatrix Lesteange cosplayer. I'm not kidding. Private events can make SERIOUS money, but it isn't exactly a stable income nowadays.
8. Internet baking video person. Your food is gorgeous, and your cultural links means you can build an audience over time.
9. Hiking guide. Yes, a professional Ranger.
10. Apprentice yourself to Captain Yesterday. You'll get in on the ground floor of landscaping.
Nope, if you're trained by me you skip the ground floor and the next 50 floors as well.
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I got back from my Costco trip all excited -- it was warm enough when I was unloading the car that I perspired a bit, and I thought we were finally going to get some summer weather just to make Freehold feel better.
So I unloaded the car, went into the house, and checked the outdoor thermometer.
67˚F. (19.4˚C).
This summer has been SO cold that "sunny and 67˚F" is an "unusually hot" day.
Sorry, Freehold.
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FINALLY, they let me out! Me, Squeaky One-Fang of the Nineteen Toes, kept in durance vile by the Titans for nearly a fortnight, but finally UNLEASHED ON A WORLD UNPREPARED FOR MY RAW, UNBRIDLED SAVAGERY, for around 15 minutes, anyway, until I got fed up and wanted to go back inside for a snooze on the sofa and some more tickles
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Seriously considering a career change.
Trouble is, after fifteen years of Montessori teaching and a decade of Executive Assisting and office management before that, I have zero idea of what I might be qualified for or capable of.
I know that I don't want to go back into my previous (before teaching) career.
I love teaching but I'm sick to death of dealing with school administrators.
I have a few suggestions...
1.
2. My job is hiring for multiple positions. It's a commute, but still.
3. Become one of the administrators and change things from the inside.
4. Zoom private Montessori-trained teacher. Its a method, and you can file off the serial numbers and just work privately. With your own hand picked clients.
5. Leg breaker for local Polish crime outfit. I would certainly pay bills on time if it was a choice of eating paczi or eating fists. No, you cannot attach paczi to your fists and then start punching. That would be unfair. Delicious, but unfair.
6.
7. Professional Bellatrix Lesteange cosplayer. I'm not kidding. Private events can make SERIOUS money, but it isn't exactly a stable income nowadays.
8. Internet baking video person. Your food is gorgeous, and your cultural links means you can build an audience over time.
9. Hiking guide. Yes, a professional Ranger.
10. Apprentice yourself to Captain Yesterday. You'll get in on the ground floor of landscaping.
11. NH puncher. I'll pay good rates, I promise.
So, the final straw was that WW and I got an email from my boss last night informing us that Teensy Valeros has been "disenrolled" for the fall.
He had some behavioral issues last year stemming from poor impulse control and a desire to make people laugh in order to get attention, and a complete lack of awareness of other people's comfort zones where humor is concerned.
We were supposed to get him reevaluated for autism and oppositional defiant disorder (neither of which he has), get him on new meds, and get him a behavioral therapist, all by August 1st. The evaluation is scheduled for the 7th (this is a busy time of year for practices that offer this type of testing, they're booked months out), he's on new meds, and we're still trying to find a therapist who will take him, so the school canceled his admission contract.
Looks like we're homeschooling the boy until further notice.
Which, honestly, is probably better for him at this point.
But now I get to keep working at a school that doesn't want my son. Part of me feels like I should stay until Hermione is done with 8th grade there, as she is really thriving there, and the public middle schools here are pretty lousy.
So I feel stuck. And pissed off. And wanting to do almost anything else.
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It sounds like a private education system to me if they can reject students like that. Is public education in your area not suitable?
Without getting into specifics, our state legislature has ruined public education in Texas.
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I was home schooled and I turned out fine!
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It was supposed to be our anniversary today, I impulsively went out for a drink, because I'd rather get out then spend time around someone that clearly doesn't want me around.
It was fun! First time I've had a drink in over 5 years! (I'm not an alcoholic I just only drink socially and this is the first time I've been out socially and didn't have to drive afterwards (I will not drive with even a sip alcohol).
I definitely need a wingman for future excursions though because I'm a lot more social if I have someone else with me.
Otherwise I just kind of naturally melt into a corner somewhere.
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Nope, if you're trained by me you skip the ground floor and the next 50 floors as well.
Since you do excavation isn't that a really really really BAD thing? Like.. you're either in a cavern or hell.
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Nope, if you're trained by me you skip the ground floor and the next 50 floors as well.Since you do excavation isn't that a really really really BAD thing? Like.. you're either in a cavern or hell.
I live in Wisconsin, you can't dig too far before you hit bedrock.
It'll be fine!
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All I know is that my parents said they wanted to play "a quick game of Catan", so I scored 11 points in 15 minutes. And now they're annoyed with me.
So many memories.
Still remember the game that resulted in our famous "no alcohol if we are playing Catan" rule.
It was supposed to be our anniversary today, I impulsively went out for a drink, because I'd rather get out then spend time around someone that clearly doesn't want me around.
It was fun! First time I've had a drink in over 5 years! (I'm not an alcoholic I just only drink socially and this is the first time I've been out socially and didn't have to drive afterwards (I will not drive with even a sip alcohol).
I definitely need a wingman for future excursions though because I'm a lot more social if I have someone else with me.
Otherwise I just kind of naturally melt into a corner somewhere.
I'll be your wingman! Ask CH for what happens if you go out with me!
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Nope, if you're trained by me you skip the ground floor and the next 50 floors as well.Since you do excavation isn't that a really really really BAD thing? Like.. you're either in a cavern or hell.I live in Wisconsin, you can't dig too far before you hit bedrock.
It'll be fine!
Are those famous last words? Those sound like famous last words to me.
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I'll be your wingman! Ask CH for what happens if you go out with me!It was supposed to be our anniversary today, I impulsively went out for a drink, because I'd rather get out then spend time around someone that clearly doesn't want me around.
It was fun! First time I've had a drink in over 5 years! (I'm not an alcoholic I just only drink socially and this is the first time I've been out socially and didn't have to drive afterwards (I will not drive with even a sip alcohol).
I definitely need a wingman for future excursions though because I'm a lot more social if I have someone else with me.
Otherwise I just kind of naturally melt into a corner somewhere.
You get drunk?
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Fantasy Monster: Inventor's Devil
A devil that helps inventors. You don't even need to sell your soul (unless you want to)!
*hugs* LM.
I live in Wisconsin, you can't dig too far before you hit bedrock.
It'll be fine!
Employee morale questionaire
Employee moral hit rock bottom.
Then we had mining equipment.
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Nope, if you're trained by me you skip the ground floor and the next 50 floors as well.Since you do excavation isn't that a really really really BAD thing? Like.. you're either in a cavern or hell.
getting trained by me is like being Tom Brady's backup. I might seem like an a~@&*&# sometimes and other times it might seem like you're just standing around watching and other times I'll absolutely push you and make you do something over and over again until it's perfect.
But you will learn how to do everything, you will learn it correctly, and you'll be light years ahead of everyone else.
Everyone I've trained and stuck it out through at least one season is in management, either at work or wherever they currently are. Everyone.