Hi there. It’s about 2 am now. I fell asleep for a few hours from about 7 until now, and I feel a little more capable of stringing words together now. Let’s see if I can tell you a little more about what’s going on.
Yesterday was my first day working a full 9-5 work shift since mid-January, and maybe that contributed to some of the unpleasantness I was feeling. I’ve been living on savings for 2 full months, which is something I’ve never been able to comfortably do before. I spent a lot of February applying for about 400 jobs. I guess you could say I’m a little picky, and the employers are picky too—as they have a right to be—the kind of salary I’m asking for is a lot of money and a lot of labor being offered in exchange, and it makes sense that both parties would be careful and thoughtful before entering into such a contract. I was so busy with school in March that I only applied for a dozen jobs here and there. That actually led to one job offer at a decent middle-class rate, but I had to turn it down because although it’s a lot of money, it’s just not enough to sustain my expenses.
At this point, I’m only a few weeks away from being able to qualify again for another attempt at some selective computer coding screening exams at some independent contractor websites I’ve been looking at. I tried those tests in late January and early February and passed a few of them but overall didn’t make the cut because the kinds of Python skills those tests are screening for are not really taught in school. It’s something called competitive programming which I would have to study for outside of school. There’s a mandatory 3 month waiting period after you fail the test, but 2 months of that have already passed. It seems like I have the ability to get a W-2 job through a recruiter that I have a relationship with, but I’m so close to the second round of exams that it might make sense to just focus on that and hold out for retaining 1099 status. 1099 tax status is nice because then I can deduct all kinds of expenses associated with my life from my taxes. My life is so costly in random ways, and it would be nice to keep track of that and deduct it. For example, I pay $200 per month for a parking garage. If I file taxes in 1099 status, I get to deduct that as a business expense because it’s an expense supporting my Lyft driving—I’ve spent $600 on garages so far this year, and my mileage tracker says I’ve earned $1000 worth of mileage deductions too. If you add in car insurance as a business expense, my insurance has usually been $500-$600 per month, so that’s another $1,500 to $2,000, putting me at about $3,000 in expenses that can be deducted from my gross revenue, so far, and that’s not even accounting for a long list of other expenses I’ve been keeping track of with the computer coding side of things. So it may make sense to really focus on trying to get a 1099 job through the coding websites.
I think I’ll be able to sustain myself fine through Lyft and Doordash for the month of April. I have less clear of a vision of what I would do if I fail the coding tests again and can’t take those until July or August. I don’t need to figure that all out tonight. As far as Lyft, it seems like if I work all day and make $200 a day and work every day, I could earn $6,000 gross per month, which is not quite at six-figures level, but close enough. I’m capable of working all day every day, and I did so during Georgetown. There’s a question of whether the extent to which I’ve gotten older or the extent to which my current problems are different from my previous problems would affect things.
I know I had a really hard time today while driving. I had a very traumatic week. My relationship with my best friend is probably over, and my relationship with the friend group where I met him is definitely over. I know that I feel physically disgusted by the discontinuity between the promise of what that friend group portends to be—a peer support space for Mad persons—and what the place has turned out to be—a place with apparently limitless amounts of contempt for me as someone who is more likely to use Mad with a capital M as an identifier rather than mentally ill or any of the other psychiatrically-influenced, iatrogenic terms connoting weakness, illness, subalternity, aberration, etc. The amount of hatred I received from others there, about a week ago, makes me upset and concerned, especially because the majority of it comes from people who lurked and never spoke or participated in daily discussions. It makes me feel like hatred was just sitting there seething and I didn’t or was never going to realize it until I accidentally stumbled upon it by acting on my observation that my best friend and I were in a codependency.
Back in early February, when I was absolutely terrified about the recession and anticipated that my life was going to become more unstable, I did a self-administered EMDR session to calm down and help me find strength within myself. The two realizations that came out of that were that I am capable of creating self-employment (by generating a stock market trading robot smart enough to beat the market) and that my best friend and I were in a co-dependency. I ended up being so busy with school that I didn’t have much time to focus on the stock market robot, and I lost faith that beating the market to an extent that would be a short-term supporting income was realistic. But I ended up being able to support myself on savings anyway, without doing any work, which surprised me. And I never expected that I would have acted on my observation that my best friend and I were a codependency. I never had any plans to act on it, but apparently the observation was powerful enough. Life itself presented situations that demanded I act in self-defense against codependency patterns. I feel bad because my best friend doesn’t seem to be on the same page about the idea that we are a codependency, and when I have sat down to try to present the idea, it didn’t seem right to launch into a detailed lecture of all the reasons that I would call us a codependency. So I tried to be gentle.
It seems like when I sit down and fully lay out all of my perspectives about codependency and everything else associated with therapy, as well as my thoughts about Mad Studies and mad pride, it doesn’t sit very well with either my best friend or the group where I met him. That’s hard news and makes me sad. I had felt like I was a reasonable fit for that social setting, but if both my best friend and the group as a whole have been biting their lips and holding back all this contempt for me and my viewpoints this whole time, then clearly I didn’t actually belong there, and it’s very dangerous that a codependency was at the center of making me sit docile in a room of vituperative hatred and not realize that I was in danger.
I absolutely love my best friend, so much, and it’s really hard for me to deal with the fact that he’s gone. I think the idea of identifying and ending a codependency was the far upper extreme stretch goal limit of any of the explicit training I got from therapy, and I’m really in new territory that I never have experienced before.
That brings me to pretty much where I am now and how I felt last night when I wasn’t able to speak. You know, two things are true. One, if I earn $200 per day every day from now through Friday, that’s enough to pay for both my car payment and rent without cutting into my savings, which would be awesome. Two, it might be really nice for me to take a break on Sunday and just spend the whole day in bed—not even going to polo.
I know that I am in so much pain without my best friend being there anymore. I’ve written so much today, and I don’t know that I have the energy to write more in this post about the feeling. I just thought that he was the best friend I had ever met in life. More to say but I think that was my writing sprint for now.
Want to do, not going to—write more right now
Currently doing—enjoying the warmth
Advice:
-patience is a good idea -generally a good idea to tell people when you love them -learning polo is definitely worth it

What's the most bizarre thing you've ever witnessed in a public place?

I miss the 5 inch phones, they were big enough, and you could hold them and interact with them comfortably with one hand. Bare in mind that I have tiny, piano player hands.
Today you cannot find a phone for sale that is less than 6 damn inches. My phone very often falls off my pocket or slips off my hand, and it's so frustrating.
Who the fuck pushed this trend? I will find them and kill them.

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The curriculum consists of over +140 training videos and +15 hours of high-quality contentand is consistently updated with the most relevant sales strategies and tactics that are working today.

Hi all!
I'm a realtivley newish guitar player (sub 6 months), I have a nicer guitar a bought from a friend I don't really want to mess withm but i just bought a cheapo strat from a garage sale for $20 and wanted to fully strip it back and buy new parts and build it myself.
I think it'd be an interesting way to learn how guitars work and function, and it also just sounds fun, I love electronics in general so this actually sounds crazy fun!
Alas onto the questions:
It currently, I think its called tabocca sunburst, color. If use a sander to strip it back to the bare wood does this drastically affect the sound if I accidentally take off some wood with the sander?
Do I have to put paint and clear coat on the body? Or if I like the wood could I just stain it and oil it?
I might buy new pickups, but I''m thinking of just sticking with the original electronics. They sound fine when I play it now, so I figure why not re use them. Any reason I should or shouldn't?
Just buying some cheaper hardware parts from ebay, I figure they can't be any worse then the half rusted stuff already on it, any reason not to do that?
All in all I'm looking for this to be a cheap fun project to help me learn about guitars.
​
I'd also love some ideas on a color scheme, currently I'm think black and gold hardware, or maybe a dark dark red body and black hardware.

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The curriculum consists of over +140 training videos and +15 hours of high-quality contentand is consistently updated with the most relevant sales strategies and tactics that are working today.

Took a year off after breaking my collar bone a month after leaving my last store. Started at my new store 2 weeks ago. Cool indy store, every Charger and Challenger, now up to the Super Stock I took in against a 2018 911 Turbo S. More Manual 5.0's then I know what to do. Macans for every price point, Maserati's for the poser's (just put a Levante on a truck headed to Miami, go figure) and got to take a 3 hour road trip through the beautiful Georgia countryside to deliver a brand new Defender and bring back a mint 5 series trade I took home for the night. Loving it, I love cars and love their inventory. But my first sale? Getting my tie cut? Customer 2 hours away inquires about a $10K red Dodge Journey with 138k miles. Oh boy. Let me just get him in to the store and Ill flip him. But no. He wants 3 rows. And he wants home delivery. He is also going to pay with a Navy Fed draft. WHY GOD WHY? Customer gets what customer wants though. So I put the deal together and send it to the box to spin the paperwork. I ask the owner how he wants to handle delivery. He jumps and says he will personally go with me after we close at 8. The owner personally going out with me just to get it done today? He said its just so we can break the seal on my first deal, cut my tie, and get to business. Ok? So, 8 rolls around and I say my prayers and prepare to step inside the Journey to begin the 2 hour trek to the customer. Car has no issues, no lights, no funny sounds. We get there, its 11:00 since we left an hour late. Customer and owner do the paperwork sitting inside the Journey while I am sitting in the back. We collect the check, hop in the new Escalade the owner brought to take us back, and the owner turns to me and says "Thank you laylowlazlo, I have been trying to get rid of that Journey for AWHILE". Now I see why the owner is out in the boonies with me at 11:30 PM. But I know what I just did. I couldn't enjoy the plush captain's chair and backseat amenities of that Escalade because all I could think about was what I did while the owner hauled ass back to the store (Those new Escalade's can MOVE). Get back to the store, wish the owner good night and get in my car to go back home. I get in the next morning and I hear the Journey woke up the next morning and chose violence, showing the warm glow of its CEL light and according to the owner misfiring and having piston problems. The customer has Navy Fed cancel the draft check we collected before it even made it into the store in the morning and just said please come get this car. I am just thankful that the sale that got my tie cut was NOT a Dodge Journey. That is not how I want to start this next step in my career, and thankfully some guy came in said he wanted our Mazda CX-30 and just took it home that night. Tie cut. End of story.
​
TL:DR- Dodge Journey

tldr: expensive medicine stolen+we need more asset protection
so yesterday at like 6pm 2 dudes walk in with black hoodies and masks on (turns out one was a girl) and they say to me and another associate “ima steal rn don’t say anything” and procede to start throwing allergy medicine into their bags and im like wtf “you do you i’m not gonna stop you” (literally cant) ii tell the associate at customer service cuz it was close by and then tell the team lead at the front (NHM btw so it’s small)
TL does absolutely nothing, not even say stop and they just walk out, they call the SM and today he asked me for a statement basically but the thing is
we only have one asset protection member and he’s only a team associate, and spends most of his time on the sales floor or stocking
like why can’t we hire another AP TA or API instead of 5 frontend ppl a week 💀 AND WHY ISNT IT LOCKED UP WHEN ITS $40+ . we have ALL cosmetics locked up when they’re literally mostly under $10
walmart, you’re so smart <3

When most people apply to the "taxes are theft" argument, there's two main approaches:

1. Appeal to their humanity: Doesn't work on sociopaths
2. Appeal to pragmatism: Doesn't work on idiots

But there's a better response: If libertarians claim they don't need government services, then call them on their bluff, and point out that money itself is a government service. If you bring up something like roads, libertarians will insist that the market will provide a cheapebetter alternative once taxes go away. But when it comes to money, the free market alternatives already exist, but libertarians refuse to use them because the alternatives are useless without government backing.
This isn't exactly a new argument: There's the famous "Render unto Caesar" line from Jesus himself in the bible.

1. You cannot have fiat currency without taxes and spending

In David Graeber's book "Debt: The First 5000 Years," Graeber explores the history of money citing actual research rather than the historical fanfiction.
Money is circulated throughout the economy by government spending. If there was no government spending, then there would be no money to go around. Money has value because of the demand created by taxation. In the absence of taxes, then the dollar would effectively be worthless.
Hence, if libertarians are really against the idea of taxes and spending, then they should be demanding zero dollars in their bank account, rather than asking for more of them. Their entire goal is to increase their supply of dollars by cutting off the supply, which doesn't make any fucking sense.

2. Free market currencies exist, but they've been rejected by the free market

Libertarians will respond to the previous point by insisting that free market alternatives like gold and bitcoin are not only viable, but superior. But every argument in favor of these alternatives treats them as investment vehicles for the sake of generating more fiat, rather than a currency in itself. This isn't simply my opinion, it's the outcome of the free market itself.
Here's the fundamental problem: Money is supposed to be a medium of exchange, which means it must be agreeable to both parties: Something people are willing to gain, and something people are willing to lose. Except those are two opposing goals, so how can it be both? Libertarians champion gold and bitcoin because the scarcity will encourage hoarding and discourage spending. They never seem to understand that you can't have a transaction without spenders. They assume that their employers will pay them in gold coins, rather than keeping them for themselves.
Fiat currency solves this by using inflation to encourage spending, and taxes to encourage demand, which is why it's been embraced by the free market.

3. Fiat currency is so appealing that even foreign nations are willing to adopt it

Libertarians will claim that the only reason people use US dollars is because they're forced to by law against their will. But if that were the case, then why do foreign countries use them as well, when they obviously don't have to? Again, it's because the dollar represents a government service that these countries are voluntarily opting into. And no, bitcoin in El Salvador doesn't count, because bitcoin in El Salvador is valued based on the amount of fiat dollars you can trade the bitcoin for.

4. The US financial system as a government service

In addition to opting-in to government currencies, libertarians also opt-in to the following:

• Access to regulated/insured banks, as well as wire transfers through government systems
• Access to government court systems to settle financial disputes
• Access to government record keeping systems that track who owns what
• Access to law enforcement if people wrong you
• Access to various legal rights and protections

For instance, libertarians will whine that they still have to pay taxes even if they leave the country, but that's enforceable if they want access to US banks, which no one is forcing them to do. When you apply for a bank account, you promise you're following US tax laws, and you agree to let your bank report suspicious activity to the IRS. If you don't agree to those terms, then take your money somewhere else. But libertarians aren't willing to do that, because they want to opt-in to the service and security of the US banking system, but without the responsibility of paying for it.
Likewise, you opt-in to paying property taxes because it's part of the property contract. You can try to sign a property contract that doesn't include this, but in this case, the state has no obligation to recognize it as valid. Asking the state to recognize the contract as valid is a service that you opt into voluntarily. Otherwise, what's stopping someone else from producing their own contract claiming ownership over the same piece of land?

5. People only go to jail when they commit fraud, which only happens when you voluntarily opt-in

Libertarians frequently claim that taxes are coercion because they'll go to jail if they don't pay taxes they never agreed to for services they never asked for. But they always rely on false analogies where they say the mafia did something illegal and then claim that the IRS is doing the same thing, but lacking in any real world examples.
Here's the problem: Tax evasion is only a felony if there's proof of fraud, and we live in a country where people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Proof of guilt only happens if there's a paper trail, and the paper trail only happens if the person voluntarily entered an arrangement with intention to deceive.
For instance, most employers will ask you to sign a form where you consent to taxes. The employer voluntarily enters the agreement because it means they can report your wages as a deduction, and the employee voluntarily enters the agreement because it gives them access to better jobs.
What if you disagree with the terms and refuse to pay taxes? Then you're free to walk away. What if you agree to report your income but then forget? You'll be sent a reminder and be given the chance to issue a correction. The only way for you to go to jail is if you knowingly lie and even when given the chance to come clean.
By contrast, there's millions of undocumented workers in America who don't pay taxes. But since their employer isn't writing off their wages as a deduction, there's no paper trail for a tax evasion case. They might get in trouble with immigration, but they generally do not worry about the IRS.
Libertarians will reply with "It's still illegal even if I don't get caught!" But this is a completely different goalpost. The original claim was the threat of jailtime, and jailtime doesn't happen without a paper trail that you opted into voluntarily. If there's no jail time, then there's no coercion.

6. Money spent is no longer yours to control

Lots of libertarians think they can invalidate taxes because they disagree with how some of that money is spent. This is a nonsense argument that would never be used in any other context.
For instance, if I spend $3000 on rent, then I can hope that my landlord spends all of that money on things I personally support, but he legally doesn't have to and he probably won't. The contract says I'm paying money for shelter, and as long as he provides that, then it's still a valid transaction.
If you pay property taxes so the state recognizes you as the registered owner, then that's the service you voluntarily opted into paying for. It doesn't matter if the money is later spent on different services you disagree with. Once money changes hand, it's no longer yours.

7. Why opting out is unprofitable

If you sell goods on eBay, then you agree to pay various fees for things like shipping, insurance, commission, payment processing, and sales tax. Libertarians will claim that the last one is rape and slavery because you cannot proceed if you refuse to pay but all of the other examples are voluntary because you can refuse to pay by not proceeding.
But what happens if someone tries to opt out of all government services and taxes by hosting an eBay clone overseas? Legally, if you're outside of US jurisdiction, then the US can't do anything to stop you. So why don't more companies actually do this? The simple answer is: Because they would end up losing a lot more money.
If customers know the company is outside of US jurisdiction, then they know they won't be able to hold the company accountable if someone screws them over. Likewise, legitimate payment processors won't want to do business with them, because they don't want to deal with customer complaints, or have their reputation damaged by illegal markets. You'd have trouble finding reliable developers, because reliable developers would want to work for a company that actually obeys the law. etc.

8. "Charging taxes implies ownership!"

This is a non-sensical argument that libertarians make that goes like this:

1. Charging property taxes is only valid if government owns your land
2. Government does not own your land.
3. Therefore, taxes are invalid.

Once again, this is a silly argument that would never be applied to the free market. For instance, you cannot invalidate parking fees simply because the manager of the parking lot doesn't own your car. You cannot invalidate eBay commission fees simply because eBay doesn't own the goods you sell on eBay. etc.

Ok so im a baby Christian, so I do have faith but today at a thrift store I saw the most beautiful painting I have ever seen in my life. It featured the god Krishna with kids. I was marveling at it for so long and REALLY wanted to buy it. It really spoke to me how Krishna was looking at the kids and it was just the best painting.
But there was a voice in the back of my head saying "what if owning this was idolatry" so I asked my Christian friends and they've all advised against me... I felt incredibly sad and angry. Because I'm not worshipping Hinduism. I'm simply admiring the paintings beauty, I wanted it for the art, not the religion.
I really want to be a Christian above all else at the end of the day.
What are your thoughts? It'll be greatly appreciated as the painting is still on sale and I'm going back and forth on buying it...
I don't want it to be a regret one day, that I didn't buy the best painting I've ever seen in my life :,(

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The curriculum consists of over +140 training videos and +15 hours of high-quality contentand is consistently updated with the most relevant sales strategies and tactics that are working today.

My boyfriend and I have lived together for a year and been together for two. Genuinely he is one of the best people I know and is kind, loving and generous to me. We usually have a great relationship and I don’t think we’ve ever seriously fought.
That being said, he’s done something very out if character and the dishonesty and disrespect involved has me pretty upset.
We had a fruit fly issue a couple of weeks back. My family was coming over and we were both pretty stressed about it. I had tried a few things but they hadn’t done much to make a difference insofar as getting rid of the little buggers. My boyfriend had previously used hot shot pest strips (not stucky ones. Chemical releasing ones, which admittedly do the dang thing very well) to get rid of pests in a similar situation, however I was reluctant to use them this time for two reasons:

1. I have asthma and the last time we used them they sent me into a flare.
   
2. These strips explicitly state on the packaging to not use them in living spaces or areas without ventilation. They also warn against prolonged exposure. We have two dogs as well as ourselves living in the house and I do not want to risk adverse affects for any of us.
   

Due to these concerns, I let him know I wasn’t comfortable using them in the house again. He stated be had already ordered them and wanted to use them. I again reiterated my discomfort with this idea. As the issue worsened I did admit that I would consider using them indoors if all of us left the house and returned and aired out after the use of the strips.
Fast forward two weeks to today. I found the packaging for the pest strips open in the garage. Immediately I became upset and asked if there was anything he had lied to me about lately. He answered no. I then asked if there was anything he needed to tell me. Again, he said no. I then told him I had found the package and, after some dancing around the topic, he admitted he had used them in the house when i was at work but said both dogs had been put outside during.
I was stunned. It is not like my boyfriend to hide things from me and disregard my wishes in this way.
I asked him why he hadnt told me and he stated that he knew i would be angry if he did. We continued discussing and he maintained he hadnt lied or tried to hide anything. I let him know that what he had done was not only disrespectful but has had a negative impact on my health since i have been in an asthma flare (having asthma attacks) since this happened. I also told him that he had lied by omission and that by admitting he hadnt told me because he knew i would be upset he had known that what he was doing was wrong.
I ended up having to leave for work but told him that, while i love him very much, i am upset with him and very disappointed in his actions.
I got home a couple of hours ago and, not only have we not said two words to each other, he has made no effort to apologize for violating my trust and disregarding my concerns and attempting to deceive me.
We are lying in bed now, silent and deeply uncomfortably, and I am trying to decide what I should do about this situation and how I should approach it. I would like input and advice on how to navigate this situation calmly.
TL;DR - My boyfriend chose to use chemical pesticides inside after I asked him not to and told him they affect my health negatively and then neglected to tell me about it for two weeks.

So I've been watching this title for awhile but was always waiting for a sale. Today was the day. It's onsale and I had some credits so picked it up for $11. I'm about two hrs in and wow what a great game so far. It looks and runs great on quest 2. The gun feel is very good. I really like how the inventory works. I'm not a fan of the 2D cut scenes but honestly they aren't bad. The game design in general is really top notch! If you are on the fence and like the zombie genre this is a good one and currently onsale til tomorrow I believe.
https://www.oculus.com/experiences/app/2637179839719680/?utm_source=oculus&utm_medium=share

I went into my local store today and was able to snag a nulu cropped jacket that was on the sale rack. I came up to the register, asked for them to apply my healthcare discount and the employee ringing me up said that they can no longer apply to it marked down items. The employee who was on the register next him corrected him by saying that he can still apply it to my purchase as the discount limitation will go into effect in April.
Anyone else hear about this?? Its been a minute since Ive been on the sub so I thought Id hop on here for discussion. Im pretty bummed about it cause Ive been able to save so much money being able to do this on the few occasions Ive purchases from them since I normally make my lulu purchased from the WMTM section. I’ve noticed alot of changes with lulu (price increases, mispriced items covered up, etc.) and its really pushing me away from the brand 🙃