“How’s your relationship?”

“It’s rocky.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“I mean, it’s really in the shitter.”

God, he sounds insufferable. Sorry you had to deal with that.

Mine was an abusive meth head. Beat and berated my brother, my mother, and me all the way up until CPS took us out when I was 15. I was terrified of men for a long time, and I can still be pretty standoffish with them, even at 32. I can remember being 8 years old, washing dishes. I dropped a glass. It broke. The next thing I knew, I was suspended 3 feet in the air by my neck and being thrown into a wall. For dropping a glass.

I always loved my mother. I was given her phone number recently, but I’ve been hesitant to call. I know she’s with a different man these days and is genuinely happy with him. He’s good to her. She finally left my father after he broke several of her ribs, punctured a lung, and nearly killed her. I know she was always scared he’d kill her if she left, but I suppose that she got so close to it that death didn’t seem like such a bad alternative to the life she had with him.

So yeah, the day he breathes his last will be cause for celebration in my circle.

As a 5th gen Prelude owner, the new model offends me. I’m not excited to see it come back this way. The real 6th gen Prelude is a 7th gen V6 Accord coupe.

If my biological father could just go ahead and kick the bucket, the world would be a slightly better place.

Gotta sit next to the feet and start licking your lips. Look em dead in the eyes and go, “those piggies look soooo suckable.”

See how quickly they react. Worst case scenario, they’re a freak AND a slob.

I don’t think many Americans in favor of universal healthcare think it’s going to cost nothing. Of course, taxes will increase. But we already pay for private healthcare. Most of us via a payroll deduction.

So far, I think the general consensus is heat death. Being an optimist, my hope is for the big crunch. If that one’s true, what’d be infinitely hilarious is if it always repeats in exactly the same way.

If that’s the case, then I guess all of us do truly live forever. We just microdose the same exact snippet of eternity.

So much of what exists is spheres and circles. Who’s to say time doesn’t also run in a circle?

Imagine still being alive to witness the slow, agonizing death of the universe, when all matter and energy are evenly spread across an incomprehensible vastness, and nothing will or can ever happen again. The next billion years would be fairly interesting until the sun expands and swallows the Earth…or, at least, dries up its oceans. Hopefully, you’ve found a way out and onto another planet for another billion or so years. But after about 170 quattuorvigintillion years of cold, dark, nothingness, you’ll probably get pretty bored of it all.

I was born in '92. Didn’t get my first phone til I was 14 in 2006. It was a Kyocera Oystr. Then in 2009 I had a Moto RAZR ve20. Most of the kids I knew called it a RAZR 1½. Loved that phone. It had a 3.5mm jack that worked with regular headphones so I put all my music on it and never asked for an iPod. It was sick that it had music controls on the back of the clamshell.

I didn’t get my first smartphone until 2011, and I had to pay for it myself. It was a US Cellular variant of the Moto Photon 4G called the Electrify. It had this sick CRT animation when you locked the screen. Motorola made some kickass smartphones in the day.

My city dismantled our little skate park around 2022, and my wife and I were kinda sad to see it go.

The city then built a whole new one in its place that’s at least ten times the size with lots of lighting. We see tons of skaters of all ages there all the time. It’s really cool and I’m really happy they did it.

What in the everliving fuck…

AH THE FUCK IS ALIVE KILL IT!

Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to come across aggressively. I get a little fired up at the thought of crossing a huge, fast road, and it doesn’t help that cars are way bigger and drivers seem way worse these days.

No question bikes are the best way to get around in a densely populated area. My wife and I stayed in a condo in a building that housed a Target (Newmark Tower) when we vacationed in Seattle a couple months ago. If I could afford it, I’d buy that condo and live that way. We rented a car while we were there, but we barely drove it. It was genuinely liberating not needing it. We rode the monorail. We took the bus from time to time. We climbed a stupidly steep hill to get dinner one night. It was awesome.

But man, I live about a mile and a half from the grocery store and I refuse to bike there for the simple fact that there are way too many fast, wide roads to have to cross to get there, and there are zero bike lanes along the way. Unless you’re on the college campus, everything here is built for the convenience of the car at the detriment of literally everyone else.

And if OP also lives in the burbs, I reckon their situation is pretty similar.

Again, sorry that I came across aggressively. I didn’t intend to get so riled up about it.

Big talk Unfortunately, that’s a huge ask if you’ve never crossed a six lane stroad on foot. The American transit system is often downright hostile to anyone not in a car. It can be goddamn terrifying. Adding: If OP can get around safely and feasibly on a bike, this is great advice.

Otherwise, there are ways to cut down on car costs if you need one. What car you own matters. Get something extremely common that never breaks. A 1998 Camry or Corolla are probably two of the most solid cars money can buy and junkyards are full of them. Parts are cheap and available.

Learning to do your own basic maintenance will also save you lots of money.

• A dealer might charge sixty bucks to swap a cabin air filter. It takes one minute and a replacement for my Honda Civic is eight dollars on Amazon. Same story with the engine air filter.
• Check your oil and transmission dipsticks every once in a while for level and condition.
• Check your brake fluid level and clarity.
• Tire pressures are on the inside of the driver door jamb. Learn how to properly inflate your tires, including the spare.
• If your car came with a scissor jack, a tire iron, and a compact spare, you can rotate your own tires in 30 minutes without buying any tools.
• On an inline four cylinder engine, spark plugs are often on the top of the head, below a cover, and are insanely easy to replace. Just be aware of torque specs, especially on an aluminum head. A torque wrench can be yours for ten bucks at Harbor Freight.
• Check your lights and blinkers every once in a while and learn how to replace bulbs. This is important on older cars that use halogen and incandescent lamps. A tail light is a few bucks, takes 15 minutes to replace, and will probably save you from a ticket.

Learning how to replace some parts is also a big plus and parts stores will often lend you small tools for some jobs free of charge.

Many states also offer discounted rates on yearly registration for older cars. In Oklahoma, it costs me $26 a year to tag my '97 Honda.

Finally, get a dash cam and the cheapest insurance you can, and drive like you’re on probation and on thin ice with your parole officer.

My granddad won’t set it any lower than 78°F.

It doesn’t snow much in Oklahoma lmao

The short days are the worst part of winter. That, and stupid daylight savings takes an hour away from us in the evening. So I get off work, and there’s maybe 45 minutes of daylight to take my dogs to the park.

And I say that as a winter enjoyer. I love the cold weather. I wear shorts when it’s freezing. It’s 17.5°C in my house right now. You’d be lucky to catch me setting the heat past 20.

Some relatively unknown French microbiologist is rolling in his grave right now.

Fedora issue. I restart my Debian machines maybe once every 4-6 weeks.

Hell, when I was a little boy in 2001, you could still accept a ride from strangers. I mean, sure, you could end up in the car with a wannabe John Wayne Gacy, but more often than not, it was a kind stranger offering a ride to a kid walking home in the 105 degree Texas heat.

It’s not that simple when most people actively choose the cruelty.