Going back a few years I loved 90s Mariah Carey and Jewel. Fiona Apple’s debut album was instrumental in my life. Nowadays, I am not a super fan or anything but I enjoy and have very high opinions of T Swift, Gaga, Beyoncé and many other.

My daughter recently introduced me to Chappell Roan and damn she’s amazing.

I am with you on subscriptions but the free version of Carrot is fully functional with no ads, limitations include things like only one weather data source instead of multiple to choose from, a few seconds of radar rather than a longer animation. All of the things you have to pay for are things that actually cost the developer money. Without paying anything it’s still one of the best Weather apps in my opinion.

Carrot has ads? I’ve used it since it came out and the only ads I’m aware of are the fake funny ones you can opt in to

Ouch

I worry a lot about the generation of kids coming up with full access to the internet and social media. Their schooling and social contact was all completely online during COVID. Being constantly connected to everything by the internet is all they’ve ever known. Yet they still feel lonely and alienated. Depressed, anxious. The statistics on self harm and suicidal thoughts with teens are insane and so scary.

I feel like at a certain point when they grow up and understand the ramifications it will be studied as a sort of generational trauma and they’ll tell us, as parents, you should have protected us better… I do what I can but corporations and politicians DO NOT have their best interests at heart. If they are addicted to their products and making them money…that’s all they want.

I guess if

Ha…I do this with microwave pizza all the time and electronics instructions. 350 22 minutes…how could I forget that in the time it takes to preheat the oven and set a timer? Dog collar…charge it, turn it on, who could forget that? Dammit.

Yeah if I realize I’m factually wrong or being a dick for no reason and it’s too late to shadow edit I’ll state as such and note to the parent comment I’m wrong and downvoting myself. It’s more mature than just deleting your comment, which fuels the fantasy that you’re not talking to real people and can just take back anything you say and un-say it. Getting downvoted or murdered by words and then just deleting your comment is kinda cowardly and doesn’t allow you to grow IMO. If you (I) cared what people think maybe you should have thought about it more before you said it.

In America, gaslighting by corporations and conservatives attempts to convince us that for profit healthcare is normal and fine. It’s ok for billionaires and huge corporations to get tax breaks and pay less or zero taxes because they “create jobs.” Businesses have the right to control elections with massive donations because…that’s free speech. Most rich people got that way by working hard…and anyone can do it. Immigrants are responsible for poor job markets and other economic woes.

In my opinion the way you do things is how they should be done in order to actually have free and fair elections but impossible to dismantle the power structure now since they run things. They buy the politicians and in some cases literally write the laws.

This is referring to campaign finance, many believe that corporations have too much influence on American politics and their influence should be limited. The constitution guarantees free and open elections, doesn’t the heavy influence of corporations soil that? Many think so. When challenged in court, the courts ruled that corporations are people so limiting or eliminating their ability to donate and influence campaigns violates their first amendment rights (the right to free speech). It’s complete bullshit, in my opinion, and it’s the reason in many cases that we don’t have regulations limiting corporations in general…even utilities. Agree or disagree…

I was an AT&T wireless customer for 25 years, from when they were Cingular in the late nineties. They finally pissed us off when we subscribed to a special plan to get some talk time on a cruise ship, ended up racking up several hundred dollars in charges that we didn’t understand and they refused to even budge a dime. No effort for customer retention was made. We paid the bill and cancelled then they refused to unlock my iPhone which I had paid off in full because we had a past due balance with Directv from years ago. The Directv bill was from we lived with my mother in law…our DVR had all of her programs on it so we transferred the service into her name. Apparently she agreed to a new contract and then cancelled it, but they held it against us because it was originally ours. Never got a bill. Paid THAT shit then still took several weeks for my phone to get unlocked. Never will use any ATT anything ever.

Could be. Call center employees are overworked and underpaid for sure and it’s very possible those particular folks get transferred cancellation requests and get bonuses based on talking people out of cancelling. Still super bad for them to leave a customer with a bad taste. You could be cancelling because you’re moving and after that you’re probably never going to subscribe again…

Not sure why this was necessary to say at all but ok.

Crazy…I’m guessing in the United States this would never happen because thanks to our genius lawmakers corporations are people. From what I understand utility companies are not allowed to donate to politicians, but they still do either by funneling money through charities or their CEO’s do it directly, etc.

Is there a different rate between providers or like different quality or something? Funny how the USA is supposed to be capitalist but other countries have this and we don’t. There are different single carriers for different areas (per county or per city) but you have one choice and it is what it is.

Hold on hold on…by electric supplier you mean the power company…and you could CHOOSE to have a different one? As an American this boggles my mind. We have one company and you either have electricity or don’t.

We received a faulty helium tank valve from Party City with a tank rental. When I tried to exchange it, they said we signed a form agreeing that they tested it in front of us when we picked it up. They got out the form and it was not signed because they didn’t. Manager went in the back and claimed they had video of me picking it up and the video shows that they tested it in front of me. That wasn’t true either because my wife picked it up. Now, I understand these valves are expensive ($100 or so I believe) which is why they make a big deal about it…but this was fucking ridiculous.

It’s hard to imagine Party City trains their employees to do this shit so maybe the pimple faced young man operating as the shift manager deserved to be chewed out but I remained polite with him. Retail is a putrid hellscape and I try not to blame what anyone does or is forced to do under its guise. I stood my ground and told him what the truth was until he relented and gave me one that works.

When it comes to food service and retail I always try to remember…even though the experience was horrible for you, it was just a short terrible amount of time you endured…they have to do it every day. To this day, when I see long lines and upset customers I have to fight off anxiety because I have a bit of retail PTSD myself.

Edited: rewrote the entire post.

By listening to someone who knows how to manage money? Or by letting someone handle it it who fucks them? If you’re talking about a professional who is licensed and bonded and all of that seems like it would be smart…

If it does I change my answer. I feel like cheesecake is more of a pie but I like pie more