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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

During the football matches over the weekend, the wife and I were making fun of insurance ads.

"You're in good hands with Allstate. Unless you live in California."

"Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there, except California."

By the way, the last time Washington won a playoff game, I was still single!

Jim
 
It is a really good feeling when you get to tell a friend "your kid is going to be alright." We just interviewed his son for an internship--I stayed out of it and didn't tell anyone I knew him--zero finger on the scale. They told me he did great and asked me to approve an intern offer.

I say this because the thing I know is that his son is on the autism spectrum, albeit on the end that I'd say most easily integrates with neurotypical people.
 
As an adult wage-earner, you ever find yourself - as someone who went to public schools and scraped and struggled to get through Community College while hoping and dreaming to transfer to a decent university - in a group of professionals that went to a Country Day school or a boarding school and who also didn't have to work while going through college, and think to yourself, okay time to check out and depart, tough crowd here, these folks will never know the struggle?
 
When I was cleaning the toilet I noticed a line on it. Then I saw a post on another social media site that said once porcelain starts to crack, the whole thing could shatter without warning, and pointed to a case where someone got cut up bad from a toilet that broke when they sat on it. Not sure how true that is but I went back an looked and the crack runs around the top of the bowl, then goes down into the bowl near the drain hole, probably 18 inches long altogether. So Saturday's project was putting in a new toilet. Thanks to the University of YouTube I had good instructions. The only thing the video failed to to mention was to cut through the caulk if the toilet was caulked around the base. Everything else worked perfectly.
 
Wannaplan? said:
As an adult wage-earner, you ever find yourself - as someone who went to public schools and scraped and struggled to get through Community College while hoping and dreaming to transfer to a decent university - in a group of professionals that went to a Country Day school or a boarding school and who also didn't have to work while going through college, and think to yourself, okay time to check out and depart, tough crowd here, these folks will never know the struggle?
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I was in between. Public school, parents paid for most of my private university expense (I took over an increasing portion when I started working junior year.) I graduated in the top... two thirds of my class, if you get my meaning. Managed to get a good job but always felt like people around me were smarter than I am. These days I recognize that's still true but my level of experience dwarfs that of a lot of my coworkers, which is worth something.
 
Doohickie said:
When I was cleaning the toilet I noticed a line on it. Then I saw a post on another social media site that said once porcelain starts to crack, the whole thing could shatter without warning, and pointed to a case where someone got cut up bad from a toilet that broke when they sat on it. Not sure how true that is but I went back an looked and the crack runs around the top of the bowl, then goes down into the bowl near the drain hole, probably 18 inches long altogether. So Saturday's project was putting in a new toilet. Thanks to the University of YouTube I had good instructions. The only thing the video failed to to mention was to cut through the caulk if the toilet was caulked around the base. Everything else worked perfectly.
Click to expand...
I'm not a DIY'er but even I can handle caulking . . . I've done it for my bathtub and shower. So yes, an important detail to not overlook. Great job!

Jim
 
JNA said:
Wednesday then Thursday
View attachment 64187
Friday
View attachment 64188
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We had our power off most of last week as part of a public safety shut off. Still had to be physically at work, just using my phone as a hotspot with backup chargers and using lanterns in darker areas of the building.

The damage in LA has been insane, and most people here know somebody that has been affected out there. Social media is also the worst - the amount of vitriol towards California and the victims is crazy, along with the fundamental lack of knowledge of how hydrants and water pressure systems work.
 
dandy_warhol said:
I just found a picture from the 2016 APA Phoenix Laefest. :beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::cheers::insane::insane::halo::love::love:
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Well are you going to post it ?
Bored GIF
 
At this moment in time I want a root beer float badly. Just like this one. Although they can lose the peanuts.

1736792888162.png
 
Odd to have Inauguration Day and MLK Jr. Day be on the same day. It seems like having the inauguration that day will take away from the memory of Dr. King.

I know there is a provision to have the inauguration on the 21st if the 20th is a Sunday, but since MLK Day didn't exist when that rule was made, they didn't consider what would happened if it aligned with a holiday. And I know they can't just randomly move one of them by a day.

Jim
 
jumbach said:
Odd to have Inauguration Day and MLK Jr. Day be on the same day. It seems like having the inauguration that day will take away from the memory of Dr. King.

I know there is a provision to have the inauguration on the 21st if the 20th is a Sunday, but since MLK Day didn't exist when that rule was made, they didn't consider what would happened if it aligned with a holiday. And I know they can't just randomly move one of them by a day.

Jim
Click to expand...
I thought they usually aligned? But looks like Inauguration day is usually the 20th while MLK day is third Monday so not sure if they ever aligned before.
 
Wannaplan? said:
As an adult wage-earner, you ever find yourself - as someone who went to public schools and scraped and struggled to get through Community College while hoping and dreaming to transfer to a decent university - in a group of professionals that went to a Country Day school or a boarding school and who also didn't have to work while going through college, and think to yourself, okay time to check out and depart, tough crowd here, these folks will never know the struggle?
Click to expand...

I find myself in company like that but I steer the conversation to things that don't show that disparity

I was in the middle - had full scholarships to college, state schools, no loans - but my job is my only source of income - no trust funds kind of thing
 
I know a lot of people are talking about and raising money for the fire victims in LA. While I think it is absolutely worth it (if the finds go to those in need and not people like Paris Hilton), then that is no problem. However I hope that people remember the people still living in tents and campers near Ashville NC after the hurricane washed away their homes and all their possessions. Same goes for countless other disasters.

I fear that we get so focused on the disaster of the day that we forget about those who are still in need from the last disasters.
 
The Palisades/Malibu fire is about a mile away from Pepperdine University now.

The (ex-)inlaws used to live near Pepperdine My (ex-)MIL once showed me photos of a past fire that was visible from their backyard. They told me that the campus has excellent fire protection, and was planned to be insulated from any fires that might happen around it.
 
Doohickie said:
When I was cleaning the toilet I noticed a line on it. Then I saw a post on another social media site that said once porcelain starts to crack, the whole thing could shatter without warning, and pointed to a case where someone got cut up bad from a toilet that broke when they sat on it. Not sure how true that is but I went back an looked and the crack runs around the top of the bowl, then goes down into the bowl near the drain hole, probably 18 inches long altogether. So Saturday's project was putting in a new toilet. Thanks to the University of YouTube I had good instructions. The only thing the video failed to to mention was to cut through the caulk if the toilet was caulked around the base. Everything else worked perfectly.
Click to expand...
Yep-

I had a piece of a ceramic shelf in a shower break off and fall on my foot, resulting in a gnarly cut and an ambulance ride to the ER to fix a small arterial bleed. The EMT's told me they had seen cracked-toilet-breaks injuries before and it was nothing to mess around with.
 
Faust_Motel said:
Yep-

I had a piece of a ceramic shelf in a shower break off and fall on my foot, resulting in a gnarly cut and an ambulance ride to the ER to fix a small arterial bleed. The EMT's told me they had seen cracked-toilet-breaks injuries before and it was nothing to mess around with.
Click to expand...
Not Listening Fred Armisen GIF by IFC
 
Wannaplan? said:
As an adult wage-earner, you ever find yourself - as someone who went to public schools and scraped and struggled to get through Community College while hoping and dreaming to transfer to a decent university - in a group of professionals that went to a Country Day school or a boarding school and who also didn't have to work while going through college, and think to yourself, okay time to check out and depart, tough crowd here, these folks will never know the struggle?
Click to expand...
My pre-adulting years were led in a kind of crossover environment. My parents were lower middle class, and lived below their means in many regards. However, they sent me to a private elementary school. I was an awkward kid as it was, and the experience made me feel like even more like I was on the outside looking in, in a way.

Most of the kids from my private elementary school went to private high schools, My parents were fully prepared to continue private education. I remember going to the open houses of the city's old money private schools. I decided that I would rather go to a public school. The city had two public high schools with an entry exam for admission. I took the tests for both, passed, and went to the science/engineering school. There were no quotas, but the student body at my high school was a perfect cross-section of the city at the time, when it came to income and race. I felt a lot more comfortable there.

I think that experience, combined with the gradual improvement of my social skills through the years, helped me to feel more comfortable with crossing over between the two worlds.

I know the "other side" might not have to worry about their finances. After marrying into (and separating from) the 2%, though, I also know they experience "the struggle" in other aspects of their life. They're human, just like us poors.

(For what it's worth, my (ex-)wife and I lived a middle class lifestyle. We were both middle age adults, and we didn't want a life that was subsidized. I kept saving for my retirement, thinking that she might be fine if we ever split up, but I won't be if I assumed I'll be sharing an inheritance. I'm glad I did so.)
 
Planit said:
Been awake since 3:00 am. I hate restless nights,

Starting to feel tired.
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I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice, but I find that 250 mg of magnesium when I can’t sleep knocks me right out.

Be aware it will make you have to have a good sudden poop in the morning so be prepared.
 
Wannaplan? said:
As an adult wage-earner, you ever find yourself - as someone who went to public schools and scraped and struggled to get through Community College while hoping and dreaming to transfer to a decent university - in a group of professionals that went to a Country Day school or a boarding school and who also didn't have to work while going through college, and think to yourself, okay time to check out and depart, tough crowd here, these folks will never know the struggle?
Click to expand...

Yes. I saw this from an early age. I remembered one time when I was in HS on a warm summer day as a bunch of kids from my class drove by with boats and jet skis, and I was working on an landscape crew. I looked at them initially with a sense of frustration that I was working and they were playing.

But what life as taught me is that it's not where you start the race, it is how hard you run and were you finish that matters. My parents didn't go do college, but they installed a determined work ethic in me and it didn't matter what it is, you keep going until you figure it out. They also taught me that life is whatever you make of it, but YOU need to do something to make it, that nothing of value is just handed to you. Some people might have an easier road, but it does not mean that roads are not available to you.
 
Faust_Motel said:
Yep-

I had a piece of a ceramic shelf in a shower break off and fall on my foot, resulting in a gnarly cut and an ambulance ride to the ER to fix a small arterial bleed. The EMT's told me they had seen cracked-toilet-breaks injuries before and it was nothing to mess around with.
Click to expand...
This has it's own wikipedia page -

Toilet-related injuries and deaths - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
michaelskis said:
it's not where you start the race, it is how hard you run and were you finish that matters.
Click to expand...

I guess I was thinking about a community of adult wage-earners, like colleagues at work or church or maybe family, and it’s the here and now (sort of like that “finish that matters” you mention), and they start talking about classist things, which, for me, can be off-putting, because, first, they clearly haven’t “read the room” to understand who’s listening in, and second, they are oblivious to the classist signifiers they are chatting about. That’s the struggle I carry inside day-to-day. I try not to look down my nose at the elitist group that has somehow accepted me, but hey, that’s why I made the post - the struggle is real.

(If it’s the finish that matters, then why do so many people at the finish line seem so mendaciously oblivious and uncaring to the world around them? Who wants to end up at that finish line?)

(Sorry if it feels like I’m trying to work through something here, I’ve recently picked up on that maybe perhaps probably more than likely I’ve been cosplaying as an idiot. That realization has been unnerving.)

Dan said:
…"the struggle" in other aspects of their life. They're human, just like us poors.
Click to expand...

What you post sounds, I guess, okay, but I sense a tinge of false equivalency. My original post was vague, and that was purposeful, so I must apologize. Regarding “us poors”, this gets closer to the root of the issue I am working through. Perhaps it’s a personal journey for me and perhaps it’s best I retreat from engaging like this on an open community board, but here I am and maybe I feel emboldened to seize the day, I suppose. Maybe I should do a TLDR instead - Can proles look down their nose at elitists just easily as elitists can look down their noses at proles, and if so, is it the same thing, or does one position have more merit than the other? (And in anticipation of incoming platitudes about we all just need to get along better, please remember I am posting about the world we live in, not the world we all wished we had. Of course we all need to be nicer, kinder, and understanding of other people’s challenges, but, ya know, let’s be real.)
 
Suburb Repairman said:
It is a really good feeling when you get to tell a friend "your kid is going to be alright." We just interviewed his son for an internship--I stayed out of it and didn't tell anyone I knew him--zero finger on the scale. They told me he did great and asked me to approve an intern offer.

I say this because the thing I know is that his son is on the autism spectrum, albeit on the end that I'd say most easily integrates with neurotypical people.
Click to expand...

We have to be very careful with labels. We are each on all kinds of spectra that go in many directions. Each of us is, actually, an individual.
 
Doohickie said:
When I was cleaning the toilet I noticed a line on it. Then I saw a post on another social media site that said once porcelain starts to crack, the whole thing could shatter without warning, and pointed to a case where someone got cut up bad from a toilet that broke when they sat on it. Not sure how true that is but I went back an looked and the crack runs around the top of the bowl, then goes down into the bowl near the drain hole, probably 18 inches long altogether. So Saturday's project was putting in a new toilet. Thanks to the University of YouTube I had good instructions. The only thing the video failed to to mention was to cut through the caulk if the toilet was caulked around the base. Everything else worked perfectly.
Click to expand...
I noticed a crack on a toilet in a bathroom I was tiling to replace original sheet vinyl. It's leak was nearly invisible but the unit had to go. A friend stumbled out of his shower and knocked the tank off onto a tile floor on one New Years Eve...the chards nearly severed his arm. He is a professional potter, and he recovered, is throwing pots again.
 
Wannaplan? said:
As an adult wage-earner, you ever find yourself - as someone who went to public schools and scraped and struggled to get through Community College while hoping and dreaming to transfer to a decent university - in a group of professionals that went to a Country Day school or a boarding school and who also didn't have to work while going through college, and think to yourself, okay time to check out and depart, tough crowd here, these folks will never know the struggle?
Click to expand...

You're talking my language!

I grew up on a farm and went to public schools and used the MGIB to help put myself through undergrad and graduate school.

My wife went to public schools but never had to work while going through undergrad at Michigan and then her dad helped her get her first job out of college, paid for a new car and an apartment for her for a few years to help get her "on her feet". She's also the beneficiary on a couple trust funds that pay her well more in interest and dividends than I earn from my job each year. She's truly a trust fund baby... though she's also super frugal and rarely touches those accounts and is convinced that we're going to need 8-figures for retirement.

Fast forward to now and we live in a pretty well-off area and our kids go to public schools but even at their public schools have friends who get dropped off in outrageously expensive cars, travel internationally multiple times a year, spend a few weeks each December and January and February out in Colorado or Idaho or Wyoming to go skiing, and that's not even to mention their friends who go to some of the nearby private schools. No matter how much money some of these families have, our kids have always seemed to have friends who are relatively grounded and whose parents seem down to earth but there are some parents my wife interacts with (usually through extracurriculars like Girl Scouts or dance) who (it sounds like from her descriptions) just don't seem to "get it" that not everybody can just constantly be spending money or taking constant vacations. She's always complaining about one particular mom who is one of the troop leaders for our youngest daughter's Girl Scout troop who keeps not showing up to events that this mom planned because she had to go to her house in Costa Rica to "decompress." :r:
 
1736868313782.png

The spoiler 'spoils' the air flow across one's vehicle, creating an area of high pressure on top of the car. This disruption in the airflow counteracts lift, ultimately reducing drag and allowing the vehicle to move smoothly, even at high speeds.
 
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