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RTDNTOTO 🐻 Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 21 (2026)

The good news is that the Super Bowl is on a three-day weekend next year.

The bad news is that the Super Bowl is on Valentine's Day next year. Sorry, your valentine will have to wait. (We never go out that day anyway.)
 
I was thinking more about the Super Bowl Half Time show, and I am going to maintain frustration that it was in Spanish. Not anger because it was every entertaining, but frustration. Reason I say that is because to help educate and inform a population about history and another culture, it is important to communicate in a way that your target audience would understand it.

The Olympic Opening Ceremony is a great example. There was a ton of artistic expression that showcased the culture and history of Italy, but to really help educate, the commentators had a script explaining all of it. Even the few operas that I have been to had a brief story description in the handbill.

In the case of the Halftime Show, subtitles in English would have gone a super long way to help people understand and appreciate the story he was trying to tell. Everything else could have been the exact same and I know personally, it would have resonated differently with me.

That's just how I see it.
 
zman said:
Mine haven't. Ive held status on Alaska and Delta, and have a number of miles on Southwest, and they havent expired.
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They don't on American, either, as long as there is activity of some sort at least once every 24 months.

We ripped up our Southwest cards and told them where to stick them once they started charging for bags. We will never be aboard a WN flight again, even if it was the only flight leaving off a desert island we have been on for months, we are starving and thirsty, and it comes to rescue us.
 
zman said:
Mine haven't. Ive held status on Alaska and Delta, and have a number of miles on Southwest, and they havent expired.
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We have a strict policy that we cannot use our miles number when we book work related travel. They don't want to give the perception that we are benefiting personally from tax payer funded work trips.
 
michaelskis said:
We have a strict policy that we cannot use our miles number when we book work related travel. They don't want to give the perception that we are benefiting personally from tax payer funded work trips.
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That sucks... and I've never understood that.

We are allowed to use membership numbers for airlines, hotels, and rental cars. In fact, we can use personal credit cards and get reimbursed so I can collect AMEX points on top of that too.
 
michaelskis said:
We have a strict policy that we cannot use our miles number when we book work related travel. They don't want to give the perception that we are benefiting personally from tax payer funded work trips.
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I was able to charge my hotel, air, and registration to my own card which also gives me Skymiles. This was not always the case. A check will be cut next week. I did have a city-issued Amex card at a time when I was a young planner - CDBG travel expenditures.
 
When I worked for the state, the policy was that an employee fronted all expenses and then got reimbursed. I didn't mind, but a lot of people hated this policy. Never bothered me, as they always made us whole within a few days after we submitted our report. The most I ever filed for was about $3,000, not a huge amount.

My current jurisdiction and my previous one take care of the hotel and airfare, then we submit for everything else up to a certain per diem, which I don't exceed. (When I do personal shopping or the like after the conference end for the day, I don't expect nor ask for reimbursement.)
 
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Wannaplan? said:
YouTube is utter trash, I watch one video about some guy’s gem mint vintage Kenner Star Wars action figure collection going to auction, and your algorithm now thinks all I want to watch is more listicle-style nostalgia-bait videos by grifter toy IP influencers? The tech guys that design that algorithm have gotta know there is only so much blood that you can squeeze from a stone?
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There was a week or two early in the pandemic when I was on TicToc. I never posted anything but would watch a few videos after my run each morning while I was sitting and cooling down. I think I probably "liked" a handful of videos in total and I imagine they were all something to do with running or fitness yet somehow the algorithm thought I really wanted to watch videos of close-up magic and little kids scaring/tricking their parents. I didn't know those were the videos I really wanted but the algorithm was not wrong! :rofl:


Planit said:
I did hear something funny about the Super Bowl statistics.

Bad Bunny 'ran' 124 yards with the football. NEPatriots had 84 total rushing yards.
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One of the folks dressed up as grass tracked his Super Bowl halftime performance on Strava:

 
zman said:
That sucks... and I've never understood that.

We are allowed to use membership numbers for airlines, hotels, and rental cars. In fact, we can use personal credit cards and get reimbursed so I can collect AMEX points on top of that too.
Click to expand...

That's how we roll too. I don't travel enough for work anymore for it to really make any sort of difference but for our business development reps, who might be on an airplane every other week, it's definitely one of the perks of the job. We do not get reimbursed for the cost of flights above what the economy ticket would cost so those in our office who travel frequently to Japan or Korea or Germany or wherever will occasionally use those points to upgrade their seat.
 
jumbach said:
We ripped up our Southwest cards and told them where to stick them once they started charging for bags. We will never be aboard a WN flight again, even if it was the only flight leaving off a desert island we have been on for months, we are starving and thirsty, and it comes to rescue us.
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I've never flown Southwest but our oldest daughter has had two school trips involving flights and both were on Southwest. After being used to flying Delta everywhere a few times a year she had nothing positive to say about her two Southwest experiences.

She's got another flight on Southwest tomorrow for a high school band trip. She would probably complain about it afterwards but the flight is at 3:45 AM so instead she's going to be complaining about having to be up so early. As the person driving her to the airport at that ungodly hour, I'm going to be complaining about that too.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
I didn't know those were the videos I really wanted but the algorithm was not wrong!
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I listened to a podcast a couple of weeks ago and they discussed the TikTok algorithm, that it is hella good sending you videos that you'll watch. So, like, is everything videos now? I saw a post/ad on StinkedIn :poop: earlier in the week about a service/app that will convert your text into a video with your virtual AI-generated self/slop doing the reading. No thanks. More enshittification that we can do without. (Even the NYTimes is doing something like this, it's homepage is filled with videos at the head of the written articles, and I gotta tell you, the last thing I need is Maggie Haberman or Rossypoo reading to me.)
 
I try to fly Delta when I can. When my late son was coming back after deployment, Delta invited the returning Soldiers into the Sky miles club for free food and drink. They said they were not allowed to drink alcohol, Delta insisted that no superiors were going to be in the club to know about it. I assume they know and partake as well though. Hopefully Delta still does that.
 
michaelskis said:
We have a strict policy that we cannot use our miles number when we book work related travel. They don't want to give the perception that we are benefiting personally from tax payer funded work trips.
Click to expand...
Ohio just passed a law that made it clear that we can do this legally. As long as we don't pick specific more expensive options to gain more points, we can get points from travel and hotels. This is a reasonable thing to allow. No one is harmed and those points go to waste if no one claims them.
 
michaelskis said:
We have a strict policy that we cannot use our miles number when we book work related travel. They don't want to give the perception that we are benefiting personally from tax payer funded work trips.
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Are you at least allowed to enter your Known Traveler Number for PreCheck/Global Entry?
 
giff57 said:
I try to fly Delta when I can. When my late son was coming back after deployment, Delta invited the returning Soldiers into the Sky miles club for free food and drink. They said they were not allowed to drink alcohol, Delta insisted that no superiors were going to be in the club to know about it. I assume they know and partake as well though. Hopefully Delta still does that.
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My previous jurisdiction technically did not allow drinking when traveling for work, but, as long as you put it on a separate receipt using your own funds that didn't get submitted to fiscal, and didn't show any effects from said drinking, they didn't care.

With that said, on work trips, I limit myself to one drink per day, max, and not until all business for the day is done.
 
I use my miles or points for work trips - it allows me to add an extra event in my budget -

but I do have an employee that prefers to be reimbursed so he can get miles/point on his credit card and I am okay with that

The department credit card is in my name so I use it when I travel for easy things to substantiate like the hotel, airfare, taxi/subway card/bus pass and meals like lunch or breakfast - I do dinner on my card so I can delete the drink I usually have with my dinner

I have another employee who likes to do per diem advance - one time she messed up and didn't return the money she didn't spend in a timely fashion so I now make her get a smaller advance so that doesn't happen

I live in a cash only household (since 1996) so having to front a convention trip would be impossible so I am glad we offer options as my department does seem to travel a lot
 
luckless pedestrian said:
I live in a cash only household (since 1996) so having to front a convention trip would be impossible so I am glad we offer options as my department does seem to travel a lot
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I am proudly credit free since 2021! I still use venmo/zelle and plenty of digital payments, just always tied to actual liquidity, never a credit card. It has forced me to live within my means and be poor, but keeps debt collectors and debtor anxiety at bey.
 
The Terminator said:
I am proudly credit free since 2021! I still use venmo/zelle and plenty of digital payments, just always tied to actual liquidity, never a credit card. It has forced me to live within my means and be poor, but keeps debt collectors and debtor anxiety at bey.
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Don't look at it as keeling you poor. If you maintain your spending habits as you earn more money, you'll also have developed a good saving habit. Money in the bank!
 
luckless pedestrian said:
I live in a cash only household (since 1996) so having to front a convention trip would be impossible so I am glad we offer options as my department does seem to travel a lot
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This is the way to go. We do have a line of credit with our credit union (seldom used, but always repaid quickly), and one credit card (ditto). We put most of our money into a joint account, but we also each get a chunk into individual accounts to spend on whatever we want, no input needed from the other. (I have no idea what she spends hers on--mine goes mostly to Steam games and non-work-related books.)
 
Some of you have commented in the past about me being cheap / frugal - well I do live within or below my means.
How I do it -
No wife, ex, or S.O.
No children
No mortgage
No car loan
No credit card balance
No premium cable channels
No ATM card or usage
No recent National Conference since 2007 - would have had to pay out of pocket.
Don't drink or smoke - money saved.
Get my family to gift me shoes & clothes at Christmas.
 
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luckless pedestrian said:
I live in a cash only household (since 1996) so having to front a convention trip would be impossible so I am glad we offer options as my department does seem to travel a lot
Click to expand...

I have two questions:

1) Exactly what does that mean? Like, just no using credit or are you literally only using cash, so no online buys or debit cards;
2) Is it hard to do it or are you just used to it now so it's not a big deal anymore?

I am intrigued. Same question for @JNA above: No ATM / Debit card at all? Is it difficult
 
ursus said:
I have two questions:

1) Exactly what does that mean? Like, just no using credit or are you literally only using cash, so no online buys or debit cards;
2) Is it hard to do it or are you just used to it now so it's not a big deal anymore?

I am intrigued. Same question for @JNA above: No ATM / Debit card at all? Is it difficult
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No ATM / Debit card. Like LP I use cash for many purchases.
Use credit card to get the frequent flyer miles.
 
WSU MUP Student said:
That's how we roll too. I don't travel enough for work anymore for it to really make any sort of difference but for our business development reps, who might be on an airplane every other week, it's definitely one of the perks of the job. We do not get reimbursed for the cost of flights above what the economy ticket would cost so those in our office who travel frequently to Japan or Korea or Germany or wherever will occasionally use those points to upgrade their seat.
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I thought about buying Delta Comfort Plus (or whatever they call it) for a long flight from Seattle-DC and then just invoicing the City for reimbursement of a standard economy ticket as I have done before, but finance requires a short memo and the calculations for auditors and I didnt want to put in the work for that.

But I may get my last trip on a 757 and I got prime left side window seats for the decent into Reagan/National in the hopes I will get the good views. Last time I flew into DCA the approach came from the south and I missed out. (and yes, I nerd out on flights, aircraft choices, and seating - which is why I never abdicate my travel arrangements to another person)
 
ursus said:
I have two questions:

1) Exactly what does that mean? Like, just no using credit or are you literally only using cash, so no online buys or debit cards;
2) Is it hard to do it or are you just used to it now so it's not a big deal anymore?

I am intrigued. Same question for @JNA above: No ATM / Debit card at all? Is it difficult
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We don't have a credit card - just a debit card - we do have an overdraft credit
We do use car loans to buy cars and we do still have a mortgage
We pay our part of our son's tuition monthly by check (that's been a true killer, but once he's done, we're don so there's a light at the end of that tunnel)

no credit cards though - we keep a savings account for emergencies and aggressively save for a retirement someday

that said, yeah, we are always cash poor and I feel broke most of the time - it's hard to have good credit because having no credit is mark against you - luckily (or really not, it's kind of cruel) medical bills and utility bills count towards your credit score so keeping those current as well as our mortgage and overdraft payment helps immensely
 
luckless pedestrian said:
We don't have a credit card - just a debit card - we do have an overdraft credit
We do use car loans to buy cars and we do still have a mortgage
We pay our part of our son's tuition monthly by check (that's been a true killer, but once he's done, we're don so there's a light at the end of that tunnel)

no credit cards though - we keep a savings account for emergencies and aggressively save for a retirement someday

that said, yeah, we are always cash poor and I feel broke most of the time - it's hard to have good credit because having no credit is mark against you - luckily (or really not, it's kind of cruel) medical bills and utility bills count towards your credit score so keeping those current as well as our mortgage and overdraft payment helps immensely
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Same here. I haven't used a credit card for 30 years and don't have one.
 
kms said:
Same here. I haven't used a credit card for 30 years and don't have one.
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We spent way more than we made for so long because we had to. But it's nice that, since 2013, we have spent considerably LESS than our income. Life is more fun that way.

We don't miss the days of having 84 cents in our checking account to last us two weeks.
 
kms said:
Same here. I haven't used a credit card for 30 years and don't have one.
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I completely respect you for this. Credit cards do much more harm than good. We do keep a few for emergency purposes and have relied too much on them in the past.
 
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