The BBC and Reuters have both gone way, way downhill in recent years, but the concept is reasonably valid. AP and NPR are still good. Aljazeera is actually pretty decent for US news, though I’m not sure if that’s true for US news related to the middle east.

No, some whoppers end up with the inside not all whipped and crunchy, but a little chewy. They’re great.

Are you taking about those weird chewy ones? Because those are my favorites.

At my company, is have to tell that guy he can’t wear that hat because we don’t allow people to wear political stuff. I’m not a fan of dress codes, but I’m a fan of that one.

But wait, I’m in my 60s.

I’ve said it other places, but you don’t get a sense of just how bad they are until you see one in person. I don’t know if it’s that they’re a bit bigger than I thought, or that I’m used to seeing fake images of all sorts of things, but even though I’d seen pictures I was surprised at how bad they are in person. They’re cartoonishly awful.

That bit never got old.

Paul Rudd?

Ugh, I started in the middle of June last year and I have over 3K. Apparently I have no life.

I’d go with white

Glad you enjoyed it, it’s one of my favorites.

I’m not sure if there’s a name for it, but there’s a style of story telling (not exclusive to SF) where the writer jumps right into the universe they’ve created without any explanation, and it’s impossible to fully understand everything at first. My wife is always a bit frustrated by those, even when she ultimately enjoys the book.

Your written English is great, especially if it’s not your first language. Did you start very young?

So what are you planning to read next?

Except unlike those others, this woman sued (for a bunch of things, not just the card thing), and the judge dismissed all of them saying she displayed a victim mentality over normal office interactions. I’m not faulting people for assuming she’s not very likable.

No one gives someone “a bunch” of gift cards - it seems like you’re racing to validate your dislike of them. And I’m going to feel weird if my sister invites me to get a massage with her, though I appreciated it when she gave me a prepaid one years ago.

Here’s another example. My brother barely makes ends meet, but he loves Starbucks. Of I give him $100 cash, is not going to move the needle for his cost of living, but it’s going to go to bills. Of I give him $100 on a Starbucks card, he’s going to treat himself a bunch of times to something he loves but can’t really afford.

The other thing about it is that cash usually gets interpreted as “I put no thought into what to get you,” while a gift card at least says you had something in mind.

I’m a manager at a large aerospace and defense company. We had a hybrid arrangement where most people (who didn’t have to touch hardware) could work from home a couple days a week. Most people seemed to think it was pretty reasonable. There really are benefits to in person collaboration, so some on site days seemed to make sense.

We recently moved to fully RTO, and I find it frustrating. It’s not a big deal personally - I live close and I’m older - but it pisses off a lot of the employees, who see no good reason for it. I don’t see any notable productivity increase moving from three to five days on site, it just makes my management job harder.

My dad was a contractor and he had a big sheet of it in the garage that was leftover from some job. It looked kind of like a sheet of drywall, but was grey and rougher. I used to take it into the back yard with a little blow torch and and lay on it while I melted metal things. I was probably ten to twelve at the time.

It was a different time.

I wasn’t meaning to say that my situation itself was representative, just that most people see that line and think dating sites, and that’s probably not completely correct. There are lots of online venues, like games, that aren’t dating sites, but I didn’t know what the breakdown is.

I bet you’re right, and significantly more if you included online games as its own subcategory.

In case anyone thinks it’s not real, or it’s an artifact of the candid photo, here’s a pic from the other day that he posed for. It was posted by the Republican that he’s standing with.

He must not have a mirror with the side panels. They must push his face through a hole in a bib and then blast it with a spray can. It’s ridiculous.

That being said, that’s not the reason to hate him, there are many other valid reasons for that

I wish there was some granularity to “online.” I met my wife on a BBS in 94. It wasn’t a dating site, it was a discussion board, and neither of us was looking to hook up with anyone. There are lots of things like that, but I’m guessing dating apps/sites are the biggest component.

Fair point