I personally believe we should have the right to die, moreso as an individual choice than one a relative should make. We as individuals, who did not consent to living in this absolutely broken society, should have every right to just say one day, “Y’know what, I’ve had enough, I’m done.” This comment will likely be controversial, and I am not encouraging anyone to commit suicide, seek help where and how you can, suicide can be a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

A friend of mine told me once she considered those who commit suicide (outside of terminal illness) to be cowards, taking the “easy” way out and leaving their loved ones to suffer. I argued back that how is it unacceptable for loved ones to suffer, but it’s perfectly acceptable for the individual to suffer to keep the loved ones comfortable? And that’s what mental health (tin foil hat time) is entirely about: not comfort for the individual, but comfort for the society.

It doesn’t matter if you are completely disenfranchised with society, struggling to make ends meet, working multiple jobs with no benefits, eating the same meal 2-3 times a day every day to save money, none of that matters because you’re not contributing to society/capitalism they way you’re supposed to. When the VA was trying to force me onto SSRIs despite my objections due to the side effects they can have, I told them flat out I wasn’t taking a pill just so I could be “productive” for a society that will let me die in the streets at the earliest and cheapest convenience. And no “pill” is going to fix how sick and broken we are as a society.

We as a species weren’t designed for this kind of society, we’re an analog species trying to adapt to a digital world we haven’t had time to properly adjust to. We aren’t designed to work 40 hours/week, 8 hours/day, 50+ weeks per year. We aren’t designed to work ourselves to exhaustion and forego social interactions in the pursuit of more money to try and keep the lights on. And we are watching the largest transfer of wealth to the ultra-wealthy, making the Gilded Age look like child’s play.

So I guess, to sum it up: I think everyone should have the right to end their own life, regardless of the reason, but I don’t believe anyone should have the right to end someone else’s life outside of already-established practices (DNR orders, “pulling the plug” as PoA, etc). We are too broken as a society to trust ourselves to choose when others should die, but we should absolutely be allowing individual’s to end their own lives.

Is this prevalent in Korea too? I had always heard it was more of a Japanese cultural issue, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was present in other countries in the region/world.

garbage disposal soup

We called this “Moscow Soup” at the last couple kitchens I worked in.

Us: Uh, Chef, that’s a lot of different ingredients and leftovers you’re throwing in that soup pot…

Chef: I’m making Moscow Soup! You know how to make Moscow Soup? It’s easy: whatever you’ve got on hand, goes in the pot!

Fun fact: ever had soup at a restaurant, and then made it at home but it didn’t taste quite the same or as good? There’s two main reasons:

1. If it’s a restaurant that actually makes their own soups (versus them being shipped in in a bag to be reheated), they’re very likely using leftovers to make your soup. So unless you’re using the exact same ingredients as the restaurant, it’s not going to taste the same.

2. The bigger reason being that they likely made the soup you’re eating at least the day before it’s served to you. This gives the ingredients of the soup time to marry, this is that “blend together” they’re talking about. This takes time, regardless of what you’re cooking, but it gives the ingredients the necessary time overnight to just… Become a better soup.

The leftovers they use have likely been marrying their flavors for a day or two before they’re put into the soup, so all of that blended flavor deliciousness is going to blend even more in the soup.

It’s crazy to think about those few years. Woodrow had a bad stroke, and Edith basically didn’t allow anyone to disturb him. So they’d bring issues/bills/etc to her, and she would go in and “advise” the President, and then come out and relay his supposed response.

The closest we’ve ever come to actually having a woman President.

Kurzgesagt has a video about life after nuclear war… It’s not pretty.

Seriously, look at the beauty standards and treatments of the Victorian era.

Women would squeeze citric acid in their eyes because they believe it cleaned them and whitened them, and the burning sensation was just the germs being cleaned.

What the fuck happened?

Four years of a milquetoast, centrist Democrat telling the American people what they’re living isn’t the actual reality of the situation. Biden’s admin kept rolling out the “soft landing, economy is doing great,” schtick despite numerous news outlets reporting Americans don’t feel like it’s an economy working for them.

Then that Democrat finally stepping aside, too late for his constituents to have a say in who they want representing them. And then she ran on a centrist, return-to-the-status-quo platform that didn’t inspire the majority of Americans, who are so apathetic based on decades of being ignored by politicians they just don’t vote. Because what’s the point?

I had a coworker who cited music licensing as the sole reason he can’t find his favorite show anymore: The Drew Carrey Show. Whatever schmuck owns the music licensing refuses to cooperate with the rest of the show owners, so it can’t be streamed or distributed anywhere.

Another example would be Scrubs, most of the songs used in the show (including key moments and the OG songs were perfect for them) have been edited out and replaced because of licensing issues. Unless you’ve got the DVDs or pirated older versions, you’re stuck with the new music and it’s not the same.

Fun fact: The Navy uses the affirmative “aye” or “aye aye” as opposed to “roger” like the Army/Air Force/etc because of similar slang origins. Basically, sailors used to use the word “roger” to mean “fuck,” both as an insult and as a way to identify women they had been with while in port.

“Yeah, I rogered her last night at the tavern,” kind of thing. But as sailors began to respond to officers using “Roger that (fuck that),” the Navy came down and made “aye aye” the official affirmative response for their personnel.

And even then, “aye” is simply a “I understand” whereas “aye aye,” means “I understand and will carry out X.”

The US Navy also launched an investigative unit during the 1800s (I wanna say the 1880s?) to find homosexual sailors and kick them out of the Navy. The unit only lasted a couple of years before being shut down, as the only people volunteering for the unit were homosexual sailors. 😆

From high middle-high school timeframe, probably The Yellow Wallpaper, I just think about that one at least a few times a year. And I only read it the one time in school.

The less well known one I remember from elementary school was My Brother Sam is Dead. It’s about a family during the American revolution, where the father just wants to stay out of all of it and live their lives, but the eldest son wants to join the revolution. The whole story is just the hardships the family has to go through after the son runs off with the only gun to fight and ends up dying, and how that affects the family and the youngest brother, who the story is told from the perspective of.

None of my friends remember My Brother Sam is Dead, but if I’m remembering right, the ending is kinda dark for a bunch of 3-5th graders.

I remember my first year in the Navy (2013ish) we had to have one of those financial planning briefings. I distinctly remember them mentioning that the average American needs $1 million to retire comfortably, assuming their other assets are paid off by the time they retire (house, car, etc). And I remember that number because a friend of mine said the same thing to me once when we were in high school.

I think it was a couple years ago, someone (some talking head on a news site) was talking about how the average American needs about $2 million in their retirement account to retire comfortably now, and that’s the number you should aim for…

So the amount of money you need to retire comfortably doubled in 10 years, but wages are still stagnant as they are? Yeah, I’ve told my dad, unless some miracle happens, I will never be able to retire. I don’t even have health insurance, and I make $18/hr… With rent/mortgage, food, clothing, vehicle, etc expenses climbing and wages continuing to be stagnant despite this “amazing” economy I keep hearing about, where am I supposed to find money to put away for down the road? I’m one accident away from bankruptcy.

For me, personally, it’s why I think “no one wants to work anymore,” what is the point when we can’t get ahead? Why even bother when we’re going to be doing this into our 80s while being told we should be grateful by people who think a day of work is expensive lunches at the country club followed by a round of golf, and a blowie from their secretary?

Yep, I/my car was involved in 3 accidents over the course of 2 years almost a decade ago. First I was rear-ended, second someone turned into me cause they were in the wrong lane, and the final one I wasn’t even in the car, it was parked in the city I lived in and was one of 7 cars that were hit during a police pursuit.

That last accident, I had the same insurance company as the guy who was evading police. When I called to file a claim, the woman told me, “Well… We’re not sure we’ll be able to offer compensation, as your vehicle is one of seven involved, and the driver’s insurance only covers XYZ amount, so we may need to put it under your policy.” I told them absolutely not, it was not my problem that they willfully insured a criminal, and that I had been a customer for 5+ years, never missed a payment, and did absolutely nothing wrong in this situation. She still pushed, and I told her if that was the route they wanted to go, she could cancel my policy that minute, and suddenly it turned into “Well, let’s see what we can do.”

Fuck insurance companies, all of them, literally all of them. They also initially refused to give me my check for that last accident, as the guy at the counter told me, “Well, you have a lien on the vehicle, so we should really be sending this to your bank so they can tell you when/where they want the repairs made.” I responded, “Well, that sounds like a conversation I need to have with my bank, and since the loan is between myself and them, I don’t really understand what business it is of yours, now I’ll take my check please.”

They recently upped my rates because I moved 1.7 miles away from my old address, which was in a different zip code, and just thinking about all this makes me want to look into leaving them for another company.

God I hate insurance companies.