[Tiste Simeon]

Macros, on 27 May 2022 - 11:23 PM, said:

One of the few forms of racing left that actually elevates individual ability (and borderline insanity) above team orders and big money.
Not quite like it was in the Joey days but damn those boys are mental

Aye and in many ways I'm looking forward to the buzz around the place but man I'm going to be tired haha

[Mezla PigDog]

Cause, on 28 May 2022 - 06:48 PM, said:

Also what pisses me off is now I’m thinking about this instead of reading a book by the pool.

Forget about it, Cause! I remember you posting about being totally skint in NY and now you are reading by a hotel pool. You're doing really well and you will do the right thing when you have facts to operate on!

[Mentalist]

My SIM card dissappeared under mysterious circumstances last night.

Either it's gotten stuck somewhere inside my phone, or there was a glitch telling me it wasn't in, and when I tried to check, I dropped it, and now it's lost in the grass somewhere on my friend's property.

I got a replacement SIM, but I'm afraid to insert it into this phone now;
So I need to fire up my old phone (I need to have a phone for work tomorrow, ), but i took the battery from it to replace my mom's dying one. So now I also need to take out the battery from my 2nd last phone and put it into my last phone to frankenstein some communication device.

This is not the Sunday I envisioned.

[Briar King]

Ex wife’s jailhouse call ruined my prank. My daughter has moved back in to be closer to college and today I had to run inside Walgreens to get her meds. While in there I bought a pack of condoms and put it in same bag as the medicine. I was expecting an “eeeeewwwwwwweeeee” but I got nothing cause she chose that moment to call.

[Malankazooie]

Damn, I don't think we are going to have one day without a report of another mass shooting. Hope those politicians are enjoying their Memorial Day recess.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Friend of mine in West Philadelphia got threatened with a gun (by some rando spouting conspiracy theory nonsense) for wearing a mask. Demanded they take it off.

[Mezla PigDog]

My little boy turned 6 yesterday. Can't quite believe it! We had a lovely day. We got him a 2 wheeled scooter. He's had a 3 wheeled one for a while so he's got the knack of it. This morning he wanted to play out on it in the street. We live on a hill. It's not especially steep. So, clever me says "Why don't you go up to the top and scoot down? It will be so fast and so cool".

Let's just say it ended in a lot of road rash and an intense feeling of guilt. "Mummy why didn't you catch me?" I said "Sorry" rather than "Because you were going so fast the scooter might have killed me if I had got in the way".

[worry]

Road rash is a rite of passage.

[Malankazooie]

Homelessness and the homeless problem. What up? And what can or is being done?

Personal experience: Out running errands this morning. Whilst driving on a pretty heavily traveled street - it's no quiet, side street in a neighborhood - I'm going the speed limit and come over a hill and almost plow into this woman walking down the center of the street (carrying her cardboard message homeless sign). Had to slam on my breaks and she just glances back and keeps on shambling along. I shudder to think of the outcome if it was someone speeding or not paying attention. I know cities like LA have problems with human defecation just left on the sidewalks and lawns like pet dogs, and there might be some of that here, but dammit man, the auto meets pedestrian deaths here have been at record levels. So are we at the point were the homeless are walking around in a haze of head full of fentanyl don't give of fuckery about their own well being?

[amphibian]

There's quite a few things that can be addressed to reduce the "singular" problem of homelessness.

1) Increase access to healthcare, especially mental healthcare, as much as possible to the point of there being free healthcare available for everyone.

2) Build multifamily housing densely, rather than sprawling into suburbs and exurbs. A tower of apartments closer to the downtown holds much more people than a house does. It's also proportionally much cheaper, better for the environment, and allows for more interaction/neighborhood community creation. Doing this creates many more affordable housing units in areas where people who are on the brink can access other services with greater ease and also get resilience from the cohesive community. It's not really gentrification if so many more people can afford to live closer to where everyone else is.

3) Install many more public bathrooms in cities - pay people (including the more dependable homeless) to clean them regularly. This is maybe the easiest sell of all these. Imagine if you could rely on there being accessible bathrooms in every city you go to - to the point it's replacing car parking (more expensive and less good for the city and people as a whole).

4) Change drug policies to much more emphasize safe havens, needle exchanges, and even legality of most drugs. Portugal has done a great job with this. Doing this helps people with addiction issues stay alive, rebound better, have less catastrophic injuries or medical problems, and doesn't treat people like criminals all the time. If people feel more human and welcomed, they're less likely to fuck up cities.

[Briar King]

Got a guy causing all kinds of ruckus here in town and on fb doing the same pushing his shopping cart around our dark curves not paying the cars any mind at all. He was actually stopped one night last week in front of the house. So odd seeing blue lights here anyway let alone a traveler with a full cart in this hood. All the neighbors came out or looked out the windows. He has been around for area for about 2 weeks. I’ve seen him multiple times and not once was he panhandling. The cart is unfamiliar so who knows how far it has traveled with him.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

amphibian, on 04 June 2022 - 06:58 PM, said:

There's quite a few things that can be addressed to reduce the "singular" problem of homelessness.

1) Increase access to healthcare, especially mental healthcare, as much as possible to the point of there being free healthcare available for everyone.

2) Build multifamily housing densely, rather than sprawling into suburbs and exurbs. A tower of apartments closer to the downtown holds much more people than a house does. It's also proportionally much cheaper, better for the environment, and allows for more interaction/neighborhood community creation. Doing this creates many more affordable housing units in areas where people who are on the brink can access other services with greater ease and also get resilience from the cohesive community. It's not really gentrification if so many more people can afford to live closer to where everyone else is.

3) Install many more public bathrooms in cities - pay people (including the more dependable homeless) to clean them regularly. This is maybe the easiest sell of all these. Imagine if you could rely on there being accessible bathrooms in every city you go to - to the point it's replacing car parking (more expensive and less good for the city and people as a whole).

4) Change drug policies to much more emphasize safe havens, needle exchanges, and even legality of most drugs. Portugal has done a great job with this. Doing this helps people with addiction issues stay alive, rebound better, have less catastrophic injuries or medical problems, and doesn't treat people like criminals all the time. If people feel more human and welcomed, they're less likely to fuck up cities.

Philadelphia is finally going to start experimenting with public bathrooms... a whopping one bathroom in center city, that the business association there is throwing a fit about. Even though homeless people are shitting on the street in center city (thankfully I haven't yet seen the wind blowing it around... though hurricane season is coming up). A few times I had to step over it on my way into the subway.

They were going to do a needle exchange near the epicenter of the homeless heroin addicts (essentially Kensington, Northeast Philadelphia---last I read heroin addicts would travel from pretty far to move there iirc) but conservatives threw a fit and canceled it.

[QuickTidal]

The Real Estate market in Canada is fucking obscene...looking at shabby, older, (needs work) townhomes in a cruddy part of town for a million goddamn dollars is completely soul destroying.

[Malankazooie]

Bloody hell, filled up with a quarter of tank of petrol (aka gas here in the States); it damn near cost me what a full tank was a scant year ago, or whatever. Thanks Trump. See, I always blame the former guy, it's prudent, because the knock on effects of the previous administration doesn't hit Joe and Jane Q. Public until the next administration (caveat: unless it's the 2nd term, then the current guy gets the blame).

[Briar King]

These flare ups are getting more intense, frequent and longer.

[Maark Abbott]

Fuel costs are spiralling beyond a lot of budgets now.

Back this time last year, fuel was stable at around £1.20 a litre here. Come November, it was up to maybe £1.30 a litre. Skip to a few months back, it spikes up to £1.40, and it's steadily jumped up until now it's at nearly £1.90 a litre.

I get that there's a war on in an exporting country but the UK to my understanding produces more oil etc than it imports. Couple this with the massive rise in energy bills and the increase to food costs and a lot of families around here can't keep head above water.

[worry]

Not to discount the war's contribution or even the downstream effects of the pandemic, but it still seems mostly like oil cartels and fash powerbrokers (forgive me if I've repeated myself) are working hand in hand, with the excuse of these crises, to do some unchecked price gouging on the backs of everyday people, because the desperate are more likely to be hooked by populist/nationalist saviors. I know you're shocked to hear that, or that the dumbest asses on the planet are falling for it. Fortunately for us, our two nations have something in common: a population where the majority are well-informed by a truth-invested media dedicated to critical thinking rather than scaremongering and fostering political amnesia, and a political class that is responsive to its constituency. So I wouldn't worry so much.

[worry]

That said, in the short term if you ever do need a little help, this board is full of helpful people. Maybe it can't be a lot, but if it means going over the edge or not, reach out. Not to volunteer everybody here or anything, but you know, leave no person behind etc.

[Tsundoku]

worry, on 09 June 2022 - 08:41 AM, said:

Not to discount the war's contribution or even the downstream effects of the pandemic, but it still seems mostly like oil cartels and fash powerbrokers (forgive me if I've repeated myself) are working hand in hand, with the excuse of these crises, to do some unchecked price gouging on the backs of everyday people, because the desperate are more likely to be hooked by populist/nationalist saviors. I know you're shocked to hear that, or that the dumbest asses on the planet are falling for it.

Well colour me unsurprised. I'm just waiting to see how they sell it to the unwashed masses - something something free speech/2nd amdt/Jesus/pro-life/etc - that this is GOOD for them and will make them more free or somesuch bullshit.

Quote

Fortunately for us, our two nations have something in common: a population where the majority are well-informed by a truth-invested media dedicated to critical thinking rather than scaremongering and fostering political amnesia, and a political class that is responsive to its constituency. So I wouldn't worry so much.

This is why you're the funniest person on here. Even your written delivery is deadpan.

worry, on 09 June 2022 - 08:51 AM, said:

That said, in the short term if you ever do need a little help, this board is full of helpful people. Maybe it can't be a lot, but if it means going over the edge or not, reach out. Not to volunteer everybody here or anything, but you know, leave no person behind etc.

Any forum multimillionaires can feel free to send the leftovers from their naked money fights to the Sombra Future Investment Fund. I'm not too proud.
And remember, it's for free speech/2nd amdt/Jesus/pro-life/tax deductible etc ...

[Maark Abbott]

worry, on 09 June 2022 - 08:51 AM, said:

That said, in the short term if you ever do need a little help, this board is full of helpful people. Maybe it can't be a lot, but if it means going over the edge or not, reach out. Not to volunteer everybody here or anything, but you know, leave no person behind etc.

Hah! It's not myself I'm worried for really - we'll manage - but we live in a high poverty area where people in 'respectable' jobs are already using foodbanks. I am desperately hoping that we see a general strike called tbh; the Tories are very much in on the price gouging as they take a cut in taxes, so my interpretation has been the last gasps of a failed regime which is desperately trying to squeeze as many pennies as it can before being ousted.