Yes, but it’s much easier to claim ‘rigged’ after the fact when done electronically. Mail-in ballots are harder to push back on. This isn’t about voting, it’s about covertly excluding votes from certain groups of people. They just can’t say that part yet out loud.
You and me both.
Not too many years after that nightmare, I was perfectly capable of enjoying thru-hiking, carrrying exactly same weight anyone else would have been, moving at same speed on rough terrain, etc. Still couldn’t run a mile - or much shorter distances - in my wildest dreams. Didn’t matter, I was in exactly the shape I wanted to be in, for the things I cared about.
Can’t do it anymore, my body widely conspired against me in various ways, but glad I was capable of it and have the memories. If I had been able to run a mile, but not hike any distance with weight, I’d be alot less happy about what I had achieved at that point.
Thought they charged something to put $ on temp card, via EFT though I may well be wrong.
Don’t recall the org name I conflated w them anymore u fortunately.
And from where I sit, yeah they pay me to some degree - the acct costs me nothing, and it’s got a handful of the usual “edge case” insurance benefits and such most debit cards don’t.
Not real useful to me, admittedly, but I do receive something.
That, and they reliably post direct deposit exactly 48h early, plus or minus fifteen minutes. Ability to plan my life around when exactly my check will show up has value. Seems to be very much a “best effort” basis to post early w/ most banks.
Lots of that stuff is useful because of my individual habits and patterns of spending I’m sure, might well not be for you.
Will check out privacy, now I’m kind of curious if there is something even more friction free for my scenario.
Pharm tech licensing varies wiiiiidely across the states. Some require natl very, some require basically on job training IIRC.
RPh not so much, but tech also has responsibility not to kill you with a misfill and more eyes are always good for preventing deaths.
The shit wages they pay in relation to being responsible in part for safety and accuracy (in retail) is a big part of why most retail is dangerously understaffed.
Same for insurance agents and real estate agents in many (most?) of US. HS, a couple weeks of “teaching to the test,” and a test is all it takes. Rote memorisation. - lots of those younger folks in insurance couldn’t define what they may/may not say/promise, or who is an “Insured” under a given policy.
Shame I stopped believing that BS from them circa winME…
Revolut does that, but far cheaper.
Seems like it would be a nightmare to purify. Perhaps useful for agricultural applications, but for drinking and household use…. Most water supplies don’t have e.g., human bodies floating in them.
Not a scientist, happy to be proven wrong here, but that’s my gut.
She’s fallen off my feed, unfortunately. Pardon me while I go enable notifications.
While that’s getting harder - RTO vibe is strong - I’m on same page.
I’ve had to pass on a few interesting opportunities, but Its served me well.
If I go out, it’s because I need something that can’t be shipped or door dashed, and/or it’s imprudent to pay the vig for delivery.
2x $4.99 bottles of wine? Yeah not paying $40 for that, I’ll take the risk.
Working on that POV, it’s basically always worth paying the vig to minimise my human interaction.
Edit: have WFH since c. 2012, so it makes zero sense to take the medical and driving risk to do otherwise, except for gig work in a pinch.
Demanding hybrid (“hybrid in Arizona”) is a clear sign the company is working towards RTO, and you’d have to wave a pretty big carrot to get me to move quickly anyway. OOP max met for the year, so…
Now that I’m $7k in on that stuff, why the hell would I make a move in May? I’ll suffer until the Sept deadline and peak season we suffer through, and then start looking.
Well, I’ll start looking before that, demo my loyalty by pushing out start date, and go from there. Like everyone else.
Wouldn’t cry if nothing else presents though, it’s not terrible company given that it’s non-union. Damn, I miss the CWA, but I was maybe twenty at the time and didn’t grasp the value fully.
A hard timeline on commit strikes me as less than ideal.
People are people. They have issues, they screw up, but they still write good code.
Seems like a brutal metric that encourages minimal commits without real change.
The “good” news - and your landlord might benefit from hearing this in advance - is that as I understand it, you’ll be paid salary for any shutdown period, after it’s resolved. Could be a meaningful amount of money depending on how long. Making sure the ll understands that could buy you some time, but depends on them.
I’ll assume you don’t qualify for any assistance programs given a gov salary and a second job plus your wife’s income. But…. Check anyway. Some states are rather more generous.
I THINK you might be eligible for unemployment during any shutdown, but generally there’s a waiting period of a week, it’s max 2/3 of income with a hard cap, and I cannot cite a source that says you do qualify. Worth diggging into, very state specific.
I’ve taken to gig work, so that the misc money I spend on myself doesn’t come off “rea” income. With a second job that might not be practical, but might be for your wife if you live in or near a relatively safe city. I ignore gigs in my hometown entirely, I make more in the nearest major city and they have “hourly” pay there so I make something worthwhile even without a tip (25% of orders don’t tip, roughly, from my experience).
As far as your mental health, which is the real focus here…. A couple things come to mind.
It’s short term hardship, you need to get through days or weeks - not a way of life. Understanding and actually internalizing that has helped me through some significant rough patches.
If at all possible, don’t short groceries or the miscellaneous money your wife spends on little stuff, including her. You don’t function well without decent food. Aldi is one possibility, can be cheaper for some things.
I’d expect family to be sympathetic to the potential shutdown, but I understand feeling like you shouldn’t ask for more. Guess what, though - they know the position you’re in already, and the potential shutdown is public knowledge as well. OTOH, that’s assuming they are decent humans and that they have the money in the first place. I don’t and can’t know if either are true.
Gotta be honest, selling stuff is a) getting ripped off, b) depressing af, and c) you’ll have to spend money to replace it down the road. It’s to be avoided if at all possible, for all of those reasons.
You’ve already rented a room, that’s more than I’d be able to do - I WFH so the spare room is my office, and the only place I can maintain some confidentiality of data, which is a base expectation of the field.
Don’t know how far behind you are on utilities, but most states make it fairly easy to find just how far you can push “past due”, and what arrangements can be made.
Some states require reasonable payment arrangements to split the bill across future months, some don’t. Worth exploring. You want to keep the lights on, at nearly any cost, because usually they’ll expect entire past due amount plus deposit to reconnect. Same for gas/water, as applicable.
Comcast has offered 10 day extensions to me,for internet only. Have to chat and ask for it, though that may vary by state as well
Also…. Remember there’s no guarantee a shutdown will occur, or last a long time. As we saw, last minute action is very possible. Also, if I remember the timeline correctly, we passed a 45 day CR and there are still 30 ish days left before that happens.
Food pantries if needed - no one there is judging, they wouldn’t volunteer if they did. You almost certainly will walk out with way more stuff than you expected. You’ll need to fill in holes, but that’s a short term way to reduce your grocery bill by a meaningful amount, since most staples are there.
Take care of yourself, it matters. The mental health side of this creates a slippery slope that’s easy to descend into and hard to get out of. Even if that just means sometimes buying a thing you particularly like as a reward for getting through the week. Compare the cost of me making a crab cake once a month, with the cost of additional therapy because I tried to live with zero extras. Silly example, but total self-denial is positively brutal to your brain, and tends to turn desire into cravings.
Wish I had more advice, but I hope something in there helps. You probably took a gov job at least partially because it (generally) offers stability, I’m sorry that our leg branch can’t seem to maintain that.
One more thing - unless you’re likely to get a giant pay bump, now is probably not the time to look for a new job. That takes time to spin up and find the right one, and the long term hit to eg any pension is significant. It also doesn’t solve immediate issues, since generally checks are delayed a pay cycle or so for processing.
Again, I’m sorry this is happening to you, and I wish I could do more for you and your colleagues. You have no dog in this fight, and neither your nor the military’s paychecks should be impacted.
Haven’t seen RTFM casually dropped in conversation online in… um… a while…
You’ve been hanging out on the intartoobz at least as long as I have. Circa the paleolithic era, or so…