Problem 1: no dragon

Hence why I said “in all likelihood”. There are always exceptions to the rule. Apparently you are one of them.

This is really a huge oversimplification of a complex and nuanced topic. But the main thing worth mentioning is that your utility bills, in all likelihood, are already insanely cheap if you compare what you get to any other time in history. Like, keeping your home temperature at a perfectly pleasant temperature 24 hours per day probably costs you only a couple hours of labor each month. Compare this to gathering sticks in the forest and lighting a fire inside a mud hut - which, btw, also gives you lung cancer faster than cigarettes.

Should the government invest more in renewables? Yes, obviously. They should also fund the infrastructure necessary to make renewables work at scale, and research to improve renewable generation, transmission, and storage tech in order to close the gap between what is practical now and what we need to achieve. And while they are at it, they should introduce improved pricing schemes to head off increased wasteful usage. But will any of this actually have a direct impact on consumer pricing…? Probably not, since almost all utilities are already state owned or else heavily regulated. The cost of electricity is determined more by committee and political maneuvering than the actual price of, say, coal or solar on a day to day basis. The actual mechanism of paying for power to be generated and delivered to your house on demand is a combination of the price you pay per kwh, property taxes, government revenue in general, debt taken on by the government or utility, investments made in the past, etc. If you actually want a cheaper price per kwh, the solution is simply petitioning whatever regulatory body is in charge to lower it.

Of course, the problem with lower prices is that they encourage wasteful usage. If electricity becomes free, then aunt Ethel will start blasting the AC while leaving the windows open, because she likes to be comfortable while listening to the birds chirp. Without appropriate pricing schemes, people and companies will use up as much additional renewable capacity as is built as soon as you finish building it.

Well I guess you don’t expect your kids to be high achievers…

But people of certain skin colors often live in certain cultural spheres, which have particular norms, which are often interesting and funny to observe. Hence why ScottishPeopleTwitter was always equally valid.

Isn’t it the thing about fashion that it never improves, just endlessly changes? So men’s fashion, not changing, has simply left the wheel of samsara.

Interesting! Also, anyone interested can see an example here

Are you saying that if you had that access, then you could beat all the big hedge funds? Because… no… you couldn’t.

Jevon strikes again

Me, imagining your mom walking into your childhood bedroom after you move out and finding the walls covered in gay porn

Most? I am highly skeptical of this claim. Iirc, lgbt people make up about 10% of the population. Depending on your interpretation, it could be far more, but let’s say 10%. “Most” of 10% would be 5%. Are you really claiming that AIDS killed a whole 5% of the population in the 80s? That would be… a lot

That’s a reasonable problem to have, but I think it is more created by your limiting beliefs than anything else.

My work environment makes it impossible for people to casually talk even when not much is going on

Beginning or end of the day? During lunch? Even if you shoot the shit with just one person every day, that’s one more than you seem to be doing right now.

but there’s not really anyone to talk to during those times other than maybe people MUCH younger than me (like around 10 years younger) and I feel even more uncomfortable talking to them since I don’t want to seem like a creep or that older guy trying to be cool with the kids.

This is a symptom of being chronically online. Older people talk to younger people all the time. Hell, older people date younger people all the time. People like to talk to people, and if there are people around, its not weird to talk to them regardless of their age. As someone approaching my mid-thirties, one of my favorite ways to talk to college-aged kids is to lean into our age difference and just be like “so what are you kids these days all into?” And if you are worried about being a creep, you can lean into that, too “Hey, I hope I’m not just being a total creep right now, but I was kinda bored and wanted to see what you kids are up to.”

Finally, you can make small talk with literally anyone who comes into your proximity during the day. People waiting for the bus with you, people just chillin in the park, grocery store checkout clerks. For example, say you are checking out at the grocery store.

“Hey, how’s it going?”

I’m doing good. You?

^ this is the stock response that is just acknowledging you exist. Follow up with something that indicates that you actually give a shit.

“Day going good so far?”

etc

People typically give these sorts of responses when either (a) they are tired or (b) they can sense that you aren’t actually interested in them.

You should understand that a and b are interrelated, as almost no one is ever too tired to express how they are feeling to someone they trust.

The trick here is not to keep asking questions, but to empathize:

“How’s work treating you?”

It’s work.

^ this “neutral” response is actually a polite negative.

“Yeah, tell me about it - my job’s boring as shit. At least it’s almost lunch time…”

Note that this doesn’t always work, and the person may just keep giving “blah” responses. That’s fine. You tried to connect. You tried to be interested. Accept their non-interest and try again with the next person. You will get better at being interested and empathizing with practice, and your increased care for others will become more apparent to others, generating better responses.

I can recognize Chargers, Explorers, and Crown Vics pretty easily.

This sounds like something that was made up post-hoc because it sounds good. I have yet to run into a zombie story where they talk about how great traditional gender roles are, or a vampire story where they talk about taking control of the means of production. They are just stories. There is no reason that they need to be inherently political - much less to run along the particular political lines we have in society today.

We could even make the case that the opposite is true - the most common trope I know of in vampire stories is feeling sympathy for the vampire when they have their monologue about how hard vampiring is. And the most common trope in Zombie movies is that the people need to work together, be honest, and sacrifice for each other in order to overcome the hoard.

He’s a hero. Not the hero Pheonix needs, but the one it deserves.

good boomer humor

SHEEPLE!!!

This is like a bizarro version of Colt 45. I love it

I think everyone knows what Brooke means. Brooks (the rivers) are nice. And it is now a common name. So Brooke is a reasonable thing to name a girl. Similar to Rose or Ruby.