General chat thread

[SuperPulp2789]

My pet gecko died whilst at the vet

Until now they can't explain what was going on, I swear I thought it was getting better yesterday when they told me it was

Then suddenly shedding and under distress again

Gave it a lot of food and water, somehow it was drying its skin and shedding and getting into its eyes and somehow that caused a tooth to rot

They take their eyes off it when it was getting better and suddenly dead

Said that exotic pets are unpredictable

 

[MadGreenSon]

I just spent almost two hours in a fucking traffic jam on a goddamn interstate highway in the middle of nowhere! The cause of said traffic jam? Rubbernecking. People were slowing down to look at the scene of an accident on the side of the road.

I'm currently en route and it's going slow because I'm exhausted from lack of decent sleep.

Anyone want details of something about this experience? Or any of the shit I'm going through? I'm always vain enough to talk about me.


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Contributions to my gas/mobile/insurance/food needs welcome here

 

[R.A.G.]

Anyone want details of something about this experience? Or any of the shit I'm going through? I'm always vain enough to talk about me.

Click to shrink...

Sure, feel a little helpless since I can't do much to help you feel better, but tell me how your day has been at least.

I know you're heading north looking for some place to spend a few months(?) while you try to find something to keep you going, have you settled on somewhere specific yet or are you following the road until you land somewhere?

Seen any interesting birds? Flowers? A song on the radio?

 

[MadGreenSon]

Sure, feel a little helpless since I can't do much to help you feel better, but tell me how your day has been at least.

I know you're heading north looking for some place to spend a few months(?) while you try to find something to keep you going, have you settled on somewhere specific yet or are you following the road until you land somewhere?

Seen any interesting birds? Flowers? A song on the radio?

Click to shrink...

Hm… I haven't quite settled on the where yet, playing it by ear for the moment. I really need to find help but finding the kind of help I need is a bit daunting.

The biggest thing today so far was that ridiculous traffic jam, the traffic plus my exhaustion have got me hiding at a rest area waiting for it to clear while I try to rest up. I don't think I've had a decent nights sleep since I lost my apartment. The lack of real privacy is killer.

The coolest thing I've seen driving thus far is a thing that probably happens often on certain bridges. I was going over a very flat bridge and the water below it was kind of uniformly choppy, the bridge was fairly clear of other traffic and it was around dawn.
Something in how I saw everything shifted, an optical illusion, and it looked like the water was parallel to the bridge, like the bridge itself was a solid part of the water and I was driving on the ocean.
It was pretty fucking cool.

Also lots of super expensive RVs on the road at all hours. Y'know, the kind that are nicer than the homes most people live in? Them.


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Contributions to my gas/mobile/insurance/food needs welcome here

 

[CanYouMeme]

It's like I died and kept walking around afterwards, but everything inside me is still dead. A lifetime of masking depression sure does come in handy for this.

Click to shrink...

Well, I'm glad to see you still kicking, but sad to hear it took a turn for the worse.

You want me to say a few things I haven't said yet?

 

[R.A.G.]

Hm… I haven't quite settled on the where yet, playing it by ear for the moment. I really need to find help but finding the kind of help I need is a bit daunting.

The biggest thing today so far was that ridiculous traffic jam, the traffic plus my exhaustion have got me hiding at a rest area waiting for it to clear while I try to rest up. I don't think I've had a decent nights sleep since I lost my apartment. The lack of real privacy is killer.

The coolest thing I've seen driving thus far is a thing that probably happens often on certain bridges. I was going over a very flat bridge and the water below it was kind of uniformly choppy, the bridge was fairly clear of other traffic and it was around dawn.
Something in how I saw everything shifted, an optical illusion, and it looked like the water was parallel to the bridge, like the bridge itself was a solid part of the water and I was driving on the ocean.
It was pretty fucking cool.

Also lots of super expensive RVs on the road at all hours. Y'know, the kind that are nicer than the homes most people live in? Them.

Click to shrink...

If you were in the bible belt I'd say you should hunt down a church, but with you heading north dunno which way for you to turn. If you were an alcoholic I'd say find the local AA chapter, but don't know if there's an equivalent without substance abuse. You probably have a clearer idea of what's around you than I do rn, just keep an eye out for people who can help, I guess.

I know you're stuck sleeping in a car or at motels, but you should probably take a day or two to just rest at a stop until you're not exhausted. Maybe get a cheap pair of earbuds from somewhere? Having white noise/music playing will help you shut out the world, even if it's not perfect. The kind with a flexible earbud, they get kinda gross over time as earwax cakes up, but they also don't hurt your ears if you fall asleep with them.

The bridge things sounds cool as fuck. I imagine it's even nicer near dawn/sunset with the light playing off the water. If you're awake and driving at one of those points hope you get a chance to see that while crossing a bridge.

RV thing is weird. Is it vacation season for rich people rn? Is there some kind of traveling commune of millionaires in RVs in the area? Did they go south for the winter?

 

[MadGreenSon]

If you were in the bible belt I'd say you should hunt down a church, but with you heading north dunno which way for you to turn. If you were an alcoholic I'd say find the local AA chapter, but don't know if there's an equivalent without substance abuse. You probably have a clearer idea of what's around you than I do rn, just keep an eye out for people who can help, I guess.

Click to shrink...

It's really shocking how much some things would be streamlined if I was an alcoholic or into hard drugs.
I think the lack of that major problem added to my already existing problems makes up for it though.

I know you're stuck sleeping in a car or at motels

Click to shrink...

Uggh. I would kill for one full day at a motel…

RV thing is weird. Is it vacation season for rich people rn? Is there some kind of traveling commune of millionaires in RVs in the area? Did they go south for the winter?

Click to shrink...

No idea, but the damn things are everywhere I go. Massive, expensive, and luxurious. Huge envy.

Traveling commune of millionaires sounds like a great villain group for a chase focused horror story though.


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Contributions to my gas/mobile/insurance/food/motel needs welcome here

 

[R.A.G.]

It's really shocking how much some things would be streamlined if I was an alcoholic or into hard drugs.
I think the lack of that major problem added to my already existing problems makes up for it though.

Uggh. I would kill for one full day at a motel…

No idea, but the damn things are everywhere I go. Massive, expensive, and luxurious. Huge envy.

Traveling commune of millionaires sounds like a great villain group for a chase focused horror story though.

Click to shrink...

It sounds cartoonish, but tbh you might be best off pretending to be an alcoholic and getting into AA.

It's not a motel, but find a local library? It at least gives you somewhere warm to stretch your legs, charge your phone, and maybe thumb through some books. If you're lucky they have somewhere private enough you can catch a nap for a while, maybe even sleep through the day.

The League of Motor-Millionaires, villains of a street-racing horror action film.

 

[MadGreenSon]

It sounds cartoonish, but tbh you might be best off pretending to be an alcoholic and getting into AA.

Click to shrink...

The thought has occurred to me more than once.
Seems more than a little scummy though. I also don't want my life to be a Fight Club reference.

The League of Motor-Millionaires, villains of a street-racing horror action film.

Click to shrink...

Something like that, yes. Depending on how the movie is done you could make them cannibals, into evil magic, or just thrill killers who use their money and influence to literally get away with murder. Like if The Purge was only for rich people.


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Contributions to my gas/mobile/insurance/food/motel needs welcome here

 

[R.A.G.]

The thought has occurred to me more than once.
Seems more than a little scummy though. I also don't want my life to be a Fight Club reference.

Click to shrink...

Sometimes you've got to play the hand you're dealt. In your case that means being Edward Norton in Fight Club. Just don't become a terrorist or don't get caught

Something like that, yes. Depending on how the movie is done you could make them cannibals, into evil magic, or just thrill killers who use their money and influence to literally get away with murder. Like if The Purge was only for rich people.

Click to shrink...

Isn't that sort of the plot of Squid Game?

 

[Scygnus]

It's too bad the YMCA isn't still a thing. Or the thing it was when the Village People sang about it, song's running through my head reading this.

 

[Rakdos92]

Glad to see you alive, madgreenson. I hope you find what you need.

 

[MadGreenSon]

Isn't that sort of the plot of Squid Game?

Click to shrink...

I think so? Sorta?

Glad to see you alive, madgreenson. I hope you find what you need.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, me too brother. I tell you what though, I have a new and bitter perspective on how much food waste goes on in America today. Hunger sure as hell can focus your attention on the basics of life. I don't think I'll ever take decent, regular meals for granted ever again no matter where I end up.

 

[R.A.G.]

Yeah, me too brother. I tell you what though, I have a new and bitter perspective on how much food waste goes on in America today. Hunger sure as hell can focus your attention on the basics of life. I don't think I'll ever take decent, regular meals for granted ever again no matter where I end up.

Click to shrink...

Supermarket dumpsters are basically full of edible but unsold food. Companies avoid giving it away for reasons(?) but if you dodge the produce for stuff that's still sealed you're good. Issue is they're sometimes locked. Gas stations (to some extent) do much the same thing when they've got to shift stock and will often just hand off a box of whatever to local homeless.

But yeah, a lot of food seems to get tossed for the sake of profit margins or something. on top of general senseless waste.

 

[Guardian Box]

Supermarket dumpsters are basically full of edible but unsold food. Companies avoid giving it away for reasons(?)

Click to shrink...

Liability concerns I imagine.

Even of the food is perfectly edible still, if it's beyond the expiration date even by a day the companies don't want to risk selling potentially unhealthy food and risk a lawsuit or a government agency taking notice, much better to just throw it all away.

 

[Longtimelurker]

Liability concerns I imagine.

Even of the food is perfectly edible still, if it's beyond the expiration date even by a day the companies don't want to risk selling potentially unhealthy food and risk a lawsuit or a government agency taking notice, much better to just throw it all away.

Click to shrink...

Exactly so.
One of my "skeleton keys" for understanding American life is the ever-present fear of liability that undergirds everything. Even if you are ultimately vindicated by the courts, a large company may still need to spend millions to resolve a lawsuit in which they acted entirely benevolently.

 

[Guardian Box]

Exactly so.
One of my "skeleton keys" for understanding American life is the ever-present fear of liability that undergirds everything. Even if you are ultimately vindicated by the courts, a large company may still need to spend millions to resolve a lawsuit in which they acted entirely benevolently.

Click to shrink...

We're also in the golden age of food availability as far as human history is concerned as well. In no other period in history has food been so abundant and cheap as it is right now, to the point that it's more economically viable for food producers to destroy vast quantities of food that may still be perfectly edible just to avoid a potential legal scuffle with some random person who had a tummy ache from eating a slice of cheese beyond its professed expiration date or something like that.

Still though, the amount of food wasted every year world-wide hurts my min-maxing soul to the core

 

[Amazon Climber]

Companies avoid giving it away for reasons(?)

Click to shrink...

It's cheaper to throw it away than deal with the logistics necessary to give it away.

Liability concerns I imagine.

Even of the food is perfectly edible still, if it's beyond the expiration date even by a day the companies don't want to risk selling potentially unhealthy food and risk a lawsuit or a government agency taking notice, much better to just throw it all away.

Click to shrink...

Problem is, there's a Good Samaritan food giveaway law that covers this.

 

[CanYouMeme]

It's cheaper to throw it away than deal with the logistics necessary to give it away.

Problem is, there's a Good Samaritan food giveaway law that covers this.

Click to shrink...

From the USDA website;

"In order to receive protections under the act, a person or gleaner must donate in good faith apparently wholesome food or apparently fit grocery products to a non-profit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals or families. It does not cover direct donations to needy individuals or families."

So first off, anyone who cares to can sue on the basis it wasn't donated in good faith, or over whatever the hell "apparently" means (and I've heard some junk) which the defendant will then have to prove false. Even if it's tossed out, that's more man hours wasted, more money spent, more bad press, all of which contributes to the food distributor eventually getting shut down outright.

Then, all donated food must be funneled through someone else, which limits distribution because there are many more food distributors than government approved non profit locations.

This then further limits how much food can be given away because A) A government approved food charity has to follow more rules for who is and is not allowed to receive food, and B) A lot of the food that can be theoretically distributed isn't because with all the aforementioned food can't be legally pushed out fast enough.

And anybody who donates directly is fucked up creek without a paddle.

Source - I volunteer at a govt approved food charity, do you have any idea how much food goes straight up rotten because we can't legally distribute it fast enough? Hundreds of pounds per month, if we're lucky.

And that's just us, at one location.

Oh, and let me make it worse for you - we get fresh produce shipped in, stock overflow from farmers and such. A good chunk of that goes bad before it even reaches the distributor because legal restrictions combine with logistics to leave it sitting for weeks and months before we can open it up and get rid of it.

It's our "have fun with the newbies" ritual where one of the experienced crew sits them down for two, three, four hours scraping out the rotten vegetables from the good, then letting the "good" sit in good conditions for a day or so before checking them again to make sure they didn't get mouldy or whatever somewhere we didn't see the first time.

If we don't just toss the whole bag because the reek is strong enough to write it off.

So yeah nah, the law is responsible for destroying a fair bit of food before it can be given to the hungry, profit or no profit.

 

[MadGreenSon]

I had to stop driving and pull into a rest area (with 4 super luxury RVs parked) because I'm sick.
It's been getting worse since I stopped, I'm coughing my lungs out, achy, feverish, and getting a lot of scabs/blood clots in the mix when I blow my nose.

This is miseryville guys, I don't even have any aspirin.

Ugh. Pray for me, or perform the well wishing ritual of your choice for me, whichever.




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Contributions to my gas/mobile/insurance/food needs welcome here

 

[R.A.G.]

I had to stop driving and pull into a rest area (with 4 super luxury RVs parked) because I'm sick.
It's been getting worse since I stopped, I'm coughing my lungs out, achy, feverish, and getting a lot of scabs/blood clots in the mix when I blow my nose.

This is miseryville guys, I don't even have any aspirin.

Ugh. Pray for me, or perform the well wishing ritual of your choice for me, whichever.

Click to shrink...

I've had much the same in my area, it's apparently(?) this year's strain of the flu. You've got to get off the road for a week or two, hunker down somewhere warm/find a hospital. Cough/flu medication massively helped, but I've spent the last week still recovering (my immune system is kinda shit though).

Find a gym? Buy a membership for a month. It gets you access to hot showers (which means jets of hot water drumming on the back/chest so you can cough out the worst of the phlegm every morning), and sometimes breakfast.

Again, you might need a hospital though.