They made great fidget toys.

I loved my slider as well. They made texting so much easier. I went from one of those to a blackberry bold.

I am of the opinion that most “supply” issues are due to investors. Except in certain geographic areas we do not have a shortage of actual physical housing. What we have is a shortage of available housing at a mixed pricepoints for purchase.

All housing that investors purchase for rentals removes it from the supply.

Traditionally investors have sought out entry level housing for rent. They invest in building rental complexes. They make all cash purchases and then rent it out to people who otherwise would have been first-time homebuyers. Investors used to be the low end offer. Blatant price fixing has increased rent outrageously. Now investors are the high end offer and removing supply constantly.

With AirB&B, the middle and even upper range market that traditionally has had less investor competition is now a major target. This has led to price wars for investment purposes on previously safe segments.

The first solution to the housing supply is simple: taxing income from rent so that selling the property is financially more lucrative. It will have to include a prohibition against rental increases to cover the taxes as well.

The second is to mandate zoning and new construction to match the market needs not the needs of the investors.

Last would be to create a program where builders who focus on entry level housing receive incentives from governments (also include hefty penalty for substandard construction).

She will just steal 2 blankets. One is never enough for a blanket thief.

Hazard of a previous job.

I spent most of a decade sharing an office with the most prolific commercial pumpkin breeder (he had a peduncle collection in his desk).

I then was his product manager and got to travel all over world introducing and naming new varieties. The most common and identifiable one I introduced for him was the medium sized one with the dark green warts (Warty Goblin). However about 70% of the varieties at the grocery store and patch are ones I named.

https://us.stokeseeds.com/hybridpumpkin-wartygoblin-0780267t.html

He was a very talented breeder and I got to let my inner kid free. I did get push back from people who didn’t understand the market for my official reason for chosing a variety. Apparently writing “because it’s cool” wasn’t good enough for them.

Almost there. Generally they start being harvested around the 2nd week of September.

Just eyeballing it, those have another 3 weeks at least. The prizewinner next to the of the road tend to color up early. They contain a gene called precocious yellow. The immature fruit are yellow that turn to reddish orange as they mature. Since they don’t have to wait for the chlorophyll degradation in a normal green immature fruit the pigments show up when the fruit is still immature.

Jobs was his own worst enemy for a while on the compatibility issue.

New OS launches- all your old programs don’t work on it.

Want to use a floppy to transfer files between a Dos/Win and a Mac? Nope, not compatible. When USB drives started coming out they dropped all support for floppy drives, even in machines with them installed.

Constant driver issues with all sorts of things. Many never got resolved. To be fair the market share for Mac’s was so tiny, offering support for them didn’t make business sense.

Want to play a game? Good luck. The majority of games didn’t work on Mac. Same reason as the drivers.

As for stability issues, for a while I ran a computer lab for a college 50:50 win/Mac machines. They both crashed about equally as often.

For lesser known subjects, a literature review in a dissertation works. It at least gives you a list of papers to review.

Been on my own since I as 17. The first few years were rough to say the least.

I worked 2 jobs, 30-60 hrs per week and went to college. I shared shitty apartments with some pretty creepy people. I moved so constantly I ended up paying for a post office box so I could get my mail. I did not have a vehicle (no car) so I rode a bike for up to 60 miles per day. Even all that wasn’t enough without government grants and student loans to pay for college.

Food was something that I ate when I had it. I spent a few months with mybe 4-5 real meals. Cornflakes and ramen where the bulk of my diet for a while.

I took the first professional job I could find. It was terrible but it paid well. I gained 50lbs to be at a healthy weight the first year. The next few years I jumped around jobs until I landed in one I liked.

The last few weeks before I graduated college I met my wife. Her family has become mine over the past 25 years.

Today my income alone puts us in the top 10% of earners. My wife makes close to the same. At many crucual times in our lifes we’ve taken advantage of government assistance. To be blunt, it’s not possible to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. You need a helping hand once in a while no matter how small.

My preference has changed over time.

Originally I went through stacks of books. Even when ereaders came out I didn’t like them. I built two massive floor to ceiling bookcases to hold them all. It’s full with most shelves doubled up.

Then I started traveling all over the globe and I couldn’t pack enough books for two weeks and 20+ flights. So I got an ereader and eventually transitioned to a tablet. Last I counted I have around 10,000 e-books.

Recently audiobooks have been my go-to. I drive a lot for work now so I listen to them on my trucks speaker system. When I am home I am always doing something else like cooking dishes, yardwork, etc. I have gotten use to listening to a book through my earbuds as I do other things. In the evening I often relax and listen to a book while playing a video game. I will go through 20-30 audiobooks per month.

High value crop consultants - good ones can make a surprising amount of money (200k+) This isn’t your dumbfuck row crops like corn and soy. Think fruit trees, nut trees, viticulture, vegetables, organic production etc.

Many college graduates have a job offers their junior year. Anymore you’ll want to have a double major of biology/Ag.

Weed guys can’t pay me enough. 😉

I am an expert in crops. I have traveled the globe to learn about them. I have created new varieties to plant. Landowners around the globe seek me out for knowledge and seeds.

My library has booth Libby and Hoopla.

Hoopla is by far the better service. 10 books per month with a huge library to choose from. No waiting for somebody to return it in a line.

I use both mine and my wife’s library card so I am going through 20 books per month. Plus aother 5-6 on Libby.

Media companies, “We are losing money because people don’t want to pay.”

Or just maybe, your product sucks and people are finding alternatives to avoid dealing with you.

Currently pirating or streaming from a secondary site is faster, better quality, and easier to use. It’s really not that hard to figure out.

They have proven many times over that pirating/accessibility have inverse relationship.

My most frustrating example was when I needed one song for a project my wife was working on a long time ago. I looked to try to purchase it online and could only find it on iTunes. In order to purchase from iTunes you had to download the application and install it. However I had an old machine running Linux… By the time I figured this all out I had spent 2 hours trying to pay $0.99 for one song. I could not find an approved way to do it. So I went the alternative route and had the song in under 5 minutes.

They keep pushing accessibility down recently. I am not playing their games again. When they want to be reasonable they will get paid.

That’s a good one to hang up in my office.

I tend to pace when my brain is working on a problem. When I do some heavy analysis, I often look at data for 20-30 minutes and then pace for 15-20 minutes as I process.

Good thing my office is empty most of the time, so I don’t bother others.

Of course after 4-5 hours my brain is done so I often find and excuse to leave the office after lunch. Gotta go walk a field/visit a customer etc…

I share a name with and average skilled hockey player who played for long time on mediocre teams. We are also the same age.

Although my name is uncommon it is not rare. So many other lawyers, insurance sales, etc who have a larger online presence mask me very effectively.

It’s enough that googling my name is a waste of time.

It also helps that I have a small footprint online with no social media accounts linked back to my real name.

My wife would pretend she doesn’t know me go the other direction.

This varies depending on the cultural norms of the country.

Japanese: I have been in high level meetings with a Japanese company. As soon as I walked into the room they all switched to English. Some of their English was weak but they still made the effort. When I commented on how much I appreciated it, surprised Pikachu faces all around. They responded course they would swap, to do otherwise is rude.

In France I have had business meetings with with 8 people around a table all of who all spoke english. 4 of them were native French speakers, 1 polish, 2 Arabic, and me the sole native English speaker. The native French speakers spoke French the entire time. They would swap to English to interrupt the English language conversation then swap back to French amongst themselve. If two or more native French speakers are together, they speak French and don’t give a fuck if they include you or not. They then act all surprised that you didn’t follow their in French conversation.