Venting thread

[Travis B.]

I am having atrocious ping times even with purely local networking (i.e. pinging one device on my local network with another via WiFi) today; of course, GitHub has even worse ping times on top of that right now. I don't know what is causing this, even though I suspect it is some device on my local network that is downloading something horribly big. I have ruled out my own laptop and my work laptop, though, which leaves a number of phones, tablets, a Mac, a Chromebook, and a printer...

[Linguoboy]

I'm annoyed that my housemate wants to wait until Christmas Eve to go through our stockings. They're St Nicholas Day stockings, not Christmas stockings, dammit! They've been filled for a week already and I want some of the tasty chocolate inside. (Actually, I've already begun snitching.)

Next year, he's not getting any options. I'm going to say, "I don't care what your tradition is, my tradition is stockings on the 6th so we're doing them then and that's that."

[Travis B.]

I am having atrocious ping times even with purely local networking (i.e. pinging one device on my local network with another via WiFi) today; of course, GitHub has even worse ping times on top of that right now. I don't know what is causing this, even though I suspect it is some device on my local network that is downloading something horribly big. I have ruled out my own laptop and my work laptop, though, which leaves a number of phones, tablets, a Mac, a Chromebook, and a printer...

This turned out to be really strange, because I completely fixed the problem by rebooting my home laptop... and it should be noted that when I used multiple tools on my home laptop to analyze network traffic there were no signs of abnormally large amounts of data being transmitted...

[Travis B.]

I'm annoyed that my housemate wants to wait until Christmas Eve to go through our stockings. They're St Nicholas Day stockings, not Christmas stockings, dammit! They've been filled for a week already and I want some of the tasty chocolate inside. (Actually, I've already begun snitching.)

Next year, he's not getting any options. I'm going to say, "I don't care what your tradition is, my tradition is stockings on the 6th so we're doing them then and that's that."

Maybe your housemate's not from a place where St. Nick's Day is a thing.

[malloc]

Just got the notice to renew my lease and my new rent is notably higher than before. Over the past four years, my rent has crept from $700 to $900 which represents a nearly 30% increase. Obviously that still represents quite a bargain compared to the rest of the US where rents usually exceed a thousand dollars, but the gap is closing. The one advantage of living here has been the extremely low cost of living compared to more enlightened areas but I wonder how long that will remain the case. [Of course wages are also lower here. Currently I only make $35,000 a year which is far below the American average.]

[linguistcat]

Just got the notice to renew my lease and my new rent is notably higher than before. Over the past four years, my rent has crept from $700 to $900 which represents a nearly 30% increase. Obviously that still represents quite a bargain compared to the rest of the US where rents usually exceed a thousand dollars, but the gap is closing. The one advantage of living here has been the extremely low cost of living compared to more enlightened areas but I wonder how long that will remain the case. [Of course wages are also lower here. Currently I only make $35,000 a year which is far below the American average.]

I may be misremembering the law, but iirc, the cap on rent increases per year is 10%, outside of very specific cases. Granted, if the rent has been climbing slowly without any given year's increase being outside that 10% margin, then there's nothing legally wrong there. It does still suck that everything is increasing in cost so quickly, especially when you're already tight on money. I'd still check the laws around rent increases both locally and federally. If nothing else you'll be informed for the future.

[zompist]

I may be misremembering the law, but iirc, the cap on rent increases per year is 10%, outside of very specific cases.

I'm not sure where you got this... 48 states have no limits on rent increases.

[Man in Space]

I may be misremembering the law, but iirc, the cap on rent increases per year is 10%, outside of very specific cases.

I'm not sure where you got this... 48 states have no limits on rent increases.

Because the United States is California, given time.

[Moose-tache]

Rents often increase faster than inflation. One reason is because the building is stationary, and therefore gradually moves from one density threshold to another as other things around it are developed. If you wanted to live in an "average price zone" you'd need a motor home. But obviously the main reason rent increases faster than inflation is because it has to or we all die during what Wikipedia will probably call The Murder-Hungers. Asset markets have to show reliable growth in real terms, or else the movement of capital grinds to a halt, and the ownership class dusts off the big leather book with a moving eyeball on the front called "Economic Downturns And You." That means the value of your building to your landlord will grow faster than your income, provided your income doesn't come from dividends on assets, in which case why are you renting?

Every time Capitalism fucks you, that's the plan working the way it's supposed to. This is what you agreed to by not killing and eating your landlord.

[zompist]

Asset markets have to show reliable growth in real terms, or else the movement of capital grinds to a halt, and the ownership class dusts off the big leather book with a moving eyeball on the front called "Economic Downturns And You."

I think you have too high an opinion of capitalists. Have you met them? Or listened to them?

Or as Dorothy Parker put it, if you want to see God's opinion of money, look at who he gave it to.

[Moose-tache]

Well, gosh, I guess I recant. Everything's fine, folks; the people killing us over imaginary numbers are gauche!

[Man in Space]

Speaking of God…I hope this isn’t going beyond the aegis of the thread, but since you mentioned Him…

I’ve been considering something of late. I’ve multiple times arrived, one way or another, at that point in my life where I stopped praying to Him to save the world, and instead begged Him to end it. Not that I always maintain such sentiments, but the idea thereof, and that I’ve jumped headlong into that event horizon before, more than once…it doesn’t disquiet me as much as I think it should.

I wonder if it’s because work has been such a relentless onslaught. The past two months, chock-full of exceptional work queues necessitating overtime, with meetings that could have been e-mails (or, honestly, not done at all) scheduled right in the thick of them. This week was particularly ridiculous (I can’t get into details) and next week is going to be worse for different reasons.

Yes, I am a salaryman; that does not mean you can disrupt the work-life dichotomy—and sometimes the very corporeal or mental health—of your employees this way. It is an abuse of our station as salaried, and not hourly, employees.

Ultimately, I have thoughts—and I have voiced these to certain parties—on what the exact nature of the problem is. The issue with fixing it is that it sacrifices short-term gains to achieve its more stable (over time) benefits. Long-term it would, I estimate, be a net positive, but those “record profits” that keep getting touted by the C-suite and the balance sheets don’t stay record for long that way.

Not that we ever see of it; inflation was 7% last year and the compensation increase was about a third of that…which still beat what my previous employer did…but I sacrificed my time and effort, was commended for my performance, and received a net pay cut for it. Unfortunately for me, just packing up and blundering into another job is unthinkable given my disabilities and apparently somehow lacking résumé, and as it stands I’m essentially pigeonholed into my current career. I despise it.

I recognize and acknowledge that it was there when I needed something, anything, back in the day. I did learn a considerable amount in the experience, not only about matters adjacent to my employ but about life and myself. But if I persist in this then one of two things is going to happen: The job will either kill me or instigate me to do so myself.

The thing that I’ve had to come to grips with, being so flagrantly bipolar as I am, is that I operate in terms of binaries. The relevant one here is that either I create, or I destroy. Lately it seems like everything points to it being my nature/calling/purpose/function, to destroy. I’m the one who will speak up and/or take action on things (at my previous job I was known for this, whether for good or ill depending on whether you were management or a peon like me). You’ve seen it here, even. I find myself at the Godzilla threshold where it tears me apart alive not to do anything. For whatever reason, however true of import or inane. Not infrequently, it does not end well.

On the one hand, I don’t want to just wreck things all the time. Hence my aim to learn filmmaking—for once in my life I want to create things for a big audience instead of vaporizing them. On the other, to those close to me there is much pain, and there is refuge in audacity.

(I should here clarify: When I am in my madness, I am not violent. I don’t lash out physically at people, animals, or objects unsuitable for stress relief [a pillow? sure. the fancy dinnerware we never use? no], nor do I have any intent, plan, or compulsion to do so.)

[Man in Space]

Well, gosh, I guess I recant. Everything's fine, folks; the people killing us over imaginary numbers are gauche!

Great, Pythagoras’ Neo-Platonic Army is finally introducing ego death to the universe by abolishing i. Also you spelt “secant” wrong.

[bradrn]

The thing that I’ve had to come to grips with, being so flagrantly bipolar as I am, is that I operate in terms of binaries. The relevant one here is that either I create, or I destroy. Lately it seems like everything points to it being my nature/calling/purpose/function, to destroy. I’m the one who will speak up and/or take action on things (at my previous job I was known for this, whether for good or ill depending on whether you were management or a peon like me). You’ve seen it here, even. I find myself at the Godzilla threshold where it tears me apart alive not to do anything. For whatever reason, however true of import or inane. Not infrequently, it does not end well.

On the one hand, I don’t want to just wreck things all the time. Hence my aim to learn filmmaking—for once in my life I want to create things for a big audience instead of vaporizing them. On the other, to those close to me there is much pain, and there is refuge in audacity.

I unfortunately can’t give you much help with mental health, but you should recognise that you’ve already created a lot here. At the very least, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading about your languages and world!

[Raphael]

I really wish I could tell you something helpful, Man in Space, but unfortunately, I can't think of anything.

[WeepingElf]

The thing that I’ve had to come to grips with, being so flagrantly bipolar as I am, is that I operate in terms of binaries. The relevant one here is that either I create, or I destroy. Lately it seems like everything points to it being my nature/calling/purpose/function, to destroy. I’m the one who will speak up and/or take action on things (at my previous job I was known for this, whether for good or ill depending on whether you were management or a peon like me). You’ve seen it here, even. I find myself at the Godzilla threshold where it tears me apart alive not to do anything. For whatever reason, however true of import or inane. Not infrequently, it does not end well.

On the one hand, I don’t want to just wreck things all the time. Hence my aim to learn filmmaking—for once in my life I want to create things for a big audience instead of vaporizing them. On the other, to those close to me there is much pain, and there is refuge in audacity.

I unfortunately can’t give you much help with mental health, but you should recognise that you’ve already created a lot here. At the very least, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading about your languages and world!

Seconded!!!

[malloc]

@Moose-tache: Meanwhile I now have to figure out what luxuries to cut next year. I have already given up streaming services and watch very little media outside of Youtube videos. Not much else remains to cut apart from that vegan restaurant I visit and various spices. Aside from large scale problems like global warming and AGI destroying humanity, I now have to deal with smaller issues like rent outstripping my low wages.

And now I accidentally put my debit card in the wrong dryer, resulting in me getting charged twice for one load of clothes.

[sasasha]

For two years I've been confused about whether I should be singing as a tenor or as a baritone, and it doesn't sound like a big thing, but when my whole life was based around my voice before Covid, and I have, I guess, chosen to lose that due to feeling so caught up in this confusion, and yet felt and still feel incapable of working it out because singing practice and lessons are consequently so decentralised from my life... well, then, it is a big thing.

I'm so profoundly sick of the dilemma that I can see I've to all intents and purposes given up on my solo singing entirely. It was only a little over three years ago I had decided to devote my life to it, and got two full scholarships to music college and moved city to do so. I just want someone to tell me what path to pursue, and lay out helpful opportunities along the way... Is that too much to ask? (Irony awareness alert)

[sasasha]

The thing that I’ve had to come to grips with, being so flagrantly bipolar as I am, is that I operate in terms of binaries. The relevant one here is that either I create, or I destroy. Lately it seems like everything points to it being my nature/calling/purpose/function, to destroy. I’m the one who will speak up and/or take action on things (at my previous job I was known for this, whether for good or ill depending on whether you were management or a peon like me). You’ve seen it here, even. I find myself at the Godzilla threshold where it tears me apart alive not to do anything. For whatever reason, however true of import or inane. Not infrequently, it does not end well.

On the one hand, I don’t want to just wreck things all the time. Hence my aim to learn filmmaking—for once in my life I want to create things for a big audience instead of vaporizing them. On the other, to those close to me there is much pain, and there is refuge in audacity.

I unfortunately can’t give you much help with mental health, but you should recognise that you’ve already created a lot here. At the very least, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading about your languages and world!

Seconded!!!

Thirded.

[Ares Land]

I unfortunately can’t give you much help with mental health, but you should recognise that you’ve already created a lot here. At the very least, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading about your languages and world!

Seconded!!!

Thirded.

Same here. And, I hope things getter for you on the mental health front.
@malloc and Man In Space: yeah, inflation is getting really painful.