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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • Anybody who has ever been unfortunate enough to have to apply for any of these healthcare or food stipend programs would know that it’s not as easy as the government makes it seem. In fact, the amount of bureaucracy, means testing, and highly restrictive income limitations means that most people don’t qualify period and people who do qualify have to spend an inordinate amount of time waiting to hear back from the government to know if they have been accepted or not, all the while hoping and praying they don’t get sick and can manage their money long enough to continue feeding themselves.

    Case in point, my fiance is out of work right now and actively seeking work. She applied for both MediCAL and SNAP and was denied for MediCAL because she had earned too much already that year to qualify and the SNAP benefits totaled out to $20/month in food stamps, based on historical income, which is insufficient even for the most frugal of individuals to make work. This is for someone currently earning $0/month and being almost entirely supported by me.

    After a certain point, it becomes a massive drain on your time and resources that could be spent looking for a job, so you stop bothering with the system altogether because who wants to spend hours doing paperwork and submitting claims just to get enough spare change to buy a bulk bag of rice to feed yourself a struggle meal?

    I don’t want to hear shit about “handouts” from anybody. My fiance paid her taxes faithfully for years without ever having to rely on the program, so where are her benefits? She has undoubtedly paid more into the system than she will ever extract.



  • I also remember it having it when I was a kid. Before Costco had it’s Kirkland brand, they sold Fruit of the Loom underwear with the cornucopia logo, I’m sure of it. I think there was probably a knock-off/counterfeit brand that somehow wormed it’s way into department store/warehouse club supply chains, which is why so many people remember it that way, and also why FotL just denies it because they never discovered the replacement of product. I’d be willing to bet there are some corporate folk out there who could say for certain.





  • Former non-water drinker here.

    I was addicted to caffeinated/carbonated sodas. I never had any problems drinking almost exclusively diet coke for a long time. My caffeine consumption was well over the FDA recommendation for maximum daily intake.

    I would still drink water, especially when doing sports or exercise, but it wasn’t my go-to for hydrating myself throughout the day.

    Several times in my life, I quit drinking them, but I would always circle back around to it because I missed the taste more than anything, and I had never noticed any kind of significant health benefit to stopping.

    Recently some months ago, I was having some pretty severe bladder issues. Sudden onset urge to urinate. Like going from 0-100 in a racecar, the rapid urgency was the main issue. One minute I was fine and if you asked if I needed to use the bathroom I’d say “Nah”, and then 5 minutes later I’m literally dancing my way to the nearest toilet to just barely make it in time, like literally almost peeing my pants it was that bad.

    Went to the doctor about this, obviously, and that was when he told me that the extreme caffeine intake is causing irritation in my bladder and diagnosed me with Overactive Bladder Syndrome. I was instructed to completely cut out caffeine from my regular drinking habits, no tea or sodas, but I could have a cup of coffee in the morning to get me going, although initially I would want to quit cold turkey to purge my system of caffeine and let my bladder settle down. So water it was. Within about a month, I started to feel more regular again and I didn’t need to rush to pee as often and when I did I could hold it for longer periods of time.

    Now I pretty much drink only water all the time. I take a big 54oz jug with me to work and refill it towards the end of the work day. I’ll have a cup of coffee now and then in the mornings on weekdays, but I try not to make a habit of it, and I’ll have a sip of a soda at the movies or something, but I don’t even miss the taste of cola anymore. Occasionally I will buy the flavored waters at the grocery store just to get the carbonated experience, but I can’t drink those all the time. Water is great, it just takes forever to get your brain used to the idea that not everything you put in your body needs to have flavor. It’s super refreshing to get the filtered water pitcher right from the fridge, maybe pour it over a glass of ice, and drink it straight that way.

    In short, chugging sodas never used to bother me at all, but I guess as I’m getting older my body is just not having that shit anymore. Just like how I can’t eat straight junk food and not gain any weight like when I was a teenager, my metabolism has finally caught up with me on my soda/caffeine addiction and I had to cut that out too. I realize that I am better off now for it and I’m going to try and keep up the good habit I’ve started to form and keep drinking water.





  • I try not to be too judgemental of people who are religious. We are not evolved enough as a species to be able to comprehend the unknown or unknowable, and everyone to some degree has to cope with this somehow, even if we aren’t consciously aware of it. Faith is an easy, convenient and catch-all solution to all of life’s unexplained phenomena, so it makes sense that people tend to gravitate towards it naturally, all it takes is a little push during childhood.

    I take issue with it when religious folk try to force their views onto other people. Proselytizing is one thing, but converting people by duress or force, or by weaponizing the government apparatus to conform to their views and their views only, is where I stop caring about the feelings of those religious cults and do everything in my power to stop them or undermine their efforts.





  • Palworld did more for the monster-collecting genre in one early access title than Pokémon has in the last decade of AAA titles.

    Why does Nintendo deserve these patents when they aren’t going to produce anything meaningful with them and simply weaponize them to squash any real threatening competition?

    Pokémon is the highest grossing franchise in the world, and 2nd place isn’t even close. I think they can give a little ground to an indie developer who makes games that people are actually interested in playing. The patent bullshit is ridiculous.