Yeah. Any time I want to talk off the record it isn’t because I’m trying to be sneaky and corrupt. I’m usually just venting or being super sarcastic.

No secret handshake deals occur over phone calls, but sometimes I’ll hold a “Come to Jesus” meeting with someone over the phone because I’m trying not to take them to court and tear down their house they built without a permit or inspections. I have to convince them with pretty frank language that I’m being nice when I’m trying to drag them through the process of having their plans reviewed and building inspected, and that if I stop hounding them it’s because we’re prepping warrants and injunctions and bidding out demo contractors.

I work in municipal development. When I want to call you instead of emailing you, it’s because what I’m going to say is something pretty frank that you’d rather not have a written record of. You, Mr Civil Engineer, don’t want your client to do an Open Records request on me and find the email where I had to explain to you, in detail, that water flows downhill and that your drainage plan shouldn’t show water moving parallel to contour lines.

It’s like the difference between being in the blast radius of a fission bomb vs a hydrogen bomb. Does the size of the blast really matter glfrom ground zero?

When it’s 100 degrees outside, I avoid the outside as much as possible. If it’s 120 degrees outside, I avoid the outside as much as possible.

I work in municipal government, and 5 of us used to share a tiny open space and I was in online meetings all day. It was bad enough I’d sometimes take my laptop into the courtroom/council chambers so I could spend some time talking without everyone else having to hear me.

We got a new City Hall building a few months back, and I have my own super-nice office with walls and everything on a different floor than the people I used to share space with. It’s glorious.

I’m a third-party non-employee lecturer at my local university. I teach scuba, underwater photography, and scientific diving. The courses are taught off-campus at a dive shop using the shop’s its classrooms, pool, and equipment. The liability insurance is paid by me.

There’s a lake on campus we dive at, and the university charges students to enter it.

The students have to pay $3000+ in tuition for some of my classes.

…and the university doesn’t give me or the shop a dime. The students have to pay a 200 dollar lab fee, and that’s split between me and the shop for the semester. The only thing the university provides is the course numbers and taking the money, and they get 30 times as much money as I do.

I have multiple individual cameras I use to teach the class that cost more than I make in 5 years of teaching the photography class.

And they want to charge me $800/year for parking for the rare occasions when I need to go on campus.

Fuck that - I just let them ticket me. The parking services department isn’t a law enforcement agency. The biggest threat they really have is withholding grades for students who owe parking tickets.

If they come to kill me they’re gonna kill me. I can’t stop that. But that doesn’t mean I should make it easy for them.

If we reached the point where they came into my house I’d be fucked no matter what, so I’d take as many as I could with me. No use in making my death meaningless.

The rule is make it so loud that you only stick around while you’re actively buying and consuming overpriced drinks.

Tolerance is a social contract. Those who would not grant it to others are not protected by it.

We don’t have to tolerate the intolerant.

That’s almost all places in the US. And because of that, lots of people end up breaking federal laws without realizing it all the time.

Dad wants to buy his 30yo son a rifle for Christmas? Perfectly legal.

Dad wants to buy his 30yo son who lives out of state a rifle that’s legal in the son’s home state for Christmas? Perfectly legal.

Dad wants to buy his 30yo son a pistol for Christmas? Perfectly legal.

Dad wants to buy his 30yo son who lives out of state a pistol that’s legal in the son’s home state for Christmas? Felony.

Fire Marshalls in many places are way too bust for random safety inspections. They’re reviewing plans, inspecting new buildings and remodels, and sometimes also doubling as the city’s arson investigators. And in some jurisdictions they’re also the fire chief.

Lots of the time it is a fire hazard, but unless the Fire Marshall knows about it nothing gets done.

Fire code is usually checked when the building is built or if there’s a remodel, but otherwise most places can go a long, long time without a fire inspection unless there’s a specific complaint.

Reporting suspected safety issues to the Fire Marshall or Building Official is okay. You’re not being a Karen. Building and Fire codes are written in response to avoidable tragedies and should be followed.

I love QGIS so much. I use it professionally every day. The city I’ve worked for has used it for years.

We are about to bit the bullet on a few ESRI seats mostly for interoperability with some of our consultants and easier use of REST servers and stuff, but we’re getting the absolute cheapest licenses because all the spatial analysis tools thay cost thousands extra per license are free in QGIS, and I can still use it.

Matthew 25:31-46 is when Jesus lays out the standards by which people will be judged. I don’t think MAGA would rate highly by Jesus’s standards, since it’s based entirely on the treatment of the poor, the sick, foreigners, and the imprisoned.

‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’

I prefer beer that’s beer.

Lots of jurisdictions are blocking the site now, necessitating VPNs to access the site.

There’s probably a higher percentage of Linux adoption among VPN users.

I don’t know if it’s still tru, but they used to be the number one steak restaurant in the country because their streaks were so cheap.

But it’s still a very locked-down device. Boox and several other options run Android, so you can use whatever apps you want.

I can’t decide what I think about Remarkable. They’re a very closed system, which is bad, but the lack of options and apps makes is a better device for people looking specifically not to have distractions.

I use a Boox 10" color e-ink tablet, and am mostly happy with it, though it was pricey.

It’s less-true when cooking for 1. Food doesn’t last forever, so you can’t save as much by buying in bulk, and there scopes a point where the small cost savings may not be worth the extra time required. I’m not gonna spend several extra hours a week on shopping, cooking, and cleaning to save 3 dollars a meal.