I feel slightly better knowing that the Chinese suffer from Chinesium-based products as much as we do.

Are Xbox players paste-eaters or something?

🎶Who lives in a nightmare under the sea?🎶

It’s like a half hour long fever dream…

Conversation in a future space Starbucks: Me: “I’d like a triple grande, soy, no foam latte in a to-go vulva.” Barista: “Yes sir…”

Conversation in my local Starbucks tomorrow: Me: “I’d like a triple grande, soy, no foam latte in a to-go vulva.” Barista: “Sir, I have a taser and pepper spray, if you leave now, I won’t call the cops.”

Spiderman: Applies for a home mortgage Spiderman: Home Town Buffet Spiderman: Home Shopping Network

When I see how some women were treated in the 50’s, I get the feeling the scariest thing to many men would be a woman they couldn’t command.

Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

R.E.M. - Automatic for the people

Wait…there are people that clean their earbuds?

Had a friend borrow a large sum of money from me. Yes, I did it. Yes, I was repaid on time.

Thumb drives?

Social security will be bankrupt by 2033 according to their own estimates.

https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/index.html

Somehow they expect to pay 80% benefits beyond that point.

Expect your income taxes to go up…and by a lot.

What a terrible day to have eyes

In 2020 banks charged $30,000,000,000 in fees. That’s 30 BILLION dollars! By comparison all Hollywood movies make about $11 billion total!

So, for every dollar Americans spent on going to the movies, they spent three on account fees, over draft fees etc.

Banks answer to their share holders. Share holders like money, so banks charge fees.

Bank is a four-letter word.

Do something about the problem. Take away their ability to steal money from people that don’t have it.

Switch to a credit union. Lower or zero fees. Credit unions answer to their members, I.e. account holders.

“Leave Brittney alone” guy

Yeah, so, why did the pilot eject, if the plane was still flight worthy?

To be fair, I’m using my phone. I have a network ad-blocker, but it’s not as good as Brave. Still I would think they could stay away from the great Indian scammer enterprise for ad revenue, but I suppose torrent sites can’t exactly be too picky.

First thing that pops up when I go to the site: scam advertisement

“Your system is heavily damaged by viruses!”

slow cynical clapping

Appreciate the kind words. I suppose It’s not as common as it should be.

It was hard at first, mainly because we didn’t know how to handle it. Ultimately we had to let everyone else know what we did and why. Easier said than done.

We told them we wouldn’t be coming to any event where they would be present and stuck to our decision. This was the hardest part. We also had to let them know we were okay with it if they still wanted to have a relationship with her brother and SIL, and ended up having our own separate get togethers with other family members.

Took some time to get everyone onboard. Once we did, others started seeing what her brother and SIL were doing.

Wife had to remind them not to mention her brother or SIL. Not to forward any messages and not to give them our phone numbers, email addresses or mailing address.

Looking back, it wasn’t apparent how bad things were when we were in the middle of it. Now I wish we had cut ties right after we were married.

In my opinion, no amount of family pressure to meet is worth exposing ourselves to the toxicity her brother and SIL could dish out.

Her family wasn’t there when my wife would cry at night after her brother did or said something hurtful. I was.

Her family didn’t work for weeks to cheer her up when her SIL lied to another family member causing an upset. I was.

At the end of the day, members of your family are either going to support you or tear you down. If they don’t support you, they are enemies.

It doesn’t mean you have to engage in a fight. You can win by simply withdrawing completely.

They win when they upset you. Your despair literally encourages them to continue upsetting you.

Don’t communicate. Don’t give in. But also, don’t hold a grudge. You can forgive someone without falling into the same trap that got you in a bad place.

You have a right to surround yourself with people who will support your goals.

Tell the family members that support you that you appreciate your support. Don’t let anyone make light of their actions.

It doesn’t matter if ‘they had a rough upbringing’ or ‘they have a hard life’. It’s not an excuse, and it’s not a reason to let them get away with it. Lots of people had a “rough upbringing” and a “hard life”, but they don’t tear others down to make themselves feel better. Family members who can’t see this may also be problematic to associate with, because they can’t see the problem.

If you can’t see the problem, you’re bound to contribute to it.

You get to choose who you spend your time with.

You might be related, but you don’t owe anyone control over you.

You are your own person.