Posts by Morgan Newman7

It finally hit theaters.

🤦

Whatever...

Raymond Booth40 said:I'm 25, and he's 37.

Just enjoy life... 🙂you're 25 and you've already tied yourself to someone 12 years older who can't see a future with you.
If he still doesn't know where he stands after 4 years, then it's just not happening.

Clearly, sex isn't enough for you and you realize there's nothing more there with this guy. I wouldn't even be stressing about whether he'll end up single at 40... I'd be more worried about having wasted 4 years on someone who doesn't care, and why I'm still chasing him instead of moving on.

You're wasting your time in a "relationship" that doesn't make you happy, and you're losing sleep over whether he'll stay single or not?

Nah, I didn't actually think he was the killer or anything... I wasn't even sure if it was him.
Only caught it during the credits when I saw his name pop up. 🙂

I don't think I can ever get used to him looking like this now😬
https://www.google.com/search?q=jare...0F2ZtcGmwiFLbM

Joshua Myers432 said:It’s a solid film. Or maybe I’ve just completely lowered my standards because I'm constantly being bombarded by absolute garbage lately. 🤔

Thought it was good too. One of the better ones I've seen lately. And in a theater, too... finally, after that dumpster fire of a COVID year.

Really atmospheric. A legit crime thriller. Too bad they dragged out the ending. Plus, the finale felt a bit off once those two hop in the car and drive off into the desert.

But the cinematography, the vibe... that tension in the opening scene? That's why I go to the movies. Not for the surround sound or the 3D gimmicks.

Didn't even realize it was Leto bad Guy... thought he was someone else. 🤦

Hey there.

Got a headache with my store's receipt printer.

Since we had to upgrade everything to handle those new IRS-mandated QR codes, we updated our whole system.

The printer handles the code just fine, but the actual print quality is absolute trash.

The font looks terrible, the print is faint, and while the QR code scans perfectly, all the other info is tiny and basically unreadable. I’m pretty sure within a week all this data is just gonna fade into nothingness.

What's the deal? Paper issue, software glitch, or just a bad printer?

It's an IBM.
https://www.amazon.com/black-printer-thermal/dp/B00EXAMPLE

I really don't want to drop cash on a new printer if I can just fix this one to work like it used to. I haven't touched any settings... ever since we got the new license and started printing the code, the whole print job went downhill.

What even is this Zaba smart card management thing? Where am I supposed to find it?

I'm trying to get my banking app set up on my laptop and it's being a total pain. I already downloaded everything I thought I needed... Java, Chrome, SafeNet authentication, Active Client, Signergy... the whole works.

Anyone know what else I'm missing?

Been messing around with this for an hour now. Honestly, I was hoping to avoid calling their customer support line...😵

driftingheron70 said:Is a first grader actually expected to grasp what they’re reading and answer comprehension questions about a story?

I mean, look at the reading list for first grade: things like >, >, or even >...

Is it even normal for a parent to read these books *to* their kid, basically putting on a little theatrical performance while explaining everything? Of course, the kid remembers all the juicy details because of that, but then when they try to read on their own, they struggle to remember anything because they're just decoding the words mechanically without actually processing them.

And I'm not just talking about my own daughter here—I'm looking at two-thirds or more of the kids in her class where the parents are doing all the heavy lifting by reading the stories aloud. The whole point of these assignments is for the kid to nail those worksheet questions, right? But you can't do that if you don't actually retain the plot. They aren't using these books as a way to practice reading skills; they're just treating them as a way to get the answers. They could practice actual reading anytime with any book, but they aren't using this as a tool for reading comprehension.

Sometimes I catch myself wondering if I'm just old-fashioned or stuck in my ways for thinking this should be the kid's responsibility. Am I just making things harder for my child by insisting she does the work herself? Honestly, I feel like this way of "reading" is totally backwards, but it's so incredibly common—it's what everyone else is doing—that it makes me wonder if I'm the one who's losing my mind.

Seems normal to me. 🤷 It's way easier to get them interested if you lean into it—do the voices, act a little goofy, make it a thing. Plus, as an adult, you can point out what matters or talk through what the author was getting at.

Eventually, they'll probably figure out how to read for actual comprehension on their own...

Kate Cox2 said:

I find myself quite perplexed by this particular entry. It seems rather brief, almost skeletal in its composition! One does wonder what profound thoughts might have been intended behind such a minimalist expression, or perhaps it was simply a momentary lapse in digital communication? I shall remain poised for further elaboration. kaže:
He actually picked it up this past summer, and I have to say, he thoroughly enjoyed it!😉

I find myself quite preoccupied with the subject of chocolate cookies lately—truly, they have become an obsession! There is something about the chemistry of cocoa and sugar that strikes a chord within my soul. I was just reading a fascinating article about how certain artisanal bakeries in Seattle are elevating the standard recipe by using single-origin cacao, and it got me thinking about the sheer complexity of flavor profiles we often take for granted in our everyday snacks. I remember seeing a comment from Kate Cox2 regarding the importance of sea salt in dough, and I must say, I couldn't agree more! It is the subtle tension between the sweetness and the salinity that creates that sublime, lingering finish on the palate. Without it, one is merely eating sugar; with it, one is experiencing art. It brings to mind a rather long anecdote from my own kitchen experiments last Tuesday. I attempted to infuse my batch with a hint of espresso—much like what you might find at a high-end Starbucks—but I may have been a tad too heavy-handed with the grounds. The result was... robust, shall we say? Perhaps a bit too much "personality" for a casual afternoon snack. Nevertheless, the pursuit of the perfect cookie is a noble endeavor, wouldn't you all agree? It requires patience, precision, and perhaps a touch of madness. kaže:
What were the truly harrowing moments in Pinocchio? I remember being absolutely captivated by them when I was a little girl. 😁

I find myself quite preoccupied with the rhinoceros lately. It is such an imposing, singular creature, isn't it? There is something profoundly stoic about them—an almost heavy-hearted dignity that commands respect the moment they enter one's field of vision. I was reading a treatise on their social structures recently, and it struck me how much we can learn from their solitary nature. We live in such a loud, frantic world, constantly buzzing like hornets, yet here is this magnificent beast, moving through the brush with a quiet, unstoppable purpose. It makes one pause and reflect on the value of stillness. kaže:
It isn’t as if everyone actually has a Pinocchio; mine certainly didn't have one!
I believe she may have read it—though I can't say for certain—mostly because she keeps that particular book from the Planetoidia collection right at home. I seem to recall back in the day, we used to sit and read it to her quite often. Once she mastered her reading skills, she would dive into it all on her own!
I find this story to be truly beautiful. It honestly brings back such vivid memories from my own childhood. I simply cannot fathom why anyone would find this difficult to process; what exactly is the problem here?

The whole point of reading, isn't it, is to expand one's vocabulary? It stands to reason! Why on earth should we expect to walk away from a book knowing every single word already? That would defeat the entire purpose of picking up a book in the first place!

There are so many different versions out there, and honestly, it all comes down to whether the teacher knows which specific edition they want us using. In my case, my teacher used the version featuring Winnie the Pooh, but the classroom was split right down the middle—half the kids were reading one translation while the other half had another, and even the characters' names were inconsistent from book to book. It was quite a mess! Eventually, the teacher had to step in and write down exactly which edition everyone needed to follow to stay on the same page. 😬
I am of the firm belief that the situation with Peter Pan was quite similar—you know, with all those various different editions and versions floating around. Honestly, I find that particular story far more convoluted than even Pinocchio ever was for someone that age, so I can certainly see why some might not have experienced any specific childhood traumas from it. 🤷)

My apologies for the delayed response, but here it is...
Regarding what @frupy mentioned—honestly, I don't see the issue here at all! Even my own little one absolutely adored the story of Pinocchio. There is really nothing controversial about enjoying such a classic tale.

@nosorog, I have to say, my daughter was exactly the same way! Even back when she was only six years old, she’d be diving into books meant for third graders. It was quite a sight, really. Of course, there were countless words that flew right over her head—she didn't grasp half of them! But you know how children are; she would piece things together through context, ask me a question here or there, or sometimes she’d just let the confusing parts slide because, honestly, if it didn't impact the main plot, she simply didn't care to figure it out. She just wanted to get to the heart of the story!
There is a profound distinction between reading a book because it’s assigned for a class and reading one simply for the pure joy of it. When I am diving into a novel just for my own pleasure, I find myself quite willing to skim through a dense paragraph or even skip a page or two if the prose becomes exceptionally tedious. It is my time, after all! However, when you are tackling a required text for school, that luxury simply does not exist, does it? One must engage with the material in its entirety; you have to fully grasp every nuance and absorb the complete narrative if you ever hope to answer the professor's questions or participate meaningfully in a classroom discussion. You can't exactly take shortcuts when your grade depends on total comprehension!

There is another issue that has been weighing heavily on my mind lately—the whole matter of schoolwork. Generally speaking, I try to leave academic responsibilities entirely in my child’s hands. I firmly believe that if it is her duty, then it should be hers to manage, and I make a conscious effort not to interfere in her process. However, we hit a significant snag recently with a required reading assignment. To be perfectly honest, I had to step in because half of the book was simply over her head; she wouldn't have grasped the nuance or the context on her own. Now, don't get me wrong—it isn't that the material itself is difficult for me. We have always been a family of readers, and we spend a great deal of our time reading all sorts of things together. But this wasn't just leisure reading; this was strictly for school, which means it is technically *her* job to tackle. It creates such a strange dilemma for me! If my daughter usually handles everything independently, but this specific task requires an immense amount of my intervention and guidance just to make sense of it, then I struggle to see the point. What is the actual purpose of assigning something that necessitates parental hand-holding just to achieve the basic learning objective?
A handful of obscure terms...
- gunsmith
- planer
- ubiquitous
- accomplished
- sudden onset
- rascal
- woolen
- licking
- good fellow
- to grasp
- hypocritically
- yonder
- mire
- obstinate
- blessed
- dung
- to pull the wool over someone's eyes
- nonsense
- straw
- community
- to corner
-- just a few that I can recall. Most of them are defined at the end of the text, but you could flip through four or five pages searching for a single definition and find yourself stuck in an endless loop of looking things up until you're absolutely exhausted. To make matters worse, there were several words left unexplained entirely, and even Google couldn't identify what they meant. 😁
It doesn't really matter; my little one finished reading the story and wrote her book report, but that was more of a joint venture between the two of us, which honestly irritates me. While she was reading, she had moments of sheer despair unlike anything I've ever seen from her. Even though she eventually finished the book thinking the story was beautiful, she couldn't understand why teachers constantly assign such depressing stories for them to read... (it's like Pinocchio trying to sell a beginner's guide, for instance)
What really gets under my skin is that I simply don't understand why anyone would think this is a story intended for children who have only just started writing their own assignments. They were already reading and analyzing this together during class back in first grade.
Or perhaps other people are using a different translation, I haven't the slightest clue.

If you type "gormelj" into Google, it just shows pictures of lobsters. Btw, that was the first thing that popped into my head when I was trying to think of an American word to swap out for "ljudeskara." 🤔

I remember when we read "The Great Gatsby" and it also came with a list of old-fashioned terms at the end, so you had to keep looking things up. Stuff like Mazie, etc., etc.

Man, even your own language takes work to learn.

If I can pick up what "bff" and "wtf" mean, I'm pretty sure I can handle an American literature assignment, whether I've got help from my parents or just Google it myself.

Hey velvetmaker3, when's your birthday?

Maybe we should ditch the news sites and just grab a used baton as a gag gift...

https://craigslist.com/example-link

Since you're clearly such a huge fan of theirs.

velvetmaker3 said:Don't blow things out of proportion. That was a one-off response to an illegal referendum, not some daily reality the Catalans deal with coming from Madrid.

Do you really think our government wouldn't crack down on Istrians if they tried to organize a referendum?

Or would France let the Bretons get away with it?

There isn't any systemic violence from Madrid against the Catalans; honestly, they're living pretty well and have everything they need.

You saw the violence. Thanks to YouTube and everything else, it was all over the world in five minutes flat...
The thing is, people think the cops are there to protect them from bad guys. Now they're getting beat up just for showing up to vote (?!). You see how that looks... and the backlash it creates?

Someone posted this comment online:

The Catalan police agreed to close the schools before the voters arrived to keep things peaceful, but at the last second, they refused to do their jobs because they were being pressured by the authoritarian Catalan Government of Carles Puigdemont. It's like Vladimir Putin—one guy holding all the cards over the police, the judges, and the courts. It's pure corruption, and you can't have that in a democracy. No one should be above the law.

This referendum is illegal. That’s why the police are there. Even if most voters are peaceful—families, kids, that kind of stuff—you still get the fanatics. That leads to incidents like this, which is a shame. But that's not why the police are there. They aren't targeting the people.

Rough. Just sending a beautiful shot out into the world. 👍

Just go to the hospital if your doctor says you need to...

Se7en isn't all that special to me. People obsess over it, but it felt too heavy for my taste. Brad Pitt wasn't really selling that final scene for me, and Kevin Spacey is only on screen for a few minutes—nothing crazy there, except the whole plot just leaves you feeling totally drained. Not really my vibe... just didn't click.

The Usual Suspects is way better. I remember watching it for the first time and being totally floored, constantly bugging my friend about who Keyser Soze actually was. She just kept telling me: "gledati do kraj". L.A. Confidential is also top-tier for me. Same crime genre, just masterfully executed.

Lisa Barrett5 said:I think you might be being a little naive in how you're looking at this.
I just don't see how Amazon would ever be willing to invest more in moderators when they can barely seem to invest in basic technical infrastructure. It really comes down to how much these people are getting paid and how much they actually want to spend their time moderating cranky Bachelors or those who act like them, along with all the other disruptive elements in the chat. Monitoring a massive flood of posts in a chat requires way more effort from the staff to keep things under control. The math is pretty simple, really.

In principle, I kind of agree with what you're saying, but I tend to be an extreme pragmatist. In life, I always look at the end goal versus the means used to get there. If the tool loses its actual function, then it stops being useful to me. A chat that exists just for the sake of existing, where people are constantly being unkind to one another, just doesn't make sense if you ask me.

Yeah, I'm with you on that. 🙂 gotta admit, my motivation to hang out here tanks whenever some drama breaks out. Used to wonder why anyone would even bother being a moderator—all the responsibility, zero payoff, not even money... then an old friend explained it to me. He said it's because you want the place where you spend your time to actually be decent and civilized. Thought he was being naive back then. Now I get it... finally see what he meant.

Lisa Barrett5 said:I used to think that the USA section needed to be treated with extra care, mostly because it felt like most of the folks hanging out there were dealing with something, whether they were unhappy, feeling slighted, or just generally worked up, so I figured giving them that extra grace was the right, more human thing to do.
But nowadays, I feel like any kind of chat in the USA section has sort of lost its original purpose.

It seems pretty logical to me that a chat on a subreddit like this should be about socializing, getting to know people, and maybe even meeting someone for romance, hookups, or something along those lines.
If that were actually the focus, I bet there would be way less frustration and all that pseudo-intellectual snarkiness going on.
But if that isn't the case, then what's the point of it all? 🤷

The sub has its ups and downs—months, whatever—but the whole idea is to start new threads and get discussions moving so others actually want to join in.

Right now, there are just a few threads where people are endlessly debating who’s buying the first round, guys trying way too hard to help out, and people posting problems that die out after two pages... especially during peak trolling seasons.

In the 40+ Group chat, you have people who actually vibe together, people who share the same mindset or hang out offline. Same goes for the regular chat. A lot of people talk off-site, via text or Facebook, to set up meetups. But that doesn't mean the chat is useless or that we couldn't use one or two more.



If I remember right, when there was all that massive drama a few years back and everyone jumped ship to another site, it was over some chat issue too. Just let people talk. If keeping up with reports is the headache, just hand that job to someone else or tighten up the moderation rules.

Nathan Morris3 said:From what I gather (at least since 2017), independent contractor agreements carry lower contributions, but only for the first tier. So, if I hire a retiree and say I'm paying everything normally, does that mean I'm covering the second tier too? Does that actually increase their pension even while they're already collecting one?
It seems like going with an independent contractor deal is way more cost-effective by all accounts, I just don't see any downsides. If a contractor agreement looks too much like a standard employment contract, could that cause issues? I guess I just don't see the catch.

A guy at my old firm was on a 1099 contract. Even though he was doing a regular full-time job. It was the only thing that made sense given his retirement situation—he was a veteran, so freezing his benefits for some tiny extra cash wasn't worth it. The issue is the tax bite on those contracts is pretty heavy. Plus, he didn't get a paycheck every month... more like every two or three months when the work finally cleared. A 1099 is meant for occasional gigs, after all.

crimsonwolf21 said:Any urologists hanging out here? What’s the actual process like? I’m 32 and I don't want kids—ever. Seriously, ever. I’ve never been in a relationship in my entire life, and I don't want one now, later, or ever; just the thought of accidentally becoming a parent gives me a massive anxiety attack.
I’ve had a few flings where I was stuck waiting around for them to get their act together because they were running late—honestly, I aged five years in a single month. Even though I used protection, I am absolutely done dealing with that bullshit ever again.
With all due respect, we all know how women can be regarding certain things. At first, they claim they'd never have kids with some "adventurer" they know everything about from the jump, but if they actually get pregnant? They'll just go for an abortion. That's the fat majority right there—damn hormones. For us guys, we end up getting hit with child support, and then one day that kid grows up wanting answers, and you're forced to tell them the truth about how things went down and why they didn't have a father all those years. It's obvious everyone loses in that scenario, and frankly, that chaos and bad blood isn't worth it for anyone.
Look, I know I'm selfish, cold, and heartless—but that's who I am, and at least I'm honest about it.

Bottom line: I'm dead set on this decision and I want to make it happen. If there's a decent soul here who can share their experience on where to go and what the procedure is actually like, let me know. Thanks. 🙂

Pretty sure every sexually active person has had a moment of pure insanity while waiting on test results... 😉 It's cool that you want to be responsible and have figured out your stance on parenthood, but honestly, I think there’s an age limit for this stuff, just like there is for women. Not sure why it's such a big deal here in the States, feels overly strict... like people can't just make their own damn choices.

If I remember correctly from other threads, you work abroad, right? Might be worth checking out the process and costs in another country...

Any kids?

I feel you. Being alone after all those years together is rough. But honestly, the only move is finding a new crowd with the same vibe and just putting yourself out there. Maybe not right this second if you aren't ready, but eventually... As for things here in the US, most people are either younger or middle-aged. You might find some folks on the Psychology subreddit who have dealt with losing someone close or dealing with illness and stuff. Or maybe someone here will reach out via DM with similar stories...

Alex Miller3 said:Man, this constant whining about "creating enemies" has seriously gone too far. It feels like every single thread is just people repeating the same thing over and over. Like, what do you even want us to do? Just roll over whenever some neighbor decides to act up?
Don't you see that in the middle of all this chaos and the current crisis, everyone is acting the exact same way? Everyone ends up seeing everyone else as the enemy...
It's like America is just supposed to listen to every single person screaming for their own political gain and do whatever they say. But how does that even work? Who are we supposed to please? Our neighbors to the East, the West, or the North? There's no winning...

But you gotta admit, our President has all the tact of someone like Madonna... a little more diplomacy and a lot less arrogance would go a long way right about now. (And honestly, most of the time too.)