u/Mercurydriver

See this is part of the reason why I quit my last job in New York and found a different job closer to home in NJ.

I used to take the bus into the Port Authority and it was a clusterfuck. Buses that were late or straight up never showed up. Buses that were crowded and basically running past capacity. Passengers that would play music/videos out loud on their speaker, or have phone calls/FaceTime calls that seemed to last over an hour. And if you tried to ask the offender to end the phone call or get some earbuds, they would tell you to STFU and mind your own business, or threaten you with violence.

No thanks. I’m not paying $500+ for a monthly bus pass where I can’t even enjoy the point of mass transit (efficiency, faster travel times, low stress).

Just found out the other day that my blood pressure is unusually high for my age (31), so there’s that.

Admittedly, my diet isn’t always perfect, and I legitimately hate exercise, so I guess it’s not a surprise. I’m looking at ways to be more active. I’m looking for physical activities or exercises that are actually fun and not just lifting dumbbells for an hour or running on a treadmill.

Oh yes! That was the Gen3 seat belt system. IIRC the release button stuck out past the buckle by like…a half inch or so. Doesn’t seem dangerous, right?

As it turns out, in car crashes, people’s hands or objects flying around the cabin could accidentally bump into the release button, causing the seat belt to unbuckle itself and the passenger would effectively be unrestrained.

The Gen3 seat belt buckle was installed in millions of Chrysler made cars and trucks. No recalls were done.

Tragically, this username was created when I had a Mercury. Poor thing blew out its reverse gear back in 2018 and I sold it afterwards.

But yes. I’m self-aware of the NPC-ness of my username.

Honda CRV: the NPC car for NPC people.

Not only that, but these people reproduce multiple times over, and teach their kids how to be just as shitty too.

In regard to your last paragraph; I suspect that Starbucks (and similarly designed coffee shops) don’t actually want you in the store for extended periods of time. They want you to make your purchase then GTFO as soon as you can.

My guess is that they don’t want to deal with people that only buy one coffee or one item, then turn a part of the store into their own personal WFH space or college library/study room for many hours on end. Or they don’t want to deal with loitering issues that can escalate into arguments with customers or involving the police.

Ooh I think I know the answer to this!

So there’s a group called the Insurance Institute For Highway Safety. They do a lot of safety testing and research on cars, and award cars/companies with the safest cars and designs. Car companies love advertising “Top Safety Pick” awards from these guys. To their credit, they’ve actually forced car companies to take safety seriously, far beyond basic government regulations.

About 10 years ago, the IIHS added a headlight safety requirement to their ratings system. The headlight test is basically they drive the car around a darkened, partially enclosed test track and look at the headlight brightness levels. Cars that don’t have bright enough headlights fail the test and don’t get top safety awards.

Sounds cool, right? But the test is done on a flat, enclosed test track. It’s not done in different weather conditions, or in different terrains or environments. They don’t test headlights in say, a downtown city district with people, buildings, and other vehicles around. Car companies made the headlights brighter to pass specific IIHS tests, but not for actual usage on highways or around other road users.

It’s great that say, Toyota can make headlights that can light up a football field. But we don’t need those kind of lights when I’m driving around town on curvy roads and I share the road with hundreds of other cars.

https://www.iihs.org/ratings/about-our-tests/headlights

Yes! This all the way!

I hate that everyone has an app now, even for places where I don’t think it’s necessary or practical. I remember when Wawa (shout out to my fellow NJ Reddit users) debuted their Wawa Rewards app and literally every single time I went into a Wawa store, they would ask me to sign up for the app. Because I guess they give a small discount on purchases or you get Wawa points or whatever.

Like dude…I don’t care. I don’t feel like starting another account so that another corporation can poach data about myself and bombard me with ads and notifications. I’m just here to put gas in my truck and get an iced coffee before I go to work at 5am. I don’t care that the app will take 25¢ off my iced coffee purchase if I download it today. Leave me alone.

That’s why I like the setup in my 2022 Maverick. It has a big touchscreen for Apple CarPlay and its relevant features, but the climate control, music controls (volume, skip, rewind) and other important features are still hard buttons and dials. My muscle memory knows exactly where the fan speed dial is, and it makes small clicks whenever it’s turned in any direction.

I remember during my first semester of college, I was taking the freshman level chemistry class that was required for the engineering majors at my university.

The professor was one of those people that had a PhD and loved making it clear that she was much smarter than us schmucks sitting in her lecture hall, and she was going to prove it any way she could. The professor intentionally made exams extremely difficult and obtuse that the class average for exams was like…a 37%.

IMO I honestly believe some people get into higher education not because they have a true passion for education, but because they love showing off their PhD’s and how much smarter and better they are than everyone else.

Why not both?

Plot twist: the sex noises are coming from somewhere inside the parking garage, and you’re forced to hear it from your garage view hotel room.

I’ve done cruises with interior cabins. Honestly, it’s probably the best way to go.

More than likely, you’re spending most of your time either at entertainment events onboard the ship, outside on the pool deck, or at whatever port city/island you’re visiting that day. You’re not going to be in the cabin all day, or even for extended periods of time (outside of sleeping).

Bailey is a smart boy! He’s probably a better driver than a lot of people.

I don’t have any good NJ Transit memories. In fact, most memorable moments involving NJ Transit are terrible, if not disastrous.

That being said, probably the most interesting one is the one time I was in the Port Authority Bus Terminal and saw a homeless guy take trash out of a nearby trash can, light it on fire, and pass out on a bench next to his newly propagated fire. Port Authority cops eventually came by and arrested the homeless fire starter.

My mom (and people like my mom) are basically the target demographic Buick looks into.

My mom has been a General Motors customer since 2012(?), specifically with Buick, GMC, and Cadillac cars. She drove basic Ford and Honda cars for many years. Then as she entered the final years of her career, she wanted to upgrade to something nicer and more comfortable than the plain ass cars and minivans that she drove up until that point.

The local GM dealers in my area usually have pretty cheap lease deals, so mom got hooked on being able to drive more premium vehicles and upgrading them every 3 years or so, and having complimentary maintenance plans included in the lease. So far, she’s been pretty happy with the cars she’s driven and has no issues with General Motors.

It’s not AI. That dogs name is Stella and she even has an Instagram page called “dognamedstella”

Stella has been running into leaf piles for many years. It’s kind of her thing.

That’s my brother. He love fitness and exercise stuff. He’s constantly at the gym, does all sorts of exercise classes (kickboxing, CrossFit, etc), triathlons, and marathons. He genuinely enjoys physical fitness and exercising.

I wish I could naturally love exercising like him.

I just had this conversation with my family a few days ago.

I was venting a bit over dinner about how much I hate driving in this state. I’ve driven in/visited 15 US states, and yes, some states have their own issues. But NJ drivers seem to be a unique blend of stupid and aggressive at the same time. NJ drivers are the worst drivers I’ve encountered, and NJ seems to be the only state where driving is a problem.

I can relax while driving say, through the Pennsylvania Turnpike or through Ohio. The same can’t be said about NJ.

Can confirm: I work in construction and dropped many a turd in port-a-potties.

I don’t think I’d mind a beginner-level team sport. Or at least I wouldn’t mind trying it out to see if I could enjoy it.

lol the cubby space next to the screen is wire storage for me. I have a dash cam in my Maverick and for some reason, the camera came with a 5ft cable to go from the 12V outlet to the camera. So I took the excess cable, coiled it up nicely with a zip tie, and stowed it in the cubby space.

The storage space behind the screen is what I call my pond. I have a couple of mini rubber ducks and a Funko Pop of Sebastian the crab.

Just a reminder that Geico made $6.8 Billion in profit for 2025. $10.5 million is a small percentage of their profits, and the $1.2 million penalty is a complete joke. They’ll make that money back in a few days.

We need to start making corporate fines more harsh. I’m talking about making them half of the previous year’s profits; something that could devastate a corporation if they were truly punished for their crimes and misdeeds. Oh, and corporate executives get jail time. (https://coverager.com/geico-end-2025-with-6-8-billion-profit/)