u/Sebekiz

Agreed.

My "sick leave" is separate from my vacation time at work. Vacation time can only accumulate to a certain level (4 weeks) and then I stop earning any until I use some. Sick leave continues to accumulate.

The reason the company limits vacation time is that they are required under state law to pay me for that time if I depart the company. Sick leave is lost when I leave, so they do not care how much I accumulate.

I am currently trying to find excuses to gradually draw down my sick leave since I have quite a bit saved up. For vacation time, I use a day now and again to keep from hitting the cap, but I mostly keep that banked so I can look forward to a nice final "bonus" some day when I leave the company.

I have stumbled across 2 channels on Youtube that make videos using AI that I have been rather impressed with.

The first is a series of short "fan fictions" set within the Star Wars stories. Something like a video showing the Empire's invasion of Hoth from the perspective of a squad of imperial troops. The video uses images of actors from the 50s and 60s to represent the storm troopers in the squad.

The second is a channel that has so far posted a video adaption of the first chapter of Book 1 of the Dragonlance trilogy. The characters look realistic, but aren't using the images of actors who I recognize. They've so far stuck very precisely to the dialog and events of the chapter. I'd love to see them continue to do the entire trilogy, chapter for chapter, but I suspect Wizards of the Coast will be suing them as soon as they find out about the project.

One time, in Band Camp...

Hudson Hawk, or the movie Oscar.

I've always been a night owl. Doing something at night is easy, but getting up in the morning or having any energy early in the day is always hard for me.

The main reason I don't go out late at night is there's very few things open. I kinda miss the days when grocery stores were open 24 hours, so I could go shopping at 1 AM when the place wasn't too busy.

If you are walking along the side of the road (not on a sidewalk) ALWAYS walk in the opposite direction of traffic so the cars are coming towards you from the front.

I constantly see people walking along the side of the road in the same direction as traffic so they cannot see the car coming up on them from behind. Often they are wearing headphones or walking along watching their phone so it's obvious they aren't even trying to pay any attention. It's like they want to become pancakes.

I've ordered a number of them from Amazon over the years. Near as I can tell, they are legitimate Zebra scanners and usually work pretty well for our employees in the field.

Thanks for the chapter.

I really love how Caleb is adjusting to who his brother is now. Still not perfect, but he is very obviously doing his best.

Sadly I am likely to not be able to retire for a few more years. I am ready, but my finances tell me now isn't quite the time.

I'd probably be yelled at by my wife.

Oddly enough, high bond yields may improve the utilities profits.

Utilities are regulated that they cannot make a profit on the electricity that they sell. They make their profit on the fees they charge for delivering that power to the customers. They have to go before regulators to increase those fees, and having to pay higher borrowing costs is probably enough for the regulators to allow them to increase their fees.

TL;DR: The more utilities spend on projects like new or replacement power lines, the higher their profits go. Higher bond costs actually serve to allow them to make even more money when they present those costs to the regulators.

THE ELECTRIC BILL TRAP: Why Your Monthly Power Bill Just Doubled!

He's not wrong. There are a few Republicans that are still trying to hold on to that philosophy, but the vast majority (80 to 90%) seem to be fine splurging on debt to kiss up to Trump.

The hotels that I support still have one in them in their back office. It's used to print out a running log of calls to 911, since it can print a line each time a call is placed and just continue to advance the same page rather than have to print on a whole new page each and every time.

Also America was worried that Japan would surrender to the Soviets, who had just declared war on Japan a short time before, rather than the US, which had been fighting them for 4 years.

Here's one hoopy frood who really knows where his towel is!

I'd deposit it into my mother's checking account. That might buy her another month or so of care at the nursing home and keep her from running out of money just that much longer.

Everyone has forgotten about it, why should I tell you so now someone remembers?

Firefly.

A great show whose own network was actively trying to sabotage it.

Retirement.

Still a few years out, but I am so ready for it.

I'll go with one of the classics...

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

Honestly I wanted to work for a bookstore like Waldenbooks back in the late 80s when I got out of high school. Instead I ended up in IT because I wanted to actually earn a decent living (and bookstores sadly have mostly died out.)

It's OK. It's interesting enough to kill some hours.

I have a bunch of music queued up to listen to on my headphones and a large glass of tea, so I will just relax and enjoy for a few hours.

Taking a break from reading to get a few things taken care of (load of dishes running in the dishwasher and a load of laundry moved to the dryer). I'll go back to reading in a few minutes, but figured I'd take a quick glance at Reddit to see if it looks like there is anything of interest going on around the world.

Hint: there really isn't.

I was in an accident this past Monday and my car was totaled by the Insurance company, so I am buying a new car.

I looked at used cars in my area and decided the "savings" wasn't really worth it. I signed for a new 2027 Hyundai Elantra Hybrid Blu today for $27k (final cost, including taxes, tags, etc.) When I was looking at used cars, they were all only slightly less expensive for cars with a lot of miles already on them.

For example, I was quoted $23k for a 2025 Elantra Hybrid with over 33,000 miles on it. A $4k savings (probably less since I suspect they would then add in taxes, etc. to that initial price) for a car that is already 1/3 of the way through the warranty period, and for which I have no idea how it was treated? Not worth the risk.

I drive about 2k miles a month just going to and from work (45 miles each way to the office). The last thing I want is a car that I can't be certain will be reliable.