They do this with paint now. 75 cents surcharge on a gallon, which in turn allows you to bring back partials you will never use / have gone bad / etc 'free of charge'.
I have believed this to be the case for many laws and regulations, and people's corresponding actions in all scope of modern living.
Offshoring personal "rights and wrongs" by scapegoating 'against' a law ("well, it isn't illegal!") Or regulation.
This also leads for obvious abuses. When there are books of "lines in the sand", hard statements and conditions, it only takes a dedicated and we'll resources group/company/individual to work around those rules, while the normal person* cannot likely do the same.
Regulations have a heavy hand in the picking and choosing of market victor.(s)
Side note: use 'nice' LED strip lights if you go this route. I did a similar project with a small 19" monitor, for the lensz etc, and grabbed cheapo home Depot LED strip -- it worked about as expected: not daylight/bright enough. I'd reel off specs but the LED strip had none on the box. :-)
Next, larger lens waiting at my brother's house will get a better treatment.
As an aside, it's a really neat project to do, my kids thought it was super cool to help with. Large one will go in stairwell.
I live in Maine. The State way up there in the corner of the states... Search for articles on 'billing issues' from our (largest) power company, Central Maine Power.... (It has been a pretty large deal for almost a few years now; Major cluster*)
Any guesses who they were somewhat-recently bought out by? Yup. You guessed correctly.
I'm not sure these are issues; I believe it's how this terrible company just tries to make more money.
Oh man! If I recall correctly, Prince of Persia was perhaps this way on the Mac? I have the vaguest memory of some stapled , crinkled, photocopied pages as reference...
Just recently watched a movie last week, 'Fantastic Fungi'. It covers some of this, as well as many other interesting (and beautiful) aspects about Mushrooms/Fungi.
Completely not that important, but I did this a year or so ago, committed 'the number' to google voice, and handed out my new one to close contacts. It took a bit for people to filter their calls correctly, and I could always answer the 'business line' regardless, but I have zero regrets about it now.
We cull deer populations (etc) so they don't run out of resources but fail to see any connection to our environmental concerns. Not advocating for culling people, but certainly the footprint we have deemed necessary.
Endless growth isn't possible but most economic systems demand that it happen.
Nothing remarkable about anything here. The machine respects people as much as it respects. the environment; it doesn't.
Just to add to your example list, as I house painter, I pay perhaps 50% of what the major paint brands/retailers will charge out on the shelf for most of the products that I buy. I don't have to throw crazy 'volume' at them, but honestly, I'm sure any painter buys substantially more paint in a year than any homeowner.
They provide tiered pricing -- If I tend to buy a lot of xyz, then I get better pricing on it, etc.
Being a reasonable folk, I only mark up a handful of % off my price -- I hunch many in my industry do a similar markup off retail.
Maine here. Not only do they sand and salt a ton, but I believe it is Calcium-Chloride that they spray down before storms are about to hit. Liquid, onto the roads. You should see cars following 10 ft behind them on the highway when this is being done... eeek.
You can literally hear it eating at your car if in a quiet place.
"Not too rusty" around here is... Well, you're familiar.
I once had someone send me a decent sum of money using Zelle, but I had no Zelle account. I tried to set one up, CU not supported. Went the Debit route -- Also, in my case, not supported.
After a few phone calls with their customer service department, it was evident that it was not going to work out. ALSO, they had no way to 'refund' that person the sizable amount of money beyond waiting the 2 weeks or so it takes for that money to be 'unclaimed', and thus reverting to the originating account.
So, for 2 weeks, thousands of dollars were 'stuck' in no mans land.
It all resolved out, when the timeframes were hit, and transactions reversed, but it still boggles my mind that they do not have a method beyond this when such cases arise.
As a self-employed painter (and a good list of other trades prior to), I'd say that references work both ways -- You, as the client, want the tradesman to have good references, but in my little neck of the woods, everyone knows everyone -- And we also use references to 'feel out' if we even want to work for someone.
Who do I want to work for? Someone who appreciates the end result, but is reasonable about timelines and a 'structured but not fully firm' timetable.
In the trades, we are usually doing a fine dance between other tradesmen doing their thing, then it is our turn to do our thing. So many phases in the process of a new build or remodel effort requiring all these different trades to line up correctly, usually between at least a few projects going on at the same time. When the plumber is 3 weeks behind, it bumps the insulators, which bumps the drywallers, which bump the painters, which (can) bump some finishing details, etc.
So, I'd say honestly, the understanding of things being delayed (within reason) is my primary "will work for them again" metric. Obviously we all work to get paid, but being paid isn't the reason I do what I do. Taking pride in work done is how I'm able to 'stare at walls' all day, and be fine with it.
That being said, throughout the thread I see people stating that no one wants to deal with the residential work. I primarily focus on residential work. It's probably easier to bill to the moon and skip some corners in the commercial world (ie. 'make more money') but as mentioned above, I've zero interest in that - It's a combination of being compensating fairly and pride in the work.
Find someone that does good work, for a fair price, and be civil -- It will be remembered. I'd dare say that most trades people that I know/knew have no problems with the 'stress of work', but the interactions with over-demanding clients are what cause them never to be willing to take a call again.
OR bill out the nose, hoping they don't even get the job, as it's just not worth it. (irony is, most of these stories end up with them getting the job, anyway).
It's not impossible to raise children in these conditions. I just turned 40 and have an 8 1/2 and 6 1/2 year old in the living room next to me reading books to each other.
There are 2 of them, and one of me. I am 'enslaved' to the bank for the next 20 something years. I am self-employed in the trades. I have very solid foundation in fixing and building things, which seems to survive many economic downturns as things that are needed to be done, are needed to be done regardless if a booming market or not - You just may face a bit more competition at that point.
Not ranting against you, or picking on your decisioning - Obviously it is a super-personal choice, and I'm glad thoughts have been put in place about many factors involved.
That being said, I've heard "I'm going to wait until I am 100% fully stable and secure to do **" my entire life. While I will agree that there are certain conditions and 'times of lives' that are extremely bad* ideas to do large things, especially when it comes into involving other dependents, I really don't think 100% stability is ever achievable.
You or your significant other could be taken out by a car tomorrow, or be caught in a fire, or even hit by lightening.
Obviously I had my first child when I was in the lower 30's -- for me, I'm finding this to be a very nice timeframe that worked in my life. I was far less stable than I am now, in the conventional sense of having a savings account, or owning a house, and I've managed to both purchase a house, and while hardly rich by any conventional notions of the world, when the car(s) break, or the house needs a roof, I am able to have those things done by either paying $ outright, or using prior life skills to offset the labor charges of those things making them more financially easier to swallow. My point is, now I am 40. They are still pretty little, and yeah, children require an insane amount of work and energy input to not only 'maintain', but 120% of what you have to offer to really enjoy the experience. I, personally, wouldn't want to be any older than I am now while having children at the ages they are - Advil is frequently consumed by now, part of growing up rolling around on a skateboard, part doing manual trades for (most) of my working life thus far, and part just being 40 and out of the 'Spring Chicken' age.
Time goes by, and with it, we get older. There is no way of changing that. The other factors in modern life, the money, the housing, the 'stability' can ebb and flow both by actions of your own and by actions too varied to even account for -- But time goes one direction.
I wish you the best, and strongly suggest if you want to have a child, and it's not 'the worst time possible' to do as such (drug addictions, homeless, uh, similar things) then perhaps ditch some of the fear of 'stability' (that truly very few have; none if you acknowledge life can end at any time for any of us) and get to doing the living!
Hard times happen to many; Even us single parent folk (and yeah, it makes things a bit harder, that's for sure) but I can promise you, if you care and you're willing to put the effort in, boy, it's worth it!
Just as an example, a BY Audi has it's TCM (transmission) module under the us passengers side floor carpeting. It is in 'a box", but the box is in no way sealed. The metal box that is the TCM as a whole is made of metal, and maybe attempted to be sealed a bite but isn't sealed.
B6 Audis have a design problem with their sunroof drains. When they clog up, unknown to you, the water will pool in passengers footwell area. It takes a while to notice this as a person, as there is 4-6" of foam padding between the metal floor of the car, and where you rest your feet
. The TCM lives between these layers, and eventually, in the lake that will form, submerging your TCM -- leaving you with yet another reason to hate your Audi.
This is early 2000's. Late 200* a8 models had I believe 30+ different "computers" living in the same over metal under foam situation.
An aside, if you ever wash the engine bay of a car with low pressure water, I'd suggest covering the blatant electronic bits with some plastic bags, and leave the car idling when you do so -- that way if/when it starts to sputter or just dies, you have a general idea of where it all went wrong.
They really are not as water tight as we all assume.
Our household recently acquired an optical scope. 10x, 40x, 400x with stock eyepiece. With a cellphone adapter, which is about a 40x for the objective (vs 10x actual eyepiece) we hit about 1600x magnification at our kitchen table.
Absolutely surreal to take a toothpick end of yogurt, put it on a slide and WATCH the bacteria in the yogurt running around.
Or other small beings munching up things as they swim along.
It's been a real eye opener for the 7 and 9 year old and strongly suggest people investigate things like this, it's downright cool.
But yes, the few 'lesser' digital scopes are far better for cool pictures of bugs, bees, ants, flies, etc. Once you get into the optical / need slides route, you really need to be looking for literal microscopic things or the depth of field (and lack of available light) make it quite a letdown.
We can see fruit fly individual blood cells flowing out of a smashed fruit fly into a slide. So. Damn. Neat.
It's a Walter 40-cxm-100 model from ... 2005 ish maybe? (Point being , it's all metal, and SOLID) - where I imagine a newer model may be not so metal and solid (or maybe it is?)
Regardless, we lucked out and had someone give it to us because they were no longer using it for their original purpose (finding parasites , etc in many large flocks of sheep via fecal samples - get gave it a good wipe down, haha - plus I grew up on a farm and live in Maine, so wasn't much of a concern...) But originally seemed to be a $400 scope. Now a comparable model seems to be closer to $300.
Honestly, I have pretty limited microscope experience, but my experience with anything optical really tends to carry a paying for the glass quality situation, and where things like binoculars, telescope, cameras you get it, anything where the optics ARE the tool, there seems to be a price point somewhere separating "this does not work as intended vs this works as intended and this it is actually useful". I have no idea where this line is for microscopes however. Kids telescopes, junk.
I don't know your kids, but at 3 and 5 we certainly had a cheap digital scope to plug into a phone and explore - I still have ladybug, bees, etc pictures on the wall. If you don't have one of these yet, I'd suggest that route first? I can say that my son (9) finds the bacteria/etc amazing as I do, but my daughter is still more into the digital lower zoom levels. Partially age, partially kid to kid basis.
Been doing all of these type of stuff with them hardcore since 2 and 4. Dry ice experiments, building weird things, even built one of those digital topographical sandboxes you've probably seen in the living room (then went for blocks covered by painter rags, instead of sand in the living room...and I'm a painter, ha)
Point is, it's paid off huge. They are ever curious about the world, and often approach things as how or why does this work?
New toys for us all is a hackRF/portapack and a RTL-SDR, and it warms my heart to see them learning about RF at the same time I do.
Sorry, tangent. I'd try to figure out where that optical price point is. And if looking to cheaply get it on a screen, a cellphone adapter is a pita to hook up (it's on a nexus 6p old phone for our case) , it works pretty well, and the additional camera processing our phones do actually seems to add to the experience vs a stand alone camera unit ($150-$500).
We have moss soaking in water on the counter now. Tomorrow is family day, and we're aiming to get real up close and personal to some water bears!
My work number is a Google voice number, but was my 'real' number before segmentation in hopes of gaining sanity with my phone (sidenote, if anyone is self employed and busy enough to be debating such a plan, do it, no regrets), and I've had zero issues with 2FA coming through to my once a cell number now a voice number.
Absolutely. I tell my kids all the time that one only has so much energy, and that I choose to spend my energy on things I can actually put effort into changing while the things I have basically little or no bearing on are paid some attention, but I don't let them worry me too much.
"It is what it is" applies to so many modern world 'stresses'. Certainly makes life far easier to deal with and when the energy one does have is spent wisely, individual growth also trends upwards. Win win.
If you do not have one, buy a dock! I have a sp6 and 4 , and having the dock makes it quite the device. Speakers, multiple external monitors, keyboard, mouse -- a full desktop setup, I can grab and either stick a keyboard cover on or just use as a reading device on the couch.
Back to work? Sit on table, one cable and it's back to a desktop and charging up again.
Remember that your overall purpose of life is to simply live it. Let go of your inner expectations ('long term goals') and exist. New long term goals will appear in a new direction as they see fit, and if you have interest, work on those. When those change, continue onward.
Long term is simply 'in this period when I'm alive". We don't know this duration. Ease up on yourself, breathe and enjoy what interests you.
Obviously 5hing changes when you/it you have children, but tia but another path to be pursued if it arises!
Plenty of commonality, but you have to go to their level to achieve it. As they grow older, and as the years progress you get to slowly interject your own interests and hobbies into the shared activities and see what resonates between you and them, and go from there.
It also very quickly becomes a 2 way street -- plenty to learn from them at the same time -- one just has to pay attention.
Literally a growth opportunity for all parties if you embrace and then extend! (Frowned upon seemingly with say web browser standards, very positive in raising children!).
Watching my 9 and 7 year old play taco vs. burrito as we speak.
100% agreed. Oftentimes it seems people try to break out of a 'rut' by placing themselves in a new city, forcing to make new friends, visit new places etc in hopes of finding a spark towards ... Life.
The above mentioned chemicals can certainly help provide that new interest and appreciation and I'd call it the next day "clarity" without leaving your lawn.
I'd advocate in a reasonable, responsible , manner for sure (with perhaps a 'babysitter' for reasons).
If you seem to be stuck in a loop, eyes will be opened.
Counter point, 7 and 9 here, and they've slept through the nights every night, since they were both 3(ish), minus perhaps a night a year for each usually due to being sick or what-have-you.
I realize I'm lucky -- but perhaps you will be too!
My memory was marathon on the Mac played over a similar connection speed. I forget the software but it allowed a networked game to be emulated over a PPP dialup session.
(Building a fort...)
Pre/post hatchet moment, many many many serious power tools and no incidents.
The key to anything is paying attention.