They should just secede from the union and be a small city state.

Would it benefit anyone? No. Would it be very costly to make the transition and potentially wreak havoc on the community? Absolutely. But would it create a sense of civic pride and feel good for the residents of Point Roberts? Also no.

Point Roberts has entered the chat

It was interesting because everyone thought she wasn’t hungry and kept giving solutions for that, but it wasn’t that she wasn’t hungry- she kept pawing at me and walking over to the kitchen/ her food bowl, but just wouldn’t eat what I gave her. She was very hungry, but I guess she was pickier than she was hungry.

By the way if you haven’t seen Over the Garden Wall, it’s worthy to take the torch of spooktober staple from the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Absolute gold.

Lol I didn’t know the context so I sang it in my head to go along with Musical Advice from Over the Garden Wall. Not perfect but it works!

As you hear the words “goodnight sweet prince”, you take your final bite of the Däz.

Thats what I’m talkin’ about.

And I bet this time you recieved blood before you got them

I like to think I’m an introverts extravert. Most of my friends are introverts and they seem to like having me around, especially in busy social settings since I can act as a barrier to help manage the mayhem. I will gladly offer my services to the introvert who pulls the lever.

Obligatory OP comment:

I’d probably drink PBR Xtra and the Cookies and Cream ice cream from Aldi all day and then croak.

I’m digging myself out of a $13k credit card debt hole. I burned through my savings when a job that I had ended on my unexpectedly, and because it was contract work I wouldn’t qualify for benefits. They kept me around as a sub, promising me a full time position if I just stuck around long enough and I was foolish enough to believe them.

I’m self employed now and making do with the best I can, but I’m planning on ending my dream as a musician/ teacher and moving home. I don’t know who would want my skills, but I know they are specialized and strong. I just gotta see what kind of work would value them.

Good idea! Thanks!

I mean even then the stats can change with so many variables. It’s kind of like how you have a 50% chance of surviving by splitting up with Sam. You both knew it had to be done- the forest was thick and you knew it could only stalk one of you. You wish you had more time with him, but someone had to survive to tell the tale.

As you get some distance and pray to God that you are alone, you crouch low and look for any sign of a trail or a building to get to. The fog is beginning to thicken as you decide to move downhill. Water flows downward, so this is the best chance you have to find a river.

You keep running as quietly as you can as the last glow of sunlight dissipates from above the trees. You begin to panic as you realize there’s no hope for navigation in pure darkness. But then hope. The bubbling of water on rocks tells you that the river is just below. You cautiously move through the brush, heart pumping- were you being followed? It could have been waiting for the perfect moment- who knows how quietly it can move.

You get down to the river when you see a light on the other side. You focus on the shining and see it’s a flashlight. Sam had taken the flashlight with him, is it possible your paths reconnected? You wade across the shallow current- the water is cold but maybe this means you two lost whatever it was miles ago. Your shoes press down on the pebble shores as you scrape your way up the bank. “SAM” you whisper “SAM HEY”. No response. You slow down as you approach the flashlight laying on the ground. It was Sam’s, but Sam was nowhere to be seen. You reach down as you feel rain drops slowly fall on you. As you grab the light you notice something- the raindrop on your hand is dark.

As you realize what you are seeing, you begin to shake, mouth agape. You feel another drop on your shoulder. You knew you shouldn’t. You knew you should have accepted it and just moved on. You shouldn’t have looked up.

There he was. The top half of Sam was dangling from the branches, his pale face looking down at you with blood streaking across his face and dripping off his nose. How could this happen? What could do this to Sam, especially since you knew he was the fastest man in your platoon. He was able to get to you with the ammunition you needed when you’re whole unit was under fire in Kuwait. He saved your life, but you couldn’t do the same for him.

The shock is broken when you hear heavy boots stepping in front of you. It was over. There was nothing you could do. Nothing you ever could do. It- he- whatever you would call the figure in front of you just stated back into your soul. You felt the rattling of your lungs as you took the last few breaths you ever would. The blood soaked hands that reached out through the darkness led up to the man of your nightmares. Bits of Sam falling out of his mouth, he is fully revealed. It was him. It was always him. It was always

But yea in order to answer this we should define our parameters a bit more.

And me mate paul

Fair, but I do like seeing the federated model thrive and prove itself as a viable alternative to main stream social media. My utopian dream would be that profit driven internet would fall apart against what we have. I hate how much power is given to so few.

Thanks so much for your kind words.

I’ve taught at a private school as a long term music sub, which while being the job that put me in the red (I kept asking when the normal teacher would come back, they never gave me a straight answer until I walked into my office one day to find her stuff there. After that they kept stringing me along in hopes that they’d start a full band program- I spent weeks putting together a proposal for it to be rejected for “various reasons”).

I’ve been thinking about the regular job, but I have no idea what I can do to get me out of the red. Anything that would pay $80k+ just seems out of reach since those tend to be senior positions or for people who can code. I’ve tried coding many times but just can’t seem to get it. Sales has burned me time after time and marketing just doesn’t stick. I can do it for myself alright, but it’s just not something that wants me around in the corporate setting.

Sadly so much of the music industry is for creating commercial music to be used for businesses. When music is a commodity to be bought and sold, humans aren’t really necessary. Why would I pay a human to create a catchy tune for my advertisement when Ai can pump out something that does just fine? AI is also breaking the music tech side. It’s not 100% yet, but Ai mixing and mastering is taking off. If I’m an artist, especially one on a tight budget, an Ai mixer could do just fine for my album when normally I might pay someone with the experience to do so. This might seem great for the artist, but once they have their album, they can get paid $20 a year from Spotify.

The tech spokespeople keep trying to convince us that Ai won’t steal our work and livelyhoods. The thing is everyone in my industry, me included, don’t buy it. These are the same people who said tech would bring Seattle jobs and prosperity, but all it did was raise rents and push out the artists. Tech bros will disagree and say Seattle is just fine, but they weren’t the ones negatively impacted by the industry that allowed them to move there. There’s a group of us in Chicago who call ourselves Seattle’s artistic refugees.

We aren’t the only ones- San Francisco, Boston, Austin, Denver- so many cities are losing their artistic communities that made them worth living in. There’s still music in these places, but you’ll notice those performances are taken by big names for people who can afford those $60+ tickets.

Hell, even Death Cab for Cutie wrote an absolutely heartbreaking bop.

Digging for gold in my neighborhood

For what they say is the greater good

But all I see is a long goodbye

A requiem for a skyline

💔💔💔

I’m not trying to be doom and gloom, but I can’t keep living like this.

I love you. Thank you for commenting and being.

The after party’s in your garden where they’ll eat your kale

I feel like the reaper is really dragging his feet with this one.

Grim reaper looking at list in the morning whilst holding skull mug, wearing a death bathrobe, and sporting pink fuzzy slippers

“Okay let’s just take a- AWWWW MAN. Really? Jimmy Carter? Uuuuugh this is gonna suck so much.”

Procedes to pull out his iBone15 to call God

“Hey cough um god I think I got plague so I need to take take the next… 5 years off yea 5 years… No yea I tested positive. Yes I can send you a picture… No no don’t worry I’m way ahead of schedule- get it, ahead? Baha yea I’ll never forget Louis, what a laugh. Oh, no we don’t need to send in a sub… No really… No, ESPECIALLY not Reagan. Sure. Yep I’ll give a call to HR. Thanks. Bet.”

Hangs up, calls HR

“Hey Lucifer I need to call out…”

Yea, I think it went off the rails as soon as broad generalisations were used as to predict the motives of the sex worker. People go into sex work for many different reasons, and that is an important thing to know when piecing together the advice given.

Companies do 2 things:

1. lie to you

2. underpay you

If you are going to play the game of working in a corporation, the best time to apply to new jobs is the moment you get one. Loyalty died a long time ago, so don’t pretend your manager is on your side.

Or also go freelance and never let 1 person control your income. In capitalism, money is freedom. If someone controls your money, they control your freedom.