I have never been on a road like the one in the picture.

I’d have a nervous breakdown.

That hasn’t been true for me.

One of the worst experiences I had was when I became the number one seller in the office. I finally asked for a promotion, filled out a résumé, went into the office to speak with the boss.

“You are just too valuable as a salesperson. I understand that it can be frustrating, but when you’re doing 40% better than the best person under you, that is where you are most valuable.” If it had been 20%, they would have asked me to manage and, “duplicate myself.”

It is crazy how I finally had to get what I wanted. I tested them. I didn’t show up to work for a week. I figured if they fired me, I’d just go find another job. That isn’t what happened, when I walked through the door, “oh thank god. We’re having a terrible week, we need you to come in here and work your magic. I was scared you quit bro.” I said, “oh I was going to, it really doesn’t make sense to stay at a place where you can’t grow in any direction and get anything better than a 10 cent raise every 6 months.”

After that, I was able to work three days in sales, two days in sales verification, two dollar raise.

I also got paid an additional four dollars an hour to train people, but only when I was training.

I also got to be a back up manager, where I also made four extra dollars on the hour when I was needed. It wasn’t constant, but it was always rad when it happened. I was also allowed 4 hours of overtime and they ignored the fact that I didn’t clock out for lunch.

I should have stayed in sales, but it really does drive you into the dirt eventually.

That company went out of business in 2009. They also did fundraising and I guess the owners were stealing money.

I’ll check it out. Thank you.

I found a neat little workaround that I used for a while. I’d load the video up in my browser, turn the phone on an off a couple times, press play on the lock screen, and enjoy it that way.

Edit:

Still works. Just gotta full screen the video and then power off before it kills picture in picture.

And now I’m listening in the background as I type this.

Is it bamboo or knotweed?

Kudzu is hell. That is a battle you can’t win without fighting every day for quite a while.

An old buddy of mine spent 30 years fighting it back up the mountain behind his house. He died in 2020 and his house is draped in kudzu today.

Your mom is a country.

My daughter haha.

She was telling me about some creator who did something she didn’t like.

The thing she didn’t like would have been a perfectly ok amount of information to give me. I am, and will always be outside of the situation. That ain’t how she rolls though, I had to hear the years long backstory leading to the moment she got upset.

I told her that two pieces of information would have been enough. The part where the dude did a thing, and then the part where he contradicted himself and became a hypocrite.

I couldn’t even remotely retain the rest.

I do try to follow her though. Man, I try.

Eh, I enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed the bizarre version that came out in the 80s.

The interview I seen, he was talking about declassifying anything but the Epstein files for fear of hurting innocent people with phony stuff.

You know what. Fuck if, I’m gonna find it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/ZJorAVgHy7Y

What exactly is happening when it’s downloading that stuff?

I haven’t really thought about it.

Man, the cameras and the constantly being connected to everyone has flipped the world upside down.

I get it. I just put cameras up because a neighbor came over to tell me that some man was peaking into my 16 year old daughter’s window.

I just wish we had done all of this differently.

I don’t know. Just getting old I guess. It’s hard to see this as better.

I’ve always thought about this comment that Kurt Cobain made, he was talking about going into thrift stores and finding little treasures, and after he became wealthy that was over for him. He was bored with getting whatever he wanted.

We now live in a time where even the rarest shit is just a click away. Nothing about the world seems special anymore.

I don’t know. I remember my grandparents talking about this kind of thing. Maybe I’m just getting old. I just wish my kids could have the freedom that I had, completely and totally.

Ok, alright. This is one of the most interesting things I’ve ever read in my life.

I don’t know that I agree with you 100%, and even though some of what you said gave me pause, A lot of what you said made me think.

I mean, kids are easily manipulated. The wrong kind of people could take advantage of things, and even if you think you have all of your bases covered, people will surprise you.

I mean, this is definitely worth thinking about. I knew abused kids when I was growing up that had no power. The friend that I mentioned in one of the comments above, he lived In constant hell, had no one seriously advocating for him, and would have been trapped in that situation if his parents hadn’t been put in prison.

I don’t know that I agree that children should be able to vote. When I was a child, if I had been able to vote, I didn’t know a damn thing about politics, and I didn’t fucking care, but my parents sure as shit did. I believed that I was a little warrior for Jesus and I’m an atheist now. I would seriously regret any votes that I would’ve made as a child.

I don’t know, I wish that the person who downvoted you hadn’t downvoted you, I wish they had shared their views on the matter.

This is a very interesting subject

Man, I got into smoking too. Still have the habit.

We robbed a delivery truck and took several boxes of camel cigarettes. Our little clubhouse was amazing. We built it from old chicken pens and an old chicken coop. The walls were made from an old above ground swimming pool. The backside had a floor, the front was just dirt. We had a couch, a tv, an N64, and an extension cord we ran across the creek and hung from a tree to power it all.

We hid the cigarettes under the floorboards, along with a poorly dried pot plant we stole from the best grower in town (who eventually started putting signs in front of them, “don’t steal this one, don’t steal this one, steal this one”).

My god I’d love to go back for a little while.

?

Do say more please. If nothing else, this is an interesting idea.

I’m an older millennial. My gen x mom let me go wherever I wanted. If I wasn’t back when she said to be, she’d come find me and beat my ass.

I fortunately grew up in a neighborhood with sidewalks, but we went well beyond our neighborhood.

Shit, I walked 10 miles to a gas station along the railroad tracks to meet girls and steal beer when I was 12 years old. Eventually one was built right in front of my house and I didn’t have to go that far anymore, thank goodness.

I wouldn’t have learned to navigate people if I hadn’t had such freedom. I can see trouble coming from a mile away. I would imagine inexperience will make for some naive people when it comes to knowing danger.

Some people do abuse it. I didn’t get how for a long time. I’ve been taking it for a decade or better now and I swear I get nothing from it but avoiding withdrawal.

An old friend shot it up though and died from a heart infection because of it.

I am currently babysitting a 13 year old boy almost every day. Why? Because CPS says he can’t be alone.

He’s mature. He’s smart. He’s quiet. He is COMPLETELY capable of taking care of himself. His dad works 6 hour shifts at most.

The issue is, his dad went to jail for drugs. He’s been sober, he’s been working, he’s been fighting like hell to provide a decent life for his kids.

He’s not allowed to have his girlfriend around them, so he’s paying for two apartments and they can only spend time together coming up when the boy is in school.

I mean, sure, the dad hasn’t been a saint. But man oh man, they’re doing everything the can to make sure he fails.

He was taking suboxone, got the shot instead, realized he wasn’t experiencing withdrawal and dropped that. Well, now he has to prove that he will have detectable amounts in his system for up to a year, and then they’re going to MAKE him go back on suboxone to keep his son.

It’s madness the hoops some people have to jump through, meanwhile a childhood friend was starved and beaten regularly and they wouldn’t remove him from the home until his parents burned down a neighbor’s house and went to prison for arson.

When we were kids and we’d discuss what we wanted to be when we grew up, his answer was, “my mom’s murderer.”

When she did pass, he cried his eyes out for never reaching out to her and was one of the pallbearers.

I don’t get why things have to be such a mess.

Yep, this is what I meant without communicating it as well as you did.

They always have an answer though. Always.

I don’t understand how people can be so arrogant. Religious people come in two flavors though; the leaders who tell everyone what god wants (lol), and the people who follow those leaders but aren’t arrogant enough to think that their feelies must be the will of god.

“‘at queer made me uncomfortable, and my discomfort is god talking to me.”

“Amen brother dipshit!”

Oh ok. Makes sense.