Chat March 2018 - Cats, cars and other crap Toll Road edition

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Chat March 2018 - Cats, cars and other crap Toll Road edition

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

CAT INTERCEPTOR posted:

Ever get yourself out of a relationship and the more time that goes, the more you realise you should never have gotten into it in the first place?

I have two I hugely regret getting into, and two I regret getting out of, so it's a mixed bag here. But I think I'm done with it entirely. Last time I touched a woman was 2011, where I got to second base with an old flame from college and then she shut me down because she didn't want to ruin our friendship. Ironically, cock blocking me completely ruined our friendship. Not that she did it, but how she did it. Last time I got proper laid was February 07.

I think about how nice it would be to fall in love again, and then I think about my breakups and it just turns me right back around.

# ¿ Mar 2, 2018 09:59

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 14:18

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

I say quit and take the grants, that way you can see how the workload is without getting overwhelmed. Working while schooling sucks in general. Unless you make way more than 7-14k and it'll put you in the starving student category.

When I went back to school I was worried it was going to kick my rear end, so I planned on not working. Turned out that I was even better at school as an adult so after 6 months I went back to work part time to pay bills.

Different topic: Anyone in here experienced with buying a time-share property? This would be a 4 week/yr ownership of a specific house, not a big resort type thing. I'm in the honeymoon phase of it seeming like a great idea so I'm looking for a reality smack. Taxes are fine but the HOA dues appear to be horrendous, and I don't know how the time is scheduled. I guess I should call the realtor and talk myself out of it. Also it appears hard to sell, the current owners paid $47k for this share a few years ago according to zillow, and it's been on the market for over a year and is now $23k after 2 price drops. I can easily afford that and we can rent it out if we don't use it all 4 weeks, but I'm sure we would.

Background: my family has rented the same beach house at new year's for the last 25 years but the owners are retiring so it's no longer available (they told us as we left this year that it was the last time). We also rent a different house for a week every summer, and try to get the same one every time. But it's never available on holidays. We like tradition and going to the same place over and over so the idea of having a place that's ours is appealing.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 15:49 on Mar 6, 2018

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 15:35

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

Darchangel posted:

Preach it, brother.
Sadly, that's nowhere near enough to make up for not working, even back in college when I was making a lot less. Even now, $7.50 full time is almost $16K/year. And if you quit working to use grants to pay for school, how do you pay rent and eat? It's all hosed up.

Yeah we need a major mental shift in this country, college should be public funded, with a food and housing stipend. Educated population makes the entire country better, and it even makes rich people richer.

Too bad half the country believes "skool makes libruls" and actively vote to hinder and dismantle what we have now, never mind incorporating new changes.

# ¿ Mar 6, 2018 15:56

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

spog posted:

Christ no.

The fact that they've lost $24k (and counting) in two years should be a good indication that it's a bad investment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42909256

BigPaddy posted:

I have a one week share of an apartment on Cape Cod in September. It cost $7k to buy and I put it into the RCI system so I can trade it for points that I use to get accomodation pretty much all over the world. I usually trade my one week up to 2-3 weeks elsewhere in the US by taking last minute deals that pop up so that resorts can fill any empty rooms they have. This works since I don't have kids and it is just the wife and I, not so much if you need to be more organised. Right now it costs $400 a year in maintenance fees and about $90 a year for RCI so lets call it a round $500 a year which gets me 2-3 weeks in high end resorts per year. I still have to get flights and all that but it works out well as long as you are willing to take a risk and see what is available on short notice.

As for selling the thing I doubt we would be able to really since there always seems to be people just giving the share up and the resort then resells it. The other scam they run is they will try to "upgrade" you into a travellers club program or some other poo poo where instead of owning a share of a physical thing you just pay money into joining the club and annual fees. Of course this means they can now resell your share to someone else and then 12 months later pull the same thing with them over and over, which I called them out on and they haven't bothered me with it since.

TL;DR

Pros - if you are willing to put some effort in you can get awesome deals and have 2-3 weeks away a year in nice resorts for the cost of 2-3 nights in a hotel in most popular cities and you are not forced into going to the same place year after year,

Cons - the people who run these things are high pressure salesmen of the worst kind and will try to upsell you into their bullshit other products after getting you in with a timeshare and you need to tell them to feck off 4-5 times a year when they invite you to a owners meeting or some other BS where they promise they won't try to sell you anything and then will try to sell you something. You will never be able to sell the thing so it really is a long term thing that you need to commit to using otherwise you are funding people like me to go on holiday. Never buy a share on finance since they will get you a loan for 25% since they want to be certain everyone is approved of course and if you try to pay it off early they will be obstructive to the point of not wanting to take your money as they want the interest to keep going for the 5-10 years the loan is due to go.

If you can handle the poo poo from sales people and have the money to spend then it works otherwise run away as fast as you can.

everdave posted:

PLEASE MESSAGE ME AND DO NOT DO THIS, I OWN 5 WEEKS AT A TIMESHARE THAT I PAID BETWEEN $1-50 FOR. PLEASE MESSAGE ME. STOP. DO NOT BUY.

slidebite posted:

I literally don't know a single person literally that has not eventually regretted a time share "purchase."

Be especially wary of fees for "repairs and maintenance" on the contract - here is a local story where it was forecast to be $500/year and it's now many, many, MANY $thousands$. The timeshare "owners" went to court repeatedly and lost.
https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/timeshar...weeks-1.3776353

I think it's the ongoing fees and maintenance that will kill the deal as well as any other beach purchase. The houses we regularly rent smell like mold and are obviously deteriorating but we put up with it because hey, week at the beach.

For the most part we're just heartbroken about losing our annual rental that holds 25 years worth of memories. I'm desperate to make sure we continue them. Originally my math was like "we spend $3000 a year renting, if we do that for the next 30 years it's almost $100k". But given the idiotic maintenance fees of this time share, renting is a bargain.

In the end, if I strike it rich somehow I'll buy a beach house for us outright but until then, renting it is. Here, have a photo dump of amazing beach pictures from 2002-present which is how long I've owned a digital camera.

This is the cabin we've rented for 25 years, the A frame on the right. Yes it's literally sliding in to the sea.

The following pictures were taken from the same spot, just facing south instead of north.

My daughter here in 2003:

And here she is 2 months ago at age 15:

And here is one of the best shots she got, she's really developing an eye for photography:

Also I have tons of sunset pictures, but we had a full moon on New Year's Eve so for the first time in my life I stayed up all night to get a moonset:

I just want a place where we can continue these memories. I'll keep shopping. Probably need to just save for the next decade and start with a nice vacant lot.

Sorry if this comes off as first world problems, I know some of you guys are going through some serious poo poo.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 09:38 on Mar 7, 2018

# ¿ Mar 7, 2018 09:26

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

Applebees Appetizer posted:

Fill flash my man, fill flash

Her back is to the camera, it's meant to be a silhouette. I do that shot a lot actually, I should mix it up a bit.

slurry_curry posted:

seaside/cannon beach area? I love the area and try to make it down a couple times a year. Property is insanely expensive in tho, I would love to have a beach house down there but the company I work for would have to have a major IPO for me to be able to afford anything near the beach.

Nah, north of lincoln city. But truth is, the whole coast is just gorgeous.

everdave posted:

listen i hate to generalize, but why when going through a divorce do women just jump to they are going to take the kids away from you. ex threatening me all morning with this poo poo. how does it even make sense when she says "if you can't work more and make more to provide for us then i'm going to go to court and get full custody". gently caress off you bitch.

and how does her saying "are you even up yet" and "go back to bed" make any sense when I am asking how soccer practice went last night at 8:30 in the morning and it is hours later, LORD HELP ME

I feel ya man. Divorce is terrible. I'm in year 14, kid's about to turn 16, and I still hate talking to the ex even more than ever. 2 more years.

# ¿ Mar 8, 2018 02:56

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

Rhyno posted:

The divorce rate in AI is pretty goddamn high. Add in the ones who cry about being alone and yeah, i generally ignore any and all relationship advice fron this forum.

The divorce rate everywhere is pretty high. Marriage is hard and people have hosed up ideas about it.

Just wait till something you've done consistently for the last 9 years is no longer ok because it's different now for no good reason.

On the flip side, I really hope you never deal with that and that things continue to be great for you.

# ¿ Mar 9, 2018 16:36

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

A friend of mine told me this week that he won the lottery a few months ago. Not a major jackpot but $250,000. He doesn't even play the lottery, a friend of his gave him the ticket. He is keeping it 100% secret from that friend. In fact, he kept it secret from everyone he knows until the money was gone. He took the entire after tax winnings and invested it in a house. Not the dumbest thing.

But I think he's kind of a dick for not splitting it with the friend who gave it to him. Hell, he didn't share it with anyone. The night he told me we were at dinner, and the check got split between me and his girlfriend. Which is the kind of guy he's always been, so I guess I don't know why I'd expect anything otherwise.

Funny thing, the lottery. My daughter saw the powerball billboards when she learned how to read and do math, and she'd get super excited and beg me to play because millions right? So I bought a ticket, and after the drawings I'd show her the numbers and how not a single one matched, because they never do. It only took about 3 tickets for her to realize it definitely wasn't going to happen.

The stupid part? I got sort of hooked, and I buy a ticket every time I go to the liquor store now. I tell myself it's no dumber than spending the money on whiskey. But it is; The buzz from whiskey lasts a lot longer than the buzz from checking lottery numbers.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2018 17:55

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

Fun discussion about the lottery winner, that's the reason I posted it, the older I get the more interested I am in other people's point of view. I spent too much of my life with a very narrow world view and I enjoy seeing other perspectives.

I didn't mean to indicate that anyone felt entitled. Not even me, except for the tiny token of one dinner, something I've done for this particular friend numerous times in the past when he was low on cash. Nobody is entitled to it, nobody is obligated to share it, and nobody should be compelled to share it. I just think personally that not sharing it is a dick move.

My first instinct would be to call the giver and share the good news. Then again, they may be of the opinion that I should give the whole thing back, which would suck. That's one way money ends friendships.

As a counter-example, I have another friend who got a massive raise, a company BMW, and a $50,000 bonus a year ago because he worked his way to the top of a small business over 30 years. He earned every penny of that bonus, zero debate about whether he was entitled to keep it, but he still picked up the check when we went out to celebrate.

Seminal Flu posted:

Yeah, there are times in ��„��„��An American's ��„��„�� life where you pay in more than you get out.

You touched on this, but it's actually the LUCKY ONES where this is the case. If you need government assistance, or make so little that you don't pay taxes, your life is not going well at all. And people need to think of at least some of their taxes like insurance. Do you go out and crash your car every few years to get 100% of your premiums back? I pay the taxes on fire and police so that they'll come if I need them. But I'll be ecstatic if I go through my life without that.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Mar 10, 2018

# ¿ Mar 10, 2018 20:30

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

^yeah, educated society is better for everyone.

Previa_fun posted:

Upgraded my old 23" monitor to a 27" and goddamn this is nice.

I mean, it's still only 1080p which was why it was so cheap but hey big rear end screen.

I have this one picked out for the next time I upgrade: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JKT894/?coliid=I17V6PYZRN3Z5G&colid=2QHY3OSVR0LXF&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

It's a little on the spendy side, but it's the same height as a 27" and about 8-9 inches wider, with about 30% higher resolution than 1080. If I read the specs correctly it's the same width resolution as a 4k screen with the top cropped off.

But yeah, big monitors rule, and are worth it even if they're expensive. I paid like $900 back in the day for a pair of 19" LCDs to play quake 3 on. One of them had a built in TV receiver so I could watch cable on it. Look how far we've come.

Also, anyone else working the weekend and bored? I have a late, high stress project to work on and all I wanna do is surf the forums.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Mar 10, 2018

# ¿ Mar 10, 2018 20:39

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

With all the posts about watches, first of all I'm impressed as hell at the craftsmanship and detail in that video. I would loooove to work on something like that. I especially love the 20x scale plastic watch they build to test the mechanism.

Many of you guys are like "expensive watch, wtf". But the reason watches like that are so expensive is a combination of the craftsmanship and the decoration. It's not just a watch, it's jewelry. Think of it more along the lines of an expensive gold bracelet that also does something. You can wear a rubberband as a bracelet but it's not going to look good or send a message like a $25,000 gold and diamond bracelet would.

Yeah if you're only wearing it to tell time, you need nothing more than a simple digital watch. But that's not what a million dollar watch is for. I too would have a hard time hanging on to a Rolex when selling it could buy me 3-4 cars but if it was a gift or inherited or something it'd be different.

If I was rich I'd have some fancy watch to wear only on fancy occasions. Otherwise the cell phone and all the other clocks in my life are enough for me.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2018 17:46

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

Tide posted:

The first question asked, from the beginning of time, is 'What will make us money?'. And it's a fair question to ask. Nobody goes into any business as an altruistic endeavor. None of us are going to 'work' for free.

But when it skews to 'What is the greatest value for shareholder value?' instead of the focus being a great or even good product or service is where it loses any steam with me. Having been in the corporate world for far too loving long, when the all knowing board of directors or even your immediate manager thinks that simply cutting OPEX is a means of increasing revenue, rather than investing in people or whatever, you're in trouble. You can downsize your way into bankruptcy, or worse, irrelevancy.

That said, I bet every one of us uses ad block or similar. We've kind of done this to ourselves. But at the same time, every loving pop up and autoplay video deserved it.

It is interesting isn't it how the common sense of "if we operate forever we'll make effectively infinite dollars" has been driven out of the board room.

# ¿ Mar 20, 2018 00:34

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

Rhyno posted:

I'm at home, wife is already in be so I'm playing with Transformers until it's workout time.

You're a newlywed, workout time is right now, in bed with her, stupid.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2018 03:17

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

# ¿ Mar 24, 2018 03:37

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

Sorry for that poo poo Dave. My divorce was cake easy compared to that, I do not envy you.

Also if we're doing doggo chat, here's my daughter with her sweet puppy Daisy. She's a lab-sharpei mixed mutt so she has chocolate brown fur with tan highlights and slightly wrinkly face skin with folded floppy ears. She's an incredibly pretty dog whose only problem is she's a bit hyper-protective of her family so she barks like a motherfucker at strangers. Unfortunately I pick my daughter up from school so on the rare occasion that I see her, the dog doesn't know me at all and tries to defend my own kid from me. It's sweet and annoying at the same time.

I'm incredibly allergic to dogs and cats so unfortunately I can't have either, but holy poo poo is this a beautiful dog.

LloydDobler fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Mar 27, 2018

# ¿ Mar 27, 2018 07:36

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

I still love this forum enough that I'd pay $10 annually to stay on it, I wonder if that's something that would work for lowtax. Anyone else? Or would most of you just peace out?

In fact, I think that's what I'll donate. :10bux:

for each year I've been here after the initial signup.

# ¿ Mar 27, 2018 18:12

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

FAT32 SHAMER posted:

Today we chilled in Manhattan beach and Venice beach

Someone please share the secret to uprooting your life and moving 2000mi away to sunshine and happiness

Be rich.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2018 02:30

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

I guess Low Tax had his surgery and lived. Also check this out!

Future Days posted:

Even this happened. Wow.

I did my donation like I said, also buying upgrades and avatars and name changes helps out too, so you get something out of it if you don't want to just donate.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2018 17:23

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# ¿ May 21, 2024 14:18

LloydDobler: Oct 15, 2005; You shared it with a dick.

slidebite posted:

Bermuda is nice. Did you hit the aquarium?

THAT IS THE AQUARIUM.

# ¿ Mar 31, 2018 22:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > Chat March 2018 - Cats, cars and other crap Toll Road edition