I’d like to skip Christmas, I get nothing out of it but headaches. I don’t enjoy the family get togethers (individually or in small groups my family is mostly fine, but all of them at once is too much) I don’t want anything that can reasonably be asked for or given as a present, and I don’t have any space for the useless junk I’ll inevitably receive.
What I need/want is money. I’m not struggling, but I have projects and things I’m saving up for and whatever they’d spend on gifts if they feel like they need to give me something I’d much rather them just give me the cash or Venmo me. They’re not going to gift me a new heater, deck, washer/dryer, paint for my living room, etc. the best I can hope for is some gift cards to Lowes, home Depot, etc. and inevitably the cards will all be to different places so I can’t even use them all on what they’re intended to go towards, and there’s a good chance that once I’ve saved up enough I’ll get the best price at a store I don’t even have any gift cards for, so they’re going to sit around collecting dust because I’ll never remember to grab them when I need to go buy a box of screws or something.
Just give me cash.
The same touchscreen gloves I got two years ago that are no longer being made. There’s three pairs on eBay and if no one buys them for me I’m buying them all for myself.
Find a pair of gloves you love and use Conductive thread sewn in an x pattern a few times. Works great.
Used to be it was hard to find touchscreen gloves. Now most gloves are touchscreen.
touchscreenis indeed the easy part
these gloves were so warm for how thin they were, that’s what made them special
I really want to know more about these gloves that have inspired this level of dedication but if you tell me about them I’m probably going to go buy them.
I appreciate the honesty.
Sex. Not gonna happen with the kids at home and houseguests.
What about your spouse/partner? Maybe they’d have sex with you instead?
Dunno, OP sounds kinda kinky.
Linux market share to grow more
B… But I thought 2025 would be the year of the Linux desktop!
A single family home… it’d sure be nice though.
I don’t even care about it being single family, I’ll take a nice old row house with glee.
To have my dad and aunt cured of their disease so I can finally feel happiness again
A reason not to do it
Did you know that Taco Bell is releasing a chicken taco? Don’t do it friend, you will miss out big.
Also chicken nuggets… Because we always go there and wonder, “why are there no nuggets at this taco place?”
What if we held hands while eating the new Taco Bell® Chicken Nuggito™?
I’m just gonna be honest, you seem like a great person and all, but eating a burrito with one hand is just not practical.
It’s too damn messy
All love is.
Past tense bro. There are new chicken nuggets out though as of about 2 days ago.
Think of the shareholders!
A no gifts agreement. You get nothing, I get nothing, we all save money and some sanity while not feeding the system by collectively buying a ton of unnecessary stuff at double the prices.
But anyway, if I wanted something, a Mullvad voucher would be useful.
Something cool, but mostly just a toy, an external eUICC chip, “eSIM adapter”. Either JMP because their app is open-source and on F-Droid, or 9esim because it’s far cheaper and has more storage. But as I said, it’s not something I need, mostly would serve me as a toy and I’d have a bunch of random foreign eSIM profiles. There’s even some free eSIMs like Firsty Free that I’d like to try. They promise “basic speed” unlimited data access with a time limit for watching ads. But there’s also some like BNESIM which have no expiration and some usable prepaid data amount.
My current phone doesn’t support eSIMs natively, but seems to support the required OMAPI to make this work.ThinkPad Thales card would be far cheaper, and probably work too (with EasyLPAC), but it’s out of stock everywhere.
But again, not something I need, just something for fun.
What are you doing with all that phone stuff? I thought we’re using the internet these days instead of calling people. Or do you just travel much and need the data plans for different countries/continents?
What are you doing with all that phone stuff?
Nothing, I don’t have any.
I thought we’re using the internet these days instead of calling that much.
A lot of cheap eSIMs are actually data-only, i.e.: you don’t get a phone number.
Or do you just travel much and need the data plans for different countries/continents?
No, not at all. I just get interested in random crap, and now it’s SIM cards it seems. Either way, some of these manage to be cheaper than many local offers, or even completely free as I mentioned.
Another thing is some countries, unlike mine, don’t require ID verification. So no scanning of your ID card, scanning your face, or perhaps physically sending signed documents via mail and waiting 3 - 5 business days to get your SIM card activated like I had to do with my carrier. e-mail should be enough. This way, phone numbers can be as disposable as e-mail addresses which is just awesome when using some untrusted services that want your phone number.
Lastly, coverage. I already purchased T-Mobile physical SIM from Czech Republic (and yay it works). T-Mobile seems to try to get as many roaming partners as possible in every country. In mine, that’s 3 out of 4, and 4th one is my main carrier. So I can connect to every carrier in my country with these 2 SIMs. I just find that pretty cool.
I told you, I get interested by random crap.Next on my list is GiffGaff (United Kingdom) which I can get for free shipped anywhere in Europe and can also be activated from abroad (as far as I can tell) like that T-Mobile card.
Fair enough. I mean the “because I can” argument is valid. At least in my eyes. I wish I had like 4 or 5 more phone numbers available to sign up on various platforms. Maybe I should collect some phone numbers, too. Or like 50 and I’d start my own temp-number.com service.
Hackerman
Seems that way. I mean each Google, Claude, Discord, Instagram, … account might require a phone number for “verification” these days. I thought about getting 4 more phones myself.
I want to have children, but cannot afford them for an undetermined amount of time. Fingers crossed that we’ll have enough money someday!
3 kids here 12 and under. If you are mentally and emotionally ready for kids just do it. That’s the big secret. You will never be ready financially. Kids adapt and will be happy so long as you are stable and can provide the most important necessities like love, a roof and food.
We are both men, and my spouse is still in the process of immigrating here, hehe. I know we’ll never be financially ready, but I want him here while we navigate surrogacy (preferred, but expensive) or adoption.
We’ll figure it out!
We’ll figure it out!
Exactly. Life doesn’t wait.
If I had serious financial stress I cannot imagine also having kid stress. What if one needs serious medical attention or has special education needs?
I dunno. This seems reckless.
Granted in America yes those are concerns we don’t have to the same degree in Canada but all things considered having a kid is reckless anyways. You either adapt and make it work or you don’t.
So, possible, but they probably won’t. Anything can happen at any time and you could do everything right and it could all fail spontaneously and catastrophically through no fault of your own. Its not a likely outcome though.
It only seems reckless until you step back and think about it rationally. You can’t expect to prepare for everything so spend your time on more legitimate worries.
Seconding other comments, you’ll never ever be financially ready, there will always be new concerns, but that was true for most parents. People far less intelligent and less prepared than you have figured it out and done alright.
Our experience is that basically the only really expensive thing is childcare. Are you eligible for subsidized, or free, care (or have trustworthy and willing relatives)?
As for gear, babies don’t need much. But for what they do need, reach out to friends, neighbors, and family! We’re fortunate that we could have afforded everything new, but we really only bought a few things because friends and randos alike gave us so much free kid stuff (we bought a nice stroller, a baby basket, and an IKEA crib — basically everything else was a hand-me-down). Join local “buy nothing” groups, or parent groups (sadly they’re usually WhatsApp, but whatever). Most people hate throwing away stuff, and would rather it go to a good home.
Look at programs for subsidized/free necessities like diapers. There are lots of resources out there, especially in cities.
As everyone else said, no one feels ready. We certainly didn’t!
To win a housing lottery so I can move the fuck out like why the fuck do you need to be lUcKy to FUCKING LIVE IN THE CITY YOU WERE FUCKING BORN IN? Some apartments and condos had yearly incomes of 100k to 150k yearly. Bro. If you’re making One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars every year, you’re most likely making $1500 a week. You should be considered rich or well off. Why the absolute fuck are literal rich people unable to fucking just live on their own in their city without needing to be lucky? The US Government is a humongous failure. Any country with homeless and desperately poor people has a failed government. Then you have these exact poor people fighting each other for enough money to escape poverty on Mr Beast Games and everyone’s watching it without understanding how fucked that is. That poor people are given a carrot on a stick to chase for everyone’s entertainment.
I have all that I can reasonably want that I could reasonably be given, so I’m making a gift instead, I’m off donating blood in half an hour, hopefully someone will appreciate it 😋
hopefully someone will appreciate it 😋
Not sure if wholesome, or wants there to be a car crash…
(I know what you mean, I just found it humorous.)
Ugh yes I worded that badly 🥲
A gift no one wants but will nonetheless appreciate?
Happiness.
Time. I just want time. And so far haven’t gotten any.
Is it bad that I’m grateful to COViD? I invited my ex and her father for Christmas dinner so they could also spend time with our kids, but we never had compatible meal routines and they’re insisting on dinner at 3pm. However she came down with just enough COViD that they probably won’t come. I can have dinner at dinner time! I get time to sleep in, time to enjoy Christmas with my kids, and even time to put dinner together.
If the rest of my week could go like that, I’d be so grateful
they’re insisting on dinner at 3pm
I understand why some people do this (our extended family included), but I fucking HATE it.
Snow
real and true.
I want Saturn, somebody please buy me Saturn and all it’s moons.
That was weird cuz I named my computer Saturn, so I was like wait wut?
If you had turned your webcam off, I would not have know that. O_o
