F
I know in my core the only reason I don't have debt is because we had a little financial security growing up. And I haven't been hit by the natural and man made disasters that push people into this corner. Not about "financial planning" to the degree people think.
When I was younger, more broke over draft fees nearly ruined my life.
A $30 fee on a $4 purchase. I fought it. Yelled at them on the phone until they removed it. "Why would you think anyone would want this service?"
Every single day there are all these offers to go into debt flying at my face. I don't even notice them anymore. And I can see easily how they could take over your life.
The "offers" have a tone that makes it seem like a normal thing to do. I think we should cancel all of these debits for those who have them. Let the creditors fail and make the whole thing illegal.
It's what Jesus would have done. Flip over the table. Scatter their coins and contracts and chase them out of the temple.
Buying some perfume online.
"Would you like an installment plan?"
For a $26 purchase.
If I wanted I could set up the installment plan for the $26 purchase and have it charge my credit card.
Call it "micro leverage on leverage."
Some puritanical grumpy voice deep in me that came from my dad is grumbling that it ought to be illegal to buy something like perfume like this. But really it shouldn't be possible for any purchase. In some ways buying food this way would be a sadder story.
ear plugs what ads?
is this what you are telling me this is???
that is a nightmare!
Exactly. You get it.
I like to make a system of locks fed by a large lake at the top of the mash potato mountain. I carve the canal in sections then let the gravy through sealing it as the natural disaster gobbles up the land. Each town thinks they will survive but in reality they are all doomed.
i am the natural disaster.
I love thinking of going for a walk or a ride as a way to leave some of the feelings and worries that are cluttering up the house out in the open where they can slowly be composted into the soil, or dissolve into the sky.
Rare moment where Sculley had her heart on here sleeve.
That's not David Bowie's hand in that clip. The "ball work" was done by Michael Moschen. The juggler with the most amazing name for a juggler ever.
Too many of the people who might want more reasonable vehicles have just opted out of having one at all. Carmakers don't care what someone like me thinks about their cars as I will never buy one.
If I had to I expect it would be a very annoying process.
Cities are the place where you encounter people who are different from yourself. You can learn from them, fall in love with them, trade with them and become fabulously wealthy. That's the whole point of the city.
It's a place for everyone who likes the idea of a place for everyone.
"this is like every average Western European city today"
This is what real cities have always been since the dawn of time and if you don't like it? You don't really like cities ... or civilization.
I haven't seen those ads. And for the record I love noise canceling headphones and earbuds.
Riding the subway without all the rumbles is amazing.
But, sometimes noise canceling can go too far. I often do a zoom call with my friend in Brooklyn to work on our writing. She has a lot of birds.
Zoom cuts out all of the birdsongs so I couldn't understand what she was talking about.
It also cuts out #picatheCat 's dynamic songs too. Robbing the world of her little voice.
Oddly enough it's the same people who have been talking about their fear of pods and being forced to eat soy who have put themselves in literal isolation pods.
I understand from the way it's put together I'm supposed to sympathize with the guy but I just watched thinking "wow what a huge asshole" the whole time.
And the ad is racist, but in that way where if you discuss it eventually someone will ask "but how is it racist? he just wants quiet?" and you will feel so exhausted by the question you just let the whole thing go.
People talk about "screen time" but looking at a screen to see something that you ought to be able to see by, well, looking right at it with your eyes is a new level of unreality.
Will people allow themselves to be sealed off from the world so completely that *nothing* is experienced directly?
(That said, rear-view cameras are kind of awesome, but this tech has only really been developed so much because of the poor sight-lines of what passes for car design.)
Are these people really so fragile they need to be packed in a padded box like brittle bone China just to drive to the store? Would a summer breeze knock you over? Would the shouts of children at the playground shatter your ears? Is the sunlight on a bright summer day too bright for your eyes?
Is life too much for you?
The windows are tinted, or at least shaded, the car is so tall and high you can hardly see. The car is sound insulated and there is even noise canceling so nothing from the outside world can reach you in there.
And maybe the computer will drive for you sometimes too. It's like you never left your house. The world cannot touch you. You are alone.
Do we ever talk about how cars make people lonely?
I don't often draw people but this car inspired me to make a sketch I hope I can render into something worth showing some day.
Basically, a group of kids and adults are running across the crosswalk with ice cream, and pinwheels from NYC street fair. They are looking at each other and having a wonderful time.
Meanwhile, in the dim narrow window of the car, the driver leans forward frowning, straining, looking down to try to see what's going on right in front of them.
Life is passing you by.