Like HobbitFoot said, she was actually popular at first. I think people liked that folksy charm that she brought (“you betcha!”) She has some charisma. Not saying it worked on everybody; I was not a fan, to say the least. But I can see it. And people here always like the idea of their leaders being someone you can have a beer with. Not saying someone couldn’t have had a beer with John McCain, but I think with Palin, it was easier to envision.

The idea is that people will be willing to pay a recurring fee to use Alexa if it can do more advanced things, like perform multiple commands without the user having to say “Alexa” repeatedly, be more conversational, and manage smart homes more intuitively. Amazon is considering charging $5 to $10 per month for generative AI Alexa,

I don’t know if that’s worth $5-10/mo. I use Google Nest products at home, mainly to control lights. And yeah it sometimes annoying to be like, “Hey Google do this…Hey Google, do that…Hey Google, do whatever…” But at that point, I usually just use the Google Home app or a specific IoT app. And that’s free.

First off…I’m home! I made it! \o/

Anyway, Public Enemy No.1 this weekend has been Delta. I know several other airlines also suffered from Crowdstrike-induced outages, like United, American, Spirit, and Alaskan (along with probably other airlines across the world). But by Monday, everyone but Delta, seemed to have their shit together. Delta and its subsidiary Endeavor Air were leading cancellations and delays around the world and domestically, by far. You can see on this page cancellations and delays for Tuesday and a few days back. It’s crazy for Delta. Though I just realized American had high delays still, too.

My understanding is that Delta – and probably other airlines…except maybe Spirit because, well, it’s Spirit – will reimburse for “reasonable expenses” for hotel, meals, and ground transportation. Which is great. Because I have at least $1000 of all that. Two Uber rides from the airport on Sunday to a hotel and back to the airport on Tuesday was almost $200 total! However, it gets real dicey with booking a ticket on another carrier, like I and many others ended up doing. That was almost $500 since it was last minute. Delta’s policy is to not reimburse for that. Though we’ll see how they respond. The US DOT has already opened investigations into Delta.

And while the DOT may not be able to legally require to Delta to pay for customers’ tickets from other airlines/busses/trains, the DOT can probably exert a lot of pressure to do the right thing. Maybe the fines will be less if Delta does reimburse. And of course, Delta has a lost a lot, lot, lot of goodwill and reputation in this. In the US, Delta is considered the top, most premium airline. I started using them some after the Southwest meltdown in 2022. “Voting with my wallet” and all that. Yet when it comes down to it, in an emergency, they’re no better than Southwest it turns out. Shameful.

I was able to get my unused portion of my Delta ticket refunded back to my credit card. But now we’ll see with everything else. Wish me luck.

And good luck and safe travels to anyone else who’s still trying to get home or wherever. Things with Delta are looking better for Wednesday, so looks like they should be back to regular operations soon.

Well the extra time on Saturday and Sunday morning was fine. But then it turned into a rolling delay fest for about 10hrs. I was at the airport at like 10am on Sunday, flight was supposed to leave a 1:30p, and it was finally cancelled around 11pm. So I’ve been here for an extra two days, without much other than my laptop, phone, and 1 extra pair of clothes that I always bring on my carry-on (my checked baggage made it home Sunday night/Monday morning, go figure).

But at least I was able to find a reasonably priced hotel. And a ticket out on another airline, which I’m boarding in about 10min.

Delta is going to be paying me back a lot of money…I’m up to about $1500 in unexpected travel expenses.

OK, I’m back at the airport in Seattle. I should be boarding my flight in like 10min. That’ll get me to Denver, then one more flight and I’ll be home!

A 3 day trip has turned into 6 days. And that’s cost me an additional $1500. I didn’t have it as bad as some, who were stuck in airports for days, or stranded abroad, as I at least got out to hotels. But it’s still not great. Since Sunday, I had one extra change of clothes in my carry-on (my checked bag made it home before I did). It’s Tuesday now.

Even though I ended up buying a ticket on a different airline, I was still constantly checking the website and FlightAware to make sure it wouldn’t get cancelled/delayed. After 10hrs, on Sunday, of rolling 30/60min delays on my flight, before they finally cancelled the flight at like 11pm, this feels a little like PTSD. Like I’m anxious to just get on the plane get the hell out of this airport.

Seattle is awesome, but I just wanna go home.

Thanks for that! I’m definitely hoping to take the Metro in most of the time. The first time I drove in DC back in 2010, I vowed, “never again.” I’ve driven in many cities, even in Puerto Rico once, but I thought DC was the worst.

Obviously moving there, there will be times I have to drive around, but to the extent I can avoid doing so, I will.

I’m in Seattle for a little vacation. Went to the “Bite of Seattle” at the Seattle Center today. That was unexpected, as my brother and I just wanted to go to the Space Needle. Instead, we walked around the festival grounds, got some beers, and listened to some of the local artists rocking out. We also met up with our parents for a bit who are vacationing up here, separately, too. Bit of a nice surprise for our mom. This was my first time here; it’s a cool place!

Now I’m trying to get home, which is proving a little tougher due to IT issues stemming from Friday. My airline, Delta, has been heavily affected. I was supposed to go home Saturday, but flight got cancelled. Now I’m supposed to leave today, Sunday, but I’m getting nervous. Feel like my flight will get cancelled again. Or my connecting flight home will get cancelled, leaving me stranded in another city So yeah. Nothing like a relaxing, chill vacation ending in some mild anxiety!

Ah well, I’ll get home eventually, one way or another.

Agreed. from an electoral standpoint, it’s bad.

Of course, if Trump wins, then it’s still a bad pick, but for completely different, terrifying reasons.

We’ll see, at least with regards to Trump. Usually a VP is selected to “round-out” the ticket, to bring in additional votes from those who iffy on on the presidential candidate. But if this guy is already MAGA to extreme and a Trump loyalist (though he wasn’t always), what segment is that bringing in that wasn’t already planning to vote for Trump?

In other words, how many Republicans are there who don’t like Trump and wouldn’t vote for him, but now that Vance is there, will vote for Trump? I feel like that’s a pretty small number.

I’ve been working through a replay of all the original mainline Ace Attorney games, via the trilogies on Steam. Played these all on DS/3DS back in the day. I just finished Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies, and now I’ve started Spirit of Justice, the last game of this second anthology. Love this whole series. Can’t wait for the release of the “Investigations” spin-off games in September!

Otherwise, still playing FFXIV. I started Dawntrail, but I haven’t gotten too far into it. I put a pin the MSQ (Main Scenario Quests) a couple weeks ago and just kinda left it there. I have enough other things to work on. Class/Job leveling, finishing up some Alliance Raids/Normal Raids from Endwalker, trying to suck less while healing on Sage, and whatever else side stuff I find.

I figure that it’s gonna be at least a few months til the next big content update, and at least two years until the next expansion, so what’s the rush? I’ll get back to the MSQ eventually.

Spend your tax return on debt.

I know the way income taxes are withheld, at least at the federal level, have changed. Generally speaking, however, you shouldn’t be getting too big of a refund. Like if you’re getting a few thousand back, that might not be ideal.

Certainly you don’t want to owe any money, since that may lead to potential underpayment penalties. But the conventional wisdom holds that tax refunds are essentially interest-free loans to the government. So while it’s nice to get a lump sum refund, it’s better that you keep your money throughout the year so you can use it to buy groceries, pay off debts, and such.

But, I also understand that savings (or not spending) can sometimes be hard for folks, so sometimes having the govt hold your money “in savings” may be appropriate.

If I can add one thing:

• Always pay yourself first.

Doesn’t matter if it’s $10 a pay period or $100 or something in between or more. If you can, save a little bit of your paycheck. Ideally, if you’re company utilizes direct deposit, direct that portion of your paycheck to another free checking or free savings account at a separate bank from your main bank. This way is best since you’re saving and it’s “out of sight, out of mind.” You never see that portion hit your main checking account. Then don’t even look at the balance that often. Don’t even think about it. Save it for a rainy day. Or something nice down the road.

Talk about a massive failure of the Secret Service. No matter how ones feels about Trump, he – nor Biden – should have ever be in this situation. I’ve been seeing reports that some rally attendees saw the guy on the roof and said something to security, but nothing was done. Sounds like the roof wasn’t even that far away and obviously had good enough sightlines on the stage.

I do feel bad for the family of that attendee who died. I know these are Trump supporters and all that, but still. You don’t expect to die at a political rally. I’ve been to some rallies before for Dem candidates. My brother, who’s not a Trump supporter, went to a Trump rally in Vegas last month as a gag. And this isn’t Jan 6 and that dumb woman who tried to break into the congressional chambers and got shot by police.

This is Beehaw; argue the issue or topic, but not stuff like this.

Honestly, I think we’d be better off if we got rid of primaries. I do think they tend to lead to more extreme/radical/fringe nominees, since the party candidates try to out compete each other on their party/ideology bona fides. Maybe it is better if go back to the party establishments picking a candidate.

There are other reason as well. One is that parties are private organizations. So why does a government often run them? I know that’s not true all states. In some states, the primaries/caucuses are almost entirely run and organized by the parties. But in others, primaries are done by state and local governments. Do the parties pay the state back for this? Idk. Regardless, still seems strange.

Sorry to hear that =( At least she’s got two interviews lined up quickly, and yeah, hopefully one of those will turn into something.

Best of luck to you both.

If I may ask, how did it go? Hopefully better than expected for her?

Oh for sure. Like in my current city (Kansas City), public transportation is so pathetic. A person has to have a car here. There’s just no way to survive without one. And I live in the city, in the urban core.

While I fought paying even $50/mo for parking on apt property, I always thought it was funny when people complained about the price for parking garages/lots downtown. At one point not that long ago, it was like $2-5 on nights/weekends. There are barely any parking meters around. And, as far as I know, there’s no parking permits required for street parking. And it’s plentiful. But people still bitched and moaned about “not enough free parking.” Because they didn’t want to pay and/or have to walk more than a block from their car to their destination. Sheesh.

But in my soon-to-be new city, DC, it looks like someone could get away without having a car? I won’t be living in DC proper, but pretty close. So I’ll see.

I think if I had to pay the city to park on the streets, I’d strangely be more OK with that? But having to pay my landlord for parking privileges seems ridiculous because I’ll already be paying them out the nose for rent and such.

Oh well, such is the price for owning a car.

Definitely outrageous. In my current city, I’ve only ever paid for parking access at one place. And it was only like $50/mo. Which I still fought! I think only in the final year did they actually start making me pay for it, but at a reduced rate, like $25/mo.

I’ve definitely been thinking about getting rid of my car. I did ask the leasing agent if monthly parking was annual commitment or not. And they said it’s not. Or rather, it could be easily removed from the lease with no lease-change fee.

So maybe I stick with the car for the first 6mo to a year, learn how to get around, explore, see if I can go carless and fully rely on the public transit system (which I’d done before over in Chicago). I’d hate to get rid of the car ASAP and then realize that I do need it more than I thought.

Car is not even 4yrs old and it’s held it’s value remarkably well, according to KBB. So I’d potentially get like 95% (or more) of my money back if I did sell.

Most of my friends will vote D/Biden. And if they don’t, it’s because they don’t normally vote in the first place. For those that will vote, none will vote for Trump. Nearly all of us are left-leaning to varying degrees. Even a conservative friend will hold his nose and vote Biden. He doesn’t like “Sleepy Joe,” but he absolutely hates and loathes Trump. FWIW, I think the youngest of my friends are mid/late 20s, while I’m late 30s. Most of my friends are 30 and up.

My parents (60s) and brother (early 30s) will vote D, too. Parents are more moderate/center-left, while my brother and I are more more solidly left. We’ve all either always or almost always voted, at least in these bigger elections.

No one I know IRL (which includes online friends because we’ve met in person many times) has really talked about not voting for Biden or sitting it out because of his debate performance, age, and/or perceived lack of lucidity. My friends and I joke about it, sure, but that’s it. A couple of us have brought up the possibility of replacing Biden, as part of casual discussion, but they didn’t really go anywhere. Which I took as not really caring to doing so or that it wouldn’t matter and wouldn’t change their positions.

Anyway, at least in my circles, in my bubble, I haven’t come across anyone who’s now on the fence with Biden or were going to vote but now are unsure.

Back to work. With the US holiday being essentially a 4day weekend, plus getting back into town from a weeklong biz trip the week prior, didn’t do a whole lot of anything last week, other than sleeping and gaming and occasionally looking at email/Teams… So it’s a bit hard to get back into it.

I think I’ve settled on a new apartment in my soon-to-be new city. It’s expensive. Parking alone is like $120/mo (street parking requires a city permit). But it is what it is. It has what I want, particularly being close to a subway stop. Maybe I pay out the nose for the first year, then once I have my bearings, learn the area, I can find something cheaper elsewhere.

Dealing with apartments is a pain in the ass. I live in an apartment now and have lived in a few different apartments for the last 9yrs. So it’s not like I have no experience. But god, some of these places makes it very difficult to talk with a human. No, I don’t want to chat or text or have a phone call with a chatbot or AI assistant. No I don’t want to start the application process online before I get my questions answered. I just have a few questions; call me, please. Luckily someone – a real someone – finally called me today.

Also, what the fuck is an “administrative fee” at an apartment, and why is it so high? I get having an application fee of like $50. I get needing a deposit. But a $500 “administrative fee?” Have never come across that before. And this isn’t the only place I’m looking at that has it. As always, just another way to wring money out of folks.

Hopefully I’ll have this all settled within the next week or two.

Otherwise, back to FFXIV. Taking my time with the new Dawntrail expansion.