Well, my homelessness at least means I have a bed to sleep in. It may not be at the same house every night, but at least they're inside houses.:) My unemployment doesn't pay enough to cover rent at even a sleezy apartment complex, and savings only went far. Many of the people I've helped have helped me. A $500 car repair ($50 in parts, $0 labor) in exchange for a shower to wash up in, bed to sleep in, and food in my stomach is well worth it. The ones who have helped me are true friends. The ones who refuse understandably won't be high on my priority list when they want something.
When the overwhelming majority of acts of congress revolve around taking rights away from people, I say GREAT: fewer chance for those stupid bills to actually become law.
I am frequently appalled when I see the system in action. Fewer stupid bills becoming laws still means stupid decisions are becoming laws. I'd prefer to see *GOOD* laws in the best interest of the people, rather than large budget special interest groups. The best interest of the people is not always reflected in the opinions of the people though, which leaves people believing the system doesn't work. I'd rather say that this is the way it is, but we all already know that it isn't.
As I say frequently, it would take a significant change of our political system to make things right. That change isn't going to happen with the political system that we have, as it is now. Obama has made changes. He's had a few wins, but has made a lot of compromises to make that happen. As long as the people are voting for their elected officials, and the only information they have is scripted speeches and fancy ads, all we're doing is selecting representatives with the largest budget and the best PR people. We guess at who could do the best job, and once they're doing that job, it will be years before you can guess at someone better. If corporate hiring practices worked this way, no company would succeed. You'd end up with corporate officers who behave like this, or this, or this, or... well, there are just too many to mention.
When I'm sitting at home wondering how I'm going to get any money in, the rate becomes very flexible. My listed rates peak out at $100/hr, except tinfoil hat adjustments which hopefully no one will ever contact me for.
I had happily paying clients for a long time. Emergencies would keep me busy, and my pockets happily lined. Now I get lots of questions, and offers down to $15/hr with no transit or per diem charges. I can't do $15/hr to drive two hours to your site and spend 1/2 hour there (they also want it prorated to the 1/4 hour). That'd be 4 hours of driving for $7.50. I'd spend more in gas.
Anyway here I am wasting some of my life on Slashdot;).
You aren't wasting your life away on here. This is group counseling and therapy. We just aren't sitting in a little room with a handful of people who may or may not have gone through something similar. We also don't have the luxury of a therapist who knows what we've all been through, and is there to guide us. We are the experts in what we've been through, so we are patients of others, and therapists to them.
Welcome to the group. Sorry you're here.
and...
Hello group. My name is JWSmythe. I'm a recovering overworked IT worker.
I wouldn't mind working right about now. "retirement" at 35 sucks. Then again, I have helped a lot of people out. I can do almost anything, so I've been doing everything for friends and family. Auto repairs, home repairs, web development, server repairs. All for no money (because they're all flat broke too). "Pay" comes in the form of comfortable bed to sleep in, food, and cigarettes. It's not really pay though. They'd give me those things anyways, I just do what I can to save them money.
Drones are more cost effective to run than actual manned flights. They're cheaper to build, cheaper to operate, and if one goes down, you don't run the risk of a pilot being interrogated/tortured, and revealing any information to the enemy.
Like I replied to someone else, politics are rarely about the wants and needs of the people. They are a bartering game. You can cherry pick any set of votes from any representative to show how good or evil they are. The reality is you have to figure out what *they* wanted, and you will see them vote for that, and vote for or against something else as a favor in return. Any player (including the POTUS) who doesn't play by these rules will find himself in a very dangerous position, where nothing can go in his/her favor, regardless of how good it will be for the people they represent.
Expiring the Patriot Act would have had severe political results (aka political suicide).
As I recall, the Miranda Act issue was the removal of applying them to terror suspects (revoking their citizenship, therefore American law did not apply), introduced to Congress by Senator Lieberman. The other issue was a SCOTUS ruling that the Miranda warning did not need to be read.
Unfortunately, the way politics work, to get some actions through that are not favored by the majority, you have to make concessions. It's a huge game of bartering. I want you to sign off on my bill, so I'll sign off on this one for you. Very little is done as a direct representation of what the people want. If you fail to play political politics correctly, it becomes a nasty war, where there is no forward progress, but there are lots of long winded speeches before Congress about why your way is right. After a few hundred hour long speeches of how each persons way is the "right" way, which usually are defined by party lines, the issue may be dropped, or dragged on so long that the actual issue at hand may already be dead.
Well, in today's market, the monetary incentives are minimal at best.
You can work for $30k year salary, 9am to 6pm, Monday through Friday. We will also need you to work additional hours on emergencies on an as-needed basis.
What they don't tell you is that "emergencies" come all day and night, and frequently on the weekends. The end of your work day will be extended from 6pm to midnight daily. You will be carrying a company owned pager that will receive no less than 1,000 pages per day, and of those, 999 will be bogus status messages. Friday afternoon will include an emergency status meeting, where at 5:40pm you'll be told to report at 8am, and will work until Midnight, followed by an identical day on Sunday. As you'll discover soon enough, "emergencies" are not emergencies, they are poor company planning, and emergency weekends are the standard, not the exception.
If your wife doesn't leave you, or your girlfriend doesn't dump you, because you've been too busy to see them, you'll be very happy to see them in one of the quarterly non-emergency weekends, where you're actually allowed to take a moment of personal time. Don't get too comfortable with those though. Somewhere mid-coitus (if not earlier), your phone will start ringing incessantly because you're needed to work on yet another "emergency". If you're attentive, you'll find that the call frequently comes from an upper manager who's comfortably sitting at home with his wife, sipping at his margarita, with nothing better to do than ask you to put in a few extra hours.
If you seem upset about the hours, you will receive a pep talk from your manager, who will remind you about company loyalty, and how they've taken such good care of you.
By the time you're 30, you are looking forward to finally getting a promotion, salary increase, and some real free time. Instead, you'll find that the company has decided you haven't been working hard enough, and you (and all your peers in the department) will be replaced by some fresh out of highschool kids with a fraction of your skills (at a fraction of your pay). If people at the company tell you about your replacement, you'll soon hear that they can barely do the job, but the company is happy since they work for so little money. They'll find out the harsh truth of how this works when their job is outsourced overseas a couple years later.
Over the following months, you'll receive the occasional call from your old employer, asking for some free advice about things you were an expert in. Maybe (just maybe), they'll bring you in for a few hours and pay you at an outrageously low negotiated hourly rate. Your old salary check will look huge in comparison to the check they were kind enough to cut you for 3 hours working on their site.
Now that you're 30, and free of the company, you can consider yourself retired, or just unemployed. Either way, you don't have an income, and will fill your days trying to find new employment, as any hobby costs money. Your wife will have long since left you, since you couldn't provide for her the way she wanted. The demands of a new car and bigger house were explained to her as "we can't afford it", and she always countered by "you aren't working hard enough.", and the day she left you was accompanied by her simple statement "you didn't love me, you didn't try hard enough to make me happy."
Unfortunately, there are remnants of past administrations that stick around for a long time. It's not like Obama could sign an OE that said "undo everything bad that's happened before." Change takes time, but we're an instant gratification society.
I usually don't look like I have money when I'm traveling, and those weren't exceptions. I wear t-shirts and jeans, except when it's a business trip. Even then, it's only usually during the business event and for the flights. Wearing nice clothes gets you through the TSA checkpoints easier than casual clothes. I've experimented with that a lot. T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers will get you a secondary checked a lot easier than button up shirt, slacks, and nice shined shoes.
Looking like you aren't carrying lots of money or expensive gear makes you less of a target.
In both instances, I was in my unimpressive plain t-shirt and jeans mode.
Maybe it's because I'm attractive. Even prostitutes don't want to sleep with ugly people, even though they will do it.:)
Well, for the sake of argument, we'll assume my fictional story was in one of the states where the age of consent is 18. I'm sorry it offended you. If it makes you happier, you can read the "17" as "15".
I know I was in a state a few years ago, and someone told us the age of consent was 14. We made jokes about it, until we looked it up. Turns out it was. Our jokes were much less funny. The state changed their age of consent not too long after that.
Federal law uses 18 as the age of consent, so if federal charges are brought up, you could be in for a lot more trouble than you thought. This may include things like transport of a minor for "immoral purposes" (see the Mann Act).
Where I have read up on it, some states have provisional rules on it, and a sliding scale for such consent. For example, a 16 year old year old minor with an 18 year old adult may not be against the law, because the law recognizes that there may be a small age gap. The state I specifically know of this is one of the ones listed with an age of consent as 18. In some states, the lower limit is actually much lower, which is scary. Laws are only enforced when the legal system will enforce it. You'd be hard pressed to find a state where childhood friends aged one year apart, who became romantic partners, would be arrested when they were straddling the age limit.
Myself, I avoid the situation all together. I'm well past every jurisdiction's age of consent, and I date within my age appropriate range.
Here's the breakdown of the states, since you mentioned it.
16 - 31 states (60.78%)
17 - 8 states (15.68%)
18 - 12 states (23.52%)
16: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia
17: Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Texas
They're good though. They don't check any data you provide when you sign up for an account. The i290 is $49.99 on their site, but I've seen it much cheaper in random stores. You buy the phone with cash anywhere. When I bought phones, they don't ask questions, they just smile and say "have a nice day", like you just bought a pack of gum. You buy the refill card with cash, again with no personally identifying information. Then you go online and provide whatever information looks legitimate enough to be a real person to active it. No human interaction required. Just note down the info you used, in case you need it later. All I believe is ever necessary is the phone number and PIN.
I didn't do that though. I provided mostly legitimate information, I promise.
I don't recommend using a name like "John Doe", but you'd probably be able to get away with "Co Ren" I did find a few people named Co Ren in a quick online search, so it's not an impossible name.:)
$50/mo gets you unlimited everything.
Pay as you go is $0.10/min and $0.10/txt.
If you opt to get a Blackberry, you have to get it in a Boost store. I don't believe they require any personal info. The service is $60/mo, unlimited everything. It can be tethered with tetherberry, and the speeds aren't bad. (Sprint EVDO network).
Well, if any of us pretend that we even have a clue of the contents of the rest of the infinite amount of space that there is, we're lying to ourselves.
What's out there? Who knows. Wouldn't you want to find out?
Asteroids made of solid platinum? Gold? Minerals we haven't even theorized exist yet? We already believe there's a planet size diamond out there (BPM 37093).
A space presence doesn't necessarily mean people there. Something is a lot more than nothing. But, the day a starship comes into range of BPM 37093, and it's illuminated by another star, I want to be on the bridge watching.
But as you say, all that's out there is nothingness and tiny specks of rock. It's good that you already know the contents of the rest of the universe. Now we don't have to explore it.
Vegas is the only place I've ever been in respectable places (the Venetian and MGM Grand), where escorts have come up to me asking if I wanted a date, where I didn't appear to have any intention to solicit.
It may be more rampant there, because you have drunk men who (may have) won extra expendable cash. It makes them much easier targets.
Illegal, but rampant. Last time I was there, we were walking the strip and on just about every street corner people were trying to give us flyers and cards for either strip clubs or escorts. Yes I looked, no I didn't go. My girlfriend and I were taking care of all the sexin' we could handle in the comfort of our own hotel room.:)
The same reason as if you came to my house and used my computer to check your email. It's my computer, I can do anything I want with it, including incremental screen shots, keystroke logging, and packet sniffing. When you leave, it's all fair game.
Confused? You betcha. Backstabbing was considered an acceptable way to get your job done, especially if it had ANYTHING to do with the Marketing department.
You could have left the marketing department off. Backstabbing and other office politics are how you are successful in any company. Someone's getting a promotion over you? Seed their computer with kiddie porn, and then send it to the CEO from their email account. Oh, now *you're* getting a promotion. How odd. Watch out though, just because you're on top means there's a whole sea of other sharks who would do the same (or worse) to you. Why are the police by your car?
What's that brick of white powder they're taking from my car. What do you mean I'm under arrest? You got an anonymous tip? A probable cause search warrant? That's not mine, I swear. Fired? The company has a zero tolerance for drugs? It's not mine, I swear! Now you're up for 5 to 10 in state prison, and someone new has the biggest target on their back.
It's all in how strong your BOFH-foo is. Apparently not strong enough. Well, when you get out of prison, you'll have excellent training in being a transexual prostitute. Bubba likes the fresh meat.
Msg: Hey Bob, check this out. You know how the bosses daughter is really fucking hot? Msg: I was talking to her in the elevator. She asked how big my cock is, so I told her to check for herself. Msg: We skipped our floor, and went up to 11. You know, the floor that no one uses. Msg: She jumped up and wrapped her legs around me. I carried her to that corner office. Msg: She ripped my clothes off. Her clothes came off like they were nothing. Msg: You wouldn't believe how perfect her body is. She's 21, so it's all good. Msg: She started sucking my cock right there. I guess she liked how big it is.:) Msg: I started fucking the shit out of her, and she came twice before I knew it. Msg: then she wanted me to fuck her in the ass. God it was tight. Msg: After I came in her ass, she wanted to suck me clean. What a dirty slut. Msg: I already emailed my super and told him I'm home sick today. Msg: We're going out for drinks when she can walk again, and then to a hotel. Msg: shit don't tell my wife. I'll call her and tell her we're having a work emergency, and I won't be home. Msg: shit, did I send that to your work phone? Make sure you delete all of the msgs!
Nah, it'd all fit in text messages. Unfortunately, since you didn't come into work, you didn't know Bob got fired this morning, and the phone was sitting on the bosses desk in case any texts or calls came in from customers. Worse than that, his daughter is only 17. She has a fake ID so she can drink. Tomorrow is not going to be your day. The boss is thinking "Call the cops, or just kill him. The bastard will die."
If only you had consulted with the BOFH first. Always ask the BOFH for advice. BOFH knows all and sees all, even the video from the 11th floor, that he'll be putting online in about 5 minutes, under your name. Not only would he have warned you she was only 17, he would have emailed you her last STD report. It wasn't good. It won't matter much, you won't live to see the weekend.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, my homelessness at least means I have a bed to sleep in. It may not be at the same house every night, but at least they're inside houses. :) My unemployment doesn't pay enough to cover rent at even a sleezy apartment complex, and savings only went far. Many of the people I've helped have helped me. A $500 car repair ($50 in parts, $0 labor) in exchange for a shower to wash up in, bed to sleep in, and food in my stomach is well worth it. The ones who have helped me are true friends. The ones who refuse understandably won't be high on my priority list when they want something.
I am frequently appalled when I see the system in action. Fewer stupid bills becoming laws still means stupid decisions are becoming laws. I'd prefer to see *GOOD* laws in the best interest of the people, rather than large budget special interest groups. The best interest of the people is not always reflected in the opinions of the people though, which leaves people believing the system doesn't work. I'd rather say that this is the way it is, but we all already know that it isn't.
As I say frequently, it would take a significant change of our political system to make things right. That change isn't going to happen with the political system that we have, as it is now. Obama has made changes. He's had a few wins, but has made a lot of compromises to make that happen. As long as the people are voting for their elected officials, and the only information they have is scripted speeches and fancy ads, all we're doing is selecting representatives with the largest budget and the best PR people. We guess at who could do the best job, and once they're doing that job, it will be years before you can guess at someone better. If corporate hiring practices worked this way, no company would succeed. You'd end up with corporate officers who behave like this, or this, or this, or ... well, there are just too many to mention.
When I'm sitting at home wondering how I'm going to get any money in, the rate becomes very flexible. My listed rates peak out at $100/hr, except tinfoil hat adjustments which hopefully no one will ever contact me for.
I had happily paying clients for a long time. Emergencies would keep me busy, and my pockets happily lined. Now I get lots of questions, and offers down to $15/hr with no transit or per diem charges. I can't do $15/hr to drive two hours to your site and spend 1/2 hour there (they also want it prorated to the 1/4 hour). That'd be 4 hours of driving for $7.50. I'd spend more in gas.
You aren't wasting your life away on here. This is group counseling and therapy. We just aren't sitting in a little room with a handful of people who may or may not have gone through something similar. We also don't have the luxury of a therapist who knows what we've all been through, and is there to guide us. We are the experts in what we've been through, so we are patients of others, and therapists to them.
Welcome to the group. Sorry you're here.
and...
Hello group. My name is JWSmythe. I'm a recovering overworked IT worker.
All I can say is, enjoy it while you can. :)
My salaries ran something like this...
1995 $25,000
1996 $25,000 (left for better pay)
1997 $30,000
1998 $30,000
1999 $50,000
2000 $50,000 (left for better pay)
2001 $100,000
2002 $100,000 (promotion)
2003 $125,000
2004 $125,000
2005 $125,000
2006 $125,000 (replaced by someone cheaper)
2007 $55,000
2008 $65,000
2009 $65,000 (1st quarter only) (replaced by someone cheaper)
2009 $0
2010 $0
I wouldn't mind working right about now. "retirement" at 35 sucks. Then again, I have helped a lot of people out. I can do almost anything, so I've been doing everything for friends and family. Auto repairs, home repairs, web development, server repairs. All for no money (because they're all flat broke too). "Pay" comes in the form of comfortable bed to sleep in, food, and cigarettes. It's not really pay though. They'd give me those things anyways, I just do what I can to save them money.
Drones are more cost effective to run than actual manned flights. They're cheaper to build, cheaper to operate, and if one goes down, you don't run the risk of a pilot being interrogated/tortured, and revealing any information to the enemy.
Like I replied to someone else, politics are rarely about the wants and needs of the people. They are a bartering game. You can cherry pick any set of votes from any representative to show how good or evil they are. The reality is you have to figure out what *they* wanted, and you will see them vote for that, and vote for or against something else as a favor in return. Any player (including the POTUS) who doesn't play by these rules will find himself in a very dangerous position, where nothing can go in his/her favor, regardless of how good it will be for the people they represent.
Expiring the Patriot Act would have had severe political results (aka political suicide).
As I recall, the Miranda Act issue was the removal of applying them to terror suspects (revoking their citizenship, therefore American law did not apply), introduced to Congress by Senator Lieberman. The other issue was a SCOTUS ruling that the Miranda warning did not need to be read.
Unfortunately, the way politics work, to get some actions through that are not favored by the majority, you have to make concessions. It's a huge game of bartering. I want you to sign off on my bill, so I'll sign off on this one for you. Very little is done as a direct representation of what the people want. If you fail to play political politics correctly, it becomes a nasty war, where there is no forward progress, but there are lots of long winded speeches before Congress about why your way is right. After a few hundred hour long speeches of how each persons way is the "right" way, which usually are defined by party lines, the issue may be dropped, or dragged on so long that the actual issue at hand may already be dead.
Well, in today's market, the monetary incentives are minimal at best.
You can work for $30k year salary, 9am to 6pm, Monday through Friday. We will also need you to work additional hours on emergencies on an as-needed basis.
What they don't tell you is that "emergencies" come all day and night, and frequently on the weekends. The end of your work day will be extended from 6pm to midnight daily. You will be carrying a company owned pager that will receive no less than 1,000 pages per day, and of those, 999 will be bogus status messages. Friday afternoon will include an emergency status meeting, where at 5:40pm you'll be told to report at 8am, and will work until Midnight, followed by an identical day on Sunday. As you'll discover soon enough, "emergencies" are not emergencies, they are poor company planning, and emergency weekends are the standard, not the exception.
If your wife doesn't leave you, or your girlfriend doesn't dump you, because you've been too busy to see them, you'll be very happy to see them in one of the quarterly non-emergency weekends, where you're actually allowed to take a moment of personal time. Don't get too comfortable with those though. Somewhere mid-coitus (if not earlier), your phone will start ringing incessantly because you're needed to work on yet another "emergency". If you're attentive, you'll find that the call frequently comes from an upper manager who's comfortably sitting at home with his wife, sipping at his margarita, with nothing better to do than ask you to put in a few extra hours.
If you seem upset about the hours, you will receive a pep talk from your manager, who will remind you about company loyalty, and how they've taken such good care of you.
By the time you're 30, you are looking forward to finally getting a promotion, salary increase, and some real free time. Instead, you'll find that the company has decided you haven't been working hard enough, and you (and all your peers in the department) will be replaced by some fresh out of highschool kids with a fraction of your skills (at a fraction of your pay). If people at the company tell you about your replacement, you'll soon hear that they can barely do the job, but the company is happy since they work for so little money. They'll find out the harsh truth of how this works when their job is outsourced overseas a couple years later.
Over the following months, you'll receive the occasional call from your old employer, asking for some free advice about things you were an expert in. Maybe (just maybe), they'll bring you in for a few hours and pay you at an outrageously low negotiated hourly rate. Your old salary check will look huge in comparison to the check they were kind enough to cut you for 3 hours working on their site.
Now that you're 30, and free of the company, you can consider yourself retired, or just unemployed. Either way, you don't have an income, and will fill your days trying to find new employment, as any hobby costs money. Your wife will have long since left you, since you couldn't provide for her the way she wanted. The demands of a new car and bigger house were explained to her as "we can't afford it", and she always countered by "you aren't working hard enough.", and the day she left you was accompanied by her simple statement "you didn't love me, you didn't try hard enough to make me happy."
Enjoy your retirement at 30.
Unfortunately, there are remnants of past administrations that stick around for a long time. It's not like Obama could sign an OE that said "undo everything bad that's happened before." Change takes time, but we're an instant gratification society.
Not all commentators are moderators, but all moderators are commentators. (visualize a Venn Diagram, I don't feel like drawing one right now).
I love watching the bouncing moderation on my posts. It'll drift from -1 to +5 very quickly.
And as far as I'm concerned, it was insightful and funny. I wonder if they chose the phrasing just so people would draw the same conclusion.
The most useful thing I've found twitter to be good for is posting disinformation, or implausible scenarios.
Want people to not know where you are? Post messages about the city/cities that you're visiting. How about announcing the alien/zombie invasion.
Really, I know some people keep up with their twits. I only ever question "why?"
Nah, it's easy to tell Mexico and Canada apart. People in Mexico talk funny. Well, people in Canada talk funny too, but it's more like English. :)
Another war? Didn't we just declare war on Canada last week? Did we finish that one already?
I usually don't look like I have money when I'm traveling, and those weren't exceptions. I wear t-shirts and jeans, except when it's a business trip. Even then, it's only usually during the business event and for the flights. Wearing nice clothes gets you through the TSA checkpoints easier than casual clothes. I've experimented with that a lot. T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers will get you a secondary checked a lot easier than button up shirt, slacks, and nice shined shoes.
Looking like you aren't carrying lots of money or expensive gear makes you less of a target.
In both instances, I was in my unimpressive plain t-shirt and jeans mode.
Maybe it's because I'm attractive. Even prostitutes don't want to sleep with ugly people, even though they will do it. :)
Well, for the sake of argument, we'll assume my fictional story was in one of the states where the age of consent is 18. I'm sorry it offended you. If it makes you happier, you can read the "17" as "15".
I know I was in a state a few years ago, and someone told us the age of consent was 14. We made jokes about it, until we looked it up. Turns out it was. Our jokes were much less funny. The state changed their age of consent not too long after that.
Federal law uses 18 as the age of consent, so if federal charges are brought up, you could be in for a lot more trouble than you thought. This may include things like transport of a minor for "immoral purposes" (see the Mann Act).
Where I have read up on it, some states have provisional rules on it, and a sliding scale for such consent. For example, a 16 year old year old minor with an 18 year old adult may not be against the law, because the law recognizes that there may be a small age gap. The state I specifically know of this is one of the ones listed with an age of consent as 18. In some states, the lower limit is actually much lower, which is scary. Laws are only enforced when the legal system will enforce it. You'd be hard pressed to find a state where childhood friends aged one year apart, who became romantic partners, would be arrested when they were straddling the age limit.
Myself, I avoid the situation all together. I'm well past every jurisdiction's age of consent, and I date within my age appropriate range.
Here's the breakdown of the states, since you mentioned it.
16 - 31 states (60.78%)
17 - 8 states (15.68%)
18 - 12 states (23.52%)
16: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia
17: Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Texas
18: Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Why do I hear a Chuck Norris joke in there somewhere?
What? You don't like friendly warnings that would save your life? Or the fact that I posted your texts for the world to see.
Ignoring your best resource is kind of like walking across a busy intersection with your eyes closed. Neither is a good idea.
Or in the words of someone famous, "Jonas, Give yourself to the Dark Side."
Oddly enough, Boost.
They're good though. They don't check any data you provide when you sign up for an account. The i290 is $49.99 on their site, but I've seen it much cheaper in random stores. You buy the phone with cash anywhere. When I bought phones, they don't ask questions, they just smile and say "have a nice day", like you just bought a pack of gum. You buy the refill card with cash, again with no personally identifying information. Then you go online and provide whatever information looks legitimate enough to be a real person to active it. No human interaction required. Just note down the info you used, in case you need it later. All I believe is ever necessary is the phone number and PIN.
I didn't do that though. I provided mostly legitimate information, I promise.
I don't recommend using a name like "John Doe", but you'd probably be able to get away with "Co Ren" I did find a few people named Co Ren in a quick online search, so it's not an impossible name. :)
$50/mo gets you unlimited everything.
Pay as you go is $0.10/min and $0.10/txt.
If you opt to get a Blackberry, you have to get it in a Boost store. I don't believe they require any personal info. The service is $60/mo, unlimited everything. It can be tethered with tetherberry, and the speeds aren't bad. (Sprint EVDO network).
Well, if any of us pretend that we even have a clue of the contents of the rest of the infinite amount of space that there is, we're lying to ourselves.
What's out there? Who knows. Wouldn't you want to find out?
Asteroids made of solid platinum? Gold? Minerals we haven't even theorized exist yet? We already believe there's a planet size diamond out there (BPM 37093).
A space presence doesn't necessarily mean people there. Something is a lot more than nothing. But, the day a starship comes into range of BPM 37093, and it's illuminated by another star, I want to be on the bridge watching.
But as you say, all that's out there is nothingness and tiny specks of rock. It's good that you already know the contents of the rest of the universe. Now we don't have to explore it.
Vegas is the only place I've ever been in respectable places (the Venetian and MGM Grand), where escorts have come up to me asking if I wanted a date, where I didn't appear to have any intention to solicit.
It may be more rampant there, because you have drunk men who (may have) won extra expendable cash. It makes them much easier targets.
Illegal, but rampant. Last time I was there, we were walking the strip and on just about every street corner people were trying to give us flyers and cards for either strip clubs or escorts. Yes I looked, no I didn't go. My girlfriend and I were taking care of all the sexin' we could handle in the comfort of our own hotel room. :)
The same reason as if you came to my house and used my computer to check your email. It's my computer, I can do anything I want with it, including incremental screen shots, keystroke logging, and packet sniffing. When you leave, it's all fair game.
You could have left the marketing department off. Backstabbing and other office politics are how you are successful in any company. Someone's getting a promotion over you? Seed their computer with kiddie porn, and then send it to the CEO from their email account. Oh, now *you're* getting a promotion. How odd. Watch out though, just because you're on top means there's a whole sea of other sharks who would do the same (or worse) to you. Why are the police by your car?
What's that brick of white powder they're taking from my car. What do you mean I'm under arrest? You got an anonymous tip? A probable cause search warrant? That's not mine, I swear. Fired? The company has a zero tolerance for drugs? It's not mine, I swear! Now you're up for 5 to 10 in state prison, and someone new has the biggest target on their back.
It's all in how strong your BOFH-foo is. Apparently not strong enough. Well, when you get out of prison, you'll have excellent training in being a transexual prostitute. Bubba likes the fresh meat.
Welcome to the Army son. You forgot the part about being sent on patrols, and getting shot at. But hey, one persons heaven is another persons hell.
Msg: Hey Bob, check this out. You know how the bosses daughter is really fucking hot? :)
Msg: I was talking to her in the elevator. She asked how big my cock is, so I told her to check for herself.
Msg: We skipped our floor, and went up to 11. You know, the floor that no one uses.
Msg: She jumped up and wrapped her legs around me. I carried her to that corner office.
Msg: She ripped my clothes off. Her clothes came off like they were nothing.
Msg: You wouldn't believe how perfect her body is. She's 21, so it's all good.
Msg: She started sucking my cock right there. I guess she liked how big it is.
Msg: I started fucking the shit out of her, and she came twice before I knew it.
Msg: then she wanted me to fuck her in the ass. God it was tight.
Msg: After I came in her ass, she wanted to suck me clean. What a dirty slut.
Msg: I already emailed my super and told him I'm home sick today.
Msg: We're going out for drinks when she can walk again, and then to a hotel.
Msg: shit don't tell my wife. I'll call her and tell her we're having a work emergency, and I won't be home.
Msg: shit, did I send that to your work phone? Make sure you delete all of the msgs!
Nah, it'd all fit in text messages. Unfortunately, since you didn't come into work, you didn't know Bob got fired this morning, and the phone was sitting on the bosses desk in case any texts or calls came in from customers. Worse than that, his daughter is only 17. She has a fake ID so she can drink. Tomorrow is not going to be your day. The boss is thinking "Call the cops, or just kill him. The bastard will die."
If only you had consulted with the BOFH first. Always ask the BOFH for advice. BOFH knows all and sees all, even the video from the 11th floor, that he'll be putting online in about 5 minutes, under your name. Not only would he have warned you she was only 17, he would have emailed you her last STD report. It wasn't good. It won't matter much, you won't live to see the weekend.