First of all, nice post. I can honestly say you're the first person I've heard of who's rolled a female Tauren due to a penchant for junk in the trunk.;)
Second, in WoW I'd only played male characters (mainly for voice-matching-with-char reasons...otherwise, I'd much rather look at a cute girl's butt than the backside of a burly dude, even in virtual situations such as this) until yesterday. I thought I'd roll a Blood Elf so I could see what their starting area looks like. As soon as I clicked the Blood Elf button on the New Character screen, it defaulted to female...those Blood Elf chicks are rather aesthetically pleasing, with their modern/realistic hair styles and colors. So I put together a slightly-tanned redhead and started playing.
I gotta say, after the first few minutes, I stopped noticing that I was playing a chick. Much like I don't really notice when I'm playing a dude. I play zoomed out all the way (unless I'm in a tight dungeon or in a place with lots of foliage), so to me it's just a sprite that kills other sprites.
After my little Horde experience, I jumped on my main and mentioned in guild chat that I just got done checking out the Blood Elf area while playing "a blood elf paladin cutie"...well that went over like a lead balloon. A few responded with "O.o", and a couple said things along the lines of "dude, you're scaring me" and "umm...is there something you're not telling us?"
I thought the reactions were kind of odd, considering that none of us are burly, mustachioed warriors, or weird, 8-foot-tall blue aliens with tentacled chins & cloven hooves. I guess suspension of belief only goes so far for most people.
Sounds a lot like Singapore, with their ERP system.
Except there, the toll is immediately deducted from one's smart card (the same card that can be used in pay phones, parking meters, etc.), which is "slotted in" to the ERP transponder, and "topped up" at the 7-11 (or any other convenience store, bank or kiosk) from time to time.
Boy do I know this one well...New Delhi's city code is 11. My parents lived in New Delhi for a few years, so calling them entailed dialing 011-91-11-XXX-XXXX. The first time I tried to call them, I forgot the 011 & just started dialing furiously. When I realized the phone had started ringing way too early, and the ringing sounded "American" (as opposed to that distinct "international" ring...slightly muffled & in shorter bursts), I thought "WTF?" and just hung up.
About 10 minutes later, university police swung by my dorm room to see how I was doing, and one of them was so kind as to explain the whole "011" thing to me.
You're correct that there is a "Big 4" in the accounting world...however, ask any IT consultant which firms comprise the "Big 4" consulting firms, and these are the ones they'll list.
It used to be "Big 6": Pricewaterhouse, Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte & Touche, Arthur Andersen, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. After PW and C&L merged to form Pricewaterhouse Coopers, it became the "Big 5" (this happened right before I interviewed with & accepted an offer from them). Over time, names changed & divisions were spun off, but it remained the "Big 5" until IBM's purchase of PwC Consulting.
They do IT consulting, and make up one of the "Big Four", along with Accenture, BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting) and Deloitte Consulting.
IBM Global Services is essentially the artist formerly known as PwC Consulting (which IBM purchased). PwC Consulting was formerly the consulting arm of PriceWaterhouse Coopers, and was spun off in 2002 in response to the Enron/WorldCom/Arthur Andersen messes & the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (requiring auditor independence, separation of audit & consulting, yadda yadda).
Before IBM bought PwC Consulting, you may recall that it was on the verge of being renamed Monday.
I agree with you that, in today's society/culture, the chance that many high school kids will exercise moderation when it comes to consuming booze is pretty slim.
However, do you think if American society didn't pound the "drinking is bad, drinking is naughty, drinking is dangerous, you should NEVER drink" message into kids' heads (as opposed to "alcohol is a beverage that people enjoy with meals & in social settings, but, like anything else, drinking too much is not a good idea"), would the average high school senior binge-drink as much as he currently would when he got his hands on some booze?
And what if it was legal for said high school senior to go to the grocery store & buy some beer? Might that take away some of the "taboo" of drinking, and therefore the feeling that, upon "scoring" some beer. one needs to guzzle every drop in sight, because, "hey, who knows when we'll get this chance again?"
...so that under-18 players could be restricted to certain servers, and the rest of us could play in peace, basking in the huge decrease in leetspeek, ninja looters, griefers & beggars.
Seriously though, this whole "nanny state" the Chinese have going over there just cracks me up. I wonder if one can "bank" one's hours by not playing for a few days, in order to have enough time to join an end-game raid without worrying about one's big-brother software logging you off at an inopportune time.
If it was really so important to get that info out there, you could have posted Anon.
I see your point, in the context of the comment you're responding to. So what was your excuse for posting anonymously? Didn't want to get modded Flaimbait or Troll? Doesn't that make you a karma whore also, in that you're afraid to speak your mind in cases where you fear it might affect your karma?
First of all, I heartily agree with your first two paragraphs. Looking at Apple's product history for the last 5 years or so, you see that their price points haven't changed much...instead the features that become available at each price point have increased.
The fact that you expressed your point in a calm, rational manner was the cherry on top.
Secondly, to address your software question, I read an iPhone/Steve Jobs interview (it was in Time magazine, I think...I could very likely be wrong) where he said it will integrate/synchronize with iTunes, via USB 2.0 only (no synchronizing via WiFi, Bluetooth or cellular network). So I assume that a new iTunes release will come out around the same time as the iPhone, and will probably add contact/calendar/etc. functionality needed to go with the phone.
Apparently they do this when they play in groups, so they can coordinate/communicate without ignoring the task at hand (mission, raid, whatever) to focus their attention to the chat window.
I've recently gotten hooked on World of Warcraft (I know, talk about being late to the party), and I can definitely see the benefit of VoIP while playing a tough area with a bunch of buddies. I'm a fan of solo play (so far...once I get to a higher level I'll probably have to group up to accomplish anything), but even I've accidentally run into trees, walls, off cliffs & into monsters while trying to chat (by typing in the chat window) with auto-run enabled.
If I was fighting some super-high-level baddie with a group, I'd want to use voice chatting so I could communicate without taking my hands off the controls.
While I respect your desire for third-party apps on a phone, I personally just don't see the point, and definitely don't think this is newsworthy for the majority of iPhone's potential buyers. Slashdot readers, absolutely. But for management consultants (and other "look how busy I am" types), real estate agents, sales people, or, as Jobs noted in TFA, soccer moms, this shouldn't matter or affect sales.
I have a Treo 700p now, and while there are hundreds (thousands?) of third-party PalmOS apps out there, I have yet to install a single one. I want web, e-mail, calendar, SMS and, what's that last one? Oh yeah, phone functionality (haha!).
I could see people needing specialized third-party apps for business purposes (i.e. software to run add-ons like barcode scanners, diagnostics tools, pharmacists' drug reference database apps, etc.). But short of games, I just don't see the average iPhone buyer really noticing that they don't have the ability to install third-party apps.
But now that this is "big news," I can see a handful of people making a lot of noise about how the iPhone "sucks" because of this restriction...sort of like the handful of people that make a lot of noise because iPod lacks an FM tuner (which is another thing I just don't understand...FM radio, with the exception of NPR, is what drove me to purchase an iPod. Why would I want my oasis of commercial-free, non-crap music to contain an FM tuner?!).
If the iPhone (or whatever it'll be called once Cisco's done taking Apple through the lawsuit wringer) offers everything Steve said it would, I plan on getting in line as soon as it's available.
7-eleven is open 24 hours and sells tooth brushes, deodorant and shampoo. Takes 5 minutes to get the essentials.
I know this might sound hard-to-believe, but I sometimes travel to destinations that don't have 24-hour convenience stores. Apparently travelling out of the contiguous 48 makes me un-American.
If you don't like it, then don't fly.
I'm getting so sick of this take-it-or-leave-it mentality when it comes to decisions that affect peoples' lives. Everytime a new inconvenience and/or erosion of freedom is introduced, the "if you don't like it..." contingent seems to become more and more vocal.
Believe it or not, this country was founded by, and for, people who rejected that line of reasoning.
The last five years have seen one after-the-fact, misguided overreaction after another. I'm sure you've heard the quote "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Everytime someone like you opens your mouth, Ben Franklin picks up a few RPM in his grave.
That's what the terrorists really want, for all of us to stop flying.
What?! Where would you get this ridiculous idea from? The terrorists don't give a shit about Americans' propensity towards air travel...why would they?
What the terrorists really want is to, as their name implies, instill terror. The agenda behind it might vary, but the desired end result is the same.
Why these individuals think the mass murder of civilians is a viable means of successfully promoting their (likely misguided) agenda is beyond me...but the side effect seems to be a steady dismantling of our freedoms & way of life, which I'm sure they see as a bonus.
So basically, to trot out an old cliché, everytime you tell someone to "take it or leave it," the terrorists win.
Seriously, that's an impressive setup. Have you considered packaging it all up, slapped on a snazzy GUI, and turning it into a money-making enterprise (or a free-as-in-beer release out of the goodness of your heart, if you're into that sorta thing)?
YOU make your OWN life. Nobody TELLS you who to be or how to live. And if they do, you need to change that. You're in control of your life - not your wife/husband, not your kids. Get some guts and start making your own decisions.
I found these two sentences to be redundant.
If you had kids and a wife/husband, the "YOU make your OWN life" paragraph would never have come out of your mouth (or fingers, as is the case here). The fact of the matter is, when you have a spouse and/or kids, guess what? You've now got other people's wants/needs to think about. Ideally, you find yourself putting those people's wants/needs ahead of your own.
For example: let's suppose the GP and his wife (I'm assuming the GP is a male from his screenname, "Billosaur") both work long hours to support their "lifestyle." The more self-righteous, single, childless, "everyone should life like me" geek instantly assumes that this lifestyle is comprised of leather-appointed SUV's, luxurious, mortgaged-to-the-hilt homes, and ritzy private school tuitions.
But isn't it possible (I would even go out on a limb to say "probable") that the reality of their "lifestyle" is actually a lot more downscale? My guess: unremarkable 3- or 4-bedroom home in a good suburb (good school system, low crime, a mall, maybe one of those Best Buy/Bed Bath & Beyond/Chili's strip malls, property-values and -taxes through the roof), two late-model mid-sized family sedans in the garage, two kids in school, and electric/gas/water/DSL/car/mortgage payments due every month. In other words, a completely "standard" lifestyle...one which costs an arm & a leg these days.
So why not move someplace cheaper? That would lower the mortgage & property tax payments! Well, maybe Billosaur doesn't want his kids going to a crappy, underfunded school, or have to shell out $10k/year/kid for private school. Maybe he doesn't want his wife/kids to be mugged, involved with jail-bound hoodlums, or feel afraid to leave their house after dark. Or maybe he wants his family to live someplace where his wife can be close to work/friends/family/whatever, and his kids can grow up with friends, join little league teams, be near grandparents/aunts/uncles/whatever, or safely walk down the street to the candy store after school.
Why not trade in the wife's 2004 Camry for a 1983 Chevy Celebrity? That would put at least a few grand in his pocket! Hmmmm...maybe Billosaur doesn't want his wife to be stuck on the side of the road at night when her cheap, crappy car breaks down. Or maybe he feels better & worries less knowing that his wife is driving around with working seatbelts & front/side airbags, and that his kids are strapped into their car seats, which are attached to proper carseat anchors (not found in order cars).
I could go on and on (more than I already have)...but my point is, isn't it possible that, rather than "[getting] some guts and...[making his] own decisions," Billosaur has chosen to sacrifice his free time in order to maintain a good quality of life for his family.
Unfortunately, nothing anyone could every say would convince you of just how ridiculous your "maybe you should relocate and find alternate means to travel" is...but once you move out of your bachelor pad and get a family of your own, you'll start to see things from a very different perspective.
I guess you should have did better in school, huh?
I guess your high-paying job doesn't require you to use correct grammar, huh?
On a related note, it sounds like getting promoted from mop duty to drive-through has really paid off. How long until you're the assistant night manager for your Taco Bell location?
Sure, as a parent its my responsibility to know what my kids are watching, playing, etc. However, realistically, I can't be watching him 24/7.
That you can't control what your kid does when your back is turned is completely reasonable - while you're sleeping or at work, your kid could break into your (hypothetical) Playboy stash, or play your rated-M games. Kids have been getting into stuff they shouldn't be getting into while their parents were away since the dawn of time.
However, in this scenario the fact remains that YOU brought these non-kid-friendly items into your home. How do you deal with this: good, ol' fashioned PARENTING. Teach your kids right from wrong. Explain to them why porn & violence are not appropriate for them, and discipline them accordingly.
I'm not saying you don't do this, but it's glaringly obvious that a huge number of parents in this country are too lazy to put in the effort, and expect the government to pick up their slack.
No store should be able to sell my underage child what amounts to graphic violence, sex, drug use, content without my say so.
Why should the store care what your kid buys? You're the one that gave him $75 and dumped him off at the mall.
Plus, if you actually teach your kid what's allowed & expected of him (i.e. "You are not to buy anything rated higher than 'T' under ANY circumstances, because those games are not appropriate for you"), and follow through by checking what he bought, then there's no reason for the "minimum wage on commission" employee to even come into the picture.
Let me pre-emptively answer a couple questions: No, I don't have kids, and no, I don't think parenting is easy. However, my parents practiced the very parenting I mentioned in the above paragraphs, and as a result, I did not see R-rated movies until I was 15 (when my parents decided I was mature enough for them, and would be watching with them), and didn't purchase violent video games until I was 17 and paid for them myself.
Oh, and I have yet to rape, torture or kill anyone...so I guess it's safe to say that I turned out alright.
Slashdot Mirror
First of all, nice post. I can honestly say you're the first person I've heard of who's rolled a female Tauren due to a penchant for junk in the trunk. ;)
Second, in WoW I'd only played male characters (mainly for voice-matching-with-char reasons...otherwise, I'd much rather look at a cute girl's butt than the backside of a burly dude, even in virtual situations such as this) until yesterday. I thought I'd roll a Blood Elf so I could see what their starting area looks like. As soon as I clicked the Blood Elf button on the New Character screen, it defaulted to female...those Blood Elf chicks are rather aesthetically pleasing, with their modern/realistic hair styles and colors. So I put together a slightly-tanned redhead and started playing.
I gotta say, after the first few minutes, I stopped noticing that I was playing a chick. Much like I don't really notice when I'm playing a dude. I play zoomed out all the way (unless I'm in a tight dungeon or in a place with lots of foliage), so to me it's just a sprite that kills other sprites.
After my little Horde experience, I jumped on my main and mentioned in guild chat that I just got done checking out the Blood Elf area while playing "a blood elf paladin cutie"...well that went over like a lead balloon. A few responded with "O.o", and a couple said things along the lines of "dude, you're scaring me" and "umm...is there something you're not telling us?"
I thought the reactions were kind of odd, considering that none of us are burly, mustachioed warriors, or weird, 8-foot-tall blue aliens with tentacled chins & cloven hooves. I guess suspension of belief only goes so far for most people.
Sounds a lot like Singapore, with their ERP system.
Except there, the toll is immediately deducted from one's smart card (the same card that can be used in pay phones, parking meters, etc.), which is "slotted in" to the ERP transponder, and "topped up" at the 7-11 (or any other convenience store, bank or kiosk) from time to time.
"Rust" colloquially refers to any sort of oxidation of metal. In that context, copper does indeed rust.
For a readily-available example of rusted copper, look at the Status of Liberty. Believe it or not, she was originally the color of a penny.
Now imagine that happening to your electrical & phone cables...they probably wouldn't be the most efficient medium for conducting electricity anymore.
Boy do I know this one well...New Delhi's city code is 11. My parents lived in New Delhi for a few years, so calling them entailed dialing 011-91-11-XXX-XXXX. The first time I tried to call them, I forgot the 011 & just started dialing furiously. When I realized the phone had started ringing way too early, and the ringing sounded "American" (as opposed to that distinct "international" ring...slightly muffled & in shorter bursts), I thought "WTF?" and just hung up.
About 10 minutes later, university police swung by my dorm room to see how I was doing, and one of them was so kind as to explain the whole "011" thing to me.
You're correct that there is a "Big 4" in the accounting world...however, ask any IT consultant which firms comprise the "Big 4" consulting firms, and these are the ones they'll list. It used to be "Big 6": Pricewaterhouse, Coopers & Lybrand, Deloitte & Touche, Arthur Andersen, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. After PW and C&L merged to form Pricewaterhouse Coopers, it became the "Big 5" (this happened right before I interviewed with & accepted an offer from them). Over time, names changed & divisions were spun off, but it remained the "Big 5" until IBM's purchase of PwC Consulting.
They do IT consulting, and make up one of the "Big Four", along with Accenture, BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting) and Deloitte Consulting.
IBM Global Services is essentially the artist formerly known as PwC Consulting (which IBM purchased). PwC Consulting was formerly the consulting arm of PriceWaterhouse Coopers, and was spun off in 2002 in response to the Enron/WorldCom/Arthur Andersen messes & the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (requiring auditor independence, separation of audit & consulting, yadda yadda).
Before IBM bought PwC Consulting, you may recall that it was on the verge of being renamed Monday.
I agree with you that, in today's society/culture, the chance that many high school kids will exercise moderation when it comes to consuming booze is pretty slim.
However, do you think if American society didn't pound the "drinking is bad, drinking is naughty, drinking is dangerous, you should NEVER drink" message into kids' heads (as opposed to "alcohol is a beverage that people enjoy with meals & in social settings, but, like anything else, drinking too much is not a good idea"), would the average high school senior binge-drink as much as he currently would when he got his hands on some booze?
And what if it was legal for said high school senior to go to the grocery store & buy some beer? Might that take away some of the "taboo" of drinking, and therefore the feeling that, upon "scoring" some beer. one needs to guzzle every drop in sight, because, "hey, who knows when we'll get this chance again?"
Just thinking out loud ;)
Touché.
:P
...so that under-18 players could be restricted to certain servers, and the rest of us could play in peace, basking in the huge decrease in leetspeek, ninja looters, griefers & beggars.
Seriously though, this whole "nanny state" the Chinese have going over there just cracks me up. I wonder if one can "bank" one's hours by not playing for a few days, in order to have enough time to join an end-game raid without worrying about one's big-brother software logging you off at an inopportune time.
Can admins block this idiot's IP address or something? This guy's posts are getting ri-goddamn-diculous.
If it was really so important to get that info out there, you could have posted Anon.
I see your point, in the context of the comment you're responding to. So what was your excuse for posting anonymously? Didn't want to get modded Flaimbait or Troll? Doesn't that make you a karma whore also, in that you're afraid to speak your mind in cases where you fear it might affect your karma?
I wish I could mod your comment -1, Hypocrite.
I believe what you meant to say was:
"OMG OMG OMG ZOMG 1 <3 J00!!11!!one!1"
Get with the times. Sheesh.
First of all, I heartily agree with your first two paragraphs. Looking at Apple's product history for the last 5 years or so, you see that their price points haven't changed much...instead the features that become available at each price point have increased.
The fact that you expressed your point in a calm, rational manner was the cherry on top.
Secondly, to address your software question, I read an iPhone/Steve Jobs interview (it was in Time magazine, I think...I could very likely be wrong) where he said it will integrate/synchronize with iTunes, via USB 2.0 only (no synchronizing via WiFi, Bluetooth or cellular network). So I assume that a new iTunes release will come out around the same time as the iPhone, and will probably add contact/calendar/etc. functionality needed to go with the phone.
Apparently they do this when they play in groups, so they can coordinate/communicate without ignoring the task at hand (mission, raid, whatever) to focus their attention to the chat window.
I've recently gotten hooked on World of Warcraft (I know, talk about being late to the party), and I can definitely see the benefit of VoIP while playing a tough area with a bunch of buddies. I'm a fan of solo play (so far...once I get to a higher level I'll probably have to group up to accomplish anything), but even I've accidentally run into trees, walls, off cliffs & into monsters while trying to chat (by typing in the chat window) with auto-run enabled.
If I was fighting some super-high-level baddie with a group, I'd want to use voice chatting so I could communicate without taking my hands off the controls.
While I respect your desire for third-party apps on a phone, I personally just don't see the point, and definitely don't think this is newsworthy for the majority of iPhone's potential buyers. Slashdot readers, absolutely. But for management consultants (and other "look how busy I am" types), real estate agents, sales people, or, as Jobs noted in TFA, soccer moms, this shouldn't matter or affect sales.
I have a Treo 700p now, and while there are hundreds (thousands?) of third-party PalmOS apps out there, I have yet to install a single one. I want web, e-mail, calendar, SMS and, what's that last one? Oh yeah, phone functionality (haha!).
I could see people needing specialized third-party apps for business purposes (i.e. software to run add-ons like barcode scanners, diagnostics tools, pharmacists' drug reference database apps, etc.). But short of games, I just don't see the average iPhone buyer really noticing that they don't have the ability to install third-party apps.
But now that this is "big news," I can see a handful of people making a lot of noise about how the iPhone "sucks" because of this restriction...sort of like the handful of people that make a lot of noise because iPod lacks an FM tuner (which is another thing I just don't understand...FM radio, with the exception of NPR, is what drove me to purchase an iPod. Why would I want my oasis of commercial-free, non-crap music to contain an FM tuner?!).
If the iPhone (or whatever it'll be called once Cisco's done taking Apple through the lawsuit wringer) offers everything Steve said it would, I plan on getting in line as soon as it's available.
I concur. If GP is ever in the Chicago area, I have a Dell Opteron PIII he can have.
I've got a bunch of the "Sam's Teach Yourself in Days/Hours" books...I find them to be a great way to dive into a completely new language.
Sam's PL/SQL & Java books have saved my bacon many times over, and I never would've gotten my website up & running without Sam's PHP & MySQL books.
For some reason, these click for me, more so than the O'Reilly "...In a Nutshell" books.
Would it kill you to close your italics tag after the quote so I can easily discern between the quote and the response?
2 minutes behind the first (real) post, and third in thread, and someone slapped him with -1, Redundant?!
Which asshat was responsible for this...um...asshattery?
Truer words were never spoken...not in the last few minutes, anyway
I never seem to have mod points when I want them most, because I'd love to show your comment some "Insightful" lovin'.
7-eleven is open 24 hours and sells tooth brushes, deodorant and shampoo. Takes 5 minutes to get the essentials.
I know this might sound hard-to-believe, but I sometimes travel to destinations that don't have 24-hour convenience stores. Apparently travelling out of the contiguous 48 makes me un-American.
If you don't like it, then don't fly.
I'm getting so sick of this take-it-or-leave-it mentality when it comes to decisions that affect peoples' lives. Everytime a new inconvenience and/or erosion of freedom is introduced, the "if you don't like it..." contingent seems to become more and more vocal.
Believe it or not, this country was founded by, and for, people who rejected that line of reasoning.
The last five years have seen one after-the-fact, misguided overreaction after another. I'm sure you've heard the quote "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Everytime someone like you opens your mouth, Ben Franklin picks up a few RPM in his grave.
That's what the terrorists really want, for all of us to stop flying.
What?! Where would you get this ridiculous idea from? The terrorists don't give a shit about Americans' propensity towards air travel...why would they?
What the terrorists really want is to, as their name implies, instill terror. The agenda behind it might vary, but the desired end result is the same.
Why these individuals think the mass murder of civilians is a viable means of successfully promoting their (likely misguided) agenda is beyond me...but the side effect seems to be a steady dismantling of our freedoms & way of life, which I'm sure they see as a bonus.
So basically, to trot out an old cliché, everytime you tell someone to "take it or leave it," the terrorists win.
Duuuude...my mind is, like, blown, man. ;-)
Seriously, that's an impressive setup. Have you considered packaging it all up, slapped on a snazzy GUI, and turning it into a money-making enterprise (or a free-as-in-beer release out of the goodness of your heart, if you're into that sorta thing)?
I don't have kids
YOU make your OWN life. Nobody TELLS you who to be or how to live. And if they do, you need to change that. You're in control of your life - not your wife/husband, not your kids. Get some guts and start making your own decisions.
I found these two sentences to be redundant.
If you had kids and a wife/husband, the "YOU make your OWN life" paragraph would never have come out of your mouth (or fingers, as is the case here). The fact of the matter is, when you have a spouse and/or kids, guess what? You've now got other people's wants/needs to think about. Ideally, you find yourself putting those people's wants/needs ahead of your own.
For example: let's suppose the GP and his wife (I'm assuming the GP is a male from his screenname, "Billosaur") both work long hours to support their "lifestyle." The more self-righteous, single, childless, "everyone should life like me" geek instantly assumes that this lifestyle is comprised of leather-appointed SUV's, luxurious, mortgaged-to-the-hilt homes, and ritzy private school tuitions.
But isn't it possible (I would even go out on a limb to say "probable") that the reality of their "lifestyle" is actually a lot more downscale? My guess: unremarkable 3- or 4-bedroom home in a good suburb (good school system, low crime, a mall, maybe one of those Best Buy/Bed Bath & Beyond/Chili's strip malls, property-values and -taxes through the roof), two late-model mid-sized family sedans in the garage, two kids in school, and electric/gas/water/DSL/car/mortgage payments due every month. In other words, a completely "standard" lifestyle...one which costs an arm & a leg these days.
So why not move someplace cheaper? That would lower the mortgage & property tax payments! Well, maybe Billosaur doesn't want his kids going to a crappy, underfunded school, or have to shell out $10k/year/kid for private school. Maybe he doesn't want his wife/kids to be mugged, involved with jail-bound hoodlums, or feel afraid to leave their house after dark. Or maybe he wants his family to live someplace where his wife can be close to work/friends/family/whatever, and his kids can grow up with friends, join little league teams, be near grandparents/aunts/uncles/whatever, or safely walk down the street to the candy store after school.
Why not trade in the wife's 2004 Camry for a 1983 Chevy Celebrity? That would put at least a few grand in his pocket! Hmmmm...maybe Billosaur doesn't want his wife to be stuck on the side of the road at night when her cheap, crappy car breaks down. Or maybe he feels better & worries less knowing that his wife is driving around with working seatbelts & front/side airbags, and that his kids are strapped into their car seats, which are attached to proper carseat anchors (not found in order cars).
I could go on and on (more than I already have)...but my point is, isn't it possible that, rather than "[getting] some guts and...[making his] own decisions," Billosaur has chosen to sacrifice his free time in order to maintain a good quality of life for his family.
Unfortunately, nothing anyone could every say would convince you of just how ridiculous your "maybe you should relocate and find alternate means to travel" is...but once you move out of your bachelor pad and get a family of your own, you'll start to see things from a very different perspective.
I guess you should have did better in school, huh?
I guess your high-paying job doesn't require you to use correct grammar, huh?
On a related note, it sounds like getting promoted from mop duty to drive-through has really paid off. How long until you're the assistant night manager for your Taco Bell location?
Sure, as a parent its my responsibility to know what my kids are watching, playing, etc. However, realistically, I can't be watching him 24/7.
That you can't control what your kid does when your back is turned is completely reasonable - while you're sleeping or at work, your kid could break into your (hypothetical) Playboy stash, or play your rated-M games. Kids have been getting into stuff they shouldn't be getting into while their parents were away since the dawn of time.
However, in this scenario the fact remains that YOU brought these non-kid-friendly items into your home. How do you deal with this: good, ol' fashioned PARENTING. Teach your kids right from wrong. Explain to them why porn & violence are not appropriate for them, and discipline them accordingly.
I'm not saying you don't do this, but it's glaringly obvious that a huge number of parents in this country are too lazy to put in the effort, and expect the government to pick up their slack.
No store should be able to sell my underage child what amounts to graphic violence, sex, drug use, content without my say so.
Why should the store care what your kid buys? You're the one that gave him $75 and dumped him off at the mall.
Plus, if you actually teach your kid what's allowed & expected of him (i.e. "You are not to buy anything rated higher than 'T' under ANY circumstances, because those games are not appropriate for you"), and follow through by checking what he bought, then there's no reason for the "minimum wage on commission" employee to even come into the picture.
Let me pre-emptively answer a couple questions: No, I don't have kids, and no, I don't think parenting is easy. However, my parents practiced the very parenting I mentioned in the above paragraphs, and as a result, I did not see R-rated movies until I was 15 (when my parents decided I was mature enough for them, and would be watching with them), and didn't purchase violent video games until I was 17 and paid for them myself.
Oh, and I have yet to rape, torture or kill anyone...so I guess it's safe to say that I turned out alright.