I didn’t go with speed queen because they’re nearly double the price of all other washer/dryers. I know they’re built like tanks and don’t really fail, or if they do they’re easy to fix. But I’ve also heard they can be tougher on clothes and wear them out quicker.

Ultimately ended up going with Maytag. It’s been solid for the past 6 months, no issues at all and I got a free 5 year warranty from the small local appliance store I bought it in, so maybe check them out opposed to the big box stores. They fix it if there are problems, not Maytag.

Also look for one with a “deep fill” option. All new washers have a federal requirement now that makes them “high efficiency” which really is just using way less water and spraying them for an hour. Whether this fully washes your clothes is a bit of a debate, but I guess that’s how most are in Europe now. The “deep fill” option is supposed to be if you’re washing bed sheets or very soiled clothes, but I still use it to soak my clothes.

My city only has the bus, which is super unreliable and the times might as well not exist half the time, or what happened to me recently was they changed stops for a route and Google maps never updated. It’s typical to wait for an hour for a bus, sometimes they zoom right past you, or you need to transfer between lines. They’re also planning on cutting 35% of bus lines next year, raising the fare, and stopping service at 11 pm, all due to lack of funding. You can read more here:

https://www.rideprt.org/2025-funding-crisis/funding-crisis/

There is a train, but it only goes to the suburbs outside of the city. The bus is your only option when you’re in city limits.

I would take some more confusing steps over there not being an option at all.

There are a few countries like Sweden and India that are pushing more and more towards all digital payments and slowly trying to wean off cash. I think this is terrible for a number of reasons.

The big one is I work on the side as an electrician from my day job. I get paid in cash (it’s usually only like 5-10 hours a week). I save up that money and have been paying my plumber or tile guy for work that I don’t want to tackle on my own at my house. There’s a whole undercurrent of labor and an economy that gets paid in cash that does not need uncle Sam’s prying eyes. I imagine it will be a long time before banks would stop taking cash in countries pushing for everything to be digital, but who knows.

The other reason is the more vulnerable people in society. You can’t tell me that making everything cashless and only payable via smart phone doesn’t massively screw someone over who’s homeless. A lot of people only get by via panhandling and if suddenly they can’t buy food or ride public transit without a phone that is connected to cell service, that is a massive barrier.

Lastly, all cash restaurants and bars. They’re still common in my area. Things are usually a little cheaper there and I like paying cash for a few drinks. Or like the one bar I go to is still kinda lawless haha, a PBR is $2.

1890 here as well. I love it, it’s nestled in the woods and built into the hillside so these massive retaining walls surround the first story. With all the trees and shade and basically being underground, this makes the first floor naturally cool. I’ve gone whole summers without AC. What’s also interesting is there’s a door on the second floor landing that goes right out into the hillside. There’s like a 2 foot wide platform and then the hill. Not much up there other than a steep overgrown mountain though.

Another thing I love is being able to see the river from my front stoop. I’m still in city limits of Pittsburgh though, so I can easily walk or bike down to more of the city type stuff. Or I can bop across a bridge to a couple other towns.

I’ll definitely spend my life here, as I’m slowly remodeling the place. But of course, a house this old comes with its own slew of problems. I try to tackle as much as I can myself tho.

Wood ones get picked clean consistently or set off with no kill. Victor ones require no skill. It’s like clockwork, set them and they’re dead immediately.

The wood and copper spring ones are total crap. The mice will steal food off them all day, I’m sure they’ve evolved to see them as traps by this point.

What you want is the red and grey plastic ones like these:

https://a.co/d/5vgVTJe

I’ve seen one of these things kill like 4 mice in a row. And it was all the same trap, on the same night!

Sooo interact with people?

Just started wiring houses on the side with an old friend. He works for himself with one apprentice. My electrical career is basically 100% industrial, other than random stuff like this

30/hr cash, I can work nights and weekends, make some extra cash and it helps him out. This is on top of my full time job, which usually requires overtime and traveling around the country to different industrial sites and steel mills.

I enjoy the work. I like being physically active and learning and using my brain.

My house got broken into while we were homes. My roommate chased him down the street with a big hunting knife. No way he’s coming back after that. I didn’t see the need to report it to the police. For whatever that’s worth.

I guess heads up, trades can really further destroy your body, but in a different way. I’ve worked one for about 10 years and I’m doing fine but some of the older guys absolutely have blown out their knees, backs, etc. Expect to be digging a trench or running up and down flights of steps for tools and materials, lifting the heavy shit etc when you start an apprenticeship.

Fortunately I’m at the point now where I do way less hands on work (for better or worse, I miss it sometimes) unless I’m in the field on industrial sites. Then it’s go go go, work 14 hours a day get it done and it’s heavy dirty hard electrician work, etc. But when I’m in the shop, all I do now is test our systems and do QA. So I feel way more like an inspector than I do a technician, despite that being in my job title. That’s also a love/hate relationship if I’m being honest haha, but it sure beats working at a desk all day.

I’m at the point in my career where I’ve turned down a promotion to a desk job multiple times for the simple fact that I can’t commit to cubicle life and want to be on my feet all day and physically looking and working on things to make sense of them. I also make way more money with overtime pay anyway. Maybe when I get into my 40’s I’ll consider making the jump.

I test and do QA on impossibly huge industrial electrical systems for things like steel mills. Some of them are 100 feet long, with individual cabinets all bayed together and fed from buswork which we fabricate ourselves. I also do some field work installing, repairing, etc.

However, the most boring part of my job by far is verifying bills of material during my QA portion. This involves physically looking at every part number of every part in the system (sometimes thousands of parts), and verifying it is the same number. Sometimes it takes days

I live in Pittsburgh and there are literally no cops on duty from like 3-5 AM or something. We haven’t had a police chief in years, and I never see cops unless there’s a violent crime or a car accident or overdose. You can kinda do whatever you want in terms of traffic laws. I’ve never even heard of someone getting a traffic ticket in the city, and most times if you’re actually goin the speed limit you’re a hazard that isn’t following the flow of traffic. Completely different story in the suburbs outside the city.

It kinda rules not gonna lie.

I’m at a hotel right now and every single coffee cup is wrapped in plastic. It’s just like… why? There isn’t even a logical reason for it. If anything it costs more to individually wrap paper cups. Is it to appease germaphobes? You don’t even put your mouth on that part, and the lids are unwrapped.

Very rarely, but I have a few times.

C’mon C’mon starring Joaquin Phoenix and a 12 year old kid made my ball my eyes out.

Two gay men can’t make a da baby, and the gays can be very into their looks and physical attraction.

Speaking from experience as a gay man

Saw some very loud bands and DJs in venues way too small a few years ago right after covid. I’ve had tinnitus ever since. It sucks, but I only really hear it late at night when I’m going to bed and there’s no noise. Factory life means I’m working around loud noises all day, but this current shop I’m working at is miles better than the one I worked at for 7 years.

What’s odd is I never got it pre-covid and I definitely used to push my luck even more back then. Maybe getting covid a few times changed something, my friend’s brother just permanently has tinnitus from getting covid.

There was one night in particular though that I still remember, my ears were ringing the day after. Usually they’d tone down by the 12 hour mark. The second day, I was like oh shit this is probably permanent. It was, that was in 2021. I definitely sulked in my feelings a bit after that, and now I wear ear protection to every concert. It’s just not worth it to damage my ears further.

I’ve never once heard anyone call it tomato sauce in my neck of the woods in america. It’s always been ketchup.

I live in Pittsburgh however, Heinz is headquartered here and the factory is still operational downtown. Hell, the Steelers football field was called Heinz Field and had giant ketchup bottles by the scoreboards up until a couple years ago.

Must be a regional thing.