anon4lol

... but I love Taco Bell so much it hurts.

Maybe they want to be on the winning side this time (just joking). My guess is that the trump campaign is spending on ads on YouTube, while the Biden campaign isn't. There seems to be a lot of mashups and videos comparing statements of Biden now and years ago. I get the impression the general tone of most of the videos on YouTube are negative for Biden, and probably not the best place to spend ad money. Especially considering that YouTube will start recommending political videos trying to get click rage engagement going on.

I made the mistake during the last election clicking on a promoted video about Hillary and my god I had to spend weeks clicking "don't recommend this channel" in my feed. YouTube will shove political video recommendation down your throat. I don't like political commentary regardless of what side of the ideological spectrum it comes from.

LOL.

Twice the passengers; same number of restrooms.

I wonder if the extra airline profits will cover the possible payout of a lawsuit where a mother's lap baby twists out of her arms and plonks six feet down onto the hard aluminum floor.

I can't wait for the first flyertalk post asking how many air miles they should get as compensation for being urinated on by a passenger overhead, or dealing with a gassy passenger overhead.

Too funny.

We just went through the process of finding childcare for our infant. Originally, we were going to have my wife's parents move in to help, but her father was suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer, forcing us to scramble for child care. With my wife's student loans, it wouldn't be prudent for her to not work.

Childcare costs more than twice as much as our mortgage. We live in a blue state where many businesses feel compelled to pay $15/hour for unskilled labor. We interviewed child care providers who wanted $18-$22 per hour with no certifications, degrees, or training. We looked at au pairs, but the agencies all wanted $8k-$10k up front with no guarantees.

Your hypothesis is wrong. At one point I was thinking of changing careers and gave a serious consideration to getting a law degree. I've had long conversations with several attorneys and did plenty of research. You would be surprised at how little most new attorneys make. Unless you land at a firm, you'll end up scrambling to find your own clients as a solo practitioner. Some give up and end up working in the business world on the edges of the legal profession.

> One used to be able to self-study, pass an exam, and practice law. Now it virtually always requires 3 years of law school, at a cost of thousands.

This is state by state. In most U.S. states, you have to go to an accredited brick-and-mortar school, graduate, and pass the bar exam. At that time, there was only two online law schools, both in California. I believe that in CA (maybe one other state) also will let you apprentice for a licensed attorney and pass the bar to become a licensed attorney.

Some random nobody/front-end developer starts using Windows... this just seems so out of place on HN.

It's not. They should do what I do -- silently "crop dust" the other cubicles as I drift past on my way to an unimportant meeting.

But seriously, I have a cubicle-mate that goes through a box of tissues every two days. He is constantly grunting and blowing his nose. He also spends 15 minutes brushing and flossing in the bathroom twice per day. I say 15 minutes, because he has his phone propped up with a timer.

Every time my noise cancelling headset runs out of power and needs to be recharged, I re-evaluate my life choices and my tortured existence.

Wrong title. Should be "The Burden of Working in an Unprofessional Environment with Jerks."

This is a natural outcome of promoting work, not as a job, but more of a lifestyle to ring out as much as productivity as you can from young, unattached people. There isn't a boundary between work/personal life like there is everywhere else. I've seen different attempts at this on both the west and east coasts. Forced communal lunches, free food, comfy couches to sleep on "if you need to," game rooms, required outings, "bring you whole self to work," etc.

Working in these environments is draining, because some people seem to take pride in saying the most inappropriate and cringe-worthy things, and they go unchallenged. When you work in that context where no one is expected to be professional, it will cause problems; however, when you make the mistake of believing your job is more than a job, you will end up angry and vengeful.

For some reason, this seems to be much more the norm on the north-east and west coasts.

I've formed and run an sole member LLC, S Corp and C corp. Sometimes I get people asking me about forming a company to do EBay, Amazon FBA, and other side gigs. Here is basically what I tell anyone who asks (cliff notes version), off the top of my head:

1. If it's not making money, it's a hobby.

2. If it's making a little bit of money, don't form an business entity. Just do it as a sole proprietor - this is basically the easiest thing to do. Just open a separate bank account for the business and Schedule C on your tax return. Save ~25% of income in savings account for self employment taxes and taxes. Converting to an LLC, S Corp, etc., is always a possibility later.

3. Your choice of business entity will have consequences down the road that your attorney or accountant may not explain to you up front. For example, I did most of my consulting through an LLC on the advice of an accountant who convinced me to give up my S Corp. When my wife and I went to purchase our first house, they convinced me drop off of the mortgage application because they didn't like the fact that I was "self employed." If I had kept the S Corp, I would have W2 wage income and they wouldn't have batted an eye.

4. The rules regarding business entities vary state to state. Some states will allow a single member LLC and single owner S Corp; others may not. Make sure you understand your state laws and the taxes. Some states have an income tax; others have franchise tax. You can form the corporation in another state, but you will likely have to register as a foreign corporation in your state. For a few years my corporation was chartered in Delaware, and I would register in a state when I had business activity there.

5. The IRS has no sense of sympathy or humor when it comes to payroll taxes. State governments are even more fanatical about getting their money, on time. Penalties can be severe. I was depositing payroll taxes quarterly and was surprised when they wanted me to start depositing monthly. They notified me with a 17% penalty.

6. Understand that filing a tax return can trigger the requirement to keep filling out tax returns even if you don't owe anything. If you shut down the business, make sure you spend the time and be persistent in closing tax accounts or you will get notices for years. Don't trust it when a government employee says the account will automatically get closed.

7. Understand that with an S Corp or LLC you will have to do the business tax return first, before you do your own tax return. If you are an minority owner of a corp, make sure they get the tax returns done on time and you won't get surprised. Once you get surprised with a $20k tax bill...

8. In some cases a C corp can make sense, regardless of what everyone says.

9. Make sure you setup a proper retirement account and make contributions. This can payoff over the long term, even if you business isn't super profitable. Make it a priority.

I have plenty more, but that's a few thoughts.

I really hate articles like this. The company provides home health visits, requiring a nurse. Nurses don't work for $7.50 hour. Reading closely, it was for entry-level positions, probably in a certain department. Skilled positions would require market rates.

Translation: in an economic down turn they killed the bonus, raised the pay for customer service reps, and are now claiming a moral victory as if the growth was caused by paying people more.

I have a Ring doorbell camera and a camera in our garage, mostly to see if the garage door is closed. The "crime alerts" are annoying, so I've basically turned off all the notifications. Looks like amazon has figured out that crime sells security equipment.

We had a problem with teenagers were ringing our doorbell and screaming late at night around 1 a.m. It became a nightly ordeal, and sometimes several times a night. Sometimes they would kick the door and run away. Surprisingly, some of them were teenage girls. Since my wife is pregnant, I knew this had to stop. There is no way I wanted to deal with this with a newborn infant.

The comments on NextDoor are funny to me because it is filled with wingnuts and busy bodies. When I asked for advice on how to handle this situation, I was shouted down by social justice warriors who told me not to call the police because it was racist. I said fine, I'll just tell the registered sex offender who was recently released from prison (for abducting and raping a young woman) that there are young women harassing us, oh and by the way, all are neighbors are conditioned to ignore their screams and we won't call the police... because it is racist. Oddly enough, none of the social justice warriors replied to say I shouldn't.

I called the police and posted the videos on YouTube and sent them the link. They found them and calmly talked to them. Problem solved.

I had the opposite experience. My father got laid off the year before I was to enter college. Because of the way financial aid worked at the time, it looked back at three years of parental income. He was cashing out his retirement to keep paying the mortgage and buy groceries, but on paper we were too "rich" to qualify for any financial aid. I worked a full time job and enrolled at a community college at night. I paid my own way and worked hard. I never said no to anything and would travel to remote sites if they needed someone to go. I never took out a school loan.

I moved cities for an awesome job and moved in with my best friend from high school. He was on his second year in an engineering program at a major university. I was working full time and going to community college classes at night, while he worked part time and was living on financial aid and loans. I was incredibly jealous. He would go out drinking every night, always had cash to do whatever he wanted, had a nice car, took amazing vacations and I can't tell you how many times I would wake up and see a different girl who spent the night.

Later on, when I looked at my peers who were buying houses and nice cars, I had assumed they were doing better than me, had better jobs, or had help. Nope. They were up to their eyeballs in debt. Some lost jobs and lost everything. My best friend ended up moving away after a suicide attempt and never heard what happened to him.

Lastly, I decided to go back to school for a second degree in electrical engineering. Not because I needed, but because I wanted the challenge. I had to retake some lower level courses that didn't transfer. Overhearing young adults complain about not having time to do anything, school is so hard, and then talking about the party where they smoked pot all night is just cringe-worthy.

You shouldn't feel inadequate at all. I certainly don't.

Selling you minute by minute geolocation from your phone: Acceptable. Credit card companies and retail companies selling your purchasing history: Acceptable. States selling license data and even your license photo: Acceptable. Municipalities selling property tax information to anyone: Acceptable. Unicorn companies monitoring your every move and everything you do on the internet: Acceptable.

Motel 6 employees giving registration information to law enforcement for free: NOT OK.