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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: August 17th, 2024

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  • There are exceedingly few phones that have them anymore - particularly more powerful ones. I prefer a headphone jack because I don’t have to juggle keeping everything charged long enough for when I want to use it.

    A prime example is when I go to sleep. I live on a somewhat busy street in an apartment facing said street. I have noisy neighbors. My spouse is used to sleeping with the TV on (there are reasons for this which I understand) - thankfully, the screen doesn’t have to be on. As such, I use wired earbuds that block out most external sound, along with an audio track I’ve been using for many years on a loop to put (and keep) me to sleep. Show me any wireless earbuds that’ll last the night, block out sound, and not be too big to lay upon comfortably since I’m a side-sleeper (let alone not have controls accidentally activated by laying on them).

    ETA: Never mind that my Bluetooth earbuds always seem to develop a problem keeping contact with their charge contacts in the case before long, so it’s not infrequent that I go to use them and they’re dead when they shouldn’t be.



  • I wish I could only selectively see the seemingly fewer and fewer good things in life, but I’ve lived long enough to see how far downhill we’ve gone over the past handful of decades. It’s made even more depressing by the fact of having seen the root cause (mostly aggressive manipulation by the right wing eaten up by selfish masses) of what was an upward trajectory turned to shit needlessly in order to serve as a scoreboard to a pissing match for the ultra-domineering control freaks.

    Even if climate change doesn’t make human life completely unbearable for humans on what’s left of the planet, it’s going to take too long to rebalance our living circumstances to see much hope for a good future for the masses. Especially as those at the top work so vociferously against the common interest.






  • If you’re logging in via Wi-Fi, that shouldn’t transmit your IMEI - but I admit that I don’t know if that’s something they do behind the scenes. They also could just use your IP address if logging in from home. They would be making an assumption you hadn’t sold it (or given it to someone else), but I can see that not being enough assurance.

    As such, get a used tablet that you only ever use on public Wi-Fi (i.e. never log it into your home Wi-Fi). I’m sure there are some really cheap old ones on eBay - just make sure it’s on a version of Android the Play Store still supports (I think 6 is the minimum nowadays).











  • Republicans were (in theory) on the losing side in 2022 - there was supposed to be a “red wave” that never materialized. They won (again) this time around by fully embracing being exclusionary. Seems to me Dems need to stop trying to attract those people (I think I read that Harris managed to get less than 5% of them, while losing something approaching 15% in Democrat voters), and instead focus on being an exclusionary antithesis to them. If we’re going to be a two party system, then make them polar opposites rather than just a lite version of the same side (within practical limits, of course).


  • Funny you say that, because I’m definitely not a radical leftist - except maybe somewhat for social justice. While I mostly agree with progressive ideals, I’m also pragmatic enough to accept that such drastic change can’t realistically happen overnight - or, in many cases, even vaguely quickly. At least not without some rather significant, yet unnecessary upheavals in much of the general population’s lives.

    While I wouldn’t stop supporting unions, I would most certainly be less sympathetic to those who expect sympathy, but aren’t willing to give it. That’s just being selfish, IMO, and I really don’t care to deal with overly/unjustifiably selfish people. The Golden Rule is my primary guide to life, whereas it seems to me that most people preach it without truly following it themselves. It frustrates the fuck outta me.