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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 19th, 2023

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  • My entry point into Star Wars was KotOR so I’ve always been pretty critical of the average Star Wars media. I really enjoyed Rogue One, Andor, Mandalorian S1&2, and Clone Wars S7. Star Wars can deliver sometimes.

    With a budget of $180M I was hopeful that Acolyte could be great, and it hasn’t delivered yet.



  • KaiReeve@lemmy.worldtoStar Wars Memes@lemmy.worldThey flipped a coin
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    6 months ago

    Man, just existing on Tatooine is hard work.

    -It’s a desert planet run by crime lords.

    -The natives carry rifles and kidnap people just to torture them to death.

    -There are little goblins driving tanks around the countryside stealing anything that isn’t sand.

    -The sand is rough and coarse and irritating and it gets everywhere.

    -Krayt Dragons











  • Oh? So my understanding of how Google profits off user data is incorrect? My belief that the ISPs are profit-driven entities is inaccurate?

    If the harvest and sale of user data had been made illegal in 1993 would Google have progressed the way it did? Would they be forced to charge a fee for their email and video hosting services? Would that have incentivized them to maybe make a deal with the ISPs to be included with the monthly payments we already make?

    What if local government owned and maintained all the existing internet infrastructure? Would we have been able to choose which ISP we preferred all these years rather than essentially having to pick between coax or satellite? Would ISPs then have been incentivized to pick up additional services like email, video, and image hosting in order to gain more customers?

    Are we experiencing the best possible version of the internet, or could it be better?



  • Getting older means losing mobility, dexterity, and mental acuity. It’s not a question of if you will need assistance, it’s a question of when you will need it. Most retirees go on living independently for as long as possible until an event. Sometimes they set the kitchen on fire, sometimes they get in the car and get lost, and most often they fall and break a hip. Once they hit this event it changes their life dramatically.

    The best case scenario is that you will have enough money to afford 24/7 care after your event. Idk what the current rates are, but 10 years ago it was $25/hr for CNAs and $50/hr for RNs. This means that the cost to have a CNA care for you around the clock was over $200,000/yr. This doesn’t include the additional costs of food, shelter, utilities, insurance. I’m sure that things haven’t gotten any cheaper.

    The best case scenario is that your $1M nut grows enough to cover all your expenses before you die. Every other scenario means you will run out of money. So it’s really a question of how long you intend to live.


  • My scenario focuses solely on interest income for simplicity’s sake. There are other investments one can make to increase your gain, but such investments are more volatile. You could end up doing quite well and increasing your nut, or you could invest in the wrong stock and lose a large chunk of it.

    I also left out other considerations for simplicity’s sake like the fact that most retirees are couples and past the age of 65 the odds that one of you will require significant medical treatment increases every year. Some elderly couples are getting divorced so as to only bankrupt one of them when this happens.

    Life is messy and $1M will only work in the best case scenario. It’s just not realistic. By allowing people to think that $1M is enough, you’re actually leading them into ruin. We need to be aware that retirement is becoming a dicey proposition and we should be taking steps to ensure that the elderly will be provided for in the coming decades, especially since a large number of millennials won’t have children to make sure they are properly cared for.

    Source: I worked in the elder care industry in Florida for a decade. I saw what happens when people run out of money.


  • This isn’t how retirement works.

    If you try to retire on $1M you’re going to end up in a medicaid facility. Interest rates are high right now, so $1M in the bank may get you as much as $5,000/mo if you’re lucky. This is $60,000/yr and can be supplemented with social security to allow a person to live well enough at today’s cost of living.

    However, inflation is a constant and is ideally restricted to 2-3% per year. This means that every year you live after you retire, your spending power is reduced by at least 2%. So even if interest rates stay high (they won’t) then by the time you hit 85 your $60,000/yr will feel more like $24,000. This will still be supplemented by social security, but you will also find that your needs are increasing by this age and you will likely need to start using your savings to pay a lovely nurse or two to help with, well, everything. In-home care and even nursing facilities are quite costly and will eat away at your savings, so if you only have $1M you better start dying soon after needing them.

    This all assumes best-case-scenario. It doesn’t account for runaway inflation rates, pandemics, recessions, catastrophic events (it’s not uncommon for the elderly to accidentally set things on fire), or other possibilities that can take a bite out of your retirement savings.

    When your money runs out you won’t be kicked out on the streets, thankfully. But a medicaid facility in the US can be nearly as dangerous for the elderly.




  • Weightlifting.

    I don’t particularly enjoy physical activity and so I try to maximize my time spent exercising. I use a couple of those adjustable dumbbells and spend a few minutes every day just doing some reps. If I’m feeling more motivated I will also mix in some calisthenics.

    If you want more data, my wife enjoys walking and insists on walking 10k steps every day since she got her Fitbit 2 months ago. She hasn’t missed a day yet.