Big changes occurring within the family, and not good ones. Short version, because I'm not going to try to get into the long version, my parents are often shitheads who don't know how to stop their shit from spilling over onto their kids. I wish I lived a little closer to home so I could be there to support my little brothers more directly. Shit sucks yo. In other news, Trump's going to be president, I'm going to become a Canadian and give up medicine to study artificial binaries as a weird pseudo-acolyte of lil.
Clinton v Trump is 54-44, yo. Last CNN poll. Drumpf has yet to face any opposition from any democrat, has yet to face any real scrutiny, and has yet to compete on a playing field against an opponent doing other than dickering over how to interpret the same playbook. The man has been an asshole on stage for three decades. He's declared bankruptcy four times. I mean, LMGTFY could write the Trump attack ads. Google "trump bankruptcy" "trump adultery" "trump divorce" "trump bribe" "trump racist" or "trump mafia". I'd say "trump misogynist" but the average trump voter can't spell it. Given a week and the archival footage from The Apprentice and any decent editor could make the man unelectable. Which is important, because this is going to be a race won by traditional media buys. The people voting for Trump aren't on Facebook, aren't on Tumblr, and may in fact still have a webtv.com email address... so flashy videos are what it's all about.
then you're insane. I recognize that the hipster rhetoric on Hillary Clinton is "no better than the Republicans" but I hope you understand that you look like an ignorant, spoiled tween when you say shit like that. I'd love the opportunity to vote for Bernie Sanders but at the same time, I recognize that Sanders has only gotten three bills enacted in 25 years in office (two of which were for renaming post offices). Granted - a tiny percentage of bills ever make law but Hillary tried to pass Obamacare in '94 - back in Gingrich's "Contract with America" was just getting wound up, back when the Republicans shut down the government the first time. She's a three-term senator, a Secretary of State and a political animal who had decades of experience before you were born. That's a picture of Hilary Rodham delivering impeachment charges against President Nixon. In case you were wondering. Five years previous she'd spent the summer working at a cannery in Alaska. So. either you are sarcastic when you say that, and are actually a member of the thinking human race, or you aren't sarcastic when you say that, and are an uneducated, petulant child. Which has a couple advantages - after all, you can a) school yourself and b) grow up. Either way, know that if you flippantly drop Tea Party talking points like we're on Little Green Footballs I'm going to fact-check your every statement. Violently. With prejudice.
First, me being insane is not news. I posted the 'Hur dur, drumpf es numero uno' just to try and be lighthearted, but I do not understand why everyone is so eager to be pro-Hillary. I understand 100% that, all things considered, she is the lesser of two evils. I understand that, taken in isolation, her resume is damn fine. But choosing the lesser does not make it good, and it's all too easy to obfuscate the two when there are people who are HAPPY to vote for Hillary. I'm against dynastic politics as well as big money influencing the electoral process, with is far and above the largest reason I'm bothering to vote at all, because Sanders is at least going to TRY. Hillary is in favor of both of those things it seems. With Obama there wast at least some promise of deviation from status quo. I think it was first on Hubski I saw the phrase 'Shit don't stick to a Clinton.'
I think the "everyone is eager to be pro-Hillary" because at least our #2 choice isn't fuckin' Ted Cruz, you know? And because some of us sat through the 2000 election and listened without breathing as NPR announced (on our commute home, with a Florida minivan driving like shit in front of us) that Scalia et. al. had given away our democracy. Maybe this won't break your heart; it broke many of ours: There's definitely a seething vein of anti-establishment discontent running through the country. It comes from 30 years of bush clinton bush bush clinton bush clinton bush clinton. Amazing thing is, I remember when the Clintons were outsiders. Governor of Arkansas? Who are you kidding? '91 was a miasma of "bubba" jokes and the constantly repeated fact that the redneck used to own an El Camino with astroturf in the bed (the Rhodes scholar part, not so much). You know how you go from outsider to insider? Don't suck at your job. You need to understand that the Clintons have been the subject of more than 25 years of constant character assassination. Kennedy fucked Marylin Monroe, failed to invade Cuba and damn near started a nuclear war and a crazy redneck capped his ass after three years and he's a fuckin' saint. Clinton? Drew down the Yugoslav civil war, gave us 8 years of peace and boosted the economy higher than it had been in a generation. But we had to spend 3 fuckin' years finding out that he wasn't so good at land deals back in the '70s, we had to suffer through Rush Limbaugh claiming constantly (on TV!) that the Clintons had VInce Foster killed because he was going to give away their secret drug runways in Arkansas, and then we had to spend a year and a fuckin' half finding out that the president got a blowjob from a kind-of chunky intern, and now here you are, losing your shit because clearly clintons are HORRIBLE PEOPLE. Look. I'd love to live in a world where Bernie Sanders has a hope in hell of running the country. Fuckin' A I'll bet Hilary Clinton would, too. But those of us who live out here? In this world? People "don't trust" Hilary Clinton. Why? "something something emails." Okay - this is a woman who Congress spent $40m fishing around for something to bust her husband for. She was a senator on the intelligence committee and the Secretary of State. And all that filthy Snowden shit we all found out about? Yer damn skippy she knew about it. And here we are, condemning the woman for running her own server. This is a Citizens United world. Big Money is going to influence politics. This is the 24-hour news cycle. There will be dynasties. Fuckin' A. It's amazing that we're now holding it against Hillary Clinton that she's done this shit before. Bernie Sanders assumed national office one year BEFORE Bill Clinton. Up until last year, he was "that crank from Vermont that everybody loves." In the interim, Hillary Clinton has been the first lady, a Senator (who introduced 417 bills) and the Secretary of State. And yeah - it's hard to get something done when you're the lone wolf howling in the woods. But you know what? It's hard to get something done when you're the lone wolf howling in the woods. I watched Carter get crushed in 1980. I even remember the October Surprise. It SUCKS when you're guy can't do shit because the other team is cheating. By the way, here's Hillary, helping out Roslyn Carter on the campaign. So okay. You'd rather vote for somebody else. That's fine. But when you compare number two to donald fucking trump you're basically calling the rest of us jackasses. We're not. We just have more perspective than you..jpg)
This is a problem though, because she became an insider with the criminals in wall street. I don't want an insider at all. I don't have kids, why not flip the boat and build a new one from the flotsam?You know how you go from outsider to insider?
Don't suck at your job.
Not true. Hillary was on the board of Walmart since like '84. The Clintons pushed hard for NAFTA. Hell - Hillary volunteered for the Goldwater campaign before she impeached Nixon before she volunteered for the Carter campaign. Business interests have always been her bag. People who think that somehow Clinton shifted right aren't paying attention - Clintons did what Clintons do, but they had an easier time getting the Republican stuff passed. Once more with feeling: I agree far more with Sanders' politics. Most idealists do. But realists also recognize that an idealist in the real world for 30 years either compromises a fuckload or accomplishes nothing. I think it's fair to say that Bill and Hillary Clinton are centrists that support free trade and minimal government involvement in commerce, and have been for lo these many decades. I also think it's fair to say that most of us are not centrists that support free trade and minimal government involvement in commerce. But if I'm going to have someone in charge of worker rights, tariffs and trade I'd much rather they be a centrist that tried to pass universal healthcare than a walking tan line that thinks Mexico is going to build his wall. I also think you don't have a real conception of what "flipping the boat" looks like. We're spoiled in this country - we can whine about pallets of hundred dollar bills vanishing into Iraq or universal nuclear disarmament scuttled in favor of Star Wars but at least those were establishment Republicans with the backing of the Machine. Trump? I mean, did you see Christie's eyes? The world never CTRL-ALT-DELs cleanly. If you have the choice between a soft landing and a hard one, choose soft.
So we're back to coercion. Toe the line and worship Shillary or else drumpf es numero uno BR HUEHUEHUEHUEHUE and the world ends in nuclear fire because sanders is an unelectable idealist. Remind me why I should vote again? I'm also not conceding the point about being in bed with wallstreet. It's telling that she won't release those transcripts, and they give her boatloads of money directly and indirectly. If it's good for the financier class it's almost definitionally bad for everybody who isn't one.
No, we're back to "stop pretending that those of us who support realistic centrist government over the Short Fingered Vulgarian are imbeciles that lack values." Because you lost that one. Go ahead and not vote - see if I give a fuck. But realize that a candidate that doesn't take money is either A) an independently-wealthy billionaire or B) ineffectual. And that I know this, and you don't, doesn't make you pure, it makes you ignorant. Stop being ignorant.
I don't. I think you need more idealism so you can be equally as pissed as me when hillary wins, in addition to being relieved that the psycho and his anarchist party loses. No one should celebrate any outcome of this election. I'm just popping balloons a little early, instead of 8 years later after we're done with 'Basically Obama 2.0 but a woman.'"stop pretending that those of us who support realistic centrist government over the Short Fingered Vulgarian are imbeciles that lack values."
I'm gonna guess you were what? 15 when the economy collapsed in 2007? I was trying to make a living in Los Angeles with a mortgage in Washington and a recent college grad attempting to start a new business. The fact that I got to do that in a recession, rather than a depression, is entirely due to your buddy "thanks Obama." Know what? Pop your own damn balloons. Because when you keep responding to facts with sour grapes, the only thing you're doing is demonstrating you don't want to listen.
I think it's difficult for young people who weren't alive or aware during the "Harry and Louise" Hillarycare days to appreciate what a coup the Affordable Care Act is. The law is far from perfect, but we will look back in twenty or thirty years and view Obama's presidency as an inflection point. Whether she's ever president, Mrs. Clinton deserves a lot of credit for that law.
I definitely do. Couches, floors, tables, back of small cars, and for the current week: igloos. someguyfromcanada can handle the overflow. Maybe we could create an army of hubski-ex-pats Yankees who live in Canada and push back the dark with thoughtfulness. Every so often they go south to the United States of Trump Towers and look soulfully in the deer-caught-in-headlight eyes of those left behind. They raise an eyebrow and mutter, "What can be learned? Eh?"
I know that feeling with family, I live AT home to be able to support my siblings more. If I wasn't here one would probably have a full breakdown and I'm trying to figure out how to get my brother to go to counselling for severe social anxiety. I don't actually think he could call the place though. At least I don't have to worry about Trump. I do wonder how Trudeau would be able to handle him after things seemingly have been going well with Obama.
bought my tickets for Japan and S. Korea. about to weeb the fuck out my friends are gonna have to drag me out of Akihabara and Shibuya I'll have one suitcase for clothes and three for figurines and plushies that solidify my shit-tier status look at this shit they're going to bury me in a pile of pokemon stuffed animals I'd buy clothing but I learned in Malaysia that "2XL" and "Broad Shoulders" are not terms that are incorporated into Asian fashion that's cool tho, more Vocaloid Nendoroids in the budget also I have a podcast now and a comic strip about depression, anxiety, and the difficulties of being a creative person. it's shit.
I would do a couple days in Kyoto (half day in Nara) if you can. Or an overnight at an onsen, we went to this one and it was a highlight for most people. in tokyo: http://www.shinjuku-robot.com/pc/ - this is a must! skip the bento it's terrible http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/ - get tickets in advance, like today Golden Gai - A tiny neighborhood of bars the size of a large closet. Some only serve 3 people, but it's so you interact and get to know each other. one of my favorite parts of the trip. We made friends with a local who got us in to some of the friendlier bars - some do not allow people who speak english. Picture from our favorite bar. I don't remember the name, it was 4:00am and I was not sober at all Karaoke - it's worth it, definitely hit it up at least once. I actually found the place we went because it had this amazing giant toast thing I would say maybe try different accommodations. Our first night we stayed at a capsule hotel, then a hostel, then a business hotel, then a ryokan. All were really unique experiences in their own way. And if you can stay near the Yamanote line because it will get you just about everywhere you need to go. Edit: Forgot a super important one! Learn the kanji for shochu. Do not get it confused with sake! Very different beasts.
2 days away from delivery deadline with Urban Outfitters (2k of revenue but most importantly, getting our foot in the door) but our shipment seems to be stuck at the border. Damn it sucks to be Canadian sometimes. I guess that's what I get for trying to do business with big corporations out of my crappy apartment (or actually Thailand at the moment). Really got in over my head with this one: all the operations managment lingo, new software and labeling systems and now importing goods to USA. Scrambling to find a solution now, my sister's boyfriend might have the tax registration we need to clear customs, fingers crossed. Edit: looks like my sister's boyfriend might have saved the day, the ball is in DHL's court now. I hope they just accept the info, clear customs and deliver in time. We did pay for express delivery and it was supposed to de delivered yesterday night. In good news, we finally settled down for a little while in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The internet guy is coming tomorrow to give us a router directly in the apartment. I'll be spending the next few days catching up on video editing and I honestly can't wait :D Or visa is ending soon and we'll have to find a cost effective way to do a visa run, but I have too many worries at the moment to think about that right now. Edit 2: Missed the Deadline, skrew DHL and Customs :( Urban was nice enough to extend the deadline. The process has been a bureaucratic mess and they could have just asked all the info 2 days ago instead of asking for a document at a time every 24h. Being in asia, not sleeping very much dealing with this right now. Sent some new documents today, hopefully it will FINALLY go through... Hightlight of the day to keep it positive: rode a scooter for the first time today and it put a smile on my face for the first time in 3 days :)
I do not envy the hell you are about to go through. My degree is in fashion design, and I worked for a menswear manufacturer for a number of years. We decided we wanted to do some manufacturing of our products at an excellent factory in Vancouver, BC, but, after more than a year of wrangling we were unable to find a way to make the deal work. Essentially, when stuff crosses the border it is taxed according to what it might sell for in the future. If it is a "finished product", then it is taxed (heavily) according to the full retail price... because the country that made it also wants to make money on the thing they made. Except... you are wholesaling your products when you sell them to a US distributor... so you are paying tax on the retail price, but only getting paid the wholesale price. BIG out-of-pocket costs. You can get around this by sending "pieces" across the border, and completing their assembly in the USA. (This is what the American car manufacturers generally do... they have their parts made in Brazil, Hungary, Japan, etc, bring them back to the USA, and assemble them... so.... "Made In America".) But those pieces are going to be taxed as well, only at a lower rate because... of reasons. But still, you have to pay the tax before selling the items, so more out of pocket costs that do not guarantee your product will ever make it to US shelves. And then there are limits on what textiles you can import to the USA (no bamboo or hemp), and the original source of your raw materials. (Friends from BC were bringing a bunch of wooden pallets to burn at an event here in the USA, but the pallets were not stamped with FSC certifications, so the wood could not be "imported" into the US because it wasn't FSC certified. Their art project never made it across the border.) Good luck with your efforts. It is not going to be fun.
We're selling beard oil and have not really had any problems as of yet. However, I don't think the way we did things are 100% kosher (I don't really have a tax id in the states which I think i'm probably supposed to have). We've been getting away with i because shipments of 100$-1000$ value are not really worth the hassle for the IRS. Probably bit off more than I can chew but my thinking is that if we're successful enough to be spotted, we'll have the monies to pay some professional to get us out of trouble. Pretty reckless approach, but at the same time paying 1000$ for some registrations and all the mental headache was really not worth it when we started because it was all a big experiment that we only made about 1000$ profit on in 2015. If it gets more serious, i'm ready to deal with the headache.
My beard approves! And you are kinda OK in the US as long as your sales are under about $15k, and you have no bank transactions over $10k. At that point you trigger certain flags that bring you to the attention of the authorities.... if they haven't already noticed the products coming across the border. :-) Good luck with it!
$10k transactions at a bank, whether all at once or aggregate over a day, trigger the filing of a CTR (Currency Transaction Report) at U.S. Banks. This is $10k across all accounts you hold at a bank. DO NOT STRUCTURE YOUR DEPOSITS TO TRY AND AVOID THIS $10K LIMIT. It will land you in a bigger world of trouble as it will look like you are money laundering and deliberately attempting to avoid the filing of a CTR. There are also SARs (Suspicious Activity Reports) - if you look like you are structuring deposits (for instance, depositing just under the CTR threshold, especially over multiple days) - a SAR will get filed, because of AML (Anti-Money Laundering) issues.
That's my goal. ;-) Actually, my weird past is what makes it hard for me to get a job today. People just can't figure out my resumé... they get confused... debt collector, fashion designer, computer engineer, writer, importer/exporter, database developer, etc, etc, etc.
My path has been weird because I have always been open to new opportunities. I have little interest in climbing a corporate ladder and getting incremental raises every year due to a schedule published by the HR department. Fuck that shit. I like to find some interesting, chewy problem, learn about it, solve it, and then move on to the next problem. That's why all my jobs have come from personal references, and not from Recruiters or LinkedIn, or responding to job postings on web sites. Someone talks to someone else and says, "Dude. You need to talk to this guy I know. He can totally handle that project that is stressing you out right now." And then my phone rings.
I wrote a big long rambling post recounting my life story, but deleted it so I would just get to the point. Here's the thing; Talk to people. Listen to them. Don't just wait for their mouths to stop moving, and then fill the empty space with your words. Instead, actually listen to them. Don't express your opinion. Don't try and solve their problem for them. Just let them talk. People have a lot of shit in their heads, and don't often get a chance to just talk without a specific agenda. When they feel the freedom to just speak to you, then they are very open, and vulnerable, and honest. And, it's weird, but that makes them trust you. THEY open up. THEY express their feelings. THEY tell you things they have never told anyone else. And for some reason that makes them trust YOU. Then, honor that trust. People will ASK for help when they are ready for it. And if they trust you, they will ask you. They will open the door and let you walk in. Every time a big opportunity has come to me in my life, it was because the person who opened that door was someone who trusted me. Someone who I had connected with in some way, and they wanted to help me out by presenting me with an opportunity. That's the long and short of it, really. It is incredibly hard to do, and yet incredibly easy at the same time.
I would still like to hear the big long rambling post, if you're up for it. Thank you for the advice. It's something I've been wondering about for a long time. See, it's lessons like this that I'm in dire need of. The world is one giant mess of relationships between things, and it takes no effort at all to lose the way or to not find it at all, and I appreciate the fact that you've told me what you did.
I've been reading a lot about this place lately. Looks like a good place to stop in if you're a digital nomad. I wanna do that soon. The only problem is that my bugdet is extremely limited right now and I haven't found something I can freelance in online yet.In good news, we finally settled down for a little while in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
I've been trying to reconcile something with myself lately. I'm a perfectionist, I'll admit. I like control. I have an image in my head at all times for my goals. Granted, I don't have it bad enough that I develop anxiety or run myself into the ground, but it does have an emotional toll - I have very high expectations for myself and the people around me. Failing to meet those expectant result in either me cutting off from that person or me crying to my mother about what a failure I am. Anyways, I've been coming to accept that nobody is perfect. You know how you can hear a cliché your whole life, and then one day, it just kinda clicks? Exactly that. I'm not perfect. I am 100% just winging my entire life right now. I have a feeling that everyone around me is as well. Sometimes I fuck up. And that's okay. It's just a bruise; not the end of the world. It's incredible how much we can bounce back. Key ingredient: patience. If I have children one day, I hope I can remember this mindset. My parents are super awesome about not saying "I told you so" for my every realization, but as a teen and now a young adult... So much of it you don't understand until it affects your like right now. It's hard to have that forethought. I've just barely started factoring in Future Goo for Today Goo's decisions. In other news, I've been debating between getting involved in either the women's resource centre or the student's union on campus next year. I'm kinda leaning towards the student's union to continue having my beliefs challenged... Although I wouldn't think of myself as a charismatic political figure.
Not getting more involved in school life as soon as I could is one of my biggest regrets honestly. DO IT :) I envy you, i'm a perpetual half-asser and i'm constantly working on dialing up my perfectionist side. I can be stressful, I know, but it's a genuinely useful quality in a lot of domains. Own it and use it to your advantage without letting it stress you out (I know, not so simple but we can all strive).
I've placed myself on a strict budget for the rest of this month after I came way too close to my set monthly spending last month. I know I didn't go over it, and I don't plan to always be this frugal with my money. With college, and my work hours being very limited I want to stay in the habit of healthy spending.
Good luck with this ! I'm hoping to keep my debt at 10k for graduation and pay it off in a year by keeping a roommate . it's good to stay in the habit otherwise you spend a little more every month until you're way over. I find having goals helps me stay on track better than anything else.
I recognize it's old school, but the new version of Quicken is pretty spectacular. I say this having abandoned it and getting my money back in 2006 and strenuously avoiding Quicken ever since. Seriously. It's a damn handy program, and it syncs with your phone.
Oh yeah, dude. Not even. Take it from me - I did MoneyDance for like six years, then switched over to Quickbooks, where we manage two businesses... and Quicken is stupid simple. Does all your budgeting, categorizing, projections, synchronization, all of it. I was able to drop retirement funds into it in like three clicks.
Cachaca is like really young rum. As such, some of it is good, some of it is wretched. The good stuff is difficult to find in the US, as is the truly wretched stuff; ten years ago my father purchased a bottle of cachaca in Sao Paolo that cost more for the bottle deposit than for the liquor in it. It's good with fruit juice - mango, papaya, pineapple, etc.
The last day of winter is Sunday, and it's really bumming me out. Last year I spent eight days doing winter hikes. This year was just one. I think I want to try winter camping. It'll mean buying a lot more gear. A four season tent, a much warmer sleeping bag, a much bigger backpack, and tails for my snowshoes. Did I mention last week that I went in up to my chest in snow on my one hike this winter? That was new. I'll also need to figure out water in the winter. That probably means a new stove, replacing my very light solid fuel stove. I'll have to watch for spring sales on winter equipment.
Wait. Really? Spring starts on Sunday?? I feel you - I've only gone skiing 3 times this year, when normally I'd be going every weekend. I work at an outdoor gear rental shop. If you can, ask the people at your local MEC or gear rental shop. I've dealt with and seen a LOT of equipment. I have seen what falls apart after going out once, and what has stood up to 15 years of abuse. If you go in on a quiet day, they'll probably be more than happy to discuss what'll be your best bang for your buck. Also, another perk of a gear rental shop is you can try it out before committing. :)
Spring isn't official for another couple weeks, but it'll be 40s and 50s both locally and out east where I like to hike starting Monday. With the very low snowfall both places, the snowpack will quickly be trashed. Rental is something I should look into. I'll have to look for places that rent tents and sleeping bags around here. I'm only familiar with ski/snowshoe rentals. Mostly I rely on online reviews. I've been pretty happy with my purchases so far.
Toyota baffles me sometimes. They seriously do. They've actually have generated quite a bit of buzz with the C-HR Concept of theirs. It's both aggressive and modern looking, something that could easily bring in the younger crowd. It's no wonder it was originally meant to be a model for the Scion marque before Toyota decided to call it a day on that brand. Hell, I was half considering looking at getting one with the wife when her current car kicks the bucket. I just got around to reading Autoblog's coverage of the official reveal last night and any interest I had in the car disappeared as soon as I read about the powertrain options. To quote Toyota's press release directly . . . The Toyota C-HR will be equipped with an engine-range that is designed to deliver exactly the fluent driving behaviour that its customers are looking for. This finds its full expression at the wheel of the hybrid version, the intrinsic characteristics of which guarantee a smooth, jolt-free ride. Fitted with the latest-generation hybrid power plant, the C-HR has CO2 emissions of less than 90 g/km, unrivalled within its segment. Delivering 122 DIN hp, this new hybrid powertrain is more efficient and lighter, and offers sharper performance than the previous system. Detailed design changes to the engine have resulted in a thermal efficiency of 40% – a world-beating performance for a petrol unit. Other hybrid system components have been made lighter and smaller, and have been repositioned for optimum packaging, further contributing to the car's lower centre of gravity. And finally, a 2-litre CVT-only model will be available for certain markets. Fucking seriously? You're gonna make a car look that aggressive and give it a pissy ass powertrain? Fuck. Good luck getting anyone to buy that car, dumbasses. It's too aggressive looking (possibly even ugly) for the geriatric crowd and it's too neutered for the younger crowd. When a Kia Forte SX looks more tempting by miles, you know you have a problem.Responsive and Frugal Powertrains
Dude. It's a Prius. Think of it as a Prius that doesn't look like a Prius and you're there. It's an AWD Prius with two hidden doors that actually has some ground clearance. Considering Nissan can't keep Jukes on the lots and you totally understand why they're making it a Prius. Ever driven a Juke? The connection between your foot and the road is more distant than the connection between a Reaper drone over Pakistan and the pilot in Vegas.
Yeah. That's the thing. Even the new 2016 Prius still looks like a Prius. If you really want to, you could make it look sharp, but at the end of the day it'll still be a Prius. The C-HR though, it looks more than half decent, like you could actually have fun with it. It's kind of like the whole Hyundai Veloster all over again. The styling of the car is advertising something the car just won't do. Like I said, I've written it off.
I didn't know the C-HR was a thing until just now. For me, the meager power train is just fine. I want something a little more practical for stuff and people than a Civic, and I want AWD for sketchy snow and dirt (doing more hiking, and trailheads are often quite rural). But I also want good gas mileage for all the day to day stuff I do. My comparison spreadsheet has the Honda HR-V, Maxda CX-3, Subaru Impreza five door and then bigger stuff like the CX-5 and Kia Sportage (two rentals I had that I loved). There are no clear answers. I also want to enjoy driving. I wish Subaru would make a five door WRX again. I was actually looking at BMW 2 series (coupe but maybe ok) online last night. I'd like to keep it under $30k but am also not discounting anything. I have another year or 18 months before I plan to make a purchase, but I'm shopping online for now to get some ideas of what I want and what options there are.
Ha! What'd you get instead? I'm 35 and feel like I'm in this gap between a small car as a 20-something and either an expensive car or a bigger car in middle age or with kids. I want fun, practical and economical. It seems there's a big compromise on one of the three.
Nah. It's a four door. The handles for the rear doors are at the top, rear corner. If you wanna see an odd SUV, I present the Nissan Murano Coupe Cabriolet (no, I don't know what they were thinking) and the Isuzu Vehicross (which I kind of want).
Vehicross was designed by the same guy who designed the Juke. They're terrible on the road; it handles like an Isuzu Amigo except you literally can't see anything out the back. In Japan they had a rear camera but rear cameras aren't DOT legal. As a consequence, it's side mirrors or bust.
Another really cool fact about the cars, per the Wikipedia page for them. It's crazy to think they had such a small production run. Even if they're a bit crappy to drive, that makes seeing one at a cruise in a pretty rare treat.Sales were intentionally limited, with only 5958 vehicles being produced between 1997 and 2001; 1805 were produced for the domestic Japanese market and the remaining 4,153 sold in the United States. Japanese sales were limited by the fact that the exterior width dimensions were not in compliance with Japanese Government dimension regulations, and the engine displacement obligated Japanese drivers for higher levels of annual road tax. The vehicle had a base price of $28,900.
The Fiat Multipla must be the long-term effects of Fiat's affirmative action program for the visually impaired. Though their hearts are in the right place, the good people of Fiat seem to be too heartbroken to tell the man that his work is absolutely appalling to the common senses, and instead have rushed the car into production. The Multipla looks like an aborted fetus glued to another aborted fetus developed through a Deadpool-esque eugenics program.. This program, which obviously lost funding before reaching acceptable production capability, had only learned how to develop children you could see through, and ended up as Fiat's main glass supplier.
I went to the starter/induction session for an Award in Education and Training today, it's only a level three qualification but it would mean I can tutor at college if I decide not to restart or otherwise fail my teacher training course. The real reason I'm doing it is it makes me feel like I'm achieving something, boosts my motivation for teaching and refreshes my memory for when I return to my course.
Left YVR last night at 11:00 p.m. It was +10C, no coats. Landed this morning in YYZ @ 6:00 a.m. where it is -10C. A very big storm blew through yesterday cancelling my earlier flight. I won't be able to shovel though. I have to settle in, then turn around and go back to Toronto. No time to sleep. Back to the "real" world.
I've been frustrated over my university group for the last two days - so much I barely visited the uni (for one lecture which I can't afford to miss - Linguistics, my profile subject). Over the semester-and-some I've been trying to make the dean's office allow us - the three groups in this year's flux in the faculty whose main foreign language is English - to pick our own second foreign languages instead of having a single language assigned to the whole group. Needless to say, not everyone is excited to be learning German next year. I've been making some waves among the groups, but it never came to fruition because people of Russia are generally apathetic due to the deterministic worldview many of Russians are being indoctrinated into from a young age. An interesting detail I've noticed is that the only two people in the group who, instead of waiting with expectation for the plan to collapse, make some effort are the two people in the group for whom it's not the first university to be attended (and both never finished their first higher education) - whom are me and the head of the group. Either way, dean's promises stay unfulfilled for the time being. I'll try talking to the dean - she is spoken of as a determined, open-minded person who's established the very faculty in the first place - and if it turns into the students favor, I'll be glad and proud. But god damn it, is it frustrating and diminishing to do good upon people who don't give a shit about it. I've proposed using hashtags in the social network conversation (multiperson instant messaging, if you wish) to enhance the workflow with the many documents and hometasks we're exchanging over the conversation. My proposal has been met with "nobody needs this anyway"... by the only person selfish enough to raise their voice, but not open-minded enough to think about the proposal in the first place (this alone makes me want to smack myself full-speed into a wall) - and the rest simply follow, without saying a word! God damn it. They tell us from the very young age that "Your class [group, working collective etc.] is your second family". If that's true, I've been a part of very dysfunctional second families, and I'm not sure whether I can influence that. In many team-based games, they say "Shit teams happen". Whether this is true or just an excuse for not trying, I don't know, - but it's disappointing to see others, clearly wrought with the pressure of life (what's with no establishment of personality and personal strength whatsoever in this sick culture that pervades modern Russia), not just not raise their hands in protest against what's not good enough, but argue against the good because going for it will take effort, will take personal responsibility and may incur failure - in a culture where being not good enough is akin to being an outcast... I'm considering abandoning this idea and going along my studying disregarding the... "the good of the group", or whatever. It's already very easy to knock me off the boat - I don't see why I should stay tight-knit with those upon whom I keep stumbling in trying to do real good. P.S. Is it bad that the almost-only time I come to Pubski is when I have problems I want to vent away?
Heresy, you should be excited to be allowed to learn the language of the Dichter und Denker :P That said, I don't grasp the problem, I think. They're not letting you choose the foreign language you study? Seems pretty crummy for a linguistics department.not everyone is excited to be learning German next year.
The second foreign language, yes. We're required to study two (and can take up more if desire - for additional cost, of course) while in for a linguistics degree in Russia, and I chose English as my main foreign language - along with around fifty other people. It's an odd situation, considering the dean herself told us in her welcoming speech that we'd be allowed to do so, and yet the dean's office and dean's representatives insist on dividing languages between groups because money (or, to be more precise, given our calculations, it would take additional resources to hire new teachers). We need new teachers because, apparently, Spanish is a very popular option - among French (the language of love and the beautiful France) and German (the language of the most industrious people in Europe). From the three groups studying English, around 30 would prefer to study Spanish, around 15 would prefer to study German, which leaves mere 5 to French. I don't understand it, either, but that our faculty does not allow us to choose seems outlandish... or it would, had it not been Russia. Check this out: this country has a democracy rating of 3.31 out of 10, sitting closer to Cuba and Afghanistan than to the US. What kind of choice were I to expect in such an atmosphere?They're not letting you choose the foreign language you study?