I have this card.

I'm an immigrant to the US by way of marriage. When I moved here we opened an account at chase where my now wife banks - a joint for us both and one for me.

When faced with having three near identical blue cards I asked if there was any option other than blue

Imagine my face when I heard possibly the most American phrase I've ever heard: "You can have the brand colors, or Disney"

my parents angrily forbid me to do drugs or have sex and begged me not to drink to excess. Guess which activities I regularly engaged in.

I was threatened, beaten up, choked out and tortured in school for being "gay" (actually bi), and yet my (romantic) attraction to any and all genders even preceeded my understanding of any sexuality.

not my parents, not my fellow students, not exes, not internet strangers, not religion and not any form of media has managed to change my sexuality.

one of the biggest issues, in my humble and also arrogant opinion, is that no political party in any English-speaking country, represents any interests of anyone earning under 7 figures. Maybe even 8 figures, and they have 0 interest or motivation in changing that — despite the lip-service both main parties make for it.

The fax machine actually had a massive impact on society and is much older than you think (newer than the telegram, older than the telephone, and in use during Abraham Lincolns life time).

Just because it's usefulness had declined in the prior 10 years to him making that statement, doesn't mean it didn't affect the economy.

In the year 2100 or 2200 the internet as we know it may have been superceded by methodologies we can't even comprehend right now.

Having lived and worked in both the UK and US, yes I pay roughly 4% less "tax" in the US.

but, as I didn't have to pay for Healthcare, and my student loans payments were a percentage of my earnings — vs the amount I've had to pay for Healthcare, copay, scripts, etc here. If we actually compare like for like and assume that Healthcare payments are only not called a tax out of a semantic convention for political reasons despite being practically a tax by nearly any definition - I've pay way more in """"tax"""" in the US.

Assuming the average person earns roughly $65k, would you pay an extra $200 for 100% fully covered, fully comprehensive, $0 co-pay, you walk in (to your nearest hospital, no need to check if they're in network) get an x-ray, a blood test, your appendix removed, stay over night, go back the next day for kidney dialysis or chemotherapy and pay nothing more than that monthly extra $200/rate in perpetuity? Especially as the average cost is $456 (+ co pay) for Healthcare and that usually isn't a "good" let alone the "best" package.

literally the origin of the term - that bugs (literally) used to get into computers and mess them up

6! hours? An entire month?

people found information for hundreds of years before reddit and will for hundreds of years after.

"when you mildly inconvenience people you shouldn't be surprised if they retaliate with chemical weapons" is peak conservative thought leadership

Data has an ambition to learn to be human and chooses to love a cat. It's important when, later, he has to prove he is sentient in court.

including within its own borders.

I guess disaster movies are right, we do go straight to hell real quick.

"no one is allowed to imagine anything that's not a grotesque exaggeration of a bizarre sex doll"

I did the Barbenheimer double bill. The one that felt like a.commercial was the "YU ESS EH" nature of promoting American War interests.

We did a year of unlimited time off. I took 2x1-week and 1x2 week and a few days here and there.

At the end of the year they announced no time off except Christmas and Thanksgiving days during Nov thru Jan and you can't take more than a week off at the time.

They couple this with a company wide raise but if they don't change the policy after the moratorium ends in January I think I'd rather earn less and have more time off.

Part of it is they are mixed in professional environments (studios) for professional environments (cinema).

Part of it is they can't mix for someone with a 10 year old tv using its built in speakers in a shared living room with street noise, 15 feet from the sofa and a brand new TV through a sound bar in a rural mansion 8 feet from the sofa, and someone using airpods over Bluetooth.

Plus people tend to listen to things at a volume similar to conversational level, but in a cinema you listen to things at a volume that would be considered impolite to your neighbors if you did it in an apartment block.

Finally, sound engineers are artists and dynamics (louder and quieter parts) are part of their craft. Actors are artists and their vocal performances also have dynamics.

A question to ask yourself is have you considered more actively participating in the sound delivery methods of your media? I'm not here to say "all people are watching TV wrong!" but I would ask if most people have even thought carefully about their sound delivery choices, their own EQ settings in their TV, how well tuned their environment is for active listening, and if they just need to turn their volume up?

I appreciate not everyone can blaze the sound on max — but if you do have to sacrifice some volume, maybe part of that tradeoff is clarity of dialogue?

realllll fucking funny to use the words "ontological" and "real" next to each other

uk we say "cross legged" or "cross leggéd" if you're feeling Shakespearean

the other half of the United States

I agree. I have it turned off for now because it was dumb seeing stupid porn, but I don't mind reading about other adult topics, and self-tagging NSFW stuff is obviously capriciously applied. What would be inappropriate to some is not to others. It would be nice to be able to control that more granularly.