This situation has turned into a real cock for so many people.

The place I got my mortgage through sends out emails regularly with updates on my home value, current rates, and other assorted stuff. I originally bought this house at the tail end of 2020. It’s not the best house around, still needs work, but it had the room we needed, was in our budget (220), and the payment was low because the rate was great (2.75). Our original plan was stay here a bit, get rid of some debt, and then maybe try to find what we’d like to be our forever home, wherever that may be (we’re 44).

That idea went south in a hurry. What once probably wouldn’t have been worth sinking extra money into to fix, may now be the only choice. The aforementioned newsletter has a section where it shows what you could “save” at current rates by refinancing or taking cash out. The most recent one said I could “save” -$213400, meaning if we refinanced to take cash out to fix things up right now, it would cost us the entire price of the home yet again, on top of what the home and interest will already cost. Where a home in the 400’s was achievable before, our home in the 200s would nearly not be now.

I feel terrible for people having to try to achieve home ownership at this point, or probably for the rest of the decade. On the one hand, I understand how fortunate I am to have gotten in when I did, and to have a home period; on the other, like many, I’m now essentially trapped, which has the ripple effect of keeping both rates and prices high because most people aren’t going to trade a sub-3% mortgage for 7%+, assuming they can even find a place to go at this point.

Add in corporations branching out into a new area to do their level best to eliminate the concept of ownership for the majority of people, and politicians focusing on the more serious global issues like who goes in which bathroom, and my hope for the future couldn’t be squashed any further if you put it in a hydraulic press.

I had actually looked into that and yeah, because it isn’t technically indicated for weight loss most insurance companies have dropped covering it barring severe medical need. Unfortunately, I’m like 80lbs overweight, and even having high blood pressure wasn’t enough to drop the $300/no it would cost out of pocket.

It makes sense, I mean why cover $300/mo while I lose weight when you can cover my eventual six figure bypass and hospital stay, or roll the dice and hope I just die?

I did hear that there is some version of it that has (or is soon getting) approval for weight loss so… maybe!

I use a headphone jack when I’m looking for a particular listening experience, which I have amp / DAC / etc for. If I’m using my phone to listen, I’m both not worried about sound quality, and don’t want to be tethered to it by a cord.

I suppose if I were really arsed about it, I’d just get a USBC dongle. That said, I can see where that would be a hassle for people that prefer wired, and I think I’ve held only a couple of phones in my life that couldn’t have just accommodated a headphone jack instead of saving the 1.5 cents it probably costs to leave it out.

I’ll admit, my initial decision to just use wireless was more from seeing the writing on the wall; airpods sales would need to basically evaporate to get most of the manufacturers to course change at this point. Hell, the phone I’m currently using is the first I’ve had in years that even came with a charging brick in the box, so I’m assuming ditching the cable is next, followed by microtransactions to use various built in apps and services… like the phone dialer. Need to keep them margins infinitely expanding to appease shareholders.

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Every time I see one of these weight loss miracles, I wait for the other shoe to drop… and it usually does.

As I have learned the hard way in my own life, the weight loss miracle is setting a calorie limit and strictly adhering to it (barring medical complications… which, let’s face it, most of the people who say those cause issues with them losing weight probably don’t have them).

The weight loss miracle I’m waiting on is the pill that rewires your brain to change your relationship with food because, man… that’s the hard part. Having to constantly fight my own brain - no, you aren’t hungry, you’re bored; yes, you actually are satisfied eating a happy meal for 550 cals, you actually do not need a 2 cheeseburger meal large size at 1200 cals, and so on - that’s the struggle for me. I’m down from 270 to 240 so far, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t still a constant fight, which is probably what makes relapsing after taking all these drugs such a common thing.

Although I could argue there are worse scenes in general, the one with the most impact for me, that almost cut my Trek fandom short… the handholding jellyfish at the end of TNG’s debut 2 parter.

I watched it when it first aired, and I cringed so hard that my family thought I had a stroke. Really, those episodes were full of stuff that made you feel like an ass telling your friend new to Trek that “it gets better,” but that really was the whipped cream and cherry on top.

One of those weird, rare situations where Google seems to do something right. They said the cost was $100, and every month I pay $100. I’m assuming fees are built into that, but my bill never deviates from the price I was told, which is really all I care about.