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When we remodeled our house, we put everything at a height suitable for someone who's at least 6 foot tall. Our kid is 5'3". She hates us, half the shit in the kitchen she can't reach.  She's an adult, and has to come ask for me to get the toaster down in the morning so she can make herself a toast. 

 

1) Why isn't the toaster somewhere suitable, like on the counter making a horrible mess with crumbs at all times?

2) A toast? Is this the weird "make a coffee" slowly creeping into other usages?

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Why is that weird? It's a shorter way of saying "a cup of coffee". I don't understand the problem.

 

"A toast" is similarly "a slice of toast".

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I would highly, highly say no nude selfies given that this forum is public access. 

 

Wouldn't gamergate be thrilled that Idle Thumbs people were posting potentially embarrassing pictures of themselves on the internet. That'll teach those SJWs.

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1) Why isn't the toaster somewhere suitable, like on the counter making a horrible mess with crumbs at all times?

2) A toast? Is this the weird "make a coffee" slowly creeping into other usages?

 

1) I like a clean countertop with no more on it than necessary (so basically our knife block and that's it).  All other stuff either goes in cupboards, the pantry or on top of our cabinets. 

2) What is this, the pedantry thread!?  Can't a man just occasionally sprinkle an "a" into a sentence if he wants, as one might sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on a toast.

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total shitpost incoming, I am so sorry

 

So, I think at this point it's hard to not acknowledge that I have overall-health related depression. IE, because I can't get myself healthy it makes my mood for everything in my life fucking awful.

 

I managed to lose 20 pounds, then gained it back in a week because of a mixture of forgetfulness and bad planning. While my overall confidence in myself is high, my mood and ability to convey my emotions seems to be getting worse- to the point that I effectively have whittled down my friends.

 

All of this a few months after a shitty workplace gets rid of me because of an anxiety disorder that for some reason just shows up suddenly at 26. Yes, I've never, ever, had anxiety issues before. It just appeared, after years of not having it.

 

Then you've got Valentine's ruining my mood further, literally everyone I know hooking up with each other, a close friend going way too far and abusing me sexually/emotionally for her power trip, and basically I'm falling apart.

 

The one thing on my side, is that I'm not suicidal. I suppose that once I figured out how to get out of my 14 year hole of wanting to off myself and trying way too many times, that I must've done it for good. So that's something.

 

Sorry. Back to your thread, I just wanted to say this where people might read it.

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I hate owning a car, I hate having to own a car. Battery died from the cold yesterday, jump started it, then found out something is wrong with the brakes, which made for a pretty scary drive home. It's in the garage now, but I'm really not looking forward to the call telling me how much its going to cost me to continue driving my shitmobile. 

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People think i'm wasteful for buying new cars, but my 5 year warranty is so delicious. I thought my car was making a funny noise last night (it was just the road surface) and instead of getting worried, i just thought "oh, if anything is wrong i get to see my warranty in action!". Cut to collegues, one of whom can't sell his piece of shit, and the other who's gearbox seems to be on the way out.

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Yeah, that's a fair point Dibs. 1600 dollars is what it will cost to fix the shitmobile, so looks like I'm in the market for a new car. Fortunately I knew my car's days were numbered so I have been saving for this, but still, this is stress in my life I don't want.

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Car stuff is so shitty. I always buy used cars because they basically all that I can afford. My credit isn't good enough to get good financing on an expensive used car or a new car. I need new tires and wipers. Hopefully when I'm done paying this one off I'll have moved to a new city/job that allows me to not need a car or be able to get by sharing a car with my wife.

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I've generally kept an extra, shitty cheap car around (I know that's not a thing all people can do).   When I just had roommates, I owned the car, but everyone chipped in for insurance and tags, as anybody who needed it could use it.  For years it was a super banged up Honda Prelude I picked up for $400.  Right now it's a Bonneville that was wrecked pretty good and has mismatched doors.  The lady has a nice car, but the kid and I drive pretty old cars, so the spare is really nice to have. 

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I have the weird problem of living in an urban area but needing to commute out to the suburbs for work. If I could live and work in the urban area I would abandon owning a car. There are great affordable services if you live in the city and occasionally need a car.

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Yeah, that makes a huge difference.  I live 5 miles from the closest town and 15 miles from the town we spend most of our time in.  Not having a running car can be a disaster. 

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I've not had a car for over ten years now. Really don't miss it; it was a money pit that made me lazier. I can see how not having a car would be untenable in parts of the US though.

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People think i'm wasteful for buying new cars, but my 5 year warranty is so delicious. I thought my car was making a funny noise last night (it was just the road surface) and instead of getting worried, i just thought "oh, if anything is wrong i get to see my warranty in action!". Cut to collegues, one of whom can't sell his piece of shit, and the other who's gearbox seems to be on the way out.

 

I got to do that with my first car a few years ago. It is definitely nice to just not have to worry about it. I still have my crappy (but also lovable) 1986 Toyota Pickup around for emergencies or if my wife as the car, but it's such a rattle trap that I refuse to take it on the highway these days. On the plus side, cars back then were so simple that I can climb under that thing and replace just about any part. Unfortunately, the thing it really needs right now is a transmission, which is going to cost more than the truck is worth just for the part.

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That's the thing I've been finding the most difficult to deal with when living in the US: not having a car is a major pain here. I never owned one, my driver's license expired years ago and I never bothered renewing it, but living in a major city in Brazil and pretty much anywhere in Europe without a car was absolutely fine. Here it's a hassle to get anything done.

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I don't think it's US and Europe divide, but more of a country/suburban vs urban divide, and then dependent on the quality of public transit, or general density of that urban area. 

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Of course, you'd probably need a car if living in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere in Europe. But you can live perfectly well in any urban area without a car, no matter the size, which is absolutely not true in the US. It just so happens that public transport in general sucks here, and cities tend to be much more spread out. I do think those things are the consequence of a car culture, not the cause.

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It seems to vary in the US too though. In NYC I didn't have any trouble getting around using public transportation, but in Dallas? Good luck. Everything there is so spread out that instituting good public transportation would be tough. Their pavements are wider than a car lane here, it's silly.

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Of course, anything I said is not true when it comes to very select major metropolitan areas, where public transportation works. But I'll never wrap my head around huge cities where everyone needs a car (as your Dallas example, or LA). 

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Ratamero is absolutely right.  Cities that developed after the advent of the general consumer having access to the automobile are supremely different from those that were developed around other forms of transportation.  When cars were novelties for the supremely wealthy it didn't really matter, but once mass manufacturing of cars was available in the US it totally changed how neighborhoods, homes, & cities as a whole were designed & developed.

 

If you live in the Southwest like eot mentioned Dallas, they were designed & developed assuming that the citizens would have cars. Like if NYC was developed in the 1950s instead of the 1650s there would absolutely be way way more single family homes, way more garages & driveways, & way more lawnspace for those single family homes.

 

Urban Studies as a field is interested in how advents in technology change the way urban (and by extension suburban & rural) spaces were/are developed.

The wealthy left urban areas to build homes in the suburbs & move away from undesirables (aka People of Color and the wealthy were white, thus White Flight as a phenomenon.) This deprived urban centers of the tax revenue that rich people provide, thus creating a cycle of disinvestment, causing poor urban centers to spiral into dilapidation. (If you're interested in how this manifests itself, please please please check out Origins of the Urban Crisis by Thomas Sugrue.  He writes about Detroit, MI and it will crush your soul and cement to you why institutionalized racism has been a problem and continues to be a problem.)

Thus the suburbs were built to accommodate what they assumed wealthy people would have (personal cars, a desire for larger homes and yards.)

The working adults who grew up in the suburbs are now thinking they want to move to the cheaper urban centers that their parents or grandparents moved away from, driving out the poor People of Color who lived there before because they could not afford to live in the suburbs, forcing those people move elsewhere in the city or the oldest suburbs that were built in the 50's and 60's that have high maintenance costs & require cars that were not required in the urban centers before. Because these suburbs were designed and built for the middle & upper middle class, there is little in the way of public services (bus or public transit service, social service offices like health clinics or welfare offices, etc.)

 

Cities established before the automobile (like Detroit) tend to have stricter restrictions on the books about expanding city lines. They have very rigid borders with neighboring suburbs, and were unable to move out their borders to capture the suburban growth (and tax revenue) fleeing the city.  Cities like Dallas or Oklahoma City have what are called "elastic borders."  It is very easy for the city council to capture the growth of the wealthy moving out of the city center & continue to tax them. Because these cities become enormous (by area) to capture that growth, it becomes increasingly difficult to provide services to the city.

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I fucking hate cars.

 

I get by in Dallas without one, but I definitely should have one because I can't really do anything else.

 

Number one reason I loved San Francisco was I didn't need a car to hang out with friends on weekends. I don't have that luxury now.

 

Ugh I really fucking hate cars.

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My #1 complaint is grocery shopping. Having to get a taxi to grab some groceries is so stupid.

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Groceries being a problem is just another product of car culture. Places with better public transportation and walking options have much better distributed grocery options. I'd much rather get a couple bags of groceries every couple days than have it be a production once a week with a drive and $100 worth of food every visit.

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Groceries being a problem is just another product of car culture. Places with better public transportation and walking options have much better distributed grocery options. I'd much rather get a couple bags of groceries every couple days than have it be a production once a week with a drive and $100 worth of food every visit.

 

Shopping on the way home is a wonderful privilege, especially if you use a lot of fresh vegetables to make your food.

 

The concept of car culture is maddening to me, it would put me off living in a lot of america because aside from hassle and everything else I just really like walking to places and actually being in the world instead of confined designated human living spaces. Though I totally recognise the distinction is relatively dumb since I walk in towns and cities, not on wild trails or anything. Also I'm a big baby and hope that I'll never have to learn how to drive.

 

 

Related to me being an irresponsible baby, my phone is now paralysed in its bottom third. Literally the exact spot where the app launcher is to let me open my whole big list of apps, even the one that lets me use my phone as a phone (which I wanted to do today, funnily enough), I destroy phones, it's something I'm going to actually take better care with and not be so reckless. But as an added safe guard I want to ask. Does anyone know if there's any way to discern what phone brands/models are actually durable? Any time I try to google this, I get endless articles about battery life, lifespan and durability but I've never found a reliable repository of how long phones last. So if anyone has a lead on that or just anecdotal recommendations I am all ears.

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