Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@NintendoByNature BTW, was it you or @AlohaPizzaJack that was talking Burger King a few weeks ago? I noticed banners when I went by saying "Now available, burgers for breakfast!" I thought of you guys. They did that like 20 years ago, apparently discontinued it, and now it's back

@Tyranexx The problem with the malls also is a banking issue. Yes, converting them all women's clothing and mostly from the same 4 companies destroyed it. Check how many companies GAP owns. Half the mall was GAP company stores. The other half was the parent of Old Navy (Victoria's Secret, Yankee Candle....all the same company.) And the overall disappearance of small businesses to be replaced with national publicly traded chains fed that. So when ONE company downsized, half the mall went vacant. But the high rent problem was a self inflicted wound. Back in the "how high is high" "dot com bubble" 90's market, the malls all decided things would keep getting better and better, and they rennovated the whole mall, and refinanced, borrowing against the whole thing at very high premium. Then the market crashed in 2000. Trouble is the banks that own the malls mortgages have them locked in an OBSCENE per-square-foot leasing price based on 1995-1999 projections of what the space would be worth today if the market kept skyrocketing at the dot-com speed. And the banks WILL NOT LET THEM lease for less.

So supply and demand. Demand is low, drop your lease pricing, stores arrive, demand increases, rent rises. Nope, no can do, the bankers would rather see it go empty if they can't get their max lease rate. Then they can foreclose, pocket the difference, and sell it again.

That's part of why they build a dozen strip malls across from the mall. New construction means it's not locked at 1995 projections of 2019 rent per sqft. Because we do everything backwards here because banks own us, and in half the cases Beijing owns the banks. So we have these gorgeous mall structures that are perfectly nice, that we're letting decay until they fall down because the bankers that own it (and the stupid mall owners that leveraged it 20+ years ago) will only take all or nothing and no longer work within the principles of capitalism.....funny....anti-capitalist banks. Got to love it.

Also, where's @rjejr you've missed like 3 pages so far of text walls you'd enjoy, Mister!

@NEStalgia "text walls you'd enjoy"

Enjoy. I do not think that word means what you think it means. It's spring, I'm outside, where my kids should be but they're in the basement playing Yoshi and SSBU. Not that I'm enjoying the outside much, mostly yard work, but it's still better than being inside.

Your long paragraph about clothing stores shutting down left out them being filled w/ gyms nobody uses and City MD doctors offices nobody uses. I have seen gyms morphing into "self defense" MMA type places, which is probably good for people to get out there anger and prepare for the apocalypse. Lots of anger to work through. And if the Pres gets re-elected that's 62% of the population who will need stress relief even more for another 4 years. More weed dispensaries and psychiatrist offices may be the next wave of replacement stores. Oh, we have a few vape shops too. But head shops need to make a comeback. Every Starbucks selling caffeine needs to have an equal an opposite qualude store nearby.

Time to get outside. Well actually time to shower to buy more outside stuff at Lowe's. My bbq grills are rusted beyond repair, I need new grates or a new grill.

You can keep cc'ing me though, I don't mind popping in every once in awhile, just don't expect me to be a regular until October.

Something that I always notice when I go to the USA, is just how overly expensive food is there.

Like, everything is at least double the price compared to Mexico. Even plain water.

@ThanosReXXX It's just muscle damage in my chest. Should heal no problem.

In exciting news I ordered a white PS4 Pro because I'm a freak of nature.

In even more exciting news, I should have a new department manager in a few weeks, god willing. 5 candidates, so odds are good.

And in sad, but then great news, my supervisor quit suddenly on Monday after only being back for less than three weeks. He was last in consistently in December. Buuuuut I did say I'm interested in moving up

Hi!
Just now i have watched Aladdin 2019 at my local theatre inside Mall. 😉
My impression was kinda mixture of these feelings:
1. Awesome 😃
I was fascinated by Genie's performance "Friends Like Me", the outfits of main casts (Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, Genie, etc) and "A Whole New World" scene by Aladdin and Princess Jasmine.
2. Hilarious 🤣
Genie in this version (by Will Smith) was pretty hilarious and thank goodness... Not as weird as the cartoon version (Too many modern lifestyle as Genie's other disguises). When the Genie mentioned about Ababwa, i was thinking "Abab... what?!
Also, the moment when Dalia closed the door and expressed her excited feeling to have a boyfriend (Genie) was really hilarious. 🤣🤣🤣
3. Awkward / Embarrassed 😳
When Prince Ali (Aladdin) was keep mentioning about a lot of kind of jams for bread, his awkwardness to greet the Sultan and Princess Jasmine, i was so embarrassed like facepalm on my face.
4. Tears of Happines 😭
I dunno but... I tried to hold my feeling when Aladdin set the Genie free and became human, i couldn't hold my tears of happiness. My lip was shutted tight, my tears was suddenly fell down from my eyes to watch that precious moment.

Overall, it was pretty good Live Action adaptation Disney movie. 😃

Oh, btw...
SPOILER ALERT!!
At the beginning i was surprised Will Smith played as normal human and with his two kids. At first i was thinking "Ow, maybe he was a Daddy told a fairy tale about Aladdin and his Genie." But i was wrong at the end of story. I was shocked when i saw Dalia as Genie's husband and the two kids before was their kids after got married

@NEStalgia think that was me lol

@Anti-Matter So wait, is Disney just remaking their entire animated history in live action all in one year?! That doesn't bode well for Kingdom Hearts.....

@Tyranexx Yeah, from what I now know about US public transport, coupled with your shall we say, temporary hindrances in the social department (I'm still convinced you'll be able to overcome them at some point, so I'm sticking with the positive outlook), I can well imagine how much of a thing it would be to participate in this means of transport.

Besides me always having been a people person, I've also learned over the years to close myself off, in areas or rooms that I don't want to be in or with people I don't want to be with. I can even still communicate in that state, more or less like on auto pilot. Once you can read people, it's easy to keep a conversation going while not being interested at all, and all the while still giving the other person the impression that you're actually listening, and on the positive side, you're at the very least doing them the courtesy of being polite.

Those are all tricks learned in sales and in the management training that I did. Actually at an American institute, now forbidden in Europe because of some of the rather questionable and/or controversial methods they use, but they still exist. Look 'em up if you want to read some more about it. They're called Landmark Worldwide nowadays, and they've labeled themselves as a "Personal development company", which is basically a front for a company that uses NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), and re-educating methods such as build-break-build and so forth.

In and of itself, these things aren't bad or evil, but they sometimes went to extremes with using them. Don't know if they're still doing that, but back then, that sure was the case. I found out about it back then, and even though the first courses and sessions I followed, were actually quite beneficial to both my work and private life, I then decided that any follow-up course wasn't really my idea of money well-spent, so I signed off on it, and moved on to other avenues of personal development that weren't so controversial...

@NEStalgia Well, I have to say, I was always of a mind to go back to my roots some day, but you're not exactly doing a very good job of advertising modern day USA to me so far, and what we see in the news over here also isn't all that great, so all of that combined has put me firmly back in my seat on the fence...

As for the liquids injected into meat: over here it's plain water, and it's not meant as an extra preservation measure, but simply to "nicely" fill out the meat, so that, for example in the case of chicken fillets, they look nice and fat. Brine would only make sense if you'd want to pickle food, if you ask me.

The whole text wall about vegetables, grain, rice and frozen meat is also USA exclusive. Over here, all meat and fish is only ever moved from the butcher or harbor that it's picked up from in so-called cooling trucks, basically moving refrigerators, but it's never frozen. Laws are also quite strict concerning that over here. No such trickery with words or phrasings possible over here. Same with vegetables: when they arrive in the super market, they need to be what is labeled as "day fresh", and it's replaced every other day.

The process is harvesting, washing, packing, transporting and being delivered to the supermarket. It's a 2 day process at most, and it's never frozen either, much like meat and fish.

As for rice: only white rice is completely devoid of any useful ingredients, which is one of the reasons that I only eat brown rice.

Crisco is so infamous, it's even known over here, although hardly anyone, except maybe for a handful of expats, is actually using it...

As for the ventilation system: oh, it's definitely more powerful than any electric hood would be, or like the 80's systems you described. The closet does a pretty decent job to isolate the sound it makes, but if I keep that door open while switching it to it's "high" setting, then it sounds like there's a jet plane taking off, somewhere in the near vicinity...

And it's actually an updraft, because the air gets sucked up, all the way through six storeys of apartments, and goes out the roof, where a sort of a filtered, stainless steel chimney pipe is located.

And not to worry: I won't try your "let's emulate NEStalgia's kitchen" project over here. I've been known to do some reckless things in my time, but that is not going to be one of them...

@Knuckles-Fajita "In exciting news"

You bought a PlayStation? Why on EARTH would you do that?

Hope you get the promotion, though. Better make sure you're prepared for it. Wouldn't want to multiply those visits to the doctor, now would we?

@ThanosReXXX Wow, what was Landmark doing? Long ago I knew someone that was in that.....the whole thing sounded like a weird Scientology kind of thing....it was creepy.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of modern Europe really either...a lot of the same problems. But the US has certainly gone on the fast track of China emulation.

The meat could be water, though I know some of those solutions have definitely had something else in there. Maybe sugar...flavor...something other than meat itself.

It does sound like fresh food is actually fresh there....relatively locally grown/caught/etc. In the US of course, most of the country isn't growing produce and the "bread basket" is nearly entirely grain (and predominantly corn for ethanol and corn syrup, thanks to government ethanol subsidy....) Since our food growing space isued for burning fuel now, we import the food from other countries. And import organic matter needs to be quarantined by customs for a period of time. Plus ground transport from CA to the east coast (whether it's CA grown, the one state that still grows produce) or imported to CA border/docks, still takes a good week to get here. Plus warehousing/distribution. Some of that is just geography and climate - you're not going to grow broccoli in Minnesota in January....or July for that matter.... and a lot of it is stupid land use that used our food growing land for economic expansion and a decision to centralize/import the rest. Back in CA you'll get fresh produce year round still. It's grown local, and grows most of the year. East coast? It either comes from CA (1.5 weeks later) or South America or China 3 weeks later. If you want "2 day" food, you're going to go to an organic local store or Whole Foods or something, and you're going to pay 2-4x over average. A luxury for the people with the Cayennes and 911s who can then boast about their healthy lifestyles. The "butcher" is either in Chicago, Texas, Guangzhao, or a whole side of frozen meat comes to the store and the in-store butcher thaws and butchers it. Moving refrigerators are fine in-state. But not fine interstate where food is on roads for hours, days, or weeks non-stop. I can understand the USDot regs for freezing food. That's sensible. The problem is that we developed so that almost none of the country grows food locally other than as a luxury curio for those with the cash to obtain such luxury. There's designated food growing states more or less, like CA. 2 day process doesn't even cover mandatory quarantine for import....and most of our produce on shelves is import. The food in a warehouse near @Morpheel today will on my table probably while I'm watching Treehouse @ E3, and will be labeled "fresh" "eat healthy" and other such nonsense. It's also loaded with enough pesticide to down an elephant. Guess how nutritional that is.

Yeah only white rice is healthy....and in Asia they pretty much only touch white rice (brown is increasing in popularity, slightly, but it's more the same specialty market it is here, it's not the norm. At least China, Japan, and Korea, I can't speak for the smaller countries.) @Anti-Matter might have a handle on that.

Crisco: Fun fact, bakeries and foodservice here MUST use shortening. Lard is outlawed. So there's shortening (Crisco) in everything such as pie crusts and pastries, icing, etc. You can use lard at home.....it's kind of hard to find though. Some supermarkets carry little tubs of it in the meat section. Most don't.

Ventilation: Yeah that sounds like a very good hood, just without the funnel. No wonder you don't have a problem. Imagine cooking without that on. That would be the situation I've got. So, no meat indoors unless it's a baked roast, or microwaveable pre-cooked! I can make pasta...eggs....it's kinda limited

And even pasta just fills the house with moisture which then fogs (and ices over) the windows in winter

@NEStalgia You might wanna consider spacing your text out a little more, my friend. I already saw @rjejr kinda being quite daunted by the previous text wall, and it certainly does weird things with the eyes...

P.S.

Came across this video, and I immediately had to think of you:

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the informative video. My guess would have been that Trump doesn't himself, nor know any guys who build railroads, otherwise he'd be pouring money into their pockets, b/c that's what he does. I'm only 5 minutes in - gotta go cook dinner - but I was close.

video > wall of text

@ThanosReXXX fun video. Though endemic of our news here, and especially nbc (which is Comcast..............) It acts like an infomercial promoting one argument as truth.

I'm a huge railfan and history buff, so it's kind of glaring it's a propaganda piece. If course i fully endorse any rail project... But some of the argument in there makes me think I'm on the wrong side.

Though our biggest problem For now with rail is they put the cart before the horse. High speed rail is irrelevant if it takes you from a parking lot to a desert. Where do you go when you get off your bullet train if there's no transit at your destination? You have 800 people standing next to a track. They need local transit BEFORE the 900 trillion dollar tech demo maglev.

@rjejr Haha, we aim to please, regardless of the rather ominous avatar...

@NEStalgia So, you're trying to fool me into believing that there are no passenger railroads over there?
Over here, the TGV, the French high speed train, that travels from Amsterdam to Paris, makes use of the regular track, so no adaptations needed, for the most part. If people think it takes a HUGE infrastructure change, then they'd be wrong...

Rail won’t work in the US on a nationwide scale anymore as a form of alternative transport to vehicles, because things are so spread out. The automaker industry took care of that when they began. Just like “jaywalking” was made a crime by auto lobbyists because early cars kept killing people since folks were used to walking in the roads.

@ThanosReXXX passenger rail here exists at the specific urban level and not beyond it, and not in all urban areas. The coverage is thin. And most of it is what was left over from the really 20th century so it's only in the old (decayed) cities. There's amtrak between cities... It loses money except the electric NEC. The rest is diesel and mostly runs on freight track owned by freight companies that have right of way.... And is low speed. Even in the NEC where Acela runs, the amount of winding turns around old industrial ghetto zones has 35mph speed limits or less... That's brand new track but no train can take unbanked turns at any speed at that radius on limestone bedding no less. This stuff was built in the 19th century for steam motive power. The city was built around it. You can't move it. But high speed is still jumping to the last chapter. Low speed local transit needs to exist before high speed even needs to matter. Politicians ignore that

@NEStalgia Heck, that mall I mentioned doesn't even have much in the clothing department anymore except for a factory outlet type store and a Glik's. The rest of the clothing stores either closed entirely like the J.C. Penney or else moved across town to more accessible strip mall pastures. There was a decent shoe store, but they went so far as to relocate out of state to somewhere in Indiana after some of their stock was ruined; the roof, as in some other parts of the mall at the time, started leaking horribly after a torrential rainstorm. Some of the leaks to my knowledge have been repaired, but the place is still on life support.

The few times I'm there, I imagine what it was like in my youth. Even that was before its heyday. I've imagined what every unit would be like filled, and what kind of stores it would house....Wishful thinking coupled with an overactive imagination.

...I mean, a few pages back, I did mention a dream involving a fire-breathing Linoone fighting a friggin' dragon....

@ThanosReXXX To be fair, I'm much better than I used to be in the social department, but I do still struggle in some settings. I'm extremely cautious when strangers are about; I'm courteous to people, sure, but I usually keep my head down and stay pretty quiet. I'm aware that most people don't mean any harm and intend to continue with their own business, but I'm also not gonna throw caution to the wind.

By the way, I should clarify: I don't abhor all public transportation. Just the settings where you're crammed into something like a sardine. As long as there's some slight degree of separation between me and other people (like a personal seat), I'm generally fine.

I've even traveled by rail to a city a few hours away to attend Symphony of the Goddesses in late 2016. As mentioned above though, freight companies unfortunately have the right of way in most cases since they own the rail lines. The initial journey to the city was done in the normal, scheduled time. Heading home however, we added an hour and a half. We had to sit in sidings twice, plus we were stuck following a slow freight train for a good while.

Uh so I guess I won't need to find a replacement hard drive for my laptop now, my family just surprised me with a 3-day early birthday gift. A new laptop!

A gaming one at that. Can't wait to test it with some of my steam games....

Right after I set up all the apps for work...

@ThanosReXXX It was funnier telling my colleague I bought a white PS4 Pro when I already own a PS4, my justification being "I felt like it".

More money than sense.

Some things never change

@Morpheel Nice!! That’s a pretty awesome surprise indeed.