@ThanosReXXX That's the thing. It wasn't TRULY rural ever in my time. It was a nice hybrid of some rural stuff and suburbia, leaning more toward the suburbia. The rural stuff mostly all went away long ago. I certainly didn't live on a farm (though I'd have loved that), there was a farm in walking (more or less) distance, but that become more houses back 20+ years ago. "Modernizing" is a different thing that gutting everything and replacing it with an entirely different way of life for an entirely different price point for an entirely different group of people from an entirely different place (so they can escape the high costs, taxes, and eventual relating high crime rate from the prior cesspool they created in the same manner.) That's criminal. You expect over many years things change over time - that's always been. But this is a new thing to suddenly all at once just transform an area into as dense an urbania as you can before anyone can notice and stop it, fueled largely by out of state and national corporate land developers and big big money and very corrupt local politicians (that could be a text wall on it's own. Intrigue, carpet baggers, worse... )
And I thought the whole point of democratic selection was that people can choose how they live rather than the government deciding for them how they live? Why not just move to Beijing if we're doing the latter? This is "the government decided to make some cash with rapid backroom deals with big developers in an area they're carpet bagging for a few years while doing it fast so it flies under the noses of the current population and making rapid secret votes to overturn existing zoning and ordinances that the public did support." The idea that whoever has money to turn it into whatever they want can flies against the need for having government at all. Why elect officials if they're just a rubber stamp to whoever has the biggest pile of money? Just make it a free for all. And make ammo cheap.
And when they do inform everyone, they sell it by telling people "it'll make your property value go up!" Which is only valuable to people planning on leaving to begin with. It makes it worse for people planning on staying as your taxes rise every year accordingly. And it's not just residential. This is the very thing that devastates the business culture...which is calculated, as if you force out those smaller (and even bigger businesses) they'll sell the land for even more development.
It's not purely a local problem. NYC has the same problem. Not exactly a farmer living in seclusion, it's turning into a wasteland. Everything that made NYC NYC is fairly rapidly being replaced with vast empty landscape. No stores, only expensive things, only chains....and then that becomes crime. The price of real estate forced out all those little trinket shops, Jewish delis, coffee shops, that everyone thinks of when they think of NYC. Then all the chains moved in - only they could afford the sky high rent. Then they evaluated their bottom lines and realized there's no point losing money on those locations - even for them, the rent costs more than the profits. So most of the former NYC retail space is vacant forever, much of it held by foreign land investors that have no intention of actually using it. Its just a bank they intend to sell at a profit as the price inevitably rises forever.
We have a real estate, and commercial real estate crisis nobody talks about. And it's the prime thing crushing the business climate. It's why all our malls are vacant and being demolished while malls thrive in the rest of the world. And then it's the big thing that leads to the over-densification of an area. Retailers can't generate enough profit to cover the rent, but a bunch of yuppies willing to spend big bux on a swanky pad can. Real estate as an investment market is a BIG crisis - and I guarantee you it's going to become the hot button political topic at some point. Not in the next few years....it hasn't crushed enough people yet. But it will.
As for what binds you somewhere, sure history, employment, family, and of course cost - moving ain't cheap. Moving all your stuff ain't cheap. And in an area like this, to simply move you'd have to spend a LOT to turn the home into something luxury to make it saleable in that real estate investment market, or your best bet is selling for cash for pennies on the dollar to a flipper. Either way you lose money. The whole point of home ownership was basically sinking all your money into it and building your life around it. It's just a different life than renting where you can easily pick up and move. rjejr and I talked about that a while back. He wouldn't do it again. And I can't imagine the cash values in his area....
"If it ain't broke..." is the ONLY method I accept. Everything else is spoiled kids that haven't learned what happens when you break it yet But yeah, I think I'd have a lot in common with them holding onto those traditions like that. Those are the kinds of places that I'd absolutely love (only here, every time I go I keep one eye open hoping they're still there....)
As for the hair cuts, unfortunately, I'm not exaggerating. Remember back in the early 90's after Bill Clinton took office and there was that media "scandal" over Hillary's $200 haircut & color? Well add 25+ years of inflation to that and make it more "mainstream" not just for mega millionaire politicians (that were formerly on the board of Walmart....) but for more "common" folk making $150k+ .....in an area with more lawyers than cashiers....yep....a swank place like that? $150-200 for a women's cut, and well past that for cut + color is not uncommon. Sure there's, for now, Hair Cuttery & Great Clips chains...Hair Cuttery (and the Regis parent company) are in a death spiral though. There's normal people places here and there so far. But less than there were, and a lot more of the exclusive places than anywhere should have. I don't mind that they exist. But every time a "normal people" place closes, it's replaced by something like that. I wasn't exaggerating bout the $800 handbags either.
While I'm sure it's worldwide, I think it's more acute in the US now of stratification. The big difference is 40 years ago the rich and the average didn't really live drastically different lives. They could co-exsist. But after big gains on the stock market for years, the investor class has jumped into a whole different way of life with different norms, standards, and luxuries much more like feudal Europe....nobles and peasants are entirely different civilizations with almost nothing in common. You can ignore it if the nobles don't decide to take over your entire county. But if they do.... they aren't your neighbors, they're your enemies and you will never co-exist, your needs and wants are directly in opposition to each other, and every time they get what they want, you loathe them even more. I now understand how the French Revolution happened, and how giddy everyone was to finally "take it back" in the most vengeful fashion possible. Something tells me the Dutch probably don't, in the present age, take as kindly to such excessive decadence either.....they're not the French
And as I said, I'm just fine and dandy if they want to turn it into a city. Just as soon as they start boring the subway tunnels and building the trolley rails. Have at it. Without that it's not a city, it's just a Yuppieville. And without it, it can't sustain trying to be a city, it's just a land investment wet dream to cash in before leaving what, eventually, will inevitably become slum the next recession.
Also, that ice cream shop is near the red light district....interesting detail.
@NEStalgia And THAT is what caught your attention? Tssss... talk about being an uber-tourist...
But I'll include that in the tour, if that is on your bucket list...
And yeah, rural was perhaps a bit of an over-exaggeration. I sometimes still tend to see large areas of the USA as wide open spaces, with massive parks, even in the midst of skyscrapers, but obviously, there's all kinds of townships and cityscapes over there, much like here, except the States has them on a far larger scale. Where I live obviously also isn't rural, or suburbian, because I'm right next to the city's center, but we do have a lot of houses over here with so-called city gardens, so you'd at least have some outdoors part connected to your house. Unless of course you're living on a higher floor, such as I am, in which case you're lucky if you have a decent balcony, which I do...
The bit where I mentioned the roundabout being built around your house, is just an example, not an actual imagining of your specific situation. It actually happened over here, somewhere back in the 80's: a farmer didn't want to move, because the house he lived in, was his parents' house, and it had been in the family for generations, so they LITERALLY built the freeway around his house, separating his farmhouse from his lands, but the house is still there, sitting in a small valley, with the road circling all the way around it, at (edit: several feet above) rooftop level.
I'm kinda shocked at those hair cutting prices. I really thought you were embellishing there, simply to emphasize the rising of costs of living and commodities. Those prices would be hair styles for the rich and famous over here, albeit the B-rank famous people...
As for democracy: that only lasts as long as the politician that promises it, nowadays. I do still vividly remember when I was still living with my parents, and we as a neighborhood were allowed to have a say in the matter of there going to be paid parking in our area of the city or not, and we almost unanimously voted against, so the local district council had no other choice than to keep parking free, but a couple of years later, the new heads of the council decided that it had to be pushed through anyway, regardless of the fact that we had done our bid to stop it a couple of years prior.
So, ultimately, we got paid parking all over the city, and I'm now living in the second most expensive neighborhood in that regard. That's also one of the main reasons why I don't have a car. And I don't even miss it, because I can reach most places that I need to go to on foot, with a bike or by taking a short trip on public transport.
I guess that when you're living in a more populated area, it's always going to be give and take, but as long as the two are in a relative balance, which it is over here, then I'm okay with it. Once they start pestering me with more rules and regulations, and buildings to block my view, then I'll probably move out.
@ThanosReXXX Haha, no it's not actually on my bucket list, and I'm not actually interested in the tour of it....but it still was amusing, especially coming from Mr. ReXXX
Technically I'm not - at all- a city person. Never really liked cities, though never terribly uncomfortable in them (in the daylight, in the right locations......the actual city that's nearest here has some areas that make the third world war zones look quite charming.)
BUT I can at least accept the conveniences a city offers and learn to like that. In that sense real cities have a lot more in common with true rural than does this weird new "urbanized suburban mix" that has all the crowding, noise, congestion, and problems of cities, with none of the conveniences, while mixing it with all the distances, and lack of conveniences of rural. Imagine the spread of farm country with the density, roads , and traffic lights of a city and none of the transportation and local proximity to anything. Not really what you think of with "suburbs". But that's what passes for it now.
That's actually a cool story about the farmer, in that here, they just would have sent government agents in with guns to drag him out under imminent domain then flattened the house. Not joking. That's actually what would happen if they declare they want your house and you resist. Like China, but with less healthy food.
Well, everyone's their own YouTube celebrity, does that count? But yeah, that's real pricing. Even "average" people in one of those "cheap" chains I mentioned. For women's hair and color you're not getting out on less than $60 + tip. And that's if you accept the cheap "newbie on the job" person. The experienced tier would be $80+. So yeah, the rich, $200+ for women's cut and color at a fancy shop is on the low side. Mens hair is of course cheaper even there....but I don't actually speak with any urban cowboys that would actually go there in my circles....
Good to see "democracy" means "autocracy" unanimously. Maybe we really should all consolidate under China. It's really the same government either way, but much more efficient and cheaper that way. We apparently don't actually have a different government system, anywhere, just a more fun illusion of one.
There's no give and take, usually just give and give and give. But of course the very problem you described with the parking meters is the problem: If they can force whatever they want on anyone and there's no actual say, why even bother with pretending there's representation? At least that's an actual city to begin with so you expect that city problem. When you start with suburbia and then city land developers come in and decide they want to build a city there, if we don't have actual government representation controlling it to represent the will of the people, then we're back to force being the only solution to any problem, which is what governments were intended to prevent. In the case of my area, there's been active corruption for decades by local leaders that had their own vision for what they wanted to do....and many of them were only using it as a stepping stone to move onto higher offices and corporate jobs. The people didn't matter, it's about their accomplishments and partnerships only. There should be public hangings for such things. We should have permanent gallows at every government building - reserved for public officials that betray public trust. Watching your predecessor being picked at by the crows out your window should remind you to keep to your campaign promises very very closely.
@NEStalgia "..but it still was amusing, especially coming from Mr. ReXXX"
Well, it didn't come from me, because you mentioned it first. I only showed you a page about the ice cream salon.
But having said that, it actually kinda is what the triple X in my name stands for. Not that I'm particularly interested in "public ladies", but I do like my adult entertainment every now and then, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Funny thing is, that part of that interest was actually sparked, or rather: re-sparked by my ex. But that's all I'm gonna say about that specific topic...
As for why giving people a vote or say in things and then sneakily changing it back around a couple of years after: isn't it obvious? To appease the masses. First give them the idea of control, instead of never letting them have any at all, which would have resulted in torches and pitchforks, and now you've tranquilized them for a couple of years, and most people will now only complain, b**** and moan, but practically none of them will jump onto the barricades for a second time, so they can ultimately have their way with less antagonism than when they would have implemented it straight away.
As for the farmer living in the center of a roundabout: it's his land, so unless the government buys him out, he doesn't have to leave, under Dutch law, so the various involved agencies had to literally find a way around this "problem". But there's examples of that in other countries too.
Here's an example from China:
Description underneath the video:
A couple from China are refusing to leave their half-demolished house, which has since had a motorway built around it. . Report by Sophie Foster.
And here's a whole list of "stubborn property owners" from all over the world:
I'm half-expecting you to be in the 2022 version of that particular video...
I also like this one, although this particular one is planned, and the residents are more than okay with it:
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
Hey everyone, it’s been a super busy few days. I need to get caught up, but hope everyone is well. My daughter lost her first baby tooth today, and it’s been surprisingly difficult to come to terms with this. Seems like she just got those crooked little Chiclets. If anyone needs me, I’ll be hiding in the closet with liquor, taking pulls straight off the bottle while crying. I’ll try to get caught up here in between sobs.
@bimmy-lee Ah... baby teeth replacement. We've all been there, except in some countries, the tooth fairy was extremely stingy, if not non-existent altogether...
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@ThanosReXXX - Haha, I got a quarter for the first few when I pretended to believe in the tooth fairy. The next few got me a candy bar, and then that was that. Maybe a slap on the back and an “Atta boy”. I’m sure she’ll get a whole dollar to account for inflation. I can tell she’s only pretending to believe in the tooth fairy to reap the rewards. She started asking hard hitting, highly suspicious questions about Santa last year that made me feel like I was being grilled in court.
@bimmy-lee Nowadays, you're supposed to tie a wire to the tooth and to a drone, make a funny video about it, and then put it on YouTooth, erm... YouTube.
Couple more years and kids are going to be WAY too savvy for us, and then they'll be expecting to wake up and find a tablet under their pillow with their own private bitcoin account...
On a side note: ooh, the 20 questions on Santa, aye? Glad I'm not in your shoes, buddy....
'The console wars are like boobs: Sony and Microsoft fight over which ones look the nicest and Nintendo's are the most fun to play with.'
@ThanosReXXX - That’s amazing, and so true. “Honey, good job losing your first tooth. Your mom and I have Venmo’d you a thousand dollars, and be sure to check the Apple Wallet app... on your BRAND NEW iPad (Price Is Right music)!!!”
I’m pretty decent on my feet answering tough kid questions, but the Santa stuff throws me off a bit. Especially from my daughter. The questions are way too specific. She wants to know how the toys Santa and his elves make are exactly like the toys she sees in stores, and why they’re in the exact same packaging. My son, on the other hand, just wants to know if Santa poops like a regular person. His questions are much easier to answer.
@bimmy-lee Just give me your daughter's phone number or e-mail account, and I'll handle it by overwhelming her with a truckload of sales & marketing speech...
But all kidding aside, some explaining in that direction, except in a "simplified for kids" version might very well work: just explain something along the lines of that Santa has made deals with toy makers all over the world, because he too had to modernize, and as such, he has bought the rights to work with toy makers worldwide and he has also earned the rights to copy and mass-produce their toys, and as such, he is also able to deliver them himself, instead of having to get them from stores here.
And if nothing else helps, and she just keeps bugging you, tell her this bedtime story:
Warning to all tender souls: adult language usage aplenty...
@StableInvadeel Oh gosh yes, ye olde bed. At least one guaranteed, welcome embrace once you get back home. I sleep so much better on my own mattress.
@ThanosReXXX I like that there's no reward associated with that show. It sounds like a good time! Glad that you mentioned The Voice, I knew I was missing a recent show but couldn't recall it at the time. XD
Thanks for the backstory on Winner. Ironically it was probably my second favorite. Definitely very well done, moreso when it means so much to the original singer. I didn't initially think much of his breakdown and didn't know his shields were tough to pierce.
I also figured with how well Henk did Phantom of the Opera that it was the genre he hailed from/was familiar with. It's clear that the guy is also VERY talented. This is coming from someone who, while they like symphonic metal, isn't one for straight opera. Maybe I've just heard the wrong stuff.
I'll give that a watch when I have some decent downtime over the next few days. Other than some cognates, I don't know a lot of Dutch.
Again, thanks for all the detail! It's clear that you enjoy the show and some decent music to boot.
@ThanosReXXX - Oh. Man. I feel like I may have written that book in a sleep deprived stupor. Every verse has been a thought in my mind at some point, many times over. My kids are great sleepers, but it takes a LOT of effort to get them there. “A dark crimson rage fills my heart dear...”
@StableInvadeel - Absence makes your bed more comfortable. Glad you’re back and enjoyed your trip. Those Day of the Dead pics were awesome. I spent some time with my ghost on Saturday. I haven’t had a lot of time to spend with LM3 yet, but I’ve loved what I’ve played so far.
@Tyranexx - Sounds like you missed quite the finale at the old spook shop. I assume you’re done for the season then? Anyone call dibs on that puke potion? I’ll take it if nobody else wants it. Oh, and sorry to assume you’re a baker. I thought you mentioned you make your family recipe for coconut cream pie. Turns out, like me, you don’t make it, but sure like to eat it.
@Heavyarms55 - I had a few days off too, just catching up. During that time, I painted my house, got six pack abs, volunteered at a homeless shelter, got a fresh face tat, saved a family from a burning car, and discovered a new species of flightless bird. No big deal though.
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