DrFunke

Season 1 was wonderful. The showrunner had initially written the pilot to get a job on Mad Men. It was eviscerated by critics for being too male, too masculine and seasons 2 onward pivoted into a girlboss series with Lee Pace's character taking a backseat and Scooter's character becoming a stay at home house husband. But if you like Breaking Bad and Sopranos, S1 is very well written.

I laundered money on The Silkroad (sent birthday cards filled with cash for bitcoin). It was a level of criminality I was fairly comfortable with. I do retain some fear that my door would be kicked in some day. Lawyers of HN, Am I in the clear now too? Ross tried to have a guy murdered, after all.

HN's flagged comments are the most interesting.

English very clearly isn't your primary language.

>unintelligible, unformatted post

I'm not reading this

>I was asking about your experience since you indicated it happened to you. If you don't want to share thats fine

I just have written two paragraphs on my personal experience

>seem to think that verifying your membership by asking for your card is "being treated like a criminal."

not at all what I said, but I think you knew that

>I don't really know how many times you would have to shop at Costco to not know to have your card out.

Not addressing my point but again I think you knew that

>This will be the scenario you run into when your membership expires

Again, gift cards are highly regulated in my state. They don't suddenly lose all value contingent on the buyers standing at the store. You're making that up for some reason. Do you work for Costco?

>Great, then apply your personal knowledge to where you live

That's... what I've been doing this whole time, thanks

>I'm not sure what you are hinting at

Where am I hinting at anything? I literally said that "I pay $60 for membership"

The scenario I've witnessed many times in the last year: a cashier screaming at members for not having their card ready/not having an item barcode visible/scrutinizing the tiny B&W photo for any hint of malfeasance. Just an unpleasant experience altogether. They do this because memberships are way down. And if you think it's just me here's a reddit thread

https://www.reddit.com/r/Costco/comments/14fpbjm/accused_of_...

Costco cashiers enjoy the highest pay and benefits for a job that requires little intelligence or skill. For some reason they act like frustrated divas forced to interact with the unwashed masses. Sorry, no. You're an unskilled service worker and wear a nametag. Get over yourself!

Anyway I'm not going to subsidize that. But I'm also not going to give up my rotisserie chickens and $5 gallons of organic milk. I'll get a membership again when the self-checkout machines outnumber employees.

>one time use

Nope. Have used a single card 3x. Also gift cards are highly regulated in my state, what you're describing is illegal

>they check the member that gave you the card

No idea what you're talking about. Been doing this for three months.

A cashier will never speak down to me. As god as my witness I will crash this company with no survivors.

For the past year I've noticed their cashiers are oddly hostile. I've just not been digging the vibe of the store lately. I pay $60 for membership. You don't need to treat me like a potential criminal who may be using someone else's card.

Anyway, I have two Discover cards (0% apr for 12 months) that gave me 10% cash back at Costco.com. I purchased $3000 worth of Costco giftcards & will be using them in lieu of membership in the store when mine expires (a little known store loophole). I'd like to think it's in the spirit of Steve Jobs leasing cars for one month at a time to avoid license plates.

You're right, of course. Our nation would never be lenient on white collar crime.

Don't worry. She will absolutely not serve 10 years.

>One day you’ll find yourself watching fireworks. Don’t be a cynic—fireworks can be enjoyed at any age.

Oh, you don't want me to be a cynic? Weird, because this is the most cynical GQ piece of trash I've read in recent memory.

Just another benefit of ethnocentrism.

>American men are extremely susceptible to multi-level marketing schemes

Men are under extreme environmental pressures to be successful providers. Perhaps it's why they suffer the highest suicide rates. Equating their eagerness to provide for loved ones with susceptibility (i.e. stupidity) is misguided.

I met a lot of those in New York. They conflate crime, nuisance, feeling unsafe with 'heh, classic new york'. They're almost always transplants from other states.

I recall the wording being some sort of corporate-speak 'we've deemed this review not helpful to future guests' or something of the like. Sometimes I wonder how far I could have gotten taking Airbnb to small claims court. They misrepresented my stay, it was terrifying and I lost money.

My last Airbnb experience was six months ago. A room rented in an old Silverlake home. It was a superhost with dozens of rave reviews. The woman who owned the house was in her 80's. A few weeks in to my one month stay, she knocked on my door at 10PM and asked me to get ice for her at Whole Foods. When I declined she began screamed profanities, then proceeded to blast calypso jazz for a few hours, among other things.

She had some sort of dementia which is sad, but I could not comprehend how she had been a superhost with Airbnb for years. That is, until I left a review of my experience and Airbnb promptly deleted it. I'll stick to hotels from now on. As far as LA apartment hunting goes I still think I made it out unscathed.

Oh, also I started shorting $ABNB shortly after this experience and it's almost made the whole thing worth it.

Edit: It feels really good to finally tell someone about this. It was so bizarre I'm too embarrassed to tell friends or family.

Thanks, I'll add that to the list.

This was a concern of mine, so I purchased an induction stove. Also took it one step further by moving my entire kitchen to a covered outdoor patio. It seemed silly to be breathing oil particles for hours every time I cook chicken. Very grateful for my hypochondriac mother. She taught me to never not stop think about all the ways we can get cancer.

I wish it were possible grow a hive of native bees the way that we grow honeybees. I've put in local pollinating plants, set up bee hotels etc, but this only seem to attract commercial honeybees and not the natives.

I don't need your stump speech, thanks.

She's going to a prison that more resembles a country club (it has no fences or walls) There is no way she'll serve 9 years. She's appealing and the feds are extremely forgiving if you have great lawyers when it comes to white collar crime.

>decades in prison

Something tells me they'll be okay. Just look at Liz Holmes of Theranos.

What happens to demand when supply is increased?

>The Supreme Court is supposed to be above politics

Huh? The purpose of SCOTUS is very much partisan politics and always has been. It's actually the nature of the job.

Tell us how you cleverly opted out?

Yes, but what has she done?

And every day it looks like the garbagemen are on strike.

Public utilities more commonly exist as oligopolies–not dissimilar to the social media market, in which the number of (major, national) firms can be counted on one hand.

I’d like to posit this scenario to everyone, and hear your responses:

A privately-held telecom provider (i.e. utility) disagrees with my political views. As a result my internet service is terminated.

Let's agree the definition of a public utility is "Furnishes an everyday necessity to the public at large".

Has the provider restricted my First Amendment right?

At what point (if ever) would you consider Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter public utilities?