The world of finance is now primarily just pump-and-dump schemes.

LLMs are pretty OK at a couple of things. But the way they’re being sold as the next big thing? I’m not buying that.

It’s pretty clear that consumers are intentionally priced out of the market so they have to rent compute as a service.

I’m currently running my diesel heater. I’ve just learned over two prior winters how low temps can get and still have it livable in here. Last night was 39, and thanks to my down comforter, I didn’t even have to run it until I woke up. 22 is another story entirely.

Thank goodness we don’t have downvotes, because this is going to be unpopular.

I’m attracted to highly independent women. Without fail, they’ve wanted me to pay the bills and run the finances generally.

That is not equals. That’s not what I signed up for, and not a position I have any interest in. Like, even if we have a joint checking account and she has the login for a utility it’s like “can’t you just do that?”

It literally would have taken less time to pay it than to ask me about paying it.

Job loss, mechanical failures … usual delights.

People seem to be missing out on the ROI accelerating. Grid energy gets keeping getting more expensive per unit, and base fees, at least here, are absurd – it was about $42 to get my first kWh. Between that and them cutting power for a week when temps were in the single digits, I did the late-night infomercial thing of saying “There’s got to be another way.”

Also, agreed: Never get your loan from an installer.

“Slightly above average” is not a useful metric, I’m afraid. So, an EV means there’s not avoiding a grid tie unless you’ve got acreage for solar and are interested in buying a shitton of batteries.

This is not the end of the world. What you can do is get a modest amount of solar and battery to lower your bills … it doesn’t sound like you’d be in a net-metering situation, so whatever shit rate your utility provides is off the table.

What I will say is that ROI is only going up currently due to endless rate increases (and our power is city-owned; YMMV).

How many watts do you think you could fit on that part of the roof? I’m assuming you’re looking into 450-500W panels.

There are only so many stories humanity has to tell. It’s one thing to be a supportive friend … I mean every relationship goes through rough patches … like, hey, let’s go see a movie to take your mind off things.

It’s another thing entirely to start grooming for a breakup.

It’s better than being on the street. Mostly survivable, but not as satisfying as I’d hoped when doing my buildout. Of course, external factors didn’t help.

Some people are just assholes. Drugs likely exacerbate that, but in the case of pot (and kratom, to some extent), generally people are more chill.

I mean, she was very clearly wearing a wedding collar. Dude knew damn well she was claimed, but he started doing the whole “I’m sorry you’re going through a rough patch with your husband; how can I help?” thing.

Then offered to buy her a house in cash if she left me. The house didn’t materialize. Surprise, surprise, he was an abusive dick that even she didn’t want to put up with.

I can’t really say I blame you. For me, it was her weed dealer whom she spent entirely too long with on pickups.

What’s really fun is when it’s both.

I live in a van, so there’s no plumbing to worry about. Just turn the master switch on my power system so that the batteries aren’t trying to charge in too cold of an environment.

What sort of load do you have? Like, kWh/month?

Heh … I just finished reading this story from another source.

I’ve been offgrid on solar for over two years at this point. The future is here, it’s just not going to be evenly distributed.

And, hey, if you feel like you need to provide corporate welfare to utilities that are endlessly raising rates, that’s certainly your right. But it’s very nice to have neither a monthly power nor natural gas bill.

Is it perfect? No. Sometimes I have to plug in to rebalance the batteries, and when things get truly frigid, I have to flee to shelter. Still, a few days in a motel a couple times a year is far cheaper than paying for power each month.

Have you never had a relationship where it feels like you’re always geared for war?

There’s only a top shortage in the same way there’s a power-bottom shortage.

I love when my pizza place is a series of random consonants IN ALL CAPS.

Probably Greek then.