Let me tell you how well this is going over in /r/Austin.

Not well.

I never got into trading cards or tabletop gaming. My college roommate, on the other hand, when running out of disposable cash, would traipse down to the WotC on The Ave with his Warhammer figurines and enter competitions. He was no longer short on money afterward.

(apologies to the rest of Beehaw for going Seattle-specific)

Marjorie Taylor Greene is involved in this? I mean, voters did gamble on her.

I disagree. I’m not much of a gambler … never done anything but nickel slots. I put in $5 and generally get about a half-hour of entertainment. If I get above break-even, I cash out and am done. I got a free lunch out of it at a Montana gas station in college.

It’s generally more like $5.15 than $10, but on a road trip, who doesn’t like free food?

I’ve been to Vegas once. Same deal. Put $5 in a nickel slot. This time, I got free booze, so even though I lost all of my $5, I still came out ahead.

I am very much an addictive personality, but for some reason, I never caught the gambling bug. So I’m throwing stones at a glass house while residing in one … in my case, I’m envious of anyone who can have just one or two beers.

If you’re gambling to try to fix your economic situation or recoup prior losses, you’re no longer seeking entertainment. But if you know your limits and stick with them (something I absolutely cannot do with alcohol), I don’t see how spending $30 gambling for a few hours is materially different than going to a movie and buying popcorn. You can’t get a soda included in that $30 these days.

My college roommate is a bit more adventurous. Both of us were there with our fiancees to see Penn & Teller, and he was more of a $25 buy-in blackjack player. He won enough to pay for their entire trip on his last hand before the airport shuttle. And then didn’t do any gambling at the airport.

To say that gambling as a concept is inherently predatory doesn’t square with my experience. But instilling it in kids via video games definitely is.

This roughly mirrors my experience in corporate America.

I’ve of course heard of Labubus, but do you not pick one to purchase? Like, are people literally paying without knowing what they’ll get?

I can’t imagine going to HEB and buying a random box that contains “some kind of food.”

Flagging @TehPers@beehaw.org on this response, as it applies to both of you. You’re reasonable, longtime, constructive members on Beehaw. Maybe someone’s having a bad day, but it saddens me to see the two of you going at each other. I don’t feel there’s a rift here, just disagreement over wording.

This said, we’re all adults. I’m just more confused than anything, and I’m sure as fuck not going to take a side. This interaction wasn’t Beeing nice.

It’s all fucking deck chairs at this point.

You’re making me feel very old. Reality TV was what permanently turned me off of linear programming. I gradually started learning about the Kardashians via memes in comments.

If you’re starting with “people with several jobs,” you’re not addressing speakerphone use but rather the collapse of the social contract.

Shhh … the cloud is the only way forward. Heresy!

I’ll forgive it this once.

Most phone glass is oleophobic at this point and has been for years. So that’s a shit excuse.

I can see where you’re coming from on that at least with speakerphone, you know no one is addressing you. When I was at my ex’s last week, she said something from the bedroom, prompting me to loudly say “What?” Her son had just called, and if he’d heard my voice, we’d not have parted ways on good terms.

Sure, but like, use your phone at home instead. It’s like people bringing dogs to grocery stores and restaurants (we have something of an epidemic of dogs shitting in food places when they’d have been fine in the yard for an hour here in Austin).

I’m aware. I was referring to the initial editorial judgment by the pub.

It was amusing in Star Trek IV, but that seems quaint now.

I can totally get behind speakerphone in that precise situation.

Given that copy desks were being gutted more than a decade ago just with little things like Grammarly, it absolutely will replace knowledge jobs. It won’t be better, but it will mean more share buybacks.

I’d not have put the clickbait “shocking” in the hed, but regardless, we’re running out of things to take off. Masks, gloves … they want us totally naked, and preferably underage.