LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 5 No. 5
Nick’s LIFESTYLE Newsletter Vol. 5 No. 5
It's been a hell of a month, eh?
THIS IS AN INTRODUCTION
Hello again everyone. It's been a few weeks. Weeks filled with reorganization based on visiting a FRIEND OF THE LIFESTYLE's house, living in THE FUTURE (more below), sparking new friendships and trying to be a good husband.
Last issue, I introduced you to the happiest person to play a train game (Introduction, bullet one) and now let me introduce you the the happiest person to ever give a weather report. (it is English subtitled too!)
Enjoy the hour of your life you lose to this Microsimulation of Traffic Flow.
Been on a tear of documentary watching lately. Almost finished with The Andy Warhol Diaries on Netflix. Pretty interesting. They have an AI that was trained on Warhol's speech and cadence that does the narration and that is AMAZING. The thing that hits the hardest is just seeing the impact of AIDS as it explodes in New York City and the art scene there. What a terrible fucking thing to have to live through. Also watched Won't You Be My Neighbor? which was good, but I think I may have liked the Tom Hanks movie about Mr. Rogers better. Didn't go deep enough or make me cry like a child. Watched Some Kind of Heaven, the Darren Aronofsky produced documentary about The Villiages in Florida. Lots of reviews made it sound like some crazy Aronofsky fever dream, but it really wasn't. Once you make Requiem for a Dream everything else seems pretty minor...JESUS FUCK THAT MOVIE (Director's Cut). I would make my child watch it ever year to learn why heroin = bad. Either way, it was pretty skipable.
That was a big bullet point, I will reduce the size of this one to compensate.
I'm finally getting to LIFESTYLE's second favorite author Chuck Tingle's horror novella, Straight. Legit good. Plot summary: "When a strange tear in the cosmos appears within Earth's annual path, the consequences are disastrous. For one night a year, the vast majority of humans now undergo a frightening mental change, transforming into hateful, rage-fueled zombies who will stop at nothing to satiate their desire for brutality. While not much is understood about this horrific mass hysteria, the demographic it effects is very specific: cisgender straight people. A few years after the first of these tragic events, four friends from across the queer spectrum look for safety in solitude, hunkering down in a remote desert cabin for what is now known as Saturation Day. With a vaccine available for straight people to curb their violent episodes, some predict the worst is over. Others aren't so sure." I know Tingle is not everyone's favorite, but there is not a single pounding in this book (I'm 90% done). No handsome living corn, no unicorn butt pirates, nothing but straight (zing!) horror. Give it a try!
THIS IS THE END OF THE INTRODUCTION.
3 THINGS THIS WEEK.
ITEM THE FIRST:
A YEAR OF DRIVING IN THE FUTURE: I've finally rolled over one year and 5000 miles in my sweet SPACE CAR (Vol. 4 No. 5 - Fill er up with Wind, Baby!). Yes, I still love it. Even more so seeing gas at $4.50 a gallon. Since some people are interested in numbers and money, I thought I would breakdown my total cost of ownership for year one.
I paid right under $22,000 for the car, but I'm going to exclude that from this calculation. Yes, I know, terrible accounting and analysis practice on my part.
I spent $430 on a Grizzl-E L2 charger. I could have gone cheaper, but this is made in North America and that is important to me (especially for an expensive electronic thing). I spent $1200 on getting 50A service ran to the Garage and another $50 for a meter from Dakota Electric. These were offset by $500 rebate from Dakota Electric and a 30% federal tax credit ($489), so net total = $641.
With Dakota Electric, I'm on a off-peak plan where the circuit is only available for charging from 11p-7a, but the electricity cost goes from 0.123 per kWh to 0.0487 and all electricity into my house is offset/provided from wind.
This is all broken out on my bill, so it is easy to calculate. Over one year, I spent $71.21 in electricity to go around 5000 miles. My most expensive month was Jan-Feb, where it was $10.52. HOLY FUCK that is amazing. Including all my year one costs, I'm paying $0.14 a mile. If I remove the one-time costs, it's $0.014. That is amazing.
Still love the shit out of this car!
ITEM THE SECOND:
THE GREAT REGRESSION: We are just a few days away from the Supreme Court clawing back rights long afforded to people. Bets on what is next...Brown v. Board of Education? Obergefell v. Hodges? Bostock v. Clayton County? Plyler v. Doe?
It is terrifying to see the slow motion regression of rights and the rapid ascension of a white, christian nationalist state.
Two terrifying articles:
These companies are assuring workers they'll help them access abortions - What could possibly go wrong with relying even more on private corporations to help provide essential medical care? And you know some states are already trying to clamp down on this.
Doctors in Alabama Already Turn Away Miscarrying Patients. This Will Be America’s New Normal. Heartbreaking to have doctors too afraid to help people.
I read something the other day that helped me make sense of this, slightly. Conservatives believe that breaking the law is inevitable, thus view laws as an expression of their ideal beliefs. It is what they want society to be, not what it actually is. Liberals believe laws can deter behaviors and should be responsive to the actions of society and subject to change over time. It's not a perfect analogy, but I never thought about it that way. Either way, it is fucked that a minority of people and states is able to hold so much power, disproportionally. I think we will look back at this time and the filibuster rule, and the inability for the Democrats to kill it, as the moment that it all fell apart.
Time to figure out my exit plan.
ITEM THE THIRD:
EYES WORK THE SAME IN ALL WORLDS: A few weeks ago I was FINALLY able to use my extensive wealth privilege and purchase a FANCY NEW VIDEO CARD. Of course, the old one worked fine, but I needed the new one for fancy ray tracing and the possibility to run VR. The scalper prices finally went down and I was able to buy one for MSRP. I've been waiting about 20 months for this moment, so I did it. AND BOY DO THINGS LOOK NICE.
About two weeks later, I saw the VR headset I wanted was on super sale, so I used that privilege again and bought it. The dream has been to get the VR headset + Microsoft Flight Sim to satisfy my dreams of being a pilot without spending the 10k + $300/mo to have my PPL (Private Pilots License). $1100 was a much more reasonable compromise, plus I have money to spare for fancy controls or even the motion cockpit.
Anyways, VR is amazing. I first tried VR in the early 90's at the Mall of America. It looked like this. It now looks like this. Then you buy some recoil grips and a haptic vest and you get this. Shit is amazing.
Outside of Flight Simulator and Superhot VR, I had an amazing experience with Apollo 13 HD VR. It was very cool being in the Lander and seeing how small it was and the thousand switches they had to deal with. I damn near cried going up on the Saturn V and leaving Earth. Very cool.
BUT...about those eyes. If you recall I wear glasses when computing (see Vol. 3 No. 7 - PART 5 OF AN ON-GOING SERIES “MY BODY HATES ME.”) I got into VR in my Cessna and was looking at all the knobs and switches and was like "Man, this VR headset has a sweet spot that is very tiny. Everything not in my direct line of sight is blurry." Keep in mind, this is a known issue on VR headsets, but this one has the best in the business. WELL...turns out if your eyes are shit in the real world, putting them 3 inches from a screen does not magically fix them. The solution? OBVIOUSLY VR HEADSET PRESCRIPTION LENSES. Because, of course that is a thing. After I have my eye exam in August, I'll be ordering some lenses, it will be like an upgrade that I can use HSA funds on.
Now, for the question I'm sure some of you have on your mind. Yes, it is amazing and no, VR doesn't ruin it, but you certainly see how painted on makeup can be and you'll quickly identify where their implant scars are ;-)
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (please mark "ok to print"):
None
GRATITUDES:
If there is one thing everyone in this SECRET CLUB knows about me is how much I hate my job. (see Vol. 5 No. 4 - The Treadmill of Life, Vol. 4 No. 1 - When I Was a Middle-Aged Whore, Vol. 1 No. 7 - Item the Second). As everyone knows, I'm not a social person at work and I compartmentalize the shit out of my work and home life. My wife didn't even know what I did at work until COVID forced us to work at home. HOWEVER, it cannot be said that there not tolerable people at work. Tolerable in the literal sense.
Let me tell you about Roger. Roger was my co-worker. Then, Roger was my boss. Now, Roger is my friend.
When I was a young drone, in December of 2002, I met Roger, who was in charge of the Thomson West eStore. He was introduced to me by my boss, Julie, and he needed me to do some stuff on the eStore during the holiday break since he had time off. Instantly, he reminded me a bit of my father. Once we started talking, I learned that he was into sci-fi, technology and other things that I was into, but with that slant of someone 20 years older. There is a clear generational gap and I was obviously not going to talk about the latest Atmosphere album with him...
Over the years, I worked with him and then worked for him. At work he understood my strengths and limitations and stuck up for me when needed and was there for me when the work was overwhelming, at level more than most bosses would be. He is/was the only person at TR that knows about my ASPIE SUPER POWERS.
We grew closer over the years dealing with the flaming dumpster fire that the company was. We would block time off our calendars, grab a conference room and watch Apple keynotes together and I'll never forget the tears of joy that were exchanged when the ruling in Obergefell was announced. I knew many years into our relationship that it was boss and worker, but also human and human in friendship.
Of course since Roger was older and TR is pretty well known for clearing out older employees, he was severed a few years ago. I've drifted from department to department, boss to boss since he left. I was always hoping to maintain that friendship outside of work and I'm pleased to report we have.
Roger is an incredible person, one of the most generous and gracious people I have known. A mentor and an ideal for living who has come from poverty and a large family in Wyoming to being a lawyer and a key person in the digital transformation over the past 20 years at TR. He champions causes that he believes in and has a keen sense of justice. He shares his heart with people and is the best example I can give for the definition of a man in my life. Roger is an inspiration for me and who I can be. He proves love.
One of the many things we did over the years annual is to walk in the Minnesota AIDS Walk (or whatever it was called that year). I even joined the corporate TR team and got some stupid branded shirt, but Roger knew me well enough to not be bothered that I wasn't going to walk with a group of TR people. Now that Roger is retired, I get to walk with him and someday we will both be retired and still walking.
I am sending him this section of the LIFESTYLE to make our relationship more awkward. Feel free to wave at the new guy. He gave permission for me to share this.
This is Roger. Know that if you think I am a decent person, some of that came from him.
FAVORITE THING TO GO IN MY EARHOLES THIS WEEK:
Watching The Andy Warhol Diaries and thinking about that amazing time in history that was New York City in the late 70's/early 80's if you were a gay dude. This song is my favorite from that era and makes me want to take a bunch of poppers and head to The Saloon on a Friday night if I was 20 years younger.
(video - click to watch)
THIS IS THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER
EVEN IN TERRIBLE SITUATIONS THERE ARE GOOD PEOPLE AROUND.
KEEP THOSE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE.
FIND THE PEOPLE THAT USE THEIR HANDS TO PULL OTHERS UP AND NOT PUNCH OTHERS DOWN.
THAT IS ALL.