DagwoodIII

“Adjusted for inflation” is a lie.

Think of it this way. $1 million in 1960 would buy you a couple of mansions, a fleet of nice cars, and you’d have enough left to put into investments that would give you income for life.

$11 million today won’t buy the nicest house on the block.

A much shorter list would be all the books/stories I am sure of.

Also, the inflation for luxuries leaves regular inflation in the dust.

Back around 1960, $5,000.00 a year was a sold, middle class income. A Jaguar sportscar was about $6,000 and a Rolls was about $25,000.

Even if you spend the money to get a First Class airline ticket, you know that there are plenty of private planes out there.

Harlan Ellison wrote an essay about ‘fuck you money,’ the amount he needed to have in the bank so he could tell the studios to fuck off. Back in the day he could go six months on $1,000.

I found this book when I was almost 30 and it changed my life.

“Discover What You Are Best At” by Linda Gail.

It’s a series of self tests you can complete in a few hours and a list of the jobs that use those skills.

If you have a job that you don’t hate, you’ve solved a lot of life’s problems.

Check around where you live.

There are shelters that need cats boarded. I suggest you try caring for a few and see how it feels before you commit.

My opinion.

Talk to people besides the women you want to date.

Old people love to talk to strangers; it was something they did before cell phones came around.

Take some acting classes and or volunteer at the local community theater. Acting is talking, and actors love to chatter.

Get a hobby that appeals to all sorts of people. Gardening/riding a bike/soft ball/football/whatever. It actually helps to have something to talk about, and there are clubs full of people who do that activity.

Thanks for the information.

You always see at the same speed. Your reaction time slows down.

Think of it this way. You step on a Lego and it hurts instantly. Doesn’t matter if you’re sleepy or drunk or wide awake. You feel it right away. Same with seeing; it’s instantaneous.

The funniest thing about your question is defining ‘non-whites.’

Back in the day, any Black ancestor made a person Black; that was so slave owners could sell their children by slave mothers. Thomas Jefferson had a slave wife/concubine/rape victim named Sally Hemmings. She was likely his legal wife’s half sister. Sally’s granddaughter was 1/8th of less African, but it was considered a scandal when she ran off and passed as White.

The longer any family has been in America, the more likely it is that they are ‘non-white.’

In a platonic relationship sex/romance is out of the question.

That’s the definition I was taught.

Got my aunt’s rotary phone in the closet.

I have two. Ginger beer tastes great, and it’s helpful if you’ve got a cold or stomach ache.

It’s a ‘soft drink’ only because it doesn’t have alcohol. Manhattan Special Espresso soda. I’d see the old Italian men drinking it when they played bocce. Three bottles have enough caffeine to give you heart palpitations.

https://www.manhattanspecial.com/

In terms of clichés, I’d go with ‘they see the glass as half empty.’

Not exact, but close enough

It’s like any other skill. If you keep it up you’ll remain proficient and if you don’t it’ll eventually fade away.

Pretty sure that it’s a ploy to get the public to pressure the lawmakers.

I just got to a point where I couldn’t handle the abuse from family, being betrayed by my ex of 7 years, serious health issue, and noone wanted to help me through it regardless of what kindness I showed them in the past.

Have a good night.

Let’s break it down.

First, what kind of ‘peace and security’ are you going to have without other people? Even if you manage to amass a vast fortune, you’ll need some kind of caretakers.

Second, you act as if every single person you interact with is out to get you. You had a lousy family and apparently one adult relationship that floundered after 7 years. That sounds about average, tbh.

As for your health issues. Have you looked for support groups of people with the same problem?

Interacting with people is like any other skill. If you don’t do it badly at first, you’ll never get to the point where you can do it well.

I was an isolator who got a job where I was dealing with everyone in a public health facility. By ‘everyone’ I mean everyone from doctors and police to homeless schizophrenics.

It was sink or swim, but I got the skills.

No. You have to go into the water first to learn how to relax and float. Then you can learn a good technique.

In the immortal words of Mike Tyson, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

No matter how much you study, landing in the water will change everything.