Indeed, the Macan is a truly awful vehicle.

Release Epstein files - lie.

Great read. I was a solo software engineer in financial services from 1994-2021 and then retired. Sounds like I got out just in time. Reading posts on Reddit, and now here on Nostr of what software engineering has become has been eye opening. Spending one's day prompting a chatbot sounds absolutely soul-crushing. And if I understand the situation correctly, even if one creates something of value, it can be reverse engineered and rebuilt by others with little to no effort. To even enter that field at all seems rather pointless, quite honestly.

Every now and then I run across delusional people who think they'll be able to make money as a "prompt engineer." LOL. Naw man, that's not going to be a thing. I think software engineering is rapidly transitioning into a low skill, low pay job of "last resort," alongside professions like Walmart greeters, TSA screeners, and public school teachers. Sad, but it's just the nature of progress, I suppose.

Who is this dude? Most Bitcoiners are a bit more.... understated.

Is that really an ancient quote, or is it a Seinfeld bit that AI was told to rephrase in the voice of Marcus Aurelius? If the former, wow, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. MA really is relevant after all these years!

That's so weird. What do you think triggered that? Although I have a credit card on file with them, I just use Amazon cards purchased with BitRefill. And I use a VPN. I'm kind of surprised you encountered that.

Amazon asked you to send a picture?

Most guys seem to have more friends in their youth and then those connections drop off as they get older. I was the opposite. Too busy working to make many friends in my twenties and early thirties, but established more friendships thereafter. Having at least one good friend really makes a difference in one's life -- providing a reason to stay active, especially in middle age and old age. Do you have a core group of people you hang with?

You should check out the Porsche Taycan. I love my Turbo S. Fast, quiet, and can charge it for free at the local dealership. No gas to worry about.

Well, lately I've been learning about Linux and self-hosting. I'm going to get back into coding again, even though no one really codes anymore. When I was a kid, I used to make fun of old people who took up calligraphy as a hobby since writing in cursive wasn't exactly a relevant skill. But now, as a fifty-three year old, I kinda get why they did it.

A man has to actively create mental stimulation for himself in retirement or he'll end up watching reruns of Below Deck all day, or in your case, maybe playing video games. For women, it's easier. They go to yoga, hang out with their friends and go shopping, drink Prosecco, gossip, and enjoy the day. Men are wired to need more for some reason.

#retirement-life

I'm living it, bro. So necessary to find mentally stimulating ways to fill the hours.

I've had good luck with Silent.link on GrapheneOS if you decide you want an esim. It's a data only service. No phone number. It appears that they assign users some random IP address tracing back to Warsaw, Poland. Pay with Lightning. No KYC garbage. Cheap as heck. Like $1/gig or something.