?

Where I work, we are being offered (voluntary) one of the first two vaccines to receive emergency use authorization in the United States.  A co-worker in my section was asked to add us all to the spreadsheet used to track who will take it and who won't.  After the spreadsheet was filled out, I discovered to my amazement (and horror) that I was the only person among 8 in my section who volunteered to get vaccinated.

I asked a few people I work with, why they are NOT getting vaccinated. 

1)  My boss said, "the virus is a hoax".  (I wish I'd made that up)

2)  My first co-worker I asked said, "My wife is a nurse and she advised me not to get vaccinated."  I asked him for more details, and he went on to explain...since they don't have a vaccine for CHILDREN yet, the adults in his family are waiting for a vaccination that the whole family can take.

3)  Second co-worker I asked said "They are experimental vaccines, and not approved by the U.S. FDA"

Holy Crap. 

1)  I can't comment on "hoax" bit, as it's too stupid to make an effort...

2)  A NURSE doesn't understand the concept of community immunity?????????

3)  Because I've lived overseas for many years, I am fully aware that many of the best medicines in the world are not U.S. FDA approved...and they never will be.  This first came to my attention when I ran out of my anti-depressant (used for migraine prevention) and my Asian doctor laughed at my U.S. prescription, calling it obsolete by decades... (but it was FDA approved!!!)

I am talking real massage, not "happy ending" type.  When I went to Puerto Princesa (Palawan), a tricycle driver recommended Dreamcare, and it was awesome.  But it's not on any "best of" list for massage in Palawan.  I will be going to Tagbilaran (the city, not the island) soon and want to know...where is that great massage shop that the locals know about, but not likely to get listed as "best of" in a google search?

Signed a 2-year lease about 6 months ago.  Was told that only large apartments were available in the area at the time.  I am certain that it wasn't an up-sell situation, as the rent on the new place was well below market, and just a little more than I used to pay for a small studio in another city with similar rental market.  The new apartment is 3-bedroom, but it's actually about twice the size as a 3-bedroom detached house that I used to own.  My last apartment (the whole thing) would easily fit into the living room of my current apartment.  I've already had to clean the place a few times.  Cleaning it takes me all weekend.  I can't hire a maid, as a maid for this place would be about half the monthly rent.  Even then, it would have to be a cheap maid service.  They'd have to devote one person to work ONLY on this apartment at least one day a week, which would not be cheap.  I feel trapped.  Either I live in filth (which I do much of the time) or I spend every second of my free time cleaning.  Anybody ever broken a lease early because the place was too large?  I tried googling, but all I get is the opposite..."I gained too much stuff, or I got married and want kids...I need a new place with more space..."

I'd actually be happy to pay higher rent for a smaller apartment, but how do I get out of the lease, complaining that the apartment is too big? 

I think we can't.

In early August of 2020, I ordered some computer parts for a computer system I was planning to build. Because they were computer parts, I was watching the tracking information carefully. In mid-August, they were "mis-sent" to a post office about 200 miles NORTH of where I live. OK, so package delayed. Disappointing, but not the end of the world. I figured it would be a few days. A few days later, I checked tracking and I was shocked to see status of "permanently lost". Yeah, it said "permanently lost". 

That was the middle of August. But that wasn't the end of the story.

On November 2nd of 2020, I went to check my mail and had two package slips in my box. Both of them had my complete name and address on them. One of them was dated 11/2...and the other one was dated 8/26. The 11/2 package was some vitamins I had ordered and the 8/26 package was (you guessed it...) the "permanently lost" computer parts!!! Now, what is significant about the computer parts package? Well, the delivery slip was dated 8/26... WELL OVER TWO MONTHS before delivery was even attempted.

Now, imagine this delivery was a mail-in vote. 

What if the election is only decided by a few votes or even a few thousand votes? The post office is already complaining that THEY CAN'T HANDLE THE INCREASED VOLUME OF MAIL RELATED TO THE ELECTION. It might not take too many "lost" (or even DELAYED) mail items to swing the election one way or other...

I think this will be a disaster...

A friend of mine is a business woman living in the Philippines.  She is not "rich" (not even by Philippine standards) but she does own her own small house.  She loves the bidet I have installed in my apartment, which is just an accessory that bolts onto the top of my toilet.  So, I thought of ordering a similar one off of Lazada (kind of like Amazon in the Philippines) to have it delivered as a Christmas present.  But there are two different sizes, 1/2" and 7/8" (15/16), which correspond to the size of the water connection on the toilet tank.  I can't ask her what size to order, as that would kind of spoil the surprise.  (!)  And they do sell adapters to go from one size to the other, but the adapters are terribly expensive...at least half the cost of the bidet.  So I need to get the size right when I place the order.  I tried googling, but couldn't find the results I was looking for.  Not knowing that much about plumbing, maybe I just didn't use the right search words?

I feel like I've had several bombshells dropped on me today.  My 2nd marriage failed because I caught my wife cheating on me, and thus I divorced her.  However, that's just part of the story.

While we were married and BEFORE I even filed for divorce, my wife was engaged to another man.  In fact, the two of them would be married right NOW, as I'm typing this except...

It turns out, the guy she was engaged to...was himself married.  SO to be clear...she was engaged to the other guy while married to me (and I had not filed for divorce yet).  HE was engaged to my wife while still married and living with his wife, and HE had not filed for divorce yet, either.

Now, she trusted this guy because he showed her his final divorce decree.  Only, the final divorce decree was fake, because at the time he showed her this document...he hadn't even FILED for divorce yet...and he was still married.

Now my question is...

WTF use is a false divorce decree?  I want the ladies to answer this one.  My line of reasoning is...

Marriage is a serious commitment, never to be taken lightly.  If you don't trust your future spouse with all your heart and soul, then you shouldn't even THINK about marrying that person.

If you have to insist on seeing a final divorce decree, then that is 100% proof that you don't trust your guy.  If you don't trust your guy, then it doesn't MATTER whether he's divorced or not!!!  (you shouldn't be marrying a guy you don't trust)  Am I right?

Trying to keep a long story short...

Met a girl, she had a son, I fell in love with her, married her, brought her son to live with me in another country.  We were married for about 6 years.  I caught her cheating on me, so I divorced her.

I actually had to divorce her TWICE, even though I married her once.  A long story, but the country we got divorced in...

A (finalized) divorce can be reversed, in some circumstances.  After I got a finalized divorce, my ex-wife appealed.  SO....I had to divorce her again.

So she ships her son, who I had grown to love as MY OWN son, back to the country where I met her and she (after the divorce) went to the United States to find work.  (big mistake, but I won't get into that here)

She's not ready to "give up" on the marriage.  In spite of the fact that she knows the failure was her fault, and she knows that I divorced her TWICE, she still wants to save the marriage.

There is like zero chance of the two of us getting back together, because we are geographically separated.  (and no way to reasonably change that any time soon)

But I don't hate her.  She and I are still kinda-sorta friends.  Today, she calls me and starts talking about her daughter.  I thought she was joking.  Turns out, she has a 17 year old daughter that she hid from me because she was afraid I would not like her if I knew she had TWO children.

I talked to her (the daughter) this morning for the first time in my life, and told her I felt a huge sense of loss...

"Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women’s movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage. Sheila Cronin, the leader of the feminist organization NOW"

I was born around the same time that the modern feminist movement started waging war on marriage.  All my life I have known somehow that feminism is responsible for the fact that it's almost impossible to have a good marriage...or even a good long-term relationship.  Women don't know how to be women anymore.  That is the problem.  Men who act like women are not marriage material.  But Men who act like men clash with women, who all act like men now.  

For many years, if someone asked me what was wrong with dating or marriage or why the divorce rate was so high...I would confidently answer "feminism".  But I was wrong.  Or at least, I was not entirely correct.  My one-word answer was too simplified.

The real problem is that women alive today were all raised in society that is greatly influenced by feminists.  Consequently, we live in a society where ALL women are feminist, and a good percentage of them actually KNOW that.

Women really don't know how to be women anymore.  Maybe their great-great-great grandmothers were the last generation worth marrying.  Now, there's nothing but feminists proud to be feminists...and other pseudo-feminists who are just clueless.  

Why should men bother even trying anymore?

As an employee, we used to get vacation time, as well as sick time. A typical worker might have 120 hours of vacation time each year and 120 hours of sick time each year, as well. While 6 weeks away from work is not a lot of time, it was manageable because you could plan a long vacation somewhere and not have to worry too much about the vacation plans getting ruined by illness.

Then about 10 years ago (roughly) employers did away with vacation time and sick time, and replaced them both with PTO (Paid Time Off). They claimed it was for the convenience of the employees, but it was really motivated by profit. (as almost everything is)

Every employer now has the same terrible PTO policy. As a new guy, you are lucky to start with 2 or 3 weeks of PTO per year, but NO vacation time and NO sick time.

The PTO model forces employees to go to work when they are sick, which is the exact OPPOSITE of what needs to be done to prevent the spread of a global pandemic!

Will the coronavirus cause employers to give us back our sick time? Or would HR managers rather work in a building with a bunch of covid-19 infected personnel who are at work because they can’t afford to stay home, even to save lives?

First, as a driver...

I have over 30 years and well over a million miles of accident-free and ticket-free driving experience in all types of vehicles, in all types of weather and road conditions, in many different countries. At one point, I held a class A hazmat license with ALL endorsements and NO restrictions. Meaning, if it was legal to drive on a public road, I was licensed to drive it. Period.

I recently passed a driving physical, easily. My vision (uncorrected) is still 20/20, all my limbs are intact, I have no disabilities.

All that said, I have a driving situation that I have never faced before, and it might be an insurmountable challenge.

I have been living overseas for several years. By local laws, I can use my United States driver's license to drive. All is legal up to this point. However, my United States license is going to expire, probably several years before I set foot in the United States again. Now the problem.

1) Partially because of the "real ID" act, I can not renew my United States driver's license.

2) I do not qualify for a license where I am living, because I need to produce a "apostille" of my United States driver's license record.

3) The state will NOT issue an apostille of my driver's license record. No, they won't. I've asked many times and even consulted a lawyer for help. I can not get an apostille of my driver's license record.

4) I can not drive with an expired license.

5) I have to drive to work.

What is the solution?

(please read all the rules before answering)

I am looking for a singer who fits all these rules:

1) Had the greatest commercial success (monetary income) related to music in calendar year 2019. Side-gigs can not be counted. If an artist has a clothing line or makeup named after him/her, then income from that does not count. If an artist is a paid actor in movies or television, then that income does not count. Generally, which artist made the most from music sales, tours (partially to promote music sales) and other income in 2019 directly related to SINGING????

2) Is definitely active for all of 2019 and 2020 (so far), and only records and performs songs in the English language.

3) Released at least one full-length album (more than 7 tracks) in the past 12 months

4) Is a solo artist, or performs the lead/main vocals for his/her band, on studio recordings

5) And...according to the best evidence available, this artist has NEVER used "auto-tune" in a studio recording. Not even to clean up a piece of ONE track.

I will allow artists who lip-sync live performances, or even auto-tune live performances. But to qualify as the most successful non-auto-tune artist for this question, the artist has to NOT use auto-tune (ever) in the studio recordings.

OK, who is it?

The last couple of days, I have not been able to see my own answers on my answers profile. Also the last couple of days, Yahoo has been spamming the heck out of my inbox with e-mail messages saying "Someone also answered the same question as you!" As if I care...

In the spam, there is a suggestion to check your preferences. Only, my preferences have always been set to NOT receive such messages, and the preferences are STILL set to NOT receive such messages. So my Yahoo preferences are set correctly, but they are being ignored by Yahoo.

My wife from the Philippines just got a temporary IR-1 "green card" in her passport. NOTE it is not a "conditional" CR-1, it is the permanent green card, but the temporary one that they stamp in your passport.

NOT coincidentally, I just discovered that the ONLY reason she married me was to obtain a green card.

I was scammed, and so was the United States. I will be divorced soon, probably before the end of July. But I don't believe that the scammer should be allowed to maintain permanent residency status.

Is there a way to get the green card revoked? If so, how? I've googled this, but all the answers relate to how to stop the process BEFORE a green card is issued. What about a few days after the green card is issued?