Yeah, most online stores don’t accept gift cards, unfortunately. 🙁 Especially Amazon…tried to order some much needed products with Amazon cards, and they require a bank card.

IME, (on Amazon at least…and a few others I’ve tried) masked cards are usually accepted as bank cards. Gift cards are not.

I’d love to build myself a privacy-respecting online store that accepts everything from Monero to cash to Apple pay (for the general populous that doesn’t care), but I sort of lack the capital. 😅

I mean, yeah, it would be great if Amazon took Monero, but I don’t see them ever even considering that.

Inspiring Philosophy lays out the whole issue here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei0gPoqx_bQ

I know it’s age-blocked due to some of the content, so if anyone knows where to find the youtube-alternative link that would be awesome.

Earn more.

It’s not easy, but I used to be in the “we need to make everything fair” crowd.

Now (currently unable to afford groceries myself) I’m part of the “if I’m not getting paid my worth, I must show my worth.”

Yup, start by running nvidia-smi to get the details on your Nvidia. Then install pytorch. The rest is up to you!

Social security never made any sense to me anyway. Why not just make the economy healthy so that people can save into old age? Perhaps invest a little into financial literacy so someone doesn’t blow all their savings in Vegas when they’re 45. It’s frustrating the the government’s like, “You can’t spend that money. We don’t think you’re smart enough to plan for the future, but we’re ethical enough we’ll keep it for you and return it to you when you’re old and grouchy.”

Hm…I’ll consider this. I 100% believe in self-hosting, but I’ve had to compromise lately. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yup. Once you’re a $5/mo / $10/mo member, then you can profit share.

I’ve seen that site occasionally. I’ll consider it. The only downside is that I already have a medium audience so I"d have to rebuild my audience. But I’ll consider it. Thanks.

Oh, no, I don’t have to pay to submit articles. I’ve already published dozens of articles. It’s just that in order to participate in profit sharing, you need to become a member: $5/mo or $50/yr.

Yeah. It’s been a struggle these past few years. I’ve been getting creative to find any source of income, but it seems like no matter what I try I always hit a wall. But I found out I have a new contract starting soon (🤞) that will definitely cover costs for a while. This season is critical for me, and I often check my priorities often. Thanks for the encouragement.

Yup, try the #UnionizeTech tag on Twitter or Mastodon. I’m trying to raise interest.

So far there’s a call, but nobody’s taking action.

On my part, still trying to find work to afford groceries, so I don’t have much energy to spend on anything else.

Exactly.

“I’m ready to start Monday. Just need to restart my health insurance with–”

“Oh, we already chose that for you.”

“Um…okay…well, at least I can go back to my gym on Tues–”

“No worries, through our wellness plan we’ve already selected a gym for you. We even pre-signed you up to a spin class.”

“I’m more of a bench-press person any–”

“We’ve started your retirement account, too.”

“Um…thanks?”

I had a hero of a physics professor who figured out that new editions of textbooks just mixed up the number of the exercises, so he advised students that they could just order previous versions of the textbooks and he’d provide the “key” for how the questions were shuffled.

Toilets.

I just use your neighbor’s garden and blame it on my cat.

Probably gonna anger both sides here, but I see both private insurance and single-payer healthcare as equally-evil scams. Why not focus on driving down costs of healthcare (i.e. EVERYTHING) so that you throw a couple bucks at the receptionist to cover your surgery then check to see if you have enough for a post-surgery soda?

Yup, BandCamp all the way. Once you buy a song you own it, you can play it anywhere you darn well please. Even if BandCamp goes under, no worries, still got my music.

Same with DVDs. Yeah, I’ve definitely gotten movies I regret purchasing, but I think long-term it’s more economical.

Workplace benefits.

Really? What’s the benefit? You’re taking money out of my paycheck to restrict my choices?

And aren’t you a business anyway–you know, an organization whose purpose is to MAKE MONEY, not coddle people.

I’ve been trying to network with successful people. I always get ignored or ostracized. And can’t figure out why. During the time I’m not rejected I’ll glean as much as I can.

If you’re not making those connections, something is wrong. It could be the kinds of jobs you’ve taken, eg: if they’re all solo contracts and you don’t interact with anyone on anything other than deliverables. Or you are taking roles where your output is used only by a small sunset of the company or something?

Yeah, that was typically the case, unfortunately. Those were the first companies to hire me. So then I wouldn’t be able to make a strong, lasting connection with anyone. There are very few previous coworkers I’ve managed to stay in contact with. And the ones that do have a replay rate in months.

I haven’t figured out why my relationships aren’t positive. I’m usually very team-oriented and dive in and solve problems, and try to uncover what my coworkers are really passionate about, so I still can’t figure out why I can’t “fit in.”

Thanks for the encouragement, though. Good to keep in mind.