It varies a lot for people, and the bills you actually pay depend on a lot of things. It’s complicated here.

I would say I’m the average “I have healthcare through work” person. But that’s not average for the population (many people have no healthcare).

I pay about $600 a month for a plan that lets me go to any doctor (called a ppo). If I wanted a cheaper monthly bill, I could get on board with the plan where you have to go to the doctors and facilities that are “in the insurers network”. I’ve had problems with these plans as they’ve become more and more run by the insurers than actual doctors - leading to shoddy care. So $600 a month for my family it is.

I did require major surgery about 10 years ago. I was in the hospital for a month and had a million office visits. The grand total “bill” was just over a half million dollars. My portion of that was about $10,000. It was crazy to look at the itemized bill though. Two Advils cost like $50. An X-ray? Like $1000. But that’s like this this fucky-fuck game insurers and providers play with each other. Sometimes people are flat broke, and the hospitals still have to care for them if they wander into the ER - and they get paid nothing. It’s a weird system.

If you don’t have health insurance-you’re kind of in trouble. Interestingly, those $1000 X-rays become $200 if you’re uninsured. Definitely more manageable-but you’d be screwed if you required major surgery. You’d be bankrupt.

Basically it’s very American-it works great for people doing well in life - screw everyone else less fortunate- get a job…

And here I am trying to help this guy with suggestions. You’re right - there’s like 15 people doing the same thing. Same attitude, same responses, same “no can do” attitude. Gotta be the same person - shame on me for falling for it.

Ya I mean it’s hard to meet people if they aren’t around. I don’t know what “the middle of nowhere means”. Some people really do live where there just aren’t people around. But lots of people use that phrase when places of gathering are half an hour or maybe an hour away. I’d suggest it’s still worth the drive if you can figure that out.

I was suggesting targeting type things, not necessarily just guns - because they tend to have low barriers of entry. Pool, bowling, archery, darts, etc. They also tend to have social components as well (happens in a bar for example, or there’s a club house/place where people meet). Leads to other things. Sports are also great - even if you’re not athletic and bad at sports. Especially the “weird” sports - you may find something non traditional that you’re good at, and usually people are super happy just to have anyone who wants to participate.

Just things to think about - that’s all. Find out what people near you do. There’s gotta be something. Then go try it even if it doesn’t sound like your thing. You may like it, you may not. Keep doing that and sooner or later you will find something to be passionate about.

Meeting people - romantic or otherwise - is a result of you engaging with people and enjoying the thing/hobby/whatever you’re doing together. People who share common things gravitate toward each other personally. That’s just the way it works - embrace it my friend! Go have some fun! ;)

I agree. If you’re not looking for hobbies (plural) that are fun just for the sake of fun (not meeting people) - then you’re short changing yourself in many levels. When you’re passionate about a hobby, it’s almost impossible not to make friends. When you make friends, you’ll meet their friends, and with all those people - your chances of finding something more than friends increases.

Video games can be very social IRL, but it’s not the norm in my experience. Some suggestions: Go to a gun range, archery range, axe throwing, anything target based and show up for a public shooting day. Those people (myself included) LOVE people who are new to the sport and they’ll let you use all their equipment and show you how to do it. Pick up a pool cue and start practicing by yourself at a pool hall. You’ll become a regular and again people love to show you the ropes with that sport. Join a fishing club - it’s not just old men who do that (although there’s plenty of them) but before you know it you’re going on other people’s boats and whatnot. Mountain biking - requires more cash to get going as you need a bike - but those people are animals and are always looking for people to go on a ride with. Get involved with your local library and book clubs if you like to read. Again more expensive- but golf. Lots of people who love to golf - if you go alone, you’ll usually get paired up with and find others to golf with. You get the idea, pick up an instrument, rc cars or planes, habitat for humanity - there are endless things to do and you’ll soon be looking forward to your alone time ;)

Right! I use the flatpak myself - works great.

There’s a native Linux version! No need for wine :)

I use makemkv. Works every time. Once in a while you have to open the disk “manually” and select the right track but ya, makemkv does it all.

Free if you want to update the beta trial key every few months. After years of use I bought a lifetime license for like $20. Probably the best value I’ve ever gotten.

I’ve been trying to do the same thing for years. Mostly just for fun / is it possible. I’ve come to the conclusion that “it depends”.

Things that really help:

• Keyboard & trackpad
• Cloud storage that works across all your devices (synology NAS, o365, dropbox, etc)
• O365 subscription / Google docs environment for working with office
• Cell phone connection
• A good note taking application that supports templates

Things that used to suck but Apple has improved:

• File manager
• Zip file support

Things that are actually easier:

• Writing on documents digitally (some professions still do a lot of manual writing on paper - this digitizes all that automatically, but you can still work with paper processes)
• Smallest size (great for travel)
• Engineering sketches / paper math / (maybe drawing I dunno not an artist)
• “Grandma computer” all she does is facebook anyway - but she can’t click on stuff and get viruses
• Media consumption-books, reading docs, audiobooks, etc.

Things that suck:

• iOS applications are neutered versions of desktop programs (think iOS word/excel - they work, but they can’t do the big boy tasks)
• File management is still clunky if you have a format iOS doesn’t recognize. Have fun with that tarball or 7zip file. It’s possible, but clunky.
• Small screen eliminates many professional tasks (coding, drafting, admin with multi monitors)
• No ability to use corporate programs like a specific vpn
• No ability to run virtual machines/real programs - (although that changed a couple of days ago - Google UTM SE)
• Good luck keeping your files synced unless you’re running some kind of cloud storage. Synology NAS works really good for me - but not everyone has that option.
• $$$
• Gaming? LOL

Summary: Student who takes a lot of notes and writes a lot of papers? It’s actually a pretty good option.

Old person computer? 100% check. It’s really the best option if you don’t want to forever be family tech support.

Secondary travel pc for work? Works great here too and small for plane trips. Battery life rules.

Real work? Coding, engineering programs, etc - hard pass. Writing and artists? - maybe…. General office worker who interfaces with everything via webpage? - yes if you can deal with the small screen and lack of mouse support.

Gamer? Come on now, you already knew the answer to that ;)

I trust Apple more than Google. May be misplaced faith, but that’s the primary reason.

Frostpunk - seems fun. Played a few hours.

Armored core 6 - um I died like 4 times in the tutorial. I was shamed and put it down.

But ya - it’s been Elden ring pretty much 90% of the time.

You really can’t get bluer than mass ri conn and vt

Southern nh and southern me are basically Boston suburbs. As you go north it gets more red. But not like sc (I have family in sc and outside of the blue cities - ya they are pretty maga stupid). They are more “leave me alone red” as opposed to “my pastor said abortion is bad and I like to make fun of the gays”

I mean there’s maga idiots everywhere-but honestly things might even tip a little too blue in southern New England.

There hasn’t been “bitter cold” in the northeast for a decade. Climate change is a bitch. We barely get snow anymore - 2015 was a banger, but it’s been dustings since.

*puts on his flame retardant suit

For android or pc, it’s Firefox and ublock origin all day long.

For iOS it’s trickier. Generally the ad blockers don’t work like you expect, and many aren’t free.

But I have found a solution that’s worked for years, but people are going to flame me.

Brave browser for iOS. It just works. Even for YouTube videos. You hear how they are a shady company-they are probably selling my firstborn son right from under my nose. But I’ll be damned if I’ve ever seen an ad come through.

Yes but only if it’s NY style and no sauce.

White pizza.

Also acceptable, spinach instead of broccoli

Neat! Thanks for the name/info.

I’m the only person I’ve ever met who can do this. It’s apparently somewhat more common than I thought.

I’m an old man, but I still do it specifically to my sister because she cannot stand it. /sibling rivalry lives on

I don’t know because I can’t see a thing when I do it ;)

Edit: I suppose I should make a video of myself - just never have. Sounds like I’ve got plans for the evening :)

I can twitch my eyeballs left and right really fast, and not just a little bit - but most of the way.

Completely grosses people out when I do it.

Edit: I can even do circles, but not as fast as left and right.

1,2,&4 yes.

#3 not at all for me. I miss the old days of the internet where there were discussion forums on usenet / then replaced by somewhere forums. Many of my favorite forums are dead. I’m hoping Lemmy takes off that way and brings back a bit of the niche underground internet.

/shrug

Social media. Both personal (instatwitface) and business (LinkedIn). Lemmy is as close as I get, and to me this is just a modern forum.

In my opinion social media has done nothing but make people stupider, and I want nothing to do with it. (It’s probably just a sign I’m old now - “get off my lawn!”)

;)

Pathetic.