It’s still a 6% increase over inflation.

As you are apparently in the US, could it be a tariff thing because of tariffs?

“Bob villain”?

(yes yes, I know Bob Vylan)

I do not know where you’re from, but aside from the already good advice in this thread, I may have a tip.

My former junior colleague went to an employment agency to test his skills and interests and match him to a new employer. This is a municipal thing. Maybe your city or municipality has a similar option?

I hear you OP. I am a senior developer and hate my current employer. He is a miserly c*nt. Half of our people already left for better paying jobs. To make matters worse, he has recently joined the Claude cult. I am stranded in search of a new job, that does not include AI.

Our former junior has altogether left development, as there are hardly any junior vacancies anymore. He is flipping burgers now and earning better than he did at our company. He is replaced by Claude by my boss, so one salary less to pay.

As for myself, I can do one of two things:

• Find a new development job. It WILL include AI, which I do not want.
• Leave development entirely. At my age, almost every application is met with utter silence, even for related jobs for which I do have some experience.

I will be opening a very expensive bottle as soon as the bubble bursts.

People using private jets are scumbags. The world is better off without them. However, I would have preferred a diving accident or something else that would have spared the eight other lives.

Well those car manufacturers could stop paying to lobby and use that money to actually innovate. I do not know about the US, but back where I live, people actually want to move away from fossil fueled cars and they do not give a flying fuck about whether it is the Chinese spying on them or the US Tech bros.

No it isn’t and I am not saying that it is. Actually, our media are doing their best to downplay racist police violence in one of our biggest cities.

To return the whataboutism: in the US, as a toddler, you can get killed by the police because your mother alledgedly stole some groceries (and because you happen to have the wrong skin color). If that is the bar for police violence, I can only imagine what will happen during an aactual riot (as in looting stores etc).

You are not wrong and I am not saying that there are no protests. Where I live, protests in the US are severly underreported (due to fear of the far right), but I am aware of them. I was referring to riots, with barricades, looting and all that stuff. As far as I am aware, that is not happining in the US right now, but please feel free to correct me.

Apart from the valid things that have already been mentioned in this thread: police violence in the USA is a thing. Hell, you can get shot for helping a fellow protestor. Yes I know, police != ICE, but if a real riot breaks out, I can imagine sending in the most ruthless (and psychopatically trigger-happy) shock troops to quell them.

Ooooohhh! Good one!

Oh fuck! How did I forget those? Thanks!

I have not read that creepy ass Mr. Sandman song here yet.

A few other recommendations:

• Igorr vs. Bong Ra - Pallbearer / Tombs (EP)
• Saint-Seans - Danse Macabrre (duh!)
• Coil - Musick to play in the dark 1 and 2, full albums ‘Something’ scares my 9 year
• Rob Zombie - Living Dead Girl (Same 9 year old’s favourite)

the Cure. Even almost half a century into their existence as a band, they release an album that hits hard.

Motorcycle. I had my previous one for 17 years and travelled many kilometers with it. However, it has worn down up to the point of the replacement parts being more valuable than what the bike would sell for. In other words, it was a write-off. As I ride my bicycle to work and I have too little leisure time already, I simply cannot justify buying my own motorcycle again.

Fortunately, my FIL has several and will lend me one if I want to.

I am the lead developer of one of the software packages we support. My main client has their own clients. They are generally nice and warm people, and we have a good relation. However, during our weekly meetings it feels like they are using a rusty rake to scratch my open nerves. Those meetings are drawn out, minute, irrelevant details are discussed and I have to answer the same basic question at least once a month, even if they have been using the software over ten years now.

It is the weekday I dread the most.

I feel sorry for everybody who thinks that sports or any other physical exertion is a form of punishment. I get it. the obligatory gymnastics class at school was hell. It is sad though that said class achieved the exact opposite, making people hate sports.

I am not particularly into fitness either due to the grind, but calling it a job is just school trauma speaking.

I run three times a week. I have done this so long that it has basically become a routine. If I do not run, it feels… weird.

The entire ‘Spawn’ soundtrack.

Hang Youth from the Netherlands. One of their iconic song titles translates as “You don’t hate Mondays, you hate capitalism”.

People aren’t there to hear what you have to say about global politics.

That would depend on the artist I guess. The last concert I visited was extremely politically charged.

because politics doesn’t need to be shoved into literally every facet of life.

*ongoing genocide