While I knew your answer, I just went through a similar thing with a Costco jacket. It’s a winter jacket with a false fleece liner. As in, there’s a 2" strip inside the jacket, just behind the main zipper, that just zips up. While it can offer an extra inch of belly room after too much hibachi, the main benefit seems to be that it starts about 3" higher than the exterior zipper. It’s pretty good for driving in that mode.
I can appreciate the personal part you added regarding losing faith. I left catholicism in my teens. Too many inconsistencies, too much abuse of power. It started by questioning how multiple christianities could have such different rules, followed by learning how most religion is abrahamic and even more diverse in interpretation, to finally saying fuck all this.
I got FC5 in 2020 and it became hard to stomach. It felt like a real potential reality of the US that year. Cults, vehement religious figures, gun fetish, and a classic Americana setting. The prior titles were all far away, imaginary lands offering even a small degree of dissociation. FC5 was just home. I’d relate it to Harry Potter villains in the sense that yeah, of course we know Voldemort is evil, but Umbridge is the most hated character. Not because she’s worse, but because we know a real-life Umbridge personally.
FC6 hit me kinda hard in a similar way. I got into it about a year ago, not long after the israel/Palestine conflict flared up. There’s a ton of genocidal themes there.
And riding motorcycles around these other cars feels like riding a motorcycle. If Smart can make a NA compliant car, there must be some kind of way to make a near-Kei car compliant.
Out of curiosity, I looked if Smart met Kei regulations with the ForTwo. The officiall Kei variant, the Smart K, only had 2 modifications and 1 restriction. The track width was narrowed and the fenders were slimmed in order to make it 1.5"(30mm) narrower and the only engine available was the 600cc.
And while Americans like to make assumptions about North American markets because they’re generally cross-compatible, they vary greatly. Mexico is full of compacts and ute chassis-mates such as Chevy Aveo/Montana, Fiata Strada/Ram 700, and VW Gol/Saveiro. Remember, the original VW Beetle (“Vocho”) was produced in Mexico until the 90s.
A decent guy giving to the right people. Ask them if the US government gave enough monetary relief to the Carolininas after their hurricane last year. At some point later, ask if the government gave enough to New Orleans. They’ll flip from saying the mountain folk deserve more but New Orleans is at its own fault for not repairing the levys.
Or don’t ask. You’ll get a dumb answer at best, a racist answer at worst. Either way, it’s not going to be productive unless your goal is to hate them more.
Same as complaining about modern movies being unoriginal sequels without original IP. It’s a revelation that the commenter isn’t actually diving into anything and is only exposed to advertisements and popular media. Yeah, sequels and existing IP are money grabs. It’s amusing to then see the tangential complaint that the annual award ceremonies are trash because they didn’t pick some excellent original movie. OK, but look at what does win. More than half are original/first-time adaptations and Avengers are nowhere on there. But these commenters, just like the mechanisms that lead to something being popular (but not inherently great), are asking for popular recommendations on better media!
Agreed, get out of the dump. If you only listen to pop radio or streaming trending, it’s only going to be pop and pop-adjacent. If you only hear about movies from ads and trending topics, it’s only going to be the equivalent of pop. Browse by genre, but new releases, by awards, whatever. But all of them take effort to find, consume thoroughly, and appreciate - exactly why their numbers flounder next to pop in the first place.
Plus, I’d add, basically every band you forgot about prior to 2010 made a new album in 2020/2021.
AI instructions unclear, brass instruments coming right up
Ska intensifies