PlanetOfOrd

joined 1 year ago
[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, most online stores don't accept gift cards, unfortunately. ๐Ÿ™ 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. ๐Ÿ˜…

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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

 

From what I understand privacy.com does not have a method of ensuring your identity is separate from your card, but IronVest does. Been using IV for a while now, but earlier this year they put their masked cards under construction

Which is kind of a shame because I had online purchases in mind.

Is there any alternative people have found?

Thanks!

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They also make filling up your gas tank an even more unbearable experience.

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

I always called it a sweat jacket.

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Yes! Thank you! That's what i was looking for.

Although, yeah, Ramsey definitely has had his share of controversy, so I listen to the episodes with a grain of salt.

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I tried a few episodes. Couldn't really get into it for some reason. Maybe I'll try again.

 

My dream is to own my own business (just kidding--own several businesses), but I'm currently experiencing financial hardship. After frantically looking for work for over a year with a network that let me down, I finally managed to find part-time work at a local nonprofit.

But I want to keep the foot on the gas (quite literally). Looking for a good business podcast I can listen to on my drive. I've listen to some in the past, but the quality of them has gone down. Oftentimes the guests are showboating, with like 30 seconds of helpful nuggets in the middle. Or I'll roll my eyes when I see the guest is some Dr. Oz-like green juice prophet.

Yes, I realize podcasts need to make money. I fully accept that if a podcast is free, ads are unavoidable. I simply skip past them.

Previous podcasts that have fallen out of favor with me: University of Adversity, School of Greatness, Achieving your Goals with Hal Elrod, Mel Robbins, Entrepreneurs on Fire, and How I Built It (where each episode just sounded like a 50-minute commercial for WordPress).

Looking for ones that focus on becoming rich, but also ones that talk about how to bolster a network and overcome hardship. Somewhere along there.

Any ideas?

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I currently can only read free books (open for recommendations, although I think I wrung the classics dry for all their worth), but I found a book in one of those mobile libraries that does actually have me hooked: The Innocent by Harlan Coben.

It's not even close to being the best book I ever read. But it's well written enough and well plotted enough to keep me hooked. Probably my biggest gripe is the author's description of the women is how attractive they are. Even when he's describing the protagonists' wife, he only describes how much the main character thinks she's hot. Not a complete turn-off, but still a gripe. ๐Ÿ˜…

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

It wasn't terrible by any means. But I kept being told how-fast paced and gripping it was.

The fastest the pace went was the main character ducking behind a barrier in a very brief firefight.

I'm not one of those action junkies, but I was kind of expecting more.

 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13583666

The plot summary is as follows:

Secret Service agent Rebecca Carter's world is upended when her husband goes missing in 2002. Two years later, Rebecca and her team are protecting the President during a high-stakes trade deal in China. But their mission is cut short when an assassin appears out of nowhere, kills everyone, and disappears, leaving Rebecca as the lone survivor. In the year 31,462, Xel-Na, a shifter (an individual who can move through time and space at will), receives no word from Thes-Omatz, the deep space research vessel carrying his wife and daughter. Upon launching probes to investigate, he finds everyone either dead or missing. Suspecting a fellow shifter, Xel-Na embarks on a mission to confront the perpetrator. In his quest he soon comes across Rebecca. Together, they face insurmountable odds, all while grappling with the weight of their personal losses. But as they delve deeper into the heart of the conspiracy, they discover that the murderous shifter isn't just after Rebecca, he's after power. And no matter what Xel-Na and Rebecca do, this cunning adversary is always one step ahead of them.

I finished the first draft of the novel, but being out of work I'm not able to fund it myself. I was kinda like, well, nobody's giving me a call, might as well write it.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Do you like it? I have a thick skin, so even if it's crap, go ahead and let a rip.

And before you ask, no, it was not written by AI ๐Ÿ˜† (though I did use AI to assist in editing).

If you'd like to fund publication, I would greatly appreciate it. Or if you like and and don't like to give strangers money online, I'd be forever grateful if you share the post on social media.

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago

I was living at or below the poverty line for years before COVID. As a senior developer, I wasn't finding any work. Then when COVID hit, I wasn't able to keep up with the work. I was finally earning 6 figures. I was able to travel (like in a jet, legitimate travel) for the first time--just because. It was amazing. I was able to network with people and provide value for people. I felt like my career was suddenly moving!

Then around 2021-2022 all my clients abandoned me, my network ghosted me, and I was back to square one. That's where I am today.

I'm working on having a breakthrough because someone college-educated with a GitHub profile should not be standing at food bank lines every month.

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Ah, I see. Yeah, I keep forgetting that a lot of people use LinkedIn for job-searching (I mean, I kinda do too, but been active on it like 7 years without a single follow-through). I see it as a networking tool. Job-searching may be part of it, but business leaders and ultra wealthy use it to make connections and support each other (theoretically). Businesses/creators would be the target market. Maybe some job-search aspect to it at some point.

[โ€“] PlanetOfOrd@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago

Haha, this is true. Hence why I was looking for a way to serve people.

 

Before you start throwing ๐Ÿ’ฉ , hear me out...

I'm a huge fan of the fediverse...it's returning to the original design of the Internet...where everyone can communicate freely and openly and corporations have a very difficult time pulling anything creepy that LinkedIn/Twitter (yes, I'll still call it Twitter)/Facebook does.

But I sense a huge frustration with businesses that want to network with others but feel their hands are tied by these walled gardens.

I figure, why not make the fediverse business friendly?

Right now most people on Mastodon/Lemmy/etc. seem to be more of the anarchist/weekend hacker types. So part of my concern with this is that it would taint the fediverse with a bunch of spam. But by the same token it would also help grow the job market and provide opportunities for people that they may not have had on LinkedIn. Of course, I'd stress for anyone on the site to operate in a community-first mindset.

So, some question...

  1. Would this type of instance be met with disgust? I mean, obviously the great thing about the fediverse is that you can block servers you don't want on the network, but having the instance blocked would kind of defeat the purpose. ๐Ÿ˜…

  2. If you're excited by the idea, what things would you like to see? In my own armchair brainstorming, I thought joint accounts would be a good idea, as well as analytics.

  3. Suggestion for already-existing platform? Can't find a good one that would be ready-to-go to build off of. There's friendica, but I'm not much of a fan of PHP, and it seems to not have great adoption, either.

 

Title says it all. Does anyone have any bosses you worked for where you felt they were the epitome of epic leadership?

 

As a Christian most of the circles I'm around are pretty chill...no stone-cold fundamentalists. But I have been around people (and even had family members) who are 100% convinced that rock music is evil and will lead people to engage in witchcraft and draw pentagrams all over their home.

The root of the belief is that rock music uses drums, which are used by voodoo tribes in Africa to entrance people.

Along a different track of thinking, from where did rock music originate? Slaves. They created the guitar because slave-owners didn't allow them to make music with drums.

So then is "rock music is evil" sort of an echo of that attitude?

 

One thing I've found is that I have kind of a fear of repetition. Usually this manifests at work if I'm in a job that's repetitive. I have this kind of out of body experience where it's almost like I wonder how long I've been there and how many times I've done the thing.

And in college I always tried to sit in a random seat for lectures. Any time I felt I sat in the same seat more than once I would start to feel anxious.

I've somehow been able to cope exercising, not sure how since I take a few laps around my block when it's still dark out. I think it might be that I set a timer? I'm not sure, but there are times when I get that anxiety when I repetitive exercises.

I've been trying to research online for ways of coping, but I'm not finding much. The link I posted seems to be just an article on phobias in general, and "dittophobia" sounds like something someone just made up.

 

As a Sci-Fi fan I've been a huge fan of shows like Battlestar Galactica, The Expanse, Terminator: TSCC, Star Trek, etc. I keep hearing Babylon 5 is awesome.

I was too young at the time to watch the series when it was on. But then as an older teen/ young adult I decided to give it a try. Everything was so cringe it was hard to get through 3 episodes. IMO the whole vibe was "safe..." maybe even a bit corny--not the intense, exciting, politically-tense space opera that I was told it was.

So maybe the beginning episodes are just world-building? What do other people think?

 

Title is basically it.

For me, it's usually coffee, or anything spicy, like cayenne pepper. Apple cider vinegar usually does it, too.

 

I'm someone who craves (and thrives) on intimacy and closeness. I'm never been afraid to be vulnerable (I'd actually had to learn that I shouldn't be vulnerable with everyone). I love it when someone is really passionate about something, even if that thing bores me to tears. I love hearing about peoples' hopes, fears, dreams, opinions...

But I often feel like people hold me at arm's length. Like they say, "OP, I like you, you're interesting, but stay right there."

And it doesn't seem like it's a matter of following the "relationship journey" either. It seems like eventually I hit a wall of someone not wanting me to come any closer. And it hurts.

Being neuroatypical I do realize I have an intense personality so people may not know how to interact with me. That may be part of it.

Anyone else experience this? How do you cope?

 

Steve: turns on lightsaber

Steve: Hm...what does the green plasma taste like?

 

I'm wondering if it's financially worth it to cover the $5/mo membership.

I post Medium articles fairly regularly, and each email update shows I get ~500 reads total.

Is that enough to cover the $5/mo? Would it be a wise financial risk?

Are people willing to share their readership and total MMR?

Edit: shouldn't have shared my financial situation; was interested in data/advice only.

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