It’s not quite as convenient, but I switched to making popcorn in a wok. It’s faster and way, WAY cheaper.

Hey I’ve been on a Spirit flight.

I get it.

Goddamn right!!

The only thing I need on a screen is the GPS, everything else is an annoyance.

This isn’t news it’s like one sentence written about some idiot kid in Reno.

It’s gotten so bad that this poor citizen is complimenting a GAS STATION SANDWICH!!

We’ve fallen so far…

We used to be a proper country with sandwich shops and delis and now we just got these company chains that can’t even manage to make a half decent chopped cheese!

Subway is ass go to a dang deli!

Best part of this, NONE of those words are used on the MoCA test. He couldn’t remember a single one by the time of the interview, he made em all up.

Men, women and everyone in between.

Also, crop tops kick ass in the summer. Breezy…

It’s all about attitude.

I got a belly and I get a lot of positive attention when I rock a crop top.

Do you remember growing up and asking “how was it even possible that someone as monstrous as Hitler was put in power? He wasn’t shy about his intents!”?

Maybe she’s just got shit vibes

Yes!! I wanna gamble on our nations ongoing descent into fascism, it feels appropriately deranged.

AI job matching… what a stupid hellscape we are building for ourselves to be crushed under

The ones in DC are pretty inspiring, too, in a Brutalist kind of way.

They’re lit from below, so you can tell when a train is at a platform by the shadow it casts on the ceiling, which perfectly aligns with the recessed concrete blocks that make up said ceiling.

Really impressive.

This is the headquarters of the fishery development board in Hyderabad.

It looks like a fish because they manage the fish there.

Simply incredible.

Hundred percent. Why pay $8 if I’m just gonna lose it snagged on an unseen underwater log or in a tree?

Also, the fish do not scoff at the off-brand lure. They say, yay, yummy!

I still pay premium for my reels, but only because I haven’t found one that compares with the Pflueger President yet. Though that’s mostly because I haven’t been in the market for a new reel and the ones on Ali Express don’t come with the rubber soft touch knob the Pflueger ones do. Small things, though. I’m slowly looking into ordering the knob separate as replacement parts then trying out some $14 12+1 bearing spinning reel just to see if it’s good enough.

On another note, I think China might be a way better resource for carp fishing equipment. They specifically fish for carp there way more than in the US and I see more double drag reels or rods with ground spikes built in for just that purpose. But I haven’t had the interest to expand beyond trout, bass and pickerel just yet.

Tbqh I’m not shopping for electronics or clothes on Ali Express, but I’ll happily buy line, lures, rods, terminal tackle and tackle organizers on there. Even if I bought it in a brick and mortar here, it’s probably all shipping from China anyhow.

If taco bell makes you poop like mad, it might be because the beans in it are your sole source of dietary fiber. And you need more fiber in your diet.

This makes sense to me. I’m not checking the consistency of the line thickness, for example, but I’ve seen some people report that it isn’t consistent throughout the whole spool. I’m buying .016mm thick line, though, so some variance is a-okay for me.

The Rapalla-style lures work well (the brand name ones do have slightly better action, but the off brand ones are $5 for 8 vs $7+ for 1), spinners work great, the Kastmaster style spoons are a phenomenal find.

I got a $10 ultralight rod that showed up with a partially misaligned tip guide I fixed with some pliers and I needed to glue in one of the rings in a guide. That said, it’s withstood more abuse than an Okuma rod I got for $40, which snapped on the second outing and Okuma told me would cost $30 to fix.

I’ll happily shop American, for what it’s worth, if it was actually gonna BE American instead of just made elsewhere and assembled here so it can get some stupid sticker. Also, pay me more so I can afford it… maybe the Amazon’s, Walmart, dicks and targets don’t need to be YoY huge growth companies and maybe the people who work there should be able to afford to shop there.

Ehhhhh too much soapboxin’, sorry, imma get back to fishing.

I mostly use Ali Express (admittedly, not mentioned in any of the articles about this change in tariff applications) for fishing gear. Many of the big names in fishing lures, Blue Fox, Panther Marten, Kastmaster, etc. have all moved their production overseas. When I buy the “knock offs”, it shows up in the same packaging I see in Dick’s or Walmart with the same product inside. But I can choose to pay $7.99 for one lure or $2.16 for 3. It’s coming from the same factory, made by the same people, the only difference is how much it costs and whose pockets get filled from paying that price.

Oh, also, the cheapo Chinese braid line (its being manufactured to be sold in Japan under their brands) is way superior to what we get in the USA, way stronger and thinner. And I get 500m of it for $17.

I’ve gotten a few of these, but I just moved so it only included Google maps images of my old apartment, and I guess the data scrape didn’t get my phone number, so it included language like “I bet you wouldn’t like it if I called you at 0000000000, would you?”

I’m savvy enough to laugh and delete, but I’m sure this would be very effective against some older Americans.