Posts by stuartb@social.teamb.space
(DIR) Post #ARIi9zLulv2uWeT65Q by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2023-01-04T13:28:57Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@stux If the supermarket I work for was to introduce that I would have to refuse to work that checkout - I'm the fastest till operator in the store for several reasons, partly because I only get put on there to get rid of queues (and have my own department to look after!), but mostly because I just can't do smalltalk, and want to get rid of them as fast as possible.
(DIR) Post #ApZ5TgM6vvHrWQgW5w by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2024-12-30T07:39:37Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
My wife has a collection of battery-powered air fresheners scattered around the house - every few minutes (default is 20 minutes) they release a burst of scent into the air.Except one.This particular air freshener farts every damn time I walk past it.Because of the layout of the house, it's difficult to get anywhere on the ground floor after coming downstairs without walking past this one, so I walk past it a lot.And I'm starting to get a bit of a complex about it.Like, are you trying to tell me I smell or something?GRRRRR!#FirstWorldProblems
(DIR) Post #ApZCcEOyvulN6v3Ev2 by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2024-12-30T06:45:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@RickiTarr This is something that, as a white, cis-het male (now, sadly, middle-aged) I have never understood - speculative fiction, which include most Sci-Fi, in particular looks at other possibilities - other times, other places, other experiences - and asks the question "What If...?"What if we could travel faster than light, what if we could live on other planets, what if women or minorities or those with different beliefs were treated the same as white cis-het males?Those first 2 options are ideas that everyone will go along with as part of the story, but a certain sub-set of the population get irrationally irate at someone putting forward that latter idea.They seem to be very much in the minority, but they are LOUD, and they seem to have far more capacity for extended, ranting, hate-filled screeds against the objects of their vitriol than the rest of us do for praise of thiose same projects.Take Doctor Who - when a shape-changing alien shifts form to resemble another hum,an, the fans barely bat an eye - except on the occasion they take a female form, in which case some fans were frothing at the mouth, ranting about... something, it was mostly an incoherent wall of abuse, but they were definately upset.Jodie Whitaker did a great job with the material she was given, it was just poorly written, paced, and directed, and generally a mess.As someone else said, incels gonna incel - , but the rest of us love seeing characters who aren't us - it's fiction, after all.
(DIR) Post #Ardh7sL4IkMpToxoie by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2025-03-02T09:00:53Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird I've never understood the way some anti-maskers think.At the height of the masking mandate here in the UK, I frequently had people telling me not to be a sheep, not to be afraid, to be free, to take the mask off."It should be my choice to decide if I wear a mask or not" they would say.But, somehow, I'm not allowed to make the decision to take this most basic of precautions."Don't be afraid" say the people who are terrified of the mask on my face."We have to learn to live with it" they say to the person who has found a way to live with it."Covid isn't real" they say, before admitting they are in the middle *cough* of their *splutter* 5th covid infection *cough* this *urgh!* year.Yeah, if you had taken some basic precautions, we wouldn't be in this predicament, you dirty bastards.I bet you don't wash you're hands after using the loo, either!Heh- they look startled after that one, as if I've been watching them!
(DIR) Post #At3VQkqdBLgXqxqfhY by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2025-04-13T06:28:20Z
0 likes, 1 repeats
@davidaugust in prison.Mind you, there are a lot of things they should be there for.
(DIR) Post #AuPqqCqNcrphdSmsV6 by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2025-05-24T10:20:09Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@futurebird It's complicated for us - my wife and I met through friends when we were teenagers - her friend was seeing my friend, and they used to go to the church my friend and I attended with our families instead of their own church.We were an item for 2 years, then split up because I was getting itchy feet and didn't want yo settle down.Fast forward almost 20 years, and she pings me on Facebook, and it wasxas if no time at sll had passed.We've been married for 16 years, have 3 kids (2 of hers, 1 of ours, all the kids call me Dad), and a grand-daughter who makes my heart happy.
(DIR) Post #B0jdnUkpHSuNO6mIPA by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2025-11-29T10:19:26Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@ChrisMayLA6 Mostly, the problem is that these latest tax measures are being aimed at the wrong people.People at the bottom of the range, those who are most likely working part time and needing top-ups from the government to barely get by, are going to be dragged into paying taxes because of the threshold freeze, which will severely impact them, while those at the top will barely notice, it will be little more than a rounding error to them.Proportionally, those at the bottom are being asked to payn more, again, than those at the top.maybe if thoe at the top were being asked to pay more, they might ask for better value for money.But not like they do at the moment, where they are demanding cuts to the benefits system, which largely wouldn't be neccesary if they were to pay their workers a decent wage.
(DIR) Post #B0jjhDT7EcpVlTspNY by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2025-11-29T11:46:44Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@h4890 @ChrisMayLA6 If the ultra wealthy aren't paying their fair way, then we lose nothing by making them move away.It should be noted, however, that most of the places they would be liable to go have higher tax rates than the UK, which are also more stringently enforced.Meaning that they likely won't gain much, if anything, if they move.
(DIR) Post #B0jk5WCvDSJEpetfrU by stuartb@social.teamb.space
2025-11-29T11:51:25Z
0 likes, 0 repeats
@h4890 @ChrisMayLA6 re: Sweden being the richest country in Europe post WWII - just remind me again how much money they had to invest to rebuild after being destroyed by the best part of a decade of warfare.it's like the US became the richest country in the world, because their entire home country was untouched by the war, but they also simutaneously charged their "Allies" extortionate amounts for military supplies, something Sweden wasn't able to do.