There are a few things I want just because they’re cute and/or clever. These are different from my Pinterest boards, which are full of things like massive front doors on a pivot hinge.
LET THERE BE LIGHT!
https://www.amazon.com/Silicone-Dimmable-Nightlight-Rechargeable-Breastfeeding/dp/B09YRR2LS5
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKBR8LF4
CARPE FLOREM!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099PQB6TZ
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1553039588/
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1047175964
BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/868672539/
BON APPETIT!
https://library-of-congress-shop.myshopify.com/products/open-book-dinnerware?variant=5907675649
So pretty. So tempting. Yet, I cling to my quasi-minimalism with the fact that I have nowhere to put these things and they are just things that I would have to dust. If I dusted.
Thus, I hesitate.
How NOT to spend your lottery winnings straight out of the gate.
Depending on where the market goes, three really expensive houses might be a good investment. Better than hookers and blow for long term investing, anyhow.
I feel like he bought at the top of the market.
Agreed. He will get some money back (maybe, if we have a depression he will lose it all.)
Clearly his tinfoil hat is tiny or non-existant. I would have bought gold and kept it out of the U.S. as an investment.
We thought of selling, but the developer’s lots (240 K /5 acres +) are not moving neither is my neighbors 10 acres/barn/house 1.0 million.
Speaking of, what is happening now? Didn’t you move to Kentucky or something?
I remember the Lady Godiva part and some prolonged law enforcement attention.
Houses require an awful lot of maintenance. I am told that index funds do not.
Who knows what he’s done with the other hundreds of millions of dollars. I suspect even if those houses drop to $0.00, he’ll be fine.
Of course, he’ll need some kind of staff to oversee/maintain all that property. It’s just work, even if it’s only making sure your people are doing their jobs and not ripping you off.
As Mrs. Dean and I have discussed, we’d probably get a sizable property with a really nice house (but not huge), tricked out to be off the grid, and some cars, and probably not spend more than about $50MM for the rest of our lives no matter how hard we tried, even if we won hundreds of millions.
If that lottery winner’s priorities are partying and getting laid, he’s probably on the right track.
Not at my age.
“It’s my money – I want it now!”
While that does make sense, the other half of my brain says the government giveth and the government taketh away, and there’s nothing stopping them from cutting you off 10 years into the future.
If I win, I want to get a lump sum because I am convinced New York will raise taxes going forward and I’d rather just get the funds out of their jurisdiction than see them eat more of each check.
I don’t believe it, anyway. Some think it’s safer because some lottery winners are dumb, but most would also say it’s financially beneficial to take the lump sum. But it’s become a mantra to use that line in these articles for some reason.
But the taxes…
https://frinkiac.com/caption/S06E21/855470
Rule of thumb: after knocking the prize down to discounted present value and paying taxes, the lump sum will be about 35 – 40% of the face value. So lottery boy probably cashed a check at around $750MM. The financial planners saying he’s going to be broke because he spent 10% of that on real estate are idiots.
First rule about being an expert and being quoted. If you say something nuanced and conventional you won’t make the story unless that was the author’s original intent.
It’s really depressing to see how media works.
It is, but you also have to give credit to journalists – they know who they are selling their narratives to. Media consumers are dumber than media producers.
Yes. Narcissism and self-indulgence seems to be all the rage in the west these days.
I’ve got my Firsting pants on today, second men and women of Glibertarians. It’s going to be even more special for you to witness my glory than normal.
I can feel the First percolating in my loin and into my First sack. Right now, it is numb like it was just stung by a bee, but it as it reverberates into a fever pitch the numbness will become a great groundswell that can no longer be contained unleashed upon the world in a fury blast.
Maybe I’ll just have myself buried in a giant pit with all my possessions, like an Egyptian Pharaoh.
The pyramids were ancient power plants.
I thought they were portals to another dimension brought here by aliens?
I am confused now.
They were big pranks by the Greys. They are still snickering as we try to find deeper meaning.
They were grain silos and closets for multi-color dream coats.
I agree with you on the door
/and maybe the green dress too, but I don’t think I could pull it off, myself.
I don’t think you could pull it off, either. She’s a lady and she’s married.
But he probably has more curves than parking lot Knightly, who looks like a 2×4 in that dress.
Very at-tracht-tive.
That guy got $630 million in a lump sum AFTER taxes, but buying $76 million in property, an appreciable asset, is going to break him. 🙄
yep. He will be broke in shockingly short order. Oh well, his money and all that.
The pattern of spending is the indication.
He’s bought three properties, and still has over half a billion dollars left over. Would anybody think that amount of property was unusual for your typical half a billionaire?
If I won (particularly unlikely since I rarely play) nobody outside my immediate family would know.
Sure. But some people want to be famous.
I am good with the massive door….I want to build some for my own home. The pivot hinge? Not so much on that.
Massive door to me means massive hinges or piano type hinges making the door nearly impossible to batter in.
I like all of the clever things. Now that all of the kids flew the coop and the dogs are old and lazy perhaps Mrs. Suthenboy and I can have nice things again.
Lottery: Form trust, pay yourself a comfortable salary as manager of the trust. Living trust owns everything…in my case timber land. Buy a few thousand more acres and hire family members then pay them comfortable salary. The bulk of the money goes into fund paying the highest interest, index, savings, whatever. Taxes and salaries come from the fund payment.
Throwing money in the air self indulgently and WHEEEEEEEEEing while you watch it blow away like smoke in the wind is beyond stupid.
I dont really want much, hell I have had everything already at some point in my life already. I want that kind of money to last many generations for my family long after I am gone. It aint about just me.
For me the biggest luxury in life is to wake up and spend the day however I want. That means no job, and maybe paying someone to do the yard work and clean the house.
^This guy gets it^
Security and freedom are priceless. No amount of money in the world can take the place of that.
I dont lay awake at night worrying about paying bills. I learned that lesson early and spent my time since then making sure that doesnt happen to us.
People who are foolish with money think we are rich. We are not. We are just not stupid, self-indulgent and dont suffer from poor impulse control.
Controlling impulses is so white and bourgeoisie.
I’M RICH, BE-OTCH!!!
-Tyrone Bigums
There’s a point where enough is enough.
That’s the problem I have with politicians going on and on…
Stay home, bake cookies, take someone out to lunch. Have a life besides the pretend thing politicians do.
What Suthen said. It’s remarkable how your quality of life goes up when you don’t have to worry about paying the bills, even when you are still working your ass off. And when you get to the point that you don’t have to work your ass off, either, that’s some good livin’.
My father had a decent amount of money. He told me, “The nice thing about money isn’t all the stuff you can buy with it. It’s the bullshit you don’t have to put up with.”
Mrs. TOK’s idea is to hire a lawyer to help us secretly pay off the mortgages of people we know. Would love for them to have their check returned with a letter saying their balance is zero.
My hockey team’s budget is less than $100k a year, it would be great to cover that every year.
I’d mail a letter.
“…Put the candle back…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCgtTSL6QQ
I wouldn’t think you’d be dusting rings; either wear them or they sit in a box.
Moj, you would probably like the Winchester Mystery House if you haven’t been (and are ever near San Jose).
http://www.americas-most-haunted.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/winchester-spider-window-1.jpg
I have never been but I’ve seen docs on TV and I fluv it!
Its hard to win the lottery if you never buy a ticket.
Then again I have never wasted money on a non-winning ticket either.
Husband buys a few here and there but he doesn’t like the odds and they require money to participate. However, I suspect he buys more than he lets on.
That said, the radio station constantly has contests to win for lottery tickets, which he does frequently, so he does have a chance without spending money.
Every time I don’t buy a ticket I feel like a winner.
/Never have bought a ticket, goes back to counting the winnings.
I have seen and so have you. $20 for gas (how much gas do you get for $20?), 2 packs of smokes, the rest of the $50 in lottery tickets, on the card.
Do scratch offs, lose money instantly
Yeah. The Ohio lottery has (to my understanding) released an app and started taking CC payments (and have machines that accept CC payments). That seems even more unseemly than the casinos doing it.
Do other states have pull tab games? I’ve seen people buy the whole box just so they can win a couple bucks.
/they’ll make up the profit shortfall on volume!
If you were meant to win, the casino, er, the lottery wouldn’t exist.
The only time I ever bought tickets was as part of a work pool. I figured I’d be damned if I’d be the only one to have to show up and answer phones if the rest of the department won.
Massive door…..hickory? Red oak? White oak? Walnut? Cherry?
The most beautiful wood I have ever seen was a piece of 1/4 sawn hickory. Looking at it almost made me cry for two reasons: beauty and what it was. It would have made a stunning gun stock yet someone had made a fucking mop handle from it.
Opinions on wood?
Whenever I can.
When I get back to my office I’ll link you some YouTubes of this guy who makes fine furniture from 4-figure slabs of wood.
Blacktail Studio perhaps
Yes but there’s another one I can’t think of.
There are many out there.
Blacktail is woodworking with constant snark. It’s the snark that is intriguing. Although, I do appreciate how open he is about the way he does things.
Dusty Lumber Company has perfected the 3 minute attention grabber. He never speaks; he just shows. And I have learned a lot from him just from those short videos.
I bought a new dining set about 3 years ago. It is 1/4 sawn white oak. It is gorgeous.
But I prefer to work with Walnut, and I like the look of walnut more than oak.
I’ve done a little work with cherry, and I like the final results.
I’ve also worked with Kentucky Coffee Bean which is a pretty orangish wood that is hard as a rock. It makes white oak seem soft.
Modern quarter sawn Oak is not as pretty as the vintage stuff. I am sitting in a chair I restored a couple years ago that was a mail-order special, and the wood, which was pretty average for that time, is miles away from anything I have seen in a hardwood specialty shop. Not too surprising, but still, fairly disappointing. So, I agree with you re Walnut.
If you can find any pieces straight enough / long enough to be of use, osage orange (hedge) is super hard. The heartwood is a virulent yellow when you cut it, but it quickly oxidizes to a not-very-exciting light brown.
Also makes great firewood, burns very hot. Need to be careful with it, or it’ll melt your stove and burn your house down.
I did not know that about Osage. Same is true of Blackjack oak. When I have any I only use one piece at a time for a fire, the rest being red oak.
Durability, I’d say the harder/heavier woods: white oak, hickory, maybe hard maple. Or some of the exotic hardwoods (“Brazilian cherry”) are super hard.
If you want something striking, there are lots of options for fancy figure.
My childhood church (went back recently for a funeral) has replaced all the interior woodwork with quartersawn white oak. It’s amazing. I spent the entire service gawking at the woodwork.
Curly cherry or curly (tiger) maple is nice. Quartersawn sycamore, if you can find it, has some giant flake.
This place: https://www.door.cc/ is where we bought our cherry interior doors when built the house.
Pater Dean built a house designed by Bro Dean, the architect. It has redwood ceilings in places and some posts and whatnot. There is a pile of “scrap” redwood in the barn, including some 4 x4s, 2 x 4s, etc. That’s some good lookin’ wood, I tell ya.
I’ll be honest and say that while I’ve never been one for uncontrollable envy beyond wondering what I need to do to get X thing other people have, my envy has been getting a little out of control lately. I’d really like a new car, and that is not in the cards. Hence, this post. Pinterest is easier when I have accepted my lot in life, and lately I’m not very accepting.
I want the things I want because I want them. I don’t give a shit about what other people have.
This is exactly why we are so unrepresentative of the general population.
Yes, I am accustomed to being a loner.
You fit in well at HH, ‘course that could be the mead you share and everyone enjoys.
Thanks
I’ve talked before about having a swimming pool is my “I’ve made it” symbol. Do I WANT a pool? Sure. I also want to be able to afford it. Do I want the shit that goes with it? No, not really. Still want one tho.
I told the girlfriend that season tickets were one of my “I’ve made it” symbols. So far it’s looking like I picked a good year to have made it.
[Somewhere in the distance, the Fates hear the dim sound of hopes rising, and they giggle in anticipation.]
/is already waiting for the football to be yanked away
On the other hand, I got to see a shutout as well as an upset that came down to the visitors missing a field goal. Although OMWC was there for my (regular season) streak of Browns win when I attended to be broken.
My brother in law has a few profound sayings. One of his best is “YOU don’t need a pool and a boat. You need FRIENDS who have a pool and a boat.”
That’s the way I feel about dogs. I like them and I happy to play with friend’s dogs, but too much work to own.
My “I’ve made it” was to have no more particle board furniture.
I still haven’t made it.
Wooden furniture is cheap these days, I hear.
It is having my property paid off, and I am 3/4 of the way there.
^^ this is mine, too. There are many nice things in the world that I wouldn’t turn down if given to me, but I reject buying them in favor of dumping gobs of money into the mortgage.
I’d personally sacrifice quite a bit to have a paid off house by age 40, but I don’t think it’s the best choice for the family. Better to enjoy life now and pay on the house another few years. If finances trend neutral, 8-9 years is what it’ll take. Less if I can get my side gig going.
Pools are exactly like boats….2 best days of. your life.
I’m surprised there are so many near me. If you loooove swimming, sure and why not? But otherwise…
We didn’t look to have a pool when we bought our house in San Diego, but we enjoyed it. It was particularly enjoyable on the warm evenings for a before-bed dip.
Of course that was only a handful of days out of the year.
I can hardly help that if someone has something that catches my eye that I didn’t know it existed before they had it.
There is a difference between seeing something new and deciding you want it now and wanting something just because someone else has one.
My vehicle is almost 10 years old, and I’m in no hurry to replace it after seeing current car prices. Yikes.
I’ve been driving the only car I’ve ever purchased for 16.5 years.
20 years on this one, parked next to my wife’s ’85 Mazda. While I could buy a new truck and always kick the tires when I’m getting Ford service I always ask myself why? My ’04 has 108 K, I drive about 2-300 miles a month, runs like new, no rust apparent.. The Mazda has 90K and has been parked for the last 30 years. Recently had it running.
One of my favorite clocks in the house is a model that is no longer made. It’s the TIX clock. It has four sections of LED lights in the pattern 3, 9, 6, 9. The way to tell the time is to count how many spaces are lit up in each section, and use that as the digit that corresponds to the position. So, if it was 1545, there would the following number of lit up lights: 1, 5, 4, 5. The lights change either every minute, every 10 seconds, or every second.
Someone did come out with a second generation model, but has closed new orders after dealing with parts delays due to the lockdowns.
Get one that never needs winding or batteries!
https://www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/us-en/clocks/atmos
(They will eventually need lubrication and cleaning so they truly aren’t perpetual. They can go multiple decades, however.)
That wristwatch is 🔥
The Reverso?
It’s one of their classics.
https://www.jaeger-lecoultre.com/us-en/watches/reverso
Now I just have to win the Powerball. 🙂
Rabbit hole for you. I have it.
https://tokyoflash.com/collections/watches
Both of you can try to sell them, but I’ve never liked wearing watches. I put up with a Fitbit now for some fitness tracking and the like. In general, I’m not a fan of jewelry, my one sop is that I have a couple of sets of nice cuff links for when I need to clean up nice (and when I could fit into the French cuffed shirts that I own).
I feel naked without a wristwatch. Nothing fancy, either a Hamilton Military or a Swiss Army, but I feel like a child when I don’t wear one.
Fitbits are for children, as are iWatches.
I wore a wristwatch until I moved to Phoenix. I got tired have having a permanent white band around my wrist, so I switched to a pocket watch.
I became very adept at reading wrist watches from up to 10 feet away and almost any angle. There would be at least half a dozen watches available in any given meeting.
On Wall St. they were used as social signaling.
I cut through this by wearing vintage watches. They all looked the part, but nobody knew what the real value was because the market is so broad that values range in the $100s to $100,000s.
Social signaling in engineering has devolved to which era band t-shirt you wear.
Alternatively, how loud your Hawaiian shirt is.
I don’t wear band t-shirts.
No matter what I do, my wrist will be white. A dead fish shade of white. Thus is the curse of the ginger.
Not my problem. I tan just fine.
I miss them. I gotta get a Timex. My Swiss watch needs too much maintenance (not just batteries but watchbands) for daily use.
Codpiece watch?
Don’t be a dick.
The watch monologue.
Seems to be a nonologue…
*sigh*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWp6hZ-5ndc
My taint is an island between two black holes…
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmlCir27FQs&t=330s
So Taibbi has a new piece up about UK censorship and the name Imran Ahmed comes up, so I try digging around a little. Rather mysterious fellow for being an expert in countering hate and disinformation, but turns out he co-authored (with a Labour political hack) a book called The New Serfdom: The Triumph of Conservative Ideas and How to Defeat Them. The Amazon page for that had this as the first review:
That’s great.
When I get back to my office I’ll link you some YouTubes of this guy who makes fine furniture from 4-figure slabs of wood.
This reminds me of a video I saw quite a while ago, which I would never be able to find again.
There is this 100 year old Japanese guy, sitting on the floor making a small chest. Doing it it the old fashioned way. Beautiful. Perfect.
If you ever come across it again, link it. I’d love to watch that.
I can show you the most overbuilt stairs…
https://youtu.be/CFLpAxdkgzE?si=WO1JkYxTO0CtOpTu
I’ve seen this video before.
I enjoy anybody that takes pride in his or her trade and work.
The difference construction in the US and Japan is really interesting. They allow much steeper pitch stairs than we would ever consider here.
Space is at an extreme premium in Japan.
Also far fewer attorneys per capita.
I remember visiting Matsumodo Castle walking around it in my socks on the polished wooden floors and stairs with one hand encumbered with my shoes in a plastic bag. I expected to see lots of old tourists flat on their back rolling in pain.
https://www.justonecookbook.com/matsumoto-castle-guide/
(Scroll down for pictures of some of the steps/ladders you climbed.)
There is a park near here where they have relocated a number of homes from the beginnings of the state (Iowa).
These prairie homes typically have two stories. You get to the second story that something that is a cross between stairs and a ladder.
It was very uncomfortable going down.
Apparently in Japan you can get straight framing lumber. Gosh that must be nice.
Home Depot meme for you:
https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/ucevrb/the_forest_where_home_depot_sources_their_2x4s/
Bookmarked, thanks.
Not woodworking.
I know this guy. His facebook videos are hypnotic.
Japanese joinery is pure sorcery. Change my mind.
Dirndls…. mmmmm
Though looking at the featured image again… she’s a virgin. Or confused about the Dirndl knot means.
Look at how many 40 year old women with kids get married in white.
As a straight woman, I concur zat zey are sehr cute.
I like the stained glass stack of books lamp.
Really, a few tens of millions would take care of all my material fantasies. I’d probably blow the rest financing low-cost, high-value shooting ranges in underserved communities, and hiring politicians and bureaucrats to fight to the death in my gladiator arena.
I like the cut of your jib, mister.
I like the cut of your jib!
Stereo!
A missive arrives too late, it seems, for Rosecrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Great minds think alike.
We really are in an echo chamber.
Hmm… I said, “echo”, and I still couldn’t get the platinum bar.
Buying multiple houses is gauche. All the rage is buying farmland nowadays. Probably a better appreciating asset too.
The greatest thing to piss your money away on is physical books. They take up a ton of space, they seem superfluous in our modern age, and they are a terrible thing to bequeath to your descendants. I own a bunch
Flammable, heavy… Decorative, noise-reducing, often useful… ⚖️
All the rage is buying farmland nowadays.
You can build the City of the Future on it (modeled after a 17th century European fantasy).
I’d rather go for something that looked like Broadacre City, Wright’s urban design.
Suburban, really. Take out the whirlycopters and swap out the tiny cars for SUVs and you’ve got basically any modern suburb.
Yeah, the times finally caught up with the old boy.
I love the book dishes! I suspect they can be found somewhere for less than the LoC is charging, so I may go forth on a quest to find them. As if I need another set of dishes. Though the everyday non-Corelle ones ARE getting rather worn…
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2499334.m570.l1313&_nkw=vintage+corelle&_sacat=36027
On topic: I just washed my SUV.
Shiny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q_lsRLJhcA
Australian trained professional and another trained professional seeking a payout and possible early retirement. It’s not just USA…
https://variety.com/2023/film/news/cop-pulled-gun-threatened-top-gun-maverick-spoilers-1235786479/
Yeah, so my husband just won this.
Do many people still have record players?
You are not a hipster and/or audiophile.
a Major* Award!
http://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/images/leglamp/leglamp4.jpg
*Mojo award?
Sorry if already posted, but something (else) weird in the UK. That hockey player who died a few weeks back – someone has been arrested and charged with manslaughter: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-67419951
Not sure what you mean by “weird”, but I’m assuming you haven’t seen the video. Very clearly not an accident, so manslaughter at least.
Haven’t seen (don’t care to), but it sounds like the living skater has a history of aggression.
In a prevention of future deaths report, coroner Tanyka Rawden called for compulsory use of neck guards in ice hockey.
🙄🙄🙄🙄
Pie hardest hit.
It is some weird journalistic practice to not name the “suspect” even when everyone knows who it is?!
BBC – UK has some weird laws that don’t apply here.
Half a billion $$? I’d use some to set up “The One True Libertarian Institute.”. That’s assuming I could find one who was acceptable. Lots of houses? Nah, one could always short term rent in whatever location(Tuscany, Hawaii, Telluride, Key West, etc.) strikes your immediate fancy.
Good news everyone! Lawyers who don’t have to pass a bar exam because it’s too hard.
https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2023/11/oregon-first-in-us-to-allow-law-students-to-become-lawyers-through-apprenticeships-not-bar-exam.html
“First” = reviving the concept of reading law, except applying it to the exam not to the multiple years of law school. Fuck you test prep businesses, colleges are going to keep their beaks wet.
You still needed to pass the bar, but NJ had an apprentice program that let you go straight from HS to taking the bar.
It’s long since grandfathered, but my dad worked with one (likely long dead) individual.
CA does or did. Whatshername tried it until giving up.
Used to be that way here. I missed it by one generation.
https://twitter.com/AmiriKing/status/1723690239217074550
LOL!
Stupid is as stupid does.
Background.
That poor person’s car that gets swiped at the end.
Wow.