I'm not much of a car guy, why are oil changes on exotics so much more expensive than on your average car?
Exotics have large oil pans. Your typical Murcielago requires 11 liters of oil to change, and that's synthetic, not dinosaur oil. Add to that an oil filter that is shipped from Italy. You're also changing the transmission oil, which also must be synthetic. There may be some other maintenance that the dealer likes to perform (brake fluid? spark plugs?) at the same time as an oil change. Add dealer markup and insurance…
I'm guessing that they also get gouged for being rich enough to afford it.
This seems like a romantically bohemian way to approximate a pampered middle class kid's idea of how poor people live. If you want to save money, you can try what they actually do, which is move to a less desirable neighborhood and spend one third what you do on rent for an apartment. You live in a crazy expensive neck of the woods? Nice to meet you; I live in Japan, cry me a river. There's old folks on social securi…
> You live in a crazy expensive neck of the woods? Nice to meet you; I live in Japan, cry me a river. I was under the impression that things weren't too bad out in the inaka. Is Gifu that expensive compared to SF or NYC?
I'm impressed that you're able to do a sociological study of "the others" as you drive through their neighborhoods, probably with your windows up and doors locked. Non-snarkily, I think people are the same everywhere, mostly good and hard working with occasional cheating when they think they can get away with it. From my personal anecdata, I've seen both shady deplorable acts and admirable selfless acts from milliona…
"Non-snarkily, I think people are the same everywhere, mostly good and hard working" If that is the case then why do I keep my windows up when I drive through those neighborhoods. Are you saying I have nothing to fear driving my new expensive car through, say, many areas of Newark NJ or areas such as the "Badlands" in Phila PA? Or that I am safe to walk the streets in those areas? And if those areas are so great and…
If that is the case then why do I keep my windows up when I drive through those neighborhoods.
Because you are paranoid or watch too much TV maybe?
The fact that you feel in danger, does not mean you actually are, and inversely just because you feel safe does not mean that you are. You are vastly more likely to hurt yourself by crashing your car than by someone else attacking you after seeing that you have your windows down.
This goes for most things really. In terms of injury, the most dangerous person in most people's lives is themselves.
It is interesting also to note that the ability to lead any kind of normal or predictable life in this fashion is itself a privilege. People in the software business can get away with wearing the same clothes, coming in wrinkled, missing the occasional shower, and, for that matter, getting in a little later after having to move the van in the middle of the night. Our field is extremely accommodating. Put yourself in…
I used to work in a call center. I'm not female, but I knew a female or two who worked there. There was no dress code. There was aggressive monitoring, but there was a script and the cordial demeanor becomes automatic very quickly. The pay and job security wouldn't justify taking off for a month, though the turnover was high enough that after coming back, if they were still in business you could probably return to wo…
True, I worked in a number of call centres a few years back.
There is a variety of cultures in these places, from having to turn up in a suit and tie and account for your time down to 10 second intervals to super laid back.
More formal places did tend to pay better and provide better equipment though. I had experiences in some where you had to twiddle with the headphone wire and hold it in the right position or you wouldn't be able to hear the customer.
The market for call centre workers back in ~2007 was highly liquid, if you got sick of one job after a few months it was no big deal to just quit on the spot and be able to walk into another one within a week or two.
What does it matter if their employees are meth heads, they shouldn't have to be tested. If they are unproductive, look like shit, have poor time management, have mood swings etc then they are a liability to their employer because of those things, not because they "do drugs". On the other hand if they are productive, are professional, [any other positive attribute] and contribute to their employer, does it matter if…
You've never had to deal with someone who came to work while on drugs, have you? Someone can go from comparatively normal to crazy enough to freak everyone out and maybe get someone hurt in no time flat. That's a bit of a problem, especially given that some people work at places where accidents like slitting one's wrist wide open, crushing one's hand and being killed by an item dropped by a forklift happen a little t…
I think the GGP was referring mainly to workplaces that don't involve dealing with dangerous equipment. Besides there's a big difference between smoking some pot outside of work hours and coming to work under the influence of meth.
When I worked in low paid (mainly call centre) jobs, people coming to work high was a pretty common thing. The jobs were easy and repetitive enough that it didn't affect performance at all. In fact if they had started drug testing they would probably have lost many of their best employees.
What does it matter if their employees are meth heads, they shouldn't have to be tested. If they are unproductive, look like shit, have poor time management, have mood swings etc then they are a liability to their employer because of those things, not because they "do drugs". On the other hand if they are productive, are professional, [any other positive attribute] and contribute to their employer, does it matter if…
I assume it's more about predicting these things before employment begins - someone might look ok at the interview but if you found out traces of drugs in his blood that could be an indicator that this is not their usual state. Basically we're talking about low-skilled jobs that always have plenty of applicants, filtering a bit too many people isn't that big of a deal when there're still plenty of others remaining af…
That depends, Pot is detected by a drugs test if the person has used within around 3 weeks.
So you would get a positive reading from somebody who went to a party 2 weekends ago and took a couple of hits from a joint.
Why couldn't a call center employee ... wear whatever they please? Presumably the managerial types are trying to help cultivate a "professional" environment. Never in a million years would I ask an employee to submit to a drug test I understand the personal freedoms angle, but I can also sympathize with employers who are tired of discovering that guy they hired last week is actually a raging meth head.
What does it matter if their employees are meth heads, they shouldn't have to be tested. If they are unproductive, look like shit, have poor time management, have mood swings etc then they are a liability to their employer because of those things, not because they "do drugs". On the other hand if they are productive, are professional, [any other positive attribute] and contribute to their employer, does it matter if…
Drug tests are much easier, cheaper and quicker. You don't have to risk putting them in the workplace and then wait till they screw up. You don't have to wait for the manager to look at their behaviour and make a call. You don't have to worry that the manager might know the person and be easy on them. One quick test and it filters out lots.
I assume it's more about predicting these things before employment begins - someone might look ok at the interview but if you found out traces of drugs in his blood that could be an indicator that this is not their usual state. Basically we're talking about low-skilled jobs that always have plenty of applicants, filtering a bit too many people isn't that big of a deal when there're still plenty of others remaining af…
That depends, Pot is detected by a drugs test if the person has used within around 3 weeks. So you would get a positive reading from somebody who went to a party 2 weekends ago and took a couple of hits from a joint.
Not that it matters much, and this is only anecdotal but I had friends who would smoke pretty frequently. A lot of call centers, and retail spots would drug test. My friends would still get the job if they got past the initial interview. It seems like most companies are more interested in harder drugs, which I can understand.
On topic: I think that if you're looking for a cost effective way to live, do what someone said earlier and move to a less prominent neighborhood. This seems like it would be more along the lines of "fun to do for a couple weeks".
"Non-snarkily, I think people are the same everywhere, mostly good and hard working" If that is the case then why do I keep my windows up when I drive through those neighborhoods. Are you saying I have nothing to fear driving my new expensive car through, say, many areas of Newark NJ or areas such as the "Badlands" in Phila PA? Or that I am safe to walk the streets in those areas? And if those areas are so great and…
Yes, it is safe to drive in your expensive car through Newark or to walk the street in north Philly.
So many negative reactions, I'm surprised. But then I've been surprised by how narrow a band "normalcy" really is before. I lived in a van for a summer. I have a story, but I don't think it involves mental illness or laziness or wasting my life. I was working fulltime as a sysadmin at an Ivey League school and taking classes fulltime there at the same time. Yes, that meant I slept very little and had no "free time",…
Great story, and an interesting perspective. I don't necessarily agree with some of the judgements you are making about how society treated you. You were acting strange and should not be surprised that people were concerned about you. There are also good social reasons why society doesn't make it easy for people to live in their cars. Safety, cleanliness, property rights, collection of taxes, etc. You say "society do…
Yeah, I didn't mean for my comments about society to necessarily be a complaint, more that I was surprised by how strong that outward push was. Sure I expected people to be weirded out, but what I didn't expect was for how alienating that felt. Actually, what I didn't expect was that something that was comfortable and an adventure would generate not a pulling in force but a pushing out. It wasn't, 'are you ok can we help', or, 'whats your story', it was 'wtf get out of here'. It just made me think about all those times that we all/I avoid or get weirded out by people that are different. And how that very action of being weirded out can make them weirder.