Depends on the state

It all depends on what you are looking for.

Anker is the only brand I use anymore for chargers and cords.

I’m fairly hard on clothes, I expect most things to wear out. Carhartt pants stay intact long enough to be acceptable to me. I’m trying to lose weight cause pants last longer for me when my thighs aren’t rubbing together. Carhartt coats are good. Socks, I get a big pack from walmart, I think I bought their third cheapest option and they’ve been going good for twoish years. I wear boots out in about a year.

Stihl small engines with ethanol free gas.

I currently drive and old Jeep with 260k miles, and have a 20 year old chevy tahoe with 320k miles. Find vehicles that have been taken care of and continue to take care of them.

I got a heck of a deal on a GoRuck bag and I’ve been very pleased.

If you can be more specific with what you are looking for, I can try to help more.

ProtonVPN…

ProtonVPN

They got bought by an Israeli adware company a few years back

Portal 1 is about 4ish hours, and Portal 2 I think is about 8-13ish.

I greatly enjoy the puzzle solving nature of the game, and they aren’t that expensive on steam.

Plus one for Proton, I don’t use their password manager, but their other products I’ve been using and been pleased with. I consider it well worth the cost.

I don’t know current pricing, but a premium proton account, which was ~$9/month when I started has worked very well for me. I like the other features they are rolling out and use them a lot.

Domain is purchased through cloudflare, and I think it was like $10/year?

These do better in the cold than the ones down south.

Winters have been keeping the other ones from moving up.

You can backup your messages with signal… I do it whenever I switch to a new phone.

Make sure to keep him away from any open wells

My wife informed me that Olive Garden was not actually a fancy restaurant… this was a shock to me…

Not all degrees can be done in a classroom with a projector

Context.

I am a non traditional student, who has spent a significant amount of time working between highschool and college. The degree is about $18k/year for tuition. My STEM degree has a track record of 100% job placement, in your degree field, within one year of graduation. and, with a BS, average starting salary is approaching $80k.

With average rent and stuff, lets call it about $25k/year for the degree. Maybe $30k.

Is there stuff that the university is spending money on that they shouldn’t? Yes. But, we also have many millions of dollars in equipment, some for undergrad, and some for graduated program use. All that equipment/lab spaces takes up space, and that equipment, our professors, and the reputation of our graduates are what makes the companies want to hire from pur school. We’re not even that big of a school, but we have a large reputation for academics.

If you started cutting funding and forcing downsizing, you’re losing decades of experience im teaching, many hundreds of millions in labs and equipment, and reducing the quality of the education that can be offered.

Now, I will grant you that some schools are too expensive, or degrees aren’t worth the cost. And yes, changes in student loan structures are needed, but blanket statements, like that loans should be made illegal, is painting the issue with too broad of a brush stroke. What about making student loans able to be discharged in bankruptcy, and not being federally guaranteed? That could create an environment where loan companies are denying loans based on the cost vs income potential of the degree. Even with that though, we want to be very careful that it is structured in a way that is not going to disenfranchise low income students or minorities. Some degrees will either disappear, or get a lot cheaper. If you can’t get a loan for a $400k underwater basket weaving degree, then it will either go away, or get cheaper.

A lot of programs need space and equipment to effectively produce a good product. You don’t want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I make eye contact and just go, it’s why I have life insurance.

Knowing where one is starting is crucial to formulating a plan.

I was once in OP’s shoes, college drop out ten years ago, and not a lot of good job prospects. I am now less than a year out of a degree with an income potential close to or actually hitting 6 figures. I was able to work myself into a sound financial position and return to college. Now with a family, and a stay at home spouse.

Yes, there are a litany of socio-economic issues that can make things more difficult, but to say “getting a better paying job is never the answer” is false. It may be challenging, and it may take time, but there are rarely no options. I have a good friend with a felony, 7 years in prison, and a college drop out who is in a HCOL area who is able to support themselves well with a trade. Yeah, they work weird hours, but they make good money.

If you don’t mind sharing, what education do you have, and what are you currently doing for work?

This is standard for companies like this. Caterpillar does this as well. Cat has prepped for this before and come very close to implementing it. Last time they did it, that I can remember, was in the 90’s when the union went on strike. They don’t just turn the engineers lose on the floor, they provide training and get them able to do production.

It’s a contingency plan, and if it happens, it won’t last very long.

The “college experience” is different for everyone. It’s also a relatively short period of your life. Instead of looking back with regret or dissapointment, look forward to what you can do after you graduate. Find community in your next endeavor, settle in, find ways you can help those in need around you. Plan adventures, build relationships with those you care about. It’s technically possible to settle somewhere and grow roots.

No, a short is a break in the wire. The wire is made up of multiple strands of copper, like a rope. If you shift the wire around, you can cause them to touch and continue to conduct. If the short isn’t very bad, this can be an intermittent issue, as time goes on it will get worse.

Low voltage electronics, like earbuds aren’t that dangerous. I was using a drill recently that I knew had a short in it and was just moving it around to make contact so I could finish the job. The cord eventually caught fire and I had to replace it.

There is probably a short in the cord. In my experience that tends to be a common failure point in that system.