According to the lyrics, they aren’t exclusively complaining, they’re telling “good stories” about their not-so-great experience which is a different thing. Also, they never tried to be a ‘good guest’ at parties, merely that they were found to be ‘interesting at parties’ because of their ‘good stories’.

That said, I really wish they didn’t repeat lyrics so much and instead told more of those “good stories” they keep boasting about.

Someone once described Oklahoma’s weather pattern with this list:

Off Menu - guests get interviewed over their dream food meal menus

Song Exploder - singers, composers, musicians are interviewed about a specific song that they wrote/created/performed. It’s broken down into sections of the work and then the whole song is played at the end of the episode.

James Acaster’s Perfect Sounds - guests are given an album from 2016 that they listen to before the podcast recording, then they are interviewed on their opinions and thoughts about the album.

I am eternally sad about Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me and Ask Me Another going off the air.

zojirushi (also check out their other products too as they’re all absolute quality)

If one were to ignore the getting a position part, other changes include but are not limited to:

-an increase in people killing teachers/students/staff at nearly all levels of learning institutions. It’s not limited to the US and guns either (although they do make up a large portion).

-an increase in students showing outright disrespect or violence in a classroom to anyone but especially authority figures.

-due to the pandemic many teachers/staff died or retired, so there was a loss of guidance/mentors/knowledge as well as changes in policy/how things function.

-the abysmal shift in school work accessability during the pandemic created a general lack of knowledge/routine that would have formerly taken place during that time period. This means instead of being able to teach roughly the same curriculum for each class/each semester as one may have done for years, one must instead rework the course for a few grade(s) lower to accommodate the difference or fail a lot of kids that don’t have home support. (Additionally some teachers were already having to incrementally adjust curriculum each year since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted).

-teachers/professor have been villainized in recent years by politicians and general pay/funding/grants have decreased (or rather never increased as the years changed).

-tenure tracks are going away in some places.

-the school or university could simply shutdown for numerous reasons in the middle of the semester with little to no notice given staff/teachers/students.

Their blogs just got integrated fairly recently with the fediverse.

Generally speaking - There was a huge change a while back in how schools were getting money. Originally the government was paying 75% and the institute only needed to make the last 25%. Then things started to change and it flipped, so now most schools get 25% or less in funding and have to make up the rest of the 75%. (I’m generalizing numbers but they aren’t too far off). This drastically changed how things were ran and just like a business that’s gone private to public they are now trying to make money however they can.

They also got rid of/are limiting most full time jobs and have just increased adjuncts & grad students workload significantly. There is a block on all fulltime hires unless someone retires at at least 3 universities near me. Additionally most adjuncts make a pittance and have little/no say in their schedule or classes. Even when the department does try to accommodate, they generally have their hands tied by higher ups. Oh and schools will cancel required classes before the first day because of “low enrollment” (more than 12 people was the lastest requirement at one near me). Mind you that most students don’t get notified of their financial aide until the first week of school and can’t enroll until they have financial aide secured.

Again generally speaking - nowadays working a minimum wage job has better benefits, stability, and pay than being an adjunct. Even the poster you responded to said they have to work at multiple universities to get by - all without insurance. It wouldn’t be bad if it was only for a short while, before moving to a fulltime position. Yet I know of many qualified adjuncts (with goals of fulltime) that are hitting double digits in their adjunct positions waiting for an opening to go fulltime. Academia is unfortunately very different than it used to be.

Dogs can and do eat people. https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/animals/would-your-dog-eat-you-if-you-died-get-the-facts

I do agree that OP should look into already existing services that are actively monitored.

Yep- MIC as in microphone.

There has been a decline in third places. There was a decline before the pandemic but the pandemic made it worse. Here’s an article about the decline in America specifically and the newer ways people are trying to connect. It won’t help you make more friends, but will help get perspective of one of the reasons things have changed.

!wewantplates@midwest.social

Likely to not give away any extra information about what they have there.

For books try https://m.alibris.com/

(Un)surprisingly, the US had lots of public pools, but they got removed because of racism. Definitely affects everyone especially the poor with little means of travel. https://www.marketplace.org/2021/02/15/public-pools-used-to-be-everywhere-in-america-then-racism-shut-them-down/

Are there any other good mushroom bible books to check out?

What do you call a guy on the wall? Art. What do you call two guys on a wall? Curt and Rod.

Technically transgenders are the transgenders of Nazi Germany according to the Museum of Jewish Heritage . He targeted all the LGBT+ community. That said you’re completely right about flow of events and need for scape goats.

I believe it stands for Linus Tech Tips and Linus Media Group

It’s not laziness per se. It about the barrier for entry being too high. If they wanted to enter (as you did) they would find a way (as you have). However most people have other higher priorities and don’t really know if they want to enter so they do nothing. If the entry barrier is lowered (maybe by adding helpful pic/vid explaining how it works/where to go, a platform walk-through, people/celebs/influencers talking about their experiences, simple sign up requirements, easy searching, etc.) many more people would easily come in as it’s wouldn’t be as confusing to join.

Yes it’s a thing in the US and has been around for many years. That said, culturally teacher respect has gone down during that time while gun usage/accessability has only gone up. So while you can ask/demand the student to participate or hand over their phone, there is no incentive nor authority to have them comply. And good luck getting their parent to care or even bother to listen to you or show up to a meeting. The US press has labeled teachers as indoctrinators, pedos, and lazy overpayed child care. The administration will throw you under the bus immediately to not deal with bad press regardless of what happened. Additionally you’re paid worse than some much easier entry level jobs that pay more with much shorter hours. So it’s not really that it’s new or strange, but rather that the situation has changed and the current “just take the device” doesn’t work as effectively as it once did.