Random Politics & Religion #00

"Considering its improved driving quality and its docile/ferocious split personality, the new Grand Sport Vitesse is not only the most powerful and fastest roadster on earth, but also the most desirable Bugatti Veyron 16.4. An example will cost about $2,250,000."

Not a surprising cost for what appears to be a really cool concept care from a very well known quality car maker.

Funny you ask. One couch was dumpster-bound and got donated, the other one was bought used for something like $25.

As for the clothes people are wearing... I have no clue. I explicitly buy things that have no branding on them unless there's literally no way around it (I've yet to find athletic gear that doesn't have the stuff, to my irritation). My little brother and quite a few of my friends scour thrift shops because, even if they really like Express or Banana Republic or whatever, they're not willing to pay retail.

There is a world and, indeed, an entire economy outside the usual channels. A big part of it is called "Being dirt-poor," but not all of it.

You might be shocked. Caveat, I live in the middle of an agricultural zone so farmers' markets are so ubiquitous that they're almost year-round, but you can find locally-grown broccoli even cheaper than the processed and frozen stuff. And my love of unprocessed foods is very much informed by wanting to spend as little as possible (as well as a love of cooking).

I'd agree... if I could remember the last time I took any note of an advertisement. I don't have cable nor a converter box to pick up local stations on my older unit. I use all those nasty ad-blockers for my interweb browsing. The honest truth is that I block ads not because I care about them but because they're frequently the source of performance dips and malware.

The most recent purchase I made that was influenced by advertising of any kind was for something I heard about by word-of-mouth. I basically won't buy anything without hearing another real person's opinion. So I guess one could say that advertising is actually negatively affecting my purchasing habits because I simply don't trust a word they say. If I'm desperate, I might find a review on YouTube, which still has a good chance of being *** but any advertiser smart enough to hire a spastic Southern girl who makes a complete fool of herself while reviewing products deserves my money.

Not a concept car. But it is certainly a high-end performance vehicle for those with millions to burn on playthings. It was (is?) the fastest production vehicle available. Pretty sure I heard they're going to replace it this coming year though.

Admittedly, most of my knowledge of vehicles like this comes from Top Gear. Which is having some P&R troubles of its own right now.

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as an inexpensive Bugatti. If it weren't for certain hip-hop artists and their conspicuous displays of wealth, I doubt the average person would have even heard of the manufacturer.

I thought the hip-hop jerkoffs drove Escalades. I try not to pay attention to them, though, so.

Can't say I'm really shocked. I grew up in small town Manitoba where it was cheaper to shop at local markets.

However, it still doesn't negate the effects of advertising since many will advertise price matching (nowadays) to stay competitive.

For example, I won't buy a pint of raspberries for more than 2.50, and there are only a handful of locally owner farmers markets that sell the same for less than 3.00, and carry the same brands as supermarkets, that have sold said product for less than 1.50.

Advertising is meant to be subliminal in a lot of cases, even if you're inundated to the point of being numb to it visually, it still gets through.

Anything over $100,000 for a sports car isn't worth it imo.

The problem for me is things heard generally tend to bore into my head. I've got more music, television, and movie lines memorized than anyone should.

Sadly, radio and television commercials end up getting roped in too because my brain is a *** *** who won't discriminate the gems from the rocks.

So for me, yeah. You're right. A lot of it gets through. And if it's stupid and irritating, I remember that, and accordingly don't give them my business on account they shoved shitty jingles into my head.

I'd...uh...agree to a point?

I mean, look. I'm not going to split hairs. If I had the excess spending money of the rich and famous, I'd be driving a 60s Shelby Cobra on the clear sunny days of life.

I just would. Love that car and what it stands for.

But in general, I agree with you. Spending more than $60k on any car is really just an affectation.

Same things happen to me and my brother. We'll remember all kinds of quotes, without being aware of where it came from - music, tv, movies, etc.

But we use them to entertain ourselves, even if the quote comes from a 40 year old tv show that came on as reruns 20years ago.

Berries are one of the products that I absolutely won't buy in a supermarket unless they're in season and likely to be from a local (as in, within a 5-hour drive) source. They taste like sawdust if they're shipped out-of-season from Peru or whatever.

Most other vegetation, though, I'll admit I can am often lazy, but that does mean that I'm possibly paying a slight mark-up over what I could get if I bothered to go down to the farmers' market over the weekend or something.

I think the big thing about advertising that gets me is that occasionally I'll see an ad for something that does interest me. But by the time I get home (because, again, no real ads in my house, it's only the stuff I run into elsewhere), I've forgotten about it. It can take me weeks to finally get around to looking something up that I saw on a billboard or heard while sitting in the laundromat.

To really hammer this home, I only rarely turn on the radio to NPR which, admittedly, does have ads but nothing like commercial radio has, and I pay $5 a month not to hear ads on Pandora. I'd rather spend my hard-earned cash than be subjected to commercial advertising.

I watched Short Circuit for the first time in like 20 years a while back. My wife was somewhere between impressed and horrified that I still knew it line-for-line.

Highlighted the appropriate response.

I have to agree that certain produce has to be in season - I mean I did grow up in a small community where ***like that mattered.

I'm not one of those dopey morons that have fallen for the "ORGANIC ONRY!" outliers though. Goes bad faster, doesn't taste nearly as good as the regular produce, and is susceptible to wilting and disease at a higher rate.

I point this out, and still one or two of the ladies I see at the local supermarket try to tell me "but it's organic!" despite having little white mold spots in a "fresh bag" of carrots.

I could see extra money for something that not a sports car, like a mobile home, camper, or something for offroading.

You might love Chappie then.

Not quite the same premise, but a lot of the actors look very much the same as the ones from Short Circuit with similar lines.

You know, one of the vehicles I've had a bit of thing for was the 1939 Brough Superior motorcycle. But man, even finding the parts (or the money for the parts) in good condition is a challenge.

So if I win the lottery, i'll ask Rick Harrison and company to find one and restore it for me.

I'd join the produce conversation, but yeah, fresh produce here is cheaper than food at grocery stores, lol. The way it should be, healthy food is less expensive.

The downside is I have to wait until raspberry season comes, until then it's frozen only. But ~$2 a kilo, can't wait!

dude the fertilizer they use for organic food is *** and the idiots that buy it don't even wash it off....

/slams fist on desk

that's why you should only eat meat!

Oh, yeah. I'm talking cars in general, not RVs and the like.

Looking at buying a pair of motorcycles myself.

Well it makes sense to me. Meat comes from the thing that expelled the ***. The ***has been expelled. Meat is the only thing that doesn't have ***on it!

Ideally, fresh in-season produce is cheaper. But there are "plantations"... I guess I would call them... where they are grown through the use of hydroponic facilities so they can be made available year round.

Oh, that reminds me, I used to grow a huge amount of raspberries back home and would fill 4 liter (1 gallon) empty and washed out ice cream buckets and sell em for 5 bucks when I was 6.

Had a huge yard (nothing beyond 1/4 city block) but was big enough to grow around 20 rows of corn, 20 rows of carrots, a pumpkin and watermelon patch, fresh dill, strawberry patch, peas, etc.

I remember as a kid there being lots of wild raspberry bushes next door. They're long now, such a shame.

regarding the raspberries, I kept selling it (by way of advertising it directly) to a car salesman of all people. And a shady one. He actually had to reject buying anymore because I sold him a full bucket every week, faster than his wife could make use of them. I met her, she was a lovely lady in her 30's at the time.

Think he bought around 8 buckets off of me.

Thinking back on it and how dishonest and shady a lot of car salesmen are, you have to be a better salesmen than them to sell them anything they don't want.

Btw, he *hated* raspberries.

I'd take a Porsche 911 over that 2.2 M dollar car any day.

You know, I just don't care for the 911. Never have.

Facebook time, nothing really today, except this gem:

Wow. The fear mongering in that image, alongside the stupid little logo that looks like it was designed by a high schooler with excess testosterone and a Megadeth album are kinda making me laugh.

I'm not even for gun control and that thing is over-the-top cospiracist militia-member bad.

False.