Random Thoughts.....What Are You Thinking?

Only thing bad about stevia that I know of is the lingering aftertaste. I am told that regular users don't notice it.

There aren't THAT many calories in sugar.

Paged!!!

The shitty aftertaste is the universal problem.

I'm sure they all cause cancer too. That's not really a deal breaker, everything does.

I thought research showed sweet substances, whether rich in calories or not, produce an insulin effect regardless. The sweeter the substance, the greater the effect.

Here, from a 2020 study:


https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7014832/

So yes, lower calories. The insulin effect, and associated diabetes risk, is proportional to its sweetness not calorie amount however.

First day back at work and wow was it a ghost town. A lot of people that called off, not wanting to work for free I guess.

Our second semester here had no holidays, so I wish I could have some days off.

It is being way harder than I thought working 3 days/week at office.

Im completely certain that if they decide to make it 4 or 5 days at office, Im quitting in the first day.

Life is the leading cause of death.

Starch, especially combined with fat, is the leading cause of flab.

Want fries with that?

Lack of exercise is the leading cause of flab.

Starch is a great source of energy, but that energy needs to be spent.

;ma "stona" Vyre-kun's Kidney

Not enough MP to cast the spell!

TL:DR = We grew our own stevia plant to make amazing liquid stevia for coffee/tea for crazy cheap.

I've been drinking stevia in my morning coffee for a long time. Sugar absolutely tastes better, but liquid Truvia was an acceptable substitute until they made them $6 for 1 mother!*)!%ing ounce.

My wife grew a stevia plant in a pot this year. We harvested the leaves, then put them in a mason jar in some cheap Kirkland vodka. Let it sit for a few days, then pour out the vodka into a pot. Using a thermometer heat the vodka up to 175°f for about 20-30mins to evaporate the alcohol. That's how you make liquid stevia. We turned $10 of vodka and a $3 plant from Home Depot into 25oz of amazing liquid stevia.

This homemade stevia is so much better than that garbage Truvia stuff. There is nearly no flavor to it. It just removes the bitterness from coffee without changing the flavor. Shelf life should be very long as well. We store the vodka bottle full of stevia in the fridge and keep refilling a small 2oz bottle with an eye dropper top to use daily.

Im somehow studying more and more Power BI.

Im not sure how should I feel. Annoyed for investing in something that is not my core interests? Feeling excited for learning a high in demand skill? Interested in learning data science in practice?

Im half way in an introdutory course, and about to purchase 3 books that would provide most necessary information to jump from beginner to at least intermediate.

Lets see. Having Power BI in my portfolio should be enough to get a basic to mid salary job that could be 100% remote

The Long Walk came out for home release today.

I'm not going to say it's a good movie, but that was great watch.(hurray for avoiding trailers)

This year was definitvively one of the coldest I have ever experienced at this city.

Worst than the coldest, the flutuation is insane.

We had a cold week, then a hot one, now again a pretty cold.

This variation is normally way more dangerous to cause colds and flus. RIght now Im about to have a cold due to those abrupt changes.

If RNG had a foot, it would surely enjoy kicking dogs

RNG doesn't need feet. Without hands it still slaps everyone upside the head. Dogs included.

To be honest....does low wage even matter that much if inflation and income tax rate is low? In my region our inflation is like 1.2%-1.3% and my monthly living expense is like $200 usd as long as I stop buying games. Food is like $1-3 per meal. Coffee in coffee shop cost $1.2-$1.5, cheaper if you make your own coffee. Visiting a doctor or dentist cost $5-6 plus med. My phone bill with 4G/5G unlimited data cost $20 and that saves internet money too.

And city is dense enough that a bike can get to anywhere important within 20 min that car isn't needed. If I need to go to another city far away high speed rail ticket cost $35-$40, or you can take a bus for $15 if you have time.

Even if I need to pay for rent it is about $200 per month for a room.

Oh btw, in my region if your income is equal or lower than median, your tax rate is like 0%-5%. In many other western countries it can be something like 10%-30% or more if you have median income. Those high tax rate makes wage workers even more poor.

In other words, even at $1000 monthly wage I can easily save 50%+ of my income and put them into stock market for more gain even without a house. In western countries it's impossible to save this much without a house if you only make $1000 per month.

A lot of people that I know of ended up retiring early in 40-50s because everybody save money aggressively and put tons of money into stock market, and let stock market pay for their retirement.

I always feel wage stagnation isn't the main reason behind poverty. It's high tax and high inflation plus high cost of living making people poor. Since saving and investing is the real key to get out of poor worker drone life and higher cost/tax makes it way harder to save money. Low wage alone doesn't always lead to poverty, high cost of living and income tax can ruin your life however.

Dang, after an entire week of attempts, finally got a acceptable record.

Everything is relative.

I live in comfortable* poverty. My mortgage is under $700 / month. In Seattle that $700 is CHEAP for a room in shared housing. A cheap fast food lunch is $5 - 7. Any sit down lunch starts at $12. Coffee beans recently went from $5/lb to $9/lb. My phone is $40/month/2 lines and internet is $60. Minimum wage in this state is currently $16.66 /hour which is STILL not enough to buy housing in Seattle.

Real inflation is over 5%, my CoL increase will be 2.6%.

*The comfortable part may change.

Despite my money being 1/5 of Ms Chattys, her costs are about the same as mine.

Im about to eat outside, my overall cost at restaurant is 60 brazillian coins for around 800g of food, what should be around the $12 mentioned.

If I would live on my own, I would cook my own food what could drop this cost considerably.

I dont have a love partner, what makes my life pretty carefree about money.

I think life is pretty cheap for single people, and exponentially more expensive the moment you have someone else, and kids on top of that.

Meanwhile.. a 250g/0.11 lbs beef steak costs 11 EUR/13 USD at the supermarket.

Around 3-4 times that for eating out.

Cheaper to buy ozempic than food.

They're on the full court press. Its on tv. Its on the radio. its on youtube. Its spamming my email nonstop.

Ozempic ozempic ozempic ozempic

HIMS, HERS, get ozempic mailed to your door, cheap ozempic, costco selling ozempic, rightrx has ozempic, goodrx has ozempic, get your ozempic today cause you can't afford to eat!

Yeah, what I meant is that when people endlessly demanding increased minimum wages, no outsourcing or more tax it actually increases cost of living, therefore make people more poor even if wage and pension has increased on surface.

I don't understand why aren't people demanding lower inflation and more savings instead of more minimum earnings.

There are tons of data that shows that when minimum wage is increased due to inflation median income earners actually move closer to the bottom. Last local economy data that I've read shows that minimum wage has increased by 27% but median earners only increase by 16%, effectively making most of the population in the middle more poor.

That's what "wage stagnation" really means. It means large amount of middle income earners can't move up and become higher level earner due to endless living cost increase for the not-so-helpful-benefits of small numbers in the bottom.

Anyways, saying anymore will become political. I just feel a lot of those economy related policy opinions don't solve ***. Nor they address the real issue behind poverty.

Capitalism always benefits making money with money, it doesn't benefit making money with labor. This is just math: making money with money is multiplicative, making money with time and labor is addictive. So money will always generate money faster than labor.

So the ideal solution to solve poverty is reduce inflation by lowering price of everything so more people can save more and invest and use their money to make money, not the other way around.

IMO, if I have to pay for a $300 shoes made in the US instead of $10 shoes made in Africa, I would lost $290 that could put into stock market for many years of compound interest. No thanks.

The type of people who cry that minimum wage should be higher are really just saying, "Give me more money." It's not a policy position that was arrived at after careful economic consideration.

Affordability is half of the problem, and is better addressed supply-side. Self-control and budgeting is a bigger issue for a lot of Americans. Even if they had the financial conditions Afania describes, they wouldn't save anything. It'd just go to vices.

The problem with minimum wage is greed.

If everyone has $5 for milk, why don't we charge $7

That's the beginning and end. it's not the wage. it's missing nuance but that's the part that matters.

The shareholders demand it. legally obligated.

Almost nobody is going broke because of their milk budget. It's rent or vices. Build more housing and it's much harder to opportunistically price gouge on rents. That's why private equity lobbies against it.

You can't really do anything to help people who keep a running credit card balance but still go out to eat, buy drinks at bars, and have a lease on a 2 year old vehicle. Financial illiteracy is responsible for far more financial insecurity than the economy is atm.

Except theyre not charging $7 because they're greedy. They're charging $7 because:
- The manual labor to get the milk went from $2 to $3
- The cost to process the milk went from $2 to $3
- The cost of gas to ship the milk went from $2 to $3
- The cost of the driver to ship the milk went from $2 to $3
- The cost of the employees to stock the shelves went from $2 to $3
(Obviously "$2 to $3" arent real numbers, but operating costs have gone up)

But the grocery store selling the milk increasing the price is corporate greed.


Of course, Eiryl wouldnt understand how this process works.