troyunrau

Actually, since the whole Star Wars ep 9 debacle, has he made anything? He has some executive producer credits. Maybe he learned his lesson and won't insert random polarbears, err, force diads, in for no reason.

I actually tried to work out the economics of it based on the rate we were paying ($200/night) in a place that was clearly worth at least half a million.

$200 per night. Assuming they only get occupancy on the weekends, and use some weekends for themselves. Then you could reasonably presume they can get maybe 150 rental-days in a year. More likely to be 100. Let's use 100 because it maths easy.

That's $20000/yr. If you were only paying for your place with short term rentals at that pace, and interest wasn't a thing, it would take 25 years to break even. If you include interest at a trivial 4%, then you're looking at a 40 year mortgage.

And that's not including all the cleaning, repairs, etc.

So if you're using the place as an income stream, yeah, that ain't happening. Not unless it's in a high-demand location that you can charge a lot more for.

Unless you're looking at it like a retirement-home-in-waiting or something.

Trailer direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZY5WiqeyQQ

There is (or was) once a pretty nice industry of "cabin resorts" -- basically a facility with a bunch of cabins for rent. They are functionally hotels, and subject to all the regulations. Now you rent a VRBO and show up and there's rotten food in the microwave and you have no recourse.

Yes, this actually happened to us. Yes I have pictures. You can't smell it in the picture.

When modern billboards became a thing, many cities or similar jurisdictions passed laws limiting their proliferation, in order to ensure you didn't end up in a billboard filled dome.

In Canada, at least, you can register your address as a "no admail" destination, and you'll stop getting those flyers entirely. It doesn't stop certain protected classes of ads, in particular ads for prospective politicians during an election campaign, or mail that is personally addressed to you (even if it is an ad). But does shut it almost completely down. This would be the legal equivalent of installing a real-world ad-blocker.

Good.

I say this as someone who recently stayed in a brand new cottage built largely for VRBO in Manitoba. It's one thing to use the empty cottage to generate a little extra cash. It's another when cottages are built solely for temporary rental on these sorts of services. Hotel legislation was written in blood. This is people doing a end run around those legal protections.

Admittedly, a lot of people have flawed reasoning too.

I worked on open source software for over a decade (KDE). When we started having in person conferences, that's the first time money changed hands. And even then, the conference attendance was free. Viewed through this lens of experience, this feels like an attempt to earn money from the fediverse for running video chats, rather than a grassroots effort.

Old man yells at cloud.

Chillout ambient. Basically, the Mass Effect 1 soundtrack affected my whole musical library. I ask myself -- would this music sound cool in a bar in Mass Effect? If the answer is yes, it's probably on theme.

Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Gardens

Solar Fields - Leaving Home

2814 - Rain Temple

Cell - Hanging Masses

etc.

To the point were I created !spacemusic@lemmy.ca

Birth is gross when viewed through this lens.

Okay, to start: not every book is for everyone and everyone is entitled to opinions. My opinion is that it is okayish. I liked the second one more (Dark Forest).

That said, the book is weird. It's like going to an art gallery and staring at paintings. Each painting is a chapter. Everything is beautifully depicted but totally static. The chapters in the book are look someone describing a painting to someone in the gallery who is blind.

And the paintings (and their descriptions) are good, but they aren't mind blowing or anything.

But, if you sit an digest it for a bit afterwards -- continuing the metaphor: you're on the train home from the gallery and it hits you -- there's themes woven between them. In my opinion, it's actually better once you step back and look at the whole book as though it was an exhibit of paintings with a theme. A few days removed from the book, you'll be returning to the ideas in it, even if all the characters and plot points blend together.

Anyway, my two protons.

Boooooo.