There used to be a pho place in Norfolk called “Speedy Gonzales Tacos”. They had philly steaks on the menu, but it was by far the best pho in Norfolk.

Reddit hivemind says piracy isn’t stealing and that authors are asking for it by making ebooks.

It was a shitshow back then too. Waaaayyyy too many people crammed into the Bottom.

Should they be thanking the out of towners for putting upward pressure on home prices?

So everyone not in the city is a confederate sympathizer?

Can’t withhold rent because the apartment was hot on an abnormally hot day in winter.

I’ll never forget the time I bought a wallet and some bedsheets at the Macy’s. When my kids get old enough I will make sure to pass along the memories.

Mine out here in Hanover went up a lot too.

No, last year it was very cold for all of January.

It's Friday, maybe they thought everyone would like some Mountain Dew with their lunch?

Next time I'm in southside and have some time I'll try to take my son in there.

I'll check them out. Thanks for the tip. I'm hoping I can find a source of rocks here, but it seems everything I dig out of my yard is crumbly quartzite as far as I can tell.

Usually Kroger has chicken breast for $2/lb.

I didn't care for it either. I dropped it half-way through the first book and dropped my copy off at Goodwill. Not my cup of tea.

The pointlessness is the point. It’s an absurd novel. If you’re not enjoying it though then there isn’t much point in finishing.

For what it’s worth, the last half of the book brings it all home and is much darker than the first half. Just don’t beat yourself up if you can’t closely follow the timeline. I am not sure anyone can.

I used to live in one of the corporate apartments at VCC. It was uneventful. Apartments were newer and less needed to be fixed. When the AC condensate line started leaking they came and fixed it pretty quickly. Washer and dryer on site with free parking. The apartment was great, if bland and soulless. No it wasn't quirky Fan row housing but it was perfectly serviceable.

I’ve read plenty of old books. The fact that they’re old doesn’t make them “good”. Sometimes you just don’t feel like slogging through old writing.

Why force yourself to read something if you find it boring? Those books were written in the 19th century, so even native English speakers would find the writing archaic and tedious.

Also, War and Peace was written by Tolstoy in Russian, so make sure you get a good translation instead.

But at the end of the day, my only advice is to keep bulldozing. Read summaries as you go to keep track of the plot and characters if you get lost.

There is a WaWa in Ashland you don't have listed.

The sun is already peaking out where I am and there is no more rain forecast. I would not expect any icy conditions on Sunday, two days from now.

You'll know they're expecting outages if you see bucket trucks staged in empty parking lots around the city. Given that there is only rain forecast, I expect they aren't too worried about it.

And you've touched on another basic philosophical debate. It's easy to break someone else's eggs, not so much your own.

This is the same debate that happens in the Matrix universe. Is it better to live in dumb bliss or experience the miserable truth?

There is no objective answer to this question that applies to all people. Huxley seemed to think that even in such a "perfect" world there would be some who question things, meaning that the reprogramming of humanity can never be complete. To those people the world is a dystopia. But if you're fine just taking Soma every night then there is nothing to worry about.

Ah, but it's not gambling. Gambling is essentially glorified coin tossing, where pure luck determines the outcome. These are "skill games", totally different. It's ok to fleece poor people of their money when you call it a skill-game.

There's an old gas station up here by my that has been half-hollowed out with a dozen of these things sitting along the empty walls, where people just sit and feed their money into it. Who are we helping by allowing these things? Shitty gas stations? Shady "skill game" machine companies? Sure, the additional tax revenue is nice, but that revenue comes from the poorest segment of society.

This is an example of where a dogmatic adherence to principle, in this case free market capitalism, leads to a net negative for society.