u/RainyDayz876

Of course I take all of the inmate stories with a grain of salt, but one thing that makes me wonder about the Chinese guy is that I don't believe Luigi mentioned him in his letters. Didn't he talk about J (the black guy) as being his only friend and that otherwise making friends in prison is a perilous endeavor, or something of that nature? I don't remember the exact wording, but I don't remember him mentioning a Chinese guy as being a friend of his. I just kind of wonder how much of what this guy is saying is true, or if he's just using Luigi for attention.

I'm looking for a LCOL place to retire, ideally somewhere with four seasons and near some mountains. I love hiking and camping. Also, snow is alright, but I don't want feet of it. I'm from the Houston area, and I hate the humidity, ugly terrain, suburban sprawl, and traffic around where I live. Grants seems like a cool place. Is it safe and are the people friendly to outsiders? Anyone from there want to share what it's like?

I wouldn't do it again as there are safety issues with not letting people know where you're going but when I was in my 20s, I was enjoying my independence from my family and got on a plane to Malaysia without telling anyone who I knew. I had an enjoyable trip and it was nice not hearing questions like "are you excited?," "have you tried to learn a little of the local language?," "will you bring back a souvenir?" and hearing their concerns before leaving. It was also nice not having to share my vacation story with 4 different people after returning.

Still, even though the conversations can be kind of annoying, I tell people now because things can happen.

It is so nice not having to deal with things like witnessing grown men arguing loudly over seats or having to decide how to respond when someone with bags or blankets over three seats says "I'm saving these seats." There have been times when I've been tempted to plop down in one of the seats and say "it's open seating," but I just put up with the inconvenience and found a different seat.

Assigned seating is great. There's just less BS to deal with.

I was at a work conference last week and didn't bother attending any of the social events or even eating with my coworkers. When there was a long break, I'd just head up to my room and chill. I ordered food delivery and ate in my room rather than eat at the restaurant downstairs.

I'm just a couple of years away from FIRE and I just don't care about networking or schmoozing at all. I just do my job and look forward to my FIRE date. That's all I care about.

I was eating lunch downtown and at the table behind me, there were a couple of guys wearing business suits. One of them was droning on and on about dull work stuff and the other guy would periodically say "right" or "yeah." I didn't hear him say anything else. I figured that he wished the motormouth would shut up.

It got me thinking about work lunches that I've had and how I've never had any desire to talk about work while eating. I wasn't getting paid for that time, so I really didn't want to fake it. I'd much rather just eat in peace alone but would sometimes join coworkers at lunch to fit in and appear sociable. Talking shop is too much though. Seriously, I'd rather eat in perfect silence than talk about anything related to work.

Is Starwhale still floating around in the ocean somewhere?

I think it's the oddest thing ever where I work. We're mostly remote but we have weekly staff meetings. Sometimes someone will be missing, I'll check Teams and find out that the person's account is no longer active. It isn't just new people. Coworkers who have been around 5+ years will just disappear. No goodbye message, no going out to eat beforehand (that only happens when the higher ups retire). It's just nothing.

Is that common where you work? It seems so soulless.

One of the toughest parts of my accounting jobs has been trying to maintain a positive attitude and feigning enthusiasm for my work when deep down, I couldn't care less about the work that I do. I could sit at a desk counting grains of rice all day, and it would have as much meaning to me as my day job. I've been in tax, audit, and industry, and I've never found any of the work to be even slightly interesting.

LOL

If you ask me, prison inmates should get the basic necessities only. They should be fed prison loaf 3x per day, sleep on the concrete ground with no furnishings in their cells, and be made to work hard labor 8 hours a day 6 days a week. They shouldn't have access to TVs, tablets, weight rooms, and basketball courts. Also, they should only get visits with family for one hour a month with no phone calls.

Prison should be about punishment. It shouldn't be summer camp for adults.

At every job I've had, there have been people who I cannot stand and people who I know cannot stand me. Over the years, I've gotten better at pretending to like coworkers though.

What's helped me is to wear a big fake smile while thinking to myself "focus on the money, fuck the people." I find myself repeating that phrase in my mind on a regular basis when dealing with difficult people in the office.

I've always thought that the worst and most challenging part of working is the people aspect. I've never hated a job. It's always been other people that I've hated.

I can't wait to retire so that I can spend my days with people that I choose.

I was looking at the federal prison in Beaumont in Google Maps, and it looks like the outdoor recreational facilities are really crappy and not well maintained. There are very faded baseball diamonds, tracks that look like concrete was poured in a rounded rectangle, what looks like basketball courts, and maybe some soccer goals. The USP especially looks like it doesn't have much of anything for outdoor rec, just maybe a couple of small basketball courts and that's about it. A lot of the stuff looks dirty and like it could use a fresh coat of paint.

Do the inmates not go outside that much or play sports very often? Are crappy recreational facilities part of the punishment?

I'm a single guy, and I'm thinking of getting a simple cabin to retire to. It doesn't need to be fancy. A small cabin with solar and a well is fine. Basically, I'd live in it in the summer months and then when it starts getting into winter, I'd close up and leave. I'd spend winters vandwelling in the southern U.S. and/or head abroad to LCOL countries in SE Asia or Latin America.

My main concerns are medical care in the event I have some kind of emergency and also the possibility of coming back home to my cabin in spring and finding that it is vandalized, burned to the ground, or that there are guests inside of it who won't leave.

Any suggestions or experiences you'd like to share?

He's bright, has an ivy league education, and he comes from a prominent family. If he really wanted to change the healthcare system, why didn't he try to become a politician and run on the platform of promoting universal healthcare?

I know it's a common belief that liberals support Luigi, that he's a Robin Hood figure to them, but I have some VERY liberal family members who believe Luigi belongs in prison. I'm talking people who are almost communist, that's how liberal they are. I've talked about the case with them and they're like "he killed someone, he belongs in prison." So I don't know how well jury nullification will work in New York even though it's a very liberal area.

For example, people like Diddy, Brian Kohberger, Karmelo Anthony, and Luigi (if he goes to prison), are they kept in solitary or are they treated like any other inmate? If they're in gen pop, wouldn't there be a risk of them being targeted by the other inmates? Also, is it different in state vs. fed?

If so and he's found guilty due to emotional disturbance, does that mean that he'll go to the funny farm?

Do you miss the cubicle shit at all?

The godawful boring work, the beige fabric walls, the obnoxious coworkers, the commute, having to sit in an uncomfortable chair all day, the asshole bosses, the enormous time commitment to work that ultimately doesn't really matter, getting eye strain from staring at a computer screen all day, sleep deprivation from staying up late and dreading the next work day?

Do you miss it at all?