u/literally_no_filter

I have spent a fair amount of time assuming the city of Portland is incapable of responding to basically anything, so today I would like to formally recognize an extraordinary achievement in municipal government.

They fixed my pothole.

This pothole was driving me crazy, right where you turn onto the street, positioned so perfectly that there was basically no way to avoid hitting it without entering the opposite lane.

I reported it through the city’s pothole reporting site, mostly so I could say I tried. I submitted it and assumed it would disappear into whatever vast administrative void receives these things.

Then something incredible happened: they came and filled it within a week.

I drove around the corner today like normal, prepared for impact, and was greeted by a beautiful patch of fresh asphalt where the thing used to exist. I could not believe my eyes.

So, city of Portland: thank you. I am extremely proud of you. I knew there had to be something you were good at.

They identified a deficit and eliminated it within a week. Unfortunately for the city’s finances, it was a single pothole.

I’ve watched this happen so many times now: people have open campfires or beach bonfires in high wind during fire season, while the entire sky is literally full of wildfire smoke, and everyone around them just sits there and watches like it’s completely normal.

I’ve called the cops when I’ve seen it, and I actually feel bad doing it because I love campfires and bonfires too. I’m not trying to be the person who ruins someone’s day. But I also want there to be a forest to hike, camp, bike, and recreate in, and I don’t think someone’s bonfire is worth risking it. One fire getting away puts people’s lives, homes, entire communities, and huge areas of forest at risk.

What surprises me almost as much as the fire itself is how many other people seem totally unconcerned. They’ll be sitting nearby, clearly seeing the same high winds and smoke filled sky, and nobody says anything or makes a call.

Am I unusually cautious about this, or would you report them too? Where do you draw the line?

I pay for Walmart+ because free delivery is advertised as a membership benefit. What isn’t made clear is that these orders go to gig drivers who can decline them if the pay and tip aren’t worth it.

Imagine Amazon Prime advertising free shipping, but your package just sits there unless you tip the delivery driver. That would obviously be ridiculous.
I’m not blaming the drivers, they should be paid fairly. Walmart needs to pay them enough that delivery doesn’t depend on customers adding a large tip. Otherwise, stop advertising it as free.
It honestly makes me want a refund for Walmart+ because I’m not getting the benefit I paid for.

If Walmart can’t make its own advertised delivery benefit worth it for the driver, then the thing not worth it is Walmart+ itself.

I’m using 5.5 asking it to write short excerpts for a website, and it creates images no matter what I say. It can’t follow logic across even 1 or 2 prompts and contradicts itself in every response.

I tell it to not sketch anything and don’t give me images, I want written text, and it just gave me an image of the excerpt text I asked for in black on a white background 😑.

Switching intelligence options doesn’t make any difference. Is this what we’re getting now? Dementia grandma?