I've flown SW with friends/family and we could always sit next to each other. Just board, sit down in adjacent seats and be done!
They might not be the most coveted seats, but we could sit next to each other if we wanted.
And nobody came to nag us about changing seats either, like ALWAYS happens when we have reserved seats ahead of time, which people flying together ALWAYS can do when buying tickets.
MY first flight to Honolulu was not only free, but I got paid too! And it was on a cargo plane so I didn't have to deal with whiny, drunken tourists.
Yeah, it was on a cargo plane owned and operated by a company I was working for. They were temporarily relocating me from Houston to Honolulu.
In reality though, flying is more accessible now. WAY more passenger flights than ever. I'm not sure about affordability because I can remember it being quite inexpensive 20 - 30 years ago, if you just schedule your flights at the 'cheap' times.
The nice places to live in California are traditionally pretty safe, but because much of the state is mountainous, desert and rapidly eroding coastline we're running out of space to build, particularly near large cities (also, why are our large cities, LA and SF so damned big?) with the result builders are now building into fire-prone areas. At the same time there are rich people who insists on building ridiculously huge houses on hilltops covered in chaparral (which regularly burns, government regulations or not), hillsides that can't take the weight so the house will slide into a canyon the next time we get heavy rains, and too close to the beach so erosion will soon dump the house into the Pacific Ocean.
My personal opinion is that in some of these areas houses simply should not be built. In some other high-risk areas people can build houses but only on their own responsibility. Tax payers will still be paying for the fire crews that come out and rescue them and try to save their houses when fires, erosion or floods come, but we should not be covering the expenses of rebuilding their ludicrous houses. Particularly not in California where housing now is so expensive most workers can't afford a house and more and more can't even afford to rent an apartment.
Rich people needs to take responsibility for themselves. Gonna be a shock, but it is about time.
Yeah, but the point is that the people who buy and live in high-risk properties need to pay for the insurance. It is not right that everyone pays so the people living in high-risk scenic areas can get a new $5M house when their existing $5M house falls into the Pacific, burns or slides down into a canyon. Or is washed away by a hurricane, as may happen in Florida (not much room for sliding down there!).
Exactly! I read an article about the "Maker Movement" and it sounded like it had something to do with robotics, so I wondered why the odd name? Then I ran into a woman who was mighty proud of being involved with the "Maker Movement" and a little prodding brought to light that all it was about was making things, mostly not high tech. I had to bite my tongue when she mentioned something about kids making bird-feeders! And she was talking about teenagers! I can remember making a bird-feeder out of bits of wood from my granddad's stack of firewood when I was five!
Then she said some people are so advanced they even try to make their own clothes! Need I mention I grew up in homemade clothing? All we could afford...
Just switch phone company. Most phone companies in the US are so desperate for customers they'll buy out ANY plan to get you to sign with them. Of course, next iPhone (or whatever your electronic drug of choice happens to be) upgrade, you'll have to switch right back.
No, it wasn't a list of imaginary problems. Unfortunately.
I'm sure the men I work with would say there's no problems where I work either. Because they don't say things like that, or they don't mean anything by what they say, it was just a joke, it is a fact that women are different from men, or the guy who said it is an idiot. All this is true. The problem is that all the small, no-evil-intent talk do add up even if men, who are not the target, don't notice.
And of course, at some companies there really isn't a problem. At my previous company there were no such comments, and the one guy who occasionally talked about his wife's poor financial management never suggested this was "typical women". The only times anybody said anything about my appearance or clothing was when I changed my haircolour from my natural black to platinum blonde, and when I came to work in a hi-viz orange jacket. I hope that is typical, though out of four developer jobs I've had, that is the only one where there weren't any such problems.
I hope I've just had bad luck.
Yes, if anybody says something very obvious when several people hear it, and they are not the Big Boss, yes, they will be "talked to" and if they don't shut up and shape up in a hurry the next step is a visit to HR. But there is a lot of small talk, like stuff focusing on a woman's appearance, small suggestions about women's abilities, the comments men make about their wives' lack of driving or financial abilities, anything that includes stuff like "typical woman" or "you know how women" are which don't officially fall under "sexual harassment" but in quantity amount to just that.
Then there's stuff said when nobody but the target woman can hear it so if one complains it ends up being word against word, and the things men say when women are assumed to not be present (but hear it through cubicle walls).
Some of it is even meant positive, like the guy who told me I brighten up the office with my looks. Really. A guy said that. To a coworker. In 2014.
I think part of the problem is that many men are taught they SHOULD say such things to women. And many women would love to hear that. I might not even mind if it wasn't blatantly false (I'm no beauty, believe me!) and that it came on top of so many other things.
But I assume that my current company is worse than what is typical.
And what do you do about all the guys who leave early to pick up little Timmy? If my experience is typical, picking up kids from daycare or school is primarily a man's duty.
But that might be caused by me mainly working with men.
Sorry, but I just sold that bridge in Brooklyn.
Twice.
Me too. Always a dead giveaway when the clickbait offers to introduce me to hot singles in Pennsylvania or cheap car insurance in any location close to DC. Anything about Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy would be more believable.
Though my favourite is anything winter-related, such as great offers on home insulation or that magical heater which will heat up my entire city for pennies a day, or how to get away with using studded snow tires. Just what anybody in Los Angeles need to know!
Business meant dressing in glamorous, expensive clothes. So does romance, and particularly marrying. It is very important to advertising media to convince women to spend a lot of time and money on constantly buying loads of expensive clothes, shoes and accessories they don't need. If they sat in front of computers coding, they wouldn't have time to worry about being dressed in the "right" clothes. So for advertising media, it is very important that women don't code. It would be bad for business.
But do you want your daughter in a career where she is seen as less capable just because she is female? Where she will be subjected to daily microaggression from male coworkers who know they will get away with it because the bosses are all male? And nobody can prove a thing!
This is what is happening today. For a large group of men, it seems to be important to portray women as incapable of programming a computer, or doing anything "technical" at all. I have no idea why, but I see it every day.
If a young woman asked me for advice about studying computer science or related fields, I would be very conflicted about how much of the misogyny in the field I should tell her about, because it is massive. At the same time I know many women have more talent for "technical" work than for more traditional "women's" work, and should not be scared away from doing something they want to do.
Nothing in progression can rest on its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown man in the cradle of an infant. -- Edmund Burke
