Random Thoughts Thread

[REPO Man]

Where on Hatteras Island? I know of houses in Rodanthe that have collapsed due to literally ending up right where the ocean hits the shore due to erosion.

And before you ask, from top to bottom:

Rodanthe
Waves
Salvo
Avon (where I live)
Buxton
Frisco
Hatteras

[Limewater]

I don't really know more specifically than Hatteras Island and Outer Banks generically. I just saw it in the news and thought of you.

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm generally pretty interested in what it's like to live in a tourist destination. Not because I want to live in one myself, but because it's got to be kind of weird to live in a place that gets visited by so many vacationers who are taking a break from their everyday lives when it's just home to you. And also what it's like in the off-season.

If you ever did a podcast series on that I'd listen.

[marurun]

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm generally pretty interested in what it's like to live in a tourist destination. Not because I want to live in one myself, but because it's got to be kind of weird to live in a place that gets visited by so many vacationers who are taking a break from their everyday lives when it's just home to you. And also what it's like in the off-season.

My dad's family is from Cape Cod and Cape Cod is very much that kind of place. My family rented a house from a family friend and we all gathered on Cape Cod for Christmas and New Years maybe 15 years ago, and while there are definitely some people who live out there it's tough to find stuff to do in the cold and places to eat. Most of the local restaurants are closed and most of the businesses, too. The Cape's really close to other non-touristy areas, though, so it's probably easier to get to nearby "civilization", if you will, for other stuff. There's even a Cape Cod potato chip plant right there that runs all the time, of course, so I guess the Cape isn't thoroughly devoid of off-season energy.

[Note]

That's interesting you brought up Cape Cod. I went there once years ago with my neighbor's family on a short vacation. I enjoyed it for sure.

My aunt and uncle who lived in a very small town in upstate rural New York for many years decided to retire to Cape Cod, which I thought was an interesting choice, as it's probably more expensive than where they were initially living and further away from their children. My uncle knew many people in the town, and it seemed like people would constantly ask him for help with things, so it may have been best for him to get away from the area to actually enjoy retirement. I'd like to ask him about how it is living in the Cape full year around.

[REPO Man]

I don't really know more specifically than Hatteras Island and Outer Banks generically. I just saw it in the news and thought of you.

I may have mentioned it before, but I'm generally pretty interested in what it's like to live in a tourist destination. Not because I want to live in one myself, but because it's got to be kind of weird to live in a place that gets visited by so many vacationers who are taking a break from their everyday lives when it's just home to you. And also what it's like in the off-season.

If you ever did a podcast series on that I'd listen.

If I did do a podcast, the most I'd touch upon my hometown would be for context or anecdotes at best.

As for what it's like living in a tourist destination... well, let's just say I'd recommend Hatteras Island as a place to visit.

One major problem now is folks buying up property to convert them into short-term rentals (i.e. Airbnb and VRBO properties), shrinking the long-term rental options for folks that live on the island full-time. Back in 2022, my brother's ex-gf's grandparents' lease wasn't renewed since the landlord wanted to convert the place into an Airbnb. And my mom, who was living there at the time, ended up having to find a new place to live, only to end up having to find a new place less than six or so months later after the property go turned into another short-term rental.

I literally live in an efficiency apartment that used to be a storage shed that costs only $140/wk and even without heat in the winter, a stove or a washer and dryer, that's still kind of a hat trick.

And even with it just being the first half of June, it's been MUCH busier. And I might have mentioned this already, but I think I've found myself being much more easily susceptible to my autistic anxiety triggers, so naturally my afternoon job LITERALLY has me surrounded by large, loud crowds during one of the busiest times of the week. The worst is when I'm trying to do one of my tasks and folks act like they can just push through me like I'm not even there. And don't get me started on folks who literally can't find literally anything unless it's pointed out to them. It's like no one can actually look with their eyes.

As I've said before, I'd love to move to NYC. At least there, if something's too far to ride my bike to, I can just take a bus or train. Here, if you don't have a car or license, you're fucked!!! It's like an evil version of Fire Island, with rednecks, right-wingers and bad traffic in lieu of LGBTQ+ folks and the ability to ride your bike everywhere. Plus, NYC has more for folks like me (cinephiles, gamers of both video and tabletop persuasions, nerds, theatre fans, artists, weirdos).

The closest I get to the outside world IRL is going up the beach to the Nags Head/Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills area, which is where they have the nearest movie theater, Target, Walmart, a comic book store or two and a wider variety of shopping and dining options. But then again, a lot of my decreasingly frequent trips are just me going to Walmart after grabbing a couple of spicy chicken sandwiches from the nearby Wendy's. Granted, in NYC, I could swap out Walmart for a few local shops that sell the same things I might grab from Walmart (pants, shoes, arts and crafts supplies for projects that I totally plan on doing eventually) and swap out a fast food chain for something better and possibly support the local queer and/or BIPOC communities.

Speaking of fried chicken, I'd love to also open essentially a fried chicken fast food place that's basically just Chik-Fil-A but not in lockstep with the straight, white, cisgender, conservative, Christian patriarchy. Also, my nuggets, chicken fries and chicken sandwiches wouldn't just be the bog standard breaded chicken breast offerings. I wonder how much I'd have to pay to the Takis folks to make nuggets or the like breaded with their products. I can say from experience that the chili lime Fuego Takis make excellent fried chicken breading.

I' also thinking about doing a video for my (still deep in the conceptual phase) YouTube channel where I give a brief history of pre-PS1 CD-based gaming. Basically, starting with the creation of Dragon's Lair and covering all the major bullet points in gaming pre-PS1 such as the Turbografx CD and the eventual failures of the 3DO and CD-i.



What were we talking about again?

[REPO Man]

What does everyone think about the idea of the namesakes from "Stacy's Mom" and "Jolene" being one in the same, with the latter being sung from Stacy's POV?

My headcanon is that "Jolene" could, in theory, be from the point of view of the titular Stacy, lamenting being seen as less desirable by potential suitors.

I could also shoehorn in the extended Stacy's Mom universe with the straight-girl and gay-guy Stacy's Dad parodies and Mad Tsai's song about her brother.

Or the idea that Julie Brown's song "The Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun" could be interpreted as an eerily prophetic look at active shooter situations over a decade later? Taken at face value, the lyrics posit a seemingly innocuous individual with suddenly shooting up her school as if out of nowhere with no real provocation. Immediately after, we get descriptions of the Homecoming Queen's spree, all told without compassion or sympathy by the narrator, possibly a prediction to how the 24hr news cycle and the increase in gun violence would leave victims as eventual unnamed statistics to all but their dearest friends and families. After an hour, the cops show up with tear gas, machine guns and even a chopper, both mirroring both the ineffectiveness of the very powers that be that were designed to protect us and their excessive use of force. In the end, we learn the shooter's motives but ultimately learn shockingly little and are left with more questions than answers.

[PretentiousHipster]

[prfsnl_gmr]