Around 2014 or so, I used to go to McDonald's for two McDoubles and a small soda. The McDouble was on the dollar menu, and all drinks, regardless of size, were $1. I could eat a filling meal for $3.

Today, a McDouble is $2.79 in my area and drinks are $1.59, $1.79, or $1.89 depending on size. I'm looking at a minimum of $7.17 for the same meal I used to eat a decade ago, not counting tax.

I used to go out to nice restaurants and spend around $20-30 to feed myself and my wife. Now I spend around that much just feeding the two of us at McDonald's. Going out to a nice restaurant with my wife is easily gonna cost me $50-$100 today, plus tip.

And I always tip a minimum of $20 regardless of the cost of the meal. Much more if it goes over $70. I don't agree with tipping, but I'm not gonna screw over waitstaff when their income is heavily based on tips.

[...] have you tried McDonalds overseas?

I lived abroad for nearly a decade, thanks to military service, and I always loved trying McDonald's in every country I visited, just so I could compare with the US as my baseline.

[...] what item do you wish was available at US McDonalds but only remains in that country?

My favorite foreign item, which I miss dearly, was the teriyaki burger in Japan. It's the best McDonald's burger I've ever had. Japanese food in general is my favorite of all the foreign foods I've eaten and I'm definitely planning a trip back to Japan once day just to gorge on their local foods again. But I will definitely be making time for a McDonald's teriyaki burger the next time I'm in the country.

Is McDonalds in other countries better or worse?

That's kind of a complicated question, because it depends on the country and whether you're looking for "healthier" or "tastier."

In Europe, food regulations prevent American fast food joints from loading their food with tons of sugar, so they end up being (relatively) healthier than their American counterparts. And depending on the country and where they source their ingredients, it might be tastier too. Although it's hard to beat a fattening greasy American burger on flavor.

But I remember being in Germany around 2011 or so when they introduced a "1955 Burger," which they claimed was the burger McDonald's used to sell in Germany in 1955. It was exceptionally good! I came back many times while the promotion was going on.

When I was back in America, I caught another promotional for the "1955 Burger," but it was gross! And nothing like the German variant. Apparently, Germany made the burger differently than we did in the US back in the day, and I much prefer the German version.

And what?! I have never played mgs

Liquid Snake is a character in Metal Gear Solid. He's Solid Snake's twin brother and one of the antagonists in the series.

Spoiler, but yes.

Granted, my answer was kind of spoilery too.

*Naked Snake enters the chat*

I'd argue that Sonic the Hedgehog one, being a huge fan of the franchise myself. But my therapist asked me today if I've ever taken an autism test, and when I said no, he recommended I sign up for one. So, uhh... there might be some truth there. 😅

I think unless you are an old timer from when things like gonewild were brand new, and onlyfans wasn't a thing, it might be hard to understand lemmy.

Hey! I'm not an old timer! I'm barely in my 40s! And I understand Lemmy just fine. Now where's the click to subscribe button and who do I make my checks out to? /s

The new Star Wars movie, The Mandalorian and Grogu, is all about the other Hutts. Twins took over the Hutt empire after Jabba died, and they recruit the Mandalorian to track down and rescue their cousin who was kidnapped as a child. It got mixed reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At least in the movies, there's only one Hutt empire, with a bit of a power struggle within the Hutt family. Sounds like the twins were eager to take over in the power vacuum when Jabba died. Even the Resistance has to work with them occasionally because of the powerful connections their family has.

I'd be careful looking for jobs while at work, especially on a work computer. That's a great way to get let go if they notice you doing it.

A friend of mine clicked a link to Twitch on his work laptop once. He immediately got pinged by his HR team, saying he was accessing unauthorized streaming sites and might be fired if they catch him live streaming. He has a strict clause in his contract that claims he's not allowed to live stream at all while employed with the company, for fear of him spilling company secrets in a public forum.

As a former IT guy myself, I can confirm it's super easy to monitor employees' activity on their work computers. Don't do anything but work on your work computer. Save all the job hunting or personal browsing for your personal phone/laptop/home computer. Don't let your job build a profile on your browsing habits, because they will absolutely use it against you in a termination.

I love that family sharing is enabled. Which means people who didn't pay for it could still play it and add their name to the wall.

I mean, that's the point. J.R.R. Tolkien was fascinated with linguistics and wanted to create his own languages, and all his novels are written to justify the world in which his invented languages exist. He wrote them as if they're actual historical records.

The only reason The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are so readable is because they were written like journal entries, tracking the adventures of an individual and his friends on a dangerous quest. Most of his other works are literally just fantasy reference books, defining and expanding the world of Middle Earth.

The image itself is an AI enhanced version of a scene from the 2006 movie Monster House. The TV and other peripherals in the background weren't there in the original scene.

The original film was made back when CG characters had a creepy uncanny valley look to them, with plastic-looking skin and dead eyes. The faces have been improved in this version to look a bit more... human. Skin texture and realistic eyes are the biggest improvements.

EDIT: And actual hair texture! Hair in the old movie looked like plastic caps on the characters' heads.

Wait, why would you move back to a town everyone left? If i retired at 38 I'd be traveling and not living anywhere near my home town.

I spent 20 years traveling the world and living abroad with the US military. I've explored most of Europe, Asia, a little of Africa, and a brief visit to the Middle East (that last one was not fun travel), and as much as I enjoyed it, I realized I was starting to miss my hometown.

My hometown is nearby to a massive US city, so most people here just move to the city. Or get their college education there and then move on to another large metropolitan area in the US. My hometown is a beautiful place to settle down, but most people my age aren't ready for that yet. Hence why all of my friends have left town.

My wife and I still have plans to travel, but we're waiting for our elderly dog to finally pass away. He gets stressed with us just being gone for a day, so leaving him in a kennel while we go on vacation might kill him.

We paid for an expensive kennel where he got his own "suite" with a soft bed, tons of toys, TV playing doggy films all day, and multiple one-on-one play sessions with employees outdoors, and he still lost 5 lbs from stress in a week! And it's a place he's familiar with; we used to send him and our other dog there before she passed away. Since losing his partner, he just can't handle being away from my wife and I for extended stretches of time. He's extremely needy and anxious.

So one day we'll get back out and revisit some of the wonderful places we lived abroad again. But for now, we're just enjoying the quiet life back home.

The military was stressful for us, always having to be somewhere, accomplishing something, and adhering to a strict schedule. Our personal lives were always secondary to our jobs and you couldn't just quit. You were locked into a multi-year contract that could only be broken by doing something illegal and going to jail. So having the freedom to plan my own schedule and do whatever I want with my life is kind of nice.

That sounds very similar to my wife's situation. Except the few times she's feeling good, she'll just bail on social plans as we're trying to leave the door. I end up attending social events by myself a lot.

Your wife sounds like my wife and I. Mine has medical issues though so has a bit of an excuse.

Same here, we're both 100% disabled according to the VA. Doesn't mean we're immobile, but our mobility is a bit restricted at times and my wife uses that as an excuse to avoid doing things. The less she moves, the less likely she's going to be in pain that day.

I personally just fight through the pain to be productive, and if I need to take a rest day to recover, oh well. It's not like I have to be anywhere.

When I lived in Germany for a while, my wife and I took a train across the country one winter to Munich for the Christmas markets. We stayed in a hostel and walked the streets, enjoying the various stalls. I'd never heard of Glüwein before (hot, mulled, spiced red wine), but it was fantastic! It was an amazing experience and we didn't have to worry about parking lots or figuring out public transportation. Everything was within walking distance and we ended up touring all of Munich on foot.

I wish the US would get off its ass and get some high speed trains set up. We just need to keep oil and auto dealers out of the discussion because they keep shutting it down. Like Musk's "Hyperloop" project, which he proposed to stop legislation from approving high speed trains, but then intentionally did nothing with, so we just don't develop trains to replace his Tesla cars.

TL;DR: "Making democratic threats legible," i.e. spreading the word about how every action Trump takes is a threat to our democracy. It has been proven in several other countries run by authoritarian governments to be effective at stomping out fascism before it can take hold.

Saved you a click.

Nope, this is loss.

For anyone who doesn't want to do the conversion, that's 17 days.

The creator of Lower Decks wrote her a letter explaining how important her character was to him and she read the script and enjoyed it. She also asked if she could just go by Jolene in this, which he was cool with.

Saved you a click.

I knew a guy when I served in the US military who got caught cheating in a semi-related way. He got assigned to a base in a new state and his wife refused to relocate their whole family for the few years he'd be assigned there, so he went by himself, leaving his wife and kids in his home state.

Turns out, he was sexting one of his younger subordinates at work. One of his daughters found out when she tried to use an old tablet and found out his account was still synced to it. She saw all his texts updating in real time.

He was ultra-conservative and didn't believe in divorce, so he was doing everything he could to save his marriage. His wife forced him to install security cameras in every room of his apartment and banned him from going anywhere after work. She knew his schedule and expected him home immediately after work ended. He was basically on house arrest until his job was done and he could move home.

The last I heard, he told his wife the landlord needed to paint the walls, so he removed all the cameras, dunked them in the bathtub, then played dumb when none of them would work when he set them back up again. He was seen inviting young women over to his apartment after that. So, you know... he didn't learn his lesson.