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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • As someone who’s been through this 3 times, this all correct but I’ll add a few caveats:

    • If possible, go with a credit union over a bank. The interest rates may be a little higher, but you’ll have fewer fees to deal with and generally have better service since CUs tend to be local while banks are national entities and couldn’t give less of a shit about you. You’ll have to be a member of a CU, but you can just open a savings account with as little as $5. Some CUs will also pay special extraordinary dividends each year to account holders.
    • Get pre-approved for a home loan through your bank or CU and get the pre-approval for a little more than your budget. The pre-approval can help with negotiations and saves time on paperwork when your offer is actually accepted.
    • If you pay less than a 20% down payment your mortgage processor will require private mortgage insurance (PMI) which will be added to your escrow. Your monthly mortgage payment will be divided into principal and interest (PI) and taxes and insurance, so you won’t have to worry about paying your property taxes or home owners insurance each year: your bank or CU will pay that for you out of your escrow account.
    • You will need to pre-pay 1 year of your home owner’s insurance premium, so be prepared for that.

    Buying a home can be a daunting, overwhelming, and frustrating experience, especially if you’re looking at a quick closing timeframe. Just remember: your real estate agent is there to help you every step of the way and it’s in their best interest to have your best interest at heart. Rely on them and their guidance and it’ll make the whole experience less stressful.



  • Okay, that makes a certain amount of sense then. All of the companies and products owned by Alphabet are lumped under “Google”, which includes Android, and it’s saying that between 2018 and 2022 they’ve donated just shy of $780K to political action committees (PACs) that in turn give money to anti-trans politicians. According to Open Secrets, which by the way is where Pay Back Pride gets its data by way of Follow the Money, Alphabet sent $3.8M to Republicans during that period, so that figure represents 20% of their total Republican spend during that 4 year period.

    However, Google Android is different from the Android Open Source Project, which is where mobile OSes like GrapheneOS, LineageOS, and /e/OS (and Google Android) fork from, so saying that iPhone is inherently better than Android as a whole in this particular area is slightly disingenuous.

    All of that said, I think it’s very important to vote with your wallet and if a company does or supports something you disagree with, it’s entirely reasonable to look for alternatives. From my perspective, and I want to emphasize that I am not defending Google sending money to GOP PACs that promote anti-trans bigotry, Google is not directly lobbying for anti-trans bills and their spend on the PACs that do is paltry compared to others. Do with this information what you will.




  • So my roommate has informed me that Android and Motorola donate to Republicans more than Democrats whereas Apple does not, claiming this as a reason that the iPhone is better than an Android phone.

    So I’m not sure from where your roommate is getting their information, but according to Open Secrets, Alphabet, Inc. (parent company of Google) donated $27M to Democrats during the 2020 cycle, compared to $1.4M to Republicans. The 2022 cycle is shaping up to be the same. I haven’t been able to find much information on Motorola Mobility or its parent company Lenovo.


  • I’m a lead software engineer at a specialty insurance company in the Midwest United States. Half my days are spent in meetings and the other half is spent either coding or working on documentation or making diagrams or thinking through decisions. I left last year and spent a year working remote for General Electric HealthCare, but left back in April to go back to this insurance company. I really like my coworkers and the general work environment. I’m on a hybrid schedule so I only go into the office about twice a week, and my commute is only about 20 minutes each way. I enjoy what I do but I don’t put in anything beyond the 9 to 5. I work to live, not the other way around, and I have set boundaries so I can spend my time with my family.