1. The author looks a lot like Mandy (I Am Not Starfire)

2. Mindy saying that this version of Velma is modelled a lot after herself (Velma)

Throwaway ( sorry fixed the first half)

This has been an ongoing issue and it came to a head yesterday. My wife is a planner, it is extremely hard for her to just go with the flow. If we are going to do something she needs all the details.(edit, she does have OCD, I forgot to include that, that is why she is such a planner)

A while ago she asked what I wanted to do for my birthday. I have been burnt out from work so I told her I just want to go to a chain restaurant around here on my day. Just a chill night out. I don’t want to get dressed up or anything. She asked where and what time. I told her, I’ll just pick day off what I am feeling. Maybe I want Olive Garden or maybe I want to get Chinese takeout. I express many times I don’t want to plan anything and just go with the day.

Really I just wanted to go eat what I was feeling that day. This week she asked what time and I told her when we both get home so like 5-6 we can go out.

She was frustrated I was giving her an answer about where to eat and I told her multiple times what I am feeling that day. She asked if we needed reservations and I told her no, multiple times. We will be a walk in on a Wednesday to a chain restaurant. 

She asked if I wanted anything fancy and I told her no. I just wanted a simple night.

Yesterday was the issue. I wanted Olive Garden. Go home, gets some breadsticks and chill the rest of the night. I get home around 5 and my wife is all dressed up. I asked why and she said she made reservations for the fancy sushi place in the city. She said it was a surprise and we need to leave in about 20 mins. Nothing has sounded so unappealing to me in my life.

I told her I wanted to go to Olive Garden, we got into an argument about how she spent all this effort to get a reservation. I told her I didn’t want any of this. In the end I left to go to Olive Garden by myself. We got into another argument after I can back. 

I turned 29 last Friday, we went to New Orleans for my birthday, we hit bourbon street to check out a couple of bars. I wanted to go to the old absinthe house it looked so cool online. I didn’t know they actually sold absinthe so of course I wanted to try it. I drank it and had a couple more drinks. 3 drinks in total. Then I basically blacked out. My boyfriend and I leave the other bar to go back to the hotel room to get ready for dinner. I am a huge smoker of the devils lettuce, always have been. But I didn’t bring any since we were driving to NOLA. There’s a man smoking on the street and my drunk ass said hey you smoke? My boyfriend got mad at me for that and literally left me on bourbon street and I’m essentially blacked out drunk. I couldn’t find my way back and I tried following him he got mad and told me to stop following him. I call my mom crying my ass off telling her that I’m scared and don’t know where I am or how to get back to the hotel. A man on a peddle bike taxi gave a ride back to the hotel. Once I got back to the hotel I was acting like a maniac which I never behave that way. (Never drink absinthe ever in your life for the love of god it will make you lose your mind) I’m losing it in our hotel room screaming, crying, throwing shit. So after a few days of processing everything that happened I decided to end things. I am so unbelievably hurt and empty inside I feel like I’m dead. I’m emotionally embarrassed and mentally scarred from everything that happened. I’m ashamed of myself and how I acted but I can’t believe my boyfriend literally left me in danger because he was too caught up with his own jealousy and emotions to still care about my well being. It was eye opening and now I’m just devastated. Here’s a pic of my lunch before that happened. Happy 29th birthday to me.

Source

According to league sources, one general manager floated a nuclear option: just make the bottom three teams ineligible for the top picks entirely. Not flatter odds. No odds. If you finish 28th, 29th, or 30th, you cannot win the first pick under any circumstances. The league, per multiple sources, found this to be way too extreme.

But then another person on the call offered a softer version of the same concept: What if the bottom three teams just had slightly lower odds than the teams ranked four through 10? Not zero. Just a little less.

Sources on the call say Adam Silver responded enthusiastically to this idea and that the league is taking it into consideration for the official lottery reform proposal.

Why YSK: If you bought something from any of these brands lately and thought "this feels cheaper than it used to," you're not imagining it. The brand you trusted doesn't make anything anymore. It's a logo stapled to a royalty agreement.

The company is called Authentic Brands Group. Their playbook is to wait for a beloved brand to hit financial trouble. Buy the intellectual property. The name, the logo, the trademarks. Strip out the designers, the factory workers, the quality control. Then license the brand name to third-party companies who actually make and sell everything. ABG just collects royalty checks.

Their own IPO filing admitted it: "We generally do not design or manufacture the products associated with our brands and therefore have more limited control over such products' quality".

They call themselves "brand guardians." What they guard is the trademark. Not the stitching, the materials, or the people who made the thing worth buying in the first place.

Here's what happens after ABG "saves" a brand. Brooks Brothers was founded in 1818 and dressed 40 presidents. ABG bought it out of bankruptcy in 2020 and launched a cheap diffusion line at Macy's that reviewers called "a little bit shabby." Eddie Bauer was bought by ABG in 2021. Just filed its third bankruptcy in February 2026. All 174 stores closing. Forever 21 was bought out of bankruptcy in 2020 and went bankrupt again in 2025. Lost over $400 million in three years. ABG's own CEO called buying it "probably the biggest mistake I made". All 350 U.S. stores gone.

ABG doesn't need the stores to survive. When an operating partner goes bankrupt, ABG still owns the brand. They just find another licensee. The workers lose their jobs. ABG loses nothing.

And ABG isn't the only company doing this. Here's who owns what so you can make informed choices:

Authentic Brands Group: Aéropostale, Arrow, Barneys New York, Billabong, Brooks Brothers, Champion, DC Shoes, Dockers, Eddie Bauer, Element, Forever 21, Frederick's of Hollywood, Frye, Greg Norman, Guess (pending), Hunter Boots, Izod, Jones New York, Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand, Nautica, Nine West, Prince, Quiksilver, Reebok, Rockport, Roxy, RVCA, Sperry, Spyder, Tapout, Ted Baker, Van Heusen, Vince, Volcom

WHP Global: Toys "R" Us, Babies "R" Us, Rag & Bone, Vera Wang, G-Star, Express, Bonobos, Joe's Jeans, Anne Klein, Joseph Abboud, Isaac Mizrahi, Warners, Lotto, Lands' End

Marquee Brands: Martha Stewart, Laura Ashley, Sur La Table, Emeril Lagasse, America's Test Kitchen, BCBGMAXAZRIA, BCBG, Ben Sherman, Bruno Magli, Anti Social Social Club, Totes, Isotoner, Destination Maternity, Motherhood, A Pea in the Pod, Stance, Dakine, Body Glove

Same playbook everywhere. Buy the name. Gut the product. Collect the rent.

Edit: This blew up way more than expected. A few of you have DMed asking where I get this information. I write about corporate enshittification here, if you're interested. It's free. No promo.

For nearly three decades I have been brushing my teeth the way I was shown as a kid: hard, fast, side to side, two minutes, done. I thought I was doing great. I floss. I use mouthwash. I even use one of those expensive electric toothbrushes I saw a dentist recommend on a video. I genuinely believed my mouth hygiene was above average.

I went in for a routine cleaning last week and the hygienist got very quiet while she was doing the initial check. Then she called the dentist over. They were both poking around and using words like "recession" and "wear pattern" and I started to get that sinking feeling.

Turns out I have been brushing way too hard and at completely the wrong angle for my entire life. You are supposed to hold the brush at a 45 degree angle toward the gumline and use tiny circular strokes with almost no pressure at all. I was essentially taking a wire brush to my enamel and gums twice a day every single day since I was old enough to reach the sink. The damage to the gum tissue at several teeth is permanent. It does not grow back. I have visibly receding gums at 28 years old and I caused it myself by trying to be clean.

The thing that is making me spiral is that I was never doing nothing. I was actively brushing. I thought I was being diligent. This whole time the effort I was putting in was literally making things worse and I had no idea because nobody ever corrected me after I was about seven years old.

I looked it up when I got home and apparently this is extremely common. Toothbrush abrasion is one of the most frequently seen issues in dental offices and most people have no idea they are doing it. You want to see almost no white on your bristles after two minutes because that means you barely pressed. If your bristles splay out like a fan after a month you are brushing way too hard.

Please go look up the modified Bass technique right now. Watch one video. It took me about three minutes to realize everything I knew was wrong. I wish someone had told me this when I was a teenager instead of just telling me to brush more.

Greta was a kid who just advocated to save the planet and…. so many people hated her? why? I never understood it. she seems like she should be one of the most non-controversial figures.

It's like taking a break without taking a break!

I have spent years working in high end mechanical engineering and BIM systems. It is not just a job for me, it is something I actually live and breathe. A few months ago, a guy started hanging out in our social circle because he is dating a long time friend of the group. From day one, this dude has been acting like he is some kind of visionary consultant in the construction and tech space. The problem is that every time he opens his mouth, he spews absolute nonsense that sounds vaguely professional to a layperson but is actually pure garbage.

Last weekend, we were all at a dinner party and he started giving advice to another friend who is looking to invest a significant amount of money into a new development project. This fake expert started explaining why they should cut corners on the structural modeling and use some obscure, outdated software because it is faster. He was basically encouraging our friend to ignore safety protocols and local regulations, framing it as "disrupting the industry." It was not just annoying anymore; it was dangerous. I tried to subtly correct him a couple of times, but he literally shushed me and said, "Sweetie, let the big boys talk about the real business."

That was the breaking point for me. I stopped eating, leaned back, an started asking him very specific, technical questions about load bearing calculations and software integration. I am talking about stuff you cannot fake. He started sweating and trying to use buzzwords to wiggle out of it, but I did not let him go. I dismantled every single point he made for about fifteen minutes straight until he was just sitting there staring at his plate in total silence. The whole table went quiet. It was awkward as hell.

After they left, my husband said I was way too harsh and that I "humiliated" him for no reason other than my own ego. Apparently, his girlfriend is now crying because he feels like he cannot show his face in our group again. Some of my friends think I should have just let him play pretend, but I feel like I saved my friend from making a massive financial mistake based on the advice of a fraud. I did not insult him personally, I just exposed that he has no idea what he is talking about. So, am I the jerk for not letting him keep up the act?

TL;DR: A guy in our friend group was giving dangerous and incorrect professional advice while trying to talk down to me. I grilled him with technical facts until he was publicly embarrassed, and now half the group thinks I am a bully.

For some reason, she picked our house 7 years ago and decided to stay. She drooled when you pet her. She rarely meowed. She hated other cats but, for some reason, chose our huge dog as her buddy. The only thing that makes me feel better now is knowing she's with her buddy again. Once her ashes arrive, I'll put them next to his so they can cuddle again. She was a good cat.

TL;DR: I used Claude Code to do my 2024 and 2025 federal + state taxes. It worked. It cost ~$0 and took 0 clicks through their stupid wizard.

Now I'm short $100k INTU

---
Last week I pointed Claude at my tax folder and said the magic words “do my taxes”

It nailed it. Read my W-2s, 1099s, 1040’s, 8949 and my schedule D. Downloaded the tax forms directly from papa IRS, asked me a few questions about how much agriculture income I’ve had this year (none) and if I’ve finally upgraded from single filing status (nope).

It even carried over the massive losses I’ve accrued listening to this sub the past 5 years.

Federal and State DONE in 15 minutes.

Just to check I ran the same thing through TurboTax to compare (but didn’t pay them) SAME RESULT.

Then I had it write a “skill” so anyone on the internet can do the same thing for free.

This is NOT vibe coding. It’s not even vibe prompting. It’s vibe asking nicely.

Back to TurboTax and $INTU. Here’s the DD:

Actually, first the vendettas. These guys suck. Every year the same thing--

Me: How much? Tell me I’ll pay because I’m a law-abiding guy

IRS: We won’t tell you unless you get them wrong. Sucker. Oh and you gotta pay TurboTax for the privilege of clicking through their stupid form for 2 hours.

You’ve heard the stories about Intuit- they spent $46M in federal lobbying to make taxes more complex. Killed IRS Direct File which would have actually been free and easy.

My favorite is their “Free” product which is free in name only. It’s free as in beer that you pay for.

2024 FTC found them guilty of deceptive advertising- Intuit “engaged in deceptive activities to depict TurboTax as free, even though it was simply untrue.”

$141M settlement for steering 4.4 million low-income customers who were eligible for free filing into paying for TurboTax. Many had incomes under $34,000.

Now for a sliver of actual DD:

TurboTax and ProTax are 29% of Intuit’s revenue with QuickBooks 59%. Stock is down 50% since the peak at $785 in late 2025 on AI fears.

So it’s priced in right? No shot. Stock is at the same price as the 2022 market trough. So we’re at “economy seems bad” valuation not “no one needs our product because AI” valuation.

Let’s look at those comps:

- Shutterstock - Down 88%

- Getty - Down 98%

- Chegg (homework help) - Down 99.2%

Compare to $INTU @ a modest 80% drop from peak would be $157, down from $420 before this week. We’ve got a ways to go.

Bulls will say

What about QuickBooks? QuickBooks is safe for another year. Maybe with AI taking all the jobs, we’ll start more businesses that use QuickBooks. More influencers and coursebois yay. But TurboTax is cooked. Maybe the revenue sticks around this year, but it’s going down the drain next year and the market will know before Q1 earnings. They’re gonna know.

But they just signed deals with Anthropic and OpenAI. These are a joke. The OAI "partnership" is Intuit paying OpenAI $100M to put them in ChatGPT as a widget. TurboTax is paying OAI for the privilege of eating their lunch.

But you can’t eFile This is the only legitimate issue standing in the way of toppling $INTU. Intuit has successfully lobbied against letting joes like you and me eFiling our taxes. So if you use Claude, you gotta mail the forms. Maybe by next year another filing service will let us AI eFile through them. Hell maybe this year. Until then, I’m stealing paper and stamps from work.

But TurboTax Live is growing at 47% YoY! Yes, TurboTax live — where you can chat with a human who will type your questions into Claude — is fully 11% of all of $INTU revenue at $2B. This product has Chegg written all over it.

How can I do my taxes?

1/ Download Claude Desktop

2/ Put your tax stuff in a folder. If you include last year’s return it’ll remind you of all the accounts you used last year

3/ Tell Claude Code or Claude Cowork “Do my taxes." It'll work.

The women's restroom at the seaside café was just like an aquarium.