PSA to those in California

[Zodiark1593]

https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/10/07/severe-winds-could-trigger-widespread-pge-deliberate-blackouts/

 

Tl'dr, the potential for PG&E blackouts across some very large swaths of the state that could take place mid-week. I hate this bloody state (power shutoffs certaibly aren't the sole reason, though they don't exactly add to the list of good things about California either). 

 

Not much more to say here. If you reside in the Bay Area, charge your laptops and battery banks (in the off chance that mobile carriers actually deem us worthy to provide backup power for their transponders this time). Probably best not to buy lots of perishables unless you happen to have a generator lying around, which would probably be better served powering your tv or PC anyway (because PC enthusiast forum). Resist the urge to loot your neighborhood, or at least, ask nicely before looting. Etc, etc, etc.

 

 

[AlexOak]

Spoiler

I hear the south has it the best. 

[Gegger]

man, i used to live in calif

 

got power outages maybe 1-2 times a month

[Zodiark1593]

11 minutes ago, AlexOak said:

  Hide contents

I hear the south has it the best. 

I'm not a big fan of warm weather. I tend to prefer cool to cold, like "it actually snows" cold. I've given some strong consideration to Alaska (I've some friends out there), though I'm fully aware certain stuff (perishable food, namely) is more expensive, and finding work is likely to be a challenge.

[WindirBear]

California is the breast! I hate the high taxes, and excessive environmental laws here. 10¢ for plastic bag that uses MORE plastic!? 5¢ crv for bottles and cans!? That diminishes the incentive to recycle. It honestly made me h8 the environment and throw all my bottles in the trash. I know I'm Petty but it's so damn hard to live here.

[Donut417]

7 hours ago, WindirBear said:

5¢ crv for bottles and cans!?

It’s 10 cents here in Michigan. You don’t hear us crying. Take the bottles back and get the CRV back. Laziness is not an excuse. 
 

7 hours ago, WindirBear said:

10¢ for plastic bag that uses MORE plastic!?

Bring your own bags. That’s what we do and we are not charged for plastic here in Michigan, but we are doing the right thing. 

[Lowbuget]

11 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I'm not a big fan of warm weather. I tend to prefer cool to cold, like "it actually snows" cold. I've given some strong consideration to Alaska (I've some friends out there), though I'm fully aware certain stuff (perishable food, namely) is more expensive, and finding work is likely to be a challenge.

consider wisconsin : D 

[FezBoy]

10 hours ago, WindirBear said:

10¢ for plastic bag that uses MORE plastic!?

The plastic is far more durable and is meant to be reused tens of times.  Regardless, the 10 cent fee is there to prevent you from buying them, the end goal is for you to bring your own tote bags that you use hundreds of times. (which will be cheaper than buying a plastic bag or two every day.)

 

Edit: Receiving money for recycling makes you want to recycle less?  Does your municipality not have a recycling service with your garbage service, so you have to drop it off at a recycling center yourself, and five cents a can isn't enough for you?  Everyone in my town (In Butte county) gets a recycling bin in with their trash service, and just puts their cans and stuff in there, getting nothing in return.  Complaining about getting a small amount of money for something most people do for free makes literally no sense. 

 

Do you think you could clarify your situation?

[JZStudios]

1 hour ago, Lowbuget said:

consider wisconsin : D 

Good god, he doesn't have a death wish.

24 minutes ago, FezBoy said:

The plastic is far more durable and is meant to be reused tens of times.  Regardless, the 10 cent fee is there to prevent you from buying them, the end goal is for you to bring your own tote bags that you use hundreds of times. (which will be cheaper than buying a plastic bag or two every day.)

 

Edit: Receiving money for recycling makes you want to recycle less?  Does your municipality not have a recycling service with your garbage service, so you have to drop it off at a recycling center yourself, and five cents a can isn't enough for you?  Everyone in my town (In Butte county) gets a recycling bin in with their trash service, and just puts their cans and stuff in there, getting nothing in return.  Complaining about getting a small amount of money for something most people do for free makes literally no sense. 

 

Do you think you could clarify your situation?

In my town you have to pay extra for a recycling bin, despite the fact that we don't have a recycling plant and it all goes to the dump anyways.

[dalekphalm]

10 hours ago, WindirBear said:

California is the breast! I hate the high taxes, and excessive environmental laws here. 10¢ for plastic bag that uses MORE plastic!?

I think you maybe misunderstand the point of the 10 cent fee for plastic bags...?

 

It's an incentive for you to bring your own reusable bags that will last you years (in some cases, decades).

10 hours ago, WindirBear said:

5¢ crv for bottles and cans!? That diminishes the incentive to recycle. It honestly made me h8 the environment and throw all my bottles in the trash. I know I'm Petty but it's so damn hard to live here.

Wait a second, you getting 5 cents deposit back on bottles and cans makes you throw them in the trash? No offense, but why in the hell would you do that? Many places don't even have bottle deposit fees (In Ontario, we only have bottle/can deposits on alcohol).

 

You're supposed to return them for your money back. If you can't be assed to get your money back, at least recycle them.

[Lowbuget]

8 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

Good god, he doesn't have a death wish.

lol hey i survived 17 hears here

[JZStudios]

3 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

I think you maybe misunderstand the point of the 10 cent fee for plastic bags...?

 

It's an incentive for you to bring your own reusable bags that will last you years (in some cases, decades).

Wait a second, you getting 5 cents deposit back on bottles and cans makes you throw them in the trash? No offense, but why in the hell would you do that? Many places don't even have bottle deposit fees (In Ontario, we only have bottle/can deposits on alcohol).

 

You're supposed to return them for your money back. If you can't be assed to get your money back, at least recycle them.

Good news, I just looked up my city's recycling. It now no longer does paper or glass and just sends them to the dump, along with reducing the frequency of pickups and charging more money for it.

[dalekphalm]

Just now, JZStudios said:

Good news, I just looked up my city's recycling. It now no longer does paper or glass and just sends them to the dump, along with reducing the frequency of pickups and charging more money for it.

Do you live in California?

[Zando_]

4 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

It's an incentive for you to bring your own reusable bags that will last you years (in some cases, decades).

Wait a second, you getting 5 cents deposit back on bottles and cans makes you throw them in the trash? No offense, but why in the hell would you do that? Many places don't even have bottle deposit fees (In Ontario, we only have bottle/can deposits on alcohol).

 

You're supposed to return them for your money back. If you can't be assed to get your money back, at least recycle them.

Or if you can't be arsed to turn them in yourself, be a cool human being and give them to the neighborhood kids. Me and my siblings used to collect bottles and cans to turn them in for pocket money, that along with mowing lawns and birthday money was how I got most of my cash. 

Actually pretty miffed that (to my knowledge), Tennessee doesn't do that. We go through insane amounts of bottled water at work, if they let you turn them in then I'd collect all those bottles for my younger sibs. But heck, they don't even recycle here so . (they legit just dump the recycling bins into the same landfill as the actual trash, just have you sort it because reasons)

[JZStudios]

Just now, dalekphalm said:

Do you live in California?

No, so it might still happen there, expenses be damned. But apparently China has stopped buying recycled bottles and paper, so a bunch of places are just stopping doing it and are taking a huge loss. So literally just throwing things away in the dump is the same thing as recycling.

[JZStudios]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Or if you can't be arsed to turn them in yourself, be a cool human being and give them to the neighborhood kids. Me and my siblings used to collect bottles and cans to turn them in for pocket money, that along with mowing lawns and birthday money was how I got most of my cash. 

Actually pretty miffed that (to my knowledge), Tennessee doesn't do that. We go through insane amounts of bottled water at work, if they let you turn them in then I'd collect all those bottles for my younger sibs. But heck, they don't even recycle here so . (they legit just dump the recycling bins into the same landfill as the actual trash, just have you sort it because reasons)

There's probably some local scrap yard or metal plant or something that might buy them, even if the city doesn't. For aluminum cans anyways, they aren't interested in anything else.

[dalekphalm]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Or if you can't be arsed to turn them in yourself, be a cool human being and give them to the neighborhood kids. Me and my siblings used to collect bottles and cans to turn them in for pocket money, that along with mowing lawns and birthday money was how I got most of my cash. 

I am very thorough about always returning my bottles for deposit. Those that put them into recycling tend to have homeless go collect them - which is a good thing too.

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Actually pretty miffed that (to my knowledge), Tennessee doesn't do that. We go through insane amounts of bottled water at work, if they let you turn them in then I'd collect all those bottles for my younger sibs. But heck, they don't even recycle here so . (they legit just dump the recycling bins into the same landfill as the actual trash, just have you sort it because reasons)

A lot of places do that to have the "appearance" of recycling to locals. It's very underhanded.

Just now, JZStudios said:

No, so it might still happen there, expenses be damned. But apparently China has stopped buying recycled bottles and paper, so a bunch of places are just stopping doing it and are taking a huge loss. So literally just throwing things away in the dump is the same thing as recycling.

Recycling is expensive in general - your state (or ideally, a national strategy) should look at introducing local recycling facilities that process recycling and sell the material for use in the domestic market.

 

Does your state do bottle deposits?

 

Countries need to look at recycling strategies better, and look into national programs that can actually reintroduce the materials into the economy.

[AlexOak]

13 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I'm not a big fan of warm weather. I tend to prefer cool to cold, like "it actually snows" cold. I've given some strong consideration to Alaska (I've some friends out there), though I'm fully aware certain stuff (perishable food, namely) is more expensive, and finding work is likely to be a challenge.

You are correct it is expensive to live in Southern California and finding work is a job its self too(No really it is...). As for the cost of housing... one studio apartment can be 1,000~2,000 $ If you are lucky you may find a 3 bedroom for $1,350.

[bimmerman]

OP, thanks for the heads up.

[IkeaGnome]

13 hours ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I'm not a big fan of warm weather. I tend to prefer cool to cold, like "it actually snows" cold. I've given some strong consideration to Alaska (I've some friends out there), though I'm fully aware certain stuff (perishable food, namely) is more expensive, and finding work is likely to be a challenge.

Depending on the line of work you're in, finding a job up here is easy. Don't mind manual labor? Jobs are easy to come by. Yes the cost of living tends to be higher up here, but companies tend to pay better because of it. Our minimum wage up here is the national($7.77), but even my first summer up here doing seasonal work I started at $10. That was just cutting fish. Once you get into oil field, construction or mining the pay is great and it's all rotation work due to the remote nature of most of it. I'm personally on a 2 week on, 2 week off schedule. Work 14 days straight, get 14 days off. 2 on 1 off, and 4 on 2 off are also very common up here. If you don't mind remote work, you can find that work anywhere from actual labor work all the way to cooks and house keepers. In general, there are more jobs than workers up here. The state economy is pretty messed up right now though due to our PFD(our version of a UBI based on oil sales and surplus).

@Zodiark1593

 

[John_Trollinski]

Thanks I will. My power and water has been on and off all week.

[Zodiark1593]

2 hours ago, Lowbuget said:

consider wisconsin : D 

I've heard good things about Colorado too.

[NinJake]

2 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I've heard good things about Colorado too.

Depends on where in Wisconsin you look. I wouldn't recommend Milwaukee unless you reallllly like the "city life" but even that is a stretch. Lots of violence but not as bad as Chicago. Tons of beautiful areas especially up north near Canada. WI

[Zodiark1593]

1 minute ago, NinJake said:

Depends on where in Wisconsin you look. I wouldn't recommend Milwaukee unless you reallllly like the "city life" but even that is a stretch. Lots of violence but not as bad as Chicago. Tons of beautiful areas especially up north near Canada. WI

I do like Canada itself quite a bit, though moving there seems an unrealistic prospect.

[Lowbuget]

1 hour ago, Zodiark1593 said:

I do like Canada itself quite a bit, though moving there seems an unrealistic prospect.

See i live in green bay,its not bad as long as you dont look at the idiot drivers,but other than that its beautiful nature(We are suppost to get snow Sunday so it will be more epic)