Talkie Toaster is here. “Howdy-doodly-do, how’s it going?”

You’re welcome. There are a few exclusive books that only show up an Amazon but so far 99% of what I have been shopping for has been available on Kobo.

I use Calibre with a couple of plugins. KoboUtilities and Obok DeDRM. It is easy.

I’m all for people doing this if they can.

Meanwhile, I love my Kobo e-reader and I only purchase e-books from Kobo (since Amazon eliminated “side loading”).

Were you sealioning? There’s little tolerance for that kind of move.

I’m in this comic and I hate it. I have had many a Friday evening ruined because some random asshole at work puts in a last minute ticket, and my neurosis just will not leave me be until Monday.

Well, some of us have niche kinks, like dumping poo from a fighter jet. You won’t find that any ol’ porn hub site.

This is definitely a trap. It’s happening at the same time as the anti-porn crusade.

They are intentionally making websites frustrating so we’ll use their stupid proprietary apps instead.

I’ve worked at a lot of different places and in my experience it varies a lot.

Some bosses cut everybody slack. Some bosses are jerks and cut nobody any slack. I would say most of them play favorites with their employees (some are blatant about it, some are more subtle). Some bosses cut the workers with kids more slack. Some bosses cut the workers with kids less slack.

Anecdotal evidence is like that. It’s emotionally compelling, but doesn’t really tell us what’s going on in the bigger picture.

Yes, the pressure is immense and I suspect most would not miss it if they could just let it go and could experience life without it.

Reduce, reuse, recycle in that order of priority.

The economics of Christmas spending is mind boggling. It’s not a harmless once a year indulgence.

Thank you, I’m grateful for anyone who gets where I’m coming from with this.

That’s awesome, but let’s not ignore the billions in profits, and questionable spending, and plastic waste production that goes on every year because people feel cultural pressure to buy things for other adults. For every one thoughtful person like you, there’s a thousand buying junk nobody wants or needs.

Thank you for the adult perspective.

So, nobody should ever nudge others towards new behaviors or ideas? And how do you know who I do and don’t buy gifts for? Lot of assumptions here.

I don’t see it as that black and white. Kids get special treatment in many different contexts.

Thank you, well said.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to hope (even if naively so) for a cultural shift away from the “Black Friday” mentality that taints the holidays.