My Bluesky posts

• Thu, 11:45: Airbnb and Vrbo are going downhill like a hippo on a water slide HARD AGREE. I long ago got to the point where I discovered that, if you just know how to look, you can find perfectly good hotel rooms that cost around the same—and these days are often notably cheaper—than Airbnb or Vrbo rentals, and critically, at least hotels consistently provide actual amenities. These days I find the asking prices on Airbnb to be typically bonkers, and it used to be the economic choice. This article has far worse horror story examples than I ever experienced, but I have also stayed in Airbnbs where it appeared we were sharing the limited supply of soap with the hosts. Ditto the towels. And of course there was that Airbnb host I rented from in Vancouver B.C. in 2018 who acted like I was the weirdo for wanting a top sheet on my bed, and when the review I posted wasn't perfect he actually messaged me to ask that I edit it to a higher rating. (That's not how this works.) Sometimes Airbnb is the only available choice, for instance for a group getaway in a house on the water on a remote island, as in my trip to Fox Island at the end of May. That one was mostly fine, although the windows had not been cleaned in ages and the sliding glass door was covered in disgusting children's hand prints. We were also required to strip the linens off all our beds and leave them in the laundry room. Why are we paying to do these people's work for them? We don't have to do this shit in hotels, which aren't even on average any more expensive! These "home sharing" hosts are business owners who don't actually know how to run a business. And don't even get me started on the number of units in the condo complex where we live that are being used exclusively for Airbnb, thus both directly and indirectly driving down the value of living in our building.
• Thu, 21:05: "Horror tearjerker" was a direction I did not expect this to go. https://t.co/5iEbqfDgAq

it'll be fine

— पांच हजार आठ सौ इकतीस — I guess the highlight of my evening last night would be taking myself to see the French film (though it was pretty evenly spoken in both French and English) Jane Austen Wrecked My Life, which was at 4:15 at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown on Lower Queen Anne. Being a SIFF Cinema theater, I could not use my AMC membership to see this one—even with the SIFF member discount, it still cost me $12. (Without the discount it would have been $17.) I had budgeted $11 and forgot they raised the prices. I'm not certain it was worth it. I did get to use my last free popcorn from the punch card that came with the latest renewal of my membership, though, so that gave it greater value. I don't remember how much a small popcorn is there anymore. Seven dollars, maybe? Anyway the movie was fine. I left work at 4:00 to ride my bike up there, then rode home after the movie ended. Traffic was absolutely nuts, so much so that I was taken aback. More than one intersection on my route, particularly through Belltown, had vehicles blocking intersections, in I think two different cases even buses. Shobhit theorized that it was related to today being a federal holiday (Juneteenth) and that maybe more people than usual worked in-office yesterday since they would have today off. Maybe it was related, but I can't imagine that alone would make this much of a difference. — पांच हजार आठ सौ इकतीस — — पांच हजार आठ सौ इकतीस — Anyway, Shobhit was ready to heat up some frozen naan when I got home, and I had the leftover potato dish with rice and naan for dinner, which I ate while starting my review—which I enjoyed writing more than I usually do for a movie that is pretty middle-of-the-road, pleasant enough, no real complaints, but not especially memorable to me either. After that we watched two episodes of Poker Face on Peacock. I signed up for a month just for this show, and also so we could watch Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (which we watched on Monday). We'll have to see if there's anything worth watching once we're done with this season of Poker Face. These two episodes were as ridiculous as ever but were still pretty fun. I did sign up for the tier with commercials, though, since that cuts the price in half. It does mean like six different commercial breaks, though, which is annoying. I get really ambivalent about this because streamers actually make more money overall when people sign up for tiers with commercials, but I pay more money if I get the higher tier. If my budget were less tight, I would go for the higher tier just so they got less money, I find the commercials so annoying. But, this is where we're at, and will likely be for at least the next couple of hours while I am saving for the trips to Amsterdam and Australia. Unless Shobhit gets another high-paying job in addition to the 12-hour-a-week one he has now. That would be nice, if we could just get a little extra breathing room here. But whatever, it's working out fine. — पांच हजार आठ सौ इकतीस — [posted 12:33pm]