I've had 4 or 5 series in my life that I stopped midway through one of the books. This wasn't one of them. I read a lot, for what it's worth. I think realizing it was YA, I kind of relaxed my bullshit, tired-trope, stupidity reflex and just went along with it. It's been awhile since I read them, so I appreciated your synopsis. I get so disappointed when I have to stop a couple book in because I'm getting pissed off at the author.
sin_free_for_00_days
I wasn't a huge fan of his back then. I'm still not, to be honest, but I've really learned to appreciate his ability to craft a song. Just really underappreciated.
When I say "not a fan", I just mean that I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to him. But if he comes on the station, I'm not going to change it.
A livable wage is now considered a far left issue? Jesus christ things have gotten bad.
There are always doomsayers saying raising the minimum wage will do . And over and over it's shown to not have that effect. What it does in improve the lives of millions of people.
I think it would be cool. I like watching out train windows though. Just be flexible. If it's not working, don't force it. When you plan your trip, spend time on contingency plans.
Train at night -> sleep
Links don't work for me.
OS Debian GNU/Linux forky/sid x86_64
Browser Firefox 152.0a1
Kernel 6.19.14+deb14-amd64
Resolution 2560x1080
WM i3
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS w/ Radeon 780M Graphics (16) @ 5.137GHz
GPU AMD ATI 66 00.0 Phoenix1
Memory 4423MiB / 25839MiB
I thought "Sharting" but you could be right.
I've thought for a long time that leaving behind a story for loved ones to tell about the time I was just hanging out and got obliterated by a meteor would be a good way to go.
Kim Stanley Robinson's novel The Ministry for the Future starts with a very similar setting.
I laughed at that because the original had the whole thing about China and ended with "...move all my soon to be worthless USD to YEN." I didn't think it was a typo, so it was funny, but it looks like dude changed it to be consistent with what he was saying.

I think I'm just blocking too much. At one point I got a message something like "if you're seeing this, your browser is blocking chatbox". Before that the links did nothing. The color changer buttons worked.