“Should I spend most of a year’s savings to take my friend on a vacation to the Maldives?
This is what happened. 28th of December this year will be 10,000 days since I was born. About a year or two ago, I calculated this date and bragged to my friend, “I’ll take you to Maldives on vacation when it comes around!”
I didn’t take it too seriously at the time. I only said Maldives because it was famous, like some kind of Holy Land of luxury vacations. I never even thought about the money. At the time, I was still optimistically thinking, “Maybe I’ll luck into a lot of money some day.”
And then, since the deadline was so far away, I was never worried about it, and I thought it was funny, so I kept bringing it up. And now, both my friend and I are kind of taking it seriously…
And then, as time went on, obviously, I did not luck into any money. My income and savings are both at an awkward state. And now that it’s 2025, the deadline is drawing nearer and nearer, and I’m starting to really hesitate.
About my income and work:
It’s not great, but it’s not bad either. When things are going well, I can save about 200K a year, 100K in 6 months. It looks really great when I say it like that, but my work is really hard and I don’t spend much money usually. It’s not easy to make and save up this money, so I feel bad when spending it.
About my expected expenses:
I haven’t made detailed plans yet, but if I’m going out on vacation, I’d want to do something nice. But if I want to do something nice, it’s gonna be kinda expensive? Plus, end of the year is peak season so everything will be extra pricey, plus plane tickets to and from…adding everything up, I think it’s gonna cost close to 100K. That’s half a year’s worth of savings for me.
About my friend:
She’s a very good friends. We were roommates in college, and kept renting together as roommates after graduation. It’s been almost 10 years now. She’s a very nice person, and is really good to me. There’s genuine value to me in taking her out somewhere and having memorable experiences together. I’m fine spending money on her normally…if it wasn’t this expensive (quietly).
About my hesitation:
I think the key is that I work really hard for my money. Just thinking about how once I spend this, I’m gonna have to work my ass off for half a year to make it back, I feel really bad. But I also feel like I’ve been working for 4-5 years, and I’ve never rewarded myself. I never even go on vacation. 10,000 days of life + 10 year anniversary of friendship with my friend are all occasions worth celebration…and Maldives looks great. We might have a great time and make shiny, valuable memories.
And so I’m stuck. I keep going back and forth.
Wondering if anyone has any thoughts!”
Comments say, “A true friend wouldn’t make you pay for everything.”
“When you started hesitating, you already no longer wanted to go.”
“You deserve this. Shouldn’t have bragged.”
A discussion on explaining fairytales with science:
“Is the reason it hurt for the Little Mermaid to walk on land because the sea witch just made two bones for legs and didn’t make any joint capsules, synovial cells, or knee caps?”
“The reason she lost her voice is because originally, her brain only had to control one fish tail. Once that tail turned into a leg, her brain could still only control one leg. In order to control both legs, she had to pay with the part of the brain that controls the vocal cords.”
“She provided a bad service. The Little Mermaid could probably use this to win a law suit to get her voice back.”
“Maybe the sea witch only made meat and bones for the feet and didn’t bother with any tendons. Those 20 bones are gonna grind on each other with every step she takes, like the stuffing in a stress ball grinds on each other.”
“Oh, so in Sleeping Beauty, when the spindle probably took out the Princess because it was rusty and gave her tetanus.”
“Imagine shorting all of this stuff but still making sure every nerve is placed correctly. Does she care about detail or not? (Not really)”
[In the video in question here, the man married three wives sequentially who all had some kind of mental or intellectual disability, producing six children who all have some kind of disability. He has definitely displayed behaviour and said things during livestreams that imply domestic violence, and there are accusations that he abandoned his fifth child shortly after they were born.]
#Man with disabled wife could be sentenced to death. “On the 21st of August, netizens reported a video on a short video platform #Influencer marries three disabled wives, and drew much attention. Dahe News reporter learned that the account in question was “Villager Chen” with 178K fans. The content of the account was the daily lives of the uploader and his family.
Tiktok Blackboard News posted regarding this event, “Villager Chen has already posted a video claiming that internet rumours of “incest” are baseless rumours. The account history has violations regarding minors and disabled persons, and he has already been punished at the time in accordance with Tiktok Community Rules. The account has never posted any comment related to “violating children”. That comment was posted by a copycat account, and the copycat account has been permanently banned. [But Villager Chen has said in a livestream, “If nobody wants to marry my fourth girl, I can always use her myself.” And, “I’m gonna try once she grows up.”]
Regarding disabled women marrying and having children, Layer Cai Yaqi has given her analysis: “Whether disabled women can marry is a question of marital law and also of criminal law. The first concerns whether or not the marriage is legal, and the latter concerns whether or not the husband might be guilty of rape. If the disabled woman was not in the right mental state when she was married or having relations, then she is not responsible for her civil or criminal actions. At this time, the marriage is ineffectual and the husband is guilty or rape. If the disabled woman becomes pregnant and has a child, then the husband’s behaviour is considered aggravated, and the punishment might escalate to over 10 years in prison, life in prison, or even death.”
Comments say, “#Man castrated for sexually assaulting 7-year-old girl.”
“So sentence him then.”
“Show me how you sentence him then. Words are easy to say.”
“Nobody ever gets sentenced in real life though.”
A compilation of historical events that don’t sound like they happened in the same era, but they did:
“The Qing Dynasty ended in 1912. Converse was established in 1908. During the Nationalist era, people were already wearing Converses. The most popular design of Converses was made in 1920, and they haven’t changed much since.”
“Humans have known about DNA for less than 100 years. One of the people who discovered the double helix structure of DNA is still alive right now.”
“When the You Emperor of Zhou was lighting signal fires to mess with his Princes, that’s only 5 years before the first Olympic Games.”
“When Coca Cola was invented, China was still in the Qing Dynasty. In fact, when Cixi ran from the palace, she brought two bottles with her.”
“In 1905, Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity. In the same year, the Qing Dynasty abolished the Keju [national scholar exam for becoming a government official].”
“1799, Emperor Qianlong passed away. The same year, in America, George Washington passed away.”
“When the mammoths went extinct, the Egyptians were building pyramids.”
A compilation of drunk dads:
“My dad got drunk and picked up my dog and started telling it stories of when he was young, told the dog to study hard, put 200RMB into the dog’s lap, and pulled me off my bed in the middle of sleep and went, “Why is the dog on the bed?” And then put the dog down where I was laying and tucked it in.”
“My dad got drunk and my mom and I couldn’t lift him, so we let him sleep on the couch. In the middle of the night, he finished the homework I left out on the couch.”
“My dad got drunk and got me chicken tenders. I was sleeping, so he stuffed the chicken tenders into my nose.”
“My dad got drunk and started rolling around on the floor, and kept saying I was a good kid because I finally bought him a 10 metre long bed.”
“My dad got drunk and came back, and I told him that the AC in my room was leaking and told him to fix it. He said he would, and this is how he fixed it.”
“My dad got drunk and found a string from somewhere, went into my sister’s room, and told everyone to come in and watch him fish. (My sister was sleeping with her mouth open, and he put the string in her mouth.)”
“My dad got drunk and came into my room in the middle of the night and put my wig on his head. Never even opened the light. Picked up the milk off of my table and squeezed it on my face, saying he was going to help me wash my face. Who knows that feel when you choke awake on milk and see a man-woman staring down at you.”
“When my dad got drunk, he pointed at his appendectomy scar and said it was from when he gave birth to me.”
“My dad got drunk and started fighting some grass by the side of the road, because the grass was too stabby.”
“My dad got drunk and gave his wallet to my little brother. Pushed it onto him even though my brother refused. And then said my brother was stealing his money and beat my brother up.”
“My dad came back and sat on the ground with his back against the couch. My mom and I used every ounce of strength we had to put him on the bed. We went out to wash out hands and came back to see him kneeling on the ground, laying across the bed with his upper body, laughing his ass off. We ask what he’s laughing about, and he said he just saw two pigs pick him up and put him in bed.”
“My dad got drunk and threw up on my charger. He got sober and was worried I would get mad so he put it in the bathroom to dry. I came back in the afternoon to try to charge my phone and almost electrocuted myself.”
“My dad drank too much and was lying on the couch, smoking, when he fell asleep and the cigarette burned a big hole into the couch. The next day, he woke up and asked me how I managed to fart a hole into the couch.”
“My dad got drunk and laid down in bed and told me to help him deliver the baby.”
“My dad got drunk and ate 5 cans of canned fruit outside. A while later, he grabbed two cans and put it against my head. I was pretending to be sleeping so I pretended to get woken up by him, and he was like, “I knew you were a pig. You can sense food automatically.””
“My dad once got super drunk, came home, and snuck into my room to steal my press-on nails. Woke up in the morning to find them on his feet, glued on with 502 and impossible to remove.”
“My dad is fat. When I was little, he’d get drunk and hold out his manboob for me to drink from.”
“My dad got drunk and came back, and I told him that the AC in my room was leaking and told him to fix it. He said he would, and this is how he fixed it.”
How?