kat

As cool as Earthships sound, I feel like they aren't a good fit for all climates. I'm in Canada, and unless you live in BC (and I'm talking Vancouver or the island), your only sustainable building option is straw bale.

Even if I could go further south to a more temperate climate, part of my fear is that anything south will get unbearable soon. Even Europe is going to be hot as hell.

My parents favourite music artists finally popped up on Spotify about 5 years ago. It was a dry run until then - I was PISSED when my brother lost my CD of a band I liked when we went back home on vacation.

Fuck that, I like you.

Stop buying stuff for a fantasy version of yourself. Even though the cost of living is insane, many consumers are still buying loads of useless crap that they hardly use or enjoy. People buy food they don't want to eat, appliances to make that food that they won't use, clothes for occasions that'll never come and bodies they'll never have.

If you're someone who can only eat vegetables in burrito form, do yourself a favor and buy some refried beans, canned veggies, and slice up fresh veggies you'd like to have in a burrito. You'll likely never be a green smoothie health nut, so you don't need a blender, juicer, or organic food subscription.

I also think it's wise to only buy clothes when you need them if you need them. You'll pay more when buying a wedding outfit last minute, but you'll pay more in the long term if you're constantly buying special occasion clothing "just in case". You can end up with a closet full of "just in case" that's too dressy for normal life. It's even worse if you're shopping for a version of yourself that is doing something hard. Buying cute workout clothes won't make you a 5 am runner. Stick to comfortable old rags when it comes to running, and see if you can actually commit to running. Then after a few months of being a runner, upgrade your gear - if you need to. Some of the fittest people in the world are poor and don't need the latest and greatest gear to be in shape. In winter, I run in thrifted wool and cashmere sweaters because they're warm and wicking. It sounds crazy but it works for me - and human beings have been doing hard labor for millennia in those very fabrics.

If you can swing it, consider a uniform. A dude at my office wears a suit every time he's in, but he truly only seems to own 3 suits. Nobody can tell it's all the same clothing. Steve Jobs, who was an evil prick, still had a good idea by picking that turtleneck and jeans outfit. It meant he never had to be in style because he never was. Consider a non offensive uniform that suits your lifestyle - if you're a graphic designer, you may be better off in a black hoodie and dark wash jeans, if you're in IT then golf shirts and chinos may be the right choice. Uniforms help you stay within budget, and mean you're never shopping for a cool person that doesn't exist.

Technically none, but my partner pays for Spotify and I'm on a shared YouTube Premium plan. I used to have 5-6 subscriptions and cut them off in January 2022. No regrets! Even buying an old machine second hand, an external storage, and a VPN still costs way less than my many subscriptions. It'll be hard to give up Spotify... Too convenient.

Disagree. Celsius is super helpful for determining if it's gonna snow or not, a key weather thing where I live. Humid and cold and below 0? Snow. Humid and cold and above 0? Rain or freezing rain.

Also helps with plants. Below 0? Frost.

I'd argue you can't get more intuitive than 0 is cold, below 0 is very cold. Celsius also plays nice with round numbers, every 5 or 10 degrees is a change in feeling. 0 is cold, 5 out is cooler, 10 out is cool, 15 is moderate, 20 is comfortable, 25 is room and warm, 30 is hot, 35+ is very hot. Every ten degrees we're doing big changes. 0 is frozen, 10 is cool, 20 is comfortable, 30 is hot. 32 being frozen doesn't feel as intuitive.

Something about equating the choice to have kids with reducing the climate impact leaves me with an icky feeling. Not all humans have the same climate impact, so not all children would, either. Instead of telling Bob not to procreate, we really need to take a long hard look at Bezos and his many private flights.

Never forget that "carbon footprint" is propoganda by the fossil fuel industry to push the responsibility of climate change onto individuals rather than large corporations who are the ones truly responsible for the mess we're in.

I volunteered a local food bank before the pandemic. I'm Canadian so this is purely from the perspective of that, but I've observed a couple of things:

• Food banks are very efficient with money so if you donate that, they can make it go a long way. Way better than chucking a few cans near expiry. That being said, food is always welcome and appreciated. Ask your local food bank about what types of food you're allowed to give.
• Our food bank also provided toiletries which were always a hot item. If you have extra shampoos (unopened), conditioners, tampons, doggy pee pads, deodorant, toilet paper, or any hair products you don't need, donate to a food bank. If you're feeling generous and you know your local dollar store has name brand products for a decent price, pick up some stuff and drop it off if they accept that type of product. Also don't be afraid to donate something you (an adult) wouldn't use like strawberry scented deodorant. There are a lot of teen girls that would love it.
• Please don't donate your expired food. For food that's just a bit expired, we had a system of sending it to the local Sikh charity who cooked meals with the food and served that to those in need. But that was our food bank's agreement because we were near a large Sikh community, your expired cans are a lot better off being used in your soup than being sent to a food bank that will throw it out. (Food banks often have no exceptions policies about chucking out expired goods, but most things are fine to eat past the BB date. Canned beans from 2021 are better in your tummy than at the food bank in most cases).
• I'm not sure if this is true for all Canadian A&W restaurants, but our local one donated eggs in large quantities. Pretty much every family coming through could get fresh eggs every trip. Seasonally, the butchers and local grocery would also donate large turkeys for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was wonderful for local families. Anyway, so now when I do eat junk food, I go to A&W cause the burgers are good and turns out that they're real homies.
• The shoppers (name we had for those who used our food bank) were kind people from a variety of backgrounds. Most were at the very least quiet and did their trip quickly, but the vast majority were extremely thankful to those who volunteered.
• Those who volunteer at food banks vary - in Ontario we have some mandatory community hours for local high school kids, so you'll get some teens trying to fill their hours. But you'll also meet people who needed that food bank at some point in their life. And older people who want someone to talk to. And kind souls who want to make a difference. And the occasional power tripper who really wants to look great in the community. But most people are fantastic.
• People who need food banks vary dramatically. Some were obviously homeless and had substance abuse issues (we banned any who were inebriated to the point of causing issues for staff), some were single moms, some were older people who needed help in retirement, some were on disability etc. It will open your eyes that anyone can fall on hard times. A woman who volunteered there disclosed that she needed the food bank after being diagnosed with MS and her husband losing his job in the same year. Luckily she's in a better spot now and decided to give back when she could.
• This is just an observation from my perspective, but I was a late 20s petite woman who made decent money and I always tried to dress down for the experience so that I wouldn't make anyone feel strange. A lot of people who needed the food bank were in my age group. I typically wore old jeans, an old thick hoodie, no makeup, etc. It was both practical and considerate. I noticed the dudes my age who were using the food bank didn't even make eye contact with me when I was helping them pick food. I think a lot of them were very considerate to not make me feel weird about the interaction, but it also felt like there's a lot of cultural pressure on men to be successful, and it seemed like shopping with a girl their own age was kinda a negative experience. It made me sad, I think our society needs to do a lot of work on men's mental health and the pressure to be successful and a provider.

Humans weren't ready for easily accessible sucrose, let alone an easily manipulated reality. My parents can't tell the difference between Facebook rumors and reality. My siblings can't tell the difference between YouTube conspiracies and reality. And I'm this boat, letting myself get personally affected by text on some website. We're in over out heads.

One of my Linux people left Odysee recently. Can you guess why? He got sick of all the Nazi shit.

Is this image some sort of gospel? In that case, there's no visual or stylistic difference between Hestia and Naruse. Even Rory looks the same as the others. So clearly this image is piss poor at communicating some sort of clear visual definition of Loli.

For the record, out of the lolis, I'd count the first five as looking underage, not just the first one. This is largely due to their giant heads, tiny bodies.

Now here's the image Wikipedia uses for lolicon: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Lolicon_Sample.png/1280px-Lolicon_Sample.png

I think the consensus is that for anyone who is not a Loli connoisseur, lolicon is pretty much defined by Wikis view of it, not some random image that doesn't really clarify much about true Loli characteristics. I have no problem with hentai of adult or ambiguously adult characters. I'm just saying that if you're gonna call it Loli, people are gonna expect the image I linked to.

Why are you derailing an argument about adult underage content with definitions of the phrase first world?