smeg

25 or 6 to 4 by Chicago

Everything else is more of a soft jazz rock. But this song is such a high energy banger

Flanders (and Brussels) join the Netherlands.

Nobody asked for this

Obviously not applicable to bedrooms or private spaces, but it seems pretty normal in Northern-ish Europe, maybe Calvinist-influence countries, not to close curtains in the main living space. There seems to be a strong preference for natural light. And with how rainy or dark the sky can be depending on the time of year, people try to maximize natural lighting.

I maintain a small Windows dual boot for taking certification exams (that don’t run on Linux). It’s torture to update it once every 6 months. 3-4 hours requiring multiple reboots.

Where I live, people who close their curtains are treated with suspicion.

I still have some of my downloads from back in the day. 128Kbps mp3 😭

To harass them through every checkpoint for the rest of their life. Terrorism by law is the new norm.

Every street is North America is a highway. Straight, level, smooth, and intended for fast driving. The continent has designed streets not safe for human presence, fully supported by the older generations, and now they have the gall to complain about kids sitting indoors all of the time.

Dutch cops out a lot on adapting punny names. Part of it is that the puns don’t work, but part of it is that the Dutch are very literal with naming things.

The Count on Sesame Street? Graaf Tel. Count (title) Count (action).

This will be the corporate response.

“Only poors use transit, anyway! In fact, ban pedestrians because they might confuse our delivery robot! Sidewalks should be renamed Delivery Bot Lanes.”

https://cooljugator.com/ - website that helps with looking up word conjugation. Great for language learning, since a translation is sort of cheating and can lead you astray on meaning

https://www.timeanddate.com/ - super handy site for finding meeting times between time zones, looking up international calendars for holiday, etc

NO PEOPLE. ONLY CARS.

Rush. I had heard the occasional song, but it never really stuck.

Then a few years ago, I listened to a full album. Then another. Now I’m a huge Rush fan (and my spouse is sooo tired of hearing them).

I got tickets to see them play next year.

• Gmail, GCal, Google Photos, and GDrive

It’s the network effect. I need an integrated solution that replaces all of these functions that I can use, my more tech-casual spouse can use, and that my frustration-intolerant preteen child can use. Also, we use Family Link for youth device management since we use Android devices. No alternative exists that does all of these things, and I refuse to spend my precious free time providing constant tech support.

• Kagi Search - owner seems like typical asshole techbro
• I pay using Google Wallet and debit card everywhere

Literally every single large AI provider admits to committing large scale piracy. No congressional response.

Some members of the public are watching HBO shows because they’re poor? FULL FORCE OF THE LAW

We’ve generally avoided a TV in the bedroom. When we were given a second hand TV from a family member that was better than our living room TV, we mounted the old TV in our bedroom. We used it maybe 10 times over 2-3 years.

Now we live elsewhere and only have 1 TV in the living room again.

The bedroom needs to be a low tech place, for optimal rest.

I worked with a guy who had an arranged marriage. His parents decided it was time for him to get married. He lived in the Philippines near his parents. They had a friend who had an eligible and similarly positioned daughter living in the US. They got married and he moved to the US. 20 years later, they have 2 kids and seem happy.

I eat vegan now (at least at home) and low fat. It made my cholesterol go from borderline hypertension to 100% optimal/healthy.

I run a couple times per week. 5K in <30min in a city. Not record breaking, but pretty okay for a non-athlete approaching 40. I also cycle everywhere, walk everywhere, no car, so carry my groceries home.

Sleep is hit and miss, most nights 8 hours, weekends up to 10 hours.

The biggest harm society does is trying to categorize people’s sexuality in firm boundaries. Sexuality is more complex than the boxes we want to draw.

Your husband is a person you have a meaningful human relationship with. It’s not sensual, probably not romantic. He’s probably akin to your best friend. He also provides mechanical actions for you with his biological dildo, which hits the right spot. But it’s not a real, sensual, rich sexual experience, it’s mechanical. He’s being a supportive life partner, but not a lover.

Your identity as a lesbian is valid. Some nit-picker might say you’re a fem-leaning bisexual, but that ignores the social context. It sounds like an arranged marriage in a culture where lesbians are not welcome or accepted, where you weren’t ever exposed to that possibility. You’ve made the best option for yourself that keeps your life socially acceptable, safe, and comfortable, and you’re really lucky to have someone supportive of who you are.