OP: “my fear is the government disappearing me in the night”
You: “pff that doesn’t happen, you’re overreacting”
Me: “it does happen to x people”
You: “oh well don’t be one of those people”

Brilliant. Yes, OP is the problem, not that the government is kidnapping people when they show political dissent.

Ffs.

Well all they would have to do is have a green card and have been involved in the “wrong kind” of protest apparently.

However. I admit. This is not the best way to change diaper. A good diaper change is not fast. It’s a time for bonding. It’s not something I want to do in a public space with the rest of the family waiting for us, but at home, it’s the perfect time to get some eye contact with the baby and confirming that, yes, your father is there for you to get you out of all the shit you get yourself into. It’s perfectly fine if it takes half an hour in which most of the time is spent playing peak-a-boo. It’s a chore, but it’s also a much needed break from other chores. And this counts for both parents at the same time. Your partner would love nothing more than for you to disappear with the baby for half an hour.

I love this perspective. I’ve definitely become inured to diaper changes and I try to get them done as fast as possible, but this is sweet and you’re right, it’s a moment for some low key play, eye contact and for them to know you’re taking good care of them. What a nice way of looking at cleaning up poop 😆

There are some really simple recipes and some cheap machines available though, the ones that use a drum you pre-freeze are like $60-80 new and really cheap used. You can make ice cream with milk, cream, sugar, a flavor of choice and a bit of something alcoholic and it’s fantastic. I never buy ice cream anymore, and it’s so much better (and cheaper) than store bought.

It’s so hard to get a good texture too, to get a nice soft foldable one that is thin but tough enough not to rip is an art. My attempts, and I did give it a good damn few tries, were all sad failures and, well, I decided pre-packaged wraps/tortillas are worth the cost to save my sanity lol.

This, I love, LOVE croissants, and have basically baked and made every other thing I love that much at some point or another. Flattening a giant sheet of butter again and again into a dough sheet? Ain’t nobody got time for that

I like to make up pasta dishes in sauce with veggies that reheat well. Pasta alfredo (made with butter and parmigiano reggiano) with spinach and pieces of chicken, or red sauce pasta with a bunch of veggies like zucchini, broccoli, onions and even beans, with some olive oil in the sauce. I buy the precut frozen veggie medleys and chuck them in. You can also make egg fried rice with veggies in it, with your choice of butters and oils. Cheese, nuts, dairy, eggs, I agree with other commenters that fat is not your enemy. Sugar and ultra-processed stuff should still be avoided but embrace the butter, haha.

Peanut butter is also fantastic for healthy calorie density and travels well.

Even cellulose and paper bags were tested and had plastics in the glues and binders in the material. Unfortunately you need to look for manufacturers that explicitly say they’re plastic-free or buy loose leaf. I have a bunch of bagged tea I bought before I knew, and I’ve been ripping open the bags and dumping the tea in my infuser.

I was just thinking about this today. Any corporations big enough for us all to know have likely done more bad things than praiseworthy things. Patagonia is the closest I can think of to a good company we may all know.

Costco seems pretty solid. I’m in the northeast US and I feel good about supporting Market Basket. Valve isn’t so bad. There ARE some ethical big corporations just trying to do their thing out there and understand that providing the services and products they’re meant to is more important than “line go up”, they’re just few and far between.

Subbed to Enchanterium 👍 thanks for the rec!

Yes! It was such a pleasant surprise on my feed. Unfortunately they said they won’t be continuing because of Youtube’s enforcement policies around copyrighted material so those videos were meant to be a limited series.

Along with Technology Connections, Philosophy Tube, and Primitive Technology, here are my “must watch” subs

Climate Town - Excellent videos about climate change and environmental impact that are insightful and funny

Contrapoints - Well written and meticulous deconstructions of philosophical concepts in media, pop culture and society with a dry wit

Every Frame a Painting - Amazing content on film-making. No longer active, but if you haven’t seen it yet, lucky you, enjoy.

Pop Culture Detective - Interesting meta analyses of popular tropes in pop culture

Because I’m into historical clothing and fashion, Bernadette Banner and Abby Cox both do great videos on costuming, history and creating cool stuff

Really loved her video on new Star Trek too, she has very similar vibes to Jenny Nicholson but has a lot of great science material too

For mac and cheese: medium shells, ditalini
For red sauce pasta: medium shells, rotini
For pasta alfredo: medium shells, fettuccine

So I guess you could say my favorite pasta is potato gnocchi

I’m a lifetime Windows user. I used to have to type run win3.exe on my first computer. I installed Linux mint on my new pc build a couple weeks ago and have been moving in and getting everything set up. Some people absolutely will make the change.

I’ve been making the switch on my own new PC, some programs I was concerned about can be run ok through Lutris. It’s been an adjustment but no regrets

Posted most of this in another thread but I’m glad to spread the word. I usually find things by searching what I want to buy and then adding “-amazon”, “-etsy”, or “-wayfair”.

Some general recs:

B&H Photo or Microcenter for anything electronic or computer related

Sweetwater for music stuff, there’s a lot of great small music stores, or marketplaces like Reverb

For clothes, if you have any clothes you already enjoy, go directly to their brand website. If you don’t, go to local secondhand shops and touch, handle and try on some clothes to see them in person. I’ve discovered some brands I like by finding something in a thrift store that was well made but not my size or preferred color.

For house DIY stuff, we order from a local building supply store, but there’s also hardwareandtools.com, 1stoplighting, Waysource, Lightbulbs.com, Timothy’s Toolbox etc.

For food items, local grocery stores often offer online shopping and delivery. If it’s a specialty item or imported the import companies sometimes have their own websites.

For super fast, need it now shipping, Target has a lot of the same things Amazon does and even does same day delivery for an extra fee for certain items.

For something hard to find you can’t find another site for, try Ebay.

I do business with all sorts of independent retailers and have only had good experiences with them. These are sites that I’ve personally bought from but there are a lot of smaller sites just trying to make a place for themselves on the internet

Ren faire folks LOVE stuff like that, you should absolutely see if you have one nearby. If you’re in the states, each state usually has one.

Whatever you want. Find something that brings you joy and try to do more of that. If it’s important to you to leave a legacy, try to connect to others and be in their lives. Try to make good, meaningful changes to the world, even if they’re small. Our existences are only so long, and worth enjoying.

Don’t worry you’ll reread it again 😋

Part of the pros of it being so long is by the time you’re done you can start over again and it feels fresh hahs.