NO. Not a fan of the current or former CCP or the former Soviet Union

Dictator chic on a budget

Its not the theme or the going with it, it how badly they went with it. That ceiling decoration in the lounge is so … wrong. And you can buy repro ornate ceiling mouldings that would actually look OK if applied correctly too

First time I landed in Australia on the Gold Coast I followeed a bin chicken for 20 minutes with a camera trying to get the perfect picture like it was some rare exotic bird. I’m sure the locals were sremoveding or openly laughing behind my back, I dont blame them

We dont have much in the way of animals but we have birds. The Tui is common in suburban gardens here, but they are beautiful and even as a local I still like seeing them. Pukekos are everywhere but for those from the UK/ Europe/ USA they’re prett exotic. Down South, Wekas are absolutely everywhere outside the cities and will walk right into people’s homes - I once experienced coitus interruptus when a Weka jumped up on the bed I was in with a guy.

When I was in South Africa I was super excited to see baboons, locally considered something of a nuisance. And in Queensland, Australia, the first time I saw an Australian white ibis, locally known as a bin chicken, the locals must have been very amused to see me chasing it with a camera getting photos

I will still look for a jack on my next phone, current Samsung has one, will likely buy another so I will probably buy top of their entry range

Glycine

Thanks for this tip, I dont have trouble sleeping generally but my partner does, will look into this for him

Same here. Whatever I have now is more than good enough. What I had before was good enough too

My last phone upgrade was about four years ago (Nokia 6 to Samsung A31) and that was only to try and get YouTube Music’s shitty app to work properly (spoiler : it didnt). Broke the screen on it dropping it while trying to put a mask on, got that fixed (that was over two years ago). Its still going, and will keep it until it dies

I dont upgrade my phone because I’m interested in upgrading, I upgrade when I have to

I put the heaviest and least breakable things first in line so they end up at the bottom of the bag(s). Canned food, stuff in plastic bottles, then all the cold/ frozen stuff altogether, light and delicate things like bread, chips etc last

I joined on here a bit over 9 months ago after I was permabanned from reddit for ??? reason after I posted a Google Streetview link of a layby. This happened to coincide with the third party API fuckup and several other irrational and counterproductive changes so I arrived here right in the middle of a period of huge growth. I havent left since then per se but have had periods of reduced activity. Have started another profile on reddit (which was stupidly easy) as there are still a number of niche communities there that have no activity on their equivalent communities here. Am settled, and will likely gradually spend more time here as reddit management continue to find more feet to shoot themselves in

This Stihl Vacuum shredder/blower. Like a leafblower, but instead of just blowing the leaves pointlessly around it sucks them up, shreds them a bit and dumps them in a big bag - and its electric. Terrific piece of kit, quiet and effective and oh so satisfying to use, I go over the driveway and garden with it every day or two (we have a lot of trees surrounding our place which constantly drop masses of leaves)

This! I remember putting one on a site I built way back then

How did this ballroom get hired at such short notice?

I bought a new small laptop for travel with Vista loaded on it, fairly highly spec’d for the size (4Gb RAM, dual core processor, 64bit etc). Mostly ran OK except for the constant UAC prompts, the weird file system but worst of all the Wifi which ran atrociously and would not connect without resetting the router… which is not doable on hotel or airport Wifi. Took it back and asked for it to be upgraded to XP which had been dead reliable on my home and other Wifi, went back and forth with it for months before I gave in and bought another small laptop with Windows 7 on it which ran flawlessly, Wifi included

Well I upvoted because this is an excellent question that has applications and relevance far beyond just the current Hamas atrocities.

Facing up to and dealing with the fact that a small percentage of any population is psychopathic (which is a rough clinical descriptor/ analogue for what the man in the street would call evil -lacking in conscience, empathy or morality) is something we do not do well, at least in the Western world, and it is something which we do need to grapple with. And when evil men gain power and set the social and cultural norms - as in 1930’s Germany - the larger population can be persuaded or at least coerced into doing evil. We’ve seen this before, from the Armenian genocide, the Nazi regime, Rwanda and now this

That is a fantastic idea. America has such a terrible health system

God that’s actually worse than my banning (I posted a Google Streetview link of a layby). Incredible. Has anyone ever appealed and won? Ever?

Work from home much of the time but when I do commute into the office I cycle. 24 km one way, takes me about an hour ten to an hour twenty, I love the exercise, and I enjoy riding, except when it rains. And it has rained a LOT this year, has also been very windy and quite cold for longer than usual. On really bad days I take the ferry which takes about the same amount of time and costs about 8 bucks one way. It is somewhat quicker to drive on the way in, but considerably slower coming home in the evening, and we have no parking at work except on early start shift, so I have only driven in 2-3 days this year. I have music when I cycle which is great too now I have a Bluetooth bike helmet

I like - exercise, the pleasure of riding, being out in nature (much of my ride is along seafront) - and saves money. And now it is cycle paths just about all the way its as safe or safer than driving

I dislike - takes a lot of time, over 2.5 hours a day, but that would be the case whichever way I do it. Unpredictable wild weather, unreliable weather forecasts, has been very cold some mornings

For cold weather get some riggers gloves - inexpensive but really warm!

Just about, I only have to print the ocassional thing for a couple of organisations that dont accept an electronic signature, I use the printer about four times a year