Tinks

I just looked after my neighbor’s cats and they gave me a card with a lovely thank you note and a door dash gift card. Totally wasn’t expecting it but it was sweet. Maybe something like that?

You don’t necessarily need to take it away, there are other avenues of punishment. Detention, Saturday school, no extra-curricular participation, suspension, etc. I was in high school right as dumb cell phones started to become a thing and those were our punishments if we were caught with phones out. We were allowed to have them, but they had to be either off or on silent, and in our bags (same as CD/MP3 players.) We were allowed to have them out to check them only during lunch and before and after school, or if we had to make a call, in the main office. I completely agree that kids shouldn’t be using phones AT ALL during class time, but there’s ways to allow them to exist and punish inappropriate usage that doesn’t require teachers taking them. Teachers shouldn’t be taking phones, that’s a liability risk and not worth the effort.

Choose your battles. Not everything is worth the energy.

They’ve been doing it for businesses for decades so this isn’t really surprising honestly

Bartlet.

I’m so glad my company a) has a “nobody wants teams” stance and even recommends against it to our clients, and b) doesn’t give a fuck if I go idle for hours because they hired me to do a job and if it’s getting done they’re happy.

Micromanaging culture needs to die. Fire employees who don’t do the job and be done with it.

Unironically I do get mad at kids (or anyone) on my lawn in the fall when we’re trying to seed it. The rest of the year I couldn’t give a fuck, but there’s a 3 week stretch where I water the grass twice a day to get the grasslings to grow and people walking on them ruins all that effort. And before anyone comes at me for a monoculture grass lawn, we only do it because our trial of “let it do what it wants” ended in weeds taking over that die in the fall, leaving the yard all dirt, and causing massive erosion when it rained in winter. We literally had to shovel dirt out of our driveway. Our huge back yard is still a sanctuary for bugs and wildlife with native plants and such, but the front yard gets watched over like it’s in an HOA because of the headache we had when we let the weeds and native plants win.

So yeah, darn kids better stay off my lawn in late September/early October!

Last week I was told that my dog’s trainer said I was the best client she’s ever worked with. The man that works at the front desk said he randomly asked her one day who the best client she’s worked with was and apparently with zero hesitation she said my name. I’m quite proud of that, because I worked really hard when I had my dog in training to make sure I was doing everything I could to make it, and us, successful. This trainer has worked with thousands of dogs and owners over the years so to have the distinction of being her best client is quite a pleasant surprise. I was determined to turn my crazy excitable COVID puppy into a well behaved dog I could take anywhere, and we succeeded. It was a lot of work, but worth it, and I’m proud of both the results, and the fact that apparently our trainer was impressed too. ☺️

Yeahhhh. My overnight RHR and HRV go absolutely wacky even with a single drink the night before. That’s not to say I don’t still have a drink sometimes, but watching my vitals has really made me aware of exactly how much impact it has. If I have 3-4 drinks in a night on a special occasion it will take days before my HRV and RHR return to normal, even if I don’t feel any physical effects at all. Still fun, but I’m definitely aware it’s not good for me 😂

I haven’t watched the latest season but Black Mirror put me off when it just straight up became horror. I don’t enjoy the horror genre with the jump scares and the scary monster crap. I really enjoyed the episodes of Black Mirror that were psychological thrillers or dystopian, but somewhere Black Mirror lost it’s way and leaned in to being blandly scary, not contemplatively scary.

Presumably the QR code captcha doesn’t trigger when the browser detects it’s a mobile device. This is for browsing on desktop, then verifying with your separate mobile device

Agreed. Back when FIFA announced that the US was going to get another world cup I was over the moon and thought for sure my husband and I would go to at least one game, and that was before the host cities were announced. (At that point we were season ticket holders for our local MLS club as well.) I live in a host city, so going wouldn’t be even mildly inconvenient, but not only am I not, I don’t even plan to watch the cup. 12 and 16 years ago I was watching every single game, even streaming them on my phone while at work. Not that FIFA was a bastion of morality even then, but I feel like it’s gotten so much worse, and supporting the games in any way just rubs me wrong. I’m also not happy helping this administration get a win of any kind, so I’ll just catch on Lemmy who wins and call it good enough.

Agreed. Went backpacking with my dog last weekend, who is on Simparica AND was treated with permethrin 2 weeks prior, and that little shit STILL ended up with 3-4 dozen ticks on him. He’s a golden, so meticulously going through his fur removing them was a long annoying process for both of us. Thankfully they were all dead because of the insecticides. There is zero chance I’m not using bug sprays. Ticks are out in full force and I have zero sympathy for them. With as many diseases as they carry, it’s a me or them scenario, and it’s not going to be me.

One of my favorites is Black Sails

I am of the opinion that space exploration and settlement is the single most important thing humanity should be doing. Currently humanity exists only on this planet, which through the course of its existence has had numerous mass extinction events. It is hubris to believe that we will never be affected by one. Right now all of humanity’s eggs are in this single basket, and if that basket gets kicked over, humanity could cease to exist.

Now I will grant you that there are lots of things down here on earth that we should be spending money on to better the lives of humans generally, but these things are not mutually exclusive. Right now we’re spending orders of magnitude more money and resources waging war on one another than space exploration. In the US in 2025, the US military budget was around $920b, whereas NASA’s was $25b. The military budget was 36 times higher than the space budget. It’s not even close. Space is not where dollars are being wasted.

Studies have also shown that NASA’s impact is a net positive on the economy, consistently generating more economic impact than is put into it. It creates well paying jobs that employees find fulfilling and satisfying, generates public interest in the sciences, and benefits society as a whole as new technologies are developed that we all get to enjoy.

I would argue that what we NEED to do is stop needlessly murdering each other over religious and social disagreements, and spend our resources on feeding, clothing and taking care of one another such that we all have the time, security and ability to watch humans go out into space with wonder in our hearts.

See the fun thing is we have passenger rail from my city all over the country…but dogs aren’t allowed on it if they’re over 20lbs. I’ve even written the company pleading for them to review their policy and citing the crazy amount of dog sport participants that could use their service, and even suggesting they require an easily verifiable 3rd party obedience certificate and was effectively told to go pound sand.

Almost half of households in the US have dogs, so it’s frustrating that travel with them is limited to personal cars (there’s only one commercial airline that flies large dogs in the US and it has very limited destinations.) I would LOVE to take a train to a backpacking trip in the mountains, but then we’re back to leaving my pup at home. This country needs a major culture shift on a great many things, not the least of which is public transit.

To some extent I think you’re right, but for outdoor recreation that somewhat depends on where you live and what type of terrain your hobby requires. Switzerland as a country is full of beautiful hiking scenery and opportunities so I imagine the travel to get to it even by public transit isn’t an arduous one. In places where the terrain and landscape are more flat, barren or boring, the travel time to get to good hiking opportunities can be significant. For instance, the closest mountains to me are a 10hr drive by car; I could cross your entire country in about half that time. Unfortunately location plays a large role in the viability of using public transit for certain hobbies.

Yep same. Work from home, have my groceries delivered and most other things I can do online. As it currently stands my car is used to take my dogs to an enrichment program twice a week, and for recreation. Without my car my hobbies would essentially completely end. There may be some places where public transit would work for hiking and backpacking, but where I live options are limited and the closest place I can legally backpack is an hour away by car, and it’s a small 4 mile loop. Anything more significant requires a multi-hour trip. Even IF public transit existed for it, I don’t want to go and leave my dog at home, bored all weekend, because he’s not allowed on a bus or train. Part of my joy in hiking and backpacking is sharing the experience with him. Right now his world is huge and full of adventures. Without a car his world becomes the size of my neighborhood, and that’s just depressing.

For me personally, the loss of a car means potentially the loss of certain hobbies. I like to go camping and backpacking, and that means taking a certain amount of gear out into remote areas. While I might be able to minimize the amount of gear needed, there’s no getting around the remoteness of the hobby, and that necessitates a car for transportation.

The other hobby is dog related. I enjoy doing things, including sports, with my dog. Transporting the dog, at least as it currently stands in America, requires a car. Large dogs are not allowed on public transit pretty much anywhere here. When you also consider that I may be taking jumps or poles or other larger equipment with me to train in new places, losing access to a car makes that a near impossibility.

I’d go so far as to say many outdoor recreation hobbies either require or are made easier by having a car or larger personal transport. Kayaks, boats, skis and snowboards, fishing poles and the list goes on and on. Sure you could setup rental places, but if you do a hobby a lot you ultimately want to own your gear so you can get something that suits your preferences and needs.

I’m not opposed to a less car-centric society, but eliminating personal vehicles would make many hobbies problematic or impossible.

Nothing crazy, but my dog fractured a tooth and I was very worried he would either have to have it pulled or have a big ugly titanium crown put on, at great expense. He went to the vet today for it and it turns out the fracture wasn’t as bad as I thought. No root canal and crown necessary. They shaved down the sharp parts, sealed it with resin and he’s good to go now! I’m unbelievably relieved and it cost less than expected. Easily the best thing that’s happened this week.

And tomorrow I’m going camping with my dog and some friends too! That should be a fun time. It’s unseasonably warm and while I wish it were cold, I’m going to enjoy the nice weather while we have it!