I love PG Tips as well for a go-to grocery store black tea, as well as all of Celestial Seasonings hibiscus blends. I used to get tea from Adagio and even made a couple of custom blends but I moved to an area with a decent tea shop and local events that host smaller tea sellers so I try to get loose leaf from them when I get the opportunity.

I remember enjoying the dog rendition of Silas Marner more than the Masterpiece Theater one. He also was the definitive version of Faust.

I think one of the biggest issues with BE attempting to follow in AC’s footsteps is that the factions were not distinct, and it felt extremely generic. BE’s factions were all similar, played similarly, and all had the same options for development and could all take the same evolutions. In AC, not only were the faction leaders ideologies revealed in quotes in the tech tree and secret projects, it was inescapable in the game mechanics. The reason I feel Stellaris is a closer sibling is that it managed to mimic something of how it felt to be an idealogical leader attempting to make sure your values and your goals for the future were the ones that were supreme. BE was “civ in space”.

Piano is way up there, not just because it’s mechanically simple to learn and understand (press button, note plays, always same note in same place) but because there are just massive amounts of resources to learn how to play. When I had more time, I had a lot of fun playing songs on a light up keyboard hooked up to a computer using Synthesia. I would download a song I wanted to learn (eg Moonlight Sonata), and the keys I needed to press would light up, so I would play the song bit by bit, building muscle memory. I was able to use a music sheet just to remind me of what my fingers already knew. Is it the “right way” to learn? Probably not but it’s fun and easy and that’s what I wanted.

We made the mistake of showing our two year old the “got your nose” thing. Now he will sometimes grab our noses, and he will “eat” them, or swap them with his, or throw them away, or make them smell his feet. Each time he thinks of a new thing to do with our “noses” it makes me laugh so I’m a part of the problem.

Yes, I get them as random texts sometimes from a website called Research-Polls. They direct me to some questions about certain ballot measures in the state my phone’s area code is from. I no longer live there but sometimes if the whim strikes me I’ll answer

Not clicked but the most effective advertisement I’ve ever seen was a billboard on a highway from Georgia to Ohio. It was a dark color with obnoxiously bright pink lettering in a huge, bold, sans serif font that just said PEACHES Exit 318 and that was it. I was driving with my mother and we were ready for a snack so we stopped. It was a little farm stand with various produce and we bought a box of picked-that-day, sun ripe Georgia summer peaches and they were one the best goddamn things I’ve ever eaten. We almost turned around just to get more haha.

That’s how I learned the bottom tooth whistle! One of my bottom front teeth was a bit crooked and created a tiny gap at the top, and I learned to whistle through it. When I got my teeth straightened I lost the ability to do the invert whistle and some of my control but I can still do it well enough with the pursed lip method.

Ha! I haven’t heard of that, but maybe I should try to learn it just to know more ways. Not that I’m doing much with the ones I do know at the moment, lol

I can whistle in three different ways. The classic pursed lip whistle, a whistle using just the tip of my tongue and the roof of my mouth, not using my lips at all, and then another using the tops of my bottom teeth. I can make decent bird sounds using my bottom teeth, but I can do pretty much any tune I can think of with the pursed lip method. It has been relevant to my life exactly zero times, except to entertain myself.

This scenario would mean major negligence on their part, as they had been with Cloudflare for years. When it was clear their services were costing more than the business plan paid for, that’s when they should have been contacted with clear numbers and a sheepish admission that “unlimited” doesn’t actually mean unlimited. It certainly seems shady to me that they attempted to make it about a TOS violation, that there’s no public information about enterprise level and pricing, and that the second they said they were talking to a competitor they had their data purged. It sounds like a failed attempt at extortion to me.

I hated going to the gym, and I hate running. Put me on a treadmill for 5 minutes and I’m suffering, but I can dance for hours straight. Beat Saber on VR has been great, so has going to local social dances (ballroom and swing). Maybe you could look for something that gets your heartrate up that you actually find fun and enjoy? Swimming, team sports, skating, there’s lots of ways to exercise that aren’t using machines or running at a gym.

There’s so much clothing already made that, with the exception of underwear or socks, you could assemble a large and diverse wardrobe of good quality plant fiber clothes entirely from 2nd hand clothing bought for as cheap or cheaper than you’d find new polyester stuff. Thrift shops, Vinted, Ebay, Poshmark etc have tons of good stuff for cheaper than retail.

I’ve been avoiding plasticware for food for about a decade, I drink from glasses or glass bottles, never use disposable utensils etc, but I wasn’t paying that much attention to fabric content until I had a baby. I was more concerned with the chemical leeching directly, but then I read more about how microplastics effect the endocrine system and how infants are especially vulnerable due to their size and how they chew on everything. That spurred me to only get plant based fabrics for the kiddo, mostly from 2nd hand shops. I think the only plastic stuff he wears is his snow gear and shoes. I know I can’t protect him forever, but I’ll do what I can where I can.

Grapes straight from the bunch, held overhead while lounging on a chaise

Processed food is usually more expensive per portion than the ingredients alone. The farther you get from the raw ingredients the more expensive it gets. Plus, you’re eating all sorts of junk ingredients.

I had about ten years of experience with a very tight food budget to learn what was good value for effort/ingredients.

Good:

Flour, sugar, canned tomatoes, spices, frozen veggies, fresh produce

Bad:

Presliced or pre-grated cheeses, at least in my experience, are marked up 1.5x to 2x the cost per pound of a block. Another commenter said that wasn’t the case in their store, but check and see if that is true for you and if the cheeses you got are available in blocks. You can even go to a place with a deli counter and they will slice cheese for you for free, and you will get exactly how much you want with less waste (yes it’s an interaction with another human, it’ll be alright).

Uncrustables/swiss rolls/mac and cheese… it’s not for me to judge what someone chooses for an indulgence, maybe those things are what get you through your day, but you can definitely do better value wise. Mac and cheese from a box is cheaper than those individual cups, and homemade mac and cheese from scratch is even better and extremely easy if you have any kitchen experience. Uncrustables will always be more expensive than just making the sandwich yourself. The swiss rolls… well you know they’re a treat. In my opinion if you’re going to treat yourself to something unhealthy spend the extra dollar and get something luxurious.

Breads and muffins, again if you could learn how to make them yourself you might be impressed with the results. Bread can be a tricky balance of time, effort and cost of ingredients, and homemade fresh baked bread is incredible, but if you’re short on time there’s nothing wrong with buying it. Muffins are a quick bread though that you could make at home in under an hour with a mixing bowl and a cupcake pan, and then you could control exactly how much sugar went into them and have hot, fresh muffins. It’s worth making them yourself at least once to see if it’s something you can add to your routine, you can get a cupcake pan for cheap from a thrift store if you don’t have one.

Sauces and dips, as other people have said, they are a lot simpler than you might think to make yourself. In my experience they are one of those things you should challenge yourself to make at least once or twice and see how much effort and time it takes you, and then re-evaluate the jarred/canned stuff. Maybe after making it you realize it is worth the extra dollar or so to save yourself the effort, but maybe you realize it’s not that hard and you’re able to save money in the long run and have more control over the quality and ingredients.

All this stuff is incremental, and any one thing isn’t going to magically fix food costs. Plus as the amount of time in your life to spend on meal prep fluctuates you might find it’s worth it to spend the extra money on convenience. However it’s important to at least get some experience with the alternatives so you understand what amount of time and effort you are buying by getting those processed foods. Good luck :)

Celestial Seasonings and PG tips are good grocery store brands with paper bags, but for loose leaf it’s worth seeing if you have a local tea shop. If there’s nowhere nearby, there’s some great online sellers. I’m a fan of Adagio and David’s tea.

Well now you’ve just reinvented Time Bandits

Genuinely was surprised at how good that show was. One of the few that I’ll just rewatch entirely on a whim.

I think it can boil down to not recognizing the personhood of women. That the infinite complexity that can come from a rich tapestry woven of culture, personality, ability, interests and experiences can be shoved into a narrow and limited role. A misogynist will only see a sex doll, or a maid, or a baby making machine etc, and then judge a woman’s worth based on how well they fit in that role. If a woman doesn’t perform the roles that person expects or desires then they get angry and hateful that this other human being didn’t meet those unreasonable expectations of them.

Misogynists might not think they hate women, just that a woman doesn’t “belong” working in a machine shop. They might not consciously think men are superior, but they see certain tasks associated with women (cleaning, care work, teaching) as low value, undesirable or less worthy of respect. They might not actively choose how to divide domestic tasks, but will say that women are “naturally” better at them. And just to be clear, plenty of women are misogynists too.

Not being a misogynist involves seeing women as equally valid and worthy humans on the same bases you would judge any other person (IE, a man).