As someone with shit income but a nice savings buffer, holy shit it makes things so easy, compared. “Cool dress, I’ll get that for next summer - cool coat, I’ll get that for next winter”, no problem. Just got my cat’s meds for the next 4 months at a sale, and the next sale should be in that time. Also could get her thyroid radiotherapy, that’s already paid for itself (compared to permanent expensive meds, of course not compared to no treatment). Appliance starting to make a noise or performance dropping, time to add that to my second hand watch list and keep an eye on sales of quality brands, rather than being forced to risk it failing and then getting something in a hurry, possibly on some payment scheme with a high interest rate. Pantry items on sale and/or in bulk. And of course the kind of main shoes that have held up for 5+ years, just could use a resoling soon.

I can’t even imagine the constant stress living without it would be. Ow. :/

Completely opposite for me. Full bush keeps everything more “airy”, whereas shaven is underwear directly against the parts that bleach them, plus it all gets all sweaty.

Not disagreeing, we should strive for good or at least civil relationships with our neighbors, even if we don’t exactly like each other, but the problem is that

• any agreement or peace deal with Russia isn’t worth the paper it’s written on, they’ll just ignore it when they want to
• make peace with one country in Middle-East, you’ll anger another

When Real Men fuck, women just get in the way.

It’s not exactly the same physical brain though? Neurons die and are sometimes, if rarely in adulthood, generated. They are constantly repaired, the exact molecules that make them up change. Glial cells die and form and they have supporting functions. Diseases change brain structure more slowly than immediate trauma. And so on.

I certainly wouldn’t say I’m the same person I was as a toddler.

Pretty sure the term solified itself after the 1968 Prague spring, when most communists condemned or remained silent and ashamed of the Soviet/Warsaw pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the ones supporting the violence became the Stalinist minority? At least that’s when our major communist split happened afaik.

If you ignore it for long enough, you can replace burn out with depression.

allows you the luxury of studying to increase the value of your work output

I’ve always wanted more value from my work output! Or contentment and self-actualization, it was one or the other.

luxury of ennui that gives you philosophical dread on your idle hours

I’m assuming you mean that those idle hours are the luxury? Because I’m pretty sure tedium and boredom existed in the fields and cobalt mines long before it got a fancy French name.

others would kill to be on your not-working-in-cobalt-mines shoes while being fed and safe

Relative privation?

Also, is eating ramen being fed? Is it safety if you’re one illness and insurance fuckup, or a job loss and six(?) months, away from homelessness?

this while having thrived up to an age that for most of human history has basically senility

Extreme infant and childhood mortality explains most of the short historical lifespans. 30 was never senility.

The same logistics and industrial development… is the one that gives you the climate change.

Every step of towards lessening greenhouse gases brings us closer to the fall of western civilization! Fly more, abolish public transportation, eat only beef, set your AC so low you have to wear a sweater!

In your 40s your body begins to break down. Often your mind slows down too. And you’ll have people relying on you, whether at work as a senior colleague, your children, your aging parents/other relatives, your friends whose bodies have begun to break down, or whatever responsibilities/opportunities you’ve taken in your various communities.

𝄞 Are you depressed, or is it just c-a-p-i-t-a-l-i-s-m…𝅘𝅥𝅮

Depends on how out of reach. Stocks exchanged in other, possibly hostile countries? (Edit: Right, needs that account to hold them that others are talking about, duh.) Property in other countries that allow it (eg. most of EU does afaik)?

“Lukee kuin piru Raamattua” (Finnish).
Literally “to read like the Devil reads the Bible”.
Meaning to examine something in bad faith. Never heard it used it in context of the Bible or anything religious, but eg. when interpreting law or contract, looking for the details that could be twisted for your purpose, rather than what the text attempts to convey.

Homeless. My country has decent social security and “housing first” policy, it’s reasonable to expect to be able to exit the situation soon.

US, same, but exit for edgier reasons.

Stubbornly not taking my antidepressants in the morning, whether relenting later in the day or not. Venlafaxine, how I love thee and thy withdrawals.

Thank you! I’m content to use Nextcloud News for my feed aggregate, but that bridge seems super helpful for various purposes.

This seems like a good thread to ask someone to find/make a RSS feed of WHO Disease Outbreak News. https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease-outbreak-news

You’re talking to a Finn whose grandparents on both sides lost their homes to stalinist USSR. A sapling of a plant they brought with them grows in my yard. I’ve visited the locations and met the new inhabitants (normal people). Trust me, I know land loss sucks. War also sucks, and much as I hate realpolitik… sometimes there’s realpolitik. Of course in the end it’s up to the Ukrainians how long and for what they are willing to fight, with access to whatever aid (hopefully more) they have.

Fingers crossed, that would make me very happy. Land loss hurts way less than decades of finlandization.

Would have to be a -very- quick process, every day of negotiations would be a massive danger to them, and based on how it went with Finland and Sweden I’m sceptical of that too. And of course US commitments to defend EU Nato members, based on political whims.

Pretty sure he’ll “negotiate” and likely push through a peace treaty where the new border is the combat line (in Ukraine, Russia loses nothing), and Ukraine is forced into neutrality (such a pretty word for always walking a metaphorical tightrope, have R interfere with your election/election results, not daring to voice your own opinions in the UN or otherwise on the global arena… and of course no trade deals with the EU).

And he’ll tout it as a massive victory and compromise, when actually R got everything they really wanted. If Ukraine doesn’t go along, then they become “stubborn, hateful warmongers” or the like.

Aww, thank you. 😘