StrawberryPigtails
@StrawberryPigtails@lemmy.sdf.org
- Comment on [deleted] 3 days ago:
I won’t speak for anyone else, but Google has a 20 year track record of quietly breaking a fair chunk of promises they’ve made. Especially anything that gets in the way of them making a profit.
I remember back when their core tenet was “Don’t be evil”.
After a certain point, continuing to trust them, continuing to do business with them is consenting to be in an abusive relationship.
Not my jam, sorry.
- Comment on Hypothetically if the US got accidentally bomb by a war that is happening between Mexico and Canada what would the US response between knowing the US does it all the time by "accident"? 1 week ago:
Considering how bipolar we are as a nation, it could range anywhere from “eh, no one got hurt” to wiping everyone off the face of the planet.
- Comment on Americans: How the hell do you meet new people or get into relationships after college? 1 week ago:
“Hi, my name is…”
Admittedly, most of my friends are made at work, however it’s not impossible to meet people in other places. It really just boils down to going places other people are, smiling, and saying “Hello” or “Cool <whatever you find interesting about them>” to a lot of people. If you’re at a store and see someone struggling to load their car or truck, ask if you can give them a hand.
Probably will go no further than that most of the time, however, it might just make their day. Which they will remember. Might have been the first compliment they’ve gotten in a while. Might have been the first time anyone has offered to help them without asking anything in return.
Ever now and then, though, you’ll find yourself with a new friend with a common interest. Probably just for the moment, but if you see them again, say “hi” again. If you’ve got something you think is cool that they might also find interesting, perhaps show it off.
And remember their name. It can help to work it into the conversation. Seriously, Bonje. People like hearing their own name in friendly contexts.
Relationships are really just a longer term version of this with people you already have met.
If this sounds a bit like sales, you ain’t half wrong. What you are selling is you. The payment you are asking for their time, their attention.
Don’t be pushy. Accept no as an answer. But say “hello” to everyone.
- Comment on Is creatine safe? 1 week ago:
There is a paper on exactly that:
Front Nutr. 2025 Dec 1;12:1682746. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1682746
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12702719/I didn’t read the whole thing, but it looks like, at least right now, they didn’t find anything major.
- Comment on How come in American classrooms they make another language an elective. Why not teach our kids as many languages possible that way if we go somewhere we will kind of have uper hand? 2 weeks ago:
A point. However, how far do you need to go to reach an area, that doesn’t speak your native language commonly?
We recently moved a fair distance, not too far as things go here. Roughly 2000 km. English language spoken by almost everyone throughout the entire trip. Plus 15 random languages from tourists and immigrants from around the globe. I could have gone another 2000 km and I still would have had to dig to find a community that had a common language other than english.
I would have had to travel 2000 km the other way to reach an area where a single language other than English was spoken by more than 5% of the population.
Maybe 1000 km, I forget about Creole in Louisiana, though I’m not sure how common that language is in the State. I just remember running across the language frequently while driving trucks in that area for a living.
We are a truly massive nation that largely shares a single language. Most of us, rarely ever leave a 250 km radius from where we were born. Most of us don’t have passports and will never leave the US.
Hell, I’m well traveled. I’ve been to 45 on the 50 States, and in all my travels I’ve only needed another language once. In Larado, TX, which is right on the border with Mexico.
There are small enclaves that speak an alternative language, but they are few and far between.
Would it be to the students benefit to learn a second language, sure. But it’s unlikely that the student would ever use whatever random language they were required to learn. Spanish and perhaps Arabic might occasionally be helpful, but not necessarily, depending on what part of the country (or trade) you’re they are in.
- Comment on How come in American classrooms they make another language an elective. Why not teach our kids as many languages possible that way if we go somewhere we will kind of have uper hand? 2 weeks ago:
Around me, the only language spoken with any frequency other than English is Spanish. In a half dozen different varieties. Even that wasn’t all that common until, maybe, 10 years ago. About midway through President Trump’s first administration.
Most schools encourage kids to take a language, but they are kinda a use it, or lose it thing. Unless you just happen to be part of a community or household that speaks a language other than English, you are unlikely to need it.
- Comment on Whats the best way to clean up 15 years of stuff around the house? 3 weeks ago:
I just had to deal with this. Moving two households from Alabama to Minnesota, with myself, my wife and her mother (all 3 of whom are pack rats) and more than 1 one way truck and a car hauler was not in the budget.
What I did was rent a storage unit just large enough to match the volume of the truck I was going to rent. Anything that could fit in the storage unit could be kept. Everything else had to go. Anticipating trouble, especially from my MIL, I divided the storage unit into halfs using gaffer’s tape and one half (me and my wife’s) was again divided into half with one section reserved for me and the other for my wife.
Me and my wife downsized fairly problem-free. I got down to about 10 plastic footlockers and let my wife have the rest of my section. Our half was full, but not horribly so even after the furniture we wanted to keep. My MIL however was another story.
She kept saying we were trying to force her to give away everything she owned. She calmed down and started downsizing seriously when we finally packed up her house to move it to the storage unit and we completely filled U-haul’s largest truck, Tetris Style, with not even enough room left for a rolled up poster, and my MIL still had another half truck’s worth of boxes that she had, till that point, claimed she couldn’t bear parting with. I put my foot down and told her that, while I was willing to make multiple trips (neither of them were comfortable with the idea of drive the U-Haul) she would have to pay the full cost of moving everything that wouldn’t fit into the 1st truck and estimated that it would cost an additional $4K per trip, all in. That got her.
We wound up renting a second storage unit for interim use as she decided what would go on the truck and what she would have to sell, give away or toss. I think we may have single-handedly crashed the second hand market in our old town with everything we three donated. In the end, it was noisy, stressful and there were times when my MIL didn’t want to talk to me or my wife, but we eventually got it down to a single truck, and 3 cars, but damn, were they packed.
- Comment on What's the best day and time to post a YouTube video weekly? 1 month ago:
When others in your particular nitch are not posting. You may have a slightly better chance to trend that way.
- Comment on Where are the arms bearers? 2 months ago:
Living in the US South for the last 30 years, my experience has been that most of the "Don’t tread on me " crowd are very much only interested in protecting themselves and their families. That often means keeping your head low when trouble is about.
Additionally, ICE seems to have been keeping a low profile in areas where that mindset is most prevalent. Still active, but keeping their wits about them.
Sooner or later, though, ICE will fuck up, knock down the wrong door, and multiple people (both ICE and citizens) will catch a bad case of lead poisoning. And then things will get bad.
- Comment on [deleted] 3 months ago:
You can’t post a video directly, but you can link to a video hosted elsewhere.
- Comment on How do you respond to unwanted advice? 3 months ago:
Listen to them, and go “okay”. Then if it was helpful, follow the suggestion. More often than not, though, the advice is not helpful. I’ll still listen and go “okay”, and then go and do whatever it is that I thought was best.
Painful truth is that I am not an expert in everything. I don’t know everything. Even having reached middle age, I’ve not experienced everything. But by listening to those around me, I can often learn something. That thing may not always be what the advice giver intended, (often it’s “This person is an idiot”) but learning is good.
The most important piece of information you can ever learn is “Where can I find more information?” Occasionally it’s the annoying asshole that keeps giving unsolicited advice.
- Comment on Why doesn't NASA have a go fund me page or kickstarter? Really don't know how they work but would donate. 380 million in the US if everyone gave a dollar would do good? 4 months ago:
My understanding is that there is a law on the books that prevents government agencies from accepting donations.
- Comment on How do I finally get a long term career and become financially independent? 4 months ago:
For me it was getting a CDL. I went through Swift Transportation) to get mine, though most trucking companies either have a trucking school or have tuition reimbursement. Back in 2008, it cost me $800 upfront (going to the state for testing and licensing) plus 2 years working for Swift.
Pay was shit starting out, but at this point in my career I’m making $60,000 a year. I could be making more, but I shifted to running a yard truck instead of running routes.
If you’re not having any luck getting into the trades, that is the direction I would look. Swift literally hired me 30 minutes after I put in the application, in the middle of the night. The trucking industry as a whole tends to be really fast to hire as well. The longest I’ve had to wait to hear back from a company I’ve applied to was 72 hours.
Other options would be to check with local construction companies and farms. Both are probably really hurting for people right now due to ICE. Might also check with HVAC, plumbing and electrician outfits. I know that Alabama, in particular, has been short handed in each of these fields for a while, so they may be willing to train on the job.
Contact the companies themselves, not the unions associated with their fields as the only union I’m aware of that handles job placement as well as training is the Boilermakers. I’ve applied to them once, didn’t hear anything back from the Boilermakers for 3 years. They is a bit slow.
- Comment on When did people start saying "have a good rest of your day" 4 months ago:
I think I first noticed that phrase about 10 years ago. Not sure where it came from.
- Comment on AWS crash causes $2,000 Smart Beds to overheat and get stuck upright 4 months ago:
So, what would be the community that is the opposite of buy it for life?
Seriously, I get that internet is ubiquitous in some areas, but everything should have the ability to function correctly without internet access.
- Comment on [deleted] 5 months ago:
First you need to define what you mean by classical music. Depending on who you’re talking to that could be anything from Mozart or Bach in a group orchestral setting to something instrumental written in the last 5 years played solo, or any combination in-between.
I’m not an orchestral player, more a bluegrass and old-time musician, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
When you are playing in a group orchestra, you are not a musician. You are an instrument. The conductor is the musician. You’re there to play the notes on the page. The conductor may give you some leeway, may not.
In smaller groups, you may or may not have more freedom depending on the musical style and the group dynamics.
Solo, do as you please so long as it sounds good. You are both the instrument and the musician here.
As always, there is only one hard rule in music, If it sounds good, it is good. Everything else is just guidelines.
- Comment on How Long is Too Long for a Reply? 5 months ago:
My opinion, that would fall under technical. Your reply might not be useful to that teacher or the student that she was trying to help, but might be useful to the next teacher or student that runs across the post.
In all my years I have never found anything as poorly documented as how people’s minds work.
- Comment on How Long is Too Long for a Reply? 5 months ago:
If it’s a technical issue, go ahead and answer it if you think your answer will help someone in the future. Someone may be having that exact problem and have found the post via search. This has helped me more times than I can count when working on projects.
Non technical topics, depends on the platform and subject. I’d say use your own judgment.
- Comment on How do I stop sleeping through everything? 5 months ago:
I switched to first to black coffee instead of, in my case, Mt. Dew. Then once I was caffeine free (and more importantly to me at the time, sugar free) save for coffee, I switched to decaf. Felt tired the first week, but no headaches. Decaf still has caffeine in it so you avoid the migraine, but so little it doesn’t affect you much.
Honestly, the massive sugar cravings were a bigger problem for me for months than the caffeine withdrawal, but I lost 20 lbs just cutting the sodas out.
- Comment on How do I stop sleeping through everything? 5 months ago:
I do this even after cutting caffeine almost completely.
Got better after I got an Apple watch as I was able to see exactly how long I was sleeping for. Used that information to change when I went to bed. Will still sleep through a apocalypse, but at least I don’t usually oversleep anymore.
- Comment on If you had to buy a new TV, what brand would you get? 5 months ago:
The vast majority of TVs nowadays have really just become manufactured e-waste, mainly due to the piss poor computers they have running the “smart” features. Have a look at your local thrift store or Goodwill. You might find something there for a discount that will last a bit.
Nowadays, I probably wouldn’t buy a new TV. Too much malware preinstalled even if their smart features aren’t under powered. I would look instead at digital displays or larger computer monitors. It will bump the price back up to what TVs used to cost when I was younger, but at least your paying with cash instead of your privacy. Will probably last a bit longer to boot.
- Comment on How long do we have before PCs get locked bootloaders and corporations ban installation of "non-approved" software? (for context: Google is restricting sideloading worldwide on Android ETA 2027) 6 months ago:
It’s been done before. ChromeBooks comes to mind, but there have been others. Usually winds up killing the outfit that tries it.
As far as I know Chromebooks only survive because of the educational market. Locked down devices are preferable in schools.
I won’t buy one, but I could see such systems becoming dominant in another 20 years or so.
- Comment on Do you read analog clocks to the exact minute? How do you do this quickly? 6 months ago:
I don’t generally read them to the minute very often. For the most part, 5 min increments are close enough for what I need, most of the time. If I do need a more precise time, I’m usually already closely watching the clock and it’s just addition (was 1341 when I started this, now it’s 1345.).
If I need to get the precise time, cold, than it’s as simple as: closest 5 min tick, then add or subtract minute ticks till you get to the minute hand
Eventually you get to the point where it’s not something you consciously think about. You just look at the clock and then pattern recognition takes over and you just know what time it is.
- Comment on Can you get shadowbanned on Lemmy? 6 months ago:
I can see this post from the SDF. I think you may just be having federation issues.
- Comment on [deleted] 6 months ago:
I tend to use a paper towel with a little bit of canola oil, after hand washing it lightly with soap and water.
My cast iron won’t win beauty pageants, but they are functional equipment, not wall decorations.
- Comment on [deleted] 7 months ago:
From what I’ve noticed, “not figuring it out” is often either a question of fine motor coordination or poor ear training.
Other times it’s outlandish expectations from yourself. Your not going to be playing "Money for Nothing " by Dire Straits for a while, but something along the lines of “Three Little Birds” by Bob Marley is probably achievable within your first week.
Fine motor control is mostly just a matter of practice. Use a metronome and start SLOW.
Ear training in this context is being able to map a sound in your head to a finger position on your instrument. Again practice, pick a simple melody and try to find that melody on your instrument.
As for what instrument. What do you want to play? You could get any instrument in the world, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to play that instrument.
I mostly play and teach guitar, you can easily get a reasonable instrument in the $300-$600 range. Sometimes cheaper.
Serviceable keyboards can be had for about $150.
- Comment on Could one legally get a hold of those bank bill dye security dye packs, dye your own legally obtained cash with it, and spend it places? Just to make people suspect you're secretly a bank robber. 7 months ago:
It’s probably mostly legal. Though they might hit you with defacing currency. Technically that’s still a crime, though I don’t think it’s been used in a while.
The dye is available to the general public so that part is easy. Given how trigger happy US law enforcement is, I wouldn’t recommend doing this. Sounds like overly complicated suicide.
- Comment on Does the ping between your eyes and brain increase when you're tired? 7 months ago:
I like that description. I may borrow it the next time I’m asked to run a safety training.
To answer your question, yes. Your reaction time does slow down as you become more tired. The effect is similar to being very drunk. This fact is the basis for Hours of Service regulations in the US trucking industry.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3307962/
academic.oup.com/sleep/…/2749684
- Comment on Where are all the successful "red cities"? 7 months ago:
From what I’ve noticed, cities tend to be more liberal than rural areas. I can’t think of a major city off the top of my head that is a republican stronghold. I’ve got to go to work but I found these two links which may help.
- Comment on 32, f. Are there any dating sites that are actually free and don't suddenly force me to pay to actually use the site? 8 months ago:
With the very big caveat that I’m 15 years out of date, you might see if OKCupid or Plenty O Fish are still around.
I would check for you but I’d rather not cause my wife to worry. I met her on OKCupid. If I remember correctly, searching was free but messages always were a paid service regardless of platform.