farmgineer
@farmgineer@nord.pub
Software engineer and farmer living in rural Japan
- Comment on They were right all along... 1 day ago:
There’s plenty of grey between those. Also, presumably less oppressing, rape, and inbreeding (more to some old order groups)
- Comment on Settle a debate can potato's and noodles go together and taste great with sauce and other things? (I say it can) However my mother says two starches should never be cooked because it's too much. 1 day ago:
Can it taste great? Yes. Is it too much starch in one meal? If your portions sizes are too big, also yes.
- Comment on Well you see, uh... 3 days ago:
I’d definitely go with pressure over water-bath.
- Comment on Finally started Cyberpunk.... I can't stop climbing everything. 5 days ago:
I just picked it back up last night to do a new playthrough. I did one playthrough as a corpo before they reset all the perks and later released Phantom Liberty. Picked a streetkid this time. Only had a few hours to throw at it, but I’m quite enjoying playing again.
- Comment on The same adult daughter who has trouble loading a dishwasher efficientlyly... 5 days ago:
Remember that those are designed to cover asses and cater to people with many different levels of working immune system. You may or may not need to actually be anywhere near that strict in your own home.
- Comment on What's the weirdest thing in english? 1 week ago:
I would say orthography and/or the great vowel shift. Or, further, that it’s very weird as Germanic languages go. Or, even further, the mix of old Norse and the various Saxon/jute/angle languages before the Normans came along (itself Norman french with old Norse admixture). Then throw various Celtic languages on that mess
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
Japan sells both an international version and a domestic version which is language-locked (and region-locked?) and I don’t think can get support outside of Japan. Pretty sure it will only work with a Japanese Nintendo account which, at least in the past, only worked with a Japanese credit card, though I’m not sure that’s true anymore. I don’t think it’s worth the hassle.
- Comment on If this was your car, you'd be walking 1 week ago:
I’d walk because that old thing is a safety nightmare. (I’ve driven multiple different types of stickshift cars, bikes, tractors, and more; I think that part is not an issue)
- Comment on Is Korean phonology difficult? 1 week ago:
I stand corrected. Thanks for this!
- Comment on Need a fact check if they actually do blur his neck scrotum 1 week ago:
It’s auto-pixelated fact-checking so you can’t actually see it.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
I don’t know why you got downvoted. My name is completely unpronouncable in Japanese (I’m from the US and have been in Japan over a decade), so it depends upon whom I’m talking to and their language ability. Most of the time, it’s the close-enough Japanese approximation of my name.
I’m pretty sure Chinese (at least HongKongers, but I think all) have an “English name” for going the other direction.
- Comment on Need a fact check if they actually do blur his neck scrotum 1 week ago:
I also don’t believe there is any such thing as auto-mosaic AI either, FWIW, but I can’t prove that.
- Comment on Need a fact check if they actually do blur his neck scrotum 1 week ago:
As someone who lives in Japan: no. I don’t think you actually want a fact check, but just in case.
- Comment on 1 week ago:
Yeah, Japanese subtitles can have issues. Various broadcasters have been caught saying something else, though usually only when they overdub so one can barely hear the actual person.
- Comment on Trailer love, trailer life 1 week ago:
are you saying that elderly people (who often need care themselves) should take care of the children
I have no idea where you’re getting this. I guess because a lot of the population currently in the countryside is elderly? If the people and the jobs move there, that won’t be an issue. The people at the daycare/preschool in my village are middle-aged.
it’s just a very bad idea to move around people to get more favorable taxation
That’s not the point I’m trying to make. There are people who move to the super-populated areas because they feel it’s their only chance of advancement and job security. I’ve met plenty that would rather be back where they came from or with more space. Without the job security there, without good futures, people are only coming back to visit family and not living even when they want to. If the people feel supported and secure in their opportunities and the opportunities for their children, they will come back which also brings tax revenue and improvements.
tax laws can be changed much faster
I don’t think it makes sense for the central government to directly start shifting large amounts of tax money that no one is going to use. Sure, they could start improving infrastructure and stuff in many rural areas, but if 50 people live there and that number is declining, it’s a waste of money. It only makes sense to help do anything other than basic upkeep if people are coming or it could concretely be shown to increase the chance of people coming. Again, with jobs and future outlook, that’s not happening.
we could just build more housing
This only goes so far. Look at how built out Tokyo is (including into Chiba, Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama, etc. I already know people who commute 1.5 hours or more to work. The more affordable housing is further away, and often of very poor quality with paper-thin walls, causing people to lose 3-4 hours of their day in commute. That’s insane. It’s also not like public transit can be increased quickly enough to do anything about this either.
You might argue that the answer is more highrises. The problem is that those tend to go for more and price people, dis-proportionally the elderly and those on fixed income. They also take a long time to build and create new logistics issue with garbage management and other things. Not unsolvable, but I still feel like it’s trying to force many people to live where they ultimately don’t want to.
- Comment on Trailer love, trailer life 1 week ago:
Re-populating smaller towns would give them more tax income to put money back into infrastructure and other programs. Having people move out of the megalopolises helps reduce demand on things like childcare and lower housing costs as demand cools.
- Comment on Fuck yea bro! 1 week ago:
Maybe if I make it to 80 I can wind them up like a rubber-band helicopter and fly back.
- Comment on Fuck yea bro! 1 week ago:
In my mid-40s, things are certainly going the way of the sweet chariot, but nothing my normal boxer-briefs don’t handle.
- Comment on Holy hell, Ernie. 1 week ago:
Maybe he is afraid of some ghost… his, so he refuses death.
- Comment on America continues to fall behind the rest of the world 1 week ago:
It also means the police will drag their feet or try to brush off people sometimes if they think it won’t result in a conviction. I was specifically referring to the economic freedom I feel in my post as it was the subject, but yes the justice system here has issues
- Comment on How do students who are always involved in mathematics and physics get to know about sex? 1 week ago:
I really need to refresh my set theory symbols. I haven’t taken that class in… oh no… Almost 30 years
- Comment on America continues to fall behind the rest of the world 1 week ago:
Yeah, is specifically meant economic freedom, at least as it applies to me. More affordable housing (I could still afford my payment even if my salary dropped in half if absolutely necessary), no worrying to death about medical bills, etc. This even allowed me to start my farm business which I’d likey be too terrified to do in the US. All in all I feel much less fear and anxiety over monetary matters here (though wanting to travel internationally sucks right now due to the weak yen, which I suppose is a downside).
My only real point of friction is investing, but that’s because I’m a US citizen still (until my parents pass, anyway) and that’s not a Japan problem. I’ve heard that buying and selling gold has some weird rules, but that’s not an issue I face.
- Comment on America continues to fall behind the rest of the world 1 week ago:
Yeah, I specifically meant economic freedom, or at least what I feel I have the freedom to do without worried like I had in the US. I’m not a small business owner (just me for now), bout a house that doesn’t break the bank without fear of not being able to afford it even at half my salary, and don’t worry about medical bills.
I’ve heard there are weird laws around buying and selling gold, but I don’t so I can’t speak to that. The most friction I have is with investing because I still have US citizenship which is not a Japan problem.
- Comment on America continues to fall behind the rest of the world 1 week ago:
It’s interesting that Japan is below the US in the main rankings. I feel more free here in almost every regard than I did as an adult in the US.
- Comment on Trailer love, trailer life 1 week ago:
That’s actually rather difficult to give one answer to, even if narrowed to one country/culture as the target audience.
For North America: central heat/air is not a thing here outside of commercial applications. A handful of private individuals do it, but it ends up costing a ton both directly (the unit/maintenance) and indirectly (more materials, ductwork, insulation, etc. that are less common and more expensive here). We just had building laws revised this year to require slightly higher building codes for energy efficiency and insulation, but it’s still well below the standard of other places. It’s somewhat a cost issue (Japanese houses depreciate to nothing after 20 years in most cases and land value only goes up in a handful of areas, so there’s additional pressure not to care a ton), and also a reaction to “sick home syndrome” that came from bad plastics/materials offgassing things like formaldehyde in the ‘80s in more tightly-closed homes. Here, homes that breathe well are still considered better.
- Comment on Mel Brooks has passed the age of 100 1 week ago:
Mel Brooks has passed
Is not the way one should start the headline.
- Comment on no time rule 1 week ago:
Granted. The internet stops working immediately. People with pacemakers die. Public transport largely or fully stops working in short order, possibly disastrously. We’re bound to earth by Kessler Syndrome. Most electronics fail. The grid fails and you have no more electricity. Municipal water stops. Wells must be hand-pumped.
- Comment on Trailer love, trailer life 1 week ago:
We have a lot of good infrastructure in my village and I’m pretty rural (depending upon how big ‘urban center’ is in your definition, I’m between 20 and 45 minutes away by train).
A lot of the countryside that is depopulating is quite ugly, but there is no money to invest in that infrastructure when almost the whole population is pensioners. It’s a chicken-and-egg problem to be sure. I think the government needs to do more to get people out of the megalopolises. My area has campaigns that use our tax money to pay people to move here as well as subsidizing preschool and kindergarten.
- Comment on It is prophesied 1 week ago:
I think it’s a tool to make OS installs require less space
- Comment on It is prophesied 1 week ago:
Kernel Sanders