MrsDoyle
@MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on What's the e-reader you would buy if you were in the market? 2 hours ago:
I’ve discovered I can still load books on my aged Kindle Keyboard via email. When you register a Kindle you get an email address for that purpose. More fiddly that just dropping files in its Document folder, but it does work. (I’m so bloody annoyed at Amazon for that change to Kindles.)
- Comment on That's me 3 days ago:
Don’t be embarrassed, you’re keeping her in a job.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
“Normal”, hmmm. I remember being confused at school when we had to analyse literature and “motherly love” was given as an example of a universal theme. Really? Not in my experience. According to my own dear mama, my younger sister and I were both mistakes. She made it very clear always what a heinous burden we were.
In retrospect, she was a terrible person for saying such things. We were not awful kids, and grew up to be pretty good people. Yes, we’ve both struggled a bit with depression and self doubt, but on the whole, not bad.
So I would say your mother’s cruelty isn’t what’s generally considered “normal”, but it’s not that uncommon. Some people shouldn’t have children, in my view. There’s a lot of societal pressure to procreate in the first place, and then barriers to choosing not to. And it must be horrendous to find yourself not enjoying motherhood at all when it’s supposed to be your peak experience. Still no excuse for such meanness though.
Carry on living, young adult! It’s too easy to get dragged down by shit like this. Life is fleeting in the grand sweep of the universe, keep your heart open to possibilities and options and chances. And remind your mother that you’ll be choosing her care home one day.
- Comment on [deleted] 1 week ago:
I grew up in New Zealand in the 50s-60s. We got most info on current events from the radio. Later on there was TV, but it was mainly radio. Our radio had long-wave and if atmospheric conditions were right you could pick up foreign broadcasts.
Other knowledge came from school, obviously, and from libraries. I absolutely haunted my local library, and read voraciously. I still have a fund of info in my head from back then that comes in handy in pub quizzes. When I wasn’t reading I was out with my friends on our bicycles. We rode for miles at a time - I don’t remember ever telling an adult where we were going.
(About libraries - I don’t know if you’re aware, but the tycoon Andrew Carnegie funded libraries around the world, including the one in the city near my home town.) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library
Having said all that and making it sound idyllic, it wasn’t. Society back then was repressive in major ways and people’s viewpoints were generally narrow. History books weren’t always telling the truth. It wasn’t terrible compared with say apartheid South Africa, but not great. There was a counter-culture bubbling away - beatniks and then hippies - so it was possible to get an alternative view, just about.
I love the technology that gives me access to not just information, but the lived experience of people round the world. I love reading posts here about mad trivial stuff like what you all are having for breakfast. I love taking a Street View tour of places I’ll likely never visit. I’m reading a novel set in Iceland at the moment, and can “drive” along the route a character is taking. I can video chat with my sister, who lives 10,000 miles away. It’s a miracle!
- Comment on Bait or r*ta*d*ti*n. Call it. 1 week ago:
That was my thought. I’ve never tried ketamine, but watching this clown dance through crises that would destroy a normal person makes me tempted to experiment.
- Comment on my phone turning my headphone volume one notch from silent halfway through a song then telling me off for turning it back up 1 week ago:
I have a little Bluetooth speaker that for some reason the phone thinks is headphones - and yes, turns the volume down mid-song. Grrrrrr.
- Comment on Why is it ok to replace -ed at the end of a word with -t in some cases? For example, why are "vexed" and "vext" both acceptable, but "thrilled" and "thrilt" aren't? 2 weeks ago:
I sleeped on it and I decided you’re wrong.
- Comment on Can I replace honey with maple syrup? 2 weeks ago:
I made some once with pure maple syrup and yes it was kind of under-clumped, but the flavour was off the wall delicious.
- Comment on Drivers to be able to pay for parking using just ONE app under new Government plans 4 weeks ago:
One RingGo to rule them all…
- Comment on Cloudflare CEO warns AI and zero-click internet are killing the web's business model 5 weeks ago:
I have a few books that came free with PC mags back in the day, full of links to mad crazy websites and interesting/useful stuff. So few pixels back then!!
- Comment on Liquid Trees 1 month ago:
The London plane tree is particularly suitable for urban areas, it’s resistant to air pollution.
- Comment on Liquid Trees 1 month ago:
I discovered when I joined a volunteer litter-picking group in my town that some people really hate trees. And I must emphasise HATE. They hate the shade they cast in summer, the way the leaves block the all-important View. They hate the fallen leaves in autumn. They hate the bare branches in winter. They hate the risk of branches falling in storms. They hate the racket the birds make. I was astonished - it never occurred to me that people would feel so strongly.
Turns out I’m a bloody tree-hugging extremist.
- Comment on Sycamore Gap tree destroyed in 'moronic mission', court told 1 month ago:
From an earlier report:
Wright said Carruthers sent Graham a Facebook post from a man called Kevin Hartness saying: “Some weak people that walk this earth … disgusting behaviour.”
Two minutes later Graham replied to Carruthers with a voice note saying: “That Kevin Hartness comment. Weak … fucking weak? Does he realise how heavy shit is?”
Carruthers replied with his own voice note saying: “I’d like to see Kevin Hartness launch an operation like we did last night … I don’t think he’s got the minerals.”
- Comment on [Opinion] Windows isn't an OS, it's a bad habit that wants to become an addiction 1 month ago:
Windows is doing its best to shake me off. It keeps reminding me that it’s ditching Win 10 and I’d better upgrade. Except I won’t, because my (perfectly good) computer isn’t up to spec for 11. So in effect it’s telling me that I’d better hurry up and decide on a Linux distro, tick tock.
- Comment on Why does it seem like everyone is so good looking and beautiful nowadays? 1 month ago:
You’re obviously not from round here… (Gesturing vaguely at shuffling hordes of very plain people in my town. Self included. I fit right in.)
Seriously though, comparing yourself with strangers is a terrible idea. That said, if you do want to smarten up a bit, I’d suggest going to a menswear store and asking an assistant to assist. Explain your dilemma, ask them to help you put together one outfit, “smart casual” would be a good start. Good luck!
- Comment on What is the best take your blood pressure to get the most accurate results? 1 month ago:
Extra info you didn’t ask for but might help: the doctor gave me a sheet to record my BP for a week. Two readings in the morning, a few minutes apart, two readings in the afternoon, a few minutes apart. Once I’d done that he added and divided the results to get the average. Too high, so now I’m on meds.
I was a bit blasé about it at first - pfft, I feel fine! But he explained that high BP can cause a stroke. You can recover just fine from a heart attack, but a stroke can be devastating, if you even survive it. You will feel absolutely fine until suddenly you’re on the floor, unable to move one side of your body or speak coherently. Scared me into taking it seriously!
- Comment on Should naming your children stupid names be illegal? 1 month ago:
For example Caoimhe, pronounced Keeva.
- Comment on Liz Truss to launch ‘uncensored’ social network to counter mainstream media 2 months ago:
Also:
- Comment on Do you use your blinker in a car? 2 months ago:
Always always signal your intention. I heard a woman complaining that her new car had lane control, which forced her to indicate when changing lanes. “It’s so annoying, I mean it’s obvious I’m overtaking, I don’t need to indicate!”
Also, as a frequent pedestrian I appreciate when drivers and cyclists indicate and judge heavily when they don’t. So frustrating to be waiting to cross the road and someone turns without indicating.
- Comment on Is this picture idea immature? 2 months ago:
The Guardian does an occasional feature called Flashback, where a celebrity recreates a childhood photo. It’s a bit of fun! You have my permission to go right ahead. A sense of humour is very attractive.
- Comment on 6* months away now. If you're on 10, do you plan to upgrade? Make the jump to Linux? 2 months ago:
My (perfectly good) PC isn’t Win 11 compatible, so I can’t upgrade from 10. I’ve got Linux running on an old laptop so I’m thinking of installing it on my PC. Buuut a few years back I moved from Google Drive to OneDrive and so now I’m looking at Proton Drive instead. It’s all a big time soak, sigh. But worth it? I guess… The timing isn’t great either - I’ve got an exam in October that I need to study hard for and do practical prep as well, plus I have travel plans. It’s all a bit much. I’m too old to be this busy!
- Comment on Husband needs proof news is censored 2 months ago:
Words to watch out for are things like “attacked”, “bashed” or “slammed” instead of “criticised”; “forced” instead of “chose”, eg “company forced to cut jobs”; “muzzled” or “gagged” instead of perhaps “censored”. The implied violence charges the story emotionally, it’s the most common form of news manipulation. They’re trying to make you feel - usually fear or anger - rather than think.
- Comment on Do animals think we're cute? 2 months ago:
I tripped and fell over one time and the racket I made woke my dog up. He looked across at me lying on the floor, yawned and went back to sleep. “Still alive? Jolly good. Wake me again at dinnertime.”
- Comment on Which is the cheapest way to manage my body after death ... 2 months ago:
I’ve signed up for donation for dissection. One slight caveat is that the institution - in my case a medical school - can decline to take your body if you’ve died of something infectious or if it’s been too damaged, eg in a crash. If all goes well, they collect the body, and when they’re finished with it they have it cremated. Family can have the ashes if they want. There’s a nice memorial garden with the names of donors. It’s all free… I mean, this is the medical school where Burke and Hare sold their murder victims, so they’re quite grateful to get your corpse for nothing.
- Comment on The gentrified forest near me removed the bins. .. From their café/picnic area 2 months ago:
I fully support the choice to remove the bins. I visited a beauty spot in Scotland recently that has a coffee van in the carpark. The young couple I took there went to add their empty cups to the already overflowing bin, and were baffled when I insisted they take them to the car, which was ten steps away. “But there’s a bin!” Yes you numpties, and the wind is already spreading its contents everywhere. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
- Comment on Trust your training 2 months ago:
Compound interest.
- Comment on How come in most school in the USA (at least mine) they teach Spain Spanish instead of Mexico Spanish? Would not Mexico Spanish be an obvious choice to teach? 2 months ago:
I once stayed in a youth hostel rural Quebec and had a really weirdly hostile reception from people there, despite dredging up my very best schoolgirl French to try and make conversation. Turns out they thought I was from Ontario. When I revealed I was a Kiwi they were all suddenly very friendly. Too late!
- Comment on How do you feel about someone taking the coins people tossed into a fountain or other public waterworks display for "wishes?" 3 months ago:
A long, loooonng time ago I met a woman who was one of the people dressing up as reenactors in an early colonial American settlement. She cosplayed as a weaver in a house that had a pond outside. Every day before she started work she would hoik her skirt up under her armpits and wade into the pond to pick up coins with her feet (she had very articulate toes). Inevitably she turned round one day to find a family of visitors gawping at her non-colonial underwear. She said the coins added up to quite a haul over the week.
- Comment on Did people experience doom scrolling with newspapers and magazines? 3 months ago:
I once moved into a house that had been lived in by a very elderly person. In the kitchen there was a pincushion hanging on the wall that was covered in death notices clipped from the newspaper. Kind of like doom scrolling, just super personal. Watching everyone you knew die, until it was your turn.
I’ve made myself sad all over again. :(
- Comment on The Nightshade Family 3 months ago:
Potatoes have fruits as well - they look like little dark green tomatoes. Toxic of course, because nightshade.
