idiomaddict

@idiomaddict@lemmy.world

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon experiences a glitch⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  I mean, the sky can definitely change colors, especially if there’s bad weather or lots of magnetic activity.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon experiences a glitch⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Plus, 9:30 at night isn’t that early for most 10 year olds

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon's mom has questions⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  The thing about moms is that they will ask if you are gay over the smallest most trivial things. In many cases it seems like they want you to be gay.

  I think this might be a generational difference in showing acceptance. My dad asked me if I was a lesbian all the time, because he wanted to reassure me that he still loved me if so. I found it very annoying when I was in middle/high school, but in my case it was basically harmless, so whatever. Hopefully your mom’s just doing the same :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨It's funny how once a country has Universal Healthcare they never give it up.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  This probably says 1941 because it’s when “all” retirees became automatically insured, but earlier or later would also be a good answer.

  Otto von Bismarck instated a rudimentary system (German language link) covering only poorer workers and their families in 1883, but that expanded to cover everyone gradually and was then taken away from multiple groups in the 1930s and 1940s until it was reinstated for all in 1949.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨They say, "You'll have to wait". It's a bullshit argument against Universal Healthcare.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Kind of. I’m in Germany (but from the US), and while it’s leagues and leagues better than the US, I recently had a similar issue. I was prescribed a daily generic medication that comes in increments of 100, which had some supply issues. The name brand version comes in increments of 30, so I had to get my prescription rewritten for 90 pills instead of 100, because they couldn’t just dispense less medication than I was prescribed.

  I ended up going two days without my medication, but it was still better than in a non universal healthcare system. I used the same medication in the US, and regularly had to skip a day or two around refills, plus I was only able to fill one month at a time and had to pay way more. In the US, I had to pay for: a monthly doctor’s visit, a drug test to make sure I was taking my medication, and a high prescription cost ($50-$330/month, depending on whether I’d reached my deductible and whether it was a generic or not). In Germany, I pay 8.50€/month for the brand name or 10€/3 months for the generic, no cost for doctor’s visits and no required drug test.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon fears The Hand⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Damn, we’re the scary ones, aren’t we?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon fears The Hand⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s the illusion of control. We all know logically that the best driver in the world can still be killed by a really negligent fellow driver, but people don’t really internalize that. If there were a giant hand that sometimes killed people on staircases, people would be more worried about staircases than they are now, even though plenty of people already die on them (about a tenth as many die on the stairs as occupants of cars die in accidents). We know what the risk factors are, and we can reduce our own risk by using a bannister, carefully clearing snow or ice from outdoor steps/making sure there isn’t a loose carpet on indoor steps, and arranging our homes to use stairs less frequently as we get older. Doing those things makes us feel like stairs are less dangerous, even though our statistics reflect a world in which people already know to do those things.

  It’s why aneurysms are so scary to some people- we don’t really know how to diagnose what causes them until they’ve already happened, so they feel random to people

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Compsci grads facing recession-like job prospects thanks to AI - Slinging coffee and waiting tables ain't just for liberal arts grads any more, say Census Bureau economists⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Psssh, that doesn’t sound like a problem for this quarter.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Workers in New York seek to create first AutoZone union as company resists⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I actually really like customer service. I’d love to be able to have a job in that field that didn’t fucking blow, but I haven’t been able to convince my coworkers at a service job yet that the job is worth fighting for.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Perpetrated, since you asked :)

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon reads Don Quixote⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Aramis is the one you’re missing, and he’s also the one I always forget. I can remember porthos and athos because they sound similar, and d’artagnan was the name of the company my old job used for some supplies, but Aramis is too easy a name to forget.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘I wasn’t even listening,’ Farage says of donations scandal meeting⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely it sounds nonsense.

  It’s perfectly grammatical, but it’s one of the few commands where the subject isn’t elided. The others that occur to me are “hear ye, hear ye,” and “look on my works, ye mighty, and despair,”from Ozymandias, both of which are definitely very old fashioned sounding.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon becomes a landscape⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I dated a guy in college whom I (affectionately) referred to as “the caveman,” because he had a really prominent brow. My (unaffectionate) nickname in high school was “sleepy,” because I fell asleep in class once, and that was made up by boys.

  I think most nicknames are a little unimaginative.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Alcoholic billionaire says he wants to shove a camera up every workers ass.⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Solidarity is the answer

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The American Dream, minus 60%⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I majored in German in college (and honestly probably only got to a high B2 or so, which is not very advanced), so I signed up flyor six months of intensive online classes from 3-7:30 am every weekday before work, then applied to a bunch of masters programs in German language instruction. I was accepted on a provisional basis for a normal teaching degree, and given a year to take more intensive German classes before starting the degree. Nearing the end of that year, I had advanced my German enough to qualify for the masters in German education. To qualify for the student visa, I had to prove my student status and have €10k that I could put into a bank account to be withdrawn in steady increments throughout the year. The intensive classes cost about €5k for the whole 18 months, and university tuition is around €400 per semester.

  I do have a talent for languages, but I also think that if anyone spends 18 months doing 20 hours of language instruction per week, they’ll be able to at least get a high enough level to study a non language related degree in most countries. I’ve seen dedicated illiterate adults begin learning both German and how to read and get a language level high enough to meet university admission requirements here within three years, so a person starting out knowing their letters can do it in half the time. It’s not easy, but if you can focus on it, it’s doable.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The American Dream, minus 60%⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m an American emigrant, living in Germany, and it’s weird: there are so many layers of problems, that I can’t accurately express what it feels like to watch your home country burn itself and anyone it can take with it to the ground from afar. The closest I can come is “shameful,” when people ask, but I worry that comes off as though I just find trump embarrassing.

  I absolutely do, but it’s more that I feel deep shame for ever having believed the propaganda I was raised with; every new, horrible thing this president does is a fucking disgrace; and the mask-off nature of the administration reveals other shameful aspects of American culture and history*, which were previously less known to Europeans.

  Just cutting off USAID, NOAA, and American participation in the WHO have or will all contribute to preventable deaths of innocent people around the world (there are too many things to consider them all here). We were at one point well-organized, dedicated, and well-connected enough to have a net positive effect on the world (had we chosen to do so, which we continually did not). We had a robust social safety net for some of the population at one point which could have been expanded to cover everyone in the country. By not doing that, we’ve almost certainly forced people who could have been highly skilled doctors, gifted artists, or creative inventors into wage labor, prison, or an early grave.

  Because of what?

  Racism?

  That weird little fantasy about how the details of a person’s phenotype affect their personality or ability? It’s just a malignant, bizarro-world version of astrology! Race isn’t based in genetic science, and even if they try to suggest that there are differences based on race that are transmitted through culture, it quickly leads to the realization that perhaps treating some people as an underclass is not a good thing for society, actually, so they’re clearly not going about it that way.

  It’s repeated a lot, but the cruelty really seems to be the point.

  That’s a terrible shame.

  *it also revealed a level of solidarity shown by people protesting ICE that I was really happily surprised by, to be clear. It’s not all bad, but there are many ways that could have been revealed which would have been infinitely better.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Walmart actually teaches their employees how to get food stamps⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  That sounds like it might a place with somewhat robust worker’s protections, at least on paper. Are there mechanisms to prevent employers gaming the system like that?

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wages never caught up with costs⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Even my older sibling (ten years older) had significantly cheaper school in the early 2000s than I did and significantly more expensive than you. I honestly just expected it to keep growing at an insane rate- I hope it’s leveled out some.

  Side note: I was really excited to earn $35k/year at my first office job in 2015, because I grew up with $40k in mind as the “made it” salary. I was… disappointed.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Wages never caught up with costs⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Does anyone know if college is accurate? I went about 15 years ago, and state schools were $10k/year for just tuition, $20k/year for tuition and room and board. Private schools were closer to $40k/year for everything.

  I’d be pleasantly surprised if it wasn’t more than $30k a year for college now.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A reminder⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I think you’re thinking of the professional managerial class.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨I guess they didn't Edge enough⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I still enjoy many dark jokes internally too, but I definitely don’t share them with as wide an audience as I used to- I’ll make a joke about priests molesting kids to my husband, close friends, or immediate family, but I know that I can’t generally know who has been impacted by that, and I’m not trying to fuck up someone’s day with a flip joke.

  I also don’t enjoy dead baby jokes nearly as much as I used to, because I’ve now known several people who’ve had a late miscarriage or stillbirth, or whose children died, and I can’t separate the punchline from the image of their faces while grieving or talking about the loss. I still like dark humor about things that directly impacted me, but for things that only happened to loved ones, I can’t see the humor anymore.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon comes into some money⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Imo, lentils need carrots the way food in general needs salt, so that might have been the difference. I assume other sweetish (culinary) vegetables like squash or sweet potatoes would work as well, but since I tried them with carrots, I haven’t made them without to test (seriously, it’s that big a difference, plus carrots are the cheapest of the three).

  It doesn’t need to be much, just one or two roughly chopped and thrown in with the raw lentils to cook together. I don’t generally want the mushy carrot mixed in with the lentils afterward, so I just eat it separately (which is why I chop it roughly- if you chop it finely, it’d probably basically melt into the finished dish).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An American city has been without power for 2 weeks, unacceptable.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Absolutely believable, I just haven’t been back since 2012

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨An American city has been without power for 2 weeks, unacceptable.⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The less touristy parts of New Orleans were still fucked in 2012 from Katrina in 2005.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Anon visits IHOP⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  My first job was at friendlys, and in case you still miss them sometimes, a fribble is just a regular milkshake made with soft serve (so just soft serve, syrup, and milk).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Boeing engineers, technical workers reject contract offer⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  There are lots of these local news websites that redirect to youtube, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m accessing them from abroad or if they’re just awful

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Social Security can be saved. Scrap the cap!⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  The one on the right looks like the real version of the gru meme

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is Anon the asshole?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I sent him the green text, and apparently he offered to fix a friend’s instrument in the past and got an earful. He would have been fine with me getting his old one fixed up, but he’s happy to have the new one

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The woke liberals are making our wars gay⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  I do think warfare is more honorable and better the less technology you use, but that’s just because technology lets you increase the distance of warfare and the distance is what actually makes wars worse or less honorable.

  I would not have said better without the prompt of your comment, but I value the deadliness of war negatively, so something like a club can kill fewer people than a gun, which can kill fewer people than a neutron bomb.

  I think it’s more honorable to give all parties involved an honest chance in winning a fight and in harming the other side. Drone operators are functionally immune to harm, and their side only risks the value of a drone, whereas the other side is often unarmed and fully vulnerable to drone attacks, just by sleeping near a window or being outside [or going to a wedding, but that’s not my point]. It’s a lot harder to hit someone with a club without being vulnerable to their attacks yourself, and you cast an even wider net of damage with similarly low risk of the people actually impacted by your neutron bomb being able to attack you back.

  A good historical example for how this is not dependent just on technology and for why medieval warfare was NOT more honorable is the Siege of Caffa. The Golden Horde flung plague-ridden corpses over the city walls, infecting the residents, causing them to flee, and likely causing the Black Death. That again, involves an increased distance of warfare. Any time you fight in a way that can’t be reversed, it’s less honorable and deadlier, thereby making it worse from my perspective.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Is Anon the asshole?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Depends what “fix” means, but if you didn’t get ripped off for $200, yes.

  Getting it professionally tuned isn’t unreasonable imo, especially if the neck/pegs are misaligned, but in no world should that cost $200 (and don’t try to fix a misalignment).

  Once you start making changes that can’t be undone, you’ve crossed the line. Get it tuned, get a nice strap (with mounting hardware, if needed), get a polishing kit or nicer case, hell, even get a replacement bridge/pegs and tools for working with a guitar, but don’t make permanent changes yourself (or have anyone else do so). All of those together could be well over $200, but you’d describe that as a tuneup and buying accessories, not taking the guitar “to a pro to fix it.”

  Caveat that some people don’t like non-musicians or anyone else even touching their instruments, but I’d like to think that would be obvious to a spouse, even one who might have assumed that permanent changes to an instrument they don’t own are okay.

  I’m a non-musician and my husband has a somewhat beaten up, but favored instrument that he learned on, so I’ll send this to him to see if my instinct is right (for my relationship, which does not mean it would be right for anyone else).

  Though tbf, even thinking it might be okay, I got my husband a new instrument instead of messing with his beloved one, just because it occurred to me that he might react like the husband in the OP, and I didn’t want to risk it. Of course, he could also have then felt guilty about using the new one because it’s not the one he loves and felt guilty about using the old one because I gifted him a “nicer” one. I was lucky in that he’d already branched out into related instruments and the new one could fill a new niche, so wouldn’t compete with the old, making me less worried about him feeling conflicted [I’m so sorry about that sentence, I’m imagining trying to structure it in German without nominalizing any of the clauses and… woof].