https://www.sosproducts.com/Plastic-Whistle-with-Lanyard-100-Pack-p/22415b.htm

I am very attracted to instruments but lack the discipline to practice regularly. After abandoning several, I ended up acquiring an absolutely gorgeous steel tongue drum by serendipity and my favorite thing about it is that it doesn’t matter what I hit or do on it, it sounds pretty. It’s like a bubble bath for my ears and I can tap on it regardless of whether I’ve practiced or learned a melody and it’s beautiful. Very forgiving, doesn’t need tuning, and welcomes me back no matter how long it’s been since I touched it. I know the cheap ones might have spoiled a lot of people’s opinions of them but a good one sounds magical.

I still get the itch to to start up Alpha Centauri sometimes, which came out in 1999.

Ah you’re right, it seems there’s modern copycats. Try searching for an “Imperial Ten” Oster model 642. That’s the other one I have, and it’s an 860 watt blender, solid metal with a glass pitcher and weighs like 8lbs. It’s probably not on par with the performance of a Vitamix, but it’s also not $400+. For my uses though it has never disappointed, I usually use it for grinding frozen chunks of fruit or berries to make ice cream.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=oster+Imperial+ten+642

I have found two vintage Oster blenders at yard sales, each for under $10. They are from the 50s and 60s and are solid heavy metal things with glass pitchers. I needed to buy new seals for them and on one I had to replace the little star bolt that the pitcher locks into to turn the blades. Either of them will completely liquify things that my modern cheapo Hamilton Beach would meekly chew at. If you can find one online (ebay maybe) or better yet in person (thrift stores, yard sales), I can definitely attest they are built different.

Edited to add: a search on US ebay for “vintage 60s Oster beehive blender” turned up some results that look like mine between $40-50 plus shipping. It’s an excellent machine.

“I don’t think she looks good at pickleball at all, but at least she seems like she could hold a racquet”

What if we used something else, aside from how bangable or pretty men think she is, as a way to judge a woman’s value for a change?

Politics, jostling for power, elevating herself through her relationship? nah she’s got her own passions and things going on. Very refreshing to see that level of dgaf.

Enough… chocolate… What is that? Ridiculous notion

Good on you for setting up the Jellyfin early, it’s still on my to-do list

My personal favorite childhood movies/shows that made a real impact:

Fern Gully, the Disney animated originals (not remakes) mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Nightmare Before Christmas, Princess Bride, Neverending Story, Star Trek 4 (the whales one), Toy Story

Star Trek TNG and TOS, the old school B/W Addams Family, OG Looney Tunes, Nature on PBS, Nova on PBS, Mr Rogers, Arthur

Additional stuff I’ll be adding to my own kid’s Jellyfin (when I get to it)

Avatar the Last Airbender, Kipo and the Wonderbeasts, She-Ra:PoP (the Netflix one), Bluey, Storybots, Puffin Rock, Lucas the Spider, Trash Truck, Ms Rachel, Daniel Tiger, Elinor Wonders Why

I refuse to support or use subscription software, because back in my day we paid for software once and if we wanted a newer version we had the choice to just stew in our bug ridden version lacking the latest features forever and WE WERE HAPPY TO DO SO

Ok but I already have about 700 hobbies and projects I could be working on or learning, I would just like to click the button that does the thing.

People actually installed or used 8? 😋

Lol agreed though, the entire reason I am attempting to swap to Linux is because 7 was the last good Windows.

With Windows (pre-10+) at least I can generally avoid the frustration of fruitless internet searches by just mucking around in the control panel for a bit. Or even, yes, Regedit. I like to find a menu that offers me relevant options and then click a button to do a thing. Maybe it takes more time than just typing a command shortcut to do the thing, but clicking menu buttons is something I can just kind of figure out myself by exploring rather than reading the manual or consulting the eldritch lore of the internet every time I want to learn how to do a new thing. .

I’m trying Mint too, for the most part it has been a relatively intuitive transition from Windows… up until the moment I try to customize things. Fuck me for trying to pin programs to my panel, make my own shortcuts/launchers, install things to my choice of directories or recategorize my start menu shortcuts. I’m so used to just being able to right click on something and have the thing I wanted to do be an option there, or be able to just click and drag something somewhere and it just does the thing. Looking up the directions for how to do a really basic thing after the third or fourth time gets reeeeal old.

I’ve been trying to swap over to Linux and I don’t like using the Terminal because I have zero memory retention for literally anything that isn’t Weird Al songs

Also needs to be said that he’s been creating for a decade and every video is consistently as good as the last one. The man single handedly spawned an entire genre and he just kept doing his own thing, algorithms and influencer culture be damned.

Meal prep and have easy to heat up meals ready to go for the first two weeks. Cooking becomes harder than you would ever believe once kiddo arrives.

Get baby bottles with limited feed nipples and at least two varieties of formula ready. Milk doesn’t always come in on time or in the quantities that baby needs. Babies can also have digestive issues or taste preferences so having a backup option is clutch.

Get something that will let you wear the baby hands free. Some babies will wake like clockwork within minutes of being put down and sometimes the only way you can get something done is with the baby on your chest.

Something I didn’t know about was that young babies under 3 months go a little crazy with their limbs when they sleep and need to be swaddled so they don’t flail around. They’re used to being in a confined space so being wrapped up in a baby blanket is very comforting. Make sure you have at least 3 to rotate out when they get dirty. They come in a few varieties so see which might work for you.

Babies can come early, like three weeks early, so get everything ready like diapers and wipes well before the due date. Assume you have less time than you think so you’re not caught off guard.

Talk to family or friends and find out who would be able to help with chores, food or watching the baby periodically for the first few months

There’s a ton of second hand, barely used or basically brand new baby stuff out there in basically any population center. Definitely check out second hand stuff for anything that you are thinking of spending more than pocket change on

Sleep is precious, enjoy it while you can

Exactly, thank you. I also enjoy Abby Cox’s videos on corsetry and living in period accurate 18th century clothes full time for many years. The “dream team” of Youtube dress historians got together to debunk common corsetry myths on this video which summarizes succinctly how these myths continue to propagate and where they came from. I jumped to a timestamp where they talk about where those images of deformed rib cages come from but the whole video is pretty entertaining

https://youtu.be/4XBLBfWNH7I?t=616

This blog perpetuates a lot of common myths about corsetry and I find that disappointing.

It’s a pretty widespread and common thing that children wear similar clothing to adults, and whatever the adult fashion is, kids often get a miniaturized version of it. The children’s corsets pictured in the ads there don’t minimize the waist or attempt to give them an hourglass, and would have been lightly boned or have no boning at all. If there was boning, it would have been made of flexible material like whale balleen (the material filter feeding whales have instead of teeth, which behaves like a soft thermoplastic) or ribbons, cording or even paper. These are not materials that can damage a body unless maybe you stab yourself with them or light them on fire.

Corsets were used to provide a smoothing layer under clothes, to give some structure and yes the fashionable silhouette. However, it was commonly understood that a body in clothing was very different from a body out of it. There was more body privacy and control over how your body was perceived. The combination of corsets, stays, “bodies” and strategic use of padding meant anyone could be the fashionable silhouette, no matter your natural body type. Far more women achieved those “tiny waists” by wearing bum pads, hip rolls, underskirts and crinolines, mutton sleeves and frilly blouses than tight lacing. It was all smoke and mirrors.

Now with skin tight knits and thin leggings and exposed skin the only way to have a fashionable silhouette is for your body to actually look like that, which fuels the fitness and weight loss industry. I find it interesting that these articles always talk about “unrealistic body standards” when ironically body standards have only gotten more aggressively unrealistic and unreasonable, not less.

Modern corsets have little to no resemblance to their historical counterparts, which were lightweight, flexible, practical support garments that provided some structure to the clothing of the time and bust support for women. Extreme outliers existed but were far from the norm. A lot of the period writing about the harm corsets were doing was written by men bloviating about how stupid they thought women were to wear the clothing they preferred, a time honored tradition which continues to this day.

There is nothing controversial here, children wore underwear too.

Excellent by American standards for most of Boston and Greater Boston, which is to say mediocre by European standards. It’s entirely possible to be independently mobile and car free there. Most places are walkable and there are pleasant old buildings and green spaces or plazas or spots overlooking water to stumble upon. It’s a lovely city.