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    1. Today, in Brazil, I was hit by a car. I'm so grateful we have universal healthcare

      My first memory after leaving the house to cycle was being taken by the ambulance to the hospital. I was evaluated by several medical professionals. One of them spent two hours stitching my mouth...

      My first memory after leaving the house to cycle was being taken by the ambulance to the hospital. I was evaluated by several medical professionals. One of them spent two hours stitching my mouth and forehead back into something that resembles a human being.

      Brazilian SUS is not perfect by any means. It's unorganized and some procedures and operations can take a long time to happen. There's lots of corruption with doctors that work in multiple places at the same time.

      But, a lot of the time, it freaking works. The paramedics were gentle, affectionate, and competent. Some in the street knew my mother so they when to my house and called her--she accompanied me in the ambulance.

      The hospital was not pretty by any standard. There were burn victims screaming bloody hell and I'm pretty sure I saw a woman die--but hey, that's a hospital, people die there!

      An actual orthopedist made sure I did not have any fracture. An actual neurologist made sure I have no neural damage. A surgeon stitched my mouth and forehead back together into something that doesn't look like a character out of Frankenstein. It still looks bad, but it'll improve with time. A very nice nurse cleaned up all my bruises and have me aftercare orientations.

      On several occasions, we had to manually seek people and procedures that were supposed to happen automatically. The operation itself was a mess, but the doctors and nurses were extremely caring, competent, and dedicated.

      This all cost me exactly zero dollars. I didn't even had to fulfill any absurd form or provide an excess of documentation: just my national registry (RG), something almost every citizen has unless they're a very specific kind of homeless.

      This is in a very poor unstable country. It is absolutely not perfect, but on many occasions, it kinda works!

      42 votes
    2. What song are you currently addicted to?

      Sometimes i find a song that i end up playing on repeat for almost the whole day, i bet many of you know what i mean. I even get cravings for days, often playing it directly after i wake up to set...

      Sometimes i find a song that i end up playing on repeat for almost the whole day, i bet many of you know what i mean. I even get cravings for days, often playing it directly after i wake up to set the tone of my day.

      The songs i cannot stop listening to at the moment are Milk by Sweet Trip and Be On Fire by Chrome Sparks

      19 votes
    3. The Trump campaign is currently spending $5.4 million per week on Facebook ads, almost assuredly making it the platform's largest advertiser

      @Judd Legum: The Trump campaign is currently spending $5.4 MILLION PER WEEK on Facebook That's a $280 million annual rate.The Trump campaign is almost certainly Facebook's largest advertiser In 2019, Home Depot was the largest advertiser, spending $178.5 million pic.twitter.com/4BjWknL73H

      13 votes
    4. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here. Please just try to provide fair warning of...

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      5 votes
    5. What did you do this weekend?

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at...

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

      10 votes
    6. Reduction of screentime leading to positive changes in daily life

      Hi, I think I have mentioned it here a few times, but I (used to) spend A LOT of time on my phone. I’ve tried to reduce it in the past with more or less success, and recently without any...

      Hi,
      I think I have mentioned it here a few times, but I (used to) spend A LOT of time on my phone. I’ve tried to reduce it in the past with more or less success, and recently without any university work (I finished all exams half a year ago) and varying amounts of work as a freelancer, it crept up to 6+ hours of screen time per day. (this is excluding watching stuff to fall asleep, which I want to reduce but I am taking one step at a time) - So it’s a lot.

      I tried a lot of stuff, reducing the hours, by setting limits for apps, turning off notifications, but that just leads to me extending the time by entering the password myself, or checking my phone more often because I am curious about whether someone texted.
      So last week Wednesday some stuff changed. I took my first long bike ride in a long time, and that day I felt really good, I still had 5 h screen on time that day though. The next day I turned off notifications for Whatsapp, but I left the indicator next to the app on, so I could see that I have messages quickly, I also decided to just force myself to wait a bit until replying to people. Also my girlfriend is the only one that knows my screentime passcode now, so I can't sneakily extend my app time

      That Thursday my screentime was 3h 16 minutes. I was hooked, I wanted to keep my time as low as possible. Since that Thursday, I have not hit the 4h screen on time once. Yesterday I was at 3h 59 min... it was an exhausting day though (Spending 1.5h at the waiting room at the doc) and I wouldn’t have blamed myself, but I still didn’t want to hit the 4h mark. Last Thursday my daily rhythm has changed quite a bit. I got Ring Fit Adventure this week, and I have done sports 4 times this week, I started to pick up playing guitar (literally got one yesterday) and ukulele again, and I just try to find stuff to do that does not involve my phone. I also played Persona 5 Royal on my ps5, I know it’s screen time but I feel less bad about it because I don’t take my PS everywhere with me, and these were the first days I have taken off in a long time… Next, I am trying to maybe work through my books that are on my backlog, finally finishing some more again. (my girlfriend gave me the book "South Sea Vagabonde, and I am meaning to read it, and I am also listening to the Audiobook "The Shallows")
      One change just caused so many good changes. I am stoked and looking forward to how low I can bring my average, I know 4h per day is still a lot for most people. I am aiming at sub 3h next ( I had that once this week).

      This scene from Bojack has been my mantra since then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2_Mn-qRKjA

      It really does get easier, too. Today I went biking and I managed to go much longer without breaks and I feel way less exhausted.

      I just wanted to share my experience somewhere, maybe someone else is on the same path and this helps.

      22 votes
    7. What was your personal "never again" moment?

      The title should be enough. A few months ago I was out of juice to drink and didn't want to drink water, for some reason. There were 2 packets of powder juice, lemon (how my father got this packet...

      The title should be enough.

      A few months ago I was out of juice to drink and didn't want to drink water, for some reason.

      There were 2 packets of powder juice, lemon (how my father got this packet is a mystery to me) and passion fruit. Passion fruit is really bitter or something (I remember putting like 3 spoons of sugar in one cup and it wasn't enough) so I really don't want passion fruit so I, after a lot of lesser evil stuff, picked lemon.

      It was powder, so the lemon felt kinda off. There wasn't a lot of room for citrus, so it didn't really feel like lemon. So what do I do? Add sugar! To lemon!

      So that didn't feel any more like lemon, it was sweet, and I'm not even sure if the thing dissolved properly in the water!

      So, I had to drink a liter of that. And I did. And I don't want to do it again.

      22 votes
    8. Thoughts on a management information systems degree?

      i'm currently on the path to receive a BS in business administration management information systems concentration from a four year state school. i was accepted to my major near the end of this...

      i'm currently on the path to receive a BS in business administration management information systems concentration from a four year state school. i was accepted to my major near the end of this spring. my university also has a data analytics minor that i am heavily considering.

      once i am done with summer classes i plan to really dive deeper into excel and ease into learning sql b/c that will help in lots of MIS contexts it seems.

      i read online that MIS is a great degree that can lead into system admin, database admin, network admin, or business/it/system analyst roles. id find any of these careers interesting so at this point in time i feel on the right path. most importantly i just want to a job that will allow me to live a comfortable life, ya know?

      i have never really met anyone that has an MIS degree before so i have no idea what the job market is actually like for degree holders beyond clickbait articles that say how great it is. if you have an mis degree, what is your experience with it and what kind of role are you working? would you recommend this degree to someone else? what skills do you recommend most for hire-ability? id assume this is area specific, but i live in the PNW and live near an area with a strong biz/tech scene and lots of govt opportunities.

      i was recently speaking with some CS majors and they were talking about how MIS is a garbage non-technical degree that isnt good for much. obviously CS is a harder more technical degree that can result in higher salary but i feel they were just trying to put my down for pursuing what they saw as a lesser degree, but nonetheless it put a sense of fear into me about my potential career opportunities.

      i just need some guidance and would like to hear your experience.

      thank you

      7 votes
    9. Wargasm - Spit (2020)

      Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/album/spit/1515933495?i=1515933506 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/4N8vRR39A9ttCbAVW5Gztx YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aigeil9HSWo...

      Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/album/spit/1515933495?i=1515933506
      Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/4N8vRR39A9ttCbAVW5Gztx
      YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aigeil9HSWo

      Newest single from relative newcomers Wargasm. The London duo have nothing to do with the old Boston, MA thrash outfit of the same name. These two (Sam Matlock and Milkie Way) instead employ a lot of late 90s industrial and nu-metal guitar riffs with some poppy hooks in the instruments. Mix in the dueling vocals of Matlock's raw, unclean shouts and Way's silky smooth, sometimes bubblegum pop level, harmonies and you get a sort of blender of genres that kind of defies typical categorization.

      The two cut their teeth shoving some pop songs through the jaws of their style (like N.E.R.D.'s Lapdance). They've started putting out originals lately. Spit is probably their hardest song so far, eschewing some of the more poppy elements of their first releases.

      5 votes
    10. Which gaming account should I get/setup for my teen daughter?

      Here's the background... So, I tend not to play video games at all any more (not for at least 15 or 20 years). My teen daughter wants to get a Playstation gaming console...but it seems less about...

      Here's the background...
      So, I tend not to play video games at all any more (not for at least 15 or 20 years). My teen daughter wants to get a Playstation gaming console...but it seems less about playing and more about socializing with her friends. Her friends - while i promised my partner not to call them 'idiots' - are not really the best decision-makers and they're quite affluent (and we definitely are not affluent), so their poor choices usually never impact them. (I think it is less about being teens, and more about them being rich, entitled poor decision makers, because my daughter and a few other poorer friends are actually good kids who know that we can not get all the things.) Here's an example: all of my daughter's rich friends will ask their parents to buy them widget X, and so of course my daughter wants one so she can connect with these rich teens. For these rich kids, after they inevitably abandon widget X, there is no issue; they merely drop them off in one of the rooms in their mini-mansions. But for me, i can not always afford to buy widget X and then have my daughter abandon stuff in our little, meager but love-filled house. (Please if possible let's avoid the topic of how I'm raising my daughter, because all of the parents of us poorer kids in town have the exact same issues with our kids.) Now, we come to the part about my daughter wanting a playstation...I don't mind saving up for a PlayStation - especially if she'll use it...However, since she really only wants it to socialize with her rich friends via a couple of games, i was thinking on getting a PC/gaming rig (not as expensive as PS or some sort of AlienWare) instead of the dedicated gaming console, but still plenty usable for some games...So that, after some time if she abandons it (because for example her friends have migrated to other avenues of socializing), i can always re-purpose the machine. In my mind it seems a more worthwhile investment. (I'm a software guy mostly, but over the decades, almost every machine i have/own has been franken-built by me...so i know just enough hardware.) Now, if I go the route of a PC/gaming rig, can i just sign her up for online gaming accounts like PlayStation Network, and that will suffice for her to use her PC but still connect, say via PSNetwork, with her friends playing PS games?? (To help, i should clarify the games these teens play are fortnight, minecraft, and grand theft auto...I think GTA does not support in game chat/comms with friends, though i could be wrong.)

      So, is it possible for me to sign up my daughter on an online gaming account - like PS Network - that would allow her to communicate with hr friends? And, if so, which gaming network should I set up an account, PS Network, Steam, etc.??? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!!!

      15 votes
    11. Favorite "elevator/waiting/lobby" songs?

      So far I've posted 2 songs of this type, being: Ratchet and Clank - All 4 one OST; Friendship through firepower (Tildes thread) (Youtube link) (The song that plays when you're buying guns/in the...

      So far I've posted 2 songs of this type, being:

      Ratchet and Clank - All 4 one OST; Friendship through firepower (Tildes thread) (Youtube link)

      (The song that plays when you're buying guns/in the gun lobby of the game)

      Reimagine the game OST; Intemissionary position (Tildes thread) (Youtube link)

      (Played during... an intermission in the game. This should be clear enough.)

      These are both songs from games, but obviously it doesn't need to be from just games.

      7 votes