What are your favorite albums/bands available through Bandcamp?

I've used the platform a bit but certainly not to its full extent, and as Google Play Music is slowly winding down, I'm thinking I'd like to get more into a platform that better supports artists. It also helps that I'm kind of sick of my music library, as I've been listening to the same stuff for years now.

Give recommendations for any genre, as I don't want this thread to be useful to just me but to anyone who's interested in new music.

EDIT: All of these recommendations are so good! Thank you everyone, and feel free to keep them coming! I've already bought a couple of these, but I'm waiting on the next Bandcamp Friday to really go on a shopping spree.

Hello again!

There have been quite a few posts on Tildes as of late that have rubbed my opinionated brain the wrong way. The purpose here is to have a conversation about apathy in general, less focused on political or social issues and more on why we've seen an increase in apathy. This isn't a public shaming or an attack on anybody in particular. Apathy is at an all time high universally, and we've had several conversations here on Tildes where it has come into play in front of important issues.

...Everything's fucked. We are totally and utterly done for. 2020 is the worst year ever, I want a time machine. We are all going to die. Why does any of this even matter?...

I think we've all seen some variant of that sentiment this year, especially on the internet. It has been rough: COVID-19, the rise of fascism, climate change and ongoing political and social strife around the world. It is quite the cluster! It has been almost impossible for most of us to not look away at some point or another: turn off the news, disconnect the internet, run off into the woods (that's me!), self-isolate (thanks 'rona!) This is all entirely understandable. It's perfectly acceptable to do this for mental health reasons.

Let's be real though, 2020 has been rough, but let's get even more cynical, shall we? In the last two decades we've seen endless war and suffering in the middle east and elsewhere, we've noticed an ongoing rise in extremism all over the world, we saw the towers fall, we've witnessed school shooting after school shooting after school shooting after school shooting, we have (Yes, we. You may have voted for someone else, but we all have a hand in this democracy.) put a fascist in office (yeah, that was going on 4 years ago), we've seen so much horrible shit happen.

2020 isn't the outlier, I'd posit it's a combination of being the culmination of decades of growing strife and the sudden realization that total societal collapse (in a way) and the dangers that much of the 3rd and developing worlds have been facing for centuries can happen right here, right now, in our comftorable first world nations.

So looking at these factors, it is easy to see why apathy has grown, right? I mean, in the face of all of this adversity it'd be hard to not get discouraged. We see the powers at be spins their wheels and balk at solutions; train after train screaming down the tracks, the brake lever sitting right there, we scream and scream, "PULL THE FUCKING LEVER"... they don't. For whatever reason, be it money or self interest or whatever... they don't. So yeah, fuck this system! These people are supposed to do our bidding and they don't. These leaders can't even lead, so why the fuck do we even bother? How many times does this happen? How many people do we need to elect to fix our system? How many votes, protests, rallies, legislative sessions, meetings, politician offices, social media posts? How much effort have we put in, how much does it take? I'm so fucking tired. I give up. Why the fuck do we even bother?

We've all been in this place, and I think some of us don't want to think about it. We don't want to question why we feel this way, why political and social systems are broken, FUBAR. I'd suggest that some people feel a related guilt, they know they could be doing more but... insert excuse here. I'd venture to guess some people just honestly don't care, true apathy. Fueled by a lack of empathy that in my opinion comes from the numbness associated with witnessing atrocity after tragedy after trauma via the internet. This doesn't account for all of the apathetic populations in the world, but I think topically it covers a good portion.

So what do we do? I could rant all day about why we need to be on the streets. I could lecture about how a functioning society is a privilege and that it takes good willed effort to maintain. I could soapbox for the rest of my life about how a functioning democracy is not just a privilege but a requirement and that, it too, takes effort. That's not what I want to do though! Me or somebody else talking to people about apathy most often turns into talking at the apathetic masses. Talking at isn't a conversation and it almost never bears fruit.

So Tildes, I defer to you. What do you think we need to do to reform our society and political system to a functioning point? How do we stoke people to make the effort? As it is currently, that won't happen in America it seems. So what's the solution? We know why there is apathy, how do we beat it?

I've had a Nexus 6P for the past 3 years. It's been a good run, and I've swapped the battery out once before (1 year ago) but it's time for a replacement. At this point, it's not charging properly, and turning off randomly.

What phones are you all using? Any you'd feel good about recommending? I'd be interested to hear thoughts on current smartphones, as it's not something I've looked into for a while.

Some things I liked about the Nexus 6P:

• Camera (12.3MP) was really good back when I first got it and still holds up (just shuts down when I take photos now)
• Larger form factor (not a dealbreaker though)
• Android
• Convenience of having photos uploaded to Google Photos automatically
• Battery life (in its prime) was actually decent

I'm in EU, and ideally I don't really want to spend more than 300 euros.
Thanks all, keen to hear people's thoughts...

Appreciate any kind of response/advice.

Feedback here is honest, thoughtful, constructive. This is one of the few places that remind me of the constructive and supportive web I grew up with. I'm just happy projects like Tildes exist. Thank you, Tildes community.

Admittedly that's 90 years of history but I've always wondered about what was the politics of the US back then, because I've never really known about them.

The parts I'm most interested in are:

Why did it take until 1832 for the state legislatures to reach a consensus on how to elect people to the electoral college? I know states' rights are a big theme in US politics, but it seems really strange that it would take them 55 years to figure out how to pick the president, even if early on, that role was a lot less powerful.

Why were there so many parties before the US settled on the Democratic and Republican parties (although they have changed plentifully thanks to the US's 2-party political system where everyone needs to bundle up into 2 large coalitions or risk turning the US into a 1-party state.)

Why did they switch so often? From my count there are:

4 main parties being:

The Democratic-Republicans vs the federalists

The Whigs and National Republicans vs the (Jacksonian) Democrats

3 3rd parties being:

The anti-masonic party

The know nothing party/cult according to wiki apparently

The free soil/anti-slavery party

(Also in 1820 there was effectively no election, in 1824, 4 people of the same party all ran for president at once, in 1836 the same thing happened and 4 Whigs ran at once, but with Democratic opposition and 3 actually won votes while one just coasted off south Carolina. Why?)

Why were there so many large parties and what were all these parties about?

Following up on @freddy's query about self-hosting ...

I am trying to set up a self-hosted VPS running Synapse (the server-side component of Matrix), Riot-web, and bundled in Jitsi. I've twice gotten it up and running successfully for internal accounts/users, but federation keeps throwing weird authentication errors when trying to connect with user accounts from other server instances (a week later, my regular Matrix account still has 3 outstanding broken Invites from the new server-account which I can neither accept nor reject ... ).

I'm basically following along with this youtube setup tutorial (except I am using Apache rather than nginx).

Before I start to drill into the nitty-gritty of my issue(s), does anyone here have experience setting this up? Anyone care to dedicate a bit of time and energy to helping me figure out what I'm doing wrong?

Additionally, I saw commentary from @smores that Jitsi isn't performing well for him on his self-hosted server ... any further details you can share?

Edited to add:

Sorry all, I didn't think through the timing. I am still motivated to get a self-hosted Matrix instance up and running; however, right at the moment, I have a couple of other, higher priorities I need to attend to first. If I'd thought about it, I would have held off on starting this thread for a couple of days.

I will get back to this thread ... let's say, Wed or Thurs ... take another crack at the Matrix set-up then, and provide details here, as I do.

Thanks,
EtC

I've been playing Destiny 2 and I have so many questions. I thought about reaching out to people who actually know what they are doing. Since I'm moving away from Reddit and other sites like that I thought about creating a D2 group here on Tildes. However, If it requires "work" as a moderator or something like that I would honestly pass.

So my questions are: can anyone create a group? As a creator do you have to do any "work" on that group?

Thanks

Normally June is a time for celebration and demonstration for LGBT people in the USA (thanks for the correction, @Algernon_Asimov!), but on account of COVID and our need to protest widespread racial injustice, this past month felt like an unusually somber and isolated Pride Month.

I'm wondering if anyone here did anything for Pride Month, whether it was a celebration, protest, reflection, creation, or something else entirely. If you didn't do anything, feel free to share why not as well. I think a lot of us are likely in similar boats.

EDIT: This is now solved thanks to @Amarok! Solution is here. Changing the refresh rate from 60 Hz to 120 Hz fixed it.

My husband and I recently upgraded our TV to a Samsung Q70, and I have started experiencing an odd issue, visible in this video here.

The Issue

There's a horizontal section across the entire bottom of the screen that seems to be refreshing later than the rest of the TV. The game is running on a PC hooked up to the TV via HDMI, and the TV is running on game mode. This issue did not happen on our last TV (a 10-year-old Visio that I don't remember the model number of).

The Oddness

• It doesn't happen on the desktop or in video inputs.

We've been watching YouTube and Hulu through a Shield TV that we also have hooked up, and this issue isn't present in any of those, nor is it visible when I'm using desktop applications on the TV through the PC.

• It only happens in certain games.

The video is from Trackmania 2: Lagoon, where it is always present. Meanwhile, it is not present at all in Trackmania (2020). Likewise, I've been playing 428 Shibuya Scramble where it shows up in the exact same way in the exact same area, but it does not exist in Distance or Rogue Legacy, for example.

• It does not respond to v-sync.

I've tried toggling v-sync on and off, both through the game itself and forcing it through my video card. Neither alleviated the issue. The display looked the same whether or not v-sync was turned on or off.

I'm looking for any guidance anyone can give me, especially if this is a hardware issue with the TV itself, since I'm still in the return window.

This submission showed up on /r/listentothis a couple of weeks ago. I'm reposting it here because it is the finest and most on-point collection of music I have ever encountered. The original post from /u/theamazingsounds is included below.

Hello again fellow music enthusiasts!

1 year ago, I made a post about my ongoing project to create a collection with as many genres as possible, aiming to give listeners a convenient way to discover new music. It got many interested and since then more than 50 genres have been added, as well as descriptions for every genre.

I'm making this post to thank those following already, and am once again open for suggestions and ideas. I also made a subreddit called r/TheAmazingSounds where you can post about music that you want to share with others. It is currently empty but I will try to keep it active and reply often.

You can find everything on Spotify. It is synced with other services but doesn't convert all songs.

Spotify | Deezer | Soundcloud | YouTube

Hello,

So I've been officially diagnosed with depression a few years ago. I am on medication for it and I've done therapy in the past. I am a more functional person than I was, let's say, one year ago as I've adjusted my medication.

However there is something that is SEVERELY affecting my quality of life and that is the generalized lack of interest or extreme difficulty in doing almost anything. Yes I've talked with my doctor about this. It's "normal" and we are working on it.

I don't know many people and COVID-19 took a hit on my already limited social life. So I guess I want to share my experience and hear from others who experience(ed) the same difficulties. When you are trapped in not wanting to do anything, what the hell do you do?

Recently I've started reading a physical book again. I think it is a good thing for me to have something to do that does not involve a screen. Plus it makes me sleepy if I am a bit tired which, for me personally, is great. Aside from this next experiment, the activities I do the most are playing one or two video games, study for my degree and work part-time.

Another thing I've started doing is doing the bare minimum in terms of physical exercise. I am working on doing pull-ups (I went from doing 0 to 1,5 =) ) and doing some squats. School and work rob me of a lot of energy so I tend not to exercise. But now I'm trying to at least do something.

I will try to keep up with this post but I have a tendency to procrastinate on them if I get a lot of replies. Thanks for bearing with me =).

Around 2 years ago, when I first made a reddit account, I spent a lot of time on AskReddit asking about 'why are women so hard to date' like a personification of the dunning-kruger effect (while I don't think I've really learned anything about dating and socialization since then, I have stopped thinking women don't share the same basic emotions and reactions as men and in general don't think they're so removed from guys). Given that and how little engagement my threads were getting (it's AskReddit, but I didn't know what I was expecting) I was basically ready to be made an incel. Thankfully someone snapped me out of it by calling 12-year old me a neckbeard, which terrified me away from touching dating for a few months at least.

PS: If the answer is "if you don't feel like this you're in trouble, people don't/shouldn't just stop developing like that", I won't be surprised.

Hi, hope this is the right place for this question. I'd like to learn Autodesk Fusion 360, but all of my devices are running either Ubuntu or ChromeOS. I've tried to get F360 running on my ubuntu desktop with both Wine and Lutris but I haven't had success. There is also a web application for F360 but it is feature limited.

It seems like the only way to get this program running is to use a virtual machine, but I don't have much experience in this area. Do I need to buy a windows license and set up my own VM or is there a service where I can rent time on a preconfigured VM somewhere?

Thanks for reading, hope to hear your suggestions.

Based on the hype song thread recently posted here.

Particular to me:

Rakim: The saga begins (Instrumental): Maybe it's just me but this instrumental has always given a very sad, 'navigating a crisis' vibe, which I find really compelling now.

Vaporwave rickroll: A Mashup of the vaporwave song and never gonna give you up; which thanks to this random video I now associate with broken expectations and melancholy.

Twisted by Kevin Macleod: The march in the song kinda feels like marching into the unknown, regardless if what you find.

Less specific to me however:

Eminem: It's OK (instrumental): kind of the same thing as the saga begins, except the full song is kinda like that too.

Jazz liberatorz -Speak the language

MF - Doom: Great day: 2 songs that give me a somewhat chill/day-to-day vibe most lo-fi songs aim to capture.

Gran Turismo 4 OST: An old Bassman...: This either is or should be the anthem of existential dread.

Diário de um detento (instrumental): This is less a song that feels like navigating a crisis but just kinda living through it without much thought other than a mild irritation.

NIN: Downward spiral: Very aptly named.

respite. - blackdeku: The word 'resignation' comes to mind.

My Anniversary is coming up and I'd like to do a movie night for my wife. She likes romantic films but I don't so we don't often watch them together.

I'd like to come up with 3 or 4 of the best romantic movies ever to watch together as a gift to her. Since I don't ever watch these kinds of movies I don't know what's objectively good.

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who responded! There are so many great options that I'm going to make a list of all of them to draw from on other special occasions too!

Latest update here. Thanks to everyone who helped me out!

I have an Nvidia Shield hooked up to my TV, and it's great for Android games and emulation. I'm looking for similar hardware that will allow me to play my Steam library on the TV.¹ It doesn't have to be as small as the Shield TV, but I'm not interested in having a giant tower hooked up in my living room. Basically, I want what those old Steam Machines promised before fizzling out.

What I'm looking for:

• Pre-configured
• Able to support wireless controllers through Bluetooth
• Able to play smaller, less demanding games flawlessly
• Would be nice if it could play more demanding titles, but this is not a must
• Has decent cooling (I'm worried that boxes not designed for gaming will get way too hot)
• Price point: undetermined so far -- I'm willing to pay what I need to, but I want to see what's out there before committing to anything
• Would like to be able to set it up to basically be a seamless "console" if possible, where I can boot right into Steam (or easily get there with a controller) and not have to use a keyboard and mouse (I do have a Steam controller but I would rather use an 8BitDo SN30 Pro+ as my primary input method)

Searching around, here's what I've found so far:

• The System 76 Meerkat is a mini PC that looks great (and I'm partial to the company), but I don't know how it would perform with gaming. Also, I haven't decided if I want the (small) amounts of friction that come with gaming on Linux on my TV or not.

• Intel NUCs seems to be popular, and they have some gaming-focused models at higher price points.

• The MSI Trident 3 is explicitly gaming-focused and has a dedicated cooling system. Might be overkill for what I need though?

Here are my main questions:

1. What other hardware options are out there that I don't know about?
2. What hardware profile and price point should I be targeting for my needs? How little is too little, and how much is too much?
3. Are there any pitfalls to this kind of setup that I'm not aware of?

I'm open to any and all suggestions, as this kind of stuff is all a bit over my head so it's hard for me to even know what I'm looking for. I haven't even decided that this is definitely something I'm going to do yet, since there's such a wide range in price and performance. Instead what I'm trying to do is figure out what my needs are and then which models (if any) would fit them best.

1: I do have a Steam Link and have tried the app, but the quality for me has been spotty enough that I would rather have native hardware playing them than trying to stream it from my laptop.

I have Hulu, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Showtime. Possibly Disney+ soon too, but I'm guessing Disney doesn't do a ton of anime (other than Spirited Away? Does that count?).

I'm looking for a good anime show to start watching - I'm brand new to the medium. I've seen guides here and there, but there are so. many. options. so I've had decision paralysis choosing which to watch first.

I guess I'm looking for a bingeable show that's funny and has feel-good characters, but I'm not set on anything specifically. Some, but not a ton, action would be good too I guess. I'm also fine starting off with a lesser-known show if there's a good one!

Thanks in advance!

Edit: Thanks to whoever moved this to ~anime - didn't know it was a thing! It's been a while since I've been on Tildes so I forgot exactly how it worked.

Hi everyone,

Recently I became interested in learning about wilderness survival for the first time since I was a Cub Scout. I like to camp, but I'm the type of person who pours a can of fire starter on the camp fire after setting it up tipi style and then goes around bragging about how good I am at fire-starting. (I would be completely lost without a lighter and starter fluid.) I am planning on taking a camping trip with a friend of mine who has a great deal of wilderness survival training after COVID-19 restrictions are loosened, and I would like to come prepared.

I have found outlines for several course syllabi on wilderness survival, but not resources for each of them. Here are two examples below:

Example 1

Lesson I: Introduction

Lesson II: The Psychology of Survival

Lesson III: Introduction to wilderness survival planning

Lesson IV: Fire

Lesson V: Clothing

Lesson VI: Shelters

Lesson VII: Sustenance (Food and Water)

Lesson VIII: Introduction to Signaling

Lesson IX: Introduction to map and compass

Lesson X: Survival Kits

Example 2

Lesson 1: Introduction to Wilderness Safety and Survival

Lesson 2: Survival Essentials for the Wilderness

Lesson 3: Selecting the Right Gear

Lesson 4: Health and Safety

Lesson 5: Treating Illness, Bites, and Stings in the Wilderness

Lesson 6: Traumatic Injuries and Environmental Illnesses

Lesson 7: Environmental Illnesses and Their Treatments

Lesson 8: Understanding the Importance of Your Clothing

Lesson 9: Procuring and Purifying Water

Lesson 10: Food and Nourishment: Plants, Fruits, and Bugs

Lesson 11: Food and Nourishment: Crustaceans, Birds, and Fish

Lesson 12: Food and Nourishment: Tracking and Acquiring Mammals

Lesson 13: Food and Nourishment: Preparing and Cooking Game

Lesson 14: Navigation

Lesson 15: Signaling

I was hoping that perhaps some Tilderinos could help me out in filling in the blanks with resources for wilderness survival topics, or even some anecdotes about learning wilderness survival yourselves.

Thanks for any help!
-gbbb

I asked this question over on HN but I thought I would ask it here as well.

A little context. I'm currently a junior in a middle of the road state university studying for a degree in software engineering. I have been doing a lot of reading - whether it be comments on Reddit, articles, etc - and it appears that there is an abundance of junior developers looking to enter the job market, but very few "good developers".
My question is, what is it that sets someone apart as a good developer? I know this question is very vague but it's also very vague whenever I see it used.

Thank you for your time.

EDIT: I plan on going through and reading all of your input and responding! Thank you so much for your time. Unfortunately, I am stuck finishing up last minute school work. Can't wait to dig into this.

I'm about to finish my semester and, since I've been taking a lot of walks lately, I figured I should listen to some audiobooks. In particular, I'd love some suggestions for nonfiction audiobooks. I recently read Boom Town by Sam Anderson, a sort of pop history about Oklahoma City and its basketball team, and I listened to Silver Screen Fiend, by Patton Oswalt, about his addiction to movies.

Are there any audiobooks you recommend? Preferably they would be good books that also have particularly good audio versions (well-produced).

Thanks!

Hello everyone. I consider myself fairly competent when it comes to my work with LaTeX, but as everyone who uses it knows, it is definetely strange sometimes. And right now I have a problem which just irks me in the wrong ways:

I use XeTeX and a number of custom fonts for my documents, but when writing mathematical formulas I found out that the font I set for Greek letters (Gentium Plus) is used for letter commands like \alpha, \Alpha, ... but not for commands like \sum, \prod. As you can see in this example here. You can see XeTeX defaults to Computer Modern.

I've looked all over the net for solutions but I can't find one. I'm using mathspec, amsmath, amsfonts, amssymb as my font related packages and I set my fonts like this:

\setmainfont{Charis SIL}
\setsansfont{Helvetica Now Display}
\setmonofont[Scale=MatchLowercase]{Fira Code Retina}
\setmathfont(Digits,Latin){Charis SIL}
\setmathfont(Greek){Gentium Plus}

I feel like I'm going insane not solving this problem. Should you require it, my entire LaTeX template is here on Github. Please help, thank you.

I'll start here in Brazil (these aren't all the parties BTW):

PT (Workers' party)

The generic center-left party. Likes adding or maintaining public services, likely stained for a generation with Dilma Rousseff being impeached and lula jailed (although he left recently) And badly crashing the economy thanks to Car Wash (although Moro seems to have proven himself to be rather less than impartial and it's not like they were the only ones involved.) They might not if/when Bolsonaro proves himself much worse than anything PT did but right-wing media will do their work here. They're also supported by a lot of people in the rural Brazilian Northeast which is probably pretty religious and conservative, but I don't think we see that in their legislation.

PSDB (Brazilian Social Democratic Party)

Not actually for social democracy, really more of a generic center-right party. Usually privatization/"efficiency" oriented party. Not very socially conservative but not socially liberal. Was going to die thanks to being establised for too long and having a bad record (they had the other impeached president in Brazil) but then Doria rode the Bolsonaro wave, although COVID has shown this a purely electoral move.

PSL (Social Liberal Party)

The current party of our president, although him being incompetent has led to people considering breaking up his party, but he'll just move to another one with a generic feel-good name (alliance for Brazil). Not actually socially liberal (this is a recurring theme), more a generic right-wing populist/Whatever Bolsonaro does party.

Partido Novo (New Party)

Generic capitalist party. It's Founders are owners of large Brazilian banks so I don't really imagine them caring about the actual ideology of classical liberalism and competition/meritocracy too much (even if they throw that term around a lot) and are more focused in big business corporatocracy.

REDE (Web of sustainability)

Generic green/environmentalist party. Was expected too be a frontrunner in the last presidential election but instead only got a sad 1% of the vote in the first round.

PATRIOTA (PATRIOT)

Hyper-Christian militarist party. Unironically wants to write a new constitution with a 'religious character'.

The guy who ran for president under them actually went to a mound in Israel to pray. Absolute meme candidate last election but you never know if next time they run someone serious.

PDT (Democratic "Workerist" Party)

Seems to be the Democratic Socialist/Social democratic analogue to the progressive movement in Brazil but I can't say for sure since people aren't hellbent on policy in any Brazilian circles and most of the most blatant problems in the US aren't as obvious in Brazil.

These are 7/33 political parties.

Fun facts about Braziliian parties: there are Democratic and Republican parties in Brazil and both are right-wing, capitalist parties. How's that for indulging in confirmation bias?

The Green party in Brazil also exists alongside REDE, meaning there are 2 environmentalist parties in Brazil.

There is a Brazilian women's party, but:

• It doesn't describe itself s feminist but 'feminine'

• When it was created it's congress members were 20/2 male

• They all shortly abanoned the party 2 moths later

Impying it's more likely than not some sort of corruption-related scheme.

There are 6 far-left/genuinely socialist parties currently listed;

The Brazilian Communist party

The Unified Socalist Workers' party

Popular unity (?)

The party of the Operary cause

The Communist party of Brazil (???)

Socialism and liberty party

That's a strange lot of infighting for some reason.

Hi all -- I have had a Moto G5+ for the last two years, and have been largely happy with it. However, it's recently developed some serious issues w/ charging -- it tends to not ever get past ~45%, and the battery indicator seems to be ... disconnected from how long the phone actually lasts. I have attempted cleaning out the charging port (there was a lot of caked-in dust), changing the charging cable and port, to no avail. It works ok-ish for the moment, but I have largely been limiting it to emergency usage and I suspect it's on it's way out.

So, I find myself in the market for a new phone. In the past I have typically gone with whatever the cheapest reasonable Android phone has been (hence, the G5+ which I really do like quite a bit besides the poor camera). I am not a heavy phone user, and I really don't care about having the latest and greatest, my priorities are:

• long battery life (my Moto G5 lasts two days fully charged)
• cheap (say 200-300$, the SE on this thread is probably the upper bound of what I'd want to spend)
• reasonably performant
• preferably reasonable privacy protections (probably a pipe-dream)

The Moto G series have checked all boxes (apart from privacy) in the past, but I am considering whether I can take this opportunity to rid myself of another Google device in my life. I was thinking potentially going for a refurbished iPhone, but I really have no idea what to be looking for there. I haven't used an Apple device since my iPod (iTunes on Windows PTSD is real, and I don't even want to think about Linux support), and I am more than a bit hesitant to tie myself into their ecosystem, but it's hard to deny their superiority from a privacy standpoint.

I had also considered a Librem 5 at one point, and would be willing to spend a bit more for something so privacy oriented. But the 6-month order window, and other things I read about Purisms' roll-out have left me a bit wary there.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

So, tonight as I was putting my young kid to bed, they listed every one of the places that they desperately want to go to, but can't. It broke me. This playlist is very much still a work in progress, but if you've been curious how things sound in my head when I'm working through some shit, it's a lot like this.

Videos were selected when possible, and I'm going to warn you: There's a ton of depressing shit in these videos. If you can't handle real videos of violence right now, I'd suggest moving on.

This playlist is best paired with a strong drink, deep feelings of sadness and anger, and a dash of mental instability.

Existential Crisis Playlist

1. Prophets of Rage - Hail to the Chief
2. KMFDM - Paradise
3. WAKRAT - Generation Fucked
4. Straylight Run - Hands in the Sky
5. Alexisonfire - Sharks and Danger
6. A Perfect Circle - So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish
7. Pink Floyd - Mother
8. William Shatner - You'll Have Time
9. Monty Python - Galaxy Song

I've been progressively getting more excited about cannabis over the past year or so; we had a chat about drugs a while back, I figured we could try one specifically about cannabis.

I've been really enjoying Durban Poison lately, I tend towards feeling compassionate and really loving and open to folks around me, though that depends somewhat on context. Jack Herer and derivatives have been nice as well, but they're more for tasks that need some focus like programming or writing.

I've been trying a couple indica/evening leaning strains lately, but I haven't found one that I've really loved (my ulterior motive for starting this thread).

We should probably start a ~talk.casual, but maybe all talk on tildes is somewhat causal, and that's cool too, Also, this is aspie special interest territory for me, so if y'all don't think about this as much, I can do strain recs if that'd be something that was nice for you. Though, I don't some (relatively) that much, so someone on the internet could probably do that better.

Also, yes, I know that COVID-19 falls under SARS; I already got the gentle warnings from my dad.

(edit: thanks whoever tagged nsfw.drugs! Also the cannabis tag makes more sense as well)

Sorry for the low effort post but my computer is broken and my smartphone is crap.

My city in Brazil is basically closed for business. My mother was supposed to be in another continent but, THANKFULLY, flight restrictions prevented her from traveling.

The downside is that she’s making me crazy like mothers do.

I’m going bananas here, and cycling makes me sane. I also need the exercise. Am I crazy for wanting to get on my bike once a day? The streets are not totally empty, but a lot less populated.

I’m in Salvador, Bahia. My state has 33 cases now.

Solved!

Thanks to @pseudolobster's post here, I was able to resolve the issue by creating a new user account on the computer. I'm leaving the post up for posterity, in case anyone else is ever searching up this same issue in the future.

My husband is starting to transition to work from home. He is using his personal computer and just yesterday set up a VPN, Microsoft Teams, and Windows' built-in remote desktop so that he can access his work computer. Everything worked smoothly and he was able to finish out his workday from home just fine.

Primary Issue

This morning, upon booting his computer, he cannot access his Start Menu. It is on screen, and it appears clickable, but nothing comes up. Likewise, the search bar in his task bar is present on boot, but upon clicking the start menu for the first time it disappears and does not return. Other basic Windows functionality seems to be broken. Alt-tabbing does not work to switch between windows. System tray icons are present, but right clicking them and selecting an option does nothing. We cannot open taskbar settings or network settings this way, for example.

This might be indicative of a larger breakdown. Even by command line, I can't get to the Windows 10 settings or Windows Update. It seems like all of the "new Windows"-style interfaces won't start (though the old ones, like the Control Panel, do).

We can still open up apps by clicking on the links in his taskbar, and those seem to work fine. I can also get to the run command with Win+R.

He is running Windows 10, and as far as I know, it's fully up-to-date (I can't open Windows Update to check).

Additional Information

In attempting to diagnose this issue, I've come across several others that are potentially related. I don't know if these are relevant and they're not a primary concern at the moment, but I'm including them here in case they help contextualize what's going on.

There seems to be a runaway process that slowly eats up more and more memory over time, as well as a chunk of CPU. Sometimes it's called "Service Host: Windows Push Notifications User Service_#####" and sometimes it's called "Service Host: WpnUserService_#####" with the numbers changing each boot.

Also, in attempting to restart the computer, it sometimes (but not always) pauses with a notification about programs still running, with one of them being "Task Host Window" with the message Task Host is stopping background tasks. (\Microsoft\Windows\Plug and Play\Device Install Reboot Required) Finally, immediately before restarting, it shows an error message from "svchost.exe" which reads The system detected an overrun of a stack-based buffer in this application. This overrun could potentially allow a malicious user to gain control of this application.

Is this potentially a malware/intrusion issue?

Attempted Solutions

I have tried, to no success:

• Rebooting the computer, both via a restart in Windows as well as by holding down the power button
• Signing out and back in to his user account on the computer
• Running sfc /scannow
• Running DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Request for Help

I know we have a lot of techy people here, but I also know you are all probably busy with everything that's going on. Nevertheless, if anyone has any guidance or help they could give on this issue, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Also, it's been a while since I've used Windows, but IIRC there's a way of just resetting the whole thing and starting fresh? That's not ideal, but if that's the course of action I need to take, just let me know. Ultimately I just want this to work, by whatever method, so that my husband can be at home and reduce his exposure.

With the need for social distancing and self-isolation and #Stay(ing)TheFuckHome becoming near global realities, it is looking like many of us, and nearly everyone we know, will be spending large amounts of time staying in. I like this guide (thanks again, @aphoenix!), which ends with "Treat quarantine as an opportunity to do some of those things you never usually have time for."

Certainly we all have things in our life like that, but I also think it would be neat to try to brainstorm a list of things people can do for new experiences -- things they might not think to do or know are available to them. Everybody knows we can catch up on Netflix and our unread pile of books, but what else is out there? What can I do when I need a change of pace? What novel things can people do from home/online that don't require them to go out for resources/supplies?

I'm trying to clean up my internet presence and move away from at least Facebook and Google. I've come a long way with deleting my Facebook and it's now basically an empty shell for messaging. I've installed Signal and will start the grooming process with my friends and family now. If you have some solid arguments for the change regular ol' folks can understand please share them with me because as we all know "privacy" just isn't enough.

Next phase is the big one...Google or basically G-mail.

1. Is there any way to get an complete overview of where you've used your e-mail for a service online?

2. What e-mail would you recommend?
2a. I'm OK with paying a bit for overall quality, security and equally important UX!
2b. I don't use any other relevant Google products like Drive etc. It's just regular e-mail and sign in credentials for other services I basically need

3. I use a Mac, iPhone and iCloud. Is iCloud a problem? IF this needs to change it HAS to be an "easy" switch and not like setting up a server for myself. Because it won't happen and I'm not skilled enough.

I would very much appreciate your input :)

EDIT: Thank you all for your thorough comments!

Special thanks to Max Woolf and Project Gutenburg for resources, and the Brothers Grimm for such inspiring material.

The Fae in a Bottle

By Reverend William Howland

"Dear brother, thou seest the water
crystallizing, go and show it to the merchant. I will make him a
little bottle of water of the same kind; put it in a corner, and
not open it too quickly, until the reflection shall let him see it."

The merchant, who was standing behind the glass, said, "If that is
the case, I do not see why the name of the fountain should be
changed." "Why not?" asked the merchant. "Because my name is
Dummling." "Dummling, what is that?" "Is a rare and wonderful
name; I do not know how it is to have it." "If you do not see why
the name of the fountain should be changed," said the merchant, "I
will pay you three thalers." "There! now I see what is in my head;
I will pay you thaler, but you must wait until I come back."

Then he disappeared behind the glass. The poor man was forced to go back
on his begging; he had no more money but the three thalers which the
merchant had given him. He had long ago left the village, and wandered far
off, and when he came back, his brother had forgotten him, and thought,
"Why should I travel farther? I have not seen my brother." Then he came to
the town where his brother was again living. "Dear brother," said the
brother, "how are you? How are you getting on?" "Oh," said the brother,
"not well."

"Then just come and eat thy bread."

"That would be very good," said the brother, and went away.

He walked a long time, and came to a great forest. Then he said to his brother,
"Go and bring me with you to-morrow morning." "Nay," said the brother, "I
can't go. I have heard so many lies and stolen things from my brother,
and they have not served me very well, I see very well that they will
do me no harm." Then he went to the gallows, and told them that there
was a poor shivering, peering there from the window. "If you let me in,"
said the brother, "I will do you a favour. In grey hairs you can see
a piece of a horse's heart." So he went into the forest, and saw there
how a greyhound which was his neighbour, was dead. Then he was sad,
and made himself known to the brother. "Dear brother," said he,
"how are you getting on? What hast thou been saying there about
a piece of horse's heart?" "Ah," said the brother, "how can I say that
on the gallows, when I have not a drop of blood on me!" Then he gave him
the greyhound's heart, and had it put in his own. The brother felt for a
while in his pocket, and then he said, "I have a small bottle of wine,
and if thou art inclined to drink, thou shalt find the courage
to hold thy tongue." "To what use is the bottle put," said the
brother, "but to some end I should like to have a sip?" "To win the
Rosen Cup," said the brother with great joy. "To me that is enough,"
said the hare. "To thee alone, it is the most valuable thing that
the world possesses," said the brother. "To me, it is my most valuable
thing." "To me, it is my most valuable possession," said the hare. Then
he turned himself around and went to the gallows. "To-day it was
announced that the very gallows were to be, and to-morrow they were
to be," said the brother. "I do not know to which I should place myself,"
he replied, "but, to-morrow it will be to-morrow, and to-morrow
I will go." Then he was led to the gallows, and was once more there
in the place where he had formerly been. He again said to the greyhound,
"I wish you were still standing there." "To-day it was announced that the
very gallows were to be, and to-morrow they were to be." "I do not know to which I
should place myself," said the hare. "To-morrow it will be to-morrow, and
to-morrow I will go." Then he turned himself round and went to the gallows,
and was once more there in the place where he had formerly been.

"To-day it was announced that the very gall

(E/N: The story stops here abruptly, as the author ran out available memory. I wouldn't like to enforce my interpretation of the story upon it, so I'm leaving it as written.)

Hey everyone, just watching a very interesting history of Terry A Davis (creator of TempleOS) and around the 30 minute mark there is a list of questions Terry asked to God and the answers he believed he received. I took a look online but was unable to find anything. I don't suppose anyone out there has a link? I'd be very interested to read it. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I'm also interested in any links to the art he created (hymns, visual art etc).

I'm in the middle of writing my thesis and I've been (re)reading some excellent, unconventional style guides (The Sense of Style by Stephen Pinker and Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword). I'm also rereading Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs, which is less about style but is essentially a guide for effective communication.

In reading these books and applying their teachings to my writing, I've been reinvigorated with a passion for writing, namely for the craftsmanship of prose. All three books analyze excerpts from examples of great (and sometimes poor) writing. But, I'm now looking for a more immersive experience in good (i.e. stylish, evocative, concise etc.) writing in the hopes that, with my newly refined perspective and sensitivity, I can improve my own writing even more. Good writers read good writing.

Now, starting new books now won't help my current cause (my thesis) but my academic career will call for much more writing in the future. And I'm hoping that maybe the suggestions I get here will help me prioritize my current queue of books and articles—I know they're all great books but I'd like to read the ones with better writing, first.

So, I would love some recommendations on authors who you would consider as masters of writing. It can be either books or articles. Preferably non-fiction and modern (20 years?), only because fiction and older books have different standards (FWIW I love old-school sci-fi, but that's definitely not the style I'm after). My current shortcut is to read basically any "longread" on WIRED, as most of the time they are high quality and often explain complex topics.

Any other resources are also welcome! Though maybe no more style guides...

I'll start (for reference, I am a 14 year old Brazilian in a presumably poor house , also in retrospect this reminds me of what they tell you to do at the beginning of most English courses, which makes me feel like a cringy kid):

• Wake up (6:15, praised be alarm clocks)

• Put on the school uniform (takes 5-10 minutes)

• Have breakfast (takes 10 minutes)

• Brush my teeth (takes less than 5 minutes)

• Walk to school (6:45)

• Reach school (less than 100 meters from my home thankfully) and enter a classroom (7:00 plus a few minutes for teachers to set stuff up)

• stay in school until 12:17 (every time the subject changes, we pack our stuff and go to the classroom the teacher of the subject is in. There is also a break between 9:30 and 10:20.)

• Leave school and go home

• Get home by 12:45

• Have lunch, usually rice and beans with either meat or chicken meat in some flattened form I can't describe, usually at 1-1:30 PM.

Do... whatever on the phone (as of recently be here or in discord, along with reddit and YouTube for longer unless it runs out of battery) Edit: see here for details.

• Have dinner (usually at 8:30-9:00, same food as lunch)

• Pack the books for the subjects they teach tomorrow

• Go to sleep at 10.

During vacation/weekends I can wake up from 5-10 AM depending on how well I slept the previous night. The rest is the same, except for Saturdays my parents go and buy some esfihas to break the monotony of lunch and dinner.

I love single-location films, and use them as inspiration for my own very-constrained filmmaking endeavors. This is a space where great screenwriters and filmmakers shine, coming up with creative solutions to keep things fresh and enticing with little to no variation in ambiance. Some examples:

• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Straw Dogs (1971)
• Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
• El Angel Exterminador (Exterminating Angel, 1962)
• Phone Booth (2003)
• Coherence (2013)
• The Invitation (2015)

But I want more! Any ideas?

I should add that my motivation for this question is research for my next production, and because of practical concerns I'm only looking for single-location films in which the main location is small and simple enough that its sub-divisions cannot be considered a location of their own. For example: according to my criteria, a large house or apartment would be a single location, because its subdivisions (living room, bathrooms, bedrooms, etc) can be considered as logical parts of the main one. A shopping mall, a large condominium or an apartment complex would not be a single-location, because its many buildings and apartments are distinct and independent enough to function as locations of their own. When in doubt, try applying production pragmatics instead of pure logic. If something is logically not really another location, but would be just as hard to manage as another location (a whole new set design), it is a location. Thanks!

She is a mixed breed (more pinscher) and is perhaps 16 or 17 years old.

She simply doesn't eat anymore. She went to the vet when this started and they found nothing. Gave her some appetite injection, she would eat for two days and stop. Went again and same thing.

I changed vets and he did blood work and everything was fine. He examined her throat with his hands because he didn't want to anesthetize a senior dog for a scan. He discovered a throat and ear infection. Treated and she started eating again, but only for a few weeks. She never gained her weight back.

Now she is only losing weight and not eating, it's been five days since she last eat something.

She sleeps almost all the time and is so thin and her back is so curved that when she drops her head to drink water her rear legs go up and she falls. We had to put the food and water up so she doesn't have any accidents.

She is so frail it's breaking my heart. I'm so afraid.

Update in the comments below, but I'm going to put it here too

Updating here: it happened today.

She got a little better and we didn't had the courage to do it when I made this thread. She was eating better.

But now she started having difficulties lying down and standing up. She would fall, couldn't lie down by herself. I had to help her.

This night her bed was a little wet and I figured she might have pissed while lying down.

Talked to the vet and she is gone forever.

But I didn't had the courage to watch and be with her during the procedure. I am dying inside because of this. I loved her so much, she was with us for almost 18 years...

I will never see her again.

Thanks for everything Meg and sorry for letting you down.