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Meet Your Tildes Neighbour: August 2023 Edition
Time to try something new!
Remember the human. It's the golden rule, and knowing your neighbour helps a lot.
This post is an opportunity to meet your fellow humans behind the screen/username, in a format somewhere between the "introduction" posts and the "casual AMA" one.
Format: One top-level post per participant. Talk a bit about yourself (what you want Tildes to know about you), and pick one particular thing (hobby, passion, subject you studied) you really want to talk about.
My engagement: I won't leave any top-level post unanswered for too long. But the goal is for others to interact so hopefully everyone's involved, not just me :)
I've been teaching prek for the last 13 years, and it's the most fun I've ever had working. It's a challenging, demanding job with low party, but it keeps me engaged and active while also feeling like I'm contributing to the world around me. I'm currently working towards getting my bachelor's and teaching license so I can move on to teaching in public schools.
I'm also a guy, and being a guy in a women dominated field confess with unique challenges. I feel I've had to overcome prejudices and biases in order to achieve the success I've had.
My favorite stories are usually of student success - I teach 4-5 year olds chess each year, and often there's some that are fantastically good at it (and then come back a decade later to tell me how impaction it's been for them). This year I had a boy in my class who I was able to reach multiplication and division to. A few years ago I helped teach a 3 year old to read. I've helped innumerable children overcome great difficulties to succeed as well - everything from speech and language delays to cognitive or physical impairments.
I wish my job were more respected. We're often seen as glorified babysitters, and it couldn't be further from the truth. Maybe some fit that mold, but not me!
Another male Pre-K teacher! There are dozens of us! May I ask what type of program you are in? I just finished my first full year in Head Start and it was a doozy. I don't know how I would've found the time to work in chess, that sounds amazing.
As a former male Pre-K teacher, I'm curious about your perspective on the gender biases that are so common in young educational especially and often written into explicit policy. Do you think there's a solution?
Much like any other fields, overcoming this is about getting more men into teaching these early ages. Interestingly, I've had many parents over the years ask that their kids come to my class over others specifically because I'm a man.
When I was a (male) teacher, and before that when I was an afterschool daycare worker and summer camp counselor, there were always patents who thanked me specifically for being in the role. Positive male role models are much more rare than we should be, and it's sonething many parents worry about. A lot of young boys only have a father or maybe an uncle to look up to until they're old enough for sports, and that's not healthy.
Unfortunately, social norms still dictate that a male should at least earn more than his partner, if not being the breadwinner. That means that males are more incentivized to go into software engineering or something to make boatloads of money rather than being an underpaid teacher that's treated like garbage. I think more males would become teachers if a higher level of status and/or pay were associated with the position, but these changes don't happen overnight.
Now I want to see a formal survey of Tildes users and their professions. Im imagining 20% male Pre-K teachers.
Have you seen the ama threads? And the introduction threads? It's by no means complete, but it is interesting.
https://tildes.net/~lgbt/16k6/lgbt_introductions_thread_whats_your_story
https://tildes.net/~talk/15x9/introductions_june_2023_part_2
https://tildes.net/~talk/15n0/introductions_june_2023_part_1
https://tildes.net/~talk/155d/introductions_april_2023
https://tildes.net/~talk/161k/a_low_risk_ama_thread_for_everyone
@Very_Bad_Janet
I'm currently in a maze of a system. I started last year, but getting into a scholarship program offered by my state (Illinois, check out the ECACE, it's amazing but short lived). That was then a year of normal classwork, but I've recently shifted into a competency/work-based program, where I can put my extensive experience to use. Instead of standard observations/clinicals/student teaching, I do it all through work, supervised by my director (who was required to have certain qualifications as well). It's honestly the best, it allows me quite a bit of freedom which is necessary with my schedule.
As for chess, look up story time chess, I've been using it for years (since 2014, when it was still called chess at three).
It took me a while to figure out what you meant by "prek". It's really cool to read this! I bet @kfwyre might like your story :)
I don't remember much of preschool, other than not being able to nap at nap-time and always goofing off. I think people see this profession as "glorified babysitters" because, unfortunately, in many places, that's what it is. I wonder; you mention you want to move on to "teaching in public schools" -- I'm guessing you mean you're only in private settings right now. Aren't you concerned that by moving on to public schools, you'll get less agency and end up more like a "glorified babysitter"? Or do you mean you'll be teaching more advanced ages?
I don't disagree that there's a lot of non-academic preschools out there, but that's not me!
My school is currently transitioning to a franchise curriculum - it's a top down decision that I personally have mixed feelings about. On the one hand it'll ensure a more even quality level across schools, but on the other hand I think it's also going to prop up bad teachers and teaching habits. This new curriculum is already removing quite a bit of agency.
I also want to teach older kids - Ideally second or third grade (the endorsements on my license will allow for up to second grade). It's just such a fun age to work with, the kids still think teachers are pretty cool and that school can be a fun place. Learning is still exciting for them. They haven't become jaded yet.
Beyond that, I would also be getting more pay and benefits, such as extra time off to spend with my own kids and an actual pension instead of a simple IRA.
Speaking of multiplication and division at the Pre-K level, my youngest learned these concepts from the BBC kids show Numberblocks. Have you seen it? As a mathematician myself and a teacher, it is amazing at teaching arithmetical concepts.
But my question is, he starts kindergarten the day after tomorrow, and I want to know if you have any suggestions on how to support his continued journey in mathematics at this age, since he's going to be far ahead of the curve at school. Any advice?
I love Numberblocks! It's something I use (sparingly) in my own classroom.
You're likely going to need to provide your own enrichment at home - if they're interested in workbooks, you could take your time going through a few, but only if it interests them! Don't force it. Another idea is using games - if they're interested in games, I would search for a few that he might be able to play. I don't have any off the top of my head, unfortunately. Games are great because they are applying the learning in a fun way - it's my favorite way to teach math.
If I find anything more, I'll try and remember to let you know.
My nieces took courses outside of school in something called Russian Math. I don't know what that is, but I might be able to find out if you need that.
I am a lawyer who is about to start a library and information science degree program, looking to change careers.
In my personal life I have loved books and literature from a very young age. I spent a large percentage of my time on reddit on book related subs. I also love dogs (and cats but husband is allergic). We lost a beloved dog roughly a year ago and haven't added a new one to the household yet.
I also have extremely amateur interest in science and history and a wide variety of fields. I love to learn.
My wife's gone from teaching into Librarian work. She absolutely adores it mate.
I'm a librarian! Public librarian. What sort of librarian are you considering? Law? Good luck and let me know if you have any questions!
Messaging you. Thanks. : )
If only we were smart enough not to try and be lawyers in the first place!
Have you explored historical fiction much at all? It really sparked an interest in learning more about history for me, since I was able to contextualize events and dates and happenings. Seeing the world then, through the eyes of characters in books, it's something special.
I read in a variety of genres, but historical fiction is definitely one of them.
Some favorites, Patrick O'Brian series starting with Master and Commander, I Claudius, The King Must Die and Bull from the Sea, Shogun by Clavell and the entire asian saga, The Things They Carried, The Sympathizer by Viet Nguyen, The Physician by Noah Gordan.
I'll reccommend 11-22-63, as I think it bridges magic and historical fiction (and fact TBH, its well researched) quite well.
Thank you! I have it, but will move it toward the top of mount to be read.
It has been a couple decades since I read Michener. I thoroughly enjoyed Hawaii, The Covenant about South Africa, Poland. I think they are decent light weight introductions and fun reads about places you have little or no previous knowledge about. But they were written in the 70's and earlier primarily, which is going to impact how religion is treated and how gender and race are treated. There will be no mention of diverse sexuality.
What has drawn you to library and information science and what do you hope to do with the degree and career change? I’ve always thought that field was super cool
Short answer, being a steward of books and information appeals to me as a mission.
As for what I hope to do with it, being a law librarian is an obvious path to explore given my background but I would also be interested in being a research librarian generally and look forward to learning about more ways to use the degree that I am not yet aware of.
What do you think is cool about the field? If you went to library school, what would you plan to do after getting a degree?
I am a safety and software engineer by day. I am in the process of transitioning to working part time / being a stay at home dad while my spouse transitions back to full time.
One side project I have been working on for a bit is a website to host my collection of quotations. The collection started when I was in high school. The website is mainly a project to learn more about frontend web development and to provide a portfolio piece to showcase my development skills.
My other big hobby is 3D printing. I have a five year old Prusa that started life as a MK3 and has been steadily upgraded. If you know anything about Prusa printers, you know there have been a lot of new developments in the last 8 months that I am looking at with interest.
I do a lot of functional prints for things around the house. I mostly do my own modeling, but occasionally I will print something found online. My latest project is an improved Settlers of Catan board that is somewhat smaller (play on a smaller table) and that has interlocking tiles to help keep the board together.
How did you get into 3D printing? Any particular print you want to show off?
Thanks for asking! I had some training in solid modeling in high school (back in the 90's), but all you could do is look at the stuff you built, or (later in college) use them for 3D renders and animations. When Prusa Research came out with the Prusa Mk3, it finally seemed like a platform that was "finished enough" that it could be a platform that would reliably print things without too much tinkering. I bought it as a kit to assemble so I'd understand better how it goes together. And I've been printing ever since.
Here's a recent project:
An art marker case I made with a flip open top: Closed Open. The main design goal for this was to make it as compact as possible for the set of art markers. One of the things I'm proud of with this is how the latches keep the top closed nicely without adding an extra moving part.
My current project:
A 3D-printed Settlers of Catan board. Here is a detailed view
The main goals for this are:
This is just the first iteration. I already know I want to make the terrain inserts and the dividers that separate the roads and settlements taller so that there's a definite "slot" to hold the pieces. I'm going to play test this one for a while before making modifications. As I get a chance to do the parts for seafarers and knights and cities, I hope it being more compact provides the opportunity to make much bigger boards, multiple islands, etc. without it being impossible to find table space. I have this vision for "endless Catan".
I'm not really into any of the tabletop gaming where you have painted miniatures, so I don't know if this is viable, but I also imagined this as a framework for customizing the design of the cities and settlements. You could bring your customized playset to someone else's game.
I discovered commonplace books a few years ago when I was researching how to become better at note taking. I don't usually see anything even remotely related in real life, so thought I'd share in case you'd never heard of them and might find them interesting.
Thanks! I think that's very much the way I use the website. Maybe I'll have to think about a more "booklike" use interface for v2.
As Socrates once said, “be skeptical of quotes you find on the internet”. Have you ever discovered that one of the quotes in your collection was fake? Or do you do a bunch of searching for each one? Of course, just because the attribution is wrong, doesn’t make it a bad read!
When I revamped the database for the new website, I spent some time verifying and updating sources. So I have reasonable confidence for most of them. At least, I think most of them are better than “Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. ~Abraham Lincoln" Of course, the internet is full of noise, so who knows for sure.
I do agree with your point:
Or, to answer in quotation:
~Whitehead
I wonder if you have yet found this quote from former president Carter, a man who I admire for his dedication, commitment to service and many accomplishments including the near eradication of Guinea Worm. https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/index.html
Jimmy Carter - I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I am free to choose that something...My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fond-remembrances-pour-in-after-jimmy-carter-enters-hospice-care
I am not simping for Christianity here, but in Carter's case it is his religious commitment that he names as the foundation for his commitment to work for good causes. Those with no faith or a different faith can make a similar effort and some do. But Carter is noteworthy and outstanding in my lifetime as a force for good in the world.
I have now!
I'm in a similar situation. My wife has always been more ambitious than I, but she also wanted to stay home when we had kids, leaving introverted ol' me as the primary breadwinner. A decade later, the youngest is entering kindergarten, and she's ready to get back into a career and let me cut back a little bit. How are you feeling about the situation?
Honestly, somewhat nervous about navigating the conflicting responsibilities of part time work and being the front line parent. It's not something I've seen modeled much in the startup world where the general ethos is to be giving 150% and 2 pints of blood to the company. So I am going to have to forge my own way. Fortunately my area of expertise is somewhat specialized and in demand, so I have more freedom than some to set those limits.
By day, I am a mild-mannered customer service rep. for a popular building society. But by night, I am an adequate player of War Thunder - I'm currently trying to level up the Italian tank tree. In my spare time I I enjoy going for walks in the local woods and daydreaming about fantasy worlds like that of the Elder Scrolls series. Recently I've been considering whether or not I should expand that to include Baldur's Gate 3. I've only a passing familiarity with the series, and haven't enjoyed turn-based combat in the past, but the story and characters have been wowing me in gameplay footage.
War Thunder is one of those games that really left a mark on me. I used to play Independence War 2 and it’s the game that got me addicted to space sims, flying, and dogfights. War Thunder had rekindled a lot of that when I played it. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to get into it too much (even less so now).
I used to play so much Warthunder ten years ago. I stopped when the grind became too much. How do you power through that?
I will +1 Baldur's Gate 3, but if you're not a fan of turn based combat it might not be for you. I'd suggest watching some gameplay footage/let's plays to see if it's something you might like.
There was a player uproar roughly a month ago, and since then the devs have decided to make drastic changes to game progression. To see the roadmap and all the hotfixes and patches so far, you'd have to check the devblogs on the website, but the grind seems to have been significantly reduced. I've also found that playing with stock vehicles isn't as painful as before.
A friend of mine said, and I quote, "Ah nvm, turn based combat" and is now nearing the end of his second run through the game even planning a third. At some point he even said that the turn based is growing on him.
Now I'm not saying it's going to be the same for you. But the game has its merits beyond the turn based combat. It really is a fantastic roleplaying game with outstanding voice acting, a strong script, and a surprising amount of freedom of choice.
Hello fellow worker for a popular Building Society. I usually work overtime on Saturday morning to get some pocket money to buy video games but this weekend there was a systems upgrade which meant no overtime so I made a point to go to the forest and have a bit of a hike and subsequently have a daydream. If you do get Baulders Gate what kind of character would you role?
Probably some sort of ranger, or some other stealthy class, so the enemy is as far away as possible!
Also, I want to be able to talk to animals.
I graduated from college with my bachelor's degree in 2020 and have been working in a lab since then, but on Monday I will be starting my PhD in molecular biology. On some level I'm really excited especially because this has been my dream for years but I'm really nervous for it, too. I struggle with ADHD and persistent depression disorder and when I went through my undergrad (without knowing the diagnosis) everything that had worked for me to learn in high school was suddenly useless in giant lecture halls where I just had to sit and listen and not interact. I know that my experience this time around should be different, but I can't help but worry about it.
One of the reasons I originally got into Reddit when I was 13 was because of /r/Askreddit being the first place I ever found where people would give unfiltered explanations of their innermost thoughts. I'm fascinated by understanding how things work and the logic that they follow, including people. Especially as questions were about things you would normally talk about would strangers like weird quirks you have in the bathroom or deep dark secrets from everyone else in your life. Now my favorite thing about Tildes is that the encouragement of good discussions generally doesn't lead to Askreddit style question answering, but the goodwill here lends itself to allowing people to genuinely share their point of view and their perspectives in a way that's hard to find in reality.
I guess what I want to share overall is just that I love science and I have a specific focus on methods development because it forces you to think about how to go about answering a question rather than answering a question. The way things happen or are done and the process by which a goal can be achieved is infinitely more interesting to me than just what happens or how. I hope that I can find other people with interest in different scientific methods on here and I hope that I can do the same when I start my program, which I hope despite my fears will not be as scary as I'm imagining.
Congrats on starting the PhD program! It's a long journey but you will learn a lot (both about the subject and yourself!) in the ensuing years. If you haven't already picked someone to work with, ensure that whomever your advisor is will be a good fit: it's someone you'll be working with closely for 5+ years.
With dysthymia and many ADHD symptoms (undiagnosed) myself, there were times where I really struggled during my PhD (setting your own work schedule, managing many small tasks, balancing work&life) but also many opportunities to learn tons of new stuff and immerse yourself in it! I really loved my many opportunities to teach as well as learning about the various x-ray characterization methods of earth materials (EPMA, CL, WDS mapping) 🤓 I also got to travel to some places I would have otherwise never been! (e.g., Chile).
So, you're more than capable of completing the PhD, you will just have to make sure you keep yourself on task :) It can be great to have regular meetings with your advisor and to set goals that you can try to meet, rather than only get stuff done when you're under immense pressure of a deadline. Best of luck! I'm happy to chat if you ever want
Hello! I'm sorry I never replied to your very kind and encouraging comment sooner. Honestly, at that point in time I read what your said and really appreciated it but I couldn't get myself to reply.
It's been a few months and I'm really happy to say that I've been absolutely loving being a student. Every day I get to learn something new and my program is so broad that everyone in my class has a different background and perspective. Despite how worried I was before it began, it didn't take long to figure out that grad school is a very different thing than undergrad and (so far) all of the differences are for the best.
Of course it's not all sunshine and rainbows but my project is progressing really well and I'm finding a whole new love of science :)
Fun fact: a Zebra fish can regenerate its heart without forming a scar even when up to 20% of its ventricle is amputated
I am glad to hear that you are doing well with your grad program :) Make sure you take the time to meet people across campus/outside your department and see what is in the areas around campus! It's great to have alternative outlets to spend time, socialize, etc. Best of luck with the rest of the semester!
I'm senior leadership in Data Engineering & Architecture in the UK who's slowly moving into being a fully qualified counselling psychologist. Got at least five more years, but I am so excited to do something I'm truly passionate about. No-one cares about business, no matter what anyone says. I adore talking to people about my journey in mental health (both my personal and professional studies) and the line where psychology becomes philosophy and how one approaches life (stoic philosophy is really damn interesting, if a bit hardcore sometimes!)
In my personal life I have TOO MANY hobbies according to my wife.
I write short scifi stories and journals around philosophical (humanist) matters. Firm proponent of most anti-religious institutions and love going to places like Conway hall to hear and interact with other folks who just think being "a good person" is enough for this life. For the scifi stuff, I've read too much Warhammer40k and now expect EVERYTHING to be grimdank or Rule of Cool awesome and I am loathe to admit... that flying chainsaw missiles aren't actually that feasible in other universes.
I'm a compound archer and really loving it. Been doing it for fiveish years and only really getting back into it since Covid broke everything in my bit of the world. I don't think we've got a tag on here for archery yet as it's not the biggest sport, but it is awesome. Been compound since last year, recurve before that and have REALLY found a very pricy niche for myself here!
Been riding motorbikes for 17-18 years. I've got a Tracer 900 that I throw into corners at great speed in an effort to remind myself that I am painfully human. Source, pulling an arsecheek muscle from clenching at highspeed around a corner in the Yorkshire Moors...
Really into PC gaming. Mostly Rimworld, Civ, Stellaris, Quake, Zomboid... 'easy' games and nothing too competitive.
Very interesting career switch, having such a different background and a broad range of interests probably makes a great fit for your future field. If you’re interested in philosophy, the questions regarding epistemology of mental disorders (i.e. do mental disorders exist as an ‘entity’, are they ‘knowable’) are the ones that are the most exciting in my opinion. The process of ‘reification’ comes to mind; making a thing out of something that is not a thing. It is related to reasoning that if X symptoms are present, we call it Y. Because disease Y is present, we can observe symptoms X. It is present in daily practice, however, how we deal with this difficult problem differs per profession and person; there seems no one solution that fits every situation. Food for thought.
All the best with your studies!
Yeah. I very much hit my limit in 2020 when I was having to do almost robotic things, vs the need to do human things.
Was in counselling during that time and decided that I want to work with people to do better. Rather than just add 0.001% to stock tickers using data.
Hell, if I can do both? so be it.
This is a great one and something I've been considering for a little while now. Where exactly do they occur physically... if at all. Not to mention the borderline existential threat that going "Where does my thought come from?" beyond any problems with a mental disorder (ADHD/Depression/Anxiety). The lack of facts we have for the topic is wonderfully fun to toy with, but absolutely crippling for some folks.
I spent a lot of my teenage years thinking through and learning about this type of thing. We (collectively) all spend so little time thinking about topics like that... I actually think it can help to salve many of the mental health problems we see in society. There are few things better than having a few drinks, smokes, cigars, whatever your vice in a circle and talking idly about those topics with friends.
Thank you buddy. Have a killer weekend :)
I'm at a similar crossroads to what you experienced, where it's entirely possible I'll change my trajectory from engineering senior leadership to who knows what. I would take vacations and be at peace, but as soon as I came back to work it was a flood of stress returning me to where I was before I left. And why? What's the point? Even working from home just led to an odd dichotomy where I would need to step away for a bit to relax, but was always on edge whenever my computer or phone would notify me of a meeting or message.
Luckily, work had a contract with a company that does executive coaching, which was very helpful over the years, but the biggest problem I had was that everything I was doing was leading to success at work. It's hard to walk away from that or call it a failure. I recently did just that, and need to find my way in the next few months. I'm glad you were able to pull the ripcord and are starting something new that you're passionate about. I hope I can be passionate again about my next company, project, or endeavor.
Spot. On.
I finally got to take my honeymoon in April this year. I walked back in to a shit storm that never really relented. Had to take two weeks off in June just to keep my head from exploding. My Director has been deeply unsympathetic, despite nodding, cooing and making all the right noises. I've had enough.
I've recently got a new job with a firm that's known for its ethics and care towards the staff. So, I'm going to finish my technology career there I think (providing I fit in) and that's that. I can move on and do my own thing helping others post that.
Thanks buddy. Honestly, lifes been tough for me the past four years and it's not due to Covid. Finding oneself is a really toughie and I think it's more about finding out what you enjoy doing... rather than having a set goal.
Take the downtime and enjoy your hobbies and family buddy. They're far more important than almost anything else in this world.
Hey thanks for creating r/discworld! I loved that community. Still go there sometimes.
I’m Jim - I’m a software engineer, dad of two girls, gardener, geopolitical forecaster, percussionist, home cook, former fermenter, army vet. Traveled to about half of the US states, a couple dozen countries, and 5 continents, including Antarctica.
But this morning I got to deal with a scammer calling my mom claiming to have kidnapped my brother and threatening to kill him if we didn’t pay up. Now I’ve been in the cybercrime space, and was super skeptical at first. I tried to push the conversation to hear them repeating phrases and using a soundboard, but didn’t. Or maybe state of the art is that good now. Eventually we reach his girlfriend who he was out camping with and then spoke to him.
I submitted a report to the IC3, and typed out a transcript of part of the call that my wife recorded between the scammer and my mom. I had to listen to it several times to get the words right.
So now I’m looking for a word to describe how I feel (I’m sure the Germans have a long compound word for it). I’m just in the crummy mix of enraged and depressed and just powerless to do anything about anything. A quick search turned up surly, which I’ll go with for now.
Damn, I've heard many different scams , but that's a first. I would surly feel the same.
That's intense. Sorry you had to deal with that.
Can you say a little more about "repeating phrases and using a soundboard"? Does that help identify the scammers?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundboard_(computer_program)
I'm not sure if could identify the scammer, but for me I was trying to determine how likely it was to be a scam. A soundboard might have 100 phrases on it, so if you ask a question and get a response that doesn't make sense, or hear the same line repeated exactly over and over, that's an indication the voice you're hearing isn't the person. But this is how things might have been done ~10-15 years ago, and I'm sure the technology is better by leaps and bounds.
So for why you would use this - if you're an email scammer, you can just copy paste the first email, and you probably have a set of replies that you can copy paste and lightly edit. But when you're using the phone, that's a lot of talking that may or may not pay out. Also you probably want to sound different - the caller might be anywhere in the world, but want an accent that is local or makes sense for the call. If you can just click a button that says "give me my money", its a lot easier.
https://kotoritechnologies.com/what-is-virtual-kidnapping/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_phishing
Maybe Weltschmerz (lit. world pain)? Not sure if your feeling is that 'global' and existential, but -schmerz is probably the ending you want were you to come up with your own.
I'm a fifth generation Iowa family farmer. I recently moved my family to the ancestral family home, and we're working on the years-long process of converting it from the way it's been into the way we wanted to be.
In my free time I'm busy doing lights, sound, and video for a few non-profits in my area. I'm an amateur at such things, but even amateur techies are scarce in small farm towns.
That sounds lovely! Good luck on your endeavours!
What sort of non profits if you dont mind me asking? Is it a physical performance or more like a video based setting? I'm sure you are doing just fine and I hope it is as cool and fun and it sounds like!
Churches and community theaters. This Sunday morning I'm running sound and streaming video cameras for church. Last week I was running lights and sound cues for a community theater children's camp.
Wow that sounds awesome. I am a theatre kid, so I get it.
Let me commend your tenacity in keeping family farming alive - I'm in Michigan farm country but it's being rapidly destroyed by a combination of low commodity prices and high real estate values.
What are you growing, and what's your vision for how you want it to be?
And as an old stage crew hand, all I can do is give you kudos for volunteering your skills!
Corn and soybeans, just like everyone else in this part of the world. I'd happily diversify, but the economics just aren't there for most other crops. I'm moving towards decreased tillage, more cover crops, more integrated pest management, and so on. Outside the farming business, I'm trying to give my kids the sort of environment I want them to have: planting lots of fruit trees, gardening, cats and dogs and chickens running around.
Hey, I'm worldasis!
I live in a van most of the time with my spouse. We've been on the road for about 9 years, working as traveling musicians. Four years back we bought a chunk of desert near a small artist town, and now slowly but surely we're working on building a sustainable home for our future retirement. As such I've become very interested in sustainable building and permaculture.
Other than music I do some visual art, and I write existential theism, which I can say with authority has no audiance what so ever. But it's a labor of passion/obsession and brings me endless reason to continue researching and exploring a multitude of subjects. I also write songs for my folk punk/anti folk project. So I keep real busy, stay poor, love my life and get the great joy of seeing a wide variety of different places and meeting many strange and interesting people some of which have become very dear friends.
Can you say more about existential theism? I googled it, and got:
This intrigues me because I have been wrestling for a while with the damage that growing up in a conservative evangelical church did to me (and others) and trying to find what's left of my faith as I try to strip the bad stuff away.
That definition is pretty accurate! I myself come from hundreds of years of pastors on my dads side, culminating in my father who is both a methodist pastor and a theology professor. My experience growing up in such a religious environment was definitely damaging, and I have gone through the full gamit of crisis of faith. To be most accurate when describing my own work I typically say it's 'existential theism from an experiential perspective' because I truly believe that existing at all is a religious expression and experience unique to each of us.
When I started writing on the subject I had for no intended reason sat down and written out a massive outline concerning identity, society, environmentalism, religion and God. It became clear early on that it was four books and not one.
The first book took me ten years to finish and it is an in depth exploration of our understanding of identity in relation to social and religious structures, and posits an alternative understanding from orginized religin of God and our relationships with the creator. I focus greatly on mental health and social and religious paradigms.
Its a massive work that I'm glad to be done with and on to the next one. I spent so much time on it that by the time I was done I was tired of my subject matter, so diving into the second volume has definitely reinvigorated my interest in my own work because I get to deal with a whole new set of concepts and considerations.
At its most basic I posit the claim that this is God experiencing God for the first time. I could dive into it in great and endless detail much to the chagrin and glazed eyes of my friends and spouse, but its far too broad in its reach to really summarize accurately.
There is no market for it, and I'm very much turned off by woo and generally considered new age spiritual stuff, so what possible audience I might have is very hard to find and access. Albeit promotion has never been my wheelhouse, and I care a lot more about writing it then figuring out how to get people to read it. I can count the people who've actually read it cover to cover on one hand.
Now that I've basically just talked around it instead of giving you any real meat (I don't really know where to start) do you have any specific questions that I can try to answer?
I have a question. I'm your target audience, where can I pick up your book?
I'll dm you a link! Let me be fully upfront though. I wrote it in my 20s and self published, so there are a few rough spots and mistakes when it comes to some of my grasp on history, and a few wording issues here and there. However, overall I do stand by my work.
Hey, thanks! I'm not a quick reader, but I am an avid one, and always looking to stock up my phone with ebooks for the train.
Unfortunately I never put together an ebook. But if a hard copy is prohibitive, I am more than glad to send you a pdf copy.
How is it, going from being on the road all the time to looking at a permanent home? Can you talk more about the switch?
Right now all we have on our property is a permanent camp set up. Shade structure, palate fence, outhouse. We're hoping to build an outdoor kitchen and shower this next season. We spend only half the year there and the rest is back on the road. It'll probably take us 10+ years to fully build something habitable year round.
Honestly, if we hadn't found the community where our property is I don't think I'd want to stay anywhere too long. There's no building codes, it's very remote, and has a very small permanent population. Also, it's an incredibly tight knit community. I have yet to find another place like it. Now that I have found it though, it's the only place I want to be, like ever. I always end up crying when I have to leave, I feel general unease and mild depression being away from the place I love, and I feel like a shell of myself out in the world, as if I only exist in my entirety when I'm in my desert home. It's a very strange and unexpected twist in my life.
This next season I will be staying a full 18+ months there, my first summer. And because it is often in the triple digits I won't be able to stay on my land because we aren't equipped for it. But we have become incredibly close to people in the community and there's more than one option for me to stay with friends over the summer. My spouse on the other hand will take off mid spring as is our norm, and tour the states until fall comes back around.
I dream and research and plot and plan every day for my future house. And while I know it will be quite some time before it's completed, once it is I plan to never leave ever again to whatever degree that is possible. I have 10 acres I can call my own, and I intend to die and be buried there.
Hello fellow Tilderinos!
I'm a 42yo dude from Denmark with a bachelor's degree in Journalism. I started studying to become a journalist quite old (33yo) so I haven't been using my education for very long, however, I decided a couple of years ago that I wanted to move into communication and promotion in order to hopefully land a job at a music venue or something else related to the performing arts. I was doing quite well, finding short term employment and internships that helped me in the right direction.
Then in late 2021 I started feeling dizzy and my memory wasn't what it used to be. My doctor said it strain from working too much on a computer screen and gave me a link to a YouTube video channel with exercises for my neck. By december 2021 my dizziness was so bad I had to take short rests and had to steady myself against the walls of buildings when I was out walking, and my girlfriend insisted I move in with her for a while, so I wouldn't be alone if I fell and hurt myself.
One day in January 2022 I was complaining I was still dizzy while lying on my gf's couch and when she tried asking me about it a bit later, I just started talking complete gibberish. I was rushed to the hospital with a suspected stroke but the MR scan showed a growth the size of a baseball in my brain. At first they didn't think it was cancer because cancer tumors "don't grow that big" but after I had surgery to remove the growth, they weren't too sure, so they sent a biopsy to the lab to be certain. Turns out it is cancer. A couple of days later they opened my head again to attempt to remove what little that remained of the tumor. During this surgery I had an ischemic stroke that paralyzed parts of my left side, most severely my left arm and hand.
Since then I've been through chemo and radiation therapy to keep the tumor in check, but there's no hope for a cure at this point. All treatment is only to prolong my life.
I've also been working with Occupational and
physical therapists to regain strength and control of my left side . I've made a pretty remarkable recovery and have been living by myself in my own apartment since March 2022, but my hand and arm are still not back to normal and will take quite a bit more work.
To stay busy I have started booking and promoting metal concerts in my hometown. I used to play that style of music myself, so it feels good to be able to work with that community again.
I'll most likely never be able to work full time again, and my dreams of travelling the world will probably have to remain dreams. But I'm currently working on being granted "fleksjob" which is a thing we have in Denmark, where people with special needs can work only a few hours a week for a company and the state then pays most of the employee's wages. That should give me something resembling a livable wage and perhaps I can travel a bit anyway.
I'm sorry this post ended up being so much about my illness. It's just a thing that still takes up way too much of my life. I try to focus on other things but as this post shows, it's tough to let go.
Edit: a word
Im a partsman for a motorcycle and atv dealership. Married with 2 kids.
In my spare time I like to blog about true crime and I have a site on Medium where I post my stories. Im also learning cybersecurity and hope someday to make the move from my current career path to one in cybersecurity. It is a slow process. I believe I have undiagnosed ADHD and I have a lot of trouble keeling focus on things. Once I lose my focus and shift to another interest I find it incredibly hard to force myself to focus back on the original area.
I am the same (also ADHD) but this specifically has never really caused issues. I mean, I try to structure my life in a way that makes it so it doesn't result in a problem. For example, I try to consistently find people to replace me in tasks I'm hard-focused on so I can shift away from them peacefully without a project falling apart.
Feel free to AMA right back, here or in DM as you prefer.
I'm in the same boat as you and @zeph456. Unfortunately I'm writing a thesis and keep getting pulled into all sorts of cool rabbit holes of research I want to be doing rather than staying on task and writing up the results of research I already did. I have loose ends to tie up in my research too that I just never get around to. I absolutely love doing research, but actually wrapping it up is a skill in itself imo.
The thesis is the only part of my master's i didn't complete. My instructors were all surprised because i was generally a very interested and capable student in classes, but it was that focused attention on one thing that made it difficult. I'm interested in trying school again, but this time I have my diagnosis in hand and my psychiatrist said I could call her up to get started on a ritalin/aderall regimen. For now, though, i've opted to just use therapy. Fortunately I got a really good therapist who also has ADHD. One of the biggest things I've learned to do is just accept those parts of the ADHD that aren't such a problem. I fought against my symptoms arbitrarily because i just didn't want to accept that I function in my manner. Acceptance has led to far fewer symptoms of depression and I bounce back much quicker when i get a little sad. Anxiety is still there, but I got one end of the spectrum reduced, at least.
I find that one I get my focus, there is always something else that becomes more interesting. Although just posting and reading your replies is giving me more motivation to write.
I try to give myself a daily goal when I wake up, but I think Im putting to much on myself because it makes me feel really bad when I cant hit my goals for the day
Hi, I'm SwedishDwarf. As my username suggest I am swedish. To be more specific, I am (probably the only person here) from Gotland, the biggest island in the Baltic Sea. As one might guess, growing up here made me very interested in history, more specifically medieval history. Even more specific, viking age stuff. It's something I could discuss for days. Beyond that I'm also currently invested in mushrooms. I'm planning a trip soon with an expert, and am hoping to learn more as I am rather new to picking mushrooms. I also like food, both eating and making, and I also like whisky. My favorite is Laphroaig 10 years, as it was the first whisky I gained an understanding as to why whisky is amazing. I also am trying to get into Warhammer 40k. I have listened to and read some books and podcasts about it, and currently own a few AdMech minis, that I'm gonna paint as soon as I have the materials needed. I have to mention I like philosophy, and am currently working through Hegel with a friend. We are nearing the end of the book "Phenomenology of the Spirit" which has been quite the read.
As for work, I am a teamleader/manager in food production, more specifically eggs. I work with packaging, and it's not super interesting, but if you have egg related questions, I can probably answer them.
I'm a father of a two year old daughter, and it's the most wonderful and tiring thing to have ever happened to me.
I see what you did there…
What are you some things about Swedish culture that you really enjoy? What are some things that you may not enjoy so much?
Sorry for late reply.
I really enjoy how foraging for mushrooms and berries are embedded in swedish culture. It's something a lot of us do, and that closeness to nature is something I myself value a lot. I enjoy all the different accent and dialects in Sweden as well as the history here. No matter where you are in Sweden, there is some remnant of our past, and we all have pretty different accents from one another. I also love our food and how we celebrate our holidays. What I dislike is our passive aggressiveness, and how starved of philosophy we are. We as a people kinda half arse our reasoning for things, and are quite gullible. Right now, every problem is the immigrants fault, even though our biggest problem are schools, the economy, and healthcare. None of these are caused by poor immigrants, but rather the rich and powerful. But the rich and powerful blame immigrants, so we blame immigrants.
I also love all the old folklore we have. There is a lot of it.
If you drink tea, have you tried lapsang souchong? It has a very smoky flavor, reminiscent of Laphroaig. It is pretty potent, so when I'm in the mood for it, I just put a small pinch in with my regular tea.
I love tea, that is such an amazing recommendation! I'll see if I can find some that ship to Sweden. Thank you, you made my day with this info!
Hi-diddly-ho neighbourinos!
I'm getting myself some instant noodles, fried spam and fried eggs for lunch.
If you had to pick one kind/category of food/ingredient to only have that to eat for the rest of your life what would you pick?
Broad category: noodles
Smaller category: soup-ed noodles.
SINGLE cuisine: Japanese ramen. Real broth, variety of toppings, skill and dedication.
Bunker end of the world rations food: package ramen.
Oh I love this, especially when you get creative and get bonus liquor out of your choice, and using it for science
That's so limiting, though! There's so many good soup noodles throughout Asia! Taiwanese beef noodle soup is such a comfort, too.
Oh man Taiwanese beef noodles so good :D yeah if I want to cheese the "game", HK Cafe noodles is basically a localized version of every cuisine of the world..... So hopefully we never have to come down to just ramen.
What about you, what one food would you choose?
Bread.
I was exhausted yesterday and I literally made a whole meal out of bread. It’s delicious even plain.
Bread is a strong answer. It's maybe the most important food in human history. And you can do anything with it! Breakfast? Toast. Lunch? Sandwich. Dinner? Garlic bread. Desert? Bread pudding.
If you think about it, cake is just fancy bread.
I also forgot beer, which arguably counts as a distant relative of bread! If sake wasn't a thing, I'd have to change my answer
Eh, if I'm going to have a wheat flavored beverage, I'd rather have Mugicha.
I'll stay with you on the rice sake front. You need the higher alcohol content for the doomsday bunker anyway
🤔 hmmmmmmm cake is not leavened though is it
There is unleavened bread.
Oh you! Then this is just the Uber category of all things baked, plus tandoori breads and probably other cheese categories. Very clever :3
I was just being smarmy about the cake thing. I really did mean just bread.
I was going to recommend Chinese noodles for a similar reason. Many varieties, tons and tons of different flavor options, and incredible broth if you get it from the right shop.
I hope our choices don't have to be nutritionally viable:
Broad category: Mexican food
Smaller category: nachos
SINGLE cuisine: steak fajita nachos with sour cream, guacamole, and pico de gallo
Bunker end of the world rations food: cheese and tortilla chip plain nachos
I think the guy who picked potato will die of nutritional lack before you and I will :) if he isn't gone from the vodka first
Unless he's eating the potato skins too? Is potato with skin nutritionally complete? I would imagine nachos and salsa/pico de Gallo and guac and steak and dairy hits all the food groups....
I feel like my answer is boring, because it's largely the same across all levels:
Broad category: rice
Smaller category: rice and beans
SINGLE cuisine: cheddar broccoli rice with black beans
Bunker end of the world rations food: a warehouse full of Rice-A-Roni and canned beans
Can you guess what I eat 5 nights a week?
I mean really, is there anything you can't do with rice?
Honestly, my answer is pretty close to yours, but with my "broad" category being beans rather than rice. There are practically unlimited variations of rice and beans.
I loooooove rice it's a staple at our home for sure as well. So easy to make and so versatile :) are you a short grain guy or long grain guy?
I don't discriminate, each of them has their uses. If I'm just eating the rice plain (or with butter+soy sauce), short grain is best. It really depends on whether I'm mixing ingredients with the rice in the pot, or laying the ingredients on top of it on the plate
Broad category: Dumplings
Smaller Category: Pel-mini
Single cuisine: Pel-mini with sour cream, hot sauce, cilantro, curry powder, and vinegar.
Bunker rations: I'm just gonna go with my single cuisine, but freeze dried. Because i got a freeze dryer and it's awesome.
Oh! What is a pel-mini and where/how can I get some? Surely it cannot be more amazing of a dumpling than the Xiao Long Bao?
[Searches]
It's a sort of wonton in thin wrapping served with sour cream! It looks very tasty. The kind you eat about a dozen in one sitting? Served piping hot? Is the skin somewhat stretchy or not stretchy like a perogi? Juicy meat filling? I will be sure to go try some next time I have access to Russian cuisine.
The skin is not as stretchy - it is a bit thinner than a perogi. You can get them with different meat fillings, or potatoes. My favorite being mixed!
And yes, I am compelled to eat an unhealthy amount every time I get them. There's a restaurant near me that sells them, but there's also some larger russian communities and eastern european goods stores further north of me that sell them frozen. They're very good.
By day, I'm a Technical Engineer for a 3D printing department, with a Manufacturing BEng, inside a multi-national company but based in the UK.
By evening, I'm an avid fitness enthusiast, who focuses on Calisthenics and body weight training.
By night, I'm a gaming degen, who rotates around OW2, Valorant, Destiny 2 and some smaller roguelikes and RPGs.
I've just closed on the purchase of my first home, and am looking forward to having the space to exist with my printer, my car, and my future dogs.
Congratulations on the home purchase! I highly recommend keypad locks for the door(s) you use the most. I have used the Kwikset 914s with good success (now on our second house with them in it). If you are going to do any home automation you can get them with z-wave or zigbee.
Plus with the kwikset smartkey system (you can get smartkey locks for all the manual locks) lets you rekey the locks yourself, so you can key them all the same and change the key easily (e.g. after the contractors are through). The smartkey manual locks were less than twice as expensive as the regular locks last time I looked.
Question about 3D printing: I have no formal mechanical or materials training. When designing a part for strength (FDM PETG), I decide how thick to make parts generally by going conservatively large with the expectation that I can remake it thicker/stronger if it fails (I don't make things that are safety or life critical). I get the feeling I am often overbuilding things. Do you have any recommendations for resources to do this in a more formal way? If that's not what you do, sorry for the random question.
Firstly, thank you for the advice on the locks! Locks were the first things I plan to change tbh, and it's interesting that you've mentioned home automation focused locks since I'd like to build a voice controlled assistant in it to help me with scheduling and remembering things. One of the things I always forget just as I'm going to sleep is if I've locked the front door, so then I'm back up, going downstairs, and checking if it's locked. Sure enough, it is, so then back to bed. With a bit of automation, I can just ask the assistant to check all doors and windows and then not have to get up unless somethings open!
As for the 3D printing, I have two suggestions, one of which you may be doing already, but the second being a resource.
Firstly, you'll want to build your part with your stresses going perpendicular to the build layer direction, and with as many fillets as possible. Fillets are very good as dispersing stresses in geometry. And if the stresses are perpendicular to the build layer, you will disperse the stress along a larger surface area, and you dont have to rely on the inter layer adhesion in Z to provide you the strength, which is simply just two pieces of melted plastic pressed together.
In an industrial setting, we'd use ANSYS or nTopology to run simulations based on stresses on a CAD geometry, and then use the software to optimise the part for weight saving whilst keeping the mechanical strength. There are countless case studies online about nTop, since it's the software that's popularised the Gyroid structure, but you could check out nTops website for further information on that.
As for a resource, you might already be aware of The 3D Printing Handbook by 3D Hubs. I'd suggest picking up a copy, either online or physical, and having a flick through that, since all of the advice has come from manufacturers and their customers I.e. Ultimaker and VW provided much of the information in Chapter 11 around designing for FFF and FDM systems. There's a good visual in there for what I tried to explain above too, if what I said didn't make sense.
Feel free to drop me a message if you want to know more about the book or printing in general!
Iterative design, fillers, and orienting parts for strength are all things I do, so its reassuring to know that is best practice. I did not know about the handbook or nTop, so I'll be checking both of those out. Thank you!
Since it sounds like you are going to go deep on automation and it is the "free me from worry" kind, I'll share a list of the remaining things I have put in:
The hub I am using is an Abode security system. When I bought it, it seemed like they were really active in developing and improving it, then the company got sold and now I'd say its just "okay" and if I were starting over, I would definitely investigate all the options. One nice thing is that it has cellular backup for the gateway, so the app still reaches the gateway when the power goes out.
The Abode app is decent for my needs and provides reasonable automation tools, and I don't have to maintain it myself. In practice, we never use the alarm system (we did at our last house), so I might eventually replace it with a raspberry pi / home assistant rig. If you want or need the security system aspect, the abode gateway has remote monitoring service that is pretty reasonable ($200/year). That also unlocks better automation tools than the free tier. If you want automation with the virtual assistants like you described for the lights, the abode gateway is supposed to integrate with Home Assistant and maybe Alexa, but I have never messed with that.
I will say a dangerous and tempting automation super power would be to be able to wait until my wife is in the shower then say, "Alexa, turn off the water to the house."
Regarding the 3D printing - great! Its interesting seeing things from a professional perspective when it comes to hobbyist printing. Most of the people I've met in the hobbyist scene have the same level of knowledge as me, if not more, when it comes to the design aspect. Its usually the applications, academia and the materials that the industrial sector exceeds in.
As for the home automation - Fantastic information, thank you so much. I'll do some more research on Abode and potential alternatives as you've suggested, and then go from there. The one about the water - super interesting idea that I would've found life saving maybe a year ago, when my then partner's pipe burst under the sink and water flooded her flat up to her ankles in the 20 minutes it took for me to get to her and shut the valve properly.
I'd also like to add regarding the 3D printing question: even at an industrial level, we are doing iterative design! So sometimes we design something, it fails, we look at the design and then redesign and rebuild based on the failure mode - getting it right first time rarely happens unless we can run simulations beforehand. And even then, there are a lot of variables that means simulations can be slightly or completely out.
By continuing to design stuff and make stuff, you'll get better at understanding the limits of the materials and design, so continue to do so!
I would love for you to elaborate on this. Specifically, what motivates you in body weight training?
I can get passionate about … just about anything, but gym/weight training has always just bored me to death. I would love to really understand better.
So I always was a sporty kid, playing football, basketball, badminton, etc.
When I started secondary school though, the London Olympics was on, and I was given a day off to watch the UK compete in a sport of my choice. I wanted to watch the gymnastics as I'd never watched it before, and since then I've been captivated by the amount of strength and mental fortitude it must have taken gymnasts to push to the level of strength they have. Not only strength, but balance and stamina too.
Fast forward half a decade, and I'd joined a gym, and much like you, I tried weight training and was bored to death. So I challenged myself to get stronger without using weights, by doing push ups, pull ups, sit ups, squats, planks, etc. This was more mentally stimulating for me than weight training, since I had to actively think about making the exercises harder once I could comfortably do them.
During one of my training sessions, I came across a YouTuber called Kali Muscle who was a bit of a show off but was doing muscle ups. So I researched this exercise and realised there was a whole subset of exercises based on gymnastics but for the gym setting. Each of those exercises though, had "levels" and prerequisites that you had to meed before you could technically have the strength for the full exercise.
That was almost 8 years ago now, and I have the following calisthenics moves firmly under my belt: handstand push ups with no wall support, V-Sit for 5-10 seconds, Muscle Ups, full planche for 3 seconds, Back Lever for 10 seconds, and my latest learn is Tiger-bend handstand push ups.
My ultimate goal is to be able to do a One Armed Handstand, but my balance point is not yet well established for a single point of contact, and there's so much more you have to be aware of and in tune with compared to a regular handstand, so it'll take some time.
But that's what I love about it - it's mentally stimulating in ways that weight training never was for me, and I have nothing but respect for those who can grind away at the same isolated actions day in and day out and lift heavy stuff.
Edit; typo.
That's pretty mind-blowing, actually.
For a bit more context, body weight training has also always bored me but it's for the same reason you mention -- grinding isolated actions. If you're telling me it can be mentally stimulating, I might try it a bit more. FWIW, it's already more interesting to me than weight training.
I have done quite a bit of figure skating (as the older tildoos know), and I love balance work. I have lost a bit of balance this year by taking an extended break… I want to get back into it.
I would like your opinion. I can do most of those (not sit-ups, I've never done a full one). I can do up to 50 push ups when properly warmed up etc. I don't regularly train. In fact I've gained quite a significant amount of weight thanks to lack of exercise coupled with my food addiction, but I'm still at a somewhat healthy level. I'm curious where you would go from here, if you were in my shoes.
I think, part of my problem is with the "making the exercises harder" part. I love challenging myself to do something I cannot do; but if i can do something, I will get bored just "trying to make it harder" unless I see a clear point to it which puts it in a different category. In other words; I can get into doing something one-handed if I can do it two-handed, but I can't get into "making my body fight against itself", if that makes sense.
I think the point I should stress about body weight and Calisthenics is that it appeals to a specific subset of people the most - I am an engineer by trade, and am inherently one of those people who will not give up on finding a complete solution. Even if i have to accept defeat and put in a temporary solution for the time being, my mind still ticks over to find what I'd term a "complete" solution. I think this is why calisthenics and body weight training is so mentally stimulating for me, because until i have perfect form, I'm ALWAYS checking in with myself and analysing in various ways to get what I'd term "complete" or "perfect" form.
The best example i have is when i was trying to learn planche - There seems to be a consensus in the community that you can do it either on the floor, palms flat, or on parallel bars, with a standard grip. Its very well understood that the floor variant requires more wrist mobility and strength, and the bar variant requires more shoulder strength. To me however, floor seems more "complete" since you're not limited in how you can train it, if that makes sense? I can go on holiday and train in a park, i can go away with work, and train in the hotel room, etc if i learn the floor variant, but if i learn the bar variant, then i have to have that equipment with me.
Then you look at floor variant, and there's varying levels there too - some people have fingers forward (more wrist mobility), others have fingers out (more straight arm strength with less wrist strain). Some psychos do it with fingers back or on the tops of their hands, not using their fingers for balance and purchase at all. And all of this learning, tinkering, processing and detail is what i love about it. Finding what works for me and then putting myself and my understanding to the test!
I think for you, if you're wanting to get into BW and Calisthenics, the best thing would be to set yourself an overall target. Find an excersice that you'd like to learn, and maybe would benefit the figure skating too (Id suggest perhaps planche for core strength, shoulder mobility, and controlled movement improvement? It is one of the hardest skills though, so expect learning to take between months to years), and then do plenty of research on some sort of progressions leading to that point. I remember for my planche progressions, there was a high focus on mobility, flexibility and controlled breathing, as well as the obvious straight arm strength and balance. Do not be afraid to use YouTube, websites, forums, etc to pull all the knowledge you can find, because that will accelerate your learning and give you more dopamine hits when you finally progress milestones.
Feel free to drop me a DM if you want to know more specifics, since training isnt the only thing that matters (as im sure you're probably aware) - aftercare, diet, sleep, equipment and even clothing can sometimes make a difference.
Hi! I'm a Kiwi living in Melb Au. Trained as an RN and now working in program management supporting other nurse around Au who work in primary care.
Have considered multiple job changes, really love the idea of librarian researcher honestly too! Not sure about the job/availability/pay though. I have ADHD so feel like I could have 1 million different jobs. I've been in my current role for 10 years or so now. I love healthcare but also getting depressed at how broken the system is here.
Hobbies - love board games, history, reading, gaming (metroidvanias, dark souls and the like), Pickleball (not that I've played much lately). Identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, currently partnered and have a dog. Have been thinking about kids but have a few things to work through first.
I also LOVE ppl watching and listening/reading about others stories. One of my biggest wants is to create a space for biographies to be written, recorded and preserved as a collection of sorts. Main reason for this is my great grandfathers memoirs from before WW1, during and after. I really want/need to get them written up as a starting point before getting any bigger though!! Just is a matter of time and continued motivation to do it... I've started just struggling to continue (story of my life!!).
Love reading about others who've found themselves here! 🤗
Hey I’m Josh 👋
I’m a product manager for a tech startup.
My company is globally remote first every employee is distributed and remote. Which has its ups and downs but was a blessing during covid which I was available to mostly avoid.
I was raised in and work in the UK.
When I’m not figuring out how to make our products better I enjoy coding, self studying maths, rock climbing and gaming.
I’ve read a bunch of business and productivity books and I’m a big fan of GTD (getting things done), starting with Why, thinking fast and slow, and bullet journaling.
I buy too many books, read them on and off and buy more. My latest book purchase was Gödel Escher Bach, which I heard took someone 7 years to read, so I decided not to buy any more books for a while and read the ones I’ve got.
I said this in May.
I then visited Wigton in Scotland on a break in July.
Came back with MANY more books.
Sure, why not - I'm in IT, doing payments work for a high luxury retail company. It's neat stuff; there's not all that much going on when you swipe a credit card, but it is a pretty dense set of info that has to make a quick beeline to and from the authorizer, and it's absolutely critical that shit doesn't go wrong. We've had to address a $1,000,000 cap on single card payments and I've had to have our QA department confirm that a transaction could handle 25 different tenders for a client, for a sense of scope.
I have a lot of random deep interests, but I've been very into cars since I got out of college. I help moderate r/whatcarshouldIbuy (I'm still trying not to post to reddit but do ban chuds every now and then behind the scenes), I've owned two Miatas of varying shittiness, I'm doing work on my ZHP like exterior piece replacements and a VANOS rebuild in the confines of an HOA parking space, and I have a really deep desire to drive pretty much any car for the sake of comparison... But I have absolutely no outlet for it. I've considered a porter job for a dealership, and I've had an idea for a YouTube channel sloshing around in my head for a while to offer people $5 or more to drive literally anything for 20 minutes, but I'm recently a dad (? genderfluid dad? what do words mean?) so I can't invest too much time or money into things anymore. I've gotta find a way to scratch the itch, though.
Fun stuff! I do a lot of work in payments as well and it's really fascinating. One of my latest clients I was helping figure out who could handle some incredibly obscure payment card issuer.
Heyyy! Yeah I feel you, sometimes it's fun. Though we have a lot of international clients at a few specific US stores and it makes various global cards end up being a bit of a PITA to architect requirements around. JCB and CUP are swear words here.
We reviewed one transaction and learned someone tried to pay with a gas card. Had to tell the sales team to politely ask for another card.
Hi, all. I'm a software engineer by trade, and until very recently I was in senior leadership at a company where I spent over a decade of my life. Some things changed at work, which prompted me to come to the conclusion that it was time to go. My team was sad to see me go, which was a huge boost to the ego, because I've always downplayed my own impact. Right now, this is dominating my life.
I joined Tildes during the Reddit blackout. I haven't used it too much because I also joined Lemmy around the same time, but I like both for different reasons. Tildes seems cleaner and more chill, as well as not having the risk of your instance completely disappear and needing to start over somewhere else (ask me how I know). I often lurk, but occasionally comment. I think Tildes has the right mindset of slow growth to stay true to your roots. It's very much the opposite of Reddit, which clearly created the large userbase at all costs in order to entice companies to also join and advertise. My concern is how Tildes will make money in order to stay viable, but there's no need to hammer that out right now.
I'm big into cars, not just computers. I've been lucky enough to purchase a second generation (type 4S) Audi R8 and am dying to get it out on track. I'm worried about the amount of understeer I'm hearing it has during high performance driving, especially since before this I had a 2016 Shelby GT350, which was quite well balanced, but lacked in the cooling department. I'd love nothing more than to become a track rat, spending countless hours going to racetracks and improving my skill. Maybe one day I'll be able to spend my time and money traveling and tracking my car.
Thanks to my recent departure from my job, I have some time to really think about what the next phase of my life is. It's likely to still be some form of engineering leadership position, but this has given me the opportunity to pause and reflect. Maybe I pursue contracting for a while to reduce my stress level. Maybe I go into management consulting or become a part-time CTO. Maybe I throw myself into a project and start a business around it. I've been very lucky to be able to count on my friends during this time so far, and just need to choose a trajectory.
My understanding is that Tildes is intentionally organized as a nonprofit in Canada. Everyone should feel free to donate using the github or patreon links found in this thread. I'm in for 30 dollars for the year and I intend to continue at that rate or possibly more. Others are contributing by the month.
https://tildes.net/~tildes/17iy/july_2023_tildes_fundraiser
However costs are low, partly because of no image hosting on the site as far as I can tell.
That is the only graphic on Tildes right? Outside the little logos tildes pulls from links for posts.
hey, i'm aspire. my meyers-briggs score is bamf.
i have a hard time talking about myself without it being conversational, but i do like sharing. i am from the pnw, love animals, play way too many pc games.
i work at an animal shelter in the foster department, supporting pets who are not ready for adoption, or too stressed in the shelter. currently, 53% of the shelter population is in foster homes, which is a huge win for the animals welfare!
i spend my free time in world of warcraft or shitposting about it on twitter. i have played wow for over 15 years, and have a real love for the game. i have a big steam library and dapple in other games, too. most recently baldur's gate 3.
honestly this is the most i've written abt myself in years . i am mostly a lurker abd quite shy but would love to engage more! my content and contributions will be few and far between, mostly abt animals, or snappy comments. i make a joke out of everything and cope with humor, have adhd, and am generally a mess (affectionate).
thanks for reading!
Hey! Fellow animal lover. Nice to meet you.
Let's translate for the folks overseas. PNW is Pacific North West of the United States, right?
yes indeed it is! it is beautiful here:)
I'm going to steal that.
Ah man… I don't know how you do it. I played WoW for a seriously-fucking-long time (from 2004 to 2016 ish. It made my career!) and by the end of it I just… didn't ever want to touch the game anymore. Part of it I think is seeing it evolve so much into a "shell of its former self"… though by Mists of Pandaria, I think everything had standardized so much that every expansion after it is a blur.
My fondest memory is the adrenaline rush of getting the realm-first kill of Nefarian in 2006 ish (2007? I don't remember). The next day I was still full of adrenaline and thinking about it.
Another one was getting realm-first 80 after a crazy sleepless grind. I vowed to never do it again -- happy to have done it once! In fact, when I started, I just wanted "first mage to 80", but I took a significant lead early on and the runner-up was also a mage so I really went for it.
What a game. But also, man… never again.
ha, by all means, expressions are meant to be shared
i have so many fond memories in wow, i wouldn't know where to start. i'm not the world or server first grinder type, but i'm like, endless dungeons multi-class healer/dps, and i like collecting .. and the world... and my paladin.. it's just one of my favorite things. i play less than i did in wrath but probably more than i did in warlords of draenor? it's really fun right now, alt friendly, and i'm enjoying just doing old content for mounts & things!
it's a huge game. but it really is world of warcrack
Hey, aspire! I'm a big animal lover as well and have played WoW on & off since the release of TBC. It's one of those games I will always love, but also usually need to take long long breaks from it. Really loved what I played of Dragonflight, then got sucked into unofficial hardcore classic, undecided if I'll be getting into official hardcore later this month. Do you stick to retail? Classic? Both? Any class/race/faction that you feel most comfortable on, or are you more of an altoholic who plays a bit of everything? Btw, I'm currently super obsessed with BG3! I've never played DnD or any games like this and wow it is so good!
hey suds:)
i have taken long breaks too, sometimes you gotta! i play a blood elf holy paladin and an alliance pandaren enhancement shaman right now! i'm bifactional. since crossfaction guilds are a thing i just play whatever. i moooostly play retail i only did some classic on release and i'm not a hardcore player.. i die because i afk a lot ><
Oh, woah, I completely forgot they finally added cross faction guilds! That's something I had been waiting YEARS to get. Awesome! Yeah I get what you mean about dying from afk, I die a lot afk or otherwise lol. I feel like hardcore scratches a very different itch for me, while still being WoW if that makes sense. It almost felt more like a solo survival/horror experience where I was constantly looking over my shoulder and planning out my next 10 steps. Definitely not for everyone, and like I said I'm not positive I'll be getting back into it anytime soon at least, but I did end up loving it way more than I thought. Anyways, you've also reminded me that I'm due for a trip back down retail lane. Hopefully I can convince a few of the old WoW pals to join me :D
so many people came back for dragonflight! i've been having a great time. my guild is really active and fun which makes the game the best version of itself. i'm really lucky to have found a good group, and could talk abt my guild for quite a while:) it's a lot easier to play casually if you're just coming back, too!
ps dragonriding is really cool.
I'm into DIY. Anything from small components to auto/home repair and improvement. I really like watching GPU and electronic repair as I am a proponent of sustainability and reversing earth's trashing. Lurked reddit to find answers to very specific repair issues.
Also enjoy gaming and trying to find a way out of the rat race.
1 wife 1 child.
Great to meet you all
I'm a software engineer, but I feel some existential and ecological dread. I want to go back and study materials science and electrical engineering and see if I can contribute to solar cell or energy storage research. Unfortunately school is expensive, so I'm trying to game it out as much as possible. I have an advanced degree in experimental psychology, so I can flesh out many of the pre-reqs for another degree - I need to polish up on my math and chemistry, so I'm working on that in my own and looking to take some community college classes and/or CLEP exams to flesh out the other pre-reqs.
Not sure how I'm going to make time for classes, though. I don't really have anyone to fall back on or anything. I have to support myself. I think my best bet is ASU online and taking it at my own pace. I am lucky in that I make a decent wage and my mortgage is cheap, but this is still hard to do especially since I'm in my late 30's now. Getting more education is difficult. I wish there was some support - not just selfishly for myself, but for anyone - for education related to weathering the inevitable crises coming our way. I mean, at some point we have to let go of our current capitalistic systems and selflessly study, build, and mend what we can to mitigate ecological disaster, right?
Been there.
Can I recommend another approach? I'm sure you've considered it but, as I said, I've walked this walk.
There's a lot of ways to get software engineering to contribute meaningfully to the world, whether it's for the climate or anything else. You would likely be more efficient at staying your path (while exploring others), but hard focusing it on meaningful contributions instead of adtech or whatever. That's the point 80,000 hours makes (also see: their Climate change job board.
Of course… I understand the wish to be closer to the solution. What we do as software people is very abstract. But we are also privileged with rather lucrative work, which means, all things considered, we can have more free time and we have a lot of agency over how we spend that free time. I used to spend a lot of that free time tackling a variety of micro-problems and creating open source solutions for them. Kind of just finding the unique bricks I can contribute to the FOSS ecosystem. It was both rewarding and useful, and I think the same can be applied to climate change.
However, I have since used my free time to try my hand at completely new lines of work. To the point I've been moving away from doing tech work. I have found that being able to apply my tech knowledge in non-tech areas of the world, that I subsequently spent a lot of time learning and understanding… that is a superpower.
I dunno! I hope this is helpful.
To tack onto that:
https://climatebase.org/
There's a fellowship program for those who want to move into Climate focused work.
But mainly a database of jobs that focus on climate solutions. Ive seen lots of CS-related ones listed
@BradleyNull did you see the above comment with the job board?
Thank you for the ping, yes I will check these out.
Thanks for that link, I made a profile and I am perusing it now.
Thanks for that. Yes part of the reason I struggle with this is exactly what you said - the software/data engineering contribution is abstract. But there's also this other part, and i'm not sure i'm going to be able to articulate it correctly - being a part of these organizations sometimes feels very inefficient. A fitting comparison given the subject matter is that i often see it like an engine. A complex set of moving parts, but 70% of that energy is being dissipated as heat. Maybe it's just the places i've worked, but there often seems to be a lot of motion but nothing really happening.
But yeah, I work in local government so my job isn't as lucrative as one i could get somewhere else - but I do get a fair amount of free time as my entire job is about automation and I regularly automate things I do. So i figured I would fill that time with studying. I just made a profile on that job board though and I will browse through it.
Thank you.
I know it can feel frustrating to see inefficiencies around you, but you can channel this into finding better solutions to them. I’ve started seeing inefficiencies as opportunities to learn and improve the world around me.
I’m in a super bureaucratic industry so this route is necessary to not go insane.
Do it as an exercise: look at one recent inefficiency that frustrated you and make it your mission to correct it. That will take you through the challenge of understanding it better. Sometimes the inefficiency is required for some reason; some other times, it’s easy to fix. Either way a good opportunity to understand if you can make a change in an environment where you’re trained and already an expert in.
Hey yall,
Currently, I work in supporting forestry research in a nearby forest. My work is track ecological changes in the forest. I will also admit, i just started 3 weeks ago, so I am still pretty green.
In my spare time, I have been trying to get into more 3d printing or other creative outlet such as digital art and so forth. I just need to find the motivation to do everything.
Is this a continuous requirement in that area?
I mean I am always learning something. But I'm still new to my job, so I'm still learning the ropes.
Yea i get that
Hi, I'm Suds :)
Some of my hobbies include:
I have many other interests, but on any given day you can typically find me spending my free time engrossed in one of the activities listed above.
I just got invited here, and hope to meet many cool friendly people :) Currently trying to overcome a lot of my crippling social anxieties, so please don't think anything of it if I neglect to reply on a post or comment. I always read and appreciate any well-intentioned person taking the time to interact with me online, but oftentimes struggle to formulate a response that I feel is adequate and unable to be misconstrued or misinterpreted.
This might be the stupidest possible question but how do you practice tree climbing?
I absolutely love it but I've never thought of it as an "activity", just something I do when I see a tree and I'm feeling adventurous.
Haha not a stupid question at all! Idk I grew up playing in the woods my whole life and climbing trees since I was little. As a kid I would often climb to get away, trees always felt safe because I could go high up and tuck myself into a spot where nobody would ever think to look. I never lost a game of man hunt either, but usually would be stuck up there hours after everyone had already given up lol. Sometimes I'll get daring and climb real high just to see what I can see off on the horizon or way up on the canopy. All of the best naps I've ever had were high up wedged between some big sturdy branches. It's also a great workout swinging around trying to go from tree to tree or just doing pullups for no reason in particular.
Me? I'm nobody.
Other than my fondness for liguistic humour, my main hobbies are:
home repair & improvement of my 1880's structural brick four-square on the West Side of Chicago
road cycling
ethical philosophy, which is the main reason I go onto social media like tildes. I'm very much into Stoicism as the concept of the American Civic Religion, and starting to explore what it means to be a Unitarian Christian, especially as it interacts with the other two.
social dance, including Ceilli, Square, Contra, and occasionally newer forms like Swing or various mosh pit forms.
I'd say fatherhood as well, but that's significantly more than a hobby to me.
InfiniteNumber here. Short for InfiniteNumberOfMonkeys.
You know.... the old adage about giving an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters...
Anyway....
Husband of the most patient woman in the world. Father to two wonderful young men. The world's only Patriots/RedSox/Bruins/SC Gamecock fan. Pulled pork enthusiast, degenerate fantasy football player and according to at least two social media bios that i may or may not have been completely truthful on, a 7 time Slinky world champion.
I have worked in a huge manufacturing facility for the last 30 years, the bulk of that time working 12 hour swing shifts. About a year ago I got my first day job and I feel like at 53 I've been awarded a brand new life. I'm happier, healthier and more optimistic than I've been in decades.
I am a large human being. Like NFL offensive lineman size. I have long hair and a big bushy beard. I've been mistaken for a biker more than once. Actually I'm just a big nerd. Being big just kept me from being picked on too much.
I live in central South Carolina, but I own zero guns and zero bibles. Ive never been hunting and only been fish tricking a couple of times. I found it unbelievably boring.
I try as much as possible to show not everyone in the South is an insufferable redneck or religious nut job.
I'm in 6 fantasy football leagues. But I'm not addicted. I can stop anytime.
I have a garden. This year I have 24 tomato plants, about 30 pepper plants and another 10 or 12 miscellaneous plants.
We have a cat who runs the household. She is strict but fair.
You cannot drop that you have a cat without pictures of said cat!
I have three (3) sheds.
Ask me anything.
Is this your answer to the cabbage problem?
That made me laugh. It's more an answer for how to fit two decades of accumulated crap, and a home office, in an otherwise small house and garden
Tell us about your shed selection process. Were all three constructed at about the same time, or did they appear over a period of years? Did you build them, purchase them pre-built, or were they pre-existing on that real estate when you bought it? What size and shape are they, and how did you decide that that was the appropriate size and shape for your needs? What are they built out of?
Ok here goes. Shed 1, the largest and oldest, sits in an odd-shaped nook between our garden and three neighbours, so it's the only size it can be. It's about 4.5m x 3m. When we moved in 20-ish years ago there was a smaller shed there which I pulled down because otherwise it would have pulled itself down in protest. I bought a flat-pack timber cladding replacement and put it together over a few weekends.
Shed 2 is now my wife's office, but I bought it as my office 7 years ago. About 4x3m and looks like a country cottage. It has insulated walls and roof, but the floor insulation is sub standard so it gets really cold underfoot in winter. There's a log store behind it which I build really badly and it's pushing on the shed. There are a couple of Jimmy-rigged solar panels on the roof connected to a not-really-legal grid-tied inverter. It was bought as pre-cut tongue and groove timer parts ready to assemble which amazingly only took a couple of days. It took longer to paint the damn thing. My wife is kept company in there by a couple of guinea pigs.
Shed 3 is tiny and fits neatly under a tree against the boundary with our neighbour. 5 years ago I converted our attic to a new bedroom so needed space to store some of the crap that was in the attic. I found one of the right volume. 1x1.5m or thereabouts and ordered it. A few weeks later it became clear the supplier had forgotten our order so I got them to agree to install it by way of apology. These days spiders find it to be a very comfortable and well-appointed townhouse. Also, the kids use it to scare the shit out of me by climbing on the roof and jumping formerly on to the trampoline, and now in to the pop up pool.
What is in two of the sheds? The northern and southernmost ones. Or eastern and westernmost based on how you have them placed.
Good questions.
Shed 1 is the southernmost and largest. It contains several punctured dinghys, some rusty bicycles, my slightly less rusted but well used road bike, a fondue set, 82 cans of WD40, and an assorted mountain of other shit.
Shed 3 is the northernmost and smallest. It contains camping gear, luggage, spiders and ivy.
Where do you get your spiders and ivy? I used to have a great spiders guy, but then he retired and switched to frogs.
Oh my wife's a few years from retirement yet.
Actually we have frogs as well. I dug a (very) small pond next to shed 3 a few years ago and now we have loads of frogs, which our one-orange-braincell imbecile of a cat tries to investigate but fails when they hop in to the undergrowth and he doesn't know what to do next.
I immediately thought you were a Stardew Valley player, but it seems you have physical sheds! Good for you!
You can fit a lot in a shed.
Does each shed serve a different purpose? Are they three different sizes? Are they near or next to each other? Do you have a favorite?
Yes. Yes. Next to each other no, but near each other yes in so far as the confines of our garden allow. I love all of my children equally, apart from that one.
What colors are they? Do you use one more than the others? Are they souly for your own purposes and use, or do others in your household access them regularly? Have you put any thought into a fourth shed?
One is the colour of decaying shed, one is a very pleasant cream colour, with hanging flower baskets along the front, and the third is mostly the colour of invasive ivy.
The nice colour shed is used most as that's my wife's office. It's actually a very nice work environment, or would be but for my wife's astonishing degree of untidiness.
Everyone has equal rights to shed access. In fact I've always been rather disappointed in my children for not stealing any beer from the shed 1 beer-storage aisle.
With regards to a fourth shed I worry that would be gauche. I mean three sheds already causes social friction, but four would be the last nail in the coffin of a good many friendships.
Hiya! I'm OneEyeMercy!
Starle was the name I was given while following the Grateful Dead full time for most of a decade. I made A LOT of money doing it. I was very good at it. I've been to 47 states, a lot of them repeatedly. I gave up a promising and probably very successful degree in microbiology to do this. I guarantee that I have stories no one will believe.
also did Phish but that is a whole different thing don't @me lol
I fell in love with and married a British man and absolutely fled America to keep my daughters safe and alive from a violent Domestic Situation. They are 18 and 20 now and I moved here when the youngest was just three. Could not be happier.
One is autistic/ADHD (I know there is a word for that but I can't remember and she's asleep lol). She is an artist, mostly hand drawn for now and she specializes in drawing people and faces. She is VERY good. Knows more Anatomy than an anatomy professor and she has flash cards and notebooks to prove it, and she will tell you alllllll about it for hours, with receipts. I have really enjoyed getting to know her grown up self and so glad that she is still here with me after an extremely rough period in her very early teens. I'm using She for now, because that is the last I heard yesterday but I probably should have used they/them.
The other is another autist and she is extremely bookish and into her own journey, her own way. She suffers from a number of health conditions but always perseveres. She is studying to become a radiologist and studies eastern religions, mainly Buddhism. She has a flat but wicked sense of humour and is just an overall treasure. She's such a weird little egg but very much loved!!
I have worked in so many different fields, but I always enjoyed detailed factory work, my favourite being making laparoscopic medical instruments. I led the cause to successfully unionize the plant starting on the day I rallied everyone to down tools because WE ALL KNEW we being forced to send defective shit out and that people could, IDK, actually die? And I made a lot of money doing it.
I am also a third generation IBM'er. My grandfather started as a machine maintenance guy and rose to higher management. My mother was pretty much forced to work there straight out of HS as a secretary. With nothing but a basic education, she became one of the senior auditors and retired after 30years. I started after I just had to retire from touring, started small, landed big. I loved that job. I really clicked with the work. But I could not "socially" function well enough to fit in appropriately with IBM's strict corporate culture. Not for me, their loss. Did not make a lot of money doing this lol.
I am really into DnD and dice collecting. I love books and cats. Met my husband, my soul partner, because of a series of books we discussed on MySpace. I have entirely retired from LARPing, I'm too old and pampered to sleep on the ground and be physically abused by choice. I am a PC gamer, I still prefer American candy to British, I love to cook and save up for fine dining experiences which I share with the youngest, who eats food, unlike the oldest.
I have a lot of diagnosed and undiagnosed... um disorders? I dont like that word. I'm just me. A normal topic of conversation in the house is "hey, I had a cool hallucination today? You guys?" My husband is so incredibly normal that it continues to confuse me to this day after decades. He's just...fine. He is the perfect rock to my island.
I have had a Christmas tree in my living room since before the pandemic. Also, I am pretty sure that I am a witch.
OMG, thank you for listening if you have read this! It has been a lot of fun and have enjoyed reading all of your stories too!
Always happy to see another book lover. What types do you typically read? Any favorite titles or authors to share? I hope you might see fit to contribute to ~books.
I spent about ten months in Oxford in my early 20s and fell in love with certain things about England. This place near where I lived was my first introduction to better chocolate than Hershey candy bars. https://www.yelp.com/biz/alternative-tuck-shop-oxford
Hi boxer! Love your content here!
No one wants to read the stuff I real lol, very boring.
Currently on my windowsill/casually reading I have:
Of Sirens and Centaurs
Cathedral Architecture
How to Build a Brain
The Eagle has Flown, and Sea Harrier over the Falkland's (husbands books but I am finding them fascinating)
Currently re-reading The Starless Sea, which I read with my daughter. Highly recommend.
Gathering dust are a few books I want to like but cant. Why even IS Stephen Ericson??
Thousands of discworld books, historical fiction, anything medieval architecture, books of weird facts, some light comedy.
I'm very flattered that you asked, but out of all the zany stuff I wrote your sweet little heart picked up on books! You are a treasure!
E: I hope that did not sound condescending. I come across awkward sometimes. 🤒
No problem lol. Just this morning in a real life meeting I tried for a sincere compliment but it came out backhanded and awkward because I clarified my thoughts in too much detail. We do our best.
Trying not to be too cringy in my support of and enthusiasm for this little space on the internet. Thanks for the compliment. Blush.
Re people not sharing your tastes, I wouldn't be too sure. We have fantasy fans, mythology fans and historical fiction fans here. It's a nerdy community although not exclusively nerds lol. Looking forward to seeing you around. Tildes.
More books I have read or gifted, On The Road, Kerouac also The Art of Motorcycle Maintence, a kind of zen book with which I bamboozled my monk professor into thinking I had learned something.
I would not mind mildly promoting my mother's short story/book, it is an experience in rural living. Not sure how that works here.
I'd be delighted to read your mother's experience in rural living, please expound!
I don't respond on Tildes as much as I ought to, but count me in the "people who read far too much" camp. I'm always looking to feed the insatiable omnivorous monster that lives between my ears.
Not who you asked but If you are looking for rural living, I can also suggest Hannah Coulter, Dear Mad'm by Patterson, Gerald Durrell Corfu Trilogy, The James Herriot books, Olive Kitteridge and (if you are up for science fiction) Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon. Edit and My Antonia and Oh Pioneers and Benjamin Myers somewhat dark novel The Offing.
Just re-read the Herriott books (they're heartwarmingly cozy), and read Remnant Population when it first came out. I'll have to add your other recommendations to the ominously teetering virtual pile of e-books!
Not sure how this works here either but here is the link, it's free on Kindle
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maysville-One-Maysvillw-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00JSB274E/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2L8WW9GOJ5ORN&keywords=thia+pope+author&qid=1692000259&s=books&sprefix=thia+pope+author%2Cstripbooks%2C90&sr=1-1
I know it's my mom and all, but it's very good. Short but gripping. It gives a glimpse into the somewhat darker intrigue and machinations that rural small town life have, while giving credit to the strong feelings and mental fortitude that small communities use to guide and govern themselves. Also lots of interesting women. I think you would like them.
The blurb from the back says:
Life can be filled with secrets, and in the small Appalachian town of Maysville, secrets are best well kept. Welcome to the mysterious lives of ordinary people who dwell each day in a chaos of harmony, religion, laughter, poverty and pain.
Names have been changed and personalities merged but I grew up there and I feel like I know them as an absolute architype. Check it out if you want!
Not at all. And we share an interest in Discworld and historical fiction.
I'm 25 this year! And I'm currently working at my second job since completing my degree back in 2020. Currently working in a lab, which has been keeping me busy (both a good and bad thing).
Outside of work I've been playing (well, more like dying in) Ellen Ring.
And I actually have never gone diving, nor have I gotten intoxicated before.
I'm just kind of a weird hermit. I'm not wealthy but I'm not destitute either. I have a good support network that I try to strengthen on my own, but mostly keep to myself. I have a BS in Philosophy, almost got a masters in family systems/therapy, and worked about a dozen different jobs. I mostly supported myself by fixing appliances and computer hardware.
Recently, after years of work on mine and others' part, my family came to the realization that it needs a dedicated member to help build out what can make it sustainable. My folks worked really hard to overcome their situations, and built a material foundation upon which more is possible. But their time is over, so to speak; they're at the end of their careers and want to rest. My siblings are beginning their adult lives (there's a big age difference) and are meeting with much better luck in that than I did. The real rock of the family, my grandmother, is nearing her end and needs someone to be around to help her. I am going to go do that, and together with her figure out how to use what all she put together to relaunch her business. The hope, is that we can get it started, then I will continue it, and that will serve as a way for our family to continue building up wealth and materials without everybody having to go their own way with it. That everyone has something to come home to, forever.
I never wanted a lot of what the world around me said was important. Truly, if everything had been up to me, I'd have just stayed with my family and worked together with them, to just make our lives easier and better. But where I grew up, that just wasn't possible; I couldn't help with the type of business my folks had made, and the place in which I lived had no opportunity for a younger person. So I left and aimlessly cobbled together a life out of whatever was available to me. I did a bunch of unbelievably reckless shit, went on many adventures, and did a lot of reading and introspection. I put together, best I could, the story of us, and then got it into my head that I would steal the pen and write the next chapter myself. That's a really long story I don't really want to get into right now, but I think it'll be a good book.
Along the way I've tried to pay close attention and put together what all I can. I have a bunch of hobbies and occasionally make things that I give to people. When I get the opportunity to ramble about it, I usually come out of that being called a philosopher, sometimes an artist. I don't believe I've earned those words, but I guess as a sort of challenge, there you go. Ask something and see what you think, I guess.
(please don't ask me who is my favorite philosopher)
Who's your favorite cartoonist?
That's a tough one. I really enjoyed Don Hertzfeldt's brand of weird, and just about everything Adult Swim produced sat well with me. I haven't really looked into it as much as other things so that's about all I got lol
I got to go to a live showing of Rejected with a Q&A years ago here in Chicago. Unfortunately, Don was sick and couldn't make it. Instead the audience asked each other questions, it was actually really fun!
Hey all,
I am a middle-aged woman living in Illinois/USA who recently changed careers to become a Biomedical Equipment Technician. I love problem solving, so fixing medical equipment has been a fun and rewarding job. And it pays a lot better than customer service.
When I am not fixing ventilators, I play ukulele, garden, paint, and try to identify what all the wild mushrooms growing in my yard are and if they are edible.
I am a fungal cell biologist currently working on attaining a Ph.D. I spend most of my days cloning and taking fluorescent images of the rice blast fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. Here is an image I have captured of one of M. oryzae's asexual spores that has already germinated and begun forming what is called an appressorium (the rounded structure on the right, which will lead to rice cell penetration): https://b.l3n.co/i/VVpBUM.png. The green color is a green fluorescent protein (GFP) labeled microtubules, and the false magenta coloring is mCherry labeled DNA. The striking bright GFP signal between two signals of mCherry is the mitotic spindle. One of the dividing nuclei will end up in the appressorial cell. Once nucleated, this structure generates enormous turgor pressure and develops a penetration peg that will infiltrate healthy plant cells.
I love getting to capture images of things we were never really "meant" to see. I don't really see myself as a good scientist, but I do have a knack for capturing remarkable and unexpected cellular events under the microscope. Whether I make it out of my PhD training with a degree or not, I hope I inspire people to remain curious about the world and to show that slowing down and staring at something for a long time might reveal a beauty you could have never imagined.
Ask me anything about my work, about microscopy, you know.... whatever!
Ahhh flourescent microscopy is so pretty!! When I was in grad school we were working on trying to develop new chromaphores for imaging agents, but the work never progressed to the point where we got to do any in vitro imaging.
One of the memorable talks I saw was from Roger Tsien(a few years before he died), it was so amazing to see all of the amazing applications of the GFP concept.
What are the career prospects for a good microscopist in your area? Is that something you're interested in?
Great question! Believe it or not, I haven't looked too hard at microscopy jobs, but I should be. I live in GA and have a near-zero desire to live or work in Atlanta. Some places I'd like to end up do have a great biotech industry, so that's still good news for me. I'll start looking in earnest once I reach candidacy later this year.
What do you do now?
These days I work in Li-ion battery R&D. My PhD was in material science, learning how to make nanoparticles glow all pretty colors, not very biotech related.
Our company has a staff microscopist for electron microscopy and CT-- I bet if you really enjoy the microscopy side of things there could be some great career paths in the biotech hubs.
Best of luck with your studies!
I am a teen in my junior year I have really been into computers. I had previously thought I would go into i.t. , but I don't find challenging anymore :( so I am looking at going into aerospace engineering.
So if you're wanting to find more of a challenge in computers, I would not recommend IT, but rather going into computer science/software engineering. Most IT is basically "computer janitor" type work. Software development is where you get in to more of the creative work.
That said, aerospace is also a good path with a promising future. You might also look at Computer Engineering as something that gets you some computer but also some broader engineering discipline work in the electronics realm - it's a degree that's a bit more oriented toward something like firmware or device driver development, still doing a lot of programming but much closer to the hardware.
If you have any questions feel free to hit me up. Been working in the area in a field that gives me a lot of access to people of many engineering professions for a couple of decades now.
Thanks for the advice, I have always been more hardware oriented but looks to be a all around good degree
Good to meet you. Best of luck with aerospace engineering. I'm going to link a discussion that you might or might not have found here already, so that you have it in case you decide to change paths again.
https://tildes.net/~talk/17nk/what_are_industries_and_specialties_where_you_see_demand_for_employees
Thanks I haven't seen it yet. But I will probably read it later when I have more time
Middle aged senior Computer Scientist/Systems Engineer with the US DOD. Note, I am NOT a licensed engineer, I more use that colloquially - we are a prototyping/R&D lab so a lot of the senior developers end up being sort of jacks of all trades since we do a lot of field work and it's helpful to be able to troubleshoot an entire system when you're in the middle of a muddy field or floating around in a big metal tub trying to fix some piece of prototype gear miles from civilization!
Married with several fuzzy children of both feline and canine varieties.
I do a lot of tinkering in my spare time. I build robots, have built several 3D printers (including a couple that I designed and CAD-modeled entirely myself), I do very basic woodworking, and I do most of my own house repair and upgrade work. Also play video games, with a general preference for puzzle type games (Zachlikes) and RPGs, although I'm willing to try just about anything that isn't super fast paced - alas, the ravages of time have diminished my reaction times a bit too much for particularly twitchy games.
I'm a graphic designer! Currently between jobs after working at an agency for almost 4 years, but looking forward to what's to come. I've always been really into tech and tinkering with computers, but also always itching to express myself creatively, so between the creative hobbies I have/had like video editing (which I've been doing since before I was a teen) and drawing, as well as many more that have been more forgotten, I've settled on graphic design as my career as the problem solving satisfies both my expressions, both technical and creative, really well.
Despite being a big tech person, I must say that my favorite things to design are actually books and all things editorial. I love all sorts of print production as well and it's just always extremely satisfying to see my work in a physical form. I think my career dream/goal would be to work on just editorial design things, especially after working on everything and anything during my time working at an agency, and realizing what I like designing and what I don't. If anyone's got a book they're writing and needs a designer let me know ;)
Other than that my main hobby (and in a way inspiration as well) are video games! They're basically the reason I'd decided to pursue graphic design, and just generally are a big inspiration for me. I really love all the different kinds of games out there and the value they bring. Rhythm games especially are a soft spot of mine cause it lets me feel like I can channel my sense of rhythm into something despite the many times I've tried to learn an instrument and gave up, as well as RPGs for the stories they tell.
Full-time armed forces member with nearly 10 years in. I've written fiction for my own amusement since I was little, and I'm looking for a new start as a writer once I'm out but not hopeful it'll ever come to fruition. My job in the army is ostensibly IT but I've completely lost interest in computers/technology and not interested to pursue it as work anymore. Happily spouse-less/child-less. I fill time by adding to my encyclopedic knowledge of films (especially horror/science fiction) and occasionally I'm sort of a gamer though most new games bore me. I was always the "creepy goth kid" and still kind of am.
As another sometimes writer, I learned a lot from the books Bird by Bird, Writing Down the Bones and Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic Creative Living Beyond Fear. (Big Magic has a first chapter with some wierd and unnecessary theories about what creativity is, but once the book moves past that it contains some very useful stories about writers and how they write and why people the author knew quit writing. It's helpful and insightful). I also found the collection of Terry Pratchet's nonfiction a Slip of the Keyboard to have useful, interesting information about his writing process and attitudes toward his work.
This thread might have useful information for you if you haven't seen it already. https://tildes.net/~talk/17nk/what_are_industries_and_specialties_where_you_see_demand_for_employees
The issue for me is motivation (severe clinical depression) and an ability to generate a plethora of ideas but not prose. Some of the ideas - more some of the characters - tend to get stuck in my head and I just sort of "hang out" with them instead of doing anything constructive.
Wishing better for you in future. Depression is miserable.
I'll need it.
I'm a 40-something Brit living just outside of London with my gorgeous wife of 13 years marriage and happily child free by choice. Currently out of work (made redundant end of last year) and going through the drudgery of finding it. Final round interview tomorrow morning, fingers crossed...
My major hobby is gaming... a little computer gaming when something really special comes out (BG3, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk etc) but mostly tabletop gaming (of all kinds - boardgaming, roleplay, wargaming (especially Battletech) and skirmish games, card games etc etc
Could you ask you for your elevator pitch to sell me on BattleTech? It looks interesting.
Can it be enjoyed with two players? I'd be tempted to get into it with my son.
Varied and challenging wargame that can be as complex as you like - want to throw some mechs on a map and have them fight it out using landscape as cover? Check
Want to add rules in for off field artillery that arrives several turns later? Go for it. Add some tanks, planes, helicopters, boats, submarines and hovercraft? Yup.
Infantry? Of course! How about rules for picking up another mechs blown off arm and using it as a club? Or for creating smoke (that moves with the wind) by setting fire to a forest? Or rules for desert worlds, high-g (and low-g) and atmosphereless worlds?
And then go for a rich lore that spans literally thousands of years and a choice of literally thousands of different mechs and vehicles in different specs, or the choice to simply invent your own.
And on top of all that - it's perfectly rules legal to play with whatever proxy miniatures or tokens you like. As long as the other player knows what it is and which way it's facings you can (rules legally) play with bottle caps if you like. And you won't get stung by power creep - the rules haven't broadly changed for decades and you aren't forced to buy the latest miniatures (see previous point).
Downside? The rules are a little crunchy with lots of modifiers to remember but the box sets come with reference sheets to help with that, and obviously the more you add in the more there is to remember. If you can I would start by seeing it there's a local club to you that can introduce you.
There are also two variants - "Classic" (the game I described above) and Alpha Strike. The latter is much faster to play and less crunchy but is more like playing a normal wargame - some people say start with Alpha Strike but I don't agree as it's a completely different game. If you can get through the slightly steep learning curve I've never played a richer more detailed wargame than Classic Battletech.
I am absolutely sold! Thanks for the detailed write up :)
I'm Fatalist.
Currently, I've really been working a lot in Godot on some vague game ideas, but haven't been getting very far. I really enjoy the software, and I'm pretty miffed I can't update to Godot 4 due to the graphical shenanigans they added for drivers for the new update. So, I'm stuck doing everything in 3.4 until I suck it up and upgrade my PC.
Unfortunately, I've been working a lot lately, and it's started to take a bit of a toll on my life. I end up filling a lot of roles at the hotel I work at, and it adds up whenever we have any staff out. My motto for hospitality is "when it rains, it pours." When you have one issue, the likelihood for multiple issues, increases exponentially. Recently, we had 1 front desk agent call out due to a death in the family. In that same week, we had another staff call out, our front office manager get called to a sister property, and our GM took his vacation.
Otherwise, I feel the changing of the seasons, and I'm excited for fall!