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what is a skill you wish you had, and why?

Ok, I might as well go first: I wish I could draw. Not at the level where I could make photorealistic portraits, but I’ve always been envious of those who are able to scetch something together in a few minutes that perfectly captures what they want to convey. Sometimes words aren’t enough to express what I want to say, and...

oxjox,

Focus on reading a book.
I can do it but I have to be in the mood. I wish it were all the time but it’s more like once a month. I’m trying to wean myself away from screens and be more mindful about spending more than a few minutes on a task. It’s a lifestyle change and a struggle.

Also; spelling, typing, and writing in print and cursive. I always type and write letters out of order.

What are some productive things to do when you wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep for a few hours?

I’m looking for suggestions that zombie-me could follow through with. The problem is I can barely bring myself to get out of bed, let alone do a useful task. It just wastes typically 2–5 hours of my life as I wait for tiredness to finally (re)take hold.

oxjox,

I had this happen to me this morning!

Was up at 4am and thought… oh! I can scan some of those old family photos I’ve been meaning to get to. Just ended up on my iPad reading the news and browsing Etsy and eBay for two hours instead. Every time, I remind myself I need to keep screens out of the bedroom.

Otherwise, if it’s nearly morning anyway, I find it a good time to listen to music and make playlists. If it’s too early, I’ll read a book.

oxjox,

Learn to cook. Learn how to use fresh and pantry ingredients.

I can easily get by on $75 a week at a bougie produce market in the city (pasture eggs, free range chicken, etc). Or, I could get food delivery twice and spend more than that.

oxjox,

Cooking.

It’s shocking to me the number of people I’ve come across who’ve no idea how to cook or find it to be too troublesome to do. Moreover, feeding yourself should be the single most primal skill for anyone to have.

I realize there’s a lot to unpack here. Some people are taught / learn to cook at a young age while some people have parents who’ve never cooked for themselves. Personal preference, finances, and scheduling play a huge part. The definitions of “cooking” and “feeding yourself” can vary widely. So, I’m not claiming everyone should know how to make a roast chicken dinner for four with sides and dessert. Although, I do think people should be at a level above boxed mac and cheese and microwaved air-fried chicken nuggets.

Cooking is, in my opinion, shopping for fresh foods and turning them into a meal. It’s about your health, your pleasure, and your finances.

What item have you been using on a daily basis for the longest amount of time?

Sometimes I will use something and realize I’ve owned it forever. It’s a nice change in our throwaway reality. I think my personal record is a bicycle multi-tool I got for one of my first bikes, ~25 years ago. Still have it, still use it. When it comes to electronic devices I have a Panasonic mini Hi-Fi from ~2005. Never...

oxjox,

I’ve been using the same belt since the late '90s. I recently lost a bit of weight so I’m in the market for a new one. It’s tough trying to find a replacement for something that’s been with you for more than half your life.

FYI - “genuine leather” just means the material contains some leather and generally indicates that it’s the lowest quality.

oxjox,

Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year (9to5mac.com)

In a surprising move, Apple has announced today that it will adopt the RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging standard. The feature will launch via a software update “later next year” and bring a wide range of iMessage-style features to messaging between iPhone and Android users....

How safe are grammar editing tools?

Without naming names, there’s a well advertised grammar editing tool that’s available either as an app download or browser extension. This is something I’d value for a number of reasons (good grammar is important!) but I’m super cautious about anything I’m giving permission to watch what I’m typing....

oxjox,

I just read an article about how they’re increasing advertising on their Fire TVs. Rest assured, an Amazon OS is an Advertising OS.

Although, from what I’ve gathered of public opinion online, there’s LOTS of people willing to forgo their privacy in exchange for free shit.

Edit: Oh…

They say they expect Vega to begin shipping on Fire TVs early next year.

And that article arstechnica.com/…/after-luring-customers-with-low…

oxjox,

It’s built upon communities that can congregate in one area and engage with other communities.
It’s not run by Wall Street or billionaire backed entities so the platform lacks an algorithm designed to keep your attention to show you ads.
It’s new, lacks the shine and polish of established platforms, and there’s a bit of friction with on-boarding and usage.

oxjox,

The statement reads well, and I’ll take them at their word, but if an algorithm exists to show you “relevant” content, they’re collecting data and using it keep you on the platform.

This has been my issue with ‘social media’ for the past ten(?) years. As soon as Instagram switch the default from chronological to what it thinks you want to see, it’s continued to be more and more shitified (so much that I no longer use it).

The beauty of the early days of social media was that it was real-time. I could see who was doing what right now. I could see what establishments were hosting events tonight. Instead, these platforms decided it was more to their benefit to show posts it thinks will keep you on the platform longer - to show you more ads. For me, this lead to finding out days later that things have happened I would have like to have done.

Wall Street run Social Media is garbage. Businesses, organizations, governments, etc., need to go back to publishing content on their own websites (or the Fediverse) and enabling RSS feeds.

oxjox,

Our system is grossly flawed. It was built for a sprawling and relatively sparse new nation with an experimental democratic representative government. It was built by a united colony who rejected the idea of a monarch or church controlling any aspect of their lives. It was also, ironically, built in a time when slaves - humans treated as property - were commonplace.

So, fair representation wasn’t quite a reality either in intent or practice and we’ve been dealing with some of the ramifications of vague or all together missing wordings in our constitution.

The system was intentionally built to ensure provocation and infighting just as much as to ensure negotiation and compromise. This is a good way for a committee to function, not so much for a government to govern. What we’re currently seeing is a small group of political outsiders walking the thin line dividing what is and is not permitted in our government. It’s nearly impossible for a “christofascist” state to become reality because we have laws preventing it. We also have a populace who misunderstands or is unaware of the boundaries of some of these laws and how slow our government operates. Although, there is a very real fear that a government who controls the judicial system could have an enormous impact on our reality. We’ve already seen this play out.

There are a million things millions of us would like to see our government do or not do because we believe them to be just and ensure liberties for all. But much of our attention is focused on the power of the federal government while much power lies with the states themselves. As technology has connected us, we’re inclined to look collectively at the peak of power to give a top-down approach to governing a semi-sovereign collection of states - which is often wrong. So, applying the standards and ideologies practiced in other countries is a bit misplaced.

A two party system as we have it (especially with today’s real-time collaboration), in my opinion, leads to what we see today - polarization and tribalism adopting economic and social issues as tools to divide us for the sake of the wealthy and powerful. The People are not winning and not being fairly represented and our government is perpetually teetering on crumbling. We’re being used today just as much as we were used 250 years ago.

• Ranked Choice Voting would greatly calm polarization and foster cooperation between candidates and representatives.
• Financing political campaigns exclusively with tax payer money would dissuade corporate and outsider involvement and even the field for the candidates’ voices. This would also foster more third and fourth party involvement.
• Increasing funding for and rewarding independent journalism / dismantling the near-monopoly on news media outlets would hold candidates accountable and better inform the public.
… theoretically.

These three things, in my mind, would establish a new-er foundation that’s even stronger than what our founding fathers penned. It’s in the same vein as their intent while adjusting for the technological advancements that have proved to divide us.

Yeah - these people who seem so proud of “democracy and freedom” are a bunch of self-righteous jerks. These are the same people who want to take rights away from others because they’re fearful of losing the privileges they’ve had for generations. These people are supporting political leaders solely based on their fears. And, honestly, their fears are entirely justified.

There is no freedom in war and our two parties are at war. Few people care to listen to anyone who has a differing opinion than them. We are most assuredly a nation divided and our broken needs mending.

I firmly believe there’s more compromise and progress and empathy found in a system of Ranked Choice Voting, reformed political financing, and a free-er press.

oxjox,

Mr. Wizard’s World. MacGyver. The A-Team.
And all the cooking shows on PBS in the 80s.

I’ve always been someone to tinker and break things apart to create new things. I’ve always been a problem solver.

Oh - and I pretty much got my entire sense of humor from Three’s Company, Mork and Mindy, Cheers, and Mash.

oxjox,

Who comes up with these headlines?? Certainly not someone who based it off the video used to support their claim.

This bullshit dilutes real news stories. Headline should read; “IDF bombs refugee camp in attempt to kill Hamas terrorist, knowing it was full of civilians.” That’s the story and it’s fucked alone as it is. Why sensationalize this and make up shit that is objectively untrue??

oxjox,

You’ve posted someone’s model for propaganda and have made your own non-sensical claim that real news does not exist.

Are you okay?

oxjox,

Might as well take it a step further and criminalize capitalism.

oxjox,

Is this retroactive?

oxjox,

You could roll back the internet to pre 2.0, removing the ability for people to engage with each other outside of real life.

oxjox,

I’ve been an Apple loyalist since 1993. Practically everything I’ve loved about the company has gone to shit in the past few years. It used to be inspirational, seamless, intuitive. Now every new OS update makes something needlessly complex and confusing.
On top of that, they’re increasing prices for their services. I genuinely love Apple TV+ and still think with the increase that it’s an incredible deal. Still, they can suck a dick if they think I’m falling prey to this annual price increase bullshit. Apple stopped being an industry leader under Cook and became a basic vanilla consumer electronics and digital services company. It’s fucking disappointing.
What’s worse, they still do most things better than the competition so there’s little to do but hope things don’t break and disable auto updates. I have nearly every product category they put out but as things start to fail, I will not be replacing them. Instead, I’ll simply choose a more simple life without excessive tech.

oxjox,

Yeah. Same. It’s not an easy process.

I know for sure that my Apple Watch will be the first to go since they’ve handicapped the OS and I’ll never upgrade from OS 9. My Apple TV is one of my most used devices but it’s very likely that I get rid of that along with my TV within the next five years (despite having well over 1,000 movies on my Plex server). iPad might be the next on the list in favor of just a Mac mini and iPhone.

Although, my ideal end-game (what I DREAM about), is just an Apple Watch and iPad. It doesn’t seem like Apple’s interested in making that a thing though. And, even if they did, I no longer trust them to make it “just work”. Oh, how I’d love to abandon iPhone. The 12 Mini I have is about the right size but the camera bump is still ridiculous. I just might switch to a dumb phone if Apple refuses to offer reasonably sized, slim, camera-bumpless phones.

I’m approaching middle middle-age soon. I’ve invested so much of my life (and money) in tech, I think it’s time to step back and enjoy the disconnected life I should have had as a young adult. There’s no reward. There’s no freedom. No simplicity. I do worry if it’s even possible though.

oxjox,

All the major meat producers. And fast food chains.

There’s been so much publicized in recent years about their treatment of animals, their lobbying efforts, how they treat their employees, how they’re ruining the environment, how they fix prices and force farmers to “get on board” or else. It’s really bad but we don’t care so much because it’s hidden beyond our periphery.

I know no one wants to be told to reduce or complicate doing the things that bring you joy, but reducing your meat consumption and shopping at local producers is something we could all take small steps every year towards doing.

oxjox,

You mean like how Panera Bread does?
…s-nbcnews.com/…/231017-panera-bread-charged-lemo…

The Charged Lemonade was “offered side-by-side with all of Panera’s non-caffeinated and/or less caffeinated drinks” and was advertised as a “plant-based and clean” beverage that contained as much caffeine as the restaurant’s dark roast coffee, according to photos of both the menu and beverage dispensers in the store, which were included in the wrongful death lawsuit. panerabread.com/…/57f9b1aa54df4bd2c2eacca55efa1c9…

Not to disagree with you, you’re right, but I think they should also indicate how much is normal consumption. It’s quite surprising this isn’t something that’s required on the nutritional label.

oxjox,

Also the part where she had the same thing to drink before.

Conroy said Katz had bought at least one other Charged Lemonade in the days before her cardiac arrest.

oxjox,

That’s called nebula.tv

oxjox,

So, you won’t even click a link and glance at a platform unless it’s free (/ has ads that you can bypass with a blocker)?

Here’s the important bits…

How do the creators get paid?
Nebula profit is divided 50/50 between the creators and Standard. The creator pool is paid out based on watch time.

Who owns Nebula?
Nebula is owned and operated by Standard and the creators, with Curiosity Inc (CuriosityStream) holding a minority stake and a board seat. There are no plans to bring in additional investment.

Will the world ever stop being anti-intellectual?

One of the most aggravating things to me in this world has to be the absolutely rampant anti-intellectualism that dominates so many conversations and debates, and its influence just seems to be expanding. Do you think there will ever actually be a time when this ends? I'd hope so once people become more educated and cultural...

oxjox,

Can we start with anti-I-Need-My-Dopamine-Hit-Every-10-Minutes?

Between people’s ever depleting attention span and our desire for acceptance on social media, I just don’t see how you can even begin to tackle “anti-intellectualism”.

Most people use these platforms to comment on a headline and never read the article. Perhaps we could all decide to use these platforms properly and use the downvote button to bury comments that, while funny or otherwise emotionally engaging, are clearly not accurate or providing value to the topic of discussion.

By upvoting funny comments and rewarding hive-mind mentality, we’re partly to blame for the lack of intellectualism.

oxjox,

Being an intellectual is essentially saying “I trust the findings of academics and will adopt their consensus.”

It’s the exact opposite of that. An intellectual is someone with a lot of curiosity and typically rejects the status quo. Anti-intellectualism is the acceptance of what others say based on “stuff” (emotions, group affiliation). Intellectuals have been oppressed because they offer intelligent ideas to challenge a political party, religion, or the “adopted consensus”.

oxjox,

Man… people really don’t like reading articles so much as they like speculating about headlines.

And, while I feel like I should copy/paste the important bits, isn’t it just as easy for people to click the link and read the whole two minute read? Should I paste the full article and bold the important bits? Why should I have to do the work for people who honestly do not care about more than comment karma.

I appreciate the article OP. I wasn’t aware of the nature of the ozone hole. I also found the linked article that was published in January to be insightful.

oxjox,

For background content, I use either Pluto or Live TV on Plex.
It’s kinda great that, as an older person, they’re replaying all the same stuff what constantly being replayed when I was kid. And there’s news and music, etc.

I cancelled my Netflix in 2018. I’ve signed back in for a single month three times over the past five years to catch up on things I’ve missed. I had a hard time finding much to watch over those three months.

oxjox,

Yep. It’s like regular tv. Maybe your definition of background content is different from mine. I don’t mind a few commercials.

oxjox,

I’m very much with you on anti-manipulation and anti-consumerism but I grew up in a time before the internet and have little issue with an acceptable amount of appropriately paced ads for certain content for a given price.

oxjox, (edited )

These comments are out of control. To be fair though, this AP article is garbage.

The likelihood of this having anything to do with the victim being a queer journalist in Philadelphia is practically zero. Here’s some excerpts from the local paper.

Detectives believe Kruger’s death may have been the result of a domestic dispute or may have been drug-related, according to three law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said police investigators recovered troubling text messages between Kruger and a former partner. Investigators also recovered methamphetamine inside Kruger’s bedroom, the sources said.

In recent months, he’d written on social media about a variety of alarming incidents at his home.

In April, he posted that an ex-partner had broken into his home. “The door was locked, so he had somehow obtained a copy of my keys,” he wrote. He had allowed the man, whom he’d known for years “before his troubles,” to stay at his house briefly after being released from jail. He said he was able to deescalate the situation and the man eventually left, and he changed his locks.

In August, someone threw a rock through his home window, he said. Then, about two weeks ago, he wrote on Facebook that someone came to his house searching for their boyfriend — “a man I’ve never met once in my entire life.” The person called themselves “Lady Diabla, the She-Devil of the Streets” and threatened him, he wrote.

inquirer.com/…/josh-kruger-killed-point-breeze-sh…

oxjox,

We should be more focused on people not making rash assumptions or accusations prior to all the facts of an event being known.

This has absolutely nothing to do with fascists. I can’t even imagine how you came to that conclusion. It’s being reported as likely being a domestic dispute.

oxjox,

The real world. Are you serious?
Have you ever read a news story or just headlines on social media?

oxjox,

Just be sure you’ve taken a moment to understand who you’re speaking with and what you’re speaking with them about. Because in this case, any issue of bigotry has absolutely nothing to do with this drug related domestic dispute murder.

Commenters here are arguing with each other over something that has nothing to do with this case. So, it’s not that you care about the victim, you care about virtue signaling.

FWIW, the victim regularly attended an Episcopalian church. So, I’m not so sure he’d be cool with people using religion as a cudgel beneath his obituary.

oxjox,

The article was significantly sparse on details.

Yeah. No argument there…
I posted this earlier lemmy.ml/comment/4475683

oxjox,

Except for the fact that this very likely had nothing to do with the victim being a journalist.

oxjox,

Right. In a Philly at least, the vast majority of gun violence is targeted and personal. That’s why so much of it is mostly ignored.

oxjox,

Dude. The words you’re typing are grossly irrelevant to the story you’re commenting on. ___

oxjox,

Ok. Did you bother to read the article at all before contributing such a stupid comment? No, you did not.
Do better.

oxjox,

I would like you to explain how you typed those words in relation to this story.
This case involves what the police had indicated was likely a domestic dispute, in the victim’s home, possibly involving drugs.
You’re talking about uh, the police murdering the homeless? Seriously. How could you possibly make that connection?
I don’t know what you mean by “breaks in this case” when this was posted only 24 hours after the incident. Within 36 hours, the police had identified a suspect.

oxjox,

That’s called a conspiracy theory.

You have taken a handful of unrelated things and applied them to an entirely unrelated story. With this formula, you could conclude anything you wished to conclude and get people to believe you because people don’t give a shit about facts any more.

I would advise people, all people in general, to read some words about the thing they think they know something about, before they go about committing on such things and spreading misleading and false statements.

oxjox,

Gotcha. That makes sense that you let your fingers do the thinking for you. Anyone with half a brain would have a hard time putting down your words.

oxjox,

I’m the fuckhead and the guy blaming the cops for murder when there’s ample evidence pointing to a domestic drug related dispute and absolutely zero indication of any police involvement is totally fine?

Meanwhile, no one wanted to talk about the cop getting all charges dismissed for murdering Eddie Irizarry. They just wanted to talk about the kids stealing shit from the Apple Store.

This is the problem. No one cares about facts. Just their feelings. Even when they have absolutely no clue what it is they’re talking about.
Lying is cool now as long as it fits your narrative, right? Can’t allow people to live in the real world anymore because then you might find yourself misaligned with your political ideology.

oxjox,

Holy shit. You people are so incredibly out of touch with reality. It scares me.

Just because a story has some words that you associate with other entirely unrelated events does not mean you can reject the facts of the story to make your narrative fit. I genuinely do not understand this drive that people have to change reality to make them feel better.

Fuck - you think that because the city bombed a house forty years ago that police are raiding the homes of journalists and murdering them?? If that sounds like reality to you - PLEASE get off the internet.

I just wish people would stop with this bullshit. This world is crumbling because of the false narratives being floated to the top of internet chatter. Meanwhile, the everyday real stories happening to real people are being diluted and downplayed. People ARE dying. Police ARE murdering people. The evidence and reporting IS out there but it’s being ignored.

In the time people have spent commenting in this chat, you could have read the news and obtained something more than a headline about this event. Unless of course you don’t believe journalists and prefer your own narrative. I just wish people would fucking use the internet to read about things more than having to comment on headlines without knowing anything at all.

How fucking difficult is it to care enough to comment on a headline but not take three minutes to read the story? Why the fuck do people care about internet karma so much that conspiracies and jokes are more highly ranked than getting the facts straight about the murder of an innocent person?

oxjox,

I can not fucking believe you’re still going to “the police murdered him” after reading this article. You are choosing to reject the reality presented to you to fit a narrative that has nothing at all to do with this case. You’re horrible.

oxjox,

What facts are being rejected when making a quip about how it might’ve been police who killed him?

WHAT FACTS?? Okay. Now I know you’re just trolling. Fuck off.

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