@thelsim@sh.itjust.works
@thelsim@sh.itjust.works avatar

thelsim

@[email protected]

Scatterbrained and friendly optimist. Always happy to give my (unasked for) opinion :)

Pardon my rambling and broken English, I know I often sound like an alien trying to impersonate a human being.

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thelsim,
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I was on a high school trip to Poland in the 90’s. It was an eight day trip through the country, including a couple of days of kayaking. Our school was definitely on a tight budget to make this trip work, so we spend our nights in a bunch of cheap hotels and camping grounds.

One luxury that we were always missing out on was decent toilet paper. The only toilet paper supplied was this single ply stuff with the same texture as sanding paper. So when we were out for an evening in Warsaw I visited a five star hotel to enjoy some quality bathroom time. This was several days in and I really wanted to enjoy using a toilet in a heated and clean environment. And it was so nice! No smells, no cold drafts and the toilet paper! So soft! I was in heaven :)

As luck would have it, the bathroom stall had a whole stack of these magically soft toilet rolls. On an impulse I stuffed all of them (around six if I remember correctly) under my coat and smuggled them out of the hotel. Back at the camp I shared them with the rest of my classmates, bringing back a little bit of luxury in our dreary little place. Never been that popular in my life :)

thelsim,
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Aw, thank you! :)

thelsim,
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I’m going to assume that this is basically a question on what my favorite color is with extra steps :)

I’m also a big fan of purple! But if I had to choose, I’d go for instead:
royal purple
Royal purple

How often to you bail on a half-written post or response?

I have had a tendency since my earliest days on social media where I will get halfway or more through a response, and end up just cancelling it. Sometimes I feel like I’m just being to over the top with snark or otherwise don’t want to be that kind of person, but a lot of the time I’ll decide I just really don’t care...

thelsim,
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I know how you feel, I’ve had that same problem when I joined lemmy and really had to force myself to comment. But you know, I’ve told myself that in the end it’s more about just saying what comes to mind than worry if you’re really contributing to the conversation.
Even if it’s just agreeing with someone or just saying you like something, I prefer to write it out in a comment instead of clicking on some arrow. I like to think that whoever wrote the comment/post I replied to appreciates a personal response instead of an upvote. I know I do :)

thelsim,
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As @sparky678348 already so nicely said, I too would love to hear what you have to say. Whether it’s something profound, something nice, or just that you like or enjoy someone else’s comment/post.
It is always so nice to hear from someone else, so don’t put yourself down. Let yourself be heard and join the fun :)

thelsim, (edited )
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Please don’t say neither (that’s not an option)

Both?

Edit:
Ok, in all semi-seriousness, I like my hair and like to keep it. Sex is still fun without an orgasm.
I’m more of a giver than a taker anyway :)

How often do you use "AI" to reply to your messages, if at all?

The recent chat bot advances have pretty much changed my life. I used to get anxiety by receiving mails and IMs, sometimes even from friends. I lost friendships over not replying. My main issue being that I am sometimes get completely stuck in a loop of how to formulate things in the best way to the point of just abandoning the...

thelsim,
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First of all, I can really empathize with your anxieties. I’ve lost contact with a few penpals years ago because of similar issues and I still hate myself for it.
I don’t use chat-gpt for writing my replies, because my English is crap and my manner of writing distinct enough that any friend can immediately spot a real response from a generated one (not enough smileys for one :)
But I still have similar anxieties. So if I feel anxious about writing something, I do sometimes give a general description of the original mail (“A friend of mine wrote about her mother’s funeral”, “a family member lost his cat”, etc.) and give it the reply I’ve written so far (names and personal details removed).
I then explain that I feel anxious about my reply and worry if I hit the right tone. I never ask it to write for me, only to give critique where necessary and advice on how to improve (for good measure I always add some snide remarks on how it sounds too fake to ever pass as a human so don’t even bother trying, which it always takes in good humor because… well… AI :)
I ignore most of the suggestions because it sounds like a corporate HR communique. But, what’s more important is that it usually tries to tell me that I was thoughtful, considerate and that that little light-hearted joke at the end was just sweet enough to add a personal touch without coming across as insensitive.
Just to get some positive feedback, even from software that was designed specifically for that purpose, gives me that little push to hit the send button and hope for the best. I wouldn’t dare to ask someone else for advice because it would be an admission of how weak and insecure I feel about expressing myself in the first place, which would ramp up my anxiety by making it a ‘big thing’.

Anyway, I can understand the animosity people show against AI. And I’m happy for those who don’t need or want it.

PS: This reply was 100% written without any use of AI, direct or indirectly. I did spend a good half hour on it before feeling confident enough to hit “Post” :)

thelsim,
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Climbing things! Trees, walls, playground equipment. Just the idea of being able to get up there from here gets me excited. Same thing with tunnels and other out of the way places. I just love to explore places where I’m not supposed to be ever since I was little and I never really lost that.
Of course nowadays I can’t be seen climbing on someone’s roof or trying to scale a security fence without being seen as a trespasser. 😒

thelsim,
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Which kinds of Asian cakes? I’m mostly familiar with the Indonesian ones and cakes like kue lapis legit are anything but light and fluffy :)

thelsim, (edited )
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Doing some quick image searching… God, those do look delicious :)
Problem is, they’re hard to get around here. Specialty cafe’s here in Amsterdam are the closest for me to eat one, and that’s still quite a journey. Still, something to put on my to-do list next time I’m in the neighborhood!

Edit: spelling mistakes

thelsim,
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Netherlands, it’s small enough that I don’t need to include a city.

thelsim,
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I used to own a Kobo Aura One and was very happy with it, until the battery decided to balloon and it got destroyed.
I did a bit of research for the replacement. Initially I was happy to go with another Kobo, but the Mozilla Privacy Not Included article about Kobo e-readers made me reconsider. It’s from 2021 so maybe by now they’ve changed their policies but it prompted me to look a bit further.
In the end I bought a Pocketbook Verse Pro and I’m very happy with that one. It has a nice screen, is small and fast enough and comes in pretty red (which is already covered up again with a protector :) It supports all the usual formats and that’s about all I really need from it.
Pocketbook is a Swiss company, so I’m not sure if you can get them easily in the US.

thelsim,
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That’s true, and I’m not saying that Kobo is a bad buy or anything. For me the reasoning was that if there’s another company that has a better privacy policy and delivers a similar or better product. Then I prefer to choose the other one on principle.

thelsim,
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Those look really comfy :)

thelsim,
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If the moon were only one pixel
An accurate presentation of the solar system where the size of the moon is a single pixel. It really makes you realize how big and empty our solar system is. (Be prepared for a lot of scrolling)

thelsim,
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CYBERPUNK 2.0.2.0. - HEALTH
piped link

Something about the opening melody just keeps pulling me back for another listen.

thelsim,
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Collecting hobbies :)

thelsim,
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Never got myself tested but yes, most likely :)

thelsim,
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Not in the slightest since I’m still in bed, and not wearing any clothes.
A couple of hours later and I might’ve ended up naked in the middle of the street. In that case… scream and quickly stop before I draw too much attention. And then… run into a clothing store and quickly put something on. Oh, but first collect my bag so I can pay for the clothes. I… do get to keep my bag, right?

thelsim,
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Cinderella
Before anyone makes the obvious joke, it was a re-release! I’m not that old :)
It’s still a beautiful movie and I now regularly watch it with my daughter. It has beautiful art, cute animals and catchy songs. 🎶bippity boppity boo🎶
And that stepmother has one of the evilest smirks I’ve ever seen. No magic or anything and still one of the best Disney villains.
I think the only downside is the bland prince. He has about the same personality as a boiled potato.

I don’t remember how old I was when I watched it, but I was young enough to still be allowed to run through the theater.

thelsim,
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Well… I wouldn’t say dreaming as in “it’s a dream of mine”. But I have imagined myself from time to time to just drop everything on the spot and travel in one direction just to see where I end up.

thelsim,
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Oh I can relate with this. I’ve recently managed to stop (hopefully for good) for the silliest of reasons. I want nice long nails.
I know it sounds silly, but I’ve switched from biting my nails to running my finger tip along one of my nails instead. I admire how nice they feel and it somehow takes the biting impulse away.
One thing I do need to do is an almost daily filing to keep them completely smooth. I know that I’ll resume biting if I find an irregularity or a jagged edge.

thelsim, (edited )
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The https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Radetzky_March.ogg by Johann Strauss.
It’s used all over the place.

thelsim, (edited )
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Korean Yuja tea is really nice during cold winter months. It’s one of my favorite drinks when it’s cold. It’s sweet and it warms you right up. You can buy the marmalade at Asian grocery stores.

edit: It’s not really tea, but marmalade dissolved in hot water. Sweet, thick and heartwarming. Also the rinds are nice to chew on :)

thelsim,
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Sing to yourself. You can have a much wider vocal range with just a little bit of practice. It doesn’t have to be anything challenging, even a simple “row row row your boat” is already a nice exercise.
Personally I find it very soothing and it helps me focus when I’m doing something on my own. Plus I love how my voice can sound when I put in a little effort :)

thelsim,
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Both can be true at the same time :)

thelsim,
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So… being one of those spouses who uses wd40 on everything. Do you have link to some easily understandable info on when to use the right lubricant?

thelsim,
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I actually got advised by my doctor to use vegetable oil for my daughter’s clogged ear. A drop of oil and some massaging for 20 seconds three times a day did the the trick. Took a few days, but the clog was eventually dissolved.

thelsim,
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Thank you, I’ll try to remember this next time something squeaks around the house :)

thelsim,
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Thank you for that… thorough explanation. You really know your lubes :)

thelsim,
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This image I generated:
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/1709f668-99a1-4a7a-9f47-c1e3b80f61c0.png
Brightens my day when I log in for work :)

thelsim,
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I’ve never noticed this to be honest, and I’m a heavy, heavy emoji user. Though I prefer the old-fashioned emoji’s. I’d love to use ^_^ more, but the constant backslashes make my pinky hurt :)

Anyway, I like using emoji’s because I’m a happy person and want to share a friendly smile :)

thelsim,
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The best experiences I’ve had over here were those where I really connected with others. Being seen as not just another comment but as a real person is always a great experience.
Other positive experiences are when an entire community is completely invested in an idea. For example, a few weeks back we had this post over at the !imageai community where everyone was encouraged to generate an image based on their username. I loved the energy that it created, everyone was going all in! Some were asking for help and there was always someone around to help out. It had such a positive vibe, I really really loved it.

thelsim,
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Caves of Qud is something I love to relax with. It’s full of stuff to explore and you can take your time since its turn based. I don’t even mind so much when I die, because you get to create a completely new weird mutant and try again.

thelsim,
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Having played the evil path in Star Wars KOTOR… I’d have to say it’s me.

thelsim,
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When going on vacations abroad, we bring a power strip from home. With it, you’ll only need a single international converter to power multiple devices.

thelsim,
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How would that work? Instead of one foreign electrical outlet, I end up with six of them.

thelsim, (edited )
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They already made a mini series.
edit: spelling error because I don’t proofread :P

thelsim,
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Dreams where I’m someone completely different. Doesn’t matter which gender or whatever, just that I’m living a different life. I sometimes have dreams where I have a very consistent identity, like I know I am that person.
I don’t mean for this to sound depressing, my own life is fine. I just really like pretending to be different people :)

thelsim,
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Not the OP, but this is in Valkenburg, The Netherlands. In a cave attraction called Mergelrijk.

It’s quite fun, they had several more of them. I’d share photos but my kids are in all of them :)

thelsim,
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You’re welcome! :)

What are your criteria for upvoting/downvoting?

I hate that I always compare Lemmy to Reddit, but Reddit used to have (not sure if they still do) guidelines called “Reddiquette” that included guidelines about upvoting and downvoting. I don’t remember the specifics (and sending too much of my browser traffic to Reddit makes me feel dirty) but one of the guidelines was...

thelsim,
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If you reply to my comment or post, it’s an automatic upvote because I appreciate you for taking the time to interact with me and I will try to reply in return.
If a post or comment is funny, touching, interesting, heartfelt or anything else that makes me appreciate the time and effort you put into this, it’s an upvote.
If you’re only here to argue in bad faith, insult or belittle someone, it’s a downvote. If it’s with me, I will ignore you and not even downvote.

thelsim,
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Happy upvote and reply :)

thelsim,
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Always :)

thelsim,
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I’m so much more upbeat online than IRL :)
I like making people feel good so I use a lot more positivity and a lot less sarcasm in my language.

thelsim,
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Kapla!
http://papapositive.fr/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/kapla.jpg
Not my creation, just a random image I found :)

It’s mostly meant for my children, but I really enjoy building stuff with it when we’re playing together. It’s basically just wooden planks, but they’re very well proportioned and weighted. My favorite creation was a giant building balancing on only two planks.

thelsim,
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Ralph Vaughan Williams, his “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.
If anyone can recommend anything similar, I would love to hear from you :)

thelsim,
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If anything I feel less ashamed than when I was a teenager. I still love cute stuff, stupid humor and toys :)

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