A wide-mouth food thermos was a game changer. Insert pasta, salt & hot water, remember to stir once about 1-5 minutes in. Then depending on how close to about 20 minutes in you remember it, it will be more or less a disgusting overcooked mess, but there’s no risk of burning anything!

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Buffa and other comic opera. More dumb plots, less experimental music!

Question about autistic friends, how do they/you feel like when someone politely and moderately informed-ly disagrees with your take on the topic of choice?

Personally I love it when people question or even disagree with me, yay learning something new or a new perspective, but sometimes the intensity makes expressing disagreement or “uh, actually, that’s a common misconception but…” feel offensive. (Yes, I know more/different aspects of a niche interest than an autistic friend of mine who is also into it, I’m as shocked as you are.)

And then you get another Thought, try to hold on to both of them, and well, you know well that works.

Some reporting I read on it referred to

A Microsoft executive admitted under oath in a French Senate inquiry in July that it cannot guarantee data sovereignty to European customers due to the CLOUD Act. The US legislation allows authorities stateside to demand access to any data held by American companies anywhere in the world.

Which I’d hope is a big damn minus in any sovereignty considerations.

I desperately want to start actively practicing flute again. And to actually perform gong fu tea again and learn to make good tea with the method. Neither is boring, and great leaps of progress could be had with so little effort, but I’m just “done” with them.

Fuck. Mine is free to me through public healthcare because Nordics, yearly masks and so far one replacement included.

Have you looked into DIY versions (yes I know, project graveyard) or Chinese ones? Long ago before I had access to a “real” one, I got a BMC APAP w/ humidifier & oximeter (not needed for use) from Wish for maybe 350€, because the risk of toxic fumes felt worth it and it still works just fine, even if it smells plastic-y after non-use.

In a similar vein, fund a few events for local groups for the less well-to-do to go see a local band. Just get the money in circulation in a way that keeps it local, and does some good (for myself or others) without consuming too many natural respurces.

Agreed, that wasn’t my implication. I just didn’t know which to leave out. 😅 I like to think the less age-appropriate/more amusing aspect must be coming across a random middle-aged person that asks, wide-eyed and hesitant, “could I pet them?” while you’re just out for a walk. But it’s not like wouldn’t get my grubby hands on the doggo as soon as given permission, that’s the goal.

Asking strangers for permission to pet their dogs.

Petting strangers’ dogs.

I contacted the EU DMA team a while back. Part of the response:

We have taken note of your concerns and, while we cannot comment on ongoing dialogue with gatekeepers, these considerations will form part of our assessment of the justifications for the verification process provided by Google.

So at least some part of the bureaucracy are aware of it.

There will be a successor, there always is. And new high-resolution monochrome resin printers are more and more affordable all the time… Getting into resin printing is almost as tempting as my spouse’s “no” is firm.

Depending on how much time has passed, your old gear might have been outdated anyway, so many new shinies.

sighs at old semi-abandoned Ender3 v1 in need of tinkering

eyes all the new reasonably priced multi-filament or resin printers

I like it. I visit classical concerts more than pop ones, but there it definitely isn’t automatic, but a light-hearted “artist’s choice” response to a genuinely enthusiastic crowd after the approx. 3rd round of applause. Not a given. My favourite is still when the soloist did a jazz encore and the audience swapped from “no applause even between movements” classical mode to “applaud good solos” jazz mode.

If I buy it used, it means someone is willing to pay that much for a used one, it’s practically an investment!

Camellia sinensis comes in two major natural varieties, C. sinensis v. sinensis and C. sinensis v. assamica. Other natural varieties (that I didn’t even know about before looking into it just now) are v. pubilimba, v. dehungensis, and v. madoensis. The related species Camelliia taliensis is also used to make tea, especially pu-erh.

In addition to these natural varieties, there is a huge variety of cultivars. And the terroir makes a difference. But I think that tea drinkers by and large like their tea to taste like tea.

tl;dr Camellia sinensis has both natural and bred varietals.

I think my induction cooktop has over-temperature protection in case all the water had evaporated. Nothing for the oven though. I love the Instant Pot (probably other tabletop pressure cookers too) for the timers & “keep warm” function.

Strategy is phone alarms. When I remember.