“…_forever…”

“No way, man. We’re going to keep on rocking forever!”

This is a crime.

V-TECH toys. Noisy, annoying garbage that people love to gift to infants and toddlers.

After that it’s a toss up between a phone, tablet, or Chromebook.

I Am A Rock by Simon and Garfunkel

A winter's day  
In a deep and dark December

I am alone  
Gazing from my window to the streets below  
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow
I am a rock I am an island

I've built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship, friendship causes pain
It's laughter and it's loving I disdain
I am a rock I am an island

Don't talk of love
Well I've heard the word before
It's sleeping in my memory
I won't disturb the slumber of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried
I am a rock I am an island

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock I am an island

And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries

As far as dealing with reports and removing inappropriate content, it scales exponentially with the popularity of the community and the contentiousness of the topic. Most communities require little or no effort on this front. A community like [email protected] might get a couple reports per year as people argue about whether specific posts fit the genre. A larger community like [email protected] gets a few reports per month due to users bickering. Really big communities like [email protected] or [email protected] get targeted by trolls and spammers and are a daily chore.

You should look at the community modlogs for a few communities that are similar to the ones you want to start. That will give you a feel for how busy you may be.

The bigger burden is going to be keeping your new communities fresh with new posts. That work is much harder than moderation, in my experience. Look at [email protected]: it has 4.9k subscribers but most of the content comes from a single user with a passion for the topic. Same with [email protected] and many others.

Every kid in my high school knew the “half your age plus 7” rule for bounding age gaps:

Age of younger person in the relationship = (Age of older person in the relationship / 2) + 7

So if you are 30 then you can date from 22 to 46. Science!

Though, really, beyond your mid-20s I think you can date as old as you like. As long as everyone is consenting, open, and honest, then have fun.

[email protected]

Though it has been dead for two years. Maybe you can be the person to start posting and bring it back to life.

When making small talk, ask for opinions farther down someone’s list. Like, “What was the third best trip you ever took?” It catches people off guard in a good way, and garners better answers than asking for their top choice.

You can do it the other way, too. Saying, “that was the fourth funniest thing I have ever seen” immediately prompts questions from your audience. Just be ready with a good follow-up story if you try this.

Another option is to learn little party tricks that don’t require much talking. Learn to fold simple origami, or some coin tricks, or whatever. When you’re with a group of people and you don’t know what to add to the conversation, you quietly do your thing until someone notices. Suddenly a banal moment becomes a memorable moment and you didn’t have to say anything.

Yep. Robert Putnam’s book “Bowling Alone” turns 25 this year, and it’s as relevant as ever.

It’s a publicly traded company, so no, this isn’t private equity bleeding a corpse. They seem to be trying to modernize and broaden their appeal to get out of an extended post-covid slump. Per Wikipedia:

In May 2024, Cracker Barrel revealed that 16% of their customer base had not returned since 2020.

That is an amazing little ad hoc study!

That’s Austin 3:16

It’s better, but still horrible in its own special way.

Black and gray flags are used by the US military on some uniforms. Civilians also sometimes display them as “no quarter” flags, meaning the person displaying the flag will show no mercy to any perceived enemies. For both of these reasons the right-wing nationalist crowd likes them.

iPhones are actually designed in the US. My point is that the phrase is almost certainly a lie in this case.

Another commented mentioned this is from a US distributor that repackages Baofeng products.

But to be honest, there are so many Baofeng/BTech radios for sale on the internet I was never confident about which were legit and which were knock-offs. I just went for it and hoped for the best. They seem to work fine, at least so far.

Yeah. I have seen the monochromatic flag referred to as a “no quarter” flag, and initially wondered if that was the intent. Or maybe they just wanted to minimize colors to reduce printing costs.

That’s really interesting! I had no idea, but I am not surprised.

It depends what you are selling. It has to be an item valuable enough to make the shipping hassle and seller’s fees worthwhile. Search for the thing you want to sell, and then hit the Completed Listings filter. That will show you what it has been selling for. I generally do not bother selling anything that will go for less than $30 or so.

I use eBay to buy/sell used bicycle parts and miscellaneous outdoor gear. Also sometimes used clothing if it’s niche or higher-end. Getting screwed by other users is very rare in my experience.

Craigslist is still sometimes useful, though it isn’t active like it used to be. It’s best for things you just want gone: post them in the free section and leave them out on the curb.