Beyond calls and texts I’m very selective with my YouTube “bell” subscriptions so I allow notifications there as I generally want to watch them.

Calendar. Banking apps. That’s it.

All notifications are silent and have been forever. If it’s important someone will call me, otherwise I don’t want my phone to interrupt what I’m doing.

If you don’t mind me asking, how often did politics come up with your parents?

Edit: just for my own perspective, they came up a little with my father while he was still alive and very, very rarely with my mother who I still see daily. I gently gauge the political position that my kids have but I’ve raised them all with empathy as a central tenet of their upbringing so that’s more or less where they tend to fall as best I can tell.

I am not interested in ending up where you did and I mean that with kindness.

Doing something like that late on Friday is a deliberate tactic. It’s to avoid news cycles and / or fuck with the persons weekend.

I can’t emphasise how badly you need to travel. I’m old and very well travelled, much of it for work, like easily 20 countries all across the globe and it has been a huge eye opener to experience different cultures, foods, make friends with fellow travellers, locals and has broadened my horizons on so many fronts.

Yes it can be expensive but it is something you will never regret if you can scramble the money together for it. Embrace it. Deeply.

If you’re in North America you can experience lots of cultures and experiences like the national parks in the US very reasonably. I’m guessing you’re not in Europe because travel is cheap AF here.

I honestly think it will bring down many of the current barriers you express.

I can think myself into immediately stopping hiccups.

I can also puke on demand.

Hahaha. I’m laughing here because immediately after posting I was like “shit… I’m going to be asked for that recipe” and it’s really late here but I’ll tell you what…I’ll fling it up tomorrow.

The whole thing takes me a few hours and it’s quite involved but I get two dinners out of it for 7 humans when you include the lady across the street so it’s worth the effort.

I have an example and a suggestion.

There’s an old lady living across the street from us. We’ve been living here for twenty years and her partner passed away there about two years ago. I want her to not feel alone and I know she really loves my beef stew (I honestly make a savage beef stew) so when I make some I get one of our kids (who she knows since they were born) to drop some over to her. She always drops back the bowl with like some fruit in it. I considered saying not to but I actually feel like she likes the reciprocity. Anyway if you get a nice smell coming from that lady’s place some day, drop that in to the conversation. She’ll remember and you’ll get some great food then there’s balance.

Another way is for it to “just happen” in a silent way. Just say nothing after you’ve done it and gently refuse payment but put the kindness on her.

“Oh no, I’m happy to do it. You’re very kind to offer but I absolutely couldn’t. Thank you though. You’re very kind.”

That way she won’t feel indebted.

I say it as two syllables: cray-on.

I have never heard it pronounced any other way. Not American though (and I suppose you may not be either!).

Haha. They’re bouncier than they look. There was a huge craze of them in the late 80s where I live. People definitely lost teeth.

5000 consecutive bounces on a lolo ball (aka pogo bal)

*screeching Irish noises*

If a child gives you anything, anything at all, blade of grass, shell at the seaside, whatever - take it with real, heartfelt thanks. It is all they have to give.

There are about two people on here who wouldn’t say “fuck Henry Kissinger”.

What a massive load of shite. The fucking smell of boot polish off your breath is disgusting.

Jog on.

Yep. ’ is common for feet and " for inches so 6’3" would be 6 foot, 3 inches.

Jesus that’s terrifying.

You know, this is so blindingly obvious I never thought of it. Haha! Great idea.

edit: I actually can’t believe I didn’t think of this. Chuckling away to myself here.

edit 2: I looked up the opticians I bought from and they have a page about scratches that says they can’t unfortunately. :( It recommends new lenses. Not sure if that’s profit motive or not though.

Car charger that does the OnePlus specific fast charge thing. Cost me $12 delivered on AliExpress. Adds about 2% per minute to my phone battery. I love it so much.

It also has a second port which does “normal” fast charge for any passengers.

Nailed it.

Some days, I even think maybe I might be a good person too

You sound like a good person to me. That level of self reflection rarely / never leads to being a shithead in my experience.

Crazy story but a very interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

Oooh, Netherlands and Denmark both over 90% now. We’re movin’!