Thankfully, there are some designs that improve on this! Here’s what’s in my kitchen:

The brand is OXO, for anyone curious.

The keyboard I’m currently using has a key in the F-row that’s tied to a lock screen. I accidentally hit it several times a day, and end up having to put in the passcode to unlock the computer every time.

I wish I could disable that stupid key. I’m tempted to pop it right out. But I use a shared computer, so I’m limited in options here.

But good news about crafters.

Time to double-down on making ironic kitsch that say violent things but in a cute, folksy way. Like a pretty sign with script letters and flowers adorning the edges, saying Deny, Defend, Depose instead of Live, Laugh, Love.

It’s either that, or walk around San Denis greeting everyone.

I’d really love to find a new radio for my car that: 1) can serve as a monitor for my back-up camera, and 2) isn’t a fucking touch screen.

There are models that are one or the other, but I haven’t found anything that’s both. The closest I’ve found is a compromise - a touchscreen that also has a few tactile controls. But I don’t want to have to rely on any touch screen when I’m driving. I simply don’t feel compelled enough to spend $400+ for a frustrating half-measure.

For Matrix “good security practices,” I assume both parties of the conversation need to follow them? I’ve already got a VPN, but I don’t think all of the people I want to communicate with have one.

16. Learn from peers in other countries. Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries.

On this note, I’m looking for a way to communicate with foreign (and local) friends that is relatively safe. So many people primarily use apps that I no longer trust, but I’m not sure what solution would be both safe and practical. Anyone have any suggestions?

Black bird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life, you were only waiting
For this moment to arise

Let us never forget the reason why Paul McCartney wrote the song Black Bird. He wanted to write a song that inspired hope for those involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

Just some trivia that came to mind, might be good to know…

Spiders are always welcome in my garden. They come with free pest control.

As far as ways to filter for such positions, maybe look for roles that require traveling? At the very least, you’d be in a different location throughout your week.

By this logic, the less predictable your daily life is, the more “alive” you are.

So for a lot of us, to be “alive” is to experience constant anxiety about what’s about to happen.

…

Actually, that tracks.

Some fools will reflexively downvote any time they see the word “vegan,” yet I wouldn’t be surprised if knowledge of egg alternatives ends up making a difference in times like these.

With agricultural workers being deported and tariffs increasing the price of food sourced from abroad, Americans are going to have to get creative and flexible with their food habits. We don’t know yet how our grocery store shelves will end up looking, but if someone needs a substitute for an ingredient in a recipe, chances are a group of people already avoids that ingredient and thus has the knowledge of how to work around it. They may be vegan, they may have food allergies, they may have religious restrictions, or they may simply dislike a particular ingredient. Regardless of their reasons, the point is they’ve already experimented with recipes to figure out what works, which means the rest of us don’t have to trial & error everything ourselves.

It’s also worth noting that at the time, Samaritans were seen as an enemy. “To the Jews, a Samaritan was more revolting than a Gentile (pagan); Samaritans were half-breeds who defiled the true religion.”

So when it was written that a good Samaritan was an example of a neighbor, it was more impactful than the phrase implies today. Part of the point was to say that even those perceived as “enemies” are ordinary people that should be treated with the same dignity and care given to one’s own tribe.

I hope it brings you joy to know that “dinosaur” kids are still memorizing these ever-growing lists. I work with kids, and the big dinosaur fan is still teaching me new dino things almost every day. We recently learned of a dinosaur that is basically another student’s name +saurus. That was a cute discovery.

Oven full of carbohydrates = good

Oven full of hydrocarbons = bad

trespassing?

This is why the last time I made a sign for a pro-choice event, I made it in the shape of a uterus with a warning sign inside it, saying, “NO TRESPASSING: Violators may be aborted.”

They value property rights, so it seems only fitting to frame access to our bodies by using their own arguments.

Autocorrected spelling helps with a lot, but it doesn’t help with run-on sentences that lack punctuation. Nobody’s expecting punctuation like an English teacher, but when you have to re-read a comment several times to make any sense of it, that’s simply poor communication.

tinfoil hair

Does that provide better coverage than a hat?

Social media rises and falls just like any other fad or fashion. It’s a never-ending churn, as people (particularly, young people) inevitably crave something novel. There’s little use in fighting the cycle, just as there’d be little use in fighting the trendy choices of a teenager.

It’s frustrating to watch people en masse continue to make choices that don’t make sense. It turns out that a lot of people are much more driven to follow the crowd than to have (let alone stand by) personal principles or rational decisions. Thankfully, we’re not obligated to be like that. There’s always some sort of counter-culture that bucks the main trends, and honestly? That’s where the most interesting people tend to be.

If you feel driven to educate people on the futility of trends, then by all means, go for it. I just know it can be draining, and not everyone is going to be receptive. On the plus side, you sound like a rational person who actually thinks about their decisions - in a world full of followers, that can be pretty powerful.

Good, I’m glad for him. With the upcoming tariffs/trade war coming our way, I can only imagine how much higher the cost of living in Hawaii is about to get.