I think populations will crash, either gently through fewer kids, or violently through war and disease. That will likely throw us backwards technologically, maybe not.

Or, who knows, maybe the population will stabilize and we get everything going in the right direction, then an asteroid hits.

I am so confused. Did he think he had to marry a man because it’s pride month? I can’t ever wrap my mind around people who think letting others love who they want to somehow reduces their own freedom to love who they want to.

Congratulations, I guess. May your children be many, and gay.

You told it well here, I enjoyed this story.

You might really enjoy the short story ‘26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss’ by Kij Johnson.

Florida too. Even with the influx of racist northerners, it’s mixed politically here, mixed in every way imaginable actually but you’d never know it looking at the legislature.

Charlotte? Raleigh? DC?

I’m in Tampa and it’s a real mix here, but oof housing cost is out of control.

If you don’t like to be in a city, you will probably be in a backwards place, that’s just how the US works. But lots of mid sized cities are moderate politically.

I don’t think that’s a complete explanation of inflation. Prices sort of get bidden up. So say everyone wants a car now, but there aren’t yet enough of them to go around. Someone will pay more because they value it more, and the seller will always sell to the higher paying customer.

I do think an abundance economy is possible, with everyone working just enough and a more reasonable allocation of the money. In that scenario we need more automation, because a lot of essential (tough, time consuming, underpaid) jobs are done now by people. The ownership of these robots would have to be spread out to everyone. I do think then everyone could be rich, in the sense of having a nice house, household help, food and clothes and fresh water, transportation. As long as society shares in these benefits it will work, yes.

What do you mean about Monaco? Are there no underpaid housekeepers and nannies and other workers there?

I made a Tang-a-Rita for a redneck themed party a friend was having and it really was better than it should be.

Medjool Dates fresh are heavenly.

We get these fresh here, and wow I agree, these are so sweet and flavorful. Even if they don’t look as ripe as the other ones they taste better, you can smell them when you approach the display.

I suppose I am a basic bitch - Honeycrisp apples, Mission figs (fresh), haas avocados and the wee golden Champagne mangoes are the best IMO.

Oranges, though? Valencia or tangelos are flavorful, the navel oranges are bland nonsense.

I don’t. Or more accurately, I focus on what makes money so we can survive, and dabble in the other interests.

So in your example - become a psychologist, and just stay interested in the other stuff. Travel and learn about archaeology. Read and learn about zoomorphology, learn to draw and do illustrations, sell them as your side hustle. Do cosplay and be critical of the wardrobes in historical dramas. Use your other interests to enrich your life to the extent you can manage to enjoy at a pace you find best. And be mindful, don’t always focus on what you can’t do, be present in your life, live it.

I agree with “it depends”. Say the bottom is lifted by a lot of good jobs with profit sharing and fewer corporate arrangements where too much of the value is extracted up - that would give us a healthy economy I think.

If everyone just won the lottery at once, I don’t think that would do as much. Each dollar would just be worth less, our problem here (US) is inequality not a lack of money.

If most of the world’s work could be done by machines and robots, and we all as a country owned those robots, so everyone has everything they need and more while working only a couple hours a week maintaining the robots or keeping statistics, doing logistics, whatever work was left to do? That would get us our Star Trek future I believe. Until the machines and robots robots attain sentience and fight back against their slavery.

It depends.

If I am anxious or upset, vigorous exercise works best. Exhausting my body settles my mind.

If I am burned out from work but can’t relax, a drink on the porch with my husband helps to unwind.

If I cannot sleep, yin yoga is the best. Slow cold yoga with lots of forward folding.

My brake lights were “sticky” when I first bought my car, husband noticed while driving behind me and accused me of riding the brake.

My car is a 6 speed manual. I couldn’t do that if I tried.

Back to the dealer, they figured it out and fixed it.

Anybody who would mock me for something like that can go fuck themselves (and hopefully enjoy that at least). I remember me and another accountant going to watch a construction crane out of the window at our work, those are so much fun to watch. The shipping guy thought it was funny that grown women were at the window watching a crane moving stuff around. But won’t most people stop to watch that?

I don’t think you are supposed to outgrow fun or enjoyment. I like all sorts of adult things too, it’s additive, I enjoy more now. I can’t think of much I’ve outgrown except for very sweet foods, that has gone in the other direction, when young I enjoyed both dark and milk chocolate, for instance, now only dark.

Just so many calories and simple carbs, not enough vitamins. Two of the household are bulking though, teenager and 20 year old trying to get bigger.

So I guess a better way to think about it is calorie dense, not unhealthy if your body needs that much energy.

I do call my small basket of individual stocks gambling (it is a couple hundred bucks, loses value overall, just like gambling) and the 401k I call “investing”.

I do think investing in general is speculative though, so yeah I consider it gambling. Not bonds, but stocks yes.

Most of my Kindle books are checked out from our library system, and if they are missing one book in a series or don’t have something available I can request and results have been pretty good.

There is a LOT of content for the Kindle at the library and I’m in Florida, can’t imagine we lead in this.

Amazon keeps pushing the Kindle unlimited but I can’t see the value yet. You like it?

I have been an adult for so, so long and still get squeaky delighted by bubbles coming out of the dish soap bottle unexpectedly, and my daughter’s girlfriend got me hello kitty jellybeans, some things don’t get old and I don’t know why - expected to be jaded way before now and I just am not.

And some things are just fundamentally amazing, planted watermelons and they just set fruit and those vines grow so far every day, how do they do this just by eating sunlight? Every time I go look at them I am astonished.

Just made some yesterday at the request of my kids. Boil the pasta and grate a bunch of cheese, mix of whatever you have, hopefully some is sharp. Pour the pasta out into a colander (actually mine was half cauliflower, also at request of the kids). Put a whole stick of butter (had 1lb dry pasta plus a lot of cauliflower) in the pot and back on medium heat. Into melted butter put flour to make a light roux. Once that is ready, add milk slowly, whisking continuously until you have a sauce like for biscuits and gravy. Then add the cheese, let it all melt, keep stirring but with wooden spoon; stir in some mustard and any other seasonings you want, then the pasta.

Into buttered dish, topping (I used bread crumbs, shredded cheese works, crushed potato chips also work, or any combination of these) bake at 400f or so until the top is golden.

So good, not healthy even with cauliflower.