Chat

Good morning Beehaw it is currently 5:30 am in the morning here in Australia Nov 9 2024.
It may not be morning where you are but it is always morning somewhere on Earth. Plus this chat is more of a vibe. Have you been doing any hobbies lately or discovered a new tv show? Maybe you worked on something and want to share it or you recently found something you are passionate about?

I saw someone talking about this online recently and I wanted to bring the discussion here too.

Libraries can be supported by a number of means including website traffic, social media likes, newsletter sign-ups, visiting events/ programs, and, of course, checking out books.

I have had a long history with my local library and it blows my mind, sometimes, the services they offer that people don't know about.

When I was a kid, I largely got into reading because of a monthly book club our library ran. Before that, I had never enjoyed reading books outside of a select few series because I wasn't encountering books that spoke to me; but the librarian that ran the program was very savvy and picked great books that children could enjoy. To this day, I am still grateful for that program.

They also have programs aimed at adults that can range anywhere from book clubs to classes, and even very interesting author talks from time to time.

You can also borrow all sorts of exciting media aside from books. You can rent movies/ TV shows, music, and even video games these days. This is really fantastic for movies/ games that you think you'll only want to enjoy once or twice and don't need to own. It's also worth noting that your library can have some pretty rare media that can be hard to find online or in stores.

Additionally, your library can sometimes have large niche equipment on hand for you to use too. I've seen some libraries with 3D printers and some with projectors you can borrow. A lot of time you only need to use these large appliances once or twice a year. In cases like this, it is much better to borrow from your local library.

Finally, your local library can just be a fantastic third space. When I was a kid, the library was a great place to meet up to work on class projects, not just because they had lots of information on hand and a Wi-Fi connection; but because they had all sorts of places you could set up and work. There were conference rooms, tables, benches, and even armchairs for reading (though those weren't very useful for group projects).

If you haven't visited your library recently, I highly recommend checking it out. It may have more to offer than you remember.

If you are interested, I have also included the original skeet that inspired me to make this post here.

I was trying to think about why today has significance, and then it hit. History may not repeat, but it rhymes.

Today, U.S. voters determine the future direction of the entire world. We shouldn't have this power, but that is irrelevant. Do we explore the world of authoritarianism, with major powers all falling under despots, or do we stand alone?

There is no way to overstate the stakes here. This is not hyperbole; this is simply the truth.

There's only one thing you can do. This election is not about you (though you count); it is about what we leave to posterity. An unlivable world? Permanent oligarchy? For those with kids or those who want them, do you want them to grow up with clean air and water?

And do not do this third-party shit. We got Bush instead of Gore because of 700 votes for Nader in Florida. Harris isn't perfect, but don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump unless you're in a ranked-choice locale.

Yes, we have a broken system, but now is not the time to lament it by further fucking things up. We can eventually have that conversation as a nation, but in the '90s, when I lived in Germany, it was still considered gauche to be proud to be German. Is that the 50 years you want going forward here?

I tried /r/suicidewatch on that other site, but even though I made it clear that I was looking for advice and encouragement, the only two replies I got were in agreement that it doesn't get better. 😐 /r/depression is even worse by the look of it.

Does anyone know of any good websites, or is it the nature of all of them that they just turn into a crabs-in-the-bucket nightmare? I'm trying to get better but it also gets isolating pretending I'm not depressed all the time.

Or, if you are proud of your costume, what did you dress as?

it's been a busy week and i'm munching on a burrito

@chat I just want to ask you guys if you have any input on how the decentralization of Mastodon has ever posed benefits/drawbacks for you? I'm really interested in exploring the site and would love any feedback!

just got my ballot in (and it's been counted)--vote early and often folks

To give you an idea of the type of content that I like to watch, here are some of my favorite channels:

• Abel & Victoria
• Peter Santenello
• Xander Budnick
• Baumgartner Restoration
• Drew Builds Stuff

Thanks.

Just did a rewatch. Absolutely everyone is exactly who they need to be for the story to make sense. I've been aware awhile that Billy Crystal basically ad-libbed for several years, but everyone else, well, they needed to be there.

I first watched it on a TV rolled out in ... what, 1987? I was at choir camp and thought it was on the level of "Mary Poppins" with it being years old. To learn that it had just come out was surprising.

And of course, that made "House of Cards" far more interesting to watch. Robin (I'm intentionally skipping her last name here, as it could be misconstrued) being just as shifty as Spacey has pretty amazing, and knowing she's had that range as opposed to Cary Elwes who plays the same guy every time has been fun to watch.

things are going pretty good. just published my latest blog post; i might toss it over here as its own post later today, who knows

watching the unbelievable development of Hurricane Milton, which 24 hours ago was about a Category 1 hurricane and is now a Category 5 hurricane (as a of a few minutes before writing). if you're in the Tampa Bay area and you're near sea level i'd probably get the hell out right about now

I'm 30 and horrible at keeping friends. I don't know if it's the unschooling or the autism, but I'm told I come across as hostile when I think I'm being nice.

I know the basics. I make eye contact but not too much, I ask people about themselves and their interests to show I'm interested, I don't dominate conversations with myself and my own interests. I try to be a nice person people might want to keep around, too— I give money when someone's in a pinch, I remember birthdays, I help move, et cetera.

Eventually people either people tell me I'm being a dick in ways I never realized, or more likely, they just eventually stop messaging me back.

The one thing I'm sure I struggle with is body language. I've read a lot that you need to mirror the other person's body language, but I don't know how to do that. Especially since I normally meet people at work and we're usually pushing big carts around and moving products and I'm just not thinking about my body as something expressive, just practical.

I'm sure I have many more blind spots that I'm not even aware of.

So like... are there classes for this? Some kind of specialized therapy? I don't really want to try anymore unless I can stop being a dick

i am working with people to co-launch a new social media platform and that launch happens tomorrow so we've been putting the finishing touches on it all week and it's been incredibly busy. hopefully it will not be starting tomorrow-ish

When faced with a future for children that is less than ideal, not having them makes a lot of sense. And yet it's viewed as somehow sacrosanct.

"Stop killing our children"? Why would you have them in the first place when they aren't likely to have an enjoyable life?

Having kids is not a need, and it certainly isn't some odd "that's what organisms do" thing even more insulting than suggesting that's what people do.

Bluntly: Kids you don't have can't die. The easiest way to ensure your kids don't have bad outcomes is not having them.

Don't have kids in a world that doesn't want them. That's true in Palestine, the U.S., and literally everywhere else.

just finished my 43rd book of the year; currently helping administer an idea for a confederation of websites and we just got our Loomio set up

i'm back after an absence; i've been working on a bunch of stuff because Cohost is shutting down at the end of the month.

the result: i have a website now, and i'm porting over my essays and running my union blog out of that. i have an RSS feed that works for both, as far as i can tell. things seem like they're calming down now so hopefully i'll be able to be around more for the remainder of this month

Because the shops don't fucking sell them, and that makes me sad for some reason.

They're just on like Temu and shit like that, usually with weirdly small black panels.

I have only been browsing here occasionally so I am not sure what all the new things happening here are. I did notice kbin.run is down so I am not sure what is going on with that.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/27579423

This is my first try at creating a map of lemmy. I based it on the overlap of commentors that visited certain communities.

I only used communities that were on the top 35 active instances for the past month and limited the comments to go back to a maximum of August 1 2024 (sometimes shorter if I got an invalid response.)

I scaled it so it was based on percentage of comments made by a commentor in that community.

Here is the code for the crawler and data that was used to make the map:

https://codeberg.org/danterious/Lemmy_map

alt-text for thumbnail: The words: ““biological” sex is the gender binary” on a 2d digital art wooden background next to the non-binary flag

OR Another perspective on separating the art from the artist.

Story time. I needed a haircut and shop from the neighborhood is good enough for me. The guy that runs it always had a extreme way of thinking, bordering dangerous territory, but a nice person that argues using what they know and listens. Until today, when I realized he just needed to talk to someone much worse to bring out all the bigotry inside of him. So he’s transphobic, homophobic and doesn’t support neurodivergent diagnosis. He’s a feminist, which the other client wasn’t, so it was horribly funny watching him trying to convince someone that women weren’t better off dealing with reusable diapers. It was bad. I considered leaving, but staying was a last kindness to someone that never treated me poorly, but that I can’t support anymore. He even apologized for the conversation, certainly unaware that his other client wasn’t the most awful for me.

Lately, I have been torturing myself by following the allegations against Neil Gaiman. I honestly don’t know the reason I’m doing that, but I am. I was quick to drop him as a choice in entertainment, specially because the parts he corroborate are already bad enough. Then, as usual, there’s the argument of separating the art from the artist. I have my issues with that, but today I found a new point of view with my experience. (not really, but a new way to demonstrate it)

I needed a haircut. I just shave my head, so it’s quite simple. Doing it at home during the pandemic was bad. Finding someone else to do it at a reasonable price and be completely satisfied will take some tries, again. It doesn’t have to be him. There are options. The next one might be secretly worse, might be the same or, with all the luck, someone better. At the end of the day, I don’t want to ever have to sit and listen to that kind of conversation because it’s simply convenient and because my leaving will not change anything.

This is mostly me venting. It drained me more than I thought it would. I'll probably not answer any comment so soon. I don't have the strength to spellcheck what I just wrote to tell the truth.