Andor, depending on whether you consider Jedi superheroes.

Pepridge Farm remembers

The original, excellent passage:

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.

Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.

But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

I used to make these all the time. Based mine off of some tacos from a now-closed Denver restaurant. Mine featured spiced ground beef, pepper jack, caramelized piña, diced avocado, black beans, and a light drizzle of habanero mayo. Dang, now I’m hungry.

Well dang. Gotta find something else then

I’m a fan of Private Internet Access. Not currently aware of reasons not to use it.

There’s also couchsurfing.com or trustedhousesitters.com. We stayed in a place for a month for free and just had to take care of their cat and dog. It was a really good experience, and we’ve been doing it internationally off and on ever since to help mitigate rent.

The comments in here are largely centered around “How can I get out?” Or alternately “Getting out is not possible.”

I came across this post last year, and it gave me the kick in the pants to get out myself.

https://crazypeople.online/post/6720157

Been out of the states since January. I started in Portugal and I can confirm how relaxed it is there. I’m in Morocco now and have met the most kind and welcoming people I’ve ever known. Very relaxed here as well. I don’t currently have plans to return.

It may or may not be possible for you depending on your specific situation. If you are in the “How can I get out?” camp, I’d encourage you to think seriously about making it happen. Look at how you could radically change things. Sell everything, quit your job, and crash at a family member’s house. The barriers are likely lower than you imagine, and the upsides are dramatic.

5 minutes of meditation. It won’t solve the anxiety, but it will insert just enough perspective and space to help you recognize a couple things:

• you are not your anxiety, it’s more like weather that you’re experiencing.
• the things that you’re worried about may be real, but your experience of them is warped by the anxiety.

My therapist gave me a really helpful metaphor. Anxiety is kind of like putting your hand right in front of your face. It blocks everything else out. It’s all you can see. It’s all you can experience. While this isn’t the desired state, you also can’t get rid of your hand without losing a real part of yourself. So instead, what if you focus on inserting space. Move your hand further from your face, and it becomes an element of the environment. It’s a thing you can observe. It’s still real, and it’s still there, but it’s now more in perspective.

That’s what meditation, even 5 minutes, can do. It pushes your anxiety into perspective. It won’t get rid of it, but it will help you see it as an element rather than your entire experience.

Halfway through it starts hawking gold and subscriptions to Masterworks 😂

As with anything web design, we should think about context and nuance. Is this a web tool where the user needs to do work? Is it designed with small buttons (for function or aesthetics)?

If so, probably keep the default pointer. Though if it’s a splashy brand page with tiny buttons, I could imagine some other pointer styles that might be good.

Speaking of, is it something splashy and marketing heavy? Is it intended more as an experiment, experience, or intentional maximalist design?

If so, then I can see the argument. Accessibility still matters, though so implement graceful depredation so that folks who prefer motion effects disabled get a default pointer.

The answer is not “never change the pointer” but rather, “only break web standards if you have a good, well considered reason.”

I’m traveling through Portugal at the moment, and an Australian guy struck up a conversation with me on the train yesterday. He and I start talking politics, and he starts talking about how illegal immigration is a massive problem. He’s supportive of mass deportation, and generally likes how Trump is handling things. We debate this back and forth, and then move on to other subjects.

Later in the conversation he reveals, without a hint of irony, that his visa in Portugal has expired while waiting on residence paperwork. I just stare at him for a moment, and then ask him if he realized he was an illegal immigrant. He doesn’t really see the irony. Absolutely stunned.

“yeah, I just finished Infinite. It was pretty good, abrupt ending though. I hear Jest picks up right where it left off.”

As an American white dude traveling full time, I haven’t really gotten any of this yet personally. I have sat next to some really loud Americans and felt irritated at them, but the same goes for the British lady who walked into a cafe I was in and loudly insisted they make her a sandwich that wasn’t on the menu.

Most people are kind and curious. Those who aren’t, regardless of nationality, are the ones who irritate the locals.

Of course, the world is big and I obviously haven’t been everywhere. In each place I have been to, though, learning a few words and being extra polite goes a long way. Locals welcome you and return the curiosity and respect.

There’s actually a word for this!

Tmesis Tmesis is a rhetorical device where a word is split into two parts with another word inserted between them, often for emphasis or comic effect.

They don’t even post the bootlicker author’s info. Even if this was AI, a human still decided to publish this propaganda. It would be nice to have a public record for accountability.

“The impediment to action advances action. What’s in the way becomes the way.”

This is basically saying that anything that gets in the way of you solving a problem becomes the new problem to solve.

“The tool works at both ends.”

This is about skill building and practice. Making cool stuff improves you as a result.

Something I like about each is that they work in reverse. No impediment in your way? You’re probably not going to have very focused forward movement. No need to use tools (literally or metaphorically)? You won’t become more skilled.

Remember that buying things online always atomizes community. The less you know your local community, the harder it feels to go out and buy local and the more you crave the convenience of buying online. The more you buy online, the less you go out into your community.

Makes the title of this community sound like a desperate request

This is honestly pretty smart on the part of the fascists. A big portion of what is so effective about the resistance is that it’s founded on strong community action. Neighbors helping neighbors, because it’s the right thing to do.

Posing as a neighbor in need makes that act feel riskier. It changes the calculus, just a little, in favor of not helping your neighbor. They achieve their near term goal of getting their victim, but there’s an even more valuable (to them) effect of weakening community ties overall.

Time to double down on looking out for your neighbors.

EDIT: Looking out for them so you can help. In case that wasn’t clear.