drdeadringer

A social//religious group I am apart of has been using Jitsi for our virtual meetings in lieu of physically meeting in person. It is great and has been for months -- so much so that I forget if I've ever used Zoom.

If such an event has ruined your life, I wager that you have bigger or more systemic problems going on than not being able to buy a stick of butter from Cooper's Grocery on a particular day.

The capacity of being flexible is valuable. Yes, having the world in your pocket is valuable when something jumps up and goes "boo". However, most people should not need to Google-search "what do I do after 'boo'?" every single time.

> I've always been really interested in these far flung places

This is what keeps me interested in such things regarding the USPS and similar [0]. How are they fed? Funded? Staffed? Otherwise maintained with supplies e.g. mechanically, computationally, electronically, &c?

I do not think my reference video is so far fetched regarding such a question.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhRFaY8A9cA

Yes.

I have a few webcomic RSS feeds as well as an RSS feed for an IRL standup comic's schedule. I also have an RSS feed for a particular church's weekly service.

Podcast Addict works for more than just strictly pure straight-forward pure podcasts.

I have experienced "remote not done right". I routinely felt and was in reality disadvantaged in that situation.

I am currently [back into the] same industry during COVID and am splitting time between WFH and the [pretty much] deserted office. I do not feel disadvantaged in this current situation.

I can tell you that the manager and the team makes an incredible difference.

Yes, but when one is sick should sugary foods be on the top of the menu?

Granted everyone's different, but I'd rather soup than gummy bears if I'm unwell.

Podcast Addict, an app on my tablet and phone.

I use it to subscribe to several dozen podcasts, a few webcomics, and a comedian's tour schedule.

> Use a good travel agent

A part of me feels like "in the 21st century, why do I need a travel agent". Then again, maybe we all actually do need travel agents again.

And I suspect it's all for the same reason.

The elementary school was called "Mark’s Meadow Elementary School" in Amherst, MA.

UMASS Amherst, an "experimental" elementary school for phycological observation. It's now no longer in operation, but for decades it was an elementary school with an upper "secret" corridor with two-way mirrors overlooking each classroom. The understanding between UMASS and Amherst was "We let you use the elementary school, we let our psych students take a look" type of thing.

Each classroom had a row of two-way mirrors about 30 feet overhead [weird architecture, nature of the beast] so even physically it was out-sight and out-mind because "nobody looks up".

I'm turning 39 this year.

In the 1990s my immediate family would travel from MA to MI via Amtrak to visit grandparents. Travel time in each direction was measured in days. Later on we "upgraded" to planes which reduced travel time to hours within one day.

I miss the trains.

Nostalgia aside, diner car and all, I crave the rumble-tumble and the scenery and the idea of "cross country".

Tunnels.

Every day I commute into and out of work, I witness a random toddler jumping up and down or waving or waddle-running along the train because train.

I have an anniversary coming up in a few months. I and my partner are interested in celebrating by train.

> If you feel you are being watched, you change your behavior.

I feel like this has been known for a long time. For example: If you walk into a Kindergarten class and watch the children play, once they notice you watching them they change behavior away from "natural play" to "observed play". I believe Cory Doctorow made this observation a spell ago.

Edit: I'd like to add that one of my parents was a teacher in a school with two-way mirrors for observation. People could secretly observe a given class in session either for observing the teacher and//or observing the students live but without the "observer effect". The entire school building was designed for this purpose and whilst everyone knew it it appeared to work as intended. "Out of sight is out of mind" is real. Yes, this particular parent was on both sides of the glass.

I wanted to own a Videosphere, but then again I'm not everybody.

I was raised on re-runs of Dragnet, The Shadow, The Six Shooter, and The Whistler. Years later I got hands on X Minus One, CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, and others. For a spell there was the "modern era" 'Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theatre' too.

Great times. I revisit from time to time. Buy Blue Coal -- anthracite!

Perhaps some managers think they are a clever Cpt Kirk who's gotten wise to their Scotty's miracle-worker tactics, even though they're a manager with an honest Geordi La Forge.

No offence to Geordi La Forge.

That's pretty much everything. I feel like that's a cop-out. Just as you can't be neutral on a moving train, you can't manufacture anything that isn't carbon neutral. Something somewhere is going to do something bad to the environment. Where's the goal post and how fast is it moving?

I've read several SciFi books which incorporate this idea. The way I consider it, it's different flavors of humanity per given planetary environment.

"The tree is already dead. I'll take that one."

> We always used them as garbage can liners

I started doing this "before it was cool" back in the 1990s. I wasn't aware of other people doing it so I couldn't understand why they weren't. I learned since then and I still do it today. Why use something once when you can at least use it twice?

About 10 years ago I swung by their San Francisco office. They had an alcove set up with speakers to demonstrate what the clock might sound like. It was very Brian Eno, a la "Music For Airports" but like "Music For Time".

"No matter where you go, there you are."

The intent of telling me this when I was impressionable was the opposite of what I received. I understand that "you bring your problems with you", but at the time I received "don't bother travelling because it's the same shit in a different place". So I've not been the globe-trotter my sibling has been. Night and Day.

The only regret here is that the original intent got flipped from the giving to the receiving. Be careful.

I am reminded of the "Black Smoke" from various [cross-media] versions of "War Of The Worlds". Granted that an alien species may not fully want, need, or utilize native architecture but keeping such intact at least for initial reasons just after successful invasion has uses.

I use Linux Mint on all of my home computers. I personalize all of them to my needs and I do not find it hard or difficult or time-consuming. I find the installation process straight forward.

Perhaps however you have more intense personal customization needs than I.

I am aware of some porn actors promoting "Ethical Porn" whereas paying for porn promotes the creation of this ethical porn. For example, the porn star Jiz Lee has spoken out about it [1] and yes -- Jiz Lee is on OnlyFans.

That said, people will pay for what they want whilst others will pirate for their favorite given reason(s) be it porn, movies, books, audiobooks, &c. Similar for not contributing via Patreon; maybe they'd rather some ads and half the content to not spend a few bucks a month, for example.

Reasons abound.

[1] https://jizlee.com/ethical-porn-consumption-pay-for-porn-ant...

Back in the day I lived in Massachusetts and had cousins in Arizona. Every time they visited us they would laugh about two things, and one of them was daylight savings time.

I still mislike yawning "like a hippo" every spring as my 5th grade teacher wanted to publicly describe it, and here we are. I just want a good night's sleep.

> Not if it comes paired with legislation forcing employers to get on board on penalty of punitive damages being assessed against them.

> Been done before, can be done again.

I do not recall this, so to me this sounds like dreamscape idealism. I would like to be educated otherwise. Is this real? Is this actually possible in 2020 reality?

I too am confused about motive.

Timing aside, I myself would have to have Malicious Hate in my heart, or some ethical//moral equivalent in my brain, to do active big-cost "fire in the hole" damage on to a former employer.

About 5 years ago I had [contractor] job offers for Cisco and Google. I was negatively impressed about Cisco; I still don't see that changing any time soon.

I say this without rosy glasses about Google.

> The thing you're seeing with covid is that places are empty for the same reason they became empty, and the owners are speculating that demand will rebound in the future (e.g. once there is a vaccine) so they have no reason to sell for less today.

This partly explains why I saw -- with two temporary-by-design blips -- a particular downtown San Jose corner location empty for 10 years. Last I saw, they finally rented it out as an office, but that was just shy of Covid19.

Apparently a decade is the minimum for "wait for better demand" or they had//have pockets deep enough to play a long game.

I just don't understand how some people are happy with empty store-fronts. "I want the blightful eyesore, not the bustling tax money" doesn't make sense to me.

Where does the leached radiation go? What happens to the plant matter after the sunflowers die? Their seeds (and are the seeds viable?)?

I am curious.