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I grew up in California. It's a lovely state. It's also really loving expensive. I'm giving serious consideration to picking up and moving elsewhere once the pandemic is more or less under control (i.e. not imminently). The question is, where? I don't have a ton of experience with most of the country, so I'm hoping I can access the goon hivemind for some recommendations and things to consider. The main things I'm searching for / worried about :
(and if this is the wrong place to ask, sorry! Where ought I to go instead?)
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Feb 8, 2021 02:56
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 14:50 |
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ultrafilter posted:Close to stuff, in a blue or at least purplish state, and housing under $300k is a tough combination. How attached are you to that number? I'm still spitballing stuff at this stage, so that's not a hard limit. But of course the more I spend on the house the less I have for everything else in my life / my retirement. I've looked at e.g. Philadelphia and it seems like there's a fair number of options available there in under $300k. I've been to that city a few times for work trips, and it seems at least decent? Though staying in a hotel near the city center does not exactly give one a representative view of what the city's like. McCracAttack posted:If you can let this one go your options open WAY up. I've lived in the south my whole life just bouncing around cities and college towns. You get used to just kinda hating your elected representatives. Gives you and your friends something to bitch about. Also look at what happened in Georgia during the last election. The south isn't completely conservative, a lot of it is just suppressed. I don't contest this. I'm mostly just trying to manage my mental health as best I can. Given how poorly I coped during the last administration, I feel like living in a red state would be bad for me personally. I definitely need to very carefully curate what kinds of opinions I expose my brain to these days. quote:All that said, what's your work situation? My background is software, where practically everyone is remote these days. I have confidence that I'll be able to find work pretty much regardless of where I live. But as it happens, I've been working from home on an indie videogame. A big part of the reason to consider moving is that it greatly extends the amount of time I can afford to spend on silly projects like this. In any case, I won't do anything that puts my financial future in jeopardy.
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Feb 8, 2021 03:54
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Slimy Hog posted:Durango is an hour from Cortez so depending on what " I realized that that meant a 30+ minute drive to get to anything" means this may be a no-go. Yeah, that makes sense. But house prices in most of the SF Bay Area are over a million. I guess that after living here for a decade, I don't really have a sense of what "normal" prices are any more. I guess the question then is what I compromise on -- price, climate, distance to civilization, or politics? That's gonna be hard to answer. regulargonzalez posted:If you like Outdoorsy stuff, consider Cortez CO or Farmington NM. Farmington is bigger (50k) and cheaper ($200k for a nice house in a good neighborhood) but kind of trashier. Both are purplish but close to Durango which is pretty blue and a fun town. There's also all the hiking you could want, world class mountain biking, 90 minutes to Purgatory if you ski or snowboard, 3 hours to Moab. I appreciate these suggestions! Cortez is a little far-flung though. With a population of <10k I don't think it would really be a full-service city (at minimum it'd be missing cultural options). And the closest major city as far as I can tell is Albuquerque, which is 4 hours' drive away. Farmington is in considerably better shape (36min to downtown Minneapolis)...the main question there is whether I can hack the climate  I'll give it some considering.
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Feb 8, 2021 20:28
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Alterian posted:What thread should I ask in if I'm trying to find a game that I can't remember the name of? The Help Me Remember the Name of a Game thread, of course!
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Feb 8, 2021 20:53
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McCracAttack posted:Serious question, what's the worst case scenario if you move to say Austin, TX? What are you worried will happen if you move to a liberal city in a conservative state? Doing my best to keep this out of E/N and C-SPAM... It's not so much fear for my personal safety as it is existential dread, I think? I don't handle hostility well. Having leadership that overtly hates me and routinely attempts to suppress me and my friends is not good for my mental health. So my fear is that if I were to move to a state where the state government is Republican-dominated, I'd have similar issues as I had in the last four years. This is all supposition though. I can't know how I'd react without actually living there for awhile. ultrafilter posted:This is a good suggestion. I was also thinking about Columbus, Ohio but that might be too overcast to work. I've been looking at this climate comparison tool for a lot of locations. Where I live right now nominally gets ~250 sunny days/year, which is well above average. However, I know those statistics don't account for fog, because I've compared my microclimate to other nearby locations that don't get fog and they report similar numbers of sunny days. Meanwhile, where I am gets a lot of foggy days (probably 45-60 days per year?) that are effectively not sunny. So I'm not actually sure how much sun I need! What I do know I can't handle is long stretches of consistently un-sunny weather. Seattle gets a meager 152 sunny days per year (with minimal fog, as I recall), and they pretty much all come in one lump from late spring to end of summer. Columbus is better at 178, but still below the national average of 205...I don't know what the distribution is like though. EDIT: whoops, forgot to reply to these earlier: regulargonzalez posted:Wrong Farmington haha, I was talking about Farmington NM. So, my concern with small-town living is definitely in E/N territory, but suffice to say I'm in my late 30's and single. I don't want to limit my options any more than I have to, and I want to be able to have confidence that wherever I end up, I can form new social networks with the people there. The smaller the community, the greater the risk of not being able to find a group I mesh well with. dupersaurus posted:If you can hold your nose over red-state-trying-to-turn-purple, I'll go to bat for Raleigh-Durham. Two hours to the beach, three hours to the "mountains". Hipsters and liberals and the culture stuff that comes with them. Lots of tech. Our housing market's a bit stupid at the moment, but 300k is a pretty good budget. Thanks for the suggestion! I will give it serious consideration. TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 00:40 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 9, 2021 00:36
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God, joining this site is one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life. Y'all're amazing, thank you!Thanatosian posted:So, the Bay Area has some of the mildest, best weather in the country. It's one of the big reasons everyone wants to live there. You may think "I can deal with it being colder/hotter/more humid," but I would strongly, strongly recommend you rent wherever you move to for a year before you decide to buy a house there. This is fair feedback, and the advice to rent before buying is well-taken. One question: you say "the winters are cloudy as gently caress" -- is the implication that it's overcast pretty much every day for several months? I've experienced hot and muggy before, and while I won't say I enjoy it, I do feel like I can cope. For cold though, the worst winters I've experienced were Seattle winters though, which isn't setting a particularly high bar. "Cold enough for snow to stick around for several days" is about as bad as it got. Three layers, hat, gloves, and a scarf would do ya for keeping warm. I have a sibling (who also grew up in California) who lives in Philadelphia these days. It's clearly possible to make the transition. I haven't asked him if he'd rather he were back in California though. Slimy Hog posted:He ain't finding a home for 300k [in Denver]. There's a few on Redfin that scrape in under $300k. They're all either fixer-uppers or small (sub-800sqft), but neither of those is necessarily a dealbreaker. I mean, you presumably know more than I do since I'm just looking at a website. I do know that Boulder, CO is infamously one of the spillover places for tech yuppies fleeing the Bay Area and prices are silly high there. Thanatosian posted:Just one more thing that most people who live in the more habitation-friendly areas of the country don't realize: I'm not generally scared of manual labor, though it being mandatory manual labor does make it rather less fun. I'd need to learn to drive in the snow of course. It's kind of weird to think about driving as an issue, given that these days I'm doing like 15 miles per week, tops. CrazySalamander posted:The thing to take into account is that each of these is going to have an affect on your mental state. Finances are quite literally life in the US because we don't have a sane healthcare system and because Obama stepped in to make sure Bernie got the boot in the primary, we're not likely to see a sane healthcare system for decades at minimum. This means that even considering only potential healthcare stress, high cash price is, well, a high price to pay mentally. Thanks for these well-reasoned thoughts. I think I generally agree with the thrust of your arguments. Regarding sleep hygiene: I've made this a priority for pretty much my entire adult life. These days I'm in bed by 10 and get up at 6 every day. I am staring at screens pretty much all day, but I use f.lux to regulate the color temperature of my screens so they don't interfere too much with my circadian rhythms. (incidentally, y'all should install f.lux, it makes a huge difference for me) Anyway, installing more lighting (especially full-specrum bulbs) to help counteract seasonal affective disorder is something I really should be doing more of anyway, regardless of where I am.
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Feb 9, 2021 02:36
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Thanatosian posted:So, I believe the areas around the great lakes are considerably more cloudy than the areas even a few miles inland, so my experience there is most likely coloring that. That being said, you should probably avoid anyplace known for "lake effect snow." 300k is a reference point, not a hard ceiling. I've been sticking to that number mostly because I've already run it through my budget calculations. Speaking of which: I should speak to a financial planner before actually taking any action. Good to know about lake effect; knowing that term will be helpful. Denver honestly looks pretty nice in terms of overall climate, aside from the minor detail of 60" of snow per year.
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Feb 9, 2021 03:14
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FCKGW posted:You can still find plenty of houses in CA, they're just all going to be inland. Places in the Inland Empire in SoCal, around Hemet and Yucca Valley are decent areas. Hot and dusty, but they have their own beauty. That is an excellent point. I spent four years in the SoCal desert for college. I can cope with 300 frickin' sunny days per year and it never raining. This kind of thing is why I'm asking these questions! I get wrapped up in my own brain and I need the outside perspectives and reality checks. Thank you!
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Feb 9, 2021 03:31
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Slimy Hog posted:The sun comes out and melts the snow so quickly that they don't really plow or use salt and instead rely on the sun to take care of the snow after it melts. I'm not entirely sure I can trust you, given your avatar Denver does sound pretty tempting though!
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Feb 9, 2021 05:01
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Beachcomber posted:Is there any way to make it so I get some kind of notification when a thread gets posted in? Bookmark the thread by clicking on the star in the dark blue bar at the top/bottom, then go to your user control panel and you'll get a sort of private "forum" that only has your bookmarked threads. That's as close as you can get, so far as I'm aware.
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Feb 11, 2021 23:25
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Set up a server that plays "guess the number" with clients. If they get the number right, they get awarded one of your pre-generated tokens, and have the responsibility themselves to keep track of it and keep it secret or not as they see fit. All you do is play the game and hand out tokens. (this does not resemble a "real" cryptocurrency but who gives a poo poo )
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Feb 12, 2021 01:29
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Beachcomber posted:Yeah, I basically need a bookmarks page for my 5 pages of bookmarks. Well, the other thing you can do is, on the control panel you can click the star again to change its color, so the really important threads you can make red or something so you notice them more easily. But you still gotta go to the control panel to see 'em. And if you bookmark a lot of fast-moving threads, updates in slower ones might get pushed to the second page. 
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Feb 12, 2021 03:41
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BonHair posted:If it's on your phone, maybe try asking in the awful app thread? They might be able/willing to add such a feature. quote:Awful App updates (I would 100% not put it past them to do this)
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Feb 12, 2021 19:36
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FreshFeesh posted:There is no place in the universe that is absolute zero I can certainly believe that it'd be impossible to measure something as being at absolute zero, because the act of measuring it would necessarily impart energy to it, but does physics require that every particle have some nonzero amount of energy?
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Feb 15, 2021 23:26
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Boba Pearl posted:I use 3D models a lot as references when I do digital art, mostly because you can put in artificial light sources and pose them almost anyway you see fit. A lot of these models are absolutely way too big for my use, what would be a good, easy, quick 3D modeling program that I could use to scale down / optimize digital models easily? The more formats it supports the better, and if it can export from unity prefab files, that would be even better! Are you looking to change the scale of the model, or reduce its detail? Unity can change object scale by using the Transform component on the prefab, but it can't change poly count. If you can get the model into Blender, it has a Decimate modifier that removes polys while keeping the same overall shape; Blender can then export to the FBX format which Unity can read. But it's a little fiddly in my experience to get the settings right, since Blender, Unity, and the FBX format have differing ideas over what object scale is, which axis is up, etc.
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Feb 16, 2021 16:10
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You can also just do a maps search for "Oregon mountains", there's a fair amount of labels on there.
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Feb 18, 2021 21:06
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I'm still here. And I don't think most people could have predicted this sequence of events  No need to apologize. I recommend donating to one of the relief organizations, though, if you haven't already.
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Feb 21, 2021 21:15
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Fruits of the sea posted:Somebody who actually has experience with welding could explain it better, but most welding uses "flux", which is basically a stick of metal to help bind the melted metal and protect the join from stuff infiltrating or oxidization. IIRC some kinds of arc welding don't use flux though. Flux is a liquid that covers the joint and keeps it from oxidizing. The additional metal is called filler, if I recall correctly.
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Feb 23, 2021 15:42
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Following on from prior "I want to leave California" chat, does anyone here live in Colorado Springs? It seems to be marginally more affordable than Denver, and still has a decently large population (400k people, per Google). By a similar token, there's got to be other large-but-not-the-biggest cities in good parts of the country that I could add to my list of places to investigate. Motronic posted:Where things get actually weird is when you're trying to stick two dissimilar metals together. That's usually TIG welding, but sometimes it's done using explosives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explosion_welding Do you know if friction welding is ever used in the field? I can't imagine the kind of tools you'd need to achieve that outside of a shop.
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Feb 23, 2021 22:39
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greazeball posted:I think it rather violates some of the criteria you mentioned before: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/28/colorado-springs-a-playground-for-pro-life-pro-gun-evangelical-christians Platystemon posted:If you’re seriously considering Colorado Springs, go ask about it in the Internet VFW because that’s where the USAF academy is and a number of regulars have lived there. It’s full of evangelical Christians who crave access to America’s doomsday devices, apparently. Yikes, okay, forget that then. Thanks for the reality check. Regarding Taos: skiing isn't much of a draw for me any more since my back decided to poo poo itself. I do still enjoy hiking in the mountains though. Whether that's worth living in a desert is ??? TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Feb 24, 2021 |
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Feb 24, 2021 15:41
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BonHair posted:Realistically, you just use orcs and dragons though, since anything that involves moving vertically is hard to do with minis. One of the nice things about roll20 is that you have 3 meters you can attach to every unit, which is more than you usually need. So it's not too hard to repurpose one as an altitude meter. My DM did that in our last session when we were fighting a beholder. We still had to do Pythagoras to get the range to target, mind you. But that's not too bad, since you can use the ingame ruler to get the horizontal distance.
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Feb 25, 2021 22:01
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Right, yes, I can see how that could be confusing. Whoops!
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Feb 26, 2021 00:35
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ultrafilter posted:That'd likely fall into Business, Finance & Careers. In particular, you prrrrobably want the BFC Newbies Thread, which has some good flowcharts for helping people get a handle on their finances.
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Feb 26, 2021 18:55
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Biowarfare posted:Stupid question: how expensive is it to get a tabletop small Freestyle-like soda dispenser at home? I can't imagine it'd be cheaper than a Sodastream or similar. Also be aware that soda fountains are mold/germ factories, what with all the sugar and water. They need to be cleaned regularly and are generally a hygiene nightmare.
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Feb 28, 2021 05:11
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Sodastreams don't have nearly as much need for cleaning because they dispense seltzer water into bottles that have had sugar syrup put in them, instead of dispensing sugary water into cups. With a soda fountain, pretty much everything that can get water in it (so, the nozzles, the pipes, and probably some bits upstream of there as well) will get moldy and nasty. With a Sodastream, it's mostly just the bottles, and those are easy to wash. I guess what I'm saying is, buy a second Sodastream (or just get more bottles)
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Feb 28, 2021 06:06
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SA-Mart occasionally has people selling games, though your selection is gonna be kind of limited.
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Mar 6, 2021 18:43
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I need to get a printer, for like 4-10 jobs per year or so. I don't want to deal with worrying about ink drying out, so I'm guessing a laser printer is the way to go here? Any specific model recommendations?
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Mar 7, 2021 01:43
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Trapick posted:Yes, I will 2nd this recommendation. Cheap Brother B&W laser is the way to go, it prints fine and I never have to troubleshoot it, the highest praise possible for a printer. This is exactly what I'm looking for, thank you! Big Bad Beetleborg posted:DCP 1610-W is similarly cheap but you can also scan the thing you had to print and sign. If I need to scan stuff I have an app on my phone. Thanks for the recommendation though!
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Mar 7, 2021 02:40
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My understanding is that it's mostly a fashion thing. That is, most people don't feel particularly strongly about the color of their car, and it's cheaper for manufacturers to offer fewer colors, so neutral/muted colors predominate. If you really want something different, you get it as an aftermarket modification.
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Mar 13, 2021 00:42
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Grouchio posted:My mom wants me to invest into a 529A Account on account of my qualifications for it (autism). Is this wise? I'm not familiar with this account type, but a quick googling turned up this page, and particularly this quote: "Money can be withdrawn tax-free when the funds are used to pay for qualified disability expenses." It sounds like the utility of such an account is going to depend heavily on how much you anticipate spending on disability-related expenses. That's not something I can judge for you. In general though, go ask the BFC Newbies Thread if you want investment advice.
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Mar 14, 2021 18:54
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When composing a new post, you can scroll down to find the thread, and there's a button to add a quoted post to the post you're composing.
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Mar 17, 2021 14:43
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I read an article once about putting a "display" on the tongue which was good enough to allow blinded people to navigate around basic obstacles. The problem with fingers is that they're too small to fit enough pixels in for a useful display. The tongue is larger and also sensitive enough.
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Mar 19, 2021 14:50
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FCKGW posted:Why does wind vary in speeds, like gusts and stuff? If you stand near a riverbank all the water will flow at the same rate from the point of where you are, but something like wind will blow at different speeds.Why isn’t it constant? I don’t understand it. Take some heart in the fact that the physics of fluids is extremely complicated and expensive to simulate. Weather is fundamentally chaotic, meaning that a small change in the system can have drastic changes in observed behaviors later on in time.
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Mar 20, 2021 03:45
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If I'm reading the question, it's more like how you can buy items that are labeled with the country of origin as a sign of quality. What things in non-American markets are labeled as "American <whatever>" to signify to their audience that this is the quality stuff? In other words, it's a question about marketing moreso than about objective quality, though the two might overlap.
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Mar 21, 2021 19:50
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I'm not a moderator, but these really feel like C-SPAM questions to me. There's a reason why we sequester politics talk to one specific subforum.
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Apr 5, 2021 17:37
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StrixNebulosa posted:Wouldn’t it be better to send them to D&D? I thought CSPAM was for shitposting about politics Uhhh, could be, I stay out of both of those anyways
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Apr 5, 2021 19:06
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NotNut posted:Is there a way to compost food that includes meat and grease without animals getting to it? Protect the compost enough that animals can't get in? You could get one of those rotating-barrel composters, which is a big sealed metal cylinder, on legs, and with a handle so you can spin it.
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Apr 11, 2021 17:54
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If you can, wash the pan right after emptying it of food, when it's still warm and food isn't stuck on. Just be careful not to scald yourself.
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Apr 12, 2021 23:37
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Septic Knothead posted:I am looking for help identifying an 80s arcade game based on my memory of it. Poking around in the Games forum is a bit daunting. Is there a classic arcade games thread? You want this thread.
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Apr 17, 2021 23:34
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I have a weird compulsion to watch the needle go in, and even then the Pfizer shot was over so quickly that I thought I'd missed it. That doesn't really help the OP though. Needle phobia is real in the only real way that matters: it affects your emotions / mental state. I'm sorry you're having trouble. But getting the vaccine is 100% the right thing to do. I hope you're able to get it in a supportive environment. I guarantee that the nurses who are administering the shots have dealt with phobic patients / patients with vasovagal responses before. They'll much rather know ahead of time than be surprised when the needle gets close.
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Apr 21, 2021 03:52
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