Casual Conversation

There's something good in every week even if we have to look for it! What's made you smile or laugh this week?

I feel so strange just reading about the tech that has been invented, the human brain that was evolved... Like... a bunch of atoms floating in space (Earth is in space technically), being self-aware of its configuration in this vast and magnificient universe. So... strange...

Like a sort of "out of body experience", metaphorically speaking.

Now these weird creatures have magic pocket glass that can talk to another weird creature using radiation and electrons. And also built machines that can observe other planets. Transported a human to another celestial body (moon landing).

(Also I love how the wikipedia article was written in 3rd person, as if the writers themselves arent human lol)

I think I might be having another existential crisis again. 🫠

Sorry if I'm being weird

wasn't sure where else to put this, since, while chronic, this definitely doesn't qualify for /c/chronicillness LOL (idk how to link communities sorry)

(post tone: lightly frustrated, somewhat comedic description of problems and viewpoints; i swear a lot in my normal speech, but i'm not pissed or anything)

i've been dealing with nasal/sinus issues for over a decade: i've had a couple surgeries for it, i'm currently doing braces, which is fixing the underbite situation and helps with nasal drainage, and i'm on a good amount of allergy meds to mitigate the situation

the doc i had ten years ago and the doc i just saw today told me the same thing: rinse my nose with saline twice a day

now, if i was willing to do that, i wouldn't be seeing a doctor. i know that i can simply waterboard myself persistently enough and the problem will go away

my issue is that i need to flush my sinuses at all to be a functional person (thankfully, on the current routine, it's maybe a few times a week, vs twice a day)

i should have talked about this in more detail with the doc, and i'll see him again after some allergy testing and talk about it more then (i needed a minute to compose myself 💀); but i mostly wanted to get a survey of other folks with these issues: do y'all just fuckin live with rinsing your nose out twice a day?? i been doing it for a decade, i know how to do it correctly, i just HATE DOING IT, i cannot imagine doing it 2x a day willingly

(if you're wondering what part of the process i hate, it's all of it; having to bank distilled water, dealing with either cold water in your congested nose (shitty) or having to heat up the water to the right temp to be warm but also not burn the shit out of your nasal passages (pain in the ass), and then having to clean a shitload of salt water out of your face because why the fuck would it drain out cleanly)

Unexpectedly and loud, money wise or emotionally, bang bang went its little fists?

How are you all doing? Anything fun with your kids if you have any?

If you are born in a small country, you're stuck in a small geographic area out of a massive world. I mean sure you can travel, but its really hard to permanently move somewhere unless you have special skills or something.

If your country goes through autocratization, you kinda fucked.

I wish the future just have one "Worldwide Schengen".

I mean, right now we have: visas, passports, citizenships, like wtf. So tribalistic...

Today is my second cake day on lemmy!

There are exciting things on the horizon the rapid innovation of piefed, the addition of lemvotes, the amazing tesseract, the useful lemmy-federate, the comfort of voyager... lemmy has lots of promise.

Over these two years I've found some recurring characters here that I enjoy seeing, kinda a small town vibe - I like that.

This is a great place to be!

What do you like about lemmy?

• Manga is usually better than TV series, and TV series are usually better than movies
• Too many internal struggles that drag on and on
• Frequent flashbacks. Things that happened in the same episode they would have to remind you with flashbacks

Feel free to have a look at

!movies@piefed.social
!television@piefed.social
!animation@piefed.social

Could be any piece of trivia, scientific or historical fact, etc.

So back in highschool, the grade for 12th grade was based 100% on the mid and final exams. Homework didn't matter, quizzes didn't matter, projects didn't matter, participation in class didn't matter as far as grades go. You could of course still do these things and most people did care about them to practice but in the end it was all about the exam.

So I used to always take quizzes seriously as a chance to practice. I would note down my mistakes on my notebook IN ALL CAPS with red ink and a spiky border. Just so I don't make the same mistake again in the exam.

One day I made a mistake in a biology quiz because I confused heart pulse and blood pressure. That day I had cut myself and was bleeding. After writing the usual warning I looked at my hand and thought the blood matched the red ink really well...so I smeared my blood under the red ink warning.

After a few days the blood smear turned chocolate brown and no longer matched the warning :(

What was your latest bad idea?

I drink a cold brew this morning, because it was sitting on my desk from yesterday... Cold brew concentrate. Then after finishing my drink I went to the sauna.... This was not a good decision.

The sauna exercises the cardiovascular system

Coffee stimulates the cardiovascular system (in a different way)

I did not feel good! I only lasted half my normal time. I wont be mixing coffee and extreme heat again.

So character, characteristic and why.

So I found a little line of ants a few days ago. I didn't know they went this far off the ground, but I found a little cluster of them mobbing a forgotten piece of breakfast cereal that was under the couch, so maybe it was my fault and they were highly motivated by whatever else is under there.

Anyway, I don't want ants. I tried a couple of different things. I don't want to poison them or anything like that, I just don't want them in my house. Eventually, what I arrived at that seemed like it worked was this:

• Smush a bunch of the ants. It doesn't actually take that many, I think I did 10-15.
• Leave the corpses in place. They won't really react all that much to them, they'll just keep doing their thing and periodically getting smushed. And then, at some point, they seem like they specifically switch over as a team, and start gathering up the corpses and taking them away.
• Ever since I did that (and specifically since I let them gather up the corpses and let them take them), I haven't seen any ants.

I know that ants have a specific way they operate by laying down scent trails: They wander around at random, laying down a trail of "this is the way back to the nest", and if they find a bunch of food they will return along the same trail laying down a "this way to the food" trail. So it kind of makes sense that they would also have a function to lay down a new trail "this is we found all those bodies so let's not go there anymore." I don't know that that is what's happening but that's what it seems like.

Anyway, ever since the described operation, I haven't seen any ants. I share this in case my logic is sound and it is a good solution and one that is useful for you.

I've been driving the first car I ever bought for almost 15 years now. I love love love that car, but it's time for an upgrade, so yippee!

Before it gets asked and I forget to reply, Mazda 2 -> hybrid Honda Civic hatchback