I don’t have much time to respond so I’m going to just hit one bullet for now:

Are you going to try to argue that Khan and Gul Dukat weren’t given nuance and development? Some of the things that made them such compelling antagonists is that we were given insight into their motives and backgrounds and perspectives. Khan absolutely was nuanced and the persecution and illegality of genetically enhanced humans was a great stepping off point for him. Just about every antagonist that pops up in Star Trek gets some kind of explanation why they are doing the things they are doing, and the crew takes a moment to acknowledge their inherent worth as living beings and, if they’re sentient, discuss possibilities for negotiations or nonviolence. I haven’t forgotten that Klingons, Ferengi, Borg, Cardassians and many others start off as villains, but we are given many opportunities for them to be “humanized” through characters like Worf, Quark, Hugh/Seven, Garak and others. There are no “good” or “bad” aliens in Star Trek.

So keeping that in mind, how did things go with the Ba’Ul? How did they handle Control? What nuance was Lorca given? In Discovery, your first impression of a bad guy being bad is always correct.

I have an intense distaste for Discovery, and wouldn’t recommend it.

I could rant about it a la Angela Collier for 4 hours but here’s my main issues boiled down to a bulleted list:

Some things I like about Star Trek:

• Optimistic future, humans can create greatness and beauty if they continue to check and overcome their faults
• No black and white villains. All antagonists are given nuance and development and many become favored allies
• Themes of teamwork, a functional ensemble, core crew are all valid and valued, no one star of the show.
• No such thing as magic or gods, everything is in the realm of human understanding if we have sufficient knowledge

Guess what Disovery has?

• Nihilistic, apocalyptic future
• Bad guys that are just bad, they’re evil, don’t ask questions
• One principal star of the show that is the focus of nearly every episode
• No attempt to explain things with any veneer of science

Then add on some blatant examples of total ignorance for the universe it’s set in, attempts at ham handed fan service by shoe horning in clumsy references to characters from other series, you have a show that is farther from Star Trek than a 14 year old’s submission on IO9. When it actually let the supporting cast do things, they were charming and likable, but Stamets, Saru and Tilly weren’t enough to keep me from getting mad at just about every episode.

If you don’t really care about or know anything about Star Trek it can be entertaining I guess, but why watch it when there’s Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and The Orville?

Two so far today, probably another three by the time I go to bed.

Having a young kid is kind of cheating though 😁

Thank you. I was a clothing flipper for a while, I was living in a relatively rural but well monied area and I got into it because the thrift stores there would have genuinely great stuff. It would sit on the racks at $7 or less for weeks, even through half price days. I have a good eye for quality, and so I started picking up things for a pittance and selling them online. My prices were less than half of original retail but still well above my original purchase price. I have a lot of fun combing through bins and racks and finding hidden gems, but it’s not for everyone and not everyone knows what to look for. I would make minor repairs, remove scents, stains, and pet hair, and list things with descriptive keywords, clear pictures and measurements.

I stopped when I moved to a place with much worse thrift stores (higher prices for less) but I still go and pick/shop for myself and my family. It was valid work, and I don’t begrudge any clothing flipper their profits. It’s just too competitive a business for the margin to be all that high.

There’s a book called The Art of Procrastination, and its main premise is basically this. It’s amazing the amount of things you can get done by avoiding doing something else.

Star Trek meets Scooby Doo would work actually, there’s enough episodes where the premise is “the locals think it’s magic but it’s just a probe/time shift/alien relic/energy being” etc etc. Starship Mystery Machine

We’ve been making a conscious effort to be more friendly to pollinators and fireflies for the last two years. I stopped leaving the exterior lights on when we didn’t need them. I overseeded wildflower mix on a part of our lawn that is hard to mow, and while I mulched the leaves, I left them where they were and then just didn’t touch a whole section of our land that now looks pretty wild with weeds. That part was some laziness too, but it was so validating to see twinkling lights in the field outside and in the brush. I’ve been making a point of going to look for them at twilight, they really are magical.

HARD disagree about Amazon. It’s nobody’s friend but most especially it’s terrible for buying clothing. For one, just about everything the search algorithm will show you is mass produced at the most cut throat profit margin imaginable, which means even if you ignore the moral complexities of supporting businesses with unethical labor practices, heavy metal contamination, and dangerous chemical dyes, you’re almost definitely getting crappy quality clothes that will not fit well and will not last. Not only that but the pictures are, with very few exceptions, extremely misleading or of different products entirely. The products they list seem like bargains because of their marketing but you get exactly what you pay for or even worse, and you end up spending way too much money on something that will end up in the trash within a year or look terrible on you or both.

There are even more reasons not to buy clothing on Amazon, including that most returns you make for size or color go straight to a landfill, but I have only so many minutes in my day to rant about fast fashion.

If you don’t know what you like yet, or what your style is, try going on FB marketplace or Craigslist and look for a closet clean out. This is the season for yard sales too. Try to find someone listing things in roughly your size (they sometimes will say “lots of XL clothes!” ) and then you can pick up giant bags or whole bins of random clothes for not even 10 dollars.

If you score a haul or two like that and get a chance to play dress up and experiment, you can figure out what you like on your body. What kind of necklines do you feel are flattering, what silhouettes, what length skirts or sleeves etc. Once you have a better idea of what you actually like on you, you can move on to shopping at thrift stores. There, you can keep an eye out for pieces that fit the profile of clothing you decided you liked. Not all thrift stores let you try on clothes and you might not feel confident enough to throw it on over what you’re wearing, so be prepared to buy, try, and maybe return.

Try to go for higher quality items made of natural materials. You should aim for as little polyester, nylon, acrylic or spandex as possible. Look for cotton, linen, and wool, rayon and viscose are ok too. Feel the clothes and see if they have weight to the fabric, and structure to them. Good quality clothing has construction and patterning that makes them fit a body better than just a sack or a rectangle. Look for clothes with linings and complexity.

Hopefully you will be able to build a starter wardrobe of some good core pieces that you love!

Goodwill is ubiquitous but if you’re in America, rural areas should have church thrift shops or animal shelter thrift shops. They rely on donations to raise money for good causes and while they won’t have as much inventory, they are extremely motivated sellers. Goodwill, Value Village and Savers are big corporate chains with a lot of stuff and variety, but sometimes you can’t beat a little church thrift shop for a bargain.

As others have said, it’s a life long thing, but a lot of the patterns can be brought on in people who don’t have it with consistent sleep deprivation and a state of tiredness and exhaustion. If you’re starting to relate more and more to ADHD memes well into adulthood, try to get a few nights of good sleep!

My understanding is that the ADHD brain activity resembles an NT’s when they’re extremely tired or sleep deprived, with a lot of theta wave activity. Stimulants can help jog an ADHD person’s brain into alpha and beta waves, which are associated with relaxation or alertness and focus.

Oops, fixed

I wonder if she has or had one of the models with the filter trap? I thankfully have one with the composter thing but if I had to clean year old moldy spaghetti remnants out of a filter I can definitely see making that rule.

Sounds like you need to watch one of Lemmy’s favorite videos

Technology Connections - Your dishwasher is better than you think

Muslin is just a type of woven cloth. Look for 100% cotton woven waxing strips, they’re usually sold to be used with traditional waxing. Good luck!

This one is good

https://youtu.be/GVKrLumCEpA

I use the soft wax method and a slightly different recipe, but otherwise all of her comments and directions are exactly what I would say :)

My recipe is 2 cups of sugar, 3tbsp of water and 3 tbsp of lemon juice boiled on the stove just until the bubbles turn off white. I’ll take it off and on the stove and let the bubbles die down so I can see the color, and it’s done when it just turns a soft champagne, buttery yellow. Use stainless steel not non stick so you can see better, it’s easy to wash because it just dissolves. Let it sit off heat for maybe two minutes to thicken and carry over cook a bit, then pour it into an >8 oz jar (glass is great because you can microwave it). Once in the jar it should be a warm golden honey color. I’ve found that that recipe results in a nice soft wax that just has to be somewhat warm to work. Her recipe might be fine too but I’ve had some issues with the higher liquid content ones not setting up right.

If you have any questions let me know!

When someone mentions hair removal I always have to pop in to proselytize about sugar waxing. It’s similar to “normal” waxing but it’s a fraction of the cost, it’s gentler and easier to clean up and you can make it yourself at home. The main cost is time, but you can essentially take a spa day every three months or so and enjoy smooth skin without much need for daily upkeep. It’s usually able to get all the thickest, roughest hairs by the root and over time (about a year or two) those hairs will just stop coming back. The softer thinner ones will tend to break and come back eventually but they’re also easier to deal with and not as prone to be troublesome.

Basically you need a set of reusable muslin cloth strips, a bottle of lemon juice, sugar, a pot and stove and some time. You can use a wax warmer but it’s not strictly necessary if you don’t mind microwaving now and then. I highly recommend at least trying it once and seeing how it works out before doing anything more expensive like laser.