Tinks

I’m so glad my company a) has a “nobody wants teams” stance and even recommends against it to our clients, and b) doesn’t give a fuck if I go idle for hours because they hired me to do a job and if it’s getting done they’re happy.

Micromanaging culture needs to die. Fire employees who don’t do the job and be done with it.

One of the greatest joys of my life is being able to take my dog out with me in public because he’s very well behaved. Not perfect, but 95% there. The last 5% is the golden excitement over people and comes out when someone excitedly fusses over him (think leaning over him squeeing excitedly and talking to him in baby voice) and he forgets his manners and jumps up trying to hug them. If people act normal, he’s completely normal, chill and well mannered. He goes with me to all sorts of places like the hardware store, craft store, the liquor store, and out to eat at various restaurants with patios. I WISH we had a culture around dogs closer to France, because I think dogs would benefit greatly from it. Instead of being left at home they could be out living lives with their humans. Unfortunately that would put greater responsibility on owners to train their pups. Instead, we just ban dogs from most places because it’s easier for the businesses to not have to put up with entitled assholes and their untrained dogs. It’s sad.

My husband is German and has always found the crazy flag waving patriotism of the US odd. I never really understood his position until the last few years. Having been raised in the US, all of that seemed completely normal to me, but now I view it very differently.

Yeahhhh. My overnight RHR and HRV go absolutely wacky even with a single drink the night before. That’s not to say I don’t still have a drink sometimes, but watching my vitals has really made me aware of exactly how much impact it has. If I have 3-4 drinks in a night on a special occasion it will take days before my HRV and RHR return to normal, even if I don’t feel any physical effects at all. Still fun, but I’m definitely aware it’s not good for me 😂

Not even close. As the other poster said $500 or less is pretty common. Burials with caskets can run into the thousands just like with humans, but most people don’t do that.

My dog got attacked by a colony of yellowjackets for having the audacity to go near their nest that was just on the other side of our fence line. He ended up in the ER for anaphylaxis. The neighbor’s dogs got stung too, though they weren’t allergic. Those little cunts can all die in a fire.

Paper wasps I hate less, I just wish they’d stop trying to make nests on the eaves of my house. They’re chill, but I just want them to find somewhere else to call home.

Presumably the QR code captcha doesn’t trigger when the browser detects it’s a mobile device. This is for browsing on desktop, then verifying with your separate mobile device

The wild thing is that because of Delaware’s tax laws, a LOT of businesses are registered in that state. This is honestly bonkers to me.

Agreed. Back when FIFA announced that the US was going to get another world cup I was over the moon and thought for sure my husband and I would go to at least one game, and that was before the host cities were announced. (At that point we were season ticket holders for our local MLS club as well.) I live in a host city, so going wouldn’t be even mildly inconvenient, but not only am I not, I don’t even plan to watch the cup. 12 and 16 years ago I was watching every single game, even streaming them on my phone while at work. Not that FIFA was a bastion of morality even then, but I feel like it’s gotten so much worse, and supporting the games in any way just rubs me wrong. I’m also not happy helping this administration get a win of any kind, so I’ll just catch on Lemmy who wins and call it good enough.

If everyone ate more plant-based food, they’d probably be getting their protein in anyway. Beans, legumes and lentils are all full of protein, and that’s without even considering processed plant-based products like tofu or even meat-like products (Beyond or Impossible products for example.)

That said, while I absolutely champion people eating more plants, I’m far from vegan or even vegetarian. My diet includes meat, cheese and eggs. Not every meal needs to include meat though. I just think most Americans at least would be better off with a more well rounded diet with less processed food and less sugar.

Agreed. Went backpacking with my dog last weekend, who is on Simparica AND was treated with permethrin 2 weeks prior, and that little shit STILL ended up with 3-4 dozen ticks on him. He’s a golden, so meticulously going through his fur removing them was a long annoying process for both of us. Thankfully they were all dead because of the insecticides. There is zero chance I’m not using bug sprays. Ticks are out in full force and I have zero sympathy for them. With as many diseases as they carry, it’s a me or them scenario, and it’s not going to be me.

As someone who works from home with an office job, and is also on a health journey, I’m firmly on the side of team protein. I’m working on losing weight, and am watching my protein and fiber intake closely so that my body doesn’t eat muscle instead of fat. Also protein and fiber keep you satiated longer, so you’re less likely to overeat at your sedentary desk job. While the protein craze IS a bit overboard, I think most office workers would be better off if they got more protein, especially from plant-based sources which also contain fiber. Most Americans at least aren’t getting enough fiber, and beans are fucking delicious, versatile and cheap!

This depends entirely on the vape. I quit smoking by switching to vaping, but this was before the current craze of nic salts. I switched using PG/VG flavored blends with much less dosage of nicotine than even the lightest cigarettes. It absolutely changed my life, and I will advocate for it being legal because of it. The Juul and other crazy high nicotine devices are very addictive though, and I’m of the opinion those need to be controlled better. Lumping all vaping together is very misleading though. I was able to quit vaping by reducing the nicotine blend amount in the juice I was buying, and that’s not really an option for a lot of these mass-market devices. This is part of the problem though - people legislating with a broad brush on a topic they know little about.

I go hiking a lot and I always carry pepper spray and a knife, specifically for dogs. My dog is usually with me and I have no qualms with pepper spraying an aggressive dog, or even hitting mine in the mix, to save his or my life. I hadn’t even considered strays, I’m mainly worried about the assholes who let their dogs off leash. That number of strays is a whole other nightmare scenario.

One of my favorites is Black Sails

I am of the opinion that space exploration and settlement is the single most important thing humanity should be doing. Currently humanity exists only on this planet, which through the course of its existence has had numerous mass extinction events. It is hubris to believe that we will never be affected by one. Right now all of humanity’s eggs are in this single basket, and if that basket gets kicked over, humanity could cease to exist.

Now I will grant you that there are lots of things down here on earth that we should be spending money on to better the lives of humans generally, but these things are not mutually exclusive. Right now we’re spending orders of magnitude more money and resources waging war on one another than space exploration. In the US in 2025, the US military budget was around $920b, whereas NASA’s was $25b. The military budget was 36 times higher than the space budget. It’s not even close. Space is not where dollars are being wasted.

Studies have also shown that NASA’s impact is a net positive on the economy, consistently generating more economic impact than is put into it. It creates well paying jobs that employees find fulfilling and satisfying, generates public interest in the sciences, and benefits society as a whole as new technologies are developed that we all get to enjoy.

I would argue that what we NEED to do is stop needlessly murdering each other over religious and social disagreements, and spend our resources on feeding, clothing and taking care of one another such that we all have the time, security and ability to watch humans go out into space with wonder in our hearts.