I believe it’s a combination of what others here are saying. We live in a world of near instant gratification, getting going on something that requires effort without an immediate payout feels too much like work.
FWIW, I find it helps tremendously to schedule a day / time in advance. For example, I spend the whole week looking forward to “Wrenching Wednesday” so I can go play with my cars. And I actually go do it now, which is something I couldn’t always say before.
No.
But to be clear, somewhere over the last 20 years it seems I’ve also fallen out of the middle class? I bought a new car fresh out of college, and then again about 10 years later. But I look at the price of new cars today, and they’re simply not a purchase I can afford. So, it looks like I’m not going to be buying any new cars anymore, Tesla or otherwise. That feels weird.
I was blown away when my die-hard Republican boomer dad said he thinks climate change is real. There’s a pond behind our house, and he can remember how big it used to get in the rainy season and how small it used to get in the dry season. Now, during the rainy season it comes up to the backdoor, and during the dry season it’s not there at all. If he can still trust his own eyes over what the TV tells him to think, maybe there’s still some hope for the world.
Go back in time and buy another 1997 F-150. The thing is an amazing example of do it simple & do it right, and it will last. But, it’s also close to 30 years old, nearly every system on it is showing the tell-tale signs of age. I would love to have an actual new one, it would last me the rest of my days. (On a happy note, I just finished putting a rebuilt motor in mine. So, here’s hoping for another 25+ years).
It saddens me that even if I could afford a new car at today’s prices, I don’t want what they’re making.
Came here to mention mincemeat. Good stuff.
For those of you who have never tried it - it’s mostly dark brown sugar, cinnamon, & raisins. But it has that fatty aftertaste you normally associate with bacon as well.
Man, I wish we had these charts for all classes of medicines.
For a few brief years, there’s was a men’s alternative to Valentines day. “Steak & Blowjobs day” was held exactly one month later, on March 14.
I have never seen such a surge in love for mathematics since then. Women around the world who barely know what Pi represents were suddenly very aware that March 14 was Pi day.
It’d be cool to walk about Mars for an afternoon. Maybe find that rover (Opportunity?) that ran out of power & give it a fresh battery & clean off its solar panels, see if it’ll fire back up again.
I have subscribed to about a dozen daily news e-mails. I skim through them for half an hour every morning with my first coffee. Once time is up, delete the rest & move on w my day. Only exception is I do make a point to make sure I’ve read at least 1 liberal & 1 conservative viewpoint.
That actually happened this year to the Punxsutawney Phil from… Tennessee I believe? Not the main one, but another groundhog event on the same day.
(A few moments later)
Looks like it was Kentucky. Link is pay-walled, but here it is if anyone is curious: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2024/02/05/kentucky-groundhog-dies-groundhog-day-2024-major-second-chances-wildlife-center/72477815007/
I was just thinking this morning that it’s kinda odd that there’s no cell phone that also doubles as a multi-meter for measuring electronic current. I guess it’s because in theory you’d need to also carry around a set of probes with you?
10 hours, but I’m also a fatty.
Back in college, my buds & I did a road trip across America, so of course we stopped at the Grand Canyon. Breakfast was just a peanut butter & bread “sandwich”, at which point we started hiking down the canyon. If you’ve ever been, they have numerous signs saying “Do not go past this point unless you are packing food”. But hey, we’re college kids, and we’re not going to go THAT much farther… Long story short, that night the rangers had to chaperone us as we fucking crawled back out. One of us ‘got’ to ride in a helicopter to the medical building. For the other 3 of us who could still move, they manged to find a dusty MRE at the last way station. That was the absolute best chicken & pea soup in a tin foil bag I have ever eaten in my life.
74F (23C) I grew up in Florida, which is a very warm state. Now I live a good bit farther north, but my body never adjusted to the cold weather. Nice in the summer, as I don’t need the A/C, but the bills in the winter are rough.
Every week I write my weight on the giant whiteboard in the kitchen. I don’t erase it, just keep the log running all year long, for anyone to see. It’s an amazing motivator.
Scottish Shortbread Cookies.
Small story - my grandmother on my mother’s side made these cookies that were absolutely my dad’s favorite. Unfortunately, he & my mom separated pretty early, but they stayed local so they could co-parent. So every Christmas, we could tell if dad had treated mom well that year because either there’d be a ton of his favorite cookies, or none at all.
There’s this scene at the start of War of the Worlds where the hero races his classic muscle car up this tiny neighborhood street at full tilt, exhaust notes at full blast, and I think he even screeches the tires by slamming the brakes pulling into the driveway. Then he walks up to his neighbor and they’re all chill with him. In any other world, the neighbors would have him in handcuffs.
My company is European. Although all our templates are written in English, the check-language is set to Italian. So, pretty much every single word.
And yes, every time a new template comes out, we have to go through block by block and reset them to English. But even then a bunch slips through. Usually takes about a month to filter all the filters out.
9 Parchments - Surprising gem with some depth and a lot of replay value. Reminds me a lot of the Harry Potter universe. We fire this up almost every weekend. I recommend setting friendly fire to ‘self’ instead, as it encourages actual cooperative play.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Shredder’s Revenge - this is just a hack n slash quarter eater, but it’s mindless fun.
Witcher 3.
My solution was pretty simple. I don’t go out to eat often. If I haven’t had fish in a while, well, hey, now I have an excuse not to cook.
Also mix it up. Try sushi, try a fish fry, try that fancy fish joint.