I second this. Either ddg has come a long way with sesrch results or Google enshittified theirs to oblivion. Maybe it’s both. I only use Google search for really obscure stuff that ddg has a hard time fetching. And more often than not Google fails as well.

R****t felt like the place for tech savvy people when I first joined a decade and a half ago (I feel old now). It was confusing and I had no idea how to use it but the content was better than 9gag which was hugely popular at the time. Felt the same way about the fediverse half a year ago. Now it’s all natural to me.

No, because after a Friday half the time comes the dreaded 13 hour shift which sucks my energy enough to not be able to do anything on Sunday.

Healthcare is a bitch sometimes.

I follow hashtags that I like and if I like a person’s posts I’d check their profile out and follow them. I also look at who interacts with my posts, and give them a follow as well, if I want their interests to show up on my feed. I also follow a couple of a.gup.pe groups. Bookstodon is a fun one, I got some cool suggestions there. They were also integrated with lemmy but I haven’t seen them work well here for now.

Also meal prep for work. Healthier and saves money (5% of my net income per month in my case)

As an eastern European nearing their 30s in a situation much less extreme than yours - do not fall for “patriotism”. I do not mean the “go and fight for your people” type. That takes guts and mentality I do not possess.

I mean the “doing X is unpatriotic” type. Usually comes from “patriotic” formations who follow a certain narrative and work for the interests of other countries. Look for buzzwords like traditional values, us vs them, targeting a group of people as a whole, claiming to get back “what is ours” (territory lost centuries ago, not currently occupied land). Big social media presence coupled with self-produced “reports” and “news articles” (bonus points if they have their own mass media channels) are also a giveaway.

Thank you but I won’t let your aggressor, through puppet parties, dictate what about my attitude and views is patriotic and what isn’t.

Bulgarian Folk Song - Ergen Deda metal version

Been stuck in my head all day.

Thanks, it was meant to be a birthday present for my partner and I did it in secret. Really fun project!

Rather not say but across the border south, about 4-5 hours from Bucharest.

It was fun having to go to work yesterday morning. Nothing was cleared up, no way for cars to get to my house so I had to make a trek by foot. This morning was worse because some of the snow had melted during the day yesterday and it refroze. Everything is slippery now.

One thing outside observers need to know is how incompetent the municipality services are. They knew in advance that this storm was coming. There were warnings all week. It came a day late here so they had extra time. The municipality website showed no information, just some cultural events and an article from two days ago that “the municipality is ready for the winter”. At this point we have a saying for poor organisation during winter time when everyone knows it’s coming in advance:

“The winter surprised us again!”

It’s been a rather productive year so far:

• I did a lot of cross stitching.
• Went vegan.
• Dabbled into gardening (my partner did most of the work sadly but I’m more interested now than I was before!).
• Got into birdwatching so I started exploring nature with a much more different perspective.
• Set up a bird feeding station that got really popular among the birds AND the neighbours.
• Learned how to crochet.
• A combination of the aforementioned things somehow taught me how to manage my depression and anxiety better. I’m in a much better spot now than when I was mostly playing video games.

Lately I find myself listening to The Ocean Collective, Mors Principium est, Be’lakor, Soilwork, Between the Buried and Me. Generally more melodic and progressive stuff. Sometimes I put on metalcore which can also be a banger like Monuments (saw them live earlier this year, they were amazing), Periphery, Bleed From Within.

I know some purists would jump on my classification but it’s hard for me to put labels on music these days with bands having a much more unique style, rather than fixing themselves into a specific genre.

Death metal. Death metal while birding (or more like processing footage). Death metal while cross stitching. Death metal while crocheting. It’s a weird outlet that I mostly keep to myself.

I use streaming services these days but my next phone will definitely still have a 3.5mm. I’m not an audiophile but my 10€ Phillips wired earbuds audio quality would be matched by bluetooths at 5-10x of their pricetag. The wireless buds I have are only 4 imes as expensive as the wired and audio quality is worse, they often lose signal and they tend to fall out of my ear regardless of which rubber plug I use.

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Cleaning chemicals have labels that require reading. Janitors tend to use those often.

Discworld is my go-to these days. Goes well with cross stitching

In contrast I would never want to listen to a Terry Pratchett book while doing something else

Ah well. Sarah J. Maas was also a fun experience. It’s so bad it’s good. I went with A court of thorns and roses but I hear her other series follow a similar vein. It’s hard to miss the important details. Look for the Graphic Audio releases.

If you move a bit east of Italy, to that peninsula that should not be named, Viber gets real popular.

A cashier because people throw money at me all day. Also a scientist because science is cool. Now I spent 5+ years studying my favourite sciences only to realise the job I’ve been studying for is a cashier… Yeah I should probably go for a PhD

While it really does feel like it, as a person working in healthcare, I do see some change after the whole shitstorm from recent years.

• There are people who actually wear a mask, few, but they are around.
• A lot more people seem to be conscious of spreading their illness to other people be it a cold or COVID.
• People definitely wash their hands more often. I know we do.
• Some people started getting their annual shots when they didn’t intend to before.
• Local businesses open their windows and doors a lot more than they used to.

But also I also see some negative tendencies:

• Interest in flu shots has waned. That might have something to do with the govt introducing a free flu shot programme from your GP if you’re above 65 or with specific conditions (which is a great thing) But I definitely see a lot more vaxx-scepticism and fear of combining both shots (infant vaccination plans are a lot more intense and the vast majority are fine).
• People politicising a disease.
• This is country specific but food supplement companies aggressively promoting “immune system stimulants” to the point where in the beginning of The Plague™ they somehow managed to include them in hospital treatment plans.

This came out longer than intended but there were some things that I needed to get out of my system.