Canadian-American software developer living in Japan since 2015. Into gardening, DIY, permaculture, etc.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • I think your premise is flawed or maybe your reference frame is extremely narrow.

    As a whole, there’s basically never been a better time to be a human. There are fewer conflicts, higher standards of living, amazing medicine, etc. Yes, access to those things and damage to the environment are backsliding, but this is temporary. (Well, everything is temporary to a human if you want to go that route, but that’s not what I mean here). The trend line continues to go up, at least for now. The best thing that we can do is try to keep that trendline going up.

    Yes, I am angry, I am disappointed, I am heartbroken, I am frustrated, and I am just generally sad at the current wars, erosion of rights, and environmental issues. However, I vote for what I believe in and try to advocate for it where I can. I try to avoid getting trapped in social media bubbles and spend very little time on it (and mostly only here when I do; no facebook or anything here). I try to go outside and raise plants. I am buying a farm where I can grow food, plant more native species, and do a tiny bit to heal at least the land under my feet whilst reducing my carbon footprint. I try to volunteer where I can. I have hobbies that take my mind away from these issues.

    I can’t control other people. I can fight to convince them of something, but ultimately I cannot control them. Maybe the selfishness and contrarianism of some will destroy us all. If so, then I just know I did what I reasonably could to avoid it.




  • Normally, I would roast a chicken (Turkey is expensive and too big for my Japanese oven and Goose is also expensive and I have no experience with it), make dressing, roast some veg, make mashed potatoes and gravy, and probably make something like brownies for dessert. This year, we’re going to hang out with friends of the wife, so I’m not sure what the plan is.

    I am making oatmeal-chocolate-chip cookies, though, using my grandma’s old recipe. I actually put in a bit less sugar today and they turned out more like she used to make, so I’m guessing some things were left out of the recipe. I guess it’s also possible that the type of sugar differing is an issue (we don’t really have brown sugar that’s the exact same here in Japan as in the US, and we also tend not to use granulated sugar in a lot of stuff) as I’d end up with rather flat, crispy cookies rather than the more pillow-y type like I made this morning. Shortening could also differ somehow, I guess, from the Crisco she used.


  • Exclusives suck for everyone. Especially when Epic started out, they only had payment processors in certain countries. This meant that some people literally had no legal way to play the Epic exclusives. I’m not sure where they stand today, but that annoyed me enough, along with other shenanigans by Epic and Sweeny, that I avoid the whole ecosystem.