I wanted offline maps and ended up with Sygic, which does well for the most part. It has some confusion over labeling state roads that trips me up occasionally.

Oh god … Years and years ago, we played every weekend in college. We had this one DM who’s campaign ran for … I dunno, at least a couple years. Anyway, we found this wand, lightweight metal, red with white swirls on the side and some strange lettering. We used a spell to read the lettering, which said “Bottled at the Coca-Cola Company Bottling Plant, Philadelphia, PA”. We had no idea what that meant, though.

None of the spells available at the time helped identifying what the wand did, so we went through our standard tests to figure out what it was. Nothing we tried worked. We were like, well, it doesn’t weigh much and maybe it’s important or we’ll find out what it does later on.

So, we carry this damned rod around for a fucking year and a half. Every so often we remember it and try again, but the only information we ever get “Coca-cola Bottling Plant”. The campaign finally ends (our DM was graduating) and we go over the campaign and one of the questions we ask is, wtf was that rod? And he says, “Oh, it was a rod of resurrection.” And we’re like, wtf? And he laughs and says, yeah, 'cause this.

Damn near lynched him.

This is like 30 years ago, before electric cars were really a thing. Some friends and I were hanging out in the Pine Barrens one night. It was an area we knew pretty well, and we’d walked down this long sandy road with no turnoffs to get to where we happened to be hanging out.

Suddenly, all of nature around us went silent - and I mean all of it. Sound carries at night, especially with the lakes to echo off of. We looked up the road we were walking back along, and there was a pair of headlights coming our way. We could tell they were headlights because they were lower than a person would carry a flashlight, they were moving in that peculiar synchronization that headlights have, and they’d do several quick bounces when they hit a rut in the road.

So anyway, we’re in this road in the ass-end of the Barrens, everything’s turned absolutely deadly silent, and there’s this car coming down the road toward us. And the three of us suddenly realize that it’s absolutely silent. Not only is nature silent, but the car isn’t making any noise either.

We watch the headlights of this car headed down the road toward us - it’s a couple hundred yards away now, the Pine Barrens are still dead silent, and the car isn’t making any noise either.

My nerve broke first. I bolted off the road and partially vaulted over a couple shrubs, my friends close behind me. We turned around, and the car was still coming toward us - and then suddenly the headlights went out. We waited, but nothing happened - no car headlights, no interior lights, no car doors opening, no voices - nothing. We waited, and still nothing.

We dithered and talked over what to do and we eventually grabbed a couple branches and headed back up the road. We reached the area where the headlights turned off - and there was no car. We turned our flashlight on the (very) sandy road, and we could see our tracks heading down, but there weren’t any recent car tracks. We checked the road and the verge all the way back to our car, and - nothing. The forest went dead silent, there were headlights, the car didn’t make a sound, and then it just … disappeared. We went back the next day, and there still was no sign of anyone on that road that night except us.

.

There’s also a rest stop on the Pennsylvania Turnpike heading into New Jersey. Like two miles before the rest stop, there’s a sign saying something like “New Jersey - 25 miles”. We pull into the rest stop, get some gas, relieve ourselves, grab a snack, get back on the road. Go maybe two or three more miles, and there’s another sign saying “New Jersey - 5 miles”. Like, wtf? If there a space warp at that rest stop or something?

Do you have insurance that covers it?

QAnon people would go absolutely rabid conspiracy minded.

I don’t know if it would work in Canada, but I just buy a Visa gift card and use that.

Initial thoughts, which shouldn’t cost much if any money:

Check your hard drive: how full is it? Clear out caches and programs you never use. Maybe run a check for bad sectors. Way back in the day, I’d suggest defragging the drive, lol.

Update your definitions and run a virus check on your laptop: you may have picked up a virus or PUP that’s slowing you down.

Take a look at Task Manager at various times: are you close to maxing out RAM, processor, or disk cache? Figure out if there are processes running that you can kill.

Go through everything that’s set up for Quick Start and set it to non-Quick Start if you’re not using it regularly. [I just set everything to non-Quick Start.]

If your browser supports it, install Ublock Origin. If you can do it, install a pi-hole.

While you’re at it, check your router. This is a laptop, so I’m assuming it’s not wired to the internet, but if it is, try switching out the wire in case it’s worn. Check the cables between the router and the wall while you’re at it.

Unplug your router for at least a minute, then start it up again.

Are you running a lot of different devices that may be interfering with your connection, or running against potential high-bandwidth applications (streaming, livestreaming, torrenting)?

Is this problem specific to one or more areas? It’s possible that you’re too far from the router or there are things obstructing the signal.

Are there times that you get better speed (either times of day or times of the month)? Your ISP may be congested or they may be throttling your connection.

Did you leave your wifi open and other people are piggybacking off it? Is it running recent firmware?

Consider contacting your ISP and asking them to run a line test to see if there are issues external to your home. (Be prepared for them to try to upsell you.)

Switch to a lightweight browser like Firefox, Vivaldi, or Cromite.

Things that you can do that will cost money: increase the memory in your laptop (you have 4gb, it can take up to 12gb). If it’s not already on an SSD, switch to an SSD.

What I miss most are the (physically) local communities. On reddit, there was a subreddit for my general locality, and the nearby big city, and several subreddits on different aspects of life (the music scene, the food scene, etc). I miss that - randomly finding an event or something interesting simply because I came across a random post.

I know it’s a function of the fact that it’s still (comparatively) early days, but I do miss it.

It must be scary, living in a world where you’re constantly confronted by the fact that people exist who are “not like you”.

New Mexico also has more lenient sex offender registry laws, which allowed Mr. Epstein to avoid registration after pleading guilty to felony sex crimes in Florida.

Well, that’s nice to know :(

Mr. Huffines, the new owner, said recently that he was planning to turn the property into a Christian retreat. […] He is building a new front gate, and […] the stone arch above the entrance will read: “Blessed are those who come in the name of the Lord.”

That’s … really not better, I’m sure he can see that. Probably just doesn’t care.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/Sp8Lo

We should pretty much assume that all age verification efforts either currently are feeding into surveillance efforts, or will be bought out by surveillance companies.

Because this head prioritizes branding over utility, neither the bit nor the screw head can withstand the torque of a standard Torx or Hex fastener. The result? Broken bits, stripped screws, and more time spent on what would otherwise be a simple task.

Ugh.

“I’m asking you, for the final time: please stop stalking me.”

Rights for me, rules for thee!

This looks like one of those temporary outdoor seating areas that they installed during the pandemic and then just never went away.

I’d put the items in the chamber, turn on the light, and close the lid.  After 15 minutes, the side facing the light would be fully decontaminated; I’d take them out, put them clean-side down on a sterile counter, throw out the plastic wrap that was on top of the tin foil, remove my gloves, scrub my hands, put on new gloves, put down fresh plastic, and put the items back in the chamber with a potentially contaminated side up, remove my gloves, close the chamber, set it to run another 15 minutes, scrub my hands, sterilize the counter where I’d put the item(s) down, then scrub my hands again.  After doing all “six” sides, I deemed the item(s) sufficiently decontaminated and moved them to a “mostly sterile” section.  If you’re keeping track, it took about 2 hours for each set of things to go through UV-C decontamination, so it was slow!  Once all the UV-C decontamination was done, I’d wipe down the tin foil with Lysol wipes, let it dry, then put down a fresh layer of plastic wrap, ready for next time.

Once all the items were decontaminated, I’d scrub down the “hot zone” counter.  Then I’d scrub my hands again and change my shirt and gloves, put on fresh sneakers, then I’d get out fresh bags and, using the lists on the fridge, re-pack the items per-person.

As mentioned, aside from myself, I was handling buying stuff for my sister and two other friends.  I’d pack up everything going to one person and put it in the back seat of my car: the trunk was the “hot zone”; the front seat was the “I’m potentially infected” zone; and the rear seat was the clean zone.  Whenever I was in the car, I’d open the front passenger-side window, and the rear driver-side window; this created a natural “wind” barrier between myself and the items in the back seat, to minimize the risk of my accidentally reinfecting the items.  I’d also wear a mask and gloves, to be careful; I didn’t want to infect and potentially kill someone I cared about.

I’d go to my friend’s place / my sister’s place and drop everything off six feet from their front door, and stand back while they brought everything inside.

Then I’d go home, disinfect car doors, keys and doorknobs, leave my shoes outside, strip off my clothes directly into the washer, scrub my hands, start the laundry, take a shower, put on fresh clothesc and yet another pair of shoes, and drop off stuff to the second person.  Then home again, more disinfecting, another change of clothes and shoes, another shower, and the final drop-off.  Then home, * more* disinfecting, another change of clothes, and another shower.

Honestly?  It was fucking exhausting.  I was so glad when they decided fomite transmission wasn’t the big risk they’d thought it was!

I started hearing about covid on reddit back in December 2019. In another life, I worked at FDA and what I was hearing really scared me: my sister was immunocompromised, and I was terrified she’d contract the virus and die. So when I talk about what I was doing, recognize that we had to be taking extreme precautions, to avoid my sister getting infected by this virus that would kill her and that no one knew how to treat. Because of her health, we absolutely had to be a couple weeks ahead of whatever precautions were being taken by everyone else, and we took extreme precautions during the early months of the pandemic.

In a way being ahead of the curve was nice - everything we needed was easily available. But we were operating ahead of official advice, so we had to figure out our mitigation strategies ourselves. I bought a lot of stuff: N95 and surgical masks, surgical gloves, hand sanitizer, bleach, Lysol wipes, UV-C lights, copper foil, garbage bags, plastic wrap, medication for any ailment I could think of, extra prescription medications in case of supply chain issues, pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs, overfilled my pantry with various staples, etc.

You mentioned handling groceries. In the very early days, when they were really worked about fomite transmission, I was the “outside contact” for my sister and a couple other friends with health issues. When someone needed something we didn’t have, I’d collect lists of whatever anyone needed from that store. I’d make two versions of the list: one master list for when I was in the store, and a separate per-person list that was stuck to the refrigerator for later reference.

I’d wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, surgical gloves, an N95 mask, then a surgical mask over top of the N95 to help filter out larger particles and extend the life of my N95 masks [more on supplies later]. I’d go to the store, buy whatever we needed, and put it in the trunk of the car: the trunk was the hot zone, where all the non-sterile stuff went. I’d open the car door, use the hand sanitizer to clean the trunk and car door handles and my car keys, then remove my gloves and toss them in a garbage bag the trunk as well. I’d take off my masks and put on a fresh surgical mask.

I’d get home, put on fresh gloves, prop open the doors, disinfect the handles, leave my shoes outside the front door, and bring all the bags into the kitchen; everything got piled into one section I’d taped off on the floor that I called the hot zone. Once everything was inside, I hung the used masks on a pole across the ceiling of the utility room, disinfected the trunk and car door handles again, along with my keys and the steering wheel, and disinfected the knobs on the front door.

I went into the utility room, removed my gloves and scrubbed my hands and forearms like a surgeon. Then I stripped my clothes off directly into the washer, scrubbed my hands again, and disinfected the outside of the washer. At this point, the only contaminated stuff should be the items I’d just bought - and myself. I brushed my teeth, used a disinfectant mouthwash, took a shower and scrubbed thoroughly.

I put on another mask, got dressed into another long-sleeved shirt and surgical gloves, and de-bagged everything I’d bought onto the counter in the hot zone - being very careful not to step onto floor in the taped-off “hot zone”. The empty bags went into the garbage out back, I changed my gloves, the doorknobs were decontaminated, and I mopped the floor with bleach, then removed the gloves and scrubbed my hands again. Now the only potentially contaminated stuff was on the hot zone counter.

I put on fresh gloves, and started disinfecting whatever we’d just bought. If it had a plastic covering, was a jar or can, it got washed with disinfectant. If it was cardboard, it got wiped down or scrubbed with Lysol wipes. Once something was clean, it got moved to the clean zone.

Odd-shaped items were an issue - think things like broccoli. I’d finish the all regular cans and boxes, take off my gloves and shirt, scrub my hands and arms, put on a new long-sleeved shirt and fresh gloves, and bring the odd-shaped items into the UV-C “chamber”. This was a large shelf that I’d lined in all directions with tin foil, with plastic wrap on top of that, that had a UV-C light strung across the top. [I don’t remember the specific technical details, but I remember obsessing and making sure I was buying a light in the correct range to kill viruses and stuff.] [Continued next comment]

Well, first off, “talk to me” is different than “talk with me”. Like, if I’ve done something wrong, or something is changing, or whatever, that’s a “talk to me” talk. That’s a power dynamic talk, something I’ll have little control over: we’re moving, you need to keep up with your share of the housework, whatever.

“Talk with me” talks are just like social things, keeping in touch with each other, how you’re doing, what you’re up to, etc. We share back and forth whatever’s on our minds - this project or problem at work, what trips or events I’ve been to recently or are planning on going to, what I’ve been reading/watching and what those things made me think/feel and whether she might enjoy it, news articles or information I’ve run across that she might be interested in or need to know, thoughts and feelings about current events, maybe a concern or an accomplishment about a friend, etc.

Usual stuff re: food banks, community pantries, etc. However -

I’ve been a member of Community Supported Agriculture farms for a couple decades now. People pay at the start of the year to buy a share of the farm’s produce over the growing season, and the farmer operates secure in the knowledge that his farm isn’t dependent on banks or a good harvest. CSA members usually get about 3/4 of a bushel per week, plus pick-your-own.

I’m bringing this up because some CSAs offer work shares, and this would be the right time if year to apply for one. It’s a small commitment of hours each week, say, 4-5 hours a week over the course of the season, and you get a full share of the produce to take home. I don’t know if a work-share CSA exists in your area, it if you’d be willing to do it, but it can supply a pretty decent percentage of your food if it’s something you’re interested in, especially if you make and freeze dishes or ingredients, or can, pickle or dehydrate produce.