Doug

Existing is punk rock.

Why should Mitch McConnell get to live longer than me?

These are some reasons I decide to keep going.

I was just competing with my friend who was way smarter than me. I plateaued once he moved away.

Yeah I learned from experience 😔

And I only say to use the clear stuff because it makes cleaning much easier. I’m sure it’s perfectly fine otherwise. edit: this is wrong, apparently; the red dye is in fact bad for them.

But yeah it really needs regular cleaning. It may look OK on the outside, but those holes fill up quick.

I use an app called Sweepy to help me stay on track with what needs cleaning and when it needs it, otherwise I’d totally space it.

As someone who grew up with elders telling him time speeds up as you get older, I spent a year or so researching with anxiety what I could do to mitigate this feeling.

The first thing to do is refuse to indulge this idea that one day being an elder just happens: as they say, if you declare it’s a bad day in the morning, you’re conditioning yourself to look for confirmations that the day is indeed going to be bad, while potentially overlooking the good.

Time, objectively, goes at the same speed your entire life— for most people, sans astronauts or regular mountain climbers. It’s your perception of it that changes, thanks to your memory. The theory is memory is a survival mechanism: it really only commits things to memory that it deems a potential threat. If your day is routine, you are safe, there is no need for your mind to automatically record it.

So instead you need to manually record it. At the end of the day, journal either physically or mentally what you did today.

I personally use Daylio (which records data points) and BeReal (forces you to take a pic at a random time of day of yourself and whatever is in front of you), and every now and again I get to look back and say “wow, it really has been an entire month, eh?”

The other thing to do to combat it is make new memories/avoid routine, but sadly many of us are not in a position to afford this one.

For me it helps I am really into movies; I can’t really afford to travel, but movies are new experiences to me in and of themselves, and are a hacky way for me to make new memories in an otherwise routine life.

If it’s a hummingbird feeder, make sure you clean it weekly/regularly, otherwise it can spread disease.

Don’t get that red dyed nectar either, get the clear stuff; don’t fill the entire feeder; get a straw scrubber for the holes; make sure the feeder has those anti bee things, otherwise it can attract wasps. I don’t have to deal with squirrels, but good luck if you do.

You know what’s really weird about nostalgia now, and is only gonna get weirder for future generations? Video games are these entire worlds preserved, where everything is exactly as it was, so you can experience a moment in time (sans your peripheral environment) exactly as it was years ago when you first had it.

Unlike real life where a house is demolished or a new development gets put in where a field was, it’s every single thing right where it was, sounding as it did.

To me that’s a crazy thing to think about, and how it accesses and fills every crevice of a memory you had about it, no matter how buried.

nostalgia is such an odd feeling for me; it can come up for things like Trapper Keepers or 90s pastels, but then also come up for the smell of cigarettes, or the soundblasted screams from video games.

Wasn’t Proton’s CEO in some hot water a year or so ago, or was that a bunch of hooey? I know it’s impossible to find an ethical CEO, but just curious.

…sure I could look it up, but my phone battery sucks and it helps boost activity.

The only interruption I’m experiencing is your asking me if I’m experiencing interruptions!

my metronome take is: everyone should have a livable wage / bigots deserve to be houseless

When I did webcomics I was worried nobody would think they were funny or had some reservations about public opinions.

Then I watched some documentary on comic artists, including Calvin & Hobbe’s Bill Watterson, and he said something like “I just make something I think is funny, and if my wife also thinks it’s funny that’s a bonus, and everyone else can think whatever they want to think, but I’m happy with it, and that’s all I really cared about.”

And that was enough for me to get into it.

Make it for you first. Everyone else is a bonus.

I have to admit I appreciate the behavioral psychology behind Costco’s layout.

They put the expensive things first and up front so that, on your way into the store, you’ve been mentally anchored to high prices (even if they’re prices for things you’d never buy). If you even considered or said to yourself “well, maybe someday” about their TVs, computers, or pianos, you are spending the rest of your time in Costco seeing prices for everything else and saying to yourself “hm, this might be a little expensive (even if it’s not), but at least it’s not the price of those grand pianos/TVs/computers in the entrance. Sold!”

Iirc they also purposely don’t label what foods or items are down which aisles so you have to go down them and, on the way, perhaps see something you hadn’t thought you needed before.

Pretty sneaky but effective stuff.

The battery levels really dove for me whenever I’d check my feed.

Yeah, I know the name of the Escape Room; it doesn’t make it suck any less.

as /s as OP, yes

I just mean the old cars in an upper class neighborhood are less likely to be driven by poor people while still being vulnerable to this siphoning because yes, sadly newer cars have meshes or locking mechanisms to deter gas siphoning.

But I mean if there’s bigotry stickers on the car by all means go whole ham no matter where it’s parked. Hell stick a lentil in the tire valve caps while you’re at it.

Do it in an upper class neighborhood at least.

Older cars are the only ones susceptible to this, and those aren’t generally driven by the types of people who can easily afford more gas.

23andme taught me I was part Ashkenazi, but in hindsight I probably should’ve picked up on that having been raised on Mel Brooks, The Three Stooges, Stan Freberg, The Marx Brothers, grandpa’s really being into matzo ball soup, and us having the menorah out during the holidays.

…oh right, and being circumcised.

Anyways, $200 I didn’t need to spend. I hope the clone Doug armies of the future will forgive me.

All chickens know how to play Uno, Go Fish, and Risk.

I’d be even more turned on, honestly. A sense of humor and owns a farm? ❤️ Uno’s great but I’d need to see more board games.