I guess I don’t think of the higher agencies as cops, even though they are. And those higher agencies (FBI, NSA, CIA, etc.) don’t strike me as the type of groups who want to keep the public informed—quite the contrary, actually. I would expect local cops to praise themselves if they got something right, sure.

Or they have stopped them, so we haven’t heard about it.

I’m not advocating giving up privacy but you don’t know for sure that these tactics don’t “work.”

I wasn’t actually so mad at first. They bought back our smaller cheaper car and we felt very compensated. But for the second car, which was much bigger and more expensive, they only offered a “fix” which they said wouldn’t affect performance (yeah right), and a small amount in restitution. It felt like a slap in the face. In hindsight I would have gone about things differently but let’s just say that I have little to no faith in the way our justice system works anymore due to how we decided to proceed after that, and we will never buy a car from VW ever again.

Meanwhile, we actually replaced those cars with Teslas. And now we feel like we’re kind of back in the same place, having given money to a company that is pretty shit. We try to vote with our wallets as much as possible but there is no ethical consumption under capitalism, after all. It’s just really depressing and disheartening and makes me not want to buy anything anymore.

Please tell me about any sewing-related communities you’re subbed to because I want to make sure I am also subbed to them! (I love linen)

I’m in the opposite camp. What are the reasons you don’t like Rivian? (I don’t like VW because we had not one, but two vehicles caught up in Dieselgate. They’re dead to me. Which is a shame because I really liked them.)

Thanks!

I’ve tried. The thing that’s hard to replicate is the beans, actually. Though I’ve mostly used canned refried beans; I’ve been meaning to get a can of whole pintos and mash them myself, and see if that helps.

The Double Decker taco came back for like a month last year and I went to Taco Bell probably eight times once I realized it because it’s my favorite and I’m super pissed that they won’t just make one for me even though they have all of the ingredients, FFS.

I won’t

Maybe he had feelings for you and felt he needed to make a clean cut? Not that that is an excuse, really.

I personally am not a rabid Witcher book fan — I swear, some folks think they are the best literature out there and they very much are not — but in their quest to make Yennefer a more fleshed out character, they screwed up her motivations and priorities. She’s supposed to be like a mother to Ciri. I did not watch season 3 but it was not looking good for their relationship at the end of season 2.

Pretty sure just yesterday I saw a Lemmy comment bemoaning that 88 had been co-opted for exactly this reason.

Winter, but I’m in California so of course it’s a bit different for us. I love rainy days, particularly with no wind. I prefer to be inside listening to it, but if there’s no wind, I don’t mind being out in it too much.

I mean… aren’t they already? My understanding of pigs is that they literally eat just about anything.

I let it cool and then scrape it into our food waste bin. (I don’t know if grease composts but for us it’s moot; the city doesn’t compost food waste but instead makes it into pig feed or something.)

Totally get that. I used to be that way; somewhere along the line I decided that I would not allow myself more than three WIPs at a time, and I’ve mostly been pretty disciplined about that, and it’s helped. I make a lot of sweaters for myself so when people learn that I knit, they know to ask me if I made what I’m wearing, and the answer is often “yes.” The ones who are also crafters just admire the work, but the ones who aren’t start telling me I should sell (big lol) or that they’d pay me to make them one. If I charged an hourly rate, it’d probably mean upwards of a thousand bucks for a single sweater, but they have no concept of that.

Anyway, I hear you on the learning new stitch patterns and then getting bored. I mostly knit while in meetings or watching TV these days, because it got easy. I had to learn something new (sewing) to stretch my brain because knitting wasn’t doing it anymore.

People want to pay me for my knitting. Too bad for them that the amount they want to pay me is laughable and also there’s no way in hell I’d take the time to knit someone I barely know a sweater.

I can’t burp either. Turns out my mom can’t. I wonder if it’s a genetic disability. Seriously, that may sound ridiculous but sometimes it’s really inconvenient!

Ooh, I was struggling to come up with one but you helped me think of one: vanilla-scented anything is gross in my opinion. Real vanilla is fine but the synthetic stuff is nasty. Unfortunately for me, all of my friends seemed to love vanilla-scented candles and lotions and I couldn’t escape it as a teen and college student. Bleh.

Having been a plaintiff in a civil case, with thankfully only money on the line, it was a real eye opener for me of how little the jurors actually get to see, and how much power a single judge has (read: a LOT). It really made me reflect on how absolutely awful and terrifying it must be to have your freedom on the line, and to witness something like I did that felt horrifyingly unfair, and know you could go to jail for it. And I know it happens, a lot, and disproportionately to black and brown folk no less.