Actually, Canada is a leader in high speed rail studies.

I can’t tell for BlueSky because I have not joined yet, but I did create a Mastodon account months ago and I’m not sure what to do with it or how to interact with others. I find it confusing.

On Twitter I was mostly following a bunch of like minded people, liking their stuff, and I could see what they liked too. But on Mastodon there’s uuh, boosts and favorites?! I’m not sure of how it works or what I’m doing. I can’t just “like” posts? I have to boost them?! I found the people I liked that were on Twitter, but on Mastodon I feel like there’s nothing I can do aside from seeing posts and it’s just not attractive.

I can’t stand ads. It’s even worse on TV when they yell them at you. So I actually stopped watching TV in 2009 because I couldn’t stop the ads, and I was tired to have the TV trying to convince me to buy a car every 15 minutes.

If I want to watch something that was on TV, I download it from… * the internet *.

My parents still watch TV and just let the ads blast in the background, and we need to yell over them to talk. I hate it. Then they’re like “oh it’s just like in the ad”. I don’t know how they can tolerate this. I did when I was younger but when I realized that the TV was trying to sell me twice a car in 15 minutes, or about 8 times an hour, I couldn’t help but notice and it’s just really annoying.

Then you can stay on forums that needs to be refreshed, or uuuh… isn’t there a proprietary IRC like thing for young people, something like Disco? Or Discom. Or Discord? Apparently it’s much like IRC but without the freedom.

I use TheLounge which saves and display history for me.

Convos also does that.

I am still on IRC, have my own server, and use TheLounge as a client. We can paste mp3s, mp4s and images on the channels. It just works fine for us.

What? It’s hard to hear anything with all that noise.

IRC still exists. There’s nothing stopping anyone from joining a server and a few channels.

I’ve been burned once. You open up to someone that says they want to help but then you learn that they use Windows and “don’t care about which OS people use”.

Meanwhile I’ve always been the one that takes the smallest possible meal at McDonald’s, and would think that 5 nuggets with fries and drinks is just enough. In fact I hate going to restaurants in general because portions are always much too big for me. I can’t usually take doggy bags, and I feel like I’m wasting most of what I’m served. I can’t recall even finishing a plate in a (real) restaurant; there’s always too much. I’m always like “oh it was really tasty but I can’t eat much more!”

Why do you see it as targeting Trump voters? I’m in Canada and we also have people driving giant SUVs in McMansions whining about gas and energy prices. It’s fair and legitimate to bitch about the price of food, however it’s also easy to see that the average North American car is now more like a tank, and that people whining about gas prices don’t seem to be able to look into a mirror.

Yes, most of the people owning monster trucks will also vote Conservative here, or for a conservative party, I guess it’s a political statement on its own. But it’s also very easy to find liberals (as in neo-liberals, not “the left”) with gas guzzlers bitch about gas prices.

Or 71 stone.

No it’s not. Not in my country. Here it’s independent courriers like “Apple Express”. Last time it was something called “eMile”.

The regular post has access to my mailbox, knocks on my door for bigger packages, and leaves notes asking me to go get it at the post office if I’m not home. This is what happens with eBay. But every time I ordered from AliExpress, it was sent by some random “logistics company” and my packages end up “delivered” in places where I can’t find them,. It’s absolutely not the regular post for what I have ordered from them in the past.

Fuck off with your assumptions! You seem to think I’m blaming ThE ChiNeSE HaLF a WoRLd AwAy. I mentioned I’m also buying from eBay and the packages are delivered to me, and I can find them! I’m “blaming” AliExpress’ weird delivery system, not a whole country nor ethnicity. Again, if AliExpress sent my orders via normal post, I would be able to find them. But because they send them via multiple weird courrier companies that just end up dumping packages on the floor of a high rise lobby and mark it as delivered, it’s just pointless for me to order from them. If there’s one person to blame, it’s me for ordering from them when I know it’s a huge gamble.

I’m glad if it’s working well for people living in houses and for others, but for me, ordering from AliExpress doesn’t work most of the time. It’s not the fault of people HaLf A WoRlD AwAy, it’s just not working out for me where I live. Stop putting words in my mouth.

Hey, that’s me. More or less.

I have been living paycheck to paycheck for about two decades but things changed during the pandemic. I got a substantial raise, stopped smoking, and kept the same micro apartment in a high rise for years. I also live alone, refuse to pay for a car, and don’t have any children.

So I was able to put some money aside in the last years and now, I take extended vacations (I took 8 weeks this year), I travel, and treat myself with what I want.

My sister wonders how I can afford to take that much time off work to go to different countries and think that I just recently found interest in traveling but really, it’s just because I can afford it now.

Doesn’t really matter. In the end, I should know that ordering from AliExpress where I live just ends up as packages being “delivered” and me not finding most of them.

The slow death of the American empire. It may push the rest of the world to a geopolitical realignment that excludes the US. This could allow international organizations to proceed without having the US veto human rights, actions against climate change, or things like that.

It’s not their fault per se but more in the way their delivery system is setup. I live in a building with over 300 apartments. A place where ordering anything that will be left on the floor of the lobby for more than a few hours is going to be stolen.

If I order from eBay, they use the local post and my stuff is either left in my mailbox, or I have to go get it at the post office. It’s never left on the floor.

If I order from Amazon, they will usually (not always) put my packages in the secure lockers. And if I’m waiting for something rather pricey, their estimate is good enough that I can stay home that day.

But ordering from AliExpress is a huge gamble for me. I don’t live in a house, don’t have a door giving on the outside, and their courriers are not consistent. Sometimes they call me on my phone and they (apparently) want me to open the downstairs door, but I can’t do it this way because they have to ring my apt # on the doorbell. So they lose patience, hang up and I can’t find where the package was left. I have never had a delivery that went smoothly with them. I tried with cheap items first and delivery was always spotty. That’s why I should have known better. Ordering from them and have packages delivered where I live is a taking a risk. Their delivery estimates is also all over the place. The package was supposed to arrive yesterday but it arrived on a Friday evening while I was out of town for three days. I just can’t stay home for two to three weeks waiting for the AliExpress courrier to leave my package on the floor of my apartment’s lobby.

It would probably be much better if I lived in a house and they simply left the package in front of it. Like, if I ever order from them again, it will be at my parents’ house. But because I live in a tower with a lobby, they just dump the packages on the floor of the entrance, mark it as “delivered”, and I usually never find them. I would really really prefer if they used the local post instead of weird random inconsistent courrier companies.

Yeah, having more than half the US population vote for fascism is the Democrats’ fault, obviously. They should have changed their strategy so that people that like fascism vote for them instead of a fascist. Damn Democrats forcing Americans to vote for fascism by making the other half apathetic.

If at least the Democrats would have done enough to get the votes of non-fascists Americans, they could have won and spend another 4 years of status quo.

Go ahead and blame the Democrats because half of the US population has voted for fascism. It’s partly right. But it also ignores the fact that whatever the Democrats would do, a very significant chunk of the US population is convinced fascist policies is the way to go.

Yes, same for me.

I’ve been working nights for about 20 years and it was easier when I was younger. Now that I am in my early 40ies I find it more difficult to just go to bed and sleep.

Some weeks I can keep a steady schedule, sleep during the day and feel well rested, but other weeks I can’t get more than a few hours during the day and feel miserable when I work.

However it’s also changing with seasons and things I do during the weekend. I tend to sleep less in summer because of the heat and the light. Also I go camping during the weekends and have to sleep during the night, then switch back to day sleeping during the week. It’s much easier in winter because it’s always cold and dark and I just stay home.

So, it varies a lot for me.

Not great for money but could be worse.

I should have known better than order from AliExpress, as I’ve had a $200 package probably stolen. It was delivered to the floor of the lobby in a building that has 300+ apartments, a Friday evening, and I couldn’t get home until Monday. There are secure lockers but they were not used. So yeah, no package and AliExpress is like “but it was delivered so it’s your problem”.

Also, winter is coming here and I hate it, so I’m trying to plan a short trip in the Carribean in a few weeks, and maybe a longer one in January. It’s probably going to be St-Martin for now. Hopefully, the planning and the trip itself will help me take my mind off all the recent shitty news.