Yeah. I feel bad for you owner but even worse for those employees who were fired or who quit to avoid it. Well maybe I feel terrible for both

I feel like once companies / malicious actors know about a place where honest insights from real people occur they try to attack and manipulate their agenda. I wonder how to keep it real and honest. Hopefully user run forum like this can become and maintain that place

Maybe there is some justice. But unfortunately only when someone finds these abuses. So many must be going undetected

Mint worked better with my printer than windows every did right out of the box.

I went to Edinburgh when they did their Tattoo / Fringe / International festival a few years ago. It was one of the most fun I have ever had traveling. The energy of the crowds, the street fairs and food were amazing and then going to see tons of live comedy and / or shows was amazing. I want to go again and just try to see as many shows as possible especially some of the smaller ones. I might even be interested in going to see the Tattoo.

This may be one of the dumbest takes I have ever seen. Sanctions are done instead of armed combat as a diplomatic tool. So instead of using those we should “checks notes” go to more war? That way war kills more people than sanctions.

The two that I have had the most success were both hobbies I enjoyed that had a regular group that happens weekly. One was an in person weekly DnD game at a local game shop. It was great to chat about TTRPGs DnD and other nerdy things with everyone since I loved it. (It was in Chicago and few of the older people played with Gygax which was awesome.)

The second was a weekly distance running group that I am still kind of a part of. We run for an hour for a similar route and then go out for pizza. It was great to chat with whoever was my own speed. when running and then with everyone for food afterwards. I do some endurance sports and it was fun to hear about all the crazy things the really good ones did.

Both were weekly, in person and were things I was interested about. These are the key

Do you have a good brand recommendation? Or something to look for? My wife always complains about how tub being too small and she is tiny compared to me. I can never fit

Like everything there’s some puritan morals involved. Most of which are around how sex and sexual desire are gross and not important. Couple that with the idea that suffering makes you a good person they all connect.

Also I think media plays a big role as well. Some toxic relationships are glorified in rom-coms and other media. Add in the normalization of weaponized jealousy in reality TV. Throw in the new micro cheating that the Internet and relationships experts who make mountains out of molehills. It’s a complex mix

If you are really interested in learning more about infidelity I would suggest you read / listen to Dan Savages’s columns / podcast. Unsurprisingly there are a lot of different calls and discussions about fidelity and monogamy. I would also suggest you read Ester Perel groundbreaking novel The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity

To answer your question directly infidelities are fairly common because monogamy is difficult and society typically puts a lot of stress and pressure on monogamy that makes it even more difficult. The foremost is the idea that monogamy as a default setting and that one person can be everything for one person sexually, emotionally etc… So we have a situation where two people are assuming that their partner will be the only person they can be attracted to, the one person that can fulfill all their emotional needs and will have to be a perfect roommate / life mate. This coupled with the idea that you have to be perfect at monogamy or you are a complete failure at it. So you have a hard situation and hard expectations so people slip and some people who slip on something small (a micro-cheating which is a ridiculous concept) they go all the way. All these expectations are common in “Straight-land” while those in “queer-land” have a different set of expectation that work better for everyone.

We should all make monogamy an regular opt-in conversation for relationships (I would suggest ~6 months in when you go exclusive and then at most every 5 years). Moreover, we should understand our monogamist partner finds other people attractive and chooses to not pursue anything not that they don’t find anyone else attractive. Finally, we should understand a our partner needs friends, hobbies and confidant who are not us to rely on. Until that happens “cheating” will likely remain something that happens fairly regularity

There are science behind cooking but its mostly with methods instead of inputs. If anyone is interested [Salt Fat Acid Heat](https://www.saltfatacidheat.com/] and (The Food Lab)[https://www.amazon.com/Food-Lab-Cooking-Through-Science/dp/0393081087] are more scientific about methods and made for home cooks. You can also look at On Food and Cooking which is much more textbook like about the science of cooking. Its there but not in standardized measurements and units for recipes

I was thinking saying that expecting precision from a natural product is a fools errand. So embrace the imperfection and go crazy

I was a professional chemist for around ~7 and love to cook. My suggestion is to stop expecting precision with an imprecise and natural product like cooking. Are your lemons larger? They also might be sweeter, tarter, juicer etc. than others. Same thing with teaspoons. The spices you are using may be more or less concentrated than who wrote it.

Lean into the uncertainty and be free. Double or even triple spices to see if you like it. Measure with your heart

My wife also has a better sense of smell then me. We don’t fight about it but I have spent a bunch of time trying to find the phantom smell.

She’s pregnant now and her super smell is even more potent. So I had to do a lot of kitchen cleaning and I had to a lot of cooking. It’s a thing for sure

To combat this you can fill a heat tolerant water bottle with some boiled water, wrap it in a shirt or sweater to prevent burning, and put it into your sleeping bag to warm it up quickly.

The first time I did this I ended up so hot that I had to take it out. Its a wonderful trick and I have woken up spooning the cool water bottle in the morning

Role-playing game isn’t about miniatures

I feel like miniatures is a separate and interrelated hobby. I don’t really enjoy it but its nice to have something physical for combat. That being said free VTTs do so to replace the need for that.

It’s not about the ogre, it’s about whether choices have an impact on the story.

This is exactly my point is that by relying on it constantly there is no actual real choice and its just lying about railroading the players. If I have the choice about going to clear out the undead in the forbidden temple or clear out the bandits on the outskirts of town and behind the scenes its the same dungeon map I will never know nor will I care. But if I go to kill the undead at the forbidden temple and end up at the bandit camp why make this choice? I love being able to re-use material like this, (In fact I had a dungeon that was an extra-dimensional space where the players got to choose between monsters and demons which used the same map). Same thing if a group of assassins is coming to attack the party and they are deciding between going shopping or the spa. The assassins will find them either way at whatever place they are doing. This is a great use. But if I heard rumor about these assassins and attempt to hide from them but no matter what I do they will always find me that is removing choice.

I think its more of an advanced technique that given as some beginner friendly advice. Its easy to use it all the time to reduce agency instead of using it sparingly.

If you are dungeon mastering I would recommend avoiding the Quantum Ogre as much as possible. The idea here is to use the same encounter depending on whatever decision the party chooses. This is tempting because this reduces prep work and can reuse information. However, if the decision doesn’t have any consequence why make the players make this decision? TTRPG are about collaborative story telling so decisions so matter and if they don’t why am I even playing. If you want to reduce your prep maybe have the same monsters but at least change the terrain or starting criteria.

If there is decision lead clues about what might be different between the options if it is important decision. These clues might not be obvious but that is what skills checks are for. Make decisions worthwhile so players feel engaged

https://www.npr.org/ and https://www.mprnews.org/ are my go to sources

Remember this is a marathon and not a sprint. So think in long terms for fixing things. Even if you sell the house having something done correctly will increase the value. Fix something and maintain as best as possible to keep it working or as high value. This feels best if you do it room by room so you can enjoy the things you fixed.