I know I’ll die with student loan debt, because I dropped out of college after four and a half years, never have had a decent job, and finally moved to another country without leaving a forwarding address. They found me once after I filed an absentee ballot, then I moved again. Welp, guess I can’t vote in the US anymore.

However, I refuse to be held back for life because of contracts I signed when I was 18 and too stupid to know what I was getting into. I didn’t even want to go to college but my mom made me.

The whole thing is ridiculous and stupid and it sucks that the way I took is the only way out, as most don’t have the option to leave the country and never come back.

Once I learned that the thing had been unrefrigerated overnight, it was no longer going into my mouth. My husband was hoping I’d rethink that, so I was actually pleased when the melted plastic made it inedible even by his very lax standards.

This was not actually my mistake, but last year we bought an expensive fresh turkey two days before Christmas, and unbeknownst to me, my husband decided to store it in the oven (mistake #1) then my son turned on the oven to cook something else, causing the turkey’s plastic bag to melt to the turkey (mistake #2).

We had ham for Christmas.

I have been online since the early '90s, and used to be extremely active on many different forums. I even ran a fairly large forum on my own website, using Simple Machines Forums- which, to my surprise, still exists- from 2005-2008 or so.

I can’t say I have a favourite- I really liked SMF back in the day but I have no idea what it looks like now. I really can say that I really miss the pre-Facebook Internet when there were loads of extremely active forums in every imaginable topic, and people found them and used them instead of just creating a Facebook group and pretending that everyone will just use that by default (I refuse to use Facebook for anything).

I don’t think of Reddit and Lemmy as forums, really, not in the old-school sense. Reddit was a poor substitute, as for many years more weight was put on links than on self-posts, and in the old-school forums I’m thinking of, things like upvotes and “likes” didn’t become a thing until they were used on Reddit and Facebook, and I honestly don’t think having those features makes the Internet better.

In 1981, I won a goldfish at the fair. My parents were annoyed about having to buy a bowl for it. It died within days (no living creature should be kept in a half gallon bowl), but I pestered my mom into buying a ten gallon tank for the replacement. This was the beginning of a lifelong hobby- I now have nine aquariums in my living room, and in the past forty-some years have spent many thousands on tanks, fish, plants, fish food, and so on. My most expensive tank cost me €5000 to set up.

And all this began because I spent a quarter and managed to get a ping-pong ball into a cup.

I’m staying right where I am. I live in a country (non-US, not really wanting to be more specific) where there is a clear geographical divide between the two sides, and I’m deep into the territory of the side I prefer and think would win easily.

Also, I have anarchist friends, and that’s who I’d personally be turning to if I needed help or was able to be helpful to others.

So someone stole some stolen items.

Don’t get me wrong, of course it’s important that items are kept safely and nobody gets to walk off with shiny things. But it’s a bit hypocritical, because the British Museum is full of things stolen from all over the world, they even have a page about it.

Yeah, that would be part 2. Part one is not generally played on radio- they would have had to start out with fans of the band or at least fans of that album, which is why I wonder “why that song?”

Of all the Pink Floyd songs they could have chosen, why on earth “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1”? Still, this is awesome.

I knew something was very different about me from childhood, but I didn’t have a name for it for the first half of my life. Then my children were both diagnosed with autism and ADHD as children because it was obvious and unmistakable. Three of my niblings also were diagnosed with ASD. Then my brother got an adult ASD diagnosis, apparently during his assessment for Disability. However, the only person qualified to assess an adult where I’m living now required cash in hand, and it was fifteen years between beginning to think “maybe I’m neurodivergent too” to my own ASD/ADHD diagnosis at age 46.

This is a great question. My own motto (stolen from Wil Wheaton of course) is “Don’t be a dick”, so whenever I learn that my words are offensive, I start using better words.

But, I am no angel. I just learned yesterday that I’ve been saying something constantly for my whole life that is offensive to the disabled- it’s simply the word “Duh”. It comes out super automatically anytime I do something dumb. I don’t mean it to be unkind to anyone with a disability- I am autistic myself- but I’m going to have to work really hard to stop using that one.

Gluten is a protein found in many grains, especially wheat. It is not in rice or potatoes.

To be honest, most gluten-containing items that I can think of are quite bland and are used to “carry” less bland foods- pasta on its own is bland, the flavour is in the sauce.

During my gluten-free years I just found other “carriers” for my flavourful items. Rice is a great example. Potatoes are another. Oatmeal bread is another. I haven’t tried gluten-free pasta in 15 years, but I understand it’s improved greatly since I needed it.

For inspiration, I’d look up recipes for those with Coelaic disease (spelled Celiac by Americans). Another common search term is “GF”. Gluten free lifestyles are so popular these days, the Internet is flooded with ideas and recipes.

I have an ultrawide and I wish I had room for a second monitor anyway, because I spent a lot of time watching videos on fullscreen.

My cheat isn’t really an awful cheat- there’s a woman in my town who runs a small Asian supermarket, who also makes handmade sushi that is just incredible. Anytime I am in there I have to get some.

I have nine planted aquariums in my living room.

I’m also into gaming, when I have a few minutes.

I’m full-time carer to a 73-year-old man and two autistic offspring who are in their 20s. So besides that and the aquariums, I’m lucky I have time to breathe.

The jokey post is true. The difference is whether a user sees this as a bug or a feature. Many of us see it as a feature. If you see it as a bug, maybe Lemmy isn’t for you.

I also don’t want to see the Fediverse “succeed”. Both Reddit and Facebook were great for a while, then they “succeeded” and enshittification began. The Fediverse is fine how it is, it doesn’t need to become the most popular thing on the internet in order to keep my interest.

I think the issue is that your are expecting a perfectly seamless, Reddit-like experience, with all the admin work done for you but also always done to your satisfaction. That isn’t what the Fediverse is about. It’s more of a DIY ethic than a “The admins suck but this is all we have” like on Reddit.

I’m also not sure what you’d need to “migrate” to a new instance other than yourself. Karma isn’t super relevant here.

My main account is on Beehaw, which has very rightfully defederated with some other instances. When I log in using accounts on other instances, I don’t see a massive amount of missed content. In fact I’ve seen so little of interest that I’ve stopped looking, it’s not worth my time.

You can always set up your own instance if you are disturbed by the actions of admins on instances that you have joined.

Alternatively, if the instance you are on changes direction, you can easily find a new one. It literally took me about half an hour after I learned about the Fediverse to get myself set up on several instances, then later on I decided which I preferred. But I didn’t delete the other accounts- they’re still there in case I want them someday.

Mine is very different to yours- I’m glad I cut off my toxic family members, but I deeply regret that I had to.