I still travel because learning about the world is fun(and cheap) and every time I’m in a new country it’s no small measure of reassurance that most people are kind.

I graduated as a kid with 2 retirees in my psych classes who told me getting their degree was one of the most important, rewarding things they had ever done.

Also, nowadays you can travel abroad in dozens of countries, take English-language courses and get accredited degrees in every field for very affordable tuition fees, as in 90% cheaper than the US.

While you’re attending those schools, your cost of living will be dramatically lowered as well.

If anyone wants details, talk to me here or in Travel.

Got it, thanks.

Then a hundo percent on a “reduce motion” option.

Are the vote animations the colors or the score auto update function?

I like the color indicators for my votes, but would gladly give them up for a “reduce motion” option that kept the docks stable. Persistent docks are far more important to me in terms of app useability.

Totally get it about inbox swiping, seems like a down the line thing that would integrate with the rest of your app design eventually, but is in no way critical even to me as someone who brought it up.

Thanks. A few appearance items became salient for me. Maybe opt-in appearance choices in general would or will take care of these issues without interfering with the simplicity I really appreciate in blorp:

Biggest one is no auto hiding the docks, I find it distracting for them to pop in and disappear every time I scroll up or down.

Comment/post margin width slider or color picker; it seems just on the side of unnoticeable to me so i have to discern the margin actively rather than intuitively.

Inbox slide left/right for tab selection, although I only tried to do this because of how smooth blorp is in general, and I get it’s weird to implement because then are you refreshing the data with each slide or what.

Color differentiation for user/comm in replies, helps differentiate the post title and user info from the reply. bolding the post title is helpful, but I still find the white text of the post title leading into the white text of a comment just noticeable rather than intuitive, whereas i find the jerboa reply info intuitively simple to pick out user/comm/post title/comment

Personally i don’t need the “replied to your post in” reply phrase, seems like clutter in the to add the “replied” phrase in the reply tab, but I’m sure I’d get used to it.

And that’s really it, a few appearance items that make scrolling a couple degrees less intuitive, or want to check inbox or profile but have to scroll up to get the docks back.

I like blorp, it’s the first alternative lemmy app i’m going to keep to see how image support compares, because I know jerboa has issues playing gifs and rendering images from certain sites.

I’ve tried every alternative I’m aware of, but they all seem overbuilt or insisted on a particular layout so I got rid of them.

Blorp certainly seems functionality and user-focused, thanks and great work!

Okay, I’ll try it. Happy birthday blorp.

A few minutes later: Welp that switch profiles and stay on the post you’re viewing is pretty great. blorp is probably going to get a longer trial run than basically any jerboa alternative so far.

The simplicity is nice.

Good name too.

I did that with podcast hosts recently, their faces were not at all what my brain had conjured up.

Pete looks a lot scruffier/grunge in earlier videos, but he’s a dad guy now and it’s been a couple decades.

Still got some clear-as-a-bell pipes!

If you like his voice, he does some interesting solo stuff with a different sound i think turned out really well, that’s probably my favorite track from the album “In Measured Hundredweight”.

Did you have a specific image of him in your head? I’d love to hear what you saw in your mind’s eye initially.

Ha, rad. I still listen to the first album regularly. I love Someday and This, Girl in the Sea(got the t-shirt!), About Schroeder,pretty much all of it.

When I taught English in China, Michael became a favorite breaktime music video for my students. Great art style.

What a coincidence, did you know they released a new Battleship music video today?

Premiere was a few hours ago.

So happy to see them getting some attention, i love them too.

Tonal, using different tones to differentiate meaning:

The car. The car?

You intonate the “a” differently to denote different meaning.

Logographic - picture-based writing.

What if a Chinese language became the global standard rather than English, for example.

Hey, yup!

I’ve been traveling for 15 years in 30 countries and most people are very receptive to respectful American tourists, especially if you take an interest in the culture and learn the standard greeting. They love it if you like the food, which i am very good at!

Everyone asks where I’m from, and nobody is upset when I tell them the US.

In vietnam, they love it because they kicked our ass in the war.

I’m not sure, but it seems like voting, because this month i had two surprise hits in Travel that got ~200 votes each and now Travel tallies almost 800 monthly users, much higher than before.

Since we’re well past the first of the month, i was thinking it’s a running tally of the last 30 days of community engagement(votes) in a community.

That’s great, let the notion simmer. I heard about teaching overseas multiple times before the right opportunity struck at the right time.

Teaching English is such a quick, comfortable route out of the US rat race, and travel is a wonderful way to build curiosity, respect and tolerance.

I worked with a 67 year old English teacher in Beijing, so with a teenage son, you’re probably well within the comfortable age range for English teachers. With 2 billion English students, they aren’t saying no to many native speakers.

You can always start with an hour or two a week on an online platform too, if traveling isn’t in the cards right now.

Thanks for reaching out, someone else from the US I’ve been talking to just let me know twenty minutes ago they’re moving to Portugal with their wife! I hope these posts stay useful, and I’ll be here to offer advice and encouragement as long as I’m able.

If you or your teenager have any questions about travel now or later, let me know!

The mission impossible with the Burj Kalifa.

All the MI?

Thanks, it was definitely the pivot I needed at the time. I recorded a podcast episode with the full story, retelling it makes me laugh every time.

I was on CL looking for an N64 controller and this drunk guy posted an ad for an English teacher in Beijing in the for sale part of craigslist.

I thought that misplaced ad was funny, applied, got the job and flapped over to Beijing to teach.

Rocked. made more than in the states working less than half as much ($2500 USD/month for 9-20 teaching hours a week), cost of living was insignificant, great food, learned mandarin, started traveling and never stopped, and a lot more!

I’m building up Travel right now; it’s good because it’s all real travel stories and information.

Feel free to browse or post, any travel questions or discussions are welcome and you would be the first not-me posting!

Thanks, I hadn’t realized it had become so commonplace.

Thanks, I’m familiar with how liquid bandages work(TIL thread about their military origins) and unhappily familiar with necrotizing fasciitis, I’m more curious about the commercial availability of liquid bandages as I hadn’t realized they were common in pharmacies yet.

Glad to hear it worked out so well for you! Thanks for the testimony, I’ve heard super glue prevents scars but yours is the first personal confirmation, very cool.