I scrolled your posts/comments quick, and you seem a pretty lively and engaging person. I think you will do fine, it’s just important to keep in mind things can grow really slowly here since it’s a much smaller user base than a lot of platforms we’re used to anymore. Best of luck!

I try to make anyone that does participate feel like their comments/posts matter. I engage back with everyone so they feel seen/heard. I try to pay attention to what topics they want to discuss. I try to find new things they probably haven’t seen on their own to keep them surprised. I mainly just act like the people here are already my friends and treat them as such since it’s such a relatively small space.

I’ve been back on a pickled egg kick. I use this guy’s recipe.

Especially if you have a handful about to go out of date, this keeps them from going to waste.

Otherwise, the soy marinated ramen eggs are probably the best eggs. Delicious and comes with a bowl of ramen on the side.

If one is ever in Pittsburgh, the Heinz History Center has a Fred Rogers exhibit with a ton of stuff to get the nostalgia going with sets, puppets, props, and outfits. I really enjoyed it and the rest of the museum is great as well.

One can go to other language versions of the Wikipedia as well and the info is different. The pages aren’t just translations from English.

I’ll check out different countries’ pages sometimes to see different culture references or to see what names are in other languages. Very useful.

en.wikipedia

de.wikipedia (translated)

No shade at the other answers, but I feel this is the only answer to the actual question concerning “overpriced” items. Even OP’s example, they are getting something for their extra expense: convenience. The others are things that people are buying even though there are less expensive alternatives available, but I don’t think anyone would say they aren’t at least getting a perceived value for the extra cost.

On the other hand, we have historic RAM prices to get an idea of true value, and it is only speculation that is driving up the cost. The RAM hasn’t gotten any better, it’s not even new, it cost you more than it should, but you need it, so you have to suck it up and pay a premium while getting nothing extra in return.

Every bit counts! Good luck! 🦎

I volunteer at a wildlife rehab clinic. I don’t get to treat the animals, but we get to do all the other work. I feed them, clean their area, check them to make sure their recovery is going well, we weigh them, prep various food mixes and formulas. There’s a ton of housekeeping like dishes, laundry, and sterilizing crates. I’ll also greet people that arrive with animals and grab one of the staff to get the intake started.

We also have events where I’ve directed cars where to park, ran games for the kids, and answered animal questions. I got put on the open house planning group so I will help plan and build new activities, and if we we’re able to get a new owl ambassador by then, I will run meet and greet things with it. I also got asked to help design some new shelters due the various raptors.

Our shifts are 4 hours, one day a week, from April through September, but I’ve been participating in random things over the winter.

I like working with animals because most of their injuries are caused by humans, and they are unable to advocate for themselves. I get to work with amazing people and see a ton of rare animals most people don’t even know we have. It can be difficult to see severely injured animals, have a lot die on you, to see people crying bringing in hurt animals, especially little kids, but there is also the reward of seeing animals recover and return to their homes.

I’m mainly there for raptors, but the most touching story was a little boy found a bumble bee with a damaged wing. He took it to his parents and he wanted to help it. They dialed us up and he asked if we could fix his bee. We can often fix butterfly wings, but bees are too tiny, and he was near the end as it was, but we set that bee up in a terrarium with soft bedding and half an orange, and for the rest of his days, we took care of that bee like any other animal we’d get through our doors.

While 6 yr old me and 16 year old me w of uld have wildly different opinions, the most significant 2 that I still love today as much as back then are:

The Simpsons, and Batman the Animated Series

Many things I’ve seen since then can’t top those two.

Thankfully the owls provide an endless stream of great content. I’m glad you all enjoy it so much.

100% this. I “played” guitar and bass for about 20 years, doing tabs and YouTube lessons. I could do plenty of stuff passably, and have been in a few bands and played a few shows in public that went fine.

I got a Rhodes piano for free, and started doing the same learning on my own. My wife signed me up for 6 months of lessons with a real teacher as a gift. I learned so much in my now 2+years with her than the 20 years on my own.

You can get any lesson you want somewhere online, but it isn’t tailored to you or what you want/need to learn.

My teacher asks me what my goals are, and she figures out how to get me there. She sees where I’m at, can pick pieces and lessons to study that aren’t too hard or too easy, and corrects me before bad habits set in. I’ve learned the benefits of reading sheet music vs tabs, I’ve learned scales and how to apply them, and everything I learn is in proper order to allow it to make sense!

As I spend more time learning with her, all the random stuff I “learned” in my own actually clicks into place because I’m getting taught it all in proper context. It’s like building a kit by having someone read you the instructions step by step as opposed to you just opening a box full of pieces and trying to figure out what it is you’re building randomly as you go.

You are right, I completely forgot about Book Club! Shame on me. 😮

Thanks for reminding me of this! With having reached my limits with US politics, I’ve dropped all my podcasts for the last few months so I haven’t heard Margaret for a while now.

Margaret is great on every topic she covers, but as someone who isn’t trans, I feel she’s really helped me to have a better understanding about the internal and external pressures surrounding the subject matter. I’m sorry I still can’t really verbalize any of my feelings on it, but I’d say to anyone thinking that writing about trans people is written only for trans people, I don’t find this to be the case with any of Margaret’s work. I’ve never had the physical sensation of someone unlocking parts of my mind so frequently to things it couldn’t grasp before.

I’ve been wanting to find something to break up my power run of reading Discworld for the first time, and I think this would be a great book to do that with.

The Critic was amazing.

Most hoots will be them guarding their territory. Owls have a home range of a few miles they will defend. They will allow a mate and first year offspring in that area, but anyone else is typically unwelcome, as they need to protect their food supply and safe resting areas. Both are limited and crucial for their survival.

Owls can identify each other by their hoots. They are unique just as you can tell other humans’ voices apart.

They have a vocabulary of around 2 or 3 dozen sounds, but owls are capable of all kinds of noises and non verbal cues as well.

While not helping people directly, wild animal rescues usually only require one 4 hour shift a week. I do weekends and we have plenty of openings where we could use more help. You can’t just come and go as you please, you pick a shift at the start of the season (March/April to Sept/Oct) and stick to it so we can know we at least have minimal staff. Our shifts are split 8-noon, noon-4, and 4-8.

You will meet a ton of great people, see some truly amazing sights, experience the strength and delicateness of nature, and provide a valuable service to your local ecosystem.

And don’t feel bad “just donating money!”. We can’t do anything without cash. Wildlife rescue doesn’t receive any public money anywhere in the world I’m aware of, and I’m sure many causes are the same way. Yes, groups need people’s time, but we could do a thing without supplies or just plain paying utilities and all the boring overhead costs.

He took a quick drag off the stinger before he tossed it. 😄

It really just got blasted in the face with some flashlight bigger than it is. Their pupils adjust much faster than ours, but I’m sure it’s still unpleasant.

I started with guitar, then bass, then piano.

Guitar over only really played for fun with other people. I’ve played bass in 3 bands, 2 of those publicly. Piano I’ve played solo at recitals and publicly a few times as part of an ensemble group. Guitar and bass were self taught, so I plateaued early on, but I take piano lessons now. I also have a sampler/drum machine I play around with and use to make backing tracks to practice the other instruments.

I’m not very good at any of them in my own opinion, but it doesn’t take much to have fun. I think it’s harder to be good alone than playing with other people, though as an introvert, it’s hard to get over the initial hump of getting together with people.

Even the tiny Elf Owl, the smallest of all 250ish owls, at 5 inches/13 cm, loves to snack on scorpions.

Owls are beasts!

Owl is a doll.

Here’s a baby Saw Whet Owl, one of my fav owl babies.