I’ve been regularly downloading the 100+GB data dumps of wikipedia on an annual basis for the past few years. It seems the worse the world gets, the more often I download another new copy.

I use Kiwix and download the ZIM files to keep it updated.

The majority of people I know who have major computer problems solve them by buying another computer

Then the beanie baby addiction intervention team moves in

My favourite was from last year.

I set up my pumpkins outside, leave the lights on and door brightly lit to let everyone know I’m serving candy.

Most of everyone in the neighbourhood leave a bowl or box of candy at the door to let kids serve themselves. I’m one of the few that actually goes to the door to serve the kids. … I love this stuff and I always make sure to have a good supply of chocolates, candies and chips to give out in good portions for everyone.

A little girl in a princess outfit gets to my door without my noticing, she opens the door, steps in … she must have seen the four big boxes of chocolates, candies and chips in front of her … and she only reached in and took one tiny little chocolate!!!

I got to the door just after she left … she stopped, said ‘Trick or Treat … I got my candy, thank you!’ … I stopped her and told her to come back and gave her way more candy than any other kid that year … I couldn’t believe that she only took that little bit of candy. She was wide eyed, happy and giggled and ran off into the night … best trick or treater that year.

This year I bought a whole mess of chocolates, candies and chips and probably bought too much … my wife absolutely hates me for it but I love this holiday and I spend more money on this than on Christmas. I served over a hundred kids and gave them tons of stuff but I still had quite a bit left over.

I kept waiting after 9:00pm and the kids started to disappear and no one was around … my wife said it was over but I kept waiting because I wanted to dump my remaining supply to anyone that appeared. A couple of goofy teenagers arrived. One was in a Mike Myers costume and other guy didn’t even have a bag and was dressed in a bloody suit. I told them it was their lucky night and I dumped the remainder of my first box to the Myers kid … then gave a spare pillow case to the other guy and filled up his bag … they were both acting goofy and thought I would be another adult that would make fun of them but instead they were really happy to get all the candy. I was happy to give it all up because I had been snacking on sugar for the past six hours. They were two of the happiest kids of the night for me.

Just use full long tooth picks to keep the cheese on. Leave the picks sticking out long enough for you to find them and remove them after.

At least someone put a light inside the pumpkin :(

God #1: … I’ll give him a lifespan of 1,000 years!

God #2: … you don’t think that’s a bit too much?

God #1: … OK, OK … 80 years then!

My favorite is an old clock I got from an old cottage I was renovating. I broke the glass on it but it still worked so I propped it up on the wall to help me keep time. I worked for months with that clock on the wall, never changed the battery and just thought, I’ll keep it until the battery dies … I thought it was just some old cheap thing that wouldn’t last.

I renovated for two years and the clock kept ticking, I grew to appreciate it decided to keep it. It survived I don’t know how many -40, -50 degree winters frozen solid and it still kept time. In the spring I think I adjusted it for a ten or fifteen minute correction (allowing for daylight saving time).

I finished renos and now the clock is in the living room and I’ll never get rid of it, it’s part of the building now as far as I’m concerned.

20 years later and the clock is still there and I’ve only changed the batteries twice, maybe three times. I changed the batteries so few times, I can’t remember the last time I did.

AI probing for users in the fediverse

Sir … this is a Wendy’s

Meth and Christian nationalism

That’s the father

Does this mean that there is some reclusive Vietnam veteran with mystical powers meeting some geeky young kid in a run down trailer park in the deserts of Arizona and they’ll pair up with a truck driving privateer and his huge overly hairy former wrestling superstar that mumbles a lot, in their 18 wheeled highway tractor trailer they call the Centennial Turkey.

Easy … because that’s the excess supply from last year being sold as new this year.

Most definitely involves luck in many cases. My wife currently has pulmonary fibrosis, a life shortening disease that basically slowly erodes your lungs. We did our best to take care of ourselves, good food, not too much, not too little, vitamins, health conscience, exercise, keeping active, healthy mind, staying active, staying connected … and neither being too excessive or obsessive of taking care of ourselves either.

We have a doctor friend of ours who told us … it was just luck … we caught a bad flu a few years ago, just before the pandemic. I got over it, she never did and still hasn’t. She is healthy as anything otherwise but her lungs will give out in a year maybe two, possibly three but the end is coming and its horrible to think about.

We did everything right, we just didn’t get lucky.

My grandma on my mom’s side lived to be 85 but she had a bit of dementia at the end.

My grandpa on my dad’s side lived to be 85 too and his mind was great but his body wasn’t.

But every time I hear stories of people who lived long lives, you have to compare that to the number of people they outlived or those people from their generation who didn’t make it.

For every 99 year old, there were hundreds or even thousands that didn’t make it to that age. It’s really a very lucky thing to live that long … and even more like winning a lottery to live that long and have a bit of health and be in your right mind.

Yeah, I keep reminding people, especially young people about this.

What’s the use of living until you’re 70 if you spend the last ten years of life living in a body that is half dead?

I know one guy who worked in heavy industry retire at 65 and decided to just smoke, drink booze and eat junk on his couch for his retirement. He loved it for about two years. Then he had heart attack, diabetes, and early signs of dementia. He lingered for 8 more years living a miserable life before he died a slow death in hospice for about a year.

One my of neighbours is 80 years old and still at home … but for the past ten years, he’s been battling cancer, heart problems and almost semi regular infections of some kind. His entire life is just pain every day. He keeps ending up in the hospital for something … only to return a week or two later after having survived. He is just miserable all the time and the only way anyone can see him coming out of all this is to die.

I have another old friend who is 70, great heart, good weight, good bodily health … but she has Alzheimers … and she’s had signs of it for the past ten years. She’ll live for a while but what kind of life is it to not have your memory for the last ten years of your life?

Take care of yourself as much as possible now while you are young. Sure some of this is just genetics or luck but I’d rather try my best to have a decent quality of life later on than do things to guarantee I’ll be miserable at the end of my life.

Nationalism is nationalism and it all depends on the culture and race group

White Caucasians want a white nationalist state

Blacks want a black nationalist state

I’m Indigenous Canadian and I know a few extremely minded Native people who believe in a Red Nationalist State … I’ve known a few that if they saw a white guy on their home reserve, they’d beat up the white guy just because they were white.

It’s a human emotion … we like to be part of an ‘in’ group … and we want our ‘in’ group to be the one in control and hold power over all the other groups.

Any fascist state no matter the culture or identity is a fascist state that no one should ever tolerate

I’d say thanks … then ask them for a blender