Any particular reason it has to be in the fridge?

The thing is, it is actually not recommended to store tropical fruit in the fridge. So mangos, bananas, kiwis… The other thing is that most fruit doesn’t need to be refrigerated and will still stay fresh at room temperature (assuming room temp is between 20-25°C).

You can buy a bunch of green-yellow bananas and they will ripen throughout the week without going bad and leave them outside. Apples will last a long time outside of the fridge too - even in warmer/moister climates. So do citric fruit. Berries and grapes are probably the only thing I would refrigerate, as well as cut fruit. (Tbh I wouldn’t refrigerate berries either because that makes them lose their taste, so I’d just eat them right away. They are a fleeting breeze of summer that should be enjoyed within the blink of an eye.)

Why do you need to limit yourself to one type of fruit? Idk your fruit portions, we eat so much fruit at home that I am shocked we haven’t died of fructose induced liver cirrhosis yet. So get some greener bananas (store outside) for Tuesday and Wednesday, grapes in the fridge for Thursday and Friday, and bring something fresh like a mango for Monday? And just have a sack of apples as an emergency. They, like, really don’t go bad. If you buy fruit that is not fully ripe yet, then as well, leave it outside, next to the apples ideally, and they will ripen by the middle/end of the week.

Also, veggies?

I, as well, store fruit in the fridge because of fruit flies.

But man I hate cold fruit :(

it was started by a guy on his blog with an explicit statement at the start that it wasn’t true and his intent was to demonstrate how easy it was to create a conspiracy theory…

This reminds me of the guy who faked a study that supposedly claimed chocolate could help to lose weight, he put a lot of red flags in it, and it was still not only turned into headlines of numerous magazines, but was actually even published in a scientific journal that claims it does extensive peer review.

Unfortunately, this study is still referred to as of today. People still find claims that chocolate with high cocoa content can work as a weight-loss accelerator.

I am very intrigued

I have to admit being and staying sober is much easier for me if I frame it as “it’s a period in my life where I want to be sober, I choose to be sober, that doesn’t mean I have pledged to stay sober until I die”, and allowing myself the idea of a future where I will drink again feels relieving - although I realize it will most likely not happen. So your sentiment with getting back on drugs at 60-70+ resonates with me.

I’ve studied nutrition science and we talked about what you described and yes, the blunt “truth” is that liposuction is the only reliable way to really get rid of “emptied fat cells”. There are a lot of things playing into the dreaded yo yo effect but the fact that it is much easier to refill emptied cells than to make new cells via division is definitely a big factor.

(“Truth” is in “” because I dislike this term in a scientific context but english is my third language and it’s pretty late over here so I am struggling to find a better suited word)

Good luck on your weight loss journey. It is an incredibly hard and brave one to take and I admire that you are trying.

Kudos to your friend going through with a reduction to pursue her passion!

In my case, I have a very small band width, so I cannot shop in regular stores. (In my city, there is exactly one shop that has my size.) As a teen and young woman, I simply didn’t have the money to even consider a 50€ sports bra, let alone a 100€+ one. And since the selection is super limited, I didn’t even find one in my size that would - no matter the money - give enough support for comfort.

Funnily enough, regular wired bras with cups still ended up giving better support than any sports bra I could find. But they still only work so well. (And I, by far, wasn’t as passionate about sports as to get a reduction, or spend my limited bra money on a semi working, ugly sports bra.)

breast movement varies from annoyance to uncomfortable

As a teenager and young woman, not being able to find a good super supportive sports bra for my weird size was one of the reasons I stopped trying to exercise.

I still hold my boobs automatically when taking the stairs or when I run somewhere. Otherwise it hurts and feels like my breasts are being torn away from my body.

Thanks for your comment, it made me realize I mixed two things together. What I referred to is not really propaganda. It is lived experience. If you have not seen one person who successfully changed something and everyone who tried had to bear immense consequences - not just them but their loved ones - your motivation to try approaches zero. You get taught it’s not worth it. You’re powerless, and to be fair, it is rather true.

And yes, life in Russia is, for the most part, decent. You have a job. You have access to education, movies, you can build a family, buy an apartment, start a business. You can have fun. It’s not a free life with endless possibilities, there are suppressions, no free elections, all that jazz. But your everyday life is pretty ok. Why give that up for the pursuit of some higher ideal like freedom, especially when you get told over and over again that it will bring nothing good and no change. Yeah it sucks that other people die but it’s not you, and if you would so much as go outside with a piece of paper saying “No War”, your life as you know it is fucked, and the people who suffer won’t be any better off either. Solidarity is not worth the price of your sacrificing yourself and your loved ones. Basically, the struggle and pain isn’t big enough, there is still something left to lose.

Maybe I would call it self made propaganda, but this is just a gut feeling, not a real term.

Removed by mod

In my opinion, watching TV was a better experience and healthier and better, including for - but not limited to - children.

(I’ll preface this by saying I am referring to German TV, where you would get one break of commercial ads of 5-8 minutes within a show of 30 minutes, and two such breaks within a show of 60 minutes. I know in the US you get more, shorter commercial breaks. I think that makes the argument a bit stronger; however, I think it still applies to US TV as well.)

First off, you needed discipline. You want to watch that one show that airs at 3:10? You better be at home at 3:10 then. You had to make plans and keep this scheduled like an appointment, or plan to record it and program a VHS recorder.

Second, you also had to focus. No rewinding. If you miss it, you’ll have missed it. Stay focused. No phone scrolling, no attention span shortening, no second screen. You better focus your attention.

Third, you don’t binge watch. I love binge watching as much as the next person. But is it good for you? Cliffhangers are there for a reason. Having this excitement and thrill be resolved within seconds by starting the next episode takes away from the experience. Already knowing that you could just click on “play” any time you want takes something away from having to wait, waiting to know, thinking about it, imagining scenarios how something will play out in your head.

You get your daily or weekly dose of dopamine from this show, and that’s it. You don’t go on a bender. You are also automatically limiting your screen time. Especially for kids I think that is an important point. You can watch peppa pig endlessly on youtube, until you’re absolutely sick of it, or until your parents put an end to it. But if there is just one episode of pokemon a day, that’s it. You gotta wait until tomorrow. There’s nothing you can do.

Let’s even say you watch multiple shows in a row. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Art Attack, Galileo, The Simpsons. Every show gives you something else. Another plot, other emotions, other characters. You have to follow different storylines or have some non-fiction program points. That’s more diverse than watching 5 hours of handmaid’s tale or breaking bad in a row.

And even ads. Ads allow you to zap. Allow you to release this thrill that we now do with scrolling. But it, again, is self limited - you better be back in time before the commercials end. Who of us has not had days where they spent more time looking at trailers and thumbnails on Netflix etc than they spend watching an actual movie or show.

I have to add that I absolutely love your point about isolation and watching alone. I will absolutely add this the next time I am arguing that TV was better for our brains, kids, health, and sociality.

I even feel like when people from the same household are watching the same show, they now prefer to watch it alone in their rooms at their own comfort and pace. How sad is that? Is it more comfortable? Yeah sure, maybe. But TV was more social. Having to be quiet for the sake of the others. Waiting to ask “wait what did he say I didn’t get it” until there is a good time and waiting to reply until there is a good time again. This is effort. This is socializing. This is community. Using quotes from the show you watched as inside jokes.

Man I really miss TV.

I do that too! But it depends on the repair. If I just fix a seam or a tiny hole in a shirt (you know, the ones that you need 2 stitches for) then it won’t stand out and look cool but just look out of place to me.

But I agree, in general visible mending is nicer and easier.

Honestly, I have no clue what thimbles are for. But I realized at some point this year that instead of using some hard surface to push my needle through assy material and/or hurt my finger pressing too much, I can just… Use a metal thing that sits on the right spot.

Also I know this sounds weird but go to a shop and try them on. It’s weird how much a good fit helps.

The cutting out would probably be the way to go. I mean you could flap it, so it stays connected to the right spot, maybe it’s time for you to be brave and risk it. Especially since you have a sewing machine! That means the seam can turn out quite nice when put back in place. Anyway, good luck and updates are appreciated!

Love the patches. The pockets seem rather big, so the problem is not that you aren’t getting anything in, but that you cannot comfortably put the needle from inside to the outside? And I guess it is too thick to go in and out with the same stitch? If this would somewhat work you could consider a thimble, I recently rediscovered that little metal thing and it saved me a couple of times. Gets you through thick layers as long as your needle is stable (or you’re willing to sacrifice 4-5 needles for a project).

Are the patches decorative or functional? If they are decorative (i.e. covering up imperfections) you would only need a couple of stitches to hold them in place, right? Or try another glue? If they are functional (i.e. covering up holes and necessary for integrity) you would need a more profound stitch. In that case, would you consider ripping the seam on the side of the pocket to open it up? That would allow you to have better access. Once you’re done you’d obviously have to sew the pocket back on.

The other alternative is to find a friend with a kid that has small hands and pay them in gummi bears for their labor.

I’m 33 and I have been doing minor repairs since I can remember. Sewing buttons on or holes shut. Or making tiny clothes for barbies, looked awful, but worked. There are special ways of hand stitches for different purposes, but in most cases it’s a trial and error approach that in 90% of cases won’t end in “error”. You’ll figure out what feels better (like one yarn or double yarn) very fast.

But only at age 32 I invested in a cheap seam ripper. It always seemed excessive since you can basically just use sharp little scissors for that. I was wrong. I fucking love my seam ripper and I use it as a scissor now. This is so satisfying I would never ever let anyone rip any seam open for me. That’s the orgasm of sewing.

Also, you might want to use a threading aid (edit: is it called a needle threader?). Some thread is just a bitch.

Little side note: when choosing a thread to repair, try to go muted. If you have a green piece of clothing and a light green, dark green, and grey thread, very likely the grey thread will be the least noticeable, unless the green is the same shade. If in doubt go darker. For white thread I recommend going off white - unless you have a lot of white clothes, most of white stuff is off white (i.e. not crisp paper white). Some people say 100% cotton thread breaks easier than blend or polyester. So far I haven’t had any bad experience with cotton threats though.

Hey, that’s the one I bought a while back! It was actually an accidental purchase because I wanted dull needles for darning but now I end up using these needles over my old ones. They are quite nice, have good sizes, and there is at least one darning needle!

Can you post a picture?

That, my friend, was the shower thought that followed the original shower thought

Oh God I didn’t even notice that, you’re absolutely right. Or, dare I say, you are correct.

I mean, if I wanted to knit pick - I guess theoretically the earth isn’t a perfect ball, and the mountains aren’t flat, so you would need a globe with topography for it to really not be a projection but a model