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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: August 22nd, 2023

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  • Ask a local to show you some of their winter clothes or to take you winter clothes shopping. Your warmest clothes right now are not warm enough. Capacitive touch gloves will let you use your phone.

    If you have a car, get a snow brush and ice scraper (for windshield and windows). There is winter windshield fluid, get and use it when it’s snowing. Get winter tires, it makes a difference. Insurance companies give a discount for having them. If there’s snow on the road, go slower than you think you should, and start braking at least twice as early as when it’s dry. Accelerate and brake slowly. If your car is sliding on ice, resist the temptation to keep pressing your brakes, try your best to steer the slide instead.

    If your car gets stuck in snow and you need to run it to keep it warm, make sure the tail pipe is well clear of snow (carbon monoxide). Keep an emergency blanket, hat, gloves in the car in case of breakdown. If the wheels are stuck in a snowbank (just spinning in place), some sand or non-clumping cat litter can give you traction. You can sacrifice your floor mats for this, too.

    If you walk instead of drive, consider crampons for your boots for if it gets icy out.

    There’s different textures and density to snow. Wet snow is dense and heavy, dry snow is light and fluffy. Shoveling can be very different depending on the snow. Lift/push with your legs, now with your arms or back. Take breaks if needed.

    If you wear glasses, they will fog up when you go from outside to inside. Sorry. You could get anti-fog stuff used for snow and ski goggles, but most normal people just wait for them to warm up.

    A scarf makes a big difference.

    Wool can keep you warm even when wet.

    Be prepared for power outages especially if the area does not bury power lines. Heavy snow, or worse, ice, can make tree branches heavy and fall and snap power lines. If this happens, be mindful of carbon monoxide. People, families have died trying to keep warm by running generators, stoves, etc indoors without proper ventilation.

    Snow reflects sunlight; wear sunglasses if the sun is out and there’s snow on the ground.

    Go outside and listen when the snow is falling. It makes everything quieter and it’s really ice to hear.

    Snow that’s warmed slightly then frozen again is crunchy and fun to walk on.

    If you’re north enough, the sunlight will not be sufficient for creating vitamin D. (Plus you’ll probably be indoors more, less daylight in general.) Consider a supplement.

    Consider a SAD light if lack of daylight affects your moods.






  • I think I should choose my words more carefully now that you say that. There is a difference between fault and responsibility, and it’s really more a matter of taking responsibility for things that are your responsibility.

    So let’s say I leave home in a reasonable time to meet someone. However there are a series of car crashes on the way that cause traffic to back up. The accidents did not yet occur when I left my home, so I could not have accounted for them. My lateness is not my fault, because I did not cause the situation nor could I change or avoid it, but it is my responsibility to my (friend, date, boss, whoever) to call them and let them know my new estimated time of arrival. If I don’t try to let them know, they have every right to be angry with my for showing up an hour late, even though the lateness is not caused by my action or inaction.


  • Excuses are “this is why I’m not at fault” and places the blame on someone or something else (including a circumstance). A reason is “this is why it happened” without trying to self-justify. A lot times reasons come across as excuses because the person has not taken responsibility for what they’ve done.

    If a reason doesn’t come with ownership of fault, it’s an excuse.

    Edit: see comment below about fault and responsibility






  • Don’t take it personally, applying for a job is a game of chance as much as a game of merits. It’s simply a numbers game and luck whether your resume even gets looked at in the first place, even if you’re résumé how all their keywords. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of other resumes also hit their keywords.

    If you’re lucky enough to get through the first sifting and get an interview with the hiring person (not an HR screener who doesn’t know anything about the job), then you can ask and maybe get a response on how you could have improved. (Don’t ask why you weren’t hired.)



  • goes by Robert

    I’m sorry, I think you just short circuited my brain. JK Rowling, who has so publicly and venomously been anti-trans… has spent the last few years pretending to be a man??? What in the hypocrisy is wrong with her!!!

    And now that you mention it, I’d read a long time ago, before she became public with her TERF-ness, that she went by “J K” on the HP books instead of Joanne because she or the publishers didn’t want to discourage boys from picking up a book written by a woman. And now that I’m typing this, I realize the fact that she wrote her books from a boy’s perspective, too. So in all these examples, she’s inhabiting a male persona.

    My brain… can list these facts, but cannot compute them together.





  • To be serious, yes, absolutely. How many children hear their parents just bark orders at their virtual assistants without a please or thank you, and then do so themselves? I consciously say please and thank you because I want the children around me to learn they should say please and thank you.

    And, let’s be honest, how many adults get used to just barking orders without a please and thank you and then interact with people that way, too?