• 11 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 9th, 2024

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  • I had a friend who couldn’t see them and the following explanation is how I got her to be able to:

    1. Stand two arm lengths from the picture, holding you arm out in front of you with one finger up, so that your finger is halfway between you and the picture and lined up with near the bottom of it (or you could use any distance and put your finger halfway there).

    2. Both the picture and your finger should now be in your field of view. Focus on the tip of your finger. Maintain your eyes in that focus state and shift your attention from your finger to the picture, remembering not to let your eyes change their focus.

    3. Once you have your eyes stuck into that focus length you should be able to move them around and view all parts of the picture seeing the 3D effect. But if you still have problems you can move your finger to keep it in front of your eyes and in focus while you move your eyes, but you’ll quickly learn how to keep them in the correct state with a little practice.

    This also works if you focus on twice the distance of the picture, but most people find the half-distance focus easier.





  • I’ve used a (LibreOffice) spreadsheet for the past 10 years to track everything I spend–yes, every single thing–it’s not that hard at all. Keep the receipt or make a note of it to enter when you get home. Mine is set up like this:

    One tab for each year. Rows are transactions and columns are categories (after the date, payment type, and payee/description), so one transaction row could have amounts entered in multiple columns.

    I use only about a dozen broad categories like Food, Utilities (I see no point in separating out each specific utility), Household supplies, Car, Entertainment, etc. Also sales tax and donations columns. Basically whatever you might want to see totals for. Start simple and general, and you can always add another column or two later if needed. Row totals in the final column, column totals at the top.

    I also have tabs for: Credit card charges–for reconciling with the bill (and then record the payment on the yearly tab in the appropriate categories); Medical expenses–categories are type Rx/Tx/Ins and how paid HSA/Chkg Acct/Credit card; And finally a Notes tab for entering more detailed info about any unusual/extra costs like auto/house repairs or major purchases.

    You could add Budgeting on another tab with budgeted amounts vs actual amounts (grabbed by using formulas pointing to the year tabs), but I don’t need that because my spending and expenses are pretty simple and consistent.


  • Most people would just put water in the mug (ceramic/microwave-safe of course) that they’re going to make the tea in and microwave it until it boils or bubbles just short of a rolling boil, which takes 2 or 3 minutes, depending on the microwave’s power–you’d learn the time yours takes and set the timer for that. At that point I don’t see the difference between that vs. if you poured it into the cup from the kettle. Either way you now have a cup full of boiling-hot water to steep your tea in. No, it won’t spill over if you don’t fill it all the way up to the brim.



  • I use an electric kettle but remember that in the US outlets are 120V, so they take a lot longer to heat water than in countries with 240.

    So the microwave isn’t much less efficient than the electric kettle, mainly because some of the energy is heating the mug/container. The least efficient is a stovetop kettle on an electric stove.

    But I’m curious, why are Europeans so horrified by the idea of heating water in the microwave? Is it related to power consumption, or is there some other reason?






  • Everything trump and republicans have been doing is with the goal to privatize as much of the government as possible, to funnel taxpayer money directly into private pockets. The oligarchs want that money! They hate seeing it spent on the poors.

    They want to decimate agencies until they can’t function, then use their inability to provide adequate services as the excuse to privatize, then either pay twice as much taxpayer money for the same or worse service from for-profit companies, or in some cases get rid of the services and let people fend for themselves.





  • It’s The Everglades Concentration Camp.

    We should not call this what they want us to call it. Do Not Comply. Resist and speak the truth!

    I hope we on Lemmy and elsewhere can start a trend of refusing to parrot their bullshit talking points and speak the Truth instead of spreading their propaganda for them.

    I hate that the media and the public immediately parrots whatever 1984-speak terminology they roll out, letting them define the narrative and pacify people to accept their atrocities as normal.

    (Likewise, it’s not the “big beautiful bill”, it’s the “Kill Americans to Pay Billionaires” bill. January 6 was not a “protest by patriots”, but an armed insurrection, etc. etc. etc.)