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Also, I think you might be hard-pressed to find anyone who would consider sugary cake sponge to be “bread”. (Something something Ireland’s supreme court ruled that Subway’s bread isn’t legally bread for tax purposes due to its high sugar content)

It’d be like layering up some sourdough slices with sweet sugary icing slathered between them, most people probably wouldn’t call that a cake.

I’ve actually taken note of my navigational skills over the last couple years… I grew up in one state, and then a few years after graduating college, moved to a different state. When I was growing up, phone navigation didn’t really exist as it does now, cars didn’t have built-in navigation, and standalone navigation devices were slow and not all that great (at least the ones I could afford).

I find that when I return home, even 10 years later, I am able to navigate all the places I used to go unaided with ease, back-roads, niche routes, able to travel for hours without getting “lost”.

When I moved, though, I had very recently gotten my first smartphone, and google maps was very convenient to “learn” the new area. I ended up just continuing to use navigation since it was convenient. I’ve found that beyond the major main routes, I don’t have the same kind of “built-in” navigational skill that I do for my original home-turf. I never really learned the area.

I am moving towards a smart-phone-less life, and I’ve been able to let go of a lot, but GPS navigation remains a sticking point. I need to start training myself to navigate unaided in my current area.

I think it was just an odd way of making him seem more human and normal. Also the fact that he doesn’t mention anything about it also happening in his previous lives leaves an interesting open question that could either lend credence or hinder his whole backstory… At least that’s how I interpreted it.

All in all, though… one of the less awkward and more impactful sex scenes in a science-y book, which is much better than the usual ones I remember because they’re terrible and awkward and don’t fit in with the surrounding plot lol

It’s ironic that I have an anecdote that I recently read that feels very fitting here.

Permutation City by Greg Egan. Post-human digital consciousness via uploaded brain-scan becomes possible, and there are interesting questions about how the “sense of self” is derived, and how much someone can change themselves before they are no longer the same person. There are many different characters that deal with a newfound immortality in different ways, and either embrace, or shun, the ability to change themselves at a whim to fit their needs or wants. It’s a very prominent part of the overall plot and is prevalent right up until the last sentence.

Also, separate from that, I have the exact opposite feeling as OP. When I’m reading a book, I feel like my world is expanded in new directions. I tend to see certain things from slightly different perspectives in the context of what I’m reading. I’ve been reading Greg Egan’s entire body of work (after reading Diaspora and absolutely fucking loving it), and some insight and thoughts I had about the book Quarantine actually pushed me to make positive changes in my life that have been really hugely impactful, and I don’t think I would have had the courage or drive to make them had I not been thinking about my life in such an abstract manner.

FxTec Pro1 X… As someone who has spent years searching for a modern-ish phone with a Qwerty keyboard… How has this flown under my radar for 5 years?!?

I’ve completely rethought my phone situation recently and it wouldn’t really fit my lifestyle, but man I am still tempted to keep my eyes out for a cheap one.

Not very. Still working on getting a VPN set up and learning the ropes of self-hosting in general. Most of the research I’ve been doing has mentioned that Piefed seems to take less resources than Lemmy for some reason. We’ll see how it goes once I actually figure all this out. I just learned that my choice of home internet might make it difficult since I apparently can’t get a static IP. (T mobile 5G)

I’ll also comment to say that the “cancel” part of this is stupid and should be reconsidered. (There seems to be a pretty thorough consensus on that). Isn’t the whole point of this to have options, to spread the resources out to as many points as possible to prevent a single point of failure, corruption, or censorship?

I ended up at Piefed, because I’m interested in self-hosting, and I understand Python more than any of the other languages represented. That’s really the full depth of my choice, and I’m not sure there should be much more thought behind it other than “How does this particular software package perform and meet my needs?”

That’s what I suspected with the name, and I tried to do a little poking with some translators, but it wasn’t really working as I had no understanding of the correlation between the syllabic spelling vs the hiragana. Thanks for the little breakdown!

https://www.amazon.sg/Marbee-MIN-125-Mini-Nipper-inches/dp/B00ADX7OBW

Also showing up a couple places as the brand “Marubi”

“Best tool co ltd” both sounds like it could be some generic no-name brand, or an OG manufacturing titan who still makes stuff that lasts. The brand sounds vaguely familiar to me, but more googling isn’t bringing anything up… I might be remembering Festool, which conveniently rhymes with Besttool.