I was talking to my wife about the feeling of underachieving relative to unrealistic childhood goals, and she mentioned that she never thought she was smart or special enough as a child to dream of being THE anything. Like she wanted to work in science, but never took that to mean that she wanted to be THE one to get famous curing cancer or writing a Malcom Gladwell-type book or running her own lab.

I, of course, think she is the most special genius I know, and I think she’d do a great job in any of those situations, but the depressingly realistic expectations she set out of lower self-confidence as a kid have now served her well in terms of job and life satisfaction. It made me sad to hear and angry at her parents for not communicating that she was and is exceptional, but I am also sad and angry that I am not the next Bob Dylan with a universal acceptance of my genius and no need to do anything but write poetry and receive accolades. At the same time, I’d hate to actually live on the road and/or have the life of most ultra-famous writers, but I still feel like I’ve betrayed my childhood potential by not doing so and by being unremarkable.

Hard to say if that disappointment is worse than growing up without being told you even could achieve something like that. My wife is healthy now, but had a lot of shit she had to overcome in her childhood and adult mental health journeys, and while/since I have as well, I don’t think we’ll ever get answers about every different thing that affects our current and past contentedness. So I am just left with the contradictory disappointments of having failed to live up to grand self-determined goals and that no one ever told my wife she could set hers like the incredible person, thinker, and worker she is–even knowing that just may have led to her feeling my current disappointment in place of any she felt as a child.

Long and complicated, no resolution, it’s just been weird to see and think about our two very different experiences.

While your instincts may say so, not according to any one of the major style guides (AP, MLA, Chicago, NYT, APA, Columbia). An apostrophe is only added for possessives rather than plurals with acronyms, but a lot of people still add them erroneously. Most sources online will say “don’t do it but some people do by mistake.”

That and, depending on the stylebook you use, some specific words and uppercase letters that could be considered confusing when pluralized, like “Oakland A’s” and “Do’s and Don’ts” (according to AP, while I much prefer Chicago’s guidelines).

Folks should just remember that apostrophes are never used to pluralize. Of course there are like 2 exceptions, but better to be right 98 times out of 100 than guess every time.

Surprisingly hard. Confused me in just the right way, made me ask just the right questions about who could have written this and how someone ended up with it in an entirely unhideable spot. Also reminded me of how many people there are out there making decisions every day that I can’t imagine…

I’m afraid you have too much faith in the decision-making of certain people. Apparently this text is from a preexisting meme, and even if 99.999% of people would never permanently put a meme tweet directly on their neck forever, there are 7 million people walking around with tweets tattooed on them.

Just look at all the copycat “shrimps is bugs” tattoos out there…

Just the quirks of the fediverse haha, though oddly I could see your old mastodon replies when you couldn’t. And looks like a beautiful spot, figured it had to be New England.

This actually makes me laugh pretty good. Side of the neck is an insane place for it, but the joke lands perfectly and rewards rereads. 9/10 humor, 0/10 decision-making.

Great shot, where is this?

Poor sleep consistency/quality and interrupted circadian rhythms have already been found to be associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s, so artificial light could definitely be contributing to a previously identified risk factor. I am sure there are other variables at play that are associated with light sources, too, but it is definitely possible/even likely that the light itself is an issue.

Good luck!

That should help with the ground. I guess my advice would be to get out there and try it once before it’s your coldest season. See if you’re comfy at 40⁰ and then take your best guess about another 8⁰

Sure, if you have a sleeping bag that’s warm enough. If you need the layers to sleep, you just gotta cope with a cold morning and get moving as quick as you can to heat up. Just saw that OP is car camping, but stuffing a tent, sleeping bag, and pad first thing every morning is always enough to get me warmed up in whatever layers I have on, if I am moving camp.

To me it feels more like someone has gone out of their way wayyyy further to involve bureaucracy and make it official when just saying “I would rather not” would do.

Get a 0⁰ up to -20⁰ sleeping pad so the ground isn’t sapping heat from you, wear warm clothes inside of it, and be ready to do some situps in the middle of the night to trap some heat in there, and you should be good. Personally, if I am going to be camping at any temp below freezing, I’ll go for a zero or -20 bag since I have one, but a good sleeping pad and fleece base layers add a lot of protection whatever bag you’re in.

Because of the taste? While it’s not common to brew a drink with other beans, we eat them all the time, and it’s pretty obvious in doing so that they aren’t flavors that lend themselves to a beverage.

Coffee beans are actually the seed of a more traditional “fruit” (ie, sweet and acidic) rather than a legume like other beans (also technically seeds, but vegetal in flavor, with an entirely different taste and texture). You’re basically just going to get a weak broth from traditional beans.

Similarly, people have tried steeping every type of leaf, plant, and fruit out there in water, but it’s a pretty limited list that remains popularly used for tea, as it’s a pretty limited list (relative to the incredible diversity of plant life) that actually tastes good that way.

People use mushrooms, various roots (like chicory), other fruity seeds, and more to create coffee-like drinks, and/so with the number of people and cultures out there with their own tastes and traditions, it’s a relatively safe bet that if people aren’t drinking it anywhere in the world, it’s because they’ve tried it and it just doesn’t taste good.

And I say a plant community is a group of ostensibly indie, bootstrapped musicians who are actually propped up by major labels to sell the image of individuality and independence while having the entire music industry machine behind them.

What else starts with m?

Thank you Kanye, very funny.

Context/original memes video?