I do not want to support a trillion dollar company that makes it impossible to repair my own stuff.

I respect the fact that people believe. They even can form their own clubs as far as I’m concerned. Forcing those beliefs onto other people is something I do have an issue with.

Netherlands. Thailand and Morocco are even worse I guess. There, you’ll get punished harshly for beinig openly anti-monarchy. I feel sorry for those countries.

As somebody who lives in a kingdom, yes! Fucking parasites!

I bought a Tuxedo two years ago. They have affordable (and highly configurable) Linux laptops, some of which are aimed at gamers.

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/

Football (soccer for Muricans), both as a participant and as a spectator.

As a motorcyclist, that’s a definite yes. On long trips, it is the wind around the helmet that is one of the most tiring things. Custom plugs allow the rider to hear traffic while being shielded for wind noises.

A good friend of mine has concert plugs and he swears by them, but that has been said earlier in this thread.

Rami Malek comes to mind. If I am not mistaken, he is Egyptian, so not your typical Hollywood white mail.

Phil Collins’s solo work is mind-numbingly, eye-bleedingly, toe-curlingly boring and awful.

YES! He’s a massive idiot too.

I upvoted you, but you are not entirely right in my opinion.

Not all classical music is created equal. I am quite convinced that if J.S. Bach had lived today, he would make music like Squarepusher. However, somebody like Gustav Holst would probably be in some kind of doom metal or progressive metal.

I started running some 20-odd years ago. It helped me get stability and self-confidence and helped me get my shit together.

It somewhat sounds like ‘Ace of Spades’. I am a bit old school. If I hear the name Lemmy, I am reminded of Motorhead.

+1. I am an avid runner and on running days, I wear briefs. On rest days, I prefer shorts.

A P1 sensor. I have recently entered the rabbit hole of home automation. One of the things I care about, is to be as private as possible, so I went for Home Assistant.

A P1 sensor is a small thingumabob that you plug into your electricity meter and it measures electricity and natural gas use. It comes with its own webserver and it integrates seamlessly into my HA energy dashboard. I did not have to subscribe to any cloud service and as far as I can tell, it does not phone home.

I have bouldered for a few years and will agree with the friendly atmosphere.

As a random dude from the Internet, I am proud of you! :-)

I insulated my own house despite not being particularly skilled (to say the least) and absolutely loathing DIY.

A bit more context. I live in a house that was built in the early 70s. When I bought it back in 2009, there was hardly any insulation and due to the way it was built it was draughty and cold. A few years ago, I had the walls insulated, which made the major rooms a bit warmer. However, the house was still cold, part of the problem being the crawlspace and concrete floor. Last year, I got all the debris out of my crawlspace and put a thick plastic film on the sandy floor. That had instant effects: not only did the humidity drop (and some occasional musty smells), but we also needed to use less natural gas to heat the house. This year, I finished that project by insulating the bottom of the concrete floor with thick rock wool. That job took me several weeks. First, i had to glue wooden slats to the bottom of the floor and then I had to apply the rock wool.

My DIY skills are poor. I did this alone. It was a hell of a job which I do not intend to do a second time. However, the rewards, both in terms of comfort and savings are great.

I have several actually:

• As mentioned earlier: Portishead - Threads. Actually, the whole album is perfect for a certain desolate mood.
• The God Machine - Picture of a Bleeding Boy
• The Cure - End
• Joy Division - Komakino
• Nine Inch Nails - The Wretched

What kind of society or culture considered being friendly towards children a red flag? Spoken as both a father of two and former child: you can be friendly to children without being a creep.