Yeah I know typically we’re all here for a laugh, but I genuinely can’t bring myself to make light of stuff like this.

There are millions of men in the world whose lives would likely be revolutionised if they had someone they felt this secure and safe with.

But our modern society doesn’t reward (and in most cases, actively punishes) emotional vulnerability in men, so instead many of us either lean into toxic masculinity or drown in our depression. Sometimes both.

I’m fortunate enough that I do in fact have someone in my life who I could be this vulnerable with, should I be so inclined, but I also acutely remember the days when this was exactly what I craved in life and thought I would never have, and the suffocating feeling of isolation as a result.

I hope things change.

Imagine getting down there only to hear a Winter Lantern singing in the dark 💀

That’s a first page that goes fucking hard 😅

The glyphs are a fun gimmick. I wouldn’t say you’re likely to use them all that much.

Maybe Google around a bit and see what you can find. There will definitely be other mid-range phones that lean more heavily into the camera, but at this price you’re always going to be making concessions somewhere.

If you’re buying the phone outright then that could work. Provided it’s supported for that long, and you can look after it well enough then I don’t see why not - you just have to be prepared to pay £800 all at once.

Part of my reasoning is the £400 cost keeps my monthly bill down, as I don’t buy the phone outright.

If nothing else, keeping one phone for 6 years would be better for the environment.

In my opinion it’s fine. I’m not super into photography or anything so take that with a big grain of salt. I don’t take too many pictures, but when I do they seem perfectly serviceable.

They’re never going to compare to a newer flagship, mind you.

All of this is more than I’m prepared to pay for a phone these days. It’s absurd.

I switched to a Nothing Phone 1 last year (about £400?) and it’s been more than capable of handling my daily usage.

I’ll keep the thing for three years, then upgrade to another mid-range. I don’t need to pay more than twice the price for hugely diminishing returns.

All good options.

Never tried the American cheese one, but I’ll have to give it a shot now!

Glamming up cheap ramen is a joy.

I like to add butter, a slug of soy sauce and chilli sauce, spring onion and sliced chillies.

It’s not gonna win me any awards, but it’s bloody tasty.

Ah really? I could put it on the hard drive, but the whole point of the SSD was for it to take the OS… Will have to think on that.

They generally don’t do more than browse the web so I’m not anticipating any major issues. I used to game on it, but it’s so old now I’ve stopped using it for games.

Maybe I’ll put it on a usb for a while instead of dual booting.

I see Linux in my future, as I just don’t have the cash for a new rig.

I have to be careful though, as it’s my family PC, and the rest of my family aren’t going to tolerate much of a learning curve. It really needs to just work out of the box.

Considering Zorin OS. Hopefully I can get it on my SSD next to Windows so I can dual-boot for a while to test the water…

I’m sure I used to use Audacity back in the day as a free, quick and dirty editor to splice up audio tracks. I’m talking at least 10 years ago.

Had no idea it was still even a thing.

New cars are ludicrously expensive, especially EVs.

The most I can afford to spend on a car is maybe £14K, and that’s under the proviso that about £4K of that is my own money and the rest is a loan to be paid off over about 6 or 7 years.

So yeah, I’m going secondhand ICE with about 50K miles on the clock and praying it doesn’t die before the loan is paid off (and preferably longer still so I can save a bit more towards the next one).

I’m all for EVs, but they’ve got to bring the price down, and they’ve got to get the batteries to last long enough for the secondhand market to be viable.

Every day, the reasons to either switch to dumb devices or open-source software keep piling up.

Yep, it’s like it’s her generously compensating job compels her or something.

Who’d have thunk it?

(For real though, what did people expect her to say?)

You fools! If you die in Australia, you die in real life!

What are you doing, step-pickle?

The sad part is that there’s a not insignificant number of people out there who would honestly rather embrace the human instrumentality project and never look back.

I wouldn’t say I have an actual phobia, but I completely understand people with trypophobia. It makes me very uncomfortable and I find it pretty revolting.

I have a very, very limited understanding of the subject, so take this with a lethal dose of salt, but I’m under the impression that the US healthcare system is an absolute minefield, and not everyone has equal access to it, even via insurance, in the ways you might otherwise typically expect.