I looked it up and wow, that’s crazy. Messi is basically naturally domesticated. If the medical conditions are genetic, he could be the start of a lineage of house pumas.

Read-onlys be like while upvoting

I used to do that too! But living in Eastern Europe, our shampoo bottles had like twenty languages. I didn’t manage to learn any, but I did develop a sense of how closely related they were.

Microplastics!

Charmeleon! Wartortle,

Mewtwo, Tentacruel, Aerodactyl,

Omanyte, Slowpoke…

That’s all I’ve got. I will shed a single tear in remembrance of happier days.

Another clue it isn’t Quebec is that Quebec wouldn’t bother having a separate US section when the States are just a couple hours drive away.

There are three feline modern constellations: Leo, Leo Minor, and Lynx. They’re adjacent, so they’re all visible around the same time.

Leo’s heliacal rising from mid-northern latitudes is around early September. Alternatively, it is most easily visible in the evening in early May. So either early May or early September could be considered the “cat days”!

Omg I have to do this for my brother! Doom was one of the first computer games we ever played. Also hello fellow owner of a gummy bear needleminder!

That’s because the cost of living is a bitch. We may make 5x more but our bills might be 7x more than yours, so overall we’re worse off.

I’m late to the thread but I just wanted to say THANK YOU for taking the time to write it all up! You’ve helped me understand a few things about abjads, which makes the original post even more hilarious.

What is your professional opinion on decimal feet? I had to use such a measuring tape at work, it took me half a day to figure out what was going on with that abomination.

Edit: to clarify, feet were divided in 10 units, not 12, so one and a half feet was at the “5” mark between 1 and 2 ft, not the “6” mark.

I think that fear is just one of the many responses humans like to stimulate. Spicy foods and deep massages? Fancy pain. Fireworks and laser shows? Fancy lights and colors. I wonder if it ties into the ability to remember that we survived the painful stimulus long enough to enjoy the aftermath, so we’re more likely to seek out that stimulus in the future? High risk = high reward kind of thing.

Also brings this to mind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus

This.

Ah, yes, confetti… Such beautiful color effects but such a pain in the ass.

I don’t think there’s any magic trick to them but here’s what I find helps:

• Keeping a good tension in my stitches - not too taut (distorts the grid), not too loose (risk catching).
• Using a blunt needle - I know this is counterintuitive BUT I now have a much easier time stitching “in the holes”. With a pointed sewing needle, I often pushed it between the Aida threads, which then made single wonky stitches very obvious. If all stitches sit neatly in their holes it’s much better!
• Accept that some imperfections will happen. This is a manual skill, it’s part of the fun. And anyway, it will look great from a couple feet away. No one will inspect your stitches as carefully as you do now - and if they do, you have permission to kick them out. ;)

I hear where you’re coming from. I can’t even begin to imagine how tired you are after all these hardships. The fact that you’re still writing civil replies to the other person is commendable.

I would like to respectfully say that universal healthcare would have eliminated the need to navigate insurance denials and out of pocket maximums. If we add a more robust social safety net to the equation, you may also not have to worry about childcare and having to stretch yourself thin with work… Would eliminating these battles really not have brought qualitative changes (for the better) for your family?

P.S. À titre informatif, j’ai fait ce point de croix avec le matériel suivant. Ça mesure environ 20 cm x 30 cm.

• tissu aida 14 (acheté au magasin de tissus en rouleau pré-coupé, <10$ CAD)
• fil multicouleur pour artisanat (Dollarama, ~2$ pour 8 échevettes)
• aiguilles à coudre (Dollarama, ~1$ pour une dizaine d’aiguilles)
• passe-partout en carton découpé à la main ($1)
• cadre du Dollarama (~4$).

Tu n’as pas nécessairement besoin de matériel specialisé… mais ça rend la vie beaucoup plus facile! :D

Si tu veux juste essayer la broderie, des aiguilles à coudre et des morceaux de tissu pas trop épais feront l’affaire. Le fil par contre non… le fil à coudre est trop mince et ne paraîtra pas assez sur le tissu (à moins de travailler avec plusieurs fils, ce qui rend la tâche d’autant plus ardue). C’est vraiment mieux d’utiliser du fil à broder, ou du fil pour l’artisanat (genre pour confectionner des bracelets à nœuds). Quant au tissu, évite les tricots et les fibres élastiques pour commencer - donc à moins d’avoir déjà qqch de convenable sous la main, c’est mieux d’en acheter.

Tu peux trouver fils et tissus au magasins style Dollarama. Ce sera bien suffisant pour débuter et t’en auras plus pour ton argent comparativement aux kits. Si tu as les moyens (et l’intérêt), la prochaine étape seront les magasins spécialisés dans la couture ou l’artisanat.