Yup. One time we had some person try changing their name to the dragon head emoji. Some systems handled it fine, but a lot of them broke in different and interesting ways. That’s what prompted the restrictions.

Also, many places have restrictions on what names they will accept. For example, I work in IT at a university. We have a fairly limited set of characters because other characters are known to cause issues with vendor products. Unfortunately, we just don’t really have much of a choice.

Just as long as they’re not going to be around me for the beanie consequences to come to fruition, if you catch my drift.

And if you’re in Portland, you can always pick Pho Kim to get the sexy juices flowing.

Ever wonder why this thing can only go 55 MPH? Yup, my Magnum dong! Nothing slows down a truck like moving around that hunk of meat, let me tell you! Now about our date.

To the tune of “Fuck Her Gently?”

You don’t always have to fuck cars hard

In fact sometimes that’s not right to do

I’m a tall male (6’3") and even I worry about being seen over the hood of those monstrosities.

I too learned this the hard way, but with an image. Specifically, the “Shut Down Everything” meme. It’s an older meme and I used it in chat room with a much younger (Zoomer) crowd. The image has some resemblance to certain offensive depictions of Black people. I think it was accidental, given that it appears to be more an influence of MS Paint.

Someone got offended and talked to their manager. Unfortunately it was only months later that I got word through my manager. I would have appreciated an opportunity to offer to apologize to them face-to-face. I should have spotted the resemblance and not used the meme.

Yeah, master has a few uses like this. Master bedrooms came about in the 20th century and had nothing to do with slavery. Then there is master in a pupil setting, though that is fairly uncommon in the US anyway. It’s more of a European/UK thing I think.

Again, I have nothing against changing things that are genuinely problematic. I just have a problem with busy work that is being demanded for items that aren’t actually offensive.

Oof. At work we currently have a project for words deemed insensitive. For the most part I think it’s worthy, but some things are overboard. The project group cast a very wide net, ignoring context and etymology. My biggest disagreement is over “black” and “white”.

Take “black box” and “white box” for types of testing. These are based merely on the properties of light. I have serious doubts about anyone ever having felt excluded by their use. And yet, we’re wasting time coming up with non-standard nomenclature to satisfy this supposed slight. There’s a whole laundry list of words like this.

I second both of these. For the multitool, I have a Micra. I previously was carrying a larger multitool, but I found that I barely used most of the tools. When I did use them, they were compromised by being part of a multitool. The Micra has the tools I need while being barely there.

My flashlight is one I bought partially with a disaster situation in mind. Its critical feature for me is that the battery is not just USB-C rechargeable, but also can use standard AA batteries as backup. In a disaster scenario with limited access to supplies, there is an ultra-low light setting rated at 58 hours of battery life. It has a clip that goes onto the brim of baseball cap or similar to go hands free. It’s much nicer than trying to deal with a cell phone light, especially in situations where cell phone power is precious. The model is the ACEBEAM Rider RX.

Interestingly, they are into a lot of the card games that were popular when I was a kid like Pokemon, Magic the Gathering, and D & D. We are thinking about giving them a trip to a game shop for Christmas and some money for games.

Here’s one little thing that’s helped me a tad. I make my bed every day, first thing in the morning. It feels good to start the day out with at least one thing just done and in its place.

I have a newborn niece by my brother-in-law. His fiancee also has two young boys from a previous marriage. I am looking forward to opportunities to build my relationship as an uncle with the boys. My brother and husband both don’t want kids, so it sounds like this will be the only real chance to have a close family relationship with Generation Alpha.

I work in IT for a large university and there usually is some level of that. Projects are expected to pull in stakeholders so that interests from around campus have their voices heard. It takes talented facilitators to ensure that people feel comfortable speaking up. Surprisingly, coming to an agreement is rarely hard once everyone has talked it out.

It’s nonsense statements like this that should provide the answer to OP’s question. When push came to shove in WW2, liberalism in the US, UK, and elsewhere sided with communism against fascism.

Legumes are kind of like that in the Instant Pot in terms of ease, but much faster. They’re usually done in under an hour. IP also has a Saute mode that allows you to develop the flavor and texture of ingredients like aromatics, spices, herbs, and tough vegetables. I don’t work much with meat, but I’ve made al pastor that was absolutely amazing.

• Bidet
• Leatherman Micra pocketknife - all I need for most things
• Ebike with a front platform - helps transport
• Acoustic Bike with trunk bag - a trunk bag has a surprisingly large amount of space
• Ortlieb panniers - add to the bikes only on an as needed basis
• Instant Pot - it does miracles with legumes, meats, and a large variety of other dishes
• Instant brand Air fryer - we’re working w/o a vent right now so we got this to provide an oven replacement
• IKEA wardrobe - configured and used as a pantry
• Large (40L) backpack with good suspension - great for all sorts of travel

Yeah, I think you nailed it there. Even a repair-oriented phone like the Fairphone has it’s limits, especially when it gets on to later years.

Longevity is nice, but not as helpful if it can’t keep up physically with new releases.

You also have to imagine what that longevity is going to really mean. Even a sturdy phone with a good case is in an unfriendly environment. They live in pockets, purses, and get dropped. Getting updates for 10 years is great, but it’s not too useful if the phone is dead. It’s always good to pursue increased longevity, but there is diminishing return for many reasons.