Courtney (she/her/they)

Some birds decorate themselves. My mother had a cockatiel that would perforate colorful paper into strips with her beak and pluck them off to place in her tail.

Can’t have shit in Detroit.

For the same reason someone would have asked “why is building a large, complex and hard to produce solar panel more economical than churning out an equivalent number of coal plants?” decades ago.

It’s improving the tech, which could eventually far and away outpaced every other energy producer. Maybe not now, but in the future. Some are just gung-ho about trying to produce a bunch when they’re not quite ready.

American here and I think your wording was spot on.

It WAS seen as a “shining beacon” by many around the world.

SEEN as. And as someone who was born here, I can assure you that many in the US absolutely know that is a facade at best.

The shell began cracking in other parts of the world decades ago (longer in places like Africa), but for most Europeans and the mostly un-terrorized-by-US-military countries, I think the turning point was “WMDs” in the early 00s. When every other “Major” country is either silent or outright saying “we have no Intel suggesting this” then you can’t really claim to have moral superiority, and once you see a liar as a liar, it’s all downhill from there.

“seen as” was absolutely the correct phrase, as it was only an illusion.

scans item, checks size and color combos in stock in 3 seconds

To self: well it says one on hand and 3 in transit, so we will have some more in the next 2 weeks but that one on hand will never ever be found assumung it wasn’t stolen

To customer: maybe, let me go check the back!

pulls out phone for a few minutes

comes back out after glancing through the only stack of shirts just to be sure

Sorry, I checked everywhere and can’t seem to find it, but we might have some coming on a truck soon!

Lpt: even large clothing chains don’t just carry tons of extra sizes of random clothing item. If it’s a special event, like sports shirts or musicians on a tour, they MIGHT have been sent a ton and only have a few out. But that random [BRANDNAME] high tech moisture wicking Ai infused recycled coconut husk shapewear in Heather gray dark with a logo on the lapel and NOT on the chest almost certainly will not be sitting anywhere but the shelf/hanger you see on the sales floor.

Just call me Buttermilk Transgirl.

I don’t have cowboy boots, but I’ve got a nice pair of thorogoods! So… Yee haw?

Just convert every biofuel field into a solar field. Boom, year round power output and way more efficient than growing plants to burn.

Then work on replacing every car with electric.

Eventually it will be more cost effective to retrofit old structures.

Even the worst, most pollution inducing motorcycle on the planet doesn’t hold a candle to my 90s truck.

Hell, even most modern trucks are better despite being massive, considering the improvements to fuel efficiency and such…

Arguing a motorcycle is worse because one specific area of its carbon footprint is slightly higher than cars depending on model of both is weird to me.

And I don’t remember the last time I saw a motorcycle without the obvious cat hugging the engine before it winds to the muffler. Note: usually the motorcycles I get to see close are people who are more environment conscious than your average redneck. I’m sure the shop down the road specializes in removing them. I KNOW they offer “diesel tuning services” to let people “roll coal” so it wouldn’t surprise me…

Then rephrase to “I HAVE to do something, what do I feel like doing?”

I mean, the answer is still nothing, but at least I’ll feel more compelled to choose.

I just need to make a chore dart board…

I mostly play on the easiest difficulty in any game, I play games as escapism, if I wanted to be frustrated I’d go talk to relatives.

Exceptions are games I’ve played a bunch.

I’ve heard nothing but high praise about Blood and Wine and am excited to experience it!

Depression is a bitch, and that makes you not want to clean. Then the grossness makes you more depressed.

Never ending loop.

I actually saw that automatic oil application had been added at some point, that’s a huge bonus!

There’s a few other things I remember having issues with, but they were all minor individually, so they’ve probably been improved on.

I definitely need to give it another try, and this announcement certainly makes me want to pick it up again soon.

Damn, I REALLY need to finish the third one… I haven’t even finished the base campaign.

It’s not that I don’t like the game, I am fascinated by every part of it, and it’s been installed and updated on my computer for many years…

It’s just so in depth, I do not have the attention span and dedication I used to in optimizing builds for a game. I felt like I was on hard mode if I didn’t use the potions and sword oils and things, but I kept forgetting what to use, and that’s assuming I even had the right stuff on me to begin with…

That’s probably why I keep going back to skyrim more often, it’s combat is more simplified and casual. Which is funny because I always download mods to make the game more like the Witcher and improve combat…

I’ll finish it one day, in my most recent playfhrough I had just gotten to some giant squid creature in a swamp, and kept dying so I just didn’t keep playing anymore.

Growing up my house was always trashed. Parents with depression and full time jobs don’t leave much time and energy for cleaning up, and there’s only so much children without guidance can do.

So once I had my own defined space, it was basically minimalist to expedite cleaning. I didn’t start getting more stuff, even clothes, until my partner moved in.

But then we wouldn’t have rage bait for engagement.

Someone filming minors is 100% grounds for a beat down, IMO. Of course you’d never get away with it in this case… Even if they were completely unassociated with the guy and he was doing it for personal shit, pigs gonna protect themselves.

I’m kind of surprised the guy didn’t try to arrest you when called out.

I love hitting obvious ones with “WHATS UP, OFFICER!” and usually they have no idea how to handle things from there. Although once one did threaten to arrest me if I didn’t leave. I had shit to do but I honestly wanted to test that just to see what bullshit he’d try to come up with to justify it.

No joke, I’ve actually been asked about drugs by a guy who ws CLEARLY wearing a stab vest, and had a super obvious glint of cuffs hanging out of his skinny jeans (to say nothing of the giant circle bulge on the pocket)

I gave him the address of a jackass I used to know who joined the marines so he “gets to kill people legally”

Otherwise there’s a town close by where Douchebags in lifted pickups like to gather in large numbers to Rev their engines and behave irresponsibly (watch me do this sick burnout Bro OH NO I hit a lamp post) around the local strip mall. I decided if I get asked again I will say to go there, basically everyone is holding and most are willing to share if you’ve got beer to spare.

I’ve known enough law enforcement to believe it’s 100% true for local establishments

The fbi and nsa are far more educated (usually), and while IDO believe they would have an easier time, I don’t believe they are as versed in theory as the average anarcho-syndicalist commune inhabitant.

I’m sure it’s not true 100% of the time, and probably not even 50%, but law enforcement certainly make themselves easier to filter out.

Weekly reminder that law enforcement finds it difficult to infiltrate leftist, communist, socialist, and anarchist groups because cops are too dumb and think there’s too much reading to fit in.

They also can’t disrupt funding for said groups because the groups are already poor and rely on each other rather than money from outside sources.

I mean… They would have been right 5 years ago. But then they caught up and are showing some other manufacturers up.

Similarly here, Chinese manufacturers are making progress, and as usual they’re catching up quite well. In a few years I fully expect to see actual competition, and competition benefits everyone.