You mean this is not in addition to retirement income in some places? 🙀

European here, if my parents needed assistance I’d do my best to help them 100%. But that’s because they’re my parents, they can be thrifty, I know they’re not gambling addicts or spending it all on booze etc. Having to ask (not outright, but no longer strongly refusing my help or no longer dumping money on us at every opportunity to avoid inheritance taxes) would be an indicator that they’re already pretty desperate.

Lots of people aren’t as lucky regarding their parents.

Add Finnish to the list, “kirpputori” = flea market.

Arvo Pärt - Spiegel im Spiegel (full album) 47 min https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4RmJaP683A

My “fall asleep” list also includes

Arvo Pärt - Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten (8 min).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp2oxWdRMuk

Philippe Gaubert - Madrigal (4 min).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv-bcyezUpE
which would bring it to almost an hour.

Edit: Maybe Fauré - Pavane arranged for flute and piano (6 min) to tide it over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kht_mssWxAc

Instead of being guilt-ridden and terrified of making mistakes, especially if they might cause harm to others, I get… antisocial personality disorder? Fuck.

In my language “thanks” and “please” can use the same word, sometimes it spills over into my use of English. Hopefully the tone of voice carries the sincerity of the hopeful-but-not-demanding request anyway, but that’s not available in online communication. Then again, online I usually have time to get my "thank you"s and " please"s in order.

Also mostly using AliExpress, sometimes Ebay. AliExpress has good shops; check the other stuff they sell and the reviews to get an idea. Official company stores are great, but there are also fake company stores. And customer service on those rare occasions when it’s just that bad, sucks.

I got a decent CPAP machine for cheap on Wish, but otherwise the stuff just seems flimsier and more expensive.

All the chocolate is already down the toilet, or on my waistline.

Is there a tea like matcha that would be good to cold brew?

Sencha or any other green tea can be cold brewed.

I’d add to this that if you want cold brew green tea that tastes anything like matcha, stick to Japanese greens. Just general “green tea” is IME usually more Chinese in style and a different (though also delicious) beast altogether. Sencha is the quintessential Japanese green tea and most easily available, and IMHO makes a very nice cold brew in summer.

Actually cold brewing might also be a good experiment for any possibly remaining mid-grade matcha you may have, since the method tends to reduce astringency and bitterness; just use it like a normal tea (larger amount) and don’t stir towards the end, let the tea powder “gunk” settle at the bottom. I have not tried this.

Metro. Train go underground, yay! Probably helps that where I’m from they’re pretty tidy.

Mechanical items being repaired. It didn’t work as it was supposed to, now it does, magical, you healed it! (Sometimes it’s even me being the magician.)

How much my flute cost. (It’s from my fun money, and a bargain for what it is, but still.)

I don’t know what Find My is like, but NextCloud has PhoneTrack and the corresponding Android app. Sessions can be made public. It’s a bit of a battery hog for me though.

“Food is bad” tells nothing to the chef though, who is now wondering if your tastes are just different, or if there’s something that should be changed. Seasoning? Over- or undercooked? Meat tastes rotten? There’s a fly in your soup? You should at least be able to say something a bit more actionable.

Depends on the situation, but IMHO you need to at least be willing to accept some responsibility in improving it, and it should affect how you deliver the criticism. (Even more kindly than usual.)

If you’re in a position to criticise a finished solution proposal, you’re probably part of the team and could have offered your input earlier, when it was potentially even requested. Maybe they knowingly took a shortcut to be able to move on to the other tasks and meet deadlines. Maybe they took on the task outside their core skillset because someone else dropped the ball. Maybe they have banged their head against it for days and simply cannot find a solution that works on all levels, already frustrated. Is there a superior or colleague they could have asked for assistance? Are you the superior?

Yeah, I was thinking of systems hosted by someone else, not self-hosted.

It sounds like EteSync is exactly what you’re looking for. A hosted NextCloud instance + DAVx5 is admittedly a bit lacking in the “full privacy” department, and Proton or Tutanota doesn’t integate with the standard calendars, but both would also be valid options IMHO.