Let’s not forget that the ‘R’ in HR stands for ‘Resources’.

Recruiters.

I do not want to support a trillion dollar company that makes it impossible to repair my own stuff.

Netherlands. Thailand and Morocco are even worse I guess. There, you’ll get punished harshly for beinig openly anti-monarchy. I feel sorry for those countries.

As somebody who lives in a kingdom, yes! Fucking parasites!

Do you trust apple with their claims?

No. I inherently distrust trillion dolllar tech companies in poorly regulated economies. They are able to get away with a lot of crap and they know it. That’s how the Cult of Apple works. I would not be surprised when they violate their own privacy policy knowingly and structurally.

You may have got me there. It was overhyped. So. Much. Merchandise. It drew people to the cinemas too, at least where I live. I do not remember whether it was actually praised though.

BTW: I hated the sound track. Anything with Puff Daddy or whatever he tries to call himself nowadays should not exist. Most lazy music ever.

The God Machine. They were a shoegaze band from the early 90s. Sadly, one of the three members died, so they never got big.

Godzilla. The 1998-ish version.

I bought a Tuxedo two years ago. They have affordable (and highly configurable) Linux laptops, some of which are aimed at gamers.

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/

Football (soccer for Muricans), both as a participant and as a spectator.

As a motorcyclist, that’s a definite yes. On long trips, it is the wind around the helmet that is one of the most tiring things. Custom plugs allow the rider to hear traffic while being shielded for wind noises.

A good friend of mine has concert plugs and he swears by them, but that has been said earlier in this thread.

Hard disagree here. My daily driver is a 5 year old Motorola phone here that cost me a whopping €159 back in 2019. It is fast enough for the things I do with it. If I’d bought a flagship phone by then, the OS updates would have stopped long ago (but things appear to have improved since).

As a random dude from the Internet, I am proud of you! :-)

I insulated my own house despite not being particularly skilled (to say the least) and absolutely loathing DIY.

A bit more context. I live in a house that was built in the early 70s. When I bought it back in 2009, there was hardly any insulation and due to the way it was built it was draughty and cold. A few years ago, I had the walls insulated, which made the major rooms a bit warmer. However, the house was still cold, part of the problem being the crawlspace and concrete floor. Last year, I got all the debris out of my crawlspace and put a thick plastic film on the sandy floor. That had instant effects: not only did the humidity drop (and some occasional musty smells), but we also needed to use less natural gas to heat the house. This year, I finished that project by insulating the bottom of the concrete floor with thick rock wool. That job took me several weeks. First, i had to glue wooden slats to the bottom of the floor and then I had to apply the rock wool.

My DIY skills are poor. I did this alone. It was a hell of a job which I do not intend to do a second time. However, the rewards, both in terms of comfort and savings are great.

I have several actually:

• As mentioned earlier: Portishead - Threads. Actually, the whole album is perfect for a certain desolate mood.
• The God Machine - Picture of a Bleeding Boy
• The Cure - End
• Joy Division - Komakino
• Nine Inch Nails - The Wretched

Ecellent choice! My personal choice is “threads” from their third album.

What kind of society or culture considered being friendly towards children a red flag? Spoken as both a father of two and former child: you can be friendly to children without being a creep.

As a fellow Dutchie: I miss the early 90s optimism. Nowadays, people are disillusioned and the hidden bigotry among which I grew up has become explicit up to the point of us having a fascist government.

I also miss not living in a neoliberal dystopia.

I am not sure that both are not connected.

Take a look at Group-Office. It has a community edition that is self-hosted and a paid professional edition. You can either self-host or host in their cloud.

https://www.group-office.com/

Full disclosure: I am one of the developers.