This joke was passed on to me from my mom:

What is black, hides in a tree, and is extremely dangerous?

I crochet little animals for friends and family.
Unasked, most of the time :)

Arriving home with my newborn son. It was the first moment when it really sank in that I’m a parent and we have to take care of this tiny little thing.
It wasn’t a warm feeling but more of a fuuuuuck! What do we do? What do we do?! feeling. The enormity of the responsibility just overwhelmed me.
I somehow got through it and the post-natal care lady that visited a few hours later really helped with grounding the situation.

Anyway, it’s not a crazy situation for most of you. But for me it really felt like a “I can’t believe this is happening!” situation.

No, I got a permanent contract for a well paying job in the public sector. The job security is great and there’s a solid pension plan.
It’s what my partner likes to call an “iron rice bowl” :)

Maybe not as fancy as the others, but I really like the little pink jeep. It’s boxy and cute.

It most definitely is! And these eggs will stay fresh until next year :)

Pretty! I love the colors.
Did you manage to get them done before easter?

Stability. Not having to worry if my job is still secure by next year is such a sweet feeling.

I might not earn as much as I could, but knowing that I have secured a good income all the way to my pension (barring any calamities) is definitely worth it.

Hmmm… I’m quite happy with my work and the benefits I get. I guess if I got to restart I would make some more friends in the right places from the beginning. It’s something I learned only later on that it helps to be on good terms with those higher up, in case you need some support with budgets or priorities.

And vice versa, I would also be more careful with not pissing people off. Early on in my job I ruined a few relationships by being a prissy bitch about how things were supposed to be done, instead of being a bit more open minded. Looking back on it I inwardly cringe at how I acted back then. That’s definitely something I would not repeat, I like to think I’ve grown a bit emotionally since :)

You’re starting now (not going back to the past).

This makes it a bit more difficult since I designed most of the architecture at my work. It would take a lot of work to be taken seriously again and not have my opinion being discarded because I’m the newcomer.

I would have to prove myself all over again though, not something I’d look forward to.

Maybe a little old-fashioned (the first book was written in the 60’s), but I love Jack Vance’s Gaean Reach setting. Thousands of worlds with each of them containing a multitude of civilizations, each of those with their own strange customs. Some of them advanced, others medieval and some of them almost completely alien.
For me it is one of the best universes when it comes to exploration and experiencing new worlds.

Aw, thank you! :)

I was on a high school trip to Poland in the 90’s. It was an eight day trip through the country, including a couple of days of kayaking. Our school was definitely on a tight budget to make this trip work, so we spend our nights in a bunch of cheap hotels and camping grounds.

One luxury that we were always missing out on was decent toilet paper. The only toilet paper supplied was this single ply stuff with the same texture as sanding paper. So when we were out for an evening in Warsaw I visited a five star hotel to enjoy some quality bathroom time. This was several days in and I really wanted to enjoy using a toilet in a heated and clean environment. And it was so nice! No smells, no cold drafts and the toilet paper! So soft! I was in heaven :)

As luck would have it, the bathroom stall had a whole stack of these magically soft toilet rolls. On an impulse I stuffed all of them (around six if I remember correctly) under my coat and smuggled them out of the hotel. Back at the camp I shared them with the rest of my classmates, bringing back a little bit of luxury in our dreary little place. Never been that popular in my life :)

I’m going to assume that this is basically a question on what my favorite color is with extra steps :)

I’m also a big fan of purple! But if I had to choose, I’d go for #7851A9 instead:

Royal purple

As @sparky678348@lemm.ee already so nicely said, I too would love to hear what you have to say. Whether it’s something profound, something nice, or just that you like or enjoy someone else’s comment/post.
It is always so nice to hear from someone else, so don’t put yourself down. Let yourself be heard and join the fun :)

I know how you feel, I’ve had that same problem when I joined lemmy and really had to force myself to comment. But you know, I’ve told myself that in the end it’s more about just saying what comes to mind than worry if you’re really contributing to the conversation.
Even if it’s just agreeing with someone or just saying you like something, I prefer to write it out in a comment instead of clicking on some arrow. I like to think that whoever wrote the comment/post I replied to appreciates a personal response instead of an upvote. I know I do :)

Please don’t say neither (that’s not an option)

Both?

Edit:
Ok, in all semi-seriousness, I like my hair and like to keep it. Sex is still fun without an orgasm.
I’m more of a giver than a taker anyway :)

Doing some quick image searching… God, those do look delicious :)
Problem is, they’re hard to get around here. Specialty cafe’s here in Amsterdam are the closest for me to eat one, and that’s still quite a journey. Still, something to put on my to-do list next time I’m in the neighborhood!

Edit: spelling mistakes

First of all, I can really empathize with your anxieties. I’ve lost contact with a few penpals years ago because of similar issues and I still hate myself for it.
I don’t use chat-gpt for writing my replies, because my English is crap and my manner of writing distinct enough that any friend can immediately spot a real response from a generated one (not enough smileys for one :)
But I still have similar anxieties. So if I feel anxious about writing something, I do sometimes give a general description of the original mail (“A friend of mine wrote about her mother’s funeral”, “a family member lost his cat”, etc.) and give it the reply I’ve written so far (names and personal details removed).
I then explain that I feel anxious about my reply and worry if I hit the right tone. I never ask it to write for me, only to give critique where necessary and advice on how to improve (for good measure I always add some snide remarks on how it sounds too fake to ever pass as a human so don’t even bother trying, which it always takes in good humor because… well… AI :)
I ignore most of the suggestions because it sounds like a corporate HR communique. But, what’s more important is that it usually tries to tell me that I was thoughtful, considerate and that that little light-hearted joke at the end was just sweet enough to add a personal touch without coming across as insensitive.
Just to get some positive feedback, even from software that was designed specifically for that purpose, gives me that little push to hit the send button and hope for the best. I wouldn’t dare to ask someone else for advice because it would be an admission of how weak and insecure I feel about expressing myself in the first place, which would ramp up my anxiety by making it a ‘big thing’.

Anyway, I can understand the animosity people show against AI. And I’m happy for those who don’t need or want it.

PS: This reply was 100% written without any use of AI, direct or indirectly. I did spend a good half hour on it before feeling confident enough to hit “Post” :)

Which kinds of Asian cakes? I’m mostly familiar with the Indonesian ones and cakes like kue lapis legit are anything but light and fluffy :)