Gaashk
1d ago
Indeed, when researching they cite Reddit as a source a concerning amount of time
Gaashk
1d ago
I make lattes each morning on a little machine with an espresso press and steam wand, and it's lovely.
Gaashk
1d ago
This week it was a cymbal ID request in /r/drums. A picture, a short ask. Cut it as lean as I could. Instead of the post being too long to bother reading, it was now short enough that people filled in the missing context with their own assumptions. They started litigating a tangential detail, the cymbal's mount lacked a sleeve, as if it were the point of the post, rather than just answering the identification question in front of them. I clarified the detail wasn't relevant. I don't own the item, can't act on it, was just asking about the model. I got antagonized for that instead and downvoted to all hell.
This is why they will immediately be replaced with AI identification. About as accurate, and much, much more polite.
Gaashk
1d ago
They'll do that if they actually interact with the person. If they're looking out the window of their car, deciding whether to stop for a moment, they'll judge houses, clothing, and skin tone.
Gaashk
1d ago
I was thinking the other day about the ignorance of legislators, but then who really has the time to take two months off of work in late winter to do legislating work, in addition to running for election? I suppose the schedule around here was made for agriculture workers?
Gaashk
1d ago
They provide some goods and services, while consuming more than they provide, on average.
So they're likely to be net negative economically, but God loves them even so.
Gaashk
1d ago
Yes, America really likes "bring my your tired, your poor, your masses yearning to be free", and hates sending crying mothers away. A bunch of Americans are actually sad every time someone is visibly deported. Which isn't sustainable when there are billions of huddled masses and they'd overwhelm the country, but many Americans are in denial about that.
Gaashk
2d ago
It seems like an odd thing to focus on -- I thought that they were also the most likely children to grow into adults who are also a net drain?
Gaashk
2d ago
Having taken a lot of art classes at lower level institutions, then are generally quite good!
They are not intellectual pursuits, not academia, and that is related to why they are good. Some that especially stood out include a wood fire ceramic program, which works with the forestry program to turn diseased trees and bricks into lovely pottery, printmaking programs, with metal plates, acid dyes, and generally nice and interesting old fashioned printing processes, and an art in the dark Northern Renaissance art history course. They're about the same level of rigor as things like biology for nursing, about median for the not very rigorous institutions they belong to. They also cost less than taking a community art course, something like $100 - $1,000 per semester, depending on the specific institution.
Gaashk
3d ago
Oh, interesting. Americans don't have mallet valets, they hire out services, so maybe that's why I haven't heart it.
Gaashk
3d ago
New Mexico has been phasing in welfare for all over the past decade or so, so that perfectly ordinary intact median income families qualify for pregnancy and children's medicaid, for instance. As of last year, all state inspected childcare and pre-K is also state funded. So it's basically normal public school, except with some Head Start appendages attached.
Gaashk
3d ago
I was living on the South Side, and kept going to places like the DMV, or the grocery store, or some cool little fried shrimp place on a bridge, or a nature preserve, and my father in law kept giving me startling strong opinions about the places I had to drive through to get to them.
Gaashk
4d ago
I'm sorry to hear that! There are occasionally people murdering each other in my area (village/exurb), but only if they get involved in some kind of family feud, or possibly drugs. Drugs are bad in general, but the entire Southwest has bad cartel activity and car thieves.
Gaashk
4d ago
My daughter (7) wants to do chores for money. I have been putting it off, because I don't want to commit myself to something that I will later regret. Has anyone else offered paid chores? Any suggestions about it? For reference, I am an extremely bad housekeeper with a toddler at home, so everything just keeps getting messy again immediately, and I have turned down her suggestion that she could clean up a space whenever it seems messy, since that's basicially immediately after tidying.
I would almost rather pay her to do slow concentration tasks, like crafts and reading, since that is what I actually want her to start doing more of. An artist I talked to, for instance, said she paid her daughter to read books like Harry Potter aloud while she painted.
Gaashk
4d ago
How can I? My work schedule completely overlaps with her school schedule. Should I send an invitation card? I don't want people to think it's an event, though.
Gaashk
4d ago
It's not completely random that Breaking Bad took place there, I will be very concerned and possibly move if my kids seem interested in drugs.
Gaashk
4d ago
Maybe that is the answer.
On Substack, especially, people choose to write about things they want to put several hours into thinking about at one go, so I write about art, but not about parenting or socializing, because my deficiencies are practical, not intellectual. I know what to do, just sometimes I'm frustrated depressed about it.
Gaashk
4d ago
It appears to be part of the program design, AI search says they have 90 hours (!) of contract time devoted to this kind of thing, and ten children, so I guess she can put up to nine hours into trying to connect with me this year.
Gaashk
4d ago
Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard it about parts of Chicago as well, and in both places, I don't drive with the windows down or leave my car for large stretches of time or walk alone, and so on.
Gaashk
4d ago
Is choosing a private program for pre-K not an option for you?
No, not really.
For context, I live in New Mexico, which is full of poor people and oil revenue. I had forgotten until I looked it up just now that it produces more than four times as much oil as Alaska, though still half as much as Texas. Unlike Alaska, which gives people money directly, New Mexico invests in various forms of welfare for all, so median income families qualify for pregnancy and early childhood medicaid with no fuss (I was shocked, this is worth tens of thousands of dollars per baby, and I just uploaded a couple of forms, and in the cases of the babies, the hospital uploaded the forms for me). They have a bunch of nice hispanic American ladies (many from the days when the territory literally belonged to Spain) who run nice warm daycares. All the normal daycares are now state funded (with no copay as of a year or so ago), and they have the pre-K program as an optional add-on with more curriculum, or they'll instead pay for regular daycare for four year olds, whatever the individual place decides on doing, which has also been, in my experience, fine. Finding daycare for a 1 year old and a 4 year old at the same time and the same establishment is the main impediment, which has worked out surprisingly well.
This situation has resulted in having a third child, where in another state we probably wouldn't have. As a member of the lower middle class, I like it a lot. If someone institutes low fuss UBI, it will probably be here. And it's democratic without being all that progressive, on account of all the influential people who's parents or grandparents were ranchers, so in general I like it. Also, I didn't save for a house at all, or even think of owning a house, and then a nice local organization said that, yes, we can buy a house, and just led us through exactly how to do that, then sent a non-commissioned realtor who also got up on our roof to show us how to fix the swamp cooler and stuck his hand down the food processor to fish out some broken glass that was inside.
I was more caught off guard by being called up suddenly, out of the blue.
Gaashk
4d ago
I don't clearly remember how things went down with my previous child, but I think they suggested meeting at my house, I suggested meeting at the school, and she pretty much immediately agreed.
The program itself is voluntary, and my older daughter liked it, so I figured to do it again. They have a bit more curriculum than the regular preschool, which is also completely state funded and exists in the same building. I'm not sure how much more, actually, since the regular program is also run by a large national daycare chain and has official stations and activities. I think it's somewhat based on Head Start, which specialized in teaching poor children with parents who would give excuses about not having transportation to parent teacher conferences or something. I'm not sure about the welfare check side of things, I think it's illegal to enter a home under false pretenses, but maybe they do try to get more district resources by finding all the potential IEP kids or families who want extra services or something. The public pre-Ks here do turn some families away, but are explicitly required to accept all children with disabilities.
Perhaps I'll make the appointment. I was mostly put off by how she kept arguing with me about how extremely REQUIRED it was in an annoying and unwelcoming way, and the short notice.
I don't see the exact model, it was Yabano, with a pressure gauge and about $80 when I bought it three years ago. This looks pretty similar:https://www.target.com/p/anycold-20-bar-espresso-machine-compact-stainless-steel-maker-with-milk-frother-34oz-removable-tank-for-home-latte-cappuccino/-/A-1007776423#lnk=sametab
I did work at a coffee show for a couple of years, and don't mind spending ten minutes making the coffee myself, though that style of steamer does involve running a little litter of milk in circles for two or three minutes each cup.
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