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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   738 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for July 3, 2024

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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Happy 4th! (Japan time) for the US ers here. Any plans?

That flag doesn't look quite standard.

Caught a fireworks display. I've always loved those since I was a kid and I think my appreciation continues to deepen as an adult. In my area there don't seem to be as many as there used to be, and some towns even replace theirs with some lame drone show. But my town still does one, and all the Hispanics around here set off their own illegal fireworks for a week before and after.

We went to our local village parade, where people decorated their trucks and ATVs, put on some glittery headbands and glasses, and threw candy to the kids. The neighborhood church grilled sausages and put up a bouncy castle. It was charming. We'll light some small fireworks and grill burgers tonight.

Going to Boston for a vacation. Anyone have recommendations for things to do in Boston? @FiveHourMarathon looking at you.

I just got back from Boston a few weeks ago. I found just walking around the city to be very fun.

A few touristy recommendations in no particular order:

  • Atlas Obscura for Boston

  • Kane's Donuts (did you know the Boston Creme Donut is legally the official donut of Massachusetts?)

  • Freedom Trail

  • Bunker Hill monument (although they prevent people from climbing if the heat index is greater than 95 °F—weak!)

  • F1 arcade

  • Monica's Mercato: delicious, massive sandwiches inside a small Italian grocery store

  • My group played a very fun game of sardines at Public Garden

  • If you're a chess player, there's a hustler (who may not be good enough to earn that title) who plays outside of the Sam Adams taphouse for free (tips encouraged) and is decent. He beat me, but tried to cheat in the process, so whoop his ass for me if you do end up playing.

  • Cambridge area

  • Charles River esplanade

  • Fenway Park, as others have mentioned. I'm not a baseball fan but was getting major FOMO when I dropped my friends off to continue exploring.

I've actually been to the rest of New England more than I've been to Boston. It's a town I should like more than I do, for obscure reasons. That said:

-- Go to Fenway. Even if you don't like baseball, it's a thing all Americans should do. I hate the Red Sox, but it's history. If you can get to a weeknight game against a weak opponent on vacation, it'll be like $30 or less a ticket to get in the door.

-- The freedom trail is fun, depending on weather

-- I love the museums located at all the universities. Particularly Harvard has a huge collection of anything you want to see, which gets a lot less traffic than you'd think, mostly bored Asian families pretending to care.

Redsox game is a must, even if you hate baseball, don't bring a large bag or you have to pay to check it across the street, do the freedom trail, have lunch at faneuil hall, what season are you going to be there? That has an impact. Climb to the top of the bunker hill monument. Duck boats are a waste of money but fun if you like cheesy tourist shit. The Aquarium is fun but always packed with school kids, museum of science is great if you have kids or still act like one! Try on some hats, there are some great haberdashers in Boston, good restaurants are too numerous and based on taste to mention, like all major cities. I would say get some B&M baked beans but they closed their factory and moved production from Portland to NJ and now they suck, so don't do that. You can take the Downeaster train up to Portland Maine as well for an inexpensive day trip.

Did you also hang the appropriate flag on February 11th and 23rd?

No. In Japan, patriotism or explicit acknowledgment of the emperor is uncommon where I am. It seems to be considered gauche, or overly rightwing, or martial. As for me I grew up with a dad who hung out the flag every day, and, every day, had me take it in at sundown. It was a normal thing growing up, at least in my house.

Very likely no one here takes any notice of the flag at all, and if they do they dismiss it just as the benign foreign guy's eccentricity.

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