Yes!! The Dune movies are the only big movies I've been excited about in a loooong time. Between the crappy nostalgia remakes (which never live up to the originals) and the endless superhero franchise churn, the theatre experience has been quite dire for far too long.

I love that Villeneuve is bringing the craft of movie-making back to blockbuster movies, and doubly so that he's done it with the Dune stories. And he's done them justice so far, both the material and with the beauty of the cinematography.

I'd be fine with defederating. I don't care if they bring in more numbers and more 'engagement' if that engagement is generally shit and too difficult for the mods to moderate with the current tools available. I'd much rather be part of a smaller but friendly community that is actually familiar with NZ, than a larger more popular one that just turns into another cesspit.

Agreed. Letting everyone have an equal say just leads to shitty online forums (Facebook, Stuff comments for example) where misinformation gets spread easily, and hateful content is propagated. I don't want to see that happening here.

I love cats. But I also love birds, so our two kitties are indoor-only cats and they're happy as. They have company, warmth, food on demand, and are much safer. Just yesterday I saw a cat that had been hit by a car, and it was quite a horrible sight. I hope it didn't suffer long. Its injuries were very, very unpleasant to see.

I don't really care about the main reason noted in the article (visiting cats and poop), for me it's more about protecting birdlife, and the safety of the cats themselves. I'd fully support a curfew for cats, like some states in Aus have. And mandatory microchipping and desexing.

Good to see. I hope it continues to slowly decrease or flatline, and stay there for a long time to give incomes a chance to catch up. I own my house (with a small mortgage), so that's not said out of "envy" or whatever other mild insult often gets thrown at potential FHBs. It's simply wrong that something as essential as shelter has been turned into a commodity driven to ridiculous prices purely by greed.

We paid off the mortgage yesterday! I don't mean to gloat (especially when the cost of living and interest rates are making things so tough for many at the moment) - we're not telling anyone in real life though, so I just wanted to let some of my excitement out, even if anonymously.

I'm 38, and the only family help was a $5000 loan from the in-laws which we paid back within a year. We bought really young (didn't feel like it at the time, but it was - early/mid 20s), so benefited from much lower prices and interest rates (though the first rate we had was 7.5%, that's also the highest one we had). That first place got earthquaked though and we had to start again from scratch, so it wasn't all smooth sailing.

The house is old and tired, and there's a lot of deferred maintenance (no curtains match anywhere, the carpet is shit, and we still have single glazing), so that'll take up the savings for a good long while. But man, it feels like a weight has been lifted.

This is way too idealist though. It would be nice if it happened that way, but in reality (and to continue the metaphor) the Nazi will just bring all their Nazi mates to the normal bar, drive minorities away, smash some shit, and turn the normal bar into another Nazi bar that recruits more Nazis.

The people who come to online communities with far-right (in this case) extremist ideals aren't doing so with the possibility of changing their mind. They want more eyeballs on their horrible ideas so that they spread - and turn from online hate to real-life hate.

It's exactly how we end up with stuff like the riots at parliament, and LGBT youth centres getting burned down. It starts online.

Man that Moroccan earthquake sounds horrible. Having been through the Christchurch ones, any time there's news of a big quake now I get the heebie jeebies, and just feel so awful for the people suffering through it. Especially in countries like Morocco and Turkey, where building standards aren't good.

I totally agree with you. Genuine participation > growth for the sake of growth.

(Long-time reddit user, and former IRC (and ICQ!) user here too)

Got my Bill Bailey tickets, pretty decent seats too.

It was brilliant seeing him a couple years ago, it was one of the first large events I went to after lockdown times. Nice to have him back so soon.

The novelty of winter has worn off, and I would like to be warm now please.

Man I love this time of year - out of the grim misery of winter, lots of birds being noisy, stuff getting green again, no freezing my ass off getting up in the morning or getting out of the shower. It's so nice.

Merry Christmas!

The cats really upped their present game this year - a puke in the laundry, and a puke on the coffee table (looks like it was gifted while running, given the impressive spread). I'm not very grateful. Good thing they're cute!

First day off, yay! I celebrated with a pain au chocolat for breakfast. No sleep in though, headed into town to pick up one last gift before things get busy. Now I'm kinda at a loss as to what to do with the rest of the day. Might just chill out and watch stuff. Maybe make some muffins.

I peeped into the r/nz sub earlier, and man it's so full of toxic angry people. It seems to be turning into a far-right talkback radio style cesspit. Mods don't seem to give a crap at all. This place is smaller and slower, but at least it's sane.

Anyway. Two months until I'm off to the states for a few weeks. Can't wait to get a change of scene and have some warmer weather (hopefully - it'll be heading into autumn there).

Got our cats one of those drinking water fountains - one cat is completely indifferent, but the other looooooooooooves it. She used to play with her water when it was in a bowl, dipping her paws in and flicking it everywhere, which was cute but quite messy.. So I recommend it for any others out there with cats that play with their water more than drinking it.

Heading to Sydney for the weekend to catch a Devin Townsend concert. Looking forward to a change in scenery even if it's only brief!

Yeah, I've been using it for a few weeks now and it seems to be growing steadily. I joined on lemmy.world at random because I didn't really understand how it all works at the start. But that instance and the NZ one seem pretty good, there's some good discussion and few dickheads.

It's not as big as The Other Place of course, but it's gaining popularity slowly. And tbh, I wouldn't really want it to be massive - I like the slower pace, and it seems more welcoming being a smaller community.

Such a great effort! They're really cool wee creatures.

Brilliant