So, sad stuff, my mom died when I was 23, and my dad just passed this week, as I’m just shy of 40. Early and sucks but is what it is.

The sad isn't the point of this, though. The point of this is that I now have both of their thick gold wedding bands. I probably could have asked for them before, and he probably would have given them to me, but they weren't my memory to have yet.

Now that I have them, however, they have proven to be a peak fidget toy for driving. I hate driving, especially long-distance, and I tend to start nodding off because it’s boring af. Im AutDHD, so yeah the falling asleep bit is normal for me, and so fucking dangerous. If public transit was an option, I’d absolutely use it, but it isn’t a practical option (thanks carbrain US, for making me a danger to the people around me as a matter of course.. really thrilled to be forced into this position..)

My mom’s is just big enough to fit my off-hand index finger, and my dad’s is just small enough to not fit over that, but its way too big for me alone. But if I put it on first and then my mom’s, it stays put and jingles around. The noise it makes when I tap my finger on the wheel is so ridiculously pleasing to me. It keeps me occupied enough to stay awake, so I'm not a giant hazard on the road. Yay! Win!

So, what’s your “turns out I needed this all along” fidget?

I’m getting into archiving animated media from all countries from my lifetime and a decent bit before (70s-today, animated includes claymation/stop motion/puppetry i suppose through cgi)

Like I’m currently watching lavender castle. Very enjoyable old thing.

I’m looking for weird shit you grew up on. Bonus if it’s dubbed in English but i’m willing to do subtitles to experience the weirdest shit aimed at your youth.

Video links appreciated, if available.

I’ve found a 2023 leaf for some $10k, and with selling my ICE car, which is starting to cost more to maintain than it’s worth, it’ll realistically only cost me about $5k, maybe less. It’s got 33k miles on it, or about 10k/yr which is kinda high-average, but meh. The range in it is far enough to go all the places I’d realistically be going. (If not for making regular trips over 100 miles I’d get one of the ultra-cheap 2015 era EVs that can handle 60-80 miles..)

I probably want it even tho I’ve never test driven one. I’d obviously still do that but I think I kinda want it anyway. This one is located about 3 hours away, but it sounds like they may do inter-dealership trades up to this area, so maybe not a concern.

So what do I need to know? Can the tracking modem be disconnected? Do the batteries fail a lot? Does this model have a ton of quirks? Is it just cheap because people don’t want used EVs? Is this a horrible idea?

I hatched some quail and made sure they imprinted on me (why not, I was thrilled to watch anyway!) but my cats were also there and the brooder is a 55 gallon aquarium on my living room floor, so I think it’s safe to say my birds see them as the adults of the covey because they do this leg splay thing a lot, and lay on their backs all comfy-like.

I’ve seen owl babies lay down on their tummies but never rolling over like this. And they are a bit over 2 weeks in age, but they’ve been doing it for well over a week already.

I’m super pumped for this behavior, I hope it lasts. I can’t wait to see what weird shit the next generation I hatch picks up!

(Sorry for potato quality, I actually took this with an iPhone… really hard to capture this from across the room without disturbing them..)

Curious of the ways you are avoiding buying mass-produced junk as gifts for people this holiday season. Share your ideas and tips, what you make or do, or how you otherwise partake of the joys of togetherness this time of year, without consuming for the sake of consumption.

Basically, when the app crashes while commenting, it recovers the text you had written out.. but then dumps you back to the main feed with that just in your clipboard, waiting for you to comment on the next post and go “oh yeah, crap” because you can’t find the post and go back to browsing.

When hide read posts is functioning as intended (which it hasn’t been for a while and may be related to version..? Idk how it works, and that’s not the point of this anyway), you shouldn’t even be able to find the post you would have replied to, and unless it’s from a community you follow, you’ll never find it again.

Maybe this is too much to ask; I’m not a programmer so I don’t know what I’m asking, but it would be super great when the app crashes to not only preserve the text, but maybe provide a link back to the post it was being made under (not necessarily the exact comment, but the parent post would help a ton). I’ve just sort of given up on long comments I spent a lot of time formatting because the app crashed and I couldn’t find the post I was replying to. And that’s really frustrating.

I have very very old power tools. I cannot afford new ones. The problem is, if I’m being totally honest, I’m largely afraid of the tools I have. I’d like to get over this. How does one do that without direct supervision?

More info: I inherited tools from my parents and grandparents. Things I could afford to replace, like drills and drivers, I did. What I have left are big bladed things (chop saw, table saw, tile saw, etc. no lathe sadly :( ) None of the users of these specific tools are still alive. They are all probably 30+ years old, and work fine, probably, but… are just super intimidating (tho my grandfather had a lot of pre-electrification manual tools and I love those - So nice to take a manual plane to a solid door and end up with something that closes properly!). Some of them have plugs that screw together so you can repair them and everything (those I probably won’t use, absolutely terrifying if you fuck up). I’m mid 30s so I remember most of these things being used but I also remember the table saw I have in my garage taking off half my step-dads thumb..

I know power tools today are built to be a lot safer, but I definitely can’t afford those (I wouldn’t even be able to afford these but they were free for me), and I don’t know anyone with power tool skills (last learning I got was in hs shop class almost 20 years back) so how do I get comfortable with them enough to actually use them for the little projects I need them for? I don’t live in a big metro area, so there aren’t clubs afaik.