• 6 Posts
  • 238 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 14th, 2023

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  • Garmin Explore has a bit of a learning curve but offers a variety of very good maps and (once you’ve discovered where the web developers have hidden them) tons of nifty features. One of them is waypoints: you stick a flag somewhere and can give it a name, icon and colour. That sounds like the thing you’re looking for.
    The downside is that it’s made for outdoor stuff so you get street names and some POIs, but no turn-by-turn navigation.

    I use the website (https://explore.garmin.com/) to plan my tours and import/manage GPX files, and the Android app and an inReach 2 Mini satellite messenger while underway. The three sync seamlessly.

    Since I have a paid subscription (required for satellite access) I can’t tell you what (if anything) you get for free, but it should be relatively easy to find out if you think it might be what you’re looking for.

    For car navigation I used TomTom Go - it costs something but the quality of POIs and navigation is far superior to Google Maps in my experience. You can also add your own locations but have to do it on the phone by hand.
    In my new car I use Google Maps because it came with the car and there’s no real alternative at the moment. I do miss my TomTom app.




  • Logically, I know it’s true that demeaning and comparing other people’s experiences is wrong, but I encounter it so much it’s hard to really believe it.

    I can relate to some degree, though in my case it was my parents. The good news is that it doesn’t take much practice until you start noticing the difference.

    There’s not a lot of advice I can give you, because above all you need to figure out yourself what you want (and how you want to get there). Just keep reminding yourself every now and then that the most important person in your life is you, and anybody trying to tell you otherwise is unlikely to have your best interests in mind.


  • Man, that’s a really tough question if I’m only allowed to pick one.

    I’ve enjoyed some Becky Chambers books as well, though the Monk & Robot series weren’t quite my cup of tea. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is one of my favourite books.

    If I could wish for one new book from any author, it’d have to be Robert Brockway. His Vicious Circuit trilogy is a masterpiece in so many aspects, I’ve immensely enjoyed Carrier Wave and am currently following his rewrite of Rx and Fuck You In Particular, Nashville, Tennessee on Patreon.







  • I feel so guilty because I’m honestly spiraling but everyone keeps telling me I’m not. I can’t, because it makes them look worse.

    I don’t even know where to begin.

    Going through difficult times is not a weapon in a dick-measuring contest to determine who’s owed the most pity. Downplaying somebody else’s problems in order to make one’s own problems seem more important is not something a friend* does, period.
    But then again, those people may just be unable to imagine you holding yourself together so well if you really had all those problems you describe. That’s still no excuse though, a real friend should listen to you and believe you.

    I think what (some of) your ‘friends’ are doing is reminiscent of crab mentality. That’s the mechanism that makes sure you’re being gifted a never-ending supply of chocolate and junk food as soon as people notice you’ve successfully lost weight, or alcoholics insisting that their dry friend has just one small beer with them for old times’ sake.
    One of the foundations of crab mentality is the assumption that life is a zero-sum game and/or desired resources are scarce, i.e. if you get more sympathy/attention then somebody else will get less.

    I’m not saying you should do this - that would require some hefty assumptions about you and your life - but one of the best things I’ve ever done is ranking all my friends and family by the degree to which they’ve made my life better or dragged me down over the years, balanced scorecard-style. It sounds heartless but with some people was a real eye-opener for me.

    Either way, surround yourself with people that give something back. If that means losing some ‘friends’, then so be it. A handful of real friends will get you much further than hordes of false ones.

    ( * I’m including family members here, though they can generally get away with much more BS than a friend just because they’re family.)


  • Our small town is in the process of putting up 30km/h traffic signs everywhere except for some through roads. I don’t expect much to change - pretty much nobody drives faster than that in a residential area with lots of curves and small kids anyway - but making it official is an overdue step.

    Now we just need to enforce some basic traffic laws for bikes as well and using the roads is going to be a lot more pleasant for everybody.


  • I live in Switzerland, where downloading copyrighted material for personal use is legal, so your situation may differ. If I don’t find what I’m looking for in a DRM-free store, on eMule and on the high seas, I just download it from YouTube. The quality is not the best but usually sufficient. Try the NewPipe app on Android (if applicable) or https://de.savefrom.net/ - be aware that the latter should only be visited with a good ad blocker and antivirus.