MrsDoyle
@MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
- Comment on What went wrong with Pizza Hut? 2 days ago:
I’ve never had a Domino’s pizza and never will - they’re spending so much on TV adverts their food is probably shit.
- Comment on What are some good things to purchase to add a new distraction to my life? 5 days ago:
The best thing about digital photography is that you can keep trying your shot with different settings for exposure, aperture etc. it’s a great way to learn what works best in what situation.
- Comment on AWS crash causes $2,000 Smart Beds to overheat and get stuck upright 6 days ago:
He also invented CFCs, the chemical that nearly destroyed the earth’s protective ozone layer. Quite a guy.
- Comment on Is there an anti- sleep-paralysis device? 1 week ago:
It’s my understanding that everyone has sleep paralysis - the brain “switches off” the body (apart from essentials: breathing, heart beat etc) so you don’t come to grief acting out your dreams. What we call sleep paralysis is when you wake, but your body hasn’t been switched back on.
I used to have horrible sleep paralysis nightmares quite often. But then I read about what it really is, and I stopped having them. It was like my brain realised it was out of sync and corrected itself.
- Comment on Pubs could stay open until early hours in move to boost UK growth 2 weeks ago:
Late licences (to 5am in Scotland) are the main reason I fled Edinburgh’s Old Town for the suburbs. No fun having your front door used as a toilet, drunks ranting and fighting in the close at 3am, having to dodge “pavement pizzas” every night. Yay, growth!
- Comment on Amazon is making it impossible to remove the DRM from Kindle Books 3 weeks ago:
Your “Send to Kindle” email address is in your profile details, under devices and apps. In the app (Android) it’s under settings.
- Comment on Amazon is making it impossible to remove the DRM from Kindle Books 4 weeks ago:
Since at some point recently. You can still email files (epub not mobi now) to your kindle, but usb transfer doesn’t work any more.
- Comment on tall tails 1 month ago:
Vibe coded lion:
- Comment on Microsoft still can't convince folks to upgrade to Windows 11 1 month ago:
I’m poised… might try a dual boot first.
- Comment on Microsoft still can't convince folks to upgrade to Windows 11 1 month ago:
They can’t convince me to switch to Win 11 because apparently my computer isn’t good enough.
- Comment on Scientific unprogress... 1 month ago:
Of course we remember Dolly! She was stuffed and is on display in the National Museum of Scotland.
- Comment on xkcd #3135: Sea Level 1 month ago:
Cramond Island, Edinburgh
- Comment on Yes, you can store data on a bird — enthusiast converts PNG to bird-shaped waveform, teaches young starling to recall file at up to 2MB/s 1 month ago:
- Comment on xkcd #3135: Sea Level 1 month ago:
There’s an island near me that has a pedestrian causeway at low tide. There are huge signs warning to check tide times or get cut off, but still people don’t get it.
- Comment on Why don't they have simpler names for brain disorders, where perhaps even the person suffering the disorder might be able to remember the term themself? 1 month ago:
I think doctors just ask what day it is or “who is the prime minister” to work out what’s wrong. When I found my neighbour wandering along the street unable to find her own front door I understood her problem without an acronym.
- Comment on What is the maximum number of potatoes you could grow in your house or on property you own before it becomes a crime? 2 months ago:
Well you SAY that, but one of my neighbours grew potatoes in her front garden, and there was a LOT of tutting. Really a lot. Everyone knows front gardens are for flowers, not potatoes. I’m surprised the police weren’t called.
- Comment on UK lawmaker for life urged urged ministers to crack down on Palestine Action at request of US company 2 months ago:
Yet it’s somehow cost-effective to arrest and prosecute a bunch of people - they’re already making room in prisons for the expected surge over the weekend. Bloody ridiculous.
I lived in London during the Troubles. I think I know what terrorism is, and pensioners waving placards aren’t even close.
- Comment on Does anyone struggle with spending money foolishly on prostitutes? 2 months ago:
A lot of Nazis were Christians.
- Comment on Does anyone struggle with spending money foolishly on prostitutes? 3 months ago:
We live in a society. I believe that a predisposition to empathy, compassion, love, all those good things, is inbuilt in us to help maintain a stable, cohesive society. They are taught to young children, who learn to share, care, co-operate. It seems like some people never grow up, and still need a “parent” to guide them.
- Comment on How do you combat boredom? 3 months ago:
I’m never bored. What’s it like?
- Comment on Does anyone struggle with spending money foolishly on prostitutes? 3 months ago:
Morality matters, friend, even for atheists like me. The trouble with the “only believers can be moral” standpoint is that believers can end up doing the most heinously amoral things in the name of their god. Like burning people alive for example. Stoning sinners to death.
- Comment on Emma Watson banned from driving for speeding 3 months ago:
I know!! Sometimes it’s even painted on the road in huge numerals. I explained everything to her.
- Comment on Emma Watson banned from driving for speeding 3 months ago:
My idiot sister racked up nine points in six months after moving to the UK. She claimed not to have seen the 40mph sign she blew past at 50. “They’re so small!” She only started paying attention when she realised she was one ticket away from a ban.
- Comment on Two men behind ‘senseless’ felling of Sycamore Gap tree jailed for more than four years 3 months ago:
Councils are constantly cutting down trees. inews.co.uk/…/trees-felled-uk-councils-10-years-3…
- Comment on [Video] Racist "Stop The Boats" effigy lit in Northern Ireland 3 months ago:
I heard some of those NI rioters being interviewed the last time this sort of thing kicked off, and they were going “There’s too many immigrants! But the Polish family next door are ok, decent people, and the Khans across the road too…” The people they were talking about had to board up their windows and barricade the door. How can you keep both those ideas in your head?
- Comment on Date set for millions of phones across UK to receive emergency alert test 3 months ago:
The first one was wild for me. I knew it was happening, but it happened that it happened at the very moment I was on holiday in Welsh Wales, busy navigating my way around a small town. My phone is bluetoothed to my hearing aids, so very abruptly I had a voice shouting inside my head in Welsh. The message was repeated in English, but by that time I’d died of my heart attack, lol.
- Comment on What's up with all the moth memes? 4 months ago:
I blocked the moth person, I got sick of those posts.
- Comment on What's the e-reader you would buy if you were in the market? 4 months ago:
I’ve discovered I can still load books on my aged Kindle Keyboard via email. When you register a Kindle you get an email address for that purpose. More fiddly that just dropping files in its Document folder, but it does work. (I’m so bloody annoyed at Amazon for that change to Kindles.)
- Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
“Normal”, hmmm. I remember being confused at school when we had to analyse literature and “motherly love” was given as an example of a universal theme. Really? Not in my experience. According to my own dear mama, my younger sister and I were both mistakes. She made it very clear always what a heinous burden we were.
In retrospect, she was a terrible person for saying such things. We were not awful kids, and grew up to be pretty good people. Yes, we’ve both struggled a bit with depression and self doubt, but on the whole, not bad.
So I would say your mother’s cruelty isn’t what’s generally considered “normal”, but it’s not that uncommon. Some people shouldn’t have children, in my view. There’s a lot of societal pressure to procreate in the first place, and then barriers to choosing not to. And it must be horrendous to find yourself not enjoying motherhood at all when it’s supposed to be your peak experience. Still no excuse for such meanness though.
Carry on living, young adult! It’s too easy to get dragged down by shit like this. Life is fleeting in the grand sweep of the universe, keep your heart open to possibilities and options and chances. And remind your mother that you’ll be choosing her care home one day.
- Comment on [deleted] 4 months ago:
I grew up in New Zealand in the 50s-60s. We got most info on current events from the radio. Later on there was TV, but it was mainly radio. Our radio had long-wave and if atmospheric conditions were right you could pick up foreign broadcasts.
Other knowledge came from school, obviously, and from libraries. I absolutely haunted my local library, and read voraciously. I still have a fund of info in my head from back then that comes in handy in pub quizzes. When I wasn’t reading I was out with my friends on our bicycles. We rode for miles at a time - I don’t remember ever telling an adult where we were going.
(About libraries - I don’t know if you’re aware, but the tycoon Andrew Carnegie funded libraries around the world, including the one in the city near my home town.) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_library
Having said all that and making it sound idyllic, it wasn’t. Society back then was repressive in major ways and people’s viewpoints were generally narrow. History books weren’t always telling the truth. It wasn’t terrible compared with say apartheid South Africa, but not great. There was a counter-culture bubbling away - beatniks and then hippies - so it was possible to get an alternative view, just about.
I love the technology that gives me access to not just information, but the lived experience of people round the world. I love reading posts here about mad trivial stuff like what you all are having for breakfast. I love taking a Street View tour of places I’ll likely never visit. I’m reading a novel set in Iceland at the moment, and can “drive” along the route a character is taking. I can video chat with my sister, who lives 10,000 miles away. It’s a miracle!
