UnPassive

I love my open-dyslexic font on my Kobo. I read a lot, usually many hours while in bed late at night. I don't think the font helps with my reading speed at all, but I just feel like I have less fatigue and I have to reread words and sentences less often (I often mistakenly assume a word or few words and then get confused why the sentence made no sense).

Anyway, I just saw a demo of bionic reading and it feels weird and fast. I instantly was gonna pay for a font, but according to my research it doesn't really work on Kobo. The fonts just left-weight letters, but the actual bolding for eye-focus points has to modify epubs themselves. I guess on the xteink x4 (which I was thinking about buying) you can put custom firmware on that supports render-time bionic reading, but Kobo doesn't allow anything like that.

So before I buy anything or waste any time converting epubs, I was wondering if anyone had any experience with both, and which they prefer? I think theoretically I could modify an epub with bionic reading and use my open-dyslexic font at the same time... I guess there isn't much research suggesting either help readers, and bionic reading doesn't seem to have been tested for dyslexics specifically at all.

I might give it a try tonight either way. I'll report back if I do.

Absolutely perfect :')

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/40802960

If anyone didn't know, Mormons don't drink alcohol

A few years ago my older brother told me that at our Thanksgiving and Christmas family dinners he fills a powerade bottle with red wine. For years I never noticed. I remembered thinking "good for him, avoiding all the soda and bringing his own healthy drink" lol. I was still scared to try it myself, but it went fine, and the last time I used a pomegranate juice bottle instead. I love red wine, and with big family dinners with 40+ people of all ages and hours long, it REALLY helps me enjoy myself. Plus, I can take a sip during the prayer and that's cathartic for some reason.

But there are problems... Wine has a pretty strong smell and strongly discolors your tongue and teeth. I do NOT want to get caught and end up killing my grandma with shock. Also, I'd love having enough to share with my cousins who've left the church, so something stronger would be nice.

I've been thinking about this a lot this holiday season and here's some things I'd like to achieve:

• Super covert. Where even my smart aunt wouldn't think twice.
• A shareable amount. Maybe not where we could all get buzzed, but a few sips.
• Variety - I love making different cocktails, and like showing them to my Exmo family. So I don't want to be tied to purple forever.

Some ideas I've had:

• A thermos or opaque water bottle and just hope it's not suspicious.
• Invent some two chambered bottle that only pours alcohol if a button is pressed
• Find some clear cocktails and put them in clear water bottles
• Maybe a hidden and silent flask that we can just pour liquor into our drinks
• Color the inside of a bottle to look like it's full of the original beverage.
• Just refill emptied soda cans. Or re-bottle some root beer bottles (I have a bottle cap press...)
• Refill a kombucha bottle. This might work great because it can be whatever color I want since it's not recognizable, and since it's fermented tea it might ward off the TBMs

Also, I need a phrase I can say to ward off cousins who might ask for a sip, "that's not church-approved eggnog" for example 😂

Edit: Thanks everyone for being concerned about alcoholism! It occurs to me that I should have specified that I'm not a heavy drinker... Even small amounts of alcohol wreck my sleep so I very literally only drink a couple times a month - at most. Always on a Friday night so I have maximum time to recover before work on Monday (I'm an absolute baby...) And no I'm not getting drunk on those Fridays. Just 1-3 drinks. Usually me experimenting with some new cocktail or wine since I know so little about them, but wish I did. I was drinking more often when alcohol was super new to me, but it just doesn't agree with me very much. I swear on my Seminary Graduation Degree 😉 With that being said, I really enjoy drinking in social situations and the holidays feel perfect for that. Although... while I would never consider myself an alcoholic, pretty much all of my Mormon family would... 😁

This post is meant to ask for help with me challenging my family norms. Mormons in general, and especially my family, have a DEEP-rooted expectation of everyone pretending to still be Mormon when they visit. It was a huge fight a couple years ago for me not going to church with my parents when I visit ("it's such a small thing, can't you do it for me?" - it may be small, but this is a never-give-a-mouse-a-cookie situation). My parents freaked out at me this year (literal screaming and crying) because I wouldn't take out my earrings for the Christmas dinner (boys aren't supposed to have earrings according to Mormons). They asked me to wear long sleeves to cover my tattoo when I visit too. They also expect us exmo kids to abstain from coffee while visiting. I have to admit, I also don't drink coffee (or any caffeine) regularly, but when I'm home I make an effort to have some every day 😈 I literally drink decaf and pretend I need it lol. And at our family reunions, I'd been living with my girlfriend (now wife) for 3 years and every single one of my aunts asked me where she was sleeping tonight and every one of them was shocked that she'd be sleeping in my tent. "Don't you think that sets a bad example for your younger cousins?" - "Umm no. I think pretending to be someone you're not is probably setting a bad example though." (Although maybe in their eyes, they were right because the next family reunion two more of my cousins slept in the same tent as their non-married partners. I'm really happy about that though!)

So this post is just me wanting to be rebellious. Maybe that's childish and silly, but it's cathartic to me and exciting. Maybe some day they'll chill enough for some of us who've left the church to have a holiday drink, but it doesn't seem very likely right now.

A few years ago my older brother told me that at our Thanksgiving and Christmas family dinners he fills a powerade bottle with red wine. For years I never noticed. I remembered thinking "good for him, avoiding all the soda and bringing his own healthy drink" lol. I was still scared to try it myself, but it went fine, and the last time I used a pomegranate juice bottle instead. I love red wine, and with big family dinners with 40+ people of all ages and hours long, it REALLY helps me enjoy myself. Plus, I can take a sip during the prayer and that's cathartic for some reason.

But there are problems... Wine has a pretty strong smell and strongly discolors your tongue and teeth. I do NOT want to get caught and end up killing my grandma with shock. Also, I'd love having enough to share with my cousins who've left the church, so something stronger would be nice.

I've been thinking about this a lot this holiday season and here's some things I'd like to achieve:

• Super covert. Where even my smart aunt wouldn't think twice.
• A shareable amount. Maybe not where we could all get buzzed, but a few sips.
• Variety - I love making different cocktails, and like showing them to my Exmo family. So I don't want to be tied to purple forever.

Some ideas I've had:

• A thermos or opaque water bottle and just hope it's not suspicious.
• Invent some two chambered bottle that only pours alcohol if a button is pressed
• Find some clear cocktails and put them in clear water bottles
• Maybe a hidden and silent flask that we can just pour liquor into our drinks
• Color the inside of a bottle to look like it's full of the original beverage.
• Just refill emptied soda cans. Or re-bottle some root beer bottles (I have a bottle cap press...)
• Refill a kombucha bottle. This might work great because it can be whatever color I want since it's not recognizable, and since it's fermented tea it might ward off the TBMs

Also, I need a phrase I can say to ward off cousins who might ask for a sip, "that's not church-approved eggnog" for example 😂

Edit: Thanks everyone for being concerned about alcoholism! It occurs to me that I should have specified that I'm not a heavy drinker... Even small amounts of alcohol wreck my sleep so I very literally only drink a couple times a month - at most. Always on a Friday night so I have maximum time to recover before work on Monday (I'm an absolute baby...) And no I'm not getting drunk on those Fridays. Just 1-3 drinks. Usually me experimenting with some new cocktail or wine since I know so little about them, but wish I did. I was drinking more often when alcohol was super new to me, but it just doesn't agree with me very much. I swear on my Seminary Graduation Degree 😉 With that being said, I really enjoy drinking in social situations and the holidays feel perfect for that. Although... while I would never consider myself an alcoholic, pretty much all of my Mormon family would... 😁

This post is meant to ask for help with me challenging my family norms. Mormons in general, and especially my family, have a DEEP-rooted expectation of everyone pretending to still be Mormon when they visit. It was a huge fight a couple years ago for me not going to church with my parents when I visit ("it's such a small thing, can't you do it for me?" - it may be small, but this is a never-give-a-mouse-a-cookie situation). My parents freaked out at me this year (literal screaming and crying) because I wouldn't take out my earrings for the Christmas dinner (boys aren't supposed to have earrings according to Mormons). They asked me to wear long sleeves to cover my tattoo when I visit too. They also expect us exmo kids to abstain from coffee while visiting. I have to admit, I also don't drink coffee (or any caffeine) regularly, but when I'm home I make an effort to have some every day 😈 I literally drink decaf and pretend I need it lol. And at our family reunions, I'd been living with my girlfriend (now wife) for 3 years and every single one of my aunts asked me where she was sleeping tonight and every one of them was shocked that she'd be sleeping in my tent. "Don't you think that sets a bad example for your younger cousins?" - "Umm no. I think pretending to be someone you're not is probably setting a bad example though." (Although maybe in their eyes, they were right because the next family reunion two more of my cousins slept in the same tent as their non-married partners. I'm really happy about that though!)

So this post is just me wanting to be rebellious. Maybe that's childish and silly, but it's cathartic to me and exciting. Maybe some day they'll chill enough for some of us who've left the church to have a holiday drink, but it doesn't seem very likely right now.

Because my bike works fine. And is more fun.

Anyone else hate when they feel "forced" to use the car?

A Whiskey Ditch is just whiskey and water. Montana legend says people used to use slushy snow from the edge of a ditch. I don't know how sanitary that is, but I like using fresh snow.

It's pretty neat how insanely fast the snow melts when you add the whiskey (bourbon for me tonight). Like cotton candy in water.

Should be no sediment in the drink - if there is then your snow isn't clean enough. And never use lemon snow!

I'm very excited for summer, but every season has something nice that the others don't. Though I suppose I could use a shaved ice machine or something...

(Humble brag of all my Rubik's cubes)

Hey all, so I'm an ex-mormon who made it through college without a sip of alcohol. I've been trying to play catch-up but my wife and I are scared of bars and all my friends' recommendations have been <some_juice> with vodka.

I've been trying to learn how to drink for a couple years now. I've built up a medium collection of bottles (some of which I have no idea what to do with...). I feel like I've gone through most of the classic cocktails, but recently went back through my starting drinks because I think my pallet has opened up as I've gone along. Among the first cocktails I made myself were an old fashioned and a Manhattan and I know I didn't like either, but I'm having a Manhattan right now and really enjoying it (planning on trying an old fashioned again sometime soon).

Anyway, I've frequently wished for an expert to chat with who could give me recommendations. So drop yours below!

Some of the drinks I love:

• Negroni - so far, if there were only one drink I could have the rest of my life, this would be it.
• Sazerac - A close second. I think I'd love some whiskey cocktail recommendations if you have them!
• Jungle Bird - couldn't tell you why I love it
• French 75 - one of my favorites to show new drinkers, but a bit high-proof
• Hot Toddy - not my go-to, but winters are cold where I live and this drink is super fun

Honorable mentions:

• Whiskey sour - I usually make one alongside a prairie oyster, even though I hate those, so that I can use the whole egg
• Mai Tai - a bit sweet to be on my list of favorites
• I really like tequila but I haven't tried many cocktails with it

I think anything less sweet, maybe bitter is gonna jive really well with me

Edit:

Very excited about the recommendations! It'll update the list below over the weeks with what I like

Recommendation High-Scores:

1. Tommy's Margarita - yeah, wow this drink was made for me. Did it with half Mezcal, which I'd never tried until today, and it's awesome. And my wife loves smokey drinks so it's way up high on her list as well.
2. Paper Plane - Super great, wife loves bourbon so she was a fan. I think I added too much lemon juice because it was a bit sour. Excited to try again.
3. Gimlet - a bit basic but it's a starting point I'm excited to riff off of. I used lime juice but How-to-drink has a video where he makes his own lime-cordial and I kinda want to try it. I guess it's bitter and fruity and that sounds like something I'd love. I've seen a bunch of modified recipes too so I'll be looking around for ones that speak to me.
4. Black Manhattan - It's just nice. A slow sipper. Intense and boozy, bitter, long evolution - and I'm sure fun to switch out the whiskey in. I used a rye and I immediately want to try my bourbon, but I have a lot of suggestions to try so it'll have to wait...
5. Teresa - super similar to the Negroni - so I really like it. Maybe it's so similar though that I don't know that I need it... Definitely will be drinking them 'til I run out of Creme de Casis though.
6. Old Fashioned - liked it more than the first time I had one, I think I'd prefer it more diluted. Towards the end once more ice had melted I was really enjoying it. I think next time I'll stir it in ice and then add it to my bitters-saturated sugar (might use simple next time, or maple/agave as some have recommended).
7. Monkey Gland - Really cool. Like dressed up orange juice in a way. The Absinthe doesn't over-power and instead shines (or lengthens?). Unfortunately, I hate the name and hate the history of the drink (it is interesting though, so look it up!) so I doubt I'll be making again. I know the name shouldn't matter, but since it already isn't a favorite I don't think I'll be adding it to my home-bar menu.

The music video is chilling and I highly recommend.

Some quotes:

• "And Elon, we know exactly what that was bruh"
• "If you still haven’t said shit about the genocide, know your grandkids one day are gonna ask you why "
• "Just 2 weeks in think were we’ll be around July"

Edit: Uncensored the song title as requested - I fucking love Lemmy :)

I recently listened to Dopamine Nation, it wasn't all that relevant to my life, but it got me thinking a lot about how much time I waste every day consuming media.

I'm looking for book recommendations on how to make changes with my media habits - I'd like a bit more balance with hobbies, chores, projects, etc. Basically just not feeling like all I do after work anymore is watch YouTube.

More details about my specifics below, but feel free to skip if you're in a hurry and just want to drop your book :)

So Dopamine Nation was mostly about drug abuse, or people with actual debilitating addictions. The stories are kinda insane and fun to listen to. But I haven't quite ruined my life with internet addiction (yet). Some insights were useful, but I want things a bit more specific to my situation. Not advice for how to get off heroine.

Lately I've been frustrated that I've had little free time to work on my projects. It feels like after work I just have to chill out and recover - which is mostly just eating and watching YouTube. When I run out of interesting YouTube videos, I watch dumb ones. And hours pass in an instant. Just last night I started a 20 minute funny video compilation and thought to myself, "I won't finish this cause I have to go to bed soon" and my literal next thought was, "oh it's over, did 20 minutes really pass?" And yeah, they had.

Meanwhile on nights that new bike parts come in the mail and I spend three hours in the garage after work role-playing a bike mechanic, it feels like an entire Saturday occurred just after work. And I'm not absolutely exhausted like I'd have predicted. Time just feels slower. I think I've always known this, I just refused to accept how significantly different life feels watching TV vs being engaged with something.

So I resolved to change a few weeks ago, and quit YouTube, but I don't think I've actually gone a single day where I watched less than an hour of videos... One of the scary parts of Dopamine Nation was the evidence that high-dopamine activities shorten our abilities to think long-term; and a result of that is addicts constantly telling themselves "I won't always be this way" or "I'll quit someday for sure" but having zero commitment to a timeline. I feel like that's where I'm at. "Yeah, I wanna quit and reclaim my time, but I can watch videos while I eat, right?" which leads to a lost evening. It's like I have the clear desire to go cold-turkey, but then in the moment I can't relate to those old desires and I habitually am looking for something to watch.

So I'd love a book that has guidance on managing internet addiction. Whether that's some sort of balance, or advice on how to quit a bad habit.

Some books I've got on my radar:

• Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
  • I LOVED his book Deep Work - it definitely changed my life in college.
  • It seems like an obvious choice for me, but reviews seem to say it's not that revolutionary. More like some loose ideas on the benefits of using your phone less.
    • I'd love if someone here had a glowing review for the book or thought it might actually be what I'm looking for :)
• Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
• And I've been looking through lists online, like this one:

I'm a 28 year old guy, no signs of arthritis yet. But both my parents have quite debilitating and different forms of arthritis.

My dad (54 years old) thought he tore something in his knee getting out of his car on some ice recently. It wasn't healing. MRI revealed that he just has terrible arthritis. He's about 200lbs and 6 feet tall and fairly active still. But for years his knees have made it hard for him to hike or mountain bike. He still goes, but complains constantly. He can not do a squat, can't sit cross-leg, and has trouble getting down onto the ground or back up (for like 10 years straight).

My mom used to cut hair, now she has really bad arthritis in her fingers, and some in her back. She's far more mobile than my dad. Also a healthy weight. I'm a software engineer so my fingers are quite important to me.

Neither of them smoke or drink alcohol - at all.

I'm super active. I ran track in college. I mountain bike, freedive, backpack, pretty much anything outdoors. Exercise fairly regularly (2 times a week). My hope is that staying healthy and active is enough. But seeing them struggle to keep up has me worried. They haven't aged much, but it's like they feel pain moving.

My maternal grandpa was backpacking and biking into his early 70s pain-free. I'd see that as an absolute win compared to my parents. The research I did this morning had some basic suggestions, but also a lot of "we don't really know."

I've had a few sports injuries, but nothing that has bothered me after it healed. Some were serious enough to required physical therapy. Mostly ankle and wrist sprains, plus regular stress fractures in my feet from indoor track.

Correct me if I'm wrong: but right now one of the things I want to incorporate more of is mobility work. I like yoga so that's probably what I'll try to add more of. Once a week was what I was planning on. I do a lot of active things that I don't consider exercise, like biking to work, walking the dog, etc.

Also, I don't run a ton anymore, but it's never bothered me and I love going on a run every now and again. The research here seems to be super conflicting. My interpretation is that you can run unless you have arthritis and it bothers you. But running doesn't seem to cause arthritis or knee pain (even though a lot of personal anecdotal stories blame running on knee issues). In general, the lower impact the activity though, the better it is for people with arthritis.

So if anyone has resources to link to, or long-term lifestyle suggestions, I'm all ears. My ultimate goal would be to just feel as healthy as I do right now, for as long as possible.

And so; what lifestyle practices combat/prevent arthritis?

Edit: Thanks for support! Right now my plan is to try and replace the grease in the hub with something known to work in low temperatures.

So I got some new wheels for my commuter and on my first ride, after ~3 miles it feels like I'm getting some chain skipping - I wasn't - then soon after the hub completely stops engaging and I walk home.

Never had that happen before. Thought it might be a cold temperature issue but bringing the bike indoors overnight didn't seem to resolve it right away, but eventually something did. A short test ride later and the hub froze up again.

They're Hunt wheels, I reached out and they said it's unexpected but probably not because of the cold temperatures (about 20F). They sent a new set and the exact same thing happened on the first ride, about the same distance.

I'm leaning toward it being a temperature thing, and they just have too thick of a grease in the freehub that is getting thicker in the cold? If this is the case, would it be simple to pull apart, clean, and replace with a different grease?

I hate driving to work, so I'm tempted to try and pick up a hub locally this weekend to swap (if that's possible, I've never tried and haven't looked into standards or anything).

If it is a temperature thing, it can get to -40F here, and I (usually) still bike to work in those temps, so let me know if there's anything I should "shop for" in a replacement.

If anyone has any other ideas what could cause this, let me know! I'm worried I used the wrong cassette or something dumb that I don't know about (Hunt support didn't seem to think so). I suppose there is the chance that I just got 2 bad sets in a row.

More info:

• HUNT 4 Season Gravel wheelset
  • Shimano/SRAM HG Splined
• Cassette: Shimano CS-LG300 CUES LINKGLIDE HG 9sp Cassette 11-41t
• The wheel's freehub came with a spacer for compatibility with different cassette types and I am not using the spacer: A guide on when to use the spacer

For what it's worth, Hunt has been great to work with

We've been using that little red thing that says 42 to keep track of the grind setting on our hand grinder - just thought I'd share since it's been super useful.

It's a row counter for knitting. They're super cheap and at craft stores. I used them originally to count life in the Magic The Gathering card game.

Anyway, our hand grinder doesn't have any way to tell what setting it's on, and as we dial in new beans we write on the bag what setting worked well. For a while, we'd just reset to 40 after every grind, but that was annoying and I regularly would lose track of what setting it was on.

I bounce between decaf and caffinated beans a lot, so my grind setting changes regularly. This has been working super well for my wife and I though!