What a handsome Torontonian!

Super fierce in his war helm!

I watch them too. And there’s another similar channel of a single young (American, I think?) woman who’s doing the same thing. And again, the locals are very welcoming - I suspect this depends on whether the newcomers are making an effort to integrate, learn the language, etc.

I try to reserve judgement, mainly because I never wanted kids, so not having them was an easy choice for me. I can’t pretend to understand the biological drive to procreate, since I don’t feel it.

But yeah…I suspect a LOT of people who have kids (especially young kids) are very much burying their heads in the sand to avoid the reality. Especially as climate-related disasters start happening with increasing frequency. The horror of seeing collapse coming for their children will be devastating mentally - most people will lean hard into the cognitive dissonance to avoid facing it.

Have you looked into a local weekly produce box? I’m admittedly outside of Toronto so my access is a bit easier, but I’m sure there are services you can sign up for that would deliver. You don’t get to pick what you get, but it’s helped me to expand my cooking repertoire and I find the qualify and price is superior to most grocery stores.

On the one hand, I am loathe to mock or belittle people based on their physical appearance - it’s cruel and immature.

On the other hand, he chose to make this change and holy shit but does he ever look exactly like a glasses-less Milhouse, and it makes me giggle like a small child.

Professional fundraiser, having worked in non-profit my entire career (and my university degree was in a social sciences field). I wouldn’t call myself technically proficient, but I’m technically savvy - I was an early adopter of the internet as a teen, and have been online in some form or another since the mid-90s. Fuck spez.

I want good icing, not that awful shortening-based shit you get on most commercial cakes. And to be honest, I mostly only want good cake too (ie, homemade or from a bougie bakery).

Yeah, I watch anything I want to see at home, in my comfy entertainment room. The last movie I saw in theatres was in late 2021, I think? And that was at a local, independently owned theatre. The big corporate ones are so ridiculously overpriced these days.

I don’t necessarily object to longer films, but my small-to-begin-with-and-now-middle-aged bladder sure does. Bring back intermissions!

Yeah, this is pretty much my standard now too. I was in hospital for a day surgery recently and was more than a little taken aback at the fact that I was one of the only people masking.

She’s lovely, and she looks so happy to see you!

There is a real threat of harm to various minority groups living in red states. Hell, there’s a real threat of harm to women who can fall pregnant living in red states. I’d certainly not want to live there if my accidentally falling pregnant (which would likely be ectopic in my case) would result in a very high chance of my death.

I really appreciate that media (even if it’s pandering, whatever) is starting to show a much wider variety of romantic relationships. Representation is important, and seeing the gentle courtship between Burt and Irving was incredibly sweet.

I used to delete my comments regularly, but fell out of the habit a few years ago. I’m currently going through my history manually to overwrite and delete everything - fortunately I wasn’t a prolific commenter, and it’s kind of nice to see my history.

Eh…I don’t know. It’s almost a cultural touchstone at this point, and perhaps worth watching if only for that reason. But I remember it being a very frustrating experience to watch originally - it was sort of disjointed, the writers strike in the ‘00s didn’t help, but if I remember correctly lots of plot threads were left dangling. It also got super weird towards the end!

It’s perhaps not true/hard sci-fi, but I think Butler’s The Parable of the Sower and The Parable of the Talents are, uh, alarmingly prescient, considering she wrote them in the mid-90s and predicted a lot of the societal ills we’re struggling with now (including a fascist politician who promises to ‘make American great again’).

I’ve only just started (binge-) watching it, and I’m finding it very reminiscent of Lost, though I do think the horror elements are being very well done. I’m a few episodes into season 2, and so far so good!

Seconding both recommendations for the Dresden Files and Rivers of London.

I know Butcher gets a lot of flack for the Dresden Files and how he writes Harry, which always baffles me - it’s meant to be a (old-school and chauvinistic) hard-boiled detective noir series. I’ve quite enjoyed watching Harry grow up and develop as a more nuanced and complete character through the series.

(And I’ll have to check out that Jamison title - I loved her Broken Earth novels).

Oooh thanks for the rec, I’ll put it on the list! I do tend to lean towards more fantasy/horror and less sci-fi, but I very much liked Murderbot’s voice as a narrator (and the universe is fascinating).