Casual Conversation

Like, not the big dramatic stuff — I mean the tiny things you barely think about.

I was just reflecting on how many times something small ended up leading to something huge. For example:

When I decided to grab coffee at a different café and randomly mer someone who later became a close friend.

Saying “yes” to a last-minute invite and discovering a hobby that became a huge part of your life. In my example it was bouldering.

Now if I spin this further, if I hadn't gotten into rock climbing I probably wouldn't have injured my shoulder a year ago.

Now look at the other examples on this planet. A person who called in sick on 9/11 or missed that flight.

It's insane. If I wouldn't be writing this post maybe I would have gotten hit by a car?

Feel free to have a look at

!movies@piefed.social
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Its like a IRL block button, its magical.

Think I'll feel even better about it once the student loan organization posts the payment, but due in part to a sudden reckoning by family re: support to date and capacities today, I was able to pay off the last bit of my loans without screwing up my immediate need finances.

10 years in the making, lol. Just kinda feel like shouting this into the void, despite faithfully making the payments it still never really felt like this day would ever come.

six months after my last workplace went bankrupt, i'm out again. an international consultancy firm took me and all my colleagues in from the failing business and we got raises and bonuses... and now i've been let go. only me.

they've not managed to sell my skills anywhere for six months, so the decision makes economic sense, but... that just makes me feel useless. evidently the local office feels bad because they decided to pay out this month's salary in full, but that doesn't really help with the self-esteem.

after all the shakiness of the bankruptcy and being lied to about great numbers leading up to it, i just wanted some stability. but fuck me i guess.

...so how's your day?

Hey all, I hope everyone's alright.

I'm visiting the Netherlands and I almost died while riding a bike.

I'm at a town with a university, and this is my 3rd day in the town; so I don't know all the streets by heart.

I was riding a bicycle, through a cross road, and wanted to make a left turn, from the right side of the road. I crossed the road first, before crossing to the left, when I saw that there wasn't any bike lane ahead, so the bike lane is only on one side of the road; two directions in one big bike lane.

So I turned around to go back to the initial point, and I saw no traffic light in this direction.

I crossed the road while the traffic lights for the cars ahead turned green, and there was a car turning at a moderately high speed straight to my direction. The car had to brake hard and stopped just 20cm before crashing into me, and I could see the panicked-angry face of this dude, cussing at me with two middle fingers violently waved in my direction.

I'm sure it was my fault and I feel awful... I shouldn't have turned around directly, and should've done 3 crossings instead.

Lesson learned and all, but facing the possibility of death is awful. And I'm pretty sure I made one extra Dutch to hate visitors/immigrants (especially on a bike). I hope he can forgive me, and I wish safety to all the students.

I was looking forward to it, but the first episode was meh.

Spoilers follow.

I like the set up: the trillionaire, the Weyland-Yutani ship crashing in Prodigy territory, the experimental hybrids, and the aliens.

But it didn't come together. The rescue peeps carrying pulse rifles seemed incongruous. The medic didn't really medic (except for the sticker on the fridge, I guess). The main hybrid sticking a paper cutter blade on her back was goofy. And the soliloquy from the synth seemed a few episodes too early.

The adult actors playing kids seems like a recipe for cringe.

But I'll give it a few more episodes.

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I have to post it somewhere.

About a week ago we picked up a little puppy from the SPCA. They said he's a whippet cross short-haired pointer, but I don't really see either of those breeds in him. Don't care, he's adorable. Decided to call him Pippin.

We already have a rescue greyhound, Pete and they can be touchy at the best of times, so we just fostered initially, with a plan to fully adopt if things went well.

Meet and greet was pointless IMHO. The shelter is 3 hours away, so poor Pete had a 3 hour drive before finding himself in a noisy dog shelter with a 3 month old puppy. He was so stressed that I don't think he even really registered the puppy was there. Anyway, the point is apparently just to make sure they aren't going to attack the other dog on sight, so we were given the green light to take the puppy home.

The drive back was uneventful. Pippin puked on me twice, poor thing. Obviously never been in a car before. Pete just seemed to be happy we weren't in the shelter anymore. Had a few pee stops along the way, where we let them interact on leash a bit more. Pete was fine. Gave him a sniff, and then pretty much ignored him.

We did our best over the next week to do all the things you're meant to do. We both work from home, so they were never alone unsupervised. We watched Pete for signs of stress, and separated them when he'd had enough. We also had a section of the bedroom where Pete sleeps cordoned off, so the puppy couldn't get in there, but Pete could. We started crate training the puppy, and fed him in there away from Pete. We went on 1:1 walks with Pete, and kept him as closely as we could to his normal routine. We did our best to prevent Pippin playing with high value toys. We did everything we could think of, and everything suggested online.

Things seemed to be going ok initially. When they were outside, the greyhound was fine with him. When we were inside though, it was a different story. It just started with Pete looking really uncomfortable when the puppy was around. Stiff, whale eyes, lip licking etc. Then he started growling if Pippin got too close to him. Usually at that point we'd separate them. Last night though, Pete was in one corner of the room, and Pippin was in another. It all happened really fast, and we're not sure what triggered it, but Pete lunged at Pippin and chased him out the room nipping him the whole way.

So the fact that he did that without a growl first, and the fact that it's gone from ignoring him, to uncomfortable, to attacking tells us that Pete is probably not going to accept Pippin. Like, we could keep trying but we run the risk of Pete injuring Pippin.

So my today my partner is taking him back to the shelter. We're hoping the fact that it's at least familiar to him, and his littermates are still there (they were born there) will mean it's a little less stressful for him.

We're devastated. I can't stop crying. He was only here a week, but we fell in love.

I dunno. Send good vibes please

I was sitting at a cafe with some friends, and we got onto the subject of weird anime we have watched. None of us are heavy anime consumers, so it's not really a topic that comes up often. I recalled a time I was at my brother's house a couple months ago and we got WAY too high and started digging through his Crunchyroll to find something dumb to watch, and found this movie from 2014 called "Satellite Girl and Milk Cow". So I described the premise, a guy who was turned into a literal bipedal cow by some wizard happens upon a sentient satellite that falls to earth and becomes a humanoid girl... I don't remember anything else I was REALLY high lol.

Over the next couple of minutes, I ended up saying "Sattelite Girl and Milk Cow" a couple more times. When eventually one of the friends doubted my recollection, they took out their phone to look it up. They started typing, and then stopped dead, stared at the screen for a few seconds and blurted out "What the fuck?"

They turned their phone around and they had typed "Satellite" into google and THE FIRTS RECOMMENDED RESULT was "Satellite Girl and Milk Cow". A goofy relatively obscure animated movie from 2014.

Ok, what? How? That's such a specific and obscure thing to pull as a first result. There are hundreds, if not THOUSANDS of other things that would be immediately more relevant to any random person's life than that. I don't have a smartphone so couldn't try on the spot, but when I got home, neither my laptop or desktop gave any similar behavior on multiple different search engines. It gave me a few seconds of dread that even though I have consciously made the choice to exclude myself from the constant data gathering of smartphones, other people's phones are still listening to me, which is something I hadn't really thought about before.

I'm sure plenty more people have stories like this, but the specificity and obscurity of this example is just so baffling to me, like there's NO way that it wasn't picked up as an audio cue.

I can almost feel the tinfoil hat beginning to grow out of my skull.

EDIT: Well, I definitely wasn't expecting this many replies lol. I guess the strategy to get more engagement is to just be wrong on the internet. (It looks like the search recommendation might have been an insane coincidence based on some unknown spike in search activity, per the google trends data)

He farts in his sleep, wakes up and gives me a dirty look, smells his butt and realizes that's where the smell is from, and walks away with demonstrative annoyance.

Why butt? Why do you do this to me?

Hello friends! I hope your day is going well.

I am in the market for a new desk. I'd particularly like an L-shaped desk, one that adjusts between sitting and standing. I'm a tall fella and my posture sucks.

One brand I keep coming across is FlexiSpot, but there are red flags across their website: constant "sales," few negative reviews, and beyond their website, there are paid influencer reviews and unreliable reddit threads. Some seemingly reliable reviews I have found say the brand is actually quite good, and some videos show a fairly well-put-together desk. They also claim to have a 15-year warranty, but some negative reviews report to have trouble getting FlexiSpot's customer service on the phone or responding to emails.

Other than FlexiSpot, when I search for adjustable l-shaped desks, there is nothing but dropship crap. Does anyone have any good experiences with name-brand desks like this?

(This community seemed like a good catch all for this kind of ask. Sorry if this kind of post is unwanted here.)

Whether you laughed out loud or just had a really happy moment, we want to hear all about it.

I mean, idk why I didn't think of it, but I had a wireless headphone and I used it continueously for like 3-5 hours and battery barely drained.

But headphones are not very portable, I mean there is no wire to mess with, but still, its not exactly easy to carry if you are, for example, commuting. So I also got some wireless earbuds, but these only last like 1 hour maybe 2 with continuous use. Kinda annoying since with headphones, you can (some, at least) plug in the battery and charge it while using it, and its essentially temporarily a wired headphone (at least until you get enough charge to disconnect it again), but earbuds can't do that.

This is kinda of a mildly infuriating post, but I don't really want the negative energy, like its not the technology's fault, I just forgot that you can't really fit a big battery inside a tiny earbud lol. (I forgot physics existed)

So yea, every hour or so, I have to put it back in the charging case. Annoying...

I think I now understand why people really wanted the headphone jack back (I mean I still don't like wires dangling around, but yea I get it, you don't have to worry about the battery running out, its tradeoffs vs different tradeoffs).

I feel saddened if I need to cut back a plant, hanging over to my neighbor for example, or over a walkway it is blocking. I think the plant would be better off without me cutting it back. But I have to do it for my neighbors sake and my foot-paths and walkways need to be clear as well.

Is this normal? ✂️🌿

So, my grandma passed away recently, and her estate is being divided between my mom and her brother (my uncle). My mom has declined her share, so now my brother and I will each receive 25% of the value of the house, and my uncle will get 50%.

Here’s where things start to get complicated. My uncle had originally agreed to give me $30,000 in cash after the house was sold. This was because my brother wanted a separate property (not the house) that’s worth around $30,000. So, in the original plan, I would receive $30,000 in cash when the house sold, and my brother would get that other property instead of taking part of the house’s value.

But now my brother has changed his mind. He wants to buy the house outright. He says I’ll still only get $30,000, even though the house is worth about $180,000. He claims this is fair because I “agreed” to that amount with our uncle, and I shouldn’t be asking for more. Here’s where things get a bit tricky: if he gives me $30,000 and then gives my uncle $100,000 (to make up the 50% of the house’s value), he’ll essentially be able to resell the house for the full $180,000 and pocket the rest of the money as profit. So he gets the house, gives me the $30k I asked for, and ends up with a good deal.

I’ve tried to explain to him that my original plan was to make sure our uncle received a fair amount—meaning, I didn’t want to take more than what our uncle was getting. I wanted to make sure that the $30,000 I was asking for didn’t come out of the overall value of the house, but rather from the sale, so no one was being shortchanged. I didn’t want to end up selling the house with our uncle for more money and having a situation where I walk away with more than him. But my brother doesn’t seem to get that, and now he’s saying, “Why can’t I just do the same for him?” and calling me greedy for wanting more money.

To be honest, I’m really not sure if I’m being unreasonable here. I feel like the way things are being handled isn’t really fair, but my brother keeps pushing back and saying I was fine with the original agreement. Is it unreasonable for me to want a larger share now that my brother wants to buy the house, or am I just overthinking it?

I basically only wanted the amount my brother was getting. He was getting a different property and I checked what that is worth (30k) and said okay, fine, if he only wants that property I don't want full "25%" of the house when its sold. My max limit was 30k once sold and if he sells for 300.000 I still only get 30.000 because my brother is only getting a property that is worth 30.000.

Well now I guess I fcked up. But is there a way to get out of this without coming off as greedy? I would have been happy with 30.000 if my oncle would have gotten "more" but now that my oncle will only get 100.000 and me only 30.000 I feel kind of ripped off. Well I am never being ripped off anyways since I am getting free 30.000. But still.. this is weird.

I hope you guys understand. My grandma has a Property A and a Property B + House. Property A = my brother (worth 30.000). Property B (+ House) = my oncle and me, but me limited to 30.000 once sold (not 25%) so I won't get 50.000 or more since my brother is "only" getting a property worth 30.000. I thought it would be unfair if I'd get way more by selling the house and also felt sorry for my uncle cause he messed up the paperwork. Normally my brother and I would get NOTHING.

My brothers wife also said that I am greedy for now wanting 25% of the house instead of 30.000. She even said that I should consider a family price and give it for free since it is "staying in the family". I said no I have bills to pay and paying off my own house. But I also said that the 30.000 were a completly different deal. I "made up" the 30.000 € for my uncle so he knows that I won't want more than my brother and we all get the same even though its not 25% of what I could LEGALY recieve. I could also tell my oncle screw it I want 25% of the house but I never wanted that much in the first place. But now this feels so bad cause my brother wants to buy it cheap (he owns 25%, has to pay me only 30.000 and my oncle the 50% of the house (90.000). And my 25% would be atleast 45.000.

Have you been rocking an old classic? Discovering something new? Revisiting some nostalgic bands from the past?

If you've got links, post 'em up!

A fun tool for discovering new bands: https://www.music-map.com/

Yall I dunno where to post this, but it has to go somewhere.

I don't care about the end of the world anymore.

It's going to happen. There's nothing I can do about it. I'll have to sit and watch as it slowly shrivels into a dry ball of toxic dust. Fine.

All I want is to live long enough to laugh at the scrambling elites trying and failing to get off the planet/try and reverse the death long after rigormortis has set in. They want to ignore it, to keep making money, they clearly don't care.

I want to see the moment when they realize their money is worthless as it turns to ash.

After that. Whatever man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_g5wznjbVU

i'm genuinely curious, i wanna put together a playlist for the character but i need some songs first.

For many years, we've been a single vehicle family much to the confusion of family and friends. They regularly ask, "How can you survive with one car?!" I get it, but one has to do what they must and work within their means.

Where we live, there aren't viable public transportation options. And we can't afford debt (as oxymoronic as that may sound). Yes, it means lots of planning and occasionally strandings. 😬 It's hit a point where we can't make do now. sighs

I've saved and saved. I've worked 100 work weeks. A few months ago, we started searching for something dependable to buy with not so much cash. That's been no easy feat. Lots of people have tried to rip us off by hiding serious vehicle problems. It became such a significant source of stress and partnership conflict.

Now we can celebrate though! It's finally happened! 🎉🎈🎊 We have a second car! Simple, good on gas, and no major problems! A huge time drain and source of anxiety is finally able to be put behind us.

I'm so incredibly grateful. We are privileged to be in our situation and now I can finally free the mental space and energy to start focusing on all the other important things in life that I've had to table. Phew!

What about you?!

Are you currently overwhelmed with something huge? Have you recently overcome a draining task? Share with us your celebrations and let us root for you if you're still in the midst of it all.

Alright. Now it's back to triage. What's the next next major thing. 😅

Feel free to have a look at

!movies@piefed.social
!television@piefed.social
!animation@piefed.social