Depending on the political climate, non state organisations can help resolve community issues and provide protection, while the official government views them as gangs / terrorists. For example, in Northern Ireland.

Make a cocktail before dinner. Not saying it’s the right thing for everyone, but it brings joy, relaxation and a nice moment of quality couple time with my partner.

The idea would be that the existence of suffering gives life meaning. By knowing that the risk of suffering is always there, we strive to avoid it and value our pleasures more because we can compare them to an unpleasant alternative.

How true “an existence without suffering would be meaningless” is open to debate, but there’s at least some day to day support. If you’ve ever been really hungry and demolished some fairly average meal while finding it delicious, or had the best glass of ice water after walking in the heat, you get that. And if we think of rich, entitled people, who appear to have no conception of how fortunate they are, instead getting upset about minor inconveniences, it gives you some indication of what life with less suffering might be like.

I would like to put a quarter in this storywriters slot.

Same here. Was very confused until I got to these comments!

But that would still better, even if the content of the post is taken away, there discussion and comments are immediately lost and replies d interactions can continue.

Wow ! You’re a hero! I searched for a while but only found filed out ones, or the whole crossword. Thank you!

This makes so little sense. Why would I care about signalling my ‘virtue’ to a bunch of anonymous people who have no idea who I am? I can say something nice or harsh because I believe it was affect the people who read it, even though I’ll never meet them. That is rational even if it doesn’t benefit me, if I care about the experiences of other people. But acting a certain way to gain positive regard for an anonymous identity is dumb af.

And the main reason I or anyone else acts compassionately online is probably just that it’s the first and easiest reaction. I don’t troll or harass people, even if I would suffer no consequences from it, simply because I have no interest in doing so. I say something nice because that’s what I want to say, it’s not an effort or a cost.

Different strokes for different folks.

Is there a blank version somewhere?

Married and swear by seperate beds. It’s amazing if you’ve got the space. But it is good to make sure you get plenty of “lying about in bed together” time. But it’s great to be able to go off to your own bed after for a peaceful, undisturbed sleep. And being able to read a night or get dressed in the morning without worrying about disturbing your partner.

Not something I care about. I was my partner’s 100th. The quantity was much less significant than the meticulous data collection (there was a spreadsheet) but that was an overall plus.

What?

Lagavulin is a good whisky! Gonna give this a try.

What’s your recipe?

Yes, I think the 24 hours was overkill. I’d read it on a few blogs, but I imagine that was for a bigger joint of beef. And i feel like it could have been rarer too. The texture was a bit too even, I prefer a little bit more bloody in the centre.

Didn’t really much seasoning apart from salt. But we got an eighth of a cow from a local farm, so we’ve got plenty more roasting pieces in the freezer to experiment with!

Very cool. Love the tree one in particular!

I’ve just set up a self hosted server, with lots of useful Docker containers. Any suggestions for a good image host? I saw immich, and it sounds tempting, any thoughts?

Isn’t that the basic Buddhist / stoic idea? Avoiding suffering entirely isn’t possible, and obsessing about evading it is itself a heavy burden, instead choose to accept and be at peace with the suffering that is beyond your control.

La Vie En Rose is a classic for a reason. I’d probably go for Grace Jones’ version.