The company I work for has few fixed holidays, but lots of discretionary time off, and very little direct customer service, so it’s an individual choice. Many people take the week between Christmas and New Years off. I don’t; I’d rather have extra time off when the weather is warmer and I can play outside.

If anyone says anything is “a surefire way to make money”, they are looking for a Greater Fool on which to unload their position so they can actually make the money.

Eeyup, that looks about right. Congratulations.

We have 3 of them: misc kitchen utensils and tools, misc containers, and misc stuff that does not even belong in the kitchen, but ends up there because that’s the only drawers in the house that don’t have clothes in them.

If you want to organize it some, you can build or buy dividers and split it up.

Hooks on the back of the bedroom door.

“Good”, as in " Good morning!", also directed at the cat, who had been sleeping on top of me.

I wake up each day with a beautiful female who loves me. The that she’s a cat does have some effect on the relationship.

Funny that, I did exactly that with that post… I probably run about 50% overall on these.

Sometimes I look at what I’m about to post and decide that nobody really needs to see that.

Sometimes I look at the other comments and decide I don’t want to interact with the whole thing.

Immersion does work, but here’s a more enjoyable version:

Take 4 years in school, don’t learn enough to talk to anyone.

Marry a Latino/a.

Go visit their original country with them.

Feel like an idiot.

Practice with your spouse.

Go back and feel less like an idiot.

This has the advantage of getting a hot spouse, and slightly less likely to be killed before you learn enough.

Has anyone here used Mox? It looks interesting, but maybe a little immature.

I have been using modoboa, my installation is fine as far as it goes, but coming up a little short technologically these days, and the upgrade path is total replace. If you have or install Docker on your server, there are poste.io and docker-mailsever,which both look good. Running your mailserver in a container or VM is almost essential, for security, and so you can blow it away and start over if you make a mistake.

Running an email server is not necessarily hard, but it is stressful: if you have other users, even family, they will take it for granted when it works, and complain loudly when it does not. Like any server that others use. But, beyond security, I have a certain stubborn geek machismo about it, it’s a level of sysadmin above basic.

It’s a good way to pay for illicit drugs, weapons, anything really, that you ordered using TOR, or your favorite unattributable communications technique. If you believe there are laws that should not be, that’s good. If you are in favor of those laws, not so much.

Hate to sound ignorant here, what’s BD?

There are more French than English speakers with bad grammar? I find that difficult to believe.

Now we’re talking. I have been to the UK quite a bit, and work with plenty of Brits here, so:
Americans are not generally in the habit of addressing people as “you fuckers” until we know you better. :)
UK supermarkets are more like US conveniences stores with more food and no fuel pumps in front. They are OK.
Agreed, the existence of anything besides London, Liverpool, and maybe Manchester is totally a blank to us. Went to Birmingham, had no ckue.
Butter on bread is the only way, don’t know where you got that from.
No reason you guys should care about US history. English history is much more interesting.
Engkish pubs are good. Beer, I think, has gotten better in the US recently.
After Brexit, the UK has permanently renounced the right to criticize anyone’s politics. Still, recent developments there give me hope that it’s possible to come out the other end of this.
Thank you.

France always comes up on lists of good places to live, and there are Francophiles here as everywhere. I admire the place, but I chose Spanish instead of French when it was time to start studying another language, so that die was cast a long time ago.

TL; DR Get in on the scam.

Pick something you like to do, or have a talent for, and plan a path to make money from it. You may still have to work for someone else initially, to develop skills and get experience, but it will be better than doing a shit job only for money.

Research what resources there are to support your startup. Even in places where there is no help from government or anything else for individuals, you will find they want to support business.

Especially if you have extra challenges, if you get good, they will make a narrative around your success and promote you as an example.

Gentrification is a problem in the US too, probably most everywhere. Mexico City would be another great culture to be in, but I’m not really interested in living in some isolated communiy though. Is it possible for a foreigner to live a reasonable middle class existence there?

I never even considered the UK, in spite of having English friends here in the states, and US friends currently living there, and enjoying it. My limited knowledge is that visa issues are problematic, and the cost of living is rather high. Culturally it would be great.

I read every day, before bedtime, and in bed. I can’t fall asleep without reading something. This has been a lifelong habit. I still also study techie books for my career. I pretty much self trained foir that by reading books.

Mostly non-fiction. History, music criticism and artist bios, current science. Been reading anarchist literature recently.

I am old, 65. It has affected my reading habits, but not completely; I have fewer commitments, more time on my hands.

Is this positive? I have quit automatically picking up the tablet and reading when I wake at 2 am, and try to go back to sleep again.

I am very picky about what I enjoy. I suggest you try lots of genres, types of books, find something you enjoy. If that’s graphic novels, enjoy that: if it helps associate reading with fun instead of being a task, great.

I honestly can’t understand why most of the popular social media providers are popular. But, if that’s what it takes, could we not?

About 50/50 subscribed/all. My subscriptions are esoteric enough to disappear unless you select them. All is for the local equivalent of doom scrolling.