For the kids in my family I am still getting them each a small gift but I’m also taking half of what I’ve budgeted for them for a donation.

But I’m (hopefully) going to make it fun. I’m researching non-profits where they live and I’m going to put together a paper with a list of them and their missions and website. I want each kid to pick the charity and write a letter (which I’m providing a template for so they can just fill it in) to tell the non-profit why they picked their charity. I’m also going to include a card that they can send it in and a stamped envelope to mail it.

My hope is that they can find some joy in picking a cause that means something to them and feel those good feels when you can help someone less fortunate.

And for the adults, my partner has a friend who roasts and grinds his own fair trade coffee so we bought a bunch of bags from him to give as gifts. It’s hyper local and won’t create waste but it’s also not your typical unhealthy fare like chocolates and baked goods (which are fine too, but I have a lot of family who are diet conscious so it’s a win from that perspective).

While sometimes I think…do we really want it to get super popular? But also even if the popularity comes with the assholes…blocking and curating can help and in the end, it IS still decentralized. So let’s say that convinces the average Lemmy user that yes, let’s grow this shit.

How do we get some of the big names here to promote it? I tell anyone who has a complaint with standard social media about the fediverse but I have minimal influence. I HAVE included it on surveys and contact with podcasts I follow, to promote it more, again limited influence.

I feel like we need like…whatever…a Taylor Swift type to take it up as something they push and then other big names will follow.

As you said, I don’t care about that really but many others do. Lemmy and occasional checkins with Reddit are my only social media. But if it gets more people here, it could be worth it. I personally would just love more communities to be more active because I like Lemmy…but right now I only see the biggest “Reddit copycats” getting the major activity.

Nothing. I was a little busy calming my sister down who basically broke down crying in the middle of the store. And even if she was calm, I would have stayed in the store where it was safe. Those men weren’t exactly there to make friends.

What answer were you hoping to hear?

My sister and I are in Columbus for a concert and we were in a store right across the street from this happening. Shook us up pretty good. I have never seen something like that before.

Yeeees…out of the blue. Odd coincidence.

I understand (from my American perspective of course). I live in a swing state in the U.S. that went for Trump. I have the same fears and can only hope if war results from us that it is kept within the borders of this country. Obviously I would prefer violence not be the end result regardless.

Please just know that there are many many people here that are just as concerned and fearful as you are. The people I know that voted for him are either woefully uneducated or are misled by their religion (which in and of itself is a form of ignorance/being uneducated). And while they can still be dangerous, the true fascist zealots are still a minority.

I cannot excuse the people here who voted for this, at this point all I can say is that I am a human, you are a human. I don’t want you to hurt, I’m pretty darn sure you don’t want me to hurt. Let’s do our best to separate this fucking mess from the individual humans who are stuck in it and on the periphery of it, and hope to hell none of us become collateral damage.

Please do not make us a monolith. I am not my country, I was just born here. That kind of thinking leads to radicalism and violence. I can perfectly understand caution with “unknowns” from a group you have reason to be concerned about. Honestly from a personal safety standpoint we do this all the time. But to unilaterally decide we are all one thing and write us off (or worse) is false and dangerous.

I don’t know where you are in Europe but I love the continent and have visited many countries there. I do my best to be respectful when I visit and look up local cultures and norms so I don’t stand out and be “that American.” I’m not ashamed of being an American tourist, but I don’t want to adhere to the worst of our stereotypes. If other countries’ people decide we are inherently dangerous, being annoying may be the least of my worries should I have the fortune of making another trip there.

Those “hands” are nightmare fuel tho!

I’m not sure why Bernie is the exception for me…I feel like a giant hypocrite being ok with this. But dude does still seem spry AF.

A little too literal, but I like your style, lol

Thank u for replying! You give me hope that it won’t be too hard. :)

A family member recommended target circle as a replacement for Amazon prime and I am researching it. It’s still a big company…but where I live there really isn’t TRULY local options (I.E. small businesses) for household goods and such. I figure target is a pretty good alternative and since we have a store pretty close, I can pickup stuff instead of getting so much extra shipping.

Keeping our Amazon prime until it’s 2025 expiration date. Spent today researching alternatives so I can placate my Amazon loving spouse. Fortunately coming armed with info and the promise that they’ll have a several month “get used to it” cooling down period, they took it pretty well. I also reminded them if they MUST get something from Amazon, they still do the free 2 day shipping if u spend over $35. But it’ll probably be easier than they think with all but the oddest of purchases.

Been wanting to get rid of it anyways and this was the nail in the coffin.

I really love it, been using it for about 2 months, came from YNAB, used that for probably 3-5 years. Although I wish it was a little more mobile friendly, it works on mobile well enuf for me to record my daily transactions and then I just use a desktop once a week when I do all my bill payments and budget catch up.

I really like the reporting options, and also it has some mass note append/prepend/replace functionality which works great for me hashtagging the expenses I have addressed, confirmed and moved around to various accounts.

I do wish it had flagging, I really loved the colored flags, but I’m using the hashtagging as a replacement and it works pretty well.

Ugh…obviously my mini rant here is not about “evolving” because it involves religion…but the “pre-destined” part of your comment is not far from some religions justification for factory farming being ok.

I was once told by a fundie coworker that it says in the Bible that god put animals on the earth to serve the purposes of humans and thus any use of animals is ok.

I ended up telling her I wasn’t going to argue the Bible because some things are just not ok, and I don’t need an old book to tell me that.

One of mine does that too. He only likes sparkle balls or rattle mice tho, so no risk of gross items from the garbage fortunately.

We have a wood floor and his favorite thing is to have me throw it in that room so he can slide halfway across it while fetching the toy.

He has definitely slid into the wall a time or two.

My cat is obsessed with grooming beards. As in…will not stop until you force him off. My partner plays a little game where they fight for kisses. The cat will try to get close and groom his beard and my partner will take advantage of the closeness to smother him in kisses. The cat is not a huge fan of the kisses so they do this thing where they both waver in front of each other like cobras, both trying to find an in to kiss/lick. Sometimes when my partner moves in for a kiss, the cat will lean backwards and turn his face to the side, denying the kiss. Then as soon as my partner backs off, the cat quickly moves forward to lick his beard again. It’s hysterical and I never tire of watching the game.

It’s my profession and I’m a little bit of a nut about it (in that I like the job, haha) plus many people do not understand taxes - nor should they because it’s been made SOOO unnecessarily complicated. So I’m always happy to try and explain our ridiculous system, lol. Thanks for reading it!

Generally those who own their home in cities have higher property tax bills. Prior to the TCJA, there wasn’t a dollar cap on your real estate tax deduction if you itemized. Now there is a $10k cap which includes your state taxes paid (like from your w2 or estimated taxes). For someone like me who lives in a somewhat low COL area…no biggie. My property taxes are pretty low and don’t come near that cap. But it’s pretty easy to hit that cap when you live in a city and your property taxes alone are 10k or more…but before that u also were able to deduct your state taxes paid. So many people who previously were able to itemize and even might be able to now if they got the full amount of property taxes, will only get the standard decision and thus more of their income is taxable.

There are sources that say that the property tax deduction primarily benefited higher income earners, but some of these higher income earners also live in higher COL areas and thus don’t make as much money as it may seem because it’s so much more expensive to live where they live.

I actually am a fan of unreliable narrators, but they can’t also be insufferable assholes. I can’t stand that book and I did read it when I was 15!

That said, I understand it’s not really meant to be a cherished story…but if I’m gonna read about someone I would actively hate, I’ll stick to non-fiction for that.