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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 25th, 2023

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  • I like making costumes! If anything, it’s a good way of making clothes that you would never make otherwise, and there isn’t anywhere near an expectation of quality. Making a costume yourself basically automatically ensures that people would be impressed, no matter how shitty the costume is.

    Regarding perfectionism, it’s something that I’ve had to learn throughout my various forays into arts - there’s going to be mistakes. There’s always going to be mistakes. You can’t avoid it, no matter how skilled you are. The skilled artists know how to avoid drawing attention to their mistakes, and that generally means that they just let it happen without caring about it. But also, it’s just a costume, and as mentioned above, people will be impressed regardless of how shitty it is.

    Regarding effort, it requires a lot of effort. Because you’re making unusual clothes, you need to spend a lot of time to design it and make sure it fits properly. I designed costumes this year for me and my partner, and in total that took maybe 2 months. It’s also more expensive than costumes you buy online. The raw material (cloth, thread) was maybe around 200 USD total, roughly 4-5x the cost of a regular costume you can buy online, or 2x the cost of a niche costume that you can buy online. It’s definitely not a good use of money and time, but it’s a good hobby project.

    Regardless of if you buy a costume or if you make one, here’s the trick: don’t skimp out on the wig. Most people don’t wear a wig, and the people who do tend to use cheap wigs. Cheap wigs have a plastic-y texture and are difficult to style. I get wigs from Epic Cosplay, which have a lot of different colors to choose from and tend to look fairly realistic.

    Also, wigs never come with hair already at the right length! Make sure to give the wig a haircut, it’ll look way better if you remember




  • This is a pretty nuanced problem, in my opinion. Here are my thoughts:

    1. You’re definitely judging them
    2. I don’t necessarily think it’s wrong to judge them, but it would have to be for different reasons than you state. I would judge them for being personally incompatible with the fundamental tenets of society (ie that you contribute to it and act as a good citizen)
    3. You can’t change the mind of someone who isn’t open to change. One of the things you’ll need to accept is that most people are only willing to learn from their own mistakes, and a good portion of those aren’t even willing to learn from their own mistakes consistently. You will need to wait until they regret their decisions before change can even be possible. And even then be aware that there’s a solid chance that they’ll still keep doing whatever they’ve been doing
    4. It’s good that you’re thinking about this, but on the other hand, it’s not your responsibility to ensure that your friends have good lives. Your responsibility is to yourself, and if you act as though you have responsibility over other people, you come off as nosy, pushy, bossy. Be careful that you don’t confuse advising someone with assuming responsibility over that person.



  • It seems the rules are different for me than for you. I brought my backpack with my laptop. I did work during breaks. Or used my phone. I just made sure all electronics were off when in the court room. And I’m pretty sure I brought my water bottle too. The one thing that the security did enforce was my pepper spray, which I had to remove and hide in a bush outside. I’m not sure if that helps at all.

    One thing you can do is to leave your laptop/things in the car. You can leave the building during breaks and then just come back into the building before the session restarts. That was what most of the jury did during breaks during my time


  • My gut instinct is that your mother may be wanting something else but doesn’t know how to put it into words. Not to say that she right, but I can definitely relate to that emotion.

    Speaking as a person who is close to someone who is depressed, there is a sort of mental drain and negativity-by-diffusion associated with being near someone who is depressed, and it’s really difficult to put into words. I can know full well that depression is a clinical illness and that the other person can’t help it, but I will still get frustrated over their inability to match my energy.

    If your depression and anxiety are as limiting as you say they are, it may be a good idea to talk to a therapist and get some medicine for that. Speaking from my own observations, you can definitely fight depression, but only to a small extent. Severe depression and anxiety are debilitating to the point where you will need medicine just to get close to what a regular person might feel














  • Impossible meat is close enough to meat that I genuinely wouldn’t be able to tell the difference without a side-by-side comparison, and it would be virtually impossible for me to tell if it were mixed in with other flavors (eg in a burrito). I’ve heard it’s got high sodium though, so you’ll still have to beware that it’s not much healthier (if at all) than normal meat. I don’t get Impossible often, though I get regular meat even less. I’d say I like Impossible more than normal meat, I just wish it’s a bit cheaper.

    Beyond meat simply doesn’t taste quite right, like soy trying to imitate meat. It hits an awkward uncanny valley, so I don’t like it.

    IMO lab grown meat feels a bit like a waste of time. With how incredibly uncanny Impossible is to actual meat, I don’t really see the need to grow meat in the lab. And it’ll probably be more expensive than Impossible meat too, if my lab experience is any indication