Where I come from and where I live, April’s fool pranks are exclusively about taping paper fishes to people’s backs, usually stealthily. I always loved it - short term and fun for everyone.

“Pumped up kids”

Edit: kicks (and I had checked the lyrics…)

Making art is just a part of being human. Who doesn’t doodle? Arrange something in a nice pattern? Sing a new tune under the shower?

We have been told that only “good” art is worth making, but that’s a lie! Any art in any form is worth it because it’s worth it to the creator. Art doesn’t need an audience, at just is.

Queen Witch by Martha Wells, second book of the Rising World.

I knew her from the Murderbot series (amazing) and lately decided to read most of her books. Demon King (book 1) was really enjoyable and the beginning of Queen Witch seems to keep up with it.

Oh! It has been on my “maybe” reading list for a bit! Can you give a review? Is it worth a read?

You met three days ago? And you are “basically living together”?

Considering the length, it’s a fling. Considering you haven’t talked about it, it’s a situationship.

My unwanted and unasked advice is to take some distance for at least a day before calling it anything at all. And then talk about expectations.

Honestly (anecdote time!), when I started going out with my partner, I had some weird and totally personal hang ups with the word “boyfriend”. So for a couple of months they were “the person I am seeing” then became my “partner”. We had the conversation about exclusivity and such, talked about where we saw stuff going and so on, but wording was difficult. A word is just a word, as long as you both agree on the rest it doesn’t really matter much.

Banana juice is a thing, and banana chips and such. Probably too small of a market to repurpose all the uncool bananas :/

I must have read almost all his novels, I didn’t know at all he did illustrations too. These feel so much more fantastical then his writings…

Absolutely. I am not that good at home improvement (that night already be overstating my capabilities) and I am always worried that touching something will break it even worse. At best I end up researching the problem for ages, then reporting to my partner until they feel confident enough to do it, while I play support (and feel like a self-inflicted idiot)

I would trade my very limited woodworking skills for equally limited artistic skills of any type, ideally music related.

I would trade some other skills (really any pick) for extra house improvement skills. It’s not even that I’m bad at it, I’m just too nervous to fuck it up to even start…

I never traveled solo, and don’t regret it at all. I enjoy more spending time with friends and acquaintances than doing things “my way”. I still had smaller trips on my own, arriving earlier than the rest of the group, but never enjoyed it much. So, I don’t think it’s dumb, do what you feel you will like.

I always find the first moments of movies with famous actors disconcerting. Why is Jack from Titanic here? Oh, he is not Jack from Titanic, just has his body-suit…

In a cinema I used to go to, they used to show the Met’s operas during the Sunday matinee. Absolutely lovely!

Cinema popcorn is 60% of why I want to go to the movies. My local cinema changed popcorn maker and now it’s not as fresh… I am not as excited to go to the movies anymore :/

My personal pet peeve about Duolingo;”: it doesn’t teach you a new language, it teaches you to translate to your main language. That’s absolutely not how you want to learn a language! You want the target language to stand on its own, not be piece-by-piece translated back at any interaction.

I can magnanimously appreciate Duolingo for the purpose of giving a rough base of a new language, maybe even a little but of vocabulary. I hate everything else about it.

I want to upvote twice. Only correct answer!

The “panda effect”!

Good news, environmental agencies know about it and exploit it. They select species that they call umbrella species. The gist is that protecting those species (eg pandas) also protect a lot of other less cute, more resilient, but nonetheless important species and ecosystems (eg bamboo forests).

Nowadays Japanese joinery definitely keep me entertained for a couple of days. I would imagine adding the historical and geographical components would make it an infinitely entertaining dive !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansio

Apparently 200 miles in 24h at top speed (if you are the emperor)

The main road arteries of Italy were already developed at the peak of the Roman Empire, with postal stations along them at “best” intervals to support travelers, so you could sustain an almost optimal speed. 8h/day is a reasonable maintainable schedule over long hikes, assuming mostly flat tracks - and that is the case for the Roman roads. Still, would take an optimal month, so likely one and a half months to cross Italy on foot.