Good to know! I wouldn’t want to displace it from its fine industrial manufacturing home, but maybe if I see one in the yard I’ll rehome it

An image search of Phidippus audax looks pretty darn close to what I saw. Thanks!

Yes, Midwest US. I have no knowledge of spider species, but a quick image search shows pretty similar spiders to what I saw. Thanks!

For relationships: You’re either going to marry the person or you’re not.

Uh that would be watching Season 2 Episode 9 of Bluey while snuggled up with my family prior to the kids’ bedtime.

Good luck!

No thanks, I only date my wife.

When the local anesthetic wore off between sides during my vasectomy. I felt the scalpel slice into the side of my scrotum. Not a huge fan of that.

I have Microsoft Teams and Outlook apps installed on my phone because I need them to do my job. I use gmail, google calendar, and google maps because they work and are accessible anywhere I need them. I am certainly aware of the tradeoffs and use more privacy friendly alternatives on my own PC for things I need to do privately. The VPN DNS block lists running on my phone make it so the Microsoft apps barely function as it is.

Also to clarify, I’m a geologist. I consider that rather technical, but it’s not programming/IT kind of technical. So halfsies?

Ah, gotcha. My hand remains firmly down.

Non-technical in regards to how piefed works, non-technical careers, or what?

Fully agree! Best advice I ever got from a high school teacher can be paraphrased as, “Think about what jobs will still be there in 20-30 years and can’t be sent offshore. Go into that career path and save your interests and passions for your hobbies.”

Interstellar is pretty decent

Ice hockey is rather impressive to me. I’m a very very minimal fan (as in, I will watch 30 seconds of a game if it’s on a TV I am walking past). I have been to a few NHL games, including the Winter Classic with my dad. It takes a lot of coordination, teamwork, and skill to successfully play.

I think we are saying similar things in different ways here. I’m not advocating for a lack of critical thinking and education. However, if technology for instantaneous communication exists, there’s no reason not to use it to check in. It’s a contingency plan, not a daily system (once my kids are even old enough to responsibility have a cell phone). I don’t want my kids tethered to me, but they also don’t have knowledge and life experience I do yet. To gain it, they have to be educated and live it, as you’re saying. My take on it, is that me picking up the phone to tell them what to do in an emergency situation, reinforcing what I’ve already taught them, is a valuable part of that learning, and I’m not going to forego a tool like a cell phone for that. The world has changed, and we as parents are forced to adapt to it in some fashion, as every generation before has had to do with their times.

I’m with you on the crime aspects for sure. The “safety” aspect of cell phones probably isn’t physical safety, but the sanity of the parents. Personally, when my kids are at the age where they can go out and about on their own, I want them to have access to a cell phone for emergency communication, not because I’m worried about them being victims of a crime or anything. I don’t want them having to ride their bikes home in a thunderstorm or tornado.

I also think the reporting on parents being overprotective is probably overemphasized and then extrapolated to large groups but not as strongly present in reality. Or just confined to certain demographics/locations. Who knows, man?

I’ll bite. I’m a millennial and grew up in the suburbs of a major US city, with my childhood straddling the 9/11 terror attacks. I can remember some of what it was like before and certainly after. I’m also now a parent of 2 kids.

As a kid, I had age appropriate freedom to play outside with friends, explore the neighborhood on my bike, go to the library, etc., as long as I told my parents where I was going and when I would be back. My first cell phone was a Nokia brick that i only carried on long bike rides in case I fell and broke a bone or something. My wife had the same level of freedom as a kid.

We are raising our kids in the suburbs of a different major US city, and we intend to give them that same level of age appropriate freedom when they are old enough to handle it. They’re pretty young, and our oldest is just now allowed (by our home rules) to stay home by herself for chunks of time under an hour. For the most part, it’s a trial run to see if she can handle that freedom. We don’t let our kids out to roam the neighborhood yet, because they can’t handle that, and the drivers on the streets we live on can’t be bothered to obey the speed limits.

I expect the local government to provide the support they are obligated to provide: Enforce the speed limits so people aren’t ripping down our 25 mph street at 40mph and provide a quality education. That’s honestly the main concerns I have. I’m not worried about someone snatching my kids up. My kids will talk about Paw Patrol or Monster High until the kidnappers cry uncle and give them back for some much needed peace and quiet. I worry about the idiot drivers scrolling instagram and texting, going 15 mph over the limit, and making my kids into a stain on the pavement.

Are the balloon knots intended to be the nipples? If so, one is waaaaay perkier than the other.