As a warning to anyone reading: don’t start running to lose weight. Running burns calories and can increase your calorie maintenance, but it will also make you very hungry. Weight loss is mainly about CICO, and you can’t really outrun the fork. Since running can be very natural to humans as a form of movement, it also burns very few calories for the effort. I feel like weight training is a more fair calorie spender for the effort.

But running and taking care of myself does make me pick healthier options. Running helps me sleep, so I’m less tired and as a result, less hungry and prone to wanting unhealthy snacks. Fried greasy foods aren’t great fuel for runs, so I’ll naturally pick things like oatmeal, bananas, veggies etc. But be warned, many runners also love a post run beer so YMMV.

Get a Brother. My simple black and white laser printer has very strong “ME PRINT FOR YOU. ME PRINT! ME PRINT ALL PAGE FOR YOU” energy. The only beef we have is when he is all “NO PRINT. FEED ME PAPER” and then when fed he goes back to printing no problem.

It costs a chunk to run, but saves a lot in health bills - even in countries where healthcare is universal. Heart disease is both a killer and something that can incapacitate you, and any potential weight loss benefits aside, running is fantastic for heart health (provided you do it properly and with the approval of your medical professionals). Not to mention it also has focus, mental health, and sleep quality benefits. Plus if you really get into it, you’ll soon be training for some disturbingly long race and be too busy to do much of anything - especially shopping for pointless things you don’t need.

I’d say that most people can get started with decent wicking workout clothes (thrift them if you can and go for gaudy neons if you live in a place that’s dark most of the year), and a pair of decent running shoes on sale. Wireless headphones and a running belt (or just going for pants with zippered pockets to hold your phone) are small upgrades that also make it better if you have a bit of extra budget. Run like this for like a year, and then slowly upgrade with gadgets like running watches, CamelBak backpacks if you start doing long distances and feel like you need it. Also consider investing in slightly better clothing based on what you determine your needs are - colder climate thermals, merino, running shoes for specific pronation, and rolling tools to help you stretch.

Running can be as cheap as less than ~$100 a year or as expensive as you want it to be. It’s cheaper than the gym, CrossFit, at home workout equipment, yoga classes, etc. Not to shit on those things at all, in fact cross training helps you build strength and avoid injury. But nobody should ever feel discouraged by running due to costs, it pays off in spades.

And for new runners, run s l o w. Slower than you want. So slow you feel you’re not doing much and practically walking. Slow and long runs are the ones that make a real difference in building stamina, cardio health, and even decreasing your race times. You’re also less likely to get injured and prematurely get winded by using up all your energy in a sprint. Also, walking is fine. Even experienced runners walk during certain moments - usually for me, I’m doing it to get a burp out or something.

As the daughter of a chef - skip the salt, add a bouillon cube. It’s not authentic but it tastes better and half of the NYC restaurants do it already. The umami from the bouillon cube rounds out the flavour and makes it taste less like a two ingredient poverty food.

A lot of Italian dishes taste kinda unfinished until you add an umami element to them. Thats why I prefer the Croatian version the same dishes. Pasta fagioli is a beany vegetable soup, the Croatians make pasta fažol by adding a bit of pršut (smoked ham) and it completes the flavour and makes it a delicious hearty meal. That’s why Lydia Bastianich has been so successful - she’s been passing the typical Croatian version of meals as “authentic Italian” for decades and people like it because it flat out tastes better.

If you wanna get real advanced find some Vegeta in a European grocery store and start using it to sub salt in most meals. It’s basically just a bunch of herbs, onion and garlic powder, and MSG. Use it as a meat rub, use it when making rice, use it while cooking anything savoury.

That’s your experience. No matter how well I dress, I can’t stop my bones from aching in the cold. On the flip side, I’m typically comfortable in the heat, even in 38 Celsius temps. I obviously have an upper limit of like 40-45C, but so do most humans.

Likewise it’s not really safe to chill outside in -40 to -50C for most humans either. At that point you’re getting frostbite through the wool underlayers, and the exposed skin will literally sting.

Well summer never made me want to kill myself so I tend to prefer it. Severe seasonal affective disorder is interesting.

That said these days I have ways of dealing with it. Turns out running during the winter days is kinda neat because you end up getting endorphins and UV. I also have one of those SAD lamps and they truly work for me. Nowadays I like winter a lot more - especially cozy stuff like knitting and tea.

I do think that the world’s increasing waistlines affect people’s attitude about summer. I know that the bigger you are, the more miserable the heat can feel. Plus wearing revealing clothes isn’t fun for everyone, especially with things like chub rub. On the flip side, being skinny makes you pretty cold so the winter can be miserable. I know that no amount of layers would help the ache in my bones when I was underweight.

This is why autumn is bae. Hot enough to be outside, cold enough to not sweat, pretty colours and harvest activities, Halloween… Autumn wins. Close second is spring, which I hear is fabulous in many places, but in Canada is mostly just freezing winter temperatures, one week of trees blooming, and then just 30 C temperatures after that.

Yeah that’s not how seasonal affective disorder works. I can view the starry night sky as magical the same as anyone else but not enough bright light hitting my eyeballs will result in me being depressed as fuck.

I also prefer the Cynics. Diogenes is metal as fuck, but my favourite part of Cynicism is that in my opinion, it contains the only true love story in Greek philosophy, Crates and Hipparchia who influenced Zeno, the founder of Stoicism. I’m a sucker for a good love story.

I just got into knitting and I’m already dreading wearing anything I make around my family. “Can you make me a sweater, oh come on, why are you so selfish?” I dunno because it would be a month of work and hundreds in materials and no matter what I explained to them, it would just get treated like a random polyester sweater and they’d probably ruin it or toss it when they decided they don’t like the style anymore… And my family is the kind to criticise any imperfections that didn’t look machine produced.

Old ladies know the value of a decent small batch yarn, especially if they’re of the generation that knit around the clock as a necessity. Boomers and Gen X largely didn’t knit, at least generally, so they’re pretty out of touch. They may perceive knitting as something with little value - either taking it for granted that knit goods cost little due to slave and machine labor, or taking it for granted that their mother or grandmother gave them knits for free.

Many millenials and Gen Z have tried yarn crafts, and at least vaguely know it’s a shit ton of work.

The fact that people took Stoicism, a philosophy that’s basically cognitive behavioral therapy for emotional awareness, and twisted it to mean “stiff upper lip” or “repress everything lest you seem weak” is depressing as hell.

First, you’re never gonna win a propaganda/media war against the US. Second, the GDP of Syria in 2010 (before the conflict) is the same as my country of Croatia (60 bil) - a country that had a war nobody gave a fuck about, as we’ve already established.

The US can go to practically any country as long as it’s economically weak enough and nobody cares. In the late 90s, they bombed the shit outta Serbia and would likely bomb the shit outta them again if they even farted in the general direction of Kosovo. I think race affects how sympathetic the world is for a given country, sure, but I think money is the most important thing at the end of the day.

I surprisingly enjoy purling but I can only do it English style. Continental purling makes no sense to my brain. Continental knits and English purls for me are the same tension so that works out even if it’s a bit odd.

I feel like it’s more about money and international implications than whiteness. If China attacked a country like Taiwan or Vietnam, there would likely be a ton of press over it as well. An Ethiopian civil war has less economic implications globally.

Plus it’s a civil war. I grew up in the Balkans and I can tell you that people gave so few fucks about the war of my country, that when the Ukraine war started they weren’t bringing up Yugoslavia as a recent European conflict, they were talking about WWII. If your country isn’t gonna make a huge impact on the global markets, nobody cares (even if you’re blonde like many ex-Yugoslavians).

Also, don’t make the mistake that smaller parrots mean less commitment. Parrotlets and lovebirds are smart, feisty, bite pretty hard, are extremely loud, and still live like 25 years. Budgies are a bit dumber and nicer, but still live a long ass time. Cockatiels have a very nice personality and are musical, but they have 25 year life spans. Consider any small parrot to be a “25 to life” deal.

Also chances are, your parrot (of any kind) either won’t talk, or won’t shut up about the wrong things. Hope you like hearing the Teams call music at all hours.

Rats carry all the personality of dogs and cats. In theory, you get a pet that you’ll enjoy for 2-3 years. In practice, you’ll be devastated after your intelligent best friends start dying one by one. Most people cope by buying rats constantly.

As cool as Earthships sound, I feel like they aren’t a good fit for all climates. I’m in Canada, and unless you live in BC (and I’m talking Vancouver or the island), your only sustainable building option is straw bale.

Even if I could go further south to a more temperate climate, part of my fear is that anything south will get unbearable soon. Even Europe is going to be hot as hell.

My parents favourite music artists finally popped up on Spotify about 5 years ago. It was a dry run until then - I was PISSED when my brother lost my CD of a band I liked when we went back home on vacation.

I don’t think the timeline works for Cracked. They were still publishing original content in like 2010.

Fuck that, I like you.