No idea, you would have to ask the bank. I called that bank the “demon bank”, because the exterior walls were marble and the patterns looked like demons. Those scales still are at grocery stores here, I haven’t been in a physical bank for a long time. Here is the bank. It’s funny to me that a precognitive dream is humdrum but a scale at a bank is hanging you up. I already knew the scale was there, that was not part of the precognition.
They had a big analog scale you could stand on, and a dial would go around the markings like a clock- there are still some of these same scales at grocery stores here. People use them to weigh themselves, or I see people weighing luggage on them. In the dream the dial went backwards but IRL it was just wrong, very wrong.
Google “Toledo No Springs Scale” and you will see them.
The dumbest one that absolutely convinced me it was precog, was:
I was in line at the bank behind 3 women. They had a scale, one of those big Toledo No Springs ones. I stepped on the scale, but the dial went backwards. I turned around and saw this girl Joann, who I hadn’t seen since middle school.
I wrote all this down in the dream journal, and then didn’t think about it.
Couple weeks later, I’m at that bank. 3 women ahead of me in line. I get on the scale, but it says I weigh 30lb, it’s broken. I turn around and who do the see? Joann, that girl I had not seen since middle school.
What the fuck? It kinda pissed me off because I really don’t want to think the future is set to that extent. Like, seeing some big event that might echo back in time, sure. But a broken scale at some bank? Joann? I haven seen her since, either, we were not close, why would I dream her true?
Yeah. Precognitive dreams mostly. Nothing I expect anyone else to believe, but I myself know because I documented them when I dreamed them, then the events occurred and it was such random, little detailed things that I could not possibly have predicted based on knowledge. Maybe everyone dreams the future and just forgets their dreams?
Some synchronicity things too, stepping into exactly the right place at the right time, wishing for something then having it immediately drop into my lap. Those I am minded to chalk up to random chance, but some are so comically obvious, things just appearing where they were not, right when I need them.
Cheating is complicated. Yeah some people just will, they are fooling themselves when they say they won’t. Some people find it sexy, they literally want to cheat, they think it’s hot. Others will if the situation gets extreme, people in dead bedroom situations who want to keep their family together and make the calculation (or miscalculation) that cheating is less damaging than divorcing. I worked with old people when I was younger, my bosses were old Spanish people who married for business reasons but had lovers, they did not love each other in a romantic way.
I’d say that as divorce becomes easier to get, marriage more based on love rather than alliance and monogamy less required, there is probably less cheating. But it won’t ever be zero.
If you are asking is cheating universal? No. It’s not.
I think sort of, yes. It’s funny because I will move somewhere, then it gets gentrified and people can’t afford to move there, it’s happened four times in my life. But doesn’t that mean I am an early stage gentrifier, when I move where I can afford to?
And on energy, I feel stuck, need a car, don’t use it often, with two large and two small salaries in the household we are solidly middle class but I don’t want solar panels because then my roof and house become uninsurable, we are all electric no gas.
In short YES anybody living in comfort is likely part of the problem, but I would love for everyone in the world to live in comfort!
Training. I sold things at a market on weekends and told my kids it was “remedial sales and social skills training”. I’m still not a social butterfly by any stretch, but fake it till you make it helped me to be more comfortable talking to people.
I like it on corn. Cheese grits with cheddar & nutritional yeast; on popcorn OMG like it better than Parmesan (and I say this as a woman fascinated by cheese) and on corn on the cob.
I do not like it on tofu as sub for scrambled eggs. Nope. Mostly use it for grits and popcorn.
How much better of a world? I’d be happy with half of what I have if it meant literally everyone else in the world could have that much, certainly. Move 4 more people into the house and give up half the money, half the clothes, my car, of course I would do that if it brought the same level of wealth to every single person, it would be not great at first but wow can you imagine how fast it would get better, if nobody was terribly poor? I’d bet that by the time I was old we’d personally be better off than before the split.
No, my kids are certainly diverse in sexual preference and one is transgender, but I didn’t have any sort of unacceptance. I grew up around drag queens and “theater people”.
Maybe in the other direction, honestly - I didn’t see the trans one until they literally came out by telling me, my conception of womanhood is so broad that my kid looking like a 40 year old butch lesbian did not ping any trans radar so I was surprised when they said they wanted to be a man. Not mad or anything but it took awhile to process.
Nobody else has had to “come out” or worry about the race or sex of who they are with, they can bring home whoever they are going out with and we don’t blink, it’s fine.
Cook red lentils with collard greens, mustard greens, or kale, seasoned how you like. Grill sourdough on one side in butter on the cast iron; pour lentil stew over the bread on the untoasted side, eat with all the utensils, knife, spoon, and fork or chopsticks. Yum yum.
Or simple cheese toast if not feeling like cooking. Toast bread, add cheese, broil till melted.
Ten? Anyone, if I have it on me. I don’t, usually but have done that for random panhandlers, instead of spare change.
100? That’s harder. Any friend or relative who hasn’t asked me for money, again, if I have it and they don’t.
1000? No. That is “questions asked” territory for anyone.
Hmm.
Honestly John Rys Davies, based solely on Dominic Monaghan’s description of him ordering dinner when filming Lord of the Rings.
"John Rhys-Davies… took us to a restaurant. And it was when we’d only just started to get to know John. And we sat down at this huge, long table, and he said, “I think I will order the food for tonight.” And we said, “Oh, ok, on you go John.” And you know, we were having a conversation, and the waitress came over, and John ordered food that would probably have fed 35, maybe 40 people. And there were about 12 of us. And he just said, “We’ll have nine lobster and 15 shrimp, and 12 red snapper, 15 filet mignons, and some grilled mushrooms. I’ll have 12 onions and a wild boar…” You know? All this kind of stuff - just like, “Pheasants, and grouse, and - do you have partridge? Bring the partridge.”
Standing on the side of a road (a real road here in town) with a group, waiting for a bus, when the ground underneath us starts to rise - it’s not the ground, it’s a giant spider! And as it emerges and starts lumbering down the road we realize it is also our transportation, the bus stop was the bus.
I think that was the weirdest moment I have experienced.
I learned to be cool in hot temperature by being still, in the shade, with a breeze, it’s very hot and humid here but also windy usually.
Trees help so much. It is noticeably cooler at the park than in the city.
In the house when there is not air conditioning, roofed porches and opening the windows with fans pulling air through the house helps.
Like the lesbian necromancers in space? I can see that. I love the Kushiel books but can tell they’re written by a woman.
In sort of alternate history fantasy where I think there is no jarring gender stuff:
I’ve been reading the Katherine Kerr Deverry books, they are old but I think you might like those. The YA ones starting with The Thief of Attolia, if you haven’t read those, is delightful, and doesn’t take much time. Robin Hobb, but you already found her, and definitely Naomi Novik as recommended by others. I like most all the Django Wexler books, he’s a dude but writes from both men’s and women’s perspectives seamlessly. Katherine Kerr, Robin Hobb, and Naomi Novik write from the perspective of non-human characters too, that might be something to look for when you are looking for a writer who can change perspectives.
I’m reasonably good at surviving pregnancy and childbirth, and nursing. Think all my other skills are only useful after the agricultural revolution.
Could you be more specific about which books did not resonate? I read pretty widely and don’t usually notice jarring differences. There are only a handful of men who I noticed really couldn’t write female characters, most modern authors can. In fantasy & sci-fi at least.
Every month or two I’d say, maybe 8 a year? Not big arena shows, usually one multi day festival and a few concerts at smaller venues, and yeah if there is live music at a bar that is always preferable to TVs or recorded music. Generally don’t buy merch, no. My kids sometimes do.
In my day.