Scatterbrained and friendly optimist. Always happy to give my (unasked for) opinion :)
Pardon my rambling and broken English, I know I often sound like an alien trying to impersonate a human being.
It’s a new one I made up when I joined Lemmy. Not sure how I exactly ended up with this but it’s the only one I made in over a decade. I like nicknames that sound like actual names but are still unique, and I wanted something that sounds nice and gender-neutral.
Anyway, my nicknames usually become part of my identity. So I’m as much Thelsim as I am <redacted> nowadays :)
I’m not one of those people who loves being a parent. You know the kind, the mom who loves having all the kids in the neighborhood over and cleans every mess with a big smile. I have two kids and they often drive me crazy. But I never regret having them.
They constantly fight with each other, whine that this or that is unfair, refuse to listen exactly when you’re in rush to get them to school, leave the entire house in a mess and in general manage to find new and inventive ways to make your day that little bit more challenging.
But they’re the sweetest and most wonderful thing to have happened to me at the same time. I love everything about them and couldn’t imagine my life without them. Even my eldest son, who is hitting puberty and can reach maximum sarcasm with even the smallest of expressions, shows so much care and affection when it comes down to it. I could go on and on about how wonderful they are, but I think you get the idea :)
The thing is though, as others have said, parenthood is a major investment of your time and energy. Your life will never be the same again, ever. So if you do decide to become a parent, accept your fate and make the best of it. Those wonderful child-free years are gone and will never come back again.
I don’t mean to sound very gloomy about it, but it’s just an inescapable fact if you want to try and be a good parent.
One thing that helped for me though, is find someone in a likewise position and share your burdens. I have a friend at work who has two kids of about the same age, and she goes through the same struggles as me. We always complain about our kids to each other, knowing that it’s just something you need to get off your chest once in a while. It’s usually about small stuff like a daughter exploding in the morning because she can’t find her pencil case, or some other minor drama. Our other coworkers always think that we hate being parents, and joke that our stories are probably responsible for a large part of the birth decline :)
But it feels so good to know that you’re not the only one struggling. So many parents like to put up this facade of being a perfect family, and it can make you feel like you’re doing something wrong. But everyone has struggles, it doesn’t make you a bad parent.
Sorry, I’m getting a bit off topic. It’s just that I have a lot of feelings about it, and it’s not always been easy. And if you decide to be a parent, it won’t be easy for you either. But if you’re willing to put in the effort, it’ll be worth it in the end. Just make sure you have someone to talk to, and don’t be too hard on yourself.
A still from the badger badger badger song.
One of the most persistent ear worms ever made :)
I needed a new one, the old one was worn out :)
Basically any fantasy cartoon that featured a voyage or some kind of quest was a favorite when I was little.
Anachronox, but that’s never going to happen :(
That game ended on such a cliffhanger.
Samurai Jack, though not really from growing up… (Then again, when do we ever stop growing up? :)
It had great stories and beautiful artwork. But to an adult eye it was obvious that all those “robots” were there to keep it kid friendly.
All that oil was a clear stand-in for tons and tons of blood.
The introduction of CD-ROM was mind blowing for me. Encyclopedias, interactive storybooks, talking Carmen Sandiego?!
It felt so futuristic.
Yes! I loved the mind maze. I was never really good at it (English is not my native language), but it was always fun to play.
I would bother my parents afterwards with all the facts I had learned. They were indulging at first, but even the greatest of patience will run out eventually :)
Old episodes of MST3K. I don’t know what it is, but it’s really relaxing to watch. Puts me right to sleep if I watch it at night :)
I’m not saying this as criticism though, I love the show. It’s just that combination of old movies with bad sound and the fact that I don’t get a lot of the outdated jokes puts me in a very relaxed mood.
I once had a supervisor called Dataram.
Granted, I don’t know if this is a common name in India or not. But I’ve never heard of it before, and never did again.
Friendly guy though, he looked out for all of us.
I wish I could actually listen to what is being said to me for more than 5 minutes. Instead of having my attention drift off and me starting to daydream about something the other said.
I really love Jack Vance’s world building. His Gaean Reach setting gives an endless variety of cultures, customs and beliefs. And the Dying Earth novels formed the basis for magic system of DnD.
But the real treasure is in how he can let these worlds come alive with his descriptions. Often he would spend a whole paragraph describing something that will never be part of the story but manages to perfectly set the tone of the local atmosphere.
I grew with these books (thanks to my dad’s impressive personal SF library) and they’ve always managed to spark my imagination like no other book.
A small side note on that 30% ruling, it’s only for highly skilled workers, so there are some requirements to meet.
Also, you’d best not boast about it to your Dutch coworkers if you want to make friends over here :)
Since most games are often mentioned on the internet, I’m going to reach waaaaaaaay back to my childhood and mention Cartooners:
This was a game for kids to make their own cartoons. I spend so much time making all kinds of funny and weird stories. It was very basic, but it had me giggling every time.
I did the thing yesterday. It wasn’t my intention, and it was kind of incidental , but I’m so glad I did it in the end.
I can definitely recommend, just do the thing, you’ll thank yourself later.
The Netherlands is generally quite friendly towards (English speaking) immigrants and expats. Almost everyone speaks English and no one really bats an eye at a non-Dutch resident in most of the major western cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, etc.)
Housing is terrible though, prices are high and it’ll be hard to find something nice. One advantage for you (or any US resident), is that you’re exempt from the inburgering exam. Which means that you won’t have to learn the language and won’t be tested on your integration in Dutch society.
My partner is from abroad and they’ve experienced living here as quite pleasant. They weren’t exempt from the exam though (different non-EU nationality), which was a bit of a nuisance. But in general, reception was positive. They’ve been living here for over 16 years now.
But like most of Europe, we’ve got a far-right government right now, so there’s a lot of anti-immigration talk going round. Of course it’s only aimed at what they think are the “wrong” (Middle-Eastern and African) kind of people, so I doubt Americans would ever have to deal with it.
Taking a kayak out into one of the local waterways on an early morning. We have a few canals that run through a nature area on the outskirts of the city. Around that time no one is yet on the water and I can just glide peacefully past the water lilies and other plants. The silence is so soothing. Everything just seems to live and breathe all around me.
It’s great until about an hour later, when some of the locals use their motor boat to put-put-put down the canal, stinking up the place with their exhausts :P
First thing that came to my mind was this scene from Allo Allo :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1K8d9qXGnI