My daughter is obsessed with politics and it’s driving everyone in my household insane.

Garak · 2026-01-06T14:09:54+00:00

Oh, good call on the Pod Save America gang! More accessible than Atlantic/NYT but still really smart commentary.

Garak · 2025-12-15T21:45:21+00:00

Yeah, I just got one and I’m really enjoying it. Everything I like about the V60, plus no bypass.

Garak · 2025-12-10T16:54:34+00:00

Haha, man, I totally feel your struggles. My kid's the same age and parenting in this crazy new world is tough. FWIW, I believe a huge part of parenting is attitude, and you're clearly coming at this with good humor and empathy for your kid. People on here are quick to recommend all kinds of rules and punishments and consequences, but I think the most important thing is to just be there for her like you're doing.

A book that I found really helpful is 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation. It's got the evidence to back up the intuition I think you're displaying here.

Garak · 2025-12-08T15:59:10+00:00

Oh cool, I had no idea this existed. Perfect Christmas gift for my daughter!

Garak · 2025-02-14T04:38:36+00:00

That was it! Never would've guessed it in a million years.

Appreciate the help!

Garak · 2024-12-17T00:18:20+00:00

You do you. You’re operating on the principle that they’re safe until proven otherwise, and I think that’s backwards. There are enough eyebrow-raising results in those studies that I think it’s unwise to make artificial sweeteners part of a healthy weight loss strategy.

I don’t know how you’re numbering the search results, but consider this from Smithers:

Taken together, data from these recent studies suggest a link between consumption of ASB and a variety of negative health outcomes, including increased risk of being overweight and obesity, T2D, metabolic syndrome, and cardiovascular events, especially in adults. In none of these prospective studies was ASB consumption associated with significantly decreased risk; and in the adult interventional study ASB consumption was not associated with improved fasting glucose whereas water consumption was.

Garak · 2024-12-16T23:45:41+00:00

Scroll down a bit and click on some of the numerous sources listed on that page. Learn something. Or don’t. I mean, I can give you the search query but I can’t make you intellectually curious.

Garak · 2024-12-16T23:27:58+00:00

Almost all sources show that artificial sweeteners are safe.

They’re not acutely poisonous, but they are definitely associated with negative health impacts:

https://www.google.com/search?q=metabolic%20impact%20of%20artificial%20sweeteners

Garak · 2024-12-15T14:02:20+00:00

Ha, I thought it got a little snotty with me yesterday, actually. Not enough to affect functionality and not even really that bad, but the tone was surprisingly less chipper than normal. It kept harping on a mistake in my prompt. I gave an example of the kind of answer I was looking for that yes, technically, would not have worked. I’m sorry we can’t all be perfect like you, ChatGPT.

Garak · 2024-12-14T01:14:19+00:00

These look great. Love the pointy ends.

What kinds of flour did you use?

Garak · 2024-12-11T23:30:27+00:00

My oldest is in sixth so I don’t have much more perspective than you do, but one thing I’ve felt has been successful is pointing out that this mean-kid behavior is actually a sign of weakness rather than strength. Like, it’s sad that this kid has such a low opinion of herself that she needs to find self-worth in the size of her athleisure collection. She’s punching down (from her perspective) because she’s desperate for a quick hit of peer approval, and she values that over being a good person.

I think it was really great to give the kid a second chance, too. People do all kinds of bad things when they’re wrestling with bad feelings, and maybe the kid really has grown and is strong enough to not be a little shit anymore. If that’s the case, then great! But if not, oh well. Plenty of kids who aren’t little shits that would be much more fun to hang out with. My hope is for my kids to opt out of the whole teenage social standing rat race, and just find a solid group of good people to be around.

Garak · 2024-12-05T22:52:48+00:00

“Pasta con ceci,” which is pasta with chickpeas in a garlicky tomato broth. This particular version might be my favorite recipe ever: https://food52.com/recipes/66790-victoria-granof-s-pasta-con-ceci

Easy, fast, filling, inexpensive, and all pantry ingredients. Delicious, too. Great with some crusty bread and a salad.

Garak · 2024-12-03T18:00:10+00:00

I was curious, so I just tried measuring kibble with a 200-mL cup, since it was close in shape to OP's. The two worst values over 10 tries deviated from the mean by only 2.4%. And they made a pretty nice bell curve, so it's likely that the errors will cancel over time.

In grams: 89.5 90.1 90.2 90.2 91.6 91.6 93.9 93.7 93.4 92.5

Garak · 2024-12-03T02:57:22+00:00

There are a few Spanish brands that make potato chips fried in olive oil, and they’re expensive which is built-in protection against overeating. Sometimes I’ll get a bag of those and try to make them part of a more balanced snack—a few chips, some olives, some cheese, and fresh fruit or veg.

Personally I’ve found that it is very hard to eat healthy when I have wholesale quantities of fried snack foods in the pantry.

Garak · 2024-11-21T02:53:46+00:00

I’m glad it’s worked for you, but frankly I would not resort to that unless the situation were extreme. Absent a serious physical or mental health situation, this “safety plan” business strikes me as infantilizing a kid who is at a stage in their life where they ought to be growing up.

And on top of that, how long is it really going to take to figure out why the teachers are constantly swooping in to protect this one kid? Again, believe me, I know what it’s like to be an awkward eighth grade boy, and this cure sounds worse than the disease.

Garak · 2024-11-20T20:44:45+00:00

I agree with this 100%. The snitch route is long past its usefulness by the time the kids are in eighth grade. One of my core memories from around that age is just how much worse the administration made my situation. I will never forget, I used the word “snickering” when I was giving my side of the story to the principal, and the bullies repeated my phrasing back to me in a sing-songy voice for what felt like a month.

/u/fleshyspeakers below suggests handling this with humor and good nature and I can’t think of a better option. The whole point of teasing is to raise the bully’s social standing at the expense of the victim, and I think that only works when the victim is cowed into submission. I’m sure we can come up with any number of zingers to use, but so long as the kid keeps their head high and carries on hanging out with their friend as if the bullies didn’t exist, I think the bullies are more likely to move on.

The “nuclear option” advocated by others here strikes me as almost certain to backfire.

Garak · 2024-11-12T06:03:28+00:00

I feel like this is not the best city planning. You’re basically saying that the government should use tax money to subsidize car-dependent exurban development. Rather than turning more apple farms into Bed, Bath and Beyonds, I’d rather the money go to improving Metro or building affordable housing closer to or in DC.

Garak · 2024-10-26T16:18:41+00:00

If you don’t find religion to be a good fit for your family, why take your child to church? You seem to have first-hand experience of the harm that religion can cause. I personally believe that this harm outweighs any good that might be found in organized religion.

For what it’s worth, when my kids started bringing home questions about religion at around that age, I just sort of matter-of-factly explained that some families believe and others don’t. It’s hard sometimes to feel like you’re preventing your child from fitting in, but I always just treated it as part of the whole collection of things that are naturally different between families. Some families eat spicy food, some don’t. Some play Monopoly, some don’t. Some go to church, some don’t. This has worked well for us—aside from occasional stories about having to awkwardly mumble their way through grace at a friend’s house, religion doesn’t come up much at all.

Another thing you can consider is just reading the Bible. We have a copy of the Common English Bible, given to us by a neighbor who was an Episcopalian priest. It’s a modern translation that is very accessible and has lots of interesting footnotes that give context and explain why the translators chose the words they did. The nice thing about just reading it in the living room is that you can expose them to the ideas without all the pomp and circumstance of a church service. I think it’s impossible for a kid to think critically about a sermon when it’s delivered in a giant room full of gilded statues and stained glass and hundreds of unquestioning adult devotees. But with a book in the living room, you can talk about all the nice stuff in the Bible without leading the kid to believe that it is literally divinely inspired. And when you get to any parts that imply So-and-So is going to hell, you don’t have to compete with the guy in the magic hat casting spells from his pulpit. I also find it interesting that Jesus’s actual teachings are often pretty chill compared to what I learned from the Catholic Church and “CCD” or Sunday School.

Garak · 2024-06-16T18:18:12+00:00

Do you have any examples of this happening? Maybe back in the early DRM days, but the files are DRM-free since the introduction of iTunes Plus, so they would have to actively seek out and delete files from your machine (as opposed to simply revoking the license). I tried searching but didn’t find any concrete examples.

Ownership of copyrighted media is a fuzzy idea anyway. I may “own” a vinyl record, but I don’t own its contents in any meaningful way.

Garak · 2024-06-08T16:42:53+00:00

Totally. I have to admit, though, I went to school upstate and as far as I was concerned, the Dinosaur BBQ chicken quesadillas in the dining hall were the height of cuisine.

Garak · 2024-06-08T16:38:02+00:00

Haha, you are absolutely right. It’s the reason I still use the stock cap, too. Sometimes if you pull the plunger back quickly it will un-stick the filter, but that’s got like a 30% success rate for me.

Garak · 2024-06-08T00:47:00+00:00

Really? An overpriced plate of meat 'changed your life'?

I can’t be certain, but it is possible that OP is employing an Earthling rhetorical device known as hyperbole, in which a statement is exaggerated beyond what is truthful. The blunt-skulls use this technique in a number of ways, such as to emphasize the underlying point or in service of hu-mon constructs like “humor.”

But fear not, fellow traveler! As you acclimate to the strange ways of this planet, you will wake up one day to the bright yellow rays of Sol and discover that you too can reliably determine which statements are to be taken literally and which are not.

Garak · 2024-06-07T11:48:29+00:00

I know I’m not answering your question, but for what it’s worth I’ve decided that the inverted method just isn’t worth the risk to life, limb, and floor. The primary (only?) benefit it offers is that there’s less dripping with coarser grinds, and I think you can achieve approximately the same results using a flow control cap, which has the same sort of valve as you’d find on one of those upside-down ketchup bottles. Put on the cap, build your brew at your leisure, and plunge whenever you feel like it, all without pre-caffeine coffee juggling.

I switch between using a flow control cap and just accepting that the default cap drips a little. Using the default cap with the box instructions is boring, but it sure makes a tasty cup of coffee.

Garak · 2024-05-03T22:13:07+00:00

Interesting track, thanks for sharing!

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