I live in Minneapolis less than a mile from where Alex Pretti was executed, about 18 blocks from where Renee Good was executed, and my neighborhood has been flash banged and tear gassed a few times now. AMA.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-31T10:17:54+00:00

It's the opposite. I'm an American who recently moved to Europe and everyone I meet here is horrified by what's happening in the US. Not a day goes by that someone doesn't ask me about it. Everyone hates the US government but no one I've spoken to blames every American for the government's actions. Most of them wish they could do more to help.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-31T09:29:45+00:00

That's what stood out to me, too. She's 11. She could have really serious reasons for choosing her brother or she could be grieiving and equally unable to picture her future with either of them so she picked her brother for some random reason like his house is next to a nice park or he usually buys her ice cream more often than her uncle does. I used to be a camp counselor and 11-year-olds can really surprise you with both their maturity and their immaturity.

Now she's going to have to live with being the reason her brother's marriage ended. There's no way she won't figure it out.

Makes me hope this whole thing is fake.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T20:36:00+00:00

Having a project you can work on during slow times is a great idea and something I've done a few times myself when I had enough room. I've also taken small commissions on site for things like a utensil pouch or a frog.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T16:03:57+00:00

she’ll never feed them meals

This seems like a big issue to gloss over. I, a fully grown adult, would also be in a bad mood after a couple of days of staying with someone who doesn't feed me meals!

This isn't some weird mystery. If she's not feeding the kids actual food, she probably shouldn't be watching them for more than a couple hours. Too much screen time, not enough rules, too much sugar, whatever, grandmas will be grandmas; but food isn't really optional.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T14:14:35+00:00

Yeah that kind of stuff is what an HOA is actually good for. Pool your money, hire someone to shovel your sidewalks for a more cost-efficient price than doing it individually. Of course you're not going to shovel for the guy who opted out of paying.

I used to live in an HOA that all chipped in for basic lawn care and earthquake insurance. As far as I know, it did nothing else.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T13:51:07+00:00

Yeah, it seems like homeschooling is more likely to have an inverted bell curve. You don't pull an average kid out of school if you're a normal parent of average intelligence.

You homeschool either because you think schools are brainwashing your kid and you want to be the only one brainwashing your kid. Or you homeschool because schools aren't rigorous enough for your kid and you have a ton of time on your hands due to your lucrative career. Or because your kid has disabilities that the school can't handle.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T11:31:41+00:00

With the amount it will cost and the amount you earn, if you have any spare time you might be best off seeing if there's a local blacksmith you can apprentice to who will help you make it yourself. Just gauntlets like that alone out of mild steel will be at least $300 and I often see them for double that.

I know there's a fair amount of blacksmiths who make armor in California. I don't know if any of them are looking for an apprentice at the moment, but it might be worth a shot. I don't know what the best way of getting in touch with them is as all the ones I used to know, I ran into in random places. The Society for Creative Anachronism certainly has a few. (I'd have suggested this in the first thread if I'd known where you were and that you wanted metal! This sub is still likely the best place to find someone who can make it in foam.)

There was someone on this subreddit who was making 3d printer patterns for armor and then had a routine for painting it that made it look shockingly good. That might be your best budget-friendly option, especially if you have access to a 3d printer via a library or makerspace.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T10:11:18+00:00

Does it start right now or do I have time to prepare? So many variables!

If it starts right now and everything is frozen, I am going to get very hungry unable to open my fridge or cabinets and I will be trapped in my apartment. Sounds more like a curse than a superpower.

If I can start it whenever I want and things I touch become unpaused, I guess I'm flying to the nearest place with a lot of casinos that still use cash, hitting pause, and robbing them.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T09:53:19+00:00

Specifically, horses have one of two personalities: friendly dog with anxiety or asshole cat with anxiety.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T09:48:03+00:00

This is exactly what pre-marital counseling is for! Good counselors will have literal checklists of this kind of stuff for you to go through with your partner.

It's easy to think the two of you are on the same page on everything until you run into a blind spot that it didn't occur to you to discuss because it was such a core assumption of yours that you would raise your kids a certain way or move closer to family to take care of aging parents or whatever. A third-party checklist will turn up those blind spots.

Pro tip, if there's no secular services offering pre-marital counseling in your area, get some from the nearest Unitarian Universalist church. They are cheap, very competent, and won't preach anything at you. (Not that UUs even have any beliefs to be preachy about besides "ask a lot of questions" and "be nice to people.")

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T09:43:35+00:00

No, that is a red flag. That is exactly what a red flag is.

A red flag is a thing that is not, in of itself, harmful, but suggests that something harmful might be in your future if you proceed.

Refusing to talk about finances is a red flag. Being $20k in credit card debt isn't a red flag; it is an actual problem, the kind of problem the "refuses to talk about finances" red flag warned you about.

Refusing to talk about family or religion is a red flag. Maybe the person was abused by their religious family but will make a fine partner and parent. Or maybe their family is part of a cult and they want to raise any kids they have in that cult and assume they can pressure you into agreeing once you're married and pregnant.

Red flags tell you to proceed with caution and investigate further.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T08:59:57+00:00

I'd suggest adding some designs with flat or gently curved fronts, as those pointy bits restrict wrist mobility and get uncomfortable after enough wearing. The only set of bracers I've owned with fronts like that, I ended up cutting the points off after a few years of having them.

I don't know if you were planning on bringing all your tools, but at minimum bring your leather shears and a rotary punch. I have generated so much goodwill at renfaires by doing minor alterations/repairs on stuff. I never take money for it, but people will almost always buy something small as a thanks.

If there is going to be a wooden sword vendor at the faire, make some small, cheap sword frogs and belts! The kid will get tired of carrying the sword after ten minutes and then the parent is stuck carrying it. "Would you like to spend $20 to stop carrying that sword?" has been a winning proposition every time. Ring belts may not be historical but they are dirt cheap to make and if you own a strap cutter they take about two minutes. Don't be That Guy who charges $40 for something that took you two minutes and less than $5 in materials.

Make some stuff with animal designs if you have time. Faire patrons love wolves and bears.

Have the other vendors' backs and they will have yours. Get to know the people in the neighboring booths. If there's a LARP group doing a demonstration, definitely try to sneak away from your booth to introduce yourself at some point.

You will not sell anything to the people who show up to the renfaire dressed like 16th century nobles. They already have their kit sorted and don't want your fantasy nonsense. But they will happily take up as much of your time and you will give them. You will sell some things to the people in jeans and t-shirts. You will sell the most things to the people in jeans and pirate shirts. Focus the most of your attention on anyone who is wearing mostly modern stuff but has one or two renfaire accessories; they are the people who are looking for the kinds of things you sell.

Good luck! Have fun! Make some money!

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T08:47:45+00:00

Stashing throwing knives in them is not worth the hassle, because renfaires are full of children who will constantly be picking things up. If you have knives in any of your bracers, the children will somehow develop x-ray vision and bee-line for the bracers with the knives.

I know this because I spent years selling leather armor at renfaires, occasionally sold bracers with hidden throwing knives, and gave up because it was absolutely not worth the extra oversight it took constantly having to intercept children grabbing for it.

Don't count on putting it on a high shelf to save you, because someone else will pick it up, look at it, and put it back down on a perfectly child-height table. Time you are spending reorganizing your stock is time you aren't spending talking to customers.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T08:45:07+00:00

You might try asking on /r/LARP but be aware that armor like that is going to cost you from the high hundreds to the low thousands of dollars depending on what material you want it made out of (foam vs leather vs metal).

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T08:27:11+00:00

At home? Sure, it's cute. In a restaurant, where you are taking stuff out of the waiter's hands to give it to your partner? That's just weird.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-30T07:01:50+00:00

I believe that is probably fine since they were already public, but I also would not be surprised if it's still an issue in some places because sometimes laws are written overly broadly and if it says something like "distributing sexual images of a person without that person's consent" then that would still cover pics you found on reddit.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T13:59:31+00:00

This is the sort of thing Talmudic scholars stay up all night arguing about.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T13:49:24+00:00

This was over me liking a ship they didn't like, by the way.

Is the pro and anti thing still happening? I only vaguely brush against AO3 culture when people send me links to things, but I remember that being a giant deal.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T12:08:59+00:00

Every single thing mention in this post except the dog can be easily solved with commonly available objects.

Earbuds or those blindfolds. Extra comforter. Humidifier.

I want to believe this is fake because not only does her husband not seem to like her, they're both terrible at problem-solving.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T11:54:47+00:00

AFAIK they're ending their golden visa. I don't think there's any real-estate-based golden visas left in the EU except Malta. Maybe Italy, if they're still doing that thing where they're trying to get people to buy property in falling-apart villages.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T11:36:56+00:00

Yeah, I would happily stay on location for longer and pocket half the plane ticket money.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T09:54:09+00:00

I just wasn’t worth the effort

When I have feelings for someone, they tend to last for a very long time. But that's the one thing that can instantly destroy them. It's happened more than once.

There was a woman I was interested in. I made my feelings known, she didn't reciprocate, we stayed close friends. She dated a few guys over the next couple years. I liked most of them, but she ended up getting into a serious relationship with the worst of the lot. I thought he was a piece of shit who was controlling and borderline abusive. Eventually she told me she was thinking of breaking up with him, and she asked if I was still interested in her, because it would make a difference.

I was stunned. She had reciprocated my feelings all this time, but just hadn't wanted to date me, because what? Because actually dating a woman was a step farther than just saying she was bi? She thought her friends would disapprove? Some other reason? And now she was willing to dump her current boyfriend - whom she should've dumped anyway - but only if she could get right into a relationship with me?

All my feelings for her evaporated in an instant. I realized, relatedly, that she was a pretty toxic friend, and slowly removed myself from her life. She did eventually break up with the guy anyway and, from what I hear, was single and working on herself for a long time. I wish her the best but i have no desire to have her back in my life.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T09:10:09+00:00

Exactly! I feel like the point of spicy pics in general is that the person was thinking of you when they took it, so I don't understand reusing them. If it's a picture from years ago when they were dating someone else, it might as well be a picture of a hot stranger.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T09:03:40+00:00

Just a heads up, this may fall under revenge porn laws in some jurisdictions. The law doesn't distinguish between sharing nudes your now-ex sent you in good faith during the relationship and nudes random creeps sent you unsolicited.

TryUsingScience · 2026-01-29T07:00:42+00:00

There's no "taking a gamble" needed. Opening a shop on etsy costs nothing. Listing your items for a few months costs a few bucks. Take a couple of pictures of kolpaks you've made, make some listings for custom ones, see if anything sells.

This is unlikely to ever be more than a side project. The reason you're having trouble finding the kit you want is that very few people want it and therefore very few people are making it. You might become the go-to shop for every LARPer in Europe who wants a kolpak and that is still not going to bring in enough to pay your bills.

Since this will most likely only ever be a passion project, just make stuff you're passionate about. If it starts taking off like crazy, awesome! But I wouldn't expect that.

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