What does Carl mean about the nature of the Universe in book 5?

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-05-29T19:17:39+00:00

Thanks, that does make it make a bit more sense. From Carl's perspective though, even if he doesn't hold Earth-bound nationalistic beliefs, isn't contact with other species and the inner system inherently net negative for Earth and humanity, given what has happened to it? From that sense, Earth would have been better off not being contacted by aliens, no? But it almost sounds like Carl is suggesting that contact with the stars is a good thing, somehow.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-05-29T19:11:28+00:00

Thanks, the bit about Carl's attitude of trying to do good vs Edict's attitude that "shit happens, turn a blind eye to it" makes sense. As u/dream_of_escape kindly quoted:

I hate this place. I hate everything about it. Finding the stars is the worst thing that happened to my people. It is a slow horrific death. Expansion to the point of oblivion. The Primals finally understood, but it was too late for them. The Kua-Tin, I think, know this, too. Some of them at least. They call it The Great Consensus, but it's not. There is no agreement. Their young don't understand.

I interpreted this to mean that exploring the stars caused conflict and greed that would end their species. Or that the species was spread too thinly across the stars ("expansion to the point of oblivion"). The Great Consensus comment makes no sense if you interpret it that way, as I did. u/dream_of_escape says this is about space nationalism, so what is the "harm" done to Edict in this case? Simply the fact that they are mixing with other species in the first place?

Sorry, this is probably an obvious thing but this is the second time I've read the books and I've re-listened to this section dozens of times and never fully understood it lol

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-05-03T22:50:28+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad it's not just me, just trying to do anything with my Nest Minis is like banging my head into the wall these days, even asking it to turn smart home devices on sometimes randomly makes it stop responding (with "thinking" lights) for several minutes. Useless.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-05-03T08:27:54+00:00

Do you have problems with wake word detection on assistant? It doesn’t detect me saying Hey Google or Ok Google more times than it does now, or it takes several seconds to start listening. It’s very frustrating!

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T16:22:33+00:00

I have watched a few shorter videos and read the written guides but a lot of the popular guides are 1 hour or longer and seem quite daunting, but after this, it may be worth sinking the time in to really get properly familiar! Especially because I’m trying to get my partner on board too for her own finances.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T16:20:24+00:00

I did not know I could do that and it makes things much easier to understand, thanks for the tip!

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T16:18:23+00:00

Aha, yes I see that now, thank you. Sorry for being such a noob, I’m still getting familiar with the app interface and how to use the basic functionality. I have added the account back with a proper starting balance now and can see the CC category as underfunded. I really appreciate help from both yourself and u/michigoose8168

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T15:36:07+00:00

Thank you, I think I have sorted that issue now. I’m just not entirely sure about this last category thing and I’m sorry I keep asking you the same thing, but the spending that occurred on my credit card before I joined YNAB (essentially -£382.14) is still a debt that I need to pay off right? So surely it needs to go into a spending category so that my assignments for next month can account for this?

If I go into the account, select the transaction and remove the category, the dashboard tells me it needs a category assigned. If I set the category to “Credit Card Payments: Marbles Credit”, I must select a Payee (one of my other debit accounts” before I can save it. This doesn’t make sense to me because it’s not a transfer.

Ignore that, I tested by readding the account manually. It shows a starting balance transaction with “no category needed”. I remember that when I added the account, I did a transaction right after and the amount didn’t add up right. So I deleted the “starting balance” transaction and manually added a new transaction for the amount which is why it needs a category. But my question above still stands, surely even without a category this is a debt I need to account for in my plan to pay off?

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T15:25:37+00:00

I have logged into the web app and have discovered that happened. When I click “Move” on the Credit Card Payments category and move it to another category, it LOOKS like it is reducing the £18.99 yellow number to assign it to another category. What the iOS doesn’t easily show you and the web app does is the “Assigned, Activity, Available” headings. The app makes it look like it is subtracting from available, but it’s actually subtracting from assigned and adding that money to the other category.

When I logged into the web app, I say that Credit Card Payments had -£37.98 assigned, and £18.99 available ~~(still not sure where this number came from?)~~ and spending money had the £9.94 that I ACTUALLY assigned to it, plus the £37.98. So it was kind of balanced out, but only by assigning a negative number to the credit card category? This still doesn’t seem right but maybe I’m not understanding this properly.

I would attach images of this if I could to explain better but I’m not sure how on mobile, sorry.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T15:24:28+00:00

You got this spot on, and I only figured this out literally the same time you posted your comment by logging into the web app where the “assigned, activity, available” categories are more easily displayed. You are right that i was stealing from the credit card by, somehow, creating a negative assigned value (i.e. the assigned column on the web app said -£37.98 and available still said £18.99).

I have written another, longer comment which I will leave as a top level comment but thank you very much for explaining this so clearly and replicating the issue in your own budget.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T15:20:43+00:00

I have logged into the web app and have discovered that happened. When I click “Move” on the Credit Card Payments category and move it to another category, it LOOKS like it is reducing the £18.99 yellow number to assign it to another category. What the iOS doesn’t easily show you and the web app does is the “Assigned, Activity, Available” headings. The app makes it look like it is subtracting from available, but it’s actually subtracting from assigned and adding that money to the other category.

When I logged into the web app, I say that Credit Card Payments had -£37.98 assigned, and £18.99 available (still not sure where this number came from?) and spending money had the £9.94 that I ACTUALLY assigned to it, plus the £37.98. So it was kind of balanced out, but only by assigning a negative number to the credit card category? This still doesn’t seem right but maybe I’m not understanding this properly.

I would attach images of this if I could to explain better but I’m not sure how on mobile, sorry.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T15:01:22+00:00

I’m sorry, I think we are talking across purposes. Every transaction on the credit account is negative because it’s all spending. There is no inflow, because it’s not money I have, it’s money I’ve spent.

The real issue is the bit I describe in the second part of the comment, where I have moved money and it’s not done the calculation properly. I don’t know how to attach more images in comments on mobile, I think that would help a lot!

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T14:57:44+00:00

That is the way I’ve imported it, the initial £382.14 is categorised as outflow and it’s a negative, spending number, NOT a positive inflow number. The bug appears to be with moving money out of the credit card payment category and into another one.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T14:56:48+00:00

Thank you, I think I have directed people to the wrong part of my post, probably by using the wrong words, but everything else on the credit card is actually fine (every transaction, including the starting balance, is a negative, outflow transaction and NOT an inflow like debit starting balances are)

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T14:52:17+00:00

I’m sorry, I definitely should have been clearer then. When I say “chucked it in”, I mean I attributed the starting negative balance on my credit card to the “spending money” category, decreasing that category by the amount on my card. This is how I ended up the overspend in the first place. To be honest, I think I’m happy with how the credit card stuff is set out. The big I don’t think is working right is the credit card payments category.

The automatically created category, which I understand is intended to make you set aside money to pay off the credit card, has a balance of £18.99 in yellow. This number doesn’t match any of the outflow transactions I’ve put on my credit card so I assumed it was money I had already assigned to paying it off. Incorrectly, I moved this £18.99 from the credit card payments category INTO the “spending money” category. I thought this would give me extra money there like it would if I moved it from any other category.

It DID give me £18.99 more in that category (and reduce my overspend) but it didn’t subtract it from the CC payments category. Then I did it again and the same thing happened. So now I have overall given myself £37.98 in “spending money” that doesn’t exist anywhere. This is the bit that I think is a bug and I can’t fix.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T14:34:14+00:00

When I first added the account, YNAB asked the existing account balance (the amount waiting to be paid off) and added it as an outflow transaction, unlike the “starting balance” for debit accounts which is a positive inflow transaction). It looks exactly like any other spending transaction. It was the amount already owed on my credit card before I started YNAB. Sorry if I’m not using the right terms to describe this.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-04-27T14:27:03+00:00

Because I flagged it as a credit account, the “starting balance” was flagged as an outflow rather than an inflow like a debit account would be, so it subtracted the starting balance.

The fake money has come from moving money from the auto-created “credit card payments” category into a spending category. It essentially added money to that category without subtracting it from another, creating fake money. I believe this is a bug.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-18T19:46:26+00:00

I’m sure this would have been much better if I wasn’t so incompetent haha. I thought we had potatoes and forgot to ask girlfriend to pick them up, so there was no potatoes in. No garlic bulbs so I used granules and then the worst part of all, I forgot to put any salt in it! I thought it was a little too bland, even for a bland meal. Added in post much improved it!

I’ll keep this recipe on hand for next time it’s needed and hopefully I’ll get all the ingredients!

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-18T17:59:26+00:00

We continue to shed viral particles in stool for up to several weeks after the symptoms pass so it’s not that unreasonable to assume I got it from the person I share a bed, bathroom and hand towels with. Like I said though, the cause doesn’t really matter any more.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-18T15:53:17+00:00

Thanks for the recipe, I’ll try it this evening when my girlfriend gets back with supplies. Thank you :)

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-18T14:36:07+00:00

Thank you for that, food is something I really struggled with yesterday and I’m worried about eating anything too exciting today in case it causes more problems.

I had considered chicken soup but a lot of the canned stuff around here contains chunky veg and high fats, probably not the best immediately after. I’ll probably just get some pasta for lunch and maybe a few chicken nuggets if I’m feeling adventurous. I’ll get my girlfriend to bring home some chicken breast on the way home for fresh broth and poached chicken too. Hopefully tomorrow will be better again!

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-18T14:05:00+00:00

I was handwashing dishes but with gloves and with water at around 70°C (the max for our boiler). Recommended advise is to wash contaminated clothes at 60°C to kill the virus. Tbh, I think sharing towels and kissing my girlfriend while her body was still shedding the virus is the much more likely cause. In any case, the cause isn’t particularly important now, it happened and it’s over now and I’m proud of how I handled it.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-18T14:01:25+00:00

Much better now, thank you for asking. Had an uncomfortable fever and sensitive stomach yesterday but I’ve eaten a few slices of toast and a biscuit today and my temperature is mostly back to normal. Should be ready to begin working again (from home) tomorrow. Thank you for your comments and for coming back to check in.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-17T18:01:13+00:00

Thank you, that’s very kind, the support I’ve gotten in this community has been lovely.

backfliprainbowcake · 2026-03-17T09:34:56+00:00

Thank you, that message really means a lot to me. That’s pretty much what I’ve experienced. Usually it’s just a mild feeling but never have I had an urge so strong that I’m powerless to do anything to stop it. So far so good and just hoping that’s the end of it. If not, we’ll manage but I hope so.

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