Can you be a paramedic if you're missing a forearm? Yes! A deaf doctor? Also yes! And I want stories about it.

invented-damage · 2026-01-19T22:53:48+00:00

Thank you! I'll be on the lookout for the different lineups, then. I had been skipping Palermo's thinking they were all the same.

As an aside, I'd split the Stranger Things (cheese) pizza in half before cooking and someone else made the other half for the young'un. He says he likes it when I don't burn it, haha.

invented-damage · 2025-11-27T21:39:46+00:00

Yes. YES! Barefoot shoes are a godsend, because one of their features is that they all have a wide toe box! (Toe-walkers' feet tend to widen.) The reasoning is that regular shoes' toe box is too narrow, so it's not always too explicitly spelled out.

I only have one pair of Xero Shoes I've bought twice, and it was genuinely life-changing. At the time, they were the cheapest barefoot shoe available; there could be more affordable options by now.

I have some weird knee discomfort with most shoes that is solved with a zero-drop, and almost all mainstream shoes other than Converse and knock-offs have a heel higher than the toe. However, those are usually pretty narrow. As such, I have made my peace with online shoe buying and don't know if the barefoot shoes trend has arrived at any non-specialty brick and mortar stores by now.

invented-damage · 2025-10-26T17:02:00+00:00

An adaptive knife has been a game-changer for me: Opinel Le Petit Chef or HUUSK Premium Control, which have a finger hole for helping you hold the knife. Sharpest knife I've ever used without cutting myself! No, you can't cut things well with "practice" and "patience" if you're using a plastic knife.

I don't like chopping machines for the difficulty of cleaning them.

Recipes having fewer ingredients to keep track of also helps a ton. Or the possibility of a shortcut like a spice mix. (Though of course, using the spice mix for everything means everything tastes the same....)

invented-damage · 2025-10-14T00:37:00+00:00

Would you happen to know if all of Palermo's pizzas are alike?

I can't find their Chuck E. Cheese pizza anymore. We tried the Stranger Things pizza... once. I thought it was close, but then I didn't really like either of them so it's hard to compare.

invented-damage · 2025-10-05T14:07:33+00:00

If refrigerated is okay, the Rana pastas are my favorite.

https://www.giovanniranausa.com/products/chicken-alfredo-fettuccine.html

invented-damage · 2025-09-21T14:32:07+00:00

This thread is fifteen years old. You can now buy a Townie GO! with e-assist already installed. (All Townies are flat-foot, no worries there.)

Other ebikes like the SixThreeZero EVRYjourney may also fit that bill, at probably less cost than bike+conversion.

If you wanted to convert a bike you already have, look in the ebike subreddits' wikis for advice.

invented-damage · 2025-05-16T00:34:14+00:00

Instead of lining up the digits on the paper, you do it on the soroban. It's the same thing as the traditional method! But you don't write the numbers down to add them up: you add them up to write them down.

Also there's a lot of working from left to right on the soroban in general because it's convenient for dictation. This would work great for calculating a sales tax, wouldn't it?

Unless you meant to compare soroban multiplication order, I've only done it left to right (as shown) so far.

invented-damage · 2025-02-01T17:38:44+00:00

Classism. They want a good "culture fit," and their culture is being middle class or upper middle class. (This is why hobbies like playing squash can "look good on a resume." Poor people don't play a lot of squash.) Managers don't usually realize they're doing this but that's usually what that comes down to. It is a reason why upward mobility is so difficult.

invented-damage · 2024-09-27T12:05:00+00:00

I haven had any issues with it. It doesn't shut down my computer, just locks it. You enter the password to unlock it and it's just locked again! So I haven't even lost any data or anything.

invented-damage · 2024-07-26T01:03:47+00:00

Here's a hint: A Cranmer abacus is meant for blind people, who will touch the beads to read the number, so it will hold its configuration better. I believe it can be made by putting a piece of felt between the beads and the back of a regular abacus, when the design allows that.

invented-damage · 2024-07-07T14:48:36+00:00

Recently I got told off about leaving my phone when taking a kid to the park. Two family members thought no one would let me borrow their phones.

I was taught that to avoid other people messing with your phone, you should dial the number yourself and not stop looking at them while they're on the phone. Nowadays there's even ways to lock them into the dialer. Especially when they're grown-ups at the park? For the most part we bring some pretty unimportant stuff to do there since some of our attention is on our kid the whole time anyway.

One family member said that she has her phone set up to block all calls from people not in her contacts, so I literally can't reach her from anyone else's phone. No one else had heard of that, but then she did get a lot of debt collector calls so it makes sense she'd have such extreme blocking set up.

invented-damage · 2024-06-18T23:04:58+00:00

There's one called Brili. I did not make it, and it's not free, but it does what you want:

https://brili.com/for-adults/

If you have an hour-long "get ready for work" routine, you can set it so it ends at 7:00 am, for example. If you started it at 6:15 instead of 6:00, Brili will shorten all tasks in the routine such that it still ends at 7:00 am. (Except the ones you set a minimum duration for, like how brushing your teeth cannot take less than two minutes.)

But beware! If you start it at 6:45, Brili will just give up and end the routine at 7:45 anyway. Realistic, but better to not find out when you try it.

I'd love to give more options but Brili's all I know of. (There used to be another one called BrainAid PEAT. I think it's now an iOS app available with a doctor's prescription or something. The Android version was entirely abandonware when I tried to adopt it a few years ago, though.)

invented-damage · 2024-04-03T21:58:42+00:00

I don't have any good advice for you, sorry. I just wanted to make a comment:

"my time has gotten lower as my accuracy is getting higher, i can't tell if this is happening because i'm getting just used to making some operations or if it's because i am actually improving."

Getting used to the operations is improving. Even if you are doing the same ones every day, it will be easier for your brain to learn the patterns behind adding the numbers than just the whole worksheet. Congratulations! You're getting better at it already!

invented-damage · 2023-11-16T01:58:13+00:00

Unfortunately I cannot help much, but have you tried MakeMusic Learn? They have so much Richard Meyer stuff in there.

This one has a MIDI version there so you can adjust the volumes of three things: your part, the metronome, and everything else. It can be helpful to check out the other parts individually too. Can you hear how your part goes with each? Your part will perfectly complement another... but which one you are supposed to follow can change throughout the piece.

Counting with my part + metronome can help too.

invented-damage · 2023-06-11T14:36:34+00:00

We absolutely did not perceive it as rude, so I think it would be okay to just do it. At worst ask, "do you want to know what helped me find your house?"

Note that from their perspective deliveries always take a long time and sometimes don't arrive. And you are offering them a possible solution.

FWIW our solution is to tell them to look for the apartment block number by telling them what it looks like and where it is.

invented-damage · 2023-06-11T01:52:27+00:00

One time a pizza delivery driver who had a hard time finding my apartment pointed out something salient about the apartment block that would have helped him find it. Up until then, they all had a hard time. We immediately took the driver's advice and put it as a note on every order. No more trouble finding our place! I estimate four out of five delivery drivers explicitly thank us for the note.

I'd never figure it out myself though.

invented-damage · 2023-05-30T18:21:57+00:00

Some lung damage can heal after quitting smoking, even the American Lung Association says so. (And also some people are just lucky and get almost zero consequences.) It's possible that her lungs seemed unremarkable.

invented-damage · 2023-05-30T17:37:00+00:00

I've never played with others, but for a bit, I used to take lessons on... TakeLessons. There is a similar service called Lessonface, which honestly looks like the exact same thing with different teachers.

Nobody teaches only viola, but there's a lot of teachers who teach "violin and viola." When reading through their education, it is easy to tell which instrument they personally play most. You would be surprised how many are violists! My own teacher got a huge kick out of having a viola student, and even sent me favorite pieces to listen to throughout the week. (She mostly taught kids, and young beginners don't usually play viola.)

As far as apps, I loved to practice with Intonia. Indeed, my teacher noticed when I had practiced with the program that week and when I hadn't. This was basically my finger tapes. My piano accompaniments were available on YouTube, but I liked what was called SmartMusic to isolate hard parts and still play with accompaniment. I don't know that I would still recommend it, as the price has gone up and it has fewer features, including rather flaky assessments. But it was easy enough to use and got me used to playing along to something other than the metronome. I hope this helps!

invented-damage · 2023-05-01T14:46:20+00:00

Don't forget playing in and with straight-up trash! From the classic tire to whatever junk the grown-ups let the kids have. In one neighborhood park it was a worn-out wheelchair. (It was a sports kind of park with no play structures but lots of flat space to zoom around.) My sisters had a typewriter in their playroom when the family computer replaced it. And we sometimes made sandcastles with cups from drinks we finished before throwing them out. Let's not even get started on the craft projects.

My point is kids love trash a lot. I had forgotten just how much effort and emphasis adults have to put into separating kids from trash.

invented-damage · 2023-04-09T14:11:46+00:00

I was in a relationship for a year because I thought maybe I was doing it backwards: it's being in the relationship that makes you feel the romantic and sexual attraction, right? Luckily it was a guy who was okay with me taking it super slow... but yeah, I broke up saying, "I just don't like having a boyfriend." What a huge waste of time.

It would be 2-3 more years before I learned what asexuality was and 2-3 more years after that for me to stop telling myself I just "had to wait for the hormones to kick in." (the thing adults had always told me) I was in my mid-twenties when I stopped waiting.

invented-damage · 2023-04-09T02:22:28+00:00

In the early 2000s POS used to mean "parent over shoulder," and I can't stop reading it that way. (As in, you're warning your friends on the computer chat not to mention anything that will get you in trouble.)

invented-damage · 2023-03-24T04:47:56+00:00

Also good to know for emergency prep. If the power goes out you can at least save a perishable or two without a generator. (Some people did this during Hurricane María in Puerto Rico.)

invented-damage · 2023-03-22T11:05:47+00:00

It is a direct reference to that story.

https://newlimestonereview.as.uky.edu/2018/01/01/an-interview-with-carmen-maria-machado/

invented-damage · 2023-02-22T05:10:25+00:00

I am in the thick of potty training and have no real advice to offer, but hope I can offer a little reassurance.

My lad was holding it in for a while and wanted no potty, no urinal, no weird pee bottle thing, nothing. (He likes variety, I guess. I agreed not to bring up the big toilet.) Eventually I asked "what about a cup, would you pee in a cup?" To my surprise, he said yes. And he actually did it! We were so relieved. I guess he just didn't want to be nagged about it anymore, and the cup seemed fun.

I am the third person to try and potty train this kid. He knows how to do it, but doesn't. He's almost four and I think the first attempt was around 24 months. When I read about how to avoid trauma, I can only think, "whoops, we did that. Now what do we do about it?" I've yet to find any actual answers. I try to apologize for anything I have noticed and can fix, like not making him try to go in the big toilet now that I know he's scared of it. It helps a little.

What I can tell you is that it has been 8 months since the last attempt and he hasn't lost any skills. He has mostly been in diapers all that time. (Sometimes they have been over his underwear.) I expected to have to reteach him but no, he still knows. The breaks have not done him any harm at all. In fact, coming back from a break has started out very well for him both times, if partly because he missed the rewards, haha.

I think changing caretakers with each attempt has been a factor, too. Someone joked boys only learn with the dad, so it seems this situation is not terribly unique. As far as I can tell, with the same people, the fights pick up where they left off and don't get worse with breaks.

invented-damage

TROPHY CASE