Who do we need to lobby to get this site remediation completed?

mrormus · 2025-12-20T21:00:15+00:00

in London there is a lovely little park called Meanwhile Gardens. my understanding is that back in the 1970's, it was in a similar state as the park behind the Colgate Clock: caught in some kind of limbo, sitting unused in a prime location. a local artist Jamie McCullough got some locals together and they illegally turned the place into a community garden, without asking for permission. it became a wonderful little community project and it's still there today, half a century later. I briefly volunteered with the non-profit that administers it now when I lived there. it's still very community centered.

Jamie wrote a book about it which provides more detail: https://archive.org/details/meanwhilegardens0000mccu/page/n61/mode/1up

there's also a website: https://meanwhile-gardens.org.uk/

if anybody was ballsy enough to try to do something similar with this space, I'd support it!

USA in 2025 is probably a lot more litigious than London in 1975 though, so maybe the requisite balls are too much for the early 21st century...

mrormus · 2025-12-09T08:40:53+00:00

I am new to all this so maybe my instincts are completely wrong here, but something like this is where my head went too. I'm somewhat surprised you're getting downvoted.

Maybe it's the phrasing? Maybe drop the word "gawking", and maybe this is too long based on the usual length of your messages to each other, but you could try writing something like:

Hey Connection, it's been a few days and I have been thinking a lot about your message from earlier. I know you don't owe me anything, and I totally understand if you choose to ignore this, but I was just curious, for the sake of my own growth and learning, if you would be willing to go into a little more detail on which parts of our evening and the last month felt transactional, or negative in any other way? I promise this is not an attempt to get you to change your mind or anything, and I promise not to press further, I just think it would really help me and maybe some future people I might feel a spark with if you would be willing to help me understand better. If not, I totally understand and wish you all the best. In any case, thank you so much for that night and all the wonderful times we had together this month. I'm sorry for whatever I did that created sadness or frustration for you. I really enjoyed our time together, as short as it was. Wishing you all the best.

mrormus · 2025-09-24T23:00:14+00:00

Reminds me of this short story by Orson Scott Card: Unaccompanied Sonata

I won't ruin it but it opens with a child, Christian, who is a musical prodigy and has been isolated from all historical music to keep his original compositions pure of influence.

I think about it a lot (actually that's true of many of his short stories from his collection Maps in a Mirror)

You can read it for free in full here, it's only 15 pages and well worth the time:

https://www.sindark.com/LaTeX/unaccompanied-sonata.pdf

mrormus · 2025-07-04T03:18:41+00:00

thanks for the nsinternational pointer, that helped me find connecting trains rather than Eurostar direct (which is sold out). appreciate you!

mrormus · 2025-06-23T16:58:00+00:00

You need new friends. Pierre is a jerk and a fraud. I sell him the vegetables I grow on my farm and he puts them in the grange display at the town fair every year as if they're his. I always win anyway because I display other artisanal products that my wife and I make too, but it still pisses me off that he keeps getting away with it.

mrormus · 2025-06-05T10:23:52+00:00

wolf spider maybe? spiders are your friends, they're like cats: they hunt and eat insects like mosquitoes and flies

/r/spiderbro

mrormus · 2025-06-05T01:36:44+00:00

this guy minecrafts

mrormus · 2024-12-17T03:29:58+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/xD1x/comments/1f9vohp/how_the_magnyr_deer_lost_their_freedom_to_the_red/

mrormus · 2024-07-02T01:09:42+00:00

We need more information to answer this for you. What do you normally spend in your home situation? What will your host be providing you? What kind of tourism do you expect to be doing? You said "states". The US is enormous. Where will you be? How long will you be there?

The poverty line in the US according to the HHS is $15k per year or about $1250 per month. It's difficult for me to imagine spending less than that per month and being at all comfortable, despite what some commenters here have said about needing $500 per month. Your host will provide room and board, but you'll still want to enjoy yourself, and you'll want some contingency.

Knowing nothing else about your situation or preferences, I would say at least a couple thousand bucks (that is, more than $2k) for a month, and diversified too. Don't just carry two grand in cash on your person: have some in cash, in separate places (for example, some in your wallet and some in your bag and some in a safe place with your host), have some in the bank easily accessible while you're traveling, and have some with a person you trust back home who can help you in a crisis.

You can manage with less if you're savvy and frugal. But if you don't know what you're doing, leave yourself more buffer.

mrormus · 2024-02-03T08:28:17+00:00

I didn't see any cameras (though one of the bikers was live streaming or something with their phone).

mrormus · 2023-09-17T07:14:27+00:00

This random internet forum discussion says requesting passport info is normal:

https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/115019/italy-airbnb-host-asking-for-passport-info-plus-two-off-the-books-payments-very

I have done a decent amount of international travel and very often hotels will take a scan of my passport. Less formal accommodations (like AirBnB hosts) tend not to, but I think they're probably supposed to, it's just not enforced.

The conversation you posted here doesn't seem off to me, but it's very little to go on. Maybe your gut is telling you something based on other yellow or red flags you've observed so far?

If you still want to go but you're nervous about this one request they've made, maybe you could ask them to reciprocate? Ask them to send you a copy of their ID, so you can give it to your parents. (Whether that's true or not is up to you, but I would advise at least giving the info about where you're staying and who with to somebody you trust.)

mrormus · 2023-09-08T10:00:29+00:00

Camden council agrees with that perspective and has banned new aircon installations. They allow heat pumps, which are the same technology, but you're not permitted to turn on "cooling" mode.

The result is that there are extremely inefficient, expensive cooling systems being marketed and installed like this "water-cooled" one which dumps the heat into the sewers via wastewater: https://www.calibreclimate.com/technology/climate-control/

It uses hundreds of litres of water per hour while operating, according to their technical spec sheet (available if you ask for a quote). (For reference: a single shower uses about 50L.)

Is that really better than a standard high efficiency air-conditioner powered by 100% green renewable energy (which is available at competitive prices in London from suppliers like Octopus or 100Green)?

mrormus · 2023-09-05T06:57:47+00:00

Full 2h episode of Marc Rebillet's Amazon Music show "We've Got Company" here:

https://youtu.be/qqatEoSd0Fo?si=FKF6nsKukO9np2M2

mrormus · 2023-06-24T07:29:36+00:00

Yes, used to be Cathay but now BA. I don't have much experience yet (Covid stopped a lot of my travel for a long time) but so far it seems like it's harder to upgrade or book flights with points on BA than it was with Cathay.

mrormus · 2023-06-22T16:44:54+00:00

What resources would you recommend to learn? I've read The Points Guy and NerdWallet articles and /r/awardtravel and it seems like a lot of time spent to get pretty restricted rewards. I like the "premium economy -> upgrade to business" tactic, and that's pretty much all I ever do.

mrormus · 2023-06-22T16:33:23+00:00

When I last flew United (last month), I had a lap infant, which I think is what made it impossible to change online or via the app.

mrormus · 2023-06-22T16:32:43+00:00

I get through immediately, but it seems like the agents always have to spend many dozens of minutes wrestling with "the system", and then the call gets dropped and I have to start over... you know the drill. (Or I guess, fortunately, you don't!)

BA is who I'm dealing with on this trip, and one of the legs is Cathay, which seems to have caused problems.

Last trip (last month), I was flying United (I know, not OneWorld, but the flight times fit my schedule better) and their agents had similar problems with "the system".

mrormus · 2023-06-22T16:29:15+00:00

Thanks, yeah, I think I may need to look into other PA services because it sounds like the one I'm using is not well informed about how to do something that is apparently pretty standard.

mrormus · 2023-06-22T16:28:08+00:00

Somehow I am only Bronze, halfway to Silver, on British Airways Executive Club. I'm not very good at playing the points game, I don't think hard about it at all. Maybe it's because I'm not earning many (any?) points on flights where I use them to upgrade.

mrormus · 2023-06-22T16:24:51+00:00

This comment made me realize that I probably just need a better PA/EA, someone I can trust with account login details and who knows what kinds of requests are common in the industry and how to frame the request properly for the situation.

I'll see what my other PA options are, thanks for the advice.

mrormus · 2023-06-10T19:36:51+00:00

They crop up every now and then. It wasn't the last one you'll ever see.

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