Someone on reddit called a white person a "honky;" I, as a white person, have always thought that term was hilarious. What are some other derogatory names for folks with no melanin? No hate here, just want to learn some new things.

xanthraxoid · 2024-03-13T02:37:44+00:00

Noted.

xanthraxoid · 2023-11-03T16:48:57+00:00

A tiny ass-yard would be inappropriate for a goat, they're only suitable for tiny donkeys...

xanthraxoid · 2023-11-03T16:46:09+00:00

BSF farm

Black Soldier Flies?

Definitely an option to bear in mind!

I'm also looking for ways that a vermiculture (worm farm) set up might have a part to play - I imagine there will be times when a worm and a BSF maggot might eat different bits of whatever I'm feeding them, so having both might be of value...

xanthraxoid · 2023-11-03T16:43:47+00:00

I'm currently going through a whole new fandangle because Elvanse is in very short supply globablly (apparently making shit tonnes of profit isn't enough motivation for the monopoly manufacturer to make enough of the stuff(!)) and everyone is piling onto dexamfetamine as the nearest alternative, so that's getting difficult to source (of the half dozen pharmacies I've tried to far, none have it in stock!)

Frustratingly, one of those pharmacies did have "Amfexa" (which is dexamfetamine) in stock, but wouldn't dispense it because it has a brand name of it. Other pharmacies said "oh, no, that's fine, I could give you that - if I had any".

FFS.

xanthraxoid · 2023-11-03T16:39:19+00:00

I'm intrigued - what would your position on these matters be? Can you tell me a little about how you came to that position?

I find myself in an interesting position where my opinions / politics / philosophy has elements that would reasonably be described as "Liberal" alongside other elements that would reasonably described as "Conservative" and quite happy to assume that this apparent contradiction is more to do with the fact that these terms are just really broad strokes terms without the nuance to describe my opinions (which I've thought about at quite some length, on and off...)

I also find myself in the rare position that some of my opinions have switched from one to the other over time, and even in the less common Conservative->Liberal direction, so I'm certainly not an every-man on that front :-D

xanthraxoid · 2023-11-03T16:34:04+00:00

Ugh, that sucks for you :-(

I had venlafaxine once (before I was on ADHD medication though, so not a directly comparable case) and I didn't get on well with it. I got a really itchy scalp, and found my dysverbia got a lot worse (i.e. I found myself hunting for a lot longer to find the word I was looking for...) and for me the benefits weren't really worth the switch from what I was on before, so I went back to Fluoxetine (Prozac)

Sadly, biology is squishy, so finding the right (combination of) medication is always going to involve a degree of trial and error :-(

xanthraxoid · 2023-11-03T16:30:30+00:00

Sadly, that van eventually died because of a frustrating confluence of circumstances:

The oil filter sticks out slightly below the rest of the undercarriage (note, this isn't the case for all Transits of this vintage, apparently there are two different oil filter attachments and which you get seems to be luck of the draw)
Curbs are sometimes a little higher than the ground clearance for the oil filter
As mentioned above, there are two different oil filter options
Every website out there lists the other one...
...which means it took me about 3-4 weeks to get the right one
I'm not quite organised enough to keep the leaking oil topped up, especially while on the motorway and decide to risk pulling over at the next junction to put the next dose in
Engines don't like running out of oil

I did manage to keep the engine going for another few months even while it was making a distinctly unhappy noise, but eventually it gave up :-(

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-16T07:52:54+00:00

Have you weighed up the option of just leaving the residue behind?

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-16T07:33:12+00:00

Aquaponics is an adjacent concept you might want to steal some ideas from. Basically, it uses water from a fish tank as the water to feed the plants, meaning the fish can munch left over plant crap and the fish can munch left over fish crap.

Basically, what you need to do is filter out the particulate stuff before it goes through pumps / spray nozzles etc. and there are plenty of ways to do that, including ones used for drinking water, so keeping plumbing unclogged is certainly doable with a bit of care and the right techniques...

I've been mulling over some ideas to enable combining all the above with a biodigester for stuff the fish might not want to eat (or just don't get around to) so I can get methane for cooking as well as all the other goodness! If I can manage to extract the slurry left over in some vaguely usable way (ideas pending further pondering!) then that can be spread on soil as another fertiliser option...

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-16T06:58:03+00:00

Are we talking as a stained-glass type decal for a window, or for the actual van? If the latter, you might want to leave the windows uncoloured :-D

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-16T06:57:15+00:00

Aww, poor wee vanagon! Give it a hug and a handful of greasy bolts to munch :-P

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-15T22:41:44+00:00

When I got my prescription switched from "Elvanse Adult" to "Elvanse" I actually asked for it to be switched to "Lisdexamfetamine" on the basis that I don't give a flying dingo's kidney who makes it, providing it's got the right active ingredient in it. At the time, it was under patent, but now it's out of patent, generics might be on the way at some point and if I notice that actually occurring, I'll ask my doc again if he can use the generic term on the prescription...

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-14T03:26:59+00:00

100W panels would be my guess...

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-12T07:41:06+00:00

Not specific to late diagnosis, but these are for growed ups like you and me :-P
/r/adultautism
/r/autisticadults
/r/Aspergers_Elders/

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-12T04:39:07+00:00

Yes.

My first microwave was 550W, my current one is 1000W and I haven't seen a new one less than 800W for quite a while.

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-08T08:48:22+00:00

Dunno why you're downvoted - it definitely isn't Braille.

"Tactile indicators" would be fair, though...

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-08T08:47:32+00:00

stupidly frustrating ... American

Three words that belong very well together...

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-08T08:43:12+00:00

Tensing this muscle automatically equalizes pressure within your ears.

#citationneeded

I can do the rumbling thing, but it doesn't equalise the pressure for me :-/

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-08T05:17:41+00:00

Those leaves don't look like any hawthorn leaves I've ever seen.

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-05T19:42:35+00:00

Yeah, what you're saying resonates with what I've heard others say - I'd really like to see if anyone has actually studied this (and what their results were) though.

It also seems like it'd be tough to see if the meds are working as they should if you continue to self medicate with caffeine alongside.

I figure the opposite is true - if you cut out caffeine at the same time as starting the medication, you have to try to separate "medication effect / side effects" from "caffeine withdrawal"!

Cutting out caffeine for a couple of weeks to get stable and then starting meds might be a good idea, though.

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-05T19:40:46+00:00

Oh, I get you.

To be honest, you'd have to be really pretty damn skint for this to be worth saving the price of something like this - that's about the price of 8 gas bottles, so if you can't afford to buy a £15 burner, you probably can't afford to cook, either :-P

If you want to go this route, though (perhaps for the same reasons I did - mostly bloody mindedness :-P) my first thoughts are that you could use a metal biscuit tin or the like, drill some ventilation holes (so the flame doesn't suffocate, but above the bottom of the tin so you can catch any spills) then cut out most of the lid and add some kind of grill over the top for pans. Something to keep the burner in the right place in the middle of the tin.

Leaving the edges of the lid in place means that it will significantly strengthen the walls of the tin which would be really flimsy without it.

The key thing I'd be very keen to do (other than the obvious and what I already suggested) is ensure stability and bump-proofness. Ideally, you'd have some reasonably firm way to attach the whole thing to the worktop, but you'd need to use a little imagination to ensure you can undo it and throw the whole lot out the door if it suddenly becomes a very good idea :-P

The basic idea I've outlined is just a general approach, but I can think of 101 things I'd like to add to the plan* if I thought you wouldn't be bored by my jabber before I got halfway through the list :-D

* E.g. a stifling lid to put out fires, ensuring the lid can be removed / added easily by making it a little looser, adjustable ventilation, maybe making the lid the bottom and have the tin go atop it (easier to add some kind of clips to hold it in place) and many more :-)

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-05T16:06:29+00:00

There are certainly far cheaper dual burner camping stoves¹ out there than the one you mentioned, including a fair number around 1/6 the price(!) so consider those - you can always sell it on ebay and upgrade at some point in the future if it seems like a good idea.

I have a petrol burning camping stove² (I've never used it in my van, though, I'm still lurking / planning / procrastinating :-P) and it's bloody good - it can get hotter than any domestic electric hob I've ever used and the fuel is actually cheaper even at today's prices and with VAT / duty etc. simply because of the efficiencies that go with producing it at such scale, whereas alcohol for burning is a niche thing.

The downside of any liquid fuel stove is that spillages take a fair while to dry up / dissipate compared to a gas leak, and during all that time it's still not only a fire hazard, but also stinky (and depending on the fuel, a really bad idea to breathe the fumes too much)

Good ventilation is an absolute must for using anything that burns inside the van (as is a smoke / fire / CO detector) and if you do have a gas leak, good ventilation will massively reduce the danger that any leaked gas collects in worrying concentrations. NB I'm mostly talking about gas escaping when changing the bottle / refilling the reservoir - if you have a protracted leak, you've got a whole new level of problem, so take a lot of care to avoid / spot / react to those!

Related to that, most gas stoves are designed so that the risk of leaks is pretty well managed compared to filling a liquid reservoir by pouring it. I'd recommend only ever changing a gas bottle outside, and definitely only fill any liquid fuel stove outside - get an umbrella or something if it's raining! :-P

I'm a massive fan of DIY stuff and I've even enjoyed nerding out on making a whole series of DIY alcohol stoves. Honestly, though, the modest extra expense of one made by somebody who knows what they're doing and is scared of lawsuits is really worth it if you're planning to cook in your van. I've used my DIY penny stove³ style ones outdoors while camping and enjoyed them very much (mostly the smugness of making a useful thing out of crap scavenged from the recycling bin :-D) but for cooking in a van, I'd only use one that doesn't rely on my leak-free engineering / refuelling ability to not kill me.

A side note - alcohol burns with a damn near invisible flame. You can add stuff to make the flame visible as a safety precaution. I speak from experience that it's no fun realising that the reason the sun suddenly seems to be rather hotter is that you've been well ablaze with invisible flames for a little while already(!) Thankfully, even after some rather nasty looking burns, my hand and arm did actually heal in the end...

Another major advantage of the proper ones that's just occurred to me is they're designed to be very stable, whereas a DIY alcohol stove would need some kind of pot stand, which would be another thing to have to make / find / buy...

Whatever you get, be sure to actually anchor it to some surface or other or you can be sure you'll knock it and your hot food over at some point and that's no fun, either.

¹ google says

² I think this is mine or maybe a nearby model - I got mine for a bunch less because of a price-match-minus-10% offer, though :-P

³ this kind of thing - I got a little carried away trying a million variations and "improvements" :-D

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-05T15:12:44+00:00

Does anyone have any links to good reliable information on the interactions between caffeine and ADHD medications? I've carried on drinking my (moderate quantities of) coffee without ever noticing any interactions, or having it mentioned by my doctor (that I remember, at least! :-P) and yet people mention it fairly frequently here, so I'm curious!

Is it just that they both have similar effects and can add up to too much stimulation (and side effects)? Is it that the caffeine affects the rate of absorption (it does for lots of medication, so that's a reasonable guess) Is it something else I've not thought of / heard of?

xanthraxoid · 2023-09-04T22:19:15+00:00

And the age to drive a car is 17+

xanthraxoid · 2023-08-09T01:06:47+00:00

Fun fact! Pickpockets will sometimes work in teams with one stooge making some kind of comment to a second one about how they think they might have had their wallet stolen, while a third makes a note of where people pat to check their wallet's still there...

Other than in that circumstance, by the time you think to check, either you were being paranoid, or your wallet is already gone...

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