I recently watched this wonderful video by Matt Baume that he released 3 months ago about the last time republicans wanted to defund PBS and NPR. The stated reasons and rational always change but its just hatred of non-commercial media

There are a lot of good suggestions here and great food suggestions. Hotdogs, Italian beef sandwiches and deep dish are totally good ones. I would also suggest some fried chicken. Fried chicken is a total southern American food but thanks to the Great Migration the cuisine is common in Chicago. Anywhere with good reviews online that isn’t in the rich white areas of the city will do.

A Republican hasn’t won a state wide race in like a decade but within the state it’s closer. Like everywhere there’s blue cities and red rurals areas.

It’s basically everything from that time. What a weird era

I been watching some movies and TV shows from the early 2000s as a nostalgia trip with my wife and man there were some terrible lessons. We talked about the homophobia and transphobia but the misogyny, body image and sexualization of teens. The skin women being called fat with the fashion that only looked good on thin thin thin women. The insistence that there was nothing worse than being a virgin. (While the schools were doing an abstinence only education BTW). The countdown clocks to when every female celebrity turned 18 everywhere. It’s surreal to think that message was everywhere.

I would recommend watching some videos of actual play for the system to get an idea about what happens during the game. Just note that watching “professional” DND is just watching any professional. You wouldn’t expect your pickup home game of basket to be identical to the NBA so the same with your TTRPG.

Like all things it helps to watch others. If you find a group they will likely help you out. Just note your experience level and they will be supportive.

Wildflowers for pollinators can be super easy to grow if you got the space and patience for them. I get my seeds from Prairie Moon if you live in the USA. The website has seed kits of recommended plants that go together depending on your needs. Moreover you can sort by bloom time, color and native zone. Finally most native plants need cold stratification to grow so its actually a great time to directly plant native seeds in the areas you want them.

We have had great success in getting bees and butterflies with just a few native plants over the last two years. Our neighbors have even mentioned it to us. I think we are seeing more birds as well from the natives. We did see a hummingbird last year visit our Cardinal Flower which was amazing. Good luck and it is totally worth while

Both Thyme and Sage are cold tolerant perennials so good to grow even on a balcony. We have thyme in a portion of our yard which grows like crazy. I made some infused vinegar and thyme tincture with it.

Last summer we started buying basil plants from the grocery store instead of basil leaves because it’s the same price. We had two in rotation until we stripped one bare and then replaced it. We put the bare one in the ground in our garden which did regrow a little by fall. So I would do that for Basil because you really go through it for dishes.

I did lemon verbena which grew great. I got tons of it by harvesting it every few weeks to dry. I did the same with catnip (which humans can also drink btw), mint and lemongrass. Really most of those should work in a pot. Really whatever you like to drink. We won’t ever grow enough mint to fulfill our needs so we buy dried in bulk but for the rest we got enough for the year I think

I will try this spring to transplant some. There are tons along the weedy sections that people don’t care about. I will try to get some in my yard. I know the seeds of violets don’t spread that far so transplants is a good option.

I’ve been trying to get wild violets in my yard for the last few years. I got some seeds two years ago that didn’t sprout very well. I did plant some bareroot pink violets which I hope come back and start spreading. They are common wild violets in my neighborhood and I keep hoping they volunteer in the yard since we don’t put any herbicides anywhere.

One of my main goals which I have had for years now is to fill in the dirt patch in my lawns on my hill and on my dog running path. Each year it decreases slightly with my constant seeding of grasses and clover covered with straw. I hope this year I get more finished and the great plantain that I throw on it will break up the soil compaction to fill in any gaps that grasses and clover don’t get a hold of. I had some good luck with clover and grasses in the sun dried spot over the last years so hopefully all gaps are getting covered with a low maintenance bee lawn.

I planted self heal and English daisies from Flawn over my already White Dutch Clover filled lawn in the late fall in the front and side lawns which have been neglected. So hopefully I can see some of those sprouting and possibly get some flowers.

I want to try to harvest some more of my forage edibles from my yard and not miss the edible window. I have missed my window for ostrich fern fiddleheads two years now but this year I will grab some to eat. I did get some milkweed stems which I ate so hopefully I can get that again. I want to get my chokecherries in the fall but have missed that as well. I will try some of the other volunteers in my garden including the Mullein that came up.

Hopefully my wildflower garden by my alley has some of the perennials I planted two falls ago start blooming instead of just the black-eyed susans. I love them but they are early pioneer species until the coneflowers, early sunflowers, bee balms, purple prairie clover, etc. come in their own this year. I want to try to harvest some of these for teas, tinctures and salves along with my chamomile, calendula, anise hyssop and yarrow in my tea garden along with my traditional garden herbs of mint, lemon balm and sage.

The real goal is getting some cut flowers to grow by starting a lot of them by seed early spring. We have tried for two years to get marigolds, snap dragons, cosmos and zinnias to grow by direct seeding with little to no success. I want to get some started to they can self seed. We did some sheet composting in a previous overgrown weedy section for a Dahlia garden this year. So hopefully that comes along.

I guess I have a lot of plans for the next year. I might be too ambitious seeing it all written out. But I want to try to keep a garden journal maybe with a garden pixelfeed account so I can better track what I do and what I see throughout the year. I think it will be fun and help with my planning and foraging for years to come.

I tried the three sisters two years ago and none of my gourds grew and my beans didn’t get very high but the popcorn did great. Last year I did just beans and popcorn which did a little better. The beans didn’t fully climb the corn as planned and racoons ate my popcorn but I got a good bean harvest. Make sure you get the spacing and timing right with the three sisters. Corn goes first and then beans climb it up. I think gourds go last but I can’t remember

You don’t have to replace it all at once. Do some winter sowing of clover, fine fescue and other flowers so they bloom in the spring. They will make your lawn less maintenance and pollinator friendly. Since you don’t invest as much you won’t feel bad as you chunk off portions for whatever you want.

I planted self heal and English daisies from Flawn over my already White Dutch Clover filled lawn in the late fall. Hopefully I get some by the spring. I also had some good luck with their sweet alyssum under our roses last year.

What herbs are you planting? I have been focusing on herbs, especially perennials and self seeding annuals. I know I will never be able to grow enough vegetables to feed my household but I can get enough herbs for all my teas, salves, seasoning for a year at some point I think.

Well I’m glad to see it. Good thing we have Christmas every year

What a wonderful dress and headpiece. It looks like the best kind of craft. Did you end up wearing it to a Christmas event to show off?

The invasion of Iraq was a great decision. The region will be much safer

I have loved by Loops for concerts. They keep all of the music but remove all of the screaming. I used them when I watched Taylor Swift which was all screams and loved it

With her current amount of money I think that would be a No. However, it is interesting since she directly makes what is she is getting paid for which is her music. There are obviously teams of people she employs to help with this process as well as the spin off products (merchandise, CDs, movies, etc.) but she directly makes what she sells like all musicians. If she was barely scraping by with just her music I think most people would say that she would be working class. So it gets blurry.

I think its similar to athletes who do the core work that they get paid to do (i.e. play the sport). But make additional funds by selling their name and likeness. So they could be considered working class but then you get to the amount of money they make as well.

Exactly. There are some asexual kinksters as well as those kinksters who play with people who they are not sexually attracted too.