I just wanted to voice too that I recently found out about Libby and you can use it to electronically borrow books from the library and use an e-reader (like a Kindle or Kobo) if that’s more up your alley. I know it’s not as good as physically going into the library, but I also don’t love to borrow physical books if I can help it.

hoping this encourages someone to get a library card to use it! there are a lot of digital libraries too that, if you don’t have access to one of your own, you can pay like 50-100 dollars a year for access and get so many books.

hey I used to love lifting weights when I was younger! I’m not entirely sure I was doing it right, but I can relate to it being more fun. I hope you keep following that joy, and the raves! I’ve never been to one, but I don’t usually go out, hahaha.

So I’m pretty new to self hosting as well, but I use Tailscale. They also have the option of working with Mullvad, though I’m not 100% on how that works. Tailscale is a VPN itself, and it’s allowed me to access all of my self hosted stuff everywhere, including on my phone. It’s been really nice, though I understand people might not want to use corporate methods.

Gluetun to my knowledge, when I use it, is just for my qbittorrent stack to access my VPN.

If you don’t want to use something like Tailscale (there’s also a self hosted option called Headscale, and others like Zerotier and I think Netbird?) there’s opening ports and using reverse proxies. I would be really careful about that one, but hopefully I’ve given you some options to look into.

Man, I love her music so much! Thank you for reminding me of it, I’m gonna go give her a listen again.

The Tetris cover is one of my favorites. I also have a soft spot for the Pokemon and Super Mario Bros one.

I didn’t particularly like the layout styling in Pop!_OS and being so new to linux, I didn’t know how much I could change aesthetics wise. KDE looks more appealing to me, I don’t know if it’s because it looks like windows, but that might be a factor? it’s the default on the distro I wanna give a try (Bazzite) which also has nudged me in that direction.

I wasn’t expecting so many people to have used Debian for things other than servers. I have it on a server myself, but I decided I needed something more set up for gaming already on my desktop. what led you to Debian specifically? the stability?

this is actually what I’m going to be giving a go! I have very little experience (I have servers that run Debian and DietPi, but I get help with those) with linux but I’m really excited to give the KDE version a try. and I’ve been trying to learn, too, because also my partner is going to be moving to a dual boot setup as well. been watching a lot of videos and reading a lot too, especially while my desktop is out of commission.

do you find that anything is missing in Bazzite for you?

I live with my mom and she has to have the news on borderline 24/7 while she’s awake. I hate it because I have very good hearing so I constantly listen to music instead.

when I lived alone, I simply didn’t have any sort of streaming service or cable, or what have you. my tv was exclusively for music and gaming on. that was even years ago.

frankly, I hate having to be around the news for the most part. I will sometimes read stuff on beehaw, but otherwise, no, not for me.

I don’t talk here but I am a user and this community has helped me a whole hell of a lot. I’ll see if I can get a donation heading your way when I next get paid! thanks for your hard work.

I really enjoy the Hardware Haven videos. He makes things more understandable for a newbie like me.

why no hope for Revolt? I had looked into it self hosting wise, but when I realized they had made it really difficult, I lost interest and haven’t been following it since.

So relieved to see my usual charity to donate to (K9s for Warriors) is highly rated on charity navigator. I was hoping they were a good one.

My other one is Lockwood Animal Rescue Center, but they have a tiny bit lower score.

Thank you for sharing the site for charity navigator. Ultimately I agree that the best charity is subjective. I heard about those two from other people and they’re subjects I feel passion about.

I have tried different music with him, yup! he seems very partial to lo-fi, which is nice because I enjoy listening to it as well. my preference is to just leave it on for the dogs since it’s helped them stay mellow during the day, but my mom isn’t really into it.

and oh, I know how that goes! if I even leave to go to the grocery store (which is a couple blocks away, so I’m only gone a short period of time) or take a walk, Bowser and Champion will wait near the door until I return. they’re like “no!! mom!! no leave!! only stay!!” hahaha.

saving this article for later! thank you much.

Champion does shockingly well with the groomer (related, I know you can’t go to the groomer every time your dog goes running through the woods, of course!) I picked for him, but she’s a very kind and gentle person, especially with dogs. he likes her a lot, which I’m very grateful for. that said, working with my dogs is something I enjoy so I think exposing him to the stuff in the article (and Bowser too) would be beneficial anyway.

yes! Bowser likes fetch but only a little, he much prefers to hold a tennis ball in his mouth while one of my mom’s dogs plays with him. I’m hoping to get him and my mom’s very skittish dog Maggie out for walks now that it’s nicer out (Maggie loves being outside, she’s just fearful.)

ooo, can you explain “cooperative care activity” a bit? I feel like even though I was a professional, I’m such a novice at training and dog care.

oh man, 6 teeth is a lot! I’m really glad that recovery seems to be going well!

Bowser had to have one tooth removed (we thought it would be more) and had a seizure when they sedated him. things are a lot better now, but I know how nerve wracking it can be to have something like that done. give Buster some scritches for me!

I always do my best to make sure he’s happy and healthy, of course! he’s recently gotten on some anti-anxiety medication which has been doing a lot of work in helping in that too, so I’m really grateful for it.

I hope you get to see your cat soon too! where are you traveling?

I had honestly never had it occur to me to use “low energy” and “high energy” markers! that’s a great idea. “wow” is also great! I’ve been out of training stuff for a couple years since quitting the daycare job, so I’ve been working on this stuff on my own when I can.

I appreciate you teaching me something new today.

when I worked at a dog daycare and was taking training classes, the trainer stressed that we should try to make the “praise” word we used when doing training something unique, not like “good boy/girl” or similar. the one they taught in class was “yes” by default, which is what I used when I started.

now it’s become “thank you” which, even though it’s longer, makes me laugh when I think about it.

I’ll have to take some inspiration from this thread! I’m working with my dog Bowser lately on learning new commands.

maybe ME! (Brenden Urie and Taylor Swift, probably only kinda counts) and Just Give Me A Reason (P!nk and Nate Ruess)? I think Like I’m Gonna Lose You (Meghan Trainor, John Legend) might also work?

I don’t know if this is helpful at all in the slightest, but have you considered looking at covers of Taylor Swift’s music? or the other artists you mentioned? for me, hearing covers and the different ways that people interpret it has been nice, and still allowed me to enjoy the originals when I come back to them.