I've begun a new job at a ✨cool✨ (legitimately) local coffee shop. Not my first career choice, but I've moved countries and I value people over money. Anyway, that's a different story.

Why avocado toast? Because coffee is your main focus

Ex-fuckin'-actly. We prepare high-quality coffee and for a small team sourcing from farmers halfway across the world ensuring that it stays high-quality is the main focus. There are 3 bakeries within a short walking distance if you want food.

Besides that, it's the familiarity that drives coffee shops to look like coffee shops. You wouldn't expect a black metal album cover to look like a jazz record album for the most part unless you're deliberately playing a trick.

That said I do enjoy it when people twist formulas, but obviously, it's a risk for business. In my case, the cafe that I work in could be found all over Europe, but locally it remains a twist on what the locals usually do. And I think that's where the feeling of uniqueness comes from.

The article points out a valid critique that I've mulled over in my own head:

Only certain types of people were encouraged to feel comfortable in the zone of AirSpace, and others were actively filtered out. It required money and a certain fluency for someone to be comfortable with the characteristic act of plunking down a laptop on one of the generic cafes’ broad tables and sitting there for hours, akin to learning the unspoken etiquette of a cocktail bar in a luxury hotel. The AirSpace cafes “are oppressive, in the sense that they are exclusive and expensive”, Gonzalez said. When whiteness and wealth are posed as the norm, a kind of force field of aesthetics and ideology keeps out anyone who does not fit the template.

And goes to interesting places recounting the history of instagrammability, the tyranny of the algorithm and the experiences of the owners of the coffeeshops. Overall a good read.

Not really.

I’ve owned a bunch of digital cameras (never a full frame one) and I now have a Canon 30D which is ancient by DSLR standards. With the Lightroom de-noise AI the RAW files I shoot with that camera might as well come from something made in the last 10 years. I might be exaggerating, but besides the megapixel count, for whatever I use my cameras for, the pictures come out great out of that one.

For me, shooting film is about the random glitches analog media produces. It’s about the sound. It’s about handling an old, mechanical camera. It’s about the achievement of catching a nice moment without any aids. That can’t be reproduced, just by the virtue of the fact that it’s literally just not the same.

On the purely technical side, digital and film is just two different mediums and there are some things you can’t reproduce. Like painting on a canvas or a wall and on a tablet. But for most use cases where you don’t intentionally require an analog image, I would say that digital does just as good of a job and is way more flexible.

My 2 cents.

Was about to comment that “divstobrene” is a thing in Latvia.

As always, ahead of the curve where it truly matters.

Because it was there for 39 seconds.

Not sure if OP meant "zero-government" because that's not what anarchism as a political theory and movement is about.

Someone more educated, please explain to me, why it’s impossible to just take the existing industry, take all the know how and engineering and direct efforts into electrifying (converting) existing cars instead of building new ones.

If the world was perfect and there was no nuance, no bad actors, no human factor involved - would it be a viable solution to cut back on the emissions without getting rid of the comfort that a car affords?

I think downvotes on facts and upvotes on feelings is just people wanting to feel validated, but not having the energy to engage with content. It used to happen on reddit too a lot. A lot of communities there are based on dealing with human emotions and situations in life. People seeking advice and validation about their lives being the primary motivation for even creating an account on the site.

I have a little pet theory backed by some reading that people are overstimulated by junk content to the point where they just can't meaningfully engage in serious discussions anymore and that leads to the phenomena of populism on a political scale and simple, emotion-based upvoting on a Lemmy scale.

I’ve massively slowed down and passed the reins to a new admin, but I’ve been documenting and posting the graffiti scene in my city for 12 years. Started on Tumblr, migrated to Facebook and now it’s on Instagram.

Oof. In my experience, Android phones are always better on paper when it comes to technical specs, but never when it comes to the user experience. I like technology, but mostly I need my phone to get out of my way and Apple just does it better.

I'm not blind, I know the downsides of Apple products, but I couldn't go back to either Windows or Android after about 5 years in the Apple ecosystem.

It’s a man’s job to grill.

I mostly let my girlfriend do that. I trust her way more with food than I trust myself.

I usually just get the fire started.

No worries about the compost, haha. I haven’t started making it here, but I’ve lived with compost piles my whole life (that I haven’t spent in an apartment). That’s one of the rare things that I know about. Just chug a leftover veggie/fruit in a pile and let it steam. Got that. 🫡

I’m afraid I might need to buy some if it turns out that the one in the backyard isn’t good enough. The specifics of the location don’t really allow for permanent planning.

There are good people everywhere.

Doesn’t really change the fact that Russia, more or less in its current form, has been bullying its neighbours for half a millenia. Longer, if you count the Grand Duchy of Moscow as Russia.

Now this stopped me scrolling. Really cool, captivating image. I love a photo with a lot of things going on that retains a sense of rhythm.

Good camera the X300, I killed one a few years ago and felt pretty bad about it. The electronics don’t hold up well in damp environments.

Historically, Russia has never cared much for the written law. They’ll just throw shit at the Western wall until something sticks or until they get what they want by violence and intimidation. Same as they always have.

I like the dinner table analogy, I’ll remember it next time this topic comes up because I think it connects to a wider audience than photographers and audiophiles.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Thank you for putting all of this so succintly. I’m not into teaching, but I’ve done a few workshops and I always struggle to express the attitude you described to get the pupils engaged.

I had this same attitude when I was a student. Even though my professors were older and more knowledgable, I always tried to approach them as peers and it worked out great. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed, but because I talked, I could use my strengths better because I was more aware of the expectations and requirements than a portion of other students.

I’ll check the bokashi system. I was wondering about mixing soil too. Good to know that that’s a legit practice.

A part of my garden seems well suited for planting, lots of grass, it’s overgrown and hasn’t been used in many years. I’m particularly interested in getting blackcurrant bushes to grow here and I know they like dampness which is a bit of a problem where I live (European part of the Mediterranean). I’m a huge fan of berries, but barely any grow here that I’m aware of. For the rest of the garden I’m definitely aiming for natives.

Your comment nicely illustrates OPs observation.

Anyone can feel free to disagree with me or poke at inconsistencies in what I wrote, I know they're there, but I don't have the time to write an essay. But calling me a retarded child while misinterpreting what I said is exactly the kind of aggressive commenting I believe OP is pointing out.

<10%* 🤓