Same, I had this happen as a child and I haven’t used a Qtip for that purpose in a long time. Anytime the subject of qtips comes to I always warn people to not use them for that purpose, and I always get blank stares and a “No, I’m going to keep using my qtips, thank you.” It’s really annoying.
Personally I’m not convinced of the skin cancer connection, but if that’s your concern wear zinc oxide, it’s a “natural” sunscreen.
Wear sunscreen. Seriously. Every single day. 365. Rain or shine. Sounds like a joke, but just wear sunscreen. In 20-30 years you won’t regret it.
Regularly invest into a broad market index fund. At your age a few bucks a month will compound and you’ll be a millionaire before you know it. It gets a lot harder the longer you wait, so just do it.
One thing that has gotten weirdly apparent to me as I’ve gotten older is that I’ve always taken care of myself, most people my age have not and it’s apparent. I have no real aches and pains or physical ailments, when most people my age have a laundry list of them. People always peg me for 10-15 years younger than I am. Exercise, eat well, drink water, avoid baking in the sun, avoid drugs and drinking in excess, learn to meditate, (wear sunscreen). It sounds like a lot, but I promise you won’t regret it.
Have you tried various flavored waters or seltzers? Long term the caffeine addiction probably isn’t that great for you either.
You don’t have to go cold turkey, but if I were you I would try to taper down your soda consumption and see how that makes you feel. You may also be slightly dehydrated and a little water (as in flavored waters, if you can handle it) may make you feel a little better.
Keep in mind NYC is a different world than the rest of the country, but yeah I totally knew a bunch of people who were lower income who got accepted to magnet schools. In NYC at least, magnet schools are filled with TONS of lower income smart/gifted students. That part of Spider-Man was totally based on reality.
As a low income white boy from Queens myself, I can say with confidence yes they totally exist. I can’t speak for the rest of the country but in NYC there are a bunch of public/free magnet schools, that you get into on merit alone. Many years ago I tried to get into Bronx science high school but my grades weren’t good enough, so I ended up having to go to a standard NYC public high school.
Agreed, with the caveat that the plants being grown are not invasive and detrimental to the environment they are grown in. (That is assuming you are growing outdoors, if you are growing indoors then yes you should be able to grow everything within reason)
Exactly, for that price you’re not really getting much aside from a few playability tweaks.
Let me start by saying I get it, sometimes the ‘magic’ of a guitar gets ruined by a well intentioned guitar tech.
That said what you are describing is a complete re-finishing job, and possibly a gutting the guitar down to a husk and replacing all the parts. The paint will easily cost upwards of 1-2k, and swapping out everything with decent parts could cost $500 - $1,000.
The ‘wife’ in the green text said she spent $200, for that price you aren’t getting much, fresh strings, a setup, and possibly a spot level and crown for any high frets. A few minor tweaks, that in theory could be undone.
As a fellow guitar player I’m not certain why this is being down voted so hard? Guitars are made to be modified, so anything that was done can be undone.
The interesting thing is that the wife said she only spent $200 bucks to get the guitar repair. Your mileage may vary, but in my neck of the woods $200 doesn’t get you too much in the way of a repair. They would probably offer to give your guitar a ‘setup’ and a new pack of strings, near me that would cost around $100, maybe a little more. So whatever else they fixed couldn’t have been too invasive, possibly new tuning pegs or resolved any wiring issues?
Everything there can be undone, a setup is the hardest as it would change the feel of the guitar. For the most part the ‘feel’, really only comes down to string height or ‘action’. That’s a quick fix for a guitar tech if brought back to the shop, hell a motivated amateur could probably probably figure out how to make that adjustment with a screwdriver and a Google search.
All that said I totally understand how the ‘magic’ of a guitar can easily be lost in the hands of a well intentioned but misguided guitar tech.
Curious, what would you recommend the Americans do?
Sounds like the security guard was just a knob
Yes. This is my habit as well. I feel weird for the opposite reason as OP as I’m a guy who doesn’t do it daily if not several times a day. I guess I could technically, but do I really have the time and energy for it?
As a man I’ve always assumed this was the correct approach. I’ll keep myself groomed as long as you keep yourself groomed, this always struck me as the respectful thing to do.
Some of the countries with the large percentages of vegetarians, vegans or predominantly plant forward diets such as India or South East Asia are not wealthy by Western standards. Eating a ‘healthy’ plant forward diet does not have to be an expensive affair.
The perception that a plant based diet is a wealthy western modern invention is white washing its unglamorous origins as a traditional eastern diet, especially in Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, etc cultures.
To dismiss a plant forward diet because not everyone can afford to eat impossible burgers 7x a week is disingenuous, as people were eating diets with little to no meat for centuries before faux ‘beuf’ plant minces were invented.
I think you are looking at this from the wrong perspective, I think you are discounting sexual selection as a basis of why humans have long hair. I suspect the advantage is less this helps me to survive, and more this helps me to find a mate.
Another response pointed out the advantages of having dense curly hair and how and why we evolved with that, I think our ancestors used that starting point as a means of signaling health, youth, and vitality. And from there different hair types evolved as an expression of sexual selection.
We evolved to have heads of long thick hair because our ancestors found it attractive. And to this day it continues to be used (subconsciously or consciously) as a means of determining the sexual health of a potential mate.
If you think about it, when we get old or sick the hair is one of the first things to falter, not having a head of long thick hair doesn’t necessarily mean you are unhealthy, but it is also difficult to maintain a head of full shiny head of hair without having a level of health and vitality.
Tldr: I think to this day hair is used as an indicator of sexual health from a potential mate, having long, thick hair can signal that health from a distance, and would be a distinct advantage in spreading those genes.
I’m personally not a fan of following recipes, but my wife loves cookbooks. A few of her go to are:
Veganomicon - By Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Terry Hope Romero
And The How Not to Die Cookbook By Michael Greger, Gene Stone
Word on the street is she’s been hit by, she’s been struck by, a smooth criminal.
Mine also did, but it didn’t really work for me that well to be honest.
This comment is amazing.