Yeah, most online stores don’t accept gift cards, unfortunately. 🙁 Especially Amazon…tried to order some much needed products with Amazon cards, and they require a bank card.

IME, (on Amazon at least…and a few others I’ve tried) masked cards are usually accepted as bank cards. Gift cards are not.

I’d love to build myself a privacy-respecting online store that accepts everything from Monero to cash to Apple pay (for the general populous that doesn’t care), but I sort of lack the capital. 😅

I mean, yeah, it would be great if Amazon took Monero, but I don’t see them ever even considering that.

Just goes to show that love can help turn someone’s life around.

Thankfully I haven’t been in the prison system (and I don’t know anyone personally who is), nor do I hope to. But it seems like a very bleak existence.

I’m glad cats are giving the prisoners at least a substitute of love and support.

I just wanna give that little guy a pat on the head. good job, little beaver. Keep making your home.

I’ve been hearing about sustainable animal food as well, at least in the context of marine life. Counter-intuitively, avoiding overfishing results in more fish. It’s probably similar with farming…avoiding over-farming results in more and better quality cattle/milk.

I’m not a biologist, though, but I’m just guessing.

This was really good. My only (very small) gripe was that the acting was stilted. Other than that, it was absolutely enjoyable.

Looks like the consensus is…yes, give it another go (though a few warned that, yeah, it may not be all people promise).

Alright, once I can afford it and things stabilize I think I will. Thanks for the input!

Thank you for your honesty. 😆 I kinda had that reaction recently when I saw free Andromeda episodes on YouTube. Checked one out to see if it’s as good as I remembered and…hardly. 🤣

Oh, no, it’s not that. I mean, the special effects definitely didn’t age well, but I focus on the story, the suspense. I’m someone who can easily get wrapped up into what the characters are thinking/feeling/etc. With the right director, writer, and crew at the helm, you can have a sci fi show with two people in a room having an intense political discussion and have it be good.

Oh, yeah, for sure. And no, worries, I’m not discounting world building. I realize that most shows these days have a world building phase where not a lot happens. But in the end the world building should lead to something exciting. I tried to turn my mom onto the Expanse (one of my all-time favorite shows) but she said she gave it a go but couldn’t get interested. 😅

Nice! Thanks.

In the novel I’m writing this occurs. Someone from 2004 is transported to a planet in the year 240,000. She learns the language, but she can’t quite get the dialect down because humans have evolved different facial/vocal muscles by this point.

Obviously it’s in writing so I can get away with not having to explicitly define the accent. 😅

Good suggestions! Yeah, I’m one of those folks that likes nuance, so anything that science fiction-y is totally fine. One thing I like to read (and write, since I also write short stories) is exploration of the fantastical. Something out of the ordinary to give a different perspective on the human experience.

I’m not against libraries. It’s just that I prefer reading physical books. But with a library it’s a lot of stress to remember the due date (although I usually finish books long before the due date), and it does make me slightly uncomfortable that the library keeps a record of every book read (I’m sure it sounds paranoid, but I also know on here I’m in good company. lol). While my reading material isn’t anything noteworthy it just makes me uncomfortable.

So I prefer raiding Good Will or bargain book stores for secondhand books. No due date, no record that I bought it (since I pay in cash, although I’m sure if you’re really desperate you can look at security cam footage when I bought the books and cross-reference). But since I can’t afford that I figured I could make do with digital books until I can afford to buy books again.

Bookmarked!

Thanks. I did read one of his novels a while ago (not i-robot, but I forget the name of it). I was kind of bored by his novel, TBH. But if I may give it a second go at some point.

Thanks, I’ll look into those.

Thanks. Downloaded it to my library.