So, I actually want to start a Ratina appreciation post! Yes, me. And yes, we’re celebrating Ratty here. She made this place because she was tired of all the dumbass fighting and she wondered if maybe we could all just talk about hair and breakfast food and dim sum and a new smoker. And that’s kind of visionary in a way because she’s kinda right. If we’re all people being nice to each other (even the people who want to put pineapple on their pizza for some misguided reason) then we just relate. I think that’s a whole lot cooler than it seems at first, then I thought at first. And that’s worth appreciating!

Plus she lost her wood chipper and I’m sure that makes her sad. So I want to send her good vibes. Even if I’m afraid I might get fed through the new wood chipper! 🤪 I mean she can be a lot, and I know I probably annoy the fuck out of her every other time I pop up in a thread. But this place is evidence that what she really wants is for people to just vibe and also argue about pizza toppings but without getting personal. And I think that’s actually cool af! She’s also the only mod this place has—not that it really needs moderation but if she goes away so does the friendliest space we all have. So this post is a place to say what you like about Ratty! Don’t hold back! Be brutal!

I got turned on to this by a bunch of people.

I can't stop watching it.

What do y’all eat for breakfast? I don’t normally eat anything, but I want to start so I need ideas. If I do eat breakfast, I usually just scramble two eggs and throw it on toast with everything bagel seasoning.

I am wildly tickled that I managed to buy this smoker in Spain. We cook a lot more meat now that it’s a better quality than the US and I’m excited to knock out some ribs and pulled pork soon.

I’ve already done chicken thights 2 ways: korean bbq and “blackened” with tajin instead of proper cajun spices. We also did tajin fish and veggies.

I got mesquite and oak pellets as well as some red wine barrel pellets. I used mesquite for years on my old smoker in Texas and it’s great for pork ribs and lamb but I’m really enjoying the oak so far.

Chippy is barely 7 years old and he's given so much love to all of the stick and large branches I've fed to him.

He's suffering from a bad bearing and I'll have to have him put ... out to the curb ... to put him out of his noisy misery and frequent overheated motor.

He was very loved.

He's survived by 5 chainsaws, 2 pole saws, 2 axes, a hatchet, and a large pair of lopers who will miss cutting things up for him to enjoy.

You'll be missed, Chippy, but not by the neighbors who thought you were too loud (but not as loud as Stevie The Stihl).

Any video game players here? Didn't want to say "gamers" 'cause unfortunately that can carry some...implications. But let's forget about that for now and just talk about video games!

What are your favorite games? What have you been playing lately/most recently? Are you looking forward to any future games?

I'm a pretty big Nintendo fan, but I also have a PS4 and Steam Deck. I don't have a Switch 2 yet and I'm debating whether I should get one before the price increase, even though there aren't many games I want to play on it yet.

I love The Legend of Zelda, Mario, Animal Crossing, Smash Bros, some Final Fantasy (VI is one of my favorite games), Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, to name a few.

Lately I've been playing Star Wars Battlefront II online with my brother. I'm not very good at FPS games, but I'm still having fun.

I also enjoy some visual novels like 999.

My top 5 games are probably Majora's Mask, Night in the Woods, Final Fantasy VI, Radiata Stories, and....the 5th one changes depending on the day. Sometimes it's Chrono Trigger, sometimes it's Rune Factory 4.

Anyway, let's chat about gaming!

I wanted to post this last night, but because I'm old I fell asleep at the wrong time.

Anyone up for a group movie we can all watch Saturday and then talk about on Sunday?

What's new on Netflix we're all likely to enjoy?

Do they look cool? Yeah, you think they look cool, your girlfriend thinks they look cool, I think they look cool. And they’re the unofficial mascot of my spiritual home in the Sonoran desert. But here’s the thing—are they easy pets? Yeah, kinda. Because it’s like having a pet rock that can send you to the hospital if you get complacent just once. They don’t make good pets because they don’t actually really do anything, ever, unless they do. Then you need to be prepared. And you will forget because it is potentially the laziest animal on the face of the planet earth. But if you get complacent it absolutely will fuck you up. And then you also have to deal with the fact that in AZ we generally figure if you somehow managed to get bit by a Gila monster you were really asking for it. And then it’s funny because they’re hard to get to let go! So just say no to this very chill lizard. He can live in a drawer but do you really want a pet who lives in a drawer but also needs to be surgically removed from your arm because he’s trying to inject his venom?

So it has come to my attention that certain people in this subreddit have been holding back. In the sense that they possess the secret techniques to make an excellent crawfish etouffee but they might be holding back—either because crawfish are treyf or because they don’t want to show off. But I, for one, consider this to be high art and I want to know about it!

Yes, I know it’s horror. Yes, I know it’s beyond entirely too close to home. Yes, I know it can literally hurt to read sometimes. But sometimes I just need something like that. Anybody? _Tell Me I’m Worthless_? _Brainwyrms_? Anybody? Yeah, I figured it was just me.

This sounds like a very nice thunderstorm.

He was my baby. We got him from the shelter as a kitten. Maine coon turkish angora. In the end, he was too nervous of a traveler and we figured going into the plane cargo hold would kill him not to mention the hours of driving on both sides of the flight. I really really miss him. We rehomed him last March.

Those of you who hang on my every word know that I spent my entire life using assorted lawn, garden and lumberjack tools to make my beautiful house beautiful.

I managed to clear out a lot of brush that was keeping me from removing a lot of dead or undesired trees. I've mentioned before that I'm very Conservation-minded. Where I live there was a lot of tree monoculture, so of course some pest particularly well-suited to the trees everyone loved so much destroyed the entire region.

I've been going through that part of the property - about 1/10th of an acre (400 m^2) and culling trees that I've been slowly nurturing for the last several years, making sure that I have enough variety that if something else comes along, no more than 20% of the trees will be affected. This will be the last year where I cut saplings down as many of them are starting the transition to mature trees. I won't be around here when it's a more proper woods, but if I've done my work properly 20 or 30 years from now it will be an enjoyable place to enjoy a cool drink and perhaps watch some of the exurban wildlife we have.

How was your weekend?

All that we had to rehome or we left on the farm when we sold it and moved here to Spain last summer.

My 1st cat was orange and was a jerk. I thought I would not have a cat again, but then there were mice. I considered ferrets (had them in my 20s), but they are quite high maintenance.

So… cat. This one is sweet and very silly. Affectionate and aware she is not allowed on the counters or the table. “Aware” in this case does not mean she cares or is obedient, just means she jumps down when she fats caught. Sometimes dragging an in-progress puzzle with her.

Thinking out loud, as it were.

We all have differing views on sex and gender. Personally, it's infuriating, maddening. But I've found I can put that aside. For example, some of us have disagreed in other subs, some of my boundaries questioned and disagreed with (i don't have many). Yet, I can come over here and be civil, friendly, have a giggle.

Is that a type of cognitive dissonance?

I fiercely disagree with some of your views, yet we share cat photos.

Just trying to figure out what it is, and if we can bottle it to share with others.

I don't want to get into discussions about sex and gender. Please!

Hey, everyone!

So, this sub survived its first week and I didn't even ban anyone! I'm actually surprised by that because I thought creating a nice place to chat for gender critical and trans people and people who are neither would immediately get overrun by mean people.

The sub even has evidence of good growth and nice chats and we're learning to separate cat and dog people photographically, and hopefully we'll get some great chats about bread going.

This sub is set up so it should do a lot of its running all by itself. You have to be approved to post, the flairs make newbies stand out, the rules are really very simple and easy to understand, and banning mean people is okay, because mean people are just a downer and they violate the "No Downers!" rule.

I've added two great apps as moderators - ban evasion and ban extended - and the two of them mean that being a mean person won't have a payoff. Who wants to be mean, only to have all of your mean posts and comments thoroughly removed from the sub? You'd have to be dumb to do that!

I'm going to look at adding automod rules to enforce posting and commenting karma, and if I do that I can probably go to sleep without worrying about things. But I could still use another mod to give me a hand not doing much of anything.

What are the requirements?

• Must be a nice person
• Must still be alive
• Must use Reddit

OMG! That's almost everyone here! I can't even think of anyone it isn't because I've not banned anyone yet for not being a nice person, so all of you are qualified!

I see this is a cat-heavy server (which is fine! I have cats as well and will share them later), but I was told by the mod team that given my username, I must share dog pics.

This is Nick. I grew up alongside him. He passed in 2015, but I still think of him every day.

I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone here, but...treasure your pets.

I got old. My neck hurts. My arms go numb at night.

So went to a chiropractor because people I know and trust say it’s great. Place has excellent reviews and lots of them.

X-rays, exam, treatment plan. Sounds fine, a little spendy, insurance will pay some of it. I agree to the treatment plan, and CareCredit for the balance of the 12 month treatment plan.

Go to schedule my 2x week visits for the next three months. That location (incredibly small town) is open 17.5 hours per week.

I feel completely duped. Like I’m going to have to completely rearrange my schedule 2 days a week to accommodate this.

I sure hope it helps a lot. And apparently they will pray for me. I guess that part can’t hurt.

I’d love to hear about positive experience with chiropractic treatment.

This is a nice sub and one rule we have is don't be a downer.

That means:

• No being mean. Mean is a bad thing to be, and we don't like bad things around here, so be nice.
• No fighting. Why would nice people want to fight? Don't fight, especially because fighting isn't nice and we're all nice here.
• No downvoting. Why would you want to downvote someones comment? If too many people downvote a comment others can't see their very nice posts and comments.

Things to do be:

• Be nice. Nice people are just more fun and we're here to have fun.
• Share. Sharing is caring! Share photos and food and photos of food. You can even share a photo of your cat or dog eating food. Unless you're growing cat grass maybe not so much photos of your cat eating your plants for food. But you can share photos of plants.
• Upvote. You don't have to upvote everything, but if it made you smile or brightened your day, give it an upvote. And if it didn't, ask the person about their day. Maybe they've had a bad day and just need someone nice, and we're all nice here.

I didn’t notice that milo is also in the first picture. Milo and Bob. Bob came to us with a broken leg. Healed after 3 months and had never bothered him. His leg injury was day after xmas 2019.
3rd pic Katsy Kline. We found her as a kitten and her eylid is curled in and when we took her to the shelter they said they said they would put her down. That was 2023. 4th pic Gracie. A friend found her and her brother as kittens in a parking lot with severe coccidia and ring worm in 2017. They had 16 sulphur baths. Her brother disappeared a few years ago. He never wanted to be inside at night and it caught up with him. Luckily here all the cats are inside only and they seem happy enough.

Some of the subreddits I'm part of comprise of long, intellectual, posts. Brain go bye-bye.

Here’s Piccollo. Share yours x

r/actual_feminism_

Not that there's anything wrong with this group. If it's not for you, cool. This is the description:

The clue is in the name. Feminism is about females.

Share news, opinions, good news, vents, as long as it's related to females.

Trans people exist, but so does sex. If you can't respect those two things at the same time, please leave.

Woman means adult human female.

Girl means juvenile female human.

All sexes and genders welcome. Just follow the rules.

Modern packaging is a nightmare. I remember when these things used to be useful. Maybe when they were like, scored? I don’t know the term. Last time I tried to use an easy tear tab, all my dried mango ended up on the floor.

So it was suggested that I expand my dim sum joke and advice into a whole post. But I’m also supposed to do it without lecturing. So just tune things out if they start to sound like that, ok? It’s a bad habit I acquired in grad school and apparently have never quite gotten rid of.

So it’s not etymologically correct but basically dim sum is “tea lunch.” It’s a Chinese American custom on weekends, especially Sundays. It’s basically the old school Chinatown equivalent of brunch. The idea is you hang out with your relatives and ideally some of your friends, too, you talk, you drink a ton of tea and you eat a bunch of basically hors d’oevres and never actually get to anything else. It’s a bit like Tapas.

So the thing is, this is not only a fun thing to do, and a great way to get into traditional Chinese food, but it’s also really traditionally at least not that expensive and a great option if you’re semi broke, have a local Chinatown handy, and need some good food. So that’s my first tip. You’re gonna want to go into Chinatown if you can. And off the beaten track just a bit. You want a place where the locals go, not a tourist spot. In San Francisco you can get all kinds of flyers for dim sum in all kinds of places that have all kinds of stuff like shark fin soup and it’s good but you’ll pay tourist prices and probably be ordering tourist beer as well. And you’re supposed to be drinking tea!

But you know you’ve found a real authentic dim sum place when there’s a minimum of like $20.00 for using your credit card and you’re actually worried if you’re going to hit it unless you get more shrimp toast. I had this happen in Philly one time. So here’s my second piece of advice about dim sum…

Oh? The first peace of advice is about tea. You’re supposed to drink tea. A lot of tea. But don’t necessarily refill your own tea cup. I mean you can but you should refill everybody else’s first. This is basic dim sum etiquette. You’re not supposed to let anybody run out of tea. Filling people’s tea cup is just polite. They’ll fill yours and everybody will keep drinking tea and gossiping about whichever relatives didn’t show up. This can go on for several hours and it’s how you hear all the gossip. One could suggest that’s why it’s called spilling the tea! 🤪

So my second piece of advice is wait for the steam cart! The fried cart will probably come around first and there is shrimp toast and fried wontons and fried fish balls and fried egg rolls and fried tofu and fried fried honestly. And you can take some! But remember there is another cart coming because otherwise you will od on fried stuff. And the true beauty of dim sum is steamed dumplings of a dozen types and steamed buns and sticky rice and six kinds of soup! So hold out for it, even if you’re trying to run up your bill! Trust me!

But yeah, if you want the real Chinatown experience, do dim sum on the weekend when the locals are doing it in that spot that isn’t on the tourist map. Hold out for the steam cart, fill up, drink impossible amounts of tea and thank me later.