smeg

Flanders (and Brussels) join the Netherlands.

Nobody asked for this

Obviously not applicable to bedrooms or private spaces, but it seems pretty normal in Northern-ish Europe, maybe Calvinist-influence countries, not to close curtains in the main living space. There seems to be a strong preference for natural light. And with how rainy or dark the sky can be depending on the time of year, people try to maximize natural lighting.

I maintain a small Windows dual boot for taking certification exams (that don’t run on Linux). It’s torture to update it once every 6 months. 3-4 hours requiring multiple reboots.

Where I live, people who close their curtains are treated with suspicion.

I still have some of my downloads from back in the day. 128Kbps mp3 😭

Every street is North America is a highway. Straight, level, smooth, and intended for fast driving. The continent has designed streets not safe for human presence, fully supported by the older generations, and now they have the gall to complain about kids sitting indoors all of the time.

Dutch cops out a lot on adapting punny names. Part of it is that the puns don’t work, but part of it is that the Dutch are very literal with naming things.

The Count on Sesame Street? Graaf Tel. Count (title) Count (action).

This will be the corporate response.

“Only poors use transit, anyway! In fact, ban pedestrians because they might confuse our delivery robot! Sidewalks should be renamed Delivery Bot Lanes.”

https://cooljugator.com/ - website that helps with looking up word conjugation. Great for language learning, since a translation is sort of cheating and can lead you astray on meaning

https://www.timeanddate.com/ - super handy site for finding meeting times between time zones, looking up international calendars for holiday, etc

Rush. I had heard the occasional song, but it never really stuck.

Then a few years ago, I listened to a full album. Then another. Now I’m a huge Rush fan (and my spouse is sooo tired of hearing them).

I got tickets to see them play next year.

We’ve generally avoided a TV in the bedroom. When we were given a second hand TV from a family member that was better than our living room TV, we mounted the old TV in our bedroom. We used it maybe 10 times over 2-3 years.

Now we live elsewhere and only have 1 TV in the living room again.

The bedroom needs to be a low tech place, for optimal rest.

I worked with a guy who had an arranged marriage. His parents decided it was time for him to get married. He lived in the Philippines near his parents. They had a friend who had an eligible and similarly positioned daughter living in the US. They got married and he moved to the US. 20 years later, they have 2 kids and seem happy.

I eat vegan now (at least at home) and low fat. It made my cholesterol go from borderline hypertension to 100% optimal/healthy.

I run a couple times per week. 5K in <30min in a city. Not record breaking, but pretty okay for a non-athlete approaching 40. I also cycle everywhere, walk everywhere, no car, so carry my groceries home.

Sleep is hit and miss, most nights 8 hours, weekends up to 10 hours.

The biggest harm society does is trying to categorize people’s sexuality in firm boundaries. Sexuality is more complex than the boxes we want to draw.

Your husband is a person you have a meaningful human relationship with. It’s not sensual, probably not romantic. He’s probably akin to your best friend. He also provides mechanical actions for you with his biological dildo, which hits the right spot. But it’s not a real, sensual, rich sexual experience, it’s mechanical. He’s being a supportive life partner, but not a lover.

Your identity as a lesbian is valid. Some nit-picker might say you’re a fem-leaning bisexual, but that ignores the social context. It sounds like an arranged marriage in a culture where lesbians are not welcome or accepted, where you weren’t ever exposed to that possibility. You’ve made the best option for yourself that keeps your life socially acceptable, safe, and comfortable, and you’re really lucky to have someone supportive of who you are.

I call all of it Brainrot

Investment opportunities will be limited for the same reason. And most US financial institutions will either close or severely limit your account if they get the hint that you don’t live in the US.

Dutch tv seems very focused on drug shows, crime shows, etc.

I made the move to the Netherlands with my family last year. Definitely worth it.

We downsized from a 1400 sq ft house to a 75 m² apartment. We’ve made it work and we’re pretty happy about it, with some caveats about what we want our next place to have.

Getting a visa will be your hardest problem. Countries don’t just let people in for funsies, you have to have a visa path.

Most delivery trucks around here are electric. Most power generation is renewable, importing some nuclear. Some fossil fuels still in the mix, but if the government was smart they would phase it out.