• 1 Post
  • 267 Comments
Joined 3 years ago
cake
Cake day: June 16th, 2023

help-circle

  • tomkatt@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyzit's true!
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    45
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    It essentially all takes care of itself, it’s a whole ecosystem. There’s no standing water for mosquitos thanks to the foliage. There’s also lizards, the occasional frog, birds. The deer eat some of the taller stuff. Even with the deer, there’s at least one mountain lion in the area I’ve seen, which I presume helps keep the population reasonable. I dunno, it doesn’t really need any tending, other than to clear a path where I need.

    Aside from that, my neighbor has pine trees, and occasionally pine cones take root and need their root- balls shoveled out. That’s the only big maintenance because I don’t want the big trees on my property. I wouldn’t mind, but for two things:

    1. They always seem to root down near the road on my driveway path or walk-down.

    2. I have solar panels and can’t have them growing up on the southeast side side of the house, and that’s where they tend to fall.

    Besides that, I have to knock down the occasional wasp nest (paper wasps) on the house, but if they nest away from the house I leave them alone. It’s all minimal maintenance. If you let nature do its thing it tends to find a balance. Humans are the ones usually screwing it up.


  • tomkatt@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyzit's true!
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    79
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    I know this is a meme, but shit like this is why I allow wild growth on my property. First year I owned my home the ground got muddy as hell from the new build since the ground was all dug up and tilled.

    From the second year on I’ve only mowed a path for my driveway and the front walkway and the rest grows wild. Sweetgrass and other native plants anywhere from like 1 to 3 feet tall and the area is high desert (Colorado) so the “weeds” suck up any moisture they can get, no flood, no mud. It’s great. I’ll never understand MFers in the rurals curating lawns.

    Plus, it looks nice, and the deer in the area seem to like it as well.





  • tomkatt@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.worldI'm 40 now by Kplx
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    Currently just using a cheap Ostent soft mat with some silicone grip pads on the bottom. It’s not perfect, but works well enough for my exercise and I can do up to 8+ difficulty songs (honestly can’t handle most 8 currently anyway). It’s convenient to be able to fold the mat up to put away when not in use.

    Years back I hard-modded a similar mat, stapling and taping it down to a sheet of 1/4” plyboard and that was fantastic.

    If you’re looking for hard pads today, check out L-Tek, they’re about the only one still in business making them.

    ———

    Edit - oh, I forgot to mention software. There’s two good options today, Project Outfox (available on Steam) and ITGMania. Both are forks of Stepmania 5.1. Song packs are available online, including both new user stuff and DDR original. I use ITGMania with Project XX Starlight theme for DDR and get most of my songs from https://zenius-i-vanisher.com/v5.2/simfiles.php?category=simfiles


  • tomkatt@lemmy.worldtoComic Strips@lemmy.worldI'm 40 now by Kplx
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    40s here. I only drink pour-over and French press (I make it myself at home). No triathalons, but I did about 40 minutes of Dance Dance Revolution today. No gravel bike either, but I have a BoS Blitz airbike and bought some adjustable kettlebells this year. And my Steam library and book collection are growing in size.

    Eh, close enough.








  • En dash (single dash) usage is not standardized for literature to my knowledge, and is primarily used as a divider for ranges, in lieu of the word “through.” E.g. The year 1998-2006 (or 1998 - 2006) can be used in lieu of “The year 1998 through 2006” in text. It’s also used to denote negative numbers and compound words, of course (though for compound words it’s technically a hyphen). It can also be used to denote relationships, E.g. - The Johnson-Winters wedding party, or the Osea-Belkan War.

    Informally I’ve read that a a single dash can be read as a half-beat, shorter than a comma, but I don’t think it’s actually defined in style guides for writing.

    Fun fact: En dashes and hyphens are not the same thing, though often used interchangeably (in fact, I did so here because screw trying to remember the ctrl+### combo for an actual en dash), while a double-hyphen is often considered an exact equivalent to the em dash.