Sophelia

I recently came across as a concept (not seen in reality) something called a bidet-loo, which performs both functions. Then I found you can buy a bidet-wash seat thingy to put on your ordinary toilet/loo. These originate in Japan and allow you to direct a spray of water to the preferred area of your lower anatomy, with temperature control. What I thought is good is that most come with a hot air dryer too. The high end ones have everything including heated seats and veer into the ridiculous at times, with remote controls, lights, and probably a whole disco fandango along with it.

@baxus Same here in Valencia, Spain - it's peaking at 36 degrees or so today - really muggy - my whole skin is humid. Later in the day my fingers will start sticking together and I will feel trickles of sweat in places I am not used to. Going for a walk later in the day, like everyone else we'll cross the roads to go on the shady side, and gather under the trees while waiting for the pedestrian crossing light to go green, and the breeze will be like a hairdryer. Nights are around 25 or 26, but it doesn't get that low until 8am or so, so it's still in high twenties when trying to get to sleep. The cat stretches out so far on the bed to try and air herself, that there isn't much room for us humans. Ceiling fans are amazing though - makes such a difference. When I go back to my house in the UK it'll be 18 degrees maximum.

I can't get into tweetdeck any more- it asks me to sign up for Premium. So that's my main useful interface gone, along with many of the people I follow who have already gone, so this feels like the last stages of the end for me. Plus Elon Musk (well, a bot I imagine) followed me, so I feel very creeped out. I have a Mastodon account just in case (but not posted yet), Threads doesn't work in the EU, and I haven't got a Bluesky invite yet. So I'm just waiting to see if anything as good as (old) Twitter will emerge from the wreckage.

OK I was an idiot and said I'd test the new tweetdeck preview and it deleted some of my columns and now I can't get out again into the old one (it said I would be able to and gives instructions for doing so, but the option does not appear for me). This might be what does it for me... (I have been 10 years on twitter and have a huge personal network of academics in my area so I really have got a lot out of it, but this is just no good...)

OK I only just found out about this, probably because I can't drive and have never had a car, but... BMW's colour-changing car concept is pretty mind-blowing! https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/5/23540358/bmw-color-changing-car-concept-e-ink-i-vision-dee-ces If it ever gets into the road it could be pretty distracting though (also imagine the police chases... "a blue BMW.... no a red... OK we're looking for a green BMW..."). Camouflage car...eventually it could just blend in with the surroundings (currently has distinct panels) - but that would be again dangerous when moving "I didn't see a car".

I had really bad period pain like this. No painkillers worked, even an extra strong one the doc gave me. One day as a student I was bawling on the bus, almost fainting and had pins-and-needles in my limbs - thought it was impossible to bear such pain without dying. Bus driver diverted to the university health centre and they gave me codeine. Instant relief. After that I took co-codomol (paracodin) which you can get at pharmacies in the UK (though not in US or Spain it seems) - can be addictive and can cause constipation, so take care - but it was the only thing which worked for me (I'm lucky never got addicted since I used it every month). P.S. Going on the pill helped later so definitely worth trying

I also work in education (in this case higher education) and my contract says I cannot be refused leave if I ask for it in vacations, but I have to ask my line manager for permission to take leave in term-time and it may not be granted. I would certainly not expect to take a day off on a day I was due to teach scheduled classes. (Similar to what DMC and Teng Ai Hui have said).

I agree with everything dog-days said - just wanted to add two antidotes to all the bad news (which is also getting me down): Upworthy (American site with cheering anecdotes and advice). Positive News (UK site with good news stories and positive perspectives from all around the world)

As an academic who wants to support others with their mental health, and also have my own ups and downs, every now and again I look at the academic literature to see what the recommendations are for anxiety and depression. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is still the most 'evidenced' method, though an alternative if you want to try something different is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Of course for many people just having any counsellor/therapist to talk to is a great help (e.g. person-centred). But it can be hard to get or afford a counsellor, so it is good to know that 'bibliotherapy' has also shown positive results (as have some online self-help courses but I haven't researched those yet). From the academic literature, David Burns' book The Feeling Good Handbook is one of those cited in the scientific literature which has helped people with depression (and was a huge comfort to me when I had depression). Don't be put off by the cover - persist with it slowly and work through the exercises to get the effect (I recommend getting the paper not e-book version so you can fill in the exercises more easily). It is quite old now so I'd ignore the section on drugs at the end. The most recent book of his is called The Feeling Great Handbook. I'm about to send for this so I haven't read it myself yet, but it seems to contain similar content to the original book but adds his most recent thinking/findings, so that's what I would recommend now. https://feelinggood.com/books/

I'm supporting the Good Law Project who (among other things) are working in the UK to legally challenge anything which threatens trans rights. Information here if you want to and can financially support this campaign: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/transgender-lives/ https://goodlawproject.org/

I am having the same problem as Pebs - much of the time but not all the time the forums are displaying in the left-hand side not in the main window (which is blank). I too use Firefox. It is intermittent so it's hard to know what's causing it, but it's really difficult to read anything that way. Sophie

The other thing I wanted to test was the option Click to configure post options, which I keep forgetting to click in case it mucks up my already-written post... *braces* *clicks* Oh OK, that wasn't too exciting after all (thought I might be able to set default font and so on), but it's just enable emoticons, sig, notification of replies, and the post icons.

Just want to test the new posting options, such as what happens when you change font colour or size or type and also test the new spoiler text: Now to see these other options... I've always liked horizontal rules, so let's have a couple of them and See if I can insert html: <table> <tr>AAAA</td><td>BBBB</td></td> </table> [/html] The other things were either baffling or scary (also seemed to invite you to type in a box which then tried to list it on the menu - a bug there). [acronym=Your mileage may vary]YMMV[/acronym]

This pinned thread is for the nominated people to post their recipes. No other posts please. For the concept, questions and discussion see the [url="http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=35068"]ASOIAF Board Dinner Party thread[/url]. [b]Week 1, March 12 to March 18[/b] Raidne: Raidne's Deluxe Mac'n'Cheese Lany Cassandra: Super Delicious Chicken that kids love Terraprime: Fish stir fry with broccoli inspired by Korean cuisine [b]Week 2, March 19 to March 25[/b] Silverstar: Pasta Carbonara Sworn Sister: Chicken recipe Boiled Leather: Butternut squash soup [b]Week 3, March 26 to Apr 2[/b] HT Reddy: Chicken AutumnEvenings: Curried sweet potato and lentil "shepherd pie" Zabzy: Strawberry shortcake [/quote] Please could the nominated recipe providers post their recipes in this thread? Please wait until all the recipes from the weeks before you have been posted before posting yours. Inviting Raidne, Lany and Terra to post first.