Rather not say but across the border south, about 4-5 hours from Bucharest.

It was fun having to go to work yesterday morning. Nothing was cleared up, no way for cars to get to my house so I had to make a trek by foot. This morning was worse because some of the snow had melted during the day yesterday and it refroze. Everything is slippery now.

One thing outside observers need to know is how incompetent the municipality services are. They knew in advance that this storm was coming. There were warnings all week. It came a day late here so they had extra time. The municipality website showed no information, just some cultural events and an article from two days ago that “the municipality is ready for the winter”. At this point we have a saying for poor organisation during winter time when everyone knows it’s coming in advance:

“The winter surprised us again!”

While it really does feel like it, as a person working in healthcare, I do see some change after the whole shitstorm from recent years.

• There are people who actually wear a mask, few, but they are around.
• A lot more people seem to be conscious of spreading their illness to other people be it a cold or COVID.
• People definitely wash their hands more often. I know we do.
• Some people started getting their annual shots when they didn’t intend to before.
• Local businesses open their windows and doors a lot more than they used to.

But also I also see some negative tendencies:

• Interest in flu shots has waned. That might have something to do with the govt introducing a free flu shot programme from your GP if you’re above 65 or with specific conditions (which is a great thing) But I definitely see a lot more vaxx-scepticism and fear of combining both shots (infant vaccination plans are a lot more intense and the vast majority are fine).
• People politicising a disease.
• This is country specific but food supplement companies aggressively promoting “immune system stimulants” to the point where in the beginning of The Plague™ they somehow managed to include them in hospital treatment plans.

This came out longer than intended but there were some things that I needed to get out of my system.

This is exactly what I’m doing right now. I play a game that I can play for 2 hours daily max and it’s fine, I can do without it easily. I also fell into the OW2 trap and I became unbearable to the people around me.

I feel like I didn’t word myself properly because I haven’t played WoW or any of the “problematic” games for 6 months now. I managed to keep myself occupied with cross stitching and books. It’s when I see footage/hear music that I get these feelings of wanting to play again.

I actually agree with you but the mental health communities on Lemmy haven’t caught up yet, and I figured one could find more people here that could relate.

On a similar note, many coffee brewing devices are made out of plastic. I bought a ceramic hario v60 for that exact reason, despite all sources claiming that plastic is safe and brews better. The aeropress is a different question. It’s made of polypropylene and just now they made a glass version (which knowing me, I would break it within a week). I rarely brew in it partly because of it being plastic but brewing temperatures are between 80 and 92°C. Should I be worried?

I am not in any shape or form justifying cheese (over)consumption. Health isn’t the only reason I advocate for a plant-based diet. The environmental impacts and carbon footprint of meat and dairy make a gas guzzling pickup truck pale in comparison. For me, cheese was the hardest thing to give up. That thing is addictive. But learning about the suffering that the animals endure, the environmental impact…I just could not go on like this.

Not sure how much I agree on the dairy part. Apart from the inherent ethical problems associated with it, dairy is an all around promoter of cardiovascular disease. My anecdote is that while I was vegetarian, I suffered from high BP and had to be put on meds. Once I went vegan, my BP dropped to the same levels as with meds before. I’m also prone to gout due to genetics. This change in lifestyle had to be the best step I took for my body.

Now, I see why this study had great results. Eating a varied diet, especially rich in whole foods is a good thing, dairy or no dairy. People just want cheese in their diet and that’s a compromise a lot of studies do to reduce dropout rate and make people stick to a diet. It also makes dairy companies happy.