I really love Jack Vance’s world building. His Gaean Reach setting gives an endless variety of cultures, customs and beliefs. And the Dying Earth novels formed the basis for magic system of DnD.

But the real treasure is in how he can let these worlds come alive with his descriptions. Often he would spend a whole paragraph describing something that will never be part of the story but manages to perfectly set the tone of the local atmosphere.

I grew with these books (thanks to my dad’s impressive personal SF library) and they’ve always managed to spark my imagination like no other book.

I use a large folded microfiber towel as knee support in pilates. It’s not as spongy as a normal towel but soft and supportive enough for those exercises that put a lot of stress on my knees or tailbone.

A small side note on that 30% ruling, it’s only for highly skilled workers, so there are some requirements to meet.
Also, you’d best not boast about it to your Dutch coworkers if you want to make friends over here :)

Since most games are often mentioned on the internet, I’m going to reach waaaaaaaay back to my childhood and mention Cartooners:

This was a game for kids to make their own cartoons. I spend so much time making all kinds of funny and weird stories. It was very basic, but it had me giggling every time.

I did the thing yesterday. It wasn’t my intention, and it was kind of incidental , but I’m so glad I did it in the end.
I can definitely recommend, just do the thing, you’ll thank yourself later.

The Netherlands is generally quite friendly towards (English speaking) immigrants and expats. Almost everyone speaks English and no one really bats an eye at a non-Dutch resident in most of the major western cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, etc.)
Housing is terrible though, prices are high and it’ll be hard to find something nice. One advantage for you (or any US resident), is that you’re exempt from the inburgering exam. Which means that you won’t have to learn the language and won’t be tested on your integration in Dutch society.

My partner is from abroad and they’ve experienced living here as quite pleasant. They weren’t exempt from the exam though (different non-EU nationality), which was a bit of a nuisance. But in general, reception was positive. They’ve been living here for over 16 years now.
But like most of Europe, we’ve got a far-right government right now, so there’s a lot of anti-immigration talk going round. Of course it’s only aimed at what they think are the “wrong” (Middle-Eastern and African) kind of people, so I doubt Americans would ever have to deal with it.

I’m not a native English speaker, but I always thought an expression like “oh boy” was more self-reflective. Like you say it more to yourself than to whoever you’re talking to.
In which case, the other’s gender shouldn’t really matter?
In any case, I personally don’t feel insulted or misgendered if someone uses it in a conversation with me.

For a moment there I thought I was looking at a !sciencememes@lemmy.world post and was taking this seriously :)

Taking a kayak out into one of the local waterways on an early morning. We have a few canals that run through a nature area on the outskirts of the city. Around that time no one is yet on the water and I can just glide peacefully past the water lilies and other plants. The silence is so soothing. Everything just seems to live and breathe all around me.

It’s great until about an hour later, when some of the locals use their motor boat to put-put-put down the canal, stinking up the place with their exhausts :P

Oh I love raspberries as well, it’s just that mangoes are more chewy when frozen.
Raspberries tend to be very hard and not as nice to bite down on when they’re straight from the freezer. But the flavor is great, no argument here :)

Frozen mango pieces. I love eating those whenever I’m in the mood for something to snack.

Not sure if it counts as junk food, but it’s something I always try to keep at home. Though lately they’ve been sold out at the supermarket. So I’m forced to fall back on my 2nd choice, frozen raspberries.

It’s… *bellows in best matron voice* Richaaaard!

I don’t know if this can be darned, the threads are very very thin. I might give it a try if one of those holes becomes too big.
When I do, I’ll definitely use different colors. I like your idea :)

I have an old light green neck Buff made from bamboo fiber. It’s like three times the normal size so you have to wrap it multiple times around your neck which is great in cold weather.
And it’s so soft! I love wearing it the moment autumn turns cooler.
It’s getting a few holes so I hope it’ll still last a couple more years. They don’t sell this design anymore 😞

There’s a difference? My submission yesterday was just a drawing with black ink and some shading and it was ok. And I’m nowhere near as good as you.

You could ask what’s accepted. But I’d say don’t overthink it, just join along :)

First of all, that’s an awesome hand drawing! I love it :)

There’s an !inktober@sh.itjust.works community if you’re interested. The list of daily prompts is posted there as well.

Pff, that’s clearly a frog 🙄

Though a frog is called a kikker, which is kind of funny I suppose :)

Something I like about the language is the homonyms.
Like pad means both toad and path, but then you have a voetpad (foot path/ foot toad), fietspad(cycling path/ bicycle toad) or a zebrapad (zebra crossing/ zebra toad).

The latter ones don’t exist, just to be clear :)

I had a bit too much fun with these :)

Magical Items

• The Bandwidth Cap
  Cursed item that limits the magical power of it’s wearer
• The Token Ring
  Magical ring that allows the wielder to communicate over large distances. They can receive messages from one token ring and send message to another.
• The Memory Barrier
  Protective charm that shields the mind from intrusion.
• The Shadow Register
  A magical ledger that records secrets and hidden locations in the immediate area.
• The Superscalar
  A legendary shimmering sword that can strike multiple foes in a single attack.

Spells

• Loopback
  Redirects a spell to its point of origin.
• Jabber
  Causes the target to produce incoherent speech and lose its train of thought.
• Branch Prediction
  Gives the caster foresight to predict their opponent’s next action.
• Traceroute
  A tracking spell that reveals the path of a target.
• Mask
  Hides the caster’s true identity.
• Hypertransport
  Enables instantaneous movement over short distances.
• Interrupt
  Counterspell to disrupt an enemy’s casting.

Spell modifiers

• Broadcast
  Modifies spell to affect a large area.
• Unicast
  Modifies spell to affect a single point with maximum damage.
• Multicast
  Modfies spell to affect multiple selected targets.
• Repeater
  Modifies spell to recast itself over multiple turns.

My partner stresses too much with work and I wish I could help more. But all I can do is give comfort and urge to at least let things go when at home.
Any practical advice is always brushed off, which I can understand. Sometimes you just need to vent and I don’t mind listening about what happened this time. I just hate seeing them like this, it does make me worry a bit about their health.