Open Library allows you to digitally borrow a ton of books for free. It’s not the greatest experience since the books they own are scanned and not digital copies, but it’s good enough, and their catalogue is not half bad.
Just legality. These are paid books that they can’t give away for free, but acting as a library they can let you borrow them, read them, and “return” them.
In practice you’ll rarely feel this system because you can just re-borrow it whenever you want to read it.
The legality was only ever a grey area. Their days may be numbered, however. During the lockdowns they removed the one physical copy per digital copy lent, and as a result of that they got sued. Instead of settling out of court they drummed up donations to a legal fund and lost hard, and during the trial a judge ruled that their practice was illegal. In my opinion, they should have done everything they could have to settle out of court, rather than try and build a frivilous defense that had no grounding in law.
Right now, they’re appealing it, so I guess that’s why it’s still up. However it looks like their strategy isn’t any better now than it was then.
On those funky Coke machines in some restaurants, there was an option to get Raspberry Coke Zero for a long time. I grew to love it. Now it looks like they’re taking it away in most places.
Huge soda fan so picking just one is super hard but I’d say:
Oronamin C or Sweet Blossom’s Rose soda
Oronamin C is a Japanese soft drink with a taste that is often described as “drinking (American) Smarties”. It’s incredibly refreshing and delicious. Sweet Blossom is I think an eastern European beverage company and they make a rose flavored soda that is to die for. It has far and away my favorite quality of carbonation (very fine, soft bubbles).
Other honorable mentions include Ocean Bomb: Sailor Mercury (i.e. pear flavor), and as a big fan of cherry colas, Bawls Guarana Cherry Cola and Fentiman’s Cherry Tree Cola.
If you live in the UK, Lidl sells an excellent cola called Freeway. Their Freeway Zero is better than Pepsi Max or Coke Zero, IMHO, and literally one-fifth the price.
Ask if an episode of Inanimate Insanity actually released on December 37, 2074. And no, I did not write that incorrectly by mistake. I actually meant to say December Thirty-Seventh.
Money alone isn’t going to make me happy. Yeah, it removes a lot of one type of stress. But it can also be a trap. Like, I’m doing solidly okay in my job, but it’s enough that I can’t easily quit and start over in a different career, even though I stopped caring about this one a decade ago. And a high-paying job can come with a lot of other stressors, things that keep you working harder and longer hours than you otherwise would.
$100k would probably seem pretty good for a long time, given where I currently live. If I had to live in NYC, I’d probably say more like $500k.
Enough that I’m not completely broke before my next paycheck.
Seriously, that’s all it would take for me to be happy, a little bit of disposable income.
asklemmy
Hot
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.