this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2025
104 points (100.0% liked)

Casual Conversation

1910 readers
131 users here now

Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.


RULES (updated 01/22/25)

  1. Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling. To be concise, disrespect is defined by escalation.
  2. Encourage conversation in your OP. This means including heavily implicative subject matter when you can and also engaging in your thread when possible. You won't be punished for trying.
  3. Avoid controversial topics (politics or societal debates come to mind, though we are not saying not to talk about anything that resembles these). There's a guide in the protocol book offered as a mod model that can be used for that; it's vague until you realize it was made for things like the rule in question. At least four purple answers must apply to a "controversial" message for it to be allowed.
  4. Keep it clean and SFW: No illegal content or anything gross and inappropriate. A rule of thumb is if a recording of a conversation put on another platform would get someone a COPPA violation response, that exact exchange should be avoided when possible.
  5. No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc. The chart redirected to above applies to spam material as well, which is one of the reasons its wording is vague, as it applies to a few things. Again, a "spammy" message must be applicable to four purple answers before it's allowed.
  6. Respect privacy as well as truth: Don’t ask for or share any personal information or slander anyone. A rule of thumb is if something is enough info to go by that it "would be a copyright violation if the info was art" as another group put it, or that it alone can be used to narrow someone down to 150 physical humans (Dunbar's Number) or less, it's considered an excess breach of privacy. Slander is defined by intentional utilitarian misguidance at the expense (positive or negative) of a sentient entity. This often links back to or mixes with rule one, which implies, for example, that even something that is true can still amount to what slander is trying to achieve, and that will be looked down upon.

Casual conversation communities:

Related discussion-focused communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] neopenguin 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A decent pen and/or pencil. I have several nice fountain pens that I use for journaling, but I use my Zebra F-301 ballpoint daily for general notes/etc. -- ~$10 for a 4 pack on Amazon. If you prefer a pencil, you can pick up a Pentel Sharp Kerry for under $20 on Amazon.

[–] anon6789 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I prefer the Pilot Precise V5 as my favorite cheap and ubiquitous pen upgrade. Everyone remarks on how smooth it writes. Not the best for labels with gloss though is the only catch with it. Capped or retractable versions, and while I like the V5 (0.5mm tip) because I write smaller, they also have a V7 (0.7mm tip) for those that write larger or what bolder lines.

After that, hop on Jetpens and there are tons of <$10 pens that are way better than anything in a store, or refills to turn your favorite cheap pen into an undercover fancy pen so you don't need to worry about losing a fancier pen body. I stocked up on so many great pens, and now I have a job where I hardly ever have to write and I really miss getting to use my pens all day. The cheap office pens skip and are so scratchy it feels like drawing on dirt with a stick in comparison.

[–] neopenguin 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's a great tip about the "undercover fancy pen!" I hadn't even thought about that, but I'll definitely be doing it now!

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

A coffee cup warmer. No more getting up from my desk to nuke cold coffee.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

Get a double walled cup, i can have hot coffee for 4 hrs and warm for another 2-4 hours

[–] shalafi 5 points 1 week ago

Those are stupid cheap at the thrift stores and there's always one there.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Freshly roasted coffee beans. A bag sets me back maybe $13 or so and gets me approximately 10 cups. Not what I would call outrageously expensive but I enjoy it a whole lot

[–] Krudler 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

May I share with you that I roast a lot of things and it's mind-blowingly easy, it saves a lot of money, and it's a lot better than buying roasted from the store!

I used to use my oven, but it's literally as simple as raw almonds 325 in the air cooker for 15 minutes sometimes. Depends on the ingredients, I've never done coffee but I think I'm going to do that this afternoon!!!

edit: I couldn't find coffee beans that weren't roasted (i never thought this through) so I bought the lightest ones and tried roasting them at different temperatures. It just kinda wrecked them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago

Unfortunately, I believe coffee might be a different beast. I'm not sure you will be able to achieve desirable results with that type of equipment.

In fact, James Hoffmann recently made a video on whether it's possible to roast coffee beans in an airfryer recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyLXmbTnJIY (tl;dw: not if you want good coffee)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (10 children)

An electric 'coffee grinder' just for grinding up spices / seeds. Don't use the regular coffee grinder, or your coffee drinking housemates will get super annoyed. The flavor, and nutrition is so much better when you cook with freshly ground spices.

[–] grue 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

A <$20 grinder wouldn't be good enough to use on coffee anyway.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (9 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That really depends on the gin.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

Park Alpine Dry Gin

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

A key wallet ; Keep your keys organized, stops them from jingling, can put smart cards in it too. Easier to hand off to friends to borrow. I hate jingling keys.

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›