I like holly the red berries look nice through snow. The weeping pea is also interesting, I haven’t seen that before. It doesn’t need to rebloom if there’s fruit, fruit is visually interesting too.

That’s an interesting collection. I think I’ve previously looked at three of the six. I’ll give them another look. If I had the space for it I’d love to do a naturalized patch like they describe. I’ve also looked at sunflowers but, like you say, they are annuals and it’s a pretty windy spot and they’re vulnerable to wind damage. I’ve seriously considered false sunflowers I’m just concerned that they wouldn’t get as tall as I’d like.

I like the featheriness. I think that would look good there and maybe a thicker plant like that would convince the birds to nest in the plant instead of the awning.

I had looked at trumpet vines but was concerned about how big it grows. I hadn’t run across a dwarf variety. Summer Jazz Sunrise Gold looks really good.

The fuschia looks nice. Not what I’m looking for but pretty. Hardy kiwi is an interesting suggestion. It looks like the Issai cultivar is a little less aggressive of a grower and self pollinates so I could get fruit with one plant. Definitely one to consider. Thanks for the suggestions.

Now do terrapin.

Good ole boys are the political in group in small towns. Generally they have good jobs and are seen by locals as community leaders of some sort. Rednecks are basically anyone who enjoys things typically associated with rural living. Anyone can be a redneck and there are plenty of rednecks in jail for way less serious things than child abuse.

It kind of a tough balance. Yes, unrestricted tech use is an issue for young children but on the other hand using tech while young is the best way to make it a natural part of your experience of the world and tech isn’t going away. If you go to the other extreme and say no whatever sort of tech period before a certain age are you setting the kid back against more tech literate peers? There’s also the consideration that’s been discussed around alcohol forever. By making it an “adult thing” and effectively a rite of passage to drink alcohol do you cause more problems and abuse in young adults than if it was always a part of their experience and the focus was on responsible use instead of total abstinence?

Also it says that that many are exposed at some point. What does their test detect? Is it antibodies? Byproducts of the virus? The virus itself? Does every exposure result in infection? Can some people’s bodies naturally clear the infection? How indicative of actual infection rate is that test?

Sorry for the delay in responding, I was figuring out what device I was actually going to try setting Linux up on. I was originally going to just put it on the laptop that I use but I thought it might be better to test it out and learn on something else first. I got a Microsoft Surface that a family member was getting rid of to try it on. It’s an older one, they think it’s a 2017 model. It’s got a 100Gb hard drive and a Pentium processor. Since it’s a new to me device I’m not worried about saving anything on it so I can just overwrite everything and won’t have to worry about partitioning or anything like that.

I have not messed with the windows registry for anything. I think one AV would be fine, the redundancy was probably no longer necessary on windows, so I won’t worry about replacing malwarebytes. I do prefer free software but I only hate giving corporations more money than I have to. I don’t mind paying extra to shop local, I donate to the fedi instances I use, gog’s preservation fund, Wikipedia, and a few other similar things. If the money is primarily going to the people who are actually doing the work or to the cost of equipment and maintenance then I feel a lot better about paying for something so I’m willing to consider paid software if it’s better and will probably make some kind of donation to any FOSS projects I get software from if it’s free.

I’m not worried about keeping up with feature updates or always having the absolute newest version. I want it to be stable and functional so once I have it set up security updates will be the thing I’m most concerned about. I’m fine just setting an alarm and checking for updates every Friday or something like that. Background updates are nice but it’s not a big deal to keep up with it manually if it’s centralized into a repository. I use the desktop sites for discord and fedi so there shouldn’t be any issues with those. I use open office because it’s what I found when Microsoft started charging to use Office and it’s always worked fine for me but switching to LibreOffice or something similar isn’t a problem if it will work better.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and give me all of these links. It makes the idea of switching less daunting. I’ve read everything you’ve sent me and will happily continue to do so.

I’m closer to the average user than someone who has built a fortress. I use Firefox with ublock, ghostery, and privacy badger. I use the free tier of proton vpn. I run avast daily and malwarebytes weekly.

I think that I should already be close to best practices but I’m not sure how changing OS will affect that. I’m not really worried about being targeted for anything. I don’t think that I really do much risky beyond the occasional torrent or downloading a patch for a game. I get games primarily from gog, don’t open strange emails or click strange links, and use a password manager to generate secure passwords. One of the things that I’m most unsure about is keeping everything updated. Microsoft manages keeping everything updated for the most part on Windows and the last time I needed to find a driver anywhere except from Microsoft it came on a 3.5" floppy.

I use my computer primarily for single player gaming, discord, and fediverse sites. I need a spreadsheet and word processer, I use open office for that right now. I do financial and work related things on a different device.

Still checking in. I want to learn as much as I can. Thanks for the reply and the link. Links especially give me more places to look.

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Order_of_the_Sith_Lords#Secret_apprentices

The Sith aren’t exactly known for their honor and loyalty. If a master wanted to replace an apprentice they would find a new one and begin training them first. When an apprentice wanted to replace their master secretly taking an apprentice could help them consolidate power.

Darth Plagueis was alive up until Palpatine was named Chancellor. Darth Maul was a match for Jedi Masters. Darth Tyranus was a very accomplished duelist even before becoming a sith. So I would say it was through training/sparring with his master and apprentices as well as the use things like training droids.

Not my most controversial take. Mace Windu never had a chance against Palpatine. Palpatine let Windu take an advantageous position in the fight as his final ploy to turn Anakin. I offer three points as evidence for this.

First, Windu went to Palpatine’s office with three other Jedi masters, all of whom were members of the council, to arrest Palpatine. Despite having four of the most powerful Jedi, knowing that Palpatine was a dangerous Sith Lord, and having every opportunity to choose the place, time, and manner of the confrontation two of the four Jedi were dead before Windu even got his lightsaber activated and a third died almost immediately after.

Second, Windu got the upper hand just as Anakin arrived in the office. Palpatine appears to be a weakened pitiful old man as Windu turns his force lightening back on him and then decides to execute him instead of arresting him but as soon as Anakin attacks Windu formalizing his turn to the dark side Palpatine is on his feet and both his force lightening and his trademark cackle are at full force.

Third, despite his supposed grievous injuries, a day after the duel with Windu Palpatine fought Yoda to a stalemate.

Luke’s 23 in Return of the Jedi when he defeats the combined power of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine to not only resist turning to the dark side himself but also redeem Anakin turning him back to the light side of the force. Luke’s the real strongest Jedi even with his truncated training.

Movies confirm that Anakin is roughly equal in power to Obi-Wan and Yoda is roughly equal in power to Palpatine. Anakin is the chosen one and the prophecy that he would bring balance to the force was fulfilled at the end of Episode 3 when those were the only four left.

In 2024 a reporter asked Jordan if his 90s Bulls team could beat LeBron’s Lakers and Jordan answered that they could but only by a slim margin. When the reporter followed up by asking why it would be so close Jordan explained that most of the 90s Bulls team are in their sixties and have slowed down a bit.

If the US invades Iran are we taking bets on whether or not Israel gets nuked? They may not have the ability to produce a nuclear arsenal but I bet Iran has at least a rudimentary device that could be used in a suicide attack.

I think that you’re looking at it from the wrong angle. You’re looking at the forest and in this case it’s the trees that you should focus on. If there’s no rotting food or other health and safety issues then the only time pressure is your own comfort and anxiety. Deal with that kind of pressure by breaking the task down into manageable chunks and prioritize.

How much can you do in a week? Would one room a week would be manageable? More? Less? How much you can do at a time is the lesser of how much time and energy you can put into the work and how much you can take away or have taken away in the given time period. Maybe you just work until the garbage can is full and then start again after trash day. Maybe you don’t fill the garage can but between cleaning, organizing, and selling stuff on eBay/Nextdoor/etc you use up as much time and energy as you can devote to this task in this time period. As long as more is going out than is coming in during any given time period you’re making progress.

Start with the areas that will make the most difference to you. Probably your bedroom, the bathroom that you use most often, kitchen, living room. Looking at it as one task, cleaning and organizing a whole house is an overwhelming task so don’t look at it as one task. Tackle the forest by dealing with one tree at a time.