In my house we talk about HALT. Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? It’s the first check for my kid to try to figure out what is causing him distress.

I have an adolescent kid with ADD and we go through a version of this Q and A at least twice a day. It infuiates me that he can’t seem to remember to eat, take meds, brush teeth... but that’s part of the disorder. Kids like this also can have difficulty identifying what is going on in their internal landscape.

I agree. When I’m depressed and unable to get myself to do ANYTHING, sometimes having some external force dictating to me what to do makes things a little easier.

You mean when someone finds a better way of squeezing more work out of overworked and underpaid people, and a way to better squeeze suppliers who sometimes are forced to make no money or sell at a loss to be on Amazon because the consumer market demands it?

“Amazon dominates online shopping, and it’s killing brick-and-mortar stores too, but if you’re fed up with the company you still have options. Walmart and Jet are both convenient alternatives”

The benefit is less having the acid wear off, and more allowing your teeth to remineralize.

I love the Vimes rule, and yes, taking advantage of it is absolutely a mark of privilege, and anyone who does should acknowledge the privilege and not blame those who can’t afford to—and should also support fixing the system so no basic human need is prey to it.

As someone who is never going to buy an expensive sound system to listen to music on, listens to 95% of my music on my phone, and has found about 90% of the music I want to listen to available on Spotify (or I already own and upload) I’m very comfortable with keeping the service.

This was superfun reading but I almost missed it because the headline does not appeal to my interests. I think it could be Gizmodo’d for a wider audience.

Go to the discount store and buy a pack of cheap white washcloths. You can also cut up old worn out t-shirts. Use these for rags. Buy/make a bunch so that you can go through as many as you like. To clean, throw them in the washing machine with a splash of bleach. Much cleaner than a sponge.

Disappointed you didn’t go with color-coding for this. Buy different color sponges for different parts of your house.

Duolingo - partway through the year I committed to studying Japanese and practicing every day has made a huge difference! I actually went to Japan this year and while it was by no means easy I loved when I understood things! And since I came back the learning has gotten easier. Even just 20mins a day can make a…

I haven’t had a clock in my bedroom for 10yrs for the same reason - I get that anxiety doing the sleep math, if I fall asleep now I’ll get x hrs.... best thing I ever did

YMMV but Rosetta Stone offers subscriptions to libraries so, if you’re lucky, you may be able to access the app for free by owning a library card.

Maybe the term “dinner party” is what’s hanging me up. I can see that if you’re setting up some sort of lavish occasion for 30, that having one person who won’t eat, well, anything, might be just the way things play out.

Man, I miss the written form of these.

Generally, whenever I feel accomplished enough to think I deserve some type of reward I play a video game. I feel I have the best ability to enjoy it knowing I’m not simply procrastinating and deserve the time to turn off my brain for a while.

To you easier means being responsible for transporting yourself, to many, the inverse is easier. The subway, which even in DC, is reliable, affordable and demands nothing of me (unlike a car, which needs to be parked, gassed, maintained and creates anxiety just by being one of my most valuable possessions which is…

My wife and I moved back to Chicago from the suburbs after we found out we were pregnant (we were already deciding to move to Chicago because it would be closer to work for me)

Note: My experience will probably be very different than someone with school aged kids since I only have an infant. I also happen to live in a…

Holy crap! I remember this snippet!