Apparently, I’m allergic to a specific type of antibiotic. I was given amoxicillin at the dentist and then went back to work as usual. About an hour later, I started shivering uncontrollably and had to go home. I ended up curled in the fetal position in bed for several hours, trembling and freezing.

My wife was understandably alarmed and mentioned it to my mother, who casually explained, “Oh yes, he’s allergic to amoxicillin—we found that out when he was a kid.”

Somehow, no one ever thought to tell me that little detail. Definitely something that would’ve been good to know before I took it.

Brah’s probably not a fan of this clip…

https://youtube.com/shorts/TVfMndcXk8c

On the phone it just works. I’ve loads of playlists going back years. The playlist creation features make it super easy, suggesting related songs to what you’ve got already. I’ve tonnes of vinyl and CDs and a media server, but for convenience, commonality and variety I have no regrets

Going against the trend here, but i wouldn’t be without spotify. We use the family sub, so I’ve got separate accounts for the family and for our smart speakers. My parents also use my account. We listen to a lot of music and podcasts, and it just works.

Beyond that the only other sub i have is Amazon prime, which we’re kind of stuck with as all our photos are in the cloud using their service. It works pretty well and the fire TV does a slideshow so we actually look at them from time to time.

The rest of the streaming subs we’ve had in the past are long gone. IPTV does the lot, which I use through express VPN.

Just wait until they get banned from reddit, get them to sign up and show them the Boost client (that used to work on reddit) and away they’ll go. That’s how i did it :-)

The NME (popular British music paper) had a website with a chat room/board that I was active on in the late 90s. I was about 17.

They also gave you free webmail with a @nme.com address, so you felt like a music journalist. Unfortunately, they shut it all down out of the blue in the 00s, with little warning, so I lost my primary email address. Would love to recover all those messages, but they are gone forever.

Of course. But the comments on that particular page are mostly locals, and it’s relatively well moderated.

Sounds like that plot line in the TV show Silicon Valley

Funny but relevent:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLfT0ULotrs/

Yep. It’s somewhat ingrained in UK culture, at least for people of my gen. I’m 48 this weekend, and plan on staying in with my fam and maybe having a few beers. But that’s only because I’m off for a city break with friends next week to see The Beta Band and basically eat and drink for 2 days. Can’t wait.

Dogs can’t look up

I was popular in primary school. Then, in High School I hung out with friends who were into Dr Who and nerdy stuff, because I knew and liked them and could never play the social status game by just cutting them off to be cool.

Four years in, when i was about 15, one of the jocks decided that we were gay (which was social death in the early 90s in rural Scotland), so my status plummeted even further.

That summer, at 16, I got drunk and had sex with a girl, which was something we both regretted. The rumour got out and that seemd to elevate me, socially. By this point me and my friends were big into Nirvana and had formed our own little clique of stoners so the jocks left us alone.

I look back on it all with some regret. I wish I’d been more confident. I would have liked to have been involved in team sports and activities that I was drawn to, but my friends derided.

My understanding is that these days kids are less socially segregated and you’ll find nerds doing physical stuff and jocks trying to be academic. Dunno if that’s true, but it sounds like progress.

It was really university that changed me. I left the small town and found people outside that tiny place to be friendlier, and I grew in confidence.

Looking back, I think the socially harder times in school made me who I am. I’m fairly resilient and find it easier than my colleagues to communicate with others and find common ground. It was a baptism of fire and I was miserable through my teens, but now life is pretty manageable.

Sorry. I was out of my element.

Too late, I’m already banned

That’s just like… your opinion, man

Great list. The Princess Bride somehow passed me by. Is it one of those movies you could watch now and enjoy, or more something that you enjoyed at the time and therfore still holds up?

Yeah, I get what he’s saying, but I agree. I think we’ve lost a lot in this post-nuance world. It’s kind of like saying you wouldn’t watch American History X because it’s got nazis in it.

Starlink, sadly, is essential for many rural communities. But yeah, everytime we sign up one of our properties at work to one it always feels like a Faustian pact.

Work-wise fairly awful. Dodgy software and shitty MS updates resulted in hundreds of users having debilitatingly slow logins, and as the IT department we had to respond rapidly, which we do anyway, but we were also hounded by angry managers. Fortunately we’re on it today and all has gone well. Plus there was the sweet salvation of beer and family boardgames over the weekend.

Now that you mention it…