Well I have a long term plan to become a Slash worker. I want to be a day job / Herbalist. So have some ideas about how to the last part in a much slower timeline. Need to keep the day job but don’t want it to be my only thing but its mostly talk at this point.

All the things I do for fun and hobbies I would do a lot more. Which would likely be the following:

• Exercise (running in the warm months and skiing in the cold)
• TTRPGs (I might move from 1 day of the week into two, and assuming everyone else has the same deal play in-person instead of digitally)
• Reading (books and more books)

But mostly I would work on living the permaculture / herbalism fantasy.

• Do a lot more herbal formulation and
• Maybe open the small apothecary to sell things at Art fairs and other makers markets.
• Turn my urban yard into a full food forest to help grow some of my own food, and herbs. (I want to have an urban oasis of edible trees, bushes and other useful plants)
• Volunteer more a local prairie restoration group that I have worked with in the past
• Finally spend some time gorilla gardening on open lots and sides of alleyways around my neighborhood to spread the plant love.

Sauces, Sauces and more sauces. I never user the flavor packet (Or just use a little bit) and add my own sauces. Soy sauce, fish sauce, hoisin, oyster sauce, miso etc. They are just sitting there ready to be used to make it delicious

I guess my advice was much more specific to traditional “weeds” which are annuals/ biannual / short lived perennials which thrive in disturbed land and in gardens. Bamboo is woody and might not full under that category. These traditionally “weeds” would be plants like creeping bellflower, motherwort, pigweed, plantains, dock, etc. which are human focused plants who only really thrive around human intervention. Plants like these are ubiquitous around humans (in our gardens and lawns) but can’t penetrated less disturbed areas or at later stages of succession. These are our traditional garden weeds which have a long history of use as food sources and medicinal uses with human cultures. If anyone is interested in learning more I would recommend Weeds: In Defense of Nature’s Most Unloved Plants which does a great overview of weeds and their spread.

Those plant that get fully invasive outside of human contact like Purple loosestrife, Tree of Heaven or other invasive noxious weeds are a different story. These are typically garden escapes, have a longer lifecycle and can outcompete and dominates landscapes. I think bamboo might fall closer to this than traditional weeds.

P.S. added the book to my to read list

There is competition between some plants for minerals, light and water. In the a pot the space is really limited that can be the case. It’s true though that some plants work better together.

I think an important thing to understand when talking about plant populations is to understand how they compete against each other. all kind of understand how animals compete because its dramatic with claws, fangs, speed and eating. They also compete more subtle with birthing rates, eating all the food faster than others but they are behaviors we can see. Each animal has it own ecological niche which they thrive

Since plants cannot move (mostly true) they compete against animals and other plants in other ways. They use chemicals to poison others, alter the soil for their own needs or attempt to shade out other plants. They also compete in a different timescale than animals. They may only grow for a few months of the year before anything else grows or have a super short reproductive cycle and flower multiple times per year or play the long game and invest into woody structure to grow taller and live longer than other plants. These are their own niches which include everything about temperature (both highs, lows, days at certain temperatures etc.), soil conditions, nearby plants, animals to help or hurt them and timeframes. These are plant’s niches. This means a plant community is never static. It is driven by a process called Ecological Succession

The things about garden and yards is that we don’t have a stable or natural ecosystem which means they are more unstable. We artificially keep it in a early stage of succession with mowing, fertilizers and pulling of weeds. This leaves plenty of open niches for things like bamboo to exploit. That is why pulling or poisoning of weeds just keep coming back since nothing is there to stop it from filling that niche again. So something like bamboo is almost impossible to remove without something else to outcompetes it in its niche. If we did nothing the bamboo would likely take over most of the grass and garden but eventually (in timeframes of years or decades) something else would eventually take it over or others would fill in around it. Usually plants growing creates additional niches alongside it. The succession would take over and alter the ecosystem.

This means that for something like bamboo we should attempt to control it in our garden setting with rhimozone barriers so it doesn’t run wild. Having things like native perennials or other perennials around it should outcompete any newer sprouts can help as well. Moreover, if you have weeds in your garden they will always be there unless you have something else already there. Any bare soil is just open ground for volunteer plants (a.k.a weeds) to take over to fill the empty niche. So to remove something you might not want you need to both pull it and have something else to replace it.

I watched Supernatural one or two seasons too long. The first five were great all around and then it got weird.

Exactly. Don’t use any roses that are treated. I like Mountain Rose Herbs

I am pretty sure your best bet to get something that is roses scented but is non-toxic would be creating a tincture vegetable glycerin with roses. Take dried rose pedals and let them sit in the sun for 4-6 weeks immersed in vegetable glycerin which should impart roses smells and other rose components into the vegetable glycerin. I haven’t done it myself but it is suppose to do some extractions of the compounds.

You will be extracting the essential oils and all other compounds from the rose pedals into the glycerin but in lower concentrations than a pure essential oil. (Also depending on the essential oil will have a broader range of compounds depending on how they made it)

I have blocked a few communities which I have really enjoyed. I think there is definitely a different but freeing experience to be in charge of curating your experience instead of algorithms doing it for you. It’s more work but the freedom is nice but making the constant choice feels hard.

Everyone has a different criteria to “win” in this game called life. People just assume that everyone is playing the same game with the same rules so start judging people on these criteria. People usually set it up so they are “winning” and others are “losing”. So play your own game and judge yourself by your own criteria. If you feel you are doing good (which I think you are) stay the path. Don’t listen to what others think of you.

Here is my favorite technique:

“First treat a woman like a person, then a princess, then a Greek goddess, then a person again.” -Shawn (Psych)

Treating some like a person first is really the most important thing. Everything else is optional but people like to be treated special for a while before being a person again.

This makes a lot of sense because as we have been seeing over the last decades or so is that digital only socialization isn’t a replacement for in person socialization. Increased social media usage shows increased loneliness not a decrease. It makes sense that something even more fake like ChatGPT would make it worse.

I don’t want to sound like a luddite but overly relying on digital communications for all interactions is a poor substitute for in person interactions. I know I have to prioritize seeing people in the real world because I work from home and spending time on Lemmy during the day doesn’t fulfill.

Never.

Exactly. Dating apps just digitally what people used to do in meat space. Casual dating has always been common and there has always been a point that it becomes “Exclusive” or monogamous.

Its better and healthy than being serial monogamy where you jump from serious commitment to serious commitment.

There are a lot of discussions about polyamory which is all valid. That usually means for more serious relationships. However, I would like to point out that casually dating multiple people is very common and has been for a while. Especially early in a relationship this was always a thing. There have been multiple names over time about this “going steady”, “exclusive”, “boyfriend / girlfriend”, “pinning” etc. which has gone back decades.

If you look there was a lot of parents of teens from the 50s complaining that their son/daughter was only dating a single woman/guy. So take that into account

I always feel nervous preordering anything. I got a new Fitbit so I think I have some time before it fails so I can see how this rePebble works out. If it is as good as it looks I might just get it. 30 day estimated battery life is amazing