greenteadrinker

I think it’s a joke that American houses (in the eyes of Europeans) are made out of sticks (stud framing in the house) and paper (drywall is made from gypsum and has a paper backing)

In European countries, their houses are made of tougher materials like stone, concrete, or some other material I’m forgetting about

It’s a known thing in America that stray bullets end up in people’s houses (and sometimes their residents) when it’s an American holiday like 4th of July or Memorial Day

Worse; Brazilian

Probably iOS. I use AdGuard and sideload a YouTube tweak to dodge most of the ads on my browsing experience

As an American, I too need to know where the bag went

I have a culinary joke, but I’m still cooking

My favorite version of this joke was seeing NakeyJakey spell Drew as Jrew as a gag, which makes Anjrew a valid spelling too

Stay on top of changing your fluids. Oil changes are a lot cheaper than a new engine (plus labor) or any other big component of your car, like transmission or radiator. Change your engine oil (about every 5K miles), transmission fluid, engine coolant, brake fluid (every 3-6 years), diff fluid (if you have a differential), transfer case fluid (if you have a transfer case), and power steering fluid (if it’s hydraulic based)

If you live in a salty area (i.e. a place that snows a lot), learn how to apply Fluid Film or any oil-based thin film for rust prevention under your car. It’ll keep the car going for a lot longer and fluid film is a lot cheaper than a new sub frame or structural component of your car

Service manuals from the manufacturers are available for subscription, but if you know where to find them, I’d be curious to see, because my search engine skills have gotten worse as time has progressed. I think Toyota and Honda sells their subscription for 2 days of access for $20 and you should be able to download the relevant PDFs you want

As for appearances for you car, don’t eat or really keep anything in your car, unless it is for the car and its emergency kit. So I try to take everything out of the car with me if my car doesn’t need it like clothes, groceries, or anything like that. This makes car break-ins less likely to occur, and if it does, it’s more of a bad day or two (depending on your skillset/money you have) instead of a gut-wrenching moment when you realize they stole a sentimental valuable. Don’t park under trees to avoid leaves or tree sap. Neither under power lines because of bird poo

Remember that cars are depreciating tools to get you from point A to point B. The most important part of it is that it’s mechanically sound and the safety features for it work. The next part is that it blows cold AC and hot air for heat. Anything beyond that is a bonus

Yeah, caffeine blocks the adenosine receptors in your brain. Adenosine is a chemical your body produces throughout the day to signal you getting tired. That’s why when you drink coffee, a few hours later you might feel a “crash”, because all of the tiredness comes rushing back into your brain at once

Like the article suggests, that blocking of adenosine receptors happening too late can mess with your sleep quality, because your body wants to sleep, but your brain can’t because it doesn’t feel tired. So you might end up getting poorer sleep. This could lead to poorer long term memory storage/encoding, because one of the functions of sleep is to take short term memories and store it in your long term memory.

I’m not European nor am I that young, but I share the same sentiment. Commuting by car isn’t good in a lot of aspects and kids are too expensive. Also having kids in this climate seems extremely stressful. Not only do you have to worry about extremely invasive tech, but you also have to worry about the changing climate and the (what seems like) global cost of living crisis

Personally, I find American candy way too sweet. As in one full-sized bar of any chocolate candy is disgustingly sweet, and makes me feel unwell if I get anywhere close to finishing a bar

I am American btw, and I grew up eating this stuff for a few weeks after Halloween, but then my tastebuds developed and my answer to that question is to “just eat a couple of pieces a day”

If you want an actual answer, I’d consider trying to remove willpower from the equation and donate or throw away a majority of the candy you have. If you still want to keep candy, then putting it in inconvenient places might make it easier to eat less. Think like keeping it on the opposite side of your residence where you would usually lounge/mindlessly snack and only eating it in a designated area.

You can also try to buy one of those kSafes to prevent yourself from eating it all too. The idea isn’t to depend on your current willpower to decide for you, but rather the rational thought of your past self to allot yourself a certain amount.

It’s like a cheat day, if you designate a day where you can pig out, it’s easier to maintain a well-balanced diet outside of the chest day

Soon enough we’ll see robots argue against each other about tipping culture

So the reasons you listed are:

• band practice
• world war 3
• economy crashing

I’m not a parent, but I don’t think these are strong enough reasons to skip over a dumb phone or even a basic burner android phone.

What would you hope to get out of your phone for band practice? Is it being able to contact your parents for transportation or letting them know where you are? Any phone can text or even call your parents. Do you want a device that can help you tune your instrument or be used as a metronome? This is a bit more compelling reason to help bump you up to a smartphone, but still an iPhone doesn’t seem necessary

Location tracking could be a more attractive reasoning to get an iPhone, but would you want your parents to be able to track you 24 / 7?

World War 3; if you learned about the past world wars, America entered the war later on (America entered WWI in 1917, it ended in 1918; America entered WWII in 1941, it ended in 1945). How would an iPhone help you in regards to WWIII? Why an iPhone over a dumb phone? Why an iPhone over an android phone?

The same questions can be applied to the economy crashing. How would you having iPhone affect you in regards to it? If you need to know when it happened, chances are you will hear about it either from the people around you or the media you currently consume.

Overall, I do not think this is a comprehensive argument to get an iPhone. You haven’t given reasons why a dumb phone would not fit your needs. You also haven’t given reasons why an android would not fit your needs. Your parents seem to be reasonable enough to give you a timeline of when to expect an iPhone, and as of right now, I don’t think your reasoning is quite there yet to convince them to push up that timeline