Wise words
(midwest.social)
LadyButterfly she/herI have a shitload of stickers that I need to finally stick somewhere.
Go to a college campus and hand sheets out at parties
This holds true in the kitchen too. Don't let your good olive oil go rancid while you wait for the right time to use it
More importantly, the special day happens when you decide. Simply make today special by using it
Source: bought the $50 soy sauce and it was ABSOLUTELY worth every drop
I never drank the sake I was given for my 30th because I was saving it for a special day. We sure as shit drank all the champagne my missus got for graduating.
Maybe Check the China before you use it, my wife inherited China from her parents. It's extremely high lead content means it gets displayed, not used.
my wife inherited China from her parents
I'm assuming china rather than China, unless she's the new empress and this is the most incredible humble brag!
Hardly a brag if it's full of lead. She'll just display the country, not use it.
The concept of a "Display Country" is extremely funny to me, thanks
Its
Coffee from Texas is... special?
It is my understanding that growing coffee outside of the tropics is difficult if not impossible.
Trump is taxing Europe because we wouldn't buy coffee from Texas, so maybe it is.
It comes from the poop of cows or something, I think.
But... coffee doesnt come from europe either... perhaps its roasted there. All of the coffee beans is grown near the equator.
Try not to think too hard on it, it just hurts to try apply logic to completely insane crazy.
I often think about Mark Hamill when he's chastised by interviewers for giving his vintage first edition Star Wars figures to his children: "They're toys, they're meant to be played with!"
Honestly, being played with by Marks kids probably increased their value more than original packaging.
I'm a dragon so I can say with 9001% confidence in my knowledge that, yes, those toys will most definitely be much more valuable because of that
I fucking love that guy
Sucks about getting old and dying. All the things you found interesting and brought you joy are often meaningless to your kids or the next generation. I don’t mean hoarding stupid “collectibles”, but things like maybe the photography you got good at, the nice piece of local art you picked up while traveling, etc.
The boomers and Xers who rolled their eyes at their kids playing video games or collecting pokemon cards don't get to wonder aloud why said children don't give a shit about their model train set. Arriving on death's door without achieving even that much self-awareness should get you reincarnated as a broiler chicken.
I'm a woodworker, you see this in woodworking circles. Appreciation for antique furniture often comes with an interest in the craft, and to appeal to that you'll hear hosts of woodworking shows say things like "And there you have it, a dining table that will last for generations."
That table is going to the landfill before you stop breathing because you built it to exactly fit the dining room of the house you reverse mortgaged, Robert. Your sister and brothers-in-law all have their own dining room tables already and none of your children will ever own a home. Nobody cares about the real breadboard ends; they always stuck out and looked terrible anyway.
You mentioned photography. I have a lawn and leaf bag full of photographs that belong to my ancestors. I never look at them, because the context I have for them is "a person." "That's your aunt Jean!" ...okay. I've got photo albums of my own early childhood, photos I remember being taken, I don't look at those either.
But then you've got PHOTOGRAPHY photography. The kind of photography where other photographers will complement you on composition and depth of field. If you're a serious hobby photographer, your family is going to develop a deep antipathy for photography because of what you'll spend your life doing to them. Your death means never having to hear the lecture on film speeds again, and the opportunity to finally take a hammer to that goddamn Nikon.
The solution is to go get younger friends, people who are actually interested in the things you've collected you can pass down their stories to. You're probably not mentally able to do that because kids these days say "no problem" instead of "you're welcome" so...yeah your precious mound of shit is going in the garbage.
TBF…high quality furnishings like a dining room table are one of the few things I think people fight over as far as estate goes. Not their 25 piece Precious Moments collection.
A friend of mine's house is mostly decorated with paintings by his grandmother, who was a very accomplished artist in her day. I always thought that was cool as hell
I think that those things are only meaningless because the parents/grandparents didn’t or couldn’t engage with the next generation about it. Heirlooms, trinkets, and tchotchkes have to be imbued with stories and sentiment otherwise they’re just junk.
20th century hyper-consumerism sold the idea that you could buy sentimentality and proceeded to replace things that were valuable because of their unique stories with things that were valuable because of “the collectible market.” There’s a big difference between “this Coke sign was in your great-great-grandpa’s soda fountain” and “this Coke sign is valued at $100.” Likewise, a box of old family photos fails to have value when you can’t identify the people in the photos and the relative you inherited them from didn’t bother taking the time.
My ex’s parents almost donated a little crystal bowl thing. If they did, someone at the thrift shop would have found a nice little crystal bowl thing.
The reality? Her mom’s family was living in Europe because her grandfather’s job and while they were there they met some people who escaped the USSR. Long story short, since they were allowed, her family ended up crossing into the USSR with a bundle of photos and letters to give to the family of the people they had met. The family still behind the iron curtain was so grateful they gave them the crystal bowl. That bowl would have been very valuable to them, but the information about their family in France was worth so much more.
I took the bowl instead. Its little story, and that family’s gratitude, is not forgotten and now it holds some candy on my bookshelf.
You've been added to the Best of Lemmy: https://sh.itjust.works/post/65586529
We go to a lot of estate sales and its really wild sometimes just like, being in the homes of often dead people, just sort of, seeing their stuff and their life.
Plus as you said, all the stuff that was probably very enjoyed by those people just sort of, scavenged, but also how much is basically ignored and discarded. Sometimes it makes me a little sad.
I went to an estate sale of a professor. The garage was full of nice shelving full of perfectly organized binder boxes containing dissertations. I assume from every grad student he taught over his career. This took up most of his garage.
Should have bought them, then went to school and turned the best ones in for quick and easy degrees.
Moving my mom into a home next month and dealing with the lifetime of Meaningful Things she has piled up everywhere.
Meanwhile I live in a studio apartment and whenever I clean, if I haven't looked at it or used it in a year I give it away/throw it out.
When I die only my writing will be left, and that will probably fade from cultural memory more quickly than I'd like.
There's probably a happy medium to be found somewhere. Maybe I'll start carving my name on trees or deface priceless artwork.
No! Use Up the Photographs!!
Preach.
My girlfriend does this (or at least used to do this) all the time.
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When she was young, she was gifted a bunch of hand-embroidered clothes of the very traditional 'old country' style. At the time, she literally thought she wasn't good enough to wear them (she's a bit of a tomboy) and saved them away for later. By the time she finally found them again, safely packed away decades later, her style had evolved and she didn't even like that old-fashioned stuff anymore, and she had to just get rid of it because she knew she'd never even want to wear it.
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Some time ago when she was poor and MP3 players were fairly expensive, she'd been using a really old gnarly and busted one every day. For her birthday, her brother got her a fancy new one with a lot more storage and a screen, really the latest and greatest. But she was afraid of losing it or breaking it, so she never took it anywhere and never used it. She kept using the old one. The new one sat on a shelf, safe in its original factory box for years and years. Nowadays, it's completely obsolete and pointless because she can just play music from her phone. She never even loaded any music on it.
Sometimes (even often, maybe?) saving nice things for later just ends in the tragedy of those nice things never being enjoyed at all. She would have been better off if she wore and ultimately wore out and ruined those fancy clothes. She would have been better off if she'd used the fancy MP3 player for a while and it did get lost or broken. Sometimes, keeping precious things safe is the worst thing that can happen to those things. It's like not having them at all -- worse than not having them at all, because now you also need to dedicate storage space to them.
When 'cheap' RC helicopters came out in the 2008-ish time my girlfriend bought me a fairly large and somewhat expensive one for my birthday. I knew that it was going to eventually end up broken, but I didn't want to break it right away... I put batteries in it and fired it up while I was holding on to its skids. Basically enough to feel the power of it (which was incredible), then I put it back in the box. Its been in the box, now in my basement, ever since. I really should get it out and fly it and crash it into tons of pieces the way it was meant to be.
I get the girlfriend. I understand wanting a well worn item as opposed to a new one. There is a certain amount of stress involved in ‘nice’ things .
I’m not sure that it’s normal but when you have something nice you go through more effort to keep it nice while a well used item can just be tossed in a pocket or a bag.
True, but it can definitely be done to excess. To the point where the nice item you're keeping nice eventually just becomes worthless anyway.
While I completely agree with this sentiment. On the flipside, I've seen it in people who grew up poor that they really want to save things and preserve them for longer use even if it causes temporary inconvenience. I think it might be hard to get out of this mindset
Reminds me Uncle Iroh. "Sharing tea with a fascinating stranger is one of life's true delights."
Took me a while but I got there. I have fabric that my great-grandmother grew as flax, spun, dyed and wove on her loom, over 100 years old now. I'm using these pieces as wall hangings and sofa covers and even on my market stall - it's a simple and pragmatic ancestor practice and in a sense I uncurse her life by carrying these pieces as I walk through my life way more undisturbed, unafraid and freely than she could.
My ex had brought me whiskey coffee from her trip to Scotland. I decided to save it for a special occasion, and then it expired and I had to throw it. Never again.
Did it actually expire, or was it just past the date? Plenty things have expiration dates but are still just fine to use for months afterward
I kept it past its date, at some point it grew mold.
Yeah that's properly expired 😂
Coffee, especially if it's ground, will lose a lot of its character if it sits around. It won't Go Bad or make you sick, but it probably won't be good.
If you aren't a coffee snob, it'll probably be fine.
Why? What did you think happened to it? It's not clear what you are describing, flavored dry coffee beans, flavored ground beans in sealed bags, a drink in a can?
Ground beans.
Is coffee from Texas somehow special? Or just part of the joking...
If it’s fresh from a specialty roaster, most of its volatile aromatics are gone about 6 weeks after their roast date, which is what makes expensive coffee so interesting. Coffee stales really really quickly but has an incredibly long shelf life, so while it’s perfectly safe to drink coffee that’s been around for a long time (James Hoffmann famously drank coffee that was roasted over 80 years ago) you’re not going to be able to enjoy it as much anymore. So absolutely don’t slowly ration it out, wait maybe 5-7 days after roast for some CO2 to escape but then make sure you drink it all within the 1-6 week window or you’ll lose what makes it expensive and fancy and it’ll just start to taste like normal cheap coffee. Unless you don’t care that much about coffee, in which case just drink it whenever, it’s not going to go bad on you.
They might be referencing some specific HEB coffee. My wife gets it from a friend sometimes when the friend brings it back, and she says it’s really good.
Use it or lose it.
That's great wisdom. We shouldn't keep stuff in a jar out of respect, or out of some fear that the memory it carries dissipates. Everything decays. Using that stuff is the best mark of respect and remembrance you can pay to whomever left you it. I'm writing this message to myself
I disagree. Good things become dull things if you have them constantly.
Never using also makes them nothing.
The real answer is moderation in all things, especially moderation itself
Obviously
But if you never use them, and just hoard them, they become nothing.
Worse than nothing, because now you need a place to store it and keep it safe.
Obvioualy there is a middle ground
Twice a month is a good balance imo.
Thrice a month?
Don't push it now.
Fun fact: there's marginalia collectors, people who collect pieces of media which contain handwritten scribbles and notes on them
So apparently, coffee from Texas is the shit, yes?
It's like kopi luwak except it was eaten by a Republican.
If you are on a space station orbiting Mars, maybe.
Or Kansas.
I'm not sure I'd trust much grown in Texas. Business profits seem to be the top priority for the government there rather than food safety or factory inspection. I mean they're letting Musk's SpaceX pollute at will. I'd be afraid the plants growing there might draw up any number of industrial toxins and consumers wouldn't know until people start getting sick from it.
I remarked at this as well. It sounds almost like buying a Pinot gris from Newark and sending it to San Francisco.
In a place where Jamaica and Colombia are still places, can Texas coffee even register?
What’s does living in the water and on land have to do with how you feel about your possessions?
You got it wrong, an antiquarian is someone who hates quars
I thought it was an interplanetary sentient race of machines from beyond the Terminus systems.
That's the geth.
Oh of course, my mistake. That clears it up.
Even though it’s certainly good to treat yourself and get the most out of life, these kinds of catchphrases are dangerous. Unrestrained hedonism is selfish and short-sighted; it is what has brought humanity to the situation it finds itself in today—on the brink of the abyss.
If we continue as we have been, we will destroy the very foundations of our existence—and, with them, ourselves.
"After me, the deluge" is not an attitude worth aspiring to.
is it though? it's not hedonism that's hoarding trillions and waging wars
Yeah hedonism and avarice aren't the same vices, the latter is much more troubling in my opinion.
Proper hedonism really doesn't need much. The best pleasures require little material wealth: love, friendship, singing and dancing together, playing games together, teaching, learning, giving, receiving, and seeing your friends and family at peace. For this you need stability, which does ask for a decent economy, but nothing of the sort that would make the planet uninhabitable in a century or two.
The pursuit of pleasure in the 21st century is so desperate because all of these simple pleasures have structurally been made near-impossible with the specific goal of making the working class restless, disorganized, and mutually antagonistic so they are easier to control and more dependent on consumption. Or to put it in modern terms, "to prevent loitering and stop unlicenced black market activity".
Also wise, but missing the point I think. (which is to not hoard stuff for sentimental reasons)
Well, it’s a fine line: The highlighted passage—"Being alive is as special an occasion as it gets"—could, in principle or at least on its own, also be interpreted to mean that one should always live in the moment and not worry at all about tomorrow or one’s fellow human beings.
This would be a very selfish attitude that considers only one’s own well-being and derives something like a right to be inconsiderate from personal happiness.
In this particular case, that might sound a bit exaggerated, but preserving old things can also benefit future generations by ensuring that records of their predecessors are preserved. How far this should go is, of course, also a matter of balance, especially since there is certainly a responsibility to use resources sparingly and not constantly acquire new things when a need could just as easily be met with what's already there.
So in short: The only point I’m trying to make is that, in my view, it’s important not to forget others—even those who haven’t even been born yet—in the pursuit of personal happiness.
Having had a close relative die recently, I now have to get rid of a shitload of old stuff that might have had some value once but that's realistically unsellable nowadays. Throwing it all away is a tempting option.
We ended up with 1950s china from a dead relative. She treated it like it was priceless her entire life. Only used it for "special" events.
After we got it we looked it up. It was worth nothing.
It ended up on a shelf at the charity shop for a few bucks a set with all the other "priceless" china sets.
I have nice matcha bowls, I alternate between them, I still have a favourite but if I don't use them all I might as well sell the ones that don't see the light of day.
i’ve taken to documenting where and when i got things written on the things.
that table saw? ch max 2021
these scissors? mel mcg 2025
that sewing machine? kitty 2020
Great advice!
