A tool using primate, probably friendly. Likes cookies.

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 28th, 2023

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  • Digitalprimate

    Oh simply be polite and most of all have a sense of your surroundings/situational awareness, i.e., don’t get in the way. You probably want to spend as little time in the main “downtown” area (roughly central station to the Rokin) as possible.

    Although everyone under 80 years old speak near-native English (I exaggerate), you’ll endear yourself by learning to say good morning, good evening, thanks, and please in Dutch and to start conversations by asking “Is English ok?” in Dutch.

    Basically just don’t be a jerk and the native Amsterdamers will happily take your holiday money.



  • I will sound like a shrill, but I love everything they make. Even though the City Pack Pro X-Pac became, accidentally and relative to initial cost, the single most expensive bag I own due to my stupid brother.

    I live in Europe, and you have to pay big taxes on any imports by mail. So I asked my brother if I could mail to him and he’d mail it to me, like in the old days (20 years ago or so). Sure, he says no problem, when do you need it? I say not in a hurry but leaving for a trip in like three weeks, so if it made it here by then that would be nice.

    Two weeks later he texts me saying I owe him USD 120 for shipping. I said WTF? He sent it express, like an idiot. The bag costs about USD 239. So, ok fine it least I’ll have it for my trip.

    Nope. Three weeks later I call the UPS center. They got my bag, all right, but I owe EUR 135 in taxes and duties. My brother - who used to know how to do these things, insured it for USD 400 and wrote on the item description “brand new back pack.” That fuckwad (whom I love, but damn bro, you grew up stupid sometimes).

    Anyway even at that price it’s worth it, and it too has all the features you mention above + in X-Pac + with a contrasting interior color. I may have gone to their flag ship “store” (a tiny, tiny little store front) in SF and fanboy’ed for an hour or so before buying a small inside bag. And I may or may not have ordered two of their computer peripheral storage bags, one for me and one as a bribe/tribute to our head of IT…

    Anyway, ahem. It’s the ultimate combo between a carry on bag and an (largish) urban commuter bag. /Shrill, and if anyone from Aer is reading this, a discount code maybe?






  • Quality knives do not have to be super expensive. The trick is to maintain them. Honing of course, and unless you are a super enthusiastic home cook, a proper sharpening by a pro on Japanese wet stone twice a year is all it takes. That’s like at most USD 20 in most places, probably less. Even mid range knives are fine, so long as you keep them sharp.

    And you don’t need a lot. In theory a good chefs knife and a good paring knife will do. In practice, you also want a bread knife and filleting knife, but you can start small.











  • No, we have historical examples of various X forms of Socialism that were supposed to be the intermediate state between capitalism and communism. All of the turned out to be authoritarian nightmares, but none of them actually made it to the communism stage of development.

    Essentially truly supporting communism is merely saying we could be living in a post-scarcity state. The oligarchs ain’t gonna let that happen though and their captive governments aren’t about to let that happen though.