fact
In 1918, Iowa Governor William F. Harding signed a proclamation banning all languages other than English for public conversation, education, speeches, or church services. Some churches had to close and people were fined for speaking German on the phone.
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There are tens of millions of visits to the emergency department for personal injuries every year. Whether through malice, negligence, or plain old bad luck, our health-and-safety-focused world can’t seem to help but hurt itself. But too often, the victims of these injuries are dissuaded from seeking recompense for their trauma because of ignorance about what a personal injury case entails. Well, we’re here to dispel that ignorance. Join us as we drill down into the discovery process and demystify the facts that surround the process of personal injury litigation. One day, you might be glad you did. Step 1:
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Overthinkers sometimes get a bad rap for wasting energy on scenarios that never happen.
But the joke is on the haters.
Because with all of life’s unpredictabilities, those who are well prepared for any curveballs wind up coming out on top.
“Overthinkers of Reddit, what unlikely scenario actually came true that you were completely prepared for because you are an overthinker?”
Some overthinkers helped prevent sartorial disasters.
“I always carry a small sewing kit whenever I go to a wedding. I have sewed two brides into their dresses so far!” – soufflegirl55
“All the teachers at the Middle School I taught at knew I was a pack rat and one day a kid split his pants and the school counselor came to me and said ‘Mr. Thehogdog, would you happen to have a pair of sweats or gym pants in your truck’. YEP.”
“So the the kid spent the rest of the day in a pair of nylon pants I had behind my seat. He is lucky because if he didnt fit he would have spent the rest of the day in a white disposable ‘coverall’ I had in case I had car trouble in nice clothes.”
“Icing on the cake: It was a student I really liked who was super helpful to other kids and teachers, so it was nice to do something nice for him.”
“I also carried a ‘Swiss Army’ brand soft side brief case (yard sale find) STUFFED and it had a few of each size of battery.”
“One day Phil Niekro and 2 Braves players were there for an assembly and Phil’s mic battery was dying so I SPRINTED upstairs to my classroom, grabbed a 9 volt from my bag, then basically rolled across the panel and switched out his battery and got back to the PA avoiding getting on TV News cameras.” – thehogdog
If it weren’t for these angels in disguise, there would have been grave consequences.
“My boyfriend who has zero history of seizures narrowly escaped dying from one because my overthinking led me to break into his house when he didn’t answer the phone.”
“My overthinking had begun a few nights prior. He mentioned that he but his tongue in his sleep and woke up with a bloody pillow and sore mouth- but he had no memory of it happening.”
“That for some reason led my overthinking brain to question ‘Wow, did he have a seizure and not realize it?’ He has zero history of seizures, and we had been together multiple years (didn’t live together but spent nights together) and I had never seen a hint of a seizure. But for some reason, this stuck in my mind.”
“Fast forward two days. We usually don’t hang out in the morning because he likes to sleep in late, but on this day we had an appointment to go see a specific dog at the shelter I was thinking of adopting.”
“He wouldn’t answer the phone that morning. I called multiple times before I went to his place, but he never picked up. I started getting a bad feeling but quelled the ‘He’s having a seizure’ thought, because that was clearly SO unlikely, meanwhile making an action plan for that very scenario.”
“I got to his house and he wouldn’t answer, so in a completely NOT ME crazy girlfriend move, I climbed over his fence. Luckily his door was unlocked.”
“I found him unconscious and unresponsive, lying in his back with the sticky remnants of foam all around his mouth.”
“I jumped into action- I rolled him on his side to help curb aspiration, put a pillow under his shoulder to keep him in that position, and called the ambulance.”
“Had I not hopped the fence to get in- had I not driven over when he didn’t pick up the phone- had we not had plans to meet up hours earlier than we usually did- he would have been dead by lunch. His kidneys were already shutting down by the time he reached the ER.”
“If he had never mentioned biting his tongue in his sleep, I don’t think I would have been overthinking at all. No crazy worries about seizures would have pushed me to go over and find him.”
“Turns out to be a weird brain disease that’s bizarrely endemic to New Mexico kind of- cerebral cavernous malformations.”
“Several days later, after we got home from the hospital, I got a call from a friend who said the dog, against all odds, was still at the shelter- as in the very dog we were supposed to be seeing that day.”
“I had given up hope on getting her, pushed it out of my priorities while he was hospitalized- but they had forgotten to take down my 24 Hour Hold sign on her cage, so no one inquired about her.”
“She’s now our miracle dog and is the sweetest animal I’ve ever owned. My boyfriend wouldn’t be alive today if we hadn’t made an appointment to meet her.” – unicoroner
“Was at one of those trampoline parks with my kid when I look over and see several of the workers attending to an elderly lady sitting on the floor. Turns out she’d taken a shot to the forehead somehow and was bleeding profusely.”
“They were trying to help with paper towels. Well I’d taken a free local Stop the Bleed class “just in case” and since have kept supplies in my truck.”
“Asked if they needed some gauze and a bandage, went and got it, and brought it back. I told the guy, ‘Now if one piece of gauze fills up -‘ He interrupted, ‘Take it off and put on a new one.’ I said, ‘No! You put another one overtop that one, but leave the bottom one there.’ He said, ‘Well, you know more than I do. Come over and help.’ We were able to get her patched up.” – nchiker
Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, these overthinkers had the perfect tricks up their sleeves.
“I didn’t actually plan for this, it just worked out. But one day for some reason I put a suction cup in my pocket. I can’t exactly remember why – it was from a shower hook that I think broke (?) and I put it in my pocket hoping to find a replacement or something.”
“Later that day I was standing around with a few friends and one friend was lamenting that his bumper was dented. He showed us and said, ‘I bet I could pop it right out if I had like a suction cup or something.’”
“I wordlessly pulled the suction cup out of my pocket and handed it to him. Everyone definitely thought I was creepy as hell.” – Wishyouamerry
“I remember one day in school a teacher was complaining someone had tied her blinds so tightly she couldn’t get them to open or close.”
“Me being the weird kid, I ask her if she wanted a screwdriver to get it undone. She looked at me like I was crazy and a little scared as I reached into my wallet and pulled out this tiny screwdriver from those tiny finger bmx/skateboards and handed it over.”
“Everyone thought I was crazy and my teacher laughed in relief when she saw it. Everyone thought i was weird until I told them I used it to tighten the screws on my glasses.”
“They were constantly unscrewing themselves and I was sick of having to go to the opticians every time it happened. Obviously the solution was to carry a tiny screwdriver with me!” – Zanki
“Not me, but my mother.”
“Apparently at a party where my parents and their friends were playing board games, there was a realization that an hourglass was missing from one of the games they planned on playing. My mother proceeded to reach into her purse and pull out an hourglass she just so happened to bring, on the off chance they didn’t have one.”
“HOWEVER, later in the night when some drinks had been had, someone accidentally slammed a drink down, breaking my mother’s hourglass. Without missing a beat, she reached into her purse and pulled out ANOTHER hourglass.”
“She knew the first one, being glass, might get broken so she had a backup ready.” – BustyChicken
Mock them if you will, but you can’t argue with the fact overthinkers have got it covered.
Think about it.
If you were stuck on an island, wouldn’t you want to be with an overthinker?
Just saying.
Innovative technologies and gambling. The industry of online casinos sets significant benchmarks each and every year by incorporating innovative technology to influence the gaming experience for their players. Players are promised that they will receive an entertaining and safe environment for them to play in, with the assistance of the next-gen techs. Unlike the old times when players used to experience elementary technologies, newer casinos offer limitless possibilities to their players, including live casino games, VR games, and encrypted payment services. Thanks to the integration of mobile phones into gambling, players have the opportunity to play a wide range of
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In 2009, a 14 year old boy in Essen, Germany was heading to school when he saw a “ball of light” in the sky heading towards him. A small rock then hit his hand, glanced off and caused a foot wide crater in the ground. He is one of the few recorded humans to be […]
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Vin Diesel founded a game studio which has a focus on creating games featuring Vin Diesel.
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Life hacks have been the Pinterest mood board of the year ever since all we could do for 2020 was sit at home and figure out ways to make our lives a little easier.
Urban Dictionary tells us that a “Life Hack” is:
“A tool or technique that makes some aspect of one’s life easier or more efficient.”
Mommy blogs love them too.
Who said taking the easy way out had to be a bad thing anyway?
“Reddit, what are your best lifehacks?”
“Putting my clothes in my closet with the hangers reversed once a year. As I pull clothes out, I reverse the hanger. Every year I give away any clothes that I never took out.” – elblanco
“I do something similar. I put all the clothes I hang up each week on the left side of the closet, with each week sliding everything right to make room. Eventually the stuff I don’t wear makes its way to the right. That’s the stuff I ditch.” – keebler980
“Related to this, the most recent time I moved, I only took things out of boxes on an as-needed basis. After 6 months, anything that was still in a box got either thrown away or given to Goodwill.” – crazyeight
“When you need to remember to bring something with you, put your car keys on it the night before…” – drewlb
“What if it’s your car keys you need to remember… cries.” – Redditor
“I usually put things I need to remember on top of or in my shoes.” – nunobo
“Try a basket by the door, in which you always put your keys/wallet/what have you as soon as you walk in. This is what I do. I never lose my keys (I still do lock myself out of my car though. Usually on or right before dates).” – Redditor
“Here is a lifehack for all of the students out there. If you are charged with writing a lengthy research paper, find one very solid source that directly pertains to your thesis, and then you can use that source’s bibliography to back into locating new sources.” – Fonix79
“One of my professors says that it’s perfectly acceptable and done all the time in academia. Furthermore, you’re under no obligation to credit the source you used to find the bibliography unless you use something directly in that article.”
“Last, but not least, they have already written out the bibliography entry for you!” – Anonymous999
“For anyone just starting university, or grad school, in a program where you will write many papers: put EVERYTHING you ever read or remotely think will be useful into a bibliography database like Endnote (for Word users) or BibTeX.”
“You can pdf almost everything to a massive folder and link to it.”
“Then, not only is the info at your finger tips for however long you’re in school, but the software writes the bibliography for you.”
“NO idea why schools aren’t teaching this alongside general advice on writing all sorts of term papers…” – dolichoblond
“Never owe money on a car and never carry a Credit Card balance. It makes my life way easier and it is my way of saying F*ck You to the debt encouraging system we live in.” – cheddarben
“It’s amazing (and very, very sad) when you realize how few people actually do this.” – vtdweller
“I can’t agree enough with the credit card thing.”
“About 5 years out of college I had roughly 15k of credit card debt. I’d pay double the minimum and slowly work them down, only to run them up again when I wanted/needed something.”
“It took me three years, but I finally got it all paid off and haven’t run up anything higher than a thousand or so since then.”
“The trick is to consolidate. Put all your bills on one card.”
“Make sure to call around and get the best possible balance transfer rate for the longest. (I lucked out at something like 1% until it was paid off).”
“Then, take all the money you were paying on all the separate cards, plus a little extra, and hit it hard.”
“(For the geeky among you, imagine it as using a super-powerful attack month after month to reduce the health bar of your debt.)”
“It took about $500 a month, which made things tight, but doable.”
“The best part was that once the debt is paid, you’ve gotten accustomed to living in that -$500 a month fashion, and find yourself with an extra $500 in your pocket (or savings) each month.”
“So when you do want/need to spend, you’ve got the cash on hand.” – fffuuuu-na-mana
“Poop at work. You’ll be using less of your own tp and more of your company’s time.”
“I started going into the john to play games on my cell phone for 5-10 minutes just to take a break; while I was in there I’d pinch one out.”
“After a few weeks I realized that I hadn’t replaced my own tp at my apartment in a while.” – Redditor
“And you get paid for that sh*t.” – Redditor
“I prefer to call it ‘professional defecation.’” – De_Draad
“I did the math on this, I make about 30 dollars annually just for sh*tting.” – sambowilkins
“Back when I was 18-26, I always had one full bag packed in my car. It generally had clean underwear, a t-shirt or two, jeans, shorts, flops, and toothbrush/deodorant.”
“I can’t tell you how many times I’d just meet up with some friends and next thing you know it was 2AM and I needed a place to sleep. Having everything with me was awesome.” – ChrisF79
“‘What you invited Chris? Dude that guy sits around after everyone else has left and then suddenly is surprised that its 2am.”
“But no worries, he has a freeloader bag packed in the car. Hope you have lots of food in the fridge. You’ll need it.’”
“Just kidding.” – fdat
“Slightly different structure to mine, but I do something similar. Under the back seat of each of my trucks I have a roll of clothes.”
“T-shirt, pair of jeans, socks, and undies. The difference is, instead of a bag, I have it tightly wrapped up in stretch wrap.”
“It’s like kitchen saran wrap but we use it in receiving to wrap bundles / pallets. The benefits are it keeps it super compact and effectively watertight.”
“The times I’ve had to crack one open often have been because my current clothes got either soaked or dirty working, so nice and dry was a huge benefit.” – vetteboy
“Make lunch for work the night before.”
“1. Groceries are way cheaper than eating out every day – f*ck anyone who thinks you’re lame because you don’t have a Timmyho bagel or BK for lunch everyday. I’m saving 4-5$ per meal.”
“2. Not making lunch the morning makes the morning that much smoother.” – flatlander30
“I take the ‘make lunch for work the night before’ one step further:”
“Make the guts of your sandwiches for the whole week on Sunday. Sandwich your meat, mayo, mustard in between two slices of cheese, pop each one in a ziplock.”
“On your way out the door in the morning, toss in two slices of bread and you’re good to go.” – gertrude104
“Never go grocery shopping when you’re hungry.” – Redditor
“Or the reverse – always go when you’re hungry. I find I buy more grocery stuff, so my kitchen is more full, causing me to eat out less often. Larger initial investment, but overall investment is smaller.” – clunkclunk
“Yeah, but you buy sh*t that you would NEVER buy otherwise. It’s like picking up people when you’re drunk and horny….your inhibitions and judgement flies out the window and everything looks good.”
“Going shopping hungry is the reason that I’ve had a can of ‘gravy and meatballs’ in my pantry for two years.” – weirdboobs
“If there’s something big I want to get done, I tell all my friends I’m going to do it. The fear of looking like an a** helps keep me motivated.” – munificent
“That is how I quit smoking. In addition to telling all my friends and family, I put on my whiteboard at the office the number of days I went without a cigarette in addition to the last time I had one.”
“Last Cigarette: October 17th 2008 6:30 AM Time Since Then: <some value>”
“Every time I increased the number, I felt a small victory. At some point changing the value everyday just became a habit and somewhat trivial.”
“At 100 days or so, I started putting weeks instead of days.”
“Not only did it keep me accountable, people would occasionally see it while in my office and tell me ‘good job!’”
“While I knew they had no idea how incredibly hard it was to quit, knowing that people recognized my effort fueled me even further.”
“At some point, I finally stopped remember to change the number every Friday (70+ weeks).”
“Currently, I do not know how long it has been since I have had a cigarette, but I can tell you the exact time I had my last one.” – dulper
“In the morning I practically jump right out of bed, go and wash my face with cold water. Then I jump back into bed and listen to music while I’m waking up.”
“I’ve found this a lot easier than just lying there waiting to wake up naturally. I can just hop out of bed right away, knowing that I’ll be back in just a minute, and then the water wakes me right up.”
“Before I used to do this I’d just lay there like a sloth, moaning in my head about how tired I am etc… I’ve found this trick to be a good happy-medium.” – cocasyn
“I set morning alarms ten minutes apart. When the first one goes off, I grab a piece of caffeine gum that I keep on my nightstand, chew it for about fifteen seconds and get rid of it.”
“Fall back asleep. When the second one goes off, getting out of bed is not only easy, but exciting.” – Redditor
“Definitely agree with this. Be sure to have a good pump up song on the ready to.”
“Something that either makes you smile or one you would have on at the gym. And I love a good face rinse, just feels…right.” – SloppyJoMo
“I used to have my computer set up to start playing a specific iTunes playlist on the stereo at a certain time. The playlist was exactly as long as I had in the morning and went from chill songs to more energetic.”
“Throughout my morning routine, I could always tell how I was doing on time by the currently playing song.” – munificent
We don’t always do things the easy way.
In a time where the little things can seem extra difficult given everything that’s been going on, we might as well take some advice from stranger and make our lives a little more pleasant.
For most of our younger existence it feels like survival is just a given and life is forever.
But that truth is soon turned into myth when you realize life is fragile and death can be whenever and wherever.
The good news is we can all be capable of saving ourselves and others in any given situation just by acquiring some basic knowledge and necessary facts.
Any knowledge is good knowledge, whether it’s how to fight a crazed gunman with a twig or the heimlich maneuver.
So get your pads and pencils out kids, time to study triage.
“What is a little known fact that can save a life?”
“You can still drown up to 72 hours after a non-fatal drowning or other aquatic incident via water remaining in your lungs afterwards and causing edema (swelling).”
“Shortness of breath, wheezing or raspy breathing, chest pain are all signs to look for and one should get medically checked out ASAP.”
“Even without any symptoms after a near-drowning/aquatic incident it is highly recommended.”
“Source: science and 10-year Lifeguard/First Aid Instructor Trainer.” ~ YourFriendlyUncle
“If a tornado looks like it’s still, it’s moving towards you.” ~ Reddit
“When we stayed in Tx, we had a little rack that held empty pop cans.”
“Usually when a tornado was brewing, the air pressure would be great enough to start crumpling the cans. I found it fascinating.” ~ osirisrebel
“Learned that one that hard way as a kid.”
“My grandma thought it was a regular dust devil until she realized that it wasn’t getting smaller, and it was picking crap up to throw.” ~ ClancyHabbard
“My mom had a dentist appointment a while back. With novocaine still in effect, she headed to the gym for a workout (this was pre-COVID).”
“One of the trainers greeted her, and when she responded with a slightly lopsided smile and slurred speech, he immediately was concerned and asked her to raise both her arms.”
“It took her a second, but then she realized he was thinking she may have been having a stroke.”
“She explained that she’d been to the dentist, and they both got a laugh out of it. But kudos to that trainer.”
“He’s an observant guy, and he might save a life someday.” ~ Reddit
“That drowning people don’t flail around and scream.”
“This is why there are usually spotters (the guys and girls in the chairs) and rescue (the guys and girls on the shore/around the edge).”
“Spot the person who comes up and goes down rather than the screaming flailing people who are playing.” ~ ModsAreHallMonitors
“Secondary drowning, or “dry drowning”, is a serious concern for those rescued from a near drowning as well.”
“If it’s believed the victim has taken any water in their lungs at all, they need to be checked out at the hospital.” ~ NorCalShasta
“Learn the elementary backstroke. It’s a stroke that requires less energy to swim. Lay on your back. Keep your chest inflated to stay afloat.” ~ Lark_Iron_Cloud
“Just a backfloat will work. I barely learned to swim in high school, but I got the elementary backstroke down and could do a frog kick decently.”
“Plus they were teaching survival swimming/drownproofing. I hope something like that is still around.” ~ Sirius_J_Moonlight
“Preferably wear neon orange if going in the woods.”
“Same for all the joggers, bicyclists and walkers-Including your dog- so many people appear as dappled shadows when you’re driving-all times of the day not just in twilight.”
“I’ve had some scary moments avoiding people and oncoming traffic!” ~ pickalelly
“Dude I have some idiots in my neighborhood.”
“Like to go on walks at like 4am/2am/11pm… freaking whenever it’s dark.”
“I’ve almost ran them over 10+ times because they also like to walk in the middle right side or right middle right side of the lane (to far into the street to be safe).”
“And they where black clothes.” ~ oreo_milktinez
“Do not mix household chemicals unless you know specifically what the result will be.”
“Specifically do not mix bleach with anything other than water.” ~ surprise_me_today
“My cat peed on the floor on our concrete basement and my dad (not exactly a science major) was like “pour bleach on it”.”
“So I, being 12, did. I poured bleach onto highly distilled ammonia.”
“I stopped being able to breathe, didn’t know why. I closed the bottle and ran upstairs with my lungs absolutely burning my head aching.”
“I closed that door to keep my cat out of it but refused to go back in.”
“When my mom came home I told her about it and she freaked out.”
“I felt really bad like I did something wrong and my mom just yells up the stairs.”
“YOU TRIED TO GAS OUR DAUGHTER YOU DUMB FOOL!!” ~ LadyCashier
“Do NOT put anything in the mouth of someone having a seizure.”
“They cannot choke on their own tongue, but they can choke on a wallet, belt, etc.”
“DO turn them on their side, time the seizure, and call 911 (or your local emergency services if not in America).” ~ phoria
“Also, check to see if they’re wearing a medical ID bracelet or necklace, or if they have anything with an emergency contact number on it. (Some phones have a medical ID feature, for example.)”
“Often times, they won’t need to go to the hospital and ambulances are stupid expensive in America.”
“If possible, call their emergency contact first.”
“The ambulance should be called if there are many seizures in a row, if the seizure lasts for more than 5 minutes.”
“If they are severely injured themselves during the seizure, or if it is the person’s first known seizure.” ~ Violet112358
“CPR is nasty. 2 inches of compression will break ribs and mash the insides of the chest cavity.”
“It feels gross, it sounds gross, it looks gross, and it’s freaking HARD.”
“There is no way to comfortably give CPR.” ~ Reddit
“If you get stabbed by something don’t pull it out.” ~ dietderpsy
Well that is a lot to digest.
And a lot to incorporate into my brain. I pray to never have to use any of this.
Being stabbed and drowning haunt my dreams. Of course now I have eight new things to haunt me, but I’m better prepared.
Life is fragile, doesn’t mean we have to be.
Fact: People love free… and also people are suspicious of it.
We’re all so used to getting spammed, ending up in a time-share meeting, or getting added to yet another call list when we hear “free” we kind of cringe.
The up-side of that caution is only getting five calls about your car’s extended warranty this week, not the 20 that your friend got.
The down-side of avoiding anything that claims to be free is that you’re missing out on some legitimate internet awesomeness!
“What is something free from the internet, which everyone should take advantage of?”
So get ready to take some screenshots (they work better if you actually use them) so we can get you ballin’ on a budget.
We’re talking intellectual ballin’, creative ballin’, career ballin’—the internet is seriously FILLED with free ways to upgrade yourself.
“There are tons and tons of free ebooks available online, a huge variety of stuff. Even free audiobooks.”
“I created r/FreeEBOOKS to help people find stuff they can get for free and am including some lists I’ve compiled by topic below:”
“These lists are from Project Gutenberg which is a great source for free ebooks in the public domain on a wide variety of topics. If you want other stuff check out r/FreeEBOOKS :)”
“250+ books by or about US Presidents“
“300 science fictions short stories“
“200 more science fiction short stories“
“100 free memoirs and autobiographies“
“100 free books about pirates“
“70 books about space and astronomy“
“200 books about cooking and housekeeping“
“50 historical books about childbirth and sexual health“
“Free assigned summer reading books“
“60 free ebooks about adventure and exploration in the Arctic and at the South Pole“
“100 free books of ghost stories“
“100 more free mythology ebooks“
“50 free ebooks about inventions and inventors“
“100 unusual or very specific history books“
“250 books by or about US presidents“
“Free audiobook collections from Librivox:”
“50 more free classic audiobooks“ – Chtorr
“Audacity -A powerful audio editor, ideal for music and podcasts.”
“Autodesk Fusion 360 -CAuD/CAM software.”
“Bit Warden -Open-source password management service.”
“Blender – Free and open source 3D creation suite.”
“Cake Walk – music production software”
“Dark Table – Open-source photography workflow application and raw developer.”
“Dashlane -Cross-platform subscription-based password manager and digital wallet application.”
“DaVinci Resolve -Color correction and non-linear video editing application.”
“FreeCAD -open-source general-purpose parametric 3D computer-aided design modeler.”
“GIMP -A powerful open source photo and image editing tool.”
“Godot Engine -a 2D and 3D, cross-platform, free and open-source game engine released under the MIT license.”
“Glitch – Build fast, full-stack web apps in your browser.”
“Glimpse Image Editor – A photo editor for everyone.”
“Greenshot -A free screenshot tool optimized for productivity.”
“Handbrake -the open source video transcoder”
“Honey -a browser extension that aggregates and automatically applies online coupons on eCommerce websites.”
“Hitfilm-Express -Video editing software with professional-grade VFX tools.”
“Inkscape – Free and open-source vector graphics editor.”
“KDEnLive -open-source video editing software based on the MLT Framework, KDE and Qt.”
“Keepass -free and open-source password manager primarily for Windows.”
“Krita -Free and open-source raster graphics editor designed primarily for digital painting and 2D animation.”
“Open Broadcaster Software(OBS) – open-source software for video recording and live streaming.”
“LibreOffice -Open-source office suite.”
“LMMS -a digital audio workstation application program.”
“MagicaVoxel -A free lightweight GPU-based voxel art editor and interactive path tracing renderer.”
“MediBang Paint Pro -FREE digital painting and comic creation software.”
“Musescore -Create, play and print beautiful sheet music”
“Ocenaudio – Easy, fast, and powerful audio editor.”
“Opentoonz – animation production software.”
“Paint.NET -a freeware raster graphics editor program for Microsoft Windows developed on the .NET Framework”
“Photopea -Web-based raster and vector graphics editor.”
“Pixlr – Feature-packed online photo editor.”
“QGIS -open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system application”
“Radio Garden – Explore live radio by rotating the globe.”
“RawTherapee – free, cross-platform raw image processing program”
“Reaper -Digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer software”
“ShareX -Screen capture, file sharing and productivity tool.”
“Shotcut -A slick open source program for advanced video editing.”
“SlidesGo -Free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates.”
“Switch -Convert and encode sound files quickly.”
“The Noun Project – Icons for everything.”
“TurboTax Sucks Ass – website that makes it easy to file your taxes.”
“Unity -cross-platform game engine.”
“Unreal Engine – the most open and advanced real-time 3D creation tool.”
“Unsplash – Beautiful free images and pictures.”
“VLC media player -open-source portable cross-platform media player software and streaming media server”
“VS Code -free source-code editor.”
“Waveform – fully featured, completely unlimited free DAW for all music creators.”
“Wavepad -Audio and music editor for Windows and Mac.”
“Wcostream – anime and animated Tv-show/movie site with dubs and subs.”
“7-Zip – file archiver with a high compression ratio”
“> Some learning material:”
“Codecademy – free sessions and exercises for any coding language.”
“Coursera – Online courses & Certifications.( Not all courses/certifications are free, but worth it)”
“Cybrary – The Cybersecurity and IT Career Development Platform”
“Edx – Online courses & Certifications.( Not all courses/certifications are free, but worth it)”
“FreeCodeCamp – Learn to code at home.”
“Goal Kicker – Free programming books in any language.”
“Khan Academy -a non-profit educational organization.”
“Learn with Google – Courses and certifications from Google.”
“Learn with Microsoft on Edx (Free) – Courses from Microsoft.”
“MDN Web Docs – Resources for developers, by developers.”
“MIT courses -MIT’s OpenCourseware.”
“Octave -software featuring a high-level programming language, primarily intended for numerical computations. Basically free MatLab Alternative”
“R- programming language -free software environment for statistical computing and graphics”
“Repl.it – Code and collaborate, without friction.” – beef_boss_
“Wolfram Alpha.”
“I don’t know if it’s already been said, but Wolfram Alpha was a lifesaver for checking answers when taking Calculus 1-3 in college.”
“It’s definitely useful for all sorts of answers, but specifically when it comes to answers for science and math questions, it’s great.” – xSlippyFistx
“I owe a good amount of my engineering degree to this platform right here. Our school even had the premium version for students.” – AFB27
“Yes! I use it with my students. Such a great resource.” – RustedRelics
“Google Scholar.”
“If you type that in and then look up any thing you want the results are all scholarly work.”
“For example, if you type in volcanos you will get an absolute ton of scientific documents about volcanos, any research that is being done on them, any papers that have been written about them and any data you might want. It’s all right there.”
“While it is true that some sources require payment, if you’re a college student and you have a student email you should be able to access a lot of the information. Next time you write a paper for a science class check out google scholar!” – Objective_Reality232
“Wikipedia. We take that site for granted, big time.”
“There are few things in this world that do NOT have a Wikipedia page at this point. People have dedicated hours, days, even their entire lives, to filling the site up with all the knowledge one could ever need.”
“All that information is free!”
“Want to learn about the history of the escalator? Wikipedia has it.”
“Interested in the Civil War? You bet you can find it on Wikipedia.”
“Wikipedia will not be around forever, folks. Use it while you have it.”
“Read random articles. It’s fun.” – [Reddit]
“Online courses and guides. The fact that you can learn anything for FREE at home, is amazing.”
“Like 40 years ago, you had to actually pay for lessons and go away from your home. Nowadays you can do everything online.”
“Want to learn knitting: You got it!”
“Want to learn to speak a foreign language: You got that too!”
“Want to study for an upcoming test: You can, but you probably won’t!”
“Isn’t the internet just amazing!” – WitheredGone
“I found out I have confederate ancestors through findagrave, and have used it to build a family tree going back to the 1700s.”
“Pro Tip: African Americans get discouraged when building family trees because of the perceived lack of records, but please use:”
“censusrecords.com”
“findagrave.com.”
“and the national parks civil war veterans registry.”
“Black confederate veteran’s pension records will be kept at the state archives, and are not attached to the national registration, which gives branch, regiment, company, and state.”
“Confederatevets.org, might have clearer information. Black confederates will have less clear records than black Union veterans.”
“You’re working your way backwards with names, states/counties, dates, and other criteria. Please know that the 1850 and 1860 census contain slave schedules, wherein many people find their last name is linked to that of a slave owner, or through an illegal interracial marriage.”
“At that point, much of what remains is diary scraps, ship records, and newspaper scraps such as those found for free on the Chronicling America Project by the Library of Congress.”
“Chronicling America allows sorting by keywords, state, and year range, but be aware a lot of state archives contain out of state papers, and desired papers might need unorthodox searches.”
“As a rule the term ‘negro’, ‘sale’, and the surname of a buyer, owner, auctioneer/seller will offer a trail to a port, or at least a county within a state.”
“Take screenshots and write things down on physical paper for the best clarity.”
“While local heritage museums might have plantation or ship records (you’ll have to email/phone multiple in a multiple-county area to know) don’t count on these records surviving the city torchings done through the war years.”
“Don’t feel discouraged, because everyone hits a wall eventually when searching through their ancestry.”
“The European wall is about 1550 or later, when last names became common. It’s very common for misspellings, and pre-national language regional languages to muddle names (eg. German v Dutch, Irish v Scottish, Vietnamese v Laotian).”
“The black wall is 1850 much of the time.”
“If your goal is to find African nation ancestry, it’s ultra rare to find it. However, language studies have found that the vast bulk of African diaspora in the New World are from the far western African coastal nations.”
“The dashiki, much of voudoo, Creoles, Ananzi the spider, the roots of soul food, and other legacy practices come from this small-ish region. So Liberia, to the Ivory Coast, Ghana, to Seira Leone, and the northern half of the Congo coast is the ancestral origin point, if that’s your goal.”
“Bantu and French are the cheif languages to look at (not Swahili). If you try to find a specific tribal group or nation, you’re likely not seeing the forest for all the trees.”
“You are entitled to history. It’s yours, take it.” – crumpledcactus
“Art Breeder. You’re able to mix images together to create something new and keep tweaking it until you get something you like.”
“Personally, I like using it to create characters that look similar to the ones in my head–useful for story writing.”
“The free version has a limit of five or so images if you want to upload your own, but there’s a huge library of images for browsing through. I like typing in keywords and seeing what comes up and combining those.”
“You just type in whatever keyword you want (or pick one of the ones there), select a photo, then click cross-breed and repeat with another keyword.” – iridescenttropy
So what are you doing in here still reading?
You should be playing with all the free stuff you now know about.
Go! Get your free on!
We all make mistakes.
Some are bigger than others.
Some errors are massive, having profound ramifications that impact the rest of our lives while others have more limited consequences.
Turns out, though, that not all mistakes are the end of the world—some are the beginning of something fantastic.
“What is a mistake you have made that actually made something better?”
“Accidentally backed into a pole at night in my mother’s Taurus.”
“Low speed, no damage, but it was dead center, so in between the reverse lights, I didn’t see it.”
“However, the trunk latch was never sticky again, worked fine after.” ~Speedy-McLeadfoot
“I work in television.”
“A few years ago I was a background PA (I help set Extras in a TV show and give them their actions).”
“Anyways the scene taking place was that the main character was being checked by a doctor in an office with the door open (weird but I don’t make those decisions).”
“I sent an extra down that hallway and told him to go inside the office to the right – the one across from where the scene was happening.”
“I guess this guy didn’t hear me correctly but during the scene he went into the office where the scene was happening, upon realizing his mistake he played along as if he were part of the scene and gave them an: ‘Oops!’ “
“And the actors reacted to him, making the scene funnier.”
“My boss was quick to yell at me but the director came out and asked who made the decision because it was awesome!”
“Of course my boss stopped yelling.”
“They decided to upgrade the extra and add his line.”
“The man went from getting paid $125 a day to making a bit more than $1k for saying the word Oops!”
“The guy thanked me profusely because he was in desperate need of money and this was going to help him with rent.”
“All throughout the day, he thanked me.”
“My mistake made someone so happy. It made my day.”~SuitableCamel6129
“I misread a chili recipe that called for tamari (a type of soy sauce) and put tahini (sesame seed paste).”
“It was creamy and delicious!”
“I realized my mistake the next time I made it, but to this day I still put tahini in it.”~HarrisonRyeGraham
“I was making a Moussaka recipe, this one was like… think lasagna, but Greek with slices of eggplant instead of layers of noodles.”
“Trying to help me, for some reason my SO diced the eggplant.”
“We said: ‘F*ck it.’ and continued making what turned out to be more of a Moussaka-like casserole.”
“OMFG it was good!”
“So that’s how we make it.”
“Not filling between layers of eggplant slices, we make it casserole-style.”
“Never even tried to follow the recipe again correctly.”~Sniffs_Markers
“I approached a dude in high school thinking he was someone else I met the other day.”
“(I was new to this school and still learning who people were).”
“I didn’t realize this until days later when he told me.”
“However we became best friends.”
“He eventually introduced me to my future wife who I now have a family with.”
“A simple case of mistaken identity shaped my whole life.”~Actuaryba
I got into a drunken street fight a long time ago and ended up getting arrested.”
“I beat one guy up and then pulled a knife on another guy he was with when he tried to intervene.”
“I actually didn’t think it was a big deal after the fight ended as I felt that I had won and just proceeded to walk home.”
“Next thing you know 10 cop cars surrounded me and I was in handcuffs sitting in the back of a police car.”
“It was 100% my fault.”
“I went to a lawyer who said he would help me with the criminal case that came with what I had done, but I had to go to AA.”
“I told him that I didn’t remember much from the previous evening and he explained that I had experienced an ‘alcoholic blackout’ and that I was so inebriated that I stopped recording memories and couldn’t control my behavior.”
“He said that I was an alcoholic and he sees it all the time in clients that come to him for help after drinking and doing something stupid.”
“If this hadn’t happened I probably would have still been drinking every single day and continuing down the path of ruining my life.”
“I ended up going to 50+ AA meetings which gave me a chance to reevaluate my life and have been sober ever since.”~reaverdude
“Didn’t mute myself in an online meeting by accident.”
“Told a joke to my friend and because people from the online meeting heard it, they of course laughed and after the meeting one of the participants told me she was having a very hard time because of her depression and that I lifted her mood up.”
“Sh*t was pleasant, ngl”~wriggly_jiggled22
“In my 20s, when I was unemployed and almost broke, I got a great job offer and was so stoked that I said yes before reading the whole offer letter.”
“A few days later I realized the position they gave me wasn’t at the local office where I had interviewed but was on the other side of the country.”
“Oops.”
“I went for it anyway and it turned out to be a wonderful move.”
“I started life over from scratch, had a ton of fun exploring a new place, made some great friends, and met my wife.”~SagebrushBiker
“As a musician, I have to say it’s every instance of ‘I keep playing this riff I wrote wrong so that’s how it’s played now’.” ~thrashingkaiju
That’s one way to quit?
“I ashed a cigarette in a glass that had a drink in it (don’t ask me why).”
“I accidentally picked it up and took the biggest swig of what I thought was my scotch- I projectile vomited, and never touched another cigarette”~Muriana_of
We all make mistakes.
We run from them, we shun them and we try our hardest to deny them but sometimes what we think of as a misstep is actually a step in the right direction.
Sometimes, our mistakes make us.