At home I use a 1L glass bottle with straight sides and a wide opening, metal lid and a neoprene sleeve. It’s cheap, easy to clean and does its job.

The obvious downside is that it’s heavy and can break if you drop it but I don’t travel a lot so that’s fine for me.

Median productivity goes up yet median quality of life goes down.

I also sent you a DM.

Cool! I’ll send you a DM.

To keep the advertising out of the main comment: the next event is during the last week of July, signups are open. We’ve gotten older (current core group is late 20s to mid 40s) but we still spend our time playing (and sometimes making) games, cooking and just hanging out. If you think that would be something for you and you have a way to come to the north of Germany, hit me up. Most guests are German native speakers but we’ve had international guests and almost everyone is comfortable switching to English if needed.

I feel that deep in my bones.

Way back in late December of 2006, I got invited to a community meetup for a forum that I was active in. It was in the north of Germany, about 600 km away from where I live but I had already met a few people in person, so I went. We were about 60 people, anywhere from age 13 to 30 sharing a rented location for a week, building RPG Maker games, playing TTRPGs and Wii Sports, cooking for ourselves and celebrating the new year.

Since then, I’ve been there at the same location, every time that event was held. Usually twice a year, except during COVID. People came and went. The original organizers resigned after the winter 2010/11 event because it had become too much work for them. A new team took over and in 2015 I was made part of that team. First as just one of many, then as second in command and eventually when the team lead left in 2019, I took his place.

The community has shrunk over time, many members are not active anymore because of their jobs, partners or children but I’m still holding on. Every summer and every winter, I take a train across my home country to give the 20-30 remaining guests a week where we can feel young and forget what happens in the outside world. In addition to that, I started an event closer to where I live. Kind of a woodlands retreat for 10-20 people over a long weekend in spring.

The team has shrunk to just my SO and me. I’ve been looking for someone who can help us or take over for us in case we can’t make it. So far, I have found nobody. It is a hard and thankless job but I know if I give up I might never see some of my friends again, so I’m holding on as long as I can. As long as we are enough people to pay the rent for a location that has become a second home for most of us. I have sworn to make it at least to my 20th anniversary this coming winter, even if I have to pay everything out of my own pocket. After that, we’ll see. I’m still hoping for a return of the old guard or an influx of new guests and maybe one of them is interested in learning how to do what I’m doing.

“So you know how when you go really fast with a chariot , it slips and slides around in tight turns? And you know when it’s really windy and you hold your hand like this, it gets pushed up? And when you hold it the other way, it gets pushed down? Right. We can use that to solve the chariot problem. We can put a board on the back of the chariot in the same way you would hold your hand to have it pushed down. That way, the chariot gets pushed down and has better contact with the ground so it stays more stable.”

I think you’re off by a couple millennia. Depending on the definition, the iron age (in Europe) aligns roughly with Greek and early Roman antiquity, a time famously known for philosophers whose works we still read today, not with stereotypical cavemen.

I think they want to know if there is a PeerTube client (ideally an “official” one) that runs on such a weak phone.

I haven’t played much past creating characters and redesigning their home so if you want to know how the actual lifesim aspect feels, I would recommend the 45 minutes of gameplay video on the official channel.

That being said, the creative side is amazing. Even though you don’t have as many clothing items and objects as Sims 4 has accumulated over the years, what you have is extremely flexible. Everything (skin, hair, clothes, furniture, walls, floors, …) can be freely recolored, often with multiple color slots and patterns. Clothes can be layered so you can freely pick which jacket goes with which shirt - and of course you can color them separately. Furniture can be resized, often separately in different dimensions and they will procedurally adapt to those new dimensions. For example, two-seater and three-seater couches are the same item. Just make a two-seater a bit wider and a third seat appears.

I could go on but I guess you get the general idea.

There are a few bugs (most noticeably a broken animation when a Para gets up from sitting at a desk) but for an early access indie game it’s already more stable than I would have expected.

Pentecost Monday is a holiday where I live. I binged almost an entire season of Game Changer and created my first Paralives household.

It is not. See JuSchG § 9, section 2: “Section 1, number 1 does not apply to adolescents in company of a legal guardian”. Section 1, number 1 restricts beer, wine, cider and similar drinks under the age of 16 and an adolescent (“Jugendlicher”) is defined as 14+.

In total, that means that you are allowed to buy and drink the listed kinds of alcoholic beverages starting at 14, as long as a legal guardian is present and allows it. Even in public.

For other alcoholic beverages (e.g. liquor) or food that contains significant amounts of alcohol, there is a hard limit at 18+, no exceptions.

Keeping a respectfully low profile is never a bad idea.

I certainly hope that it goes without saying that you should be respectful towards others, just like everywhere else in the world. I just wanted to clarify that Germany is not some totalitarian dystopia where you immediately go to prison for insulting someone.

This thread gives me so many opportunities to go “well actually” with useless knowledge.

Pepper spray is kind of legal in Germany. You can freely buy it without age restrictions as a defense against wild animals. It is however illegal to deliberately use it against humans. But then again, German self-defense law allows you to use “whatever is necessary” to prevent an attack. So if you can make a compelling argument that your bare hands were not enough, you can totally use pepper spray, a knife, a baseball bat or even a gun to protect yourself, your property or others. Of course, for the gun you might be on the hook for illegal possession but that’s a different question.

On the other hand, CS gas (a form of tear gas) is fully legal for use on humans.

Insulting people can result in criminal prosecution in Germany.

Technically yes but realistically it only gets prosecuted in extreme cases. Like throwing feces at someone or distributing leaflets with your insults. If you just call someone an asshole, no police officer in the country will even bother with it. It’s hard to prove who said what and the maximum sentence is extremely low.

I think you’re confusing us with the British.

Germans are careful about anything that could be considered antisemitic because of history but unless you go straight to Nazi slogans, there is no law that forbids you from being critical of Israel. Insulting someone can be illegal but that can only be applied if you insult a specific person, not a country and it’s only enforced in extreme cases.

So unless OP plans to join a full-blown anti-Israel protest that risks getting violent, I don’t think they have to worry about that.

“Grüß Gott” exists in BW but it has become very rare. I would say only the generation 80+ uses it regularly. Edit: source

In Swiss German, “grüezi” (which comes from “Gott grüße euch”, so basically the same origin) is extremely common.

I have lived my whole life in the south of Germany.

People in the south are literally known for their friendliness. Or, in the case of Bayern, their fake friendliness.

Don’t get me wrong, people are friendly. But the way they show it is different from other cultures. They are more likely to tell you what’s on their mind instead of meaningless small talk and polite phrases. To some cultures that seems to appear rude even if it isn’t meant to be.

They do not speak English.

The assumption that nobody speaks English is outdated by decades. Some may have a thick accent or mix German and English grammar when speaking but they will definitely understand you. I’ve met many foreigners who came here to practice their German and got frustrated when everyone immediately switched to English when they noticed a foreign accent.

General culture:

• In a big city like Munich, most people under 60 will understand English pretty well. Some might be hesitant to reply in English because they are not used to speaking it out loud but they will certainly know what you need from them. Younger people who are chronically online might have more contact with English than with German in their everyday life.
• Many Germans, especially in the south can appear grumpy and not very talkative towards strangers. They are not angry at you, just direct. “Not complaining is enough praise” is a fairly common saying. If you ask someone how their day was, don’t expect empty pleasantries but facts. On the other hand, once you get to know someone you can become their new best friend within half a day.
• This goes for anywhere in the world but if you value your sanity, don’t talk about politics.
• We may be of a different culture than you but we are not aliens. If you are unsure about something, just ask and if you do something inappropriate, someone will tell you.
• If you need a snack during the day, I recommend looking for a bakery. Most will have a selection of sandwiches and bottled beverages.
• Most stores are closed on Sundays while restaurants may have their own days off (often Monday). Opening times may vary but don’t expect 24/7 supermarkets like in the US and Asia. If you urgently need something, try a gas station or near a train station.

Laws:

• The EU and Germany specifically is big on privacy. It is technically illegal to take a photo of an individual without their consent. Photographing crowds is fine and nobody will complain about being in the background of your selfie but don’t go around shoving a camera in someone’s face without asking.
• As others have said, beer is legal from 16, liquor from 18, even in public. Even if you don’t drink, be prepared to encounter a couple of drunk teenagers if you’re out in the evening. Just be polite and ignore them and it will be fine.
• Other than that, expect a pretty standard western legal system. Unless you’re planning to actively commit a crime, the details won’t be important to you.

Terms and phrases:

• Bahnhof => train station
• U-Bahn => subway / metro
• Flughafen => airport
• Bitte => please / you’re welcome (yes, it can mean both)
• Danke => thank you

Well, if someone can’t handle losing as a result of their own skill level, chess probably isn’t the right game for them. Unless you pick opponents below your own level, you will realistically lose about half of your games and you can’t blame it on bad luck. That’s part of the game.