Lots of people are feeling hopeless and upset right now, and for good reason. It’s normal to feel like no matter what you do, things are going to get much worse for a lot of people. Blame, despair and anger are natural reactions, but as the shock of the situation dulls, what’s your plan going forward?
Call me naive, but seeing hate have a resurgence makes me want to do more to help the people that are going to suffer the most. I’m going to make a plan to volunteer more of my time and resources to help organizations that need it. I’m going to see if my friends can organize with me to sponsor a migrant family. I may not be able to do much, but my personal way of coping with shitty situations is to try to make the world a little less shitty.
I’m going to try to be kinder and more forgiving with people, and be a better role model for my kids. And I’m going to resist and fight back against hate when I see it.
Lastly, I’m going to be a more supportive friend to the people in my life. And to anyone reading this that feels like this world’s gone insane, and you’re all alone: you’re not. We’re still in this together, and I appreciate everything you’re doing.
4B. Women if you want to know message me.
My toddler and I have been bringing a trash bag to the park and cleaning the place up. It’s always a mess and it makes me sad to see because it’s my sons favorite park.
My current activities : -Finding caring doctors for an woman -Counsel men at my work about mental health abx/or unionization -Help two refugees friends for their paperwork for citizenship.
I wish I could do more, but on top of work, I’m already exhausted.
Help my people with my time when I can.
I keep extinct in the wild and critically endangered species of fish in my aquariums and am a member of a couple of fish focused associations who work with universities for the goal of preservation of species. been considering getting into red listed frogs and cactus, but the communities are smaller (so less access to species) and space is a premium when living in an apartment.
i wish there was more exposure of this hobby because it’s such an affordable, easy and “low effort” thing to do, but a lot of people who care about the environment and animals basically get offended when you keep animals “locked up” in an aquarium. in my opinion, serious aquarists (not the pet store furniture mentality) are invaluable, as a lot of species has been saved from extinction through aquarist efforts and university collaboration to reintroduce them to their native ranges after restoration work is completed (at least Lenoardo DiCaprio made a little bit of social media impact for one of the associations in 2022).
I should add, overfishing is not the leading cause for extinction in freshwater fish, it’s pollution from agriculture, as the vast majority of fish threatened with extinction have no utility to us (or bright enough colors to benefit the commercial pet trade - brightly colored species are generally not even found in the wild, and have their colors from decades of selective breeding by dedicated aquarists).
I started the tradition with my parents and brother of saving money over the year for charity. We put up a jar at my parents house and whenever we visit and have money to spare (which for me is a fixed amount every month that I put aside), it goes into the jar. On christmas the money split evenly among us and everyone tells which cause/organization they are going to donate their part to.
The jar thing is not ideal because I rarely have cash on me so I always have to go to the bank first and then when it’s time to donate, the cash money has to go back into the bank. But it’s nice to look at and it doesn’t tell exactly how much is in it from a glance, so it’s a bit of a mystery until Christmas. I might propose to go digital for next year though.
I miss having spare change. Everything is so much more convenient with a card and as a result I have no coins on me at any time. The hardest hit are the homeless, and you see them outside the stations really struggling to get anything
I ride my bike/take public transit in my car-centric city
Pick up any trash that I touch/step on/kick and dispose of it into the nearest bin.
This started from the bottles and soda cans kicking, I just loved how they sound when kicked to the max. I still do to this day :)
My dad hated it so much. He probably smacked my young tush once or twice for that. So i would pick the dirty bottles and cans if he’s in the vicinity and kick them hard out far back. Yap, I know how silly this is. He still heard the kick sounds, tho LoL
So he came with a truce: “You wanna kick bottles? Fine. You kick a bottle, you ensure a proper disposal of it on the bin.”
He even gave me a tactic to kick them higher up that day LoL, thanks, dad.
I took a drive today. Around my old stomping grounds, streets I haven’t driven down in years if not decades. Past the hospital where I was born, past the high school I graduated from. Down the highway where my driver’s ed teacher when I was 15 kept bitching at me to lift my head off the headrest. I made sure to drive that stretch of road with my head on the headrest.
I drove past my great grandmother’s old house, where some of my earliest memories were formed. It’s been standing abandoned long enough that trees are growing through the porch now. Past the Yamaha dealership where I bought my first motorcycle, which is now a machine parts warehouse. Past the airport where I got my pilot’s license.
I stopped at the lake by my old college and walked the trail around it, stopping at some of the little fishing piers, benches to look at the lake and the woods. I stopped at the foot bridge over the creek that feeds the lake and just looked upstream and listened to the water babble over the tree roots.
The entire time I was out, my mind could only do two things: hum Auld Lang Syne and envision swimming straight out to sea.
On a related note, the above text felt like an answer to this question.
It’s a small thing I started doing years ago: whenever I see a loose nail or screw in the street I’ll always pick it up and put it in the nearest trash so nobody gets a flat tire or steps on it. Small, but hopefully saves some potential misery for someone.
I’m feeling big “connect with my people” vibes so so far I’ve made my sister and her family dinner, baked some cookies for clients tomorrow, will host a Friendsgiving this weekend, and have a dinner set with friends to discuss building an intentional community. Not world-changing but things ripple…
I want to participate more with the food banks in my area.
My parents struggled when I was growing up. They’d bend over backwards to make sure my siblings and I always had food on our plates and clothes on our backs. While they’re better off now, I still remember the times when they wouldn’t eat to make sure there was some for us.
I used to be more active as a teen when I was in the boy scouts, but now that I’m working full time, I want to get more involved again.
If nothing else, people should never have to go hungry
OpenStreetMap editing.
I’d love to see a street view equivalent to this project.
We have Panoramax and Mapillary. The first one is federated, the latter is controlled by Meta.
So the way to go is Panoramax: https://panoramax.fr/
Oh heck! Help fellow editor. =)
Come join us if you haven’t. Even if you only have 10-15 minutes to do something, it all helps in the end. There are plenty of things to do and no pressure for you to do all of them or even most of them.
Can you please ELI5 how I could contribute?
I want to atleast give inputs about my own apartment building and various office/friends place where I frequently travel.
Sure thing.
On OpenStreetMap (OSM) there are four main things you can do.
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Mapping: Trace features like roads, buildings, waterways, and land use from satellite imagery
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Editing: Update existing map data to reflect changes, such as new roads or buildings.
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Validation: Check and correct errors in the map data to ensure accuracy and completeness.
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Tagging: Add detailed information to map features, such as names, types, and other attributes.
All of these can be achieved via OSM’s web app.
Here is the Beginners’ guide if you want more info.
I’d be willing to answer your questions if you had any. And I’m sure others that map edit for OSM would be willing to do the same.
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I think the easiest way to get started is StreetComplete: https://streetcomplete.app/
It will show you places in your vicinity where information is missing, like opening hours of shops, or the existence of ramps at stairs, and you can provide them in a really simple interface. You can filter out questions you don’t like to answer as well.
Is it okay to search information on Google maps and bring it over to OSM?
To verify, yes.
It’s against Google Maps’ ToS (Terms of Service) however to use its exact coordinates for anything outside of Google Maps. This is mostly to prevent others from using exact information (map or otherwise,) and then compete against them.
That’s a great idea, I think I’ll do that as well!
I’m gonna be doing the impossible and try to set up a PSL branch deep in Christo-fascist Trumpland.
Hell yeah. There is no culture war, only a class war!
I just told some discord friends about it and now they are screeching about Tienanmen Square and such. Whoops.
Lol good luck
Real small relative to the other comments but if a loose cart is nearby in the grocery parking lot, I’ll go out of my way to return it. I know I hate seeing an “empty space” and there being a cart in the way and in that case it’ll likely never get moved.
I know that this might present a feeling of trolling or annoyance, but I take my hat off to Cart Narcs for taking it even further, to call out these people.
Thank you on behalf of someone else who gets super annoyed with loose carts and lazy people!
Every little thing helps.
It all adds up.