u/011_1825

So I don’t live in the area my tribe is from but I’m really hoping to still learn something and connect. I grew up with the white side of my family and have been putting a lot of energy into reconnecting and learning about my culture.

Does anyone have any resources or recommendations? Movies, shows, documentaries, YouTube channels, podcasts? I’m really hoping for literature from natives especially but I’m happy for anything. Anything about our history or prominent figures is also something I’m hoping to find. Any languages resources too.

Chi miigwech!

So I know three languages (English native, Italian, and ASL) but primarily use English. I’m surrounded by people who only share English with me and use ASL at home sometimes.

It makes me feel lonely only using English. I hear my coworkers speak in Spanish and Urdu and I wish I could do the same. I know there are things that I can do to improve my exposure but I just wanted to know if anyone else feels sad they can’t use their second languages.

I feel like it’s so silly sometimes to feel lonely because I can’t speak a certain language when I can speak another language with everyone just fine.

So I just finished Tender is the Flesh. I’m just disappointed. I wanted to talk about it because I feel like a lot of people loved it and I was so excited to read it.

The main character has the depth of a kiddy pool

At first I thought the book was supposed to read as sterile and disconnected. It made sense because of how disconnected and desensitized you’d have to be to live in a society like this. Now I feel like it’s just a lack of depth. She author goes on and on about the process of slaughtering people but can’t be bothered to write out dialogue? Idk maybe I missed the point there.

The incredibly short dialogue unless he’s listening to someone else became so boring. The relationships seemed so shallow. He has a complicated relationship with his sister and reminisces about his memories with his dad and of his childhood. Cool. Also, I forget her name now, where did that one lady that was a butcher go? I feel like her role was literally to have sex with him twice and then she was gone. What was that.

I also hear people say how it was such a shock at the end. I guess but the character seems to hardly hold any beliefs so nothing shocked me cuz there was nothing to expect. Yeah he’s a hypocrite but that didn’t surprise me. I know he can’t be completely open about his beliefs but it just didn’t surprise me he was going to kill her.

I feel like it lacks actual story

I think this idea has great potential but just not enough time. Only 200 pages and 150 of them are nothing but world building. Even then, I feel like a lot of the world building wasn’t totally fleshed out. Like “being able to see one another” when talking on the phone. I’m assuming it was the phone surveying them but idk. Or like the government conspiracy theory? That could have been such a good aspect to the plot but it was mentioned seriously like once? I feel like there’s a lot of hinting to things but it’s never strong enough to actually communicate anything concrete so I just kind of shrug my shoulders as the reader.

Especially because it seemed like the government was trying to push people to eat human meat and spreading dietary lies. Why not expand on that? Is there any other crisis/positives related to eating people??

Another example is the scavengers. They’re seemingly more violent than the rest of the population because they eat human meat but the others who eat it aren’t as violent? Is it cuz they’re poor so they’re more violent? I just didn’t get that

Like I said too, hardly any relationship with other characters and you never get to know the main character very well. It makes it feel like I’m just watching a documentary or something.

It’s just not realistic

I understand not everything in fiction is the most realistic but you’re telling me there’s not a single other animal that can be consumed? Really? It affects every animal except humans? Maybe I’m just being critical but it just seemed so silly.

I also hated how that was never confirmed nor denied. Did they actually have the virus or was it a lie? The author gave me just enough information for me to kinda shrug and not know where to go when it seemed like such a simple answer to conclude. Maybe that was the point but I don’t feel like there was enough evidence of either side to make it worth debating.

It also seemed that the characters had no depth unless they were a “bad guy”. But still then they didn’t. There too many things that were predictable to me. Like ofc Jasmine was only 20, ofc the guy they hunted was getting out within hours, ofc they took Jasmines son, ofc his sister ends up hiring a domestic female. It’s just all bad all the time without any sort of reasonable standard.

I just felt like the hunting grounds seemed a bit ridiculous and underdone too. Ofc we can’t just slaughter them, we have to hunt them for sport and make a big feast to show off. I feel like that was never fully explained either. It was only the gruesome detail that was explained.

Anyway, thanks for listening to my rant. I don’t hate it, it just got boring.

Edit: grammar and spoiler flair

So I recently I started selling my beadwork and it’s given me an excuse to learn and use a bunch of different techniques and methods. I love necklaces, earrings, keychains, and hairpins the most. Regular pins are also fun to do.

I’ve tried brick stitch, square stitch, bead weaving, flag stitch, and a few others. I just haven’t found anything to use my loom for. I’m really not a fan of bracelets but don’t know what else to use it for.

Does anyone have any methods for the loom that aren’t bracelets? I feel like they use so much string too :/

So I’ve had a neo flair now for a minute and I love it. I have the pressure gauge and I also have the flair hand grinder. I have no issue dialing in and the ratio is consistently 1:2. The only issue is recently, my shots haven’t really been tasting like anything.

My usual go to is a 10oz iced latte with whole milk and around a 2 tsp of a sweetener (honey or some homemade syrup). Idk if my coffee palette is just changing or what but it’s just been so milky, even when I do 8oz lattes.

I clean out my grinder often and use boiling water from the stove for my shots. I preheat everything and use fresh beans from local coffee shops.

The porta filter is 40mm and recommended dose is 15 grams. I’ve done tried different shots with up to 17 grams. I’ve ground way finer and coarser too. I’ve used several different beans too, usually all medium roast.

Edit: totally forgot to mention the beans. I’ve tried three different roasts from local coffee shops. My most recent one was roast in the last week of June. They’re all medium roasts but I was hoping to resolve this before committing to a darker roast.

Has anyone had this problem with the flair nei? Any advice?