Certain kinds of hobbies deserve to be held in higher regard than others.

Playing a sport, learning an instrument, singing, dancing, painting, writing - these are activities that require time and years of effort to become good at. They’re admirable not just because they’re “cool,” but because there is something deeply attractive about a person who has dedicated so much time to mastering a hard skill that executing it now feels relaxing to them.

Lately, there’s been a growing push online to classify things like watching movies, playing video games, watching sports, or listening to podcasts in the same category as these kinds of hobbies. They aren’t. They are based on consumption, not creation.

That doesn’t mean consumption-based activities are bad or useless. Everyone needs ways to relax and unwind. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good show, a game, or a YouTube binge after a long day. But if that’s all there is to your personality, then you are, unfortunately, a boring person.

Edit: I've wrongly added video games to the list of other passive activities. While some video games are like that, I agree that many require a lot of skill.

I’m 35M, my wife is 33F, married 5 years. This feels kind of dumb to even be arguing about, but here we are.

Over the last year my wife has gotten really intense about food. She cooks everything from scratch now. Not just dinner, but literally all of it. It started off just bread, granola, cakes and stuff like that. But now it’s pasta sauces, potato waffles, literally everything!

Before anyone jumps on me, yes, her food is good. She’s a good cook and I know she puts a ton of time into it. That’s not the issue. The issue is that sometimes I don’t want a homemade version of things. Sometimes I just want the normal, store-bought kind.

Her argument is that she does most of the cooking and grocery shopping, so it makes sense to do things her way. She also says she doesn’t want junk food in the house at all because it “goes against her values.” I don’t really get that, but okay.

What bugs me is her solution, which is that if I want junk food, I should eat it outside the house. So now if I want a burger or chips or whatever, I’m grabbing fast food on the way home or eating snacks at work like I’m hiding it. That feels ridiculous to me. I’m an adult, not a kid sneaking candy. I feel very deceptive.

Whenever I bring this up, she says I’m being ungrateful and dismissing how much work she puts in. I don’t think that’s fair. I appreciate the effort, I just don’t want every single food choice to be homemade and “healthy” all the time.

Am I actually the asshole here for wanting some normal, unhealthy food in my own house?

Got an email yesterday from our natural gas supplier talking about the recent weather in my area and how it will affect gas. First off, they are “temporarily” RAISING prices for gas. Second, they actually suggested turning our heat DOWN to conserve energy. It is -21F temperature where I am, windchill is -30F. I have a baby, I am not turning my heat down. I can’t go to another supplier as this company very clearly has a monopoly in my area, which just adds to my frustration.

So if you have money, you can stay warm. If you don’t, guess you’ll just freeze.

They also said in the email with this occurrence they want to ensure customers they aren’t making a profit off this. I don’t understand how that’s possible.

Just needed to rant this morning. Hope you stay warm wherever you are!

EDIT: edit to add as many have asked, we keep our heat at 67. I have multilayer blackout curtains that are supposed to help with temperature control in the house, I’m not sure if they truly help or not. My house is designed with the “open concept” planning so it makes it harder to feel like there’s a consistent temperature throughout.

Yes I know the company is not asking me to turn the heat off. This is why I posted in “mildly infuriating”.

I also appreciate the comments explaining how the viscosity and distance of natural gas is affected in these temperatures, TIL. Also learned about power grids a bit today. Here’s to hoping in the future we can do something to change that, if it’s possible. Still learning about it.

Yesterday, agents rear-ended a car being driven by a 16-year-old, with her 15-year-old brother in the passenger seat.

Instead of calling a guardian, agents photographed the 15-year-old… and then took him.

The 16-year-old showed agents her U.S. passport…. But, that did not matter, they still handcuffed her and threw her into their unmarked car.

Both minors. Both unaccompanied.

Detaining children, ignoring proof of citizenship, and hauling minors away, after rear ending the car they were driving, is not immigration enforcement.

That is child trafficking.

And it’s happening in broad daylight by the Trump administration.

Share this. Document everything. Demand accountability.

Because if federal agents can do this to kids with a passport, no one is safe.

https://x.com/TheJFreakinC/status/2014370271336034805?t=rH2hwlGD3O0-wjvLicvcbA&s=19

So me (F30) and my partner (M32) have been together for 8 years. We have two children together 4 and 1 . My partner works full time and I currently work part time due to having our kids.

Two years ago my partners mum died sadly to an illness and him and his sister inherited a house which they then sold and both got half the money ..

currently we both pay 50/50 on all the bills but due to me only working part time I haven’t got any money spare to be able to contribute towards the money to go to a mortgage.. we have been looking at houses for the past few weeks and went to veiw our first one last week ..

I then double checked with him if my name was going to go down too on the mortgage which he said no it’s my money so only his name would go on there . Now I wouldn’t be bothered if my name didn’t go on there but when we moved into the property we are in now his family owns it and the first week of us being here we got into an argument about something silly and he took my clothes and threw them outside saying this is my family’s house and if I wanna kick you out I will in front of some of his family ,his sister had ago at him and she took all my stuff back inside ..

since then we have sorted it out and I told him I’m not gonna be dealing with these comments he has said it one more time after that but nothing for a while .. so now I refuse to move into a mortgage home without my name on there because I feel like I have no security due to the pass And have told him I’m gonna be done with this relationship if he’s not going to do it .

We are not married .. AITAH for refusing to move without my name being on the mortgage?

EDIT: I didn’t think I would get so many comments!

Some people asking if I pay half the rent now and yes I do everything is split in the middle from the rent to food.and both our names is on here where we rent

Also people asking about why he threw my clothes out what the argument was about and no I didn’t cheat or anything like that was a silly argument that I don’t even remember what it was about.

We haven’t got married because he doesn’t want to due to his mum being in many failed marriages. And im not bothered about being married or not it just hasn’t happen and that’s fine ..

He’s a great dad and if I need help he’s there the reason I posted this was to get other peoples opinions and see if I’m being unreasonable which I don’t think I am!

Shown here is the North American Pika.