Alt text has me in tears

Now there's a cage fight I'd pay real human money to see

Chch city council recently kicked a bunch of homeless ppl out of a church car-park - the church had been letting them use it as a safe place to camp to give them some longer-term stability, but the council ruled they weren't allowed to then didn't provide other options for the ppl they kicked out 🤢😠

I live with a musician so I hear a lot about all of it 😅 Personally just going to dig out my old CDs and rip the files off them like I used to in high school I think

Oops misread "what are torrenting sites" as "what torrenting sites" (earthquake kept me up late) - file-sharing essentially, can be used for piracy but some people just put their stuff up on them for free. Bandcamp is a music-distribution site which is all above board, pay-per-download type thing

Lots of people seem to be using Soulseek again! I know someone who put their stuff on Piratebay as well lol 😅 And there's always Bandcamp if you'd prefer to pay for stuff to download, I think they still do Bandcamp Fridays where 100% of the payment goes to the artist (but don't quote me on that)

It's because people's immune-systems have been wrecked by covid, a virus proven to deplete t-cells &lymphocytes much like things like HIV. My own white-blood-cell counts took almost 18 months to return to normal after my only-known infection, and now I have an autoimmune disorder. Quite concerning!

Came here to say exactly this. I know people in their twenties who have caught a cold or flu every single month this year - they're the sorts who previously were never sick and would've been strange for them to get sick more than once a year. It's really depressing

I've gone back to the old ways and bought a 5th gen ipod off trademe. I know some local musicians who are putting their stuff on torrenting sites for free and just requesting people send them some money if they like the music, because it's not like they were getting paid by Spotify etc to start with

Yep I've done it for scones specifically! Can't remember the ratio off the top of my head but it works fine :)

the Cuomintang has lost the mandate of heaven