this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
45 points (95.9% liked)

Casual Conversation

2920 readers
100 users here now

Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.


RULES (updated 01/22/25)

  1. Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling. To be concise, disrespect is defined by escalation.
  2. Encourage conversation in your OP. This means including heavily implicative subject matter when you can and also engaging in your thread when possible. You won't be punished for trying.
  3. Avoid controversial topics (politics or societal debates come to mind, though we are not saying not to talk about anything that resembles these). There's a guide in the protocol book offered as a mod model that can be used for that; it's vague until you realize it was made for things like the rule in question. At least four purple answers must apply to a "controversial" message for it to be allowed.
  4. Keep it clean and SFW: No illegal content or anything gross and inappropriate. A rule of thumb is if a recording of a conversation put on another platform would get someone a COPPA violation response, that exact exchange should be avoided when possible.
  5. No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc. The chart redirected to above applies to spam material as well, which is one of the reasons its wording is vague, as it applies to a few things. Again, a "spammy" message must be applicable to four purple answers before it's allowed.
  6. Respect privacy as well as truth: Don’t ask for or share any personal information or slander anyone. A rule of thumb is if something is enough info to go by that it "would be a copyright violation if the info was art" as another group put it, or that it alone can be used to narrow someone down to 150 physical humans (Dunbar's Number) or less, it's considered an excess breach of privacy. Slander is defined by intentional utilitarian misguidance at the expense (positive or negative) of a sentient entity. This often links back to or mixes with rule one, which implies, for example, that even something that is true can still amount to what slander is trying to achieve, and that will be looked down upon.

Casual conversation communities:

Related discussion-focused communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Yorkshire tea is the only English tea allowed in my house.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Right now I am on a Duckworth wool clothing binge

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Audio-Technica headphones. My first pair was the ATH-M50, and despite being an Apple fanatic I still think AirPods (and Beats before) sound like trash.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Damn, see I loved A-T but then I got their earbuds and was supremely disappointed.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I’ve never liked earbuds but I’ve thought about picking some up recently due to my recent obsession with podcasts (wearing huge over ear headphones just for podcasts feels silly).

Do you have any recommendations? Initially I wanted AirPods (for the convenience) but the audio quality is just awful. I was actually looking at some Audio-Technica ones recently.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Well, my favorites have been the sennheiser momentum (currently have the TW4). I’ve gone through a few and splurged on the A-T, but for sound quality, comfort, and noise cancellation, I haven’t found any better than the Sennhesier momentum.

The one downside is the case and the buds themselves are a little bulkier because they’re one solid shape as opposed to the little stem coming out from the bottom like the AirPod. So everything is self contained in one squarish-roundish shape. They’ve gotten smaller since the older 2’s that I had, but still a little bigger than the design style with the stem.

A big part for me is privacy, and I think sennheiser are the best for that too. That I’ve been able to find, anyway.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

King Arthur flour. Almost all the store brands are good here. But flour is very finicky in some applications so having a brand that is exactly the same all the time is important.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Scott Ultra Strong is the only type of toilet paper that everyone in my house finds acceptable. The other ones either are too rough, leave little bits of paper behind, or your fingers go through them during use.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Hellmann's/Best Foods for mayonnaise.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

I used to be on that level but when I went vegan I switched to Veganaise. It turns out that it’s leaps and bounds better than Hellman’s.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

https://www.zojirushi.com/ appliances, they are nicely built and have never broken yet. I still have my first rice cooker

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

They are the best and they are worth it. Practically a BIFL item in every case.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

My shirts only come from Hyena Agenda and Nomad Complex.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Unpopular take on Lemmy: Apple phones.

I had the first Android phone (HTC Dream) and it was magical. I used Android until my partner got an iPhone. I played around with it and fell in love. Bought an iPhone 5 as my first one and had it for 4.5 years. It had some issues (defective battery, power button broke) which were fixed for free from Apple. My last phone was an iPhone XS Max, which I had for over six years. No issues, original battery. Still fast as hell when I upgraded to a 16 pro max. I only upgraded cuz I wanted 120hz, more space, and better low light pics of my cats (which holy shit, the camera)

I don’t use iTunes for anything but backups… I love that it has a one-click encrypted incremental backup. Plug my new phone in, it’s exactly like my old phone.

I just don’t wanna fuck around with my phone to install a custom ROM. I want it to work with zero effort (and I don’t use any Google services.) I have four Windows machines and three Linux boxes I use every day, if I wanna fuck around, I play with those. I want my phone to be super easy and fast and last forever.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

I gotta say, as a long time android user, when I had to start relying on my phone for work, I was forced to switch to Apple and it’s just a better build. The hardware quality is much better and you can feel it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Crocs. Actual Crocs ^TM^ are like walking on a cloud of happiness; knock-offs are like walking with shoes made of dried-up old chewing gum.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

Wera for screwdrivers and wrenches. Best tools I ever had.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Knipex makes the best pliers and Savotta is among the best camping/military gear manufacturers. Other than that, I can't really think of anything else I'd be buying based on the brand.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

Came here to say Savotta. Made in the EU, with top notch materials. Also agree about Knipex (I only have a wire cutter which I use for my guitar strings, but damn is it nice).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Oofos, their slides in particular, if you want the plushiest slippers ever.

Knorr Liquid Seasoning. You can dab that thing on any savory dish to level it up.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Merrell shoes, nothing else feels half as comfy to me.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

But their boots barely last a single winter.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Cholula hot sauce. Always.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

first thkng i thought of lol, im lucky where i live there are lots of local chilli sauces, but damn if cholula isnt kinda just perfect on everything

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I'm torn between that one and Tapatío.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Tapatio is good, but Cholula has more flavor.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

These things fall into two categories—stuff that you buy because the quality is unquestionably higher than alternatives, and stuff that may or may not be a little bit better than alternatives but that you have strong, minimally-rational feelings about.

I find the second category more fun to talk about, so I offer up the fact that this is a C&H [sugar, US based] house. Once my wife brought home some other sugar, and I complained until the bag was gone.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Sadly I learned the Yorkshire tea bags release microplastics along side all other major tea brands. (Yorkshire tea was super solid and my go to till that point)

Switched to loose leaf and haven’t looked back.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

loose leaf ftw ;)

I have one box of tea bags, in case someone really insist on using that but we buy our tea in bulk from Dammann Frères, a well-known and rather old brand here in Paris. It's kinda expensive, but so effing worth it. Just thinking about it makes me want to prepare a cup of tea for my spouse and I ;)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Honestly, even cheap loose leaf tea is better than whatever brand bagged tea. It's the preparation that makes a huge difference.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

Honda, Toyota, Mazda, (and maybe Mitsubishi) in that order.

I refuse to buy any other brand of vehicle if I can avoid it.

This a result of growing up in shops, working on every brand available in the US, and a large family having owned or driven pretty much everything out there.

American and European cars are just garbage in comparison. Even Mitsubishi is better (and they were really diminished by the Chrysler merger).

Along with the car theme, Nokian tires if you live in a climate with real winter.

Milwaukee cordless tools, but only because I like their vast variety of tools that use the same battery. I've had other brands that have been fine (and I'm not nice to the tools): Dewalt (still have some 20-year old tools with Milwaukee adapters), the store brands from Home Depot and Lowes, etc.

Work clothes: Carhartt is really hard to beat, but Dickies are damn good too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

I loved my Honda, I loved my Toyota, and I currently LOOOOVE my Mitzu. Honda died of natural causes at 230k miles. Toyota was hit so hard his wheel fell off when my partner and I were drunk as hell… in our bedroom, playing games. He was parked outside on the street. I no longer do street parking.

Mitzu I’ve had for oh gawd, six years now. She’s killin it. Nicest car I’ve ever had, and she’s from 2015 so no spyware. Maybe 70k miles now. I hope I keep her forever.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Idk about Toyota now, I just got a new Toyota (a pretty expensive one 2x my last new car 10 yrs ago) and they are making some bad choices. Their infotainment system is terrible, their app is terrible and costs a monthly fee, Android auto drops all the time, and I've blown 2 fuses already doing pretty normal stuff.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

North face. It's probably advertising but after rotating between a dozen coats over the past 15 years, North face was the only one that looks stylish, is extremely durable, and kept me, my neck, and my mouth warm.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

My tea brand of choice is Stash... mostly because they're semi-local but they also make great tea.

Most of our dairy comes from Tillamook.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That's Tillamook you fucking philistine. 😜

Their aged white cheddar is to die for.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Thank you. Fixed

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Sensodyne. Too many fizzy drinks as a teenager, unfortunately.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago

Same, also because it doesn’t have Sodium Laurel Sulfate, which gives me HORRID mouth ulcers!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

That does nothing to me. I can't even let cold tap water touch my teeth - let alone chilled beverages.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

Yamamotoyama oolong tea is tasty, ubiquitous and cheap.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Allegra. Generic fexofenadine gives me heartburn.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh, that's interesting. I wonder why?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 days ago

Cheap inert ingredients maybe?

Heartburn is a listed side effect of fexofenadine, but for me, it only happens when I take a generic version.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It's Tetley Tea or nothing.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If you bring it to my house, I'll throw you out haha

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Ha! If you're going to serve up Yorkshire Tea, I ain't coming.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago
load more comments
view more: next ›