Agreed on the peace of mind aspect. Don't try to fight the insurance companies on your own, they literally have entire departments dedicated to paying out as little as possible. Having a solid lawyer changes the dynamic entirely.

Last year in the Marvel movie fan group, I noticed the same thing. What helped was making a 'constructive feedback' thread where we could talk about flaws without just defending the brand. Your point about creators getting lazy, @john636, really made sense because our thread helped us have better talks about the movies. It took time, but people saw that honest criticism actually made our fan community better. Now we have different threads for praise and for real talk, and it works way better.

Tried to force down some cashew cheese at a retreat and my gag reflex almost outed me. I mean, I was nodding so hard while chewing that I think I gave myself a headache. Now I just go for the bread rolls and make a big show of being "full" early. My acting skills are worse than a daytime soap, idk why I even try. Maybe it's just me but fake cheer over weird food makes the whole room feel awkward.

Totally get that rush, but ward.andrew has a point about the lemon thing. I got burned last year by some fancy smart home gadget that just stopped working after a software update. The company's fix was a mess and they never really sorted it. That thrill fades fast when you're stuck with a hundred dollar paperweight. Early access feels more like unpaid beta testing lately.

That "hospice for local plants" line is painfully real... but it makes me wonder what's actually happening in your garden. Is it the soil, or maybe the light that's off? I get that imported plants can be tougher sometimes, but local ones should ideally be suited to the area. So what's going wrong for yours specifically, do you figure? It seems like there's a specific reason they keep checking out early.