I use a large folded microfiber towel as knee support in pilates. It’s not as spongy as a normal towel but soft and supportive enough for those exercises that put a lot of stress on my knees or tailbone.

A small side note on that 30% ruling, it's only for highly skilled workers, so there are some requirements to meet.
Also, you'd best not boast about it to your Dutch coworkers if you want to make friends over here :)

Since most games are often mentioned on the internet, I'm going to reach waaaaaaaay back to my childhood and mention Cartooners:

This was a game for kids to make their own cartoons. I spend so much time making all kinds of funny and weird stories. It was very basic, but it had me giggling every time.

The Netherlands is generally quite friendly towards (English speaking) immigrants and expats. Almost everyone speaks English and no one really bats an eye at a non-Dutch resident in most of the major western cities (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the Hague, etc.)
Housing is terrible though, prices are high and it'll be hard to find something nice. One advantage for you (or any US resident), is that you're exempt from the inburgering exam. Which means that you won't have to learn the language and won't be tested on your integration in Dutch society.

My partner is from abroad and they've experienced living here as quite pleasant. They weren't exempt from the exam though (different non-EU nationality), which was a bit of a nuisance. But in general, reception was positive. They've been living here for over 16 years now.
But like most of Europe, we've got a far-right government right now, so there's a lot of anti-immigration talk going round. Of course it's only aimed at what they think are the "wrong" (Middle-Eastern and African) kind of people, so I doubt Americans would ever have to deal with it.

I did the thing yesterday. It wasn’t my intention, and it was kind of incidental , but I’m so glad I did it in the end.
I can definitely recommend, just do the thing, you’ll thank yourself later.

I’m not a native English speaker, but I always thought an expression like “oh boy” was more self-reflective. Like you say it more to yourself than to whoever you’re talking to.
In which case, the other’s gender shouldn’t really matter?
In any case, I personally don’t feel insulted or misgendered if someone uses it in a conversation with me.

I got into Stardew Valley literally by accident. As in, I twisted my ankle during a winter vacation and got stuck indoors for a week while my family was having fun outside. All I had to entertain myself was my laptop and this farming game I recently bought on a whim.

I didn't see the fun in it at first, but I liked the music and eventually the grind kind of clicked for me. Wake up, water plants, sell stuff, explore a bit, go to bed, repeat. It helped that my other choices for entertainment were a bit limited at the time :) But once the daily tasks become routine, you kind of zone out during that part and think ahead of what you want to do for the rest of the day. Maybe explore that cave a little more, or go fishing for that fish you need for the community center, etc.

But I can totally understand if it's not your thing. I might not have enjoyed it so much if I wasn't chair bound for an entire week with nothing else to do....
Erm..
That's not the most glowing of endorsements when I write it out loud :)

What I'm trying to say is, for me it was a bit of a barrier to get through, but after that it's such a cozy game to spend some time in. And it kind of has this nice reward cycle that makes me go "just one more day" a LOT of days :)

Blender is my favorite open source tool I wish I knew how to use :)
I’d love to use it for creating my own designs and took several attempts at learning it. But I always end up giving up on it due to lack of time and energy.

There’s a high pitched sound coming from one of the air ducts. It’s driving me crazy but no one else seems to hear it.

A vampire. Since it’s a necromancer raising me, instead of another vampire, I won’t be enthralled and will have free will.
Then there’s all the wonderful abilities and the fact that I’ll still look good for an undead (it’s a pretty movie vampire, not one of those creepy ones)

When going on vacations abroad, we bring a power strip from home. With it, you'll only need a single international converter to power multiple devices.

3d printing. I started out with a cheapish Chinese model, got annoyed by the lack of accuracy and bought a Prusa.
Then there’s the filaments, accessories, post processing stuff... I own a Dremel now for some reason!
And I’m constantly eyeing those resin 3d printers, telling myself the higher resolution is totally worth it…
The only thing saving my bank account is my low attention span and dozens of other interests :)

I'm one of those Reddit refugees. I can't say anything about how things were before I got here, but I would like to add that I treat Lemmy a whole lot different from Reddit. When I joined there was plenty of talk about the lack of content, people only upvoting but not commenting, that kind of thing.
So I took this as a sign that I should be more of a participant and not the three-posts-to-my-name lurker that I was at Reddit. And I saw similar motivations with other users. So I do hope that at least part of the refugees have added a positive influence, and more so than they ever did when they were still using Reddit.

Crippling self doubt, what else?

Arriving home with my newborn son. It was the first moment when it really sank in that I’m a parent and we have to take care of this tiny little thing.
It wasn’t a warm feeling but more of a fuuuuuck! What do we do? What do we do?! feeling. The enormity of the responsibility just overwhelmed me.
I somehow got through it and the post-natal care lady that visited a few hours later really helped with grounding the situation.

Anyway, it’s not a crazy situation for most of you. But for me it really felt like a “I can’t believe this is happening!” situation.

Not for AITA, but I once wrote a long emotional response to a relationship reddit repost without realizing it what it really was. Only after hitting send did I finally see. It really sucked because I thought I was helping the OP with some advice and comfort and felt like a huge idiot afterwards.
So, yea.. there's no real value in reposting these kinds of messages if you can't even reach out to the OP. And it just feels kind of scummy to be discussing these kinds of issues without the OP even being able to read along.

Collecting hobbies :)

No idea if this is obscure or not, but for creating diagrams I've found draw.io a very useful free website/tool (there's an offline version).
The ability to hide the entire model inside the png is really neat. You can upload the png in a wiki and later on just import it to alter it again.

What’s the opposite of procrastination?
Eagerness girl? That.. sounds wrong somehow.

If anything I feel less ashamed than when I was a teenager. I still love cute stuff, stupid humor and toys :)

I met my partner 25 years ago online on a sort of social network website called sixdegrees. They lived in Singapore and me in the Netherlands. I already had a trip planned to SG so ee decided to meet up.
It was a fun time, but we were both way too shy and insecure to make a move (it was our first relationship :)
It took another couple of weeks before we finally worked up the courage to admit our feelings. We had a long distance relationship for less than a year before it fizzled out.

About six years later we got in touch again and the spark reignited. They came to visit me and we fell truely in love. Plans were made and my partner moved to NL two years later. We’ve been together for 16 years now.

You have my full support.
As a.. whatever the hell I am.. I support everyone to be who they want to be. No exceptions.

Unfortunately this symbolism has existed for a long time in the form of the fasces (fascis is latin for fa**ot). A symbol of authority that was heavily used by the fascists (hence the name).
Though of course it would be great if it could be repurposed to for a more positive use :)

It took a serious change in attitude for me to not become a lurker anymore. I always figured that if I have nothing interesting to say, I should just be quiet.
Eventually I realized that people are often happy to just get some feedback and interaction, even if it isn't the most interesting or original response. As long as it's done in a positive and friendly manner, you're creating a sense of community.

No, not at all. I went to a christian high school and that experience removed pretty much any doubts I might have had.
I'm a happy atheist, don't really care about all this religious stuff. I don't mind that others believe, just as long as they don't impose their views on others.

Traffic lights were hand operated.
The small town where I grew up had one pedestrian traffic light for crossing the main road. There was a small brick shed next to that traffic light with no windows and a little door. When I was little I was convinced that was an operation's center where someone worked to turn the lights red or green.
In reality it was a power substation for the neighborhood, but I was seriously convinced that behind that door was a man looking at a TV screen and operating the traffic light at the right moment.
When we went to a larger town nearby, where there were traffic lights without a convenient mysterious building nearby, I told myself that the traffic light people were most likely working under ground, peeping through the drains.

I.. was good at making up answers for myself instead of just asking my parents.

Oh my god that’s creepy!
Even when I can see the seal, I just can’t unsee that.. that.. thing.

Cows that are completely brown give chocolate milk.
My mother said it as a joke, but at the time it made complete sense to me. By logical extension, there must’ve been a farm with pink cows for the strawberry milk.

I love it. Hope she’ll rock that name like no one’s business.

Being told, by my classmates, that the tooth fairy isn't real with me fervently claiming otherwise. Thanks a lot mom and dad, you were too convincing.

Writing, it allowed for knowledge to travel across vast distances. And for that knowledge to remain available and accurate for far longer than any oral tradition would be capable of.

I was on a high school trip to Poland in the 90's. It was an eight day trip through the country, including a couple of days of kayaking. Our school was definitely on a tight budget to make this trip work, so we spend our nights in a bunch of cheap hotels and camping grounds.

One luxury that we were always missing out on was decent toilet paper. The only toilet paper supplied was this single ply stuff with the same texture as sanding paper. So when we were out for an evening in Warsaw I visited a five star hotel to enjoy some quality bathroom time. This was several days in and I really wanted to enjoy using a toilet in a heated and clean environment. And it was so nice! No smells, no cold drafts and the toilet paper! So soft! I was in heaven :)

As luck would have it, the bathroom stall had a whole stack of these magically soft toilet rolls. On an impulse I stuffed all of them (around six if I remember correctly) under my coat and smuggled them out of the hotel. Back at the camp I shared them with the rest of my classmates, bringing back a little bit of luxury in our dreary little place. Never been that popular in my life :)

Are you kidding? Mr. Sweet sounds like some kind of professional hitman. I do not want to meet with any Mr. Sweet :)

I'm going to assume that this is basically a question on what my favorite color is with extra steps :)

I'm also a big fan of purple! But if I had to choose, I'd go for #7851A9 instead:

Royal purple

Worrying what other people think of me.
I know I shouldn’t care, but it’s hard not to.

Wear a mask wherever I go. Not so much because for health reasons, but because I like to hide my face. I feel more comfortable that way, but at the same time people stare at you like you're some kind of terrorist.
I prefer to wear scarves or other items that hide my face below my eyes.

May you start every sentence with "Like,"

I have little dance moves that I like to use when walking around the office. Little turn on heel here, stand on tiptoe there, round the corner in a fluid motion, balance on one leg, little jump, etc.
It's not that obvious if you look at me at first glance and I make sure to keep the really visible moves for when I'm alone. But it's something I'm doing (un)consciously most of the time. I guess I just like being light-footed :)

You must greet everyone you meet with a handshake and ten seconds of uninterrupted eye contact. Forced smiles and a serious talk about how you really are doing are also mandatory.
Pretty awkward if you ask me :)

Oh, me too! I love giving people my opinion.

not /s, I really do :)