My "Big Jim" hatch chile plant isn't looking very big yet. The Guizeppi Milds and California Wonders are doing a bit better. This was the first day I took them all outside for a few hours to start the hardening off process. I've had them inside with a fan and grow lights up until now.

I expected some flowering at this point, but it's been stupidly cold and rainy here since I planted back in late March (I'm in 6a/6b), so maybe I'm expecting too much too soon? Next week is the first week it will in theory be above 55 degrees F overnight.

I've also been battling gnats (sticky traps and mosquito dunks for the win), which is weird to me because with the fan, the top layer of soil dries out pretty quickly, but I think I have them managed now.

They're a bit more leggy than I think is healthy, but hopefully repotting them will help.

I'm about to take a long flight and am looking to expand my music library.

EDIT: Thanks so much, everyone! I've got 10.5 hours of music on my new playlist thanks to you all!

I'll start by plugging Harvard's free courses catalog as well as Udemy

Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-

Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous "Donut Tutorial" once!

Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!

I'm about to be unemployed, and I'm looking to get some certificates for either Tableau or Power BI to make myself more marketable to prospective employers. I use Tableau in my current workplace and consider myself a "Beginner". I'm not great at it, but not horrible either (I can more make things look pretty than write extensive calculated fields).

I've never used Power BI, but based on a bit of research, it seems like it's more commonly used in companies that are not already focused on data analytics. I've watched a few videos on Power BI, but never used the app myself. It definitely looks more user-friendly than Tableau, though.

Can anyone offer any insight as to which app would be more marketable to have a certificate in when looking for entry-level jobs? Thanks you!

First time trying to grow anything from seed by myself. Fingers crossed it works out!

A study was conducted that revealed that once a COVID vaccine was available, Republicans were more likely to die than Democrats:

Republicans' excess death rate spiked after COVID-19 vaccines arrived, a study says

Excess Death Rates for Republicans and Democrats During the COVID-19 Pandemic

"This study constructs an individual-level dataset with political affiliation and excess death rates during the COVID-19 pandemic via a linkage of 2017 voter registration in Ohio and Florida to mortality data from 2018 to 2021. We estimate substantially higher excess death rates for registered Republicans when compared to registered Democrats, with almost all of the difference concentrated in the period after vaccines were widely available in our study states. Overall, the excess death rate for Republicans was 5.4 percentage points (pp), or 76%, higher than the excess death rate for Democrats."

Do you think this will have a significant impact on the election results in states like Ohio and Florida?

I wanna read something that's fucking brutal with fighting and sex and all the things, but also WELL WRITTEN (so NOT George R.R. Martin, I can't stand his shit). I want Lord of the Rings on crack and steroids.

Former U.S. presidents are authorized a security detail from the Secret Service for life. If Trump loses the election and flees the country, does his security detail have to go with him if he requests it?

I imagine this could go down in a variety of ways: He departs the U.S. before he's sentenced and just never returns, or he attempts to flees or does flees the U.S. after his sentencing. Either way, what happens to his security detail?

If he attempts to flees after he's sentenced, I would hope the detail would refuse to take part in it (if he can even board a plane/leave the country to begin with), but given all their failings, who knows.

Doesn't need to be a life or death situation, just any moment in your life where you found yourself saying "Holy shit, I can't believe this is happening!"